VISA!

I FINALLY got my visa today! I am so relieved to have all of that crazy business behind me. When I went to the immigration office in October, I had a really hard time because Germany has a lot of restrictions for getting a visa, which includes a lot of forms and proof that you have a lot of money.  Well, I wasn't aware of needed to much money! (650 euros per month of stay...so 650 x 11 is 7,150 euro). So yes, many complications! Luckily, I've got a great boss, and he wrote a letter to the immigration office guaranteeing them that I would make enough money to stay here.
So yes, quite the experience I've had! It's all quite complicated! I went back to the immigration office today to get my official visa. At first I had some complications, but the woman was very nice and helpful, and we figured everything out! It's such a relief to finally have it taken care of.

See you in 3 days! :)

Let it Snow

We have TONS of snow here in Passau! It's so beautiful!


This is the view out my window

This is in front of my building, walking down the driveway towards the main road

Leonhard-Paminger Strasse, Haus #25!! Home sweet home

This is a view of my complex from the main road

My newest additions! A tiny poinsettia  and a santa-cactus! :)

 Tom and me! He is one of my co-workers and we are also birthday buddies

Here are my friends that came out to celebrate my birthday

NEWSFLASH: I'm coming home in 8 DAYS!!! :)

Christmas Time in Passau!

The Christmas season has officially begun in Passau. The Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas Market) opened  on Friday. The whole city is decorated with lights and Christmas trees, it's so beautiful! We even have snow too!

But first things first. 

Below is my make-shift southwest salad. Thank you sooooo much to my parents for sending me southwest dressing! I didn't have tortilla chips, so I used Pringles instead. It was a pretty tasty salad!

My room got a make-over!!! I have a new rug and new bedding. It's so super cute! I love it! 

I also got to decorate for the holidays, thanks to the decorations that my mommy sent me :)

And now....CHRISTMAS IN PASSAU!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is Jaimie and Maria by one of the trees in town. How beautiful.

This little stand has actually been up for about a month now. They sell roasted almonds. Deeeeelicious.

Here is the big Christmas tree in town.

Entering Altstadt (the old city)
Doesn't it just look like a dream world! I love it! so cute

This guy was at the Weihnachtsmarkt wearing an inflatable Santa costume...

Cool brass ensemble playing Christmas tunes at the Weihnachtsmarkt

Below is just one of the stands where they sell 1/2 meter wurst!!! It's so crazy!

Weihnachtsmarkt

Jaimie, Maria, and me in front of the big tree at the markt

The streets decorated with lights!!!

This is where I work! Welcome to the Shamrock. It looks quite small from the outside, but it's actually huge inside. There are 2 levels of seating, 2 bars, and a dartroom on a 3rd floor.

Hope you enjoyed! It's really cool to have all the lights and see all the traditions.

also...
MERRY CHRISTMAS! I will be home on December 12th. I surprised my parents today with the news. It is their Christmas gift from me.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

It's weird not having Thanksgiving. I keep seeing on everybody's facebook "home for Thanksgiving" "love being with family" "can't wait to eat!" etc...
Weird. because here it's just Thursday! haha. Kind of funny though, I have Native American class today!! Though we're not doing anything related to Thanksgiving.
Oh well.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Sending my love from Germany. Hopefully I'll catch the parade! :)

USA! USA!

Tonight was a "Kockabend" (cooking evening). Somehow USA got roped into being the host. Well, Jaimie actually got roped into it, but I ended up doing most of the cooking. She chose the menu. She decided on pancakes. I know that sounds a bit silly, but American pancakes are quite different from European pancakes. European pancakes are more like crepes. They are very thin, not fluffy at all.
So we cooked up a HUGE batch of pancakes. A lot of international students came and loved it! We were even able to find maple syrup! (Not common in Germany...and very expensive. 5 euros was the cheapest we could find)

This is the first batch....
Didn't turn out so well. Jaimie and I ate them!

Now we're cooking!

Cooking up a storm!

Yum yum pancake batter!

Flipping the flapjacks!

Of course....peanut butter and syrup!!!

 We were so glad that so many people came to try American pancakes!!!! (which also meant we had to make A LOT
of pancakes!) hahahahaha. Love the decorations!

 Made ourselves a nice big mess

Jaimie can't wait to eat some pancakes!!

Other than the really fun Kochabend, things have been going well. My new bike is great. My classes are going well...even art history!
My job can definitely be stressful at times though :( I'm making amazing money, so it kind of makes up for it! It's nice to live a comfy life, and still be able to save up some money! :)

I miss everybody from home. Especially now that the holiday season is approaching. I am looking forward to going to Nuernberg with JW. We are going the first weekend in December to celebrate our birthdays. Nuernberg has the most famous "Christkindlesmarkt" (Christmas Market) in the world! It should be a lot of fun!!

BIKE!

What a great day! I bought a bike today!!! :)
I saw an ad for a bike, and I called and they said it costs 80 euro, which I thought was a bit pricey, but I went to look at the bike anyways and it turned out to be BRAND NEW!!!!! There wasn't a spot of dirt on the tires! They had bought it for about 200 euro for the mom, but then her doctor said she couldnt ride it because of her knees or something. So they sold it to ME for 80 euro!!! Woooohooooo
At the moment, the seat is way too low, so it's super hard to ride, but once I fix that I'll be good to go! No more 45 minute walk to and from work! :)
So excited
Pictures to come!

Never a dull moment

Nope, there's never a dull moment in Passau (that's a complete lie...Sundays are extremely dull because NOTHING is open).
Anyways. I had art history again. Still not really sure what the class is about. I understood "parthenon". That's about it.

I got a call from work because they wanted me to come in tonight to help out (tonight were a bunch of big soccer matches, which means everybody comes to drink and watch the games!). So after my German class I headed over to work. Pretty much the same old-same old, until 4 Americans came in. I waited on their table, and when I got off work, I sat with them and had a few drinks. Clearly they had some drinks in them too! They were very very funny. Let me supplement by saying that they were in the age range of 55-65...and drunk. Awesome. It was fun to talk with them though, and they took pictures and hugged me. Haha. Hopefully they will email me the picture so I can post it up here!

ps. Some guys at work also were very drunk and puked on the floor. Nope, never a dull moment here

Holy School!

What a week!!!
I had my first week of classes at a German university. It's not soooo much different from home. I'm taking 2 German grammar classes, one German communication/conversation class, Art History, and a class about Native American history art and culture. The Native American class is in English and only has 6 people in the class! My art history class is....I don't really know, because I can't understand 1/2 of it! I really need to bone up on my German biblical terms to interpret the art! ahh!
My German classes are actually really fun. All of my professors are very nice and funny.
Here's the best news from class this week: NO BOOKS!!!!! That's right! None of my professors are having us buy books! A couple asked for 2 euro from each person for copy money, and I will have to print out the occasional chapter, but how great!

I've also started work. I'm pretty sure I have the greatest job ever. It can definitely be overwhelming at times, but for the most part it's so fantastic. I'm making really decent money, which makes living much easier!!! I think the downside to my job is that when I work, I don't get home until around 4:30am!
My boss and coworkers are great. My boss has helped me out a TON. He wrote a letter to the immigration office saying that I would make enough money to live here (long story, but in short, there are WAY too many laws in Germany). He also gave me a phone! He had an old cell phone at his house, so he's letting me borrow it this year.
Pretty sure I'm super lucky!

What else, what else? I had kickboxing class tonight. So hard! It really kicked my butt!
The weather is starting to get quite chilly here!

Can't believe I live in Germany! Can't believe I've been here over a month!

Miss everybody! :)

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

This is the "Pferd Spinner" (horse spider) I found in my room last night!!!! ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! It was SO big!
Benny came over and got rid of it for me!! :)

PASSAU!

I took some pictures of campus and of my room.
My room is finally starting to feel like home! (with the help of a lamp, rug, picture frames, etc...)

Below is the entrance to Uni-Passau

 This is also right next to the entrance, you can follow the sidewalk down to the river. See it?
There is also a path the runs along the river. It's so beautiful. This area is also very nice to sit on and read/study when the weather is nice

I took this picture out the window of my class. This is actually across the street from campus. It's so beautiful!

Here is Nikolakloster, where I have most of my classes. This is a picture of the courtyard-area. If you walk through the archway at the top of the stairs you can get to the middle of the city, where there are a lot of shops and restaurants

and now...MY ROOM!!!

Below is my bed. Nice and snuggly! Strange fact about Germany...they don't use flat sheets. Only one fitted sheet to put over the mattress, and then they just cover up with the comforter. Weird.
See my cute rug?! I love it! And I bought my lime green lamp for only 5 euro. It makes a huge difference.

Here is my desk. Nothing really special.

This is the entrance to my room (as viewed from the back of my room). I have a lovely puke-green door! The flag hanging on the wall is the Bavarian flag. Cool huh?
You can also see the wardrobe here. It's huge! And across from the wardrobe is my bathroom.

Here's my little bathroom. It's small, but I'm only one person so how much space could I need!? On the right side is my shower. The shower is a stupid design. There's no barrier between the shower floor and the rest of my bathroom, so after every shower I have to squeegee the floor. Dumb.

So yup! This is where I live no!

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

Just have to post, because it's only 4am at home, so there's nobody to talk to! Ha!!
Life is so so wonderful right now.
I'm getting ready to go to the Auslaenderamt (immigration office). For those of you who don't know, I am having some troubles getting my residence/work permit. There are rules about how much money you need to have to live in Germany (they're afraid of you becoming homeless and living off the government). I found a job, but I can't start working until I get my work permit. My boss basically has to vouch for me that I'll make enough money to live here. So I am meeting him in about an hour and he has a letter for me and he's also going to the office with me. SO. Once I get my permit today, I can start working!!!! yay!!! :)
My boss is also giving me a phone! :) He has an old phone that is a pre-pay phone (which is what most people use here anyways). So he is letting me have it! I think I got really lucky with this job. They are really taking care of me.

I also took a look at my bank account online, just to see if my check had cleared yet. I brought a cashiers check with me from the US and my bank here said it would take 6 weeks to clear! ahh! But guess what? I already went through! Fantastic.

Yesterday Shawn help me set up slingbox, so I can now watch american TV. It's the coolest thing! I watched HGTV this morning! :) Thanks a million to Shawn and Jennifer for letting me use it.

And last, but certainly not least...
DAN IS PUBLISHED! Wow, I don't know if I could be more proud! :) He has been waiting for a contract for a very long time, and it finally arrived yesterday, and he can officially join ASCAP and will be published. I can't wait to purchase his music! :)

What a great life I have. Oh, and the weather is beautiful today

Ran to Austria today.
No biggie.

WandernTag

WOW. What a day!
Today was my first, true free-day. I took FULL advantage of it!! I left my place around 10:30am (after skyping with Dan!!!) and headed to the Stadtgalerie. It's kind of like a mall. I went to apply for jobs.
But who can start applying for jobs on an empty stomach? So naturally I got my favorite snack: Butterbrezel

Yummy yummy yummy!

So...after my delicious snack I started my job search. There were actually quite a few stores hiring. All of them require a resume (which I had already made and printed off), and the resumes require a picture! It's silly. I felt so dumb though when they asked me if my telephone number was on my resume, I had to say "ummm I don't have a phone". They looked at my like I was a bit crazy. All in all, not too bad with the job search though.
I also did a bit of shopping at the Stadtgalerie! :) Of course! I people watched for quite some time as well...trying to pick up on this European Style.
So after the Stadtgalerie adventure, I decided to venture into Altstadt (The old city) because I haven't really been over there much. I walked around for hours. There are SO many unique shops! Of course I had to stop for lunch, so I went to my favorite Döner place. 

D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S


Now fed, time to continue on! I decided to head to "der Dom", which is the cathedral. Wow, SO incredibly gorgeous!! There's really not much more that I can say about it, except that it is truly sensational. The paintings on the ceiling are amazing, and the organ (I believe) is the biggest in Germany! Woohoo!

 So here is part of the organ

 Above, you can see der Dom from across the river. It's the big white building with the green tower-things. It's so huge!!!!! It's kind of silly though because it's actually hard to see when you're in the city, because all the buildings are so close together that they block the view!

 Speaking of the river....Here is the Inn.
Oh, I probably haven't mentioned yet that there are 3 rivers in Passau. The Inn (pictured above) The Donau (better known as the Danube) and the Ils. They all come together at a  corner of the city. You can see exactly where they come together because they are 3 different colors! I'm pretty sure they get their colors depending on their sources.
But yes, it's really neat!! The university sits on the Inn and is absolutely beautiful! There is a path that runs along the river that is great for biking and running.

So back to my day.
I was going to walk down to the Donau, but it started to rain, so I decided to take a break since I had been walking all day. I went to Tchibo, which is one of the strangest stores I've been in. It's a coffee shop, but they also sell clothing (...they have their own brand) I don't know, it's just strange. It would be like if Starbucks sold their own brand of BlueJeans along with the coffee. That's what it's like. Weird
BUT, the coffee is fantastic! I'm not really sure what I ordered, but it came on a silver platter! Ha! It came with a chunk of pure sugar (bottom of the tray), steamed milk, and a little chocolate candy! So cute, and delicious!

 After my coffee it had stopped raining, so I went back outside and started walking around again. I headed back to the Stadtzentrum (where the Stadtgalerie and such are). I bought some practical things that I needed (dish towel, binder for papers, etc)

 What city would be complete without a McDonalds??

SOOOO. So far this day has taken me up to 5pm. There were a couple of pubs that I wanted to apply for jobs at, but they don't open until 5pm. I went back to the pubs, but neither of them were open! That is possibly one of the most annoying things about Germany...It's very normal for things to not be open when they say they're supposed to be! Ah! So I ended up just wandering around for a couple more hours! (watched a dinner cruise on the Donau take off). Finally at 7pm, both pubs were open. I went to the Shamrock, which is the Irish Pub (although it's owned by a guy from Wales. Interesting). Long story short, I now have a job! You are reading the blog of the newest waitress at the Shamrock!! Woohooooo!!!! I go in tomorrow for my training!


After getting hired, I headed home (got home around 8pm). When I got home, I had mail from the bank saying that my account is now open and active! Yeah!!!!!!! I feel like a real person again (rather than just floating around not really know what's going on)....well except for the fact that I don't have a telephone! Oh well!!!


Whew!!!!! what a day!
Now I'm waiting for my skype date with Dan. After that I'll head to bed and sleep in tomorrow!!! Gotta get my beauty rest for my first day of work! yahoo!!!