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)!