friday i got picked up at 3 by taylor's host mom (taylor is from flordia). drove to taylors house. dropped off stuff and we went to trainstation. on the way to the trainstation we stopped at the back and i took out 30 euros for stuff at the concert. we had to run because we were running short on time ... and it was cold and rainy. got to train station all three of us boarded the train. i had never been on a train before... you know us americans dont have public transportation. so taylor and i sat next to each other and her host mom sat on the other side facing the opposite direction. bout half way there 4 guys get on the train and one has a beer. taylor says" you can drink beer on a train" i say "taylor this is germany you can drink beer anywhere" as i say that the guy walks by and says "yo!" which around here is kinda like yeah or something. i know that because my host family i am in now says it and my host mom always says it before saying good bye on the phone ("yo, tschuss"). taylor didnt know this so since the guys just randomly said yo to her she started laughing uncontrollable and so i did to... for some reason i turned bright red all over it got so hot... i took my hoodie off and my arms were even bright red. then the guys walked by us again and we started laughing even more (the first laugh session hadnt even ended yet). a few minutes later after we had calmed down the guy came back and he asked us if we wanted to go to the top of the train with them (its a double decker train) and we said no along with Inge (taylors host mom) the guy looked over at her so confused ... kinda like one of those situations where you are talking to one person and another thinks you are talking to them and they answer... but then he just said ok and went back up. now taylor, inge and i are always saying yo to eachother. when we got to the cologne train station we met carina (brazil) and Frank (Taiwan). they had spent the whole day touring the city with other exchange students who live there. carina was spending the night with me at taylors house so she had bags which she put in a baggage machine thing at the other cologne train station. so we all got on the train and went to the other station and got her bags (we passed like 17 mcdonalds signs and i wanted some sooo bad) then went back to the other train station and went to the arena which was right next to it. the doors opened at 6. we got there about 6:30. there was a line but it moved fast. Inge left and we made it through all the security checks.... Frank almost didnt because he showed the guy checking tickets ID's that werent accepted then he finally showed him his bank card and they let him in ... we almost had heart attacks lol. Frank also took longer to go through the bag checking area bc he had a back pack... not a good idea for a concert... he thought there would be a locker or something. i saw a girl who had to put her camera in a tiny locker because it was too good of a camera... they didnt want her taking good enough photos to sell i guess. then we went to the stairs to go down to the standing area... got out hand stamped that we are allowed down there.. and went in... just walking though the doors into the area made me want to scream as loud at i could... carina walked in and turned around and ran at me and hugged me. it was just like i cant believe we are here! kinda like the feeling of getting off the air plane in frankfurt... minus the im so nervous im going to puke feeling. we went and stood as close as we could to the front. there was a railing that kept us back so we were no where near the stage... that was for the front row ticket holders. we were a few rows of people back from the rail while waiting...we stood for probably and hour and a half before it started at 8. in that time carina and i went to get a drink... every drink was 5.20 euros including water. i was like holy crap. so we shared a fanta... i paid. while we were waiting we started talking to a guy .. he was drunk and kept trying to give us beer... we didnt drink any... really we didnt. at 8 the concert finally started. a band from nigera came and played for 30 minutes... then we waited another hour. while waiting we made a plan... when people started moving during the concert we would wedge our way to the front. when the red hot chili peppers finally came out it was like omg this isnt real. everyone was dancing... kinda ... i guys it was more the drunk guys behind us attempting to create a mosh pit. the drunk guys managed to wedge his way infront of me and a few other people and i followed to get as close as i could. i tried to record all the songs but ended up running out of space on my memory card... i charged my camera but forgot to take pics off the card :(. the drunk guy saw i was recording and asked me if i could see and i said no.. he let me into his spot. i could actually see now.. carina had asked a guy if she could get infront of him because she is so short and he let her... i swear these people around us were like 6' 5" at least i was like holy crap why do all the giants have to be around us. after getting in the good spot i think the guy kept trying to get back in it but i help throwing elbows, legs, hips, to keep him back. every time a chorus of a song would start everyone started singing along and jumping and pushing forward.. i felt sorry for those girls who were against the rail... their boyfriends stood behind them and someone would fall into them and they would fall in to the girls ... i told my group that if they got to the rail dont stand right against it or you are going to be bruised. at one point the drunk guy asked me in german if he could get back in the spot and i pretended i couldnt understand what he was saying so he would leave me along hahahaha. all three of us girls wore boots to the concert which was a good thing for me bc my shoes would have been off... my feet got stepped on so many times that the toes of my boots were crushed in... taylors too... taylor had heels on her boots and im pretty sure she was the one the indented my boots... i even got an elbow in a place i dont want elbows from her lol.so the band played about 10 songs then they went off stage and before the drummer left he threw his drumsticks to the crowd... on went in our section but way behind us and the other went to the section in front of us.... i wanted one soooo bad. then everyone in the crowd started chanting something that we assumed meant "encore". the drummer came back out with the drummer from the opening act. they had a little battle then the rest of the band came back out ... they played about 4 songs i think. taylor and i fought out way through the crowd to get something to drink... it was soooo hot with all of those people and moving so much and screaming and jumping and everything... that was another 5.20 for a glass of water! we went back to catch the last song and then it was over.... then it was a mad rush to the souvenir stand. All of the Tshirts were 30 euros, hoodies 50 or 60, armbands 5, dont remember the rest. I bought a tshirt for john and and arm band for me. i definitely should have gotten more than 30 euros out of the bank... i cant find any of the tshirts online either so i cant buy one for me..

the wonderful rainy cold day we had for the concert

updated look at my jacket

Montabaur Club Banner

district 1810 governor - Gerd zur Muehlen, me, and Montabaur RC President

waffel and ice cream with bananas and cinnamon yum

the hiking group... 2nd from the left in back is christel and 3rd is gregor

the sigh read: "do you see a sweat shirt, a pair of gloves, or a pair of boots?"

ahhh im getting stepped on by a horse!!!!

sunday was not my best day. i woke up and went down and ate breakfast. christel said that maurice was going to a friends, julie was going to the stables, and her and gregor were going hiking, and asked what i was doing. i said i dont know and so she said i will go hiking... i hate hiking. i went hiking... for 5 freaking hours. during the first half an hour i was not a happy camper (i am keeping this polite) i mean theres 9 adults and 1 16 yr old .... how do you think that its going to be a fun time for me i felt like that 5 year old kid that mommy and daddy have to drag with them everywhere and never gets to do what they want. i had no one to talk to and i was climbing over mountains in really hot weather. definitely not a happy camper. i think christel realized i wasnt happy and started talking to me so maybe i wasnt so bored. 3 hours later we came to a small town where we were supposed to eat lunch. that didnt work out too well. we went to 2 places and they were done serving food (sundays in german are not days for any business to be open) so then we went to another place that was supposed to be open for a while longer.... we get there and they are closed because they were on vacation. so we sat at the tables that they had outside and ate trail mix and drank water, apple juice, and wine (yes wine... gregor took a bottle of wine in his backpack i was like wow i am definitely in germany). all of these people go hiking together twice a year... they have been doing it for like 24 years. i was like holy crap why would you put yourself though that. so after our "lunch" we started hiking again... this time it was all up hill and off the beaten path... literally. after seeing it was all up hill i became furious and forced all my rage into keeping up with the guy leading everyone. i was with him the whole time the whole 2 hours. when we finally got back to the beaten path we had cut out about 4 km and saved a lot of time which i appreciated a lot. we finally got back to the car and went for icecream which was the only thing that made the day better. that and the ice cold shower after ice cream. oh yeah and i had people take pictures of me so i had proof that i was actually hiking.

monday i had nothing to do so i decided to go into the city and needed to pick up a few things ... i get there and realize its a freaking holiday and every store is closed except the cafes. so i went to a ice cream place and had a waffle with bananas and a scoop of ice cream. one thing i miss from the US is the sundaes... they have big ice cream dishes here but not same thing as a sundae. so then i went home. later i was supposed to go to a dance class that is being offered through the school. so i get ready and i walk to the school (got lost a little but i made it). i get there and no one else is there... i waited a while to see if anyone showed up and they didnt so i walked home. i guess i got the wrong information (again) and so i have no clue when it actually starts. on the way home was when i discovered the true reason why i did an exchange. in my application for the rotary exchange i wrote something about how you always hear about people backpacking though europe and how cool that would be. well between the hiking and the 2 unnecessary walking trips on monday i realized i would have never survived the backpacking through europe. i chose the exchange program to LIVE in europe... backpacking would have caused me to DIE in europe. i dont understand why people would want to backpack through europe. you get dirty and sweaty and waste a ton of energy. i would be ok with hiking for maybe 2 hours but definitely not a month or what ever these people do.

tuesday what was supposed to happen that day actually did. i went into town and the stores were actually open so i got the stuff i needed. then stopped for an ice cream cone for the way home. then i went home and started getting ready for the Rotary dinner meeting with the governor of district 1810. i ended up being ready an hour early but at least i was on time. i put all the pins on my jacket which added like 3 pounds to it. andreas picked me up and we went to the meeting. Anke gave me pins from Buga (all the shops were closed when we were actually there so she bought me some and brought them to me). i met the governor and shook a bunch of peoples hands... some people like killed my hand i was like omg take it easy on the bones they do break. after the speech from the governor we ate and then had dessert then i gave the president from our club and the governor my club banner and i got one from Montabaur club for Chambersburg club and the governor gave me a pin. i gave all the Rotarians my card with my blog address, cell phone number, and email so all of them should be able to keep up with me and contact me if they want to. after the meeting andreas, anke, and another guy idk his name went and had drinks so i had a fanta. after that andreas took me home (after stopping by the house to pick up a letter that came for me from tiff... she put some crazy address on it idk where she got it because i sent her nothing like that). 

today is just a lazy day... i got up at 11:30 and only left bed to eat breakfast. my plans for today are to finish the blog, upload the pictures on here and facebook, do laundry and thats bout it.

i am having technical difficulties uploading photos i will put them in the next entry.