Month in a Nutshell

So we have a bit of catching up to do...

Midterms were CRAZY. The weekend before I went to Wiesbaden, Germany, to visit our friend Judy who works on the U.S. Army base. It was gorgeous and she showed me all the important things, like where they have the champagne-fest every year! Good news - she found Cholula hot sauce in the commissary so now I have hot sauce!

Right after midterms, we had our 10-day break. I went to Spain and Italy, and it was amazing. My friend Chris and I took trains to Paris, which involved overnight traveling, and as expected, everything related to the French was awful. They were supposed to have this awesome, high-speed train, but getting a reservation was absolutely impossible over the internet, by phone, or at the train station. How then do you get a reservation? We have no clue. We ended up having to buy an actual 63 euro ticket in order to make our flight out of Paris to Madrid that night. Oh well, I don't plan on going back...

Once we got to Madrid, I was so relieved to know the language! I'm tired of German, and French was awful. So we found a hotel that night and then took a train to Sevilla the next morning. It was absolutely beautiful, but raining. It is one of my favorite cities that we've been to! We stayed for two days and then tried to go to Granada for a day, but the bus that morning just didn't show up...we stood in the rain at 6am and watched what seemed to be some type of undercover drug deal or other such crime happen across the street...we're not really sure, but two vans with painted over windows showed up at the exact same as two people on a motorcycle for a total of 30 seconds, and then everyone left at once...oh well. We missed our train to Granada because of the bus, so we waited another hour or so and finally got to the train station. We got on the next train back to Madrid and explored the city a bit. The next day, our friends Grace and Tierney met up with us and we went out and relaxed in a huge, over-sized park/garden. After two days, we left for Barcelona, but that was by far the sketchiest city we had been in. Chris almost got pick-pocketed and a man literally barked at Grace...that was interesting. We were very glad to leave Barcelona...

Our last stop was Cinque Terre, Italy. Oh it was amazing and gorgeous!! The weather was perfect in the 70's, and the beaches were so beautiful. Our "hostel" that we thought we booked turned out to be our own mini apartment with two rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen! Chris cooked us girls dinner that night and the next day we went to the beach, ate gelato, went to Mass, and then ate out for Grace's 20th birthday. It was a glorious 10-day break, but we got back to school at 7:15am on Monday morning, with classes starting at 8:40am....

I didn't sleep except on the train, so immediately after getting into school from the train station, I took a shower which just so happened to be ICE COLD. I was so incredibly disappointed, considering I had just walked 45 min from the train station in 30 degree weather and couldn't sleep...it turns out no one had hot water, so that made it a little better :). Only 5 hours later, my parents and Pete and Teri arrived on a bus outside the window of my German class, and thus began Parent's Week!! It was so much fun and I loved seeing them and spending time with them. Classes were crazy during this time and we got lectured by every single teacher about how we're the worst class that any of them can remember (remember we had just taken midterms). The good news is that I got A's on all of mine, but I didn't know that until after the parents left. I think the teachers spared most of us the punishment we might have received by not revealing our grades until the parentals were gone...

On the weekend, we met the parents in Salzburg and Vienna. It was great staying in a hotel and having meals paid for by either the university or my parents :D. As the students were leaving on the bus, waving goodbye to the parents, I realized I left my winter coat in my parents' hotel room! My dad had to run back to the hotel (yes, run) and run it back to the bus. Let's just say that our German bus drivers and the students weren't exactly excited over having to wait another 5 minutes haha. Probably because one week with the parents was enough and we were sooo close to leaving....haha just kidding! When my parents left and I returned to school, classes were crazy again and I had a test, two quizzes, and a skit. It felt like I hadn't had a rest since 10-day! Well, that's because I didn't...

And then that next weekend, we went to Poland!