The Weekend

Phew! I am exhausted!

These past couple of days have been busy! Friday we had the normal classes and then we went ice skating! It was lots of fun! One thing different is the skates, they didn’t have a toe pick. At one point I was going kind of fast and I was trying to do a little circle, but I did not know that someone was behind me. While I was turning I ran smack dab into this chick and TOTALLY violated her. Oh man! It was soooo awkward!! I felt soo horrible! And then I just kept turning cause I couldn’t stop and she just kept on skating. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t even explain to Courtney what happened. And at one point I ate it hard and currently have a pretty sweet bruise on my elbow. Later that night we went out and that was lots of fun. The MoccaBar is my new favorite place, and the Pirate’s Hole is pretty cool too.

Woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to go to Neushwanstein Castle in the Alps. It was bright and sunny, clear skies and basically gorgeous! This is the castle that Disney designed all of their castles in their theme parks. We met some sweet Norwegians, muah ah ah ah ah ah. They were very …. Friendly. =).

But all in all it was amazing. We got back in Regensburg in the train station and Kelley told us what bus to take to get back to our hostel, but none of us really knew what we were doing. Then we PAST our hostel and we PAST the mall and we never got off, blasted Chris! Haha. It was hilarious. So we finally got off the bus at some random street. We weren’t “lost” but we were not close to where we were suppose to be! Then we walked across the street to the other bus stop and it was the same bus, so we just decided to walk. Then we walked past a Whore House and I asked “Is prostitution legal in Germany?” A little to loud because a taxi had just pulled in and the door opened. Awkward! Walk faster! Walk Faster! Haha. But eventually we got back on the bus to the mall where we had a short walk back to our hostel. Great adventure.

Then today we got up bright and early once again to go to Amberg to church, see the town, and to eat the Wind Pipe. Now these Wind Pipes are bad babies… they are basically the biggest crème puff you’ve ever seen in your ENTIRE life. No joke. Courtney and I split one and it is a good thing cause I would have never been able to finish one! Tomorrow we resume our studies and have a couple of trip planned for this week.

Until then…

Alvederzane.

Well since I am a slacker I must combine 2 days into one post.

Yesterday we had class from 9-12 and then we took another tour of Regensburg. After the tour we all went our different ways and Courtney and I decided to meander around the town. The one good thing about our hostel is that it is by St. Peter's Cathedral which is ginormous so all you have to do is look in the sky and follow the church if you ever get lost. I wanted a pastery so we went into a bakery. I felt horrible and retarded because this lady kept going on in German and all we were doing is smiling and nodding. Once I pointed and said what I wanted I finally got my pastery but I don't think she ever knew that we could not understand a word that she was saying. All in all it was hilarious. We could have been like Dalton and just blurted American, but I like the smiling and nodding approach better. Last night we all played a game called Telephone Pictionary. Oh my, it was quite hilarious. We were all crying we were laughing so hard. This game produced pictures of a woman giving birth to cucumbers, a Native American shanking an angel, and King David lusting after Bathsheba (sp). It was awesome!



Today we did not have class and took a little 2 hour jaunt over to Rothenburg. It is a medieval city who has most of its original architecture. It was SOOO amazing. They basically had a fortress over the old town and it was cool! You could even climb up the stairs to the top and walk around the perimeter of the town. Once we got there, we went to the criminal museum. This is where it showed all the torturous ways of criminals in the 15-17th century-ish. It was pretty cool to look at. Then we just walked around the city and then returned to our hostel in time for Tony's dinner! Tomorrow is scheduled of a day of classes and ice skating!

Tuesday

This morning I woke up at 5:45 a.m. and not 4:00 so I am making progress! And I have not taken any naps yet and I do not feel like a zombie! We got up this morning and went to breakfast. Fun fact about Germans, they put applesauce on top of their pancakes. AND their pancakes are made of potatoes! After we had breakfast we went to class from 9 – 12. At the beginning of class, we had a guest speaker who was a teacher staying in our hostel. It was very interesting listening to her views and learning about the German education system. After class we took a tour of Old Town of Regensburg, where I might add Courtney and I took wonderful pictures… like we always do.





Old Town dates way back to Roman times and much of the architecture dates back from that time period. We went into our first pub where Courtney made a fabulous video. I also made a little video for my padre because we all know how he likes his micro brews (it was a micro brewery).

Once we all split up, Courtney, Heather, Lisa, Tanner, Jeff, Kelley and I went to the Konditorei-Café where we are some scrumptious deserts! Beforehand we visited a bakery where Kelley bought us croissants with chocolate in them. For all those who know I’ve gone to It’s Complicated 3 times in the movie theater it totally reminded me of it. You know, the part where Meryl and Steve are in their bakery and they are making the chocolate croissant and after that they have their wonderful kiss. Great movie, you should all watch it. Anywho now the plan is to go to dinner and then watch Step Brothers where I am determined to convince Courtney that Step Brothers is better than the Hangover. Tomorrow we will once again have class from 9-12 and then take a tour of New Town. Thursday we will



AND I forgot about this one. Yesterday we went to the mall to pick up a few things that we might need. Well I had to go into the “womanly products” aisle and I found this product.

I had to stare at it for a while and then I called Courtney and Kammy over to confirm my suspicions. You can look at this product and be the judge for yourselves…

NOTE: It takes a lifetime and a day to upload pictures on this thing with out internet connection... BUT IT WILL BE DONE!

Day Three

Well this is day three and we are currently listening to Dalton's singing voice with Chris on the guitar. But anywho yesterday we were all quite tired so decided to take a short nap. Well all of our short naps turned into a 3-5 hour long nap. But we did get up in time for dinner (well some of us) and then went to bed around 9:30. I woke up and was waiting for my alarm clock to go off because I ususally wake up a couple minutes before it goes off. Well I laid there for many many minutes and decided to check what time it was. 2:20 a.m.! Unfortunately I was wide awake! But I was lucky enough to go fall back asleep. I woke up for the second time and was once again waiting for my alarm clock to go off, but it never did! I sat up again and and this time it was 4:00. It was really funny because our beds and doors are NOT quiet. Everybody was tossing and turning and I doubted that anybody was really sleeping. Courtney got up to go to the bathroom and then a little while later I decided to get up. I heard music in the hall but just figured one of the boys put it on while sleeping. I went back into our room and was trying to figure out the stupid German locks. While I was figeting while trying to be quiet, I heard this coughing behind the door. I opened it and there was Dalton, who had slept all day and woke up at 2 am wide awake. So then it turns out that everyone was awake in our room and we were all hungry. Courtney had pretzels left over from the previous day so we ate pretzels and German chocolate. But we were all quite giggly and the walls are paper thing so sound travels quite quickly. Jerry came in and pointed out that we can go in the room downstairs, we took that as a sign to shut up. =). Kammi and Courtney eventually went back to sleep but Dalton and I just chilled on our computers while drinking German soda.

We also had our first class today! It was basically just orientation and then in a while we are off to the mall and walk around Regensburg. Later this week we get to go to the castle that Disneyland and Disneyworld is based off of! Incredible, I know.

Well that is all for now,

Alvederzane.

Munich

Well we arrived in Germany safe and sound! It so happened that 2 other Ambex-ers were on our same flight! Good thing I facebook stalked everybody so I knew their faces. Chuckles. They had so many movies and t-v shows on the plan that I hardly slept. I even got to watch Bones. =) We arrived in Munich to be greeted by the other students and Jerry, our director. Then we went straight into the heart of Munich. On the way we passed these hills that Jerry pointed out were man made from the rubble of World War II, that was very interesting to see. Jerry said he didn't know Munich very well so driving around was entertaining. He gave his GPS to his daughter so he had a compass, it was slightly entertaining. My favorite part was where he would stop right in the middle of the road and park, or go into reverse.

We walked around Munich and ate at the famous Hofbrauhaus House. We sat down and the waiter gave us our menus. We looked at them and they were in German. We were all laughing and thinking great, minus the fact for Andrew and Chris because they know German. All I knew was that I did NOT want saurkraut and luckily I knew what that was in German. The best part was where Dalton whips out his German dictionary and starts looking up all the words on the menu.

Our "pleasant" German waiter

The waiter comes back, an old German fellow who does not look the happiest in the world, picks up the book, looks at it, puts it down, and then leaves without saying anything. We were all just like what? while laughing hysterically. Then the fellow comes back with ENGLISH menus. We claim he hated us, stupid Americans who don't know anything. At one point Dalton was looking at him and the fellow winked, I think Dalton made a new friend. After lunch we piled back in the van with out our luggage and set off for Regensburg. Most everybody fell asleep immediately. When we awoke we found ourselves at our hostel just in time for dinner. We were all exhausted and still stuffed from the Hofbrauhaus House. But we all sucked it up and ate and then unpacked our rooms.
And just for everyone to know, German beds are very different from American beds. You only have one comforter and then in the morning you fold it over your bed, very interesting. By this time it was around 8:00 p.m. and we were so tired. Despite our tired-ness, some of us decided to play games. We played Uno and then Egyptian Rat Screw, which I am proud to say I won. Went to bed around 9:30 and the moment my bed hit the pillow I was out. We woke up this morning got ready, ate breakfast, and then went to a Catholic mass to watch the Regensburg Boys Choir, which is 2nd best to the Vienna Boys Choir. Of course it was in German so I didn't understand anything, but it was still beautiful. On the walk there it was snowing pretty hard. These snowflakes were so massive they were almost as big as my head! Well that is probably an exaggeration but I can honestly say they were as big as lemons. St. Peters (the church) survived the bombings of World War II and it is BEAUTIFUL! The weather is freezing and while we were walking to the church the snowflakes were as big as my fists!! It was crazy insane! Now we just get to hang out for the rest of the day and relax. Plan on playing games and watching a couple of movies. Tomorrow we get to start school! But it is just the orientation class where we learn about Germany and then tour Regenburg, won't be to bad =). I decided to call my mom since you get one free phone call to a land line on Skype. But I did forget about the time change so I called her at 3:00 a.m. whoops! Luckily she answered and we got to talk for a couple minutes. But that is all for now.

SeaTac

Well Andrew and I have officially completed the first part of our journey, and we are a whopping 3 hours away from home. Fortunately, this layover was planned! Our Aunty Lois is going to pick us up (hopefully soon) and we are off to Scheuerman Central where we will stay the night and get to see the fam. And then our loving uncle is going to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive us and make the jaunt right back to the airport where we will headed for Germany! ETA is Saturday at 8:30 a.m.! Now we must now cause mayhem in SeaTac without being banned.