July 29, 2010

Second-Hand Book Stores, Chess Playing Prodigies, and Future Plans

It rained all day on Tuesday. I wish that I had gone back to bed then. I love sleeping when it’s raining. I didn’t leave the house – seriously, it was pouring all day long. Beautiful though.

I had a good day with Vee on Tuesday. Eenie was in a bad mood, crying and whining. She put herself to bed while Vee and I played Solitaire. I taught both of the girls how to play and they’re really good at it! I have to help them a little but they learn fast. And now they can entertain themselves. How many five year olds do you know that can play Solitaire? I put Vee in the bath tub after that and she kind of entertained herself for a half an hour. I had to blow dry her hair afterwards and I kept telling her, “You’re hair is so beautiful and soft and shiny. You have the most beautiful hair in Munich.” And she kept brushing it and touching it. When we went into her bedroom to get her pajamas, she kept disappearing and I asked her, “Where are you going?” and she says, “In there to look at my hair.” And I watched her walk to the mirror and lovingly adore herself. Cutest damn thing. Ever. I’ve trained her well. Ha.

Wednesday was a fairly uneventful day. The sun was out for about five hours so I went outside into the city after I did some laundry. I located the Munich Readery which is this awesome second-hand English book store. They were having a sale, 25% off every book so, of course, I went crazy. My intention was to find some readers for the girls for their birthday but I walked out with so much more than that. 27 EUR worth, to be exact. Gah. Books are so worth it though. Plus, if I bring them back in for trade when I’m finished, I get store credit.

DSCN3310 The UK version of HP & the Deathly Hallows.
I wanted to read this one before the movie released in November.
Plus, now I have the cool UK version.

I also bought a Jodi Piccoult that I haven’t read, Handle With Care, which is amazing because I thought I’d read them all by now. I also got an off-the-radar chick lit book about a girl who starts writing this blog and makes up a fake life and a fake boyfriend and everyone starts to think she’s real and wants to meet her but her life really sucks. Ha. Sounded good to me. I do love blogs. I also got The Phantom Tollbooth. Infinitely cool. I read this book when I was a kid and I loved it.

the_phantom_tollboothI’m trying to read it to the girls but I don’t know if they understand it. It’s a bit heavy, kind of over their head. It’s a play on American laziness, as far as I’ve gathered, and it tries to teach you to be productive and stuff. Haha. But… Eenie wanted me to keep reading it. Vee said, “I like it not,” and disappeared to go play with her trains. I’ll keep trying. I think Eenie just likes the pictures. If they don’t like it, I’ll just read it myself.

(It’s pouring rain right now. I love it.)

I’m almost finished reading The Time Traveler’s Wife which is an incredible book. I absolutely love it. It’s so much better than the movie and has so much more detail and conflict. I’ll want to watch the movie when I’m done reading it. I hear iTunes has rentals now…

Yesterday I played chess with Eenie. She pretty much beat me. Twice. The second game was a draw. She is a genius, I swear to God. She even knew strategy and understood how each piece moved and where to move them to get me. She kicks butt at Solitaire, too. Maybe we can all learn poker together. They’ll probably take me for all I’m worth. Which isn’t much these days. Haha.

The next couple of weeks will be interesting. The girls finish kinderhaus on the 13th and are released for a few weeks of summer vacation before they go to elementary school in September. The girls’ birthday is on Saturday and then their party is on Monday. Helen and I are both party planning so that should be interesting. I have about 8 billion cakes and chocolate muffins to make between Friday and Monday. I don’t like baking here for two reasons: 1) I can’t figure out the oven temperatures and usually burn everything and 2) I can’t read the directions. So, here’s to hoping that the Frau will translate. I’m going to Hamburg next weekend with Jessica and Clare. Should be fun! Jess works for BMW so she can rent cars for cheap. We’re getting a BMW convertible and going on a German road trip. Woo!  The family is going to be going to their house in Austria a lot in August so I’ll be home, alone for a good majority of the time. From August 14th until about August 20th, they’ll be in Austria so I have a whole week of nothingness. Which means that I really want to get out to Garmisch to see Kathe and go hikinig in the Alps and visit a quaint little German village. Must get started on those plans!

My foot has healed up, FINALLY. It’s scabbed over and will eventually even out to be just an ugly scar. But my ankle is all screwed up and it hurts to walk most of the time. I’m going to need to rehabilitate myself.

Right now I have a date with my bed (I love sleeping during the day, especially when it’s raining) and I fully intend to spend some good quality time with my blanket and pillow so I’m signing out. But enjoy some pictures from this weekend, when the weather was stellar:

DSCN3237 Somewhere near the Isar river

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Isar river and gorgeous blue skies

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Busy city

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Nues Rathaus – never gets old.

July 26, 2010

Those Passing Feelings, Circus Kind, Mozzarella at McDonald’s, and a Kind (Or Not) Suggestion

Things are so good here in Deutschland. My life is amazing and everyday I wake up feeling so incredibly blessed to be alive and experiencing this. I am in love with Germany. And I haven’t even left Munich yet. I can only imagine what I have yet to see and not only in this country but others as well. I wish that I would stop letting myself get so hung up on money and just do it. I’m trying to be responsible with the debt that I’ve left in the States but a huge part of me just wants to default on everything and stop caring. I want to enjoy my time here, one hundred percent and worrying about money keeps me from doing that. I need to figure it out because before too long, I’m going to go crazy.

I miss home sometimes. But not as much as I thought I would when I first left. When I was on the bus to LAX on my day of departure, back in June, my dad called me to wish me safe travels and to make sure that I’d made all of my buses and connections. And then he asked if he could pray for me and, of course, I obliged because I’d be crazy to turn down prayer. I may not be as religious as I once was but I know that the good Lord listens to those who talk to him and if someone wants to call out to Him on my behalf, I will not mess that up. Anyway, as he was praying for me I just started crying because even though I wasn’t even out of California yet, I already missed everything. I missed my parents, my friends, my brother, my step-mom, my new baby niece, my best friend, my old room mate’s cat, In-N-Out, my grandma, Monterey, the ocean… I think he sensed that I was upset and he calmed me down, told me to just have fun and enjoy myself and be strong, etc, etc. And let me know that everything and everyone would be waiting for me when I came home. And I took a deep breath and then I was okay. I haven’t felt that paralyzing feeling since. Of course, there are bad days when the pictures on my walls make me ache for the people and things that I’ve left at home but it passes in time. I know that what I’m doing here is so important to my path of self discovery and even though I miss home and home misses me, it’s still home. It’s always going to be waiting for me. So, to those of you who have been flooding my Facebook and email with love and longing, I promise you that I miss you, too. Never think that I don’t. And I love you. And I’m so glad that you’re sharing this adventure with me, if even from a distant continent.

Last week was a doozy… okay, not really. The girls were taking part in a local children’s circus last week so our schedule was a bit more frantic than it usually is. All the kids performing go to some kind of circus school. Or something. The girls know someone who goes to the circus school so, therefore, they got to be in the show. They did it last summer too, playing the same role. They run around in circles dressed up as butterflies with glitter on their faces.

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Running around as butterflies.

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Eenie was having a good time.

Anyway, the circus schedule paired with my bum foot made for an interesting week. The Frau took them most days so my work was cut out for me. Which was good because my foot’s been giving me trouble. My last update stated that I had went to get my stitches removed by a friend’s host-mom who is a doctor. Unfortunately, the stitches didn’t entirely work so the top layer of my skin was still wide open. On Friday I went by her office and she put Steri Strips over the cut and gave me a handful of more strips and some heavy duty band-aids. After I visited there, I ventured back into the city to find a salon that I’d made an appointment at and had my eyebrows shaped. Finally. They were starting to take over my face. And then I went home and slept from 11:30 until almost 3. It was glorious. Friday evening, I babysat the girls. We played War (which they LOVE) and I taught them how to play Solitaire and they’re really good at it, too.

On Saturday I took the girls to the circus because the Frau had a hair appointment. And it was pouring rain the whole time. The circus location is outdoors but the actual show is inside a giant circus tent. But the girls had to get changed and ready in the rain. There were tent covers, for the most part, but we were all miserable. I’d already seen the show on Thursday so it was nothing new to me. I just sat in the corner and tried not to look so miserable. At the end, the Frau picked us up and bought me a weiner mit simmel. Yum. We went back to the house to meet the Frau’s friend because I was going to be babysitting for her. Her son, Julius, is 8-months-old and such a cutie. Vee is really good with him and loves him. Eenie couldn’t have cared less. She told me he had to stay outside. Haha. The baby was easy until I tried to put him down and he just cried and cried. His mom had to come back and put him down and even that was hard for her. Eventually, he passed out and she went back to her party. I stayed in the living with him until almost midnight. Around ten it started pouring rain and the fireworks at Tollwood went off for about 40 minutes straight. Nothing woke that kid up. And I gained 50 EUR for it! Woo! Which I already spent…

How does one spend 50 EUR in ONE DAY? Let me tell you.

15 EUR for two tickets to Eclipse – I owed Jessica some money for various things: a bier or two and a 6 EUR cab ride to the hospital. So I bought her movie ticket.
8,50 EUR for small Coke, sour apple rings, and a ginormous bag of popcorn – When one has not eaten breakfast or lunch, one must improvise. Oh, and soda in Germany doesn’t come with ice (GROSS!) and their popcorn doesn’t have butter (because it will break the bag) or salt (because it’s actually kettle corn. Germany is so weird.
7,50 EUR for a Chinese food dinner and a tiny bier – Delicious.
6 EUR for two liters of bier at Jaeger’s hostel – Self explanatory.
2,90 EUR for a pilsner at a different hostel

And then I lost track of what I was spending because I was too drunk to remember. But that’s nearly 40 EUR right there. We did end up at the McDonald’s in Hauptbanhof where I bought mozarella sticks which are DELICIOUS. American McDonald’s, take a page of Europe’s book – get some cheese sticks on your menu! They’re great. And when I got home this morning, all I had in my wallet were a few 2 EUR coins and some random change. Strange how fast that happens. It’s hard to save money when you’re drunk. But which also brings me back to the point I made at the beginning – I don’t want to save money when I could be running around drunk and wasting money! But I’m drunk in Munich wasting money so it’s infinitely better. Besides, it’s not really a waste if you’re having fun. :)

Oh, that reminds me – I’m drinking bier in Munich and a lot of it. Bavaria is one of the brewing capitals of the world. I am not going to stop drinking bier. I promise you that I won’t become an alcoholic. But yes, I might end up in the hospital and have a wound that won’t heal. And I’ll waste my money on ridiculous things. I won’t lose weight, in fact, I’ll probably start looking pregnant if I don’t already. So, please stop suggesting to me that I stop drinking bier. Too many people in the States, mostly just family members, have commented on this. I know you are concerned for me but I am fine. I will learn my lessons. They will be my own. And if they have to be hard, I’ll deal with it. I make my own mistakes. So far, I have really good friends, a reliable train schedule, and I know my way home. I’m doing well and the bier drinking will continue. I am preparing myself for Oktoberfest. Wait until then to worry about me. Danke!

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July 22, 2010

Just a Little Quickie…

A short update…

I went to get my stitches removed this morning by one of my fellow au pair’s host-mom who is a doctor. And I was so blessed and grateful to have her do that for me but the stitches did not close my wound! It’s closed within, so there is no blood and you can’t see my insides or anything… but the skin didn’t close up. And I’m not surprised because I have had to walk around everywhere I go. So I am going to her office tomorrow morning to get some Steri-Strips and hopefully the skin will graft. Sigh. ANNOYING. Never go run on broken glass, got it?!

Oh, and I just got home from the first performance of a local neighborhood cirucs, which the girls are in. They run around as sparkly butterflies. It’s a children’s circus with unicycles and acrobats and stuff, nothing too crazy. But it’s set up outside and the show is under this huge tent which is SUFFOCATINGLY hot. So we’re all sitting inside there DYING. Seriously, I almost died. I was sweating so much, I could smell the salt on my skin. I could feel the sweat drips rolling down my back, down the side of my face, pooling everywhere. GROSS. I know, sorry. Anyway… they were selling those little paper fans and so the Frau’s mom, the Oma, went to get some and came back with two so the Frau gave me one. Well, of course, Vee sees that we have them so she comes over and takes the Frau’s fan. Because five year olds that don’t sweat really need them. And then Eenie sees what’s going on and she runs over and walks up to me, “Hezzah, can I have that?” She pretty much just took it from me. And then the Frau made her give it back to me.

Oma leaves and then comes back about five minutes later.

“I couldn’t buy one for Eenie (even though she said her whole first name which is weird, no one does that). They’re sold out. Do you want to use my hat as a fan?”

“…. Okay.”

She proceeds to take the fan from me so that Eenie and Vee can have paper fans. Oh my God. REALLY? And guess what happens as soon as Eenie gets it? She breaks it. I’m not even kidding. Like thirty seconds in.

“Hezzah, can I have yours?” Eenie asks me.

“That was mine,” I say with a smile. “Sorry, sweetie.”

Twenty minutes later, Vee asks me the same question.

Oy vey.

July 21, 2010

5 Am at Kultfabrik, Kinder Music, Yellow Mustard, and Vampire Love Sagas

It’s been almost a week since I last updated but it feels like a lot longer. Which is weird because time goes by so incredibly fast here. I’ve been here for five weeks already and each week goes by faster than the one before it. Take, for example, the fact that today is Wednesday and I feel like it was just last Wednesday. Does that sound stupid? Does it make sense? Ha. Probably not.

No need to explain why the past week was a blur. I’m in Germany. I’m doing crazy stuff and living a crazy life. Everything is new, everything is different. Why would it be boring? Granted, I do sleep a lot more than I ever did in California and I have absolutely nothing on my agenda. I pretty much just read (working on books 5 and 6 simultaneously), write (letters, blogs, fiction, etc), Facebook, watch Everwood on DVD (so good!), and go out with friends. Oh, and sometimes I work.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve been busy, just active. On Thursday night I went out with my girlfriends and we enjoyed some good German bier, as usual. I’m getting really good at this whole, Munich night life thing, save the problem that I keep missing the last train on weeknights. Helen and I had to pay for a taxi on Thursday night. And on Sunday night, we walked 1.5 hours at 1:30 in the morning to get home. You’d think I would learn my lesson on this one but I haven’t. Not yet. On Friday night I went out with Jessica and her cousin. He was visiting from his army base somewhere in Germany and he’d brought a bunch of friends with him. Overall, the night was a disaster, at least the parts where we had to hang out with the immature, obnoxious army boys. But I did enjoy dancing at clubs in Kultfabrik until 5 am and running in the pouring rain with my friend Ken to get cheeseburgers from the Turkish food stands. Plus, I met the coolest group of Irish guys ever. I really do love Munich nights.

On Saturday I slowed down a bit. After sleeping from only 6 am until about 8:30ish and getting myself home from Jessica’s apartment around 10, I showered, put my pajamas on and curled up in my bed. It was only right. I slept from about 11:30 until almost 4 and then went out into the world again. My friend Catherine and I went to see Eclipse (you know, the Twilight movie?) and oh my God, it was INCREDIBLE. It was my favorite movie thus far which is only to be expected since it was my favorite book as well. I actually liked Bella in this movie which is more than I can say for the first two films. And plus, there was a whole lot of half naked Jacob in this movie. And that is something I definitely agreed with. After the movie, Catherine and I went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and I had the most delicious hamburger and french fries. Oh, and bier. Of course. It was like home but better because it still had a bit of German style. Like sweet pickles instead of dill. But there was French’s Yellow Mustard on the table and I about had a heart attack of delight. I wanted to steal it. It was pouring rain throughout all of this and it didn’t help that Catherine and I got lost looking for the restaurant. Ha. So we were soaked by the time we got there. After dinner, we went our separate ways and went home. Even though it was a pretty low key Saturday, it was exactly what I needed.

DSCN3106
Eclipse at Cinema, the English theater in Munich

Sunday was much of the same. Not a lot going on. I met up with Jessica and we wandered around Munich for a while, checking out the gay pride event in Marienplatz and then randomly stumbled across a Japanfest in the English Gardens. We found this little vendor that sold these AMAZING cheesecakes, oh Lord, they were SO delicious. Way better than in the states. In the evening, after I’d gone home (my feet hurt!), Helen invited me to go out with her and some friends and, of course, we had a lot of bier and that’s when Helen and I ended up walking home. Aside from Friday, it was a great weekend.

Life in the house has been fairly uneventful. The Frau hasn’t been too bad. She still confuses me sometimes with her expectations but it’s nothing to cry home about. Although on Friday I had a rough day. I was with the girls for 8 hours. Good Lord, that’s a long time. And the Frau was there the whole time, too. They had a music recital in the evening so at 1, when they came home from kinderhaus she wanted them to rest. I tried to get them to watch a movie but they didn’t want to (“It’s too long!” Nana said) but  just watched TV for 2 1/2 hours instead. It was a rather pointless afternoon seeing as all that I did was sit with them and read my book.  I went with the Frau to their recital which was so cute. Boring but cute. I had no idea what was going on seeing as it was all in German but they were happy to have me there anyway.

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After the recital, we went to the sports club to have dinner. I had half a roasted chicken (I forget what it’s called in German) and pommes frits (my favorite!). And then I had to hobble back to the house to get the girls swim suits and bring them back. And then I had to sit at the pool with them in the hot sun for 45 minutes. And when we got home, I had to try to get them to go to bed. Eenie, of course, was sucked into the TV like always. And she wouldn’t budge. And I was so frustrated, I had to go into the kitchen and try not to cry. Eight hours! That was a lot more than I was used to. Eventually, the Frau let me go and then I released my frustrations with bier and club dancing, as previously mentioned.

I don’t mean to complain. I mean, I have every right to but I won’t. Sure, being an au pair has it’s downsides but it’s really not that bad. I have more free time than I know what to do with and my job’s actually not that hard. Besides, I elected to go to the music recital. I didn’t have to. Anyway, I really do like being an au pair. And I’m so blessed to have this opportunity. So don’t think that I’m ungrateful because I’m not. It’s really great getting to know the girls more and more everyday. It’s been a slow process but we’re getting used to each other every day. I’ve been teaching them new games and songs and I love reading to them, even though they know all the books by heart already. And I love going to the pool with them. I just can’t wait until I can jump in again!

Which reminds me, I get my stitches out tomorrow. A fellow au-pair friend of mine is working for a doctor lady and she’s graciously agreed to take them out for me tomorrow morning. I’m going to go over to their house and it’ll be quick and easy. Finally! This thing has been a pain in the ass… er, foot.

This week the girls are taking part in a local neighborhood circus next week, which is set up down the street. It’s a bunch of kids from a circus school putting on a show of acrobatics, balancing, rope walking and stuff like that. Eenie and Vee have cousins in the school so they get to be pretty butterflies and run around in circles. I haven’t been yet – I’m taking them to rehearsals tomorrow. They have shows Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and I think I’m going to all three. Either as a guest or as a chaperone, not quite sure. And I have to babysit on Saturday night so Friday is the only night that I get to go out this weekend. Which is fine by me. I wore myself out last week!

I hope that I can start traveling soon. I haven’t been very good at budgeting or saving my money and so I haven’t really been thinking about traveling, mostly about how to live off of 70 EUR for a week and a half. It’s actually not that hard, to be honest. I’m just used to my frivolous spending habits of California and so I always think I’m going to be screwed. But really, I don’t buy anything more than a water bottle here or a snack there. And that’s usually only 3 or 4 EUR total. So I’m okay. For now. Hopefully I’ll have some friends visiting me in August and we can go to Austria or something. Haven’t really decided where yet!

That’s all from me now. I have some laundry to finish and some cleaning to be done. Oh, Wednesdays how I loathe thee. Sigh.

July 20, 2010

Blah

I can’t be bothered to update about the last week. I’ll do it later. Instead, I wanted to share some of the Google search words that have lead people to this blog. Your guess is as good as mine on some of them…

naked "my host"
preteen thongs
sexy minor girl
you tube very very sexy usa german

Not sure about the preteen thongs one. Don’t quite understand it myself. And my personal favorite, because it’s oh so direct…

diary of an american au pair new german girl

When you don’t know the exact link, what else can you do? Haha.

July 15, 2010

A Crippled Lazy Life, Cheese Balls, and Solitary Felines

My life has been marginally pathetic over the last week. Mostly because I am crippled and have no money. I haven’t been leaving the house much during the day, mostly because I sleep until 12:30 or 1 and I’m too lazy to stop doing that. And I can’t walk very well. It gets better everyday but sometimes, I’d rather just lay in bed and read or sleep. And because it’s just so damn hot. The summer weather in Munich is killing me. It’s somewhere between 85 and 90 degrees almost everyday and I am sweating all the time. It’s gross. And it doesn’t help that my bedroom is on the third floor and everybody knows that heat rises. The last few nights I’ve just laid in my bed, my skin feeling sticky and hot, and my body just super uncomfortable. I need a fan. Fortunately today, it’s much cooler since it’s been raining and plans to continue raining. Which is fine by me. The sun can always come back later. Maybe when I have my stitches out and can actually go in the pool again.

The girls have been going to the pool almost everyday. Sometimes I take them, sometimes I don’t. But since I haven’t been able to go in the water I’ve been taking pictures of them. The Frau asked me to make them each a scrapbook that covers the year of their life that I am with them so I figured I better get started on my collections. I’ve been taking A LOT of pictures. I can only imagine what my collection will look like at the end of my year here.

We ended up finding my keys. Remember how I wrote about losing them at the pool?  They had them at the cafe of the sports club where the swimming pool is located. Right where I knew they would be. Disaster averted. We don’t have to change the locks to the entire house at my expense. All is well. Helen told me a story about a host-mom who said that they would have to change the house locks and buy the car a new engine (????) after her au-pair lost her set of keys at Octoberfest. Dang.

One of the best things about my au pair job is that I cook everyday. Granted, I’m not making a lot of different kinds of food but I’m learning. I’m finding that I actually like it and it’s fun. And I’m good at it! German food is interesting. I make a lot of potatoes and bratwurst. Mostly just pasta and salad. But I love the random weird stuff that they have here.

DSCN2971 This is my favorite.
A ball of mozzarella cheese in a bag of water.
You drain the water, of course.
And then serve.
It’s delicious, seriously, I could eat the whole ball.

I’m still enjoying the night life of Munich, as always. I absolutely love going out in this city. It never disappoints. Except when I end up in the hospital. But that’s my own fault. Anyway, I really, really love this city. Pretty much every Thursday I’ve been going out to ToyTown meet-ups. This will be the first week that I don’t. One of Jessica’s friends is in town visiting so we’re showing him around and that doesn’t include Toy Town. We met up with him at a biergarten the other night and took him to get drinks at a really cheap hostel bar and then we went clubbing. We’re going to take him to the Hofbrauhaus and then show him some more of the crazy city life, I imagine. And I just hobble along behind them until I’m a bit buzzed because after a few drinks, I actually walk like a normal person. Haha. I know this probably isn’t the best part about Germany, but I don’t get hungover. I have yet to really regret a night out. At least one night every weekend, sometimes two, I manage to get myself home, completely drunk. I make my UBahn transfers, I get off at the right stop, I unlock my bike and ride it home. And then I pass out in my bed and wake up without a second thought to the previous night’s festivities. People keep telling me that it’s probably because German bier doesn’t have all the crap in it like American beer does. I am going to miss German bier when I go home. :(

And now for some random pictures to wrap it up. I need to add more pictures to my Facebook. I’ve been slacking on that. Sorry Facebook friends!

DSCN2983 Chinesischer Turm in the fading daylight

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The only cat in Munich, Germany. I see him/her every once in a while.
Seriously though… this is the only one. I have yet to see another.

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The summer version of myself. I’m changing colors!

July 14, 2010

The Ultimate Care Package

Those who love and care for me have been asking me if there is anything that I would like from the States while I am here in Germany, enjoying their foreign products. There are, indeed, MANY things that I would love to have sent to me. So I put this entry out there into the world of my loved ones as a guide for friendly suggestions of the things I am craving. Of course, I don’t need them ALL but any combination or choice would be greatly appreciated!

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Tresemme Naturals: Radiant Volume
Shampoo and Conditioner

My favorite and I miss it very much!

ApricotScrub 
St. Ives Apricot Scrub
I haven’t exfoliated my face in almost a month.
That is the longest I’ve gone without this stuff since I was in highschool.
I’m dying for one, two, or even THREE bottles of this stuff.

1204503171-93392_full 
Aussie Instant Freeze Hairspray
Not the highest on my list but it would be nice to have.

skintimate-moisturizing-cream-shave-dry-skin-cashmere-rain-43122 
Skintimate Shave Cream
The most amazing thing ever invented.
I want some really bad. I accidentally left mine
in the shower at my mom’s house. Oops.

macandcheee 
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
Preferabbly a Costco size portion would be GREAT.
My favorite food EVER and I miss it SO much.

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Monsters vs. Aliens DVD
I don’t know why but I really want to watch this movie.
I LOVE IT.
Plus, I think my little German kids would like it too.

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Tampax Pearl Tampons
Germany doesn’t sell applicators tampons.
Annoying. And gross. So I’d LOVE some of these.

aquafina
Aquafina
Just one bottle… to be reminded of it’s goodness.

HBZ07080BH005-de-28775576
Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship
Leave-In Conditioner
For my tangles!

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Herbal Essences Tousle Me Softly Mousse
Because sometimes, I just want it.

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Smashbox Cosmetics Eyeshadow
My favorites… in Cinnamon Toast and Champagne

 

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Old Navy flip flops
Preferably in black but fun summer colors would be cool, too.

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Classic Yellow Mustard
Because if you knew me, you’d know how much I love this.
Mustard in Germany is weird.

oreosdoublestuf
Double Stuf OREOs
Need I explain?

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Nutter Butters
Old classics never go out of style.

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Money
Because that’s always a win situation.
60 bucks gets me 50 Euros!

July 12, 2010

Oh, and For All the Other Stuff I Forgot About

Slicing my foot open wasn’t the only interesting thing that happened to me this past week. I actually did a lot of fun things, believe it or not, and THEN I stepped on glass and rendered myself useless for at least three or four more days. Which is okay because I fully intend to read at least two more books, sleep a lot, watch a movie or two, and not spend any money, seeing as I don’t have any. Thursday, I get paid and it will be glorious to have money again. Until then, I will remain crippled. But my job duties prevail. Today I must take the twinners to the pool but I can’t go in. Cruel and unusual punishment, isn’t it?

Anyway, last Wednesday I left off saying that I was going off with some friends to watch the Germany VS Spain football/soccer game at the Olympia stadium. Well, we went and it was FUN. Even though they lost. This place is MASSIVE. It seats 20,000 and it wasn’t anywhere near to being full but it was still incredible to see that many fans go out to support their football team on a giant television. Americans don’t do that kind of thing. We sit in our living rooms with cheese balls, Tostito pizza rolls, seven layer bean dips, 18 packs of PBR, and Cheetos and watch from the comfort of our living room. Maybe if it was a real match, we’d get off our asses, leave our living rooms, and go watch… but not for a giant TV screen. Deutschland fans are one of a kind.

DSCN2831 Me and Lauren, rockin’ our spirit

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Fans in mass

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DSCN2841 Watching from our seats

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Inside the UBahn after the game. Pure madness.

This, my friends, was one of the experiences of my time here in Munich that I am so grateful to be a part of. It’s a story that I will never forget and I can only imagine how much better it would have been in Germany had actually WON. Oh well, they went on to take 3rd place on Saturday night so GO DEUTSCHLAND! I am forever a football/soccer fan. World Cup is so much fun to watch. Hopefully I can be in Europe every time that it happens. That would be a fun tradition to begin. Three 1/2 weeks every four years for a World Cup vacation. Who’s in?

On Thursday I did the regular schedule all day. Morning with the family and then I went back to bed for a few hours (oops) and then went into the Englischer Garten and just relaxed in the sun and shade.

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Thursday evening I met up with some friends at night to go to the Toy Town meet-up, which had been scheduled for Augustiner Keller biergarten. Navigating the SBahn and UBahn stops is easy now so that wasn’t a problem. I was a little bit late, mostly because I’d had to work right up until 8 pm but I was able to meet Lauren and Catherine at the right spot. We managed to find the biergarten after heading in the wrong direction only once but once we got there, everyone just magically found each other and all was well. We had some bier (ein Maß, of course) and then started rocking out to the German rock band that was playing at the front of the garden. They played a lot of cover songs in English and we had so much fun dancing on tables and rocking out to the weird German music. After the biergarten, we collectively wandered off to a gay bar called Die Bank, where all the TT-goers always want to go. I’m not sure exactly how many of them are actually gay but I’ve been there twice now. But it was fun. We had a good, German time – drinking bier, taking shots, and sitting on really comfortable couches.

DSCN2912 It still impresses me that I can drink these, even after a month of being here.

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German band!

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The girls at Die Bank

I learned a valuable lesson that Thursday night: don’t forget that the UBahn stops running after 1 am on weekdays. If I can manage to remember this, I will never again spend 16 EUR on a taxi. Either that, or carry around the night bus schedule. Save myself some money, geez.

Friday was kind of a lazy day. I was a little burnt out from the night before so I chose to stay in for most of the day. Read my book, didn’t really do much. Every once in a while, this is just what I need. Friday evening I had planned to stay in but when Jessica called me, I made up my mind that I would, in fact, go out with her but after traveling towards her place for 30 minutes, I ended up getting a call from the Frau. She thought that I would be staying in tonight so she had made up her mind to go out so she wanted me to come home. She was nice enough about it but it was kind of annoying. I ended up going back home and I watched a movie and went to bed. No big deal.

Saturday was HOT. I went to the Englischer Garten with Catherine, one of my newest friends here, and we laid in the sun for about 30 minutes before we decided it was just too damn hot. We ended up going into the shade and sat out in the gardens until about 4:30 before Jessica showed up and we went into town. We had dinner at Pizza Hut which, SURPRISE!, tastes just like Pizza Hut in the states. I was under some grand illusion that all the chain restaurants will taste different here in Europe but they’re all pretty much the same. Except McDonald’s – it tastes infinitely better here. Catherine and I want to go to the Hard Rock Cafe soon. I love their food.

DSC03304 Delicious.

Saturday night we went out on the town and I managed to buy all my drinks before so I didn’t spend a bunch of money at the bars. I got three bottles of Augustiner for under 5 EUR, a mini bottle of Jagermeister for 2,49 EUR and a can of Red Bull. Overall, I didn’t spend more than 8 EUR. Which is something I should do more often. Although now that I read back on that, that’s an awful lot of alcohol for one night. No wonder I ended up in the hospital at 4 am. Geez.

You can imagine what I did on Sunday.

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Honestly, I slept all day. People kept calling me to go to the Englischer Gartens but there was no way I was going to be able to do that. I was in so much pain. I just laid in bed and either slept, watched a movie, read my book, or spent time online. It was nice though because I needed the rest, my body was trying to catch up from the traumatic event. 

Now I’m just trying to keep my stitches clean and out of the water so that I can get them removed without any infections or problems next week. Actually, 12 days. So, on July 23. Wow… that’s so far from now. Anyway, I’m going to try to  take it easy until then. Which means I’ll probably just be sleeping a lot and will finish 1-2 books between now and then. Both of those outcomes is okay with me.

I never knew that I would have to leave college to get some really good sleep!

July 11, 2010

Wounded Traveler

The week has ended on an interesting note. I find that Munich is always surprising me. I am making the best of my time here but sometimes, I make really stupid decisions. Although, I’m unsure of why or how exactly it happened but sometime late Saturday night (or early Sunday morning, however you want to look at it) I stepped on a piece of broken glass and sliced my foot open so deep that I could see the subcutaneous fat under my skin. Jessica and I had been out in the city, enjoying Munich’s finest brews, and were on our way to the SBahn and were traveling through Munich’s pedestrian zone, somewhere between Marienplatz and Karlzplatz when I noticed the glass on the ground. My thought processes surrounding the event escape me – I wasn’t really that drunk anymore, most of the buzz had worn off somewhere between the McDonald’s chicken McNuggets and running through the Karlzplatz fountain. It was somewhere close to 4 am as we had been waiting for the trains to start running again so we were well exhausted and just wanted to go to her place to sleep. Unfortunately, the glass took the best of me and I ended up stepping on a piece of it and it sliced through my flip flop and cut right into my foot.

Blood. Everywhere. Gushing blood. It was gross. I was in shock so I hadn’t really registered what had happened at first which is the same sensation that happened when I cracked my shin on cement when I was 12 and a gaping puncture wound developed. It took me about a minute to realize that I was in serious shape and I had to sit down and find something to hold the pressure. I managed to find a German flag napkin in my purse (Danke, Deutschland!) but it didn’t hold much. I was a mess, I could literally see the blood pulsing out of my foot through this huge gash. But strangely enough, it didn’t hurt at all. Jessica was in a state of panic and ran off to see if she could somewhere with napkins or paper towels… anything, and I just kind of sat on the street, holding my bleeding foot with my bloody hands. It was like a battle zone. Really gross.

Fortunately, some nice German people came by and they had a pack of Kleenex and a sense of hospitality and stopped to helped. One of the guys went off to find a taxi and I just kept putting pressure on my foot. Eventually, it stopped bleeding, the taxi came, and Jessica and I were on our way to the klinikum, or hospital. He ended up driving us to two different ones because the first one was closed. But he was very nice and only charged us a 6,50 EUR fare for the ride to the first hospital. Inside the hospital it was a bit of a pain – I don’t speak German very well and the nurses didn’t know very much English but fortunately, the doctor was fluent. They stitched me up (then it started hurting!) and sent me off with the promise of a bill to the house. Fortunately, I have au pair insurance for ‘accidents’ so it will cover the costs.

I got home around 6 am and so far, I’ve spent my Sunday in bed sleeping on and off for six or seven hours, reading my book, watching Everwood on DVD, and took a long, hot bath (keeping my foot out of the water). Which is too bad because all of my friends here in Munich went to the Englischer Gartens today but there is no way I could manage to walk around. Hopefully it will get better in the next few days. But next up is explaining  the situation to my host mom and telling her that I’ll need her to take me the family doctor next week to get the stitches removed.

Ah, anyway. Here’s a picture of my gruesome wound. Not for the faint of heart!

DSC03306 DSC03308 What I’ve been doing all day.