Conquering the Silver Mountains!

Charnelle and Crystal left Boebligen on Friday morning after waiting for a delayed train. Once we got on the train, it was smooth sailing all the way to Interlaken. The view from the train ride was gorgeous with snowed covered mountains at every turn. Once we arrived, we waited for Danni, Anne, and Sarah so that we could explore Interlaken. We didn't go far since the sun was beginning to set. We found the cutest little Irish Pub (it was happy hour and ladies night!!!) and had a few beers. We got hungry and went to a small cafe that had delicious pinnis and wraps. We went back to the Irish Pub for another beer (happy hour was over unfortunately). There was a live music by a "one man band", but we were a bit disappointed since he only sang no more than two songs. On our way back to our hostel, we saw what looked like a star that can be drawn, but realized that it was just a light that was placed on the top of a mountain.

Day 2: Danni and Anne woke up early and walked to town to a little cafe to get cappuccino and a corned crossiant. When they returned, everyone ate peanut butter for breakfast and we set out for the day's journey. We caught the bus to Interlaken West and looked around and decided that we wanted to get a good view of the lake and made our way to Lake Brienzersee. The views were unreal! The water looked so clean and the mountains in the background made it even better. We ate lunch by the lake and decided to head back to town. Charnelle, Danni, and Sarah while Anne and Crystal walked back to town to get their steps in. They made it without any maps, and used visual cues and their good memory skills to make it back. While Charnelle, Danni, and Sarah began shopping and as we were leaving the store, Crystal and Anne caught up to us! We continued walking through town and shopping until we reahced a resturant that sold fondue. We ordered and shared cheese fondue and it was delicious!

The best part of the trip was our CHOCOLATE TOUR!!!! The experience was more than we expected. We learned how chocolate it made and we had access to lots of free chocolate! We took a few pieces to go and headed back towards our hostel. We stopped at a Lebanese resturant where Charmelle and Anne once again expanded their food taste (Doner boxes)! We then stopped by a store to buy food and wine, and came back to our hostel to chill out before our train rides our tomorrow. 

We had so much fun and really enjoyed the quaint town of Interlaken. Stay tuned for our next adventure next weekend! :D

Crystal and Charnelle's weekend in Salzburg, Austria!

Unfortunately, we were not able to coordinate a trip with the other three girls this weekend. Danni just arrived this week and was still trying to figure out her housing. So Sarah and Anne waited for her and we agreed to make separate trips for the weekend!

We left Friday morning and made it to Salzburg, Austria at about 1:00pm. As soon as we got off the train, we saw how mountainous Salzburg was. The snow-covered mountains were beautiful! We walked straight to our hostel and luckily were able to check in early. Once we threw our bags down, we walked to the Salzach River and began our walk around the city! The sides of the bridge were filled with all different kinds of locks. Each lock had 2 names on it to signify their love. You are suppose to throw away the key once you put a lock on the bridge. 

Once we crossed the bridge we discovered the Mozart Statue and Museum. We also saw the Salzburg Cathedral. It was all so beautiful! At the top of the hill in Salzburg sat the Hohensalzburg Fortress. We were determined to get up there. So after hiking for what seemed like forever, up the steepest hills imaginable, we made it. We could barely breathe but we made up! We paid only about 6€ to get inside. At this point it was time for a beer. Once we got our energy back, we turned the corner and saw the most beautiful view of the city. We didn't know how impressive our photography skills were. Maybe we will drop out of grad school to be photographers... just kidding. 

The sun began to set so we started making our way back down the hill. We stopped to eat dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the village. Charnelle ordered lasagna and I ordered mushroom risotto. Wow were our meals delicious!! After dinner we made our way back to the hostel, stopping to grab a bottle of wine to enjoy at the end of a long exhausting day. We ended up walking about 9.5 miles.

On Saturday we woke up to snow falling. We made the trek back into the city and stopped to defrost at a little cafe for some tea and hot chocolate. For lunch, we went to the Stiegl restaurant for some delicious beef broth with cheese dumpling soup. We had no plan today so we just decided to hike up the hill to the top near the fortress a different way. We are glad we did because the view was even more magnificent than the one from the day before. At the end of the day, we went back to rest before dinner. We met one of the girls in our room and she was very sweet. We invited her to join us for dinner and had such a great time. After dinner we returned to our hostel and just hung out with our new friend.

This trip was truly amazing, we wished that Sarah, Danni and Anne could have been there with us! Maybe soon we will be back in Austria to see Vienna! 

Stay tuned for next weekends amazing trip to Interlaken, Switzerland!! 

Below Freezing....in Amberg....Really Cold

This week started off with a bang! Danni finally came and Annie was soooooo excited to see her. ;) We decided to stay close to the base so Danni could get settled into her new habitat. We did a day trip to Amberg, a small town about a 30 minute train ride form Vilseck. It was so beautiful and quaint. One of our supervisors was amazing and picked us up from the train station and drove us to the local monastery, Our Lady of ........we can't remember actually. It was on top of this little hill and surrounded by beautiful forests. Sarah found her true passion in her life (besides speech pathology of course), frolicking in the snow...by herself....as people stared. Just kidding :) Danni joined her and it was so much fun! Unfortunately, Annie's boots inhibited her frolicking abilities. We stopped at this little restaurant next to the monastery and ordered fruit tea and soup. Danni and Annie had beef broth soup with a raw egg yolk smack dab in the middle! It was sooooo good! Sarah got tomato soup to match her red hair :)

Walking in Amberg
Once we came back from the monastery, we were able to walk around the historic district. We stopped at a little brewery for lunch where the owner told us a little about Amberg's history and gave us some free guidebooks and pamphlet about the 1,000 year old town. There were lots of places to shop for clothes, phone plans. You name it, they had it! We stopped at one of the local bakeries Annie's supervisor recommended. Sarah thought she ordered 4 slices of bread until the worker gave her almost a whole loaf. Let's just say we need to work on our German. The bread was flavorful and unlike anything you'll find in the states.
       As we were walking around waiting for our train, a little old German man shuffled us into his antique store. Initially we thought he  just wanted to sell us something until he brought out his younger son, pointed at Sarah, smiled and gestured his son toward her. From this interaction, we have all deduced that Germans enjoy ladies of the red headed variety. Turns out his other son was married to a woman from California! Maybe it is a small world after all.

Drinking "Biere"!!

The Monastery in Amberg!

So pretty but SOOO cold! 

So many smiles....so little time

     As we rode back to Vilseck Annie enjoyed her breze (german for "pretze"l), Sarah had a cinnamon cake, and Danni had the German equivalent of a Mcdonalds apple pie...but better! Next week we're heading to Interlaken, Switzerland with Crystal and Charnelle. We'll keep you posted!

Paris: Macaroons, Escargot, and Lots of Walking

Charnelle and Crystal were dropped off at the train station on Thursday afternoon. We arrived about 2 hours early to give ourselves enough time before boarding our night train to Paris! During the wait time we decided to grab a beer. As our departure time came near, we when to our train gate (which changed terminals at the last minute - thanks to Crystal for noticing!), and viola, there as our train! Thankfully, we had two extra seats to ourselves! However, half way through our train ride when the attendants checked train tickets, Crystal had her feet kicked up and relaxed on the seat in front of her. The attendants said something to her in French or German, and she didn't understand what they were saying. They repeated what they said in English, and told her to take her feet down and if she did it again, she would have to pay 15€! Note to everyone: DO NOT KICK HOUR FEET UP ON EUROPEAN TRAINS, or you'll have to pay. After a 3 and a half hour train ride, we finally arrived in Paris, France! We didn't see much at all since it was dark unfortunately. Since Anne and Sarah were arriving the next day, we stayed in a hostel for the night. 

We woke up bright and early on Friday morning to eat breakfast and head out to start our Paris boat tour starting at the Louvre museum which was a 35 minute walk. The boat tour allowed you to hop on and off at different historic sites, so we decided to hop off at the Champs Élysées stop to go to Laduree for their delicious macaroons which was a 20 minute walk. After Laduree, we walked another 25 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. Charnelle's GPS took us through a backway path to the Eiffel, and once we turned the corner, BAM, there was the tower. After snapping a few photos, we realized how tired we were from walking with our backpacks, so we made another 25 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower to our AirBnB. 

After settling in and with time to spare before Anne and Sarah arrived, Charnelle and Crystal decided to go back on the boat to continue our boat tour. The tour included stops at the Louvre, The d'Orsay museum, Champs Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, Hotel de Ville, Saint Germain Des Pris, and Notre Dame. We decided to get off at Notre Dame and after getting off of the boat where there were huge gaps in between the cobblestoned ground, Charnelle accidentally tripped in between the gaps! Notre Dame is gorgeous by the way! While Charnelle and Crystal headed back to the apartment, Anne and Sarah were very patiently waiting at the apartment for them to get in. After 45 minutes, Charnelle and Crystal finally arrived!

Anne and Sarah's side of the story:

We began our day walking in hour to the Vilseck train in the snow. It was an amazing view and got to watch the sunrise over the hills! We arrived at the train station with 15 minutes to spare and hopped on our train for Nuremberg. We then switched trains in Nuremberg and headed for Stuttgart. At Stuttgart we got off the train and bought coffee at McDonald's while dodging a few birds. It was crazy! From Stuttgart we got on 3:45 hour train ride to Paris. Sarah listened to a book on tape and Anne slept and enjoyed the view out the window. It snowed ALOT on the way there until we reached Paris.  Once we reached Paris, we went to buy a metro ticket. This was somewhat intimidating as Anne's credit card was denied and the line became stacked up with frustrated travelers. After trying multiple cards and finally being able to purchase her ticket Anne and Sarah hopped on the metro, however, on the close look out for pick picketers. When we arrived at the air b n b we had no wifi and were unable to reach the girls by our German phones. The landlord got us into the building however did not speak English so did not understand why we were there. Finally, a physician who was visiting a patient in the building came through and spoke English. He helped us out of the building when we thought we were trapped. After his appointment, he saw us standing outside and let us back in so that we could stay warm. We then went down the street looking for wifi. We went into a hotel which allowed us to use their wifi. We got in contact with Charnelle and then returned back to the AirBnB.  The renter ended up finding us on the street and gave us a key to the apartment where we met Charnelle and Crystal.

Happy ending to our day, we all got settled in and went out for dinner where Charnelle and Anne tried duck for the first time. It was very tasty! 

P.S., after lots of waking around the beautiful city of Paris, Charnelle and Crystal walked a total of 14 miles, 31,000+ steps, and 45 flings of stairs (thanks to Crystal's FitBit). This resulted in a minor sprained ankle and foot blisters. 

Day 3 consisted of: 

-Went inside Notre Dame (gorgeous architecture!)

-Charnelle and Anne tasted a Nutella crepe!

-Jardin de Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden)

-Met with Sarah's cousin and ate lunch at La Favorite

-Anne and Sarah's 1st trip to the Eiffel Tower

-A second trip back to the Eiffel Tower because every first 5 minutes of every hour, the tower sparkles and it's amazing!!!

-Dinner and wine at the apartment 

Day 4 consisted of: 

-An awkward encounter with 2 strange pick pocketers at the Metro

-Arche de Triomphe

-Champ Élysées to go to Laduree for Anne and Sarah to have delicious macaroons!

-Sacre Cracure to see the highest point in Paris (amazing views)! We also went inside of the church where no pictures were allowed 

-Louvre to snap photos of the glass pyramids

-Le Petit Cler where Anne, Charnelle, and Sarah tried escargot (snails) for the first time. It was interesting!

Crystal and Charnelle leave tomorrow and Anne and Sarah leave on Tuesday. Tune in next week for our next adventure!

First week in Vilseck!

Hello from Vilseck! Sarah and Anne arrived on Monday into Munich. We arrived in Munich and then took a bus and train to Amberg where we met our Supervisor. Riding the train was quite an experience! We did not realize that the trains split, however, we quickly learned that Germans are very friendly and helpful. One man even let us use his cell phone to call our supervisor. Two hours later we arrived in Amberg where our supervisor met us. After picking us up we visited a local monastery where we got an amazing view of the town. We then ate dinner that night at a local germen brewery with a special education teacher and our supervisor.

The next day we met up with Elynn (Sarah’s supervisor) and the other student teachers at the base. We visited the base right next to us, Graf, to pick up our IDs. We stopped by the commissary where Anne picked up a set of clothes since her luggage went MIA between LAX and Munich (It’s currently being driven to Monika’s house and should arrive sometime tonight).

We are staying in cabins that are in the woods on base. We have two other roommates that are teaching interns and were super sweet and helped us get acquainted with the base. We can walk to school but have heard rumors that there are wild boars living in the woods, kind of creepy when you have to walk back in the dark after school! Another thing us milineals in the cabins have had to get used is that there is NO Wi-Fi! It has been a learning experience but we have adapted a found free Wi-Fi on base at the library and bowling alley.

One thing that is not hard to get used to is the coffee and how much they drink it! Our supervisors take us to get coffee during lunch which helps with the jet lag. Our supervisors have to buy us the coffee because they still ration it on base here. We are not allowed to buy it ourselves since we didn’t get a rations card. We were super surprised that they still have that rule here. It has been great getting to shop at their PX and commissary because they have everything and it is pretty cheap.

We start our first day of observations tomorrow and are excited to start seeing the kids that are on their caseloads. They only have 30 kids each on their caseload which is a nice change from the States. Meeting up with Charnelle and Crystal on Friday and are excited to see Paris with them and I am sure there will be lots of pictures and post to come!

Sarah and Anne

Adventure to Downtown Stuttgart and More

Guten tag!

Ever since our arrival, Crystal and I have had a very eventful past 2 days! Once we arrived at the airport on Sunday (which was extremely huge!), we had to go through customs in order to get to the baggage claim area. After sweating bullets from being somewhat interrogated by the officers, we were able to retrieve our luggage and VIOLA! Two of our supervisors were waiting for us with a sign that had both of our names on it. Unfortunately we we're unable to capture the moment because our hands were too full!

Our final destination was Stuttgart, Germany, but we landed in Frankfurt, Germany which is a 2 hour drive away from each other. Once we left the airport, we got onto the autobahn which was an interesting experience! It looks like a typical highway with the exception that there is no speed limit! Just imagine a bunch of Mercedes Benz, Audi, and Fiat's going approximately 100+ mph! After an hour into our trip, we made a stop at a truck/gas station (we can't remember the name) to get food. There was a mini food court, and Crystal ate a parfait while I tried currywurst and pommes (fries). They were both delicious! Once we left the station, jet lag began to kick in and Crystal and I fell alseep! We were awaken from our mini slumber by our supervisors because they wanted to show us a small town called Vilderstock and it was adorable! After two hours of riding, napping, and sight-seeing, we finally arrived at our destination. That night, jet lag once again kicked in because both Crystal and I woke up in the middle of the night. It's been a new and different experience in regards to adjusting to a new time zone.

*****

We were both extremely busy on Monday morning and afternoon with paperwork and meeting the rest of our supervisors. Although it was slushy, we had a few hours of snow where the flurries were pretty huge! After a long day of work, one of our supervisors was kind enough to show us how to use the DeutscheBahn, DB (German subway) to get to downtown Stuttgart. While there, we made train reservations for our upcoming weekend trip (I won't spoil the location, so check back in!), went into a few shops (they have a TK Maxx, which is their TJ Maxx!), a fabulous view of the Neues Schloss Stuttgart (a.k.a The New Castle of Stuttgart), and to a nice restaurant called Carls Brauhaus. We are thankful that our supervisor was there to help us out with the menu! Crystal ordered Linsen & Spätzle (type of noodle) mit Saitenwurstchen (lentils and spätzle with a pork hot dog). I ordered Schwabenpfannle (pork tenderloin and veal chop in Grady with cheese spätzle and Swabian ravioli). We both had a Sanwald Hefe Weizen which was enjoyable! Our supervisor filled us in on fun sights and things to do within and outside of Stuttgart, and we can't wait to use that advice for our future trips around Europe! 

Anne and Sarah arrived yesterday, and we can't wait to see them in he next few days!!! 

-Charnelle and Crystal

Pics from our departure from the US and arrival into Germany!

Pics from before (2) and during our way through downtown Stuttgart: