Introductory Note from 2024: These posts were from a Blogger blog I maintained between 2005 and 2006 while studying abroad on the Junior Year in Munich. Unfortunately, my blogger export back then did not save the titles or dates of the posts (though it did, annoyingly, preserve the time of day), so unless comments were left on the post, I don't have exact dates. The photos are small because computer screens had smaller resolutions back then and my digital camera that year - a Canon PowerShot S1 IS - accordingly had a sensor capable of a whopping 3 megapixels. I have anonymized names and personal info in most cases. Left the spelling mistakes. There are lots of them.

A drawing of myself from June 2005

~June 24, 2005

Well, I was going to make my own website for Munich, posting entries and allowing my friends and family to comment.... But why reinvent the wheel? So welcome to my Blog! Friends and Family: Please feel free to leave questions/comments/etc by clicking "comments" under my posts. Everyone else: You can leave comments/questions too, but nothing inappropriate - I will delete anything offensive. I won't be posting very much in June/July/August - this blog is for Munich, and that isn't until September. These three months are pretty much covered by two words: work and money. I can't wait until September!

Today is one of those icky days where I have to work @ both of my jobs. In order to raise money for Germany (I'm 9 grand short!), I work at both a public school system, as a computer technician, and I work at Wal-mart, where I am mostly a cashier (but they keep sticking me as door greeter for extended periods of time). From 8:30-12:00 today I was at the schools, I'm at home now, and from 2-11:00pm I'll be at Wal-mart. My employment with the schools ends June 30 (end of the budget year), and I don't want to leave it (the people are much more enjoyable and the pay is better, but I am really looking foward to having days off. I've worked 7 days a week without break since Memorial Day.

"Dritte Frage: Was machen Sie nach Feierabend? Ich kenne das Wort Feierabend nicht mehr - an meinem fünfzehnten Geburtstag strich ich es aus meinem Vokabular, denn am Anfang war die Tat." - "Es wird etwas geschehen" von Heinrich Böll

Today was Mr. S's (my boss and friend at the schools) birthday. I won't say his age, but I got him a Mini-Robosapien (you can't program it, but it walks). If I were (a) rich (man - da da da dee, da da da dee dum), I would have gotten him the big one, but he liked it all the same. Why am I posting when I said don't expect posts in June/July/August? - to get in the habit of it. I have to do something for like 2 months straight in order to ingrain it into my skull. Unfortunately, this also means that I get up at 6:30-7:00 even without my alarm, thanks to work. It completely has killed being able to sleep in.

Well, working at Wal-Mart's was just *great* tonight... I was checking out this girl, and I ran her check through the machine, and my register started giving me wierd messages. Called my supervisor over, she restarted it, came back with the same wierd messages. Then she went to unlock my drawer so that I could move to another register (we were in the middle of a rush), when the lock broke. So my drawer is still locked in there, even now. Plus I had the usual rude/strange customers. For instance, this older guy (late 50's ?) did the self -check outs (they had me supervise those since I couldn't log in - the computer still thinks I'm on that broken register) and said "Thank you nice American lady... You like your job? Your boss mean? Your boss beat you? Good your boss no beat you... etc." Needless to say, I have a really big headache right now. Plus, I have to get up really early to haggle with the MU financial aid people tomorrow (Please, Sir, I want some more....)

Well, after talking with the financial aid lady, I've decided to take out a $4,000 loan from MU. I could have taken out higher loans, but then the interest rates would have been bad (college student = no credit) and I would have had to have started paying interest now. I won't get interest on this until 6 months after I quit being a full-time students (which will be a long while - grad school!), so I could pay it off before the interest starts. I will still be a bit short, but I think it will be manageable:

Add small contribution from my parents and I think we're good to go. I may still have to get a part-time job over there, but hey, it will be a lot less hours than I've worked the past year and a half. I didn't break anything at work today, either. 🙂

Today was blah. Got up. Went to work. Work was slow. Tried to get my parents to watch I (Heart) Huckabees. Poor reception. Realized that I miscalculated on my sweater that I'm knitting. Too small. So I switched to this other project I was working on... knitted top (no. 5) from the Winter 2004/05 issue of VOGUEknitting. Doing it in a wierd greenish cotton instead of the expensive silk the pattern calls for. Double checked the measurements. Nothing really interesting today...

I worked at Wal-Mart again today. It was slow. By the time I got home, and got dinner, it was almost 8:00. What a productive day.... Tonight I played a board game with my brothers (Fairly Oddparents!). And then I began the long, arduous task of cleaning my room. Deadlier than the Black Beast of Aaargh!!! or the White Rabbit with Sharp, Pointy Teeth!!!! It's going to have to be a two-night project, I'm afraid. I have straightened my bookshelves and my DVD-shelf, and have cleared a section of floor. Tomorrow I'll do the clothes (shudder). I would do it all tonight, but I have to get up early (and it's already 11:53) to turn in my loan papers and head to work. This is my last week at the schools, with two and a half days of work there (Tomorrow, 1/2 on Wed., and Thursday). It's very depressing (Mr. S is really down about it), but on the other hand, I really want a day off. I can't wait until Friday!

Well, I turned in my loan papers today. Then I had some complications with Truman: they weren't sure if I was studying abroad, as they didn't have any record of billing me, how much to bill me, or anything. It was such a hassle trying to straighten out what I thought was supposed to be a simple, already-taken-care-of ordeal: Wayne State bills Truman, MU bills me, MU sends their portion to Truman, Truman bills me the rest. This complicated order is MU's fault - I have to be billed by Truman (an MU-Partner Program school) in order to get financial aid and credit for my studying abroad (as Wayne State is not an MU-Partner Program School). Well, Truman just had a hiccup, I guess, and isn't sure how to handle me. I hope they straighten themselves out soon... I also learned today that my friend, S2, Mr. S's daughter, who is currently in Costa Rica on a school-led trip, had an exciting adventure this weekend that was in the national news this year. They were at a famous waterfall, when they had sudden rain upstream, resulting in a flash-flood that left her clinging on a boulder for 3 hours while the rescue workers worked to save them. Whew! It's scary (she could have died) but neat at the same time (she has no injuries, and how many people can say that they've been through that!) From A.M. Costa Rica (Monday, June 27): Meanwhile, in La Fortuna de San Carlos, some of a group of 25 U.S. tourists from Missouri required rescue assistance when a slug of water in the Río La Fortuna caught them off-guard Friday while they were bathing at the well-known waterfall south of the town. Also, Mr. S has named his mini-Robosapien (who makes snails look like Nascar drivers!) George (think abominable snowman on the bugs bunny cartoons - "I'm going to name him George and hug him and squeeze him and pet him....")

Today was my Mutti's (Mommy's) birthday! I got her a DVD of The Three Amigos (for those of you who haven't seen it, it's a plethora - tee hee - of silly antics from Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short as actors turned western heroes - pretty funny) and a fun Clue! based birthday card. Other than that, work (3.5 hours at the schools and 9 hours at Wal-mart). Mr. Stickney and co. were onery today (but I suppose that they must try to get as much of "teasing me" out of their systems these next two days - last day tomorrow). Wal-mart was slow. Pathetically, why-the-hell-am-I-even-here slow. (Maybe the heat? 98 degrees!) After my lunch, they had me cover Garden Center for her lunch, and then Sporting Goods for his lunch, taking up a total of an hour and a half. In that entire time, I had one customer. That's it. After that, they put me in deli to help clean up (me in a hair-net and apron - ah!!!). I also played around with Apple's new podcast feature on iTunes - I'm now listening to "Schlaflos in München (random topics - this week was the fact that Munich is the fastest city in Germany, meaning it has the highest speed limits and takes the least amount of time to cross via car - she has a very smooth, cool sounding voice) and "Kino im Kopf" (movie reviews - also broadcast from Munich).

(Comment from Mr. S.): I beg your pardon Don't you think that onery is a bit strong. I prefer to think that I was MILDLY annoying. 🙂 Atreju hasn't posted yet today but she destroyed her wardrobe at work using a tube of Liquid Nails. A bit drastic if all she wanted was a new wardrobe. Kidding aside, I did feel bad that she had these problems due to a project I assigned. (sigh)

As Mr. S has already mentioned, today I took a stab at carpentry. 🙂 It was my last day of work at the schools, and I was putting up grey lining at the bottom of our cabinets with Liquid Nails. Since I had to work in the 3-inches of space under the edge of the cabinets, I was lying on the floor. Well, the lining looks great. Really great. But somehow I managed to Liquid Nail my clothes. My pants ended up with the entire right-front pocket Liquid Nailed, my Lord-of-the-Rings T-shirt got Liquid Nailed on the back (One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to *splotch* Them All), and even my light blue tank top I was wearing underneath got Liquid Nailed on the bottom edge. I also Liquid Nailed my elbow, but that came off. The clothes got pitched. People who know me well were not all that surprised. Ah well, I was planning to go clothes shopping next week - I think I'm going to move it up to tomorrow (or part of it tomorrow, part of it next week - the advantage of next week is that I'll have someone with me - S2 from the Forms and Floods post). My mom's been pestering me about getting new clothes, and I did just get paid. I hate clothes shopping (there are so many things I would rather spend money on...), but I agree, it's gotta be done. New clothes, so I'll look sharp as can be for Germany.

Today I went shopping, dragging along my sister, for new clothes. Altogether, I spent $100 of my own money and $25 of my mom's. I got a top, pajama shirt and jacket from Rue 21, pants from J.C. Penny's, and 2 tops from Maurices. And two soft tacos from Taco Bell. Pepsi no ice. I hate clothes shopping. I also hate how two stores can have the exact same thing, only with their label, and charge $20, $30 dollors difference. Silly. Like my jacket. I paid $20 for it, others like it at other stores ranged from $25-$44-$88. I have also decided to get off of soda. I think it will be much healthier for me (teeth, hydration, the fact that I am increadibly addicted to caffiene - caffiene!!!), although these next couple of weeks will be hell. Wish me luck, and bring on the headaches.

Sorry for not posting lately, loyal fan(s). Nothing interesting, except that I cannot totally quit soda (I lasted around 36 hours before going nuts), so instead I shall simply decrease the amount of soda I drink to 1 a day. Tonight I gotta work in the deli again, following a short stint in stationary. According to my German Futurama Wall Calendar, today was Franz Kafka's birthday. He was born in 1883, making him 122 years old (were that he was not dead of course). That is all.

I started the day off working at Wal-Mart 9--6. Most of the customers, while busy, were really nice, but there are always a few bad apples in every barrel. For example, this lady at the self-checkout starts off complaining that she has to even choose between Spanish and English - this is America, and everyone should speak English. This really made me mad (though I kept my mouth shut) - 1. I'm bicultural myself, and certainly would rather speak German than talk to her, and 2. Has she not ever seen a map of the Western Hemisphere? It consists of North and South AMERICA, where all but 2 countries speak Spanish. It certainly appears that, in fact, if she wants to be an AMERICAN, then she should speak Spanish, but she can also speak French and many Native American languages still holding on, which leads to 3. When we first came to America, did we learn the language(s) already prominent there? No, we shot/diseased/pushed away them. So if we thought it was ok for English to be the big speak around here, we shouldn't yell at the Latinos for wanting to speak Spanish - as point #2 pointed out, they already drastically out number us. Another customer said the same thing later (I again kept my mouth shut), but what really made me mad about this lady is that she asked me how you ring up cherries.

I went to show her (most customers want you to show them - visual learners and tv watchers) and she SMACKED MY HAND away! I was dumbfounded, flabbergasted, didn't know how to react. She said she wanted to be told, not shown (she could have said that without smacking me!) and I proceeded to TELL her how to do it, which took a long time (The button that says ----, no the one down there, on the left, on the bottom left corner, the bottom left corner that says ----, etc).

Following work, I went home and all of us (minus my sister S3 - she had to work) went to Columbia to eat and watch fireworks. We ate at Burger King (A and C played in the playplace), and as we were leaving we saw two hot air balloons landing - Dad drove the car to where they were landing so we could see them up close. At this point, the sun was beginning to set - it would be dark soon, and firework time!

Then it was off to MU to park at the Hearnes Center for the fireworks. We headed to the football stadium, where a lot of people sit to watch the fireworks, but we were only there so J could use the WC. It smelled of Kettle Corn, and there were little kids rolling on the grass and standing in front of the lights, so that their gigantic shadows would play upon the tall pillars. After J made it through the crowded inferno that was the WC, we headed back to the car and Mutti spread out the blanket on the ground.

It really took a while for me to get good results taking fireworks photos - I've never tried it before. So I got a bunch of nothing shots, a bunch of "squiggle shots" (some of which DO look kindof neat - see below), and finally, real fireworks photos! My favorite one is the one on the left here. Following the show, we had to mad-dash it to Mexico, in order to pick up S3 from work on time. All in all, it was a pretty good evening.

Fireworks:

Squiggles:

Today was a slow day, as I didn't have to work, and still have not adjusted to "Days Off." I showed Monty Python and the Holy Grail to one of my sister's friends, who was visiting, because she had never seen it and therefore had not gotten the joke when i said something or other had "sharp, pointy teeth" (with appropriate hand gesture, of course). I also knitted a bit, and internet-surfed. I looked at the website for the Munich Zoo - they have an entire buildling called "The Turtle House". I can't wait - it's also one of the oldest zoos, being founded in 1911. I also looked at the website for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I can't wait for it to come out - I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton, Roald Dahl, and Johney Depp, and, while I love Gene Wilder and the old version, I can't wait to see this version, which is supposed to be closer to the book (i.e. squirels, not geese and the oompa-loompas are not orange with green hair, etc), and of course will be done in Tim Burton's quirky style (Roald Dahl is quirky also, which is why this should work). I also took a peek at the official Roald Dahl website, which is quite fun: every time you visit you are hosted by a different character, such as Matilda, Willy Wonka, or the High Witch (delightfully wicked).

Well, I was scheduled to work 11-3 today, but I ended up working until 4, due to a "situation", as you could say. Apparently this lady got fired (and arrested) from wal-mart for stealing (quite a bit I guess), and today she was in the store shopping. I was forewarned that she would probably go through the self-checks (where I seem to often be stationed) and, sure enough, she did. One of the security associates acted like a customer on another line, the camaras were on her, and I had to play it cool... help her with her problems (everyone has problems on those things it seems), etc. At the end of the transaction, her food stamp card wouldn't work, and so she asked to suspend the transaction so she could use the phone and call the food stamp people. Fearing she'd walk off with the cartload of stuff and a "suspend transaction" reciept, I said she could use the phone at the service desk and walked her, her stuff, and the reciept up to there. I then helped the security associate print off a copy of her transaction at my station so he could make sure she really had rung up everything. This whole spiel (and I don't know if she did take anything or not - what kind of idiot tries to steal from where they got caught/fired/arrested the previous day?!?) ended up going past my go-home time, and by the time everything was over and calmed down, it was 3:45ish. Whew. Other than that, a slow day again. I'm really starting to miss my best friend - she goes to grad school in Mass., but has been out of contact for the last few weeks - went on a trip to England. I think she's back now, just working lots. Certainly hope so, since her trip was going to be mostly in London, and with today's events... And Happy Birthday Robert A. Heinlein (were he alive). Heinlein was born 7. July 1907 in Butler, Missouri and is my favorite science fiction author.

Sorry for the long pause, loyal fan(s), between posts. Not much has happened lately, except for work. Plus I been feeling depressed lately (money issues) and Mr. S's daughter (see Forms and Floods) is horribly sick - has been since she got back. She's been in and out of the hospitals, and fainted late last week. I hope they find out what she has soon and she gets better - I am really shocked their group leader didn't have them take anti-malarial pills, since Costa Rica does have malaria-carrying mosquitoes, as well as a host of other horrible ills. I did get some money changed into Euros - Euros are tinier, more intricately designed, and more colorful than dollars. Really neat. I'm going to Columbia tomorrow for fun (and picking up my parent's drycleaning). I'm going to get some cookies and some yarn.

Still not much happening, loyal fan(s). I'm still knitting my Vogue top and I've added another knit project (a quick one) from knitty.com - the hardcore cardigan. Today I had my eyes examined (getting new reading glasses - but my distance vision is better than perfect! I don't really have focusing problems, I have problems keeping the focus.) I also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today. It was a really good movie. Tim kept it true to the book, but a decent-sized section of his own (Wonka's backstory). I really liked how the Oompa-Lloompa's songs had the lyrics from the book.

It's been a while since I've written. Been busy... working on a secret project for my friend S1. (details to come later), knitting, but mostly working. My parents went to Vegas on business (had a good time), I went to a casino for the first time (Booneville, MO), spent $4 and came away with $6.50 (yes, i'm a wimp, i played the penny slots), and that's about it. My mom is in the hospital right now, having a historectomy (i know that's spelled wrong), it's going good, but she'll be out of it for a bit. A month and two weeks to go until Germany.

Mother's been back home, and somehow dad messed up the internet so that she has internet at her bed, but nobody else in the house does, hence no posts. It's been dull and horrible as I've had work, taking care of her (which doesn't bother me) and everyone else, and entertaining my dad's relatives (which DOES bother me). They RV, and they've come back to our house and will be here for who knows how long (I'll be leaving before they do) and they're at our house everyday most of the day and they like to talk. If we don't humor them, dad (who is very stressed out) yells at us, so... I'm tired and I'm countin' down - 40 days until I go to Massachussetts, 45 until Munich.

I promisie soon I'll update more often.... I leave for Germany in 22 days!!! And I only have 8 more days of work at wal-mart! Whoo! i'm not updating often or naming these posts simply because I still see everybody. Good News: My friends AH and RP got married! My billing troubles with Truman State have been straightened out! My sister S3 got her driver's liscence! Bad News: J moved away all of a sudden (she's 17), after dating her boyfriend for a couple of weeks. 🙁

Well, 4 days to go. Said bye to the S's today, and two days ago to a high school friend. Cleaning up my room - not much left to go, plus I'm now 95% packed. Saw J a few days ago, she seems happy. I'll have more news, etc. 4 days from now, I promise.

Yesterday was a pretty long day! My flight from St. Louis to Chicago was probably the shortest time I've spent on an airplane - it only took 39 minutes. I had gummi bears before the flight, and as we came into Chicago you could see the skyscrapers in front of the lake - probably the tallest buildings I've seen. It was pretty cool. At Chicago, I had to go to another terminal, since my flight to Hartford was a different airline than the one to Chicago. I had to take the train to the terminal and then wait in line and go through security their. It was like waiting in a Disney-world line, long. It took 45 minutes. I was worried I wouldn't make it in time for my flight, but I made it to the gate with 6 minutes to go. Or so I thought. First we were delayed because they were having difficulty getting this old lady (with her oxygen) off the plane from when the plane came in (from Seattle apparently). (Oh - and Mr. S - I saw a Segway in person for the first time at this airport.) Then we all got boarded on the plane and we had to sit on the ground for 30 minutes because there was something wrong with the left engine's starter. I was in front of 3 kids and their dad. They were really cute at first - but things get old after thirty minutes, so by the time we got into the air I was sick of them. And then one of them actually got sick and threw up. To quote Han Solo: "What a magnificent smell you've discovered." Yuck. On the bright side, it was so dark by the time we got to Hartford (9:40 local time) that you could see from the air the city all brightly lit up. Plus United (the Hartford flight) had much more leg room than the American flight. The lady in the same row as me ordered red wine on the flight, and the bottle was really cute - so tiny.

S1's new apartment is nice. It's not in Amherst, but one of the neighboring towns, so while its bigger (2 bedrooms) than her old one, it was actually cheaper. Not that it matters, because it lies on the university bus route. Her roomate is this fun British sorority girl (who is kinda like the Daria of sorority girls) who gets compared to Drew Berrymore a lot (its the chin) and doesn't like commitment - M would like her 🙂 Thursday while S1 was in class (2 1/2 hours - and it was just one class! but it only meets once a week, so its just like my classes in Munich will be) I wandered from the university to downtown Amherst. I visited many shops, and, yes, (guilt rising) did buy a few things. They have this awesome shop called Newberry Comics, which really only sells a few comics, but has used DVDs, CDs, posters, and all sorts of odd little knick-knacks and current pop culture phenomena. They also had the biggest figurine of Silent Bob I've ever seen. I bought a small, heavily laminated poster of A Clockwork Orange (according to a girl from last year, its difficut to find posters except of fine art in Munich), the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack ($5!), and (oh, bliss!) 2 dark chocolate crunch bars. Dark chocolate crunch bars are the best things, and I've still not eaten them yet... let the anticipation build! Friday S1 read a book for class while I browsed her music collection. We didn't do much. We rented a couple of movies and picked up some manicotti from the grocery store. I picked out movies that I liked and she had never seen - we watched The Fifth Element and Dark City. We would have rented the Spongebob Movie too, but they were out. Today we went to downtown Amherst so S1 could get a library book. I brought my camara and took pictures of things for you all to see. The library is really cool, the picture is only of the front (all buildings here have at least 2 additions) - the inside was really cool. Image 4 buildings like this front circuling around a room with a glass pyramid ceiling. Very cool. Later we are going to go watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and eat at A&W's in Springfield, MA. We wanted to see the Corpse Bride, but its only playing on Broadway in New York and tickets are like 10.75 each. Its the traffic that scares us the most. I've also found out that Sonic's does not exist in the Northeast at all! Fast food in general is pretty hard to find. Now for some pictures!

I saw this creepy commercial today on S1's TV as I was watching Nickelodeon for this doll that opens and closes its eyes, etc. that also says things like "Silly Mommy" and "I'm Tired." Well, it also says "I Love You More Than Bunnies" - which I find slighty wierd to say, esp. to one's mommy. We had Burger King today and even though I went into a Barnes and Noble I didn't spend any money. Hooray! Today was national elections in Germany. Results won't be known completely until October though, because Dresden and its surrounding towns had a bit of a roadbumb - one of their local election candidates died, so they have to have elections after a bit to give the new candidate time to campaign. Tomorrow I fly out of the U.S. This could be my last night lying on a couch.