München

Hello!

I am going to Munich this weekend! Booked it all today. Rather spontaneous, but it should be great! I am packing my dirndl. I know Oktoberfest is over, but I really don't care.

Happy Thursday. I am planning on going to German class tonight, so hopefully I will learn some new things. Which will not help at all in Bavaria because their German is supposed to be essentially a whole different language.

Expect a Bavarian post in the near future!

-Michelle

Hey remember that time I almost got kicked out of Germany?(PART 2)

PART 2 check out part 1 here

Hi, I went to the immigration place last Tuesday at 8:00am. There were only a few people in front of me in line. I think the office was actually for work visas and work related things... I waited until the window opened and asked the guy there what I needed to do. Then I proceeded to pull out so many different papers and everytime he asked me anything I would pull out some other random document and look tragic and say 'does this help? I have this random government paper...' He told me that I would need to make an appointment and that the earliest I could schedule one was for November, and then it would be five weeks after that to receive the card that I need to re-enter Germany. I looked sad and he noticed that by then I would already be leaving. So he sent me to some lady and I got some stickers to put in my passport, I don't know why they wouldn't have just suggested that first... They needed a passport photo and I didn't have any so I used the photoshopped christmas card photo I have been using for other documents here and the lady looked at me like I was a freak and asked if I had any options where I wasn't showing my teeth. oh well. got the stickers and she said I would be able to come back to Germany through December 31.

This week I have been planning a bunch of trips because I just realized I only have 9 more weekends here. that is not enough time! Malia and I are going to Vienna in November. I also want to go to: Munich, Poland, Budapest, Istanbul, Belgium, Prague, Florence, Edinburgh. I might have time for them as I have 3 vacation days left. I am going to be soooo burnt out. Everytime I start to look into information about a place I find some other place that also looks amazing. I think I will have to move back to Europe after graduating. Though the current plan is an Australia/New Zealand trip. Which will lead to a South America trip, Eastern Europe trip, Africa Trip, possibly Asia trip. Sooooo busy busy. I really need to find a corporate life sponsor. If any corporations are reading this and would like someone to travel around and casually promote them/ embody their brand... let me know!

I am considering basing my capstone project on becoming a brand and securing a corporate life sponsor. I have no idea if that fits for capstone because for some reason, no one at the school will tell us what capstone is. Might need to find that corporate sponsor sooner than I thought because I will have to drop out of school. Trying to find something to do this weekend, might not be able to go very far because flights are expensive last minute. Does anyone have any suggestions? or know of a good website for discount last minute flights? It seems like some airlines might have cheap seats left if they are trying to fill the flight...

Sorry for the huge delay between posts, I have been watching internet television and planning my life.
Happy wednesday!

-Michelle

Hey remember that time I almost got kicked out of Germany?

okay, so I am allowed in the country: here is part one:

PART ONE:

Blegh,

So tomorrow I may be kicked out of Germany, so tonight I am drowning my sorrows in candy and internet television.Thursday as I was leaving Hamburg to go to London for Harry Potter(amazing by the way, I'll cover that in a different post, possibly from the US if the Germans kick me out) the border control man made some comment about only staying in Germany for 90 days, and that I might be over my limit... I was confused by this as my paperwork was processed through a German company and included a work visa waiver for six months and I registered with the city of Hamburg through December(remember all the struggles with becoming a Hamburger.) Well after than encounter, I half-joked that I wouldn't be allowed back in Germany on Sunday. I figured if he took the time to mention something about 90 days and that I wasn't allowed, there would probably be another issue soon. Tom thought that if there would be a problem, that guard would have mentioned it then. Sunday, arrived back in Hamburg around 10:30am and got in the line to go through the border control passport thing. The guy started counting and determined that I have in fact been in Germany too many days and told me to go wait in a corner. Germany is one of those Schengen countries so people from many other areas are allowed to visit for a total of 90 days without a visa. I was hoping it was 90 days in a row, and that every time I left the country they would start over... but unfortunately it is 90 total days every six months. The border man counted 100 days in Germany and then went to go look up some stuff in a secret room. Tom came back and started talking with the guy and the words I could understand turned in to something like: "back go london wait forbidden 100 too many no germany" NOT promising. After an hour or so the guy let me into the country after I promised to go to the Ausländerbehörde(Immigration Office) within the next week or so... I'm hoping that he could see my Meldebestätigung(becoming a Hamburger registration) and tax ID things and determined that I am not a sneaky criminal trying to live in Germany illegally for funsies. I hope whoever I meet with tomorrow is as nice. So I got back to my apartment and started gathering all of the paperwork things I had. I was under the impression that the forms from the German visa processing people were linked to my passport number and that I wouldn't need anything else. When I emailed the company today, my contact was on holiday, but another lady told me that "you´ve forgotte to go to the “Ausländerbehörde” to apply for your “Aufenthaltstitel” immediately afer you got your “Meldebestätigung”. These informatiosn were given to you and to the hostcompany…" soooooo no, actually that information was not given to me or my host company, or I would have done that the same day. Then she said that the information was given to me during my time in Cologne... if you remember I was in Cologne for a grand total of 4 hours with Morgen and we went to a chocolate museum and climbed a billion stairs to the top of the Dom, no one snuck me information about not getting kicked out of Germany. I think that they thought I was part of the engineering group who had a welcome week in Cologne and learned how to be German, but I came here by myself. I would have hoped for some instruction from their company with the paperwork, but all I was told in my email correspondence with them prior to arriving that it was a work visa waiver and that my employer would have the paperwork. Also, I am confused why Hamburg let me register to live here using the dates July 7-December 20, 2012 if I wasn't legally able to stay in Germany for that long... or why I was allowed to get a tax ID number to be paid by a German company if the work visa waiver was never filed with the residency people. Everything is difficult.So tomorrow I am going to the immigration place and hopefully they are nice. Otherwise, I guess I will see you all in the states soon.

____

more later

A few pictures from the best day ever

Here are a few pics from the Harry potter studio tour. Uploading from my phone, sorry if they look weird. This tour was EXCELLENT!!!!

Part 2: How painted horses and more acceptable that zebras

Okay, now that I have had some Käsespätzle I feel ready to continue...

We left Harrods and headed to the train station to hop on the Eurostar to Paris. My dad was super pumped about going through the chunnel or something and then slept through the whole thing. We had delicious Marks and Spencer salad meal things that Amy and I ate a ton of last summer. Nomz.

8. Paris

9. Hotel sneaking

We got to Paris and got over to our hotel, I had to wait outside and sneak in later because once again I was not a real guest. *That sounds bad, but really it was great because I felt like a spy in stealth mode*

The hotel was very close to the Eiffel Tower so we walked over there and looked at it for a bit. It did its spastic sparkle thing on the hour for five minutes and the creeps tried to sell us champagne, wine, beer, water, keychains, cigarettes, babies, monkeys, drugs, themselves, everything in the world.

10. Walking Tour

The next day we did a walking tour and saw some of the major things: some street called the fishing cat street or something because cats used to fish in that street when the city flooded and French people are creative....Notre Dame, Louvre, other museums, egyptian pillar obelisk thing and more. Then came this:

11. more walking

12. more walking

we did SO MUCH WALKING. We only realized the extent of the walking when we got to:

13. Top of Tower

We went all the way to the top and looked at all of the Parisian things, and charted our walking and it was IMMENSE. and thennnnnn I used the bathroom at the top and I think that was the tallest bathroom I have ever used. (except on planes, but still) THRILLING. Also, these Paris things are out of order because I think we did the Louvre before the Top of the Tower. and before MK+A so we'll get back to that.

15. Louvre

Went in the Louvre and looked at the art things and I had to see this stupid lady again:

Mona's hot younger self on the left. More about that here, and everywhere on the internet.

14. MK+A

After looking at the things, we did the walking because I think the Louvre was in the middle of that and then later on we did some fencing with baguettes in front of the Eiffel Tower. I'll add photos later...

16. D'Orsay

Next day we stored our luggage at the train station then went and looked at the Musee D'Orsay and saw some Degas, Renoir, Monet things. I liked the Degas sculptures. We also went and walked around Montmartre and went in the Sacre Couer, I don't remember when this was, but I illegally took this photo(shhhhh, don't tell anyone, internet people):

We also went in the Notre Dame, again not sure when this all fit in to the Paris timetable...

17. Night Train

That night we took the night train to Hamburg from Paris. There was a mix up and Deutsche Bahn attached the wrong sleeping car to the train and we had a slightly less plush sleeping car. Still cool though. The train guy was ultra german and he tried to explain the whole ordeal to me in German because I answered his 'Do you speak German?' question with 'a little' mistake. He had to re-explain in English.

18. Hamburg

We arrived in Hamburg around 9 am and headed to my place to drop off our things. We wandered around the schanze for a little bit and checked out the weird people before heading to the city center to do some shopping and eating on Mönckebergstraße. I got a new coat for my birthday! Now I won't freeze. (20. Shopping for everything)

19. Apartment

We headed back to my neighborhood to check in to the apartment we rented. The apartment was HUGE. It had a living room, kitchen table room, and large bedrooms. My bathroom was nicer though, toilet and shower in the same room! It was interesting to compare the two apartments. 

21. walking tour/Hafen City

We did another walking tour in Hamburg. I liked this tour guide more than the last one I had in Hamburg. Despite his weirdly giant pants... We saw all the things and then wandered around the Hafen City... we made it down to the Unilever buidling, which looks a bit weird on the outside, but has a cool atrium. After some internet searching we learned that it is a suuuuuuper green eco building and has won awards for that. Get it Unilever.

22. ferry boat

We took a ferry boat taxi metro public transport boat trip around for a little bit(2 HOURS!) It was freezing but there were some entertaining German children at our table. I was eating a granola bar and they were watching me and then pulled out some cookies and candy. You showed me, children. You win.

22.5. Fischmarkt

Don't know why this wasn't on the list. We did soooo many things my brain is mush. We got up super early Sunday morning to head over to the Altona Fischmarkt. It is a huge deal in Hamburg. The fish people sell the fish to drunken partygoers and early risers. There was also delicious waffles, baked goods, pasta, clothing and an auction hall with a live band. I have been to the Fischmarkt once before but I was in the other category of visitors last time, so this was a whole new, much colder, experience. 

23. Blankenese

We headed to Blankenese on Sunday. It is the Treppenviertel stair town stair quarter stair something... It was cute! lots of stairs and winding streets that lead to the water. It reminded me more of Italy than Germany so that was interesting. In one of the stores there, this was on the wall:

I'm pretty sure that was real. blegh. poor little guy. I'm telling myself it was a painted horse, somehow that makes me feel better about it.

24. Hamburger Meile

Monday we hit up the Mundsburg center and Hamburger Meile shopping mall. It was GREAT! We bought shoesssss. I posted this on facebook:

Parents are doing Europe RIGHT! I also got some new boots to help with the winter and horrible weather, some cool high top sweater tennis shoes and some cool heeled short boot shoe things(photos soon). Also bought a pair of black ankle boots to replace the pair I bought last year in Amsterdam, but they are suuuper squeaky and loud, so I am going to try to return them tomorrow.

25. Wheelie

26. Future fabulous life

These two really go together. Wheelie is the three-legged dog I will have in my future life. It was determined that my future life will be fabulous and expensive and I will have a lot of excellent leather luggage and purses and wallets and things and an adorable three-legged dog with a wheel named Wheelie. This is super important to me.

BONUS

We ate so many delicious things over this trip. Breads, more breads, delicious potatoes from this place near me, must go back often, beers, wines, noodles, cheeses, desserts(mom and I had waffles for dinner at this place in London, YUM!) 

and then Dad ordered this:

It is a pig knuckle. And it had hair on it. Sooooo there's that. Good beer though.

8. Paris

9. Hotel sneaking

10. Walking Tour

11. more walking

12. more walking

13. Top of Tower

14. MK+A

15. Louvre

16. D'Orsay

17. Night Train

18. Hamburg

19. Apartment

20. Shopping for everything

21. walking tour/Hafen City

22. ferry boat

23. Blankenese

24. Hamburger Meile

25. Wheelie

26. Future fabulous life

Okay, so that's the end of the trip! They headed home with suitcases packed full of shoes and wine and candy and presents and things... I had a great time! See you guys for Christmas!

I will hopefully upload some more photos soon! Still need to transfer them from my camera... and now that I have home internet I should probably post some more photos from the last 3 months... but I just keep watching internet television. Caught up on White Collar! and now all the Fall shows are starting, I don't know how I will make time for it all...

Happy almost birthday to me!

22 just sounds so much more real that 21. Maybe it's time to start looking for Wheelie

I need to hibernate

Okay, Hi!

*I posted this earlier and the formatting was crazy, hopefully this is better*

Not on the list:

My birthday is approaching. Huzzah. I have plans to make a delicious birthday treat on Sunday to bring to work Monday. Duh, it's Puppy Chow. I bought some German peanut butter. or Erdnusscreme... here's hoping that works... Also after Sunday I can say 'Ich bin zweiundzwanzig Jahre alt.' score.

I am also planning a trip to Florence to buy leather goods for my future fabulous life(#26, more later). I will try to mix in some other cultural things, but I think the leather markets count as culture, and really I just want to buy leather things. If I like you, maybe I'll buy you a present. But I will probably selfishly buy a billion things for myself.

I have home internet now and it is AMAZING. Bad timing though because it is approaching hibernating season and now I have a great reason to stay in bed all day and watch internet television and never go outside. Also yesterday I accidentally(on purpose) bought a TON of candy... stockpiling for the winter, it will most likely be gone by Sunday. Tomorrow I have made plans to attend a fitness class though, so I think it's fine. Also, fitness class!! Who am I?!

I went to German class last night and I wasn't too lost... We are learning more about grammar and tricky language things that I can't really handle in English... soooooo we'll see.

alright, time to tackle the list... these things seem like they happened sooooooo long ago.... sorry if it is jumbly and virtually incoherent(but really, aren't all of my posts jumbly and incoherent?) 

0. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

I bought this book after seeing it twice in the airport. I didn't know I would have internet, so I didn't want to wait and buy the Kindle edition. Also the book cover is nice. 

I am about halfway through this book and it is GREAT! This super old man decides to ditch his 100 year birthday party and then shenanigans occur. Murder, elephants, death by elephant... it's great. Get it. Or wait until December 19th and you can borrow it from me.

1. london luton

2. london hotel

3. sleeping on the floor like a high-class hobo

Combined: 

I flew into London Luton airport and the border control guy was mad at me because I didn't have the address written down on my entry card. I took a bus to a train to another 2 trains to get to the hotel. The hotel was SWANK. I am glad I brought my leather duffel bag instead of my backpack. I still felt like I didn't belong though. Maybe in my future life. I was not techincally allowed to stay at the hotel since the room was booked for 2 people and I slept on the floor on a bed of throw pillows lined up. They were about 2 inches wider than my body. I probably should have moved in to the bathroom because there was a tv in there and heated floors. Now I know for next time. 

4. changing of the Horse Guards and Mitt Romney's prancing dancing pony

Saturday morning we went to go see the changing of the Horse Guards, which looked a lot like Red Rover for a little bit. I entertained myself by making up conversations between the horses... one looked like he was struggling. must have been out too late the night before. Pictures and captions to follow. I think it would have been more entertaining to watch Mittens' pony dance around, but I'll take what I can get.

5. London Bridge

6. London Tower

*bonus: Tate Modern Revisited, Chipotle, Harry Potter Bridge

We walked around London some more and I wasn't allowed to eat Chipotle. I am going back to London this Thursday–Sunday, so I plan to eat Chipotle at least 12 times. We ended up walking around the water and going in the basement of St. Paul's, I made the mistake of going in the Diaper changing bathroom stall, the things I smelled in there will scar me for life. We walked across the London Bridge(this might all be in the wrong order) and looked at the London Tower compound/area. My mom said she read somewhere(or made up) that the workers get to live in some rooms in there. Could be cool, or super creepy, or both. We then went in the Tate Modern because it is free and full of hilarious things. My favorite piece: a mirror glued to a canvas was still there. Also I'm pretty sure I saw someone I recognized from Cincinnati, if that was you.... let me know. It was on September 15th.

7. Harrods

Harrods is GIGANTIC! and super fancy. I found a lot of things for my future life. Like spectacular Burberry trench coats. Yum. The sales lady recommended that we go to the Toy World when I asked her which part of the store was the best.

I bought these. and paid way too much for them apparently. But look how cute they are!

Okay, time for lunch. I will write more later... but this should keep you all occupied for now.

0. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared

1. london luton

2. london hotel

3. sleeping on the floor like a high-class hobo

4. changing of the Horse Guards and Mitt Romney's prancing dancing pony

5. London Bridge

6. London Tower

7. Harrods

8. Paris

9. Hotel sneaking

10. Walking Tour

11. more walking

12. more walking

13. Top of Tower

14. MK+A

15. Louvre

16. D'Orsay

17. Night Train

18. Hamburg

19. Apartment

20. Shopping for everything

21. walking tour/Hafen City

22. ferry boat

23. Blankenese

24. Hamburger Meile

25.Wheelie

26. Future fabulous life

not really a real post...

Hi people!

things I need to blog about:

0. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared
1. london luton
2. london hotel
3. sleeping on the floor like a high-class hobo
4. changing of the Horse Guards and Mitt Romney's prancing dancing pony
5. London Bridge
6. London Tower
7. Harrods
8. Paris
9. Hotel sneaking
10. Walking Tour
11. more walking
12. more walking
13. Top of Tower
14. MK+A
15. Louvre
16. D'Orsay
17. Night Train
18. Hamburg
19. Apartment
20. Shopping for everything
21. walking tour/Hafen City
22. ferry boat
23. Blankenese
24. Hamburger Meile
25.Wheelie
26. Future fabulous life