RiPod

Guten Tag!

That means hello in German.. I think.

My friends and I went to Dresden, Germany this weekend. Amazing! The town was beautiful, the people were nice, and the weather was great!

The day started out like any other... With me waking up to a phone call from the damn Czech dentist office (American Dental.. Ironic)... Totally normal. The receptionist was still confused by my insurance because she's..... How do you say in English? An idiot. She's just dumb. I accidentally flashed my health insurance card because I don't have a copy of our dental insurance card and she cannot forget about the insurance card. She was yapping about how my family (aka my mother) kept emailing her the wrong information and blah blah blah. I honestly didn't care at all. I only cared about how it was early in the morning and she was complaining to me about my mom. Back off.

I drifted back off to sleep when the phone rang again. I had set my alarm to go off 30 minutes before we had to leave for the train station and when I looked at the phone, I thought it was the dentist office again so I hit ignore. I drift off again. This time someone is rap tap tapping on my chamber door and I'm rul pissed!

It's my friends Chad and Jon asking me why the hell I'm not down in the lobby with everyone else. Yep, it was 9:35 am. I was supposed to be downstairs at 9:30 am. I'm so confused as to why my alarm clock didn't go off but I refuse to blame myself. It's the SOB dentist office's fault. WHY did they have to call me so early and mess everything up. It honestly doesn't make any sense why it's their fault or why my alarm didn't go off but it's how my life works. What makes things more ironic is the fact that my friend Ann told me to not be late and I joked by saying, "Yeah, because I never have to wait on you guys." Dick move on my part. Sorry, Ann.

We got to the train station on time and boarded the train. We were running up and down this Polar Express trying to find a cabin with no success. However, we did find a crying toddler in a cabin alone. We all stood there in awe. "What do we do? Do we take it? Do we wait for the 'parents' of this child to return and then rip them a new one? Do we babysit?" We didn't know. How you leave a child not old enough to stand up on its own alone is beyond me. Sadly, we had to find our seats.

The 7 of us had to split up. 4 and 3. I was in the group of 4 who joined a quiet young woman who was reading a book. I would have been so scared of the crazy, loud, annoying Americans who invaded my cabin and I think she was too. Didn't say a word and left the cabin before we got to Dresden.

When I was trying to sleep on the train, I had my feet up on the chair and my iPod headphones in. I heard some commotion so I opened my eyes. Two police officers were in the doorway. My favorite. They started speaking to me in German. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" Whenever someone starts speaking to me in a foreign language, I freeze. It don't understand why. I know that "sprechen sie deutsch?" means "do you speak German?" but I just stared at him. He turns to my friend Chris and asks him the same thing. There are a few words exchanged and then the policeman says, "Tell your friend to keep his feet off the seats." Can I mention that the seat looked like someone had gotten diarrhea on it and then rubbed it into the fabric? Cuz that's what it looked like. SORRY, oh German police officer, for resting my foot. I get it though. I should have been more respectful. Maybe next time. I think it's a rule that I must be interrogated by a police officer in every country. At least this time it didn't cost me any money. I was only tased.

We got to our hostel and it was so cool! It had a cool theme to it. I don't know what the theme was exactly but it was cool. Really fun though. It was a theme you would have when you checked into a hotel while on vacation.

That night we decided to go out on the town. I was listening to my iPod while everyone else played cards and when we were ready to leave, I put my iPod in the breast pocket of my coat. Bad idea? Yes.

I don't know when it happened exactly, but someone stole my iPod. I don't think it fell out because it had a grip cover and the pocket is relatively deep and nothing else in my pockets had fallen out (euros and chap stick). I was so upset. Anyone who has ever lost something knows the feeling. My parents bought that for me as a gift. The hard earned money they used to buy me this iPod was gone to waste and it was my fault. You live and you learn. Sorry mom and dad.

But really... I am up to a $40 ticket, a $250 tooth and an iPod Touch. If I'm not cursed, I sure am a dumbass. Now, whenever I go anywhere, I wear a mouth guard and I wear a safe as a backpack. I thought about brass knuckles but I didn't want to overdo it.

Aside from the iPod situation, Dresden was amazing. The sun came out, we took a ton of beautiful pictures, ate authentic German food and had a fantastic time. Go.To.Dresden.

iPod, if you're reading this, I miss you and I want you to come home!

Love,

Sam