Things I Miss or Take for Granted in the United States

1. My little Honda Civic
• I am absolutely sick of public transportation. I want to be able to go where I want, when I want, without having to wait for long periods of time. And without having to be in a crowded location.
2. Fast-food restaurants
• Especially Taco Bell.
3. Hot showers
• Often times I have to take a cold shower or else I skip a shower because I don't want to be in the cold.
4. Wal-mart and other department "super" stores
• I want to be able to find everything in one spot. I hate going to one store for groceries, another for office supplies, etc
5. 24 hour stores
• It is impossible to get anything from a store after 8pm at the latest.
6. The United States Postal Service
• The postal service here is impossible. The post office doesn't have any boxes to ship items (I still haven't found a place that does.) And the postal service is extremely slow.
7. Ranch dressing, peanut butter, and ketchup
• Ranch dressing is non-existant. Peanut butter only comes in smooth (I like crunchy) and is extremely expensive. Ketchup is also very expensive and often times hard to find. McDonald's charges a price for Ketchup, it is not a free "convenience." I found it odd that Ketchup is not a bigger thing, considering tamatoes are.
8. Cheddar cheese
• Italy is known for its cheese. However, it is completely impossible to find any yellow cheese. Which makes me sad, becaue I live off of it back home.
9. Clean/fresh air
• Cities have never been my thing and this one is no exception. I hate the way it smells and how ditrty it is. I want the fresh air of northwest WI countryside.
10. Nicer people
• In general, I would take a crabby American over a normal Italian. Italians glare and talk about you behind their hands. They are pushy and put American's last on their lists.
11. Silence at night-time
• Another reason I don't like cities is the noise. There is constant noises, whether it be a siren or someone's music from the apartment above.
12. Good cell phone service/ Working phone
• My apartment is in the middle of Rome and I do not get any cell phone service. It is ridiculous. It makes me the most mad when I find out that I missed a phone call from Michael. And when his phone calls do come through, we constantly get disconnected.
13. Green grass
• I miss healthy looking plants. Everything in the city is dirty and dead.
14. Use of the English Language
• I miss talking to people who understand me. lol
15. Feeling of "Home"
• I do not feel at home here in Italy. I feel very much out of place. I want the feelings of home again.
16. My Friends
• I miss my sorority sisters and my rednecks back home
17. My Family
• I have never been away from my family for Thanksgiving. It is hard being away from family for this long, especially when it is over a holiday.
18. Traffic Laws
• There are no traffic lanes in Roma. People drive down the center. People drive on sidewalks. Mopeds are even more dangerous. I have almost been run down several times.
19. TV with English channels
• I don't remember the last time I got to watch an actual TV station
20. Personal Space/Manners
• Italians do not know the meaning to personal space. There can be a ton of room on the tram, but they will stand right next to you so they are touching you.
21. Microwave
• I miss being able to heat up my leftovers in less than a minute using a microwave. Without a microwave, it takes about 10 times longer to get cooking done.
22. Drying Machine
• I hate having to hang my clothing out to dry. It takes way to long and I never feel like it is clean afterwards. Instead of laundry taking a few hours, it takes several days.
23. Country (well) Water
• I love well water. It is the best water to drink and to shower in. I refuse to drink the disgusting city water here. The water has also had a very bad effect on my hair.
24. Being able to use several different appliances at once
• I am unable to use the washer and the oven at the same time in Rome. Which makes it even harder to get things done.

Thanksgiving in Venice with our Italian friends

I am gonna start be playing a little catch up. I saw Harry Potter last week. The new one of course. It was absolutely amazing. The first night we went, it was sold out. The second night we went two hours early to get tickets. We ended up going to the theater 3 nights in a row trying to figure out if they were playing the movie or not. They didn’t know until the day before it came out. Which is something I do not understand. But at least we got to see it. That is all that matters to me J

That same night, after the movie, I went out for the first time in over a month. I went with Tynisha, Sam, and Guilia. Guilia speaks fluent Italian, so it was great having her along with us. At the end of the night, Travis walked us part way home and then we met Tynisha’s friend Keith who walked us rest of the way. Keith is from Spain and he decided it would be good to fight with me about politics. He is very liberal. All was fine and dandy until he brought up the war in Afghanistan. Then I got mad. The last thing he said to me that night was “I hate you.” I think I got my viewpoints across.

Wednesday night I spent four hours in the library. I had to finish writing a paper for classical mythology before I left for Venice. I figured the best way to do that was to lock myself into the library. For the paper, I had to go to a museum and sketch a drawing of a sarcophagus. Then I had to write a four page paper on it. It didn’t help that Michael was on facebook. It was a big distraction, but totally worth it…of course J 

Then Wednesday night when I got home, I couldn’t get my laundry out of the washer. I was very angry because it meant I would have to leave my wet laundry in the washer for five days. Apparently I didn’t drain the water out of the washer, so it wouldn’t open. But I am 99% positive that I did. When I took my laundry out the next morning, it weighed about 20 pounds because there was so much water soaked up in it.

Let me start now with a little background on our Italian friends. For the 1993 Birkie, we had a group of Italians stay at our home. I was only 3 years old at the time. Despite an elapse of 17 years, mom located their email before we left for Italy. We decided early on that we were going to meet with them over our Thanksgiving break.

Now to the weekend. Our weekend with our Italian friends started Thursday morning. Although it was Thanksgiving, it sure didn’t feel like it. There was no snow and no bright orange for hunting season. I didn’t realize how much I would miss being with my family. This was the first time that I openly admitted that I missed mom and dad. I quickly came to realize that I really take advantage of certain things back home.

Our plane to Venice left at 10am. I had a ton of homework that I had to complete, so my bag was nice and full of books. I have several final papers to write by next week. I am not a fan of the end of the semester.

As we were going through security, the guy in front of us got stopped. The security people were going through his bag. And you wouldn’t believe what they took out of it. A butcher knife!!! It was a legitimate brand new 8 in long butcher knife! I turned to Bliss and said, “He better not be getting on my flight with that thing!” I am unsure of whether or not they took it away from him. I am hoping so, since they take nail clippers away from people. If they didn’t, there is a major problem in their security. I can’t believe this man thought he was going to be able to get on the plane with it!

We had printed our tickets off from the website online. Our tickets said our plane was leaving from B13. We sat here for awhile and were confused as to why no one else was at the terminal. We realized just in time that our terminal had been changed to B11. Thank goodness Bliss is smart enough to figure that out.

After the butcher knife incident, I felt much safe when an Italian soldier got on our plane. I told Bliss “I want him to sit right next to me if the guy with the butcher knife is on our flight.” Then a priest got on…”He will pray for our souls when the butcher guy starts killing people.”

When our plane landed, there were cops waiting. My theory was that they were waiting at the other end to pick up the butcher knife guy.

Federico met us at the airport to give us a ride to his home in Noale where we stayed for the weekend. On our way to Noale, we stopped at Torre di Tessera. It was a small church from the early 1300s. It was closed but the owner was there and ended up letting us in. The church is only open for religious holidays and is privately owned. We even got to see the base of the tower. Federico’s uncle was married there. It reminded me of the “Sengbusch” cemetery by Eddy Whipps.

Riding in the car was intense. I am not one to get car sick, but I was feeling very nauseas. There were a million roundabouts that made my tummy flip. I didn’t help that the vehicle was manual, so it was really jerky too. Despite the bumpy ride, I was so tired that I almost fell asleep in the car.

We finally reached the home of Federico and his family. They lived in a yellow apartment building. Bliss and I stayed in a room with a fold-out couch and large flat screen TV. After we got settled in our room, we went up one floor of the apartment building to Federico’s mothers apartment. Here we had our first real homemade Italian meal. We had a delicious pasta, some potatoes and an “Italian-style” turkey. I quickly noticed several things about a typical Italian kitchen (unlike our apartment). The refrigerator was hidden behind cupboard doors along with the dishwasher.

After our Thanksgiving lunch, we rested for a little while. We couldn’t get the wifi to work on my computer so I had to hook up to a plug-in. Then my computer toolbar disappeared and I couldn’t access anything on my computer. Luckily after restarting my computer, it all went back to normal.

I had to opportunity to talk to Michael on facebook for a few minutes. However, facebook stopped working. Luckily I told Michael before hand that my computer was having issues. So instead of being on facebook, I caught up on Fox News. I read Fox News daily.

We ended up going along with Federico to pick up Martina (his daughter) from her music lessons.  Then the four of us stopped in downtown Noale and walked around for awhile. We saw a fortress and some swans. Martina got both me and Bliss a swan feather.

Once we got back to the apartment, by this time it was late, we started to watch Avatar. I also talked to Michael for a little longer this time. J Before the movie ended, we had to eat some dinner. We had rice, turkey, potatoes, and some slices of pork and ham.

After dinner I took a quick shower. Then we all sat and skyped with mom and dad. It was great to see them. And for everyone to be able to chat with each other again, after 17 years. After skyping we went to bed. It has been a long day and I was exhausted.

I came to realize very quickly that Martina was very much like me. She would beg her mother and when mom said no, she would go to dad. Actually, I told her that I always go to dad after mom says no and she followed my instruction. Oops!

Friday morning we woke up at 7am. I do not believe I have been up that early in several months now. It was a bit of a struggle. I could barely get myself out of bed. We had some Italian apple pie for breakfast. However, it didn’t settle with me very well since it was so early. I rarely ever eat anything before noon.

We left for the mountains at 8am. Bliss got sick in the car. I kept checking with her to see if she was okay. I told her to not wait until last minute to say something. It is better to have Federico pull over than for her to puke in his car! Right after I said this, Bliss finally asked him to pull over and she puked in her hands before she even got the door open. Ick! It was raining outside while Bliss was hanging her body out the door to puke, so Federico went and got an umbrella to put over her head.

At 300 meters up the mountain, it started to snow! I just about peed my pants in excitement. I almost forgot watch it was like to see snow. And that is saying something, considering I live in northwest Wisconsin. By the top we reached our location, it was a blizzard outside.

Mr. Bruno

We met Mr. Bruno at the gate of what appeared to be a cave. We were driving to see the Vjoint Dam. Federico works as an engineer and had some really great connections. We got to go into this cave/tunnel. Mr. Bruno had the keys. There was absolutely no one else there. And this place was huge! We had to wear yellow hard hats as we walked.

We got to go on this bridge that has no public access. The dam was right in front of us, but we could barely see it because of the weather. It was amazing getting this opportunity that no one would ever have. It was kinda scary at the same time. I threw my first snowball of the season at Bliss.

Lunch was in the mountains as well. The restaurant reminded me off. It was a small, cozy wood building. As we looked out of the window, it looked like a snow globe. For a second, I almost forgot that I was in Italy. But my little fantasy world was interrupted when the waitress starting speaking to us in Italian. When I went to the bathroom, I found out that the men and women share. It is a typical bathroom with stalls, but there are male stales and female stales. Instead of all female or all male. I was very intimidated when I came out of the bathroom to find a ton of guys standing there.

We then drove to a power plant that Federico works at. There was a very long tunnel that we had to walk through. For some reason, it reminded me of a Harry Potter movie. We saw all kinds of stuff in the plant. There were four huge red things that generated the power, each producing 60,000 horsepower. Again, we had to wear our yellow hard hats.

We drove to yet another center where we met the supervisor. We had to head back to Noale by this time, but we stopped in Treviso along the way. Treviso is the city were Federico went to high school from 1971-1975. We went into a church were Stefania’s sister was married. Below the “new” church is where the old church “cripta” was located. The church used to be underground! It was creepy, but beautiful.

Once we finally made it back to the apartment, Bliss and I both took a much needed nap. We were completely exhausted from a very eventful day. At dinner we had some more turkey and then went right to bed.

Saturday we got to sleep in a little later. We didn’t wake up until 8:30am. We took at rain around 10 to Venice. It was about a 30 minute train ride into Venice. As we were crossing a large bridge, we saw a bunch of boats that resembled canoes. However, they were standing up. They had between 2 and 5 people, each with a paddle. Federico said they were almost flat bottomed because the water is so shallow.

We met Roberto (another of our Italian friends) and Sarah, his girlfriend right when we got off of the train. Roberto told me that I looked just like my mother. J We did a nice long walking tour all around Venice. Starting with a fish market. I can’t get over how the food just sits out in the open, with people touching it. It is so unsanitary. Not that I would eat any of it anyways.

At lunch, Roberto and I talked about the war.(Roberto is the best English speaker) It was very obvious that both of us had opposing viewpoints. But it got brought up because of Michael. Roberto asked what the general consensus  of the Americans was on the war. I told him that I really don’t think people care anymore. Everyone has forgotten about it. The only people who pay real attention are the ones who have loved ones there.

I asked them if a microwave was not a normal occurrence in Italy. Roberto said he considered it a part of everyday appliances. However, many people don’t have him. Roberto went as far as saying it should win the Noble Prize! After eating, Roberto was telling us which way was east, then he pointed west and said “That way is Wisconsin.” J

We then took a boat to a tiny little island with a church. We went up into the church tower by elevator and got to see an amazing view of Venice. Venice is a very small island. I could see both ends. We took a boat back to the mainland of Venice and walked some more around the city. We ended at Roberto’s apartment.

Fabio came in with his twin sons who were 7 years old. Along with Roberto’s and Fabio’s (they are brothers) mother. She came in holding the picture that was taken 17 years prior. She spoke no English, but she was very excited to meet with us. So was Fabio. He came in bouncing around like a kid. He guessed who was who and got it right. Fabio didn’t speak much English, but it was very good English when he did speak. His best English involved him telling us how bad he was at speaking English. lol.

We were enjoying our time so much, that we ended up having to run to the train from Roberto’s house. We almost missed it and it was the last one of the night (7pm). When we made it back to Federico’s house, he took us to a mall where we bought some Murano glass.

Saturday we woke up at 8am. Stefania, Neata (another daughter of Federico), and Federico took us to Castelfranco. We got to see the house of Giorgione, a famous painter. It was a nice little museum.

We had some lunch back at Federico’s home and then headed to the train station, since our time with our Italian friends was coming to an end. Our train left Padova at 3:55pm. The train ride was a crazy one. I never get motion sick, but trains are just not my thing. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t. It was a 3 ½ hour train ride and I struggled the whole way. I was nauseas even once we got off of the train.

When we arrived to Rome, it was a complete downpour. I walked through about 4 inches of water, dragging my suitcase behind me. I did this several times and by the time we made it to the bus stop, I was soaked. We had to wait over a half hour for our bus to come. And the bus only took us as far as the tram stop. So then we had to hop on a tram to get rest of the way to our apartment. I had a growing hatred for public transportation.

Now I am back in Rome, with 19 days until I reach home. The next three weeks are going to fly by. I have several papers to write which will make time go by faster. I will be home in no time and can’t wait to see my family and friends!

Pictures from Paris

showing love for my soldier :)

Bliss and I under the Eiffel Tower

Bliss and I with the Eiffel Tower

Me standing outside of Notre Dame

Beyond Annoyed

It is Wednesday...not even 2pm and I have already had a very eventful day. And when I say eventful...I don't mean a good eventful.

I was completely prepared for a full day of classes today. I had my bag filled with about 30 pounds of books and my laptop. My plan was to spend all day on campus, 12-8.

I got to campus to find out that the internet wasn't working on campus. The entire thing is shut down. I needed to study for my mythology quiz after my first class. I needed to get onto the John Cabot website to look at study images my professor had posted. Since I couldn't get on the internet, I decided I would come back to my apartment for the 2 hour break I have between classes. Turns out the trams weren't running because of some protest. Lovely. I waited for awhile hoping one would show up...nope.

My next thought was to take the H bus...which brings me pretty close to were I need to be. Of course that never came either. By this time I was already annoyed and impatient. To add to it....an Italian man came up to me. He said he was from Italia and asked where I was from. I told him I was from America and he grabbed my hand and started kissing it! Then he asked if I had a boyfriend and I said "Yes!"...while flipping him off with my ring finger, which has my cladaugh ring on it. I ripped my hand away and stormed away.

So I walked to the next tram stop and realized that I was not going to walk all the way back to my apartment with my 80 pounds of crap. SO I waited for the tram. Which when it finally came a half hour later, it was crammed packed. But I got on anyway.

Now I am back at the apartment...can't be in my room because Bliss is sick and skipping class. Bliss has also taken over the entire "living room." It is filled with all of her stuff and her snorkie rags. I consider it completely infected. Therefore, I am sitting in the kitchen...which is dirty. I can't even put my laptop on the table because it is filled with rotting crap.

I am trying to get onto the John Cabot website, which is apparently not working anymore. I guess if the internet on campus doesn't work...neither does their website. So now I can't study the images for my quiz in mythology.  I am guessing that the internet won't start working anytime soon...therefore I am likely to fail the quiz, since I have no idea what is going to be on it.

Now I am sitting in our dirty kitchen...annoyed...and not getting anything I needed to get done done. I have two exams this week and 4 papers to write within the next month. And they are not short little papers...shortest one is 5 pages. All requiring scholarly research using the databases on the John Cabot library website. Which of course...I can't access either because of the internet.

Hopefully my day starts to get better rather than worse.....

Paris....Bonjour....Au Revoir

I loved Paris. I got to see everything. :) 

The weekend started out Friday morning. I woke up Friday at 6:30am because of a nightmare. The nightmare consisted of me waking up and going to the bathroom. Our other 2 rommates were gone for the weekend. When I went to the bathroom...their bedroom light was on. I freaked out and went back into my room to wake up Bliss. Bliss and I went to the kitchen and grabbed some knives. We walked into their bedroom and a man was sitting in the corner and came running at us. I woke up right when that happened. I had a really hard time falling back to sleep after that nightmare.

The actual weekend started at 10:15am when we met Tynisha and Tim to go to the train. When we were going through security at the Rome airport, we witnessed a nun getting patted down!! :0 I was starving so I got a disgusting salami sandwhich from a little booth. I didn't even finish the thing because it was so gross. When we got on the plane, we had to check our luggage. We took a cheap airline and they could only have so much baggage as carry-on. So they wouldn't let us put our luggage in the overhead things. We ended up having to wait at the baggage claim to get our luggage.

We took the Orlybus to a metro once landing in Paris. I was the only one of the four of us who got on the bus. The bus driver decided there were enough people on the bus...so he started to shut the door. I freaked and told him I needed to get off. Which I did. Tim told me I should have stayed on. I was like...are you kidding me, I have no idea where we are going, I am not riding a bus by myself in Paris. Crazy!?!? Tim said I just had to get off on the last stop. Turns out that wasn't the case at all. If I would have stayed on this bus, which there is absolutely no way I would have, I wouldn't been lost.

After getting off the bus, we had to take the metro to another train. Then we had to walk up 192 steps (or marches as the sign said) while carrying our luggage. I was basically crawling by the end. After a little confusion, we found our hostel. We stayed at the Caulain Court hostel. Our room was a 4 person room with 1 bunk and 1 double.

We didn't get to our hostel until after 5pm. We decided we would end the night with dinner and a view of the Eiffel Tower at night time. After taking 20 different trains to get to the Eiffel Tower, we had dinner. Our dinner costed us 91 Euro for the four of us. It was the most expensive meal I have eaten since being abroad. I had a delicious burger and fries. After dinner, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. No picture will ever show a true picture of the Eiffel Tower at night. Especially when it lights up!

We walked from the Eiffel Tower to a military thing. None of us were quit sure what it was. Then we continued to walk to the St. louis Cathedral. Which was absolutely gorgeous, especially lit up at night.

On our walk back, we had the typical guys on the street selling items, most of which were Eiffel Towers. One man said to me, "Oh goodness, Sexy Girl!" While under the Eiffel Tower, Tynisha and I were harassed by three guys who kept yelling "Hello" at us. Oh, and I guy from another country came and took a picture with me and Tynisha. We weren't really sure why...but we went with it.

I had to use the bathroom really bad, so we found a public toilet. It was the most complicated thing I have ever used. I was right next to the Eiffel Tower. Only one person could use it at a time and it was huge. You had to wait outside for the green light to show. The the door would open and you would enter. After the door closes, you can push a button for instructions, which of course wasn't in English. Once you finished, the toilet wouldn't flush. But once you left, the door closed and the light turned blue. The bathroom was than completely sanitized (the floor, toilet, and sink). It was ridiculous.

We had to take 20 different trains to get back to our hostel. I about fell asleep on the train. My feet were in pain from all the walking we had done. I hadn't come across any rude people. From what I heard prior to coming to Paris, the French hate Americans. But I never had any problems. 

On Saturday, Bliss and Time went to Varailles (or however you spell it). They left at 7:30am and didn't bother being quiet while they got ready. Typical. Tynisha and I didn't wake up until 9:30am. We planned to spend the entire day in Rome. I paid to see Rome...and that is what I was going to do.

Tynisha and I started at the Eiffel Tower. We then walked all the way to The Louvre. We underestimated the distance, but we ended up finding a nice little path all the way there along the river. We had originally planned on taking a tour bus called the Batobus. However, we were unable to locate it while at the Eiffel Tower. As we walked to The Louvre, Tynisha pointed towards the river and said "there is the Batobus!" I was really confused...since I was looking for an actual bus. Turns out the Batobus was a boat on the river. Ha!

The Louvre was great. I am really not the museum type..but this was definitely worth it. The outside was gorgeous. The pyramid was amazing. The inside was huge. It was like a maze. And in the very center of the maze was the Mona Lisa. It took us quit some time to finally find the Mona Lisa, but it was definitely worth it. The artwork inside The Louvre ranges from Egyptian to Roman to whatever your else your heart desires.

After The Louvre, we took the Batobus (now that we knew what it was) to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was a jaw dropper. It was absolutely gorgeous, inside and out. I was obsessed with trying to get to the bell tower to locate Quasimoto from the Disney movie "Hunchback of Notre Dame." Unfortunately we were not allowed up. :'(

Tynisha and I had lunch at Subway. This Subway didn't have any ranch dressing...which I was thoroughly disappointed about.

After lunch we walked to the Latin Quarters on our way to Luxembourg Palace and Gardens. The Luxembourg Gardens were amazing. It was huge and green. I believe it was the most green grass/plants I have seen since arriving abroad. However, it was really open right in front of the palace. Which resulted in a lot of wind. Tynisha's umbrella ended up breaking or "dying" as I liked to call it. The wind was so strong that I thought I was gonna blow away. We kept saying one of us was going to take off into the air like Marry Poppins.

We then started to head back to the Eiffel Tower. We realized that it was a long walk and didn't want to go the whole way on foot. So we figured out the bus system. We took the bus to the abalisk. Then from there we walked to the Arc...which was a lot farther walk than we anticipated as well. That is one thing I hate about large monuments/buildings. They look like they are close, but you never seem to get any closer to it. By this time, my feet were burning.

The arc had some type of military ceremony going on right underneath it. So we weren't able to touch it or anything. But we got a couple pictures from across the street. And we used a bus to get back to the Eiffel Tower. At this point, it was a little after 7pm. We decided we needed to do some bargain shopping with the street guys. We got a couple of souvenirs at really good prices and headed back to the hostel. When we got to the hostel, Bliss was laying in bed and Tim had his comfy clothes on. We all ended up going out to eat. Then I went right back to the hostel to bed.

On Sunday, our plane left at 9:45 am. We had to leave our hostel at 7am. It was a very short weekend and I really wish we had more time. We basically had one day in Paris. It makes me really sad. Cause I feel like I was rushed through everything. Paris was the top place I wanted to visit, followed by London which is coming up in a few weeks.

Needless to say, I had an amazing time in Paris and would definitely like to go back someday. Next time I will definitely plan more time in the area so that I don't feel rushed. :)

Productive Weekend Alone

Tim and Bliss went to Florence and Venice this weekend, I decided to stay behind. The cost of the train alone was $142. And they weren't even spending 24 hours in each of the cities. The train ride from Venice to Rome is over 6 hours!! I felt like I needed to safe some money and get some school and personal stuff done. Although this didn't settle well with the others at first. I really hope they are having a great time, because I am enjoying my time alone.

The past two days I have been working on internship and job applications for this coming summer. I wanted to get a nice headstart on it. At least this way I won't have to worry about it when I return next semester. I have finished about 16 applications or internship inquiries. I feel very accomplished.

Now I have to work on my essay that is due on Monday. It is for mythology. I haven't even picked a top yet. Oopsies. Here I go procrastinating again. But that will be my job for tomorrow. Tonight I will finish up my statistic homework. And by tonight I mean...at midnight. Considering it is already 11:30pm.

I slept in really late today, so I am not tired. I was up all night working on my job/internship stuff. I am hoping it all pays off. I need to get back on a sleeping schedule though. So I am forcing myself to wake up early tomorrow. That way I will be tired on Sunday night and actually get some sleep. I think I am starting to get immune to my sleeping pills. They only work sometimes and when they do, they take a really long time to kick in.

I haven't talked to Michael since October 14th...its going on a month. :(  I know he has been really busy and all. He gets on facebook every once and awhile which is good. Cause atleast I know that he is alive and well. It is still nice to hear his voice though.

I am ending this procrastination. Time  to get back to my statistic homework.

A Weekend in My Homeland....GERMANY!!

Guten Tag!!

I just got back from one interesting weekend in Frankfurt, Germany.

We met up with everyone at the train station Friday morning at 6:40am. Our plane was supposed to leave at 9am...but they didn't even start boarding until 9am. Yet somehow we made it to Frankfurt 5 minutes earlier than our scheduled time. Not sure how that worked out. But our plane flew over the Alps. It was a gorgeous view...lots of snow.

After landing in Frankfurt, we had to find the train station to get to our hostel. Of course no one was willing to ask, so I went up and asked some guy at an information desk. While everyone stood about 30 feet away from me. I don't understand them sometimes. Once we finally found the station, we couldn't figure out how to get tickets from the machine. Everyone stood there for literally 10 minutes trying to figure it out. And I went up to a desk and asked a man...who gave me a ticket. :)  There is nothing wrong with asking directions! I didn't come to Germany to spend my time in an airport trying to get a ticket out of a machine.

Anyways, the train ride to the center of Frankfurt was short. We knew our hostel was going to be located in the Red Light District, but I guess I didn't realize what we were getting into. The Red Light District was several blocks long and several blocks wide. Every building was either a sex store or a stripper club. The streets were packed with men of all ages. People were doing drug deals on the street and one guy was even sniffing some sort of drug.

Eating lunch was the first thing on our "to-do" list. We had lunch at this lovely German restuarant. I got patatoe soup, a brat, and mashed patatoes. The food was amazing. It's so different then the type of food we get to eat in Rome.

Over lunch I was telling a story about something (I don't recall what it was). And I said "they are such Nazis about it." Tim looked at me like I was crazy. I was completely confused until Tim explained we were in Germany. And it is a sensitive subject for them. lol.

After lunch we headed back to the hostel to do some research on the area. The lady who worked at the hostel had no clue about anything in the area. She didn't even know where there was souvenir shopping. Tim asked her where he could get a pair of Birkenstocks....she was really confused. So she sent us in the direction of Frankfurts fifth avenue shopping. Which was definitely not what we were looking for. I didn't come to Frankfurt to go designer clothes shopping.

We ended up going to St. Bartholomew. It is the prettiest church in Frankfurt. :)

After we headed back to the hostel again to check into our room. Since we weren't allowed to until 4pm. When we got up to the room, there were already 4 beds taken. It was a 6 person room and there was for of us. We had to go back downstairs and explain that 8 people were booked in a 6 person room. They ended up upgrading us to an apartment for the night...otherwise they would have to had split us up. Which we weren't having, since we had booked the hostel 2 months ago!! The apartment had 2 double beds, a kitchen, private bathroom, and tv. We got lucky on that one.

We went to dinner in the pub area of Frankfurt. It was about a 25 minute walk across the river. I got porkloin, fried patatoes, and a mixed salad which had patatoes in it. I also got my first taste of German beer...Apple Wine. We ended up taking a taxi back to the hostel, because it was cheap and we didn't want to walk through the Red Light District when it was so active. I think the taxi cab driver was confused why 3 girls and 1 guy wanted to be dropped off in the center of the Red Light District!! lol

We were all in bed by about 10 pm. We are always really tired after the first day. Tim ended up talking in his sleep. It scared the crap out of me. I was waiting for him to smother me in my sleep or something.

Saturday we left the hostel at 10am for the flea market. We were hoping we would be able to get some souvenir shopping done here. I assumed it was going to be like the Porta Portese in Rome, but it wasn't. The Frankfurt flea market was basically a junk sale. So we decided to go to Old Town where we finally found a total of 5 souvenir shops. Let's just say that Frankfurt isn't much of a tourist location.

As we were walking, we came across a Subway. I about peed my pants in excitement and went running inside. Of course I was followed, and we ended up having lunch at Subway. I got to have ranch dressing and cheddar cheese for the first time since being abroad. It was absolutely amazing.

Then we went to play in a park. Tim and I played in the leaves, while Bliss took pictures of us. We went up Main Tower to see the gorgeous view of Frankfurt. Then headed to a box office to buy tickets for a play.

The play was at 6pm. We saw Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf. It was interesting, funny, and really confusing. Not sure if I really cared for it or not. But it was at the English Theater.

After the play we had dinner. I got one beef sausage, one pork sausage, and one Frankfurter sausage with mashed patatoes.

When we were walking back to the hostel, Tim made a comment about having a nice butt. I laughed hysterically and he said I was jealous of him. And then he asked if I thought he had a nice butt. I told him I have never looked at it, so he did a little model walk down the sidewalk. I inform him that I can't look at it because my eyeballs will burn out of my head. :)

As we walked through the Red Light District, I was apparently the main attraction. I didn't even notice until Tim told me to keep walking blonda. That is his signal that I am being creeped on. Apparently he had to glare at every guy that we walked passed. Including a taxi driver who was talking on his cell phone and went, "OOOOO." I told Tim it didn't bother me...because at least the Germans just look and don't touch, unlike the Italians who are overly friendly.

Saturday night we got moved back into the hostel room we were supposed to originally stay in. It was for 6 people, so 2 others that we did not know stayed there as well. We got to the hostel around 11pm and one of our roommates was already sleeping. She ended up getting up at 7am and was extremely noisy on her way out. Our 2nd roommate didn't come home until 4:30am and was still sleeping when we left at noon.

After we checked out of our hostel Sunday, we walked to get some breakfast. There ended up being a huge Frankfurt running marathon. So we had to run with the runners to cross the street. Which was definitely a site to see with me in my heels. I think Tim, Tynisha, and Bliss almost died laughing as they watched me run across the street.

We to take a 100 minute boat tour after grabbing some breakfast. We had lunch on the boat as well, which was yummy. Then we headed to pick up our baggage so we could go to the airport. That's when we realized that it was daylight savings, so we had an extra hour. But everyone wanted to go to the airport anyways.

We ended up having to wait over 30 minutes for the ticket line to open up. Then once we finally made it to security, things starting getting interesting. I set off the beeper when I went through. So a security lady made me come over into this little booth, where she padded me down. I was wearing jeggings (jean colored tights), but she felt up and down my legs numerous times. Even though there was obviously no room for me to hide anything. After I felt completely violated, she made me take off my boots and she sent them through the xray thing, and finally gave them back. I thought I was all clear...but I wasn't. The security guy was holding onto my carry-on. I went over there and asked what was wrong. He made me open it and he grabbed a box that was in there. He asked what was in it, but I couldn't remember, since everything I bought was put in some kind of wrapping. So he made me open it. It ended up being a musical ballerina I had boughten in Old Town. He handed it to me and told me to open it. I tried to tell him that it didn't open, that it played music. So I turned it so that it would play music. He flinched, maybe because he tought it was going to blow up? Well he took it from me and put it to his ear...then went to consult with a fellow security person. I thought they were going to take it away, but he finally gave it back. Apparently they thought my musical ballerina was a homemade explosive device.

To add to everything, my eye starting hurting on Saturday. I think there was a rip in my contact, but silly me didn't bring an extra pair nor did I bring my glasses. So I suffered through it until we were on the boat tour. I finally decided I rather be blind then go through the pain, so I took it out. And my eye felt 10 times worse. It would not stop watering and was turning more red by the minute. My only thought is that I scratched my eyeball.

As I thought about things, I came to the conclusion that the security person probably thought I looked like a psycho since my one eye was swollen, red, and watery. That's why they were so suspicious.

Our flight didn't leave Germany until 6:45pm. I am happy to be back in my bed here in Rome, but I definitely miss the weather in Germany. It reminded me so much of home.