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.