Schweizer Deutsch und mehr

Hello Blog Nation!

Since my last post i:
-Swam across a very large portion of Herrnchiemsee with Dillon (crazy story, more on that later)
-Went to a Concert at Schloss Herrnchiemsee (related to point 1)
-Hung around the house, did computer stuff, watched movies
-Went to Switzerland to visit The Greenes (excellent!)
-Went to the pool in Möriken (their little town)
-Played music!
-Went to the castle there after a hike through the woods
-Touched a Swiss cow's nose
-Learned Swiss numbers
-Picked up a Swiss Turtle
-Saw various other Swiss animals including bunnies, Donkeys, cats, dogs, horses, Stiere, chickens, sheep, goats, roosters, and foreign exotic birds in the aviary at the castle.
-Played more music
-Went to Thermal Baths (oh, so very relaxing and amazing)
-Watched 'Galaxy Quest' and 'So I Married and Axe Murderer' -- Two classics
-Regretfully left Switzerland
-Drove through Austria again on our way back to a campsite in Germany
-Camped in Fendt, a little town near PeiŸßenberg
-Grilled meat, slept in a tent, helped chop up a felled tree with a crazy Bavarian farmer and the rest of the crew, went on an expedition to a waterfall that we never found
-Ate some wilraspberrieses
-Had more fun
-Finished up camping
-Drove back to Ismaning

In four days i fly home! Whoa!

...after which i fly back to the East Coast for a week

...after which i'll be back in Orange on August 7th

...just you wait for the story about Herrnchiemsee

love, AC

no man's land

Bavaria is so great.
Last night i went to a party at Christian's House (a friend of Chris' and now mine) and hung out with a bunch of their friends, most of whom i either already knew, or had at least seen before. It was an AWESOME party. We brought marinated meat for the grill, there was bread and this tomato-bean salad stuff which i loved, and we all hung out on his porch for a while. Christian has it set up so that his computer monitor and mouse are on the window sill behind the table so he can control what music is playing from outside--excellent! i still feel a bit left out sometimes, because even though i speak and understand German fairly well, they often talk about things which have been happening for a long time in their town, or about trips they went on and the like. i guess that's pretty normal though, and if our roles were switched, i imagine a foreigner hanging out with my friends and i would be perhaps more alienated, because we are just CRAZY!

We are all going camping next weekend, and i'm very stoked about that!

Anyway, after the outside hang-out part, Robert, Dolly, Dillon and i went inside to play cards. We taught them Pedro, a California country game which came from my Grandma's side of the family and hardly anybody outside of California knows how to play. They picked it up quite well, and afterwards we found out why. There's this Bavaria card game called Schafkopf, which is like WAY more complicated. Dillon and i learned a little bit of it, but i am still pretty lost on a few things. Hopefully we'll have the chance to play some more though. The name means 'Sheephead' in English. At our secret hang-out spot in the basement, we just played cards into the night, and eventually into the morning without even realizing it! It was like three a.m. when we finally looked at a clock. Chris, Dillon, and i rode the bikes back to Chris' house (Dillon's bike chain broke on the way) and we got back to his apartment. i got online and spoke with Kirsten for a bit via Skype Out (hey, might as well if you're up that late/early!). The time difference thing is so annoying sometimes! i called her on her cell phone and she was hanging out with her friend Suzanne, so we didn't talk a real long time. Here comes the good part though: just as i'm about to brush my teeth and get into bed, i realized that it is starting to get bright outside the window... no way...

Yep, sure thing, the sunrise was starting and time had crept to like five a.m. when i was finally ready to go to sleep. i woke up at like three-thirty, and Dillon got up at like four-thirty. i think i'll go eat some breakfast now.

Today is Kirsten and i's sixteenth monthaversary! Yay!

Anybody have some good staying-up-until-dawn stories?

love

Zorro

"Zorro, Zorro, Zorro! He makes the sign of the 'Z'!"

i seem to remember this line from a kiddie version of Zorro somewhere in my youth or childhood. Also, 'Z' (or something resembling it) is the symbol of a car company called Opel over here in Europe. Furthermore, there are lots of words with Zs in the German language. Like way more than English.

My Family is gone. They were great.

Dillon is here.

Kirsten is not.

Friends are on my mind.

i

i love

i love you

i love you all

How's everyone doing? Or perhaps more appropriately, what's your favorite kind of apple? Mine is either Golden Delicious or Fuji. Gala is pretty up there too actually. So i guess that means list your favorites!