3 Continents To My Name

So, lately I had my facebook status set as "Mandy is remembering why she came here."  I will tell you why.  But first, understand that facebook is vital here.  Almost as vital as youtube.  Almost...facebook keeps me and all the other Abrams people (my fellow dormmates) connected and abreast of all our schedules, travels, and minute-by-minute updates.   Youtube is vital because our TV stinks here and we only get weird military channels that have weird military commercials.  Some of my favorite military/AFN commercials are the ever popular "Don't shake your baby" commercial or the "Do you know what a terrorist looks like?  Could look like me....me...me...or even YOU."  That one scared me for a full week.  But I digress.

I am remembering why I came here because I am in the midst of planning an 8 day trip to Kenya.  AFRICA.  Which would mean that I have been on 3 of the 7 continents.  And maybe if I go to Australia someday I will make it four!  Distant dream of mine....Well, here's how it all came about.  One day at work, I go into Staff Caf for a wonderful meal of wilted lettuce, rice, and mystery meat in mystery sauce and someone behind says, "Hey, sis!"  I turn around slowly, and see a very tall girl with long black hair looking at me expectantly.  "Heeeey," I say.  She then lets me know that we have the same last name, and ever since I got here people have been asking her about her "sister."  But we had never met!  And she freaked me out a little!  Long story short, we start talking, realize we have lots in common and she starts telling me about her dream trip to go to Kenya.  Then the invitation comes.  Can I go to Kenya?  Talk about total culture shock - lots of expenses and shots - my body becoming possible bush meat for wild animal - the fears go on.  Then Gina (Gardner) says, "Before you think anymore, you going to have to meet the Kenyan."

We leave for this great bar and restaurant called Glashaus and soon I am meeting said Kenyan.  Whose name is Jeffrey, btw.  That kinda threw me off.  But I got quiet and listened.  He starts talking about his homeland, the everyday dangers at the watering hole in his village where there are stampedes between certain hours of the day, and if you get caught there, it will mean certain death.  Remember the part in "Lion King" when Simba is almost trampled by wildebeasts?  Disney actually got that right.  Jeffrey also tells us about the time his auntie was killed by a run-in with an elephant.  She was walking down a path and around a bend and there is an elephant (equally surprised) about twenty feet away.  He charges her, picks her up with his trunk and throws her about several hundred yards away.  That's the end of that story.  Jeffrey has lived in the bush his whole life as part of the Masai tribe (the largest tribe in Kenya) and has had to kill two lions with a spear to survive.  That's right - a spear.  He tells us that he is known in his tribe and in Nairobi and that as our guide, we will be treated with respect and not be swindled by the Africans who see only our shiny light hair and our shiny money.  Some of the experiences we would have would be to feed wild giraffe out of our hands, drink blood in a village ceremony, eat crazy bush meat in a restaurant where we lift up a flag if we're hungry and they will bring us alligator, elephant, lion, etc.  But the best of all:  a SAFARI.  Jeffrey is friends with a man who will be our guide and take us on a real safari.  All of this sounds a little crazy, maybe a little dangerous, but I would be surrounded by two great friends (Gina and Kate, her roommate) and a very nice Kenyan.  So, Mom......don't worry, kay?

Ciao Ciao! 

Morgen!!!

Guten, that is. Everyone says, "Morgen!" here rather than, "Morning." It comes quite naturally. So, it's been a while, huh? I know it's no excuse, but things have been so busy and awesome here! Let's see where I left off. I took a 3 day trip to Venice! I went with my friends, Matt and Kristen, who are very chill, very laidback Texans. Great travel buddies. We went during Carnivale and it was just breathtaking. Everywhere you go, people are selling cool Renaissance masks and crazy robes and costumes. And let me tell you, all the market stands, little shops were very expensive. One Venezian informed us, "Well...you are in tourist town, no?" And we replied, "Dude, we work at a ski resort and live in a tourist town full-time!" I.e., we're used to getting shyster'ed. My travel buddies cracked me up constantly on the trip. We ended up driving to Italy (so worth it - the drive is almost as beautiful as Venice. Almost.) during a huge blizzard without chains on the tires (which is illegal in Germany f.y.i.). Matt had never driven in snow, and actually had never even seen snow before he came to Germany, so he was a weee bit nervous. The second we made it to Venice, we walked down the pier and Matt bought a beer at every stand. I loved it!

Next trip I took was a few days later to Salzberg, Austria. It was a last minute trip with my friends Alex and Noah (pictures on Facebook!) and we had a fantastic time. Some highlights include Noah pelting me and Alex with snowballs while climbing up to an extremely old monastery (Salzberg is full of them!), Alex and I pretending to kill Nazi Zombies (an awesome video game we play in the dorms) in the Salzberg fortress, and Noah devouring countless numbers of sandwiches. Alex and I also went out to a bar the first night and met a very funny radio deejay from Louisiana who was on his way to meet up with George Clooney on George's secluded Italian villa. He showed us proof and everything! Alex used all of her wiles to get the deejay to invite her along. Hehe. Well, that's all for now, but I have a Part Deux coming up with more updates here. I think I am taking a tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp tomorrow, so my day should be full of sunshine and rainbows! I am kidding....

Ciao for Now! Mandyfreulin

So, my new friend Lisa Marie was telling me the other day, "This place is like Neverland. You'll try to tell people about it back home - but no one will quite believe you or understand." I am setting out to prove she's wrong! These last several days have been amazing, which is the usual condition of my days since I've been here. I went to Munich a couple days ago with Alex, my fellow newbie friend (we were on the same plane here). Oh man. The architecture! The beer! The pork knuckle! Oh yes. And the white sausage. Shudder. Hey, at least I tried it. I have started work at the Edelweiss Lodge, which was interesting, because I had no idea how to get there. The thing about Garmisch is that the streets follow no rhyme or reason - there are alleys that go nowhere, roads that end up in some weird outdoor bistro, etc. I got lost several times but managed to figure it out. In fact, some of my new friends decided to take me to the ghetto area of Garmisch. That ended up being a street with a whole bunch of barns with cattle - not exactly the housing projects of Chicago. I was a little scared though. Probably won't go cow tippin' in THAT part of town. The coffee here is ri-donk-ulous. They brew it like espresso and it has a wonderful creme on top. However, nothing in Germany is free (they charge 10 cents for shopping carts in the grocery store!) so that means there are no refills on coffee. Arrrrgh. Another thing I've learned is that if you try to order "wasser" (water) in a restaurant, they give you sparkling mineral water. It's very expensive and I hate it! If I taste carbonation, I expect to also taste flavor with it. What else? Work is very good, I really like it. My boss is named Eithne (pronounced "eth-na," she's extremely Irish). She has a pretty rosie-cheeked face, dark curls and talks a mile a minute in a thick brogue. I do a lot of smiling and nodding when she's around. Everyone here is so interesting! I've met so many different people - I think because my policy here has been to say yes to everything and then deal with it later. "Hey, want to get coffee and sit outside in the Marienplatz?" "Yes!" "Mandy, wanna go suicidal sledding?" "Sure!" I haven't done that yet, but I probably will on Friday. Don't worry, Mom!

Prost~

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!

Testing....testing

Wow. So this is my blog about my upcoming (that being 26.5 hours from now) adventures in Germany and beyond. I have never blogged before, but I do promise that my future posts will be much, much more interesting than this one. Right now, I am sitting in my parents' house in Aurora. Womp womp. So boring. I am almost all packed up (see picture - everything I will have to live for 13 months - woo woo!), thanks to Mom, and now my mind is buzzing with thoughts and fears and excitement. Mostly excitement. I received all my travel information, and I fly out of O'Hare at 5:56pm tomorrow. Then I land in Munich at 10:50am, but it will feel like 3am to me. So strange! I have never had to deal with that kind of time difference or jetlag or anything before. They're serving a meal on the flight, which my friend Ashley tells me, may be some horrible sausage/pretzel mold - because apparently, that's all Germans eat. Yummo. I promise to email when I get to my new home and let everyone know I arrived. I can't wait to post pictures of what I see (fat old men in liederhosen - get ready for it!) and write about what it's like over "there." Oh, and Carrie - thank you for the title of my blog. You came up with it and I am totally stealing it without shame.

Prost (cheers)!