day of the dead. minus me.

[we can't all be pretty after hours of traveling and a weekend of sugar and carbs, okay?? obviously i've got a firm grasp on that pretzel.]

october 31st.

i don't know about you, but i like to celebrate my halloween's in germany.

NEW TRADITION.

not really.

but it was pretty cool/unreal to be in a completely different country on that day.

facts about halloween in europe:

-not everyone celebrates it.

-they definitely don't pass out candy.

-some people dress up, but suuuper freaky. like, with crazy real-looking makeup. and scary clothes. 

-i just don't like it.

moving on...

the day started off with another grilled ham&cheese with salt and pepper for breakfast. we woke up early because a free walking tour was hosted by the hostel at 10am. 

note about free walking tours: they're never free. you always have to pay tips in some way or form. usually money. but not always.....get your mind outta the gutter.

anyways, i had never been on one before, so i didn't know what to expect.

up walks this guy:

[the guy on the right was our tour guide. i know, you're really jealous of the clarity of this picture. in my defense, he charged us if we wanted a picture of him or with him. so this is me "not taking a picture of him"....he might have known...]

first off, he had the most annoying voice in the world. it was a little high and went all over the place and made you want to laugh and strangle him at the same time. also, i think he believed that this walking tour was really 3 hours of let-me-shove-my-opinions-and-beliefs-down-everyones-throats. granted, he had good facts. but he annoyed the crap out of me. also, me and brynn were pressed for time at the end because we had our train back to paris to catch. we told him when our train left and said we might need to leave early. he said we'd be fine. turns out he went over his three hours, we ended up still having to leave early, we couldn't find the chocolate shop we asked him about that was "on the way" [don't judge me for wanting more chocolate, all the other chocolate was getting sent home by williamson], we were at least a mile away from the train station, and we hardly made it. HARDLY. i'm talking running after it. even though we had just ran the mile there. if you can't tell, we were super bitter about it, and wanted to take back our stupid tip that he guilted out of us.

here are some pictures from the day:

 [i love you germany.]

 [cool bridge that looks like a castle.]

 [inside of a church we quickly strolled through.]

 [outside of the church. i just love that red brick.]

 [the clock tower where the little puppets danced and music played on the hour. the whole town gathers to watch.]

 [arguably the best brat the entire time i was in germany. hands down. the bread was hot and fresh out of the oven. you can even see that it's still a little bit doughy in the left corner. and the brat was spicy. and like, 2-ish euros. can't beat that. and don't even get me started on the mustard.]

 [cool ceiling.]

[german. in germany.]

 [this was a curtain! can you tell? it's not a real building!]

 [delish. in germany, they take their soft pretzels, slice them in half, and slop put the yummiest butter ever on it. and you eat the whole thing and wonder why you didn't buy five more.]

 [i forgot what this was called, but it was gooood. nuts and chocolate and chewiness. probably not worth the 2 euros, but whatever. when in germany, right? also, check out the butter coming out of the pretzel. i have no shame. and no health, apparently.]

when we got back into paris that night, we were greeted with freaky, creepy, bloody skeleton people [for halloween]. lovely. my dreams will be haunted forever. and that's an understatement....? whatever.

today, as i knew it.

[now tell me honestly. do these pajamas make my head look small?]

pet peeves today:

-having a large box packed with a variety of interesting chocolate [seriously, milk chocolate with cookies and nuts in it? you gotta be kiddin' me.] from germany underneath my bed....and remembering it basically every five minutes. dang you. let's just say that it'll be lucky if it makes it through the month of january. i'm that pathetic.

-boys. so stupid, so stupid. wait, not stupid, just oblivious. to the world. yeah, so they're stupid.

-the fact that my ipod died ten minutes into my workout. tell me how i'm supposed to go on when i don't have jay-z and kanye screaming and pumping me up in my ears? my thoughts exactly.

-married people/couples in general. three words: get a room/let's be civil in society, mmkkay? just because you're in love doesn't mean you need to make a child in front of me. and i'd like you to pay for my therapy now to get the visuals out of my mind. [i understand that that was all more than three words. just humor me here.]

-the fact that i still haven't written my 3-page paper that's due tomorrow night. whoops? and i really have no inspiration to start it. somebody motivate me or something! or write it for me.

-ummm, it's winter. in utah. and i'm burning up in my room [this one isn't really a pet peeve....more a "wtf?"]. i am grateful for the no-snow trend that's happening lately though.

-forgetting to buy something for the upteenth [what does that even mean anyways?] time at the grocery store. what is my problem? just remember the dang cotton balls already, michelle.

beautiful happiness:

-waking up to no snow or rain, but perfect weather and yummy, gloomy clouds. my absolute favorite weather.

-eating at zupa's for lunch with my girl chelsea. can i just give that place a standing ovation already? love their soups and salads. and chelsea, of course. delicious chicken chili and a chipotle chicken salad. get in my belly every single day please. 

-helping my annie with a fanny go wedding dress shopping. first off, i wanted to cry [basically every single time i zipped her up in another dress] because i still can't believe she's getting married. second, it was pretty hilarious seeing her try on some of the fugly or dirty dresses that the salesgirl brought to us. all in all, don't go wedding dress shopping with your friend, because then you'll just have to talk yourself out of not taking off your clothes and trying dresses on too and pretending like you're getting married too. too much? oh well.

-animal/protein style burger from in n out. basically, it solves world peace. and by that, i mean without it, i would be ransacking the world for something else to satisfy me. so yeah, world peace.

[everybody say goodnight to pedro. promise i'm not racist.]

[almost] all things german.

[the other two are typing this right now.]
right now, right this second, i'm super proud of myself. i'm multi-tasking like nobody's biiiidness. one hand is writing my media writing paper, while the other is writing a blog post, while the third [that i got for christmas] is uploading/editing pictures for the post, while the fourth [that i found on the street] is checking my class information online. like i said, very proud person right now. i mean, wouldn't you be if you had four arms? yeah, i'm done. school's obviously gotten to my head.

october thirtieth. 

we woke up and got ready for church. we also had to pack because we were taking a train back to munich after church and leaving the good life of our super high-tech looking house with host parents that spoiled us silly with waffles and soft towels [can you tell that my french host mom deprives me of the essentials in life?].

[whoever speaks german, please explain.]

church was....interesting. two of the three hymns were sung in german. yeah. it's kinda hard to be serious when you sound like you're chewing on taffy as you're singing. it just sounds too funny! maybe next time i'll be a grown-up.

also, i had no time to rehearse my solo before church, so i just went up and sang. hooooly crap, i don't remember the last time my legs shook so bad. i'm surprised i didn't crumble and roll off the stand. i managed just fine though, and ended up feeling really good that i did it, even though everyone probably didn't even know what i was singing besides the tune.

sacrament meeting ended and then williamson dropped us off at the train station. these random guys came up to us and asked us if we wanted to split a 5-person ticket, which would end up being cheaper for all of us, so we said yes. i know it sounds a little sketch, but it was just fine. maybe because we were armed with the finest, most delicious pastries known to man that we could've used as ransom in case they tried to attack us, but never would actually give them away because they're so dang good? probably.

[first one was a cinnamon roll with pecans on top. middle is the name of the bakery. third was my absolute favorite-an orange and cream cheese puff pastry. to. die. for.]

once we got back to munich, we dropped off a lot of our stuff at the hostel [wombats] and got back on another train to go to the dachau [pronounced da-HOW, with a throat emphasis on the "H". gotta get that  german accent down], one of the main concentration camps during the holocaust. first off, i just have to say that brynn and i had the worst luck when it came to any kind of transportation on our weekend trips. in this case, we went to a ticket machine and bought our tickets, and then thought we knew which platform to go to, but were confused because we were supposed to validate our tickets. so we ask a guy and he tells us we're supposed to validate them downstairs. and our train was leaving in like, five minutes. so we're running to validate them downstairs, run back up, find out that our platform is actually downstairs by where we validated our tickets [we're stupid], so we run all the way back down and just barely make our train/metro. it was ridiculous. anyways, then we make it to the city that the concentration camp is in, and we're supposed to catch a bus. thing is, is that it says that bus doesn't run on sundays. we have a minor freak attack [okay, i do], and then find a taxi that will take us there. brynn wanted to walk. NO. five miles? no thank you.

once we were there, things got serious. it was crazy to be there where, at one time, so many people lived and died for such a wrong cause. it was so sad to walk through and read the stories and the history of the camp, and to really visualize what had happened there. even the smell was too much, when having the ideas of people being burned or killed by the gas showers going through your mind. i'm just so amazed that a camp like that existed, and it's only one of many. i'm so grateful for the opportunity to visit the camp, to remember how blessed i am to live in a country where we can just be. we don't have to worship specific things or act certain ways [within reason], but we can be free. more and more on this study abroad, did i realize how wonderful america really is. sure, we've got our problems that we need to fix. and yes, our economy sucks right now. but to me, i think that it's important to recognize the blessing that we can walk around freely and not have soldiers coming at us, trying to throw us in jail just for what we stand for. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. it's a beautiful thing.

after we had walked through for a couple hours [and watched the documentary in german, which was obviously very hard to understand aka i no speak german], we decided to head back to munich. and what do you know, there was a bus going back to the metro station. i have no idea how these things work out like this! it's beyond my comprehension, apparently.

we get back to munich safely, and decide to grab some pizza from this nearby "joint" [always wanted to say that]. i know what you're thinking. michelle, why are you getting pizza in germany? and to that, i say "ummm, because it looked dang good in the window?" i have no factual/logical answers for you. i just wanted some dang pizza. the stomach gets what the stomach wants. or at least mine does ;] plus, just looook at this baby.

[pizza with salad and mozzerella shavings and a balsamic drizzle. oh my freaking gosh, get in my belly.]
don't you just want to gobble it all up? well, i did. so say yes so i don't feel awkward.

and now i have "god bless the usa" in my head from all that mushy america talk. perrrrfect.

better late than never.

[if you don't know already, this is my "i mean business" face. you don't want to mess with that. especially when it goes hand-in-hand with a fork and a knife. badumbumpshhhh.]

let's not talk about the fact that i didn't make my deadline of finishing up the study abroad stuff before i started school. and that i still have a good month of stuff to write about. a good thirty-something days that are all jam-packed with crazy goodness/useless information that i can't seem to overlook. hopefully i can finish someday. i will. by george, i will. but i'm also going to be inter-weaving posts from right now [an actual current blog post...new record on MDJ], and then blasts from the past. just bear with me and my weird bloggy blog right now. ima comin', ima comin'.

october 29th.

so we [me and brynn] woke up to our german host family making breakfast for us.

like, big time breakfast.

i'm talking about the whole enchilada waffle here.
i really don't know why they felt so inclined to spoil the pants off of us, but i'm not one to question heaps of food. ohhhhoho, you shall see what i truly mean.

[obviously you can see that i took advantage of all of their toppings. what else for the girl who can't decide?]

then, williamson picks us up, and off we go to nuremberg to meet up with one of his friends that apparently knew that city like the back of his hand. we started off at the stadium that you've probably seen in pictures with hitler up on a big stand thing doing the upwards arm thing [nazi salute? whatever.] as the nazi's go marching across in front of him. 

 look familiar? well, now it does. i was SO tempted to do the salute for my picture [just for picture's sake. i am not a hitler follower, i promise.], but apparently it's illegal to do. and i didn't want to find out what kinds of loco goes on in german prisons. so instead, i smiled.

just smiiiile and wave boys.

[cool, huh?]

it was pretty cool to think that hitler had once stood exactly where we were standing. it was a little creepy too, but i've always had a fascination with hitler for some reason. not in a good way...i just think he's an interesting case.

anyways, after, we drove more into the city and started walking around.
first off, the city was gorgeous. there is a river that goes through with trees surrounding it, and at that time, the leaves were such a gorgeous yellow-gold color that made you wanna melt.

 [the view from underneath a bridge. lovely.]

 [really cool cages where kids can go inside and kick soccer balls around. i don't know why, but i think that's the coolest concept. why don't we have these in america?? also, come to me little german children.]

[view from the bridge. loooove that willow-ish tree.]
the buildings were all so unique from each other, some with carvings into them, or little prayer rooms coming off of them.

also, one thing i learned from mr. nuremberg was that back in the day, the government taxed families on the width of a person's house, so that's why many house are very skinny and tall, and are longer instead of wider. i'm sure that would make the interior decorating pretty interesting. anyways, he took us around to a few cathedrals at first, which were gorgeous inside. of course. the thing that i liked about that is that they seemed kind of modern, or had cool modern-looking characteristics to them. or maybe i'm completely wrong and know nothing about art.

then, we stopped at this alehouse where we got some bratwursts that were typical of nuremberg. these ones were my faaaavorite because they were small and tasted like breakfast sausage, and the roll was warm and chewy and i'm making myself drool right now just talking about it. trust me, it was freaking delicious. i probably could've gobbled ten more of these down, but i didn't want to freak out the germans. plus, i was told ice cream was coming up. so yeah, that's mainly why i waited.

 [theee best. hands down.]

we walked across this square after snacking and saw all these people stopped talking pictures in front of a monument. mr. nuremberg told us that they were spinning a gold ring three times and that it means you will return to nuremberg. and i liked the city enough to make the commitment, so i stepped up to the plate and spun that ring like nobody's business. or maybe just three times. i'm only one person!

we moved along and went up a hill to the castle in nuremberg. the tree colors along with the pretty old brick just slayed me. it was absolutely gorgeous! and it was really cool to see the empty moat and try and imagine what it was like when it was full.

back down in the city, we went to the first gelato place we could find. not the best i've ever had, but better than i could make! plus mr. nuremberg insisted on paying, so i kinda got it for free. SCORE. makes it all better.

things just went downhill from there. yes, we had just eaten less than an hour before, but did that stop us? no. after a little bit of stupid shopping [i call it stupid because it was in the lego store. sorry brynn, i know you were in love, but i was just not turned on at all. maybe because i knew food was coming up...], we turned around a corner and there were some "food trucks" with some dirty german food. YES. i really didn't think i'd love the food as much as i did. but what's not to love about a culture that loves meat, potatoes, and bread? oh, and the best mustard known to this world? my thoughts exactly.

 [okay, before you judge, let me explain. that thing tasted kind of like really good meatloaf, then topped with grilled onions, and then slathered with the best mustard known to man. i may or may not have gone back for seconds on the mustard.]

[this crap was called currywurst. if you want to eat the most disgusting thing in the world, look no further. you can make it at home by taking the sauce from spaghettio's and then random hot dogs that are chopped up. SICKNASTY.]

after i gorged, we started making our way back to the car. embarrassingly enough, we stopped in a bakery and got a pastry. seriously, i understand, i ate twice my weight that day. i have no regrets though! maybe some shame, but no regrets.

[apple pastry. not amazing, but i'll take it.]
we made our way back to the car and said bye to our friend mr. nuremberg [that wasn't his name, but i can't remember it for the life of me], who was so sweet to me. he kept saying i reminded him of his daughter, and how funny i was. plus, the man wouldn't stop buying me food. so yeah, definitely my kind of man. haha i'm so kidding! kinda.

we decided to head back to town early, and when we got there, we made a stop to another grocery store. to get more german treats to send home. i know. you don't have to scold me. fat and happy and in denial. <--that's the motto for the study abroad. not really. but seriously, how many times are you gonna go to germany! thank you.

then, williamson said we should go out for a legitimate german meal at a nice restaurant. i mean, i was pretty satisfied with the burger king meal we had the night before, but he insisted! we went to this cute restaurant that had wooden tables and benches, and everyone around us was drinking beer out of those big glass cups. so. cool. since me and brynn weren't starving [hmm, wonder why?], we decided to split a meal. we got a salad, spaetzle, and shnitzel [sadly, not with noodles like on "the sound of music"].
i can't even talk about how good it all was. the shnitzel tasted like delicious chicken fried steak [i'm so classy], and the spaetzle tasted like mac and cheese [seriously, my classy points are through the roof right now]. now, good things are never as good as they seem because we get the check and they charged us for our waters. even though we asked for the free tap kind. and then when we tried to fight it, they acted like they had no idea. i. was. pissed. especially since it was like, 7 euros, which is like 10 bucks. for water. obviously, i'm still ticked about it. maybe i'll write a letter.

 [cool menu made out of wood. it's the little things...]

 [stupid expensive water.]

 [the spaetzle. mmmm, cheesy and crispy and gooood.]

 [don't worry, i didn't go all american and put ketchup on it. also, those potatoes and onions in the corner were amazing!]

[heinz says it all.]
we headed home and went to bed. just kidding, i stayed up stressing over singing in church the next day. in a german ward. that i was visiting. what the heck did i get myself into?