So I just submitted my first final paper today and in the true spirit of procrastination, I decided to write a blog instead of finishing up my next paper. One down, three to go! as much as I’m ecstatic that I have no exams, writing four research papers is a lot of work!! Especially when the writing style here is different from back home and I’m taking subjects that are basically all new to me and all four essays are due within two weeks and each one is 50 percent of my grade. In case you can’t tell from my little rant, I’m a little stressed out.

For fall break four friends and I headed to Copenhagen and Amsterdam to explore two cities full of blondes, expensive food, and cold weather. Both cities harbor distinct features. Like, Copenhagen has the longest strip of stores in Europe and very delicious smoothies, while Amsterdam has legal marijuana and canals that anyone could fall into. Despite their obvious differences, these two cities had one major thing in common: the ability to get me lost. Throughout the entire trip my friends repeated one thing, “if you are the amazing race, you would be eliminated.”

One of my personal study abroad goals is to practice living in the “now.”  Whatever that means.  Really what I want is to quit obsessing over my future job, my future classes, my future this, my future that, and fixate instead on what is going on right around me.  Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done, and lately I’ve found myself daydreaming about what is going on back home when I really should be fantasizing about is Spanish paella and Parque del Retiro.  I knew it was time for an intervention, and this long weekend was the perfect time to do it.  I packed th

So as our midterms are nearing (they’re this coming week in fact) our classes have begun reviewing for them. Getting us ready for what’ll be on them and answering any question we might have (like if we can use a dictionary…we can! Thank goodness).
Our German Pop Culture class was supposed to meet this past Friday from 12-2pm, generally guessing it’d be a review class, but we used it a bit differently and ended up going to a Fußball (soccer) game! It was Hertha BSC (Berlin) vs FC Ingolstadt 04 (Bavaria). The game was held at the Olympiastadion, built for the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Happy belated Halloween!

Two weekends ago IES had a trip to Dresden. I originally wasn’t signed up for it, but one of the girls who was ended up spending the weekend with her parents, so I was able to slip in.

Dresden is the capital of the Free State of Saxony. It’s located near the Czech boarder, about 1.5-2 hours south of Berlin by train, which is how we got there. Our Dresden schedule was pretty much to have tons of free time to explore the city and see it’s incredibly large collection of collections. So many museums and such around.

Every October since 2004, Berlin has had this crazy idea to light up a bunch of it’s famous monuments for a week or two. It’s called the Festival of Lights and I was lucky enough to be here when it happened!
Berlin lights up about 70 different monuments around the city, including the Brandenburger Tor, the Fernsehturm, and the Berlin Cathedral. One Thursday a few of us went out to see the sights. Being that there are around 70 sites, it’s easy to say we didn’t get to every single one, but we got to the main ones plus some others, so I think it was a good night.

We arrived in Krakow early. Around 7am. We were tired, some not so well rested, but still excited. I mean, we were in Poland. How could you not be excited about it? We were up early enough to see the sunrise from the train. The day started off with breakfast and a walking tour of the city. It was nice to not be on a bus for once in order to get a tour. Bus tours get old quick.

The train to Budapest was no problem, in fact I barely remember being on it. Maybe I fell asleep. That’s highly likely. I love sleeping and we were up and moving by 8am. We arrived in Budapest at about 1pm.
I immediately felt the shock that I did when I traveled over the summer: I was yet again in a country in which I knew almost none of the language. It’s thrilling, but also a little scary. This time around it wasn’t as intimidating because we were in a group with a guide.

We met early in the morning to begin our travels around Europe. We had to be at the airport by about 6:30 am, which, naturally we weren’t. Here’s an important tip to remember: Alt Tegel U-Bahn station is not the same as the Tegel Airport. You need to take a bus to get to the airport. I made that mistake, but fixed it quickly enough. It’s ridiculous that I even made the mistake in the first place because we were told a few times not to got there, so I clearly wasn’t listening. Some weren’t as lucky as I was and just barely made it to the group in time.