Gemutlichkeit

Wow. Have I seriously only been here for about 3 and a half days? Talk about a whirlwind. Or extreme jetlag/culture shock. I am so far having the time of my life in Garmisch. There is a word in German called Gemütlichkeit that is roughly translated to mean "good food and drink in the company of great friends." That pretty much sums up my life here thus far. I have gone out with new friends every night (and day, pretty much) since I've been here. Here are some random snippets of things that have happened: my constant confusion with everything being in military time, the weird statues of Jesus on the Cross that are everywhere, the gorgeous mountains that surround me in all directions, how hilarious it was when I fell down in a bar on Monday(Adam, I can hear you laughing), how proud I was when I spoke German with a German in a cafe just today, how inviting and accepting everyone is here, the two most important words to know here: dunkel (dark beer) and hellis (light beer), how many freaking castles there are in Germany (about a baker's dozen), how it's almost disapppointing that Garmisch has a ton of things (including McDonald's and Revlon products) that I had in Chicago, and...that's pretty much all I can think of. Today I went to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle (the one that the Disney Cinderella castle is based on) and it was so awesome. Hopefully this weekend I'll be going in to Munich to shop, then in the next weeks some friends and I will be driving to Italy for a couple days. Italy is 3 hours south by car. I may actually be driving. I know I know, I may be insane. Tomorrow I will be posting more pictures on Facebook. Check them out! And oh yeah, my roommate's name is Sunshine and that is a good description of her.

Ciao for now!