"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