Having reached the three month marker, it’s slowly hitting me that I will be home in an English speaking country in the blink of an eye. Any time I am in my room alone mindlessly stalking old friends on facebook, I panic just little: there are so many other things I could be doing right now! So, for the next month I am going to live the most ‘German’ I can.

So what is the German-ist thing to do on a Monday night (besides drink Beer and argue)? See an English speaking blockbuster. Yes—a few friends and I spent 7.50 euros to see “Skyfall.”

Okay, granted I may have let myself insert a line or two about Lord of the Rings thinly across my blogs, but I’ve tried to avoid writing about it as much as I want to. And it’s not that I just wanted to write about all the ways that being in New Zealand brought me closer to the novel or the story. It hasn’t just been good. There were pitfalls relating to seeing ways in which the movies became a simple economic advantage to the country.

After a surprisingly restful 8-hour bus ride through the night, we arrived in the tiny city of Pucón, tucked away in the south of Chile at the base of the enormous Villarica volcano. Climate-wise, it makes sense to think of Chile as an upside-down version of California: Cali’s dusty southern San Bernardino region corresponds to Chile’s northern Antofagasta desert region, which means that the southern lakes region of Chile corresponds to rainy northern California (Chile’s a bit longer than Cali, so a more appropriate comparison might be to the Seattle region. Either way the point is rain.

I went to Berlin and Prague a few weeks ago, and I’m finally getting around to writing about it. My friend and I had a several panic attacks throughout the trip including one before we even left Paris. Sometimes traveling by yourself is hard.

On Thanksgiving morning I woke up, looked at the time on my phone, and closed my eyes again. Seven minutes to get to my internship. It’s never going to happen. I stayed in my bed for a couple more minutes.

Its been a few weeks since I’ve posted about traveling, I’ve been so busy between classes/midterms and being away almost every weekend, I feel like I have way to much to post for right now! I actually miss Milan a lot and kinda wish I had more weekends here, but I’m not about to complain about traveling so much. So far I still have to post about Copenhagen, Budapest, and Amsterdam..I guess I’ll start with Copenhagen.

With midterms just ending, I’m in a toss up between feeling relieved that exams are over and anxious that we only have a month and a week left. This past week has definitely been the most work I’ve done all semester – and I finally feel like I’m actually in school. Lessons here are set up differently than at home; we have very little outside work and our grades are mostly based off the midterm/final, so its up to everyone to study on their own time. For me that usually means cramming a few days before the exams, not the best idea but somehow it work.

Although the area has become a hub for tourists and gypsies trying to put a bracelet on your wrist, it is undeniably one of the most beautiful areas in Paris. Every street has its own charm and is full of beautiful cafe’s to waste your afternoons people watching and sipping expresso. Here is a little taste of what I have come across while walking around Montmartre.