Today was Pisa…

I really enjoyed Pisa, because it was a smaller town in Italy.  There weren’t nearly as many people as there is in the bigger cities that I have been in.  It is nice to get out of the “city” and go to a “smaller city.”  The Leaning Tower of Pisa was leaning.  Imagine that.  Pretty crazy to think how off they were when the construction was going on. 

The four of us… Lauren, Brittney, and Kirsten (my traveling partners for the past three months) sat down for the last supper in Europe/Italy and had the traditional old Italian food… PIZZA and WINE!!  It all was very delicious.

On the way back from Pisa we had a transfer in Florence.  So I saw thirty minutes of Florence and hoped back on the train to Milan. 

Well tonight wraps up my European semester abroad.   It has been an amazing experience that I cannot even begin to summarize.  I cannot believe that I have been here for three months and the time is already over.  After stepping foot into 12 different countries and seeing some of the most amazing architecture in the world, which several of the buildings that I have seen in my textbooks, it feels pretty good to say, “I have been there!”

I am definitely ready to get back to America.  Traveling is a lot of work and quite expensive! I had the time of my life, but I realized that I really appreciate my friends and family to be away from them for this long.  I am ready and extremely excited to see all of you!

The 12 Countries:

Denmark
Sweden
The Netherlands
Germany
Belgium
Luxembourg
Great Britain
France
Switzerland
Spain
Italy
Greece

Thanks for following my travels through Europe!

America here I come! 

I am staying in Milan for the last leg of my trip.  Today we took the train to Venice for the day.  It was a very cool city to experience.  Tomorrow is Pisa and then early Tuesday morning is to the airport for America. Everything is wrapping up.

See you soon!

Nice, France.

This will be my last post from France.  It is my last night in France.  It is raining out, so I am in the hotel watching "The Bourne Identity" with the three people that I traveled to France with originally.  Thats okay though, because we have an early morning and a train ride to Milan, Italy.  The first day here was very sunny and warm.  I got a little red, so lets hope it turns into a tan!  Nice is on the French Riviera.  It is quite a beautiful place, especially to end my time here in France.

Once we get to Milan we are going to try to get train tickets to Venice and Pisa.  We are staying in Milan every night, so we don't have to carry all of our luggage around.  Venice and Pisa are both about 3 hours away from Milan by train, which will make it easy to do day trips.  Lets hope for Italian pizza, pasta, and gelato!

See you in Italy!
p.s. Nice is not pronounced like you would think... It sounds like Greece, but replace the G with N and drop the r :)!!

                                                    

  

Hello,

I am just going to leave a quick message about this weekends trip and then think about packing my apartment up here in Lille.

Saturday morning I left bright and early to get on the train to Strasbourg, France.  The world's first high rise structure is here.  It was an amazing day.  Then from Strasbourg I went down to Lyon, France to see another train station by Calatrava.  It was a half hour out of the city right next to the airport.  I really enjoy what Calatrava does in his buildings.  

See you soon America!

Hello friends!

I am so excited to be able to blog about Germany!  Germany was a country that I didn't think that I would be making it to, but the school that we are in invited us to join them on their bus trip through Germany.

Traveling with the french students was definitely an experience.  Two cultures from across the world packed onto a bus for 5 days.  The french are NEVER on time!!!!!  (Emphasis on the never)  I was really irritated by this the entire trip.  All of us Americans would wait on the bus for a minimum of 30 mins each stop before we were able to leave.  We were given times to be back on the bus and we were always waiting for even the french professors.  Finally at one point our professor was tired of it and asked if we wanted to separate from the french group and take the metro instead of the bus.  This was when all of the french people were drinking in the parking lot of one of our stops.  We were wasting our day away sitting in a parking lot watching the all of the french drink at noon.  Oh and this was not the lunch break either.  So of course I was all for the idea of leaving the french.  I knew it would prove a point to the french group and maybe they would realize how ridiculous it was for us to always be waiting on the bus.  Well it certainly caused a ruckus!  They didn't know why were so impatient and didn't want to join them.  Let me remind you that I am in Germany once!!

Other than the time issue everything was really great!  I had an amazing time in Germany.  I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed Germany.

The buildings that we stopped at we all pretty amazing.  The majority of them were projects that we have  read about back in America.  So it was really exciting to be able to experience them in person.

The picture with me holding a LITER of beer was quite the experience as well (only size they would serve).  This beer hall was HUGE!!  It wouldn't surprise me if the place held over a thousand people and let me tell you it was always packed!  They had all of the traditional German foods as well... sauerkraut and bratwurst.

Now I am back in Lille about to slave away working on my final projects here in France.  We are done with school on FRIDAY!! Can you believe that the trip is almost over?  So this week will most likely be pretty hectic.  I'm not stressed though, which might be a bad thing :l  After this week I head to Italy and then will be back in America April 19th!

Thanks for following!!
p.s. How do you like my tan?! :)