Lisa's Birthday

It was Lisa's 21st birthday last night, so of course we had a pretty pretty pink princess party, where everyone had to wear pink/get dressed up and her room mates made dinner and we brought her fun princess themed presents such as a can of peas and a disney princess book. Matt and Auna even performed a play, which was pretty fantastic, and everyone had momosas. It was really fantastic, There are tons of pictures of us all dressed up in pink, but here's my favorite from the night:a little taste of home, far far away.

Suche

We've only not had class for a couple of days now, and i'm already out of my mind with boredom. There simply isn't much to do(especially when you're avoiding spending money). Plus all of the Erasmus students left(european exchange students), which means all the people I met in class are gone, and I'm left with my Ami friends. So, I guess it's a good thing I leave for dublin in less than a week. Janessa and I spent all of yesterday planning our trip, which really just involved looking at pictures of Galway and deciding it was the only other city we wanted to visit. She has a friend in Belfast we could have stayed with, but we decided that Galway was simply cooler... and this way we don't have to exchange our currency.
I've been trying to get to the movie theater since I got here, but i've seen just about everything they've got out. They've got one theater that plays 2 or 3 of their movies in english, which is nice, except i've seen all of them and it's hard to convince me to see a movie for $8 with bad dubbing that i'll probably only understand parts of.
I'm pretty sure most of my room mates moved back in this morning, because I have never heard so much noise in our common area. I know Benny came back two days ago, and Fritjof and Nina last night. Nina doesn't completely count because she's moving out in a few days.
It also rains a lot here. I should have brought my rain boots.

cheese

why is there no cheddar here?

Rugby

The world cup of Rugby was last night(Ireland vs. France) so a bunch of us trekked into town to go to an Irish pub, which was strange because we were cheering for france. Either way, it was a fun time, France won by some ridiculous amount of points, but who knows how they scored them because I watched the game pretty intently and I still havn't got a clue what was going on. Mostly, It looked like a bunch of people sitting on each other and throwing a ball backwards. It was pretty violent.

I also went to Ikea yesterday and bought myself the cheapest rug they had (9.) it's pretty sweet, they also had a much cheaper pillow than before, thankfully, because I needed a new pillow. But my favorite purchase from Ikea is my brand new Ficus tree. Its pretty sweet. Peter named it, but it's pretty inappropriate, so i'm not going to repeat it. Lets hope my ficus doesn't die. I'm a little sad though that if it doesn't die I probably won't be able to take it home. whatevs.

I need to go buy some landry detergent, but heres a second photo before I go:

Oktoberfest

While Oktoberfest would be an awesome experience, it's not particularly worth it. It would cost about 144euro round trip by train(its a six hour ride) and if I did stay the night, I'd be sleeping on a park bench. That would be fine and dandy, if I wanted to lose all of my belongings. So, Instead I'm off to Ireland for 34euro round trip. I'll go back to Oktoberfest some time when I've thought it through and booked a hostel 3 months in advance. So, Ireland it is.

Ill

I am staying home sick from my first class today because I slept for 12 hours and still felt sick when I woke up. I feel much better now (strange, it was only 2 hours after that). tevs. But let me tell you about this awkwardness that just happened. A new room mate showed up, right before I was going to take a shower, while i was just chillin in my room. So, I went to shower and peeked in her door to see if she was there so I could introduce myself (her room is by the bathroom), and she wasn't there. So I took a shower. and when i got out her door was WIDE open and she was all chillin, but I couldn't introduce myself because I only had a towel on. let me tell you, it was mighty awkward. Well, Here are some photos of my room so you can have something pretty to look at:

More photos

Ok, so I'm going to try to put the rest of the photos up in one post (it's a little hard to tell what it'll look like, but lets hope this works. This one on the left, is also from Freiburger Muenster. It's pretty sweet, but I don't know what's going on in it.

The Next photo of the gold man is from a fountain just outside the muenster. also, super cool. It's in this open area that has a fresh market every day. I always forget about it though, so I havn't gotten the chance to shop there. Plus, I think it only goes on while I'm in class.

This next picture is of Martin's Tur (Martin's door) It's an old city gate they reconstructed after WWII (the whole city was reconstructed on the Middleages streetplan. ANyway, this is one of the original gates to the city.

The last one is of a typical Freiburg Street.

Pictures

So, this is the Freiburger Muenster: isn't it sweet? Cameron and I spent an entire day walking around and taking pictures last week, and this was my favorite that I took of the cathedral.
I'm in a lecture right now about the Freiburger Muenster, and i'd like you all to know that it started being built in 1200ad, and was finished almost 300 years later. Thats pretty sweet if you ask me. Also, it was one of the only things untouched after WWII in freiburg (mostly because the silly nazi's bombed themselves. silly nazis.) This next one is also just another great shot.

Vorlesungen

Today we started Lecture class on top of language class. I'm taking a course on the Freiburger Cathederal and one on idomatic sayings. The Cathedral one is both interesting and boring, and the Idomatic sayings one leaves me way in the dust. It's a good thing that I only need to attend to get credit. Next week I get to take one on the history of German film. I'm super excited. We'll probably watch metropolis, and you all know how much I adore metropolis.
I've gotten to hang out with my room mate Nina more recently because Fritjof isn't home and she is. She's super nice, last night I had a bunch of people over to discuss the Oktoberfest trip we want to take and she was super helpful. She told us about rideshare and planes and everything. We're pretty much planning on taking a train to Munchen and then hopping a flight to Dublin and spending a week or so travelling around. It's practically a two week trip, but we need to find some cheaper travel options. Right now, everything has been out of our price range. Tomorrow we're going to STA though to find out more about stuff from them.
I bought a hairdryer and a straightener the other day and it cost me an arm and a leg. it was absolutely ridiculous.

I was going to write more, but I want to put some pictures up, so there will be another post later tonight or perhaps tomorrow. tschau!

Sunday

In Germany, nothing is open on sunday. This means we are stuck watching german television... which is really just dubbed american television from 10 years ago. seriously. Ally McBeal was on last night. Right now we're watching Mona Lisa Smile though.

We went dancing last night, it was super fun. There was this spanish couple that was dancing that was just AMAZING. I have never felt like such a poor dancer. Peter and I spent most of our time imitating them and being like "Wow, no american can dance like that" then we came back to my apartment and listened to Justin Timberlake and chilled.

The Apartment below mine (peter's) has a Wii, so I think I might go there some time this week and play. It looks really fun. My apartment has Apples to Apples though which is also SWEET. it's in german though, so it'll be good to learn adjectives.

afar

I miss you all terribly.

along with good resturant service and being warm.


but I miss you the most.

Class

Had my first class. it was good. My computer still isn't working quite right (the lines change every time I turn it on, i probably shouldn't be on it right now). I'm super tired. bought a sweater because it is freaking cold here. I also havn't eaten a full meal yet today(this can't be good, but I skipped Mensa!) Still can't decide if I want a Mensa card. means I get a big meal for under 3 euro a day, but it smells funny in Mens and I don't like it. it makes me not want to eat.

Arrival

My trip overseas was quite harrowing. I was suprised, however, how IES was once I got here. They were nice enough to do my orientation in english(as at that point in time I had been awake for about 24 hours)... but not quite nice enough to give me the night off and allow me to sleep. I only got about an hour before I had to meet up with the other amerikanisher at IES to do more orientation and have dinner (which lasted another 4 hours). Eventually I got home at about 10 and got to go to sleep. At that point I had been awake for 31 hours straight and desperately needed to sleep.
I won't regail you all with the details of the train and how incredibly confusing it was, but I will tell you that it has rained since I got here with almost no stop. It was downpooring in every trainstation and on the walk to my apartment. The screen on my computer has these funny lines on it now and I'm not sure what to do about it. They're all at the bottom though, so I just moved the dock to the side of the screen and it seems to work alright. I'm afraid though that the screen is ruined and I'll have to pay thousands of dollars just to fix it.
My roommates are nice. I've only met two: Freidrich and a girl who's name starts with M that I can never remember. Freidrich helped me put my computer together (i.e. get internet) and he doesn't speak any english to me. I do live with one american student though, Ryan. He is also very nice (and reminds me that we have to leave).
My shoulders hurt from dragging my bags everywhere and my feet hurt from this tour we took today. Then we took this ridiculous sprachtest for placement where we had to read Kafka and define words we had never even remotely heard of. I got to go grocery shopping too, which could have ended with me and ten pounds of chocolate, but gladly didn't. I need to go to the Bakerei in the morning for breakfast. if I can find it.
Two girls and I went out for a beer after all that. We were supposed to meet up with all the other IES students at this one bar... only, we couldn't remember what it was called. So instead, I braved the UniCafe and ordered for all three of us. Apparently, I look very German because I've had many people ask me for directions/speak to me only in german... where as my new friend Janessa says one word when ordering and the woman behind the counter immediately says "Chicken or Beef?" in english. Poor girl. My room is huge, and I need to buy a book to read because I don't want to watch TV, and the book I bought at the airport got stolen or fell out somewhere after Heathrow(which is officially my least favorite airport ever).
Also, I have an address for everyone, but you need to tell me where to send it/email it (and also, give me yours!)

Leaving

I don't leave Madison for another two hours, but damn am I nervous.

Homework

Shitake, I forgot about my homework.