Retrospect

It has been exactly one month since I got back from my six month adventure in Germany. Being home has not only granted me the ability to use my cell phone for unlimited text messaging and to drive to Walmart at whatever ungodly hour I choose, but it has allowed me to look back on my experience in Germany with fresh perspective and to take in the semester as a whole. While I am really enjoying being back and looking forward to what the future holds, I find myself thinking about Germany at least a handful of times each day.

Since I have been back, the question I have been asked the most was, "Was it worth it?" At first I would give the generic response of, "of course! Germany was great and wonderful," but lately I have been considering the question a lot more in depth. While my time in Germany was fantastic, there definitely were some flaws and a handful of low points. There was the difficult language improvement barrier, where I severely questioned my capability of ever becoming fluent in German. There was also the creepy roommate situation, the long bus rides, the confusing train system, and the extremely expensive nature of Germany to contend with. I returned from Germany with a bank account balance of $30 and gave up the opportunity to graduate a semester early. With all this in mind, I have come to a conclusion on my thoughts on the value of my German experience: I wouldn't trade those six months in Regensburg for anything. Here's why:

Being a KIIS study abroad student was more than just spending six months as an outsider in a country where I didn't belong; it was more than just drinking beer, wearing a dirndl, and speaking German. Being a KIIS student forced me to take myself outside of who I am and what I am comfortable with, and to see a country and a people in a new way. When I look back on that crazy semester I spent in Regensburg, I will probably eventually forget the classes I took, the assignments I completed, and the name of every single city I visited. What I won't lose is the self-reliance I learned, the memories I made for myself, and the new perspective I developed by making myself comfortable in a new place that I can now think of as home. In my memory bank I will always have a wealth of experiences to think back upon. From spending hours with Liz and Morgan cooking our own meals without any trace of food preparation talent, to having the most fantastic Independence Day celebration Germany has ever seen, to having my host mom painstakingly try to explain to me the consequences of eating asparagus, there will never be any shortage of joyful German memories to sustain me in the future.

I am now back at Transy and preparing for my senior year, but the effect of spending a semester in Germany has not been lost on me. Being away from a place I love since December has reminded me of how lucky I am to be here and how fortunate I am to have so many opportunities ahead of me. My enthusiasm for foreign travel has only been refueled by the six months in Germany and I am now applying for both a Fulbright ETA position in South Korea as well as the JET program in Japan for 2012-2013. I know that KIIS and my study abroad experience have opened a number of new doors for me, and with the new knowledge I have gained from this experience, I know I will be prepared to take advantage of all of them.

Der letzten Woche?

Busy busy busy! And after months of having practically nothing to do, it feels so good to have things that need to be done. Tomorrow I have my final for the Sprachkurs and Monday a paper due for my Landeskunde course. After that, I just have to go to class two more times next week and then I will be finished! I haven't started to pack yet, but hopefully I will get some time to do that over the weekend so that next week isn't too stressful. I am really looking forward to an exciting weekend and getting to do all of my favorite Germany things one more time. There is also a handful of complicated tasks that we all have to complete in order to un-matriculate from the university here... it is really confusing! However, I know it will all come together one way or another. The next week, in any case, is going to be filled with lots to do and I am excited for it all.

Last night I was invited last-minute over to my host family's house for a nice dinner. They had some family friends over who were really nice! We ate and then sat outside and talked for several hours. Normally my family drives me home after our time together, but I guess they had a lot going on last night because around 11 they told me the last bus was coming soon and I needed to watch out to catch it. They also offered to let me spend the night over, but I really needed to get home and get some work done. I got on the 11 bus into town (they live a little ways out of Regensburg), and then got of at the Oberer Katholische Friedhof stop to catch the 10 the remaining two miles home. The only problem was that I had just missed the last one by two minutes, and therefore had to walk home. As soon as I realized I had missed it, it started pouring and began to lightening. Not wanted to get any more soaked than I was, I sprinted the rest of the way home and had to jump straight in the shower when I finally made it because I was drenched in sweat. It stormed and rained all night and has done so all day as well. The weather is supposed to be terrible until I leave (50s, 60s and rain) but I have had really good luck with weather here for the most part, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

As I said before, tomorrow I have my test and then my friends and I are planning on going out to eat for dinner. This weekend we want to go to all of our favorite bars and I also am having dinner with my host family, Liz, and her host family on Sunday night. I am also planning on staying at their house Wednesday night before I leave so that I can make sure I have all of my stuff together ahead of time and get a nice night of rest before my three day journey home begins.  

I am going to the beach with my family for a week starting the morning after my flight lands back in Lexington, so that 10 hour drive tacked on to my two day long return home to the US brings me to three. Someone might need to Express Mail me a few sleeping pills... but as my mom and I have figured out this week, Express Mail means nothing on this continent! I have been waiting on her bank card to get to me (a replacement for mine that was lost on the plane where I left my purse) for a week now when it was guaranteed to be here in 3-5 days. So much for that! But with any luck it will be here tomorrow and I won't be as poor anymore.

I am really excited about coming home but have mixed feelings about leaving here. I have had such a good time and it will be weird to leave it all behind, especially since I have been here so long!

love Ashley

New things!

Hi again! Another week in Germany gone... It's crazy that I will only be saying that two more times until it won't be the truth anymore, as I will officially be back in the U.S. on July 29.

Life around here has been pretty quiet compared to what it was like at the beginning of the month, but there is a definite sense of rush in the air. It is as though everyone suddenly realized that the end of the semester is upon us and we will all soon be leaving Germany for an indefinite amount of time. While at home the end of the semester would entail me holing myself up in the library with a 40 pound backpack full of schoolwork, here I am busying myself less with school, and more with cramming in all of the things I neglected to do all semester into the two remaining weeks. There have been lots of city strolls, biergarten evenings, and bier evenings in general. I am starting to realize that even though there is a lot to be missed about home and everything/everyone there, it's going to be really strange to not be living like I have here. I've met a lot of people that I will be dreading leaving behind! I only have a handful of remaining classes and my final test is next Thursday, although I have classes right up until the morning I leave for Berlin.

However, the trip is not over yet and I am so ready for a great two weeks in Regensburg! This weekend I am going to revisit a few of my favorite things in Regensburg, such as the Walhalla temple, and a few things I have yet to see. Next week I have a normal week of class and Monday night I will get to see Harry Potter since the theater is having an English showing! I'd like to think I am responsible for this magic. My friend Liz has her two sisters in town visiting her and it has been great to get to meet them! They are swell gals and we had a fun night of dancin' in town last night. Other than the addition of a couple more transplanted Americans in the area, not much is new in this neck of the woods (or of Europe.) I miss everyone and can't wait to come home soon!

Love Ashley

Here are a couple more pictures from my UK trip!

Standing in front of Arthur's Seat

Standing in front of the von Trapp villa

The theme for this post is adventure

I know for sure I am a terrible blog-keeper. Sorry! However, the last two weeks have just been absolutely nuts. Rudy arrived here on the 25th of June and from the second he got here, it has just been a whirlwind of a 12 days. It all began on Friday night around 12:30am when, giant Bavarian Breze in hand, I greeted Rudy at the Regensburg Hauptbahnhof. He traveled almost 48 hours to get to me by train. What a trooper. We headed straight home on the bus, which was magically running after midnight for some reason, and then hit the hay. The reasoning behind the unusually early bedtime was the fact that we had to wake up five hours later to begin our trek to London. We woke up, caught the bus, took a complicated train route a whole three hours to Memmingen, and then finally landed at London-Stansted airport around 2pm. Now for anyone who has ever flown into London-Stansted or even just one of Ryanair's famously terrible regional facilities, I am sure you can commiserate with me. It was a madhouse. The passport control line was about 43542 people long due to the fact that they thought it would be a good idea to only have 1/12 stations open at the busiest time of the time and this led to complete anarchy. There were kids screaming, people whining, and obnoxious Asian tourists trying to jump the line. I would have taken pictures, but I didn't want to chance being kicked to the back of the line and thus having to spend even more time in one of the most miserable lines that ever queued. After about an hour an a half, we had our passport stamps and were on our way to the actual city of London. But oh wait. As the unexpected delay had put us more than an hour behind schedule, we ended up missing our bus from the airport into the city. As it turns out, EasyBus is not so easy and they refused to help us out. Thus we were forced to spend another 20 pounds on transport into the city. EasyBus, prepare for me to blow up all bus transport reviews websites.

Nonetheless, we made it into London. This was my first time there and as we crawled into town on our 1980s bus that probably shouldn't have made it into this millennium judging by its rank odor and screechy AC that didn't even properly function, I got more and more excited as I saw the popular sights of London that I recognized from Social Studies books (and V for Vendetta.) We finally made it to the Victoria Coach Station and the city was ours. We walked around a bit and then decided to get our priorities right: Food first. More importantly, the most excellent faux-Mexican cuisine ever to hit this planet food: Chipotle. Anyone who knows me knows that if I were stranded in the desert and was only allowed one thing, I would probably request a Chipotle steak burrito with salad, black beans, mild salsa, sour cream, cheese, and guac before any other life necessity, including water or a few episodes of Hoarders. Seeing as London has Europe's only Chipotle, or so I perhaps misguidedly believe, I have gone without these past five months, so needless to say I was practically sprinting to the restaurant (I will always need spell check for that word, by the way.) We got there and ordered a meal so expensive I dare someone to call it fast food. Then I devoured it.

This is the face of happiness

After we ate, we walked around the city. I saw pretty much all of the major sites such as Westminster Abbey,  Big Ben, Parliament, the Eye, Trafalgar Square etc. etc. I love London! I can't wait to go back to actually get to visit all of these things in more than 48 hours!

Silly British driving on the wrong side and things like that

After we had had our daily fix of sightseeing, not to mention practically no remaining shoulder strength due to carrying around heavy backpacks, we decided to head to our hotel. Here is where things get more interesting. We start walking, right. We are walking, walking, walking. We consulted a few maps to figure out where we were going and finally we knew we just needed to walk down one road until we were there. It is also important to note that I am a budget traveler. I pride myself that this whole jaunt across the continent remained under 500 dollars for the both of us and I believe that this frugality is a trait I inherited from both of my parents. That being said, as we kept walking, things just became sketchy. Houses became a little dinkier, the people a little scruffier, and then we saw a street brawl. Literally, there were two men just fighting on the side of the street. We both began to panic as we still couldn't find the hotel and I could just imagine the situation becoming like something out of Taken. However, finally we found the hotel and sought refuge inside its blissfully locked front doors. Needless to say, the hotel was no Ritz. It wasn't even a Hotel 8. However, the front desk guy was nice, the place was clean, and we only needed a good 8 hours of sleep and then we could get the heck out. Also, it was only 100 dollars! A bargain for London.

The next morning we headed out for what would be 14 hours of straight touristing. It was a blast. We were able to ride a double-decker bus, eat fish and chips, see the Queen's house, and visit many Harry Potter related sites (don't laugh, because I am not. It was an integral part of the trip!) However, sorry to say to my sister, Mackenzie, who is Harry Potter's number 1 fan, we were unable to visit King's Cross due to repairs. I was as heartbroken as she will be. We relaxed all evening before we arrived at the Coach station at 10:45pm to begin our journey to Edinburgh that I wish I could forget. We made the trip through MegaBus, a coach service that caught my eye due to cheapness, go figure. It was a ride that was to begin at 11 and get us in Scotland by 8am. That was all it advertised, and after experiencing what MegaBus has to offer, I see why. Never have I had such an uncomfortable 9 hours. I was cramped, burning hot then freezing cold, and surrounded by sneezers. Not to mention, it gets light in Scotland by about 2:30am, therefore it was really hard to try and sleep in the daylight. What a mess. However, we did get in early around 7 and I was able to use the bathroom to get changed and clean up a bit, so I was good to go after that.

We stopped in at the ever-faithful McDonalds for some coffee and then we went to the hotel to ask if they would be willing to hold our bags for us while we were tourists. Then we were free to explore Edinburgh. If anyone ever finds a genie that will only grant them one city in Europe to tour, I would definitely recommend Edinburgh to be included in that decision. It was so beautiful and huge, while still being small and quirky, and there was a lot of old things that weren't just churches, which I appreciate. Also everyone talks just so darn cute. We spent the morning at the Edinburgh Castle, which despite the rain was one of the best tourist attractions I have visited.

After the castle and a bit of lunch, we were free to take our room at the hotel. We stayed at a really lovely hotel and it was so fantastic to finally feel clean. We rested for a bit of the afternoon and then walked around the city in the evening. We ate at Tex Mex II, a restaurant that I had seen nothing but good reviews for online, and it lived up to the hype. We had tacos and margaritas and it was one of the best meals ever.

The next day, we made it a goal to walk the entire Royal Mile. The weather was miraculously non-Scottish at a balmy 75 degrees and sunny. At the end of the mile, we discovered the group of hills that surrounds the ascent known by many as Arthur's Seat. We decided to walk it and it was exactly what I wanted out of Scotland. The view was absolutely fantastic and I felt like it was like something out of Pride and Prejudice, Scotland style. The hills were amazing and green and I couldn't have asked for a more amazing two hours. Rudy has one of those really fancy cameras, so once he has his pictures up I might replace some of my half-rate ones with his so that you can appreciate what we got to see.

After we climbed down, we were very hungry so we got some burgers at a nearby pub. They weren't American, but it definitely was a treat to eat meat that didn't come off a pig for the first time in ages. That evening, we ventured into town and went on a Ghost tour. The tour was one of those hidden little gems of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was extremely quirky and the entire thing was so non-generic and no-nonsense that I would have gladly sat through the whole affair again. Rudy and I both loved it. We took one last daylight view of Edinburgh and then headed back to the hotel to go to sleep, since our flight the next morning would have us up by 4:30am.

We made it Edinburgh-Memmingen around 12 and then tragedy struck. More so, stupidity struck. I left my purse and its contents under my seat on the plane and by the time I realized it the plane, and my purse, were both on their way back to Edinburgh. I have heard no news of its whereabouts all week, but luckily I didn't lose any money or my passport so I think I will just have to accept the loss of all other contents.

Despite the loss, we headed off to Salzburg. Once we got into the city after another long train ride, we were tired and hot due to the unusually warm 85 degree temperature that plagued us the entire train ride. We struggled to find our accommodations, the von Trapp family villa (think Sound of Music), but when we did we were pleasantly surprised. The estate was absolutely beautiful, covered in bunnies, and under the watchful eye of the caretaker who greeted us clad in her unbuttoned dirndl that she had chosen not to wear a shirt under. We went to our tiny, but adorable room, and were very happy to shower and clean up. After that, we headed into Salzburg. It was Rudy's first visit to Salzburg and I was sad that it was nearing dark, because rain was in the forecast for Friday and I really didn't want him to miss out on seeing the city. However, we got to eat a great dinner and walk around the city a bit. The next morning we chatted at breakfast with a few other families who had stayed at the villa and they were very sweet. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain like I have never seen before in Germany. We walked through the English Gardens and I was able to show Rudy a bit of the city, but it was a hopeless case and in the end we just decided to go ahead and get back into Regensburg.

After four hours of Sudoku and napping, we finally made it. It felt really nice to be back in a familiar place with familiar people. We relaxed most of the weekend, but I was able to show Rudy everything I love about Regensburg all week. We visited every major site in the city, including my favorite Biergarten at the Spital Brauerei. On Monday, all of us Americans organized a giant celebration. We weren't about to let the holiday slip by quietly, so naturally we staged a giant party in the middle of the city on the river. We had hot dogs, hamburgers, macaroni, potatoes, milkshakes, cookies, and pretty much anything anyone could ever want minus fireworks. It was a lovely time and probably one of the best July 4ths in memory. This is the fifth year in a row that I have not been at home for Independence Day, but maybe someday soon that will happen again!

Last night my wonderful host family invited both Rudy and I to join them for dinner. Their son has been studying abroad in Texas while I have been here, but he has returned and I was able to meet him last night. It was great that he was there, as Rudy had someone to speak to other than me. We had a delicious German dinner and it was great to see my host family again. Rudy left early this morning and I also had my presentation this morning. It went really well and I am glad to be finished with school practically. I now only have 10 more classes for the entire semester and one more test that I am not too concerned about. I cannot believe that in three weeks I will be on my way home. I feel like time was really slow for awhile, but has now gone into overdrive. I am excited to return home, but I know that there are a lot of things about my life here that I will miss a lot. However, Taco Bell and free refills are calling my name and I am ready for another Transy semester! I hope everyone had a great 4th of July

Love Ashley

Working hard or hardly working?

Another week and it seems all I have gotten accomplished is taking one of my two tests for the semester, preparing a presentation about German holidays single-handedly thanks to a phantom partner, and getting a few last minute details of our trip put together. Actually, now that I think about it that is basically more than I have accomplished my entire trip here!

Tomorrow is my presentation, which I am somewhat stressing about only because the guy who I am supposed to be working on it with still hasn't done a darn thing to help me get it together. Slacker. However, I am sure it will go over fine, partner or no partner, and I will be glad to be through with it. Tuesday I will get the test I took last Thursday back. The rest of the week I plan on relaxing, watching a little house, spending time with my friends, and baking a lot of banana bread! My grandma sent me her perfect recipe so I am hoping to be able to duplicate it rather well. Rudy has been clued in as to what his surprise is and now he knows we are off to LONDON on the 25th. He arrives in Regensburg at 12:15 after a nearly 48 hours of sitting on trains and then we are leaving early the next morning for the airport. I am sure he won't be sick of traveling at all... We are spending two days in London and then going to Edinburgh for a couple as well. Finally, we are flying back and visiting Salzburg (Do Re Me) and Munich. It will be a whirlwind few days, but I am desperately looking forward to the change of pace and getting out of Germany for a little while. I have lots to look forward to, and even though things are a little tiresome and mundane around these parts, I am ready for the new week!

Now if only I could convince my flatmate that her song and guitar rendition of Hotel California is better neither seen nor heard... especially when she's playing it for the 200th time this week alone.

See you all July 29!

Love Ashley

Here's a picture of the view from my window. I thought it was a funny contrast to how it looked when I arrived on March 1.

Nothing new

Really, I don't have anything new or exciting to post. Last week I was at school, enjoyed Regensburg nightlife a few nights, and went to Salzburg all day yesterday. It was a really beautiful city, but I forgot my camera. Luckily Rudy and I will be going back there on our trip in a couple of weeks, so that will be great and I will actually take some pictures!

I have been studying for my test that I have tomorrow and this weekend will be spent preparing for my presentation on Monday. I have class on Monday and Tuesday and then not again until July thanks to my week of for my trip!

Better update when I have better information!

Love Ashley

I don't have Ecoli

Another week (a better one, at that) and I am still here in Regensburg! I am sitting in my room wishing I could be anywhere but here thanks to the ridiculous amount of noise coming from my open window from the construction outside. For about a month now there has been on and off again construction on the sidewalk and bike path in front of my apartment. It has involved everything from jackhammers to rowdy German construction men, and just when I thought it was almost over they tore up the entire sidewalk again! However, once I wrap this up I plan on taking a nice walk to school to get a little bit of work done on a few assignments I need to complete. Hopefully that way I can maintain my sanity a few mornings longer.

Other than not having the ability to sleep past dawn, everything here has been a little bit better than the few weeks before now. I know a lot of my friends here have been feeling the same way that I have about being here such a long time and it has helped knowing that I'm not the only one wondering why it's not always one big party here in Germany. Also, I will be leaving in seven weeks which gives me just enough time to enjoy what's left to see of Germany while still getting me out of here in a timely manner. School ends on the 28th and I will either be flying home from Berlin on the 29th or the 2nd. My mom and I are still in a battle against Lufthansa, so we will see how that plays out. As for the whole school thing, which I seem to always forget is the reason I am over here, everything is easy as can be. Thanks to the Catholics, we have 5 holidays this month which has translated into me only having a handful of class days this month. This week is actually a full week, but after that I am free all of next week and then all but two classes in the week after that. How do I get away with this again? However, despite the free days, I actually have to scrounge together a couple of presentations and an A+ test before I can flee to Scotland and Austria for a few days at the end of the month. I guess I'll finally have to use my computer as something other than a Skype and Facebook device.

This past week went by rather quickly. I had class on Monday and Tuesday and then was off for the German style of Father's Day. Instead of being a Hallmark holiday like it is at home, Father's day here consists of the men getting shamelessly wasted the entire day and going on a long pub crawl. However, I did not take part in the festivities, mostly because I am not a father and partly because I was sick. Wednesday I started feeling a little funny and Thursday I was unable to even wake up at all. My friendly program directors took me to the doctor who prescribed a lot of Ibuprofen (yes you need a prescription for it here) and basically didn't help at all. Anyways, 30 euros later and a few days of sleep and I felt good as new. Lesson learned: The inefficient, frustrating nature of German bureaucracy extends into the Medical realm. That's all I have to say about that. Luckily I felt well enough on Saturday to plan on going to Munich with my friend Liz and her host dad. The only bad news was that he ended up being busy so we were unable to go that day. Instead, he picked us up early Sunday morning in his fancy Audi and we started the trek to Muenchen.

I have ridden in a car for a few short trips around Regensburg, but before Sunday I had yet to experience the German Autobahn. It really was rather exciting. All I could think the entire trip, while Liz's host dad (Carl) was going at speeds of 170 km/hr, was how much I would love to be able to drive that fast in the States. It drives me absolutely crazy to have to only go sixty on my long 30 mile drive from work into Lexington, and this craze may or may not have been what contributed to my speeding ticket I got last summer in Paris, KY (I still blame you, Rudy Aguilar.)  However, it really was frightening to be going so fast and especially to be getting passed by people going over 200. In any case, we were able to make the 100km trip to Munich in less than an hour.

Pretty much what our trip looked like on the road

Once we got to Munich, we searched for a parking place and then headed to the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology. If you remember what I talked about when I was in Berlin, the museums in Germany tend to be 3x more awesome than the museums at home and this museum was no exception to that rule. We only had about three hours, so we didn't even cover half the museum, but we went through an entire history of coal mining in a really cool recreated cave, saw a crazy electricity show, a Planetarium show, and about a million airplanes and ships. It was really awesome!

electricities

In the coal mine!

After we toured the museum, we went to the Olympic Village which still stands from the 1972 Summer Olympics, the same Olympic games where the Munich Massacre occurred. We first went to the top of the Fernseher Turm (Tv tower) to look out over the Olympic stadiums and all of Munich.

At the top of the tower, there was also a Rock Museum (?) on the inside of the viewing rotunda. There was a pair of blue sparkly pants that Britney Spears wore. Very exciting. After we were back on the ground again, we walked around and looked at everything in the area before a thunderstorm chased us back to the car. I slept the entire way back (typical) and then we went to Carl and Eva's to eat dinner. Normally, I adore everything that our host families cook. They are really great at hosting dinners! However, this one took a turn for the worst.

Worst nightmare

This is Suelze and it is a traditional Bavarian dish. It is basically some meat and eggs and vegetables drowned under a coating of gummy bear goo. Liz and I both took one bite, and luckily they were expecting us to pass on it and then brought out some meat made the good, ol' fashioned, less gummy covered way. Much better.

This week I am working on getting all of my work together for school and then considering taking a short trip somewhere around Germany this weekend. It would be nice to get out of Regensburg if only for a day or two. Oh, and as the title shows, everyone here in Regensburg has thus far sworn off the Ecoli mania that has plagued Germany, so no worries!

Love Ashley

Another week

Hello once again from Ratisbon (Regensburg)

Today marks the day where I have exactly two months remaining of my time in Germany. Before I came here, I was convinced that there would never be a point in the trip where I would find myself not really wanting to be here. Whenever students getting ready to go abroad think about what their lives will be like when they are in a foreign place, it's almost impossible to imagine that every second of the experience won't just be the most amazing thing ever. However, this last week definitely proved my pre-Germany mindset wrong. Now that I've been here over three months, a lot of the novelty of European life has worn off and a lot of the disadvantages have started to weigh in. Constantly being at the mercy of public transportation, overpaying for EVERYTHING, language difficulties, and struggling to work with the terribly too-complicated German bureaucracy has started to get to me. Even more than all of this issues, I really miss a lot of my friends, family, and Rudy. It's kind of been frustrating this month to know that all of my other friends have returned home from their wonderful semesters abroad and now get to be at home for the summer. I've been trying to take it on a day by day basis, which has been working. I think it is just a fact of the experience that some days will be better than others.

This past week has not been particularly interesting. I had class Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. My Landeskunde class is easily the worst one, for boringness purposes. I also really have no idea what the professor is saying because she is so Bayerisch. I really like my Sprachkurs because we mostly just converse the entire class, which is both fun and beneficial. In the Sprechen class, we watch a lot of presentations that our classmates give. I will be giving mine in July on the Amanda Knox trial. There are students from a lot of different countries in each of the classes (In Sprechen there are students from Poland, Romania, South Korea, Czech Republic, Finland...) so it's really cool to watch all of the different things people come up with as topics. In June, there are a lot of various Catholic holidays which translates to a lot of days off school for us. We do not have classes this Thursday and also four days the rest of the month. I am also using the week Rudy is here in June as my class-missing occasion for our trip to Scotland so therefore June will not be particularly educational. Dult ends today so I will also not have that to enjoy on my free days and nights.

Tonight Liz and I are meeting once again with our host families for dinner. My family is going to be leaving for the US this week so they will be gone for the month of June. Hopefully I will see them a lot throughout July. Then I am ready for a short week of class (only one class each on Monday and Tuesday) and then a 5-day weekend of who knows what! I am really excited for Rudy to come for a week and to be able to travel.

I don't have anything else to say, so here is a cute cat video someone posted on my Facebook recently:

Love Ashley

Mai Dult, Westbad, and the end of the world

Happy May 21! It's 4:24pm here, and with impending rapture I can only hope to make it another hour and a half before I get sucked up into heaven. But in the off-chance that doesn't happen, I guess I should update you all on my life in Germany as of late.

Spring semester is pretty much the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. Not only am I only in class around 6 hours a week, but my instructors don't want to strain me further by placing the burden of homework on me. It's quite a change from the 7 hours of torture a day from March and April (better known as the Intensive Language Course). I have lots of time to sleep in, take pleasant strolls around the city, and participate in other German-related activities. It's really nice. However, the abundant free time does make life around here a little less interesting and a lot more boring. Sometimes I find myself thinking longingly about what my friends are doing back in the states, but I am still glad to be here and ready to enjoy two more months! To take up some of that boring free time, I have decided to work a little bit on filling it with useful things such as actually working on my thesis paper for next fall and studying for the LSAT. I ordered a Logic Games book the other day and hopefully it will get here soon so I can get to work... again.

I have been lucky enough to get a great host family here in Regensburg. Our program decided it would be nice for us to link up with a Regensburg family who (even though we aren't living with them) could show us around town and spend time with us. It's been really nice to spend time with them. My host parents are Monika and Helmut and they have one son who is studying abroad right now in the U.S. (Texas). They have a cat, too! I first met them at a program dinner and then they invited Liz and I to have dinner with them at Liz's host parent's house. We went there last last Wednesday and had a great shrimp meal! Then this past Monday they took us to the Mai Dult festival. The Mai Dult is a giant festival (think Oktoberfest, only scaled down for a smaller city) that is held here in Regensburg for two weeks and three weekends in May. I first went there two Fridays ago with Morgan and Liz and we wore dirndl, drank beer, and danced all night with some of their rugby friends. It was quite an evening. There are giant beer tents all over, carnival rides, a flea market, and lots of delicious German food options. Unfortunately, the beer runs at about 8 euros a liter and even though it only take one or two to be enjoying the night, that's still a pretty high fare. Anyways, we have gone several times to the festival just to enjoy the scene. It's really cool to have something so exciting going on here in our little town. Also, Anna and I visited Westbad the other day, which is like a giant pool complex with tons of little and big pools (indoor and out) and they even have saunas and some slides! It only costs 3 euros for students, so I plan on going a lot more often as it gets warmer.

Crazy beer tent

My host mom, Monika, and me at the Dult

Other than the Dult, which has provided lots to do, I have been laying low for the most part. I am still trying hard to save money, especially now that I have a few trips planned for June. Rudy will be arriving on June 25 and we will spend a few days here and then we are flying to Edinburgh, Scotland for the 27-29, then coming back to visit Salzburg in Austria. I am really excited to get out of Germany for a bit and see some new places! It's crazy that all of my friends are already coming home from their trips abroad, but I will still be here until July 29 when I fly home. I am definitely not ready to go, but I find myself getting frustrated with the experience a lot lately. It's difficult to live in a place where you haven't quite figured out the language entirely, but yet are surrounded by extremely rude people who have no appreciation that you are really applying yourself to learning it all! A lot of people I have met have been so nice and welcoming, but on the whole, Germans could use a little work on their hospitality and manners. Being wary of obnoxious foreigners who scream drunkenly on the bus and in the bars is one thing, but acting like a total jerk to someone who is just trying to have a polite conversation and happens to be an American is another. However, I have made some really fantastic friends here and I know that once it comes time to leave, I won't want to go. It's such a simple and relaxing lifestyle here, and while I don't think I could get used to this as a long term lifestyle, it certainly has been a good experience for me.

Love Ashley

Regensburg view. It really is gorgeous!

Some friends enjoying the Dult!

Was neu ist

Our spring break is finally over and here I am back at school for classes. It was really nice to have two weeks off, but it does feel good to actually have something to do that is more worthwhile than sitting at home watching House (on that note, however, I just finished season 4 finally!) I only have class three days per week and it is really the most ridiculously easy schedule ever. Monday from 4-6:30 I have Landeskunde (kind of like a Civilization/Geography class), Tuesdays I have my Sprachkurs class from 2:15-3:45, and Thursdays I have Sprechen from 10:15-11:45 and the Sprachkurs again at the same time as Tuesdays. Add it all up and it amounts to less than six hours of class a week. How do the Germans get away with this kind of ease? Also, in June there are several University holidays that mean I will have 4 other days free of class. Ridiculous, but I'm not complaining. 

This week the weather kind of dampened again and it was cold and rainy a few days, but its been really nice recently. I guess I should update what I did the past couple weeks... Last last Friday a few friends and I went to the Dachau Concentration camp just outside of Munich. You would think such a trip would be depressing and no fun, but it was really interesting and nice to visit. They had many interesting things to see on the site and also a great museum. We spent at least three hours in the camp and museum before we went back to Munich. In Munich we visited the famous Hofbrauehaus and the English Gardens.

The entrance gates to Dachau. "Work will make you free"

The Crematorium at Dachau

Throughout the week I have mostly just gotten back into the habit of school again and spent time with friends. Thursday was Cinco de Mayo. We made tacos and guacamole at Sami and Jon's apartment in the city and then the night escalated quickly. That's all I have to say about that, but it certainly was a fiesta that won't soon be forgotten.

Friday night was the date that our program directors had set up for us to meet our host families. Although we are not living with our host families like I did while I was in Finland in high school, we have each been assigned a family that will include us in family activities the rest of the time we are here. Around 6 we met up at a traditional German biergarten in town and we all met our host families. My host family is really nice. They are a middle aged couple with one son, 16, who is studying for a year in San Antonio right now. They were so friendly and I can't wait to spend more time with them. This Wednesday my host family and Liz's host family are taking us both out to a restaurant in town and then we will make more plans.

Yesterday was one of my favorite days here in Regensburg. I woke up early and got ready for a long walk we had planned. Since I have gotten here I have really wanted to visit the Walhalla temple that is just outside of Regensburg. It is a temple that houses famous busts and plaques of people from history who were influential to Germany. It was built in the 1830s and 40s in the same style as ancient Greek temples. It is only about 12km from the city center, so some friends and I decided to walk. The walk took about 2 and a half hours, but it was really nice and sunny outside so I really enjoyed it. We even decided to stop and get some Eis (Ice cream) along the way at a random store on the highway. We got there around 5 and it was just beautiful. There was even a bride and groom there all dressed up for their wedding. We took pictures and looked at the inside of the temple and then started the trek back to find the bus.

Walhalla Temple

Standing on the top of the temple stairs looking over Regensburg

Today is yet again warm and sunny, so I am planning on meeting several friends to lay in the sun and play soccer later in the afternoon. This week I have school and this weekend (very exciting) begins an exciting festival here in Regensburg that lasts for two weeks. Overall, I am still really enjoying my time here. Being abroad is definitely tough, though. Right now it is difficult to see that so many of my friends are getting ready to be going home to enjoy the summer in the States, and it's crazy that I still have three months left. Sometimes when I am bored and have nothing to do, I start to feel like, "what in the world and I doing here," but I am still happy I decided to come and I know the next two and a half months will fly by.

Happy Mothers Day!

Love Ashley

Schoenen Fruehling

It's official: I love spring here. There's something so nice about being on the WKYT news site and hearing about the daily tornadoes and thunderstorms back home, turning my computer off, and going outside to enjoy the 70 degree, always sunny German springtime. It's really something!

As you might haven noticed if you read my last post, I am having some roommate issues again. Luckily I don't regularly spend a lot of time around here and it shouldn't be an issue for too much longer since I'll once again be busy with school and life. There's just a little too much tension for my liking at the moment.

Easter was absolutely fantastic. I woke up, made a cake, and then joined some of my friends in town for a little Easter get together. We had brown sugar crusted ham, green beans, rolls, Osterbrot, a turkish salad with tomatoes and onions, mashed potatoes, and lemon bars. It was so perfect and delicious. We all stuffed ourselves and then spent the rest of the day by the river playing Frisbee, skipping rocks, and hanging out. It was a great day. I even got to hang out with a cat; the first one in Germany that has allowed me to get closer than ten yards to it. It let me pet it and hung out with me for awhile, basically making my day even better.

Me and my feline Freund. 

I came home late and watched a movie waiting for Morgan to get back. She had gone to Neuschwanstein, which is the castle that Disney used in creating the images for the Sleeping Beauty castle. Apparently it was really beautiful and she enjoyed it. Hopefully I get a chance to go at some point!

The rest of the week has just been relaxation, trying to get into shape, and going on long walks. Morgan and I are determined to walk everywhere so we have been avoiding the bus as much as is possible. There are really so many lovely places to walk to around here. Friday we are planning on going to the Dachau concentration camp, which should be very interesting. I have wanted to visit there ever since we have gotten here. Then we have one last weekend until classes start for the summer semester. It is really strange that everyone back home is finishing up the year and here I am just getting mine started! I also will soon be in contact with my new host family. Even though we are living in the dorms, we have all been assigned a host family that will show us around everywhere and occasionally invite us to participate in family activities. I am excited to meet mine and to get to speak even more German. Next month I am hopefully going to travel to Paris or Barcelona. I have been keeping my eye on the budget flights hoping to run into a good deal!

Love you all and hope that no one has been swept away to Kansas.

Ashley

Morgan, Liz and I exchanged treats on Easter. Needless to say all have already been consumed.

Just an angry little shout out...

To the most awful German roommates a girl could ever ask for. Here's to you, passive-aggressive Melania, who thinks that she deserves an entire fridge and cabinet when there are only two for all 5 roommates. And to you, Christian, for being the biggest creep on this side of the Atlantic.

Kitty is not a fan of you, evil roommates!

Rude notes never got anyone anywhere!! Also unpolite is not real! Petty English police are on patrol after this note.

Oster!

Hi! I miss everyone a lot and I hope that everything is great at home. It's Oster time here in Germany (well... I guess in the US too) and that means that absolutely nothing will be open the next four days. Good thing I stocked up on food and chocolate alike for the weekend!

I finally have a computer charger, which directly correlates with having internet access, so hopefully now I will update more often. I wouldn't put money on it, however. Things here are going great. I am done with my Sprachkurs and am currently enjoying a two week vacation of doing nothing. It's really nice to be able to a) sleep in b) go out without worrying about how miserable I will be the next day c) actually see what Regensburg looks like between the hours of 8am-3pm. The weather was kind of awful the last week of class and into that first weekend, but now it is seventies and sunny everyday. I love it. A lot of people here spend their free time sitting on the banks beside the river and picnicking or hanging out and we have just started doing that. All of the little picturesque biergartens are opening up and it really is lovely around here. One day I will go into town and take a lot of pictures so everyone can see it.

We finished up finals last week and I managed to survive them. We hung out with friends and enjoyed going out at night the first weekend and spent the days cooking for hours and hanging out around town. The night that exams were over we had a program party where everyone brought international food and drinks. It was a pretty ridiculous evening... I will leave that open to interpretation! Morgan's friend, Jason, who is from KY but works nearby at the military base, came in for the weekend and brought us Jif peanut butter!

I also have forced myself to start running and working out again so that I am not miserable trying to get in shape in July. It's kind of nice to spend a little of the day running and walking outside, especially when you have the time to do it. This weekend I will be celebrating Easter with a few friends here. We plan on having an easter egg hunt and a feast. I guess if I can't have Easter at home, this will be a close second! Today was a pretty good day. I woke up, watched an episode of House (I am addicted again! Beware!), went running, and then met up with some friends to try the running sushi place in town. It was quite good considering it was all you can eat and I ate so much that I definitely have not been able to make an appetite recovery. My friend from Transy, Ted, was in town throughout the day and I met him around 8 to get a drink. He studied here two years ago and really enjoyed being back in Regensburg. It really is a nice place and it was great to see a familiar face from home.

I am entirely unsure of what else I will be doing this weekend. I plan on going on a really long walk tomorrow since I have nothing much else to do. I miss everyone and hope you all have a great holiday!

Love Ashley

View from our hike in nearby Adlersberg village

Liz and I enjoying it not being freezing

Der Dom in Regensburg

Stark Bier Fest, Tiergarten, Exams

I know that I am the worst blog updater out there, but it has been a crazy few weeks and I am yet again short on internet connection. My mom sent me her laptop as soon as I arrived here since mine was not working out, but last Wednesday the charger completely stopped working and since then I have been unable to get online at home. Rudy is sending me another charger this week, so hopefully I will have it by the weekend. In the meantime I have been borrowing my friends computers and coming here (the University computer lab) to do work.

I don't even know where to begin with the last few weeks, but I believe a quick summary and then some fun details will do the trick. One thing to note about Germany is that a change in weather conditions can quickly make life go from decent to fantastic. Not only has the weather been sunny and in the 60s and 70s, but I finally don't have to drag a huge coat around everywhere.I have spent a lot of time outside walking, discovering cool new places in Regensburg, and getting to know the city better. It is the last week of my intensive language course and we have all of our tests this Thursday and Friday. I am so ready for this dreadful course to be over. It really has put a damper on the trip since it takes up so much time! Once it is over, we have two weeks off and then we begin our summer courses. I have set up my schedule so that I only have class on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday so I will definitely have a lot more free time.

So now on to the actually fun things that I have been up to....

 In Germany, the Germans have learned how to best take advantage of the weather turning lovely: A  massive beer festival. Two weekends ago we  made plans to go to the Stark Bier Festival in Munich after hearing that it is "Like Oktoberfest, only better." We spent all week preparing, which included buying dirndls.

On the Thursday before the festival Morgan and I decided to venture into the Lederhosen and Tracht store in town to buy our own. We got there and hilarity instantly ensued. It was really funny to look through all of the dresses and to try them on, especially with the store lady following us around like she did. We ended up getting a really good deal and it was definitely worth it. 

Saturday we woke up around 8:45 to catch the bus into town so we could ride the train to Munich. On the train, we sat with our Colorado friends who always provide a lot of entertainment. They were helped out by the train's beverage seller, who caught us up on the latest celebrity news and even a few live performances of Britney Spears. We got to Munich around 12:15, got lunch, and walked to the brewery that was hosting the festival for the weekend. It was absolutely packed. There were millions of long tables in  the outside area and the same number inside the beer hall.

Inside the Beer hall.... crazy!

We spent the entire day eating Wurst and Brezel, sitting and enjoying the sun.... and of course enjoying the delicious beer. I really don't find most beers delicious, so you will have to take my word for it that this beer was the king of all beers. The day was long and amazing and by the time we got home I was definitely ready to sleep by midnight.

Last weekend we went on yet another adventure in Munich. We went to the zoo to celebrate one of the Coloradans birthdays and it was a great time. We even got to see some giraffes. On the way back we stopped at our friend Charlene's birthday party at Galerie. I ended up going home pretty early but Liz and Morgan (especially Morgan) had a pretty eventful evening... Sunday I woke up early and went on a hike in nearby Adlersberg with the rest of the DaF group and it was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I forgot that the sun also exists in Germany (who knew!) and I got sunburned from spending five hours walking outside and eating lunch at the beergarden. Once I got back, even though I was exhausted, I ended up going on a long walk with Morgan and Liz to a bridge over the Donau that was nearby. I must have walked about thirteen miles the entire day, but I am in great need of a workout anyways thanks to all of the beer and wurst, so I am sure it didn't hurt me.

Donau

So the rest of this week will be pretty boring as I get ready to take all of my exams, but I am really looking forward to the end of this boring dreadful class and the beginning of summer! I cannot believe I have already been here almost two months, but I am really glad that I still have more than three to enjoy!

I promise I will update this more often and in better detail once I have a working laptop!

Love Ashley

Sunshine, IKEA, Rats

Happy Sunday and welcome back to being six hours behind me again. We finally sprung forward an hour last night here in Germany, and I am excited to welcome in longer days. It's finally starting to warm up around here. When the sun is out and it is not raining, it is really nice. I'm really looking forward to days without any coat at all, but it might take another month until we get there.

The last week was quick and busy, which seems to be the status quo for how time works abroad. My time here is constantly filled up with being stuck in the classroom 30 hours per week, the regular trips to Kaufland and Ghetto Netto for groceries, and getting enough sleep to make it through. Getting enough sleep to actually function is one of my favorite parts of being in Germany as opposed to being at Transy. At home, I am used to having to get through everyday on 5-6 hours a night, whereas I almost always get 7-9 everynight here. I think this is a concept I will attempt to take back to Transy, although I think it would fail immensely.

Monday morning our morning professor, Bianca, told us we would be having a test on Friday. Luckily I took this to mean that I should wait until Thursday night to study, so the good news is that I didn't let a silly thing such as a test worth a quarter of my grade get in the way of my good time. The bad was that I had to study all day Thursday and might have made a few silly mistakes for that reason, but I'm sure I will survive. Other than not studying for my test all week, my friends and I took a much-needed trip to IKEA to pick up some treats for our room. I've only been to IKEA once before when I was in Finland, but I still marvel at what a wonderful place it is. Not only do they have everything you would ever need to have a cool house, but they have delicious hot dogs (1 euro for a hot dog+drink!) and free cinnamon rolls. The cinammon rolls might have been intended to be samples, but we helped ourselves to at least 7 throughout our two hours at the store. In the end, I bought new bedding, a mirror, and two stuffed rats. I would tell you more about the rats, but my friends would make fun of me.

For some reason I am halfway blanking out as to what I did the rest of the week. School takes up so much of the day that most of the time there is really not much else that can be packed into the day. I will be so relieved when this Sprachkurs will be over (only 14 more days!) and I can have a much less intense schedule. I have definitely enjoyed being here at the University and meeting other program participants, but I am pretty critical of the class. I might be used to the luxury of having classes that are regularly less than 15 people at Transy, but I find it idiotic to place 25 people in one language course and expect that anything will get done. That takes me to my next complaint, which is that I have learned absolutely nothing thus far from the class. The course gives us extremely limited opportunities to speak or write. We spend most of our time going over the useless workbook homework or doing absolutely nothing. I actually think my German abilities have decreased since getting here. I would be much better off spending the six hours of my day that are currently being wasted being out and about in the town actually communicating with people, not starting at a textbook.

My University... or as we know it "Concrete Central"

But anyways, enough complaining, I'm in Germany! I've really enjoyed getting to know all of the new people. Friday night a lot of us went out again and it is so nice to hang out with everyone NOT at school. We met up at one of the bars in town for awhile and then I stayed up until 5:30am watching UK beat Ohio State. Go Cats! Tonight I get to watch them beat up on UNC (I hope Rudy reads this!) and then start another week at school. I am currently making my spring break plans (Mid-April through the third of May) so if anyone has any great ideas, let me know! So far we are thinking Prague, but not sure otherwise. I'd really like to go to Greece.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Ashley

Weimar, Nuernburg, and SWEET SIXTEEN!

First of all, GO CATS! I have been lucky enough to watch the games all the way on this side of the ocean, and though Princeton was a scare, it was great to see us back in the Sweet 16! We have a bracket competition going here in Regensburg with a few KU fans, and you can only imagine who they've picked to win it all...

The past week cannot be described as anything other than completely hectic. First off, my German professor from Transy, Dr.Weber, is also our program director for KIIS. He was here this week checking in on the program, since this is the first year for the new Regensburg program. Every night we had some sort of activity or something he asked us to come along on, so that time combined with 6 hours of class led to not a lot of free time. However, we had a great dinner, watched a good movie, and got free ice cream and tiramisu. Not a bad deal! But in any case, I didn't sleep a lot all week because I had a presentation that I had to give in my Sprechen class that was on Friday. I spent a lot of time preparing for it and I'm so glad it is over! While Dr. Weber was in town, he discussed our options for our Summer classes. The classes begin May 1 or so and run until the weekend that I go home. I am only taking three classes, and what is even better is that two only meet once per week. All in all, I only have three day of class, which will give me a lot more time to spend actually DOING things.

While the week went well, this weekend was pretty awful. Friday night we went out with a lot of people on the program and had a lot of fun (maybe too much?) and then got home at a pretty indecent hour. This was probably a bad idea, considering we were supposed to be on the bus at 6:10 to head to the train station. We had planned on going to Weimar, which is about a 5 hour trip. Needless to say, we didn't make it. We ended up taking a slightly later train around 8. The trip was so long and confusing, and we had to transfer around 35 times, but finally we got to Weimar. You might think that trip sounds like the bad part, but it only was the beginning. We stepped out of the train station in Weimar... and we were practically the only ones in the city. It was a ghost town and most of the city was completely closed down and boarded up or empty. We walked around trying to find a place to eat and finally settled on a Doener place. It was delicious and cheap because the store guy gave us a secret discount, or so we believe. After that, we tried to find something to do. Long story short, there was absolutely nothing. We got back on the train, rode five hours to Regensburg, and went to bed.

This morning there was a group excursion to Nuernberg (English lang. calls it Nuremberg), which is a little over an hour away. We met at nine and spent the morning exploring the old Nazi constructions of the city. The Nazis made Nuernberg the main convention center for the Nazi rallies and it played a crucial role in expaning the Nazi party across Bavaria and all of Germany. This is also the place where the Nuremberg trials took place after WWII. A city with a lot of interesting history! We had a lunch break and then in the afternoon we went on a city tour. I love traveling and I love spending time in new cities, but for some reason I absolutely despise guided tours. Unfortunately, this one was one of the worst of the worst. It lasted over two hours, was completely outdoors in the freezing weather, and involved hearing some of the least exciting information I have ever learned. When it was over, we headed straight back here and I am now cozy in my bed. I hate the cold.

This week will be a lot more low-key, which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully I can get to IKEA and buy some things for my room! Hope everyone has a good week back home!

Love Ashley

Time, Bayerische Party, and No Money

I can't believe that I have only been here two and a half weeks. When I think back to my first day in Regensburg and especially the flight over from the US, it feels like months ago. However, day to day the time seems to fly by. Part of this, I think, is that I'm now in class six hours a day. It really does make the day a lot shorter when you don't have a life until 3pm.

Though class is long and occasionally really boring, I know it is benefitting me a lot. Reviewing all of the things that I haven't seen since two years ago or so is helping me a lot. Some days go better than others with regards to German-speaking. My friends here and I daily report to eachother as to whether it has been a "good German" or a "bad German" day. Last night our tutors at the University held a Bavarian Party for the 60-odd Intensive Language Course students. It reinforced what I already knew about the relationship between alcohol consumption and language ability: It's always a positive correlation. It was like we were fluent or something. It was definitely a great night and I got to know a lot of the other ILC participants a lot better.

Unfortunately, we stayed out a bit later than we planned to, which had negative consequences for our planned 7:00 wakeup to get to the train station. Morgan, Liz, and I had planned on going to Freiburg on the French border this weekend. However, I slept until 7:30, as did both girls. We miraculously made it on the 8:00 bus, wet hair and all, and were at the train station on time for the 8:30 Freiburg train. That's when things started falling apart. When we got there, Morgan and Liz realized they hadn't brought their passports (necessary when you use a BahnPass) and then I ran into the first real logistics problem I've had over here. Before the trip, I needed to withdraw some money. When I got to Berlin the first day a few weeks ago, I exchanged just a little cash and then withdrew 300 Euros to get me through the berlin week and to get set up here in Regensburg. No problem. However, today when I put my card in the machine, it wouldn't let me get money. It turns out Chase just kind of freaked out a little bit and has frozen my account. This was bad news for me, considering I have all of 6-8 euros on me currently. So, the trip to Freiburg was cancelled and Liz and morgan decided to go ahead and just do a day trip to Munich. I stayed behind because I have one less trip on my BahnPass, so I figured it would be good just to save my four remaining for the next two weekends.

Today has been nice and relaxing. I spent the early part of the day exploring Regensburg on my own, which I hadn't yet gotten the chance to do. It was a nice, warm day and there were a lot of people out on the streets in town. Then I came back and did what I have needed to do for three weeks: Nap. It was the most glorious nap ever taken in the history of naps. Even better than that accidental 4 hour snooze during a crucial point in Finals Week 2010. Now I feel much more refreshed and ready for a big week. This week I have class everyday and I also have to start getting ready to do a ten minute presentation (all in German!) for my Sprechenkurs. Also, tomorrow Dr. Weber (my German professor from Transy for those of you who don't know) will be here in Regensburg. He is the program director for my KIIS program, so he is coming just to check in with how everything is going. If only Karrie could come too!

Tschuess and have a good week!

Love Ashley

I'm really alive!

Hallo from Regensburg on this lovely Faschings Dienstag.

I still don't have internet yet, but our program directors have told us that we will have it tomorrow, so I will be more able to Skype if anyone misses me too terribly!

It has been a really crazy week here. Despite the holiday, I started class yesterday morning. We took the placement test on Saturday and I am in the B1 class with my friend Morgan. Liz, our German whiz friend, is in the more advanced class. Class is conducted quite different here. If I thought sitting through a day of class in the US is tough, I was mistaken. I am up at 7 to shower and eat breakfast before we have to catch the bus at 8:08. We get to our class right about 8:30 when we have the Sprachkurs from 8:30-10, followed by the Schreibenkurs from 10:15-11:45, then lunch hour until 1 when we have the Sprechenkurs from 1-2:30. I still haven't exactly figured out the difference between the courses despite their different titles, but the work isn't terribly difficult. The awful thing about our class is that we do not move classrooms the entire day. The teachers rotate into our room to teach the lessons. It is so hard to sit in the same place the entire day long. I feel like I am in middle school again (or General Psychology I) as I watch the clock a lot. Also, many of the students are rather rude in our class. They are either difficult to work with when we have something we must work on in pairs, or else they talk the entire time the professor is attempting to teach the lesson. Very different from being in class at Transy.

Our dorms are interesting to say the least. It's really not so bad. My room is probably a little over half of my room in Forrer at Transy, but I have the entire thing to myself. There is a ton of storage space. I share a kitchen and two bathrooms with my five roommates. I have only met two of my roommates, but they are pretty nice so far (except one of them leaves kind of scathing notes laying around about her disapproval of my light habits) The only real complaint I have about the lifestyle here so far besides the cold is the diet. I feel like I have been eating horribly. It's really expensive to eat and drink out, but buying food isn't too much cheaper and it's pretty hard to survive on a diet of Nutella, waffles, and Brie cheese. However, my friends and I have gotten pretty good at trying to eat well at home. The first night we made an absolutely digusting pasta with brocolli, but this weekend we made a fresh, homemade baked ziti that even got approval by Morgan's Italian roommate.

I am really enjoying being here. Class is tough to get through, but I know this language course will really benefit me once the semester has begun. I have a lot left to learn, but what better way than by being here in Germany. Sometimes I feel a little bit lonely, but that was probably more due to having all of the free time we had before class began. Once I am into the routine of things a bit more, I think that I will enjoy it even more. I have made a lot of new friends, many who come from outside of Germany and the U.S. It is so interesting to learn German with other students who haven't yet even mastered English. A few of the girls we have been hanging out with come from France, Italy, and even Finland!!! I always knew Hyvaa Paiiva would come in handy one day.

Summary= Germany is good, I have internet soon, I am learning how to cook, beer is cheap and more delicious here, and class is going well. Also, a few new pictures on Facebook.

Love,

Ashley