Ingolstadt: Only the Strong Survive

Yesterday was a fun day. First, Gaby and I went to the fitness center and I participated in a kick-butt circuit training course--today, I am sore ALL OVER. I lifted actual barbells! My butt, chest, quads, arms, abs...everything hurts! Gaby did sort of a yoga/pilates type class afterward, but I really couldn't follow well so I sort of watched most of the time.

Later that afternoon we all went for a walk. Maxi was in a bad mood. We went to a playground in the neighborhood and I slid down the slide! It was super duper cold outside, but it felt good to get out of the house. We sort of hung out for the rest of the evening.

This morning after we all finally got ready, Maria and I took the bus into the city and I bought myself a bathing suit. Down south it is kind of roomy, but I hate it when my caboose hangs out or causes me to have a muffin top... the reason I needed a bathing suit was because the one I had ordered last week has not yet arrived... well anyway the one I picked out is super cute--a bikini--and I must admit I looked pretty damn good in it. Perhaps all that sweat was worth something after all.

I also needed a bathing suit because today we went to the indoor swimming complex. I had never been to anything like that before, except Wet n' Wild, but that is all outdoors. It was really a neat place--a wave pool, some cool slides, an outdoor heated pool, a lap pool, and some areas just to lounge. I jumped into the lap pool and found myself for a brief moment partially in my birthday suit... it could have been a lot worse. We also found two bits (morsels?) of human excrement in the wave pool and promptly exited. I would have preferred to completely vacate the premises in that instance, but alas! I could not. At first, I must admit it was hard to get used to swimming with hundreds of other people. But then I just imagined all the recently shed skin cells, toe jam, and dandruff floating around in the pool right along with me, and, delighted by the fabulous company, I perked up.

Here is a pic of Gaby, Maria, and I at the swimming complex:
This morning the whole neighborhood was covered in snow! The snow was still falling and it was windy outside. How weird that it is snowing in March! Later, the wind really picked up and it really seemed like a blizzard to me! I like the word blizzard.

Tomorrow morning I am headed back to Koblenz.....just for a while though, then its back on the road for me!

Cheers,
Caitlin

Easter in Ingolstadt...

Well yesterday I took the train down to good ol' Bavaria... took a while, almost 6 hours, but it went by really really fast. The others went to the catholic church, ähm...festivities, and I stayed home. They actually recommended I stay home. So I did :-)!

This morning I actually got to look for a few Easter eggs with the kids. Gaby considers me one of the kids in a way :-) I say that with utmost enthusiasm and joy. I gave most of my chocolate eggs to Max and Maria.

We went to the zoo in Munich today, that was a great zoo!! Here is a pic of me with one of the monkeys (click on the pictures to make them bigger):It was quite ironic that I had a banana with me at the time, actually... we even considered charging 50 cents to allow people to take pictures holding my banana next to the statues.

After a while, my cousins got so sick of having me around, they decided to get rid of me as soon as they found a trash can I'd fit into.

I helped Gaby make schnitzel for dinner when we got home, and we are about to go watch King Kong in TV. It should be a genuinely exciting evening. Tomorrow, I'm going to the gym with Gaby where I will be participating in her allegedly very difficult circuit training course--I am actually looking forward to it... hopefully, it will perk me up because I am VERY tired! Today, I had too much chocolate and NO exercise... so I wonder why I'm tired!?

I have uploaded a few videos from the zoo onto Facebook--pretty funny stuff. The cousins are constantly downloading stuff which makes it unfortunately impossible, or nearly so, to upload my pictures here--I really don't know why videos work--so I will have to wait on those until next week...

To my faithful reader (or readers, if you so exist), I hope you had a pleasant Easter and remember what it is we are celebrating-- Jesus is RISEN!


Cheers,
Caitlin

...ok, let's think positive.

I don't get it!! The weather is nice again. What is UP with this place !? It seems like Florida weather. In that case, I should be feeling at home.

I forgot to mention the other day that Hannah told me that there is such thing in the USA as spreadable cheese. I have to admit, that was one thing at the top of my worry-list about coming home--I've grown quite accustomed to spreadable cheese. The thought that I might not have any when I got home really shook me up!!

Looking forward to leaving tomorrow...

Finally finished proofing that text... didn't take me that long overall, its just tedious because I have NO idea what he's trying to say sometimes, and I'm waiting for him to send me the German version so I can translate from that in an effort to figure out what in the world it all means. He said he'd send it this week, and that was last week, and this week's almost over, so he must not be in too much of a hurry to get it done...and in that case, neither am I!

Mom, I had a margarita for you last night... they messed up the order again though so I ended up with a frozen one instead of a Golden one... but it was still better than the time they messed up the order before and I ended up with a strawberry margarita... lol.

On April 1 I am going to go pick up Lea, who is from Australia, at the train station! I'm excited to meet her! She'll be here in Koblenz for the summer, as well.


Gonna get laundry done and clean this place up a bit so I have a nice home when I get back next week...


Feeling a bit more cheerful,
Caitlin

Sometimes, Holidays SUCK

Holidays suck when you are alone, for one. Holidays suck when EVERYTHING IS CLOSED, and you couldn't leave if you wanted to--the buses aren't running barely at all, all the stores are closed...holidays also suck when its gray, raining, and FREEZING outside. This morning was so perfect, barely a cloud in the sky... and an hour later, my hopes for a nice day (for a change!) were shattered...

So here I sit, alone until tomorrow night at 8pm, with literally nothing to do except the things I have to do... wash laundry, pack, finish proofing this paper...all the while clinging desperately to my sanity...

I should write novels.

Back to the Norm

Got back from Paris on Tuesday night. Lucked out and an earlier train had a delay so we got back to Koblenz a bit earlier than sonst and I made the bus. My computer didn't work when I got back, same problem as last time... Wednesday a friend of mine, David, who fixed it last time, came over and it took him 15 seconds to fix the daggam thing. 15 seconds!! He popped out the battery, dusted it off a bit, snapped it back in, and it worked again! Ridiculous!!

Yesterday I was able to check the following important things off of my to-do list:

• extend my residence permit
• got my student ID (AND got it laminated!)
• got a new ISIC card

These things are all annoying things that have to be done in annoying offices during very specific hours. Now I only have to make it to the bank before the end of the month to show them I'm still a student so they don't start charging me for my account there.

My new residence permit pic is so ugly, ha ha... yesterday I wanted to be there at 8am and so I rushed to get ready but did NOT put on any makeup at all. Was first in the office and was told I needed a new picture, UGH. If I had received the right letter from the coordinator in the first place, I would've had my residence permit for two semesters instead of one and I would have saved myself 35 Euros, or over $50!! But, such is life, and I certainly didn't know ahead of time that an extension was going to cost another 30 Euros... so I can't really be too upset.

Last night I had a great looong conversation with Hannah which definitely reminded me why we are friends. We hadn't talked in mooooonths and I think when people don't talk for that long and don't see each other (aside from Facebook!), memories start to fade slightly and you literally forget

Today I am meeting Jenny at 5pm for drinks at happy hour :-) She is a really nice person!! I'm leaving for Ingolstadt on Saturday around 1pm, and I'll be there til Wednesday morning. Then I'm back here till Tuesday, April 1, when I leave for Rome!!!

The time here is going by like flashes of lightning! A speeding bullet! I leave on July 23. Then there are three short weeks before school starts and then...well, school starts! CRAP! Honestly though I am looking forward to getting back into a normal routine in my "regular life".


Caitlin

Yesterday, Versailles--Today, the World!

Yesterday
Vendy and I slept in and took the train to Versailles. It was crowded. We went inside and checked out the garden and then we left and went to Champs Elysees, where we ate tandoori chicken sandwiches at "Quick", which is like the French version of McDonalds, and they were really good... then we bought tickets to see "The Bucket List" for 3,50 ($5) which, if you're not familiar with the cinema in Europe, is DIRT CHEAP. There are no $1 theaters :-( At least that I've seen. The movie was definitely a tear-jerker...

Afterward we headed to the Eiffel Tower to check it out in the dark. It was beautiful--I filmed the twinkling lights come on :-) We headed homeward toward the hotel and stopped at a hole- in-the-wall Turkish place where I had some bad food and an expired soda. I went home happy.

Today
This morning I had a sluggish start, and it occurred to me that I had not done the one thing that everyone needs to do before they leave Paris--go up the Eiffel Tower. So, I got headed out. I went to the Picasso Museum, first, since I hadn't been yet. He's a cool guy--I appreciate modern art more than the Louvre-ish stuff, because this guy and many others-- Dali, as another example--broke the mold. They realized that art can be anything that comes out of their brains, not just what everyone else told them "art" was supposed to be.

I made it to the Eiffel Tower. I met some really nice people from the States in the snake, which went a lot faster because we talked the whole time. We really had a great chat. I paid 12 Euros to wait in a Disney-style snake and talk to Americans, and it was worth it. I gave them my museum pass, which expires after today, but they're going to Barcelona tomorrow and they never check ID on the passes or anything. It'll save 'em a least a little money.

We parted ways and I went to the movies, again, this time alone--on the way I stopped and got a Nutella crepes with fake Nutella... I couldn't even eat the whole thing, hardly half of it, the guy did such a crappy job. Tasted fine, it just fell apart and all the chocolate came out. The only word I could think of to describe it was "garbage"... on the Champs Elysees I bought another crepes and actually got to eat it, ha ha...

I bought a ticket to see "Taken", starring Liam Neeson (was surprised to find that this film won't be released back home until September!!) and it was GREAT... it was about Albanians who had started to kidnap and traffic young female travellers, even selling them to some sick rich folks. Liam Neeson was awesome in this film--really blew Jack Bauer out of the water. I wonder if that sort of thing really happens... the whole film took place in Paris, it was scary!!

Went to see the movie "10,000 B.C." which was definitely different than "Taken"...also a good film. Interesting how they spoke English that long ago ;-) And, if you're not already laughing at me for going to see two films by myself in Paris, it would have been three films if the third wasn't already sold out :-(.

I liked going to see the movies today. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. The cinemas on the Champs Elysees are really nice.

Tomorrow we're headed home... our train doesn't leave til 4pm which really bites, because a certain roomie of mine wanted to spend as much time as possible in Paris, and didn't consider we'd have to have all our stuff with us. Ugh. Such is life, though, and we're stuck here until then, and I might have to wait an hour for the bus in Koblenz. But at least I'll be in my nice, clean, quaint little apartment again tomorrow night, that is, at least til Saturday... I'm going to see the relatives in Ingolstadt for Easter. I'm actually really excited to shave my legs, which I haven't done in over a week, since I didn't want to spend any more time in that shower than I had to... no air!!


Signing off,
Caitlin

Montmartre, Champs Elysees

We met our friend Margriet at Gare du Nord at 10am and headed to Montmartre, which can be described as the "typical" French area in Paris, or as one imagines it. That's where I went last night, so spontaneously, and there were significantly more people there than last night. A ton. Inside the church it wasn't as pretty as last night; no music, way too many humans, just crazy.

Then, we

...spent some time in Montmartre, avoided a slew of black men harassing us and everyone else to buy handmade bracelets (we have sexy booties)...non, merci!... visited the Moulin Rouge, and ate pizza sitting on the steps of the Sacre Coeur listening to a violinist strum a string of beautiful songs. It was romantic in a way.

We took the Metro to the Champs Elysees, a wildly famous shopping street for people with lots of money (or with little money to spend so frivolously). We walked up and down and back up again, ending up on a bench eating Nutella crepes and drinking Coke. Lunch of champions.

Walked around Richville for another hour or so, even past the French president's house (name?), and ended up on the steps of the Madeleine for a bit before heading to Gare Montparnasse where Margriet caught her train at 7:30 back to her hometown.

Tomorrow? Versailles.

Monday? Whatever the heck we want. I think we'll go see original version movies on the Champs Elysees! For some reason in France there's this cinema promo going on where this Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, all showings cost only 3,50. I think we'll see TWO movies.