Taking the Phrase Stop and Smell the Roses to Heart

So I had a pretty uneventful weekend this past weekend. I didn't go anywhere and that was 100% good by me. I went to a couple movies this weekend- Dear John (which has a much better ending than the book) and Valentine's Day. They were both pretty good movies, utterly predictable, but good.

I don't think I have anything going on for the next few weekends. I know this coming weekend I just plan on chilling again. I enjoy not doing a whole lot on my weekends because it gives me wind down time. The weekend after that, March 6 & 7th also the weekend after my birthday, I had a trip planned to go see Munich and a Dachau. Dachau is the concentration camp closest to us. Anyways like I said I planned to go there and so did some other girls. Actually we signed up and paid the money for it and everything and now the girls are backing out... so that pretty much means I can't go either. We have to go with at least one other person and it looks like they're not going... so I guess I don't get to. :( Sad? Yes... actually a lot a sad. So I don't know if I really have anything going on until the 13th of March- if people don't back out of that one too. Ugg.

Anyways I know it's a short post, but like I said I don't have much to report. Although I do have one last thing! I will have the internet EVERY Tuesday night. So if you want to skype me I'll be on there! Basically from 1pm-4pm central time (or later if you plan it with me) every Tuesday. Hop on and call me! :)

Peace!

When You’re Having a Good Time… Don’t Rub It In It’ll Cost You

Weird title for this one I know, but I can explain. This past weekend Kristen, Alyssa, Jenny and I went to Berlin. It was the perfect weekend because we had a 3-day weekend. Today is Monday, but it still feels like a Sunday to me. I must say Berlin was AMAZING. We had snow everywhere and it was pretty cold, but the charm and wonder of the city is impossible to ignore.

We started off the weekend by getting on a train at 3:43 in the morning. Kristen and I decided not to go to sleep, but to instead sleep on the trains. This sounded like a good idea because we were looking at 12 hours of train rides before we finally arrived in Berlin. Like I said SOUNDED. Stupid me forgot how much I can’t sleep in public- so on Saturday I slept for about 30 minutes, hour if I’m lucky.

We missed one train connection on our way, which delayed us by 2 hours. We arrived in Berlin at 6pm (18:00!) and found our hostel very easily. The hostel was great too because we ended up having a room and bathroom to ourselves. We also met 2 really nice guys from Argentina. Saturday night we walked for FOREVER trying to find this club the guy at the hostel referred us to, but that was not so successful. We ended up finding a club called Weekends where techno was the music of choice and we later learned is a high-end club. It is crazy to think that we could have been denied access to the club.

Alyssa and I at the club.

Saturday night we finally ended up in bed at 5am and turned right back around in the morning for a walking tour of Berlin. This was an amazing walk that lasted about 4 hours. To be honest I thought we were on it for much longer because of all the history we learned! We learned 800 years of history in that time. Obviously not everything, but it really was great. We talked about the Holocaust and how everything progressively went down. And for those of you who know me the Holocaust interests me a ton. I learned about and even walked over Hitler’s bunker that became his final resting place. There was an amazing memorial for all the Jews who were killed, a memorial for the tens of thousands of books that were burned just outside Humbodlt University because they were written by Jewish authors, a path marking where the Berlin Wall had once stood, and even part of the wall. Did you know there were really 2 walls? Did you also know that the wall falling was a mistake? A mistake made by one man? If you’re wondering how in the world that could happen ask me sometime.

This is the Holocaust Memorial set up. In this picture I'm in the middle of it.

There is just way too much for me to tell you about Berlin. This is one city that at least one other time in my life I will return to. There is just too much to see and never enough time to see it all.

So now it’s Monday and I am currently sitting on another one of these darn trains. (Only 10 hours of traveling this time!) And now I get to the part of the story where I say it’ll cost ya to brag. Not to say that I was bragging, but I was telling someone last night how good of a time we were having. Anyway this morning we woke up at 5 to catch a 6:17 train. We got there a little early to get our tickets for the train. We assumed that it would cost us all 37 Euro together with this awesome pass we could buy. Unfortunately we were under the impression that it would be a pass for any time not just on the weekend. That was our mistake… instead of costing us each 10 Euro to get all the way home it now cost us each 67 Euro to get to Frankfurt where we still had to figure out how to get the remaining hour and a half home. Thankfully our PC agreed to come pick us up if we paid her back for gas.

Me in front of the Berlin Dom.

Aside from the unexpected cost at the end and not actually being able to shop I had the best weekend since I’ve been here in Germany. I wish you were all here with me so you could personally witness it, but because you can’t I’ll leave you with a few pictures. Although pictures cannot account of the glory that is Berlin… it’ll have to do for now.

And a great quote from the weekend (sorry no kids this week)

Kristen to some random guy- Sprechen se English?

Random guy- I. Only. Speak. English.

A Very Unwelcome Gift

So I'm mostly enjoying myself- I'm just really wishing for a "normal" week. Last week was a killer. On Tuesday one of the girls in our group started itching her head a lot and had someone check her out. A few minutes later we discovered that 5 out of the 6 Camp A girls at my site had lice- including me. It was not very fun. Not very fun at all. BUT! Now we're all good :) Thank you kids.... not.

Last weekend didn't go quite as we planned- because of the lice mostly. We were going to go skiing/boarding and instead we went to Trier. By we I mean Alyssa, Jenny and I. We kinda travel in a group of 3. In Trier we went to the Dom and oh my goodness! It is crazy. It's like the a place where you can't talk- not because of rules, but because you don't feel like you can you're in awe. Also the Dom is HUGE. I can't imagine what it was like in the day. Also I wonder if they've ever had a Church service in there. One of the coolest things about the Dom is that in there is Jesus's tunic. One of the girls who had been there before said she felt a presence in there when she was there and I can understand what she meant. It was weird. While I was in there I kept feeling the urge to cry. I didn't, but I still felt the urge to.

Aside from the Dom we did a lot of shopping in Trier. I got some REALLY cute new shoes for 14 Euro- so really $21. Like I said... they're REALLY cute. They're a black and white plaid color. I also got a pink scarf, headbands, necklace and a giraffe metal thing. Now before you ask, no it wasn't all that expensive. I spent like 18 or 21 Euro. So it was a lot of fun :)

See I LOVE them!!

We also got really cool pizza while we were in Trier. It came in a box thingy and you ate it while you were walking around. This is Alyssa and me eating ours.

Next weekend we're not going to hit up Paris. Some of the girls were a little- well... it just didn't work out. Not everyone could get a ride there so the 3 of us decided to do something else. We're now going to go to Berlin for our 3 day weekend. We're going to hit up Paris on the 13th of March. We're booking the trip today.

Again with the children quotes- this was a good one this last week.

"I don't get why boys are boys and girls are girls... like how does that happen?"- 8 year old Marsha. I mean really? Haha and 8 year old asking me that. That was a little funny- or a lot anyways.

Tata for now! Love you and miss you all!

Kids Say and Do the Darnedest Things

I’m now on my 3^rd week being here in Germany and it still doesn’t feel like I’m in another country. I’m not sure if it’s because I adapt well, who knows? I feel like everyone is just a call away and that’s because you all are. I’m really enjoying my time so far!

This past weekend I didn’t do a whole lot I wanted more a weekend where I can just sit and do nothing else. Some of the girls went to Trier- sorry about the spelling I’m not sure if that’s quite right. The rest of us met up with some of the guys who live in our same barrack and went to The Sports Bar. It was pretty interesting watching people around. There was one guy, contrary to his belief, who could not dance at all. He was great entertainment I must tell ya!

This coming up weekend some of us are going to head to Austria and ski/board in the Alps. Yeah, who can really say that? Oh this weekend I’m just going to head over and ski in the Alps… Well I can now! Alyssa and I are going to try to find some snow pants and such warm clothes at the thrift shop so we don’t freeze while we’re out there.

Last week was a pretty fun week in the way of children. Alyssa, Heather and I all go to SAS in the afternoon unless the kids don’t have school and then we’re there all day. Friday was one of those days and I’ll tell ya, it was awesome. We played all sorts of things all day. We even built the Eiffel Tower out Knex. Try that without directions! It’s not really easy, but it was fun and the kids loved it.

Update on the Internet- we didn’t end up getting it installed. Several people told us that it was really unreliable and would be even worse with 11 people trying to use the same router. So that wasn’t going to work. Instead what we did was we went and bought sticks that let us access the Internet. They are expensive though, so 3 other girls, Kristen, Lisa, and Heather, went in with me and we got a stick to share. That means that only one of us can be on it at a time, but that’s ok. I get Internet during lunch so I get facebook and email and such taken care of during my lunch break and then every 4^th day I can get on Skype and what not. That’s what we decided to do. If someone needs it pretty bad then we’re all pretty flexible girls so that’s not a huge deal.

Last thing I wanted to do is leave you with (and I’ll try to do every week) is a few quote from children. You know they say the darnedest things! (names will be changed for privacy issues)

“Miss Angie you’re a super hero.”- 4-year-old Kayla

“Oh and why is that?” –Me

“Well, you cleaned up Becky’s tears with your shirt and then she didn’t cry any more.”

“Miss Angie I like when I’m tired and I hug you cause you have pillows for my head.” – 3-year-old Ashanti (yeah awkward, but funny as all heck)