Heim (Home)

Finally made it home! After 117 days abroad and 12 hours of travelling in one day I finally made it back home. Now its been 4 days now that I've been home and it feels so good to be back. Now Germany will always have a huge part of me because it taught me so much and now when I see it on the map I won't be able to not smile just thinking of all the things it showed me and gave to me and taught me. I look back now to my sophomore year of high school when I first took German as a foreign language class. It was hard, and I just could never seem to grasp it and excel in it. I got by and was able to get into the upper classes but always struggled. And along with that, I never, ever, not one bit did I look at the map of Germany and think maybe one day I'll make it there. I didn't even think i'd use the German that I learned in my future. And of course looking back I smile thinking how far I've come. Now of course people ask how my trip was and of course the only answers I can give are short and sweet ones because of the immensity of the true answer of explaining it all. But it's not a problem to sum it up by saying it was "good" or "the trip of a lifetime"  because these things are still true. And coming back it was so weird at first, because I felt so distant, but it was the surprise welcome home party that my mom, the one and only Kathryn Fagan and my lovely girlfriend, Jenny Kenyon set up for me that it all snapped back. It was so great to have a small group of friends come together to welcome me back home and just fire up the grill and have an amazing night together sharing moments and memories. I couldn't of asked for a better place to come back to and even more for better people to come back to. I do think of Germany often of course, but I don't think I let the idea manifest itself to deep because of the fact it was temporary. I do miss it terribly and hope to be able to return to Germany again and maybe even Marburg, but I knew that there is still this life that needs to be returned to and I was content with that. I am happy to have shared so much with people all around the world that I hadn't even heard of until 4 months ago, and all of them will also have a special place in my heart. All in all it was "the trip of a lifetime", it was a milestone in my life that will affect all the things in the future that I pursue and aim to achieve. While I was over there I decided to switch my existing German minor to a German major and hope that in the future I'll be returning to Germany, maybe not for studying abroad, but instead for business and connecting with the German people. I thank you all for baring with me and my numerous amounts of delayed blog posts and my incredibly amateur comedy, and also thank you all again for supporting me and giving me the advice that I could use while abroad. This may be the end of the Germany study abroad adventure, but by no means is it the end of the adventure I've been on my whole life.



"Every end is a new beginning"   

Sechs Tage und dann nach Hause

Hello everyone!! This quite possibly could be my last post on this blog, BUT I hopefully want to squeeze one more in before I come home. It is exactly 6 days that I will be in what seems like very hot wisconsin and hopefully I will overcome the jet lag when I am back. I'm not gonna lie to my lovely readers and I'm gonna go out and say that I cant wait to come home. Now don't get me wrong Germany will always have a place in my heart and so will everyone that I have gotten so close to here, but I miss my home. I have one final travel that I start actually on sunday BUT the cheapest way to get there is to catch a train from here to seigen which isnt that far away around 11pm. Stay over night in the train station till the first train in the morning to Dusseldorf and then from Dusseldorf we take a shuttle to a smaller airport to take our plane to Budapest. Truthfully I don't know a whole lot about Budapest, but if anything going in with no expectations isnt a bad thing. But what is a more of a sore subject is tonight will be my last official night in Marburg and its so surreal. I have the same feeling about it that I did before I came to Germany. I hear the words and think about it, but I think the realization is a little delayed. And I'm making sure I take tons of random pictures around Marburg so that I can always go back and just look around Marburg and reminisce. And I gotta tell you I am terrible with goodbyes. I want to make them memorable and have a nice goodbye and all but it's hard to try and say it all. But in the end they will all be great goodbyes and if anything I like to consider them not goodbyes but instead I will see you soon's. And I gotta say I think there is going to be more of a culture shock coming back home then there was coming here. It'll be just different to see english everywhere that I understand after coming from a country that I only understand only some of the things i read and hear. Now I'm not saying that I'm gonna run through the streets screaming because of all the stress of being able to understand everything, but I think it will just catch me off guard a lot. Now the cliche phrase that I'll utter is that this whole experience was life changing but just because its cliche doesnt mean its not true. These 117 days have shown me not only so much about the world around me and the people in it, but also the world inside of me and the potential that I have. I found out more of the things i want to do with my life and the sort of places I want to take it. I left not knowing what I would find out and what would happen, but coming back I can say that I've found out so much about myself and so this experience has changed the course of my life, but in such a good way. Now 6 days away from home I am content and in more ways then none I've said my goodbyes to Germany, one of those was by running 6.37 miles from my dormitory to marburg and then back today. The longest run I've gone on since I've been here and it felt so great completing it. 6 days and I will be back with all of you and I am just again so thankful to have all of you supporting me before i left and even now by reading about all my adventures and amateur comedy. I love you all so much and am so fortunate to have you in my life. See you all next week!

  "Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived." - Jean Luc Picard

Winding Down but the Engine's Still Runnin'

Hello everyone! Just got back to my room after seeing my wonderful mother off at the airport. I was really sad to see her go and it hit me more on the train ride home that it did in the airport watching her go past the security gates and looking around for English directions on the walls and signs. And thinking about her leaving has got, of course, me thinking about how three weeks from tomorrow I'll be carrying all my heavy stuff this time and it'll be my turn to stand in line for hours to get my boarding passes. But I try not to dwell on it to much. I got a pretty relaxed weekend ahead and then next weekend is Hamburg and then the last weekend I have my last trip which will be to Budapest. Some might think 21 days is alot, but considering how long ive been here and how much time has already sped by 21 days seems like half a week left. But I told my mom today how I really do miss home, and how I love Germany and never will forget my time here, but I think there's a time and a place for everything, and I gotta say having so little time before I do go home, I'm getting anxious and eager. And of course with the little time we have left Germany is finally starting to warm up after what seemed like a decade of a mini ice age. School is also winding down cause after tomorrow I have only 2 more class meetings and then schools out! Now I know most of you must be asking yourself "Neal, what sort of exams or finals do you have to deal with over here in Germany" and that's a very simple question. Now what im about to say may cause a bit of jealous rage in maybe more of the student population of my readers, but as for my finals I merely have to write a 2 page, single space, paper on a certain product in a reading and how it contributes to globalization AND for my other final I only need to read the three readings we wont be here for and meet with the professor for a small oral exam. Ill pause to let that sink in..... so I gotta say one thing Germany hasn't given me is a lot of stress which is nice. But one things for sure is that Germany really has given me more than I could of possibly imagined. Just seeing it on my moms face when she first went to all the places we would go. Just the awe stricken, "Am I dreaming" face. I smile cause that was the exact same feeling I had when I got here. I would wake up in the morning and looking around forgetting that I'm not in my room at home and then having to remind myself more than once during the day that I was in fact in a different country and will be for quite awhile. Its weird thinking about the steps in the study abroad experience and thinking back to my first day here then my first month then second and now today it being 3 months and 1 day exactly since I left Wisconsin for this journey. It really is one of those milestones that are such a huge part of your life, but you don't realize the scale of it until its almost over. Sure 3 months ago I knew I was on a plane to Germany, but that wasn't even scratching the surface of the surface. The saying its only the tip of the ice burg doesn't really suffice. Its more like me being on the plane was only a snowflake on top of the ice burg. Even though im god awful at updating this thing, I'm really glad I got to be able to share all these moments with all of my readers, and also a good way for me to document so that I can go back in later years and read about these moments and these memories. But something like this, the fact that I never thought I'd be here, kind of keeps me on my toes because who knows what kind of other surprises are ahead of me. Who knows if ill be somewhere else or having some other experience that half way through or towards the end of it realizing this again is one of those milestones. I thank God to be able to have my mom out to visit me even though 13 days with her seemed like it was 13 hours and we both felt it. And now that she, as I type this, is on her way home, I hope that she had as much fun as I did with her and seeing all that I had to show in Germany. It may not be over, but already I know it will always be something I look back on and will always be a defining moment in my life, just when you think you know everything about yourself you turn the page and realize just how wrong you are and how there is so much more to learn.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. - Henry Ford

Gettin' down in Dresden

So I don't think I even have to say how terrible I am at updating this blog thing cause I'm sure you all already have noticed haha BUT fear not. I have plenty of stories to put out all in one sitting (lets hope) so more reading for you hungry readers you. Hungry Readers. Now way back in April the 28th to be exact, the IUSP group and I headed out on our 2 of 3 trips we take while we here and this time it was to Dresden. Along with this great trip we were also accompanied by some great weather! So great in fact that when we got to our pitstop on our bus ride to Dresden I stepped off the bus into the sun and actually immediately felt my skin burning #irishproblems. Now one might think that that doesnt sound like the greatest weather BUT when you've been living in one third cold, one third rain, and one third cloudy weather for 2 months at this point the sun slowly damaging the outer layer of my skin was a Godsend. I almost shed a tear because of how happy I was, but it evaporated immediately exiting my eye. So after basking in the sun for a bit we all piled on to the bus and this is where things get sticky. Sticky, sweaty, smelly, and hot to be more accurate. Now i'm not saying the first half our trip wasn't it was just that after having the bus doors open to the elements and 50 or so already sun baked kids piled on to the bus things got a little hectic. The air conditioning trickled out of the vents like honey out of a refrigerated bottle and the only sort of cold relief i could get was when i simply put up my hand to the vent. But luckly I was to enveloped in my book really to notice. Now upon arrival we all, very quickly, stormed out of the bus and the organizer herded us all like lost american sheep to the front of the hostel and started getting groups together for rooms. Once my friends and I dropped off all of our essentials we grabbed the Frisbee, beers, and sunglasses and headed down to the river to enjoy such nice weather. Some people went out to venture into the old town right away which is normally what I do, but i thought heck we got a bus and walking tour all day tomorrow so i figured id indulge this time. Then we got back later in the day, had some dinner, and headed right back to the river but this time to just a quaint beer garden where we just all ordered a couple liters of beer, and relaxed in  chairs overlooking the river and the old town that as night approached was illuminated by lights pointed at the historical buildings. It was like I was in a romance movie or something. And after a nice night of relaxing in the nice cool breeze with some nice cool brews we all headed back to rest of for the next day. The bus tour started a little early for my liking and because of that i unfortunately passed out for the majority of the bus tour, I know I'm terrible for doing that, but hey a man needs his sleep haha. But I havent mastered sleeping and walking yet so for the walking part of the tour I was wide awake and absorbed information like a Sham-wow. From the city tour we took the bus to the Sandstone mountains and saw the most breath taking views i've ever seen. Took some bridges over deep trenches and did a little free climbing around the sand stones to take some pretty gnarly pictures. Then from there we headed to this fortress that has been around for centuries, but I believe the Nazi army used both to keep supplies and POW during the war. The walls were enormously tall so I figured if there's any place to hide out its here. Walked a little here, snapped a couple pictures there, and ate like 5 euros worth of ice cream which was very relieving if I do say so myself. And after a 7 hour day excursion we all piled back on the "sweat racer" and rode all the way back to Dresden just in time to scarf down some grub and head back down to the river for some more brew. Now one of my friends knew a german living in Dresden and said that she knew of this huge dance concert party thing going on that night and he had convinced us all that it wasnt that far. Had I known how far we walked and that we turned around before even getting there I would've stayed put, but as the young'ns say these days YOLO. And so we all just hung around the river again, but at this point I just wanted a nice bed so I stuck it out for as long as i could, and then headed back to the hostel and was out faster than you could say Schmetterlinge. Then just copy and paste the trip TO Dresden and cause it was just as hot, and sweaty, and filled with cranky smelly people, except this time for some reason I smelled myself half way through the trip and I seriously smelled like cheese. Everyone thought I was "overreacting" about smelling like cheese, like i really need to overreact about cheese stench, and everyone just blamed it on me being from Wisconsin, but I took that as a compliment. Then after I got home within the first 5 min of being in my room I had to jump on the bus to go pick up my friend from back home who was abroad in England since January and finished in April and has been travelling around and decided I was one of his stops, we both went to Munich for the weekend, but thats for the next post :) Till next time!

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they must be felt with the heart" Helen Keller

Wisconsin- Hessen Trip

This past weekend the new students from Wisconsin and Massachusetts (took me awhile to find out how to spell that) were cordially invited to a all expenses paid trip to a quaint city on the Rhein River. Now you're probably asking what that city was called and I it pains me to say that I literally have no idea where I was I just know that there was a city near it called Ponyland and that I had a lot of fun.....sort of. Now I checked the weather prior to leaving and it said a nice balmy 54 degrees and I'm like alright I'm feeling nice athletic pants and a sweatshirt will be just enough for today's events...boy was I wrong, so very wrong. We had to take a train to Geissen to meet with the two organizers of the whole trip and while we were walking it was slightly raining and not slightly gusting. Oh and a little insight in my health at this point is that I had a cold, and acute bronchitis, and I had also hurt my ankle playing basketball the day before so you can guess how i felt about being pushed around by wind while I couldnt breath out of my nose, while simultaneously coughing up a lung haha. Now dont get me wrong I survived just fine and the trip was great, so dont think that it was a bad trip. But I digress. So here were only 14 people on the trip. We had 5 people from Wisconsin who are in Marburg along with 2 people from Massachusetts that also go to Marburg. We had 3 people from Kassel, one being a Senior who goes to Whitewater, who I only know a little bit, but it was nice to see a face from home, and we also had 2 people from Queensland, Australia who also have a Hessen- Queensland exchange. Now to the trip, we started by piling in a van and driving about an hour and a half to our destination on which I peacefully passed out on my backpack and woke up when we got there. Then we got on a sky lift up the mountain which was I'd like to say delightful, but there again was even more hurricane force winds while on this lift, and my face was being pelted with high velocity rain drops. Once at the top it was alot better because it stopped raining and since we were in a pretty dense forest there wasn't any wind. We walked to all of the sightseeing spots on the trail and took great pictures, but pictures really couldnt capture just how majestic not only the Rhein is, but also the town around it and the massive mountains surrounding it. While we were walking we came across a rain deer farm and we got some of them to come over with the russelling of bags full of food. Then we took a sky lift down, which was much much better cause the sun was out and there wasnt any wind or rain. When at the bottom we got on this huge boat that took us up river to where we started. And the boat was like a smaller luxury cruise/ touring boat that tourists go down the Rhein in and stop at different destinations on the Rhein. And a little taste of home that I saw was this little old man that was all Green Bay Packered up! He had the championship hat one and had a big Packer letter jacket on which a big green and gold G on the back of it, so I went up to him and asked where he was from and we talked for a bit, which was really nice. Then we had an hour before we left to do some shopping which at this point I just wanted somewhere to sit and rest, because i was pretty spent, and to make it better was it started to rain almost as soon as we started so we just took shelter in one of the many weird souvenir shops they had there. I guess its a big tourist town cause the amount of stores and the amount of very just simply odd things they sold were peculiarly odd. Then finally we all got back on the van and drove back to Geissen where we just caught a train going to Marburg so we didnt have to wait, and I took a very healthy nap the whole way home. Oh also if you've been following at home 3 days ago marked the 2 month mark since I've been here which is just simply amazing to thinking about how long I've been here and now how I only have 7 weeks left till I come home. Classes are going great and this weekend we are taking another group trip, but this time were going to Dresden which I cant wait for. The weekend after that I'm going to Munich to visit a friend who's from Wisconsin. The weekend after that my mom finally gets here!!! I hopefully plan on taking her to both Berlin and Munich so lets hope all those plans become reality with as little stressful planning as possible. She's here for 2 weeks until the 23rd then the weekend after that I have nothing planned, but hopefully fill that with either a trip to Amsterdam or maybe even a trip to London. Then the weekend after that we have the last group trip to Hamburg the first weekend of June and then after that will be our very last week of school and of the program, but I leave the next week, so I hope to take one last trip with from friends to Budapest, so after thinking about all that, it really seems like time is just gonna fly by. I hope everything is going great back at home with all of you. For everyone in school I hope your semester is coming to a peaceful close and that the summer heat is waiting for all of you when you get home. Till next time!

"Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to face the day and put one foot in front of the other. Take heart, for even hard times have an end."

Bodacious Berlin!

Meine Damen und Herren! I hope everyone had a happy and chocolate filled easter this season. Also I hope your easter was alot warmer than mine was, because believe it or not here in the wonderful world of Germany it was much colder for easter than it was for Christmas!!! How Neat is That!!! But before any of that happened we all had to bunch together in a big coach bus and take the long 7 hour hall to berlin which actually didn't seem like that long. Mostly because I was knitting, reading, sleeping, and zoning outside the whole time. Now at this point a lot of you I'm sure are going, "What on earth could Neal be knitting this time?" and to answer your question I decided that since my language teacher that we've had for the past six weeks was such an amazing teacher, and I couldnt thank her enough with words I figured I wanted to thank her instead by knitting her a pink scarf that she can have even after I'm gone. But I digress, Once we got there we all piled out and got to our hostel pleasantly named The Three Little Pigs Hostel. We wasted no time dropping off our stuff and began just hiking all around Berlin and saw all the major and world renown statues, and buildings, and landmarks all around Berlin. If i were to guess a mileage I'd have to say that we walked around 5 miles just that one day. And the problem was that the day before either my camera or my battery for my camera decided it didn't want to work anymore, but luckily I just used my IPod to take all 294 pictures of all of Berlin. The second day was bitterly cold around 40 degrees and luckily for the first half of the day we had a bus tour, but for the second half it was all walking which wasnt so much fun. And on this said bus tour our tour guide explained that Berlin was the sunniest city in Germany and as he is saying this it was snowing outside with no a crack of sunshine poking through the crowds. And so for the second part of our tour as we walked around Berlin basically we all huddled together like this. Then on the last full day there we were going to take a 9 hour excursion through the Berlin forests and what have you, but since it was so bitterly cold, they had the heart just to let us go to whatever museum we choose and bring back the ticket as proof that we went. But the other obstacle with that was that Berlin has around 170 museums ranging from History of course all the way to abstract art, and every decade in between. The other option was to go to some of the surrounding flea markets around Berlin, and being that it was a better than expected day out, and wasnt in the mood for museum searching, they  got a good group together and we took trains around the city going to various flea markets which turned out to be really interesting. I did'nt buy anything, but some of the stuff they were selling was very bizarre, and some very questionable. After that we all came back and crashed for a couple hours with a nice mid day nap because the night ahead of us was pretty eventful. For the night life, we walked around a lot of Berlin going in and out of bars and ended up posting up in a bar that had a tab in the middle of the table and everyone would just pick a number on the screen above it, and take as much as they wanted and when someone else wanted to fill up they would click their number and it would monitor how much that person poured. After a long, fun filled night we all made it back home safely to our beds, and in the morning we all hopped on the bus for our journey back home that was much worse than the trip there. I had finished my knitting so all I had left to do was read and sleep, which both were impossible because of all the yelling and seat kicking that happend on the entire ride home. Luckily instead of dropping us all in town and having to take buses back to our places, they drove us all to our dorms. Ours being the first was the best, because after 7 hours on a loud, hot, and smelly bus, I just wanted to crash in my room and just sleep off the rest of the day. Plus our first day of classes started the next day, so I ended up calling it an early night so that I would be dozing off in class. I actually really love my classes too. I have one called Globalizing Capitalism, which is mostly filled with discussion about what our views on globalization, is and if its achievable or not. It's just a lot of brain storming and idea forming which I love to do so I wasnt bored at all in the classroom. And for my second class its called Intercultural Competance, where it's also mainly coming up with definitions of what culture is, and how does one define it, and what goes hand in hand with culture. But just yesterday I was thinking to myself I got my first round of classes left and thought about how I only have 8 more weeks and 8 more classes until I'm back home, which was a bit of a surprise, mostly because when I think of the first day of classes I am used to thinking I have a whole semester ahead of me, but I guess not. But thats all the news for today folks I hope summer is staying more prevalent instead of sporadic warm and cold days like we are having here. Bis spater!

"Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power."

Henry George

Week Full of Reisen

Hello everyone! Let me just say this week is only half way over and I've travelled more in these past three days then I have in my life! It all started out with this weekend. We had originally planned on going to Heidelburg on Saturday and then Frankfurt on sunday, but because of some complications we weren't able to go to Heidelburg. But it was just a sunday morning and I had figured we wouldnt go to Frankfurt, but then my Ukrainian friend up and said hey lets go to Frankfurt for the day, so I called up a couple more people and we caught the train to Frankfurt for free since we have student passes that allows us to travel on any public transportation in the state of Hessen for free. We didnt stay long, but it was such an amazing city! It is the main hub for alot of the Banks not only in Germany but some in the EU as well. It's the only city with a skyline filled with skyscrapers and looked alot like a smaller version of Chicago. After about a 3 hour walk around the city, we hopped back on the train for home, but little did I know that there was more travelling this week then I had thought. Now Monday came around, and when we got to class our teacher had suggested that we learn today's lesson, and then we will go out for breakfast which I was beyond excited about! While we were eating someone had suggested that they really wanted to see the teachers home town which is a little village right outside the city of Bonn and she agreed that that would be alot of fun, and then one of us goes "So lets do it!" and we all slowly agreed we should and she asks when and we all go "Tomorrow!" and she was besides herself trying to contemplate this potential trip, but after a couple emails and some green lights she rented two cars for all 10 of us to pack into and we were Bonn bound the next day. The city of Bonn is such a beautiful city and if i were to ever live in Germany in my upcoming years, I would like to live in Bonn. It's big but not to big and it also has literally 8 or 9 cities not 60 min away from it. Cologne is probably only a 30 min train ride away. She took us first to a German Geschichte (History) Museum which was very interesting, but more than half of the plaques with information were in german. I could understand some of what it was saying, but there were plenty to just see and understand instead of read. After the museum she took us downtown which is the most beautiful Innenstadt i've seen in Germany, and since it was about lunch time by then we of course went to get some Brats and Brotchen! But just before I was satisfied with just a Brat she took us to a frozen yogurt place where you pour your own frozen yogurt, and then they have tons of toppings to put on it. I ended up getting a layer of vanilla, a layer of double chocolate, strawberries on top, and chocolate chips. (Picture on Facebook) It was mind melting or should i say...freezing.. and i know what youre all saying after that clever turn in this blog. Something like this? Then after our inner city excursion she took us all the way to her hometown to her house to meet her family which when we got there we normally are a very talkative bunch, but when we got there none of us really talked that much, but after some pieces of cake that her mom made, and some introductions, we all headed out to a local restaurant where we filled up one last time and headed home. Now today was our last language class day, and also we will be getting our next schedule of classes for the next 9 weeks I'm in school, which I am going to right now so I hope all of you have a splendid Morning and afternoon, and I will be going to Berlin for 4 days this weekend so you can bet there will be stories and pictures coming in the near future!

"If I try my best and fail, well, I've tried my best" Steve Jobs

One Month Mark

Well first I would have to start with apologizing again for keeping you all in the dark about my adventures here in Germany! I've been one busy bee these past couple weeks and hope it hasn't discouraged any of you readers from keeping tabs on my blog! But if you haven't been following at home, today marks the One month and 3 day mark since i've been here and must I say that time is going faster than a canoe down a waterfall. The things i've seen, the places i've gone, and the people i've met have been so astounding and its only been a month! I try my hardest to really take advantage of everything around me and the time I have, but i must admit i dont always do that. But with the time i do take advantage of i do make the best of. There's just so much of this world to be seen, so much to be done and I feel just so thankful and so blessed that I have this what could be a once in a lifetime chance to be here and to do all these things. I am equally as blessed to have everyone back home readers, or non readers, just everyone that supported me before I left and keep supporting me even after a month in. I'm getting to that point where I start to realize how little time i really do have here, and how after the shows all over and everyone flys back to their home, how much I'm really gonna miss everyone here, building all these friendships and these memories, that one day when I look at a map of Germany, or am speaking german I'm always gonna remember the people I shared this trip with and almost everything id did here depending on the night and how much beer was consumed haha. But I still have so much time left and I'm happy to have a realization such as this, because it makes each day in Germany that much more important, and to make sure to make every day count. But in other news!! The weather here is starting to become sooooo nice! Today it was a balmy 66 degrees, with a nice cool breeze and if I could live in that exact weather all the time i can tell you that'd be the life. I get to finally stretch my muscles and unwind after the long winter with a couple runs around marburg, some soccer games here and there, and just spending an afternoon soaking up some sun by the river. I will hopefully be visiting Kassel this weekend, then Berlin next weekend, THEN either Venice or Munich the next weekend and the one I pick to go that weekend, ill just be going to the next weekend haha. And I know what you're thinking "Neal?! How can you afford to go to Venice?" and with that i respond fear not my avid reader, flights to places around europe cost less than the computer screen you're reading this on, much less! I checked a flight to venice today and to go there it only costs 22 Euros. And the face your making at this point was the very same face I made when I saw it too. So lets just say with all these cheap trips, I hope to be doing some European trips on top of my german trips. I hope to also go to Barcelona, AND on a sort of different note, for those who know who these guys are Jay-Z and Kanye West are gonna be playing in Frankfurt June 5th, 3 days before my program ends here in marburg and i am for sure going and its gonna be NUUUUUUTTTTTZZZZZZ!!!! (Pardon the bad grammar). But its getting a little late here in Germany so to wrap this post up, I hope everyone reading is having ein schones Tag (great day) and hope all is well with you and you're family and friends, and have no fear I will be back one of these days ahead. I love you all and will work harder on getting posts out there for you hungry readers to read up on and remember    

"Whatever you can vividly imagine, you can achieve. Everything in this world and everything around you was once an idea in the mind of its inventor or creator." Jim Donovan.

Weekend in Cologne

Hello everybody!! Its 10:33 am over where I am on a cold and cloudy tuesday morning, which in comparison to what you all are having over in wisconsin is still very cold. But no matter what the weather I still have so much to tell you about my first weekend travelling to a different city and this weekend it was Cologne! Now of course friday we had class and all, but when all you can think about is travelling to a new city and experiencing all these new things, you dont really pay attention in class at all! The train ride there wasn't anything special and it was a 3 hour train ride and we left at four so it got dark half way through so we couldn't enjoy the scenery on the way there. But once we finally got there and was on our way to the hostel things got better. Colonge is soooooo big!! I mean I guess when you come from the town of Lake Mills really any city with large buildings and buses and trains is really big, but when we got to the hostel I was kind of skeptical, but thats just because ive never been in one, and the thought of sleeping in a room with other people is just kind of new for me, but then i found out that besides me and my two friends staying in the room two other people from my school were staying there, but there was this one Albanian guy that seriously was thee creepiest guy ive ever met. He was bald and had a huge scar on the back of his head and someone asked him where he got it and he responded with "If I told you Id have to kill you"....well isnt that just delightful. And he always came into the common room where we all were hanging out, but he wouldnt say anything, he would just sit with us and stare or be on cell phone, so lets just say i slept with all of my belongings with me in my bed. But other then that the rest of the people were seriously beyond cool and came from everyone on the globe! There was this german guy, but heres the catch, he spent a year in australia so he spoke english with an australian accent. There was these to metal heads one from norway and one from germany, that were drinking schnapps like it was water, and one of them took a shot by putting it in his hand, setting it on fire, and then just drinking it out of his hand and then the rest of the schnapps on his hand he just lit on fire! These guys were seriously crazy and they said the only way to open a beer is with their teeth so all night they were cracking bottles open with their mouth. There was a guy from australia, and these two guys from england, that just took over the party. This one James guy kept yelling "THERE ARE SO MANY GERMANS EVERYWHERE" haha and kept telling his joke "Wanna know the best thing about England is? AMERICA!!!" We started consuming adult beverages around 7 o clock playing card games, and bar dice and didnt end up leaving the hostel until around midnight and thats because we got kicked out for being to loud so at that point we went out to a club where I kept up with the party for a long time, but once 3 a.m. came around I was one dead battery, but all the germans around us were still going full force and i thought to myself "Man, these germans really know how to party all night" and I didnt end up getting to bed until 4 a.m. But I have to say hands down that this last weekend was one of the best weekends of my life haha. Oh and before any of this happend during the day we got up at 9 and just devoured the free breakfast they offered at the hostel and then from 10 to 3 we just walked around the entire city seeing the HUGE dome and the bridge with the locks on them which when someone is in love or when someone gets married they go to this bridge with a lock and with any design on it they want and they lock it on the bridge then through the key into the Rhine river which I think is pretty cool. And while we were on our adventure we came around the Berlin soccer team that was playing in Cologne that day and seriously they walked literally right passed us that I could reach out and touch them. Even though the last day there i felt myself getting sick and now today I have quite a cold, it was all worth it and I might be going down to Munich this weekend for, I hope, even more fun than I had this last weekend. It's just so crazy to be so far from home and go to all these places and meet all these people from around the world, that I may not ever see again, but its just so great that I got to meet them.

Oh and if you want a little look at what my weekend was kind of like here's this.

Meine erste Geburtstag im Deutschland

I apologize for my recent absence to all my die hard fans out there! It's been an adventurous couple days, but the most adventurous of them all would have to be today of course my birthday of all days! Classes are going great and I have one of the coolest teachers that the whole class likes and makes class just that much better! Just yesterday for class we took a day trip around the city to the train station, the to the post office, then to the grocery store, and finally to lunch where we had to order in German! Now the trip might of sounded nice and care free with no troubles but no care free and trouble free does not go hand in hand with being Neal Fagan. So since I had prior troubles with buying tickets and by troubles I mean I spend 120 euros on tickets both on Monday when I needed tickets for Friday. Yeah.... I made the same face you are probably making right now after reading that. So almost 200 euros later I got my tickets to cologne this weekend so thank God for that! Next on our trouble train is the post office where I had a simple gift to send back home which is easy right?? Wrong.... I had fitted the gift in a medium box that I bought but it was over 1 kg which made it more expensive to send so she had advised to switch to a completely different box and re write all of the sending information, might I add I was the only person left to send something and the the group was waiting/yelling at me for taking so long but I finally got it sent out and the day the trouble train started back up towards the next stop, the grocery store! Now before I continue since I switched boxes I had this large box I had to carry around since i bought it so remember that. Now at the grocery store the teacher and given us a sheet of paper with questions on it and like a scavenger hunt we had to either ask or find all the answers with 3 teams of 3. So as soon as we started everyone's racing around and I had no idea what I had to find or how to find it so I'm walking aimlessly around the store who my large box and to maybe get one answer at least I get in line at the butcher to ask him a question on the sheet and as soon as it was my turn the guy up and leaves and goes where ever butchers go when they are trying to avoid me so that was fun. And at the end of the hunt my team mates could only stare at me with disappointment since their pages were. Filled and mine had only one answer on it...which I later found out was th wrong answer. So after we left the store we approached our final destination on the trouble train was our nice luncheon! Which actually the pace was actually really really cool the place from the outside was small but it went back so far and was the most warm feeling, quaint,and like hand made wood everywhere! And because it's Easter season they had eggs hanging from the ceiling everywhere! But backup the story! So we all get to our table and the waitress starts asking what we would like to drink now being the stingy guy I am I had water with me and wasnt originally gonna order anything to drink but I figure that might of been rude so as everyone is going around some people ordered mineral water which in Germany means water with carbonation in it so it's like soda water which is very much an acquired taste that I do not care for at all but at the time I didn't know which water was which so I of course say blankly "Mineral water, bitte!" and once she left we all started talking about which water was which and I find out I just ordered the type of water I don't like and everyone starts laughing at me. And once our magnificent waitress brought my water in a bottle and a cup my friend next to me poured the whole bottle in the glass so that I can thoroughly enjoy every last drop... And then after we all ordered the food started coming one by one and all I ordered was some eggs ,but I guess in Germany eggs take an ungodly long amount of time to be made because while everyone was already half done with their meal I finally got mine and was able to enjoy my meal with everyone. Now don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about moments like these cause as a matter of fact without moments like these I wouldn't have such great and comedic things to blog about!! SPEAKING of comedic things and coming back to today, my birthday, a number of funny and comedic things happens today startif with the wonderful bus strike we had today! I saw the sign last night that there would be no busses and thought man what are the chances that the one day they have a bus strike is the 20th anniversary of my birth. And so this morning as we are all sitting by the road waiting for a taxi at like 840 in the morning a bunch of us decide " you know what? Let's just walk!!" so we did....we walked 45 into town and made it to class around 930 but what made the walk so much better was the great morning we had and when we finally got to class my wonderful teacher put out 4 candles and got me a present and put up a banner saying happy birthday in german. And I had happy birthday sung to me in german, English, and Russian so I can say with a smile it's been a great birthday. But now it's time to walk home because the busses still are on strike so until next time! Stay golden all of you!!


Neal

Up the creek without a Schläger

2/27/12 Today! The first day of classes! There is a bus strike!!!! Which in turn means that there werent any busses running in the entire city!!! And guess who lives about a 20 min bus ride north of where my classes are? Thats right this guy. So we had to get a taxi which is harder to get when everyone and their Hunden (Dogs) was calling for a taxi that morning so getting one wasnt impossible, but it wasnt easy ill tell you that. And once I was done with classes normally we would explore the city more and have adventures since we had an easy way home, but this time around there wasnt an easy way home. It was either hard on the wallet or the legs, and my friends and I thought we should hike it home. And it was a very interesting and tiring walk,alllllll 45 minutes of me. But i had my livestrong bracelet on, so i figured if Lance can defeat cancer twice I can walk as far as it takes, and in the end it wasnt all to bad. Gave me a sence of accomplishment, good exercise, and a darn tootin good story. But once i got back i was bed ridden for the day and played all the solitaire my heart desired.

2/28/12

I figured since the last post was kind of short id combine today and yesterday into one. Today started earlier then I like at a nice 6am to catch a bus ride from Wehrde to Sued Marburg which is a good 40 min bus ride so that we can register for our visas. And Thank God! Because the bus stike only lasted one day. Now i dont exactly understand what they were so upset about, but whatever it was i guess their simple demands were met being the strike was only a day... Later that day I had the first chance to be able to get some guys together and play some soccer which is what ive been looking forward to do since i got here and since today wasnt the coldest day out we figured we would. We found a field that was very, very muddy which made the game that much more fun, and also while we were playing a Ukrainian man walked by with his dog which ended up chasing the ball around, and later the same man came back and asked to play with us, which was pretty neat if you ask me. But these ol' bones just quite the same as they used to be and lets just say i am as beat as a boxing match. Its gonna be an early night for this temporary German. Till next time folks!

One thing after the other

My goodness readers, germany has more unpredictable adventures for me than 11 year old car jackers! Last saturday I experienced one of germanys greatest cultural events! That's right folks! Saturday was party day, and lets just say ain't no party like a Marburg party cause a Marburg party don't stop (please excuse the bad grammer, its just song lyrics). At the university they have an international bar called Schwarz-Weiss (Black-White) which may be an odd name, but theres nothing odd about 1 Euro beers! And german beer knows how to pack a punch let me tell you. I've may or may not (depending on the reader) have had my fair share of drinks in my years, but germany takes the cake. After a couple at Schwarz-Weiss we all took a bus into town to go to the oberstadt. Once there we went to a club, which was as fun as it was hot. Seriously folks, I had no where to put my jacket, and my internal tempurature was just as hot as my dance moves, which went a little like this. Then after we all got Doner's which are delicious!!!!! And dont worry after we caught a taxi, and all made it home safely with no accidents or injuries.

Sunday was my day of rest which is exactly what I did. I for the first time in my life spend almost 6 hours in the library which had internet. (since I dont have internet in my room at this point) And let me tell you, when one does not have internet access for a period of time, when one does finally get it, one knows exactly what they are going to do with it and gets alot of things done in a very short amount of time. I probably sent 6 or 7 emails simultaneously and checked every social network i have within the first 5 min of having it. Here's the kicker though! I was able to find out that I can, through the internet, call anyone in the US of A for just a penny a minute! So let me tell you that I indulged with this offer and am so grateful to have the technology we do today.

Orientation

Waking up this morning and saying it was brutal is an understatement. I got up and mozied to the showers and basically just stood in the shower staring and felt just so lost. Then getting to the orientation, they had told us to be there at 830 so i took the bus at 736 into town to get there early enough, had a delicious danish for breakfast at one of their many amazing bakeries, and then went to the building we were assigned to go too. I soon found out that classes aren't going to be all that comfortable in this classroom, because my legs were to long to fit into the desk normally so I have to sort of sit sideways in the chair which hits other people so there's gonna be a lot of awkward moments headed my way. We took the written test of figure out which section of german we would be placed in which um i mean i dont want to toot my own horn, but i pretty much nailed it. Then after we had to wait in line for an oral exam which they only had two teachers in rooms to give these tests and each person mustve taken like 8 or 9 min just to get through it and of course I was in the back of the line. When it was finally my turn they had the weirdest questions to ask me like one was "What are your opinions on onling dating" and also "Say your friend has a cold, what is your advice" which the first one i wouldnt even know what to say in english let alone german and the second seems very unrealistic, who needs advice on colds, they practically heal themselves. Then after that we split up into 2 groups one going to get the internet access set up and the other taking a city walk around. I was in the first group that go to get internet access and let me tell ya. I've never been so happy to see the internet signal on my laptop. I dont have any in my room which without it I only use my room to sleep and change. And right away i knew where to go, who to email/facebook and was just sending a bunch of emails all at the same time so someone knew i wasnt dead in deustchland. No one was online on facebook because even though it was 3 o clock where I was it was still 8 at home so that kind of sucked not being able to chat with anybody, but after we did all that they said it was time to go on our city trip where we went to the Oberstadt (pictures will be posted on facebook). The Oberstadt is seriously just a time machine back to the past. The roads are all cobblestone, the shops are hundreds of years old, but still in amazing condition! They had a comic book store, and restaurants, and even a gummy bear shop with tons of... you guessed it! Gummy bears, and i love gummy bears. Then we all went to a restaurant but just ordered some drinks before we all went down to die Milchbar (Milk Bar) which really is just a white room with some tables and chairs and NO MILK! Everyone in the program new and old were there and all the teachers too, and we all just went around the room saying where were from and why we came to marburg and all that jazz. There happens to be 5 people from wisconsin here! which was pretty unbelievable. There are also oddly like 10 people from penn state here also, one from Australia, one from korea, a couple from mexico, and then a bunch from the states. After that a bunch of people were gonna go out, but we found a good group and went back to the dorms to play some cards, because we had to get up again at 9 in the morning to set up our visas, so we figured we would go out and party up the town the next day. Which will be a whoooole nother story for my next post.

Tchuss!

Thee Adventure Begins

Guten Tag! First I'd like to say that only being in germany for 10 hours my first day I got myself into more problems than I've ever had. The plane ride from Chicago to London was a hefty 8 hours, BUT I got a Fenster (Window) seat which was a plus. There happened to be a large high school class that was on the same flight and liked to yell at each other and add their commentary during the in-flight movie, which was most enjoyable. I  had a good amount of movies to watch while on the plane, but didnt have a good amount of battery to make it through one movie. I left Chicago with the sun setting and then came into London to see the sun rising which was pretty cool but also kind of disorientating and I kept checking the time back and home and thinking how it was 8 am where i was and only 3 am back at home. Now the craziest thing about the London airport that I've never seen before was that the entire terminal was covered in stores for expensive alcohol and also for designer clothes and purses. It was like a Macy's and they had a Dior, Prada, and a Gucci just to name a few which I wouldnt think would be all that popular in an airport. Now the first terror that happend to me was that when i was charging my laptop I put down my water bottle and my boarding passes, but when I left I must of picked up just my water bottle because when we were boarding I couldnt find my boarding pass and my heart felt like it was gonna burst out of my chest......BUT i was able to  just give him my passport and he printed off one for me which made me happier then a fish in water. Then once I was in Frankfurt everything went smoothly. I ordered my first mcdonalds meal in german

Auf Wiedersehen!!

Hallo alles! Ich habe nur ein Tag bevor ich nach Deutschland flugen (I have only one day before I fly to Germany)!! This will be the last post before I go which seems like the last post wasn't to long ago even thought it was. Today is my packing day, which is taking longer than I thought it would. I hope I'm not taking to much or too little, but I figure its best to bring less because I'm sure ill be hauling way more stuff when I return home. I am also frantically passing the house and looking at everything to figure out if I need it or not. Meine Euro (don't think to hard about what that means in German) came today and the only entertainment besides packing is looking at the pictures on them and all the different designs they have on them. As you might be able to tell its been a very long 2 month break for me and I never thought these words would come out of my mouth or be typed, but I am excited for some Wisson (Knowledge)! I think the weirdest thing is that it really hasn't set in completely that in 24 hours meine Mutter (Mom) and Ich (I) will be making our way down to Chicago and then 6 hours after that I will be on a plane and wont be back for 3 months. I've waited for 2 months, said all the goodbyes I could, and almost have everything packed, but I don't think I fully realize the adventure that is awaiting me. All I've really been thinking about is all the conversation starters I can use with the person that will be sitting next to me on the plane. So far I've come up with "What is your favorite episode of Friends and why?", and "Are you cool with me passing out on your shoulder at any given moment during this flight?". Also if the second question isn't used I've already planned on apologizing before that happens so its not schwierig (awkward).... Mein Amerikanisch Handy (American Cell Phone)  won't work while I am abroad, but I can have my texts sent to my email and can respond to them there and also you can reach me either on facebook, twitter @NealFagan, or my email maxamegamoo@hotmail.com (And yes, I know its a strange email and I know I should probably change that), but they said the internet won't be up right away when I get there so I'll be off the radar for a bit. Lastly since I wouldn't want any of you worrying about my safety, it just so happens that two of the students in my program will be landing at the same time at me in Frankfurt and we'll be meeting up to put our Köpfe (Heads) together and venture to our destination. Which is great news for me because if I had to travel by myself I would maybe get lost and fall on my knees and scream.


Finally I hope you all have an amazing semester/couple months. Thank you everyone for the support that you've given me while I was here and hope you all stay safe and I miss you already! Auf Wiedersehen (Goodbye)!!!!

The Waiting Game

Hello everyone! Figured I'd kick off this whole blogging scene with a quick update on the amount of Langweile (Boredom) that has followed after everyone left for school. Been trying to stay as busy as possible and of course think about that in 23 days I will be on ein Flugzeuge (Plane) from Chicago at 6 p.m. to London and then finally landing in Frankfurt, Germany the next morning the next day , so you can be  sure that ill have a big smile on my face to greet die Deutscher (Germans) once I do touch down. From there I will just have to muster up enough thought and sense to take the train from der Flughafen (Airport) to die Innenstadt (Inner City) of Frankfurt and then from there another train ride an hour north to Marburg! I just hope that I 1. Am able to verstehen (Understand) all the signs, directions, and speaking and 2. Dont fall asleep on the train and end up in either another city, country, or continent. But fear not whatever does happen I, as my good friend Gloria Gaynor says, will survive and hope to absorb and learn as much as possible cause who knows when something like this will happen again. Well folks my day has absolutely nothing planned so I better get started on that, and stay tuned for more posts in the future!

P.S. My small attempts at amateur comedy might, at times, be hard to handle, but bare with me and hope that it doesn't scare anyone away but instead gives a chuckle here and there.