Got A Little Crazy

Friday April 19th:
So today I went out and met Becca for coffee at 430. We ended up not having coffee, instead we got Ice Cream and Crepes, YUM! We talked for a couple hours and she told me that ALEX HELLER from Elon was coming down to visit for the weekend!!!!!!!!! Pat had told me that he was thinking about coming, but had never actually said he definitely was so I knew immediately that the weekend was going to be fantastic!! Becca and I walked around and she took me to this awesome Asian store that sells basically everything and then we went back to Wartburg to wait for Alex to get there! We got there and Pat/Davor were playing Mario Kart so they came in and joined us and we ended up playing the "Which 3 ______ would you take, if you were stranded on a deserted island?" for almost 2 hours and it was really interesting the different answers everyone gave (including Pat's Brad Pitt answer hahaha). Then around 8ish Alex shows up!! He dropped his things off and at 9, Anna came and we all went to Vetters for dinner. Vetters is a resturant that brews their own beer and has the strongest beer in the world. It's something like 36% alcohol or something like that. It tastes like ASS tho...and looks like you're drinking dark blood. YUCK! I had schnitzel and really good potatoes and a Radler-which I think is a beer mixed with lemonade. It was REALLY good! We finished dinner at 10:15ish and went back to Wartburg to get ready to go out to UntereStrasse. We played Kings/F*** the Dealer and then went out! We went to Ipunkt for a while and it was too crowded so we left and went to Die Kleine Mohr (The little Mohr) instead. We sat around this big table, me, pat, becca, anna, kayla, dan and davor, and ordered drinks and talked until about 3ish and then went back to Wartburg where we ran into John/Jeff/Alex/and Judith! We stayed til a little after 4 and then left to walk home. It was a REALLY good night! :)




Playing F*** the Dealer at Wartburg!












Me and Kayla at Wartburg :)















Aw, love them! Alex, Becca, Me at Kleine Mohr!












The Elon Gang!! Anna, Pat, Alex and Me!









Saturday:
I woke up and met Becca at the Wartburg around 1ish so that we could go meet Alex/Pat somewhere in town. Well, they showed back up at the Wartburg before we could leave so we ended up sitting around for a while trying to figure out what the hell to do with the day. It was rainy/gross outside so "exploring" wasn't exactly a great idea. Well, we decided that Becca and I wanted ice cream/crepes again so we dragged the boys towards the Alte Brucke to our Ice Cream/Crepe place :)! I got my Chocolate/Coconut ice cream and Becca got her crepe and then we walked over to the bridge to take pics! Then we were FREEZING/wet so we went into my favorite little coffee shop for coffee and it was AMAZING!! I got a Latte Macchiato and gosh was it good!!!! We hung out there talking to the Barista for a while and then went decided Becca and I were gonna cook the potato dish again. She and I went to Rudis to get the ingredients and then went back to the Wartburg to cook while the boys "worked out" haha. It was so 1950s-ish...the women in the kitchen-the men doing their "male bonding". We ate around 7ish and then started getting ready for the night. We played more card games and stuff and at 10 we went down into the basement Bar for Chrissi's birthday party. Chrissi is a girl who lives in the Wartburg and it was her bday so they were throwing her a party, and we decided to go for a while before heading to Zieglers for a night of dancing. It was me, Becca, Babsi, Pat, Alex, Davor and Anna. We hung out there until about 12ish and then trekked to Zieglers! We had a BLAST dancing at Zieglers and around 3ish left and went home to bed.






The classic Heidelberg Tourist Picture...Alex and the bridge Monkey!

Me and Alex with my ice cream, on the bridge, and the Castle behind us!
















The Elon gang heading towards Zieglers! I love us :)














Me and Babsi at Chrissi's birthday party!













Me and Anna at Chrissi's birthday party!











Me and Becca at Chrissi's party!












Sunday:
I woke up around 12ish and went to meet Pat/Alex/Anna at AJY at 3:00 for ice cream and our last day with Alex. I got Kinder Schokolade Ice cream and it was just eh...which was too bad haha and then we walked around Hauptstrasse for a bit and I went home while they climbed the mountain b/c everyone knows I do NOT climb mountains unless there's a really good reason-and this time, there wasn't haha. So I went home, uploaded pics and then walked back to Hauptstrasse b/c I'd left my tram ticket at home. I met them at Pizza Hut and then said goodbye to Alex and came back home and spent the rest of the evening relaxing/doing hw and stuff. Uneventful.

Monday:
I woke up and met Anna for lunch at the mensa and then went to H&M to shop for a bit. I bought the CUTEST black dress with white polka dots :) Then I went on an adventure to find Muller's Copy Center, where I had to pick up my packet for American Short Stories. It took me about an hour to find it, then I came back and got tokens from my hausmeister for doing laundry-thank god. Then I made myself the BEST spaghetti I've ever had!! It was SO good the sauce I bought was just unreal! Then at 6ish I left b/c I THOUGHT I had class...but apparently they cancelled it so we didn't have class. Lame. So I came home and wrote Alycat the longest email EVER and then went to bed.

Tuesday:
I woke up and went to AJY at 12ish to have lunch at the mensa with some peeps and then I got my PACKAGE FROM MOM!!!!! AND it had my copy of UNACCUSTOMED EARTH IN IT!!!! I was SO excited! I ripped open that box and took the book out and left to go to Starbucks to read. I had to reread Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and map-it out for my American Short Stories later that day, so I worked on that and then started Jhumpa's latest work of brilliance :)! I was reading for maybe an hour when Alex from AJY started calling my name. So he came over and sat down next me and we talked for about an hour. Apparently he's a closet writer! How exciting!!! We talked about writing and stuff and then books and our little "escapes" to starbucks where people can't find us and then after an hour he left. It was a really good chat :) I like that kid a lot, he's really sweet! When Alex left, I packed up my things and headed to PH for class. Class was really funny. Since I'd clearly read/workshopped "The Things They Carried" I basically led the discussion about it. The Prof had NEVER heard of the spiral aspect to the story, and she was literally shocked when I mentioned it. (THANKS TITA :)! ) Then she had us map-out the story, which I had already done b/c you can't read "The Things They Carried" without mapping it out-there's just too much detail. So I sat and waited while everyone else mapped it out and then she had us pick a character and describe the things they carried and how it related to them...so I picked Kiowa b/c he's always been my favorite. It was just really funny listening to others opinions of a story that we've read at Elon at LEAST three times. We got outta class at 530ish and I headed home.

Wednesday:
I woke up and left the apartment at 10 to head to AJY before class at 11:15. I met Kayla at AJY and we started trying to figure out where we wanted to travel just the two of us. We agreed to meet up at 1:30 again after classes got out and really sit down and plan. So I went to MediaCulture-the one class that I REALLY hate, and then went to the Mensa with Sarah, Anna, Jesse, and Dan. Then at 1:30 I left to meet Kayla at AJY. We messed around with Ryanair and decided upon VALENCIA,SPAIN!!! We're going June 4th-8th and it's going to be AMAZING laying out on the beach drinking cocktails and wearing dresses/bikinis again! God, I can NOT wait! So we booked that and then I hung around AJY for a while and Davor showed up and hung out with me for a while and then Pat came and the three of us chatted for a while before Pat left and Davor and I went to go get Davor a haircut. We went to a place on Plock and ran into Alex on the way and walked with him to his french class. We got Davor's hair cut and then went to AJY to fix it since they'd blow dryed it and he HATED that. haha. So then at 7 we went to Wartburg to have dinner with Becca/Babsi/Fab/Pat/and Becca's friend who was visiting. Becca took us to her favorite Chinese resturant and we had 8 different dishes including Duck/Chicken/Pork/Beef/Eggplant/Noodles and rice and we all ordered drinks-I was the only one who got a coke instead of a beer and got laughed at...:( The food was AMAZING and Becca had ordered all of it in Chinese! She's SO awesome...blows my mind sometimes. We were there til 10ish and then went back to Wartburg where I hung out until the time my tram was gonna leave and I walked back to Bismarckplatz.

Thursday:
I woke up at 6:30 to get ready for my praktikum. I went to the school and the class had to practice their song again so I got to hear them sing and do the hand motions this time which was SO adorable. Then Frau Zech split the class into two groups and I read them English stories including "Brown Bear Brown Bear, what do you see?" haha. Then I went upstairs and it was Erick's birthday, so his Dad brought big pretzels in for every kid to have one, but not enough for Frau Zech or me, so Charleene gave me half of hers which was SO sweet :) After the pretzels and birthday celebration I left and headed towards AJY. I putzed around for a while and then had Pop Musik at 4:15 with Nelly and the rest of AJY. After Pop Musik I booked it to CRW and was bombarded when I walked in. The Prof had sent everyone down to the classroom (typically we sit in seperate rooms to critique/read each others works in small groups) and he said "Alright, Becca has a few ideas on how to fix our class. Becca?" *GASP* I couldn't believe it, I was totally caught off guard. So then I basically was like "I want to see if there is anyway that we can get each others pieces of work in advance so that I can sit down and critique them before class that way I dont have to give bad feedback since I havent had time to digest them..." and the 7 old people (as in the people who've taken this class for 3 or more semesters) jumped down my throat. It was a war between the oldies and the newbies and the oldies REFUSED to compromise. I got REALLY irritated and left class shaking. I went to AJY to meet Kayla and we went back to Dans apartment where Dan-Davor-Anna-John were cooking dinner. So I helped cook and vented to Anna and then Sonya from crw said to go to the Kleiner Mohr for drinks so I dragged everyone to the Kleiner Mohr and Pat-Becca-Babsi showed up as well. Pat and I kinda have been having a falling out so I was really sad-upset with the way things were going and the added annoyance of the crw class just made things worse. So Sonya made me take a Kamikaze shot (SO GOOD) and I had two Strongbows (YAY KIR!) and then at 12 left and went home. Not good.

Friday:
I woke up and met Kayla at 11ish to go shopping. We walked around until 12ish and had lunch with Anna at the Mensa and then went to H&M where I tripped and sprained my ankle (Not the same one as last time-thank god). Then I went to Wartburg at 2 and met Becca for coffee. We went to sbux and sat outside for a while talking and then at 315 I went back to Wartburg to talk with Pat. We talked about somethings and fixed some stuff, which was good and necessary. Then at 4 he left and I went back home to shower-get ready for later that night when we were gonna party at Wartburg. I got back to Wartburg at 7ish, ate dinner with them and then started drinking-playing drinking games and such. It was really fun! Then at 12ish, all the boys left and me-becca-babsi decided to stay in and have girl-talk night. Probably one of the best nights here in HD. Because of my ankle, we used Patrick's room to talk and we ended up talking-crying for a good solid 2 hrs and then around 2:30ish the boys came back and we went home.

Saturday:
I woke up and Kayla came over and we attempted to steal my music onto her jump drive. That took until 5ish when we decided we'd just meet up l8r at the Wartburg. So I had dinner with Dan and his friend John who was visiting from Italy and then at 7ish I met Kayla at Bmarkplatz and went to the Wartburg to hang with everyone. We ended up sitting around-talking-watching movies and at 12ish we left. Uneventful day.

Sunday:
I woke up and my foot was ALL better! woo!!! So Kayla and I went for a long walk around town. It was GORGEOUS! The first official dress day of the summer :)! We got ice cream and walked by the Necker (river) and then went back to Hauptstrasse insearch of a smoothie and they have NO smoothie places...so we bought fresh fruit and went back to my apartment and made smoothies before Dan/John/Anna came over for dinner. We all made dinner at my place and then sat around for a while before everyone left and I went to bed.

Monday:
I woke up and putzed around for a while, did my laundry and stuff and then decided that I owned Pride & Prejudice so I skipped class and stayed in bed and watched it in my room. Then at 10ish Davor imed me and told me to go over to Dans apartment, so I left my room and went to hang out with them at Dans for a while before coming back around 1ish and going to bed.

Tuesday:
I woke up and had class from 11-1. I got to class and we discussed Pride & Prejudice and then had to pick our books that we wanted to present on. So I was in the front of the line and told them I wanted Great Expectations and then these three b*tches said 'well we live together..we should get to do GE.' So the stupid professor gave them that book and I got stuck with a random book. Great. I was LIVID. Thats the whole reason I took that stupid class was to get to do GE. Classes here just royally SUCK. So after class I had to RUN to AJY to make our weekly meeting and it was ABSOLUTELY pointless. Then I had one of my "mood swings" and ended up running to catch the bus to get away from AJY as fast as I could. I spent the next hour crying to Mom via skype before I left to meet Judith at the PH before class at 4. I talked to Judith for a half hour, then went to class and met two new girls. Ones from American (West VA actually) and the other is from England. So we started talking and then realized class must have been cancelled so we left and made plans to potentially meet up the next day up on the mountain if we all ended up going. After class, I went to AJY and picked up my box from Mom a while back that Id left here and then went home and txted Becca. She had me come over at 6ish and I spent the evening hanging out with her and Babsi and Pat until Dan Davor John and Alex came back. Then around 10ish I left and went home. At home I had a long talk with Anna which was necessary and then went to bed around 1ish.

Wednesday: MOUNTAIN PARTY DAY!!!
I woke up and class from 11-1. Media Culture I swear is the most boring class I have ever had to sit thru. It beats ANYTHING I took in HS for being the dumbest most pointless class ever. I sat thru it and then went to AJY where I met Anna and Kayla for lunch before going to get presents for our host families. We got chocolates from the famous store here in HD and then Kayla and I went to Handleshof to stock up on food for the bus ride. Then we went home and packed and such and I went to Wartburg at 5. I got there and Becca and I had to make a Rudis run to get Sekt and cheese-bread. Then we went back and made buttered pasta for dinner and started playing games and hanging out. Before we knew it tho- ALL of AJY showed up. I felt really guilty because here we are really obnoxious Americans storming in and taking over their German house as if we owned the place. I could tell that the people who lived there were not very happy with us... I just don't understand why its necessary that we all have to party together. I feel like after 2 months we should have our own seperate groups or at least be only HALF of ajy. It was ridiculous. So we hung out there until 10ish when everyone decided to go up the mountain finally. Well, its an hour and a half walk up the mountain and we had to be up and at the bus the next day at 7:20. So I was nervous about not getting enough sleep, and I was pretty...drunk...so I wasnt all that thrilled about hiking up a freaking mountain. Well, I got about 1/3 of the way up and then got really dizzy and sick and Anna and I went back down and went home after talking for a solid 2 hrs.

NEXT Post...EAST GERMANY!!!!!

Young..wooo wooo

Monday:
I woke up still feeling shitty and lonely. I'd been all alone since Thursday evening and it was really starting to get to me. Well, I got a surprise visitor knock on my door and it was Pat! :) He came to check on me and hang out for a while so that I wasn't quite so lonely. It was really sweet. Then we went to meet Anna for lunch at the Mensa and had a AJY meeting afterwards to discuss classes and such. And after that I hung around AJY for a little while longer to help Pat figure out his schedule for this fall semester and eventually made it back to my apartment with Anna and Jesse. Anna stayed for an hour and then had to go to class, and Jesse and I hung out until about 9ish. We made dinner and talked and it was the first time in a long time that we actually had just me and Jesse time so that was really good. She left around 9ish and then I ended up spending a good amount of my evening talking to Sammy Roo online which was definitely necessary. Then around 2ish I went to sleep.

Tuesday:
I woke up and got ready thinking I had class at 4:00. I had plans with Jesse/Kayla to meet for coffee at 2:00 and then to head over to PH to look for my class. It was SUCH a beautiful day outside so we walked around for a little while and had our coffee at Starbucks and then continued towards PH where we ended up hanging around from 3-4:20 when we realized my class was not going to happen. LAME. So I came back and went to Handelshof to get dinner fixings and then called Pat/Davor/Dan to come over for supper. I made a chicken-zucchini-onions-garlic-peppers stirfry with Basmati Rice. It was really really yummy! Afterwards, they left and I ended up FINALLY getting to talk to WHITNEY online for the first time!! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! We talked for a while and decided that July 5th-11th she is going to be in HEIDELBERG staying with ME! OMG I CAN NOT WAIT! So we talked until about 12ish and then I went to bed..

Wednesday:
I woke up and thought I was going to have class at 11:15. So I met Jesse for coffee/breakfast at 10 and then made our way to the AS building for class and we met this girl named Audra who's also American. She's super sweet and she said she was also taking Creative Writing! Go us! Then I went to Jane Austen. Well apparently you had to "sign up" beforehand but it wasn't written anywhere and no one had told me that so the Professor threw everyone who hadn't signed up out of the classroom. Bitch. I was pissed. That was my 2nd class that had fallen through. Fabulous. So I went to AJY and hung out with Davor until Jesse/Pat showed up for lunch at 1. So we went to the Mensa and then afterwards went back to AJY to just hang out for a while. It was really a good time! We watched some TV and Pat decided we should play hangman with the category being Romance Movies haha so we did that for a while and then Maressa and Pat made me sit down and they each gave me a massage and I had to 'rate' them and see who was better. Egos, I swear. Well as typical, Pat was better altho since he is my best friend I may have been a little biased-haha. Around 4ish we all said goodbye so Pat could go to class and me, anna and jesse went to Woolworths. I got flannel sheets for my bed and a new pillow so that it wouldn't be so hard to sleep when I had a bad cold/drainage all for only 14 euros! woo! Then we said goodbye to Jesse and went to Handelshof to get stuff for the same dinner again. I was really feeling the whole stirfry thing haha. So we got home, called Davor and Dan and Pat and had them all come over for dinner again. I love having the boys over, it makes it so much fun :) So then Anna went to a movie and the boys hung out with me for a while and then left. I think I spent the rest of the time talking to whit online and then went to bed.

Thursday:
Today I had class from 4-7:45 and Pat was making me dinner so I knew I wouldn't be able to come back home once I left. So I had plans to eat with Jesse at 1ish so I got up, showered/ did my hair and left around 1:30ish-oops. Got to the Mensa at 145 and had lunch with Jesse. Then I printed out Hil and Kir's poems and went to Starbucks and sat for a couple hours and edited/workshopped their pieces. It made me SO happy to be reading their writing again it was if I had missed out on hearing their voices for sooooo long. I loved it. So I did that then went to meet Nelly for our German Pop Music class. We walked to class and Alison from Elon was there! So we talked for a little while and then the prof came in and we started class. He let us out SUPER early so we went back to AJY and I talked to MERE for the first time in a long time!!! It was so good to talk to her! Then I went to Creative Writing. This class is LITERALLY going to be the biggest waste of time EVER. I'm almost pissed off about it..but there isnt anything I can really do so Im just going to put up with it. The professor doesn't know how to write, so he says that he won't be giving any criticism back becuse he feels that all creative writing is "art". There are NO rules on what we can/cannot write about...so if I want I can put a zombie in a story (I'm sure Tita would LOVE that) then he also said that if we don't want to read other peoples work/don't want to have our work read by others we don't have too. WHAT THE HECK??? Then the best part...every Thursday after class teh whole class goes to this pub and has drinks together. The kids in this class are the most stereotypical creative writing losers I've ever met. There's the German kid who speaks english with a german accent and wears Star Trek glasses. He told us "Ve hav a vebpage und you kann put your stories on the vebpage and ve vill tell you if they are good or bad." Then there's the wana be french chick who wears a berei (spelling?) hat and scarf and dresses in all black. The I look 60 but i'm only in my 20s girl, who I swear was wearing clothes even my Nan wouldn't wear. It is literally going to be an experience. I'm hoping I can get characters for a story from kids in this class. After class got out at 7:30 I went to Pat's where he made me dinner. Boy can that kid cook!! He made us salmon filets with a honey glaze and grilled asparagus. Talk about AMAZING. Mmm! Plus, it was really nice to have me/pat time without really being pressured to go somewhere else/do something else with others. It was really nice. I really love that boy and I'm so glad he's here with me. Afterwards, Jesse, Davor and Dan came over and we all hung out before Bar-Abend at the Wartburg. They have a bar in the basement and every Thursday Night is bar night when everyone brings friends and its just a big party. So we went to that and I hung out with Judith and Babs and it was really fun :) We left around 3ish and came home and went to bed.






Patrick at Bar-Abend...basically the best picture to describe the evening-haha!









Me and Judith at Bar-Abend in the Wartburg!
















Me and Babsi at Bar-Abend in the Wartburg!!








Friday:
I woke up and got everything ready and went to starbucks on Uni Platz to write for a while. I worked on almost all of my Jeff poems again revising them and trying to get them to work better than they were. It was great. I finally for the first time here felt like I was "me" again and not constantly trying to be kept up with all the social aspects of the day and no one called/texted/bothered me the whole time. It was really wonderful. I left around 3ish and went to AJY to recharge my computer b/c Starbucks didn't have any outlets for customers to use. So i sat around AJY for a while and then Pat, Jesse and Audra showed up!! So we all decided that it was time for American food so we made plans to go to MANDYS!!! We stopped by Ringstrasse to drop my stuff off and pick up Dan and then walked across the bridge to get to Mandys! I had a cheeseburger/fries/and a chocolate milkshake. It was FANTASTIC!!! The best part was Pat ordered a chilli burger and didn't realize it came with beans and ended up picking all of them out-haha, Jesse basically felt the waitress up by accident when she stretched her arms after eating, Audra ordered the most disgusting plate of greasy homefries I've ever seen and Dan ate them, and Pat almost died of a heart-attack/heart burn thing after eating all that fried food. It was a really funny night! Afterwards we all went seperate ways and Kayla/Dan and I decided to head to a bar for a casual drink and chatting night-nothing insane. Well, Babsi texted me and invited us over to the Wartburg so we went and Kayla and I ended up going with her and her friends to The Villa for some drinks. It was really fun we got to meet more Germans and ended up having a pretty good time. The Villas a pretty cool place, its very trendy and popular and every night theres an Angebot (special price) on cocktails-4euros! So that was good. We had a drink and then around 1 went back home. It was a fun evening!

Saturday:
I woke up and met Davor at Bismarckplatz at 2. It was GORGEOUS outside so we walked around Hauptstrasse for a couple hours and ended up getting ice cream at Roma Eis. It was SOOOO good!!! I had Coconut and Chocolate and it is now my favorite thing EVER! I love Davor...he's such a sweetheart and we had a really good time hanging out just the two of us. Afterwards, we went to AJY and putzed around and then I went home to have dinner with Daniel. Well, Davor/Pat call about dinner and show up so we stretch what we had. Dan made the BEST fried chicken EVER and I made mashed potatoes from scratch mashing them with a damn fork. Let me tell you, that was NOT an easy thing to do. Then we had sauteed veggies for our healthy part and it was just REALLY good :)! Afterwards Dan left and Davor/Pat hung out until about 8ish while I got ready for my girls night out. Jesse and Audra showed up as the boys were leaving and we made salsa and had a really good time. We had decided we'd go to Zieglers for an evening of Dancing and Kayla was gonna meet us there with her Sprachpartnerin around 11. So we got to Zieglers and Audra treated us to drinks, and Jesse immediately found a boy and his group of guy friends. The boys name was Toby and his friends never told us their names. She and Audra ended up hanging out with Toby and his one friend the whole evening and when kayla showed up she and I ended up seperating and enjoy ourselves. It was really fun. They played Britney-FINALLY and a bunch of other really good music!! Around 2 we decided to leave and we ended up bumping into Dan and Davor at the train stop which was fabulous. Dan walked me back and Davor walked Kayla/Jesse back so that worked out really well.





Me, Jesse and Audra before heading to Zieglers for a night out on the town!









Sunday:
I woke up and met Davor/Pat for ice cream at 2. Pat took us to Schmecktpunkt which I've always wanted to try because it smells AMAZING when you walk past and it was really good but not as good as Roma Eis. We had our ice cream and then went to AJY to hang out for a while and eventually wound up at Wartburg where we played Mario Kart for a while and then Dan came over and eventually Dan/Davor and I went back to Ringstrasse for dinner where we made the chicken again and I made homemade alfredo sauce and pasta. It was yummmmmy and CHARIS came down! Woo! :) Then the boys/charis left and Anna stayed for a little while and then she left around 11 and I went to bed.

Monday:
BECCA CAME HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!! I woke up and went to AJY for a while and then met Anna for lunch at 1. Then Anna took me to the ENGLISH BOOK STORE where they have a TINY selection of English books but its the campus store so they have REAL books not like Stephen King/Janet Evanovich books. So I bought Dear John to have a shitty trashy novel to read until my UNACCUSTOMED EARTH comes!!!!!! Then I went back to AJY and hung out until 4 when Becca called and said to come over!!!! We had decided to cook her famous potato dish for dinner with Babsi and Pat and Davor! I got there and it was just Pat playing Mario Kart so we hung out and he taught me one of his "secret moves" for playing-haha. Then the girls came home from the grocery store and it was SOOOO good to see Becca!!! We made the potato dish-looked at Becca's pics from her exhibition and hung out! It was SO fun!! Then the boys left and I stayed a little while longer and then I left to go to Novel-To-Film class with Jesse. Class sucked. Then afterwards I came back to Wartburg and hung out before going home to go to bed.

Tuesday:
I woke up and got ready for a dumb AJY meeting at 1:15. After the meeting, a bunch of us went to the mensa on Uniplatz and I had already eaten so I merely kept people company. After lunch I went back to AJY and putzed around for a little while and at 3:30 hoped the 31 to take me to the PH school for class! I got there and went upstairs to the American Short Stories class and absolutely LOVED it. The professor is going to be really good, I mean she's definitely not a Drew Perry but still she's by far the best prof I have here and I'm really going to like this class. Plus, I'm the only American in it so it'll be interesting/easy hopefully! We're reading Tim O'Briens "The Things They Carried" and the prof/class thought it was SO cool that I'd met him/heard him read! :) Gotta love Elon ;)! After class I hoped the 31 back and got off before the bridge because it was gorgeous and I simply wanted to walk for a while. So I walked across the bridge and towards Bismarckplatz and made my way to Handelshof. Bought stuff for dinner and then came back. Dan came over around 8ish and we made meatballs and this really good sauce to go with them that had mushrooms and stuff in it and rice. It was REALLY good. Then he left and I read for a little while and went to bed.

Wednesday:
Woke up and had class at 11. Got ready for class and went. It was the most BORING class ever. Media Culture and I am most likely going to hate it. Shoot me now. After class I went to AJY to see if anyone was free for lunch, and they'd all eaten so I came home and had a tuna melt and read allllllll day. I finished Dear John-didn't like it and at 6 Dan showed up to cook. We were making fried chicken/mashed potatoes/sauteed veggies and a salad for Davor/Pat/Anna/Alex and ourselves so we were starting early. The gang showed up around 7 and helped cook while we continued getting stuff together. It was a really great time! At 9:45ish they all left and I started my homework and stuff before going to bed at 11.

Thursday:
I woke up at 6:15 because I had my first day of Praktikum!!! I showered/got dressed and left by 7:15 to make the 7:20 tram that would take me to OEG Bahnhof. I'm working with a 2nd grade class at Tief Grundschule and I had to meet the teacher, Frau Zech at 8. I got to the school and it is the CUTEST elementary school. There's a fence around it and a HUGE yard and the windows are all decorated. So I walked inside and up the stairs and found Dr. Yacizi the Vice Pres and she took me to Frau Zech's room. I walked in and it's a 2nd grade paradise! There are plants hanging from the ceiling (made from paper of course or plastic) and the walls are themed in Jungle and theres artwork EVERYWHERE and all the kids have their own desks and cubbies for jackets/lunch boxes and the reading corner is my favorite there have a million big pillows and netting around it so its secluded and it's pretty much amazing :)! Dr Yacizi introduced me to Frau Zech and then left us while the kids were pouring in. All of them were really interested in me and who I was and a few even came over to me and started talking to me. I was really happy about that. I ended up staying until 11:30! I got to hear them pratice their song for a festival next week and then Frau Zech took them to PE and I had to wait with Martin a little 7 year old boy who is the CUTEST thing I've ever seen...literally ever. If I was 7 he'd be the love of my life. Martin had scrapped his chin on the playground and his knees/hands and was going to go home but had to wait for his mom to come get him. So I was in charge of keeping him company/watching over him while Frau Zech took the others to PE. He started crying while he told me what happened and all I wanted to do was give him this HUGE hug. I felt so bad for him. :( So I pulled out some board games and we played a couple rounds of Memory and I got him to laugh even though it was really hard to communicate since my German wasn't that good for talking to kids. Frau Zech came back with pretzels and apple juice for us and then had to go home. Apparently she only teaches in the morning and then the students have different teachers for religion/other subjects during the afternoon. So Frau Zech left me in charge until Martin's mom showed up. Well, at about 10 to 11 5 other kids, Hanne, Charleene, two girls and a boy came back from Sport. I don't know if they got thrown out if if they simply left. But they came back and played memory with us and stuff. I even let them draw on the board as long as they washed it afterwards. Well, the girls started to pick on Hanne and she ran out of the room crying so I went after her and gave her a big hug and asked if she wanted to play a game just me and her. So she smiled and we went back inside and got a board game out for just us and she taught me how to play. She's really sweet and SO smart! Then at 11:30 the kids go home for an hour lunch and Martin's mom showed up. So I got to leave as well. I probably could have stayed the entire day though-I really liked those kids! I can't wait to go back!!!!!!

Afterwards, I went to AJY and met Kayla for lunch at the Mensa. Then after lunch went back to AJY to work on hw before meeting Babsi for coffee at 1:30! We had an AMAZING time at coffee! I really like her. She's a psychology major and she's gonna take me to her Tuesday afternoon class which I am SO excited about because its Abnormal Behavior II!!!! We talked until 3 and then left so I could get ready for my meeting with Dr. Tracy to discuss my final schedule. Then after my meeting with Dr. Tracy Nelly and I ran to Pop Music class. We learned about the Beatles and then about Xavier Naidoo a tiny bit and some other German singers and that was the end of that class. Then I RAN literally RAN to get to Creative Writing on time and it started late-so I was pissed I'd ran. Creative Writing was retarded. We had a werewolf story (no joke), a story set in the future about 1000 years about a war that's taking place (not kidding), a nonfiction essay that needed a lot of work, and a really weird piece on "once upon a time" stories that was all commentary no actual story. I turned in my Marble Orchard piece (if u remember that) about the lady in the graveyard because I'd worked on it some more actually quite a bit more and wanted peoples opinions. They couldn't tell me anything except they hated the parts that I liked the most...so it was basically pointless. The problem was that I couldn't give real good comments because we weren't given the piece before class so we only had the chance to read it once before breaking it down/workshopping it. So I talked to the professor after class and was like "This is my major...can we discuss how I think this class would work better next week?" And he said "Oh I'd really appreciate that. I need all the feedback I can get!" And I also brought him Bird By Bird to look at because really-all crw intro classes should be forced to read that book. Then I sprinted to the bus to head home. I got home around 8:30 and went to Dan's where he/Davor/Anna were waiting to cook dinner. They made dinner and then afterwards we all got ready to head to Wartburg!

At the Wartburg, Becca and Babsi convinced me to go to a party with them-so Becca took me upstairs and played dress up with me and her clothes since I didn't go in "party" attire. I ended up in a long shirt and big black belt and heels..yep you heard me...heels. Shoot me now. We walked to this party (a good 15 minute walk) and then stood almost the entire time. My feet---killing me. However the party was a BLAST! I knew almost all the Wartburg people that were there, we ran into Tara/Duckie and I saw almost everyone I had seen in my classes there as well. It was like the party to be at last night! It was a Frat party that had a house like the ones at UVA so they had a TON of space and it was just a lot of fun. I got to spend almost all of it with Becca/Babsi and I've come to the conclusion that I don't know what I'd do without those two here. They really are amazing. I even got to spend some time with my new official sprachpartnerin-Judith! hah! I made it official yesterday since mine is a waste of space and I really only speak to Judith in German anyway. Plus, I love her and that gives me more of a reason to have to spend time with her ;)! We stayed until about 2ish and then Anna and I walked back to Bismarckplatz to meet Dan and took a taxi from Bmarkplatz to Ringstrasse because my feet could not handle it anymore. Then I went to bed.

Friday/Today:
I woke up around 12 and decided I couldn't get up so I stayed in bed and worked on my blog. At 4 I have a coffee date with Becca to discuss last nights events and things and then I'm not 100% what is going on tonight but I'm hoping something fun! :) As for this weekend-no plans yet...so we shall see what unfolds!! I love and miss you all!

Then I lost It...

Thursday:
I woke up and had to be at AJY at 10am for our walking tour of where all our classes would be held. Since I'm only taking English courses I followed the tour until I saw the English building and then left. The English building is next to the bar that we've gone two a bunch of times, which is definitely convenient for remembering where its at! Afterwards, I went back to AJY and compiled all my classes and stuff and then went to the Mensa for lunch with Anna. After lunch, Nelly and I went to try to sign up for the German Pop Music course, but couldn't figure out where it was, so we just ended up walking around HD for over two hours before calling it quits. Then around 3ish I walked down Hauptstrasse searching for a gift to take Sabina and couldn't find anything, so I just went home. Got home and spent the rest of the day packing/getting ready for SWEDEN! I talked to Nan on skype for the first time which was SO much fun and Dan and Anna came over and hung out for a while! Then around 1ish I went to bed.

Friday: SWEDEN DAY 1!
I woke up around 7 and finished packing/getting ready to head to Sweden! Anna and I had to go to AJY to print off all travel documents and we decided to get breakfast since we didn't know when we'd actually get to eat again. So we went to Kamps and I got a kasebrotchen (mmm) and a choc. croissant! :) then we went to the train station to begin our day of insane traveling. We got to the Hauptbahnhof at 9:30 and talked to the guy and bought our 6 euro tickets then took the train at 10:45 to Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof and got off and took a street car to Rastatt Hauptbahnhof and then a bus to Baden-Baden airport. We then had about two hours to kill before our flight so we walked around the tiny little airport in Karlsruhe. At 3:00 our flight left!!! Ryanair is an interesting airlines. The seats are extremely uncomfortable unless you plan to sit straight upwards the whole time and the leg room is basically non-existent. Its a funny airlines tho...they play this happy-go-lucky boarding music that makes you think you're going to like the carribean or someplace warm. And the seats are navy blue and bright yellow, which is a little over-stimulating haha. Anyway, Anna and I walked on the plane and you could pick where you sat, so we noticed a pretty good lookin' dude sitting alone, so we grabbed the opportunity and sat beside him ;)! We ended up spending the entire 2 hr flight talking with him. His name was Florian and he goes to Stuttgart Hochschule (its a step beneath a University) and plans to work in Business. He was visiting a friend in Stockholm which was why he was on our flight. Needless to say, we exchanged email addresses and had a pretty good time talking to him :P! We landed in Skavsta at about 4:50 and had a half hour to catch our bus to Orebro. We waited outside for the bus and at 5:30 the bus pulled out of the airport!!! We were officially on our way!!

We got to Orebro at 7:50 and Sabina pulled up!!!!! It was SO GOOD to see her!! She took us back to her little apartment and made us spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner, which was perfect because we were STARVING! We talked for a little while and then got ready and went out. We went to her boyfriend, David,'s apartment first where we met him as well as 7 of his friends. David is probably one of the sweetest guys I've met in a very very long time. In Sweden apparently, you hug everyone you met for the first time so everyone kept hugging me, which for me was fabulous since I am such a huggy person! AND their way of saying hello is "HEY!" in a really chipper voice haha! So we kept saying "hey" and meeting all of their friends and hanging out before we eventually left to go to their on campus club! Now in the states, a club on campus would be lame. however, in Sweden it was apparently where EVERYONE went on Friday nights! There was this HUGE line that we had to wait in and we ended up making friends with people standing around us. Once we got in we gave our jackets to the hanging people and made our way inside. Their club had two dance floors, one that played old school music and one that played more modern music. The little one (old school) was the most crowded. Apparently Sweds like their old school music-haha. We went there first and ran into Sabina's friend Lena who was really funny and sweet. Then we ran into David and his friend David (who we will refer to as Hannah's David). Hannah's David kept messing up my hair, which is a HUGE no-no. And kept telling me that by the end of the night my hair would not look so perfect...I wasn't too pleased altho he was kinda funny about it. We ended up dancing for a while with Sabina's friends and left the club around 2ish to walk back to Sabina's apartment. We got back and fell asleep.

Saturday: SWEDEN DAY 2!
We woke up around 12:30..eek! And didn't end up leaving the apartment until 2:30ish. We took the bus to town and walked around a bit. In Sweden you can only buy liquor/beer/alcohol from an ABC type store and it's only open certain hours and its closed after 3 on Saturdays. So we had to make a run to the ABC store to get stuff for later that night. I got Strongbow(a cider) because everything was OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive! A tiny bottle of Bacardi was 499 Kroners which was like 50 Euros. Ridiculous! So we got out little bottles and then decided to go grab a coffee. We went to a place called Bara Vara which was exactly the type of cafe I wanted to find here in Heidelberg. It was busy like Starbucks at home except they had little nooks where you could sit and be out of the way with really comfortable chairs and the coffee...OMG was the coffee good. It was by far the best mocha I've had!! We sat there til about 5ish and then took the bus back home to cook dinner before going over to Hannah's. We got to Hannah's and had a girls night where I got to meet Hannah (one of Sabina's best friends) and a couple of other really cool girls. Girls in Sweden are gorgeous. Literally, like model gorgeous. Anna and I kept whispering to each other about how ugly we felt compared to all of them. They're super tall and thin and always dressed to the 9s. We hung out with Hannah for a while and then they decided they were going to go clubbing and Sabina/Lena/Anna and I decided we didn't want to go so we left and went to try and find a bar to sit and talk in but since it was Saturday night everything was INSANELY crowded so we went to the classiest of classy places...Burger King. haha! Apparently, Burger King is "classier" than McDonalds in Sweden so we went and got fries and cokes while we waited for David to pick us up with the car. We got back to Sabina's around 2:30ish and then had to wake up super early to go Sabina's parents!

Sunday: SWEDEN DAY 3!
We woke up early had breakfast and David picked us up to go to Sabina's parents houses! We first stopped at her Mom's house for a HUGE lunch! It was unbelievable!! She made meatballs, this amazing potato casserol, cheese and crackers, different sandwhich meats, grilled salmon, lox, and so many other things. It was unreal. I don't think I've eaten that much in a VERY long time!! Then for dessert her sister baked a brown betty (apple crisp) that was TO DIE FOR. Her family was so sweet and warm and welcoming! Then around 3 all the kids (me, david, sabina, anna, and her sister and bro) headed over to their Dad and Step Mom's apartment. We spent the rest of the day hanging out with her Dad and Step Mom and littlest sister Sorena. She's not even 3 yet and the CUTEST little girl! It made me really miss Ash & Lil. We left around 7ish and headed back to Orebro where we ate Pizza and crashed.

Monday:
I woke up feeling pretty shitty. We showered/got ready and Sabina came home around 1:30ish from class and we went into town to go shopping. We ended up not buying anything and came home in time to make dinner before trying to go to the soccer game. However, it started raining so David came over and we watched a soccer game on TV instead and then watched a bunch of random shows on TV and went to bed.

Tuesday: LAST DAY IN SWEDEN...
Woke up and met Sabina on campus at 12. I was really pretty crappy and had a bad sore throat, so we went to a pharmacy to get me some type of throat losenges. Then we went to their Outlet stores to go shopping and tried on a bunch of jeans but nothing fit so we left and went to their little Red Houses village. It was really cute/quaint and we walked around the lake/park that was beside the village. It was really gorgeous outside so it was nice to be out in the fresh air. Afterwards, Sabina and David dropped Anna and me off at Sabina's while they went to a meeting and Anna and I made dinner. We made chicken-alfredo-pasta and an amazing salad. We ate and afterwards I felt really sick so I laid down while they cleaned up and talked about things to do that night. I guess I was a big party pooper because I just wanted to stay home and I think they were slightly upset with me...ooh well. I ended up not being able to sleep the entire night so I called Mom around 3am and talked to her for a little while and then got back on the couch and laid there until 7 when the others got up and got ready to head to the bus station.

Wednesday: Traveling home...
Sabina dropped us at the bus station at 8:00 and we took the bus to Skavsta airport and got there around 10:30. We grabbed something to eat and then waited to board our plane. The plane left a little after 12:30 and we landed close to 2:30 where we then grabbed a bus back to Heidelberg from the airport. It was more expensive than taking all the different transportation, but I was too sick to want to deal with it. We got home around 5 and made dinner and then Anna left. I got really sick afterwards...not good. Spent the whole night throwing up/talking to my family and trying my hardest not to get more upset.

Thursday:
Didn't sleep a wink so around 9am I emailed Dr. Tracy and told him I wanted to go see a doctor and that I didn't think I'd be able to go to Berlin with them. He picked me up around 3:30 and took me to see Dr. Schaff-hauser. He dropped me at the front door and I climbed the 3 flights of stairs up to Dr. Scaff-hauser's office. He was by far the NICEST doctor I've ever seen. He was friendly and funny and knew I wasn't feeling good at all so he made sure that I was checked out and gave me these funny drops to drink with water so that my virus/flu bug wouldn't progress into anything worse. I left him and went to the Apotheke to get the funny drops and then came home. Anna and Dan came to check on me, and Anna brought me soup which was nice b/c I had no food in the apartment other than chips and tea bags. They stayed for a few then left and I got into bed and started skyping with Sarah. Charis and Alex stopped by to check on me, which was really sweet and then after they left I took dimetapp and went to bed.

Friday:
Woke up and spent the whole day watching movies/tv.

Saturday:
Woke up and again spent the whole day watching movies/tv.

Sunday: Today:
Woke up around 1 and decided since its Sunday and nothings open anyway instead of pushing myself to go out I'd stay in and watch movies/tv and drink as much hot tea/soup as possible before classes start on Tuesday. I have a really bad gunky cough but other than that I'm feeling a lot better than Wed/Thurs which is good. I'm sad I missed out on the Berlin trip but I really think this was the right decision. If I'd gone, I probably would have only gotten sicker and I don't need that for the start of classes. Well, thats my update now back to SVU and my tea cup.