Catherine's Daily Adventures

Going Back to the US Tomorrow

2008-12-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Well folks, the end of my life in Germany has arrived. I think that saying "it's been great" or anything of the like will be too much of an understatement, so I just won't say anything about it at all. I'll be back in California tomorrow evening, around 8:30pm. And then back to LA to finish school and graduate. And then hopefully back to Germany sometime soon!

I leave you with this picture of one of the most beautiful creations the world has ever known: The Bratwurst.

Denn alle Lust will Ewigkeit.

Ich Liebe Deutschland.

We Won the Entrepreneurship Competition!

2008-12-13T02:47:00.000-08:00

This semester I was enrolled in a business class, and the whole class revolved around a project that was to create a business. There were 5 groups, each consisting of 2 American students and 2 German students. The groups were all required to create a full business plan, including funding and budgeting detail, and then present the business plans to 5 judges, who are members of the American-German Business Club Bonn. The judges were mostly American businessmen.

And, our business won FIRST PRIZE!!!! We were so thrilled!

Here is my group celebrating after the big win!

And here's the best part: The first place prize was 1,000 Euros! Of course, split between 4 people, that is 250 Euros each! So I am very happy! Here is us "claiming our prize".

These are my host parents, who attended the "farewell dinner party" last night where the awards were presented! Ranjana and Carmen.

Weihnachts Markts, Snow, and my last days :-(

2008-12-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

There are no words to describe this picture.

One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life.

I was so cold, because I wore flat shoes, and it snowed! My feet froze, and I was miserable! That is why my face looks so disturbed, in spite of the beauty of the city of Aachen.

Germany is beautiful this time of year! It has been snowing a little bit, and every town has a Christmas Market (Weihnachts Markt) filled with amazing food, and nice little things. It is finals week, so I am under a lot of stress with my classes. I come home in 1 week - next Tuesday, the 16th. I am very sad to be leaving Germany, I'm not going to lie. I really love it here - the culture, the food, the cities, the language...everything! And I will be very sad to have to leave. I am of course excited to see all of my friends and family when I come back though :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving - wish I could be there! Actually, no...I'm not ready to leave Germany yet! I wish I could be there just for the day and then come back to Germany, haha. We are having a dinner at my school tonight. I made cranberry sauce, like I always do, so it's a little taste of home! I love you all, and hope you have a nice holiday weekend :-)

The Vatican (Yes, I saw the Pope)

2008-11-25T05:55:00.001-08:00

Since The Vatican is it's own country, it gets it's own post. So actually I visited two countries on this trip! It was so awesome - we had a tour, which was almost private, because there were only 7 of us! Our tour guide was very knowledgable. It was so interesting! We learned so much about the history of all the artwork in the museum, and the church it's self. Totally worth the money and time! There were so many amazing sculptures and pieces of art, that I simply just don't have time to add.

And yes, I saw the Pope speak and give a blessing on Sunday, in St. Peter's Square. I am attempting to upload the video, but it's not working - if I can't get the video added to the blog, I can show you all individually the next time I see you!

Pope Benedict XVI

St. Peter's Square

Swiss Guard!

Inside St. Peter's Basilica - amazing.

This is my HIGHLY ILLEGAL photo of the Sistine Chapel. You are not allowed to take pictures, but people were sneaking them, so I thought I would go ahead and sneak one too. Hahaha, I'm so bad. Oh well! Enjoy this picture!

The Vatican Gardens

The Entrance

ROME

2008-11-25T05:25:00.001-08:00

Rome, Italy. It was amazing. The food was so good (as you can imagine!), the people were generally pretty nice, and the sights were like nothing I have ever seen. It is a completely different landscape and culture from what I have been seeing in Northwestern Europe. I loved it! I want to go back to Italy so bad now, and spend some more time there. I would highly recommend Rome as a tourist destination - the public transportation is pretty cheap, and very easy to navigate. For those of you who live in CA and are used to seeing Spanish, it helps, because Italian has some similarities to Spanish, so sometimes you can figure out words which is nice. My friends and I went to all of the major tourist areas and sights, as you can see. We also went out at night and had wonderful Italian food and wine! I ate "Salami Picante" pizza every single day for lunch, and had gelato every day, sometimes twice! I had a mozerella salad, and a few rounds of carbonara pasta. I am sure my cholesterol is like 473892789475894257 right now, but I really don't care, because it was just too good to pass up!

My Knight in shining armor!

Spanish Steps

Domus Betti, the owner of the B&B we stayed in. He was so funny - he talked to us so much, showed us a great restaurant (that we went back to 3 times, we liked it so much!), and gave us a bottle of wine. He was great! I think he got mad at us at the end though, because we accidentally broke the rod that the drapes were hanging from...oops!

Trevy Fountain

Pantheon

Not sure exactly what this was, but it's gorgeous!

View!

Guards of the eternal flame, at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Where in the world can you see something like this?

Circus Maximus - can't you just envision the chariot races?

Colosseum!

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Best pizza of my life.

Yay! Our "favorite" restaurant.

Stay tuned for Italy!

2008-11-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

In two weeks, my dearest friends Jill, Lauren, and I are going to ROME!!! I am so excited.

Berlin

2008-11-11T13:00:00.001-08:00

Berlin is an amazing city! I loved Berlin, and I am very sad that we only had a couple of days there. It was so cool, because eventhough it's German (which I am used to, and now consider "home") it is so unique and multi-cultural that it is a totally different experience than any other part of the country. There is food, shopping, and people from everywhere in the world. We ate at an amazing Indian restaurant one night that was one of the best meals I have ever had. I unfortunately didn't have time to do much shopping, because there were so many cool independent stores with really unique looking stuff. The city's history is just so interesting, you could spend weeks just learning about it and observing how much the changes have affected the city. I also ended up injuring my back while on the trip, so I had to miss out on going out to clubs because I had to lay in bed like a cripple :-/ So, that was not fun. Otherwise, I would highly recommend Berlin!

Checkpoint Charlie!

My Psychology professor, Dr. Barrett (DB!) and I. He was cold, so naturally, he bought a huge communist fezz. That other little commie hat is also his, but he let me wear it for a picture. Can you tell that I was trying to hold back my hysterical laughter? DB is just too funny...

Holocaust memorial

The most famous, amazing place in the whole city...The hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby!!! (Blanket!)

Reichstag

The place where the Berlin Wall used to be. The dirt area was the "no man's land" area between the wall. This picture was taken from an old guard tower.

Prague

2008-11-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, so...Prague. The old parts of the city were beautiful, as you can see, but the people...not so much. I just can't stress enough how rude the Czech's were to us whenever we went out, or needed help, or anything. And before you jump to the conclusion that we were being "rude Americans", I can tell you with 100% certainty this is false; their rudeness was completely un-called for, and made the experience in the city significantly less enjoyable. We got ripped off so many times in bars and restaurants. This one night (election night, actually) we were at a bar, and the servers seriously conspired against us, and overcharged us by about 1000 Kraunes (the Czech currency). It was so ridiculous. One night, my friends and I were lost in the middle of the night - we saw some police officers, and thought, "thank god, some cops! They will surely help us!". No such luck! The cops refused to help us! It was very frustrating. But it wasn't all bad - we had a really fun time overall, and the scenery around the Charles' Bridge was amazing. I also got some cute new clothes!

Misty Prague, as seen from Charles' Bridge

Old Town area, very pretty!

Going to Prague and Berlin This Week

2008-11-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am going as far East into Europe as I will go this year, to Prague and Berlin. It should be very interesting, and very cold! Pictures soon to come!

Swartzwald

2008-10-28T11:48:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went to the Black Forest! It was so beautiful. My friend Alissa came from San Diego to visit, which was very fun! Nice to see a familiar face from home :-)

This is us at a wonderful restaurant in the city of Freiburg!

Great restaurant in Triberg (the city where the cuckoo clock originated from)

The nature here was amazing - we hiked up to a waterfall.

Nature!

I loved it...obviously.

Gorgeous houses and buildings in this lovely country town.

The city of Triberg - and yes, I bought a cuckoo clock!

Alissa and I in Friberg!

Germany and Austria with my Parents

2008-10-19T14:16:00.001-07:00

Vienna!

The Vienna Woods (very pretty!)

Vienna woods again - The air was so fresh!

At an abbey

Koblenz, Germany

Bonn!

Vienna again (the computer messes up the order of my pictures)

The Gloriette, in Vienna (I love this picture!)

Vienna

My parents came to visit this week! It was very nice to see them after almost 2 months. We had a very nice trip - spent a few days just hanging out in Germany, showing them where I lived, ate, that kind of stuff. It was really fun! Then we headed off to Austria for the weekend. Vienna was really cool, they had some of the best shopping I have seen yet. The food was great too! We went and saw the castles from the Hofsberg family, which were all very cool and interesting. Then we took a car tour through the woods/countryside, which was of course beautiful. Overall, it was a really fast, but very nice trip - THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!

Amsterdam

2008-10-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

We went on a river cruise around the city, it was so cool!

The famous "I Amsterdam" sign.

Can you find me?!?!

View of the city from the river...so pretty!

I enjoyed Amsterdam the most of any of the places we went on this trip. We had lots of free time, the city was pretty, and the food was amazing. We went to the Van Gogh museum, did a lot of shopping, and went on the river cruise. Although, I must say, Dutch is pretty weird. My friend Lauren described Dutch as looking like when you get frustrated and just start pounding on the key board, like this: "jncioerwjfieoa". That could totally be a Dutch word.

Brussels

2008-10-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

We visited the European Parliament! And, we were not supposed to take pictures, so enjoy this one ;-)

The city of Brussels was very pretty!

I wish we would have had more time there. We had our tour of the EU, and then we literally had 1 hour in the city for free time. I did some good shopping, and had a real Belgian waffle, which was very good.

Let's start with Paris!

2008-10-18T16:13:00.001-07:00

Top of the Eifel Tower...I'm scared of heights, so I didn't really enjoy it.

Moulin Rouge

Yes - I saw the Mona Lisa.

The Louver (I don't know or care if that's spelled right.)

It was so windy!

Notre Dame (Once again, don't care about spelling at the moment.)

Eifel Tower at night!

Paris was fun, but we hardly had any free time. We were so busy, and everything we did was really touristy. I don't like French. If that makes me "unsophisticated", oh well. I much prefer Deutsch ;-)

It's Been a While

2008-10-18T16:11:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody! I realize it has been a few weeks since I posted anything, and that is because it has been such a busy few weeks! Last week we took a week long trip to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Then I got back, and my parents came to visit, and we went to Austria! So, with all of this traveling and school, I have been very very busy, and haven't had much time to upload anything new. I will add some pictures now from my trips (I can't add too many, because the internet is slow and it takes too long) so you can get an idea of how much fun I have been having!

Baden-Baden

2008-09-29T13:06:00.001-07:00

Pretty, aint it?

I love Weiss Wurst :-)

Drachenfels

2008-09-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

Today I went hiking up a mountain, and saw a very cool castle. It was a mountain on the Rhine, where supposedly, a dragon was slain. Gorgeous place! Tomorrow I am taking a solo trip to the town of Baden-Baden in Southern Germany for a spa day :-)

More Scenery Pics

2008-09-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

Jill, Lauren, Catherine, and Lindsey at the old Nazi training camp in Eifel.

A gorgeous building on the old Nazi property.

A castle in Bonn!

With beautiful botanical gardens in the back!

A very high ledge that I was sitting on over the Rhine :-)

Oktoberfest

2008-09-22T13:01:00.001-07:00

This weekend my friends and I went to Oktoberfest in Munich! It was fun, but honestly, kind of overrated. It was a huge fair with lots of beer and sausage. I am glad I went, because it's a major tourist thing that I'm glad I can say I went to, but I doubt I will go back...the best part were all of the Bavarian costumes! As you can see, I bought one ;-) Liderhosens are also the greatest outfit for a man to wear of all time. All men should wear liderhosens.

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Lindsey and I in front of our hostel looking like trashy back pakcers

Me in my Bavarian dress, Lindsey in her Bavarian hat!

These liderhosen guys were actually American! We met more foreigners than we did Germans at this event, which just goes to show how much of a tourist attraction is actually is.

Authentic German liderhosen men who couldn't speak English!

Lauren and I outside of the festival during the awesome parade!

Heart cookies that say romantic things.

Birthday Weekend

2008-09-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, I had such a fun weekend! On Friday (my birthday) we went to Putzchens Markt, a huge fair. We had some good beer, and my friends bought me a cake. It was so much fun! Then the next day my friend Janelle and I went to a concert festival, which was also very fun. Thanks to all who sent me an email or a card with birthday wishes!

We are going to Oktoberfest this weekend - yay!

My friends and I at the Bavarian Tent at the fair...look at all the people!

The inside of the "tent"

Janelle and I having fun at the concert

A great picture of the headlining band's frontman! (We met that guy after the show, he was very nice!)

Beethoven...Coffins...Rain.

2008-09-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Today we visited the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel, Germany. I enjoyed it very much. It was for my Psych. of Death and Dying class (which is very interesting!), and was basically a death museum. They had tons of headstones and grave markers, statues, burial garments, ritual items, etc. It was very cool. Our museum guide was a very interesting woman who has been living with/studying a small Indonesian tribe, and gave a presentation about their views/supersitions about death. Below are some pictures from the museum:

Statues representing impending death

Coffins found in a church tomb, that belonged to a royal/noble family. Of course, the bodies have been removed. Each one was hand painted, they were very awesome.

Angel grave

The Angel cries...

This was obviously one of my all time favorite headstones. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the Celtic Tree of Life, Yggdrasil (Norse), or the Tree of Gondor (Lord of the Rings - Probably not, because it doesn't have the stars) because I couldn't read the German inscription, but obviously it's one of the 3, so I love it!

It is beginning to rain here! It was warm the last two days, but now all of a sudden it is pouring outside. This, for me, is a good thing...I love the rain! I'm very happy to be in a lush green place...and, moist environments are good for my hair. So, last night we went to a Beethoven concert. It was nice, but the songs they played were a bit slow for my taste. I enjoy the more bombastic classical music. It was nice though. Very funny, in between movements, when Americans would applaud, Germans all cough and clear their throats. It was very...odd. Also, there was this old woman sitting in front of me who was totally sleeping through the thing! Of course, I started getting "the uncontrolables", and had a hard time keeping from laughing during the concert!

^Lauren and I in front of the Beethoven statue^

Cologne

2008-09-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we visited Cologne (Koln), and went to the Cathedral, which was literally awesome. We had a special tour, and we got to go up into the towers, we heard the bells ring, and we walked all the way around the perimeter on the inside (up in the top areas by the stained glass windows. I wasn't feeling too good, so that sort of made it less fun of an experience, but overall is was pretty amazing, and a must see of this region. We also saw lots of medieval buildings, and a really cool fountain that depicted an old German tale about mischievous little gnomes.

Later that night we went out in Bonn, and I made some more local German friends, who were very cool. The locals here (the ones our age anyway) are very nice for the most part.

Some scenery pics for your enjoyment

2008-09-02T09:05:00.001-07:00

Hallo! Nothing too exciting happening in the next few days, so here are some scenery/city pics for you to look at!

Rhine Cruise!

2008-08-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

We went on a Rhine cruise today (a river cruise) and it was amazing. It was so beautiful! Green hills, castles and old river villages everywhere. The old medieval architecture is obviously amazing. I wish I could live in one of these houses! We went to a town called Bacharach, which I loved. Some of the store owners were rude to people in our group because they don't really like Americans, but they have a beautiful little town nonetheless. Nobody was mean to me :-) There was an old cathedral there, which obviously had Celtic influence (the town was founded by the Celts). After our stop in the town we went on the cruise, and then went to a castle called Marksburg. I loved this too. I was such a nerd on the tour, I was walking with the tour guide (a gruff German man) and asking questions, and being very interested in everything. It is the only castle on the Rhine that has not been re-built! The cielings and some of the paintings were refurbished about 100 years ago, but the walls and foundation of the castle are all still the originals, dating back to about the 1200's. Very awesome. I also got to try on a real medieval Knight helmet! Yes, a real one...

The only part I didn't enjoy was our lunch. We had schnitzel, which is basically a huge piece of breaded and fried pork, with french fries. It tasted great and everything, but it was just too heavy for me. It's rude in Germany to leave food on your plate (it's like an insult), so everyone in our group decided we had to eat all of it...big mistake. Next time I'm just going to be rude and leave half, because it made me feel disgusting. But oh well! It was a really fun day, and I now feel like I really am in Europe!

First few days!

2008-08-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Whew! They sure do keep us busy here. We had our first two days with orientation meetings, tours around the city, and what not. It has been very fun so far! Our classes don't start until Monday, which is nice...we have plenty of time to get acclimated! The city is beautiful - really small, but that is good because it's very safe and easy to get around. It actually sort of reminds me of Disneyland (so offensive to locals, I know), because there are all these little sections called "Platz" (Keisterplatz, Friedmansplatz, etc.) that are connected through side streets. There is soooo much shopping. I got some very cute little Victorian boots today!

My friends and I have gone out the last two nights. Last night, Thursday, the town was pretty dead. We went to a couple of pubs and tried the local bier (beer) which is excellent. Tonight (Friday) was much more lively and exciting. We went to a biergarten on the Rhine (I had some great white wine!) and then went to an Irish pub, where I met some really cool/friendly locals who I talked to for a few hours.

I'm still feeling pretty jet lagged...tired, and kind of icky, but it should pass soon. On Sunday we are going on a Rhinecruise! That will be very fun. I am already starting to pick up some German, after just two days, so after 4 months I should be pretty good :-)

I have arrived!

2008-08-27T12:24:00.001-07:00

I arrived to Bonn today after a long but successful day of travel. The plane rides went smoothly, and were very easy. The only part of travel that really was not fun was the 2.5 hour bus ride from the airport to Bonn. I felt really gross. I went to my host families house and took a nap and a shower, and then my host Dad took me around the trains and busses in the city so I could sort of know where I am. Tomorrow we are going to tour around the city (my school group) which should be fun! It is very beautiful here - lots of pretty trees! The city of Bonn is your average city; tons of shopping, pubs, etc. The buildings are really cool...it almost reminds me of a mini London. My host family seems very nice! They are really flexible with time, so I have lots of freedom to do what I want. I have my own room here, which is a nice room that provides me with lots of privacy. I am currently unpacking all of my stuff! I can't wait to get the ball rolling with the rest of the group. I feel sort of lonely in this house, but once the program gets going and we're all together, I'll have a social life and will start traveling! I can't wait! Sorry if this is sort of rambling...I'm very very tired.

Oh, it was also quite funny that the first thing to happen to me in Germany, was the really hot German cop at customs made fun of my accent. Yeah. Fail.

Packed and Ready to Go!

2008-08-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm pretty much all packed and ready to head off. I need to do a couple of errands tomorrow, but other than that...I'm ready! I can't wait to get there. The only part I'm dreading is the flight over there, and then the bus ride from the airport to the school, which, apparently, according to my Dad, will take like 3 hours. Ewwww. Oh well, it will be well worth it! I will miss you all! Please, please, PLEASE keep in touch! You can email me absolutely any time (catzog@cox.net) or IM me...I have a webcam, so I can talk to people "face to face". My screen name is: MissEvnstrPhnx

Auf Wiedersehen!

Packing, Preparations, and Travel Plans!

2008-08-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have been doing so much shopping for this trip. It is very fun, but you never really think about how much "extra" stuff you need for traveling outside the country, just for security purposes and such. I have gotten lots of nice new winter clothes of course, which I'm very excited about. It's so nice to be having a real fall and winter where I actually get to wear winter clothes. I prefer winter clothes to summer clothes. So, my packing plans are pretty average I guess. Oh, I must also tell about the fact that I am the most gullible person alive. I made (asked politely, of course!) my mother buy me those "Sham-Wow's" (the fast absorbing towels) from the infomercial, because I needed something for traveling. Wow. They really should just call them "Scam-Wow"! Seriously, these things a just pieces of felt. Nothing "shammy like" about them at all! We did run them through the washer and dryer, and that helped. It works well enough to use as a travel towel, but they are nothing like the amazing things in the infomercial...go figure.

Ok, so, for my travel plans! Here is a tentative list of the places I am planning on visiting (or are included in the program) so far!

Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest

Switzerland (most likely the Alps)

Brussels, Belgium

Paris & Reims, France

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Black Forest, Southern Germany

Berlin, Germany

Prague, Czech Republic

Copenhagen, Denmark (?)

Vienna, Austria

Italy

Wow! Such an exciting list! If I can make it over to the UK, I would also love to visit Glastonbury. I can't wait to go...I want to go now! Well, only three weeks left...

Willkommen!

2008-07-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Guten Tag!

Thanks for visiting my new blog. I will be updating frequently to keep you all up to date on my travels and adventures! Please register with my blog so that you can send me comments and get updates when I post a new entry!