Baby!

Just wanted to update everyone that there is a new Meyer in town!!

Stats: Ian Christopher Meyer

Born: 9/20/2009 - 5:15 PM

Weight: 6lbs 11oz

Height: 20"

I have run out of internet (I think) and am currently mooching off someone's wireless, so no more skype chatting I guess. I am off to Munich for Oktoberfest this Saturday then to Venice followed by Rome, I will be gone until October 4th, so if you don't see any posts or hear from me don't fret, I am simple just not able to be mobile with communications!

Photos from Mainz 2

We just couldn't get enough of these snazzy windows!

The group of exchange students :)

Jenae and I clowning around in Mainz

Me, Esther (from Spain), and Mary. Apparently I thought

whatever Esther was saying was quite funny

The remnants of a Roman Theatre discovered in Mainz.

Photos from Mainz 1

The gorgeous Chagall windows inside St.Stefan's

Me and a crazy fountain in Mainz

Chagall windows

Turkeys filled with pasta!

A massive slide I of course went down! Climbing up to

the top was crazy, you just had to hoist yourself between

platforms as there were no stairs/ladder.

Week 3: Mainz and everyday life in Darmstadt

This week was not too eventful during the week. German class every morning followed by other assorted activities including running, basketball, shopping, and going to the grocery store. It is weird to have to go to the store so often, and I do not have a freezer so that makes things difficult at times. We have one freezer that could maybe house oh I don't know, a box of fish sticks maybe and that is shared amongst the 9 people living in my flat. The people who share a bathroom with me are moving out and a new boy will move in, a new boy moved in on the floor beneath me, as well as another one moving in at the beginning of October. He has a tarantula...a snake...and an ant farm...yuck! I was thinking it would be much nicer if he had a puppy or something :)

I am getting better at understanding what people say, I just am no good at speaking German. So many weird sounds I am not used to hearing or making in English though some of the Spanish people are not even capable of making them! I guess German is quite a hard language for them to learn. This week there was another birthday, a roommate of one of the erasmus students from France. So there was a birthday party for him here at the dorms, followed by an outing to the student club/bar. There are many people that live in Karlshof, but I feel that I only see the same 50 people or so always. Right now many of the students are on "urlaub" or holiday. There exams last for 5 weeks or so and the tests can be anywhere during that time. I think the end of the 5 weeks is this Friday, and there is a week break before classes start back up again. For my "urlaub" I will go to Munich, Venice, and Rome! I will be leaving Saturday 9-26 to go to Munich to see the Oktoberfest festivities, then taking the night train from Munich to Venice, Italy where I will stay 2/3 days with Mary and Stephanie (our friend who is studying in Potsdam). Then we will go to Rome and meet up with Jackie and Jenae for 4 days in Rome! I am so excited!!

This past Saturday we travelled to Mainz, which is an old Roman town about an hour from Darmstadt. It was not as picturesque as Heidelberg, but there was a pretty church with very beautiful stained glass windows made by the famous glass artist Chagall. They cast a really pretty blue glow throughout the church, which was a much different feel from a normal church. 

There was also a market going on with all sorts of fresh fruits, vegetables, crafts, pastries, and juices. They sell a lot of fresh apple and orange juices and wine. I did not buy anything at the market as I had just bought a lot of fruit at the market and did not want anything to go bad. Hopefully there will be another market going on where I can actually buy things! We ate at a really cute cafe for lunch where the food was very fresh and flavorful, I've noticed much of the German food is kind of bland, consisting of sausage, hard chewy bread, and potatoes. So it was nice to have something fresher. There seem to be not a whole lot of lighter, more refreshing options like salads and such, and everyone cleans their plate spotless here! It seems though that Germany, much like the states, just steals food from other cultures, there is Asian, italian, and lots of Turkish food here. 

Tomorrow I am going on a trip to a town called Marburg that is supposed to be very cute. Then just a few days before Oktoberfest and my Italian adventure! 

Glad to see the bucks pulled off the win, although my hometown UT pride wanted UT to do a little better I think. Oh well. Hope all is fantastic with everyone in Ohio (and Chicago and New York alike!) I just talked to my mom and dad and Lindsey is having the baby right now!! I will update when I hear although most of you will know before me I am sure! Love you all!

Meg

Heidelberg and the world's most expensive laundry

This past weekend we went to Heidelberg, which is a very adorable and old city not too far from Darmstadt. We took a train there and it was roughly an hour journey. The view out the train window was very pretty with hills and small towns. They build their farms into hills which looks really cool when passing by railway. We arrived at the main train station and walked down one very long brick road flanked with all kinds of shops, cafes, and assorted vendors. We walked super fast and did not have time to really stop anywhere along the way to the cathedral. The church was very beautiful with vaulted ceilings and a tower you could walk up into. I did not walk up to the tower but instead decided to use my 0.50 on ice cream instead of climbing up to the top of the tower...and stayed on the street to take some photographs and check out all the dogs walking around. The dogs are amazingly obedient here...the other day there was a wine fest in Darmstadt and the dogs were running around with no leashes playing with each other without any hesitation of cars hitting them or them attacking people. It reminded me of Lady and the Tramp with the free spirited dogs that all seem to be friends with each other. Anywho, the dogs in Heidelberg were all mingling on the street and hanging out which was fun to watch them interact. (Everyone knows how much I love pups!)

After the cathedral in Heidelberg we continued to walk to the "schloss" aka the castle! It was only a 2.2 mile journey from the main train station to the castle, but it takes about 45 minutes to walk due to the cobblestone/brick road and the steep incline up to the castle. It was a very old castle and was under reconstruction to repair parts of it. It was really beautiful and the weather on Saturday could not have been more perfect! Just the right temperature and sunny with a brilliant blue sky and big puffy clouds! A perfect day to lounge around a castle, I thought! We spent time exploring the castle and lounging on the castle grounds. It was very relaxing and interesting and was by far the most beautiful part of Germany I have encountered. It made me very excited to see more of the old, historic, picturesque towns in Germany.

After spending much of the afternoon in the castle we walked back and got to stop in a few shops and stuff before heading back to Darmstadt. After a much needed nap and some dinner, I watched the USC game on the internet with Mary, Jackie, and Jenae. It was pretty devastating to watch the bucks lose, and to have been awake from 2am-6am to watch it live. 

Sunday was kind of a lazy recovery day. We went to breakfast at a famous Darmstadt cafe which was way overpriced and served waffles with no syrup. They had all kids of creepy vending machines with all sorts of weird things in them from dolls to condoms to shampoo, very weird. Then I went to play basketball with a group of the Spanish erasmus students which was pretty amusing, I represented America well in bball in  case anyone was concerned...ha! 

That brings us up to today, Monday...after going to class and stopping at the supermarket for some food to cook for the next couple days, Jenaeand I decided we absolutely had to do our laundry. We purchased some detergent at the market and headed out to find a laundromat or "waschsalon" because we were convinced it would be cheaper than the laundry in our dorm complex...We went to said "waschsalon" and were confronted with the price of 4 euro 80ct per load...which is approx $7.00 just to wash the clothes! But we couldn't really leave because we had no clean clothes and no student cards to wash them back at the dorms...so we proceed to load the washers which surprisingly fit most of the clothes I have worn in the past two weeks. Then the women working informed us that we had not, in fact, purchased detergent but merely something to make our clothes smell good...sort of like fabric softener? So off we went to the drug store to purchase detergent (which was much more expensive than the "cheap detergent" aka fabric softener we had originally purchased!) Luckily we fit all our clothes into one dryer so we got to split the dryer price, which was way less than the washer price so not very helpful. Needless to say, I paid about $8 to do one load of laundry today...I suppose that is why there is an interesting smell to some of the folks around here...

A more positive note about today is that we found tortilla chips at a specialty market and were able to make some banging nachos out of tortilla chips, leftover meatballs, and swiss cheese? (they were good even though they sound weird, I swear!)

That's about it, we have German class all this week, and a few sessions of "living in Germany" this week which I think is a mix of history, culture, customs, and differences in living here as opposed to our home companies which should be interesting and helpful. We travel to Mainzon Saturday which I am looking forward to as well.

Hope all is well in the USA! I'll keep representing on the basketball court...keep me updated on any fun news in your lives!

Cheers!

Meg

Heidelberg Pics 3

A view of Heidelberg from the castle.

The castle wall

The view from the interior court of the castle

Part of a tower that once stood at the castle.

The giant keg in the castle used for storing all the king's wine!

Heidelberg Pics 2

Part of Heidelberg castle, I was astonished at how the sky looks so perfect as if it is painted into the windows.

The Spaniards wanted to spell out Spain because we were taking OHIO pics!

City of Heidelberg

A view from the castle window

Heidelberg Schloss

Heidelberg Pics 1

In a square in Heidelberg, we call these "send home to mom pics" :) 

Some random dogs in the street

Inside the church in Heidelberg

The exterior facade of the church.

Hello from Darmstadt!

This week has been busy still but with a bit more time to explore and catch up on some sleep. We have been taking a german language course from 9am-12:15 everyday usually followed by lunch and another activity or if we are lucky, a nap :)

On Monday we went to a bar/restaurant called "The Hobbit" for our new Irish friend's birthday. The bar sold pizzas in the names of characters from Lord of the Rings which was really cool and I will be going back soon to eat some Gimli or some Gandolf I am sure! I was hoping there would be souvenirs there, but no such luck, there is not a lot of Darmstadt Pride here in the form of tshirts and mugs and such. Maybe that is just an American thing. A very tragic thing did happen to me on monday though...the lady at the mensa (dining hall) gyped me 5 euros...which is approx $7.50 and I didn't realize she had given me the wrong change until much later. I do suppose it could have been much worse though, but still I totally could have gotten another meal out of that money!

On Tuesday we went to the school library, pretty boring per usual. Then we went to this student club/bar at night which was not so fun and my friend Yaya paid 7 Euro for a mojito that was 90% ice...too expensive for me! Wednesday was just class and a bit of shopping in the town square called the "Luisenplatz" and then one of the guys from Spain had a birthday. We had a potluck dinner party which was fun. Today (Friday) we went to ESOC building in Darmstadt, which is like the NASA of Europe. I was totally hoping to ride in simulators and crawl inside rockets, but it was a rather drab tour instead...with a few models of the satellites and such. I did score a free poster to hang in my very drab room. Although I do have pictures of all your smiling faces looking at me to bring some life and ohio into my jail cell/bedroom. (It's really not that bad, just very impersonal). 

Tomorrow we are taking a trip to Heidelberg which should be really cool because there are castles and all sorts of historical sights there, so I am very excited. And now that I have money in my german bank account and have paid my first month's rent, I am much more relieved. 

Hope all is well in Ohio, New York, and Chicago (I think that covers most anyone who would be reading this!) We are going to splurge and spend $15 to watch the USC game here on the computer, so hopefully the bucks do us all proud!! (It won't be on until 2 am here!) So go bucks! Miss and love you all!

p.s. please post comments so I can hear from you, or else I have deserted my much slicker tumblr blog for no good reason!

Test run

Although I like the tumblr design much better and I like the picture slideshows you can do, I want everyone to be able to post comments on the blog too! So I think I will try out this one and see if I like it. You can post a comment on any of the blog posts even if you are not an account holder with blogger, so please do! I would love to hear from you!

Jenae and I at the Apple Wine festival

A spinning circle o' meats!

A really cool building with a void in it in Frankfurt.

Couple walking on a path beneath a canopy of trees!

Frankfurt

Watching them make the apple wine!

Weekend in Frankfurt

taken from my tumblr 09.06.09

Hello USA!

The last few days have been super fun in Darmstadt (and in Frankfurt!) On Friday we took a language test to prove that I do not indeed know any German! After which, we went to town to get internet cables and other assorted things like money and pastries…which my new friend Jenae (who is from California) and I are obsessed with a place called “Back Factory”. I would describe this to you as the TIm Hortons of Germany, dirt cheap but tasty as all get out. The apple turnovers are quite a treat! After this, we went back to Karlshof (our dorms) and made dinner. We were feeling quite tired after a long day of trudging around in the cold raininess so we decided not to attend any of the raves/parties going on in the dorms and instead went to the market to buy some chocolate and a bottle of wine. We bought three different chocolate bars, and there was a clear winner, one in purple package which was very smooth and filled with delicious chocolate mousse. I am determined to know which chocolate is the best by the time mom comes to visit. (Which by the way, everyone is excited to meet mom and Jeff as I have told them all about you! And mom, there are some requests for you to bring some treats from the states, which I will update you on later)

On Saturday we took a city tour of Frankfurt, which is quite a big city about a 35 minute train ride away. It is a very pretty city with lots of stereotypical “big city” things as well as “germany” motifs running through it. We walked all through the city and got to walk through a flea market that was going on. (which will probably be where souvenirs will be purchased as it is cheaper than the specialty shops) We all ate sausages too, which if anyone was wondering, Germans really do eat a lot of sausages and big pretzels (which I thought was a stereotype but seriously there are sausages and pretzels everywhere!) 

We also went to a little square in the town that was having an “Apple Wine” festival, which was the cutest thing in the whole world! It was in a square flanked by buildings done in classic German architectural styling. There were people wearing the traditional costumes (St.Paulie’s girl-esque) and music too! We tried the apple wine, which was okay, and is apparently something very famous to this region in Germany. We got a chance to get to know our tutor better, her name is Liz and she is super fun and nice. 

After the Frankfurt tour, we went out to a dance club in Darmstadt. The dancing is really different here than in the states at clubs. The people kinda dance with themselves and dance really crazylike, and don’t worry so much about grinding up on people and such. So it is a really good time, with lots of laughing and goofy dance moves which is right up my ally as I have no rhythm! 

Today (Sunday), I went back to Frankfurt for the re-opening of a big art museum there. I was pretty groggy from a week of no sleep and lots of chaos, so we didn’t stay at the museum too long. There were a lot of nice pieces there, an exhibit on Edvard Munch and one on Botticelli as well as a few pieces by Degas, Monet, and Matisse which are always a nice treat to see. After the museum, we made our way back to the cute part of town where the applewine fest had been the day before in search for some gelato. We then proceeded to get very decadent gelato sundaes which were quite delicious and ridiculously expensive, but hey we are only here once! We went in a few shops to see some really intricate hand crafted toys and trinkets which were very cool. 

I think I am working to wean myself off of diet coke…(good luck, I know) But it is seriously expensive here, almost $3 for 1 liter!! No refills or anything of the sort, and no public bathrooms so when you have to pee you have to pay! I seriously think the people here must be crazy dehydrated because they drink coffee only and cannot go to the bathroom anywhere! It’s crazy. But the diet coke here isn’t as delicious as back home, tastes more like coke zero/coke that is trying to be more like regular…can’t coke just accept that I like diet coke for diet coke?!?!

I think that is about all for now, I start my language course tomorrow. Hopefully the days will have more sleep and less craziness in the time to come. Please email me, I love hearing from everyone! Hope all is well in the states and GO BUCKS!

-Meg

p.s. Some things never change…people here are already making fun of me/telling me I am a soccer mom because I always have snacks in my bag…they are waiting for the orange slices…

Miss and love you all!

Darmstadt, the Beginning

taken from my tumblr 9.3.09

Hi all!

It has taken a few days to get everything up and running here in Germany, but I finally have a connection to the outside world! The plane trip was long, as I have never flown abroad before and the ride was just like in the movies, with food and movies to watch and everything! Arriving at the airport was hectic and confusing as ever, but we made it to where we needed to be and got into our rooms just fine. 

My room is a flat with 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a kitchen. It is a bit dirty and everyone knows how OCD I am so it sort of drives me nuts-o. I have met some of my roommates but it is different than the US, because the people in the rooms get switched around all the time and people do not request to live with certain people but rather just look for flats with an opening. 

I will spare you from having to hear the details of most of what I have been doing because it is mostly diplomatic boringness, like registering and paying lots of $$$ and just tell you some of the more fun and interesting things. 

Day One: Went into the city with Jackie (one of the other OSU students here), and two students from Portugal: Ines and Jon. We ate gyros (how german, I know) and walked around the city. There are no bathrooms in public here which is quite annoying, and all the water is seltzer/mineral water, you have to specify you want “pipe water”. I also got to see a little lake in town with slides and lots of people swimming, so if it is warm next week we will go there.

Day Two: We went on a nice tour of the city which was presented in English, because everyone speaks some English here. The other students in our section are from Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, and Turkey and they all speak quite a bit of English, and sing in English which brings me to day 3…We went to a karaoke bar! We drank some German beer and cider and sang a bunch of American songs. It was quite amusing and fun. I sang sweet home alabama and spice girls!

Sorry to cut short, but I do not know how to save and edit a post later and I have to go meet some people to cook some dinner! Until next time…

Cheers,

Meghan