i've been in europe for 116 days...

and this is what i make of it...
1. learned more french, german, arabic, italian, spanish, + portiguse than i thought possible.
2. learned how to cook some more dishes.
3. Separate trash in 4 different containers.
4. read 24 hour clock.
5. read train schedules.
6. samba dance.
7. salsa dance.
8. see pets in stores and restaurants.
9. walk to the market almost everyday for food.
10. live without a car.
11. live without an ipod.
12. live with my girlfriend halfway around the world!
13. do laundry by hand.
14. wear dirty clothes.
15. sleep in burger king.
16. sleep on a train.
17. sleep on a tile floor.
18. not sleep at all.
19. know what it feels like to be the extreme minority.
20. the only red head somewhere.
21. not shower for days.
22. swim in the Mediterranean.
23. walk on a rock beach.
24. pay for ketchup!
25. live without wendy's.
26. miss my senior year buckeye football games.
27. pay for print credits.
28. work on a metric system.
29. bringing bags to the grocery store.
30. seeing the same people everyday because schwäbisch is so small.
31. have a birthday in berlin.
32. start my website.
33. got gmail
34. drink hot wine.
35. drink cold jeager.
36. feel stupid cause almost everyone speaks more than one language.
37. go to the gym in schwäbisch.
38. listen to french, brazilian, spanish, german music.
39. sleep in the living room.
40. not cut my hair in 123 days, except when denise trimmed it.
41. walk everywhere!
42. dress like a ninja turtle.
43. see a brazilain see snow for the first time.
44. use skype.
45. shop for clothes at the euro store.
46. having everything smell like smoke almost all the time. i can't take it anymore.
47. being called a yank.
48. being mistaken for a german, irishman, englishman.
49. hear according music and church bells everyday on the streets.
50. be in a christmas spirit entirely too early, like november 20th.
51. the biggest and weirdest thanksgiving i've ever attended.
52. not working out for a month straight.
53. sleep on a square pillow.
54. watch 14 ringtone commercials in a row.
55. i've never wanted to be in chicago this bad.

i'm sure there are things i'm forgetting...

yeah...

you know those moods i get in once in a while? i was in one the other night. i can't wait to go home...

what did you do this weekend? i went to africa!

a schwabisch thanksgiving

so our thanksgiving party was a smash. we planned for everyone we knew in germany to come to our apartment and it worked. good thing we don't know too many people. we cleared out everything we own and stuffed it into the bedroom to make room for the food, and people. the food was delicious and we have a lot of leftovers. i made mac and cheese and it was gone at the end of the night. guess that means it was good. we had a "white elephant" gift exchange too. i don't know who's idea this was but it was fun. i got a turkey carcas! curtosy of joseph! thanks man. a lot of people made the trip to little schwäbie so we showed them a little of what we have to offer. but we really didn't leave the house. good music, good food, and good friends. i had a great time. by the end of the night we found ourselves in the kitchen dancing and singing samba music with all of our brazillian friends.

hans the snowman

say hello to hans. he says hi. last night i ventured out to aalen, germany, which is about a 20 minute train ride from little schwäbie. my friend paris lives there with his aunt and uncle. i took all my drity laundry -literally- and hopped on the train. when i got there he had beer and a comfortable house waiting. we had a good night just relaxing and talking. his uncle is a hunter and has an entire house of deer skulls and furs from everything. they have a german wirehair hunting dog. she's a sweetie. we took her for a walk last night in the snow. there are a ton of paths out behind the house so we went out for a bit. then this morning when i woke up there was about an inch of snow on the ground! it was really nice to see. if it's this cold it better snow! we ate breakfast which was a traditional german one. bread, meat, cheese, an egg and coffee. i don't drink coffee so i had water. but it was great. it was cool to experience a "real" german house. so after breakfast we took the dog for her morning walk. this time we bundled up a bit more (in my clean clothes!) and walked to another area of paths. it was a huge field with walking and bike paths cutting through it. it was so beautiful to see all the tree branches covered with snow. my camera ran out of batteries so i don't have any pictures. so i'll leave it to your imagination.

this is how i've been passing the time if you're wondering:

1. wishing my girlfriend was here.

2. listening to: aqualung, weezer, andrew bird, jack johnson, cary brothers, death cab for cutie, supergrass, christmas music (i love christmas time. i'm pressing it this year cause i can't wait)

3. watching movies: wedding crashers, usual suspects, september sessions & garden state.

4. walking around thinking and trying to get motivated to design.

DOWNLOAD NOW: pharrell;can i have it like that. juanes; la camisa negra

german radio ( if you want to hear what i have to put up with ) tokyo hotel and US5.

first snow

yesterday i woke up to that white stuff that i haven't seen in a while. this week has been getting progressively colder and it was bound to come sooner than later. it only snowed a little as you can see but it was beautiful to see the mountain sides covered. i love living in a place with mountains. i've always wanted to. sometimes i don't even notice them though cause i'm here everyday. last night we all had dinner with matide and violine the girls from france. they made a french dish for us that had a lot of cheese and ham. i don't remember what she called it but it was delicious. a couple bottles of red wine later it was a great night. we listened to french music all night too. it's nice to be able to do that here. i don't think i've hung out with any germans yet. all my friends here are from brazil, france, costa rica, mexico or the us. it's kind of strange. but i'm just glad i made good friends here. it would be really boring otherwise.

i only have 5 weeks left and they are going to fly by. tony's dad comes to visit on monday and we're going to have a huge thanksgiving bash on saturday. we've invited more than 30 people. it's going to be a full house. but we're having everyone make food from their country so it should be great. i'm in charge of making mac and cheese! then the weekend after that. i'll be in africa. cassablanca to be exact. i can't wait to get to warmer weather. plus sitting on a beach in december is fine with me. meghan you're lucky!

i've actually been hard at work on some design projects. i've been developing graphics for an alarm clock instruction manual. it's different and harder than i thought it would be. but it's a good challenge. i'm also designing travel posters for the cities that we traveled to. they are comming a long. i've been designing some tshirts. the instructor has been sick for 2 weeks so we can't get into the studio yet. i hope we get to print before we leave! i'm really looking foward to it. and in my other class i've been developing a book layout with violine and paris. i've never designed with a group before for an entire project. it's different. but i'm getting used to it. we're redesigning an i.m. pei book.

today i'm going to relax and watch some movies...

after a day of listening to german