Penguin in Transit

As promised!

Above: Train from Rome to Venice

Train from Strasbourg to Lyon

TGV from Paris to Strasbourg after my week traveling with Mom

Sleeper train from Paris to Madrid

Train from Basel to Strasbourg

from venice with island love

I'm in the hotel in Venice, the internet is expensive and slow. I'm trying to email my mom some pictures from the trip so far but it's taking forever... Hopefully they will send before my 20 minutes remaining runs out but at this rate it's not looking good.

here's a few just for kicks, including a frozen fountain from Lyon, a canal complete with gondola from Venice, and St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

Recap- Lyon, Nice

Well this is getting interesting. Since I have a bit of time, let's see where I've been.

Lyon:
Beautiful city, but better viewed in late spring or early autumn. Too cold during winter to really appreciate it all. The Basillica atop the hill in Vieux Lyon is beautiful, and the view, which not obstructed by snow and low clouds, is marvelous, or so I've been told. The food was spectacular and though it was snowy and freezing, I greatly enjoyed wandering around the city and happening upon an old church tucked away down a side street.

Nice:
Come here during summer. Or, better yet, go to Antibes or one of the small towns on the opposite side of Cannes. The beach is rocky and this whole place feels like Naples flordia, a bit geriatric (did I spell that right? If I'm going to be insulting I at least want to spell it right).

Apparently they've cancelled trains to Genoa due to economic reasons. We're winging it from here, and Lacy is already 2 hours late. She said she had bad luck with trains, let's see how we can do. My goal is to be in Rome by midnight. If the genoa train existed we would have arrived by 8. I am confident. No idea why, but I am. Phone and Internet will be off forthe most part once I cross into the Boot... Wish me luck! Lord knows I'll need it at this rate.

Also, if there's Internet at the hotel in Rome I will totally be posting an awesome gallery of pictures. Of Pengie in transit.

Location:Nice Ville Gare

Somethin I'd love to one day have

A little place by the water on the French coast. Nothing big, nothig fancy even. A bedroom, a kitchen, a porch lookin south, a bathroom. That'd be enough.

Location:La Pantiero,Cannes,France

Train to Lyon

I'm on the train to Lyon and there's snow on the ground! Makes me smile.


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Location:Gommersdorf,France

An absolute discrace.

I am absolutely astounded right now. Yesterday afternoon, we had an exam scheduled for history of the Fifth Republic. Less than an hour before the exam and without notice the professor moved the date of the exam to Friday. My train leaves at 8 am Friday and he is expecting us to do an exam in the afternoon. I am not going to throw away the money spent on a hotel in Lyon and the train ticket in order to appease a teacher who showed no respect to his students by changing an exam without warning. We were present at thr stated time, ready, an he was not.

On top of that frustrating event yesterday, the post office lost a package from London for me. I did however receive my cookies from my mom and dad which are delicious. I had to twist the arm of the recpetionist in order for her to hold the package because apparently they have a no package policy...

France, until yesterday we had been good since the begining of October, and now you went and scuffed it up. My train is at 8am, I'll be back in a few weeks...


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Location:Rue Stimmer,Strasbourg,France

Sunday Evening

Study Study Study! That's been the theme of the last week.

In a weekly rewind, it's been studying during the day and taking breaks in the evenings. Last night we went ice skating which was a nice pause. It was the traditional Canadian celebration for Katherine's birthday, which is on Christmas Day. Friday night we celebrated the birthdays of two of the English girls, Hannah and Charlotte, with a party at Charlotte's place. Other than that, it had been a pretty laid back week, buckling down and reading plenty to make sure we're all prepared for the exams that start tomorrow.

In other news, I have planned my trip(s) for next week. I'm leaving Friday morning, and will be traveling up until the 30th. I am spending a few days in Lyon (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), then Nice (Sunday, Monday), and then Tuesday will be mostly spent traveling between Nice and Rome (via Genoa) where I will be for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday I'm going to Venice, and then Tuesday night I'll hop a night train to Pairs.

I'm really excited to see Rome (again, last time we tried to do too much in too short a time), and Venice (even though I've heard it's smelly because of the Lagoon, but I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and he had a good time in Venice circa 1935...) And I just love to travel so I am excited for that part too!! Lacy's meeting me in Nice since she has classes on Friday. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures while I'm traveling, and put as many on here as I can. I've got hotels covered in each city already so I know I have a place to stay, which is really nice. Last time, Ross and I just kind of tried to walk in and find a place, which is tough. Especially in Rome at Christmas. But Rome was the cheapest hotel I found!

Alright, I'm going to read some more History of International Relations... I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

It's snowin!!!

:-) snow!





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Location: Boulevard de la Victoire,Strasbourg,France

Finals

I think my window faces the worst possible direction. It's facing somewhat (runs to find compass that Milan gave me since I have no idea which way north is...) completely north. It means i get no sunlight whatsoever other than refections off windows across the courtyard. It also means I have trouble waking up. Even with alarms! It's just no good.

Finals start today. I have a written exam in Gender and Politics this afternoon and then another written exam tomorrow in Europe and International Crises. Next week I have exams Monday through Thursday (ending with a doubleheader) and then I have one exam in January (on the day before I leave...). Though the formats will be different, including some of which are oral exams, I am confident at this point.

But back to work! More re-reading of notes...

Miles Davis

It's an overcast and cold Sunday morning. To be honest, there's not been much going on here of late. There was a birthday party on Thursday, we played football on Friday with some french guys, and yesterday we wandered the christmas markets.

Yesterday I purchased my EuRail pass so that I can travel for Christmas. It turns out to be cheaper than buying each individual ticket, so we have 8 days of travel throughout the course of 2 months (or for me, 1 month). The "we" is not a Royal We, but rather myself and Lacy, a girl from LSU who is going to be traveling with me. We're going to Lyon, Dijon (only because that's where the train to Rome departs from), Rome, and then we don't know. We have the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th to deal with still... I am voting for coastal areas. I would like to swim, or at least lay around in the sun...

Last night I spent an hour hanging out with Katherine (Canadian) and giving her music. She left with over 1,000 new songs from my computer and is happy that she now has more music on her computer than her iPod can fit! I always enjoy spreading music around like that. Hopefully she'll like some of the stuff I gave her. I was proud that she already had 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis. I'm listening to Porgy and Bess right now.

This week begins the lead-up to exams. I intend to spend the majority of my time reviewing notes and writing my two papers. Lee has already started to hole himself up. Same with Heledd. I'm comfortably optimistic, yet know that I will need to be prepared.

I come home in 1 Month. It sounds like a short period of time and I'm sure it'll go quickly. Every time people talk about it I get a bit sad because I love the people I've met here, and I'm going to miss them.

Also, I know I'm a bit early here, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!

Cold Thursday morning

I've stopped for an Italian pizza between my classes, the pizzeria is run by the same family that runs a cafe where I spent the majority of my first few weeks using wifi.

We are going through the planning process for exams and I am feeling confident. I have 10 exams, some of which are papers written at home, some of which are oral, and some written during the exam period.

I am also in the process of arranging my travels for the last two weeks of December.

The last few days have been quiet other than watching the local football club win on Tuesday night. I listened to last nights epic Chelsea match (a penalties loss to Blackburn in the Carling Cup quarterfinals) while cleaning my room and finally folding laundry...

There are two birthday parties in the upcoming week, and a Chelsea match this weekend. Other than that it's just going to be organizing myself for exams!


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What a disgusting Monday

It is rainy and gross!

This weekend was good! Thanksgivig on Friday was a big success, everyone loved the potatoes and stuffing that I made, and good times were had all around. Lorcan inhaled 9 Carmel cremes, I unplugged the sink and it felt like a family dinner.

Sunday I went to church at the Cathedral. The music was stunning, the gigantic organ really has a thunderous quality to it, and Katherine mentioned that when it was first installed, there was no such thig as amplification or surround sound, so the noise must have been completley overwhelming for the people in the church.

After that we wandered around the city and looked at the Christmas market. It was realy cool but my feet hurt by the end of it. Strasbourg really feels it is Christmas capital...

After that we wathed a pair of football matches, a glorious victory for Chelsea at Arsenal, an a gritty win for Barca against Madrid.

Laura and I wandered about after the match because Lee an Heledd went off to go watch a movie. We went to a place called Irish Times an participated in a pub quiz (or the second half of it) and made friends with a French guy named Cedric. We're meeting him next week and making our own lil team to see how we can do.

Tomorrow we're going to a football match as Racing Club de Strasbourg as they (as second bottom of french league 2) take on bottom ranked club Bastia.


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Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sadly our planned dinner has been shifted. We'll make do with what we can.

I'm buying my ticket home today, more on that after these messages from our sponsors...


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Continuation

The story has developped and here are the new points:

My parets called and left me a Happy Birthday duet on my voicemail since I was in class. Totally made my day.

It's still a beautiful day in the Stras! Photo proof:




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Wednesday

It's a sunny morning in Strasbourg. Two classes and a Chelsea match (hopefully) today.

More as the story develops.

Prague, part 2 (ish)

We arrived tired and well, tired mostly. Klara's dad and Milan's mum met us at the train station (where our bus arrived) at half noon and he took our bags in his trunk and she walked us into town. We waited at her office for a few minutes and Klara's younger sister Anna met us with her friend Ester. The 5 of us walked about for the remainder of the afternoon, stopping to wander about in a shopping mall (nicer than most I've seen in the states) and eventually caught a tram home for the evening. After dinner and a quick nap (just me, there's also video proof of me snoring...), we (Lee, Anna, Matt, Ester and I) walked down to a pub nearby for some authentic Czech beer, and paid a considerable amount less than had we been in Strasbourg. The next morning we walked through town with Anna and her parents. We got to see Wensensloss (spelled so incorrectly here it hurts) square, old town, the churches of saints Michael and Nicholas, and of Our Lady of Tyń. The old town hall tower has an astrological clock and each hour there is a procession of the apostles through two little doors above the clock. After that we crossed St Charles bridge, and hopped a tram up to Prague Castle. We stopped for lunch at a brewery called St Norbert's, which used to be run by the monks. I think it was somewhere around 400 years old. Prague castle was massive, and wrapped around the gothic cathedral in the center. The cathedral was built over a span of about 1000 years, with work finishing in the 1800s. Next we walked up to an observation tower modeled after The Eiffel Tower. When I say up, I mean it. Not only was it on one of many hills around Prague, the lift was broken so we walked the 300 stairs up to the top, which swayed considerably more than the Eiffel tower. Granted it was 1/5 scale, you could see most of Prague from it and at night the city is beautiful. The cathedral at Prague castle is flooded with light.

We (the lads) went out downtown that night and tried some different Czech beers and had a generally banterous evening.

The next morning we got up and went to a castle outside Prague built by Charles IV and further fortified once he became Holy Roman Emperor. It started a foggy morning, so much so that the trip there was actually a but bothersome, but might have been cos I prefer driving. Funny story about the ride there: Milan's parents took one car and Klara's took another. Anna and ester rode with Milan's parents, and Klara's mom suggested that matt go with them. Lee and I sat comfortably in the back of Klara's dad's car while Matt sat squished with Anna and Ester. We figure that Klara's mom was trying to start somehing between Ester and Matt, because Lee is the best fit for a crowded back seat, seeing as he's smaller...

After the long walk up we could finally make out the shape of the castle. In a stroke of luck, the fog broke right before our tour began. We had a joker for a tourguide. We couldn't tell when he was just making stuff up or when he was being serious. He ended the tour with something similar to this: "merry Christmas, happy new year, and the world is small so maybe I'll see you again" he also claimed that it was possible that the portraits of former Czech rulers might have just been made up, since a certain one was the first we had a real historical account of. After that we drove back and has dinner at the house. The lads and ladettes went out after and went bowling (at the same place we were the first night) and then came home and played cards for a bit.

The next morning we said our goodbyes and headed out into town around 10. We just walked around for a bit, and hopped on our bus at 13:30 and have been on the move since. It's been pleasant travels but just as it is at home, I prefer travelling at night cos then you don't lose as much in theway of active time. Travelling by trains at night is actually awesome because you get to sleep AND get to your destination, unless you get stuck in an uncomfortable recliner. I am obviously not still bitter about that...

It's dark in Karlsruhe. Nothing else to report!


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The Golden City

Prague was beautiful. That's the long an short of it. I'll explain more later.

Also, Klara's family were the most amazing hosts and tour guides. Their hospitality and insight into the different sites around the city was boundless and really made this trip fantastic.

Patrick


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Prague

We hopped in the car and are on our way to a castle outside the city. Lee and I think that klara's mom is tryingto hook matt up with Anna's friend Ester... Yesterday we did a walkig tour of Prague, and saw the old town, st Charles bridge, te Prague castle, and a look out tour resembling a 1/3 scale model of the tour d'eiffel in Paris. After we paused for a bit the lads an I went on a self navigated pub crawl, finding some interestig spots around Prague. I noticed today that this is the first time i've been in a car since the day I arrived...

It's a foggy day in Prague, more details as they become available...


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Nürnberg

Lee needs sleep.


So yeah that basically explains how we all feel. It was a long night in train stations.

We're on a double decker bus now, 95km outside of Praha (Prague). Will update you as events unfold.

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Trips beginning

It's 20:53 on a Thursday night. We're hoppin on a tram to begin what will be a long trip to Prague. Will keep you updated as we go.


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A Long post about Madrid

The 14 hour ride from Paris to Madrid was actually pleasant (for me at least). I slept on the top bunk and was able to plug in my phone so it would be charged when we arrived. before we called it a night I was able to chat with a British ex-pat who was now living in Spain. he is an arsenal fan, and we discussed football and satellite tav and the progression of football in the united states. he told me the story of going to the Arsenal match in Madrid (I think) in the champions league and how the stadium was so impressive, no to mention the fact that he got tickets in practically the third row since someone he knew (a friend of a friend i believe) was filming Gol 2, and had some spare seats with the extras.

In the morning we relaxed at the train station for a bit while we waited on Diane who was meeting us there. After we met up, we made our way via metro to our hotel. Granted my sense of direction though useful, was a bit turned around and I picked the wrong station to get out on, meaning we had to walk about 10 blocks instead of 3. But i wasn't sure what way the numbering on the streets went so it could have gone either way. After settling into the hotel and changing, we wandered out into the city. The churches in Spain, being the catholic country it is, were impressive. We started at the fransician basilica (cathedral?) near us, and then made our way up to the cathedral at the royal palace. The cathedral was immense, proper in fact for a King and Queen's daily mass. The face of the cathedral opens into a courtyard which is also the courtyard of the royal palace. A neat fact I learned before we left for Madrid was that the Palace has two flag poles, and if one flag is up, it means the king is not present. In the case that two flags are raised, it means that the king is in residence. The present king was raised by the dictator Franco, and had a rough childhood (accidentally killed his brother who happened to be the King's favorite.) A cool thing about his home is that there is a window in it that opens into the courtyard from which you can see directly into the cathedral and have a clear view of the altar if the doors are open. That's pretty neat if you ask me…

After that we went to the Prado Museum. Though well organized and the art was pretty, it's not really art I enjoy. The Dutch Masters painted dark scenes, sad faces and painful religious scenes. The spanish painters were better, but i think that the time period between the 1200s-1500s were just a depressed time in history, the paintings just showed that. There was a painting mentioned in a book I had read, The Siege of Breda, the painting was called "The Handing Over of Breda" by Velázquez it was interesting because in the book they described the painting and how two of the books characters were present, and in the epilogue the author went into detail recounting how scholars of recent times have gone about trying to disprove that the characters are present. The book is historical fiction based on the journals of Iniago Balboa.

That night, we went to a midnight show. It was a flamenco show, and the dancing and guitars were spectacular. The singing was interesting, and the entire show was impressive all around. It was like tap, but not the 20s kitche that you think of, big smiles and huge swinging arms. There was lots of stamping and quick steps. We got home around 2:30 am, and crawled into bed.

The next morning we hopped on a bus and went 45 minutes south, to Toledo. It's an ancient town, and the old fortifications from when they were fending off the Moors are still standing, and the city's built up on a hill in a bend of the river. It's a stunning location, and quite protected too, it's the kind of place the Medieval spaniards would have seen as the ultimate fortress.

As with most old fortified cities, there is a cathedral. This cathedral is a bit different…. It was proper huge. I don't remember when it was built, but in the description of it, they mention the five naves. Because of the alignment of the pillars, the church essentially has 5 aisles (there are 4 rows of pillars) and I feel that there are some churches that consider themselves a good size that would have fit in this church at least twice. As we wandered around the town, eventually getting lost, we just enjoyed the hilly windy streets, with tall buildings on either side.

The next morning we got mom set and said our goodbyes in the subway station. Diane and I got cleaned up and then made our way to the Museo Renia Sophia, where the modern art museum is located. Picasso and Dali were our main targets. Some of the art was definitely different: a series of transparent hoses arranged on the floor that were connected to a pump that pushed water and bubbles through them, a gigantic framed set of newspaper headlines, large monochrome canvases… Not my cup of tea but Picasso was great, it was different because instead of just showing the final piece, they often had his planning drawings, a starting point. I really liked that, seeing his work before it became "picasso'ed". After that we found Starbucks (bad idea) and sat down for a coffee. It was a bad idea because that's where Diane's backpack (which had her passport inside) was stolen. Frustrating, but we found out where the Embassy was and went to talk to them. It was closed, which I was confused by, but they called someone on staff at home who told Diane what she needed to do, and we went to the police and filed a report. It was a rough end to a great trip, but to be honest i was happy that nothing bad happened until the last day. Spain is notorious for pickpockets and thankfully her wallet wasn't in the bag, so it could have been worse.

I caught my train home that evening hoping that my First Class ticket would be just that, First Class. I was wrong. Yes, it said first class, and yes we were at the head of the train, but I would have much rather been in a bed rather than a recliner… So between my little bit of sleep and the tossing and turning it was an uncomfortable night. To add insult to injury, the train arrived in Paris 2 hours behind schedule. I had 2 hours and about 15 minutes to transfer from where we arrived to a different train station initially, but because we were s late as we were, I was going to miss my train to Amsterdam. I got a refund for the ticket and just took the next train home to Strasbourg.

Strasbourg and Paris

Strasbourg and Paris

The train to Strasbourg left at about 10 the following morning. We got to Stras after one change in Stutgartt. After repacking my bag and ditching the dirty clothes, and unpacking some of mom's stuff that she was leaving with me. We went to the Cathedral in Strasbourg and then on a boat tour around the island and up to the European Parliament. A traditional Alsacian dinner of Tarte Flambee and beer and then we caught the last train to Paris.

Our hotel was amazing! It was the same one that Dad and I stayed in when we went for Spring Break my sophomore year at Purdue. They gave us a suite for the price of a normal room, which was quite generous. Once we arrived we had discussed going out and getting a glass of wine in a cafe but ended up too tired, so just called it a night.

The next morning, after an unplanned lengthy lie in, we headed out into Paris. We were about 10 blocks from Ile de la Cite, where Notre Dame de Paris is. We wandered past the Inside out architecture of le centre Pompidou, which inside has a Modern art Museum. One of my favourite comments of the trip was mom's statement that "They've cleaned Notre Dame since I was here, it looks like a completely different building!" We spent most of the morning on foot, walking from the hotel to Notre Dame, then along the Seine to the Musee D'Orssay. The Musee d'Orssay was by far the most impressive museum we visited while we were on our trip. Personally, the Impressionists are my favorite painters. And beside the fact that the art there was amazing, the building itself was impressive. A former trains station, it has been transformed into a museum. They built small galleries off in the wings and the main area is still open, you walk in and the roof soars above you, you can see some of the galleries that look somewhat like boxes out in the open area ahead of you. We walked for a bit in a fruitless search for Julia Child's parisian home, only to be thwarted by strange numbering practices along rue de la universite… Next stop was the Eiffel Tower, and rather than walk to it, we took the subway. It stands to reason that even though walking was possible and also perhaps a shorter route, the trip on the subway had a specific goal. The view of the Eiffel Tower from across the river from Trocadero is stunning. I split with mom at the bottom of the tower and took the stairs (all 668 of them) and we met on the second floor. Partly because the elevator didn't stop at the first floor… but it was good. We were standing on the second floor as night fell across the city. The view was stunning to say the least… My favorite part was scanning the city to find the landmarks that we had already seen. Center Pompidou stands out for being ugly by Parisian standards, Notre Dame seems dwarfed by the city around it, and Sacre Coeur stands illuminated on a hill in the distance. We hopped a train home to grab some reading material and then took the metro over to Sacre Coeur. We toured what is in my opinion the most beautiful church in Paris and then settled in a cafe on the square at Montmartre. I've been sat in the three cafes on the square now, one each time I've visited the city. We had to walk home, as I didn't have change and the metro stop didn't have a ticket booth. Needless to say we slept well after that walk.

The following morning we aught a red tour bus near Notre Dame. It was one of the open top tour busses, which, for the morning was a wonderful idea. The bus sped around town,and we hopped off at the Opera as our first stop. The building was massive and the interior was beautiful. Marble (real and false) everywhere, and stunning gold leaf on the details. The inside of the theatre itself was impressive, crushed red velvet seats and expansive stage were gorgeous. After the opera (which I attempted to exit by a non exit door) we hopped back on the tour bus and went up the Champs Elysees (ba dah be dah pa) and took our pause at the Arc De Triomphe. A grueling climb up the spiral stairs (approximately 200 I believe) we found ourselves in what I would call the first ante chamber (I toured enough homes that that was a common phrase I heard over the course of the trip) of the building. Its a lobby up inside the middle of the arch. After a pause for movies and reading, we hiked up the 46 stairs to the roof where we noticed that dark clouds were gathering to our west and after taking some pictures, we made our way back down to the bus stop. We were in the third row, which is just outside the covering on the upper floor, which meant that after a few minutes we were starting to get a bit wet. We had wanted tog et off close to Les Invalides (a Napoleonic hospital made to look like a basilica) and instead were left a mile away, stuck to walk in the rain around Invalides to the Rodin museum. One thing I learned there was that sculpture is notoriously difficult to photograph… We then headed back to the hotel (where our bags were in the luggage room) and then made a quick pause at a post office before finding our train at Gare d'Austerlitz. The 14 hour ride from paris to Madrid was actually pleasant (for me at least)...

Munich

A week of travel, and stopping was the hardest part… I would have loved to keep moving, to see a few more cities before I went back to class. It's going to take a few posts to go through everything that happened over the week, and it'll take a bit longer to show you the best pictures from it all. I only took 274, which compared to some of my friends trips is paltry. Clare took over 400… but I'll start from the beginning (of the trip, going any further back would get wordy and tiresome)

Munich (München)

I arrived in Munich the night of Halloween. It was a 4 hour train ride from Strasbourg, straight through. There were small stops along the way but I didn't really pay attention to them. I spent the train ride writing a bit and then reading. I found a hostel near the train station (no idea how, I just wandered down some streets.)

I hopped on a subway (regional train really) and swung out to the airport to meet mom. I had forgotten which city she was coming from, I remembered that there were flights we had looked at that came in from Philly so I went to that area. It was the international arrivals so you'd figure that it'd be ok, but Delta has to be special and arrive somewhere else. Mom called me from a pay phone and we eventually found each other.

After dropping our bags and a quick change at the hotel we headed out into Munich. As it was with our entire trip, churches were one of the first things we visited. A smaller church called St. Paul's I believe? It was just tucked into a neighborhood, I think it was built in around either 1809 or 1909, the script they were using made it difficult to differentiate numbers. We hopped on the subway and went up towards the Residenz, the home of the Kings of Bavaria. We saw another church just built into the city, it was in a block of buildings and looked seriously out of place. It was the Theatinerkirche. The interior was beautiful, it seemed as if it had been whitewashed; there were tons of details, but no color on them. They looked like they might have been gold leafed and painted before but maybe the gold had been stripped. The Residenz was across the street, and we tried our best to find a way in but we were at the wrong end of building and walked 2/3 of the way around it in order to find a way in. The building was beautiful, the former Dukes of Bavaria, later Electors of the Holy Roman Empire and then Kings of Bavaria in their own right had a great place to live. The whole thing was massive, a large complex that had been refurbished multiple times during its use and then presently still under repair because of the destruction of World War II.

Lunch outside (in the cold) at a bier garden with impossibly small sausages and then we went to the Marienkirche, the church of Mary. It had been quite destroyed during the war, and they rebuilt it. There was a little work being done on one of the spires, but it was completed indoors. There was a tile that looked as if someone's foot had been imprinted on it, and the explanation on a little plaque on the wall said that that's where the Devil stood the night it was completed. He stood there and laughed as from that vantage point you can't see any of the windows because the pillars block them all. The story goes that he stood there and laughed saying, "What good is a church with no windows?" Taking another step forward he could see them all and then recognizing his mistake he flew off in defeat.

We had an early evening, neither of us had slept all that much the night before, Mom on a plane and me in a hostel with an extra snore-y guy on of the other beds.

The next day we found how we could get out to Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer home of Kings and Electors. It was expansive, and had extended from one home (still quite large) to encompass two sprawling wings and hundreds of rooms. The paintings on the walls were gorgeous. The atrium was Rococo, and the gold leaf and extra frilly details were everywhere. The tour included a museum of porcelain and carriages. The carriages were as elaborate as some of the rooms in the house, it was interesting to think that they were actually used for processions. there were sleighs too, and I had never actually seen a proper sleigh (Santa's flies so that doesn't count). The porcelain had some really detailed pieces, I was drawn to a lion that looked frightened. That afternoon we went on a bus tour, and i worked to listen to it in French for practice. We went to The Deutsches Museum after the tour, and it is their version of Chicago's Science and Industry. It was a pretty cool museum, they had a lot on things on metallurgy and flight. It kind of mixed the Air and Space museum at the Smithsonian and Science and Industry in Chicago. I was pleased to see a pair of old Hiedelberg presses that were quite similar to the windmill press and the S27 Cylinder at Printing Partners. We ended up at Höfbrauhaus that evening. We enjoyed reading, pretzels and our beer.

It's raining in Paris. More news as it becomes available.


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The week, where'd it go?!

This week has been a complete blur! Classes have been good, we discussed World War I after American intervention, how policy is adopted in the European Union, some influential women in the feminist movements beginning (and how Nietzsche is totally anti-feminist), and international relations relating to the creation of Israel and the successive years. Outside of class, we celebrated Sally's birthday, played monopoly again and went to an IEP party (Barbarians and Barbies, it was hilarious!) I'm starting to get things lined up in the way of exams so as I know more I'll let ya know!

Trees

I've been trying to post this for a while now and it won't post from my iphone.

Trees! They're naked now.

They weren't before....

Some strange sort of tree trimming.

Europa Park and Adrian's Birthday pictures

Faces on the flying dutchman

Beefeater

Lee and me

One of the staff joined us for a bit

In the spinny tea cups

Those are both her shirts...

We're flying!

Mercedes-Benz hover boards

How many can you fit in a phone booth?

THRILLER!!! On ice!

The bobsled roller coaster

Halloween-ed Park. He's havin a bath

The bobsled roller coaster

The great Pumpkin!

Sorry for the random order...

Saturday: What a day!

I have been updating this less and less since I've been more active at school and I apologize! Yesterday was one for the ages...

We started at Europa Park, a theme park in Germany about an hour away from Stras by bus. I wasn't originally going, seeing how I'm not a fan of roller coasters, but we were all going and since I hadn't put any other plans in motion (I was thinking about going to London to watch the Chelsea match, which ended up being an epic win 5-0) I "manned up" as Laura said. The group split along the lines of who likes roller coasters, and my group of 4 enjoyed our day. Katherine had never been on any sort of ride so we (Katherine, Clare, Taryn and myself) started slow and built our way up to a proper roller coaster at the end. We also went to "Halloween On Ice" which was more of just the Ice Capades with a few zombies thrown in for good measure. We figured it was a family show but the first act showed us that family shows are a bit different in Germany, the woman's outfit would have been at home on a beach instead of on ice... As the whole park was Halloween-ed, we were horribly disappointed that we hadn't heard Thriller yet (they were playing the halloween song from A Nightmare Before Christmas on repeat around the park) but Halloween On Ice fixed that by giving us a Michael Jackson tribute, featuring the Thriller dance (on skates!) and then broke into Billie Jean (The guy did back flips on ice skates, I was impressed) and finished with a zombified version of Beat It. There is a big geo-desic dome that houses a roller coater and it was made to look like a pumpkin, that was funny. The roller coaster inside was fun too! All in all it was a good trip, even if we were called "the wuss group" since we didn't want to go on the tallest roller coaster in Europe, or a gigantic one designed by Mercedes-Benz. We had our fun at our own pace, and had less time queueing than the other group, our longest was maybe 20 minutes, and they spent maybe 5 hour in lines during the course of the trip...

When we got home we relaxed for a bit then went to celebrate Adrian's birthday. We started at Paul Appel (one of the residences) and then hopped the tram to a different university residence. We ended the night at a club on a boat. It was certainly an entertaining evening, and we got an extra hour because of the time change, and I really love when that happens. And considering that had I not changed my watch it would have been 5 am when I got home, I was thankful for the extra hour... The night bus disappeared yesterday so I hung out with Clare as she waited for it, only for a 20 minute wait to turn into about an hour and a half. At least....

Today, Lee and I are going to watch the Man Utd game against Liverpool and then we'll be playing Risk at Pawels apartment. Pictures arriving in a moment!

Oops

Sorry to have been gone for a bit!

Monday was run of the mill, ran some errands and had lunch, nothing special really. Tuesday I got groceries (some tea since Katherine has an electric kettle and some breakfast stuff) and then enjoyed my 6 hours of class... And today I've gone through a make up class for an hour and now am getting ready for my next class in an hour.

I'm working on setting everything up for my travels with my mom when she gets here. My other project right now is the getting my classes selected for next semester. I had to start with selecting credits my study abroad could fill in for and then see what was left. If all goes according to plan, which it hopefully will, I'll be covered. We'll see.

Tonight is more Champions League football at Dubliner. I hope Chelsea'll be on, but with Man U v CSKA Moscow starting earlier than the rest, I figure that game'll be on one tv with the epic match between the two most successful clubs in europe (AC Milan and Real Madrid) might get priority on one of the others. Honestly, after yesterday's great results (Liverpool losing, Arsenal drawing) todays games seem to be set up for something special. Chelsea v. Athletico Madrid in London, Real v. AC, Bordeaux v. Bayern Munich, lots of good games today. Let's hope they're all thrillers!

Photos from Colmar

This is the moat around the cathedral

A cool lookin old building built in the 1500s

A fountain in the main park in town

The Cathedral

Little Venice

Long Weekends

Good evening!!!

This weeks classes were good, things went smoothly, and all in all it was a good week! I got my LSAT score today (as my earlier post mentioned) and I wish I had done a bit better. I'll be chatting with my advisor in the upcoming days to see what to do next.

We just finished watching The Princess Bride which is a fantastic movie. We all scrunched on to Katie's bed and watched it, and Katherine made fried apples for us (she took over as mom for the evening). Before that we watched the amazing Boilermaker upset of nationally ranked Ohio State. Which was AWESOME!!!! Congrats boilers, well done.

This morning we went to Colmar, a small town south of here. It was pretty and a nice place for a day trip but not really much to do there. I'll post pictures in a bit. I liked the trip because I enjoy the trains, I really wish we had more trains in the states...

Thursday we went to happy hour at a bar called Happy Hour. It was fun, the place was packed. We found out about it the night before when we went there to watch the France national soccer team play against Austria (France won, 2-1, qualifying for the play-off to get into the world cup).

That's about it.

LSAT

156. 68th percentile. I did better than 68% of the people that took it.

We're in Colmar for the day. Not much to do here.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Crisp cold skies

It's cold. Ok so maybe not really cold. 37F, 1C but I don't had a heavyish coat. I've been looking for one and will continue the search Friday, I don't have breaks long enoughto shuffle off to the mall to look at coats.

Classes have been good this week, I've been focused and taking notes. It'll make up for what I miss traveling. We're officially going to Prague the weekend of the the 21st of november! I have trips planned to Amsterdam for a concert (it's a 19 hour train journey from Madrid, I'm leaving after mum flies out) and Lyon for the Festival of lights.

I'm in class so I'll have to write more later!




-- Posted from my iPhone

Bollywood Grill

Indian for lunch after running some errands for the morning. I was actually half way to my next stop but it was raining and I hadn't eaten yet so I figured it would be a good stopping point. I've crossed two of my errands so far, a bank run and picking up a form that will hopefully provide me with money for lodging... Who knows.

The picture is Guttenberg. He has a square named after him here, just south of the cathedral. Well it might be south, I don't know, I have reallignes my compass to use the cathedral a my center point with the directions following the length of the church and then cutting across the face. I am pretty sure that is wrong but oh well.

Had a good weekend, the rain was a downer but we made the most of it. Monopoly and poker Sunday, laundry and an IEP house party Saturday and a get together Friday at laura's. Tonight we plan Prague, and I plan Lyon.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Laundry Day

It's a rainy Saturday and be ause I've got nothing else planned I figured laundry would be a good use of my time. It needed to be don, and the laundrymat is close by, providing a reprieve from my room. Laundry makes me think of Eddie izzard, the British commedien. He has a bit about clothes infiltrating the wash, the colors conspire to send a blue sock into the white load.

This week went well. Classes were good, my new laptop battery holds up beautifuly! There was a game of Risk (which I had never played but found entertaining to watch) at Pawels apartment Thursday night. We decided we would buy the England match tonight since it is only going to be broadcast online (they had sold the rights to the now defunct Setanta broadcast company) and after that one of the international coordinators is hosting something at her place.

I'm planning a trip to Lyon but I don't quite know when. I was thinking this comming weekend but some people wanted to go to colmar (the begining of the wine route I believe) I would be tempted to spend Friday in colmar and go on to Lyon after. We'll see.

That's all for now I guess. Just sort of a lazy Saturday...


-- Posted from my iPhone

My 0.60€ coffee in class

Not half bad. Pleasantly suprised and you can be sure I'll have em more often since they're cheap!

Early Mornin' Tony

I miss starbucks. Not from the actual coffee standpoint but actually from the simpilicity and omnipresence standpoint. My 8 am lecture shouldn't have been all that difficult to go to, and it wasn't overall, but a coffee would have been nice. Places here don't really do coffee to go and I didn't have the time to sit and drink a cup. I miss my espresso machine too, I liked making myself a little somethin somethin in the mornings.

Lecturer talked for 2 hours straight. Referred to the German advance into Belgium during WWI as a violent, pedophillic attack. He is a character.

The professors here are not that food with technology. They use the computers and projectors occasionally but I was suprised by the lack of understanding of how the microphone systems work. If they work at all.

Back to class. Have a great day!
Oh, the title, it's a track by Felt. New album drops next month. They're my soundtrack today.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Epic Monopoly Game

We stayed in tonight cos that's free. We played monopoly AND I WON!!!!! It was epic. I played conservatively at first, getting the railroads and utilities, then the lowly first two properties. End of story I won and had more money than the bank and she even had half the properties. I was proud of myself!



Those are my 7 hotels. I will admit that I was quite lucky to get some good rolls when traversing her 3/4 of the board, landing on my railroads, free parking, etc. But it was fun to finally win a game of monopoly!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Monday Mornings

Mondays aren't all that different here, even if I don't start class until 4pm. The idea of starting classes (and the week in general) again after a weekend is a bit of a downer. But I'm lucky enough to have built a schedule that is manageable.

These cold mornings are becoming more and more common. We chatted about how in December or February/March this weather would be shorts weather, but for now it's sweats in the morning and jeans and a sweatshirt for class. I'm not a fan of it but it'd be the same at home, except I think there might be better insulation in the window area of my apartment compared to the windows here...The steam radiators haven't been turned on yet. I thought I heard them last night but must have been mistaken because it is still frigid...

I am going to put money on my student ID so I can pay for dinner today, they no longer accept cash at the dining hall. Apparently they loose money by accepting cash at student prices. I don't understand how 2.90 is different if it's paid in cash or on a money card but they're the boss.

Today's soundtrack: John Mayer Trio. Both a live bootleg and their official Live release, Try!. Great music!

A Great Day

Fridays

I've always been a fan. Especially since I arrived here and set up my schedule so that I had no classes on Friday. Initially the decision was made to enable me to travel more easily. Now I just like having Fridays free to run errands and whatnot. Today I got my bank card, and successfully made it through the day without losing it to an ATM. I may or may not have written my PIN number on my wrist. However, the arrival of a bank card then led to the arrival of a telephone. I officially have a phone! And it works. I don't have much in the way of talk time, I think it's just maybe 200 minutes a month. but I feel that the unlimited texting was more important for us students here since receiving texts is free, I can be a contact point, a sort of switchboard, for our group of friends. WE had also discussed the option of a Can & string communication system across our courtyard so that Katie, Matt and I could communicate that way. If we get that done, I will definitely post pictures.

I have a pair of pictures I wanted to show earlier, to show an amusing dichotomy in the architecture here. One is what I consider the ugliest building on the Palace Universite campus, just about 3 minutes from our dorm. The other is the housing across the street from the ugly building. How do you get such an ugly school building across the street from such gorgeous housing!?

also amusing: Where germany and France meet:

This is at the square in front of the cathedral. I love the old german half timbered buildings, and I thought it was interesting that it is essentially built into the neighboring building, which is very French.

Welcome to October

October has arrived and I'm not ready to admit that it's fall already. I have been so used to summer, I had forgotten that fall exists. The leaves have been falling off here for a while and I kept questioning why leaves were falling off in summer. Apparently it will get cold but snow isn't likely during the winter. I will miss my flip flops but because I appreciate the balance that my toes provide, I won't be wearing them once it gets cold.

Tommorrow is errand day, I am going to get a new battery and hopefully be able to go to the bank. Now that there is internet in my room I am not in as much of a hurry for my bank card but it'd still be nice.

We have been planning trips and it looks like Prague and the Netherlands are probable, hopefully I'll be able to crash at klara and gary's families to save some money.

It's Tom's birthday so we're going to get tarte flambee. We went to watch the game at dubliner last night and it was great, they had three games on, Man U, Chelsea and Real Madrid. All three of those teams won, but Chelsea still didn't look like they had the cutting edge they had up until the shock loss to Wigan. I am hoping to watch the Chelsea v Liverpool Sunday, assuming they're open...

I have been making pasta at home instead of going to the dining hall because you are required to put money on your student ID card to pay, and you can't do that without a French bank card... I borrowed a pot from a neighbor, whose name I am embarrassed to admit I have forgotten.

I bought a loaf of bread, it is basically a loaf of King's Hawaiian sweet rolls. Delicious but amusing because I just wanted regular bread.

Internet!!!!!

The internet has finally arrived at Gallia!

How do businesses survive here?!

Ok, I understand this is a relaxed culture but I find it amazing that the majority of businesses survive here. Between the extended lunchtime breaks (daily) and the standard closed for the weekend mentality, stores log less than 50 operating hours a week! That doesn't seem financially responsible, let alone profitable.

I have tried to go grocery shopping for two consecutive days and have been foiled by e.leclerc being closed yesterday and opening 5 hours later than advertised today. I'll try again tomorrow.

Just walked past a restaurant closed Mondays that essentially only served about 5 or 6 hours a day otherwise. So different.

Ride home

GeoTagged, [N48.58356, W7.76237]

Waking up early stinks but I'm happy to be on my way home. I'm seated across from a pair of ladies travelling together, not as entertaining as the Germans from last time but they're civil.

My hotel was loud, creaky noises and a bit of rumbling kept me up for a bit but I slept fine. The tv was a bit off, there was no remote and the channel changing buttons didn't always work. I did catch a few seconds of a Count de Montecristo film starring Gerrard Depardieu. I like him, he is amazing as Cyrano de Bergerac, I'll always enjoy that movie. Never saw Roxanne though, but I've heard Steve Martin did a good job as the modern version of Cyrano.

There's a mother doing her best to make sure her son is set and ready on the tgv. Her son looks older than me but it could be the French. It was funny. I like that withtrains you can have more of a goodbye than at airports, even back in the days before extensive security checks. You're so much closer here! Ok my iPhone's battery is low and I need some music. I'll catch you on the flip side.

Arrived home and got cleaned up and unpacked. Laundry either today or tomorrow. I'm just chillin in my room because it appears Katie and Matt are both gone. Both Purdue and Penn State lost this weekend, ours was not as unexpected, even if we were leading in the 4th. Penn State was supposed to win so that was more of a shocker. IU pushed Michigan yesterday, that makes me think that the oaken bucket game might be super interesting this year. We'll wait and see.

I'm listening to Mika, a British singer. He's funny, I like him. He's got two albums out, his second just came out this month.

Have a nice day!

Oh Crap

Well the test went well, I felt good for the most part. The title refers to the fact that because the proctor took an extra hour starting the exam and I missed my train, and the following train to Strasbourg. The second train I missed happened to be the last one tonight. So I'm camped out in a hotel with WiFi across the street from the train station.

Yup. More money down the train...

I'll write more tomorrow on the train between here and Strasbourg. For now I'm going to relax, I deserve it.

TGV

I'm sitting on the TGV between Strasbourg and Paris. I finished my kaplan book on the LSAT and am feeling good about it all. This train amazes me, we're going quite quick but you can't really tell, except when another train passes going the opposite direction.

The countryside reminds me of Wapauca county in Wisconsin, and at times a bit of Tippacanoe as well. It's beauttiful. The buildings we pass certainly wouldn't fit in either of those two places but the rolling hills and livestock grazing would look normal. I haven't seen any holstiens though.

I'm sitting across from a pair of Germans, they're funny. They speak pretty good English but it's amusing when they switch between it and German. There is an outlet here but there's no power coming through.

I've got an hour left. When I arrive I plan on finding a hotel and laying low, maybe watch a show I downloaded or maybe some tv. I am confused because my admission ticket says "arrive no later than 2 pm" so I might have been mistaken as to the time that the exam occurs. I plan on looking for a hotel near the testing center so I'll look if there is any information there, and if not I'll check online.

Thursday

Class today was interesting. My first class was at 8am, and waking up and getting there wasn't the hard part. The teacher was a bit stereotypical "full of himself" teacher. He used the somewhat cliche line of "You're the ones paying, my time is precious, etc." He was easy to understand and easy to follow, but it was just irritating because he left at about 8:03 and didn't come back for 10 minutes because students kept arriving and he wouldn't start until everyone had arrived since some people had interrupted his class.

My sociology of international relations class seems interesting. Apparently we have three teachers who each come in and give lectures.

The battery on my laptop is giving me problems. I checked some information on it and it is at approximately 37% health according to my iStat application which monitors internal workings. It has also been through 232 full cycles, and I'm not sure if that's a large or small quantity of cycles. It lasts approximately one hour, which is half of a class. One of the two reason i'm worried about this is that they are ridiculously expensive here, approximately $200 for a replacement. I'm pretty sure they aren't that expensive at home, but I will admit I think I got my last replacement for free (Thank you extended AppleCare warranty!). The other reason I'm worried is that I only have my short cord (the long one is an american plug) so it's difficult to plug in during class unless I get there early and sit next to the outlet which is tough when I've got back to back classes.

We got to see the Man Utd game in the Carling Cup third round last night. They won, even after having a defender sent off for a cynical tackle. Chelsea also played, they won as well, and three players make returns from injury (Yuri Zirkhov, Joe Cole, and Paulo Ferreira) and Joe Cole got the assist for our only goal.

Lunch break and then two more classes this afternoon. I'm not leaving for Paris until tomorrow, I didn't feel like paying for 2 nights in a hotel/hostel.

Recap

GeoTagged, [N48.58356, W7.76237]

Just as a little FYI the patience post belongs to Tuesday, the other two to earlier days. I had switched over to using my laptop so I hadn't posted in a bit. Here's what today looks like though! 6 hours of lecture this afternoon...

Patience

"The Fairytale was climbing up a mountain far too steep" - Alex Turner (The Arctic Monkeys/The Last Shadow Puppets)

Sometimes that'll happen. I went too quick. Now I start waiting all over again.

A lesson learned: better safe than sorry.

Story: I've been waiting for my bank card the last week and a half and I recieved an email saying I could now pick up my card at the bank. Excited by this news I headed to the bank with the intention of picking up my card and then going to Orange to get my phone situation settled.

Upon receipt, one activates a card by using it at an ATM. I memorized my pin incorrectly, since they gave me one instead of me giving my own. I was off by a digit. Now it's stuck inside that ATM and I still have no phone. I'm still in a slightly better mood because I finished setting up wireless on campus and can now get the shows I missed, but that is not enough of a positive to outweigh my crap morning.

I have Sociology of the state right now. [he talked fast but once he focused on a single subject it was easier to understand.]

History of international relations. Didn't know it was since 1945, I took this class with Targ at purdue, but that was from the American point of view. Everyone kept talking so it was tough to listen.

History of modern political ideas, cool prof. Speeks at a pace I can understand 100% but his handwriting looks like Arabic...

LSAT practice

This is going to be posted at the same time as the other post about Monday but that's fine. I studied today before my class and now I'm back at it after class and dinner. Class was a but rough, but I did feel that I got the jist of what he was saying. He did however make a few sweeping claims that neither I nor the Brtis were fond of regarding our respective countries. He said that all the presidents of the last 60 years went to ivy league schools which I didn't think was factual. He also claimed that since the 20s all the prime ministers came out of either oxford or Cambridge. If I had Internet I'd check those stats but for now I just hold my disbelief.

LSAT is tough but I feel I'm getting better with the logic games. I have done questions from one practice test I've got on Winston (my computer) and then a section an a half at this point from one of the books.

Honest, the reason I'm writing this is because there was a line (a toast more or less) in a song I just listened to by Jay-Z (the song included an extended sample from Forever Young) that said "May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows" I just loved that line. And I felt like sharing it with all of you.

Bureaucracy

I really enjoy France, all but the process of getting a bank card. I had an enjoyable weekend, relaxing and still active. But the problem of not having a phone is starting to get annoying. The French business model of being closed weekends no matter what kind of store or restaurant you are also gets annoying.

But there are positives, I watched half of the Utd game with Lee and played for an hour or so after. It was tied at half and Man Utd won it 4-3 with the last touch of the game. Chelsea won their London derby as well, 3-0 over Tottenham.

I need to print my LSAT ticket and get some non mechanical pencils. I've been reading my books and also lookig at the DVD that came with it and they've been helpful. The processes of the logic games are gettig easier as I keep going.

Though I enjoy it here, the stereotypical bureaucratic system is aggrivating because the process of getting internet is taking forever. With classes starting today I am confused as to why the system isn't finished. Another funny story is that they are replacing our mattresses tomorrow. Now doesn't that seem like it would make more sense to do it over the summer when people didn't live here? It's almost as if they didn't remember we (all the students living here) were coming. I feel that if a university were run like this at home American students might take up the French model and start going on strike...

I hope all is well at home.

Last moment addition, the soundtrack! Today started with Akon and now has shifted to Cage the Elephant. If it changes again I'll tell ya.

[note: switched to iTunes DJ while at home which mixes all of the songs I have listened to in the last 4 weeks into one playlist]

Sunday

I'm going to watch the Manchester Derby this afternoon at the Dubliner and then play some futbol after, so today should be a good day. Yesterday we kicked around a bit and threw some frisbee. We also made a pasta dinner at Gallia, which was nice. As is standard at my house since I didn't cook anything I did dishes with Lee.

The internet still hasn't arrived at Gallia, I'm sitting on campus and my battery is dying too quickly for my tastes. First classes tomorrow, and I'm really hoping that when I go to the bank tomorrow morning I leave with more than just a dejected look.

soundtrack: Muse's new album - The Resistance.

Sorry I don't have more to share, but it's been pretty low key. Once reason I need to get a phone is because I think one of my cards is frozen and I would not appreciate that because I would like to use it...