a traveling frenzy

it's crazy how time really does fly by here! I've already been in Bonn for a week and half now but the days are so fast that I can't keep track of them. We have every day scheduled out by the hour because of classes so maybe that's why.  Speaking of classes, WHY DO WE HAVE THEM HERE.

in an ideal world, i'd be running wild and free all across europe right now. blaming you terry larsen.

i believe i last blogged on sunday. little did i know that come monday morning, all of us would be in panic mode, frantically trying to plan trips early to save as much money as possible. 
actually, i'm gonna be real here. it's been the girls planning and the guys...drinking beer/playing ping pong(yea)/eating/drinking/breathing. get the picture here? :)

here's a picture of my revised at least three times now schedule. 

honestly, i'm so used to my mom planning trips so this has been a huge learning experience. (thanks madre!)  i now completely understand how much work traveling takes! its a battle to find the right dates to fit in with class times ending, cheap prices, nonsketchy hostel locations, etc. plus, trying to figure out how all the airlines and trains work in foreign country is a whole other situation...

yesterday we went and visited cologne! it was another long tour in freezing weather(think under 20 degrees at least) but the cathedral was absolutely beautiful. i've been to europe twice before and i don't think i've ever seen anything as powerful looking as this. our tour guide told us that had it been completed when it was supposed to be(it began being built in 1248 but wasn't finished until the 1800s) that it would have been the 8th wonder of the world. it definitely should be! it's stunning.

it was once the tallest building in the world until the eiffel tower was built.

we ended up getting to go on a tour of the cathedral from the inside. it started out with us going up these sketchy elevators outside of the building(i hate elevators). once we didn't die & made it to the top of the building, we were ushered out onto this walkway high above cologne. we were then taken inside the roof area and given a tour of the design and structure of the building. there was no insulation so it was SO cold. luckily, i had brought hot hand warmers which probably save my fingers from frostbite, no big. after this long tour, we were taken to a certain area of the cathedral to take pictures.

cologne is the 4th largest city in germany and beautiful! standing at the very top of the cathedral was really neat experience. after this was over, the lady talked for another 1723487 hours and we were led down THE smallest staircase i've ever seen. we all clearly missed the memo that an elevator wouldn't be taking us down and we had to walk...here's a picture i stole from erin.

we all had to cram into this tiny little staircase that was half full of snow and partially dark. people were crying and freaking out/the tour guide probably never wanted to see us again. i'm extremely claustrophobic so i was proud of myself for holding it together! 
giving myself a pat on the back or something. 

after the extreme highs and lows of that tour, we made it back to bonn! 

today(thursday) involved chelsey, erin, teaghan and i cramming into starbucks and frantically searching for more information about trips. the most exciting part of my day was when i stopped into the dm(kind of like a walgreens but extremely german). i was on a mission to find makeup remover/facewash. i'm sure i looked weird, picking up every bottle in the aisle trying to figure out what is what. i finally found something and brought it home. i was really excited. it's the little things in life, people.

however, when i used it in the shower tonight, it instantly burned. i've come to the conclusion it's either a high-power make up remover or i just poured some unknown german substance on my face that's probably going to freak me out when i wake up tomorrow. 

that's all i got for ya!
tschüs!

the beginnings

It's day 6 of 113. I keep putting it in those terms because it makes me feel like I'm on a really long season of Survivor. Being stranded on an island= being stranded in a foreign country. Sleeping on a the beach = sleeping on really weird german mattresses. Eating stuff from the jungle = eating german food that has no name or identity. 16 cast mates= 28 viz people to run around Europe with. It's kind of the same, right? ;)

I've been meaning to blog but these past couple of days have literally been nonstop! I'm finally finding the time. Here's a recap of what I've been up to since I got here.

Day 1:
The plane ride was loooooong. I've been to Europe twice before but for some reason this plane ride was everlasting. I didn't sleep and the people in front of Chelsey, Teaghan, & I were pretty noisy. Good thing Teaghan brought his laptop to watch movies with! Once we got off the plane, we began the long journey to get our luggage. I used the word "long" because when we arrived at the baggage pickup, only half our luggage was there. Needless to say, I was freaking out that both of my suitcases were missing. Like, I was already planning out how expensive it was going to be to buy 4 months of new clothes in Germany. After about 30 minutes of pacing around, everyone's missing luggage began to show up. My sleep deprived self was very thankful. After that ordeal, buses from the AIB picked us up outside of the airport in Frankfurt and took us on a two hour bus ride to Bonn. It was surreal stepping outside in Germany because it was actually snowing. :) Once arriving at the AIB, our host mom picked us up. Erin & I were super nervous because of the unknown but thankfully Elizabeth is super nice. I couldn't ask for a nicer host mom. (side note: later that night erin, thomas, ethan & i decided to catch the subway from our subdivision Tannenbusch into the inner city of bonn. while exploring I lost my bus pass. it was pretty typical of me. first night...the one thing I can't lose...and I did. so much win).

Day 2:
To get into Bonn, Erin & I have the options of either taking the subway or the bus. Here's a picture of our subway stop.

It's amazing how well the transportation is set up here. Gas is more than double here what it is in the USA so hardly anyone takes cars. You use what transportation is close to you and then walk EVERYWHERE. literally...everywhere. It's amazing how healthy everyone here is though. The food isn't exactly healthy but due to the small portion sizes and amount of walking, it doesn't even matter. German people live off of bread, cheese, & beer and are still skinnier than 90% of America. But anyways, on this day we got our Visa's set up and had an orientation walk around Bonn. Most of us were still jet lagged so honestly I don't recall much from this day.

Day 3:
This day was the most miserable day I hope for any of us to have on this trip. Sound dramatic? Try walking from 1pm to about 9pm outside in the 15 degree cold. I don't think I have ever been that cold in my entire life! All I know is that when I get back to Texas, I will never complain about it being windy and 40 degrees ever again. On this day we had German class at 1015am. Hallo!
After a quick lunch, we were taken on a "historical tour of Bonn." This was great and all but the snowy cold weather and wind made it pretty hard to hear the tour guide and it was long and drawn out. Everyone was just huddled into a big group trying to stay relatively warm. After trekking around the snow for 2 hours, we took the subway into the nearby town of Cologne. This city is huge and I can't wait to explore it later! We were taken to 4 art exhibits that were all in these neat underground warehouses. I felt like I was in NYC. Definitely something you'd never see in Tejas. Here's a picture of one of them.

A lot of people weren't thrilled to be walking around outside for a couple more hours but I think it was worth it to get a taste of the art district in Cologne. It was pretttttty neat. (another sidenote: it is very unusual for it to snow in Bonn. It's been about 10 degrees colder than it usually is here right now. Oh and it is snowing AGAIN as I'm typing this. It's supposed to snow Tuesday as well....eeeeek). One last observation about the snow. I've gone skiing in the USA times before and the snow there doesn't even compare to the amount of snow here. It's crazy!

Day 4:
We woke up early to go meet the mayor of Bonn. We met her in this beautiful building that has previously hosted multiple US presidents such as Kennedy and Carter. After that, we went to German class & studio. I keep forgetting that we have to actually do schoolwork here. All I want to do is walk around and explore the city. Make it stopppppppppp. This night, we went to Billa-Bonn. We first went there on Wednesday and quickly decided it's our new favorite bar. On this day, it was packed full of students. It's definitely the place to go if you're in college! Students from Penn State, Texas A&M, & a theater college in Los Angeles are all studying abroad thru the same program together & we all found ourselves at this very bar. It's been cool getting to know them.

Day 5/Day 6(today):
Teaghan and I met up to get lunch and explore the city yesterday. The snow was finally melting, I was getting to break out the uggs, and all was well(until it started snowing heavily again today...nooooo). Bonn is such a neat city. It's beautiful. The buildings are all these perfectly stacked and colorful buildings perfect for shopping in. It's a very weird mix of new and old. For example, right next to a bunch of stores is a church that was built around 1050. Pretty crazy! Here it is.

Last night, we all went to an opening event hosted by the AIB(the place organizing our study abroad adventure and schooling). It was a buffet with so much food. Heaven. After that we all just walked around, shopped, went to Starbucks, and went back to Billa-Bonn. It was an "eventful" night but I'm glad it's a new day. Oh and today I woke up and found out that a stranger has found my bus pass and mailed in to my home here. Thank you kind strangers.

There's quick recap on everything that's gone on since I've gotten here! I'm going to try to blog more if I can. tHaAaaaNkz 4 rEaDiNgggggg.

tschüs!

Let's talk about packing.

I decided to start this blog for two reasons...

1) It's going to be fun to look back on in a couple of months.
2) It gives my family an easy way to stalk me without them having to text me nonstop. (sorry familia!)

Tomorrow is the beginning of some of the biggest changes in my life thus far. I will be studying abroad in Bonn, Germany for 4 months!(or 3 months and 3 weeks as my mom keeps correcting me...like that really makes any difference...) I can't lie, the idea of living in a foreign country with a host family who I haven't met yet is slightly intimidating. The good news is that I won't be living alone. My roommate is Erin Bersi, who is a Visualization major along with me. Also, the other good news is that my host family seems really neat! The family last name is Hmaid. Samir is a dentist & Elizabeth teaches English. They have three kids; a boy who is 13, a girl who is in college in Dusseldorf, and another girl who is studying abroad in the good ol' US of A right now. Hopefully they become like Erin & I's home away from home to help ease the any homesickness that is bound to hit us. Because let's be real...About three weeks in I'm going to be craving mexican food and wanting to fly home for some Pappasito's ASAP.

The other huge change in my life is that while I'm studying abroad in Europe, my family will be moving out of Pecan Plantation and into some far away land called Fort Worth, Texas. This would be fine and all if we could just take our house with us. I'm gonna miss our pool. In order to help ease the pain of it, i'll post a quick picture.

long live the pool.

Moving to the subject of packing.

I learned an important lesson last night. Attempting to pack for 4 months in about 2 hours is not possible. It's a nightmare and will forever end up resulting in 6 hours of arguing and frantically weighing suitcases. Also, attempting to fit 4 months of clothing into one 50lb suitcase isn't real. Let me repeat that.

Not real.

Funny joke Luftshansa. However, I successfully beat the system by convincing my parents to let me take an additional suitcase. :)

Judge me. 

When I was young and naive(think around 7pm last night), I assumed I could fit all this...

into one suitcase, as seen below...

i'm so funnnnny.

this was my reality, 5 hours and 239734 arguments later.

Now that the packing is over, the fact that I'm going to be living in Europe for 4 months is becoming more and more real(which is probably a good thing considering I have to board a plane at 4pm tomorrow). So on that note, I have a lot of goodbyes in my future. Bye Texas, bye childhood home, bye family & friends...but most importantly. Goodbye mexican food. I will make it my goal to find you in Europe. <3 

Let the greatest adventure of my life begin!:)