What a heavy day.

Today Mom and Mike arrived and we hit the ground running. We picked up the rental car and got going. Thankfully, Mike got a GPS thing compatable for Germany so travelling was a piece of Apfel Strudel. But we made our way to Dachau. You hear about it. You learn about it. But it is just so intense to be there. So eerie and horribly horribly sad and unbelievable that humanity could sink so low for all of that to occur.

It was really intense.

Then we drove to Regensburg! Mom loved to see how the hops were growing in the fields besides the roads. We ate dinner at the Wurstküche and got ice cream and strolled a bit. But they were understandably exhausted and we went back to their hotel and then they drove me home. I am already enjoying some treats from home! She brought me all kinds of snacks. But I bet I will have them all eaten in a matter of two weeks or so...haha!

Anyways, even though it was a really heavy and difficult day due to the events. Still enjoyable because I learned a lot and I spent the day with family.

Tschüs!

What a great day!

Well, it has been about a week since I posted...I know I suck at this whole blog thing.

German word of the day: "schaffen"-to handle/manage as in "Ich kann das nicht schaffen!"-I can't handle/manage that. What I might have said due to the unfortunate laundry situation in my building earlier.

Anyways, last Friday I went down to München, otherwise known as Munich, to meet up with Morgan (friend from Berry) and her two friends who are studying together in Florence. It was a blast! First of all, the two girls that were with Morgan were super. Valerie and Rachel (sp?) are from Chicago and were such sweet and funny girls. They all ended coming back to stay in Regensburg with me on Friday after a full day in Marienplatz and Frühlingsfest. We met the nicest couple at Marienplatz and the girls invited them to come to the fest with us and they totally did! So cool. Something else happened that day...but its getting its own paragraph. But yeah, so, the girls and I wandered Regensburg on Saturday morning ate at the Historisches Würstküche drank Radlers and generally had a lovely time soaking in the beauty of the Donau river (Danube). We then caught the 14:45 train back to München for some more fun.

Backtrack time...

Well, when we got to Munich (on Friday) we got a little lost leaving the train station and walked the wrong direction down the street and ended up way out of the way. Thankfully, I speak a little German so I could ask how to get where we needed to be and the girl we asked said turn around go on this road and walk about 25 minutes! HA! We went so far the wrong way...but that is fine when you are in lovely European cities. Well, sorta. What the girl failed to tell us was we were walking through an interesting part of town to get there. For a while we were the only non-Turkish people in sight haha. Well I really wanted the girls to try an Augustiner bc they had been in Germany for hours and hours and hadn't had a beer yet....SO TRAGIC. So of course it was a holiday so everyone was closed. But some places were open but didn't have the right kind of beer I wanted the girls to try. SO, we see this sign that says Augustiner on it. So I go up to see what the deal is to see if we can get beers to go there or not. Well, I ask the nice Turkish man if we can get Augustiners to go or whether we had to stay and drink. And he said we could get them to go. Maybe I should mention it was a bar/lounge which was why I asked about that. Well, we walk up the stairs to find a lounge FULL of Turkish men. I am talking we were the ONLY FEMALES IN THE BUILDING. Haha. Which would have been no prob but two of the girls had to pee! So Morgan and I had to stand in this smoky (understatement) lounge full of all these turkish guys of all ages most of them old old old. And we were just like, "Ummm, we don't fit in...this is awkward". And they took FOREVER. Eventually, we had to go light a fire under them because we were tired of being gawked at. I mean everyone was perfectly nice and we were plenty safe....just so weird and awkward and I wanted out of there. haha. But a nice funny Europe memory to cherish right?

so back to Saturday...

we went to the English Garden which was so gorgeous!!! I definitely want to go back and spend more time there. But yeah we saw the Chinese Tower and all which was really nice. Then we went to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. Great fun! Two more girls from Morgan's university joined us and it was great fun listening to the oompah music from the band and watching all the old German men in their hats and lederhosen. :) Sadly, after dinner we had to head back to the train station to part ways with Morgan, Rachel, and Valerie because they had to catch that train back to good ol' Italia. BUT, I stayed a little longer and showed the other girls how to get to Frühlingsfest and rode a ride and hung out a while before taking a late train back home to Regensburg.

All in all a great time in München!

So on Monday and Tuesday I went to my Praktikum at the "Schule am Napoleanstein" for the second and third time. It was great! I actually am really enjoying my time there. And its ALL in German of course so thats always good practice. Except when sometimes Frau Elsner starts talking to me so fast and she thinks I understand, which most of the time I do, but there was a time yesterday that she talked for like 5 minutes and I got only about 40% of it....I just nodded along haha. But she is really nice to me. I am learning so much about German schools. I will make another post about that soon perhaps. I need to take pictures first!

Anyways, the Bradley family (for those of you who don't know that is where I live on the weekends during winterguard season...and it's amazing) sent me a package. And it was GREAT! Such a nice surprise!

AND TOMORROW............

Mom and Mike get here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!

I prolly won't write again till sometime next week.

~Bis dann! Tschüs!

Donnerstag-Thursday

Your German word of the day today is:


gefährlich: dangerous, like what the swine flu is to that man who is being treated at the University's hospital.

Well upon request from a one Amanda Blocker here is a video tour of my apartment. It was supposed to be German Cribs but I failed Ashton and Kristin because it is not nearly funny enough to be a cribs video. In fact, its kinda awkward, quiet, and whatevev. but hey, it lets you see where i live which is the point.

In other news I get to wear my dirndl (traditional german dress) tomorrow because I am going to Munich to meet up with Morgan from Berry to go to Frühlingsfest, which is essentially the little sister to Oktoberfest. I am super excited! I bought shoes today to wear with my dirndl cause none of mine looked right.

Oh also, in addition to Doeners I am also addicted to this type of chocolate they sell in the grocery store...well at least in ALDI I havent seen it at any of the other ones. They are called Moser-Roth chocolates and they are delicious. But here is the good news. Despite how much yummy beer and german/turkish food and chocolate i have been feeding myself I think I actually lost weight. I know its ridiculous but i put my dirndl on this afternoon and it was not as difficult to button as the last time i had it on....weird. Also good, more room for tomorrow. Because I was worried how I was going to eat and drink without popping a button haha I mean lets face it I am pretty sure Dirndls are just german corsets so yeah.

Yay!

Here we go...

Ok so that best friend of mine has been pestering me to start one of these things for a while now. And since I do not want to reward a pesterer it has taken me like what three weeks since I have been in Germany to finally start it.

So I arrived here April 6th, 2009 not so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as much as tired, sore, reserved, and nervous. I mean, yes, I was excited but like most things in my life that are new I need time to adjust. I am not a big fan of change in general, and moving to another country for a few months is quite the change. Plus, I was a little intimidated because I have never done anything on my own before. I am kind of a codependent person. But in these first few short weeks, I have learned that I can be independent and might prefer to be, now and again, but still I am in need of others. Regardless, it took me a while to settle in a feel at home and not so uptight...but alas, now, I can relax here and feel I am at home in Regensburg.

Few observations:
1. Döner mit Feta are my new guilty pleasure. Seriously so good. I don't know what I am going to do without them back at home. Life changingly yummy if you ask me!

2. Germans stare. Seriously. You know how in the States if you make eye contact with a stranger in public you would a.)look away b.)smile really quick as if to say sorry I was looking at you I'll smile so its not awkward ? Yeah the Germans don't do that. I catch them staring at people but when you catch their eye they are not even phased. They just keep right on staring. It's a little unsettling. But very funny.

3. Germans water down their juice. I am a big fan of this practice. First of all its not as sweet that way. Also it goes a lot further and you can actually quench your thirst with juice+water. Juice alone and you end up still thirsty. Also, my favorite of these types of juice is the ever popular Apfelschorle. Its basically half apple juice and half carbonated water...I love it!

4. I love public transit but I knew I would.

5. I am fairly certain I have fallen in love. Head over heels in L-O-V-E, LOVE with Regensburg. Seriously if you ever get the chance to come here...do it!

6. Wurst, Sauerkraut, Brötchen, and Bier are not so bad...in fact I like them all! Some more than others.

7. Europeans have some new fangled definitions for the words "warm" and "hot". Neither of these words in my definition could be applied to Regensburg weather 90% of the time.

8. I have never been more grateful for God and his Church. Seriously its really nice to go half-way around the world and still be able to find people who understand that part of me.

9. While I am on a grateful kick, let's give a round of applause for the creators of Skype. Without them I would not get to see my baby nephew, my best friend, and family.

So I am not going to try and catch you up on the first three weeks, it's fairly boring anyways. Basically it consists of me being confused and bad at German and getting a million things done (Bankkonto, Insurance, registration, visa, you know all that) so I won't bore you.

So I'll start with today. Today was my first day I went to my Prakticum for EDU 222 at the Schule am Napoleonstein. I contacted this school before I came and they are letting me observe and participate in a 2nd grade class for 20 hours (my required number of hours). Well, I was very nervous to go today for many reasons. First of all, I have never been to that part of Regensburg before and I was a little nervous about getting lost. Secondly, back to the "I don't like change thing" usually I don't like new things when I don't know what to expect either. Oh and also, I was nervous about my German skills. Well after some walking after I missed getting off at the right stop (I forgot the name of it and I didn't have my map with me...but God blessed me with a good sense of direction so I wasn't that much off only wrong by one stop) I found the school. I tentatively went up and found the right building and my way to the Sekratarin's office. I told her I was there to observe Frau Elsner's class and she showed me the way. Well, the class is SEHR WUNDERBAR! It is a 2nd grade class and all of the kids are so enthralled by the fact that I am American. Before I introduced myself to them they thought I came from England...haha but they were even more excited when they learned I am from the U.S. Oh, and they love my first name so I am letting them call me that. Frau Elsner is so nice, too. I felt very welcomed and she seemed like a very genuinely good-hearted woman. I am really excited about this. She told me she also teaches the 5th and 6th graders English so I am going to help out in there whenever possible as well. But the kids were really adorable!!! I have never heard "Hi! Hi! Hello! Ashley! Hi Ashley! Hello Ashley!" so much in my life. Adorable. But also, I am fairly certain that this is going to solidify for me that I could not teach this age group my whole life or I would lose my mind. haha But yeah before I left the kids were about to go for Mittagspause (literally: middle of the day break not recess...they actually leave, like go home and then come back later) and Frau Elsner asked them to sing some of the songs they had been practicing to greet me. It was wonderful.

I then took the bus back to and ate in the Mensa (dining hall...I FINALLY figured out that whole mess) did some homework and then had my four hour long grammar class (yeah it's intense but I am learning A LOT). I was going to go grocery shopping today but its so cold and wet...I just can't bring myself to walk that far outside. So most likely I will have a Döner for dinner...haha

I have also decided that in my blog I want to stay connected to my American-ness. And what is more American about me, Ashley Lynn McCarty, other than how much fast food I eat? Why the amount of American television I watch of course! so here is part one of my weekly installment of:

AMERICAN TELEVISION IN REVIEW
(Vorsichtig! Spoilers ahead!)

The Amazing Race:

Ok, I know I am not supposed to like Jaime and Cara because Jaime is soooooo ethnocentric and rude...two things I am not about in the slightest....but I can't help it I liked them early on so I feel like they are my team. And they make me laugh. And maybe this makes me a sadist but watching Cara get that foot massage made me laugh. Which is why I was so happy for them that they came in first this week...but then Phil has to go and bring out that big twist of the leg continuing. But also that made me really happy because that means that Keisha and Jen are still in this thing (we think anyways...unless that is part of the twist who knows) and that makes me really happy. In related news, what the heck was with Tammy and Victor at that Detour huh? Is is really that hard to jump at the same time on a diving board and hit the water together? I mean I know its not as easy as it looks but come on! I no longer like Margie and Luke after the whole body-checking Jen and then being all over-dramatic at the pit-stop so I won't discuss them. All in all I was just happy the brothers were gone this week!


Grey's

I read in US Weekly on the plane on the way over here that Katherine Heigel doesn't know if she lives or dies. I don't believe it. We all know she is leaving...don't get my hopes up for nothing. My favorite moment of this episode was when Sloane told Torres to stop speaking in spanish because he doesnt speak spanish...all the funnier bc of my recent language shortfalls

The Office

Wow! What a good episode. The way they kept me on the edge of my seat to see if Michael could handle that meeting was brilliant and hillarious. And the church van thing almost made me pee my pants laughing. No really I had a lot of Apfelschorle that day. haha Pam's little monologue about a kid crashing a car was also especially nice. Just generally a good episode and I am glad the office is reunited and GO PAM for being a salesman now! How exciting for her! And with her portion of that $60,000 check her and Jim could afford to pay Here Comes Treble now! haha jk

Greek

Oh Greek...what would I do without you? I think it goes without saying that I love this show more than I should. But the writing is actually very clever for a teen drama on ABCfamily. So this week I must remark on the fact that I think they are laying the groundwork for problems with Casey and Max perhaps. What?! McCarty you are crazy! they are a great couple so happy...blahblahblah...how could you think that? Here is why I think that: when rusty came to see Max about Dale being a shut-in he commented on how he kinda wishes his academic life were more like it would have been in California had he gone there. This gives Max an easy out of the show when Cappie finally makes a move on "the girl of [his] dreams" (his words not mine) I feel awkward when Ashley and Casey try to make Jordan fit in with ZBZ...I dont know. She is going to have to have a major character change in order for it to be believable that she can be happy there. I dont like Andy. And I don't think he is that cute either. Go Rusty. Cappie is of course the true hot throb of this show though and I hope for some more jealousy stories in the near future...they never get old! Dale and that old woman are just gross. But Dale's comment about The View was really funny. Ummm, and can we talk about how messed up Evan and Frannie are? I still think they are a perfect couple considering they are both evil incarnate but whatev apparently the writers didnt consult me. I could go on and on about things that made me react overdramatically but those are just the highlights and my thoughts.




Until next time...Auf Wiedersehen!