ANSBACH & MORE

So After my mothers birthday - & I mean literally I was off to Ansbach early Saturday but before making it to the wonderful city of Ansbach to explore a little bit of Sarina's Life I met up with her in Nuremberg. 
So I have been to Nuremberg before with my family - but I will say that we mainly focused on the famous historical Christmas Market.  Which was pretty awesome - it was even more exciting that I actually recognized some of the buildings and important features that are associated with Nuremberg.  We walked around and even made it all the way up to the castle, we met up with one of her friends from school and she walked around with us and we had a coffee or they had a coffee and I had a shake of some sort - it was funny because the waitress didn't even know the names of what we ordered.  We had a good chuckle over that :) hehe
Later that day We made it Nuremberg and we met up with her parents & I got to see Ansbach by night lol -
Well of course we grabbed some grub before it got to late & we called it a pretty early night - seeing as Sarina was exhausted from working and I was tired from traveling lol - not a bit excuse but still tiring. 
Oh but before we called it a night we watched Hannah Montana auf Deutsch - lol It was quite amusing and surprisingly I could follow it <3 :) 
Next morning we got up and we ate some amazing food and some cake and then it was off to see the city - This time it was Sunday so most things were closed.  But we saw some cool looking churches and got some ice cream and just kinda chilled - it was nice.  Then I caught my train and I was off to Marburg again - studying on the train home because I had a test on Monday morning in my Language class. 
But All went well and now I will post some pictures of my trip to Nuremberg and Ansbach <3

 

The week after Ansbach kinda went fast but was filled with lots of things - like usual :)

On Monday I tried to plan my schedule for next Fall - its a bit difficult lol but we shall see how it goes.  Then on Tuesday had our meeting the old IUSP ppl to plan our tour that was on Friday and then I got some Aufluaf for dinner that night with Steph & Chris.   

Then Wednesday - I worked on our project RAF for Culture class then just normal class nothing to special but I did have a doener and ice cream this day - it was not to healthy for me - that is for sure!

Then on Thursday Class was exciting - we went to BOTANNICAL GARDENS - the new ones!
It was really pretty -  and again I got ice cream - it was  & then I had dinner with Steph & Chris this time it was in her old apartment and we studied and we had our first speaking test - and that went well or what i seem to be well -  But overall the night was  pretty good! 
and then I will Friday for the next blog this one was long enough for me - The next blog is TURKEY!!!!
Love you and miss you all!! <3
Ris  :]

SHOUT OUT TO MOM!

ALLES GUTE!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY <3

I hope your Birthday was amazing - btw Ik this is a little late - lol more like way late!!!

(March 18th 2011)

(btw this is my favorite picture of my mom- look how happy :] she is)
Love you!!! Miss you!! <3

<3 Ris

14-17 little glimpse

longest time no write - can't figure out why I didn't have the motivation to write or make time to write but here I am sitting in the CNMS hallway on the floor awaiting my time to be called to take my speaking test & writing my first thing of a blog that I have not done in for ever!
Let me shine some light on the past ~ 15 days or so.  Well since the 14th I have ran & i ate some Saladchen which i have noted that it was a bit hard on my stomach - or my stomach didn't like it to much sooo i am just staying away from that for a little bit.  Then wednesday we hit the gym again and I did the elipotcal and all the kind of good stuff- [this is why i should write more often- i forget what i do during the week and what i want to write about lol wow] 
Umm the 17th was ST. Patty's DAY!! Well we didn't really do any real Irish things, but we did celebrate in our own way!  And that was Mexicali <3  We had Karaoke Night - and this time I actually SANG ppl yes I acutally sang - 2 songs
1) Build me up Buttercup
2) American Pie
      - sung in remembrance of the old IUSP students particularly Adam & Paul
quite fun <3
I also shared Nachos & potato Skins with Christina - It was a pretty fun night!
Here are some pictures of the night :)

 Well That is enough for the rest of that week - new blog coming up
<3 Ris

Valencia to Barcelona 189Km

Hola lectores
¿cómo estás?

WAZZZZZ up world - so today  like I stated yesterday was my day of presentation  :)  It went quite well people said I spoke confidently and loudly and had good eye contact.  Granted I spoke a little fast but I was nervous.. lol but overall it was quite well :)  yayaya!!

Some other good news for today and the reason for my blog title is that I have officially booked my flight to well Valencia first and then to Barcelona over Easter with my friend Karen from Sprachkurs.  When in Barcelona we will hopefully hook up with Isaac, someone I met in Berlin who's studying in Dublin (awesome)  and who ever he is bringing (i have no idea yet)... but anyways it should be a good time and I am super dooper excited seeing as it was way cheaper than it initially started to be :)
yes ooo and today we meaning Steph / Christina/ and I went to the sports place again and started our 7 day free trial :) soo that is exciting as well :)  I rain on the tredmill people on the tredmilll for 25:00 min and went 3.13 miles.. - Ik right that is awesome~ and then we did some abs and worked out on the machines.. granted we did not do bench or incline... but i think I did a pretty darn good work out.. I mean I was dripping with sweat.. haha.. now you have a mental picture ;) don't you wish you were here burnin the cals with me.. - I love it!!!!
yes well i finished my hw and now im just probably gonna call it a night mb eat some apple sauce im getting a bit of a hunger craving.. so I shall distroy it muhahaha.. okay now I am just going overboard -
well this weekend I am hopefully going to ansbach to visit Sarina & meet her family - Ich habe ein bischen angst aber dass mich gefruet!  I am a little scared, but it excites me lol - thats kinda what it says for all you non-german speakers (which is almost all of my readers) no offense guys :P
yes well anywho.. off I go!  
Here are the pictures of my future destinations :) can you say awesome!!

Update from the world of Me

Well since thursday not to much has happened.

Even thursday night was kind of a bust - well Schwarz weiss was fun but the club we were there way wayyy to early so we called it a night and took the bus back - only to get off and eat a doener at 11:30 at night.. haha college life right???
then Friday was the worlds longest day of class 9-6 basically with a 2 hour break from 2-4. 
We got our tests back, and just like I thought mine was not what I was aiming for - but it was the first test so all I can do is go up from here right?? Well that is how I am looking at it - I hope it does work.  We played Taboo in German and that was quite fun - Then i watched the movie Vincent will meer.  It was interesting not bad.. just kinda stunk that it took up the beautiful weather on a friday afternoon .  Then friday I did not do anything except chill in my room & yesterday being saturday I woke up and did some hw with the intentions of going to Schwarz weiss for a party but I never made it there I did laundry instead... haha that sounds real cool - what did you do on sat night? My Laundry.. hahah well it needed to be done so - I guess I don't mind kinda sounding a bit lame.
So My plan for the rest of the day - going over my presentation working out probably.... and talking to people<3
yes March is flying by it is my mom's birthday on friday- and I can not believe St. Patty's day is already here on thursday.. it is just flying by- have a shamrock shake for me please!!!!
and for all those people on Spring break have a good one - and i hope the weather turns around for you it has been pretty good!
So I need to shout out to Kayte - seeing as I know she reads this blog - here is an update of my life :)
I hope all is well by you!!!!

Anywho - I hope everyone enjoys there sunday - tomorrow I give my presentation on Jenseits der Stille so I will be practicing today!!
<3 loves
Ris

Karneval, Fasching, Fastnacht

So you've all heard of Mardi Gras - well welcome to the Mardi Gras party time of Germany called Karneval, Fasching, oder Fastnacht.  Depending on where a person comes from exactly!!! I will say it is quite the hoot and cause quite a lot of fun :)

So continuing with Saturday - basically it started out as a lazy day - woke up ate some b-fast, you know the usual - only to then work out and burn some calories and to pack a bag and grab my mask supplies and head on over to Wehrda.  Normally that would be great, but Sarina and I had a pit stop to make... Media Markt to switch out the internet accounts.. to bad that was not as simple as we had hoped it would be!  But now that we have it undercontrol we shall see how this works.. ooo and how can I forget eating at SALADCHEN - best place ever - you can get a very fulling salad with 5 toppings free and a roll for 2,90 and if you want some turkey hen.. added in there it is only 3,40 its so good.. I am a full supporter of Saladchen and I think I may have found the new place to eat on wednesdays inbetween classes.. haha and guess what its HEALTHY!
Anywho then we parted ways and off to Wehrda I was for a night of fun fun fun!
We made our masks- Christina, Steph, Alie (Steph's friend from home) and me... all was going well until the glitter made its move - and then it was EVERYWHERE!! lol poor christina had it all over her floor and she was not even using it - she seemed pretty cool with it tho :) Thanks again!  Here are how some of them turned out :) It was sooo much fun I love arts and crafts! hehe

After our glitter attack fest haha - we were joined by a few other ppl to decide what we were up to for the night - but eventually beth was the only one that decided to join us and we were off to Nacht Salon to hit the dance floor :)  woo woo
So we were all pumped to get there and dance the night away - only to find out that it was a reagge dance hall music - which I mean over all I was still fine with - I love all kinds of music and if its gotta beat you can move to it. Some of the others well they were not so thrilled .. so we ended up staying till about 1:30 or so then we were going to catch a taxi but amazingly the N8 bus came around.. and we jumped on it taking it all the way back to Wehrda where I crashed that night in Christina's room on what is called Kayte's cushion <3 miss her!
The next morning we awoke and met the others at the bakery near the hauptbahnhof I had a blueberry muffin and then off we went :)  to Cologne for Karneval <3 the train ride all together was hmmm I would say almost 4 hours there - we got there around 2:30 ish are train was delayed met up with Christina's family friend and then walked around the town and enjoyed the scenery - have a look for your selves!!

 

Then after a couple of hours in Cologne witnessing the craziness we climbed aboard the train back to Marburg this time it only took us 3 hours to get home - it was quite an interesting day! 

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Monday was class but it was a class celebration day - we were able to dress up!!! So naturally I could not let an opportunity like this pass me by - so I decked my self all out in Hippie gear - even the earring with the help of Steph!! Who was a pirate, the class turned out pretty awesome :)   Check it!

The Fun did not stop there tho- Monday was Rosenmontag!  A day of celebration that is for sure!! So Marburg had to join in on this celebration it had its very own parade - Of course after eating at Saladchen (steph's & mine new fav place thanks to Sarina)  We watched the parade with a few others and then met infront of the Cinaplex to prepare to see the movie Kokowaah with the famous Til Schweiger and his Daughter, Emma.  Its a really good movie with some great music, one particular song that gets stuck in my head all the time well - here it is I wonder if this link will work but we can try right?? its called Stay by the Hurts.  Haha great name huh - well just give it a chance its quite addicting <3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOpLNBImdFI&feature=related 
and if you can see the movie - do that granted I say it in German but I really enjoyed it - it is kinda similar to "the Game Plan" but not exaclty and has different points and I think it is a bit more serious then the game plan but - to each there own right??
Well yes here are some pictures from the Marburg Parade :)

So I realize the pictures are mainly of us girls, but hey that's really what you want to look at right>? haha Sorry I thought I had more of the Parade but they didn't turn out as good as I thought - bummer oh well!
That was basically my Monday !!
Tuesday again with the everyday class from 9-1 ish.. lol give or take - both happen. But it still manages to be fun, lol that is all that matters oh and that I am learning something, well of course I'm doing that too! :P
Anyways we talked about sports on Tuesday - my fortay love it... on wed we are going to a fitness-studio - I can not wait!!!!!   Anywho on Tuesday we had group movie night and I watched Die Welle - it is about a experiment they did in California about how something could never happen again like what happened to the jews.... well this movie.. creepy but amazing all at once.. granted it is in German, but it does have English subtitles sooo If you don't mind reading well go for it!
Like I said wednesday was Fitness - studio.. it is only 15,80 a month so I think some others and myself my join for the next 2 months and get our lift on - they have free weights so it is most epically awesome and I am sore from benching yesterday - I deff feel it - but I love this Feeling!! the place is called Day and Night Sports
The rest of the day - had convo class learned about some new german bands - always a good thing and then met sam and Sarina at home and had an eventful night of studying/eating/singing to Ke$ha in german - Wir sind wer Wir sind, (we are who we are) - check it out-  VIDEO CLICK HERE
haha it was quite halarious.  OO and then we made Sam's computer talk.. lol in German so we had to spell this phonetically - tzu gile!  hahah. Great memories..

However, today was the first test of the Language class & I would love to say that I did awesome and I knew what I was doing, well correction - it caught me way off guard which just sent German down the tubes for today - it is not a german day folks it is a day of reckoning - ekkk.. it brought back those thoughts of self doubt.  I will banish them again but for now.. I'm dong my Hw chillin' with Sam updating this good ol' blog of mine and then making dinner hittin' up Schwarz Weiss and then Trauma with Sam & Steph & meeting up with Sarina- even though I have class tomorrow I'm gonna go out tonight - we only live once right? Might as well do it while we are young <3

BUT the I would say the BEST NEWS of All in this blog is
DRUM ROLL PLEASE

I AM GOING TO ISTANBUL- FINALLY!!!!

I am going with Sam and his friends, but I am so excited and overjoyed - it is truly a dream come true! :) yayaya

well off to mb take a shower haha - I have an interesting night ahead of me - Loves and Hugs
<3 Ris

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential? these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

Well hello all - I am back from Berlin and had my official first day of class!! =]

 Ik Ik.. I have NOT written in EVER - I am working on that as I write this - so let me go back in time - hmm can I recall what happened on the 25th of February.  Oh jeeze that was more than a week ago, my bad guys!

So I see that I Have already discussed my events on the 25th on to the morning of the 26th.  I found out that My Great Uncle Marty passed away and joined my lovely Lita may in the high sky of glory <3 love you!! 

Besides that sad part we departed at 9 am from the youth hostel for the 7-8 hour drive to Berlin - where we eventually made it in around.. I want to say around 4 ish.  Then I contacted my old neighbor friend, Sam who now calls Berlin his new home - well at least for his Fulbright stay and he invited me over for dinner.  So I met up with him and his friend Michelle and we made some Sweet Chili Turkey - not chicken, because his roommate does not like chicken.  It was still amazing and it took Sam some time to cut the turkey but I am not complaing cuz he had the hard job, I got to watch haha and watch vegetables - GO me!! lol at the end of it all we even had ice cream, it had been a long time.  His place is nice, he has some tvs a large kitchen a nice bathroom and overall its pretty just awesome!  I am happy for him :)

After chillin with Sam and Michelle for a while I headed back to the Heart of Gold hostel same place we stayed at last time, it was weird without the same people there but I think we still managed to have a great time.  I ended up rooming with Becca(from last semi), Wes - goes to UW- GB, Grayson - from Nashville TN, and Brandon - goes to UW-Whitewater.  It was a pretty cool room if I do say so myself - I tried to branch out and mingle with more people on this trip rather than just rooming with the usual's.    I believe it was an early night, then the next morning it was off to Potsdam and Sanssouci(formers summer palace of Friedrick the Great)  It was really really pretty I have pictures - and I guess I will share  :P jk jk of course I will share :)

After our lovely day in Potsdam and Sanssouci - Steph and I thought mb just mb we could go to poland - well that didnt work but we did end up meeting a girl named kim from our hostel and going out for dinner with some people and then I joined in on some lovely card games - spoons but with euros.. It was quite interesting seeing as the coins jumped on the table when someone went to grab for them.. Overall it was a pretty good day.  The day after that soo that would be Monday we had a walking tour and sadly I will say it was the exact same as last walking tour we had first semester - even the jokes were the same - when traubants get in an accident we call them tupperware parties and i can give you a 30 second tour  (chocolate statues) & this is where Micheal Jackson held his baby out the window.  Lol kind of a let down but we still managed to have fun.  Then we went shopping and got some alcohol - champagne and mango juice is quite good, I advise people to try it.  Its deff not that bad lol - so then we made it back to the hostel and drank some and I read some of my book met some new people.  Then I decided to go clubbing without my usual people i.e steph and beth uk lol.. so I went out with the new IUSP people and two guys from California - It was quite a fun time and I'm really glad I did it.  I can officaly say I partied in Berlin <3 lol and now I may even have someone to go to Barcelona or Spain in general with me - just my luck right?? Gotta love coincidences :)  

Oh how can I forget the Ritter Sport chocolate store lol - any kind you can imagine you can create there it was pretty cool - and they had a muesum upstairs and well we amused our selves (look down)

lol That day was quite a fun one :)

Anyways the next day was departure day from Berlin, but before we could leave Berlin completely we had to stop at the Stassi Prison for a tour- which was really interesting - the type of tourture was all mental, no talking, no sleeping during the day, It was just a crazy thing that I can't even imagine living in such a place, but fascinating to say none the least. 

On the way home I managed to jam to my ipod and relax for our final arrival in Marburg around 9:00pm. For the next day of CLASSES TO BEGIN!! OH MY it was about time in my book :)

So March 2nd the day of reckoning - the day we found out how we did on the placement test and which class we are in for the semester.  I was so worried about not moving up, but I guess I did not have to panic.  I ended up moving to the highest level I could possibly move to.  I am very excited for this class and can not wait to further my German knowledge I knew my German had improved but I had no idea it was by so much.  That is why my blog is titled the way it is - with that awesome quote.  It was just an awesome experience and a shocking one to discover where I had been placed.  :)  So that day was pretty awesome for me and it even got better that night Sarina and I made dinner together that night.  The menu was Broccoli/noodles/sauce.  haha simple right?? well in Germany they don't really have an alfreado (white sauce) so we kinda had to make one/create one.  So Sarina purchase this fish sauce or something for fish and we altered it.. it was rather tastey granted I couldnt eat that every day or in large amounts but it suited for the night and the meal.  Also that same night was the first night that I steamed broccoli by myself :) Go me.. learning to cook healthy 101 its called go with it.. haha luckily steph informed me of how to do so, so I didn't completely do it blind :)

Thursday - Marlee's Golden Birthday!! Miss you & bummer I missed her party - it was tangled theme :) love that movie!! but anyways   

Happy Belated Birthday Marlee!! <3 

Well I had class that day and after class for dinner we went into town and had auflauf :) yumm sehr lecker!  and then I went to Schwarzweiss to meet up with Sarina and some other people.  It was an interesting night - my friend danny bought me a beer because I actually came out - haha I wonder if they are trying to tell me something.  Well I know I already made it a goal for this semester to get out more and so far I have been doing just that!  

Friday - Basically just had class went to a craft store because Karneval is upon us in Germany.... I will explain more later when I have uploaded pictures and it will probably be included in the next blog :)

But anyways then off to dinner in Wehrda I made spaghetti kind of a failure lol the water was not boiling so i managed to burn the noodles.. lol win some and lose some right.. oh well there was still plenty left for people to eat so i didn't feel bad and I did clean it up :)    Oh also during dinner we played apples to apples - reminds me of home :)  because Christina brought it from home when she came back over break - so again it was quite a fun night and I can not complain!   

So I think I will save the rest of this weekend for the next blog so stay continued for cool stories/pictures and just a bunch of buckets of fun :) lol
Love and Miss you all!
<3Ris