Last weekend Josh and I went skiing at Garmisch. It was so incredibly cool! It's the resort below Zugspitze, the tallest peak in Germany. It was a huge mountain and there was so much to ski and so much powder! The powder was amazing. I haven't skiied in powder all season and it felt so good. The visibility wasn't fantastic but that meant that the higher Josh and I went, the less people there were. The first half of the day was better but not by much. The whole day was great. We found this run where you skiied through a gap in the mountains with a sign that said, "Please don't loiter. Falling rocks." That led into this long, windy powder filled run that was so cool! Also, there were trees! I haven't encountered any tree skiing until this point and it was so much fun. I just jumped in and was bouncing all over the place and dodging branches and having a great time. Josh followed me half the time. The other half he just let me play and skiied down the groomed stuff. It was one of those skis days that reminded me of Alta and I felt so at home. It was so incredible. The scenery was also incredibly stunning. Josh and I stopped at some points and just stared. The Alps are beautiful but deadly. It's the kind of beauty that takes your breathe away but scares the hell out of you at the same time. I understand why people talk about skiing in the Alps now. Very worth it. Also, a great break from essays and studying for finals.This is kind of a short post, I just got so excited about the ski day that I decided to blog about it. Love ya'll!
Finals week is no fun. I had my first final today and it went well, it just took me two hours. I'm very ready for finals to be over though. My work is slowly getting done. I finished one of the papers and presented it to the class. It went really well and now that's over. The final for that class, Landeskunde, is tomorrow. My Kunstgeschichte paper is halfway done and due on Thursday. Shouldn't take me too long. My Lit paper, whose final was today, is also halfway done but will take longer cuz my brain doesn't want to process any more intense German. It keeps trying to give up but I won't let it. I'm actually really proud of myself that I'm done so well on the work so far. My German has also gotten really good so writing a 15-page paper in German doesn't seem nearly as hard as it would have two months ago. It still hurts. I'm getting really stoked for Saturday! We're going to Mainz first and then flying to Venice. I'm going to Venice! Still can't wrap my head around that. I can't wait for this trip. It's gonna be a great break. I'm still stressing about this week though. Somehow I'll get through it. It also feels weird to be going through finals right now because we didn't get a reading week and everyone else has just started their second semester. All my friends in the States anyway. I'm just ending my first semester. I honestly don't know how this much time has passed. Last Friday was the 5 Month Mark and that felt so weird. I can't believe I've been in Germany for five months. It seems like so much longer and so much shorter. I barely remember Oktoberfest and Thanksgiving. I'm still so grateful that I'm here and get to stay here for another six months. It feels really cool and really odd at the same time. I have fallen completely in love with Europe and part of me never ever ever wants to come home. It's been such an amazing experience so far and will continue to be. Hope everyone back home is doing well. Love ya'll! Emily
I have a computer again! Finally. It's all in German, German keyboard, everything. It's fun trying to figure the inner workings of your computer when you don't know much about computers in your mother tongue. Trying in German is quite a fun challenge. I'm actually really enjoying. My vocabulary is expanding purely out of day-to-day necessity. Anyway, that is really not important. This week was pretty good, pretty normal. It's become crunch time and my head feels kind of like it did after the AP Exams - like my brain was run through a meat grinder and then squished out my ears and then told to function. These two weeks are gonna suck... Kunstgeschichte got really interesting this week. We're learning about Artists like Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol and the whole art movement in the 60's. I'm really enjoying. Joseph Beuys was a ridiculous man. Apparently he would give talks to people and during one talk, someone who hated him punched him in the nose and broke it. Beuys didn't react at all, he just kept talking through his profusely bleeding nose and pretended nothing ever happened. Another time, he was in New York for an exhibition and didn't stay in a hotel but instead stayed in a room in the Exhibit with a coyote. Just for kicks. The man was nuts... Anyway, that's been fun. The other classes are winding down since the semester is almost over. We have class next week and then finals. Oh my god...I have no idea how this happened. How did it get be 2010? How is the semester almost over? Really, the bigger question is, how did I end up in Germany? I know it's a foreign country but it doesn't feel like it most of the time. There are some things that are lacking but mostly, I've adjusted. Sometimes I wake and question where I am and how the hell I got here, but mostly it's just normal. Living in the heart of Europe like this. My German has gotten ridiculously good. Especially in the last two weeks. I don't know why but I feel so much more fluent in the last two weeks than I did before. I really enjoy the feeling. I'm still really enjoying life here but am ready for the crunch/stress time to be over. Then we go to Italy! It's gonna be crazy! So cool! I don't think I'll realize I'm in Italy until I touch it. In my head Italy is in Europe which is so far away from me, cuz I honestly forget I'm Europe. I gotta run cuz Jana's over now and I'm going to give my brain a rest. It needs one. Love everyone! Peace, Emily
Hey peeps. It's finally Sunday, the end of one of the most frustrating/ridiculous weeks of my life. Let me explain.
Tuesday - Computer gives me the blue screen of death. I'm not too happy about that so I go with Josh to Media Markt, where they fix PCs, and ask if it's reparable. They tell me that the amount of money that would go into fixing my old might as well be put towards buying a new one.
Wednesday - The hunt for the new computer begins. My neighbor Andrei helps me find a new laptop online. We find a good one that's not crazy expensive and order it. I chose the next day delivery option and thought that was that. So wrong...
Thursday- My computer got delivered but I wasn't there to pick it up so they left a piece of paper in my mailbox telling me when and where I could pick it up. So at 19:00 I go out to Oberschleißheim (read: middle of nowhere) to find the DHL offices. I see a DHL sign and go inside and ask if I can pick up packages there or just send them out. Turns out, you can send them out from this place. So we have this conversation in German and I find out that you need a car to get to the DHL offices. Of course I don't have one. So I'm SOL. Then the lady helping me says she'll call DHL to arrange another delivery. She gets on the phone, we've been talking in German the ENTIRE time, and she says "I have a customer here who needs a package delivered and I called for her because she barely speaks any German and wouldn't understand you." It was a damn good thing there were people around and a counter inbetween us, cuz I was livid. Who the hell has the balls to say that in front of a customer? And we had been speaking German the whole time and we understood each other. It was just ridiculous. Words don't begin to describe how mad I was.
Friday - After a long day, I get home to wait for the computer to arrive. It shows up, I hold it, look at it, and then go to pay for it. The box is in my room, on my floor, inches away from me. The delivery guy then tells me that his credit card machine is broken so I can't pay with a credit card and do I have that much money in cash? Yes, I have large wads of cash lying around my room. Give me a minute. It's really too bad sarcasm goes over most Germans heads. I had so many good responses and lots of four letter words. He apologizes profusely and then takes the computer away. I literally had it, and then poof! Weg. (gone) This is serious Karma.
Saturday - I call DHL again and ask for another delivery date. Turns out it was too late to deliver on Saturday so I need to wait until Monday.
At this point I am so fed with this shit and it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous that I kind of just gave up and am still waiting for my computer. At first I was sad, then mad, then frustrtated, then livid, then whatever goes past livid. Wütender als wütend. Madder than hell. It was just a ridiculous saga. The dieties must really hate me. I'm just really happy this week is over and hopefully my computer actually successfully gets to me tomorrow.
I got the blue screen of death yesterday. My computer decided it was going to up and die on me because it felt like it, so it did. I'm not angry so much anymore as frustrated. I didn't lose any files because they're backed up, Gott sei Dank (thank God) but still being computerless in today's world hurts. (In case you're wondering, I'm using Jana's right now.) So I'm just gonna have to wait until sometime next week for my computer to come. It's really frustrating because I have multiple essays to write and without Word, that is rather difficult. And due to me being lazy and not signing up my email address for LMU (Ludwig Maxmillion Universitaet) I can't access the LMU computers until tomorrow. It's really sad how dependent we are on technology. I hate it but legitimately can't function without a working laptop. Oh well. Hope everyone else is doing well. Miss you guys! Love, Emily
The week after the holidays....so much fun. No one has any desire to do anything homework-related, you're still thinking Christmas type thoughts. It doesn't help that school started on Monday and should have started a week later. But it doesn't really matter anymore. Bygones (new phrase courtesy of Ally Mcbeal)
Monday - Had Sprachkurs but it was just an ease back into things. Would have had Literatur but Crystal (the teacher) was sick so it was cancelled. Hung out that night with Meatro and Jana and went out to Killians. The Snakebite is so good there! It's a good thing Killians is relatively far away, otherwise I would drink one too many Snakebites.
Tuesday - Got up WAY too early to go to Landeskunde. Went to the Patentamt for class (Patent Office - rough translation.) Had nothing else that day, like every Tuesday so I spent most of the day sleeping and watching more Ally Mcbeal.
Wednesday - Holy Three Kings Day, which translates into a holiday for Bavaria. That means we didn't have school, which is why school shouldn't have even started this week. Whatever. Jana and I hung out in Starbucks and planned our two week trip. I'm so stoked! We're headed to Italy (Venice, Florence, and Rome) and Greece (Athens). It will take about two weeks and we'll hit up Venice during Carnaval Season (Mardi Gras) which apparently is nuts! I'm incredibly excited. However, still have 6 weeks til that happens. I can do it.... Anyway, that night was my friend Anna's birthday so we went to Atomic Cafe and hung out with a bunch of people. It was really relaxed, nice environment. I had never been but had heard good things. They are true. It's a cool place. Stayed up too late as usual and had to wake up early for Landeskunde - again. This always seems to happen.
Thursday - Had Landeskunde again. Talked about music. It was alright. I just really wasn't in a class type mood this week. Also had Kunstgeschichte (art history) which I really like. It's always nice but sometimes it goes a little too long. Surprisingly, one can only look at really cool art for so long.
Friday - Ceramics MAD early. Too early. I really like the class and I'm fine once I get there but it's the getting up part that kills me. Our project was an architectural structure with pillars. Our projects are almost always that vague. It's a good class, just totally different from any ceramics class I've taken in the States. Had Kunstgeschichte again but Gerald (host dad) had stuff for me that I left in Chemnitz so he came by to drop stuff of and we got coffee and Doener. I love Doener! I love that Germany has so much of it. That night was pretty chill. The entire weekend was pretty chill. I'm kind of sick - right now just have the cough of death when I wake up and go to bed - so took it easy this weekend.
Saturday - Slept almost all day. It gets dark really early here so it's hard to motivate myself to stay awake sometimes. That's my only issue with Munich in the winter. Sunday - went to the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Musuem). It's in the old Rathaus tower and it's so cool! They had trains, tin toys, Barbie from her "birth" til now, Robots, wooden toys from 1870's, really odd dolls - it was so neat. I had a great time. It's a small museum but has a lot of interesting things. Surprisingly, a lot of American toys.
Mostly my life returns to the normal pace. Well, my European normal life. Which is seemingly exotic and really exciting. These next couple of weeks are not going to be fun however. I have ridiculous amounts of work to do and of course it's all in German. It makes sense but it means it will take much longer than it would in English. I can do it. I just need to buckle down and focus.
Greetings from Munich and until next time! Love, Emily
Of everything I've seen here in Germany, Sylvester (New Year's Eve) has to be one of the most ridiculous/awesome/scary/thrilling. The day of Sylvester we hung out, played more Wii, lit of a few Boeller to test them and just chilled. That night we went to this club, Alex, and got dinner and all you could drink (your entrance ticket covered the cost) and played "Never have I ever" but the German version. It was a lot of fun. The music was good and the atmosphere was fun. Nicole and I danced in the conga line a couple times, the boys lit off more Boeller. It eventually became midnight and we all cheered and celebrated. I did miss watching the Ball drop though. That's been staple my entire life and it was sad not to have it. :( We headed back to Jana's house and as we were walking down the street, I felt like I was walking through a battlefield. Fireworks were being thrown all around us and they were just going off at random moments and I legitimately thought I was going to get hurt at some points. There's really no regulations here and they make fireworks that sounds like bombs so it was nuts. The explosions would echo off the buildings and make it seem like the explosion was all around you. It's almost impossible to describe but it was so cool. We get back to Jana's and the boys go out on the lawn and light off the rockets and "Effekte" (the pretty fireworks that don't make a lot of noise but spark pretty colors; you know, our normal ones.) They were out there for at least three hours and it was freezing! Nicole and I stayed on the balcony and watched from there. :) I just sat there watching the fireworks and hearing the city of Chemnitz explode and thought to myself, what a perfect place to be right now. This is such an amazing experience. I've heard so many good things about Germany and experienced so many good things here, but Sylvester was another level. It was solidified how much I'm happy to be here. If anyone wants a really cool New Years experience, Germany is the place to come. So different from anything in the US, especially Utah. Happy New Years everyone! Gesundes neues! Love, Emily
eople there were. The first half of the day was better but not by much. The whole day was great. We found this run where you skiied through a gap in the mountains with a sign that said, "Please don't loiter. Falling rocks." That led into this long, windy powder filled run that was so cool! Also, there were trees! I haven't encountered any tree skiing until this point and it wa
s so much fun. I just jumped in and was bouncing all over the place and dodging branches and having a great time. Josh followed me half the time. The other half he just let me play and skiied down the groomed stuff. It was one of those skis days that reminded me of Alta and I felt so at home. It was so incredible. The scenery was also incredibly stunning. Josh and I stopped at some points and just stared. The Alps are beautiful but deadly. It's the kind of beauty that takes your breathe away but scares the hell out of you at the same time. I understand why people talk about skiing in the Alps now. Very worth it. Also, a great break from essays and studying for finals.This is kind of a short post, I just got so excited about the ski day that I decided to blog about it. Love ya'll! 
