Munich, Germany (November 14th-17th)

This trip was a little different from the others but just as fun. Jake also joined me and my friends from SLU on this trip which was a lot of fun too. We flew in on Friday morning, leaving our homes around 6 in the morning which wasn't fun at all. So by the time we arrived in Germany we were starving but we immediately ran into a little store with 1 euro pretzels with butter...it was perfect. Friday we did a little exploring without any plan in particular. We did get a nice lunch though. For some reason I always end up with the least appealing meal. This time it was meatloaf, that tasted like a hot dog, but had some good potato salad.

Here are some of the exploring pictures...

We found a market that was open everyday except Sundays. Who knew thats where Santa hangs out...
The next day, we went to the concentration camp Dachau which was constructed in 1933, liberated in 1945 by the U.S. Armed forces and Re-created in 1965 as a Memorial Site. Our tour guide was different and was very dedicated to telling the story. The important part was that Dachau was made a memorial by the inmates who did not want pity, but wanted people to see and learn from what they had experienced. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures from the camp. But my friends have plenty.

Later that night we visited the famous Hofbrauhaus. All of my friends ordered beers, but I was in the mood for ice cream, so thats what I got.
That pretzel was the softest most delicious pretzel I have ever tasted.

The next day we headed out early on a tour of all of Munich. We saw the Glockenspiel go off at noon and learned that it was no automatically operated so it never goes off on time. But it was fun watching the figures dance, and a little creepy at the same time. The music was like a music box that you wind up, it almost seemed like something was going to blow up in the end, but nothing did.

I don't exactly remember what this creature was called or his purpose but it is definitely ugly.

The next morning was an early flight home to Madrid and then straight to class from the airport. The weather in Germany was cold but I did learn a lot.

Switzerland (November 7-9)

Switzerland first of all, is beautiful, it almost felt like going back in time. However, it is incredibly expensive. The Swiss Frank is the currency they use and is worth less than the dollar and euro alike, but they make up for that (and by they, I mean everyone)

So we flew into Geneva on Friday evening and took a train to the hostel. By accident, we decided not to get off at our stop. So my friend Cole leans back and asks if anyone in the train spoke English, and once one women answered he asked if we were headed in the right direction. She told us, but her face was priceless. When we told her where we were going she raised her eyebrows and said "But we're not going to Geneva!" So of course Cole's face was a look of "uh oh" and he asked her where we were headed and our group heard "Leon" and we literally thought we were on our way to France for the 3 euros we spent. But in reality we were headed to a different town and once the train stopped she got off and showed us how to get back...it was a close call, but turned out ok. Once we got off the train at the right stop, we found the hostel fairly easily, dropped off our stuff and then went to look around. Geneva was pretty dead for a Friday night so there wasnt much to do or see. Here is a picture from Old Town Geneva. I thought it looked like there were napkins dropped everywhere but they were just lights with messages on top.It looks like napkins...a little?

The next morning we took a visit to the United Nations and then to the real "Lake Geneva" and then hopped on an incredibly expensive train to Interlacken...now I am able to tell you though...it was worth every penny.

The United Nations


Lake Geneva


...And the train ride...


I wanted to ride that train forever. Once we arrived in Interlacken we checked into our hostel and did a little bit of exploring and site seeing just to find out if there was anything we could do before Saturday was over.


Nothing much was open so we had some dinner and prepared for tomorrow. The guys all decided to go skydiving over the Alps, some of the girls chose to jump off a canyon, me...of course, settled on a little hike.

...except it wasn't little at all. The hike through the Alps was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Sarah Bess and I started on a marked train, but the phrase "Let's just see what's around the bend" kept coming up and soon enough we were blazing our own trail.

Half way through we decided to stop and eat the small lunch we brought of bread, ham, and dried fruit. It was delicious as simple as it sounds. The part that was so perfect was as soon as I mentioned lunch, we found a small little bench to sit on...coincidence?

A Spanish Halloween! (October 30-November 2)

This past weekend I made it back to Salamanca and it was a beautiful trip. Everyone in the residencia was much friendlier and on Friday they had their own little Halloween party. Jake and I dressed up as Smurfs. He painted his entire body blue, his hands to his ears. Then painted on a white beard and claimed to be Papa Smurf (Papa Petufa in Spanish). I just wore a white t-shirt and simple skirt with blue leggings underneath, then painted my arms and face blue. The paint was a mess, I should have figured (it was the only thing Jake could find). I think it was oil based because it came off on the walls and other people and everything we touched, but not in the shower...perfect. When we went out of the residencia to the Plaza Mayor, we saw all the spanish costumes and they were good. There was not as much variety and cleverness as I usually see in the States, but there were lots of the scary costumes, even on the girls! It was a legit Halloween. All the Spaniards loved Jake's costume and he was stopping left and right to get his picture taken with strangers, I just stood on the side and let him do his thing. The next day, we were both a light shade of green.


On a different note...my senora picked up a new phone today and while Ashley and I were eating dinner, she sat down at her house phone, called her cell phone and had us listen to her new ring tone. Her phone does go off pretty often when she is around and it was so funny to hear that her new ring tone...is a roaster crow. She said that when she was out today and her phone went off, she acted like it was not hers. Its going to be muy divertido (very fun) to hear that go off randomly during the day.