Class Trip to Berlin, Germany

*from 31 May 2012
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Train time...again.. Journeying to Dublin.

May 15: Fluids, machine design, heat transfer, lunch in the mensa with friends. Our afternoon machine design class was canceled, so I studied for fluids. Had leftover pizza for dinner.

May 16: Fluids midterm--didn't feel confident about the test. Germany within Europe was canceled. I packed for Berlin, and then had lunch in the mensa with friends. We had to skip our heat transfer class because we had to catch a train to Berlin for our Germany within Europe class trip. The three of us went to the train station and were on our way. We arrived in Berlin...in a slightly sketchy area, around 10:30pm. We took a taxi to the hostel. We checked in, and my friend and I were in the same room--we were the 1st ones to get there; the 6 others came later. The main light and the lights on one side of the room didn't work. they said they would bring up fans, but they didn't. The walls of the hostel were decorated with some weird graffiti/murals...there was a demonic looking rabbit on the wall in our other friend's room. Anyway, we then got ready for bed. SLEEP.

May 17-May 20 (morning): Refer to our teacher's itinerary. [hopefully I'll be able to find it and update this!]

17: Our teacher's uncle and aunt came with our class. For lunch, we had sausages/hot dogs in the park--along with Pepsi Twist! Then our class split off and were free to roam to museums and such. Three friends and I went to Dunkin' Donuts and then went to the History Museum. We reconvened with the class and had dinner at a restaurant. After eating, we went to the basement of the restaurant where they had 2 alleys for 9-pin bowling (Kegelbahn).

Yummy reminder of America :P

At the history museum

Kegelbahn

18: Our class went around the city on bikes all day, and biked along the path of the Berlin Wall. After our full day of adventure, some of us stopped by a convenience store on our way back to the hostel, and then got on the tram. Back at the hostel, we got ready to go out for the night. Two of my friends and I hung out at the hostel, and then decided to go out with the rest of the class. Our teacher was going to join us. While waiting, some of our classmates were singing outside--one classmate in particular kept singing "Oh, Canada!" We all walked to get döner kebab. After that, we went to a club with a 7 Euro cover. I hung out there mostly with the 3 friends I went to the museum with the day before--we danced and had a great time! The four of us headed back to the hostel and stopped by a food stand to get some fries. When we arrived at the hostel, I got ready for bed after the fun but tiring day.

Berlin Wall

Bikes!...Mine may or may not have been the smallest one in the bunch. :)

...this was the ceiling of the hostel we stayed at...there were stuffed toy cows stapled on to it

19: The four of us went to the Technical Museum--It was a really hot day and we were all tired. Later on in the day, our class did our simulation game where we were representing different branches of German politics. 

Technical Museum

20: We made clay models of different Berlin landmarks that we learned about during our trip and painted them and laid them out in a map-like design. 

Our class' version of Berlin

20: After the class trip was officially done, I was able to get in touch with a family friend. He said that his sister would meet me after church. I went to St. Hedwig's for Mass, and waited...but no one showed up...and I didn't have credit on my phone to make outgoing calls. I went to a market area and bought wurst & walked around the market, which mostly sold art. I sat down, looked up when I heard a bell ring, and finally saw a pay phone.

St. Hedwig

Wurst at the market

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Well, that actually wraps up all of my hand written journal entries! Phew! I somewhat "caught up," but definitely still have more adventures to fill you in on--adventures from Europe and adventures from North America. It'll all be based off of memory and pictures, so please bear with me!


Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR

Quick Thought: How Many Days?

*from 27 May 2012
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On a train once again. I wonder how many days I've spent on a train. Going to attempt to get some homework done.


Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR

More Adventures in Lausanne, Switzerland

*from 25 May 2012
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Here I am, once again, on a train attempting to catch up on journaling. This time around, I am en route to Amsterdam.

Okie dokes back to Balelec.We saw some guys dressed as Pac-Man & ghosts. Sometimes I wasn't exactly sure how to dance to the music, but it was still fun. Later, we met up with some other friends. We went into one of the buildings with dubstep type music, and then went back to the other group for a bit. We left around 2am.

A LOT of people

Listening to some dubstep

May 12: We got ready and had breakfast at the apartment. Then we went to meet another friend (she and I went to the same middle school before and she graduated from the same high school as our friend we were staying with in Lausanne) at the train station [if I remember correctly, she was studying abroad or working in France at the time]. We stopped by the apartment to drop her bags off and then went grocery shopping. We returned to the apartment to make lunch--pasta & salad. I also tried some comté that she brought from France. I worked on homework while they watched a tv show. We left to find a church to go to Mass--it was a traveling church--but we couldn't find it...the directions weren't clear online. We asked some people for directions to the street. One lady ended up telling them (my two friends both spoke French, as did the lady) about how her kids used to go to school near there. We would've been like 30 minutes late (or more) if we decided to still go We decided just to go the next day in the morning. We did a little sight-seeing--Lausanne's Cathedral (not Catholic) and the shoreline. We went back to the apartment and they cooked dinner while I did more homework (machine design). We had salmon, rice, zucchini, and wine. We were all pretty tired so we didn't go out. After dinner, I finished my machine design homework.  

Cathedral

Shoreline

 May 13: I got ready, packed up my stuff, and then had breakfast. We went to go to Mass, but our friend and I needed bus tickets, but the machine only accepted coins (in my opinion, not a very smart concept). [Side note: I'm missing my family a lot right now. :/] The three of us went to a gas station to get change and we split a chocolate croissant. We walked back to the bus stop and got tickets. We got off at the stop and walked toward church. We saw 3 people and guessed they were going to Mass, so we kind of followed them. Church was at a grade school and it was pretty packed. We got there during the homily, and it happened to be Confirmation weekend. The Mass was in English. 

After Mass, we walked toward the shoreline. We stopped by a bakery where I bought a panini for lunch. We also walked by the Olympic museum and some clay tennis courts. We took the metro to the train station--I got some postcards and some snacks for the ride. I waited with my friends for the train and said goodbye. [On the train to Lausanne, I wished I was more extroverted & could speak German because a Swiss guy in army uniform sat right across from me on the train.] During my train ride back to Konstanz, I thought about home. 

Yummy panini

The Olympic museum is behind that barricade in that general direction.

Waiting for the train

Train Life: snack, journal, mp3 player

I arrived in Konstanz and on my way back to my apartment, I picked up some döner pizza for dinner. Back at the apartment, I called my friend in Lausanne and then Skyped with my mom--she left Skype on so I could watch/listen to the tv while I studied for fluids. 

Delicious pizza!

May 14: Wake up. Breakfast. Nap. Get ready. Lunch in the mensa. Study fluids. Skype. Döner pizza for dinner.

May 15: Mommy's bday! :)

-will continue later.


Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR

School Life & Lausanne, Switzerland

*from 21 May 2012
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Right now, I'm on the train heading back to Konstanz, which a stop over in Offenburg first...I'm attempting once again to catch up on journaling.

May 7: I was feeling really stressed out & lonely & homesick. I had to study for my heat transfer midterm.

May 8: To me, 75% of studying abroad is to travel & explore the new environment. I'm pretty sure I will learn a lot more in the long run from traveling than studying. At the same time, I know that it's important for me to focus on school. I got ready for class--fluids, machine design (he canceled class so that we could study for heat transfer), and heat transfer. I finished 3 of the 4 problems on my midterm. I didn't feel too confident about it, but apparently more confident than some people in the class. At least it's over. Then I had lunch with 2 of my friends in the mensa, followed by machine design where we just went over homework.

May 9: Fluids, Germany within Europe, lunch, heat transfer

May 10: Fluids, lunch with friends, worked on machine design, and packed.

May 11: I finished packing, and then got on the train to Lausanne, Switzerland to visit one of my friends. :) On the train, I worked on Germany within Europe homework and studied fluids. I arrived in Lausanne, got some Franks from the ATM, and then waited outside of McDonald's for a while until my friend met up with me there. We took the metro to her apartment--while she took my backpack in, I hung out at the nearby playground. We then went grocery shopping at Denner and then chilled at her at her apartment. We had dinner (she made spinach tortellini) and I Skype called my mom.

We went to the lakeside to hang out with some of her friends before Balelec. The lake/mountains are pretty--looked like they were painted. Apparently ~15000 were expected to be at Balelec, which is kinds of like an electronic music festival with a lot of stages. There were A LOT of people!

Beautiful lake & mountains

Balalec!

Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR

A Bit of Paris...and Homesickness

Clearly, I'm STILL catching up from last year!!

*From May 16
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[I'm currently on the train to Offenburg-Berlin with two of my friends).]

It took a long time for our waiter to bring our bill. After dinner, we headed back to my friend's apartment. I took a shower after settling in. By the way, it was an awkward shower, as there was no curtain. Then I figured out how to fold out the bed (in couch) & she helped me plan out where I would go the rest of the weekend.

May 4: I took a shower and got ready for the day's adventures. My first item on the agenda was to take the metro to Trocadero. Trocadero is where you can get great pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I found it & saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time - amazing. I pretty much had the same reaction as when I saw the Colosseum-- "Woah. That is freaking awesome." I took a lot of pictures, and did the tourist thing - I took other people's pictures for them & asked them to take my picture of me. I asked a group of Filipinos, and thanked them in Tagalog--they were surprised. :P Later they asked me to take their picture and called me "Ate" (pronounced: ah-teh)...even though I'm pretty sure they're older than me. (Ate basically means "big sister" in Tagalog.) Maybe I look young to Americans & older to Filipinos...maybe I look my age to Europeans? After all, I haven't gotten carded over here.

Eiffel Tower

 After taking pictures, I scoped out the souvenir stands there. Then, I left Trocadero and went toward the Eiffel Tower (I didn't notice there were stairs, so I ended up walking around. My brother later told me that I was near the Architecture Museum at Trocadero.) I made it to the Eiffel Tower -- that thing is large! I bought a pan au chocolat & water for 4 Euro. I ate my pan au chocolate right near the Eiffel Tower. :) Wonderful.

Delicious pan au chocolat!

There were long lines to go up the Eiffel Tower and only one lift was working. I'm glad the weather was nice, especially because I left my umbrella at my friend's apartment. After I finished, I walked along the Champ de Mars and took more pictures. I saw international peace poles and stopped by a souvenir stand where I bought a J'adore Paris shirt. I continued walking semi-aimlessly and found souvenir shops--I bought magnets, a beret, & 2 scarves. 

International Peace Poles

I ate lunch at a restaurant (pasta with chicken, bread, water) outside. It started raining, but luckily stopped by the time I was done eating. I walked back toward the river, and there was a little market going on--I bought a Paris poster for my brother as a house warming gift & got a little glass duck for myself. :) There was more walking as I was in search of the Louvre. I eventually found my way to Concorde, and passed some museums on the way.

Lunch!

En route to Place de la Concorde

En route to Place de la Concorde

[Paris has a lot of details--and I will come back to it.]

May 6 (night): I did some laundry and then Skyped with my brother and parentals--my brother was home for the weekend & my mom had just come back from Vegas. It was great to see them, but made me really wish I was there with them. :/ My brother mentioned some things about the parish we go to. That night, I had a dream that I was at the parish for a day & was going around hugging people, saying bye because I was going back to Europe the next day.

May 7: I woke up & cried. :( I called one of my best friends because I needed someone to talk to. I was so glad she was there to listen, even though she wasn't all there since I woke her up.
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As you can see, being away from home did take its toll on me sometimes. But I am happy to say that the brighter points of my time abroad greatly outweighed the down points!!


Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR