Chrissy’s blog

tonight is our last night in stuttgart. we've had loads of fun on this trip, and its sad to leave, but im kinda read to come home. ill get to see tobi later this summer when he comes to america, which will be really cool. we're taking him to six flags eventually.

ill post some video and more pictures when i get home. its kinda apain to do because it takes forever, and when i come home i will get to sleep in my bed for one night and then i'll be camping for about a week. but it'll happen sooner or later, i promise. i wonder how many people actully look at this thing.. probably just ma. hahah. hi ma! i bought about 4.7 lbs of german chocolate today. its madness. yummy madness. we eat constantly here. its crazy. i finally got the last present i needed. i had no idea what to get anyone. it was difficult, but i think i did okay. tomorrow we are making more pancakes. i find that very random, but  awesome. its mostly because kathryn brought maple syrup to give to the people we stayed with. so i guess its not that random.

mmm haselnuss. very tasty. we watched a football or fußball (sp?) or soccer game on the tube today. germany plays tomorrow night. should be fun. tobi bought kathryn and me some suspercool german flag armband things, so we can show our german pride. kathryn is never going to take it off. shes even going to be buried with it.  yesturday we met tobi's grandma. we had dinner with her. she was adorable. she had eggs that were painted like soccer balls. soccer is huge here. thats one thing i really wish the US was into, but its okay, ill just adopt germany as my team.  

we got a new washing machine because our other one broke. its so funny the things i hear about from home. i like it. i always hear the conclusions of stories like that, but i miss the stuff that links it altogether. thank you to those who kept me updated and contacted and stuff. i wish i would have done more posting, but more stuff will come later.

we take the night train to paris tomorrow (last one! w00t!) and then we hop on our plane to boston. then enjoy a 2 hour layover there before getting on our plane to STL! we arrive bright and early monday morning. kathryn is bringing a suitcase of her sister's stuff along with her original suitcase. that means things will get interesting, especially in paris. they seem to prefer traditional stairs. kathryn and i are getting buff though, and we've had plenty of practice so it shouldnt be bad.  see you soon!!!

the pictures i posted arent in any particular order....

we are in stuttgart now (the greatest city in the world, according to tobi and robert). its raining today, so i think we're going to visit a museum or two. tobi "has university" so we wont get to hang out with him until 5:15. Tobi makes sure we have a program set up. we saw a french movie in german last night. it was cool that we could understand so much of the plot even without understanding any words.  Germany is beautiful, i really like it here.

we made it to rome! night trains suck, but everything else is going really well. kathryn and i are staying in a cute little bungallo that has ladybug bedsheets. it costs a ton to use the internet here though, so we probably wont be doing much contacting until we get to germany on the 4th. the weather is very warm in italy.  im looking forward to icecream and a huge bottle of water when kathryn is out of the shower. we took night trains 2 nights in a row meaning no shower or change of clothes. we got pretty stinky im sure. i sat next to this sweet little old italian guy who helped us out quite a bit. random people have been so kind to us. its not what i expected at all, but its really awesome.

we are in Nice, and its very nice. hahaha... im killing time before our train to Rome. we didnt hqve qnywhere to put our luggage todqy, so we spent quality time with it at the beach. we followed people with beqch towels to find the place. it was quite and adventure. susanna called and said she was going to try to find us, but she never did. the ocean was beautiful. i reqlly think my parents would like this city.  we will be in Rome for 3 days at a nice hostle. the trqin ride will be about 14 hours though. we do get to sit with eachother this time. the guy that was next to me last time got very angry about something. trqins are interesting. im excited about using the phrqse "when in rome..." constqntly. woohoo!

kathryn and i made it to the paris hotel. it was kinda tricky finding it, and we wandered with our luggage for about 2 hours because we couldnt find rue beveric. we were right by it when we finally met someone who knew where it was. lots of other people i asked seemed comepltely oblivious to its existence. it was odd. the problem was that it branched off of the road we were on, and it veered off in the opposite direction and it was hidden by another street. its strange. we're here safe and sound now though. susanna and her friend drove and will be here pretty soon i think. we took the train so it was faster.  we have a really nice hotel here. our room has a private balcony that looks over a busy street. ill try to post pictures soon.  yay paris!we still havent seen the eiffle tower. we'll get there tomorrow for sure.  we take the night train at like 9, then we'll be in Nice for a day and take the night train again to Rome and stay there until June 3. After that will be munich and stuttgart. we have just enought eurail passes, so it worked out perfectly. things are going very smoothly (knock on wood). tomorrow is explore-paris-day. woohoo paris!!!

Ma requested that i post a list of the stuff we've seen so that she could look it up... so here it is:
Chateau d'Angers
Chateau de Saumur
Cathedrale Saint-Maurice--Notre-Dame (this is where we went to mass on sunday)
Chateau des ducs de Bretagne
La Baule
...we have been more places, but these were the only ones i got programs from.  it can be hard to remember the names of the places since its all very french. the chateaus are our favorites i think.  we never made it to Tours, but we made american pancakes for Robert so that he could use the maple syrup that kathryn brought for him.  Mrs. steimel told us how to make them over skype. delicious! robert ade an apple cake, it was really good too. he says theyre really popular in germany. 

susana has exams today and tomorrow, so kathryn and i are exploring some cities on our own. its good practice for italy. we havent gotten lost or stolen (thats the advice someone gave us...i think kelly). yesturday was Cholet and today is Samur and tomorrow is probably Tours. those are probably spelled horribly, sorry. we got a 2 day pass for 35 euros that let us travel by train to certain cities any number of times for 2 days. we bought it yesturday.  so after today, we only have one more day in angers and that will hopefully be spent in Tours. robert went out to buy breakfast... mmm bread.  

kathryn taught robert and me how to do the rubik's cube. we have mad skills now. actually no... i cant do it without a book or kathryn yet. just need more practicing.  we met a guy named paul today. he taugh me a little french. we played softball sort of. i think we used a mop handle and a tennis ball. he liked the word "awesome" i said it once and he was kinda confused. then he repeated it and put lots of emphasis on the w. aWesome. funny stuff. we made our own crepes and talked about evolution vs. creationsism and how monsanto is a bad company. hes an interesting guy, it was fun. we were going to play soccer with 2 romainians, but it rained and they never came. thats why we made our own game. we went to church this morning in a big cathedral thing.  everything was in french, but it was nice.

Robert took kathryn and i shopping at a "supermarket" which turned out to be a mall. sometimes the subtle differences in language get confusing... but it always works out.  we bought goat cheese and ate it on bread today. it wasnt bad at all. and there were mini spinachy leaves. yummay.  it rained buckets or cats and dogs depending on who you ask... there is a very vocal cat outside of robert´s window.