January 2010
1 post
Home.
An 11-hour flight to Dallas, 2 days in Ft. Worth over Christmas after a cancelled flight, and a short trip back to Minneapolis brought me home. Aaron picked me up, turning out to be one of the most surreal & movie-like experiences of my life. I’ve been home for a few weeks, regrouping and settling back in.
I hate it. I am bored out of my mind because I sleep all day, sit at home, work...
December 2009
25 posts
The End.
These past 3 months have been indescribable. I’m sorry to everyone who asks how my semester was and receives a response of “Great!” I can’t explain how being here has affected me. I’ve learned so much about myself and about other people, about relationships. I’ve grown more confident, more sure of myself and my actions. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but...
My Last Day
Unfortunately, I’m spending it sitting in my hostel on the internet all day. One, I’m sick and want to get as better as possible before an 11 hour flight that would feel like hell if I couldn’t pop my ears. Two, I’m terrified of leaving my hostel by myself since it’s in a sketch area and my friend got robbed just outside last week. And all my friends have flown home...
Carpe Noctem Hostel in Budapest
I didn’t even think to come here to Budapest when planning my travels around Europe, but this is quickly becoming one of my favorite trips. There are only 22 beds in this hostel and everyone is incredibly fun. It’s a big family that immediately accepts you. They go out every night and I’ve had the best time the 2 nights I’ve gone out so far. I don’t think anything...
I feel like I can’t fill out any of those 2009 surveys because all I can remember is the last 3 months abroad!
Home For Christmas
Surprise! Due to the awesomeness of Student Universe, it only cost me $140 to change my flight to December 24th. I won’t be able to go with my family to Orlando, but I’ll be able to spend the evening with my mom’s side of the family!!!! Then maybe I’ll get to spend some more time with my grandparents on actual Christmas Day. I think I’m going to cry, I’m just so...
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
– Dr. Seuss
Can't believe I'm leaving (sort of)
I’m packing up my entire room today to move out tomorrow. I’ll be around for 15 more days, but for 3 I’ll be in Budapest and then it’s 10 days in Paris after that. My last 7 days will be completely without my friends here. I’m going to miss everyone so much. They’ve impacted my life more than I could have thought. The soonest I’ll get to see any of them is...
Things You Should Know About Paris
The best view of the city is from l’Arc de Triomphe
If you want ethnic food, go to the Latin Quarter
The Louvre is not unmanageable; I got through most of it in 3.5 hours
Watch out for strikes: Metro workers, museum workers, everyone!
Places close for lunch so plan accordingly
Everyone smokes
Everything is more expensive than you will plan on
Plan a picnic in a park; buy bread from a...
Things I Can't Wait for in America
Cheap everything!!!!
Money that actually fits in my wallet
Not having to convert prices
Giant beds
Giant food portions
Peanut butter
Not worrying about culturally offending someone
Being able to communicate with everyone
24-hour stores
TARGET
Substitute foods: rice bread, rice pasta, rice milk
Having a fridge so I can buy food
Being able to cook & bake
Things I Will Miss About Europe
Crepe stands everywhere
Falafel stands everywhere
Less emphasis on grades & schoolwork
Being able to go to other countries over the weekend
Learning about other cultures every day
Being able to go to the store or bar and buy alcohol
Germans!
The metro
European sense of style
Colorful money
Dollars as coins
Eating dinner at 7:30 or later
Easyjet
Balmy Winters
Someone showed me an American quarter yesterday and I asked what country it was from.
November 2009
36 posts
Plans for this weekend:
Village People-themed POW on campus
Russian-themed dinner on campus
Riding the Ferris Wheel set up in Place de la Concorde
Walking down Champs-Élysées and looking at all the Christmas shops
Watching an Eiffel Tower light show
Bar hopping in the Bastille district
The European Party Scene
Clubs in Minneapolis are required to shut down by 2/2:30 am, but clubs here in Europe don’t even really get going until that time. It’s been weird to adapt to that, especially when I wake up the next morning and have to go sightseeing before the sun sets at 4pm - Berlin is very northern & eastern in its time zone. There are always people ready to party every night. We went to a...
All the sights in Berlin are so sad.
Everything was related to the war & the Holocaust, except the museums and Berliner Dom. It was really hard for me to see everything because violence against other humans really resonates within me. The fact that one person could convince so many people that a whole race didn’t deserve to live is just bone-chilling. So many horrible things happened and everyone was too scared to do...
I spent more on food & alcohol & clubs in Berlin...
Airport Security
It differs so much across cities, even different airports in cities! Sometimes they won’t even notice that your bag of 100ml liquids isn’t out of your bag. Charles De Gaulle is pretty lax, but Orly in the south of Paris was super strict. They threw out my face wash and $$$ hair pomade since they didn’t even have their liquid sizes. They had weight, which means they...
Berlin
So excited to go! Our taxi arrives at 4:00am to take us to the airport for a 6:30 flight. A little bit yuck but I’ll somehow make it through. I’ll be getting about 2 hours of sleep tonight so I’m hoping for a nap before we go out on our pub crawl tomorrow night. I’m happy it’s just me & my best friend Emily + our 3 Canadian guy friends. There will be so little...
Being in Paris
I’ve only really spent time in Paris for one weekend the whole time I’ve been here. I’ve been traveling every weekend and working on homework/recovering from parties all my free days that I’m not traveling. Today we had a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and then climbed it, then walked down Champs-Élysées and bought macarons at Ladurée, walked along the Seine, and ate a cheap...
Update: Spring Registration
I used the magic of Schedulizer.com to map out my courses for next semester. My friend Erik who is here as well really helped me figure out stuff class-wise and saved me a lot of headaches. I didn’t get the most perfect schedule, since Schedulizer suggested the study abroad section of the Introduction to Entrepreneurship class, but I was still able to get a great schedule. 8:15 to 5:15...
Les 3 Pachas
Last night was a huge party for the students of the 3 business schools in Paris. Each school wore a different color and the schools provided everyone with the shirts for the event. HEC was green, my favorite. :) It was at La Loco, right next to the Moulin Rouge. It was fun fun to see it up close since I haven’t yet! There was also an open bar of various mixed drinks; I stuck to my favorites...
My Canadian friend's girlfriend brought peanut...
I ate about 1/4 of the jar in 10 minutes. It was like a little (OR GIANT) scoop of heaven.
Spring Registration
This has been confusing to do since I don’t have all the notes I’ve made over my school career to look at. Luckily I brought the sheet that my advisor wrote my suggested classes for the Spring on. If I get every class I want at the time I want it, I will only have classes Tuesdays & Thursdays. It will be 5 classes for 17 credits. As for the class content and work load, it...
First Midterm (not counting French class)
I finished my Organization Theory midterm within 45 minutes after triple checking my answers because I was so nervous to get up and leave first. I finally just went for it and had to endure the stares of every single French student in my class as they gawked in disbelief. It really wasn’t that hard. I understand that I’m a fast test taker and usually finish first in any given class,...