Wow, finals!

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!!!!

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!

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!!!

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

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

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...

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

• 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...

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...

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???

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?  =)

I'm such a nerd...

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

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:

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!