Bachelor party

So....remember I wrote about the Bachelor party tradition they have here in Germany?

Well, we ran into one last night in the English Garden here's a pic ;)

*"Stag Night" here with Tori & Veronica...2 new friends from the Cincinnati & Chicago

Euro-$ Conversion

bullshit....

$510 is only 371 euros....

just thought i'd share

see: http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph120.html

when i arrived in europe...it was $1.29 to the euro

now...it's 1.37 to the euro

no good...that's almost a 10% change

Mannheim/ Heidelberg

Last weekend I went to Mannheim & Heidleberg (about 3.5 hours by car from Munich). I have 2 friends who live in Heidelberg and 1 who lives in Mannheim. We all studied together in Coruna last semester. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my friends in Heidelberg but I did get to stay with my friend, Dietram, who lives in Mannheim. We went to Heidelberg for the day on Saturday and saw a castle there. It's a great city. One of the things we saw that was kind of entertaining were these various groups of guys wearing the same T-shirts. They were actually Bachelor party groups. They walk around in these uniformed T-shirts that say something stupidly funny....and one of them is in charge of holding a basket full of gag gifts to attempt to sell to random people on the street. One of the guys was trying to sell me and my friend a vibrating condom. It was pretty funny.

Anyway, here are some pix, enjoy them!

*Mannheim- fountain in front of the Wasser Turm (Water Tower)
*Water Tower/ Wasser Turm- Mannheim
*statue to the side of the Wasser Turm
*Wasser Turm @ night

*Dietram & me in Heidelberg on the way up to the castle.


*US Army Radio Station in Heidelberg
*me @ the entrance to the castle
*part of the original castle. it was damaged and parts have been restored but this is authentic :P
*another part of the original castle....notice @ the bottom there is a partial tower set diagonally... that's not on purpose...it fell :O
*view behind the castle in Heidelberg
*fountain near castle
*me attempting to climb a tree :D

*Dietram climbed it successfully :P

ok more updates to come!

Coruna to Madrid to Munich

*Orzan Beach, Coruna

Here's the latest:
On June 30th I left Coruna....it was weird because little by little one of my friends would leave to go back to their countries. Then, it was my turn to leave....

So here are some pictures of my last few days in Coruna:

*my last night working @ Geographic...w/ Ryanne & Waleska
*going away parties for some of the students on the beach...Lorenzo's writing a goodbye note to one of the girls who left the next day.

Waleska and I went to Madrid together to spend a few days there before she headed back to San Diego. It was sad to say goodbye to her because we saw each other basically every single day since our semester abroad started. We became really close.

Sarah, and Paola also stayed with us in Madrid. Both are International Business majors from SDSU like Waleska & I. Sarah studied in Coruna as well & Paola studied in Barcelona. We stayed at Abel's apartment in Madrid. He was there the first 2 days with us, so we went out together to the annual European Gay pride parade....TONS of people in the streets! unbelievable...then the next day we drove to Segovia. Abel then had to leave Madrid to work but he let us stay anyway. Waleska left early morning on the 4th of July to head back to SD...a couple of our friends (Junior and Flavio) from Italy who we studied with in Coruna were also in Madrid at the time so I hung out with them that night.
Here are a few pics in Madrid & Segovia:
*me & wale quick stop between Madrid & Segovia

*Sarah, Waleska & Paola - Segovia
*Flavio, me & Junior @ a club the night of July 4th

On July 5th I left Madrid to head to Munich for my internship. When I arrived, Kai & Ingo (2 of my coworkers) came to pick me up which was really nice of them! They drove me to the hostel that I was staying in. Then, after I got settled...Kai came back to pick me up and we went out for a couple drinks to meet a couple of my other coworkers. We had a good time and it was nice that they were so welcoming. Then next day, I went to the office to see what it was like and meet a couple of the others. Because I truly miss bagels (the Spaniards apparently don't belive in them) we went to get bagels and then to the nearby English Garden which is the biggest park in Europe and is beautiful!

By pure chance, when I got back to the Hostel, a couple of my Brazilian friends who studied with me in Coruna were staying in the same room as me. So we went to have dinner together. The next day we ran into another girl, also from Brazil who also studied with us in Coruna. She was staying in the hostel next door.

On Saturday I went to look at 2 apartments. On Sunday, the guys from the apartment I wanted called me and said I could move in. :) So on Sunday night, I moved from the hostel into my home for the next 2.5 months. My roommates are named Nico and David. Nico is German, 22 and is currently doing his Social Service that young German men are required to do if they aren't in the University yet. He provides care for older people. David was born in Columbia, but is technically also German and has moved all over the world because his parents moved a lot. He is 21 and is in his first year at the University of Munich. His first language is Spanish but he speaks English and German as well.

My apartment is great because it's only 1 km (less than 1 mile) from work so I can just walk and be there in like 15 mins.

Munich is a great city! Wanna come visit? :)

*Munich


*me and some of my Brazilian friends at Olymiapark (Soccer stadium) in Munich*me at the Chinese tower in the English garden

*****More pix soon to come*****