Alex im Ausland

Well I’m back in the USA. I guess I’ve been back for awhile. Do I miss Germany? Yes. Sometimes I just feel like I’m just going to wake up and look outside and it’ll be Düsseldorf. Most of the time it just feels like Germany is only a state away.

Updates: My hair is the shortest it’s ever been. I was able to donate it to Locks of Love, and hopefully two wigs for babies slash children can be made. I may start taking vitamins so it’ll grow faster.

I love my residents a lot. They are a great group of girls, and I’m really excited for the year.

Last night I got stuck in an elevator. Very interesting how it happened. Allison and I were cruising around and decided to stop at a friend’s apartment. There were eleven people in the lobby and of course we all decided it would be fine to ride all together. Yay! New friends! We were sure there was NO WAY we could possibly be exceeding the weight limit. 

Hmm slowest elevator ride ever. Odd. The doors aren’t opening. Ah well we’re stuck. So we pressed the call button. (I have done this so many times but never needed them…) Also if you have ever watched the movie Devil, you may have been scared. Trailer is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYy7igKD21A

I didn’t ask if anyone had seen the movie… 

So one girl was really panicking. I mean from the get go she couldn’t breath. She was on the floor in a matter of 48 seconds. It was really all about mind over matter. I of course wanted to just chit chat and play get to know ya games. Why not?

What was very interesting is that there were 5 Germans in the elevator. Imagine that! It was just like being in Germany all over again! About 15 minutes into the elevator sit, condensation was forming on the walls. You could do the whole Titanic-Rose-hand-print on the walls:

Two German girls were pretty funny. One of them said “If I’m going to die, I want to die drunk” and they proceeded to drink their case of beer. 

Allison and I just kept looking at each other and laughing. Some people thought we would “save” air if we all just stood still and stopped talking… this is difficult for me to do.

I commented on one guy’s shirt. I know it used to be a royal blue color but I said “Hey! Your shirt is a different color now. It’s almost like a tie-dye pattern.”

I was shushed instantly.

Before getting into the elevator, my bladder was filled to the limit. I guess when your body goes into crisis-you-gonna-die mode, you just sweat out anything you had in your bladder. 

We eventually found out everyone in the elevator was going to the same place, and we were all Tech Engineers…how many engineers does it take to break an elevator?

11

45 minutes later we were saved! Yay! 

Grad students are funny to watch. Several were very gangly, goofy and uncoordinated. I love people.

But alas, the end of the blog perhaps. If something funny happens, I may post it… but vielen Dank fürs Lesen! Alle meine Liebe! 

Well, in about 2 hours, I was to be landing in sunny, warm Hotlanta, instead Delta cancelled our flight because the tools to repair this plane are in the US…haha.

At first, I really didn’t care, and I thought to myself, who cares if a head light doesn’t work - I’m willing to take the risk; I’ve seen cast away, and I have a deflated soccer ball in my bag. If we crash, I’ll be fineeeee. Then I remembered the movie Final Destination….sooo maybe it is a good thing we didn’t just chance it.

Currently you can find me in the beautiful Kempinski Hotel, laying on a bed that if you were to put the middle of my body in the middle of this bed and spin me, my feet would never fall off. This is a major change from where I was residing the past two nights.

Kempinski Munich:

http://www.kempinski.com/en/munichairport/Pages/Welcome.aspx

Since our program ended on Friday, we were responsible for our own housing arrangements for Saturday and Sunday night. A few of the students had already stayed at this hostel called “The-Tent”. Well I guess it’s not really a hostel. It’s more like three tents. The Tent is difficult to explain unless you visit, but it is a non-profit organization and you have a choice of bringing your own tent, sleeping on a mat, or a bed. The staff was so friendly, the food was cheap and organic, and the people are extremely interesting to talk to.

The Tent:

http://the-tent.com/en_sleep_140_sleep.htm

Essentially I felt like I had walked into Across the Universe or a hippie commune from 1976. I loved it. Beatles played non stop and sometimes I felt like I was a muggle because there were so many english and irish people there.

Drawbacks: I was sleeping on the mat (gotta save them Euros y'alllllll) and my lion’s mane started to smell like a campfire. I tried to perfectly time hair products with duration of the trip so I didn’t really shower “before my flight”. When the woman padded me down at security I felt real bad she was getting close to me. Real smelly… Forgot to mention the tent I stayed in had a disco ball in it as a night light. Kempinski doesn’t have that…

This brings me to my next point: as I was checking in today, the woman tempted me with an offer. The offer was if I waited until tomorrow to ride back to atlanta, they’d pay for my hotel and meals AND give me 1000 Euro to use for Delta. Well…. if only I’d known…

What’s really great about this whole hotel thing to myself is I just went to the bathroom with the door open. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried that, but that is freedom. Being able to keep every door open without worrying if someone is in your room. Also, I don’t have pants on. This is something I haven’t really been able to do on the LBAT. I’m considering not redeeming the free dinner since I have to go downstairs which would require me to put pants on… decisions decisions.

Another thing about this room thing - 360 degree mirrors. First off - ouch. Those things show every detail and every pretzel I’ve eaten this summer. Losing those tennis shoes was the worst thing that has happened to my thighs.

I’d also like to thank Kempinski for supplying me with hair products. You know it’s time for a haircut when you use the entire bottle of conditioner in one wash. They also supplied me with body lotion. Now, if you’ve ever been to Georgia, you’ve experienced humidity. Well my skin needs that moisture, and I haven’t had body lotion all summer.

Since this is all paid for by Delta, I’m curious if I can use/order things from the mini bar and just put it on Delta’s tab?

I met interesting people today. After awkwardly staring at one another for about 3 hours, a German woman started talking to me. Her whole family was so cute. Her husband, son, and her were headed to America for a 5 week vacation. She has three older daughters, and one dropped her off at the airport and it was so sweet when she said good bye! (I think the mom cried… Mom shoutout!)

Anyways they had played German hangman for an hour or so and then I napped off and on. When we started to realize Delta wasn’t even trying to fix the airplane (instead they were just taking off the meals of the plane), she offered to let me stay at their house!!! Ah! it was just so precious and the nicest thing!

Then I realized I had no shampoo, soap, and the only things in my carry on were dirty clothes, beer steins and chocolate. (In order to get ride of my remaining Euros, I spent it on souvenirs. Sorry mom, the chocolate was for you…then I got hungry.)

I wanted to hang out with them more, but I figured the hotel was right here and I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone. I also thought I would use the swimming pool and gym but again that would require me to put on pants…

It was pretty hot today so I developed a massive sweat mark while standing outside with my suitcases trying to get into this hotel. I forgot how big airplanes are and essentially and entire jetplane is staying in this hotel.

I met this kid who goes to Georgetown. He’s your typical “I-go-to-an-Ivy-League-School-and-you-don’t-type”, who thinks he knows everything and he’s always right because he plays ultimate frisbee. This kid is majoring in Culture…really? What application does that have? See below for research I’ve compiled from Wikipedia.

Suck it Georgevillage.

This weekend I didnt do much. Since we’ve been in Munich for 3 weeks, it’s hard to find something we haven’t done where we wouldn’t have to pay much money. We tried looking for flee markets but to no avail. I think the most interesting thing that happened to me was I was returning a glass and a girl bumped into me and the glass broke and cut my hands. It bled more than was necessary, and now you cant even tell I was cut.

We went to Schloss Nymphenburg, I read some book yesterday in the Englisher Garten, and I think that covers all the basics. Time to put pants on and find food.

Almost home.

This is only like 1/3 of the Schloss

my room (which is number 1108 = 1+1+0+8 = 10 favorite number

Only 4 days left until I’m on a plane, heading back to my own time zone. I think when I’m on the plane, I’ll be sad to leave Germany, but at the moment I can’t wait to get out of this program. I still highly recommend anyone to travel and study abroad as much as possible, but I will say be careful which program you choose. I think it’s really just luck of the draw who you get stuck with. This trip has really just turned into a constant headache, never ending embarrassment, and annoyance to the utmost.

Tomorrow is the last official day of the program. We have presentations in the morning and then a closing meal afterwards. Excited to wear my dirndl, not sure if I’ll be able to eat much with it on. (maybe I should begin wearing it all the time..portion control)

Nothing much has happened.

Saturday: bought Dirndl, went to a museum, went to a place called the “Tent” where travelers stay and they have a restaurant. Met some interesting people. There were two english boys there, and I felt as if I had stepped into Harry Potter world. The two had clearly had a bit to drink and began arguing the merits of professional “footballers”. One guy was convinced that footballers shouldn’t be making so much money - they contribute nothing to modern day society, etc. Then they decided they were BFF’s, put their arms around each other, and made up. Also met some people from the Netherlands.

Alte Pinakothek

Sunday: It rained again, so I decided to walk around Munich for 5 hours or so. It’s a huge city with so much to take in. I think I ate Subway and have now officially eaten more Subway in Germany than I have in the United States.

This is where they swim

Monday: Today we visited a company called Grenzebach in Augsburg. Overcast and rainy, the people at the company were extremely nice and the tour through the company was alright.

Then we went on a stadtführung…last one ever I hope. Nothing really stands out about Augusburg other than the ceiling of this one building.

Completely gold

Tuesday: School, rain, and a tour through a brewery. Contrary to popular beliefs, the brewery tour was semi boring. However, when we got to the end, we were allowed to have three free beers and unlimited amounts of pretzels!

The views were incredible from the top of the brewery and the one beer I had was pretty good. Went for a run and again I ’m dying without tennis shoes.

Wednesday: The sun visited Munich today! Emily and I went for a run in the English Garden and returned to study for our two finals on Thursday. We also have a paper due Tomorrow and a presentation on Friday. Living up our last few days in Munich yezzzz

Thursday: NO MORE CLASS KIDS! Finals are over, now we just have to make some slideshows and we’re down with LBAT forever!

After class today we went to a modern art museum. After our last visit to a modern art museum, I decided to not take a camera. The tour went over by about 20 minutes and we looked at chairs, a teapot, and some cars. At the very end we went up to a painting and oh guess what? Apparently there were some Picasos. Didn’t see those… it was also pouring outside

This was a very negative blog. I think I’m missing home a bit and can’t wait to eat fruit!!!! See my pup! and ma and dad of course! Also, thanks to my friend Jay, I have a theme song! I’ve always wanted to be like Layla from Eric Clapton’s famous song, and now I feel like I can be. Granted I don’t know these people but I am going to pretend it’s me in the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQJL2aC-emc

Also I’ve decided to get a haircut. It’s been over 2 years since I last cut the mane. I know this is a shallow thing to think about, but can’t decide to go real short and donate to locks of love or just get 5 inches off?

Ich habe eine Dirndl gekauft. In other words, I will be wearing this to any semi formal, date night, every Halloween, Christmas, New Years, any time I bake, and I am DEFINITELY going to wear this when welcoming new freshmen to campus during move ins.

It was a very successful shopping day. I also went to the Deutsches Museum which is huge and every boy’s fantasy and every engineers playground. There were hundreds of airplanes and ships, and even an entire floor dedicated to microelectronics and semi conductors!! Ah! Didn’t think I’d be so excited to see a protoboard, and I’ve forgotten so many ECE terms.

FACT: I have every single one of my toenails. This is the first time since I was 9 or 10 years old that I have a nail on every toe. And they’re full grown and not a weird color. I’m sorry if you hate feet, but when I started playing club ball, I would get these really gross blood blisters under my toenails, they’d pop, and the nail would fall off.

This is a bad thing.. it means I haven’t been playing enough soccer. Yes, I don’t have to paint nail polish on my toes to make it look like I have nails, but Lord do I miss soccer.

Speaking of soccer, I went back to the English Garden today with my flat ball. I don’t feel like buying a pump since I have two at home, but I also don’t know how to say ball pump in German.

For about an hour and a half, I juggled the flat ball alone, trying to avoid geese poop. It was impossible. These geese poop wherever they want. I didn’t want to chest the ball, but when I did, it left a bit of geese poop on it.

About 4 minutes to 8 PM, this Columbian guy comes up to me and asks if I speak english and if he could train with me. Well I tried to use the excuse that my ball was flat, but he had his own. Great. So we began to juggle a bit. I didn’t realize how intense this guy was going to be. He began to coach me. Really? Really?

I also would like to say that wearing turfs and trying to run through mud and geese poop is quite challenging. No traction.

This guy started kicking the ball 20 yards to my left and right, then threw the ball at my shoulders, insisting that it was very important to use your shoulder. False. You use your chest. Yes you may sometimes use your shoulder, but is it necessary to throw a ball at someone’s shoulders for 26 minutes? No.

All in all, I guess it was a good training session? I sweated.

In other news, I had to throw away 3 pairs of shoes since leaving Weimar :( One pair I have had since freshmen year of high school I think. They will be missed dearly. One pair was flip flops, and some dumb girl stepped on them while I was walking and they ripped.

FACT: All of the chocolate I have purchased since the chocolate warehouse has been eaten.

FACT: Everyone is falling in love on the German LBAT. So much LBAT love.

What have I been up to? Well we went to the BMW Welt today which is every guys fantasy world. Racing video games, you get to touch BMWs and sit on motorcycles. And there is beer in there of course so I’m pretty sure that 97% of the visitors are maleWe are busy typically from 9 AM until 6 PM every day so we don’t see much of munich other than the inside of the class room and museums. It’s rained every day, and tomorrow we have a tour, class, and an opera. yeahhhhh

Outside of LMU’s Hauptgebaude - these are fliers and news articles about the anti-Nazi resistant group, the White Rose

BMW Welt

I’ll take this one

Alle meine Liebe!

Almost home!

AND MY MOM’S BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW! YAY!

It’s times like these that I wish I was bulimic…or at least had a personal stomach pump. This feeling is something I experience quite often in Germany, but who can say no to free pretzels, beer, ice cream, and chicken? That’s what I thought. I’m pretty sure that if you took a sonogram of my stomach you’d see about 17 children in there. That is how full I am. Ready to give birth to a baby right now. Speaking of babies I made so much eye contact with cute konigs that I’m probably pregnant, but we’ll get to that later. (ma this is just a phrase we use because we don’t actually go up and talk to guys…just try to make eye contact)

So we’ve left Weimar for Munich, and for those of you who have been following my journey, I finally decided to stop being hard headed and frugal, and I bought a new suit case. Below is the least reliable suitcase ever created and my new set of wheels.

I went from 1 wheel in Düsseldorf to zero, and NOW I HAVE 8!!! This way even if I lose 3 wheels, I still have five. Hopefully this suitcase will last for two weeks until Atlanta.

I guess many people didn’t really like Weimar, but no matter what, people always find something to complain about. Weimar was very idyllic and picturesque. It really just seemed like we stepped into a painting. Our last few days were very crammed – 2 tests, a paper, a presentation, laundry, packing, etc.

On our last day, there was apparently an “accident” at the haupbahnhof. None of us really knew what this meant – I hoped it was just a mechanical problem…some speculated that a guy jumped in front of the train.

Either way, it delayed everyone’s train. Our train didn’t leave until 5:21 PM, but we had to be out of the Hedwig Pfeiffer Haus by 2 PM which really sucked because we were stranded with our suitcases for 3 hours.

Moving from connection to connection was super stressful and a work out. After 4 days, I’m still sore from carrying/pushing/shoving 70+ pounds around. At one of our connections, we got worried that we were on the wrong train so I asked “colleague”. He said our tickets were invalid and we should talk to his friend…yeah , no thanks. We’ve been in Germany for a couple months now, bro.

(Throughout this post, I’ve been stopping to play a game of hearts on my computer. Just won 21 points so I just rage quited.)

So we made it to our connection just fine, but this train was like a sauna. We tried to sleep, but it was just impossible. Finally they started to hand out water to us. We arrived to Munich around 10:30 PM and headed to our hostel – the YMCA or CVJM (Chirstlich Volks Jugend Menschen? Not sure how it’s translated over here…)

Our walk from the hauptbahnhof to the hostel is quite interesting. We saw only 2 Germans and heard only Turkish or some sort of Arabic language being spoken. There are about 23 strip clubs, 14 Doner shops, 9 Casinos, 7 Gold/Jewelry stores, 6 places to “exchange” currency, 5 “electronic goods” stores, 16 hookah bars, 4 barbers, 3 sex toy shops, 2 lingerie shops, and a partridge in a pear tree. It is LITERALLY the sketchiest place I’ve ever walked through and also the most ironic. Next to the classy establishments advertising table dances are women wearing burkas , and I mean the most conservative ones too. Usually you can only see about a micrometer of their eyebrow and a sliver of their eyes. I just wonder why they’re living so close to 23 strip clubs. It’s also really funny how close the nail and hair salons are. Gotta look good for work I guess? Within 46 steps from our hostel (note the Chirstian YMCA) is a “cabaret”. Luckily for us it’s open until 6 AM! Yay! Below is some photographic evidence.

The hostel is good though – good breakfast, a relatively short distance to the hauptbahnhof and about a 12 minute walk to Germany.

Thursday was pretty boring; we just wanted to sleep and showered. The next morning, Allison and I woke up, had breakfast and made our way to meet our ride.

Now ma, I promise this isn’t as sketchy as it sounds, but in Germany, there is a system called Mitfahrgelegenheit.de. It is a website set up for carpooling – it’s much faster and cheaper than riding any train or bus. We met our driver, and he was extremely nice! He was about 22, and he studies international affairs in Innsbruck. We tried to speak in our best German accent as possible, but as soon as I asked him “Wie geht es dir?” (How are you?)  he knew we weren’t German… anyway when we told him we were trying to learn German he made sure to only speak to us in German even though he knew English.

The ride was very beautiful. The alps are a sight to behold, and I was so lucky to spend a weekend looking at those mountains. I got so giddy just thinking that “I will be visiting my third country”. THREE COUNTRIES! And it was only an hour and a half from Munich!

Friday afternoon we walked around, I went for a jog, and we explored the Altstadt. We went out to grab a beer with Andi and the evening had turned very chilly! All and all, a very relaxed day. Saturday morning we woke up and headed towards the mountain. We didn’t really look up a path or take any “real” hiking gear. After about an hour of uphill concrete, we found a trail. I couldn’t believe how high up some of these people lived. They must have incredible legs and butts.

We hiked for about 2 hours before finding a creek/spring and decided it was time for lunch. It was some of the clearest and coldest water I’d ever seen or drank from. The Alps also have the friendliest bugs and insects. Not only did a bee land on my knee and kiss it, but a butterfly sat on my ankle for 10 minutes licking it. I guess I really am made out of sugar hehe J or I just eat so much ice cream that I just sweat sugar…

After lunch we continued our ascent into the Alps. It was extremely tough, and I thought my calves were about to fall off my legs. At first when we began we thought all the fancy hiking gear was extremely unnecessary but I’ve never wanted two walking sticks more in my life…and hiking shoes. On the way down, it was so steep that we just sat down and slid on our butts. And I’m not sure what was more painful – going up or coming down? I think I’d say coming down was the worst. It was like I wanted to jog the whole way down but it was so steep and there was so much gravel that you just tumble the whole time.

The views were absolutely amazing. Pictures just don’t do Innsbruck justice:

(Check out the shin sweat)

When we got back from hiking, we were pretty dead. We went back to the Altstadt because we were ravenous. We found some classical music concert and sat down. We were the only two in the crowd without hearing aids and grey hair ha.

We ended up going back pretty early, watched a movie, and passed out. Sunday was pretty normal. We weren’t sure where we were supposed to meet our driver so we freaked out a little but we found him! He was so funny and interesting. Jeremy was French and had studied one semester in Austria so his german was about as good as ours and his English was okay. The whole car ride we tried to speak three languages and it seemed to work out well. We were trying to think of songs we would both know and he started singing Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles but the only part he really knew was “Eleanor Rigby, died..da da da da”. He also knew the Rammstein song “WE ARE LIVING IN AMERICA, AMERICA, IT’S WUNDERBAR!” He sang that really well and didn’t sound French at all.

We made it back to munich and went out to watch the US Women’s soccer game. The restaurant we went to was so good! We had chicken burgers with fries and a salad and ALL YOU CAN EAT KETCHUP! There was also this super old German guy who had way too much beer for his pace maker to handle, and every time America scored and the restaurant went wild, he would yell SHEISSE SCHEISSE ON AMERICA! Something like that….

All I’m going to say is that when I’m watching a soccer game, I’d like to be around people who are positive, not annoying. Therefore, to prevent a bad experience, we tried to distance ourselves from certain individuals. Our attempts never work, and I’m just counting down the two weeks to get back to the US. The game was quite disappointing. I’ve never seen a team play so well and lose. Unbelievable.

Monday Allison and I walked for 4 or 5 hours around Munich – found some surfers – in wetsuits…needless to say we watched that for a while haha.

Bayern Munich Stadium

A really weird “tribute” to michael jackson. It was right over a statue of King Ludwig…

The altstadt and their Ratskeller

Naturally a church

We met back up with the group to get our bus passes and rooms, and then we ate at the Augustiner Keller. So darn full. They gave us each a liter of beer and the glass was taller than my head. It was very traditional and delicious. All of the waiters and waitresses were wearing dirndls and lederhosen.

The next two weeks are going to be packed, and I also left my tennis shoes in Innsbruck so I haven’t run in awhile… I may just run in my soccer turfs if worst comes to worst.

UPDATE - meant to publish this yesterday, but I kept getting on Facebook. We had class today and had a stadtführung of München via bus. Interesting, however, whenever I find myself in a moving vehicle with a pleasant engine, I fall asleep. There is so much to do and see in Munich. I kinda wish we got here earlier.

Allison and I went to the English Garten here and ran separately and each of us got lost. I was beginning to get terrified that I wouldn’t find my way back. I did find the surfers again and decided it was a good place to stretch…

We were starving for subway, and walked about 40 minutes till we found one.. Oh that’s funny YOU CLOSE AT 8 O CLOCK?! Emily was so mad she kicked the window and it almost broke…so we ran.

The hauptbahnhof - God bless you - 24 hour subway! That’s all I can think of for now.

Two weeks till Atlanta!

P.S. – I’m PLing in a co-ed dorm..pretty darn excited.

Next door to us lives banshee. And by banshee I mean several banshees, and every single time we try and sleep, they start screaming. Doesn’t matter if it’s 5 AM or 10 PM these kids just love to scream bloody murder.

Today I went to the park to lay out and saw boobs. It was just really weird because this is a very busy park. I think Allison sleep runs because I know I saw her in the park but she swears she was napping…

Allison and I are officially going to Innsbruck this weekend! AH SO EXCITED!

And I forgot I never posted Fourth of July pictures so here are a few :)