GeRmAnY NiTe 2

Friday, September 5th

Woke up this morning to get ready for our first guided tour on this trip. We ended up having to switch rooms and I forgot my water bottle down in the room that was now occupied by Shawn, Mike, and Chad, so I went down there before heading to breakfast to get it back. (Chad- that water bottle may be the best thing I packed. Thanks again!) I knocked on their door to a terrible frenzy of guys running around in a half-awake panic. Apparently they thought it was 1:00 in the afternoon and they had slept too late and missed the tour. I informed them they were fine, and had my fair share of laughs.

Our tour guide’s name was Travis, a friendly and very informative Aussie who spoke perfect English, and gave tours in Germany… he had a sweet mustache. He is a really funny guy and related to our younger audience quite well.

Our hostel is located just a few blocks from the central part of Munich, so we walked in that direction and ended up at a fancy church that I cannot even begin to pronounce the name to. We learned that it had two tall towers in the front that served as a reference point to those in World War II. Travis also enlightened us on a story about the chapel, in which the architect apparently ends up tricking the devil upon the terms in which it is to be built, and you can see his footprint inside of the church.

We continued on through the city, and one of the highlights were seeing several hidden holocaust memorials. For example, one of the memorials was just a subtle plaque on the wall outside of a worn down building saying “this was a shoe shop” meant to commemorate what was destroyed in Krystallnacht.

We also got to see the famous Glockenspiel (which was cool, but unanimously agreed that one you watch it once, that is enough) and its show in the main square, in addition to Mary’s Column, which was the centerpiece of the square, beautifully displayed with plated gold and adorned by symbolic putti. We walked down to a beer garden which was part of a marketplace with rows and rows of stands of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and treats. It was here that I had my first German sausage, and the most amazing pretzel I’ve ever had in my life. I love Germany!

Travis then told us the history of the Maypole that was in the center of the markets. He told us how villages would steal neighboring village’s Maypoles as sort of a glory kind of thing. The poles are absolutely huge, so the fact that anyone could successfully uproot one of them and steal it away to another village without getting caught would impress me too. Apparently a few years back, the maypole was reported stolen, but upon calling the police, they found out that the police were in fact the ones who stole it.

Moving on, we came across a statue of Juliet (as in… Romeo and Juliet), just past the main square. Apparently, people buy roses to put in her arm, which is supposed to bring your love life good luck. There conveniently lies an extravagant flower stand next to the statue, and later on in the day, Rachael, Cody, and myself all put flowers in Juliet’s arms. We let Billy take a picture with Juliet and our flowers… but he was too cool to get his own.

The tour guided us past other main parts of town, including the HaufBrau Haus, but we didn’t go inside, because as Travis mentioned, he found that the tour usually ends there if that is the case… I started to get really excited… don’t worry--- the Haufbrau Haus got many more visits in the next few days… This was the place that we always talked about in high school for the polka band I played in.

I had my first experience in such an extravagant church, and Cody and I went inside and examined every bit of St. Peters Cathedral. I had no idea the churches that would follow this experience. It is incredible seeing two years of Art History compiled into the real thing. After we spent quite a while inside looking around, we decided to climb to the top of the tower, were you can get the best view of the entire city. It was awesome! There were a million stairs, but it was well worth the beautiful view at the top. We also were excited because a friendly businessman from CA stared up a conversation with us at the top of the tower. We were just suprised to find someone else who spoke English, so we chatted for a few minutes, he wished us luck on our studies, and we carried on in our journey.

We explored much of Germany for the rest of the day, and then got ready to go on the Pub Crawl that evening. The title of the tour was “The Best Night You Will Never Remember.” For a lot of us… probably true… ha.

The first stop was the HaufBrau Haus, and we were only allotted a half an hour there. We were also sitting in the back, in a private part, so you weren’t even in the action. I walked over the the gift shop and picked up some things, walked around a few minutes to check out the polka band and the atmosphere, and then we had to leave. I was excited that they even played the “Ein Prosit” every half hour or so! (yea… I played in a polka band in high school… can you tell? We instantly fell in love with the German culture! Who wouldn’t?!?!) I decided this was not nearly enough time here, so I returned the next night and had possibly the most amazing hilarious night ever…

The pub crawl continued on to several other pubs, and we were even taught the “Ein Prosit” which the Wespenmusikanten had to play all the time in High School. It was funny getting to know everyone else in the group.
We also chatted a bunch with a ton of foreign students. There are Australians everywhere! Even the other countries we visited- those Aussies like to travel!

We ended the night back in the hostel chatting with a bunch of these foreign people again. Again, it is crazy seeing how much foriegn people know of American culture! I have so much to learn... This is going to be a great trip!

WeLcOmE tO GeRmAnY!!!

Thursday, September 4th

First day in Germany. We spent the majority of the day driving to Munich from Frankfurt. On the way there, we saw tons of fields of hops, that were as prevalent here as corn is in the Midwest. I guess it makes sense since Germany is the beer capitol of the world… It is this tall cylindrical plant that looks really crazy. I don’t really know how to describe it. Think of it as a vineyard in the shape of a really tall cylinder, in multiple rows, across a vast field… ok, bad description. Moral of the story: it was really crazy lookin’ and it fascinated me.

Never really had jet lag, but I guess we never really had time for it. Slept a few hours on the plane, and then was just kinda good to go.

We got to the hostel in the evening and tried to cram 3 girls, plus our luggage into a tiny little elevator… it was entertaining to say the least. After we threw our stuff in our rooms, we walked as a group to a restaurant a ways away for our first authentic German meal. It was a bit of a challenge because apparently we had our meal already paid for and reserved, and no one spoke a bit of English. We told them we were with the Wisconsin group, which they must have understood because they brought us to a table and started bringing out all of this catered food. After some sort of pork, some delectable mushroom soup, a jelloish desert, and of course, my first taste of authentic German beer, we walked back to the hostel and decided to do some socializing in the bar downstairs.

A group of us went downstairs and stared playing cards and from there we just ordered a few drinks, despite some offers from some German boys, and started talking to the locals and getting to know the others on the trip with us. What I am loving so much about these youth hostels is that everyone is there for the same reason- obviously to see the city, but it is great socializing with so many people your age, and seeing their culture and perspectives on things. I also find it interesting how so many other countries know so much about the U.S., from current events and politics, to entertainment and pop culture. It just goes to show you how much of an impact the US really has on the rest of the world. I know little to nothing about most other countries, and for that I feel incredibly ignorant. It is only the first day, and I am being opened to so many new experiences already!

Becca- just for you- there was a WOMBAT hostel right next door to the one that we stayed in… thought you may enjoy that. :)

"HaVe FuN JeNnY. ILL MiSs YoU. WaTcH OuT FoR tHoSe FrEnChiEs." "ThaNkS NiCk. ILL MiSs YoU ToO."

September 3rd

Early this morning Nick came into my room because he had to leave for football before school started. So, around 5:30am he comes in, gives me a hug and we talked for a bit, giving me his brotherly advice. I gave him about 10 hugs and actually started crying. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to him, because I am only leaving for 3 1/2 months and I was having problems with that.

Our relationship has grown a lot more over the past month or so as well (if that is even possible with how close we are already), as Nick now has a girlfriend, and has developed an entirely new perspective on some things. It is so funny seeing him go through some of these stages, not only to look back at how I felt when all of this started happening to me, but also to see him as the cutest, most perfect boyfriend that a girl could ask for. And Amber is a really sweet girl and I'm really looking forward to getting to know her too. :)

We got to O'Hare and were early so Mom, Dad, and I all sat down and waited till 4:00 when our Director, Diane Bywaters, also one of my previous drawing instructors, would give us directions and details about what we were supposed to be doing. I felt kind of bad, because as soon as we met up with the group it got hectic really fast, and I kinda just had to leave and check in my baggage and get all those details out of the way. So I didn't exactly have the most time to give my "proper goodbyes."

However, I met up with Rachael, a girl I met on the trip before I left school, and Cody, another music major that is on the trip, who I will be going to Carmina Burana with. We didn't know each other before now, but talked online a bit this summer since we will be going to the show together. I was really excited because we all really hit it off aboslutely great and have been 'pal-in around' ever since. Our flight was delayed, so that allowed us a little more time to talk and get to know each other too.

Our flight was supposed to be delayed an hour because i guess some luggage fell off a cart and hit an antenna or something like that. It was funny though because everyone was crowding around the windows taking pictures because there were fire trucks and cars with lights all over the place outside. I felt kinda silly doing that, so I didn't, but that also reminds me of something else AWESOME about these two girls... they BOTH like to take LOTS of pictures... we are going to get along just fine... We didn't even get on the plane yet, and already had taken quite a few. awesome. :)

When we finally did get on the plane, Rachael was sitting on the opposite side, however me and Cody were set right next to each other. Another girl, Kallie, who was in my design class last semester, was our third person in our row, so it was good not to have random annoying people sitting by us. My ticket was the window seat, but Cody had never been on a plane before and was super excited about it, so I let her take my spot. I'm glad I did, because she was getting far more excited about it than I would have been. She is super cute! We started talking, and somehow got on the topic about the fact that I used to live in Gurnee, IL. She says, "that is where my boyfriend lives, actually, he lives in Lake Villa, about 10 minutes away, but we just say Gurnee because people know what that is." So I start freaking out, because that is the small little town that I used to live in when I was in IL. Turns out he is a year older than us, and I'm sure we went to elementary and middle school together. Talk about a small world.

Also exciting- airplane food. Yea, thats right... airplane food. Our flight was with Air India, so it was cool because all of the flight attendants were wearing fancy Indian dresses. It may have just been a distraction as to how crappy the airlines are in an attempt to make people lessen the fear for their lives.

Anyway, first they came out with snacks and drinks, but later brought us our dinner, which was this fancy chicken dish, salad, yogurt, water, tea, bread, and some fancy dessert that we thought was some crazy textured Indian food, but later determined was actually tapioca pudding. I wish I would have taken a picture. It was quite fancy. After that we all went right to bed, woke up in the "morning" (about 3am our time) and had breakfast.

Customs went pretty smoothly. All we had to do was get our passport stamped. Didn't stop a single one of us. From there we got on a bus and have been driving from the airport in Frankfurt to Munich ever since. We stopped in a roadside travel stop thing (or whatever you call it... technical names are overrated...) and got a snack. They had this vanilla pudding dish with strawberry and rubarb on top... thought you might like that Dad. It was delicious :) So here we are, driving to Munich, four hours later... and it is now pouring rain... At least the first part of the drive was pretty. Oh well, hopefully it will be nicer when we start to walk around and start sightseeing.

HoLd YoUr HoRsEs GuYs! PosTs WiLL CoMe SoOn!

So, It's been an incredibly fast two and a half weeks... and incredibly amazing, eventful, and life changing at that. This may have been the most incredible experience of my life, and im not even a month into it. Sorry to everyone for the incredibly delayed posts-- I do apologize. I have been soo busy and have had little to no internet access on this tour. However, I am now in London for the next three months, and will be catching up on all of my posts now that I have reliable (or at least somewhat reliable) internet. So pay no mind to the top dates on the new entries, as they will be false, and I will enter the correct dates as to which the event corresponds...

Please enjoy my this picture of me, exhausted after three weeks, tired, hungry, and overwhelmed by the craziness of checking in at our university and the craziness on the tour... this picture is me, being revived by my one true love... smoothies... :) (sally will understand...) what better than this for my introduction to London...