Week 2, in a Nutshell (p.s...I know I can't spell)

Wow so i've been gone for 16 whole days. I feel like it's flown by so quickly, and at the same time like i've already been here a year.

This weekend was a fairly relaxed one, I stuck around Stuttgart. Still waiting on my bank card so that I can access my account and spend money!

Friday night was pretty low key, we tried to go to the city centre to go skating and try the traditional hot wine, but when we got there it was already closed. BUT! Somebody has gone and erected this enormous soccer ball in the middle of this U-shaped castle in the city centre because of the World Cup....which for those of you who don't know...is being held in Germany in June!! I've ordered tickets, but so many people want them that they do it by way of a draw.... I'll find out in a few weeks if I got them....that'd be ssoooo sick!!

So anywas...this enormous soccer ball.... turns out you can go inside it! So, inside we went... The (gold) world cup Germany won in 1990 i think is in there, some other sports paraphanalia including one of David Beckhams cleats.... All i know about that guy is that he's married to Posh Spice (Spice girls foreva yo!) and they put his name in a movie title..... it was a pretty good movie, i thought.

Then upstairs they've got these interactive games, most of them have you interacting with a tv screen in some way....everything was in German so i just had to guess. They had this one crazy game...there was a monster thing on the television who was supposed to be a soccer player, and from what i could figure out, he was injured and needed you to massage various parts of his body in order to make him feel better. The monster i chose....really liked me to rub his butt. I kid you not!! I'll attach pics soon. These monster guys would press the body part they wanted massaged up against the screen and then welll....you rubbed it! I dunno....

After that we came home and there was a massive party going on on the floor below me. I stopped in for a bit, chatted up another Canadian guy i met living here, and then called it a night. I'm so lame, I know, wimping out on a friday night.....but you have to believe me, I did sooo much during the week i was dead. I spent the rest of the evening talking to loved ones....so hard with the time difference!

Saturday was club night! One of the full timers from IBM was supposed to meet us at this club called Bravo Charlie, but we never actually found him. The bar was designed to look like the inside of an airplane, but with all the seats taken out. You know how the pilots have that special alphabet for spelling things over the radio..."alpha, bravo, charlie, delta....." Well that's why the bar was named so. It was actually a bit of an older crowd, so I felt a little out of my element, and they played house... I couldnt' tell if the whole night was just one biiiigg long song, or if all the songs just sounded exactly the same. I think it was the later...who knows. And apparently dancing isn't so popular here in Germany as in Canada. There was a dance floor, and a few people dancing but mostly just standing around and chatting. Or yelling...since the music was so super loud. I left smelling like a tobacco plant, but i had fun anyways :)

Sunday!! Wanted to go to the Mercedes museum, but found out it's closed till May. Did you know, that Mercedes and Porsche are made in Stuttgart where i'm living? The street cars here are Mercedes....it's ridiculous. Instead Immi took us to a cultural museum, where we arrived to find everything in German....but we could still look at stuff, it was pretty cool.

That'd be my weekend...low key, as I said.

But the week was so damn crazy! Micheal, our system architect from Austria was visiting for the week to help with training and such, so we were hanging out with him most nights. Wednesday we went to this cool little lounge/cocktail bar in Stuttgart for dinner and drinks. They actually serve sheesha there....it was so bizarre to see people smoking huka's all over the restaurant.

Shots! Shots here...sooo much bigger than those ridiculous little things you get in Waterloo. It's no short fat plastic little cup...it's a big tall sexy 2 ounce shot! I stayed away that night, but they boys thought Bacardi 151 would be fun... Oh it was fun for the rest of us alright, watching them try not to vomit :P I drank my fill of beer though....mmm German beer is so good! And cheap!! Usually cheaper than water here...

The full-timers here are a blast... I love IBM....I love Germany!

Oh p.s.. If anybody is interested in the whole snail mail thing, here's my address

Allmandring 26C, Zi. 43202, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.

And i'm on skype too, for voice video convos add me! Should be able to find me if you search for Natasha Berger, or natasha_615

Anndd finally, some special people have been calling me (so sweet :) ), there's a number that's pretty cheap, only a dollar to talk for half an hour, then 8 cents a minute after that. This is exactly what you'd dial if you wanted to bless me with your sweet voice :P

101 888 011 49 174 437 5915

love you all and miss you all so much!