Oktoberfest!!!!

Yes i went to Oktoberfest and i survived. It was insane! So damned awesome!!!! Ok so here's a play by play. With pictures for those of you with short attention spans. at 4:30am we got on a train from Würzburg to begin our journey to the Oktoberfest in Munich. In total it was about a 4 or 4 and a half hour train ride. Super fun. The ride started out slow and quiet for the most part. But at every stop more and more people in Lederhosen and Durndels got on the train and things got rowdier and rowdier. People were bringing on entire cases of beer at lik 6 or 7 in the morning and running through all of it before we hit Munich. And most people were wearing the traditional German dress. To quote my friend Tom who was with us, "I never felt so out of place wearing a pair of jeans in my life." i mean of course we didnt want to look out of place. we had our own little bit of pre Oktoberfest drinkables. Didnt have too much though. I hate liquer and wanted to save room for the delicious Oktoberfest beer. A couple of pics of us from the train. My fellow New Yorkers, Veronica and Nicole. New Yorkers again with our German/Chicago friend So after a quick changeover we arrived in Munich a little after 830am. Once we got orientated we eventually made our way through the city to the Oktoberfest area. It was so amazing. Soooo many people were there flooding in from all directions. And there were plenty of drunks for it being so early in the morning. But it was sweet as. So we took a couple of pics and then entered the compound. So the way Oktoberfest works is that its like a giant fair. With a big open avenue down the middle and bigs tents and stands on each side of it. The big tents and beer gardens are were all the action is. So you typically want to head for one of those if you want the full experience. It is better to book a table ahead of time for your party. That way you dont have to wander around looking for vaciencies and end up queing up for long periods of time outside the tents and gardens. We didnt have any reservations so we ended up waiting on line for about maybe an hour or so for this beer garden Which we got into. Since we didnt have a reserved table we had to sit outside which was fine cause it was a nice day. We at the ends of two tables across from the asile from eachother. I sat with my good English buddy Tom and the girls sat with our Chicago buddy across from us. And then the fun began! Yea i thought i took some more pictures but i guess i didnt get too many other good ones. Sorry Veronica. So as you can see our giant beer mugs were no laughing matter. One of those full is a liter of beer. And the beer at Oktoberfest is way stronger than any of that wimpy American stuff. Its around 8% proof. Which is significantly higher than most american beers which are more around 2 or 3%. I feel proud of myself that i got through about two and a half of those. Plus a giant delicious German pretzel. But i was pretty gone by the time i stopped. It was crazy. But at least i'm learning to drink like a German. Tom and i sat next to a bunch of really nice Dutch people. They were Prosting every 5 or 10 minutes hahaha. And then across from me was this cool German dude who kept offering everybody Snuff. In my inebriation i tried it a couple of times. It clears out your sinuses but it really bad for your nose in the long run. He kept saying it is obligatory for Oktoberfest haha. Around 330 or so Veronica wasnt feeling too good. We all hadnt had too much sleep the night before and eaten hardly anything. So it all hit her pretty hard so she got pretty sick and wanted to go home. I was starting to be ready to leave at that point too so i stepped up and volunteered to take her home. By the time we were leaving it was even more crowded than in the morning. Almost like Timesqaure during Christmas. But we made it out alright and caught a cab back to the train station. Which ended up a being a free cab because i found 10 Euro on the floor of the backseat. So we caught a train to Nuremburg around 5 and transferred then to a train bound for Würzburg and were back in town around 830. Pretty quiet train rides, except for me losing the Bayern ticket we had all bought it was fine. I think i might have tried to put it in my pocket in Munich and just missed. Oh well. It wasnt that bad to get another ticket from the conductor. We took a cab back to the dorm and i made sure Veronica was alright and made her some Rice and gave her Advil before i headed off to bed. I didnt know how tired i was until i got in my bed and passed out straigt until 11 this morning. Oktoberfest = AWESOME! And not the girls are talking about trying to do it again next weekend to get it right this time. So maybe i'll do it again =) oh and GO PATS!

Bleep Bloop!

So I feel like i'm finally settling in here in Würzburg. I'm sort of into a schedule for getting what i need to get done. I'm getting more and more comphortable speaking in German everyday. I'm still a little homesick, but who wouldn't be in my situation. Meeting lots of cool people Germans and Foreigns alike! I dunno i just kinda feel like things are starting to click in a way for me over here and its a very good thing. Oktoberfest this weekend, Hellz yES pleaSE!!! And spending the holidays in Berlin perhaps?! Can i get an AMEN!

Meine Wochende

So yea its time to shift the mood here. My last post was so depressing geeze. Well it made me feel better to rant about stupid BS fears of mine. But this weekend shut them all down for me. This weekend i had the great fortune to meet and hangout and exchange numbers with a few super awesome Germans. Some of which live in my building. Friday night i hung out with a bunch of kids from the exchange program which was quite awesome. And they some people had invited their German friends which was awesome. So i got to meet a couple of cool Germans that night who kept buying me drinks telling me "You're American, you need to drink more!" haha it was great. Got to hang out with a ton of cool kids from the UK, Ireland, and France. Es war sehr geil. Good Friday. Then last night i hung out with a German friend of friend and a couple of his friends. Which was also a blast. We hit up the Stadtfest in town for a little bit. Then went out to a Disko. The Disko was not really any fun because i really do not enjoy pop music. But it was still fun to be out with some real Germans. And i got to practice a fair amount of my German with him and his friends last night. They all speak really good english too. So we would chat in German for a bit, with me stumbling along, then talk in English. So it was a good time. So conclusion good weekend. And i even got in a bunch of German studying and reading. Gotta love Judith Hermann. Probably one of favorite German writers. I've read one of her books in english then i read it in German back home, and now im working my way through her second book in German. And its pretty damned good. I couldnt seem to find it anywhere in the states but i got it from the library here and it rocks.

ughhh

So feeling kinda shitty today. Didn't go to class this morning, the first time and probably the last. Thought i might catch up on my sleep after a late night. Well no one told those guys doing construction on my building. So i didnt end up getting much more sleep than usual. Oh well. Things are still going here. I'm still trying trying trying to kick my ass to get better at German. Its really hard. And its so easy to get discouraged and almost give it up. Obviously everyone here is better at German than i am because they're Germans. So there really isn't any logical reason why I should let myself get discouraged when everyone is a way better speaker than i am. I'm just sick of asking a question in German and then getting a response in English. And i'm sick of waiters and waitress pulling out the menu and pointing to the thing they think i just ordered. I know i haven't even been here for a month yet. Hell not even really 3 weeks. So there is still plenty of time to get my German up to par. But its so difficult. Especially when i don't really have any German friends here. I'm totally submersed with all the foreign students all the time. I find myself spending most of my time with the other Americans here and the students from the U.K. So of course we're going to be speaking English. Which is unfortunate. So i haven't really had a chance to speak German casually with someone who is a native expect for my teacher during class. I know i just have to keep a positive attitude. I know that i am going to be meeting loads and loads of awesomely cool native speaking Germans when the semester actually starts on October 19th. I just have to use this time wisely to get my grammar up to where i want it to be. I'm trying to do at least an hour of studying every night apart from my Hausaufgaben. My German Professor back in New Paltz is really supportive and offered me some of her words of wisdom regarding getting down the Deutsch, which have been incredibly helpful. So i guess the plan right now is for me to study my grammar every night, watch plenty of German movies and English movies with German subtitles (a new thing i tried and its really helpful), practice my speaking with reading exercises out loud, try and improve my vocab, and seek out opportunities to speak German right now during the pre-semester, and not get so nervous when i do it. So that when the semester really begins i can blow everyone away with my German skills. Thank you internet you are an amazing sounding board.

I'm too sexy......

Yepp that's right i am too damned sexy for everything. Last night me and a bunch of friends went down to the Würzburger Hofbrauhause to see that iconic one hit wonder "Right Said Fred" and i would say they were absolutely ridiculous. Well first off the Brauhaus was this big hanger/garage thingy that i'm guessing is usually set up with lots of tables as a Beer Garden. But last night it was all cleared out with a big stage set up at the far end and lots of little food and beer stands set up along the walls. Really good beer too. So we were all down there and hanging out drinking some beers while we were waiting for "Right Said Fred" to play their only song that mattered "I'm Too Sexy". Which was everything you could expect it too be in a room packed with drunken Germans. It was a good pay off after having to wait through a crappy cover band, that only played old American songs. But it was all worth it for "I'm Too Sexy" HILARIOUS! I think it is very interesting to note that a band like Right Said Fred can actually survive in Germany. I doubt that anyone in the states could name another song these guys did besides Too Sexy. But people last night actually seemed to know all the songs these one hit wonders played. Quite strange. Good night overall. We met up with some other friends of ours at another club and had a couple more beers and lounged around. Vacated around 3 or so and hit the road back to the dorm. Not before getting a delicious Dönner at an all night Dönner stand. My first time actually getting a Dönner. They are really tasty. If you've never had one i highly recommend it.

9/11

So today is 9/11. Pretty much everyone everywhere knows what went down. This year i have spent 9/11 in Germany. Which has been a change. 9/11 in Germany = pretty quiet. Nothing really. No gratuitous amounts of flags. No closing of major transit hubs for one minute. No bells. No being forced to go to mass. Unlike in the states where is all flags and moments of silence. which i dont see the point of. To me lots of flags = facism and moments of silence allow people to dwell on things that hold everyone back rather than focus of fixing more pressing problems of the present. Politics here in general seem to be a little more quiet than in the states. Well probably because they're are a lot less uneducated racists praying for the president to die here. And Germany already has a excellent heath care system that even the ultra conservatives here wouldnt dare speak out against. so yea different =)

FIRST VIDEO BLOG!!!

Ok well i think you can all figure out what's gonna be in this post from the title so BAM! here it is. oh and i had a Falafel today for lunch and was goddamn delicious. I reccomend everyone go out and try one.

Room Tour from Michael Cahill on Vimeo.

Could it be more German?

Could it be more German? I just ate Sushi with a big half liter of beer. Could it be more German? You can get beer here with anything its pretty crazy. Stuff that i wouldnt even think about having beer with suddenly make me think "well when in Rome......." I never in my life thought i would order a beer at a Pizza Hut. But BAM! Germany pulls out all the stops! Excellent night! Met some crazy cool dudes from Connecticut randomly in the streets of Wü today. They work for a heavy machinery company that makes cranes or something like that. Cool dudes. Actually one of them was German. Its pretty cool to run into fellow Yanks here weather they're here on vacation, business or live here its pretty neat. Me and some friends actually met this dude from Boston on Sunday while we were waiting for the Bus. He moved here with his German girlfriend and married her over here. What a thing to meet a fellow Red Sox fan here in Deutschand. Love they way he said Beahhhhhs. "yo man you gotta try the Beahhhhs here they're wicked aWWWWWsome" Oh Würzburg. Warum muss ich mit dich verlieben. In other news i got switched up out of Grundstufe for my language class. Which is very exiting news and i am very happy for it. Its not quite Mittlestufe. But i'll take it. There is enough Grammar and enough speaking to make me a very happy camper. Now if i could only meet some more Germans here that i could practice with it would be great! I haven't really met too many Germans here yet. Except for my teacher and various waiters/waitresses. No one that i can really hang out with and speak German casually. Mostly i've been around the other foreign students here. Because we're all taking the same language pre-course for the Uni. So most of my free time is spend with the other New Yorkers i met here in my first week. So when i say we did this or that, its more than likely referring to them. But i have no doubt that when the semester actually starts i will get to hang out with and meet more Germans that i can get my Deutsch on with. For the time being i'm just going to keep on with the hXc studying and reading, and whatever speaking i can. Gotta get my conjunctive on foo!!!!!! Fun night, crazy American from Connicute, feeling tippsey. Wonderful. -Wü

The story of my arrival

So as promised. The story of my arrival here in Wüzburg: So my plane took off from Newark Airport around 6:50pm. Me and the parentals got there around 3 hours early to make sure of the there was enough time to check in and get on. So BAM we get there and check in, in like a matter of minutes. Which lead to us BSing around the airport for an hour or so. My last hour or in the States. Almost sentimental =) So i say my heartfelt goodbyes and head through the unnecessarily long and complicated security gate. and get to the terminal with an hour left to spare. So when about 20 minutes till boarding i get called up to the terminal counter and i am informed that i have been upgraded from Economy class to Business call. HELLA SCHWEET! From there the flight was the bomb diggity. I got a full three course meal plus breakfast. A free pillow and blanket. Free headphones for the TVthingy. And a really comphortable seat with plenty of legroom that reclined almost to a bed. So luck strike number 1 SUCCESS! I got into Frankfurt around 7 in the morning. Went through customs real fast and then got my bags from the luggage thing. Which was in the bowels of the airport at probably the farthest possible point from where i came in. So i get my stuff and get out following the signs for the Trains. I'm lugging around probably 100 to 150 pounds of stuff on my person trying to follow these signs for the train. Which pointed to the train being in two different places. WTF! Im standing there in the airport trying to find the train station. The person next to me looks vaguely familiar, but i can't place where i had seen her before. Then suddenly she asks me if i'm from New Paltz and explains that she's Veronica and is one of Deb's friends from the Würzburg Summer program. (For those of you who don't know Deb is one of my friends from New Paltz in the German program) And then i remember that she had added me on Facebook and Deb had told me that she was going to be in Würzburg for the semester. Nice coincidence us being on the same flight! So together we were able to find the trains and high tale it to Würzburg. Lucky Strike number 2 SUCCESS! So i get to the Hbf in Würzburg and my plan was that i was going to call one of the tutors from the Uni to come and meet me at one of the bus stops. But surprise surprise, my phone does not work! So i go to try Veronica's and her's doesnt work either. NOOOOOOOO! But then Veronica gets a call on her phone from one of her friend's Mother's who lives in Würzburg, asking if she needs a ride. So we were able to hitch a ride with her to the dormitory. And she also helped us get our keys and check in and stuff. Then she also took us out to lunch and lent me some cookware for my flat! Which was realllllllllly awesome!!! So luck strike number 3 SUCCESS!!!!! yea so then i passed out and unpacked then passed out again. And yea so that is the eventful story of my arrival here in Würzburg.

I made it alive.

So yes i made it here alive. I have been here since Tuesday morning, and it's pretty rockin here. My journey was a bit crazy. The day I arrived felt like 2 weeks because of how tired i was. That added to the jet lag made for a deadly combination. But fate was kind enough to give me a few lucky breaks. I'll post a seprate blog with that whole story. Forgive my recent silence in the world of blogging. I have been without internet until now, but thanks to my local O2 store I can blog in style with my prepaid Surf Stick. Which is a nifty little USB mobile internet device. So i can now receive email and whatnot for 25 Euro a month. Not bad all things considered. My American cell phone still works here, though I'm sure its costing a pretty penny to use. But any relatives or friends who wanna call me can get me on that. I also picked up a German prepaid cell phone from O2 which is pretty cool. My impressions of Würzburg so far are really positive. Its such a beautiful city. Lots of cool buildings and scenery. Nice little shops and cafes. Plenty of music everywhere, especially on Sundays. Overall a pretty nifty little town. My address here for all those who wish to know is: Michael Cahill Leo-Weismantel-Straße 1 b Zimmer-Nr 2902 97074 Würzburg so bring on the care packages. but cash ist besser =P So whats up with everyone else?!