jibberish.

What a great word jibberish. This blog a little different than the rest. Since i have no trip to talk about recently and am finally all "caught up" i feel as though i should really write a post about my time here. What i have learned, how i like it, maybe even a little sappy/cheesy.

When i was a little girl, i thought i was from Mars (yes i will admit that).  My dad asked me how i liked it here (here meaning earth) so far? I responded "It's Stupid." ... i suppose a little side story that i thought i would share.
How do I like Germany: I like it, a lot.

I have been here for 3 months now and have already learned so much about a new culture and more importantly myself. After graduating school you always get the question so what are you doing next?  I chose to be an AuPair, but choosing to be an AuPair has much more meaning than just looking after kids, three beautiful, loving girls in my case. It shows you your strengths and weaknesses and how much growing up i still have to do. Yes, Mom and Dad i will not being having kids anytime soon. I am here to learn about myself, what i love and what i hate, what i need to change and what needs to stay. Signing up for this i knew would not be easy, any change is hard and i will say i was very naive when i thought this would be a piece of cake.

German language:  This was the hardest most difficult part from the beginning and still is. When i first got here i was so overwhelmed, everyone was talking so fast and i didnt know any words but danke, bitte and guten tag. I will say it is better now, but not anywhere where i would like to be. I can communicate with the little girls because my sentences dont have to be correct for them to understand but i want to badly to be able to communicate with the people around me friends and most importantly the family.  I understand what they are saying but when it comes to talking back im literally at a lost for words. I'm currently in my second level of an intensive german course: everyday for 4 weeks. I have learned so much but at times still feel so far from being where i want to be: communication in deutsch. My teacher says i need to be more confident with myself, but I know (and especially my parents) i have never had enough confidence in my learning ability. By January i hope (and my AuPair mother says) i will see a big difference.. only a month away!
... learning any new language is hard, but coming from english does not make it easier, how we pronounce words and how we make sentences does not match german and what i have the most struggle with.... shade (too bad). Ill be so thrilled when one of my blog posts is in a little german!!

A new culture, a new language, a new family: an exciting meaningful experience to say the least. I also have learned what family feels like miles away from home, you appreciate them much more let me tell you.
My dream for so long was to backpack Europe and honestly still is, but right now i know this is what i should be doing. To be fully emerged in a new culture is much more beneficial in my eyes than seeing all the famous world landmarks (though very cool.)  My good friend, Matt, is backpacking Europe and though i am envious of where he is, what he is seeing and the different people he is meeting; every person has a path that he/she takes; this is my path.  Maybe when im 30 ill backpack europe (yes my mind works like i have billions of dollars.)

jibberish thoughts are now starting so im going to end now.

"Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them."

Catching up...

Immediately after Paris i spent a week in the Allgau region- a region very close to the Alps.  We stayed in a house  owned by family friends directly in the mountains.  To get to the house we traveled this 6-8 foot driveway on a cliff... very scary, especially since the first time we drove on it was in the night time. I didn't look right..

This week was so relaxing but a little overwhelming.  German is a VERY hard language to learn (ill get more into that in my next post)... and i listened to a lot of german that week.

We hiked the first day up to this really cool roller coaster that brings you down the whole mountain.  Pia and i went together and the first time we went she kept saying "langsam lauren, langsam!" "Slow, lauren, slow."  Though i wanted to go a bit faster this was a little scary for me as well and i love roller coasters.  You sat in a 2 person go cart; Pia sat pretty much on my lap.  You zig-zagged down the mountain controlling how fast you went, quick turns, quick drops it was quite a mountain roller coaster.
The second time we went was a little different instead of langsam it was schnell schnell lauren! fast fast lauren fast! I took deep breaths and went fast.. it wasn't like i could close my eyes i needed to know when we really needed to slow down. all in all when i act my age it was a lot of fun. A beautiful day.

The second day was a zip lining tour.  a stressful day to say the least.  I was with Pia and one other 9 year old boy everyone else stayed back as the other kids were too small.  It was a lot of fun, but when i say stressfull it was because its hard to explain to a 6 year old how to go about certain obstacles when she can speak little english and you can speak little german (again ill get into this more later). Alex a tour guide working down below the zip lining course became my new friend.. everyone knew that the girl wearing a black sweatshirt and pink sneakers was english... great.  But thanks Alex- you saved me that day!

The next few days were spent hiking, shopping, reading, running. It was so relaxing- though it was hard being without a phone for a week it was nice. The last day we went to the start of the Alps- all of those pictures are on my phone, but boy oh by i can't wait to really go to the Alps- just the start of it was breathaking.  Pictures dont even do justice.
The sun was reflecting on half of the mountain- it was just so pretty i can't explain it- just go to the Alps.

The view and our house we stayed in.

View from the Roller Coaster

Paris: a lot of walking and baquettes

I left early friday morning on a train to Paris to be reunited with my best friend/freshman year roommate Christine Marie O'Shea!
She had SO much planned the whole weekend, exactly what I wanted and needed. We had so much to catch up on and we would be in Paris together- how cool!
I arrive at 12pm on Friday so had all day to tour around the place where Christie is living (she is also an AuPair).  St. Germaine is so beautiful. We started in a garden just walking around and talking and i got my first few of the City of Paris and the Eifel Tower. We eventually sat down at a cafe and had coffee (ok i had a alcoholic drink christie had coffee) and we just talked about everything. We decided we would spend the night staying in with cheese, wine, baquette and macaroons (so good!).
The golf team would be proud, Christie and I ate 2 baquettes in town and then had 2 more later that night, they are just so good.. and we love bread.

our kind of dinner.

We woke up VERY early saturday morning and got into Paris around 10 for a full day of sightseeing. Christie thinks she was a horrible tour guide, and ill admit it wasn't in the perfect order but i saw what i needed to see (still need to go back though). First stop was la tour Eifel. Once i saw it i just couldn't believe i was there.  After taking many pictures we were walking away and i must have looked back with a funny face to only have Christie say to me "dont worry Lauren it is still there." I couldn't help but laugh hysterically: it was just so flippin cool to be in Paris. in Europe.

I can't even remember our exact next stop, i just know we did A LOT of walking.  Christie wanted to try to fit everything all in and i couldn't stop thanking her and apologizing: thanking her because she was such a good hostess, apologizing because she was doing so much walking for me. For all the sites i saw that whole day without a doubt Sacre-Coeur was my favorite.  The view of Paris was so beautiful even on a cloudy day and the church itself is so beautiful.  Christie talked about this so much so i was excited to see it even before i was there, it is her favorite place to and after seeing it, i know why. 

I think its about time i post a facebook album.  I have so many pictures i need to share and its annoying to do it here, aka im lazy to wait that long. On top of the Sacre-Coeur and la tour Eifel, was Notre Dame, Louvre, Moulin Rouge (located on a very kinky sex shop street). Yeah, those are all the popular places but there are so many pictures i have of cool street, breathtaking views and just experiencing life in Paris, France. 

So all in all a fantastic trip.  ate a lot of good food, had a lot of good drinks, and saw some amazing places. I will go back. I have to go back. 

I wish i was a millionaire.

time to be a blogger.

In 4 days it will be November 19th aka i havent written anything in almost a month.  A LOT to catch y'all up on.

Since my 'not-so-seneca wine tour' there has been:
1. Paris
2. Halloween Party
3. Alps/Allgau
4. About to complete my first level of German!

I'll try to write a lot tonight, but we will see.