What???

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!

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!

~e

Once Upon A Time...

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!"

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!!

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!!!

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!

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?  =)