This took almost an hour to upload on Youtube, so the videos will definitely be coming more slowly and in fewer numbers than the pictures. This one if from a Marionette museum, where they were showing excerpts from Die Zauberflote (Magic Flute) and is the Pa-pa-pa duet from the end of the Opera.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Heidelberg Fotos and Day!
For these pictures, start at the bottom and work your way to the top, they are in reverse order of our day in Heidelberg yesterday!
All girl Saxophone Quartet!
Look at the main street in old Heidelberg, the sky is very gloomy, fortelling or heavy rains!
A shot of one section of the old city.
The foot print of the naughty Knight in the Heidelberg Schloss, stepping into it is said to bring good luck.
The dwarf, Perkeo who was infamous for his ability to drink so much in one sitting. He was said to have either died from 1. The shock of drinking water for the first time in a long time, 2. Arsinic laced beer, or 3. ... I forget.
The Biggest Wine barrel I have ever seen in my life!
One part of the Schloss Heidelberg.
Another part of Schloss Heidelberg, (an intersting thing is that the whole of Schloss Heidelberg is just miniature palaces built next to eachother, to fit the nedds to the ruler at the time).
Emily in an Arch from Schloss Heidelberg.
Matthew in an Arch from Schloss Heidelberg.
The red roffed landscape of the old city of Heidelberg. The big church is where the Marktplatz is.
Emily with the Ruins of Schloss Heidelberg (the free part)
Matthew with the Ruins of Schloss Heidelberg (the free part)
Emily with the altstadt Heidelberg in the background.
Matt with the altstadt Heidelberg in the background.
The HeiligeGeist Kirche
Gates leading into the old city Heidelberg.
Pulpit in the HeiligeGeist Kirche
Ceiling and altar of the Holy Ghost Church (Heilige Geist Kirche)
Emily at the Marktplatz with the HeiligeGeist Kirche in the background!
Matt at the Marktplatz with the HeiligeGeist Kirche in the background!
Random Statue in a Random Platz that we found after leaving our bus stop.
out to Heidelberg! I woke up at 6, showered, and got ready for the day. Seeing as how last night it poured in Mayen, I figured it might be the same in Heidelberg, however, I also thought it could be extremely sunny, so I packed sunscreen, an umbrella, a reading book, a Germany travel book, a notebook, and a german English dictionary. I think I was pretty well prepared!
All girl Saxophone Quartet!
Look at the main street in old Heidelberg, the sky is very gloomy, fortelling or heavy rains!
A shot of one section of the old city.
The foot print of the naughty Knight in the Heidelberg Schloss, stepping into it is said to bring good luck.
The dwarf, Perkeo who was infamous for his ability to drink so much in one sitting. He was said to have either died from 1. The shock of drinking water for the first time in a long time, 2. Arsinic laced beer, or 3. ... I forget.
The Biggest Wine barrel I have ever seen in my life!
One part of the Schloss Heidelberg.
Another part of Schloss Heidelberg, (an intersting thing is that the whole of Schloss Heidelberg is just miniature palaces built next to eachother, to fit the nedds to the ruler at the time).
Emily in an Arch from Schloss Heidelberg.
Matthew in an Arch from Schloss Heidelberg.
The red roffed landscape of the old city of Heidelberg. The big church is where the Marktplatz is.
Emily with the Ruins of Schloss Heidelberg (the free part)
Matthew with the Ruins of Schloss Heidelberg (the free part)
Emily with the altstadt Heidelberg in the background.Matt with the altstadt Heidelberg in the background.
The HeiligeGeist Kirche
Gates leading into the old city Heidelberg.
Pulpit in the HeiligeGeist Kirche
Ceiling and altar of the Holy Ghost Church (Heilige Geist Kirche)Emily at the Marktplatz with the HeiligeGeist Kirche in the background!
Matt at the Marktplatz with the HeiligeGeist Kirche in the background!
Random Statue in a Random Platz that we found after leaving our bus stop. Howdy Ya'll!
I must admit, yesterday was truly an adventure! Matt and I decided to take a day trip
Matt was supposed to show up at my house at 7. I am going to assume that my alarm clock was early, because, according to my clock, it was quarter past, and he still wasn't there. So I grabbed my stuff and started walking to his house, I met up with him halfway. It was at this time that he told me that it was just now turning 7 and that I shouldn't have freaked out. We walked to the train station and made it early enough for the train leaving from Mayen East.
We then took a train to Andernach, and switched trains there. The Andernach train took us to Heidelberg, and we got there around 10 am.
When we arrived, we decided to buy a city map and a bus pass. The city map cost a Euro and the roundtrip to and from the Marktplatz cost us both 2 Euros.
We arrived at the Marktplatz (market center)looked around and proceeded to the Heiligegeist kirche (the holy ghost church) which had just opened! We went inside and while the the ceiling was cool, as well as the pulpit, and Organ!!! WOW! The stain glass was mostly newage and weird, neither matt or I cared for it, but the rest was pretty.
After the church, we decided to make the steep 10 min climb up to the Heidelberg Schloss. I must admit, it did not wear Matthew out at all, he has very good leg musculatur. Myself on the other hand, after Burg Eltz the other day, my legs were killing me and Matthew had to wait for me numerous times as I battled the hill! lol. I must have looked so pathetic, panting, out of breath, and here is Matthew, "What are you talking about, this isn't tiring!" GAHH! lol.
Anyways, we finally, finally, reached the Schloss (castle) (Schloss and Burg can both be put into our english word: Castle, however, in German... Schloss is a place for royalty, and Burg is more for troops I believe).
To Enter the Schloss normally costs 3 euro, but since we were students we got a reduced rate of like €1.50. So we looked out on the terrace, of which they have several. Took some lovely pictures of Heidelberg, and proceeded through the castle to buy a ticket for a tour of the interior of the Schloss. I think that the student rate for the tour was €2. We had some time before the ENGLISH TOUR! (Thats right, our first tour in English since we have been here!!!!) So, we went outside and looked at the ruined part of the Schloss. Mom, this is where we went the last night of our first Tour in Germany when I was 16. This part of the Schloss is open to one and all at no cost, because one can only see ruins of the castle from farther away, with another grandious lookout at Heidelberg!
After this we went back for our tour, which to be honest, there isn't much of the castle left, there are like 3 buildings which have been restored and what not, but most of it is ruins. There are no originals left in this castle. It was a very long tour and the funny thing was that the tour group was comprised of three couples, a couple from Holland, a couple from Italy, and then Matthew and myself, the only native English speakers in the tour! haha! WOW!
The tour while I am not sure how much we really did see, took over an hour. She just filled us with all sorts of history and her English was very good. I felt badly for her, because she had just given a tour in French, now English, and afterwards, German I believe. The funny thing is that many Germans who have prefected their English sound British. lol. It is really quite lovely sounding, but at the same time hilarious.
After this tour, we decided to head back down to the Marktplatz for money and lunch! Matthew by this time had...€5 and I had €30. lol. So we found a Geldautomat (ATM machine) and took out money. The charge to do so is so high, however, Matthew can seem to withdraw as much as he likes, I can only withdraw €150 at a time..... I am not happy about this, because this means that I will be charged €5 everytime I withdraw!
I bought Peach gummi bears from a store that my mom and I discovered our first time in Germany, and then visited it again last summer. However, there are two gummy bear stores very close to each other and after having purchased the gummis, I came to realize I had bought them from the wrong store, lol, so I had to go to the right store and bought peach gummis from them as well. lol.
We walked up and down the main road for a long time looking at cafes, etc. We walked for a long time looking for a nice place to eat, and ended up at the Heidelberg Universität. There a student found us and asked us if we could be test subjects for a pychology experiment they were doing there. I told him that we might like to later ( because we didn't have the heart to say no, we are Americans, and would probably only understand 10% of what is happening).
We finally decided on the Weiße Schwan (the White Swan) where we each had a beer, Matt a dunkel (dark beer) and me a Radler, along with käsespatzle (cheesy noodles) and I had the side salad, while Matthew had Pommes frites (French fries). The enviornment was nice, we could people watch from the inside, our server was very nice, and we enjoyed just relaxing after how much walking we had done. Even though we had used suncream, because it was extremely sunny and hot!!! We were both kinda pooped and irritated because we were hungry.
After lunch, we went to the Käthe Wohlfahrt store (hand made christmas specialty store). We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look!
We then bought ice cream and ate it while listening to a street performing saxaphone quartet! They were all very good, the music was tons of fun, and these young girls were really kicking it!
After this, we decided to double check when our train was supposed to leave. I thought it wasn't supposed to leave until 8 pm. however, when we looked at the sheet it said 18.00 hours meaning 6 pm. So we rushed back to our bus stop, at which time it poured and eventually started hailing.
Thank God I brought sun screen and an umbrella! We would have been fried and then wet and possibly bruised from the hail. lol!
We made it to the train station on time, but because of the rain, the rain was running late, and our two switch offs to get home we very close together. We made it to Koblenz and the Koblenz train was still waiting there because it had showed up early, but when we got to Andernach, the train had left on time, so we were forced to wait an hour for the next train to Mayen. We decided to brave our way into Andernach, not far from the trainstation, came to a little eatery and procced to buy a huge plate of fries, just so that we could be someplace warm and cozy.
When the plate of fries arrived, Matthew and I both looked at each other like it would never all get eaten, there was so much and without any condiments!! However, we actually managed to eat the whole thing!
We walked back to the trainstation, got on the train, came home and slept!
It was a good day, and I was really happy that Matthew got to see Heidelberg. We had hoped to meet up with Aaron Judisch, Dr. Judisch's son who lives in Heidelberg performing as an opera singer, however, he is currently in the states for his nephew's baptism and will be back in Heidelberg on Monday. lol. Go figure!
Today Matthew and I plan to go into Koblenz for part of the day and possibly hit up the bars a bit there tonight. It should be fun. I will take pictures and hopefully post them tomorrow if we are still going! Lots of love to everyone there! We miss you, but are doing a lot better now! ;)
So, Biss Dann! :3
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Pictures from Burg Eltz and Cochem!
So as I explained yesterday, we took a little trip to the lovely Burg Eltz and the picturesque Cochem!
Burg Eltz from a distance. As you can see it is in the middle of a vallly.
A closer view of Burg Eltz!
A insider shot of Burg Eltz.
Matthew and I infront of Burg Eltz.
Matt and Matt infront of our lovely little blue bus!
The Cochem castle. (high on a hill, We did not visit it, but it looks cool, huh?)
Cochem next to the Mosel River.
Even More Cochem on the Mosel!
Cochem and the Cochem castle!
The houses of Cochem are very close together, tall, and colorful!
Matthew and I on the bridge over the Mosel River with the Cochem landscape behind us!
Nothing new or interesting for today yet. We had class, and lunch. Matthew and I are now planning our day trip to Heidelburg tomorrow! and the girls are going to " Sex and teh City" tonight, and the boys are going to " Indian Jones".
Take care everyone. I will probably not update tomorrow, but I will try to update sat!
Biss dann
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Family Party and Burg Eltz!
Hey Friends and Family!!!
Well, sorry that I did not update yesterday, however, it was quite a busy day for Matthew and I.
5-27-08
We had a huge party for our Host Families at the AltRathaus from 5-9 last night. All of the students went and made food (American type food), I made two different fruit salads (one with whipped cream and mixed fruit and the other with orange juice, sugar, and mixed fruit. Matthew bought chips and brought them, lol.)
Anway, making the fruit salad was a .....challenge. At home, my family usually uses coolwhip to make their fruit salads, Deustchland, on the other hand, does not have such a thing as cool whip. SO.... I had to resort to using whipping cream (yes, that means you actually have to take the time to whip it into its semi fluffy form.) Well... I started going on this and my roommates and a couple girls from our program had bought pizza in town and were going to eat it at our house. Several of them had made whipping cream before, and could tell it was not getting anwhere for me.
So they took over. Jessica and Paula both took turns hoding the bowl and the beater while the other would hold up a cloth, so the others clothing wouldn't get splattered.
They did this, while another girl Kate, and myself chopped up the fruit.
Jessica and Paula became a bit overzealous with the whipping cream and all of a sudden I heard them both scream "NO!!!" The fat had separated from the water and we now had ....Butter.
At this point in time, we were laughing, but at the same time, worried, becuase I had bought 4 packs of whipping cream and we had just used three. So my host mother came down to see what all the ruckus was abuot and we showed her, she laughed, told us to add salt and chives to the butter and we would have a nice bread spread. lol.
But then she told me that if I needed more whipping cream she had some upstairs (can anyone say savior?). So Jessica and Paula started a fresh while Kate and I kept chopping. In the end it all turned out all right. We had chopped so much fruit, that we had to make two salads, hence one with whipped cream and one with orange juice and sugar.
And to top it all off, Laura and Paula use the accidentially made butter to make their grilled cheese sandwiches for the party. HAHA!
The party was a huge success. Matt and I got there early so we could warm up and hear ourselvse in the space. And then... everyone started showing up. We decorated the rooms with colored ballons and got all the food set up.
Most of the host families arrived late. My host father Eckhard (Ecky) was the first one to arrive and Matt's Family followed soon there after. Tobi came over as soon as he was finished with work and Mariana came just before our presentation started.
The food was enjoyed by all and there was plenty of beer, radlers, lemonade, water with bubbles, and coca cola to be had! I was starving, so I decided to eat before singing, Matthew did not. Every time he would ask Frau Lucht when the presentation would started she would keep saying in about 5 minutes. It went this way for about 2 hours. lol. Poor Matt, he was so hungry.
When the presenation finally did get underway, I was the first to sing. I of course sang a German song by Schubert "Heidenröslein". Everyone loved it ( I did it accapella becuase we could not find any music for it without vocals. Then Matthew sang "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from "Die Zauberflöte". He of course acted very much like Papageno, maybe not so chatotic as the stage version, but very bird like and hilarious! He was met with thunderous applause. After this, a girl from Msu, who I am sorry to say....cannot sing, sang "Dankeshane" the Wayne Newton version. I must admit, basically no one in the room could look at her while she was singing because I think one... I believe she might have been partially drunk, and two... well..... who would want to follow two classically trained singers?
After it was finished, we played water pong with our host families. The kids wanted to play beer pong, however, our professors wouldn't hear of it, so water pong it was. Ages from 9 to 80 had tons of fun, not to mention we were loud as.... well we were really loud! haha.
After we cleaned up, Matthew walked me to a near by telephone booth where I finally made contact with my mother! Thank God!
It was so nice to talk to her, and apparently she had had a very unfortunate event. When I had tried to called her the day before and she had missed my cals, she had stayed up till midnight Minnestoa time and called Germany. When a man answered the phone she said in German, Hello I am Kathy Dyess, is Emily Dyesss there? Apparently, the man mumbled something in German and hung up on her.
After this, she was a bit distressed to call again, so when I reached her she told me of this incident and I realized that I had given her one too many one's for my house phone number.
The number was corrected and I stayed up and waited for her to call me after she got off of work.
When she called at 11:40 pm. my time, I was fading fast. The day had been so intense with the cooking, singing, and the party, that I was bushed. So I talked to my mother for awhile, but after bascially falling asleep with her on the phone several times, she said she thought we should call it quits for the night and we did!
5-28-08
Today my alarm clock went off and I swear I had just closed my eyes. I was exhausted the entire day.
The day started off with waking up, breakfast, quick email check, and off to school. Class is always intersting for me, because we do a lot of gramatic work. I must admit, gramatics and writing are my weak points. I feel so dumb when we are doing gramatic exercises, I really need to have someone sit down with me and explain to me the basics in English.
After class, Matthew and I wandered around town in search for cheap food. We everntually ended up back at the AltRathaus in the cafe right next dooe. Matthew bought a huge salami sandwich and I a turkey sandwich both for 2 Euros. Cheap!!!! Not to mention very tasty.
Afterwhich, we went in search of a house that I could take pictures of. For my homework for thursday, I had to find a house, photograph it, and write 200 words about the house and a possible history for it. Which I have and I am so happy it is done now!
I then purchased ice cream and Matthew and I went off to meet our group for our day excursion to Burg Eltz and the small city of Cochem.
The bus ride to Burg Eltz was fairly short and the descent to the valley castle by foot is quite steep. When we arrived at the castle, we took a tour, of course, again all in German. When I went to Burg Eltz last summer, I also took the tour in German, however, our tour guide was very animated and told us so many quarks about Burg Eltz. This time, our tour guide was a mousy little girl, who I felt should not choose this proffesion because she had no stage presence what-so-ever! (ooh, a bit harsh I know, but tour guides make the place)! So needless to say the tour was quite short and one room was completely not talked about because it was under rennovation.
After the tour, we made the heart pounding death climb back up. I swear, it is such a steep climb! I was about ready to fall on the ground and give up! lol. :3
When we reached our bus it was hot and sticky, however, the seat was a welcome relief!
The bus then set off from Cochem. Which is a very touristy little town in Germany, however, it is very beautiful with a picturesque view! The city is on the Mosel river and the buildings are very tall, colorful, and smushed together! Fantastic!
A group of us, instead of trekking into the old part of the city, decided to relax and get something to eat and drink in a local restaraunt. I had onion soup, a glass of peach ice tea, and a banana spilt! Matthew had a glas of sweet red wine, which was cheaper than my ice tea, a schnitzel with salad, and apple strudel with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
We then walked the length of the bridge across the Mosel and took pictures of the city. Then it was back to the bus and home to Mayen!
When we reached Mayen, I walked Matthew home, since its on my way home, and then proceeded to get home, shower, and do homework for 2 hours. During which apparently like half of group like 10 people plus my roommates and I, had a party. Mostly all fo it took place while I was doing homework, but basically, alcoholic berverages were purchased on the way home, and everyone crowded infront of Lauras computer and watched silly videos on you tube. I caught the end part of the videos, which was fun.
I think that things are going a lot better for Matthew and I with the group. I think the family party really helped for bonding us and now I feel that we are accepted and included.
YAY!
So now it is late and I will be going to bed and reading for a while. I hope you all enjoyed this update!
I am very excited for tomorrow, because a bunch of girls here are going to go out for drinks first, get all dressed up and then go see the Sex and the City movie!!!! WOOT!
Please all take care, and I will post pictures of today's excursions soon!
Biss Dann ;)
Well, sorry that I did not update yesterday, however, it was quite a busy day for Matthew and I.
5-27-08
We had a huge party for our Host Families at the AltRathaus from 5-9 last night. All of the students went and made food (American type food), I made two different fruit salads (one with whipped cream and mixed fruit and the other with orange juice, sugar, and mixed fruit. Matthew bought chips and brought them, lol.)
Anway, making the fruit salad was a .....challenge. At home, my family usually uses coolwhip to make their fruit salads, Deustchland, on the other hand, does not have such a thing as cool whip. SO.... I had to resort to using whipping cream (yes, that means you actually have to take the time to whip it into its semi fluffy form.) Well... I started going on this and my roommates and a couple girls from our program had bought pizza in town and were going to eat it at our house. Several of them had made whipping cream before, and could tell it was not getting anwhere for me.
So they took over. Jessica and Paula both took turns hoding the bowl and the beater while the other would hold up a cloth, so the others clothing wouldn't get splattered.
They did this, while another girl Kate, and myself chopped up the fruit.
Jessica and Paula became a bit overzealous with the whipping cream and all of a sudden I heard them both scream "NO!!!" The fat had separated from the water and we now had ....Butter.
At this point in time, we were laughing, but at the same time, worried, becuase I had bought 4 packs of whipping cream and we had just used three. So my host mother came down to see what all the ruckus was abuot and we showed her, she laughed, told us to add salt and chives to the butter and we would have a nice bread spread. lol.
But then she told me that if I needed more whipping cream she had some upstairs (can anyone say savior?). So Jessica and Paula started a fresh while Kate and I kept chopping. In the end it all turned out all right. We had chopped so much fruit, that we had to make two salads, hence one with whipped cream and one with orange juice and sugar.
And to top it all off, Laura and Paula use the accidentially made butter to make their grilled cheese sandwiches for the party. HAHA!
The party was a huge success. Matt and I got there early so we could warm up and hear ourselvse in the space. And then... everyone started showing up. We decorated the rooms with colored ballons and got all the food set up.
Most of the host families arrived late. My host father Eckhard (Ecky) was the first one to arrive and Matt's Family followed soon there after. Tobi came over as soon as he was finished with work and Mariana came just before our presentation started.
The food was enjoyed by all and there was plenty of beer, radlers, lemonade, water with bubbles, and coca cola to be had! I was starving, so I decided to eat before singing, Matthew did not. Every time he would ask Frau Lucht when the presentation would started she would keep saying in about 5 minutes. It went this way for about 2 hours. lol. Poor Matt, he was so hungry.
When the presenation finally did get underway, I was the first to sing. I of course sang a German song by Schubert "Heidenröslein". Everyone loved it ( I did it accapella becuase we could not find any music for it without vocals. Then Matthew sang "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from "Die Zauberflöte". He of course acted very much like Papageno, maybe not so chatotic as the stage version, but very bird like and hilarious! He was met with thunderous applause. After this, a girl from Msu, who I am sorry to say....cannot sing, sang "Dankeshane" the Wayne Newton version. I must admit, basically no one in the room could look at her while she was singing because I think one... I believe she might have been partially drunk, and two... well..... who would want to follow two classically trained singers?
After it was finished, we played water pong with our host families. The kids wanted to play beer pong, however, our professors wouldn't hear of it, so water pong it was. Ages from 9 to 80 had tons of fun, not to mention we were loud as.... well we were really loud! haha.
After we cleaned up, Matthew walked me to a near by telephone booth where I finally made contact with my mother! Thank God!
It was so nice to talk to her, and apparently she had had a very unfortunate event. When I had tried to called her the day before and she had missed my cals, she had stayed up till midnight Minnestoa time and called Germany. When a man answered the phone she said in German, Hello I am Kathy Dyess, is Emily Dyesss there? Apparently, the man mumbled something in German and hung up on her.
After this, she was a bit distressed to call again, so when I reached her she told me of this incident and I realized that I had given her one too many one's for my house phone number.
The number was corrected and I stayed up and waited for her to call me after she got off of work.
When she called at 11:40 pm. my time, I was fading fast. The day had been so intense with the cooking, singing, and the party, that I was bushed. So I talked to my mother for awhile, but after bascially falling asleep with her on the phone several times, she said she thought we should call it quits for the night and we did!
5-28-08
Today my alarm clock went off and I swear I had just closed my eyes. I was exhausted the entire day.
The day started off with waking up, breakfast, quick email check, and off to school. Class is always intersting for me, because we do a lot of gramatic work. I must admit, gramatics and writing are my weak points. I feel so dumb when we are doing gramatic exercises, I really need to have someone sit down with me and explain to me the basics in English.
After class, Matthew and I wandered around town in search for cheap food. We everntually ended up back at the AltRathaus in the cafe right next dooe. Matthew bought a huge salami sandwich and I a turkey sandwich both for 2 Euros. Cheap!!!! Not to mention very tasty.
Afterwhich, we went in search of a house that I could take pictures of. For my homework for thursday, I had to find a house, photograph it, and write 200 words about the house and a possible history for it. Which I have and I am so happy it is done now!
I then purchased ice cream and Matthew and I went off to meet our group for our day excursion to Burg Eltz and the small city of Cochem.
The bus ride to Burg Eltz was fairly short and the descent to the valley castle by foot is quite steep. When we arrived at the castle, we took a tour, of course, again all in German. When I went to Burg Eltz last summer, I also took the tour in German, however, our tour guide was very animated and told us so many quarks about Burg Eltz. This time, our tour guide was a mousy little girl, who I felt should not choose this proffesion because she had no stage presence what-so-ever! (ooh, a bit harsh I know, but tour guides make the place)! So needless to say the tour was quite short and one room was completely not talked about because it was under rennovation.
After the tour, we made the heart pounding death climb back up. I swear, it is such a steep climb! I was about ready to fall on the ground and give up! lol. :3
When we reached our bus it was hot and sticky, however, the seat was a welcome relief!
The bus then set off from Cochem. Which is a very touristy little town in Germany, however, it is very beautiful with a picturesque view! The city is on the Mosel river and the buildings are very tall, colorful, and smushed together! Fantastic!
A group of us, instead of trekking into the old part of the city, decided to relax and get something to eat and drink in a local restaraunt. I had onion soup, a glass of peach ice tea, and a banana spilt! Matthew had a glas of sweet red wine, which was cheaper than my ice tea, a schnitzel with salad, and apple strudel with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
We then walked the length of the bridge across the Mosel and took pictures of the city. Then it was back to the bus and home to Mayen!
When we reached Mayen, I walked Matthew home, since its on my way home, and then proceeded to get home, shower, and do homework for 2 hours. During which apparently like half of group like 10 people plus my roommates and I, had a party. Mostly all fo it took place while I was doing homework, but basically, alcoholic berverages were purchased on the way home, and everyone crowded infront of Lauras computer and watched silly videos on you tube. I caught the end part of the videos, which was fun.
I think that things are going a lot better for Matthew and I with the group. I think the family party really helped for bonding us and now I feel that we are accepted and included.
YAY!
So now it is late and I will be going to bed and reading for a while. I hope you all enjoyed this update!
I am very excited for tomorrow, because a bunch of girls here are going to go out for drinks first, get all dressed up and then go see the Sex and the City movie!!!! WOOT!
Please all take care, and I will post pictures of today's excursions soon!
Biss Dann ;)
Monday, May 26, 2008
more Pictures..... and maybe a little blog
Gravestones and plots from the Nonnberg Convent in Salzburg. All grave sites are covered with planted flowers and what not in Bavaria! so pretty.
St. Peters Church and graveyard. It is actually very beautiful.
Mirabellgarten with Festung HohenSalzburg in the background among other beautiful buildings like the Salzburg Dom.
Matt and I in the Mirabellgarten in Salzburg, Austria.
The Festung HohenSalzburg
The Brewery we went to in Mendig
The Monastary in Maria lach
The huge chessboard in town. Matt is facing off against a very seasoned player.
A castle in Mayen.
Der Altrathaus, this is where we have class everyday.
Schloss Burresheim
Schloss BurresheimHey all!
Well today was mostly boring. I woke up at 9 am, had a bowl of cereal, and checked emails till 11:30. At which time, I decided to read in my book for a while until class at 1:30.
class was frustrating again today. I seriously do not care for Frau Lacour's classes, I always feel like I am lost and she doesn't explain herself as much as I believe she could. Oh well. Then we had a 10 min break and then class with Frau Lucht for Matt it was Visa versa.
After class we talked about the big party that we are throwing for our host families tommorow evening at 5. For which we will be making food, playing games, doing a slide show, Matt will be singing "ein Maedchen oder weibchen" and I will be singing "Heidenroeslein".
We hope that it will be a good time. Both Matt and my families will be showing up late.
Directly thereafter, Matt and I booked it to the Aldi (cheap grocery store) to buy the food required for tommorows party. Matt and his roommate are making ultimate nachos and I will attempt to make fruit salad, but the whipped cream here is different, they don't have like "coolwhip" so I am forced to use whipping cream....it will be interesting I am sure.
Then Matt and I brought the groceries home and I walked Matt to his house, because he was using one of my shopping bags, and his family invited me to stay for dinner. Which I will report, was delicious.
We had seasoned steak, with wurst (like bratwurst but not, they are white wurst and are very tasty) then potatoes, and ratatouiile. We talked about German culture and grammar, about Opera and Opera singers, overall a very fine evening.
Matt and I have made the decision to separate ourselves from the rest of the group in the fact that we will not be going out every night, since neither of us can afford that lifestyle and it seems to be more often than not ending with me in tears. So maybe we will join the group once or twice a week, but I think that will be the end of it.
After dinner we walked to my house so I could try to call my mother, however, this was all in vain. I went to the pay phone several times and left several messages but I still have not heard from her. I believe that she said she would be gardening today, since it is memorial day and she has it off since she works for the county.
hmmm.... Mommy, I miss you. We have to talk soon.
Matt and I have been so happy to see the comments made by our friends and loved ones. It is good to hear from people whom love us, because this has been a big adjustment for Matthew and I, and I will admit a rather difficult one for us. we are fine, but the culture and the people in the group seem to.... at times not like us, specific ones in particular. So thanks for the lovely comments, they warm our hearts and make us feel better!
Basically, it is 11:31 here now. Matthew and I have a vocab quiz in the morning, which Matthew is currently studying for and I am uploading the pictures you all want so desperately to see.
Today was pretty uneventful as you can take note of, but a lovely day nonetheless.
We hope that you are all doing well, and I plan to blog tomorrow with details of our....host family party!!!!
Please everyone take care and know that we miss you all very much!
Biss dann
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Long WEEKEND!!!!!
Hey all!!!!
This blog will be a bit lacking in details, because there is so much to cover, but I will try my best.
Thursday we went to a Monastery and a Brewery.
Before entering the church, we watched a 10-15 min video on it and the daily life of the Monks there.
The Monastery church was magnificent, so huge, I could scarcely believe it. There were so many people there who were praying and enjoying the sight of this wonderful building.
We then proceeded to a Brewery in Mendig, where we were taken way under ground (very cold) and had an hour tour of the old like 16-18 century Brewery and what it is now. The tour guide was a very nice man who was very informative, however, neither Matt nor I got much out of it because we couldn't understand much.
Afterwards we stopped and some people had some of the Brewery's beer. Matt and I abstained simply because it was a bit on the expensive side.
The bus ride home was quite quick and we made it back in time to get packed up and ready for the next day. That night, Matt and I went out with Tobias and some of his friends to two local pubs, where we both had one drink at each place. We had a really good time with Tobias and his friends.
There was some conflict between a girl in our group and myself, however, it was dealt with maturely and should hopefully be done with. The other students are sometimes hard to get along with and I fear that Matt and I are just not very much like them.
Everyone who was traveling with us the next day spent the night at our house because our train was leaving the East Mayen trainstation at 6:55 the next morning. We had all planned to wake up at 5, eat breakfast, and take off for the Train station. That did not happen. When my alarm clock went off that morning, I shut it off, and said, "ok, only a few more moments." That turned into Paula at 5:45 pounding on my door saying "Emily, my phone died, we all overslept." which then ensued to be the biggest panic rush of my young traveling life. Matt arrived at our house at 6, he did not spend the night because his house is only a few blocks from ours, everyone else that we were traveling on the complete opposite side of town.
He was met with CHAOS!!!! Matt Flemming, who was supposed to be traveling with us that day forgot to pack his Eurrail pass. We debated for like 5 mins too long about what he should do, run like h-e-l-l and make it back here in time. So Matt F. took off and we headed out for the train station.
When we later reunited with Matt in Munich, we found that he actually made it to the train station, but about 2 mins. too late and watched the train pull away from the platform. POOR Matt.
So our group (5) headed on our way for SALZBURG!!!!!
The trains we had booked went from Mayen to Andernach (a close city) and then a direct route to Salzburg from Andernach! It was wonderful. We actually, by mistake, ended up on one of the most beautiful train rides you can take through Europe, we took the train that went from basically Koblenz to Weimar all along the Rhein River. The Rhein river is densely populated with Castles, cute old villages, we were stoked!
Along our way people came and went, but for most of the trip, we sat next to a cute old couple going back home to southern Austria and to a older woman who was traveling back to her home in the home city of Arnold Schwartzeneger (she knows him, personally).
Our talks with these three people proved to be quite interesting and enjoyable. Matt and I read a good chunk during the train ride, but we tried to converse as much as possible.
When we reached Salzburg, we bought bus passes, ate Burger King, and headed on our way for what is probably the nicest Hostel I will ever stay in: Youth and Family Hostel.
We all got settled into our room and made our plans for sightseeing and took off. In full for our less than 24 hours there we saw the Salzburg Dom, MozartPlatz, Papageno platz, the Mozart birth house, a nun Convent, a church with a lot of gravestones... I know its an important place, but I forget the name, the Salzburg castle (with which we had to take a train up to), as well as basically every Salzburg site that is enjoyed in the movie "the Sound of Music," all except for the house and the ... gazebo. We also saw much more than this and I took tons of pictures.
After walking around for a long time, we eventually decided to retire to our hostel where they were playing the movie "the sound of music" and we watched basically from the "rain drops on rose and whiskers on kittens" scene to after the large grand party in the Von Trapp household.
Sleep came easily but the morning came to soon. we had a very large included breakfast the next morning, I ate a ton, because I didn't want to have to spend money on lunch that day, and instead made 3 sandwiches for the train ride from Salzburg to Munich. We did sight-seeing this day till around 3:30 and then we packed off for the train station and hitched a ride to Munich.
When we arrived in Munich, we were a little frazzled because Munich is huge! Our hostel was not supposed to be too far out from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), however, it was. When we first started walking, we walked through a very shady part of Munich. I swore at any minute one of us would be mobbed. It was scary, but we all made it through it and got to the hostel fine.
The Munich hostel did not include breakfast but was much nicer than we had expected, I mean come on, with a name like "the Easy Palace" what were we supposed to think? lol. So we checked into our rooms, the boys in one and the girls in one. Because they were both 6 person rooms, we had other people staying in these rooms with us, 3 other girls were in our room, and one guy was in with our 3 guys. It all worked out just fine and we had a good time conversing with our "German" roommates.
Erin and I took a little nap and at 7:30, we all took off to meet two girls and poor Matt Flemming from our Msu group at the Hofbrau haus. We got lost along the way, because of an error in navigation by Paula, but we soon on the right track and got there. Matt was standing outside of the HB having a cigarette and when we saw him, we all ran to him. We were so happy to see him, because we felt so badly leaving him back in Mayen. Once reunited, we all ate, drank, and were merry!!! It was a very good time and we returned to our rooms to sleep for the night.
The next morning we awoke, took showers, and proceeded like 10 feet from our hostel to the McDonalds for breakfast. P.s. no hash browns in European McDonalds, we were not amused. (lol).
We ate, and then took our time using the S-bahn to get around, we went to Marienplatz, saw St. Peters Kirche which is extremely rococo in style, the Frauen Kirche which is more bare inside but huge!!!!, the Glockenspiel (which we happened to find out from a southern American that it was supposed to go off not only at 5pm, but 11 and 12, daily) So we caught the Glockenspiel show at 11, and headed off to meet the others Jessica and Kate at the Munich Jewish Museum.
Until they showed up, we took amusing pictures, told Matt the things he missed, and reincarnated, through Nick, the CHAOS, of Thursday morning. It was a riot.
Everyone but the two Matts went to the musem, it was 4 euros a person and so they decided against it. The museum was alright, but mother, I can promise you the stuff we did in Munich last time was worth missing this for. The museum was very strict, you couldn't take coats, bags, cameras, or phones into the museum, and to be real honest, the museum was very small, the first floor which was aboubt as big as the Farwell 8th floor lobby was the only floor that I really cared for( there were three levels all teh same size, but the other two floors were special exhibitions which I didn't find too terribly interesting. I felt that the first floor was cool and I appreciated the history, etc. but the others I felt were a bit lack-luster.
After that, we headed off for the Englisches Garten (English Garden). If you know how big Central park in New York is, take that and maybe x's by two, thats how big it is. HUGE! We took the subway in, so we came right a huge sunbathing area where we laid down and bathed for awhile. Within 20 mins, people were already sunburnt (Not Matt of I, because Matt ,laid in the shade, and I had my back to the sun.
We then took off for the lake which was not far from us and found an eatery of sorts. We all ate something, I a huge plate of French fries, Matt ... well... Matt had like interesting huge like cinna-cakes. Everyone else had something like sausages and French fries. After this, we decided to rent paddle boats, that cost everyone 2 euro per person since we split the cost. We spent a good 30-40 mins on the lake. The girls boat held four: Paula, Erin, Jessica, and Kate, and the boys boat held easily 5, but we only had 4: Matt, Matt, Nick, and I. The boys did all the work paddling while I took pictures of the water, trees, ducks and ducklings, geese and baby geese, etc. It was a fun time. Afterwards the group split up, Matt and I decided to make our way to the Residenz and the rest went back to sunbathe.
We eventually found a S-bahn station, but the first subway that came was so packed you couldn't get in so we had to wait. We made it to the Residenz, but it basically closed 5 mins. before we got there. I had just wanted to take Matt to the free portion with the rooms painted with scenes from the German "die Niebelungen", which both Matthew and I have read. Since that was no longer an option and we needed to meet our group back at the Hostel at 8 to pick up luggage and what not, we decided to go to the Oedeonplatz which was just around the corner of the Residenz (which by the way is all under renovation). And then we walked in the Garden behind the Residence where that fountain and that green gazebo type thing is.
We then headed back to the Hofbrau haus so Matty could buy a T-shirt and we proceeded to walk back to Marienplatz. Along the way we found the most delicious ice cream and could not resist.
We made it back to the Hostel early, and sat in the lobby until our group arrived. The hostel had told us the night before that every night they do free beer tasting sessions at 8. So at 8 we all went in and learned some history and tried 4 different beers.
After this, we headed to the Haupt Bahn Hof. Our train was an overnight train, so we had seats which reclined back quite far and we slept on the train from about 10: 40 till 5 am when our train reached Bonn. then we had to take a train and back track from Bonn to Andernach, and then Andernach to Mayen Ost. We arrived around 7 something this morning and we slept. I slept till noon. Got up, ate breakfast, and have been on the computer answering emails, uploading pictures, and making dinner since. It is now time for me to get off the comp. because I am going to go spend some time with Matthew and his host family. I hope that this was a detailed enough update for ya'll and I will update more pictures when I can figure out how to make them smaller.
Much love to you all and take care!
Biss dann!
This blog will be a bit lacking in details, because there is so much to cover, but I will try my best.
Thursday we went to a Monastery and a Brewery.
Before entering the church, we watched a 10-15 min video on it and the daily life of the Monks there.
The Monastery church was magnificent, so huge, I could scarcely believe it. There were so many people there who were praying and enjoying the sight of this wonderful building.
We then proceeded to a Brewery in Mendig, where we were taken way under ground (very cold) and had an hour tour of the old like 16-18 century Brewery and what it is now. The tour guide was a very nice man who was very informative, however, neither Matt nor I got much out of it because we couldn't understand much.
Afterwards we stopped and some people had some of the Brewery's beer. Matt and I abstained simply because it was a bit on the expensive side.
The bus ride home was quite quick and we made it back in time to get packed up and ready for the next day. That night, Matt and I went out with Tobias and some of his friends to two local pubs, where we both had one drink at each place. We had a really good time with Tobias and his friends.
There was some conflict between a girl in our group and myself, however, it was dealt with maturely and should hopefully be done with. The other students are sometimes hard to get along with and I fear that Matt and I are just not very much like them.
Everyone who was traveling with us the next day spent the night at our house because our train was leaving the East Mayen trainstation at 6:55 the next morning. We had all planned to wake up at 5, eat breakfast, and take off for the Train station. That did not happen. When my alarm clock went off that morning, I shut it off, and said, "ok, only a few more moments." That turned into Paula at 5:45 pounding on my door saying "Emily, my phone died, we all overslept." which then ensued to be the biggest panic rush of my young traveling life. Matt arrived at our house at 6, he did not spend the night because his house is only a few blocks from ours, everyone else that we were traveling on the complete opposite side of town.
He was met with CHAOS!!!! Matt Flemming, who was supposed to be traveling with us that day forgot to pack his Eurrail pass. We debated for like 5 mins too long about what he should do, run like h-e-l-l and make it back here in time. So Matt F. took off and we headed out for the train station.
When we later reunited with Matt in Munich, we found that he actually made it to the train station, but about 2 mins. too late and watched the train pull away from the platform. POOR Matt.
So our group (5) headed on our way for SALZBURG!!!!!
The trains we had booked went from Mayen to Andernach (a close city) and then a direct route to Salzburg from Andernach! It was wonderful. We actually, by mistake, ended up on one of the most beautiful train rides you can take through Europe, we took the train that went from basically Koblenz to Weimar all along the Rhein River. The Rhein river is densely populated with Castles, cute old villages, we were stoked!
Along our way people came and went, but for most of the trip, we sat next to a cute old couple going back home to southern Austria and to a older woman who was traveling back to her home in the home city of Arnold Schwartzeneger (she knows him, personally).
Our talks with these three people proved to be quite interesting and enjoyable. Matt and I read a good chunk during the train ride, but we tried to converse as much as possible.
When we reached Salzburg, we bought bus passes, ate Burger King, and headed on our way for what is probably the nicest Hostel I will ever stay in: Youth and Family Hostel.
We all got settled into our room and made our plans for sightseeing and took off. In full for our less than 24 hours there we saw the Salzburg Dom, MozartPlatz, Papageno platz, the Mozart birth house, a nun Convent, a church with a lot of gravestones... I know its an important place, but I forget the name, the Salzburg castle (with which we had to take a train up to), as well as basically every Salzburg site that is enjoyed in the movie "the Sound of Music," all except for the house and the ... gazebo. We also saw much more than this and I took tons of pictures.
After walking around for a long time, we eventually decided to retire to our hostel where they were playing the movie "the sound of music" and we watched basically from the "rain drops on rose and whiskers on kittens" scene to after the large grand party in the Von Trapp household.
Sleep came easily but the morning came to soon. we had a very large included breakfast the next morning, I ate a ton, because I didn't want to have to spend money on lunch that day, and instead made 3 sandwiches for the train ride from Salzburg to Munich. We did sight-seeing this day till around 3:30 and then we packed off for the train station and hitched a ride to Munich.
When we arrived in Munich, we were a little frazzled because Munich is huge! Our hostel was not supposed to be too far out from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), however, it was. When we first started walking, we walked through a very shady part of Munich. I swore at any minute one of us would be mobbed. It was scary, but we all made it through it and got to the hostel fine.
The Munich hostel did not include breakfast but was much nicer than we had expected, I mean come on, with a name like "the Easy Palace" what were we supposed to think? lol. So we checked into our rooms, the boys in one and the girls in one. Because they were both 6 person rooms, we had other people staying in these rooms with us, 3 other girls were in our room, and one guy was in with our 3 guys. It all worked out just fine and we had a good time conversing with our "German" roommates.
Erin and I took a little nap and at 7:30, we all took off to meet two girls and poor Matt Flemming from our Msu group at the Hofbrau haus. We got lost along the way, because of an error in navigation by Paula, but we soon on the right track and got there. Matt was standing outside of the HB having a cigarette and when we saw him, we all ran to him. We were so happy to see him, because we felt so badly leaving him back in Mayen. Once reunited, we all ate, drank, and were merry!!! It was a very good time and we returned to our rooms to sleep for the night.
The next morning we awoke, took showers, and proceeded like 10 feet from our hostel to the McDonalds for breakfast. P.s. no hash browns in European McDonalds, we were not amused. (lol).
We ate, and then took our time using the S-bahn to get around, we went to Marienplatz, saw St. Peters Kirche which is extremely rococo in style, the Frauen Kirche which is more bare inside but huge!!!!, the Glockenspiel (which we happened to find out from a southern American that it was supposed to go off not only at 5pm, but 11 and 12, daily) So we caught the Glockenspiel show at 11, and headed off to meet the others Jessica and Kate at the Munich Jewish Museum.
Until they showed up, we took amusing pictures, told Matt the things he missed, and reincarnated, through Nick, the CHAOS, of Thursday morning. It was a riot.
Everyone but the two Matts went to the musem, it was 4 euros a person and so they decided against it. The museum was alright, but mother, I can promise you the stuff we did in Munich last time was worth missing this for. The museum was very strict, you couldn't take coats, bags, cameras, or phones into the museum, and to be real honest, the museum was very small, the first floor which was aboubt as big as the Farwell 8th floor lobby was the only floor that I really cared for( there were three levels all teh same size, but the other two floors were special exhibitions which I didn't find too terribly interesting. I felt that the first floor was cool and I appreciated the history, etc. but the others I felt were a bit lack-luster.
After that, we headed off for the Englisches Garten (English Garden). If you know how big Central park in New York is, take that and maybe x's by two, thats how big it is. HUGE! We took the subway in, so we came right a huge sunbathing area where we laid down and bathed for awhile. Within 20 mins, people were already sunburnt (Not Matt of I, because Matt ,laid in the shade, and I had my back to the sun.
We then took off for the lake which was not far from us and found an eatery of sorts. We all ate something, I a huge plate of French fries, Matt ... well... Matt had like interesting huge like cinna-cakes. Everyone else had something like sausages and French fries. After this, we decided to rent paddle boats, that cost everyone 2 euro per person since we split the cost. We spent a good 30-40 mins on the lake. The girls boat held four: Paula, Erin, Jessica, and Kate, and the boys boat held easily 5, but we only had 4: Matt, Matt, Nick, and I. The boys did all the work paddling while I took pictures of the water, trees, ducks and ducklings, geese and baby geese, etc. It was a fun time. Afterwards the group split up, Matt and I decided to make our way to the Residenz and the rest went back to sunbathe.
We eventually found a S-bahn station, but the first subway that came was so packed you couldn't get in so we had to wait. We made it to the Residenz, but it basically closed 5 mins. before we got there. I had just wanted to take Matt to the free portion with the rooms painted with scenes from the German "die Niebelungen", which both Matthew and I have read. Since that was no longer an option and we needed to meet our group back at the Hostel at 8 to pick up luggage and what not, we decided to go to the Oedeonplatz which was just around the corner of the Residenz (which by the way is all under renovation). And then we walked in the Garden behind the Residence where that fountain and that green gazebo type thing is.
We then headed back to the Hofbrau haus so Matty could buy a T-shirt and we proceeded to walk back to Marienplatz. Along the way we found the most delicious ice cream and could not resist.
We made it back to the Hostel early, and sat in the lobby until our group arrived. The hostel had told us the night before that every night they do free beer tasting sessions at 8. So at 8 we all went in and learned some history and tried 4 different beers.
After this, we headed to the Haupt Bahn Hof. Our train was an overnight train, so we had seats which reclined back quite far and we slept on the train from about 10: 40 till 5 am when our train reached Bonn. then we had to take a train and back track from Bonn to Andernach, and then Andernach to Mayen Ost. We arrived around 7 something this morning and we slept. I slept till noon. Got up, ate breakfast, and have been on the computer answering emails, uploading pictures, and making dinner since. It is now time for me to get off the comp. because I am going to go spend some time with Matthew and his host family. I hope that this was a detailed enough update for ya'll and I will update more pictures when I can figure out how to make them smaller.
Much love to you all and take care!
Biss dann!
Munich Pics!
Ok, so basically I have not put any pictures up yet. Bad Emily. So I am going to do a few blogs with pictures only and then talk about the pictures in my next blog.
I will start with what is most recent and work my way backward.
München (Munich) in Bavaria (Southern Germany)
Rathaus in Munich
Nick and Paula laying in the sun in the English Gartens in Munich
Shot of the English Gartens 
German Geese by a pond in the Englishe Garten
I believe these trees are called castanian trees and when they flower, the blooms look like this, they are all over in Germany.
From the back left to the front right: Jessica, Kate, Erin, and Paula on a paddle boat in a pond in the Englische Garten in Munich. The 3 boys and I were on another paddle boat chasing them.
Me on our boat in the middle of the English Garden Pond. I sat in the back while the guys did all the work! It was nice.
Reisdenzplatz
Matt in by a Brünnen (fountain) in the gardens behind the München Residenz 
Me by the same fountain.
Matt by the.... I can't remember what it is called, but it is in the garden behind the Residenz in München.
The Hofbrau Haus Symbol
The escalators going up to the street from Marienplatz
The empty rail before the subway arrived at Marienplatz
Matt at the tiny bar in our hostle in München: The Easy Pleasure, where all 8 of our group and 1 Brit had a free Beer tasting and history session.
The Lobby of The Easy Palace Hostel
More Lobby: Matt Flemming and Matt T.
Pretty Statue
Frauen Kirche (woman church)
Window Pane in the Frauen Kirche
Ok, that is it for now, since....apparently this has taken far too much time to upload. like 5 hours. Biss Dann.
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