Auf Wiedersehen

It's time to say Good Bye to Germany... This is a picture from our Good Bye Dinner in Bonn. We had our last schnitzel (picture below) and goulash, plus a little German beer to say our good byes to all of our friends here. It was really bittersweet, but we were able to celebrate our time here and are excited to get back to the States.

We arrive at the Chicago airport at 4:30 central time Saturday. We'll be spending a week in Michigan and will head to Augusta on March 9th. I'm happy to get back and see family and friends. I can't wait to see everyone next week!

Karneval

Oh German Karneval...what fun it has been so far! As you can probably tell, we went as bananas. It wasn't just me and Brian though, there's a group of 14 bananas! Karneval started on Thursday at 11:11am. When you look out the window or walk down the streets, all you can see are people dressed up in costumes! There are parties set up in tents all over Bonn and Koln! I really can't compare it to anything I've ever seen or been to before. Oktoberfest was in tents and a lot of drinking, but not nearly as crazy as the parties are here!

We have so many of our friends here and it really makes this such a great experience. We still have 3 more days left of Karneval and 8 more days until we're back in the states!

My German Class

This is a picture of my German class from our celebration dinner. The entire class didn't come to dinner, but these are the students who attended class daily. I'm really glad I was able to meet everyone in my class and really enjoyed learning German!

Barcelona!

What a wonderful vacation spot! It has been about 5 years since I've been to Barcelona, but I realized quickly why I remembered loving it so much! Although we only had about 1 1/2 days to see the city, we were able to see everything we wanted to see. On Saturday, we headed down to the beach to walk around a little bit. We didn't expect the weather to be so wonderful and we were able to spend some of the day relaxing by the water. It was about 65 degrees and sunny. After we spent time in the sun, we walked through Las Ramblas, the market, and El Ravel. We also saw La Sagrada Familia Church (picture below) and Santa Maria del Mar.

At night, we were able to go to my friend, Josh's, favorite bar and have some great sangria! We ate some unbelievable food too! I forgot how much I loved Spanish food since it's really hard to find good Tapas or paella in the US, but I made up for lost time. We ate at great restaurants and really had a great time! We were able to do more sightseeing on Sunday before heading back to Bonn late last night.

We have quite a week ahead of us as well. It's Brian's last week as a TLP and also the start of Carnival! We have 14 people who are dressing up like Bananas and all attending parties from the 18th-24th! We have 2 of our friends from Augusta staying with us, 2 of our friends from Fort Worth here, Lacy and her friend visiting as well! It's going to be such a great end to our 6 months abroad!

Prague

Brian and I spent last weekend in Prague, Czech Republic. We really enjoyed a new city and culture. I was a little nervous about our hotel since it was only 50USD per night and when we arrived they had to move us to a different hotel since they didn't have heat, but we were put into a 4 star hotel just down the street. The hotel was great and even had heated tiled floors!

I had been told by many people that Prague was their favorite European city, but until experiencing it, I didn't understand why. It's a lot different than I imagined! The architecture is unique and a little different than Germany. We loved the castle, especially the golden lane (picture below) and Charles Bridge. We also loved the old town hall tower and clock!

The tourist attractions were great, but I never expected the town squares, shopping, and dining. Prague is known for it's glass and Marionettes and Puppets. There is a large shopping area which not only has everything you could ever want to buy, but also great for people watching! The food was also great. It was similar to the German cuisine, but with more sauces and dumplings. Overall, Prague was amazing and would recommend it to anyone...but maybe in the summer since it was really cold! We have a pretty slow week, but leave Friday for Barcelona. This will be our last trip before leaving on the 28th!

Georgia Peach

That's right, we're officially moving to Augusta, GA in March 2009! After 5 months of deciding where we would want to go, Brian accepted a position with E-Z-GO Golf Carts with 3 weeks to spare. I'm finally going to get the warm weather I've always wanted and the location I was hoping for. We're just starting to figure out the details. I'm working on finding housing, a job, and organizing our 13 hour drive from Michigan. We're excited that we'll get time off to spend with family too! Hopefully we'll have time to see everyone when we're back home the first week of March.

Rome

Brian and I returned back to Bonn yesterday after spending a perfect weekend in Rome, Italy. We had the most amazing time and were able to see almost everything! The picture above is of us in front of the Roman Coliseum. We also toured the Forums, Palatine Hill, The Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and so much more.

Here's a picture of the Sistine Chapel. It's "forbidden" to take pictures inside the Chapel and believe me did I get yelled at....but here's a shot we still managed to get of the ceiling. The artwork is unbelievable! I actually pictured the chapel being a little more impressive or maybe bigger, but it was unreal to imagine one person painting the entire room!

We were also able to drink some wonderful red wine and eat like kings and queens! The food was great and we loved it! Brian convinced me to stay in a hostel and while I was a little hesitant (I've stayed in some pretty BAD hostels!), it actually turned out to be really nice. Our room was clean and had a lot of charming details.

This week should go by fast. It's my last week of class and my big test is on Thursday! Brian will be in Northern Germany Tuesday and Wednesday for work and we leave Friday for Prague!