23.3.2007

School took forever!!!! Gym in Germany is friggen lame! It's once a week and it's badly underfunded.. we did jump rope for the first 45 minutes with these ghetto ropes then the other 45 was spent playing basketball, 5 Vs. 5. And because the gym is so small it can only be 2 classes of guys or girls having it. Ours just happens to be Friday after school =(
I had 2 hours to kill before my train to Regensburg, so I rode a few s-bahn's and just wandered around, got 2 beer's for the trip, then set off. (I can't believe how little beer costs...the stuff I get is only €0,69 which is around $1.00 Cdn. I've seen other stuff for as little as €0,29 but I would be scared to try it)
The train ride was only 2 hours and very uneventful. I got to Regensburg (Literally Rain Castle) around 7:00 and had to wait only 10 min. Lukas came, we got some apfelmüse (Apple sauce..for later ;) ) and we went out for supper. I got a döner (Donair) and a Becks while Lukas got fried noodles and also a Becks.
After supper we went to 'The Blue Monkey'. I found this place really neat. Nothing big and a small amount of people but the inside..it was like..new age fusion, kinda hard to describe. I got something with vodka, which was very good =D, while Lukas got a Mohieto (spelling?) The place gets it's name from the blue lights it has inside.
The next place we went to was this bar/club that is underground. I actually got I.D'd!! I was like..wth...eh what ever, i don't think they know how to read photocopied passports :P There are three levels to this place, each lower than the next. It reminded me somewhat of a cave, but since no friends were there we left. About a 1/2 minute walk from this place was another bar, Zentral, where everyone was. All of Lukas' friends made it obvious they love Canadians =D This one girl was going to write an important English test, so she wanted to practice with me all night. Fair enough. Had this bier, cold, and syrup drink which was yummy but I got challenged to a chugging contest, and naturally I won ;) We stayed for only one drink and we were all off to the 'cave' bar.
It's amazing how much 15 minutes can make. The place was packed, and the vast majority of people on the bottom level knew Lukas. This is when the apfelmüse came in handy. You take a jar of this, three shots of dark tequila, and some cinnamon, mix it all and enjoy =D I my-self am not found of tequila at all..but I could have eaten this entire jar! Had a few weißbiers (wheat beer) and another vodka thing...a Solaris maybe? I think we were there for around 2 hours. Around 1:00 Lukas, Christina, and I headed over to her boyfriend's work and managed to get a free bier each. Said good-bye to those two and Lukas and i headed over to this small rave. I would say we were dancing for about 3 hours straight. It was really gross how sweaty I was...every inch of me was wet..but i had fun doing it =D There were people there that were easily in their mid 40's, it was quit an interesting this to see, I friggen love this country! We left the rave around 3:30 and walked for a 1/2 hour, so we could save some money on the cab. €12,00 later we were finally home =D
We went to bed around 5:00

22.3.2007

Again not a whole lot was done today..
Got some homework done, watched 'Batman begins' and Raphi came over for a bit.
Totally looking forward to this weekend though!

21.3.2007

The weather hear sucks at the moment. It will snow a tonne then get really sunny and everything will melt, but later that day it will start to rain snow and the process starts over again..
Nothing special at school today..just had to wait 20 min. for a bloody S-Bahn (Street Car) to come!
After school I got picked up by some family friends and we made out way to München as we were going to the BMW production plant located there. For supper we went to Pizza Hut =D, which has free refills on pop!!! Which is almost unheard of in Germany, then crossed the street to the plant. The BMW cooperate tower is a very cool looking building. Because of it's size it can be seen from a distance and it is located right next the the Olympic (Summer '72) grounds.

Because of 'Industrial Espionage' no cameras or phones or such were allowed in, so no pictures =(
The tour was all in German but my 'dad',Kai, did some translating for me. We saw the start of a car, basically a cylinder of rolled metal that gets stamped out into different parts, welding the parts together, painting + heating (makes it shiny and rust resistant etc...), assembly of the motor, putting the car and motor together, adding the wires, seats, windows, and most importantly...putting the BMW logo on. The very last part is the testing of the car to make sure it works and doing speed tests. The majority of the first 1/2 is done by robots white the other 1/2 is done more by hand. This plant produces all of the Model 3 car's in the world. And I also learned what the BMW symbol is:
The Bavarian Sky (Blue and White) as seen from behind a plane propeller (Before WW I then made plane engines, then after WW II they switched to cars)


It won't let me rotate it =(

20.3.2007

So did jack all today. Came home from school and had some carbaneti (?) spaghetti and watched 'Jurassic Park'. Did some homework and that was about all..

24.3.2007

Was woken up around 8:30..and felt like crap! 3ish hours of sleep and my head was a little..Lukas' mother and father were up also, so they could meet me in person =). His cat reminds me of Herman, not AS big but ,), and his dog, kleina, is a big teddy bear! She's a 2 year old Burmese.
We took the train into Regensburg and went for some supper at the mall beside the station. After it, around 9:20, I said I would need my backpack for München today and I hear'...Shit...Oh shit...SHIT!' Lukas forgot the key to the locker at home :/ so he calls his mom to see if she can get here before 9:44, when I left. We meet these two girls who were going to München so I tagged along with them, and saved €10,00..which was good considering I had about €12,00 and needed a ticket home.
So I'm sitting on the train because the train person had blown the whist (saying we were leaving) when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of person and green. I got out of my seat and was waiting at the door when Lukas came flying down the steps and throws the bag over the train person's head..the door closed like 2 seconds after. It honestly looked like something out of a movie!
So I was sitting with three girls. Two were going to München for school stuff while the other was getting off before. The one gril (from what I could understand) had left all her bags on either the plane or a train way up in Köln and was quit sad/mad etc..and had to carry the rest of her stuff around in a plastic bag.
2 hours later we go into München and we all said our good-byes. I walked around the whole building trying to find the fountain that we were going to meet at. No fountain.. :S so I walk around for 10 min. when I hear my name called, look over and see 4 others =D I go over and there is Colton, Elias, Lee, and Robyn but no Emily..which was a little odd considering her train had gotten in at 10:30, a half hour before the rest of ours. Elias and Robyn took off while us three walked around for another 20 minutes looking for Emily. After a half hour we took off. We were going to take the U-Bahn (Subway) but got lost on the terminal and decided to walk. We found a McDonald's...this biggest one I've ever seen. The first floor is where you buy the food and the next three levels are just sitting..and it was packed. A little gross..but what ever. So we are sitting upstairs eating when Emily comes out of the blue. We were like..wth? What are the odds of this happening..Munich has over 1 million people. I guess she missed her first train so she got here at 11:20, right after I got into the station, and went to find the fountain. She then walked around a little and was about to go home when she decided to check out McDonald's because she remembered someone saying they really wanted some in Munich, and there we were.
After that we made our way down the main street and met up with the other two and did a little shopping, looked around the frauenkirche (Lady's church) then to Marienplatz, the main square in München. The rathaus (City hall) there is this masive gothic building, one of the coolest I've seen. We decided to make our way to the famous Hofbräuhaus but left after they wouldn't serve beer to those under 18, so everyone but my-self ;) So we made our way to another resturant and had some lunch. Went back to Marieplatz and climbed 306 steps to the top of a church and the view was amazing from up there :) though you couldn't see the Alps. Took the U-bahn so we could get some Pizza hut =D then made our way back to the train station
So right after running Emily to her train so she wouldn't miss it I was going back to the main part of the train station cuz i have like 30-40 min. to kill (Train was 15 min. late) and these two guys appear in front of me and one starts yelling 'PAPIER PAPIER!!!' and I'm like... WTF!?? So the first guys keeps asking for it and I get 'that look' on my face and he is like 'passport!!' so I pull out my paper one and the other guy takes it. The first guy pulls out this I.D card and says 'Hast dz das nicht verstanden!!!?', it was some police of the Federal Rep. Of Germ I.D, I'm like'...mein deutsch ist schlecht...' (My German is bad) second guy asks where I come from 'Canada..' and the first guys asks me 'hast du kiffer geraucht!??' (Did you smoke weed)
Well you f*cking stupid cop
A) If I HAD why in this bloody world would I tell you?
B) What the hell makes you think I have?
so of course I said 'nein..warum??' and the second asshole, who had my passport was like'ptf, Warum?? Warum?? Doof(dumb)' and they walked away. I was like...wtf just happened....
My train was 15 minutes late..and becuase of that I missed my connection train and didn't feel like waiting an hour..so had to walk home in the rain =(
Was a good day all around though

19.3.2007

So Markus TOTALLY forgot bout his mother birthday :P He only remember when I asked him what kind of flowers she liked. So after school we got a thing of roses and a card. She enjoyed them quit a bit =). In the afternoon I watched 'Water World' ,which I haven't seen in years, and made plans to go party it up with Lukas on Friday =D
For supper we went to a Japanese all you can eat. I must say...it was a little weird seeing Asian people speaking Germany. I've only ever heard them speaking English or some form of Asian. I definitely had my share of food. They had a few things that I've never seen before. Breaded/deep fried balls of fish (?) breaded/Deep fried balls of crab meat and a grill that have prawns, chicken, beef, pork, and oysters =D

18.3.2007

Today was Oma's 70th birthday, so to celebrate we went out for some traditional Bavarian food.
We met up with Oma and opa, Kai's (dad) sister and her husband and their two kids, and our family. For starters I had a really yummy liver ball in some kind of broth. Lunch was (Spelling may be off) Schweinhaxe with klösel and rotkraut. So it was a leg of a pig that have been grilled(??) so the outside was very crispy but the inside was lecker =D. Knösel is German dumplings, a kind of mash that's sticky and rolled in big balls, and rotkrat is red cabbage. I washed it all down with a radler (Beer with lemon juice?)
Later that day the others came over to our house and we had cake and taramasu that Eva and Janna had made from scratch.

17.3.2007 Dachau

The KZ (Concentration camp) of Dachau was the first, or one of the first, camps to be built in Germany. Oddly enough it opened only a few weeks after Hitler had come to power (1933) and was used at first, primarily, to hold political prisoners. This camp was the model camp for all other camps that were to be built in occupied Europe.


The entrance to the camp and the infamous words that can be found at all the camps 'Arbeit Macht Frei' which translates into 'work makes freedom/Work will set you free'

This is looking from the entrance out onto the roll-call area. Prisoners would at times have to stand for hours while each person was counted. If someone escaped, they would make then stand longer. If anyone fell it was forbidden to help them, and this is how many of the weak died.

This is a view of where the 30 barracks had once been. All but two are still standing. It was very surreal to touch these trees knowing that 200 000 people have once been confined here.

'Dachau- the significance of the name will never be erased from German history. It stands for all concentration camps which the Nazi's established in their territory'

17.3.2007 Schleißheim schloß

Schleißheim schloß is located just a little out side of München. It was used as a royal residence back in the 18th century by some of the Kings of Bayern. There is two parts to it, the Alte schloß and the new part. Because of the airport located right beside the Alte schloß it was completely destroyed by allied bombing attacks during the Second World War, the other received some damage.

This is the Alte schloß, which has been rebuilt. There is nothing spectacular about it, but still it's more than what we have in Canada.

This is the other part of the schloß, it's behind the top picture. This the part that the king or regent or what ever would live in. From end to end it is about 183m (I do believe) and it was set up in a way that you could see end to end when the doors were open.

This is the ground floor. Everything is made out of marble and the ceiling has been painted by hand :/. This is where the balls would be held and I don't think it was used much for anything else.

This is the 'Big Gallery' on the second level. Most of the pictures here were either religious or had to do with Greek mythology. Some on the 1st floor had to do with the Christan armies battling the Turks. The sleeping quarters were also on the second level as was a mini chapel. The main one is located on the main floor.

16.3.2007

I forgot to mention I saw a transvestite at the train station yesterday..It was around 5 (Had classes in the afternoon) and the train was about to pull in. I was looking at the ground when these high heels caugh my attention. I started to look up and I was liking the very short mini skirt. When it came to the face I looked in horror, and thankfully the train had just arrived, and ran onto the train and burst out laughing. Now I just need to see the skin heads...
This school is so friggen big and it doesn't make any sence!!! Classes are in random places...
so I spent our first 15 min. break trying to find my Spanish class, and after 20 min. I gave up and decided to go into downtown. I love just randomly walking, as you never know what you are going to find. I saw a few amazing churches and statues and did lot's of window shopping. I find this one place that I'm thinking was once the residence of the Bishop or a person high up in the church. It is this big beautful building with an attached church and this amazing little park. It's nice to find these places inside the city, as they are offten rare. But here I felt totally drawn out of the city and it was nice and refreshing. Later tonight I'm going to be going to ROFA, which should be interesing =D
and München tomorrow...Last I heard it's not going to happen =(

15,3,2007

Just another regular day. Nothing special went on today. Instead of 6 classes we had 8 (Not super sure why....but what ever) Today was my first art class. I was given a big piece of paper/cardboard stuff and was sent off. The teacher didn't tell me what to do (Unless it was in German and I had completely zoned out) so I start my project not knowing really what to do..just looking on other people's papers and AFTER I have started some one comes up and tells me I'm doing it wrong...What ever..I have never been good with art any ways. Lunch we went out for some döners, which I have missed ever so much!
We got home from school around 17.00 and I haven't done much today. I'll work on some Canadian home work and maybe watch a movie.
I'm really looking forward to the weekend though =D
Tomorrow I'm going to ROFA, which is a metal disko, and Laurel, another Canadian, is going to be there so it should be good. And on Saturday a bunch of us are going to go spend the afternoon in München.
Snow on Sunday...

14.3.2007

Today was the same old same old.
Left for the train station (In Merin it's a single track with a shelter and a ticket machine...great Banhhof ;) ) got to Augsburg and walked to school.

So far all my French classes have actually been Italien, and the only word I have understood is gelato. So I went to my 'french' class and the teacher told me it would be a waste of time becuase they were writing a test, so instead I went into the city (downtown) for just under 2 hours. I love walking through all the narrow streets and just looking at all the good stuff they have over here. So I came back for my last two class, Latin and Spanish. Because my Latin is all but 2 words I got to play around on the computer while everyone else did some work =D. Spanish....oh god. I was a little late for class becuase I had no idea where it was (basement in some dark corner) and Anna was with me, showing me were it was, and the teacher kicked me out of class even before I got a chance to sit down. She was freaking out becuae we were late and some other reason, I didn't understand. She then starting to ask me stuff in Spanish, while going faster than she was in German. So to make it short I had no clue what so ever what she was saying, so she cloesed the door in our face and that was that. i ended up going to a lower level Spanish class =D
Going home was a nightmare..For what ever reason the train wasn't running to Mering/Merching to day so we had to take the bus. Mering is only...15-20ish Km from Augsburg but this bus, jamed in like sardines, went through 6 different villages before finally getting to Merching, 1 1/2 hours later :/
I went for a walk later that day with Eva and the dog and watched Borat later that night =D

Leaving for Germany....

Friday March 9th, 2007

Emily & Jordan at the airport leaving for Germany!