blah... school.

Well I have made it through the first couple of weeks of classes, and am finally to my first midterm. AHH!! Not going to lie, I am pretty darn scared for it. It is for my Anatomy class and there is so much we need to know. I have been trying to study like crazy, but unfortunately I have not been doing as well as I would like. Having five roommates makes it really hard to find quiet time at home. But if I can get through this first exam without bombing it too bad, I will be satisfied. Until then I will be studying my hiney off.

In other news relating to school, I withdrew from my TMA 101 (theater) class yesterday. I was really enjoying the class, but realized it was going to take up too much time that I need to be able to spend on my other classes. It took me awhile to make the final decision, but I made it and it is done. I just can't let myself regret it. I may end up having to take that class or another one similar to it down the line, but for now I am not. So this means that I have to do extra well in my classes that I still have to make it worth me dropping TMA.

And with that I am going to finish off here and get back to studying. Wishing the best to you all!!

Amy

CADAVERS... Day 1

Yes. I had my first day in the Anatomy lab with the cadavers. Man oh man, that was an interesting experience. At first I was nervous that I was going to get a little whoozie, but things actually turned out all right. It was really weird to actually see them in the real-life. We have pictures in our textbooks and lab manuals, but they don't really do the real deal justice.

For the sake of all those that have 'weak' stomachs (a.k.a. whoosies!), I won't go into too much detail. But honestly it isn't AS bad as you would think. Honestly. There is no skin on the cadavers so they do not really look life-like. Think about it, the only time you see bodies are when they are covered in skin, so if you took that away, it wouldn't be completely recognizable. Granted it is still in the same shape and structure and what not, but it really isn't the same. And what more, if you were really to see these cadavers and body parts and whatnot, you would be so enthralled with how intricate and amazing our bodies are, that you wouldn't have brain space to get grossed out. Seriously.

We were only looking at the upper torso, upper extremities and the face, and I am already overwhelmed with how amazingly everything comes together and functions. Did you know you have like 15ish different muscles just in your forearm along?!?! Ya, ridiculous. Everyday that I go into class I become more and more amazed with the human body. I was discussing with some girls in my class today about how there are people that do not believe in a higher being, of any kind. All I have to say to them is study the human body and then come talk to me again. Seriously, anatomy would be a really good missionary tool. There is no way that a body as intricate and intense as ours just 'evolved' from some organism. It is too perfectly constructed. The human body is truly a testimony to me that God really does exist. There is no way after studying, even as little as I have, the human body that someone could say He does not exist.

So there you have my first day with cadavers 1078 and 1079. (okay so really I don't remember what numbers they are) I hope you enjoyed the post, even if you are a little sick now. Till next time! AMY

Home At Last!

Well folks, I am back in the states!

Sad news is, I have been here over a month now and am just barely getting around to blogging about it. But fortunately for you, my English 150 teacher here at BYU is giving me extra credit for blogging. Naturally there is a little more to it than that, but you will still be hearing from me more regularly now.

Like I said, I am in Engl 150 along with a couple more interested classes. I took a brave step this semester and registered for Anatomy. So far in lab we have just been working with skulls and bones and what not, but at 7am on Wednesday, we will begin working with the actual cadavers. I am not going to lie, I am a little nervous for that! I like to tell myself I can handle that type of thing (blood, nasty pictures, whatnot) but I am now being put to the real test. And don't you worry, I will let you know how that goes.

Other than Engl and Anatomy, another unusual class (for me, at least) that I have is a beginning theater class. When I registered, I thought I was signing up for an easy class were we would read some plays and discuss them in class. No, no. It is three weeks into class and I have already gotten on stage twice, have learned how to critic plays, and have in fact, written my own play. Yes, you read correctly. I wrote a play. It is entitled 'An Angel Named Samantha', and that is all that there really is to say about it. Unless of course, by some twist of luck it is chosen to be produced and preformed in class this semester. In that case there might be some more details.

Anywho... I am also taking a German course (naturally) and a Book of Mormon Religion class (also, naturally).


Well, folks that is it for today. I hope you enjoyed reading all about my classes. And thankfully my play didn't have to be about my own life, otherwise that would of been pretty dull.

I wish you all a great week and hope you check back for future updates!

PEACE!!

Humorous Happenings

Well hello all!! I haven't done anything huge in awhile so I've kind of neglected my blog. And for that I am terribly sorry. I decided though, that it is time to document a couple of happenings just because they are kinda funny, and I don't want to forget the fine points. So here I go:

As I think I've mentioned in a previous post, I make a bi-weekly trip to Heidelberg for Institute and FHE. Well last Monday Mallorie and I were sitting on the street car and having a jolly old time gossiping and talking, in English. We didn't think we were being too loud, but then out of nowhere this lady sitting behind us turns around, gives us a dirty look and then says, in German, "mi mi he he all the way from Bad Duerkheim mi me la la.... something something something." Now you have to picture this in your mind to find the true humor: some old German lady, trying to mimic our fantastic American gossip voices, saying something nasty about us, and having no idea we both speak German and knew what she said. Anyways, Mallorie and I thought it was hilarious and just kinda sat there trying not to laugh too hard. We decided to finish the trip off with a quiet game of 'Go Fish' that requires minimal talking (okay not really, but whatever). Mallorie's evil side shined through though and she shuffled those cards with all the muster, and noise, she could. Yes, we've become little American-German Devil Children.

Last night I had my first experience of a true German (adult) birthday party. Imagine you live in the middle a huge-wining community and you get invited to a birthday party. Now, naturally the host is going to have a ton of wine (we'll say approx 10 cases or so), but you also need to bring a gift. So what better than a couple bottles, or heck a whole case, of wine from your little home-village? And yes, that is precisely what everyone brought. We could seriously set up a liquor stand out front with all this wine we have. It is so insane. I personally don't see how one can taste so different from all the others, but I guess I'm the odd-one-out in this community. All-in-all it was a fun party though. Christine (the mom) had me make a couple American deserts but I don't think they were too big of a hit. American deserts just can't really hold a candle to German pastries and chocolates. I am a proud enough American to admit that. I enjoyed the deserts though (brownies, chocolate rice krispie treats, and a berry cobbler thing), and have even been able to eat the within limit. I gave myself a pat on the back, yes. We're going to be eating chili and chips for the next month I think.

I must now head of to Church. I'm going to go to the German ward in Heidelberg, and then stay for a monthly YSA Sacrament Meeting we have. After that Seline (the African AuPair) and I get to kick it walking-style home from the next town over. Wahoo!! I hope you have a fantastic Sabbath as well and we'll talk again soon.... Amy

To London and beyond!

March 20, 2008

So here I sit on a rickety old train headed towards Mannheim. I survived my solo trip to London with no major bumps or bruises. But to sat it was smooth sailing would be handing out too much credit. Like I said in my last entry, it was rainy and cold whether… the entire time. Luckily there were a few bright things that happened to help me not hate the rain quite so much.

When I went to drop off my luggage at the hostel on Sunday morning, the kind people let me go ahead and check-in. I got all settled in, relaxed a little, got ready, then headed out to be brave in huge, rainy London. My plan was to walk around for few hours, okay like five, then head to church. But after about on hour of freezing my Rastafarian Nae-naes off, I opted for plan B… free museums.

When the time arrived, I headed across the street for Church, only to find out that they had Stake Conference earlier that morning. There were a couple out-of-towners there though, and I ended up meeting to American girls that let me wonder around with them for a few hours. That was a lot more exciting than sitting by myself. I also found out about FHE and hit that up on Monday night. After parting with the sisters, I decided to head back to the hostel and kick it there. This is when it gets good…

While I was waiting in the reception area to get on the internet I overheard two girls asking about getting a power adapter. After they decided not to buy one at the outrageous price the hostel was selling them for, I had my moment of bravery and offered the girls mine. This led to that and at breakfast the next morning they invited me to do some sightseeing with them. Of course I jumped at the offer and an hour later I was standing in front of Madame Tussads. That my friends, was this awesome gallery/exhibit thing full of exact wax replicas of some of the worlds most famous (and infamous) people. And when I say exact, I mean exact. I was scared to touch some of them for fear that they would be real people. Creepy. Anyways, that was a lot of fun. The girls, Sandra and Tina, and I spent the rest of the day doing who knows what. I do know though, that it was a really fun day.

Tuesday… Well this day began again with breakfast and deciding to go on a free walking tour of London with the girls and their new male friend that joined up with us (I can’t remember his name, so obviously he left a huge impression on me, huh). That tour began at The Duke of Wellington’s monument and Arch thing. From there we went to Buckingham Palace, and were able to see the Changing of the Guards. That was cool, but not as impressive as it always sounds. We then went and messed with some of the guards. That of course, was enjoyable. And yes, I was a typical tourist and got a picture. Let’s see, what else did we see? Um… Westminster Abbey, of course. Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Trafalgar square, think Mary Poppins and pigeons. I think from the tour, those are the places of note. After the tour we went to a little pub and got some Fish and Chips. I won’t lie, I wasn’t very impressed. But I think we just choose a bad place to get them. Plus, I’m not a big fish fan.

That night was the big night! We went and got free makeovers before heading to see LION KING!! That was such an awesome play. I loved all of it. The costumes were the most fantastic things I have seen. And their voices, hello! And I have to mention the dancing. It was all fabulous. So we didn’t have reservations or tickets, but for only like 12ish pounds, we were able to get in. Now, for that price the only tickets we could get were Standing Tickets, but it was still awesome. I would have enjoyed sitting down after such a long day, but the play made it all worth it.

Well, Wednesday was not nearly as eventful as Tuesday, but still a lot of fun. Wednesday morning we headed out to do a little more sightseeing, hitting up the big places we didn’t see on the tour. We saw the London Eye (if you don’t know what that is, you definitely need to look it up. Fantastic), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Globe Theater, and then a couple other things. After that we went to the Northern side of London and hit up the shopping in Camden Place. Man, I am telling you, if you want some good flea market shopping, and just little shops, that is the place to go. I was really wishing I had more to spend on shopping. Oh well, it was still fun to look.

After Camden Place we headed back to the hostel for the day. The girls were flying out that afternoon and had to head to the Airport. I was so glad that I was able to meet them. They were so much fun and made my trip so much more enjoyable. Hopefully I’ll be able to go visit them down in Vienna sometime.

Well, after they left I went and freshened up for my dinner with a fantastic-looking Australian. Oops, did I forget to mention meeting Steve. Hehe. We met Steve one morning at breakfast and invited him to go see the sights with us. Unfortunately he turned us down, but the next day he agreed to go to dinner with me after the girls left town. I actually thought he stood me up, but he eventually came through and we went and ate at a little pub. It was delicious! And it was a lot of fun to just sit and talk with him. I think I kinda have a thing for Australians now! Hehe. But really.

The next morning I just walked around by Hyde Park a little more and killed time before I had to head back to the Airport for my flight. As it was STILL freezing outside, I went into a couple of the museums right around there. Man, London knows how to put some pretty cool stuff on display, I’m telling ya.

March 25, 2008

The rest of the week and weekend were really good and went by really fast. I stayed with the Senior Missionary couple on Thursday night when I got back into Heidelberg. Then I spent Friday night and Saturday and Sunday with a friend of mine and her family. It was a really nice Easter weekend, and a perfect ending to my vacation.

Now I am sitting back in my bedroom having just cleaned the house. I’m ready to get back into the routine of work and craziness. I know this post is really long, but I hope it wasn’t too boring and you were able to stick with me. I’m going to put up some pictures to illustrate some of the things I talked about, so I hope that helps to perk up the stories.

Thank you and peace…

Catching up...

I am so very sorry for not have written for such a long time. I really can not come up with a good explanation so I am not going to even try. I’ve been keeping a little ‘travel-log’ thing on paper, so I thought I would just type that up and put it on my blog. Now granted the entries are a couple weeks old, but they still sum up what I’ve been doing. I’m going to put the dates on the entries as well so you can get a little feel of the time frames and what-not. I’m warning you now that they might get kinda lengthy, so grab a snack and get comfortable. I’ll try and make it a little interesting so you don’t dose off while reading.

Well, here goes...

March 3, 2008

Exactly a week from yesterday I head off for my vacation in London! I’m having very mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness. I’m actually really proud that I am actually going to brave it alone. I think it will be a good experience for me. I really want to be more open and outgoing and confident, so I figure this is the best time to start. I’m pretty much sure that the week/couple of days will not be perfectly smooth, but it will still be awesome. Whoo ya!

I’m planning on staying in a really cheap, but convenient, youth hostel, while I am there. It actually looks like a pretty decent place, so I hope that goes well. I am also hoping that I can be lucky enough to run into some people that will let me tag along with them so that I don’t have to do all the sight seeing alone. Cross your fingers!

So my German… Well, I think it has gotten so much better in the two months that I have been here. I realize no how little I really knew before. I would tell myself that I could speak the language, but that was a lie. Luckily my ‘family’ is very patient with me, and my course is actually helping me a lot as well. I really want to speak pretty decent German when I go home, otherwise these couple months will be a waste in that sense. I think it will be okay though.

March 16, 2008

Well I just made it through my first night in London… in the airport. I had a room booked at a hostel somewhere in London, but my flight got in so late in the evening I decided it would be easier/safer to just kick it in the airport. I’m a little sore, but other than that it was a good night.

I was pretty impressed with myself and my ability to get from Weisenheim (the town I live in) to my check-in at the airport. I did have to ask a lady for help once (in German), but even that went pretty good. Holy cow! Can I just say how HUGE the Frankfurt airport is? It was outrageous. And I was pretty surprised how drabby Heathrow was, or at least Terminal 1. Oh well, they still got their jobs done.

I am now on Heathrow Connect heading towards central London. I’m planning to drip of my luggage at the hostel then maybe go see about some St. Patties day celebrations. We’ll see!

Oh p.s. It is super cloudy and rainy. Joyous!

Heidelberg!

So I said in my last post that my two fellow Au Pair friends, Mallorie and Seline, and I were going to go to Heidelberg and do some sight seeing, and we did. To get to Heidelberg, as we do a couple times a week, we first start by taking a bus from Weisenheim am Berg (the little village we live in) to Bad Durkheim. From there we catch this trolley/amtrak thing to Mannheim. Then Mannheim to Heidelberg it is a train ride into Heidelberg. As you can see, we make quite the trek, but its funny and different every time. All in all, it takes about two hours each way to get to Heidelberg and back so I am going to be making my way through some books pretty fast.

But anyways, back to the story... In Heidelberg, we actually met up with my friend Christoph. He was the boy we had as an exchange student like 7-8 years ago. It was so awesome to see him again and get to spend some time with him. He ended up coming with us to the castle so we spent all afternoon together. So after meeting up with Christoph, we headed to downtown Heidelberg to find some food and the castle. Mallorie introduced me to this delicious Turkish food that I fell in love with. I can't remember the name of it, but it is like a pita thing with fresh shaved meat and vegetables in stuff in it. They top it off with some sauce and it is heaven! The guys in the shop were hilarious and speaking a mixture of Spanish/English/Turkish and I'm sure German too. It was pretty awesome. After getting our food, we wandered down old town and found the Castle.

To get up to the castle, because of course it overlooks the town, you have to hike up like 310 stairs I believe. It was actually a really pretty walk up with little houses and whatnot built into the side of the mountain, all of it covered in gorgeous Ivy vines. Once to the top we spent an hour or so just walking around and loving the view. Today, the Castle is pretty much just ruins, but you can still see how grand it once was. I sacrificed my camera batteries to Mallorie so she could play photographer. So as soon as she and Christoph hook me up with their pictures, I'll be sure to post them. We got some gorgeous ones of the castle, and probably even more of us goofing off.

After we were done at the Castle, we headed back into Heidelberg. Saline went her separate way to take care of some things, and Mallorie and I hung with Christoph. He is actually moving to Heidelberg in a couple months and had an apartment to go look at, so we went and gave our token two-cents opinion on the place. After seeing the apartment we got back on a bus and headed back towards downtown. We said goodbye to Christoph there and he got off, and Mallorie and I should of but we weren't paying attention and stayed on the bus. We ended up in the other side of town and missed our planned connection back into Mannheim. Around here, especially on Saturdays, the buses only run so late and we planned our return trip in time to catch the last bus back into Weisenheim. So having missed our connection, Mallorie and I ended up making a 30 min trek from a neighboring town back into Weisenheim. It was super windy, dark, and kinda spooky, but now its making for a good story and I, at least, enjoyed the little bit of physical activity.

But after all was said and done, we arrived home safely and were able to get some much needed sleep. We are actually heading back to Heidelberg later this afternoon for a special Single Adult Sacrament Meeting, and I'm hoping the return trip goes a little smoother. If not, we'll just have another great story to add to the collection.

Until next time...

Adjusting

Hello! So I just read over my last post and I apologize to all of you who read it prior to this posting. I'll be sure and proofread this one before I post it, I promise. Hopefully it is better, but I make no guarantees.

Well so much has happened since my last post I don't know where to start. I suppose I should mention that I did finally receive all of my luggage. Thankfully the one with my make-up, shampoo and what-not arrived after a day or two, so I was able to shower finally. The other bag arrived a couple days after that, having made a journey to India and back. I still have all the tags on to prove it, so when my camera works I'll be sure to get a shot of those. But eventually it all got here and I was very happy.

Something that I am doing over here that I'm not sure I told many people about is a German course. This course is offered in the next town over, and is for people of any nationality who want to learn German. So there are some people from Poland, Turkey, Iran, The Philippines, and even Thailand. So there is absolutely no English. I know, rough. The first day I went, I realized that it was SUPER advanced for me and I tried to get out. Unfortunately, all the lower level courses were either full or too far away so I had to stay put. So I am working hard and trying to catch up to my classmates. It is kicking my trash, but I think I will be okay. I'm immersed in German almost all the time so I pick up something new every day. I also really enjoy the course because I am able to get out of the house for awhile each week. I hope it will work out okay and can only be a help.

Church. That is an interesting topic for me. I attend, but have no idea what is being said. Well, I have an idea because the Gospel is the same and true all over the world, but when it comes down to specifics I am lost. Luckily I was wise and got myself English manuals for this year before I left, so I sit and read the lesson while it is being discussed around me. Unfortunately, I miss out on all the really good comments though. But soon I will be able to understand more and that will be VERY nice. Besides not being able to understand much, the branch is extremely small. I really couldn't believe it when I walked in how small it really was. I can understand why they say Germany is such a hard mission now. But no matter the size the members are still amazing!

Sightseeing/Touring. I am going on my first sightseeing adventure this weekend to a town called Heidelburg. It is about a two-hour bus ride from here and also the town were Institute is held. My two fellow Au Pair's, Mallorie and Seline, are going to take me and I can't wait. Also, my "family" has invited me to go skiing with them in Northern Italy in a couple weeks!! I'm not a huge skiing fan, but Italy I could handle. I might go along just for the ride. And Mallorie and I are already planning a trip to Paris for mid-March!! That I can not wait for. It is still so weird to me that I can just hop on a train and spend a weekend in Paris. Love it!

Well, this post turned out long again, but I hope it was enjoyable. I'm sure there is something I forgot to put up, but I'll get it next time. I wish you guys all a good week!! Till next time, Amy!

Finally!!

Hello all my friends!

Well I am finally here in the great land of Germany. And let me tell you, it was not easy getting this far. So I believe in my last post I was stuck in Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, ya? Well I ended up being delayed there for an extra three hours, which in turn led me to miss my flight on AirIndia from Chicago to Frankfurt. So I got into Chicago and the check-in for AirIndia was at the very far side of the airport with all the other teeny foreign airlines. So I made my way down there and found that AirIndia had closed for the night and didn't have any more flights to Germany for quite awhile (like days) so they sent me back down to US Airways to have them try and book me on a flight. And while wandering around O'Hare I met up with this all-around goofy (I mean goofy-looking too) Army guy. It turned out he was stationed in Germany and supposed to be on the same flight as me. So Zach (the goofy one) and I fought together to try and get the freak out of Chicago and over to Germany.

We ended up getting booked on a flight the next morning that had a three or four hour layover in Philadelphia. Because with my luck, of course there weren't any non-stop flights. And this whole time my baggage is who knows were and all I have in way of overnight necessities are my contact case (no solution), a sweater, and Christoph's (my German-Brother) Christmas present from my mom- Pajamas. Luckily for me my Mom's brother, Kent, and his family live outside of Chicago. So he and Jenny came in practically the middle of the night to get poor Amy and give her a place to sleep for a couple hours. I was so happy I had a bed to sleep on and not those horrible airport chairs!

From then on not much else went wrong. The US Airways guy was able to validate my ticket, or something, and get me through security with barely enough time to get a $7 cup of fruit before I had to board my plane. My friend Zach was either not lucky enough to get his ticket approved or went AWOL like he was talking about, cause I never saw him again. I had a really nice German girl (who spoke English, thankfully!) who sat next to me from Philly to Frankfurt. She shared her wisdom of Germany and so on with me and helped me calm my nerves a little. It was good to have a friendly face to talk to on that horribly long flight.

When we finally got into Frankfurt I waited around the baggage carousel for a little bit hoping, in vain, that maybe my luggage was there. After filing a missing baggage report with the dear man at the counter, I went out of security and met the Grandfather of the family I'm working for. He had a picture of me and my name on a paper. I felt kinda important having someone waiting with my name. Anyways he didn't speak English very well, or much, so we had a nice quiet ride home. And can I just say that I love the Autoban!! I've always heard about it but never actually been on it. You can really go as fast as you want, and man those Mercedes-Benz semi's fly!

So I got a little nap, met the family and so on when I got to the house, as to be expected. I really like the family. The three kids are really loud and my room is an office-turned-bedroom, but its cozy. I can't talk with the other Au Pair much though because she only speaks German and her native Spanish. I'm loosing a lot of weight cause the family only eats organic food. German food itself is enough of a culture shock, but organic German food is even more odd. But all is good cause I think I'm going to rally up some good ol' McD's or maybe Taco Bell tomorrow when I travel an hour by various modes of transportation for FHE with my fellow LDS-American Au Pair Mallorie.

Wow, I've written a lot. I have to tell you straight up that I'm too lazy to write in a real journal, so this here blog is doubling as one. That is why it is so lengthy and detailed; I want to document this ridiculous-ness for posterity.

Well I'm out and wish you all the best week ever. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often now that I finally have my luggage and adapter. Till next time!

Still Waiting

So here I sit on the floor of the Phoenix Airport waiting to get to Chicago. How I started in Salt Lake and ended up back in Arizona, I'm not quite sure. But none the less I'm here.

So if things started going right, I should be in Germany within 24 hours. Which one of those 24 is still the question. I can't really put in words how excited I am to get this going. Its seems like forever ago now that I first started getting things going to get over there.

I had someone suggest to me that I put my hopes and expectations and such in my first blog, then as I go, I can see how close they were to reality. I can't say I have a lot of specific things that I'm hoping for. Of course a major hope I have is that I have an amazing family that I will be working with. I can already count that hope as completed. I've spoken with the Mother, Christine, via email and on the phone and I love her already. She is awesome and the rest of her family sounds just as amazing. Another hope I have is that I will be able to communicate with people. I have a very basic knowledge of German right now, and in a funny way that makes me even more nervous. I'm weird, I know. But Brittney keeps reassuring me that I will do just fine, as long as I have confidence in myself and make myself speak German.

Well I guess those are the two big hopes on my mind right now. I'm sure once I get over there and get a little more situated, I'll have some more expectations for myself.

I just saw a girl eating Pizza Hut and realized how hungry I am, so I'm going to sign off for now in hunt for some food. Hopefully next time I have an update I'll be in Germany (or at least out of Arizona).

Toodles... Amy!!