| Woah, long time... |
[Jul. 31., 2006|11:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | My room | ] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | Aktuelle Musik |
| | "I need some sleep", by the Eels | ] |
So I'm still alive - not that anyone actually reads this thing ...
Just a quick recap on the last year...
- 8. Aug 2005 -- returned from Germany
- end of Aug 2005 -- started senior year at college
- 26. Dec 2005 -- returned to Germany to visit friends
- 9. Jan 2006 -- Spring semester began, started internship, worked like a mad-man on portfolio, projects, and at my job at admissions.
- 6. May 2006 -- graduated from JMU
- 31. May 2006 -- hopped on a standby flight to Minneapolis, MN -- got hit on by an old dude and stayed with a cool couchsurfer for a few days...
- 3. June 2006 -- met the fellow Betreuer at Waldsee (a summer camp in Minnesota to teach German)... taught German and technology and did lots of other random stuff for everyone... tech junk mainly.
- 4. June 2006 -- orientation for Waldsee began and then kids came a week later
- 15. July 2006 -- Waldsee ended and I was ready to go back to Virginia
- 16. July 2006 -- hopped on another standby flight to Dulles - upgraded to First Class (thank you...that was great)
- Since 17. July 2006 -- slept, bummed, did my online portfolio, interviewed for my dream job (and got it), met with friends like a couple times...and got a job back at JMU doing what I did before (Admissions Website)...
- 31. July 2006 -- happy to know I'm leaving Middleburg for a while to go back to Harrisonburg...granted, it will be boring for a while, it'll be different than M'burg for a change.
- 1. Aug. 2006 -- back to the 'burg for a 5-6 week stint.
Anyway, so things are looking up - got a job or two...and heading to France and Germany again in September and October. Going to France for 4 weeks with my grandparents - I'll be the chauffeur and driving a manual in Europe (how great is that?)...gotta love it and well, since I've got my european license, I'm all set;) Autobahns here I come -- haha, I wish. Instead, we'll be doing the scenic routes... After France, I'll hop over to Germany to visit some awesome kids in Lueneburg/Hamburg and possibly see my dad and his wife if they are around and have time. |
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| ha |
[Feb. 27., 2006|11:41 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  aggravated | ] |
that lovely roommate who causes me all the misery in the world got mad at us for being loud on a friday night? who's she kidding...we both wanted to go to bed at 12am yet couldn't b/c she was blaring the tv... so we decided it was time to turn the tables and be giggly and loud at 1:30 just after she decided to go to bed. who ever said she got to decide when it would be quiet...because we live through this every day... every hour... every minute that she's in this apartment!
GRRR! and she's got the nerve to do laundry at 11:30pm ... meaning none of us except her can sleep... b/c it's loud and squeeks!
GRR...frustrated about this entire situation this year! |
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| It's peachy, isn't it? |
[Feb. 27., 2006|07:35 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | Aktuelle Musik |
| | Millionär by Die Prinzen | ] |
Yeah, so things are stupid...
I'm far from ready to graduate - I can't wait to be done with school and done with JMU and everything around here. Only, I wish that were true. I plan on staying in the burg after graduating...we'll see what happens afterwards. I already feel like the biggest failure in life for not planning to go to Graduate school like more than half my friends plan on doing or are doing already. Okay, so I guess I'll never make $80,000 a year - but money doesn't matter. Happiness does. Screw all those filthy people who are after just money and that alone... I could name one person in particular, but I'll refrain from doing so. One song though reminds me clearly of that person... unfortunately it's in German... but it definitely describes that person. Millionär...by Die Prinzen.
The semester currently sucks - I've run into some major financial bumps since December and that has hurt... I've been working 15-20 hrs a week to try to make money, not to mention the 10-15 hours a week at my internship. By the way, it's gotten pretty lame there -- I barely ever have the chance to learn something new and that for me is a bore. I've been on lots of video shoots lately, some okay, some boring as all hell... and I'm going on another one on Wednesday...woohoo.
In any case, I'm still waiting to hear back from Minnesota about that job - hopefully I'll get it...that'd make this whole graduation thing a little sweeter...get the hell away from Virginia, experience a new place...meet new people, speak German again, and play with youngsters...and maybe take a road trip across the country? Sounds good to me...
I've got a test tomorrow - I'll probably fail it... I've been succumbed to listening to my roommate's bizarre noises and odd efforts at singing. Not to mention the elephant noise as she walks across the floor. It's rather exciting around here -- filled with lots of drama, emotions from every angle, and I want to be a part of NONE of it. I'm sick of this situation here... hence the reason I drove home Saturday night so I wouldn't have to deal with the dog peeing on the carpet or the very unfriendly boy sleeping in our living room. Yeah, that sucked too.
But, I guess the best part of the weekend was seeing Farrah ... seeing Iman... playing tennis with Ashley... and going home to see my family for a surprise visit. And the O'Charley's visit was spectacular... I got sung to for my birthday and everything ... it doesn't get any better than that... not to mention our waiter was good...and we had fun messing around with him. Good times with Iman:) |
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| What a sad semester |
[Dez. 9., 2005|11:39 am] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  disappointed | ] |
This semester couldn't have had been worse...coming back from Germany was perhaps just a bad idea....finishing school was perhaps a bad idea. After coming back I had to deal with readjusting to this weird life over here...try to find my friends again (which I don't think really worked...I lost a lot of friends this year and probably will never know them as friends again). On the other hand, I got two friends from freshman year back and that has been fun to the extent of meeting twice a week for lunch...if the only time we have is to eat together, then I'll accept that. Aside from that, I had problems with a few friends and that wasn't exactly something I enjoyed...
Basically, I've sort of given up on friends and don't care much anymore - sounds horrible, but I think it's true to an extent. I want this year to be over - I have no desire to stick around JMU anymore.. and I ponder why I even consider sticking around in Harrisonburg after graduating - I don't want to really; it won't be any different than it is now...I don't have but like 3 friends anyway, and who knows, they'll probably be gone next year anyway.
I'm crossing my fingers for Minnesota and really hope I get it - I think it'd be something good for me, especially if I can't go back to Germany...at least I can go far away for a short bit to see something different in this country. So cross your fingers for me - and if you don't, then well - I don't care to talk to you.
So things have been ridiculously stressful lately - including papers/projects/tests and absolutely NOT ENOUGH sleep... for the last 4-5 weeks I've been up almost every night until 1-2-3am and then have had to get up at 7am every day... and weekends, you can't even say I got to sleep or anything...it's a repeat on the weekends, only exception being I got to get up at 8:30-9:30am...
So let's just say goodbye to this semester and move on to the next... |
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| I miss Germany! |
[Aug. 20., 2005|12:48 am] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  nostalgic | ] |
So I've been back less than two weeks and ever since I've been back I miss Germany... I miss my friends, I miss my life from there, I miss the town I lived in, I miss speaking German every day and writing/hearing it... I miss it all. I wish that I could go back in December, but right now I don't see that as an option. I wish to visit my friends then, but most will probably go home to their families for Xmas and who knows if that would even work out? I miss my best friend from Lueneburg...I haven't heard from her in ages...but hopefully once she's back in Germany, I'll hear from her again.
In other news, I spoke German for the first time in the U.S. with a German other than my aunt. I ran into a woman in the grocery store the other day and noticed she had an accent and asked if she was from Germany - sure enough, she was, so we talked with one another for a few minutes in German...was fun. I also caught a TV show on TV in German - was Deutsche Welle and was interesting and fun to actually hear German again!!! So that was nice...
Anyway, that's it.. hoping this whole re-adjustment thing hurries up and gets me back to liking JMU again... was there last week and definitely felt like I don't belong anymore. The campus has changed, the people are probably the same... happy/cheery college kids that cover 80% of Harrisonburg... oh well. I'll get used to it again...it really can't be that bad, afterall, I loved my second year there...the time will come....
JMU tomorrow... |
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| sadly it's over |
[Aug. 3., 2005|01:29 am] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  tired | ] |
Well folks, it's over. I can't even believe it myself. My entire year in Germany has come to an end and before I know it I'll be on US Soil again. I have mixed feelings about it all, but think and hope that things will get back to "normal." I'm almost certain they will. At least when I was back home in May things seemed pretty okay and I'm not too worried about "fitting" back into my JMU-life again... I'm more worried about losing contact with my friends from Germany. I hope it won't happen, but I think it'll definitely be a challenge.
The last few weeks have been quite strange and tiresome emotionally... about three weeks ago I didn't want to leave at all, then I slowly realized all my good friends (mostly the Germans and a couple exchange students) all left to go home and then I realized that the things have changed and we all have to move on...including me. I have to go back to the States as well sometime. The last two weeks were pretty shitty - at least the weekend after my best friend left... that sucked and I felt so miserable that I wanted to be back in the States instead of sitting in Lueneburg bored silly. I slept every day as long as I possibly could - that meant that I slept until 1pm and went to bed around 11pm... meaning my days were quite short. Luckily, I got out of that slump and met up with a few last friends still in town and played frisbee and then was convinced by a german friend (Anne) to go to the tournament on the beach in Warnemuende for my last weekend. I wound up going and it was a blast - lots of fun, camping, frisbee, being on the beach in the sun, and with people I really like.
Yesterday was a bit strange as it was my last real day in Lueneburg - I enjoyed the evening as I met up with two friends and a friend cooked my last dinner in Lueneburg for me and then we played "Mensch, ärgere dich nicht!" and then called it a night and I had to say goodbye for the last time...I can't even count all the goodbyes I had to say - it was definitely something I didn't want to do, but I think I was one of the luckier people... as I know I'll be back to Germany quite soon to visit all my friends I have made over the last year...not to mention Jasmin, my best friend from Germany (unfortunately to have met her at the very end of my year)...
Today I parted from In der Techt where I lived for just over 12 months... I parted from 4 more friends as well as Frau Wölper and parted by train from Lueneburg. Emotions were a bit weird after parting because I'll never have the same experiences again as I did this year and it felt so weird to be leaving my home for the last year...not being able to just hop on the bike and ride to the university or to visit a friend or to Kur Park will be missed. I'll miss a lot of things about my year abroad - at least I can say that it happened - one thing I can check off on my list of things to do... become fluent in German and study abroad (both accomplished and to my satisfaction).
In other news - I'm going to be back in Virginia at home on Monday, August 8th and am looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, my friends, my Skippy, and getting back into the swing of things at JMU and one of the things I'm looking forward to most is WORKING AGAIN and making money!!! I can't wait... I'll be moving into an apartment off campus and that's exciting enough in itself and I can't wait to live with my best friends from last year - I'm psyched about it all:) And I'm looking forward to a real summer (at least the end of it). The weather here in Germany has been everything but summer... it's always cold and rainy and cloudy, so I'm looking forward to some real summer heat!!!
Anyway, that's it for my update... das reicht für die nächste 5 Wochen, würde ich sagen.
Until JMU :) |
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| Not wanting to update, but figure I better since it's been a month... |
[Jun. 22., 2005|01:45 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  happy | ] |
Well lots has happened since my birthday, which was my last update. Basically the world sucked for a couple weeks - between my birthday and June 10th or so... it was also great during this time, but two deaths (in the family) didn't make things any easier. I went biking on Germany's island (Sylt) which lies near the border to Denmark... that was fun. I went to a Frisbee Tournament in Luebeck where we rocked and took 2nd place out of 8 teams! Was a lot of fun despite the weather sucked (it was windy, then rained, then sunny, cloudy, windy, completely messed up weather).
I also have grilled more times than I want to count; I love it and it's a great way to meet others and hang out with friends, but man, I'm sick of eating meat... maybe I'll turn into a vegetarian (although for the sole fact that I like meat, I don't think that'll happen anytime soon). I've met some great people in the last week and that's made life more fun... one girl I met way back in April, but we never hung out and then I saw her last Wednesday and she invited me to come to her place to grill that evening. Unfortunately, I was to suprise my dad at the airport in Hamburg, and therefore wouldn't be able to go. Well, my Dad and I never met up - confusing story...he didn't know I was coming, I was doing a surprise visit...but he exited the plane and never came through the passenger arrivals section of the airport; so we missed one another. So I wasted 4 hours going to and from the airport, but got back in time to grill with Christiane and her friends...which wound up being a lot of fun. Since then we have hung out a few more times and grilled at my place last night which was fun. The Stadtfest was last weekend here in Lueneburg and the weather couldn't have had been better... on Saturday I went canoeing with some german friends (Sandra and Maren) and then on Sunday I biked about 40km in the woods near here... then went to Kur Park and spent an hour there finishing a hemp necklace... then to Frisbee practice until 8pm.
So things are going well here; I am certainly going to miss this place; I can't believe I only have 5ish weeks left...it's horrible. The time is going by faster than I want and I have met the nicest people in the last month/two and it's just depressing to think about leaving... I wanna stay forever. Why the hell can't I live two lives at the same time - maybe I should try cloning?
So yeah... I'm leaving for Munich on the 29th for my grandmother's funeral and then coming back bright and early on Monday, July 4th (at 1am) ... sleeping a little and then going to class at 2:30pm. Then I'll stay here until July 15th... then hitch-hike to Berlin where I'll play in a Frisbee Tournament with others (not with my team) and that'll take place for two days...then I might stay another couple days in Berlin depending if friends are there and not busy... hopefully I'll be able to visit them...we'll see.
Anyway, so that's about it - nothing exciting for today - I have to do three projects and I am overwhelmed at the moment... just too much to do and the weather is okay and I just wanna sit outside! Grr! |
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| Did I mention 5 cakes? |
[Mai. 21., 2005|12:29 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| | cheerful | ] |
I forgot to mention this birthday brought me the most cakes ever. I got 5 all together!! Not to mention if you count the 6th cake which my mom baked for me before I came back to Germany on Monday! Insane...cake everywhere and I am struggling to get rid of it... give it away in other words. It's all good, but I can't eat 5 cakes myself...nevertheless 2! |
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| I'm legal - woohoo! |
[Mai. 21., 2005|12:15 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| | happy | ] |
So as you all know (or don't know, haha) I finally turned 21 (aka I'm legal now)... and it wasn't such a bad birthday at all...I didn't go get myself trashed like half the dumb Americans who celebrate in the States. Instead, I had a few friends over for cake which included a few surprise visitors (Gilberto, Issei, Johann, und Mami)...so das war auch ganz nett.
But was also unexpected was early in the morning at 9:15 my doorbell rang; I went to answer and there stood Maren and Sandra with a cake lit with candles and they sung a German birthday song to me...it was great! (INSERT: In Germany it's a tradition that the person who has a birthday bakes his/her own cake. I had baked an apple pie (everyone wanted me to do that for a long time) as well as a pretty plain cake with chocolate icing). So I had already two cakes made and had just received a third from Maren and Sandra...was nice!!!
I went to the university with horrible back pains (I have Hexenschuss which is lumbago in English)...and basically SUCKS! So that didn't make my birthday anymore enjoyable, but I dealt with it. I got to the university and went to office hours for a class, then met up with Julia, a German friend at the cafe and she gave me a children's birthday book and a card for my birthday and we hung out for a bit before she had class. Then I just killed time until 2:30pm when I had my German/English translation class... afterwards I talked to Lenaik and then headed on home to relax for a little bit. Then back to the university at 5:30pm to check email quickly and then to watch Frisbee practice, since I can't play (HEXENSCHUSS). I saw all my Frisbee buddies which was nice and a good number of them figured out from someone that I had a birthday and all wished me Happy Birthday.
I headed back home at 7:30pm and got the cakes ready and then friends showed up around 8:30pm...including my 5 surprise visitors and then Maren (once again prepared) got out her Wunderkerzen (sparklers) and they all lit them and waved them around and sung Happy Birthday...it was great. Then it was time to dive into cake...and I got wine from Johann and Sekt (sparkling wine) from Steffi! We had a good time joking around in the garden and talking about everything. Gülya gave me a pack of Schwarzer Peter cards (a children's card game = fun)...
We all moved up to my room around 10 because it was getting cold and then we made tea and played Schwarzer Peter a couple of times. And finally around 11:30 the party wrapped up and everyone headed out.
Must say, it was a good time and I have the best friends of both worlds - in the US and in Germany!
P.S. Congrats to the 2 friends back home who managed to remember my birthday, haha! |
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| Time for an update, I guess? |
[Mai. 21., 2005|11:58 am] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  awake | ] |
Okay, so here's my update - most likely it'll wind up long, just like everything else I ever write.
I went back to the States on May 4th for a surprise visit to my brother for his college graduation which took place on May 7th at CNU. It was beautiful that day and a pretty decent graduation ceremony - my first university graduation that I've been to. I saw lots of family as well, including my aunts/uncles and such and of course my mom and grandparents.
Also while I was home I managed to overcome jet-lag and being tired and forced myself to go visit all my buddies at JMU during Finals week (sorry!) for a day...but it was probably one of the best days that I have had in the last year. It was so great to see all my JMU friends again and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about seeing a few of them again, for fear that things would have changed too much while I was gone and I'd be totally out of the loop. But things went really well and I saw probably about 30+ friends that day! I went to dinner with Chris and Maura, spent the night at Steph's and even managed to do my most random surprise visit ever... considering my friend didn't even know I was back in the States at that time...haha! In all, JMU was great; I look forward to senior year!!!
Aside from JMU friends and family, I saw my best friend Jamie while I was home. It was just a coincidence that we saw each other; I happened to fly in as she was going home from Florida to spend some time with her family and all. So I actually hung out with her about 4 times or so and that was a lot of fun. I grilled with a few friends before heading back to Germany last Sunday, May 15th and after everyone left I went to Jamie's and we celebrated turning 21 a few days early... so that meant alcohol and learning hemp...haha. Was a good time, not to mention the power went out and we were living like the Amish. Good times and glad I got to see Jamie again, since it had been something like 13-14 months since the last time I saw her!
My aunt was also in the States when I was there (for my brother's graduation) and that was fun; we took her to Mount Vernon and also to Fredericksburg to see the "old town" which isn't at all old in comparison to European towns! But still fun.
That's it for the US Side of the update... next is the German side... |
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| Seeing Friends, Family, Graduation, and now Sleep!!! |
[Mai. 7., 2005|09:31 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| | happy | ] |
I pulled it off and had a great story to tell everyone as I randomly showed up at the family-party last night before my brother's graduation which took place today. They even bought it, until I told them it was a little bit planned (as in a week prior to coming), but even so, it worked out well and my brother was pretty surprised... was fun and he graduated! Woohoo! He's done and couldn't be more happy; I'm kinda sad thinking about it...he's done and that means I will be done in 1 year and I can't believe it. If you asked me a year ago what I wanted to do after graduating, I'd probably have said...who knows? Travel and do something fun. Now, if you ask me... I might answer with something else...grad school. It's been crossing my mind a lot more; simply because if I could stay an extra year at JMU that would make it awesome - the only problem would be...what programs does JMU have for grad school and would any even fit for me? ... Hmmm!
In any case, the fun stuff was - I visited a TON of my JMU friends on Thursday and had the best time. It could very well have been one of my best JMU days; just getting to catch up with everyone...seeing old friends, surprisingly they didn't kill me for my April Fool's prank this year... and well, they seemed happy to see me. I even managed to pull one very well organized surprise visit...just randomly, thanks to Shea and Maggie. Thanks:) I can't be more happy to have the friends at JMU that I have; I saw probably 30-40 of them and saw all of my future roommates for August and the next year and even saw the apartment complex where I'll be living and am siked! It'll be a lot of fun next year; I know that much!!! I saw Steph and got to hang out with her and that was fun; I'm gonna miss her next year though - darn crazy kid who's too smart had to get into Grad school in D.C. I hope to visit her up there though - although I dunno how I'll manage that without a car; hopefully I'll get one when I get back from Germany in August!
Alrighty, I'm beat...tired of driving all over Virginia in two days and am extremely tired; don't know which time I am on at the moment - EST or German time... but I need some shut eye!
Looking forward to JMU '05-'06 a LOT! Can't wait to get back...
Did I mention that my Friday class in Germany got cancelled, and therefore I can stay till Sunday now! Monday is a holiday!!!:) I love Germany and all the holidays they have!
Catch you all later! |
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| Aufraumen... |
[Apr. 28., 2005|01:24 pm] |
I just did a little spring cleaning which including deleting people from my friend's list who I never seem to talk to anymore... that also meant I deleted something like 70 SNs from my buddy list on IM... hopefully, no one important. But considering I have been out of the AIM world for 10 months now, I have forgotten who is who...and even though I sign on more often now, I still have no idea who half the people on my buddy list are. It's sad, but oh well...guess they weren't that important anyway, or if they were, then they'll have my SN and IM me.
Catch you later! |
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| My Schedule! |
[Apr. 9., 2005|06:22 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  accomplished | ] |
Do I have classes with any of you all??? |
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| Norwegen, Norwegen...what do you do when it only rains? |
[Apr. 9., 2005|06:11 pm] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| | cheerful | ] |
Hi!
So, I am updating from Norway. I arrived here last Sunday and have been staying with my aunt and uncle in Tananger (near Stavanger). Having a good time except that Norway likes to rain when I come. It has rained every day, EXCEPT today (it's 18:12pm), so we'll see how long that stays so. In any case, Norway is quite beautiful and has some landscape that I have NEVER seen in any other country...the mountains, the ocean, the fords (is that English? = fjord in Norwegian)..., the lakes and rivers...and wow, there are ROCKS everywhere in this country. It is unbelieveable how beautiful it is, if only I had lucked out with a little better weather. Although today was quite nice and we went driving in Norway to see some pretty scenery!
Other than that, other news which I am quite excited about: my time in Germany/Europe is winding down quite rapidly and it is coming to that point in time where I have to think about moving back to the States. I will be coming back in about 4 months to the day (from tomorrow, possibly). I have one semester left at the university in Germany and then I fly home and have a couple weeks free and then start up my last year at JMU. And I can't even tell you all how excited I am to return to JMU, to see my friends, to get back into a regular college atmosphere again, to speak slang and English again (haha, I can't really grasp the concept of speaking just English and slang with friends)...to take SMAD classes, and more importantly to take Volleyball and ROCK CLIMBING for fun classes! I am totally psyched. At first, I was quite worried about the registration process as my German credits have not yet transferred and I registered two days later than all the other seniors...but somehow, I lucked out and still managed to get the classes I needed, and two fun classes on the side!
The only bad thing about all of this is I am trying to get a German double major and it's got about a 50% chance I think of pulling through. I need two German Lit classes and a Translation class, and some German Civilization class on top of what I have already taken to get my major. The problem, JMU only offers one class in the Fall which I have not taken, and I don't even know if that counts for what I need...basically, I have to search for some Lit classes at Uni Lüneburg and hopefully find something that will give me the credit I need to graduate with a double major. I am so close and probably more fluent than any other German major at JMU...hell, we don't even have a Study Abroad program for Germany...so how would they ever learn German overseas unless they go with another school or do what I am doing?
But yeah, regardless...I am totally happy to come back to the States (mainly to JMU) and well, I wouldn't mind seeing my cats again and my grandparents/mom/brother. But I can't wait to be back on a campus setting where I can run next door or on campus and stop by friends...where I can be excited because of a Walmart run or something so irrelevant such as that! Hip Hip Hooray...except I will be sad to leave Germany, but I think I have come to grips with the fact that I got what I wanted, I succeeded, and it's time to move on in life... I'll live it up for the next 4 months here in Germany, see as much as I can, have fun with friends, and continue to perfect my German and lose the damn American accent.
August 10th or around about then...here I come:) |
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| Krank und in Wien, es geht nicht besser... :( |
[Mär. 9., 2005|10:04 am] |
| [ | Aktuelle Stimmung |
| |  sick | ] |
So if you know German, you know what that subject means. Anyway, I am currently sick and in Vienna, Austria. The first couple of days were bareable, in that I was able to go out and explore a little bit.
I hitch-hiked from Salzburg to Vienna on Saturday successfully and saved 45 euros or so, which was definitely nice! I arrived to Vienna and asked a woman which tram/bus would get me to the center of the city. I got there fine and then went to meet up with Chris, my next hospitality host. We met up around 3pm and then shortly later he took me back to his apartment and showed me everything - including TV, internet, how the stove works, and even LAUNDRY. Yes, I would finally be able to wash clothes for the first time since Munich! Woohoo.
We then went grocery shopping and then back to drop off the stuff at his place; he gave me a key to his apartment, since he will not be staying there, but instead he stays with his girlfriend in her place. He then took me on a quick tour of the area down by the Rathaus and Hofburg area and then back to his place. We went out to a bar at 8pm as it was the 1-year anniversary of the place and Chris' friends would be coming. It was okay at first, probably because almost no one was there...and there was little smoke. But then it got really bad, everyone started chain smoking and not giving me a break to breath, it was horrible so I told them I had to leave (at 9:45pm)... so I went home and showered immediately and then washed more clothes.
Sunday I slept in till 10am and then met up with Kristin and Mike down by Stephans Dom and then they showed me around the city some and we rode the tram around the ring and got off to explore more. Then we all went to this mountain where when the weather is nice, one should be able to see quite far out over the city. We rode up there and it was nice, but really cold and windy...brr. Then we came back to where I am staying and I thew in a pizza and then at 8:45 we went to the English movie theatre and watched "Meet The Fockers" and that was pretty funny, at least I thought. I thought it wasn't bad considering it is a sequel...and it was quite different than the first film.
Monday I went out to explore more and followed Alice's advice and checked out the KunstHausWien where they have a permanent Hunderwasser exhibition and it is 50% on Mondays. Then I went to see the Hunderwasserhaus which was pretty neat. Afterwards I went to wait in line for a standing ticket at the Opera for Romeo and Juliette. I managed to get a ticket and a good standing place where I could see the entire stage and the acoustics were really good. I stood in the Gallery, amost dead in the middle so I think I did pretty well for a place. I left half-way through the opera because of my cold and sore throat, it was really bothersome. I came back and fixed dinner, drank tee the rest of the night and watched "Ich bin Sam" (I am Sam). Then I hit the sack.
Tuesday I woke up and felt horrible. I couldn't really do anything. I stayed in bed all day and slept on and off until 2:30pm and then got up for an hour or so and decided it might be a good idea to go down and buy my train ticket to Budapest, so I went to the Westbahnhof and got that taken care of. I lucked out and got a ticket for 19 euros, when they are normally 40 euros. I would have liked to have tried hitch-hiking again, but not while I am sick and the weather sucks - it is snowing and disgusting cold outside. After getting my ticket I went quickly to the store to get some more orange juice and corny bars along with some fruit, bread, and gummi bears (yay).
Then back to bed for the rest of the day/evening. I slept on and off from 7pm until 9pm and then got up and showered and took laundry downstairs to wash. Then waited till 12:30 to hang out my laundry and hit the sack again.
And that's been my experience in Vienna. I definitely have to come back because I feel like I still have at least half the city to explore...and in spring or summer it is certain to be beautiful here. So this is a must - come back again! |
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jmukiksters Journal