Erin: In Pforzheim!

"Tomorrow to Calais, and then a ship across the sea!"

2010-02-28T22:39:00.000+01:00

Ok, not really. More like a plane from Frankfurt, but you catch my drift.

One last post from Germany. =)

My time here has been amazing. I'm so excited to go home, but at the same time, I am really going to miss the wonderful people that I've met here.

I'll update you wonderful people with pictures and stories from Berlin and Magdeburg when I get back to Chicago, if that's alright with you =)

I'm leaving Keplerstraße in an hour to catch a bus to catch a train. I'll get to Frankfurt (Main) Airport around 3am (my time) but it's much better than worrying about not making a train... =D So, yeah.

I'm going to miss the wonderful people that I met here: "My Koreans" - Younghoe and Eunsol, and Decky, Ross, Ardhi, Besti, Rani, Gerrit, Johannes, Elena, Oxana, Spela, Janez, Joze, Fotis, Fernando, Terrones, Jorge Luis, Devika, Chetan... Wow, so many people.. They've all made my time here so completely wonderful.

Excited to be coming home, though. =) Very much so. I can't wait to see my family and friends again!! And I'm DONE with school. Which is exciting, because now I get to job hunt, FULL TIME. Haha...

Ok, done being all sentimental now, going to pack up my laptop and get ready to go. Younghoe's going to walk me to the bus =) (Eunsol would be joining her, but she's in Lisbon right now, so that's ok =D)

Love!!!

**I'll be landing in Chicago in about 24 hours!!!!**

2010-02-25T18:36:00.000+01:00

So, let me refer you back to this post for a minute... =) Remember how I said I'd be in Berlin by dinner? Ha!!! I heard once that "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." Well, God must have been rolling in the aisles becuase my plans did NOT go according to, well, plan, at all. In retrospect, it's hilarious, but at the time it was rather nerve wracking...

This is what really happened:

View Larger Map

This includes an overnight stay at a hostel just outside the Barcelona Francs train station between Saturday and Sunday. It also includes an overnight train from Paris to Stuttgart (got in at 05:30) and a two hour nap in Pforzheim before saying goodbye to my Koreans (Younghoe and Eunsol) and heading to Magdeburg to visit Emily.

Schedule of events:

2010-02-25T01:15:00.000+01:00

Thursday

Wasserstraßenkreuz with Emily and her co-worker

Friday

Back to Pforzheim
Packing

Saturday

Mailing off my suitcases (hopefully)

Sunday

Visiting, saying my goodbyes, prepping for my trip

Monday

10:30 (+1GMT) Fly out of FRA
15:45 (-6GMT) Land at ORD

I'm really excited and really sad, but I've decided I'm going to come back, so it's ok. =)

ALSO. Pictures from Italy and Spain are up on my Picasa account.... (clicky the links!)

Love!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Crazy American wanders Rome, Venice, and Seville!!!

2010-02-21T20:21:00.002+01:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard me, today you get a full run-down of my adventures with Kit in Rome!!! You also get my wanderings of Venice and, ladies and gentlemen, AND you get the beginnings of my trip to Seville.

In the interest of keeping this somewhat simple to read,we're going to start out this blog in outline format and then maybe I'll change it to actual paragraphs... but I wouldn't count on it ;)

Italy
- Wednesday, February 10.
  - Kit and I took a train from Pforzheim to the Karsruhe-Baden Airport. (Which apparently used to belong to the Air Force. I had no idea... =) )
  - Hopped a plane to Rome. =D Got to sit together in the “Emergency exit” seats which was awesome because it meant that I got more legroom. =D Yeah, I quickly discovered that if you're one of the first people on the plane for Ryanair, you can go to an Emergency Exit seat and as long as you assure the stewardess that in case of an emergency you are able to open the door/window thingy, they let you sit there. And because it's an emergency exit, there is more legroom so people can easily exit if they need to. =)
  - Got to Ciampion, the airport “near” Rome and had to take a bus from there to Rome proper. No problem, it was only four euro. (Much better than the bus from Frankfurt Hahn to Frankfurt Main, which was twelve euro, oy!)
  - Got to Termini and found the bus that we were supposed to take to our hostel, but the problem was, they don't announce the bus stops, like they do in Chicago or Pforzheim... so we had to guess where our stop was and ended up getting off of the bus at a stop that wasn't ours. Oops! After a bit of walking, we found a fruit stand that was still open. They didn't speak a lot of english, but they were very nice and tried to help us by pointing the way to another bus that we could take. While waiting for said bus, we decided that if any taxis came by, we'd take it, because we really weren't sure where we were or how far we were from our hostel, and it would be easier to just take a taxi than wander the “Roman Ghettos.” Granted, we didn't really know if we were in the ghetto or not, because there weren't any people, but there was a lot of graffiti, so we assumed the worst. Just as I had finished saying that there wouldn't possibly be any taxis around this area at this time, a taxi pulls up. Go figure. So we jump in and give him the hostel name and address, unfortunately he doesn't speak english and we don't speak italian. Haha... We made it anyways, and it turns out we were only a few blocks (six, ten maybe?) away from where we needed to be. The cab fare was inexpensive, however we were so grateful to be out of the “Roman Ghettos” that we completely overtipped him. =)
  - We got inside and checked into our room and then asked the receptionist, Marius, where we could find food. It was about 8pm, so we weren't sure if anything would be open, but Marius directed us to a restaurant down the street which turned out to be inexpensive and delicious. =) The funny thing about this restaurant was that they serve Antipasto with every meal that you order, but if you're like Kit and I, you don't know that going in. So we ordered a pasta, a pizza, a bottle of wine,and a bottle of water. Well, no sooner had we finished ordering than a waitress walked up and started putting food on our table. No explanation, just setting down plates. Kit and I were so confused!!! We slowly started eating, and as they took one plate away, they replaced it with another one! (This was all the antipasto, but we didn't know that!) After about ten antipasto dishes, they brought out our order of pasta and pizza!! We were so baffled by the thought of more food! We started eating the pizza and only got about a third of the way through before finally giving up and asking them to wrap everything up for us so we could take it back to the hostel with us. =)
  - When we finally got our bill, paid, and left, we realized that we were the ONLY people left in the restaurant.
  - On the walk back to the hostel, we realized that there would be no place for the pasta and pizza to go, so we decided to give it to Marius, since he suggested the restaurant in the first place.
  - Shortly after we had given him the pasta and pizza, he knocked on our door and told us that he was giving a “tour” of Rome to some people and we could join if we wanted to. So we did. He pulled out a map of the city and started drawing all over it, saying silly things like “This is the shopping district, I used to go here a lot with my old girlfriend, she used to be very happy, I used to be very broke.” and “Here is where our president lives, if you have any bombs, you can drop them off here...” Silly, snarky little things that just made Kit and I giggle incessantly. (Though, that might have something to do with the wine we had with dinner too, now that I think about it ;) )
  - After Marius' “tour” Kit and I went to bed, because we were EXHAUSTED.
- Thursday, February 11.
  - Kit and I got up around 9:30 and had breakfast downstairs. Italian breakfast is rather simple: Croissants and coffee or tea. The coffee was delicious, but the cappuccinos they offered were astounding.
  - After breakfast, Kit and I decided to wander. So we took the map that Marius had “made” (also known as: scribbled all over) for us and set out to explore the city.
  - We walked, and walked, and walked. We saw a pretty street and so turned down it. And then we saw a cool looking tree, so went towards it. Our exploration was rather aimless. =) It was a lot of fun, though! We went in “search” of the obelisks that were stolen from the Egyptians thousands of years ago, and every time we saw one, Kit would take a picture of it.
  - We found the de Medici house, which was cool, and then found a “busty garden” which, I think, was the Villa Bourghese... Inside the “busty garden” was a cute little cafe, where Kit and I stopped for a cup of tea.
  - After the “busty garden” we decided to start wandering south again, and stumbled, literally, upon the famous Spanish Steps. (Which were, oddly enough, designed (or was it built?) by a Frenchman.)
  - After the Spanish Steps, we wandered some more and stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain. =) So, of course, we had to throw in coins. One coin to return to Rome, two to find true love. “That fountain is broke, I want my money back.” - Marius. After throwing in our coins, we decided that this would be a good place to rest for a while, so we grabbed some gelato (Italian ice cream) and went back to the Trevi Fountain to people watch. =)
  - On the way back to our hostel, we found a restaurant that looked pretty good, so we stopped there for a late lunch. (It was about 3 or 4pm) The food there was delicious, and the waiters were cute, so we sat and ate leisurely and enjoyed ourselves until they brought us the bill. Then we realized that, once again, we were the last people in the restaurant. Haha!! =) Apparently they were closing for a break before it was time to serve dinner.
  - When we got back to our hostel, we were hungry again, but Marius told us not to worry, he was making dinner for everyone. So, Kit and I, along with our new friends from the hostel: Jenny, Kasia, and Olivia from Australia, and Johnny from LA; sat down for dinner with him in the common room of the hostel.
- Friday, February 12.
  - I got up late on Friday, but had enough time to grab some cappuccino before we (Kit and our new friends) set off for the Vatican. Marius had told us during our “tour” that it would take about half a day. BOY WAS HE WRONG!!! We were there for about four hours and only saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistene Chapel!
  - The museum was gorgeous, with all sorts of interesting information about the frescoes and the art that was made for and collected by the Vatican.
  - The Sistene Chapel. Wow. 27.something meters high. And absolutely gorgeous. I can't imagine what it looked like originally. It really, truly, does look like the postcards, which is amazing. You'd think that they photoshop or touch up the postcards to make it look better than it really was, but they really don't. Kit and I tried to take some sneaky pictures of it, as proof. Kit's turned out a lot better than mine did... =)
  - After the museum, Kit and I had lost Johnny, Jenny, Kasia, and Olivia, so we went to find dinner on our own. Just down the block from the Vatican Museum entrance was a cute little restaurant with decent prices and a jolly man in a red sweater who said “Bonjourno!” and motioned for us to come inside. So we did! The food was really good, as was the coffee. =) (I'm noticing a trend of absolutely delicious coffee in Italy, what about you? ;) )
  - After our lunch/dinner, where we were, once again, the last people to leave, we went back to the Hostel, hopped into Kit's bed and made use of the hostel's free internet to catch up on some TV shows before going to bed. A very low key night, but it was good anyways. =D
- Saturday, February 13.
  - Kit and I had really wanted to visit Pisa during our time in Rome, so we figured that we'd go back to the Vatican and see St. Peter's Basilica before going to catch a train to Pisa, take some silly pictures, and come back. Well, once we got to St. Peter's we realized that it would be foolish of us to not fully appreciate this gorgeous church. So we said “Pisa tomorrow? Sure!” and stayed ALL DAY in St. Peter's.
  - We saw the Basilica itself and then went under it to see the tombs of several different popes, including John Paul II. Afterwards, we noticed that Mass was being offered in the Basilica, so we went for a quick dinner at the same restaurant as the day before, and went back to St. Peter's for Saturday night Mass. It was gorgeous. All in Italian, but not really hard to follow. (Especially for me, who has been going to Italian Masses while I was in Germany!)
  - On our way home, we decided to look for a coffee shop that the receptionist in the morning had recommended to us. It was called Sant Eustachio and apparently had the best coffee in Rome. It was near the Pantheon, we knew that much, so it was “on the way home” and we decided to try to find it. That was quite an adventure. Especially as we really had no idea where we were going and not all of the roads in Italy are marked with street signs... However, we found it (purely by accident, again!) and WOW. It had really, amazingly good coffee.
  - We also stopped at a fruit market to pick up some snacks, as we intended on going to Pisa the next day and figured it would be easier and cheaper to take lunches than to buy them there. =)
- Sunday, February 14.
  - Valentines day!!! Kit and I got up and showered and realized that since the Colosseum and other “cool” ruins closed rather Early, it was going to have to be either see them, or see Pisa. So Pisa went out the window and we were off to see the Colosseum.
  - Wow. What a building. It's, well, colossal! And Kit and I were amazed by the size and preservation of it.
  - We took a tour and wandered around it for a bit, before going out to find some other ruins, including the Roman Forum.
  - We're not entirely sure of everything we saw, especially since we disagreed on several things that we thought the map was showing us... =) After that, we went to the Pantheon for lunch. While we were sitting there, a man came by with a speaker and a cd player and sang in the square in front of the Pantheon. He had a beautiful operatic tenor voice and was dressed in black pants, a black coat and a white scarf. He looked, basically, like your stereotypical Italian opera singer. =) It was amazing. Beautiful music to sing us through lunch. =)
  - After lunch, we stopped back at Sant Eustachio and bought ourselves (and others) some delicious coffee to take home with us. =D It was DELICIOUS. (Have I mentioned this yet? Italy has Very Good Coffee...)
  - When we got back to the hostel, we prettied ourselves up and dropped off our coffee and went back to the restaurant that we went to on the first night for our Valentines day dinner. It was DELICIOUS. We knew what to expect this time, so it wasn't as shocking when they started bringing us multiple plates of antipasto... =) We stayed until about ten and then had to head back to the hostel to pack up since we had to leave at about 0530 the next morning because Kit had to catch a bus to the airport and I had to catch a train to Venice.
- Monday, February 15.
  - Dropped Kit off at her bus and then made my way to my train so I could go to Venice. My goal was simple: See Venice before it sinks. =)
  - Caught my train without a problem and four hours later, I was in VENICE.
  - Venice, the day before Carnivale. Wow. It was gorgeous. The masks, the colors, the costumes... A whirlwind was my first thought, and it would be correct. =) The people in the train station wanted to charge 3 euro for a map, so I decided to just wander around on my own. =) What a wonderful experience. The colors and costumes!!! Gorgeous.
  - I walked around and bought a few things, food, masks, glass... before heading back to the train station.
  - From Venice, I took the train to Milan where I transferred to an overnight train that would take me to Barcelona.
Spain
- Tuesday, February 16.
  - Slept a bit on the train, and woke up in time to watch the train go through Spain on it's way to Barcelona. It was supposed to get in at 0945 but an hour later we actually got off the train.
  - From Barcelona França I took the train to Barcelona Sants where I caught a train to Madrid. Slept most of the way there =)
  - From Madrid, I got on another train to Seville. Went online and talked to people and watched movies until the train pulled into Seville.
  - Sarah had told me that Tomas, her fiancé, would be picking me up from the station, however neither of us knew what the other looked like! Thankfully we found each other without a problem, he just looked for the girl with the huge backpack (oh, that would be me!) and voilá! Shortly after he picked me up, we went to get Sarah from her work. She teaches Engilsh in Seville, which means she works mostly when other people have their breaks. For example, she teaches in the morning, just after lunch, and in the evening after other people get off of work.
  - After picking up Sarah, we went shopping and then made dinner. Dinner was delicious! Filets of meat that were sauteed in an onion and white wine sauce. It was absolutely delicious. After dinner, we went to bed. =)

***Ok, summary is done, see the regular blog posts for anything else =)***

Short update on my time in Seville =)

2010-02-19T00:28:00.001+01:00

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Wow, my computer died and I lost my entire entry on Rome before I got to post it...

First things first, let me talk about my beautiful day in Seville. I woke up around 08:30, got dressed and headed out with Sarah to pick up Tomas and go to Mass. We went to Ash Wednesday Mass at The Cathedral in Seville. This is the second largest church in Europe. The first is St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. =D Now I can say that I've been to both! ;) Anyways, after Mass, Sarah and I walked around the Seville city center for a bit and then caught the bus back to her apartment for lunch. After lunch, Sarah had to go to work, so I chilled and then Tomas' friend Juan Luis came by to take me around Seville and show me some cool things. =) Sarah and Tomas had set this up for me, so I would be able to see the sights with someone who was a) a very good english speaker and b) knew what he was talking about. (Or if he didn't know, he put on a very good show ;) ) Juan Luis showed up around four thirty, and together we went to the city center. We walked through the city center towards the Cathedral, but the Cathedral was closed to the public, so we walked around through different areas, with Juan Luis pointing out different historical and religious sights including the Macarena, which is a famous statue of the Virgin Mary. Around 18:45 we walked along the river for about forty-five minutes and then decided to go get a “Merienda” which is basically a something sweet that the Spanish have between lunch and dinner. They usually have lunch around one or two and then dinner anywhere between nine and eleven at night. Juan Luis took me to a really cute little restaurant/cafe thing where we had a small dessert and tea (me) and coffee (him). After that, we went to see the plaza of Santa Cruz and then he drove me back to Sarah's apartment. Sarah was still at work, she teaches English and so has classes after other people are done with their work or school. So I went in and found my poor, crashed computer, and sighed over the lost stories of Rome that I'll have to re-write and then started this entry.

…

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Last night, after Sarah came home we made dinner and then went to bed. We were going to watch a movie, but by the time dinner was finished it was close to 23:30, so we figured bedtime was best for both of us, especially since Sarah had to work in the morning. Today, it rained all day. I'm not kidding. The people of Seville don't deal with rain well...it's rather amusing. Especially since it's rather warm out, about 15 degrees Celsius. This morning, we went to Tomas' house around eleven, watched “Bella” and then Sarah and I went back to her place for lunch. Sarah left for work at 1:30 and I cleaned up lunch (did dishes, put food away) and then napped and caught up on my email/facebook time ;) Sarah came home around 5:30 or six and after a small marienda, we went out together to go to Mass at San Salvador in the center and then get some tapas for dinner afterwards. The Mass at San Salvador was short, but really pretty, with a short song to Mary at the end of it. Tapas was DELICIOUS. =D After dinner, we headed back to Sarah's place and it was already ten, so we called it a night.

…

I love Seville. Really, it's just a gorgeous place. And the weather here is just wonderful. The accent is something I need to get used to, considering that the Spanish I usually hear is from Mexico and the Spanish here is... well... Spanish. =) Granted, I'd need to learn Spanish, of any sort, before actually moving here ;) And no, I probably won't actually move here, but it'd be nice to visit again. =D

Plaza de España

2010-02-17T15:23:00.000+01:00

Oh wow, I am a horrible blogger! I promise promise I'll update soon with my adventures in Rome with Kit (I'm writing up a nice bloggy entry now!) but first I want to show you my plan to get "home." Mostly because it amused me =) And yeah, i'm not exactly going "home" just to Berlin for a few days to visit a friend, but still...

View Larger Map

It's basically a straight line!!! Granted, it's about 30-ish hours of train riding, but whatever... =D I'll get to Berlin just in time for dinner!

So yeah, I hope you were as amused as I was =D

Love and hugs and I promise I'll update about Rome and Venice and Seville soon!!!!

~e

Quick note

2010-01-26T14:46:00.000+01:00

My dear, wonderful, Readers,

The new thing on the side isn't necessarily to ask for money. I'm just promoting a friend's entrepreneurial NGO. To use her words:

Kranti aims to empower and equip India’s trafficked girls, sex workers and otherwise socially disadvantaged young women (Revolutionaries) with the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to build fulfilling futures and become catalysts for social change.

SO. If you can give money, that would be wonderful, however I'm in no position to give money, so I can't really ask it of any of you. I can, however, raise awareness of this awesome endeavor, and hope that you can also spread the word in the hopes that Robin can get the funding that she needs.

Thanks for reading!!

~Erin

Schedule of my trips =D

2010-01-24T13:31:00.001+01:00

(Hopefully you can see this, if not, leave a comment or email me and I'll try to fix that...)

LOVE!

~e

Wow, finals!

2010-01-20T21:49:00.000+01:00

So. School. Yeah. Almost done!!!!!!!
My finals schedule is as follows:

22. Jan - 08:00 - Deutsch 2 Exam
26. Jan - 08:00 - Deustch 3 Exam
26. Jan - 11:00 - Strategic Management Exam
02. Feb - 10:30 - International Business Law Exam
02. Feb - 13:30 - Sustainable Development Exam
03. Feb - 13:30 - International Business Exam
05. Feb - 09:00 - Information Technology Exam

Then I am FINISHED! This is SO exciting... =D

Anyways, on the 5th, I catch a flight in the evening to Katowice, Poland and a bus to Kraków and spend the weekend with Kit. =D On Sunday, she's coming back with me to Germany and we'll chill in Pforzheim until Wednesday when we go to ROME. =D I'm so super excited. I've heard that Rome is gorgeous. We might be taking day trips to Pisa, Florence, and Venice while we're there, it all depends on what we feel like doing. =)

After that, my schedule is a bit...fluid. Definitely going to visit Seville, Spain (there's a Willows Alum over there that I'm going to bother visit for a few days) and I still have to see France (mostly Paris), Luxembourg and Belgium.

Looking into spending a little €€ to ensure that I have internet next month. I think it'll be worth it. Also, as a reference (though, I'm sure I'll update it later) my flight information is as follows:

FRA - DTW

Depart FRA: 10:20 (GMT +1)
Arrive at DTW: 13:50 (GMT -5)

DTW - ORD

Depart DTW: 15:20 (GMT -5)
Arrive at ORD: 15:45 (GMT -6)

Yeah, I know previously (on facebook) I had said that I'd be arriving at 15:21, but I just checked the information now and the flight was changed so my arrival has been moved back about 20 minutes.

It's funny, if you just look at the times, I'm departing at 10:20 and arriving at 15:45 which LOOKS like it's only going to take a little over 5 hours... Sadly, it's going to be about double that. Ah well, c'est la vie =)

Anyways, time for me to study, or figure out my plans for February, or pack... =)

Tschüss!

Happy New Year!!!!

2010-01-13T15:39:00.000+01:00

Wow, it's been forever since I've updated this, I'm sorry!!!

Ireland: Wow. That place is absolutely gorgeous. Peter O'Fegan (my cousin) and his family were wonderful hosts and made me feel so wonderfully at home and welcome with them. Just before New Years, Siobhan Fegan and her friend Megan came into town, so during the day Peter would take us out to different parts of Galway county and other counties (including the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare). It was gorgeous!!! On New Years Eve, Megan and Siobhan invited me out with them, but I had caught the cold that had been circulating the O'Fegan household, so I stayed in and had a little champagne with Alice, Peter, Seóna, and Noreen (Ellie and Grace had Coke and Nicholas was out with friends). It was quiet, but really nice. We watched the countdown in Noreen's living room, and then went back and watched a movie =) It was a lot of fun, especially since my cold made me horrible at conversation ;-) On the night of New Years (Jan 1, 2010) I was feeling better, so Peter and I got together with Megan and Siobhan and went to Tig Coili (a pub down in Galway city) to hear some live Irish music. It was a LOT of fun. =)
Around the 6th, it was getting close to the time that I was due to go back to Germany (my flight was for 1pm on the 7th), but Siobhan and Megan had invited me to join them in London, if I was up for it... So I looked up the way to get there and how much it would cost... It wasn't too bad (even with the Euro to GBP exchange) so I booked a ride over on the Ferry and a hostel in London.
SO. On the 7th, I took the train from Galway to Dublin, grabbed some dinner at a pub near the bus station that would take me over to the Ferry, and boarded the Ferry towards Holyhead. =D The Ferry was SO cool. It was HUGE and so comfortable. You could hear the engines going, but there wasn't really a lot of rocking or swaying going on. It was great. The ride went from 9pm to half past midnight. Soooo cool. And you could buy an internet connection (which wasn't too horribly expensive) so I bought one and emailed Mom my itinerary to help her worry less.

Wales: Holyhead is in Wales. I had no idea. Haha. No, seriously, I had thought that Wales started below Holyhead... Way to pay attention to Geography, right? =P Anyways. We got into Holyhead about half past midnight and the train from Holyhead to London wasn't until 4:45am... Which meant spending a night in the freezing Holyhead station. This was the first time during my trip that I missed my Carhart jacket... (Yeah, I had forgotten to pack it considering it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit when I was packing to come to Europe in the first place...Oops...) Anyways, around 4:30 they assigned our train a platform and I found my place. There was a small mixup due to the fact that there was nowhere for me to print out my ticket, but thankfully I had the reservation open on my laptop, so I showed that to them along with the credit card I used and the reservation number they had sent me in an email and after a small, stomach twisting, minute where the conductor had said I would actually owe something close to 254 GBP instead of the 16 I had paid for the ticket, I was able to fall asleep and continue the journey unbothered.

England! I got into London around 9am and texted Megan and Siobhan to arrange a place and time to meet up. We met in Paddington Station and checked my huge bag for a while so we could go to BATH. Yes. Bath. The Jane Austen nerd inside me who had been sleeping inside of me during most of this trip suddenly woke up and started dancing around. =) It was amazing. While we were in Bath we booked a trip over to Stonehenge. The trip included a stop at Lacock Village (which is where they shot a few of the scenes from Harry Potter as well as a show called Cranford). The bus driver was also a sort of tour guide, who kept up a running commentary on the state of the roads and how English drivers don't know how to handle snow (he had been a truck driver in the States previous to this job, which amused me to NO end). It was a great tour, but in the end, Stonehenge had been closed due to the weather... =P But we got back to London around 8pm, picked up my bag, checked me into my hostel (which was only a few blocks away from Megan and Siobhan's) and went to dinner.
On Saturday, we went to Harrod's. Wow. That place was SO cool. Huge and ... WOW. I am not what you would call a "shopper" but I could wander around there for days on end and still be amused. =) Then Siobhan and Megan had to go to Gatwick airport to catch a flight up to Edinburgh, so I continued wandering around Central London by myself. Around 4pm it was starting to get dark, so I went to the Hostel and asked if they knew of any good places where I could find some dinner. They suggested a few places up the road, so I started walking...and passed a sign for Wicked that was playing nearby. There were still tickets left, so I figured if there were still some inexpensive tickets available after I finished my dinner, I'd go to Wicked. THERE WERE INEXPENSIVE TICKETS AVAILABLE!!!!! Student discounts are probably the best invention EVER. For only 25 GBP I was able to get a seat in Row M. M!!!!!!!!!!!! (You can imagine the jumping and dancing and general silliness that I had to hide while purchasing this ticket...) =D So, I saw Wicked in London. It was amazing. Afterwards, I went back to the hostel, packed up everything and went to bed.
On Sunday, I had breakfast and checked out of my hostel. I figured I'd save the four pounds it would cost me to take the Underground to the train station, and walked there instead. I love London. Definitely putting this on my list of "Places to which I need to return." =) (Porto, Munich, Kraków and Galway are on that list as well. Hmm, I'm sensing a trend...) Anyways. I caught my TRAIN TO PARIS without any problems. And I now have a stamp on my passport that says "LFT LONDRES" which amuses me to no end.... =D

France: Got to Paris and had to make train reservations in French... and it WORKED. I was amazed. I could understand her, and thankfully I didn't botch up my French too badly, because she could understand me. The wonderful woman at the counter was able to book me a ticket as far as Karlsruhe, which is only about a half hour ride from Pforzheim. =D It was highly amusing on the train, because the announcements were in English, German and French. AND I UNDERSTOOD ALL OF THEM. Which was probably the most exciting bit. I haven't spoken French in ages, literally, since High School. And it's still with me. I think I need to write Madame a postcard ;-)

Germany: Obviously, I arrived safe in Pforzheim on Sunday night. =) Bank and Younghoe were completely awesome and had texted me to find out when I was going to be back and then had dinner waiting for me upon my arrival. What wonderful friends I have... ♥

On Monday, my friend Cory, from IIT, (who had been studying in Budapest) came by to visit me on his way back to Bonn. He's going to be returning to the States soon. It was great to see him, especially since we've been "so close" this entire time but never actually had a chance to meet up until now. I introduced him to some of my friends in Kepler, we had dinner and a beer or two, and watched Inglorious Basterds. (Highly amusing movie, albeit really graphic (lots of blood and guts and stuff)... what you'd expect from Quentin Tarantino, though...) Tuesday, I was supposed to have five hours of German, but they were all cancelled, so I came back and walked around Pforzheim with Cory before dropping him off at the train station. Got back just in time to attend my only class of the day. =)

So, yeah. That's my life about now... I have a presentation this weekend and then finals at the end of the month. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do in February. I posted a map in an earlier entry of possible places, but I think I'm going to add Seville to that... =D As of yet, I don't have any definite plans, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated =D

Much love, and I'm sorry about all of the radio silence while I was in Ireland and England...

♥

(Sorry for the ridiculous run-on sentences, I know it's horrible grammar, but I'm in a hurry because I need to get to class... ♥!!!)

Frohe Weihnachten! Joyeux Noël! Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T02:03:00.000+01:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas!!!

It's so strange not being at home, but Peter and his family have been absolutely amazing!!!!

We all woke up at 6:30 and went down to open presents from Santa, then afterwards some of us (aka: everyone over the age of 15) went back to bed for a few hours, while the younger ones stayed up playing with their new gadgets. We went to 12:30 Mass at the Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful, and then came back to get ready for Christmas Dinner. Christmas Dinner in Ireland is basically what we have for Thanksgiving, including cranberry sauce =D It was DELICIOUS!!!!! Dinner was around four, and afterwards we went over to Seona's brother's house to see their grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins. Everyone was so sweet. Seona's brother and his wife gave me cute little Santa ornament and Peter and Seona gave me a bracelet. =) I've been so blessed to have such wonderful people to spend Christmas with. =D Anyways, we just got home, and it's almost 1am, so I'm going to get to bed, but I thought I'd update, mostly because I haven't in a while.

Things in Ireland are "grand" as they say, and I love it here. Peter and his family have been so wonderful to me, I really couldn't imagine nicer people with whom I could spend my "away from home" Christmas.

((Not that I'll be doing this again next year... I really miss everyone in Chicago, and definitely plan to be home for next year's Christmas festivities!!!))

Funny story: This evening after dinner we went to Seona's brother's place, up the road. After playing pool with the girls, we all sat down and talked and watched Catherine Tate's "Nan's Christmas Carol." At one point, James, Seona's nephew, got up and brought people coffee or tea, depending on what they wanted. When he asked me what I would like in my coffee, I replied "Bailey's, please" which seemed to surprise everyone in the room. Alice, Peter and Seona's the oldest girl, was so entertained by the thought of putting Bailey's in coffee that she kept bringing it up, every few minutes or so. =)

((Upon retrospection, I really hope I didn't offend anyone with that request...I'll have to ask tomorrow...I'll let you know the verdict!))

Ok, it's past my bedtime...

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!!"

Ireland!!!

2009-12-20T15:30:00.000+01:00

Don't really have time for a long post, but Ireland is gorgeous. Let's just say, I'm in love. =)

Haven't met any cute boys yet, but I still have time, haha!!

Love!

~e

Internationals Christmas Party

2009-12-12T02:42:00.000+01:00

So, technically it was just a dinner, but it was just for the Internationals, which was really nice! They had delicious food and good music!

Pictures from the Party:

Anyways, how about an update??

After I returned from Poland, on December 2nd, I had a day to unpack and re-pack because that weekend I went to München (again!) with our Gemini group. There were about forty-some-odd people in our group. Packed onto a huge bus. It was a LOT of fun.

We went to München on Friday, got there around 7:30pm. Our hostel was called Wombat and it was HILARIOUS. It had signs like "No Trespassing. Violators will be shot, Survivors will be shot again." =D It was awesome. After we checked in, we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and went out to the Weinachtsmarkt*. (Weinachtsmarkt = Christmas Market) We walked around for an hour and then realized that it was COLD and so went back to the hostel. A few of us didn't really want to turn in just yet, and we had made it back in time for the happy hour in the "Wombar" (the bar in the Wombat) so we had a drink (1€ for a .5L of bier, not bad at all!) and then went to bed.

Saturday, we had most of the morning to ourselves so Younghoe and I went on a quest for Starbucks. =) I know, how cliché. But I really do miss having "normal" sized coffees... After that, we met up with the group and went through the smaller, cuter Weinachtsmarkt in Marionplatz (the main square of Munich) towards the Deutsches Museum. That was really cool because it was the Technical Museum and so we got to see cars and planes and all sorts of awesome things. For example, the had one exhibit on glass, and part of it was on "bullet proof" glass. It said that this glass was so strong that you could stand on it and it wouldn't break. It even showed you how much it would bend and STILL not break. It was highly impressive. However, I was walking around by myself, so I don't have any pictures, I'm sorry!!! (You'll just have to go and see for yourself ;) )

After the Deutsches Museum, we went on a tour of Munich that ended at the Hofbrauhaus, which is probably one of the most famous breweries in ... the world. =D We had a reservation there, and so had delicious dinner and bier. =D

After that, people wanted to go out, but I wasn't really up for it. Half of us went out to a club nearby, and the other half (myself included) stayed in the "Wombar." It was a LOT of fun. I got to know so many people on this trip. =)

On Sunday, we woke up and got back on the Bus to head home, however first we stopped in Neuschwanstein. =D Unfortunately, it was kind of a long ride (maybe two hours?) and a few people had partied a liiiiiitle too hard the night before. (Not me!!) Luckily, all potential disasters were avoided and we all made it to the castle safely. =D

The castle itself is actually only about 1/3 completed. We were able to go on a tour of the place and it is absolutely beautiful. No pictures were allowed inside the castle, because pretty much everything is still in it's original condition. It was amazing. I could totally live there, I decided, but I would have a problem cleaning it... (high ceilings and stuff...) ;-) After the tour of the castle completed, we got back on the bus and headed back to Pforzheim. We actually got back in town about an hour earlier than anticipated, which is really impressive considering the bus left Neuschwanstein about an hour later than it was "supposed" to... Or maybe they planned it like that... =)

This week I've had class. Nothing tooo exciting, but I have had things postponed and reduced which means that my workload for next week now only consists of two presentations. Talk about easy! =D

So, Next week's schedule looks something like this:
Monday: Class at 9:45, meeting at 11:30
Tuesday: Class from 8 to 5 (ew) Presentation 1 at 8am (ew)
Wednesday: Class from 11:30 to 5 - Presentation 2 at 1:45pm.
Thursday: GO TO IRELAND. (Happy Birthday, Robert!!)

Yep. It's already almost Christmas Break. That's amazing. Time here really seems to have just flown past me. And yeah, "Time flies when you're having fun." I know.

I'm told I'll have internet in Ireland, so as long as there are no problems with the electricity situation (darned plugs and voltages being all different EVERYWHERE YOU GO.... Sooo frustrating...) there will be pictures and updates. =) I return to Pforzheim on January 7th, and classes resume on the 11th.

Anyways. It's pretty late, so I'm going to get to bed. I hope you enjoy the updates and pictures!!! I'm sorry it's been so quiet lately! =)

Hugs and love and have safe holidays!!

~Deine AmerikanErin

* - Half of us went to the Weinachtsmarkt and the other half went to the Bayern-Munich game. I was originally supposed to go to the game, but due to an oversight (they forgot that they would need official reps from Gemini (the organizing group) in the group going to the game) I wasn't allowed to go. I did, however, get my money back, so it wasn't a huge deal.

Auschwitz and Birkenau

2009-11-30T19:02:00.000+01:00

Went to Auschwitz and Birkenau today. It was a very disturbing place. Shows just what people can do to each other, but hopefully we've learned from this.

And when I got back, I had this in my email:

...which was strange, but fitting. Ironic timing, I think.

Anyways, I hope that your days are filled with love. Besides my somber trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau, my time in Poland has been pretty amazing. =) Also, received an exciting email about prospects for when I return home, which is kind of awesome. Here's to not counting chickens before they're hatched, though...

When I return to Pforzheim I'll have three presentations and two papers due. Then on the 17th I travel to Ireland to visit Dad's cousins for the Christmas holidays. Making plans to tentatively be in Dublin for New Years (I'm thinking a visit to the Guinness Storehouse is in order) and back in Pforzheim on the 7th. Then a month without travel, finals, and then back to Poland and ROME and possibly Venice, and France, and maybe Barcelona...

Wish me luck!

~Deine AmerikanErin

I really am a nerd in my free time...

2009-11-29T02:14:00.000+01:00

I'm currently visiting Kit in Poland (or Pol-la-land, as I've called it for years) and when we're not out sight-seeing or shopping, we're in her room doing homework or playing on our computers. =)

Need more proof? I set up a wireless connection so that we can both be on the internet at the same time.

Still need more proof that I'm a nerd?
This mug amuses me to no end:

CAD - Starbuck's mug design @ © SplitReason.com

Starbuck is a character in the SciFi show, Battlestar Gallactica and Cylons are basically robots that have gone haywire; so a "Starbuck's Fresh Roasted Cylon" mug is absolutely HILARIOUS to me...

Also, while shopping today, I tried on a sweater-dress (basically a knit dress with a big cowl neckline and no sleeves) and thought "Hm, I think I could make something like this..." and then didn't buy said dress and instead started looking up patterns online when I got home.

While in Europe, do as the Europeans do? Maybe, but I've definitely noticed that when it comes to traveling, I'm doing just that. Kit had told me to bring some "nice" clothing as we would probably be going out a few times while I was here, so I brought nice clothes, regular clothes, and three pairs of shoes. Yes, I BROUGHT SHOES. I'm mildly frightened at the implications of this...have I started to go native? Or am I simply realizing that no, gym shoes cannot be worn everywhere? I'm still not sure, but considering that I thought about buying a sweater dress and leggings, I think I might be under some European influences here...

...

Anyways, back to traveling and interesting things:
On Friday I went to the Salt Mines of Wieliczka. It was SO cool. However, it is 2am and I really need to get to bed, so I'll leave you with pictures and I'll get back to the story telling later. =D

Much love,
Die AmerikanErin ;-)

Upcoming Trips

2009-11-25T00:10:00.000+01:00

I just realized that I really don't have a lot of time left here.

Trip to Pol-la-land (YAY) 25 November to 2 December
Trip to Munich (again!) 4 December to 6 December
Two weeks of class

Which include handing in two papers and giving three presentations.

Three weeks of Ireland 17 December to 7 January

Yeah, going there for Christmas and New Years =)

Two weeks of class

One more presentation (related to one of the two papers previously handed in)

Two weeks of Finals
Trip to Pol-la-land (again!) 5 February to 7 February
Trip to Rome (w/ Kit!) 10 February to 15 February
Two weeks
Trip to Chicago. 1 March

Yeah, ok, I guess I technically shouldn't call this a "trip" but I wanted to keep up with the "theme" ;-)

The lack of time here makes me sad (The people here are so wonderful, I don't want to leave them!) and freaked (What do I do when I get home? Job searching??? Woah!) and think "Woah, wait, what??? Already????" Though, I have to say, it will be Really Nice to see everyone back at home again. =)

Much love,

~e

The saga continues...

2009-11-17T01:36:00.001+01:00

Well, I moved back into my old room (Room 220) and the next morning woke up with a Bug literally inches away from my face. Apparently the fumigation didn't work. SO. I caught it and took it down to Herr Kiefer. Who took one look at it and one look at the very angry, covered in bites, me and told me that I should probably move back down to Room 1. So, here I am. On the bright side, I got free laundry...

On to the Porto Trip! (The following is transcribed from the journal that I took with me, since I didn't want to take Jethro (what I named my laptop) with and risk something happening with him.)

36 Hours in Porto, Portugal!

The journey started in September when Sergey came into my room with information about a flight to Porto, Portugal for 2€ round-trip. After some crazy booking hassles, we found a date (the 12th through the 14th of November) and Devika, Sergey, Bank and I had tickets to Portugal.

On Thursday, the 12th, we left Keplerstraße at 06:45. Rather, they were supposed to leave at 06:45. I had gone to the Hochschule to print out our boarding passes. I met them on the bus around 7am and we went to the Hauptbahnhof together. Took a train to Rastatt and a bus to Karlsruhe-Baden Aeroport. Security: check. No problem, took all of about five minutes. Duty-free: check. Thought about buying some cheap Pushkin (only 10€) but decided against it. Bust to plane. Board the plane. Find a seat. It's not very crowded on our Boeing 737, so Sergey and I shared a 3-seat row and Bank and Devika sat behind us. Suddenly Bank realized that he couldn't find his passport. We all started looking on the floor, under the seats, up and down the aisle... got the crew involved. Had them check outside and in the bus but it was seemingly nowhere to be found. So Bank was forced with a decision: Stay on the plane and have problems getting back into Germany or get off the plane and don't go to Portugal. Bank decided to go with the safe route and get off of the plane. About 15 minutes later, we took off. Maybe an hour into our 2.5 hour flight, one of the stewards came up to me. "We found your friend's passport," he said, "It was face down under a seat up front, so we didn't initially see it." So I thanked him, took the passport, and put it in my bag. I slept during most of the flight.

We landed in Porto 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We got off of the plane and walked (through Sunshine) to the terminal, where we entered and went through everything and came out in the Metro station. After fiddling with the machines and consulting the maps, we bought tickets and got on the train to go to our hostel. One of the best sights on that trip was looking out the window and seeing an orange tree and a palm tree. In November. It was about mid-60's outside. Lovely weather. Sunny and breezy, like Chicago in springtime. We got to the train station that was "closest" to our hostel and started walking towards it. About three minutes into the walk we realized that we had NO clue what the name of the place was. We had booked it a week ago (ish) and I hadn't paid attention to the name because Bank and Sergey were taking care of booking. So we got to the street it was on and just started looking for signs for a hostel. Thankfully, we found it without a problem, it was RIGHT at the intersection where we were. So we checked in, went to our room, and dropped off our things. (And by "things" I mean that Sergey left his bag and I left my sweater. We had known that the trip would be short and that we would be carrying our things for most of it, so we had all packed Really Light.)

It was around 1pm, so we decided to walk around a bit and see the town. We got a map from the front desk and ventured out into the city. The first shop we entered was run by an Indian woman, and she and Devika started talking. In the end, she offered us discounts on a few of the items and told us about a place to eat down the street where we could get a discount because we knew her. (It was quickly discovered that Devika went to school where she used to live) After lunch we continued walking. We walked for hours. We saw so many things, old forts and cathedrals... It was also very interesting because Porto completely mixes old with new. There could be a new apartment or office building randomly in between two old houses. And it looks like it shouldn't fit there, but it does because the entire city is built like that. We walked around until 8pm, when we realized that we were pretty hungry and tired and should probably head back to our hostel. We found a sandwich shop about three blocks away from our hostel where they spoke English (Inglais) and had dinner there before heading up to our room. Oh, also, the Indian woman taught us how to say "Obrigado" which means "Thank you." And while we were walking, we bought a bottle of wine, since wine seemed to be the specialty drink of the town...

That night, in our room, we watched some cartoons, the VH1 "50 Greatest Voices" countdown, and talked until about 22:30 when I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and convinced Sergey that sleeping would be a good idea. Devika was already fast asleep at that point, so we turned out the lights and turned off the TV and went to sleep. ((Note for Mom: The room was split up in such a way that Devika and I were in one half and Sergey was around the corner. Any possible awkwardness was completely avoided!!)) That bed was So. Comfortable.

Ok, at this point I should say a little more about the room that we were in. It was a 4-person bedroom with 4 twin-sized beds. It had a bathroom with a shower (towels, soap, shampoo included!) and a TV with Cable. The walls were maroon, there was a mirror alongside one of them, and the window faced out into the main street. There were also shutters for the window, to stop more of the draft that came through. The curtains were a caramel/bronzey color with black roses on them. Overall, it was a really nice room. The whole hostel was nice. They had free internet (and wireless! though, we didn't use that) which you could access through the PC in the common room. There was also a complimentary breakfast of baguettes, croissants, coffee, tea, and juice.

This morning, I woke up and went up to the common room for breakfast. Devika and Sergey were already awake. Breakfast was sooo good. Juice, tea, and coffee with buns and croissants... very nice. After breakfast, we played Dominoes in the common room until it was noon, time to check out and start our adventure to the ocean. Yep, Porto is located in the north of Portugal on the Atlantic Ocean.

We bought a kilo of bananas and a kilo of Clementine oranges and started walking West. After about fifteen minutes (all times are rough estimates because I didn't know that in order for my phone to be turned back on I would need to enter a PIN, which was safely somewhere in my room in Pforzheim, which meant that I didn't have a phone or source of time all weekend) we came to a park with a monument commemorating the something-or-other of 1808-1809. So we stopped, took pictures, and had some Clementines and Bananas. Then we continued on our quest west.

We got to the beach around 3pm. It was a bit cold and cloudy, but it didn't matter! We were finally at the Atlantic Ocean!!! Pants were rolled up, shoes/sandals were cast aside, and feet were soaked. It. Was. COLD. Granted, it was November, so I wasn't too surprised... After the initial "YAY OCEAN!" bit, we walked up onto the hill/cliff and watched the waves and kite-surfers for a while. It started raining-ish for a little, so we scurried over to what I can only describe as a moat. It surrounded a fortress that was built in the 12th century. (At least, I think it was the 12th century, but I may be confusing that with a different fortress we saw and so it was either the 12th or 16th century...my architectural history isn't that stellar that I would be able to tell the difference offhand, sorry! ;-) ) The rain didn't last long, and soon we were out on the rocks next to the fortress, staring at the ocean. Sergey put it well "There are three things that you an watch forever: The waves, the fire, and people working." Very true, Sergey, very true.

Around 4pm we climbed off the rocks, and headed south along the beach. There were some BEAUTIFUL houses along that road. I think that if I ever have money for a vacation home, I'll buy one of those gorgeous, colorful, old houses...located just across the street from the Atlantic Ocean. After a few, maybe ten?, minutes of walking, we saw a Häagen-Dazs. I decided that ICE CREAM would totally make my day, so I made Sergey and Devika come with me into the ice cream shop. Two scoops of ice cream later (one chocolate and one raspberry sherbert) with dark chocolate shell and little chocolate sprinkly ball thingies on top later, we were ready to head east again and find a place for dinner and somehow entertain ourselves until it was time to get to the Aeroporto and head home. After going into two places and realizing that we weren't that hungry, we decided to buy some sandwiches/sandwich-making-materials and head towards the Aeroporto.

We knew that it was going to be a long night because the flight wasn't until 06:25. Also, we wouldn't be able to go through security until about 04:30 because none of us were E.U. citizens so the Ryanair people would have to check our passports before we could go through security. We got to the Aeroporto around 19:00 and have been here since. We talked ad had food until about 23:00 when we moved to some benches closer to the Ryanair counter and settled in for the night. It's now 00:34 and I've been writing for an hour. Sergey and Devika are dozing and I think I'm going to follow suit. I am SO glad that I came here. I still miss people, and so many things I did (like randomly stopping for ice cream) reminded me of people, but I'm still so happy that I got to experience this beautiful city.

Obrigado, Porto!

(Pictures can be found here!)

The Saga of Mein Zimmer...

2009-11-09T20:28:00.000+01:00

It begins quite simply. There were a few unidentified bites that appeared on my hands and feet one morning in September. I IMMEDIATELY thought it was bedbugs, but upon a small, informal, conference with a professor, I was informed that it was more likely to be mosquitoes instead, and as I was sleeping with my window wide open, it was very likely that that was the case. So, I started closing my window at night and the number of bites diminished, for a bit. So, life went on, regular classes started and things were as they were supposed to be. Or so I thought.

Then, one fateful morning, I woke up with a bug literally inches away from my face on my pillow. Somehow I had the foresight to NOT squish it, but instead capture and drown it. I was able to keep this specimen and then compare to pictures on the internet and realize that I did, in fact, have bedbugs. This made me QUITE upset. I had a LOT of trips that I was going to be going on shortly, and who knew where the buggies were living! So, in a mental frenzy, I went to the Hausmeister. And he wasn't in. It took me a week to finally get a hold of him and explain the problem. He said he would call in an exterminator to look around and see what could be done. It took him until Monday (the 2nd of NOVEMBER) to finally call and have an appointment set up with the exterminator.

On Tuesday, November 3rd, while I was cooking dinner, Herr Kiefer, the owner of the building, and the only “Hausmeister” that I had had to deal with (minus the “German Pirate” that I encountered on the first day of my life at Kepler) came to the kitchen where I was cooking and informed me that the exterminator had found bedbugs and needed to fumigate the room immediately. As in, tomorrow. Which meant that I had to move rooms, as mine would be taped off for two days. But, I was only allowed to bring necessary items and NO clothing. This little adventure led to me borrowing two of Bank's shirts and washing my underthings in the sink every night before I went to bed. Talk about “roughing it.” However, I was able to take my laptop and books for school, which was a relief.

On Friday, I was told that by Saturday morning I would be able to get back into my room and start cleaning everything. I would have to wash absolutely EVERYTHING to rid it of the residue fumigation and make sure that there were no leftover buggies. On the bright side, Herr Kiefer was going to let me do that for free.

So, here I am, doing laundry, moving back into my newly fumigated room, and getting the icky recently-fumigated smell out of everything that I own. Including my yarn... Poor yarn... But it's ok, because now I am fully sure that it is BUG FREE!!!

That's one of the reasons why I've been relatively quiet lately, I didn't want to scare people about the buggies especially when I was just waiting for Herr Kiefer to get back to me.

In other news: I'm going to Portugal on Thursday!!!! Our flight leaves Karlsruhe airport at 10:30am and we'll arrive in Porto around 12:45pm. We'll be there for two nights and come back REALLY EARLY on Saturday morning. We booked the flight and the hostel for less than 25€ combined. Talk about a deal!!! Though, due to the Portugal trip, we'll be missing one of the biggest parties of the year... But I think it's totally worth it, considering that the round-trip ticket to Porto, Portugal costs about the same as the entrance fee to the party... =D

I'm SO incredibly excited about this adventure. It's going to be a blast, I can just tell. =D

Pictures will, of course, be taken and uploaded here as soon as the adventure is complete. =D

Love and (bug-free!) hugs!!

What???

2009-10-24T12:14:00.000+02:00

This post is for all of my computer-savvy friends:

Can someone please explain to me what on earth a VPN Client is for and why it won't let me connect to the Internet? It says that I'm connected, but it won't actually let me open anything or connect to, well, the Internet.

Vielen Dank.

°e

One thing more!

2009-10-23T18:08:00.000+02:00

As the movie Ratatouille shows us, anyone can cook. That includes me!

The current problem is, at the moment we're kind of running dry on things to cook. Pasta was fun for a while, and Thai food has been made a few times to add diversity, but Bank and I are starting to get a bit bored with the "same old, same old" recipes that we already have.

So, this blog post is a plea: If you have any favorite recipes, please pass them along!!

I'm working with an electric stovetop, a 22cm frying pan, a 3 Liter pot and a 2 Liter pot. =) Groceries here are basically the same, and we have (or can find) a pretty wide variety of spices. So, if you have a favorite recipe (or two, or twelve) please email it to me!!

Bank and I are fairly good cooks, and we're capable of improvising and fitting the recipes to our needs and abilities. If you have any suggestions or recipes or anything like that, shoot me an email or a message of facebook or an IM!!! =)

So, thank you in advance!!

Much love!

Once Upon A Time...

2009-10-23T15:58:00.000+02:00

Once Upon A Time there was "eine AmerikanErin." =) This has amused me since the first day of class when we learned the feminine and masculine endings of nationalities. "Ein Amerikaner" vs. "Eine Amerikanerin." =) "Amerikanerin" is the feminine form of "American." It helped the class to remember the feminine forms. AmerikanErin. =)

It amuses me to no end, especially since there are some people who continue to call me "AmerikanErin." =)

Today is rather dull... I woke up for my 8am class, got there and after two coffees I was able to stay awake... One thing I really miss about the states: Starbucks. Or any coffee shop that serves 20oz. coffees. =D The only size they have here is about 8oz. And the closest Astronomical Dollars is in Stuttgart, which is at least a 1/2 hour away by train...

So, class went from 8am to 9:30 and then again from 9:45 to 11:15. After class, I went back to my room and cleaned up a bit. Then, since it was rainy and icky outside, I decided to settle in for the day with some knitting and a copious amount of tea. After an hour or so more, I think I'll start on some research for my seminar classes.

Some of the first waves of homesickness hit me the other day. But after talking to people on GChat, things have begun to lighten up. I'm making plans for more trips! Going to Porto, Portugal in November; Amsterdam in January; and Poland and Rome in February. I still have to get over to Paris, Dublin, and London. =)

Here's a random "picture of the day" for you:

This was taken last week for the Diwali festival that I attended at Hotel Ruf.

"I'm not dead yet!"

2009-10-18T21:14:00.000+02:00

Small movie clip explaining the title of the post. =)

So, I know when I was in Chicago I promised that I'd update "faithfully" and I'm sad to say that lately I haven't been so "faithful" when it comes to writing things down. This is not good on a few different levels.
1) If I forget to write things down I'll forget them later on when I want to remember and that will be no fun.
2) I told you that I'd update! It's been ten days!!! That's unfair to you!

So, here's an update!

Lets see. Classes are underway now. If my memory serves me correctly, I gave you a quick rundown on what classes I was signed up for in my last post. So I'll spare you the boring details of that. But I will go on and say that I like them very much. The most "intensive" class is the Computer-Aided Analysis of Financial Markets class. That one has homework. ;) Yeah, that's what makes it difficult, it has homework.

The program of study is pretty different here than it is in the States. If you sign up for a lecture class, you get a lecture class. There is little to no homework, and there are absolutely NO semester-long projects. If you sign up for a "Seminar" you are signing up for a class that meets twice in a semester. An introductory class where you pick a topic for a paper and presentation that you will then research and write and present at the second class. The first class is in the beginning of the semester, the second class is towards Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I have no plans as of yet. However, I'm collaborating with people and will figure out what to do and where to go and I will report back to you all. =)
Please excuse my horrible run-on sentences, I've begun to realize that I think in run-on sentences...

Alright, going through my calendar I can give you some updates on what I've been doing lately... The past two Fridays were spent with Bank, Younghoe, Decky and Eunsol. (Younghoe and Eunsol are from South Korea and Decky is from Indonesia.) And this last Wednesday we went to the Irish Pub in town for karaoke.

Karaoke is a lot of fun, but it can't compare to karaoke hosted in The Bog. =) Here's a little explanation for my family members who read this: Almost every Friday during my last semester at IIT I would stop off at Karaoke to hang out with the Amazing Bonnie Wedster after my Friday night class. If the night was dead, Bonnie and I would start the "Bonnie and Erin Show" which involved us singing songs until other people would sign up and take over. =) It was a LOT of fun. And while we weren't singing, we would be in the back running the karaoke and knitting. Yes, knitting. =) Karaoke here isn't the same at all. It's very crowded and while the singing is fun (they have a HUGE selection of songs) things just aren't the same. I don't have people to sing with, and singing soundtracks just isn't the same when you can't pick duets... It's still a lot of fun, though. =)

I'm still getting used to things here. For example, thinking in Celsius. Hearing "It's only ten degrees out, it's not bad." really messes with my head since I'm so used to thinking in Fahrenheit. I'm starting to get used to it, but it's still confusing when I'm not expecting it. =)

I haven't gone anywhere lately. We have a trip to Portugal coming up in November. Sergey, Bank, Devika, and I are going to Oporto, Portugal. The tickets were amazingly cheap! Sergey came into my room one day shouting "Where is Bank???" (because obviously I know everything ;-) ) and told me that he found tickets to Oporto, Portugal on ryanair.com for 2€ round-trip. So, after looking up the dates and the average temperature for Porto at that time of the year (a balmy 60 degrees Fahrenheit), I joined up on the trip. We called Bank, got his in on the trip, and then Devika walked into my room. She was very excited at the prospect of warm weather, and joined us as well. We booked the tickets (which ended up being 12€ each with taxes and fees) without further delay and an adventure was born. =) We still have to figure out where we'll be staying while we're there, but it'll only be two nights in the middle of November, so we'll be fine. =)

I've also booked tickets to Rome (for two different trips) as well as to Poland. The first Rome trip will be shortly after New Years, before school starts up again. I'll be going with Devika and a few other people (don't remember exactly who at the moment) from the 6th of January until the 11th. Tickets are only 30€, so it's a good deal. The second Rome trip is just after the Poland trip. I'll be going to Poland for a few days after my finals are over to visit Kit. Then we'll fly back to Frankfurt together and I'll show her around Pforzheim, and then we're going to Rome. We'll be there from the 10th until the 15th. I'm so excited!

I still don't have plans laid yet for Christmas, but I'll be figuring that out pretty soon.

Today I got to talk to Grandma Schell on Skype! It was really good to see her. She mentioned that her grandmother was from Trier, Germany. So after we hung up, I looked it up. Trier is about 250 km away from Pforzheim. It's a 4 hour train ride, so I think I might go there on Saturday and look around. =)

On the nerdy side of life: I got an invitation to Google Wave. =) The only thing I've noticed is that it only really works if you're awake at the same time as the rest of your contacts... One of the main "selling points" is it's real-time approach of things. You can actually see the updates as they're making them. So if you're collaborating on something with another person, you can see them type as you type. Very useful, if you're both awake... =) I have a feeling it will be much more useful when I'm back in the same time-zone as everyone else...

I think that I read somewhere that you can only post up to 1000 words in a single blog post. This has provoked me to writing an excruciatingly long post (over 1000 words) to see if it can actually be published or not. =) You know me, always pushing the limits. ;-) Considering that this post will have over 1100 words when I finally hit the “publish” button, I think I'll stop my test here and see how it goes. =)

Love to all!!! I'll try to be a more constant updater!! <3

~e

More radio silence!!

2009-10-07T19:09:00.000+02:00

I'm sooo sorry for the "radio silence" that you've had to put up with lately, I'm just getting over a cold (nothing bad, just a case of sniffles that didn't feel like going away) and have been mostly in bed knitting lately...

But, I still have to tell you about my time in Munich!
(here's where I'm REALLY THANKFUL that I have my camera with me now, because if I didn't I would have trouble describing things to you... that's what happens when I don't write things down right away, I get distracted and forget things...)

SO, pictures!

Our journey began at 05:30.

Sorry it's so blurry, but do you see that glowing orange thing?

That's the moon.

We were going to catch the 06:30 train from Pforzheim to Stuttgart to Ulm to Ausburg to München... Yes, we were going to take the inexpensive, but slightly longer, way of getting there using only Regional trains. Made sense at the time since the Express trains took about 3 hours and the Regional ones only took a little over 4. So we figured we'd get there around eleven-thirty or twelve and go to Oktoberfest and walk around the city a bit and then go home around 8 or so...

Eunsol, Younghoe, Bank, and Decky at the bus stop at 05:30 ... we waited for 15 minutes before realizing that it was a national holiday and that the buses weren't going to be running "as scheduled" today...

Ok, so, looking at this picture I suddenly remembered that the ride there involved a stop between Pforzheim and Stuttgart... but I can't remember the name! (See? This is why I take pictures!)

Good Morning, Stuttgart! (This was about 07:30)

Sorry about the quality, moving train and whatnot... This was a huge cross on a mountain, I thought it was worthy of picture-taking. =)

Finally, around 12:30, we made it to Oktoberfest! (locally known as Weisn)

It was very cool, but very crowded...

And they had all sorts of rides everywhere! It reminded me of a carnival mixed with Taste of Chicago... Lots of food and drinks that were pretty highly priced...

Even though we didn't have a reservation in a tent, we were able to get seats in one of the Biergartens. That was really lucky, because we got to get FOOD! =)

And Bier. =)

Even though it was really crowded, we still had a really good time =)

After we finished our food (which was delicious) we decided that we had had enough of Oktoberfest, and decided to wander Munich itself.

Unfortunately, it was around this time that my camera battery decided to become "exhausted" and so the rest of the pictures I took were with Bank's camera. I'll try to get them from him soon and share them with you. =)

Overall, it was a really great way to spend my 24th birthday (geburtstag) - Great people, a beautiful city, a beautiful day, and really good Bier. =)

On the way home, there were some "technical" difficulties, with the trains being overcrowded and us having to come up with new and interesting routes from one station to the next, but after eight hours, we made it home... =) (It was around 01:30 at that point) And minus the sore feet/legs from walking and standing so much, everyone was still in a really good mood =)

TRIP!!!

2009-10-02T23:13:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow there's a whole group of us going to München for Wiesn! And it just so happens that it will be on my birthday! =D What a way to celebrate!!!

Pictures will be posted, or at least linked, when I return!! =)

Love!

Good news, everyone!

2009-10-02T17:29:00.000+02:00

I've discovered how to use the International Keyboard setting on my computer!!!! This means that I can write German a lot easier! Things like umlauts (ü) and eszetts (ß) will no longer evade my abilities!!!

Yes, there are times when little things like this make Erin very excited... =)

Love!

OH, and a "random picture" for you to enjoy:

This was taken last night on campus. Bank and I had to meet with an advisor at 1900.

These chairs are located outside of the Mensa (cafeteria) and the Bibliotek (library).

I've actually seen people sitting on them, so I know that they're not just for decoration, but they do make a beautiful picture, don't they? =)

I'm such a nerd...

2009-09-30T21:12:00.000+02:00

I was so excited to go to my International Business Law class today that I didn't read that it doesn't actually start until next week...

My list of classes so far consists of:

Computer Aided Analysis of Financial Markets
Strategic Management
Seminar in Economic Policy
Seminar in Sustainable Development
Lecture in Sustainable Development

yes, the seminar and lecture are two different classes...

International Business
International Business Law
German 2
German 3
Cross Cultural Communications
Information Technology

Color coding is cool!

Red classes are the Important Ones. They're the ones that will actually matter back at IIT.

Yellow classes are pretty much just classes that I thought "hey, that would be fun!" (And yes, I get to take German 2 and German 3 all at the same time. I got a good grade in German 1 and this is an option that they give to the "smarties" in German 1.)

Blue classes only meet twice the entire semester and are done (mostly) before Christmas.

I think I'll be alright. I haven't officially registered for any of these classes yet, as the registration isn't necessary until October 16th. So I'll let you all know then what my schedule looks like... =) Until then, keep checking the calendar at the bottom of the page =)

Ok, I've had way too much fun playing with fonts and stuff in this post... Time to go out with some of my new friends! (No 8am International Business Law class tomorrow!)

Tschüss!

A short rant on: German Telephone Numbers

2009-09-30T10:39:00.000+02:00

German telephone numbers are interesting, they can range from having anywhere from six to eight numbers. Mine has the regular ol' seven (not including the area code) which is convenient for me, since I can easily remember 530 2685. =) But I've gotten emails from people with their numbers and they range from 67 17 17 to 89 01 24 46... It's so confusing, because you're never Really Sure that you heard (or read) them correctly...

Anyways, I'm off to my first day of classes (which I'll no doubt blog about later!) so I wish you all the best and hope you have a great day!

♥

A more conclusive update:

2009-09-30T01:24:00.000+02:00

I've figured out which classes I'm going to take! Check out the calendar at the bottom of this page. =)

Random Picture:

This is what I see every day on my walk home from school:

A 5' statue of Lady Liberty

a German flag

and an American flag.

This never fails to amuse me.

Real classes start tomorrow. =) I'm really excited. I'm not positive that my schedule will be how it is below, since I don't have to actually register for classes until the 16th of October (it's a very different system than the one in the States...). Also, I think that the "Information Technology 2" one needs a pre-requisite course which is only offered in German, so I'm fairly certain that I won't be taking that one, but I'm still going to email the professor and go to the first session and see if it's necessary or not.

The way that the university has their registration set up is you make your own schedule based off of the classes that they offer. However, unlike IIT, where you know the classes at least a month or two before the semester actually starts, in Germany they don't give you the course schedule ("timetables") until about a week or two before classes start. And for the International students (like me) they don't even give you information that far ahead in advance. So, after two information sessions, I get to pick my own classes, make up a schedule and then go to class. I can "try out" as many classes as I like, and then choose a few to actually go to and register those with the International Office. Also, if I want to, I can just audit a course or two...I can simply go to the class and then not sign up for the final exam. (That's another thing they do differently here, you have to sign up for your final exams, they're not automatically included in the course itself.)

The only "problem" I can forsee is that my German 2 course is on Tuesday mornings at 8am and has another 8am class on Fridays... And that's not really a "problem," just a small inconvenience...

Ok. Bedtime for me now...

Love!

I got a box!!!!!!!

2009-09-29T11:06:00.000+02:00

Mail is so exciting to get! =)

I got a box with my camera! (Thanks Mom and Dad!!! And Robert, for finding it!) The box also included a letter from Mom and a note from Dad. =) It made my morning!

I'm going to figure out what classes I'll be taking in about half an hour, so check the bottom of this bloggy thingy for an updated calendar of what I'll be studying!!

Love and hugs to everyone who reads this!!

♥

Quick update =D

2009-09-23T19:42:00.001+02:00

Newie Party tonight hosted by the University. =D I'm really excited!! Might even wear heels....
I can't believe I've been here for three weeks. I miss everyone, but at the same time I'm having a great time.

Also, comments on this are welcome, of course. But if you really want answers, emailing me with your questions is probably the best way to do it... =)

Random Picture of the Day:

An Update!!

2009-09-22T19:18:00.000+02:00

So, first of all I would like to apologize for my very spontaneous updating. I'll go somewhere and be like "WOAH I NEED TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS" and then by the time I get home I'm so tired that I forget to tell you all about it.

So, here's what's been going on lately:
Wednesday (September 16th)

There's an Irish Pub down by the center of the city and on Wednesday nights after 9pm it has Karaoke! So I got a bunch of Internationals from my dorm to go with me! It was a LOT of fun and I ended up staying out until about 2am... And then got to go to class the next morning! =D Needless to say, I was a "little" tired for that class, but I made it through!!

Friday (September 18th)

The Korean girls who are in my Deutschkurs cooked dinner for a whole bunch of us. We had Korean curry with chicken as well as a lot of appetizers. It was SO good! After dinner, Eunsol, Younghoe, Decky, Ross, Bank, Johannes and I went out for drinks. The first place we went to had happy hour just as we showed up. Cocktails were only 4.50 euro! (As opposed to the 6 or 7 that they were listed as on the menu...) So we each had a cocktail and then went to a different bar, because Bank and I wanted to try some of the local Bier and there wasn't much of a selection (according to Johannes) on the menu. So we went to a place called Cafe Prag. It was a really nice place, very classy. They didn't have a very good selection of the local Bier there, but they did have a delicious Czech Bier. (I'll have to ask Bank/Eunsol for pictures so I can report back to you all just exactly what the name of the Bier was...)

Saturday (September 19th)

Bank, Younghoe, Eunsol and I went to Bad Wildbad. (Pronounced "Bahd Veeldbahd") I took a bunch of pictures that you can see here. Those pictures were taken with Bank's camera phone, and most of them turned out pretty well! Bad Wildbad is located south-west of Pforzheim, and we were able to take the train there for free! (Yay for subsidized things for students!) It was about a half hour ride to Bad Wildbad, and I fell asleep both on the way there and on the way back. =) Once we got there, we took a train up to Sommerberg --which is where most of the pictures are from. Sommerberg is located just west of Bad Wildbad and is about 700m above sea level. Once we got up there we saw walking paths, so we went for "a little stroll." The path we chose was 7.7km long! It was really pretty, though. And really quiet.

That's one thing here that really strikes me. There aren't any airplanes overhead. Thankfully it's not too quiet, there is noise from traffic almost all of the time, so it's not too eerie, but that was one thing I noticed right away, the lack of airplane noise. (wow, sorry about that run-on sentence...)

Last night (September 21st)

I discovered that I can cook!!!

I made a cream sauce using this recipe and improvised to turn it into deliciousness by adding oregano, black peppers, a chopped chili pepper, chopped green onions, garlic, and mozzarella cheese... Yummmmmmm.....
Up until last night, Bank and I had been cooking, but we hadn't really experimented with cooking too much. And last night we got adventurous with our food. It was a lot of fun, trying to figure out what would taste good with what we had. I'm sooo proud of that cream sauce, especially since i had heard that cream sauces are kind of hard to make.

Our Deutschkurs ends on Friday, and if I pass, I get to move on to the A2 level. Which meets SIX HOURS A WEEK. Now, I actually do want to move on to the A2 level, because I want to be able to have small conversations with the people in the shops. But four of those six hours are on Fridays... which means that it might limit the amount of traveling that I can do on weekends. =/
I don't actually register for classes until Monday. There's a meeting for the international students at 10:30 on Monday morning. Here's a .pdf of what they have planned for us. I'm really excited to start classes and meet more people. =) And practice my German, of course!
Bank is making dinner tonight, he has a Thai soup recipe from his mom that he's going to try. I'm excited, it should be delicious. =)

So, that's basically what has been going on with me lately. Sorry about the bullet formatting, but when I'm typing it's sometimes easier to put my thoughts into bullet form so that they're grouped and remain somewhat concise... =) I'll be updating the calendar at the bottom of this page with my class schedule when I get it. =)

Gestern habe ich Bier getrunken.

2009-09-17T16:03:00.000+02:00

"Yesterday I drank beer."

=) Very true.

There's karaoke at the Irish Pub every Wednesday night, starting at 9pm. So I got a group of students from class and the dorm to go down with me and we sang karaoke.

I had SO much fun! But ended up staying out until about 2am, which meant that waking up for class this morning was rather troublesome... Especially since it was foggy out.

Naptime now, since I have time for it, and I'll post pictures when I get them. =)

~e

Thursday was, in fact, productive.

2009-09-12T13:48:00.000+02:00

On Thursday after class, I was able to go to the International Office, go to AOK and get the insurance figured out and I register my address with the Rathaus - which will allow me to apply for a visa. I couldn't apply for the visa just yet because I need proof that I can afford to live here (a bank statement) so I'll get that and go back next Thursday after class. Also, after I got back to my room, I was able to jerry-rig my internet connection, so I have that again. =)

I stayed up really late last night, so I missed a trip over to Stuttgart today, but that's alright, I'll probably get there later this month. Besides, this gives me a chance to do my laundry and work more on my German.

Bank, Younghoe, Eunsol, Ross and I went on an excursion last night to find a Chinese Restaurant:

Success!

(Picture taken by Bank. From right to left: Ross, Me, Younghoe, and Eunsol.)

I have to say, I felt really tall on that excursion - Ross is from Hong Kong, and Eunsol and Younghoe are from Seoul... ;) But it was a lot of fun! It was really funny, at the restaurant, they spoke Chinese and German - but the menu was in German. =) So we had Ross go up there and order for us. It was delicious. =) Unfortunately, I can't say exactly what we had...

I was serenaded on Sunday... (along with a bunch of other people...)

2009-09-12T03:45:00.000+02:00

So...I just realized that I never told you-amazing-people-who-read-about-my-travels about the guitarist who happened by on Sunday night and played for us...

On Sunday (the 6th), after Bank and I got back from wandering the North side of Pforzheim, we were cooking dinner when Milan, Twang and Slave (pronounced "Sla-veh") mentioned to us that they were going to have a few drinks on the porch that night, if we wanted to join them. We figured, why not, and around 11pm Bank and I met them downstairs. After a short time of sitting on the porch talking, a guy with a guitar case and a bottle of wine walked by. He spoke English with an Irish accent, which I found amusing. When we asked him to play guitar for us, he said "no, if I do, the police will show up." But after a short while of talking, he decided to play for us anyways. Sure enough, after about 5 songs, the police came by! It wasn't anything serious, though. Just "keep it down, people are trying to sleep." They were really nice. =)

After the police left, it was made known to me that that sort of thing happened all of the time. There were even times when the police would show up, have a few drinks with the party, and then mention that said party should quiet down. Apparently it's only a problem when they have to show up a few times in the same night.

We waited and talked for about another 20 minutes and Oliver (I'm pretty sure that's his name, I didn't hear it when he introduced himself, so I don't know for sure...) said he wanted to play some more and we all went inside the lobby of Kepplerstrasse (since it was getting to be a bit chilly) and got an encore.

He was really good! It was a fun way to start off the week - new friends, good drinks and good music. Unfortunately, I didn't get to bed until about 1:30am and had class on Monday at 9... But I made it there alright and without any problems =)

Here's a better picture of Oliver.

*** so far, all of the pictures that you see are courtesy of Bank, the master photographer =)

Radio silence...

2009-09-10T12:56:00.001+02:00

My internet got cut off last night around 9pm, I'm not sure when I'll get it back... Hopefully it'll be tonight!! But until it's back, you're not too likely to hear much from me. I'm sorry!!!

Tchuss!

~e

Today was looking so promising...

2009-09-09T20:39:00.000+02:00

As I left class today, I was feeling VERY optimistic about the things that I was going to accomplish. I was going to go to AOK and get my insurance proof for school, then go to Deutsch Bank and see how things were going over there with the money from Bank of America and IIT and stuff, then head over and pick up some groceries and then go home.

Instead, I went to AOK and found out that I need my acceptance letter from school (which is still at home) so I get to go to the International Office tomorrow after class and get a copy of my acceptance letter and then go back down there tomorrow after class before I go to the Rathaus and give over my passport so I can get a visa. (Sorry about that run-on sentence.) I'm not very excited about that.

After I got out of AOK, I went to Deutsch Bank and withdrew some money from my Bank of America account. I'm going to call them after I finish posting this so I can figure out just how to access my account and keep tabs of it online.

I bought some cute shoes at Woolworths today. Only 6 Euro. =) And they're good, Birkenstock-like sandals. Perfect for walking around town.

Bank made dinner, I washed up. It was good stuff. Linguine with sausage and mushroom sauce. =) He cooked, I cleaned up. =) It's a good deal we have.

I helped set up internet for Devika and Angith before dinner. =)

Anyways. I think I'll call Bank of America and see if I can figure things out with them.

Tchuss!
(Bye!)

WHAT????

2009-09-08T16:37:00.000+02:00

There's no Pandora in Germany.

=(

This makes me incredibly sad... I had the best idea for a station to make too....

On the bright side, I'm learning German! Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch! (I speak a little German!)

Classes started yesterday, but the schedule is quite full. We're supposed to learn the basic A1 level by the end of the 25th and pass the class in order to move on to the next level. The next level (A2) we can take all semester learning... It's interesting.

I've got a cappella on the brain... Can't get it out of my head. There's a concert later this month, I think I'm going to have to try and get a group to go! =)

There are about 25 or so people in my German class.

I'm getting to know more people because of this class, which is really nice. And they're all really friendly. =) (Why would they not be?)

Anyways, it's beautiful outside, so I'm gonna go out and read or knit or something =)

As always, if you want a "personalized" update, send me an email and I'll let you know what's going on and what's interesting and all that good stuff. =)

<3~ErinHere's my class schedule:

The cool thing about this is that when I'm in the regular semester I can update it and it'll be updated here... (I'll try to figure out a way to put it in the corner of the page or put a link to it on the side of this blog so you can all see what I'm doing... =D )

Pretend you're hearing the theme from The Godfather...

2009-09-06T16:27:00.000+02:00

I went to Church this morning and got to sit in on an Italian Baptism. It was SO COOL. Bank and I went "Church Hunting" aka: I thought I knew where there was a Catholic church which was having Mass, but when we got there, we saw that the 11am Mass was actually at a different church. So we walked through town to get there, and when we did we found that a) we were only a few minutes late; b) there was a Baptism going on; and c) it was all in Italian. =D

I was able to understand enough from my (somewhat limited) knowledge of French and Latin to be able to pick out the important bits, which was good. By the end of Mass I had the hang of the responses and was even singing along with the rest of the congregation. =)

After Mass, Bank and I went down to the Oechsle Fest (Wine Festival) that was going on in the "center" of Pforzheim. Maybe "town square" would be a more appropriate description, as the Rathaus (Town Hall) was directly next to where we were. Anyways, we had lunch and some wine there, and each bought a Souvenirglas. =)

There was a band playing while we were there, and everyone was having a good time. The food was good, the wine was good... it was a very good lunch. =)

After lunch, Bank and I decided to go walking past the north end of the Hbf (hautbahnhof - train station). We walked about 2 km north, and then had to turn around and go back home, another 2.7 km (this is a very rough estimation based off of Google Maps...)

Overall, it was a very cool morning. =) It's about 3:45 now, and I think it's time for a nap. =D

After I upload the pictures that I took....
(Bank has a camera phone which I feel much more comfortable "stealing" as I get the feeling that it's a lot less likely to break...)

Karlsruhe!

2009-09-05T23:12:00.000+02:00

Bank and I decided to go to Karlsruhe today. We thought that as students we would be able to take the S-Bahn for free, but since we don't have ID cards yet we had to pay for our tickets. 7.25 Euro for a round trip to Karlsruhe. Not too bad. Took the train from Pforzheim just after 12:15 and got there just after 1300, walked around, and when we couldn't find the Tourist Information center, I convinced Bank to just "wing it." =D We walked around and found a beer festival going! Got some food and some delicious beer. We passed a booth at the fest that had free engraving on the items there, so I bought a beer glass and had it engraved with

01.09.2009

bis

01.03.2010

Tchuss!

"Tchuss!" means "Bye!" I thought it fitting to put the first word that I learned in Germany on my beer glass. =)

Bank took a load of pictures, I'll see if I can grab a few from him and put them up here. =)

Anyways. We walked around Karlsruhe for about 2.5 hours and then caught the S-Bahn back. As we got on, I wasn't sure if the train would make it all the way to Pforzheim... I was right. We had to get off at Sollengren... Fortunately, there was another S-Bahn coming from Sollengren to Pforzheim about five minutes later, so we didn't have to stay there long.

Bank just cooked dinner, which was delicious, so I'm going to knit for a little bit and then go to bed. =)

Love and hugs,

Updates!

2009-09-05T10:10:00.000+02:00

Well, not too much has been going on. Yesterday, Bank and I opened accounts at Deutsche Bank so we can transfer money from Bank of America to Deutsche Bank for free (yay for international partnerships!). This'll be helpful because we'll have make wire transfers for money for rent and some administration fees down at school.

This city is beautiful. Very hilly. And all of the houses are unique. No cookie-cutters here. =)

There's an Aldi type store called Lidl just down the hill from us. (Literally, if you turn at the first street north of our dorm (I think it's North, but my Lake Radar is so totally off...) you can go down a street and then down a flight of stairs and there's the store. It's quite convenient. =) And it's just like an Aldi, too. Makes me feel more comfortable with things, since now I know where to go to get decently priced shampoo as well as laundry detergent and food. =)

Well. It's 10am here, so I'm going to go shower and then I think Bank and I are going to head to Stuttgart to check out a car museum.

OH. Here's Bank's blog so you can see pictures, since I, unfortunately, don't have a camera...

Love and hugs to all!

~e

ZOMG!!! INTERNET!!!!

2009-09-03T21:54:00.000+02:00

September 3 - still on a notepad note...

Still no internet. I'm a username and password away from connectivity... Bank's neighbor let him use his, though, so Bank has internet.

I have to say, Bank is pretty awesome. I was kind of nervous when we were first making plans about this trip, but now I'm really glad that he's around.

In other news... I HAVE A PHONE!!!!! I'm not going to be completely disconnected anymore!!!! Granted, I'm going to have to put more money on it, as it only has one Euro's worth of calls (not very much) at the moment and I probably won't be able to do that until I get my internet up and running, but still, it's nice to be "connected" even though I only have Emily Hammes' phone number at the moment and, well, I'm not actually "connected" yet. =D

We bought Bank a power cord thingy for his computer, which means that I get his adapter for my computer. =D

I have no camera =/ Got a phone, but it doesn't have a camera... That bothers me a little. I'm still trying to figure out what to do for a camera... Bank has offered me his, but he's actually a "photographer" whereas I'm much more of a "woah, shiny! click!" kinda gal...

I've been tracking my expenses... Most of it has been food and things that I "need" to live, like the cat-5 cable and phone. Ok, true, I don't "need" a phone... but still, it's nice to be able to communicate with people... =p

Took my webcam over to the window and tried to get some pictures... They're not very good, but at least this way you can see the beaiutiful view I have.

Before I left, Ellie tied a homemade string bracelet around my ankle. It's nice to look down every once in a while and see it firmly stuck on there. =D Also, the two beaded bracelets that Sarah Lim and Ellie gave me are firmly on my wrists.

EEEEP!!!!! Bank came in with a username and password!!! I have INTERNETS!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D <3 This is so exciting!!!!

Pictures of my view from my webcam...

"Day 1 - August 31 to September 1."

2009-09-03T21:16:00.000+02:00

I'll be popping up in italics in this post to for clarification and editing purposes...

On the flight. =) 1734 chicago time.
Watching Black Books and then Goodnight and Goodluck. Then bed. =D

Love it. This is so exciting!!!

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

I'm in Frankfurt. In the bahnhaus ... at least, I think it's the "bahnhaus"... Either way, it's the train station. (Actually, it's the "bahnhopf") Bank and I booked a train that would depart the station at 10:54 - extra time to be sure that we would make it through baggage claims and customs and not be too late. Well, we got here at about 8:54... So we have plenty of time.

Mind you, I'm not actually updating live. All of this is actually from at notepad note that I started on the plane because I couldn't sleep, then I got spontaneously paranoid that the excessively tall man a seat behind and across the aisle from me was watching me type, so I minimized it and pulled it up again about an hour before we landed in Frankfurt to write the Hitchhiker's quote and then closed it up again...

So, Currently it's 0220 in Chicago. I've been up for a LONG time. I got about two half hour naps in on the plane, one right after takeoff and the other right before we landed. Brilliant, eh? But I had NO legroom, and my knees were bugging me almost the entire time. Even now, sitting at a cafe in the bahnhaus (yes, I'm going to call it that until I get to free internet and can look it up) my knees are starting to "lock up". They're not really locking up, but if you imagine my knees as a hinge that's rusty... that's kinda what they feel like...

Bank made friends on the flight with a guy named Aaron and a girl named "E" (I can't really hear her when she says here name, so that's what I gathered. got her facebook info later, it's "Yi" ) They went with us from the Frankfurt baggage claim to the cafe where we're now sitting. Except Aaron, he didn't like "loitering" in the cafe (we all bought stuff!) so he went off on his own and is now sitting on the floor about 150 yards away from us. ANYWAYS. Aaron and E are from the University of Minnesota and will be studying in Freidbrugh (I think). They're catching a train at noon from here, so Bank and I will be leaving first.

I turned on my phone while I was here, just to check the time and a) it's still on Detroit time, which I find amusing; and b) it gets signal. So I emailed mom to tell her that I'm safe and alive and waiting on my train.

But now my battery is getting low and I still don't have a power adapter for it (silly me, not buying it before I leave...) So I'll be getting one of those soonly and then I'll update the Bloggy-thingy and get all y'all up to speed on how things are going. =D

By the way - I'm soooo incredibly excited. I can hardly believe that I'm here, actually doing this. It's so amazingly surreal, somebody pinch me! =D

Love and hugs,

~erin

It's currently 2020, and I'm not quite ready to do the shower/sleep thing just yet... So here's an update of what I got to do!
That was all written at the Frankfurt Airport/Train Station. After an excursion which included running up flights of stairs with two big >50lb bags each to catch a train, Bank and I made it safely to Pforzheim and met up with Elena who drove us (and our luggage!) to Keplerstrasse, our dorm.

Upon arrival, we found out that THEY HADN'T PROCESSED OUR APPLICATIONS YET. Fortunately, since we were there with our luggage, they just gave us new applications and set us up "right away." (We got there at 1245 and got our rooms around 1400) ((Sorry about the 24-hr time mode, but it's easier for me to keep track of things this way here, since that's how everyone else does it...)) But between 1245 and 1330, we were frightened by a large, frustrated, German pirate. Ok, he wasn't *actually* a pirate, but he was wearing short pants (floods, maybe?) and had tattoos and an earring. He reminded me of a pirate. He was the hausmaster and turned out to be really nice, but was just really frustrated that we showed up without hearing from them first. (Though, we sent in our applications for housing in JULY, so I think we were justified in thinking that it would be safe to show up, since we had heard no news otherwise.)

After we got our rooms assigned (I'm 220) Bank and I went to the car and got our bags to bring them back to the room. At this point in time I was very tired and frustrated that things just HADN'T been working out the way they were "supposed to". It was the first (and only) time that I thought "Damn, I want to go home." But that thought didn't last very long, because as soon as Bank and Elena had dropped Bank's bags off in his room, they came down to mine and we all went up to the university itself to look around and get something to drink (Bank and I were extremely thirsty!) The university has really large buildings of glass and steel, but they're not as foreboding/prisonlike as the IIT ones are... ;-) Elena signed on to her computer account (Bank and I will be getting our own sometime next week) and let us use the internet access, but I only really had time to email Mom and tell her that I was alright.

After that, Bank and I realized that we needed to pick up a few things that we had forgotten/didn't know we needed. Bank wanted a SIM card for his phone and I wanted to pick up an adapter and we were told that we needed CAT-5 cables for internet in the rooms. Now that i realize that my phone works here, I might pick up a SIM card as well, if I can find an instance where it's cheaper than a pre-paid phone... We'll see, I want to go back down to Pforzheim tomorrow to havre K&M (the computer store in town) order an adapter for me (nobody I went to had one, but they offered to order one for me) and look at pre-paid phone/SIM card options.

So, Elena dropped Bank and I off in Pforzheim. Now, our dorm is not very far from the center of the city, but Bank and I were very tired and apparently not paying much attention to which way Elena was driving when she took us down there. We knew that the #5 bus went from the university to the city, but we didn't know how much it cost (when we get our Student ID cards, it'll be free). So we walked back. It was quite a trek. We got quite lost. =D We ended up in probably the swankiest neighborhood of the city. It was gorgeous, HUGE houses (I wish my phone hadn't died, I would have taken some pictures!) and very green, lots of trees and shrubberies, and really nice cars. We asked two different people for directions back to the dorm (we were getting a bit tired, Pforzheim is VERY HILLY. Especially for an Illinois girl ;-) ) The first woman was very nice, but didn't speak one word of English. And unfortunately, neither Bank nor I have enough German (classes start on the 7th) to get around yet, so we walked off in the direction that she pointed and after about 15 minutes we asked a bicyclist if he knew the way. Fortunately, he spoke English, so we didn't have to worry about miming and he pointed us down the road that we were about to cross and told us that soon there would be signs directing us to the "Hoschule" (University). Thankfully, we saw our dorm (came up from the other side of the building) and made it safely back to our rooms before it even began to get dark.

Ok, this is the transition from "narrative" to "updates" I'm only going to put in a phrase here or there in italics to clarify... Be warned, I was very very very cranky at this point... But internally, I tried VERY hard to keep it inside and not let the situation/heat/frustrations of the day get the overall attitude of the First Day down.

1043 chicago time - 1743 erin time.

I'm tired and cranky. And I want to a hotel. All I really want to do is take a shower and go to sleep, but i'm too hot and tired to move. And I really want to call my parents. But I can't. My phone is dead and I have no internet. This makes Erin very sad and cranky. Put that on top of the fact that she's had a rough 24 hours and I feel bad for everyone who has to deal with me today...

On the bright side, I think I got my toilet to work... =p I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS. I'm feeling very self-righteous and entitled and angry.

Ok. battery is dying. GR. I don't have an adapter to charge it and I don't know where Bank is to borrow his... GRRRRRR. I'm really hating life right now...

1807 - Bank lives in 211. He's lending me his adapter for now. He's also going to talk to the housing master about what's going on with the internet...

2001 - Wrote the family on Kenneth a letter with some interesting aspects of my day. =) Then decided to clean/organize my room for the first/only time. And promptly fell asleep. Bank woke me up about 15 minutes ago to see if I wanted to go to "7E" aka: the gas station around the corner with him. As soon as I said "sure" and put on my shoes, it started pouring. It rained the entire walk there, stopped while we were inside, and rained the entire walk back. I think Murphy needs to take his laws BACK to America...

Anyways, I'm exhausted, still, and won't have internet for the night, so I'm going to plug in my phone and charge that for a while, email Mom again, and then shower, put on some clean clothes, put on Pride and Prejudice, and go to bed...

Alright, it's 2100, Pride and Prejudice is running, I charged my phone and will be able to take pictures tomorrow when I go down to Pforzheim. (Hopefully I won't get lost this time... Bank's coming too, though! No worries!) I'm going to get some PJ's out and shower and go to bed. (Yes, I know that's probably TMI, don't worry I won't be giving updates like this too often. But keep in mind, I've been walking around German Cities for the last ... bunch (8-ish?) of hours...)

Much love!

More info:

2009-08-31T00:17:00.000+02:00

Flight 1: Chicago to Detroit - Northwest Airlines - Flight NW1246
Scheduled to depart O'Hare at 2pm and arrive in Detroit at 4:26pm
Flight 2: Detroit to Frankfurt - Northwest Airlines - Flight NW0052
Scheduled to depart Detroit at 5:20pm and arrive in Frankfurt at 7:40am on Tuesday, September 1.

From the airport, Bank (my travel buddy from IIT) and I will make our way to the train station and there board a train that will take us to Pforzheim. We should get into Pforzheim around 2:30pm. We'll be picked up there by Bank's "buddy" Elena who will drive us (and our luggage) to our dorm.

Weather in Pforzheim for Tuesday, September 1: High of 86, low of 59. (that's 30 and 15 in the metric system)

Also, going to be in Germany and the surrounding countries from Tuesday, September 1 until Monday, March 1. =)

T-one day and counting...

2009-08-30T17:04:00.000+02:00

All my bags are packed (except the carry-on), I'm ready to go (but not really)...

Still have to make copies of my passport, pack my carry-on, and purchase a few "last minute" items that will go in my carry-on. =p I'm not a master packer, like Kit, so it's taking me a while, but thankfully I think I have everything I need. Including ALL of my knitting needles. ;-) I've heard that there is BEAUTIFUL yarn in Germany, so I intend to be prepared, even if it is "unnecessary"... =) Besides, there's nothing like knitting while on a train... ;-)

I'm guessing that the next update will be when I'm in Germany, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm on skype and gmail all the time. =) Shoot me an email or leave a comment here... OH, I think I'll be getting a "burn phone" while I'm over there, so that'll be helpful with communication and stuff as well.

Ciao =)
(Yes, I'm aware that that's Italian, but "Auf Weidersehen" is waaaay too long...) =D

Packing and preparations

2009-08-29T07:24:00.000+02:00

So, I'm working on packing. I have one "checked" bag full of clothes, the other filling with clothes and shoes and other essentials (such as contact solution (until I can find it there), deodorant, blankets, sheets, etc...) that I'll need.

Unfortunately, I completely misread the Northwest Airlines Checked Baggage guide and thought I was allowed two 70 lb bags for free. When, in fact, I only get one free bag, and it can only weigh up to 50lbs. That is really frustrating, because I'm going for SIX months. It's a $150 fee for an overweight bag and a $50 fee for a second bag. GROSS. Oh well, I'll have to look into the price of shipping things back to the US when I'm all done over there...

I am, however, allowed a carry-on bag as well as a laptop bag/purse/whatever. So that'll be nice.

Anyways. I have to buy more things tomorrow and visit Grandparents and say goodbye to people, so I should probably head to bed.

G'night folks!