Quick update before heading home

I flew into Paris yesterday from Munich and made it alright to my hotel. This morning I woke up at 6:45 and left by 8, only to get to the airport to discover that my flight had been canceled, because of technical difficulties, or so I heard. I was very NOT happy. But that's my life. I found a small group of other passengers on the same flight who were with an airport rep who had US Airways on the phone, and one by one we talked with them to reschedule our flight for tomorrow. I feel kinda bad because an older french woman on the flight asked me to talk to US Airways for her, which I was fine with, but the person told me to tell them that they had to wait till sunday to fly to Charlotte. I don't know why the rep didn't just say to take the flight for tomorrow. The others (a couple women, and a father and daughter) waited at the airline desk and they gave us all a voucher for a 4-star hotel (usually like 300 euros a night) and lunch and dinner for today, and breakfast for tomorrow. And we had a personal shuttle to the hotel, although we had to wait over 30 minutes for it and it's less than a 5 minute drive away. We each got our own room and I'm pretty impressed. We all had lunch and dinner together, and earlier in the day I went for a swim and had a bath after dinner. Tomorrow we're meeting at 8 am to take the shuttle back, because they said to be there between 8 and 9. So it hasn't been too bad. I just really, really don't look forward to tomorrow.

Mehr Deutschland und Rock im Park

Last weekend was RIP. What a great weekend it was. I woke up at 1:30 am on thursday and we were on our way to Nürnberg by 4 or so, after stopping in Munich to pick up some people in our group. It rained the entire day. And when we arrived we had to park a little ways away, then we stood in line to get in for about 2 hours I'd say. It took us a while to find the others in our group who arrived before us saving our camping spot, but we finally found them. Then we had to get the rest of the stuff and set up. The rest of the day was spent trying not to soak and keep warm. I was so scared it was going to be like that for the whole weekend.
That evening when the rain finally stopped, we went and saw Rage Against the Machine. The next day we saw Bullet for My Valentine, In Extremo, Rise Against, and Rammstein. Rammstein was absolutely monumental. Best concert I've ever seen. I feel like I could have paid the 150 euros I paid for my RIP ticket, just to see them. It was that good. I think during either BFMV or Rise Against, there was a few guys who got on the stage and ran across it, and you could see it on the big screens... them and a security guard or 2 chasing after them. It was hilarious. I actually saw/heard many, many interesting things at RIP. The first night I was woken up by someone very loudly and very drunkenly singing a German partying song with a ghetto blaster. I saw one guy running around in nothing but a thong made of tape. And another guy in a green Bruno-bikini. I was asked several times if there exists a festival like RIP in the states. There's none that I know of, but I do know that a festival like RIP in the states would absolutely not fly. EVERYONE drinking publicly and many people running around nearly naked could only be done in Europe. And it's not like there were no cops. Cops were all over the place. On saturday we saw Cypress Hill, Jay-Z, and KISS. We pretty much slept in the grass between acts. When Jay-Z came on, it was totally without any warning and it scared the living crap out of me. I really didn't care about the first 2 acts that much, but KISS was cool to see, although their music is a little too old for my taste, but they're classic so I had to see them. Plus I had to get some pics and videos for mom, who was a fan of theirs when she was my age. The next day we saw As I Lay Dying, Gossip, 30 Seconds to Mars, Volbeat, and some of Muse, although not as much as I would have liked. They were the last band to play on the center stage and we wanted a little bit earlier to beat the people and the traffic. But I'm so glad we didn't stay another night, which was possible. Since the first day, the weather was wonderfully hot, but that last night, all this wind and cold and light rain came from no where. It wasn't too pleasant leaving as the garbage of 60,000 people was blowing all over the place. There was a ridiculous amount of garbage. It made me really sad. But I know that they probably have a lot of people who come in after RIP to clean. Somehow a toilet seat made its way near our tent as well. When we were at any concerts, we mostly just sat at our sight relaxing and drinking beer. The Germans don't mess around with their beer. I saw people bringing cases upon cases of beer. One of the days, we went to the waterpark nearby. I wasnt sure if I was going to swim because they told me it was a swimming hole or something, and I thought gross... I dont want to go swimming in a big puddle of dirty water. But it actually was a nice park with 3 pools. We swam a little then soaked up some sun. We left a little earlier than I wanted to, but it was alright. I'm just so glad we went, because I never showered when I was there. It was 2.50 euros and there was always a line. And I was gonna get super dirty anyway. On sunday, Andy and I got back to his house at about 2 am or so. I wanted to shower but was just way too tired. The next day went to Andy's girlfriend's house and the his friend's house to hang out. Then I got my stuff together and we went to Munich. I checked into my hostel, and I was pretty bummed because according to the website I booked on, I was supposed to have a single person room for 25 euros a night, but I'm in a 6 person room. I guess there was a problem with the website, is what they told me. But at least I get free breakfast every morning. And I got a free welcome shot too. Today I woke up early enough to just eat breakfast, then I fell back asleep and took some time getting ready. I went to my friend's house who I haven't seen in 4 years, and she had no idea I was coming, nor that I was in Germany, so she was quite surprised. Unfortunately we couldn't go out for a drink or something because she was working on a big presentation. Then I went back to the area of my hostel and looked around in the shops. I saw a dirndl store and wanted to buy one sooo bad. Then I found a grocery store to get some snacks, since I didn't want to buy dinner. Tomorrow Andy's girlfriend is supposed to come to Munich to show me around since she went to school here and has some free time. I'm looking forward to that.

more pics here