The greatest educational game on the web!

this game is the awesome! i found it on another blog, and it is quite fun. someone else showed it to me and i cant get enough of it! it's definitely addicting.

fun in the sun

sounds like you guys are having tons of fun ! ive been laying on the beach and getting so tan! its so warm here and the weather couldnt be better. ive been running every day, even though i hate it. its getting better though. i started with 2.5 k and now im running 4k. so... right now im on henrik's computer using stolen internet. can't wait to see everyone again soon. love ya!

Sweden!

on saturday we arrived in sweeden. we were earlier than her parents expected us, we arrived at like 12 thirty and werent expected until later. it was so nice when we got there, the sun was shining and the air smelled really good. it smelled like summer and salt and just plain nice. the house was big and yellow and it is so nice inside. the walls are mostly pine paneling, and the floors are all wooden. the dining room is two walls of regular walls and the rest are sliding glass doors which makes it so light inside and its really nice. you can hear everything that anyone does though becuase its very noisy. they have a grandfather clock there too, and it is different from the one in hamburg. ive gotten used to it already though. its weird because now the keyboards are like the ones at home and the y's are in the right spots and now i cant get used to the way it was. i keep messing it up when i type anything with a y. i didnt realize how much we use the letter y until you switch where it is. the sunshine here is very warm and hopefully ill get a nice tan to come home with. its supposed to be cloudy for the next 2 to 3 days but getting warmer each day, up to like 25 degrees celsius on wednesday. im so excited. it will be nice to have warm weather for a change here in europe. henrik is coming tomorrow, and we will be going waterskiing. it sounds like a lot of fun, but ive never done it before, and to be truthful, im kinda scared. vivien assures me it will be alot of fun. so i guess i will believe her and give it a go. she and i are sharing a bed, but its a king size, and we have alot of room each, so its not too bad. im going to try to come back to the internet later, but i cant promise anything. we had to make an appointment to come here to the library and get 2 computers. we got here in the little town at like 3 and we got a time slot at 5. so we shopped and walked and sat by the river for 2 hours. we met some guy who wanted to know if we knew where a party place was, and we found out that he was from hamburg too. it was kinda funny and ironic. well, i shoudl go so others can have a turn on the computer too. ciao!

The birthday party!

today is helena's birthday party and we well helena and hayley cleaned the basement. i helped helena set up the candles and other minor details because i was sleeping. but it was all okay. they ran into viv's room and jumped on her bed to wake us up. it was kinda funny. i did not get jumped on and that was nice. i was on the floor. i found out why their house is always so clean. they have a housekeeper. i was surprised. i didnt think that they did. we should get one too mom. tonight i'm wearing a new shirt and its really hard to describe, because it has stripes and vee's in the back and front. it cinches at my waist too. its super cute. but yeah. vivien is right now transferring pictures, only on henrik's computer because hers is too full of music and other stuff. but its ok, as long as its getting done, i dont care where. we are leaving tonight and we wont sleep until after the ferry ride. vivien said she was going to make helena sleep even if she didn't want to. so that is good. bye for now. I'm going to try to post pics when the hard drive has them on it and i can upload them more easily. see ya!

second shopping day

today we went shopping and i got more clothes. very cute and wearable. im excited for tomorrow and sad because tomorrow is the day that we leave hamburg forever and go to sweeden. i cant wait though at the same time and just hope that the weather is good. i'm trying to post pictures but theyre being dumb and not working so maybe better luck later. i'll try from viv`s computer where the files actually are. that may work better. we did not hing else but shop today from like 3 unitl 8. we left the mall at five to eight and didnt think about the subway which comes at eight o clock. when we got there it was gone, and the next one would not show up for another hour. so we left and took buses home instead. we switched buses like 4 times and it was way faster than waiting for the subway. we were almost home by the time the sub would have gotten there. it was kinda crazy. and going to the mall this morning, we had to take a different way becuase the subway was closed for construction. viv didnt know it so well apparently and we went to the wrong bus station. when she saw the bus we wanted, she realized her mistake and we booked it to the street where we just missed the walk light. it was bad . so we watched for cars and crossed when it was safe enough. we just barely caught the bus. kind of exciting. and crazy at the same time. when we got home, we made pizza in the oven and it was so good. henrik came in and was very jealous. but oh well. he actually ate with us. it was like the third or fourth encounter that ive had with him. it was strange. hes never around. i told him so and he introduced himself again as a joke and it was kinda funny. he ate some of viv and helena's pizza. and he made fun of me n hayley for calling it pizza. when he said it, it sounded like pitza. we kind of argued about it. fun times. but now it is time to pack for sweden, and post pics from the other computer. so i will see you later who ever is reading this.

last night we went to an abi party, at a club where students were raising money for their prom like dance. it was okay. very loud music that kept switching too fast. we didn't get in until really late again. its ok though because today we're going shopping again. it should be fun because the sun is shining, right now in my eyes, but i still prefer it to rain. so im logging off and will be back later to retell my adventures. mom and dad, if you guys are up north, how am i going to talk to you before i leave for sweeden where i may or may not be able to post anymore?

Scharbeutz

yesterday was tuesday and we packed for a while and then took off to scharbeutz. it wasnt a bad drive. it was kinda fun because we went on the autobahn and helena drove pretty fast. 145 km/hr if my memory serves me correctly. she said her car was so loaded down. it looked like we were going somewhere for a week when we really were only going overnight. we had our blankets which took up most of the room and the food and four of us in a tiny little car. it was actually humourous. i bet the people in cars passing us were wondering what happened because we had stuff packed into her car like no other. there is no trunk room to speak of and any of it was pretty much taken up by the bulky blankets and pillows. when we got there, we unloaded everything and went inside. it was an old apartment, that looked like it hadnt been redecorated since the seventies. it was nice though once you got past the decor. there was a balcony and a living room and a sleeping quarters and a kitchen and a bathroom. it was quite cozy. we went walking on the beach and the sand was really white and pretty much rock free. there were jelly fish in the water and vivien and helena said they were nice ones and viv stepped on one and squished it through her toes, because it was dead. i did it next and it is the weirdest feeling. hayley was the big chicken and refused to do the same. we saw many of these jelly fish and jsut kept walking on by them because they are kinda clear and boring. but there was this really big red one in the water with purple and red tentacles and it was red and orange and looked kinda mean. viv said that it was a mean jelly fish and called it a fire jelly fish. it was really pretty though. we went down to the pier and saw that they actually had a real beach club. it was nice too. we got ice cream and i got caramel and cappuccino. the carmel was really good but the cappuccino tasted too much like coffee. but otherwise it was good. so back to the story. we were walking to the beach club and it starts to drizzle. only a light drizzle but drizzling all the same. we look to the sky and it doesnt look so nice. its kinda dark and we didnt want to risk getting rained on so we started heading back to the flat. it actually didnt start raining but we stayed inside anyways and taught helena and vivien to play euchre. they were slow learners at first but caught on. there was one amazing hand that i had and i didnt get to play it. i had the right and left king and queen and an off king. it was sweet. but helena called clubs and it was all in hearts. it made me sad to see such a good hand go to waste. oh well. all in all it was fun. there was no tv there and if there was it would have been in german. i havent watched tv in so long. its actually refreshing. weird. now im just babbling. today we went to a different town naer scharbeutz called i think timmendorf. there was a little harbor and we walked around all day. not actually all day since we woke up around 12:30. but we did walk around and go to the beach and eat döner, a turkish food that was like a pita pocket with meat and sauce and onions and lettuce and red cabbage. it was really good. we kept walking and soon our 2 hour parking was up so we had to go back to our house and pack to go home to hamburg. the drive home was just as good as the drive there was and now im here typing to you. tonight we are prolly going out to see someone or other. viv's friend nicklaus just got back from south germany and we may go to see him. dont know. but for now good bye!

The Next Update

today we are going to scharbeutz. (shaboytz) yupp. were heading up there sometime and coming back tomorrow sometime. no specific details are known at this point so none can be given. sorry. but viv's parents are leaving for sweeden tomorrow and we have to have one bag packed each hayley and i because they all wont fit in the car that we are driving up on friday after helena's birthday party. its going to be interesting. we are going to party, and then at like 3 or 4 in the morning we are going to leave for sweeden. her dad insists because he says that the ferry lines when you get there too late are atrocious. not that word but theyre really bad. so ... what am i missing back home? im telling you all whats going on here but i dont know what im not seeing there. oh yea. in shaboytz and sweeden there will probably not be too many computers so please dont worry when i dont post in a long time. it'll prolly just be lots of fun in the sun and water skiing, and maybe jetskiing if nice people / boys want to share. and lots of tanning and laying in teh sun. im going to be so bronzed when i get home. you might not recognize me. probably not but wouldn't that be cool? well, i have to keep getting ready. ciao!

the botanical garden

ok so today we went on a walk to the botanical gardens. all the flowers and plants were so pretty. im sorry that there are no pictures. i normally type at like twelve am and dont feel like loading all the pictures and going to all that trouble to get a few pictures online. maybe later. i weighed myself today and found that i weigh 68.0 kilos. i converted it online and found that i lost 5 pounds. i now weigh like 149 pounds. it was weird to think that i lost that much weight just from going here. but i must admit that we do alot more walking and are more active than at home only because we are sight seeing and doing so much more and we dont go by car. we also did more shopping today and i have some presents that i'm bringing home. no more about those. theyre a surprise. i did buy postcards though and i have lost the addresses that we talked about mom. if you could email them to me at either yahoo or gmail that would be great. that was what we did during the day. tonight we had a movie night and we watched because i said so. it was good the second time too. they also got a second movie but we had troubles setting up the beamer and laptop so we only got to see one of the movies. not bad though. i could not read what the second movie title was because it was in german. they said it translated to something like the recipe for love though. something with cooking. chick flick definitely. also i have been trying to take pictures, but there are just so many things and i forget sometimes. so ill try harder for you mom. ive gotten so used to staying up so late that it doesnt even bother me very much anymore. its weird. but oh well. tomorrow we are going to the pfarr flat near the sea or ocean or whatever the water is in the farther north of germany. we are staying the night until wednesday and im not sure if i can get to a computer so if you dont hear from me that is why. ill be back to post more on my adventures though. now you know everything that i do so im going to sleep to catch up on my zzzz's. night!

hello! last night helena, hayley and i went to meet a friend fabrice, which when said sounds like febreeze like the spary stuff. its kinda funny. so we met at a district called sternschanze. it used to be a really bad place with gangs and bad things kind of like in new york when the artists move to a new place and ten years later it becomes popular. but i digress. so now the place is chock full of little restaurants and bars. it was cool to walk through the place. so we got a tour of the area from fabrice which was cool because he lives near there. he was a good looking guy too. nice smile very tan and puffy hair. haha. so we headed to a beach club called central park. it was a little spot filled with sand and rocks. it reminded me of a sandbox because it was a beach club in the middle of the city. so we sat there and talked and had alsterwasser. it was nice to just relax. just after fabrice left, vivien joined us coming from schivi's dance performance. so yea. later!

the fischemarkt

it's six in the afternoon and i just woke up. this is not something that i want to do again anytime soon. first we meaning me and vivien went to a birthday party of one of her friends, and that ende up being alot more fun than was expected. everyone was having a good time and some too good of a time if you get my drift. when we were ready to leave, kai, or however his name is spelled, that is how it sounds was too hammered to walk anywhere on his own. we walked back out to the main street where another guy, ron, waited with him. at this time, which if memory serves me correctly it was about 12:30 or 1 am. so were sitting on concrete of a bridge that was perfectly safe to sit on although written it doesnt, and along comes this person on a bike who is too far away for me to identify. but when i get up to leave with vivien, on closer inspection it turns out to be henrik, and i said hi and other small talk and then we all leave. we head to the keats, or someother spelling like that . from now on dont look at the spelling cuz its going to be phoenitical. so were driving to the keats and there we meet up with jannik, maurice from the forest, tim, jonas, and we head to a club where we can get in. we get in and inside we meet up with philip, joe from australia, tino, and jim the guy from boston staying with tino and traveling through europe. so were sitting in the bar and all of a sudden i could not find vivien. so i stuck with philip and tino who i had met on a previous occasion at the keats. refer to the night we stayed out til morning. so we end up heading to a different bar, halo. it was weird because they would not let us in because we did not have a stamp. but otheres got in right before we did without a stamp. so we stand there devising a plan to get in. we walk up to the bouncers again and the man asks jim where he is from and he tells him boston and all of a sudden we are all waved through. i guess it pays to be from the united states. weird right? whatever. so we go in and dance for a while, waiting for vivien to call and find out where we were because we had lost her a while ago. we end up finding her outside the bar and i ask her where she was and she said she had been in the original bar the whole time. but she had walked away from the spot where she was sitting over to the music, and the bar was so crowded we just lost her. so it all ended up ok in the end. after htat ordeal we walked a few blocks to the bar where helena and hayley were at. they were playing foosball and we had to waith for their game to end before we could leave. so finally someone won and we headed out the door. at this point its nearly six am. but at this time we do not start heading home. we start walking towards the harbor. its there that we find the fishmarket, many booths selling all imaginable things. there are shirts, purses, fresh fruit sandwhiches the most famous of which being the fish brütchen. broy hiyen. all though i did not try this sandwich i have been told many times that it was delicious. so we walked up and down the alley between the vendors and just mostly looked at the scene of somewhat chaos. there were so many people there. it was crazy. but finally we got tired of walking around and started in the direction of helena's car. by this time its seven thirty am and very light outside. it was weird being up for so long and seeing the sky go from dark to light. so we walk to the car and finally start to go home. we arrive at eight and get to bed as quickly and quietly as possible after brushing our teeth and me taking out my contacts. we have been sleeping ever since and viv woke up at five twenty remembering that it was schivi's dance recital today\ night. so she hurriedly got dressed and had her mom drive her to the place where it was to be held. she asked if i wanted to go but i declined because she was halfway dressed and i was still in pajamas. so thats where she is now and im sitting here typing to you guys. thats a wrap on all that happened last night. so bye now!

tonight we are going out to party. first were headed to a birthday party and then were headed to a different party of sorts. a club that might let us in under 18. maybe. but were definitely staying out all night and afterwards we are going to the fishmarkt, which is kind of like the flea market but it opens at five am. weve been planning this and it sounds like alot of fun. i cant wait! we didnt really do much today, mostly sleeping. we went over to a friend's house jonas, and just hung out. it was fun. everything i do is fun. well we gotta get going soon so im logging off. just a side note though, if you post a comment please put a name of sorts so i can figure out who is posting because im not sure on some of them and i wanna know who im talking to. thanks! see ya later!!!

The church and volleyball

we took the subway to the closest stop next to st. michelkirche or saint michael's church. it was so prety from the outside and once you went inside it was even prettier. you were not supposed to take pictures but i broke the rules and took 2. the pipe organ was huge and i have a picture to prove it. i thought it was beautiful. the second picture is a picture of saint micheal i think. it was at the end of the walkway into the church so... after viewing the church, we headed up the 424 stairs that led to the bell tower of sorts. the view there was amazing. plus the weather has been great today. it was sunny and i think i got a sort of sunburn. it`ll heal by tomorrow though. after viewing the church, we started heading hojme when someone thought of the beach volleyball that was going on in front of the rathaus, where the government governs from. it was an intense match between austria and norway. we left after the second set. they each had one set and we didn't have so much time to see who would have won in the end. but it was still lots of fun for me at least to watch the match. they were so good and so skinny. the only bad part was when there were time outs, sometimes, these girls would come out onto the court and dance. they were VERY scantily clad, with mini cropped halter tops and pretty much thong bikini bottoms. they purposely shook their stuff and it was kinda weird. im sure all the men enjoyed it though. we don't have plans yet for tonight but the night is still very young, it not being even five yet. so there is still alot of day left to do who knows what. ciao!

The day of shopping

Today we went to the main shopping strip. it was alot of walking. there were so many stores and they were all so cool. we went to 3 stores right in a row. it was funny. we went to kenvelo, vero moda, pimkie, c&a, karstadt, zara, new yorker, and others that i now forget. that was the good ones where i bought things though. we started shopping around noon and we didn't get home until around 8 or so. long shopping day and my feet hurt so bad. all in all today i spent around 30 euros and got alot from it, stuff that i'll wear for a while, so im excited. i cant wait to show everyone in person so... having lots of fun here though. this weekend we have lots of plans. were going to a party hosted by one of viviens friends for the friends boyfriends birthday. should be ok, but afterwards we will head out to a club, and it should be fun. lots of dancing!!! yay! well almost time to sleep and rest up for tomorrow. the weather still hasnt been great so were hoping that it gets better so we can hit the beach clubs of sorts. gute nacht! natti natti! good night! noche noche! noire noire!

after my last post we went out and walked around the port city also known here as hafencity. it was pretty cool because the river was there and ran through where the traders would sell and trade their wares. we visited a museum that showed the spices and where they come from and let you sniff smell and touch the herbs and spices that they showed. it was neat. we walked around alot today and we went on this tower that was seriously way too tall to be safe i think and got a look at the city from a different vantage point. i was the last one up and the slowest one coming down. im a chicken when it comes to the heights thing. but i did it because i have to try everything. next we proceeded to eat lunch, which was a pizza type thing that came in a small half box. it was your own personal pizza all ready made. wile eating and walking we headed toward the subway and took a train to the elba river and took a ferry type boat that showed us many things like the shipping industry and great views of the old churches. then we went to a chinese type place where we bought chicken and a big box of cooked almost pad thai noodles which were delicious. tonight we dont really have plans to go out so we might just watch a movie or go to bed because we barely got 5 hours of sleep. good night!

The night we stayed out til morning

Yesterday we woke up at two in the afternoon so we got a late start to the day. it all ended up ok though. we took a ferry ride that showed us a different view of hamburg and showed us the beach and all the beautiful houses that we wish we lived in. After that we went back home and ate dinner. it was really good, noodles, a light almost alfreo sauce but not and hamburger and leeks. tasty! Afterwards we were sitting around trying to plan something to do for that night when one of viv's friends called and asked if we wanted to go to a bar with them and a few other friends. We ended up going to her friend philip's house which was huge and had twelve or thirteen (according to him) rooms that were very impressive. Everyone had a drink there a brand called veltkins. it was a very dark drink and i wasnt so fond of it. but then we left to go to a different bar because that one closed. so we headed off to barbarabar. on an off street of the reeperbahn. we danced and had a few drinks. we actually didn't leave there until four thirty. getting home at five am and now waking up at ten thirty in the morning to go to viv's school to do stuff. so ive got to take a shower and ill be back hopefully tonight.

Yesterday we went driving through the city and it was really big and there was so much traffic and i thought it was so cool. there are a lot more people who go running and jogging than at home. the weather here has not been cooperative though. its been raining on and off and it makes it alot less fun. most of the plans that helena and vivien made are being put on hold because of the icky weather. but yesterday we went to a beach club type place where people just hang out and it started raining when we were there. but we still had fun just talking and sharing a drink mixed with sprite. its actually better than it sounds. After running to the car and getting fairly wet in the process, we went home and then sat around in the living room and just talked until midnight. when we went to bed it was kind of funny because there is a clock in the bathroom and it read 0:35 and this kind of stumped me for a minute until i remembered it was military time. so we went to bed and i slept really well. so well that i slept for 14 hours. i woke up at two in the afternoon. but we still have plans to go to the harbor and a museum near there. maybe take the ferry to the other side. so i will be having a full day again. so i will be back to report on the day and if the weather was good to us today. bye!

The Trip In General

hayley and i had one of the smallest planes that they could find for our trip to newark. it was ver small, there were only 3 rows total and we were at the second to last row. the plane was quite delayed and we did not have the 2 hour layover as expected. but everything ended up ok. so we started on the plane to germany on time and it was a fairly uneventfuflight. i only watched one movie out of the 21 total movies available. Then i fell asleep for a little bit. we landed and out luggage was safe and sound. hayley thought hers was gonen but it ended up she just forgot kinda what it looked like. so we got out and waiting outside for us was vivien helena and their dad. everything was going swell. the only problem we ran into was the car situation. there was a parking structure and people parked in the only exit. there was no way to leave. so we had to wait while they put airplane wheels under it and pushed it out of hte way so everyone could exit. it was kinda crazy. everything here is so nice. their house is so homey and somewaht tight quarters. i dont know what i expected but this is gorgeous. its quaint. the key board i'm typing on is funny because the z and y are switched so i keep typing funny words that do not exist so if i dont correct one its not because im illiterate onlz because i keep forgetting where the new letters are. well im off to do other fun things so ill check in later.

Erika at the airport

erika leaving

it is the wee hours of sunday, the day that has been marked as the day that i embark on a trip to see my newly lost sister of sorts, vivien.   just getting last minute things packed and waiting for my ipod to finish syncing.  it seems to drag on. nothing new to report yet since i haven't even left yet so.....  i'll check back in later when i have something good to report to everyone and anyone who cares to know.