When in Doubt: Clap. It. Out.

I've come to the miraculous conclusion that I'm probably the worst blogger on the planet. The gaps between posts seem to be getting wider and wider. It's come to the point where I can't even remember what I was suppose to post an update about. Ok that's a lie, but I'm   so far behind in video blogs as well that it's getting a bit stressful..

I don't know how some of the other participants do it! Some of my friends in the program like Shawn and Mike McLaffyTaffy both have video blogs they post and keep updated EVERY week. My homies Alex Booscagaletti, Dawn, and Nancy either do a blog post every week, or "A Photo A Day" or BOTH . How do you guys do it? Is there a secretary sitting in your room taking notes? Surely you have a midget hidden in your backpack snapping photos and doing all types of panorama's, adding those filters, collages, making a small hill look like a majestic mountain, etc.  Yet here I am, weeks behind with so much on my mind I'm sure my thoughts are leaking out of my ears causing anyone walking behind me to slip and bust their wholeee ass.

I last left off with an unexpected 10hr train ride and which started with a saddened goodbye from visiting fellow PPP'rs in Köln (Cologne). It literally felt like the ending of a frickin' Harry Potter movie where they're at Platform 9 and 3/4 balling their eyes out promising to return to Hogwarts, keep in touch, or whatever. Can't believe that was more than 3 weekends ago.... 

Fast forward to a week later which involved the most extravagant, exciting, incredibly thrilling festivals in ALL of Germany.

                        Oktoberfest!
For those of you who've been living under a rock and somehow don't know what Oktoberfest is, it's a huge beer-drinking festival held every year during the third week of September and lasts about 3 weeks well into the month of October. 

To sum up Oktoberfest It was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! At first I had zero idea what to do, expect, or even know if I was going to drink any damn thing. For one I DO NOT fancy bier/beer AT ALL. I'll try it, but ME drinking a full one is something you'd have to see on Ripley's Believe it Or Not. Nonetheless..... 

I downed 3 and half of these 1L Maß opening day...

Let's start things out with friday evening (9/21)... Sprachschule (Language school) ended at 12:15pm, Justin and I were well on our way to Konstanz to catch our bus to München (Munich), oh but WAIT! We didn't check the times for our train to Konstanz and ended up missing the last train that would actually get us there ON TIME. So guess what we had to do..... 


Yep. That's right. Dumb and Dumberer was forced to take a Taxi. It was the only way we'd make it in time for the bus... -__- mind you Konstanz is a solid 30 minute TRAIN ride from Radolfzell.... So that Taxi ride ended up costing us a slick 47€ or 48€ (about $65).

I promise you nothing hurts more than paying for something that you could've done or gotten for free.
The taxi driver made sure he took the longest money-making path ever and got us to Konstanz with like 10 minutes to spare. Justin still had go to an ATM and we STILL had to find the bus station. We literally raced through the streets of Konstanz as if we were outrunning the cops or something. We arrived at the parking lot RIGHT as the bus was pulling out and I did the only sensible thing I could do, I JUMPED in front of it. Luckily he didn't run me over. He let us onto the bus, but was still pretty pissed we arrived late and that we... quote, "threw him 2 minutes off schedule".

Anyways... after 4hrs of a long, traffic-freezing, butt-numbing bus ride... 

We FINALLY arrived in Munich and it. was. beautiful. We met up with our friend Nancy, did a little window-shopping for traditional German lederhosen and then ate some KFC, because that is what Germans do right? RIGHT.

Thanks to my skillful research I had done the week before, I found a cool room on Airbnb.com, which is a website where people rent out rooms in their houses/apartments. We met up with the roommate of the girl's room we were staying in (if that makes any sense to you) and had a beer with her. She's SUPER cool and really nice. Her name is Tina and she had just moved to Munich less than a week or two ago, teaches, and apparently her dad is like a pro sky-diver (which she later offered to let us skydive with her once the weather warms up). The next morning Justin, Nancy, our new friend Tina, and I ventured to Oktoberfest. We arrived around 7:30am at the Augustiner tent stood in line for 2 hrs or so, made some new friendsmates from Australia and raced through the vast amount of tables looking for a table that could sit 6 people.

Oy!!! these are australian friends we made in line. that guy is crying because he wasn't ready.

CRIKEY! would you believe that after alllll of that waiting in line we still couldn't get a beer until the mayor did the official ceremony at 12PM! So instead we ordered Weißwurst with that amazing Süss Senf (sweet mustard) and ate it the Bavarian way!

3hrs of eating and chatting then came the marching band and cheerful sounds of beer happy fools.

Tina, me, und Sam

Strike a pose.

From left to right: my fat face, Sam the Aussie, Tina, Justin the Aussie, Justin #1 und Nancy!

3 Liters of Bier later.... 

retrieved from http://nancygoestogermany.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/oktoberfest/

Apparently I was trying to be the wicked witch of the westside.

Me, Justin #1, Michael D., und Chelsea - retrieved from http://nancygoestogermany.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/oktoberfest/

That experience was something I could never forget, and the über cool Aussies along with our new friend Tina were some amazing people that I'm really fortunate to have met. One of the best parts of this experience was I even taught the guys a little German between "Prost". haha


This past week has been crazy... It was my last week of Sprachschule (language school) and I had so much to prepare for. For one, it hadn't really hit me that this was my last time seeing my Radolfzell people for a longggg time. Last time being literally a 15 minute drive from Switzerland. I grabbed so much Swiss Schokolade those last few days it's ridiculous. 

This past Friday was our LAST day of learning Deutsch in such a small classroom setting. No more eccentric Lehrer (teacher) telling us when we got a präposition wrong, no more Cody in class pulling out his butterfly knife scaring the complete bejesus out of the Nun from Slovakia, no more getting fat with Justin, no more Thadeus flaking on us like dandruff when we make plans for something (hence his the nickname Mr. Head & Shoulders), or our helpful CDC workers/friends Jan und Jenna (side note: Jan's a guy and it's pronounced "Yaawwnnn"). Most importantly, NO MORE AMAZING HOST FAMILY. Oh mein Gott, I don't know how I would have made it through these past two months without their help, as well as allllll the wonderous places they showed me. I still daydream about that Käsespätzle in Bregenz, Austria one of three countries I visited my first weekend in Germany! 
                              


I can now officially say that I have a Deutsch Kompentenzstufe (German Competence level) of A2

I was one of the very first of our group who had to depart on Friday for the University phase of the program. My new home for the next 10 months is Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg. I met up with my professor and my freund Dawn at the Bahnhof (train station) at 6pm sharp, and if I wasn't thankful of my hostparents enough, they VOLUNTEERED to drive me to my new location. I love those folks so much and I'm sure I will visit them again throughout the year. After all, I'm only a couple hours away by train.  I'm living in a really cool dorm right on campus. Each student has there own private room with a small wash area. Bathrooms and Showers are down the hall, and there is a massive kitchen/living room area on each floor. 

So here it is October 1st, classes started yesterday and I am 50 Shades of Confused.

In agreement with our program, for the university phase we must take at least 4 courses in German and of those 4, only 1 can be in English. This is to help us get more culturally immersed and grasp the German language... 

So.. Here's the thing... somehow, me and the others have been thrown into this International Program here on campus where all the courses are taught in JUST english. The professor who's over the international program seems to not be aware of our special predicament... See my problem now? Not only that, I'm only at an A2 level in my language competence. Don't get me wrong, I can listen to German convo's all day and make out what they're trying to say. That doesn't replace the fact that I hardly know the vocab. At the same time, I catch on pretty quick so I can get the gist of what is being said. I can even reply to a certain extent. Even in English, grammar has never been my thing. So I'm kinda stuck in a rut, with a need to study even more now and try to get to a higher comprehension level so I can continue to understand what in the Hell is going on.

Yesterday was a day filled with "wtf" moments. Especially since classes started and I have no type of registration done or class schedule. I don't even have classes CHOSEN yet. Not only that, I've had a strange overwhelming feeling come over me a few times. It may be because I watched the series finale of Breaking Bad and I'm having an emotional detachment to the real-world, something like this hasn't happened since Charmed ended 7 years ago... OR it may be because the other two PPP'rs here at Reutlingen with me are like SUPER good in their German speaking already.  It's only been a couple days since we arrived and I've had one too many moments with my mouth hung open like a caveman trying to decipher what was being sad. I'm resilient nonetheless, but still being the oddball out is never fun... 

My mind has been all over the place lately. I can't focus. I want to master Deutsch, but I keep getting.... distracted. 

                                                     Talk about a brain fart. 

*claps it out*

Part of me wants to be adventurous and see the rest of the city, visit another random country and get lost exploring. Another part of me wants to stay in this room and sit in front of this computer until I turn 30. When did I become such a hermit? I'm exciting and boring at the same time. I don't know where this feeling came from, but I need to shake it off quick. Life stops for no one.

I have a lot planned within the upcoming weeks, and I'm not going to let a few annoyances get me down or in my way. Sounds weird, but I find that if you clap things out as you say it puts more emphasis and as Bri says "You sound so sure of yourself when you clap it out!" Which Is why I say whenever I'm stressed, feeling defeated, and full of doubt. I tell myself things will be alright, and I CLAP. IT. OUT. haha

Until next time... 

Bis später!

Tschüss

Itch Nitch San Chi

It's been well over a month since I've last made blog post... Since then I've lost my drive to learn German, picked it back up again, gotten over the "shock" of being in Deutschland, felt homesick, gotten food poisoning, almost went First 48 on someone, went "drifting" Fast & The Furious style with my host-dad,  went to France, finally went to visit some close friends in Köln/Saarbrücken, had actual FUN since leaving America, moved up from Deutsch level A1.1 to A2.1, been to Zurich twice, lost my mind, lost my iPhone (I was devastated for at least 2 weeks or longer), helped a few people get out of some dire situations, had a deep talk that still has my mind in wonderland, and I have gotten so fat off bread I'm sure to turn into the Pillsbury doughboy any day now..

Where do I even begin?

Also, mein Deutsch ist besser jetzt als vor.

So, my Deutsch is better now than before. Which is true. It has been almost 2 months since I arrived in Germany and my comprehension of the German language has greatly improved. This whole "cultural immersion" thing seems to actually be working. A couple weeks ago I went with my host-parents to see "Wir sind Die Millers" which in English translates to "We Are The Millers". For those of you who don't know it's the recent movie with Jennifer Anniston and I think some guy from I think Saturday Night Live is in it (MADtv is better and always will be, just an fyi).

I was REALLY surprised at how much I actually understood from watching the movie. I literally knew almost everything they were saying. This experience was a lot different from just a few weeks before when I went and saw "Das ist Das Ende" ("This Is The End"). Back then, I hardly knew anything they were trying to say, only bits and pieces. This time around was like a lightbulb went off in my head and the jokes were making sense so there was no awkward laughing at the wrong times or just because everyone else was.

Last weekend I went on one of the best trips since I've left America, and that was to Köln. Köln is located the Northeast region of Germany and is about 5hrs away from Radolfzell by train (one of the only few disadvantages of being so close to the border of Switzerland).

Friday the CYBX'rs and I had a strenuously long cultural training session that involved discussing more differences between the U.S. and Deutschland including the work environment, the hiring process, the dress codes in the workplace, and of course.... how everyone was doing so far with their host families. Now as you know my host parents are EVERYTHING and by that I mean they could adopt me right now and I wouldn't even lift a finger to stop them. Who cares I'm already grown as hell? lol

Unfortunately everyone else isn't as lucky as me so of course you have those who still haven't "adjusted" to living with a German host family and probably never will. After getting a free Schnitzel for lunch, then sitting through a rigorous 4hrs of "vital" information, it was time for me to head to Köln, or as I like to call it... "Kuurrrrrrnnnnnnnnn".

I bought my ticket and had packed the night before so I was ready to go once I left the cultural training (that lasted from 8:45am - 5pm btw.....)

Luckily things ended a few minutes earlier so I was able to sneak out and make it to the train station with time to spare. Thanks to the Verkauferin (saleswoman) at the Bahnhof (train station) I was able to arrive at an earlier time so instead of a 6hr train ride it was reduced to 5, which really made a difference. I went through sooo many cities including Frankfurt, Bonn, Mainz, and Stuttgart. I finally arrived in Köln (also known as Cologne) around 10:15pm and was met by my friends Bri, Nancy, and her boyfriend Christophe. I was greeted with open arms and instantly felt the love...

After a few minutes of hello's, how are you's, and hey boo's we headed to our next destination which was this little house party another participant in the program was throwing on the other side of the city. It took about an hour, but we found our way through the dark alleyways. There I was greeted again by some familiar faces. I couldn't believe it had been so long since I've seen these guys. 

We  literally danced and partied the night away, shoutout to my boy Luke I had plenty of inebriated convos with him in German that night haha. Also shoutout to the Shannon who I designated as the "Rosanne Bar" of the 30th CBYX group, she literally gives not one f*ck about anything, and she never will. And I love that girl for it, no lie.

After about 5 long hours of partying, catching up on everyone, and speaking the most Deutsch I've spoken since coming to Germany, it was time to leave the party, find my bed, and rest up for a bit

Something wicked this way comes... (Köln Dom looking all dreary and luminous)

The next day me and Trez (one of the participants I was crashing with) met up with our good friend Alex at the Kurndome. 

Entrance to the Köln Dom

It's felt like forever since I was in D.C. talking to everyone and trying to get to know people in such a short time, but one of the few I did get to know ahead of time was Alex. Trez and I met Alex right outside the dome, exchanged hellos and then immediately ran inside the Dom/Church because it was beginning to pour down raining lol. He told me about how life in Saarbrucken was, and of course I filled him in on the details on Radolfzell. Soon after another good friend of ours Nancy had arrived along with my boo Bri.

Me, Nancy, & The "Hey Boo" originator Bri

random candid with Buscagaletti

Now that the whole gang was together (with the exception of KC) we headed to this bomb ass Cafe that Nancy knew of (she was me and Alex's designated tour guide for the day) where I had this amazing meal called "Kassler" which is basically delicious cooked pork on a bed of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Now usually I don't fool with pork like that, but I've been making exceptions since coming to Germany since everything is either Schwein (pig), Brot (bread), or Käse (cheese).

Look at it... in all it's wondrous glory...

So many laughs took place in that Cafe it felt so good to be around people who won't flake on you like dandruff.....

Anyways.. after a good hearty meal, it was time to explore the city... We found a Lindt Schokolade (Chocolate) museum that was reasonable priced (with a student discount) and showed us how chocolate was made. In all fairness, I think ALL museums are boring and I instantly wanted to walk right back out after only 10 minutes lol. Instead I sucked it up and fought off my sleepiness by reading the random facts about Chocolate... 

This chocolate machine was perpetually spinning and filling the moldings with white and milk chocolate making them hollow on the inside..

A very old case molding of what I believe to be Little Red Riding Hood & The Big Bad Wolf made from steel metal

This was an interresting sign about the Mesoamercian culture and how they practiced religious rituals

until we reached this huge room that was straight out of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory... There was a tremendous chocolate making machine that was continuously spewing out heaves of chocolate. The one thing I found hilarious was there was a woman sitting in a small glass room where the production line ended. She sat there with an empty cardboard box that was being filled with the little free samples of chocolate that they give you at the beginning of the tour. This was literally her job for the entire day, sitting there, half sleep, collecting chocolates, hating her life. She looked so sad. So hilariously sad.

I went back for free samples (which were vanilla wafers dipped in a fountain of endlessly flowing Milk Chocolate) about 4 times and then we decided to high tail it outta of there and rest up. Bri and Alex went to Nancy's place to drop off his stuff, me and Trez went back to his crib to get some SLEEP. Museums are draining and my sugar rush was fading quickly... 

Trez and I heard about the Germans that are in program same as us (except they go to the U.S. for a year studying, living, working) were wrapping up their program that night and were planning to go out for drinks, maybe party, etc. We were at our friend Shawn's apt. at the time so we all decided to go and meet up with Nancy, Alex, & Bri at the train station so we could all go together. A few long stops later and we ended up at the Youth International hostel where EVERYONE was. I saw a few of the participants from our group as well as a buttload of Germans around my age.

After a few laughs and an extended photoshoot in the lobby we all went to a bar for drinks and to chat with the CBYX'ers who had just spent a year in America. It was cool to see all the different places people were place. I met someone who was stuck in West Virginia for a year, felt bad for him because theres like.... nothing there but country folks and maybe a few coal mines. I got to practice some of my German with the gang and had a little incident that involved touching a Bri's hair. Which in the black community we all know is a BIG NO NO. She was cool with it though, plus it answered Alex's question of "how does she do her hair like that?" 

woah mama, DON'T TOUCH THE HAIR.

After drinks we decided to hit up a nightclub where we danced the night away, which is where this series of miraculous photos came about... 

On of the Germans who had just gotten back from America went with us (hiding behind Bri's afro puff in the bottom left corner) and afterwards BOUGHT US FOOD. Granted it was KFC and I hadn't had KFC for years, but... it. was. the. best. buc-ket. of. chic-ken. I've. ev-er. had. OMG.

That was possibly one of the best nights I have had since being in Germany, and this is including all the different countries and places I've been. Nothing could replace this feeling, I didn't want the night to end.

It grew late (around 2:30am) and I had to prepare for my departure the next day.. :/ I rearranged to leave the same time as Alex and just ride back to Saarbrücken with him and then just go back to Radolfzell afterwards. That Sunday morning, we all met at the train station. Seeing that we still had about and hour or so to spare we decided to grab some coffee at this cool lil spot that had amazing desserts, they were pretty affordable too... (side note: I will DEFINTELY be going to that cafe again)... 

Everything seemed to happen so fast, it seemed like just the day before I had arrived, but here it was, Sunday afternoon and it was time for me to say goodbye. Bri, KC, and Nancy walked us to our platform, we said our goodbyes and didn't stop waving (or winking) until the train departed. 

On the train(s) I got to have a long, much-needed talk with Alex. I think we were both feeling a bit down about how things were going at this point in the program and how our expectations prior to Deutschland differed from our current reality. Life can really suck sometimes...

About 3 or so hours passed and we had made it to Saarland (German state where Saarbrücken is located) which I have to say is beautiful but looks kind of unlively to say the least. Although it was a Sunday and the weather was crap so that could have played a factor into it as well.. Said my sad goodbyes to Alex (which was weird, because I'm def gonna see his ass again in a few weeks or less lol) and went onto my next train heading towards Strasbourg, France. Saarland is literally a stone's throw from France so this was no surprise. I was kinda freaking out halfway through the ride simply because my French is "pas terrible" plus I wasn't sure if my Schons Wochende (Deutsch weekend pass for the trains) would work in France, and i DEFINITELY didn't want to pay any more euros that day. Luckily I was able to get by with just the pass and make my way safely back to Radolfzell and then my village known as Bankholzen.

So in total it took me a total 10hrs of travel from Köln to get home to my bed. The crazy thing is... I wouldn't have had it any other way...

Until next time..

Bis später!