Le Temps a Cessé Enfin

So now i find myself at a bit of a crossroads. I just took Allie to the Differdange train stop. I sort of just stood there with tears and my eyes for a while. I just don't know if i could have done this trip without her, we looked out for each other. She might be one of the most caring and fun individuals i have ever known, and its definitely a reassuring feeling to have shared such an experience with such a person.

On the eve of my departure, I am ready to leave this town and return to everything I left. The thing about living here Differdange is--that i feel as if i have seen most of what there is to see, experienced the way they live, the relationships they have, their culture...and it makes me feel more American than ever--which is not what i expected.
I have always admired the air of intellect and sophistication that comes with being "european." Europeans don't speak to strangers on trains, they sit for hours at dinner like they have all the time in the world, they don't like peanut butter or ice in drinks, they consume overprocessed carbohydrates like its their job, they take 2 hour siestas during the most productive hours of the day, they live in tiny houses with a tiny washing machine, they sell water at extortionist prices, they hang their underwear on a line in their backyard, they look at you like you are nuts for jogging on a saturday afternoon, they allow their dogs to poop on the sidewalks, they take their dogs into nice restaurants, they listen to all american music--yet they speak no english.
Ok, so i have raved about all of my minor inconveniences building up over the last six weeks, and don't even get me started on their version of socialism. But in all honesty, I believe we have a lot to learn from one another...Like the fact that wine can truly enhance a meal and that its intended purpose was not to be slapped kissed and chugged, that there should be a certain social aspect to business affairs, that 2:00 coffee can make a big difference, or maybe just that slowing down and enjoying life can make you more productive in the long run.
Is Europe the place for me? probably not. ok well, no it's not. Understanably I have a some tanning, hair cutting, manicuring, and 2- a-day work outs ahead of me before i can begin to believe i am still, at least in part, the same person. But that brings me to a thesis project that i would like to work on this summer. It is incredibly interesting the diverse impact that a european experience can have on different personality types. Are you the type to see things or are you the type to experience things? I hope for the most part that I engaged enough of my subconscious to take from this trip everything imaginable. "Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen."


Thank you Mom and Dad for the experience of a lifetime.

Currently Listening to: A Movie Script Ending-Death Cab

Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation. ~Elizabeth Drew

xoxo jess

Barcelona: Fifth Weekend

So, its been a long week! Starting with Monday afternoon after classes Jess, Allie, Bj and I went in search of the perfect retirement gift for Prof. Campbell. Herron entrusted the Alisons and Jessicas with task of pooling the money and picking out the gift, so the pressure was on. Bj took us to a little watch shop in Differdange where we picked out a conservative, yet flashy silver swiss made watch. We studied the rest of the afternoon for the accounting midterm tuesday. Tuesday we had classes until 12, accounting exam at 1--then 4 was when the real mayhem began...the retirement party.
We showed up at 3:45, expecting a nice casual affair, however we were greeted at the door by the already slightly intoxicated prof. Herron. Running the bar was Stew and Ryan, fully stocked with several cases of white/red wine, champaign, and a keg of bofferding. By the time Campbell arrived around 4:45 the crowd was huge and thouroughly inebriated. This afternoon is pretty much justified as a "Mulligan" for all parties in attendance. Alison played soccer and came back an hour later drenched and grass stained, Allie played waitress and served everyone the delicious appetizers, Jess mingled with everyone as usual, and i engaged in overly deep conversations about morality and religion...overall pretty standard. Previously several students arranged for drink specials at our favorite neighboorhood outdoor cafe, Cin Cin for 7 that night. The obsurdity of the night continued, Allie and I were home and asleep by 10:30.
Wednesday we had a pretty layed back day, we had classes outside then watched movies in the cave. Thursday we had class then caught the 4:02 out of Diff for Lux City, the TGV (really sweet/ fast train) to Paris, transfered by metro to Paris Lyon, then had sleepettes for the 13 hour train to Barcelona. Sleepettes are really maybe the most miserable thing to sleep on ever. They are simply little chairs that recline until your head is inbetween the legs of the person behind you, plus our car was freezing--so i opted to sleep curled up sideways in my "sleepette." I definitely recommend spending the extra euros for the couchette if at all possible. So around 6:45 am i am abruptly awaken by Alison telling us to get off the train, i found it a little odd that we were getting off before my 15 minute warning alarm went off--but it was 6:45 am, so i obeyed. Well, we were not at the right stop, and were actually in the middle of nowhere somewhere near the border of France and Spain. Clearly a trainstation that would be taking a large number of people to barcelona would actually have a building...However, we got lucky--caught the next train to Cerbere and recovered our course within 30 minutes. We waited and waited at Cerbere for our train to take us the next 3 hours to Barcelona...it didn't come. (We later found out that the train workers went on strike? Am I a little American to wonder how you could seriously go on strike against the train station in a country as socialistic as france??) Anyways--luckily we had talked to the grouop of 9 guys who had a different itenerary, and were able to get on their train out of Port Bou which was 10 minutes away.
(Allie broke her wine glass in Paris and cut her finger, but don't worry mom took care of her ;))----------->
Ok, so chaos getting to Barcelona...but we made it!! We checked into our 4 star hotel Caralonia Atenas located off the metro stop Clot. We purchased a 3 day unlimited metro pass...2nd best buy of the weekend. (we took the metro everywhere! the city is huge and confusing, and our hotel was kinda out of the way) We stopped by a Catalonian diner a couple blocks away for some pizza. We finally showered, hung out for a bit, then set out for Las Romblas, the main street of Barcelona. That street was a carnival of activities, we couldn't go a block without stopping to watch the various street performers. A few of out favorites: the random techno/house music band that used drums and various metal instruments, jess and i stopped to dance a little; the juggling Pele who put on a shirt while balancing a soccer ball on his head while standing on a ladder. <--yes alison and i stopped for a picture!; a man doing amazing spraypaint artwork on the sidewalk; and my personal favorite the authentic musical indian performance complete with loincloths, bongo drums and lots of feathers. After a couple hours of this amusement we were hungry again and opted for the Attic, a cute trendy restaurant recommended in our book and right on Las Ramblos. I was so excited to try Sangria for the first time, but unfortunately i didn't like it at all. As i understand it, it contains red wine, brandi/whiskey, cointreau, oranges, and fruit juices--i might make it without the brandi or whiskey. We moved to a sidewalk cafe and got another Sangria and hungout, just the girls for once, it was nice! Saturday morning we got up early to go to the Picasso Museum over toward Gothic quarter. The museum was in a beautiful 14th century castle renovated for the exhibit. It had more than 3,500 pieces from all periods of his career. The exhibit started with his early work in portraits, then to landscapes, then more complex still lifes, then into cubism. The transformation from room to room is incredible, while each room sequentially relates closely, it is so hard to comprehend the genius behind an artist who reinvents himself every decade. The Cubism was definitely my favorite exhibit, although at first it was rather confusing and disturbing, it really grew on me how the emotion wasn't necessarily in the brushstroke but in the dimension. Ok, so Allie wasn't big on the art, i think she walked through all 3,500 pieces in 15 minutes and was done. As we walked down the street in the gothic quarter i ran into none other than the Caroline Geier. I could not have been more excited surprised and shocked, it was wonderful! She was traveling with her older sister through Europe, i just happened to run right into her! Sooo weird how that happens! Last summer i ran into Lisa, my grandbig, at the Vatican--you know, just a random monday morning at the Vatican?
I guess we decided throughout the trip that our personalities molded in the the sex and the city characters: in order (me, jess tepas, alison billy, allie dixon)
We decided to try to find the restaurant Moussel for lunch since it was the site for Barcelona to get 5 ex atra credit points for Business Law. Moussel is an authentic Catalonia restaurant. Herron's instructions were to go in, sit in the basement, speak to them in French, appologize for not speaking Catalonian, and tell them to bringout whatever they wanted for lunch. Well, we did speak in French, however, for fear of receiving the traditional octapus dish we ordered catalonian chicken, potatos, red wine and salad. After lunch Alison and I convinced the girls to come with us to the F.C. Barcelona museum and stadium. It was incredible! The stadium is so huge and impressive, and their fans were wild. This was the day before one of the championship games that Barcelona was playing in, so there were a lot of people there. I made a few purchases, some of which might be the sweetest birthday presents ever for a certain 15 year old ;)
We went back to Las Ramblos on a whim to get our noses pierced. Ok, i was seriously considering it (haha ok maybe not). But all the places had already closed for the night (take a deep breath fam) So we changed plans and went in search of Paella! It was good, not great--I think I might americanize the dish a bit for future reunion dinner parties. We had audience of about 15 gentlemen in town for a bachelor party, which was annoying, but we did get a standing applause after dinner.
That night we had big plans to get a little taste of Barcelona nightlife...so we went back to take a little nap.
Around 1 am we set out for the metro station and met Seamus in Las Ramblos. He took us back to their hotel to meet up with the rest of the guys. We made it to the dance club Razzmatazz around 2. The streets of Barcelona were a sight to see at 2 am...the cover was 15 euro and there were probably 2,000 people in the 5 story club. It was amazing, completely ridiculous, the music was house and club mixes ive never heard before. i loved it. which is probably why i stayed until 6. We knew the sun came up around 7 and decided to make the trip to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was the most incredible awe inspiring feeling to sit on the Medeterranean and watch the sun rise, having not even been to sleep yet. A few brief moments, and it was over...back to reality, and back to catching the 7:45 metro back to Clot.....
Finally Sunday was declared a beach day! When we finally woke up, we wandered the 6 mile walk from Las Ramlos to the beach area. The weather wasn't great, but it was extremely relaxing! Oh...and i'm sure you were wondering what my #1 best buy in barcelona was (since the metro ticket was #2) ...we all got 5 euro massages on the beach!!! Allie was the first one brave enough to get one. We were all a little shy at first at the sight of the spanish woman climbing on top of you and removing your top...but it was like the best massage i have ever had! Oh, and of course the triple couples massage helped me get over the awkwardness of it too! The beach was actually an afternoon of entertainment all in itself. A man who sang and balanced a tray of 50 donuts on his head named bumbalino came and hung out with us for a little while and took a pic. Ahh that was basically our barcelona trip. We met an overly friendly french man on our way home. He was an artist/choreographer of strip shows/journalist? He spoke pretty good english, and showed us videos of his questionable place of employment on his cell phone. We have met some pretty random and interesting people on our journey.
So back to the academic portion of our journey...because i hear that coach tom believes it to be questionable. I am actually receiving 8 credit hours from the business school for the program. (however the majority of the subject matter that i learned outside of the classroom is really what is important) I took my International accounting final yesterday which went well. Business Legal Studies is by far my favorite course. Although the mean score on the midterm was a 65% i feel like we have learned a lot. The final for the course was a case study that Herron prepared, and was a group project--me jess allie and alison. We were given 20 legal terms (such as promissory estoppel, statues of fraud, multiple assignments, burdens of proof) our assignment was to pick out contractual agreements from the case study, define/describe the legal elements to the contract problem and decide what the legal outcome is. This was pretty similar to my nerdy obsessions with Hi-Y youth in government and mock trial from high school so the project basically became my life for the past 4 days. Honestly, i probably haven't slept. We compiled the final project this morning, and it is glorious. Watermarked, binded, and tabbed...you wouldn't expect anything less ;)
yes, i can sometimes be "that girl."
We had a little cookout after watching the seniror's BLS464 presentations this morning, then Cody, Mike, Dylan, and Monique all left....i'm still in denial. So, now allie and i are about to leave and pick up some flowers for our euro-mom. Tonight everyone who is still in Diff is going to
Cin cin then halfway house to party it up one last time in Diff.
As for me...ill be here most the afternoon tommorow, ill take a train either to lux city or all the way to brussels and spend the night. My flight leaves Saturday at 12:40!--home at 7:30 U.S. time!

Currently Listening to: Track 17 on the Modern cd ;) for barcelona
Cecilia- Simon and Garfunkel
Blue and Yellow--the Used


xoxo jess

Brussels, Amsterdam: Fourth Weekend

Hey everyone! We're back from our longest weekend trip yet! We got back from Interlauken Sunday, had our BLS midterm Monday night...then left on a bus at 11am after classes Tuesday! Seriously, i had no time to even sleep!
We had a 5 hour bus ride to Brussels on Tuesday, we watched Wedding Crashers and slept. We arrived at yet another Etap hotel--Miami's favorite to make us stay at. Its basically just a very clean hostel...three random people to a tiny room with a double bed and a bunk on top. They took us KPMG's Brussels headquarters to listen to a lecture on international accounting...we managed to keep our eyes open for most of it, however one of our guest teachers fell asleep. They took us to a nice dinner in downtown Brussels, after dinner they gave us about an hour to wander around. Allie and I got a Belgian waffle (shown in the picture above). It was actually better than i expected, but very difficult to eat...or at least it was at the time, because when i woke up my dress was covered in chocolate. We had to be ready to go at 8 am the next morning, so we all went back to the Etap. Wednesday morning was when things began to get a little disorganized. We had breakfast around 7:45, then were instructed to get on the bus that took us to lunch. We arrived at lunch at 9:30am and were to be served a large meal of chicken, fries, and salad. All we were really in the mood for was momosas, so we taught the Belgian bartender how to make them. We reboarded the bus at 11:15, accidentally leaving Monique and Alison in Brussels. They got really pissed at us. They took us to the Coca Cola visitors center, which presumably was intended for 5th graders. We sat through a couple interactive media presentations--slide shows of cocacola with techno music playing in the background...then were dragged on a miserable tour... however, we did get to wear these really sweet outfits, so clearly we were content. -->
After this experience...our anticipation mounted, seeing how the day was going thus far--we were staying at the "Hotel Florida" in Antwerp for the night (complete with a flamingo on the sign). Actually the rooms ended up being very nice, but the place was a maze with little staircases everywhere. I took an elevator and climbed 3 skinny staircases to get to room 222. (more relevant later) We boarded a bus around 4:30 to take us to downtown Antwerp so we could walk around a shop a little before dinner. We ended up buying some Belgium chocolate (which did not make it home, sorry fam) and a bottle of wine and went to the dock to drink it. I guess the rest of the trip had the same idea we did because we ended up having a mini rave on the dock before dinner at 7. Dinner was nice, they served us pasta, several bottles of wine, and dessert. After dinner we went back to the dock and watched the sun set and hung out until around 11. Back at hotel florida I hung out with Jess, Pat, and Erik for a couple hours. We went outside to try to find a bar to go to...a strange alarm went off, people dispersed, and i ended up getting lost in Hotel Florida for a short while. I found my way back to my room and went to bed for the night.
Thursday morning was more chaos, we boarded the bus at 8:30, then somehow got lost on the way to the International Court of Justice. We found the place around 12, sat through a 45 minute presentation about what they do there, then boarded the bus again to go to lunch...only to find out that our reservations were for the wrong location. We ended up being 70 km (maybe 50 miles) south of the restaurant. So...i guess we got lost again, because we didn't arrive at the Indonesian Rice Kitchen until 3. The food was interesting, it was buffet style with lots of different meats and weird sauces, i ate mostly rice. Finally they took us to the trainstation...and things began to look up.

We got into Amsterdam around 5. I was really nervous the whole time because i booked the place we were staying. Everywhere online was already booked and really expensive (all over60 euro a night) when i was looking online. I actually ended up calling some random place and asked for a reccommendation. I sent an email to Nemo Cribs, explained that it was me and my friend's birthdays that weekend and sent a picture of our group. They called me back and we proceeded to have a rather awkward conversation about the photo i sent, but i ended up negotiating the place for 1,200 euros total for 10 people for 3 nights. So I called the place when we were on the train to get directions, Sonja told us that she would meet us outside...ok, thats an interesting thing for a hostel to do? I'm nervous, like really nervous. So i called her back when we were outside and she was like "ok turn around, im right here" so I turn around and meet Sonja...a 5'4' 80 lb herion addict with a female eurohawk/mullet holding a red rose. I thought maybe i had just entered requim for a dream, or worse... amsterdam, staying in a sketchy drug house with Sonja. My friends were obviously mildly skeptical, as was i. We followed her for a 5-7 minute walk that seemed like an hour. When she openned the door to the place, everything was pristine white, clean, and new looking...sigh of relief. She first openned the boy's room, which ended up being a really nice apartment with 2 bedrooms, a living room, nice bathroom, and a full kitchen. Our room was upstairs and was extremely nice. They even had a vase of fresh flowers and 2 birthday cakes in the refridgerators. haha...well i guess we judged Sonja a little quickly. or maybe not, considering we saw her later that weekend stumbling down the street with a random man at 10 am.
Anyways....everyone went to explore the town a little bit! I was so excited about having a kitchen that i went to the supermarket with allie!! I made italian style chicken, mini marinated potatos, pasta salad, bread and cheese, and a balsamic vinegarette salad for 11 people, it was pretty much a success, esp. since i had to improvise a little with the ingredients and cookware. That night we walked the red light district at 10:30, hoping not to see any crazys just yet. We went to a little bar and had a beer. We happened to be walking back past a church when the bells rang for 12:00 midnight, it was my birthday!! It was so nice...and a great start to a wild, random, wonderful birthday in Amsterdam!!!
Friday the 8th we woke up and had brunch at Barneys a local coffee shop with amazing pancakes. My friends let me pick what i wanted to do, so the first stop was the Van Gogh Museum! It was better than i ever could have imagined. One of my favorite is Wheatfield, in the picture...but its just so much better in person! There was one painting that I could not take my eyes off of, and I literally stared at it for 15 minutes...and oddly enough, its not online and i can't seem to recall the name. The colors and the brush strokes are unreal. It is even more incredible when you look at the sheer number of paintings that he did during his lifetime. I think Allie and I probably enjoyed the Saint Remy collection most of all. I also loved the Auvers work from around the 1890's. The collection also had pieces from Paul Gauguin, Manet, Monet, and Seurat...basically every painter that I loved from Art History Renaissance to Modern. i'm seriously so bummed i can't remember the name of the painting, i might call the museum and find out. I bought some coasters, gifts for my friends back home, and a magnet with the painting absenth in a glass that said "we are not here for ourselves alone" it is pretty much sweet.
So after the museum, we set out to find a place to have birthday cake! (in the picture above) we each got a different kind of cake, and shared, it was so nice! Then we went to the Heineken Experience, which was quite the experience! This place blew Coca cola out of the water. They packed us into a room where the floor moved and shook and the video showed the route of a bottle of Heineken being made. One of the rooms let you make a 15 second video and send it via internet. I think Shari and Em should be receiving something interesting...Another room you could make a song using a mixing station and drum set, another room you could stur the beer before it was fermented and try it warm. Oh...and throughout all of this were bars where you could cash in your token for an ice cold Heineken. 3 beers, a gift, and the museum for 11 euro, best euros ever spent. The last bar of the museum was basically a mini discotheque, so we hung out for a little while and took tokens from old people who didn't want their free beers. Cody and Dylan found the manger of the place and told him it was me and allie's birthday. They played the birthday song and everyone in the place sang....me=embarrassed, allie=loved it. Then the manager helped us pour our own beers from the tap. I needed a little help-->
We emerged a few hours later, around 6, from Heineken. Before we made it down the street it started raining, then before long it was a full out hurricane. Which in my weird little way, i loved. I played in the rain by myself while everyone waited under the overhang of the building. Eventually everyone realized we were all going to get soaked anyway, and we re-entered 4th grade and dared each other to run out into the rain...it was quite possibly my favorite part of the whole day! I wish i had pictures...i'm sure someone does! So we got back to the apartments and everyone was starving. I threw in a couple frozen pizzas to hold us over until our Dominos came. After about an hour or so the pizza came, europeans tend not to rush meals, i like that concept...except when it applies to pizza delivery. All 10 of us sat on the beds of the boys apartment an inhaled 5 gigantic pizzas, Cody goes "so is this what you expected for your birthday, to be sitting in an apartment eating Dominos." But honestly, i couldn't have asked for anything more, it made me so happy. After dinner, we all decided to take a nap so we would be ready for Amsterdam late night...annnnnd to celebrate Allie's birthday at midnight! We woke up around 11:30, and managed to make it to an entertainment show about 12:15. Allie got in for free since it was her birthday, I was like "my birthday was 15 minutes ago!" the manager was like "my birthday was 4 months ago, congratulations"...ouch. I'll spare the rest of the details.
The next day, Allie's Birthday, we only had one thing left on the agenda--Anne Frank Huis. I loved the way the museum was set up. You walked through the renovated house and along the walls were passages from Anne's diary. There were artifacts, pictures, and video clips in each of the different rooms as well, but the rooms were mostly bare because that was Otto Frank's wish. It was a very somber museum, but at the same time, we all were amazed by the insight that such a young girl placed in such an awful situation had to offer the world. It's been years since i have read Anne Frank, but it is definitely one of those stories that stick with you. After the museum, Allie, Jess and I went the the shopping complex to look at gifts for professor campbell's retirement. (Allie, Alison, Jess, and I were picked to organized dr. campbells retirement celebration, which is tommorow). We didn't find anything at the shopping complex, but i did find a really sweet dress that reminds me of amsterdam :) We returned back to the apartment, and got cleaned up for Allie's dinner of choice--the Amsterdam Hard Rock Cafe. Somehow we ended up with an amazing group of 17 people...so we had two huge tables. Jess and I ended up at the all guys table and split the all-american burger and fries combo, complete with drinks on the house and an ice cream sundae serenade. We were finished and paid before Allie's table even got their appetizers, so we visited a coffee shop, while the other table enjoyed some more free beverages.
ok, well i gotta go to the accounting review session, hopefully this will keep you occupied for a couple days! xox jessica

currently listening to: tiny cities made of ashes-modest mouse
float on-modest mouse
the movers and the shakers- tandemoro
warning-incubus

Switzerland--Geneva, Interlaken: Third Weekend

i know it is ridiculous how long i have been gone and without internet!
We had a SBA field trip beginning on Wednesday after shortened morning classes. We took a double decker coach bus to Geneva. The ride took like 6-8 hours, but we watched Shawshank redemption and Devil Wears Prada, so it was alright. We were given a bathroom break at a rest area somewhere in Switzerland. Literally the bathroom was a room with a circular hole in the floor...seriously nothing to sit on. However, Allie used it. She tried to explain the logistics to me, but i still just don't understand.
We then had our first experience with Etap hotels. Miami likes to use these value-shacks for any and all field trip excursions. The set up is 3 to a room with a double bed and a little single lofted on top. Although the rooms were clean and safe, they did entail a bit of awkward male on male snuggling, which is even more awkward when roomates are randomly assigned.
The professors were really excited to take us to Edelweiss for dinner that night. It was a Swiss fondu restaurant, where Miami had already paid for 3 courses of fondu. The first was the standard bread and cheese combonation, next was a huge plate of raw steak that you cooked in broth in over the flame, last was the chocolate and fruit which was amazing. It wasn't only the food that made Edelweiss unique, they had a wide array of weird live entertainment. There was a big horn that stretched from the second level all the way to the basement where we were all sitting. Prof Campbell, Allie, Me, and Erik all gave it a shot. I was also privledged to get to hold the bells with Jess, which was cool until he was 4 songs in and we had red marks on our shoulders and ringing ears for the rest of dinner. We had red wine, mitch's choice, to compliment the steak. Ok, so maybe we had two bottles.


The next day we toured geneva with a map they gave us by ourselves for an
hour. Our group mostly hung out by the peer with Prof Herron and his wife. After that we visited the WTO and had a lecture in a press conference room, however, a lot of people fell asleep or made origami fortune tellers. Then we hoped back on the bus and went to a nice hotel for a lunch of weird appetizer-like finger foods and the P&G speaker. The P&G guy was definitely my favorite BUS420 speaker we had. He was a Miami grad who worked in the finance department for P&G and took the opportunity to move to Geneva with the company. Incidentally, his wife also worked for P&G and could also transfer to Switzerland and continue her career in marketing. They pretty much had an amazing life: Subsidized housing, Private schooling and daycare for the kids, 80% pay increase, English speaking work environment, and well, they also got to live in Geneva, Switzerland...which is obviously an incredible european city with endless opportunities for weekend travel.
Then they dropped us off at the
trainstation for our weekend to begin. Interlaken is indescribable, i don't even think the pictures do it justice. Unfortunately we had some seriously crap weather, 50 degrees and rain, and the fog made it a little difficult to see. Besides extreme sports there isn't a whole lot to do in interlaken. We somehow ended up eating at Hooters the first night, but we were able to get chicken--so that made it worthwhile. The next day we went....White water rafting
through the swiss alps...it was absolutely insane. I loved every second of
it. It was soooo cold, which sucked, but we bought the CDROM of pictures
that they took of us, so we have some unbelievable pictures. It took nearly 40 minutes to get all of the rafting gear on. You start out in a wetsuit (which are surprisingly flattering), then you get water shoes, a long sleeve wetsuit top, a life jacket, a wind breaker, and a helmet. All of the helmets had funny things written on the front. (we didn't get to pick them) Allie= Precious, Me=Knifehead, Michael=Single (he's not), Mike=Scorpio, Cody=Randy, Jess T=Peanut Butter, Bj= The Hoff. By the time we were fully in our gear you could hardly recognize who was who. Our raft was mike, dylan, me, allie, jess, alison, monique, and bj. The ride to the top of the river was intense...some people were nevous, some were just enjoying the view, i was loving the song higher ground. The anticipation was so much fun. The water was freezing and we got soaked, it was amazing. We were right in the middle of two huge mountains and the view was incredible. ( I feel like I am using the same expressive adjectives repeatedly, but in all honesty interlaken is simply indescribable). After we finished we were given complimentary beers and caught the first bus back to our hotel at funny farm for a hot shower.
OHHH how could i forget to explain "funny farm"... It was a hostel for only 14 euro a night, which should have tipped us off in the first place. Allie arrived at the barn a few minutes before I did, and i ran into her as she was running away from the place, pissed/terrified/upset. I've done the whole summer camp thing, so I figured it would be no big deal staying in a less than 2 star place for a few nights... Seriously though, there was a Barn outside, no heat, no electricity, barely running water, creaky wooden floor boards, 1930's bunk beds, no locks on the doors, and 2 other rooms contected to ours which was in the middle, so no possibility of locking, bathrooms and showers outside, and we were on the 6th floor of this place. It was straight out of a really low budget horror film. My loyalty was convincing me to keep my mouth shut and be a good sport, however my common sense won over... and Allie, Monique, and I went back to the front desk and got the only room left in the hotel which was a 3 person room, which was perfect. Ok, so I could definitely do a 2 star hotel or shabby hostel, but funny farm was the equivalent to sleeping in a cardboard box (however, at least the box is at ground level). The people in the barn literally had to be drunk nonstop to be able to deal with that place. And they were, annoyingly. Funny farm wasn't all bad though, it had a really fun bar in the basement. All the miami people went there every night. They also had a happy hour special: buy one beer and get a shot of yager. I love yager, and i'm also a huge mooch. Ok and the next full day, we rented bikes and explored interlauken's mountain trails and stuff and shopped a little. I love this picture <--- I am seriously a foot shorter than these girls anyway. I bought a tacky little girls switzerland sweatshirt...notice in the picture at the bottom. It was a great purchase, I wore it to the bar that night and people actually bought me drinks because of my sweatshirt, i'm not exactly sure how to take interpret that. That afternoon, we didn't really have any plans so we randomly decided to go Bungee jumping! We were planning on skydiving, but the weather was awful so it was cancelled. Bungy Jumping was seriously the most exillerating thing i have ever done. It was an amazing rush, but at the same time it was incredibly peaceful. We met up at 4 and they took groups up by weight ( so they could adjust the rope) and we didn't get back until around 11. Us little girls were in the last group of the night, it was around 9:30 and the sun was just beginning to set. We were in a gondola 134 meters (450 feet...50 stories) above the lake below, we were surrounded by mountains and could see little waterfalls flowing into the lake. It is important that you jump straight out and up of the gondola because if you just let yourself fall (or be a whimp and get a little push) you will end up getting whiplashed, and possibly come straight back up and hit the bottom of the gondola. I felt strangely calm when it was my turn. They had really crazy extreme sport music playing in the gondola and i jumped up and out, 8th grade Elks diving team style, represent ;). Nearly everyone screamed (ahem...allie), i just found it so incredibly peaceful that screaming would have ruined the moment. Freefalling into a lake 450 feet in the middle of the Swiss Alps, it was a natural high in it's purest form. Your mind goes white and your muscles go stagnete, your body is completely idle to the point that you wonder if it is performing it's instrinsic functions at all. The only time your heart rate has been this fast was at birth (that little tidbit is from the brochure). After the initial freefall, you bungee up and down a couple times and regain normal thought, then they pull you down into a little canoe in the middle of this lake. Literally in 45 seconds you go from a mosh pit in the gondola, to a sick free fall, and then you are in the middle of a quiet lake on a canoe with two completly random people, it was actually a really bizare experience...but genuinely the most intense thing have ever done. The last picture shows the two crazy bungee jumping guys. The weekend in Interlauken was such a breath of fresh air from all the touristy stuff we have been doing.
We leave tuesday for brussels then amsterdam...another really long weekend away! I booked our place for the birthday weekend in amsterdam! It is 2, 4-person apartments 5 minutes away from the red light district. It has a nice kitchen and a bed for everyone. I sent them an email because their policy is that you have to stay sunday night because they don't do sunday checkouts or they make you pay for the last night, so i told them it was our birthdays and
that we had class on monday and attached a picture of our 8 person group. The owner calls me and is like "Hi is this the 2nd girl from the left!..." haha oh well, im lame, or possibly i'm turning into my mom. We got an amazing deal as far as Amsterdam goes...i'm really crossing my fingers that the place is ok because I booked it kinda sketchily by myself and I have 10 people counting on it ahhhh! Lots to do...laundry, packing...school?

Currently Listening to: Higher Ground-Red Hott Chili Peppers
Straight to Video-Truepenny
Sunshine of your Love-Clapton
Black Cadillacs-Modest Mouse

Currently Reading: State of Denial


-me

Prague: Second Weekend

We're back from Prague, the most beautiful city yet! We arrived around 9 am, well rested for once...this time we coughed up the extra euros and got couchettes for our 10 hour train. It was a little room with two sets of bunk beds three high. A little tylonel PM an hour before and you would have thought I was sleeping at a hilton. Our first impression of the city was a little distorted by the off the map journey to our hostel (which apparently was only 100 meters from the train station), except we ended up wandering though a park littered with alcohol swabs, syringes, and little bottles, and a passed out man. Not a place I would like to be after dark...but it was 9:30 a.m., so it was fine.

We took a guided tour of the city through New Towne, the gardens, Old Towne Square, Jewish Quarter, then ended at the Charles Bridge. About now one of my comments managed to attain "facebook album name status": As we began the tour, a foreign man in his mid-twenties was walking with us. He didn't speak great english, but he was asking me about school and if i liked george bush, then he asked for my email address and tried to enter it in his phone. I was really confused and started to give it to him to be polite when i noticed i had an audience of my friends laughing and staring behind me. I then began to realize that maybe this situation was a little sketchy and asked the man "Wait...are you on our tour?" It turns out he wasn't, although he had definitely been on the tour with us for maybe 10 minutes stalking. I believe Cody has a picture of that captures my awkwardness first hand. Ok back to Praha--The weather was really nice, but it was extremely hott! Beneath Charles Bridge was a little paddle boat rental place, so we rented paddle boats for an hour for 50 czech crowns, which is about $2.50. I was a paddler on our boat, and quickly learned that I am no longer in high school shape. So i sandbaged while Cody did most of the work. I still ended up sweating profusely, but it was determined I was "just glowing." After a long day in the sun, Alison and I went back to the hostel to shower and get ready for a fun night. We had two australian girls staying with us in our hostel and we invited them to come out with us for the night. We all ended up going to Monique, Dylan, Cody, and Mike's place before to hang out. The club we went to that night is called Karlovy Lanze, it is 5 floors with different types of music on each floor, the biggest in middle europe. It was a lot of fun, and there were a lot of Miami students there, Allie and I ended up taking a cab home early.

Saturday morning Allie, Alison, Jessica and I found a little cafe and stopped for brunch and coffee. Everyone basically had different goals for the day, so we ended up splitting up to explore the city. While we were in Old Towne Square I found a little Salvador Dali exhibition, which was the best thing of my life! I got a book of prints and some cards. Alison, Holly, and I shopped for souveners and czech amber in the Jewish Quarter for most of the afternoon. We decided to try dad's restaurant recommendation, Metamorphosis, and wandered Old Towne square for quite a while before finding it. We made reservations for 9 for that night...

We thought it would be fun to get a little dressed up for dinner! We ended running into half of our miami group in the middle of Wencelas square, and had fun taking pictures...it basically looked like prom.

Dinner at Metamorphis was wonderful, the cellar of the restaurant was very classic with stone walls and was very elegantly decorated. The food was equally great, and with the czech conversion rate, it was unbelievable! I mean, i'm not gonna say we didn't have our moments where certain people would put hat shaped napkins on their heads, or try to stack the fancy wine glasses, but it was quite classy as far as our group is concerned. When we left the restaurant it was dark outside, and Old Towne Square was so beautiful! We hung out in the square, and took our time on the walk home...Prague is beautiful!

We went to a club only 50 steps from the door of our hostel and had a blast. It was kind of interesting though...at the front of the line to get into the place there was this girl dancing by herself on a block, i felt really bad for her. When you get in, you take an elevator up to the club...and as soon as you get off they hand you a "welcome drink." A policy that deserves consideration from the bars in the U.S. I spent most the night outside on the balcony overlooking Wencelas Square :)

Currently Listening To: Your Own Disaster- Taking Back Sunday

xoxo jess

I made it through yesterday, well for the most part, if you don¨t count the 200 dollars worth of cell phone calls to the US. We went to the ridiculous 5 level club last night, which was not ideal in context of the day. We´re in Prague...and the journey here was nothing short of fabulous compared to the Munich train situation. We had a 9 hour night train from Frankfurt to Prague and bought couchettes -little rooms with 2 sets of 3 high bunk beds- for 16 euro more, best investment of my life. We took a walking tour through new town to old town to the jewish quarter and ended at the charles bridge. It was literally 90 degrees outside. We rented paddle boats for 50 czech k an hour--which is about 2 US dollars. ok, well we are leaving for the sex machine museum, ill write more later!

Currently Listening to: Trouble Breathing-Alkaline Trio

two more pictures that i couldn't possibly leave out!













I think you caught me on the downslide, downturn
I was busy writing with a pen and paper thin dream
And all your plastic people with plastic hearts and smiles
They had the worst intentions all along after all...
The royal castle holds the mellow drama kings and queens
And all their dazzling children; they're so regal (clean)
With pristine fingertips they wash behind their ears
And let their hair down 'til the audiences leave
I'm definitely shaking
The silence isn't breaking
Backwashed and stranded memories
Of something i thought could be

Class at the Chateau d'Differdange

So its mid-week! Classes have been going well. Professor Herron has been keeping law class interesting with his story telling renditions about the history of law. Our accounting class however, is the longest most painful hour and a half of my day. Yesterday was the first day that luxembourg has seen sun since we've been here, so 9 of us went to the grocery store and made ourselves a little picnic to eat in the park. We waited around in the chateau and watched the oh-so-appropriate Eurotrip until our 4:00 lecture, which was cancelled. Last night, the 4 of us caught the train to Betenberg to visit Mike, Cody, and Dylans host family house to meet their little kids. We hung out for a little and then stopped by the local gay bar for a drink before catching the train back to Diff. It seems like all we do here is travel or plan our travels...which i'm fine with.
We are in the process of planning the itenerary for Prague this weekend. We are leaving tommorow, Thursday, at 7:15 p.m. and will arrive around 9 a.m. on the 25th. My sole intention for the 25th is to keep as occupied physically/mentally as possible. On the agenda for the weekend: Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Towne Square, Astronomical Clock, and the Jewish Quarter, Karlovy Lazne Discotheque, Friends GLBT bar, Museum of Communism, Metamorphisis Restaurant, Bily Konicek Restaurant. The hostel situation should at least be a little more comfortable, we have a 6 person room with Allie, Jessica, Allison, and I. Only 14 euro a night...i love eastern europe already.

Currently Listening to: A Decade Under the Influence-Taking Back Sunday

xoxo jessica

Munich: First Weekend

<--Allie, Hofbrauhaus waiter, me We're back from Munich, Germany!! Ate a lot, drank a lot, and slept very little.... We finished class and lecture at the Chateau around 3 on Wednesday, went back to the house to finish packing, then caught the 6:32 train into Lux city to begin the journey to Munich. Little did we know it, but about 40 other students from the Lux program had the same travel plans as us, which made for a some very interesting train rides. On the second train we claimed a car on the train for our excessively large group and proceeded to have ridiculous party complete with a mini keg and ipod speakers. However, the third and last train was much less of a party...first of all the train was gross, and secondly they triple booked out seats, so randomly through the night people would force you to get up and move and find another seat. This went on from about 3-7 a.m...when we finally got to our hostel we passed out on the bean bags in the lobby for a two hour nap. Great start to a sleep deprived weekend.
We finally got ourselves together and decided to take a day trip to Dachau to see the concentration camp...which was awesome. We rented the self-guided tour audio guides and spent about 3 hours looking through the museum and buildings. We lost Allie for about an hour, but finally found her outside thanks to her bright orange coat. We stood in the gas chambers, walked through the housing barraks, and watched old footage from the camp. It was extremely intense... and quite the somber start to the weekend in Munich.

What would a trip to Munich be without a little visit to a place we call Hofbrauhaus...
We got ourselves a huge table and motioned to our waiter for HUGE steins all around! Our waiter was this cute little asian man pictured above. For round two, we ordered the "Radler" which is light beer with lemonade...a popular German favorite for the ladies. Allie got the traditional huge pretzel with her stein. We also decided that we are going to dress as German pretzel girls for halloween next year. We met a cute Canadian couple that offered to share their food with Allie and I. Allie also got a drunk man kicked out of the Hofbrauhaus because he wouldn't leave us alone. Basically we had bodyguards by the end of the night, it was wonderful. After we got tired of paying 7 euros for a beer we left to find a discotheque. It happened to be Germany's fathers day, so unfortunately many clubs were closed and the night scene was a little low key for a thursday night. Our method of communication with the Germans slowly declined to the point where we made techno beat noises and motioned for them to point us in the right direction. They played mostly 90's jock jams...but whatever!
Friday I explored downtown Munich with Allie and Cody. We wandered around through the churches, shopped, and stopped for a little afternoon wine.
We finally got into contact with our friend's on the other Europe trip and planned on meeting everyone at Hofbrauhaus at night. "Thursday night we went to Hofbrauhaus...Friday night we went to Steinkellers." (Steinkellers is a bar in Oxford, Ohio). So little did we know, but every Miami student currently in Munich decided to meet at Hofbrauhaus that night. No joke, we took the place over, it was ridiculous. We fully occupied the entire outdoor beer garden from about 9 until the place closed. I think there might be a secret service of some kind working for Hofbrauhas. A man accidentally knocked a glass stein off of a table, which shattered on the ground, then he tried to creep off. Literally 7 men in black suits with ear pieces tackled him in 10 seconds flat. These men jumped out from behind trees, ran on top of tables, dove across servers...it was completely bizarre.
So Allie and I rolled into our hostel around 1 ... Oh, let me first explain our hostel situation: Allie and I were nervous that we weren't going to get a hostel on such short notice so we went ahead and booked ourselves in a 6 person mixed room. The accommodations were fairly nice, typical bunk beds with clean sheets and a seperate locker for each person. So...clearly the only gender that would logically request a "mixed gender" room would be males. Which brings me to my next topic, co-habitating with random european men is not a good idea. So night two, Allie and I roll in around 1 from the Hofbrauhaus and fall asleep immediately. Shortly thereafter our newest roomate enters, presumably intoxicated, and enters the bathroom. Allie called the next 5 minutes an "explosion." Ok, so our little friend goes to bed. Around 3 a.m. our entire room is awakened by what would seem to be a semi truck roaring in our room. By 4, it was absolutely unbearable, nobody was alseep except for the snoorer. At 5 a.m. Allie and I went to the front desk and asked to be moved rooms for the next night and sat around in the lobby until 7:30 breakfast. I mean obviously we were going to be exhausted the entire day...so what else were we supposed to do but pregame with some momossas before our bike tour at 11.
I'm gonna say it was the sleep deprevation that made us think it was okay for Allie and I to wear our matching J-Lo jump suits on the bike tour. Allie and I were the haus-baubes (pronounced ass babes) in charge of making sure no one got left behind. We stopped at the Chinese beer gardens for a pint...then hopped back on our bikes, i guess liability just isn't an issue in Germany. We saw some incredible buildings, gardens, and even a naked park...which we rode our bikes through. Basically everyone taking part in the "ambience" of the park was someone who you would not like to see in a dark room. After the bike tour Allie and I died from 5-7p.m. A group of 10 of us found a cute off-the-beaten path restaurant called Augustina. Munich just so happened to have won the championship futbol game that day, and the entire city was in absolute mayhem. A big German family had a table next to us, and after a couple beers they began belting out some German yodelling songs. A couple beers later, one of the men randomly busts out the accordion and German songbooks. We were more than excited to join in, and spent the next hour being serenaded by an authentic German yodeller...i don't think there is anything i can say to do justice to the events of this evening. All i can do is post this final picture of Allie and I kissing the German nugget and hope that you all understand just how wonderful Munich, Germany really is!

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."
"People who snore always fall asleep first"

Currently Reading: The Speluncheon Explorer
Currently Listening to: Existentialism on Prom Night- Straylight Run

xoxo jessica

Orientation to Luxembourg

You see before you the newest pledge class of EuroFrat 2007. Our names just happen to be Jessica, Allison, Alison, Jessica...and yes, we realize how particularly obnoxious this is. Within the first 7 minutes of our orientation we fell in love and have not separated since.

Ok, enough of that. Day one of our orientation took us through a tour of the Chateau and details about classes, travel, etc. We took a quick walking tour of Differdage, Luxembourg then hopped on a train to Lux city to explore. We got general history on the bus tour, then we were let loose on the city. Me and my lady-friends shopped and the boys enjoyed their new beverage privledges (however, i think we both spent around the same amounts of $). We got back around 8 and decided that everyone needed to join us at the Halfway house (which is evidentally always the pub of choice among Miami students). Halfway house is about a block away from Allie and I. We hung out, met some new people, made some travel plans, and enjoyed being euro.


This is at a castle somewhere in Luxembourg ->

I know my sister is wondering about my host family!! Well...there is Mmde. Stumpf who is 36 and is single or widowed, Michelle her daughter is 12, and Lyon her son is 8. They are incredibly sweet, however, they speak absolutely no english. We communicate mostly in the french that i happened to retain from my fenwick educational experience...which is not a pleasant thought. Allie talks to them in "allie-french" which isn't french at all, its just english with a frenchlike accent. Their house is decorated in a industrial modern style, its very new and clean. It is small, but has three floors. My room is on the third, and i will probably fall down the steep marble stairs anyday now. I have a double bed, desk, and dresser, and plenty of space. They provide us with continental breakfast in the mornings; coffee, cereal, bread, nutella, weird fruit juices.

<- Allie and I doing wall sits for our EuroFrat pledge ed, Cody at Halfway House.

On Sunday for orientation we went to the German and American cemetaries from WWII. We then went on a boat cruise on a river between Germany and Lux, which was awesome...amazing food, new friends. And Monday we went to Trier, the former Capital of the Roman Empire. We saw some Roman ruins, however the Rome clearly puts Trier to shame. We had an authentic German dinner complete with Sun, a light german beer. I don't think im a big fan of german food.

"I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad." ~George Bernard Shaw


So here is the plan starting with the first weekend:
Munich, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Interlauken, Switzerland
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barcelona Spain

Currently Listening to: Different Names for the Same Thing- Death Cab (cliche i know)
The Future-Motion City Soundtrack
xoxo Jessica