Germany and Belgium

I wish I could post pictures with this post, but close by internet access is hard to come by over here. Seems I was quite lucky to have such a great hostel in Berlin, cause mine here in Belgium definitely doesn't have it. In fact the internet they do have is hooked to a pc and cost 5 euro an hour.

Belgium is getting a little ahead though, I guess I should go back to my last day in Berlin and my time in Hamburg. Monday we only had a short morning in Berlin. I was planning on walking over to the piece of the Berlin Wall that is still up called the East Side Gallery, but after all of the walking from the first day there my hip was hurting pretty bad. So I ended up taking it easy instead.. had a big breakfast and packed slowly. The whole time we were in Berlin we were trying to get a hold of this girl Emma that had been in Castiglion Fiorentino while we were there but were having no luck without a phone. We finally managed to run into her in the train station on the way out, which is insane cause the Berlin train station is enormous. We chatted with her and her mom about Berlin a bit an then caught the train to Hamburg.

Hamburg was probably my favorite leg of my after trip so far. We stayed at Hadyn's cousin Stefan's house and him and his family were so accommodating. He got married not to long ago and now has a 7 week old baby, so they were definitely in the new family mood.. which I got used to. They showed us a around Hamburg a bit and on Tuesday we saw a Rothko exhibit at one of the local museums. Ironically enough Stefan's father (and Haydyns uncle) was in town also and is an apparently well known artist (although I've never heard of him). So he talked our ears off in big artist terms for a lot of the time, which was interesting but a little too much sometimes also. Oh and I also learned that Stefan and his wife got married in the Rothko chapel in Houston next to the Menil. I still haven't been to that place but they had pictures of it at the exhibit that looked very neat. So after getting fairly comfortable in Hamburg we took an overnight to Brussels, where I am now. Definitely not the best transit I've ever taken, but I survived.. only with very little sleep.

Now I am in Brussels and it is cold and rainy, so I decided to take shelter in a coffee shop and get on the net. I've only been in Brussels since this morning and as much as I'd like to figure out everything the city has to offer, I don't think it is going to happen today. With the rain and the utter exhaustion, all I really want to do is relax. My man aim for Brussels is to get some Belgium waffles and some Belgium chocolate, which can probable happen tomorrow morning before I fly out. Today is really my last day of non-travel in Europe. Tomorrow I fly to Pisa in the late afternoon and then have an overnight train to Rome. I'll have a couple of hours in Rome before I fly out.. and then I'll be home. I don't think that moment can come fast enough! Hopefully I'll be able to update again before I fly out for good.. but if not then my next post will be from the States! Ciao!

My first days out of Italy

Leaving Italy has definitely made me realize how much I love Italy. It's weird how you dont realize how at home you feel at a place until after you leave that place for somewhere else. This week has been filled with homesickness so far, and I really think that it wouldn't have it as bad if I were still in Italy. But I am not, and I should be talking about the present in this blog.. so here goes.
My first day was spent in Munich, Germany. It was a really interesting city and it was very different from any cities we went to in Italy. The first thing I noticed was that it was amazingly clean, something my dad had mentioned before but never really registered. And as far as planning goes the city was really well put together. The public transit seemed very effective, people were riding their bikes everywhere and there were parks as far as the eye could see. My favorite part of the day would have to be the time I spent in the English Gardens. It is this huge park that is right in the city and reminded me of the big park in Vancouver, sans the beautiful beach and mountains. So really it was more of a super-sized Zilker park with beer gardens in it. Nonetheless, I found a good shaded spot and read and napped for a pretty long time. The rest of the day was mostly churches and just wandering around the city. Before we caught our night train out we went to the famous beer garden Hafbrough (i think that is spelled wrong) House. Did the whole German sausage and beer thing (a small beer of course!) just cause you have to do it once while your here.
Today I spent the day in Berlin, and after writing all that I really cant think of much to write about it. It wasn't the best day, but I'll have tomorrow morning before the train for Berlin to convince me to like it. Best of luck to it. Until Hamburg, Ciao!

Last Night in Castiglion

So yesterday was our last day of class and a lot of people's last day here. It was a really busy day! In the morning we finished up our final projects and then had a realllyy long group critique. It was good though because we all got to spend the last day together and get each other pumped for the final show we had that night. The show was after dinner and it was really fun. A lot of people came through and it was just fun to hang out with everyone with our work up, whether we were very proud of it or not!
After the show we had a silent rave! If you don't know what a silent rave is here is the 411. It is a large group of people that all go out into an area with their headphones on and all dance to their own music. It was a crazy idea that developed earlier in the semester and finally happened last night. I know it sounds weird but it was really fun! We only planned on doing it for 10 minutes but it ended up lasting the whole night. It's kind of like going to a dance club, but you get to pick all the music. It was great. It was a kind of sad night though, since everyone is leaving so soon. I'll show the rest in pictures, so I don't get emotional! haha
So on my actual last night here we did basically the same thing, sans silent rave and with gelato! Definitely a good last couple of days. I'm finishing up packing now and I'll be leaving later today to catch my night train from Florence. This next week is going to be hectic, but I think it will go by fast and that is definitely what I need right now. Bon Voyage for now!
SO quick picture run through- 1st is our show set up in the UT hallway and surprisingly enough my work is the first one on the right, Next is just another view of the show but after everyone started arriving, then some silly ones first of Dan and my two roomates and second of Sonya and Jennifer still in silent rave mode.