days 38-43: ulm

Germans are crazy. This video is from the Germany vs. Portugal game where Germany won 3-2. Since Germany now goes to the semi finals for the Euro Cup, it was crazy on the streets:


This one I wish I had more room on my memory card because it cuts off right before the "oompa ooompa" bodyslam song.



And this one is the mob shaking a bus.

days 1-8: Ulm

Woohoo!!!! First post of the Adventure Blog, part 2!!! I should have updated sooner, but in a nutshell, here's what's been going on:

The Airport:
I flew Chattanooga to Chicago, not so bad, but had a 13 hour layover in Chicago. I had my whole day planned out: make some phone calls, watch some movies and tv shows, surf the internet blogging, get a chocolate milkshake (around hour 6 or 7), but then my power cord to my computer didn't work so I made an impromptu trip to Chicago. I've never been to Chicago, but the people at the airport told me to take the Blue line all the way to the Washington stop to the middle of the city. From there I wandered for a few hours looking for a Staples/Office Max/Best Buy sort of store but I couldn't find my power cord anywhere :( The rest of the airport was pretty uneventful after that. From Chicago, I had a flight to Frankfurt where I met Flo and Stefan at the airport!!!!




Germany:
First few days were not too interesting to blog about...drove to Ulm, got caught up on some sleep, the usual trans-Atlantic transition stuff. The weather was so nice here Flo and I went to a few beer gardens and read in the park.





Work:
I have an internship with Nokia in Ulm. The building I'm in is pretty cool. It's the Energon: the world's biggest passive house office building, which means it's very energy-efficient. I can't find an English site for it, but the pictures are pretty good.
The people are really nice and last week we got happy hour cocktails:








Some other random stuff:

We went to Ikea Friday to get some boxes. The boxes are a lot better for my clothes than piles on the floor. they look a lot better now and the labels Stefan and I made are sehr gut for my german. last night was taco night...and I finally took a picture of this clock at the Rathaus (town hall)! Every time I walk by there's a group of tourists taking a picture of this clock. I just found out that it's been ticking for over 490 years. This clock tells the time, zodiac signs, and some other things. Also, market time is back!!!!!! The last one is a picture of the Munster with some German flags.

days 1-3: ulm

<-- Ulm, Germany in March 2007. I'll take another picture to show how much greener it is now. But you get the idea what it looks like . This is day 2 in Ulm, Germany. I'm not sure how this happened, but somehow blogger.com turned German. Flo and Jonas started a top 25 movies list and somehow Stefan, Flo's roommate and I decided to make a Top 25 things Ashleigh and Stefan have in common, so here it is:

Top 25 (not really 25, but it will be soon) Things Stefan and Ashleigh Have in Common:
1. We currently live with Flo
2. We like chocolate
3. We like Polo Ralph Lauren
4. We don't like the taste of beer
5. We're friends with Flo
6. We can't speak Klingon
7. We're both computer nerds
8. We like tacos
9. perfect cleaning up team, I prefer to dry while Stefan likes washing dishes
10. We cannot read Chinese
11. We work with Marc Hermann
12. We are both on Facebook
13. We do not like extreme cold temperature
14. Next week, we both will have Thinkpads
15. We both like ice cream, even when it's cold outside
16. We both have blogs
17. We like to chat to each other on Skype when sitting metres away
18. We like Grey's Anatomy


there seemed like more on this list when we made it up last night.

...I should rename the list the Top 18 things Stefan and Ashleigh have in common...
So this whole journey started in Hotlanta on 22 May. The flight was only 7.5 hours and the movies weren't too bad. The most random movie would have to be Cinderella, but I liked watching it. It was like a preview for the Neuschwanstein Castle. I didn't have that much to make the connection so there was no time to look for Dutch wooden shoes in the gift shops or anything. The next flight was only an hour from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt I met Flo and Stefan and Stefan drove the 3 hour drive from Frankfurt to Ulm. By far the coolest thing I saw in a village on the way over was a horse in someone's side yard and a wind mill not too far away. We got back and supposedly watched Family Guy, but I only remember a few minutes of it before I fell asleep around 9 pm German time/3pm Eastern Standard time.
The next morning, I went to a lecture with Flo, and tried to stay awake by reviewing my German notes and reading a book, but it's hard enough to stay awake if the lecture is in English, and this was in German, so I kept nodding off and jerking back awake when my head fell forward. After the lecture about Bluetooth things, we met Flo's friends at the Mensa, the cafeteria at uni. We met Jonas later and hung out at his apartment and went to a beer garden then to another beer garden later that night.
Today was good. Flo went to uni and I slept in and went around Ulm alone. First, I went to a chemist to get some kind of antihistamine tablets because the pollen or something in the air was bothering my allergies, so luckily one chemist spoke English and hooked me up. Then, I started the multiple hour journey to find a USA-Europe Adapter. For the longest time, I could only find Europe to USA adapters, but at some travel store near the Munster had an all-converter set for any plug to adapt for any country, which is good so I can use it in China too next month. Then I took the scenic way back to the apartment and eventually found my way back and couldn't figure out how the key worked. Good thing Flo was home at the time :)

So that's about all that's happened so far. Not too bad for 2 days.