102nd post

Wow, i have a 101 posts already. dang thats alot

except i have been really bad about updating lately. my life seems to be racing forward at full speed and sometimes its hard to take a second to look around and smell the roses (or blog for that matter)

i just walked into the college of business building, and so many memories filled my head. its weird to be almost done with school. i mean even if i do get my masters here (i mean its really likely) i still have only a year-ish of schooling... and man this time has flown by. i can remember my first weeks of freshmen year, my sleepless sophomore year, my reverse culture shock junior year, and my crazy super senior year...

anyways. college is great. i love it. i dont know if i am quite ready to be done. almost though... almost. i am ready to continue my learning and to have an expertise in something. i cant wait for that.

i should practice more often with my german. i feel like it was so long ago, but it really wasnt. man this summer flew by... i know i want to use my german later in life, but its so hard to keep it up...

is it weird to only me that stores had their christmas stuff up before the afterhalloween sales even started... wow. i couldnt believe it and then i came home and my roommate had already put up christmas stuff. it was nov 3. i was like DANG girl. anyways, i am excited to spend time with the family again during the holidays. man this semester flew by...

6 more senior year weeks left.

october? already?

Hey faithful blog readers.

i have been super slacking. I dont know what has gotten into me lately, but I forget about this thing so quick. anyways not going to write too much, but i bought a car! whoop! homecoming was a blast!!
dave and i for HOMECOMING!!! :) haha



chels and i, she made it far!! top five! (notice our wing eating contest... we totally ripped them off and just faked it to get the wings.... which makes me kinda hungry for them now... )

people asked us if we would run for mayor... i didnt really object... hahah
I love my job! and had a WONDERFUL birthday WEEK.... roomies... out for a well needed break!

family... at matt's soccer game at BG!


and then molly and kerry's wedding!! i dont have a ton of pictures but of course a roomie picture... group shot!


not too much else, but i am leaving to head to Pass CHristisn Mississippi for my fifth time! I love the guld coast and can not wait to see the progress it has made! ITs going to be a blast. Please pray for me and my group down there for patience and dilliegence to work and stay focused!!

thats all! Thanks for everything revolving around my birthday... i will update when i return from MS!!

Things left to do in october

• fall break -> mississippi!!!
• group projects until i keel over
• midterms
• three year anniversary with ed!! AH!
  
• CEDAR POINT with ed (and maybe jackie?)!
  
• HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL three IN THEATERS.
• prepare for GMAT
• figure out my "mission statement"
• finish the three books i am currently in the middle of
• WORK OUT! and ride my bike (its so lonely now with my car..)
• HALLOWEEN. trickortreaters.
  
• random road trips? TBD...
  
• FALL LEAVEs changing colors.
  
• stop using lists so much.

updateee

So a fully update is in order. and instead of studying for my huge exam tommororw i decided to blog. i just have alot i need to write about and what better time, i mean i just need to finish studying... i already started. i need a bit of a break.

updates on allison :

tomorrow is my first day at First Solar - its a company out in Perrysburg, and I am going to be the new Manufacturing Information Systems Training Anaylsis Intern (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!) I will let you know some more after i start, but what I think it means now is that I am helping the IS people learn new software when we get them and prepare training for the rest of the company. so we will see! i am excited! and this company's main custumers are located in.... GERMANY!!! whoop! so i mean it was great to have experience with germany, even though as an intern I probably wont be going there, but the company is growing at WARP speed. which is awesome.

check out first solar and some recent news on them here.


so with a new job... i need a CAR! so i am still searching... but i think i have found one. so crossed fingers and pray for me. i dont want to say much about it because if it doesnt work out then yah... haha but soon i will have wheels . until then my awesome friend is letting me use her car.

just got back from FALL GETAWAY it was my last retreat with campus crusade. it was really fun and relaxing, i loved meeting the new people. and i was sick, but i am always sick for it every year... haha but it was great. we had a lot of fun with the skits and at the bon fire! :)

classes are going good. just alot of group work getting under way right now... which i should probably start doing instead of still blogging...


i had a great time with my guest parents a few weekends ago! they took me to "paradise island", on lake erie and it was great to meet and hang out with a bunch of fun people. i loved listening to their stories about life. i have pictures so maybe i can post them later.


Ohhh yah one last thing, homecoming is next week. i LOVE IT. and i got nominated for HOMECOMING QUEEN! yay! So vote for me!!!! haha its going to be a great time (my face just needs to clear up.... so i dont look like a fourteenyearold again...)

ohhh yah and my birthday is coming up too! so I would love you all to write me and mail me tons of packages and love..... NINE DAYS until i am 22.. I CANT BELIEVE IT! WHOOP!
my address is 2731 merrmiac rd toledo oh 43606 (NO STALKERS WANTED!)

ciao guys

wednesdays..

so it seems like wednesdays at this exact time is a good time for me to blog. its just a time where i am at my house just chilling and gathering my thoughts for the rest of the day.

lots of stuff is going on but really great things.

i met my new mentor today and that was great. i cant wait to see how god uses her in my life to stretch me and how i continue to grow. i think we are going to read a book called "a cure for the common life" i am excited.

work is going good. some drama but you will have that. its nice to be back in a place where i know whats going on. thankfully its not crazy busy yet, but i know it will be.

classes are ok. i will go through them... i mean i kinda have a gist after three weeks whats it going to look like

international finance : the teacher has so much experience, but he goes on and on about his trips that we never learn anything. plus i did a bunch of like currency conversion this summer so its not too bad. i have a perfect grade so far.

international marketing: not sure where this professor is from but his accent is bad. plus he is super boring. and he uses an overhead (which like are ancient) but again, i learned alot of this over the summer. guess what group project number 1. we are looking into singapore...

neogotations: i have this class with ed, its fun and interactive, but the professor loves to talk and talk and talk. i mean its interesting but yeah. group project number 2.

organizational leadership: i have this class once a week and the professor is amazing. outstanding. i changed my whole schedule around just for him. he is great and has so much real life stories that makes our almost 3 hour class fly by. group project number 3.

ethics: this class is silly. i mean we have great talks, and so far its just been presentations. soon we will be like role playing and everything. this class is also only once a week. (i like these) but the professor is great, sometimes he talks way over my head but yeah he is good.

senior business policy: our "capstone" class. where we put everything we learned in the past few years into one. i like the teacher, but sometimes i feel like, wait didnt i just talk about this in ALL MY OTHER CLASSES... hahah oh well... group project number 4. (huge group project by the way)

anyways, i still get mixed up and go to the wrong class rooms on the wrong days (am i really a senior? haha) but its good. my professors are really great except for like one or two which i can totally handle.

this weekend i am going to kick back and relax and get everything under control. i am excited.
next week i am having my guest parents over for dinner.
akpsi's girls bible study is starting up too this weekend, i am excited because we have alot of new girls! :)


i love fall. already. i cant wait. plus today was so beauitful. i mean i was mainly inside but its ok. i think i might go lay on a blanket a read for a minute before class... sounds good.

here are some pictures of my house... the one of the hangout room is sideways, but i just did the curtains the other day.. they look super cute! :)
until next wednesday...

back in the USA.

So weird again to jump back into the swing of life.

i really want to take a nap, i am tired and not feeling well, but what do i do instead? update my blog. lately when i ride my bike (IN TOLEDO, can you believe it!) i think of things to blog, but its not cool to stop your bike and write them down, so i just keep riding.

today this lady ran the red light and almost got hit, but decided she was going to honk the car at the other person. everyday i see crazy things happen on the road, esp not driving, its so weird to see people drive and how much they arnt paying attention. I really think phones should be outlawed. i mean i used to talk on my cell while i drove, and then i would end up at my location having no recollection of how i got there, and thats not good. BUT the people here in toledo, and probably in akron are getting better with bikers on the road because it seems to be the new trend. i dont lock my bike, and i probably should, but i am just praying that no one wants my rusty thing.


its so hot here, and i am so thankful i have AC for the week that it gets so hott in ohio. really, i am a northern girl. i cant take the heat, BUT i love the south... speaking of which we are going for fall break back to MIssissippi and i am super excited.

i take the GMAT on friday, and thats the last part of my grad school application... fingers crossed for free schoool.....

ok this was a ramble post. BUT i love my classes, and i will update about those later. i think its time for the nap i promised myself. goodnight.

PS i will post pictures of my house too. later. i promise, grandma.

just a few pictures from this weekend. my guest father has a bunch i want to put up as well, i think he made a CD for me. so later i will post them.


thursday i had a press conference, with the mayor of delmenhorst about my time here with my internship. this was all in GERMAN! ah! haha no, but then it was printed, in not one, BUT FOUR newspapers! i have the articles, maybe i can link it up here, but unless you know german... anyways... heres the picture from the news paper.

friday-- JOWO had a party for me. here are some pictures. we all took a group photo after they toasted with champagne to me! it was great, they are like one big family. and i was so blessed to be apart of it! they gave me a few gifts and it was over. so fast my time with them! \

here is me and one of the bosses... herr spahr. this is a confidential picture. HAH! NOT! here is christoph and mich. i mean me. we are the dream team.

he was sad to see me leave.


then julia came to visit me, and we had a great time together. we went to a bug festival. and of course. ICECREAM. more pictures from here later. we took a drink that looks like the german flag.. it was awesome.

and then yesterday, my guest parents and i went to helgoland. it was beautiful and here are some pictures... i got to dip my feet in the water (it wasnt hot enough to swim) but yah, gorgeous. we had to come from the big ship to the island on these little boats. to me it felt like the titanic when everyone was sinking. here are my guest parents.. we got separated, except i couldnt go too far (on the island. duh!) haha



anyways, i bet my next post will be from america. i am looking forward to seeing you all back home



ciao.

love note

everyone loves to be loved.

and its so cool to know that you are loved.

the other day, i totally forgot to write about this, but i received a love note from the greatest.

I love it when i see skies like this. its like they were made just for me...

thank you god.

so. even though i thought this weekend was going to be pretty lazy, we did a bunch of stuff. and it was really awesome. (below is the picture of mac and cheese from a few posts ago... haha)



on friday we had a birthday party for one of the ladies at work. so here is a few pictures of me and the girls and then our Christoph. Thats Veronika, me and Olivia. (or Frau Kaaz, Allison and Frau Mende) its so weird because everyone is called by "Frau, or Herr" like Mr. or Mrs. and my name is just Allison. i danno its silly.

but then afterwards i came back to my house and we watch the Olympic opening ceremony. it was insane as you couldnt tell what was from the computer and what the people were actually doing, dancing or whatever. if you didnt see it, you have to check it out online in a few weeks, i guess they arent allowed to leak it out yet... but yah so i am pretty pumped about the olympic stuff, except i feel bad because the air there is like awful.

at night i finally got to talk to my friend sarah, about my other friend Maggie's wedding, that i was so bummed i missed last weekend.. but yah it was good to catch up with her..

the yesterday we went to Bremen, near where we saw the moby dick play, and there was a festival going on there so yah, it was neat. and we had great ice cream. then a really nice dinner on the water. i am getting wayy to spoiled here... i ate duck. it was awesome! \\\saturday night i went with some friends so a corn labyrinth. it was nuts. and really scary. haha you had to go around and find these points on the maps and get stamps and then at the end if you found them all you could win a prize. i am so scared of stuff like that, i got spooked like 3 times. hahah but it was fun.

Then today after brunch we went to Bremerhaven, which is like an hour away and we went to a museum all about the immigration from this port and other ports around europe. it was really cool. it was a themed museum, you got a card of an actually person and you could follow their life. you got to see what the cabin rooms look like in the one type of ship and then as the years went on the better ships. t and then there was room that was like a mock ellis island, and you had to answer questions, and if you took too long or made the wrong response you could be denied. thankfully, i was let back in... haha then there was a room of where people went after ellis island, so many people went to ohio! the next room was about how immigration is today and different statistics concerning different countries. also in this room there were data bases that you could search for your actual ancestors. i actually found Anna Dagilis. It was really cool, to find my great grandma (i think!) and to see that she left from Hamburg, 1905 and i have been to Hamburg. so yah , it was cool to make the connection.


after this museum we went to a small zoo. i laughed, because they had raccoons in their zoo. thats funny, because i hate them, and they are everywhere on campus. haha they also had really cool seals, they are always fun to watch. then we went to the ship yard, and it was neat to see how massive the cranes and everything are for these ships. plus i am a nerd, and i found a company that actually purchases from my company, JOWO and i got really excited. haha

then we went to another really cool restaurant inside was like a ship and had great fish. yum.




this weekend has made me really want to take a cruise or something... next monday we are going to Helgoland, which is like a small island so that will be fun. i hope the weather is good, but I heard its really windy there... but yah.




time for some lists.

things i am so excited about
1- this fall and being a senior
2- kelly going to toledo
3- akpsi and my bible study girls
4- my new house...
5- seeing ed
6- seeing my friends and laughing and catching up with them
7- swimming
8- food (another list to follow)
9- the dollar.
10- english
11- being able to watch dvds. my dvd reader is messed up on my laptop and i cant figure out how to fix it without paying for it again...


foods i am so excited about eating
1- mexican- like marachi's with nachos, like tortilla and not dorito chips.
2- chipotle
3- tacobell
4- panera
5- swensons.
6- BW3 or somewhere with boneless chicken wings
7- rocknes and a huge hamburger.
8- applebees, the appetizers.

things i will miss in germany
1- riding my bike everywhere, oh wait, i will still do that. ok , so maybe i wont miss riding my bike, but i will miss people who actually know how to drive with bikes on the road... unlike in ameica.
2- my guest mothers amazing cooking. seriously, i need all her recipes before i leave, so i can cook some of this at my new house
3- becks beer being cheaper than pop.
4- cafes and local restaurants that recognize you.
5- seeing my longhorns on the way to work, or the guy that walks his horse every morning, (i dont know if i have talked about that... but yah. he is intense)
6- the trains, and how you can be just about anywhere with them and most of the time they are awesome. and when they arent DB will hook you up
7- the german noises, they make with everything when they are telling a story.. i make them now not even knowing that i do it. haha
8- day trips
9-penny's cheap market
10- breakfast of bread and spreads. oh yum.
11- being paid to recycle every bottle. haha



things i am not looking forward to in the us.
1- school. like the work, i mean i am a nerd but yah
2- i might have to find another job, which sucks because it does.
3- being really busy. blah. its been so peaceful this summer without cramming so much in
4- the heat.
5- forgetting all the german i tried to learn this summer.
6- gas being so expensive. thank gosh for my bike



things i will not miss in germany
1- the dogs that live a few houses away that bark all the time. UHHH
2- not knowing everything thats going on.
3- the dogs everywhere, like tonite we were in a really nice restaurant and they brought their dog, honestly, why cant you leave it at home for an hour while you eat. like i want to be eating with your dog there. THEN the waiter brought the dog this HUGE dog bowl. i was like i dont understand this. but dogs are everywhere.
4- the famous german "push", they dont say excuse me or anything they just push, and today i got really annoyed when this one guy kept pushing me. and like i will be looking at something in the store and someone will walk right infront of me, and in america you could say, sorry, excuse me. here, they dont even see you.
5- hole punching and stapling at my job.
6- smokers. everywhere. blah.

ok well i will probably think of a bunch more but all in all, i am sad to leave because i have learned so much this summer but i am getting really excited to leave. i feel like i am like ok, my time here is almost up... ok LETS GO! :) ten/nine days! :) whoop.


more. later. i have already wrote a lot. bye...

Never Let Go, Matt Redman

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth



this song has been getting me through the rough days.

thankfully my heavenly father is so close and keeps me warm, and never lets go.

already august?

WOW.

is it seriously already august. i dont know where the summer went. seriously.

one part of me is really sad to leave germany and the other part cannot wait to go back home, school, friends etc.


um, last weekend was a good relaxing time, my old flatmate kathrin came to delmenhorst and we had a great time talking and catching up. plus we played Othello like a thousand times. it was wonderful. and we ate MAC AND CHEESE. kraft. hah, my friend sent me some so we were really pumped to eat it. i have a picture somewhere.

then on saturday night i went to an open air theater with my guest parents and their friends, it was really neat. we saw MOBY DICK and it was all out side, and so weird, the weather was like perfect, because it was kinda a dark story and the wind and clouds and everything gave it such an eerie feel, it gave me goosebumps.

sunday just relaxed and took a practice gmat test, scored right in the middle, which is good and then i will study the areas that i missed and take another one in two weeks or so. they are draining.

so i love to read, of course, i always have. but i found someone who can out read me, like seriously, my guest mother flies through books like i havent ever seen before. but today was great i had my diet coke, feet up and a good book sitting in the sun, not too hot but just right. then it felt like summer..



oh yeah, one reason for my post, i was reading my email and this headline came up "The case against the crocs." and i really think they look so silly and stupid, and we were just in amsterdam where they had to have started (you know those dutch wooden shoes) but this article is so funny, i was like laughing out loud

crazy croc story

"Today I'll leave the house wearing these neon-green Dutch bubble shoes with Swiss-cheese holes in them. Maybe I'll even buy some little plastic strawberries or bananas and jam them in the sweat holes, just to jazz things up and make the bacteria incubate faster."


HAHA.

ok maybe pictures later.

plus lists. i need lists. i need to write some lists then post them.

I am not sure how many of you knew him, but Tony Snow, who was the President's secretary of press,but he died two weeks ago.. any ways, He was mentioned in one of the devotionals i get in my email inbox, about how he wrote this great article after finding out he had colon cancer last year. it was really good and here is an excerpt that really hit home to me...

"His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity—filled with life and love we cannot comprehend—and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge

our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?"

the answers to those questions, for me change every day. but i am working on consistency. but it takes a life time .

in other news. amsterdam was beautiful. really it was gorgeous. i loved it there.

here are a few pictures of it.

there were more bikes than cars. seriously. it was nuts. they had parking garages just for bikes, sometimes i think i will get run over by one. they are furious. haha

here is the museum of bags and purses. i thought my mom might like this. we didnt go in, but laughed. really? only in amsterdam.

so i dont know if you know this, but amsterdam is basically like Veince with a bunch of canal water ways and everything. its awesome and so beautiful. we took a canal boat ride to see the city.

house boats everywhere..
oh yeah? vodka museum? hahaha


more river side fun. we had a perfect day.

i thought this sign was funny. dutch is a funny language as well. i kept forgetting i dont speak any dutch. haha

this is what i want for my birthday. hahah... how awesome is it?



we also went to the hardrockcafe and i SLAMMED on a huge basic wonderful cheeseburger. yum.

thats all. this week i have a few visitors from my friends in Luneburg and i acctually only have 14 days left of work. weird.

probably in my next post i will talk about things i am sad to leave here but things i am looking forward to when i return. whoop! ciao

this week.

so this week i have been in a funk, tired and restless. happy and sad. excited and dreading the end of summer. its been so weird and full of emotions.



i am getting the hang of everything at my job. its so routine work. every day the same thing. i write this sentence about 16 times a day

"vielen Dank fur Ihren Auftrag, wir bestatigen wie folgt:"

that means, thanks for your order, we confirm as follows....

the other night I had a dream about one of our suppliers. Herr Mau. it was weird, because in my dream i faxed him the wrong AB (which is like an order confirmation), I faxed him Frau Huhn's AB. and it was a mess. funny thing is, i hate the fax machine. (wow, did i just say that aloud. or atleast type it?) but really, its so confusing to fax and it always comes back to me. I think its because i have no idea which numbers you actually need because one fax number is like 13 digits long and another is 6. i get so confused. i am intelligent, but dang this is stupid.

finished about another book, called "Crimes Agaist Nature- what Bush and his friends are doing or not doing about the environment"- by one of the Kennedy boys. it was good and eye opening.
Now i am reading Post-American World- its really good so far, all about globalization, modernization and where china and india and europe and the us fit in.

yesterday, Obama was in Berlin and gave a speech to over 200,000 people. 1- its weird to me, because he isnt president yet. 2- i was there, in berlin and knew exactly where he was, 3- JFK did the same thing, on like near the same day, look at the fate of JFK, 4- and it was the same day at the berlin airlift started, i think in 1948 or so. anyways, i think it was good speech, i listened to it in english.


ok, um. we are going to amsterdam tommororw. whoop! but it will be so early to get there but fun.

more later. with probably pictures too! :)

PHOTO blog..

So here is the long awaited photo blog, thankfully and finally it allowed me to upload. there is a bunch mixed in and instead of organizing everything i will just type about each one..






here are my three new favorite friends. obviously you have already seen pictures of them, and you will continue to see them. this is us waiting at a bus stop (not anything new..) to go out to dinner one last time together..
here is the new airplane by Lufthansa... we got to see a lot when we visited...

here is a picture of frankfurt. looks like an old new york city or something... we did lots of shopping here...

here is me on the river cruise we went on. we saw so many castles and got sunburnt. it was awesome. i think that my prince charming lives in that one right there... haha

we look like ants compared to this huge plane. it had two floors! this is my class...
ohh my first class, world class friends. we totally had a photo shoot here. everyone thought we were crazy, but its all the rage with online photos...
this is my favorite one. we are DYING laughing. not faking but loving every minute of it. haha man it was always so funny
oh here is me and miss grace CHOWING down on our last meal. we decided to share the plate. I cant find the picture where that is completely empty and we ate EVERYTHING... hahaha
here is a picture of some of us on our last day, you can see our school in the back ground. it used to be a monastery and then a wineyard. its old and cool.
now a little bit backwards. yesterday my guest parents took me to a "moor". it was neat. i got creative with my camera.
here are my guest parents, we are in a baby train around the Moor.
oh back to my class again, this is our first day and we are with the wine queen of the region. wine is a big deal in that area and yeah, so it was a big deal for us to know her. haha (she is the one with the long skirt and the crown..)
ohh yeah our first day grocery shopping.... you have to bring your own bags here... haha
here lay the girls relaxing... what we do best. seriously we were dead. thats in munich..
oh hey, here is me. a picture from a wedding i went to this weekend.
here is the cousin of my guest father. it was cool to see how the germans do weddings! :)
oh i found grandma rosie and aunt do do in bremen. HAHHAHAH
my favorite drink of this summer. Beck's is brewed about 20 minutes from where i live here. Its so good.
my guest mother in her new convertible. we are going for a ride through the country!
open air shot...
here is my two bosses on friday, we had a celebration because a lady who helped the one on the left found the company was retiring and had a birthday.
yay. co-workers in the conference room.
oh hey Christoph. He is in charge of me basically. haha no he just tells me what to do. he is a goof ball. haha
OH, bummer this is side ways. this weekend i went to see a movie (Hancock) and after about a half an hour of previews (no lie) they have a commercial for icecream. then they come around and sell it. the germans that i went with said, why doesnt america have this? and i said i have no idea. In germany, of course you can drink beer in the theater and you can have icecream. um awesome.




anyways, if you made it that far awesome....

i have about five weeks until school starts. crazy i know. lots coming up this fall. but i am not quite ready to go yet. maybe in a week or two i will get anxious, but yeah.

i got an A+ in both my summer courses (whoop! for a higher gpa!) and i am still struggling to get into the LAST class i need of my undergraduate career... its all full... hopefully something opens up.

i am scheduled to take my GMAT test on Sept 5th at 8 am. whoop. I am done learning about the gmat with the book i bought so i will be just doing practice tests and such until then...

i am still running and today was finally nice enough to ride my bike to work. whoop. as soon as this post i will head outside...

i have a really weird cough. it sounds like i am a smoker. but i am not.

AND my guest mother (who is like a fairy god mother. really, she is unbelievable), got me more medicine for my jaw... and a mediation cd to listen to , to relax before bed, because my jaw hasnt gotten any better... BOO. plus i can see where i am grinding in my BRAND NEW mouth piece (which i cant believe because its so thick).




ok thats enough for now. ciao


PS if you are planning on sending me mail, you better do it soon! :) haha only joking. not really. but yah.