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.