Reunited. Its been 7 years.

GIHWAN IS IN THE USA!!!!!!!! I am so excited that he got to come back to America to visit.  Here is a little background.  We were best friends in 5 and 6 grade, and then he moved back to Korea. We have kept in touch though through facebook, letters, and packages.  He told me he was going to try to come and visit this summer, but i didn't think it was going to happen.  Next thing i know...He has a date set and he is here! It was so good to see him after such a long time! It's like nothing has changed! We first went on a hike to Adams Canyon.  Then a few days later we went to a REAL game.  They lost ): Shoot. But it was still cool to go with him.  It has been a crazy summer that's for sure.  I am so glad i got to see him and i will desperately miss him when he leaves back to Korea.  Maybe i will just go and visit him next!! (:

Single and Legal!

I am 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT?????? That is absolutely disgusting! I wanted to be a kid forever!! I seriously can't believe that i am officially an adult.  I mean i guess there is some positives but...not really the greatest. To start off my birthday, my family took me to the drive in! Colton came too! It was pretty fun! We went and saw despicable me 2 and Monsters University.  Didn't really like Despicable Me 2 but i liked Monsters. Then we went home and went to bed.  I woke up and went... SWIMMING!! I seriously LOVE swimming.  I had my party at Chad's and we just partied it up! Later at night, Ash and Brayds came over to Chad's and we switched presents and then we left and went to Ashy's house and..yup thats right.. did some more swimming. It was kinda freezing, but way fun! After that we went back to my house and did our traditional birthday pictures and cupcakes(muffins) It was a succesful day!

Happy 4 of July!

I didn't really do a whole lot this fourth of july! We went to Chads swimming for a while and then i went back to my momma's house to watch fireworks! Nothing to exciting! We also made these pretty sweet shirts (:

Goodbye Europe

Well rough start this morning. We were supposed to be in the bus at 4:15.  Well 4:12am Henson runs in our room and says Hurry!! You have 3 minutes. We jumped out of bed and scattered.  Our room was a disaster.  We hurried and finished packing and made it down at 4:25.  Just a little bit late (; We got to the airport and boarded the Germany to Paris flight.  It was way short! We rode on Air France.  The food was not airplane food.  It was really good.  We landed and had to rush to gate k35.  We didn’t have boarding passes and the place was closed that early in the morning. GREAT.  Henson asked a lady where to get them.  After lots of French speaking and confusion, we were back upstairs where we started.  We had to print our boarding pass ourselves.  We got them and once again down to k35.  We made it in, got our passports stamped, and headed to the terminal.  We get there and assign us seats.  They won’t tell us for 20 minutes though.  We rushed to the bathroom and hurried back upstairs.  They gave us our assignments and then started boarding.  I went through where they scan my passport.  They told me to go to the back table and had to open my bags and then they searched my body which was weird.  We finally got on the plane and we were off on the long, dreaded, horrible, flight back home.  I slept most of the way, but I sat by Garrett and talked to him for a long time too.  He is such a funny kid!

I am so glad I got the chance to go to Europe.  I loved every second.  It was so much fun getting to see these places, learn the history, get to know a lot of people, and just cross things off my bucket list.  I love exploring and this was a perfect way to expand my experiences.  I definitely plan on traveling a whole lot more in my life. 

GOODBYE EUROPE! ITS BEEN REAL!

Europe Day EIGHT

Today we actually woke up on time.  It was a miracle.  We got up and went to breakfast.  We had oatmeal, but their oatmeal is a lot different.  It is just uncooked.  It is like our raw oatmeal in milk with chocolate pieces.  They also had ICE! YES!! I have been craving ice this whole trip.  I also had a really yummy roll.  After breakfast, we were back on the bus.  We went to pick up our local guide.  Our first stop was another of Ludwigs castles.  There were these nasty looking birds everywhere.  It was a ginormous and really pretty castle.  We then saw the German Opera House, old churches, and the winged victory.  We stopped at this bridge because it was a famous place in the middle of the mountainous Germany to go surfing.  What makes the wave is 2 cables and a cement wall under 3-4 feet of water.  It was very interesting to see surfers in Germany.  After that we had about an hour free time.  But Dimitrious said we had to see the Glockenspiel.  First we went to a little café where I ordered a bagette sandwich and a pretzel called nutesque or something like that.  It was like a glaze pretzel thing with almonds covering it.  It was really flaky and just all around delicious.  Then we made our way to the Glockenspiel.  While waiting these knights came over and started talking to us.  One of them asked if he could have a bite of my sandwich and I said, “uhh..No?” Then he just kept talking to us and I told him my last name is Ritter and that it means knight.  He was all sorts of excited.  Then he wanted to take a picture, but he put his knee out and wanted me to sit on his lap. We took a picture smiling, then we took a picture of me kissing him on the cheek. I’ve kissed 2 Germans on this trip now.  He said, “Since you kissed me on the cheek, he was claiming me as his lady.” Yeah. I have a German boyfriend, who is a knight.  Then he walked away and the Glockenspiel started.  It played really pretty music and the characters spun around and danced around.  It was a really cool thing to see.  After that we did a little souvenir shopping.  Then headed back to the bus. Again.  We were on our way to the concentration camp Dacheu.  You walked in the gates and instantly felt a different feeling. It was very sad to see and imagine the people walking and working, being tortured and trying to survive.  I swore I could see people and it was really awful to feel that. It was also really difficult to read all the information tables and read the stories of these prisoners.  A movie was shown that was actual footage from when the camp was in operation.  I am glad I got the opportunity to see it.  We then left and went back to City Square for free time.  I decided to pay 20 Euro to go on a guided bike tour. Why? Cause another bucket list item could be crossed off.  I wanted to ride through the streets of Europe on a bike.  Our tour guides name was Keith. He informed us to not use cameras or phones while we were riding because you can get a 40 euro ticket.  We went to the “Tina Turner” church.  I forgot what the real name was.   There are these pillars with 2 gold lions on them.  You have to rub one, run across the street and rub the other one to have good luck the rest of the day.  We also walked on the bronze path.  The people who did not want to hail Hitler would walk behind the Opera House instead of the front because if they walked past the statues in the front and didn’t sign to Hitler they could be arrested. They put the path in the back to honor their courage.  While we were going on the ride, there was a festival going on, so we got to hear a lot of the local bands and singers performing and playing.  It was really cool.  We continued through the streets of Europe and got to the English gardens.  They were really big and green.  It was like a big park with tons of trees.  Keith told us that the part of the park we were in was the nude part.  He said the older people would go there to sunbathe.  Then he said, “Luckily it is raining today.”  We rode for about 2 hours around.  It was my dream come true. We got back to the bike place and turned our bikes in. We went inside to warm up because it was freezing and we were soaking wet. Dimitrious came to get us and we went back to the bus for dinner.  We went to a really yummy place when we got there.  There was salad in glass jars that was really good. It had cooked green beans in it, and it was also a little spicy.  We had pork goulash which was also really good.  For dessert we had pudding that tasted about the same as the night before.  I ordered Spetzi again because I pretty much had to.  It was my last chance and it is a really yummy drink.  We were sitting at dinner and Melanie was really hot.  Ash put her cold hands on Melanie’s face and she says, “Ashlie your hands are delicious!”  Funniest moment of the night.  We then headed back to the hotel and packed to go home.  It was really sad.  We all sat in our room talking and spending our last night together in the beautiful country of Germany. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Europe Day SEVEN

Today we got up and ate breakfast.  I managed to pack everything in one bag! We drove for about an hour to a little tiny country called Liechtenstein.  Its population is 35,000.  They use the Franc and speak German.  They also don’t have debt.  They are the most rich country.  The average salary is $100,000 francs.  We stopped and got our passport stamped.  It cost 2,50 Euro or 3 Francs.  But to me, it was worth it.  We walked around for a minute and looked at tons of statues.  We were there about 30 minutes, but hey…we were there.  We then got back on the bus, crossed back into Switzerland, then crossed into Austria.  After a while we were back in Germany.  There was a point when we were in 3 countries at once.  Seriously awesome.  In Germany they don’t have a speed limit.  They have suggested speed of 130 kilos but if you don’t follow it, its not a big deal. We finally arrived at the Neuschwanstein Castle. It’s the castle that Disney modeled Cinderella’s castle after. We went to lunch at Leo’s right down the road before the castle though.  I ordered spetzle which is like a noodle with cheese and onions.  It tastes a lot like mac n cheese. To drink I had Spetzi, it is a mix of coke and fanta and super yummy!  Melanie had to pay 50 cents for a ketchup packet. We had to hike “uphill” for a mile, it wasn’t even that bad though.  We got to the top and the view looks like a backdrop.  It’s so fake.  It is amazing that places like this exist on earth.  We walked to part of the property with a bridge over 2 waterfalls with blue pools at the end.  It was way cool! We walked back down to the castle and waited until we could go in.  At about 4:30 we went in and the sign said no cameras, so that was disappointing.  It was incredible inside.  I would love to live in any of Ludwigs castles.  It was so pretty.  They had rooms for everything.  I can’t believe something like that is able to be built. We bought some souvenirs and headed back to the bus for another two hour drive.  We got to the place we were eating dinner.  It was called Bella Bellaria or something like that.  They first served this weird soup that looked like watered down soy sauce with soggy dog food in it.  It was awful.  It’s okay though, cause they forgot to give me some so I tried some of
Ashlie’s and didn’t have to worry about it the rest of the time.  They brought out the main dish and it looked horrible.  We asked what it was and he said it was pork and potatoes.  It definitely wasn’t potatoes.  It looked like soggy pops.  The waiter asked Garrett which girlfriend was his and he said all of them.  The waiter was impressed and said, “Wow, I only have 2.” WHAT??? Haha! Dessert came and it was just like a cake batter jelloish thing with sprinkles on it.  Once I got past the texture I actually really liked it.  So…So far…German Food isn’t any better than Swiss food.  We went back to the hotel and man was it a weird one.  You had to buy the wifi.  It was 9,95 Euro for 24 hours and 3,95 Euro for 1  hour.  I bought the 24 hour. Ash was showering and came out in a towel practically naked and said, “I think the shower is broken, I can’t get it to work.’  So I tried and couldn’t get it to work.  I told her to go ask and she said, “look at me, I can’t!! You go!”  So I walked across the street to the front and ask.  They look at me like I am a complete idiot.  But they informed me how to use a shower. Thanks German Hotel Lady.  While she was showering, I was supposed to plug in Ashy’s ipod and I totally forgot.  She turned the shower off and I threw half my suitcase across the room and said, “Ash I can’t find the ipod charger.” She points with a dead straight face to the plug where her ipod is plugged in with my cord. WOW. I made a mess for nothing.  But it was hilarious! Then we all talked for awhile and went to bed.