Saturday, October 23, 2004

Chronicles

So I've been here almost 2 months...and I already have crazy stories. I suppose that is to be expected, especially when you have the sort of social life that Bamberg seems to bring up. However, I have decided that I want to try to avoid being involved in all of the ridiculous around me...no problems going out, having fun and meeting new people, but I still think I need to be more like me. We shall see how long this resolution lasts. In other news, I have been here almost 2 months!!! Saweeet. You know what that means??? I'm two months closer to being back in the glorious U.S. of A. Ding! Get ready it will be awesome. I'm also psyched to be bizzouncing up to Berlin on Friday. There will be a bunch of Halloween parties next weekend, and then I get to chill with the Princeton kids up there. Mad excited to explore a new city and see what there is to see. Hopefully the weather will stay as nice as it has been this weekend. If you have any recommendations on what I should see while there, let me know!

Thursday, October 21, 2004

esruc eht

world series 2004. nothing but the best from boston. bring it.

despite not being able to watch any of the games from Bamberg, i am mad psyched. after all these years, the bosox did it :) double yay! as someone pointed out, just imagine what will happen if Houston wins their series:
texas versus massachusetts in a series that would end days before the presidential election. oh how perfect this could be. 'swonderful.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

14 Innings

Woke up today to see that the BOSOX had won Game 5 in the 14th inning! HOLY MOLY! how awesome is that? In honor, I am wearing my jersey all through Bamberg. Be prepared. That is just about the best thing, first thing in the morning. sigh.

Things I have been up to recently:
* Went out and met a whole bunch of the international students here at the University. Lots o' cool people from all over the place with the only problem being the lack of German everyone seems to speak.
* Spent a good part of the weekend down in Munich. There was a special festival where the musuems were open from 7 pm till 2 am. Nothing quite like popping around the city late at night, seeing some art, and drinking special mulled wine.
* Had my first lecture at the University: Intro to european and international politics. Seems interesting enough and the lecturer is awesome. He is this German guy. Yay!

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Regensburg-orama

It was definitely a weekend for adventure. On Sunday, I popped down to Regensburg with Neil, who's a fulbrighter from Atlanta. Regensburg is about 2 hrs south of here and maybe an hour from Munich. The entire city was really beautiful, and we lucked out by showing up during their Fall Festival. There were stands all over the place selling many types of handmade goods and produce and all sorts of randomness. Lindsey, the fulbrighter from Ohio that lives in Regensburg, showed us around. Some of the highlights: the oldest fortified bridge (built in the 12th century) across the Danube is still there; the Schottenkirche St. Jakob is a super awesome church that was built by Irish monks in 1120 and has a portal that is one of the primary examples of romanesque architecture in Europe; and the Dom, which was built in the mid-13th century although the spires were added in the 1800s. Even though it was ridiculously cold out, we walked around for quite some time. Eventually we meandering into PamPam, this little Italian restaurant in a corner. The food was marvelous and cheap (ding!) and we spent a few hours just talking about how teaching and everything is going. All in all, great times. There are plans in the works to see some museums in Munich and cook some sort of harvest feast with pumpkins here in Bamberg. And from what I hear, there just might be a Halloween party in Berlin. BUT it requires a costume....any suggestions?

Friday, October 08, 2004

alright already, we'll all float on!

Hip Hip Hoooray! Today my landline was finally all set and working. When I first got my connection, I plugged my phone into a jack right by my desk. It was a prime location, woo hoo, but unfortunately I couldn't seem to actually use the phone. doh. So I visited my friendly, local Deutsche Telekom office and today, they sent a technician. He couldn't figure it out either, so he dragged in my Hausmeister--Herr Englisch (yeah yeah, I think it's funny too). It was simple. I just needed to use the other jack. Because obviously my tiny room needs more than one phone jack. Call me crazy, but I had yet to find the jack that was UNDERNEATH my bed. I guess there's just a great need for privacy or something??

Anyways. So now I have a regular phone [+49 951 3028326], which really rocks my face off. I can call people back in the States again for oh so little money. One of the best parts of my day was getting to talk to Sarah B, even though she was running off to do meetingish Princetonian things. But yay :)

Great story from today though: I bought a bottle of Federweisser wine, which is a regional/seasonal specialty. It's a type of grape juice that is not done with its whole fermenting process, and according to the germans, this wine has a "zippy" taste. It's a white wine, but it is still a bit on the murky side due to how it's made. As the woman handed me the bottle, she warned me that I had to drink it in the next few days, or it might explode! HaHaHaHa. Gosh, I love Germania. *tear*

Happy Columbus Day Weekend y'all :)

Monday, October 04, 2004

Needle in a Haystack

Happy German National Unity Day!

For the past couple of days, my dad has been visiting here in Bambergia. It's been really wonderful having someone from home around. We spent a lot of the weekend walking around the town and the parks and just exploring the various nooks and bridges. The weather had been pretty cold and gross here for about the entire week before, but somehow it started to clear up on Saturday. We went to a few of the churches, which are just beautiful and awesome, but couldn't actually go in some because there were many many weddings. Dad took oooodles of pictures and is sure to print many of them up once he gets home. As always the saying goodbye part will be the hardest, but it was a real treat to be able to spend some time and catch up with him, especially since he has such a busy schedule right now with work. Time to pass him on back to mom and Anniekins! It really was such a lovely weekend visit.