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.