June 6- June 12

So behind....this is unacceptable! I am so sorry for anyone who is actually reading this!

Day 25- Monday June 6th- I spent half of the day in my PJ'S because I felt so bad from the plane ride. They definitely didn't hurt as bad as the night before but they were definitely still sensitive. Skyped with my mom, picked up Simon...same old.

Tuesday- I had language school in the morning and then Julia came home with me because she had the day off. She met my host family and then we left for the Elbe Einkaufzentrum which is amazing! I advise this mall to anyone who is in Hamburg....It's near Othmarschen. We did some little shopping that day...I really like Julia...she is from Vancouver and she's so much fun! I could hear so much better today too! yay!

Wednesday- I cleaned a little and then went off to school. We definitely learned a lot today, some days I think my head could explode from listening to German, translating it to English, and saying it back in German. Julia and I then went to the Dat Backhaus and got our usual sandwiches at Jungfernstieg S- Bahn station. Then I went home and got Simon in the pouring rain and then skyped with my mom and played some. Then I ate with my host family and watched Schindler's list in English with my host dad. That movie is so good and sad!

Thursday- I had to clean so much shit today, but it's okay  haha. Later since I didn't have to get Simon on Thursdays I went with Julia to this pub close to the Rathaus called Finnigans Wake. It's an Irish pub, but I didn't care for the drinks because most were to strong for me. Later Isaac came, he's in one of the groups I am part of on Facebook. He is from New Zealand and lives here in Eidelstedt which isn't too far from me. He's really cool and I like his Kiwi accent haha. Cece joined later but didn't drink anything...she got an orange juice haha....I don't think we will ever let her live that one down....all of us were drinking beer and rum and coke and she drinks orange juice haah^^ I came home around 2!

Friday- Party Party! First I had school then I came home and cleaned and then got Simon, ate dinner, then left to meet Julia at Altona where we then went to Finnigans Wake where we drank some, it was a little awkward because the other au pairs I didn't really get along with were at a different table across from ours, and I didn't want to say hi so we drank our drinks and then left. We walked around Jungfernstieg waiting for Hannes and Julian who we were supposed to meet later after the movies they were at. We met them at Schweinske's on the Reeperbahn instead though and headed over to Molly Malones...we all drank a lot there! Isaac also joined too and Hannes friend David too, but David had to leave early. The bar was so fun with lots of good music and it was nice and mellow! Cece then joined also but I don't think she liked the music. We had a good group going I must say! We then went onto Thomas Read's and we all danced and had a ton of fun. Julian is a fun person to party with too...he's mellow in his own way but still knows how to have fun.... I wish I had a friend like that back home. I will miss him. We left in the daylight around 5 am and I was in bed at 6....so tired!

Finnigans wake

Isaac and I

 

 

Julian and me:))

June 11, 2011 Saturday... I got up at 10 so I only slept 4 hours, UGH! I spent the whole day at home and asked Julia if she wanted to go out and walk around at night. So we walked around some and no drinking though then walked around the Reeperbahn and people watched...finally sober on the Reeperbahn haah! Then Isaac showed up and we all sat on a bench on the Reeperbahn and talked. Then at 2 we all left for out homes. I was in bed at 3....Again so tired!!!

Sunday- I hung out with my family then I met Isaac and his Flatmate called Dominik who is German and we went to Schanzepark and had a picnic of bread and gummi bears haha. We were there from 4-7.. I really liked that park because I have never seen people my age actually hangout in a public park for fun. I think back home people in Bryan would think that was stupid. We then went to Thomas Read's where a quiz thing was going on. It's 6 rounds of current event questions all in English. We had a good group of Julia, Cece, Isaac, Dominik, and a swedish, Australian, and New Zealand au pair named Caitlin. It was a lot of fun and around 10:30 it was over. And since it was a holiday on Monday we all decided to go out (Pentecost) to the Reeperbahn. So Isaac, Dominik and I went back to their apartment to drop our picnic stuff off and we headed back to the Reeperbahn where we met Hannes, Julian, Julia, Cece, and Caitlin at Schweinske and headed over the Thomas Read's. This time was wasn't completely plastered so I knew everything that was going on. We met a bunch of people on the patio at Thomas Read's and some cute guys haha. I now have 4 new friends on Facebook haah! There was a basketball game going on upstairs and a lot of Germans were watching it because a German was on one of the teams. So I went upstairs with Julian and watched most if it with him. Some guys joined our table also...it's funny to see shocked faces when people speak to you in German and you say "keine Deutsch" haha. Everyone but me, Cece,  and Julian were trashed in out group. We all left at 5:30 to go home but missed the first s-bahn because Julia didn't think it was the right one, haha. So we had to wait forever for the next one. After Julian and Hannes and Isaac left we saw a man fight with the police down on the Platform it was so bad ass. haha I was in bed at 6:15....OMG 2 hard nights of partying haha.


P.S. guys I do work even though it sounds like I don't haha. I get evenings free along with Weekends!

Switzerland!

SHIT.....I am almost a month behind...I am not happy about this! So I need to take the time right now to catch up! This will be a post about my time in Switzerland.

Thursday- June 2nd

Zurich

Swizz Cow ;)

Zurich

Lake Zurich and where the mountains would be if you were able to see them

It's so pretty here! Although the whole day we couldn't see the mountains, you could see the hills in front of it. Stephans cousin Mischa has a really nice apartment too:) So today we set out to see some of Zurich. Lake Zurich is pretty, the water is green and really clear. It wasn't so nice outside, like it was really dreary out and stuff. But the transportation is really good, they have buses, trams, subways....but it is so damn expensive. Also it was a pain to always have to have change to get a ticket for the transportation. I think Hamburg's transportation is a bit easier. We walked around the old and new part of Zurich. The buildings were so beautiful with so many colors and some had designs on them. We ate at a typical swiss restaurant...really good food! Later that day Mischa longtime friend came and joined us to show us around. She is really nice, I liked her a lot. I was still basically deaf and sick all day but I made the best out of it. I didn't want to spend the trip inside all day. The city was so pretty! 

Friday- June 3, 2011

We woke up early to leave for a town called Luzern. We took a train through the countryside and then spent a couple hours in Luzern, but again it was a cloudy day and we couldn't see the mountains.

Swiss countryside

Luzern

My host mom and I

Luzern

Luzern

The hills in front of them we could see though and those are also pretty! Luzern is an old town and beautiful! We took a boat across Vierwaldstattersee (Lake Luzern) to a spot called Birkenstogg and took an old fashioned cable car up the hill. It was so steep!

Lake Luzern

Lake Luzern

Lake Luzern

We then ate at a restaurant and hiked some to a lift that took you up to see Lake Luzern. I wish we could have seen the mountains. It would have been magnificent!I was so happy to be there though, even though I was sick, it was beautiful either way.

Lake Luzern

Lake Luzern

Me, Svenja, Mischa, Miri and Simon

Chocolate Cow!

Lake Luzern

You could hear the cow bells in the distance and Stephan and I joked about stealing a chocolate cow.

Saturday- June 4, 2011
We took a train to Uetliberg which is a nice place to see all of Zurich. We couldn't see the mountains again but the sun was shining enough to see Zurich below. We then hiked for a bout 2 hours up and downhill with the stroller...OMG it was so heavy! But fun! After we made it up to the top we had a Panoramic view of Zurich while we were eating at a restaurant. Really nice!

Switzerland:)

hiking

View from my host families aunt and uncles apartment.

View from the restaurant

We then took a cable car down later and took the tram home. We all went to bed early that night. I think when I come home to Ohio I will have huge calves from all the walking I do hahah. I just wished I wasn't sick the whole time and with all the different elevation going up at down my ears were hating me. I was debating on paying for a train ticket to go back to Hamburg when we left, because I knew it would be painful to take the plane. But again and awesome day!

Sunday- June 5, 2011


My last day in Switzerland. We got up and Miri came over and we walked around since it was finally SUNNY! I could see the Alps! You have no idea how happy I was! It was so beautiful and I was in Aww! People were just chilling by Lake Zurich and swimming in the lake and we got some ice cream and sat by the water and looked at the beautiful scenery. I can only imagine how wonderful it is to have a picnic there, or see the mountains in the winter time. It is so picturesque.

Lake Zurich with the Mountains in the back

Loved this!

Bye bye Switzerland <3

I want to so back at some point! We then headed back to the apartment and got our luggage and left for the main train station and then onto the airport. Mischa and Miri came with us to the main station and we all said our goodbyes. I really liked them and I am so happy I met them. We got some airplane pressure earplugs for me which I put in before we took off. Everything was going so good until about 5 minutes before we landed in Hamburg..my ears had been releasing pressure the whole time until we started descending, then the earplanes making my ears pop and it got to plugged up and painful I started to cry. When we landed I waited 5 minutes and then took them out and I literally could not hear anything. Then every time I swallowed my left ear would pop so painfully then plug up again, I wanted to scream it hurt so bad. I had never had that much ear pain in my life. For the rest of the night my ears popped so bad and I couldn't do anything about it. I got home and went downstairs and cried and cried and laid down some to see if it would help....I later came upstairs to eat and then went to bed.

Friday May 27th- June 1st

Again it has been so busy here and now I am really behind! Shit. Okay here it goes.....

Friday May 27- My host dad's brother (Patrick) and his parents came here for the weekend. Patrick is actually lives in North Carolina but their parents live in Bonn. That night I decided I wanted to go out with some friends but Cece and Julia were already busy so I choose to go with some au pairs I had not met before that were on a Facebook I am part of. Let's just say the night didn't go how I wanted it to...the girls knew each other to well that I felt left out 95% of the time, and none of them really talked to me unless if it was the usual aupair questions, "do you like your family?" "how many kids are you watching?" "and how long are you staying here?" Let's just say I was ready to leave early that night.... I left around 11:30 but when I got to Altona to get on my bus the bus only went to Schenefelder Platz which meant a 1.5 mile walk home after the bus ride... I really wasn't looking forward to that! I wasn't to pleased with my night in general. But the next night made up for it definitely.

Saturday May 28
BBQ today! Wow it was fun! Lots of good food and I got to meet a lot of my host families friends. Later that night around 8 pm Cecilia and I left the BBQ to go meet Julia at Altona then we all went up to where Cece lives so she could get around and we were on the Reeperbahn an hour later:) BUT Cecilia forgot her ID at her house and she lived to far away to go back and get it...so we did get into a club without it...we got some shots and soon Julia was drunk^^ But then surprisingly I got a phone call from Hannes asking me if we all wanted to go to his friends house to hangout for a while and then go back to the Reeperbahn later that night. So we did and we all left. So we all hungout at his friend Davids for a few hours and drank and smoked some cigarettes (and for the days following my throat hated me for that). Cece and I ironed David's shirts for him....I didn't know I could be so helpful drunk haha. Then at 2 we left for the Reeperbahn and danced in a bar/club until 3:30 or so. It was so damn hot in there! And when we were leaving everyone went there separate ways...lucky for my the freaking bus only went to Schenefelder Platz again so another 1.5 mile walk for Ash. But this time it was light outside as it was 4:30 am! I was home at 5 and ready to sleep!

Sunday May 29th

I only got 4 hours of sleep and I was up...I went to church with my host family again along with the family that was staying with us. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out at home and drinking some more with Patrick....Grapefruit beer is freaking good too! I was definitely ready to sleep that night!!

Monday May 30th
Monday I did the normal au pair stuff but my host dad had the day off since it was the last day with his family that were here for the weekend. Patrick and I went to some stores and got food and beer, it was so nice and warm this day! Later my host dad, his mom, and Simon and I all went to the Elbe Einkauf Zentrum to look around...it is a huge mall! I really liked it but it was really expensive..they even had a Hollister hahaah. We got ice cream too and later we had Raclette which is a popular dish where you melt some cheese and put things on it too and pour it over potatoes....the cheese is so strong though that I didn't like it very much. I am not used to such strong cheese. Also over the weekend we played some major table soccer which was fun!! the guys got so intense! haha

Tuesday May 31st
My host family parents and brother left to go back to Bonn and I had to leave early that day for my first day of Language classes. The first day was so easy as I knew it would be I knew everything we did and Julia is in it which is even better!! The teacher only speaks German and she also uses a lot of hand gestures. There are 11 people in the class but Cece makes the 11th person but she wasn't there the first day because she was sick. There are 3 Japanese, 1 Chinese, 1 Albanian, 1 Italien, 1 South Korean, and Julia and me. Almost all the Asians can't pronounce anything, I feel bad for them! Julia and I will do the best I know. This is all a refresher for me. My throat was still messed up and then I knew it wasn't just from smoking but I knew I was getting sick.

Wednesday June 1
I had language school again today and again it was really easy. I have to miss class on Friday because we are leaving for Switzerland tonight. Julia and I met a new au pair from Ireland after school but I could only stay for about 10 minutes because I had to pack for the trip that night and go get Simon. Simon and I skyped with my mom while I packed. I knew today I was really sick, my ears were plugged too and I was pretty congested. I took an aspirin before the Taxi picked us up at 7 pm. The Airport in Hamburg is really nice and its weird there are so many clothing shops in european airports...you don't see that in U.S ones normally. AirBerlin is a nice company to fly with, I will definitely fly with them if I can again. It felt weird packing to go somewhere else when I wasn't at my real home in the first place. I was fine when we took off and while we were steadily at one altitude but then about 15 minutes before we landed there was so much pressure in my ears it started to hurt so bad because I couldn't get them to pop (it was from being sick) and I started to cry. It sucked I didn't even get to enjoy the flight because of how much pain I was in. We then met Mischa (Stephan's cousin that we were staying with) and he took me to a pharmacy at the main train station in Zurich so I could get medicine. It was really nice of him. I hungout with everyone for a bit but then I went to bed because I felt like shit.