Man, I did that post for Bamberg and realized that I never commented on my first day of classes. They went well...um, I was like 10 minutes late because I didn't realize when it started. oops, haha. Now I know...I think. I'll double check. Half the class is Americans and Canadians, actually. haha. And French. The first person I met was Mahmoud from Egypt! He's middle-aged and lives in a little town smack-dab in the middle along the Suez Canal. That was neat. He's a little weird, though, the way he thinks. It's not cultural because I've been in Israel for 5 weeks; it's him. Just how he explains things or something, I don't know. Whatever. And then there is a Greek girl, a Spanish girl...there may be two, and an Italian girl. I'm pretty sure that's it. I'll double check and let you know. We got stuck in like the smallest room ever and there's 15 of us. One of the Canadian/Americans (because she's lived in both) told me yesterday that the size of my vocabulary was amazing. I was shocked because I think it's so much smaller than everyone else's, but I took it. haha.
Our teacher is really awesome, too. haha, her last name is Schmusch. haha, I like that. She has a lot of energy and is really fun. After class there were four of us who were like, I WANT TO DO SOMETHING! That would be me, another American from Minnesota named Erik (I chuckled to myself), the Spanish girl...uh...Marea! And one of the French girls...erm...damn, she's got bright red, curly hair (redder even than Kristina's! And that's saying something!). Ok, I can't remember the French girl's name right now. I'll get there with the names.
We decided to go to Tiergarten since it was such a nice day; well, it was actually REALLY HOT on Monday and even yesterday, but the evening was soooo nice yesterday. I ended up sending us the wrong way. lol, oops. But Marea wanted to see the Fernsehtorm, so she got to see that. And I found out that the church (I forget its name right now....Mariankirche?) might have Catholic masses in the morning, so I'm gonna look into that. It's Anglican in the afternoons. hahaha. That's what Erik told me, anyways. Oh man, and we saw someone on a bike get hit by a car! It was horrible! The ambulance was there in like a minute, it was amazing. I think maybe just because it was right there to begin with...It seemed that the accident was minor, so thank God.
The Tiergarten is behind Brandenbergertor and Parisean Platz and right next to the Reichstag! I didn't realize that, so it was super awesome to make that connection in my head. We ate at a donner kebab place along the way because we were all hungry. By the time we got to Tiergarten (oh, that's like Central Park for Berlin...), the sun was JUST setting. Which meant it was starting to get dark. So we decided against walking through the park lest we get caught in the dark. Instead we just sat on the lawn in front of the Reichstag. Erik commented on how it was that Germany allows all these people to sit on the lawn there, but in the States, the White House lawn is all gated in and if you get too close, security is like, BACK AWAY MA'AM! Interesting...
Anywho's I just wanted to update everyone on my current status in Berlin. I spent only 15euro on groceries last night and made FRENCH TOAST for breakfast this morning. *drools* That made me happy because I've been DYING for PANCAKES and that's the closest thing I could get without having to entirely make them from scratch. However, my money situation became desperate when they told me that I owed 133euros because I wrote a check in USDollars and it wasn't quite enough. NOOOO! That was $215! So now I have a little less than $200. Yay! But other than that, everything's great. I'll just be refusing dinner outings and living off spaghetti. Those tickets back to Bamberg weren't cheap either, but those were necessary so I can having clothing!
Alright, now I'm going to shower and do my homework! Byes!!!
30.7.08
29.7.08
Jetzt Beginnt Bamberg Fotos!
Yea! More photos! This time I am in Bamberg, the beautiful and untouched little city in south Germany.
See? It's GORGEOUS! Kat would slightly disagree with me, maybe, but I thought it was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. Or maybe she'd disagree with it being and interesting city...because they're really is not much to do there besides some touristy things...and drink beer.
PROST! See? A few of us partaking of one of Bamberg's only interesting things to do. This Bier Garten was way up on top of one of its 7 hills. I had a slightly smoked beer, I think. I'm pretty sure Hannes said it was smoked, but it wasn't THE smoked beer of Bamberg. That's Dr. Cagle who's slightly hidden from view; the girl is Lindsey Miller from Lycoming, who wass studying in Bamberg at the time; the Stein on the far left is Hannes'; and then mine is the one struggling to remain high from the weight of the Stein and its Bier contents. Kat did not partake of the prost because she does not like beer. lol.
Hannes, really excited to eat his "typisches Deutches essen" (typical German food): Eisbein, Sauerkraut, und Klöße (a leg of pork, sauerkraut, and a potato dumpling-like thing)!!! 
This is die Dom, pretty much the most famous church in all of Bamberg...which has like a million. Inside is a statue of the Bamberg rider...which I do not have a picture of because I felt a little funny taking pictures inside the church. I don't know why...because I've taken pictures inside millions of churches in Italy. Silly self...
Um, this was a super weird little construction. Apparently, hundreds of years ago, some fraternity order built this and did some secret rituals or something weird. The fraternity no longer exists, but Kat says that other fraternities now use it as a "secret" place for their "secret" rituals. Psh...frats...
Ah, Altenberg! So pretty...I like the sunlight coming down behind it... oh yea, I know how to take dramatic pictures...
Yea! Me and Kat again!
Dang...I forget the name of that church...Michaelsberg? I think that's Michaelsberg. I'll double check...I'll have photos of when Eric came soon...
But first! DENISE AND MELISSA! WOOOO!!! YEA! They came to visit! And the first thing we did was absolute craziness, of course...
Melissa needed her hair permed because she ran out of time to have one of her black friends in London do it for her when she took out her weeve. So instead, she got three white girls who don't know a THING about perming black people hair. It was the most amusing and frightening thing ever: amusing for us; frightening for Melissa who swore the whole time we were going to burn all her hair off and then that her mother would, first, kill us and then kill Melissa for letting white people style her hair. lol.
See that look of pure fear on her face?
As she sobbed we laughed and took pictures. Does that make us horrible friends?
Meliss reading the directions (because dear Melissa doesn't even know how to perm her hair), making sure we don't burn her hair off. The chemicals in that stuff is SO intense. We had to put wax stuff around her scalp line and on her ears because it seriously burns the skin so bad that it'll burn the hair off. We had to make sure that stuff didn't get too badly on her scalp or else she'd have no hair left. I mixed the stuff and it was burning my eyes. We had to part her hair, brush it out, and section it off to enjoy even application, from ends to tips.
Letting it all sit for no less than 10 minutes and no more than 15 or else her hair would be either underpermed and 'fro-like or burnt off. That super serious face is her explaining that bit to us.
Washing it all out with the special shampoo. It turned the shampoo bright pink. I believe I have video of her absolutely sobbing as we washed it out...I'll have to check for that...lol.
Kat had a book with David Hasselhof taped to the front of it. See? Germans are obsessed with him. I had to take the opportunity for a picture with my new obsession. Need to blend in with the Germans as much as possible, of course...
Then Kat took us out for a look all over the city to do some touristy things.
Kat! And behind her is termed "Little Venice" because it sits in the water...like Venice. I think it was just built there so that they'd have TWO nicknames that relate back to Italy; the first being "Little Rome" because the entire city sits on seven hills, like Rome. They also have a pope buried there...and the Archbishop lives there...
Here's the Rathaus (politics building). It has pretty paintings on the outside of it. Uh, click on the pick for a better, larger view of it, because from the tiny picture, it looks like flames and dragons, and it's supposed to be red marble pillars and fat, naked cherubs.
Yay! Denise and Melissa on the little bridge going to the Rathaus! Don't look so happy, Meliss, sheesh...
Then we got EIS (ICE CREAM)!!!! Melissa ordered boring plain vanilla. Later when it was a little melty, she drank it all fancy like with her pinky out and everything because the bowl had a little handle as if it were a tea cup.
Whoa, Denise, where'd you get that delicious body? haha.
SPAGHETTI EIS! They do this awesome thing where they take vanilla ice cream, squeeze it out of some apparatus to make it look like spaghetti, pour cherry sauce over top for the "tomato" sauce, and sprinkle it with shaved white chocolate for the "parmasean cheese". YUM!
Tehe, there's also this awesome gummy candy that kids are supposed to make faces out of while eating it. So, it encourages kids to play with their food. Melissa of course made one herself. She gave it boobs....of course, Melissa, of course.
Then we went to see Altenberg again with Denise and Melissa. Here's the drawbridge.
This is looking off the drawbridge. That chain is where they used to hang prisoners for torture. If you've ever seen Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, picture the scene where they're singing "Knights of the Round Table" and that brief spot of the man hanging off the wall and clapping out the beat....that's exactly what this is...
There was barbed wire wrapped around the wooden beams to keep the pigeons from flying in and nesting. Well, it sort of worked but not really. That pigeon actually flew in, got stuff briefly on the wires, freed itself, crawled towards the little hole in the wall, got stuck again, freed itself again, and crawled to the nest inside where there was another pigeon.
This is the entire history of the castle. As you can see from the dates, it begins with the year 902AD. It's just over 1000 years old. Just to give you an idea of how old the city is and that most of it is still exactly the same because the place was completely untouched by the world wars.
We got to climb up the tall tour!
It wasn't nearly as bad as walking up to the dome in St. Peter's Cathedral...but it was almost exactly like that.
A view from one of the arrow-let windows. They used to shoot arrows at invaders from these little windows! They were small enough to allow the person inside to shoot out while protecting him from arrows outside. You'd have to be a damned good accurate shot to get an arrow though the window into the castle. Though with Paul's shooting record so far, I think he could probably do it...
This wasn't the top of the tower yet. This was a little niche that you could step out and walk around the tower. So I took a few pictures of the view. This is the castle itself.
The drop back down to the ground... See the pretty south German architecture??? With the wooden beams and the concrete in between? Yea...that was pretty much the entire city of Bamberg...
Yea! Three of my favorite peoples! Melissa is usually the one with the crazy shirts, but this time she was the only one without one...she was wearing a hoodie instead because she thought it was cold. Take note that the white people are in tshirst...
Part of the castle. Look how steep that roof is. Man...
Altenberg was built where it was because you can see the entire city from up there. It was used as a warning castle in case the city were to be attacked. They could see the invaders coming and they'd make a light in this cage, which could be seen by the whole city and the castles on the other hills and they could prepare for the invasion!
Ok, I took too many pictures of the architecture...as usual. But I'm sure Julia enjoys it! The architecture pictures are just for you, Jules....hopefully it reminds you of the architecture from Italy...but not really because south Italy and south Germany are entirely opposites...
One of the other towers...there will be more pictures from there momentarily...
Yea! We reached the top! Now they're looking out the window...
This is the view from the window. I think Denise was the only smart one to step back away from the windows. lol. That's a long drop down the side of the mountain...if you're unfortunate enough to survive the fall down the tower... ("You fell from the tall tower, you creep!" 10 points to the first person to tell me what movie that line is from....)
We even left our mark, like everyone and mother had done...except ours is cuter.
Um...this is just for anyone who's ever watched the second Charlie the Unicorn youtube video...oh yea, that's written in Altenberg in Bamberg, Germany! If you ever go there...look for it! Kat, you must check it...about once a year or so...to make sure it's still there. WE CAN SEE HOW LONG IT LASTS! YEA!
They used to keep a bear there...in that cage. And it had a little pit area with a dead tree that it could climb. Pretty cruel, but that's what they did. Yes, there is something in the cage; it's a stuffed bear. And that's Melissa pretending to be a bear. And that's Denise behind her laughing at her.
Here's the bear..."Our City Bear, Boldi". tehe, his name was Boldi. He died recently. 1982, to be exact. In case you can't read German. lol.
We were going to take this tram up to the castle instead of drive, but then we found out that it was like 13euro or something ridiculous like that. So we drove.
Here's that tower I mentioned. We were taking lots of pictures from it and I started taking a bunch of pictures of Kat, Denise, and Melissa, and then Denise decided she wanted to take pictures of us all, too. And then Kat decided she wanted to, too. So it turned into "let's take pictures of Melissa" and she freaked out and started running away to avoid the cameras...but we chased her. hahaha.
Here she is just running along the walls of the tower...
And Denise trying to hold her down. Kat stopped because she realized how pathetic the whole thing was. You can tell from her face. I obviously kept going. But I stopped shortly after.
Another picture of the castle...man, ok, no more castle pictures...I'm sure you've all had enough...
Ok, so when I was there the first time with Kat's parents and Dr. Cagle, Kat's mom told me that the little white daisy-ish flowers were edible and that she used to pick a bunch to put into salads. Then Kat says she told her mom to stop doing that because she hates the little white flowers. But I made her eat one with me because I wanted to try them. When we came back with Denise and Melissa, I made them eat them too. Ok, Melissa absolutely refused, but Denise did it.
Proof that we actually chewed the flowers.
AHA! ok, here's the video of us washing Melissa's hair. hahaha.
See? It's GORGEOUS! Kat would slightly disagree with me, maybe, but I thought it was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. Or maybe she'd disagree with it being and interesting city...because they're really is not much to do there besides some touristy things...and drink beer.
PROST! See? A few of us partaking of one of Bamberg's only interesting things to do. This Bier Garten was way up on top of one of its 7 hills. I had a slightly smoked beer, I think. I'm pretty sure Hannes said it was smoked, but it wasn't THE smoked beer of Bamberg. That's Dr. Cagle who's slightly hidden from view; the girl is Lindsey Miller from Lycoming, who wass studying in Bamberg at the time; the Stein on the far left is Hannes'; and then mine is the one struggling to remain high from the weight of the Stein and its Bier contents. Kat did not partake of the prost because she does not like beer. lol.
Hannes, really excited to eat his "typisches Deutches essen" (typical German food): Eisbein, Sauerkraut, und Klöße (a leg of pork, sauerkraut, and a potato dumpling-like thing)!!! 
Kat's dad took Dr. Cagle and I up to see die Altenberg, a castle from Medieval times overlooking the entire city. There Kat and I on top of one of the towers...
This is die Dom, pretty much the most famous church in all of Bamberg...which has like a million. Inside is a statue of the Bamberg rider...which I do not have a picture of because I felt a little funny taking pictures inside the church. I don't know why...because I've taken pictures inside millions of churches in Italy. Silly self...
Um, this was a super weird little construction. Apparently, hundreds of years ago, some fraternity order built this and did some secret rituals or something weird. The fraternity no longer exists, but Kat says that other fraternities now use it as a "secret" place for their "secret" rituals. Psh...frats...
Ah, Altenberg! So pretty...I like the sunlight coming down behind it... oh yea, I know how to take dramatic pictures...
Yea! Me and Kat again!
Dang...I forget the name of that church...Michaelsberg? I think that's Michaelsberg. I'll double check...I'll have photos of when Eric came soon...But first! DENISE AND MELISSA! WOOOO!!! YEA! They came to visit! And the first thing we did was absolute craziness, of course...
Melissa needed her hair permed because she ran out of time to have one of her black friends in London do it for her when she took out her weeve. So instead, she got three white girls who don't know a THING about perming black people hair. It was the most amusing and frightening thing ever: amusing for us; frightening for Melissa who swore the whole time we were going to burn all her hair off and then that her mother would, first, kill us and then kill Melissa for letting white people style her hair. lol.
See that look of pure fear on her face?
As she sobbed we laughed and took pictures. Does that make us horrible friends?
Meliss reading the directions (because dear Melissa doesn't even know how to perm her hair), making sure we don't burn her hair off. The chemicals in that stuff is SO intense. We had to put wax stuff around her scalp line and on her ears because it seriously burns the skin so bad that it'll burn the hair off. We had to make sure that stuff didn't get too badly on her scalp or else she'd have no hair left. I mixed the stuff and it was burning my eyes. We had to part her hair, brush it out, and section it off to enjoy even application, from ends to tips.
Letting it all sit for no less than 10 minutes and no more than 15 or else her hair would be either underpermed and 'fro-like or burnt off. That super serious face is her explaining that bit to us.
Washing it all out with the special shampoo. It turned the shampoo bright pink. I believe I have video of her absolutely sobbing as we washed it out...I'll have to check for that...lol.
Kat had a book with David Hasselhof taped to the front of it. See? Germans are obsessed with him. I had to take the opportunity for a picture with my new obsession. Need to blend in with the Germans as much as possible, of course...Then Kat took us out for a look all over the city to do some touristy things.
Kat! And behind her is termed "Little Venice" because it sits in the water...like Venice. I think it was just built there so that they'd have TWO nicknames that relate back to Italy; the first being "Little Rome" because the entire city sits on seven hills, like Rome. They also have a pope buried there...and the Archbishop lives there...
Here's the Rathaus (politics building). It has pretty paintings on the outside of it. Uh, click on the pick for a better, larger view of it, because from the tiny picture, it looks like flames and dragons, and it's supposed to be red marble pillars and fat, naked cherubs.
Yay! Denise and Melissa on the little bridge going to the Rathaus! Don't look so happy, Meliss, sheesh...
Then we got EIS (ICE CREAM)!!!! Melissa ordered boring plain vanilla. Later when it was a little melty, she drank it all fancy like with her pinky out and everything because the bowl had a little handle as if it were a tea cup.
Whoa, Denise, where'd you get that delicious body? haha.
SPAGHETTI EIS! They do this awesome thing where they take vanilla ice cream, squeeze it out of some apparatus to make it look like spaghetti, pour cherry sauce over top for the "tomato" sauce, and sprinkle it with shaved white chocolate for the "parmasean cheese". YUM!
Tehe, there's also this awesome gummy candy that kids are supposed to make faces out of while eating it. So, it encourages kids to play with their food. Melissa of course made one herself. She gave it boobs....of course, Melissa, of course.
Then we went to see Altenberg again with Denise and Melissa. Here's the drawbridge.
This is looking off the drawbridge. That chain is where they used to hang prisoners for torture. If you've ever seen Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, picture the scene where they're singing "Knights of the Round Table" and that brief spot of the man hanging off the wall and clapping out the beat....that's exactly what this is...
There was barbed wire wrapped around the wooden beams to keep the pigeons from flying in and nesting. Well, it sort of worked but not really. That pigeon actually flew in, got stuff briefly on the wires, freed itself, crawled towards the little hole in the wall, got stuck again, freed itself again, and crawled to the nest inside where there was another pigeon.
This is the entire history of the castle. As you can see from the dates, it begins with the year 902AD. It's just over 1000 years old. Just to give you an idea of how old the city is and that most of it is still exactly the same because the place was completely untouched by the world wars.
We got to climb up the tall tour!
It wasn't nearly as bad as walking up to the dome in St. Peter's Cathedral...but it was almost exactly like that.
A view from one of the arrow-let windows. They used to shoot arrows at invaders from these little windows! They were small enough to allow the person inside to shoot out while protecting him from arrows outside. You'd have to be a damned good accurate shot to get an arrow though the window into the castle. Though with Paul's shooting record so far, I think he could probably do it...
This wasn't the top of the tower yet. This was a little niche that you could step out and walk around the tower. So I took a few pictures of the view. This is the castle itself.
The drop back down to the ground... See the pretty south German architecture??? With the wooden beams and the concrete in between? Yea...that was pretty much the entire city of Bamberg...
Yea! Three of my favorite peoples! Melissa is usually the one with the crazy shirts, but this time she was the only one without one...she was wearing a hoodie instead because she thought it was cold. Take note that the white people are in tshirst...
Part of the castle. Look how steep that roof is. Man...
Altenberg was built where it was because you can see the entire city from up there. It was used as a warning castle in case the city were to be attacked. They could see the invaders coming and they'd make a light in this cage, which could be seen by the whole city and the castles on the other hills and they could prepare for the invasion!
Ok, I took too many pictures of the architecture...as usual. But I'm sure Julia enjoys it! The architecture pictures are just for you, Jules....hopefully it reminds you of the architecture from Italy...but not really because south Italy and south Germany are entirely opposites...
One of the other towers...there will be more pictures from there momentarily...
Yea! We reached the top! Now they're looking out the window...
This is the view from the window. I think Denise was the only smart one to step back away from the windows. lol. That's a long drop down the side of the mountain...if you're unfortunate enough to survive the fall down the tower... ("You fell from the tall tower, you creep!" 10 points to the first person to tell me what movie that line is from....)
We even left our mark, like everyone and mother had done...except ours is cuter.
Um...this is just for anyone who's ever watched the second Charlie the Unicorn youtube video...oh yea, that's written in Altenberg in Bamberg, Germany! If you ever go there...look for it! Kat, you must check it...about once a year or so...to make sure it's still there. WE CAN SEE HOW LONG IT LASTS! YEA!
They used to keep a bear there...in that cage. And it had a little pit area with a dead tree that it could climb. Pretty cruel, but that's what they did. Yes, there is something in the cage; it's a stuffed bear. And that's Melissa pretending to be a bear. And that's Denise behind her laughing at her.
Here's the bear..."Our City Bear, Boldi". tehe, his name was Boldi. He died recently. 1982, to be exact. In case you can't read German. lol.
We were going to take this tram up to the castle instead of drive, but then we found out that it was like 13euro or something ridiculous like that. So we drove.
Here's that tower I mentioned. We were taking lots of pictures from it and I started taking a bunch of pictures of Kat, Denise, and Melissa, and then Denise decided she wanted to take pictures of us all, too. And then Kat decided she wanted to, too. So it turned into "let's take pictures of Melissa" and she freaked out and started running away to avoid the cameras...but we chased her. hahaha.
Here she is just running along the walls of the tower...
And Denise trying to hold her down. Kat stopped because she realized how pathetic the whole thing was. You can tell from her face. I obviously kept going. But I stopped shortly after.
Another picture of the castle...man, ok, no more castle pictures...I'm sure you've all had enough...
Ok, so when I was there the first time with Kat's parents and Dr. Cagle, Kat's mom told me that the little white daisy-ish flowers were edible and that she used to pick a bunch to put into salads. Then Kat says she told her mom to stop doing that because she hates the little white flowers. But I made her eat one with me because I wanted to try them. When we came back with Denise and Melissa, I made them eat them too. Ok, Melissa absolutely refused, but Denise did it.
Proof that we actually chewed the flowers.AHA! ok, here's the video of us washing Melissa's hair. hahaha.
And I leave you all with that because I'm getting sleepy because it's 12:30am...This also brings me to the end of Denise and Melissa photos, unfortunately. The next photos will be Eric photos! And THEN I'll be done with GERMANY PHOTOS and can start on ISRAEL PHOTOS. Sheesh...finally. I'm sooooo cloooose to being done with the photos!!! AHAHA HAHA, HAHAHA!
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