Well, I have now been to Switzerland, and I can tell you that it was beautiful, but you should have a fat pocketbook if you want to go there. We couldn't even get a meal at McDonald's for less than 12 Francs which is basically $12. Luckily, we were only there for a couple of days. We only went to Zürich and Bern, but they were both amazing. The only other bad thing is that I think I caught a cold there, or have really bad allergies at the moment. I am hoping it will go away soon. I drank a whole liter of of OJ today, so maybe that will help.

Yesterday we drove to Stuttgart via Singen, Gottenheim, and Schelingen. Dan lives in Singen at the moment (well, close to Singen) and he recommended going to Hohentwiel, a ruined castle near where he lives. All of us decided that it would be cool to see, and so well all went climbing and exploring and all that jazz. Afterwards we dropped Dan off and then headed to Marcus' 1st host family to get the luggage (Gottenheim) and the mom had made us lunch. It was super nice of her. The 2nd host family (in Schelingen) offered us some cola, Patrick had a Beer and they also gave us some pretty good tips on how to get to Stuttgart. We finally arrived in Stuttgart around 10pm (a little late) and had a pretty good hostel. We decided to walk around for a little, as Patrick had to leave at the crack of dawn this morning, and we saw a bit in the city. Today we (Marcus and I) drove to Strasbourg. We decided we will stay 2 nights here, as we didn't have much time today to sight see. I actually spoke some French today too, which made me happy. I told the front counter that we wanted to stay an extra night (Nous voudrions une autre nuit) and he totally understood me! They have only been speaking French to us. They can speak English and German, but they figured out that we were both thinking about learning French and they decided to help us out. :P They are all really nice about it. I can seemingly get the gist of things, but not nearly enough, and I have no clue how to say things. I am pretty sure that I will learn it someday soon. Our plan for the next few days is to hit up Hagenau, France and then head back to Germany going through Karlsruhe, maybe Speyer, Heidelberg, Mannheim, and Frankfurt. I should have internet again in Frankfurt. Hope everyone is well, see you all soon!

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I have been crazy busy and just couldn't find the time. So here is what I have been up too.

I went to Ulm again for the swearing in of the town Mayor. It is a big deal there. The day is called Schwörmontag and they have tons of events the whole day long. One of the most famous things to see is called the Nabada, which is basically a parade, with homemade floats, on the Danube river. There are always tons of people there to watch and it is mass chaos on the water. Unfortunately, there has been so much rain around here, that the thing was canceled because A. the river was too high (the floats didn't fit under the bridges and B. the current was extremely fast. Oh well, we still partied in the city with the rest of the disappointed people. ;o) The pictures are at the end of the Ulm folder on my photo page.

I have also been going to some great open air concerts. I have been to like 6 in the last 2 weeks. I have some pictures up of my favorite one under the folder Culture Week. I also helped with the Sparkassen Soccer Cup, which was basically a tournament for kids that the Bank sponsors. It is nationwide, and each region competes for a spot in the finals. It is a pretty big deal. I also went to the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart last weekend. Again, check out the pictures.

My last day of work was on Thursday. I spent Friday drinking coffee with Bärbel and her friends and laying in the sun by the pool. Sadly, my arms are still much tanner than my body. :o( I will have to work on that in Arkansas. ;o) Today, I started/finished packing and around 2 we went to Oberkochen to visit Bärbel's parents. Mary, a friend of Bärbel's came along too. They are all super sweet, and we went for coffee and ice cream and then later we all had dinner together. Ilse, the mother of Bärbel, has been crying a lot when she sees me lately. She is sad that I already have to leave, and you all know me, when I see someone else crying I start crying too. All the ladies to day were trying to think of guys they could fix me up with so that I would stay. That was so funny.

I leave tomorrow morning around 7:00 to take the train to Freiburg. From there me and a few others are going to rent a car, drive to Switzerland for a few days, spend a couple more days in Stuttgart and then head to France and then finally up to Frankfurt. On the 7th I am headed to Hamburg to visit Kathi and Anja, and on the 10th I will be headed to Hannover until the 13th. As of this moment, I am scheduled to be home at 8:57pm on the 13th.

Well, I am headed to bed so that I don't oversleep tomorrow. Hope everyone is well, and I will write again as soon as I get to a place that offers internet.

Work is still going pretty good. I still don't have a lot to do, which can sometimes make the time go by slow, but then something always comes up. :o) I only have 9 more work days left. I took the 21st off for a major festival in Ulm called Schwörmontag. No worries, work said it is something I need to see, so I am headed there. We had a festival for all the people at work on Saturday, Betriebsfest, and it was at a castle not to far from Aalen. There was live music, jesters, break dancers and even a Medieval camp. Before Holger and I went there, we stopped at the house of one of his friend's parents. They had invited us to have coffee and cakes with them, Kaffeetrinken. They were extremely nice, and I really enjoyed it. Today, Sunday, I had lunch with the family and then Holger, his girlfriend Julia and I went to the Limes Thermen, a mineral bath. It was really nice. The warm water on such a cool day was quite welcome. The only downside was that there were a lot of people there, and a lot of small children. It was more like a heated public pool than a spa. I am really tempted to go again during the week if the weather is cool. In hopes that it is less crowded. Well, I think I should head to bed, after all, I do have to get up for work tomorrow. ;o)

So I finally decided to give you folks some birthday ideas. I know it is about that time for everyone to start asking me. As about 15 of my DVDs have mysteriously gone missing, I would like the replacements, so here are a few that I can remember (all are wide screen):

Pride and Prejudice
PS I Love You
27 Dresses
Gladiator
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Harry Potter 5 (order of the phoenix)
Monsters Inc.
Bourne Identity
Bourne Ultimatum
Plus I would like the Bourne Supremecy

These are the only ones I know for sure, the rest I will have to check when I get home. Gift cards to Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy are always appreciated.

The weekend in Bavaria was pretty good! I left the house around 6:10 on Saturday morning, as I had to walk to the train station to catch my train at 6:33. I had enough time to grab some snacks from the bakery, and then hopped on and headed to Ulm. I had to change trains there, so Kara and I just met up and we finally made it to Munich around 10. Everyone was going to meet between 10:30 and 11, but our plans were changed. Thomas (from France) drove, but hit bad traffic and was delayed. Marcus decided to carpool with a random person, and they hit traffic too. Poor Allie had a problem with the trains, so she was late too. Both Marcus and Thomas were there by 11 or 11:30, and we headed to check in at the hostel.
We stayed at the Tent Munich. Basically, the blankets were itchy (and probably not that clean)  and the nights were cold, but it was cheap, so we sucked it up. We headed back to the train station to get Allie around noon, and then decided we should eat something. We found a Pennymarkt (like Aldi) and basically got more food than we could eat for about 3 bucks a piece. The leftovers we gave to some homeless guy. After lunch we wandered around for a little while, and then at 4 went on a Mike's Bike Tour. It was a lot of fun, and we got to see tons of sights. We had dinner at the Augustinger Bierhalle and it was wonderful, as expected. Before heading back to the hostel, we walked around a little longer. It was a nice evening, but it did start getting chilly as we were getting back to the hostel.
Sunday we had breakfast around 8 and then Thomas drove us all too Hohenschwangau. The drive was about 1 1/2 hours or so, and there was always something nice to look at. The weather was so wonderful for us. At one point it looked like we were underneath water. I tried to get a pic, but I don't think it did it justice.
We spent the day climbing the Alps, and around 3 Allie, Kara, and I caught a train home.  Thomas and Marcus drove back together. We changed trains twice, and the train going into Ulm was late, so I missed my connection. It was ok though, because I was able to have dinner with Kara and meet her host grandma. :o) Now I am back at work and already thinking about what I want to do next weekend.

PS I finally got internet at home!!!

TGIF!!!! I have made it through an entire month of working in Germany, which means I am half way done.  I leave tomorrow for Munich. We wil be a group of 5, 4 Americans and a Frenchman. Basically, we will spend all of Saturday in Munich and on Sunday we want to go to Füssen and see Neuschwanstein. I am trying to catch up to Laura's 5 times of seeing the thing. :P I can't wait for tomorrow to come, even though I have to get up at the crack of dawn. We are planning on taking a Mike's Bike Tour tomorrow afternoon, and maybe going to the Deutsches Museum in the morning, after finding our hostel of course. Speaking of which, we are staying in a hostel that consits of a giant tent in a park. At least, that is what the description leads me to believe. But hey, it was only like 10,50€ a night, so we couldn't pass it up. I let you know how that goes.

I am hoping that we will get home in time to see the European Meisterschaft Finale. Germany made it in and they will play for the title on Sunday night. Wednesday night they played in teh Quarter Finale and won agaist Turkey. I have never seen people get so excited over a sport, not even the insane Cardinals fans. There was a massive party in the streets until all hours of the night. Amazing!

Well, until Sunday night (assuming I get internet tonight)  or Monday morning.

The Bodensee was Amazing! It is definitely one of the best weekends so far. Mostly because there was no rain, and it was warm. :P Blue skies and not a cloud in sight. We had a group of great people, who were a whole lot of fun. Man, Köln and the Rhein river, and now Bodensee. Wonderful!

Friday night we all finally arrived in Lindau, found the hostel and then had some dinner at a little Italien place. A few of us stayed up just chatting and headed to bed rather late. Our Saturday began with a pretty good breakfast at 8am and then a tour of Lindau in the morning and a boat ride to Bregenz Austria in the afternoon, where we rode a cable car up to the top of a mountain for a great view of the Bodensee and the island of Lindau. That night after dinner we went to a small public viewing of the EM soccer match between the Netherlands and Russia. Russia, the underdogs, ended up winning 3:1, which was pretty much a shock for everyone. That night we had political night. Basically, we just spent the night talking about politics, and didn't end up in bed until around 2am.

This is were the story gets a little random. So when we finally headed to bed, Kara noticed that one of our roomates was missing. WE had a 6 person room, 4 of which were from our group and 2 other people. One of the women was named Deets (last name) and there was someone in her bed. We thought maybe she had checked out, but didn't remember her taking her stuff. We decided to sleep, and around 1/2 hour later she turned up. Kara flipped on the light and we tried to explain that there was some random, old lady in her bed. We didn't have any more beds free in the room, and it was almost 3 in the morning, so she ended up sleeping between me and the other other, original roomate. (the bunks are pushed together at the feet, so there was room at the foot of both of our beds. It was so funny, random.

Sunday we spent the whole day at the Bodensee. Just swimming and lounging in the sun. There was no sand at the beach, instead it was all grass, but still really nice. There were a few pools to swim in, and a water slide, but apart from riding the slide a few times, we mainly stayed in the cold waters of the Bodensee. It was so surreal. There were Alps all around us, and the lake is surrounded by Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We left Lindau around 5pm, and luckily enough, there was another group of 3 that asked Kara and I to share their 5 person ticket, so it only cost around 5€ to get to Ulm, but I still had to pay 12,80€ to get from Ulm to Aalen.

Next weekend a small group of us are headed to Munich. Should be yet another good weekend.

Well, it is almost 12:30 here in Aalen, and I am off work and headed home to gather my things for a weekend at the Bodensee, Lake Constance for those non-German speakers out there.  The group will basically consist of the students from Webster University in St. Louis, and maybe a few other international students, which means we finally won't have to think of how to say everything we mean. :P Actually, regarding language, I am really happy with myself at the moment. I have only been here 3 weeks, and I am already back to the point that I don't have to translate things in my head. Words just go in and come out, almost with no effort. There are some words that I don't know how to translate, and therefore have to think about, but for the most part I can finally just talk. :o)

We got the program for the trip yesterday. Sounds like we have some really cool things planned. Tomorrow we are going to take a tour of Lindau (the city we are staying in) and then going on a boat ride across the lake to Bregenz, Austria. Sunday we get to go swimming in the lake, or in an indoor pool if the weather is bad (it isn't supposed to be), and then we head home around 2 or so. I am really excited about seeing everyone, and about visiting a new place.

Well, I didn't go to Ulm this weekend, because Kara had to work. We still have a few weekends left. Instead, I spent most of the weekend with the Kreuttner's Saturday, I walked to the grocery store around one and then just lounged around in the sun for a while, and Sunday I spent most of the day with the Family. After eating lunch with Herr and Frau Kreuttner, Frau Kreuttner and I, along with another one of her friends (Mary), went on a walk. It rained on us, but we had umbrellas, so we just kept walking. :P

After our walk we drove to a little cafe, and had some coffee and cakes. Yummy! We talked there for a while, hoping that it would quit raining, but then finally decided that we should leave. On the way home we drove through a town called Ellwangen. It is really cute, and I would like to visit there when it isn't raining. After we dropped Mary off Frau Kreuttner let me drive home!!! :D That was fun! Good thing I drive a stick at home!
When we got home we found out that Holger broke his right shoulder blade, or something in that general area (I don't know all my bones in German). He was supposed to run a half marathon next weekend, but it looks like that isn't gonna happen, plus he can't drive or ride a bike for 6 or 7 weeks. I might have to drive a little more than expected.

The newest news about work is that I wrote a press release today (in German). It wasn't very long, but it kinda made me feel accomplished. :P

In other news, Kara and I got invited to go to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) with the rest of the students from the US, and a few other international students. They are farther south than we are, and we weren't expecting to be invited. We were planning on going to Stuttgart this weekend to watch Holger run, so I want to make sure it is ok if we accept the invite. I'll write when I know more.

Well, this week has been pretty unevenful until today. We finished packing all the cards for the clients yesterday, and today we had to sort them all and take them down to the post. That took a while, as there were tons of seperate envelopes. We got back up to the office, and were in the middle of reading newspapers (we do that everynow and then, looking for info on the Sparkasse and their competition) and Herr Mauler came in with a couple bags full of fresh prezels, orange juice and sekt (type of champagne). I am pretty sure that we were somewhat celebrating his birthday. It was a week or 2 ago, but this was the first day that everyone was there. So, that was pretty fun, a nice little break from work at 11 in the morning. :P

I have been going on little walks with the Kreuttners lately. That is always a good time, and it is nice to take a little walk through the woods after dinner.

I think I will go visit Kara in Ulm on Saturday, we'll see how everything works out. On Wednesday next week I don't have to work as long, because Kara and I were invited for dinner in Heidenheim. The director of the BA there invited all the international students to have dinner together, so that should be fun!  Well, I am finally headed home after yet another long day. Hope everyone is doing well!

Kara, the other intern in Ulm, came for a visit on Saturday. I slept in a bit, and then did some shopping before I picked her up at the train station. We had a Döner for lunch, and then headed back to the house to meet with the Kreuttner family. Around 1:30 we went on a walk through the mountainous forest, in the direction of Oberkochen. Frau Kreuttner's parents live there, and after about an hour or so, we made it to the ice cream place! :D I had some yummy spaghetti eis, and Kara had a good looking Crepe. Herr Kreuttner had driven the car to Oberkochen, so we drove back with him, relaxed a little at home, and then had dinner with the family. After we ate, Herr Kreuttner broke out the accordian, and started taking requests. He could play pretty much everything. Amazing! That night got even better, when Kara and I went into the city for Night Shopping. Basically, every business stays open until midnight, and they celebrate this once a year event with fireworks, fire dancers food and drink everywhere.

Sunday we had lunch with the Kreuttner's at the Sparkasse Soccer Cup, a youth soccer tournament. We didn't get to see much of the games, but the food was good, and the kids seemed to be having fun. I dropped Kara off at the train station around 2 and walked back to the house by way of a nice little park, and later joined the Kreuttner's again for the Europa Meisterschaft. There is a big soccer tournament in Europe which started Saturday night, and Germany's first game was yesterday. So we went to a Public Viewing in Essingen (not far from Aalen) and were treated to some free, multi-cultural food. I left around 9:30 with Katja, at the half, but I know Germany won the game 2 to nothin, and it was really fun to watch it with a big group of people.

Now it is back to the work week. I am just headed out of the Sparkasse to get some food for dinner. Bis Später!

Yesterday I started the day later, because I went to have a cappucino with Frau Kreuttner. That was nice, we got to know each other a little bit more, and the cappucino was good. I spent most of the day entering info into the computer. We have a lot of that ahead of us. o_O Last night, after work, Herr und Frau (Mr. and Mrs.) Kreuttner, and I went to the sneak preview of Falco. It was a little hard to understand, because Falco was an Austrian, so naturally they spoke a lot of Austrian. o_O But it was a good film, and I understood most of it.

Today, I again entered in a lot of info, but also wrapped 120 gifts for clients. The gifts were saftey vests to put in the car, for when the car breaks down, and you have to stand on the side of the road. By the end I was pretty fast at wrapping, but we still have another box of them to wrap. Tomorrow, I am not coming to work. LOL! Instead, I got permission to go with the other intern (Jeannine) to her lesson. She is working here in cooperation with her school, and tomorrow they have group discussion and group work. I thought it might be interesting, and will give me another chance to meet more people.

I have plans to go with the Kreuttner's on a walk on Saturday. I don't know where too exactly, but it should be fun. They are so nice! Kathe, the daughter, comes home tomorrow, and I am hoping to finally figure out why the internet doesn't work. At least I hope we can figure it out. She knows the most on how to fix it according to Holger. I don't know what else the weekend will bring, but we are supposed to have good weather, so I am looking forward to a little relaxation! :o)

So, I am in Aalen. Köln was great, and my housing is also great. I am just getting ready to leave work now, but perhaps I can catch everyone up with pictures later on. I will try to make a lot of comments. Work seems great, I get 2 free days, and there are a lot of opportunities for weekend events as well. Sorry I can't write more at the moment, but I can't get the internet to work at home. I have full bars, but the thing refuses to connect. So, I will try to figure it out, hopefully soon, and pics will come! Hope everyone is doing well. :o)

I made it to Heidenheim, and am headed to Köln (Cologne) until Sunday. I start work on Monday morning, so I will post more when I can. I have to get up early, we are leaving at 7:30am. So yeah, more info to come!

Back from Rambouillet. The weekend was nice. The train ride on Sat. was about 30 min, and Marie's mom picked us up at the station. After showering, we met with Marie's friend Riema (not sure if I spelled that right) and headed to dinner at a creperie. It was really good. we met Riema's sister and one of the sister's friends for dinner and then headed back to Riema's apartment to watch the Eurovision Song Contest. Basically a gathering of European countries to see who has the best artist. Russia ended up winning. :P

Today Marie and I slept in and then had lunch with the family. It was yummy! Marie's mom made white asparagus and then as an entree we had pork tenderloin and vegetables. mmmmm! And for dessert, strawberries and sugar. :o) After lunch Marie and I went to the castle in the city. It was so cute, and there was a garden and a lake with lots of cute goslings and ducklings. :D  We walked around the city a little and then headed to the Hippodrome (a horse race track). There was a race today, and we were lucky enough to see it run. While I was so busy taking pictures I didn't realize I had stepped in an ant hill. o_O Needless to say, that wasn't much fun. no bight marks though.

We took the train back to Paris around 5:30 and met our friend Laure for dinner in the city. We ate at a Mexican style restaurant called El Rancho, also very tasty. Tomorrow I will take a free,  3.5 hour tour of Paris and in the evening I want to go to the Champs Elysees to see it all lit up at night. It should be a fun day! Laura and I took similar tours in Amsterdam and London, and they were good. We will see how this one compares. I will let you know tomorrow!

So I went to the airport, and no luck. I don't know where they are. It totally sucks! Oh well, that's life. After the 2 and a 1/2 hour trip to the airport, I went to the Tuileries, a garden near the Louvre and at 6pm got in free at the Louvre. (people under 26 get in for free after 6pm on Wed. and Fri.) I visited the Denon and the Richelieu wings. The Denon wing houses the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo (the latter of which I didn't look for this time). I hadn't seen the Richelieu wing before and it was magnificent. Mostly sculptures and Napoleon III's apartments. I will post pics soon. I got back to the apartment around 8 and met with another friend of Marie's. We had dinner and dessert and just chatted for a bit. It was very nice! Tomorrow I will visit Marie's parents, with her of course, in Rambouillet. We will be back on Sunday sometime. Well, it's 2am and I am finally tired. Good night, and I will write again soon.

To start with, one of  my bags was over by 6 pounds, and they charged us 50 dollars. My flight to Detroit was pretty good, a little bumpy at the end, but pretty good. The flight to Paris wasn't so great. They boarded everyone and then found a problem, so we sat on the plane for over an hour. My seat was all the way in the back, and next to the window, nit ,y favorite seat. Oh yeah, and it started to rain while we waited, so it was a rough start after take off. Well, the movies were good. we had a choice of 20 or so, and you could start and stop the, whenever you wanted. That was cool, and right before that started, they played the "Airobics" video. LOL, that was funny. It was basically how to stretch on the plane. It made me laugh.

We got into Paris around 12:30 and then I had to wait for my stuff and go through custo,s and everything, and then came the fun part. I had to get throught the subway with 2 bags and my carry-on. o_O It was crazy, but I had some help fro, a few rando, people, so I made it. I met a random guy from Taylorville, his name was Nate. He noticed my SIUE shirt and was like hey, are you really from Edwardsville? So we went a ways together, and had a good conversation.

Last night Marie and some of her friends and I went to a Karaoke place, that was fun. When I got home I went to get my DVDs out, and they weren't there. They either fell out on the plane, or got taken out on my way to Marie's. I am hoping for the former. Well, I am headed back to the airport to see if I can find them, and then probably to the Louvre. Wish me luck!

I leave at 5 tonight! I am pretty much done packing, just have to throw a few more things in and then zip it all in. I am pretty excited, but still a little nervous. I know that everything will be fine when I get there, just a little loose nerves.

Well, enough of that. I guess I will tell you all how I am getting there. First I will fly from St. Louis to Detroit and then on to Paris. Somehow I will find my way to my friend Marie's place, and stay there until the 27th. I am looking forward to seeing all my friends again, and the city too. I'll write again when I get into Paris, or as soon as I find internet. ;o)

Well, I just got another e-mail, and now I know about where I will be living. My supervisor's (supervisor at Sparkasse) will be renting me a flat! I will have it all to myself, and will be invited occasionally to to family's house for dinner or visiting. :o) It should be nice! I also got the e-mail of one of the students who came to the US for an internship, she lives in Aalen too. Oh yeah, and I will get a monthly salary, because I will have to buy food on my own. Looking forward to getting there!

PS: I'M DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks like I will now be working for Sparkasse instead of Zeiss, but I will still be in Aalen. :o) I still don't know where I will be living, but that should come soon. Well, I hope it comes soon, cause I leave 2 weeks from tomorrow. o_O I am a little nervous about working in Germany. I really hope my German is ok. I mean, I passed the test they gave us, but still. Nervousness!!! I know it will be fine, and I am excited about it.

My finals are this week. One on Wednesday and four on Thursday, and then I'm done. I will be graduating on Saturday!!!!!! :D This should be a pretty good week!