Good/Bad Ideas

**Yes, the design changed. I was sick of the fact that the mobile version of my page was illegible due to the background picture design with the text color. It might be a work in progress.**


Sally arrived on a Friday morning beaming with pride as she survived her first solo trans-atlantic flight. She even took some advice from me and finagled her way into a first class seat! Amazing, huh? She made the flight attendants love her, basically. 


After a quick stop at the Deutsche Bahn counter to validate our Eurail Passes, we were off for the first day of adventures. My plan was for us to do the concentration camp in Dachua the first day so we (a) stayed outside as much as possible to allow Sally's body to understand the time change and (b) got the sadness out of the way at the beginning of the trip. Dachau is very significant and an incredible memorial. That said, the time with Sally marked the second time I had been to Dachau in a two-week period and the third time overall. It's not exactly the type of place you want to visit over and over again. 

The only problem with my plan was the museum's movie about what happened in Dachau. It is very informational and all, but the man's voice is somewhat droning, the auditorium is very warm and dark, and Sally was running on very little sleep. 


So, naturally, she fell asleep. Whoops! Maybe Dachau was a bad idea that day.


Once we were back outside in the cold, she perked up a bit. 


We then headed back into Munich to visit some sights including Marienplatz, the English Gardens, and the Sophie Scholl memorial. We started at the English Gardens. Sadly the weather was pretty blustery that day. Therefore, we weren't exactly keen to stay outside for extended periods of time. We did catch a glimpse of some surfers in the river doin' their thing despite the weather. 

The Sophie Scholl memorial is probably my favorite memorial I have ever seen. Besides the fact that I think she has one of the most inspiring life stories, the creative memorial to her, her brother, and the others involved with the White Rose movement during WWII is not to be missed. And it might be very easy to do just that. The memorial is actually on the ground at the entrance of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. If you don't look down, you might miss it. If you don't know the Sophie Scholl story, you should look it up.

Marienplatz is always a fun thing to Americans because these large beautiful old buildings are generally what we think of when we think of Europe. Believe it or not, the big stone one is actually considered the "New City Hall".  (I don't know why they won't rotate)

Because we needed to take a long train ride to Bregenz that evening, I decided a trip to the Hofbräuhaus was in order. Yes, it's extremely touristy. However, it is lively with good food and good beer, which is perfect for sleepy first day travelers. So, that was a good idea. We also had to help this large group of British guys with some sort of draft pick or something. We asked something like 5 different times what exactly it was and never got a satisfactory answer. 

Stay tuned for more Sally and Ashley adventures!

A Birthday Girl with a Plan

Wow. It's been a while. Since I last posted not too much has changed. I did find out that I am staying in Austria for a second year at my same two schools, though. The adventure continues! Also, 20 days from now I will begin my journey back to the States for a summer full of sunshine, swimming, and Sweetwater/Terrapin/Red Brick brewery visits.


In the meantime, I want to start a series of posts about a trip I took a while back with my wonderful friend Sally. Since today is the beautiful and talented Sally's birthday, what better time to start these posts. Sally and I met in BCC 100, an orientation class we had to take our freshman year at Berry. Now I don't like to brag, but we always refer to our group of classmates from that course as the famous BCC class. We were a great group and were a kind of a big deal. Plus, a lot of us were from Gwinnett County and as the water towers used to say "Gwinnett is Great. Success Lives Here."


Anyways, my good friend Sally is also a teacher and therefore had a week off from work around Easter. It just so happened that her week off alined with my week off and a plan was set in motion. 


Alright, harsh truth time: I am sure that those of you in the same boat can attest, but before you move abroad for any extended period of time, there are always the people that say things like "Oh my gosh! That's so cool. I am going to come visit you! I really am!" They usually don't mean it. Traveling to Europe costs a lot of money and I understand people have other priorities. So when Sally first said she wanted to come visit...I was happy but knew it would likely not come to fruition. I had heard all of these promises before. So that day when she bought her plane ticket and there was no way out...I may have jumped up and down. 


She arrived on a Friday morning and we hit the ground running. I have never crammed so much travel into such a short period of time. I was nervous beforehand, but it was a great trip.


Get excited for some great stories in the days to come!


Here is a picture of us being über-touristy on day one at the Hofbräuhaus:

Happy Birthday, Sally! Hope it's a great one!

Home...where the peaches grow.

Why thank you, KLM/Delta! I'm not quite sure where that picture is supposed to be from in y'all's email, but I DID enjoy my stay in Atlanta.

I really wouldn't have if it weren't for the following taking place:

1. Family time

2. A gorgeous and fun wedding

3. A great last night in the States with lovely friends

Photos from those 3 things, you ask?

No worries...here ya go!

I got to meet this little bean!

and reunite with this one

Look! Friends!

 I am jealous of their baby cousin hand holding cutefest.

 Soooo big.

 My beautiful sister, Wendy, holding her new baby niece....Wendy, otherwise known as "what I will look like in 9 years".

Babies interacting is adorbs.

 all she does these days...just like her Aunt Ashley.

 Oh hewwo deres, freepy head!

 Photo shoot

 Gah, so cute.

 Me and some good snugglers.

 I love that Emmie is sticking her tongue out and that McCarty is looking at her. :)

 Wedding fun

 Get yo hurr did, boss lady

 Beautiful Kristin!

 Make-up time!

A moment of stress, yet still pretty

Quotes of note: 

"Have you ever been to one of MY weddings???"

"Honey, I love you; but if you call our wedding a party one more time, you may not get invited."

and last but not least...

"It's perfect."--Ashton Burtt 

 Beautiful Bride

 Bridal Party party in the limo!!!

 Berry College Friends

 Sally and I...I don't think Europe is ready for this combo.

 I love this one so much.

 What a great night with great girls!

Oh what a night!

I really hope that when you read the title to this post that you sang (this) in your head. I did.


I have been told that I am an enthusiastic person. I would agree with that assessment, actually. I really enjoy being festive and getting excited about things. No matter how silly they are. 


The Super Bowl is no different. I don't even have to care about the teams to be excited about it. I like things that bring everybody together and give people things to talk about. 


My current situation might have made enjoying the yearly American tradition of food, drink, friends, and football a little difficult. I was worried my enthusiasm would be lost this year. But have no fear! Even Vorarlberg got in on the action! Ok, maybe not all Vorarlbergers were plopped in front of the t.v. from 12:30 a.m. till 4 a.m. or whatever. However, over at the American Roadhouse bar in Koblach...my friends and I could be found cheering on the losing team till the wee hours of the morning. 

No, this isn't a joke. This place exists here.

I mean, this place was awesome. Our friend Sean's roommate works there and that's how we found out about the Super Bowl deal. Entry tickets were 30 Euros ahead of time and included all you can eat/drink from about 10:30 p.m. till the sun came up. 

I almost lost my mind when I saw this.

I really wish I had taken pictures of the food. It was greasy American goodness. Basically a help yourself buffet was set up that was refreshed every so often. Delicacies included jalapeno poppers, hotdogs (that weren't very good), pizza, curly fries, regular fries, potato wedges, and (of course my favorite) chicken wings. Was heißt "all flats, please" auf Deutsch?


And the drinks included a couple different stations:


~one for beer straight from the tap in big mugs
~one that had limo and mineral water
~another with all sorts of yummy juices


Bet you could guess which one I visited the most.


We got there really early in order to get good seats. And it's a good thing we did, too! The place was PACKED by 11 p.m. (a full hour and a half before kick-off). They showed the game on a giant projector screen via ESPN America. So, we even had English commentary. Pretty sweet!

Maaaybe we had facepaint. The Super Bowl is serious business.

Sadly, we did miss out on the commercial front. But hey, you can't have everything you want in life.


The evening was made even more interesting because of the group of us in attendance. Three Americans and three Brits. Three girls and three guys. I might also add that the three of us girls were three out of maybe seven women in attendance. After I did a mini-lesson on American football on the train ride and again at the bar, they were ready to enjoy their first super bowl as knowledgeable fans. Most of us were cheering for the Patriots. Unfortunate, I know.

Sean screaming about rage at the end actually really frightens me.

Clearly I thought watching the game was more important than looking at the camera.

Just like Guy thought screaming "Go!" was more important than taking this picture.

This is Manny stressing out about the fact that his team has only about a minute left and isn't winning. Mackenzie, the seasoned football fan, is there to offer some comfort.

Also unfortunate was my mistake of setting my alarm for p.m. instead of a.m. and not waking up in time for my first two lessons at school. The amount of disappointment in myself today was through the roof.