Bringing Back the Beer Fridge

Meg’s fridge is seriously the size of a self-respecting college beer fridge. In fact, it is so small that it doesn’t even have a freezer part. But we managed to cool our drinks by sticking them outside the window. The window even opened like a fridge door, so it was extra authentic. There are even bars outside the window, so there wasn’t even a worry that the local high school hoodlums would reef our beer! Woot.

Space Age

I am not sure if these are supposed to be squatty-potties or not, but it was cold and those were stainless steel. I don’t know who picked these toilets for a train station, but I think they might just have been sadists.

Cutting Some Hairs

I finally got a haircut as well last weekend. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The washing and even the blow drying at the end all cost extra. So people apparently quite often choose to style their hair themselves. As witnessed by this picture. You’ll have to excuse the fact that I am in the pic as well, we were trying to be subtle…. Lol. Ok, stop laughing at the idea of me being subtle and look at the picture already.

I also got Meg to take a pic of my haircut. The pic isn’t fabulous but you get the general idea.

Misadventures on the Deutsche Bahn Part II

Meg and I needed to go shop for food for the dinner/drinks party she threw on Saturday, so we hopped on a train that should have taken us directly to Westlar through Giesen. Well, to give them credit- it did go through Giesen at least. In Geisen, the train split into 2. The back half of the train went to Westlar. We were in the front half. So we went almost all the way to Marburg, nowhere anywhere near where we should have been. Ugh.

We decided, once we realized the mistake, to get off at the next stop and just go back to where we needed to be. There was even a train at the station. However, by the time we ran to the other platform it was pulling away. After a quick check of the schedule we found that the next train didn’t come for a whole hour.

Here is what we saw when we got off the train. It was not encouraging :s This was the platform at the station. yikes.

Fronhausen Train Station

After wandering a town so small that even a one horse town could scoff at it, we found a Liquor store. It was only about 25 meters away from the paddock of lowing cattle we discovered. There was even a guy leading a pair of horses and a tractor driving down the main street. I couldn’t even make this up if I was trying. It was this rural. And there was nothing to do. For an hour. Ugh.Cows in Fronhausen

Guy leading his horses down the street in Fronhausen

However, at the liquor store we found some amusement- we bought coke in full sized glass bottles and also a cheap bottle of decent champagne- so I suppose the side trip was not a complete waste of time.

Meg's Place

The train aside, i had a great time at Meg's place. There was great food and i met up with some people i hadn't seen in a while. it was good. There was also a cheesecake that Meg managed to bake up in her TOASTER OVEN b/c she doesn't actually have an oven- i was pretty impressed and it tasted pretty good too :)

The outdoor escalator over a busy street in Giesen

The awesome pumpkin cake thing we bought

A plastic gummy bear outside of a Gummy Candy Shop in Giesen

We also had a party on Saturday night too. WOOT. and yeah, it did feature a bottle of the cheapest Jagermeister ever- a big bottle for 4,99 Euro.

Aaron, Me, and Meg's spoon on saturday

i was almost shocked at the price of the Jag- it was so cheap! We also went to my first ever Discothek: Buster's Workshop. Yeah, well what can i say- the name says it all- it was a bust. Bad music, crap beer... list goes on for a while here. beside that though, Meg and i did manage to cadillac ranch (of all things) to techno. I have never dance so fast before.... it almost killed us both. But we ended up with a circle of people around us-- cheering us on! that was pretty sweet :D

Misadventures on the Deutsche Bahn

Trains. They terrify me. it is just so different than what i am used to at home. However, this weekend I went to visit Megan, thus necessitating using the Bahn. I had never been on a train trip by myself really, especially one that required changes. Ugh. it did so not go as planned.

I got to the Bonn main rail station and immediately started off to find my connecting train ( i had only 5 minutes to get to the right platform and get on the train). so i found the right platform, and the train was going in the right direction, at the right time. Despite this, i was in fact on the wrong train. So instead of going straight through to Frankfurt, i ended up in Koblenz. I was more than a little panicked when the conductor announced that the train ended there.

It was a moment of OMG-WTF-HOW DO I FIX THIS?!?!?!???? it was bad. and so frustrating. But, in a moment of serious lucky, i heard over the loud speakers that the train leaving for Frankfurt one platform over was delayed 15 minutes. NICE. so i totally booked it over there and eventually ended up in Frankfurt. By this time i was in serious need of either a drink (or two or three) or a buddy, so Meg met me at the station. my 3.5 hour trip took closer to 5. it was pretty ugly :s

Thankfully, i did manage to make it home on sunday on time and on schedule- without incident. i even got all cocky and took a short cut. Take that Deutsche Bahn!

Conversations

While discussing how the teachers here are ridiculously mean to the students:

Me: It's not like a fun mean - like the kind of mean that makes kids like you.

Meg: Haha-I know- when we're mean, it's definately totally the "I just mocked you in front of everyone-mutual muahahaha-ing" type.

Indeed it is.

Not Sure What to Think

Bowling for Columbine. hmmm. i'm not really sure what i think about it. I know that you can swing a documentary to represent almost anything, with no real middle ground covered. But i think Micheal Moore, while trying to discuss a really important issue, really let everyone down. it wandered all over and talked about things that had nothing to do whatsoever with Columbine. also, i think that there was way to much edited out for it to even be considered semi reliable

I give it 1 out of 1 000 000 000 loaded rifles... all pointed at his film and terrible documentary techniques.

Best. Deal. EVER.

i bought possibly the most awesome sleeping bag EVER. yeah- i know right now, you are all busy thinking- wtf does she need a sleeping bag for?!?!? And no, i didn't just buy it b/c i could. i am going to Hesse this weekend to visit my friend Megan. However, Megan's apartment is only set up for one. We are talking no extra blankets or anything. she had to buy more dishes so i would have something to eat off this weekend. lol.

She asked if i could rustle up a sleeping bag and i figured yeah. i don't have a good one at home and i have been meaning to buy one for a long time now anyway. plus, they make them so small now it shouldn't be any trouble to bring it back home. woot.

ALSO- it was a pretty good deal! I guess fall is the time to buy stuff like that here. i just about had a heartattack when the guy told about the model i had been looking at. he pulled it off the shelf and on the back of the tag i saw that the price was - gulp- 79.99 Euro ( which is more than i would like to pay in $ let alone Euro *gasp*) but while he was wrestling with it to get it out of the carrying bag, i saw a SALE tag on the other side- sale price- 39.95. still about pricey when you think about it in dollar conversion but not too terrible seeing as i am getting paid in Euro right now.

i thought i would post a pic, but it is weirdly long and i had trouble getting it all into the picture. So naturally i modelled it- which actually worked way better:

Happy Meal Hoedown

Mcdonalds. Yum, Seriously not god for you but still...yummmm! A couple weeks ago i went to McDonalds for a cheeseburger Happy meal. that being said the nearest McDonalds is 3 towns away (but 25 min). It was so tasty :) the Happy Meal i had came, not just with tasty, but also in a BOX. When was the last time anyone one had a BOXED happy meal at home???? crazy.
so crazy in fact, that i took a picture :)



And here is the animal that came in the "Save the Animals" Happy Meal: Pete the Panda

It's Getting a Bit Redundant

Dear Host Father:

I like living in your house. you feed me good and are usually a decent human being toward me. However, when you turn into the Captain of the gramatically incorrect, rapid fire and mumbly German team, you turn into a jackass. Please cut me some slack here- if i have asked you the exact same questions 3 times and said along with that "i'm sorry, i don't understand"- please take that to mean that i legitimately did NOT understand you, and not that i am just trying to make your life difficult. Seriously. I. Am. Not. An. Idiot.

Thanks.

P.S- when you aren't looking on baking day, i am going to add flavorless Ex-Lax to your homemade bread.

Have a nice day.

Update on So Lame

After a couple hours of the brother "partying" hearty. i went downstairs to ask about the train schedule. What i got was a living room full of a whole 12 empty bottles and one very drunk teen. so drunk, in fact that he managed to knock over the end table 2 feet away from him in his efforts to stand up and still. i may have laughed to myself a bit. the poor kid looked so trashed. i felt a little bad for him until he managed to spill coke all over his parents laptop. at that point i had had enough, so i shoved a huge glass of water at him and went upstairs.

Moral lesson: kids are idiots. funny, but idiots. wish i was a bit farther past that stage myself...

So Lame I Actually Felt Better About Myself

I haven't seen much of the Host Brother lately. i heard him this morning though- cleaning, of all random things for a teenage guy to do. I figured out why though when i went downstairs for supper: He's having a party. My first clue: the really loud music blasting from the living room. My second? The kitchen fridge full of beer and nothing else.

But in his semi emo/goth-y type way he doesn't throw a wild, house-trashing party. No- he invites 2 more of his gothy emo friends over to listen to loud, shitty music and drink 30 beer. Remember my previous post about how beer usually comes in 500 mL? that is an impressive 15 L of beer to drink in a night. while sitting in the freshly cleaned living room, not talking to each other, listening to bad music.

Makes me glad i have no friends here- i don't think i could handle that much fun all at once ;)

Highway Robbery

Germany is not cheap. Ok, well, maybe comparitively speaking it is. My British buddy, Nick, is always so excited to shell out the ridiculous German prices because they are way cheaper than in the UK. The prices here are the suck. I do like them for 3 things though: Beer. Wine. Alcohol in General.

For example, a 500 mL Beer can be found for 1,50 Euro= $2.40* Cheaper than at a Canadian bar where crappy domestic will run you at about $3.75 (IF you buy in Camrose AND on Beer Special Nights) Here, the beer actually has brewing standards that must be met, is fresh, and has an actual expiration date (rather than the Canadian way of shaking the bottle, frowning at it and saying "it should still be good").

Wine- this can be tricky- a "good" Camping Wine with a screwtop can set you back about 1,99 Euro ($3.19) at the Aldi. Not being a wine connisseur, this generally suits my needs. However, should i feel the need to spring for a wine you can serve to people and not be embarrassed about for 5,99 Euro ($9.61) i can buy a decent Ahr wine (at the grocery store- yeah, that seriously never gets old for me :D).

Alcohol in general also astounds me with the cheap factor. 700ml bottle of Malibu 10,50 Euro ($16.83- Step aside Superstore Rip-off Liquorstore). A 750ml bottle of Jag will run you about 12,50 Euro ($20.03)

Basically, the only thing i appreciate about the German Pricing System is the alcohol prices. Even when i am not buying any and just walking down the aisle at the store, it reminds me that occasionally somethings are not ridiculously expensive here

*all dollar values are approximations based on todays exchange rate of 1 EUR = 1.60456 CAD

New and Different

It's raining here. Again. I'm glad the weather decided to do something new and different today. Jeeze. i miss the dryness of home. also, the wicked awesome fall sales :) i miss those too.

Ode to Soup

It's damp here and without Chili,
i find my throat is hoarsed from a lack of Borscht,
the Chicken Stock has flown the coop,
i would kill for a decent homemade soup.

i want a stew or something. the weather here is starting to suck in ways that only a comfy soup could make better :(

P.s.- my apologies for a serious lack of poetic talent :)

Guess What i Found?!

While hanging ou with my buddy the internet yesterday, i may have come across the most awesome stories ever written. AND they just may have been available in full text online. Yes, that's right- Anne of Green Gables is ONLINE. Nice. i now have a portable copy of my favorite books EVER. Woot.

Just thought I'd share that with you all.

Apology

Ha. i bet you all think this is about the Disney rant- but you're wrong! it's all about the link to the Jonas Brothers video at the end of the Disney rant. I like the song, but the video is the ultimate cheese. i didn't realize how bad it was until i actual looked at the video. Thus my apology. I'm sorry guys, i kinda dropped the ball on this one.

Seriously Disney- WTH???

Does anyone other than me remember the good old days when Disney made animated movies instead of teeny-bopper flicks? i watched Camp Rock today, mistakenly thinking that Disney had produced enough crap lately that sales would be down enough to force them to make quality films again. Kinda like the good old days before they started making half-assed and seriously baked sequels and trilogies for the amazing original animated films.

Ha.

I hope i run out of this down home naivete quick. i just keep getting smacked in the face with reality at every turn. it's ugly. so was Camp Rock, or, as i will henceforth call it- Camp The-Seriously-Half-Assed-Suck (Camp TSHAS if you will-for bonus points pronounce the T like you were saying Ptarmagin) Camp Tshas was so boringly predictable that i watched only about 30 minutes of the actual movie (15 at the beginning, 15 at the end) and i knew exactly what was going to happen. Wow- the "disaffected misfit"has trouble fitting in and making friends, but despite a full 75 minutes of this comes out of her shell during the last 15 minutes and snags the barely legal heartthrob of the movie. What a new and exciting plot!!!!

And no- it's not because i have ESP. It is because my beloved Disney of yesterday has turned into an uber mass-marketed bag of ass-tacular WTF-ery.

Disney- you fail. And not even your teeney-bopper versions of showtunes (despite the seriously lame/semi-entertaining lyrics) can save you. You have become such a Beast that even Belle has disowned you. Shape up before Lumiere and Cogsworth ditch too.

However- i will give a shout-out to the Jonas Brothers. They are like the new Hansons. And we all loved the Hansons. Admit it. For your viewing pleasure (and to make up for a really big rant):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScXLHgPcZuc

Things that killed my desire to watch TV

Still looking to keep myself busy here during Fall Break. Today the quest involved TV. And awesome English shows dubbed into non-awesome German shows. For instance 7th Heaven became Die himmlische Familie, or the Holy Family. The episode: Himmlische Frieden or Holy Peace. K- i know the show is about an old-school religious family trying to fit in today's world, but i think calling them THE holy family is maybe a bit much.

Also seen today was some terribly subtitled dating show to find a mate for Tila Tequila. Apparently the sex of her potential mate didn't matter either. So she was busy playing both teams. But the people that made it onto her "date me" show were pretty weak sauce, the dregs of both teams if you will. you know- the kind that say corny crap like :

"oh man, i think i am falling for her. it's a pretty big deal because i've never said those words aloud about anyone"- from Tila's girl date.

PARENTAL CAUTION HERE- Tila's next date was a little more to the point

"I've been so excited about going out with you that i haven't PUT MY HANDS ON MYSELF in two months to prepare"- the male waiter from Milan. WTF??? Who says that either?

Thanks to MTV, i saw a lifetime of junk in UNDER two minutes.

After less than 20 minutes of channel surfing, i finally settled on CNN UK Edition for 3 reasons:

1) it was in English
2) it was the only thing on, other than home shopping, that did NOT offend me
3) I may not care about what was actually on the news but at least everday it becomes something new, unlike the washed up/washed out dregs from Hollywood that get airtime here.

Thanks to 40 channls of the same unworthy things, I think i can successfully say that I am completely recovered from my Television Addiction.

Pics for Mom

In order to fulfill Mom's command and help myself be a smidge less of a social handicap, i went for a wander today on my last visit to the HOTT Visa guy (and yes- i did have to pay the 50 Euro, student or no) I took some pictures of things in the general area of where i needed to be today:

The healing spring

This bench overlooks the river

A bridge over the Ahr

Tombstones in the Cemetery. The youngest I saw was from 1775.

The view behind the Ahrweiler train station

There are more pics, but it was just faster/easier to upload them to Facecrack. Check them all out there :)

Ouch

2 days ago i fell off my bike- like ass over teakettle, off my bike. People saw. It was unpleasant :( But when i got home my host mom made me an awesome bandaid. I felt better. Then i had a nap :) Today i am covered in bruises and am so stiff that not even grandma's "rheumatism medicine" helps. *sigh*

Socially Handicapped

Talking about my social life here:

Me: Meeting new people/ making friends is so friggen hard.
Mom: i'm sorry
Me: yeah, i spend so much time on the computer now, i practically speak binary.
Mom: i don't know what you're talking about, but you should get off your ass and leave the house occasionally.

Words of wisdom indeed.

The Rotweinwanderweg

The Rotweinwanderweg is a hiking path that runs through the red wine vineyards of the Ahr Valley. it's really pretty and you can veer off of the main path to take random little pathlets that go other places. Yesterday, Nick, Joey (the Sister), and i all went for a walk, aka- hike. It was really fun, lots of cool scenery and the view from the top of the "mountain" we climbed was worth the 2 1/2 hours it took us to get there. We saw the ruins of Landskrone, some sort of old castle that sits on top of the hill we climbed.

Here are a couple of the pictures i took:

one of the pathlets


Nick, Joey, and Mayday at the summit of Landskrone


Grapes ripening in a vineyard


Us after about 4 hours of hiking

She thinks she's being sneaky...

My host mom knows i am not super keen on fish. at all. and still she either tries to nag me into eating it, or she just dishes it up onto my plate and says nothing. She knows that when i bite into it, i won't be able to complain about it at risk of her not cooking for me anymore. She's quite crafty when it comes to the "go around the wall, not through it" approach with me. Like tonight, where she made a mushroom quiche and a spinach quiche. She dished up the spinach quiche for me (which i don't mind) and sat there waiting for me to discover the damn source of omega-3's she had baked into it. I. Hate. Fish. With a passion. She knows it too. And she just sat there watching me eat it, with aforementioned crafty gleam in her eye. So i had to clean the stupid plate completely. Battle to you, host mom. But the war will go to me...

Sociables This!

Pre-dinner drinks, salad, main course, dessert, post dinner drinks... this is almost always how dinner goes when the Family has company. Last night it took 3 full hours. I'm all about the food, but it kinda stumps me how they can take so damn long to eat. Plus, they have been having guests over more and more often lately, which means more really long dinners than normal. However, even when it is just the Family it takes about an hour and a half to eat. Also, the dinning room is chilly- so they sit there all chilly and sociable like for a crazy long time. I just don't get it, i hope it's just cause i am foreign though.

I'm a little touched

Today in the kitchen my host mom hugged me and told me she was really happy that i was living with them. it was just so completely random and impulsive for her, i was actually a little touched.

Practically Awesome Possum

I have been enjoying the fall break for 2 days now. Fall break ends on the 20th of October. That's right- after only a month of work, i get almost a month's paid vacation. Nice. This is a pretty sweet job i think :D

Checking Out Neuenahr

For the past week or so i have been hearing requests for pictures. I guess when i started blogging, i told you all that i would add lots of pics so that when the story was boring/lame you would at least have some pics to look at. That said- a few pics from friday when Nick and I went to some sort of street fair thing in Bad Neuenahr:

Basically we just went to all the different booths that sold beer and tried their specialty beers :) Then we mixed in a couple of crepes each. Then we went to the Irish Pub and finished the drinking off with a Guinness. My first Guinness ever, in fact. Ahhh, the stout that drinks like a meal. I gotta say, i really think it's an acquired taste :s

Ranting

Seriously- i have been to the Visa office 3 towns away, every thursday afternoon for a month. And it just occurred to Herr Schunk today that he might have to tell me how much it's going to cost for my F*ing visa. Right- well, 50 Euros says that idiot con-artist is going to have to bill me at his inconvenience. no, i can't really be that mean- i do like the guy. We don't even speak German anymore when i go to "visit" him about my friggen Visa. It was just the icing on the cake of a day filled with a myriad of stressful/annoying things. *sigh*

I REFUSE to believe it

After a full month of missing my favorite TV shows and their awesome season premieres, i have taken to watching them on the internet. Lately i have been really into Stargate Atlantis- which for a spin-off is definately just as fantastic as the original series. I am currently only in season 3 of 5. BUT- i cannot in good faith completely love a show that will kill off one of my favorite characters, spectacular episode or no. Absolutely outrageous! Poor *SPOILER ALERT* Carson Beckett, dying all heroically after saving that weak sauce lackey from certain death. I mean, his character was great- he had three seriously sweet-ass things going for him:
1- HOTT
2- HOTT accent
3- making the big bucks from SGC.

why would you kill off someone with some much potential??? I demand a rewrite!