Hounddog Studies Abroad!

After Prom--London (6-30 to 7-3)

2009-07-31T23:24:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the delay, folks. I keep forgetting to put it up.

We arrived in London at about 6:45 AM. We woke up, grabbed our bags, and stumbled out into the Euston Train Station. We managed to make it to the Underground station and buy some 3 day passes that wern't TOO expensive: 18 pounds, unlimited travel for 3 days. We took the train to our hostel (Journey's) which was near the Lambeth Walk station, if anyone knows London.

Remember when I said that place in Edinburgh was the worst hostel we stayed at? That was only because I had not yet arrived at Journey's London Eye in London. This place was garbage. We were staying in a 12 PERSON ROOM. This room, to give you some perspective was smaller than a Marycrest room. 4 stacks of beds bunked 3 high in our room. The building wasn't air conditioned, making sleeping at the top floor on the top bunk awful. Plus, my bunk wobbled like an unsupported skyscraper every time one of my two bunkmates below me rolled over.

There was no room in each room to store your stuff. You just left it on the floor, making navigating the room a royal bitch, as theres about as much floor space left to fit a card table, and everyone was leaving their luggage lying on it. Each floor (not each room—each floor of maybe 40-45 people) shared two showers, making getting ready to go also a pain.

Anyway, so we stored our luggage at the hostel like we'd previously done, and set out to enjoy London. Our first stop was the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel overlooking all of London. However, each ride cost 17 pound, and having already blown a ton of money on this trip, we decided to pass on the Eye. You could get some good pictures of the parliament building from where we were, so we got some pictures and then walked over to it.

We also checked out Westminster Abbey while we were over there. Once again, my compadres decided to skip on paying 12 pound to go inside. However, when I asked them what they wanted to do, they suggested, “Go home and nap.” Since this seemed to be the majority opinion, I opted to stay and go check out the Abbey and meet everyone else back at our shithole hostel.

The Abbey is really cool, theres a lot of really famous dead people buried inside. Theres some really cool architecture too, but after you've been in Europe for two months, you tend to see it all in castles already.

After the Abby, I went back to the Shithole to move my stuff into my room. However, since everyone else checked into the hostel before I, I had no idea which room we were staying in, or what the password to the lock was. I went up to the desk, and was greeted with a “I'm sorry, in 15 minutes I'm not here...wait for the next receptionist to show up.”

Seriously?

Eventually, the next receptionist did show up, and helped me get to my room, where I dumped all my stuff off. We still had some time to burn before dinner, so I went out on my own once more to fulfill some personal goals of mine.

My first target was Fleet Street. My goal? Eat a meat pie. However, Fleet Street today, is this obnoxiously built area with lots of tall apartment buildings! I only found one place that sold meat pies, and they were all sold out. Oh well.

My second goal was a tad easier. I went over to Kings Cross Station to get a picture of the famed Platform 9 and ¾. However, when I got there, I found that there was no division between platforms 9 and 10. What gives? Upon leaving the area, I saw a sign declaring that “due to construction, platform 9 and ¾ has been magically moved to a new location. Please follow the map!” So, I followed, and got some other tourists to take my picture next to the famed gate.

We decided that a good evening activity would be to go see a movie. We chose “The Hangover” based on raving reviews of many of the locals that we met in the UK/Ireland. We took the underground to the movie theatre, bought the tickets, and then went to find a place for dinner.

We found this cool pub which I really enjoyed which gave us some pretty cheap food (comparably). I had fish and chips (yet again). After dinner, we walked over to the theatre and saw the movie.

This wasn't one of the cool theatres that had a bar, unfortunately. However, I figure that was probably for the best. This way, I wasn't getting up to pee every five minutes or so during the movie.

The Hangover was a really good movie; I really enjoyed it. After the movie, we decided to head in for the night. We were all still pretty tired from the train ride. First though, we headed over to the Picidilly Circus stop, which is a very “Times Square”-esque area. A lot of electronic billboards and flashing lights. It was a sight to behold.

The next day we got up and met Mike and George, fresh in from taking the Chunnel from Paris. We showed them the London Eye, and Big Ben, then we decided to go on a boat ride! We took a boat from the parliament building down to the Tower of London. We saw the new exhibit on King Henry VIII, as well as we got to see the crown jewels (at a lot of other rich person stuff). Afterwards, everyone went back to take a nap. I went to the Fenchurch Street Station to take a picture of the ticket queue (nerd alert!)

After that, we all went out for dinner and got ready for the stage show. We had decided to see “We Will Rock You,” a Queen jukebox musical. Troy, Dirk, and Frank decided to pay 50 some pounds to sit in 6th row seats. Mike, George, and I sat in the back row for 20 some pounds, then moved up to the front row of the balcony (a 50 pound value) after the show started. I guess some people don’t know how to see stage shows!

After the show, we went down to show Mike and George Picidilly Circus, then went and found a bar. The bar had a really good cover band playing, so we stayed there for a while. I figured it was my last night to drink heavily, so combine that with the 4 pound double cubre libres that the bar was serving, and you have a recipe for a good night. I did see someone who knew a friend of mine from high school, so that was cool.

The following day was my last day in London. We woke up and went to see the royal palace. We happened to be there at the same time as the changing of the guard, so we all saw that. Afterwards, we took the underground to the Hard Rock, and had lunch there. It was pleasant…one of the few air conditioned buildings in London! We split ways after lunch—George, Frank, and Dirk wanted to see Wimbleton, so they split off to see that. Mike was meeting up with one of his friends from his car forum, later, so he and Troy went home to take a nap.

I, upon recommendation from a Katie Marie Wilson, went to the Tate Modern Art gallery, one of the free museums in London. It was pretty cool. My favorite exhibit was the AnnLee exhibit, which was really intriguing. Afterwards, I had about an hour before I was meeting Mike and Troy at the restaurant, so I wandered into a park near the building to check it out, and lay down to watch the clouds.

I woke up two hours later. Shoot! I power walked to where they described the bar to be, but I could not find it for the life of me. I eventually gave up, with the intention of wandering into town to maybe see another show on my own. However, just as I was about to leave the area, I saw the bar! It was very exciting. I went inside and found them, and talked to the group for a while, before we decided to leave.

We tried to go north to find another of Mike’s friends at some bar, but we were incapable of finding the bar. We eventually went back near the hostel, and had a couple of drinks, where I tried to use up as much pence as I possibly could. We met the others back at the hostel, and all went to bed.

Wake up on the 3rd was at 6 AM. I snagged a quick shower, and threw my last clothes in my bag, then we were off to the Airport! We had to take the underground to the Victoria train station, then the half hour train from there to the Gatwick Airport. I said “goodbye” to my travelling mates at the entrance to the airport, then went in line to get boarded.

Travelling back to the states was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take my “carry-on” on the plane—it was too large—so I had to check it. However, I was still able to have my laptop and other paraphernalia on the plane. I exhausted the movies on demand list on the plane, as well as took a quick nap. We had two lunches…my meal schedule was all messed up due to the time zones. The first was chicken, the second, a small sub.

I had an orgy of phone conversations once I got back to Carolina. I had to stop and go through customs there. It was very simple…I was sorry that I didn’t try and take a few bottles of beer back to the states!

My flight to Pittsburgh was delayed for about a half hour, but my luggage and I got there eventually.

Thus ends this tale.

After Prom--Scotland, Part 2 (28-6 to 29-6)

2009-07-11T18:07:00.000+02:00

We woke up the next morning to get on the bus at about 8:30. Today, we were going to the Isle of Skye! We traveled along the “Road to the Isles,” which is known as the prettiest drive in all of Scotland. We passed a Loch which has naturally formed to look like a natural map of Scotland!

Our next stop was the Eilean Donan Castle. This castle is still in use today, and is an excellent example of pure Medieval architecture. It has also been used in may films, including “The World is Not Enough” and “Highlander.”

We eventually traveled over the bridge to the Isle of Skye. We stopped on the way to pick up picnic supplies for lunch (it was Sunday, and most of the stores were closed for the day, giving us few options to eat. It was really good though. We just sat out in the field and had a picnic while Fergie told us stories. He did tell us the story of a lady who, on the way to her wedding, had her eyes popped out like spaghetti due to an accident while traveling. Thinking a trick was being played on him, the Groom killed her servants and shoved her into the nearby stream. However, the stream healed her face! We all proceeded to dunk our faces into the stream for its healing powers.

We also found a small waterfall which Fergie claimed the Faerie King and Queen lived under, and that if we held water from the stream in our mouth from the top of the falls to the bottom without drinking it until we got there, we would get one wish granted.

Also, that water was tasty!!! Many of us filled up our water bottles at that stream for later drinkage.

Other than that, this day was filled with miscellaneous sightseeing. After the days trip, we returned to Morrag's Lodge. There was another group there today, that was a day behind us on the Skye High tour. I ended up hanging out with them all night. No offense to any of my fellow students on this trip, but it was nice be hanging out with a group of literature and music majors instead of engineers for a change. Anyway, instead of going out and getting drunk with the other kids that I was traveling in Scotland with, I stayed in the lodge and watched Highlander with these other kids.

The next day was our last day on the bus tour. We got on the bus, which, yes, by this point was getting to be a little bit cramped. We traveled south along the west edge of Scotland down through Glencoe. We saw some small miscellaneous things on the way back to Edinburgh. We stopped and saw a hairy coo. We saw the monument to William Wallace, the biggest monument to one single man in the world. And Fergie, of course, told us many, many stories.

We also stopped a train station, and got our pictures taken next to the train used in the film as the Hogwarts Express. Cool!

We arrived in Edinburgh slightly before 5 o'clock. I went to a souvenir shop to see if I could find one last souvenir with my clan name on it, then I met up with everyone at the McDonalds that we were meeting at (free wifi!). Eventually, Hueti and Tim had to go leave for their 4 part train/ferry saga to Dublin. The remaining four of us went over to a bar where we had drinks and played a bunch of Euchure while we waited for our train. Once it got closer to the time, we went to Waverly train station, so that Frank and Dirk could get their large bags out of the Left Luggage Office. We got our tickets out of the ticket machine, then went to a bar in the train station where I chugged a Strongbow. By this point I was pretty drunk...which is exactly what I was hoping for. I never sleep well on vehicles, and I was hoping that being drunk would help the process.

We were all too cheap to buy sleeper beds on the train ride (Those things are like 100 pounds! Serioulsy!), so we all just took the “reclining chair” option. Fed up with my chair on the train, I slept on the floor. I'm pretty sure some people found that kind of weird, but what do I care? I got like 5 hours sleep on that floor, so deal!

We sped off into the night, well on our way to our final stop...London.

After Prom--Scotland, Part 1 (26-6 to 27-6)

2009-07-09T02:02:00.001+02:00

Scotland is GOREGOUS. Going here was a fantastic decision.

We arrived in Edinburgh Airport in the wee hours of the morning after flying in from Ireland. I found a shuttle that ran from the airport to the center of town, so we hopped on that and ended up in the middle of Edinburgh. We pulled out our map and decided that the Cowgate Tourist Hostel must be on Cowgate street, and wandered over that way. We were lucky enough to have it be there, so we were able to go in and store our bags. The time is now a little before 10:00. Since we had nothing else to do, we all sat down in the rec room of the hostel and napped for about an hour.

We got up and walked down the street a bit until we found a place for lunch. It was just another pub, but it had some good fish and chips. Afterwards, we decided to hike up the hill and check out the Edinburgh castle. It cost money, so we didn't go inside, but we still were able to get a good look at it. After stopping at the souvenir shop for a bit, we went back and checked into our hostel.

This was the worst hostel in which I have ever stayed. It was crowded and completely falling apart. The hostel was a bunch of old apartments that were transformed into hostel rooms. However, this led the space to be very crowded. A four room apartment leads to 24 people, sharing two bathrooms and only one shower. Add the fact that it was practically falling apart (there was a hole in the door!) and you get a fairly crappy situation.

That afternoon we were still tired, but we went into town to meet up with Tim and Hutie, who had been staying in Edinburgh for over a week now. We were supposed to meet up with them at track 5 in the Waverly Train Station (an arbitrarily chosen number), only to find that the Waverly Train Station arbitrarily has no track 5! An interesting predicament. It didn't help that they showed up 15 minutes late either. Eventually, we found each other and went to the big park in Edinburgh where we had ice cream and watched a couple practically have sex in the park.

When we got hungry, we went over to a restaurant where we had a great 5 pound “Beer and Burger” meal. On our way to the restaurant, we found a guy doing street performances that we watched. He didn't do very many tricks, but he was damn funny, and kept us entertained for a while. After the show, we got to the restaurant, and I had a burger and a Strongbow. Afterwards we went back to our hostel, zoned on the computer for a bit, and went to bed and passed out.

The next day we got up and tried to shower before the bus trip (to no avail—I ended up sink showering before we left). We met Tim and Hutie over at the Haggis Bus Tours office, met our bus driver/tour guide, Fergie, and got on the road.

Our first stop was the Forth road and rail bridges, which are supposedly pretty spectacular. However, due do the fog we were dealing with (This is Scotland), they were very hard to see. They did look majestic from what we could see though.

After that, we sped through Perth, one of the larger cities in Scotland, and stopped in Birnam (Think MacBeth)and Dunkeld, where we saw a ruined cathedral and the River Tay, which is like one of the most expensive fishing rivers in Europe.

After that we stopped at Drumochter Pass, the highest road in Scotland. Fergie told us a story about the first Jacobite fight against the English, and we sped onward to lunch.
Lunch was at a small village on our way to Loch Ness. We all ate at a pub. I had a venison burger (I felt like eating Bambi). It was okay, but I decided that venison really isn't my cup 'o tea. After a short break to stretch our legs, we moved on to Clava Cairns.

Clava Cairns were piles on ancient stones where dead bodies were lain to rest while they decomposed. Apparently all the stones to build the Cairns were hand carried from the lowlands over several lifetimes. The area was kind of cool, after looking at the Cairns, we all kind of wandered around and took small naps.

Also, we passed the stone bridge the Hogwarts Express passes over, so that was cool too.

Our next stop was Culloden, the site of the final Jacobite battle, where Bonnie Prince Charlie lead his troops in a spectacular defeat. He probably shouldn't have sacked his military advisors. It was a pretty sobering experience. If anyone is interested in Classical music, I should note at this point that there is an excellent three-piece suite “Culloden” which details this battle. I particularity like the third piece “We Toomed Our Stoops for the Gaudy Sodgers” [sic].

We stopped briefly at Urquhart Castle, a famous ruined castle in Scotland. However, we weren't gonna pay money to go inside, nor did we have the time, so we kept going.

Our final stop before our destination was Loch Ness. We stopped along the road, and hiked down the road to the Loch (to pronounce it right, you have to produce a loogie by saying the word). Fergie promised us that if we waded knee deep in the water, threw our heads back, and yelled “I believe!” Ness would appear. I was sorely disappointed.

Our hostel for the next two nights was “Morrag's Lodge,” This was the best hostel that I stayed in the whole trip. The rooms were nice, the staff was nice, everything about the hostel was nice. We had a bathroom for each room, which was actually fairly large!

We ate dinner at the Hostel, which was Haggis (intestines—yum!), and went on a mini boat cruse on the Loch. I talked to some people, took some cool pictures, and learned a good bit about Scotch from the bartender on the boat.

Afterwards, we went out for a few drinks, then went to bed.

After Prom--Dublin (24-6 to 26-6)

2009-06-29T19:05:00.002+02:00

I was in Dublin for the nights of the 24th and the 25th.

The plane ride to Dublin was interesting. The RyanAir people basically tried to sell us everything that there was to sell. We arrived in the Dublin airport and took a bus to the center of town. We found our hostel, which was in a great location, and then stored our bags there. However, most hostels, this once included, don't let you check in until the afternoon. So, we went out and got lunch first.

We went out and got some traditional Irish food from this restaurant near our hostel. The waitress was very nice and told us all the things that we’re saying wrong because we’re in Ireland. The biggie was “Smithwicks,” which is one of the best beers I’ve ever had. It’s pronounced “smit-icks,” though, so be careful. Don’t get caught in Dublin looking like a non Irishman!

After lunch we bummed around for a bit and looked at souvenirs and just kind of chilled until 2:30, when we could first check into our hostel. Once we got there, everyone (except me) basically crashed and passed out in the room. I guess they were all tired from having to get up “early” for the flight. So we all just spent most of the afternoon in various places in the hostel, either sleeping or chilling on the internet.

The hostel that we stayed at was Barnacles hostel near the Temple Bar. The Temple Bar is probably the most famous bar in Dublin, and this hostel is literally right around the corner. This is probably the best hostel that I'd stayed at up to this point. It was clean, friendly, and had a quality rec room. These are all marks of a great hostel.

At about dinnertime we started to get kind of hungry, but we were going out to dinner with Frank's mother's cousin. She, and her friends, were from Uinversity of Delaware (the not as cool UD), but were studying in Trinity College in Dublin for the summer, so we were meeting up with them.

So, we met up with them, and they took us to an Irish pub that they go to, and we all ate there. They were all really nice and fun, and it was cool getting to know them they two days that we're in Dublin. They also introduced us to a drink called a “Snakebite,” which is a raspberry cider/beer/thing. It was a bi of a girly drink, but still really good.

Also, I was pretty amazed to be in a country where you could get tap water for free again! Amazing what being in Germany for 6 weeks will do to you.

We spent the rest of the night pub-hopping and basically keeping them up real late so that they were zombies in class the next day. It was pretty cool.

The next day we all forced ourselves awake at like 9:30 so that we could do touristy style things during the day. We first went over to the St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was pretty cool. It was another neat church.

After that we hiked over to the Guiness Brewery, stopping for lunch at a pub on the way, and went on the self-guided tour there. It was a lot of fun. I know most people don't like Guiness, myself included, but we got a complimentary pint of Guiness at the brewery, and it was possibly the best Guiness I'd ever had. I think this was possibly because:
A) Now that I know what goes into it, I can better analyze the taste of it, and appreciate it better.
B) It was super fresh. The Guiness that we were drinking was 1-4 days old, measuring from the time it is deemed acceptable for sale.
C) It was served at 42 degrees F. Guiness has to be served at that temperature or the taste of the brew changes, and I bet a lot of bars don't bother.

After Guiness, we all got up and walked over to the Jameson Distillery. We went on a guided tour there which was really fun. Our guide was pretty crazy and made lots of good jokes. Plus, Jameson is yummy—the best whiskey I'd ever had.

We went back to the hostel and chilled for a while, before going out to Rick's Burgers for dinner. They had some good burgers at Rick's, mostly because they were so big. Their fries wern't bad as well.

After diner, we bought some beers, and played some drinking games in Frank's cousin's room. Afterwards, we went to this really cool pub and had drinks and listened to the music. The band was really cool. I got really happy when they played acoustic “You Can Call Me All.” This feeling was dashed however, when the news of MJ's death broke. Apparently all the Irish hate him too, because there was much cheering upon news of his death.

After this I decided to just go to bed. I walked Johanna home (she didn't want to say out late), then I went back to the hostel and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up EARLY. Our plane left at 6:50, so we all got up at 4:00 to catch the bus to the airport. We made it through the airport with plenty of time. We were hurting for sleep though—especially Dirk who was very hung over. I was able to buy my first warm breakfast at the airport in a long time: Real eggs, a hashbrown, and a biscuit! It was delecious.

At 6:50 we got on the plane, and moved on to Scotland.

After Prom--Berlin (23-6 to 24-6)

2009-06-28T21:01:00.003+02:00

I was in Berlin the night of the 23rd. I beat everyone else there by about an hour, since my tram was earlier. Upon arriving in Berlin, I decided I needed to find out where my Hostel was. Unfortunately,all I knew was the name! Luckily the Berlin Hbf had a tourist center, and they helped me out. So I then took a tram to my hostel and checked into my room.

The hostel in which we were staying was the Odyssee Globetrotter Hostel. The place was pretty run down, however, it was really cool at the same time. There were a lot of cool statues around, and a fun recreation room. My bathroom wasn't too run down either.

I had decided to save a few Euro by buying a bed in a larger room than everyone else, resulting that I was staying in a different room. My roommates were pretty cool, however. I got to know two of my roommates, these two Swedish girls pretty well. We talked for a bit. Then, Dirk, Troy, and Frank showed up, go settled into their rooms, and we went out to dinner.

There was a reasonably priced Italian restaurant across the street from our hostel, so we went out to eat there. I had some pasta, which was pretty good. They also had FANTASTIC bruschetta. After dinner, we went back into the hotel, where we just hung out for the rest of the night. We had a few beers, and played some Euchre, then went to bed at about midnight.

We woke up at about 6 o'clock to catch our plane out of Germany to Dublin. We were flying RyanAir for this occasion. If you don't know how RyanAir works let me explain it to you. RyanAir is one of the cheap airlines that runs in Europe, and makes all their profit by hitting you with tons of hidden costs. RyanAir charges a boatload for overage fees on checked baggage (15 euro a kilo!). This was a major reason that I shipped most of my stuff home. Basically, everyone hates RyanAir, but still flies with them because if you do it right, they're by far the cheapest.

We took a tram down from our hostel in Berlin to the Berlin-Schonefeld Airport. This is not the main airport in Berlin, and as such, was really small and cruddy. We managed to get our way through the airport and up to the flight. The airport didn't have one of those things that lets you walk straight onto the plane, instead, we had to walk across the runway, and take the stairs up onto the plane. A bit later, the plane lifted off the ground and I had left Germany.

Last Three Nights (20-6 to 23-6)

2009-06-27T20:17:00.001+02:00

This is the account of my last three nights in Leipzig, Germany.

Saturday. Saturday was a really fun day. I got some of my reading assignments done on Saturday, and I got to hang out with Chiara and Killian (the kids) as well. They're both really nice and I loved hanging out with them. A good part of my Saturday was spent packing and planning out what clothes I would be bringing on the after trip (which we have dubbed “After Prom”).

That night we went out to the Beerboese, a legitimate beer festival by the monument to the battle of nations. It was pretty cool. They had over 900 different varieties of beer available, so I was able to get glasses of a few different kinds. One kind was served out of a boot! (DAS BOOOOOOOOOT), so I forfeited my deposit on that glass and took it home with me (3,50? Totally worth it!). There was also a cool band playing as well, playing some 90’s music.

Afterwards we went into the town with Prof. Falko and we went to a café and ordered some drinks with the mentors. After a few hours of this I went home to bed.

Sunday. Sunday I woke up and went to church in the other huge church in Leipzig: St. Nicholas’ Church. The service here was a lot like the one in St. Thomas’ but it was still cool to go to a service in a different foreign church.

On Sunday afternoon I went out to the dorms where the other students live and watched Beerfest with the mentors, to show the Germans the worst stereotyping of their own culture. The mentors really enjoyed it, partially because Beerfest is a funny movie, and paritially because the movie actually stereotypes Bavarians, which everyone else finds funny. (Bavaria is like the German version of Texas. And come on, who doesn’t enjoy making fun of Texans?)

I spent Sunday night hanging out with my host family. Killian and I watched more Bob der Baumeister and Chiara and I played a game (in which she won…of course). We also had a magnificent photo taking experience which I shall post the results of when I get caught up with photos.

Monday. Monday was our last day of classes. Since Dr. Falko was our only professor left, he taught for the entire morning period, then cancelled class in the afternoon. Cor went to the morning classes with us, and then took us to the Mensa so that we could return our food cards and get the money that was deposited on it. Afterwards we went back to Casa and ordered one last Doener in Germany.

We had our last German class in the afternoon and then I went home. I spent some time getting my last bit of homework done and finishing my packing on Monday. Then, I went over to Mosher's house to print out all my Etickets for After Prom and then went over to Byersche Bahnhof for dinner.

Dinner was pretty good. I got the Schwinehaxl which is basically the leg of a pig. The bone is still in it and its served with a big ol' knife sticking out of it. It was delicious, and it was fun to have one last big dinner with all the students, teachers and mentors.

After dinner, we all went over to Killie Willie which is an Irish Pub south of the city where we went to the first night of the trip. It was probably one of the best ways to say good bye to everyone. We all sat around and had drinks and one by one people would get up and say goodbye I stayed until about 11:15 ish and then got up and said goodbye to everyone. It was really sad, but it went about as good as it was going to go.

I rode the tram back to the Hbf with Justin, Cor, and Jenny, and then took my tram back home. I was asleep by midnight.

Tuesday was my last day in Leipzig. I got up early in the morning, because I wanted to be able to say goodbye to everyone while they were still in the house. Chiara was the first to leave, as she had to go to school (don't forget....German school is year round). Then my host father had to leave as well, to go to work, so I said goodbye to him. I watched one last episode of Bob der Baumeister with Killian and then he went over to his friend's house so I said goodbye to him too.

I spent the rest of the morning finishing up packing, and wrapping up my large luggage bag to be mailed home. Frau Goestermeyer drove me over to the post office and I shipped it home. Upon our return, I mailed my finial UDI journal off to Mosher and then chilled out for about an hour before it was time for me to leave.

I said goodbye to Frau Goestermeyer and Mariam, and then wheeled my luggage out the door. I rode the tram over to the Hbf, where I met Lina, my mentor, for lunch. Brad was also there, as he was leaving soon, as well as Cor and Jenny, who were staying at the Hbf all day to see people off. We had one last lunch (at Pizza Hut), which was fabulous. I was finally able to give Lina her gift (an Andy Warhol poster) as well as some Wir Sind Helden CDs (she had said that she had never heard of the band. I HAD to remedy this!).

After lunch, I ran a few last errands in the Hbf (such as turning in the deposits on all the bottles I had accumulated throughout the experience), and then took my train to Berlin. Cor and Jenny both saw me off from the platform, and Cor gave me a music CD that she had made for everyone, wish was major sweet.

I then got on the train.

And left Leipzig.

End of My Last Full Week (17-6 to 19-6)

2009-06-26T20:35:00.001+02:00

Wednesday was out trip to the Porsche factory. We had a little bit of class that morning, then took two trams and a bus out to the Porsche plant. Most of the teachers were really anxious about going to Porsche, mostly because of the vast amounts of money involved. The cheapest tour that the Porsche plant offered was 44 Euros a person and came with a three course meal.

We got off the bus and walked to the Porsche plant, which is nicknamed “The Diamond” to to it's distinctive architecture. The three course meal, which was first was pretty incredible. Course 1 was a green soup with roast chervil, and Course 2 was braised Ox and a grilled steak with vegetables and a ricotta. Course 3 was merely called “Inspiration of Dessert,” and involved several different flavors of ice cream as well as something similar to fried cheesecake.

The restaurant had a wonderful view of the track below as well. Next to the diamond was Porsche Leipzig's race track. It contained many of the famous turns and bend found at other race tracks, and had the capacity to hold professional races there. The track is used for testing Porsche cars, as well as event usage. You can pay money at the plant to ride or drive a Porsche, and if you do the buy a Porsche event, you can drive one on the track as well (both on and off road).

After our meal, we all wanted to coma out, but we still had to go on the tour. Our tour guide was very nice and charismatic—I think one of the best tour guides we had so far. We saw where they made both models of the Porsche manufactured there, as well as watched a short video about the awesomeness of Porsche.

After we got back to the main train station, I hopped over to the post office to see what I needed to do to ship my luggage home. After having a conversation with the postal worker (which went very successfully!), I went home, and had dinner with my family.

Wednesday night marked the beginning of a lot of nights going out in a row. At this point, everyone was realizing that we barely had any time left in Germany, and we wanted to go out and hang out with the mentors as much as possible. We went to the karaoke club by the Ring Café again, and had a great time. I got to sing Gabi and Klaus (something I really wanted to do). I wanted to sing “Jessie’s Girl,” but the number in the book was wrong, but I just went with it and sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” instead. I also ended up singing “Somebody Told Me,” as well as “I Want It That Way” with a bunch of other people.

Some other highlights of Wednesday involved me dancing to the new “Cotton Eyed Joe” with Francesca, as well as us singing “Schrei Nach Liebe” from the audience to help two girls who were having trouble with the song.

Thursday started with me being tired from going out the night before but I made it anyway. We got out of class early because of the required organ concert that we had to go to that evening. Stephen called Silke, our German teacher, and we got class moved up so we could have it right after the new end of class. We decided it would be a fun day to go canoeing, so the four of us rented a canoe and went up and down the canals of Leipzig, while Silke told us the history of the manufacturing districts that we went through.

Afterwards, I decided that this would be an excellent time to go back and visit that graveyard that I wanted to check out. It was AMAZING. I want to be buried in a place like that. There are a lot of interesting flowerplots in front of the graves, as well as some interestingly shaped headstones as well.

After that, it was time for me to meet the rest of the group for the organ concert. This was an hour long concert of Bach organ music in St. Thomas’ Church as part of the Bach festival. The concert was pretty cool, but organ music really isn’t my thing.

After the organ concert, we went to some whiskey bar with Adam (and had got some really cheap Four Roses), we went out to the Student Campusfest that night at Sportforum (a university building near my house). Since I hadn't been home all day, I stopped there first and put my backpack away, and then met everyone back at the festival.

It was pretty cool. They had a cool rock band playing and a cool reggae band as well. Anne showed us around the building, so we got to see the sport center for University Leipzig. There was also this weird thing involving rapping puppets (PuppetMasterz) which was very strange. Lina, my mentor, showed up though, so I got to hang out with her which was really fun.

After the campus festival, I was going to go home, but I met these Americans who were at the bus stop getting ready to go out to the TV club. They invited me with, so I went out dancing with these random people from (I think) OSU. They were really nice, and, although I never saw them again, I had a lot of fun.

Friday was pretty harsh on me. I was just too tired from going out the last two nights in a row and being exhausted from having gotten up early in the morning were taking their toll. I did get to sleep in an extra half hour on friday because we were going to see the concentration camp Buchenwald in Weimar. It wasn't too far, only an hour and a half by train (with one transfer).

The camp was pretty depressing. It wasn't an extermination camp, so there were no gas chambers or anything of the sort, but there were still plenty of people who were murdered there for no reason at all. We saw the walls, the old gate, and the locations where each bunker used to be.

The most horrible part of the camp was the medical room where Allied POWs were taken after captured. The soldiers were taken into the room one by one. After being given a standard check up by an SS soldier pretending to be a doctor, they were asked to stand up against a measuring device (to see how tall they were). However, unbeknown to the soldier, the device was backed up against a small closet, wherea soldier would stick is gun up to the little window between the two and shoot the POW in the back of the neck. His corpse would be taken out the back door, and the next victim would be led in.

The Crematorium was also very disturbing. Just seeing the kilns that burned all the bodies of murdered people was pretty horrific.

The original plan for Friday was to go to the Moritzbastai and dance our faces off, but no one knew how good it was going to be, since there was a goth night going on there. I went in and did a scouting report, and decided it was “unsatisfactory for Dayton standards,” So we went to the Alpenback instead. I didn't party too much there, because I had no energy left, so at that point, I excused myself and went to bed.

A Day In The Life (16-6)

2009-06-22T08:05:00.003+02:00

To see what I did on Tuesday, please go

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=98009612101

Second to Last Weekend (13-6 to 15-6)

2009-06-19T20:53:00.002+02:00

It's so hard to believe that I have less than a week left in Germany! I'm going to miss this place a lot when I go home. For this reason, I did my best to stay in town this weekend, and get to see the sights, because I knew I wouldn't be able to see it much longer.

I did, however, had a lot of homework to do this weekend. I wrote some of my stuff during the day on Saturday in order to get a lot of the work done. That night I went out to the student dorm to play drinking games with the mentors, which was fun. I had a monstrous time trying to get out there trying to deal with some disappearing trams. I eventually hopped on some sketchy tram without a number, but it works, so all was good there. We a huge array of indoor drinking games, including Beer Pong, Ride the Bus, Fuck the Dealer, Horse Race, Asshole, and a few more that I don't remember. The Germans really had no idea that we knew this many drinking games.

Afterwards we went over to the Statutory Club. This was a new club that Francisca was suggesting we go to. The name isn't actually Statutory Club, it's S----- Club, where I don't remember the rest, but since the clientèle was very, um, young, we all nicknamed it the Statutory Club.

It was no Moritzbastai, but it was still pretty cool. Two dance floors, 75 cent shots, and good times had by all. We arrived slightly after the foam party, so there was still a lot of foam on the dance floor, allowing much sliding. Also, there was a small stage that a bunch of Germans kept doing a really stupid dance on. I will demonstrate this dance to anyone that asks.

We basically took it over and were awesome. After everyone left, I went to the train station. I then realized I missed my bus, and also that I was really hungry. Wait! BK is open until 6 AM! Fantastic!

I got to BK and discovered that no one else had made the bus, and that everyone else was hungry, so they all went to BK. Cool! I ate with Nick and Heuti, and we had a fascinating conversation about engineers and Legos. I hopped the 2:22 bus back home and went to bed.

Regardless of my late night however, I woke up at 8:00 and my body wasn't going back to sleep. I took this as a sign, and got up and got ready to go to church. I decided to go to a service at St. Thomas's for two reasons: first, it was a Lutheran Church, and secondly, the Bach festival was currently underway, so I figured something cool would be going on in the church where he used to play.

The service was pretty cool. They had a full choir there, as well as a ton of organ music for the occasion. However, this made the service rather long...an hour and a half!

After the service I snagged some salami pizza and lemon ice cream, and went back home. I spent a good part of the afternoon studying for Dr. Falkowski's test. Eventually, I reached the point where I decided that I'd rather spend my second to last Sunday in the city rather than study any more. With that purpose in mind, I hopped the train to the Voelkerschlectdenkmal: The Monument to the Battle of Nations.

It was a pretty awesome monument. It had some wicked stairwells to get to the top, if you were too manly to take the elevator (read: me). They were pretty twist and narrow. At the top it was so small, they had to use a system of lights to determine the flow of traffic!

You could see a ton from the top of the monument. I did see this one building that looked pretty sweet near the monument, so I went and turned in my monument audio guide and checked it out. The building I saw turned out to the Crematorium in the middle of a really awesome cemetery. I checked it out for about 10 minutes, but I then had to go back so I could make it home in time for dinner. I swore through that I'd come back and check out the cemetery again. It was really awesome!

Monday was our final day at the BMW plant, and probably the best day so far. Each day we were there had a theme: Day 1 was the history of BMW and the Leipzig plant, Day 2 was LEAN and production systems, Day 3 was corporate and personnel management. Monday, Day 4 focused on the automobile. We had a small lecture in the morning in which we learned about how different cars are randomly selected to be tested for defects, what kind of defects are often looked for, as well as what kind of tests the cars are put through. After a quick lunch (snitzel), we went to our afternoon hands-on activity.

We split ourselves up into groups and went around the different stations that Stephan and Ruben had set up for us. One station involved brainstorming what the most important things are to have in a car (such as good breaks, no smell, powerful engine, etc.) Another two stations involved looking at a car that passed it's audit, as well as a car that had 14 defects to it. We were challenged to find them all.

The other three stations were the coolest ones, however. One station involved us getting in an untested car with the auditor and riding through the exam and the test track with him, which was pretty wild. We did some tight turns at speed, stopped on a 45 percent grade, and a few donuts just for good measure.

Another station was called “Highway Drive.” This involved us getting in a car and driving our selves around the villages surrounding the BMW plant, which was awesome. Stephan picked out six cars to use in the driving stations, and they all had automatic shifters, which worked out well for me. We drove a X1 convertible around, each of us taking a turn at the wheel.

The last station was called “Autobahn Drive.” We got to choose one of the same cars, and take it for a 10 minute ride on the autobahn, turn around, and come back. Dirk and I both took turns at the wheel of an X5 M for this one. This car was extremely powerful! I got it up to 210 kph on the highway with absolutely no trouble at all, and it was ready for more. It was an extremely fun ride.

After the adrenaline, we went back and listened to Dr. Heitmann's lecture, and then went home. I just stayed in on Monday night and studied for the test tomorrow.

I did something a little bit different on Tuesday, so it might be best to end this post here.

Contact me

2009-06-14T22:20:00.003+02:00

If you're reading this, and have not given me your address yet, please do so.

Feel free to do it privately on facebook or whatever if you wish, just as long as I get it.

-HD

End of the Week (9-6 to 12-6)

2009-06-13T11:00:00.004+02:00

Tuesday:

Trip to Dresden. Of the three trips I went on this week, Dresden was the best, simply because it took the least amount of time. We went to Dresden in order to see the VW factory where they made the Phaeton, their luxury vehicle. Because of this vehicles luxury status, many fewer Phaeton's are made than other vehicles. The currently are working one shift with a 16 minutes takt time, resulting in 28 cars a day, 4 days a week. This is kind of cool because the cars are a lot more hand-made...the workers stay with the car longer and do more work on them themselves. However, there is a lot of waste while workers are standing around doing nothing.

After the factory we grabbed lunch somewhere in the city, where I had roast pork, and then Dr. Mosher took us around to see some of the city. We saw two reconstructed churches as well as some other stuff before we went home.

Also! Tuesday night I helped Chiara study for her test! Fun :D.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was our trip to Eisenach to the see the Audi factory and the BMW tool shop. This involved leaving at 7:30 and having a 2.5 hour bus trip down to Eisenach. Ewwww. The tool shop was kind of boring, as I don't really care about those kind of things, and the Audi factory as well. It looked mostly like the BMW factory (in Leipzig), but not as new and less efficient. What do you know.

After that we did go to Wartburg castle and get a tour which was tight. The castle was really cool, they had a lot of restored rooms, and I got to see the room where Martin Luther translated the bible from Latin to German. It was pretty sweet.

Thursday:

Regular class day. Didn't have class in the morning because the history kids were having a test, which was pretty cool.

Nothing else really happened on Thursday.

Friday:

On Friday we went to Zwickau by Train, which took about an hour and forty minutes. We found a place in town to eat lunch that was in no way equipped to handle 19 people--it took about 2 hours for everyone to get their food.

We went to the Horsh/Auto Union museum there, which was interesting, and then went back to the train station. We found out that we missed our train, and had to wait until the next one came around. That took about 40 minutes, and then we traveled back to Leipzig.

That night we went to the Karaoke club, which was a lot of fun. I got up on stage and sang Don't Stop me Now, and Stacy's Mom, and although my singing was sub par, it was still a blast. (Plus, everyone's drunk. Who cares!). If I go back, I'm singing Gabi und Klaus with someone for sure.

Good Times (7-6 to 8-6)

2009-06-09T20:23:00.002+02:00

So I had some good times on Sunday and Monday, so I'm devoting a whole post for these two days. Sunday I slept until 9, which was pretty good, since I had gone to bed at 22:30 the night before. I got up early to go into the city to find an Apokethe (Drug store) to get a new toothbrush and toothpaste, as I left mine in Munich (I also left my razor there, and have not found a new one yet...ewwww). After I bought my purchases I wandered into the city to see if I could find a cheep bratwurst somewhere for lunch.

Once I wandered into the city, I found that Sunday was the end of the Leipzig Stadtfest (city festival) celebrating the 600 year anniversary of Universitaet Leipzig. More importantly, there was a band playing polka music. AWESOME. I went home and got my laptop, and came back and ate lunch and did some work while listening to a polka band. I eneded up eating a brat and a GAINT PRETZEL. Yum!

Afterwards, I wandered through the rest of the festival looking at the stuff that was set up while eating some really good ice cream. I hopped the tram back to my house afterwards, and Skype the 'rents, thus proving that I had not yet gotten myself killed.

That evening was the picnic that Anne (one of the mentors) had planned. We hung out, and ate a bunch of BBQ. I stayed there late and sat and chatted with the mentors. It was a lot of fun.

Monday started out as a normal class day. I got my classes fixed during lunch; one of the nose pieces had fallen out during the Munich trip. During the picnic on Sunday, Anne had recommended a glasses shop to me, and they turned out to be really nice. I went to the Mensa for lunch afterwards, and had some pasta and other stuff. After normal class, I went to German class, which of course took forever.

Dinner that night was bread and salad with a bit of fish. It was fantastic. After dinner, I had a great conversation with Frau Goester (my host mother) and Chiara about the differences between American and German grammar. I felt really proud, as I was able to hold my own in a non-trivial conversation in German.

After dinner, I went to the Aiesec meeting with Lina, my mentor. Aiesec is this organization that Lina is really involved in. I still don't really understand what they do, but the meeting was pretty fun. I talked to a bunch of people, who all said that my German was really good. Now I'm sure they're just being polite, and probably just ment that my German was really good—for an American, but I don't really care. It was still nice.

After the meeting, we all danced for a bit (I did a choreographed Tunak Tunak Tun with a bunch of Germans! My life is complete!). Then, after Lina got all her stuff together, a bunch of us went out for drinks afterwards. I proved that I have no personal space in a contest (thanks Studio!) and had some really fun conversations. It was a great night.

Stuttgart/Munich (2-6 to 6-6)

2009-06-07T16:01:00.002+02:00

Wow, how time flies. Sorry for not having a mid-week update, but I’ve been totally busy. Tuesday was a normal day, classes in the morning. I went over to the Tuesday Market for lunch and bought half a rotisserie chicken and an apple for lunch. It was AWE…wait for it…SOME. I had a test in the German class in the afternoon which wasn’t too bad.

On Wednesday, I got to sleep in as the final exam for the LEAN class was at that time, so I got to go to class late. After lunch, we went down to the Hauptbahnhof and got on our train for our first field trip: Stuttgart/Munich! We rode on an ICE train to Nuernburg, then transferred onto an IC to go to Stuttgart. We got in the hostel which we would be staying at that night, and just chilled for the rest of the night. The hostel served us kebobs for dinner, which were pretty good. We had kicker, ping pong, and pool, as well as a big ol’ TV. We watched some “Fist of Zen” (don’t ask) and Nitro Circus, before crashing and going to bed.

Thursday was the busy museum day. We got up early and went through the Mercedes Museum. I enjoyed this one the most. It was large, interesting, and we all had audioguides so we could go through the museum at our own pace. Dr. Mosher bought us lunch there, then we went on to the Porsche Museum in the afternoon.

This one wasn’t as cool. Dr. Heitmann knew one of the higher ups in the archives department, so he came out and gave us a tour. Unfortunately, I don’t really care about Porsche’s that much, and he was going pretty slow, so the tour was pretty boring. He did know a lot though, and he showed us the back rooms in the archives, which I guess was pretty cool.

Most people were too worn out to go out that night, but a few of us were determined to go out anyway. We found the city center of Stuttgart, and got a beer at a bar there, then went back. Stuttgart was a lot of shops.

On Friday, we got up early and caught the train to Munich. We ate lunch at a shopping mall in Munich, then went to the BMW museum that afternoon. It was sort of interesting, but it was a guided tour again, and I was beginning to wane after three car museums in three days, so it wasn’t too fun.

That night we all went out to the Hofbraeuhaus, which was really fun. It has turned into a huge tourist stop in Munich…I doubt if a quarter of the crowd were Bavarians. The beer was still really good…I drank two Mass’s worth: wheee! Plus Prof’s Blust and Falco came out and drank with us, which was neat.

Saturday involved going to the History of Transportation museum in Munich, which was once again, interesting, but I was damn tired of museums at that point. We had lunch as a Biergarten across the street, and went shopping for an hour before heading back home. Whew!

Weekend in Prague (29-5 to 1-6)

2009-06-02T10:08:00.004+02:00

This is my second post today, however, this is also the more interesting of the two.

So I had a four day weekend this past weekend. As one may recall, I had school on Man's day. This was because they gave us this past Friday off. This, coupled with Ascension day, meant that we had a four-day weekend, so we decided to go off to Prague.

Friday we got up early and took a train to Dresden, then from Dresden to Praha. We got out of the train and stumbled up into the light and went to the McDonald's by the station. Eventually, after getting lost a few times, we found the HOSTEL. The hostel was about the same as the Berlin one (Same company...A&O hostels): Not great, but not shabby either. It was cheap and it got the job done. Everyone took a nap on Friday (due to the late night at the TV club on Thursday). During that time, I used it to explore the gettho that we were livng in, and figure out the tram/metro system, and get some maps. Also, I discovered the Brothel (whorehouse) behind our building. When we got up, we went to the cheap Italian place down the street. This Italian place was very nice, we ate there a lot. I had the "Hawai" (which is what it looks like, yes), which was very good. I actually couldn't finish it!

That night, we just went down to the bar in the basement of the hostel, which was pretty cool. Very dungeon-like. The beer was awful, but I did a few A-Bombs, which are Jagerbombs, but they use Absinthe instead of Jager. These were wonderful, and I reccomend them to everyone. Slept pretty well that night, except I got woken up by the guys getting back from the Brothel.

The next day we woke up, and went to McDonalds for breakfast (I hate McDonalds breakfast, and paid for breakfast at the hostel). We then went into the city for a free three-hour walking tour of Prague. The old city (the big tourist part of Prague) is very beautiful. We met a tour guide (not ours) who grew up in Oakwood, and went to Wright State! What are the odds?

The tour was a lot of fun, and you can see a lot of the sights and stories on the facebook photo albums (Prague pictures will probably go up tonight sometime). We met some British people Tasha, Sally, Paul, & Mark, on the tour and talked to them a bit. After the tour, the tour guide showed us some places to see, and we walked back into oldtown (the castle was the last stop on the tour, and it's north of the city).

We bascially got our wallets raped trying to find food. The food was expensive, small, and they charged us for everything, even the oil and vinegar on the table. I mean, really guys. Most people were really tired after that, and we went back to the Hostel for another nap. I just wasted time on the Internet during that one. For dinner, we went back to the Italian place, and I got a cheese Pizza. We then went to the Pub Crawl that night.

There were two main pub crawls in Prague. Crawl (A) we were told is "lame and tourist-y" by our bartender at the Hostel. He reccomened the other crawl, which I will call (B). However, we had no information for (B), other than that it was run by a guy called Isaac. So, we went ahead and went to (A) anyway.

On the way there, we got off the Tram, and ran into, guess who, the Brits! They were going on the pub crawl too. I was leading us to the crawl, since I'm most proficient with a map, and we passed some guy who heard us talking.

"Hey, are you looking for a pub crawl?"

"Yeah, we're looking for Isaac."

"I'm Isaac!"

Sweet.

Well, the crawl wasn't touristly, I'll tell you that. It was shady as all out. The first bar was great. Free beer, free shots, free wine. It was awesome.

The second, was small, and we had way too many people crammed in the bar. Dumb techno music was playing, and you couldn't really move. Also, a lot of people were smoking, so it smelled kind of bad.

The third bar was where I gave up and left. It was so smokey that you could not see two meters in front of you. A lot of cigerattes, and a TON of weed. Sally and Mark left, and I left shortly after them. I had to--My eyes were watering, and I was literally having trouble breathing. I was worried about going home by myself, but I still had the map, and there were a lot of tourists out and about too.

The last stop on the crawl, which I didn't go to was a rave club, which looked pretty awesome. However, I hear there was still a lot of weed going around, so I was okay with having missed it. I did get woken up during the night again, with people getting home from the crawl at 4 AM. Oh well.

On Sunday, we had lunch at McD's, and went into the city in groups. We checked out the Torture Meuseum, then wandered around the city. We found the Senate building, which came with a cool garden (see pictures), and then we just wandered around and bought souvineers. One of the other groups met Sarah, who came to Prague by herself this weekend to visit, and heard them speaking English. She hung out with us for the rest of the day. Cool! We ate dinner at, guess where, that italian place. I got a big 'ol bowl of pasta, which was delecious, and I ate every bite.

That night, we went on a Haunted Tour of the city. He talked about some of the archetecure, and told some of the stories that we had heard already. It was okay, but not great. Also, guess who we saw on the tour? (I'll give you a hint...there were four of them!). After the tour we (us, Sarah, Tasha, and Paul) tried to find a pub out of Sarah's guidebook (which was a major fail...it was near more brothels though). We ended up going to the Dubliner and drinking beers for the night.

After the Dubliner closed at 1, Sarah, Tasha and Paul left. The other members went off to a Cabaret...one of the ones that was basically a strip club. However, being a staunch opposer to strip clubs, I went home by myself. Everyone else made it back about 5:15 AM when it was nice and light out. I got woken up again, and everyone started snoring. This time, I just took my mattress, took it into the bathroom, locked the door and had a nice sleep.

Monday, everyone was too tired to do everything...except me. I wasn't gonna waste my last day in Prague just chilling. After hanging out with some people, I hiked up the hill back to the castle, and bought the large pass. I went through all the exhibits in two hours (I was flying), as I had to catch the train back home. I wish I could have spent more time in the castle, but I just didn't have it available to me.

Our train was delayed, but we just made our connection in Dresden again. After the trip, I had brats and potatoes at the train station, then went home.

Week 2 (24-5 to 28-5)

2009-06-02T09:11:00.003+02:00

So this is gonna be one of those boring posts, where I document the nuances of my week for my benifit when I'm old and senile, and I can't remember my study abroad experience.

Sunday was merely travel back from Berlin. Nothing interesting happened there, we got Brats and Potatoes at the trainstation when we got back.

On Monday, was day 3 of 4 at BMW. The focus of that day was dealing with the workers that worked there and human resources. We had a small role-playing game at the beginning of the day where we emulated the corporate structure of a BMW plant. We then listened to some presentations, and tested out some of the exercises that they do to keep the workers strong and from developing bad muscular disorders from the work they do every day. Some of those exercises were hard!

The next few days were more boring class days. The LEAN class is almost over, since Professor Blust is leaving soon, and I don't know how to feel about that. I mean now, I wont have to sit through her class any more, but now I'll have to pay attention to more in class time.

The German class is going okay. My biggest complaint is that it's a time suck. The three main classes taught through the program are the LEAN class, automotive design, and the history of the automobile. These are taught in the morning as one integrated block. In the afternoon, we have a bit of the MAXIE course, and then everyone goes home. Except me, Jeff, and Stephen. We have to go to the German course. So although the class is easy, I hate having the extra hour and a half of class each day.

We mostly just sit around and talk and do some assignments out of the book. On Thursday we went to the history museum (which I had gone to the Friday before), so that was kinda boring.

Other things: On Monday, we had a big dinner with all the students, teachers, host families, and mentors. My family couldn't make it, but Lina (my mentor...picture coming tonight) was there, which was pretty cool. I had some chicken and a salad-thing. It was pretty cool, and a lot of fun.

On Tuesday, Lina and I were going to have a BBQ, but not many people showed up, probably due to the rain. It was okay though. I sat under a tree with Lina and one of her friends, and ate salad and cherries. It was a bunch of fun.

Wednesday was boring and full of homework.

Thursday, we went to the TV club again. Lina was going to show up, but I left before she could get there, as I had to get up early the next day to go to Prague (next post). It was fun though. We met some people, Justin met the homeless lady who had previously groped him, and I missed the bus going home, so I just walked the whole way. That was scary, but no one mugged me, so I guess it worked out.

End of the Week and Weekend in Berlin (19-5 to 23-5)

2009-05-24T15:56:00.003+02:00

So the rest of the week wasn't too interesting. Dinner on Tuesday was indeed spaghetti. Wednesday was just a normal day of classes, did some boring stuff and had some awesome cheeze fondue for dinner.

Thursday was a national holiday called Ascension Day, but is also often called "Men's Day," as the German equivalent of Father's day. Apparently, in Germany, all the businesses are closed, and men get CRAZY DRUNK. We still had class though. They decided for us to have next Friday off instead, giving us a four day weekend. I had lunch at Casa and had my first Doener with Lina. Dinner on Thursday was like chicken pot pie, with chicken and vegetables and stuff inside some crust thing.

Thursday night we went out to the TV club, which is this cool club in North Leipzig. The club itself was very mediocre, but it was CRAZY CHEAP. A beer was only 1 Euro! It was awesome.

Everyone who stayed out real late (not me!) was REALLY hung over the next day, and we got a talking to from the teachers. BUT they let class out early, so it wasn't really a problem.

On Saturday we went to Berlin with the philosophy "Doin' it Live" (Bill O'Reilly). We got to the train station, got our Good Weekend passes, and went to Berlin. We met a girl who hooked a ride with us because we had only 8 of us on our 10 person pass. Once we got to Berlin, we took a tram to Alexanderplatz. We took a two hour bus tour around the city, which stopped at several locations, where we could get off and on and see different spots around the city. We then wandered around Alexanderplatz trying to find a hostel. After getting to "Hostel Wombat," we tried to stay there, but they only had 4 rooms left. But, they were very nice and called all the other hostels in Berlin, to try and get a room for us. We eventually found A&O hostels which is a nice medium quality Hostel on the other side of the city.

We concluded the night with the Original Insider Tours Pub crawl, which was AWESOME. We got free shots all night, and went to four different bars and a club. It was a magnificent decision.

Doin' it live didn't turn out so bad.

BMW Days One and Two (17-5 to 19-5)

2009-05-19T17:25:00.003+02:00

So Sunday night I just kinda hung out and chilled. I got back from the zoo in time for cake, and we had sauerkraut and potatoes for dinner.

Monday was the first of the two days at the BMW plant. We went there and met the people who would be guiding us through our stay at the plant, and talked for a bit. There was a small activity dealing with our expectations for our time in Germany, as well as a brief history of BMW and an overview of the Leipzig plant.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria, where I had some grilled chicken, sauerkraut with oranges, rice, and pudding. DELICIOUS. After lunch, we went on a 2.5 hour plant tour (long but really cool), and went back to the presentation room for Dr. Heitmann's presentation to the BMW workers on the history of the automobile.

Monday night, I met up with some of the guys and their mentors, and we went to the fair by my house. We went on the scrambler (with strobe lights and loud German Techno! AWESOME), as well as a 5-loop roller coaster, which was made all the scarier by the fact that we knew that the structure was temporary. Franz got drunk off like 0,25 L of beer, and Troy and Anna had an awkward hug-handshake...thing. It was pretty funny.

Today, we went to the BMW plant for day two of four. They talked about the Toyota method that they implemented in the plant (a method that is used almost universally in manufacturing plants), and we had a small paper airplane making activity to demonstrate the advantages of this kind of method.

Lunch was pork and potatoes with curry soup (didn't like it), and pudding. After lunch, we went down on the assembly floor do see how efficiently things were done and see if we could identify any waste that was done in the system. After analyzing these results we went home, and now I'm here! Frau Goester said spaghetti for dinner, so I'm waiting anxiously :)

Auf Wiedersehen!

My Host Family

2009-05-17T16:43:00.002+02:00

This is in answer to Sarah's inquiry to my host family.

I live with Herr and Frau Goester, who are very nice. Their uncle (Or brother...I never caught whose uncle it was when they introduced him as an uncle) is also staying here for a bit, but he's leaving sometime next week.

They have three children, aged 10, 2 and 6 months, and they're all very nice kids. I couldn't have asked for a better host family. The house is very nice, they're great cooks, and right around the corner from a trolley station that services 3 different lines into the city. It's great.

First Weekend End (15-5 to 17-5)

2009-05-17T16:21:00.003+02:00

So a few housekeeping things before I get to the meat of this post:

First, if you ask my a question in a comment, check back, because I'll probably comment back with an answer. (Frank, Sarah)

Next, I put up some pictures yesterday, and I'll put up some more tonight or tomorrow, so check out my facebook!

Okay time for the good stuff.

Friday night we went out to the pub district. We found a nice Irish pub, with a nice Irish bartender who spoke english and drank beer and took shots. About half the guys said "Lets have a bad night!" and ordered absinthe right from the get go. Their nights went downhill from there.

I woke up around 11:00 on saturday, and had the best homemade chicken noodle soup ever with my family. I then went out to the city, and found a bookstore to buy the German book for my German class, and also found they had free W-LAN (WiFi), so I uploaded my pictures and blog post from there. Beth called me and wanted to take pictures of the city, so I went home and dropped my bag off, then came back.

Travel around Leipzig is crazy easy. Their tram system beats any public transportation system I've ever seen. Each stop has an electronic time that says when each tram is gonna be by the station. The trains are there on time, stop for about 15-30 seconds, then speed off to the next station. They can keep up these speeds, as tickets are done on the honor system, so there's no lengthy line to get on the tram while every one pays. They do randomly check cars, however, and if you don't have your pass, you get fined 40 Euros. Ouch!

At night, the trams stop running and buses start. At 1:11, 2:22, and 3:33, every single bus leaves from the train station, makes a loop and comes back. So, you can catch a bus on the way back to the train station, transfer to your bus, and take it back.

After Beth and I walked around the city, we met up with Jeff, then went to the top of the tower in the city to view the sights and meet up with most of the other people. Afterwords, we went to a sidewalk cafe (which there are about 50 million of) and had dinner.

Last night, we went back to the city wall. I mentioned on my photo gallery that this wall used to surround the entire city, and this is the remaining piece of it. I imagine that if this was America, we would turn it into some sort of monument or a museum.

In Germany, it's a dance club.

I kid you not. You show your ID, pay 3 euros, and go down to the passageways beneath the wall and theres a bar and DJ. It was awesome. They have three different dance floors for different types of music. Unfortunately, Germans listen to the same music we do. It was mostly the same stuff that you would hear on any radio station or at any Dayton party. Oy vay!

This morning I got up, messed with the internet some, then went out to Zoo Leipzig (which is awesome). Pictures of that will be up in the next batch.

I Have No Internet! (14-5 to 15-5)

2009-05-16T13:30:00.003+02:00

Blog: Finished at 2155 on 15-5-09

So I just finished my first day in Germany. Currently, I don’t have the software I need to connect to the internet by my family’s house, but I’m hoping to go to a wireless café and download the software I need tomorrow (If you’re reading this, then yes, I was successful at getting to the café at least—I’m going to upload this then).

My first flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia wasn’t so bad. We got up to altitude, and probably 10 minutes later, the pilot announced that we would be landing in about 10 minutes. The flight got in about 20 minutes early, but since it was so busy, we sat on the runway for about 20 minutes waiting for a gate. The gate we parked at was just one gate over from my international flight, so that helped a lot. I found Beth and we both went and got McDonalds. We then hopped on the international flight and hopped off.

My genius plan was to hop on the plane, and fall asleep, instantly getting myself used to German time. My total sleep ratio I believe was about 1.5 hours of sleep versus 3.5 hours of trying to sleep. The food wasn’t that bad though. They had chicken and cold pasta (I went with the chicken) and it was actually fairly good. The people on the Delta flight got a free (alcoholic) drink. However, I had a small multimedia center at my disposal, so I think I came off better. I was able to watch TV shows, movies, listen to music, and so much more. Since I didn’t feel like getting invested by Movies—I was waiting this thing in between sleep periods—I opted to watch TV shows. I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, The Mentalist, and Mythbusters. Finally, the plane landed, and I, very tiredly, stumbled off.

We found Jeff, and all went through customs, and found our baggage. I changed some money, and we went to the train station. Everyone else soon caught up with us, and we all waited for the train.

I did manage to sleep for I think 2.5 of the 3.5 hour train ride, so that helped. I had a window seat on the train so I had something to put my head on. The ticket lady had to wake me up to get my ticket! When I got to Leipzig, I met Lina, my mentor, and Herr Goester, my host father. We took the tram to their house, and I met the rest of the family and they showed me around. I then proceeded to unpack my stuff. I next decided it would be a good idea to test out the bed (at around 1900). I then awoke around midnight, took off my street clothes, and slept again until 0700 the next morning.

The Goesters woke me up around 0700 and I ate breakfast with the family (Bread and Cornflakes…actually very tasty!) I then walked to the tram station. I figure it’ll I should probably eat breakfast in the morning, as there is a market with fresh fruits right next to the tram station, and if I’m any kind of hungry in the mornings, I’ll just burn through my money. I then took the tram to my class. (I got passkontrolle on my first time on the tram…how about that!) I sat through the classes, and we went as a group to get our cafeteria passes and to the cafeteria itself. The food—pasta with lamb—was very tasty.

In the afternoon, Beth and I went and explored the city. We went in both the Nicholikirche and Thomaskirche. I lit a candle in the latter, and brought one home as a souvenir. After exploring some more of the city, Herr Mosher showed us around, and gave us a bit of a formal tour. We then went to dinner, where I had about .75 L of some really good Bier (I’m thinking I should call it Bier, as not to confuse it with the American Beer—really, they’re miles apart) and a 220g steak. Then I took the tram home, and typed this! Tonight I should be going out to the bars with the others…I’m just waiting for someone to call me and tell me that they’re going.

**I'm currently updating this from a city bookstore. Hopefully, I now have the program to make the internet work at my house. Good luck to me!**

Sitting in Pittsburgh

2009-05-13T22:14:00.002+02:00

Today's the day! I'm currently sitting in the Pittsburgh Airport waiting for the first flight. I'm flying on US Airways 1602 at EST 5:45 PM. This goes to Philadelphia at 7:00 PM, where my flight (702) to Frankfurt leaves. This gets in at 1015 (German Time--4:15 AM EST). I then take a train to Leipzig at 1303.

We got to the Airport way early, because I was trying to get on an earlier flight. The flight, however, was full, so we had time to kill. We went to the Robinson Mall and went to Quaker Stake and Lube, and I had my last American wings. We bummed around at Half-Price Books for a while, and went to Best Buy, and then went back to the Airport. I sat and talked with my parents for a while, and we took some pictures, and then I went through security.

And now I'm here. I still have a little over an hour before my flight, so I'm just killing time. See you all in Philadelphia!

Two More Days

2009-05-11T02:06:00.003+02:00

I started packing today. Probably should have done that sooner, but eh, whatever. I'm currently procrastinating picking up my room. It's a mess, but I'll get it eventually.

Some things I've been up to:

Drinking lots of Mineralwasser. In Germany, you don't drink the tap water, and bottled water is expensive and not easy to find. Every there drinks Mineralwasser (carbonated water). Tobias suggested, and I agree, I should probably start drinking it now to get used to the taste. The taste, by the way, sucks, but I've gotten kinda used to it.

Sleep schedule. As anyone with a map knows, Germany is 6 hours ahead of EST. This makes my overseas flight unfortunate. It leaves 8:20 PM (our time) and arrives 10:15 (Their time). This unfortunately (for all you that didn't instantly calculate this) that I am arriving at approx 4:15 AM (our time), and it will be bright and sunny out. I do have time on my train ride to take a nap, but I'd much prefer to get some good sleep in on the plane. So, I've been going to bed at like 10:30, and getting up earlier in the morning. This isn't gonna mean I'm not gonna be jetlagged, but I'll be a wee bit closer to German time, and hopefully can fall asleep sooner on the plane.

Other than that, I've just been hanging out with my wicked sweet friends, and packing.

One Week to Go!

2009-05-07T06:53:00.000+02:00

One week until I leave for Germany! Here's how things stand so far:

I just finished my two day shopping spree with my mother. We picked up a shirt, and some zipleg jeans, and some other miscellaneous stuff, so now hat's over with. We looked at luggage, and decided that we should keep my large bag, but buy a new 21" bag. (The old one wheels like a brick).

I talked to Suzie today! She told me to look her up if I'm in Bavaria. So now, I really hope I'm in the area for more than a little while, because I would LOVE to visit with her.

Lastly I got new glasses today. Check them!

That's all for now.

First Post

2009-04-29T22:53:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! I'm going to be posting here all through my trip to Germany, so make sure to stay tuned!