I have come to accept the fact that I will be moving on from this place, but I don't think it has yet to really truly sink in that at this time in one week, I will be in the air flying west. I think my mind is tricking me into thinking that it's just for a vacation or holiday, but it's not. I am in fact moving back to the United States in a week. That is absolutely crazy. I have lived the last 14 months away from everyone and everything I have ever known to go pursue an adventure. My time spent here will be time that I will look back on fondly with great memories and amazement. I don't think I will truly grasp the idea that I won't be waking up to seeing Emilian or Lisa or Kai anymore, until after at least a month or two back home. I am going to miss them so much. I can't even begin to think of how much little Emiliano will grow by the next time I get the chance to see him (which will hopefully be this coming summer). And I can't really even think of not seeing Bertus yet. Granted, I haven't been able to see him pretty much at all in the past 6 weeks because of his work, but the idea of him being so far away will be odd. These people have become my best friends and family in the past year, and I am so thankful that fate would have it that we would come into each others lives. But when I start to become sad, I then think of how exciting it is to be looking forward to being surrounded by my American family and friends--the people that have known me for years, and who I always feel at home with. And of course, don't even get me started on my dogs ;)
One week. It's going to be an emotional roller coaster in these next several days, that's for sure. But then again, I think I am going to be too focused trying to figure out how in the HELL I am going to get all this stuff home without having to spend a million dollars. So I send my apologizes now to the poor sap that will be sat next to me on the plane, because I have a feeling, that will be the time that all these emotions will come pouring out. So, guy sitting next to me in a week: Sorry, my B.
As of right now, it being 1:40pm on Monday, December 13th, I have exactly 6 days, 17 hours and 20 minutes left in Deutschland. Ugh. I'm going to be a wreck.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Coming Home
So I have to int interrupt my retelling of my Vegas adventures to post about a big decision I have made in the past week. In the past few months I have becoming more and more unhappy around here. Don't get me wrong, I love my host family and living in Germany, but as time went on, I found myself missing my family and friends more and more and not to mention I felt that I had lost some of my independence and a little bit of myself. Bertus and I weren't able to see each other in weeks because he was so busy with work in Mainz and that put a big strain on both of us--especially him. Last Sunday (Dec. 5th), he let me know that he was unhappy with a lot of things, and although it was sad and upsetting for sure, it's something that I knew deep down would always have to happen--to officially break up. I was trying so hard to want to love being here so much more because of him, but knew that my true place is to be laughing with family and friends surrounding me, and that for me is found at home in the US. But in reality, I am grateful for him to have been brave enough to confront the situation and bring up the end, because I never would have, and without the end of us, I would never 100% convince myself to return home. I have no ill feelings toward him or anger whatsoever. He was my best friend here and I had the best year with him. Honestly, there is no way I think I would have made it this long without him. And for that I thank him, and I expect him and I will remain good friends for the rest of our lives. And who knows, maybe someday our paths will cross again--and I fully expect him to visit Ohio at some point and finally meet everyone!!! :) ..so Bertus, if you're reading this, start saving money now!
So with that, the decision was easy. It is time for me to come home. It is sad, and I know I will be upset when I am forced to officially say my goodbyes to Kai and Lisa and Johanna and of course little Emilian, but at the same time, I am bursting at the seams with happiness at the thought of being home again. I've loved my time here and will remember it for the rest of my life, but I belong in the US. So, America, I'm coming home. I had a flight scheduled to come home for Christmas for 9 days, leaving Germany on the 20th and coming back on the 29th. But with this new change of plans, I will be flying home, and just staying. Everything has been coming so fast, for I now leave Germany in a week. A WEEK! I fly from Düsseldorf at 7am to Paris, then catch another plane to Charlotte, NC, where I once more change planes and arrive to Port Columbus International Airport at around 7:30pm EST. And from there I set out on my next life adventure--with all my favorite supporting cast of characters around me.
So everyone back home reading this, you have one week to choreograph and rehearse the following for my arrival. I look forward to seeing everyone soon! All my love, Megan
So with that, the decision was easy. It is time for me to come home. It is sad, and I know I will be upset when I am forced to officially say my goodbyes to Kai and Lisa and Johanna and of course little Emilian, but at the same time, I am bursting at the seams with happiness at the thought of being home again. I've loved my time here and will remember it for the rest of my life, but I belong in the US. So, America, I'm coming home. I had a flight scheduled to come home for Christmas for 9 days, leaving Germany on the 20th and coming back on the 29th. But with this new change of plans, I will be flying home, and just staying. Everything has been coming so fast, for I now leave Germany in a week. A WEEK! I fly from Düsseldorf at 7am to Paris, then catch another plane to Charlotte, NC, where I once more change planes and arrive to Port Columbus International Airport at around 7:30pm EST. And from there I set out on my next life adventure--with all my favorite supporting cast of characters around me.
So everyone back home reading this, you have one week to choreograph and rehearse the following for my arrival. I look forward to seeing everyone soon! All my love, Megan
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Viva Las Vegas (pt. II)
I felt as if I had just shut my eyes when I was so rudely awoken on the Thursday morning--my first morning in Vegas. Going to sleep at around 12:30, I was hoping to sleep in until at least 10 or so, and try to really get my body on the right time. I had to meet Lisa at around 1 to go to the dress shop to get my dress hemmed and fixed and whatever else it might need (considering that until 2 days before the wedding, I have never been able to try this sucker on). Well, my ideal day would have been getting a full nights rest and being up and ready to go, grab some lunch at noon or so then off to meet Lisa. Well ladies and gents, Suzy Bear Osgood had other plans in mind. I remember as if it were yesterday--in fact, it still haunts my nightmares. I was lying in a deep delicious sleep when I hear my mother in the other large bed in the room start to mumble some things. I start to stir a little when, in FULL booming voice, I hear--and I quote VERBATIM, "I'm SOOO awake right now!!!" My eyes this fly open and I grab the phone off the side table next to my head. The time? 6:55 in the A freakin' M. I look at my mom and I believe give her a death stare and try to turn back over to try and maybe fall back asleep. The problem with me, is once I am initially woken up, I'm awake. There's no turning back for me. So this special 7am wake-up call was not lookin' to be something I could ignore. As if there were any hope left to try and catch up on sleep, Sue Ellen quickly took that hope by the balls and as she would say, "gave it a squeeze" (have I told you my is ridiculous/hilarious yet?). She then begins to have a full on conversation with Bob, who at this point is also awake--and bless his heart, I am convinced that Bob Bucher physically doesn't know how to whisper. The two of them were like peas in a pod just having a full on conversation about being awake without a care in the world. My mom then, announces to the room "does anyone mind if I turn on the Today?" And before anyone could answer, ZAP! On comes the extra large flat-screen at, again, full volume. I then throw the covers off me and proceed to get out of bed. Let me just tell you, Suzy B is a force to be reckoned with, not too mention the fact that my body has no idea what time it is, I am running on empty, and also the adrenalin is pumping from the sheer excitement of the coming wedding of my brother. Mix that all together and you get a 'just face facts, you're not getting any sleep while you are here' cocktail. And guess what? At that point, I just chugged the sh*t out of that concoction. I get out of bed and head for the bathroom to get ready for the day. Six. Oh. Four. A. M. Fannnntastic.
Now that everyone was awake in the morning, we all change and get ready for the day. We decide to walk over to the Luxor Hotel which is next door to find some place to get some breakfast. We ended up going to the Pyramid Cafe which is practically in the center of the Luxor casino level. It was also the same exact place that my mom, Travis, Eric and I all had a very late dinner our first night in Vegas all those years ago. We had to wait to be seated for a quick 5 minutes or so, and while waiting in the line to be sat, I looked at Emily and said "let's go gamble for a second and win tons of money". We headed to the nearby slot machine and I put in a 10 dollar bill. After about 3 spins on 'max bet' I was out of money. Cool. Gambling is sooooo fun. You put you're money in. Hit a button a few times, and 20 seconds later it's over. Awesome. We went back up to my mom, Bob and Lindsey and let them know, nope, we didn't win. Damnit. We got seated and start looking through the menu. Everyone knew what they wanted pretty quickly, and we ordered. Let me just tell you, this was pretty much the best breakfast I have ever had. I am sitting here now writing this, and unfortunately I am hungry and just thinking about this is making me mouth water. I got some southwest breakfast wrap with eggs and all I know is that it was the best 'spot-hitter' I have ever had. Yum. After we all stuffed our faces and filled our bellies, it was time to make our way back to Mandalay Bay. I was supposed to meet Lisa in the lobby with my bridesmaid dress and shoes at 1, where then the two of us would get in the towncar Lisa's family rented for the week and head over to Couture Bride--about a 15 minute drive from the Strip. After getting back to the Mandalay Bay, I was starting to run out of time, so I went up to the room to collect my things and parted ways with everyone for the day. Now, I seriously can not even BEGIN to tell you how jealous I was of everyone on most of this trip. Because I was, duh, living in Germany, I was unable to ever try the dress on, get it altered, hemmed, anything. So of course, this needed to be done in the 2 days before the wedding. So as I left to go get all the things I would need to meet up with Lisa and then later go take care of my dress, my mom and Bob would go gamble or hang out with the other people there, and Emma Bear, aka the luckiest girl alive, would have her daily routine of lounging, going to the gym, follow it up with a luxurious steam room trip, get some food, and the of course, lounge around the amazing Four Seasons pool and drink with all the groomsmen, and top it off with getting spritzed in the face with Evian (yeah, they do that there, and it is incredible). Meanwhile, I'm off in tears at a dress shop in the middle of the desert. What's wrong with this picture???
Lisa and I went and took care of our dresses (hers was still in the process of being altered and fitted while mine was just beginning) and were finally able to head back to the hotel about 2 hours later. Let me just say now, that as much as it was a hassle to go deal with this dress while everyone else was enjoying the pool, I'm actually glad for it also--it was a really great time for me to be able to hang out with Lisa alone where she wouldn't be pulled and pushed in 8 different directions for the upcoming big day, and not to mention, the sneak peek at the wedding dress. And while we're on it. OH MY GOD THE DRESS! Lisa is already so beautiful and has the BEST taste for everything, and so I knew that whatever she ended up choosing for her wedding would of course be breath-taking. And man, it really, really was. And once she was in that thing, she was simply stunning. It made the anticipation for the wedding that much more exciting. Dawn, the crazy Korean woman with one of the biggest personalities I have ever met, had a lot of work to do to finish our two dresses that night, so we left and agreed that we would be back the following day (Friday) to double check everything. As soon as we got back to the hotel Lisa immediately had to go take care of other things. I then head back to the room, even more exhausted then I thought possible, from still suffering from the long flight, to the 7am Sue Osgood wake-up call, and just the emotional roller coaster that this wedding stress turned out to be. (I'm not even kidding, I thought I would be a barrel full of laughs, all excited for my brother and Lisa's wedding, but didn't anticipate the sheer emotion from just being happy. Case in point: Lisa in the car ride back to the hotel from the dress fitting tells me what song her and Travis had chosen for their first dance; Green Eyes by Coldplay. Just hearing that, and thinking of how beautiful the song is and how much I love Trav and Lis, turned on the waterworks. Oh great. Thanks emotions). I get to the room and put some of my stuff away when Lisa calls me to see if I wanted to go with her to check out her new 'room' with her and her mom and her wedding planner Dennis, (you'll see why I have the word room in quotations soon..). I say of course. I met up with them at the elevators and we take it UP. We get out and, that's right ladies and gentlemen, we proceed to room 39001, AKA The Four Seasons Las Vegas Presidential Suite. Ballin'! Apparently, the suite that Travis and Lisa had previously (which had the most amazing view of the Strip) was requested by some big high roller or something. So the hotel called Dennis (their wedding planner, who works at the Four Seasons) and asked him if Travis and Lisa could please move to a new room. Dennis then stuck up for them and said something along the lines of 'if you're going to be making them move rooms on their wedding weekend, you better be giving them an upgrade!' Well, the hotel was booked full that weekend as it were, so I guess later that day someone at the front desk called Dennis back and informed him that the only room available that they could be upgraded to was the freaking 5,000 a night Presidential Suite, and asked if they would be okay with that? Take a wild guess at what they said...
..to be continued, sorry this is taking forever :(
..to be continued
Now that everyone was awake in the morning, we all change and get ready for the day. We decide to walk over to the Luxor Hotel which is next door to find some place to get some breakfast. We ended up going to the Pyramid Cafe which is practically in the center of the Luxor casino level. It was also the same exact place that my mom, Travis, Eric and I all had a very late dinner our first night in Vegas all those years ago. We had to wait to be seated for a quick 5 minutes or so, and while waiting in the line to be sat, I looked at Emily and said "let's go gamble for a second and win tons of money". We headed to the nearby slot machine and I put in a 10 dollar bill. After about 3 spins on 'max bet' I was out of money. Cool. Gambling is sooooo fun. You put you're money in. Hit a button a few times, and 20 seconds later it's over. Awesome. We went back up to my mom, Bob and Lindsey and let them know, nope, we didn't win. Damnit. We got seated and start looking through the menu. Everyone knew what they wanted pretty quickly, and we ordered. Let me just tell you, this was pretty much the best breakfast I have ever had. I am sitting here now writing this, and unfortunately I am hungry and just thinking about this is making me mouth water. I got some southwest breakfast wrap with eggs and all I know is that it was the best 'spot-hitter' I have ever had. Yum. After we all stuffed our faces and filled our bellies, it was time to make our way back to Mandalay Bay. I was supposed to meet Lisa in the lobby with my bridesmaid dress and shoes at 1, where then the two of us would get in the towncar Lisa's family rented for the week and head over to Couture Bride--about a 15 minute drive from the Strip. After getting back to the Mandalay Bay, I was starting to run out of time, so I went up to the room to collect my things and parted ways with everyone for the day. Now, I seriously can not even BEGIN to tell you how jealous I was of everyone on most of this trip. Because I was, duh, living in Germany, I was unable to ever try the dress on, get it altered, hemmed, anything. So of course, this needed to be done in the 2 days before the wedding. So as I left to go get all the things I would need to meet up with Lisa and then later go take care of my dress, my mom and Bob would go gamble or hang out with the other people there, and Emma Bear, aka the luckiest girl alive, would have her daily routine of lounging, going to the gym, follow it up with a luxurious steam room trip, get some food, and the of course, lounge around the amazing Four Seasons pool and drink with all the groomsmen, and top it off with getting spritzed in the face with Evian (yeah, they do that there, and it is incredible). Meanwhile, I'm off in tears at a dress shop in the middle of the desert. What's wrong with this picture???
Lisa and I went and took care of our dresses (hers was still in the process of being altered and fitted while mine was just beginning) and were finally able to head back to the hotel about 2 hours later. Let me just say now, that as much as it was a hassle to go deal with this dress while everyone else was enjoying the pool, I'm actually glad for it also--it was a really great time for me to be able to hang out with Lisa alone where she wouldn't be pulled and pushed in 8 different directions for the upcoming big day, and not to mention, the sneak peek at the wedding dress. And while we're on it. OH MY GOD THE DRESS! Lisa is already so beautiful and has the BEST taste for everything, and so I knew that whatever she ended up choosing for her wedding would of course be breath-taking. And man, it really, really was. And once she was in that thing, she was simply stunning. It made the anticipation for the wedding that much more exciting. Dawn, the crazy Korean woman with one of the biggest personalities I have ever met, had a lot of work to do to finish our two dresses that night, so we left and agreed that we would be back the following day (Friday) to double check everything. As soon as we got back to the hotel Lisa immediately had to go take care of other things. I then head back to the room, even more exhausted then I thought possible, from still suffering from the long flight, to the 7am Sue Osgood wake-up call, and just the emotional roller coaster that this wedding stress turned out to be. (I'm not even kidding, I thought I would be a barrel full of laughs, all excited for my brother and Lisa's wedding, but didn't anticipate the sheer emotion from just being happy. Case in point: Lisa in the car ride back to the hotel from the dress fitting tells me what song her and Travis had chosen for their first dance; Green Eyes by Coldplay. Just hearing that, and thinking of how beautiful the song is and how much I love Trav and Lis, turned on the waterworks. Oh great. Thanks emotions). I get to the room and put some of my stuff away when Lisa calls me to see if I wanted to go with her to check out her new 'room' with her and her mom and her wedding planner Dennis, (you'll see why I have the word room in quotations soon..). I say of course. I met up with them at the elevators and we take it UP. We get out and, that's right ladies and gentlemen, we proceed to room 39001, AKA The Four Seasons Las Vegas Presidential Suite. Ballin'! Apparently, the suite that Travis and Lisa had previously (which had the most amazing view of the Strip) was requested by some big high roller or something. So the hotel called Dennis (their wedding planner, who works at the Four Seasons) and asked him if Travis and Lisa could please move to a new room. Dennis then stuck up for them and said something along the lines of 'if you're going to be making them move rooms on their wedding weekend, you better be giving them an upgrade!' Well, the hotel was booked full that weekend as it were, so I guess later that day someone at the front desk called Dennis back and informed him that the only room available that they could be upgraded to was the freaking 5,000 a night Presidential Suite, and asked if they would be okay with that? Take a wild guess at what they said...
..to be continued, sorry this is taking forever :(
..to be continued
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Viva Las Vegas (pt. I)
On Wednesday, October 6th I boarded a flight in Düsseldorf headed for my homeland of the U. S. of A. My flight was direct to San Francisco. Now for all of you out there who don't know your geography (side note: shame on you!), that means not only did I have a trans-Atlantic flight, but I had one that once making it over the 2nd largest ocean on planet Earth, I then flew clear over the 2nd largest country in the world (no, that's not a mistake, I flew over northern Canada and then down over Washington state and Oregon into California. But I'm glad you caught that. You're right, the US is in-fact the 4th largest country, following of course 1. Russia, 2. Canada, 3. China. How's that knowledge feel?!). I luckily had a window seat on this extra long flight, so at least I had something to rest my head against and attempt to sleep (although I can never sleep on planes. damn.). After being on the plane for some time I remember thinking to myself, "okay. I have to be at least half way by now". I then looked at my clock on my iPod, and nope. I had only been on for a solid four hours. Out of 12. Only 1/3 of the trip complete and the little plane on the digital map said I was currently somewhere over Greenland. I tried to read and listen to some Ricky Gervais podcasts, and even watched one of the in-flight movies (I believe the first one was After the Sunset with Pierce Brosnan--love him by the way, he's just so handsome!). After the semi-cheesy movie that made me wish to be in the Caribbean somewhere, I was brought back to reality of sitting on a plane. Still. The man next to me, I saw from his customs paper (I should be a spy), was an American but has been residing in Vietnam. He looked to be maybe a few years older than myself, so I offered him some of my German chocolate I was about to start eating (I'm very polite) and attempted to make small talk. He was not having it. He seemed very awkward and shy so I just left him alone. I then checked my clock again thinking I had to pretty much be there by now, and I still had another 6 hours left on-board. At around the 5 hour marker, I developed a splitting headache. I don't know if it was from the anticipation of seeing everyone mixed with just stress or what, but it hurt like hell and everything seemed to make it worse. There were a few times I thought I was going to be sick. But I powered through it and just counted down to the last second until I would be able to get off the plane. After close to about 12 hours we were finally readying for landing at San Francisco airport. Again, I had a window seat and was lucky again to be on the left side of the plane (thanks luck dust). The captain came over the intercom to tell everyone to prepare for landing and that "for those of you on the left side of the plane, look out and you can see downtown San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and that small island there is the famous Alcatraz". It was a super cool view. I looked out the window and said out-loud "oooh look! There DJ Tanner, about to get busted for holding a beer by Uncle Jesse!". I then chuckled to myself, because hello, that's hilarious, and everyone else around that heard it just kind of looked at me. Although I could hear a guy behind me laughing, so at least someone got the joke. We finally landed and I knew I had to pick up my bags and recheck them for my last flight onward to Vegas. I had about a 4 and 1/2 hour layover so I had some time. After retrieving my bags and going through customs I was on a one-woman mission to get my hands on some extra-strength Excedrin. My head had literally felt like an ax was in it for the last 5 solid hours of the flight. It was horrible.I found a small kiosk place that sold aspirins and such and quickly found some Excedrin. I pulled out my few US dollars I had that Sue had sent me and fumbled with the change. It was strange to be using this familiar but also foreign currency again. I then took the pills, and headed off in search for something to eat. So with that said let me digress for a second. Where in the world do airports get off charging 10 dollars from something that would be 3 on the outside?!? I found a small food court which had a little Mexican place similar to something like Chipotle. I went up to take a glace at the menu and the cheapest thing was like 12 dollars--and this was by no means a "fancy" place. So I said screw that and kept walking. I finally found a small diner type of place where I was able to buy a chicken sandwich for about 7 bucks and sat and ate waiting for my headache medicine to kick in. Once I was done eating I found an outlet and powered up my US cell phone for the first time in almost a year. I spoke to a number of friends on the phone and texted a few others--it was nice to have access to the people I love again. I talked with my dear friend Jas for well over an hour. She filled me in on her life and we just gossiped and told stories and laughed like we have done so many times before, it was really nice, and not too mention a great way to waste time during a long layover. It was finally time to board my hour flight on to Las Vegas, and at this time it was about 6pm (but 3am Germany time, so needless to say I was pretty exhausted). I got on the flight an almost immediately fell in a semi-sleep. I awoke as we were landing and the lights from outside the plane had made it official: I was finally back in Sin City!
Once I got off the plane I was immediately greeted by the sights and sounds of Vegas: flashy lights and slot machines. Let it be told that after a close to 18 hours of travel time, probably the worst place in the world to land is Las Vegas. I quickly headed to the baggage claim to wait for my luggage. When I got there, it was 7:30pm Vegas time. Germany time aka what my body thought, was a grueling 4:30 in the morning, so I was exhausted and irritable (with the blaring speakers announcing JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE LIVE IN CONCERT AT CAESARS PALACE!!!! is about the last thing you want to be experiencing). Because I am in the hyper-state of irritation and tiredness I proceed to my luggage carousel and my annoyance grows. Basically, I don't know who dropped the ball at McCarran International, but putting 3 incoming flights all on one carousel when all around are empty/un-used ones, is ass-crack backwards. I mean, it might have made some sense if they all happened to be from the same airline, which of course in this instance, they were not. Luggage from a flight from Chicago was already circling when they announced that the flight from San Francisco (my flight) would also be joining. And then after some time (and still no sign of my bag) the announcer came on to say that a flight from St. Louis would also be joining the fray at carousel 13. It seriously made no sense. Retarded. I sat there starting to get nervous as I saw countless bags passing by and still no sign of my giant black suitcase with it's red and black Cincinnati Bearcats ribbon that I had attached to it when I was 15 and my brother had just started attending UC (NOTE TO SELF: Replace that dastardly ribbon with Blue and Gold). As I waited, exhausted, nervous and annoyed, I feel a light graze on my shoulder and the sound of a familiar voice say "Megan!!!????!!!!" I slowly turn my gaze and rest my eyes on both Emily and Lindsey who are standing there with smiles of sheer excitement. My mother (who had already arrived in Las Vegas hours early), had told me that Emily and Lindsey's flight would come about 2 hours after mine--hence, I had no idea they would be there. I stare at both of them with my zombie eyes and then finally reply, "what.... are you doing here?" in the most uneventful and monotone voice I have ever heard escape my own mouth. Emily then responds through her double teeth layered smile, "we're SURPRISING YOU!!!!!!". I then just stare for another solid few seconds before I turn back toward the carousel and say "oh... I need to, uh, get my bag". At this point Emily and Lindsey are just staring at me completely dazed at my lackluster reaction to their 'surprise'. I finally see my bag, and pull it off the conveyor belt. I apologize for my delayed and lifeless response, and the three of us head for the airport shuttle that my mom had previously told us to take. We finally find it, pay for our round-trip ticket (which would later come back to bite us in the ass) and tell the driver to take us to Mandalay Bay (we stayed at the Four Seasons, which actually occupies the 35th-39th floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel, but aren't going to arrive to the secret luxuriant Four Season entrance in a black shuttle bus thing. We have WAY too much class for that). After our short shuttle ride, and dropping off other people at their hotels along the way, we finally made our stop at the Mandalay Bay. I had called my mom to tell her we would be there shortly, and because there is a "secret entry" into the Four Seasons elevators from the Mandalay Bay (which one needs a valid room key to enter), she said she would meet us in the lobby. This is when the real adventure began.
At this point, I was getting my 3rd or 4th wind of the extremely long day from the sheer excitement of not only being in Las Vegas again after so many years (and with my plans to win big money, who wouldn't be excited??), but also to see so many of my family and friends that I had missed so much in the last 11 and 1/2 months. Emily, Lindsey and I walked into the lobby which was rather deserted for it only being around 8:15pm (and yes, it was only a Wednesday, but come on, it's Vegas!). With luggage in hand I look around and out pops my mother from behind a large vase planter with teary eyes. It was so bizarre. We hug and say are hellos, and I ask her why she was hiding behind an over-sized vase, and mid-sentence there comes Bob Bucher, also popping out from behind an extra large pillar. It was all very strange and very hilarious. From this point we head up to the room to put our stuff down. Travis called and said him and the wife to be were finishing up dinner with Lisa's parents and were then headed down to the casino and that we should join them. So after being lazy around the room and catching up for about a half hour, we got all our things together and headed for the casino. From where we stood waiting for the elevators, we had the most amazing views of both the Four Seasons and Mandalay Bay pools (both of which are accessible for Four Seasons guests--boo-yah!)
(View of pools during the day; work cited: I took this picture from Brian Rousey's collection.. thanks Brian! :P ) After the quick express elevator ride down to the casino level, we made out way toward the "Crazy 4 Poker" tables that Travis had said they all were. We said hello to Lisa's mom and dad and brother, David, and then a quick hello to her aunt Harriet and uncle Paul (quick! how many noses noses does a slug have?! Answer: FOUR!), and then all headed over to the sports betting area. After hanging around there talking and catching up for about 20 minutes, Lisa made the astute observation that in-fact the betting windows were closed for the night and we were all standing around looking at giant boards with sports spreads for no reason. At this point it was going on 10:30 or so at night and I was exhausted (it was 7:30am Germany time). We all were pretty hungry as well, and seeing as how it was Vegas wanted to try and find something to eat before going up to our room. Well, everything was closed. Which again, this is Vegas, nothing is supposed to ever close! At that point I was crashing hard and didn't care about eating at all, all I wanted was to lay down and shut my eyes. We all went back to the room and for this night Lindsey was going to be crashing in our room as well since her mom and Randy wouldn't be arriving in Sin City until the following day. She set up shop on the over-sized chair and made what looked like, actually, a really nice little bed. After all unwinding we all climb in bed (mind you, Emily and I were sharing a room with my mom and Bob... note to self: separate rooms next time, read on to learn why....) We all finally turn the lights off and go to bed and it was probably around 12:30 at night. Again, German time would be 9:30am the next day, so not only was I beyond exhausted after being up for a solid 24 hours or so, I also was pretty out of it. But it was finally time to sleep and I feel asleep almost instantly after I laid down on the heavenly bed.
Once I got off the plane I was immediately greeted by the sights and sounds of Vegas: flashy lights and slot machines. Let it be told that after a close to 18 hours of travel time, probably the worst place in the world to land is Las Vegas. I quickly headed to the baggage claim to wait for my luggage. When I got there, it was 7:30pm Vegas time. Germany time aka what my body thought, was a grueling 4:30 in the morning, so I was exhausted and irritable (with the blaring speakers announcing JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE LIVE IN CONCERT AT CAESARS PALACE!!!! is about the last thing you want to be experiencing). Because I am in the hyper-state of irritation and tiredness I proceed to my luggage carousel and my annoyance grows. Basically, I don't know who dropped the ball at McCarran International, but putting 3 incoming flights all on one carousel when all around are empty/un-used ones, is ass-crack backwards. I mean, it might have made some sense if they all happened to be from the same airline, which of course in this instance, they were not. Luggage from a flight from Chicago was already circling when they announced that the flight from San Francisco (my flight) would also be joining. And then after some time (and still no sign of my bag) the announcer came on to say that a flight from St. Louis would also be joining the fray at carousel 13. It seriously made no sense. Retarded. I sat there starting to get nervous as I saw countless bags passing by and still no sign of my giant black suitcase with it's red and black Cincinnati Bearcats ribbon that I had attached to it when I was 15 and my brother had just started attending UC (NOTE TO SELF: Replace that dastardly ribbon with Blue and Gold). As I waited, exhausted, nervous and annoyed, I feel a light graze on my shoulder and the sound of a familiar voice say "Megan!!!????!!!!" I slowly turn my gaze and rest my eyes on both Emily and Lindsey who are standing there with smiles of sheer excitement. My mother (who had already arrived in Las Vegas hours early), had told me that Emily and Lindsey's flight would come about 2 hours after mine--hence, I had no idea they would be there. I stare at both of them with my zombie eyes and then finally reply, "what.... are you doing here?" in the most uneventful and monotone voice I have ever heard escape my own mouth. Emily then responds through her double teeth layered smile, "we're SURPRISING YOU!!!!!!". I then just stare for another solid few seconds before I turn back toward the carousel and say "oh... I need to, uh, get my bag". At this point Emily and Lindsey are just staring at me completely dazed at my lackluster reaction to their 'surprise'. I finally see my bag, and pull it off the conveyor belt. I apologize for my delayed and lifeless response, and the three of us head for the airport shuttle that my mom had previously told us to take. We finally find it, pay for our round-trip ticket (which would later come back to bite us in the ass) and tell the driver to take us to Mandalay Bay (we stayed at the Four Seasons, which actually occupies the 35th-39th floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel, but aren't going to arrive to the secret luxuriant Four Season entrance in a black shuttle bus thing. We have WAY too much class for that). After our short shuttle ride, and dropping off other people at their hotels along the way, we finally made our stop at the Mandalay Bay. I had called my mom to tell her we would be there shortly, and because there is a "secret entry" into the Four Seasons elevators from the Mandalay Bay (which one needs a valid room key to enter), she said she would meet us in the lobby. This is when the real adventure began.
At this point, I was getting my 3rd or 4th wind of the extremely long day from the sheer excitement of not only being in Las Vegas again after so many years (and with my plans to win big money, who wouldn't be excited??), but also to see so many of my family and friends that I had missed so much in the last 11 and 1/2 months. Emily, Lindsey and I walked into the lobby which was rather deserted for it only being around 8:15pm (and yes, it was only a Wednesday, but come on, it's Vegas!). With luggage in hand I look around and out pops my mother from behind a large vase planter with teary eyes. It was so bizarre. We hug and say are hellos, and I ask her why she was hiding behind an over-sized vase, and mid-sentence there comes Bob Bucher, also popping out from behind an extra large pillar. It was all very strange and very hilarious. From this point we head up to the room to put our stuff down. Travis called and said him and the wife to be were finishing up dinner with Lisa's parents and were then headed down to the casino and that we should join them. So after being lazy around the room and catching up for about a half hour, we got all our things together and headed for the casino. From where we stood waiting for the elevators, we had the most amazing views of both the Four Seasons and Mandalay Bay pools (both of which are accessible for Four Seasons guests--boo-yah!)
(View of pools during the day; work cited: I took this picture from Brian Rousey's collection.. thanks Brian! :P ) After the quick express elevator ride down to the casino level, we made out way toward the "Crazy 4 Poker" tables that Travis had said they all were. We said hello to Lisa's mom and dad and brother, David, and then a quick hello to her aunt Harriet and uncle Paul (quick! how many noses noses does a slug have?! Answer: FOUR!), and then all headed over to the sports betting area. After hanging around there talking and catching up for about 20 minutes, Lisa made the astute observation that in-fact the betting windows were closed for the night and we were all standing around looking at giant boards with sports spreads for no reason. At this point it was going on 10:30 or so at night and I was exhausted (it was 7:30am Germany time). We all were pretty hungry as well, and seeing as how it was Vegas wanted to try and find something to eat before going up to our room. Well, everything was closed. Which again, this is Vegas, nothing is supposed to ever close! At that point I was crashing hard and didn't care about eating at all, all I wanted was to lay down and shut my eyes. We all went back to the room and for this night Lindsey was going to be crashing in our room as well since her mom and Randy wouldn't be arriving in Sin City until the following day. She set up shop on the over-sized chair and made what looked like, actually, a really nice little bed. After all unwinding we all climb in bed (mind you, Emily and I were sharing a room with my mom and Bob... note to self: separate rooms next time, read on to learn why....) We all finally turn the lights off and go to bed and it was probably around 12:30 at night. Again, German time would be 9:30am the next day, so not only was I beyond exhausted after being up for a solid 24 hours or so, I also was pretty out of it. But it was finally time to sleep and I feel asleep almost instantly after I laid down on the heavenly bed.
Friday, November 12, 2010
My (truly) Great Uncle
I know I already wrote a post earlier today, but I just found out some deeply sad news that I feel I need to express somehow, so what better place for me than here? I found out just a few moments ago that my great uncle Blair, husband to Betty (one of my Granny's sisters) passed away last night at 95. I can't recall a single time where I had gone to visit my grandmother when she lived in Parsons, WV, where I didn't also see and spend time with my great aunt and uncle, Betty and Blair. I can remember countless times telling my mom what a "cute old man" I always thought Blair was. Visiting with Betty and Blair always made me smile. I will always remember him in one of his numerous fishing hats and chewing a toothpick. When I was in the 10th grade, for a US History project I decided to do mine on Blair. I conducted a few (and thankfully had the foresight to record them) interviews with him on his experience in World War II. He was an incredible man who served in the 4th Infantry Division on the US Army. He was among some of the first brave men to storm Utah Beach on D-Day and later under the command of General Patton helped to liberate Paris. He sometime later suffered shrapnel injuries from an explosive and was sent to England to get medical attention before being sent back to the States with a Purple Heart. He was and will remain a giant hero to me. He will be greatly missed.
My 25th, St. Martin and Elfte Elfte
Alright. Once again I am going back on a promise. And the promise I am breaking to you, my loyal readers, is that this post will not be about Las Vegas/my time home/Dublin. But if you can try believing me once more, that is coming! It just takes a lot of time to write it all out, and in the meantime some things have been happening around here! So let me get right into that:
My last post came on the 27th of October, so I apologize for not updating sooner. But two days following that post was Friday, October 29th. Which is of course everyone's favorite blogger's birthday. Yes. Me. I turned (sigh) 25. This is my second birthday I have had while in Germany and it was nice, super mellow and low-key, but nice none the less. I woke up to start my day like any other and at breakfast Lisa presented this amazing yummy cake she had made (not like a sugary/sweet/icing cake like we think of in the US, but almost like a creamy cheese cake with raspberries). So Kai, Lisa, Emilian and I had our morning brötchen and coffee and then some cake. While I was still eating, Lisa then handed me a rolled up poster and said that it was my birthday gift from her Kai and Cutie Bear. I unrolled it and written on the top of several pictures of different European cities were the words "1 Blindbooking Flug nach Ost Europa + 2 Nächte in einem Hotel". Which means that they got me a "blindbooking" flight to an Eastern Europe city plus a 2 night stay in whichever city I am given (again, I won't know which destination I am headed for until the flight is actually booked) which is not only super nice of them, but something that I really have wanted to do! I know I have at some point even blogged about this idea here before! After talking with Naemi, she wants to come for sure also, so now we just need to find a weekend that works for us both and away we go! I am so excited, because I really want the chance to explore more, and Eastern Europe is so fascinating to me :) For the rest of my birthday I watched Emilian like normal. Lisa had told me earlier in the week that she planned to cook a goose for my birthday dinner so I was looking forward to such a delicious dinner. I had talked to Bertus earlier in the week and he told me, although he was planning to come to Bonn for the weekend, he wouldn't be getting off work until late on Friday and then wouldn't be in Bonn until late Friday night, so him and I just made plans for Saturday. At around 7 or so Lisa was finishing up the rest of the meal and I was playing with Emilian when the doorbell rang. I assumed it would be the post man or something (I dunno? Do they even come at night? I'm an idiot..) but when neither Kai or Lisa sprang to get it I started thinking. And then Lisa says "I think you should get that". Dead giveaway. I went and opened the door and there with Bertus with my luggage that I had left with him in Mainz after returning from the US (I'll get to that in my Vegas/Home blog). What a sneaky little German ;)
After dinner Bertus gave me a small present for me to unwrap. I had told him earlier in the week that I really didn't want him to be spending any money on me and that I didn't want anything other than to just hang out, so this really came as a surprise. I unwrapped it and there was the book Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman. I told him thank you and that I was excited because I, no joke, almost bought the exact same book the day before when I was in Bonn. Later Bertus was leaving to go to his apartment in Bonn and he was super tired from the week/day so I told him I would see him the next day. I went down to my room and began reading my new book. The next day I went into Bonn to get a few things to make for dinner before heading of to Bertus'. He didn't feel to well so I decided to, of course, take some chicken noodle soup (although no Campbell's here... which is almost a crime if you as me...). While I was there he says to me "I bet you were disappointed when I gave you just a book", which I then told him (and meant it!) absolutely not! I didn't even expect anything from him, and plus, I love to read so a book is perfect :) But then he handed me a small white gift bag with a green bow on it. I tried untying the bow but it wouldn't budge. Bertus than looks at me and says "I don't think you are meant to untie it...." Oops... I then noticed the glued flap and open it. Inside is a little black box thing and I immediately knew it was jewelery of some-kind. I looked at him like what have you been up to?! I open it and there are these two adorable little silver hoop earrings that have this criss-cross pattern on them that plays with the light to make them sparkle! They're so pretty and he is so sweet for doing something like that. Although, truth be told, I wasn't lying when I said I didn't expect anything and the book would have been more than enough, but then earrings too! I'm a very lucky girl :)
After my birthday weekend, which also happens to be Halloween weekend (although not celebrated here), we entered into November. I can't believe how fast time really does fly. This past week has been very busy. First, on Sunday after coming home from being in Bonn, I returned home to my room to my waiting computer. When I left the night before I had begun the installation/downloading of the birthday gift from Travis: the new Civilization V (I know, I know, I am a nerd). So after coming home and taking a warm shower and changing into my 'lazy mouse lounge clothes' and quickly started the new game. Now, I refuse to lie to all of you out there in cyberspace, I played it for a good solid 5 and half hours. And no, I don't regret a second of it. It is fantastic and I can't wait to learn more about it and get a better feel for it. Then on Tuesday, the 9th, was once again the small holiday of St. Martin. I blogged about this holiday after I first experienced it last year, so to read in detail about it, go to my blog archives from last November. However, with this year's St. Martin, I made my own lantern (which is tight BTW... I'll upload a picture of it as soon as I can). That's right ladies and gentlemen, not only am I a mega-nerd that loves playing Civilization, I am also extremely immature and take part in holidays designed for 8 year old's. Awesome. (Bertus sure did find himself a real catch! ^^ ). Then yesterday, Thursday, November 11th, was once again Elfte Elfte, or Eleven Eleven. (Again, I write more in depth about this in my previous blog from last year, but basically Elfte Elfte is a one day-long Karneval in Cologne. Basically just an excuse for everyone in the city to throw on a costume and start drinking in the morning). Lisa gave me the full day off so that I could go into Cologne bright and early and begin the celebration! I woke up at around 7:45 or so and jumped in the shower. I got ready quickly, grabbed my halo and wings from this past winters Karneval and headed for the train station. I was supposed to meet my friend Moni (who I met through Bertus) at the Bonn Hbf at 10am and we would then take the train together to Köln Hbf where we would meet with my other American friend, Lauren, from Kansas, who is currently an Au Pair in Düsseldorf. We made our way into the city and people were once again everywhere drinking and laughing in costumes. Some people were seriously hilarious with what they came up with. I even walked by a group of 4 guys that went as the Jamaican bobsled team, complete with a giant bobsled that they were all walking around in (it was self made of course). We headed to Heumarkt which I remembered is where I was last year. After having a drink or so out with the crowds we decided it was too cold and that we needed to head indoors. We found a bar off the side street of Heumarkt and set up shop. The three of us had a lot of fun, but we all headed out of Cologne at around 4 or so. All in all, a very fun day! Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera, as did Moni and Lauren. So none of us have any pictures to share. But just so you know, I make one hell of an angel ;)
And that is all I have for you as of now. I am still in the midst of writing my post about Vegas and being home, but it's gonna take some time. So bare with me! I'll be back again soon, and hopefully back to a routine of updating at least once a week like before. Until then xoxox MegLett
My last post came on the 27th of October, so I apologize for not updating sooner. But two days following that post was Friday, October 29th. Which is of course everyone's favorite blogger's birthday. Yes. Me. I turned (sigh) 25. This is my second birthday I have had while in Germany and it was nice, super mellow and low-key, but nice none the less. I woke up to start my day like any other and at breakfast Lisa presented this amazing yummy cake she had made (not like a sugary/sweet/icing cake like we think of in the US, but almost like a creamy cheese cake with raspberries). So Kai, Lisa, Emilian and I had our morning brötchen and coffee and then some cake. While I was still eating, Lisa then handed me a rolled up poster and said that it was my birthday gift from her Kai and Cutie Bear. I unrolled it and written on the top of several pictures of different European cities were the words "1 Blindbooking Flug nach Ost Europa + 2 Nächte in einem Hotel". Which means that they got me a "blindbooking" flight to an Eastern Europe city plus a 2 night stay in whichever city I am given (again, I won't know which destination I am headed for until the flight is actually booked) which is not only super nice of them, but something that I really have wanted to do! I know I have at some point even blogged about this idea here before! After talking with Naemi, she wants to come for sure also, so now we just need to find a weekend that works for us both and away we go! I am so excited, because I really want the chance to explore more, and Eastern Europe is so fascinating to me :) For the rest of my birthday I watched Emilian like normal. Lisa had told me earlier in the week that she planned to cook a goose for my birthday dinner so I was looking forward to such a delicious dinner. I had talked to Bertus earlier in the week and he told me, although he was planning to come to Bonn for the weekend, he wouldn't be getting off work until late on Friday and then wouldn't be in Bonn until late Friday night, so him and I just made plans for Saturday. At around 7 or so Lisa was finishing up the rest of the meal and I was playing with Emilian when the doorbell rang. I assumed it would be the post man or something (I dunno? Do they even come at night? I'm an idiot..) but when neither Kai or Lisa sprang to get it I started thinking. And then Lisa says "I think you should get that". Dead giveaway. I went and opened the door and there with Bertus with my luggage that I had left with him in Mainz after returning from the US (I'll get to that in my Vegas/Home blog). What a sneaky little German ;)
After dinner Bertus gave me a small present for me to unwrap. I had told him earlier in the week that I really didn't want him to be spending any money on me and that I didn't want anything other than to just hang out, so this really came as a surprise. I unwrapped it and there was the book Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman. I told him thank you and that I was excited because I, no joke, almost bought the exact same book the day before when I was in Bonn. Later Bertus was leaving to go to his apartment in Bonn and he was super tired from the week/day so I told him I would see him the next day. I went down to my room and began reading my new book. The next day I went into Bonn to get a few things to make for dinner before heading of to Bertus'. He didn't feel to well so I decided to, of course, take some chicken noodle soup (although no Campbell's here... which is almost a crime if you as me...). While I was there he says to me "I bet you were disappointed when I gave you just a book", which I then told him (and meant it!) absolutely not! I didn't even expect anything from him, and plus, I love to read so a book is perfect :) But then he handed me a small white gift bag with a green bow on it. I tried untying the bow but it wouldn't budge. Bertus than looks at me and says "I don't think you are meant to untie it...." Oops... I then noticed the glued flap and open it. Inside is a little black box thing and I immediately knew it was jewelery of some-kind. I looked at him like what have you been up to?! I open it and there are these two adorable little silver hoop earrings that have this criss-cross pattern on them that plays with the light to make them sparkle! They're so pretty and he is so sweet for doing something like that. Although, truth be told, I wasn't lying when I said I didn't expect anything and the book would have been more than enough, but then earrings too! I'm a very lucky girl :)
After my birthday weekend, which also happens to be Halloween weekend (although not celebrated here), we entered into November. I can't believe how fast time really does fly. This past week has been very busy. First, on Sunday after coming home from being in Bonn, I returned home to my room to my waiting computer. When I left the night before I had begun the installation/downloading of the birthday gift from Travis: the new Civilization V (I know, I know, I am a nerd). So after coming home and taking a warm shower and changing into my 'lazy mouse lounge clothes' and quickly started the new game. Now, I refuse to lie to all of you out there in cyberspace, I played it for a good solid 5 and half hours. And no, I don't regret a second of it. It is fantastic and I can't wait to learn more about it and get a better feel for it. Then on Tuesday, the 9th, was once again the small holiday of St. Martin. I blogged about this holiday after I first experienced it last year, so to read in detail about it, go to my blog archives from last November. However, with this year's St. Martin, I made my own lantern (which is tight BTW... I'll upload a picture of it as soon as I can). That's right ladies and gentlemen, not only am I a mega-nerd that loves playing Civilization, I am also extremely immature and take part in holidays designed for 8 year old's. Awesome. (Bertus sure did find himself a real catch! ^^ ). Then yesterday, Thursday, November 11th, was once again Elfte Elfte, or Eleven Eleven. (Again, I write more in depth about this in my previous blog from last year, but basically Elfte Elfte is a one day-long Karneval in Cologne. Basically just an excuse for everyone in the city to throw on a costume and start drinking in the morning). Lisa gave me the full day off so that I could go into Cologne bright and early and begin the celebration! I woke up at around 7:45 or so and jumped in the shower. I got ready quickly, grabbed my halo and wings from this past winters Karneval and headed for the train station. I was supposed to meet my friend Moni (who I met through Bertus) at the Bonn Hbf at 10am and we would then take the train together to Köln Hbf where we would meet with my other American friend, Lauren, from Kansas, who is currently an Au Pair in Düsseldorf. We made our way into the city and people were once again everywhere drinking and laughing in costumes. Some people were seriously hilarious with what they came up with. I even walked by a group of 4 guys that went as the Jamaican bobsled team, complete with a giant bobsled that they were all walking around in (it was self made of course). We headed to Heumarkt which I remembered is where I was last year. After having a drink or so out with the crowds we decided it was too cold and that we needed to head indoors. We found a bar off the side street of Heumarkt and set up shop. The three of us had a lot of fun, but we all headed out of Cologne at around 4 or so. All in all, a very fun day! Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera, as did Moni and Lauren. So none of us have any pictures to share. But just so you know, I make one hell of an angel ;)
And that is all I have for you as of now. I am still in the midst of writing my post about Vegas and being home, but it's gonna take some time. So bare with me! I'll be back again soon, and hopefully back to a routine of updating at least once a week like before. Until then xoxox MegLett
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
One Year: How Life Has Changed
Now again, I must start off by apologizing for not posting about my wonderful trip to Vegas and home, and also not about my quick stay in Dublin. I know, I know, I'll get to it, I swear. But I did have to come here today to add a few comments and thoughts. Today is October 27th, which not only means that yesterday was my mom's birthday (shout out to Suzy Bear!), but that exactly one year ago I started this incredible journey that has completely re-shaped my life. One year ago today I was boarding a plane in Columbus headed for Washington D.C.'s Dulles airport. From there I took a 7 and 1/2 hour flight and had finally landed in Germany. So much has happened this past year and I can definitely say I have grown in all the ways a person can grow. I wouldn't change a minute of it. Looking back there were definitely times I felt depressed and lonely, but I know now those times helped to show me how I can completely enjoy my surroundings and laugh with only myself. There were times I definitely felt stressed or overworked, but I powered through it, and made sure to take a few extra minutes for myself each day to collect my thoughts. There were times where all I wanted to do was complain or vent to someone (unfortunately for him, this often became the burden of Bertus), but at the end of the day it was all worth it. Because in between those times where I was feeling down or depressed or super-stressed were a lot, and I mean a lot of laughs. Experiencing a new culture and learning (or desperately trying to learn) a new language. Falling in love with the Rhein. Making friends around the globe. Drinking a lot of beer. And meeting my second family--well, make that 4th or 5th if I count all the Southwold members ;) that really makes me believe that destiny or fate is real. Looking back over these last 365 days, I can't begin to even believe how lucky I am or what an amazing life I have. I have always said that choosing to go to West Virginia University where I met my soul-mates, was the greatest decision I have ever made so far in my life. This choice to move to Germany has easily been a close second. Wow. What a difference a year can make!
Extremely thankful from Deutschland, xoxo Megan
PS-NOW I promise the next post will be about Vegas ;)
Extremely thankful from Deutschland, xoxo Megan
PS-NOW I promise the next post will be about Vegas ;)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Upcoming Stories
I finally find myself back in Germany. I arrived back to my house here in Kuchenheim last night at around 8 or so. After having a light dinner with Kai and Lisa and Cutie Bear (who is now HUGE!!! He grew so much while I was away!) I headed down to my new room for bed. I slept for a good 15 hours and finally feel like a human being again. Before I can even begin to post about my adventure in Ireland and the mess at the airport, I first need to update everyone out there on the wedding event of the century. So first be expecting my next post to be all about Vegas and my time at home followed by my adventure in Dublin with Travis and Lisa. Stay tuned--I'll be updating as soon as I can!
PS-As I am sure most of you have already noticed, I made a change to the look and style of my blog. Everything for the most part is still in the same place so you will be able to locate everything the same, just an overall color and look. Hopefully it makes it easier to read :) xoxo Megan
PS-As I am sure most of you have already noticed, I made a change to the look and style of my blog. Everything for the most part is still in the same place so you will be able to locate everything the same, just an overall color and look. Hopefully it makes it easier to read :) xoxo Megan
Monday, October 18, 2010
My Life is Pretty Amazing.
So many times I find myself questioning what I am doing with my life. As much as I am beyond happy with my choice to move to a country and learn a new language and meet amazing new people (including one super cute snuggle snail), I can't help but see where other people my age are at in their life and what they are doing (i.e. getting their first own place, buying a new car, being promoted) and sometimes get down on myself for not being at that point (or anywhere close) in my life yet. Most of the times when I tell friends that have recently accomplished some of those aforementioned mile-stones, I am always met with responses of, "Megan, I hate my job, I'm miserable and would love to have had the courage to do what you did". But I would be lying if I would say that even with doing this amazing thing within my own life, I still get down/upset/stressed when I don't see myself in this cookie cutter image of where society says a 25 college graduate should be. However, with all this said, at the end of the day just looking back at my life in the past 5 months alone, I would say I live the good life--even if I do only have 6 dollars in my US bank account...
I think of how just in June I was walking the streets of Berlin taking in some of the most amazing history and buildings that I was so excited to be standing in front it. In July I was cruising down the river Seine in a party boat drinking with Jessica with the most breath-taking views of the Eiffel Tower. A week ago I was experiencing the most stunning wedding ever seen at the Four Seasons Las Vegas with all my incredible family and friends (more on that in my next post coming soon), and today I find myself sitting in my favorite room on planet Earth, in Ohio typing this. Tomorrow morning I leave to make the journey back to Germany. I will be making a quick stop-over in Dublin, Ireland to spend a short 36 hours with Travis and Lisa who are on the last leg of their honeymoon, and then I will head back to Bonn to spend some time with someone I miss dearly before getting back to the grind as an Au Pair on Monday. And looking back on all of this, even with no real "job", no new car, no new house/apartment to call my own, and certainly no impressive monthly paycheck, I can still say that I am truly making the most out of my life and living an adventure that most others only dream of. I am bettering myself physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually and I just hope that all of you out there reading this do something for yourself that does all these things as well. Go out and explore your world. Travel. Enjoy a good cup a coffee. Read good books. Help a stranger. Laugh with family and friends. Because at the end of the day that's what matters in life, not what year your car is sitting in your driveway or what new designer handbag is hanging from your arm. In this exact moment as I ready myself for my day of travel tomorrow, all I can say is that I am so blessed for the people in my life and for the life in which I have. Because it's pretty amazing.
Goodnight from Columbus xoxox Megan
I think of how just in June I was walking the streets of Berlin taking in some of the most amazing history and buildings that I was so excited to be standing in front it. In July I was cruising down the river Seine in a party boat drinking with Jessica with the most breath-taking views of the Eiffel Tower. A week ago I was experiencing the most stunning wedding ever seen at the Four Seasons Las Vegas with all my incredible family and friends (more on that in my next post coming soon), and today I find myself sitting in my favorite room on planet Earth, in Ohio typing this. Tomorrow morning I leave to make the journey back to Germany. I will be making a quick stop-over in Dublin, Ireland to spend a short 36 hours with Travis and Lisa who are on the last leg of their honeymoon, and then I will head back to Bonn to spend some time with someone I miss dearly before getting back to the grind as an Au Pair on Monday. And looking back on all of this, even with no real "job", no new car, no new house/apartment to call my own, and certainly no impressive monthly paycheck, I can still say that I am truly making the most out of my life and living an adventure that most others only dream of. I am bettering myself physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually and I just hope that all of you out there reading this do something for yourself that does all these things as well. Go out and explore your world. Travel. Enjoy a good cup a coffee. Read good books. Help a stranger. Laugh with family and friends. Because at the end of the day that's what matters in life, not what year your car is sitting in your driveway or what new designer handbag is hanging from your arm. In this exact moment as I ready myself for my day of travel tomorrow, all I can say is that I am so blessed for the people in my life and for the life in which I have. Because it's pretty amazing.
Goodnight from Columbus xoxox Megan
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Ohhhh HERRO!
I'm so close to saying HERRO AMERICA, I can literally taste it. Today is Sunday, which means we can start looking at my countdown in terms of hours instead of days. And that is some freaking exciting news. As of right now (which is noon on Sunday the 3rd) I have 71 hours until my flight departs from Düsseldorf headed for the US. Amazing. I am so excited to see everyone that I don't even know what to do with myself. But, I feel like I have a lot to do before I can be ready to leave, and I'll be heading for the airport before I know it. I need to do some major laundry and I pray that the washer and dryer have already been hooked up from the move. Then I have to go through my few boxes and find what crap I plan on taking home with my etc. And then not to mention go to the bank and also buy the beers I plan on taking home for my mom and Bob. It doesn't sound like toooo much, but in reality I have 2 days (and not even full days, basically 2 evenings) to do it all. But it will keep me busy which will make the time go by faster I am sure. And at this point I don't even know what to do with myself!!!!!! EEEK!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be Stateside on WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!! Amazing.
In other news, today is Bertus' last day in Bonn until around Christmas or so. He moves back to Mainz for the next 3 months and that's depressing. I'm already planning on going down there to visit him a few times if all works out. Hopefully for my birthday weekend also (although I don't want to talk about my upcoming birthday because then it reminds me of being an old POS). But hopefully it won't be too awful while he is away. Naemi and I are also planning to book out 'blind' trip to Eastern Europe when I come back. I'm pretty excited for that also because A, I feel like I haven't seen/talked to her in FOREVER and B, Eastern Europe is so cool to me. Really excited. I'll obviously post about it when it all gets booked and let you know where I'll be heading off to! JuHu!
I'm at Bertus' as we speak actually and need to go figure out the train situation for getting back to the tiny ass town Kuchenheim in a little bit. I spent the weekend here, since it is both my last weekend in Germany for 2 weeks and Bertus' last weekend in Bonn--and not to mention that there is nothing to do in the new town I live in, so coming to Bonn and staying for the weekends I have is something that I will be doing pretty regularly now. But with that said, I need to go and set into motion all the things I need to do before I can leave. EEK! EXCITEMENT!!!!!! xoxoxox
In other news, today is Bertus' last day in Bonn until around Christmas or so. He moves back to Mainz for the next 3 months and that's depressing. I'm already planning on going down there to visit him a few times if all works out. Hopefully for my birthday weekend also (although I don't want to talk about my upcoming birthday because then it reminds me of being an old POS). But hopefully it won't be too awful while he is away. Naemi and I are also planning to book out 'blind' trip to Eastern Europe when I come back. I'm pretty excited for that also because A, I feel like I haven't seen/talked to her in FOREVER and B, Eastern Europe is so cool to me. Really excited. I'll obviously post about it when it all gets booked and let you know where I'll be heading off to! JuHu!
I'm at Bertus' as we speak actually and need to go figure out the train situation for getting back to the tiny ass town Kuchenheim in a little bit. I spent the weekend here, since it is both my last weekend in Germany for 2 weeks and Bertus' last weekend in Bonn--and not to mention that there is nothing to do in the new town I live in, so coming to Bonn and staying for the weekends I have is something that I will be doing pretty regularly now. But with that said, I need to go and set into motion all the things I need to do before I can leave. EEK! EXCITEMENT!!!!!! xoxoxox
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
ONE WEEK, Neu Haus & Book Review time!
At this exact time in one week I will be airborne on my plane to San Francisco, and then on to my final destination of Las Vegas. I can't believe it's honestly only a week away. I will be boarding the plane sooner than I can imagine. Especially since I feel as if I have a lot of things to do and get into order because I can leave. This weekend will be my last weekend in Germany for 2 weeks. It also is Bertus' last weekend living in Bonn until Christmas. And that sucks. Big time. He moves back down to Mainz for the next 3 months to work. Hopefully I'll be able to go down there for my birthday weekend or something. That would be nice. But I am getting sidetracked.
ONE WEEK and I will be back on American soil with my beloved, and oh-so-missed American cell phone. I can't wait to just text everyone and call people to catch up. Having friends to actually text/call is going to be awesome. I also am wondering about if I will experience any "Re-entry shock", that many say is actually worse/more extreme than the original culture shock that one feels when moving to a new country. It will be here before I know it, and I can't wait to see my family and friends. Again, don't even get me started on my reunion with Loki and Raven.. oh my god, I'm starting to hyperventilate with anticipation just thinking about it. And let's not forget the initial reason for my trip: my brother's gettin' hitched! I'm so excited for the wedding, although I am a bit terrified by the whole "dress situation". I had a dream last night that my bridesmaid dress didn't fit and I woke up with the feeling of sheer terror. What a nightmare. Also, I (if you haven't heard) have been asked to give a speech. I'm looking forward to saying a few words about both Travis and Lisa, because I love them so much and truly look up to both of them, but now I am nervous that I am going to be expected to get up there and perform a regular stand-up routine. Oh, the pressure is getting to me!!!! AHHHH!!!! But besides all that, I honestly can't even begin to accept that I am going to be seeing everyone in a week's time. I'm so excited and can't believe it's almost here! I mean, as of yesterday, I have been here for 11 months without seeing any of my friends of family, and the second I see them again in the flesh is going to be incredible. But I think I am starting to ramble so on to the next topic.
The New House: This past Monday was the big move day. I was up at 8am to take Emilian and worked throughout the day, either with him, or helping to pack or carrying things for a good solid 12 and 1/2 hours again. It was exhausting as you can imagine, and with all the extra help that we had, we were able to move it all to this house (the new one) all on Monday. Of course 95% of the house is still in boxes, but I spent pretty much all of yesterday unpacking and putting everything away in the kitchen. So at least that room is done. The house is nice, and has a really nice and big yard, but it's location isn't the best. At least not for a young 24 year old wanting to have a social life. The best way I can describe this little sleepy town to others is to say that my initial though when I first drove through it on the way to the new house, all I could think of was the town of Parsons, WV where my grandmother used to live. Although not as pretty :) I haven't had time/the chance to check out the buses/trains to see how long it will take me to get into Bonn, but hopefully I'll be able to this weekend. Because again, if I'm not able to see Bertus before he and I both leave, I'll be heartbroken. The house, however, for Emilian I think is perfect. I think he really likes it here and has been in silly moods ever since we spent the first night here on Monday.
He's too cute for words BTW. Here's a picture taken of him last night by Lisa when he was getting ready for bed. I just imagine him as an old man during the colonial period. He just needs an oil lamp and a night cap to complete the look. Too cute.
Now on to everyone's favorite segment: Megan's Reading Corner. Today I'll be reviewing the Millennium Trilogy, better known as the "Girl who blah blah blah" series. Okay, in all seriousness, I finished the 3rd and final book
last night, and honestly they're fantastic. They honestly do get better and better as you read them. The first one I thought was great, the second one was even better and the third one, I believe, was brilliant. Really good books and I recommend them to anyone. Bertus was kind enough to order for me from Amazon.de my next book selection that I intend to be my flight home read, which is Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin
. I find her to be hilarious, and have read nothing but good things about her book, so decided to give it a whirl. I fully intend on being the crazy cackling lunatic in the back of the plane while I'm reading. Oh well.
See you all oh so soon! I can't wait to catch up with everyone--11 months of stories built up is a lot! ;) xoxox Megs
ONE WEEK and I will be back on American soil with my beloved, and oh-so-missed American cell phone. I can't wait to just text everyone and call people to catch up. Having friends to actually text/call is going to be awesome. I also am wondering about if I will experience any "Re-entry shock", that many say is actually worse/more extreme than the original culture shock that one feels when moving to a new country. It will be here before I know it, and I can't wait to see my family and friends. Again, don't even get me started on my reunion with Loki and Raven.. oh my god, I'm starting to hyperventilate with anticipation just thinking about it. And let's not forget the initial reason for my trip: my brother's gettin' hitched! I'm so excited for the wedding, although I am a bit terrified by the whole "dress situation". I had a dream last night that my bridesmaid dress didn't fit and I woke up with the feeling of sheer terror. What a nightmare. Also, I (if you haven't heard) have been asked to give a speech. I'm looking forward to saying a few words about both Travis and Lisa, because I love them so much and truly look up to both of them, but now I am nervous that I am going to be expected to get up there and perform a regular stand-up routine. Oh, the pressure is getting to me!!!! AHHHH!!!! But besides all that, I honestly can't even begin to accept that I am going to be seeing everyone in a week's time. I'm so excited and can't believe it's almost here! I mean, as of yesterday, I have been here for 11 months without seeing any of my friends of family, and the second I see them again in the flesh is going to be incredible. But I think I am starting to ramble so on to the next topic.
The New House: This past Monday was the big move day. I was up at 8am to take Emilian and worked throughout the day, either with him, or helping to pack or carrying things for a good solid 12 and 1/2 hours again. It was exhausting as you can imagine, and with all the extra help that we had, we were able to move it all to this house (the new one) all on Monday. Of course 95% of the house is still in boxes, but I spent pretty much all of yesterday unpacking and putting everything away in the kitchen. So at least that room is done. The house is nice, and has a really nice and big yard, but it's location isn't the best. At least not for a young 24 year old wanting to have a social life. The best way I can describe this little sleepy town to others is to say that my initial though when I first drove through it on the way to the new house, all I could think of was the town of Parsons, WV where my grandmother used to live. Although not as pretty :) I haven't had time/the chance to check out the buses/trains to see how long it will take me to get into Bonn, but hopefully I'll be able to this weekend. Because again, if I'm not able to see Bertus before he and I both leave, I'll be heartbroken. The house, however, for Emilian I think is perfect. I think he really likes it here and has been in silly moods ever since we spent the first night here on Monday.
He's too cute for words BTW. Here's a picture taken of him last night by Lisa when he was getting ready for bed. I just imagine him as an old man during the colonial period. He just needs an oil lamp and a night cap to complete the look. Too cute. Now on to everyone's favorite segment: Megan's Reading Corner. Today I'll be reviewing the Millennium Trilogy, better known as the "Girl who blah blah blah" series. Okay, in all seriousness, I finished the 3rd and final book
last night, and honestly they're fantastic. They honestly do get better and better as you read them. The first one I thought was great, the second one was even better and the third one, I believe, was brilliant. Really good books and I recommend them to anyone. Bertus was kind enough to order for me from Amazon.de my next book selection that I intend to be my flight home read, which is Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin. I find her to be hilarious, and have read nothing but good things about her book, so decided to give it a whirl. I fully intend on being the crazy cackling lunatic in the back of the plane while I'm reading. Oh well.See you all oh so soon! I can't wait to catch up with everyone--11 months of stories built up is a lot! ;) xoxox Megs
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Ten Days.
Seriously, I don't think the next 10 days could go by fast enough. I'm still in the pit of hell, aka in the middle of moving, with what I imagine will be the worst of it, starting tomorrow. Just got to keep my eye on the prize, and that prize is an airline ticket to the New World. 10 more, 10 more, 10 more, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Eleven Days.
So first of all, I recently have been keeping a "hidden files" blog here on my computer. I want to post them so you all at home really know what I am thinking/feeling/what is going on with me lately, but at the same, I don't feel super comfortable posting everything online for just anyone to read. So I guess I might just keep them my "hidden files" and people can have a look/read later. Or if I ever make all these posts into a book for myself, I will add them and it can be the "Un-Edited Edition". Cool. But with that said, on to the thoughts of the day.
Today is Saturday and we have officially started the whole moving process (again). Yesterday I had a 12 and 1/2 hour work day and by the end of it I wanted to pretty much just start crying. It's just... a lot. That said, I was with Emilian for the day yesterday here, at the house in Bonn, and I think he can read the energy that something is happening because he was just really hard yesterday. Crying almost all day and just really, ugh, yeah I dunno, hard. Then at around 3 or so, Kai had called Lisa and asked for us to all come out to the new house to help. So we got in the car after I fed Emilian and headed out at around 3:45 or so and got to the new house about 30 minutes later. The house is cute and all, but it is definitely in the middle of no-where. It worries me a little that I won't be very happy there at all, considering it was such a hard time for me to meet people and make friends living in a city like Bonn, and now I will be living in a sleepy little town where everyone appears to be (from what I have seen from yesterday) over the age of 70. The house we are moving into, the previous owners left pretty much everything. So we have to go through it all and clean it and then figure out what to do with all this crap. Also, the wallpaper is all being taken down in most of the rooms and everything is being painted. And then of course, there is my room, which again is in the basement (which isn't that big of a deal to me), but at the moment, is in no way livable. So again, I will be staying in what will be Johanna's room until mine is done. Which who knows when that will be. Ugh.. I hate moving. I didn't get home last night from the new house until about 10pm and was absolutely exhausted. I slept until about 11 this morning--it felt great. But now I am up and it's noon and I do not look forward in any way to what will most likely be in store for me today. I got a text from Lisa about 15 minutes ago that read "it would be super if you could help a little bit later". I replied back with yes, of course--because I had already come into this day knowing it was going to suck and that I would be helping with the move again. Ugh. At this point, these next 11 days will probably (and sadly so) be the longest eleven days of my life.
Alright.. just got another text. I need to go pack up Lisa's office into boxes. FML. See everyone soon, I can't wait. xoxo
Today is Saturday and we have officially started the whole moving process (again). Yesterday I had a 12 and 1/2 hour work day and by the end of it I wanted to pretty much just start crying. It's just... a lot. That said, I was with Emilian for the day yesterday here, at the house in Bonn, and I think he can read the energy that something is happening because he was just really hard yesterday. Crying almost all day and just really, ugh, yeah I dunno, hard. Then at around 3 or so, Kai had called Lisa and asked for us to all come out to the new house to help. So we got in the car after I fed Emilian and headed out at around 3:45 or so and got to the new house about 30 minutes later. The house is cute and all, but it is definitely in the middle of no-where. It worries me a little that I won't be very happy there at all, considering it was such a hard time for me to meet people and make friends living in a city like Bonn, and now I will be living in a sleepy little town where everyone appears to be (from what I have seen from yesterday) over the age of 70. The house we are moving into, the previous owners left pretty much everything. So we have to go through it all and clean it and then figure out what to do with all this crap. Also, the wallpaper is all being taken down in most of the rooms and everything is being painted. And then of course, there is my room, which again is in the basement (which isn't that big of a deal to me), but at the moment, is in no way livable. So again, I will be staying in what will be Johanna's room until mine is done. Which who knows when that will be. Ugh.. I hate moving. I didn't get home last night from the new house until about 10pm and was absolutely exhausted. I slept until about 11 this morning--it felt great. But now I am up and it's noon and I do not look forward in any way to what will most likely be in store for me today. I got a text from Lisa about 15 minutes ago that read "it would be super if you could help a little bit later". I replied back with yes, of course--because I had already come into this day knowing it was going to suck and that I would be helping with the move again. Ugh. At this point, these next 11 days will probably (and sadly so) be the longest eleven days of my life.
Alright.. just got another text. I need to go pack up Lisa's office into boxes. FML. See everyone soon, I can't wait. xoxo
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Tones of Home
It's 12:30 on Tuesday, September 21st. I have 15 days left until I will finally be boarding my long flight to my homeland. I can't even wrap my head around how truly excited I am. With my upcoming trip and my ever building excitement, the novelty of living in Europe has begun to wear off and my thoughts are constantly of all the things that make living/being an American great. I can't wait to be back in homes where kitchens are not only larger, but they are usually the focal point of the house. Even my mom's small kitchen, which she always complains about, is the most homey and inviting place in the house, if you ask me. I can't wait to find myself once again sitting on the counter in the corner by the sink having long conversations well into the night with family and friends. For me, kitchens that I have experienced here mean one thing: work. I loath them here. It's never-ending dishes and cooking without a lot of the tools/ingredients I need or want. While I'm on the topic of houses: closets! It would be pretty crazy to walk into a house or an apartment and not have it have any closets of any kind, what-so-ever. Well, that's exactly what you get in homes in Germany. It's the norm. And something else I hate about the housing here. Everyone buys these giant armoire that take up half the room and it just annoys me. Built-in closets, whether they are regular small ones, or walk-ins, they're amazing and I have taken them for granted!
Now that it is fall (aka Football season) I find myself ever more missing the crisp fall air and the changing of the leaves that one finds in Ohio. Sure the same happens here, but I feel as if it goes unnoticed. Wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and drinking a cold beer with friends while settling in to watch your team take the field is something I miss more than anyone can know. I miss going grocery shopping and knowing that I will only have to go to ONE store to find everything I need. Here, if I need 3 things that may not be correlate with eachother (but nothing crazy), say an avocado, balloons for a birthday and shaving cream. You can bet that I will be going to 2 maybe even 3 different places to buy those three things. No joke. And then add on top of that that stores are only open until 8pm and closed all-together on Sundays, and it gets to be really annoying, really quickly. (Especially in my position where the only times I have to go get something at a store would be for 2 hours or so on weekdays and Saturdays when I have off.. and all without a car.. needless to say it's one of the things that even though I should be used to it by now, still drives me insane.
But these are little things in comparison to what I really miss: my family and friends. Obviously these people have always meant the world to me, but I never really thought about it until I was isolated from them. It sucks. I was thinking again that I somehow, even though I have lived here for almost 11 months, I still have no set group of friends. If I didn't have Bertus, I think I would have about 0 social interaction. Sure, I've met a few nice people through Toytown and whatnot, but it never seems to turn into a lasting friendship. For example: let's say this Friday I really want to go to a certain bar or something, if I ask Bertus and he couldn't go then guess what? I can't think of anyone else that I would be able to just call and say "hey, ya wanna go out?!" I have always been a very social person and friends mean the world to me, so to be in another country for almost a year and still basically not have any sucks a lot. I mean, A LOT. I have no one here that I can bitch to if I have a bad day (which is often what I need more than anything..) or to talk about stupid trash TV with, or go to the movies with (I have gone to see 4 movies while here, all of which by myself), or just meet for a beer and gossip. I watched the movie Into the Wild this past weekend with Bertus (which was great BTW), and at the end the character writes something that I really truly believe in also, he wrote:
I just can't wait to be home and be around people that I love, and that I know love me again. (And I'm not even going to get started about Loki and Raven...) So for all of you back home reading this, I can't wait to see you and the next 15 days will hopefully go by quick! xoxox Megan
Now that it is fall (aka Football season) I find myself ever more missing the crisp fall air and the changing of the leaves that one finds in Ohio. Sure the same happens here, but I feel as if it goes unnoticed. Wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and drinking a cold beer with friends while settling in to watch your team take the field is something I miss more than anyone can know. I miss going grocery shopping and knowing that I will only have to go to ONE store to find everything I need. Here, if I need 3 things that may not be correlate with eachother (but nothing crazy), say an avocado, balloons for a birthday and shaving cream. You can bet that I will be going to 2 maybe even 3 different places to buy those three things. No joke. And then add on top of that that stores are only open until 8pm and closed all-together on Sundays, and it gets to be really annoying, really quickly. (Especially in my position where the only times I have to go get something at a store would be for 2 hours or so on weekdays and Saturdays when I have off.. and all without a car.. needless to say it's one of the things that even though I should be used to it by now, still drives me insane.
But these are little things in comparison to what I really miss: my family and friends. Obviously these people have always meant the world to me, but I never really thought about it until I was isolated from them. It sucks. I was thinking again that I somehow, even though I have lived here for almost 11 months, I still have no set group of friends. If I didn't have Bertus, I think I would have about 0 social interaction. Sure, I've met a few nice people through Toytown and whatnot, but it never seems to turn into a lasting friendship. For example: let's say this Friday I really want to go to a certain bar or something, if I ask Bertus and he couldn't go then guess what? I can't think of anyone else that I would be able to just call and say "hey, ya wanna go out?!" I have always been a very social person and friends mean the world to me, so to be in another country for almost a year and still basically not have any sucks a lot. I mean, A LOT. I have no one here that I can bitch to if I have a bad day (which is often what I need more than anything..) or to talk about stupid trash TV with, or go to the movies with (I have gone to see 4 movies while here, all of which by myself), or just meet for a beer and gossip. I watched the movie Into the Wild this past weekend with Bertus (which was great BTW), and at the end the character writes something that I really truly believe in also, he wrote:
"Happiness only real when shared"
I just can't wait to be home and be around people that I love, and that I know love me again. (And I'm not even going to get started about Loki and Raven...) So for all of you back home reading this, I can't wait to see you and the next 15 days will hopefully go by quick! xoxox Megan
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Emilian's 1st Birthday and the Countdown Continues
Today is Sunday, September 19th, which means that Emilian turned one this past Wednesday! It was such a nice birthday and he got to spend it with so many family and friends :) He got a lot of cool little new toys and books to play with and even a new swing from his grandma! I think it was a very exciting day for him, and it really was a great birthday. I was able to finish my sock puppets in time, and gave them to him that afternoon. At first he was a little afraid of them, but after a few hours of every now and again demonstrating that they weren't alive, he finally build up the confidence to touch the glued on eyes and stick his finger in the mouth. Now he laughs and smiles at them--which was the result I was originally hoping for--so all is well :)
In other news, today marks the last day of happiness until I leave for the US. I am about to be apart of the number one thing I think everyone on the planet Earth dreads: moving. Starting this upcoming week we begin our move out of this house here in Bonn to the new one Kai and Lisa found in the smaller town in the country, Euskirchen. I only have 2 more weekends here left until I fly home, and I am under the impression that both of those will be spent helping to move into the new house, which, to put it mildly, sucks big time. It is just not something I am looking forward to AT ALL. But they say every cloud has a silver lining, right? Well, I am just trying to look on the bright side and hope that maybe all this keeping busy and extra work will help time go by quicker.. which brings me to my next topic:
I LEAVE FOR AMERICAN SOIL IN 16 DAYS, 14 HOURS, and 20 MINUTES EXACTLY (as of 8:40pm Sept 19, 2010). I don't think anyone understands how truly excited I am to be back and to see everyone and especially have cuddle time with Loki and Raven! Eeeek! I'm just beyond excited! Not to mention the wedding extravaganza that will be taking place in Vegas with all my favorite people! So, so, so, so, so, SO excited! Ahhh. Only thing that does NOT excite me about my journey home: My 17 hours and 40 minutes confined in the plane from Germany to San Francisco, followed by a 4 and 1/2 hour lay-over where I then get on another plane to get me to my final destination of Sin City. Ugh... don't want to think of that now or I'll want to die. So back to the EXCITEMENT OF COMING HOME!!!! YIPPEEE!!!!!! :) :) :) :)
Miss and Love you all more than you know and can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!! xoxoxo MeganO
In other news, today marks the last day of happiness until I leave for the US. I am about to be apart of the number one thing I think everyone on the planet Earth dreads: moving. Starting this upcoming week we begin our move out of this house here in Bonn to the new one Kai and Lisa found in the smaller town in the country, Euskirchen. I only have 2 more weekends here left until I fly home, and I am under the impression that both of those will be spent helping to move into the new house, which, to put it mildly, sucks big time. It is just not something I am looking forward to AT ALL. But they say every cloud has a silver lining, right? Well, I am just trying to look on the bright side and hope that maybe all this keeping busy and extra work will help time go by quicker.. which brings me to my next topic:
I LEAVE FOR AMERICAN SOIL IN 16 DAYS, 14 HOURS, and 20 MINUTES EXACTLY (as of 8:40pm Sept 19, 2010). I don't think anyone understands how truly excited I am to be back and to see everyone and especially have cuddle time with Loki and Raven! Eeeek! I'm just beyond excited! Not to mention the wedding extravaganza that will be taking place in Vegas with all my favorite people! So, so, so, so, so, SO excited! Ahhh. Only thing that does NOT excite me about my journey home: My 17 hours and 40 minutes confined in the plane from Germany to San Francisco, followed by a 4 and 1/2 hour lay-over where I then get on another plane to get me to my final destination of Sin City. Ugh... don't want to think of that now or I'll want to die. So back to the EXCITEMENT OF COMING HOME!!!! YIPPEEE!!!!!! :) :) :) :)
Miss and Love you all more than you know and can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!! xoxoxo MeganO
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
One Week ... Four Weeks
I have two countdowns beginning today. First is that today is Wednesday, September 8th, which means that in ONE week it will be Wednesday, September 15th. Which then of course means that Cutie Bear will be ONE YEAR OLD! I can't believe it! He's gotten so big and so cute and so sweet, I seriously want to eat him up. I'm excited for his birthday, and I am making him a pair of sock puppets as his gift (I know, I know, I'm adorable). I'm also extremely excited for Lisa. She had always been so proud of Emilian (rightfully so, he's the cutest thing ever) and I know she will just be glowing with pride on his first birthday. It will be a fun day filled with silliness, I'm sure :)
Today also begins the countdown for my return visit to the States. Four weeks from today I will be boarding a plane from Düsseldorf and flying to my beloved homeland. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am. I get into my final destination of Las Vegas at around 7:30 or so on that Wednesday night (Las Vegas time--which is 4:30am German time). I'm sure I will be exhausted, but I can't wait to see everyone that very second. My brother's wedding is that Saturday, and I can't believe it's almost here. Travis and Lisa. Married. Weird. I'm so excited. I was also talking with my mom a couple weeks ago and pointing out how although everyone is heading out there for the wedding, essentially, it is as if all my family/neighbors (who are also family of course) are taking a big vacation together. Which I don't know about any of them, but I don't know how we didn't think of this sooner! Southwold Court on vacay in Sin City. Sign me up! After staying in Vegas for the wedding extravaganza, I'll finally be on my way to Columbus. I seriously want to die just thinking about my reunion with my dogs. I can't wait to just cuddle with Loki the ENTIRE time I am home. Ahhh!!! I'm so freaking excited!!!! I just can't wait to see so many people and to have game nights and eat buffalo wings and laugh a lot and tell stories and pick up Suzy Bear (because she's so wee) and cuddle with Loki and hear Happy Howls and watch football as it was intended and drive my car and eat Chipotle (I mean, really..) and text silly things to my friends and be in my kitchen and let the couch eat Emily and I while we're lazy mice and watch True Blood season 3 and go to the library and have Granny crack me up without meaning to and high-five Bob and just basically all-around live the American Dream :) Can't wait to see you all. FOUR WEEKS!
Today also begins the countdown for my return visit to the States. Four weeks from today I will be boarding a plane from Düsseldorf and flying to my beloved homeland. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am. I get into my final destination of Las Vegas at around 7:30 or so on that Wednesday night (Las Vegas time--which is 4:30am German time). I'm sure I will be exhausted, but I can't wait to see everyone that very second. My brother's wedding is that Saturday, and I can't believe it's almost here. Travis and Lisa. Married. Weird. I'm so excited. I was also talking with my mom a couple weeks ago and pointing out how although everyone is heading out there for the wedding, essentially, it is as if all my family/neighbors (who are also family of course) are taking a big vacation together. Which I don't know about any of them, but I don't know how we didn't think of this sooner! Southwold Court on vacay in Sin City. Sign me up! After staying in Vegas for the wedding extravaganza, I'll finally be on my way to Columbus. I seriously want to die just thinking about my reunion with my dogs. I can't wait to just cuddle with Loki the ENTIRE time I am home. Ahhh!!! I'm so freaking excited!!!! I just can't wait to see so many people and to have game nights and eat buffalo wings and laugh a lot and tell stories and pick up Suzy Bear (because she's so wee) and cuddle with Loki and hear Happy Howls and watch football as it was intended and drive my car and eat Chipotle (I mean, really..) and text silly things to my friends and be in my kitchen and let the couch eat Emily and I while we're lazy mice and watch True Blood season 3 and go to the library and have Granny crack me up without meaning to and high-five Bob and just basically all-around live the American Dream :) Can't wait to see you all. FOUR WEEKS!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
So a Costa Rican and American walk into a German bar...
Sorry, there is no punch line to my title. Why you ask? Because it's not a joke, but actually my strange and ever-changing life :) The past Saturday (August 28th) I woke up bright and early to get ready and to head for the u-bahn. I had looked up previous trains and my regional express that I was planning to take from Bonn to Köln let at 10:01am. I got to the ubahn station outside my house and took that to the Bonn Hbf. Once I got off the ubahn, I had about 2 minutes until my train to Cologne left the station. I ran to my platform, waited for about a minute and then boarded and was off! I arrived to the Köln Hbf (main station) a little bit before 10:30. Ariel had given me his itinerary earlier and I knew his train from Amsterdam was supposed to arrive at 10:48. Köln's Hauptbahnhof (main station) is pretty cool (but still has nothing on Berlin's Hbf.. seriously, I still can't get over that place..) so I just hung out there and got a fresh banana and pineapple smoothie and waited. (Yes Naemi, the smoothie it was delicious and I thought about how much you would love it the whole time). As his arrival time drew nearer, I decided to look up which platform he would be coming into so that I could attempt to meet him at the train, instead of running the risk of him getting lost. I found the information I needed and quickly headed over to the platform. The train was already there, and by the looks of it, had already been unloaded for the most part. So I knew at that moment that Ariel was somewhere in the train station.. now it was my job to try and find him. I had exchanged cell phone numbers with him earlier in the week (his work gave him a phone to use in Amsterdam), but because of my current plan, I wasn't sure that I would be able to call his Dutch phone without receiving a ton of charges. So I didn't call and just hoped that he would get a hold of me. Luckily, he did just that and I received a phone call from him shortly after. He said he was waiting at the Starbucks in the train station, and I told him that I was in another part of the Hbf, but that I would be there in a minute. I walked into the Starbucks and there he was sitting with his little laptop using the free WiFi (man, do I remember those days not so long ago...). It was such a weird feeling to have Ariel, my old Costa Rican family friend meeting up with me in Cologne.. Germany.. Europe.. Very surreal moment. He quickly gathered his things which consisted of only one bag since he was only going to be staying the night. We headed out into the brisk air and walked straight to the adjacent Dom. I tried to give him a little info on the amazing Cathedral and he took pictures and marveled as all do, at the incredible structure. After staying at the Dom for awhile (we didn't go in however), we headed out in search of some Essen :) I felt somewhat bad because I didn't really know what to really show him besides the Dom in Cologne. And as cool of a city as it is, I don't live there--so my tour guide skills are wasted if not in Bonn. But, I did know of a really good cafe that I had been to a couple times with Lisa and Kai and I knew they and I knew they had good breakfast food and coffee, so I headed off toward the part of town I knew it was in.
Like I said, I don't live in Cologne, and to be honest, I hadn't even been there since about March or so when I went out for Pat's (the Minnesota guy who's super cool) birthday. But I was pretty impressed even with myself with my memory of knowing how to get around and where things were. I easily took Ariel on and off the metro without referring to maps, it was kind of weird that I remembered it all so well. We headed for Rudolfplatz and found the cafe I was thinking of and took a sit on the patio area outside. We both had breakfast with eggs, and bacon and a small cucumber salad. It was delicious as always. Towards the end our meal the sky became much grayer and the temperature quickly plummeted. (BTW, it's been RIDICULOUS weather here. Pretty much the last 3 weeks of August felt like November with highs getting no higher than about 65 everyday (17 Celsius for all my European friends). Not to mention rain, rain, rain and oh, rain). We decided to quickly pay and try to find somewhere else to take cover from the coming storm. We left just in time as the rain really started to come down and we headed down the street trying to stay close to the buildings to let their over-hangs and awnings keep us dry. At this point it was going on 1 and the rain was started to come down harder. I found a bar right away that served Reissdorf Kölsch (probably my 3rd favorite behind Gaffel and Mühlen). Like I said, I didn't really know what to show Ariel, and although there are tons of museums and things in the city he didn't really seem as if that was something he wanted to do, so after the Dom, my only idea was to have him try all of my favorite beers. I ordered us each a Kölsch and Ariel had his first experience with one of my favorite beers :)
After having 2 there (in their smaller, traditional glasses) the rain had let up a little and we decided to head out to see more of the city. The sun was starting to poke through and the weather got much nicer. We headed back toward the direction of the Dom with stops through Neumarkt (which is a big shopping area etc.), and then a quick look at the Friedrich Wilhelm III statue near Heumarkt. At this point the sun was now shining and the weather seemed perfected. We walked over to the area where I had celebrated Elfte Elfte (the one day Karnival taking place on November 11th every year) and found another bar with a lot of outside seating that also served Kölsch, but this time if was my favorite: Gaffel. (Bars here are different from bars in the US in the sense that a bar will always only have one type of beer on draft. In this instance, Kölsch being the beer, each bar has it's own contract with a brewery: Reissdorf, Gaffel, Früh, Mühlen, to name a few, and then only have that one kind of draft). We sat outside and I ordered each of a large Gaffel. The sun was shining, we had 0,5l of fresh drafted Gaffel Kölsch and life was good. Then, out of no where the skies changed once more and it was obvious that more rain was on the way. It started raining really hard and we, along with the others sitting outside, grabbed our beers and ran inside to take cover. It rained heavily for an hour and 1/2 or so, and in this time Ariel and I drank 2 large Gaffel Kölsch's and caught up with each others lives. I still find it so surreal and weird to think that Ariel and I were hanging out in Germany. Life is strange sometimes :) We finally could see that the sun was out again, so we paid and left. By this time it was going on 4:30 or so, so we got on the ubahn and headed back to Rudolfplatz so that Ariel could check into his hotel that he had booked for the night. After the check-in it was 5, and I was not dressed for being able to go out that night. So I decided to head back to Bonn and change and just chill for a bit. I told Ariel that with the amount of time it would take me with the trains and everything, that I probably wouldn't be back for a few hours so he could take a nap or do whatever he wanted. I the hotel at 5 and immediately after walking across the street towards the ubahn another downpour started. But this time, we had hail also. I ran to the stop that had a small overhang and a number of people waiting. I was already soaked in just the matter of minutes it took me to get there. I just laughed to myself and thought "WTF". I had to change ubahns once, and then made it to the Hbf with no problem. I lucked out and there was another Regional Express leaving for Bonn about 3 minutes after I arrived, so I skipped over to the train and got on no problem. I got into Bonn at around 6 or so and had to wait 15 minutes until a ubhan would leave from Bonn Hauptbahnhof toward my stop. I finally arrived home, exhausted and wet at around 6:30. I looked up when other trains would be headed back to Cologne that night and decided to take the later one at 8:30, so that I would have about an hour to relax. I took a quick 20 minute power nap and then it was up to get ready and head back out.
I made it to the hotel Ariel was staying at around 9:15. We then hit the streets to grab a late dinner. The area I told him to book his hotel in (Rudolfplatz/Friesenplatz) is where a lot of the good night life and restaurants in Cologne are, so we were smack in the middle of everything. We went to a small restaurant nearby that I had heard wasn't bad called La Strada. I translated the menu for Ariel and he picked out what he wanted and then I ordered for the two of us and also ordered Ariel a Weizen (a great beer that specially comes for the region of Bavaria). We ate and drank and then decided to leave. Ariel forgot his wallet so we made a detour and returned to the hotel to pick it up. From there we set out toward Friesenplatz to a bar that I had been to numerous times and really like. We probably got to Bar Cologne at around 11 or so and found a table. We stayed there until about 1:30am or so just talking and both enjoying 2 Weizen beers each. Then, we were both pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel to sleep (Ariel booked a room with 2 twin beds so that I could crash there also--super smart idea BTW). I was pretty beat from the long day of what felt like never-ending train rides/ubahns/rain so I fell asleep as soon as I laid down. We both woke up the next morning around 9 or so and I told Ariel that I was going to probably leave soon to get back to Bonn. He showed me his train schedule and I pointed out a train he could take that would make it pretty easy for him to get back to Amsterdam. He decided it would be best to head with me to the Hbf and just leave on the next one out also, than to wait for a later one and risk getting lost in a German city. He checked out and we headed once again the the Rudolfplatz ubahn stop. We made it to the Hauptbahnhof about 10 minutes before his train would leave. AKA, perfect timing. I unfortunately had to wait a little longer, like 25-30 minutes or so until my train would leave. I walked him to his platform and his train was already there. I asked one of the train attendants where the 2nd class cars were and then showed Ariel where he needed to be. We said our quick goodbyes and Ariel boarded his train back to the Netherlands. I then headed toward my platform, grabbing a coffee before I went. After all the trains/ubahns I needed to take, I finally arrived back to my house in Bonn at around noon. It was so great to see Ariel and to have someone to show around. I look forward to a time when my mom or Travis or anyone else might make the trip out here. It's definitely a little bit fun for me to play tour guide :)
I hope all is well with everyone, as always, and hopefully I am back to updating this blog regularly again! Ugh... now just to finish my Paris blog.... ^^ Tschüss xoxo
Like I said, I don't live in Cologne, and to be honest, I hadn't even been there since about March or so when I went out for Pat's (the Minnesota guy who's super cool) birthday. But I was pretty impressed even with myself with my memory of knowing how to get around and where things were. I easily took Ariel on and off the metro without referring to maps, it was kind of weird that I remembered it all so well. We headed for Rudolfplatz and found the cafe I was thinking of and took a sit on the patio area outside. We both had breakfast with eggs, and bacon and a small cucumber salad. It was delicious as always. Towards the end our meal the sky became much grayer and the temperature quickly plummeted. (BTW, it's been RIDICULOUS weather here. Pretty much the last 3 weeks of August felt like November with highs getting no higher than about 65 everyday (17 Celsius for all my European friends). Not to mention rain, rain, rain and oh, rain). We decided to quickly pay and try to find somewhere else to take cover from the coming storm. We left just in time as the rain really started to come down and we headed down the street trying to stay close to the buildings to let their over-hangs and awnings keep us dry. At this point it was going on 1 and the rain was started to come down harder. I found a bar right away that served Reissdorf Kölsch (probably my 3rd favorite behind Gaffel and Mühlen). Like I said, I didn't really know what to show Ariel, and although there are tons of museums and things in the city he didn't really seem as if that was something he wanted to do, so after the Dom, my only idea was to have him try all of my favorite beers. I ordered us each a Kölsch and Ariel had his first experience with one of my favorite beers :)
After having 2 there (in their smaller, traditional glasses) the rain had let up a little and we decided to head out to see more of the city. The sun was starting to poke through and the weather got much nicer. We headed back toward the direction of the Dom with stops through Neumarkt (which is a big shopping area etc.), and then a quick look at the Friedrich Wilhelm III statue near Heumarkt. At this point the sun was now shining and the weather seemed perfected. We walked over to the area where I had celebrated Elfte Elfte (the one day Karnival taking place on November 11th every year) and found another bar with a lot of outside seating that also served Kölsch, but this time if was my favorite: Gaffel. (Bars here are different from bars in the US in the sense that a bar will always only have one type of beer on draft. In this instance, Kölsch being the beer, each bar has it's own contract with a brewery: Reissdorf, Gaffel, Früh, Mühlen, to name a few, and then only have that one kind of draft). We sat outside and I ordered each of a large Gaffel. The sun was shining, we had 0,5l of fresh drafted Gaffel Kölsch and life was good. Then, out of no where the skies changed once more and it was obvious that more rain was on the way. It started raining really hard and we, along with the others sitting outside, grabbed our beers and ran inside to take cover. It rained heavily for an hour and 1/2 or so, and in this time Ariel and I drank 2 large Gaffel Kölsch's and caught up with each others lives. I still find it so surreal and weird to think that Ariel and I were hanging out in Germany. Life is strange sometimes :) We finally could see that the sun was out again, so we paid and left. By this time it was going on 4:30 or so, so we got on the ubahn and headed back to Rudolfplatz so that Ariel could check into his hotel that he had booked for the night. After the check-in it was 5, and I was not dressed for being able to go out that night. So I decided to head back to Bonn and change and just chill for a bit. I told Ariel that with the amount of time it would take me with the trains and everything, that I probably wouldn't be back for a few hours so he could take a nap or do whatever he wanted. I the hotel at 5 and immediately after walking across the street towards the ubahn another downpour started. But this time, we had hail also. I ran to the stop that had a small overhang and a number of people waiting. I was already soaked in just the matter of minutes it took me to get there. I just laughed to myself and thought "WTF". I had to change ubahns once, and then made it to the Hbf with no problem. I lucked out and there was another Regional Express leaving for Bonn about 3 minutes after I arrived, so I skipped over to the train and got on no problem. I got into Bonn at around 6 or so and had to wait 15 minutes until a ubhan would leave from Bonn Hauptbahnhof toward my stop. I finally arrived home, exhausted and wet at around 6:30. I looked up when other trains would be headed back to Cologne that night and decided to take the later one at 8:30, so that I would have about an hour to relax. I took a quick 20 minute power nap and then it was up to get ready and head back out.
I made it to the hotel Ariel was staying at around 9:15. We then hit the streets to grab a late dinner. The area I told him to book his hotel in (Rudolfplatz/Friesenplatz) is where a lot of the good night life and restaurants in Cologne are, so we were smack in the middle of everything. We went to a small restaurant nearby that I had heard wasn't bad called La Strada. I translated the menu for Ariel and he picked out what he wanted and then I ordered for the two of us and also ordered Ariel a Weizen (a great beer that specially comes for the region of Bavaria). We ate and drank and then decided to leave. Ariel forgot his wallet so we made a detour and returned to the hotel to pick it up. From there we set out toward Friesenplatz to a bar that I had been to numerous times and really like. We probably got to Bar Cologne at around 11 or so and found a table. We stayed there until about 1:30am or so just talking and both enjoying 2 Weizen beers each. Then, we were both pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel to sleep (Ariel booked a room with 2 twin beds so that I could crash there also--super smart idea BTW). I was pretty beat from the long day of what felt like never-ending train rides/ubahns/rain so I fell asleep as soon as I laid down. We both woke up the next morning around 9 or so and I told Ariel that I was going to probably leave soon to get back to Bonn. He showed me his train schedule and I pointed out a train he could take that would make it pretty easy for him to get back to Amsterdam. He decided it would be best to head with me to the Hbf and just leave on the next one out also, than to wait for a later one and risk getting lost in a German city. He checked out and we headed once again the the Rudolfplatz ubahn stop. We made it to the Hauptbahnhof about 10 minutes before his train would leave. AKA, perfect timing. I unfortunately had to wait a little longer, like 25-30 minutes or so until my train would leave. I walked him to his platform and his train was already there. I asked one of the train attendants where the 2nd class cars were and then showed Ariel where he needed to be. We said our quick goodbyes and Ariel boarded his train back to the Netherlands. I then headed toward my platform, grabbing a coffee before I went. After all the trains/ubahns I needed to take, I finally arrived back to my house in Bonn at around noon. It was so great to see Ariel and to have someone to show around. I look forward to a time when my mom or Travis or anyone else might make the trip out here. It's definitely a little bit fun for me to play tour guide :)I hope all is well with everyone, as always, and hopefully I am back to updating this blog regularly again! Ugh... now just to finish my Paris blog.... ^^ Tschüss xoxo
Friday, August 27, 2010
Eastern Europe Anyone?
So since I have been living here, I have often felt as if I wasn't taking all the opportunities to travel and see all the cities and places I have always wanted to. I'm not complaining, because come on, I've already gone back to London, saw Berlin, and then spent a long weekend in Paris, which is obviously amazing. However, when I first came here I remember thinking that there were sooo many places I wanted to try and see, and somewhere along my stay I got wrapped up in the daily grind of life (don't we all?) and haven't been out doing a lot of the things I told myself I would when I first came here. For instance, the world famous Oktoberfest begins next month in Munich, which is about 5-6 hours by train away from me here in Bonn. When I first moved here I thought without question that I would go there, I mean if anything is cut out for me, Megan Osgood, than it is Oktoberfest ;) However, here it is, August 27th, and I have no plans of going. That sucks. By this time, it's so late in the game that trying to find a plane or train to Munich, let alone somewhere to stay, would be next to impossible/way to expensive (I've already looked into it, and definitely not a possibility). They say that 7-8 million people (yes, I said MILLION) flood the city and its surrounding areas to partake in the world's largest outdoor 'volkfest', so obviously if you don't make plans a year in advance, or you don't have thousands of spare Euros just lying around, you're not going to be able to make it. Which just sucks. I see that as another opportunity I missed. I just keep telling myself that I will still be around in the future, so that I will always have other ones to go to. I guess we'll see..
With this idea in mind, I started looking around for cheap flights to some places I would love to visit. I found some that are reasonably priced to Oslo (Norway)--a little on the expensive side for an Au Pair, but it's somewhere I would love to go so maybe.. I also looked into flights to Salzburg (although again, I can't bring myself to go here without Suzy Bear, ultimate fan of The Sound of Music), and Copenhagen. But my best bet, in terms of finding the cheapest flights I could would be to book with the cheap airlines here GermanWings, or RyanAir (pretty much Germany's/Europe's equivalent to JetBlue or so). I went to GermanWings' website to see for any special deals or offers they were selling, and on the home page they were offering fares for as low as 54.99 Euro (one way) from Cologne/Bonn (my airport) to Moscow, Russia! I have always wanted to go explore our former Cold War enemy, so naturally I was super excited to see that I could potentially get a flight there and back for around 120 Euro (it's a lot for me, but SUPER cheap for a flight Moscow, so I had to jump on this chance, right?!) And of course, this is where I started running into some major problems. For anyone traveling into the Russian Federation, whether it be for business, school, or tourism, one must have a visa before entering the country--and a strict one at that. To apply for a visa, (as a tourist), you have to already go ahead and book the place you where you intend on staying and then the hotel, who will act as your "Russian Sponsor" while you are there, goes ahead a writes an "invitation" for you to the Russian Embassy, giving them all the details or your booking and the exact dates you plan on being in the country. Once your formal "invitation" goes through, then you are allowed to actually apply for the actual visitors visa. To do this, you of course send a photo of yourself, and all the paperwork they give you to fell out, accompanied by a fee of close to $100 dollars.. but oh wait, if you are an American citizen trying to enter the country, that fee is bumped up to closer to $200.. awesome. Once the fees have been paid, and the visa is granted, you are allowed to enter the country for the EXACT dates on your said visa (which are the exact dates of your hotel booking). If you leave even a day after the visa was originally said to expire, you might as well get comfy, because you will be stranded in the country while they will try to extend your visa to give you a new exit day, which can often take up to 20 business days... all at your own expense of course. It really is no surprise that the Russians are this crazy about letting people come and go in and out of their country. I mean, hello, their Russia. It's what's expected of them, no? :P And even after all of this, Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world (Fun Fact: They have more Billionaires per square mile than any other place in the world), so I would have to save a lot just to have enough to sleep and eat in the city for about 3/4 days. After looking into it, and really wishing that I would be able to take advantage of the low flight to Moscow, economically I just couldn't do it. Bummer.
So with that dream killed, I immediately started looking into other deals to other cities. GermanWings is cool too because they have a feature called "Blind Booking" where you can pick the type of trip you want (i.e., Shopping/Culture/Nature/Party etc) and then there is a pre-set list of possible destination cities that you could get, and all flights doing it this way are 19.99 Euro one way (about 54 round-trip) You first pick the category you want and then fill in all your information and it isn't until AFTER you have already booked it/paid that they tell you which city out of the pre-set list you have received. It's pretty much the coolest thing/idea I have ever heard of and I have been (of course) wanting to do it ever since I found out about it months ago, but (of course) never have. I talked with Naemi and she definitely wants to go with me, so I hope we can book something soon and go maybe the last weekend of September. The category I most want to choose is the "Metropolis Eastern Europe", which gives me the possible destinations of: Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Kiev (Ukraine), Krakow (Poland), Prague (Czech Rep.), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Warsaw (Poland), or Zagreb (Croatia). All of those choices sound super interesting to me, with my biggest wish is getting Kiev, Krakow or Sofia. So I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully, Naemi and I will figure something out, book soon, and I can come back to tell you which destination I have been given! But for now, it's time for me to go make some breakfast. Talk to you all soon, and I hope all is well back home. I miss and love you all! xoxox Megan
With this idea in mind, I started looking around for cheap flights to some places I would love to visit. I found some that are reasonably priced to Oslo (Norway)--a little on the expensive side for an Au Pair, but it's somewhere I would love to go so maybe.. I also looked into flights to Salzburg (although again, I can't bring myself to go here without Suzy Bear, ultimate fan of The Sound of Music), and Copenhagen. But my best bet, in terms of finding the cheapest flights I could would be to book with the cheap airlines here GermanWings, or RyanAir (pretty much Germany's/Europe's equivalent to JetBlue or so). I went to GermanWings' website to see for any special deals or offers they were selling, and on the home page they were offering fares for as low as 54.99 Euro (one way) from Cologne/Bonn (my airport) to Moscow, Russia! I have always wanted to go explore our former Cold War enemy, so naturally I was super excited to see that I could potentially get a flight there and back for around 120 Euro (it's a lot for me, but SUPER cheap for a flight Moscow, so I had to jump on this chance, right?!) And of course, this is where I started running into some major problems. For anyone traveling into the Russian Federation, whether it be for business, school, or tourism, one must have a visa before entering the country--and a strict one at that. To apply for a visa, (as a tourist), you have to already go ahead and book the place you where you intend on staying and then the hotel, who will act as your "Russian Sponsor" while you are there, goes ahead a writes an "invitation" for you to the Russian Embassy, giving them all the details or your booking and the exact dates you plan on being in the country. Once your formal "invitation" goes through, then you are allowed to actually apply for the actual visitors visa. To do this, you of course send a photo of yourself, and all the paperwork they give you to fell out, accompanied by a fee of close to $100 dollars.. but oh wait, if you are an American citizen trying to enter the country, that fee is bumped up to closer to $200.. awesome. Once the fees have been paid, and the visa is granted, you are allowed to enter the country for the EXACT dates on your said visa (which are the exact dates of your hotel booking). If you leave even a day after the visa was originally said to expire, you might as well get comfy, because you will be stranded in the country while they will try to extend your visa to give you a new exit day, which can often take up to 20 business days... all at your own expense of course. It really is no surprise that the Russians are this crazy about letting people come and go in and out of their country. I mean, hello, their Russia. It's what's expected of them, no? :P And even after all of this, Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world (Fun Fact: They have more Billionaires per square mile than any other place in the world), so I would have to save a lot just to have enough to sleep and eat in the city for about 3/4 days. After looking into it, and really wishing that I would be able to take advantage of the low flight to Moscow, economically I just couldn't do it. Bummer.
So with that dream killed, I immediately started looking into other deals to other cities. GermanWings is cool too because they have a feature called "Blind Booking" where you can pick the type of trip you want (i.e., Shopping/Culture/Nature/Party etc) and then there is a pre-set list of possible destination cities that you could get, and all flights doing it this way are 19.99 Euro one way (about 54 round-trip) You first pick the category you want and then fill in all your information and it isn't until AFTER you have already booked it/paid that they tell you which city out of the pre-set list you have received. It's pretty much the coolest thing/idea I have ever heard of and I have been (of course) wanting to do it ever since I found out about it months ago, but (of course) never have. I talked with Naemi and she definitely wants to go with me, so I hope we can book something soon and go maybe the last weekend of September. The category I most want to choose is the "Metropolis Eastern Europe", which gives me the possible destinations of: Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Kiev (Ukraine), Krakow (Poland), Prague (Czech Rep.), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Warsaw (Poland), or Zagreb (Croatia). All of those choices sound super interesting to me, with my biggest wish is getting Kiev, Krakow or Sofia. So I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully, Naemi and I will figure something out, book soon, and I can come back to tell you which destination I have been given! But for now, it's time for me to go make some breakfast. Talk to you all soon, and I hope all is well back home. I miss and love you all! xoxox Megan
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Ariel comes to Germany!
This is going to be a super short post, but I'm just so pumped for the arrival of an old friend! I'm so excited for our close family friend, Ariel, to come to Cologne next weekend! He flew to Amsterdam today for something work related, and during the weekends he has some time off to travel and see some things, so I told him that Cologne isn't too far ;) And luckily, he took the bait and is planning to stay in Cologne next weekend! I'm so excited to see a familiar face, you have no idea. I'm also excited to finally have someone to show around a bit :) Pretty strange/funny that the two of us will be meeting up in Europe, but like I said, I'm very excited. With that said, I'll let you know how our visit unfolds!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I Suck/Stress
Life around here, I'll admit, has been really stressful for me in the past months or so. The company Lisa and Kai work for was doing so badly that they decided to move (I think by sometime next month, but I'll get to that in a bit), are getting rid of their cars, got rid of the cleaning lady and things of that nature. Because they are obviously going through this tough time, I am trying to be there for them whenever they need me, but at the same time, the whole feeling of needing a break is always there, and especially now, stronger than ever. My problem of course is that I feel guilty, that I shouldn't feel this way considering I am not in Lisa or Kai's shoes where the real problems are. But even the guilt doesn't change the fact that I feel a lot of weight on my shoulders sometimes. Speaking of a break, we were originally supposed to be on vacation right now on the Spanish island of Mallorca (I wrote about it here before I believe). I was pretty excited, but from the moment when the flight and house were booked (back in early Feb.), August just felt so far away that it wasn't real. Then in around May or so, Kai and Lisa began talking about changing the trip from Mallorca to spending 2 weeks on the sea in Denmark. Lisa came to me in about early/mid July telling me that, now that everything is being changed, and their are no flights involved to the trip to Denmark, that I could of course choose to stay home and have those 2 weeks alone if I wanted them. I thought it over, and as much as it would be nice to go, I also thought (as some of you may have read in previous posts) that I was desperate for some alone time away from everyone. As nice as they all are, it's hard for me being 24 to be thrown back into a young family atmosphere with family trips and things--especially with at the end of the day, they aren't my family. But then came the end of July, where the whole situation with Kai and Lisa's company got at it's worst point. So understandably, they decided to cancel the trip plans and just not go anywhere. Which like I said, I completely understand the reason behind it and everything, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck any less. I'm not going to lie: I was really looking forward to some time off/alone. But alas, sometimes life doesn't work out the way we have planned, right?
The other factor of some major stress for me, and for everyone I'm sure, is the whole pending move we will be making sometime next month. Again, with all the problems in their company, Kai and Lisa decided it was best to move to another house with not such high costs as the current one we are in. From all the places I have heard them mentioning and what not, I have gathered that where ever we end up moving to will be some ways away from Bonn-(The first house they looked at was about 45 minutes by train away, and the most recent one they looked at was a bus and a train away of about 35 minutes or so). Once again, I feel like such an asshole when even I sit here and write all this because obviously it's completely their choice to live where ever they want and really is none of my business. But it just sucks, for me, moving to a new country, expecting to being in one place--which is a city that I have fallen in love with and have finally settled in and know now, and then end up living out in the country. I've already had a hard time here making friends, and just fear that it will be magnified that much more once I'm living out in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
Okay. I guess I got some of that off my chest now, and feel a little bit better. I apologize for the first thing I write since my last post like, 3 weeks ago, is basically me just complaining. And I feel bad. But yeah, I needed to tell it to someone, and with really no one here to talk to that understands it all, I thought what better than to pour it all out into the internet. So sorry. I promise that my next post (and I'm going to be better about updating again!) will be something not so Debbie Downer. I hope all is well with everyone back home, and I am SO looking forward to my 2 weeks spent back in the US in October! I seriously can't wait! And also a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Granny who turns 86 tomorrow :) I miss and love you and hope you are feeling better! Miss and Love everyone always!
xoxox
MegLett
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Something is wrong with the French (Part Un)
I returned from my long weekend trip to Paris this past Sunday night, and for the last 48 hours since my plane landed back in Deutschland, I have been trying to wrap my head around exactly everything that took place. All in all, my brain can only come to the same, simple conclusion: There's something definitely wrong with the French.
Now don't get me wrong, I did find Paris to be beyond beautiful, and even with its sometimes dirtiness, it still seemed to be able to present itself as elegant. But then again, I guess they same can be said for the French people too. I didn't really have any expectations going in, other than I would probably be amazed by their wealth of culture, (and not to mention their price-tags), and I also knew they had a reputation for coming across as rude. But with all that, I knew I would be in for a nice time regardless. I left the Köln-Bonn Flughafen (airport) at 6:30pm after a slight 20 minute delay. The flight itself only took about 50 minutes until I had landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where I was going to be met by Jessica, the other Au Pair that I went to high school with. After some slight confusion over where each other were, we were able to find each other and then headed off for the Metro to take us into Paris. The plan was to take the Metro into the city, change to an RER (which is another train system connecting Paris, whereas the Metro is pretty much just the Subway) which would bring us to her suburb and then put my stuff in the house, and then head back out into the city to meet up with some of her friends and catch a late dinner. After doing all that and chatting for a about an hour at her house, Jessica and I headed back towards the RER to take us into central Paris where we could meet up with the others. We met up near the Panthéon and sat outside at a small cafe. It was close to 10pm, so we were pretty much the only occupied table at the place. We all decided what we wanted to drink and eat and placed our order (or rather, we told Jessica who was able to tell the waiter in French). Along with our order, Jessica's American friend that also lives in Paris, Tina, decided that we should order a plate of Foie Gras as well, considering it is a traditional "French" item. It was (to the best of my knowledge) the first time I had every tried it. Tina and Jessica and Jessica's other American friend, Jennifer, (who also lives in Paris-working with the same company as Tina) all took the first few bites and commented about how it was pretty good. So I decided I would obviously try it as well, I mean, hello, I was in Paris, France! So I smeared some on the small piece of toasted bread it came with and bit into it. For those of you who don't know what it is, and didn't take the time to click on the convenient link I added, it basically is a duck or goose's liver that has been force fed (according to the standards of French law that actually governs it) to be extra fatty. It is then made into almost like a spreadable butter consistency. Okay. So after I tried it, I ate it all and said that it wasn't bad (obviously lying/trying to be polite). So go ahead and call me an "un-cultured" American, but whatever, I don't know who anyone thinks they are kidding when they say that like that shit. It's gross. The best way I could describe it, and I am being 100% honest here; is that it seriously tasted as if someone was able to turn the smell of wet dogs into a creamy-butter like spread and then smear it on toast. For real. I definitely enjoy really well-prepared and nice meals, and can appreciate the art of cooking, but I also am not one that is going to sit here and say I like something(okay, well, I did do that at the actual table..) just because it's considered a delicacy or whatever by the French. Screw those guys. You can have your wet dog butter, and I'll gladly stick with the German cuisine of wursts and beer.
After finishing up with dinner and paying our bill (my first hint at the Parisian prices: I had a nice garlic, olive oil and basil pasta dish that was 10 Euro, and oh cool, my beer.. which was probably only about 16oz or so was EIGHT EURO! Almost the entire price of my actual meal! And um, I live in Germany, where the beer is cheap and obviously the best in the world, and to be charged 8 Euro for a crappy beer just made me want to punch the waiter), it was pretty late and we all decided to call it a night and head our separate ways. Jessica and I made it back to her house, and stayed up until about 4 in the morning just talking/venting etc. about our experiences of living in Europe as an Au Pair. The next day we slept in (thank god!) and then headed out towards La Défense, which is the main business and economic district of Paris. There we walked into the nearby shopping area (pretty much looked like a much more crowded version of a typical US mall) to go to a bakery to pick up some lunch. Once we had our food and drinks, and after warding off the women that would come up with their children and say in English "will you buy him food? he's so hungry".. blah blah blah.. (take your fake sob story to gullible tourists lady), we headed back out into the perfect weather to sit on the steps of the Grande Arche (a large square like building in the heart of the La Défense district that lines up perfectly with a view of the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. We sat there and ate and talked some more. It was so nice to see a familiar face from Ohio that was going through a lot of the same things I am. I definitely think I talked more with Jessica in those 4 and 1/2 days, than I have my entire time living here in Germany. Seriously.
After we finally decided to move on, we took the metro to famous Champs-Élysées. This is the main street of Paris, which is home to tons of restaurants and cafes, theaters and of course, all the designer boutiques. While walking past the giant corner store of Louis Vuitton, I noticed a long line wrapping around the building. That's right ladies and gentlemen, tourists from around the world were actually waiting in about a 2 hour line just to go into a store and spend ridiculous amounts of money on handbags that have an ugly design on them. Incredible. After romping up the Champs-Élysées we came to the famous Arc de Triomphe with the giant auto round-about going around it (my mother would have a panic attack just looking at this thing, I am sure). I asked Jess how many "lanes" there were going around the Arc and she said roughly about 8 or so, but of course, nothing is marked. Cars just honk and point and drive. It really is completely lawless. Jessica even told me about how her host dad had explained to her that apparently years ago, insurance companies all over France stopped insuring the area. So if you are in an accident on this crazy round-about, tough shit, it's coming out of your pocket. After admiring the Arc for a bit we decided to walk back up the Champs-Élysées the way we came and find a nice cafe to have an espresso (sooo French of me, no?) We found one on a smaller street off the main one so that it would be over-crowed, and also wouldn't have the "tourists prices". We each had an espresso and again just sat and talked for about 2 hours about life and our experiences. It was a very nice, french moment :)
At this point it was getting later, and Jess and I had realized that we were pretty hungry. We then left on a quest to find a delicious, but not super expensive dinner. We got on the Metro again to head to a different part of town, where Jessica said we would have incredible views of the Eiffel Tower. We came out of the metro stop to a nice intersection which overlooked a long stretch of grass with the impressive Eiffel Tower behind it. It was about dusk at this point, so the tower was now lit up with it's golden accent lights, and looked absolutely stunning. It's such a surreal feeling looking at the Eiffel Tower for the first time. I mean, here is this famous structure-maybe the most recognizable in the world-that I have seen countless times in books and movies, and there it is. Standing with all its glory right in front of me. Absolutely breathtaking. After standing there for a few moments to let me take it in, we were back to our mission to fill our stomachs. We walked a little bit away from metro stop that we came out of, to again, try to get away from the places that cater to tourists, and therefore are less quality and higher prices. (Jessica again told me that her host dad had explained to her that it's a big problem in Paris especially, that restaurants etc. rip off tourists by having higher prices, but serving them sub-par food because they don't think they'll know the difference, whereas if it was tried on a local, they would be able to tell that the quality is lacking. So rude.). We finally settled on a small cafe life place and ordered our meal. We ate and then, staying in French tradition, ordered espresso for afterward. We hung around a little but longer until it was almost 11 or so, and decided we should get back to the metro to get a train home. Once again, we took the Metro to the RER and then the RER to the suburb of Paris that Jessica lives. We arrived home close to midnight. That night we again stayed up late just talking. I can't even begin to describe how nice it was to just have good old fashioned 'girl talk' again, with someone that knew the same things I was going through, and not to mention someone from Columbus. We ended up talking until about 4 in the morning when we realized we definitely needed to go to bed.
We slept in on Friday morning, which was fantastic! We didn't really have much of a plan for the day, and so we decided to take the trains back into Paris and just walk around some more. We had to be back at the house by no later than 6 or so, so that we could both be ready and back in Paris by 8 to meet up with Jessica's friends again to board our "party boat" for the night. First we headed for the grand cathedral Notre Dame. We looked around, took a lot of pictures (although we didn't go in, because the line to get inside was UNBELIEVABLE. Probably a good 2-3 hour wait, and with out tight schedule, we just didn't have that kind of time), and then decided it was time for some lunch and Jessica really wanted to take me to this famous falafel place located in the Marais District. We found ourselves in the heart of the beautiful Marais District and quickly found the L'As du Falafel that Jessica had been talking about. It looked like it was about to start raining so we opted to sit down and eat inside instead of just taking it to go. We went in and I was immediately greeted by countless pictures of musician Lenny Kravitz. I asked Jess what that was all about and she said that apparently Kravitz had dubbed this place "best falafel in the world" and visits every time he is in Paris. So they have tons of his pictures everywhere. If you ask me, it was a bit on the creepy side, but whateves.
**Part Deux and Trois located in September (I know, I suck at life).
Now don't get me wrong, I did find Paris to be beyond beautiful, and even with its sometimes dirtiness, it still seemed to be able to present itself as elegant. But then again, I guess they same can be said for the French people too. I didn't really have any expectations going in, other than I would probably be amazed by their wealth of culture, (and not to mention their price-tags), and I also knew they had a reputation for coming across as rude. But with all that, I knew I would be in for a nice time regardless. I left the Köln-Bonn Flughafen (airport) at 6:30pm after a slight 20 minute delay. The flight itself only took about 50 minutes until I had landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where I was going to be met by Jessica, the other Au Pair that I went to high school with. After some slight confusion over where each other were, we were able to find each other and then headed off for the Metro to take us into Paris. The plan was to take the Metro into the city, change to an RER (which is another train system connecting Paris, whereas the Metro is pretty much just the Subway) which would bring us to her suburb and then put my stuff in the house, and then head back out into the city to meet up with some of her friends and catch a late dinner. After doing all that and chatting for a about an hour at her house, Jessica and I headed back towards the RER to take us into central Paris where we could meet up with the others. We met up near the Panthéon and sat outside at a small cafe. It was close to 10pm, so we were pretty much the only occupied table at the place. We all decided what we wanted to drink and eat and placed our order (or rather, we told Jessica who was able to tell the waiter in French). Along with our order, Jessica's American friend that also lives in Paris, Tina, decided that we should order a plate of Foie Gras as well, considering it is a traditional "French" item. It was (to the best of my knowledge) the first time I had every tried it. Tina and Jessica and Jessica's other American friend, Jennifer, (who also lives in Paris-working with the same company as Tina) all took the first few bites and commented about how it was pretty good. So I decided I would obviously try it as well, I mean, hello, I was in Paris, France! So I smeared some on the small piece of toasted bread it came with and bit into it. For those of you who don't know what it is, and didn't take the time to click on the convenient link I added, it basically is a duck or goose's liver that has been force fed (according to the standards of French law that actually governs it) to be extra fatty. It is then made into almost like a spreadable butter consistency. Okay. So after I tried it, I ate it all and said that it wasn't bad (obviously lying/trying to be polite). So go ahead and call me an "un-cultured" American, but whatever, I don't know who anyone thinks they are kidding when they say that like that shit. It's gross. The best way I could describe it, and I am being 100% honest here; is that it seriously tasted as if someone was able to turn the smell of wet dogs into a creamy-butter like spread and then smear it on toast. For real. I definitely enjoy really well-prepared and nice meals, and can appreciate the art of cooking, but I also am not one that is going to sit here and say I like something(okay, well, I did do that at the actual table..) just because it's considered a delicacy or whatever by the French. Screw those guys. You can have your wet dog butter, and I'll gladly stick with the German cuisine of wursts and beer.
After finishing up with dinner and paying our bill (my first hint at the Parisian prices: I had a nice garlic, olive oil and basil pasta dish that was 10 Euro, and oh cool, my beer.. which was probably only about 16oz or so was EIGHT EURO! Almost the entire price of my actual meal! And um, I live in Germany, where the beer is cheap and obviously the best in the world, and to be charged 8 Euro for a crappy beer just made me want to punch the waiter), it was pretty late and we all decided to call it a night and head our separate ways. Jessica and I made it back to her house, and stayed up until about 4 in the morning just talking/venting etc. about our experiences of living in Europe as an Au Pair. The next day we slept in (thank god!) and then headed out towards La Défense, which is the main business and economic district of Paris. There we walked into the nearby shopping area (pretty much looked like a much more crowded version of a typical US mall) to go to a bakery to pick up some lunch. Once we had our food and drinks, and after warding off the women that would come up with their children and say in English "will you buy him food? he's so hungry".. blah blah blah.. (take your fake sob story to gullible tourists lady), we headed back out into the perfect weather to sit on the steps of the Grande Arche (a large square like building in the heart of the La Défense district that lines up perfectly with a view of the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. We sat there and ate and talked some more. It was so nice to see a familiar face from Ohio that was going through a lot of the same things I am. I definitely think I talked more with Jessica in those 4 and 1/2 days, than I have my entire time living here in Germany. Seriously.
After we finally decided to move on, we took the metro to famous Champs-Élysées. This is the main street of Paris, which is home to tons of restaurants and cafes, theaters and of course, all the designer boutiques. While walking past the giant corner store of Louis Vuitton, I noticed a long line wrapping around the building. That's right ladies and gentlemen, tourists from around the world were actually waiting in about a 2 hour line just to go into a store and spend ridiculous amounts of money on handbags that have an ugly design on them. Incredible. After romping up the Champs-Élysées we came to the famous Arc de Triomphe with the giant auto round-about going around it (my mother would have a panic attack just looking at this thing, I am sure). I asked Jess how many "lanes" there were going around the Arc and she said roughly about 8 or so, but of course, nothing is marked. Cars just honk and point and drive. It really is completely lawless. Jessica even told me about how her host dad had explained to her that apparently years ago, insurance companies all over France stopped insuring the area. So if you are in an accident on this crazy round-about, tough shit, it's coming out of your pocket. After admiring the Arc for a bit we decided to walk back up the Champs-Élysées the way we came and find a nice cafe to have an espresso (sooo French of me, no?) We found one on a smaller street off the main one so that it would be over-crowed, and also wouldn't have the "tourists prices". We each had an espresso and again just sat and talked for about 2 hours about life and our experiences. It was a very nice, french moment :)
At this point it was getting later, and Jess and I had realized that we were pretty hungry. We then left on a quest to find a delicious, but not super expensive dinner. We got on the Metro again to head to a different part of town, where Jessica said we would have incredible views of the Eiffel Tower. We came out of the metro stop to a nice intersection which overlooked a long stretch of grass with the impressive Eiffel Tower behind it. It was about dusk at this point, so the tower was now lit up with it's golden accent lights, and looked absolutely stunning. It's such a surreal feeling looking at the Eiffel Tower for the first time. I mean, here is this famous structure-maybe the most recognizable in the world-that I have seen countless times in books and movies, and there it is. Standing with all its glory right in front of me. Absolutely breathtaking. After standing there for a few moments to let me take it in, we were back to our mission to fill our stomachs. We walked a little bit away from metro stop that we came out of, to again, try to get away from the places that cater to tourists, and therefore are less quality and higher prices. (Jessica again told me that her host dad had explained to her that it's a big problem in Paris especially, that restaurants etc. rip off tourists by having higher prices, but serving them sub-par food because they don't think they'll know the difference, whereas if it was tried on a local, they would be able to tell that the quality is lacking. So rude.). We finally settled on a small cafe life place and ordered our meal. We ate and then, staying in French tradition, ordered espresso for afterward. We hung around a little but longer until it was almost 11 or so, and decided we should get back to the metro to get a train home. Once again, we took the Metro to the RER and then the RER to the suburb of Paris that Jessica lives. We arrived home close to midnight. That night we again stayed up late just talking. I can't even begin to describe how nice it was to just have good old fashioned 'girl talk' again, with someone that knew the same things I was going through, and not to mention someone from Columbus. We ended up talking until about 4 in the morning when we realized we definitely needed to go to bed.
We slept in on Friday morning, which was fantastic! We didn't really have much of a plan for the day, and so we decided to take the trains back into Paris and just walk around some more. We had to be back at the house by no later than 6 or so, so that we could both be ready and back in Paris by 8 to meet up with Jessica's friends again to board our "party boat" for the night. First we headed for the grand cathedral Notre Dame. We looked around, took a lot of pictures (although we didn't go in, because the line to get inside was UNBELIEVABLE. Probably a good 2-3 hour wait, and with out tight schedule, we just didn't have that kind of time), and then decided it was time for some lunch and Jessica really wanted to take me to this famous falafel place located in the Marais District. We found ourselves in the heart of the beautiful Marais District and quickly found the L'As du Falafel that Jessica had been talking about. It looked like it was about to start raining so we opted to sit down and eat inside instead of just taking it to go. We went in and I was immediately greeted by countless pictures of musician Lenny Kravitz. I asked Jess what that was all about and she said that apparently Kravitz had dubbed this place "best falafel in the world" and visits every time he is in Paris. So they have tons of his pictures everywhere. If you ask me, it was a bit on the creepy side, but whateves.
**Part Deux and Trois located in September (I know, I suck at life).
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