Update on my Summer Livin'

Just an Update

Since we moved into our new house, it's been hard to keep up with my blog. We've been there for a couple weeks now and still do not have phone or internet. The only way we have internet is if we go to the library or bowling alley.. which isn't too often. So instead of updating my blog daily I though I would just let everyone know what I've been up to lately! 

The move into the house has been a little crazy. After what seemed like forever, our household goods finally arrived! The trucks here aren't as big as in the states, so they had to make three separate trips. Everything went pretty smoothly, until they movers took out dad's harley. There was a huge dent in the front fender & the windshield was broken off.. Sad day. At least it's all fixable. We've just got to find a harley shop here! It took us a few days to unpack all of our things, but by now it's looking like a home! (: 

Now we're just waiting on the phone & internet that's taking forever. :/

The neighborhood is nice & quiet, and our neighbors are really nice. On one side lives the mayor, and the other a police man, so we know we're safe. (: Bella loves the big yard, and we love the view! Sometimes we see deer right next to the woodline. (usually just little babies though, no 8points! LOL)

Other than the usual hanging out with the family and shopping, we've tried to start traveling a little bit. Here's just a little bit about the first trip we took(:

A few days ago, we planned on taking our first trip on the bullet train. We decided we would just go to the train station, pick a destination, and spend the day there. We went to the station, started plugging information into the little ticket machine, and realized we may have to take a different route..  We put in three different places, (one including Paris which I was super excited for.. lol sad day) but they were all over 100 euros for us to go.. Paris would cost over 500 euros! I don’t know if y’all know anything about the exchange rate, but $1 gets you about .78 euros. You can do the math..  They say the prices are so high because of all the kids out for summer & everyone visiting, there’s barely any room on the trains, so they hike the prices up.

Ok, ok.. you’re probably wondering.. what’s the big deal about a train ride? (I forgot to explain). These trains travel at about 300km per hour! (in other words.. super fast.. you can also do the math here if you’d like! LOL) The train can go from my town to Paris in less than 2 ½ hours! Maybe towards the end of the summer the prices won’t be so high..

SO instead of taking the train we decided to drive to a little town called Saarbrucken. Our neighbor told us it’s a real beautiful town & there’s a few things to do there. He was right. The town was so pretty. When we drove in, we saw that they were having an antiques flea market. We browsed for a couple hours, grabbed a bratwurst for lunch, and continued to walk around and look at everything. They were held on a street next to some shops and restaurants. After a while we stopped for coffee, and then ice cream. We kept seeing signs for a castle, so we headed out to find it. At first, we couldn’t find the castle. Some lady pointed us to a modern building and said that it used to be a castle but it was redone. It looked nothing like a castle, and we were about to just give up and go back home. Then, one man pointed us the right way. We walked into the building where the castle was and we talked to a woman. She explained that the only remaining parts of the castle were in the basement. They saved what they could of it. They made a museum of it, so people can see.. and they built on top of it. We bought our tickets and headed downstairs.. It was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

To walk upon the floors, and pass by walls that were build rock by rock by people wayyyy back when is just awesome. They had explanations of each room we walked through and explained what it was.  After you walked through the actual castle part, there were rooms with pictures and things to look at, like a real museum. Some of the things we saw were so cool & ancient. My favorite part of the tour was at the end. We walked into a room that mainly had pictures with descriptions next to them. Of course, dad and I didn’t even think we would enjoy this room because all of the writing was in German, and besides that.. we were tired. However, mom started to read some things to us & we realized it was all about hitler, the jews, and the war. We saw an actual uniform that the Jews used to have to wear. At the end of the room there was this small room, obviously part of the castle, made out of all stone. The walls were engraved with people’s names and whatnot, but there was plastic around it so that we couldn’t touch the walls to ruin them. A woman that worked there came over and started talking to my mom, and mom translated. That room was a dungeon for Jews. They would put up to thirty people in that room, including women, and their children. We learned that was the holding place for the Jews who were waiting to be sent to the concentration camps. They had a picture in the room of an old women walking through the same exhibit we were. It turns out that when she was 17 they captured her and she was actually held prisoner in that dungeon. I believe an American rescued her during the time of the war and she was released. She went back to her home country & for some reason (I don’t remember why), she was put into a concentration camp there and she later died.  Some of the things were just absolutely amazing. There was a list of people from around the area in which the castle is, that were killed in concentration camps. Isn’t it crazy to think something like that actually happened? I’m real interested in stuff like that. Mom and Dad said they’re going to take me to the Dakou concentration camp in Munich.. maybe by the end of summer I can go see Auschwitz in Austria.

Here are some pictures I took! 

This is the river near the flea market!

Another view of the river! (:

A weird bathroom.. lol you insert coins & the door opens up! haha

You can see the road where the flea market was(:

This is a tunnel in the castle.. all original! (and my parents walking through! lol)

This was just a spot where they used to shoot out of, and I guess a replica of a gun..
I can't really remember. 

These are rocks that they used to have to shape with a hammer for the walls. Also original.

The entrance to the dungeon. We couldn't go through. :( 

Just a stairway!

This was a picture of the castle after the war. The only remaining parts were underground. 

Creepy, but pieces of human skull found in the castle.

And lastly, what the castle used to look like. 

I also have some pictures of a letter from hitler, a jew uniform, and some other things but I can't get them to upload. :( Sorry guys! 

Hmmm.. what else? I’m thinking about taking a summer course online here. I found out Central Texas College offers courses for the soldiers here, and their families. Instead of just sitting around when I get bored, why not get some hours in? So we’ll see how that goes.

One of my best friends back home had her baby today! Welcome to the world Alexis Grace, & Congratualtions Sandra! I know you'll be an amazing mommy and your baby girl is beautiful! I can't wait to meet her & I hope she loves her pink tutu I got her.. ahha (: 

I really don't think I've really done much of anything else. It's hard to thing back to two weeks ago! LOL. 

I hope everyone back home is enjoying their summer as much as I am. It's tough to keep up while I'm internet-less! I'll be back on soon though! & thanks to everyone reading my blog!

I can’t believe I’ve already been here for like a month! Time sure is flying! 

I'll post again soon <3

Samantha Kay