PARIS... LONG overdue!

Once again the weekend started off way too early. We had to get to the Ramstein train station before 5:55am and the walk was soo cold. It even rained a bit during our walk. We caught our train and we were on our way to PARIS. First thing we did was check into our hostel. It was a nice, cute little place, better than the floor of a tent the smelled like b.o. We checked our stuff in then began exploring.

We wanted to find bikes because we heard you can rent bikes, but we didn’t know where to find them, so we just took the metro to our first stop – Arc de Triomphe. By the end of this trip we were all pros at navigating the metro system. When we got to the Arc, it was quite a site. We went up escalators to get out of the metro, and as you ascend, you see the Arc slowly growing right in front of you. Very cool. We did the whole picture thing, walked under it, and then decided not to go up to the top. We all agreed we would rather go up the Eiffel Tower instead. So after we saw the Arc, we walked down the 2 mile strip of streets known for shopping – Champs d’elysees. There were a lot of nice things to look at, but nothing affordable… not for me anyway. We walked down one side of the street, stopped at a little café for lunch with the outdoor dining area, it was really nice and quite relaxing. There were a bunch of guys selling/peddling stuff on the streets like fake name brand bags and stuff, and I don’t know much they were selling it for, but it was going FAST. Particularly one smart guy who set up his blanket of fake bags right next to a McDonalds, his bags sold really fast.

On our way back the other side of the street, it started to rain, so we decided it was a sign to go. We caught the metro back to our hostel to chill a bit and wait out the rain, which meant, the perfect time for a nap! Took a nice nap, and when we woke up, the rain had stopped! =) We decided to explore a bit near our hostel, and ended up finding a wine festival that was apparently going on that weekend. However, this wine festival was 10x smaller than the big wine festival at Bad Durkheim, and only 5x less the amount of people… so it was CRAMPED. Walked around, found a nice little restaurant for dinner, had a HUGE pasta bowl. Found our way to the MOULIN ROUGE and the red light district. Everything here seems to be sudden, like you’re walking down the street, you turn a corner and BAM! Red light district and a huge Moulin rouge building! We were going to go in, but apparently there was a dinner party thing going on that night and it cost about 80 something euro to go in… no thank you. Pictures outside were enough.

After the Moulin rouge, we decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night and meet up with our camp friends who are also in paris, but had a different agenda. The tower is AMAZING at night. It was all lit up, and it was beautiful. It wasn’t what I expected in the sense that it was lit up red and white, but it was still quite a sight. There also happened to be a big soccer game that day, and Turkey won, so there was a bunch of Turkish people with their country’s flag running around and just celebrating. Then on the hour, the lights on the tower started flashing and it was like a bunch of stars or something and the lights reflected off the windows of the buildings nearby and the water that was across the street and I’m glad I saw that cuz it totally upped the beauty of the Eiffel Tower. After all that we went back to our cute little hostel and we called it a night!

Sunday – woke up and got ready to see more sights. Started making our way to the Notre Dame and ran into a pretty fountain, which we climbed all over. We walked through a couple of stores, and I found my AMAZINGLY BADASS leather jacket! I was really happy. It fits really nicely and I just fell in love with it. Plus I was cold, so it helped to have it! Got to the Notre Dame, and walked around inside. Since it was a Sunday, there was a service going on inside, but we just walked around it. It was pretty big, and there was a lot of statues and stuff, but I don’t really know much about it, it was just pretty to walk through. After we walked around that, we found “point zero” which is supposedly the “location from which distances are measured” according to wiki. =P

I wanted to go to the catacombs, which is a like an underground cemetery/tomb, but unfortunately it was closed for “renovations”. I found out later it was closed because it had been really badly vandalized. =( That was probably the sad point of the trip cuz I was really looking forward to it. But oh well, I got over it. We went to the Eiffel Tower since it was daytime and got baguettes and had a bread swordfight in front of the Eiffel Tower. We also went up the tower, and the view was amazing. I saw the tops of all the buildings and even found the twin of our statue of liberty! I’m not really sure what it’s called in France, but to me, it’s our lady liberty’s twin. Haha.

After the Eiffel Tower we made our way to a cemetery to find James Morrison’s grave. I have no clue who that is, but Cat, the girl we travel with wanted to go, so we did. RIGHT after I took a picture of the grave, my camera battery died -.-

At night, Julley and I decided we wanted to have our first glass of wine as 21 yr olds. So we went to this cute little place down the street from our hostel, and told the waiter guy that we’ve never had wine before and asked what he recommended. He got his favorite wine for Julley. It was a sweet wine and Julley liked it. I got a rose wine, and it was ok, something that needs to be sipped on slowly.

Monday – spent the whole day at the Louvre. It was beautiful and big and a lot more… WOW than I thought. Saw a lot of famous stuff, but it was so big that of course we didn’t get to the whole museum. We just focused on one corridor area. Then went outside and took pictures and walked down this beautiful park street and it was a beautiful relaxing weekend.

Finally, the longest overdue blog! I would've added pictures... but the blog is long enough already...

Soon I will get Amsterdam, Belgium, and Austria… I’m so behind =(

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland was just… WOW. Clean air and pure beauty! I could almost compare it to the beauty I experienced in Japan… but different cuz it’s not japan We decided to leave a bit later than we normally do on our weekend trips and left around 7am Saturday morning. Arrived at the train station, Interlaken west around 2pm. The city we went to, Interlaken, means “between two lakes” and it was located right between two gorgeous lakes: Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. We checked into our cute little hostel called “happy inn lodge” and tried to contact our paragliding people. Our plans were to go paragliding around 3pm that day, but due to high winds, they asked if they could cancel and go Sunday morning at 10am instead. We didn’t mind as long as we got to do it, so we were fine with it and decided to just spend our time exploring and walking around and even do some shopping. The Swiss uses Francs, so we had to exchange our money, and the franc is a closer equivalent to the US dollar than the euro is, so while we were walking around I kept getting confused by the prices cuz I would still try to convert it as if it was euro to dollar. Anyway, so walking around was just SO beautiful, we took pictures, tried to find the lake, but it got dark pretty fast and we decided to find at least one of the lakes the next day. It was quite relaxing and we called it a night pretty early.

Sunday, we got up excited for paragliding… even though it’s $$$ to go. We got picked up outside of our hostel, and they drove up the mountains to a town called Beatenberg. It’s amazing how these people are just living on the mountains like it’s nothing, and they all seem to have their own cows… just an observation. Anyway, I think we went up about 2500 ft, give or take some, and we could see soo much from our take-off area. We each had our pilot cuz it was tandem paragliding, and we got strapped in and they even provided us with shoes, jacket, helmet, and all the other equipment we needed. They set everything up, and the three us got into position, and we all took off within 5 mins of each other. I was in the middle, so I was able to get some pictures of Cat, in front of me, and Julley, behind me. Our pilot person had a camera and this huge extension stick thing so he got pictures of us with the scenery, and he put it all on a cd which I later bought. I wasn’t planning on getting the cd, but after looking through all the pictures I figured it’s an experience and this is a memorabilia.

Picture of me and my pilot Anders (pronounced "Andrews"). Words cannot describe the beauty and excitement of paragliding. Next on my list is bungee jumping and eventually sky diving! I was pretty freaked out by the whole thing though, cuz the take-off area is a huge patch of green that slopes off a cliff, and when I was strapped in, Anders told me to start walking when he says go, and then start running when he says run, but not to stop until he says stop. So pretty much I’d be running off a cliff… =/ Anyway, it wasn’t too bad, I did it didn’t I? it was pretty crazy though cuz when he said run, and I started running, I was already getting lifted off the ground, but I kept moving my legs so I was kinda running in the air, and every so often I’d touch back down on the ground until finally we were over the cliff and our parachute caught air, and we were in the sky!

We were in the sky for about 15 mins, we went over some mountains, saw the AMAZING scenery and even went through the clouds! There was a kind of seat attached to me so after all the running and we were in the air, I just had to sit back and I was coasting. Lots of fun. This is just one of my many favorite pictures that I took from the sky.

The landing was even more fun! It was pretty chill in the air and we talked and I had said I’m from California, so right before landing, he asked me if I like Disneyland. Of course I told him I LOVED it, and he said “good, here’s the real thing” and OMGOSH I wish I recorded it cuz it was so much fun, he steered us left and right I guess to slow us down, and it was like being on a roller coaster, but in the air with a beautiful view that’s real and just wow. When we got closer to the ground, he told me to stand up and when he said so, to start running, so I did that, we landed and I was just ecstatic from such an amazingly breathtaking experience. =D

After we thanked them, and paid them and realized how broke we were, we decided to find the lake. Julley’s pilot told her which of the two lakes were prettier, and we took a bus to the lake. With our hostel, we received a vistor’s pass that allowed us on any and all buses within Interlaken for free, so we just hopped on the bus and went to Lake Brienz.

My pictures are the only way I could remotely describe the beauty that lay before us. I almost felt like it was a backdrop that someone had painted, but it was all real, and perfect. Like every mountain, every peak, every tree was purposely placed where it was and it created such a feeling of tranquility and peace. I was happy. =)

We got on a train and came home, and I could close my eyes and just see that beauty. Definitely the BEST place I’ve seen so far. Only bleh is that it gets SO dark SO early cuz it’s winter that it sucks. I thought it was like 7 or 8… and it was barely 5pm… -.- not cool.

Random stuff:
-I still have to blog about paris and amerstdam… I know. I’m working on it, but I figure I’ll work backwards?

-I have about one month left! Not sure how I feel about it… part of me wants to go home, and part of me would rather not…

-I have been to McDonalds in 6 different countries on 3 different continents… and trust me not all of them are as crap quality as the US.

still here

sorry for not updating. a lot has been going on, just checking in that i'm still here and i intend to update when things calm down for me.

-SHY

OKTOBERFEST!!!!

So here is the long overdue entry on Oktoberfest. First off I just want to say I updated about Oktoberfest, but I did it on a word document with the intention of updating my actually blog, but didn’t get around to it, so it’s been sitting on my desktop for a bit. And I will eventually get PARIS updated asap!

The weekend began at 4:30am. We left our housing and walked the one-hour walk into Ramstein to get to the train station. Our train was supposed to arrive at 5:55am… but for some reason, it didn’t come. SO we all froze our butts off waiting and wondering if the train would ever come… and it didn’t. So we had to call a taxi and took it to the main train station in Landstuhl where we were supposed to take a connecting train to Munich. After much rushing and a bit of panic, we got where we needed to go and made it on our train. We arrived at Munich, found our hostel, but there were so many people wanting to check in that we decided to drop off our stuff in a locker and go straight to Oktoberfest. Our hostel is called "the tent" and we paid to sleep on the floor of a tent, and it was exactly how I imagined it - a HUGE tent, with mats and blankets (provided) on the floor, and you sleep where you find space! It was quite an experience. When we finally checked in, and they asked us how many blankets the guy who checked us in promised us, I replied "He promised to keep us warm" =D haha we got 3 blankets each!!

When we got there, we just followed the large crowd towards the festival, and it was a HUGE crowd – almost like a migration of people just herding towards one general direction. This place was Wine fest x 1000! We walked around, watched the drunk people stumble, and just explored for a bit. By this time, our group of six separated into two groups of three, which made exploring in the mass so much easier. I had a ½ meter long CURRYWURST and that was soooo amazingly delicious! Hahah and I also had a chocolate covered apple… YUMMM I know for sure I will never find chocolate like this in the states, so I figure I should take advantage of it and enjoy it while it lasts.

We stumbled upon this HUGE hill that we deemed “Pass-out Hill”, and made comments how you’d pass out at the top of the hill and you’d wake up at the bottom. There were SO many drunk people on the hill, but we were there to sit and look out over Oktoberfest and just chill a bit. Here is where we met some Italian guys who wanted to take pictures of us. This is also when I realized my one year of Italian was kinda uselss… =/ Anyway, we had been playing a game where when guys would approach us and ask us for our name, we’d give a different name each time and see if we can remember our each other’s “name”. This time my name was Sharon, and we had an Emma Watson, and Julley was Janet. Ironically though, they asked for our full names so they can find us on facebook -.- so we had to lie again, but I suck at that, but it was pretty funny. Close to sunset, we wanted to go to the Haufbrau tent, which is supposed to be the most famous tent.

We get to the front, and there’s a HUGE crowd of people trying to get in, but apparently it’s full so security wasn’t letting people in. Long story short, 6 girls, 1 kitchen staff worker, a side door through the kitchen, and we’re in! hahah =D it was lots of fun… for a bit. I don’t think I could’ve done that all night… lots of music, food, beer, and drunk people. It was also soo crowded I was done after I walked through once. This really nice guy shared his table with us and got us a stein of beer, which we shared between the 6 of us, and we took pictures and just had fun.

Btw, European guys… all about kissing… BIG no-no! haha some Italian guys we met tried to tell us that they kiss three times when greeting, one kiss on each cheek and one kiss on the lips. CHYEAH RIGHT! After a while, Julley, Cat, and I wanted to leave, and on our way out, we stumbled upon stairs leading upstairs! So we went upstairs, and I liked it a lot better there, sure the people were still kinda drunk, but they were a lot calmer. We met this nice group of people, where the guy is from Ireland, but had been living in Germany for about 10 years and has a family here, and his friend from Indiana? Or somewhere in the states, but has been in Germany for close to 20 years. They get a table at Oktoberfest every year, and when they asked if we already had a drink and we told them we shared one stein w/ 6 people he said “that’s against the law here” =P cool guys. After all that, we decided to head back to our hostel, “the tent” – but not until we got some SCHNITZEL!

I slept in the middle between Julley and Cat and I was warm the whole night =D

Sunday, we went back to Oktoberfest, checked it out in the morning, went on the ferris wheel, did some haggling for some souvenirs, and checked out the church in the center of town. We also stopped by the tent we were at the night before, and grabbed a stein glass as a souvenir! haha we had to to hide it cuz they don't let you take the HUGE glasses out if they catch you with it, but we were slick! =) We also went to a park and just hung out there a bit, winded down our weekend, and then headed back home. On our way home, we stopped by a store that sold the traditional costume things, I don't know what it's called, but we tried a bunch on!

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Paris was BEAUTIFUL! And I will update about that another time.

Work is becoming routine, although the waking up at 5am part will never be =(

I miss home and everyone at home, and if you sent me something, I promise you will get something back when I can find some time for it. There will be at least a couple of weekends where I won’t plan to travel and can spend that time catching up on things I need to do like returning letters, updating my blog, and uploading my pictures.

Can't believe I've already been here a month!!!

OKTOBERFEST... sorta

oktoberfest this weekend was AMAZING... more like CRAZY! So many stories, pictures to follow, but I have work WAAYYY too early 2m and will have to update when I have more time.

Going out too much?

Haven't updated in a while, nothing really THAT exciting to update about. Last weekend, just took it easy and didn't really do anything. Went out with some new Air Force friends we made last friday night, and that was an adventure. Now that we got to know them a bit better, there are two that I deem are the coolest and I feel the safest/most comfortable with. So we went out with them again this past friday night.

Started out at a bar, I tried a double bacardi and coke w/ lime, which was actually QUITE yummy. Then I had my first taste of jager... which I don't think was that bad... I also had a bit of my friend's Strawberry Mofo - all in a not very long period of time. I believe I was buzzed that night. Interesting feeling. I also had my FIRST DONER which was SOOO delicious, and something called Currywurst? That was also delicious... I think the pictures are on Julley's camera. Anyway, so we ended up going to another bar for a bit, then decided we wanted to dance, and ended up at a club. The club we went to is located in Kaiserslautern, aka K-town. There are multiple rooms with different styles of music playing in each room. When you enter the club, they take a picture of you and give you a card - your drink card. Which means anytime you order a drink, you just give them your card and they charge it on that, when you leave at the end of the night, you pay for your card which has the cover (8 euro) and the drinks that you bought. If you lose your card.... I just heard that's a bad thing to do. Anyway, so we got home at like 5am Saturday.... >.<>

By the time I went to bed, it was close to 6am... and somehow I woke up at 8:30!! Of course I went back to sleep and didn't actually get up until about 12/1-ish. Went to the BX, which is this HUGE store that's like a combination of different stores into one... not sure how to describe it, but it's kinda like a higher class Walmart. Anyway, we don't have privileges to shop there b/c we're not military, BUT we have air force friends now, who was kind enough to take us! =D Afterwards, we went to watch a movie... I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for $4!!! Pretty cool.

Got home, and the aquatics girls wanted to go out. They wanted to come with us the night before, but they work Saturdays so they couldn't, so they wanted to go out tonight, and our air force guys said they'd take them out... so Julley and I ended up going out again... This time we just went to one bar in Landstuhl, and stayed there the entire time. It was fun, I didn't drink at all cuz I figure I already drank the night before. This time though, instead of getting home at 5... we left the bar around 5 O.o We went to one of the guy's house who lived off base and crashed there... 4 girls... 4 guys... interesting night... er... morning. I couldn't sleep, so I ended up doing random things until about 9 or 10am I fell asleep in the kitchen... haha yea... quite an experience!

Anyway, by the time I got back home it was noon and another day was gone. Luckily I was so exhausted I fell asleep early and was able to get back into the swing of things for work on Monday. 

Work has been getting better in the sense that the kids know me and are comfortable around me. I love watching them because they are in that stage where development just SPURTS and one day a child isn't walking, and the next day the child is able to take a couple steps to get to you. One day a child isn't using words, and after the weekend, the child comes in and says "Hi". It's an amazing and rewarding experience.

This weekend is the last weekend of Oktoberfest, AND my eurorail pass finally came, so I we will be going to Munich, to see the city as well as experience Oktoberfest. How exciting! I promise to have more pictures! Now that my pass is here, I'll just be going going going and it should be a lot more exciting.

There has been two diagnosed cases of Strep Throat in my classroom =/ I have yet to get sick, and I hope I never do... I don't think I've ever had strep before... so let's hope it stays that way.

Can't believe it's my birthday next week... PLEASE write me! Or send me pictures! I'll put it on my wall and I'll totally write back!

Camp Adventure

ATTN: Shirley Yang

86 SVS/SVY Unit 3270

Box 535

APO/AE 09094

~SHY

First Week in GERMANY

Alright, here's the lowdown. I changed a kid's diaper for the first time on friday... and gosh they poop so much! O.o really makes a person rethink the whole maternity deal

Military culture is so interesting. Things seem to move at warp speed and everyone seems to get married and start families really early, which makes sense in their circumstance. 

Friday night, some of us went to an Irish bar right off base in Ramstein. They serve everything here in really BIG cups... like .5 Liter cups... more like mugs. anyway, I tried something called a "Strongbow" and that was really yummy. It's a dry ale, and is only available in Europe. =(

Saturday was the wine festival. Think State fair but more open drinking and different kinds of food booths. I imagined it to be more like you go around the booths and taste a bit of different kinds, but when I was there... SURPRISE! Not quite what I imagined. So we got there and went to a booth. You order a wine that they have and you pay a 2 euro glass deposit and when you return your glass, you get the 2 euro back, otherwise you can keep the glass. Well they give you the wine in a HUGE .5 Liter Glass. And apparently the alcohol in Europe overall is a lot stronger than the US. O.o The size of the glass of wine... CRAZY

Didn't go on any of the rides or anything, just tried a bunch of foods. Had my first BRATWURST which was delicious, and also HUGE. Also had some chocolate covered strawberries which was soo yummy, the chocolate AND the strawberries! =D very happy

Sunday, we woke up early to go hiking through the Black Forest. We went with the Outdoor Recreation center on base so we didn't have to worry about planning or catching the train, so that was nice. It was less of a hike and more of a stroll through the forest, but it was still very beautiful. There was a waterfall, and lots of green.

After the walk, we got some black forest cake, which I'm glad I didn't get. I tried a little, and I didn't like it... perhaps cuz there was alcohol in the cake. Someone else got a chocolate cake that I tried, and there was a layer in the cake that tasted like pure alcohol. It was pretty strong... We also went to a cuckoo clock place because that area is supposedly known for the clocks, and I almost got something, but as usual, I talked myself out of it. On the way back to the base, we took a detour and stopped by a castle. My first castle in Europe! I have a feeling I will get to see as many castles throughout Europe as I saw temples/shrines throughout Japan! =D 

First actual week of work where I am in ratio with the kids, and monday was a rough day.... after the kids stay home with their parents all weekend, they're a bit harder to handle on mondays, but I'll get used to it, just like how I'm getting used to changing diapers and putting babies to sleep.