German Tales

and now for the rest of the story...

2008-04-24T15:30:00.009-05:00

I think the best part about Scotland was the people. Did I mention that they are super friendly there? Because they are! I met more people during our short stay in Scotland than I did on any of our other excursions throughout the semester. It was great! One encounter though will forever stick out above the rest. It all began on the train ride to our hostel.....

Since we had to be up and out for our Sunday flight by 5:30 in the morning we decided to book a hostel as close to the airport as possible. And because we wanted the cheapest tickets possible, that airport wasn't exactly in Glasgow but rather in Prestwick which was a mere 30-45 minute train ride away. So after exploring Glasgow a bit, we caught a train to the airport and began the journey to find our hostel for the night.

Only a few stops after we got on, a whole group of Celtic fans loaded onto the train. (The Celtic Football Club is Glasgow's official soccer team) And of course one of the very exuberant fans sat next to us. At some point while Sierra and I were chatting, we noticed our train buddy paying close attention to everything we were saying. She kept looking over at us and smiling.

Finally after a few minutes she asked us where we were from. As soon as we said "Texas" she exploded with excitement. She started asking us all sorts of questions. She couldn't believe we were actually from Texas. Apparently there is some show called "Dallas" from the 80's that is a huge hit over there now.

Apparently the show is about some man named JR Ewing. IMBD describes it as: Popular evening 'soap-opera' style television drama. The show was set in Dallas and chronicled the exploits of wealthy Texas oil millionaires. Many of the plots revolved around shady business dealings and dysfunctional family dynamics.

So the mental image of Texans came from this JR Ewing guy

She kept asking us about cowboy hats and why we didn't talk like the people on the show. It was hilarious. Of course neither of us had ever heard of this show before so we had no clue what she was talking about.

My favorite part was when she started trying to talk like us. She would pick up on specific phrases we apparently kept saying and would way them back in a high nasally voice with her face all scrunched up. She sounded so funny. Her favorite thing to repeat was "Ohh man." She would just say it over and over again.

Her husband and his friend were a few rows down so she kept leaning over to them and bragging about how she was talking to "real live Texas people and they sound nothing like JR." Basically we just spent the whole train ride laughing. It was a blast. She kept going on an on about how she would get to tell all her friends that she met real Texas people and that the show Dallas isn't what Texas people are like.

At some point in the conversation Sierra started talking about music and the band S-Club 7 came up. I have no clue how it all started, but we ended up rolling as our new train buddy started singing one of their songs at the top of her lungs. It was a mess.

When we all got off at our stop, we were introduced to the other men (Ed and George and her name was Ann)

George on the right and Ed on the left

Ann...our new train buddy

Ann began explaining to George and Ed everything we had talked about and when the S-club conversation came up, the men broke out in laughter and began singing "Reach for the stars...." (apparently thats one of their songs) and dancing. So naturally I busted out the camera and took this lovely video. Unfortunately my camera doesn't have sound, but you can at least see the craziness happening on platform 2...

After our little dance party they started asking about our plans for the evening and decided we were going to join them in the airport restaurant/pub and they would treat us to a beer. They had to catch a plane home that night but had some time to kill so they wanted to hang out with us some more. Since we had nothing better to do as well, we decided to tag along.

Ohh man. I have never laughed so hard in my life. (ohh and for those wondering...don't worry Europe hasn't corrupted me. I had a coke, not a beer. Just thought I should clear that up) During all the laughter and crazy stories, Ed leaned over and explained that he wanted to make a trade. My beanie for his Celtic scarf. Immediately I laughed and turned this offer down. The next 2 hours basically turned into an off an on conversation about making this trade. He was determined that he wanted my beanie.

I kept asking him why in the world would be want my beanie. His reply: "when people see me wearing your beanie and ask me where it's from, I will be able to tell them that I traded my cherished Celtic scarf with a beautiful young real live Texas girl who is actually from Texas and isn't anything like the show Dallas. And how many people can say that."

You see Ed is a HUGE Celtic fan. He has been to almost every game no matter where it is and he has always had this scarf with him. He started naming all the countries it had been and explained that it was over 20 years old. Man he really wanted my beanie. I don't know who had a bigger attachment to their accessory. Me and my beanie or him and his scarf. But he was willing to trade so he could have a neat new souvenir with a fun story.

It took a LOT of convincing and I almost didn't do it. But just at the last second before they had to leave to catch their flight....I gave in. So after 2 hours of debating, I left that night watching my beanie walk away in one direction and I in the other while holding a new piece of cloth that contained quite possibly the coolest story ever.

the trade...

ohh Ed...

When we finally got to our Hostel we met yes again another person who wanted to talk our ear off. The lady that worked at the hostel talked to us for probably 30 minutes before she finally gave us the key and left us alone. And then of course our cab driver the next morning was super friendly. As soon as he heard us speak he said "the US? Ohh I love to hear the American accent." haha

So Scotland was absolutely AMAZING! From the scenery to the people, you can not ask for a better place to visit. I for sure would not mind living there! I think it's the only place I have ever been where the people wanted to hear my "accent" just as much as I wanted to hear theirs! Who knew Scotts were infatuated with the American accent.

Destination: Scotland...

2008-04-22T17:55:00.006-05:00

It is done. My super duper gray beanie with a red and white stripe is officially walking around in London somewhere. Yes, that is right. My favorite beanie has a new owner. How could this happen you ask...

Well it all began a few weeks ago when we discovered our schedule included a 3 day weekend.....

Three day weekends are the best! Of course on 3 day weekends you have to take full advantage of this extra day, thus why the boys (Gavin, Jacob, and Geoff) went to Istanbul and Savannah and Barrett went to London. Due to the fact that I had already been to London and being the only girl going to Turkey didn't sound very appealing, I decided Sierra and I should do something adventurous!

Since I have always had a secret obsession with the Scottish accent and have always dreamed of visiting anywhere in Scotland, I convinced Sierra (didn't take much) that we should go out on a limb and see what we could come up with. Before we knew it we became the proud owners of 2 plane tickets to Glasgow, Scotland.

On the recommendation of one of our amazing AIB staffers (Stefanie), after arriving we decided to grab an hour ferry from Ardrossan to the Isle or Arran. If you are into the outdoors and love to just be in the pure presence of the Lord's glorious creation, then I suggest you put Arran on your list of places to go. It was absolutely beautiful!!

According to the lovely little pamphlet given to us by the nice man at the front desk of our hostel, the Isle is about 25 miles from top to bottom and 12 miles across. The road running around the outside of the Island is 57 miles across. Only 4,500 people populate the Island, and 3,000 of those live in the 3 big villages.

There are all sorts of interesting animals on the Island too. In our short time there, we were only able to see the red deer, a sea otter, and plenty of sheep scattered about. We are told though that you can pretty regularly see seals, badgers, red squirrels, golden eagles, hen harriers, and basking sharks and dolphins. Basically the whole island is just one big nature trail.

The ferry dropped us off in Brodick where we took a bus to our hostel in Lochranza. The 20 minute bus ride was absolutely gorgeous! Mostly the road followed the coast, but it often weaved into the country side surrounding us with beautiful mountains.

All around the mountains you could spot sheep.

Arran has lots of sheep! They aren't always fenced in either. Often our bus would come to a stop as a sheep decided to lazily cross the street. They were everywhere and not even afraid of the passing cars! They just chilled, eating their grass as our bus flew past them only a few feet away. It was insane!

The buses in Lochronza are a hoot. I would not describe them as punctual or structured. Sure there were "bus stops" but that really did not mean much. You just told the driver when to stop and there you were. When we asked him where our hostel was he told us not to worry, "I'll give you a shout out when we get there." And he did. In fact he took us right to the front door. It was great!

Our hostel turned out to be super neat! The location was fabulous! Standing in the driveway you could throw a rock and hit the wet land that fills with ocean water at high tide. Looking to the left, we were only about 150 yards from an old castle. It was perfect!

After dropping of our bags at the hostel, we set out to explore! We spent the whole afte
rnoon climbing through the castle and hiking around the area. Our hostel gave us information on a trail to take that would take us to a spot where there are normally seals. From there we were supposed to find another tail that passes the spot where red deer hang out.

Although we never found the seals, and our second trail decided to hide from us, we made out own path and had a blast! At one point we found 2 deer and got withing 30 feet of them. After passing many sheep, we decided our goal would be to hug one. Yeah, umm, that didn't work out so well. We could get withing maybe 10 ft, but then they were off. And those little buggers could skedaddle. So mission hug sheep failed, but it was still a great day!

To top everything off, we got back to the hostel and met a new friend. The way hostels work is that there are normally several people to a room. And you don't necessarily know your other roommates. Some are co-ed (I personally stay away from those) while others are separated by gender.

The room Sierra and I got was a 4 person female "dorm" (as they call them) so we shared it with another older lady. She was the coolest! Her name was Lindsay. She is originally from England but has been living in Scotland for a few years and loves to travel. She normally stays in her tent but decided to check into this hostel for the week because the weather was supposed to get nasty.

This is us with our new friend the mountain woman.

I am so glad she picked the hostel so we could meet her! She had the most interesting stories! Sierra and I probably chatted with her for a good hour or two. Man this lady was hard core! She just picks a place and backpacks through. The next day she had plans to hike up one of the mountains. So cool =)

The next morning we woke up super early to catch the bus back to Brodick so we could see another castle and check out the shops. Out 2 favorites were the Arran Aromatics (where they made and sold had soaps, lotions, candles, and other bath items), and the Island Cheese Co. The Cheese place was heavenly! Oh boy!

They had a table where you could sample all the different cheeses! Of course some were AWESOME while others....well lets just say some mold should not be given the label "cheese." Just throw it away for goodness sake! Our favorite sample was the raspberry infused cranberry cheese! So we bought a block and called is breakfast and lunch! Perfection!

As we got closer to town we started losing track of time in all the cute shops and ended up arriving at our ferry just as it pulled away. Thats ok, we recovered by playing around in the town while we waited 2 more hours for the next one. I was actually glad we missed the first ferry.

When we finally made our way back to Glasgow, we just walked around the town for the rest of the day and shopped. We met so many interesting people. Scottish people are sooo friendly! I definitely want to live there!

Speaking of friendly people, I suppose this leads me into my final story from Scotland and most memorable experience so far in Europe. Where did my beanie go...

But since this thing is getting so long, I will save that story for tomorrow. =) Ohh cliff hanger! But until then you can enjoy the pretty pictures =)

Locranza Castel

Brodick Castle

the sunset was gorgeous! This doesn't even do it justice...

look...its a face

this is right outside our hostel

more pics to come later...

Lost and found...

2008-04-21T15:38:00.004-05:00

In case you have not heard: just after my trip to Scotland my wallet decided to leave the cozy company of my bag and embark on an adventure of its own. I personally did not welcome this adventure considering my wallet contained many very important items such as my transportation pass, all my id (minus my passport thankfully), debit card, untold amounts of money, and other various items I was not to keen on losing.

The disappearances, of course, happened just in time for our week long trip to Berlin. Perfect timing? Well, I think not! That was an interesting week I must say. But thankfully my lovely group came to the rescue and at least made sure I was golden in the cash department.

While we were in Berlin, however, the wonderful staff at AIB placed a few phone calls and began the process of possibly tracking down my wallet. Here in Düsseldorf they have this lovely concept of a city wide lost and found. It is amazing! If you happen to leave something on the tram or bus there is a central location where it is all collected.

Halfway through our Berlin trip I received the most welcomed message that my wallet had in fact been found AND remarkably nothing was missing. Praise the Lord!!! They sent a letter to my host lady's house with instructions on where to go and such but since I was in Berlin, I had to wait until I got back to pick it up. That's where today comes in...

This morning I woke up bright and early ready to redeem my wallet before class. Conveniently the lost and found was located on the exact opposite side of town where I had never been but with the help of google map, the rheinbahn transportation map, and a time schedule book, I charted the perfect path to get there and back just in time for class to start at 10:15 (I even gave myself a 45 minute cushion just in case). At least that was the plan.

This semester has taught me a very important concept about plans. They are made to be broken. And of course like most transportation adventures this semester, things didn't exactly go as "planned."

I was able to catch my first train right on time but that train quickly changed status from "on time" to "slightly late." And "slightly late" means that I only "slightly" missed my connecting bus to the lost and found. Lovely.

But it gets better. The stop where I was to get off and catch the 834 bus just so happened to be under construction. There are 9 different stops around the area and after jogging to each one to find where my 834 bus would pick me up, of course, it's the only one that has a big x through it.

The construction people however were so kind to write a little message explaining where the new location was. Only one problem....I can't read German! That's ok though, I just decided to stand in the middle of all the stops and watch for my bus and then run to wherever it decided to stop. Problem solved. =)

Only 20 minutes off schedule, no big deal. When I got to the stop closest to my destination I pulled out my lovely scribble of the google map I looked up the night before and began to decipher which direction I should take. According to google I was to turn right and it would be across the street a block or so away. Problem: to my right a block or so away happened to be a bridge crossing the Rhein. Way to go google.

As I stood there at my bus stop thoroughly confused trying to collect my barrings, I just so happened to look over my shoulder and glance at the big blue sign attached to the fence I had been standing next to. You guessed it. I had been standing next to the building the whole time.

The building was kinda shady, but the words matched the name in my letter. I followed the signs and enter the building. The entrance lead to a long white hallway with a bunch of cold metal doors. The sign giving directions made absolutely no since. After starring at it for a few minutes I noticed a man had joined me and had a different looking letter in his hands and had the same confused look but I decided to see if he could help anyway.

After studying my letter (which by the way is in german) for a bit he handed it back and in very broken English simply stated, "I not know." And thus began my 30 minute scavenger hunt for a door that did not exist.

I checked all the floors multiple times and found nothing. Every time I passed the entrance there was always a new person with a letter and a confused look on their face. It was quite entertaining. Several times I passed that first man in the stairwell. We just laughed and kept looking for our destinations.

To get a mental picture you need to envision an old brick building that looks deserted. Long white hallways with big closed metal doors and dirty (used to be white) tile floors. The far end of the building is a big glass wall with the lone stair case in a pretty big hollow room. The only sounds are those of your footsteps echoing in the empty hallways. Now place a few people wondering around trying to find something and not succeeding, only passing each other in the stairwell. Speed up the video and put circus music behind it and ta da! my morning.

After talking to many different people, the only one I ran across that couldn't speak English was that only one that actually helped. He took me outside and the pointed to where my destination was. Apparently this place was in the basement of the building. Of course inside there is not a set of stairs leading there so you have to go around to the other side of the building, through the parking lot that goes to the lower level and there in that most hidden corner you will find a door and apparently thats the lost and found. Gee, why didn't I think of that!

Finally I was there! With my letter and passport in hand, I was ready to pick up my wallet. The nice man behind the counter retrieved my treasure from the vault, pulled it out of the folder and said "10 euro." Since I had lost my wallet shortly after returning from Scotland, I only had British pounds. My debit card was blocked as soon as I realized it was missing, and the few travelers checks I had were also canceled thus the blank stare he recieved.

Once I explained my story he said all was good and that I could just take my British pounds and exchange them at the bank. He kept my travelers check and what change I had, gave me my wallet with the pounds and gave me directions to the bank.

The directions I received: "Over there..." (he did that extend the arm and point straight thing curving to the left when his arm fully extended) What does that mean? How am I supposed to use a hand gesture for directions when the bearings of the employee is questionable in the first place due to their current location in a building with no windows. Does he even know where the street is?

Following his "over there..." directions the best I could, I wound at a construction site with fencing everywhere and thus began my hour long search for this "bank." Several times I stopped for directions. My favorite directions were from the lady who asked if I had fire for her. (she was wanting to smoke a cigarette) I said " no, but I do have a question for you." She laughed at my response and explained that I was on the wrong street and that it was on a street parallel to where we were. She pointed me in a direction and sent me on my way.

Now I am sure that somewhere in the city of Düsseldorf there is a bank on some street that happens to be parallel to the one we were on, but not anywhere near where I was. I walked up and down the next 3 streets that were "parallel" and found nothing! I must have covered every street withing a 3/4 a mile (at least) radius of the lost and found building and found nothing. The sad part is that I really could have just left without paying the 10 euros because all they held as ransom was my travelers checks that were now void because I canceled them and the 14 cents from my change purse. It was tempting...

Finally after many wrong directions, I found some random bank and got probably the worst exchange rate ever so I could pay this silly 10 euro bill.

When I got back to the lost and found place and walked in, the man threw his hands up in the air and breathed out a long relieved sigh. Apparently they figured out that they really held nothing of value and assumed I wasn't returning. I told them of my travels and we laughed for a bit.

What a day! So now I have my lovely wallet back. It only cost me 10 euros to find it, but its back. And....I was only 1 1/2 hours late to class =)

So if you ever lose something in Düsseldorf Germany, call me. I am now a pro with the lost and found thing and know not only how to get there, but how to get anywhere in that whole area because I walked it over several times =)

I title this one…RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

2008-04-07T15:15:00.005-05:00

When things do not go as planned, life gets interesting.

Here’s the story…

A few weeks ago Geoff, Jacob, Savannah and I decided to use up the last few days of our eurorail to take a trip to Marseilles.

The day started out like every other day here in Düsseldorf. The sun choked out by the clouds, the air crisp, and the birds signing their lovely morning melody. But heading out, I was a wee bit late.

Instead of class as normal, we were to meet one of the AIB staff at the HBF (the main train station) to go on a class trip to Neuss to visit the Museumsinsel Hombroich. Then Jacob, Savannah, Geoff and I were going to leave the group a bit earlier to catch a train to begin our journey to Marseilles. Well, that was the plan.

Our field trip to Museumsinsel Hombroich was pretty neat. We got to see all sort of things. Basically it is a playground for architects, combining nature and art. There are buildings and sculptures scattered everywhere. Of course the weather didn’t cooperate so that was kind of a bummer. But with umbrellas in hand, we survived.

After lunch is when the real adventure begins however. You see, we were supposed to catch a bus that would take us to a train that would take us to the Neuss HBF where we would catch another train that would take us to the Düsseldorf HBF where we would begin our journey to Marseilles (which involved changing trains a few times). Sounds simple enough, right? The catch was that if we missed our train in Düsseldorf, we wouldn’t get to go.

Well to make a long story short, our bus ride that was supposed to only last 6 minutes took 34 minutes. Meaning, we missed our train to the Neuss HBF. Trying not to panic, we found a Taxi and hopped in. At this point our Marseilles train was scheduled to leave in 30 minutes. No problem right? Except, the taxi driver told us that where we needed to go was 30 minutes away. YIKES!!

As soon as the Düsseldorf HBF was in sight, we threw money to the taxi driver and began sprinting with our heavy backpacks as fast as we could to our gate which of course had to be on the complete opposite end.

The gate we needed was 16. At around gate 13 I started noticing my vision was slowly fading and I wasn’t exactly breathing right (thank you asthma). After a quick stumbling blackout, I decided to use a quick walk instead of a sprint.

At the final stair case to gate 16 I regained courage and ran up the stairs just in time to see Savs, Geoff, and Jacob hanging out of the door yelling my name. After diving into the train, the doors closed and we were on our way.

Apparently Geoff had been the first one to the train and had just barely caught the door before it closed and held if for Jacob and Savs. Then they held the door until the last minute when I arrived. Thanks guys! We just barely made out trip!

Marseilles was amazing! We mainly just walked around and enjoyed the town. We also took a 3 ½ hour boat tour to the cliffs and such. It was beautiful.

The crew (jacob, savs, geoff)

This is mostly how you can find her =)

The classic whoop!

beautiful Savs on our boat tour

love orange boats =)

harbor

jacob likes being on top of the world...

This past weekend Sierra and I got to go to Scotland. Details on that soon to come...

barcelona...

2008-03-22T09:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning Barrett, Gavin, Geoff, Jacob, Savannah, and I boarded a plane and flew to Barcelona, Spain. It is pretty neat here. Finally we are able to wear short sleeves. The boys even wore shorts yesterday. We are all absolutely fascinated by the fact that it is so warm here, but yet the locals are still bundled up in their big coats and scarves. I guess they have never been to Germany.

Our fist order of business in getting here was to check out the beach. Of course even though the sun may be warm, the water is apparently freezing cold so you won't find anyone swimming about, but that doesn't stop them from enjoying the sandy shores.

We got there, rolled up our pant legs and just walked around in the sand. At one point Geoff decided to prove a point and actually jumped in. All the way! Crazy! But since we didn't have a frisbee or a ball with us, we found some amazing rocks to keep us busy for a while.

Along the shores were a few peninsulas that had these huge rocks at the end. Naturally we decided these would make a great jungle gym. The goal of each point was to get to the furthest rock without getting wet and taking a picture. It was a little tricky at times with slippery algae and rocks a little to spaced out, but eventually we reached out destinations.

The rest of our time up until now has just been filled with seeing different parts of Barcelona. There is another group of architecture kids from A&M studying here, so they have been kind enough to give us the grand tour. It has been great.

Hopefully later I will throw in the rest of my spring break story with the family. Have a lovely day!

Rolling hills….

2008-03-20T18:36:00.003-05:00

I have decided that I am in love with rolling hills. Hills blanketed with all sorts of things. From dense forests to simple green pastures to little towns neatly tucked away in the folds, they are simply beautiful.

Why am I talking about rolling hills you ask? Well, simply because I am starring at them right now. I am currently on a train headed back to my lovely home away from home, Düsseldorf, and the window to my right is providing a most interesting view of the German country side.

In the distance I am almost positive I am watching snow gracefully fall (Either it is snow or really slow falling rain that wonders rather than falling in its usual straight path to the ground). Though the clouds have control of the sky today, the sun makes sure its presence is known. In scattered places the sun’s rays can clearly be seen shining through. I like it when that happens. It gives a gloomy day character.

The whole reason for this journey was to take my dad to the airport. We hoped on a train at 5:30 this morning to send him back to the states. For those that do not know, my dad and sister flew in last Monday (march 10^th) to spend spring break here. And that is where my story begins.

The public transportation in Germany has been having a series of what they call “warning strikes.” Apparently they are not happy with their pay so they schedule these strikes and then negotiate with whomever about whatever and if all goes well then there will not be a strike. Apparently things never go well. Düsseldorf has experienced 2 of them since we have been here.

Normally the strikes are just local. Meaning the national trains still run. Though they are not much help to us students because we have to take a local train to get to the station with the national trains, but if you so desire to walk then you can catch one and go from city to city.

Well, the week before my dad and sister arrived, we got word about a national strike soon to happen. And wouldn’t you know, that strike landed on the day my family was to arrive. Meaning, when they flew into Frankfurt they could not catch a train to Düsseldorf like they were planning.

Thats when Julie (my missionary friend) decided we would drive and pick them up. Of course telling them this would take all the fun out of things. So when they boarded the plane they were expecting to arrive in Frankfurt and take a 2 hour train ride to Düsseldorf. Little did they know someone would be waiting there for them…

After finding their gate and the perfect place to stand so that we were just out of sight, we waited. Finally after watching several flights arrive and passengers leave, my dad and sister appeared through the gate doors. Ohh man was I excited to see them! But I remained calm and tried to come up with the best way to make our presence known. It was quite exciting!

Their first task after getting to the airport was to call me and let me know they were there, so they were supposed to be heading towards a pay phone. But they passed a few. So as I stalked behind them for a while I decided to walk up next to dad.

After a few steps and him not catching on, I decided to inform him that the pink T-Moble signs were in fact pay phones. At this point they both gasped and stopped dead in their tracks. Becca who was ahead a bit quickly turned around to look with her mouth hanging down to the floor. It was priceless!! Mission complete! Apparently just before I walked up, Becca had just mentioned that she was disappointed I wasn’t going to meet them at the airport and wished I had come. Perfect timing =)

Once we loaded up the car, we set off to show them a bit of Germany. Our first stop was a stretch of the Rhine River where there are a lot of cute little towns and old castles. It was amazing! We got off at a few different spots, but the best was Bacharach. There we got to tour the Castle Stahleck. Oh man it was a blast!!!

If you ever come to Germany you have to check out this area. It is absolutely beautiful!!! Small towns lining the river with castles scattered about, man it’s a sight! The terrain was, once again, those rolling hills. Instead of pastures like lots of other places, there were vineyards everywhere! At some parts the hills where so steep that we couldn’t figure out how in the world someone could harvest the grapes! But they did and it sure made for a fascinating sight.

After the River, we took them to Köln and showed them the Cathedral. I think they really enjoyed it. The weather in Köln was pretty bad, but we stayed in the Cathedral the whole time so I think it worked out. After eating lunch and introducing dad to wiener schnitzel, we headed back to our final destination of the day, Düsseldorf. I think it turned out to be a very successful day =)

The rest of the week’s story is soon to come…

Here are just a few pics

Posting

We like snowboarding =)

2008-02-16T12:48:00.016-06:00

I apologize in advance for the length of this next post. There is just so much to cover =)
Alright, here we go...

Paris day 3 and 4:
Day three started off with a visit to The Hôtel National des Invalides where Napoleon’s tomb is located. There they had an extensive museum entailing the history of France pertaining to the wars. It was very interesting. There was also an armory that we got to browse in. Everything was in glass cases. Glass cases provide lovely reflections. So being the creative group we are, we discovered that if you stood a certain distance from the glass you could get your reflection to line up with the armor inside therefore making it look as if you were wearing the armor. Brilliant! We proceeded to take pictures using this lovely discovery.

Some examples:

jacob

savs

Our travels then took us to Sante Chapelle where we got in for free due to our current status as architecture/art students! Being artsy pays off I suppose. Sante Chapelle was beautiful. The sun poured through the windows splashing the colors of the stained glass everywhere. Have I mentioned that I absolutely love stained glass yet? Because I do! This stuff is ridiculously amazing! What was so neat about this building though was the stories in the windows. There are 1,113 scenes depicted within the 13 stained glass windows. They tell the story of mankind from Genesis to Christ's resurrection. It is pretty impressive. Everything here was over the top. You see Sante Chapelle was the private chapel of the king. He would allow only his close friends and family to join him in the upper chapel. (the one with all the windows). The lower chapel was for the palace staff. It was neat, I am glad we experienced this place.

After the chapel we were going to go to the catacombs, but they were closed for restoration until March. Instead, we ventured to the Pompidou. It is a modern art museum built by Richard Rogers. Inside there were lots of works by some big name artists like Picasso, Kandinsky, Braque, Dali, and Pollock (just to name a few). It was incredible. Of course half of the art was, in my opinion, rather ridiculous. Some pieces of modern art are interesting and then others you just have to wonder about. For instance, one room proudly displayed these 4 massive beams leaning against the wall and wrapped in large rope. I mean really. Art? Who buys this stuff? I am also convinced that some of the paintings could be replicated by a 4 year old, but I guess there are people out there who actually like this stuff. So if that is you, I apologize for not knowing what makes a composition art. I do admit that I have been brain washed by this major into liking some pieces of art that I previously made fun of, but there is definitely a line where that brain washing stops. Some of that stuff was just silly looking.

The Pompidou center finished out our day 3 in Paris. The next morning we decided to sleep in a bit which only meant 9am. Then we packed up and headed out to complete out spectacular journey through Pairs. We had a few more things we wanted to accomplish before we left. This included the Basilique at St. Denis and the Palace at Versailles.

St Denis was very pretty. It looked older than the other cathedrals but that was just because it hasn't been kept up as well as the others. The rose window on one side was completely missing as where other parts of various windows. Again we found ourselves with a sunny day meaning lots of color filling the walls and columns. It was beautiful! The museum was free here as well due to the fact that it was the first Sunday of the month (in Paris, the museums are all free on the first Sunday of every month) so we got to tour some other parts of the church.

Our final destination was the Palace at Versailles. WOW! This place is massive! It was probably the touristiest thing we did while there. It was so crowded. We took an audio tour of the inside, but we found ourselves just wanting to get out of there and go see the gardens. Things might have been different if the crowd wasn't so large. Inside you were basically shoulder to shoulder with people everywhere you went. It was like a herd of cattle being shuffles through a small space. Not cool! The outside on the other hand was amazing. Unfortunately the statues were covered up and the fountains where dry, but it was still quite a sight to see!

Here ends our absolutely amazing adventures from Paris. Paris was such a wonderful place to visit. I could never live there, but I could definitely visit it again. All in all, we had an absolute blast. To get home we got to experience another overnight train ride. This meant board the train at 10:55pm, arrive in some city at 4:40am, chill for an hour before our 20 minute ride to another destination where we waited for 13 minutes to load our final train home to Dusseldorf 2 hours away. Fun stuff. Let’s just say that it was a long night.

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Since we got here Gavin, Geoff, and I have been dreaming up a snowboarding trip in the Swiss Alps. After looking into it a bit we realized that we would have to "settle" for the German Alps, but still we had no definite plans. Wednesday rolls around and we are trying to figure out what to do for the quickly approaching weekend. Snowboarding is mentioned and suddenly plans start formulating and we magically found ourselves with reservations for a hostel and a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the site of the Winter Olympic Games in 1936. Holy cow! We spent 2 days snowboarding in the Alps!!! It was fantastic!!!!

The group consisted of Gavin, Geoff, Sierra, and me. Again our travels found us on an overnight train. This time fortunately it was an 11 hour non stop train. One day I will get the hang of these things. I do not understand how this works. When I am in class I have to fight extremely hard to keep my eyes open! It never fails: walk in, sit down, lights turn off, PowerPoint appears with the sound of the professors voice explaining the material, and then WHAM, you are hit with the overwhelming urge to sleep. In a desperate attempt to keep your eyes open, they cross and suddenly the PowerPoint starts appearing twice. Your head oddly becomes much heavier and the words of the professor begin to sound like a beautiful lullaby singing you off to sleep. Sleep comes so easily in class. This is not the case on these trains. Why is this? When you want to sleep you can't and when you don't, you do. Maybe they should start playing boring documentaries on these trains. Maybe that will fix things.

Once in Garmisch we set out to find the ski place. Establishing its location, we decided to just walk. I would say we ended up walking a mile or so to get there. Walking through the streets of the town was so neat! Garmisch is a small town tucked away at the base of the Alps. Everything was so cozy. The smell of fireplaces filled the air! This of course happens to be one of my favorite smells!

We find our destination and spend the day snowboarding in the Alps with absolutely perfect weather! The whole experience was simply amazing!!! The only trouble was when Geoff and I attempted to use the t-bar lift. If you have no clue what I am talking about then click on this link.... T-bar lift .... To keep a long story short lets just say they ended up having to stop the lift 4 different times for us before we finally made it up. Well, we actually only made it halfway up the lift before falling again but decided to give up. So we popped of our boards and walked through the woods to the nearest run. =) My advice to you: never ride a t-bar lift with a person where there is a significant height difference. It just doesn't work.

After a long day we loaded up our gear and set out to find our hostel. And when I say loaded up our gear, I mean everything. We walked to the complete opposite side of town with our heavy backpacks, boards, and boots in hand. That was quite a walk. I would say that we walked for a solid hour. This hostel was forever away. But our walk did provide us the opportunity to see more of this cute little town. The sun set and we got to walk under a blanket of stars. Everything was still and quiet. The smells of the chimneys filled the air. It was great! Finally we arrive at our hostel where we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the place. It was only 11 euros per person so we were glad to find that it was so nice!

The restaurant we found for dinner was amazing. The staffers were all dressed up in traditional German clothes and there was live music provided by a man playing the accordion and a woman playing the guitar. It was so much fun! The food was strange but delicious. I had some kind of white sausage with a fresh pretzel and mustard. After we finished eating a couple who had been sitting near us came up and asked if we where American. The man then looked at me and said "I giggled internally as I watched how you ate your sausage. (I cut it with a knife and ate each piece with a fork) You ate it the German way! You should have eaten it the Bavarian way!! You stab it with a fork and suckling the whole thing up!" It was hilarious.

The next day we decided to check out the other side of the mountain where we would find ourselves skiing above the tree line on a glacier at the highest point in Germany. The only way to get there was by a 20 minute gondola ride. It was absolutely AMAZING!!!! The views were breathtaking!!! The skiing area was basically in this bowl on the top of the mountain. Once inside you were surrounded by mountains as far as the eye could see! The day before, the runs were often icy and the snow was packed. But here, there was a blanket of powdery goodness =) I highly recommend this place for skiing. It was amazingly cheap too. And even if you don't ski, the gondola to the top is for anyone. Lots of people just went up to see the view. I basically fell in love with this little town!!

Unfortunately our adventures there had to come to an end and that night we hopped on yet another overnight train home to Dusseldorf. We arrived at 6:50am just in time to shower and leave for class at 9am.

The whole gang!

The group minus me obviously =)

Going home for the day

Sierra and I on the slopes

View from the top. Yes that is a frozen lake. AMAZING!!

View of the town from the top

very important sign...

The ski slopes

view while on a ski slope

snow angel =)

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Due to the length of this post I think I shall save Amsterdam and Rotterdam for tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed!

So here is the scoop...

2008-02-11T17:08:00.000-06:00

I had every intention of catching everyone up on the latest of my lovely European adventures, but wound up chatting with my dad and sister on skype instead! Yay! So the update will have to wait. But here is what you have to look forward too:

1.) the last 2 days of Paris

2.) one incredible action packed adventure

on snowboarding in the German Alps!

3.) our class trip to Amsterdam and Rotterdam

(we leave tomorrow and get back friday night)

So look forward to one massive update in the near future. And by near, I mean Friday or Saturday. =) I hope everyone has an awesome week!!

Ohh and thank you to everyone who has sent letters! Mail is fun! =)

The Paris adventures continued....

2008-02-07T15:30:00.000-06:00

Here is the lovely video I promised you a few posts back. This was created by Savs, Jacob, and I during our camera workshop. It is just a collage of some footage we captured during the week. Hope you enjoy...

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A little over 3 weeks in this lovely city and the transportation system and I still have a rocky relationship. Apparently I just don't know how to check times correctly. Walking to the bus this morning I had this sickening feeling that my timing was off. Today we were going on a class trip to Bonn and had to meet at the Hauptbahnhof at 8:40 so I had to catch a train earlier than normal to get there. As I rounded the corner to where the stop was just in sight, I noticed my train quickly approaching. Ohh no! I think my theme for Germany is "Run, catch that train!!" Unfortunately a red light postponed my sprint and I got there just in time for the doors to shut right as I stepped in front of them. All worked out in the end though, Savs (who get on the train a stop before me) missed that same train so we arrived at the same time and just barely made it to our 8:40 meeting spot. One day we will conquer this German public transportation system and all will be great.

The Bonn trip was a blast. It only took us an hour by train to get there and then we had a full day of activities. To start off we met with a small animation agency that does advertising, medical animations, and whatever other small projects they are approached with. It was neat. They showed us some of their work and talked about what they do. After that we went on a tour of the Post Tower. That was such a neat building. It is this huge 40 story all glass skyscraper. The floors are glass, the sides are glass, and many of the walls were glass. It was neat and the views were awesome! There we were taken on a private tour and shown some films about the building and company. We got to sit in this awesome conference room with the most comfortable chairs! As we watched the short films we enjoyed the comfy chairs while snacking on these tasty fruit gummy bears with cold refreshments. They even had real apple juice, not the bubbly kind. I was happy =)

Some pics of the Post Tower...

those are mail boxes from every country. it was pretty cool.

view off the 30th floor...

another view

Later we met with a man who took us on a walking tour of the city and told us about its history. The weather was amazing! Blue skies and fresh air made for a lovely time.

A neat chuch. We didn't get to go inside =(

here's the group with our lovely tour guide =)

Statue of Beethoven. He was born there...

so back to Paris....

Day 2:

Our day started with a lovely visit to the nearest bakery where we enjoyed a sweet breakfast. It was some sugary goodness! I could really get used to fresh pastries for breakfast. Everything was amazing! Probably really bad for you too, but who cares....we were in Paris enjoying the fresh goodies from a bakery!

The weather was anything but welcoming. The skies were gloomy, the air was crisp, and a light rain showered the streets. It looked like it was going to be a pretty yucky day! What a perfect time to stay indoors. The Louvre turned out to be the perfect destination! We spent the whole day wondering around this massive collection of history (8 hours to be exact!) It was amazing. We covered all but one floor and one little section. I would say we did well! I loved everything about this place. Wait, scratch that…I loved most everything about this place. I could have done without the naked people sculptures and paintings. But luckily there were lots of clothed objects to occupy my amazement.

We started our journey in the sculpture gardens. Wow! I mean, wow! Simply incredible. A room filled with life size marble sculptures of various men and women could only be described as "wow." The detail each masterpiece contained was unbelievable. I kept waiting for one of them to blink as I looked at their faces, or get up and move around. They were so life like. Of course then there was the whole missing arms thing going on for some of them. That tends to put them back to stone. But still, the artists did a spectacular job of capturing life. As I stood there marveling at the craftsmanship of these glorious statues I couldn't help thinking about the time it took to do one of these. Incredible!

The paintings where a sight too! We are talking huge paintings. Like 15 to 30 feet across! I was blown away. It was funny to me that with all these amazing paintings covering the walls, and all these sculptures and other ancient art, the only thing that had signs leading the way to its resting place was the famous Mona Lisa. I just do not understand this painting. It is the only painting in the entire Louvre that gets its own wall, is displayed behind bullet proof glass, and is blocked off so that you cannot come within 15 feet of it. I had always heard that she was basically the smallest painting there so I envisioned her to be smaller than a piece of printer paper. Surprisingly she was much bigger. Of course when you compare it to the 15+ ft paintings I can see what they meant. I still do not understand her popularity though. She is actually quite ugly, looks just like the pictures you see of her, and has no story, just rumors. Perhaps that is what draws people in, the mystery of it all. Who knows! I have even had to do a short research paper over this painting and I still can't figure out her fame. All I know is that there was a swarm of people all crowding around to see this "priceless" piece by Leonardo da Vinci. What makes his ugly woman painting more popular than all the other ugly women paintings. I mean seriously!

For dinner we decided that being in Pairs for a once in a lifetime adventure we should splurge and go to a fancy restaurant. Savs mom did some amazing behind the scenes work and found us a nice little restaurant called Ratatouille (just like the Pixar movie! Except a rat did not fix our meal. At least as far as we know...). It was neat. I have never paid so much for one meal in my life!!! The experience was cool and the food was great but holy cow was it pricey. I had the cheapest meal and mine was 20 euro. That just included my chicken plate and water! Personally I feel that these restaurants are highly overrated, but I guess for a once in a lifetime deal, it was fun. Savs mom did a great job finding that restaurant for us.

To finish up the day, we ventured to the Arc De Triomphe. For some reason it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. We learned about it in our architectural history class a few semesters ago, but I never expected it to be that massive! It was great! To get there you have to follow a tunnel under the road. Once there we decided to climb the slender spiral stair case all the way to the top. The way up wasn't bad, but coming down we went faster so I got pretty dizzy. You've gotta love spiral stair cases =) Once at the top we were able to look out over the city. It was nighttime by now so the city transformed into a beautiful sea of light and color. The Eiffel Tower beautifully lit to one side, a few cathedrals scattered here and there, it was beautiful. It turned out to be the perfect way to end the day.

More coming later....

Adventures in Paris....

2008-02-05T03:15:00.000-06:00

This past weekend Barrett, Jacob, Gavin, Geoff, Savannah, and I set out to conquer the land known as Paris. Since we had a five day weekend we figured it was the perfect opportunity for our Paris trip.

Day 1:

To get the most out of our experience we decided to leave Wednesday night so that we could arrive in Paris early Thursday to begin our adventures. Geoff was the mastermind behind our travel arrangements/reservations and let us blindly believe that when we got on the train we would sleep until we got off in Paris. Um, next time I am asking questions before I board the train =) Our journey began in the train station at 8:20pm where we loaded up and took our seats. At 11pm we got off in some city (I can't remember the name) where we were to wait for our next train that would arrive 2 hours later. One thing you must know about the different train stations is that they are mostly open to the outside air and are not heated. It was rather chilly. But we took this opportunity to goof around, take silly pictures, and chat. 12:55am rolls around and its time to continue to our final destination. It was a very long night. Most of us have not yet perfected the art of sleeping in the sitting position. With stiff necks and sleepless bodies, we arrived in Paris 6 long hours latter at 6:50am. Paris provided us with a whole new level of freezing. It was very COLD!! Being so early, the sun had not yet begun it's journey over the horizon to take off the chill and prepare for the glorious day complete with blue skies.

My first impression of Paris was not what I expected. Everything I had ever heard was that it was not as great as you would think. The main description given was that it was trashy and stunk. Maybe the air didn't smell as bad because of the cold? The only smells we encountered where those of the subway systems. Yikes! Every once in a while you were hit with the aroma of soured urine. Other than that, I did not notice a thing. When the sun finally spilled over the horizon and painted the buildings with a golden glow, Paris suddenly came alive. Walking out of the subway we were greeted with the sight of some big Gothic Cathedral. It was beautiful. We never learned the name of it, but in the light of the morning sun, it was absolutely beautiful. As we took pictures and walked around something in the distance caught our eye. It was the Pompidou center! You see we have all had 4 semesters of architectural history so we have studied all these different buildings and where excited about the opportunity to see them in person!!! It was amazing! Then we spotted what looked like the bell towers of Notre Dame so we set out in that direction. I am pretty sure we spent an hour or two in there taking pictures. It was beautiful. I am in love with stained glass so I basically just sat there and starred at the beautiful windows and the light that painted the columns and walls with beautiful arrangements of color.

Our next adventure was to find the famous Eiffel Tower! At this point we had not seen any signs of it yet. As we walked we kept searching to see who could get the first glimpse of this famous icon. I was very excited as we wondered around. I just couldn't believe we were actually there. In fact it still doesn't feel like I spent the last 4 days and 3 nights in Paris! Then suddenly Jacob spotted it. We were finally there! After taking numerous pictures and paying 3,10 euros to climb the six hundred and eighty stairs to the highest point we were allowed to go, we found ourselves looking out over the beautiful city of Paris on top of the Eiffel Tower. The view was breathtaking!! Talk about a big city. The city reached as far as the eye could see. It was amazing! What a wonderful experience!

to be continued...

Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again......

2008-01-30T12:12:00.000-06:00

Well I don't have time to give you a wonderful update on the happenings in Germany because I leave for Paris in a little over 45 minutes! Yikes! I'm kinda running late =) I am leaving my computer behind so you will have to wait until Monday for another update! Please pray for the safety of our group (there are 6 of us) as we roam the streets of Paris! Yay! I'm pretty excited! =) Have a wonderful weekend!!! I hope everyone is having an awesome day. Don't forget to praise the Lord in all that you do!!

Fourth times a charm...

2008-01-29T14:58:00.000-06:00

Today was a monumental day! I had the most amazing reunion with an item that is very dear to me. I thought they were lost forever.....

Check it out!

TA-DA!!
I FOUND MY GLOVES!!!!!

That is right! They are back! After returning to Kaufhof (the site of their disappearance) on three separate occasions in the past week to check the lost and found only to come up empty, I thought all hope was lost. Let me set the stage for you. This afternoon, a group of us went to check out the one euro stores to try and find some supplies for our studio project. After gaining a few fun items half of the group went home while the other half checked out the Kaufhof to see if it had anything to offer. Right as we were about to leave I half heartedly made the comment that I wanted to check the lost and found one more time. I felt like the little kid who let the family bird fly out the window. Although you know it's gone for good, you find yourself checking the window with such innocent hopes in that one day it will fly home. I almost didn't go, I didn't want the group waiting on me. Well I chose to check just one last time. If they weren't there, I figured I would consider them gone forever. So I ventured back to the service desk and tried my best to get the lady to understand what I was saying. Finally many hand motions later and with the help of some other customers, she figured out what I was saying and pulled a big bag out from behind the counter. As she poured out the contents of the bag it was as if the world moved in slow motion! There they were. The only gloves in the whole bag that were not black or brown. My gloves! My amazing multi-color striped mittens with removable flap for ultimate finger dexterity plus bonus exposable thumb flap sitting right there in front of me!!! I could not believe it. As soon as I saw them I gasped and laughed out "That's them!!" Everyone around laughed. It was great!!!

So now I have my gloves back. I'm sure I had some other lovely stories to tell but all I can think about right now is the beautiful return of my mittens. Life is good...

Weekend wonderings...

2008-01-27T13:02:00.000-06:00

Operation find hidden church on the other side of the town was a success! Geoff, Allen, and I set out early this morning to try and conquer the bus system and make it to this destination that only existed in my head as a memory from the week before. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get all the way out there. We live in the southern part of Dusseldorf and this church is the furthest north you can go before your in another town! Fun times. But the service was great. The pastor is a fellow Texan. We got there a little early so we were able to meet him. During the welcome he gave the typical "If you are a visitor..." speech while handing us visitors cards. Note: we were the only ones he did this for. Haha. And then he went on to explain how there were some college students all the way from Texas (talking about us). It was awesome. I am so glad we got hooked up with this church! I can't wait to go back!!!

To get there you have to take a lovely hike through a trail in the woods. It's kinda fun.

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Then afterwards Geoff and I went to the Alstadt to find some lunch and ran into some interesting characters. Apparently they were about to have a parade so there were all these people dressed up in blue and red uniforms with instruments and such. I was sooo glad we stumbled across them because it was hilarious.

I took a picture of one of the boys as they were walking by and he got so excited that he grabbed his two friends and posed for me to take another one =)

He was really tall!!! We went to eat at the Döner place and he walked in for a sandwich. Haha! Priceless....

During our adventures Geoff stumbles across Dr. Pepper!! He has been looking for one since we got here and was convinced they didn't have them here. So he bought 3! =)

On another note...
I have decided that I am in love! With filming that is =) All week we learned about filming and all that goes with it. It has been a blast! Friday each group took all their footage collected over the week and made a collage of their favorite/best shots. Then our favorite mullet sporting camera workshop leader, Jens (pronounced yens), put the films together and added some music. I have yet to see the finished product but from what I saw it should be pretty neat! Hopefully I can get a hold of it and post it on here for your enjoyment =)

Yesterday Geoff, Savannah, and I set out to find the nearest Toys "R" Us. Can you believe they have those here? It was appropriately placed right next to a McDonalds. For a moment I felt like I was back in the states. Then after failing to decipher the letters of gibberish on the banners and signs the American soil feeling quickly vanished. It's like hearing a choir of heavenly voices and then the record player suddenly crashes and a loud screeching overtakes the moment of triumph as the voices slow and deepen until silence fills the air. Yup. Still in Germany =)

This excursion was part of our search for project materials. Our first studio project involves us making some sort of model that can function underwater. Toys "r" Us was our attempt at finding toy water crafts that we could take apart and use the motors. But our search failed. All the toys were either really expensive or really cheap(meaning, not useable). The journey getting there and back, however, made up for the failure to gain items. Savs brought along her really nice camera for the first time and I got to play with it a bit! Ohh it was amazing! I have to stop playing with all this expensive equipment though because I'm slowly realizing all that I am missing out on. Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is discontentment in the area of technology.

Last night I got to hang out at Julie's(my new missionary friend who is completely awesome) apartment and it was absolutely amazing! We had hot dogs and played guitar =) What a night. We just played the guitar and worshiped for hours. I got to listen to a bunch of German worship songs and it was neat! Sometimes I would recognize the tune and sing along in English. Or when I was singing an English song she would sing a verse through in German. It was awesome! My goal before I leave is to learn at least one song in German. Julie explained that to sing the songs in German they aren't the exact words as the English version because the words have to fit. I thought that was interesting. It was also neat to hear her translate the German worship songs. They have such a neat way of expressing their love for the Lord. I love it!

Working out German Style...

2008-01-24T14:00:00.000-06:00

Mission dispose of chocolate cake was a success!!! She will never know!!! =)

Have you ever underestimated the time it would take for you to travel from point A to point B and then back? Well that is exactly what happened today! During our lunch Jacob, Savannah, and I decided to make the most of our time by spending our hour and 15 minute lunch break getting art supplies at Düsseldorf University’s art supply store. We knew we were going to be cutting it close but the only time this little shop opened was on Mondays - Thursdays from 1pm to 2pm. We hoped that since this shop was part of the university, the prices would be lower than that of the ones in town. When we finally got to the bus stop closest to the University we realized time was quickly running out so we ran. Literally! Un-tied shoes and all =) We finally got there only to find that the shop did not meet our expectations. It was really small and contained only a few items, all which were more expensive than the places in town. We quickly make our exit and started heading back to the train stop when suddenly we saw our train quickly approaching from behind! Our jog quickly turned into an all out sprint. It was go time! Thankfully we made it just in the nick of time! In the end, and possible only because of all our running, we were about 20 minutes late to class =) Our camera workshop leader just laughed at our story and gave us his approval. This supply "run" really lived up to its name. What a work out!

Tonight my goal was to somehow make my way to the absolute opposite side of town so I could attend this bible study at the English speaking Baptist Church that I learned about last Sunday. I was so pumped and couldn't wait to go. I was extremely worried about where in the heck this thing was! All I had was a mint tin with the name of a train stop that I had written down as we passed by on the way to church last Sunday, and a mental picture of the how to get from the stop to the church. That should be enough to get me there right? HAHA! Well actually if I could have gotten to the stop I am pretty confident I could have found my way from there. Getting to the stop proved harder that I thought! First of all I almost missed every train I had to catch so I had some lovely sprints worked into the journey. From the Hauptbahnhof I carefully studied the maps to see which train would take me to my destination. I found the number and got on. The stop was going to be at least 30 minutes away so I just turned up my ipod and relaxed. Time was ticking away and I was starting to get worried that I would be late. Forty minutes pass by and suddenly I hear the bus speakers say Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. But why? That is where I just came from! Apparently there are 2 different trains for 719. One that goes all the way to my stop and one that goes halfway and then goes back to the Hauptbahnhof! Of course if I could actually read German I would have been able to figure this out BEFORE I missed my bible study! Tonight I spent 2 1/2 hours traveling to and from a destination I never reached =( Sunday I think I am going to take a different route that involves changing trains 3 or 4 times. This one should work for sure!!! I guess I will have to leave at 8am to allow for mistakes so I can be there by 11 o’clock. =) Traveling to the other side of town is way more complicated than it looks!

So today was full of very interesting train rides! On the up side, dinner was amazing! My host lady prepared an awesome salad, some home made fries, and chicken cordon blu. It was delicious! And best of all...there was no chocolate for dessert!!!!!!!!

Chocolate? NO THANK YOU!!!

2008-01-23T14:27:00.000-06:00

Lesson number one: Never pretend you like food when you really don't.
Lesson number two: Never, ever, ever, pretend you like food when you really don't especially when it’s chocolate!!!!

The chocolate cake is haunting me! Tonight after a very interesting meal (she called it Chinese, but it definitely was NOT any form of Chinese food I have ever seen or tasted) my host lady leans over and explains "I have sweets vor you if you en like." Of course, I am never one to turn down something sweet so I smile and say yes! Dessert time is my favorite! I follow her into the kitchen very excited for some sugary goodness. She opens the refrigerator and pulls out something wrapped in tin foil. Then she starts explaining, "I save for you after Sunday." Suddenly my heart sinks! As she pulled back the foil my deepest fear was confirmed! It was THE cake! Ohh man!! What do you do? She explains that I can have 2 pieces to which I quickly made up an excuse about being to full. After much convincing I was able to make it out of the kitchen with only one piece of this "delightful" headache! So here I sit in my room with this silly cake sitting next to me. My plan? I think I shall wait until the cover of darkens when she quietly retreats her room for a night of peaceful slumber. Then when all is clear, I will sneak into the kitchen, crumble the cake into many pieces and distribute it throughout the trash can. Of course these drastic measures must be taken in case she happens to look into the trash can. We wouldn't want her finding any evidence. Crumbs are a must to disguise the presence of the cake in the trash. A whole piece is easily spotted, but crumbs…
She will never know... =)

Yesterday was our first camera workshop. It was amazing! Basically we sat and listened to this dude (with a very stylish mullet I might add) talk about how our cameras work and what all you can do with them. After lunch we were assigned a very hard task; Split into groups of 3, go somewhere and get some good footage! Simply translated: here take this very nice piece of equipment that costs more than your car and see who can get the best footage! Take a camera; take some friends and just play! Cool! I can do that =) At the end of the week we are to make a collage of the best shots. It was simply beautiful!! Savs, Jacob, and I grouped together and immediately went to work planning out what we could do. Sure there didn't have to be a story involved, but we wanted to make this interesting. Some how there needed to be a contrast going on so we developed 2 characters: a creepy stalker person and a wildly crazy happy person! Savs has this puffy black knee length coat complete with a hood that became the wardrobe of the stalker. My light grey fleece, blue scarf and Savs turquoise gloves completed the look of the crazy person and thus the characters came to life. Of course each one of us had to experience being behind the camera so that left the character roles to be filled by whoever was left. We all ended up playing one of the characters at some point. This made the content of our film quite amusing especially when it was Jacob’s turn to play a part. Have you ever seen a guy wearing a girl’s size small fleece with turquoise gloves or a girl’s small knee length overcoat? Words cannot describe how wildly random and hilarious our footage was. Maybe one day I can get parts of it uploaded for you to see =)

Then last night we got the chance to go to a professional soccer game! It was pretty neat. In aggieland we have the whole 12th Man towel thing where we twirl them in the air like a helicopter. In Dusseldorf they have that same concept but with scarves instead. Of course! What else would you do with your hot stuffy scarf while at an indoor soccer game? These guys are brilliant! =) Their favorite (and only) chant that they yelled over and over again sounded as if they were yelling "Dusseldorf! For tuna!" I couldn't figure out what in the world soccer had to do with fish, but oh well. Finally at the end I learned that their team name was Fortuna. (Something about Latin and fortunes…who knows?) I did find their songs rather interesting however. I can officially say I learned a German song. It's really complicated but I think I can teach it to you. Here we go. Can you say Dusseldorf? Do you know the tune to Amazing Grace? Good! Now sing the word Dusseldorf over and over again to the tune of amazing grace! Yay! You now know a German song too! I kid you not. They actually played this interesting song over the loud speakers with some woman singing. In fact, just pick a tune and insert the lyric "Dusseldorf." I know for sure I heard at least 3 different American tunes used in this manner. I had to laugh =)

Some pictures...

Soccer field.

Geoff, Jacob, and Barrett enjoying the soccer game =)

Yes that’s right! Instead of hotdogs they walk around with bread baskets! And instead of normal drinks like say Coke or Dr. Pepper they have these guys who walk around with a backpack keg thing full of beer and they will gladly serve you one. Didn't exactly want a picture of that, but they were there and it was funny =)

A crowd. Notice the empty seats in the top left corner. When they built the stadium they knew that they would never fill it so they painted the chairs random colors so that at a glance it looks full. Smart...

A common hair style for all ages around here..
This and the mullet! haha

Jacob and Geoff

Well I hope all is well with everyone. Have a wonderful day!

Let the classes begin...

2008-01-21T15:39:00.000-06:00

Today marked our first day of real class. The subject; architectural and art history...ALL DAY! That’s right, we started at 10:15am and didn't get out until a little after 5pm. Now doesn't that sound like fun? Of course we had about an hour lunch break to ease the brain. I am not sure how this whole one class per day thing is going to work out. My attention span just does not like to cooperate with keeping on task for long periods of time. This should be interesting =) They have to schedule these classes this way because we do not meet very often. For instance, the next 2 classes will be Jan 28th and then Feb 11th. On the plus side, there are no tests! You know at first we were really upset about the absence of this popular form of student torture, but I think if we really try, we might be able to recover from this shocking news and make the best of things =)

After class, Jacob, Savannah, Geoff, and I, went to a store to purchase some school supplies. You see our professor will not let us use our computers to take notes on. Apparently they are catching on to the fact that some students "note taking" consists of facebook, email, or internet games. Sad for those of us who actually stay true to Microsoft Word, but what can you do? So we ended up in the Galeria Kaufhof where a college ruled spiral just did not exist. Apparently they use either our equivalent to wide ruled paper or graph paper. Go figure. I settled on the cheapest thing I found that would provide decent note taking space and I walked away with a red spiral that contained 80 sheets of graphing paper. Any guesses on the cost of such an item? Try 2,75 euros! And don't forget, 1 Euro = 1.58 US dollars. This paper better be magical or something!

In the end, this silly spiral ended up costing me more than a few euros. While I was wondering around the department store, I lost my mittens =( Yes it is true. My favorite, multi-colored, striped mittens with removable flap for ultimate finger dexterity have vanished! At some point they wiggled loose from my messenger bag and are now probably being enjoyed by some random German who has way too many gloves at home and won't fully appreciate the exposable thumb feature. I am telling you, these mittens were amazing! There is still hope though! Tomorrow I will return to this mitten snatching store and see if by chance someone was nice enough to turn then in the lost and found. That is my prayer for tonight; that my mittens will not be gone forever!!! I miss them already =( Sad, I know. But if you had cool mittens like these, you would be as sad as I am.

On a happier note, dinner tonight was amazing! I am luck to have a host lady who loves to cook! And she cooks well! The first few nights were pretty rocky because the menu only contained vegetables cooked many different ways. And, well, let's just say that I have never really been big on those green "food" items. I always feel like a rabbit crunching on some grass. I mean, why not just go eat a tree. When I eat a lot of green veggies I always have to stop my urge to grab the next tree limb and see if it tastes the same. Especially broccoli! It even looks like mini trees! Ohh boy. But tonight we had spaghetti with meat! I can handle that =) She always has great presentation too! Check it out...

This is the salad with dessert. Ohh boy the salad was actually amazing!

Spaghetti!!!

And here is a picture of my host lady! She is really nice =)
Not to great at the whole speaking English thing, but she is getting better each day!

Ohh and last night she had 5 ladies over. They all spoke a little English which made it fun for me. They would have this long conversation in German and every once in a while the lady sitting next to me would lean over and tell me what the conversation was about. Try following a conversation where you have not even the slightest idea as to what is being said and then having to act like you are interested. Haha. It was crazy! Here is how the evening went. These ladies meet every two months and they all bring food. Then they sit down, have some wine, eat the food, and talk about everything! And when I say they eat food, I mean they EAT food! I think there about 6 different courses served. I missed the first two because I was taking a nap. When I woke up, my host lady saw my light on and offered for me to join them. When I got there they were on their 3rd table full of goodies. It was one of two dessert times that evening. Then they cleared the deserts from the table. They filled the table with cheeses and sauerkraut (yuck). Cleared the table again and filled it with a big dish of lasagna (which by the way means pasta, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese). They cleared the table again for some form of chicken legs in a soup with spinach and some red stuff. Cleared the table for the last time and wrapped up the evening with more dessert. It was insane. These ladies could eat!

At some point in the evening I was offered cake. Of course the cake was out of sight so I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Not thinking, I responded yes, to which I was served a big hunk of chocolate cake! And if you know me, then you know I dislike chocolate very very very much!!! But as she was serving it to me she explained how it was the specialty of one of the ladies there. And I looked over to see that lady's face shinning with happiness because she was about to see how this silly American kid would like her cake. I mean, what do you do? So I did the unthinkable. For the first time in my LIFE, I ate that whole piece of chocolate cake. With a smile too! =) And I am happy to report that she was overjoyed that I "liked" her cake. Ohh man!

Here it is. The cake I will never forget!

Trust His Heart...

2008-01-20T13:18:00.001-06:00

Wow, so I have decided that I am allergic to Germany!! I have never sneezed so much in my entire life!!! Yesterday I decided to count them and I think the total was 72 (give or take a few sneezes). I have the whole can't breath, stuffy/runny nose, itchy eyes, and lots of sneezing thing. Fun times… It is really funny because Brigitte (my host person) is really worried about me so she keeps making me this hot tea that is supposed to help. It's called Natürlicher geht's nicht. It smells awful but it tastes great, especially when she puts a spoon full of honey in it. The honey is fresh and from a friend of hers who as she says "collects fraum zee bee's." =) It's amazing!

So other than being all stuffy I have to say that this has been the most amazing weekend full of adventures and the Lords handy work!!! First I will tell you about the adventures and then you have to hear about how AMAZING the Lord is!

Adventure time...
For this weekend we decided to explore our transportation passes and see where they could take us. Friday AIB gave us a map of where they could go so we decided to split our group of 6 into 2 groups of 3 and then go on a sort of unstructured scavenger hunt. The only requirements were to pick a direction and go. When we got to a town we were to find a cool looking statue and take a picture and then take a bunch of other random pictures and see who could get the best ones. Then we would meet in Dortmund (which is the furthest city our passes would take us to). So Barrett, Savannah, and I decided to go north. We found a train that went in that direction and hopped on.

When we boarded we were amazed at how nice it was! It was very roomy and there was hardly anyone there. But the best part of all....it had FREE BATHROOMS!!! I was in love! We got of at Duisburg which is pretty far away, but we got there really fast! It was amazing! We found all sorts of fun things to play with. Some examples: a yellow phone booth by an old church, a purple manikin in a window, some concrete pipes we turned into a jungle gym, and a random ship propeller on a construction site (go figure). Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I do not have any neat pictures for you, but you can go to savsingermany.worpress.com, I think she posted a few. Anyway, we finally found our statues to take pictures of and left. When we got back to the Hauptbahnhof to catch our train, we pieced together that the reason our first trip was so nice was because we accidentally got in 1st class. The person checking tickets walked past us several times and never said anything so it was a good thing we didn't get caught. We figured out that the trains were marked with 1's or 2's. We decided to get in the 2 car for this trip =) Since the bathrooms where free, I decided to take advantage of them and while I was gone, the man came to check tickets. He did not speak English and when I came back he seemed to be very upset with us. When I asked what was going on, Barrett simply said, "We are getting off in Essen." (hat was the next stop) You see when we got our public transportation passes; they just gave us this map and told us we could go wherever within a certain boundary. They never told us that all trains in that boundary weren't covered. Yes that’s right, we rode on the ICE train twice that day, once in first class, and once in second without tickets. For those that do not know, apparently ICE is a national train, aka the ones that you would use a eurorail pass on, aka the fast ones (that’s why we got to our city in just a few minutes), aka not covered by our passes! Opps! Thankfully we did not get in trouble or anything; we just made a German ticket checker very angry and had to get off 3 stops before we were supposed to! Haha! I guess that’s what happens when you hand some American students transportation passes where the fine print is in German =) So instead of making it to Dortmund, our journey ended in Essen and the other group had to meet us there to help us find our way home. We were so scarred of getting on the wrong train again. It was quite the experience! =)

And now for the "How Amazing is our God" part...
When I fist got here I was totally unsure of everything. We were told that "everyone speaks English!" HA! Well they must all be hiding cause I have not found that to be the case. Things just were not going well. I missed my mom, I missed home, I missed free public bathrooms and free water, and I wanted nothing more than to hop on the next plane home. I was so confused as to why the Lord allowed me to come. I kept questioning if it was actually His will or not because I felt like I was being punished or something. This week has been an example of waiting on the Lord. I am reminded of Proverbs 3:5-6. It’s funny because in the summers at camp this is always the verse I teach my skiing class. To ski we tell them that you have to rely on the boat like you would rely on God! If you try to get up on your own strength (like pull the rope to your chest) then you will fall. But if you let the boat pull you up, you can ski. So I am used to saying "Trust in the Lord," "Give Him everything," "He will take care of the details." But for some reason my silly human nature took over and I felt as though He just left me here!

All week I have just been praying and praying that He would give me something, anything would let me not only know that this is where I am supposed to be, and to give me something to make things easier. This weekend He did! Check this out! Through my amazing family, I have been able to collect a bunch of contacts here in Germany. Of the many different ones, 3 of them have actually been calling my host lady's house trying to get in touch with me. Two of them are with the IMB.

Friday as my host lady was heading out for the night, she hands me the phone and says "you call this number, it keep calling for you." She pulls up the number on the phone memory and leaves. I'm thinking, "you want me to do WHAT?" No name, no message, no nothing. I'm not even sure the number she pulled up is right. I just knew I was going to hit send and then some random German person was going to answer and I wasn't going to have a clue what they were saying! So after about 30 minutes of just starring at the phone, I hit the call button and to my relief I found myself talking to someone who is with the IMB. It was so great to hear that she was an American from Oregon. Well we worked to out to meet and have dinner and get to know each other. You will never believe this, not only does she play guitar and trumpet, but she has a guitar at her apartment and wants me to come play it sometime =) YAY!!! But more than connecting on musical instruments, I found out we share a very similar story. Her father passed away from a blood clot while he was recovering from a surgery he had to treat his cancer. Sound freakishly familiar? I was blown away! How great is our God?!? She only lives 15 minutes away by train and is already making plans for me to come over and have some sweet tea(American style) and watch movies! But it doesn't end there.

The other person that called me happens to be her team leader and he lives within walking distance from my apartment. This morning he and his family picked me up to go with them to the International Baptist Church of Dusseldorf. They normally go to church with the Germans, but it just so happened that last week they had decided to go here to the English speaking church. Ohh, and they are from Texas =) The pastor and his wife are from Henderson, Tx too. Although the Texas pastor wasn't there, the guy who filled in was from Ireland! He has the coolest accent! It was such a relief to walk into the church and hear them worshiping to a songs I knew! Ohh man, the Lord is just blessing me like crazy! So Thursday hopefully I will be able to go to a small group bible study there. And get this...they are going through a Beth Moore deal. Haha! Amazing! I am just flat in awe of our Father! There is a song that my mom and dad used to sing called Trust His Heart. The chorus goes

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see his plan
When you can't trace his hand
Trust His heart

The whole song is amazing! So if you have time you should google it and read the rest of the words. But just know that even when we feel like He has forgotten about us, when we feel all alone, know that He alone is faithful and true and He alone knows what is best for you. And we have to trust His heart! The Lord knows where you are in life. Even if you can't see Him working in your life for a time, He is there. He is always there! We just have to keep trusting and seeking Him!

Mail time!

2008-01-18T05:26:00.000-06:00

So upon strick instructions from my sista, here is my adress where you can send letters

AIB
c/o Rachel Bradley
Kaistrasse 11
D-40221 Düsseldorf Germany

Letters are welcome! If you so desire to send a package then great! But they need to have written on the outside something about what the item is and that it is being sent to a student abroad and will be brought back to the states. That way for us it is duty free. Otherwise the tariffs will apply.

ok...that is all =)

Media Harbor...

2008-01-18T02:53:00.000-06:00

So during all these tours I have had an epiphany! I finally know why German cups are so little! You see with my host home the biggest glass is maybe 8 ounces...maybe! And refills aren't even thought of! Jacob got a 7-up at lunch yesterday and the cup was tiny! At first I figured they were just stingy about their liquids or something but after touring the city my theory has changed. They don't drink much because then they would have to use the restroom often, and to use the restroom in public places means money! We are talking 50 cents here! The best deal I have heard was 20 cents. So the less you drink, the less you pay! These people are crazy about their restrooms! Aparently it costs a lot to flush or something. The restrooms at AIB even have two different flushing options. One for...well put it this way, the sign says "Little button saves water(small flush) and big button for you know what!!!" It is quite amusing.

Well, its day 4 and still no internet access at the apartment. I feel bad because I keep asking her about it. She said she might try to call the company today and see if they had any advice to offer. Dad has given me a plan to reset the system and set up a new network key, but I can't seem to get her to follow along when I explain it to her =) So for now I just check email at school, which is fine for written stuff, but to talk to my family with the webcam the times are 2:30am, 7:45am, and sometimes 11am. =) So for their sake lets pray that something changes and I can get through to the internet at home. Here are a few pictures of my room:

Yesterday we went on a walking tour of Media Harbor where AIB is located. The harbor was destroyed back in World War "the second" (as they say here). In 1997 the government decided to renovate and update the area. So they building are very artsy and often strange. Most are inhabited by design or graphics companies. Some big name architects and artists were invited to design the area. Here are just a few different buildings in the area...

Our tour guide was this nice German lady. She explained that sometimes her English is not very good so she brought her husband who is originally from New Jersey to translate. He had only been to Texas once or twice so he was constantly cracking jokes about us being Texans. He was quite entertaining! My favorite part of the tour was when we ventured to the roof of the architeken building. There we were able to look over the harbor and get a better look at things.

Group on the roof top

See the bridges off in the distance. Those are way cool!

The water...

some roof tops

The tour guide, savs, geoff, jacob, and the new jersey dude waiting for the elevator

I hope everyone is doing great! Today you should go drink a large sweet tea with lots of ice and enjoy free publice restrooms just because you can! =)

Auf Wiedersehen!

Ohh Germany...

2008-01-16T11:35:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday we arrived in Germany at 11:30am Dusseldorf time (that’s 4:30am your time) and boy was it an experience. I traveled with 3 other students from the program. Luckily we found our way to our luggage and got out of there without any problems. We were very relieved to find a student worker from AIB outside security holding a sign for us. And we where even more relieved when we found she spoke perfect English with barely any accent. She got us situated in a cab and sent us to the AIB headquarters where our host families where to pick us up.

Since we had a few hours to kill before the families arrived, they offered us snacks, drinks, and ping pong. I learned 3 things today:
First a golden brown crunchy breadstick covered in sugar will not provide for you with a sweet moment of goodness like you would expect, but one of very buttery sweet I think my arteries are now clogged nastiness. Second, apfel Schocle is not apple juice despite the beautifully pictured apple on the front. No, it is a little apple juice with a lot of carbonated water! Everything is as they say “bubbly.” And last I learned that apparently I stink at ping pong.

The host family I live with is actually just a single lady who is 62 and speaks very rough English. We basically just sit and laugh at each other because we can’t figure out how to communicate smoothly. I have to talk very slowly and in broken English a lot. What an adventure! =)

We live in a little apartment on the 4th floor. I do have my own room, but we share a bathroom. The colors are red, orange and black. So I am loving the decorations. As of now I cannot get wireless in the house because she forgot the password =) So be praying she can figure it out soon!!!

Today we had our welcome meeting and then went on a walking tour of the city. We walked around for 4 hours. The city is beautiful. Very quiet too! In the US things are always loud and rushed and people are always “going places.” In Dusseldorf there are people just strolling around, walking their dogs, and not really rushing. The roads are all stone and brick. The cars have no problem parking half on the sidewalk and half on the street. And yes there is a curb, but conveniently it is small so the cars can jump it with ease. In the center of the town I can’t figure out how people know where to drive. The streets are not marked, its just all beautiful stone patterns.

Anyway we are about to have a welcome dinner with all the students and their families so I will have to tell you more about this later. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Where there is Peace....

2008-01-13T11:03:00.000-06:00

For my first entry in German Tales I thought I would share with you all a wonderful story that just unfolded this morning. As most of you know, my sweet mother was called home to be with the Lord just a few days ago. And due to the fact I'm just 2 days from leaving the country, this has been a really trying time. I knew that if I didn't go today, I wouldn't be able to visit her grave until I got back. And this is where the story begins.

I was supposed to spend all morning packing up my last bags so we could leave for Dallas this afternoon, but I just couldn't get my mind clear. So I decided to take a trip to the grave yard and visit my mom's grave. .

I don't know if you have ever experienced that first drive to the resting place of a parent and I hope you never will, but I can tell you it is not very fun and I didn't think I could make it. But when I parked my car by the spot, something caught my eye. There curled up next to the massive mound of flowers was a little puppy!.

Now to most this would mean nothing, but to me it meant the world. You see my mom was the definition of a dog lover. There is not a memory I have of my mom that does not have a dog near by. She loved animals and they loved her! Any time we ran across a stray dog, it magically appeared in our car. Although dad would never let us keep them, that never stopped her from trying!.

So I just found it simply amazing that of all places, this puppy chose my mom's grave to lay by. Dad warned me this morning that when he went yesterday there were hundreds of bee's buzzing around. Well this morning there was not a bee in sight. And any time one would wonder by, this little puppy would chase them away!

So not only had this little bundle of joy cleared all the bees away, but it made a time for tears, a time for laughter. I just could not believe it! Of course I called my dad and after he got there and saw the surprise, he called my sister. As we played and loved on that puppy, time stood still and it was as if my mom was right there playing with us. .

I know she wasn't and that she is sitting next to Jesus right now experiencing real joy, but for the first time since her passing, I felt peace and the closest thing to true Joy that we can experience through the Lord on this earth. I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord sent that little puppy this morning. I doubt I will ever see it again, but boy was it just what my family needed!.

So that's my story. And I know it probably doesn't mean as much to everyone else as it does to me and my family. But I thought I would just share it anyway. So I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Look for joy in the little things of life, and don't forget that there is a Savior who loves you more than anything! This morning he sent me a puppy, this moment he gave me peace!