high above gmuend

today was a great day. our landlord invited us to go hiking again. this time some more of her family was with us. her two sons, sister and her husband, and a family friend. it was a beautiful day. i woke up and the sun was shining. a perfect day for a hike. we drove about 20 minutes to a near mountain top. it was such a nice day that it was really crowded up there. we hiked along the trails for over an hour taking in the sights and smells. there are 3 mountain tops you can see from there that are called the 3 emperors. they used to have the rulers castles of baden wutenberg (that's the state i live in) on the top. there are still ruins there and i think we will hike these mountains on tuesday. after we finished hiking we had a great lunch on the way down the mountain. i had some sort of steak that's local to schwabisch gmund. i was told it was hard to find so i decided to order it. "when in rome". it came with salad and potatoes. (yes, meghan they were awesome!) when we got back into town we went to the markplatz for ice cream. tasty...then robbie (our landlords son) wanted to play in the park. he's 30 years old mind you. anyway. he and i went to the park and played baseball. then this guy came up to me while we were playing and started asking me questions about baseball. he asked me if we were playing hockey! so as i'm talking to this guy i'm trying to get a feel for what he's doing here. so i found out that he's from nigeria and lives here now. it was weird then he followed us back to our driveway and i tried to get rid of him but he just kept talking about how he can't get a green card to the U.S. and all this stuff. i didn't really know what to say. so finally i told him i had work to do and he left. weird guy. that's about it for today. i've just been reading and doing some design tonight.

yes, i went in public like this.

so halloween came a bit early this year. but that's okay. the students at school threw a superhero costume party last night. so tony, andre, fernando and i decided to be the ninja turtles! i wanted to do this ever since tom, pete, curt and kevin were the turtles last year. so now was my chance. we bought the most rediculous womens pants, and brazillian shirts we turned inside out and cut up sweat pants for the mask and ties. and the best part was the hubcap shell. all for under 10 euro. i think we were the most rediculous at the party. not everyone dressed up. we even heard rumors that no one was dressing up and the germans wanted to the exchange students to feel stupid and show up dressed up. but that wasn't true, so we dressed up. we got a lot of laughs when we got there. it was a good night until fernando took the ninja part of the night serisouly and jumped on my back and i fell and landed on a metal railing. so i have a pretty good bruse on my forhead and i'm trying to type with two bandaids on the tips of my fingers. patty o'brian and mere bear came down from potsdam this weekend to visit our little schwabie. they had a good time last night and they like schwabish better than potsdam so i'm glad i chose this city. they aren't getting much help at school either so i feel pretty lucky here cause they take care of us here. it's nice to have some old familiar faces around. everyone found out that they are going to rio for spring break for sure this week. i'm a bit jealous but meghan and i are going to california to go surfing to i think that will be a better vacation anyway. i'm excited to surf again! the weather here has actually been a record high for germany. but we hear that it will be cold and gray very soon. so i'm soaking up as much sun as i can before the depressing weather comes in. just counted, 54 days left of this trip...it's going so quick.

ipod = all my music = MIA

ok, here we go....(big breath) we decided to leave on night train that goes straight through to prague. when we board the train this weird little german conductor asks us for our tickets, we give them to him and he makes a pile on the bed and says, "ok, i wake you at 10 till 8." then he procedes to tell us that we need to keep a close eye on our money because at the border of germany and the czech republic gypsies might get on they train and "all they want is your money". no one has ever warned us about anything like this on a train ride so i'm thinking it happens all the time. so the conductor takes our tickets, which has never happened before and walks out. i was thinking he was a gypsie at this point. anyway. i lay down with a coke and my ipod. i had a cherry coke cause i needed some sugar. so no one gets any sleep all night. at one point tony turned over and yelled "gypsies!" in his sleep. i just listened to music all night. i maybe slept for an hour or two. so in the morning i hop down of my second story bunk and sling my bag on and walk off the train. minus a cherry coke and an ipod. i didn't realize i forgot my ipod until we were walking for about 15 minutes. yes. i was mad. i couldn't do anything and that made it even worse. so it was not a good start to my visit to prague. i went back the next day to the lost and found but there was nothing. so the entire first day of prague i was super bummed. but once i got over the fact that i no longer have my ipod i tried to enjoy myself. prague is a beautiful city. i loved the architecture. it was art neauvo mixed with some deco and victorian. it was unlike any other city i've been to. there was a giant river that ran down the center of the city with an amazing bridge that crossed it. the shopping was great too. we ran into a street market with good prices. i finished all my christmas shopping! czech money is called the crown and 25 crowns equals an american dollar. so for once on this trip. the exchange worked in our favor. the train ride home sucked though, 9 hours...but i made it, had a mexican dinner and talked to meghan!

jaaaaa....

ok. i'm beginning to feel better here finally. we've settled into our place and cook dinner everynight. i've only eaten out once since i've been here. i think i'm learing how to cook more than i'm learning design. i had a really good past couple days. i got a gym membership which is awesome. they have floor to celing windows that looks out to the mountains. i love it. i ran on the treadmill just to take in the scenery. i usually don't run inside but this was so nice. then the next day my letters came from my girl in brazil! so it made it a very good day! i've been hanging out a lot with the 2 brazillian guys. we usually sit around play guitar, talk, play soccer and drink a few beers. yesterday we all went to stuttgart. it's about a 40 minute train ride for about 5 euro and it's a really cool city. it's one of the bigger cities in germany and they are hosting some of the world cup next year. it's cool to see all the work they are putting into the city for the crowds. we went shopping. there is really good shopping there. i bought a winter hat and gloves, a belt and some sunglasses. all for under 20 euro. found some deals! it's getting colder here. i think next week it will start getting really cold. it's really nice here during the days though. i think it's only rained a couple days since i've been here. we had a party at our place the other night and most of the exchange students came over. it was cool. i loved listening to all of their music. we mostly listened to brazillian music though cause andre and fernando brought theirs. by the way fernando's new name is dj nando. there was a party at the local bar here last night. but i didn't like it. the music was crap and it was like walking inside of a cigarrette at this place. plus it was way too crowded for this small bar. it's usually a cool place though. tony and it were talking about it last night that it's our "larrys". it's a hole in the wall-nothing special bar but all the designers go there. so other than that, that's about all that's new here in little schwabie. we get internet tomorrow at the apartment so you all will probably be hearing a lot more from me cause there's not much else to do here. i still feel like i'm on vacation though cause i don't have a job. i'm so used to running from place to place, job to job, then trying to get sleep too. it's so relaxing here and i don't have to worry about much. i'm trying to enjoy it and take that back home with me!

drawing boot camp

ok, i just got out of my 7.5 hour drawing class. it's crazy long. but i feel like i'm already getting better so that keeps me going. i'm having a pretty good time here in schwabisch. we went to a local student bar last night. it wasn't bad, i hung out with the brazillian boys and paris who's from cali. the place is called KKF and it's a real hole in the wall but they usually play good music and it's all students there. i met a guy from leabon last night who was studying graphics here. it's cool to hear other peoples take on graphics and the world in general. i'm enjoying meeting new people. everyone here is really nice and always willing to share their opinion. not much else is new. i've only taken 2 of these drawing classes in the last 2 weeks so i've just been playing soccer and enjoying this weather before winter hits!!! i'm not ready for that. we got our phone hooked up this week so if you want my number send me an email to: number1phan@yahoo.com. ok, i'm going to go home and grab some dinner. i'm starving.

yay for football

today turned out to be a great day. i woke up on the wrong side of the bed and really missed meghan. so i did laundry. by hand....mind you, then went walking around in town. it was a beautiful day today, sunny about 60 degrees. then i ran into andre and fernando the 2 brazillian exchange students here. they are becoming my best friends here and it's cool because they're my neighbors too. so we went to the city center and bought a soccer ball at the euro store. we walked to the park across the street from our places. it's a huge park with cool fountains and walking paths. i never realized it was so big. so we knocked the ball around for a couple of hours. then this kid about 8 years old or so came up and kicked it with us. he was cute and never stopped smiling. it was cool and he was pretty good for being so young. anyway, that was my day. see soccer is a good thing.

home is where the heart is?

my home away from home. we moved in with angie and denise because there is no where else to go and i don't really want to go back to the homeless shelter. if i didn't tell you..our first night we arrived in schwabisch gmund there were no hotels, no hostels, no nothing! so our taxi driver was really nice and said our last option was the homeless shelter. we were all like....ummmm...ok. it was really cold and we didn't want to stay up all night at the train station so we did it. it wasn't all that bad. we had our own room and everything. though i slept with my clothes with my knife in my pocket. i didn't really think anything would happen but it made me feel better. so anyway we moved in here. tony and i sleep in the living room on mattresses. the girls have the bedroom. the apartment is really sweet and big. the toilet is seperate from the shower so that is nice in the mornings. we have a full kitchen and dining room. we even have cable. and we hook up our phone and internet this week sometime. our landlord is awesome. she took me and tony hiking to her cabin in the mountains. gmund is in the valley surrounded by mountains 360 degrees. so it's quite beautiful here. once i got used to it. i hated it when i first got here cause i think i was used to all the big cities we'd been traveling through all month. but now i've slowed down and opened my eyes. it's quite different here. no one speaks english because they don't have to. in the larger cities in europe most people did because of tourists. but i don't think anyone would pass through here. there is a really pretty cathedral here in the center of town. i think it's from the 17 or 1800's. we have to go to the market almost everyday because we have to carry everything home. luckly it's only about a 15 minuite walk. we have to cash in all of our glass and plastic bottles. they are very environmently friendly here. we have to seperate all of our garbage into 4 different bags. it's a pain but once you get used to it it's not bad. and it's a good thing. the people at school have accepted us well. i've only had one drawing class so far. it went well. though it was 6 hours long! i'm taking 2 drawing classes, a corporate identity class and a class where i'll be designing an instruction manual and icons to communicate things non-verbally. so that will be a challenge. i'm looking foward to it cause i'm pretty bored here. there was a party for the new students last night. here they rent out clubs and throw parties. how cool is that! the dj sucked but it wasn't all that bad. that's about it for now. i'm just sitting in our amazingly huge studio. my desk is as big as a dining room table for 4. this school is hooked up! they have everything. they told us today we can rent movie cameras to make films.

amsterDAM

what can i say about amsterdam that you haven't already heard about amsterdam. it's all true. everything is basically legal. the hilight was a bike tour we took with a guide through the city. EVERYONE rides a bike in this city. it's crazy. when i got back to gmund i was still looking behind me so i wouldn't get hit by a bike. they have little bells on them that they ring so you can get out of their way. i only got ran over once. anyway, the bike tour. we started right next to our hostel and rode all the way out to the country. saw a windmill and bud bundy. we were standing there listening to our guide give the introduction and bud bundy walks up and joins us. so yes, i went on a bike tour with bud bundy. he and his wife were really cool. they had just come from paris and were looking to find real estate in amsterdam for the summers. must be nice! so we rode to this barn in the country were they made their own cheese ( i bought some garlic cheese!) and wooden shoes. it was fun to try them on. all in all we rode for 4 hours. my ass hurt the entire next day. we met up with david andre and he showed us around. he brought a book of the company he's interning for. they do really sweet corporate identity work. i was a bit jealous i didn't take that position but i glad i'm here and have time to relax and not work. i have the rest of my life to do that right? anyway...the redlight district was weird. girls just stand in these doorways and look at you. we just walked by once. it was uncomfortable to say the least. i at this british restuarant and had a pancake that spilled over my plate with ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream for lunch. it was awesome. there were football games on everyscreen and the brits were going crazy. it was cool to be in the middle of eventhough i didn't really know what was going on. of course i know the game but not many of the teams here. amsterdam i heard is made up of mostly brits....so everyone speaks english. that was nice to hear english everywhere instead of german for once. my germany is comming a long. it helps to have to speak some everyday and i've started a class here at school. our instructor is from oregon and speaks german and spanish....that's about it for now.. more later

oktoberfest

here we all are in munich for oktoberfest. we went to the haufbrau haus for out first night. we ate weinersnitzle and drank the HB. it was a really good night. tony and brian drank too much. i had to clear the way for brian to get outside and puke. soo....you know...it was a good night i guess. the beer's a bit stronger over here. the rest of our time in munich we just walked around and shopped. on it's on to school....

luzern, switzerland

yeah. 7000 ft! i can't believe i've been to the same spot in europe twice in the same year. i went to luzern as part of my spring break in march. there was snow then. it was a bit warmer this time. this time was actually a better trip because we stopped half way up the mountain and did a luge course. it was so fun. then we continued the rest of the way up the mountain on the gondla. at the top we got off the path and went hiking around the side of the mountains. it was so amazing. the air felt so clean and cool. this photo was taken at the peak of mt. pilitus.

monaco

this is out of order. we actually went to monaco on a day trip from nice. monaco was beautiful. i loved the tropical scenery. i wasn't planning on getting in the water but it was too beautiful. so brian, anthony and i just jumped in. there was a dock about 30 yards out with a diving board on it so i had to go. anthony and i swam out to it and did some dives. it was great. then we all cut up our feet on the rocks coming back in. i also cut my finger too. oh well. it was worth it.

roma

rrrrrrroomA! we also took another day trip down to roma. it was really cool to see all the ruins. we walked a ton in this city. there was so much to see and we only had a day. i made the mistake of wearing a real madrid jersey i bought in spain in italy. don't do that. this city was like walking through a history text book.

leaning pisa

yes yes, we did the leaning tower of pisa pictuers. you have to! the funniest thing was watching everyone else pose for pictures. we just took a day train. tammy's dad met up with us and traveled to pisa with us. it was a small town. we walked through the entire town in about 20 minutes. it was a quick trip. basically just "to see it".

ferenze

hiiiiioooooo. ok so i'm in schwabisch gmund but i'll catch you up on the rest of our trip. i'll start with florence, italy. BEAUTIFUL. in one word. i loved the food, the street music and the shopping. it's been a while since i was there so i don't remember all of what we did but i can tell you then we met up with tammy's itailian friend and went out. he was really cool. we walked around a lot here. this photo is of a nice bridge we walked over everyday. there was a cathedral by michaelangelo in the city. it was huge and really cool. i can't remember what else we did there but i remember i liked it. and i made it to italy before my italian friend dominic...ha ha!