The time is near...

So The Washington Center has sent out my resume to a few places and right now there are three agencies who have looked at my detailed profile online.

- The Peace Corps
- Women for Women International
- Refugees International

I must say that I could not have gotten a better combination and if all three call for interviews and offer me a job, I'll be in for one incredibly difficult decision. I've done some preliminary research on all of them and, while they have rather different ways of handling some of the same situations, I admire all of their work.

Has anyone worked with or heard of any of these agencies? Advice, feedback and general comments are greatly appreciated!

(Sherri-thought it was rather ironic that about two days after you emailed me with Ms.Busch's info the Peace Corps looked at my profile... small world)

Ada Tornado

OK. So this afternoon I was innocently watching a movie when the power went out. When I called my boss to find out what was up his secretary told me "Well a tornado just hit down in Bluffton..." and then the phone cut out. Since Bluffton's maybe 10 miles north of Ada I decided it would be beneficial to get out of my matchstick second story apartment and head for the Student Union on campus. Good thing, because as soon as I got there the wind kicked up with a VENGEANCE, the sky went literally BLACK and it started raining like mad. Then the tornado sirens went off and me and pretty much all of my supervisors headed for the basement. When it was all over I took out my camera and here's what I got. My friend headed a bit north with his car and got some other photos. They make most of this look tame. And from what we've heard Lima's in really bad shape...

Tree right outside my apartment. The top half is about 25 feet from the trunk.

HUGE old tree went straight down between the Student Union and the Admissions building.

Padrone's (with pizza so good it could change your life) no longer has all of its roof ON the roof. Which is especially sad since just two days ago I was thinking how much I wanted breadsticks.

On the left is the hole in the ground. On the right is the tree. The ENTIRE tree. It got picked straight up and moved. On the bottom is how far away it was. I'd say about .30 feet.

I think it was an old antenna or something. It was pretty heavy-duty metal, not aluminum or anything flimsy...
BIG trees went down.

Not sure if you can quite see it here, but that's the trunk in the middle. Off to the right is one BIG branch and the rest of the tree is at least 50meters away. The white thing at the end of the tree is siding from the building it landed near.

This was the wall (solid brick and steel fencing) that surrounded the garden outside the chapel.

So there's that. Quite an interesting day. And stay tuned... I'll have a random life update soon... grenoblegirl's headed for Washington D.C.!!!

Life Update

I've had a million and one questions lately about what the next few years of my life entail. From family, friends, random strangers, faculty members, bosses, and that little voice inside my head. So here's the run-down ya'll...

When I got back from France I was informed that, "magically", I could graduate two quarters early if I wanted. (Had they told me this before I obviously would have stayed in France for a full year. According to my own calculations I would graduate just on time, but whatev). Looking at my options for post-graduation I decided to stay in school for the additional two quarters because, quite frankly, starting something in the middle of November wasn't particularly feasible or attractive.

That's why I decided to intern for a quarter. It takes up one of my two "free" quarters and looks great on a resume. It also gets me the heck out of Ada (Sorry, but after a semester abroad and a few trips to NYC I'm so sick of small-town America I could scream. And the high school cheerleader-esque drama that seems to easily manifest itself on this small campus of like-minded people is driving me almost to the point of hurting myself) and an internship will give me a chance to see what I really want to do for the rest of my life. I applied through The Washington Center, which is a group that has an agreement with Ohio Northern University, and was accepted. Now I work through them to find an internship. I'm hoping for something in the non-governmental sector that will allow me to use my French language skills and focus on international human/refugee rights. (I can actually hear my parents moaning "$30 grand a year in tuition and she wants to work for an NGO?!?")

After a quarter in DC it's back to ONU to finish off the classes I need and then graduate with the rest of my class in May. After that I plan on moving back to France for a while to be a language assisstant. It's a program through the government that pairs native English/Spanish/Russian/German/Italian/etc speakers with teachers in schools Pre-k through Post-Grad. The program is for 20-30 year olds with at least a year of college. The pay isn't spectacular, but they help pay rent and I get to live in Europe!! :)

After a bit of that, one year or five years, who knows?, I would like to do the same type of program in South Korea. They're pretty desperate for English teachers over there right now so they offer an incredible benefits package and when else would I get to go to South Korea? And that program is the 'gateway' program to other similar teaching positions throughout Southern and Southeastern Asia, so who knows, I may be globe trotting for a while.

Of course, there's always the tendancy for new things to come up and I'm pretty open to anything available. Peace Corps, an NGO job for a while, paid internship with the UN. I'm only young once (though I'm considering myself young until I hit wheelchair age, at which point I hope to die quickly and painlessly in the night) so I figure I may as well try a little of everything. Settling down just isn't really my style. At least not while there's a corner of the world (excluding northern Asia and South America which I strangely am in no way attracted to) I haven't seen!

I'll update on here periodically to keep checking and leave any questions!

40,000 feet up

Well the trip is officially over (unless this plane goes down and I wind up swimming for life to the Icelandic shore...). I'm on my Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Detroit, somewhere above the Atlantic right now. How crazy is it that you can get internet access on a plane now? And I got 30 minutes free so I thought I'd write a little. It's a rather slow connexion so you'll all just have to wait until I'm back home for pictures, but Switzerland, specifically the Jungfrau region is now second in my heart only to France.
The backpacking is over. My back and shoulders and patience are all very thankful for that, but there's still a part of me saying "There's more to see... go back!!". I'm sure I'll give into that little voice before too long. Not really sure what the rest of the year is gonna throw at me... I don't even have housing for the coming quarter at school yet!
I had a really nice last day with my framily. My from and I talked a lot and I showed them pics of my travels and the three of us had a really nice long dinner. I even got my favorite recipes from my from so look out everyone, I'll be French cookin'!
Lookin' forward to seeing the family tonight and headin' out to ONU to see how everyone and everything is out there. Can you believe it's already Martin Luther King Day?!?!? Where does time go? Oh wait, to Europe. I guess that's ok with me. :) Well I'm off to enjoy an in-flight movie. See y'all state-side!

Endings

Just a quick update. Kim left early this morning, Mal leaves this afternoon, and Jo and I get on a night train to Interlaken for two days in Switzerland. Hope everyone's having a good week.

Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre.

Hiking along the Via dell'Amore. Notice the palm tree and cactus.

Vineyard in the Cinque Terre between Manarola and Corniglia.
View of the new side of town and the sea at Nice.

Changing of the guard at the palace.

The famous casino in Monaco.
The ocean at Villefranche sur Mer.
Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona.
Parade in Barcelona.
The organist and his 5 keyboards at Saint Sulpice.
One of my proudest pics, the Eiffel Tower and the moon.
Notre Dame.
Us and the most adorable old French man who invited us to participate.
The flame that Jo helped to revive.
The group in front of the Arc de Triomphe.
We went to Père Lachaise cemetary today and saw the graves of Isadora Duncan, Jim Morrison, Molière, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde.

Lazy post

Ok, so still here in Paris and finally found an internet place with a USB port. Woohoo!! Feeling lazy though, so here's the text and then check down to the next entry for all the pictures. Enjoy!

The Cinque Terre was flat out amazing. There are hardly words to describe it. I guess I’ll just start at the beginning. The train out of Rome could not have come sooner, in fact we got to the train station early and just sat. The train was one of our first really scenic trains in daylight, and a large portion of it went along the Mediterranean so the views were pretty breathtaking. We were all so relieved to be out of Rome and on our way to the big “halfway” point that we almost missed our stop at La Spezia. In fact, I was working on my laptop and Mal was asleep when we pulled into the station. In approximately 2.7 minutes we had all of our stuff gathered up and off the train. The older gentleman who had been sitting across from me even got up to check that we hadn’t left anything as we ran off the train. That definitely got our adrenaline running quickly! We got to Riomaggiore, the town with our hostel in it around dinner time and as soon as we stepped off the train we were met with the ocean. So far on this trip train stations have been large, crowded, busy, marginally confusing places that one wishes to get in and out of as quickly as possible, so this two track platform literally on the top of a cliff leading down to the ocean was quite the shock. It was a good way to shake us into a slower mode of living. The town seemed to only have one main drag and our “hostel” was on it. The “’s are not a bad thing at all… rather to the contrary. The older gentleman who was at the desk (and spoke no English whatsoever) gave us the key and showed us to another building, up a very narrow and steep set of stairs and to our very own apartment! Two bedrooms, a living room with futon, bathroom, and FULL kitchen. And all of this for the same price we had just paid for a rather questionable hostel in Rome!!
After dropping our luggage off we headed out to find some good small town Italian food. Unfortunately our small town was so small that nothing was open two days after Christmas at 6pm. We ran into some other Anglophone travelers and they told us to try the next town over where they had just come from. There’s a path between all the Cinque Terre towns and the path between Riomaggiore and the next town, Manarola, is called the Via dell’Amore. It’s totally paved and only about 15 minute walk. We decided to try it and quickly found that it is completely unlit at night, probably to discourage people like us from illegally walking on it since the tickets you’re required to have to walk in the national park aren’t sold after 6. Cell phone lights, holding hands, walking quickly and singing a collection of Disney songs later we’d arrived and the way back wasn’t bad either. We all felt so much safer and calmer that we spent the night relaxing and finally getting to know each other a little better.
The next day we got a really late start because we did laundry and took full advantage of the kitchen and made eggs and everything. By 13:00 we headed out to walk to as many towns as we could. We started out with big dreams of making all the way to Monterosso al Mare, the last town in the Cinque Terre, and then taking the train back, but rock slides got in our way between Manarola and Corniglia. Still wanting to walk we took the suggested alternative route, understanding that it was around a one hour hike. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and it was warm enough that when we were walking quickly you didn’t really need a coat, but what started out as a fabulous walk through Manarola’s hillside gardens and back streets soon took a terrible turn. For whatever reason the national park numbers their routes instead of naming them and ALL of them have the same symbol to follow. For their own amusement I think, they even go to the great lengths of number very different routes identically. So when we thought we were on the 6 trail going straight over to Corniglia we were actually on the 6 trail that climbs to the top of the highest mountain around. I wish I were kidding. Really. By the time we figured this out however we had gone just slightly more than halfway making it useless to turn around. The views were spectacular since they were so high and we got a very comprehensive understanding of the vegetation in the Cinque Terre (palm trees and cacti along the coast, vineyards halfway up the mountain, and pine trees and ferns at the top, it felt rather like walking from Florida to Northern California to Colorado). At the top of the mountain we ran into a random woman sitting and used our patchy Italian to inquire which direction to Corniglia. She laughed. This was not good, but fortunately we were still on the right path and an hour an a half later we reached town number 3 just in time for sunset. Back at the apartment we made a fabulous dinner and put our sore, sunburned bodies to bed early.
Our last day in the Cinque Terre we had planned to visit the remaining two towns and enjoy them, but a heavy rainstorm put quite the damper on our plans, and then we accidentally missed the train stop for our own town and ended up in La Spezia again where they were getting a miniature blizzard and the locals were looking about as if the sky were falling. Back in Riomaggiore we checked out of the apartment and waited for our train to Nice.
Nice was an interesting town. I was absolutely thrilled to be speaking French again. I even had a new-found confidence since I’d been able to speak some German and some Italian and the other three would have no idea if I was screwing up or not. So I started some pretty random conversations with people and even back-mouthed a group of annoying teenagers. It was great. Our first night in was Indian food and bed. So the next morning we decided to explore. The town doesn’t actually have a whole lot to offer in the way of things to do. It was a lot more touristy than I had anticipated as well. It’s really crowded both with people and with buildings. There’s a really pretty park at the top of the hill with nice views of the ocean, which is incredibly blue and clear. There’s also a rather interesting cemetery on the way down, split into the Jewish side and the Christian side. The old town port is pretty too. The beaches are pretty rocky and beware the topless old women and Speedo-sporting men… even in cold weather!!
Since Nice wasn’t all that interesting we took a train over to Monaco. Tiny and even more crowded than Nice if that’s possible. Except Monaco is more posh and snooty than Nice due to the big-money-wielding clientele. We got to see the palace and the chapel and the gardens and the changing of the guard and the casino. It was pretty cool. All in all Monaco was just another day-trip town, but it was worth going to check out. On our way back to Nice we stopped at a tiny little town called Villefranche sur Mer because I am a giant dork and wanted to see the chapel painted by Jean Cocteau (famous French film director that my film prof talked about a LOT in class last semester). What was going to be a quick little stop turned into three hours of doing nothing doing to because of some interesting trainage. But the sunset at the beach was nice, though incredibly cold. Back in Nice we headed for the train station for our night train to Barcelona… which is where things really start to get interesting.
Our six person couchette was the four of us and an older Australian couple who seemed rather nice. We spent a while talking to them about their travels and such. Then we all drifted off to sleep since we had to be up at 6am to switch trains. We also met an American guy who’s traveling for a few weeks after a semester in Budapest, Hungary. A one hour layover in the train station and we were on a very long train to Barcelona. It wasn’t particularly long as far as time is concerned, but there was a bit of a tiff when the ticket conductor attempted to kick a few teens off for not having a ticket and they were accused of stealing someone’s cell phone which made Mallory look in her wallet for whatever reason which is when she discovered that her money was missing. None of us have any idea what happened, it's mosst likely stolen we assume. I guess God’s the only one who will ever really know. When we got to Barcelona we had the train fiasco I wrote about last time. As an interesting side note we discovered that the workers in the Barcelona train station blatantly lied to not only us, but to another woman trying to get to Paris (ran into her at the Louvre today) so needless to say Barcelona is not on our technical good side.
Barcelona as a city was pretty neat. Lots of energy and music and people… at times too many. I personally didn’t feel very safe I think due to a combination of Rick Steves’ book saying we’re more likely to get pick pocketed in Barcelona than any other town, Mal’s missing money, and the huge crowds. Las Ramblas, a big pedestrian road with performers and stalls selling everything was a sight to be seen, as was the cathedral of Gaudi. That was pretty cool. The architecture was unlike anything I’ve ever seen and it was certainly a nice departure from the Gothic cathedrals that seem to litter Europe. The port area was nice and we had a good dinner, I even tried some typical Spanish paella and was pleasantly surprised. Then it was off to our second night train in a row.
It was a four person couchette with our own sink and everything. We ended up watching a movie, meeting some other people in our car, and generally doing what we could to have a happy new year. Mal passed out just slightly after midnight and I think we were all asleep by 2. Sad, isn’t it? Luckily we woke up in Paris, found our hostel with little trouble and even arrived in time to get in on the free breakfast!
I was really excited to get into Paris, the capital of my favorite country and I can speak French again!! The Parisians have a very easy to understand accent as well. We were all pretty tired from our nights on the train and doing much of anything didn’t sound very appealing, so when I found an organ concert at a church not too far from the hostel we jumped on it. AMAZING. A 7000 pipe organ and we got to hear the concert and even go up inside to see the organist and all the pipes and inner workings. It was pretty cool. Then Mal went off to make phone calls and do some logistical travel stuff while Jo, Kim, and I decided to walk from the gardens to Notre Dame and then down to the Louvre and all the way up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe. It really made me remember why I love this city so much. Everything was just perfect!! It was a good orientation and I got to show off some stuff that I randomly remembered for Jo and Kim. We got a nice walk in, we got to eat some crepes and see all kinds of sights from the outside and while we did that Mal was handling our tickets to Amsterdam. We made dinner at the hostel and then chilled in the room for the remainder of the evening.
This morning we got a decently early start and began at the Louvre. Almost three hours later we’d hit the highlights and were just about “arted out”. Lunch on the rue de Rivoli and then off to check out the Centre Pompidou and its park with the cool fountains. The center is the most comprehensive museum of modern art and the building is essentially inside out. Kinda cool… but since we’d already seen a lot of art and ¾ of the group doesn’t like modern art we headed off to see the Conciergerie. Not worth the price of admission (but we had a museum pass) it was just ok. Old prison cells and some neat architecture. Waiting in line for Sainte Chapelle wasn’t bad, if a bit long and the windows there were pretty cool. Then we took off for Notre Dame before the towers closed. I REALLY wanted to climb up the towers since I didn’t get to on my last trip to Paris… but they were closed. Just my luck. We toured the inside, toured the outside and then went over to the Deportation Memorial. It was actually pretty moving and really well-done I thought. Very different than any WWII memorials I’d been to, but I really liked it. We had a very abridged visit since it was closing, but it was still very worthwhile. A metro ride away was the Arc de Triomphe which was the highlight of the day.
We climbed all the way to the top to get a view of the city at night which was cool enough in itself. Then we looked over and the Eiffel Tower was going through its’ light display since it was the top of the hour. Lots of pictures and video later we headed down. We were under the arch taking pictures of the grave of the Unknown Soldier when the police came through and moved us back behind gates. Then a small contingent of the military moved in and it looked like there was to be a ceremony of some kind. After about 20 minutes of nothing really happening we were about to leave when an older French man walked up to us and asked where we were from. I responded in French that we were American and he seemed to be pretty excited. He invited us inside the gates… to participate!!! We found out that it was the daily ceremony of reviving the flame and we were chosen to participate!! We got to stand right at the edge of the flame and see everything close up. Joanna even got to touch the sacred sword and help revive the flame!!! Afterwards we all signed our names in the Golden Book to show that we had really been there and participated. It was VERY cool!!!! We didn’t get pictures during because we were too busy being respectful, but we got plenty of shots afterwards! It took quite a while to really realize how lucky we were and how special it was that we were able to participate. Then we went to a movie Esprit de Famille (The Family Stone in English). The movie was in English with French subtitles. It was a nice blend of tear-jerker and hilarious comedy. On our way back to the hostel tonight we accidentally messed up the trains and didn’t have a ticket to get back into the metro, though we hadn’t really ever left… kind of a long story. To shorten it, Kim somehow go the gate to open and we all just started running through, hoping all four could make it before it automatically closed. Joanna was last and while the other three of us ran forward we heard a startled yelp and turned around to see a panicked Jo only halfway through the doors. Her face was priceless! All in all a very good day.
And today we’re hitting up the sights we didn’t get to yesterday before we head for Amsterdam. Hope everyone had a wonderful and more eventful New Years’ than ours. Back in the USA in 7 days!!

Paris

Well, once again the computers here are unable to take a USB cord so I'll have to find a different internet place... you'd think I'd learn to check first. But now Kim and Jo can use my card to check their e-mail too... lol. Everything's on the card, so as soon as I can plug in you'll all get to read all about it! Have a great one everybody.

Also, I've been asked to make a small correction to last entry. Mallory did not lose the money as in left it on a toilet seat by accident. It wasn't a mindless losing. See the next entry for more info.

and how do i even begin...?

well well well so last night we went on a night train from nice to barcelona. we were in a nice little 6 person couchette and our other 2 people were a nice older australian couple. sleepless night for me because the train kept stopping, but all in all it wasn´t bad. then this morning on the final train to barcelona (we had to switch trains at 7am) mallory went to randomly look in her wallet for some reason and low and behold she´s missing 300 euro and 120 american dollars. so that´s a great start to the day, then to make things just that much better we get in to barcelona and decide to make our reservations for the night train to paris the following night. first time we asked we were told that there were only double spots for 100 a person. YIKES! then we were told that there were only two seats on the whole train. then we were told the alternative route meant there were no seats at all, then we were told trains into france at all from barcelona were completely booked!!!!!!! they told us to go to seville (look at a map of spain and someone please explain why going from barcelona to spain helps me get into france). then we asked about the following day thinking that maybe it was just a new years´ thing. nope, the 2nd was totally booked too. panic started to set in and we thought we were stuck in barcelona with no place to stay. not a pleasant feeling. then the girl at the desk, in a movement of pure pity i´m sure, said there were some spots open on a night train tonight. tonight?!?!? what the heck... we didn´t really wanna do new years´up right in europe anyway, right? (please note heavy sarcasm) but we didn´t really have a choice, so we booked it. for a rather hefty price per person. then we called our hostel in paris and asked if, by any chance and gift of God, they had an extra four beds a day early. things started to turn the tide for us when the answer was yes. then we got to our barcelona hostel to tell them we were cancelling and he told us that we´ll likely still be charged... and i think it´s on my parent´s credit card cuz i booked it in july. isn´t that just peachy. well... all in all the day seemed like total crap and a half before noon, but once we dropped our luggage off and started touring the city of barcelona turned out to be better than we thought. too many people crowded into tiny areas, but there was a cool parade and some interesting, if talentless, street performers. and gaudi´s cathedral was pretty cool to look at, though too expensive to go in, especially with one memeber of the group out quite a substantial amount of money. more time in barcelona would have been cool, but stuck in barcelona indefinitely with only one night of lodging is definitely NOT cool, and i think the majority of the group is looking forward to paris... some have bad taste. lol pictures up later hopefully. laters!


kels - e-mail isn´t working at this computer, but hope you´re feeling ok from your teeth getting out. lots of soup and mashed potatoes and some ice cream. watch movies like nuts and do nothing is my advice. feel better soon. mom, make sure you get some good chipmunk pictures of her!!! lol see ya in 10 days guys :)

Back in France

Huge sigh of relief, we're back in France. But not for long, in fact we leave in 3 hours for Barcelona. I haven't had a chance to type anything out in Word, so this is gonna be a short entry to save on time and money, but I'll sum things up quickly and you can all check back later for more detailed info.

We left Rome with no problems and made it to the Cinque Terre, which is approximately a thousand times better than anyone could have possibly prepared us for. We had our own apartment and it was fabulous, we were able to do laundry, we hiked, we saw the Meditterannean, we saw vineyards, we saw everyday Italian life, we felt incredibly safe and laid back and relaxed... I wish we could have spent more time there. It is definitely a place I MUST return to and I don't think it will be too hard to talk my family into going with me after I tell a few stories and show a few pictures.

We got to Nice and had a fantastic Indian dinner, which we're actually repeating tonight, and settled in. Nice was nice (if I get one joke about that the joker will be smacked upon my return in 11 days) but there wasn't a whole lot to do, so today we headed to Monaco and checked out the touristy stuff, and then got stuck in Villefrance sur Mer for 3 hours. Now we're just killing time before more Indian food and a night train to Barcelona. New Years' should be fun as the girls all bought going out outfits (I brought some stuff with me) and now we'll all be decked out for the night.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy 2006!!!!

Keep checking for updates! (ps mom and dad i mailed some stuff home but DO NOT open the box... it has your presents in it and i'll have to explain them)

Longest Blog In the Entire World... EVER

Ok, so this is the posting (FINALLY) of things I've had on my laptop forever and a day waiting to post. Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. Enjoy reading the novel!!

December 17, 2005
And the European road trip has officially begun. My host family was kind enough to drive me to the bus station this morning to get to the bus to take to the airport, where I’m sitting right now. The weight limit for checked bags, of which you are only allowed one, is 15 kg. I put my bag on the scale here and it flickered high and then low and finally rested on 15.1 kg. At this point I thanked my lucky stars that I had bothered to put a little mascara on this morning, batted some long eyelashes at the rather attractive young airline employee who looked at me, nodded, and spoke the heaven-sent words “Ca marche.” Overjoyed I took my ticket, with a small sense of well-deserved self-satisfaction and continued to security check. I have certainly flown more in the past 4 months of my life than in all my other 20 years combined and this is my third time since October to fly out of Saint Geoirs so I automatically knew that security included taking off all jewelry, belts, scarves, jackets, bags, hats, and anything else that could in any realm set off the metal detector. Unfortunately the girl in front of me was not so keen on these regulations and after setting off the detector three times, each time removing more clothing and trying yet again, I finally got my chance. Then passport check. My passport is starting to look very full, which I am immensely proud of, so I actually had a little chat about my passport and my studies in Grenoble and the trip I was embarking upon with the passport control man. Oh… and did I mention this entire exchange was in French? Point – Dana. And now I sit here waiting for my plane to land so I can get on, cry about how much my ears hurt and go meet Joanna in London. So far it’s just nice to know I’m on my way. But we all know that peace and simplicity simply will not do on a trip of mine, thusly I expect something unexpected at any moment…

December 21, 2005
So we’re all sitting in a train station in Venice waiting for our train to Florence to arrive. It is absolutely flabbergasting that we’ve been traveling for four whole days already. I guess I’ll go back and kinda start from the beginning a little, since I have more time to talk about Munich and everything.
We all met in Munich on Sunday and ever since things have been going rather swimmingly. Munich was wonderful. Our hostel was certainly happening; we even met two guys there and ended up going out to a beer hall with them one night, but all that later. There was lots and lots of snow!!! Since Grenoble didn’t get any snow and I hadn’t really seen anything that really reminded me of Christmas it was so nice to be kinda cold and snowy.

The Christmas market at Marienplatz, the main square in town, was another highlight. All sorts of Christmas crafts and decorations for sale and people dressed up, and local foods and drinks for sale… too bad my backpack is already full, I certainly could have bought some things. There were even some carolers near one of the big churches and the big snowflakes were falling and it was really really cool.
Then on Monday we went to Neuschwanstein, which is King Ludwig II’s pride and joy castle in the Alps. It was actually only built about 150 years ago, but it was built in an old style so it’s really a throwback in time. The train ride from Munich to Fussen was gorgeous, with the Alps getting closer and closer and the snow covering everything… from Fussen we took a bus for a little and then got tickets. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, the busses up to the castle itself weren’t running due to snow and slush. So we walked all the way up. It took about 45 minutes and we were still WAY early for our appointed tour time so we started looking around. Off to one side there was a giant sign and a fence that said “Danger Ahead”. What does this mean to a bunch of 20-somethings? Something really cool must be over there. And we were right. After climbing over the fence and walking through knee-high snow for a little bit we got to the BEST views in the ENTIRE WORLD. Breaking the law was totally worth it.

We're so naughty...

Made it back to the castle for our tour (short and kinda lame, though the interior of the castle is pretty outrageous) and then back to Munich to meet the guys. Oh… Kim’s luggage finally showed up by the time we got back, yay AirFrance.

Eric was from Illinois, studying in Barcelona for the year and just happened to be in Munich on a trip, Erwin was from Stuttgart and living in a hostel while he looked for an apartment. So the six of us headed to a beer hall for a little beer and a lot of good German food. What an experience! Loud, crazy music, people everywhere… service was really really bad and we almost walked out without paying because we had to wait over an hour for our check, but the food was good. Kim and I couldn’t read the menu (all in German and Erwin was trying to help everyone else translate) so we asked the guy behind us what he was eating since it looked so good and he just grabbed a new fork and let us try it and ordered for us and everything… it was great! New friends everywhere.

Night train to Venice!! Waking up in Italy is pretty crazy. Took us forever to find our hostel since it wasn’t in old-town Venice, but when we were finally all checked in we headed to the Venice you see on postcards for the day. We kept having to remind ourselves that we were really in Venice, Italy. It’s almost surreal because you’ve seen it and know about it but being there is totally different. We learned very quickly that maps and directions are completely useless. It’s best to just wander randomly until you happen upon one of the large yellow signs that point you to either the train station (Ferrani), St. Mark’s Square (S. Marco), or the Rialto Bridge (Rialto). Then you play the “try and find the next sign” game and guess which road the arrow on the sign is really pointing to. Though I’m convinced that whoever put up those signs decided to take the longest way there possible, passing Uncle Luigi’s shop and Aunt Maria’s bakery before dumping you out where you wanted to be an hour after you started.
It’s really hard to describe Venice; pictures just do it a lot more justice. The buildings along the outer edges of the islands really look as if they’re just floating on the water.

View of Venice from the Vaporetti.

From far back you can’t see the foundations or the steps down to the water or anything. It’s an amazing phenomenon that they were able to build on the water anyway. We’re all pretty lucky that we got to see it since it’s sinking rather quickly. The vaporetti are amazing as well. The canals have a series of boats that take you all over, but they’re so slow and cold in the winter. We took one out to another island in the lagoon, Murano, to see the famous glass blowing workshops there and it took over an hour.

Vaporetti are great for people watching, especially the ones that go to the other islands in the lagoon, because then you’re seeing native Venetians. Fur is really big here and apparently the bigger your fur coat is the better. Some of the elderly ladies and their fur coats, fur hats, scarves, and high heels were utterly comical. We had a really long day so we went home early and slept for a very very very long time and finished touring some cute little things and now we’re here and waiting for a train to Florence. Good times, good times.

December 22, 2005
Thanks for hanging in there everyone while I waited to save all this stuff to my camera so I could post it. Internet spots abound in Europe, but my mind never seems to remember to save it all on my camera and take it along in the morning. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures from last time, they were kinda randomly assembled from Mallory and Kim’s cameras but I think it turned out very well. Ok, so Florence. Amazingly enough we were able to hit all the highlights we wanted to see in just one day!! We’re learning really quickly that it pays to be organized and have a list of general things we want to see. And the Rick Steves’ guide to Europe is pretty much our bible. We even had a little “prayer circle” after a reading from Florence 874:1 last night that the wisdom of Rick Steves would be with us in our travels the next day. And I think it worked.

We saw the Duomo… one of Mallory’s friends told her that if she saw anything in Italy it had to be that. I think we described it as “gorgeous”, “massive”, and “weird” all at the same time. The inside is so huge that you end up feeling itsy-bitsy, which is nice for Mallory and I since the average Italian is about 5’2’’ so we always feel like Gulliver in the land of the little people.

After that we ended up getting lost and walking across the river to see some residential Florence and some neat (and not so neat) churches. The Florentines do like their domes and they love to paint murals in the domes. Chiesa di San Frediano in Cestello had some really cool 3-D paintings on the ceiling that gave the illusion of more galleries and windows higher up. The Ponte Vecchio was surprising because it’s hard to tell you’re on a bridge. There are some many shops along the sides and it’s covered over on the top as well, so the only place you can see the Arno River is in the very middle. It was decorated for Christmas and they had American Christmas music playing and it felt very festive. In the middle there’s a statue and the fence around the statue is covered in padlocks. The custom, though it seems that only tourists really partake which is fitting, is that you bring your loved one to the bridge lock the lock and throw the key into the Arno as a sign of your undying love. Funnily enough, there are some combination locks as well… I suppose if you break up at least you can come get your padlock back?

Lock on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

We saw Michelangelo’s David first thing this morning which was a blessing as there were no lines when we got there and almost no one in the museum. He’s much larger in person (and smaller in other ways if you catch my drift) but Kim and I discussed how he was pretty close to the perfect man… he probably cooks well, likes to cuddle, isn’t afraid of commitment, and likes kids too. Too bad he’s made of stone. *sigh* As our last place to visit for the day we walked out to Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s a park on the other side of the river at the top of a hill and has magnificent views of the city.

View of the Duomo from the top of the hill.

Unfortunately there were a few men that thought we’d like the view of themselves better… but quickly walking away seemed to get rid of them unless Mal yelled the obvious. lol On the way back to the hostel to warm up, rest up, and get some logistical things done we stopped for the world-famous Italian gelato. We had three different flavors and decided that it really is as good as people say.

And now we’re chillin’… or rather warmin’ in the hostel before some pasta for dinner. And tomorrow we’re heading out for Pisa. Since we have an extra day here and not enough to see in a whole day we thought taking the obligatory “I’m holding up the leaning tower of Pisa” photo-op would be fun.
Later that night… Interesting fact really quickly. Tonight at dinner we found this tiny little pizzeria near our hostel and while we were there an American woman came in. We asked her where she was from and why she’s in Italy. Turns out it’s a very Under the Tuscan Sun type story. She’s from Hawaii but she was working too much at her job there and didn’t like it, so she quit and came to Florence to teach English at her friend’s school for a year. How cool is that?

December 23rd, 2005
So I went to the internet today to try and put all of this up, but of course I’m a complete idiot and forgot the connection cord for my camera making it impossible to put anything online. So now you all just get a million more things to read through Christmas. We went to Pisa today to see the leaning tower and guess what? It’s leaning. That’s all the town really has to offer though. The train ride wasn’t too long and when we got there we walked across town to the town in under half an hour and got to the plaza that has the tower and church and everything. Did anyone else not know there was a church there?

The obligatory holding up the tower pose. You end up looking like an idiot to take them, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Interesting fact about Pisa as well… it is nearly impossible to get a group picture in front of the tower. I’m not sure how this happened, but both tourists we asked to take a picture of us got nice pictures of us… but failed to include the tower. Pictures we tried to take of ourselves in front of the tower got random body parts, cut off faces, lots of sky, and very little tower. We also got some really good gelato and a walk through a very cute little market. Kim and I went out to see Florence at night this evening and had some more WAY overpriced gelato, but the city was really lit up with garlands and lights in the alleys and a Christmas tree in the main square and everything.

Ponte Vecchio in Florence at night all decorated for Christmas.

We have to get up at 5am tomorrow to catch a train to Rome so I’m gonna leave you all now. Have a great night!

December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale and all that jazz everyone. Greetings from Rome, Italy where we are actually pretty miserable. Not really sure where to even start, but for those of you that are sick to death of reading all of this and want to throw something large and hopefully blunt at me let me sum it up quickly by saying never ever ever ever come to Rome. Now I’ll elaborate:
We got up at 5 am to get to Rome early because we wanted to make sure we were able to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel before they closed since they’re closed today (Christmas) and tomorrow for whatever reason. All was going well, we caught the train with plenty of time and were happily asleep until the train fame to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere and we started to freeze to death because the train stopped. After a lot of hand motions, broken Italian, and very slow English we were able to determine that the train was broken down and we needed to go back and catch another train. This meant sitting in a train station for an hour and a half and then getting on a train that was already packed to overflowing. We ended up standing in the aisle for two hours on the entire train ride to Rome. We were separated, Kim and I on one side and Mallory and Jo in the car next to us. Let it suffice to say that each of our cars had rather interesting characters standing very close to us for two hours. By the time we got to Rome it was 11:32 and we’d been on a train for 5 hours. We found our hostel (on the 5th floor of a building) and waited to check in until we realized that the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel were closing in 20 minutes. We ran down all the stairs, ran to the Metro station, got on the train, literally full-on sprinted all the way to the museum (which included a very large flight of stairs) and found out we were 10 minutes late. All the way to Rome and we didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel. So now we refer to it as “that place we’re not talking about”. We did get into Vatican City however and St. Peter’s Cathedral.

What an incredibly massive building!! The opulence, the marble, the sheer size of it all was truly amazing. We even climbed all 501 stairs to the top of the cupola to get a view of the cathedral from the top and a view of Rome from the top of the cupola. That was fantastic.

View inside the church from up around the top of the dome.
View of St. Peter's Square from the top of the cupola.
The four of us in front of St. Peter's Cathedral. (A few moments later the Aisan man who took this picture wanted a picture of us with his family.)

Then we decided it would be a most excellent idea to eat and we checked our guidebook for a good place. Unfortunately the restaurant took us to the cleaners. Lunch cost us our food budget for all of Rome, which was certainly not a pleasant experience, but it did force us to cook our own Christmas dinner here at the hostel with our newfound Australian friends, one of the perks of this leg of the trip.
Christmas Eve Kim, Jo, our Australian friends and I headed out for midnight mass. I’d found an english speaking cathedral so we headed there to take mass. Since neither Jo nor I are Catholic we thought it would be easier to understand if it was in English. But somehow the cathedral that has cards advertising it as “The home for all English-speaking Catholics in Rome” had mass entirely in Italian. A little frustrating since even the born and bred Catholics we were with didn’t totally understand what was going on. And the poor nun on the organ had absolutely no sense of rhythm. She kept changing the beats, making it completely impossible to sing along with my favorite Christmas carols, but Kim and Jo and I had already had a mini caroling in our hostel room, so I still got to sing Christmas carols. After mass we walked home through a lit and ringing Rome which was very cool indeed. Merry Christmas.

I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.

Yesterday we were hoping for a better outlook since we’d since we’d had a good night’s sleep and it was Christmas after all. Rome didn’t have the same ideas. We expected things to be closed since it was a holiday, that wasn’t a big deal at all. But things that were supposed to be open to the public were closed… like the Roman Forum which was another big disappointment. And we walked forever and ever and ever and ended up getting lost 4 times. And there was no metro, so our plans to get back quickly were completely foiled. And all of the sights we saw, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum… none of them lived up to our expectations.

The four of us in front of the Colosseum
The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain (down)

Everything was a letdown. I don’t know if it was because these things were truly unimpressive, if we were all just in a foul mood, or if we had such grand romantic ideas of these sights of Rome that they could never live up to our expectations, but by the end of today we all decided that Rome sucks. Pardon the language… but that’s really the best word to describe it all. Don’t come to Rome. It smells like a truly offensive baby’s diaper, there are terrible beggars absolutely everywhere, people almost accost you trying to get you to buy things on the streets, it’s nearly impossible to navigate, people will and do rip you off for money at any opportunity, it doesn’t feel particularly safe at all, the crowds are bad even in the winter on Christmas day. Oh and did I mention the rain yet? Yes. No dreaming of a white Christmas for us. It rained all day… and not just a little. It absolutely POURED all day. And the temperature, while not as cold as some of the other cities we’ve been in, was cold enough to make it truly truly miserable. When we got back to the hostel every article of clothing we were all wearing was so drenched that it had to be hung up to dry and 8 hours later most of it is still wet. My passport and tour book… both of which were tucked securely inside my bag, next to my body are practically ruined they’re so wet. At the moment they’re on the top bunk under the heater trying to dry before we leave tomorrow. It was the worst Christmas EVER. Until we got back to the hostel, where we made our own fabulous Christmas dinner feast and watched movies and talked and hung out for hours upon hours. That made it feel almost like Christmas, but I still missed being home more than I thought I would. For not feeling like the holidays I really wished I was home. I don’t think I’ll be missing another Christmas with my family for a long time.
Tomorrow we’re off to the Cinque Terre, where we have our own apartment waiting for us in Riomaggiore. We had originally planned on taking a later train and getting to the town in time for dinner. Halfway through today we all decided that Rome was so horrendously awful that we’re taking one of the first trains out of Rome tomorrow morning. Lesson learned? We detest Rome. And this is coming from all four of us. I guarantee that neither Mal, Jo, Kim, nor I will EVER recommend Rome as a destination to anyone we truly care about.
The Cinque Terre should be a nice relaxing break and we have absolutely nothing planned for the entire time we’re there. Hopefully I will finally get to post this and all my pictures online… it’s starting to get ridiculous!! I hope everyone at home had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to New Years’! I get home in 15 days!!! Oh, and I got to talk to my family on the phone Christmas Eve and guess what?! They’re all coming to the airport to pick me up!!! That’s really exciting to me… whether or not I actually say it to them, I’ve missed them a lot this semester and it’ll be nice to be home. Well early to bed and early to rise to get the heck out of Rome and on to the best parts of this trip (read: back in France (Nice) in 3 days). Keep in touch with e-mail and comments everyone. Hope this wasn’t too much to read… and congratulations if you really did read all the way down to here. You deserve a medal or something when I get home. laters!

Firenze

Greetings from Firenze, known to Americans everywhere as Florence! It's cold here and I've got limited internet time not on my laptop, so I'm using Kim's camera to throw some pics up of the past few days, more detailed info to follow. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!

Note: All the pics were taken by Mal or Kim... thanks guys.

Christmas Market in Munich

Mal and I in a beer hall... that's a LOT of beer!!!

Neuschwanstein Castle, from our illegal lookout point.
Hohenschwangau Castle

Our new friends and us in our Munich hostel!!
Canal in Venice.Gondola in Venice.
Chillin' in St. Mark's square in Venice.
Jo, Mal, and Me (crazy ONU trio) in St. Mark's square... talk about too many pigeons.

View of St. Mark's from the bell tower.

On San Giorgio island across from St. Mark's Square.
Me and Mal on the train back out of the main part of Venice. It was a double-decker train!
The Duomo in Firenze. Crazy huge and almost overly decorated!!
Mal, Jo, and Me on the Ponte Vecchio.Mal, Jo, Me, and Kim on the Ponte Vecchio in Firenze.