My New Blog. (I know. Again? Yes.)

This blog is great. And not quite done yet. But it represents a part of my life that I'm no longer in, and I needed a blog for just the everyday. So... here you go. Go ahead. Follow me. Again. :)

Mikell Christine :)

Read Me! :)

So... I started a draft of a post about my first day in Rome about a month ago... now I finally finished yesterday, and it won't show up in your blogger feed, so... go read it here. Mmmk. Thanks.

Also, I just have to say, that life is good. Fall is beautiful- even if my fingers and toes are cold. And... I'm really happy right now. Thats all.

Sorry so cryptic. Buuuuuuuuut, thats the way I roll. Go read that other post, and I'll work on getting the other four Italy days + Salzburg + Berlin, round 2 + Going home. Slowly but surely...

Rome if You Want To... (Who Wouldn't?)

I traveled to Rome by night train. My first one ever. Little did I know it would be the best one... but thats another story for another day. :) In the morning, I got of the train and went and dropped my stuff at the hostel. Then first on the agenda...

THE COLOSSEUM!!!!

*Side note: Italy is hot. And sunny. And my hair got frizzy, fast. So every shot was not a glamor shot. But I was ridiculously excited to be there, and thats what's important! :)

I went for a walk through the past in the Roman Forum, joining up with a couple from South Africa who were listening to the Rick Steve's Audio tour I had been reading out of my book. (Thank heaven's for that book. Saved my life. Probably quite literally.)

Then I made my way up the Capitoline Hill and went to the Capitoline Museums, and saw all this stuff I'd studied in my Humanities classes...

Then I headed back over to take a tour of the Colosseum. It was way cool! I didn't pay for a guided tour or the audio tour, but it worked out fine because I just listened in on the 5,000 other tours that were going on. (Actually, I did that a lot. I figured it was okay since I'm just one person...)

Then on to the Victor Emmanuel Monument! I really didn't know anything about it, and actually, I still don't. But it was big! And white! And I saw it!

Then a whole bunch of walking over to THE PANTHEON!!! Ancient! Amazing! Something I've always wanted to see, and I wasn't disappointed!

Look at the courtyard of the Pantheon. So Italian. So touristy. Right behind that obelisk thing is a McDonald's. Really.

Then I went and ate some dinner. I thought it would be awkward eating alone, but it wasn't really, and I even talked to a sweet 70 year old Italian man who was eating by himself too. Oh, and by the way, it was DELICIOUS!!!!
As dusk set in, I set out on a "Night Walk Across Rome". It was absolutely amazing. I just kept saying, "I can't believe I'm here!!!" Beautiful. Magical. Oh yeah, and I got lost. Don't worry, I found some other American ladies who were using the Rick Steve's book and were lost too. We figured it out eventually. :)

I think the next part may have been the most magical part of this absolutely amazing day. Just look at the crowd gathered around!

THE TREVI FOUNTAIN!!!

I loved the Trevi Fountain. It may not be the most ancient thing in Rome, but it sure felt magical. I threw in a 2 Euro cent coin and wished to come back again with someone I love. :)

I walked past the Spanish Steps on my way home- they were crowded with thousands (it felt like) of German kids. They had been all around the city all day. I just couldn't get away from those crazy Germans, even in Italy!

Could it have been a more magical day? I don't think so. It was beautiful. I can't wait to go back!!!

No Man is an Island

People need hugs. They need the people they love. They need people who love them.

I have needed these people for some time now. I knew I missed my family and my loved ones back home. But I don’t think I realized how much I was missing.

Chantel said to me today, “Its nice have you here. I don’t realize how much I miss friends until you are here.”

I love Everett’s cheeks, and Cora’s crooked cheesy grins, and Ethan’s smart questions. I love that they all call me Kell. That means so much to me, it almost makes me want to cry. I love that Greg finds me funny and that Chantel always agrees with me and I always know "exactly what she means." (She’s so eloquent in describing the things that I can’t. She neeeeds to blog. I hope I can talk her into actually doing it.)

I have to say I’ve also missed the affection. I didn’t realize how much I missed tight hugs and holding hands with kids as we walk down the road.

It all goes back to that philosophy of mine… people are the most important part of our lives.

Prague is Magical

I've been having a lot of "I can't believe I'm here" moments in the past month. The weekend after Vienna I went to Prague. Prague is pretty well hyped up in the European travel world. I feel like I've heard a million times "Prague is amazing!!!" but I never knew why.

And then I went.

There really is something magical about Prague.

Maybe its the quirky astronomical clock.

Or the church that looks like an evil witch's castle.

Maybe its the huge Gothic Cathedral on the hill.

Or the "largest castle in the world".

Maybe its the 13th Century "Charles Bridge" with its cool old statues and people selling their art.

Combine all, add a pink sunset and a fireworks show over the river, and that makes beautiful, magical Prague.

Its Summer, People.

Today I opened the window, and I missed home. Something about the smell of the summer morning hit me, and that was it.

I miss summer. I miss sparklers, salads, shopping, dirt, swimming, movies, going to bed late and sleeping late, popsicles, air conditioning, family reunions, camping, slurpees.

More than that, I miss my mom. I miss shopping with her, talking with her, folding clothes with her, watching dumb movies with her, and driving around with her with my feet on the dashboard and head in the clouds.

I miss the rest of my family too. Talking, laughing, eating, singing silly songs, jumping around with the kids.

I miss my friends. My favorite people are home and bored and would SO go hike Y mountain with me or go to an outdoor concert or a drive-in movie...

The number one thing I'm learned since I've come to Europe is that you can DO lots of cool things, and SEE lots of cool things, but for the long term the most important thing is PEOPLE. Relationships are what makes life meaningful. I've also learned that my family is exceptionally awesome- love you guys. So, go appreciate the people around you who you love. :)

(Btw, I'm totally not complaining. I am having awesome experiences. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I'll be telling all those people I love about for the rest of my life.)

Can't think of a title...

The other night I was wandering around Marienplatz, because Institute (Religion Class) was cancelled, and I was in town anyway-I highly recommend wandering around Munich at dusk, by the way- and I met a French man named Roberto. Seriously, that was his name.

He asked me where Odeonsplatz was (which I totally got wrong, by the way), and then we just kept talking. He said he just likes to meet other people and learn about their ideas and culture, and so we walked (in a very brightly lit place where there were a lot of other people around-don't worry, mom) and talked.

What an interesting conversation. Some of his English was a little hard to understand, but I pretty much got it. I started out trying to shake him off, because he is a 30-something year old guy that I don't know, and that’s generally what you do, right? But he was persistent, and told me "you should talk to people, learn about their lives!" and so we talked.

Inevitably, religion came up. I don't drink coffee or alcohol, so yeah, inevitable. He asked "what is Salt Lake City famous for? What do people go see when they go there?" Yet again, religion= inevitable. Not that I mind. I have sat through COUNTLESS church lessons about missionary work, so here's my chance, right? You would think. Only problem is, all I can remember from those lessons, at least in the moment, is "missionary work is really important", and I get all flustered/awkward/freak out and successfully convince whoever I'm talking to that I am weird and my church is weird.

Well, I did my best, and he did his best to say “I just try to incorporate everything good thing about into my life so I’m more accepting.” Okay. Good enough. Best I could hope for I think.

I've had many other similar encounters this summer, but through them all I've learned a little something about myself. This whole experience I’ve had this summer has done exactly what I hoped it would. It has put me in a situation where I’ve had to become almost completely self sufficient in my everyday life, and subsequently made me more confident and capable. One of the places I’ve felt that need to be independent has been my testimony. I’m just happy to find that I can hold up under the pressure. There are subjects I need to study more, and I need to practice sharing so that I can feel more comfortable, but deep within, my testimony indeed lies strong. It’s a pretty cool thing to find out.

Excited!

1. Prague this weekend! Going to be amazing!!!

2. I got August 3-15 OFF!!! I'm going to Berlin to see/help out my awesome family friends, The Fawsons, who are moving to Berlin August 1st, plus hopefully going somewhere else AWESOME... Maybe Rome? Paris? London? Wahoo!!!

Happy Happy Happy!

Time to go pack!

Vienna Waits No More

I have a feeling I’m going to run out of adjectives for my experience with this amazing place pretty quickly. I had quite a few seriously breathtaking “I can’t believe I’m here” moments.

So much history, so many beautiful places and palaces.

It made me think about the way rich people live. Do they know how out of the norm they are? Personally I just think that eating breakfast in a different room than you eat dinner in is just wasteful, and looking at huge portraits of yourself all day would be a little weird, but I guess if that’s what you want… I don’t mind touring the grandeur 200 years later! I wonder what our great grandchildren be touring from our era?

The whole time I had Mozart stuck in my head. We saw his grave, we saw where he played for the Empress when he was six, and we saw the Mozart Requiem performed in St. Karlskirche. It was so cool to see it performed as Mozart would’ve intended. It may have been my favorite part of the trip.


Or maybe the totally awesome art museum! So much cool stuff from ancient Egypt and Rome, paintings by the masters… I could’ve stayed for hours.

Other memorable moments:
-Seeing from the train the German countryside, THE ALPS!!!, and the gorgeous little Alpine villages with their houses with shutters and spilling-over window boxes and their quaint, old town churches.
-Sharing a room in a hostel with a Hungarian guy in only a bright yellow speedo. Uh, creepy! I kept waking myself up in the night to make sure I was okay. I was.
-Getting soaking wet in the rain as we searched for food, and found it in a Pizza parlor with an extremely friendly waiter of questionable nationality (Italian? German? Eastern European? No idea.)
-Getting lost all the time (thank heavens for Laura. I would’ve been lost the whole time without her.)
-Forgetting it was my birthday. Haha. Oops.
-The Catacombs inside Stephansdom, especially the hole where they dumped plague victims. The image of that jaw bone on top of a pile of indiscriminant bones is burned into my head. So mad I didn’t get a picture.
-Walking around the city at night.

I guess Vienna was waiting for me.

Ode to Skype

(NOTE: I have no idea what an Ode entails. I could look it up, but instead I’ll just say what I want to say, and then space it weird.)

Skype.

I turn on my computer, and you pop up with your joyful alerts of my family members who are online. Specifically my mom, who is under my brother’s name, because she couldn’t figure out how to get her own. (Love you mom, its okay.)

I hit one button, and you’ve transported me thousands of miles to sit slightly awkwardly close, face to face, with my favorite people.

FOR FREE!

I thought I loved phones- slightly less than my old high-school principal who made out with the phone every time she came over the intercom, but slightly more than, say, your average 17 year old boy- but now that love has been completely overshadowed.

I love you skype, for letting me see my brothers grow, the neighbor kid's loose tooth, and my mom’s crazy (or not) hair in the morning.

I miss a little less, I share a little more and I get to watch myself make weird faces into the camera like a five year old.

Thank you Skype. Keep up the good work.

A Universal Language

I went to a ballet class last night. Hannah invited me, and we biked over. It was amazing. I love ballet. Just going, connecting my brain and my body, listening to the beautiful music, my muscles somewhat reluctantly remembering what they are supposed to do.

The great thing about ballet is that it is almost completely universal. Even though I don’t speak German or French, it doesn’t matter. The words are all the same, the combinations are all the same, even the corrections given by the teacher are the same. “Stand up straight, listen to the music, keep your knee up in passe.” It was all the same, and it was all beautiful.

I need dance, and I’m so grateful I could find it here.

Ubahn/World Cup Celebration Encounters

1. Totally hot indie dude with a beard. Now, normally I hate facial hair, but this guy was a part of the exception to that rule, because he totally looked like Geoff from Ace of Cakes, and was wearing a flannel. My roommates would’ve freaked. He gave me a knowing smile after one of the crazy World Cup celebrators tapped on the window and screamed “Deutschland! Deutschland! Grraaaaahhh!” We both kind of just shrugged and smiled, and then he went back to jamming to his super indie (I’m sure) music on his iPod.

2. Waiting for my train, I talked to a man from Turkey who spoke only German to me and I understood every word. Proof that body language is 90% of communication. We were mostly shaking our heads at the loud drunk people, but still. It was awesome that I could understand him, and he seemed to understand me. Kind of encouraging after my previous experiences with language.

Everyone was wearing the red, yellow and black flags, jerseys, hats, face paint, everything. Those annoying horns were everywhere. I was walking around Nymphenborg (palace with huge grounds) and I heard it every time we scored. (Four times). When it was over, horns were honking, people were screaming, dancing, singing… It was amazing. This country definitely has passion. And that was just the quarter finals!

I. LOVE. Art.

I went to the Alte Pinakothek the other day. That’s the big art Museum here in Munich. It was so great! I forgot how much I love looking at art. There’s just something about seeing it right there in front of you that is incredibly satisfying. I love to look at the brush strokes, the portrayals of emotions, the use of light… I didn’t realize I actually learned something in those humanities classes! It was so nice to wander around the museum at my own pace, headphones on, digesting and enjoying the work of all these famous, skilled painters. I highly recommend it. Once I got past the little bit of loneliness, it was so nice to walk around and form my own judgments about everything. It was an awesome day.

Here's some pics of some of my favorites:

Raphael

Da Vinci!!!

Durer

Durer

One of my favorites.

I loved the little boys in this.

Rembrandt

German

Language is an interesting beast. I didn’t realize it would be such a big deal for me. Everybody said, “Do you know ANY German?” and I was like, “Eh, no, no big deal, the family speaks English.” And they do. Speak English I mean, at least to me. But if they are just chatting with each other, or if they are talking to anybody else, or if I’m taking the kids to school, or if I go sign for a package with wet hair and mascara running down my face, or we go to a town function, or we grill with neighbors in the backyard, or pretty much anything else, its in German. Labels in German, signs in German, TV in German on and on. What did I expect? It is GERMANY for heaven’s sake. They’re allowed to speak their own language.

Its hard to really know NOTHING. I mean, if it was Spanish, I’d at least get the jist of things and be able to follow along. But German, not at all. I’ve never thought I really wanted to learn German. I mean, its not that big of a country, right? And they all learn English, right? But sitting there, next to two people who are speaking German to each other, or trying to make hand movements so that the neighbor girl understands me is hard. And it makes me feel like an idiot. What’s with that stupid American girl anyway. If she can’t speak German, why did she come? Why is she so awkward and quiet? But I can’t talk to them. Most wouldn’t understand, and how am I to know who would when all anyone ever speaks is German?

The hardest is little kids. They look at me, say something that sounds so sweet, and I just have to look at them like I’m stupid and say “Sorry, only English”, and they look at me and just blink a few times before turning away. I feel like a child. I don’t feel like myself. I feel like a bumbling fool!

Oh well, I guess. At least the mail-lady got to laugh at me, right? I guess I just need to do what my host mom says- "just smile and nod."

People Watching on the UBahn

Today, while I was sitting on the Ubahn (I love the Ubahn. Have I mentioned that?) I was people watching. So many people.

Four women sitting together who didn’t know each other. Everyone avoided everyone else’s gazes, but I looked at them and thought they all looked like they had something in common. I have no idea what it was, but I would love to read the book that connects their lives. Socks with sandals lady, handmade sweater with the tired eyes lady, frizzy hair with the layered clothes and book with child’s eyes on it, perfectly coifed lady who couldn’t wait to get out and smoke.

There was another lady on the train with thin lips and totally Utah poofed hair. She had to be from Utah or Idaho, she just had to be.

There was a blond American girl in a short skirt talking way too loud with food in her mouth who everyone stared at. “One time I had my birthay at the aquaaaairuhm”. “St. Louis has everything, yuh know?”

There was an African-looking guy with a scar under his eye who looked like an athlete and made me think of the world cup, and where he’s been, and why I think about where he’s been.

There was a beautifully saggy old woman with a cane and a candy-striped shirt that brought out the blue in her eyes. When she got on the train, the tired looking business man gave her his seat and they exchanged sincere smiles. She watched the two year old girl in the fisherman’s hat burrow into her mother and tried to hide her sad smile.

I really don’t know anything about these people, except that they are beautiful, and full of life. One lesson of the summer so far: The world is really big and full of people, and they all have lives and loved ones and pain and joy and all of that motivates them to do whatever they do every day. That was wordy, but I know what I meant.

A Sunny Day In Munich

Munich is beautiful.

I went to the Viktualen Market today, beautiful. Fun. Touristy, but also not. Flowers, wreaths, food food food. Such delicious food that I probably spent 45 min wandering around trying to pick something with the following qualifications: authentic, shopkeeper who could understand me, and cheap. In the end I got my first real Bavarian pretzel, and it was delish. Waaaay better than “ready time” or whatever. I think they actually do boil them. They taste like the mini pretzels, but big, and a little softer (but not too soft). It was great. Plus some yummy chicken and potato salad.

I walked around and tried to not feel a little lonely as I saw things and thought of my family- yarn shop, dad would love that, pretty wreath, I’d love to get that for mom, it be fun to send Matt that postcard. I really do like being on my own, picking everything (although honestly, I was about to go get Subway because I was so indecisive), choosing how to spend my time, having my own experiences to learn from and talk about, but I almost wish I had someone to analyze my experiences with. How drunk were those guys who told me to take a picture of them as I walked by? What language were those people speaking? Why is spargel (big, white asparagus) so popular?

I really am happy though. I’m so happy that I’m finally DOING something real, something great, something unique, something I’ll talk about with the people I love for the rest of my life. It will be my experience to compare all other experiences to. Not only do I get to live this now, but I get to bore my future children with it FOREVER! Bahaha! I really am happy, I really am. Just doing things on my own is new for me. Its good for me.

There. Proof I was there. Proof its awkward to take pictures of yourself. Proof I'm not good at it. But hey, I'm doing my best.

I also saw the glockenspiel on the nues rathaus. Its cute, but chintz and touristy. I should’ve taken a picture of all the people taking pictures, but I was too busy taking pictures of what everyone else was taking pictures of myself. :)