On Saturday November 25th...
'The Indians'
(Shawn, Katrina, Katie, Molly, Leah, Jill)

joined forces with 'The Pilgrims'
(Adam, Clay, Theresa, Lieselot, Angela, Sarah)

for Thanksgiving 2006 in Bamberg, Germany.

The two worlds united as one,

for a festive feast of
Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Bread, Green Bean Casserol, Pumpkin Pies
and much more.


Happy Thanksgiving!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!

Don’t worry, in a few days I myself will be feasting upon the great meal that comes with this great American Holiday!!

Yesterday I had a bit of a… not sure how to describe it, but a very, very different experience.

I went to the American Army Base. There is one located in Bamberg, and my friend Angela happened to get us the connections to go on base. So Pass Port in hand I walked to the US.

I felt like I was either stepping back in time or jumping into the future, because I was suddenly standing in an American Grocery store, like Safeway or City Market, buying peanut butter, and some cookies. Walking into this store there was the whole Thanksgiving section, with every thing from candied yams, to stove top stuffing, and cranberry sauce. We even were able to buy the turkey pan, pie pans, and some of our favorite Christmas goodies.

I got lucky and stocked up on my chocolate chips, peanut butter, tortilla chips, and some amazing granola bars.

Another thing I noticed was the customer service that this store had to offer. The manager kept asking if we had everything we needed, he was kind enough to show us where to find some things we weren’t able to find. Then there were baggers, you know the people who bag your groceries at check out and take it to your car for you. Amazing!

Happy Day = my bed is fixed, no more sleeping on the floor (actually I’ve been sleeping on my broken bed, some interesting nights sleep I must say)

Sad Day = it’s raining, although I really shouldn’t be complaining, because these past 4 ½ months have been rather pleasant in the weather department.

This past weekend…

5 days, 9 pass port stamps, 3 countries (excluding Germany), 2 cities, 1 original destination.
My original plan was to go to Budapest (pronounced Buda Pescht) for a nice long weekend to visit my friend Jessie (who I meet while on my first exchange to Germany 4 years ago). Upon arriving in Budapest, I was told that that night we were catching the night train to Prague. Cool, no problem with that, I’ve never been there. So 11 hours and 5 American girls… The world was ours to explore!

Praha
We spent a total of 2 days in Praha (Prague
in Czech), exploring the city, drinking coffee
and hot chocolate, and learning the wonders of Praha.

Jessie and I at the Bohemia Bagel Place

Bohemia Bagels – Just a little taste of Home, with an amazing bagel (it even came toasted) to start the day. They even had options such has fried or scrambled eggs with hash browns, pancakes (regular or with Blueberries), and muffins for breakfast.

Jewish Quarter – The old Jewish quarter was once the Ghetto of Prague, now it is just the remains of what once was there.

Old Town Square – There was the clock at the Old Town Hall (we saw it strike at 12:00), and the churches, I believe 4 in total, the Jan Hus Monument in the center of the square. This square just happened to be where we wandered every time we happened to be lost (that seemed to be 90% of the time).

The Praha Eiffel Tower – Yes, Prague has a mini version of the Eiffel Tower, and it gave to best over look of the city. 302 stairs in total, and I’m proud to say that I made it to the top (although it really wasn’t that hard)

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Praha’s Castles – This old and ancient city has its own castle district with churches galore. We happened to make it to the Castle in time to watch the ‘Changing of the Guards.’ (Such an exciting event) We also saw the house where Franz Kafka lived (he wrote the short story Metamorphosis)


Charles Bridge – The famous pedestrian bridge with tons and tons of local artists selling their art work to the tourists (for probably way to much money). Then there was the statue that everyone rubbed for luck (although I don’t remember the myth behind it).

Left to Right = Liz, Molly, Jessie, Deb, Claire

Short story: Jessie (from Maine), Claire (from Texas but goes to CSU) and I were planning on taking the 4:45 train from the Praha main train station on Saturday (the other two girls had already left). We went to look at the departure list to find out what track our train left from, and it just wasn’t there. So we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off to find out where our train was. Yeah, that’s right, at a whole other station. ‘Super, we had 25 minutes, plenty of time to take the Metro, and find this whole new destination!’ We find the other train station and we run to the information center and ask if our tickets are valid for this train (not sure why we started freaking out, but for some reason we thought our tickets might not be valid for this train). We asked about 20 people (all train personnel) and they all said just get on the train, we were fine (some even laughed at us). Going from Praha to Budapest we also have to go through Slovakia and at every country we get new train personnel. In Praha we were fine (even got the Pass Port stamped), then we enter Slovakia and I get my Pass Port stamped again (happy day, a whole new country). Then the train guy comes around and asks to see our tickets, I happened to be the first to show mine and he takes a ‘long’ look at it and then takes Jessie’s and Claire’s, and he just keeps looking. At this point I’m starting to get worried, then he points at me, and in his broken English says ‘come with me’ (ok, so now I’m very scared) he takes me to their ‘Office’ and told me that our tickets weren’t valid from Bratislava to Budapest with this train. We would have to get out at Bratislava and wait for the next train to come at 4:20 that morning (it was about 8pm at this point). I was very nervous, and I tried to explain that we asked tons of people in Praha and they all said that we were allowed to ride this train. Then Jessie comes to my rescue, and we start asking if we can pay to stay on this train (in all reality we didn’t want to get off in Bratislava and hang out at the train station for 8 hours). The train Personnel told us for the three of us combined we would have to pay about 36 Euros (not that bad), and then Jessie asked how much that was in Hungarian money. Through the translation process Jessie understood the numbers that they were saying in Hungary and then started the conversation (in Hungarian). They found out that Claire and Jessie were students in Budapest and that they were learning Hungarian. The train personnel for some reason loved Jessie and Claire so they decided to drop the price to about half of what it originally was and said that there would be no receipt. Fine by us, we just wanted to get back to Budapest.

Budapest
Although I was planning on spending on 4 full days in Budapest, the time I had there was amazing and I wouldn’t have left Praha out for anything. I was lucky enough to have my friend Jessie there to show me the city, go to the Opera with and drink tons of hot chocolate with to stay warm.

The Castle District – Was once invaded by the Turks and then restored by the Austrians, the Castle Districts now gives the best view of Pest with the Chain Bridge and the Danube in view, because of it’s location on the Buda side.

The Danube – The Danube is the main river running through Budapest. There are many bridges that go over the Danube, most popular being the Chain Bridge leading to the Castle district. Budapest is divided by the Danube River and on the east side of the river was once Buda and then on the west side of the river was Pest.

The Hungarian Opera – Jessie and I decided to go see and Opera, tickets were only 5 dollars and why not. I had never been to one. We say some random Opera that happened to have Germany subtitles (not that the Opera made sense anyways). But it was great for the laughs, and the music was amazing.

Parliament – in 1902 Budapest opened its first Parliament building representing the neo-Gothic era. Construction began in 1884, and should have been finished in 1896, but took 6 more years to finish.

The Night Life – Jessie, Clair and I got back to Budapest just in time to hit it up for some night life. We went to this pub with live music and danced the night away.

What to do in case of Fire….

Oh wait, scratch that, I mean… What to do in case of a broken BED!!
A) Try fixing it yourself, until you come to realize that you don’t have any of the tools.
B) Try fixing it with your friends, until you come to find out that three isn’t much better than one.
C) Go tell the Hausmeister (Landloard) that your bed is broken, until you realize that it’s the weekend, and Germans don’t work on the weekends.
D) Go tell the Hausmeister on Monday, oh wait, the Hausemeister only comes to your apartment building once a week and you don’t know when that is.
E) Better be leaving a note on the Hausmeister’s door in hopes that he come and fixes it soon and until then, enjoy sleeping on the floor!!

That’s what I’ll be doing. Good Night Molly.

Now I’m assuming that you’re probably wondering who, what, where, when, why and how in the world did I break my bed. That’s a good question, because I’m still asking myself the same thing, “Molly, how did you break your bed?” I never knew that watching the OC with some friends could be so strenuous on my bed/couch/ seating area. In the middle of the addictive “OC session” there was this sudden ‘THUMP’ and my bed dropped about 6 inches in a slating direction. Some piece of wood broke causing the rest of my bed to fall apart, meaning I’m sleeping on the floor, oh Joy!

Last weekend my window broke, this weekend my bed broke, I’m wondering what it will be next weekend?

This is the 'Gang' aka 'Vanity Fair'
Left to Right = Molly (the Crazy Coloradoan), Priscilla (the Ditsy, but Lovable girl from Illinois), Angela (the one and Only Canadian, Shawn (the Georgian Guy), Lieselot (the Belgian)

Yesterday I was at a bar for the ‘normal’ Monday night meet up with friends. It is also a chance to meet new people, hang out and enjoy the 1 Euro beers. There I was introduced to this Germany guy and in the start of almost all conversations here the question gets asked “Where are you from?” I did the normal saying “I’m from Colorado” (and I say Colorado with Great Pride), and this guy looked at me and said “How can anyone live in Colorado, there is nothing there.” I was just completely shocked. Granite, Colorado isn’t New York City, or San Francisco, but in my opinion Colorado has so much to offer, and there is so much there. This comment goes along with some of the other that I’ve heard when I say that I’m from Colorado like “Is Colorado in Canada?” (NO), or “Is Colorado south of Texas?” (There is the Gulf of Mexico south of Texas, but nope, no Colorado).

Halloween was a very eventful Holiday here. Although Germans (and by that I mean Europeans) don’t really celebrate Halloween, there was still a huge party with costumes. My Halloween started with some of my ‘North American’ friends for the favorite past time of pumpkin carving, and pumpkin seed roasting (they were so yummy!). On Halloween an Italian girl put on the Halloween party. So coming from the US I decided that I needed a good/unique/fun costume. So what was I? The famous Statue of Liberty. I just had to show some good ol’ American Pride. Two of my friends (Angela and Priscilla) were grapes, and I think that was by far the best idea/costume that anyone had.

Angela (Purple/Blue Grape), Shawn (Huck Fin), Priscilla (Green Grape)

This past weekend I had a good friend of mine (also from Colorado) come visit me. It was a great chance to catch up and show her where I’m living. (The more I explore Bamberg, the more I love this city.) Michelsberg, und staat Bamberg

What Amy and I accomplished this weekend…
Breaking windows: Not the right time of year for a broken window, but hopefully it’ll be getting fixed soon.
Watching The OC: Yes, I have corrupted Amy into the wonderful world of The OC. I had to show her what she was missing out on.
Exploring/Shopping around Bamberg: I was able to show her my favorite shops, and the castles and churches on the hills.

Amy and Molly

It’s come, and it’s come in full force… Winter! October was decently warm, with hardly any rain, quite enjoyable I might add. Then as soon as November hit…Winter, with snow, and freezing temperatures. I love it!!! (Give me some time though and I’m sure that I’ll hate it.)

I just hit up ‘New Country’ number 11, but who’s counting? (Oh that would be me.) I went to join my sister in London, England for a long weekend. What a change from Germany. It was so exciting to speak, hear and read English, although the English they speak there is rather hard to understand. I arrived in London Thursday afternoon, and was there until Sunday evening. I of course did the typical tourist things such as;

Shopping
-Oxford Street
- Soho
- Harrods
I became broke just looking at anything to buy. But I was able to treat myself to some VERY expensive things.

Sight seeing
-The Buckingham Palace
-The London Eye
-Tate Museum for Modern Art
-Tower Bridge
-Burrow Market -Big Ben
And much, much more. I would have to say that the London Eye was one of my favorite things (13 pounds = 26 dollars). It gave a great over view of the whole city.

Typical English Food
-Fish and Chips
-Curry
-Cadburys Chocolate
To get the English Curry we went to the ‘China Town’ of London, but with Indian Food restaurants instead. It was rather amusing seeing these guys fight for customers to come into their restaurant. ‘We’ll give you free drinks for you and your friends’ or any other lines like that.

London was an amazing place to visit, but in all reality, to go there one needs to have a ton of money, and be willing to spend it because London is over all, way to expensive.