An old man keeps calling my house line. I never get calls. He just keeps saying "Freiburg, ja?" I say "ja" He stays on the line at little longer then hangs up. I think he enjoys my company. He has rung at least 5 times now. My phone's ringing...I can only guess who it is...

Photos for the Prague Trip!

Here's a random selection of some of the things I saw. I can't work this blog so sorry about that :)

Prague 11-12-08 --13-13-08

Prague was truely wonderful even it drain me of all energy and of some of my money! I went to Prague two years ago and then it was this beautiful city without too many influences by the tourist trade. Two years later , there is no street without a generic souvenir shop selling the exact same unique crystal scultptures and Absynith. However, it still is a stunning city!



Thursday:
So We decided to get a night train to Prague, I mean 14 hours on a train in reclining chairs is a walk in the park! So we set out and got on the wrong train to Hamburg. I pulled Jude off once I read the sign. A late train can really mix you up! Then our Prague train arrived! This train goes from Freiburg all the way to Moscow. You have no idea how tempting it was to stay on the train and go all the way to Moscow then but after 14 hours on the train all we wanted to do was get off the train! We had a little cabin to ourselves with curtains and a sliding door! We decided to sleep...well, tried to. We sprawled across the three seats as we had bought reclining chairs and our chairs were stuck to the floor and were deteremined on not reclining. The ticket conductor came 6 times during out 14 hour journey so we were woken up (if we slept) every two hours. Finally, I fell asleep to wake up with a Czech man above me. He then proceeds to try and sit on Jude's legs..seemingly, our cabin was for sharing with the rest of the Czech Republic. So Jude and I sat up very sleepy and very hurt and glared at the man until we reached Prague two hours later.

Friday:
We decided that saving money would be the best thing to do as students so we decided walking to our Botel from the other train station (not the main one) was the best idea possible. It was snowing and raining and I stood in every puddle and ditch that the good Czech Republic provided. After half and hour of walking I realised that we were going the wrong way...of course. We did a complete turn about and went the other way! I asked a woman if she spoke English, German, Spanish or French to see if we were going the right way but she just hacked up some phlegm from her throat and looked at me in a not-so-friendly-way so I thought it for the best that I backed away before I encounter a Llama like situation. Finally we got to the river, we walked along it completely drenched and found out Botel.

The Botel:
It was everything a Botel could be! It was called Florentina. We had two very cozy beds, friendly (english-speaking) staff and it was dry. Our cabin was small but perfect. There was a percariously placed TV that was hung over Jude's head. After I said she'd be decapitated by a Grundig she decided to move her pillow. The bathroom was fitted with shelves that have borders so in rough weather all your things would stay on the shelf. When you flushed the toilet it tried sucking you out too much like airplane toilets. It was wonderful. After drying off, putting on new socks and puttin them into my wet shoes...(sigh) we headed off into town!

We headed into the Altstadt to the Christmas market where we had Trdlo which is impossible to say but is entirely delicious! The Christmas market was full of beautiful table clothes, pastries, cakes, crystal and glass sculptures. The smell of roasting chestnuts added the Christmas feel as did the ENORMOUS angel Christmas lights! We headed to Wenclelas square where there was a smaller market before we headed to Charles Bridge which is currently under reconstruction so a lot of it is in scaffolding. We met a sailor on our way who tried selling us tickets for a boat cruise. He said his name was Elvis, "Elvis left the building, went to Africa and got a tan", the entire crew of the ship were black and all had different names and stories. There was Elvis, Lassie, and Lenin. Once we got away from the bargain cruise deals we got onto the bridge. The snow falling down slowly on the bridge made it that little bit more magical. We rubbed the dog (for luck/good fortune) and the woman (that supposedly indues fertility and pregnancy) so we wished that our good fortune with the rubbing of the dog would reverse us rubbing the woman. (What an odd sentence).

Friday Evening:
We went to our Botel and had a nap, got ready and went out to see a Caberet show which turned out to be a strip club. The man lied. We went of waffles covered with melted chocolate from the "Number one Chocolate shop in Prague! Then we decided maybe we didn't really want to see the show so we headed to a cocktail bar where I ordered something grotesque and Jude ordered something that tasted like happy. So I was not pleased with my choice. Jude found a shot of rum which was 80%. After a whole lot of persuasion, we got it. I had never felt so much pain and fire in my throat before! And I don't ever plan feeling that pain again! By 11, our 14 train journey and lack of sleep had caught up on us so we headed back to our Botel.

Saturday Morning:
We got up at 9 and went for our breakfast. It turns out we were the only guests and that they had been waiting for us since 8.a.m to serve us breakfast. Breakfast was something peculiar. She said we were having "Eggs and Ham" (Sam I am) and then she produced a plate of watery scrambled eggs with burnt red onion that tasted like ham but no ham was to be seen! Ah, Eau de Jambon! I finally figured out that in the scrambled eggs there was chunks of smoked ham fat. We ate all the bread instead. While we ate there was a radio station playing which played 80s classics that had been translated into Czech, "Downtown", "Take on me" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (Turn around, Bright eyes = Tur Arni, Barna). We went up to the castle today and stalked the guards. Jude wanted a photo of the guards marching out of a gate so we followed a group of twenty armed guards and waited for the to come out. One of the guards was playing peek-a-boo with me as there was a tiny window in the door he was hiding behind. It was hilarious to see a 6ft man wearing a fur hat the size of a fat cat and holding a bayonet pop up and down at a window. Finally, the soldiers came out, some giggling, other with smirks and others laughing out loud. We came across a little church that played "Hey Jude" so I sang to Jude which she didn't exactly enjoy but I'm sure deep down inside she loved it. Then we found the Loretta whihc was closed off to the public so we took like 50 photos of ourselves doing differnt poses on everystep outside the Loretta there are 22 steps. We then went looking for a maze that is just below the eiffel tower viewing point. We got lost. Very lost. Paths just seemed to end. So we claimed we were in the maze which made us feel a little better about ourselves. Along the way I made many different snow statues and art works so it passed the time...for me anyway!

Saturday Evening:
We had a lovely Czech meal of some sort of meat in sauce under the umbrella term of Goulash. I don't think I'll ever know what I ate but it was nice...whatever it was! Then we went to our trusty chocolate shop and had another waffle! We met a nice Australian who travels around the world teaching people how to make hard-boiled candy. I tried my best to try get a free lollipop by fluttering my eyelashes, flicking my hair and being charming. I thought I was doing well until Jude unsubtley said in the lull of noise in the shop "I don't think he's falling for you just ask him for a lollipop" That sorta ruined my work so no free lollipops came out of that. Next time we're going to learn subtlety. Then around 7 we headed to the train stattion. The Bartender of the botel, stood outside the boat and waved us good bye (nawh). We arrived to the train station to find out it was the wrong one but it didn't matter in the end after we both had heart attacks! The station we were in is in the rough end of town and there was a man that kept flicking open his pen knife while staring at us. I was ready to pepper spray! But the police came and marched him out of the building! (The police are called Policie, I think it sounds adorable but these men have VERY large guns)

Finally the train came and it was packed, there were people in our seats, people along the corridor so you couldn't move but we got it sorted out and made friends with an American girl called Amanda who is awesome and did not steal out wallets while we slept. She was getting off the train at Fulda at 4.a.m and I woke up at 4.3o and she was still sound asleep in our cabin so I woke her up and there was a lot scrambling as she got off just as the train was pulling out! No one came in our cabin so we slept til 9 when I woke up and realised we had 10 minutes to gather our things before we arrived in Freiburg if I hadn't we would have woken up in Switzerland!

It was a brilliant weekend! Jude and I want to become the next Thelma and Louise (yes, we know the consequneces!) but I want to Thelma and so does she so we're going to be Thelma and Thelma!

Good night!

YAY

Well we're in the final countdown to Prague. Today it snowed so I tried to capture it on video but as many of you know I'm awful with a camera! Enjoy my lack of talent!

Til then I'm Czeching out! (I can't get over that pun, sorry)

I'm Still Alive!

Hello there! I realise I have no written in such a long time...which isn't that long at all but for me it's a long time! This is just a short notice that I am in fact alive. Since my amazing birthday weekend (That's a photo just to show you I was in fact in Dublin for my birthday. I have Patricia as proof)I have been working away trying to get organised as I am going to Prague this week! I had a lot more to do than I actually thought. I've been flying about the place so I was away from the pooter most of the time! I will write more after Prague as I'm sure I'll have somethig to tell you then!

xHx

24th-27th Of November

Hey there! All good here mainly because I've been counting the days until I come home!!! I'm beyond excited!

Monday: was a busy day as I received an email from my lecturer changing my presentation so I needed to catch up on what she wanted! So I worked away on that and made mushroom soup which is now if the freezer (just a pointless fact for you). Choir went well but our crazy voice warmer was there (as per usual). I think he has reached his full quota of crazy now as he decided a good way to warm our voices would be to bend your knees, hang your arms and bounce, so you look like a monkey. I was not on for this so I watched and then he made everyone go "ooh ooh ooh", yes just like a monkey. He is a new kind of crazy!


Tuesday: as ever was very good. I met up with Claudia (I dunno if you know her) but she was the girl I met in Dublin who I was emailing as she is a student in Freiburg and she was giving me information on the college and we didn't know that the person we were emailing, we sat beside in linguistics class. So that was pretty awesome as we were friends already! Anyway, slight deregression there. We met up for lunch anyway. German food is still weird, I mean I will give them a lot of credit for some of the stuff they produce but half the time I poke my food to make sure whatever on my plate is dead. As I still can't read much German (we learnt the colours in class) it's always a surprise what I get. Claudia is well but has a weird thing on her leg that there is no known cure for so doctors are having great fun trying new things out on her! She's not as amused as they are. After German class, a few of us went to the Christmas market for ginger bread and Gluhewein, Gluhewein (I have learnt) is not my favourite thing in the world but this was relatively alright! And I got a free cup (glass and a picture on it) which I will give to my family as a Christmas present and pretend I bought it. (I understand that they follow this blog but the truth will come out at one point anyway).


Wednesday: Today I had my presentation which my lecturer changed yet again on the actual day! And she wanted a very strict speech according to her points so I read off the sheet word for word and did not divert! It went fine, I doubt any listens to any of these presentations. In my feedback, she said I need to stop reading the sheet and to divert from the main points she made. I think she is schizophrenic as sticking to the main points and not diverting on pain of death was quite clear in the emails she sent. Oh well. We went to a photography musuem in my next lecture but the most exciting thing that I learnt was my friend (who looks like a lion, from bavaria, very hairy, wears massive jumpers) is an MC and raps in German and he invited me to his gig next week! This is something I cannot miss! He looks like he carries a banjo hidden in his jumper! I am excited.


But tonight was my German birthday! So I invited everyone I knew well enough to invite into my home for drinks and then we'd head to the bar next to my house (as it was 50c shot night...and a bad idea). Jude came over early and we decorated with Christmas decorations Mum sent me. It started off rough as there were three people who were on time and they were the shy ones so they did not want to talk to anyone at all! But the ice broke after a few of the chattier ones came! We had quite an international party; Ian, Christie and Kaelyn (American), Stefan and Adrian (Germans), Fidel (Mexican), Howard (English), Jude (Scottish), Heibar (Afghanistani), Ola and Brita (Swedish), Paolo and Carlo (Italien), Claryce (Sinaporean) and last but not least Irina (Romanian). We petrified the Germans..It was wonderful! It was really lively and good craic. At about 12, about half the people left as they didn't have their bikes with them and had to get the last tram back. Carlo refused to go but he was literally dragged out. Carlo is famous for saying "Anti-sex" which means a girl has no sex appeal and I live on the Sixth floor (sechs = zex) so he was thrilled and make anti-sex jokes about every piece of furniture in the floor! Then the rest of us went out to Stusie, we lost everyone, found everyone, lost them again and got back in at 4. So a good night! I'm sure there's incriminating photos somewhere but I didn't have my camera

Thursday: Wednesday has left quite a mark and a bruise on my arm. So I took the day quite slowly and stayed in bed where it's safe after Jude left. Then I headed out and got a few more Christmas presents. Had class at 4 and German class was cancelled! YAY! The Italians tried getting me to come to the pub but I ran! I packed and made myself a packed lunch for my journey tomorrow! I can't wait to go home! And eat my packed lunch! I did a pretty good job! I gave Ian Pharoah for the weekend. Ian is slowly understanding my madness which is good, I also bribed him with eggs that are going off on Saturday. I'm listening to Leonard Cohen and I feel like Mum. The only reason I feel like Mum is because Leonard Cohen is playing...Still.


I'M GOING HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

17th - 23rd Of November

This week was a bit of a mixed week but it was alright.

Monday: I actually don't remember what I did. I think i started with my presentation but I went to sleep pretty early due to the Beats-related exhaustion.

Tuesday: Romantic Poetry was invaded by 30 other students so I sat on the floor at my lecturer's feet so I wasn't noticed when I tried to make a point my puttingup my hadn. I was short of pulling on his trouser legs. I worked all day on my presentation that I was giving on Wednesday and I was really happy with it.

Wednesday: Well, today was the day of my presentation. As you know, I have had a lot of experience with speeches so I wasn't nervous at all. SO I get up there, set up my presentation and I start. One minute into my presentation my lecturer cuts across me and just says "I want to make sure you got that piece of information that Helen said as it's realy important". After two hours, I am still standing there waiting for my teacher to stop talking . Every now and then she made gestures like to say something during a class debate so like it was impossible. Then she looked through my sheets and was like "oh wow very good idea about the class exercise..but I don't think we'll do that today" So needless to say I was furious by the time I got out of the class room and worst of all, the presentation is worth 30% and she wouldn't shut up...sigh. I went out with Jude that night to the Handel-bar, yes just like a bike! So I stayed til about one until the exhaustion kicked in.

Thursday: Yet another night of no sleeping so I was much like a zombie all day. I can't remember what i did today either. Short term memory loss and all that.

Friday: Oh dear, another blank day in my memory. But Christie came over that evening and I met her entire family over Skype which was nice and odd and all they wanted was for me to read out something or speak irish so they could hear my "awesome" accent. They are lovely though.

Saturday:

Christie stayed the night and get up at some INSANE hour (around 10am) then i stayed in bed and she ran off to work. I got up at 3 and then got a call from Christie to go clothes shopping. If you visit Freiburg, you'll realise they do not know what fashion is so clothes shopping takes about..20 minutes. But somehow we lasted an hour. Christie got a dress for my birthday and she looks lovely in it. Hopefully not too lovely as I must look fantastic! Then I stayed in last night and did not go to the two parties I was invited to! Yes, two, I am THAT popular!

Sunday: WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!! It snowed! I ate breakfast as fast as a five year old on Christmas day and was out making snow men within half and hour of getting up. No one else was up which was probably a good thing. Brita, Ola, Paolo, Carlo and I went to France, the whole hour away from us, to Colmar where there is a big Christmas market, pretty much the entire town becomes a market. We froze and ate something that was described as "thin slices of pig with fumes"..it was delicious but none of us decided to question what it was further. Then after shopping for 4 hours we headed home, everyone passed out except for Paolo (who was driving) and me (who was in the passenger seat and felt obligied to stay up). He has an..interesting taste in music from Beauty and The Beast classics and Aretha Franklin hits. It was a hilarious drive home. Paolo kept telling me I wasn't wearing enough clothes, I was not going to tell him about my thermal underwear, so when I got out of the car, he would not let me leave until I put on my coat and kept saying "boot Helene you are like a nekid" So I put on my coat. A good day indeed :)!

Ok, So I can't organise photos very well!

Finally I found it!

This is the song that Ryanair plays during their flights

http://www.mrsuperfly.com/?partner=MRSUPERFLY&pos=FARE_TERMS

Well worth a look. Be cautious, your ears might bleed

Beast!

Well, the weekend was disastorous but I think we had a good time and we learnt a lot about ourselves. I am a terrible hostess, navigator, German speaker and geographain.

Beast Arrived on Friday and I picked him up from the train station. I told him to stay put so of course he moved so it was rather hard trying to find him on a platform that he had left. Finally our paths crossed and all was good! I brought him to my resies and introduced him to Pharoah, who was happy to meet him until he forgot about it. That evening we went for Schnitzel and beer (we are in Germany) with Jude, and I had bought everyone tickets for Mozart's Zauberflote. And if you have ever talked to me about opera; it is my favourite opera of all time! So I personally was beyond excited! So we run to the Historic Kaufhaus and a man informs us that we're half and hour late (my heart skips a year of beats) but he kindly allows us in. Much to my confusion the opening piano duet is only being played now. After the pianists finished, a woman in a suit and a man in a suit stand up and a powerpoint presentation turns on. I for one am very confused. Jude and Beast seem a little confused. So after 10 minutes, we realise this is not the opera but a powerpoint presentation of the opera and it's meaning! After 15 minutes we leave. The woman in charge of the door did not give us looks of disdain but complete understanding! It was AWFUL. We then went to my favourite micro-brewery "Feierling" where the beer is sweet and milky (it's not gross) where we met up with my Swedes and Italians. After a long evening there, Beast and I walked home. I got to sleep on the floor which was...not very enjoyable but oh well!
The next morning we went to the markets and to show Beast around the place. Then we have some inspiration to go to Switzerland and see The Alps. A wonderful idea to do on a Saturday. So we got tickets to Basel to see The Alps (Noticing anything wrong with that? We didn't). Off we go to Basel with Schkolade Kirsch treats and we arrived in Basel and we were met with the great...industrial village and towering buildings. We could not understand where the Alps were. We pride ourselves in our geography, especially Beast and BOTH of us thought Switzerland was surrounded by a ring of mountains...it's not. So we were grealt put off Basel, confused by the fact people love it there and we understood it because we knew tha Alps were there. After finally getting over the shock that the Alps were missing we went for a long walk to the Zoo. The Zoo was great fun. We saw leopards with fluffy tails, elephants and other wonderous creatures! Basel is actuualy quite a nice place, once you know that there are no Alps. So if you don't know that, you feel a little stupid when you're there. We crossed the Rhine which as Roman history fans was momumental :) That night we met up with the Swedes and Christie (American friend). We ordered Bacardi Razzes and Beast ordered a Mai Tai cocktail which came out with a colourful strimmer coming out of it and looking a little ridiculous but hilarious. Everyone secretly wanted one. So cocktails came with the second round which were more colourful and outrageous than Beast's! After that, Beast, Christie and I went home (to my parts) to book Christie's flights to Dublin (She's coming over for 30 hours for my birthday!) Christie missed all the trams possible and walking home from where I live isn't a good idea (Beast bought me Pepper Spray, how exciting!) so she stayed the night with me and had a 7am wake up call as I had a choir performance on the Sunday!

Sunday was a better day for disasters. The choir did really well and sounded good. Beast tried getting into the Lutheran church where I was singing and was confronted by a hoard of German grannies who weren't keen on letting him in, but his charm got him in no problem. The church was colder than outside so after the performance I was like the Ice Queen. Then we went home and put on our thermals. Then we went up to Shauin(something) and went up in a awesome ski lift and went high up into the Schwartzwald, it was very misty so it was like the setting of a horror movie! But we walked and walked and realised I am out of shape. We went up on a viewing tower and that was high up! It was amzing, we couldn't see anything past 15ft but still it was cool! When we got back, we went to Feierling and Beast chatted up the waitress to bring him some sort of Bavarian sausage special which looked shocking! But it was nice in the end, it shows you, I strive to speak German but Beast says one or two words of English or sorta German and they're all falling at his feet. It's just not cool! I got to sleep by myself in my bed which was a bonus for the night!

Today, we went on an extreme shopping mission. I am about to collapse most of the time from exhaustion. But we got trad bratwurst, climbed the Muster tower which was...painful but worth while, stood beside a MASSIVE bell when it rung which almost stopped my heart. Beast fell in love with a Gherkin seller, the feeling was mutual. The man would ask me what I'd like to buy while he feed Beast didn't types of Gherkins, both of the boys had a great time with eachother while I tried following his German. Beast's suitcase is mainly filled with Gherkins as he left me with a bag of his clothes here. Then Beast and I rushed to the best cake shop and chocolate shop in town and he chatted up the girl that she tried gift wrapping everything he bought! I want this charm! Then with twenty minutes to go we went to mine and repacked his bag! And we arrived to the station with 4 minutes to go. Theia requested Bretzels so I ran to the Bakery to get then and the idea was to shove them into the window of the train. I got back just as the train pulled away. Beast clung to the window as he drove past. I dunno if it was for the Bretzels or me...I'm pretending it was me!

Overall, a badly organised and mislead weekend...but a great one at that! I had fun anyway :) Thanks Beast xx

This week!

Apologies to those who thought I had died over the weekend! I was away from my computer :) I was told by Beast to change my fontsize so there you have it!

Monday: was a extremely good day! Beast booked flights to come over and see me this weekend!!! Excited, much? Yes siree!!! I'm trying to organise cool things to do, which there are a lot of! However, everything closes on Sunday (But Shhh don't tell Beast), Other than the pure excitement of Beast's travel annoucement, not much else happened! I went to choir as we're "performing" on Sunday in a church so lots and lots of singing! Then I came home and Ian (My housemate that is fun Hawaii and has the complextion of milk), Knocked on my door, asked to borrow a movie and after 10 minutes standing in my room with my 5 movies in hand, he annouced "None of your movies are really blowing up my skirt"...I hope you're as lost as I was. I decided to take offense to this, guessing he wasn't being nice as he rarely is! But he left with Juno which I haven't seen since.
Tuesday: Well, Tuesday is usually my favourite day! I had Romantic Poetry and at the start of the presentations, my Lecturer says "Well, I hope you all kept Helen's excellent presentation in mid from last week as well she raised a high bar and I expect more from you more" *cue looks of absolute hatred from the class*. At the end of the lecture the group of Autralians came up to me. I feared mildly for my life. Bianca (The ring leader) just said "eh hi, You seem pretty cool..so I'd like to invite you to my joint 21st birthday party". Supposedly, I've sat beside her friend (the other birthday girl) and we talked and she thought I was cool. I have no recollection of this girl. But I'm sure it'll come back to me! I have a vague idea...couldn't be too sure. Jude and I then met up to discuss travel plans (we're going somewhere Thursday week!). But instead, we found out it was St.Martin's Day and all the bakeries were selling little bread men. So the obvious thing to do was to collect as many different men as we could. We got 6... and yes, I do attend college Pat, I just have small adventures when I don't! After the breaded excitement, we went for lunch (Jude paid 50c more than me and as you see in the photo, the difference is shocking, I have learnt my lesson) where I met a friend Pei-Ying (yes, paying). Who introduced me as "This is Helen, She really cute" *cue confused looks from Jude and I*. German class is still not very helpful but I can tell you that the lamp is not a pencil...the teacher seemed to think that was important. After German, a group of us went out for dinner. Schnitzel and Beer! YAY! I asked for Schnitzel Nummer sex which was with a Bernaise sauce which was described as a "eggs, mayonaisse and herbs" So thing's just don't translate well. We got the house special which is a tray with 11 beers on it (There were 5 of us) but unfortunatley I didn't have my camera. Carlo, Paolo, Britta, Ola and I were the only ones that went. Ola and Britta are a lovley couple from Sweden and Carlo and Paolo are Italian. Paolo says "eeez ver-ee nigh-sss" over and over if he likes something which is hilarious! After dinner, we went to a local brewery where the beer tastes really fresh (as it's made in front of you). Carlo tried making me to come dancing with him and shouting "what thee-ngzzz do you avvv to do and not danzzzz", he's quite an animated guy! But I got away in the end with Paolo who kindly walked me home. Ian had a female caller at 1a.m. And they talked loudly! Then I think I passed out with exhaustion but at 3a.m. the girl tried leaving much to Ian's loud disappointment! She couldn't decide if she wanted to stay or not outside my door. At this point I was short of frog marching her into Ian's room and locking the door but she finally left! Then the tap started dripping...just one of those nights!

Wednesday: All good today, mainly did work all morning. American Identity class is an confusing as ever but I met up with th Australians who think I'm cool in class today! I went to the Supermarket with one of them and she introduced me to Nashi Pears, These things are delicious. like an apple but so juicy and crunchy at the same time, it's amazing! Also, Bianca said that if I want when i come to Sydney in 2010, Hannah and I can sleep on their couch! YAY!!! Mum sent me a beautiful scarf and a broch...how do you spell that? Brotch? Anyway, I was and am very pleased! I mainly worked all day and made myself caragean (a milky dessert thing made with seaweed...it's really nice!) But Ian when I told him that it was seaweed and not candy said "I think I'll have to throw up now" No one seems to "get me over here"

Thursday: I worked a lot during the day. In preparartion of Beast's arrival. I had American short stories and a gorl gave a presentation that was so bad the lecturer asked for her to stop before she finished! It was a little too mean and then he carried on ripping her unfinished presentation to shreds which was not so enjoyable to watch! After that I went to a Cafe for a coffee with Irine, A Romanian friend. I ordered a San Augustin coffee just hoping for the best. It was the most bitter thing I have EVER tasted in my life. My mouth practically felt like the desert! Then I carried onto an incredibly boring German class, after which Britta and I had an email of making Christmas decorations. I resorted to Montessori school type snowflakes and Santas. I thought we'd be on the same level...no. She made a 3D star with tranperant paper, carboard and a geometry set...I had pathetic little stars. Next week, we're going to bake...I can feel another pathetic input on my part! :)

Friday: Beast is coming today!!! YAY!!! So I need to find a bed in IKEA for me to sleep on! My keyboard is going mental, I have to leave the caps lock in order to type normally, how odd. Sorry for that slight degression! Anyway,The excitement is killing me! So I think that's enough from me! But I will fill you in one the shenanigans of the weekend!

xHx

Hello there!

The week started off well! I worked on my presentation for Romantic Poetry on Monday and presented it on Tuesday. I kicked ass, we all know I have no modesty so we'll forgive the previous comment! All the other presenters had their head in their sheets and made little effort so I took the room by storm :). My lecturer said it was the best presentation he had seen in a long time and he loved it! I'm coming to love the straight-forwardness of th Germans (well, as long as it goes in my favour).

So I was on a roll all of Tuesday and was quickly shot down in German class; I did not learn how to say the shop assistant sells flowers and my teacher takes no prisoners. But I got over my German failure. Then I went to the Mensa (which is the place all the kids are at...no really) to watch the election. They wouldn't let us in and kept saying we could go in but kept stopping us when we tried. Oh to speak German that would be nice. My American friend was short of taking out her passport and pull a "but I'm an American citizen" move but we decided to run to the Irish pub cuz we figured it was bound to have the elections on...we were wrong. The football was on and the pub was full of irate Americans who clearly thought the same thing! So we settled down for a drink and chatted about our different cultures (Swedish, American and Irish). I also found a picture of a sister of girls I went to school with which was a funny surprise. I tried to stay up and watch the elections but the fatigue of my big day hit hard at 12.30a.m! But YAY OBAMA!

Wednesday was interesting. In my American Identity class, we have a know it all girl who everyone hates and as they are Germans they show it! I love Germany. Everytime she speaks, the teacher rolls her eyes and the class sigh! She seemingly hasn't picked up on it! She lived in America for 4 months and now "knows" and "understands" Americans more than they know themselves. She checks her appearance in her laptop screen every five seconds.

Her only friend is a French guy from Marseilles who "loves the Irish because they are the Irish", I stopped listening to him after he asked me to speak Irish in an Irish accent. He wears Lacoste airtexs, marco polo pink shirts, pointy leather shoes, chinos and well fitted jackets. His hair is so perfectly part and his eyebrows are so well shaped that I look like a ship wreck beside him. Our "American" German and he talk all the way through class about "politics" and matters concerning "the interest of the class". My lecturer at one point said "why are you even in my class, you seem to know everything already so you canjust leave, you're wasting my time and your time" My class clapped (well, knocked on the table which we do instead).

I was made stand in the place of my lecturer in How to Read Images as I was "so good at finding meaning in paintings", so I was made stand there for 10 minutes straining my mind to find as many contrasts, meanings etc to Thomas Blackshear II's "Forgiven" painting which after 10minutes becomes quite hard.

I woke up this morning with "Spais" written on my neck, in pillow marks. It was written backwards so you could only see it in the mirrow. "Spáis" in Irish sorta means walk so I decided who ever carved into my neck was telling me something; so I went for a walk so I didn't anger it! So if you hold this very unattractive photo of my neck up to a mirror you can read "Spais" I'm petrified! :) (that really is an odd picture, I've my chin up my, neck doesn't had such a weird bulge!)

Thursday; I organised a gang to go see the new Bond movie however one only turned up! Faithful Jude! So we went for dinner, €4 for a MASSIVE bowl of pasta and then we had to wait and hour to see Quantum of Solace in English at 22.50pm! So I missed the last tram home but Jude walked back with me so it was all good. In the cinema, they sell 1.5ltrs of coke to go along with your gargantunan popcorn- i refrained but watching Jude try to carry the 1,5ltr cup was a funny sight to behold! The movie was ***, I won't ruin it for everyone so you can go and see it yourself!

Friday, Jude and I met up as we're going to go on a European adventure! We decided on Florence, Rome, Madrid, Cologne, Paris, MArseilles, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Prague and I think that's all. So we went to Deutsch Bahn and handed the unfortunate man the list and asked him to send us on the cheapest train to one of these places, we've got one or two deals but next week we're going to go harass Ryanair! Yay! SO there is an adventure in the making! There after we went for some fleischkas-wei-something which was very tasty. Being in an adventurous mood we went for a trip up to the lift into the Schwartzwald which was, of course closed but we found a playground which appeased us. The walk home was beautiful as we decided to shun the bus and walk through the amber trees! Then this evening I had a movie night with Kaelyn and sugared popcorn and sweets so my teeth are now decaying as we speak but I did it to myself so we can't complain!

Hope your weeks went well!

xHx

Halloween In Freiburg

Halloween is NOT popular at all in Germany. I was very disappointed as if you know me at all, I adore Halloween. So, i tried convincing my floormates that Halloween wasn't "childish, for kids, just a reason to get drunk, for people who have a weird sense of humour and Americans" but they stuck to their opinion. Stefan was the only one of my floormates who was vaguely interested in Halloween and said if he had nothing better to do after midnight, he would go out with me. Understanding that he meant there's no chance in hell that I'd go out with you I made my own plans.

Jude and gang were headed to the Stusie so I said I would go with them; they were all dressing up so clearly the right bunch to head out with. They were at a house party before so I stayed awake by doing college work (yes, I'm that exciting but I was tudying Edgar Allan Poe so it was rather suiting...I freaked myself out a little bit).

The bells tolled midnight and a knock came upon my door (How Poe!). So I opened the door and there stood Stefan whose mouth dropped when he saw me. I may have left out the fact that I was dressed as Pippi Longstockings with piggy-tails, drawn on freckles and a LOT of blush (One of Jude's friends said I was"every paedophiles' dream" which was rather disconcerting). I quickly assured him I was dressed up for Halloween and not dressed up just to go out. I still hadn't heard from jude, so Stefan and I went to the Stusie without her. He's a really cool guy with a sense of humour sorta like mine (with German influences) so we got on really well! By 2am, I decided that Jude had died, gotten lost or the house party was too much fun. All the Germans in the club kept singing the theme tune to "Pippi Langestrumpfhose" to me everytime they saw me. Amidst the singing, I heard a squeal and a stumbling Jude ran towards me! Her phone refused to work for her so she couldn't call me and by the looks of things, I'd say it was true! The gang were dressed up as Cruella Devil, A rock-punk band, and Army chick and a German who refused to dress up but had the personality of a plank. Stefan decided to take "a look around" which I'm told is what most German guys do..just...because...well, no one really knows.

By 4am, Jude et al were exhausted and face paint deteriorating so they headed off. Stefan decided it was too early to go home. At this point, Pippi was no longer peepy. He wanted to dance but I refused as I thought I'd collapse with exhaustion.

At 5am, Stefan finished his drink (which he said after he finished it, we'd go home) which he had nursed for an hour. The walk was freezing and spooky as hell as a lingering fog filled the Stusie grounds, everything was misty but this fog sat in the air and didn't move. I was creeped out but Stefan seemed fine but I'd say he was shaking in his highly practical shoes.

So by 5.30am I was in bed shivering as my heating has decided not to work so I put on all my thermals and slept practically fully dressed. It was a different but really good Halloween!

Oh and as It's all Souls Day, all the shops are closed and I am now very hungry and will be til Monday. Life is hard.

Talk to you soon xx

Only in Germany

Well, my week started off on an odd note. I went to Choir, and they've hired a mad man to warm up our voices. I'd say we did maybe 3 scales and that was it. The rest of the time was spent hitting ourselves and each other. I know what you're thinking, but I haven't lost my mind yet. We were instructed to standing in comprimsing strecth positions and hit our ribs cages, arms, legs and beat our chests like Tarzan. After self-inflicting pain, we got to turn around to the person next to us and hit them on their backs. Germany is a confusing place to be...

When buying milk I came across the Lego exhibition. The above picture is entirely made of Lego. There were also Roman and Greek Temples in Lego, Freiburg Ciry in Lego, New York in Lego and needless to say a lot of people with time on their hands. But it did make my trip for the cheapest milk (61c) worth my while. I've yet to beat 61c for milk but I hear there's a Penny Mart where it's 60c, How exciting!

Thomas's wife has visited him, she looks about 14 so they are well matched. Ian asked if I knew if it was a "shotgun marriage", we haven't asked out of politeness but now we're curious. It's nice to have a girl around the place. We get on great even though we have no common language, which is probably why we get on so well...there's a thought.

The bells are tolling! (the bells, the bells!) It's wonderful to hear them...even at 2am but you get over it pretty quick. The sound of them is awesome when you stand in the Rathaus Square or at the Munster (The Cathedral). Here's a smaple of what you hear most of the time when it's on the hour. Ok, so I wan't born a professional camera man, I don't quite get the whole taking a video thing (Ask Jenny) but here's what the bells sound like and how bad I am with a camera. Enjoy!

Just a general update!

Well, that's the state of my elevator! It's scarier in real life but here's just a taste of it's scariness!

Life is good in Freiburg at the moment! All been college related but it was Jude's birthday on Saturday, so we headed out and celebrated it in The Stusie! It's the club next to my apartment. It has three floors; popular floor, punk, rock and techo floor and mellow floor! It's a bit of an odd place. The main dance area is like a town hall with a projector screen in it. They have an...ecletive taste in music from wedding floor emptiers, the not so hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s, German anthems and then the odd recognisable song.

As some of you know the clocks changed on Saturday night (when we were out) so when it came to 2am the clocks were put back to 1am, therefore the club was open until 4am (previosuly 5am). I got home around 4.30am(5.30) and decided it would be a good time to decorate the apartment with the Halloween decorations that Mum sent me. So after Halloween-ifying the kitchen I went to bed and slept til 2pm.

I came into the kitchen to find me floormates staring with awe at the kitchen (that kind of awe that you can't tell if it's good or bad...it turned out to be good) They called me crazy and then said I was mental when I toldthem when I did it.

I found out I was on bathroom duty *shudder*. I share with three boys who cleaning is an alien concept to. So I scrubbed the tiles, showers, three sinks, two toilets til they bled and until I semlt like bleach and lemony fresh. The place gleamed. I cannot find the words to describe my horror when I saw the bathroom an hour after I cleaned it. Boys are monsters!

After doing the bathroom, it turned out I was on cleaning the kitchen duty. I mopped, scrubbed, bleached, brushed, disinfected, shined, washed, scraped, sponged and made the kitchen sparkle. The oven caused gagging and the maggot (Singular, I know there's more of them out there) I found; I befriended in hopes of him telling me where the rest of them are. The kitchen looked great, then the 7 monsters came in and began cooking; the aftermath looked like they had a food fight with some apes. So I stormed in and "Mother Goose"ed them to bits, they began cleaning slowly with pouts while I watched over them *whipcrack!*

In other news, there are NO nice dresses in Freiburg. The dresses I could find are frilly, frumpy, floor length, neon lime, retine burning, poufy, sequined, shoulder padded disasters! I thought I could buy one in hope of making a "statement" with it...but...even I couldn't pull that off! So I went and bought a dress off the net

http://www.warehouse.co.uk/fcp/product/fashion/Dresses/GRECIAN-EMPIRE-PROM/11059w.warehouse.co.uk/fcp/product/fashion/Dresses/GRECIAN-EMPIRE-PROM/11059

It's beautiful! (oh and if you're wondering, this is for my 21st birthday, I'm not just spending my food money on dresses)

That's pretty much all my news; off to choir in an hour!

Talk to you soon,

xHx

The First week in College.

Well, That was fun! I've made friends (go me!).

<----- That's my student booklet ---->

Romantic Poetry = amazing

Renegotiating American Identity = Run by a scary woman who spent an hour explaining how coutries, even though they are invaded by another country still are their own nation and that they are individuals. Then she askes if there were any British people in the class. I didn't move, she looks confused and says "we do have a British person here, where's Helen Regan from Ireland" I said I was Irish not British to which she replied "Yeah, you're part of England" I think she's missed the point of her own lecture.

How to Read Images: is also pretty awesome. We look at different ads, films and TV shows and see how images and themes are portrayed in them. I made a comment on a ad that was disgustingly sexist and she cut across me during my main point and said "Here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is your class raging feminist". She is also a "raging feminist" so we seem to get along. The boys in my class are now petrified of talking :) I like when I make some sort of impact.

Baby German Lessons: Ich Heisse Helen, Ich komme aus Irland, Ich spreche englisch. And I can also name parts of the classroom. My homework for next week is to be able to say lamp in German (Die lampe...if my article is wrong, I don't care...I face death next week if I don't know the article by then..until then I shall tempt fate)

The International residence association: full of third year, medicine students there for the booze and the free food so not many international students hung around as all the old residents formed groups and wouldn't talk to anyone. Awkward. I lasted an hour of talking to three French boys that were nice when they spoke English but when they spoke French they weren't as nice; they talked about my long legs, and appearance of other body parts...all very nice comments but awkward as hell. People should really ask about what languages I speak before they start talking in another language) but the last straw was after trying one of the cold-ketchup-filled-meatballs...I left.

Overall, a good week; I made friends, I spoke German. I bought a clock that ticks so loud I can hear it from the kitchen. So all in all....yeah, fun times

My First Day In German College!

Hallo!

I feel like I'm five again! I am beaming with delight at the day. First of all, I had to go to sign up for my German classes, and also my German test. Which is another story! So I'm all sorted German wise, the advice I was given for the test was "just write you name". So that's what I'm doing for every question.

I met a nice Romanian girl outside my lecture room who lit up when she heard I was Irish and talked about green fields for the next ten minutes. She said she was doing my course but when we all went in so waved at me and walked away.

Our lecturer is fabulous! And started off the class by pairing us together and making us find out each other's name, what we study and somethign quirky about us. I was paired who a girl called Jenny whose quirk was that she gives things so owns names; her coffee maker Dell, Her Ipod, Joey and Peter...her sponge. She decided that the quirkiest thing about me was that I was from Ireland. I dunno.

The other students are a mixture of those who lied about their English language skills, those who are fluent (me and two australians) and Germans who find the most obscure images and metaphors hidden in the poetry we're studying. For example, "abortion" is the most prevalent issue in Blake's "London". Our lecturer stood with his mouth open scanning the poem and just looked up with a confused expression and in a squeaky voice said "no". Much to the amusement of the class.

My lecturer loves me cuz I'm great (Modesty was never something I counted amongst my traits). Jan (We're on first name terms) asks me my opinion on everything he asks because I've "very good at analysing" and I have "unique input". The Australian Girls don't like me so much as Jan corrected one of them and said they should follow in my footsteps and stop translating the poem literally. Jan asked me to attend his Experimental Drama course to provoke debate in the class. See! He really does think I'm great :)

The German test. Well, I actually didn't have to take the test, thanks be to goodness! But the "absolute beginners" (Nothing to do with vodka) were taken on a tour of the SLI buildings and room which are the language rooms. After this we were seperated into different groups, my group consisted of Spanish girls and smelly boys, they actually smelt, I'm not just being immature. So we spent an hour and a half learning how to say our names and where we came from. There was no common language, not even German so it was pretty difficult. After the hour and a half, the teacher became so confused she just told us to leave. A good start! So I'm surprisingly ahead of the class, I know, me! Thanks to Kinnie's help I am the top student! Yet, I still haven't advanced beyond saying my name but we all have to start somewhere.

It's bucketing outside now. I confused an American girl by saying it was spitting outside as we were leaving to which she ran out of the buiding shouting "CUT IT OUT THAT'S DISGUSTING". I had to explain no one was actually spitting on her. She smiled and said "I love the Irish"

God knows.

x

Ok, so...

Well, I am wide awake and this is probably the latest I have been up in Frieburg (Ok, so it doesn't have a booming night life). I've butterflies which presumably is due to the fact I finally start classes tomorrow (well in 9 hours). Also, I have to take my German Assessment Test which I have to pay for to find out that I really don't have a word of German.

Today, I was given great news! Felix has moved out of our floor, that's not the good news; he was an excellent cook. The good news is that his bitchy girlfriend went with him! YAY! So now I can go into the kitchen without feeling her icy glare on my back! However, this means that my floor mates are now: Tomas, Konstantin, Ian, Adrian, Terry, Stefan and Daniel. Anyone else notice what I'm getting at? Yes, I am the only girl (eep) and Konstantin has given me the nickname of "Mother Goose" even though I haven't been in any way motherly to any of them! Konstantin said I should look on the bright side that (he yawns, stretches and looks around the room) I'm surrounded by 7 good looking men. A sweet but perhaps dillusional thought...

Also, I came into the kitchen to met my new floor mates Stefan who greeted me with "You must be Helen that everyone is talking about" I'm never too sure how to respose to that sort of statement...

I spent my day reading whiny novels written by angry lesbians and angry women who want to be lesbians, they've even written books about it (the dedication is however to their husbands...God knows.) Then I went to Choir, which was fabulous! We're doing a version of a Laudate Dominum, and Agnus Dei and something else which has slipped from my memory. I met a nice girl who's perfume made me sneeze so I think a distant relationship with her will be for the better.

We're performing in November in a church somewhere, also in January I think. They speak German to me but I get the general jist of things. But I heart my choir. There's a guy that looks like Friar Tuck with a nervous twitch where he tries to suck in the room through his teeth. The conductor is a fabulous character, very passionate and looks to be at least 8 months pregnant but is in fact a man. So overall, a thumbs up for the Romanische Choir!

Right, I'm going to inject some sleepy tea into my system, cold sleepy tea as someone has run off with the kettle. I'm going to put up missing posters around the floor until he comes back, Tea just isn't the same without him...

I met a cat today, that is white and looks like was hit woth black and orange paint. He's going to be my Coco incarnate, I have named him Herr Coco. I thought it sounded authentic.

Good night!

SURPRISE!!!

As few of you know, I arrived home for a surprise visit. What can I say people just can't live without me and were falling apart. So once again, I saved the day. Ok, I might be exaggerating just that little bit but you're all too far away to give out to me!

Most interesting and shocking thing about arriving home would have to be the 184 bus driver buying me a cup of coffee, cuz I "look like i needed it". Compliment? I think not. But FREE coffee!

There was tears, laughther, confusion and door slamming (Thanks Ciarán) at my arrival. I'm really sorry if I didn't get ti see you, I had a bit of a hectic time trying to organise everything! If you did see me, please don't tell UCD that you did!

Ryanair has out done themselves, the flight to Dublin, had ads playing the entire time and the new "Ryanair" jungle which has suicidal side effects. It's awful! Then ads for the Ryanair lotto, their new sexy girl calender with girls lying on airplane wings,Ryanair wine, duty free, free flights, girls, rent-a-car, the jingle, lotto, girls, wine, duty free, jingle. By the time I got off the plane, I was an alcoholic, road raged, high flyer, girl crazy, lotto manic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6v8JvQWzA There's a terrible recording of it but you get the jist

The Flight from Dublin was eventful, My crotch zip set off the mental detector, which lead to some unpleasant and unwanted touching. I also had a at least had half a pig in sausages from Hick's (thanks mum!) which induced a bag search which they found my sandwiches which they claimed were the "suspicious" items.

I arrived back to my room about 12.30 a.m. I was greeted by Pharoah (My fish) at the door. I didn't know fish were homing pets but he was outside my door, asleep (Not dead, which I had initially thought). Konstantin was minding him, and had changed his water twice which he was quite happy about. I refrianed from telling him that this fish doesn't like his water being changed (The pet shop woman told me...I'm trying hard not to kill this fish)

Isn't he Pretty? --->

Freiburg is the same as I left it. I have a new floor mate who is lovely. Honestly, lovely. I wanted to hug him the minute I met him. I wants be a primary school teacher. But...BUT...he is MARRIED and I am older than him. My mouth dropped when he told me (clearly, I was coming on too strong, lol), I had to turn the mouth drop into a very forced yawn. So now all the roomsare full...I am the only girl, who is meant to be here. I'm really hoping I've miscounted the rooms as I would LOVE to have another female in the place. Other than the bitchy girlfriend of one of the guys.

I made around 10 potato cakes today, it took me two hours. You must be confused as to why. I had to mash the potatoes with a fork, a dessert fork. The only clean fork I could find. So, after two hours, I had pretty much gone off eating them. So a salad it is!

I'm off to try shove my potato cakes into the crammed freezer. Fun times.

x x