Kortnie & Cassie VS. Europe.

Its almost that time to start some serious traveling!  In two weeks, Kortnie and I will begin our big trip through Europe and Germany!!  We are going to be all over the place experiencing new things and seeing what kind of trouble we can get into! :)

Below is a list, in order of the places we are going to be going to.  Its not completely final, we are still tweeking some certain cities in countries, but for the most part, this is where we will be!

1. Italy.
    We are going to start our trip in Italy!  We are going to take a train from Munich, Germany into Rome, Italy!  We will be staying in Rome for most of our time in Italy.  However, we do plan on visiting Vatican City!

2. Greece.
    We will be taking a ferry from Italy to Greece and we will arive in a major port (which port still has to be decided).  From the port we will head to Athens where we will be sleeping and staying for the majority of our trip!  We also plan on visiting the city of Olympia and the islands of: Rhodes, Delphi, and Santorini!  On our way out of Greece, we plan on visiting Mt. Olympous!

3. Romania
    From Greece, we will travel north and head to Romania!  We will spend all of our time in Bucharest!

4. Austria
    From Romania, we will head a little more north to visit Austria.  While in Austria we will be visiting the capital of Vienna!  There will be so much culture to see and experience while we are in Austria!

5. Czech Republic
    From Austria, we will travel a little farther north to the Czech Republic!  We will spend all of our time in Prague.  Hopefully while we are there we can check out some of the night life too!

6. Sweden
    From the Czech Republic we travel even farther north to Sweden!  We will be staying in Stockholm for the entire duration we are in Sweden.  Maybe we will see a polar bear or some adorable winter creatures.

7. France
    From Sweden we head down south to visit France!  In France we will be staying in Paris.

8. Portugal
    From France we head to Portugal!  In Portugal we will be staying in Lisbon!  We will once again be in the sun, and I will hopefully loose my pale complexion!

9. Germany/Norway
   After Portugal, Kortnie and I part ways for about 10 days.  She will be heading back to Germany to be with her family that has come to visit her!  I will be heading to Norway to stay with a group of friends!

10. "Dirty South"
     Once we are reunited, we will head down to southern Germany!  We will be staying in: Munich, Nurnburg, and Frankfurt.  We want to see the black forest, Salzburg, Dachau, Triberg, and the castle that inspired the Cinderella castle!

11. Denmark?
      After our time in southern Germany, we are thinking about possibly traveling to Denmark.  Our minds are not made up on this yet!


Sooo!  I will try to update with daily activities from each day during out trip!  Keep your eyes out looking! :)

List of things I would rather do than homework.

My top ten list of things I would rather do then start my Political Psychology project.

1. Troll people in the library.
     Calling people out by name while sitting off a balcony and watching their reactions...priceless.

2. Imgur/Stumbleupon
    Self explanatory.  I would rather dedicate my time to the random knowledge and general         awesomeness that awaits me on the Internet.

3. Open a beer.
    Once again, self explanatory...Studying drives me to day drinking.

4. Speak perfect denglish.
    "Wir haben drei dingos in my backyard."  I like dingos, they are kind of cute.

5. Talk about how angry Germans get when you speak incorrect German with them.
    Saying things like "Danks" and "Bitts"don't seem to be socially acceptable.

6. Creep on people walking by.
    I like to watch  people do their activities and be intrigued, puzzled, and mortified at what people do in public.

7. Listen to emily talk about her "emotions"
    I kid you not, this came from her mouth "I want to be a young woman, and an old man at the same time."  Everything is possible in America.

8. Buy a puppy.
    Puppies are adorable.  They are the ultimate time sucking machine.  You can just buy a puppy and play for it with an hour, you have to play with it for the whole 15-20 years it is alive.

9. Stare at hot men that walk by and wish they were shirtless.
   Hot men.  Blonde men.  Blue eyed men. Tall men. These are my preferences...this is what I am seeing.

10. Learn a new language.
      Tried learning Spanish.  Not my thing, but learning Spanish with a British accent?  Challenge accepted.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

I have been wanting to do this post for a while.  However, I did not know how to start it, and I was unsure of what all I would say.  I still do not know what all I am going to write, but once I start writing, I will know exactly what to say.

This post is about the various people I have come to know quite well while living in Germany.  This post will also share with what I have learned from these people too.  Every person you interact with in life will leave an impression on yourself and your character; however, it is up to you to decide if its a negative thing or a positive thing.  I choose these interactions to be positive interactions that help me grow as a person.

Ashley:  Oh the fun and good memories I have with ashley.  I met ashley during international orientation week, and right away we hit it off...must be a midwestern thing.  She took me to my first bar--legally.  We bonded over various beers and the ever popular so-co.  Through the time spent here I have become closer and more comfortable around ashley.  We went to a concert and got super drunk and had a shit ton of fun. :)  One of the most important things I have learned from ashley is pride.  She is very proud of where she comes from and likes to share her fun stories.  I have never really been a real proud person, but the more time I spend with ashley the more sense of pride I have in myself and where I come from.  Having pride in myself opens up more of my personality and forces me to have more self confidence and self love.  I will be forever grateful for having ashley teach me to have pride in myself.

Alex:  Oh alex...I love alex.  Alex is kind, thoughtful, fun, and generous.  He is also very responsible.  I cannot count the amount of times alex has walked me home when I have been completely drunk.  I had the chance to see alex shit-faced last night and I was so happy that he was having fun.  I was even more happy at the fact that I would finally be able to repay all the favors he has done for me.  Alex has taught me to be more of a responsible individual.  Not responsible in a strict way, more of in a way to where I can still have fun but I don't become so drunk I fall all over the place and fall when trying to get up from the last fall.  I love that alex has taught me to be responsible...I just turned 21 roughly three months ago and normally people my age are at the bars getting shit faced with no real care and sense of self responsibility.  In general, I have seen that it takes quite a while for someone to develop their sense of self responsibility.  I am glad that I have met an awesome guy that has taught me a huge life lesson in such a short period of time!

Emily:  I don't even know where to begin with my emily journey.  We have done some stupid shit together.  We tried learning spanish in the library, we made alcoholic cupcakes, and we tend to be drunk around each other a lot.  Emily is quite like me in personality.  We both just kind of say what is on our mind and we don't give two fucks about it.  However, with emily I have learned that I need to speak up more when something is bothering me and, while I do voice my opinion quite a bit, I need to voice my opinion more around friends rather than being quiet.  If I do this, I will be much happier and my communication skills will be bomb.

Kortnie:  Oh where to start with my kor-kor.  We do a lot of dumb shit together that always seems like a good idea until creepy people show up.  We are always followed on buses and trains by some of the strangest characters.  Together kortnie and I have created some sort of a dysfunctional pseudo family.  We love each other to death, but there are times we both catch ourselves thinking about beating the other person up.  With kortnie, it is very obvious that I have learned to be more patient. :)  We are both so different and unique from each other that we have to be patient.  For instance, kortnie doesn't like germs at all.  I don't really care about germs at all.  However, I find myself being more patient around her anti-germ acts than I would with anyone else.  Another example is that I very much like to prove that I know where we are going when we are walking around and I hate it when people question my directions or my overall plan.  Kortnie has called me out on my directions, once.  But that one time I learned the value of being patient rather than becoming flustered.  We both have our little tiffs from time to time, but we cant really go more than 5 minutes without talking to each other.  Kortnie will always be considered a little part of my family, and I will forever be thankful that she has taught me to be much more patient.

Joanna & Joleen:  Joanna and Joleen are my roommates!  Joanna is from Poland and Joleen is from the Netherlands.  These two ladies have been amazing roommates and have put up with my late night drunken antics.  They both teach me about their cultures and it broadens my view and expands my cultural diversity.  I will forever be thankful that I had these two wonderful roommates!


Eduardo:  Edu.  I love having our little side chats when we smoke and I love how no matter what mood I am in, you always lift my spirits. :) We have had a lot of fun together getting drunk.  I think my favorite memory so far is when we went to a club that was having a night centered around the gay community.  We were there for less than five minutes and I managed to get one of the few straight mens phone numbers.  When I told him what had happened, he replied "WE HAVE BEEN HERE LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES."  I love this memory because that night I was able to see him have a really good time and meet some new guys.  Eduardo has taught me to be a better listener when people are talking.  I have never really been much of a good listener, but know when someone needs to vent I am more willing to communicate with them and help them through their issues by listening and responding.

Faye & Tara:  I love you two because you guys saved my life on my first day in Oldenburg.  I have learned from you two, to always help someone in need when they need it.  I used to just brush people off and be think that its not my problem to help them.  However, these two wonderful ladies were complete strangers to me and they did not have to help me.  I now realize how big of an impact just helping a person in need is.

Classical music

I don't know if it's a sign of all the chaos that is happening out there or not, but I've lately craved the structure and order of classical music, the balance and symmetry.

If there is one thing in this world I will never get tired of, it is classical music.  I have performed in many symphonies since I first started playing viola in the fourth grade.  In my sophomore year of High School I switched instruments and started playing the double bass.  I don't really know what made me switch.  I just decided one day to do something new.  I loved playing the bass.  Bass is the most important part to any musical works, it is the most relied on instrument in an orchestra, and it is one of the hardest instruments to master.  The notes on the bass are the lowest notes played by a string instrument, because of the low sound, it is often hard to get the correct tuning when playing or just simply tuning your own instrument before playing.  The bass also has some of the thickest strings too. It is exceptionally hard to move your bow in the precise way to produce the desired note in the desired tone.  It takes an exceptional amount of arm strength to play most bass parts in a symphony.  While it is hard to play the bass, its quite rewarding when comparing the bass to other instruments in the orchestra.  The bass can not only reach the lowest notes, but the bass can also play notes in the same range of a violin.  The tone of playing these notes is much deeper, robust, and darker.  The bass, while a large and in charge instrument, is beautiful and I cannot wait to be home to play mine again.

I love listening to classical music while I study.  I am not interrupted by lyrics, and in many cases, listening to classical music allows me to think more in depth about a certain topic (I have no scientific evidence of this, I am not a scientist.  Its just a personal opinion; however, it has been proven that listening to Mozart while studying not only increases your I.Q. while listening but for 10 minutes after too.  It has also been proven that listening to Mozart while trying to memorize words, ideas, and thoughts, will increase your memory recall making it easier to memorize your subject matter.).  When I am not studying I still find myself listening to classical music too, one of my favorite times to listen to classical music is right before bed.  :)

Some of my favorite works of all time are:

Dmitri Shostakovich: string quartet number 8 in c minor

Smetana: Ma Vlast Moldau

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet suite

Mahler: symphony 1 "Titan" Movement 3

Schubert: Unfinished Symphony

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in b minor

Mozart: Requiem

Antonin Dvorak: Requiem

And there are so many more that I have played that I cannot remember at the moment to type them here. :P  While most of the pieces are fun to play, the history behind the pieces is just as entertaining.

decisions.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I ended up where I needed to be"

I am an impulsive decision maker.  I make my decision within a few brief minutes and stick to the plan until the end.  Being an impulsive decision maker has always helped me in all situations.  I am able to think on my feet and act quickly and rationally without dealing with the stress of a situation.  My impulsive decision making has no doubt, caused others to question my decisions and attempt to destroy the validity of my decisions.  


One of my more infamous impulsive decisions was my decision to come to Germany.  I was just starting my second semester of my sophmore year of college in Vermillion, SD.  I was so sick of South Dakota and being suffocated by my family.  I decided that I needed a break of some sort.  I did not want to take an official break from college, if I took an official break I would have to start the never ending cycle of repaying my student loans.  So, as I was sitting in my German class, tired and delusional from a lack of sleep, I decided that I should go to Germany.  Right after that class, I went down to see the Global Learning department of my school and received all the "necessary" paperwork for studying abroad.  I filled it out and turned the paperwork in on time.  I never really thought that my trip to Germany was going to be real.  When I told my friends they were all excited and I was passive the whole time explaining it.  For a while after I told my family and friends, whenever I was asked about my trip I just brushed it off and gave a mediocre answer with little to no enthusiasm.  I didn't think it was actually going to happen.  I had an emotional breakdown the week before I left.  I had finally realized that I was going to be leaving for a full year and that this trip was real.  I cried, smiled, and yelled at anyone that didn't do their job correctly (sorry call center operators at verizon, my health insurance company, aerie, and many other people in real life.  It should also be noted that during this time I was also helping my mother and step father move to a new house while working two jobs.).  I was stressed and excited.  Not the best combination for me.

Long Plane rides blow.  Not sleeping on long plane rides blows even more.

Getting lost trying to find the Hannover train station made me cry.  But it was kind of funny.

Not having my buddy pick me up or meet me at the train station in Oldenburg, pissed me off.

So I arrived in Oldenburg: tired, emotionally upset, pissed off, and lost.

However, I did manage to find my way with the help of two wonderful women.  I was a hot mess, and they didn't care.  I have never been as happy as I was when someone was helping me find my way to my new home.  After the whole traveling fiasco I thought this trip would be alright.  I was still pissed off, I like to hold grudges when people cant do the job they sign up for.  Anyways, with every passing day, my trip to Germany got better and I started getting happier.

I cant pinpoint the exact day I realized that coming to Germany was probably one of the best decisions I have made.  But there is no doubt that I definitely needed to come to Germany to get away from everything and focus on improving myself.  My mindset has changed.  I find myself more curious about the people around me and I find the culture around me fascinating.  I even find the culture of the United States to be decent.  I have yet to think anything new on South Dakotas' culture.  Words cannot describe the immense changes I have gone through as an individual since travelling to Germany.  I do know one thing though, "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I ended up where I needed to be."

*Cassandra