Hausaufgaben

Hausaufgabe macht kein spass.

Will jemand meine Hausaufgaben machen?

Bitte?




(translated: homework isn't any fun. Does anyone else want to do it? Please?)

I miss thunderstorms.

Gorillas

Two days, 6+ hours of online researching and much thinking later, I have come to a conclusion on my looming research project which needs to be researched over here in Germany:

I have decided to conduct research on captive Lowland Gorrillas, either comparing their captive behavior to that of wild populations OR comparing the behavior of different (completely separate) groups of captive gorillas.

Now you may be asking a few questions. First - how the did I go from Elephants to Gorillas? Easy, because there have been a few groups of animals that I am most interested in: Primates, Elephants, and Reptiles (primarily snakes). Also, because though Elephants are awesome, and I would love to work with them or do research on them someday, right now it is a little unrealistic. In order to research elephants in a zoo here, I'd have to travel - at least to Neunkirchen (which would be free but a little bit of a ride) everyday for observations - while there is a small Gorilla group right here in the Saarbruecken Zoo. I've been to the zoo, and I've seen their enclosure. I know it would be an ideal location for me to spend at least a few hours doing observations, where there wouldn't be too many visitors obstructing the view, and that the Gorilla's are easily distinguishable from one another (as there are only three). Also, because I can hop on a bus (or even walk) and be at the zoo within 30 minutes from home, it is very convienant, and cheap.

So, this is my preliminary idea. I'm excited, it's just a matter of working out the details, getting my advisor's opinion on the topic, and finding out information from the Zoo, to see if they would let me do it (and hopefully help me by giving me information/interviews/etc). If they say No, then I will have to find something else - and will more than likely then be doing research on Elephants at the Neunkirchen Zoo - at least that is my backup plan for now.

My Goal:
Have topic chosen by the end of this week.
Have details worked out by next week, along with starting to contact the zoo to find out their
requirements.
Start conducting research by June 1.

bah, this is going to be loads of work. :) but I wouldn't mind sitting around observing Apes for a while. it'd be fun.

Not Enough Hours

So there aren't enough hours in the day.

I need to

1. Keep up on classes
2. Go to classes
3. Come up with an entire research project.
4. Research entire research project on very limited budget.
5. Volunteer.
6. Work out. *
7. Babysit.
8. Relax.
9. Spend time with the boyfriend.
10. Spend time with God.
11. Read Harry Potter 3.
12. Get pictures for my scrap book picked out, printed off and start scrap book.
13. Spend time with friends.
14. Practice juggling.**
15. Spend time outside in beautful weather.

Yep. That's a lot. At least I don't have to do all that AND hold down a full time job. And by the way - nothing was in any specific order. Just as they came to me.

* I took a fitness-gymanistic course on Monday. It's like aerobics, and yoga, and pilates all thrown together and was a blast! But my legs are so sore I walk like a very pregnant woman. I'm not pregnant though. And tonight I have Aerobics. I'm hoping it'll help my legs.
** I learned to juggle yesterday! :) I started a juggling club at the University. I can officially juggle three balls about four times until I drop one. So it still needs LOTS of work. But considering I just learned yesterday, I'm proud of myself.

Off to sigh seeing we went. Our first stop was Sacre-Coure, a famous cathedral at the top of a huge hill in Paris. The first thing we had to do to get there was climb up an unbelievable amount of steps and get past the seemingly thousands of men trying to sell us bracelets. We told them all no repeatedly, but they were still insistant (though we walked past them and never stopped). One even grabbed my wrist in order to stop us. I pulled away and kept going. It was all worth it though, because once we got to the top we were rewarded with these two views:



The top one is Sacre-Coure.. beautiful isn't it? Other than the church itself, the best thing about this spot is that at least 50% of the people who were there relaxing on the grass or steps (way more than are shown here) were Parisers, people who just wanted to enjoy the beautiful day. On a beautiful day they go out to a park, a bench, a sidewalk cafe and just enjoy the day. Great, huh?
The second one is the view from the top of hill at Paris. Pretty! :)

Nearby we drove past the Moulin Rouge, which I thought was cool since I watched the movie.
Next it was off to the Eiffel Tower, the most famous landmark in the entire world perhaps. We had a cloudy, chilly, windy day but we weren't going to let that stop us! To get an idea of how huge it is, look at the buildings next to it. Those are 5 or 6 story buildings! We paid a bunch of money, and waited in a long line in order to get to the ery very top level... and this is what we saw:

The writing above lets you know how far away those cities are. So, with this view (if I could see that far) I would be able to see Washington D.C. and New York City. The picture doesn't do it justice. The view is magnificent. Here we are, one level higher.


Awww, aren't we cute? Here's one of Dad and Bev:

After that we went back down, and headed to our hotel. Scrowl down a few days and you can see a picture from the Eiffel Tower when it was all pretty and lighted! And that was our first day in Paris.... a wonderful time! :) I'll post more pics of our second day another time! Hope you all enjoyed!

The Last Two Weeks - Part 3 (Paris, and Geneva)

If you'll all remember, we last left off as we were heading in the car to Paris...

Now, the drive to Paris from Saarbruecken is about 5 hours or so. I spent most of the time trying to work on that History stuff, which was difficult, since the country side was very pretty..

So, about noon we found ourselves coming into Paris. I was supposed to be navigating by this time, except that the exit we needed came before we I had a chance to double check to make sure it was the right exit.. so, we drove on - hoping it was correct.

About 15 minutes later we decided to turn around and go back, since the way we were going didn't seem quite right. We ended up in this very run down, unsafe looking neighborhood. We grabbed some gas at a gas station, and attempted to ask a woman who spoke no English where we were. We did get out of her that this was "No Paris" with some wild hand gestures... hmmmm...

So back to the right freeway we went, this time sure to take the right exit. A little while later we got to the street where our hotel was - The Best Western Monte Bregnasse or something similar to that. Only t ofind that the street our hotel was on was in the middle of road construction. So, we drove around looking for impossible to find parking... only to end up having to park a very long ways away.

After some time we made it to the hotel, got our rooms, and checked out how small they were. Ours was super cute, but had a broken toilet lid. After spending all the money we spent for a room, we wanted a perfect room (and were hoping for an upgrade) so we switched rooms, to a room on the first floor which had a tub (ours only had a shower at first). We grabbed some lunch at a Pizza Parlor nearby, where we figured out the menu enough to order. I had a calzone (pizza folded in half) which was delicious.


Then it was off to some sightseeing....

The RESULTS

Well, I took that big history test today.

I passed with a C.

Which isn't bad, after all. I said all I wanted was at least a C. Now I can get credit for that Political Science class at NDSU without damaging my GPA too much (I hope). Yay!

Except I think I only passed because he wanted to be nice. You see, Mindy spent the entire semester struggling, never asked the teacher for extra help because she thought she could learn the information by herself later. After all, she had basic notes and all the outlines.

Then she did what she thought she could. And memorized it. In a relatively short amount of time too. She felt ready.

Then the test came. She arrived at the office and talked to the nice teacher's assistant. Then she talked with the nice teacher. Everyone was very nice, and understood that she was nervous, and told her to relax.

Then the questions came. You see, Mindy knew the basic ideas of everything, but not the questions he asked. And what she did know was no longer inside of her head. She panicked. And then, like she sometimes does (though completely ridiculous and embarassing and horrible) she cried. Yep.. right there in front of the teacher and his assistant...

The teacher offered me to spend some time with the teacher's assistant over the week, then try the test again because they wanted to help. I told them thank you, but no thanks. After all the struggles I just wanted to be done with it all. So I calmed myself down, and asked if we could start again. I got through it, and was able to decently answer the questions. Then the test was over, and I received my grade. Which was a C. Not bad, considering that I didn't understand the teacher through 90% of the lectures, and I've never taken such a spoken test before. I think I could have down better with either a written test or if I was used to taking spoken tests.

You see, I studied, and knew lots of things. They just were the wrong things.

But at least I passed!

Hey, just thought I'd drop a cool pic I took of the Eiffel Tower in Paris: They turn on strob lights every so often at night, and I caught this pic. The bottom is a bit blurry, but overall I love the picture.  

Ha!

Couldn't help it. Had to see... It's officially, I am only LIGHTLY NERDY!
WOO HOO!!!!!


Here's my results:



so, the next time someone calls me a nerd, I can tell them that I am only lightly nerdy! I'm excited.

I'm Better Now

I'm better now about the whole History thing. I feel confident enough, I'm going to review and reread some explanations to make sure I understand how everything fits together, and I'm going to have Fabian help to make sure what I'm explaining makes sense. Then I'm going to take the test, and if I don't do good then there isn't anything more I can do about it. Worrying and freaking out today and tomorrow before the test won't help me a bit, so I'm not going to.

All I need to do now is get motivated to study.

grammar

sorry, in my last post are lots of grammar mistakes...

so instead of correcting it, I decided to just post again real quick and say sorry!

Please forgive me not good grammar!

I [kind of sort of don't really] hate history.*

I hate the test that I have to study for on Friday. There are so many things to know, and I feel so overwhelmed by it all. Funny, how we spent so much time focusing on/preparing for the little things - this test will last 20 minutes. 20 minutes out of my life is not very much. But I sure am spending a lot of time preparing.

But I've ran out of juice. Everyday is a struggle to make myself study - every minute I'm studying a struggle to put the information I know into a cohesive german sentence. Why is it such a struggle? Because I've learned that knowing something, and explaining it well off the top of your head in German are too totally different things. A written test? Not so easy but I could do it, with much less worry. A spoken test in which I am expected to know all there is to know about East and West Germany between 1945-1989, expected to be able to explain all this info quickly, and effeciently and do it all in German with a professor who sort of scares me? Not so easy.

You see, I'm a written person. I make myself clearer when I write. I can write out my thoughts, what I know, and if it doesn't make sense I can erase and start over or rewrite it. I'm not pressured by time (not too much anyways) and I don't feel self conscious because I can take the time to think. In german this is helpful because I can first think what I know about the topic, then take my time to make a pretty german sentence that is mostly grammaticly correct. But a test out loud? I have to think and answer immediatly, no time for mistakes, if I make them I just look worse to the proffesor (grammatical mistakes that is). I've been studying outloud to myself off and on all day, asking myself questions and giving answers... and it takes me a while to think about the topic, remember what I know, and then have it come out in German well. And mind you, I'm thinking in German too. So it's not that I have to translate in my head or anything. It's just hard to do this all in German. Most times my sentences come out confused in subject/verb/case/etc and I have to stop and start again, I take long pauses searching for the right words. Even to me I sound unsure of myself, struggling and unknowledgeable. I don't want to come off that way, since I'm pretty sure that playing the "unsure american" won't really appeal to this teacher. Why do I think that? Because of the way he always speaks. Because even Germans in this class are afraid of this test. Today I talked to one girl, who when she told people she knew that she was in his class, they replied, "Wow. You have him as a proffesor for your first semester at the University? You're crazy!" When she told me this, I replied that we know that we're crazy now too, so why didn't anyone tell us this when we decided on classes? Another friend of mine from the class said to this topic, "Yeah, good luck. He's hard." Hmmm.. thanks... I'm feeling MUCH better.

So, maybe I'm just having a bad german day (funny since my speaking and understanding today otherwise has been great), and I know that I need to relax, and not worry - I'm trying. I know that it's only 20 minutes of one day of my entire life, that even if I fail it's okay - I have time to take the equivelant (and better/easier/more fun) class at NDSU in Fargo sometime next year, so it's not like I'll be behind in graduating or anything like that.... I'm just stressed because the entire semester has been such a struggle in this class, and I've never had such a hard time studying for a test in my entire life.

If I fail I'm going to cry.

* If your wondering the translation for my title, this is a phrase I use a lot (or sometimes at least) in English. All I mean is that I really really almost hate history, but I don't really hate it. It just comes very very close.

The Last Two Weeks - Part 2 (Lodon)

Well, here it is folks - the second part of my series on my dad and step-mom's visit here in Germany...

Where was I... oh yes, we just arrived in Lodon, at Victoria Coach Station.

Since we had all (more or less) been awake since 2 am we were starving, so we grabbed food at the first cafe we found. I marveled the entire time at all the English everyone was speaking (I also was marveling at the airport and on the plane)... I mean, who would've thought that people speak english! The craziest thing was that I even ordered my breakfast (baked beans and scrambled eggs on toast. yep, that's right... baked beans on toast) in English!!!! Unbelieveable! No really... I haven't been in an engilsh speaking country since July.

After a yummy breakfast, we decided to buy tickets on The Big Blue Bus tour buses, in order to see all of london. The tickets were 20 Pounds each (20 Pounds = expensive) but well worth it, as we were taken all over London and could hop on or off at any of their many bus stops, in oder to see things closer. Since the tickets last for 24 hours we were able to buypass taking the subway, and merely enjoyed the ride (with a recorded or live tour guide all along the way). From the comfort of the bus we saw everything from the Tower of London (we went in) to the Globe Theater to Buckingham Palace (where we tried to see changing of the guards but didn't see too much) to Kennsington Palace to SoHo to Big Ben, and also got a free 20 minute Boat Tour to boot. Tuesday evening we ate a dinner at a typical London Pub, which was very nice looking (looks like a home but with a bar in it) and had pretty good food. I ate a typical "pie" (aka pot pie like thing), and tried Bev's Fish and Chips and Dad's sausage with mashed potatoes he ordered (delicious). It was weird though, cause we waited for a waitress to come only to learn you had to order and pay immediately at the bar.... odd.

Tuesday night we slept at an okay hotel in Bayswater. It was not too expensive, and although not great, it was okay for sleeping there one night. On Wednesday it was down to the continental breakfast (bad croissants and some cereal. Typical english breakfast cost 10 Pounds extra per person so we stayed away from that). Afterwards it was off to the Tower of London with the bus... at the Tower we paid to get in (15 pounds per person) plus paid a few pounds more to get the guided audio tour - well worth the money because you learn so many other things with it! In here we saw the crown jewels, and lots of other things. The Tower of London refers to one of the old castles, which was occupied by Henry the 8th for a short time (I think) and where many people were imprisoned and beheaded...

Afterwards we hopped the Subway quick back to Victoria Coach Station and then our shuttle bus to Stansted, where we took a plane to Germany (once again with lots of commercials over the speakers) and from there caught a midnight shuttle to Saarbruecken. We got home at 3 am and were exhausted...and slept until Thursday, when my parents explored a bit on their own while I did some errands all day. Friday we wandered around town a bit, picked up our rental car and made our way to mine and Fabian's favorite Chinese Restaurant in Saarbrücken. Then it was early to bed, as we awoke and left for Paris at about 7 on the eighth of April...

Paris section to come soon! :)

Help

My computer is breaking. It no longer always recognizes that it is plugged in - the cord has to be positioned just right in order for it to charge (I have a lap top)

The screen is also going in and out sometimes...

I love my computer, and while it overall isn't very good, I think it is time to face facts:

My computer is going to (very soon) give up the fight at the rip old age of 3.5.... (and before I had it it was a display model at a store, so who knows what it's been through).

Anyone want to buy me a new computer?

The Last Two Weeks - Part 1

Hello everyone, me again. Since there is so much to tell about my Dad and step-mom being here for two weeks, I am going to have to post about it in at least a couple of different parts. Since I need a break from crammng for the History of East and West Germany test I have coming up on Friday the 21 of April (read about it here), I thought now would be a good time to start out.

Firstly, let me say that my birthday was a blast (it was on the 31st of March). I got my haircut, had yummy chinese dinner with my boyfriend who also made me a super cute cake, opened my gifts (two tinkerbell purses, a tinkerbell shirt, some stationary, and an elephant picture holder from my mom and step-dad; Harry Potter 3 from Fabian; Harry Potter 2 (the books) from myself; Swiss chocolate, a typical French coffee cup, and a cute beeswax decoration from Ellen), talked to my mom and step-dad and just overall enjoyed my 21st birthday.

The next morning we got up bright and early to go pick up Dad and Bev at the airport - they arrived at 8:20 and we left home at about 6:45 (a little later than we meant to). It was exciting to see them again, and we spent the day looking around Frankfurt. That evening it was off to Giessen, where we stayed at a hotel overnight (where Dad and Bev were able to stay awake until 10 pm or so - they did a great job!) and bought a board game where the first person to lose all their money is the winner. Quite interesting, to say the least.

The next morning it was off to Marburg, the same town that I visited previously with Fabian and Tiffany (read about it here). We wandered around again mainly, going up to the old Castle, seeing the museum inside, and ending with delicious cake and coffee (or hot milk w/honey for me) which is a typical German tradition (at least used to be) at a very old cafe there. That evening we drove back home where we introduced Dad and Bev to Ellen (Fabian's mom), the apartment, and the air matress they'd be sleeping on while in Saarbruecken. Monday the three of us saw a bit of the city, and had an early night.

Monday night (or rather Tuesday morning) we woke up around 2 am to take a taxi to the train station where we caught a shuttle bus for the 2 hour drive to Frankfurt Hahn Airport (which is a small international airport which has nothing to do with Frankfurt the city and is actually not even near Frankfurt) where we caught an early (and cheap) flight with Ryan Air to London Stansted Airport (an airport not directly in London, but nearby more or less). For those of you unfamilar with Ryan Air, they are an European company who offers extemeley cheap flights to various cities in Europe. Their flights are sometimes so cheap that you pay 0.01 Euro for the ticket, and the rest of what you actually pay is various taxes. That was the case for us. We paid 0.01 Euro for the ticket to London, 0.01 Euro for the ticket back to Germany, and the rest of the 25 Euros we paid per person was taxes. That's a whole $30.28! Very cheap...

The only little problem we had in the whole thing was an arguement I got into with a woman trying to sell us shuttle tickets from the airport in London to the main part of London. The price was more than I expected, and the money I had needed to be kept for other things in London and back in Germany so after the lady wrote out our tickets and told me the total I tried to explain to her that I didn't have the money for it because the money I did have was needed for other things...except she didn't listen to me at all and just yelled at me for letting her write out the tickets and then refuse to pay for them and use them. Then she told me, "Well, thank you. Goodbye. Very nice of you, I saw the money you have. You could have paid. Good bye!" in a not very nice way. Then I gave up trying to explain to her that the money had to be saved for London (the pounds I had changed) and for our return shuttle to Saarbruecken (the euros I had). Dad and Bev at that point only had dollars (they were out of Euros, and we didn't get their dollars changed into Pounds yet due to bank problems in Saarbruecken), so they couldn't pay either. It actually all worked out though, because their supposedly "cheapest shuttle to London from Stansted Airport" bus was more expensive then the bus we paid for and took in Lndon.

And with that we grabbed the plane (since it is a cheap airline they use commercials from supporting companies that they play over the speaker on the plane nearly the entire flight) arrived in London at about 7:30 am (london time, which is an hour behind the time zone I am in or 6 hours ahead of Central Standard Time in the US), took a shuttle bus which was cheap but long since it got stuck in traffic and arrived at Victoria Station at 10:30 am, ready for two days of exploring London.

Stay tuned to Part 2 of the story - where you can expect to hear about the London portion of the last two weeks! :)

i'm tired

hi. my dad and step-mom bev's trip to germany was a hit. It was lots of fun. However it was exhausting fun. They fly back tomorrow, and we have to leave at 6 am. It is now 11:52 pm. I need to finish copying pictures, make a CD of the 500+ pictures that I have for dad and bev to take with, my computer is being not normal, and I have to wake up at about 5:15 ish tomorrow.

like I said, it was a hit... but I'm exhausted.

Aren't you all happy I shared?

:)