hang on a second.

Wow. I can't believe this semester is already so close to being finished! I just wrapped up my two hardest exams back to back, and now I'm giving myself a little break to breathe, pack, and maybe even catch up on some sleep. Because the next few days are about to be a whirlwind.

There are so many things I'm excited for in America. If all goes to plan, my parents will be greeting me in the airport with a Chipotle burrito and there will be a gallon of milk waiting for me at home. I'm excited to spend ALL WEEKEND with my best friend and catch up with other friends from Miami who live in Columbus! I'm excited to see my family and especially Luke since I haven't seen him in who knows how long. I'm excited to speak exclusively English, read signs, order food, ask questions, ect. I'm excited to have unlimited texting. I'm excited to leave my bedroom door open and walk around my house with my lights on. I'm excited for free water with ice in restaurants. I'm excited to drive my car! I'm excited for all the clothes I left at home. I'm excited for church and Cru and KD fellowship and all my fellowship at Miami! And I'm excited for a social life in Oxford where all my friends live within walking distance of each other.

But in some ways I'm also nervous about coming home. I might not recognize all the ways yet, but I've grown as a person this semester. I have definitely recognized in myself a more global way of thinking about the world. But while I may have a new perspective, home is going to be the same. And at the same time it is going to be so different because life in America didn't stop when I left.

I'm not so excited to leave the relaxed European lifestyle for faster paced America. I'm not excited for random, un-spendable change due to taxes on everything I'll buy. I'm not excited for America's culture of drinking (that it can be so out of control, that it's made into such a big deal, and that the drinking age is 21). I'm sad to be leaving just when I feel like I turned a corner in being willing to learn and speak French. I'm sad to be leaving a place where I can hop on a train and some hours later be in an exciting city in a different country.

This semester has certainly been an amazing experience. It's not exactly what I thought it would be, and honestly if I did it over again I might have gone out on a father limb and attended a program not so attached to Miami or America. But I got the opportunity to travel that I may never have again in my life, and I am so thankful for that!

All that to say... here is a recap of my last few days in Lux:
- Researched and wrote an 11 page paper on Economic and Monetary Union in Europe using the primary documents that set up the EMU as my sources. Oh, in 9 hours. In one night. The night before it was due. Nailed it.
- Mudec Final Dinner Awards Banquet (affectionately called Mudec Prom) was on Friday night. Everyone from the program got all dressed up for dinner and some dancing and it was a good time... despite the fact that the bar only played salsa and strange 80s/disco music.
- Went to Trier Christmas Market in Germany on Sunday afternoon. It was PACKED and I ate a lot of yummy bad food and ran into my political science professor who lives in Trier.
- Buckled down to study! So far I've taken my European Union poli sci final, Rise and Fall of Hitler final, and Intro to Poli Sci final. So all the tough ones are out of the way! There is only French tomorrow, but I'm not worried.
- I'm trying to pack, and I'm really hoping I can keep it under the weight limit! I bought less things than I thought this semester sooo fingers crossed!
- We leave tomorrow (Wed) night at midnight from the chateau to Dusseldorf airport. Our flight doesn't leave til noon on Thursday. That is going to be rough. But I should arrive in Columbus by 9pm on Thursday! I wonder how finals week caffeine dependency is going to work out with jetlag. Uh-oh.

Wish me luck on the rest of finals and I'll try to get one more post up once I get home. To everyone who's been reading this: thank you and I hope you've enjoyed my European experience!

got my butt kicked by snowboarding. and loved it.

So, this weekend I decided to take it easy on traveling and just go snowboarding with a school trip on Saturday. Before that on Friday I went on a school-paid-for tour of the Bofferding brewery, one of Luxembourg's favorite beers. I'm not a huge fan, but at the end of the tour they give out unlimited beer and I had wanted to try their Christmas ale that people have been going on about without actually paying for it. It was a very interesting tour because I knew almost nothing about how beer is made. Unfortunately I forgot my camera... but that was fun! The Differdange Christmas market also opened this weekend. Its been in the process of setting up for the last week (including a GIANT RAMP outside my window in the park for sledding, apparently. What the heck?) So I got dinner at one of the stalls and it was good.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early (5am) to get on the bus to go to Lac Blanc in France. I had my snowboarding coat and pants, but a lot of people had some pretty funny makeshift outfits to try to stay warm. The bus ride was supposed to be 3 hours long, but that was a joke. We didn't get on the slopes until about 12. Now, I love snowboarding and I did have a great time (I'll get to that later) but some things about this trip were just so ridiculous I just have to complain about them.

:: view over the only black diamond ::

First thing to mention: WORST. RENTAL BOARD. EVER. First they tried to give me a 144 size board (I ride a 152), and when they gave me a 149 I was like ok, no problem it'll just be a little slower and easier to turn. But it was also stomp-in bindings, which I haven't used since the first time I ever snowboarded and are notorious for having terrible support. The boots I got laced up but didn't have a mechanism for getting tighter or stiffer on the leg so there was a lot of give that made controlling the board hard. Finally, this board couldn't have been waxed in the last year and it didn't have any edges to speak of. Which brings me to the next problem. This mountain was very pretty (kind of small, say a little smaller than Holiday Valley, length-wise, but with fewer runs than Perfect North Indiana or Mad River Mountain in Ohio), but was in parts nothing but a sheet of ice. No edges on my board plus ice equaled lots of bruises for me. And since it was just a small place, they only had one chairlift and the rest where T-bar tow ropes. My first experience with one of those must have looked pretty funny because I fell twice and got dragged, but the second time I had gotten the hang of it and it was fine after that because those lifts got you to better runs anyways.

:: tow rope. lol ::

So despite falling down and getting mad at my board a lot, I did have a lot of fun! One of the coolest things we did was go through a back-woods path. It was really narrow, so you just had to toeside the entire thing, and then out of nowhere there was a steep drop and then a two foot wide bridge over a sizeable trench and a creek. The first time we did it, none of us was expecting it and I basically thought "OH crap, don't fall off the bridge!" and made it across, only to miss the sharp turn after the bridge and faceplant into a snowdrift. That was definitely the best fall of the day because it didn't hurt at all. After we made it down the rest of the wooded path, we found an open field run covered with powder. It was the best run of the entire day, even though it rejoined the iciest run on the mountain at the end.

:: best run of the day ::

All in all, it was a really fun, exhausting day and I'm definitely feeling it today. I have some pretty amazing bruises on my knees from the ice and on my thigh from the tow rope, and a scratch on my face from (I think) the bush in the snowbank I fell into. Battle scars, no big deal.

Today I have to start buckling down to do some real work. This is the last week of classes before finals, and I can't believe I'm going to be home in less than two weeks! It's too surreal.

adventures in eastern europe.

I've gotten so lazy about this whole blog thing. But then, I've been kinda lazy with everything this week, so what can you expect?

I'll start off with my study tour from last week and we'll see how long it gets before I split it up. This study tour was for our history class on the rise and fall of the Third Reich and Hitler. We went to Prague (Czech Republic), Auschwitz I and Birkenau, and Krakow (Poland). But before all that, we had to fly through Milan to save some money and when we stayed in a hotel near the airport we got some real good Italian food. Unfortunately, the dinner also ran late (Italy, not surprised) and we ended up only getting about 3 hours of sleep that night before we were up at 4 for our 8am flight (wait, WHAT!? yeah, we were all puzzled too). Needless to say, I took a little nap in the terminal. Then we were on our way to Prague! This was my first experience with WizzAir, a budget airline like Ryanair and I liked it better for some reason.

Anyways, once we got to Prague, we were immediately carted off on a EIGHT HOUR WALKING TOUR. This did not go over well, not least because on top of the fact none of us could sleep, the tour guide practically whispered into his microphone and the speaker didn't work. And it was freezing. By the time lunch rolled around, if he had pointed out one more building demonstrating baroque architecture, I might have keeled over. Aaand then lunch wasn't much better because he took us to a medieval themed restaurant underground (aka, still had to wear my winter coat to keep warm) where you couldn't see more than a foot in front of your face, the ambiance music included sound clips of a woman screaming, and they served us lackluster food. Don't worry though, there is food redemption later on in the trip. Needless to say, by 6pm we were ecstatic to get back to our hotel.

And then the best part of Prague happened. Remember how I was reading Harry Potter? Report: I finished all 7 books before I saw the movie. IN PRAGUE. With Czech subtitles. We had bought tickets online before we left and I was so excited to see the movie! For about five minutes leading up to the movie starting I was sitting in my seat just PRAYING I hadn't accidentally bought us tickets for a Czech voiceover (even though I had checked and double checked this multiple times online). And for once, I wasn't disappointed by it, which is a borderline miracle since I had just read all the books. So that was excellent. After Harry, we went back to the hotel and crashed, ready for a day of traveling the next day.

:: Deathly Hallows in Prague ::

We finally got to sleep in on Sunday before we boarded the bus for our ride to Oswiecim (Auschwitz). We watched Schindler's List on the way, which was interesting because I had never seen that movie before. In fact, I didn't even know what it was about and I wasn't paying attention when our professor introduced the movie, so I was moderately surprised when Schindler turned out to be a good guy. That night we stayed at a beautiful hotel in the town where we had a great dinner. Since we were missing Thanksgiving last week, I was pretty sad about not getting my aunt's amazing mashed potatoes. HOWEVER. This Polish restaurant had mashed potatoes just like homemade ones at home. I don't think I have any Polish in my family (and I'm about to feel really silly if I do), but all of the food I had in Poland was like comfort food from home. It was weird.

The next day we went to two of the three Auschwitz camps, Auschwitz I (a concentration camp) and Auschwitz II - Birkenau (the death camp). It's hard to really describe what was there… I mean, I could describe it but I don't think it would really encompass being there, so maybe I'll just show people pictures when I get home. Needless to say, it was a pretty devastating place to be, especially after reading a very in-depth book about the Auschwitz camps. The plaque on the memorial in Birkenau said "For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe." We had another long bus drive to Krakow after that and I remember thinking about the stories they told us in Auschwitz and some of the interviews with SS guards in our book and thinking that the people who did this were normal people who, yes, were inundated with propaganda, but made the choices themselves. I just sat on the bus and thought, I have never seen a clearer picture of the capacity humanity has to do evil. How can anyone look at that and not think that there's something wrong in the world - that something is broken? I was just hit again with our need, humanity's need - my need - for God and was overwhelmed with his undeserved grace for us.

:: Tracks in Birkenau ::

:: Memorial in Birkenau ::

I could do a whole post on Auschwitz itself, I think, but those were just my basic thoughts.

We spent the night in Krakow and got dinner at a traditional Jewish restaurant that was very good. They also had some Jewish musicians playing and I got a cd because I liked them so much! Then on Tuesday morning we went on a walking tour of the Jewish ghetto in Krakow. It was pretty small for the amount of people they forced to live there. They had a monument in the main square where people would be selected for camps that was just a bunch of empty chairs, reminiscent of how, when the ghetto was entirely cleared, only chairs and furniture remained littered on the streets. After that we visited Schindler's factory, which had been converted into an amazing WW2 interactive museum. I honestly could have spent hours in there, but we had one hour to rush through. After that we visited a lot of churches (honestly, they're really starting to run together by this point) and a palace. We attended a Chopin concert in the evening as well. In the morning we woke up and visited the old Jewish Quarter where many Jews lived before being moved to the ghetto. Many scenes of Schindler's list were filmed here instead of the real ghetto because it better suited the filmmakers. We also got to see the last practicing synagogue in Krakow and walk through their cemetery. They had a wall in the cemetery made entirely out of tombstones that they Nazis had broken and used to pave roads.

After that, the rest of our class was moving on to a salt mine outside of Krakow, but Aunna, Brad, Jimmy, and I had to catch a train to Budapest.

And thus began our misadventures with the eastern european train system. First of all, our Eurail passes didn't work in Poland so we had to pay for our train tickets to the border of the country (go look at a map; Krakow is CLOSE TO THE BORDER) for a whopping 294 zloty (or roughly $100). To put this in perspective, Aunna and Brad bought tickets all the way to Budapest for something like $20 more than we paid. But it gets better. We get on our first train, which would put us in for our next connection with 30 minutes to spare, and it looked like a leftover from Communism. Seriously, we were concerned about it making it to the next station at all. But it chugged along and we got there on time, killed some time trying to spend our leftover Polish currency, and told funny stories. Then our train was 20 minutes delayed. No big deal yet; we could still potentially catch our connection to Budapest. Then while en route, our train became FORTY minutes late. Yeah, definitely missed that connection. We were stuck in Breclav, Czech Republic. The conductor of the train told us the next train that went to Budapest was at 4:47am and said there was a hostel next to the train station where we could get rooms. It looked more like a crack house than a hostel, which would have been fine except it was closed. So we got directions for another hostel 25 minutes away and were joined by Amy and Cole, from Canada, who were backpacking around Europe and were in the same conundrum we were in. They will henceforth be referred to as Canada. It should also be mentioned that at 8 o'clock at night, Breclav is already a ghost town. So we rolled up to our hostel, which turned out to be a hockey stadium, and were confusedly shunted around to the back of the stadium where there was a sign that said hotel. We followed the signs upstairs to find a locked and dark reception desk (at 8pm!). I wandered into the bar downstairs, and tried to ask for rooms to sleep in (pointing up and saying hotel, sleep, ect) but he definitely didn't speak any English. But he did speak German, so I ran to grab Jimmy and Brad, our resident conversation German students, who managed with broken German to get us some rooms. We woke up around 3:30 to leave for our train and, get this, the receptionist was back again. Seriously!? We also noticed on our walk back that there were more cars driving around at 4am than at 8pm. What was this place? Thankfully on the train I found a compartment with three open seats and was able to stretch out and use my coat as a pillow, so in the end I got a lot of sleep.

:: even though they were all late, at least they had compartments like the Hogwarts Express! ::

We got to Budapest, took out new currency (Again! I used three new currencies on this trip and when we finally got back to the Eurozone it was beautiful), and then went to find our hostel. There was a few transportation blips, once when Canada got us on the wrong bus and then again when Brad followed Canada off the bus at the wrong stop - just goes to show you should never listen to Canada - but we finally got back to our hostel. There were the nicest people and it was so ridiculously cheap - only about 6 euro a night! Plus they didn't make us pay for missing the night because of our train problems. They were so great. Once we had rested up a bit and taken showers, we ventured off into Budapest. This was Thanksgiving, so we were determined to find some good food, even if it couldn't be like at home. Hungary did NOT disappoint. We got some amazing goulash for lunch and then walked through the food market across the street that had some of everything. After that we walked over to the Buda side of the river and climbed up to see the castle and St Matthias church and various other tourist attractions. The Parliament building is absolutely beautiful, but we never did get to see it up close.

:: Parliament building we only even saw from across the river. oops ::

That night we were planning to see an opera, which we had found $2 tickets for in the nosebleeds. We found a restaurant nearby and ate hamburgers (Amurica!) for Thanksgiving dinner. Actually, it was probably one of the best hamburgers I've ever had, so that was a phenomenal success. The opera was… interesting. It was Fidelio by Beethoven and I knew the basic synopsis of the story but they took some straaaange liberties with staging and costuming. Plus it was a German opera and the subtitles (or supertitles, since they were above the stage) were in Hungarian. We had enough culture by intermission and peaced out. It did make me want to see an opera with English subtitles though because I think if I knew what they were saying I would have really enjoyed it. After that we went to a 24hour Match grocery store (take note, Luxembourg!) and bought a tub of ice cream that we shared for Thanksgiving dessert. It sort of turned into a lawless free-for-all in which Brad attacked me with his spoon. No lie.

The next day we went to the CHRISTMAS MARKET. It was GLORIOUS! It was like getting hit in the face with Christmas. It was set up in a square with tons of stands selling everything and there was all sorts of good food there. We wandered all over for awhile, taking it in, and then started buying things. I got a beautiful new journal, an ornament for our Christmas tree, and lots of food including some sort of cinnamon sugar fried dough and spiced hot white wine. Ohh man. I am going to have to learn to make spiced wine for my 21st. Tres delicieux.

:: enjoying the Christmas market with my friend Aunna ::

After we spend a VERY long time in Christmas land, we decided we should probably see the rest of Budapest. This time we stayed on the Pest side of the River and saw another church (I REALLY liked this church but couldn't get my camera to take a good picture), and then up the main street to see Hero's square and another castle. Then… we went back to the Christmas market. There was a famous cafe near the market called Gerbeaud, so we darted in there for a quick cup of coffee and some of their famous cakes. They were okay. Then CHRISTMAS MARKET again, where we got delicious dinner for cheap. It was even more exciting at night because there were musicians and people everywhere. One thing that I did like about Budapest was that it had cool things to see, but it was not very touristy and everything was cheap. I charged one of my more "expensive" meals to my credit card and was only charged $10!

Then, once again, we had to get up early for a train. It was like we weren't even on vacation. When we woke up in the morning, it was rain-snowing and we had to slosh our way through not just puddles, but entire sidewalks submerged in three inches of melty snow water.

Guess what happened to our train. It came on time but was slowed down by the snowstorm. We were on our way to Salzburg, where we were booked to go on the Sound of Music tour, and had a connection through Vienna. We were on the edge of our seats as we pulled into Vienna because it was far past the time our next train was supposed to leave, but thankfully there was another train leaving just as we got there. We had to RUN up a mountain (ok, hill) to our hotel, but we made it to the tour. I wasn't super excited about the tour, but my friend Aunna had been looking forward to it all week. It ended up being really cool. We saw where many of the scenes from the movie were filmed and the bus took us our into the mountains to some smaller towns that were very nice. We also randomly ran into some friends from Miami on the tour and ended up getting dinner with them later that night after exploring some more Christmas markets. It was a fun day after the initial train stress.

Sunday morning we slept in and then got on our train home to Luxembourg. We thought this time, for sure, there would be no problems. We were going to be on German trains. We only had one connection. There was a forty minute buffer of time that the train could be late and we could still make it. No. Our train STOPPED ON THE TRACKS. At least twice. I sat there thinking you have GOT to be kidding me. Eventually our train pulled into the station 40 minutes late and we sprinted for our train to Luxembourg. Thank GOD we made it, or it would have been a long night.

And that was my last long week of travel! It was very fun and I really enjoyed seeing another side of Europe in the east, even if their trains could be an epic fail. I'll go through and put pictures in this at some point. It's kinda long and I'm exhausted just from writing it.

ps. SNOWBOARDING IN FRANCE TOMORROW.

Look right!

In England, they thing that right is wrong. Incidentally, they also thing that left is right. Clearly, they're a little mixed up.

:: handy instructions whenever we crossed a street ::

Confusing and disconcerting driving laws aside, London was GREAT. I haven't posted yet because, again, I've been furiously reading Harry Potter all week. Haha… but boy, London was awesome. We were so spoiled being able to speak English all weekend. Everywhere we went, we kept saying "I can read that sign!" and "I can hear that subway announcement" and "Did you see I just asked for directions IN ENGLISH?!" Oh man… and it was a good thing we all spoke English too, because the Tube was having major engineering work this past weekend and a ton of lines were closed between certain stations or just outright closed. Even with all that work, it was probably the best underground system of any city I've been to!

So our plan for the weekend was to get in on Friday night and leave EARLY in the morning on Monday in order to make it back for our afternoon classes. When we got there Friday night, it was quite a task getting into the city center via bus and then taking the Underground to a zone just outside the center where our first hostel was. We'd had a bit of a problem getting hostels in London because nowhere good was open for three days when we first booked them and we had to get two different hostels - one that was closer to the bus station for Sunday night when we'd have to wake up at 3 to go to the airport. But then a few days before we left, our other hostel emailed me to say that they didn't have beds for us after all, and we had to book a place even more last-minute - landing us in a hostel above a bar that was nice at first glance, until we got up to our room. It was roughly the size of a large closet with triple stacked bunkbeds to hold nine people. I wish I had gotten a picture - it was ridiculous. The first night was rough, but our roommates were really interesting people, so even though I would never go back there again I'm glad we got to meet them there. One of the guys staying in the room was from New Zealand and he was so sweet! He brought up coffee and bread in the morning to the other girls staying there who had hangovers, and walked my friend to the bus station when she had to leave a day earlier than the rest of us.

:: had to hit up the red phone booth ::

Anyways, on Saturday we woke up, ready to get out of the hostel, and set off into the city center. We took pictures with Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross, bought tickets for some West End shows at Leicaster Square, and then went on to see Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. I really liked going inside Westminster Abbey because I recognized so many famous authors in the Poet's Corner. I even sneaked an illegal picture of Shakespeare's grave because… hey, I'm an English Lit major. I wasn't going to pay to go into the Globe Theatre so this was an obligation. After Buckingham Palace (where we didn't get to see the cool guards le sigh), we wandered into Hyde Park and found the statue of Peter Pan. Since that's one of my favorite books and favorite Disney movies, I took a picture with it.

:: had to leave space for my best friend since we both enjoy Peter Pan ::

Then we walked up Oxford street (a shopping street already decorated for Christmas) for awhile, angling for a certain Mexican restaurant I was particularly excited to go to. It ended up we were walking in the opposite direction, but the Tube came to our rescue and we found CHIPOTLE with enough time to eat before we had to catch our shows. I loooovvee Chipotle. Of course, it wasn't as good as in America, but it definitely will tide me over until I get back to the good ole USA.

:: food of the gods ::

After Chipotle, I split off from the rest of the group to see Les Miserables while they went to see Love Never Dies, a new sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I would have liked to see Love Never Dies, but I have been wanting to see Les Miserables ever since I fell in love with the book in high school. Since its no longer playing on Broadway and seeing Les Mis was something of a bucket list, life-goal sort of thing, I couldn't really pass up this chance. And it did not disappoint. They had this great revolving stage that made for some really interesting staging. Jean Valjean and Marius were both understudies, and while Jean Valjean wasn't my favorite, Marius was wonderful! The actors who played Eponine and Javert really stole the show though… I wish I could just watch it over and over again!

We ended up hanging out at the hostel bar that night with our new roommate friends, which actually ended up being pretty fun. In the morning we had to move to our new hostel. And when I got on the internet, I was surprised to find that my best friend's dad had messaged me to tell me that he was in London too! After wandering over the unimpressive London Bridge and taking some pictures of the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London (another English major obligation), we hung out in Starbucks until we met Mr. Pledger for lunch. It was really crazy seeing him there, and it made me miss Jess a lot, but it was great to catch up with him. It was pouring after lunch so we went back to the hostel to dry off. Aunna and I then went off by ourselves to find some second-hand bookstores. She wanted to find British editions of Harry Potter and I wanted to find an old version of Peter Pan, and although neither of us found what we were looking for, we found something even better up at Camden street! Camden is an alternative sort of area, and they were having a market of sorts that night. There was food everywhere and stands of homemade odds and ends. Aunna and I split a bag of candy, I got a headband and some mulled wine, and Aunna gave me a bite of her caramel and chocolate filled churro. It was probably one of my favorite things we did in London because it was completely unplanned and the atmosphere there was just really cool.

:: Harry Potter ads were everywhere and we were ONE weekend too early ::

We turned in early for bed because we had to be up at 3 to catch a bus to the airport. We got to ride a red double-decker bus to the bus station, and after a bus, plane, another bus, and a train, we made it back in time for classes absolutely exhausted. I really loved London because the people were so friendly and it felt very comfortable. I guess it makes sense that it feels a little more like America since we were speaking English all weekend.

In other news, I went on an adventure today to a hair salon and got bangs! I was really scared cause they spoke zero English, but I got across what I wanted with pictures and broken French (cheveux long et frange? sil vous plait? lol). I'm really happy with it, but we'll see how I manage on my own without a decent round brush.

:: new bangs, thankfully not a disaster ::

In other other news, we also had Thanksgiving dinner last night. Not real Thanksgiving dinner - it really just made me sad I'm missing Thanksgiving at home even more - but it was still good. And now I'm breaking my stringent No-Christmas-music-til-December rule because I've already celebrated Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving doesn't technically exist here anyways so I'm not pushing Thanksgiving aside for Christmas. But this is a special case; next year I will go back to confining Christmas music to its proper month.

It's not letting me upload pictures. >:| I'll do it later. I only have Half-Blood Prince left to read. I should probably consider writing a paper today (but I'm leaning heavily towards reading the article I'm supposed to summarize over the weeklong break and then write the paper on Sunday night before class on Monday... hmmm)

Edit: Now they're up!

j'adore Paris et Suisse.

Not going to lie, I haven't been super excited about writing a blog this week because I've been distracted by other things - namely, my mission to read all of the Harry Potter books before the new movie is released! (Just finished book 3 in case anyone was curious.)

I did, however, have an amazing week off from classes, traveling to Paris and Switzerland with my family. I'm going to try to shove the whole week into one blog post, which will surely leave things out, but I'll try to hit the high points!

My family came in on Thursday and we were able to get dinner with my host mom in Differdange. It was a little surreal showing my family around the chateau, but I'm glad they could see where I go to school. On Friday we hopped on the train to Paris after classes and thankfully the strike in France the day before didn't slow us down at all. We got to stay in a nice apartment while in Paris, and after staying in hostels all semester it was like luxury! We visited the Louvre at night in Paris since it was free for people under 26 after 6 on Fridays, and did a speedy tour of famous art like the Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, and Aphrodite.

Friday was delegated for seeing museums galore since we bought a museum pass that lasted two days. We saw Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle, the Musee d'Orsay, and the Place de la Concorde. In the middle of all that, we stopped in at a English book store called "Shakespeare and Co" that was incredible! It was wall to wall books, with ladders and little nooks and crannies where you could read. I could have spent all afternoon there, but unfortunately we had a lot to see.

:: in this corner, unpictured, was a piano for anyone to play ::

At night my siblings, Aunna, and I got to have dinner with my friend Pietro and his brother, as their family was vacationing in Paris that weekend too. It was so fun (and, not going to lie, a little surreal) to introduce my siblings to one of the friends I met in Rome this summer.

The next day we took a day trip to visit Versailles, the palace of a few French kings. The palace itself was beautiful - albeit a little strange since there was a Japanese art exhibition on display - but the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. We had a bit of an ordeal getting inside, but I'm so glad we stuck it out because it was my favorite thing about Versailles! We went just when they turned on all the fountains and with all the leaves changing for fall, it really couldn't have been more pretty.

:: hall of mirror with the juxtaposition of modern art ::

:: just one of my favorite fountains - this one was small! ::

At night we walked almost the entire length of the Champs-Elysee and climbed to the top of the Arc de Triumph. The view was absolutely gorgeous and included a nighttime view of the sparkling Eiffel tower. Unfortunately, my camera FAILS at taking pictures in the dark. We also got to meet up with Pietro and his brother again, and saw the old Opera house on our way. In a rather comical turn of events, we ended up walking for thirty minutes in a large circle on our mission to find a bar, and ended up right back at the Opera where we started! European streets can get me so turned around.

The next day was dedicated to shopping, so I won't bore you with the details - but I did get some fun purchases including some heeled boots, a huge scarf, some Euro-pants (that's what I call them, but I honestly can't think of a single way to describe them), and a furry vest (not real fur of course).

Our last day in Paris involved a little accommodation switching to a hotel across town, eating crepes, getting a cup of coffee when it started raining, and FINALLY seeing the Eiffel tower. Unfortunately, we realized that there were no seat reservations open on the 10 o'clock train, and so we had to be up at 5 o'clock to catch a train to Berne. Needless to say, we turned in early.

Berne was a huge change of pace compared to Paris. It is the capital of Switzerland, but the old town that we saw certainly didn't feel that way. We saw some old clocks and walked down to the bear pits where there were REAL BEARS. There were four bears, including two baby ones. They were adorable. We also got to have a walk along a river, and I really can't emphasize enough how beautiful a country Switzerland is.

:: someone looked a little tuckered out ::

The next night we went to Interlaken, where one of our distant Steffen relatives - Bettina - was waiting for us! She showed us around her town, Unterseen, which is a little town just west of Interlaken, and took us back to her house. Then came the best part of the day: her husband Toni goes paragliding as a hobby! So we all drove down to the landing field, and then Aunna and I drove up the mountain with Toni. We had to walk about ten minutes after the car stopped until we came to an open area with a slight incline. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Aunna went first and I took pictures of her taking off before laying down on a bench and appreciating the quiet, warm day up on the mountain while I waited for Toni to come back up to get me.

When Toni did come back, he didn't bring anyone new with him, so I didn't get any pictures of me all strapped in to the gear or taking off. But that's ok! Once I was strapped into my backpack-like harness and attached to the paraglider, Toni and I took a few steps down the hill to get the air into the paraglider and then on his cue we RAN until suddenly we just weren't on the ground anymore! It was a really awesome experience, and I even got to control the paraglider on the way down while Toni too mid-flight pictures. When we got closer to the ground, I gave the reins back to him, and we got to do some fun tricks before turning against the wind and touching back down to the ground. Unfortunately I have no pictures of me landing either, because Dad's camera deleted them all. Womp womp... The rest of the day we watched the rest of my family come down out of the sky, and we also got to walk a few minutes away to see a beautiful lake.

:: can't complain about this view ::

When the day was over, we went back to Toni and Bettina's home and had the most delicious homemade meal of rosti (cooked potatoes) and cheese with traditional Swiss sausages. For dessert, we had meringue and a something called Maronni (like a paste made out of a nut). Their children helped cook, and they were absolutely adorable in their little aprons! They didn't speak English, but seemed to like playing with us anyways.

:: adorable ::

By that night, we had decided to change our plans a bit and stay an extra night in Interlaken instead of heading to Luzerne. In the morning, we woke up and hopped on a train to Lauterbrunnen, where we caught a bus and then a cable car to visit some towns up on a mountain. First we went to a beautiful quiet town called Gimmelwald. I can't really say much about it, except by showing pictures.

:: and to top it all off, not a cloud in the sky ::

After that, we took the cable car all the way to the top of the mountain, to Schilthorn (Fun fact: this was the location of some scenes in the Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"). Up there we got to eat in a restaurant that rotated 360 degrees so that you could see the entire view of the mountain - and it was breathtaking! Once again, can't really describe it except with pictures, and even that doesn't do it justice.

:: Helmuth family atop a mountain ::

After we traveled back down the mountain we jumped on a train to our last stop - Luzerne. This train trip was an experience all in itself, first because it went over a mountain and was accordingly beautiful, and second because halfway through the ride we had to all exit the train so they could shuttle us to the next station in buses since the tracks were under construction. Even though I felt a little carsick on the many roads winding up and down the mountain, I saw some of the prettiest views on that 30 minute bus ride because it was definitely off the beaten path. In Luzerne, we had one of the best meals of the trip - fondue! We had cheese, meat, and chocolate fondue, and oh boy was it good. We went back to the hotel stuffed and tired from the long day - and I had been reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows since that morning and was pretty keen on finishing.

In the morning we did a quick walking tour of Luzerne before Aunna and I had to catch our train home. Unfortunately, I was about 50 pages short of finishing Deathly Hallows when I had to return it to my sister to take home. Once again, the scheduled strike did not affect us (Hooray!) and we made it home safely, giving us a full day on Sunday to relax and prepare ourselves for the week ahead! I was so happy my family was able to come, and I got to do some things that I would have never even thought about on my own, thanks to Mom's tour books. :]

Now I'm gearing up for a fun-filled weekend in an ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY! That's right, folks; I am off to London, England this weekend, and it is going to be grand. There will be English spoken. There will be Chipotle eaten. There will be Les Miserables on West End watched. And there will be way. too. much. money. spent. Darn those British pounds…

the Helmuth family minus Luke plus Aunna take over Europe.

uuggggghhh midterms. This is the first week I've felt like I'm in college here, even though I really shouldn't be complaining because I haven't really been working that hard. I had a history midterm on Tuesday, a final for my music sprint course on Wednesday, and a French midterm today. And I should still be studying French I guess, but the practice midterm was easy so my motivation is slightly lacking at the moment. Thus this pointless blog post.

Sometime today, if they can figure out the train system in Lux, I'm going to see my family! They got in to Lux around 11 today and still haven't called me so I don't really know what's up with that. But tomorrow we're going to PARIS and then after that, Switzerland. I'm really excited, but I'm nervous the strikes in France are going to disrupt the trains. A bunch of my friends went last weekend with no problems, but there is an official day of national strike today (28th) so I'm really hoping that doesn't carry over to tomorrow. It probably won't, but that would be a real bummer.

I'm kind of tired today because I stayed up until 5am reading a book... for fun... instead of studying. And I finished the book. So... successful night?

a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being.

So… It's Friday. About this time last week I was on a train to Berlin. You may have noticed I still haven't posted about Berlin, but it's your lucky day because this weekend I'm not going anywhere and I have PLENTY of time to write all about last weekend!

Truth be told, a lot of time last weekend was spent on the train. It is about a 8-9 hour train ride to Berlin from Luxembourg, so I had a lot of time to catch up on reading for class. Anyways, we got into Berlin around 10 at night and met up with some friends who were able to catch an earlier train. We had gotten an eight person hostel room all to ourselves, and it's always so much nicer to know every person in the room you're sleeping in. Needless to say, we were pretty tired after a long day of traveling, so we went to bed with the intention of getting up bright and early the next morning for a FREE walking tour at 9 am.

These free tours happen in a lot of cities. You just tip as much as you want at the end, which is super nice for us poor traveling college students. The tour met outside Starbucks, which was a great incentive for getting up so early. On an unrelated note, Germany is SUCH A GREAT COUNTRY. Where you can buy Starbucks. So, Starbucks in hand, we met our Irish tour guide, Barry. He had moved to Berlin to be a tour guide and he was absolutely hilarious. We started out a the Brandenburg Gate and the US Embassy. The US Embassy was like… fortified. It was intense. The Gate was really impressive, and it had a statue on it that Napoleon stole awhile back. It's supposed to symbolize peace and was looking up into the sky, but now it's holding a scepter instead of an olive branch and its faced was changed so that its staring pretty pointed at the French embassy. Pretty funny. We saw the Reichstag (government building) from afar and then headed over to this area.



This large area of blocks was the Holocaust Memorial. It was a really profound place because it really makes you think, and the way you feel while you're inside it is hard to explain. The idea behind the memorial is that the Holocaust is talked about so much that it doesn't need more explanations; instead the memorial creates a confused or uneasy feeling when you walk through it because it overwhelms you. It was probably one of the best parts of the tour.

After that we saw the location of Hitler's bunker, which was entirely different because it is completely unmarked. The place where Hitler died is now covered with a parking lot and apartment buildings. So that was that.

Next we saw the old Nazi Air Force building, ironically one of the only buildings that never got bombed during the war. It was later converted into a Soviet building, complete with a socialist realist mural along an entire wall depicting the Communist ideal. In front of the building is a long photograph covered with glass of an actual protest during the period, and the people certainly did not look as happy as the mural. The guide said that this particular strike was one of the turning moments when people in East Germany started to realize that socialist ideals probably weren't going to work out. Even though it has all this kind of awful history, they still use the building because it would be too expensive to knock down (the Nazis built really solid, big block type buildings). It's the tax office (like the IRS) now! Still evil!

:: socialist idealism. look at those smiling faces! ::

Then we saw a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall is a pretty crazy concept. The top was rounded so people couldn't grab on to climb over. On the other side of the wall where we looked at it was also the location of the Nazi headquarters apparently.

Next we passed by Checkpoint Charlie, which has a really interesting history as the check point between the Soviet and American sectors of Berlin, but wasn't all that cool to look at. At this point, I was FREEZING because it had been raining all day and I forgot socks, so we stopped for a break in a little restaurant. See how great this tour was? Breaks.

The second half of the tour wasn't as interesting as the first. We saw a few more memorials. My favorite was the memorial for the books that the Nazis burned, a glass plate on the ground that looks down into a white room of empty bookcases. The other one was a memorial for any and all victims of war and tyranny. We ended on museum island, where it would have been cool to see some museums if the lines hadn't been so long. Instead we went inside a restaurant to warm up for awhile. We tried to see the Reichstag later in the day, but the line there was sooo long too. That was one thing I really wanted to see because of the large glass dome thing on the inside that I've seen in some of my friend Eric's pictures from the summer. It would have been neat. Oh well.

:: friends in front of the Reichstag... that we didn't go inside ::

After that we headed off to the other side of the city to see a mural painted on part of the remains of the Berlin wall. It was a really awesome gallery and I would have loved to walk along the entire thing, but it was really long and it was STILL raining.

:: East Side Gallery on remains of the Berlin Wall ::

That night we went out to a few bars and I FINALLY got to go to a club after 3 weekends of planning to but never getting around to it. I really missed dancing, so that was fun. It was a good time… until we got home at 3:30 and had to wake up around 8 to catch a train back to Luxembourg.

Everyone should also know that on the way to the train station in the morning I saw ROCKSTAR being sold in two places and DIDN'T BUY ANY. Isn't that incredible? But I was glad just to see it anyways. Another reason Germany is a great country.

The title to this entry, a quote by Karl Scheffler, is actually significant to my experience in Berlin... One very interesting thing I've noticed about Germany and especially Berlin is their huge attachment to the past - because so many huge events in the last century used Berlin as the centerpiece - while not being held down by their past. Apparently the place is constantly changing. Berlin is one of the most modern-looking cities I've been to in Europe. They have their old buildings, but apparently they're not afraid about knocking them down, or modernizing them like with the Reichstag and the giant glass dome in the middle of it. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that they've had to build it up so many times. It's very different from in Rome where they have been building a new subway for years because they keep hitting ancient ruins and no building is higher than the dome of St. Peters. Part of me really likes that about Rome, but another part of me (probably the more American part) really appreciates Berlin's forward thinking. All in all, I really enjoyed Berlin and I really wish we could have stayed longer than one rainy day. Hopefully I can get back there some time in my life!

a couple diplomatic evenings.

Whew. I just had a whirlwind morning of studying for a poly sci midterm that I had no notes for, taking said midterm, and then writing a five page paper in under an hour. So that's why I haven't posted about Berlin yet. But first, let me go back to last week and talk about the visits I got to have with the ambassadors last week.

On Wednesday, everyone got dressed up all fancy for the visit of the US Ambassador, Cynthia Stroum. I got to wear my new shoes that I bought especially for the event and I looked quite snazzy despite the fact that I was sick all last week. The ambassador definitely wasn't what I expected her to be. We've learned in political science that there are two ways to become an ambassador, by appointment by the President or by being a career diplomat. Ms. Stroum was appointed by President Obama for her work on his campaign. When she arrived, instead of giving a formal lecture, she gave an informal question-answer session. It was very interesting! Among other things, we learned that she knew very little about politics until she became an ambassador, she was one of the seed-investors in Starbucks (and is greatly saddened by the fact that there are no Starbucks in Luxembourg), she has been very involved with philanthropy throughout her life and remains so, and she is only legally allowed to leave Luxembourg about 20 days out of the year! That must be very difficult with France and Germany so close... she mentioned that she is unable to go to Ikea 45 minutes away because it's out of the country for her and she would have to take a leave day! She was quite the character - very personable, funny, and informal with us, so it was an enjoyable lecture. Then we had an amazing dinner of salmon salad, pork roast and vegetables, and a DELICIOUS chocolate fudge cake with vanilla sauce. We ate very well that night.

The following night, my political science class was invited to my Professor's house for dinner with the British ambassador to Luxembourg, Peter Bateman. He gave an interesting presentation in the living room about the history of the UK and more recently their role in the EU. Since I've been studying the EU in another political science class, it was quite interesting to hear the UK's point of view as one of the more reluctant countries in the Union. After the presentation and a short question-answer session, we got another free dinner! This time we had rice, vegetables, more pork roast, and apple pie with ice cream. It was very very good. I also had the pleasure of sitting next to the ambassador at dinner, and he was very interesting to talk to! It was especially interesting when our professor Guy de Muyser came over to talk, because he is still quite an important person in the Luxembourg government and you could tell that even while talking candidly to him, Mr. Bateman was still being a diplomat. There was a large difference between Mr. Bateman and Ms. Stoum since Mr. Bateman was a career diplotmat who has also served as a translator in the EU, and as a diplomat in Japan and Bolivia. He was much more professional and knowledgeable than the US Ambassador.

So, that was last week! Once I upload my pictures to my computer and watch the new How I Met Your Mother episode, I'll get around to posting about Berlin, which was a very interesting city!

no motivation to write this.

Not going to lie, I am so so so unmotivated to write this post right now. I've been feeling a little under the weather this week (and I'm pretty sure I had a light fever yesterday but I had no thermometer to find out). But I figured if I didn't post it before the weekend, I probably wouldn't do it at all and I do want to tell everyone about my exciting weekend in Champagne country!

Last weekend was another discovery tour organized by the student events coordinator, which meant transportation by bus! Much more convenient than train. So we kicked off Friday afternoon by driving to Verdun, the site of a large World War 1 battlefield. We visited a few monuments and saw some trenches and toured a fort, so that was pretty exciting. One thing that really struck me was how beautiful the area was. We see so many pictures of WW1 where the landscape looks barren and brown, but nature has completely taken over now and most of the trenches and craters in the ground created by bombs now look like beautiful rolling green hills. I don't know why that seemed so interesting to me, but it was.

After that we headed on to Reims, a really beautiful French city. I got a wonderful French dinner with my friend Alyssa because everyone else decided to go get Mexican food. Don't get me wrong; I have been craving some good Mexican food, but were were in FRANCE. And it did not disappoint. I shelled out for a good steak and some creme brulee and it was très délicieux. We wandered around the city and stopped for drinks the rest of the night and it was very nice. I really liked Reims.

In the morning we got to experience a nice French morning in Reims. We went to a Saturday morning market and I got some delicious strawberries and strawberry jam. AND I did it all in French. It was interesting; you hear so much about French being a little snobbish about their language, but I felt so much less judged stumbling through my broken French in France than I do in Luxembourg. I really wonder why that is... Every time I try to be polite and order something in French here (where French isn't the mother tongue, but is the official government language and the language on all the signs), people treat me like an idiot. Meh. Anyways, after the market I stopped with a few other people at a cafe and stupidly decided to save money and not get coffee. What was I thinking? After sitting out on the terrace for awhile, we headed over to the Notre-Dame cathedral. Not the one in Paris, but the one in Reims. This cathedral was where all the French kings had their coronations and Jean d'Arc visited it at some point. It was probably my favorite cathedral I've ever been in... And I can't really put my finger on why. I loved their chandeliers. The ceilings were enormous like any cathedral, but the chandeliers were on ridiculously long ropes so they hung just above your head. It somehow made the place seem more intimate. They also had beautiful modern stained glass windows in one section by Marc Chagall because many of the windows were destroyed in the wars. It's actually pretty amazing half the churches in France and Germany are even standing at all...

After some delicious quiche and an eclair for lunch, we went on to the champagne tasting at Pommery where we got to tour their extensive caves where they store the champagne for aging. Now that I've been on a few wine tours, it's really interesting to see the diversity. For instance, the last wine-tasting I went to was on a family owned winery in Germany, where the owner gave us the tour, showed us where he grew the grapes, and then explained each wine to us when we tried them - it was very homey and down to earth. In Pommery, even the caves had an air of refinement. They had art exhibitions throughout the entire thing and the entrance into the caves were these really regal steps. When we did the tasting, we were taken into a private, posh room and were given just one champagne. I liked both ways, and I'm glad I got to experience both. I bought one cute thing of champagne called POP, a new product from Pommery that is meant to casualize champagne. It comes in this vivid pink little bottle and it even comes with a straw to drink it like it was out of a 1950s Coke ad. I don't know if there's ads like that but it sounds right.

After that we loaded on the bus again to go to Belgium! We stopped at a monastery to do a beer and cheese tasting of the Chimay beer and cheese made by the monks there. Despite not liking beer, it was pretty good. The cheese seriously made the experience though. It was some GOOD cheese. After that we just headed home. We had the option of going to museums in Luxembourg City because they were opened until 1am for a special event, but I was exhausted and I just headed home.

On Sunday I had a grand plan of getting on the internet to research for a paper. Epic fail. I had FINALLY found wifi at a kebab restaurant the week before, but for some reason it stopped working for me on Sunday. Come to find out, I have free wifi in the park outside my house, so I ended up sitting out there instead. Unfortunately, children were screaming in the park all day and got kind of cold. I think sitting there all day was probably why I got sick this week. At night my host mom took me out to dinner and it was really really good. Then after we ate she asked the staff and it turns out they have wifi in their front room bar/cafe area, so I might go hang out there sometimes. I also got around to asking if I could just plug in my host mom's ethernet cable to my laptop, so now I finally can get on the internet at home... when she's not using it and when I want to go all the way downstairs.

The only other exciting thing that's happened this week is that I got sick and the US Ambassador to Luxembourg came to talk to us tonight at the Chateau. But tomorrow night I'm going to meet the British Ambassador to Luxembourg... so I'm going to hold off on writing about the US Ambassador until after that so it can be an ambassador themed post.

No pictures in this post yet because I haven't even put them on my computer. Maybe I'll get around to that.

not Rome, for school, but still fun.

Alright. So now you've read about Rome and I've gotten a little less tired so I think I can write up the second part of my week in Italy - on the tracks of Verdi and Puccini, two famous Italian opera composers from the Romantic period.

It started off VERY EARLY in the morning. Rome traffic can be pretty bad, so we woke up at 5am to get down to Termini to catch our 7am train to Milan before the traffic got too bad. Shout of to Francesca, the sweetest girl in the world, who woke up with us, made us coffee, and drove us to the bus stop. The train took about 3 hours and it was a pretty nice train - there were no stops so it went very fast! In Milan we met the rest of our class and the professor at the Duomo cathedral. It was beautiful!

:: why hello there Baroque period ::

Milan was alright, but it was a huge change from the rest of Italy that I've seen. We enjoyed some shopping and looking at the fashion streets where we couldn't buy anything, but the impression I got from Milan the entire time we were there was… grey. I don't know how else to describe it. Still it was a very beautiful city. For our class, we went to see the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a home for old musicians who couldn't support themselves that Verdi built. It was a really interesting place and it is still in operation today. We were able to meet some of the old musicians and see a concert for them put on by a Japanese University. We also visited the Teatro alla Scala, one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda interested in operas after all this. I would love to get all dressed up and go see one sometime if it was in a place as nice as this.

I was EXHAUSTED so I didn't do much at night in Milan, but in the morning we got up early again and drove to Busseto, the birthplace of Verdi. We toured the house he was born in, the house he built once he was famous, and had a private concert of a few of his arias. Our tour guide Federico was our age and spoke great English, and since he was with us like all day we got to know him a little bit. At night we went with him and his family to a small restaurant where we got a huge Italian meal and a wine tasting. It was good, but not going to lie… it didn't scratch my top five Italian meals. Still, can't go wrong with a free meal!

:: the whole group... minus me ::

In the morning we made the long drive to Pisa. I took the obligatory picture holding up the tower and got lunch with my friend Erica. We got majorly hit on by a kinda creepster Italian waiter who ended up giving me his card, but his English was really really good because he studied in London and he was actually really cute… so that was nice I guess. Haha it was an experience. After that our tour guide failed to show up so we went over to a nearby town called Lucca for the rest of the night. I really loved Lucca! It was so cute and beautiful. We got to see Puccini's birthplace and I got to eat yummy gnocchi with pesto. I wish we could have stayed there a little longer, but our hotel was closer to Pisa. In the morning we got up and in the morning went to see Puccini's large home in Torre del Lago right on the coast of the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! And the tour was probably the most interesting of the whole trip. While Verdi was a very serious, philanthropic man, Puccini was like a fun-loving, free-spending playboy. So that made for an interesting tour. Haha.

:: don't worry. I had it under control ::

After that we drove alll the way up to Lake Como. Como was probably my favorite location of the study tour. It was SO SO beautiful. I would definitely go back there with my family or friends or someone special. :] We got the night free in the city and I definitely enjoyed my last night in Italy - celebrating with two gelatos in one day instead of my usual one. The next day we got up early and made the long drive back to Luxembourg. We drove through Italy, Switzerland, France, and Germany to get back, so it was never a boring drive. Driving through Switzerland was GORGEOUS. Seriously gorgeous.

:: Lake Como with my friend Erica... and a new leather jacket ::

So that was my mini study tour! I learned a lot about operas! haha… Now I'll just have to go to one sometime.

can someone please explain to me why I ever leave this city?

Whew I'm back from Italy! It was such a great week! I'm going to go ahead and divide this post into two parts for your reading convenience and the first part is going to be about ROMA.

I LOVE ROMA.

This is still by far my favorite city in the world. I am seriously so so blessed that God let me come back to Rome so soon after I left and I was able to reconnect with almost all of the friends I made while I was there in the spring/summer (except of course all my American SP friends who I wish could have been with me!). I even got to stay with my friend Francesca's family and they spoiled us rotten… seriously some of the greatest hosts ever.

:: we finally remembered to take a picture with Francesca's family the night before we left ::

But let me start from the beginning.

On Friday I turned in that paper (I finished it BEFORE midnight Thursday night. I know, you can be impressed) and finished packing (now you can finished being impressed and say "what was she doing packing the day of for a week long trip?"). Then at 3:00 we started our long day of travel by catching the train from Differdange to Luxembourg City where we caught a bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport in Germany. We got there about two hours early to get through security and all that, and then our roughly an hour and a half flight left at 8:00. Now here's where it gets interesting. We told Francesca we would get to Termini (Rome's central train station) around 11 at night because our flight landed around 9:30 and we had bought tickets for a 10:30 bus into the city. All of my Roman friends' numbers were safely in my cell phone, but as you know, you have to turn off your cell phone on an airplane. When I turned on my phone when we landed, I just guessed at my PIN number for awhile to unlock it - even though I had a piece of paper tucked under the battery with the number on it. What I didn't know was that after a certain amount of incorrect guesses, the SIM card locks itself up. So now we have ZERO numbers and no way to call Francesca, and we were on our way to Termini, which is in one of the most dangerous areas of Rome at night. Awesome. So we wandered all around Termini station for awhile and by the grace of God found an internet cafe where I was able to look up my friend Pietro's phone number. Aunna called him and it turned out that he was actually at Termini with Francesca because she had gotten scared walking around trying to find us! Ahh I was so relieved when we met up with them! Francesca's little sister Giulia was with them also and she spoke really good English. After we loaded our bags in her car, we got stuck in the parking lot because the parking ticket didn't work for some reason and then got stopped by some cops on the way home who were doing random driving documents checks (or that's what I gathered anyways). So it was an interesting night. Apparently Pietro had been all ready for bed before he came so props to him for being such a gentleman. I have good friends.

We CRASHED when we got back to Francesca's! Haha. But they still served us delicious leftover food before that. We were okay with that.

On Saturday morning we woke up and met the rest of Francesca's family. Her mom made us caffe and cornetti for breakfast, along with some chocolate cookie crackers and Ringo cookie snack bars. It was so good. And here comes something really exciting. We got to take showers and USE A REAL HAIR DRYER. WITH A DIFFUSER. Haha. I haven't really mentioned this on the blog obviously, but my little hair dryer I have in Lux is really a travel hair dryer and it systematically destroys my hair with its insane heat settings. Francesca saw it and was like "oh no, use mine" and I was so happy. My hair was so curly.

Once we were all cute and ready for Rome, Francesca showed us the 80 express bus that would take us down to the center. We did a whirlwind tour of the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Sant Eustachio (favorite cappuccino of all life), random pizza place, Giolitti (apple and cinnamon is still incredible), all the way up Corso with a stop in H&M and Vertecchi, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, and Villa Borghese. I really liked wandering in Villa Borghese because it was much more relaxing without the World Cup madness going on there… and it was SUCH a beautiful day. It must have been high 70s or low 80s. So great. Then I tried to cut back and show Aunna the Wedding Cake (Vittoriano), but my shortcut was a colossal failure. We ended up seeing some cool old stuff… We took pictures to ask my friends but we never really figured out what it all was. We ended up stumbling upon Termini (look at a map of Rome; this is hilarious since we were trying to get to Vittoriano), which was perfect because I knew how to get back to Francesca's house from there… although we did have a bit of an adventure on the bus trying to figure out which was her exact stop.

:: it worked twice already! so I'm officially going back to Rome ::

That night, we went with Francesca to meet up with Pietro and Anna to watch the Roma vs. Inter soccer game at a pizzeria. They weren't being too loud about the game because they were all cheering for Inter and obviously everyone else in the room was cheering for Roma. Pietro is obligated to hate Rome because he cheers for Lazio, another sort of rival team based in Rome, and Francesca's whole family cheers for Inter. Giulia had like… a shrine to Inter in her room! It was great. Anyways, they were all pretty mad when Roma won at the last moment. I ended up not seeing much of the match because the TV screens were too small but it was okay because I got to catch up with everyone. And it was pizza. Even though I spent a good portion of dinner defending American food, I was really glad to be eating Italian pizza again. We also had some good bruschetta and meat kebob sticks that I apparently couldn't eat the "right way". I was mercilessly made fun of for trying to take them off with my fingers because I couldn't bite them hard enough… After that Pietro took us to his favorite pub and I still crack myself up just thinking about it. This bar had a serious identity crisis. It was a Titanic-themed Irish pub with Texan decorations that played a mix of country music, Irish music, and what I'm pretty sure was a Blues Brothers soundtrack ripped illegally from the movie.

Seriously, doesn't that just kill you? Oh man. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it.

On Sunday we slept in and then met up with my friend Davide for lunch. We met up by the Spanish Steps, but ended up taking a cab over to Trastevere to get lunch. It's so pretty over there! I had really good cacio e pepe… And hanging out with Davide is such a riot. He had actually been at the Roma-Inter match the night before and he kept breaking out into Roma songs. He took us to Piazza Navona after lunch, which was really cool because I didn't see it over the summer. Then we got Della Palma gelato, which he claimed was better than Giolitti but I'm not convinced.

:: mmmmm gelato. we got it every day and were teased ::

I was so so so so full at this point. Italian food just fills me up! But we continued on to see the Vittoriano, or the Wedding Cake, (finally) and climbed to the top. I'm pretty sure its a memorial to Vittorio Emanuele, one of their kings, or something like that. Then Davide wanted to look in some stores so we went up Corso again and ended up in Piazza del Popolo. After laying around there for awhile, we caught a cab over to San Giovanni. I was almost asleep in the cab when we got there haha. It was nice to go in San Giovanni, because I had walked past this church all summer whenever I caught the bus, but I never went in it. It was very pretty inside… the ceilings were made of real gold. Craziness. By then we were all exhausted so Aunna and I headed back to Francesca's for dinner. They're from southern Italy and they eat super late, but even though we didn't eat until around 10:00 it was okay because I was still so full from lunch. And this was a good meal. Francesca's mom made amatriciana (I think), which I had all the time over the summer but it had never been this good. After pasta, we had some pork with fruit on it and mushrooms on the side, and it was all so good. I don't even usually like mushrooms. We had been planning to go do something that night (we weren't really sure what…) but after dinner was finished we were so full and tired we decided to just call it a night.

On Monday we woke up somewhat early to go to the Colosseum and the Roman forum. It hasn't changed. Still cool. After that we beasted the bus system to find my friend Giovanni's new apartment to have lunch. He had two roommates who I don't think I've met before and they made us delicious rice with zucca (pumpkin) sauce on it. Giovanni even had olive oil from his family's farm to put on it. It was so good! This is a reoccurring theme in Rome. We were so spoiled when it came to food. Anyways, it was great to catch up with Giovanni. I got to randomly teach him a little swing dancing, which was funny. Almost fell down doing a dip, so we stopped there. Haha. We talked about movies for a little bit too, and apparently everyone in Italy has seen more movies than me. Not surprisingly, Giovanni is into indy-esque film festival type films… But I did a little PR for Inception because it just came out in Italy and everyone should see it… and man that's just such a good movie. They also had this really weird wall decoration/statue right when you come in to the apartment who they had dressed up and named Pumba.

:: seriously, what is this thing? ::

After spending the afternoon with Giovanni and his roommates, Aunna and I headed over to La Sapienza to meet up with Pietro, who had recently finished an exam, and Francesca, who was studying there. (I forgot to mention that Pietro had two exams while we were in Rome and managed to get good grades on both of them while still hanging out with us at night.) After figuring out dinner plans, Aunna and I left them to keep studying and went to get gelato at my favorite gelateria in San Lorenzo where we stayed this summer. San Lorenzo is about the same… I recognized some of the old men who hung out in front of the Salvation Army and got a caffe at Patos for kicks and giggles. We ended up getting dinner in San Lorenzo with Licia, Francesca, and Pietro at a restaurant that I remembered for it's great pasta (for those of you who were there - the place on the way to La Sapienza that had seafood but where we got to eat three pasta dishes buffet style for like 9 euro). And the owner recognized me! I had only been in there two times, but both times were with large groups of American girls so I guess we were memorable… I like that man. Andrea met up with us after dinner and we went to get granita, which I think is Sicilian ice (kind of like an icee but thicker and better). I'm glad I finally got to see Andrea because he had been working or something silly like that all weekend and couldn't hang out. Psh lame.

I seriously love hanging out with these people. Even during the long stretches of conversation when I don't understand exactly what's being said, I start laughing because they're just so funny. How did I meet such fun people? (I hesitate to say cool, because let's be serious… its Andrea and Pietro… ;] ) Anyways, thanks God.

On Tuesday, our last day in Rome, we decided to sleep in. We got lunch with Beth Ann and Alyssa, two of the long-term Crusade staff in Rome, and it was so nice to catch up. I was really encouraged to talk to them, especially about how ministry in Rome is going. They're slowly getting their new Stint team due to some delays in support and I think a few more long-term staff have come on board. Praise God that he's bringing more people into Rome. :] Hopefully I'll be with them in a few years! After delicious pizza, Aunna and I went down to see the Vatican museum. The line was mercifully shorter than when I went over the summer. Thank you Jesus. I could not have handled that again. I actually enjoyed the museum a bit more than last time as well because we were a little more free to wander with less people (two versus 30-something) and without the free vatican sunday crowd. We also climbed to the top of the dome on St. Peters Basilica, which I had never done before. And by climbed, I mean we opted to take the elevator halfway and climb only what was absolutely necessary (still more than 300 steps). The view was beautiful!

:: you could see almost all of Rome ::

After exploring St. Peter for a little bit, we got gelato at Old Bridge, a really good gelato place near the Vatican. Mmm. We finished that in time to head over to Piazza Bologna to meet Pietro, Andrea, Francesca, and Licia for aperitivo. Aperitivo is something like Italian happy hour, but the basic gist is that you get a drink and an all you can eat buffet of "appetizers" for something like 6-8 euro and it's a nice way to hang out with people - especially when one of your friends has an exam the next day and can't stay out late. Now, when I say appetizers, I mean random pizza slices, pasta, veggies, and all that delicious stuff. We ended up at a place near Pietro's apartment where, I dare say, we witnessed a miracle - Pietro found parking on his street. I really liked the place we went… It was artsy and modern looking, even though I'm pretty sure Pietro called it gaudy (the conversation was a little confusing; I'll spare you the details). It was the only night I remembered to take pictures, but lots of people were there so it worked out. :] Highlights of conversation included Pietro's insistence that Francesca was in love with him (we all determined it was the other way around) and my proper usage of the phrase "li mortacci tua" when Pietro was making fun of me not being able to speak Italian. They came to the general consensus that it's too inconvenient for me not to know Italian when they're telling so many hilarious jokes, so I guess I'll have to work on that. I was so sad when we all had to leave… but Aunna and I were getting up at 5:00 to catch a train to Milan and everyone else had to study or something. After saying all our goodbyes, we headed back to Francesca's house just in time for dinner at 9:30! Haha, but this was seriously incredible. Francesca's mom made lasagna. Oh. My. Lord. It was delicious. It was so delicious.

:: my wonderful friends... I miss them already ::

So that was Rome. As you may have noticed, I love this city. I love these people. I am so freaking blessed that I got to come here again. I will be going back as soon as possible. As for the rest of Italy… I'm tired. I'll write that later.