STRAIGHT THUGGIN.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Stuttgart and Heidelberg
HAPPY GERMAN REUNIFICATION DAY!
I think the contrast on my computer screen changed and I don't know how. So that means I also have no idea how to change it. Urgh. Wait, I think I fixed it. I also have a paper to write but showering/eating/skyping/watching internet TV (THANKS MINA) has been so much more appealing. I will start that when I finish blogging (for those interested, here is where I got my inspiration for my BLOGGING! hand gesture and also general attitude towards being an adult, it is also a generally hilarious blog, she also guest writes for thegloss.com).
Anyway, onto why you actually read my blog: because my life is so INTERESTING and YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT IT.
Let's start with Heidelberg.
After spending a long night out (I have turned into an old woman? First world problems, etc.) I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm went off. Fail. Despite my body warning me that I clearly needed to GET UP and GET MOVING, I didn't do anything until my alarm actually went off. This caused my morning to be rather rushed, what with the showering and blowdrying and packing, that I forgot a tshirt to wear on Saturday. Sean's kindness saved the day on that one. He brought an extra one! So nice. Anyway, I got to the train station and got a Butterbrezel because goddamn it's delicious and I hadn't eaten anything since trying to drunkenly make pasta the night before only to burn my right ring finger with boiling water, eat three bites of it, and then give up on eating because I was tired and threw the rest of it out. So we got on the train to Heidelberg and arrived there without any problems. We weren't able to check into our room at the hostel until 3PM so we found a place to eat lunch and as the Germans are wont to do, had slow service so we weren't done with lunch until check-in time anyway. So we got to our room and once again Sean was very nice and let me nap because I was tired. After I woke up, we went to these castle ruins on top of a super steep hill only to find that the ticket office closed at 5:30, exactly when we got there. Then the ticket guy was like "lol sorry wait until 6 and then you can go in" so we waited half an hour and then got to walk around for free? It was a pretty good deal. We watched the sun set over Heidelberg and it was super beautiful and then I stalked a dog, as usual. After that we went back, got Thai for dinner along with one of the biggest glasses of wine ever set before me, and it was delicious. Then we walked across the Alte Bruecke (old bridge) and walked around some more before taking another (!!) nap for an hour before going to a bar we saw that had happy hour starting at midnight. Then we had a waitress with a bad attitude and went to bed.
Then we went to Stuttgart.
Apparently everyone and their mom thought this was a good time to also go to Stuttgart (they have their own smaller version of Munich's Oktoberfest) so we had lots of drunk people and one asshole 18 year old American for company on the train. First we went to the Wilhelma zoological gardens and saw lots of animals and plants. It was pretty great. Sadly I couldn't touch any animals. Then we went to the Stuttgart Oktoberfest and were surrounded by drunk people wearing lederhosen and dirndls (which are Bavarian...but okay Baden-Wuerttemberg) and had a really good wurst. We stayed for approximately an hour before peacing out and going back to the train station. Then Sean and I made our way back to Freiburg, where I thought perhaps I wouldn't be surrounded by people yelling or singing on the tram because this is a NICE PLACE not full of people wearing silly clothes. But then people were doing football songs on the tram and I saw a guy in lederhosen so clearly I wasn't safe from the madness.
Now today I spent a fabulous morning lounging in bed before doing approximately nothing homework-related (though I have done a header/some required formatting for my paper...sigh). Now I'll do something more productive with my day (maybe).
Also, side note: since I don't have any umlauts on my keyboard, I've substituted the symbol by following some vowels with an 'e' because that is an acceptable replacement. Deal with it.
I think the contrast on my computer screen changed and I don't know how. So that means I also have no idea how to change it. Urgh. Wait, I think I fixed it. I also have a paper to write but showering/eating/skyping/watching internet TV (THANKS MINA) has been so much more appealing. I will start that when I finish blogging (for those interested, here is where I got my inspiration for my BLOGGING! hand gesture and also general attitude towards being an adult, it is also a generally hilarious blog, she also guest writes for thegloss.com).
Anyway, onto why you actually read my blog: because my life is so INTERESTING and YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT IT.
Let's start with Heidelberg.
After spending a long night out (I have turned into an old woman? First world problems, etc.) I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm went off. Fail. Despite my body warning me that I clearly needed to GET UP and GET MOVING, I didn't do anything until my alarm actually went off. This caused my morning to be rather rushed, what with the showering and blowdrying and packing, that I forgot a tshirt to wear on Saturday. Sean's kindness saved the day on that one. He brought an extra one! So nice. Anyway, I got to the train station and got a Butterbrezel because goddamn it's delicious and I hadn't eaten anything since trying to drunkenly make pasta the night before only to burn my right ring finger with boiling water, eat three bites of it, and then give up on eating because I was tired and threw the rest of it out. So we got on the train to Heidelberg and arrived there without any problems. We weren't able to check into our room at the hostel until 3PM so we found a place to eat lunch and as the Germans are wont to do, had slow service so we weren't done with lunch until check-in time anyway. So we got to our room and once again Sean was very nice and let me nap because I was tired. After I woke up, we went to these castle ruins on top of a super steep hill only to find that the ticket office closed at 5:30, exactly when we got there. Then the ticket guy was like "lol sorry wait until 6 and then you can go in" so we waited half an hour and then got to walk around for free? It was a pretty good deal. We watched the sun set over Heidelberg and it was super beautiful and then I stalked a dog, as usual. After that we went back, got Thai for dinner along with one of the biggest glasses of wine ever set before me, and it was delicious. Then we walked across the Alte Bruecke (old bridge) and walked around some more before taking another (!!) nap for an hour before going to a bar we saw that had happy hour starting at midnight. Then we had a waitress with a bad attitude and went to bed.
Then we went to Stuttgart.
Apparently everyone and their mom thought this was a good time to also go to Stuttgart (they have their own smaller version of Munich's Oktoberfest) so we had lots of drunk people and one asshole 18 year old American for company on the train. First we went to the Wilhelma zoological gardens and saw lots of animals and plants. It was pretty great. Sadly I couldn't touch any animals. Then we went to the Stuttgart Oktoberfest and were surrounded by drunk people wearing lederhosen and dirndls (which are Bavarian...but okay Baden-Wuerttemberg) and had a really good wurst. We stayed for approximately an hour before peacing out and going back to the train station. Then Sean and I made our way back to Freiburg, where I thought perhaps I wouldn't be surrounded by people yelling or singing on the tram because this is a NICE PLACE not full of people wearing silly clothes. But then people were doing football songs on the tram and I saw a guy in lederhosen so clearly I wasn't safe from the madness.
Now today I spent a fabulous morning lounging in bed before doing approximately nothing homework-related (though I have done a header/some required formatting for my paper...sigh). Now I'll do something more productive with my day (maybe).
Also, side note: since I don't have any umlauts on my keyboard, I've substituted the symbol by following some vowels with an 'e' because that is an acceptable replacement. Deal with it.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Colleen Does Something Helpful, Surprised By Its Benefits
Some background info: in German dorms, the students are in charge of keeping their flats clean (shocking, I know). We were told this and that we would probably get some sort of cleaning schedule from our flatmates. My flatmates told me this too. We still have no cleaning schedule. While I would like to say that my lack of cleaning anything besides my room and my dirty dishes is a SOSHUL EXPERIMENT to see how long it takes my pretty polite flatmates to start telling me to do stuff, we all know it is my unending laziness combined with my busy schedule of watching TV on the internet.
So today I decided to do something nice. I don't know, maybe it was my horomones acting all weird.
I was about to take a shower when I noticed something. Now, the shower has been clogged to the point of flooding the bathroom (there's essentially no difference in height between the shower and sink area floors) but today, something was different. The hair and soap scum that had been preventing water from flowing down the drain had apparently decided to do some exploring. It was actually coming OUT OF THE DRAIN. Fearing a potentially sentient being, I grabbed as much of the disgusting mess as I could, digging around for any left over hair/soap combo, and flushed it down the toilet. Surprisingly, the shower worked much better! And now I feel better about myself. Maybe I'll try helping again sometime next month.
So today I decided to do something nice. I don't know, maybe it was my horomones acting all weird.
I was about to take a shower when I noticed something. Now, the shower has been clogged to the point of flooding the bathroom (there's essentially no difference in height between the shower and sink area floors) but today, something was different. The hair and soap scum that had been preventing water from flowing down the drain had apparently decided to do some exploring. It was actually coming OUT OF THE DRAIN. Fearing a potentially sentient being, I grabbed as much of the disgusting mess as I could, digging around for any left over hair/soap combo, and flushed it down the toilet. Surprisingly, the shower worked much better! And now I feel better about myself. Maybe I'll try helping again sometime next month.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Oh Heeey
So because I know all of you are curious about my sweater predicament, I will have you know that I have successfully ordered the exact same sweater! It will get to me here in Germany. Eventually.
On to less wool-related topics.
On Friday night I went out to dinner with my friends Cassidy and Kayla to a restaurant we all enjoy called the Dreisam River Cafe. It's great and not super unreasonable. Then after dinner, we went to a bar we love because their happy hour is from 18:00 until close, and all mixed drinks are 5.50, which is pretty good considering some prices I've seen. There we met up with some friends from IES, as well as meeting German twins (and we had just learned the word for twin that day in German class!) who seemed nice. Maybe I just really hate all people? I don't know. I am not down with strangers though. After that, we went to another bar, where I was....really tired. I fell asleep. In a bar. For like, two hours. I am not sure why my friends did this, but I woke up feeling excellent, so I am not sure how I feel about it.
Anyway, after that bar, we walked around the city a little until we ended up at the Hauptbanhof, because two of the boys we were with were going to Munich for Oktoberfest in the morning and it was already almost 4AM, and their train left at 5. So because the trams weren't going to be running for awhile, we went to the dorms where our friends lived because they're much closer than Vauban. And then, very graciously, they let us crash in their rooms. The rest of Saturday was fairly average (I caught up on a lot of TV) and made dinner with Cassidy and Kayla and it was delicious.
TODAY was also exciting. We went to the Alps! Sadly, it was super cloudy, plus my camera ended up dying when we were in Lucerne/Luzern so there are few pictures. But we got to have a snowball fight! I was fairly pleased with myself for remembering gloves. After the Alps, we went to the town of Lucerne/Luzern (depends on whether you are a French or German speaker) and got to explore the town. Also, Switzerland is super expensive! But mostly we just walked around, crossed old historic bridges, and ended up feeding devil swans. I hate swans, but I regret not having my camera charged because I could've gotten some cool shots. Alas. It was not to be. Now I'm back in my room at Vauban eating pasta and waiting for Glee to finish loading. Lataaaaa.
On to less wool-related topics.
On Friday night I went out to dinner with my friends Cassidy and Kayla to a restaurant we all enjoy called the Dreisam River Cafe. It's great and not super unreasonable. Then after dinner, we went to a bar we love because their happy hour is from 18:00 until close, and all mixed drinks are 5.50, which is pretty good considering some prices I've seen. There we met up with some friends from IES, as well as meeting German twins (and we had just learned the word for twin that day in German class!) who seemed nice. Maybe I just really hate all people? I don't know. I am not down with strangers though. After that, we went to another bar, where I was....really tired. I fell asleep. In a bar. For like, two hours. I am not sure why my friends did this, but I woke up feeling excellent, so I am not sure how I feel about it.
Anyway, after that bar, we walked around the city a little until we ended up at the Hauptbanhof, because two of the boys we were with were going to Munich for Oktoberfest in the morning and it was already almost 4AM, and their train left at 5. So because the trams weren't going to be running for awhile, we went to the dorms where our friends lived because they're much closer than Vauban. And then, very graciously, they let us crash in their rooms. The rest of Saturday was fairly average (I caught up on a lot of TV) and made dinner with Cassidy and Kayla and it was delicious.
TODAY was also exciting. We went to the Alps! Sadly, it was super cloudy, plus my camera ended up dying when we were in Lucerne/Luzern so there are few pictures. But we got to have a snowball fight! I was fairly pleased with myself for remembering gloves. After the Alps, we went to the town of Lucerne/Luzern (depends on whether you are a French or German speaker) and got to explore the town. Also, Switzerland is super expensive! But mostly we just walked around, crossed old historic bridges, and ended up feeding devil swans. I hate swans, but I regret not having my camera charged because I could've gotten some cool shots. Alas. It was not to be. Now I'm back in my room at Vauban eating pasta and waiting for Glee to finish loading. Lataaaaa.
Friday, September 24, 2010
BECAUSE YOU CARE SO MUCH
Cleaned my room, ruined my favorite sweater.
That kind of day.
Hopefully I can buy the exact same sweater again. I love it too much. I almost had a panic attack.
That's probably really sad.
But I really do love sweaters. Really.
That kind of day.
Hopefully I can buy the exact same sweater again. I love it too much. I almost had a panic attack.
That's probably really sad.
But I really do love sweaters. Really.
Oh God Blogger Is Now In German
Well, I am obviously not writing the paper I am supposed to be writing right now, because HELLO. This is what I do. Except no one here in Freiburg knows what I'm like after like, 30 hours of no sleep. I guess it's too late to warn them. Hopefully I do sleep some tonight. Anyway, this paper is dumb.
On to more fun things.
On Wednesday night we went to karaoke at a bar in town. Because, you know, when in Freiburg, do as the Koreans do, I guess? But it was really fun despite the fact that I didn't get to share my gift of song with the rest of the bar patrons because they never called me up (I was going to sing with my friend Mina). Bummer. So in lieu of the fact that I wasn't allowed to participate, I thought I'd post a few (or more) YouTube videos of what I would have in my karaoke bar, if I had one. Because sometimes they offer terrible songs. I would only offer excellent ones, of course. So here is my dream karaoke setlist (aka what I sing all the time anyway, whether in my head or outloud):
Actually, these are probably just the least embarrassing ones. Back to work. Ugh.
On to more fun things.
On Wednesday night we went to karaoke at a bar in town. Because, you know, when in Freiburg, do as the Koreans do, I guess? But it was really fun despite the fact that I didn't get to share my gift of song with the rest of the bar patrons because they never called me up (I was going to sing with my friend Mina). Bummer. So in lieu of the fact that I wasn't allowed to participate, I thought I'd post a few (or more) YouTube videos of what I would have in my karaoke bar, if I had one. Because sometimes they offer terrible songs. I would only offer excellent ones, of course. So here is my dream karaoke setlist (aka what I sing all the time anyway, whether in my head or outloud):
Actually, these are probably just the least embarrassing ones. Back to work. Ugh.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
3-Day Weekend
Our first mini-break has come up, and I've been trying to plan what to do for the weekend when it hit me. I should go to Lichtenstein! Because who goes there, right?
I need a travel buddy. Anyone up for Lichtenstein?
I need a travel buddy. Anyone up for Lichtenstein?
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