February: The Short Month

My fellow Americans,

Ahh February. What a funny little month. Yet, despite being a mere 28 days and its seemingly arbitrarey placement between Janruary and March that constantly reminds us that, yes, it is still winter, but if you hold out a little longer, I promise it will be spring once again; February can still be a good little month.

1. I joined a gym here and have begun working out on a regualr basis. As of yet im no Scharwzenager but i still got some time. Stayed tuned.

2. My german is really coming. Now, before i continue let me share a little secret with you when it comes to learning a new language. Key word: Encouragment. Any encouragement, praise, or compliments on ones attempts to speak a foreign tongue are worth their weight in gold.
Example: I received a ride home from some of my host brothers friends last Friday. Talking with the gentlemen who occupied the front seat, he posed the question "so, how long have you been in Germany. Me: umm just over 5 months. Gentlemen in front seat: Really?? i would have thought a lot longer. You speak really good German. I could have kissed him right then and there. But restraining myself i waited and did a little victory dance as soon as they dropped me off.

3. Ive been reading alot. Today i will finsh, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth by Leo Tolstoy. Amazing book.

4. This week i was struck with this thought during one of my classes. This was not the first time i attemted to wrap my mind around this idea but it was the first time it had hit me so randomly and suddenly. Sitting in the back of class i realized that i was the only one in this room who was thinking in english and that no one else was struggling to grasp the geographical terms the teacher was currently explaining. There is no doubt in my mind that language is one of he strangest and most fascinating things that the Good Lord created.

5. My Brother and Mom come in less than 3 weeks. Cant describe my excitement.

6. I still love my host family and we get along great. But being the only male in the house i have to keep the manliness in check...well thank God for Philipp or i fear i would be overwhelmed by the Estrogen. So, i have to make use of the opportunites i have. Example: my host mom is gone this weekend and my host sister is out a friends out. So, of course as soon as my host sister left, i stripped down to my boxers, took off my shirt. life is good.

Anyways, life continues to progress forward. I am truly enjoying germany and all the amazing experiences that it represents. But i must admit that i am growing tired of being the"exchnage student" and am ready for this summer and then SPU next fall.

Love you all.

Tyler

Skiing in Austria!!

Skiing Austria. Pictures describe it better than I ever could. Couple highlights though:

1. In Austria they speak German. But its not really German. In fact it might be the funniest sounding thing on the face of the planet.

2. The snow was ok. But overall it was an amazing weekend.

3. Eating a large Austrian Sausage quickly and then proceeding to continue skiing is not a good idea.

4. I am so sore.

All the Best,

Tyler

B-day pics...a look back

17th B-day

18th B-day

19th B-day

Cheers.

I am now 19.

Goodbye 18. Hello last year as a teenager. Quick overview of the B-day.

1. Other exchange students came to Muenden.

2. Alot of Bratwurst was grilled and eaten.

3. Sing Star was played. (its like Karaoke but for PlayStation

4. Went to the club.

5. Danced to crazy techno music.

6. Went to bed at 5:30 AM

7. Watched Emperors New Groove (amazing movie, watch it)

Overall i had a great B-day. I missed being home and missed you all so much. But i will be there in 4 months. Be ready.

love, Tyler

Snow!!!!!

Well as the title of the blog hints it finally snowed here. Enjoy the pictures. Thats my house.

Tyler

5 months!!!!

You heard right folks, I hit the 5 month mark today.

Deep philosophical thoughts. Not today.

But i will relay to you a dream i had about coming home and my interpretation....

1. I arrived home and my parents only asked me one question about my exchange. Proceeding into my house i realized that i was walking into the kitchen of our old house on Kingsbury.

2. My Dad came into the house and told me that the backyard was flooding. Not sure what he meant i ran outside. Well i turns out the backyard was flooding but it was flooding underneath the grass. So, our backyard looked like a giant water bed. So, my Dad and I, being the resourceful people we are, cut a hole in the grass, drained the water out and put dry dirt underneath the grass. Despite our best efforts my Dad still remarked. "Well... were probably going to lose the grass this year."

3. I walked out front and instead of being greeted by the lovely car filled street that is Kinsgbury, I found myself standing in front of El Burrito.

4. I woke up.

Analysis:

Well i don't really prescribed to the whole thought of dream analysis but ill try to give Freud a run for his money here.

1. Not sure why my parents only asked me one question. Knowing my Mother this is clearly not a possibility at all. Next, perhaps after being gone for 5 months my self conscious is reverting back to a child like state and missing my childhood home. (Sounded Professional uh...man i could make a living out of this...)

2. The yard flooding. This one is clearly a mixture of a. The time my parents water bed had a hole and leaked all of their room. b. The time the basement flooded. c. "Were probably going to lose the grass this year" that is clearly my sub conscious remembering the time i was given the charge to rid the lawn of weeds....well....we all know what happened after that. Lets just say those weeds never came back. thankfully the lawn did.

3. I miss Mexican food and despite the tastiness of German food....I need a good burrito.

Miss you all. Oh and if you want my deep philosophical thoughts on this exchange, here's the plan. I arrive home June 1st at 8:10 PM. Any time after that you are welcome to to come to coffee with me, perhaps purchase me something because i am now a poor college student, and I will tell you all about this little "exchange"

Cheers,

Tyler

Berlin

Hey everyone,

Sorry this Blog is a little tardy but thanks for tuning in. I spent the last weekend in Berlin and it went something like this.

Friday: If you read my previous Blog you will remember that we had a pretty intense storm here on Thursday. So, as i was waking up Friday morning i looked at my cell phone and realized that i had received a text message. Now, it is not everyday one receives a text message at an ungodly hour in the morning. Upon opening it i was greeted with perhaps the best news one could receive on a school day. School had been cancelled because of the storm the night before.

Had my room not been really cold and my bed a little less warmer and a little less comfortable I might have got up and danced around my room. Instead I smiled, rolled back over and didnt open my eyes again until 11:30.

Woke up. Packed. Ate. Drove to Berlin and arrived around dinner time. We met up with my host moms best friend (Karlheinz) who lives in Berlin, and is who we stayed with, and went to an amazing Pizza/Pasta resteraunt. Had fantastic food, good wine and some good ice cream.

Drove around Berlin for a while and then went back to Karlheinz's house, had some more wine and then went to bed.

Woke up Saturday. ate. Drove around Berlin for a while. Stopped at the Brandenburg Tur and took some pictures and then visited the Holcaust Memorial and Muesum. If you dont come out of that museum emotional...you dont have a soul. Drove around some more. Did some shopping in this very cool indie/funky part of town, ate, did some more shopping and then went to a Vietnamese resteraunt for dinner. Laura's uncle joined for dinner. Had a great conversation over dinner. The food was amazing and I can completly understand why major magazines in Germany voted it the best vietnamese food west of Ho chi mihn city.

Sunday: Visited Lauras uncles apratment, had coffee, visited the Soviet Union memorial to all the Soviet Soldiers in WWII and then drove home.

Overall it was an excellent weeked and a great time to get to know my host family.

Love you all

Tyler

AHHHHH

So, to those of you who dont frequent the european weather channel, allow me to give you an update on the situation here in Germany. We are currently experiencing what I would like to call an "Alberta Clippa" but as the Germans call it... a Storm.

Right now we are experiencing wind at about 90 MPH with rain and all that fun stuff...

The Germans are running for cover, school was let out early and all around it is not a good situation.

In other news I'm going to Berlin this weekend. Unless all of Germany is flooded, which is a good possibility.

miss you all alot right now.

Oh ya... thats my..."look out here comes a German storm" face. Enjoy

Love,

Tyler

I Moved!!!!!

Hey, so I've been meaning to get this blog up sooner but every time I tried one thing or another prevented me from keeping you guys in the loop on how things are progressing here in the land of the Germans.

As you know Kyle and i went to Hamburg and on the 6th of January Kyle flew to Spain and i returned to Hann. Muenden. I arrived home early in the afternoon, quickly finished packing my stuff, which has exponentially grown in the last 4 months, and moved host families. This, was a very, very strange experience and I was not really looking forward to "starting over" with another family. I arrived at the host families house, which is about 15 minutes by foot from where I used to live, ate some cake with Inga and my new host family then Inga left and I was on my own once again with a new German family. Now would probably be a good time to explain to you what this family looks like. My host moms name is Jutta and she works at a local bank here in Muenden and is a single mom. I have a host sister named Laura who is 14 years old.

So, this past week has been spent getting to know my host family, watching Deutschland Sucht Ein Superstar, which is the equivalent to American Idol and we all know how funny American Idoal can be at the start...well...picture that with Germans...ya...kinda intense, playing Uno extreme, reading alot, wishing it was colder and praying for some snow. It has been very easy and my host family and I have gotten along great. We are going to Berlin next weekend and I am so excited for that.

Oh and in other news I hit the half way point here on this little thing called my exchange. Yup, as of Friday I had been in Germany for 140 days. And if we all do the math correctly that means i will be home June 1st.

Overall, things are going really well here in Germany and I'm living it up, just like I said i would.

Enjoy the pictures, they are of my room and the view from my room.

Love,

Tyler

Hamburg!!!!!!!!

So, not only did Kyle and i have an amazing time in Muenden, we also had the opporunity to travel to Hamburg for 3 days or so.

We left for Hamburg on the Jan 3rd. and arrived there around 3 in the afternoon. After an interesting adventure which included receiving false directions to our youth hostel, this resulting in a nice walk around Hamburg in the rain, we finally arrived and checked in. We dropped are stuff off and immediately set off into the city. After walking around for a little bit we found a little falafael (spelling??) and Doener resteraunt, which was excellent. The after walking around for another hour or so we found a cool little coffee shop right in the downtown area of Hamburg. After staying there for a while we decided to head back to the part of town where are youth hostel was. It was about 20 minutes by foot from the downtown area in Hamburg in a really cool funky part of town (or leftist as described by our guide book) We then realized that we were hungry again and began the search for somewhere to eat. We stumbled across this french type restaurant that served crepes and croques. So, we went in and ordered a Croque even though we didnt know what it was. Turns out its a sub sandwhich. It was excellent. After that we walked around a little more and found this cool Greek bar that was packed. We went in. Had a few drinks and then headed back to the youth hostel.

Jan 4: Woke up around and got going around 11. Purchased some excellent german baked goods for breakfast and the procedeed to walk through the city. Had the lunch on the go. You will see the picture below. Shopped. Walked some more. Went back to the youth hostel. slept a little. went out again. Walked to another part of the city called St. Pauli. and had excellent Indian food at this cool little indian resteraunt. Walked around some more trying to find a bar. didnt find any that looked welcoming so we walked back to the Greek bar and stayed there for a while.

Jan 5th: Woke up, walked into the city, got some breakfast and then walked to the Harbor because Hamburg sits right on the Elba river and is known for its shipping. Walked around the harbor and the downtown area. came back to the youth hostel, starting packing because Kyle had to leave early on the 6th. We then hung out at the youth hostel for a while and then walked to the University district, found a cool little Bistro that was absolutly packed and enjoyed a good meal and a great conversation.

Jan 6th: Woke up early, Kyle left for Spain and i left for Hann. Muenden.

Thanks Kyle for an amazing time. Love ya.

Kyle Visits and New Years!!!!

Good Evening Everyone,

It has been a good amount of time since my last post and alot has happenend between Christmas and now.

First,

Kyle came to visit and of course that was amazing. The time we spent in Muenden was sleeping, talking, going to the die kasten, eating, laughing, drinking ect. Overall it is was perfect.

For New Years we partied with some people from my class in a small town about 15 minutes from Muenden. We had such a good time. Shot off alot of fireworks, had some good food, drank some and arrived back in Muenden at 6:00 AM, just in time to watch the ball drop in NYC.

So, i think we did a pretty swell job of celebrating Silvester, as it is called here in the land of the Germans. New years day was spent sleeping and then enjoying an excellent meal with my host family.

Jan 2: We received a invitation do dine with a girl and her family. This girl lived in Hann Muenden for 13 years, but has lived in Texas for last 4 years or so. She was in Germany for Christmas break and invited us over for Fajitas. Now, you have no idea how excited i was to consume mexican food again. It was absolutly fabulous. It was almost like going home for an hour or so. Loved it.

The above pictures are from New Years. Enjoy.

Love you all,

Tyler

Pictures from Christmas

Chrsitmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!

Good Afternoon everyone,

Well once again Christmas has come and gone. This year was a little different and overall didn't really feel like Christmas. Here's a quick review though.

We went to church Christmas Eve, which consisted of alot of organ playing and the reciting of the "Christmas Story" We got there a little late (30 minutes before the service started) so me Philipp, Steffan and Keagan had to stand the whole time. Not a biggy for us burly German men. This would probably be a good time to mention who I spent Christmas with. Here at the Taeger household we had a very international Christmas. Yours truly was representing the US of A, but there was also a girl from South Africa who was an exchange student with my family a couple years ago and there was a kid from Australia who was my host brothers best friend during his exchange and, of course, my host family and my host grandma. After church, we came home, brought all the presents and put them under the tree. It was really weird to be opening presents on the 24th. We then all gathered in the living room and listened to my host dad (who was dressed up like Santa Claus) tell story about christmas. It was very similar to The Night Before Christmas. We then began opening presents. They do it very similar to the way we open gifts. Starting with the youngest and then working there way to the oldest. But, I am the youngest, so that was really weird to be the one starting. After that we had a great meal, talked for a long time and then went to bed. I slept in on Christmas morning and had a big brunch with the family, relaxed, and then went to my counselors house for a big Christmas dinner with Marlo who is a girl from South Africa who was an exchnage student with my family a couple years ago. We had turkey, potatoes, veggies, rolls, salad....the works. It was absolutly amazing and I ate so much. After about 3 hours of eating and talking we came back home or should i say rolled home. Marlo and I then watched Thank You For Smoking. It is an extreamly funny film, I highly reccommend it.

So, that was Christmas for me. Different and interesting. Just gonna chalk this one up in the experience category and save it for a good cocktail party conversation starter. So, that reminds me of the time I spent Christmas in Germany....

Hope you all had good Christmas

Good night and good luck,

Tyler

let me get ya a hot toddy or something....

I weighed myslef today. I've put on about 10 pounds since i arrived here in Germany.
Might as well start calling me tubby and throwing stuff at me.

that is all,

Tyler

last chrsitmas i gave you my heart....

Today was really good. School passed suprisingly quick. The gluhwine tasted especially good. The weather was actually cold. I had my last PE class for the year. I laughed alot with the host family about a certain gift mix up. Watched Elf.

Cheers, and Merry Christmas

love,

Tyler

I'm always working for the weekend

Pardon the use of an overplayed 80's song or perhaps 70's but it was the first thing that came to mind. Well another week has come and gone here in Germany. I had another Rotary Weekend, which was amazing as usual. One week till christmas....thats pretty awesome if you ask me.

Left for the weekend on Friday afternoon as usual and arrive on Friday night. After saying hello to everyone and meeting some new exchnage students from southern Germany who are coming on the Euro Tour with us. We settled in to the five star lodging for the weekend known as a school gym. I tell ya, nothing better than a gym floor to really help you relax after long hard day.
Friday night was passed with alot of laughs, a little bit of dancing and not getting to sleep till around 3.

I awoke around 8 o'clock to loud music and bright lights with one thought on my mind. Oh please let this be a terrible dream. Turns out it wasent and the half naked brazilian walking by me was, in fact, real. Saturday consisted of this: Ice Skating, eating, talking, and just hanging out. We also had a meeting on the Euro Tour, which, by the way, is going to be amazing and is only 3 short months away.

Woke up Sunday and drove back early to Hann. Muenden with Steffan. Slept a little and then went to Christmas Concert at a local church here in Muenden. It was kinda boring but I was glad that I went. Came home, watched Scrubs, went to bed.

One more week till christmas. Love you all.

Merry Christmas

Tyler

Weekend in Freburg

Rain, cold...ok we have had enough of that....please get colder and snow. I think that is the thought process of most Germans at this time. We have had an unusually warm December here in Germany and everyone is a little disappointed that the weather isn't coroperating and adding to the Christmas spirit.... I am also of this opinion.

This past weekend was filled with family, a new city, really good food and an overall great time.
Me, Jurgen and Inga saddled up the ol' four wheeled drive sleigh and headed to Freiburg Friday afternoon. After passing the 4 hour drive by listening to musicand playing snake on my cell phone, we arrived in Freiburg. Greeted by rain, wind and cold temperatures we met up with Steffan, my oldest host brother who studies in Freiburg, at his apartment, dropped off my stuff, drove to the hotel where Inga and Jurgen were staying and then ventured forth into the city. After touring the local Christmas Market and sampling some gluhwine, we went to dinner.
Ate some amazing food. I would tell you the name of it but it was in German and I myself was unsure. After dinner we said goodnight to Inga and Jurgen and Steffan and I walked back to his apartment. We watched Jaws 3...never see it...ever...trust me....you dont want to.

Woke up Sunday morning, walked to the train station to pick up Philipp. He couldnt come on Friday with us because he already had some prior engagement planned. Got lunch, walked around the city, shopped a little, walked some more and then ate dinner. Another amazing meal.

Sunday, drove back home, relaxed.

I am so thankful and I feel so blessed to be with such an amazing family. There is no doubt in my mind that I have made lifetime friends. There are many things that I will not remember from this exchange but the kindness and the love that this family has shown me, will never be forgotten.

Overall, things are going well. I miss my family and friends terribly. But I know that i will see them in a few short months. In the big picture this exchnage represents a small chunk time in my life. So, i am trying to live up every moment. Learning what i can and growing from this expereince. Because, hey, its all about the stories you have and I'm going to have some good ones when i come home.

Miss you all. Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts. You have no idea how much they mean.

Good night and good luck,

Tyler

Curry Wurst and Gluhwine and Friends

Tonight was fun. Enjoy the pictures.