I know that all my faithful readers are wondering what I have been up to during my break. Yes, I am still in Bamberg. Fortunately, us few Bambergers that remain have found fun things to do to preoccupy our time!
Last week Shawn, Lauren, Angela, Christoph, Phillip, Katrina...I think that's her name...and myself went bowling. In the first game, I didn't feel like a complete novice at bowling with my score in the 80s. I have bowled before, but let's face the facts: You won't be seeing me on any professional bowling league anytime soon! Phillip did the best with scoring a strike or spare every time...amazing! Angela and Phillip followed with their bowling skills. The next game we split up into two lanes. In one lane was Shawn, Lauren, and myself. Everyone else was in the other. I am so glad that I played in my lane, because once again, my score was not so hot in the 70s. I just couldn't break 100. After the last game, Shawn has been declared the worst bowler...we still love ya! On the other lane, everyone exceeded the 100s.
Thursday, we pregamed in Shawn's room while playing UNO. I don't know what was going on that day, but I just could not hold a cup without spilling. We then stopped in to see some new exchange student faces at stammtisch. There were not too many, but the ones we met were great! The seen was a little slow for us, so we ended up heading to Calamiros. What a seen! People were dancing everywhere including the counters and the bar. I feel so privileged to have seen Shawn show off his dance moves on the bar joined by Christoph and the new guy Ted. We hung around to closing and then headed back. Lauren and I attempted to ride together on my bike. We made it down the street but that is as far as we got.
I have to say, since the new people has arrived I definitely have been going out a lot more. It has been a long, nice break, but classes are now beginning again. Hopefully all goes well!

Bamberg

Lately I have been keeping myself busy by hanging out with the remaining students in Bamberg, hiking, going out at night, and Desperate Housewives season 1! That's right...I have given in and rented the first season. It is very good, but the movie store only gives you 3 days to watch 24 episodes!! CRAZY!!

I am also having a blast just hanging out with people. We have done everything from playing our American drinking games, to listening to 2gether and Otown, to playing Uno! It is so weird being in Bamberg right now with so many foreign exchange students going home or vacationing. Bamberg is expecting 25 new American students for next semester and I believe around 70 exchange students! We are really excited to meet new people!

Besides mingling, I am beginning to work on some procrastinated hausarbeit for Bamberg as well as take care of some minor details for my last year at Clemson!

Here are some miscellaneous pictures including one of my current wohnheim.

Buda-Pest

February 14-18
It was valentine's day, and I was on my way to Budapest along with Lieselotte and Shawn. Unfortunately it happened to be one of the two sunniest days (the other being the day we were coming back to Bamberg) and the train ride was 8 hours long. We busied ourselves with many games of Uno and Rummi. When we finally arrived in Budapest, I instantly became scared of the streets. I wasn't sure exactly how safe it was there and we were already being begged by people for money. There were also a lot of homeless people at the train station, in phone booths, boxes, etc. We even had a hard time getting around at first since everything was written in the Hungarian language and a new type of currency was used.

After finally finding the metro, we realized how fast the transportation was getting around. I seriously felt like I was going to fall off the escalator...it was going so fast! The metro itself wasn't entirely bad but the trams were also quite fast and very unstable. I think we were all happy to step on stable ground after the tram ride! Shawn booked our hostile, which he was very excited about since it received high recommendations. After finally finding the entrance, I was thinking, "What the hell did Shawn book?!" We were instantly asked to go to the main room which wasn't very big and about 10 people were hanging out watching a movie. As I was sitting in my little corner on the couch, I saw a room with the door wide open and eight beds situated. I was praying that that was not our room. It was so close to the tv room and so open. I felt like anyone could go in and out as they pleased. After finally being situated, my fear became reality; that room was in fact the room where I would be spending my next four nights sleeping in...WONDERFUL!

The first night sleeping there wasn't bad for me, but unfortunately Lieselotte's bed was very uncomfortable, so she didn't sleep very well. We started our day around 10ish on the Buda side. For those who do not know, Buda and Pest were once separate cities separated by the Danube River. Walking around from 10am until about 8pm, you can imagine how much we accomplished. We climbed up a mountain side to visit the citadel. The citadel has a cave chapel, many symbolic statues, a bunker museum, and many twisting walking paths. The view was amazing, and we took many beautiful pictures even with the gray skies. On our way down the mountain, it started to sprinkle. After making our way down the mountain, we visited: the royal palace, which one goes see for the view and not the interior since it had been destroyed, the the Buda Castle Labyrinth, which was more like mazes in a cave with mimicked cave drawings, the castle district, a medieval district where many of the buildings have been restored from WWII, the Fisherman's Bastion which has amazing picturesque sights of the Danube, and the outside of Matthias Church.

After walking around most of the day, you could only imagine how wet we really were. Shawn, Lieselotte, and myself decided that it was time to sit down and get a drink. We tried the Hungarian beer which was good for me but not as strong as Lieselotte's liking. We also grabbed something to eat at the all American Pizza Hut. It was delicious especially since we hadn't eaten since 11ish. On our way back to our amazing hostile, we passed through the small hall where the two showers and toilet were into the tv room to get to our room. In the tv room was basically everyone staying at the hostile watching a movie. It was a little awkward since we were all soaking wet and they were sitting around drinking. We decided not to be outcasts and sit out and join them. The movie was Sin City which Lieselotte and I have already seen so we were trying to explain the movie to Shawn in German. It was pretty funny to learn that everyone there thought we were really Germans. When we finally got around to introductions, I learned that all the people staying there were backpackers! I was shocked!! Where do they get the money to travel Europe? They have been travelling anywhere from 1 to 10 months! The backpackers included one guy from England, one from Wales, a guy and girl not travelling together from Australia, two French girls, 2 guys and a girl from VA traveling together, one guy from Canada, and then us.

They ended going out to learn some Hungarian dance moves, but we were not feeling it after walking around all day, so while they were at the club we played Uno and watched Chicago with our Hostel supervisors. They really weren't our supervisors, but I don't really know what else to call them. There were three of them that would take shifts and they were all so nice. They seriously waited on us for all our needs; they even brought out popcorn, coffee, and tea even when you didn't ask for it, and they would clean your dishes after using the kitchen. They also bought us wine and food items!

That night was terrible for sleeping! I woke up to loud talking in the tv room, which let me remind you was right next to our sleeping quarters. I finally decided to look at my clock after it seemed like hours went by and realized that it was already 5am and I was going to wake up in the next few hours! I heard Lieselotte shift around in the bed next to me and realized that she probably couldn't sleep either. I actually sat up in bed and Lieselotte saw me awake and we just started laughing. We couldn't believe this was happening! She decided to go to the bathroom and when she got out they asked if they were being to loud and later if she wanted some wine! After about another ten minutes they went to their individual rooms, where one of the guys came into our room. He fell asleep when the next thing happened!!

LOUD SNORING! I was like you have to be kidding. I laughed to myself and later found out that Lieselotte heard it and it finally woke up the other 3 people in our room. I was like...one more night of this and I am going to book a hotel room!

That day, we toured mostly the Pest side. There we saw: the Hungarian National Gallery with items and pictures from the 12th century and on, St. Stephen's Basilica, which is said to be the second largest in size (the first being in Rome)...it was amazingly beautiful, the Hungarian State Opera House, which was beautiful but I personally preferred the one in Venice, the Great Synagogue and Parliament. We walked around just as much as we did the previous day, mostly because we were trying to find food! We finally found a Burger King around 3pm, our first meal of the day. We then made our way back to the Buda side trying to find the Budapest History Museum, which we finally found behind the castle, but it was closed! So we sat around on the mountain taking amazing pictures wishing we had a beer. On our way down the mountain...it started raining and then the covered markets were closed, which is like the only grocery type place in Budapest, so we went to our 24 hour store and got dinner and drinks. When we arrived back at the hostile...what do you know...everyone was in the tv room watching another movie! So we ate a little bit in our room and then joined everyone in the tv room. When we arrived they were watching Meet the Fockers, and we have no idea how many other movies they had watched before. We found out later that the backpackers have been staying in Budapest for almost a week now since it was so cheap, so they have seen everything that they wanted to. Anyways, they were picking out another movie and I began to talk to a lot of them about traveling as Lieselotte and Shawn were making dinner. I really liked talking to the Canadian guy, and received a lot of good tips. After eating dinner, Lieselotte, Shawn, and myself went to the Irish pub next to

the hostile where I could only consume one beer while Shawn enjoyed 3 and Lotte 2. I don't know what it is about beer, but I can't drink fast unless playing a game! Anyways it was almost midnight and I was becoming more and more tired. So we decided to head back to the hostile. When we made it to our room, the others came in and were begging us to come out with them. Lotte and I did not give in for we were so tired, but Shawn was persuaded. Lotte and I fell asleep around 1am...that night was the best sleep of my stay there...no SNORING and no talking! Lotte, on the other hand, couldn't find a comfortable position in her so comfy bed so she once again had a crappy sleep.

Today was our last day, so we wanted to see everything that was left to see! We made our way further on the Pest side and visited the city park, the statue park which actually had a statue of George Washington to recognize USA's help, the outside of the famous baths, and the Vajdahunyad Castle. This day was more of walking around and enjoying the parks. Since we were so far away and we still wanted to visit the famous covered markets, we decided to take the tram. None of us were really sure of how the ticket system worked but I figured mine worked more then once since it had 8 numbers. Lieselotte and Shawn just decided to buy another ticket to be on the safer side. The tram checker guy came around to check tickets and of course mine was not valid and I had to pay a fine. He was speaking English with me and I was speaking in German hoping that would help me get out of it, but unfortunately another German speaker was on the train and she was translating the English speaking guy for me into German...ugh. The fine was only 10 Euros but that is sucky when I only had to be about 2 Euros for a ticket. Shawn said, "I am so glad that I bought the ticket." As we were walking off the tram, there were another set of ticket checkers standing by the exit. Lieslotte and Shawn showed them their tickets...which ended up not being valid for the tram ride since we had 5 stops and not 3, so both of them ended up paying the 10 Euro fee as well. Now that we all had paid the fee, none of us were in a really good mood. We made our way to the covered markets and found out that they closed an hour ago!Can the day get any better? We made our way to the 24 hour store again and once again bought food and drinks. As we returned back to the hostile, what do you know...most of the backpackers were watching another movie! We ate our dinner, and after the other people left, started watching the first Kill Bill movie. The Australian girl first joined us and let me try her famous Australian food Vegemite! Let me just say...it is like eating soy sauce straight...not my liking. We started drinking our cheap plastic wine, and then other people joined us and started drinking as well. Pretty soon everyone was in the tv room drinking and listening to music. We started playing the card game 'circle of death.' It didn't last too long and some of the guys made their way to the bar across the street. We drank a little more when I decided a shower would be a good idea. When I was finished and came back with my towel wrapped around my head and in my amazingly hott pjs, everyone decided to come back to the tv room and drink. A little embarrassing for me I must say! I went to bed around 3ish and later Shawn did. Lieselotte never came back to bed for she was having to much fun in the tv room.
It was now Sunday and we were back on our way to Bamberg...on a beautiful sunny day of course! Overall the trip was amazing. Budapest is quite beautiful when one has nice weather. My favorite part of the trip was definitely our hostile. Even though I wasn't quite liking it at first, the people were great and made the trip more worthwhile. They had such a great influence on me that I hope to backpack through Europe once in my life!

Budapest Album

Drinking Games

February 8

You might have not known this, but drinking games are unheard of in Europe. Some people just don't understand why Americans have so many drinking games. We Americans in Bamberg decided to introduce the classic games of beer pong and flip cup. As supplies, we had very expensive plastic cups (they don't come cheaper than 1 Euro for 10), two 3 Liter kegs (those are the biggest kegs available), and wine. To join us was Angela from Canada, Aneta from Poland, Pauline from Ireland, Lieselotte from Belgium, and Thomas from Germany. Of course we had spectators including Marie from France and Romina from Germany. Ultimately, Shawn and I as teammates were untouchable. Our skills defeated every opponent in beer pong...Wie schade fuer sie!

After dominating beer pong, Shawn and I decided to switch things up a bit with flip cup. The teams began with the North Americans vs. Europeans, but Shawn had to kick off Angela for some reason... This turned out to be a horrible decision for out of three runs, the North Americans only won once.

Unfortunately, we consumed all the wine and beer so we decided to head over to morph club. While we were waiting for everyone to get ready, I was just chitchatting with Shawn when he decided to push me off the bed (thanks for reminding me Katrina)! It was terrible! My neck was jammed in between the bed and shelf unit. Thanks to Aneta I was saved, while Shawn was laughing his butt off.

As the group was heading over to morph club, Katrina and I decided to take a longer route, making some trips along the way. We ended up never making it to morph club, but some people swore they saw me there! Overall, it was a great night in Bamberg!

Yah! Finals have basicalley ended besides a few more classes and papers due. I can finally breathe!! I just hope that the end result is in my favor. Anyways, this is what I have been up to lately:

February 2-4

Blair, a fellow student from Clemson, came to visit the Clemson girls in Germany. Currently he is studying abroad in Spain, so I hope to make it that way eventually. It was pretty much a laid back weekend. We went out on Friday night to Calimeros, and Saturday we stayed in to watch the thriller Boogieman; let me just say, it was an okay movie.

During the day of Saturday, I headed over to Molly's where I was meeting the rest of the crew to work on our vanity fair shirts. We (Angela, Lieselot, Molly, Shawn, and myself) had this great idea to create shirts with our most said or funniest sayings. It was a great idea until we realized that it would be a little difficult to put the letters on since you couldn't see the way the letters would look on the shirts. Obviously, this became a bigger issue for Molly and I for my 'E' is backwards and Molly's 'E' and 'D' are backwards as well. Besides that small error, the shirts came out great!

February 6

I got my haircut! It was very hard for me to admit the realization that I needed a haircut with all my split ends, for I hear in Europe you have to be extra careful of where you go to a salon. All in all, it seems like most European hairstylists cut your hair according to what they want to do...and who knows what that will be. So I decided to let an inexperience person cut my hair, who was very reasonable in location and price. In fact, she was right down the hall from where I live. Yes...I let a friend cut my hair, Katie Tuten in fact. She didn't cut much, just a trim, but I must say that we didn't really sweep up much hair off the floor. So where did all the hair go? Well at least my split ends are gone!

Here are a few more pictures from New Year's that I have just received. Good Times!!

Pajama Party

January 26, 2007

COE tried to throw another party. Let me give you the history of parties at COE. We started off with a bang with the halloween party followed by Anna' name day, bad taste party, Party in every kitchen on each floor, and finally pajama party! You are guaranteed to get really drunk by the end of the night when you attend a party in COE! Personally, I don't think the parties would be as fun if you didn't drink something.

A party in every kitchen on every floor wasn't one of my favorites, but naturally I found entertainment along with some of my possie. Every kitchen had different music playing including Indie, Electronic, Pop/Rock, and Spanish. Naturally I made it to the electronic themed kitchen; joining me included Lieselotte, Angela, and Shawn. I am sure we were very amusing to watch for we made up dance moves to this fast pace music including the lawn mower, guy in Vienna, and baseball!

The pajama party was...interesting. It was a major concern at first about what people were going to wear for it seems like majority sleep naked. However, with a little searching the guys and girls found some pajama wear in their wardrobe. I wore the classic poker pajama pants with a nicely matching shirt. However, I was surprised to see how many guys wore their underwear! It wasn't even boxers; in fact, the attire closely resembled whitie tities! A lot of the girls found entertainment taking pictures of these brave boys dancing around in the party room.

Please keep my oma in your thoughts and prayers. She recently went through heart surgery and is in the process of recovering.

January 24

Today was the first snowfall in Bamberg for me! It was very exciting to see, but at the same time annoying especially since I just returned from a skiing trip where there was no snow. It continued to snow from the previous night all the way till about 8p.m. Bamberg now has about 2 feet of snow, which is not good for me because the only boots I have are high heels.

Katie and I thought it was a good idea to build a snowman and remove ourselves from this stressful environment from studying for finals. Enriqa, Paola, Davita, and his roomie came to help us, however the snow was wet enough to actually form a snowball; instead we had a snow/dust fight. It was fun until I got snow down my jacket. I love snow!

Bad Toelz

January 19-21

This weekend, I went on an erasmus excursion with some of the other exchange students to Bad Toelz. The point of the trip was to go snow skiing, but since there was no snow I ended up not! Actually Friday we couldn't do much in Bad Toelz, because the town felt the hurricane weather was too dangerous to open its stores/businesses. In reality, the weather was not awful, but at times the gust of wind was overbearing.

Friday night we ended up walking around Bad Toelz, which took about 30 minutes, and then we began drinking the wine we purchased there while playing rummie. I must say it was very entertaining to watch Shawn and Angela trying to open the wine bottles! Later in the evening, most of the erasmus students managed to find a spot in Katie, Anna, and Aneta's room to stand or sit; so I hung out there the rest of the night.

Saturday was more eventful. The main group was going to Neuschwanstein, but since I have already seen that with Aneta, we went to Augsburg and Muenchen. Augsburg is known for being one of the oldest towns in Germany; it is said to have been established before the time of Christ. The buildings were of course beautiful. One thing I found interesting in Augsburg was there claim for being the hometown of Mozart. I know! I thought Salzburg was...at least that is what I was told before. Maybe there is more than one famous Mozart?!? After walking around Augsburg, Aneta and I made our way to Muenchen where we enjoyed a warm cup of good old Starbucks!! We didn't stay long in Muenchen for both us have previously been for Oktoberfest, and myself for New Year's. Later that night we celebrated Jenny's, from England, birthday. Everyone drank in our room because supposedly we had the PENTHOUSE.

***Shawn, Molly, and I shared a four person room so it was bigger than the other students' rooms. The penthouse consisted of a king size bed, one twin bed, and another bed consisting of two mattresses on top of eachother. Our room also had two old fashion chairs with a table perfect for rummie playing. The penthouse was equipped with a balcony as well as a huge bathroom. It was pretty sweet!

After partying in the penthouse, we attempted to go to a karakoe bar that we discovered in Bad Toelz. We were not there that long, for the music was terrible and everyone was ready for their ZZZZZZ's.

On Sunday, the group was given the choice of either snow skiing with only 10% of the hills open or visit Muenchen. Since I didn't want to waste my money on skiing on fake snow with patches of grass, I decided to go with Molly to Muenchen where we then continued to come straight back to Bamberg. Overall the trip was fun...but not the typical skiing trip if you know what I mean!

Bad Toelz Album

OMG

January 18-19
Who would have ever think that a hurricane would hit Germany? Definitely not me but as shocking as it seems Bamberg received warnings on possible hurricane hittings. I believe they even named the hurricane! Nothing too terrible in Bamberg happened, but we did have strong winds; buses and trains were not operating Thursday, and work was cancelled for some fortunate people on Friday.

Belgium

Jan 2-6, 2007
Shawn and I were very fortunate that Lieselotte and her family opened their home to us. Her family not only let us sleep there but also cooked for us! I experienced the true Belgium lifestyle. Lieselotte resides in a town called Gent, which was beautiful. We spent two days touring Gent, and of course tried some of the beer. I never saw so much beer in my life! They had everything from light to dark and peach to chocolate.

Hearing so much about Brugge, we had to visit. Brugge is a beautiful town with picturesque scenery, but I personally liked Gent better. In Gent we visited a castle, where they showed many torture weapons. We also saw some churches and cathedrals. We also visited the capital of Belgium, Brussels. I liked Brussels very much. There were gorgeous buildings including the palaces of the present king and princes of Belgium. My favorite building was the justice building, but unfortunately much construction was being done to it. In Belgium, there were so many cathedrals and churches, so we definitely had our fair share of seeing them. You won't believe what I saw...the MADONNA by Michelangelo!
Not wanting to constantly intrude upon Lieselotte's family, we intruded her sister's house. There we played the new game unit called Wi! It was fun and very entertaining!
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Belgium, you must try the pommes, chocolate, and beer...it's fabulous!
The most peculiar thing for me in Belgium where the staircases. They were so dangerous! They reminded me of the staircases that you would see in ancient times in castles, but they were marble. Basically they were small spiral staircases with no railing on either side leading up to the upstairs. I was very surprised to see this in homes, but Lieselotte has confirmed that there has never been a falling!
Oh I almost forgot! I was once again very smart while traveling and did not bring an extra pair of contacts. Of course one had to rip so I was left to wearing my glasses the entire time, which doesn't have my updated prescription. Also, it rained everyday but one in Belgium, so my hair looked terrible...beware of pictures! I have learned though that the weather prediction for Belgium is always rain!
Thank you so much Lieselotte and family! I had an amazing time!! I hope to some day return to Belgium. Who knows, rumor has it that Stephen, a friend of my brother, is there. I might just have to drop by!

New Year's

My plan for Christmas break altered immensely. I was suppose to go to my aunt's until Wednesday, where I would then meet Katie, from Clemson, and her family in Amsterdam. I would be in Amsterdam until Saturday, where I would then take a train to Koeln. The next day I was going to take a bus with my friend Shawn to Paris to spend two days there and then go back to Koeln. From January 2-6 Shawn and I would visit Lieselotte in Belgium. The plan sounded great until I realized: it was difficult bringing this huge red suitcase around on the trains, I left my phone charger behind and my phone was dead, I left my alarm clock on again (my neighbors probably hate me), and the only trains I could find to Amsterdam left late one day and came back early the other. I am not going to lie; I was also waiting for a package that has my new camera in it! Anyways, I decided to spend an extra day with my aunt and cancel the Amsterdam trip. I arrived back in Bamberg Thursday afternoon, when Shawn tells me that he is also coming back. We realize that our trip to Paris isn't official yet, so we can still back out, so we decide not to go because of the short time period in Paris. Now we were in Bamberg with no one here.
That Saturday, December 30, Shawn and I discovered a theatre in Nuerenberg that plays international movies. Basically it plays the movie in which language it was produced. So we went to theatre to watch Deja Vu, which was good but the theatre was very...unique. First of all, it was in a alienated town outside of the city. It was the only building that was lit up during this evening. As we walked into the theatre we were guided by a flashlight, even though the theatre was pretty well lit up. Now for how the theatre looked: It had a very old theatre look with a stage a red curtains, that would close before the movie began. There was a Christmas tree lit up and garland hanging everywhere; yes, the lights all dimmed when the movie began. Finally, the theatre had hooks on the side, where you could hang your jacket. It was so cute!
Katie came back from Amsterdam, and we realized that we had no amazing New Year's plans. For a long time, we were contempt on going to Nuerenberg, but then we received a phone call from Matt, a fellow Clemson student who was visiting Janah in Munich. Janah is German, who studied abroad in Clemson for a year. Katie, Shawn, and myself decided to go visit them in Munich for New Year's. The train ride there was very interesting. Since Munich is a big city and it was New Year's eve, the train was overly crowded. There was a big group of people that were sitting or standing on the floor. Soon a guy whipped out his guitar and a lot of people joined in singing American and German songs. I didn't personally join in, but the American soldiers did, who were actually very obnoxious. On that note I have to say, the soldiers stationed in Germany are very rude and loud. They represent Americans terribly! I know they will be heading out to Iraq for our country but come on...you don't need to be an asshole in a foreign country! Anyways, after the train ride we go to Janah's when I realize that there were 3 other Clemson students there besides Matt. It was nice to be with the Clemson family. Shawn on the other hand didn't like it too much for he goes to USC, Clemson's rival school...poor Shawn!
Anyways, we went to a party downtown at one of the bars that also had a karaoke machine. What a night we had! At the bar I was hanging around my new friends that I met there, which I know for sure one guy was Anthony and the other Bucky. Anthony was the only one out of the group from America, actually he was from Miami. Supposedly he has some government type job in Nuerenberg...I don't know about that though. I think he was feeding me a lot of lies that night. Anyways, the good news is that I had a great time and didn't have to pay for any of my drinks! Yes, I did do karakoe one time...not planned. My good friend signed me up with my 'incredible' voice (I am being sarcastic by the way) for no other then Kelly Clarkson, breakaway. It turned out being fun, for I had the help of Katie, Shawn, and a random guy. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of that! The countdown at the bar wasn't anything amazing, but it soon was midnight and the new year 2007! Can you believe it? Time goes by too fast! We watched some fireworks and hung out at the bar a little longer. Soon the guys wanted to check out another place, but Katie and I were ready for bed by this time. We ended up getting lost and taking a taxi back to Janah's. We finally went to bed around 4:30. There were some interesting stories about the sleeping situation and what noises people were making. Supposedly I moan, but as Matt says, "It's like you were solving math problems in your head and were like O...Oh." Kind of embarrassing, but at least I don't snore or talk in my sleep!
Shawn went back to Bamberg ahead us, but Katie and I finally arrived in Bamberg around 8:30 p.m. Overall, I had a great New Year's!
It was now January 2, and I still hadn't received my package with my camera in it! It is so annoying, because I really want to take my own pictures and not use other people's pictures. Anyways, Shawn and I were on our way Belgium! We stopped in Koeln were we visited one of the cathedrals, which is supposedly one of the beautifullest in the world!

My Christmas
This year I spent Christmas with my great aunt Annie in Schorndorf. The way there was a disaster for me! I only had a big suitcase to travel with at the time, since my friend Katrina was using my gym bag as she was traveling back to the U.S. It also didn't help that I had four connecting trains in train stations that I never been. Anyways, I was doing fine until I had to get off at Aalen bahnhof. Germany can be a little difficult at times with the bahnhofs especially when they have two with the same name, and that is exactly what happened with the bahnhof Aalen. I saw the Aalen a/b bahnhof and wasn't sure if that was the right bahnhof, because it was so small, so I waited until the next bahnhof just in case. BAD DECISION! As I approached the next bahnhof, I realized that I was still wasn't at the right bahnhof, so I decided to get off and retrace my routes back to the Aalen a/b. After I got off at Wasserfindeln bahnhof, I realized how bad of a decision I made. There was absolutely NO ONE there. There was not even a car! I went to one of the electronic machines to purchase a ticket. Unfortunately the ticket they gave me was to a train that left ten minutes ago which was probably mine! I knew I had to somehow get in contact with my great aunt for she would be waiting for me at the Shorndorf bahnhof. Of course I didn't bring her phone number or address with me...ugh! I called my family and finally got in touch with my father while he was at work. He then called my mother who called my grandmother who called my great aunt, her sister. The message was interpreted as such, "Priscilla is lost in Germany." Obviously this type of message was not sitting well with anyone and everyone was worried. But that's not all! I then realize that I made a very stupid mistake not bringing my phone charger, because my phone was about to die as I was stranded at this abandon bahnhof. The next train finally came about an hour later and brough me back to the train station that one of my four connecting stops were at. I spoke with the conductor, who informed me that I would have to wait 2 hours for the next one to come! Eventually I made it to Schorndorf. Fortunately I remembered how to get to Annie's house from the store Aldi!
I stayed with my aunt until Thursday 28, so I was there to witness a traditional German Christmas. We had dinner/lunch together and then went to church. There was no gift exchange, which I was actually happy about, because I would have felt awkward. Christmas day and eve passed, and for me it felt like it hadn't. Supposedly it was hard for a lot of people to get into the Christmas spirit this year for that is what I heard from both Americans and Germans. Staying with my great aunt was like staying with my grandmother. We had a routine schedule: First we would have breakfast. Then we would either walk around the town until lunch or we would do something productive around the house/clean until lunch. After lunch I typically went for a long walk. At 3p.m. we had tea/coffee with a piece of cake or some cookies. Around 6:30p.m we had a small dinner/lunch, and then read our books until a movie would come on the television. Of course it was German, but I was able to understand it most of the time. Annie would usually go to bed around 10p.m and I would stay up to around 1a.m. That was the schedule for the time I was there. It really wasn't bad. I learned a lot about my family's fascinating history and was cooked really good meals!

The movie 'Little Miss Sunshine' was absolutely hilarious! It was about a disfunctional family driving to California for a pageant. The family included a gay uncle, a colorblind son who didn't speak, a cute but chubby daughter, a grandfather who was obsessed with porn and crack, and the two parents. On their way to California, the ghetto van breaks down in more than one way. First, the car's motor breaks down, so the van is not capable of starting without the family pushing. Then, after the father beeps the horn, it continues to beep. Driving the rest of the way to California with the van beeping, you can only imagine the looks other drivers were giving! Finally, the van's door falls off! The family faces more complications on their journey involving the grandfather and the pageant...I won't spoil the movie for you though!!
Seeing this movie with Katie brought back a lot of memories about the past years. It's amazing how fast time goes by when you are having fun!