Tales of a Sky

Monday - My last day in Europe

2009-05-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

So it has taken me a while to get this last post up, but I figured that this trip needed an ending for anyone who read this. So here is the last day :)

Monday morning I woke up and I got on the computer to finish going through my pictures and getting them ready for bringing back to the U.S. I also updated my blog with all my Crete info. We didn't have anything planned for the day, but packing and getting our stuff together. I wanted to go on a hike though at some point. Around 10:00 on of my Aunts friends and her son came over to talk to my grandparents about camp. My grandparents are involved with a camp in Northern Minnesota called Flaming Pine Youth Camp. My Aunts friends were visiting MN this next summer and wanted to know about the camp. After they left my grandparents said they were going to get ready and go on a hike to Felsberg. That's the town I went to on my third or fourth day. I was almost done posting pictures and told them they could go on ahead of me and I would catch up. They didn't walk mvery fast, and I did, so I didn't think it would be a problem. About 10 minutes later I was getting ready and out the door. I had my camera around my shoulder and my sunglasses on. It was gorgeous out! The flowers were blooming and the air smelled of fresh grass and trees. I took some photos quick and then got on my way to catch up with my grandparents. I figured if I was walking 1 1/2 times fast then they were that I would catch up to them right before Felsberg. So right as I got to the trail entrence I heard some thunder and I looked up at the sky. There was a bunch of clouds to the south and I was like... wow that was a quick change of weather. One minute it's sunny and I'm wearing sunglasses and the next minute it's getting cloudy and thundering a little in the distance. Never the less I kept going. I took the trail that we walked on my first day and walked along the Nekar river. Then instead of continuing on to the dam I took a trail to the left that went up the bluff and was on my way to Felsberg. For a long portion of the trail it was just a diagnal cut up the bluff and pretty straight. About 1/3 of the way up, it started to rain a little bit. Which was no big deal. I put my camera undr my shirt and kept walking. I was enjoying the peacful thinking time. All of a sudden the rain started to come down really heavy and I had to duck under some trees. I thought to myself, "what a wonderful story... I get stuck in a heavy downpour in the middle of the woods in Germany.... how wonderful!" So I doged from tree to tree and speed up the hill. I passed a bunch of people coming down and they all had umbrellas and rain coats on. And when seeing me in my shorts and a t-shirt they probably thought I was crazy. Well actually they probably saw I was American and that's all they needed. haha - just kidding :P

So I then got to a different part of the trail where I had to take some turns. I have a pretty good sense of direction so I made a few forked trail turns and ended up getting to the town with out getting lost. I walked through the small arch that was on the west side (I think) and there were a couple people waiting under there in the rain. I smiled and walked by and they all laughed. I'm not sure if they were laughing at me or laughing at something they were talking about. The one thing that was worrying me is that I hadn't seen my grandparents yet. I was going at a pretty fast pace up the hill and was really surprised I didn't see them at all! I knew the towns lay out so I looked around where they said they were going and they weren't there. So I walked to the little cafe we went to the other time we came and looked for them there, but they weren't there either. I went to an antique shop and looked for them there and bought something. Then I went back to the cafe and had a Chocolate crepe. I had been wanting one the whole time I was in Crete and now under these very strange turn of events I was getting one :) - haha. So I had my hot crepe and then walked outside and it was sunny again! So then I walked all the back down the hill and took some pictures. I got back to the house and walked up and knocked on the door and my grandma opened it. I was very surprised. How was it they were back before me?!? - Turns out my grandpa took a different trail that came out somewhere else before the village and since it was raining they took shelter under someones garage leento. The owner saw them and offered them a ride home, which they excepted. So the whole time I was hiking in the rain and looking for them in the town all soaked they were under a garage leanto about 2oo meters down the road. So that was my adventure of the day! IT was rather fun though and I enjoyed getting out and hiking on my own.

That night after everyone got home we all got in the car and went to a pizza place that my cousin Emily really liked. It was very cool. It had a large stone oven that had a woodburning fire around the edge. They would make the pizzas and back them on these wooden pizza boards and put them in the large stone oven. They were very good. Before we ate though we ordered and then went and walked around outside. We went up and down the long mall street again. On our way back I passed this guy who was selling all these figures made out of metel. He had used this soft metel wire and formed all these different things. It was really cool! I saw a drumset one, but then saw a guitar one and bought it for my little brother. We got back to the restaraunt and waited for our food. It took a long time, but it finally came! It was really good and I ate almost my entire pizza. After that we went home. I finished packing and that was a mircale. I was able to get it all in my backpack and suitcase though and even though it was super tight it all fit. I made sure I didn't have anything illigal and then set it all very neatly by the door and went to bed.

That was my last "full day" in Europe and my last adeventure continues with... The flight home!

Ooops

2009-04-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why the wednesday post is out of order... but it is... sorry bout that! :)

A day at the beach!

2009-04-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

Wednesday:

It was a very beautiful day! The sky was clear and the sun was shining really bright and was really hot. We decided that we would just spend the day on the beach and hanging out. After breakfast my Uncle Dennie, Mr. Cook and I walked to a beach down the road that was a lot bigger than the one we were on. We almost went to that beach, but it was kind of a long walk and we figured it be better to be close to the hotel and be able to go back to it with out having to walk 15 minutes. So everyone walked down to our beach. Laura, Kyle and I had tried to make a sand castle Monday night, but we didn’t have any buckets or shovels so w used some plastic we found to dig. I wanted to make a much better castle so I went to the store and bought myself a very cool and stylish “Finding Nemo” bucket that included a rake and shovel. I felt very coo walking across the beach with a Nemo bucket... Ok just kidding I didn’t. :P haha - anyway Zack and I saw that the girls had started making a sand castle so we decided we could make a better one and made our own. The kept taunting us and telling us ours looked horrible, but I think deep down they were just jealous because our sand castle turned out pretty amazing. I have pictures on my website of it. After we made a sand castle we goofed around in the water and tried to get the adults to get wet... which didn’t happen. I layed in the sun for a while and then did some other things that involved water. Later in the afternoon I went on a run up the bay and ended up going off road running and went over this hill and found a hidden bay that had a really cool rockbar... like a sand bar except with rocks instead. It was very tricky getting down to it because it was steep and I had to do a little rock climbing, but I was careful and took my time. I got down there and enjoyed the cool little rockbar and walked across it while looking for rocks. I wish I had my camera while I was there, but it’s hard to run with a big Cannon over your shoulder. I then ran back and scraped up my legs quite a bit while I played dodge the pokey bushes. I then stopped and hiked up a rock that gave a really nice view of the bay and the ocean and sat there for a while. After eating the teenagers went up to one of the adults rooms and we watched over the hedge while playing Uno. Despite starting off really bad I ended up winning the game like 10 minutes before the movie ended. Talk about good timing! We all were tired so we went back to our rooms and went to bed. I’m really tired as well so I’m going to call it a night as well!

My adventure continues with.... Santorini!!

The trip home :(

2009-04-13T03:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday: I woke up around 4:00am for some reason and was hoping that it was time to get up, but it wasn’t so I fell back to sleep again and woke up around 6:40am to the beginning of the sunset. I debated with my sleepy self whether or not to go down to the beach or not and decided not to because I felt really tired and had really bad heartburn from the pig we ate last night. My grandpa was up and gave me some antacid. I went back to sleep and woke up around 7:00am feeling a lot better. Though my stomached still felt a little funky. I took a shower and finished packing while everyone else was down eating breakfast. I brought my stuff down and then quickly went in and had some... yes yogurt. I had to have one last bowl! Well actually two... haha Then we brought our stuff down to the main hotel place. We all walked up right as the bus came, but then it didn’t stop and just kept on going. We then figured out that it had to turn around first before it picked us up. It came back around and we loaded our luggage and got on. We all had a seat this time and had a very comfortable ride to the airport. We walked off the bus and right into the airport where we immediately got in line to check our luggage in. We slowly moved through the line and talked a little bit. We checked our luggage with no problem and then made our way to security. I “unloaded” myself into the little plastic tray and made it through the scanner with out setting anything off this time. We sat down by our gate and waited. I took out my book and read a little bit. I also talked with the other kids for a bit before we boarded. The dreaded announcement came over the speaker and we all boarded our plane back to civilization (otherwise known as Germany). We walked out onto the tarmac and then took a bus 300 meters down the runway to the airplane. We boarded and my grandparents and I were in the very last row of the airplane and I got a window seat. It was very cool. The leg room was also nice. I took pictures as we took off, which I’m sure broke some rules. And then read and listened to music the rest of the trip. I think I might have dozed off once for about 10 minutes. We were served lunch, which consisted of a chicken tomato sauce on noodles and a piece of packaged chocolate cake for dessert. It’s not restaurant food, but it wasn’t too bad. The sky was clear so I got a really nice view of the ocean and land the whole time. We flew over Austria and I got to see some beautiful mountains. I took pictures of a lot. My window was kind of iced up though, so they won’t be the best. I pretty much glanced out the window every 2 minutes to see what new land feature was making its appearance. It was a really nice flight and probably my favorite yet. The landing was very smooth and everyone clapped as we pulled in which was a cool experience. We got our stuff and went to the bus and were driven across the runway to the airport. We went to the baggage claim and did that whole deal and then made our way through the giant maze of the Frankfurt airport. There was a lot of going up and down escalators and taking trams, but we finally ended up at the train station where we met up with everyone minus the Jackson family. I guess a piece of their luggage didn’t come through right away so they missed the first train. We road to Monheim and I typed most of this up. We got off and walked to the next train station where we said our good byes and parted. I was kind of sad. I had a lot of fun with the group of people I was with. I wonder if I will ever see them again. I’m definitely adding them on Facebook and in the future am going to make an effort to meet up with them sometime; whether that’s when I got back to Germany or if they come to the states. My grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins then boarded our next train and took off. We got to the train station and Dennie went and got the van. I spent some time typing some more of the trip up until Dennie got back with the van. We loaded up and hen went home. We unpacked everything and I brought my stuff up to my room. I opened up my suitcase and was blown back by the repuslive smell coming from it. I definitely have some laundry to do! After I got my clothes sorted and unpacked my stuff a little more I got dressed for a run. I ran to one of the trails that goes along the Neckar and ran to the dam that we went to on our first day. I then ran back on the trail that goes along the river and up this really long hill! It was almost a mile uphill. It was tough, but I kept myself going knowing that if I was running with someone I would tell them not to stop. So I took my own encouraging words and won against the hill! I got back to the house and took a shower and then spent some more time typing. The ice cream man came down the street and we went and got some ice cream. I got speghetti ice cream with vanilla and chocolate ice cream. It was really good. We then sat down and watched some of our trip to Crete on video. I then went up to my room and spent some time reading a book I picked up. Then I got online and checked my email around 9:00 and had a whopping 72 e-mails.... I sorted through them all so I didn't have to do it on my las day. Then I went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly!

It was a very good day and even though I'm not in Crete any more I'm very happy to be back AND I'm even more excited to go back home!

My adventure continues with... One last day :)

Another trip to the Southside!

2009-04-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday: Today we had planned to go on the Catamaran. It was a boat that went around a portion of the island and went into different coves and stuff. Because of the weather however we decided to drive to the south side of the island and see if it was sunny and walk around the town by this beach. We ate breakfast like usual (I feel I say that everyday, but its part of it I guess) and then loaded up in our different vehicles and headed out. The trip was pretty smooth at first. We stopped at our first gas station (soon to be two more) to get gas and batteries, but then decided not to get gas right away because we would have to wait. So then we kept going and then got low on gas and stopped again for real this time. After we left that gas station I kind of fell asleep a little. I was awakened when I heard an “Oh my goodness that car is going to hit that rock!”... “Wow that barely missed the Cooks car...” And then Michelle Jackson radioed in with a “Holly crap that rock just hit our windshield and there is glass in my lap!” This all happened within like 20 seconds. What started as a smooth ride to the south side of Crete for a walk on the beach quickly turned into a big deal. At first everyone was like wow the whole windshield shattered into their laps, but I was like that couldn’t have happened because they would have like swerved off the road because it would have hit their face and the rock would have hit someone and windshields are really really hard! It turned out I was right and the windshield just had a giant smash in it with cracks going every direction. Thank God that the rock grazed the hood before hitting the windshield or it might have gone right through and hit Mrs. Jackson. Mr. Jackson and Kyle were alright, but Mrs. Jackson had some glass all over her lap. The windshield hadn’t broken, but the glass from the other side fell off. The gas station had an air machine for blowing up tires and Mr. Jackson blew all the glass out of the car. We all had gotten out of our cars and kind of surrounded the Jackson’s car and were trying to decide what to do. My uncle called the insurance company and then the car company and arranged for another car, but someone had to drive the one with the cracked windshield back to the nearest car rental place to trade. They told us that it wasn’t bad enough for it to be too dangerous to drive. So even though the group really didn’t want Mr. Jackson to drive it he said it would be fine and he would just take care of it while we went on. So he left and we all continued on to the beach which was not even 5 minutes away. Talk about everything happening just right... or just wrong. We got to the beach and it wasn’t much different from the weather we had on the north side of the island. We walked into the town and looked around for about 10 minutes and then went somewhere to eat. My uncle and two cousins went to a place to have crepes, but then when we ordered they said they didn’t have any so I just got a milkshake and then went up to the restaurant that everyone else was at and got a pizza. The service there was really nice. I walked in and the guy pulled out a chair for me and then pulled out another chair and said “This for your stuff” and pointed at my backpack and camera. I thought that was funny. The pizza was good, but I was only able to eat half of it. After we ate we walked around the little town and went in and out of the different stores looking at all the various little trinkets and souvenirs. There were two shops that were really cool and both sold pottery. I passed one at the last minute and saw a guy inside making a pot so I walked in. There was a lot of really cool stuff! It’s too bad I didn’t have enough money to get anything. I guess I’ll just have to come back! We all met back at the beach at 4:00 and talked while the Laura, Kerri and Ana walked back. Once we were all there we loaded up and got going again. It was back to the North! About ½ way back we stopped in a little town where we looked around again. We stopped mainly for the bakery and got some Baklava and some 50 cent ice cream. After that stop we drove the rest of the way home and spent some time packing. After packing a little bit I finished a game of 500 that I was playing with my cousin Emily, my uncle Dennie and Zack. Zack and I ended up winning surprisingly! We made plans to eat at a restaurant down on the beach instead of at the hotel. The adults went down to the restaurant/bar a couple of nights to watch soccer and got to know the guy who runs it really well. He was super awesome! When he asked me what I wanted to drink he kind of waved his hand and was like “And you sir, what would you like to drink?” and I said, “I would like a Fanta.” And then he said with a smile, “sounds good to me!”... just the way he approached us and talked with us was very welcoming! We were served bread as a started and then we had Greek salad. Greek salad comes differently, but we had tomatoes, cucumbers, a little bit of lettuce, onions and olives. I was kind of disappointed with the olives... I’m sure they are amazing to the people in Greece, but to me they were very bitter and salty. They were like a step up from green olives. I like the canned ones better J We were then served huge plates of pork. I’m not sure what cut we got... I think it was some of everything. We also had some amazing potatoes that were cooked with olive oil and seasoned. It was a very delicious meal. For dessert we had a coconut cake that was very moist and was soaked in some sort of sauce. And then a very interesting custard like cube. Nobody knew what it was. The best I can describe it is that it was a stiff, lemon flavored custard, that almost had a bread texture... it was very good what ever it was!

After we ate the teenagers walked down to the beach and played around with a soccer ball. Then Ana and Laura and a kid that Ana met at the hotel walked down to the pier. Olivia, Emily and Zack went back to the hotel. Karrie and Kyle stayed on the beach and listened to some music and I walked over to the pier because I felt uncomfortable with the three others being over there when it was dark out with some other strangers sitting in their boats smoking. I wasn’t going to judge, but I wanted to make sure they didn’t fall off or something. We then walked back to the beach and then walked up to the hotel where we had Baklava. Baklava is a very flaky sweet pastry. It soaked in a very sweet sauce and when you eat it drips from your mouth. It is so good, but very rich! I can only eat a little bit at a time. After we ate that we all headed to bed. I spent some time writing a little bit and then went to bed at midnight.

My adventure continues with.... The trip back home :(

Another day on the beach B-)

2009-04-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

Friday: Friday we all woke up to a very clear sky and a bright shining sun... it was definitely a beach day and we declared siege to the beach once more. Before we did so we all ate breakfast. I have been crazy about the yogurt and chocolate here and have had it every morning... but I took it a little far when I had 6 bowls of it... and yes I was very full. I was very full all day in fact! After I finished breakfast for the first time I laid down on then lounge chair by the pool and fell asleep in the sun for what seemed like for ever (and was only 15 minutes). It was one of those sleeps where you drift in and out of consciousness catching different pieces of conversations and wake up very out of it and confused... if you have ever experienced that :P I woke up and it was right before 10:00 (when breakfast ends) so I went in and had some more yogurt and proceeded fill myself for the rest of the day. We spent most of the day lying in the sun. I played a game of scrabble and through the Frisbee around. Zack and I invented a game that was like hand ball except the goal was a whole in the sand. You had to pass the ball and only got 3 steps and if you through it in the hole you got 1 point and if you kicked it in you got 2 points. At first it was Zack, Kyle, my uncle Dennie and I, but then it was “the old guys” against us “youngens”. We ended up tying that one because they got tired out J It was a lot of fun. I was very careful about the sunscreen that I put on so I didn’t end up sunburned on any other part of my body. It was a very relaxing day and I got some good pictures. After the sun started to go down we all packed up and went to a beach in a smaller bay next to the one we were on. It had a lot of really nice skipping rocks so we had a "Rock Skipping Competition". We all got rocks and then started off for the most skipps. Dennie one that one with 8, but later I skipped 10. Zack won highest arc... he serisously skipped it and the rock would go 6 feet in the air. We pretty much skipped rocks and walked around for awhile. I got some good pictures of the sunset... or rather the clouds from the sunset. We went back to the hotel and got some food and then I went up to the Jackson's where some of the other kids were hanging out and played backgammon with Kyle while the girls watched 13 going on 30.... which is really.... well I don't want to offend anyone who likes it so I won't say any more. haha :P

After that we all went to bed. It was a great day and I'm enjoying the great sunny weather :)

My adventure continues with... Another trip to the Southside!

Santorini

2009-04-13T03:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday: I got up early and went out onto a ledge at the tip of the cove and got to watch a full sunrise. It was really colorful. I wonder why the sun doesn’t shine when it first comes up out of the ocean... it’s just a red circle with colorful clouds. It was a good little while just sitting there. I walked back to the hotel and packed quickly for the day trip to Santorini. We then ate breakfast (which for me consisted of two bowls of yogurt and chocolate sauce... Mmmm so good!) and then those of us who were going hit the road. It was my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, my two cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Cook, Mrs. Cooks sister Megan, their two daughters Olivia, Delanie, Laura Jackson, Kerrie Smith and I that went. We drove to the port and got a good parking spot and went in to buy our tickets. After that we walked to the boat. It was like a ferry cruise liner hydrofoil. It wasn’t very big and it was really fast. It had two pontoons on either side. It was really loud as we boarded. We found our seats rather quickly and then waited to take off. The boat then backed out and pulled forward. I was surprised at how fast it moved. I didn’t get a window seat, but I was able to see out the back of the boat at the water the engines was spraying. It was really cool and would probably have been amazing to water ski behind... actually probably not :P My aunt Debby, Grandma, Grandpa and I all played a game of scrabble and then I tried to get a nap. With in two hours we were there. It was a really fun trip and my first boat ride across the ocean... or the Mediterranean. We got off the boat and then took a bus up this really steep and windy road to the main town and largest port where all the huge ships land. I was amazed at the bus drivers. They make so many sharp turns and impossible scrapes I’m surprised they don’t have accidents all the time. People in cars need to learn how to drive like bus drivers in Crete! Oooo actually that may not be a good idea! We got to the top of the island which is actually a giant volcano crater and the only one of its kind. The whole main island is actually the base out of a really old volcano. And the middle island is the top that sunk in after it exploded. It was really interesting to think of it that way. The ocean has filled in most of it. We walked through the town a little bit and went to get tickets to ride the lift? Down to the port where we could then ride donkeys/mules up a trail. It was a cool ride down and a great view of the town and cliffs. We then waited for a while as people looked around and then we made our way to the donkey place. We all bought tickets and then walked up to where the donkeys were parked. Some of us got put with another person. Emily and Ana road together, Todd and Delanie did and Megan and Laura did. The rest of us were single person. It was a long ride up, but super fun! We didn’t have to have anyone lead us either. We just got on and the donkey did the rest. I started out in 5^th place and ended up in first because my donkey was a speed demon. He must know my style

B-)

Once we got to the top again we went to a restaurant on the cliff and ate. I had a Gyro for the third day in a row and had it served to me in yet another way. The first time is was a pita wrap, the second time it didn’t come with pita and was just onions meat, French fries and sauce. The third time I got the pita on the bottom with the meat and sauce on top with French fries. All three were really good, but the first one was my favorite.

After lunch we walked through the town and went in all the different stores. After that we went back to our meeting place which overlooked the bay/port. Todd, his wife Molly and I walked down the stairs to a church and I took some good pictures. We also so a very young couple (teenagers) sitting in the corner of a dome on the church sitting in a very inappropriate position. I then ran up the stairs and then looked around in the stores some more. I went to the main road thinking I would make a loop and come around where we came up, but I couldn’t find it so I walked back to the other spot where everyone was. Turns out that I was like 20 feet away from the road I needed to take to finish the loop. I just needed to go a little further. I have a pretty good sense of direction so I knew I was in the right spot. I just needed to do a little more looking. We walked back to the bus station and rode it back down the windy hill. We passed like 6 buses all of which with like a foot in-between. It was incredible. We got down to the bottom of the hill to the port and had about 45 minutes to wait. We all sat in the shade of an old bus station and waited. I ran up this old road to take some pictures of a barn and stuff and came back. I bought some water and then talked with everyone. There were some puppies that we saw in an alley across the street so I went over and asked the guy who owned them if I could take pictures. I got a couple cute ones. The girls then went over and looked at them. They were some sort of golden retriever mix. After 15 more minutes of waiting our boat came. We got our tickets out and boarded and then rode it back to Crete. It was a very fun trip! After our boat docked we got all our stuff and headed back to the vans. We only had two vehicles because not everyone came so it was a quick departure. We were pushing it as far as time went so we were barely going to make it back to the hotel in time for dinner, but thanks to my uncle Dennie’s professional driving skills we made it back with 30 minutes to spare. We had a good dinner and then hung out for the rest of the night. We were all pretty tired so we showered and got rid of any donkey smell that had come back with us and then went to bed. I slept pretty well!

My adventure continues with.... Another day on the beach B-)

A trip to the Southside!

2009-04-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: I slept well last night and woke up before 8:00 sometime to some pretty loud thunder. I was still kind of tired to I slept and woke up at 8:00. I then quietly got dressed and went down to breakfast. The only one down there was Mr. Cook. I ate some breakfast and while I was eating some other people showed up. I walked around a little bit and waited for people to finish eating so I we could sit down and plan for the day. My grandparents and Aunt an Uncle decided we were going to drive through the mountains to the south side of Crete and find a beach. We were then going to drive back a different way and then back to the hotel. At the end of the day we would then had made a pretty nice circle of a portion of Crete, seen the mountains and a good beach. We left around 11:00 and started driving towards the south side J

What we thought was going to be a simple drive turned out to be a grand adventure and a great day! We kind of got lost because the roads weren’t labeled very well, but we ended up taking this other road that was a little bit longer, but had some great views. We pretty much drove down the coast a ways and drove through a couple small towns and saw some different views of the ocean. Emily and Ana were getting hungry so instead of eating in the mountains we stopped at the next town and it turned out to be a serendipities event. We found a nice little restaurant that made gyros and they were really amazing! There was also a book store across the street so we walked over and looked quick. After lunch and we drove on to the mountains. We could see them a ways before we got there and we even saw snow on the tops. Which is kind of weird... snow in Crete. Once we got to the mountains the road got really steep and windy. On the map it looked like a 3 year old went crazy with a pencil and paper. However crooked and crazy it was the scenery was absolutely beautiful! Despite being a little cloudy and rainy it was still an amazing drive. The road just kept going up and curving through all these different towns and villages. It was in a lot better condition then we thought it was going to be too. There was a great view of this really wide valley and it was very picturesque. The clouds were hugging the mountainside and the grass was really green... it kind of reminded me of some pictures of Ireland... another place I would like to go to someday. Sadly my camera ran out of battery and I forgot my other on in my pants pocket. I switched to shorts at the last second and forgot to transfer it. I also have some other frightening news that made me freak out a little bit. My battery charger isn’t working here. I’m going to try and find something that might make it work though. It worked in Germany and Crete has the same outlets. Even my IPod charger works! I’m not sure what the deal is, but I had one battery left and I’m going to really try and use it sparingly! I don't think it will last 6 days though....

So we continued upward and saw very many goats. We also very many different markings on the goats. Some had red dyed necks, others had blue spots on their rumps, some had tags in their ears and we even saw some that had hair shaved off certain places. I’m glad I’m not a goat! As we neared the top the mountainside got a lot rockier and there was different vegetation. We drove on top of the mountains a little bit and then crossed this really cool bridge. It reminded me of the bridge that the fellowship crossed in the first movie of The Lord of the Rings, except a little more cool! We all held our breath as we rove over it and made it safely to the other side. It reminds me of that story of the troll underneath the bridge and the three Billy goats gruff that are trying to cross it. Anyway... we drove and parked at a small vantage point and took some video and then began our decent down the mountain. The road on the way down had recently been re done and actually some of it was under construction still. It was nice and wide though... well some of it. It got really narrow and steep with no guard rails at a couple points. I’m glad we didn’t meet and busses or trucks. We also drove through three stone tunnels that were all in a row and in the last one there were some goats taking shelter from the rain. That was funny. After passing the turn twice we pulled into an empty parking lot for the beach we were going to and got out. It was an amazing beach and really huge. The sand dunes were really steep and tall and there were lots of rocks all over the place. The waves were really big and the smell was refreshing. We changed into swimming stuff and then walked down to the beach. The first thing I did was run... it was so fun to just run flat out on the sand and through the water. That was probably the most fun sprinting I have ever had. I stopped and picked rocks for a while and then ran some more. My uncle got brave and jumped into the ocean. You could seriously walk out like 50 ft and it didn’t even pass your knees. The waves were big and so you could walk out and then ride them in. He did it well. My grandma and aunt walked around and up and down the beach picking up rocks and talking, my cousin Emily just sat on a crate and played with the sand with her feet and Ana ran back and forth and walked around kind of like me. It was a very relaxing/fun time. Right before we left I went for my first swim in the ocean. It was pretty warm actually. Even though the sun wasn’t out and the wind was blowing it felt great! I was really surprised by how salty the water was... I wasn’t expecting it to be as salty as it was. It was cool! We then got dried off and changed and then got on the road again. We drove through a bunch of very small villages and followed the coast for a ways again. We stopped at one point to look at some eagles we saw and then we also a warbler of some sort. We drove back up though the mountains again and got some great views of the ocean bay. I tried my camera to see if there was a little juice left in it AND there was! So I was able to take about 20 more pictures before it actually died for good. We drove through the top of the mountain, but this time drove through a really beautiful gorge. The cliffs were amazing and we even saw a waterfall. There was also a church carved into the hill that was really neat! We got to the highway and drove through Rethymno and then were on our way to Bali. I then dozed off and woke up right as we were getting close to the hotel. Everyone had eaten a later lunch so they all were just hanging out for a while. I took a stroll down to the beach and around the side of the bay and climbed a cool rock that jutted out of the side of the bay. I found a place that was kind of secluded and just sat there for a while. After I got back we all went down and ate dinner. It was kind of the same thing, but different. They keep preparing it in different amazing ways! Kyle, Delany and sat outside and the rest of the group sat inside. After we ate we went up to one of the rooms and watched a movie and then I came back to my room and my Aunt and grandparents were playing game of scrabble. I tried a ton of different outlets to see if my charger would work, but no luck.

It was a really fun day and even though my camera ran out of juice I still took pictures with my mind and enjoyed it with out my camera. My sunburn is pretty much gone, but my face is still a little dry...

My adventure continues with.... A day on the beach! B-)

A Greek Monday!

2009-04-13T01:59:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 6:45 to a beautiful sunrise coming out of the ocean. Seeing a sunrise out of the ocean has been the on thing I have been looking forward to most and it was really beautiful. The sun was a large red ball that was throwing scattered lines through the clouds and made the ocean seem really dark blue. I quickly got out of bed and got dressed, but I was a little too late for pictures. I just enjoyed the moment for the moment instead and not for the picture :) I then went down to the beach and just sat down there for a while as the sun rose. The sun hit some clouds and it disappeared so I went back up to our room. We ate breakfast at 8:00 and it was really good. There was a HUGE bowl of plain yogurt... and it’s no where near the stuff in the US. This is a very thick and creamy yogurt... almos goopy... that you put different toppings on. They had this every morning with four differnt jellys, and two bowls of cearel you could put on it to. My favorite topping was the hot nutella tasting chocolat sauce they had. I put it on my yogurt every morning and it was really good! They also had some eggs, traditional bread, meat and cheese and some little round bread/sweet cheese type things. That had some Cinnamon on top with a drizzle of honey and some sort of sweet cheese inside. Maybe it was cream cheese or something like it. It was really good and I was definitely full afterwards. We got ready to go and left right around 9:00am to go to an old ruin that was once a palace where the monitor battle took place. Each family had a vehicle so it was four cars total. We all had special names to. My uncle Dennie, Aunt Debby, cousins Emily and Ana, my grandparents and I were all in an 8 passenger, manual VW van. Every vehicle got a walked talky and a code name. Since Dennie was leading the pack his name was Gandalf, the Jacksons was “Red squirrel”, the Smiths were the Whomping willows and the Cooks were the nut packets. It was really fun. So once we got ready we were off...

Our first stop came when we met a van coming the opposite direction on the narrow road, Dennie pulled off a little bit and let the vehicle pass, but then found out that the van was two wheel drive and was stuck. So we backed the van down... or actually I should say the whole pack slowly backed up... it kind of looked like a snake trying to slither backwards. We got back on to the cement and then we were off for real. After about a kilometer we realized we had another problem... the gas tank was on E. So our next mission was to find a gas station. We did and it was really big and wide open. There was also a little church (like 10 person church little). It really proved church buildings come in all shapes and sizes. After our gas up we left for the museum again. And yes, you guessed it, we stopped again! This time at an ATM machine. Apparently the one next to the hotel was out of cash. So we were driving down this rally busy street and we all pulled over. We left enough room for cars to pass, but while everyone was crowding around the ATM machine a bus came up and couldn’t get through. Not only were we holding up the bus though, we were also holding up at least 20 cars behind it. My uncle and the other adults made a mad dash back to their vehicles and we pulled out. The last car however got caught behind all the people we held up. The bus driver was really angry... and we saw him again when we got to the museum!! We finally got too the museum and got in. It was really cool to see the ruins and walk around. It wasn’t like a normal ruin where you walk on little side walks and look at everything behind roped off sections. We actually got to walk on it and through some neat stairways and stuff. My favorite part was all the cool stone stairways and the trails to walk on. Also a guy came up to me and had me take him and his wife’s picture with his really nice Canon camera... he must have seen mine and known he could trust me in knowing how to use it. After I was done looking around I joined the rest of the kids and we looked around in the tourist places across the street. There is always so much stuff to buy, but I’m having a hard time buying stuff I won’t use. So I didn’t get anything. We all met up at the entrance and then we loaded up into our vehicles to find somewhere to find lunch. This turned out to be quite the adventure. We spent the next 20 minutes driving around looking for a place that was actually open and could hold 20 people. We then found out another truth about another country. The French don’t use the bathroom and the Greeks don’t eat lunch! We finally found a small pizza place/hotel that would feed us, but we had to wait 20-30 minutes. We decided it would be worth it because we would probably spend that much time trying to find another place to eat and then have to wait there anyway. So we got some drinks and then just hung out for a while. There was an amazing bakery across the street that some of us went to as well. While most of us were off looking around the adults ordered the food. They ordered a bunch of “starters” for lunch so we ended up eating a bunch of "little lunches". We ate fried/battered mushrooms, fried cheese, bread, squid, French fries, kabobs, fried zucchini and then fruit and yogurt for dessert. It was like the longest lunch ever. We were there for at least an hour and a half. Each starter came out like every 10 to 15 minutes and then we would eat it and wait. It was good though! After we ate those of us who wanted to go to the beach walked down. It was about a 10-15 minute walk before we got there. Once we did we were excited because there were huge waves! We ran around in the water a little bit and I skipped stones. I found out that if you skip them off waves tat they really go far. It started to rain a little bit so we went back to the vehicles and then back to the hotels. I was kind of tired and dozed off for a little bit. I kept waking up barely and hearing different parts of different conversations and it was really weird. I woke up fully when we stopped for a bag of oranges for Emily. I got out and took some pictures and then we finished the rest of the 10 minute drive back. We passed a cool beach that I thought would be cool to run to. I think I will tomorrow.

Once we got back a few of us got changed into cooler clothes and went down to the beach. We then hung down there for a couple of hours. We built a really cool; I like to call it abstract, castle out of sand and random things we found on the beach and in the rocks. We found things like tile, bricks AND even a piece of rebar! It was a lot of fun. While the group (Kyle (15), Kerrie (16), Laura (16) Ana (my cousins who is 14) and Delany (12?) were talking and skipping rocks I hiked up the side of the hill across the bay and walked out onto a really cool outcropping of rocks. I’m going to sit there during a sunrise for sure because it has a great view! It was starting to get dark so we went back to the hotel and by then everyone else was eating. We ate (fish, some different salads, potatoes, a yogurt type dish, fruit, rice and noodles). After dinner we went up to the Jackson’s room and watched “Oh brother where art thou”, which was actually pretty funny! It was a really good day.

My adventure continues with.... A trip to the south side!

Saturday AND Sunday (4th-5th of April)

2009-04-13T01:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday: I got up around 6:15 in the morning and went for a run with my cousin. She ran to the soccer field and I went on a trail through the woods that came out on top of this small hill that overlooked a small house and pasture. With the fog covering most of it, it was transformed into a little morning scene. I got back and showered and then we all rushed out the door to a breakfast that was being put on for Dennie at the church they attend. So we got there and my cousin Ana and I made some fruit salad and my grandpa made his famous pancakes. We ate some before everyone got there and Ana and I decorated the big chalk board to make it birthday-ish and then we set the tables with birthday napkins and candles. There were about 30 people total that came and a lot of food! It was very interesting to be in a German environment... I don’t understand a thing. :P After we ate we all Collaborated and got the dishes done. We then drove home and put everything away. After that we spent the rest of the day resting/packing/waiting for 10:00 to roll around. Once it did we had the van packed and were driving off at 9:59pm. We arrived at the station and Dennie took the van and parked it somewhere. The train arrived on time and we were ready. We got on and tried to find spots. It was kind of crowded, but after 5 minutes we got settled for the most part. Once we did how ever we realized that we didn’t have the best company in our car. There were at least 20 college students who were all drinking something. On guy had some IPod speaker that was playing this really repetitive techno music, that just about drove me up the wall and then there were a couple people that kept walking back and forth. I was kind of uneasy so I sat across from my Grandma and my aunt sat next to my grandpa in the other aisle. There was one couple that was very drunk who stood next to my grandpa and aunt and was talking to them. We made it off the train with no incident, but the whole ride was very unpleasant. The Saturday night crowd right? We then transferred to a much nicer train and got spot in a quiet car around 12:00am. The seats were very comfortable and we even had a table in front of us. The train reached a speed of 200 km/h. We all did really well on that ride. We got to the airport and we loaded all our baggage onto some carts and wheeled our way to the check in point. On our way there we passed a family that had flown in and was walking somewhere. They had two little boys and one of them was on the top of all the luggage in the cart and looked really tired and about as cute as a 4 year old can J Once we got there we looked around for the rest of the group, but didn’t see them. After about 10 minutes of sitting around and me learning how to count in German someone from the group came and said that everyone was there, but they hadn’t checked in. By the time we got through checking in the rest of the group was in line. We went through security with no problem... well... I set of the reed light and was searched, but I was good. My uncle and cousin Emily we subject to a random bag check too. We got to our terminal and then rested in some lounge chairs. Our flight was taking off of at 3:40am and by the time we got checked in and through security it was only about 2:00am. My face was doing better today. It pretty much peeled a lot and I had to keep putting lotion on... I felt weird with my skin so gross looking.

Sunday: We found a nice row of lounge chairs and layed down. I tried to sleep, but couldn't, so I got up and walked around. I also spent some time typing the past couple of days up and read. We waited around for about an hour and then moved into the gate area. All of us kids sat in a group on the floor kind of lounging around. After about 15 more minutes we boarded the plane and took off really fast. Not the speed of the air plane but the time it took to get all ready and leave. The actual take off was the longest I remember though... Normally you speed up and *vroom* your off, but this took it felt like a whole minute off zooming before we left the ground. They served us a sandwich (which was really good actually) and some yogurt. I listened to my Ipod and fell asleep since it was all dark out. I slept the whole flight and woke up to a beautiful sunrise. I was sitting on the wrong side of the airplane to get a really good view of it, but from what I did see it was amazing! It was a really long orange and dark red streak across the sky. Then we landed and walked out to a very cloudy wet Crete :P those clouds really hide the sun. It was fairly warm, but really wet and kind of drizzly. The smell was realy refreshing and I definitely know why people like the smell of the ocean now! We walked off the plane onto the tarmac and then got onto a bus that brought us to the luggage claim. It took a while for all our luggage to appear, but it was all accounted for and nothing was missing or broken. We then packed up and head towards the bus that was going to take us to the hotel. Everyone was doing well except for one of the girls, Olivia, who had just gotten over strep throat. Her ears and throat were hurting really bad!

It took us a good 45 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport. The drive was really nice though. We went around a large portion of the island to the northern point where our bay was located. We stopped at two other hotels first before ours and each time I was like... I hope this isn't ours, because they were no where near the beach. When we did get to our hotel I was excited because it was perfect! On the beach in a cool bay and had lots of sand. When we got there they still needed to fix our rooms up, so we ate breakfast (it was around 9:30am). It took a long time for the breakfast to arrive so Kyle (one of the guys) and I went down to the beach and skipped some rocks and looked around. It was so cool to actually walk by the ocean and hear the waves. It felt so amazing! Everything was just amazing... After about 25 minutes our breakfast came, but some people got theirs mixed up. Over all I wasn’t really impressed with the service. The food was good, but it took a really long time. After we ate we sat around and continued to wait for our rooms to be ready. A couple of us went up the street to a small store and looked around. A little while after we came back they finally lead us to our rooms, which were actually down the road a few meters and in a separate part of the hotel. They were really nice rooms and had a lot of space. We got one that over looked the pool and a little bit of the ocean. Zack (the guy that’s my age) and I got dressed to swim and jumped in the pool. You can think we ae cazy to do that on a 55 degree day, but we wanted to swim everyday. haha we were only in the pool for like 2 minutes. And the first time I jumped in it was kind of a jump in and jump out deal. It was freezing, but well worth it! After a hot shower I just hung out and looked around. Everyone just chilled and did different things. A lot of them napped. We had dinner at 6:30 and it was buffet style. There were a lot of different options. There were three green salads and two with feta cheese. Then there was goat’s cheese that you could just have. There was humus, noodle, fishes, fried potato slices and some sort of casserole type thing. There was also ice cream for dessert. There was banana, chocolate and strawberry. They were all quite good! After dinner all of us teens went up to one of the rooms and played a game of apples to apples and then moved to another room and watched a movie. After that I walked my cousin Ana back to her room for my aunt and then got ready for bed and hit the hay. I had a good nap that afternoon so I wasn’t that tired. I ended up falling asleep quickly anyway. It was a great first day and I'm thankful there were no problems or troubles and that we got to the hotel safely :)

My adventure continues in.... A Greek Monday!

The next week!

2009-04-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well I'm sorry I have not been good about getting the past two days up... I haven't been up to much... just getting ready for Crete and doing some odd things here and there.

This next week I won't be able to post anything because I won't have internet access. I will be writing it all down though and will have it up when I get back! Are train to the airport leaves in two hours. We are leaving the house at 10:00pm and our train leaves the station at 10:55. Our flight doesn't actually leave until 3:40am, but the 10:55 train was the only train we could get that would get us to the airport before 3:00am. So it's going to be a really long night, but really fun! On Thursday I met the whole group that is going to Crete with us and they are really fun! Our flight lands around 7:20am in the morning and that means we are going to have an extra day (pretty much) in Crete. I'm really excited bout it!

So anyway that is a very brief description of what's going on. I will try and get updates up when I can!! And don't worry I'll be taking lot and lots of pictures for you all to see!

:)

Heidelberg

2009-04-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

I slept really well last night and woke up at 7:00 well rested. I spent some time working with my pictures and trying to get my camera sorted out. Turns out the problem was the memory card being to big or something... because once I took a lot of the pictures off it worked great. I made sure all my pictures were on the computer and then I put them all on CD’s. So now I have a hard copy of them and I have most of them off my memory card. So instead of spending time editing and posting I took care of that other problem so I could keep taking pictures. We had to be ready for the bus at 11:30 in order to get to Heidelberg in time to do all we wanted. I got read around 10:45 and then we kicked it in gear and walked to the bus station. We took the bus all the way to Heidelberg and then got off and walked over the bridge. We took some pictures and then walked over to a sculpture of a monkey and took pictures by it. My grandpa had a hankering for ice cream so we stopped and got some. I had a scoop of lemon and a scoop of pistachio... I know, great mix! After that we hiked to the Funicular, got tickets and then waited for it. It’s really cool how it works. Its counter balanced so when one goes up the other comes down. We took the first one up to the first station and then took the older one up to the very top. The view of Heidelberg was really cool, the only thing that ruined it was the light layer of clouds that blurred the view. It was a great day though, beautiful sunshine and very warm weather. We walked up a trail and saw a falconry and got to see some falcons and an owl. After that we went to a small restaurant and had some lunch. We ate and then took the Funicular back down. It was fun to sit in the front row... almost like a roller coaster, but in slow motion. After we got down we walked down Hauptstrasse, which is like a really long pedestrian street with stores on either side. I bought myself a new pair of shades and something for my sisters and then my grandparents and I watched a puppet show that this guy was putting on on the street. We stopped at another place for ice cream and I got some cherry/vanilla swirl type ice cream this time. I was kind of getting warm so I took a layer off and as we walked to the bust station. My grandma saw a flower shop and went and got some flowers for my aunt and I helped hold them. J We stood and waited for the bus and I got a headache sitting there in the sun. My face really hurts today and I had a blister on my nose that I have to keep popping... it’s really not very fun at all. I made sure I had sunscreen today! I’m probably a little dehydrated, but I have been drinking a lot of water since we have got home. It’s beautiful outside right now and I’m enjoying the weather! I’m also looking forward to our trip to Crete this next week! Yey for sun!

Monday?

2009-04-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

I seem to have forgotten about Monday! Well had no fear, because I remembered! Well actually I didn't do anything on Monday. I did a lot of picture work and my grandparents took a day off again. When my cousin Ana got home we both went for a run and that was really pretty. We ran through a cool trail in the woods and up and down some hills. I really need to go running at Holzinger lodge sometime... those trails are a lot of fun! After we got back I changed and then my uncle and I went to go hike around two castles that were like 10 minutes away. They were very small castles, but still cool! My camera wasn't working, so I didn't get any pictures until right when we left. We looked around for a bit and then drove back. I then got to bed because I was going to be up early... So yeah that was my Monday :P

My day in the alps~

2009-04-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: I woke up around 7:30 to my uncle getting up and looking out the window. Since it was really foggy when we pulled in the night before we weren’t sure if skiing was going to be fun. If it was clearer we would still go the place we planned, but if it was worse or the same we would go some where else. I asked him how it looked and he said it was worse. Sure enough the fog was heavier and worse. We got packed and then ate breakfast down stairs. We asked the lady who owned the place about it and she said when you see a dark blue strip at the bottom of the fog cover that means it’s clear on top. She then turned on the TV and sure enough it was! The channel was showing a live feed from the webcam at the ski place. So we were pretty excited! It was going to be amazing! We ate the rest of our breakfast, packed our stuff, put on our snow gear and then left for a day of skiing AND forgot a very important thing... sunscreen! I would come to regret that by the end of the day.

We got to the place at about 9:00, when it was supposed to open, and it was kind of packed (a lot more so than my uncle had thought it would be). We found a spot and got our stuff on (boots and etc... ). We got our tickets which were really cool. They clipped on to your jacket and had a little bar that you slipped into a machine to go on the lifts. It was kind of like a thin credit card. There was a really cool dam under the first lift and I went to take a picture of that while my uncle went to get goggles in the car. We then scanned in and got onto the first car. It fit like 20 people and was really crowded. We started up and went into the fog cover... and with in 2 minutes we broke through and it was so sunny and beautiful! The mountains were... indescribable! They were endless and white and amazing. I just sat there and stared... my jaw probably hit the ground. We got to the station and I stopped and took pictures, but little did I know... it was just the beginning of what I was going to see. We took the second car up and got even higher! The second car went to the main ski base. The view from there was even more incredible! I could stand and look out at the mountains all day! The first thing we did was search for a locker. I had brought my camera and I wasn’t going to leave it in the backpack we brought laying around. So we found a locker that was right by the front door and put our stuff in it. It was also super warm so I took off my jacket and put it in the locker along with my camera.

We started down the first slope and I got used to skiing again. We took the ski lift up to the three runs (which were more like 5 or 6 and AMAZING) and right as we were scanning through I realized at had forgotten my card on my jacket that was now back at the lodge and in the locker. Once again I experience a moment in life where I'm so excited I forgot something important. It happened back last year when I ran the Ragar relay and was so excited for my first leg that I forgot my shoes, light and jacket gear.... :P I guess I haven't changed much - haha

So while I waited at the bottom, my uncle rode up and skied down to the lodge, got my card and then came back. We then rode up and then skied down and I had some trouble. I found out that my posture was messed up and my balance was off. So I messed around a little bit and figured out the right groove and skied a lot better. I improved over the next couple of runs and felt really comfortable on skis. We went down the blue hill and the red hills for a few times and then we went down a really long reed one that turned to black diamond and then red again. It was like 3 miles long. It was soooo fun! Then we road the car back up again and skied the other three runs a couple of times.

Around noon we skied back to the lodge and I got my camera and wrapped it in my jacket and hat so it was padded in the backpack and then skied down to the lift. We were going to ski down once more and then take the next car to the top of the Mountain peak. I skied down, very carefully, and got my camera out before I got onto the lift. I made sure it was safe and then started taking pictures on the way up. I got to the top and skied to the right and took about 20 pictures and then skied over to the other hills and took about 30 and then skied down to a little shack where there was a deck and took about 10 more. Then we skied down and took the next car up to the very top... and wow... wow!... I mean WOW! It was so high and incredible! I told myself I was going to come back to this very same spot someday because it was worth seeing again and again and again! I took at least 60 pictures from the very top and just stood there and soaked it in. We ate lunch at the place there, which was kind of gross, but filled us up. I then hiked over to a couple spots and took pictures and then hiked up to a really high look out place where you could see the other side of the mountain range and the little tiny town below as well as clouds. I too, yet again, more pictures and then I wrapped up my camera, slipped it over my back and skied from the very top the hill to the lodge, about a mile... and I put my camera away and took off some layers. I skied the rest of the day with a long sleeve t-shirt with a t-shirt over that and snow pants. You could have easily gone skiing in short and a t-shirt though... it was that warm. We then skied from the lodge down to the second car station (the 2^nd one we took up in the morning) it was about 3 or 4 miles long total. It was amazing! The black diamond was a little hard, but I made it with out falling, with out going too slow and felt good! By this time of the day it was getting kind of warm so the snow was a little wet and was starting to pile up on the hills. Skiing it was kind of hard at times. We got to the bottom and rode the car back up. My uncle sat in a lounge chair and took a nap in the sun while I continued to ski.

I went down the black diamond one (Which is so much better than MN Black Diamonds!) and then the red one and then skied all the way down to the car station again. I then met my uncle and we skied 4 more runs and then called it a day at 4:00. We were going to ski till 5:00, but we were getting tired and there is no need to get really tired and fall and get hurt. I took onne last look at the mountains and then we got our stuff in the locker and started our way down. When we got to the bottom we got our boots off... which felt so amazing on my feet! We changed and then hit the road. We stopped for coffee quick and then left Oberstdorf and headed back “home”. With in 10 minutes we stopped and I took a picture of the mountains again and then we drove on a little bit before pulling over again so I could take a picture of a cool creek with the mountains behind it. I took a picture of myself too. When we pulled in there was another car there. I was about to leave and then this lady had walked over to the creek as well and asked me if I wanted my picture taken by her with my camera. I was like “YEY!” She took my picture and then I took her with her camera and it was cool! J

I then looked through all my pictures, ate a little bit and fell asleep. I slept a good 2 hours of the 4 hour trip. I woke up in time to see the sunset and it was weird. The sun was all dark red, but the sky was completely blank with no color what so ever... it was like, the most un-romantic sunset ever :P – The other thing I woke up to was a very red face... no I wasn’t angry, but I discovered that the after noon in the sun had turned my face into a tomato! And I was even so lucky to have a line across my nose and cheeks where my goggles were. So now I look like a dork :P Oh well! My arms are also red from skiing in the sun with my sleeves rolled up all afternoon. It was well worth it though, but I regret forgetting the sunscreen!!! We got home and unpacked and I got ready for bed and talked about Thursdays plans, peeled some potatoes for my uncle and then typed this all up and went to bed!

It was a very amazing day an probably my favorite day so far! What a great way to start the month of April off! J Thank you God for safe skiing and amazing mountains views!

-meeting couple in car

My day in highschool...

2009-04-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday:

I got up and did the whole morning routine with everyone at 5:00 and then I was off to school again, except this time with my cousin who is in high school. I got there and was not surprised by the amount of swearing I heard or all the girls hanging on the guys and the guys picking on all the girls. We walked to her first class which was art. We sat down at her usual table with three other kids and then the teacher looked at me and said, “Emily take your friend and go sit in the back of the class.” I was like uh oh, I got my cousin in trouble. It was all good though I guess the table was just too crowded or something. The project for the next week or something was to make a mobile. A mobile is a hanger with stuff hanging off of it. The teacher wanted it to be more of a balance though, because “You highschoolers are more advanced than the 2^nd grade so I want to see that.” About half the kids were pretty good and then the other half just goofed around. One kid brought a small bottle of vanilla extract and then dared one of the guys, “Mayo”, to drink it. He did and smelled like vanilla. I helped Emily with the idea she had, but then the teacher pretty much said it as ugly and unattractive and nobody would want to look at it. So then I suggested my own idea and it turned out better... well it started to, but then class ended.

We went to her second class, which was Geometry and I enjoyed that. The teacher was kind of quiet and didn’t always wait for the class to be quiet, but I guess that’s their fault. We learned the same thing that my other cousin learned except on a harder level. The warm up problem was really cool. We had to find the height of a triangular stack of pipes that each had a diameter of 8ft. It would be easy to say that it was 16, but the top pipe sinks in between the other two a little bit so it less than 16. The way you solve it is by connecting the center of all the pipes and forming a triangle. Based on some thermo all the sides of the triangle are 8ft. So then you know the radius is 4 feet. Then you know that half the measure meant is 8ft (because they gave you that info, and because when you had the two radiuses you get that answer). So then you have to find the little gap in the middle of the pipes; to do that you have to find the altitude of the triangle. So you draw a line down the middle and turn it into two right triangles. You know two of the legs one is the diameter length and the other is the radius length. So you us the Pythagorean thermo to solve it and you get the other distance, which was like 4([sqrt]3) or something. So yeah... I liked it J

The last class she had was Chemistry. That class was a lot of fun to. The teacher was very on top of it and in control of the class and I liked that. We did a lab where we had to heat baking soda and do some different measuring. It was a lot of fun... we also had to wear goggles... ugh...I don’t like those :P After that we ate lunch and then she went to this class room and read for 20 minutes. So I picked out a book and read some of it. Then we had to go to her Spanish class because she had to fix something and I almost fell asleep. It wasn’t actually class time; some kids were just looking at their grades. I was struck with the fact that for most kids Spanish class it a waste of time. A fair portion of the class does the least amount possible because they don’t want to learn it and they skinny by with a passing grade and forget it all. I say this with experience. I’m not sure how to fix that problem, but in the long run I don’t think it’s worth it for most of the kids if they barely make it through the class and then learn nothing anyways. Wouldn't they be better off learning something that they might do a lot better in, that is then more useful to them? I don't know.... anyway

After that we went back to her reading class and my uncle came and picked me up. He said hi to a couple of the teachers there and then we left. We went back to the other base and went to a renting place where we got boots and skis for me. I didn’t fit their size 13 boots so I used size 14 ski boots... yeah, very big! We then filled the tank and hit the road to Oberstdorf where we were going to go skiing. We listened to some music, talked, got coffee and snacked. It was a very fun trip. The GPS (Maggie) took us on a very different route there, but it was really pretty and I’m glad we went that way. My uncle and I got to Oberstdorf in about 4 hours. I got a peek of the mountains when we went to France, but when we came down this winding road near Oberstdorf I saw the Alps for the first time and I was taken aback. They were so amazing! And the landscape was beautiful. There was no where to pull off and take a picture so I just forgot about my camera and took the time to just soak what I was seeing in! There was some dense fog so you couldn’t see all the way up, but I was still amazed. We arrived at about 8:30pm. The place we stayed at was super far back in the valley of the mountains, but had a great view! It was a small little house with some rooms up stairs. The room had a couch, one gigantic bed, a shower and sink and then a deck that you could go out on to. It was just right. J

I took some pictures off the deck of the incredible mountain scene, but with the fog the pictures really don’t show it well. We got our stuff all settled in and then both of us went to a small restaurant, where we were the only ones, and had something to eat. I had some apple strudel with almond ice cream and vanilla sauce. It was pretty good! We then got back to the “hotel” and got ready for bed. My uncle did some reading and I wrote a letter and then we went to bed. He told me to nudge him if he started snoring and I told him the same. Not five minutes after we went to bed he was snoring. I just put my ear buds in and let him sleep. I fell asleep myself and never heard him again.

It was a very fun day! Part of it I was in high school for the first time and then 4 hours later I’m at the base of the alps sleeping in a small “hotel” awaiting the next day to go skiing! Thank God for safe travels and an amazing day! J

France... On a Sunday.... :)

2009-03-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday: My grandparents and I woke up late and got moving. The room was very warm and I had to spend the night sleeping in my clothes because I forgot to bring something to sleep in. I felt rather dirty and in need of a shower when I woke up, but there was no warm water so I just settled for washing my face. I then went down and had a quick breakfast which included some bread and some yogurt and some really nasty coffee. We then packed up and my uncle Denny showed me how to pop there van out so it turned into a camper and that was cool to see. We left the van at the hotel and then ventured on to the second museum to see. The 2nd museum had a famous alter piece and a lot of paintings by this famous painter. The museum, which we thought was going to be small, was actually quite large. We entered through a small entry way that passed by a stone well. We paid and got our tickets and then walked to another desk where there was hand held audio touring devices that you could use. They pretty much worked like this… By some paintings or displays of art there was a number and when you typed it into the little walky talky thing it would tell you about the piece. It was really cool. There were a lot of different paintings depicting the crucifixion scene. A lot of different artists portrayed it in different ways, designs, lighting and textures. A lot of the paintings had John on one side and the Virgin Mary on the other side. Some of the art shown were stone carvings that were only displayed once in a while to protect them. Some dated all the way back to the 1500’a… which isn’t surprising, but it is cool to see something that old! There was a lot of paintings and different forms of art that led up to the main attraction of the piece called the “Issenheim Altar Piece”. It had four different that folded out, but only one was shown at a time during the different seasons. The painting of Jesus had an interesting detail in it. Jesus was not only bloody and beat up, but he also had a lot of black spots (sores) on Him caused by “St Anthony’s fire” which was a disease caused by ergot (fungus) in the rye. Now days they are able to take the fungus out during the process, but back then it was bad and all over the place in the bread because they couldn’t get it out of the seeds. The altar was really amazing and there was so much to take in! I was kind of ahead of everyone because they were stopping at every painting and listening to the information about it. I did too, but only at the important ones. I then moved on to the second part of the museum which was on the second floor. The building was a large square with the center cut out as an outside garden. It had a brick walkway around the bottom and then the top walkway was an enclosed wrap around hallway with large glass display cases with different items. One hallway had painted plates, and different vases. Another hallway had large bells on display on the ground and then keys, locks and different door handles in glass cases. The third hallway had different glass cups and some paintings. And the fourth had some wardrobes. There were several rooms off each hallway that all connected in a couple spots. I started through one room that had some really old furniture and it had good lighting so I was able to get some pictures. The room then went into another room with a few large paintings. As I walked down the hallway there were a couple small rooms on display with large long paintings hanging on the wall. I then walked into two large rooms. The first one had three large, detailed hardwood wardrobes with some very precise designs. There was also some silver goblets and pewter dinner ware that was very interesting. The next room had some large glass cases of armor and weapons. There were some very interesting swords and spears. I didn’t see any shields though. The following rooms had some more paintings and then one wall had a huge rug that had been very detailed designs. After looking around for a while I met up with everyone and they were just starting to come into the 2nd floor. We had all. The churches we saw had different patterns of We also went back to a small Café that we had seen the day before and we had some coffee and cheese cake. It was very delightful! We also saw some different people who were playing instruments on the street and making quite a bit of money doing it! I remember one guy who had a big amp that was playing music and then he played his saxophone along with the music. It was kind creative and very interesting. ON Saturday we saw a couple of people playing their accordions. After we ate at the Café we walked back to the hotel where our van was parked. My cousin Ana and I have been playing a game as we walked along. There is a special way to trip someone and you walk behind them and as they lift up their foot you take your own foot and gently kick theirs forward. They really don’t trip but it makes there leg go up high. So Ana and I did this back and forth to each other all day and I think I won :P We got back to the hotel and loaded up. We then decided to drive back on a different route on the “Wine Road”. So now I have been down Romantic Road and Wine Road.

The special route that took us through a bunch of small wine villages’ a3nd we got to see hill after hill of rolling vineyards and I even got a picture of two hills of vineyards and white capped mountains in the back ground. It was very pretty! Each vine was pruned and the hills were very colorful because the ground was different colors in different places. It was fun to just stare out the window at the rows as we flew by them… it was almost like a slide show. The houses along the road were all very quaint. We passed one that was very happy yellow and had a really dark blue motorcycle outside! We also passed a beautiful cemetery with flowers on every grave stone and all around the perimeter. We saw a castle on a hill and behind it the hill had been specially molded to look like steps for farmers. From a distance we saw a statue on the top of the hill. We passed a large park filled with storks and the trees were spotted with large nests. And right after that we saw the Rine Valley with the black forest and the foot of the Alps. The churches we saw had different patterns of tiles on the roofs and it was interesting to see the colors they used.

My grandma bought a post card back in Colmar with a blue house on it that was not from Colmar, but from one of the small villages. As we drove through the wine villages on the wine road we kept eye out for the little blue house, but despite our eager attempt to find it we never did see it. After our search for the blue house we began a search for some where to eat. We stopped in a small town and walked through it , but everything was a little expensive so we moved on. We stopped in a little town called Andlau and checked again for a place to eat, we didn’t, but there was some nice photos taken J - We finally found a little Café eloquently named “Café Bistro”. It was very blue and had some nice timbers along side of the building. The people were every nice and translated the menu for us. My guess was it was a couple that owned or at least ran the Café. The husband described all the dishes for us in English and helped us all decide and then when we had decided he said “C’est fecile!” and in English that’s “It’s easy!” He was a very very nice gentleman and was very hospitable. The ambience of the Café made it, by far, the best place I have eaten at yet. He was very interested in the going to New York someday to listen to the jazz there. He was really into jazz. I ordered a dish that was duck and some sauce with rice and some vegetables (Carrots, Zucchini and onions). I also helped my cousin and aunt eat some of their left over food. My aunt had homemade noodles with mushrooms (which were extremely delicious) and my cousin had the same noodles with chicken and sauce that was very good as well. After we ate I got a coffee and then we were off. I found a good spot to take a picture of the Café, but my camera decided to be crabby and would not record the pictures I was taking correctly and kept showing up “corrupted”. This was really frustrating and I’m not sure why it’s doing it. This camera is starting to be very troublesome! I thought I figured it out, but then I took a picture again and it repeated it’s previous bad mood. Oh well… It will work out. Traveling back was very beautiful. We passed the French town of Strasbourg and saw a little bit of it from the autobahn. It was very cool. There were some nice gardens that were all split up into different sections for different people. There were many sections that you could see the mountains from and there were a lot of deer stands along the way. We saw some deer and a dead badger along the road.

As we crossed the Rhin river we saw a swan that was fixing it’s nest as it’s little duckling (?) swam around. The sky was really beautiful all day and the sun was shining most of the time. IT provided some nice walking weather as we were out and about. The rest of the ride home was relaxing and it was nice to do all this typing during the trip. My Uncle brought home an Alphasmart board which is pretty much a keyboard with 8 different files that you can type on. So I was able to document the whole trip while I was on the road!

My weekend in France!

2009-03-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday In France,

I got up at 7:00 and went with my uncle to pick up Broetchen (bread) to eat for breakfast. We then got back and got everything together and had a German breakfast. We had hard boiled eggs with a half soft yoke in special little stands. They eat eggs different over here. Instead of taking all the time to peal the shell you just cut the top of the egg and then scoop it all out. Talk about efficient! We also had fruit and bread with Nutella and jelly. It was a very good breakfast. After we ate I quickly got on the computer and finished up my blog on Yesterday and then helped with the dishes. We then made sure we got packed and then headed off on our adventure to France.

It was a good trip and I slept I fair amount of the way there. I woke up very very out of it right as we were crossing the border and woke up as best I could to start looking around. The first thing I saw where some mountains in the distance with snow on the tops. We stopped at a place where there was a monument set up for where the German had attacked the French. There was a bunker there and some tanks and stuff. I was able to get some cool pictures. I also tripped and got my self a nice brown spot on my jeans from the dirt :P and it had to be the weekend I only brought on pair for over night. We ate lunch in the van and then were on our way. I do have to mention that when we got there we saw a sign that told us not to leave anything in the car because it might get stolen while “you” were away. When we were out looking around we were the only ones there and while I was around back taking some pictures my aunt saw me crouching and thought I was some thief watching them… we all thought that was funny.
We drove on and saw more really cool houses and villages. My aunt had commented on how the houses seemed very bland and from that point on we saw a large number of houses that were very abstract and colorful… we kind of teased her for saying they were bland. I wanted to take some pictures, but there were a couple people in need of the WC (bathroom) and we needed to keep pressing on. With in the next 15 minutes we learned a very important fact about the French… they obviously don’t ever need to use the bathroom because you can never find one anywhere! We decided to just go to our hotel because we knew they would have one. We got there and checked in and got a pass to open the gate to the parking garage. The van barely fit in under the archway, but we made it!
The rooms are really nice and really small. They are all three people bedrooms and they have bunk bed type beds. We then got our stuff and headed out to the museum we came here to see. We left and started walking and I noticed my camera battery was a little low so I then walked back and got it and then we were officially on our way. We got to the museum and it was filled with all the sculptors that made. There was one floor that had all these squeaky floor boards and it was very tricky to walk across the room with out making a squeak. After that we walked around Colmar and looked at different shops and then went to a church where there was a really famous painting and alter piece. I wasn’t aloud to take any pictures though. It had a really tall ceiling and had some really descriptive and detailed stained glass. After that we found a place to eat. Once we did we sat down and quickly found out that there was an inappropriate channel on the T.V. so we all had to turn and keep our eyes on each other and not be sucked in by the tube. I ordered a potato dish that was kind of like hash browns with some really good cheese in them with some ham sausages mixed in. It came out in this skillet and was still sizzling. It was very good! I found out mayo is really good with it when I ate 6 packets of mayo :P

After we ate it was dark out and we decided to walk to a small part of Colmar that was called small Venice. It had some canals and the houses were all lit up really nice. It was a very nice walk in the cool night air and the lights all over. It was a very unique experience that I won’t forget. We then spotted a Crepe shop and stopped and got some Crepes with Nutella. I’m seriously into Nutella now and have it when ever I can. It’s so amazing on bread in the morning. I’m going to have to try and get some when I get back into the states… though we won’t have the amazing bread. We then made our way back to the hotel and got ourselves settled. I went over to the room my cousins were staying in and hung out with them for a little bit.
We watched some Miss France show where they had all these live performers. We watched some amazing balancing acts on rolling tubes and a guy who took the head of this lady and then made it float around… we also so this amazing juggler who juggled and rolled the balls around his body. It was really cool. We also watched some soccer. Saturday night wass day lights savings time for over here so now it's 7 hour difference!

My adventure continues with... France... On a Sunday...

A day in Sinsheim, Germany

2009-03-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

I was up kind of late last night watching an episode of 24, I'm kind of enjoying it, but it's kind of slow. I used to laugh at my dad for fast forwarding the shows and watching the subtitles really fast, but it actually works really well... especially when the girls are crying. I got up around 7:00 with the voice of my grandpa through my bedroom door. I very groggly got out of bed and ate some breakfast. Then we got ready for the day and went down to the bus station. We decided to go to Sinsheim for the day and visit the "Auto and Technik Museum". The bus came at 8:29 and was on time! We took the bus to another station and got on that bus and took it to the train station. It was two sort of long bus rides so I looked out the window and listened to my IPod. It was the first day I brought it along and I did it because I had three songs stuck in my head and just needed to keep listening to them so I didn't drive my self nuts humming. We then got off the bus at the train station my grandparents spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get tickets from the machine in german. It was interesting. I walked around and took some pictures and then was temporarly freeked out when it wasn't recording the pictures I took. They kept showing up as currupted files. I figured out that it was because I wasn't waiting long enough for it to aim or something. I was definitely releaved! We waited for the train and went through an underground tunnel to the other side of the tracks and it smelled like urine and smoke. Pretty gross! We waited for about 15 minutes and watched some crunstruction workers lay some footings for a foundation. They were building another station on the other side of the track as well as more tracks.

We then got on the train and I experienced my first train ride! It was pretty fun. It was a long ride to Sinsheim, but we got there in about 25-30 minutes. We walked to the museum and I was quite amazed at how big the planes were that were mounted on the buildings. We went inside and got our tickets. We had the option to watch an I-Max film, but we decided not to because we wouldn't really have enough time. So then we actually did end up going into the I-Max right away because we had to watch an introdutcion fild for the Museum. Something really funny happened. We were standing there waiting for the line to open up and we saw this mouse walking around. The area was pretty open and empty and he just ran around and looked in the corners and then walked over to a door and someone let him out. It was the strangest, most random thing ever, but funny. After we went to the I-Max thing, we started to look around.

There was a ton of cars! And all kinds of them. There were a lot of Marcedes Benz, but there were also Farraries and then a couple of the U.S. brands. There were a couple rooms of cars (Like really huge rooms!). And at least 1000 cars in all. There were countless displays of motercycles and old mopeds. There was even a large section just for military stuff like helicpters, guns, tanks and life size World War 2 models. It was a lot of fun. Oh and there were these large player organs all over the place and even machines that had a ton of instorments that would play mechanically. My grandpa stopped at almost every single one and would put the 1 Euro in to play it. The first time he did it made me jump because it was so loud! The organ could be heard through out the whole museum! My grandma and I were always able to find him though! haha

After walking around a little bit we got a little hungry and went over to the little snakc shop. I was then greatly disappointed with both things that I got to eat. One was hot chocolate which tasted like watered down dirt. Then I ate some pizza that didn't taste too well either. Oh well though, you got to have a bad food experience sometime. So then we finished looking around in the first building. There were some big trains and old tractors and bull dozers. IT was really cool! We then went over to the second building which had some airplanes in it and mor modern cars. I looked around for a little bit and took pictures. There was also a big train set that was really cool! I then climbed a huge set of stairs to the roof of the building where all the airplanes were. You were able to go into all of them. IT was a lot of fun, but they had a lot of the stuff fenced off on the inside, so you had to "look with your eyes not your hands". One of the airplanes had a big slide that went down from it and you slid down on a special pad. It was a lot of fun! I also went to the gift shop and got a cool german jacket shirt type thing. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's camouflage and has two German flag patches on the sides. I liked it and knew I wouldn't see it again so I got it.

We then left the museum and started walking back to the train station. On the train ride back I just looked out the window and thought as I wrapped my day up. I also had the song stuck in my head still. I sang it like the whole time I was at the museum, it was the worst case of "Stuck in my head" that I have ever had...

We then got home and I played some piano and hung around the house. Then we watched some family videos and I got to see myself 8 years younger :) I was so little... and now I'm so..BIG! I also got to see my little brother when he was the size of my little sister Abigail.. if not smaller. It was fun! I also wrote a story on a cool little keyboard with my cousin Ana. Then I went with my Uncle to pick up my cousin Emily at a small group she was at. We also brought to of her friends home. My uncle and I had a nice trip there listening to some of my music and I got to show him what I was interested in. I then came home and went to bed! It was definitely needed!

So that was the Friday I had in Sinsheim! It was a lot of fun, but really long!

My adventure continues with... My trip to France!

Change of plans

2009-03-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well because of some bad weather issues instead of skiing this weekend we are going to ski next Wednesday. Instead we are then going to all got to France. It should be fun! I will update with info on the trip when I have more, but for now, that's the update!

Weekend plans

2009-03-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

So really quickly...

The weekend plan is to go to Oberstdorf and Ski. We were going to be leaving Friday night, but now we have changed plans and are going to be leaving at 5:00am Saterday morning to go to the ski place. It's about a four hour drive to the place so we'll get there before ten when it opens. There is usually a lot of people so we are trying to avoid the long lines. We are going to be skiing for a fair portion of the day and then we will be staying at a place called Familie Mohr . The weather is supposed to be good so I'm pretty excited.

2009-03-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

Today we are pretty much pulling another Tuesday. It is really cold and rainy out and we don't feel like doing much today. I'm kind of tired and could use another day to rest. I'm excited about this weekend. We aren't really sure what the whole plan is yet, but it's going to be another fun road trip. I'm also looking forward to Crete in less then two weeks! Though the flight there is going to be kind of rough. Our plane leaves at 3:00 in the morning on Saterday which means we need to be there at 1:30 and that means we have to leave the house at like 12:00 which then means we will be up to get ready...or just still up from being up... anyway it;s going to be a long day, but we'll get an extra day in Crete which will be fun! So anyway, I'm not up to much today, just hanging out. I'll probably try and get some pictures up later as well.

Till later :)

11th Grade Middle Schooler!

2009-03-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 5:00am Wednesday and got ready for my day. I took a shower and ate a small breakfast. My stomach and what not were kind of feeling weird. I wasn't nervous or sick feeling, they were just kind of making lots of grumbling noises. So my cousins and my uncle all hopped into there little Mercedes and headed off to school. We dropped my cousin Emily off at the high school (Where I will be going on Friday) and then drove to the base where the middle school was located. We first stopped and I sent some post cards. WE got to the middle school and we all got out and went to my uncle’s class room. He teaches 7th grade English. I met one of Ana's friends and we talked for a couple of minutes. After that we got a pass from her dad and walked around the school. She introduced me to her different teachers and when I met the math teacher I knew she was going to have the best class ever (Which I was right about). It was nice to meet the teachers before hand.

The buses started pulling in so Ana and I walked over to stand in front of the school. IT was kind of cold and rainy out, but everyone was still standing outside. Ana saw a group of her friends so we walked over. The first thing that was said was... "Wow you're tall!" That was not to be the last time I heard that and many other comments. I was known as Ana's cousin or "Tall Guy". I talked with them for a while and then went inside and to her first class which was

actually a study hall type thing called seminar. We then got a pass from her teacher to go to the library instead. We walked over there and talked to a couple of her friends again. Then it was time for her first "real" class which was World History. The teacher, Mr. Cook, was very interesting. He was energetic and taught good, but he was also sarcastic. It seems the kids have a lot of fun with him. There is a lot of teasing that goes back and forth. Not really the kind of teaching I admire, but he had a good classroom and taught well. As a teacher I don't think you should tell kids to "shut up" or be sarcastic and say things like "Your face", but that's just me. In world history they were learning about the "Good Feelings Era" and then went over some test questions that they had missed. I had helped Ana study for the test and she got a 98% so I was excited for her. Oh and this is a conversation between on of the students (Andrew) and the teacher.

Andrew: *raises hand*

Mr. Cook: Yes, Andrew?

Andrew: Would you be mad if I threw this pencil at you?

Mr. Cook: No, I would not be mad, because you couldn't throw it all the way to the front of the room."

Andrew: Yeah I could, can I do it?

Mr. Cook: Sure, go ahead.

Andrew: Will you get mad or put me in detention?

Mr. Cook: No...

Andew: Will you send a letter home to my parents?

Mr. Cook: No...

Andrew: Will you do anything?

Mr. Cook: Yes...

Andrew: What?

Mr. Cook: *picks up heavy stapler*

Andrew: *eyes widen*

Mr. Cook: I'll just say it has something to do with this.

So after History class we went to science class which was my least favorite. The teacher knew her stuff, but was kind of boring and was really grumpy. No one got a 100% on this quiz they had taken and so they went over it and she kept going on about how many times they had gone over it. They were learning about the DNA and how all that worked. IT was interesting, but I didn't like her teaching at all. You need to bring a little more encouragement and happiness to learning otherwise this kids will ignore you and do their homework like the two kids across me did. I was watching the girl across from me do her math homework and was watching her do it from an upside down view. I saw her doing it wrong so I helped. It was really fun to know everything AND THEN to be able to help with out not knowing myself. It was just the start of the encouraging day I had in teaching. The boy across the table from me was interesting and asked how old I was. When I said I was 16 and in 11th grade, he gasped and I got this as a response... "Wow, good thing because if you were an 11th grader I would have been like, man you're F****** tall 8th grader." I kind of coughed and raised my eyebrows and kind of said... "Yeah I guess soo." It is sad how much kids swear and how many don't even know what they're doing. I told him he should be more creative/imaginative with his vocabulary because swearing sure isn't imaginative at all! If people really need to use a "profanity adjective" they should come up with something more interesting to say then "wow that's so D**** sweet...." Anyway... I heard a lot of swearing. After science class we went to lunch. I stood in line to get lunch and had a couple come up to me and tell me I was tall and then ask who I was. Several people like seriously had a conversation about me right in front of me like they thought I couldn't hear them o something. I heard a lot of people talking about me... especially in class. It was interesting. So I got my lunch and went and sat by Ana where I proceeded to get in trouble by the lunch lady for being an extra person on the bench at the table. I wasn't the only extra person though so two other people left and then there was room for me. IT was kind of funny. After lunch was recess. Since it was cold and wet outside they had it inside. Most of the kids just sat in the hallway, but there were two gyms with different activities going on in them. One was soccer where a bunch of kids just ran around chasing the ball and the other was basketball. I was kind of hoping for a game, but it was just a bunch of kids chasing around a basketball. I worked my way over to one of the hoops where the kids were shooting and stealing the ball from each other. Being as tall as I am I was able to jump and get the rebounds pretty well. It was kind of weird how the whole gym thing worked. There was a certain limit to the number of kids in the gym so they would blow the whistle every 5 minutes and everyone would file out and get into the line waiting to go in. One time there was like 3 people in line waiting to go in the gym and they blew the whistle and everyone got out went back in line and almost everyone went back in again. :P

Then it was time for math class!! I was pumped! Right away the teacher calmed everyone down and then introduced me. She then asked if I would like to help, which I did, so I collected homework on the right side of the class and looked through it. I was kind of confused to what she was looking for so the kids kind of helped me. Then she started the lesson which was about Transversal Angles... One of my favorite middle school math topics! After the lesson she went over the homework of the previous days work. Those who had trouble went to the back of the room where I proceeded to be a math teacher to them for 15 minutes. I drew some problems on the white board and worked through them making sure they got all the steps correct. The homework they were doing was find indirect measurements. It's the whole "if there is a 50ft tall building that casts a 20 ft shadow and there is a man standing next to the building that is 5 ft tall how long is his shadow" kind of a problem. They did well and got it. IT was a lot of fun to help out. Over the past 6 months or so I have really been thinking about being a math teacher and being in the classroom and actually doing it was encouraging and kind of made me want to do it more. I may not just teach math, I might end up teaching something else, but it was a lot of fun. And BY FAR my favorite class.

After math we went to her last class, which was English. Evidently something happened in the class earlier that morning and she had lost her temper. It was a kids birthday and two kids had given her "birthday punches". It got a little out of hand and the teacher got really upset. It was just one of those things that she would not allow EVER! When it happened in her own classroom she got very mad. She then spent about 15 minutes talking about how stupid hitting/abuse/hazing was and gave some very good reasons. I hope the kids were paying attention because it was a good life lesson. We then went over vocab words and the definitions. After that one of the girls had done a book report project and made a cake so we all had some. After science school was out and I went down stairs to find my uncle in the computer lab. I had a nice talk with the librarian there and that was fun. He was originally from Georgia. We then waited for my cousin Emily. Once she arrived, Emily and I walked over to the Java Coffee they have across base. We got there and I was in the mood for something Ice cream-ish so I ordered an ice blended Carmel Macchiato. It was pretty good! We then sat at a table and hung out and then some of her friends came and I just kind of sat there and listened to them talk. It was quite interesting. :P

Then my uncle came and all three of us went to go pick up Ana and dropped Emily off at ballet. Then we drove to a new music store that had a ton of drum stuff! They had 6 rooms full of drums, cymbals, sticks, hand drums, trinkets... it was like drum heaven.... but it only lasted about 10 minutes. I could have spent all day there!!! It was a lot of fun! We then drove to a bible study that they have on Wednesday nights and ate at the potluck they had. The teen bible class was a lot of fun and it was a cool group of kids. At one point this kid was telling this story about how he was lost in a shoe store and I could not stop laughing. He started out talking about he had been looking at these shoes and he was very precise... like down to the minute. Being 10 years old it was interesting to hear his tale. However his brother and sister were kind of making the exaggerated faces and made a couple people start laughing. For some reason it hit me funny because I was overcome with some pretty hefty laughter and proceeded to try and hold it in which was not good because I hurt my side and my abs doing so. It felt like trying to keep a grenade from exploding by holding it really tight.... almost :P Anyway it was really funny and I wish I could have just burst out laugh so I could have gotten it over with. After bible class we went home and got ready for bed. I then stayed up and did some writing and watched a couple of shows of "number" and then went to bed.

It was a good day and very fun. I'm looking forward to Friday and going to high school with my cousin Emily!

My adventure continues with... A Rainy Thursday! :)

German: Day 8 - Tuesday

2009-03-26T01:30:00.002-07:00

We really didn't do much on Tuesday. We took the day off and just hung around the house resting. I was up early and whatched a movie on the lap-top Tuesday morning around 8:00. My grandparents didn't get up till 10:00 and then I came down and ate breakfast. I spent a lot of time on the computer that day figuring out all my pictures and writing my blog. It was a nice day of rest and it gave me a lot of time to catch up on what was going on and think a littl bit. For dinner I made lasagna and we had some garlic bread. While all that was cooking I went outside and helped my aunt pick up some branches that had fallen from their apple tree. We then talked about what all we were going to do this next weekend. The plan so far is that my grandparents and aunt are going to a small town in France and I'm going with my uncle to maybe go skiing in the Alps. Depending on the weather though we might do something else. They have been getting a lot snow, but it might turn into freezing rain and then it would be a big mess. So Tuesday was a much needed rest day before Wednesday when I went to middle school!

My adventure continues with... 11th grade middle schooler!

German: Day 8

2009-03-26T01:30:00.001-07:00

A monday in Germany

2009-03-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

I slept pretty well yesterday, but still woke up once or twice during the night. I did some writing and finally figured out the deal with my pictures (which still doesn't quite work) my grandparents and I then packed up and left at 9:00am to catch the bus to Heidelberg. The bus station wasn't that far away, about a 5 minute walk, so we were on time for the bus, but the bus, how ever, was not very on time. It was 10 minutes late, but when it arrived we hopped aboard and got on. The bus started forward right as I turned around to sit in my seat and I was thrown back into it pretty fast. Good thing I was in front of my seat! It was kind of interesting to observe the people on the bus. Almost everyone had a book and were reading. They probably ride the bus everyday and come prepared. We switched busses half way and got of to wait for the next bus, which was also late by 15 minutes. We got onto that bus and he started really quickly so I didn't have any time to sit down so I stood up. It was a fun bus ride and I enjoyed just standing there and looking around as the buildings passed by.

We were dropped off at the bus station right next to the famous bridge. We then walked our way up town to find the Funicular so we could ride it up to the to the castle. The Funicular is kind of like a cable care that goes up the side of the hill... I'm not really sure because I never saw it. It happened to be closed for maintenance so we instead walked up all 300 of the stairs to the top. I was able to get some cool shots as we ascended. Once we got to the top we walked through the gateway and I got my first view of the castle. It was very big and a lot of it was in ruin. There was a large walk way/vantage point to the left as you walked in and then there was a really long pathway that went a good 1/4 of a mile down to the other side of the castle gardens (which were outside the castle).

We then went to the gatehouse to buy some tickets to go in the castle and the lady gave us too many for some reason so when we got to the bridge entrance there was some confusion. There were two guys there. One spoke English and German and the other just spoke German. They were kind of funny. The one guard had to go back and fix the mistake and once that was figured out they let us in. We crossed the bridge which gave us a view of the moat and one of the towers that had a chunk fallen off. We walked right in and then turned to the left and signed up for an English tour of the castle. We had about 20 minutes before it started so we took a restroom break, which was in the wine cellar. We then looked around down there for a bit and then came back and went to the place we were supposed to meet at in the castle. It was a small room with some different pieces of armor and some history on the castle. We then went across the stone hallway to a different room when the tour started and the German lady showed us a model of what the castle originally looked like and then what it looked like now. She told us that the French had tried to take over the castle, but couldn't get through the walls because they were almost 20 feet thick. The French eventually were able to take over the inside and then used explosives to blow up one of the towers (That would have been quite a site!!).

We then moved on to over look the moat which was very interesting. It wasn't even full of water, it had a nice lawn. I guess when they weren't at war they had the moat filled with deer so the prince electors could go hunting (and if you ask me that's kind of lame...). When they were at war however, they would pump water from the well and fill up the moat, but it never

The whole castle was very artistic! Even the bridge has a ton of designs and huge amount of work that must have been put into it. The castle took over 300 years to build and four different kings built their own little section on it before the fall in the 300 year war (If I'm remembering right) Over the next couple hundred years the castle was rebuilt, but then almost all of it burnt to the ground when lightening struck the bell tower and it caught on fire. Even though the castle was made out of stone the interior of the castle had a lot of wood work and was very flammable. The guide said it burned for three days and four nights.

We then toured the inside of a portion of that castle that had been rebuilt after the fire and got to go into several of the rooms and look at the furniture. There was a lot of amazing paintings and the floor even had an interesting background. Instead of being marble like it appeared to be it was actually painted wood with a thin surface of glass over it. They called it peasant marble because it wasn't expensive. They cut down some 60,000-100,000 oak trees I think to make it all. That's a lot of wood! After that we went and saw the "chapel" that was actually all still original because it was all stone and wasn't affected by the fire. I thought that it was cool that it survived. There was a lot of statues and paintings all over the place. The tour ended at the chapel and we went to the wine cellar again to get something to eat at the little restaurant that was down there. I had some coffee and a sandwich. The bread was really hard, but you just had to take small bites. We sat down at a table and a bunch of foreign exchange students sat down at our table too. A lot of them were from Cypress and one was from England. I think they were on a field trip.

After we ate we went and walked around on the look out from the castle and got to see all of Heidelberg which was a lot of fun. My grandma wanted to walk through a small museum on pharmacy’s they had there too so we did that. We then left the castle after about 4 hours of walking around in it and went into the outside garden. I saw the tower that had been blown up and got up close to it. I guess it's been sitting there for over 300 years now. The gardens aren't in full bloom yet, but there are some flowers coming up. I saw some of the fountains and then walked around and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I also got to see some different views of the castle. After I walked around the garden we walked back to the castle bridge and then to the other side of the castle garden. There is an archway that you have to go under and it is said to have been built in one night for a surprise for a king's wife. All the stones had been pre-made and then in one night all put together. It was kind of hard to believe.

We then left the castle and took a longer less steep way down the hill because my grandparents didn't want to walk all the way down those stairs (Which is understandable!). Walking down was fun and I got to see a lot of houses and churches. I even saw a university that was there. I got some pictures of some interesting trees. When we got to the bottom of the hill we walked down a "main street" sort of a place where there was just this giant wide walkway for people with stores on either side. It was a lot of fun to walk through. We stopped at a bakery to get a special German dessert called Rosinenschnecken. It's kind of like a large, round and flat cinnamon role. Very tasty!

After that we then met up with my uncle and picked up my cousin from school. We drove over to a place where my grandparents needed to sign some papers so they could drive over here while my cousin Emily and I went to a bookstore and went to star bucks. I had a chai tea something or other and it tasted really good. Kind of a sweet tea/hot cocoa taste with a spicy flavor as well. After that we met up with my uncle and grandparents again and went to the electronics store and looked around. After that we went and picked up my aunt and other cousin and we switched vehicles and my uncle and grandpa and I went and did some errands and then my grandma, aunt, and two cousins went to do some other errands. After that we all went home and started on dinner. It was a nice evening and again good to be home.

I got a lot of pictures, but a lot of them were kind of dark, which was disappointing. They looked fine as I was taking them, but once I got them on the computer they were kind of dark. I will post them on my site anyway though. I'm looking forward to coming back to the castle in the coming years and remembering all this!

My adventure continues with.... Germany: Day 7 (actually 6 because I didn't get here until Wednesday last week)

The Weekend: Sunday!! :)

2009-03-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

Back to the adventure! :)

Sunday morning we woke up at 8:00 to the bell tower across the street ringing. I slept pretty good, but woke up a few time during the night. I was rested, but tired feeling. We requested to have breakfast served at 9:00, so we packed up and got down there. We went into the "Rezeption" room and ate. There were two tables set for us. One table had butter, jelly, cream cheese and NUTELLA!! Then there were some drinks and boiled eggs. The other table was set for us to eat at and had a large basket of different breads; some croissants, Kaiservrotden and some other small rolls. They also had some meat and fresh cheese that was really good. My cousins and I had hot chocolate to drink. My cousin Emily and I had 5 mugs full! I also had two glasses of apple cider and a glass of orange juice. Let me just say that for a couple of us... the rest stops were a much visited attraction during the day :)

We packed up and drove out of town, but then after looking at a book we decided to go back and go to the museum the town had on a crater. We drove back and found a parking spot next to the outer wall of Norlinden. We then walked through the city streets and made our way to the museum. Along the way we saw that people were setting up stands and opening up trailers for markets. I guess we happened to pick the lucky day out of the three market days they have a year to come and be apart of one. I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but I have been taking a picture of almost all the benches I see on my trip and I'm going to make one or two posts out of the best ones. So far I have 45 bench pictures. It has been quite entertaining because every time we pass a bench everyone goes, "SKYLAR THERE'S A BENCH!!", which is funny to me. My cousin then picked up on my idea and has been taking pictures of doorways, which is actually interesting. She has taken some good ones! And it was also fun to tease her back and yelling at every door we saw.

We got to the museum and watched a short clip about the crater and how it was formed. We also got to see a lot of rocks and even a rock from the moon that was on permanent loan from NASA. If it was on permanent loan why couldn't they just keep it? haha

After we went to the museum it was around noon and we really needed to start moving to get to Schloss Neuschwanstein and see the castle. We then decided that we wanted to have more time to see it so we would do it next weekend when we wouldn't be so rushed by time. After making that decision we just relaxed and walked through the markets. There were so many different things that people were selling! After looking at a few I decided I wanted to up the bell tower of the church that over looked all the markets and the whole town. So I got 1, 40 € and started my climb while everyone else went through the market.

The tower, which looked tall, didn't take long to climb. The stairs were steep and curvy with a lot of names written all over the walls and stairs. There were also a lot of random wooden beams and very confusing walk ways and rooms. I'm not sure what has been taken apart though. When I got near the top I had to buy a ticket to go to the viewing tower. I had a little trouble communicating because the man thought I wasn't paying enough, but he thought I was an adult, but I was 16. I was able to point to the sign and then he got it. The view from the tower was super amazing! And the wind definitely took me back too! On two sides of the tower that the wind was blowing straight towards my clothes were plastered to my body. The other two sides I was fine. For a few minutes I just sat there and soaked in the view. Then I took some pictures and walked around the top. I then climbed all the way down the stairs again. Oh and I forgot to mention the pictures I saw. On one section of the tower stairs there were a lot of pictures of bible stories that kids had colored. Each bible story was summarized on the side in German. At least that's what it looked like!

I met my aunt at the bottom of the tower and went to catch up with everyone else, but a table caught my eye as we were passing it. The man was selling some cool knit hats. He said "They are reversible so you can where one side for 6 months and when it gets dirty, you flip it to the other side and where it for another 6 months) - except he said it in a heavy German accent. It was only 2 Euros so I bought it. I also bought some sugar coated almonds, which were really amazing! I met up with my cousins and grandparents at a small cafe and had some coffee and an Erdbeerschaitte (which was kind of like a giant strawberry pound cake). Once we were done we walked back to the van and then left for home!

On the way back home we took numerous photo stops. My aunt has been super nice in pulling over when ever I see a good picture to be taken. I'm really thankful for that. We passed through a small town that had some large Abbey ruins on a hill. I stopped and took some pictures of a bridge and then a large hill that was very blank with random bushes all over it. It was cool. We then stopped at a gas station where I had the most interesting restroom experience of my life. In this gas station you had to pay .50 Euro cents to use it. So I put the money in the machine, got a ticket (a ticket!!!) walked through the little 3 pronged turny thing and used the bathroom. THEN... I saw this weird button on the toilet and being the curious and adventurous (and sometimes mischievous) person that I am, I pressed the button. Immediately the toilet seat started spinning around in a circle and this little machine came down and cleaned it. I kind of stood there with a blank, "did I just see what I thought I saw", expression. Then I laughed and was completely surprised by the fact that I had seen a self cleaning toilet. So anyway, that was my most interesting bathroom experience so far in Germany!

We finally got home and it was super good to unpack and just relax after the super long weekend. We had some leftovers and then had some nice family time. We sat around the dining room table and sang some hymns and then read out of a devotional book and prayed. It was good to be back "home" again :)

So that was a condensed version of my weekend and if you thought THAT was long then be glad I didn't go into great detail - haha :)

My Germany Adventure continues with... Germany: Day 6... Monday!

The Weekend: Saturday! :)

2009-03-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well we had an amazing road trip this weekend and I have so much to share! I'm going to just split it up into two days so it's easier to follow.

After leaving Saturday morning around 11:00 in the morning we ran a few last errands. We stopped at the bank and I got some Euros and then we dashed over to the bakery quick to get some bread for the trip. We then hopped on to the autobahn and drove to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. We passed an airplane museum on the way and we will be going to that sometime in the next week. It was cool to see the outside though; there were a couple of huge airplanes on display. We also passed a big nuclear power plant with huge smoke stacks. Along the highway we passed a lot of farms. There were also large vineyards that looked really cool! We passed a ton of those and I did manage to get some good shots from the car window. We stopped at one rest stop and I got some nice pictures of the country side. When we first got there I noticed these cement headstone type things and wondered if some one was buried there, but then I realized they were picnic tables with out the bench or table parts :P - That was kind of funny. We ate bread and cheese for lunch (which even though it sounds simple, was really really good!) and then snacked on a lot of sweets. The highways in Germany are narrow sometimes and fast! There are also a lot of distance markers along the road and they make me nervous because if you had to swerve for something you would hit these poles that are every 10 meters or so and pretty much ruin your car. The cool thing about there poles though is that they have arrows on them pointing the direction to the nearest emergency phone on the highway. Every couple of kilometers there is an emergency phone; I thought that was kind of cool!

When we finally pulled in to Rothenberg it was 1:30pm. We pulled into a parking lot right outside the wall that surrounded the city and parked. We unloaded, packed up and made sure we were all warm and then set off. Before I continue I will share a funny story...

As we were packing up we noticed this man standing across the row between to vehicles. He was wearing sunglasses and at first we didn't notice him, but as we moved away from the van he moved closer. We thought he looked kind of suspicious. I forgot my sunglasses so we went back to get them. He just stood there and kind of smiled. We then shut the door and locked it and then took our time looking at the map and deciding where to go. The man was still standing there. As we started walking over to the side walk he followed us a little bit. We couldn't tell if he was just some random person or up to some mischief. Just in case, I very nonchalantly took a picture of him and my aunt took down his license plate number. As we walked away we started joking and making up a story about our stuff being gone. And later when we came back everything was fine and he was just some random guy.

We entered Rothenberg through a big arch and took some narrow stairs up to the castle wall. The first thing I noticed is that I was almost too tall for the timbers that were being used as rafters to support the ceiling. I couldn't walk up right comfortably because I kept thinking I was going to hit my head. There were a lot of different shaped holes in the wall for windows and they all varied in size too. Along a portion of the wall there were also name plates of people who had donated money to the reconstruction of the wall. There were names from all over the place. Even the US! Every transition (or turn) in the wall had a short tower and some steps up into the tower and then steps down again. The stone steps were very warn and you could see that there had been a lot of use. From the wall you got a very good view of a lot of houses and then long street shots. I took some pictures of that stuff. You could also see a tower with a bunch of scaffolding around it that was being fixed or something. I also saw some of the first actual photographers on my trip from the wall, but they all had Nikons... I felt a little out numbered :P

When we reached the far end of the wall we took the stares down to the street and then found this side doorway that took us into this really big indoor road with some canons at every window. The wooden beams and stairs were really cool! There was also a small garden behind the wall with a neat bridge over it. The bridge went over a sidewalk that went into the garden. I got some pictures of this too. After walking over the bridge and around the garden I went back to the street and as I was walking back into Rothenberg through this tunnel this small little care came zooming by and it was really loud, but very tiny... kind of like the car clowns squish into.

Like I said in my last post, Rothenberg had a medieval theme and almost every story had a unique sign with a special symbol on it. Back in the medieval days when some people couldn't read or write the stores had to have signs with symbols that told what they did or sold. It was very cool to see the descriptions through the signs. We walked through Rothenberg to the Market Square and right before we got there we stopped at a small shop and got some "Snow balls or Zimt Schneeballb as they call them. It's kind of like a funnel cake except in a ball shape and a lot more dense. I got one covered in cinnamon. We got to the square that I mentioned and it was really big. There was a huge church tower to the left as you walked in and then a large building with a clock on the front straight ahead. The market place was just a big square of bricks and there were a lot of people walking through it. We then turned left and walked straight down the street to the Garden that I talked about. It was really big and amazing! It opened up through and archway and there was a path to the left and the right. There were long sidewalks parallel to each other that went all the way down through trees to the large vantage point over the valley. There were also some side path ways that went to various locations in the garden to other look out points. The look out place was really cool and I enjoyed seeing the valley and the river. There was a sculpture that people were taking pictures by and I snapped a shot of a cute little 1 or 2 year old running through it (with permission).

Oh and a funny story... we were waiting by the bathrooms for people that need to go and my cousins and I were standing there talking and saw these to German ladies walk past and go down the pathway to the men’s side. We started laughing and then a couple seconds later they walked past us again talking really fast and since I didn't know what they were saying it just made me laugh.

We left the gardens and started walking back to the car because our parking time was almost out. I wanted to climb up the church tower and take some pictures so I ran ahead with some money and looked for the right door, but it had already closed which was a big bummer. We walked through the streets some more and saw a lot of different shops. My cousin Emily and I walked into a store that had some really big horns in it. Like the kind you would blow in. When we walked in there was this machine that said, "hello, welcome, come on in" and it said it like a dozen times. The man there also had a large variety of knives that were very impressive. I really wanted to get one, but they cost a little much and I figured I would see more knives and try and make up my mind when I saw some more. We also went into a Christmas shop that had all these ornaments. If you ask me, it was way too much Christmas for me this time of year. We then walked the rest of the way to the van. We took a break and had some tea/cider/hot chocolate and then snacked on a bunch of different things that we had brought. We then packed up and went on our way to find ourselves a place to spend the night. We drove to a place called Dinkelsbuhl. As we entered the town I saw a music shop that was displaying two drum sets... I immediately had my aunt drop me off asap and ran back to the shop to buy some drum sticks, but they were closed!! I was disappointed, but I'll just have to keep looking! I then ran and met up with everyone and we went searching for a place to eat. There was a giant church/cathedral looking building where we parked and we heard a lot of horns coming from it. We stopped and asked someone about it and were told that they were having a special hunter’s ceremony. We stopped and ate at a small Pizzeria. It was really nice and was completely empty... I guess all the people were eating some where else. The food was good. I had a pizza and some salad that tasted really good. The pizza in Germany is a little different. all the crust is thin, which I like, but I also like fluffy pizza crust too! After we ate we walked back to the car. It was dark and a little cold so we were all rushing. Once we got to the car we drove around a little bit touring the city by night and then we went on our way to find a place to stay.

My uncle, who stayed home because of a class he's taking, called us right as we were thinking about calling him and asked us if we had found a place to stay. We hadn't, so he found a place for us. The hotel was in a town called Nordlingen and it was almost an hour away from Dinkelsbuhl so we hastily went on our way. The lady that owned the place was very polite, but also interesting. She had her own private elevator too, which we all thought was funny (Of course we were all tired too). The rooms were amazing and the beds were really comfortable. The room my grandparents and I stayed in was a very good size. It had three wooden beds a couch, a table, two chairs, a wooden closet and a T.V.. The bathroom had two sinks, a toilet, a bathtub AND a shower. It was very cozy! I took a shower and got in bed and would have slept pretty good except my grandpa snored all night! He said I was snoring, but when ever I woke up it was him who I heard (And yes, I made sure it wasn't me).

So that was my Saturday and part on of my exciting weekend! It was a very long, but enjoyable day and I took about 200 pictures. I'm looking forward to posting a ton of them when I get back! I will type the adventure that today (Sunday) brought, tomorrow morning! Hope you are enjoying the trip so far!

My adventure continues with... The weekend: Sunday!! :)

The Weekend!

2009-03-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

For the weekend we will be traveling down "Romantic Road" which is a stretch of highway between Wurzburg and Fussen, Germany. It is best known for passing by the Nuschwanstein Castle, which is seen a lot on post cards around here. We will be staying at a bed and breakfast some where along the way to sleep Saturday night. One of the places we will be passing through is Rothenburg, Germany which is the best preserved medieval twon in Germany. There is a large wall that encircles the town and allows for some amazing pictures I'm guessing. There is also a tower called te Rothenburg Town Hall Tower that gives a good view of Rothenburg and the surroundings.

Some highlights of Rothenburg are...

St Jakob's Church - It was built during the hieght of Rothenburg's Gothic period and took 170 years to complete. The churches greatest treasure if the "Holy Blod Alter" which was carved by Tilmann Riemenschneider between 1499 and 1505. It also has a nice organ.

The Town Square - The market place includes the town hall, the clock tower, St Georges Fountain, some shops and then a lot of cafes. The Town Hall is split into two parts. The Gothic part which includes the Imperial Hall and the 65 meter high tower. Then there is the renaissance part that includes the arched terrace. I'm looking forward to this part!

The Medieval Crime Museum (haha - this should be fun) - This museum consists of the best collection of European objects and documents pertaining to crime and punishment from the 12 to 19th centuries. And it presents it rather graphically I'm told.

Burg Gate and Garden - The Rothenburg Imperial Castle was located in what is now called the Castle Garden. The castle itself was destroyed in an earth quake in 1356 and the obly surviving building was the prison which was rebuilt in 1400. There are two round gardens, a mask through with tar was purred through onto enemies. The garden also has a nice view of the surounding country side. I'm looking forward to seeing this a lot!

The other thing I'm looking forward to is the Spital Bastion. The Spital Bastion fortification has a figure 8 design with two courtyards and has an ancient moat and a lot of walk ways that are good for exploring..... The description I'm reading says that there is an inscription over the main gate that says "Peace to those who enter, farewell to those who leave." - interesting....

So those are a few of the things that we will be looking at and doing on our trip this weekend as ?I'm told, but plans could change while we are on the trip. I might have the chance to go to France as well, but that is pending.

This morning has been normal, we are not in a big hurry to get out the door and we have just been eating beakfast and getting everything ready. I figured out my camera problem as well so I have not been having trouble with it any more. It's not fixed, but I have been able to work around it. It has something to do with the paerature because I can only shoot on AV at 4.0 which is wierd, but if I do I don't have any problems. I have been able to take pictures fine so I'm glad.

Well time to head out! I don't think I will be able to type anything up till Monday so until then....

My adventure continues with... My trip down romantic road :) (Coming soon...)

Deutschland: Tag Drei Weiter (Germany: Day 3 continued)

2009-03-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

We traveled out to "The Mill" or "Zur Muehler" To eat tonight. It was a beautiful place way out in the back country. I'm noay out sure how people find it, but the smell of the food must lead them there. Right after we got started we crossed the river on a ferry and that was fun! On the way out into the country it turned into a single lane road and every so often there was a little pull off spot in case you met a car coming the other way. There was a really cool stream flowing next to the road the whole way up and I was really wanting to get out and take some pictures.

Another thing I have noticed in Germany is that people drive really fast! It was rather entertaining to drive on the back road at 50 miles an hour... or close to that. We got up to The Mill and it was set on top of a nice little hill and had a big water wheel on the side that was turning quite rapidly. There was a long trough that came from some where and turned to flow onto the wheel. There was a nice little brick square with some flowers around it. There was also an interesting stone table with an ovel base that I took a picture of and will post when I can.

The inside of the restaruant was really cool. There was a lot of stained wood and the ceiling had dark timbers going across in straigh lines. There was a lotof decorations too. There was some stone bunnies on a corner shelf and then there were different flowers and lights hanging every where. The tables we sat at were really nice too. They were very dark colored and had a nice wood grain. We ordered our drinks and I ordered Milch Kaffee (which is coffee and milk). It was really good and I drank it up fast. We then ordered our food and I ordered Rumpsteak, Pommes (french fries - Way better than Mcdonalds.), Zwiebeln (fried onions - They were sweet, but delicious. I like onions a lot!), Kraeuterbutter (herb butter), Salat (salad, which was rather different. It had all the lettuce on top and then it had shaved carrots and turnups on the bottom of my bowl with a lot of dressing. Very good though!), Spezi (A mix of Cola and orange fanta - Which was also really good). IT took a while for the food to come out, so we talked and then solved some Soduku puzzles. The food finally came and it was really amazing! The presentation was impressive and the tase was definitely equal to the looks. After eating my cousin Emily and I played around with our costers. We would lay them on the edge of the table so a little bit was stick off and then we would take our hand and flip them into the air and try and catch them. It takes some skill and then we would flip them across the table to each other and catch them which was even more difficult.

We then packed up and drove home. I looked through my pictures and then we have just been siting around and talking and I have been doing pictures and stuff. The basketball games are on the U.S. Military T.V. stations and my Uncle and Grandpa have been watching that. We are also getting ready for our trip over the week end. Which I will talk about as my adventure continues :)

My adventure continues with... The Weekend!! :D

Germany: Day 3!

2009-03-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

I didn't sleep eveyr well last night, but I got up and tried to get some pictures loaded. I ate a bowl of oat-meal this morning with raisons :) and then I did a little bit of reading for a while. Around 11:00am we left for Felsberg, Germany which is a good hiking distance away from where we are staying. We started off down the hill again and got onto a trail. IT was a little colder today and the wind was blowing. The sun was hidden by som random clouds, but was showing some promise of coming out completely. As we walked up the trail I was amazed at the really tall pine trees! They were all over the place and made for some cool pictures. I will try and get some up soon, but I'm having some trouble with them.

We hiked all the way to Felsburg and it was nice to look at the differnt buildings through the towns. We passed a house with a bunch of chickens in the back yard and that was interesting. The houses were higher than the street so there was a wall that blocked my view from close up. We stopped t the bank to get some money and then we took the last climb up to Felsberg. We then stopped and talked to the bus driver. It is really difficult not being able to speek the language because we have to use sign language and talk in fragments. It was a long hike up hill to the small little town of Felsberg, but we made it finally.

There was a really cool arch that was the main entry way to the town and I took some pictures of that. There was a small garden right before we went in side with a black fence around it. On the small black gate there was a really cool metal rose and I took a picture of that. Hopefully I can get it up soon! We hiked up the road a little ways and stopped at a little Cafe called "Pippifax Cafe und Eis". It was a very nice place, but small. They had some pictures of Bob Dillan up and the guy there who spoke english pretty well was really nice and was pretty funny. We had a home made german pizza and then we each had Crepes for dessert. I had an apple sauce type crepe that was pretty good. We then walked up to see the castle that was on the top of the bluff. IT over looked the Neckar River and the dam we were at the day before which was really nice, because I felt like I knew where I was. The castle ruins were really cool and there was a lot of different sheds and stuff. Down by this gift shop there was also this really neet sculpture that looked like four wavy golden ribbons that were vertical. And it also blew in the wind and turned around, which was rather cool.

We went into the castle and had to pay to look around. There was a lot of old barrals and plows and even a gauntlet. There was a large tall tower that we had to climb up to get to the wall that you could walk across. There were 98 stairs to the top and it was a continuous spiral. And after running up to count the stairs I ran down it and got really dizzy from looking at the stairs. :P

The view from the top of the tower was amazing and you could see the dam clearly (where we were yesterday) and I could also see up the three different valleys. It was really cool to be up that high. I took a picture of myself so I'll get that up when I can. We then walked back down from the castle and went to a gift shop. It was over 300 years old and had some amazing wood work. The floor boards were all stained and very creaky. We walked to the back of the town and found a trail that wound down the bluff in a zig-zag pattern and took us all the way back to where we started. It was a very beautiful walk and I enjoyed the really flat and wide woods. The woods here are very unlike the woods in Winona. They aren't very dense and they are really wide open! It would make some good running trails. We walked for a good two or three miles.... or like 5 kilometers. The trail came out by the highway and we walked down it for ways and came to a pasture with goats. There were three of them and they were below us eating some grass by this pond and then looked up and "baaahd" at us. We called back to them and they turned and started walking towards us. We had to keep walking forward and calling o them to get them to come up to us. We finally got them t come really near to the fence.

My grandma had by now walked really far ahead so my grandpa and I hurredly walked to catch up. We passed a speedometer that told us how fast we were walking... and I turned around to see how fast I could run. I didn't get full out, but it said I was going 20 mph... of course it's probably 20 kilometers per hour :P So I'm not as fast as I thought I was going - haha

We made it back safely and I had jsut sat down to start typing when my cousins got home. I sat down and played some guitar hero with my cousin Emily and played on expert for the first time to "What I've done" by Linkin Park. It took me three tries, but I finally got it! We are sitting around right now and we are getting ready to go to "The Mill" which is a restaraunt out in the country. I will definitely write more later after I go. For now that has been my day so far! Stay tuned for more :D

My adventure continues with... Deutschland: Tag Drei Weiter (Germany: Day 3 continued) :)

Germany: Day 2 continues....

2009-03-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

After spending the morning blogging and resting a little bit my grandparents and I went out on a hiking adventure. The community that my Uncle and Aunt live in is on a hill so all the streets are curvey and hilly. It's a very pretty place! We walked down to the main road and then went to a trail that goes to another trail that makes its way across the bluff along the Nickar River. Right as we were entering the trail I saw a sign that warned for "Frog crossing". They have to be really big frogs in order to watch for them. I'm wondering when I'll see one. :)

As we hiked the first bit of the trail I noticed that there is a lot of chopped wood. I mean A LOT! It's all over the place and it's stacked in big piles and long rows. Some of it is fresh and other piles are really old. We passes a pasture that used to have wild pigs, but they aren't there anymore. We also passes a big fenced in spot with wild deer in it. We hiked a little further and then the trail started along the bluff. From the trail I could see Neckar Steinach (a small town) and a lot of boat ports. There was a big barge that was on land and it was resting on there big metal rollers. My guess is that some sort of button is pressed and then the rollers go down the small embankment and into the water and the boat is then ready to move.

The trail was really beautiful and definitely one I'm going to run. It was fairly flat (no bumps) and a little hilly so I'm thinking it would be a fun run. It also had a nice layer of leaves which makes for nice soft running.

The trail followed the Neckar until the dam and lock that is there. It had a cool pedestrian bridge right over the dam and we walked over it. The sound was really loud and the amount of bubbling the water was doing was definitely impressive. I wouldn't want to get caught in those currents! There was one spot where the basketballs and soccerballs had collected and were being repededly sucked under and then pulled back up and spun around. They have probably been there for a while. We then walked across the bridge and into the town of Neckar Steinach. We walked a little ways into it and saw a few car delerships. We then stopped at a small Kiask and used their bathrooms. It's really interesting how you have to pay to use certain bathrooms over here. IT makes me more appriciative of the free ones we have in the U.S.; though these are always really clean!

We were rght next to the railroad tracks so we went in search of the station. We asked for diretions, but the man only spoke a little bit of English. We did find it though. We then started back and on our way across the lock and dam we saw a big barge in the lock transfering from the lower to the upper river. IT was really cool to see how fast the water comes up and the boats move through. We then walked across and I took a spiral stair case down to the bankside next to the dam to get some pictures, but my camera has been giving me some trouble and gives me this Error 99 message everyone in a while. IT has to do with the communication between the lense and the camera. It does it every once in a while and it was doing it then so I don't have a far away shot of the dam down stream. We met a group of kids from Mannheim that were on a field trip. They had a list of questions they had to answer about the towns and castles. They had all of them done except one that had to do with pearls. My grandparents and I figured out that the answer was Nickar Steinach because it's called "the pearl of the Neckar". I wish we could have figured it out earlier and told them.

We hiked along a different trail that was paved. It ran right along the bank of the river. It was really pretty. It then turned into a hill trail and we climbed 8/10 of a Kilometer up hill. There was a really cool stream with some waterfalls, but my camera wouldn't work so I couldn't get a picture of it. Maybe I'll get to see it again since it's nearby and snap a picture or two.

We got home and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing. I played Wii sports with my cousin Ana and then we had chicken curry for dinner. Which was really good. You can put a ton of different toppings on it; like pineapple, bananas, dried onions, raisons, cocunut and tomatos. IT's really good! (Like I said)

So that was my second day in Germany and it was a lot of fun!

My trip continues with.... Germany: Day three!

Germany: Day 2

2009-03-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

I slept from 9:30pm to 10:26am this morning and let me tell you... it feels good to have 13 hours of sleep packed away. I'm feeling pretty good right now and don't feel too tired. We haven't done very much today. I have just been typing away on my blog. We are about to go out on a walk though and enjoy the nice weather! This is the first week it had been sunny in a while. I'm glad it chose the week I'm coming to shine! I will keep you up dated as the day progresses!

Germany: Day 1

2009-03-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

So now I can finally start talking about what I have done so far! That's the thing about not being able to get on until a day after everything has happened. You have to start off way early so you can catch everyone up.

So we left the airport and my uncle then had a couple options for us as far as what to see first. My aunt and cousins were in school all day and my Uncle had the day off so we were going to go around with him. We decided to go to "Waldspirale" first. On our way we passed a monument for the airplanes that flew food into Berlin during World War II I believe.
We drove on the auto bon (Is that how you spell that?) and let me tell you... it was fast! Cars were going all over the place. All the trucks have to stay int he right most of lanes and can only go 100 kph. We were in an older van so we stayed in the right lane most of the time, but we did get to cruise with the fast cars one in a while. The streets were very interesting. The trafic lines are really cool and all the curviness is fun. We got to "Waldspirale" and I was really amazed! (To see a picture go here)

Waldspirale is an apartment building located in Darmstadt's Burderpark viertel. It was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, but built by the Bauverein Darmstadt company and planned by architect Heinz M. Springmann. It was completed in 2000! It has about 105 apartments, a parking garage and a cafe and bar at the way top of the tower. There are a 1000 windows in the building and all of them are different! Similarly, all the handles to the apartments aren't the same either! The building reminded me of a Dr. Zues book... seriously!

I took some pictures as we walked around it and under it. I was really surprised to find that it's just an apartment building! Imagine living in a room in that building?? And it's not that bad price wise either.

After we checked that out we went to option 2 anyway and saw the "Lorche Abbey" in Lorche (of course) which is about 6 miles east of Worms. You can aslo see pictures of this at the link above too. It has quite a bit of history to it and is worth looking up on Wikipedia for information. There were even bullet holes in the side of the building. The Gatehouse was also really cool. The stone design and the shapes are all really amazing. I'm going to run out of adjectives to describe things really soon!

We walked around a little bit in the little town square and went to a bakery. I'm not sure what I got to eat, but it was a square pastrey with vanilla pudding/custart in on top with a pile of cherry sauce in the middle. IT was really good! The streets and walking places are really detailed! The way they lay the stone and the design is really cool. We then walked back to the vehicle and headed to the doctor for a check up my uncle had. While he went to get a check up we walked along the Neckar river on a back street and saw some really pretty houses. We then walked up a hill street and looked around in the shops. We reached the top of the street and hung out in a market place until my uncle picked us up. His doctor appointment was rescheduled for later so we then went home and unloaded. I got my stuff settled and then took a nap. I meant to sleep for 30 minutes, but that turned into over an hour as I was obviously really tired. My uncle got back and we loaded up in his car and drove to get passes so we could go on base. "On Base" means that we can go into the U.S. military "town" type place. There are American shools and stores "on base". I had to fill out some forms and then they had to take my picture... and let me tell you I look like a ghost! I'm note sure what the deal is with their camera, but it made me look bad. Then they had to scan my finger prints and that was cool :)

After we got our passes we had to wait for my Aunt to meet up with us. We greeted her and then I went with my Uncle to wait for my cousins to be picked up after school activities. My cousin Ana had soccer try outs and my other cousin Emily had Ballette till 7:30. IT was around 4:30 when we got to the soccer try outs and I got to say hi to Ana before they started. My uncle and I went and ate at the bowling alley across the street and had an american experience in Germany. We watched the sports channel for a while and then went and waited till my cousin was done. We picked her up around 6:00 and went to the mall to get something for her to eat.
We went to this really cool place that made all sorts of crepes! I had a chocolate one and it was really good. By then though I was super full because of all the things I had eaten. We then looked around and went to a media center which had all sorts of technological things. The mac screens they had there were huge!! And they had TVs bigger than me!! I was kinda blown back. Oh and you really have to watch where you look because some of the advertisements over here are very... inapproriate almost.

We then picked up my other cousin and headed home. I showed my pictures of the day to them and then fell asleep for the 30 minute ride home. I got home and talked with everyone for a bit and then called home to let everyone know I made it safely. Then I sat down and tuned the guitar and played for a bit. Then I got read for bead and "really slept" for the first time in 27 hours. I played a song before I went to sleep on my IPod and don't even remember listening to it... Ahhh sleep :)

My adventure continues in... Germany: Day 2!

The Fight to Frankfurt

2009-03-19T04:22:00.000-07:00

We boarded the plane and everything went very smoothly! My first reaction was... WOW this thing is HUGE!! We went down three hallways... INSIDE of the plane! I was blown away! Well not literally. My grandparents and I all sat in the same row. I got the window seet, and my grandma sat next to me. There was an aisle and then my grandpa sat in the seet across the aisle. We had a 20 minute wait and I got comfertable and started to read and talk to my grandparents. I also spent some time praying and just thinking about my trip. The plane started to move and the big truck was pushing the plane backwards out off the dock. The plane got in line and then we watched a couple planes take off in front of us. It was really amazing to see how fast the move forward right away. IT was our turn and we pulled around and lined up. There was this huge explosion of sound, like those podracers in Star Wars starting up, and then we shot forward. I guess it takes a little more speed to life a bigger airplane :P

The view from the airplane was something else and I waved good bye to the U.S. as we started our journey. I'm not sure which lake we flew over, but for a while I could only see water. We flew over canada and then it got dark so all I could see was random clouds of orange light where ever there was a town. Then we got to the ocean because all the lights disappeared. I was way to excited to sleep on the plane so I decided to watch a movie. They didn't have the best selection. The first one that interested me was Twilight. I haven't seen it and I haven't even read the book, but everyone has been talking about it so I watched it. I wasn't very impressed... it was kind of cheesy. I mean seriously when the line "You are my life now" came with out very convincing emotion I pretty much locked in for a 5 out of 10. I then watched a couple other movies including the new James Bond movie, which was a lot better than Twilight.

The first bit of excitement on the plane happened when my Grandma got some ice cold water so she could take come pills. She set it on my tray and then closed hers and got her bag out to get the pills. When she opened the bag the flap bumped the water and it went all over my lap and under my legs and so I had a wet butt and a very weet front side. IT was quite shocking at first with it being cold water and all. I was able to dry the table up and then get a little bit of water from my pants, but I pretty much had to settle with having wet pants :P - Which was no big deal, it's life!

As we neared Frankfurt the sun started coming up and we saw a little bit of Scotland as we flew over. The clouds were very amazing and I wish I was able to take good pictures of the pinkness. The towns were amazing and I could see all the red roofs and the river and the hills. Landing in Frankfurt was really really hard on my ears! It was super uncomfertable and chewing gum really didn't help. I could barely even hear as the plane touched down! It was a goodlanding... a little rougher than most I have been on, but good! The first thing I noticed when we landed was that I couldn't read anymore!! Almost everything was in German! We got off the plane and went through costoms then we went and got our baggage. I didn't have any trouble finding mine and then we went and met my uncle and we loaded up our stuff in his van.

I just thought I would let everyone reading this know that my blog posts probably won't always be this long! But I have the time right now, so I might as well give the details :)

My adventure continues with.... Germany: day 1 :)

The Detroit Airport

2009-03-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

I got off my Rochester to Detroit flight and walked out the long tunnel. Everyone was walking to the underground tunnle from concourse B to concourse A. You had to take a moving side walk and then take the escalator down and then through the tunnle and then back up again. As I was nearing the moving sidewalk the gentlemen in front of me dropped his jacket. I picked it up and caught up with him and gave it back. He was extremely thankful! He shook my hand and introduced himself to me as we kept walking. He was making a video for his youth kids and asked me a question for his video, which was pretty cool. He told me that he was a youth pastor from Ft. Knox, KY up here for a big meeting in which a bunch of people were going to be planning summer camps all over the united states! I explained where I was from and what church I go to and how I'm involved. I even told him about the top ten question series (that's to you craig!) We had a good conversation! We both reached concourse A and there was this giant fountain... well more like spraying thing. There were about 30 streams of water and they would shoot archs of water at different times and in different patterns. I took out my camera and started taking pictures and he asked if I was into photography, which I am, and told me that his wife did a lot of that. We talked about that a little bit and then I told him I had a site. We traded information (Website for his business card) and then shook hands and went our seperate ways.

I then went to find out where my flight was because it didn't say what gate I was taking off from on my ticket. After I found my gate I memorized the surroundings so I could get to it again and then I began my 4 hour exploration of the airport. I started off by walking from one end to the other and then I took the train back and forth a couple of times. I got hungry and found a small pizza place. After eating there I was tempted to get something from starbucks, but since I never have anything from there I didn't know what to order. I went back to the center of the airpirt where that fountain thing was and watched some airplanes take off.

There was a lounge area there so I took out my book and found a comfertable chair in the corner. After abou a chapter I put it down and hid my back pack behind the chair and fell asleep. I woke up an hour and a 1/2 later and everything had changed! Everyone that was sitting in the chairs before had transformed into different people, the airport was super crowded and there was a lady sitting right next to me. I wiped the sleep form my eyes and tried to get myself focused. I picked up my back pack and then went to look for some ice cream. I got some at Mc Donnalds and then went and road on the train again.

I met my grand-parents at 4:30 at our gate a half hour later. After saying hello they said they wanted some ice cream so I diected them to a TCBY that I found earlier and we had ice cream... and I had it again! :D

We then headed back to our gate and waited till we boarded. We then got in line and the security guy was randomly checking bags and he decided to pick my back pack. So I had to undo all the twisty ties that I had on my zippers and he looked through everything. Then I scanned my ticked and walked on board!

The airport was a lot easier then I thought it was going to be. IT was just one long concourse and I was able to find everything really easily! I never had any trouble and felt great the whole time! The only thing that I had a little trouble with was just my back pack being uncomfertable to carry after 3 hours!

My adventure continues with.... The flight to Frankfurt! :)

Plane flight number 1

2009-03-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

I finished packing Tuesday morning around 6:00 in the morning. My alarm went off at the wrong time, I guess I was too excited and wasn't paying attention or something, so I was up around 5:00 in the morning. I finished every last little thing I could think of and then we were out there door. We arrived at the airport right on time and faced our first problem when we couldn't get the gate to open for us, but we soon figured it out. I checked my baggage in and waved goodbye to it. Then I waited around for a little bit with my family and then we had a huddle (that's what us Ogrens call a prayer when we leave) and had hugs all around. I walked through security with out setting anything off and proceeded to my gate which was 50 ft from where I was sitting before I went through security! Small airport!

I sat there for about 10 minutes looking around and then the plane started bording. I walked down the hall and I started to feel this trip becoming real! I was actually on my first flight all alone and everything was going great! Then right before I enetered the airplane I had to stand on the little platform inbetween and got sprayed with a ton of wind coming from the planes. I got on and found my seet next to the window and waited there. Then the lady that had the seet next to me sat down and we started to talk. Turns out she was the daughter of some really good friends of my parents and knew me! Talk about a small world! It was fun to talk about homeschooling and college and stuff. I got her card and that was person number one that I was to meet! It was a good take off and landing, but my ears had a little trouble landing. I chewed some gum to help with it and it made them feel a little better.

That was my first flight! And if you thought that was exciting you should read about my next adventure... The Detroit airport! :)

One Day Left!

2009-03-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

I pretty much have all my packing done. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep it simple and not bring everything. I still can't decide if I should bring my mattress or not. Part of me thinks it might not fit on the plane, but on the other hand I want to be comfertable on the trip over... :P

Ok, seriously now, I enjoyed one last run this morning and am continually pointing things out... My last lunch in Winona, my last run in the U.S., My last load of laundry. The reality of my trip still hasn't really hit me completely and I don't expect it to until I land in Detroit. I'm pretty excited about being stuck in the airport for 5 hours though :)

This trip is not just exciting for me because I get to go 1/2 way around the world and see some cool things. I'm looking forward to how much it's going to open my eyes to the world I live in and the beauty it with holds. I have grown up hearing about Europe and I have seen countless pictures of it, but seeing it makes it all a reality. I'm also praying and looking forward to how God will use this trip to change me! I'm pretty sure that I'm going to meet some cool people! I'm not one to be shy so I'm going to do my best to talk to people and ask quesitons... and maybe I'll even get to take peoples pictures when they see my camera.

The count down is down to under a day! I'll probably sleep fine tonight, but then have trouble sleeping tomorrow on the flight... I'm leaving at 7:30 tomorrow morning! I'll be waving good bye as I take off!

~ Skylar

Trip to Europe - Pre-takeoff

2009-03-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, March 17th I'm leaving on a one month vacation to Europe with my grandparents. I will be spending two weeks in Germany staying with my Aunt and Uncle and then I will be taking a trip with both my Aunt, Uncle, my two cousins and my grandparents to Crete for two weeks. I want people to be able to keep up with my trip and know what I'm up to so I'm going to blog my trip to the best of my ability! So that means I might have to leave rather short notes sometimes :) So I currently I have 3 1/2 days till I take off and I thought I would make this first installment of my adventure.

I will be flying out of the Rochester Airport at 10:14am Tuesday morning on a Canadair Regional Jet CXJ on Tuesday morning. I land in Detroit around 1:00 pm and then don't take off to Germany till 6:00 pm Tuesday night. I kind of have a long wait, but I guess I'll have to read a book or walk around, or maybe talk to the security gaurd for a while. :)

My grandparents are going to meet me at the Detroit airport and from there we will take off for Germany flying on an Airbus a330 . We'll land in Frankfurt, Germany around 7:20 Wednesday morning and will then head to my Aunt and Uncles house. I suspect that I will be so excited that I'll forget myself in the airplane or something...

I'll do my best to keep my blog updated, but don't be surprised if I don't post everyday or even every other day. You can also check out my web site (http://www.skylarogren.com/) for pictures that I'll post if at all possible. I will probably say something about posting pictures on my blog when I do. If you have Facebook then I will probably be writing stuff on there too or posting the same blog info on a note. I'll also do my best to upload photos there, but I don't know how much time I'll have!

So that's about all for now! I will keep you updated! Please be praying for me! It's going to be an amazing life changing trip!

Skylar :)

My Top Ten

2008-11-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

Lone thistle after the first frost

Sunset apple tree - Taken in Mankato, MN

Sunset Eye - Taken in Mankato, MN

Mirror Lake - One of my favorite places to go in the summer

My dog Mazy - Taken in my front yard

Tree Picture - Taken in Mankato

Tree shadow pattern - Taken in Mankato, MN

Frosted Leaf - This was a super cool shot that I liked!

Cool tree patterns - Taken in Mankato, MN

A good friends feet - Taken at my house