Amazing News!!!

I went to the doctor today and after waiting for 2.5 hours for an xray the doctor told me I didn't need crutches anymore! I am still in the walking cast, but he said as long as I don't have pain I don't need the crutches! I have never been happier, plus next Friday I go back to the doctor and if everything looks good then I get the boot off! That means in a week and a half I am back to normal! It will still take some time after I get the boot off, but it will be such a relief to be "normal" again.
Life in a castle is pretty unreal. The view from everywhere is amazing, we are surrounded by mountains. Every morning we have class for 4 hours and then in the afternoon we do homework because these two weeks are really intense for school. No one really goes down into town because it is such a long walk, but people come when I go because I have to take a car. There is a van that we can use, so every time I have to go somewhere I have to be driven, which everyone really enjoys.
I added some pictures so you guys can see what I mean by this view! The top left is my view from my room, one morning we were above the clouds. Top right is just a view off one of the balconies. Bottom left is the view of the city from the castle and bottom right is the view from my room on a normal day! pretty amazing!

I am living in a castle!

I have not posted anything in a long time, sorry about that. I left Bremen a couple of days ago and it was definitely sad to say good bye. I loved it there and we finally got used to everything and then had to leave. We left early thrusday morning and took to train to Munich. while we were in Munich (on our way to salzburg) we made a pit stop at Oktoberfest. I was picturing a big field with everyone beer hand and having a good time. It was definitely similar to the state fair. They had rides all over the place and crazy food. I got a brat, a chocolate covered apples, and candied cashews, they were all really good. So for the alochol, which everyone consumed in ridiculous amounts, was in massive beergardens all of the place. Everyone would go in there and by a beer that was only sold by the liter. It was great to go there and see what Oktoberfest was all about but the few hours that I was there was a perfect amount time.

We continued on Salzburg and met up with the rest of the group. We had kind of become a family in our small groups so it has been really interesting being back together. We only got to have one day in Salzburg, which is an amazing city. We left the next day for Schloss Mittersill, which is the castle I am now living in!!!!

This castle is incredible. The inside of the castle is redone, so it doesn't look like you would imagine a castle, but the view is breathtaking. We are literally in a mountain. We look out our windows and see mountains from every side and can see the entire city. Once we are in the castle it is fine, but the walk up it is really dangerous. I have to take a taxi or a car everytime I want to go down because it is too dangerous. It is really steep steps without railings, and quite the workout. I'm actually kind of lucky that I don't have to walk up and down all the time! My situation definitely limits me though because I can't go down to the city for an hour just to hang out because it is so hard for me to get down there. I go see an Austrian doctor early this week so hopefully he has encouraging words for me. I can walk without my crutches in my walking cast, but I know I am not supposed so I don't. I am hoping that soon I will be crutchless, but who knows. God is throwing me curve balls left and right on this trip, so I am not going to be surprised by anything. My foot makes everything more difficult, but I am making it work. I have times where I feel sorry for myself, but I force myself to move and think positively. I am growing from this experience and there is a reason all of this is happening. I was told by my leader that if he would have picked anyone to have gotten hurt he would have picked me because he knew I could handle it. I was really touched when he said that, so I can't let him down!

For the next couple of weeks I am here at the schloss and then we leave for London. Once we leave the Schloss we are on the road for 7 weeks so we have enjoy being in on spot for a little while!

I hope you are all doing great and I will try to write more often!

My Weekend!

Soo...I took a weekend trip to Sweden and Denmark, I never thought that would happen! It was a lot of travel time, but it was definitely worth it. We went to Malmo Sweden on Saturday and explored the city. We didn't really have a plan so we just wandered around and saw the sites. i had the best meal EVER! The hotel recommended this restuarant for traditional Swedish food and it was amazing! After dinner we went out on a pier and watched the sunset over the Baltic Sea-unreal. It was so peaceful and yet surreal because I never thought I would be doing something like that.

The next morning we went to Copenhagen (only a 30 min train ride from Malmo). Copnehagen is beautiful! The harbor is so cool to see, all the old boats, that are what you think about when you picture Copenhagen. I definitely want to go back to that city, it was gorgeous and I am sure there is a ton more to do than I got to.

My wheelchair was essential for this trip. We did so much walking on this trip that I would have been exhausted if I wouldn't have had and my group would have been upset for having to wait that long. All the guys took turns wheeling me around and it actually worked out really well. My wheelchair does not have shocks so cobblestone is interesting to say the least. My wheelchair is not the smoothest ride I have every had but it definitely helped.

I get my stitches out today, which is another step in the right direction! My walking cast helps a lot and I am hoping that I can start putting some weight on my foot soon. I will let you know if anything exciting happens! Have a great day!

Kay

P.S. Can someone tell Grandpa Arneson that I have found too things that he would love. Walnut ice cream (similar to maplenut) is amazing. I get it everyday at school, a little excessive but oh well and I have lingenberries in my cereal and they are really good too. He always asks us if we have lingenberries, so tell them that I have tried them and I really like them! Thanks!

Interesting things about Germany

So I have a list of random things unique to Europe, maybe Germany
1. Cars go whereever they want, if they can fit, they go. An example would be going down the bike size path next to the river.
2. Bikers are everywhere and will take you out. They show no mercy, even if you are in a wheelchair.
3. They don't have screens on their windows and their blinds are on the outside of their house.
4. Dogs don't wear a leash but some how follow along the bikes and don't get hit by trams or cars
5. Europe (at least Germany) does not support the $5 footlong at Subway. I tested out German subway the other day, definitely not the same as American subway.
6. Many people here think that deodorant is not an essential thing.
7. Most strollers have shocks on them so they babies don't go crazy rolling down the cobblestone
8. Water, without carbonation is really expensive. They all drink mineral water and it is much cheaper to just by pop and it some cases beer is cheaper than water. Also there are no free refills, which is really annoying.
9. You can return your plastic bottles to where you bought them and get money back so they can reuse the bottle.
10. people have beer all the time, in the middle of the day there will be people with beer on the trams

That is all I can think of off the top of my head, but I will add more later! Tomorrow morning I am off to Sweden for the day and Denmark on Sunday! Its going to be great, me and my wheelchair are going to become very close this weekend :) I hope everyone is doing well, have a great weekend!

Pictures

I couldn't figure out how to add pictures without doing another post entirely, so here they are. The top 2 are of my foot on tuesday (4 days after surgery), then my walking cast and wheel chais for long distances and my massive schnitzel.

Crutches aren't slowing me down!

So...since getting out of the hospital I have had a couple of slow days, but not I am back to "normal." My foot is defintely getting better, I have already been upgraded to a walking cast (with crutches of course) instead of a normal cast. I also am renting a wheelchair for the few weeks left in Bremen, needless to say I am not subtle when I enter a room. Yesterday I had my first German test after having one day of class. That could have gone better, but I did what I could! After class we went to Bruger park which is the largest park in Bremen to going rowing down the river. After the park we went to the Haufbrau haus, which is a famous brewery in Germany. It was schnitzel night, so naturally we all got schnitzel, which was a piece of meat the size of my face!
I am going to try and add pictures so you can all see what my foot looks like post surgery! I think my foot could be in the dictionary for the definition of a cankle, it looks ridiculous and really gross!
This weekend we are planning a trip to Copenhagen, so we are all very excited for that!

Kay

I'm out of the hospital!

I just got back from the hospital and could not be more thrilled to be "home." The surgery went fine, although German hospitals are not as efficient as American hospitals are. I was told to be there at 7 a.m on thursday, they did not prep me until 10 and then finally at 12:30 they took me down for surgery. After surgery, I was pretty out of it, but I do remember throwing up a few times from the medicine, that was lovely. I slept on and off the whole time and got to leave this morning around 11. I have to have a cast on for 3 weeks and then after 3 weeks I can start putting some weight on my foot, but not much. After 6 weeks I am home free. I am feeling a lot better about the situation now because I am actually imporving instead of at a stand still. One thing to note is that Americans complain about hospital food. German hospital food is absolutelt disgusting! I have had nothing but bread for the past 2 days because everything else is disgusting, or they just give you gread and this weird yogurt type stuff. I tried most things, but the boiled spinach and fish did not even get a chance! Other than that the hospital was a "good" experience, it was just sometimes a challenge to find nurses that spoke English. It was funny to watch a nurse come in, me say that I only speak English and then have them turn around and bring someone else back in. I can safely say that I never want to be in a German hospital again, but I have done it so I can put it down as an experience! Thanks for all your support and I will keep you all updated!

I got a ticket in Germany!

I forgot to tell this story in my last post. Everyday while I am in Bremen I will be taking public transportation so I bought a month long student pass to ride the tram. I am on the way to the doctor with my professor and we are making a stop first to get me this ticket. We are on the tram and I told him that I didn't have a ticket and he said that is was fine because I had the sheet filled out with me saying I was on my way to buy tickets for the month. I think we are all good then at the next stop 3 guys get on dressed normally and wip out their badges. One of the them is staring at me, saying things in German, and showing me a badge that means nothing to me. Apparently this is theire job, they come and check tickets. I had a pretty solid deer in the head lights look and thats when Tom took over. He did his thing, but it wasn't good enough. I was fined 40 euros (around $550. The good news is that I have to pay within 30 days and I am only here for 23 so Tom said I am not paying it. They only took my first name, so they won't be able to find me! I thought that was a pretty entertaining experience!

Hanging in there

So I was supposed to have surgery on monday and then it was supposed to be today. Turns out it is going to be on Thursday, for sure. I am getting really sick of my crutches and how hard everything has become. Today my professor and I went back and forth from the hospital and doctor and we got things figured out, but they said I will be in a full blown cast with crutches for up to 6 WEEKS! Not ok. I'm missing a lot of class because of this and out on a lot of the events, because even though I can walk with my crutches I am still holding everyone up and can't carry my own wait. This whol situation is really hard and I am still trying to figure out why this had happen now, in the very beginning of this amazing trip. Tomorrow I will go to one day of class, 5 hours of German. We are in Bremen at the Geothe Institue (gurta), and we have class everyday for 5 hours. We are also doing our "homestays" right now and that consists of me and my friend Stephanie having our own apartment. The land lord gives out his open to rooms to kids in the program, so we have our own apartment. It is the most awkard apartment I have ever seen, there is no living room, they have a small kitchen and bathroom and then one long hallway with bedrooms and other rooms that are storage right now. The apartment itself is really weird and not what we were expecting at all from homestays, but it works. Other than that, I really have not accomplished much since I last posted something. Yesterday was a long day of traveling and I learned how difficult it is to move on crutches on a moving train (I don't need to experience that one again). I will update you all after surgery and I am sure some of you will be talking with my and will know what is going on.
Love, Kay

Plus side of all of this, my arms are going to be buff by the time I come home because German crutches are different (similar to walking canes), so it is all upper body:) I'm always trying to see the bright side