ready to go, sad to leave.

all packed up. room is clean, objects not belonging to me have been returned.

my bedding is gone. not happy about this.

leaving at 7:30 for the stuttgart airport. i'll be back in detroit at 9:40 pm eastern time.

germany was amazing. i'll reflect more in the coming days when i'm up at all hours due to jetlag.

let it snow!

it's been snowing in reutlingen for over 24 hours. it's beautiful! but it reminds me of home, and how i really wish i had my boots... even though we're only here for five more days... five more days that it's supposed to be snowing!

p.s. family: i think we should see "the curious case of benjamin button" on christmas (BRAD PITT). i've only seen the trailer in french, but it looks great. watch it here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/thecuriouscaseofbenjaminbutton/

i also really want to see "australia", but i might just go alone. that's the movie i entered the contest for.

after that, we should have a family game night.

the results are in...

...and paris is still the winner. however, my current top ten is now as follows (with photos for added cities).

10. nice

9. athens

8. london 

7. prague

6. venice

5. amsterdam

4. barcelona

3. berlin

2. rome

1. paris

the first photo is from london's regents street at night, all lit up for christmas. the second is taking from the second level of park güell, a crazy park designed by the surrealist architect (i have a thing for those guys) guadi. that blue stuff in the background... that's the OCEAN. our hostel, while being AWFUL, was right on the beach.

i could probably write an entire blog just about our hostel in barcelona. it was the second worst hostel of our semester (after the mice, bedbugs, and affectionate couple sleeping above me in amsterdam). in barcelona, at the sea pointe hostel, you must rent blankets. also, the rooms are 7 bed mixed dorms. there were three of us girls (mackenzie, emily, and i), and the rest of the people in our room were guys.... no, men. one of them was around 45 and i'm pretty sure he lived there. he had a garment bag and put on dress pants and a button down shirt in the morning... and he had dreadlocks halfway down his back. also, my bed was not in the room. nay, it was above the bathroom. that's right, above the bathroom. the as in, the bathroom had a ceiling, and my mattress was on top of said ceiling. so i had to climb this tiny metal ladder to get up to my bed, which was roughly 10 feet in the air. and i discovered, from my perch in the air, that this hostel didn't have walls, perse. the 7 or 8 feet above the top of the bunkbeds was open, and i could see FOUR ROOMS DOWN into people's beds. creepy. and it was so cold at night that we had to put emily on my shoulders and mack had to boost her up so we could shut the windows, which only opened about 12 feet in the air.... other than that, i loved barcelona. the weather during the day was 60 and sunny, and we went to the beach no less than five times. it's a beautiful city, and rightfully deserving of a place in my top five cities in europe.

i should go back to studying the european union (twenty-seven member countries, thirteen use the euro, etc.) before my exam this afternoon.

italy: a quick tour.

rome, day 3: vatican city, papal audience (he looks like darth sidius), sistine chapel (loud but the tour we were on was great), stayed with friends i made in prague. went out to the bar with a kid from california, two from boston, and one from philadelphia i had met less than two hours previous. they were nice. day 4: st. peter's made me glad i'm lutheran... one statue from that place wouldn't fit inside good shepherd (maybe if it was laying down). train to florence. long, long train to florence.

florence: amazing hostel (15 euros a night, hot breakfast delivered to our room every morning), not impressed by the accademia gallery (where David is housed) at all. David is impressive, his museum is worthless. you can't even look at any other paintings because the lighting is so poor that there is always an awful glare on them from any reasonable distance. i was more impressed by the ufizzi, but i was so sick of religious paintings (i wish i had counted the number of "annunciation to mary" paintings i saw in europe). Botticelli rocks - the Birth of Venus is one of my favorites. also in florence, rough roads with the traveling buds, ended up spending parts of two days with the boys of group, which made me nearly homicidal. they literally had an hour long conversation about doing a study on which kind of beggar earns the most money. of course, then you'd have to choose several different locations and probably be each kind of beggar for a week, and another variable would be if you were walking or sitting, and "sometimes business men do this sort of thing for a rush", and all i added was that he'd have to do something to benefit the homeless with the money afterwards. no answer.

venice: LOVED IT. the weather was beautiful, the city is amazing and didn't smell at all bad when were there. i had to concentrate really hard on not getting seasick, but other than the boats it was great. we visited St. Mark's and St. Mark's Square, and tried to visit the cemetery island (from Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery fame (thanks, Dad)), but it was closing as we got there. i navigated our way all around the winding sidewalks and paths and we had a grand ol' time except when the we tried to visit the Biennale Park (home to a biannual (you could have figured that out) contemporary art festival with really interesting buildings for each country that participates), but it cost 8 euro to get in. thwarted by being a poor college student yet again. the last thing we did in venice was ride boat 1 down the Grand Canal with Mackenzie and i narrating the way.

sorry for my erratic use of capitalization in this post. it's 1:33 am here, and i'm going to sleep for a few hours before awaking to cram my head with economic facts. and the correct spelling of Baden-Württemberg. (that's it).

eight days a week.

beginning of our last full week in Germany.

i already took an art exam this morning, which was sort of a joke. i have an econ exam tomorrow, which i have all the information for, but it's actually going to be difficult.

i know i promised i'd write more after break, but that hasn't happened. our internet is awful and controlled by an awful awful man. it's working better now, though. i had to deactivate my facebook for the next month because of sorority recruitment, though, so maybe i'll waste the time i would have wasted on that on here instead. i should work on writing a short paragraph about each of the places i visited. i'm sorry this blog was not at all what i (or probably most of you) expected for the semester. i was far busier than i thought i'd be, in general.

i'm looking forward to being back stateside and seeing all of you!

what's the picture-to-words exchange rate these days?

10. brussels: it rained the entire time we were in brussels, but we ate a lot 

(waffles, fries, and chocolate). it was a day well spent.

9. göteborg, sweden: home of the brinker family. had an amazing time here with nate, despite missing a flight.

8. athens: besides being robbed, athens was incredible. here we are at the 2004 olymic stadium, where mack almost jumped into the pool.

7. nice: it wasn't very nice in nice when we were there, but the city has great architecture, a huge fruit market, and an incredible beach.

6. venice: i've wanted to go to venice since i was 8. it was incredible. this photo was taken looking back at venice from the cimitario island.

5. amsterdam: just loved it. this is the redlight district at night, and some swans.

4. prague: just a few of prague's amazing buildings, taken from the charles bridge, which was constructed in 1357.

3. berlin! i love berlin! mackenzie and i went back there this weekend for two hours, just because we love it. this is the brandenburg gate at night.

2. rome: duh. at the vatican city, here, with st. peter's in the background.

1. paris: this was taken roughly the moment i fell absolutely in love with paris.

reutlingen: my home, sweet home for the semester. this was taken on my birthday (it was sixty degrees farenheit!) while tom and i went on a walk behind campus.

i'm thankful for...

...sunrises that look like this when i wake up on the day when i've missed home the most so far this semester.

it's hard to be gone on a holiday like this. not only do i really miss the great food, but i miss being with my family, sleeping in my own bed for a week, and putzing around Oxford waiting for something to happen.

however, i'm grateful, of course, to be here. and in less than three weeks (ah!) i'll be back in Oxford, probably bored, and eating great food and spending time with my family.

and i don't want things to stop while i'm gone. i'll be back soon enough, and i know life has been going on without me thus far. it's something i have to get used to -- there's only so much more time i have to wake up in that bright orange room every morning.

and i've had so many experiences, so many ups and downs, so many things that i'll never be able to explain to all of you at home, whether you wanted to hear them or not. so i can have that, and life at home can be the same as well.

so it's ok, stephani, put up the christmas tree. i don't need to hang ornaments this year.

the countdown is on (but i don't want it to be)!

wow. i am truly awful at blogging.

going on our last three weeks in europe. we returned yesterday from a weeklong trip to lutherland: erfurt, eisenach, wittenberg, and leipzig. somehow i managed to stay in the monastery where luther first became a monk and not see his room. and i slept within a mile of the wartburg castle and didn't get to see that either.

[sentence removed due to bullying and impediment of free speech].

i had schnitzel for the first time on tuesday in eisenach. it's amazing. i plan to eat schnitzel and drink german beer as much as possible for my last three weeks here. i think Grandpa will be proud.

the castle church in wittenberg is really cool. unfortunately wooden doors don't last very long, so there are now huge metal doors with the 95 (not 99, like alex thought) thesis on them in latin. and a painting of martin luther and phillip melanchthon kneeling at a cross with Jesus on it that is as tall as them. apparently luther was short, though. and so was bach. that kind of ruins my perception of him.

i got to see luther's living room, though. and there is a statue of käthe von bora in the garden of the lutherhaus, so i took a picture with her, too. i also got a picture of the first printed Bible of luther's translation. it has his handwriting in it. i can't wait to show tom.

turns out germany is a lot COLDER than everyone told us. between north face and under armour, i should be pretty warm and american-looking. i hope.

i went to amsterdam the weekend before our class trip to lutherland. we went to the anne frank house and the heineken experience, among other activities. this is probably wrong and the art gods will smite me, but of things i've spent 10 euros to see, including David..... the heineken experience was probably my favorite. it's definitely a museum designed for men/boys/guys because there is CONSTANT stimulation. there's a ride and everything. we made a music video singing a Dutch song and we sent it to our professor. ha. it was awesome, though. not a huge heineken fan, though. i just love german beer!

well, it's officially the middle of the night and my roommate has not yet returned from leipzig. i'm slightly concerned, but no one has cell phones here, so there's not much i can do about it, besides hope that she makes it back.

the middle of the night is also when i usually like to sleep, so i'm going to try it. i didn't sleep at all last night, but i woke up to beautiful snow! so it was ok, sort of. and mackenzie slept over. it was nice having a roommate i actually enjoyed waking up to for once...

i promise i'll write this week. about rome, and venice, and paris... oh my!

"they always speak, you just have to ask the right question."

my hair is so short.

two week adventure, part II: rome (if you want to).

in rome we stayed at a hostel called the yellow. it had HAIRDRYERS!

our first morning in rome, alex woke up really, really early and went on a blitz through rome... actually wearing running shoes. we ran into him around the colosseum and he had already seen half of the map. the rest of us just went on a walk... we visited some ruins, a few churches, and then had lunch next to the colosseum. after lunch we took a tour of the colosseum, and then a tour of palatine hill (where some caesars were born, and some other ones lived, it's a bunch of ruins). next to palatine hill is the roman forum, which is a big area with ruins of all together. where julius caesar was killed and a few arches and a GIANT warehouse that they turned into a cathedral... interesting stuff that doesn't sound all that interesting in a blog.

(us at the colesseum doing a euro-smile).

we went to the pantheon that evening, which was by far my favorite part of rome. it's just so MASSIVE. i've seen pictures of it before, but it's bigger than that. so impressive. and it's in a neighborhood. it's not on a big busy road, you can't even drive a car on three sides of it because they are walking streets. it just swallows the square that it's in and looks like it's almost touching the buildings around it. the inside is a little disappointing, because it has been turned into a Marian chapel, and there are tons of people in there talking and a loudspeaker booming "be quiet" in six different languages. hard to appreciate anything in that atmosphere.

time for a group dinner/v for vendetta party!

apparently, i'm a socialist.

mr. november. originally a term used for derek jeter, then a song by one of my favorite bands, then a t-shirt sold in support of barack obama, now a reality!

i'm attempting to watch obama's election speech (since it happened at even more the middle of the night here than it did at home) from grant park.

plans to go to düsseldorf sort of fell through. late last night my roommate decided she wanted to come, but when we both woke up we didn't feel very well (i have another migraine). then when i went to my professor's house to watch election coverage at about 8:30, she left to go to stuttgart alone.... so, i'm just hanging out today. i'm going to try to find this cafe in plochingen that was designed by this crazy surrealist architect. we always pass it on the train on the way to stuttgart, and i want to see it up close.

coming up this afternoon will be part II of two week adventure, including highlights from rome, florence, and venice! get excited.

no hair for my hairbrush.

well. i'm back. seventeen days on the mediterranean coast (more or less). more of less on the coast, not more or less seventeen days. actually, it might have been fifteen days. it was, to the say the least, pretty incredible. i loved every city we went to, we had great weather for the first ten days, and i saw things i never thought i'd see in my life.

(side note: i got my hair cut by a guy named benito today. it's really short. i mean really, really short.)

two week adventure, part I:

we started the trip in greece back 

on october 17. we flew into thessaloniki after a sleepless night in the stuttgart airport. we actually attempted to sleep on some benches facing the doors we first walked out after we landed in stuttgart way back on august 27. anyway, thessaloniki. no one lost luggage, which was a huge blessing. we took a bus in to the main train station and found out there

 was a train leaving for athens in about 15 minutes. the boys of the group (THE GROUP: charli, mackenzie, rahj, alex, john, and myself) left us then to go climb mount olympus. we asked at the eurail information desk if we needed seat reservations for the train. the woman said no. we got on the train. everyone had seat reservations. we asked the conductor. he said we needed seat reservations. we ran back to the ticket counter. the 

woman said there were no reservations left, and we could just stand on the train. we ran back to the train. we stood in a gangway near the bathroom. the conductor didn't think that our eurail passes let us be on the train without a seat reservation, but we told him that the ticket people said it was ok. he let us stay on the train, but it was about 6 hours of moving seats 

and sitting on the floor and back and forth. we eventually made it to athens. immediately upon arriving in athens, i rolled my ankle (which is still bothering me). good start to the trip.

we found our hostel, and then found a

 restaurant in a nearby square. we hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. as soon as we sat down, the waiter brought us ice water. ICE WATER. i literally haven't had ice water since caroline's house in august. we took pictures with the ice water and immediately downed it. we all got incredible food, and then went back to our hostel and went to bed.

the next morning we got up and went out in search of a beach. i had directions to a hot springs lake from a website, but the hostel receptionist told...other...directions. so we tried to follow those and ended up at a marina somewhere with no beach in site and no internet directions handy. we eventually made it out to the beach with a little luck, a long bus ride, and a little help from a british couple who had been "coming he

re for 30 years, and never been to the lagoon". at the beach we witnessed a man catch an octopus by hand and kill it by slamming (not the right word) against a rock and rubbing it around to get it's brains...or something...out.

the mediterranean was a little cold that day, but the water is so clear and blue. it was really beautiful, and we were the only tourists.

our next day in athens was spent on a walking tour with an interesting fellow named walter. walter took us to all the big athens sites: the roman agora, the (actual? greek?) agora, the acropolis, hadrian's arch, the roman temple to zeus, the 1896 olympic stadium, and the president's house. it was a fun tour with a bunch of people our age, and walter was a great tour guide. i loved the acropolis - the parthenon is breathtaking. the scaffolding just gives that extra touch, too. the scaffolding has been there longer than i've been alive. a small period for a structure built in the 5th century, but still. maybe they should just let it fall down on its own.

after the tour, rahj and i met blake (from school) for lunch. he is studying abroad in athens this semester. we ate at this great little restaurant on top of a hit right next to the acropolis. literally, we ate lunch looking at the acropolis. the meal was amazing, too. and then it started DOWNPOURING. we walked back to the train station in torrential rain. i didn't have an umbrella, and after an ankle-deep puddle, i was walking around barefoot in athens. it was hilarious, actually. my shoes still smell awful, though.

that night we went back to the acropolis and went up on the hill where paul gave his sermon to the unknown god (tom, i got you a rock from there!). it's the best view of athens, and we took some really cool pictures with the acropolis all lit up in the background. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures, because my camera was stolen on the metro just prior to this outing. i don't want to talk about it.

(one of charli's photos from the night).

our last day in athens consisted of alex, john, and i attempting to visit the national museum. we failed miserably. then we flew to rome.

that might be enough break-recounting for now. today is election day! and we don't have class tomorrow because our professor is watching election coverage all night. i'm taking advantage of the day by going to düsseldorf to visit the K20 and K21 musuems. it's about three and a half hours away by train, but i'll use that time to study german (since we have a test the day after my twenty-first birthday (thank you, frau brixner)). i'm going alone, but i'm pretty sure i can handle the german rail system blindfolded. i'm excited. i won't be blindfolded.

the mediterranean... tomorrow!

i've been awful about posting lately. the weeks since i got back from sweden have been nuts. we've been so busy with projects and tests in every class. apologies to grandma and uncle chris, i read your e-mails, but i haven't had the time to sit down and write a proper response.

we're leaving for a bus to the airport to take a flight to thessalonika in about 20 minutes. i will be gone until november 2 in greece, italy, and southern france! i'm so excited, but really nervous at the moment. we have everything planned and two copies of all the confirmations and an itinerary sent to our parents, so i think we should be fine.

hope all is well in the states (and the other continents reading this (hi meg!)). i've heard gas prices are down, stocks are down, housing is down... yikes. i guess all isn't well, but i'm praying over here for it to get better. the exchange rate is beter because the euro is getting worse; that's about the only good thing coming out of it right now.

wish i could write more but my 20 minutes is now 17 and i still have to take my trash out. i'll write lots and lots when i'm back (because we don't have homework the second half of the semester!).

(megan, i hope your homestay and safari were great - i can't wait to hear all about them!)

a thank you note.

dearest madre,

those travel bags you found at walmart have saved my life. i fit the sweaters, scarves, and sweatshirt for a weekend in sweden into a school backpack with room for shoes and my blow-dryer. that's what i call success, and i owe it all to you.

(yes, it's 2:45 am.)

love your favorite oldest daughter,

kati

maybe it's the weather.

there are crows dive-bombing my window. i've seen over a hundred crows fly over the mountains and towards our part of Reutlingen in the last hour or so. they swoop down towards my window and land on the roof above. it's like The Birds. i'm not leaving my building tonight. if i could upload pictures, i would take a picture of the flock flying over the mountains. i'm scared.

mid-week post!

thought i'd write quickly between homework assignments (or postponing them).

the baths at Baden-Baden were AMAZING. the best and most relaxing three hours of my life. a great way to spend 15 euros, 3 hours, and the last punch left on our German rail pass. i definitely recommend it to anyone who visits Germany. spectacular. the weather was nice, too. about 60 degrees (Fahrenheit) and sunny outside, so the pools outside (heated) were very nice. it was just a relaxing afternoon.

this week we're all very busy. we have a debate, a state report and scrapbook, and an art report all due before we leave for our two week break (which begins two weeks from Thursday). i'm currently researching my debate topic, which is the negative side of "Priests should be allowed to marry." Catholics thinks some crazy things, that's all i'm saying.

i'm mostly worried about the debate; i think the state presentation/scrapbook will be a breeze, and i'm actually excited about my art project (duh). i'm doing a report on Liberty in the Barricades by Eugene Delacroix, which, in addition to being on display in the Louvre, is the cover of the new Coldplay album... i'm trying to find a connection.

this weekend Mackenzie and i are going to SWEDEN. we leave on Thursday, and we have to miss our German class. i decided to take German pass-fail because i know the teacher is going to hate us after we miss her class. oh well, going to Sweden to visit Nate was at the top of my list of things to do while in Europe, so i'm not overly concerned about it. Mackenzie is going to visit an exchange student who stayed with her in high school. incidentally, they both live in the same city (Göteburg), so it's really convenient for us to travel together. and i get to wash my jeans and DRY THEM at Nate's house. that's probably going to be the most exciting part of the trip. our jeans are getting all stretched out because we can't dry them here because the dryers just make your clothes hot, they don't actually get any drier when they're in there.

i started a new book today called "Three Cups of Tea". Charli read it, and she loved it, so i'm borrowing it. let's face it, we all knew i was never actually going to finish The Brothers Karamazov. it's way too huge to take with me anywhere anyway. i'm also reading Martin Marty's biography of Martin Luther. while i think it's extremely odd that Martin Marty just happens to be a Martin Luther scholar, i'm enjoy the book. he doesn't use any commas, though. i love commas, and his comma usage upsets me to the point where i have to read sentences five times before i understand them. when i can get past his "creative" disregard for the mid-sentence pause, however, i enjoy his writing and the story of Martin Luther.

i've been getting a decent amount of mail (just from Gavin and my mother, but i get something from Gavin once a week), and it has come to my attention that i'm on the the front of every Valpo brochure published so far this semester. that's all. i just think it's hilarious. Gavin pointed out that we (he's on there, too) get more zoomed in upon in every new version, and hopefully the brochure for the new union will be just our nostrils. i think that's gross, but funny. i hope it make it on the cover of that, too. maybe they will make a Valpo calendar of Gavin and me. at this rate, it doesn't seem to be that far in the future.

nothing that the road cannot heal.

things i've learned in Germany thus far:

1. dein hund ist hubshe: your dog is cute.

2. kleenex and hand soap is neither the best nor the worst way to wash a sink.

3. you can't buy music from iTunes if you're not in the US.

4. people don't say hi to each other on the street. smiling at a passerby warrants a very awkward look.

5. wattage matters, especially on small motorized appliances such as the hairdryer you brought from home.

6. public transportation is great.

7. German students eat horribly, smoke constantly, and take the elevator for three floors.

8. Germany is slightly larger than Montana.

9. hole-in-the-wall eateries and stands in squares are the best places to eat.

10. the customer is not always right in Germany.

11. make plans before you go, but be ready for anything. and bring a map.

oktoberfest was pretty incredible last week. the best way to describe it is like Warped Tour with beer instead of music. and far too many Australians. we also did an incredible amount of sightseeing while in Munich. we visited the 1972 Olympic Stadium to complete our tour of German Olympic stadiums. we went to Englischer Garten and made a nice promenade. then we got into the Deutches Museum for FREE. they had a huge ship exhibit there, so of course i took a million pictures of anchors and other ship-ly things. we also went on this ride outside the museum for 3 euro. it spun you around and you controlled your movements. i wish i had appreciated the physics of the ride, but i just thought it was fun to be up so high. then we walked around the marianplatz area of Munich and had ice cream.

this weekend Charli, Mackenzie, and i are going to Trier and Saarbrucken for my state project. the best part of the trip will be the way back, when we stop in Baden-Baden for the Roman baths.

if the internet worked at all here, i would post pictures. i'll keep trying, but for now, you will have to imagine what i'm up to.

the mountain out my window.

first of all, i apologize to all my faithful readers for not writing sooner. i didn't anticipate how busy we would be here. i wanted to sit down and write after my week in berlin and weimar, but then we were right off to salzburg three days later. now i'm back from salzburg, but leave for munich tomorrow afternoon!

today is exactly three weeks since we arrived in germany, but it has both gone so fast and feels like we've been here forever. in just three short weeks, however, we have self-titled this semester "disaster semester". on only our fifth day in Germany, Jenny left from Berlin to come back to Reutlingen and then go back to the States. i suppose she had pretty severe culture shock, and she never felt at ease anywhere we went. then over the weekend another girl found out she had a cyst, so she was in surgery on monday and will be in the hospital for a few more days. our professor was diagnosed with walking pneumonia (don't worry, i'm keeping my distance and spiking my juice with vitamin c packets (thanks uncle chris and jill)). and on monday, Kalyn fell and bit through her lip. she's been to the doctor and dentist and it sounds like she'll be ok, but it's still pretty awful that it happened. hopefully that will be the last injury of the semester (i'm also steering clear of volleyball courts).

Charli, Mackenzie, and i are going to hike up one of the mountains in Reutlingen today. Reutlingen is right in the middle of the Schwabische Alps, which is a nice little cluster of small mountains. there is a ruin of a tower at the top of one, and that is the one we are planning on conquering this afternoon.

i don't even know where to begin talking about everything. i could just make a list of what we've done so far, but i don't know how interesting that would be. i've done a lot of things: visited museums, palaces, gardens, monuments, churches. i've climbed a lot of stairs: two-hundred sixty in twenty-four hours while in Berlin, not to the mention the fact that i live on the eighth/top floor of my dorm. i've had a good amount of German beer: we're going to start the Reutlingen Bier- und Weinakademie Bierdiplom tonight.

i will write more tonight hopefully, but we want to get going on our mountain climbing adventure so that we are back by dinner time. i have a feeling i'm already late!

doing like the germans do.

i'm here! Reutlingen is a beautiful city; i'm so excited to be spending almost four months here.

the trip into germany was nothing short of awful. first we (Mackenzie, Charli, and i) missed out bus out of Portage and arrived at the airport an hour late. apparently the international terminal at o'hare doesn't believe in letting you eat once you go through security, so that was annoying, too.

i ended up in the middle of a four seat aisle in the center of the plane. then i switched seats with someone... for a seat in the middle of a four seat aisle in the middle of the plane. the only good thing about the flight was the tv screen in the back of the seat in front of you that played any movie you wanted and also had video games and other things to do. that made the heat and cramped nature of the plane not quite as unbearable. i didn't end up sleeping a wink during the nine hour flight. i spent the entire time checking my watch and converting the time to different time zones of interest (central, easten, and European).

we finally landed in Paris where we had an almost five-hour layover. some people slept in the seats in the terminal; i curled up on the floor. i actually slept for about 4 minutes. my biggest accomplishment at the Paris airport was asking what gate our next flight would board at... but they didn't know. i used the euros from Logan's dad to buy Mackenzie and i some apples and water.

i was asleep before the second flight got to the runway. not much to say about that one.

Stuttgart was rather uneventful. no one lost luggage, we managed not to lose each other, and we didn't even get our passports stamped.

we've spent the last few days in Reutlingen (RT for short) getting used to the bus system, walking around town, and trying out the local bars. our professor bought us beer yesterday! it's definitely very different from Valpo. i'm not going crazy, though.

it's a long walk from our dorms to the downtown area. there are lighted footpaths, and going this way takes about 20 minutes. riding the bus takes only five, but we really don't want to get fat.... so we walk. also, i live on the seventh floor of my building, so getting to my room is a workout in itself.

i think i'm settling in well. the culture shock is nothing like Haiti, Mexico, etc. i'm sure i will feel homesick later, but i don't think i will be as culture-shocked as some of the people in my group who have never been anywhere outside of the US. i'm just trying to listen to people, speak the German i can, and soak in as much of the culture as possible. while it's different than the US here, it's so much more like the US than Haiti. things close at weird times, and people walk really close to you and don't stop for pedestrians, but everyone has a house and food and a job. i haven't seen a "bad" area yet. those places exist, but it's nothing like the tin roofs and malnutrition we've experienced in Haiti.

tomorrow we go to Tubingen, which is a unversity city about 10 minutes on the train from here. monday, we go to Berlin! there are a few museums i really want to see in Berlin, and we have two free days, so i'm very excited about that trip. i'll update when i get back (and hopefully i can put pictures on by then).

ready to go, scared to leave.

it's been an interesting few days at Valpo. some people, i guess, thought i was never coming back. others thought i was leaving a lot sooner than i actually am. still others have been sufficiently strange about my being here... for a week. also, i've spent the last week lugging around a comforter (cleverly disguised in a basketball duffel) and the last six nights in three different places (only to add a fourth tonight). i guess now i'm just glad i'll have a bed (with sheets!) when i get to Reutlingen.

i'm actually bummed that i won't be here this semester, for all the nerdiest reasons. i happen to think Valpo's new president is the coolest guy ever. he's holding office hours in Jester's next week and i'm sad i won't be able to go. also, i really want to get back into taking art classes. i love my major. i just can't wait to do my art homework. i'm bringing my sketchbooks and about a million pencils, so i'll be able to at least draw while i'm gone, but there are so many other things i'm excited to do in classes, and i have to wait until January.

i've gradually been saying bye to everyone. everyone expects me to be so excited, but i'm so scared right now. i know i'm going to have an amazing time, but it's hard to think about that right now with about 24 hours of travel and a completely different culture right around the corner. i'm also sad i won't see my family for over three months. but i'm getting used to it. i just ran into Courtney; she's the only person who's been ok with me not being super excited right now. it felt really good to talk to her about it, because she's far from home when she's at valpo. so she knows how i feel, sort of. it's hard to be away. and as courtney said, "now you just have to go."

so i'm just going.

leaving on a jet plane.

welcome to my blog.

i'm new to the world of blogging, so i'm sorry if this is semi-awkward for a while. i'll try to make it interesting.

in nine days, i leave for Germany for just about four months. right now i'm working on packing and weighing my suitcases so i don't get stuck with one of those overweight fees... i just hope they don't decided to weigh my carry-on backpack.

i'm pretty excited for my trip, but still very nervous. i don't know what to expect, where to travel, or what to do while i'm there. regardless, it's going to be great.

i'll be posting here as often as i can while i'm abroad. feel free to leave comments or questions.

until next time...