Servus!

... another bavarian greeting. I love Bavarians! Seriously.... why did I ever go to Northern Germany? People here are great. Since I last wrote... I wandered more, I saw the modern art museum. Yesturday I met up with Jen, another American Fulbrighter here and we hit up a biergarten in the Englisher Garten (big city park) and then walked around more. I bought a dirndle!! It's really cute. I'll post pictures when I can. Then last night I went to visit the relatives I have here in Munich... my grandpas half brother Hans and his wife Ilse. I was a little worried because they only speak German and I've only met them like once, but they were very nice and welcoming and I got to here some fun stories about Grandpa :) Their grandson, Martin, also came over. He's probable 30 or so and said I should call him sometime and he'd take me out. So I sat around with my distant realatives, speaking German, it was nice.

and today..... Oktoberfest! I met one of the other American Fulbrighters who came with some of her friends from Boston College. Unfortunatly its rainy and freezing outside, so I had to forgo the dirdle for today... maybe later, I have two weeks yet. Anyway, I met them there around 11, we sat out in the freezing rain because its impossible to get a table inside on the first day. beer starts flowing at 12, and we had downed our first Maß (2 liters) by 1:30 or so. We were feeling pretty friendly and not quite so cold by then. We met some nice guys from Ireland, I think they really just wanted to use our umbrellas... but they were entertaining anyway. It was far too cold and wet to sit outside and eat though, so we came back into the city to eat at one of the beer halls here. so we had some tasty and sobering Bavarian fare. Then they had to catch their train back, they're staying like an hour away because, well, thats about the best you can do around Munich for Oktoberfest.

And now... here I am in an internet cafe. I'm going to head back to the teachers house soon. She and another teacher are taking me out to some kind of Bavarian theater tonight. Such a long day.... drinking in the afternoon really throws me off. I'm ready for bed!

Tomorrow is the big huge parade through the city, yay parades! This is great... I still can't believe I live here.

bummeln durch die Stadt

bummeln is a great German word. it means something like rambling, or bumbling, or just wondering slowly through the city. So that`s pretty much what I've been doing the last few days. The U-bahns are not running at the moment because there is a strike, so I'm been walking a whole lot. I did get my Visa yesturday so I'm officially alowed to stay! I can't believe I'm really living here still. its a little crazy. I do like the city, its very pretty and there seems to be another monument or church or museum or park everywhere you turn. And yet it doesn't feel quite as touristy as I expected. I mean, there are plenty of tourists flooding in now before Oktoberfest starts tomorrow, but still when I'm walking around I feel like most the people actually live here. It's a nice mix I think.

I'm seriously considering buying a dirndle . There are second hand shops all over selling them. I tried one on yesturday and it was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. I almost got it but then chickened out, but maybe today I will. I have to be prepared for the Oktoberfest after all...

So other than wandering I don't have a lot to do. I need to meet people very soon or I'll go crazy. The only person I have to talk to is the 50 some year old woman I'm staying with... She is very nice, I think she really likes having me there. I'm so spoiled having someone cook for me every night. And she bought me Ámerican' cereal yesturday, she said it was her nephews favorite kind, it's pretty much like cinimon tost crunch. I don't usually eat sugary stuff, but it sure is good and I just thought it was so cute that she got it for me :) Anyway, today I'm going to meet up with one of the other American fulbrighters here for lunch or something and then this evening I'm going to find my great half-uncles house to visit them. And tomorrow hopefull I'll get to the Oktoberfest! So I guess I'm keeping pretty busy.

Monday I´ll actually start going to classes. Frau S. would like me to plan some lessons about Germans in America. Immigration, what traditions are still visible today, things like that. Gesundheit, Kindergarted, and Kaput are mostly the words I can think of, and Oktoberfest parties of course. I'll find something I'm sure. Let me know if you have any ideas!

Tschüß!

Grüss Gott

That's a very Bavarian greeting. I haven't heard to much Bayrisch around here, a few people with a little bit of an acent, but nothing I can't understand. But I'm in a big city and I guess it's like living in Minneapolis, no one has that thick MN accent and we all kind of make fun of it. I am begining to understant why northern Germans think people in Munich are a little snotty. Yesturday the woman I'm staying with was telling me about how great Munich is and that it is the most beloved city by Germans and that every German would certainly live there if they could afford it. This totally reinforces my comparison of Bavaria and California. If fact it sounds exactly like something a certain uncle of mine might say about northern California....
Anyway. Yesterday I saw my schools and met a ton of English teachers and then i went out into the city and rambled a whole lot. It's big! I saw the Rathouse and the Frauenkirsche. I havn't been in any museums yet, the big ones are so big I'll definitely have to set aside a whole day for each.
Today I'm out and about again and feeling pretty on top of things. I successfully matriculated at the University this morning! woo hoo! If you have any idea what German beurocracy can be like then you'll understand why this is such an accomplishment. I felt like I was in some kind of really boring video game. I went to one office and they looked at some papers, told me I needed something else, went to another office several blocks away, got more papers, went back to the first office where they could check me off to send me to another office which was on the other end of a huge building.... and so on and so forth. And of course there was a line to wait in at every office. weeeee. After that I went to another office and got my transportation pass that I get for free as a student so now I can use all the U-bahns! (subways) I'm mobile! I could get my visa today though because that office was closed. So there is still more beurocracy and lines and waiting to come. I also went and walked by the dorm I'll be living in. It looks pretty nice and is right accross from an U-bahn station. excellent. I am so totally on top of this whole living in a forigne country thing. no sweat.

And now I'm pretty exhasted, but I'm going to wander a bit more anyway and make my way home.

Bis Später!

München!

here I am at last. I got in last night and was picked up by one of the teachers I'll be working with, Frau S. and her friend who I'm staying with for the next week, Frau G. She's very nice. Very German. She lives alone and is incredibly neat and clean. She seems happy to have a guest and wants me to speak english with her so she can practice, she teaches French and German. It's a little awkward of course, living with a stranger, but it should be fine. Germans are so funny... it cracks me up. She asked if I liked cold milk with my cereal, which, of course I do, then she told me that cold milk is bad for the stomach. Who knew? Apparently eating salad in the evenings is also bad for the stomach. Don't ask why. She made a very good dinner which was excellent and very much appreciated because the food in Altenberg was pretty terrible. I went to bed right after dinner pretty much, I was so exahsted. And I love German bedding :) The huge sqare down pillows and duvets. Mmmm.

Today is the first day of school so everyone is a little hectic. I'm teaching at two different schools. I went to one this morning, I'll call it School A (I'd rather not publish the names of the high schools) , there I got some paperwork sorted out and talked with my advisor teacher Herr N. It seems I'm going to be in very high demand. Frau S. gave me the impression that there was a little tension between the two schools in working out what days and times I'm going to be at each one. Now I'm at School B waiting to meet Frau G for lunch. After that I'm going to go out and ramble in the city a bit. The schools are kind of out in the suburbs, so It doesn't really feel like I'm actually in Munich yet. I'm excited to see all the famous tourist stuff :)

This coming weekend is the begining of Oktoberfest. Some of the other american Fulbrighters are planning on coming down so hopefully I can meet up with then and go see what all this hub bub is about.

Orientation

whew. I'm back in Köln. We had our orientation for the last four days in the little picturesque city of Altenberg. It was.... I don't even know. I'm so wiped out right now. It was really great to meet so many people there. I didn't quite realize how huge this program is. There are about 120 americans here with the Fulbright thing and then there are also tons of British, Austrailians, Canadians, etc. Then there are also groups of French, Italian and Spanish teachers coming to Germany. Our group was only 1\3 of the english speakers. So it was pretty overwhelming. It was kinda like the first few days of freshman year, meeting everyone for the first time except that we all at least had a common interest in Germanness. There are a ton of Minnesotans in the bunch, all that German heritage I suppose. I ended up hanging out a lot with the two Canadians that were there.... Crazy Canadians. I made lots of friends with people who will be all over Germany, so I've got lots of travel buddies and places to visit. There are actually two other american girls in Munich.
The orientation involved a lot of meetings and group work. We had to do little practice teaching lessons. Of couse we also had some liesure time. The place we were staying was pretty neat. Its a church complex with big cool cathedral out in the middle of nowhere. We were locked in every night at 9:45, but they provided cheap beer and wine, so no one complained to much. Good times.
I can't think of what else to say about it right now, I'm sort of in a daze. We were supposed to wake up at 6am to catch the bus this morning. I overslept, there were going to leave without me, luckily a friend noticed i was missing and got me just in time. But I still have that feeling like I'm dreaming or something.
In a couple hours I'm off to Munich! It's about four hour train ride. Nap time for me! My teacher is picking me up at the train station. I'm really excited to get to a house with a bed and a washing machine.

Köln

Hello all. I'm in Köln (Cologne) at the moment, but I'll be leaving for our orientation in Altenburg in a couple hours. The rest of my time in Münster was great. I'm so glad I went there first, seeing friends made me feel much less alone here in Deutschland! I got to Köln the night before last. I'm staying at a hostel and it's been a lot of fun. There are a bunch of us Fulbrighters here along with people from all over of course. I've had quite a lot of Kölsch (local beer) and seen some of the important sights. I climbed the Dom of course, I think it is still my favorite Cathedral ever. It's just so unbelievably huge!

Hopefully orientation won't be too bad. It's in a tiny dorf outside Köln. I guess we have to do lots of practice teaching and stuff. As well as filling out plenty of paper work I'm sure. There will be no shortage of Beurocracy :-P

I'm not sure if I'll have internet access or not while I'm there. At any rate I'll be off to München (now that I have umlauts I'm all about the German names of cities) on the 12th! I'm really looking forward to settling in somewhere and not having to worry about my ginormouse suit cases anymore!

Ciao!

Ich bin Münsteranerin

Here's a picture of the Asee Kügeln (balls), coincidentally, they were desigened by the same artist who made the cherry on the spoon in Minneaopis. How about that?

It's been so nice here! Last night Silke came over for dinner and then she and I went out for coffee while Eva stayed in to watch the political debate. There's an election coming up for Chancelor. It will most likely be between Schröder (Social Democratic party) and Merkel (Christian Democratic Union). Silke thinks Merkel will win because the economy has been so bad under Schröder. The CDU is more toward the right end of the spectrum. Merkel is a woman by the way, I think it's pretty cool that this seems to be a non-issue here, although Silke says she doesn't like her because she's ugly and mean looking! The Al Gore problem... Germany isn't quite so dominated by only two parties though. I've been seeing signs in the city for a Marxist Lenenist Party! Anyway, talking to Silke was much more informative for me than watching the debate I think. We talked about all kinds socio political economic issues in Germany and the US. She is such an interesting person to talk to, she always has a wordly kind of perspective on things, perhaps because she has grown up in the US and in Germany and sees the flaws in both systems. She also has had to fight had to get through University because her family can't suppot her. She knows that socialism doesn't always work.

We talked a lot about our diffent school systems and what the pros and cons are. In Germany kids are tracked after 4th grade into Gymnasium (college track) Haubtschule (usually go on to apprenticeships) and Realschule (the lowest level). In theory it is more fair because students are tracked based 'purely' on grades and test scores. Of course that doesn't always work. For instance someone with dislexia is pretty much doomed to be put in Realschule because they don't have special education classes. Also, immigrants from Turkey or anywhere else are most likely put into Realschule because they haven't learned the language well enough yet and the schools are not required to teach them. So, the system is flawed. But is it worse than our American system where kids are doomed simply because of their parents income and the school disctrict they live in? I don't know. There has to be a better atlternative.

Anyway, Silke and I had a nice talk over coffee. Today I went out into the city again, but today the stores were actually open :) I went to Deutschbank to see if I could still use the account I opened last time, which I can. I had -1 euro in it! But I deposited some money and got my account number and they'll mail me a new card. I was pretty proud of myself because I did this all auf Deutsch. Then I went to buy a Handy (cell phone) and the guy started talking about networks or something... I must have had a pretty blank look on my face because he asked where I was from and then spoke english to me. But I got the cell phone, so all is good. I did a little more shopping, made the mistake of going into H&M where I naturally wanted to buy everything, but I resisted when I remembered how heavy my backpack already is... I did give in and buy a new book though because I wanted a German book to read. It was so exhilerating to walk around the city when it was so busy. It's been a while since I've even seen that many people at one time... much less that many Germans! I went to a cafe to have a coffee and read.. and there was Silke! That's the nice thing about little cities... So I had coffee with her and her friend and we arranged to meet later by the Asee Kügeln, which we did. We sat on the grass, drank some wine, Silke played guitar and we sang some great Folk songs, a few German ones but mostly American of course. It was odd to be sitting with a bunch of Germans singing... 'West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country road...'

Oh, and Eva let me use her bike so I took the long way to the Asee... Weeeeeeeeeee... I miss riding a bike everywhere! How could I ever have disliked anything about this city?? Oh right.... rain... and Germans... :-P

Tomorrow I'm off to Köln! (I love having ulauts again! äöü)

Münster!

Hallo! I made it! I'm back in Münster! Getting here was about as fun as can be expected... long, tiring, blah. But when I finally got here Eva and Silke welcomed me with open arms. We had a nice late supper and then I went promtly to bed and slept until noon today. I headed out this afternoon and wadered around the city. It's so pretty! The weather is gorgeous right now and there were people out everywhere, window shopping, walking around the Asee, sitting in the cafes. I went to the Botanical garden behind the Schloss, it was gorgeous. I got some gellato and sat in the city center for a bit. There is a new Einkaufzentrum (shopping center) that they were building when I was last here. It's half done now and it's really nice. I thought it would be ugly to put a mall in the middle of such a quaint city, but it really flows well with the rest of the city. It opens up to the street in a few places. I actually almost walked by it all together without noticing, that's how well it seems to mesh. Leave it to Germans to make a mall pretty and practical. The rest of the city is about how I left it. I even walked by my old apartment building... I'm glad I'm not living in that anymore! I am a little sad to not be living in Münster though, as much as I was ready to leave it last year, I miss it now that I've been gone. But Munich will be a tad more exciting. Eva said I have to 'lick all my fingers' which I guess is a german saying refering to how lucky I am to live there. Bavaria is like the California of Germany, beautiful but way to expensive for most to afford it, housing is hard to come by, and it's a world of it's own with a whole different culture. I mentioned Oktoberfest and Eva said, 'Uhg, that's only for Americans, no northern German would ever go, it's far to Bavarian for them' Haha, I guess I'll have to see for myself!

I have a few more days to bum around and recover from jetlag here with Eva before I head back to Colonge. just thought I'd let everyone know, all is well !

22 hrs to take-off

So how am I feeling on the eve of my departure? Pretty darn good overall. My bags are packed. I ended up with one more bag than planned. I'll still be able to get it all on the plane without incuring extra fees, but let me tell you its going to be reeeeeaaaally fun trying to get it all onto a train by myself... can't wait for that. Oh traveling... I love it and a hate it all at the same time.

Before I go I'd like to write down a few goals for the upcoming year that I can look back on at the year progresses.

1. Be a dedicated teacher. Stay on top of lesson plans, be creative, get to know the students and keep them interested. Impress the students and teachers with your maturity and confidence. And speak loudly enough for them to hear me!! Go above and beyond. Find a project you care about and follow through, start an after school club. Remember, teaching is the reason I'm in Germany!

2. Utilize free time. You are in Germany for goodness sake. Get out of your little dorm room and do something cool! Visit every museum, church, park you can. Walk, hike (in the Alps!) , ride a bike, get moving! Take interesting classes, do the reading, learn something! Travel as much as possible and travel alone sometimes. Try new things, be open minded and adventureous.

3. Meet people. Be outgoing, be confident. Make friends, but don't spend all your time with the same people, this is the perfect oportunity to meet new, different, and interesting people. Be open to anything and anyone (just don't be too naive).

4. Speak German! Don't spend ALL of your time with English speakers! practice, read German, take classes in German, study German, write in German. German, German, German!

5. Budget. Plan a monthly budget and stick to it. Make some extra money to use for traveling. Cook your own meals, don't buy clothes or stuff you don't need and can't fit in your suitcases anyway! Be smart, plan ahead.

6. Stay in touch. Send postcards, write e-mails, take pictures, write letters, make phone calls, blog blog blog. All that good stuff I can do to let you people know how much I love you even though I'm so far away.

I realize that these aren't the good kind of goals that you can actually measure, but at least it's something to look at if I'm ever feeling lonely, homesick, or just off track. Mostly I hope that I can have a great time, be happy, have fun, all that. And I hope that I can make it meaningful!



***********************
My heart goes out to all those affected by Hurricane Katrina and to those who are doing all they can to help. The images on the news are shocking and appalling, I can only hope that relief finds all the people stranded there as quickly as possible.

Have I ever mentioned...

how much I hate packing? I image that I probably did, last time I went through this. But now it's worse. I have to pack for nearly an entire year!! 9 months! I'm still in the early stages, but there is already a huge spread of clothes to pack on my futon plus two loads of laundry I have yet to add to it and a large box of books and I haven't even begun with the shoes.... I'm thinking I'm just going to have to live without a whole lot of it. Or ship it... there's always that option.

I have a place to stay! The teacher I'll be working with is going to let me stay with her for a few weeks. So that's awfly sweet of her. The little problem is that Caroline wanted to come visit for Oktoberfest, but I can't exactly invite her to stay in someone elses house. so we'll see. At any rate, I shall not be living on the street, which is good, because I've got far too much crap to be lugging it around the streets of Munich. Someone remind me to get some kind of nice MN gift to bring with me for the teacher.

Other than the whole packing thing I am ueber-excited about leaving on friday! I watched several episodes of Passport to Europe today (there's an episode on Munich coming up in the next couple days if you're interested), and I am so pumped about going to Europe. I'm even excited for the traveling part! And to see Eva and Silke in Muenster! I'm excited to be a tourist for a few days in the city I used to live in... and then to meet all the other Fulbrighters in Colonge and go through orientation. And I'm thrilled, thrilled! to go to Munich and I can't believe that i'll be there for so long. I can't believe I'm doing this, teaching english, living in Germany... it's all so cool. There's nothing else I'd rather be getting ready for right now. So I should probably suck it up and pack already...

Chelsea and Alexis and I had a very nice time up at the lake, sneaking in a few last days of summer while we can. We performed a few secret rituals to worship the gods of the Lake and the Sun, to show our gratitude and ask for good fortune in the comming year. I think the Lake and Sun were listening because it was especially woderful and gorgeous out there. Or maybe it was just me.

I feel like i'm just bursting right now
I could just BURST!

So many exclamations points in this post
That's ok, I feel like I AM an exclamation point right now

Out on the dock fishing for Bullheads after dark

See Flickr for more summer photos

Sloppy Joe, slop-a-sloppy joe, yeah!

Sorry, this post actually has nothing to do with sloppy joes. I'm watching the best of Adam Sandler SNL right now and that lunch lady song just cracks me up!

5 DAYS!!!!!!!

I'm up at the lake house with my family right now (minus Bob who is already at school in LA). It's so nice up hear! Yesterday while I was driving here, all by myself in my very own car driving fast on empty country roads, listening to Jo Dee Mesina and singing along loudly, I was thinking how much I love the US. I felt like I could just give the whole country a big good-bye hug for being so great. This is very cheesy, I know, and there are all kinds of bad things about the US, but really, all in all, it's a great place to be. And I'm really going to miss my car :( and my friends and family too... but not quite as much as my car :P

Chelsea and Alexis are coming up tomorrow for a last summer hoorah. This summer has been just about as perfect as it could be, but all good things must end. This afternoon I was reading outside and watching a little chipmonk gathering acorns. He was really cute, running into his hole with his cheeks all puffed out full of acorns and then running back out to get more. Anyway, the point is, like the cute little chipmonk, I too must prepare for the year to come. (so much velveeta tonight...) I've got winter clothes, boots, coats, my backpack and guidbooks, all the stuff I need. All I have to do is attempt to fit it all into two suitcases. No sweat... right.
I'm so ready to go!!!! eeeeeeeeeee!

11 days

Having now past the two week mark it seems appropriate to begin the countdown until take off. 11 days from now I will be somewhere over the Atlantic ocean, or possibly still in Chicago... but at any rate, well on my way to Germany! yipes!
Housing status: I have a room in a student dorm! The problem is that I don't get the room until Oct. 4th, and I have no idea what I'll be doing until then. Incidentally, Octoberfest is Sept 17th- Oct 4th, during which any and every hotel or hostel or even campground withing 50 miles of Munich has been booked solid for months. The woman in charge of international housing in her e-mail said, "Haben Sie jetz keine Gedanken..." Which, roughly translated, means, "Stop your obsessive worrying you nurotic American!" Sigh. So there's nothing I can do really but believe it will all work out. I can always stay with my great uncle and his wife who live in Munich. I met them once... I think. They're both over 80 years old. Staying with them for a couple days would be nice... but a couple weeks would just be awkward and rude of me I think.

I found out that there is going to be another Fulbright TA working in Munich. She posted something on the ToyTown site so I sent her an e-mail. So far I know that she is from detroit and she sells Mary Kay products... but I'm going to give her the benifit of the doubt and assume that we'll get along great ;) Kidding, kidding, it will be nice to have another TA close by to compare experiences and share ideas with.

As for the rest of my life... nothing too exciting. Saturday I went w/ Chelsea, Alexis and Kelly to an engagement pary/bbq for Chris and Rachel. Chris who went to high school with us, and Rachel who went to college with them. Awww. They make a very sweet couple and the party was great fun.

Yesturday I went up to the lake with my family. Dad butchered a couple of our chickens and I decided I wanted to try making southern friend chicked because I had seen it on Good Eats. It was a tad more work than it looked like on TV... but it turned out to be quite delisious. mmmm. foooood.

Anyway, maybe I should go pack or something. Nah, plenty of time for that yet...

Flickr

I just got my very own Flickr account as you can see in my side bar. There you will find pics from our trip to the MN history center and Irish fair in St. Paul last weekend.

Bring on the rain

I've been babysitting this week for Sarah and Molly because they're regular caretaker is out of town. Yesturday it rained nearly all day and let me tell you it was a loooooong day trying to entertain them indoors. So today I was anxious to get them outside even though it was still looking pretty cloudy. We decided to walk to the Rose Garden in Minneapolis where they like to climb trees in the park and watch the turtle fountain. So we got there and climbed some trees and played hide and seek and ran up and down the big hill a few times. Then is started to sprinkle a bit, but not hard so we kept playing. Then is started to POUR. There is absolutely no shelter of anykind nearby of course so all we could do was stand under a tree and get soaking wet. Sarah, who is generally scared of everything including getting water in her eyes, surprised me by deciding to run around in the rain. Eventually it slowed down and we were able to walk back, dripping wet, shivering, and jumping in every puddle we found along the way. The girls looked like a couple of drowned rats, but they didn't seem to mind too much. Oh to be a kid again...

Summer Daze

Do these ladies look relaxed or what? What a lovely couple days up at the lake! We left Thursday evening, watched a movie, played a knee slapping game of Scategories and then sat out on the pontoon boat to watch the meteor shower. It was clear and gorgeous just staring up at the starts and we saw quite a few commets. Today there was swimming, sun tanning, hammock lounging, and chit chatting, what more could a girl ask for?

We also played a little "Would you rather...?"
Would you rather have wings or gills?
Would you rather have a novel published or win an Olympic metal?
Would you rather have a stable and content life, or a roller coaster of emotions, highs and lows?
Would you rather give up cheese or chocolate?

I heart friends and summertime :)

Toytown Munich

I'm so excited about this I just had to put it in here... I found a website today called Toytown Munich, it's a site for English speakers living in Munich. There are about 12 thousand native english speakers currently living in Munich. !!!!! 12 THOUSAND!!! I could count the number of native english speakers in Muenster on my hands, and americans on one hand. Anyway, this website is very helpful and exciting. They have all kinds of chat groups and message boards and usefull information about living and working in Munich. AND they have all kinds of planned social events like meeting at bars weekly, a knitting club, an indian resturant club, a frisbee club, an american fantasy football league. It's amazing! Of course I don't want to spend all of my time in Munich with Americans, that would sort of defeat the purpose, but still, it's so nice to know that they are there, and that they are organized! And I can meet people and ask questions and find help when i need it. Remarkable. Americans are so good at being organized and making things convenient. I am so incredibly lucky to have been placed in Munich... I still can't believe it.

My give-a-damn's busted

I just got back from the Ribfest in St. Paul. It was a jolly good time. We went to see the free Jo Dee Messina concert. I didn't really know who she was, but Chelsea and Alexis are big fans. I don't exactly keep up on who's who in country music these days. It's not that I dislike all country, it's just that those few horribly sappy patriotic songs are enough to keep me from ever tuning in to a country radio station. But I've liked Garth Brooks, the Dixi Chicks, and Toby Keith, so perhaps I should be more receptive to the country music scene. Jo Dee Massina was really fun in concert, I liked her songs. Country music is great because even if you've never heard a song you can still sing along.
I didn't actually get any ribs at the ribfest. I wasn't that hungry and they are rediculously expensive, so Alexis and I just split a blooming onion, and it was oh so fried and tasty.
While I was there I was thinking about how American that whole thing was, ribs, country music, etc. and I was thinking of how I could describe it to German students. But thinking about it I realize that actually it's really very German. I whole Fest surrounding pork products, beer, and cheesy music. that's like every weekend in Germany. Our cultures really aren't all that different in the end....

Yesturday I purchased this travelpack and this book. Have I mentioned how excited I am to go back to Europe?

double bogie

I went golfing today. I think it's the second time I've been, I'm not quite sure. We went to the driving range in high school gym class, if that counts. Anyway, my grandparents are here and Grandpa is crazy about golfing, so I agreed to go with him and Mom, because... what else am I doing? My first shot I hit the ball like two feel away from that swan you see in the background. When I went to get the ball he was giving me the evil eye and i got a little nervous. So I picked it up quick and moved it away before taking a swing. Overall I don't think I did to bad. Grandpa has a rule that he won't write down more than 8 for anyone's score, so I got a lot of 8's. But I didn't lose my ball once, and I even got a double bogie on one hole! Although I don't really see all the fuss about getting so few strokes... it just means you get fewer turns to hit the ball. Why pay all that money to hit it three times when you could hit it ten times?

More about my upcoming year

Well we're over halfway through the summer now. I'm a little sad about this, summer's always go to quickly for me. My thoughts are turning more and more to preparing for my big adventure in the fall and it has occured to me that I haven't posted all that much about what exactly I'll be doing. So, here we go...

I have been awarded a PÄdagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD) Teaching Assistantship Fulbright grant. Most Fulbright grants are for reasearch, but this one is a little different as it involves working as an assistant teachign and is actually run though a German program, PAD, which recruits teaching assistants from the US, the UK, and France to assist with forigne language instruction in German high schools. As a part of the application process I did have to come up with some reasearch project to work on in addition to the student teaching while I'm there, but as I understand it none, or very few, of the Teaching Asistants (TAs) actually follow through on their reseach projects and Fulbright doesn't ever check up on you or require you to produce anything. Interestingly, they don't require reseach grant recipients to produce anything either. I guess they figure if you are motivated enough to apply and recieve a grant then you can do whatever you want.

So I found out that I recieved the grant somtime in March, and then several weeks later I found out that I had been placed in the state of Bavaria. Bavaria is down in southeastern germany on the border with Austria. It was part of the American sector after WW2. Bavarian culture is what most americans would associate with typical German stereotypes, it is the home of Oktoberfest, Lederhosen, Neuschwanstein, and Weisenbier. The people are supposed to be warmer and friendlier than the northern Germans I was perpetually complaining about last year, and they speak in a different dialect which I will probably have great difficulty undersanding, but Hochdeutsch (High German) is what they use in schools, so I should be ok.

So anyway, it wasn't until after I was home for the summer that I found out where exactly I would be. Finally the Bavarian Kulturminister sent me a packet of information and my school assignment. I have been placed at two schools just outside of Munich. This is a really really great assignment. Munich is one of the largest cities in Germany and probably the most popular tourist destination, partially because of Oktoberfest. That means that there is going to be tons and tons of stuff to do and people to meet and places to see. And there is a metro system. It is also great because there is a large university in Munich which means I can take classes while I'm there, and it means that there is a large student culture and lots of people my age. I am pretty lucky. TAs are placed all over Germany, including lots of itty bitty towns in East Germany. This girl kept a blog of her experience is just such a town, it's great reading! Being in a tiny town would have been a good experience in many ways as well, but being in Munich is going to be really exciting and I think it will give me a lot more oportunities while i'm there.

There are, of course, some drawbacks to living in sich a desireable area, maily cost. Rent, food, and just about everything else is considerable more expensive in Munich than it is in other parts of Germany. With my grant I will be recieving about 715 euros a month, that works out to about $900. That will have to pay for my rent, food, everything. The only thing Fulbright pays for is the plane ticket to get there. So, needless to say I'm going to be learning a lot about budgeting! Where am I going to live, you may ask? I'm not entirely sure. As I wrote in my earlier very frustrated Blog, I did finally hear back from the woman in charge of international housing at the university. I did e-mail her the forms and she responded to say I had been put on a list for housing. I don't know if this means that I will deffinitly get student housing or not. If I don't then I will probably just have to go and stay in a hostle until I can find something while I'm there. It's pretty difficult to go apartment hunting from another continent.

And what exactly am I going to be doing over there? Well, I'll start at the begining. I'm leaving Minneapolis on Sept 2. I'm planning to go to Muenster for a few days to visit Frau Henzelt and Silke there. Then I have to be in Cologne at the traim station on Sept 8th at 9am to meet the other future TAs for our orientation. The orientation is a few days long and after that we disperse to our assigned cities and schools. TAs are expected to work no more than 12 hrs a week. Since I'm at two schools it will be about 6hrs at each. I will be in charge of leading small discussion groups withthe students. I will come up with some of my own topics related to American culture to discuss with them and help them with their English vocabulary and pronunciation. And the time I dont' spend in the schools... well, I can do anything I want to. I plan on taking a few classes at the university. I also discovered a masters synchro team in Munich and will hopefully practice with them. Planning lessons will take up a chunk of time as well. I plan to travel as much as my budget and schedule will alow. And hopefully I'll have time to experience all of the culture in Munich, museums, achitecture, nightlife, beer! I'm pretty excited about being there for Oktoberfest. I know that it's become more of a huge tourist attraction than anything, but I'm still looking forward to experiencing it.

So, that's just about everything that I know about the upcoming year. I still have lots of stuff to get together and be prepared for before I leave. I want to be more organized and prepared before I go this time, I was a bit of a mess before leaving for Muenster. So I'm working on collecting the items that I will need, thinking of potential lesson plans and classroom materials, and making personal goals for myself for the next year.

I'm going to Europe! I'm so thrilled to have this oportunity. Life just gets better and better :)

Ciao!

Boy oh boy, what a day. It finally rained last night. Stormed, actually. It was pretty loud and I was having crazy Harry Potter dreams about wizards duling and making thunder (I finished the fifth book last night, so now I can start the new one). Anyway, this morning I got up early to go baby sit and found that I had left my car windows down. lovely. I swear, every time I forget to roll up the windows it like channels the rain gods or something. It never fails. So anyway, the girls were good today, we played with Play-doh, went to the park... nearly burned down the house. yeah..... I put a frozen waffle in the toaster oven for Sarah and then proceeded to turn around and make Molly macaroni. A few minutes later I smelled burning and Sarah started yelling about a fire... I opened the toaster oven and realized I had put the waffle on a plastic plate! genious. I stood there for a minute trying to think what to do, and weather it was ok to put water on it or not. Sarah was freaking out and grabbed Molly and ran outside. Good instincs. eventually I unplugged the toaster oven and poured water on the fire. Thankfully it went out without causing to much damage. Just one pink plate melted all over the inside. Luckily their parents are very nice and easy going and found it very humourous when they got home. Their dad said something about "How many Fulbright scholars does it take to work a toaster oven?" Sigh. Way to go Anne.
So that was my day. That and sitting in traffic in my hot hot car. And now I think I'll be retreating to the worls of wizarding once again...
tootles

Germanness! arg!

Stupid stupid German beuracracy and paperwork and incompetance! So I've been trying to contact the woman in charge of international housing at the University in Munich for over a month now. The teacher I will be working with has contacted her and I have also personally e-mailed her twice as well as asking the Fulbright kommision to e-mail her on my behalf, which they did. I recieved no response.

So today I got an e-mail from her. It says that the teacher she talked to asked for some forms for me to send back to them. I didn't get any forms. She says that they have unfortunately not recieved them from me. (!!!!!) And if I'm still interested in them finding me housing they need the forms by July 20th. That's the day after tomorrow!!!! Why on earth would she not have just sent the forms directly to me a month ago??? She had my e-mail address! and my home address!! why why why??? She at least attached the forms so I just filled it out on the computer and sent it back as an attatchment. I hope that's good enough. I guess I could try to overnight them by mail tomorrow.

arg. Germans. This doesn't bode well for the next year...

I'm melting! I'm melting! Oh what a world!

Seriously, can this heat go on any longer? What state are we in here? because last I checked this was Minnesota, not Virginia. I wouldn't mind it so much if I I had air conditioning in my house, or even my car, but, alas, I have niether. So I'm doomed to slowly melt into a puddle of anne-goo. Sigh. At least we Minnesotans can always find pleasure in complaining about the weather :P

Emily just left yesturday, we had a very fun few days. We went to the MOA and road the new roller coaster. Weeeeee! And I took her to her interview which I guess went well because they called her back the next day to ask her to come in again. Unfortunalty they called just as we were arriving at the lake house and we had to turn around. Oh well. I showed Emily the lovely Lake Minnetonka and dowtown Wayzata. Wednesday night we went to dinner in Uptown and to a trendy new bar then we went Salsa Dancing! I may have dragged her along a bit, because I'll use any excuse to get someone to go dancing with me, but after a few drinks she got into it and had fun.

Today I baby sat for the little girls I've been watching on fridays. They are very sweet and pretty easy to handle. Today I found out, however, that Sarah, 4 1/2, is terrified of dogs. There was one at the park and she refused to even be on the same half of the playground with it without me holding her hand. I'm going to be watching them four days next week. yay for money!

My family is up at the lake already I think, but I'm kind of enjoying our empty house,so I might stick around for a bit.

ta ta and keep cool!

synchro in the lake 

Another lovely weekend at the lake house. Swimming, tanning , boating, fishing, reading... I'm not sure why I bother blogging, it's all about the same. I did go to the rodeo on Thursday with Mom and Tommy. Alexis left with her parents to drive to Reno. Reno stinks. She should be here. But oh well, summer goes on. My great uncle Fran is here this weekend. All he wants to do is fish all the day long. He's pretty funny. He's always fixing stuff up, can't sit still. He fixed all kinds of things at the new house, he even fixed an old ladder he found in the shed, we didn't even know we had a ladder.
I came home by myself this evening with half a cow in the back of the car. I'm not going to explain that, because whatever you may be imagining is probably more exciting than my story.
Anyway, so I watched "Into the West", which is a GREAT miniseries and I think you should all watch it. It's very educational and exciting at the same time. I have it all on TiVo, I'll send you a tape if you like. It's on TNT though, they'll probably replay it sometime.
That's about it for the weekend. Emily is coming tomorrow! My lovely duet partner. She's interviewing for a job at a research company in Minnetonka, keep your fingers crossed. She's from Georgia, but I've assured her that the winters here really aren't all the bad, and really it will just make her appreciate nice weather that much more ;)

Feelin' Independent

Happy 6th of July! I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I just got back from the Music in Plymouth and it was fabulous as always. The Minnesota Orchestra was there, and there was a really cheesy 80s style laser show and of course, Fireworks! woo hoo! It's amazing how many people will flock together to see things explode in the sky, and yet we do. Even though it means battling crowds and sitting in traffic, it's somehow all worth it. Fireworks are just magical somehow.
It has been a fun filled Independence day week for me. Shannon was here! She got in Saturday morning and I brought her directly to the Mall of America despite the fact that she had only had a few hours of sleep. And boy oh boy did we shop! We made it just about around the entire mall. Even I was ready to drop by dinner time. Sunday we slept late and then went up to the lake house along with Chelsea and Alexis. On the way up we did some Strawberry picking at a nearby orchard. It turned out that a good portion of my Dad's family was also at the lake house, so Shannon got the whole extended Family experience. Dad let me take out the pontoon with the girls so we went for a cruise around the lake and stopped at the point to swim. We met some random guys who gave Kelly a ride on their tube. People are very friendly up there. Especially when you have a whole boat full of 20 something girls ;)
Monday was jam packed with patriotic excitement. A bunch of my friends along with some of my parents' friends and thier kids all came to our little lake house. We went swimming and boating and ate lots and lots of wonderfully american food like fresh fish and hamburgers and watermelon. After dark we took the pontoon out again and watched the distant fireworks shows that could be seen around the lake. We also sang every patriotic song we could think of, and a few others just for good measure.
Tuesday just Shannon and I were left at the Lake house. We slept late, read a while and went for a spin on the paddle boat. It was quite relaxing and Shannon was quite pleased to be so far away from accounting! Then we came home and went out for dinner and a movie in Uptown. We ate at the oh so trendy Chino Latino and went to a French film at the Lagoon. Ah, Minnesota. A morning on the lake and a night on the town. Who wouldn' t love it here? I love having people visit so I can show them that MN is not the frozen wastland they may think it is!
Comming up this weekend.....The Hamel Rodeo! get excited people!

I really need to take more pictures to post on here. hmm.

There is a storm moving through the south metro area. As a result, there is nothing on TV other than radar maps and weathermen spouting off tips for stayin safe during storms. blah. Stupid weather people, just like hearing themselves talk. Surely a small warning on the bottom of the screen would be enough, do they need to interrupt a full 40 min of my regularily scheduled program?? Oh well, it's to be expected. Minnesotans are obsessed with the weather. My dad is sitting in front of the TV with he laptop so he can also see the weather online. Crazy.

Chelsea and I went up to the lake house Sunday and stayed through Monday. It was lovely! We went out on the pontoon with my parents and swam at "the point" which is a sand bar kind of and a popular spot for boats to park on weekends. The lake pretty much clears out by sunday night and is empty on week days. Silly people having real jobs. psch. sitting around at the lake during the week is waaaay better than working. Monday Chelsea and I got up and took out the paddle boat that the previous house owner sold to us. It is great. And there is a perfect path for it, there's a channel that goes from Clearwater lake to Otter lake and it is just the right size for a paddle boat, and makes a nice little outing. Lovely! We did some reading and after lunch went swimming in the "Black Pool" which is the best swimmin' hole I ever did see. It's just off the the side of our property, but the nieghbors have a nice beachy area on it that they let us use. The pool is 50 feet deep and spring fed. It's really truly a swimmin' hole! Chelsea and I busted out the floaters and did some serious lounging and chatting in the pool.

I also went through some of the papers that the previous owner left. There is a newspaper article about the island on the lake, called Bungalow Island. There was a hotel on the island back in the 1920's that was popular amoung the very wealthy at the time. Rumor has it that gangsters stayed there and no one is sure why the owner decided to close the place down and burn it to the ground in the early 1930's. Shady buisness if you ask me. It's pretty cool though. I want to go walk around the island, I guess you can still see the foundations and sidewalks.

So today I've been kind of trying to clean my room. Slowly. I didn't get particularily far, but I am doing laundry, so that's something. I got distracted when I started trying to organize and put away all my books. but I've gotta get it done before Shannon comes Saturday so I can set up a futon. Shannon is coming! hoorah! The plan is to pick her up and wisk her off the the MOA (Mall of America) on Saturday, because of course she must see it. And it's just about the only real tourist attraction around here. That and the lakes. And tornados.

We're having a party on the fourth at the lake house! I'm so excited! yay summer time! yay people visiting me! yay fireworks!

What Philosophy do you follow?

You scored as Existentialism. Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life. "Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning." --Jean-Paul Sartre "It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth." --Blaise Pascal More info at Arocoun's" Wikipedia User Page... Existentialism 95% Hedonism 65% Utilitarianism 40% Nihilism 35% Strong Egoism 25% Justice (Fairness) 25% Kantianism 20% Apathy 5% Divine Command 0% What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

Wedding Bells

Hello. I just got home from Melissa's wedding. Whew. My feet hurt. We did so much crazy dancing... it was a blast! The last wedding I went to was Jessica's, which was nice and I love her dearly, but she's Baptist, and they can't have dancing at their wedding. Needless to say, the reception was pretty short. So, it was nice to have a good Catholic wedding with plenty of alcohol and dancing! We Catholics sure can party, that's for sure. The service may be a little longer, but at least there's something to look forward to afterwords.
Chelsea, Alexis and Katy were all bridesmaids. It was a little surreal. Missy is married! yikes. I guess I should feel old or something, but I don't at all.

Tomorrow I'm heading up to the lake house with Chelsea and Alexis! :) We moved in last weekend and it is GREAT. I love it. The house is really nice and we've got a pontoon, and there's a great swimming hole right there. It's fabulous. And I have absolutely nothing to do this week so I might be up there a lot. I finished the synchro coaching, the team is off at nationals in Buffalo this weekend.

Shannon is comming next weekend!!! I'm so excited! people are visiting me! And I get to introduce her to the wonders of the Midwest :)

view from the porch of our lake house 

Salsa!

Not the condiment, the dance. Silly. I just got back from salsa night at the Quest club in Minneapolis, and I LOVE salsa dancing. I'm not really particularily good at it. I mean, I can do the basic steps, but then I start dancing with a guy and he's turning and flipping and stepping and twisting all over and I mostly just try to hang on and go where he pushes me. When the guy is good at it, and nice enough to give you some pointers it can be really thrilling.
It was so fun just to go out and do something different. I've been getting a bit bored at home. Don't get me wrong, I like being home and I like not having lots of stuff to do. It's nice to wake up in the morning and not have to do anything in particular. But after a few weeks of interacting only with my family I get a little stir crazy. I didn't even really go out all that much while I was at school, but I was at least always interacting with people, meeting people, and doing and learning new things. Just walking around to classes and going to the library was a social event.
I miss meeting people. I like that there are often a lot of people from all over the world at salsa clubs. Usually a lot of Latin Americans. Tonight I met a really nice Russian guy who lives in Toronto and was here on buisness for the week. We talked for a bit and he showed me some dance steps. He was such a sweet interesting person. Oddly it seems like it's harder to meet people where you live than it is when you're traveling. Traveling around Europe it's so easy to meet people, in trians and at hostels and in school, especially other international people. And you all have something in common already. But here there's not really any reason to just introduce yourself to people. I don't know. It's just different. I'm excited to go live in Munich next year and meet lots of new people, and see some people I met last time I was there!
Oh! I found a synchro team in Munich! A masters team, so I could swim with them. Wouldn't that be a great way to meet people? I think I'll e-mail them, I just have to do it in German so I might take a bit. I'm still nervous about e-mailing in German. If you mess up while speaking you just keep going, but when it's all typed out I feel like it should be perfect. Anyway, I'll do that.

Synchro! it's everywhere, I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. I'm helping coach a club team nearby this week and next before they head to national. Oiy, it's a lot of work, coaching is. It's kinda hard to come in at the end of the season and try to help when you don't know the rutines or anything. It's especially difficult when you're working with 6-8th graders who just got out of school a week ago and definitely don't want to be cooped up in an indoor pool all afternoon. Plus they've been doing this rutine since October... I'd be restless and obnoxious too. So they were a little diffcult to work with, to say the least. I was horse by the end of practice from trying to yell over them. But it's still fun, now there are synchro moves going through my head and I'm sure I'll fall asleep trying to figure out how I can get that line formation they do in the second lap to work better...

This is our pet painted turtle. He is living in a big platic horse trough outside right now. My dad caught him in a lake up at the farm because Scott wanted a pet turtle. Guess how many times Scott has even gone out to look at his turtle? That's right, never. So I've been feeding him pieces of chicken and lettuce. He seems to be doing allright. He doesn't have a name yet, I just call him Turtle turtle. Any turtle name ideas? 

This is the quilt I'm making for Missy's wedding present, isn't it pretty?

Welcome Back

Hello out there in Blogland. I know I know, it's been a while. What can I say? Life as an American college student just isn't all that thrilling, I ran out of material. Ok, that's not entirely true, I did have lots of new experiences this year. I lived in two different of apartments with two very differnt sets of apartmentmates. I made new friends. I took all kinds of stimilating classes. I did a lot of reading, wrote a lot of papers. I even made the deans list finally. I wrote a thesis! woo hoo! I had my wisdome teeth taken out. I went to collegiate synchro nationals once again, go Spiders! :) I went to California for Thankgiving, Myrtle Beach for spring break, San Antonio and Gainsville FL for synchro, Wachington DC for an interview, Virginia Beach just for fun, and Nags Head NC for beach week. Overall I very much enjoyed being a college senior.

Oh yeah, and I graduated :-D

I gotta say, it's been a few weeks now, and I'm really not missing college. I'm so glad to not have homework to do or meetings to go to. I would like to never ever see the inside of the UR library ever again. And I'm glad I dont' have to listen to anymore graduation related speaches or say good-bye to any more people for a while. And I'm glad I'm not living in an isolated little bubble of a campus in a cramped apartment with a twin size bed. I loved my apartmentmates, and my roomie, and I'm so glad I got to live with them last semester... but I really really like my house and my nice big pink room with a nice big bed. And maybe I'm the only one, but I like living with my family. I guess it helps that i know it's only for the summer, and I'm definitely leaving after that.

It's just so nice to be home for the summer like I always have been. It was such a crazy busy emotional year, and I'm glad to have this down time before I have to really start anything big. I really missed it last summer. I've been reading, I'm making a quilt, I'm taking yoga classes. I'm nannying part time. I'm going to do a little synchro coaching. I do the grocery shopping and occasionally some cooking. In a couple weeks my family is going to be getting a second house on Clearwater lake, about fourty miles northwest of here. And then I'll be helping to move in and paint and decorate and stuff.

mmmmmmmmm. Summer time :)

And what comes next? Germany! A year in Munich teaching high school english. I'm really looking forward to it, it's going to be quite an adventure! I promise to write about all of it. Sorry this post is kind of dull... I just felt the need to sumarize for anyone who may not talk to me on a regular basis. So here it is. My lovely and thrilling life to date :)

Hopefully future blogging will be more to the point... or at least have a point.

until then,

Don't worry, be happy :)

I graduated!!!

Letter to Myself

I just got back from Proclamation night, a tradition here at UR for freshmen and senior women. The freshmen wear white dresses and senior their black graduation robes. We take class pictures, hear a couple speaches and the freshment girls sign the honor code. Freshmen also get to write a letter to themselves and seniors get back the letters they wrote freshmen year. The following is the letter I got back tonight:


Dear Self 2004,
Where do I begin? I feel so overwhelmed. It's only been two weeks but it feels as though high school was a million years ago. I miss it so much. I miss Alexis and Chelsea. I miss my teachers, classes and the feeling of accomplishment I had my senior year. I hope that I will have the same feeling my senior year at UR. I hope that I will have friends that I can't imagine life without, but I also hope that my high school friendships will still be a part of my life. I hope that I have professors that I love and activities that I have become involved in and taken leadership positions in.
Already my first two weeks here I am begining to imagin the next four years. I think that Jackie and I will grow closer as friends. I hope that I am also still close with the "B-Basement-Babes". I've had fun at a couple apartment parties, but I realize taht "girls night" in the dorm or going to a movie with a few friends is often mor memorable than parties. I've enjoyed talking to Grant since I've been here. I'm sure that if nothing else [ :) ] we will still be friends in three years.
I'm begining to not feel so lonely, but I still miss the people who know me inside and out.
My classes have been ok so far, but I think they will become more stimulating as the years go on.

A few memories I've made:
-Talking with Jackie on the Westhampton lawn
-Talking with Grant on the Bridge
-Going to Legally Blond and Wallmart with Grant and Jackie
-Kereoke, sining American Pie with Jackie and Kelly
- IMing accross the desk with Margret

Goals:
-Make the dean's list
-take a leadership posistion
-Be in a play
-Kiss a boy!!!
-Start something/ organize something
-Be dedicated in Synchro and go to Nationals
-Spend a Semester in Germany
-Keep in touch with high school friends and teachers
-Have an LLC reunion
-Stay close to my parents

Predictions:
-Bob will be going to school in California
-Scott will be nearly as tall as I am
-Aaron and Chelsea will be engaged
-Jessica will be married

I see ahead of me a blank canvas and it scared me and excites me. I only hope that I can look back and smile at funny memories and feel that sense of accomplishment. Enjoy your senior year!

Best of Luck. I love you no matter what you have and haven't done!

Anne, 2001

I wrote a blog post Monday night but Blogger decided it wasn't good enough and erased it all instead. Oh well, it probably wasn't very entertaining, you'll just have to ask me if you want to hear about last weekend... I'm pretty sure there are some parts that I don't really want to be remembered forever in cyberspace history anyway.

Let me tell you how much I detest application essays. they are such a load of BS and everyone who's ever written one knows it. So why do organizations continue to require them? I'm currently struggling to write an application essay for the fullbright teaching assistant program in Germany. I really just want to live in Europe again for a year before deciding on any more serious plans for my life. Is that such a bad thing? Why do I have to come up with sappy crap about cultural understanding for this essay? Of course I would be excited abut getting to teach high school english. I love english! I would also be more than happy to keep taking universtiy courses at a Cerman school and researching in my spare time. I'm a dork, I love researching stuff... especailly when I'm not required to actually have anything to show for it at the end. and and and... I just want to go to Germany! is that enough? can I just write that? No... of course not, I need and eleoquently worded essays that will bring tears to the eyes of the fulbright commity and convince them that sending me to Germany for a year will without a doubt to to world peace. Gag me.

oh well. here goes.

Today I went grocery shopping because... it was a crappy day and looking at food makes me happy... and they had my favorite cereal on sale! yay! It's Kashi Go Lean! cereal and I'm convinced that it was my key to weight loss success last year and will therefore be key in my re-weightloss success this fall. right. so we'll see how that goes.

So about the crappyness... what's left of Francis is currently chilling out over UR. actually it feels more like it's sweating it out over UR. It's HOT and HUMID and it keeps raining and raining and I feel like everything is damp and it's gross.

And that's why God made air conditioning. Thanks God for making my apartment cool and comfortable!

My day perked up after the grocery shopping. and a long nap on the couch.
I went to a little coffe thing for people returning from abroad that was fun. It was kind nice to be in a group with a bunch of other people just getting back and to talk about culture shock and hear stories and stuff. There are things that are frustrating about coming back. And it's hard when talking about it makes you sound stuck up about it, like , oh, I was ABROAD, you weren't... you wouldn't get it... It was neat to hear some stories too, there were people all over, tialand, Korea, Africa, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, Austrailia, Italy... so there were lots of different experiences. I want to meet more of the international students here. Especially now that I've been one and I know how excited I was every time a German student even aknowledged my exsistance. But it's not like they walk around wearing big signs... so I guess I should go out of my way to find them and meet people. I can do that.

I also went to the weekly APO meeting. I volunteered our apartment to be part of a progressive dinner for Rushees next week. I asked my apartment mates and they said, OK, as long as we have the dessert part and we get to eat too :) I love my apartment!!!!

Hmm, ingenious title on that last blog, huh? right. Lets see, the rest of my weekend was... uneventful. Yestuday was way too full of stuff. I started working again as a tutor for student athletes. Yesturday I helped a soccer player write an outline for her first Core paper.... oh the memories. Today I had my fun classes and we did a critique of our first Photoshop project. The prof was really harsh! I gotta say, i wasn't expecting this to be a serious art class, but he was really grilling a few people on how what they did was personal expression and so on, it was a little nerve wracking. he didn't have to much to say about mine, but I was at the end. I hope he isn't a harsh grader!

I went to open swim today and I'm wiped out, I have a lot of work to do on my synchro skills... a year away from it really makes a difference even though I was working out, it's a whole different set of skills you need for synchro. But I'm excited. I like having a physical challenge. It's good for releasing stress and having something to focus on other than school. When I get in the pool I tend to lose track of time and I could swim laps or work on synchro figures until my muscles gave out. Except that open swim is only an hour long... probably for the best.

ok, that's all. Nothing exciting, I'm just putting off going to work on my german paper again. yes, I'm still not done, shhh. I like using the language lab because it has german settings for the keyboard and spell check, but it flooded last week and it's still a little musty smelling. ick.

What's left of Francis should be getting here soon which means more rain. fun fun. You all probably have seen satalite pictures of the storm and seen footage of the winds and all the damage. It's absolutely unbelievable. Apparently there's another headed toward the carribean.

I'm moving back to the midwest, nestled safely in the middle of the continent....

Stuff I'm thinking right now

It's 12:30am or so, I just got back to my room and my roomate is already asleep. I'm about to go to sleep myself so that I can wake up and head back to the library to waste another day of my life staring at my german paper.... arg. I actually got some done today at least, I just need to finish it. I have too much other stuff I should be working on. I don't even really mind that I'm going to bed before 1am on a saturday or that I'll be working tomorrow. What else would I be doing? I guess I'm old, or have just come to peace with my inner dorkyness, but I don't care. I don't want to go to loud crowded apartment parties and drink gross beer or dance with cheesey frat boys. gross. I'm so over it, the whole thing. I like living in an apartment. I like being an adult. I eat broccoli and spinach even though no one tells me to! I haven't even turned 21 yet and I already don't think drinking is exciting anymore. Maybe being going to bars or clubs would be a little more fun. I enjoyed bars in Germany. Going "out" is just so silly on campus. there's always somehow pressure when you're out to do something cool... something you can tell people about the next day. How was your night, did you go out? What apartments did you go to? Was so and so. there? Was it a good party? blah. sick of it.

Eric came up last night. I made Fajitas and we saw the Borne Supremacy, and lots of it takes place in Berlin. I think Eric got a little sick of me wispering, "We were there!" during the movie :-P Anyway, it was a really nice night, I miss having him around. And he gave me pretty earings :)

I talked to one of my german professors about my senior thesis paper. I don't have to write it until next semester, but since the topic will probably require reading a few novels I want to get started. I'm writing about a literary theory proposed by Delueze and Guittari in thier book, "Kafka, toward a minor literature". I'm writing about how they drew it from Kafka's experience as a Jew in Prague writing in german and then I'm going to see what happens when i apply it to Native american writers in the US. It's kinda heavy on the theory, and my German prof wants me to do more with german literature, like write about other minority writers in Germany or something, but I don't want to. I'm interested in the theory and working it out with Native writers. I like literary theory. Because I am cool.

Anyway, I need to get started on that soon... as soon as I finish the paper for germany. And then write my Fulbright application essays. I'm applying for a Fulbright teaching grant by the way. It's for a position as an assistant high school english teacher in germany. It's not as competetive as a research grant, there are 80 spots and last year 160 people applied. So, I need to write a compelling essay and hopefully I'll get it. I would love love to go back to Europe for a year. i would also love to have the oportunity to teach high school for a year before I decide if I want to get a teaching lisence and masters degree in education back here in the states.

See, so many things to think about, how can people be out getting drunk? So that they don't have to think about it I suppose...

My answer to that is... go to bed! I find sleep to be more effective than drinking.

goodnight!

I am woman hear me ROAR

I'm feeling a little fiesty today. Like I just really want to yell at everone about everything. Not sure why. Today in my psych class we were talking about a text we read about the narrative self and there was a part that addressed women and minorities and how some psychologists feel that we don't know how to asses their narritives because they have been largely ignored by western psychology. And this guy in my class was like, when was this written? isn't this kind of outdated? and I really wanted to jump up and yell at him. No it's NOT outdated!!! So maybe psychologists and intelectuals in lots of other fields have begun to pay more attention to women and minorities in the last twenty years or so, but we're talking about twenty years out of the last couple thousand years here. All of the narrative theories we read about were based on western models and created by men. It kills me when people think that racisim and sexism don't exist anymore and that anyone who says it does is just being whiny or something. As though we live in a perfect world. right. You chovenist PIG!!! ok, so I didn't say that last part, and was generally passive about it, and I don't think that he's a pig, just misguided. And I'm not usually a big defender of womens rights or anything, I feel like I'm lucky to be living now and not 50 years ago and I think that at some point it does become just whining, but I also wouldn't sit and let someone say that we live in a society of perfect eaquality. That class is so boring, no one argues anything! I know they are psych majors and used to being lectured to or something, but come on people, think a little, question, argue! So yeah. I'm not usually quite that ardent about things, but if you get me going....

I just got back from the library where I picked out a monolog to read in my acting class tomorrow and I'm kind of pumped because I found one from the play I saw in London, Oleana, the one I saw with Julia Styles. In the monologues she's completely bashing the professor for being an elitest, for conforming to the sexist and classist norms of society. I went through lots of other ones before I stumbled on this one and all of them I was like, oh, I can't do that, you have to cry, or you have to yell, or you have to be sad, or happy, or angry. Because I'm not really the acting type... so I was trying to avoid over the top emotions that I don't even often show in real life. BUT I'm doing this one even though it involves passionate yelling and anger and stuff because, a) I really like it, and b) I want to be able to yell at people like that. I want to be able to raise my voice and speak up strongly and passionately for what I believe to be right or wrong. I'm generally laid back and open minded, and I think those are good qualities, but sometimes I'm just wishy washy, and that is not a good quality at all. So my goal for acting class is to learn how to yell at people. :-P

My pictures are online! Not organized or anything, but there they are if you feel like sorting through.

Off to class, Ciao!

Hi. I'm trying to start writing my first assignement for my "writing creative nonfiction" class, but I'm feeling a bit too distracted so I though I'd write here first. My classes are all really interesting. The writing one should be fun, I haven't been in a creative writing class since high school, but on our first day of class we did the same excersize from the same book by Anne Lammont that we did on my first day of creative writing in high school with Mr. Mahn. I miss that man. I'm in a basics of acting class too, which also reminds me of course of Mr. Mahn since he was the director of the most of the musicals I worked on lighting for. Acting will be fun, I figured it can't hurt me to force myself to get up and talk in front of people more often...

My other "senior slacker" class is digital artmaking. We get to use the coolest brand new computer lab with fancy new Mac computers and a "Smart board" which the prof can project his computer onto and then actually use the board as a giant touch screen to move the mouse and operate the computer. It's so cool! It should be usefull to learn more about photoshop and some other programs, plus digital artmaking is a fairly controversial new genre of the art world that I'd like to learn a bit more about. That and Dad's been trying to get me to take a computer science class forever, and this is as close as I would get :-P it's interesting though, there are a lot of scientist and mathmetitions turned digital artist, even my dad has gotten into it wether he thought of it that way or not (see link to snow sculptures to the left)

This weekend hasn't been too thrilling. Eric was going to come on friday but couldn't because his car is in the shop :-( so I was kinda bummed. I watched movies with my apartmentmates. Elisabeth has been on duty just about every night since we've gotten here. So I get to hear about all the apartment parties... somehow I don't feel like I'm missing out. Last night Jackie and I watched a german movie. Thank goodness for friends who take german so that I don't forget it completely! I still have to finish my paper! ahh!

Still working on what to write in here... I don't exactly have all the time in the world these days. It's taking a bit of adjusting to get used to the packed schedule I always have here, but shurely I can still think creative thoughts and come up with things to write. I don't know, I just like writing this and don't particularily care how good it is. There could very well be novel material in here someday, so I'm just going ot keep writing whatever comes to the top of my head, drivel though it may be.

Gruess aus Richmond

Well hello there, long time no see! yes I am alive and well in Richmond, VA. I manage to survive the twenty some hour car trip from MN, but let me tell you about culture shock... come back from a semester traveling by train around Europe and then drive your car halfway accross the US. Gargantuan rest stops... fast food... toll roads... truckers... oiy. I did stop in Chicago and had a lovely evening with Karen eating Chicago style stuffed pizza and walking down to sit my lake Michigan. Chicago is cool, I could live there. Then I drove though Indiana, Ohio, Pensilvania through big mountains- the first rest stop in Pennsylvania had a Sheetz! then I drove down and down and when I saw the first sign for a Waffle house I bounced around in my car a bit and said, yay! I'm in the south! I probably sang a little song about it too... I'd been alone for quite a while at that point. Then I got onto UR campus and there were all these little people walking around talking and yelling and wearing trashy tube tops and I was like, what on earth is going on? Oh yeah.... college...saturday night...freshmen. Whoa. Side note: in one of my classes a boy was wearing yellow shorts with little blue fish on them and a blue polo shirt... oh my good Lord... I go to school here? Anyway. So thankfully my roomate was home to let me in and I drifted peacefully off to sleep as soon as I could get my sheets on the bed. After a mad all day shopping spree at Wallmart and Target I have managed to aquire the essentials for my appartment and am somewhat settled in. I LOVE living in an apartment!

Right now I'm going to go for a run, but I will write more later, about... something. I'm not sure what the future of the blog holds, I haven't decided. Now that it isn't so much going to be a log of my travels I don't know what to write and it would be silly to write poinless drivel about my day every day. So we'll see. I'll try to come up with more witty oberservations or or stimulating academic discourse, or.... something.
Pictures are coming! really and truly.

Life in the fast lane

Ahh! My e-mail account is filling up with school related stuff. A meeting for my tutor job, a meeting for study abroad, a meeting for synchro... Do I have to go back? Of, course, yes, I do, and I want to. there's certainly no need to sit around here, it's too easy to slip into my bad unproductive habits at home... and I don't ever want to repeat last winter! Never again. So... it's time to get moving, get packing, get driving, and get back to the fast track- the american way. Time to finish some papers and write some new ones, to show the world, or at least the academic world what I can do. To get back in shape, stop eating crap, and take off this recently aquired vacation weight. and to get swimming! yay synchro! Time to help plan a lovely prom for the senior citizens of the Richmond area. To catch up with old friends, and my boyfriend! It's going to be a good year.

I learned a lot this semester. There were some bad days, I didn't always feel particularily confident, I didn't always want to get up and go out and face a different world of mean germans and strange surroundings, but I managed. I did it, I made friends, I took classes, I traveled, I had fun. There are some things I wish I had done differntly or changed my attitude about, but after living there, in a place I didn't know, living at UR should be a breeze. I'm a pro at Richmond college life! I know exacly what I'm doing and the best way to do it. I should be able to accomplish anything I want there. I know how to manage my time and prioritize. I can handle being busy as long as I feel in control. I am in control of my life! I CAN DO IT!

My brother Bob left for school this morning at University of Southern California. About as far away from me as he could possilbly get! He's going to love it though I'm sure, freshman year was so exciting and a little scary. But he's definitely got the whole typical freshman know it all attitude. Hopefully proffs and upperclassmen will knock that out of him pretty quick. I never had confidence like that, but I'm glad that he does. I still have to write motivational speaches to myself in my journal :-P

hello and goodbye

Here I am! American, land of the free, home of the brave. Suburbs, big cars, gigantic grocerie stores. There are so many weird things... I drove my car all over running errands today, it's all so spread out and it felt so strange to be alone in my little car running around. So...quite and solitary. No wonder americans are so polite and friendly to strangers, we're all just craving human contact! When you are crammed on a train with a hundred other germans everyday there's no need to chat, you're always surrounded by people. Even on a bike, it's not so closed off. I just couldn't get over being alone in my car driving accross town, it seemed like a waste, like I should try to pick up a few other people going my way. And yet, it was so convinient! As is everything here. I could go buy groceries RIGHT NOW if I wanted to. It's open! But yeah. America.

I just had a nice little gathering with my friends. Everyone that still lives in the area at least. It was nice. Alexis is leaving for Venezuela in the morning! :-( I got to see her for like... a couple hours. boo. But I know that she is going to have such a great experience there, I'm a little jelouse I want to do it all again, to be just setting off instead of just getting back.

But it's nice to be back of course. Yesturday my family went up to my grandparents farm. Did a little fishing, a little BBQing, saw my little cousins and aunts and uncles. It was nice. My family is great.

My grandpa asked me what I was going to do after I finish college this year, "so, are you going to be a nurse or a teacher? You'd make a good nurse I think." Great. Well, it's good that I have so many options to ocupy my time until I can snag myself a husband to take care of me....

I want to go back to Europe! I really do. I've already been looking at things I could do next year, there's a fullbright grant to help teach english in germany.

Oh! Spain!! Malaga was wonderful, it was just about as perfect as I could have imagined. i sat on the beach, saw a bit of the town and met some nice at the hostel I was at. There are so many cool people just traveling around Europe. One semester is certainly not long enough.

Ok, I need to sleep, I'm still a bit off. that and I wake up at like 6 in the morning having strange dreams where I think that I need to get up and go somewhere, like to another country, like I haven't gotten home yet. And then I realize that I am in fact here and have a few days before a leave again. And just having to go to richmond feels like a relief because it's not accross any oceans.

Aufwiedersehen Münster!

One last german lesson, "Aufwiedersehen" is actually made up of three words, "Auf -wieder-Sehen" which is something like, "on again seeing", so basically its until we meet again, and not just goodbye.

So, last day in Münster... I can't believe it's over. one minute I'm so glad and the next I'm so sad. I just finally feel like my German is getting better... and I finally know my way around the city and the university and the train system and everything else and now I'm leaving! I can't be done, I haven't learned enough yet, I need more! I'm going to miss speaking german with people, it was nice just chatting in the kitchen in german. And meeting people just around and speaking german and hearing it everywhere. Or even breking into a bit of german when talking to Elena. No one will understand me now when I say a german word because I can't think of the right one in English, and that seems to be happening more and more often. But my german isn't good enough yet and now I'm afraid it will never get any better. sigh. I guess you never know, I could use it again. I'll only say Aufwiedersehen to Germany, I may see her again yet.

Fortunately I can't let my german go quite yet when I get to the US because I still have half a german paper about Kafka to write. Weee. That will be fun to do once I'm at UR and taking other classes as well. Oh well, it won't take too much longer.

This weekend I went with Elena to Dusseldorf, we had fun doing some shopping and walking around the city. Saturday I dropped her off at the airport :-( now I'm all alone! But it's ok, Frau Henzel is picking me up to take me to the Bahnhof in the morning and then I'm off to Spain! And I'm thouroughly set and determined to have a wonderful few days by myself seeing a new city and enjoying the beach. and not having anything to worry about! I need to destress before I can handle going back to Richmond!

So. My room is just about all packed up, my whole life from the last 5 months packed up into two very heavy suitcases. I think I just have time for a nice run and to try to turn whatever food is left in my cubbord into dinner. Then I have a few hours to sleep before I get up super early and begin my travels once again. My next post will probably be from MN... or possibly VA, at any rate, it will be from the good old USofA.

Worries of an Exchange Student

hello lovely people. How are you? I'm doing ok, plugging along. This week is kinda tough. I don't do very well when faced with so much change in such a short time period. I've gotten some outlining/writting done on my paper, but I'm just so not in the mood! everyday I have to say goodbye to someone else. I didn't know there were so many people I'd come to care about, but yesturday was really kinda sad. Elena and I went over to Frau Hensels one last time and ate dinner in her garden while we watched the night flowers open. It was nice, she's so sweet! I don't want to say goodbye! at least I know I'll keep in touch and hopefully she'll make it over to the US sometime again soon. Then I said goodbye to Ko who lives on my floor. He's from Japan but gre up until age 10 in Texas. And he's just about the nicest boy I've ever met. He gave me is web site address, it's great and in three languages! You can see some nice pictures of Münster in his "life in Germany" section. Someday I too will have such an organized site with pictures on it... someday.

I'm really feeling kind of stressed and nervouse about going back... I can't explain why exactly. Part of it is just that I have so little time at home and have to rush off to Richmond. But it's also just being back... did things change? did I change? Did other people change? What is senior year going to be like? can I do everything I need to this year? How am I going to feel about UR? about the US? about what I want to do with my life? It doesn't make sense I know, I'm going to be the same person three weeks from now that I am today, and yet somehow I'm afraid I won't be. I'm going to be in such a completely different environment with whole new things to do and think about.

But right now I just need to get through all the rest that I need to think about here. It doesn't help that I can't really completely finish things here, I have to e-mail my paper to my professor from the US, a couple profs have to send me my credits through the mail so I won't get them until september or something. But at least I can mostly finish writing the paper and of course I have to finish packing, there's no way of getting around that. sigh.

Focus Anne! Focus!

I want to go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ouch!

I got stung by a bee today! While out jogging with Elena today one got me right on my side on my rib cage. it hurts! boo hoo! Its somewhat ironic, just yesturday a friend here was telling me that he was out the other day with friends and two of them got stung within a matter of hours and that he had read a newspaper article that there is a huge overpopulation of bees in Münster this year and as a result they are extra aggressive. But I was like, Nah... there aren't so many, they haven't bothered me! So I guess I got what was comming to me for doubting the ferocity of those little guys. there are really a lot, probably ten or so come in and out of my room each day, I just have been ignoring them or gently shooing them out the window. Anyway, I think I'll survive, it didn't even leave the stinger in there and it doesn't seem too swollen yet, it just hurts! And I didn't have any ice so I had to sit around with a frozen piece of fish on my side for a while. hopefully I don't smell too bad....

Other than bee stings things in Münster are generally comming to a close. I hate all this saying goodbye to people, especially the people that I won't ever see again and won't keep in touch with. Its just so awkward to be like... well, have a safe trip home... and yeah, have a nice life. Some people I will keep in touch with I hope. Elena of course since she'll be at William and Mary and we already have plans to go to VA beach together. And other people I will e-mail with and hopefully encounter in furtur travels, its always good to know people all over the world! Tonight is our last floor party, most people leave this weekend so it will be pretty quiet and empty next week. But thats good for writing papers, plus, more refridgerator space for me! Later today Elena and I are going on a bike ride and over to dinner with Herr Kushneros, the head of the German Americn society. He's a somewhat creepy old man... but I think we'll get through it. Tomorrow I MUST begin the actual writing phase of my paper. The researching and thinking through prosses cannot go on any longer, its time to get it over with so that I have time to pack and go to Dusseldorf to next weekend with Elena before she flys out of the airport there. Its all so short and yet so long. Aah!

Ok... outlining time. ciao.

Watch out for bees!!!!!