Josh in Germany

Date/ Entry Title	Entry
4/26/05	hey everyone, Well I changed my host families for the last time!! I can not beleive how fast everything has happened. It has been a real fun experience for me and I can not wait to get home and tell everyone about what happened.
4/14/05	Hey everyone, here comes the second part.... I believe that last time I left off in Venice. Well our next stop was the beautiful town of Florence, Italy! This was another long bus ride of about 7-8 hours. We could definitely tell that we were around Florence because of the Tuscany looking homes and scenery. After we arrived at our hostel, we went into the city and stopped by one of only two copies of Michaelangelo’s David in the city. It’s on a cliff which over looks the city and because it was at night, the view was breathtaking. After taking pictures, we then had free time to do whatever. My group that I was in, we went to an Italian restaurant for some wine tasting. The wine was very tasty and after wards we found a Gelato ice cream shop and ate ice cream again. The next day we started off at the same spot as the night before, but this time we split up into 2 groups and walked to the city. My group first walked to a famous art museum known for having some of the best modern art in the world. After that we walked o ver the Ponte Veccio, which is also a very famous bridge, because there are shops all along the bridge jutting out from the side and most of what they sell along the bridge is just gold and jewelry, very expensive. We then traveled to the Palazzo Veccio, which is big square building that looks like a castle with a tall clock at the top. Around this big area were a lot of sculptures from famous artists. Among the art was the 2nd copy of David. Our next stop was the big church with one of the biggest church domes in the world. Its quit weird but this church looks extremely good from the outside so you would think the same on the inside, well wrong. There was absolutely nothing inside!! There was a tiny altar and then nothing else, and it was not’t even comparable to the outside at all. Nevertheless it was a nice church. Next came lunch, and once again we only got 5 Euro, so we found a nice restaurant to have some real good Italian pasta. Unfortunately we had no luck and the restaurant did not have very good pasta and the drink prices were outrageous. So after lunch we returned and our leaders told us that we could have free time or go on the other tour. I decided to take free time and go to the museum where Michaelangelo’s David was. 4 other people also came and we waited one hour in line to see it, but at least now I can say that I saw it!!!!! After free time was over we all met back at the bridge and went back to the hostel for food. The food was amazing good for hostel food, and everyone was full. Later on at night, we found out that we were going to go to a club. Everyone was really excited to go to another club and we all showered and changed and got ready. The club was nice and the people were friendly except for the Italian guys who basically grossed out all of the girls with their stupid talking and touching of them. There was again an English rugby team, and this time some high school from Canada there. Around 2 again we left the disco and went back to our hostel. We had to be very quiet because normally the hostel closes at 12, but they made an exception for us as long as we were quiet and did not disrupt the other people. The next morning we left early again and made our way to Milan, but instead of a direct route we made a detour through Pisa! Our next stop of course was Pisa. We all could not wait to get and see the leaning tower as we have all heard about. As soon as we got out of the bus however, we were not greeted with a leaning tower, but many men trying to sell us needless crap. We dodged our way away from there as quickly as possible and walked towards the tower. Upon seeing the tower the many years of wanting and jealousness left me instantly. I was staring looking straight at the leaning tower and it was breathtaking. We walked up along the gravel roads leading up to it and took our pictures and walked around. I knew that the tower was famous because it leaned, but why was it built in the first place? I found out after asking someone that It is actually the bell tower for the church, but during those times when it was made, they decided not to make the tower on top of the church, rather outside of it. So that is why it is outside of the church, and it leans because obviously it was built upon soft grou nd. Well after an hour or so we needed go get going back to Milan, so we once again tried our best to weave through the endless people selling crap to get back to our bus. We then departed saving some final words to the tower and headed in the direction of Milan! Our next stop was in Milan, Italy!! We arrived at our hostel to find out that it is raining outside and that the hostel does not have any food, so we must walk about 3kilometers in the rain to go a restaurant that is open and near the hostel. After dinner, we walked back and had a "laundry night" because a bunch of, if not all of our cloths were dirty. The next morning we packed our things up again and loaded them onto the bus. We were only spending one night in Milan and we had to get to our next city, so we needed quickness in it. After packing up, we rode into town to see two things. One of which is the Castelo Sforzesco. It is basically the old walls of the city which happen to be extremely tall and castle like. The other stop was of the Duomo Santa Maria Nascente. This is just another church, but like all churches in Europe, they are so wonderfully built that its hard to imagine the architecture involved and the process of building these churches. This church was real ly fun, because you could go and walk on top of the church. Once on top, you can see the whole city from the top and see even more of the beautifully crafted sculptures and stones that there are. We just so happened to be in Milan on a Sunday, so to our dismay, there were not any shops open to shop or even to look at, everything was closed as is so on a Sunday in Europe. Well after looking around the church for a bit we then proceeded back to the bus for our next stop. Our next stop on our Eurotour was the rich city of Monaco!! This is undoubtedly the richest city in Europe. I believe the only contender would be Paris, but nevertheless, it was gorgeous and had some really nice scenery. Upon arrival, we got our and walked through the city. Now walking threw Europe richest city, you tend to come across some things. Some of which are the many yachts that people own in the harbor, and the other are the cars. I ended up seeing one yacht so big, that It had its own helipad and helicopter on the back of the yacht. As for the cars I ended up seeing 2 Ashton Martin’s, 2 Lamborghini’s, 2 Bentley’s, 2 Rolls Royce’s, and about 9-10 Ferrari’s!!!!!!! I have never seen this many nice cars in such a short period is unbelievable. Our tour of Monaco was basically walking along the city and also walking a little bit of the Formula 1 race track. This is where we came upon the casino in Monaco where all of the rich people go to, to spend their endless supply of chunk change!! Also along this path we came upon the police headquarters. I might would change that to the shack of the police headquarters, because the building for the police was so tiny compared to every other building that was around it! Well after seeing the casino and the race track we walked back the same way we came at the beginning and again saw the endless rows of enormous yachts sitting and waiting to be taken out and sailed upon. We all gathered up back into the Bus and headed off in the direction of our last stop of the day Nice!! Well I just went through Florence, Pisa, Milan, and Monaco. I believe that the end of my trip i believe will have to wait for another day. The next topics are Nice, Lyon, Versailles, Paris, and Finally Brussels. I hope you all have enjoyed it thus far :)) I will again attach some pictures to another email so people who do not have enough space for big emails can also receive the pictures and so I don’t receive annoying emails back saying that it did not go through. Yours truly, Josh P.S. the pictures I am sending are as follows... 1. picture of the square building in florence with the clock on top 2. picture of the bridge with some of the shops jutting off of the bridge 3. a picture of the outside of the church 4. the leaning tower of Pisa 5. Once again the leaning tower of Pisa, but with me trying to hold it up 6. a picture of me with the tower 7. a picture of some of the architechture of the church in Milan on top of the roof 8. me and also looking down one of the sides of the church 9. a picture of the amazing city of Monaco 10. Me with my car when I grow up!!
4/10/2005	Hello everyone its me again, Well this time my email will be long, and I may have to write a couple of emails to tell everyone all about it. Well here goes..... The Eurotour began from a small town in Germany where all of the exchange students met up. From there we left and rode on the bus to Prague, Czech Republic. It took about 8 to 9 hours on a bus, with an hour at the border between Germany and the Czech Republic for some reason. We arrived and went to our hostel. All I will say about hostels in Europe is that they are all different and I mean all. We had some without electricity, no toilet seats, no blankets, and no food. Anyways we arrived there and went to eat. The next morning we spent in the city. We went throughout the city and say a bunch of sites including the astronomical clock, Karl's bridge, and the church of the young woman Maria of the Tyn. I think many of the exchange students enjoyed this city a lot because it was one of the oldest cities that we visited. After the afternoon and evening was finished with, we got to enjoy going to the largest disco in Europe!!!!! It was 5 stories tall and amazing in the whole nig ht I never met anyone from the Czech Republic!! I only met people from England, Scotland, Germany, and Australia. Nevertheless, I had a very good time. The next morning we then drove 5 and a half hours to Vienna. Here we arrived at our hostel and met the Rotary Club from Vienna. We split up into groups and toured the city with them. On of the most gorgeous places we visited was a palace of a French prince. The palace was nice, but it is better known for its garden. The next day we broke up into the same groups and my group went to the Castle Schönbrunn, Hundertwasserhaus, and Wiener Hofburg. In the afternoon we switched groups and saw what the other group saw, which was the Government building, two big building originally built for a king, and also the Stephansdom. This city was quit different than Prague it was was not as old, was bigger, we could understand what people were saying because they speak German, and also because it was a lot cleaner. At night we went to this old theme park and rode on a big ferris wheel. At the very top they stopped us and we could see Vienna by night and also a bunch of the buildings that w e saw earlier in the day. Our next stop on our Eurotour was the famous city of Venice, Italy!! Here we arrived in the famous city from a bus ride of a record 10 and a half hours!! Lets just say it was about time we got there. Anyways everyone was really excited and eager to see the city. Unfortunately we arrived to late to do anything in the city because for one we were staying on an island, and two everyone was tired from sitting down the whole day and not getting to do anything. That night we had a real Italian dinner with pasta, salad, bread, and Italian wine. The next morning came and everyone was excited to go. We took the water taxi to the city and split up into groups. We first went to the Campanile, which is right around the Piazza San Marco. If you have ever seen the movie the Italian Job, in the beginning there are two pillars where the two actors meet at the beginning of the movie and they make a reference to the pillars as how they used to hang thieves. Anyways, I got to see those two p illars! Our next stop was the Piazza San Marco which was really gorgeous. Its made with a lot of gold and there were so many tourists there. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to go in and see where Saint Mark was buried, but it was nice to look at. We then walked through the old city and admired all the expensive shops and wondered how people could pay for that? Later on we came to the Ponte di Rialto bridge. Its the biggest and most well known in Venice because it was the first bridge ever built in the city. Afterwards it was time for lunch, but the thing was we got lost twice and never made it to the meeting place to have lunch!! Instead we went to a restaurant and had real Italian pizza. After lunch we walked through the main street and stopped about three times to eat the famous gelato ice cream. It was as they say it would be; real good!! Now of course by this time we have walked by about 12 gondola's and being Venice and all we decided to take a nice little ride. So 6 of us took a gondola ride through the city. It was very cool to ride on one of those. Afterwards we walked through the city again, saw a bunch of poor people asking for money, but it was weird because later on i saw one of them walking through the city wearing the same cloths, but this time with her husband and her son with her!! I guess their not as poor as I originally thought. later on that evening we went back to our hostel, had some real good Italian food again, and the rest of the night enjoyed playing cards with friends and drinking wine. This was a real nice way to end an exciting day in Venice. Well thats enough for one email tonight. In this email I covered Prague, Vienna, and Venice. Tomorrow or the next day will come Florence, Pisa, Milan, Monaco, and Nice!! Also here are some pictures of the three towns. Hope you enjoyed it, josh
3/16/2005	hello all, well tomorrow i begin my eurotour!! I get to travel all throughout europe. I will go to Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Nizza, Mailand, Lyon, Paris, and finally Brüssels! Well just to let everyone know so that if you dont receive a message from me in the next three weeks or so its because im gone and really dont have a chance to check my mail. You can send me stuff no problem, but i might not be able to respond quickly....but when i come back i will tell everyone what happened and ill upload some pics too. Well hope that everythings going alright in the USA. Until later.....
3/2/2005	Hello everyone, Thought that it would be a good time to update everyone about Germany, so I do not keep on getting emails asking how I am doing and whats new? Sorry for the delay, but you know how it is over here, your just having a really good time and you do not want to take the time to write anything down. Anyways here goes..... December- Christmas in Germany was pretty much just like home, except I went to a methodist church instead of a catholic church on Christmas eve and also we opened our presents that night too. Unfortunately there were not ‘t any special family traditions or German traditions during Christmas so as I said earlier, it was pretty basic. My parents though gave me a really cool present. 2 days of snowboard lessons!! After taking those lessons, wow I can definitely say it’s much harder than it looks! I think I fell at least 50 times in those 2 days, and on one of the falls I ended up spraining my ankle a little bit. My other good present was from my parents in America. They bought me 4 new tires for my car, which is really nice because I needed them; however, my car is not with me and I can not drive it till the end of July. My host sister gave me a big box full of things that are native to the place where I live right now, so that was really nice. Earlier in the month our family went to another families house for a Christmas night with 4 other families. We ended up playing a game with a dice and opening up presents and taking turns rolling the dice and either switching presents with people or taking presents, or giving up presents. I ended up with 40% Armenian alcohol, and a child's knight set. I have no idea how I ended up with those two presents, but I did. The last thing about December was Nicholas. It was only one night reserved mainly for children, but since I was the exchange student and I have never had this holiday, the family made an exception and our family had it this year. The whole holiday is where a Santa comes into the house and has a big list of all the things that children have done throughout the year. Afterwords during the night if he decides you were a good boy or girl you received either candy or coal. Needless to say I of course received candy!! January- January was a slow month for some reason. I changed families on the 5 th and my new family has only 2 daughters. One is 22 and studies in a different town and the other is 18. The family is really nice, but unlike the other family though, both the mom and dad work a bunch, as does the sister with studying so a lot of times I find myself bored to death in the house. My birthday was on the 11 th and I turned 19! It’s really hard to imagine myself being 19, but here I am 19 and in Germany. I had a nice birthday party with my host family and also with my two good friends Ramiro(Ecuador) and Elaine(USA). I got a backpack because mine broke, a ticket to the basketball game, a hand-warmer because its so cold here, and candy. That was on a Monday and Ramiro’s birthday was on that Sunday, so we once again celebrated a birthday with cake and coffee at his families’s house. His two older host brothers who study at the University in cities really far away came all the way home just for his birthday. He was really happy to see them because they are really nice and he likes them a lot. We did have a party though, it was in a club with a couple of our other German friends from school. Needless to say we had a good time. February- During my time here in Germany I will get to go to the three best holidays in Germany. Oktoberfest, Karneval, and Schwörmontag. I went to Oktoberfest in October, Schwörmontag comes in June, and Karneval was the first week in February. Basically its Mardi Gras for Adults. Most countries have a Karneval, but it originated in Köln, Germany so thats where the best Karneval is, Köln. Of course because this is one of the three biggest German holidays, I went to Köln with my f amily and stayed there from Saturday to Monday. The city was very beautiful and I got the opportunity to see the biggest church in Germany. It’s not the tallest, because my city of Ulm has the tallest church in Europe and it may be the tallest in the world, but its still the biggest. However, because Karneval was going on, basically everything was closed. All the churches were closed and a lot of shops. It’s actually pretty funny because on Friday we arrived and walked around the city and took pictures. This was the best time to take them because the city was very busy with people setting up for Karneval on Sunday and Monday. It was really funny to see people boarding up their shops like a hurricane or a tsunami was coming, but they did it so that the glass windows and doors would not’t break when from all of the people being drunk!!! My family has a joke that they have never seen Köln without all the shops boarded up and looking like everything is abandoned, because they only go there for Karneval. The next week we had a holiday so I traveled to Slovenia and visited a friend of my families who I have not seen for 7 years. We ended up staying there for five days. We got to go skiing in the Alps, walked around the capital, visited his parents and kids, and enjoyed a week of relaxation. His parents cook really well and so does his wife so he’s lucky. I had a great time there with his family and hopefully the next time I go back will not be in 7 years!! March- I know this month has not come yet, but this past weekend was an inbound weekend in north Germany that I went to. It was required for people who are going to go on a Eurotour. I got to meet about 45 other exchange students from that district and we got to see a soccer game in the process. It was really fun and I cannot wait to go on the Eurotour. For those of you who do not know what a Eurotour is, its basically a bunch of exchange students (about 47 of us to be exact) driving around Europe and s eeing the sights for about 2 and a half weeks. We go to Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Milano, Pizza, Lyon, Paris, and Brussels!!! This is not all of Europe, but I would say its pretty close. Berlin is not on this because I am going with my class during June to Berlin for 4 days, so that is when I will visit that capitol of Germany. Also on March 16 th there is a national soccer game in my town. Germany plays against Italy, but its for the under 19 year old to play, but nevertheless there are some really good players and it will be a fun game. Last but not least to talk about is that unbelievable weather!!!! As I do not think many of you know how the weather is Germany right now, I will tell you. It is the beginning of March and there is still so much snow on the ground it is ridiculous. It has been snowing in my town constantly everyday for the past 3 and a half weeks, and today it finally stopped and we got some much needed sunshine. However, that sunshine did not really work and it was –14 to –20 degrees Celsius today. Wow that is really cold. I walked from my house to school today and afterwords my face felt like it had anesthesia on it, i could not feel anything on my face at all. I knew I was touching it, but that was about it!! I was reading a newspaper and I saw also that all over Germany there is snow and all over Germany its cold. In the Southwest its about –32 degrees!! I think were making up dramatically for snow that we missed in December and January, but unfortunately were getting it all in February and March! Well I think thats about it for now. My next letter will include the Eurotour details and some pictures. Until then.... Auf Wiedersehen, viele Grüße, und machts gut, Josh


11/22/04	hello all, Well as for the holiday's here in Germany, they have been really interesting. The first holiday that I have been able to experience was Halloween and well that was very different. First of all, when I went out with some friends, a number of houses did not even remember or know that it was Halloween. Others remembered, but refused to answer the door for some reason. While I was trick-or-treating, I think I saw maybe one or so other group of people going around. Also I met the Mayor of my city during that night and we sang the american version of the song, the spanish version of the song, and of course the german version of the song to him. He was really nice and gave us chocolate, fruit, and 5 euro!! It was definetly a night to remember. As for thanksgiving, the country of Germany doesn't celebrate it; as a matter of fact, I have the first of only four tests in the whole year in history on Thanksgiving!! I know of some other exchange students though in a town about thirty minutes away and there is one house with three exchange students living there, which when I found that out, I was really confused. Anyways I think they were planning to cook a little thanksgiving dinner this weekend so if it's possible i will try and go there to have some kind thanksgiving. well thats about it, I will be sure to inform everyone of what happens during Xmas and new years and so on. greetings from Deutschland, josh
My trip to Schwarzwald Thursday, September 30, 2004 3:22 PM	hello all, Today I returned from my week in Schwarzwald (black forest). I have many stories and i only stayed a week there. For starters Elaine(wyoming), ramiro(equador), satoko(japan), and myself left Ulm and traveled 2 hours or so to Triberg. When we arrived we met two other exchange students from ohio and mexico. we then went to the youth hostel and sat around unfortunetly for about 4 and a half hours until someone else came. they just dropped us off and left and said "ok you can do whatever you want, have fun" then left. well we had no idea where we were or what to do so we just sat, slept, and talked until someone else came. Before dinner we met the other exchange students. There were about 17 in all from canada, usa, mexico, equador, new zealand, and australia. After dinner the other few Rotarians that were there welcomed us and told us about the week. Let's just say what he said did not appeal to any of us.&nbs p; it included, 3 days of hiking in the forest all of which were 12, 17, and 18 kilometers respectivley. During those days, we were cold, wet, barely had any view and tired. I can remember one time we had to hike up this "hill" as what they called it, all of the exchange students called it a mountain; it was 1km at a 45 degree angle and it was not your typical trail that you would take on a hike. That was the worst experience I have ever, and I mean ever, had. Of course during the hikes we talked to each other and saw the views, and just enjoyed everyone's company. The other 2 days were spent in the towns of Rottweil, where the name of the dog rottweiler comes from. also in the town of Fenninggen-Schwinninggen. Both towns we took a little tour of and shopped around. On the last night we had a meeting to see when we would leave. Well for some reason us four in the beginning were going to be the last four to leave, and not like a hour after everyone else, try 5 hours after everyone. So for this reason alone we had a lady tell us a different way to go, so we she told it to us and unfortunetly it was 2 more hours longer. Anyways off to the train station we went and got on the train. Everything was going well, we paid for our tickets;(after we found the money by asking around for it), found a spot on the train and waited. We arrived at the next train station changed and got on the train to Stuttgart. Well this is when things went bad. first of all we could see that this train was way to nice for our cheap tickets, so of course when the guy comes to check our tickets were all asleep. So he wakes us up asks for our tickets, then tells us that our tickets are for the small trains not for the nic e ones that we were on. So we asked how much and it was 15 Euro for each of us four; and this is after we paid 21 Euro for the first ticket. We talked with him and luckily we only had to pay for two childrens tickets instead, thank gosh. When we arrived in Stuttgart the gate that the ticket guy told us was of course wrong so we had to fing the right one out of 25 other gates. We finally did and by this time we have not eaten the whole day and of course we have no money so we can't. We finally arrive in Ulm and realize that we are like 3 or 4 hours ahead of schedule and ramiro and myself had our host parents drive us to the train station. Elaine and Satoko walked from their house. So we had to call our parents from Elaines cell phone that her host parents gave her. I called my house first and of course its busy, so ramiro tries and no one is home. I try th e upstairs phone again and its out of order. Ramiro tries his host parents' cell phones and thier turned off. So again I try, but by this time the phone card has no more money on it so we ended up take the bus back to our houses and walked up the hill that we both live on. Everyone was sooooooooo tired after that and I am going to bed after this email. All in all it was pretty interesting and a good memory. I definetly will not forget the people we met or the places we saw. And today I found out that all of them are coming to Ulm for some big Rotary function thing so I will be able to see them again. Until next time, Josh
Thu, Sept 9, 2004 7:58	I made it to germany ok, there were no problems at all. I'll write you a longer letter sometime later. I just wanted to say i got here ok ok see you later, tschüss

Josh Tulsa to Germany

Josh
Tulsa to Germany