Still Alive in Germany

Hello faithful readership,

The international cuisine thing was a huge huge huge huge success, better than I ever expected. We hardly even advertised it! And now I'm ready to have another one. I think we'll plan it before Christmas so we can all make some traditional Christmas dishes. I'll be making cookies!! You can see pictures of the event in the More Random Pics of Friends album on Facebook. I made macaroni and cheese, which didn't taste like macaroni and cheese at all, and then mini sandwiches made with eggs, hot sauce, green onions, and cheese. They were delicious!! We all voted on the best food and Viktor won, and he got a nice little cookbook, which is now sitting on MY bookshelf :-) ha ha... his delectable creation was just that, delectable. And tasted good cold... always a plus for things like this!

The next morning I got up eeeaaarly to catch a bus to the train station for the trip w/ the campus Catholic organization to Eisenach. There was an exhibition in the big castle there about St. Elizabeth. Apparently people are REALLY obsessed with this person. I don't believe in the saints, that's not biblical, but these people apparently didn't mind escalating her to such a degree. It was REALLY freaky the stuff they did. Examples include using her flesh to create part of a sculpture which still exists today (the flesh was formed with wood into the head of Jesus on a crucifix sculpture). They also built requilary boxes for her remains, every bit of her remains. I saw a real finger inside a finger-shaped jeweled case. It was grayed and you could see the wrinkles through a little window on the front of the jeweled case. CRAZY. These people worshiped her more than they worshiped God. That was evident by the exhibition. Apparently people still worship her. Kinda makes me angry. People devoted their entire lives to a 24 year old woman, writing books about her, painting murals and paintings, carving grandiose statues of her, erecting churches after her... and thereby left Jesus completely out. Well whatever, that's my soap. Here are the albums from the trip:

Eisenach 1
Eisenach 2

Anyway... I'm continuing this post after almost 2 weeks, it kinda sat in "drafts" for a while, as I was tired and didn't feel like writing...

Mom sent me a package from home with a few very essential items... my "skinny jeans" which now fit (at least they did two weeks ago, but maybe not anymore!!) and *surprise* a CHRISTMAS TREE! It is now sitting on my desk all decorating. I've got lights around my windows, too :-) Viktor and I made cookies and brownies w/ the mixes Mom sent and now, again thanks to Mom, I can enjoy popcorn from my very own microwave. Sweet.

... I got a cold. And I've had it for almost a week. I know the worst is over, but I'm kind of ready to get back into my exercise routine which I have half-way fallen out of. I only got in two days of exercise this week! How sad! I guess that's better than nothing, though, seriously. And here, cold medicine really isn't that cheap!!

On a brighter note, I got a JOB! Yep, that's right, I am now working for the vice president of research here at the university as a translator! My job also includes correcting documents that have been VERY roughly translated. I'm debating on whether I should tell them that native German speakers should only translate from English to GERMAN, not from German to English. It is hard to correct when half the words are wrong in the first place, ya know?! So I'm making $11.07 per hour I spend translating. And it's fun to do and a great way to learn. I guess I'm most excited about how this is going to affect my future career. Not only do I get to write on my resume that I spent almost a year living in Germany absorbing the language, but I'm taking courses on translation AND working as a translator at the same time. So I am hoping this scores me big points when it comes time to get a job sometime in the future. I'm sure it will.

I got a new shower curtain and it is beautiful!! It really shows my age, in a way... 5 years ago the last thing on my Christmas list still wouldn't have been a shower curtain... but here I am, thrilled to have a new one!! Here is a picture:



Viktor and I got slapped w/ a $60 fine each yesterday when we got "caught" without tickets on a regional train... but it really wasn't our fault!! We wanted to buy tickets at the Automat, but because the price of the ticket was under 10E, the machine refused to accept 20 E bills.... which was all we had. And so we were left ticketless and assumed we could just buy them on the train. WRONG... well, first, we hoped that no one would come by and check for tickets, so we wouldn't have to pay at all, but of course, Lumpy the Ticket Man comes along and Viktor asks to buy tickets. Lumpy very rudely replies that we can't. We apparently can only buy tickets from him if we got on the train at a station that does not have automats at all or at a station in which the automats are not working... and it did not matter to him that the machine did not take our money. In short, he COULD have sold us tickets, but he wouldn't, because he's an asshole. So he gave us each a little piece of paper that said we owed 40E ($60) to the Deutsche Bahn. HOWEVER... something rather funny happened in my case: he asked us for IDs so he could put our info in his little computer (that does issue tickets in other circumstances!) and I gave him my driver's license... which turned out to be written in Greek for him, lol, because when I looked at my little paper that held my doom for $60, he had written my name as this: Johanna Caesar Caitlin. That is, Caitlin is my last name, Johanna (my middle name) is my first name, and Caesar (the name of my street back home) is my middle name. LOL. He also incorrectly input my birth date. So the only information he has from me that is correct is my home address, which does not include my room number. And so therefore he has the home address of about 300 other people who are also not named Johanna Caesar. Which means the Deutsche Bahn will unfortunately receive no money from anyone. Viktor isn't going to pay either-- he has decided to write a letter complaining, which you are allowed to do. I gave him a few pointers on how to write a complaint letter (I've written two!)... including finding something to quote from their website. I picked out a line where they had written "German Train Stations -- Experience the Service and Other Amenities Designed to Make Your Trip a Pleasure"... so he is going to quote that and ask where the heck the service was?!?! We have the number (not the name) of the guy who gave us the penalty, and we're going to include that in the letter as well, as he was very rude. Viktor said he didn't understand something the guy had said, and he replied "Yeah, I noticed". I had to sign a slip of paper that apparently certifies the information on the ID was correct, which I did sign for, but then I realized that the information he had copied from the ID was NOT. The way I see it, if the idiot ain't competent enough to write down simple information, I'm not giving him any of my money!!! In some trains you CAN buy tickets, in some trains you can't. And this information does not exist on the website. Anyway, I'm just NOT going to pay!

Here are the new photo albums...
Summer 2007 Non-German Style
A Very German Christmas

I'm leaving on December 20 in the afternoon to go see the cousins in Ingolstadt... Michi and I are going to TRY to go to Dresden in the meantime, but the train tickets are just so expensive. We might just go to Regensburg or Nuernburg instead. The Catholics are trying to get a trip together for Dresden in the summer, anyway, and it was fun going to Eisenach with them, so I might just wait and go with them since it'll probably be cheaper anyway...

Well that's it...! Thanks to all who have faithfully been reading and I miss you all and love you!

Caitlin

Late Nights, Toaster Ovens, and Dodging the Chocolate Breakdown

HeLLooooo everyone!

Wow it's definitely been longer than a week since I last updated. Shame on me! It's a good thing I write things down in my agenda, otherwise I wouldn't remember a daggam thing. And that's just because I am really busy.

Last weekend was a pretty slow weekend. The highlight was going to Cologne for the Worship Night they had there (see pics and videos on Facebook). That was just so cool. I was like a mini- Passion conference. We had the David Crowder of the German world, ya'll! Ok, maybe not that good, but still good. It is sooo neat to worship and celebrate and pray to God in another language.

Monday is grocery shopping day... so last week and this week I grocery shopped. I also grocery shopped today, because I finally figured out what to make for Thursday... the Student Government (called AStA here) is sponsoring an evening of international cuisine... we're all supposed to make something to bring along and I decided to make "western sandwiches", a recipe I discovered in my Healthy College Cookbook, and macaroni and cheese... from scratch. I tested out the sandwich today and it is amazing, so I am really excited about that. I'd like to make the sandwich and cut it into triangles and stick a toothpick through it, just for kicks. Not excited about making the mac n' cheese, but we'll see how it turns out.

Last week I stayed up laaaaaate Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday watching movies. Last Monday we went to see a movie called Lissi und der wilde Kaiser. I was very surprised to see how much I understood of the movie. I always doubt my skillz, yo. After the movie we went to a billiard hall/bar and I had hot chocolate and played a game of billiards... I lost, of course. Then we took Kito (guy visiting from Iowa/Cali) to the train station and ate at McDonalds and his train was like an hour late. We met an American randomly at the train station... he was fro Missouri and had met and married his wife while studying abroad in Hamburg 35 years ago! How crazy.

Tuesday night we all went to a "Sneak Preview" at the same theater and also went to McDonalds afterward. This time, though, I only ate ice cream. No cheeseburger and fries for me, man! Although I was proud of myself on Monday for not overdoing it, like more than a small-sized anything, that is. Honestly I don't remember a lot of what I did on Tuesday day, but I think I exercised. YES I did, I did exercise! Excellent.

Wednesday I ate lunch with friends and that evening Viktor hosted a film at his place for the Spaniards... I of course was there as well, lol. Got home late that night as well, and went to class on Thursday morning at 10. I did pretty good on my first translation. It always looks scary when you first get the text to translate, but then it gets easier as you dive into actually translating it.

I forgot to mention that I had sort of obtained a side job... I will soon be "contracted" as the official "english corrector" for some department on campus... I responded to an ad which resulting in my obtaining a 20 page document on bird flu in German newspapers to correct. It took me 6.5 hours and I earned over $70 :-) YAY! Exciting. So they'll be contacting me later to do some more work... in the mean time, I'm thinking of advertising a bit ;-)

Thursday I am pretty sure Viktor and I ate all three meals together... lol... yep we sure did, that is funny. Thursday is normally the "party night" for students here in Koblenz, and I was gonna go with some girlfriends dancing but, I felt like staying home. Sooo I went to bed, but woke up the next morning with the biggest freakin' headache EVER. I attempted to work out but I just couldn't make it to the end, so whatever. I felt better as the day went on. Met Melanie for lunch that afternoon, and Kathrin at 3pm for a little chit-chat. That was nice to see her!! I had dinner at Viktor's...... we had something quite unusual for dinner but it was really yummy... like these ravioli pasta thingers with sour cream and french fried onions... it totally surprised me how good it was, and I'll admit I doubted it would taste good in the least. We went to a birthday party and then to another party someplace else which was really fun, they had cool music and so I danced a lot. It felt good to dance!! "You can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind...!"
LOL

Anyway so Saturday der Schatz and I caught a train to Cochem and his dad picked us up there. We dropped off his parents at some friends' or relatives' or whoever's house and we visited some volcanic lakes. It was SO SO SO cold we couldn't stay long and I didn't take many pictures. I don't know a lot about volcanic lakes. But there were 3 of them, and we visited two. The second was pretty, there was a little church next to it that had the prettiest graves (weird I know, but hey, they looked nice!) so I took a few pics of that... we were going to walk to an observatory tower but I decided that I didn't want to because it was too stinkin' cold and we left and as soon as we got to the car it started raining... perfect timing!! We had a hot chocolate (best I've had since I got here!) and rented the movie Silent Hill to watch later since Viktor had never seen it... we even rented it during happy hour so it was 1/2 price, yo. So we went back to get his parents and ended up staying and eating, which was nice. There was cake, so I was happy ;-) j/k, it was a nice time. I felt kind of awkward being there because everyone was speaking Russian to each other for one, and for two the gathering was a sort of anniversary remembrance gathering for the host's son who had *cringe* committed suicide 6 months earlier. So yeah. Viktor and I spoke English instead of German, and he translated the Russian for me if I asked (like if everyone laughed or something, lol). Anyway we watched the movie and then went over to one of his friend's house to watch another movie (Wild Hogs) which was sooo freakin' funny. It was a really funny movie. We watched Silent Hill again but about a third of the way into it I fell asleep and woke up when it was over, lol... I amaze myself at how easily I can fall asleep sometimes and get so frustrated when I can't fall asleep....

Slept in laaaaaaaaate on Sunday, and got the train back to Koblenz at 6pm. Had to wait a while for the bus, but at least they were functioning... crazy thing was, earlier last week a live bomb was found at a construction site in the center of town, from World War II!! And so Sunday they blocked off the entire city until 2pm so they could defuse it and remove it. Wild, huh??

Sunday night I bought myself a toaster oven on Amazon and it got here this morning. The same DHL guy woke me up for the 3rd time, but it was exciting to get my toaster and my alarm was gonna go off in 5 minutes anyway. I worked out with my friend Friederike at 10am for about an hour, and we went grocery shopping at 12:30... got all my stuff for Thursday and all. She's coming over this evening to test out the oven with me; we're going to make mini pizzas, yum!!

Ok, so in regard to "Dodging the Chocolate Breakdown"... I am out of Nutella. And I refuse to buy more. BUT, I get headaches if I don't eat at least a little sugar. So, what I have resolved to do is this: out shopping today I found a box of little skinny chocolate bars... there are 11 of them and they are just a perfect size and less than 100 cals a pop. They taste really good and having them individually wrapped like that really helps with portion control. So I think if I have a craving I'll just stick with that and that way I can avoid The Breakdown by not having a giant jar of Nutella lurking in the cabinet. No, it really does lurk!! I'm serious!!

Anyway so I plan to go over to campus to the computer lab this afternoon for a bit so I can print a few things for class on Thursday and not have to worry about them tomorrow... then Rike will be here around 6pm and we'll make our mini pizzas. YUM I can't wait. Then the Spaniards are having a Spanish film evening, I MIGHT MIGHT MIGHT go watch the movie. But I want to work out tomorrow, so we'll see.

Ok so this time I covered all of the things in my title, I'm content, ha ha...


Cheers,
Caitlin

Terrible Classes, Halloween, and When it's cold outside

Hi!!

Ok so that class I went to on Tuesday? TERRIBLE. It was taught in English and called "The Story of English" so I thought, hey, this sounds interesting... WRONG! I fought the urge to get up and leave in the middle of it several times. I seriously doubt the professor knew what he was talking about. Anyway I am not going back to that class. As much of a slacker as it may make me sound like, I'm going to stick with two classes this semester. They are the only two that will be valid at UCF anyway, and I find that simply talking to my friends and listening to them brings me a LOT more benefit than sitting in a class. So, cool.

Tuesday I went to a meeting in the Asta office, an office on campus that helps first semester students and international students in many aspects. Long story short, I signed on to be a German tutor for the Spaniards, lol. I don't know if I'm seriously going to do anything or not, I've never done anything like this before... so... we will see.

Mommy's box o' glorious items to thrill and surprise me came on Tuesday as well, I was very excited. I hung my hooks yesterday! The safety pins came in handy for my halloween costume and now, thanks to the Ziplocs, my cheese stays fresher, longer. :-) Life can't get any better when you have fresh cheese in the fridge. My favorite favorite FAVORITE thing to eat for breakfast at the moment is a slice of Bauernbrot split in half and toasted, low fat spreadable cheese goes on first, then a bit of low fat sliced cheese, then one or two slices of salami. YUM! It is sooo good. Sometimes I'll also have a slice of toast with Nutella.

Also included in the box o' glorious items to thrill and surprise me was a new workout DVD! It came with the ab belt at Walmart for über cheap and so I did that Wednesday by myself... told my friend I couldn't do a workout on Wednesday but I really just wanted to try that one out alone, lol. I felt kinda bad, but it was a good walk so I am happy I did it. After that I went shopping for a Halloween costume :-) I wanted to be a cat. My friend Rike is a crafty girl and she helped me make some cat ears out of felt and one of my stretchie black headbands. I found everything else I needed at the local Big Lots... okay so it's not a Big Lots exactly, but I got the same excited feeling as I walked through it as I do at Big Lots. I even got a set of three pretty drinking glasses for 1€! THREE! Quite exciting. Now I don't have to serve wine in plastic cups anymore. Just kidding (I don't even like wine)!

So I didn't have enough time to do all my makeup right for my costume but I had my tail attached already (which I made out of a faux fur ski headwarmer thingy that I got for 2€ at Big Lots and safety-pinned to my pants, lol) but I was able to do eye makeup and a black triangle on my nose. Later, I got whiskers. Here are pictures of the Halloween party...

We took the right bus on the way home. No, that's not it, my story wouldn't be exciting if I just said that, would it? We DID take the right bus home, but SOMEONE neglected to realize that the bus did NOT go to the school...at all. So after the bus had exited the Stadtkreis Koblenz, we decided to get off... and we are far far far away from home. I guess not that far, but I was so tired I just did not want to walk anymore. Needless to say on the holiday yesterday I did NOT work out. And Aunt Flo is going to pop in for a visit soon so... we'll see how that goes. Today I just was lazy when it came to walking and I decided to go grocery shopping and update my blog, answer email, and work on homework...for once, lol. Tomorrow I do plan on doing some kind of workout :-) Maybe the 5 Miler!

Everyone is sick. Liz and Kathrin are both sick so unfortunately the Bonn thing didn't work out this weekend. I am going to propose the trip to Köln for two weekends from now, which will be the weekend before Thanksgiving. I'm going to propose leaving on Friday evening after everyone is done w/ class, taking the train and staying overnight Friday and Saturday in a hostel, sightseeing on Saturday, returning on Sunday. I love Köln (Cologne). I am actually going there this Sunday to the Cologne Worship Night. I'm really excited about it!!!

I cannot believe I have been here almost 5 weeks. That's how long I was gone over the summer. It feels like I have been here forever, yet simultaneously for no time at all. But 1 month is over, 9 more remain. What will happen? I'm excited to find out!

Mach's gut,
Caiti

More Photographs of my Wildly Fascinating Life

Heidelberg/Bad Dürkheim
Marksburg (Braubach) Part I
Marksburg (Braubach) Part II
More Random Pics of Friends

Those with Facebook capability be aware that there are oodles of new videos to enjoy :-)

Greetings from the today-slightly-sunny Koblenz, Germany,

Caiti

Long Time No Update

Well I might as well just email my mom since I don't think anyone really reads this, lol. Its nice to have a record of what I do.

Monday last week I went and got my haircut... it took forEVER and cost $85, but it is the BEST haircut ever. Last night it got rained on so this morning it doesn't look so hot, but whatev. Ha ha. So pretty much my whole day that day was taken up with that. The cafeteria food is ok, by the way. It's just dirt cheap, I can tell why everyone eats it. Tuesday I had lunch with friends again and then went to town with Niko and he got a laundry rack just like mine! He was complaining about the dryer being slow and I said 5 Euros at the Globus, getchaself one, yo! Kinda like that, at least. And he loves it. So I'm happy. He said he has told everyone he knows. If only he were spreading the Gospel...! Tuesday night I went out with Melanie and everybody to the Kneipenrally, which, put simply, is where pretty much everyone meets out in the Central part of town to go around to 4 different bars to play little games. The first game was guess the cocktail ingredients, 2nd was how many clothing tags can you collect (like shirt tags, etc.) 3rd was how many paper boats can you make, and 4th was a "clothing chain" in which I did NOT participate. You had to make a chain out of clothes and whoever had the longest chain out of all the teams won or something. Not many girls participated, but there were a bunch of guys in the group too in their skivvies in the middle of a bar. Kinda wild. I just wanted to go home! Traditionally everyone goes to this one club after the rally is over, called Dreams, but it was so crowded we just decided to go home. I kind of thought the whole event was lame. But I got to know a bunch of new people so it was cool.

Wednesday... I forgot what happened. We worked out, oh, by the way, the walk-aerobics club is coming along nicely. There are 5 members in the club and I invite everyone I can. Its hectic because everyones schedules are different. Thursday I had the translation course; its going to be a lot of work but I think if I do bad, it won't really matter since I am stuck at UCF for two more years when I get back anyway. But the course has a high passing rate, no one ever does really bad.

Friday was Heidelberg... look for photos soon! It was a crazy day, the train was late getting home leaving me stranded at the train station. I walked home, but was "rescued" by a certain Russian friend of mine. So it all worked out nicely. Definitely got my exercise on Friday with all that walking and hill/stair climbing!!

Saturday we all went to visit the Marksburg in Braubach. What a cool place. Pics on that to come as well. Did a lot of walking then, too. We took a ship back, it was really neat. The number on my ticket was "3287", my birthday! Sweet. Sunday Caro picked me up for church and it was ok. All the stores were open for 5 whole hours on Sunday, which only happens 2-3 times a year apparently, so I went. It was like everything was free or something. There were announcers inside the Woolworth on microphones talking about all the stuff on sale. It was like the Black Friday or something. I got a little door hanger thingy for a Christmas decoration and some supplies to mop the floor with, and printed some pictures. I mopped the floor on my hands and knees when I got home which only took about 10-15 minutes, then I stuck all my pics on the wall! I've started a little collage!!

Monday was a good day, too... I had the Intercultural communication class. The prof is really really cool, I think I am going to like that class. I only have to write one 10 page paper to get credit, lol. In English, too. I feel bad for those German folks. We also have to do a group presentation though; got some things in the works for that. Went grocery shopping, did aerobics with Rike for an hour, and Viktor and his friend Kito (from California) came over for dinner and we watched the Simpsons, lol... just thrilling.

Today I have a class in 10 minutes, then I'm going to upload all my pictures, eat lunch, and do aerobics with some friends at 4pm. My friend Sarah turned 20 today so I put some yellow roses and a bday card on her doormat today :-) I also made a new friend, Hanna, in the laundry room, ha ha ... she goes to a church in Trier (1.5 hours away) that has english services and sings worship songs from Hillsong among others, and invited me to go some weekend with her. I will plan to go next weekend :-) It sounds just amazing.

Feeling really blessed,
Caitlin

Pickchas

New pics and albums, ya'll...

Fun with New Friends
Viktor's Party Pics
Viktor's Pics of Koblenz

(Viktor is a new friend and I'm posting the pics I took so, if you wondering, now you know! )

An Uncreatively Titled Update

Ok, it's Sunday and here I am. This afternoon I want to go to this coffee/cake reception thing. What will I do otherwise? Ha ha. So I have about an hour before I have to go catch the bus, so I figured I would update.

Friday we went to the party and it was a party. I think the only people who read this already know about the party, and the details included, so I won't write any more. It was cold that night, though.

Saturday I woke up pretty late, ate something, and did my bootcamp workout... most of it... then at 6 I went to the welcome event thing for the new people in the building... it was a lot of fun! I was on the blue team and we won a bottle of Sekt, which I don't like, and the girl who opened the bottle got Sekt all over my pants. So now my khaki corduroys smell a little alcoholic! I met a bunch of new people and I played Twister! Actually I don't like that game, much, lol... I took some pics which I hope to upload tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Today Niko and another new friend, Rike, came at 9am for breakfast, then Carolin picked us up at 9:30 and the four of us went to church. Its what they call a "free" church, which means basically non-denominational. It was great! The guy who preached today was from Minnesota, I spoke to him a bit after the service. Their building and set up reminded me a lot of River Run. I felt at home. They sang songs in English or songs that I know that had been translated into German. Like that song "God is great, and his grace fills the earth, fills the heavens..."...? Sang it in German! Ha ha and we sang Blessed be Your Name in English. Pretty neat. It was a marvelous experience to worship in another language and actually understand it!

So tomorrow is my first class, which is at 10 am and is called intercultural communication. It goes until 12. I think I might try out the cafeteria food.... I hear its pretty good. Then I can stay on campus and upload pics and such.

Friday I will be in Mannheim and Heidelberg, planning to do some sightseeing there :-) then on Saturday we are all going to the Marksburg on the train, then coming back on a boat! How cool is that?! So it is a traveling weekend indeed up ahead. There are some other courses starting up this week, too.

Well I think that's all for now, I'm going to eat some lunch and get ready for the coffee/cake reception.

Caitlin

New Pics, Dictionaries Made of Gold, and BOOT CAMP

Hello faithful readers,

Here are the new pictures:
Discovering Koblenz by foot Part 2 (new pics @ end)
Climbing the Mountain

I went to visit Dr. Martin today to chat a bit about the translation class. I feel pretty good about the class... he recommends this gigantic dictionary from PONS that just came out this April, but its 60€... it must be gold or something, lol... well, I didn't buy that one, not just because of the price but because I honestly don't think I'll need a huge one... I got the smaller PONS specifically for college students, for 30€, which is still a nice chunk of change, but at least it won't take up as much space on the way back home next year, and its HALF the price of the huge one. Super. Still waiting on that Collocations dictionary... kind of irritating...

Today I am going to attempt seven "miles" of exercise, as I am participating in Boot Camp with the Walk Club... so, ahead of me today is 7 miles of walking, 10 pushups, 50 crunches, 64 oz of water or more, and 5 servings of fruit/veggies. Can I do it? YES I CAN!! Tomorrow is more boot camp.

Tonight is the party for us exchange students, we're gonna take the bus cuz its too danged cold to walk, lol. Perhaps later this afternoon I'll go to the store to find a little something to bring to the party... or just walk to the little store down the road, I don't feel like taking the time to ride the bus into town since I have a mega workout ahead of me... then again I need some more fruit and veggies for tomorrow's bootcamp. We'll see!


Have a blessed day,
Caitlin

Cardboard Bath Towels, Mountains to Climb, and New Friends to Climb it with!

Hello all!

I realize it has been *GASP* two days since I last posted an entry. Some of you may be getting a little nervous, and thus, taking that to heart, here I am to calm your anxiety.

I have to remember where I left off... ah yes, it was Sunday night last I really posted. Yes... ok so, I think I went grocery shopping on the bike... it was really cold! First I went to Aldi to get some trash bags and some juice... beforehand I had just been taking the entire little trashcan out to dump it... but Aldi has 40 little trash bags with handles on them for ,65. So I got some of those. I went to Rewe to get some EVOO but, alas, it was way to expensive for my likings and since I was only going to cook w/ it, I went back to Aldi and got the regular stuff. I did get some brown rice and sweet/sour sauce at Rewe (which was DELICIOUS by the way).

The rest of the afternoon I didn't do a whole lot, I worked out and got ready for the get-together for the new people at 6pm... so I got all ready and went to the lounge to see that only 5 people were gathered at the door. Little did we know we would eventually all become friends! Actually it's a little too soon to say that, but I wanted to make it dramatic. Just a bit. We sat and talked for a while then decided to go our separate ways, then meet back at 8:30 to play cards. So I went back and made dinner and came back. I learned how to play Phase 10! In German! I think it's an excellent way to learn new vocab! We played for two hours till the game was over and I got second place (never got to phase 10, but I got to phase 9!)... we took a short break and 2 of our group of 6 didn't come back... so it was four girls hanging out and we just chatted about all sorts of things. To make a long story short I ended up talking about my workout DVDs and I am excited to report that we are going to start a fitness club for our building! We'll be meeting 3x a week for anywhere between 45 and 90 minutes of exercise. Winter is coming soon and gyms are expensive and require motivation, I think if we offer this we can really serve the others in the building that want to get in/stay in shape over the winter.

So... Tuesday I slept in, I think, then went to meet 3 of my 4 FSAs to go meet Bettina Holstein-Alter in the Auslandsamt on Campus. We waited 5x as long as we were actually in there. I just introduced myself and that was it, lol... anyway so then I went and got a cafeteria card, although I've yet to put money on it because I prefer to eat at home. But you can eat really really cheap in our cafeteria... you get soup, a main dish + 1 side + a dessert or fruit for 1,70 ($2.41)... so it's cheap, but at Aldi I can get a loaf of bread, mustard, and some ham for that much that'll last me more than a week. So I still would rather bring my own lunch or go home and eat. I mean, I live right across the street!

I think I went to the grocery store again on Tuesday, and I was there for a long time, lol. Basically I'm just comparing prices and stuff. Anyway I had a pretty bad headache all day Tuesday that is, until I decided to work out in spite of it, and wouldn't you know that my headache was gone during my workout! No pain killer works like good ol' exercise. I washed my jeans and some towels yesterday... today they were dry already but stiff and dry as cardboard... I now understand why Gaby's towels are like they are... man. How unsoft. I think it might even hurt my skin a little when I dry. I'm just a wimp, lol.

Ok I should say the names of the people I met on Monday night... Laura (ain't seen nor heard from her since the card game, she's pretty quiet...added me on StudiVZ though), Niko (guy), Sarah, Carolin, and Christine. Christine and Carolin have known each other a long time and are gone for the weekend. I've gotten to know Sarah the most so far. Last night we watched A Knight's Tale in English. It was fun.

I invited Sarah and Niko to lunch at my "pad" today; we had sandwiches and ice cream, lol... since I only have one chair, we sat on my furniture. It worked perfectly! It was such a nice lunch. Niko washed my dishes for me, and Sarah dried them. Then we went walking. We found a drugstore right close to where we live (super duper, and no hills to climb on a bike), a cafe, a pizza place, and a place to buy drinks...here they have beverage stores where you can buy just things to drink. Anywhere from liquor, soda, water, tea, juice you name it, they have it. So that was neat. The only thing I wish there was was a grocery store closer!! I mean it takes like less than 10 minutes to go to Aldi on my bike, and 7 minutes to the city center on the bus, but then I end up waiting for the bus for a while next to an old lady that either smells of B.O. or is puffing away right into my face. Ugh.

Well I'm not sure if any of you remember the pics of the view from my window where I zoom in on a tower thingy up on the mountain... well, we climbed the mountain today to see it! Up on the mountain you can see everything! It is amazing. We can see both rivers, the fortress, our building, the university, everything! There's a little old-school playground, benches, and some bonfire spots along the way. We discussed getting together a picnic or some things to cook over a fire sometime. I think that'd be fun! I took some pics that I'll post tomorrow.

So far I really like this city. I LOVED climbing today (don't worry it was a paved trail!) And we weren't going to get lost, either, there were signs to the thinger anyway. The thinger was, by the way, actually not a tower. It was a tall memorial made from stone, commemorating fallen and survived heroes from the four wars that had occurred in Germany thus far (lol). I only wish we'd have gone up the mountain yesterday or the day before, as today was so cloudy and even rained for the first time since I've been here :-(. It was also rather cold. I did work up a bit of a sweat on the way up though, causing me to remove my jacket!

Tomorrow I'm going to participate in a tour of the city! I guess I already did that, but hey, I don't have anything else to do. Plus the guy giving the tour is kinda cute ;-)

Well I guess that is about it for now, this took me forever to post because it took me forever to remember two days ago!! That's why I post daily, people, DAILY!

Caitlin

New Pictures...

I'm popping in to let you all know that I have uploaded some new pictures. Here are the albums:

New pictures added to:
My Apartment
My Life in Koblenz

BRAND NEW Albums:
Discovering Koblenz by Foot
Discovering Koblenz by Foot (Part 2)

Wow I can't believe I took almost 100 pictures while out yesterday. Thank technology for digital cameras!

Happy viewing,
Caitlin

Hedgehogs, Sleeping, and Seeing the City...by foot!

GOOD EVENING!

Well I skipped a day of blogging. I did that so I wouldn't get too nutty about it.

Yesterday I slept in till 10, then read the rest of the Nicholas Sparks book, The Choice. I tell ya what, Nicholas Sparks really takes you on a ride this time!! I got out of bed when I finished the book then rode my bike to Aldi to get some food... $11 later I am home again. It is amazing how much food you can get there for the price!

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and putting away laundry. When I came home I noticed how the shelf in the shower had fallen down AGAIN and the little bottle of facewash had cracked open, and there was 3 oz of my good facewash all over the shower floor. ARGH stuff like that makes me mad. There is still face wash all over the floor in the shower; it's not like I can get it all up at once. Whatever.

Sonja picked me up to go to the carnival at 8:15... while I was waiting, I saw a hedgehog scurry across the street! I wasn't sure what it was at first, so I walked over and saw it going through the grass. As I approached, it got scared and ducked its little head into the grass and didn't move for like 5 minutes. It eventually took its head up a bit so I could take some pictures of it, lol. How cute.

Sonja's friend Christian drove to Mayen to the Lukasmarkt... it was like a mini Octoberfest, seriously. Everything was just as expensive. We just walked through it and left. Sonja got some coconut almonds and they were amazing!! The regular almonds were awesome, too. I was getting kind of irritated after a while, because both Sonja and Christian were using me to practice their English... that is, when I spoke in German, they would simply answer in English. Then they would ask and say things to me in English, and even talk to each other in English!! AHHH I tried to tell them nicely, look, how would you feel if you came to the USA and all I wanted to do was speak German with you. They said they would have liked it. But it was starting to get on my nerves. Sure, English is easier, but I didn't come all this way to speak it to Germans, for heaven's sake.

After the carnival we went to one of their friend's house, where he had made a bunch of Greek style food in remembrance of his vacation, or so it seemed. All we did the entire time was look at pictures, literally hundreds, maybe up to 1000 or more pictures, from their numerous vacations. Talk about feeling out of the loop. We stayed and looked at pictures until 1:30 in the stinking morning. Sonja doesn't speak loudly or clearly, so whenever she did speak to me in German I always had to ask her to repeat herself. I made a mental note to myself to try to stick to people who will be polite and respectful of my wish to learn German, not help them learn English. I just thought that was so rude. And I'm a nice person so of course I didn't start yelling and screaming, but I really thought it was so impolite. I compared hanging out with them to hanging out with Melanie and her friends, and the latter was so much better in comparison. I can see myself spending the most time with them, at least so far! Classes and such haven't started yet, so I haven't met too many people...

Today I slept in until like 11, since I didn't go to bed till 2:30 or so... I made breakfast with my brave little toaster... Bauernbrot toasted, with spreadable cheese + salami. YUM it was delicious. I also had a piece of regular toast w/ Nutella. I am pretty proud of myself, I've had that Nutella for almost a month now, I guess, and there are 20 servings in the container, at least according to the label, and I still have 2/3 of the jar left. That must mean my MNPC (Mission for Nutella Portion Control) is successful so far!! AWESOME!

After breakfast I went outside. The weather today is PERFECT. It was 59 for the high. I didn't even need a jacket. I took my iPod for my Jesus music, crossed the big bridge by my house and walked alllllll the way along the Moselle till it met the Rhine at the big monument for Kaiser Wilhelm and the Deutsches Eck. I sat and journaled for a while then was on my way. I meandered around a bit, found some cool stuff and museums in the Altstadt (need to go back there!) and went inside an old church. Those places are scary!! It was so cool to see all the old architecture, it's so wild to know that these places have been here soooo long!! The city of Koblenz is 1000 years old, by the way. I took a ton of pictures along my way; I'll be posting those tomorrow morning once I can get to the lab on campus.

Museums in the Altstadt are open on Sunday; I think I'm going to go there next Sunday. I think it'd be a great thing to do on a Sunday. Then I think I'll take my bike, since by foot it is sooo far! By the time I got home it had been 3 hours and 15 minutes since I left. What a workout! I was sooo tired, not just from the sheer distance but from the hills and stairs and rocky surfaces. It was fun, though, a good break from the routine. A GREAT way to spend a Sunday. I listened to a David Miller message on Affecting Others Around You... that was a good one.

So now I am sitting here in shorts and a sports bra just chillin. I am really beat!! I may start a new book today. This time I might start one of my German ones...

Oh yeah, yesterday I also picked classes for the semester. Looks like I will be taking two serious ones, meaning, I will attempt to obtain credit, and one all in German that I will simply attend with no intention to receive credit (meaning no tests!!). Translation 1 seems like it is going to be a TON of work, but my schedule seems to be light enough that the work can get knocked out in one solid afternoon a week. Here's what my schedule looks like:

Monday: Intercultural Communication 10am-12pm
Tuesday: Werbecommunication 2pm-4pm
Wednesday: NOTHING
Thursday: Translation 1: 10am -12pm
Friday: NOTHING

I could probably just dedicate Thursday afternoons to nothing but doing the work for Translation, and that'd be that. Then I can be free to travel or play around all weekend =D. I am really hoping to meet some people this week who want to travel. I'll finally get to meet some more people in an organized setting this week, as things are starting to pick up as the semester begin draws closer. So I am definitely excited about that. So far, I only have Rome in the works as far as travel goes, and that won't be until March. I definitely want to take some day and/or weekend trips in between.

That's all for now, folks, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Caitlin

Slow Starts, Laundry, and Conditioner (that is smaller than the matching shampoo)

Hello folks,

I am writing to you this evening from the comfort of my own cozy room *shuts window because it is currently 55 degrees outside!!*

Had a slow start this morning. I think I turned off my alarm in my sleep. So I got up at 8:40, and had planned to get the bus at 9:25, but didn't factor in my morning routine at ALL... so long story short I miss the bus at 10:25 and had to wait till 10:55, putting me at the Ordnungsamt at 11:00am. An hour before it closed. There were only people in there waiting for the person I needed to see, of course, and I waited an hour until the place closed and the line had barely moved, in which case the other people who worked there tried to take some of the work load. So I never got to see the person I needed to see, but I got my residence permit...50 euros later. I have to come back in March to renew it, because Jody at the University only gave us the confirmation until March, even though he also made one for the summer semester as well. He must have forgotten... but, because of this, I have to go back in March to renew and pay 30E more, whereas if he had NOT forgotten, I'd only have to pay that first 50E and not come back. Damn. I'll say it, DAMN. Ticks me off.

BUT, as I discussed with my Walk Club team members today, I did not save 13 of my 20 years to be a miser of the money... I saved to do something plum awesome. And this is it. I saved for all such mishaps, emergencies, splurges, living expenses, gifts to send home to Mom and Pop and Sissy, and maybe even Christmas decorations. Not to be stingy or complaining about where my money goes. Certainly one must be smart about it, but not to the point of being angry about something one cannot change!... For example, I can't change that Jody made that mistake, and Koblenz won't give me a break, I'm sure of it. Germans just aren't like that.


So after the Ordnungsamt I went to the "mall" which is called the Loehr Center. I caught the bus perfect timing, the next one was gonna come in like 30 minutes. That would've been lame. I went to Globus, the biggest store in town besides IKEA, and looked around. I found paper holder thing that I'd been looking for for about $1.50 and a super duper deal on Schwarzkopf shampoo and conditioner... instead of 1,45 at dm Markt and other places, it was only 77 cents each, 12c more than the dm store brand AND 100 ml more per bottle. What irks me about German shampoo and conditioner is that there is always at least 100ml less in the conditioner bottle than in the shampoo. WHY??! Ha ha... I just washed my hair twice with the new shampoo today for kicks, that way I don't run out of conditioner faster. I could just use less conditioner, I guess... lol

I went home and worked out, today's walks were the WATP Express 3 Mile Advanced Walk + 1 Mile Booster... it was awesome! I used the stretchie band + the water weights for an extra boost and some strength training. Then I made the BEST lunch ever. I don't know why I don't have this much luck making my own food at home in Florida, lol. I had stopped by the bakery on the way home and got a poppy seed roll... I spread low fat buttery spread stuff (ALDI!) and some garlic powder on one side, added some chicken, leftover tomato sauce, and low fat cheese (ALDI!) and microwaved it... it was the most delicious sandwich I have ever eaten!

After my (much needed) shower, I took my clothes to the laundry room upstairs... forgot the detergent, so I had to come back, lol. I changed the language on the machine just to be safe, lol. I followed the directions and started the laundry. The cycle lasts 58 minutes, soooo long. It was clean when I came back, needless to say, and it smells sooo nice now in my room, like clean laundry! I hung it on my new laundry rack. Love that thing! I only have to use it 5 times to make it worth my 5 euros spent = those 5 euros were saved NOT paying to use the dryer :-)

I organized all my papers with paper clips and put them in the new paper tray. Looks nice and neat in here now! Maybe I'll take some pictures...

Tomorrow I will ride my bike or walk someplace. It's my day off from rigorous exercise, but I just want to stay active. Tomorrow I am also set to go to the carnival with Sonja. She is in Venice until tomorrow morning, but then she'll get in touch to let me know when we're going. I'm excited!!

Anyway that's the news, thanks for tuning in.


Caitlin

First Evening Out + Thrilling Thursday

Hey everyone!!

Well I finally got my computer ID to work here on campus, so now I am in the computer lab working on getting my pics and videos uploaded to facebook. Here are the albums I added or added to today...

Ingolstadt several new ones
München
My Life in Koblenz a few new ones.
My Apartment ALL NEW
Fun with New Friends ALL NEW

For those with Facebook, there are also new videos posted on my profile.

Yay! I took a few today while out with Kathrin, but that'll have to wait til next time I am here... which may be as early as tomorrow. Heck, its not like its far.

Today I met Kathrin and we went to get a laundry rack, found one real quick for just 5€! Exactly what I needed. There was one for 10€ at IKEA but not nearly as sturdy as the one at Globus. We both noted today that although there are quite a few bargains at IKEA, they can also be pretty expensive. I returned some leftover curtains I had at home for 4€ then we went to eat, I had Swedish meatballs and potatoes... but I got the small portion for 1€ less :-) love to save money and calories simultaneously. Ain't nothin' better!! We walked through IKEA and then got the same cool ice cream cones as I had last time we went. I filmed it, I'll upload that video soon as well. OH we also went to the train station and I bought the super günstig Bahn Card 50... I am still tickled pink as to the good deal that is! I got the temporary one and they took my picture to send me the permanent one.

We went to the school and I got my ID laminated for 25 cents, got my library card activated, and fixed my computer account... tomorrow looks sort of busy as well, I think I will go to the Ordnungsamt to pick up my residence permit, then I'll take it to the bank so they can copy it for my records...

Just thinking out loud. Overall it's been a productive day. I am going to go back to my room and work out before dinner, which definitely won't be much tonight since I ate those meatballs today. You give and take to stay fit, I suppose. And that's one of my goals. I also gotta work on writing in my journal! I get so caught up with the blog I forget the journal. The journal is mainly for expressing thoughts, feelings, prayers, thanks, etc., and stuff ya'll would probably raise an eyebrow at, ha ha :-)

Caitlin

Wonderful Wednesday

Hi everyone, it's me again...

I got up at 8:20am this morning and checked my mail, then I worked out for 75 minutes right here in my room! It was great; I did 5 miles. Today I cooked the rest of my chicken so it wouldn't go bad, and made some more of the same Uncle Ben's rice as last night because I want to get rid of it, it makes my entire refrigerator smell like it, lol... I think today I had the pan too hot or I was cooking the chicken too long (it tasted fine), but I am very surprised I didn't set off the fire alarm, lol... I think my little kitchen is cute and very functional, but a LITTLE more space would be nice!!

I registered at the school successfully today, and I went and signed up for the computer thing, so I can use the computers in the labs now... and I got a university email address, however I can't log in for some reason... if I can't log in still tomorrow, I'll go and ask the dude in the little office why! Maybe I mistyped the password both times, lol. Or maybe it takes a while to load into the system? We'll see. I got a library card, I need to copy my registration confirmation before the library will allow me to check things out... so I can do that soon. The guy from the Ordnungsamt called and let me know that whatever it is that I was waiting for (not sure) is finished, and I am scheduled to pick it up on Friday.

A lot of you have heard me talk about a girl named Melanie, she lives here in AdHW too, and a couple of months back wrote me an email that she wanted to be friends and we'd be talking ever since. Welllll she arrived in Koblenz this morning and was at the library studying for English with a friend of hers, Wiebke, and came by a bit ago. Tonight I'm going with them to a little house party, where I will get to try some new food, it is called Raclette... it is something with cheese, and potatoes, I think, and ham? In a little pan. Can't wait! They are both sooo nice and I'm so excited to be making friends.

Tomorrow I hope to be getting together with Kathrin, I miss her!!! So Kathrin if you are reading this, call me and let me know your schedule! I'll probably work out in the morning like today, then head on over to the school to the computer lab to upload the rest of my pictures. Last night I ordered the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English; it is a book required for the translation courses here at the University. Really there are 4 required books, 4 of which are dictionaries, but since I'm a native speaker I only was recommended a bilingual dictionary and the collocations one. I don't know if I'm going to even buy the bilingual one; the online dictionary is pretty comprehensive... but we'll see, its like $11 online...

Well that's whats going on today, I am stoked about "going out" with new friends tonight. These are the types of things that really make this experience fun!!

Caitlin

Crazy Time-Consuming Tuesday

OKAY people! I know I am updating a lot, but that's because every day a lot happens and I do/see a lot of things and I know there are certain people depending on these posts imminently (okay, only Mommy, but that's cool! Hey mom!). and I'd like to post before I forget something.

So today even though it was really cold, I put on my gloves, the same sweater I wore yesterday (it doesn't smell, and I don't want to wash clothes that often!) and went to the Ordnungsamt. I got everything taken care of, I just have to wait 1-2 weeks for the background check, I think thats what it is. But I got the guy's card so I can email or call him, and he said he could also call me when it's ready to get picked up. It only takes about 10 minutes or so to go there by bike, so I could pick it up no problem. My next stop was the bank, but it had moved, so I parked my bike at the mall and walked through the Fussgaengerzone where all the shopping was. I left my floss at Gaby's so I bought some at dm Markt and discovered there is a rather inexpensive internet cafe at a book store. Like 1 hour for 1,50. So if nothing else works, I can at least go there. On my way to the Bahnhof I also spotted a few more internet cafes. It was great to walk around and be able to make mental notes here and there about where things are and what's available, good prices/bad prices, etc. For example, Woolworth really doesn't have that good of prices... some stuff is just downright expensive... so I think I'll avoid going there for stuff. They did have a 10E toaster I considered purchasing, but I'll hold off for now. I thought I'd get the toaster from Gaby, but that didn't work out. At least I know if I want a toaster, I can get one at Woolworth for 10E.

I stopped by a Sparkasse and was told I could NOT send money to the University w/ my Sparkasse Ingolstadt account, but I could do it on the Internet, I just had to print the receipt and it would work. I could also deposit and withdraw money at the ATM, or so I thought... more to come on that...

I reached the Bahnhof eventually and saw that there were tons of people just standing around, and a police wagon was there and people crowded around. The doors at the front were taped and although I had it in my head already what was going on, I asked someone standing there and he confirmed it... a bomb threat had occurred that morning at the Hauptbahnhof. So, alas, no Bahncard 50 for me today. I can wait and do it again some other day, maybe Friday. I don't need it for anything right this moment anyway. I did wait around a while to see if we'd be allowed back in since most of the police had left the scene. I walked to Aldi and just looked around, I like that Aldi a lot, they had like bargain bins in the back and all that. I found an apple-scented liquid air freshener that now sits on my desk, dutifully serving to make my room smell like apples :-) I like it and it was only 99 cents (so like $1.39).

I gave up on the Hauptbahnhof and just decided to go back. On the way I stopped by another Sparkasse and went to the ATM to deposit money. It said "with this card you cannot deposit money" or something like that. So I went to the counter and this really nice lady told me that I can't do anything in Koblenz with the Sparkasse Ingolstadt account card. How Tobi didn't know that is beyond me. She graciously informed me that I could change the account from there to here, but that I'd better go to the Metternich branch, the one closest to where I live. So that became the goal from there on out... I went back to the mall and picked up my bike, and rode it 30 minutes to the Sparkasse in Metternich... I am beginning to HATE those hills. I get off and walk the bike up them sometimes, which is just as hard, but faster, ha ha. I love to sail down the hills though; at first I'd brake a little so I didn't go so fast.

I ended up at the Sparkasse in Metternich and set an appointment for 6pm there; I'd have to ring their doorbell so they'd let me in after hours. Lucky me, they only have after-hours appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I told Julia I'd meet her in front of the library today at 5 to ride into town, but I was soooo exhausted from riding my bike and walking around town for 5 hours straight (I'd been gone since 10:30 and it was now 3:30) I just didn't want to go anywhere. I sent her a text message to reschedule but, I suspected Julia had her phone off, and I ended up being right. I felt better after I ate, anyway... I ate chicken soup with veggies and some rice with some more chicken, lol. It was yummy.

I saddled up the bike again (literally, I put on the seat cushion and take it off when I ride the bike) and rode over to campus. I told her I had the appointment at the bank at 6 and so we just went to the little campus cafe. Julia's boyfriend's name is Sam, and he was there, and he can't speak German just yet, so we spoke English then. I ordered a hot chocolate :-) Julia's English is almost perfect, she has an Australian accent, ha ha... she spent a semester in Australia on exchange, which is how she met Sam. So the whole time we all just chatted about learning languages and the different English dialects and stuff. I'd never met an Australian before! It was a great little meeting, the hot chocolate was great (only 1,20)both of them are really fun people. Sam is moving to Paris to work in two weeks, I think.

Everything worked out perfectly at the bank appointment. The lady was super nice, her name was Gabriela. I got her card, too. She was patient and explained everything just perfectly so I didn't have any problems. Essentially she just closed my Ingolstadt account, cut my bank card, and opened a new account in Koblenz, transferring the 100E from the Ingolstadt account to the new account. I got my new account number, routing number, and all that jazz, deposited 150E a did the bank transfer to the University, and signed up for Online banking, all in the one appointment. I had to sign all matter of forms all over again.So now I have the receipt to take to registration tomorrow. I am meeting Chantal, another assistant, to go register. I'd actually prefer to go alone since I do really know what I need, but I haven't met her yet and would like to.

So by Friday I should have all I need for the online banking, and in two weeks I should have my new bank card for the new account. I don't really need it, anyway.

On the way home from the bank, I crossed the street but forgot to brake and ran into a wall. No injuries resulted from this mishap. Ha ha :-)

Hope you all tuned in to the end, I am unsure of my readership to this masterpiece of a blog I am currently producing, but as long as someone is reading it, I'll keep writing :-) And I read it, so there's my one person!

Caitlin

One Week Down

Hello all,

Its 8:30am Tuesday, so, 2:30am for you all in Florida (Heimgebliebene ;-) ) I am afraid to open my window and check how cold it is, because I wanted to go to the Ordnungsamt on my bike today, but not if it is freezing outside... *checks* yep its cold. This time I am definitely bringing gloves. Yesterday I rode up a couple hills to get some groceries and although my upper body was sweating, my hands were sooo cold.

Monday was a great day, though, I got a lot done that I needed to... got a cushion for my bike seat, as the normal bike seat is just unbearably thin and hard, lol... now its a bit softer at least. I rode my bike all the way into the city and found the Deutsche Bank and the mall (yes it's a mall!) and coincidentally found a bike shop--that was just a secondary goal but as I approached the mall I saw it on the left across the street. I love how stuff is just so close together... Deutsche Bank was just across the street from the mall! Awesome. I needed to find that bank so I could withdraw from my BoA account without fees and then deposit the money into my Sparkasse account, so come April they can withdraw for the rent.

The washers and dryers here require little coins to operate and they are only available from this guy, Amor, in his apartment (weird, I know). So I'd tried three times and on the third try he was actually there. He is CUTE, ha ha... I told him I was new here, an exchange student from Florida and he was just baffled that I could speak the language already (not bragging, he really said that). Each coin costs 1 whole Euro, which is about $1.40 PLUS you have to buy your own detergent... it costs 1 coin to operate each machine, including the dryer. So sometime soon I am going to try and find a Waeschestaender so I can hang my clothes in my room to dry. There's a big empty corner that just happens to be the perfect size for one.

Last night I cooked an official dinner for the first time in my Barbie kitchen! Actually Barbie would probably have a nicer kitchen than I, but this is the compact edition. I cooked italian-seasoned chicken breast in my skillet and some whole wheat penne, mixed it together with some tomato sauce + little garlic powder, and added some low-fat shredded cheese to the top! It was sooo good (except the sauce was too sweet!). It didn't take all that long, either. I used my kitchen shears to cut the chicken; that was a lot quicker than using a knife, lol...

So, today's goals are...

1. Ordnungsamt to file rest of paperwork
2. Sparkasse to wire money to pay the social contribution fee for this semester (98,64E)
3. Hauptbahnhof to buy a Bahncard 50 (50% off the original purchase price of the card for people under 26, and 50% off all train rides on any train any time, for an entire year!)
4. Meet Julia at 5pm in front of the library on campus to bike around town.

So if I accomplish goal number 2 at Sparkasse today, I can accomplish goal #1 for tomorrow: get registered at the Uni. Starting next week there are events each day for exchange students... I'm looking forward to those things.

Well time to stop dawdling and get ready nice and warm to go to the Ordnungsamt...!

Bis naechstes Mal,
Caitlin

Saturday, Sunday, and Crappy Internet

Hello all,

How is everyone? Things are going well on this end... Saturday Gaby and I went to Munich to an IKEA there, and finally got a number of living essentials!

• trash cans (2 E each!)
• Toilet brush (1,20)
• Kitchen scissors (2,49)
• Door mat (green and black, 2 E!)
• Curtains (12 E)

So about $31.00... we then went next door and I got a little bucket to use as waste receptacle in the bathroom and three sponges for 1,09 ($1.54). Some things are just really cheap here!

Gaby loaned to me two blankets, a down comforter with two sets of sheets, matching pillow cases, a pillow, a broom, a bicycle, and two rugs. So I am pretty much set, except I kind of need a mop... we'll just wait 'till I REALLY need one, though :-) I also got my microwave, frying pan (with glass lid!), little caddy-shelves for the bathroom/kitchen, and some door hooks.

We went into Munich and walked down to Marienplatz, the Glockenspiel was all under construction along with just about everything else there... grr. Since I fried my own electric toothbrush charger, or so I presume, I got one of the 20Euro ones at the techie store along with the internet cord (thanks Mom!). Now I can brush my teeth better!!

We sat in traffic a lot on the way to and from Munich, it was crazy!!! Gaby made a cake when we got home; it was pretty good. We were going to do one of the fitness walk DVDs but never got around to it. Michi came over (a friend of ours), and now we are starting to plan a trip to Rome sometime soon. I think it would be fun to go around Christmas time, since Michi lives in Ingolstadt, we could easily go there for a week while I'm there for Christmas. We'll see!! Rome is definitely on the must-see list, though.

Today we left the house (finally) at 9:30, Maxi had to print something out last minute to take with him for school... not sure why everyone had to come along for the ride. I just didn't feel like talking to anyone at all, actually, not because I was in a bad mood or something, but simply because I just wanted to sit there silently.

Other than that, I've got a few goals for tomorrow...

1. Buy the little coins for the washing machine
2. Find someplace that has wireless for my laptop, since I can't upload pictures on this connection!
3. Go to the store to get some laundry detergent and some food.
4. Post office
5. Work out
6. Ride my bike someplace

Kathrin will come over sometime this week for dinner, I can't wait!! Liz may also come to visit. I'd also like to find out how to pay the Social contribution fee so I can get my bus ticket and student ID and such. Doesn't look like I'll be doing much clerical stuff this week... Sonja is sick, Verena is on vacation... Chantal has fallen off of the earth... Julia might want to cycle around town sometime... so we'll see. I've got a whole city to explore!

Bis naechstes Mal,
Caitlin

Address...

Hello, I forgot to post my address in the last post...


Caitlin Roll
Auf dem Hellen Weyer 1, #1-06
56072 Koblenz
Germany

Really easy... I better get a postcard from ya'll now and then, and if you are interested in a postcard yourself, email me your mailing address, and I will see what I can do...

Caitlin

And We are LIVE from Across the Pond!

Hello all,

I write to you all now from Ingolstadt in Bavaria... I've just come from the Oktoberfest! We had a lot of fun. I didn't realize it was a big fair where you could ride rides and stuff, I just thought you went around town drinking beer. So it was neat. Apparently its the biggest of such things around Europe. I was talked into riding some rides, most of which I honestly did not enjoy because I'm getting older and frankly, it's not fun anymore!! I wanted to eat just one Bratwurst but ended up eating two because Tobi is very insistent on eating a LOT all the time. But check out the pictures from the Oktoberfest, they will explain a lot more than I can write here...

Starting with the loooooooong day I had on Monday, it was a craaaaazy day. The flight left on time and although sad, leaving Mom, Pop, and Sissy wasn't all that bad. God was definitely right there with me the whole time, that is one thing for sure. The flight was long but they always had something on the screen playing the whole time instead of the scrolling info about how long there is left, etc. plus they spaced the meals out to where you ate 2 hours after takeoff and 1 hour before landing or so, so it seemed like the meals came fast, but then the flight was over. I was staaarving for dinner though, seriously. I ate just an apple after lunch before the flight; it was 7:15 before I ate dinner. It was good food, though, grilled seafood, rice, and something with Wasabi... tuna? Not sure. The entire plane was full practically, even first class but I asked for a seat in the front row at check in, so there is more leg room in that row. There was a nice non-snoring non-smelly man next to me on the plane, we didn't talk, but he had a Playboy magazine that, although not read on the plane, I saw him put it in his briefcase to take home... so I figured he was a creepy German, ya know? Ha, ha...

So when I got off the plane I had no problems at the Passport check, the cutie there asked me what I was up to and actually seemed interested, I told him I was staying for 10 months even, and didn't even ask if I had a visa already. I suspected it wouldn't be a problem, although many had said it might be... at baggage claim since my bags were so heavy (we/mommy paid $60 to take that giant green one since it was 12 pounds overweight all things said and done!) I asked two young strong looking men to help with my stuff, and they took it right off the belt and put into onto the cart for me... and Kathrin was there waiting when I left baggage claim... and everything fit right into her car. It was great!! And I was just so tired, but we had to go further and further, first to Kerstins to pick up some stuff, then to the school to pick up my key, then to the grocery store since everything was closed Wednesday... the grocery store rocked, though, I can't wait to go back! Everything is dirt cheap and you wouldn't believe the quality... like you can get a bag of organic whole wheat penne pasta for 70 cents! I got a bunch of stuff for $19 (13€). It was just super... mainly else I just got eggs, SPREADABLE CHEESE, bananas, apples, ham, butter, cleaning spray, dish detergent, soup, tomatoes, a thing of juice, 6 pack bottled water, a loaf of bread...... I think thats it? But now since I have a frying pan, microwave, and toaster, the options are wide open.

I slept three hours, woke up, and put all my stuff away... the apartment is just amazing, although it is small there is a ridiculous amount of useful space. So efficient. I have pics but, I got a bunch of new stuff plus we are going to Ikea tomorrow, and so I will post new pics when I am all set. We also gotta get an Ethernet cord for my laptop since I thought there was wireless (which there is, but cord works better, wireless is from the University and I dont have an account yet anyway). So I'll do that tomorrow, too. Here are the pictures I have taken so far in Koblenz.

Wednesday I really did not do much, everything was closed so I just bummed around, but Thursday I went with Sonja to the Ordnungsamt but alas, these people are wildly disorganized and I did not see the checklist until she picked me up, then we realized I only had half of what I needed. That's ok though, I'm in no hurry and we got the stuff filed and went to the Bürgeramt and to sign the lease for the apartment as well. So next week we'll go back to the Ordnungsamt to get the rest of the stuff in order...

Got on the train to Ingolstadt, sat in between three smelly old women who don't yet know of deodorant and probably never will... got off the train in Nürnberg and spent 30 of the 40 minutes of layover time looking for the potty, only to finally find it and see that it cost 1,10€ to PEE... so I waited... Gaby picked me up from the train station and we went "home". We had real schnitzel for dinner, it was awesome!!!!!!!!!! With lemon juice squeezed into the breading, amazing.

This morning we got up and went to the gym. I have to tell you all something surprising, at least it was for me. I participated in and survived a kickboxing Tai Bo course... it was wild and crazy but a great workout!! We did treadmills for 20 minutes then did a spinning course for another hour. Hardest, longest workout ever!!! But I felt great afterward.

Then we hung out and headed to München around 3, got back at 8:30ish... now I am here. Just wanted to get something posted for everyone and some pictures up. TOMORROW.... we are going to IKEA! I can't wait! I only really need some trash cans, but we will see what else there is.

Ok I'm going downstairs now, last night was the best night's sleep out of all three nights so far, partially because I wasnt freezing... I didn't have a good blanket the last two nights and its coooolllld. But now from Gabymart I have like 20. Ha ha...!

Much love,
Caitlin

Freaking Out

Ok, I'm not freaking out... I'm really excited. I had to leave my friends today and I have several goodbyes scheduled for tomorrow as well, so I'm not looking forward to that, either. But God is calming me! God gets to fly first class for free, so it's cool... I'll leave my mom at the gate tomorrow, but not alone.

I have two biiiig suitcases of my stuff. I can only hope they'll fit in my friend Kathrin's car!! See...!



Well this is a short post because I really have nothing to say... except that if you're reading this, you most likely mean a lot to me! So thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll stay tuned.

Love,
Caitlin

First Week Plans

Hello faithful readership (if you so exist!),

Just a little update on what's going on. I am well into packing my things at this point; even my clothes are packed! I have so many clothes (NOT a good thing!) I can pack all I want to bring and still have plenty to wear for the next two weeks. Passengers in first class are allowed 2 pieces of luggage, each weighing no more than 32kg each... that means I can bring more than my body weight in luggage, ha ha ha!!! I can manage that, I think. Basically, if I have room for it, I am going to pack it...no worries on bringing too much, I'm going to be there quite a while. I don't want to have to go scurrying around town in Germany to find this item or that item if I've already got it at home and have such a large luggage allowance. Might as well just pack it.

My cousin (technically he's my 2nd uncle) Tobias works for Sparkasse, a popular bank with branches at every corner in Germany. Soooo to my luck, he is opening an account for me at Sparkasse before I even get there, saving me the hassle of doing it by myself when I get there. I am going to visit my cousins in Ingolstadt the first weekend I am in Germany.

Last night, I got an excellent deal on a train ticket from Koblenz to Ingolstadt. I was sooo close to buying a railpass, a 4 day one for $202 (w/ shipping) that I wasn't even sure I'd be able to use. I'm sure I'd find some way to use it, but still... so, I went to the Deutsche Bahn website again just to double-check the prices on the ticket I wanted, and lo and behold! For some reason, the special price wasn't listed a few days ago, but it was now... I got my ticket for $43 as opposed to $110! The reason I am going to visit them is because they have things of mine that they brought back when they left last week so I didn't have to pack them, AND...

I'm going to Oktoberfest in Munich! YESSSS! A life goal will be scratched off the list on that very weekend. I am excited already. I can't wait to eat a Bratwurstsemmel (a bratwurst on a crispy roll) with mustard... mmm!!!

Doing a good job packing, though, I think I'm covering all the bases. I looked at the pictures of my friend's apartment again today. She lives in the same building as I'll be in. The apartments are so cute and everything is new. I am very excited about it!!

I can't believe I'm leaving in two weeks!

Keeping you posted,
Caitlin

A Thought on Money + Travel...

Here I am again, worrying about a budget for my stay in Germany. Why? Have I not saved my entire life to do something cool? Isn't that why you save money, so you can eventually spend most, if not all of it? I can't have the same amount of money stashed away forever in my savings account, gathering (albeit interest) dust! I'm mad at myself for worrying about money. Am I going to look back at my year abroad in Germany and say to myself, "You spent way too much money!" or will I say, "That was a hell of a time!"? Which would I rather say...? Stay home and do nothing all weekend or...hop a train to the Black Forest?

Just something that's been on my mind lately.


Caitlin

A Little Reflection...

The time is already ticking, I can't believe it! In less than a single month, I will be gone from this tropical/sub-tropical climate to spend the fall and winter months in Germany. Wild. Mom and I have been thinking out loud a lot about stuff, what to pack/not to pack, etc. I got a new suitcase, even. It's huge! 34" tall and its 2" expandable!

Right now my mind is kind of blank. I feel like there's something on my mind but I can't remember what it is. I'm really looking forward to a drastic lifestyle-change. Firstly, I want to work on my relationship with Jesus. It definitely needs work (as it should) and I think going off on my own (technically) away from home is the best way to work on it. Then it's just me and Him. I got a taste of it over the summer and I've noticed since I got back I've drifted a bit. Here I feel more comfortable, less dependent on God. I guess it's because after living here in the same place for 19 years, I feel like I have it all down pat, all figured out. On my own in a foreign country, it's different. Obviously I don't have it all figured out either way.

Secondly, I want to change my eating habits. NO MICROWAVE!! NO OVEN!! Hence, no frozen foods = less preservatives and sodium (a preservative, ha ha). I just have a tiny little stove and a tiny little refrigerator. We'll see what happens with that!

Thirdly, I'm going to stick to my fitness goals for once. I have no excuse not to anymore. I won't be working, I won't have very many classes... I want to work out and LIKE it. I LOVE the way I feel during and after a workout, I have soooo much more energy and I feel great. It's a great encouragement to do it again the next day. So that's the third thing I want to change.

"Sticking to it"... this next year for me is going to be a real test of that. I have a problem with it. Whether its fitness, eating right, prayer, whatever it is, it is very hard for me to develop new habits. It's time to make these goals of mine very well organized and thought-out. I need to plan it, there's nothing wrong with that. Self-discipline, I think they call it. God gave me a heart for organizing, thinking, and planning... hopefully I can glorify Him, at least a little bit, by using it.

Until next time,
Caitlin

A Slight Change of Plans...

Hello, folks!

I figured since it had been about two weeks since I posted last, and stuff had happened, but I hadn't written about it...well, I'll just tell you.

I changed my flight from Wednesday, Sept. 26 to Monday, Oct. 1. That means I have one more weekend with you guys. I'm probably not going to have everyone over that Saturday as I'd planned. Maybe I'll just hang out with everyone individually since I'll have so much time off before I leave anyway (three whole weeks!). I changed my flight to avoid flying at 10pm... I'd get to Germany at 1:30pm their time, 7:30am our time... I'd rather fly on the 1st at 4:30pm and get to Germany feeling like its 1:00am our time instead... since I'll have things to do once I get there, obviously.

That's the worst part of travel, though... getting there. Then comes getting settled, I suppose, if you're going to be there for a while. My friend Kathrin is picking me up in Frankfurt, which I am sooo sooo soooooo thrilled about, because Frankfurt is (so I've heard) gigantic, and there are TWO train stations... not that I couldn't figure it out, but I'd rather not carry all that stuff around, frankly... I'm bringing two large rolly-suitcases and my little blue Samsonite from last time. One suitcase is gonna have just clothing in it, and the other will hold everything else.

I did end up buying an upgrade for this flight, too... which now I am relieved that I just did it instead of continuing to wonder whether or not I should do it... I am actually looking forward to the flight now! I was a little mad that my credit card charged me 2% for a foreign country fee because the transaction was processed outside of the US...even though I dialed a US number, they transfer you to Germany with the airline I'm flying. Whatever, you live and learn. I just knew if I didn't upgrade, I would be dreading the flight and then regret not upgrading the entire time I was sitting in economy! I did find out that you can pay $75 extra each way for long-haul flights to get economy in the exit rows and first rows, which have more leg room...I might do that on the way back to the States, but I think each time I go from here to Germany I will try to fly first class. Time always goes faster on the way home for some reason...

Mom and Pop added me to their credit card account with Capital One, which is the only credit card company with NO fees whatsoever, not even the 1% Mastercard and Visa fee. So if I need to use a Visa for anything, I'll use that card and pay them somehow... I think I'm going to make out and sign a bunch of checks before I leave and leave them with my mom so she can write the amounts in. I also renewed my health insurance for another year and so I'm all covered, even overseas.

Well I'm just thinking out loud here, folks, but thanks for listening and I will continue to post as interesting (or not) stuff happens!

Caitlin

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Hi,

Well as you all know already, I made it home. My flight had over a three hour delay leaving Düsseldorf. Instead of leaving at 10:40am (4:40am Saturday, Florida time) we left at 2:00pm (8am Florida time). Apparently something delayed the plane in Vancouver or New York or something, so it passed on to us.

I had the worst night's sleep ever in the hostel on Friday night. The guys in our room wanted to stay up and read a book or write, and it was like 11:30... then the old guy who got his car stolen came in late, then started snoring. And I didn't like the sheets and pillow cases there, either. But it was fine, I only slept for like 4 hours and then it was time to get up again.

We got our stuff out to the front of the building by 6:50am and the taxi driver came, as promised, on time. We got to the airport by 7:20 and found the check-in counter. I was first in line for business class :-). My suitcase weighed 32.5 kg (71.65 pounds), it was soooo heavy! So I checked in and then we went through security. I went to the business lounge for a bit, got some free magazines and some yummy breakfast, it was really nice in there! We waited and waited and waited... security at Duesseldorf is a lot stricter than at Ft Myers, they dumped out my entire purse and actually asked for my liquids. I got patted down, too, weeeiiird.

The flight was very comfortable! I decided that it definitely IS worth it to fly business when you can, it really is a lot better. Better food, better movies, HUGE blankets, more drinks, free booze (ha ha ha, its true, if you want it, that is) you can bring more luggage, the lounge was great, your own TV, more room in your seat--I got two seats all to myself-- one for me, and one for all my stuff, ha ha. They give you a nice little bag of goodies in first class-- little mints, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, kleenex, a massage thingy, a pen, socks, an eyemask, etc. I watched three movies on the flight-- Disturbia, I Think I Love my Wife, and A Painted Veil. They were all really good. I decided that next time I am going to definitely watch as many movies as I can because the time goes by sooo much faster. The airline I'm flying with in September has their own DVD players in first class, so I can bring my own movies! However, my flight in September is at 9:45pm at night... looooooovely. I just might be tired enough to sleep though, so we will see. And at least I am getting picked up at the airport this time so I don't have to lug my stuff through the airport.

I am already getting excited about going back in the fall, I will be honest... now that I know some people and don't have to dread the flight anymore (it pays, I mean it!), I am really looking forward to it. And driving yesterday was really annoying. I miss riding the bus everywhere! I miss Germany! I was really happy to be home, and I still am, but I think its the length of the flight that makes you want to be home really bad... I think knowing that the trip was only 5 weeks made me want to come home at the end of 5 weeks, it was all mental. The hardest part is always just getting there... leaving everyone, surviving an eternal flight, getting to where you are supposed to be... etc. But I am really looking forward to meeting new people, learning German, seeing the country some more... I really can't wait!

Anyway, I fiiiinally got off the plane, got through Customs... I was very happy to see that there were separate lines for US Citizens, and it was a LOT shorter! So I got through that, got my stuff, gave my declaration form and went to see MOMMY! Then we drove the 3.5 hours to Orlando and I finally got home at around 10:30pm. Except for me, it was about 4:30 in the morning. I was excited all the way home and we just chatted about everything, Mom and I. I gave Dizzle her presents at home and took a shower, a much needed one... then I slept until 8:45! I really thought I'd sleep longer, but I think I did myself a favor by not sleeping, because I don't feel any affects of this so-called jet lag at all! I think it was a lot worse going over.

Well, that is it for now, I will continue posting as preparations for the next trip start happening :-)

Love and hugs,
Caitlin

A Final Review...

Hello faithful readers!

I sit currently in Backpackers Düsseldorf Hostel. Nikki and I took a 2:30 train from Muenster and got to Duesseldorf a little before 4pm. We trekked through the Hauptbahnhof and found a crapload of taxis, the drivers of which were all chatting in a lovely taxi driver circle... I just walked up and asked them (dumb question, I know) "Are you all taxi drivers?" and then I said that we needed a ride to the hostel... first he took us to the wrong one. I knew that was going to happen...! But we finally get here and I asked him to come tomorrow at 7am. Nikki and I are gonna be out front at 6:45 and we have a backup phone number for a Taxi service juuuust in case this dude doesn't show up. I tipped him a Euro so he better show up! The hostel is great... 22 Euro a night ($30)... and its nice. There is a Canadian in our room with us, I have no idea what his name is, but that's ok...

Yesterday instead of going to the castle I went home and walked to the grocery store with Ashley to get some ingredients for CHICKEN PARMESAN... she thought it sounded weird when I described it to her, but it turned out amazing when we cooked it all together... best meal I have had so far here in Germany! Seriously. We played taboo in German, lol... then got some ice cream. I went to school this morning and really the only thing worth going for was to get my certificate, I got a "good" which is like an A- according to Dr. Taylor... the highest possible score was "very good"... I was just mad because the kid from Norway without a clue (ok, he knew some things) got a "very good"... and I think its because he was always there... ha ha... I skipped two days and I got frustrated a lot. My test score was even better than Norway's...!

I have a new favorite breakfast... toast with Nutella. LOTS of Nutella. Unfortunately the Nutella comes in a heavy glass jar and is breakable and heavy in luggage. That's ok, they have it in the US too... it was just soooo yummy.

These five weeks went by sooooooooo fast. I have loved every single moment of it, though. I had the best host family I could have ever asked for. She is weird (last night they flushed their leftovers down the toilet again) but amazing and hilarious... this morning there was a spider in the bathtub and she went to take a shower (she came out in this hilarious technicolor-dreamcoat bathrobe) and she goes "Well, the day just started and I already killed a spider!" Ok in English for some reason its not that funny but in German it was soooo funny and you just have to hear her voice. She is sarcastic and it is just so funny. I am going to miss Muenster a lot, and I will definitely try to come back and visit. Too bad the train tickets are so darn expensive! We'll see what we can do...

I posted new pics in the Muenster Part 2 album... There are also a few pics of the room we have here at the hostel. It's an older place I think, but it got great reviews and so far we love it... too bad we are leaving too early tomorrow to take advantage of the free breakfast.

Ok, so all in all, Germany is the most amazing country I have ever been in (outside of the USA!) I love every strange, exotic, dirty square inch of it. I can't describe to you the feeling in great enough detail how exactly it feels to be coasting through the countryside on a train to a city you've never been to before, standing in the middle of that city staring at a map... having ice cream around a beautiful centuries old fountain in the middle of a thousand year old city. I feel small and insignificant but I feel God more in those moments than I do in the comfortable ones. And how cool is this, what we are doing right at this very moment, sitting in a room in a youth hostel, our crap every where... our hair's a mess, our breath probably smells, but we could really care less... we are in the middle of Europe for Pete's sake, and really, no one cares.

It has been AWESOME to get to see this side of the pond at length, to make my own decisions and be independent. I was blessed beyond all of my expectations. My guest family was great, I met a bunch of great people and learned how to "rough" it... at least in comparison to my normal lifestyle. I have had to live out of a suitcase and wear the same 6 shirts for 5 weeks straight and I don't even care. I haven't used a dryer in over a month and I think I have only flossed my teeth twice... I use the same makeup everyday, sleep with a travel pillow, talk to my mommy three times a week, hop trains on the weekend to wherever I want to go! How cool. I am already looking forward to my next trip. Even though I will be sad to leave home again.

I will probably write another update once I am safe and back in Orlando, but for now I am signing off from Duesseldorf, Germany... Tschau!

Liebe und Schokolade aus Deutschland,
Love and Chocolate from Germany,
Caitlin

Weekend in Review

Hi folks,

I packed my stuff Thursday night for Koblenz and left that afternoon after lunch. I met a guy on the train named Keith, from Chicago. We talked the whole way to Koblenz! It was cool, something you think would never happen to you. Got to Koblenz around 5:30 and we checked out the University. I didn't take many pictures of it because its not that impressive. But it is small and cozy. Hope you all enjoy the albums...

Münster Part II
Koblenz I
Koblenz II

Saturday we checked out the city. Nikki got a flight on the same plane I am on, but we can't sit next to each other since I have a business class ticket. That's ok though, since we will get to figure stuff out together.

I really look fat in all the pictures of me on Facebook. Am I really that fat? Crap! I wonder if it has to do with the fact that I always have a backpack on and I am slumped over or something. But still, I look fat and it makes me angry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I printed out my ticket today... hoping that the Deutsche Bahn doesn't decide to strike on Friday afternoon... I kept forgetting to tell Mom about that, but now that I said something about it she can have a cow, ha ha ha... the train drivers are all in a union and they are threatening to strike unless they get a 30% raise in salary... crazy!! So far they've been unsuccessful, and I read in the newspaper that they are getting serious with the threats, but also said they would give 24 hours notice before they actually strike. CRAZY. Just PLEEEASE let me get to Duesseldorf before they strike, ha ha ha... that is really all I need.

I am giving a lecture on Thursday about tourism in Orlando, ha ha... I am sure that will be super interesting and informative. I am the only person from the USA in my class so maybe it will be interesting...?

Well I don't really have much else to say, I have a bad habit of forgetting what it is I wanted to write... I am kind of distracted right now cuz there are a ton of people in here too, so maybe later this week I can update...

Cheers,
Caitlin

A Forgotten Detail...

I forgot to mention something interesting in my last post... that is, Tobi drove 240 km/h on the Autobahn on Thursday night!!! That is 140mph. I have never gone that fast in a car, ever. Pretty swell.

I just saw some pictures of an apartment in Auf den hellen Weyer in Koblenz... it is SO CUTE. Soooo much nicer than I thought it would be. When I get the chance I will make the pictures smaller (they are HUGE right now) and post them. I really can't wait 'til Friday, I get to see KeRsTiN and my future home (at least for a little while).

Weird Germany

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I forgot to post my most recent albums... don't forget, you can find new pictures in the old albums, too, for example I posted new pictures in Life in Münster recently.

An Afternoon in Osnabrück
Bayern Part I
Bayern Part II

So... I got back from Ingolstadt yesterday evening. What a whirlwind of a weekend. The train ride was quite pleasant, and it didn't seem long although it was more than 5 hours. Sitting at a desk all day really teaches patience, though. I changed trains in Hannover to a super nice ICE train, they are so ridiculously fast. Lots of leg room, too. I'm glad I paid for a seat reservation. It was weird once we got into the mountains though, my ears started popping a bit. Later in the weekend I asked Gaby if it bothered her ears too, but she said no, so I guess its because Florida is relatively flat, ha ha. So is Münster, actually.

On the first half of the train ride I experienced something extraordinary... I can't really explain it, but I really wanted to just cry, I'm not sure why. Not sad tears, don't misunderstand... I think I just really felt at that time awesomely blessed, almost overwhelmed. I never thought, say, five years ago, I would be in the middle of Europe on a train going wherever the heck I wanted to. It is a great feeling! This whole trip so far as been such a lesson for me. I am learning so much and it has not all been easy. I haven't loved every minute of it, but I wouldn't trade a single minute of it for a minute anywhere else. Well, there is a lot more to say but I don't know how to write it without sounding illogical, ha ha.

I got there Thursday at 5pm and was met promptly at the train station in Ingolstadt by Maxi, Maria, and Gaby, who all had tons of sweets just for me! We chatted at home for a bit, I got the grand tour, and once Tobi (Gaby's husband) got home, we went out to dinner. It felt weird because Max and Maria were not allowed to go, and I felt like I should have stayed home too, ha ha... it is weird finally being an adult and getting treated like one, like oooh I can stay up late and chat with the grown-ups, and actually like it. Ha ha. We went to this really eccentric restaurant where you pick a sauce, then you get a bowl and you go to this buffet of raw meat--everything from kangaroo, crocodile, squid, and hey, even chicken-- and fill your bowl. Then you give your bowl to the cook and then sit down... the waitress brings you your food back to you cooked with the sauce you chose at the beginning. I've never experienced anything like it! The food was wonderful!!

When we got home from the restaurant I was shocked to see tobicomedownstairsinawhitebuttondownandaturquoisethong, NOT KIDDING... I felt very awkward. And no one said anything... I don't know if I reflected my nervousness or not, but it was there... lol

I got to work out the next morning, some cardio then a spin class... pretty sweet. Showering at a gym in Germany is a little different (I actually mean "weird") than in the US, we'll say... a little more...totally naked in front of everyone. Ha ha, it was strange at first but seriously, no one looks at your butt, at least not for a long time. And yes, men and women had separate showers. But it was still weird. Weird Germany...

They (we'll just call them cousins) are sooooooooo nice its almost bad... I had not a single moment of peace the entire time I was there. I suppose it was good practice, but it is exhausting. I spoke German the entire time and they had so many questions I spent all day talking. It really does make your head hurt after a while. And I got frustrated with myself sometimes because I didn't know how to explain something, or the words were not coming as fast as I wanted them to... learning a language is freaking hard, man!!! Its like your mind is running instead of walking briskly, having to process the information in a different language and then answer in that same language. You retrain your brain...when you first start learning a language, you need to translate everything into English or your mother language first, then formulate the English answer to the English question, then translate it back into German without mistakes. THAT is even harder... but as time goes on you learn to think in the other language (even dream in it sometimes) and it goes faster. But it is truly exhausting.

Saturday was a castle (see pictures) and the English Garden in Munich... I was really too tired to see the rest of Munich, but I will be back in Ingolstadt for Christmas this year (I can't decide how I feel about that just yet) so there will be plenty of time to see everything then.

Well I bought 10 days on the train pass and I have only used 3. Ha ha! better safe than sorry, though. I'll use it twice this weekend and twice next week, so it will total 6 days... I would have used it yesterday too, but Gaby and Tobi insisted that they drive me back instead. I guess that was a good idea, otherwise I would have had to either A. Get on a train at 2pm and change trains 2-5 times, with a trip time total of 7 hours or more, all alone, or B. Get on a train at 5:30pm, change once in Dortmund with a more than an hour layover, and finally arrive back in Münster at midnight. Considering I went to bed at 10:30 last night, that wouldn't have been much fun...

This weekend I am off to visit my future home, Koblenz. I'm leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday evening. I'm looking forward to it!! Then there's one week left until I am home after this weekend. I'm headed to Düsseldorf Friday the 27th to stay overnight... I am saving my Euros to get a taxi from the station to the hostel Friday, and another from the hostel to the airport Saturday eaaarrly morning. I want to be there by 7:30am. My flight leaves at 10:40am in the morning Saturday the 28th; I arrive in Ft Myers at 2:45pm Florida time. Then its a 3.5 hour long drive to Orlando, FREUDE (JOY)!!! But I will be with Mommy so its cool!

By the way it is really hot today... I really think I prefer cold over hot, just because I don't have to sweat all day, ya know?? But I finally got to wear shorts to school. Well, I am gonna blow this popsicle stand called the Internet and find something else to do... tootles!

Many greetings from across the pond,
Caitlin