I'm Late For EVERYTHING

I know, I know, I'm late--what else is new? BUT! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I hope everyone back home Stateside had a wonderful Christmas! I had my very first German Christmas (Weihnachten) and it was great :) Once again, Kai and Lisa are too nice to me and got me a few little gifts, and then even an awesome speaker for my iPod--and they loved the gifts that I got them as well, even though my most brilliant plan of the Krümel Kalendar won't be finished until the 1st, (so I just printed off the 12 months pictures and gave them to them as a sneak peek).
Christmas Eve, I met Bertus and some of his friends out at the bars in Bonn (I have been here 2 months as of today and this was the first time I have gone out in Bonn.. instead of making the hike to Köln. Retarded.) at around midnight or so. They were all really nice, and as everyone drank more and more, they begun all speaking only English, and I begun speaking only my perfect German, naturally. I'll admit, I ended up getting really drunk, and I blame it solely on the fact that I at one point became best friends with the bartender that would then make me all kinds of drinks, and the fact I did a shot of Tequilla with someone also didn't help my cause. NOTE TO SELF: Never drink Tequilla ever again. It only makes you act like an asshole (continue reading for example). We finally left the bar at around 5 or so (I think?) and got in a cab. Kai had told me that because it was Christmas, the trains wouldn't be running again until noon or so the next day, and because he wasn't going to really want to come pick me up at 5am, my best bet was to crash on Bertus' white couch. So I did. Now, I told you that tequilla makes you act like an asshole.. and it does. Apparently, I decided that the cab driver was an idiot and started yelling at him and calling him stupid/dumb the whole ride home. For no reason what-so-ever. Oops. Hopefully he didn't speak English and didn't know what I was saying... I slept FOREVER the next day because Germany has the most amazing invention ever invented in all of human history: Rolläden. (look it up, and be amazed). Basically, they keep out ALL light so you can have your own little crypt and sleep forever. They're so awesome. I don't know where in the world I will be living in 10 years, but one thing is a fact, and that is that I am SOOO having these installed in my house. I love them.
The day after Christmas, (Saturday the 26th), Kai, Lisa, Johanna, Emilian and I all went to Lisa's mother's house to have a little get together with her family. It was so cute. Her uncles and aunts, and grandparents and cousins and everyone was there. They were all just so cute, I wanted to die :) They reminded me a lot of my family--who I miss A LOT, especially during the holidays.. but there's always next year! Lisa's grandfather might have been the cutest old man I have ever seen. Although, most of the time, I was to busy thinking of funny things that I had seen/heard and would start laughing to myself (the wine didn't help). Pretty sure a lot of the people there thought that I was either A, retarded B, really immature or C, both. But whatever, I couldn't help it. Some things are just too funny. And so sue me, I like to laugh ;) At one point, Bertus told me later that one of his uncles interpreted my laughing as flirting with Felix--Lisa's 16 (yeah, I said SIXTEEN) year old brother. Yeah, the guy sure did crack the case! Wrong. But all in all I had a really nice time, and I was really excited to meet everyone in Lisa's family :)
So that was my first German Christmas experience. I can't believe New Year's Eve is in 3 days! That's so crazy!!! Again, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas back home, and have an awesome New Year's!!! (And remember to drink some Champagne at 6pm on the 31st also to be celebrating the New Year with me here in Germany--and I'm going to make sure to drink some at 6am to be celebrating at the same time as most of you back home!) Miss and Love you all every day! xoxox Megs

OH NO! IT'S HAPPENING!

OH GOD. I AM BECOMING EURO. After looking through my iPod with the music that I have been listening to a lot in the past week or so.. it's official. I'm becoming a European I think. Ugh. What is happening to me?! I've only been here for almost 2 months (what???!!) and the seed has apparently already been planted. Oh WTF. Oh well.

So I don't really have much to talk about today (other than my discovery of how I am listening to a bunch of EuroTrash music, and I can't lie, I can't get enough of it! hahaha.. Oh God.. New Low.) Anyway, I did want to post a few of the pictures I made for "die Krümel Kalendar" that I plan on giving to Kai and Lisa. Hahaha.. don't act like you're not impressed. Alright, I'll post again soon most likely. I think I might be going out to the bars in Bonn with Bertus, (Lisa's 22 year old younger brother) on Christmas Eve.. sooo.. yes! Haha. Post soon. Happy Holidays everyone. Ich Vermisse und Liebe dich alles :) xoxo Megs

What a Bunch of Liars

So as I have said on here before, I have been told numerous times that this region of Germany doesn't really ever get snow. Well what a bunch of liars! I woke up with a fresh blanket of snow yesterday (Saturday) Yay :) It's still nothing compared to what we get back home, but hey it's something so I'm happy.

Today is Sunday, which means another week has gone by. I really can't believe how fast it's already going. I am going on my 8th week here in Deutschland. Crazy. Christmas is also in 5 days!! WHAT?! Maybe I should get on the whole buying gifts thing.. I have NO clue what I am going to get Kai or Johanna. For Lisa, I am making a calendar out of a picture of Emilian. It's really silly, but I think its hilarious and cute, and I think she'll like it. I'm taking one picture (the one I posted of him on here last week..) and I'm using 'paint' to draw on him for the different months. Its pretty funny. So I have Lisa covered, but no clue as for Kai and Johanna. Hmm..

On Friday I didn't really do to much after 'work' other than read some more of my new book (it's called Pope Joan--it's a Historical Fiction book about a girl in the Dark Ages who pretends to be a man and becomes the pope.. it's pretty good and I would recommend it), watched Interview with the Vampire (awesome) and then went to bed. Exciting, huh? Yesterday, at around noon I decided to go into Bonn and do some shopping. I was hoping that I would find something for Kai or Johanna, but nothing. However, I did find something for myself :) I usually feel guilty when I spend money on myself--especially since it's Christmas time, but I needed a new winter coat since I didn't really have room in my suitcase to bring mine. I had been looking for awhile and could never find one that I truly loved. I also couldn't decide if I wanted to buy just like a cheap one from H&M or something that wouldn't last long, or if I wanted to spend the money on a really nice one. Well, I finally found one that I fell in love with--and it definitely cost me a pretty penny. It was 199.00 Euro. Yeah, I definitely dropped €200 (which is about 286 dollars American) on a jacket, but it's so beautiful, I love it, so I won't make myself feel bad for buying it. It's black, made in Italy, and made of "virgin wool" and cashmere. Ahh.. its gorgeous, I'm really excited about it :) After finding my new jacket I walked around Bonn some more hoping that I would see something to get for my family. Nichts. I spent around 4 hours in Bonn, had a cup of Glühwein, and then decided to head home. Before I left, I stopped to into the grocery store to buy a bottle of wine to give to Nachi for his "flat-warming" party that night. I was looking through the vast wine section, and decided it best to give a good American wine :) I asked the man working there where the section of California wines were, found a nice one and bought it. I got home around 5 or so, and just relaxed in my room for a bit before I had to take a shower and start getting ready for the night.

So last night, Nachi, my Indian friend that I met at TNDC, invited me to his new apartment in Köln for a little "flat-warming" get together and then we would all go out to the bars. With Pat back in the US for the holidays, I told Nachi he is now responsible for giving me something to do on the weekends :P There were 2 German guys there, a couple from Russia, a girl from Peru, a guy from Ukraine, a girl from Kazakhstan (who is constantly getting Borat jokes thrown her way) and 2 girls from Armenia. We all drank some Kölsch and wine at his new place, which is in an awesome location off of Freisenplatz--pretty much in the heart of Köln's bar/club scene. After, we went to Bar Cologne--which was the same place I had been the weekend before with Pat and Blake and the others. After having a few beers there, and a few shots of Jager, it was time to find another bar. By the time we found the next one we wanted to go to, everyone douched out and decided they wanted to go home. So it was just Nachi and I. He at one point said that he was impressed because I was 'out-drinking' him. I told him I went to WVU, so he should get used to being drank under the table ;) I think we finally left the bar at around 3 or so. The next train to Widdig--the tiny village I currently live in--wasn't scheduled to come until 5 or so. Being drunk and tired, that did not sound like fun. Nachi offered his couch to me, and I gladly accepted. We stopped at the PACKED Burger King that was right around the corner from his apartment to grab a 1 euro cheeseburger. I told him while standing in line (seriously, there were like 80 people in there--haha drunk people and their cheeseburgers..) that I didn't think this was a good idea because of my fear of BK. He thinks I'm nuts, like most people do when I tell them of my fear of Burger King (mostly because of the wrappers.. okay I know its weird, but I dunno.. its something about them...). We finally went back to his apartment and I crashed until about 10 or so when I woke up to make my journey home.

And here is where the story gets interesting.

So I headed for the U-Bahn, which is nothing special, it's how I always get from Bonn to Köln, and I pretty much know my way around now. So I was waiting for my number 16 to show, and I am not kidding--yes, I understand it's cold out, but people were looking at me like they had never seen legs before. I was wearing my dress from the night before (classy) with my coat and Uggs, but apparently this is CRAZINESS here in Germany, because I couldn't help but just laugh at everyone when they looked at me. Retarded. Anyway, at one point while I was waiting listening to my iPod, this man came and, like everyone else, looked at me like I had 8 legs, and then stood next to me. When my train came I boarded and oh what a surprise, the same creepy guy sat right across from me. And oh cool, he wants to chat. Usually, I am all for talking, but not particularily when I'm hungover and tired as hell. And especially not to creepy old men that are looking at me like they want to date me up. So he starts asking me if I am cold because of my legs. I told him no, and that where I come from it's colder. He asked me how old I was and shit like that. I answered politely but made it--what I thought--to be pretty apparent that I didn't feel like talking. But ohhhh, that doesn't work here. Apparently someone sitting in silence on a train looking out the window with earphones in their ears = I would love to have a conversation with you. He started saying something that I didn't really understand. I understood when he asked me if I had a boyfriend, and I was dumb enough to answer truthfully and say 'nein'. Dumb. Move. He told me I had pretty eyes and said he thought I was beautiful (note: he also thought I was from Scandinavia. Uhh, really?) Eew. The whole experience creeped/grossed me out. And lucky for me the guy was going to a small town south of Bonn, so yippee! he rode with me the whole time. Ugh. Finally it was my stop and before I got up to leave he told me that I was "very beautiful" and then gave me a high five. Hahahaha, I will admit, that part was funny. I mean, a high five? Whatever. It was creepy.

I finally made it home and crawled back into bed, watched Team America (fuck yeah! Comin' along to save the mother-fucking day yeah!) and slept for about another hour and a half. Just another exciting day in the life of Megan living in der VaterLand! xoxo ..and oh happy day! The SlingBox is back in business! And just in time for Bowl Season :D

R..U..D..E

Okay, so the "RUDE" from the title of this post is aimed toward the SlingBox that Travis got for me like a month ago. Probably for a good 2 weeks now maybe? It hasn't been working. SOOO that means, I haven't been able to keep up with any American sports. I goto espn.com regularly for the scores. But still. boooooo.
Aside from that, everything has been good. This past Friday I didn't really do much after getting "off" from "work". I seriously am sitting here trying to tell you what I did.. but I have no idea. I honestly can't remember. Hmm.. (and no, alcohol is NOT the reason for my bad memory mother). So Saturday, Lisa, Kai, Johanna and the little crumb and I all went into Bad Godesburg (small town just south of Bonn) for our "chocolate fondue" day. I am not even joking when I say that I feel like all I eat here is chocolate. Anyway, we went to that and it was nice. We had a small emergency when Emilian decided to be cool and just shit his brains out. Hahaha being a baby most be hilarious, like I'm sure he was acutally thinking in his head at the time "hmm.. this could be entertaining" and then just starting crapping his pants. Hhahaahha, is anyone else laughing as hard as I am right now after re-reading that? ahahaah. Whatever. Luckily he was able to be cleaned up, and Lisa had to run to the H&M across the street to buy a new pair of baby pants for him--it was the ONE time Lisa didn't have extra of everything in her bag, she couldn't believe it. Lesson Learned.
Saturday, I had decided that I would cook Lasagna on Sunday night, so we went to the store to try and get everything I would need. Again, it was quite the adventure trying to find everything--my list had all kinds of math and converstions all over it as I had to change everything from cups/ounces to ml and from lbs. to grams. It was really fun, let me tell you ;) While shopping, around 6:30 or so, I received a text from Pat (the other American guy I know, and pretty much my only friend here at this point..) asking if I had any "plans tonight?" I texted him back with "Plans? Is that some sort of sick joke?!" He told me that he was going out with a few other friends and I was more than welcome to come if I wanted. I decided I definitely wanted to go out, so when I came home from grocery shopping I started to get ready. I met him and Blake (a guy from Denver that I had met once before) in Köln at around 10ish or so. We walked to another bar where we met up with a few of their girl friends they knew. One of the girls, Sandra--who is British--had 2 of her friends from England there visiting. Uhh.. let me tell you.. they were HAMMERED. Apparently they had all been at the ChristmasMarkets starting at around 1 or so and had been drinking the traditional drink of the Markets: Glühwein. So yeah, shitfaced. The other girl was French, named Helen, and she was really sweet. There was another girl there, named Julia who was German and she had her guy friend, Jonathan, (also German, but also kind of Norwegian considering he spent all of his teen years in Norway? I guess? Maybe?) there as well. All in all it was a really nice and fun group of people :) There had been some sort of drama at the table with Jonathan and one of the hammered Brits, but I was kinda out of the loop and didn't understand why she was pissed off (I think she just had a case of the 'Jill Lookabaugh', where she got wasted and then got angy...) but who knows. The 2 Brits that were visiting (and piss drunk) went home and the rest of us walked to another nearby club. On the way there I was trying to figure out what the hell had happened with the "drama" at the table, and Jonathan explained it as one of the girls was just showing "proper bitch behavior". Haha I laughed for awhile at that comment. I mean, what is Proper Bitch Behavior?! Hmm.. I dunno, but I'm gonna try it out sometime. We all went to the club drank more and danced to some EuroDance mixes (I swear, they eat shit like that up, the sterotypes are real! haha). We didn't stay out nearly as late as we did the other time I had gone out with Pat--we left the bar at around 2:40ish.
Sunday was "Lasagna day". That is, after I pretty much slept all day. When I finally decided to stop being a complete waste of life, I got up and headed downstairs to start getting everything ready for Johanna and I to cook (we decided that about twice a month--weekends when Johanna was with us--I would cook and help to teach Johanna). Once again, and I'm not trying to brag (well, maybe I am) but my lasagna turned out bangin'. It was soo good :) After dinner I reported up to my room to my laptop to catch the scores of the Bengals/Vikings game. (Again, no SlingBox to watch it on.. grrr) Fortunately for me, I had left my cell phone down-chun (if you know my language from when I was little, you know what that means) in the living room so I didn't get Pat's rude texts/call (he's a Vikings fan).

Hmm.. Okay.. I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch of info, but I'm not going to lie, I'm kinda over typing right now, so I'm gonna go. But that was in a nutshell, my nice little weekend :) Post again soon, Tscüss xoxo Megan
PS-The way I just dead-ended this post.. haha.. I mean, great ending? Or greatest EVER?!?!

Krümel

Two posts in one day?! Do you think you can handle it?! As soon as I got this picture I had to post it.. so hence the double postings for the day. How freaking cute is he?! Oh my god.. way too cute I want to die.

TNDC

Last night--Thursday, December 10th--I went to my first 'Thursday Night Drink Club' get-together in Köln. Every week starting at around 8 or so, a group of "ex-pats" gets together to share some beers and just talk in English at an Irish Pub in AlterMarkt. The group was originally just a few Americans, Brits and Aussies living in the area, but over the last few years its grown to a much larger group of people from all over the world. I decided to check it out for the first time, and it turned out to be a lot of fun, but at the same time quite a surreal experience. I didn't arrive until about 8:45ish and there was barely anyone in the place. After having a mini-panic attack thinking that there was no one there, I found a small group of about 5 people sitting at a long table in the back. First things first, I walked to the bar ordered a Kölsch, and then a little apprehensively walked over to the table. As I approached most of them kind of stopped their conversations to look at me. I just asked "Is this the English table?" and immediately everyone smiled and welcomed me. We went around the table with introductions; there were 2 girls and a guy from England, a German girl, a guy from India and a fellow American from Kansas City, Missouri. They all were really nice and I had a lot of fun talking to a few of them. As the night went on, more and more people started to arrive. Eventually there would be 2 more Americans (a guy from Dallas and a guy from Brooklyn), a Frenchman, an Aussie, a girl from Greece, 4 Italians, a hilarious guy from Malaysia, a Pakistani and a few others that at the moment I forget where they were from. It was crazy to be in this setting--especially because it was, sigh, Karoke Night. I was talking with the guy from India for awhile. He was really nice and pretty funny. At one point the Pakistani guy sat next to him and introduced himself. After telling me his name and where he was from, the guy from India looked up at me and said "Look! An Indian and a Pakistani sitting next to each other and we're not even fighting!". It made me laugh. Even though I was "new" to the group, they all made me feel as if I had known them all for years--it was a lot of fun. Robert from England asked me at one point what I was going to sing. I pointed to my pint of Guiness and told him nothing unless I had about 4 more. He just laughed. At one point later in the night when the bar was pretty crowded a group of 3 locals went up to sing. The song started and I immediately realized I knew it. I started to sing a long at the table and everyone stopped to look at me--the song is all in German. I was immediately asked by a number of people "How in the hell do you know the words?". I just laughed and kept singing. At the end of the song, I stood up and said "whoa, I just blackedout, what happened?" and everyone--luckily--understood my humor and started laughing. It was a nice feeling to have back again :)
I had a lot of fun and definitely plan on going more. Clayton, the guy from Dallas is also planning to go to the DMB concert in February so its nice to know I will have someone to go with. I'm also tryin' to get him and another guy I met last night to go to Jam in the Dam with me in March.. but I have some time to convince them ;)
That's all I have for now--time to go on my daily walk with Emilian. Will write again soon! Hope all is well Stateside--I miss and LOVE you all :) xoxo Megan

..Oh and check out the AMAZING pic I took of the Dom last night when I was walking to the U-Bahn station to go home--I swear that thing will never cease to take my breath away.

This is for Carissa Jaillet and Allison Baisey

Alright, because these two made it apparent on my Facebook page that they wanted a new post. Here it is. I'm not going to lie, I am still surprised every time I find out people actually read this thing :) Anyway, I don't have much to report on, so I think I'll just share a funny/weirdo story that happened a few weeks ago. (Speaking of weeks.. as of tomorrow (Wednesday the 9th), I will have been here for 6 weeks. WTF. Where has the time gone?! I can't believe I've been here for that long already! Nuts! Anyway, moving right along..) Okay. So a few weeks ago when I went to Stuttgart and Esslingen to visit Naemi, the strangest thing happened along the way. So I was waiting for the train in Koblenz and just sitting on a bench minding my own business when a guy about my age or so sat down next to me. No big deal. People sit down to wait for trains. Nothing strange there. Anyhow, at one point, I'm sitting there minding my own business like I said, reading my book, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the guy that sat down is taking pictures of himself with his phone. So I immediately start thinking to myself "wow, what a douchebag. Who takes pictures of themselves?! You're soooo cool guy. Idiot". I decided to turn my head slightly to get a quick glance at him--and I am not kidding here--I turn and this guy is sitting there like NOTHING is out of the ordinary wearing those glasses that have the like, slinky eyes on them. WTF. Umm they still make those?! I thought those things were like an urban legend or something. And you're telling me that not only are they still being manufactured somewhere in the world, but this guy actually bought a pair?! Like he woke up one morning, and was like "man, I really need to find me a pair of some slinky eye glasses." I seriously could not hold it in, it was the weirdest thing ever, so I turned to the other side and just started straight-up, out-loud laughing. Obviously the guy had to know I was laughing at him--and not in the good way. Then, again without even cracking a smile to indicate that this is clearly somesort of joke, the guy takes off the glasses, folds them nicely and then slides them into his bag. Ummmm... so you're saying that you just carry slinky eye glasses around with you at all times?! Uhhh??? Seroiusly.. Germans are so weird and I love it. I am not even kidding, it was one of the most random/awkward moments I have ever experienced. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried. This is a straight up real life. My life. I don't know how, but this is the life I lead. Well.. that's all I got for now. Although this Thursday I'm planning to go into Köln for this "Thursday Night Drink Club" that is for native English speakers living in the area--mostly Brits and Aussies so I've heard. But it's also karoke night I guess, so I mean.. they have to meet the real Megan Osgood sooner or later--might as well be sooner. Hope that brightened your day.. now get back to studying! Good Luck on finals girls and have an awesome break!!! :) xoxo

I Love College Football

Today is Sunday, December the 6th (can't believe I'm going on my 6th week here! Crazy!). which means that yesterday was another College Football Saturday. Whoa. I don't think yesterday could have gone any better. WVU wins, Pittsburgh loses, Florida loses (and Tebow cries)... man, if only I was able to actually have watched them! :( The SlingBox my brother got still isn't working, so I was unable to watch any of the games. But luckily, Jill was able to keep me updated along with ESPN.com. Awesome. I seriously miss college football. On another note, nothing too exciting has happened since last week. Although I did meet up with a girl named Rachel on Wednesday night. She's originally from Seattle, and just moved here with her husband who was transferred for his job. She was really nice and easy to talk to. This morning I woke up and immediately started cleaning/re-organizing my room. I originally wasn't going to unpack everything while we were still in this house (most of you know how the actual house of Kai and Lisa is being renovated and having new flooring installed--so we've been living in a different house since I've been here). The original plan was to be back in the other house by the end of November or so--or at least by Christmas. Kai and Lisa made the decision that it would be too stressful to try and move everything back into the other house before Christmas because it will not be finished until the end of this week or so, so we are going to stay here. Sooo.. I decided to settle in a little more. Going through my things, I found a stack of postcards I have already filled out for a number of people--but my mom has yet to send me the addresses for everyone. (I've asked, ohhh about 9 times..) I got to Skype with Hadley back in Morgantown on Friday for about an hour and its always really nice talking to people from home--although I got mad jealous when she said she was going to be going to Back Door happy hour with a bunch of people later that day ;) This week I plan on going into Bonn at some point to do some shopping at the "Weihnachtsmarkt" aka 'Christmas Market'. Theres something for sure I want to get Travis and Lisa back home there. I don't really know what to buy as presents for Lisa and Johanna here. Kai I already know. The other night at dinner we were talking about games we like to play and some how got on the topic of Risk. I told him how my brother and I used to play Lord of the Rings edition Risk while watching the movies (I know, we're SUPER cool). His eyes got big and he was like "What?! This does not exist in Germany!" and he was really excited about it, so I am going to try and find it online. Either that, or Lord of the Rings monopoly. I guess he really loves to play Monopoly--and he's a giant Lord of the Rings fan--so I figure it would be perfect. I'll most likely have to buy it through the US though, which is a hassle, but oh well. Alright, sorry this post wasn't that exciting. I'm gonna get back to re-arranging my room. Hopefully my next post will be more entertaining than this one. Go Bengals--beat the Lions today!!!! (Like thats even hard? Pretty sure Worthington Kilbourne could beat them at this point; KFR) Love and Miss you all every second! xoxo Meg

MÜDE

I am tired as shit. Going to take a nap I think. Interesting, huh? BTW, just got home from seeing New Moon.. umm.. where do I even begin? Oh how about with the trainwreck named Kristen Stewart. Umm take some acting lessons--pretty sure I act better when I am just telling a story to someone than she has done in her entire film career. How does she even have a career in movies? Honestly? Or as Baxter would say, "REALLY?!" Seriously, she is garbage. This rant just reminded me of a funny line: "We were all at the zoo one day. I was doing some acting, walking on the railing of the gorilla exhibit".... man, I really wish I just saw Team America instead. That movie is hilarious. On to my next point about New Moon: Jacob. Damn, that kid grew up. I don't care if he is only like 16--he's hot as hell. But then, sometimes I also thought he kinda looks like my brother. So I don't know how I feel about my last comment about him being hot. Hmm.. this is disturbing. Okay. I'm really tired--went out in Köln last night and was rockin' until about 5:30 or so. So I'm runnin' on about 4 hours or sleep. I'm definitely a Sleepy Bear. This was a really good post, huh? I'm thinkin' probably my best to date. My work here is done.

Thanksgiving with zie Germans

Before I can really start this post, I really have to say HOW BOUT 'DEM MOUNTAINEERS! Paybacks a bitch Pitt! Okay, that being said.. This past Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving back home. It was a weird feeling waking up in Germany and having it be just another day, but I was able to watch a quick 10 minutes of the Macy's Day Parade through the always amazing SlingBox--although it froze and the connection has been bad since. Hopefully Travis will be able to fix it when he returns to Austin from NY. Lisa had asked me on Wednesday when Thanksgiving was, because she knew it was coming up, and when I answered with "tomorrow" she seemed a little shocked (as if she couldn't believe I hadn't mentioned it sooner--oops). She said that Johanna would be back for the weekend on Friday night, and if I wanted to, we could have "Thanksgiving" then. I thought that sounded like a nice idea :) So Thursday we spent a few hours at the grocery store trying to figure out everything I would need. I have never made Thanksgiving dinner before--thats something left to Granny--but I figured, oh what the hell? Why not? We got a 5.5 kilo Pute (aka 12lb Turkey) and everything else I would need to make traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. Yesterday, (Friday), I immediately got to work in the kitchen at around 1 or so. Pretty sure I didn't walk out of that kitchen once until 7:30pm. I'm actually not a bad cook at all, but I have neve tackled cooking an entire Thanksgiving all from scratch by myself--but let me tell you, everything turned out perfect and delicious and I was really, really proud of mysef :) When all was said and done, I had made home-made stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, the TURKEY (which turned out awesome!) and a pumpkin pie from a REAL god-damn pumpkin... none of this easy pumpkin puree garbage ;) whoa. It was a lot of work, and I still can't believe I pulled it off, but it was excellent. Lisa's sister and her friend came as well, and so did Kai's father. So plus Johanna and myself, there were 7 of us total (8 if you count the little crumb). I was going to skip out on making the gravy, but Jared from home had Skyped me while I was still in the kitchen (I had my laptop there so I could cook to Christmas music--I know, I know, I'm adorable haha), and he made a good point, that with gravy it can "save the turkey if it's dry, or just be a really good enhancement". So I decided I would have to try and make gravy. I knew from the get go that to make it you use the drippings from the turkey and flour, but other than that I was a little clueless. (I wonder why I don't know how to make it? Oh now I remember, my mother is Sue Ellen Osgood and she doesn't know herself to teach me ;) oh, mom..) Jared was able to walk me through it using Skype (isn't technology cool?) from Ohio, and it turned out perfect. Jared, you're a life-saver :) Will write again soon! Miss/Love you all back home--hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

im Vergleich zu Amerika

So today being Wednesday, November 25th, means 2 things: 1, tomorrow is Thanksgiving back home and it makes me a little sad to know I won't be there, and 2, that I have officially been here in Germany for four weeks as of today! That seems so crazy to me, because in some ways I feel like I just got here. But that is really not what this post is about. My title says "Compared to America" and I would like to share a few observations I've made now that I have been living here in Deutschland for pretty much a month. There are--what I think at least--three things that the Germans do WAY better than us Americans, and I don't think we'll ever be able to catch them in these three arenas.

1. Brot. German bread is DELICIOUS and bakeries are EVERYWHERE. Dr. Atkins would hate it here, but bread is an essential part of the German diet. Our bread can't come close to this stuff.. trust me.

2. Schokolade. Mmmmm. The chocolate here is so good. Plain and simple. It is smoother if that makes sense, and just plain better.

3. Bier. Okay, so this is a given, but it's true. The beer here is amazing--if you enjoy a good beer from time to time, such as myself ;) There are SO many different beers to choose from. I looked it up and found that within Germany there are about 1,300 different breweries throughout the country. That is more than any other country--EXCEPT the US, which has around 1,500. BUT keep in mind, Germany is just a little smaller than the state of Montana. So there are 1,300 breweries in a country that is not that big.. which of course results in 2 things: Amazing beer, and ever better selection. Every region has there specialties. Living so close to Köln, Kölsch is king, which is fine by me because it has fastly become my favorite, (it also can only legally be brewed in Köln--I can already see my mom now repeating this fact over and over again at this years New Year's Eve party..) This past weekend while in the south visiting Naemi, I actually found myself missing Kölsch. Mmmm it's delicious. The other thing that fascinates me about German beer is that there are so many beers to choose from, each having it's own flavor, but all are made with the same ingredients. Der Reinheitsgebot, or "German Purity Law", was put into effect in 1516 stating that breweries throughout Germany could only use 3 ingredients: water, barley and hops. Although, Yeast was later added to the list. Still to this day, German breweries must comply with this law. Soo interesting! Got to love beer--and the Germans do :)

Now for my other observations. Some other things that the Germans do better than us:

--Public transportaion. This is a big one. It is so easy to live without a car here. The U-Bahn can pretty much take you anywhere you would need to go within the cities and once there, you can walk everywhere. If you need to go somewhere further, their trains are wonderful. Something that is definitely lacking in the U S of A.

--Cars. I know this basically goes against what I just wrote above, but when you are in the market for a car, I don't think it's hard to imagine which country does them better--especially with the American car industry going down the drain. I mean, what would you rather have? A Ford/GM/Chevorlet or a Mercedes-Benz/Audi/BMW?? We may have invented Das Auto, but they perfected it.

--Healthcare. This one's easy.

--Knowledge of Foreign Languages. Almost every German knows some English, or at least another language. Most can speak at least 3. They start learning foreign languages (mostly English first) at a young age. I am envious of them for this.

--Travel/Vacation. Germans love to travel, and they truly see the importance of seeing other cultures and places. They also get MUCH more vacation time to do so. Required (by law) vacation days given to a German worker in a year: 24. The required days given to an American: none.

--Meat. Leave it to the Germans to seriously have like 284640387 ways to eat meat. The Meat counter at the grocery stores here pretty much takes up the entire back wall. It's crazy. And their "street food" of Bratwursts and sausages are really good--especially considering they're like €2.

--Mustard. Also known as Senf here. I love mustard. I could put it on everything. And lucky for me, Germans do put it on almost everything! And theirs isn't like a boring yellow mustard like we have.. it's just.. mmmm so good.

Now for the things I think we do better:

--Sports. Okay, I know I am super biased here, but thank god for my brother and the SlingBox so that I can watch American Football. I went the first 2 and 1/2 weeks or so without it and it didn't feel right. I try enjoying soccer games when they're on here.. but.. its just not the same thing. And besides soccer, there isn't really much else to watch. No hockey. No basketball. No baseball. Certainly no lacrosse. Nothing.

--Education system. I'm not saying ours is perfect, but I think it is a better system than the one here. Here, everyone is provided with "primary schooling" by the government. But once you're about 12 your future is already planned. At that time, based on teacher recommendations etc. you are filtered into one of 4 "secondary schools". But out of these 4 schools, only about 1 really gets you ready and puts you in a position to go on to a university. So, as I see it, you're basically told whether you are going on to college or not at the 5th grade. That seems crazy to me. Also, the experience that one gains in college in the US I think is far better than one found here. And I'm not just saying that because my 5 (yes I said 5) years at WVU were the best years of my life so far..

--Mexican/Latin food. So, back in the US we have a lot of Mexican immigrants, and therefore a lot of Mexican food etc. That isn't the case here. There are no Mexicans (sub Turkish), so spicy Mexican fare is out of the question. And if you do happen to find a Mexican place here.. good luck if they get it right.

--Men. Alright, so again, I know I might be biased, but I'm sorry, when I see guys I want them to be that--a guy. The men here care A LOT more about their clothes, or their hair on a daily basis than I ever think a straight American would/could. Where are the guys with the 5-o'clock shadows here??? Oh yeah, they shaved because they care too much. Dumb. Move.

--Music/Movie/Entertainment in general. The US definitely runs the table when it comes to this. Our music is better. Our movie are better. Our TV shows are better. Thats why most of them can be found here (but dubbed in German). Family Guy was on the other night here.. in German.. let me tell you.. it's hilarious.

--Friendliness. Once you meet German friends, they are awesome, and they will be your friends for life. HOWEVER, it is extremely hard to break into a circle of existing German friends. Germans don't seem to be as open to talking to new people that they don't already know. Which, trust me, makes it really difficult to meet new people if, like me, you are coming here alone.

--Snow. I've been told by numerous people that in the bigger cities (like where I live in Bonn near Köln), it never snows due to pollution. It just rains. Which. Sucks. Big. Time.

--Washers/Dryers. I don't really know why, but for some reason it takes like an hour for one load of laundry to make it through the entire wash cycle. And about 2 hours for the dryer. And its not as if these washers/dryers are out of date. It's just the way they are. Slow.

Alright, well I think those are my observations as of now. I'll update again soon. If I don't write tomorrow, I hope everyone back home has a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families and friends! Liebe Dich, Megan

Stuttgart

Last night I returned to Bonn after spending the long weekend with Naemi in Baden-Württemberg, seeing Tübingen for the first time (the town Naemi goes to college at) and then back to Esslingen and Stuttgart--which I haven't been to in 4 years. It was nice to be back, and see many familiar faces and places :) On Thursday afternoon I left Bonn by train and headed South toward Stuttgart. I had to change trains a total of 4 times.. and let me tell you, it was a fiasco. It somehow took me about 6 and 1/2 hours to get there.. when in reality it should have maybe taken me a little over 3. Don't.. Ask.. I finally arrived in Tübingen around 11:30pm and Naemi was there to pick me up. We walked back to her apartment which was pretty much right next to the train station and I was able to meet her two roommates. They were both really nice. Before going to bed Naemi and I somehow got on the topic of the Swedes. (I think it was because I told her how a few people here have guessed that I was from Sweden). We started talking, and we came to the conclusion of, honestly, what DO the Swedes bring to the table? We decided it was nothing more that blonde hair and Fish Soup. The next day Naemi and I walked around Tübingen with some of her friends from school. We saw a lot of cool buildings, and walked up to the town's old castle that overlooks the whole city. It was really beautiful--and the weather helped; it was amazing out on Friday. After exploring the town, and Naemi showing me her school buildings etc. we made our way back to her place to start cooking dinner before he boyfriend Chris came from Zürich. We had a nice little dinner and then all got ready to head to Esslingen for the rest of the weekend. As soon as we go to Esslingen, we dropped our things off at Naemi's house and then went to the bar Cafe Mayer to meet up with Fanni (whose birthday it was) and some of Naemi's other friends that I have met before. It was nice, but we got there kinda late (11ish) so we didn't stay long. At around 12 or so we left to go to Dennis' house and meet up with the boys--most of whom I had met on the 2 times I had come to Germany before, and 4 of them that I actually spent a 4 day holiday with in Switzerland. So I was excited to see them all again--Freddie, Marcel, Lutz, Dennis :) We all hung out, drank good German beer and caught up. I couldn't believe it had been 4 years since I last saw them! They also tried to get me to pronounce the HARDEST word in the German language. I still can't say it right. Eichhörnchen. It's impossible. It means Squirrel BTW. We went home probably about 2:30 or so. Saturday, Naemi, Chris and I went into Stuttgart because Naemi needed to buy some new snowboard boots (she was so excited about them). We walked and shopped around Stuttgart for most of the day and Freddie met up with us again at one point. Afterwards, we went to Naemi's dad's house to have a small visit with him. Oh, MarkusAdventsKalendarMosgowi! He is so cute. After spending time with her dad the three of us--Naemi, Chris and I--headed back to Chris' to have dinner. Chris' brother Stefan and his 2 friends were planning on cooking a big dinner, so we joined them :) It was delicious. We didn't leave Chris' house until around 1am and I was surprised it was already so late. We went back to Naemi's to go to bed. Yesterday--Sunday--we slept in (which was nice) and then had a small breakfast. My direct train left from Stuttgart for Bonn at 3:20, so we decided to just go into the city and go to a cafe or so until it was time to leave. We walked around for a bit and then settled on a coffee shop. While drinking our coffee and talking, the guy sitting next to us spoke up. He was from South Carolina and has been living in Stuttgart for work for the past 2 years. I swear, I have ran into Americans EVERYWHERE here. It's kinda crazy. Anyway, we drank our coffee and then it was finally time for me to head to the train station. I said goodbye to Naemi and boarded my train for Bonn. It was weird--as much as I loved getting to see Naemi again, I missed the city of Bonn while I was away. Very strange to feel how I am already becoming attatched to the city and the familiarity of it.

Okay, now before I go any further, I have a confession to make to all of you. I know I told you how I had purchased and begun reading New Moon this past Wednesday. Well.. I finished it 3 days later on Saturday, and while in Tübingen.. I.. may have.. well.. ok, I bought Eclipse (the 3rd book in the Twilight series!) I am so embarrassed! I can't get over it. I refuse to admit that I truly like them, but they keep me entertained. UGH! Whatever. I can't believe it. Anyway, when I came home for the train station I confessed my secret to Kai and Lisa also. They started laughing and told me that they made a small change to my room while I was gone and they were sure I was going to love it (they said this with a very mischievous smirk on their faces). I ran upstairs, and flipped on the light, and there above my bed was a giant poster of Kristen Stewart and Robbert Pattinson aka "Bella and Edward". I burst into laughter and I could hear Kai and Lisa laughing downstairs as well. They are too funny. I came back down and we all had dinner. Lisa's 22 year old brother, Bertus, was here too and stayed for a bit. He seems really nice as well, and hopefully I'll be able to go out to the bars or so with him soon.

So.. that was my eventful weekend in Germany :) This Thursday is of course Thanksgiving, and it's making me a littl homesick--I wish I would be able to be home for it, but obviously that's not happening. I don't know what my plans are yet. I am going to try and get a hold of Pat sometime this week and see what he is doing. Hopefully something will come up. I hope everyone is well back home! I miss and love all of you and will update soon!! Ich Liebe Dich!!! xoxo Megan

PS-How 'bout them Buckeyes?! 6 years in a row.. how much longer can Rich Fraud really have a job in Ann Arbor?????? HA!

Oh Dear God No..

I can't believe it. I can't believe what I did today. It is beyond ridiculous. It is hands down the most outrageous thing I have EVER done--and that's sayin' something. Yes. Today, I, Megan Leigh Osgood of Columbus, Ohio bought and began reading New Moon (the 2nd of the "Twilight" books). Oh my God, what in the world am I doing?!??!!?! Is this real life??? I am so ashamed. It's just that the movie comes out next weekend here (as opposed to tomorrow in the States) and Johanna is SUPER excited for it (NOTE: She is allowed to be, she is 11) and I want to take her to see it because I am a nice girl and I know it would make her happy, but I am one of those people that need to read the books before I can see the movie. I hope she doesn't get too upset when we're in the theater and shes so moved by it all, and I'm just sitting next to her giggling. Oh my God, what have I done?!?!?!

Raining... Again

I have been feeling a lot better for the past few days, and now really only have a slight cough, which is just enough to be annoying, but nothing too serious. It's raining this morning, and has been for what seems like the last 32 hours. It's a bit depressing, but oh well. This morning I woke up and made myself some scrambled eggs. They were good, however, they were clearly no Bob Bucher eggs. Sunday night I went into Köln and met up with Pat, the guy from Minnesota, and we watched the Bengals/Steelers game at an "American sportsbar". It was so awkward because the game is shown through SkySports, which I believed is owned by the UK. So at every pause in the game, or during half time they would go to a group of British commentators to talk about the game. I'm sorry, but I don't care if I lived in Europe the rest of my life, I could never get used to hearing Brits talk about the NFL.. it just sounds so funny/odd. The game was awesome and there was a woman sitting next to me from Pittsburgh. She definitely solidified my hatred for the Gold and Black, and especially their fans. She was obnoxious. It took every ounce of strength in my body to not turn to her and give her my infamous "Pittsburgh" speech that I gave some chick on a bus in Morgantown.. basically how the town is a shithole and has been completely irrevelent as a city in the US since the end of the Steel industry's glory days of the 19th century. Bite me, Pittsburgh. There was one other guy in the bar wearing a Bengals jersey and a Reds hat. I went over to him at half time to give him a high five and asked him if he were from Cincinnati. Turns out, he's German, but was an exchange student for a year at East Clinton High School (???? Apparently its somewhere between Cincinnati and Columbus ????) Small world. The Bengals won, which was awesome--but I was telling Pat, I just can't believe the year I pack up and leave for another country, they decide to get their act together and start winnin' games. Ridiculous. Pat had 3 of his German guy friends meet us out too, they were all really nice. They left early though, because they wanted to go to the new Hooters that had just opened up in Cologne on Friday (I couldn't make this shit up if I tried..). Pat seems like a really cool guy, and hopefully someone I will be hanging out with more in the future. He was telling me of how he knows of a few other Americans that might be planning something for Thanksgiving and that I would be welcome to go if I wanted. I think I will, because it would be nice to be around others for Thanksgiving since I can't be at home with my awesome family :( As for this weekend, hopefully I will be taking the train down to Stuttgart to visit with Naemi! I don't have my actual ticket yet, but I am pretty sure it will all work out. I already told Kai and Lisa about wanting to go, so it should be fine. Not too much else has happened in the past few days, but I will update again soon! Ich Liebe Dich alles, Who Dey.. Megan

Alaaf!

Okay, I have been meaning to update since my very first Karnival on Wednesday, but as of Tuesday night I had a fever and have been pretty sick since and haven't really felt like updating. Don't worry, sickness didn't stop me from going to Köln for Karnival! So this past Tuesday I had my daily routine of taking Emilian for our walk and then coming back here. As I was walking outside I noticed I had a bit of a sore throat but nothing major. So as the day winds on, I noticed a headache developing and towards the early evening I told Lisa that I was going to go up to my room to lie down abit. An hour later: Pretty sure I have a full-blown fever. So that sucked big time. I couldn't believe that I seriously had a fever the DAY before Karnival--the day I had been looking forward to for awhile! I later texted Lisa from my room that I wasn't feeling well and wasn't too hungry and would not be coming down for dinner. Lisa then later came to my room with some tea and medicine (German asprin I think..) to help get rid of my fever. She also said that if I feel better by tomorrow morning, that I should really consider still going to Karnival so that I could experience it--I told her I would. The next morning my fever was at least gone, so I took a shower and got ready for the day. There was a change in plans, and I was now going to be meeting up with Alicija (pronounced "Alit-ci-a") who is Lisa's OTHER brother's (I forget his name.. but he is 28) girlfriend. She is originally from Poland and doesn't speak much English, but she takes German courses at an institute in Bonn and was going to be meeting up with a number of other students from the place, so Lisa thought it might be better for me to go with them, since they will all be in about the same boat as me--new (kind of) to Germany. I got on the train here in the small town of Widdig, and took a short 10 minute train ride into Bonn. There I met up with Alicija and her friends from the Language course. We waited then for the train into downtown Köln. Everyone on the platform, for the most part, were in full costume--some of them were HILARIOUS! And everyone was already crackin' open beers.. keep in mind.. it was 8:45am.. made me feel like I was back in Morgantown ;) On the train was even a bigger--more crampt party. Everyone was passing around bottles of wine and beer and singing. It was great (and we all wonder how Swine Flu spreads?!) The costume I think that made me laugh the most were the ones of girls dressed up as "Native American Indians".. although they didn't look right at all, so to me it was a bit humorous. After arriving in Köln, the train station there was packed with everyone arriving to the epi-center of Karnival, and was even more of a party. People everywhere, of every age were drinking and laughing and singing, it was pretty funny. We stayed in the train station a bit longer and drank with strangers before making our way out to take to the streets! Once again, as soon as walking out of the station, boom, theres the Dom. Gorgeous. We walked to a nearby center town square where a big stage was set up, there was a free concert going on, and everyone was just having an awesome time. It was a lot of fun. We ended up merging with the group of about 5 that were standing next to us. At one point I apologized for my bad German and that they would need to speak slowly. One of the guys in the group then asked if I was from Sweden? I said "no, American" and then the girl in the group asked me what state I was from, because she had just gotten back from Au Pairing in New York. I asked her what part of NY and she said outside of NYC.. we got to talking, and turns out, the girl Au Paired in West Chester.. aka pretty much where Travis' Lisa is from. Small world. We drank and danced and sang for a few more hours. It was a lot of fun, but by around 3ish, thanks to my illness, I decided to cut it short. I was starting to feel as if my fever was coming back and thought it was better to go home when Alicija was leaving, so I headed back to the train station around 3:30. I got on my U-bahn and made it back to my house here easily. As soon as I came home, I could really feel my fever setting in again, so I made some hot tea and went up stairs and back to bed. I really wish I was feeling better, because it would have been fun to go on to do a bar crawl with the group later that night, but I just wasn't feeling up to it. I also thought of how much fun my friends from home would LOVE Karnival. The guy who asked me if I were from Sweden asked me if this was my first Karnival, I said yes and he replied "and hopefully not your last". I really hope not. I would love to try Karnival again, next time when I'm feeling better, and have Jill and Jas and Lisa and Andy and Erin and all my WVU family with me. (I mean, I suppose Emily would like it too.. but I'm not sure. I kinda feel like I need to throw her name in here or she'll yell at Suzy Bear for raising such a "rude daughter". Hahaha. You're doing it now, aren't you? HA!) Anyway, they would absolutely LOVE it! But luckily for me.. there apparently is another Karnival in March of pretty much they same exact thing. So I guess I get to try again. Next time, as God as my witness, I will not be sick!! (In my best Scarlet O'Hara voice).

I ended up having another fever that night and again a little bit on Thursday, but I feel a lot better today. I now only have a little bit of a cough, but hopefully I'll be back to fighting form soon. My brother, Travis, contacted me last night on G-chat to walk me through the installation process of the SlingBox he finally bought so that I can watch his TV from Germany (aka FINALLY watch College Football again). It's incredible. If I change the channel from my laptop, it changes it in their living room. If they change to HBO in Texas, I'm watchin' HBO here in Deutschland. Isn't technology neat? I watched the WVU/UC game last night all the while chatting with Trav and Lisa while they watched it at a bar in Texas. The only problem. It was an 8pm kickoff.. which was 2am my time! Yeah.. I stayed up for the whole thing, finally was able to go to bed dissappointed at 5am. True... Fan... I'm going to be watching the OhioState/Iowa game here in a bit. Luckily 3:30 kickoff is 9:30 here, so not nearly as bad as last night. But still lookin' to be a long night. Tomorrow afternoon around 5ish I am taking the train back into Köln to meet a fellow Mid-Westerner (he's from Minnesota, but went to Wisconsin) at an "American Sportbar" that plays NFL games to watch the Bengals game. I'm pretty excited to watch the game and also to finally go out with someone I can talk to :)

Well.. Gonna get back to changing the channels on Travis and Lisa's TV while Lisa tries to watch the Michigan game. I mean, she doesn't need to be watching that garbage anyway :P
Bis Bald, xoxo Megan
(oh, and PS-the word "Alaaf" aka the title of this post is the word that the people of Köln yell during Karnival. If you were just to yell it out for no reason, everyone around you would yell it back. Similar to LET'S GO! ... or O-H! ;)

Best Sunday

Well hello :) Welcome back. I meant to update this all yesterday, but I had bought/downloaded some episodes of Top Chef off of iTunes.. and I mean.. they had to be watched. So this past weekend was pretty fun. On Friday, I went into Bonn like I said I was going to. Unfortunately, the girl I was supposed to meet couldn't make it.. she hd to go in earlier than she thought for her work.. soo yeah, still pretty friendless, and it makes me miss home.. but I'll be fine. I spent most of the day walking around Bonn, and looking through shops. I found this AMAZING winter coat at The United Colors of Benetton and I'm definitely going to buy it next time I'm in Bonn. It's getting much colder here (I heard the weather back home is currently in the 70s or so?! Very jealous..) and you can feel that winter will be setting in soon. Kai and Lisa told me that although it gets very cold in the winter (very comparable to Columbus back home), there is very little snow due to pollution. I guess on the days it does snow, it almost never sticks. So that's depressing. I love snow--just not driving in it ;) Johanna told me that usually on Christmas, its raining. Oh awesome.. :( Saturday, I didn't do too much during the day, and I had my first bout of homesickness. Let me tell you, that part is not so much fun. But later that night was of course St. Martin's day, so I was able to go out and experience that with Johanna--which was nice :) Sunday was AWESOME. Lisa had talked to her mother earlier that week and had planned for all of us to meet her in her town of Remagen, which is a little ways south of Bonn.. maybe only 20 minutes or so. We went around noonish and meet up with her. She's a very nice woman, and drives a Honda so obviously she's cool :) After walking along the Rhein for a bit we came across these old black 2 towers which were present on either side of the river. We entered the one on the side we were on, which has been turned into a museum. These black towers are all that remains of the famous Ludendorff Bridge (read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludendorff_Bridge ) that was crossed by the 9th Division of the US Army during WWII. This was the first crossing of any Allied forces of the Rhein, and into the heartland of Germany, thus making defeat for them just a matter of time. (The first American soldier to cross the Rhein via this bridge was infact an Ohioan!) German commanders tried to explode the bridge themselves to try and hinder any more advances from the Allies, but it was too late. Hitler saw this as an act of high treason (he also refused to allow for his troops to retreat from the area, even though they were clearly defeated) and set up his "Kangaroo Court" system ('Kangaroo courts' are essentially where the Judge makes a ruling and there is no way in which to really oppose it. The "right" of Due Process is not present in kangaroo courts, and the person being tried really has no right to call witnesses, have a cross examination, anything of that nature. Pretty much, you're screwed in a Kangaroo Court system--especially one in which was placed in effect by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany). This Court found (of course) all 5 commanders that ordered the bridge to be blown up, guilty of high treason and all were sentenced to death. All died but one, who outlived the sentence due to being held as a American Prisoner of War. So there is your History Lesson for the day ladies ad gentlemen. The museum wa really cool, and I was able to see A LOT of awesome artifacts that had been found in the area. Really, really cool.

After the museum we went back to Lisa's mothers house where I also met one of Lisa's brothers--16 year old Felix. He was really nice and spoke awesome English. He had spent most of his summer in the US and was excited to talk to me about it. He said the one thing he really misses from America, is beef jerkey. Hahaha. I had to laugh at this. I think I will try to have some of you send me some from home and give it to him as a Christmas gift. After spending some time there, it was time for me to get on the road and get ready to see GOV'T MULE live in Köln!!!! The concert was held at a smaller venue called "Live Music Hall". I studied like 3 train maps before making the journey to make sure I wouldn't get lost. IT WAS SOO SICK. They played a lot of their new stuff and some of their old. Obvioiusly, its Gov't Mule so I had an amazing time no matter what. I met some kids from California there as well. They are here studying abroad and leave to go back home on the 2 week of December. They were cool though and I spent most of the concert drinking with them and pretty much getting my face melted by the always amazing Warren Haynes. Man, I love him. It was a pretty weird experience also, in the sense of thereI was, standing feet from one of my favorite band, but all at the same time knowing I was in Cologne, Germany. Kinda "Freaky" as Lisa Johnson would say (haha).

So, as you can see I had a pretty awesome weekend. Tomorrow is the start of KARNIVAL at 11:11am. I am really excited. Bertus, Lisa's other brother who is 22, is going to take me with him and his friends to Köln to see what this is really all about ;) It's basically just supposed to be a HUGE party in the streets all day, with Köln's version of it being the best--from what I hear. Think of something like Mardi Gras in New Orleans (except without all the flashing). So I am excited for that, and mostly just to get the chance to be around people my own age :) I'll obviously be back soon to update and tell you all about Karnival!! Sorry I don't have any pictures of the moment of anything.. I'll post those soon! Liebe Dich, Megan

St. Martin!

So tonight I got to experience my first St. Martin's Day. Let me first say, that everything about this holiday is sooo freaking cute. It's based on St. Martin, who according to legend, was a Roman soldier that one cold winters day, while patrolling his area on horseback, he came across an old naked man. Because he had nothing to offer him, he took off his military cape and cut it in half and gave half of it to the old man. Later that night, Martin dreamt that Jesus was wearing the other half of his cape and that he said "I was naked and you clothed me. What you do onto others, you do onto me".. or something along those lines. So he is celebrated here with a holiday which is mostly for kids--but seeing as to how this was my first time to experience it, it was pretty exciting. A man dressed as a Roman soldier rides a horse throughout the town, and all the town's kids follow him with paper laterns (that most of them made in school). There is also a small marching band (made up of what seemed like anyone in the town that could play an instrument) at the end of the "parade" that played songs about St. Martin that all the kids sing-along to. After walking through most of the town, St. Martin leads everyone to an open field where the fire department is waiting and they light a huge bonfire. Here the kids can "meet" St. Martin, and bread is handed out to everyone. (There was a little boy there that when "St. Martin" rode by his mouth fell to the floor and I heard him say "whoa... Saint... Martin!" and he had this expression on his face like he had just met Santa Claus or something--too cute). After this, the kids then go back into town and go door-to-door to receive candy (kind of like our trick-or-treat), although after they ring the doorbell and the door is answered, the kids sing more songs about St. Martin before they get their candy. Oh my god, it's so adorable I wanted to die. At one point while walking through the town an old man was waiting on the street for the crowd to pass by. He then walked up to the man dressed as St. Martin on horseback and gave him a shot. It was hilarious. After giving it to him, he proceeded to pour shots for about 3 or so firemen that we walking with torches. It was really funny. And typical.. of all the times I leave the house WITHOUT my camera...

Does It Taste Like Sand?

So nothing too exciting has happened in the past few days, just that I have begun to fallen into more of routine with watching little Emilian :) Tomorrow is Friday which of course means the weekend! Tonight, like I have a habbit of doing, I cracked myself up. Kai came home from work and I was in the corner of the living room reading my new book (The Lost Symbol--Dan Brown's new book.. it's very similar to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, but its a fast read and keeps my interest). I looked up to see him grab a pear from the fruit basket and sit down. He looked at it for a quick second before biting into and looking at his messages on his iPhone. I couldn't help but picture Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and I lowered my book and asked "does it taste like sand??" Kai looked over to me and clearly didn't know what I was talking about. I raised my book back up to my face and tried to continue reading. I couldn't help but think of myself as quite the comedian and began laughing. I then said from behind my book "watch out for the sticker". Clearly, Germany doesn't air the amazing show, so I'm sure he just thought I am a very strange American girl. But I know it was funny, and why it was funny and it made me laugh and guess what, at the end of the day that's all that matters. ;)

I texted Naemi this morning to say Guten Morgen! And to give her my cell number here. She replied and asked if I had to work the weekends or not so that we could arrange a meet up in the near future--I think we're aiming for the weekend of the 20th or so, like in 2 weeks. We'll figure out if she will come up here to Bonn, or if I will take the train south to visit my dear Esslingen am Neckar. I'm kinda leaning towards visiting her so that I may once again grace Joe Peñas, my favorite bar in the world (seriously). But we'll see. Naemi then, about 2 hours later texted me again and said "Wow I just realized you are actually living in Germany now. Crazy shit. It feels so unreal". I wrote her back and said I know, and that I don't think it has fully even hit me yet. I have been here for a week, and it feels like I arrived yesterday. The next 11 months will be over before I know it, I'm sure. Tomorrow I am leaving with Kai in the morning to go into Bonn. Lisa has a baby massage class that she and Emilian will start going to every Friday, so that it gives me the mornings off for the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be meeting up with this girl named Christine. She's from California and has been living in Deutschland for the last year or so, but just recently moved to Bonn herself. We're planning to met up and get coffee or so at around 10ish, so hopefully I will finally have a new friend ;)

That is all I have for you all today.. sorry it's nothing earth-shattering, but hopefully this weekend will bring more adventures. And if not, there's always Karnival which starts on Wednesday (but that is for a whole 'nother blog entry in itself!) Für jetzt, Tschuß!

Sie alles haben meine Lieb :)

xoxo Megan

By Popular Demand

Hurr-ray! I have my computer back. The adapter came today and it fits and all is again right with the world :) So, now I am able to post some pictures :) I don't have anything too exciting to report today so I'll just post the picture that everyone wants to see. By popular demand, here is die Krümel!! (it means "the crumb".. it's the nickname Lisa and Kai have for baby Emilian.. cutest nickname ever right?!?) He is so adorable, I don't know if this one picture will do him justice, but there will definitely be more to come soon!

Rainy Day

Today was rainy and gross out for the most part. Emilian and I took our daily walk just in time. When we left it was still a little bit sunny and only starting to get cloudy when we finallly came home an hour and a half later. Usually on our walks Emilian falls right asleep and will stay asleep until we come home--and sometimes for even an hour or so afterwards. Lisa and Kai suspect I take him to a nearby bar and have him take some shots of whiskey or so to fall into such a deep sleep like he does ;) But today this was not the case. His little eyes stayed open for the first 30 minutes or so of our journey until he had finally had enough and began to cry. When this happens I know that he just wants to be held, so I pick him up and walk with him and push an empty stroller (I'm sure people walking by think I'm retarded, but hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it). While holding him I had stopped for a quick second for him to look around and for me to just look at the Rhein a bit. An old man, probably in his 70s or so, approached me and I had my first little German conversation. He asked about Emillian and how old he was and what not and I was afraid I was saying everything with horrible grammer so I apologized for my bad German. The man told me not to worry, and that it is good :) So that was exciting. He then asked me (auf Deutsch) if I was from England. I said no, and that 'ich komme aus Amerika'. He immediatly asked me "Texas??" I had to laugh, and said no. The average German (or non-American for that matter) knows about 3 places in the US. They all know New York (the city--the state not so much) and California because it's "cool" and lastly Texas because it is where the stereotype of the dumb "cowboys" with terrible accents are (Another reason why so many foreigners saw George W. as such a moron--although his speeches didn't help ;) . I talked a little bit about this topic to Kai and Lisa one night. The US is HUGE. And every region and state is soo different from the next. It's hard to really say that one type of person is an 'American' but I suppose it is like this for every country.

Besides the holding and walking with Emilian, I have found something else on our walks that often calms him down. I sing :) But not just anything, I can already tell he is going to be an awesome guy because he enjoys Jack Johnson and Taylor Swift songs best :) Also, in preparation for the upcoming concert--on SUNDAY, I AM SOOOOO STOKED--I sang him his first Gov't Mule song, I was happy when he enjoyed it as well :) Maybe I'll make him a little tye-dye shirt and a glow stick necklace.....

After we came back from our long walk, Lisa, Emilian and I all went to the grocery store. We broke the golden rule--never go grocery shopping when you're hungry. But luckily we didn't buy too many things that we didn't need. On the way to the store we were passing the little town where we are currently living in (until their house is finished being remodeled we are staying a little further outside of Bonn, we should be moving back to their actual house in the next few weeks) and Lisa told me about how the day before I arrived, they evacuated the area because they found an undetenated bomb in the Rhein from WWII, so they had to bring the bomb squad in to set it off. CRRRRAAAAZY! It's so nuts, because back home, you learn and talk about the war, and watch movies and shows about it and read books, but no matter how much you learn about it, it still all took place on another continent and seems like so long ago and so far away. But this is where it all really happened. Living history, ya know? It's just all so interesting to me. Being the history nerd I am, this kind of stuff fascinates me. Lisa then told me of a really famous bridge that is not far from here that a huge battle took place at and the Allies ended up blowing up, and that this bridge was like hundreds of years old. Kinda sad. So hopefully I'll make a journey to see what is left of it now. And speaking of going to historical places, Lisa also told me that at some point this year her and Kai want to take me to Berlin. Oh really??!!??! Count me in! :D

Ain't life grand.

xoxo

Meg

Blew Out My First German Fuse..

R.I.P Hair Dryer. It's been real.

Meinen ersten Kölsch!

It's been only 2 days since I last wrote something, and already so much has happened! I wanted to write yesterday, but alas, I couldn't. The adapter I brought with me works for pretty much everything except, oh thats right, my laptop. Luckily my family here is so nice and they found one on-line and ordered it for me. Hopefully my computer will be up and running again soon. Right now I am using Lisa's Mac and it's awkward. First off, the automatic spell check draws a red line under pretty much every word I type because, obviously they are not right if one was writting auf Deutsch. Secondly, the letter Y is seldom used in German, and Z is used more often, so on the keyboard the two are switched. And then to top it off, I have these guys: öÖ üÜ äÄ ß. Tight. So as you can imagine it makes it a little harder ;) But nothing impossible.

Thursday was my birthday, and having only been here one day, I of course have no friends. So that sucked. But my family here is so great, they got me a little cake and wanted to take me out to a traditional German restaurant that night. So we went. It was so cute and smack in the heart of downtown Bonn (which btw is the cutest town EVER). I ordered for the first time in German since I've been here and the words here can be very long, so as I say somethings I can't help but smile and laugh. I ordered Sparferkelrollbraten (see what I mean? Say that without smiling, I dare you). It was delicious. The best way to describe it would be that it was pieces of pork (which of course is from a lamb.. hahaha Emily..) wrapped in bacon and had this amazing sauce and potatos and a red sauerkrat like side. Trust me, it was all amazing. To drink Kai told me if I like beer (who me?) I needed to try Kölsch. Kölsch is the regional beer around here, and is brewed in nearby Köln. Its so good, obviously. I laughed and tried to explain to Kai and Lisa the beauty of a little drink I like to call Natural Light. I don't think they understand how awesomely terrible it really is. :) Before our food came Lisa gave me a little red envelope and said it was just a small birthday present from her and Kai. I opened it and it was a small hand-written piece of paper that said "1 Ticket". When I unfolded the paper more it said "to Esslingen". This is the town where Naemi (my former German exchange student from HS and all-around sister) lives. It was so unexpected and nice of them I started to cry a little bit. Which btw is super embarrassing. haha. After we ate, and about 4 more Kölsch's, we decided to head home. All in all I would say it was a nice little birthday :)

Yesterday (Friday), I woke up at around 8:30am took a shower and ate a little breakfast before Lisa came down with Emilian. Lisa fed him and around 11 or so we decided it was a good time for another one of our walks on the Rhein. I took Emilian for about an hour and 1/2 walk and he feel asleep almost instantly. When I came home he still slept for about another hour and a half or so, so I just read my book (A Devil in the White City--read it, its a very good book!). At around 2ish Lisa, Emilian and I drove to Bonn's "downtown" or Zentrum (center) as it is called here. She dropped me off so that I could have about an hour or so free time before Kai would pick me up since she was going to meet her father. I walked around the town, and then into a bookstore. I bought some post cards there. It made me laugh because as I was checking out the woman ringing me up said "Schönes Wochenende" (have a good weekend) and I responded with "Sie... auch??" and she just smiled and said Danke. It was funny though, because I was saying like, "you too" but at the exact moment I didn't know if I was right or not and paniced and turned it into a question. Basically, I looked at the lady and was like "I'm Ron Burgandy???" So of course, I just laughed and walked out of the store. Someone that takes life too seriously and can't laugh at themselves should NEVER move to a country where they speak a foreign language. Me on the other hand, I guess I enjoy being an idiot ;)

Today was an AWESOME day. Kai and Lisa were taking baby Emilian to his first swimming lesson at around 10:30, and said they would drop me off in Bonn if I wanted to do that. Of course I did :) They dropped me off on the outskirts of the city and it was just a short walk over the Rhein (terrible life, right?) and then up a few streets. I could see the towers from the famous University building so I basically just headed towards them. Once there, I knew where I was and how to get to the Markplatz (main market square). I knew I had about 3 hours or so of free time and went to LUSH (beauy products made in England.. you can find them in Macy's and stuff in the US) and bought some shower gel that I needed and then left to find another place I could spend my € in. I found one store that I am sure I could do some serious damage in ;) I bought a pashmina for only €4 and then headed back to the main center. There I sat down at a small outdoor cafe, had a cappuccino and some orange juice while reading my book for the last hour or so. It was SOOOOO European of me ;) Then walked to another Cafe where Kai had called and said they were, which I knew was around the corner. I met up with them there and after a little while longer we all came home. Kai told me about how while they were at the swimming lesson he had walked outside and a woman was there and she had run her car into the G-Wagon. Needless to say the only minor dent in his car was a slightly bent front licence plate, and her car? Apparently the light was smashed there was a huge dent and Kai estimated probably about 600 or so Euro worth of damage. Haha. Sucks to be her. Speaking of Kai and his car, let me tell you about it, he also has a Porsche Carrera, and umm the thing is SICK. Him and I drove home in it last night, and seriously, the car is soo tight. I think the fastest we went in it at the time was about 95pmh or so, but he told me about how when he is alone he'll drive faster--the fastest he has ever gone in it was about 160 or something crazy like that. To quote Alex Foley, "It's legit".

Alright, well, I am sorry this post is sooo long, but like I said I haven't been able to write anything for the past few days because of my computer. But once the new adapter comes I can update it more often. Hope everyone is well back home. I miss/love you :)

xoxo Meg

Oh, HALLO

I am finally here. Now my whole new life begins. My journey across the Atlantic wasn't too bad. I flew from Columbus to DC and had a small lay-over. Then boarded my flight headed to Frankfurt. It was a full flight, but luckily I had an aisle so I could stretch out and could easily get up without bothering anyone. The girl sitting next to me on the plane was also moving to Germany. She is married to someone in the Army and he has just been stationed there. She had with her an 168 page "pamphlet" telling her all the laws and rule of Germany. While on the plane I watched Transformers 2. They had it in both English and German. I watched it in German to see what it would be like. It made me laugh. None of the characters sound like they should and pretty sure Optimus Prime sounded like a retarded robot. Pretty funny. I slept as much as I could on the plane. I arrived to Frankfurt at around 11am on Wednesday the 28th (but it was 5am Ohio time.. so I was pretty exhausted). I was to board my train at 12:09 there and be taken to Köln. However, my bags weren't taken off the United flight and taken to the Lufthansa counter until about 5 minutes before the train was set to leave--and remember, I'm in Gemany now--if something says it is leaving at 12:09, it is really leaving at 12:09. I knew I wouldn't have time so the lady at the counter told me another train would leave in an hour, so she booked me for that one instead. A slight set-back but nothing too extreme. Also, while waiting for my train I decided to go ahead a convert the American dollars I had on me to Euros. Oh, cool. I hand them $70 and recieve €40.00. Cool. Super awesome. Love the weak dollar... grrr.

The train from Frankfurt to Köln was about an hour. I tried to stay awake to look out the window, but I just could not do it. When I woke up I had only about 5 minutes more until pulling into Köln's train station. I got off the train, and knew vaguely of what Kai and Lisa looked like, so when I saw a man standing alone we kind of both just looked at eachother and then he said "Megan??". We hugged and then Lisa came with the baby and I hugged her. Emilian (the little one :) was sleeping, and he was soooo cute in his like outfit with a Knight on it. Omg it was so adorable. We walked out of the train station and BAM there's the Köln Dom, like literally right next to the train station. I guess if I didn't realize I was living in Europe, I did right at that second. I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture of it, because it is honestly breathtaking. Although, I suppose will have some time in the next 11 months to take pictures of it ;) We all got in the Mercedes G-Wagon (which by the way is SO gnarly) and headed home. Bonn is only about 15 minutes drive from downtown Köln, so it wasn't far at all. Especially not when I saw we were going about 90mph.. got to love the German Autobahn :)

When we came home Kai and Lisa knew I was tired so they showed me around really quickly and to my room. There on the table in my new room they had a big bouquet of fall roses--soo pretty and a little decoration saying welcome, and even had some buckeyes laying on the table! It was so sweet of them. I took a shower and then took about a 2 or so hour nap. When I woke up, Johanna (Kai's 11 year old daughter from a previous relationship) was here. She is so cute too. Your typical 11 year old girl. She was nervous to speak English with me, although she has been taking it in school for the past 3 years. When she finally did, she had nothing to worry about--she speaks it really, really well. Kai made dinner, we had a spinach salad and some pototos and steak. It was delicious. Afterwards we had Marzipan which Kai said is his favorite. I've had it before, but don't remember it being as good as the kind we had last night. They are basically these little balls made of crushed up almonds and sugar. I talked to Johanna about books since she loves to read too. She said she loves fantasy kind of books, like Lord of the Rings--pretty sure she's like automatically my favorite person after saying that ;) I then asked her if she (deep breath) liked the Twilight books. She immediately got a huge grin on her face and said yes. Although, she likes the books much more than the movies she said. Most of you who know me know that I would have usually attacked the person for liking such an AWFUL movie (I'll admit, the book wasn't thhhat bad though), but I held back. Not only because I just met her, but also because she is 11 and I decided it is perfectly OK for her to like it :) hahaha. Oh Twilight.. looks like I'll be going to see New Moon afterall...


This morning I woke up and feel as if I have already adjusted to the time change. Kai told me that in 15 years, this will no longer be "possible" lol. While I was brushing my teeth a tiny spider was crawling up the sink. I started cracking up and tried to take a picture of it--it didn't really come out well. All I could think of was when my mom asked Naemi one of the world's dumbest questions; "Do they have spiders in Germany??" Yes mom, they do. hahaha. Kai left for work and I had breakfast with Lisa and little Emilian. Lisa sang me Happy Birthday and told me that Kai actually had picked up a cake for me. They are so cute. I poured myself a glass of milk and immediatly thought of Andy and Hunter back home. The milk here is so thick. Like EXTRA 2% or something. It tastes the same, its just definitely not something someone used to drinking skim in the US would go for. I just said to myself "Andy and Hunter would LOVE this stuff" :) After breakfast (of awesome German bread and oranges) I went on a walk with Emilian so Lisa could get some work done. I walked to the path that runs along the Rhein River. The Rhein is probably about 4 houses down from where I live now. I walked up and down the path for about an hour and 1/2 before I came home. I was surprised by how calm of a river it is. Lisa told me that yes, it is very calm, but very dangerous to actually swim in. Apparently, there are tons of holes in the bottom of the river from the area being bombed during WWII and that if you get caught in one, its very hard to get out annnnnd you're pretty much a goner. Sooo.. won't be tryin' that any time soon.


I am so excited to explore more of both Bonn and Köln. Lisa was telling me how Bonn is home to the largest German History museum--I can not WAIT to check it out. I already told my host family how I am a huge history nerd, so they are trying to think of all the places I need to go. Well as for now, I have nothing else to really report. Emilian is still sleeping from our walk, but when he wakes Lisa is going to feed him and then we are going to go to the electronic store to try and find me an adapter that will work with my laptop. Then maybe a cafe.. I don't know. I don't know if we'll have time. Nice little Thursday planned ;)
Tschuß!!
xoxo Megan