Tales of a Midwestern Twirl Girl

'15 there's still time for youTime to buy, Time to lose yourself Within a morning star 15 I'm all right with you 15, there's never a wish better than this When you only got 100 years to live '
I've had Five For Fightings 100's Years in my head for the past 2 days. We went to a youth hostile and in our giant room (i roomed with 9 other girls) we had a piano. And dear old Julie Driscoll played it many a times. It made me think about life and Lori Vincent. Gulp. Thats all im gonna say about that. Except for when we went to a Cathedral today (Gutenburg was buried in it) I lit a candle and said a silent pray for her.

Anyways, yesterday seems SOO long ago. a blur of giggles, train rides and meals. We got onto a train early on wednesday morning and got to Beim and took a loooonnnggggggggg boat ride on the Rhein river. It was gorgous and hilarious. 2 of the boys thought these group of girls also on the boat were BABES. so they started talking to them and stuff and then Frau Chow, walks up to them asking if they've taken their pills. FUNNIEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. We eventually got off this boat in St. Goer (one of the guys got a number even) it instantly reminded me of a hilly old Cambridge. It was lovely. But the mile long hike up hill to our Hostile...wasnt so nice. Haha. it was kinda a dirty hostile but right next door was THE COOLEST CASTLE EVER. We went up there and it had all these secret passage ways and it was soo cool going through them and stuff.But before we went up there, me and 2 of my friends went into town and sat down for some italian food, then it turned out to add to 10 other people.It was amazingly good food and our waitress was so nice! We came back down and had a cook out..mmm brat wurst. We were all worn out and the room of teenage girls were all asleep by 11.30. Crazy..i know.

Today we went to Mainz, saw the Gutenberg Musuem..wow totally didnt change my life. Boring horrible movie that reminds me of the Raisens. or w.e then shopped around. Went to piyya hut..ice cream, more shopping, and walking, more ice cream then home. its a blur. Only a week left. Im both sad and happy.

Yesterday I went to Heidelberg and saw my dear old cousin Aaron. All of his pictures from the soccer games hahaha. OO grrr it was hot and we had to climb up this huge mountain to 'get a view' THEN we climbed down, crossed a bridge and started up ANOTHER MOUNTAIN to reach the castle. The castle wasnt worth the climb. It was boring, hot and reaked of B.O. And the train was loud and full of people both to and from.

Today we went to France and wahoo it was pretty fun. I lost my group of friends in the platz so i went with Maria for shoe shopping. She found a pair of PUMAS yes pumas which are usually near §100 here..for §54. THEN we went into this other store and i saw these great pair of Levis costing §65. I figured since i havnt touched my debit card yet, it would be a nice spurge. I ahem was also looking for a pair of jeans all weekend (yes we went shopping every day) But they fit great and i adore them. The hardest part was trying to find Mariah a pair of shoes when no one speaks either English or German and we didnt know her european shoe size. It was pretty amusing. Tomarrow we are staying in some city of night, so i doubt i will write anythign else until mid afternoon (your time) on Thursday.

I want to be like the old people in here...spashing in the puddles and being out of the ordinary for the age that i am. The some how remind me of Nana and Papa. I think this is because we talked about the last name Girman and how german it was. Gir means spear. Does anyone know from that side of the family where we lived? Near a river, lake or sea? That explains my cousins, grandpas, and father's love of fishing

I started school today. Sat through a geography class with 6 other exchange students. The funny thing is that the class was on industry in america and we had no idea what he was talking about. But at 8.00 i went into the homeroom and before i could barly sit down in walks Janine. I practically jumped over the table saying hello. But i got her number and that enough made my day. Then we got a tour and heard the mayors 15 minute speech (yaawwwwwwnnnn) then me and the 'plastics' (my partners group of friends) and their partners all went out for ice cream and shopping. I almost bought this great pair a jeans but stopped when i saw the 100§ mark i was shocked! But i read some more Angels and Demons. At 4 the game started but the plastics got mistaken and it wasnt showing at the Platz. So we went out for some MORE ice cream and shopping. We came home and Uwe said that we will be going to a greek restaurant for dinner and ooo whatever i had was AMAZING!!!! very very filling. BUT Uwe said that if i drank this special drink it would help my stomach. This special drink was MY FIRST SHOT. It was strong, pepperminty and burned but was amazing. It actually helped my stomach a lot. Well tomarrow im off, shopping then hanging out with a plastic partner, barbeque/german soccer game then party party. Wahoo. And maybe on monday ill be seeing Aaron!

Early last saturday, me and 36 other chillins got on the long train ride from Frankenthal to Munich (Munchen) we stopped to switch trains but it took a total of 8 hours to get to our 'hotel' our hotel was a youth hostil which is just a hotel for mostly teens, we had a gorup from madison there when we arrived. We mostly just walked around A LOT. I#m talking at least 5km a day..in 90 degree weather. I dont know how many of you know this but its a rare find to find a place with a.c. I found out that ancient stone church are closer to 60 degrees and are LOVELY to be in. Ill tell zou each day..starting backwrods from today (thursday)#

Thursday
Ate the usual breakfast of rolls and fruit, then got on the bus and went to Stuttgart where not really anything happened. Another 2 hours and we arrived in Beitegheim and i tried Döner (lamb with sause in rolls) which turned out to be fantasic. Then ANOTHER 2.5 hours until we arrived back in Frankenthal

Wednsday
Went to Donchau...a concertration camp. Saddest thing ever. I felt nausous when i left. We went to the castle that is famous for being modelled for the Cinderella Castle. Schloss Neuschwabstein. The walk UP THE MOUTAIN was probably..2 miles..100% uphill in again 90 degree weather. But beautiful! It started to rain when we started our tour. But is slowed down when me, Joe Hubber, Crosby Hass, and Nikki Wickland decided to run down the moutain. bad BAD BAD idea. It started to pour..then hail to golf sized peirced. We got to the bottom dripping wet when we got to our pregnate teacher..she laughed until she saw our LOVELY welts (Joe and Crosby were being boy..and decided to run shirtless)

Tuesday
We left for Salzberg which was another beautiful city. We learned way way way too much about Moazart and got up in another castle which wasnt all that great. I think my favorite part was walking around the city with 3 of my friends being dorks.

Monday and Sunday
i cant really remember anything too sepcific because it was a blur. we got woken up by 2 of the over tired boys knocking on our doors and we couldnt go back to sleep. so it was all just walking around München and sleeping. By looking at my pictures i see the glockenspeil, a couple 100 pictures of churches, the englischer garten (too many naked old people!!!!!!!!!!!) and the Beer house. AND the olypmic stadium ..very good view

Funny story with the beer house though. So with the world cup going on...patroitism is hardcore. I've seen nearly every flag. SO being the hilarious boys we have. 4 of my friends decided to buy American flags. An this night it was Mexico against Austraila (i think!!!) and holy cow. The beer house was LOUD with national songs and such from both countries. All of a sudden this one table saw our boys flags and started chanting USA, USA. and it hilarious.

once i figure out how to put pictures onto the computer ill do so

ta ta ta!

HEY sorrry its been almost 24 hours since i even got to germany. The plane ride was LONG especially on the case were every single song on my ipod disappeared. But i made a couple of new friends within the group of 35 which was good. I didnt sleep A WINK on there, i waited for the hour long bus ride from the airport to Frankenthal. Frankenthal is a really pretty place, every single house is pretty much covered with german flags (world cup) and flowers. After i got home and had a delicious meal of spaghetti (their neighbors are very much italian) i slept for i think 6 hours. Than after a german meal of brat wurst (with this amazing ranch like sause!!) i showered (36 hours w.o a shower, i smelled!!) I got ready for this "beach party." There was no water though but the sand was like Florida sand soft. I reunited with some the old germans and yes had ONE alcoholic drink. This is very good because some people had like 6. I had one and it was like a rasberry daquiri. Now in less than 2 hours. I#m offf the Munich, hopefully seeing my dear darling cousin Aaron in the next 5 days. Ill post some pictures soon of my host family and their adorable dog named Charly. Until then!!

What? A surprise party for me? aww i love my friends with all of my heart!