Herzlich Willkommen

I'm finally going to sit down and make myself do this.  I've found that this whole blogging process has become more of a hassle for me than anything but people keep telling me I haven't written anything lately so here goes.  I guess I can start about 2 weeks ago when I took a day trip to Dresden.  Ever since I planned this Dresden trip I've really started to put the number of weekends I have left here into perspective, and there really aren't that many.  So I left early in the morning on Saturday and it took about 3 hours to get to Dresden.  Although it lies in what was former East Germany, I would have to say Dresden has done a great job recovering from years of Soviet occupation.  The city was clean, cleaner than Berlin I'd like to think, and the architecture of the buildings was absolutely amazing.  Dresden is an older city and is more or less suited for tourists.  I'm sure it's also a very profitable place to do business because of its location on the Elbe river but I'm fairly certain most of its income is from tourism.  I booked one night in a hostel, which wasn't so bad considering the complimentary glass of champagne one receives after checking in.  The hostel wasn't too far from the old city either so everything was within walking distance.  I was in for a shock, however, as I hadn't yet met my roommates until about midnight; when I was coming in for the day and they were just starting to go out.  They were 3 young men from Leipzig visiting a friend for the weekend and needed a place to crash because his house wasn't big enough to accommodate the others. As my good friend Patrick Stutler always said and I believe the phrase nails it right on the head, "boys will be boys".  It would have been annoying that I was woken up three times throughout the night, 1pm, 5am, and 8am when they finally got home, but there's just something about listening to drunken Germans where you can't help but laugh.  All in all, Dresden was a great vacation and if you haven't already, check out the pictures on Facebook to see what I'm talking about.

This will really be a long post because I'm trying to include 3 major events that took place over the last few weekends, but don't be surprised if my stories keep getting shorter and shorter.  This past weekend I made an excursion to Hamburg and I have to say before I left I had high expectations for this city and every one of them were met.  Hamburg is by far one of the coolest cities I have ever visited.  If you're from Michigan, picture a small city on the west side of the state, like Ludington or Traverse, except it's about 6 times bigger than that.  There are boats, tourists, and little shops with sea crap everywhere.  Hamburg just had a much more "homier" feel to it than Berlin and the spirit of the people definitely helped.  It is also a very historic city and the buildings are architecture are absolutely stunning.  There is also the infamous Reeperbahn in the neighborhood of St. Pauli.  This strip became known as the red light district along with its bountiful supply of bars and restaurants.  If you're going to Hamburg, definitely make that a stop on your list.  Also, if you want to get out on a boat and get somewhat a tour of the harbor, DO NOT pay for a Große Rundfahrt for 15 euro.  They have a shuttle service just like the buses, but on a boat, that will take you from stop to stop for a grand total of about 1.70 euro.  Just as good, but cheaper.  If you're not on a budget, then by all means take the big ships.  You can try to see everything in one weekend but of course it's impossible. At least I found where I will retire someday.

Last but not least was move in day and first day for the HU Sommer-Uni students.  I left Hamburg around noon and it takes about 3 hours to get back to Berlin (excluding the detour we had to take because of traffic) but as soon as I arrived I had to book it to the East side to help move in the newbies.  It was actually a great feeling helping them move in because I can remember not too long ago being in the same position myself, except now I actually know where the heck I'm going in Berlin.  I looked really cool answering all their questions and pointing out places they should go and things they should see.  Then there was their first day of classes/registration which honestly I don't remember very well because the whole day went so quickly.  It was  great bonding with the other interns/student teachers and I really started to feel like part of the team, even though my role is very daunting and menial.  Oh yeah, and I am now officially the new HU Sommer-Uni barista until August 12th.  This is my first time actually making coffee so I'm thinking by the end of the summer I'll be pretty damn good at it, considering it's my job for the next 4 weeks.  My boss assured me this is not the only thing I'll be doing for the next 4 weeks and I'm praying she meant that.  Regardless it's still a great way to practice my German and I get free coffee out of it.

HU

I really need to start utilizing this blog a lot more because we have now begun the phase where I have to keep an incidents journal for my James Madison requirement.  I really find it annoying that they would make you write papers or have to keep track of your experience while you're actually doing it.  What do I know, but I think it should be something that comes at the end of your field experience.  O wait, we do. We have an additional 20-25 page paper that is due at the end of our internships as well.  Enough complaining though because that's not the part everyone wants to hear about.

I've successfully completed my first week at Humboldt-Uni and I have to say that I am thoroughly satisfied with my placement.  Even though I've only been given the monotonous tasks of printing, correcting English translations, and researching a German author nobody's probably ever heard of, I have faith that things will pick up next week and the week that the students come.  Now that I know a little more about my job myself I can actually answer your question; "so what are you actually doing over there?".  For starters the department that I work in is called "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" or German as a foreign language.  My boss Frau Beatte Ramin-Getter, is the director of  HU's Summer and Winter Sessions.  There are the four classes that we offer; Intensive German Language, Art, Area Studies, and Germanistik.  There are also 3 other extremely nice interns named Xenia, Fabio, and Nina.  I think the best part of my internship is that it's so relaxed and they literally have tried to make me feel at home as much as possible.  I start work everyday at 10am and work until about 2-2:30pm in the afternoon, which isn't terrible, considering I'm an unpaid intern.  I'm excited for things to pick up though because the student will be arriving on the 16th and 17th of July.  Right now we are working on the welcoming packages and organizing all the materials for the classes.  As my friend put it the other day, basically we are RA's for all the international students coming in (which I find is a little bit ironic considering I'm one of them).  We're just a resource for when they have questions about living here or transportation tickets, etc..  I think one of the most exciting things is that I get to participate in  all of these classes or any trips/events that we have planned for the weekends.

I haven't been doing very much travelling, which is a bit disappointing but I've still been seeing a lot of Berlin.  The main reason is I really haven't found anyone who wants to travel anywhere really but we sat down and planned out a weekend to go to Hamburg and then another weekend when we'll be going to visit our friend in the Black Forest.  I'm also in the process right now of looking at flights to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend.  If you know me well enough then you'd know that I'm terrible at planning events so this has been a struggle for me, haha.  I think we'll be doing quite a bit of travelling when my Dad & brother come over here in late August so I'll need to save some money for that too.

Other than that all has been going great here in Germany.  Sorry if I haven't immediately responded to messages/email.  I don't always check those things as frequently as I ought to.  I think we're going to make attempts to grill hot dogs and hamburgers on Monday so we won't be completely missing out on the Holiday.  That is, after we all get out of work.  Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend and God bless America!

Sprachenzentrum

Today was my first day of work at Humboldt-Uni and I honestly think I'm going to like this internship.  I was a bit nervous to start my internship because I've heard a lot of horror stories thus far from some of the other interns in this program.  Needless to say a lot of students here are not fans of CDS.  One of the best things I'd have to say about my job is that I start everyday around 10 am and the hours are very flexible.  My boss was always telling me to take breaks when I wanted or to go to lunch whenever and that I don't need to be reporting to her all the time.  There are also two other German interns there who I'll be working with during the Summer University session.  Basically what we do is help the international students coming to Humboldt for a 4 week class in either German Language, Germanistik, Art, and Area Studies (whatever that is).  Some of the courses are offered in English and German and the others are only offered in German, so I guess I'm considered as the English specialist; I'm pretty sure that's the terminology that was used.  The students are not here yet but they'll be coming on the 16th and 17th of July so we are tasked with creating a "welcome package" of information for them.  Not only will we be an informational resource for them but throughout the course of the program we have a series of trips and activities planned as well.   Like one weekend we'll be going to Potsdam, then there's a weekend where we'll be having a barbecue (which they refer to as "grillen"), and there is also a boat tour of Berlin.   Today was a little slow though which was good.  I got a tour of all the buildings where classes will be held and the international student cafe where we'll be hanging out some days with the students. I have to say it was also a little overwhelming to, remembering all the rooms, where to get keys, who to talk to for help, and on top of that everything was in German.  It's great though because rather than just sit in a classroom and learn German all day, I'm actually out practicing my German in a job, applying everything.  It felt a little discouraging, knowing that I couldn't speak as quickly or understand everything they were saying all the time but this is definitely one of the best ways to learn and practice.

KaDeWe und Karneval der Kulturen

Again I haven't been keeping up with the blogging and for that I apologize.  Apparently more people read this than I thought so it's good motivation to keep updating it.  I can't remember the exact dates but last week was pretty eventful with some of the highlights were, as the title of this post, Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) and Karneval der Kulturen.  As I mentioned before we have a pretty dope teacher for our German class and last Friday we took a field trip to KaDeWe.  KaDeWe is essentially a gigantic, 7-story Macy's with everything you can imagine.  If you have the means, I highly suggest you visit it.  Everything was far more expensive than anything worth buying while here in Europe for 3 months so I settled for a bratwurst and looked around for a while.  If  you come to Berlin it's definitely something you should see but I wouldn't spend a whole day there.  So instead of taking the S-Bahn which would have only been about a 30 minute ride, we walked through Tiergarten, which I'm actually glad we did.  Tiergarten is the equivalent of NYC's Central Park and is apparently home to many rabbits, birds, and wild boars.  Berlin actually has a significant amount of wild boars plaguing the foliage and gardens of many Berliners.  It was great we walked because we ended up stopping in a Biergarten on the way and some people ended up going on boats through Tiergarten.  I'm not exactly sure if there was any significant educational value to our trip to KaDeWe but I'm sure there was some somewhere.

This past weekend was also a big festival here in Berlin called Karneval der Kulturen (Carnival of Cultures).  It's similar to the giant parade called "Karneval" and lasted from about 12:30 in the afternoon until about 9 or 10 at night.  It was interesting to see all of the different cultures here that Berliners associate themselves with.  All of the people in the parade were dressed in some type of costume and everyone had a float or some kind of performance.  The parade was only one part of the festival because Friday & Saturday there were also performance from bands all over the world.  The food was also great because there was a mix of African, Asian, and some German food everywhere.  Not exactly sure what I ate that night but it was good I'm sure.

We also had Monday off because once again the Germans are a very religious people and find it appropriate to take Pentecost off.  I wish we had these holidays in America.

Next week will be our last week of class and I'm pretty sure I'll have been here a full month at that point.  Some days go by faster than others but I really can't believe it's been a month already.  I'm excited to start my internship at Humboldt and I have another meeting with my boss next week Wednesday.  I think I'm also going to start looking for places to travel so if you have any recommendations, let me know.

Bis dann

Long time, no update

I've been sucking at keeping this blog updated so this one will probably be pretty lengthy (sorry Ty & Remi).  I'm now going on my second week of classes and it's been great.  Like I mentioned before, our teacher is absolutely hilarious, not only in the fact that shes always cracking jokes (German jokes which aren't usually very funny), or playing Tabu with us, but the fact that she likes to go outside during our breaks and enjoy a cigarette with the other students in our class.  Normal.  I know it will be a sad day when we "graduate" but I'm looking forward to the Muckefuck party we have scheduled.  The class is not the most challenging but it is a nice refresher course in certain things I've learned ages ago and that seem pretty relevant to what would be useful in everyday situations.  All in all, "school" is great but I'm really looking forward to starting my internship.

If you haven't heard by now, and if you haven't then you've been living under a rock for the past 3 weeks, there is an e. coli outbreak here in Europe mostly concentrated in Northern Germany.  Perfect.  The German Health authorities have not quite pinpointed the source, but there have been quite a few accusations as to its point of origin which has actually started to piss a number of people off.  Considering I'm not a huge green vegetable eater this hasn't affected me as much but I'm still very cautious about what I'm eating.  My host mom says it's a bunch of crap and that the media is just trying to influence the public with their endless propaganda for the government, so I'm having a hard time either 1) buying into this e. coli thing or 2) thinking she's a crazy liberal, vowing to prove the corruption of government and influence through media.  Either way this shits kind of scary but I've survived it in America so I should have no problem here.

The weekends have been by far the most exciting times here in Germany and no I'm not saying that just because we go out and drink 95.5% of the time.   There are actually a billion things, sights to see, and people to meet here in Berlin and I feel like I won't have the opportunity to see everything but I'm going to damn well try.  The crew from State and I have gotten into this habit of going to local "Fests" and I've got to say they've been some of the more fun things we've done while in Germany.  Not to mention they serve as great pre-game events before heading out to the clubs.  One fest in particular that we went to was called Havelfest which was kind of like a street fair where you could buy local arts & craft?,  and naturally beer and brats.  I'm not sure if I'll ever tire from the brats and at 2 euro a piece it makes them hard to resist, especially when you need something to complement the mug of beer you just bought.  My house mom keeps making jokes that I'm  always trying to eat German food and why I wouldn't seems somewhat rhetorical.  At Havelfest I'd say we experienced our first instance of anti-Americanism from the Germans which was a lot more frustrating then I thought it would be.  The looks that we got from some of them were like we had just landed a space shuttle in the middle of their damn Biergarten and we were going to snatch all the wurst and run.  Then another gentleman proceeded to show us his freshly done tattoo (hopefully it was fake) of a blue cross with a German flag in the middle, saying 'we are german' blah blah blah.  Typical anti-american behavior.  It got better though because we actually did run into some courteous, polite people and now I regret not recycling that glass bottle   I threw away in my fit of rage.  I also witnessed my first German sporting event of watching the qualifying match against Germany v. Austria on TV and man do they get fired up.  It's interesting being in a country that likes watching soccer just as much as I do and it's unfortunate that their season ended right before we got here.  Thankfully Germany ended up winning in the last minute or I don't know what would have happened.

I won't bore you with every little single detail of what we did over the weekend but I am having a blast here in Germany.  It's only been about 3 weeks so I'm excited to see what else there is to do here in Berlin and I'm also thinking about scheduling something outside of Germany, but we'll see.  Thank you for everyones support with my Grandmother passing and supporting me in general.  Miss everyone like crazy back in the States and hopefully everyones' summer is going as great as mine.

Bis dann,

Picasa Web Albums

I've been uploading some of my pictures as I go but these aren't all of them.  Anyway here's the link to my Picasa Web Albums, let me know if you can see them or not...

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos

Back to school

By popular demand I will shorten the length of my blogs.  Apparently my adventures are too tiresome and boring to read in a longer format so I will keep it simple.  Yesterday was our first day of class at the Carl Duisburg Centrum.  It's basically just a small school for international students looking to better their German and what do you know, that's me.  There are about 8 or 9 of us in the class and most are American students with a couple from Spain and Korea.  My teacher is hilarious because she actually has an American sense of humor which is surprising for a German.  The first day of class we learned about 5 different German swearwords and not the little baby ones like, "shit" and "damn".

Today went a lot better and quicker.  It's becoming a lot easier and I'm more comfortable with the people in the class.  The biggest thing when learning a language is to feel comfortable when using it and I struggle with that a lot of the time so hopefully I'm moving past that.  We just received a list today of activities sponsored by CDC (the language school I'm at) and they are going to the Reichstag tomorrow.  The Reichstag is the building where the German Parliament convenes, so I'm actually pretty excited to do that.  I haven't made any travel plans yet but I'm looking forward to doing something soon, so if you're in Europe and want to meet up let me know.

Kamminer Str.

I finally have a place I can sleep at night where I'm not worried about all my shit being stolen or a bed that's big enough for my whole body.  Yup, I'm finally moved in with my host Mutti; I haven't really told her I call her mom but that's what I'll call her.  I told you all about Frau Hoffman earlier and how she lives in Charlottenburg, a borough of Berlin.  Charlottenburg is one of the nice neighborhoods of Berlin and you can tell that just by walking down the street.  There isn't the normal graffiti everywhere that you'd normally see in Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain.  I was also told to address her as Ursala and not Frau Hoffman.  If you know anything about German you know there are two ways to address people, formally and informally.  It is not typical for someone of my age to be using first names with a woman of her age, but since she offered it's ok.  She complimented me on how my German is so I'm starting to think I'm making some improvements.  Ursala is very good at English but she still likes to speak to me in English sometimes, because like every German she wants to practice all the time. But I told her mostly German unless we really can't understand each other, then it's safe to use.  We went out tonight for some traditional German food, per my request and she took me to a bar over by Schloss Charlottenburg.  Oh yeah I forgot to mention she lives literally right around the corner from a famous German castle.  Most Germans don't like to eat German food she said and the more I thought about it the more that makes sense because we don't eat Hamburgers and French Fries every time we eat right?  I also spoke with her about what I should do for living for the two months that I will be doing my internship and she said if I can't find anything that I was more than welcome to stay with her.  I don't hate it.  This room is huge and it would be far cheaper for rent and less of a headache for me than looking for my own place.  We'll see I guess.  Heading to bed early tonight because I still haven't quite fully recovered from the techno/rave/club we went to last night and mentally exhausted from switching languages all day.  Hoping it'll get easier.

Mit freundlichen Gruessen aus Berlin

A beach in Berlin?

It's been a few days since I last did this and with some encouragement from a friend I'll keep posting.  Wednesday and Thursday nights have been some of the most fun nights I've had since arriving in Berlin.  If you haven't heard of couchsurfing.org I suggest you check it out.  I know, you may think it sounds kind of sketchy and to tell the truth sometimes it can be.  But I've heard from numerous people here in Europe about the great experiences they've had and the cool people they've met, so it gives me hope to try it sometime.  For our purposes, however, couch surfing served as a party finding tool because you can start a meeting point and people just come to hang out and meet other people from around the world.  The "party" took place at a little bar not too far down the street from my hostel in your per usual hipster bar called Mano Cafe.  The lights were dimmed real low, there were candles burning; all the right ingredients for a swingers party yeah?  After a few beers though I began to loosen up and not be so awkward as I usually am in an unfamiliar setting.  We actually met a lot of nice people and they literally came from all over the world.  It's amazing to see how many people are in Germany, not for work, but to learn the language and just take classes here.  There were two girls, one from Brazil and one from Taiwan who are here just taking German classes without knowing when they were going to return to their home countries, which I thought was awesome.  We also met three guys who had met through Couch Surfing but they were from Poland, Germany, and Australia.  I was told that Couch Surfing is another great way to find an apartment or living accommodation so I might check into this.  Don't worry I'll use extreme caution.  Then from what I remember we were told to go to this club that didn't have cover until midnight, so me and another American went down to a hole-in-wall I can't remember the  name of and hung out with some of the locals for a few hours.  You really do lose track of all time here, not only because I don't have a watch but mainly because you're so caught up in what you're doing you completely disregard it.

Yesterday started a little slow for me mainly because of the excruciating headache I woke up with.  After lounging around and designating a good 3 hours to napping, I began to feel better but hadn't eaten anything.  If you know anything about me when I get hungry, I'm not the funnest person to be around.  Christina invited me to go out to dinner with her and her boss and her boss' son so we met up with them in the part of Kreuzberg called Graefe-Kiez.  I had a really good meal of stew with beef vegetables and a side of what looked like couscous and all in all was very good.  We spoke German the entire time (because that's the idea obviously) and I can definitely tell the improvement, even though I still have a long ways to go.  It gets kind of discouraging because you're trying so hard to understand but when you don't the usual scapegoat is to just smile and nod.  I just need to keep after it.  But Sylvia (the boss) and David (the son) took us around Kreuzberg and a bit of Mitte to this sand bar in what was East Berlin.  I know I'd seen this somewhere in a travel site or brochure but it was 100x's better in person..  We grabbed a beer and enjoyed the weather, which has been great ever since I got here.  Note: if you didn't already know it is an unwritten law in Germany that when you "Prost" (cheers) someone you have to look them straight in the eyes and never cross over to cheers someone.  It really is a big deal.

I'm a little sad I'm leaving the hostel for misfit European travelers but I'm excited to move in with my host mom, as I like to call her.  Today we have our program orientation which includes a boat tour of Berlin.  I suppose we have to get the touristy stuff out of the way sometime.  No telling what's in store for tonight but I think with a bunch of college kids concentrated in one small area we'll figure something out, haha.

Bis dann!

"So you can really walk down the street with beer?"

Believe it or not a lot has happened since I last posted.  Maybe it seems like that because everything I've been doing right now I'd consider exciting.  It's Europe, everything here is exciting.  Today I ventured out on my own again because the girl here from MSU is at work until around 2 or 3 and I don't plan on hanging out in the hostel of misfits all day.  I started out just walking without any destination in mind and I figured that would be the best way to discover the city.  Lo and behold after a good 15 minutes of walking I walk onto Oberbaum Bridge which if you don't know what it is you should probably Google it.  Oberbaum Bridge connects Kreuzburg to the borough of Friedrichshain which is located in East Berlin, hence they form the borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzburg.  It took me right to the long strip of the Berlin wall that is still standing where I was able to take some amazing pictures.  The artwork on the wall is absolutely astounding.  It really is something you have to witness for yourself to appreciate how cool it is.  This was definitely the most touristy thing I've done here since I've been in Berlin but we were trying to wait until the other kids from MSU kids got here before we did too much sightseeing.  It's crazy thinking that only a few months ago I was googling pictures of Berlin and now I'm actually seeing them in person.

Last night we met up for some Currywurst with Christina's friend Laura.  Laura is a German student who lives in Freiberg but studies here in Berlin at Freie Uni (FU) which is coincidentally the sister school of the university I'll be working at, Humboldt (HU).  Laura was great because she took us around the city, showed us all the popular streets in Kreuzburg and spoke German with us the entire time.  Exactly the type of people I need to be hanging out with to improve my German.  She corrected us when we made mistakes, which was seemingly embarrassing, but that's the only way to learn.  I thought it was the craziest thing that Germans walk around with beer but apparently that is the norm; something we only experience on tailgate Saturdays in East Lansing.  Laura speaks English, German, and French, but she is still working on her French quite a bit so she understands how it feels to be overwhelmed when learning a new language.  Germans start learning English (and I found out so do the Danes) around age 11 and it is mandatory.  Should explain why they all know/pick up on English so well because it's instilled at such a young age.  I think the American educational system could learn a thing or two here.

I just got word about my host family for the time I'll be attending the CDC language course.  Ms. Ursala Hoffman has been so lucky as to receive me as her host "child" and she resides in the borough of Charlottenburg.  Ms. Hoffman is a personal coach who enjoys reading and travelling.  At least I know I have a place to stay now.  I hope she knows what she's getting herself into.

It's actually amazing  how evident the English language is in the everyday life of Germans.  E.g. Kenny Chesney's Greatest Hits Album is playing right now in the lobby of my hostel.  Who knew Germans liked country music?

A ride on the 'African Queen'

I'm not very good at these blogging things but since I need to keep one for these bullsh** Madison papers I figured I might as well get used to it.  I guess I can start with my flight from Chicago to London.  My Dad and Aunt were nice enough to drive me out to O'Hare so I wouldn't have to leave the country on my own.  And truth be told I'm glad they were there 1) It's always nice to have your family see you off before you make an extended trip like this and 2) I've never navigated an airport by myself.  Think I've got the hang of it now.

When booking my flight to Berlin I was trying to be as frugal as possible, while at the same time booking with a quality airline.  Virgin Atlantic was the lucky winner primarily because they offered one of the cheapest flights and the layover was in London, and who doesn't want to go to London?  I guess I should explain my inspiration for the title of this post came from the Airbus 340 that transported us to London.  I have to admit that despite the lack of legroom on board the African Queen the accommodations were exceptional (Should have paid the extra $80 for the legroom, dad :) .  They offered a wide range of music, movies, and television along with dinner and breakfast.  Would definitely recommend Virgin Atlantic though for anyone looking to travel to Europe.

The flight to London went quicker than expected, however, the layover in London was torturous.  Don't ask me how but I spent from 08:00 to 17:40 in Heathrow wandering the shops, people watching, and even sleeping for a while.  The people in London are extremely nice and every time somebody spoke to me I couldn't help but laugh at their accents.  Next visit to Europe I am definitely making it a point to stop and stay in London for a few days.  Cheers.

Our flight from London to Berlin was delayed about 15 minutes and I couldn't help but sense the tensions from the Germans sitting around me (because we all know how Germans feel about things being on time).  Once everything was in order, we boarded the plane relatively quick and not 5 minutes after I sat down I was sleeping.  I woke up to the hostesses distributing egg sandwiches with what I believe was hallondaise?  Not long after the pilot informed us that we were just outside of Berlin and would be there in 20 minutes.  Just short of wanting to stick my head out the window, I had my face pressed to the glass and I giant smile on my face.  I think the woman next to me could sense my excitement and we exchanged a few words in English and German about Berlin, where she came from, you know the usual airplane talk.  As soon as I made it through customs and found my luggage the reality slowly started to sink in...I had never felt more alone than I did at Berlin Tegel.  I didn't waste any time though because it was already 21:30 in Berlin and was starting to get dark.

Taxi drivers in Berlin are insane.  I think my cab driver turned what would normally have been a 25 minute drive into a 10 sprint to the hostel I was staying at, but regardless I made it.  So far I've met 3 Australians, 2 Americans, 2 Danes, and I'm pretty sure there are 2 Italians staying with my in my room but I don't think they speak English.  Speaking of Italians, the room that I am staying in is painted with Italian things all over the walls, I'll have to take pictures and show you.

I ventured out into the city a bit this morning, had my first Bratwurst mit Kartoffelsalat (Brat with Potato Salad) and it was amazing.  I can get used to eating this German food.  I haven't had a chance to grab a beer yet but I'm sure that will be the next thing I get.  Miss everyone back in the States and I'll try and keep this thing updated as much as I can.

Bis dann!