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