the final week.

i cant believe its been a semester.
ive got a sticky note for every day i have left until i leave with things to do on it.
which is sad for two reasons: one because theres room on my desk for the FIVE sticky notes and also because i felt the need to make a sticky note calendar. i mean really?


anyway, ill try to blurb a little every day. yesterday we took a cultural compatability test for ocu. we took the same test at the beginning of the semester and its just to see if the trip "expanded our worldview." it wasnt hard so im not complaining but... also i bought a duffel bag to carry home my extra stuff and i started my last minute shopping.

tomorrow: vienna boys choir and christmas markets! ill post lots of photos...



random photo from this week... this was the day when there were fifteen days left. so ten days ago. so last week, my bad. my friends cute yeah?

prague

im in prague for a couple days and then budapest... its cold (snowed today!) but nice.


the money is hard to get used to- 1 euro is 250 here in prague... its fun. dinner was 135 last night and a post card was 5. i feel rich!

today was our first real day, we went to the national museum which is a huge museum full of stuffed animals and skeletons of humans. i loved it. even though i dont speak czech i know the scientific names to enough animals to deduce what im looking at... thank you dr marler and zo! i knew i struggled through that for a reason! my favorite thing was the fin whale skeleton. it was 74 feet long and weighed 8884 lbs. that was in english on the sign. there were rooms and rooms full of rocks (kinda boring i wont lie) but i saw a meteor! i thought it worth noting that there were signs in the temporary exhibits that were made out of tri-board and printed paper peeling at the corners. the money in this museum is not going toward heat or signs thats for sure! but it was truly amazing... i think they have the right idea in having quality artifacts as first priority.

so thats prague so far. im sure the rest will be as lovely.


the first atronomical clock ever. brilliant.

gobble gobble

things im thankful for:

- My Savior
- family... be careful today! its a battlefield out there!
- friends
- health

ive been journal on this trip consistently and i went back and read it last night. its been a long trip, and it was fun to see how different my journaling is now... in the beginning there was an entire entry about how i was going to fit everything i needed in one backpack for our travels. and now that ive got one more travel im wondering if i should just take a purse for six days? probably not, but the point is three months have taught me a little about what i really need and whats just a gift. and ive narrowed it down to the things that are really important above i think.
im also thankful for turkey and being able to afford to go to the movies after dinner but itd be alright if i couldnt.
paul says, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances [...] whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (phil. 4:11-13)

really the entire list could be one thing... but im going to be selfish and keep the other three. what are you thankful for?







things i love about thanksgiving:

- food, friends,family
- those turkey balls you can make out of rice crispies, candy corn, and oreos. they taste terrible but they are so cute!
- leftover candy corn from halloween
- its perfectly acceptable to sit around all day and be lethargic and talk... a holiday made for me! :)



bk making a feast! with his wife and a million other people of course. if you ate it yesterday.... chances are so did we. they were amazing!


most of our group! our makeshift family.

because football should be this famous everywhere...

so last night in celebration of being fully recovered i went to watch the austrian national team play tunisia.. i was pretty thrilled about the whole thing but there were a few obstacles in the way of the idea before i was going to get really really excited about it...

1. its the middle of the winter here and the game doesnt start until eight thirty. so its going to be freezing. of course a little weather isnt going to get in the way so i put on a sweater, a fleece, a hoodie and my coat.and then i waddle over to my closet and get mittens and a scarf and tights and socks. check one thing off the list of problems!
2. its an international sporting event yeah? and even the cheap seats at mariners games are what? twenty one usd or something like that so i wasnt even sure i could afford to go without starving myself for a couple weeks right? tickets were twelve euro ((i just had a slight problem spelling euro. just thought you should know the goings-on of writing a blog so early in the morning...)). thats under twenty dollars. its thanksgiving and so im not going to go on and on about sporting events being expensive in the states, but they are! so hurdle two crossed.


i leave the castle at seven to meet with everyone at eight so we can go to the game together... group unity and all right? but something is going on with construction and the trams are being rerouted and so the group im with ends up on the 21 tram three minutes after kickoff. which is okay cause really, its not arsenal tottenham or anything. so were on the tram.. and this austrian women with her daughter leans over and taps me and waves a couple tickets at me.
"you go to game?" i nodded.
"free tickets?" so just by being amazing i scored my whole group of five free tickets. and then a couple from minnesota who were riding the tram somehow got lumped in with our group so nine of us got off the tram and headed toward the stadium.
our seats werent shabby either.
we were only eight rows up. i know its a friendly with a team thats, to put it tactfully, dismal but still. eight rows up. amazing.

of course we were smack dab in the midle of the tusinia crowd.

and they were really crazy.

but it was amazing!






so now its thanksgiving morning and i have to work and noon with my kp group so im up early.. had cider and some fruit for breakfast. its weird but some holidays you feel more festive than others. there have been thanksgivings where its been just another day yeah? but sitting all toasty at breakfast in my pajamas with good company and good food it feels like a holiday.
tonight people without family here are going to get together and do things, home away from home. ben bryant and i are going to see a movie after dinner.

so, in conclusion, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

sickcapades!

i woke up with green snot.
i know you wanted to know that and thats why i told you!

when i woke up from the overnight train there was snow everywhere! and it was still snowing... it was perfect.
then we spent the entire day outside looking at places in vienna in the snow cause we couldnt get back into the castle until six.



the uk was amazing!! but we were cold and wet the whole time and i caught something. the stomach part is over and now just the head stuff is left which isnt so bad... im just restricting myself to the castle today.
so...
this is what im doing!

- making a list of food i want to eat when i get home
- sleeping, drinking water, washing clothes
- journaling
- sleeping
- eating
- maybe watching a movie

but im glad im getting over the winter death before christmas so im not snuffly while im passing out my sweet gifts!
anyways, there are a couple new photos up for the last posts so scroll around and such. i might even post again today. well see.
its pretty cool that i caught a euro sickness yeah?



the view from my window.

in dublin!

this is us at midnight in dublin on the bus.

-its raining but thats actually a good thing cause it keep it warm.
- the natural history museum is closed randomly... they have stuffed animals. real ones.
- our hostel this trip is kinda sketch. yes.
- today were taking a bus out to the ocean! im so excited.. theres cliff walks and a castle, ill take photos upon photos i think.
- there was a man in our hostel in scotland and he had a stroke a couple years ago and is crazy so he would sit on the back porch facing the alley and scream and swear at the irish who were apparently attacking him. but from what ive seen the irish arent so bad. although...
- they are required to have security guards because so man young people cause problems.
- did i mention ive worn green everyday?
- its time for breakfast but heres a little something from glen hansard and once that says dublin. hes a vacuum repair man.. that might make the song a little more funny.




"Ten years ago
I fell in love with an Irish girl
She took my heart

But she went and [left me for] some guy she knew
and now I'm in Dublin with a broken heart

Oh broken hearted Hoover fixer sucker guy
Oh broken hearted Hoover fixer sucker, sucker guy

One day I'll go there and win her once again
but until then I'm just a sucker of a guy"


eating fish and chips on the water



howth. beautiful yeah?

scotland.. with a brief stop in paris.

quickly, another eiffel photo.



well, im on the road again!
((surprising i know))
its the uk this week, and more specifically scotland these couple days.

bullet thoughts:

- we met a man from isreal, ran, and that was interesting because I've not met anyone whose lived there recently ((during the growing conflicts))... im not a social scientist or anything but it was interesting hearing his perspective on the situation.

- i rode a bus from glasgow to edinburgh yesterday and i sat next to a tall redhead. this is only significant in that i love redheads.

- photos of the HUGE castle in edinburgh when i get back, its incredible. right in the center of town! i think it might even be the castle where bryan adams had that concert on the two disc robin hood dvd.

- i got a free cd from a street performer who took a group of us to a cute reggae club.

- when we were walking along the water we got egged. yeah, as in egged. the girl next to me got hit directly and all the innards hit the girl on the other side of me. i got a speck the size of one of these letters got on my jeans. i got lucky... we went into the olderst bar in glasgow to clean up. the scotia. i took a photo but i think it got deleted. sorry.


scotland is my favorite so far. scotland and paris. and vienna of course. more to come, but now im out into the FREEZING cold to explore!

sometimes you just have to laugh...

tomorrow im going to the uk. paris one day, scotland and ireland five days each. im pretty jazzed, this is the part of the trip ive been looking forward to the most!
i cant even describe really how pumped i am.

which is not at all why i got on to blog.
tonight i was coming home from town and i decided to walk the one stop from the u-bahn to the grocery store because it would end up being faster than waiting for the tram yeah?
its winter here already, no snow but only about three hours of sun a day. it was five but already dark out and the wind was gusting and it was freezing and wet and i was buried as deep in my coat as i could possibly be, my chin tucked almost to my chest.
a really big gust of wind came and i curled a little more.... and ran right into a huge box suspended from the wall of the building i was walking beside! it clipped me right in between my chin and my chest and it snapped me sideways. i had a lot of momentum though- it was cold out and i wanted to get to the spar!- and when i hit the first time it spun me and i hit my shoulder on the corner and fell on the ground, bags and purse flying.
i got up really fast and looked around i didnt see anyone which was quite a feat actually considering the time, and i collected my stuff and straightened up and stared right into the eyes of this old man standing not five feet away from me, hand on his open car door with literally, his mouth hanging open. i was so close to getting away with it! i just smiled at him and walked off really fast....

oh man. sometimes you just have to laugh...

trains, a few planes, and no automobiles...

we turned off all the lights so we could see the snow outside... then we invited lots of other people to see!


an overnight train to italy... playing spades.

one of the things thats amazing about europe is the transportation. from the schloss i can get to downtown vienna in twenty minutes. from downtown i can get to the train station in less than ten. and from the train station i can go anywhere in europe on the eurail! amazing!

i love taking the train. it reminds me of harry potter. also i love the train because you can move around unlike a plane but you dont have to drive like a car. and its different... i ride the train from seattle to portland to go to school but its not quite the same- i dont need my passport for one! and there arent cute compartments.

i get teased because i enjoy the train almost as much as the cities were going to see. but i dont mind. cause it really is cool.

"The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before."
:G.K. Chesterton

misc happenings

so three stories:

my family sent me a package a couple weeks ago and my dad sent me a huge spam shirt that i now where to bed and breakfast. i always get teased by the cooks ((who, besides the two other students who eat breakfast everyday, are the only people who have viewed me in the lovely shirt)) and today at breakfast they gave me a tiny tin of european spam. its processed meat in a tin that you spread onto your bread at breakfast. non refrigerated meat. awesome. i keep it on my desk so that im sure to smile when i walk in my room. if the tin doesnt do it the bon jovi magazine advert my mom sent me that is plastered to my wall. i listen to bon jovi in the shower really loud, some things dont change no matter what continent youre on! not the new cd though...


also i got a package from a family from church back home! i was slightly embarrassed i wont lie when i pulled out the sunday comics, some strawberry candies and a bright orange panties. oh yes. at lunch. but they are very cute and i am glad i have them. they are definitely coming on my uk excursion! thanks so much duffys!


one last thing before i go to lunch. in class today we were discussing overarching ideas throughout different things and westerns came up... hows theres a good guy and a bad guy and a shootout every time. our teacher said, "this one might be harder to think of because there hasnt really been a western out in a long time..."
and a girl sitting in my row goes
"umm, brokeback mountan?" the teacher decided that maybe that wasnt the best example. and thats about when class fell apart for me. my face hurt from laughing so hard!

four days in the schloss.

were home! after a busy munich ((we saw the castle that the disneyland castle is modeled after)) we got home yesterday and jumped right back into a regualr schedule.... which meant breakfast at 745 and class at 900. good ole castle life.
but after early class and an excellent lunch i bought skinny jeans. i, as a general rule, am against them on myself but europe has a few different dress rules. i thought id outline briefly:

- first, blacks dont have to match. so black pants, shoes, coat, and shirt can be conflicting shades. also, all primary colors can be thrown in, pastels are apropriate and neons are encouraged. pretty much color doesnt affect whether an outfit works.

- knits are in right now. but arent they always in the winter? i dunno. hats are worn farther back on the head and completely off the forhead.

- skinny jeans. also in in the states they just work better on the entire population better in europe cause they have slim legs from walking everywhere....



so, thats whats up. i bought skinny jeans despite not having eurolegs because im going to the uk and its going to be freezing and if its rains my regular jeans will get wet up to my knees and ill double freeze to death. but skinny jeans stay above the shoe. when i began to appreciate high waters ((is that even what theyre called? something like that...)) im not sure but here i am wondering if they come in any sizes that arent mom jeans. man.
i finished my first journal on the train home from munich. hopefully my new one gets here before we leave for the uk this weekend! its overwhelming how much i wrote... but i know ill be happy about it in twenty years. or next semester.
so skinny jeans and class and two episodes of the office as a group today. im going to bed early so i can get up and do laundry tomorrow! yay clean clothes!

when the moon hits your eye...

thats italian right?


we traveled to italy this week as a group... rome, florence, and venice each for two days.

rome: amazing. especially from a history minors perspective. trevi fountain ((roman holiday anyone?))

florence: leather markets. warning- kinda gross follows... there were piglets hanging up in food stalls. just chilling. i bought really good dried fruit though.
venice: we spent two days getting really lost and then finding our way back to the hotel. it was an adventure. it rained really hard one night so i might have been the only person who really enjoyed being in the middle of who-knows-where but...



FUNNY STORY: in florence i was sitting by the grand canal journaling under an overhang so as not to get wet while im working yeah? and ive probably been there an hour and as im writing the last line of my page to get up and move on something splats all over my journal and arm. i got pooped on by a bird!!!! sick! i must have sat a good twenty seconds in shock before i got up to clean everything off... i was under an overhang! ugh. so my jacket has to be washed when i get home.

right now im back in munich checking out castles, not today though all saints day is a serious holiday in bovaria ((the region of germany that munich is in)) so places are closed and everyone goes to the cemetery. theres a band and the mayor makes a speech...
were staying with a family from the local church, last night there was a halloween party. i wore a huge pink dress, a white wig and an octoberfest bovarian hat. photos when i get home. it was great fun, we played cranium with a group of older couples and one college aged german who studies at u penn. it was a swiss, german, new zealand, american, british party! the man half of the british couple came as a woman. quite smashing one actually. :)