Seeing the Sights: Dachau for the Holidays

As strange as it sounds, I did break up visits to Christmas Markets around southern Germany with a sobering visit to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp. I've been to Munich a few times, and hadn't comprehended how close the Dachau camp is to central Munich. Very easily reachable on the S-Bahn, free, and an odd piece of open space in a packed city. Obviously, the space was set aside for historical education purposes, and was the first camp to be set up as a museum (opened in 1965 and with much consultation from survivors). And in a new segment I'm adding to the blog, it's a 10/10 on the introvert's travel scale. I spent the day there and talked to no one. You don't need an entry ticket, signage provides all the info, and while not everything's in English, most is.

Since it was December, there was intermittent snow, and with each flurry, I thought about the person/movie/poem/wherever that talked about how, when crematoria first went into use in these type of camps, the residents thought it was snowing as the ash fluttered out of chimneys, and were horrified when the realization hit them.

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A short walk from the bus stop, past the visitor center I briefly walked through on my way out, is the guard house with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate. This one is a recreation, since the original was stolen, later found in... Norway?, and is now under glass in the museum section. In addition to this note about the value of work, paint on the roof of the main building read: "There is a path to freedom. It's milestones are: Obedience, Honesty, Cleanliness, Sobriety, Hard Work, Discipline, Sacrifice, Truthfulness, Love of thy Fatherland."

Buildings left on the property describe various parts of life in the camp, and the property itself is mostly empty, with outlines of where barracks would have been. There's a nunnery at the back, crematoria off to one side, a Jewish memorial, block of solitary cells, and a maintenance building used as a museum and theatre (for a documentary about the camp) now.

This stands near the roll call grounds of the camp, and reads (in four languages): "May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men." 

I started with the "Bunker," which was used for solitary confinement. Georg Elser was one of those kept here, who attempted to assassinate Hitler. Interestingly, cells were renovated for him, giving him three cells to move between, and he was allowed some personal effects. The "why" was never discussed, and I haven't been able to find it anywhere. Seems he should have received very different care...

Other individuals kept in the Bunker were clergymen, who had a set of cells to themselves (one person per cell), one for religious services, and another for day use. Three other cells were subdivided, leaving no space in each for a prisoner to sit or lie down: the "standing cells."

After liberation, the Bunker was used as offices for US military personnel, and was given a new coat of paint, which is still visible. A nice teal. Cell by cell, one can see peeling paint, broken pipes, etc., which probably aren't a whole lot different from what it would have looked like in it's heyday.

Shower room: then and now
This room had many purposes: bathing house, cinema, site of corporal punishment, concert hall

The museum started with an overview of the war's progression, specifically with the opening of concentration and extermination camps, subcamps, youth protective custody camps, ghettos, etc. throughout Europe. This system stretched the length and breadth of the continent. Dachau itself was opened in March 1933 to house political prisoners. By accounts, it doesn't operate in the modern conception of a concentration camp for some time; people are under watch, under fed, and barracks overpopulated, but they don't have the same level of suffering as modernity ascribes to concentration camps of the era. This would change, ramping up toward the end of the war. Medical experiments begin in 1942 along with corporal punishment, typhus breaks out in 1944 (63,000 people live in barracks built for 8,000).

At the end of the museum, some Dutch high schoolers had been part of a project to follow the lives of Dutch political prisoners in Dachau, called "Names, not Numbers." This exhibition was done in German and Dutch, so I couldn't follow much of it, but students read through their biographies, and many had artifacts from "their" prisoners and interviewed family. Another room had headstones of those whose last known location was Dachau.

After liberation, tens of thousands of people remained at Dachau, with no where else to go or awaiting assistance to return home. Refugees lived here for years after the war, with only the crematoria set aside as a place of remembrance. I did visit the crematoria area, which was expanded as the war went on, and it also included several gas chambers. I had some thoughts on how I might have portrayed things differently to make more of an impact on those visitors, but this is also a subject in which capturing realism isn't always possible... or a good idea.

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As this post is being written 10ish months after I visited, all the thoughts aren't as fresh. I've probably missed things, but that's the way life is. In summary: I visited a Concentration Camp for Christmas. 

Holidays 2014/2015: Central Europe Edition

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Remember that time I studied abroad? As is evident from the title, this post is loooong overdue and has just been waiting in my draft folder. I haven't reviewed it much, except to finish it (the last few days are, for lack of a better word, lackluster), since writing it in January of 2015. So have fun with that.

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As weird as the finals schedule is here (and by "weird" I mean very different from what I'm accustomed to, not "wrong" or "bad,"  just different) I pretty much had a month and a half off between semesters. A month and a half in Europe. With not much I was required to do. Sounds like a dream come true? It was in a way, though it had its ups and downs. But the bigger question is: what did I do with it? If you'd like to know the answer, stay tuned for a fairly long post. Feel free to come back a few times to get through it all. Grab yourself some crisps and ice cream, sink into a comfy chair, and let's get crackin'!

THE PLAN: I catch a bus early-early-early, to arrive at the Riga Airport just in time to catch the first flight of the day to Amsterdam. I'd spend the day eating cheese and stroopwafels and the night at a rock 'n' roll themed hostel before heading to the airport, landing in Rome just after my family. They would fly to Seattle, spend the evening there, then head to Philadelphia and on to Rome. That's what was supposed to happen. But everything went... Awry.

December 24th: My bus leaves from Tartu around 2am, so I'm packed, ready, and waiting at the station at 1:45am, just to be on the safe side, having not slept in a long while. A bus comes, different logo on the bus than my ticket, so I know it's not my bus. But time ticks on and its the only one there. So, I ask the driver if this bus is going to the Riga airport; he looks at my ticket, points at the logo, and tells me my bus will be at the one platform on the other side of the building (something that might not make sense unless you've seen the Tartu bus station). Checking my watch, I hustle around to the other side of the building and watch the last couple minutes pass before my bus is scheduled to depart. Waiting a bit longer, I finally call the company, who says the bus has come and gone. I must have rounded the corner as it turned out of sight, a few minutes early. I head across the street to a hotel and ask if they have a bus schedule. While the receptionist pulls one up, a bus arrives at the station, a bus on the same route I need... But going the other direction. So close! Alas, because it's the middle of the night, the next bus isn't until 6am, just before my plane is supposed to take off. Fantastic.
     I settle into a couch in the lobby of the hotel, having begged the wifi password off the receptionist. From there I had to make a new plan. Luckily, my parents hadn't left home yet, and my mom helped me figure out a new set of flights and I had a new bus ticket. Unfortunately, this took the majority of the time I had between buses, and wasn't able to go back to my dorm and take a nap. From there, the ride was pretty smooth sailing. I ended up with a layover in Frankfurt over night (15 hours), with a whole wing of the airport to myself. I found a bench near an outlet.  I chatted with my mom as they went to the airport and found themselves in Seattle. I watched movies, felt the annoyance of having to pack up all my things every time I went to the bathroom. After many hours, my family packed up to head to Philadelphia.
     Sooner than expected, my mom's back online. She pops up to say she's got bad news. I'm thinking lost baggage? My dad was already not feeling well, so maybe that's worse? But no. Getting on the plane from Seattle, my brother was denied entry to Italy, so he and my mom were headed back home. My dad was still on his way, but all of us wouldn't be together for Christmas. After one extremely long and trying day, and little sleep over the last days, I broke down. It's a good thing I was alone because I likely looked ridiculous. I attempted to lift my spirits with Christmas movies, but the moral of most of those stories is the importance of family, and my family was half a world away. My mom decided to stay up with me until I left Frankfurt.



December 25th: I got a second wind in the wee hours of the morning, between crying at Christmas movies, and I went completely berserk. I ran up and down the halls, was jumping around like a crazy person. But as the time of my flight approached, I dropped like a fly. If only I had been actually able to sleep.
     I had to cross the Lufthansa portion of the airport to get to my new gate before the sun rose and before many of the moving sidewalks had been turned on. Frankfurt is not a small airport. Still pretty exhausted, I was having the occasionally tear-filled breakdown. I made a note for myself that says, "I love Christmas, I'm just tired and frustrated. I love Christmas, I'm just tired and frustrated. I love Christmas I'm just tired..." to remind myself that I don't hate Christmas, since there were definitely moments where I needed that reminder.
     As I boarded, my mom went to bed. My dad was already most of the way there, so I had a new focus. Not "waste the next 15 hours" and "quit crying like a baby," but get to Rome and find my dad. I attempted to sleep on the plane, but that's typically impossible; I might have slept for a few minutes over the course of the flight. My flight did land early, early enough that I hit Roman soil before my dad's flight from Philadelphia. Not having to go through passport control, I hit baggage claim even sooner. I did manage to pack everything for our 17 days in my school backpack, and my mom had said my dad was just traveling with a duffle bag (no surprise there). But I know enough about airports to know everybody ends up at baggage claim. So, I waited. And I waited. Turns out, while I can receive his texts, he can't receive mine. Eventually, though, I found him. We found the train station and headed into Rome before continuing onto Naples. Lesson #1: He's really into buildings having roofs. (The countryside is covered in these little farm buildings, which for whatever reason seem to be missing their roofs.)

The two empty First Class seats on the train.

   After two days of travel, and a losing battle with fake sugars, we were still in need of sleep. From the train station in Naples we went to our hotel. After acquiring the wifi password, I did some things, and in no time at all, Papa was snoring. And he stayed that way for many hours. He woke up every now and again to say, "So, what's the plan?" before snoring again. Dinner eventually called and we we headed out to the "best pizza in Naples."

Naples was dressed in its Christmas best, here's a blurry picture to prove it. There were Christmas lights in every alley. Unfortunately, we walked past the pizza place the first time, and by the time we found our way back, it was closed. We ended up at a pizza stand, though it did have the best pizza Papa ate while in Italy. Apparently, he's picky about his pizza crusts. We video chatted with my mom and brother, and did the gift exchanging thing. Then I called my grandma, after my dad had the genius epiphany on how I could call her. Twenty-seven minutes, zero dollars. :) Pizza, Mrs. Santa Claus, and not getting hit by cars in Naples. While it wasn't the Christmas we'd planned or hoped for, it was Christmas. A memorable one, even if for reasons I'd rather it had not.

December 26th: We got tickets for a tour of Pompeii and so headed out to find the dock where our bus would meet us. The cab dropped us off in front of a couple of gentlemen with guns keeping watch over a couple of US naval vessels. Finding our way back to the buses, none of them seemed to be ours. We walked back and forth along the dock asking drivers if their bus was going to Pompeii. No, nope, nada, nyet, ei, nein. Finally, we called the company, since the departure time of the bus had come and gone, and they sent a driver to pick us up. We met up with the rest of the people who were on our tour and our guide, Lucia, and headed into the ruins.

There are a bunch of pictures on Facebook,
so I don't want to fill up all the space
with duplicate pictures, but here's the carriage
wheel ruts in the road and the stone crosswalk. 

I definitely loved the orchestral ampitheatre, and it was, of course, fantastic to walk through historic streets so well preserved. It did have a bit of that "too well preserved" feeling that I've had in a few different places; a place so well preserved it's hard to imagine people actually living there. It wasn't as intense in Pompeii as it was in Anne Frank's house. Though, the most memorable portion of our trip to Pompeii was the New Jersey Mafia member on our tour. He had the stereotypical look you'd find in a movie, and asked the most ridiculous questions. If you've seen the photo album on Facebook, he's the guy we named "Don't Be That Guy", and tried not to be for the rest of the trip. He had to know if everything was original (most of which was very clearly original), why the houses didn't have roofs, how much the ash covered, etc. These weren't even the craziest of his questions (unfortunately, I'm not remember the specific questions, but he also fulfilled the stereotype of the stupid American tourist). At the end of the tour, we were offered limoncello, which Papa accepted, apparently not totally aware of what it was. The look on his face = priceless.
   We had lunch in Pompeii (spaghetti, beef/seafood, Tiramisu gelato) before heading with a family from Illinois up the Amalfi Coast. Our driver drove for Nicholas Cage (who was a jerk), and Kevin Costner (who filmed a canned tuna commercial). We stopped at scenic viewpoints along the way overlooking several of the towns: Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, etc. We saw islands used for celebrity's birthday parties and the houses of world famous designers, and the Italian coast, warm even in December. We touched the Mediterranean, and totally would have swum in it, it was still warm. And we saw a Christmas Palm tree.
     We headed back to Naples over the mountain, through lemon tree groves. Between a long day and a long car ride, we had to work at keeping awake. My camera wouldn't capture the lights of the city as we headed down the other side and toward the hotel, crashing almost as soon as we got back.

December 27th: We checked out of our hotel and headed to the train station, bound for Rome once again. From there, we bought bus tickets and found our way to the apartment we were renting, just off the walls of the Vatican. We didn't do much, just wandered. We had to pass the Basilica anytime we went anywhere, and ate dinner right across the street. It looks spectacular lit up at night.

December 28th: We made a walking plan, to hit a lot of the big sites in Rome: Colosseum, Circus Maxima, Forum, etc. A big loop that would hit most of them. We walked up hill from our flat and ended up on top of a hill next to the Spanish Embassy. Our loop was certainly not the shortest route between these points, but we saw lots of Rome off the tourist trail. And the entire time we walked through the streets of Rome for the next several days, I had an entire soundtrack of songs about Rome playing in my head. We saw some awesome street performers near the Colosseum. Along the street to the Colosseum, there are pieces of the Roman Forum in the middle of the road. America has medians, Rome has a bunch of pits with ancient marble work. My dad was in Italy 30 years ago, so we stopped by a couple of places that he remembered, like Piazza Navona. Apparently, when he was there last, it wasn't a big tourist spot, but now it's up on all the tourist signs with the Pantheon, Forum, Colosseum, etc. We attempted the to see the Trevi fountain, but since this is "off season" it was covered in scaffolding and being worked on. So much for that.
   That night, we went out for the "best pizza in Rome", which happened to be about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. All the reviews online raved about this place (Bonci's). It's a tiny, tiny little pizzeria, but we loaded a box up with different kinds of pizza (unfortunately, the one with orange marmalade was left behind), and took it back with us. It can be hard separating everything I know about pizza from Italian pizza, since Americans and Italians do pizza differently. The pizza was good, and I'm sure by Roman/Italian standards it was high up on the list of pizza places, but from this American's perspective, it wasn't the best pizza ever. While it never claimed to be the best ever (just the best in Rome), I was still expecting more. The pizzeria definitely had unique flavours, which I could easily see as being part of the draw. Good, but not fantastic.

December 29th: With my parents being split up at the beginning of the trip, some monetary kerfuffle took place. That's lead us to several ATMs this morning. After trying a super high-security bank, my dad gave up. But! In our visit to the bank, we ran across one of the many people who stand on street near tourist spots and entice you into the tours their company offers. Having looked through many tours online, the man we came across was offering the same tour for about the same price as the Vatican would, so we figured, why not? We toured the Vatican museums with Ribal, who started by taking us down into the newly reopened exhibit on the Pope's transportation throughout time. Horse drawn carriages, gifts from dignitaries, the Pope-mobiles, etc. While the Vatican museums contain some interesting and amazing pieces, everything seems set up to funnel everyone into the Sistine Chapel. While that is why many people are there, it didn't seem like anyone was there for the sake of the museum; as if the museums were nothing more than historically decorated walls and signs pointing the way to the Chapel.

Apollo Belvedere

     I saw an extremely old copy of the Apollo Belvedere (which my history of English literature professor has not shut up about for the last semester), St. Helen's sarcophagus, and the residence of former Pope Ratzinger. This is the first time there have been two Popes living within the walls of Vatican City. We ended up, of course, in the Sistine Chapel. I found out that the chimney used during Conclave is removed afterward, which explains why I didn't see it when I looked. There were so many people; I can't imagine what it's like in the summer. Places like Rome don't seem to have an "off" season, just a "less on" season. The Chapel is rigged with a speaker system, so you could hear these loud announcements telling everyone to be quiet. I imagined that the place would actually be much quieter than it was, but alas. While the ceilings are massive, the space wasn't as big as I'd expected it to be, though that could have been due to the amount of people there. 
     From there we headed into the Basilica. We saw the tomb of St. Pope John Paul II, which only the previous day (or was it the day before) had been visited by the man who attempted to assassinate him. There was clearly an incredible amount of time, effort, and money poured into the creation of that building. It certainly puts other churches to shame with the amount of sculpture, guilding, etc. I'm not sure it does it successfully, however. As impressive as it is, there is so much being shoved down your throat that after a while you don't notice how much is there. We visited the catacombs below the floor of the Basilica; the oldest Pope whose sarcophagus we saw died in the mid 1200s. He's got nothing on St. Peter, age wise, but still impressive. The waiting list to see St. Peter, however, is miles and miles long so we didn't partake of that particular experience.
     Next we headed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica. It's a 7 euro ticket to take the elevator most of the way up, and the last 320 steps you do on your own. There was a large Southern family in front of us who were bringing their grandmother(s?) up to the top. Not a choice I would have made, but more power to them. At the top of the elevator, you can look out over the heart of the Basilica below. I'm not great with heights, so I did less looking and more shuffling.

With the curve of the dome, the staircases and the walls aren't perpendicular, and you almost feel the need to lean to the side as you go up the stairs. Trippy. But the view from the top was fantastic, in between skipped heart beats at how high up we were. We'd made it to the top, which started us climbing all sorts of things as we visited other cities. On the roof of the Basilica, there's a gift shop (of course) and we picked up a few post cards to mail in the letter box up there. We were on the roof as the sun went down and the lights of the dome came on! And that was our day in Vatican City!

December 30th: I'd been desperately trying to find an "Angels & Demons" tour of Rome/Vatican City, but to no avail. With the holidays and the year winding down, there weren't any :(. I read through a self-guided tour online, and we'd already been to several of the places on the list, so I looked into visiting the others while we were in Rome, though not necessarily all at once. So instead of visiting the "Angels & Demons" book and movie locations, we toured the Forum & the Colosseum. Lots of pieces of things that had fallen over, lots of green, plenty of people. The sun was shining, though a bit windy. And when it came time to find food, we headed for the Hard Rock Cafe Rome, conveniently located across the street from the US Embassy. We got there around 3pm, figuring post-lunch pre-dinner the place would be fairly empty. Wrong. It was completely packed, but 45 minutes later, we were squeezed into a two person table.

Streets were lined with national flags, so of course I found the Eesti Flag! 

     Since we were unable to book an Angels & Demon's tour, I booked another tour with the same company: and hour and a half "Dark Rome" tour of ghost stories. Of course, the most decent time for this is at night, so we had a few hours to kill before finding our way to the church where the tour would start. We picked up a variety of cannoli, found the Spanish Steps (I was expecting... more), checked out the lit up display of world flags running down one of Rome's central streets, etc. We got to the church a bit early and stepped inside. It's crazy to have these huge, massive churches in the middle of such a hustlin' bustlin' city and have them be so quiet. Our tour guide was from Maryland, and many of the members of our tour were Americans as well. Personally, I really enjoyed the tour. It was very different from the usual tour of Rome, and you really get a sense of the age of the city by hearing the stories of its inhabitants from centuries ago. Yes, the Colosseum is a good indicator of it's age, but personal stories are different. A monk with radical ideas who taught and was taught by incredible historical people before being burned, lowering the crime rate by simple placing pictures of the Virgin Mary strategically around the city, a single mother who made a living selling poisons out of an apartment she now haunts and that has been vacant more often than not, a woman wrongly imprisoned and then killed who sparked a change in Rome's prison system. Real people who really walked the streets, lived their lives in the buildings that have been standing longer than my brain can comprehend.
     My dad thought otherwise.

December 31st: We moved accommodations to a different part of town for our last night and spent a bit of the day wandering our new area. In the evening, we trekked to the Circus Maximus for my first open-air concert, put on for New Years Eve. Unsurprisingly, I hadn't heard of any of the bands playing, the first of which was "Spiritual Front" followed later by "Mannarino." I didn't catch the names of the others in rapid-fire Italian. The weather was a bit chilly, and when we finally grew tired of being shoved around in the mosh pit near the stage, we headed back. Papa, per usual, passed out, but I read until just before midnight and ran outside with my camera. No one does fireworks like Rome. They were everywhere; any direction you turn, any street you take has fireworks at the other end. Each significant building launched their own. It was incredible. (I took a bunch of photos, and shockingly, they're all blurry...)

January 1st: Today we journeyed to Florence, which, if I'm honest, I wasn't really expecting to enjoy. Being the city of artists and the Renaissance, I could understand how my dad and Tyrnan would have liked it, but I just didn't think I would.

Hospital? Really? 

    After checking in to our hotel (which took us plenty of time to find), we headed out. I don't think we had il Duomo in mind, but it's hard to not wind up there. While the Baptistry was being worked on, the duomo certainly packs and eyeful on it's own. I love that it's so very different, being green, 'n' all. We were there before the crowds, though there were still enough people in the piazza. My dad led the way, as he'd been here before, and I got a bit of history lesson. We stumbled across the most incredible looking hospital, and found ourselves in front of the obligatory welcome-to-a-new-Italian-city-let's-try-the-pizza restaurant. This wasn't so much pizza as pizza ingredient soup on a warm tortilla. It had the world's thinnest crust and couldn't even hold up its own toppings, which proceeded to slide off. All in all, could use a bit of work.

All up in baby Jesus' face. 

January 2nd: It's gallery day! We picked up tickets to the Galleria dell'Accademia and began exploring. Impressively, there's no glass between you and 99% of anything, so you can get up close and personal to inspect brush strokes (and believe me, one of the two of us did... and it wasn't me). Even with as old as some of these paintings were, from the 13th century, you could practically stick your nose on the thing! And, of course, we saw the David and watched a short clip on his creation and restoration. Seriously, that guy is everywhere in Florence. Replicas in squares, on hill tops, tiny replicas in shops. There is no escaping him! Among other things, I developed my conspiracy of 7. Throughout a selection of the paintings depicting Jesus & Mary, Jesus' little baby fingers are holding up a number 7. I want to know why; across space and time (more time than space, really) artist have depicted this same hand-shape. What up with that?!
     Exit the gallery and you find yourself a short stroll away from the Ponte Vecchio, and we thought to ourselves "Don't mind if I do?" On the other side, we picked up one of my Italian bucket list items: gelato. One cup, four flavours: egg cream, coffee, stracciotella, and coconut.
     From there, we picked a spot and went. There was a building on a hill above the city and decided to explore. We found a man with a giant bubble wand along the way, before ending up, initially, at the Piazza Michelangelo. We'd stumbled into another tourist trap. Run away, run away! And run away we did, continuing up the hill to a church with the most spectacular view. The Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte reflected a bit of the colour scheme in il Duomo. Outside there was an extensive cemetery. And I'm talking extensive with a capital E, and probably a couple other letters. The graves didn't seem to be very old, most of them within the last century. The interior was covered in art, as Italian churches tend to be, and there were monks moving to and fro. The gift shop advertised cookies made by monks, and we were game for that, but the number of people in the tiny space immediately had us changing out minds. Honestly, the most spectacular part was the view, across the city, up into the hills behind it, dotted with castles and houses. I thought it'd be a bit cliche, and I guess it is, but I totally understand the fascination with Tuscany. Aside from all of the other amazing things we saw in Florence, that view alone had me in love.

Ugh.

     By the time we reached Piazza Michelangelo again, the sun was setting and the sky, with it's pinks, oranges, blues, purples, and thin clouds looked like it had been painted there. It didn't matter how many pictures we tried to take, the camera wouldn't capture how incredible it looked.
     We made our way down the hill and walked along the river. Peering over the wall we saw what looked to be a beaver with a rat tail. We hoped it was a beaver with a rat tail and not a rat the size of a beaver. We watched this thing and it's family occasionally whispering, "It can't be a rat. It's huge." In the Hard Rock, we started chatting with a couple from Texas about these animals and I did some searching and found out what it was. Papa didn't want to know; he preferred the ignorance of believing it was a rat. They call it a river rat/nutria/coypu, and often eat them.
     Anyway, after moving back across the now basically deserted Ponte Vecchio we headed toward the spires of the Firenze Library. While closed the public, I did take a picture outside. From there, we tried to find the building attached to the next tower, which turned out to be a type of trade school, though the big "do not pass" sign convinced us we shouldn't wander closer to learn more. It was just down the street from the piazza of the Basilica di Santa Croce with it's huge imposing statue of Dante Alighieri. The piazza was empty, so I took the opportunity to lay in roughly the centre of it and attempt to star gaze. Unfortunately, the weather did not allow for this activity.
     For dinner, we decided upon the Hard Rock Cafe. In case you don't know, one of the activities on my bucket list is to visit every Hard Rock Cafe in the world. Not necessarily the cheapest place to have dinner, but... The nachos are pretty good.

January 3rd: The obligatory bus trip to Pisa. Who knew that everything there is to see in Pisa is found within a 3 block radius, and if you're not interested in the international school for super smart kids, it's all in the same piazza! We found a lucky lizard, saw the international school for super smart kids (because why not), and climbed the Tower of Pisa. We heard the story of the church at the base of the tower, and how it's single red column was stolen from another building to try and make this one cheaper to complete; I seriously doubt that the single column made any significant difference, whatsoever.

Smart kids enter here. 

     Anyway, we climbed the tower, which is actually a bell tower, though the bells are no longer rung. I didn't really feel much of the tilt as I was going up, but once at the top, you can definitely tell. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though I didn't move around much. The experience would have been better if I hadn't realized I was missing my wallet on the last few steps to the top. After that I was a bit preoccupied. We ate a few apples, pretended to hold up or knock down the tower, as you do. While we were there, the sun went down and the moon came out, giving us some incredible views of the full moon over the piazza. Our camera's weren't bad, but not great either. From there we traveled back to Florence, where (as Papa guessed) I found my wallet exactly where I'd put it the night earlier. Good thing we hadn't needed much money all day!

January 4th:  We started off with lunch at Burger King, since it's right across from the train station, we had time to kill, and it's so very "foreign" since there isn't one at home or in Tartu. From there, we were off to Venice. Oddly enough, it doesn't smell like saltwater at all. No where smells like saltwater as much as home does! You can hear the water, you can see the water, but you can't smell it. I do not understand. We walked around in circles trying to find our hotel, but eventually we got there. The room was huge! But we weren't there long before we were back on the canals of Venice. I'd always dreamed of visiting Venice with my brother, who's been dreaming of going for a very long time. So it felt a bit weird not having him there. I thought about going somewhere else, when it was just Papa and I and we didn't have any real plans, but one of the few plans we did have were tickets from Venice to Munich so we went.

     Of course, the first stop was St. Mark's, because where else do you start? We found some cool graffiti along the way, and an "Alaskanized" sticker on a pipe. There are a million little piazzas; it seems there's one around every corner. There were manticore all over the place. It was pretty great. While part of me had hoped the place would be flooded, I'm glad it wasn't. As awesome as those boardwalks looked, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed sharing them with the number of people present.
     Stumbling across the nearby Hard Rock, we checked another one off the list and had some snacks. Big snacks. And walked back along the icicle light lit Rialto bridge.
     Upon returning to the hotel, we turned on the TV, just to see what was on. Surprise, surprise, a travel program on Seattle. It's like they knew we were there. Instead, we turned on Netflix and watched the "Vampires of Venice" episode of Doctor Who. As you do.

January 5th: Venice is full of street art (canal art?) and we spent plenty of time wandering and taking pictures of it all throughout our time in Venice. We also enjoy frequenting grocery stores and seeing what's different. Also, the number of period costumes with hoops feet off the ground makes me cringe.

     After breakfast on the terrace of our hotel (waitress thought we were crazy), we went in search of the Bridge of Sighs... which disappointed me. It was not at all what I had pictured in my head (which better matched the Oxford Bridge of Sighs). Alas. Today we took the water taxis out to several of the islands to check out the changes in scenery; each island is a little bit the same and a little bit different. And they all offer different perspectives on Venice proper. (The boats rock around A LOT when their engines aren't revved up.) I loved watching waves wash up against stairs into the sea, with the seaweed growing across them. In the afternoon, we took a nice walk along the seawall.

January 6th: More islands, more wandering, more "street" art. One of the taxis we took ended up coming back to Venice after the sun had set, which adds to the experience of floating past an island-cemetery. Oh, and we saw some churches. Did you know Italy had churches? Just a few.
     And if anyone can explain to me how Europeans manage using a mobile shower head without having a holder to put it into, that'd be great. Wedging it between the stationary rain shower head (not enough water pressure to get through all my hair) and the ceiling only lead to soap in my eyes. :( Ew.

January 7th: Today we're off to Germany! We took a night train, which was a new and cool experience. We're big fans. Would do again, do recommend. Still mobile, and yet comfortable enough that I was actually able to sleep. As soon as the train hit Munich, we were on another bound for Neuschwanstein via Füssen!
     Hohenschwangau is a quaint little place, and pretty much dead in the a) early morning and b) winter. Such fun. We "hiked" up the hill toward our hotel, which is at the base of Neuschwanstein Castle. Then we wandered.

The view from our window. No zooming. 

We took many-a-panoramic shot, went up to the castle, but not inside, and then headed up toward Mary's Bridge, which overlooks Neuschwanstein. With the ice and snow, it wasn't always... safe. But we did it! Pictures were taken quickly, and without looking down, before a cautious yet hasty exit was made. Great view, totally worth it. 

But did you die? 

     We weren't allowed to take photos inside the Hohenschwangau Castle, which is on the next hill over. That one is completed (unlike Neuschwanstein) and has been lived in for generations. One of the floors isn't open to visitors because the family still uses it. Honestly, while possibly a less interesting story, I found it much more interesting because it actually has history to it. Down by the lake (where the swans hang out, giving the place its name), we took a mazillion photos for my mom. In walking back up, I managed to slip down a grass knoll. After rubbing most of the muck and mud off in the snow, I was damp... Naturally, we went into a museum on the history of Bavarian monarchs to dry off. Who knew the place would be white on white on white, leaving me worried about sitting on anything. Fun, educational times. 

     Dinner time approached, but since we were visiting in the off-season, nothing was open. We tried to think if we'd seen a vending machine around and while headed to one found the only open restaurant, which was closing soon. We hustled in, ate, and hustled out. Best? Maybe not. Only? Yeah... This meant we headed back up the likely-wolf-infested hill in the dark, but did lead to some cool photos of a well-lit castle.

January 8th: The only smell that comes through our window is that of donuts. We couldn't figure out why, until we saw the dude with his donut-making cart. Real cool, real cool. And there's no way to turn down donuts if they're all you've been smelling all night. Luckily, they were delicious.
     During our hike back down the hill, we were greeted by a man driving a horse-drawn carriage, lederhosen and feathered cap, who tilted his hat at us with a "Morgen!" before going on his way. Classic. Love it.
     We headed back to Munich/München to explore urban Germany, something I really hadn't done before. I'd visited Germany before, but it was more... small town? Germany. We checked out the graffiti art along the train cars on the way back, of course, and started our city adventure by ditching our bags and wandering. Things I love about Germany: the way beds are made (two blankets folded next to each other), and tiny packets of tiny gummy bears whenever the beds are made. Winning.
     Hitting up the "must-dos" first, we had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus after zooming through Marienplatz. Essentially, it's a giant dining hall; you sit where you find a seat, order, and socialize. We did... some of those things. We found a table for just the two of us in the back, acquired an English menu, ordered (including a non-alcoholic wheat beer... personally, it tasted like corn), and enjoyed. It was a pretty good meal, but the pièce de résistance was dessert: the dampfnudel. A vanilla "custard" coated spongey roll... It was knee-weakening.

January 9th: As we wandered by the Residenz, we saw all the passers-by rubbing the nose of a statue. While we never learned the purpose/wish/goal of this action... When in "Rome." We stumbled across a mini Jewish museum... with a playground. So I played. Natürlich. Then we hit up a chocolateria with the "best hot chocolate in Munich." It was possibly my first experience with flavoured chocolate on a stick you melt into hot milk. Sorcha approved.
     We continued our wander, stopped in a church (and agreed we were churched-out, just needed to throw a Deutsche church into the mix of our vacay), found a few impressive buildings we attempted to identify, and ended up in a large, underground street art gallery. The walls of thus underpass had been lined with piece after piece after piece. Definitely nothing like it at home. Afterward, we meandered through the English Garden, Munich's Central Park.
     We stopped by the fourth Hard Rock Cafe of the trip in Munich, were amazed by our waiter who spoke a different language to each table, and turned in.

January 10th: Today's the day this adventure ends. Six cities, two countries (three if we count the Vatican), time with my dad, and four months more to go in Estonia before I'd see my family again. A bittersweet ending that definitely involved tears.

Off he goes, into the wild Passport Control yonder. 

Iseseisvuspäev

It seems every study abroad student falls in love with their host country, a true testament to the fact that countries are not better than one another, just very different. Until now, I certainly liked Estonia, but it doesn't hold the same place in my heart that my hometown, Alaska, or even London does. But there are moments when I take great pride in my choice of host country, moments when I am proud  to have chosen a small, nearly unknown nation to spend my year. Small countries are so different from superpowers in the very best ways. There are moments when I am astounded by the historical strength and courage of the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and the struggles that have been handed to them over the centuries. It is moments like these that make me realize that this country, and Tartu, will always have a part of my heart.

The movie I watched today was called "Those Who Dare," and one of the premier characters was the Foreign Minister of Iceland during the early 90s. He was the only diplomat to visit the Baltics during their struggle for freedom, and often found himself, together with the foreign minister of Denmark, their only friend in Europe. Small countries need to stick together, they decided. These large nations have so many other things on their plate, they "didn't have time" to deal with the problems of the Baltics. The response these superpowers received: "You can love us, fear us, or hate us, but you can't ignore us."
     Lithuania was the first of the Baltic states to declare its independence. France and Germany urged the country to retract its statement; the US, in the endgame of the Cold War, was hoping for a different solution that the USSR would favour more than an outright declaration. However, while the diplomats of these nations were kept abreast of the situation, the populous were less so. It took acts of violence for media to turn its attention to these three countries. Yet, in that moment when the world finally opened its eyes, the US invaded Iraq and those eyes swung toward the Middle East. Apart from Iceland, the Baltic nations largely fought their battles alone. At a summit of foreign ministers, after Iceland spoke he received a hug from the US representative who congratulated him on speaking the truth, as only small nations can. The US was unable to voice any definite opinion on the situation, as its relations with the Soviet Union were already so tenuous.
     Everyone has the right to be free, and that's the message the Baltics and Iceland had been trying to relay to the Soviet Union. Tallinn was spared the violence that occurred in Riga and Vilnius. One of the most incredible things, I find, was the Baltic Chain that spread from Vilnius in the south to Tallinn in the north on the 50th anniversary of the Molotrov-Ribbentrop Pact; more than 1 million people join hands to create a human chain, another reminder that these three nations, while different, share a common bond, a common spirit, and at that time, a common future goal: freedom.

I had so much more I had planned to write as I watched the movie and thought about it walking back, but luckily I can always edit this!

**Regarding the parade, it's more of a military parade than the US parades are. There were even US troops in the parade, but there didn't seem to be kids groups and a variety of organizations involved in the parade, just a series of men in uniforms. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKMSFGKWT8Y&feature=youtu.be]

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Secretary of State Kerry's Message, 02.24.15:

"On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Estonia as you celebrate 97 years since the founding of your republic.

President Obama’s historic visit to your country last year was a visible demonstration of the ties between our two countries. As he said then, the energy and optimism of today’s Estonians is a model for those yearning for freedom.

Estonia is a global leader in e-governance, Internet freedom, cybersecurity, and free-market economics.

Most recently, Foreign Minister Pentus-Rosimannus and I had the opportunity to discuss issues of mutual importance at the NATO Ministerial in December 2014.

As you raise the blue, black, and white flag of Estonia over Toompea Hill, I wish all Estonians peace and prosperity in the year ahead. The United States stands with you as a steadfast partner and looks forward to continuing to expand ties between our peoples."

Holidays 2015: Baltic Edition

Previously on "Holidays," Sorcha toured Italy & Germany with her father. When we left off, she had arrived back at the dorm early in the morning on January 11th. But that isn't where the holiday ended...

January 11th: After a few hours of sleep, I met up with friends for lunch. Afterward, a few of us took a trip to the shopping centre on the edge of town.

January 13th: The Russian Old New Year (yes, I see the antonym, but what can you do?) this year is January 13th, so we met up at a Russian friend's flat. She made some traditional Russian Old New Year sweets, and we all brought something, per usual. We ate, played Mafia (also per usual), before ringing in the Old New Year. Then we watched "Mushrooming," a highly rated Estonian comedy. We've not had much experience with Estonian cinema, just the slightly disturbing cartoons on the ferry from Stockholm, but figured comedy was a good place to start. Two things must ye know about Estonian comedy: First! It is Estonian! And second, it is... not at all funny. One of my friends said that Estonian movies are essentially plotless; they follow an actor around for a couple of days with a camera, and there's a film. Here's a summary of "Mushrooming":
     A politician (it really doesn't matter that he is, but they point it out a lot) is gassing up his car before heading off to the woods to pick mushrooms with his wife. They find a hitchhiking rock star and the wife agrees that if he'll sit through their mushrooming, they'll drive him to Tallinn. So they go off into the woods while the rock star sits in the car. The couple, predictably, gets lost and starts frantically panicking after a very short time. They waste the battery life of the cell phone calling the campaign office to say they're lost. Night one in the woods. A random man breaks into the car and is scared away by the rock star. The random man then returns, planning to kill the rock star, for no apparent reason. Rock star runs into the forest, finds couple. The three run for another day, find a cottage. They eat everything inside. Everything. All the things. And they break things. Random man also finds the cottage and the rock star nearly beats him to death. Random man spends the rest of the movie tied to a chair. Eventually, they find their way back to the car, end up being interviewed by journalists and agree to never talk about their experience again.
    I don't get why someone made this movie... or why it's a comedy.

Origami swans

January 16th: Today we visited Otepää, the winter capital of Estonia. Unfortunately, we were there during the start of this skiing biathlon, so all the museum's were closed (Flag Museum, Ski Museum). We visited the Energy Column and acquired some hippie-style energy. We climbed the linnamägi (city hill) and saw the fortress ruins at the top. We saw a church and tried to find the tree planted by the last Dalai Lama, but were instead snarled at disapprovingly by a dog. We looked through maps in the Tourist Information centre and headed back to Tartu. It certainly is very suited to winter, covered in ski and tubing runs. There's even a little conveyor belt to take tubes & people from the bottom of this, admittedly rather small, hill back to the top.
     Since it was one of my friend's birthday's, we went for drinks. I had "Limonaad", which you'd think was lemonade, but in fact tastes like bubble gum.

Lucia, Agnese, Michael, Tobi, & I in front
of the Otepää town hall. Before it started snaining like crazy.

Tobi at the Energy Column.
Maybe I'll explain what it does, maybe not.

Trekking up Linnamägi to the castle ruins.

Ze Church

We made it!

Ski jump from Linnamägi. I can only imagine the terror of
skiing down that thing. 

January 17th: We had a dinner party. Proof I should have started writing this post earlier... I don't remember anything else other than the fact that this party happened. 

Scrabble & Hesburger while we wait.

January 18th: Finally watched all three Hobbit movies. Hobbit films. And I got to wear my new elf ears my dad gave me for Christmas. Now I just have to see the actual Lord of the Rings films.
I'd seen the first one at least once, maybe twice. But since the final one came out, we holed up in a dorm room with chips, popcorn, iced tea, and later a giant bag from Hesburger, and plowed through all three. Can we take a moment to appreciate Richard Armitage and Lee Pace...
...
...
Thank you.

January 19th: At 2am, we were loading into a bus headed for Vilnius, Lithuania. It would take us 8 hours to get to Vilnius, including an hour and a half bus-layover in Riga.

January 20th:
     If any of you saw the UNICEF campaign the Alaska Rainbow Facebook was running, I managed that from the bus. Probably the most productive I've been on a bus to date. So glad the busses have Wifi, or things would have started much later.

***STAY TUNED FOR A VILNIUS POST***

January 21st: I don't remember if I've explained Name Days before, and if I haven't somebody can let me know and I will, but today was Agnese's Name Day, so to celebrate we went for lunch at Kung Fu, a probably racist-ly named Chinese restaurant. Afterward, we went bowling, and then played billiards. All in all, an excellent Name Day party.

Not a great picture, but it's the only one
that didn't come out blurry.
Johann & Agnese

I was doing so well, and then Michal caught up with me.
I definitely had freakish, first game luck.

Didn't break 100, which was the plan.

1 point away! Dangit! 

Cake at Werner

Agnese, rockin' the table.

January 22nd: We had my Polish friend Anna's going away party; our first of several going away parties. One of my other friends had compiled a video of our trips, dinners, and adventures during the semester that we watched. It certainly had a few of us in tears. There's no doubt we'll see Anna again, when we visit Poland, of course! But knowing she wouldn't be on all of our trips, in our classes, around all the time was definitely sad. We did our best to fill the evening with games, and were pretty successful. When Anna left to pack, we went off to play billiards. Eventually we had to get a few winks before seeing Anna off at the bus station.

Agnese, reading "Little Prince"
in Latvian.

Johann reads a bit in Ga, before switching to the German-Estonian dictionary.
Having so many languages around are table is 40% of the fun.

The Slavs vs. The Germans

Stan & Michal at Air Hockey

Tobi & Michal vs. Stan & Johann
Speed ball

Side note: despite what it looks like, Agnese & I did play all three games, but it's hard to take pictures while you're playing. Then I watched a bit of the Australian Open.








January 23rd: At 6am, Anna's bus headed to Riga. I think she said it would take her a bit over a day on the bus to get back home. It wasn't goodbye, just a "see you later." After a late night and an early morning, those of us at the bus station were very ready for a nap. When I got back to my place, my roommate had a friend over, so I didn't immediately collapse, but the sun was definitely high in the sky by the time I actually got up for the day. I know I did something, but I don't remember what; probably just shopping or something mundane along those lines.

January 24th: I have an exam on Monday. My last exam. So, of course, my notecards accompanied me on our trip to Põltsamaa. Lucia had organized our trip, but hurt herself playing jalgpall (leg ball/football/soccer). Põltsamaa is the wine capital, and they make the juices, jams, and several other food items I eat a lot of. Unfortunately, even they close during the off season. We wandered around the town, with no plan in mind. We found the tourist information office by accident having wandered toward the castle ruins. Turns out that all the tourist attractions are within the walls of the ruined castle, and closed. Awesome. So the wine cellar and food museum were out of the question. We did stop into an art studio. The kids art school was pretty interesting and had some cool pieces. The "professional" gallery upstairs was... less interesting. They had a display of "emotions" on canvas, which were coloured stripes. The room was cool, the art less so, but then again I don't really understand art to begin with. We stopped into several stores (I picked up a creme brulee chocolate bar, which was fantastic!), crossed a few bridges (something else Põltsamaa is famous for), found a closed church, walked to the edge of town to the Sõpruse, or "Friendship", Park. We then had a deep discussion on how one might destroy a park. Remove the sign? Burn it? We still had some time before our bus, so we found a cafe, walked in, and immediately all eyes were on us. Apparently, we wanted into a birthday party. We found somewhere else to lunch, and I had my first Chai since leaving home and it was SO GOOD!
     While we were gone, I'd had a brilliant idea regarding studying for my exam, so I went back to my dorm and rewrote my notes.

My friends, at Friendship park.

Tried to get a picture with the Põltsamaa sign... didn't quite work.

E-Piim. E-Milk. I need to know
how to get digital milk!

One of the chairs in the arts centre.

January 25th: I got a message early-ish in the day that Lucia was making homemade pasta, and invited us over for lunch. I had a bunch of studying to do, not having any clue what to expect for my exam, but figured "A girl's got to eat." As usual, it was delicious. Everything Lucia makes is. It sparked the "What is 'sauce'?" discussion. One of the things I love about having so many languages at the table (and often I end up being the only person whose mother tongue is English) is having talks like these. English connotation, synonyms, which words each of us would use to describe the "sauce" Lucia served, etc. Linguistics, apart from the technical terms Tobi throws out that few understand, is pretty cool stuff.
     Anyway, I had to bow out to return to my studying, and at the end of the night, while still not sure what to expect, was ready for whatever the exam could throw at me... within reason. And hopefully just the stuff I knew really well.

Agnese, Lucia, & homemade noodles.

98% of the pictures I have of Lucia, she's serving us food.
Whatever will we eat do without her.

January 26th: Exam day. I was pretty frustrated while studying having no idea what information of my 26 note cards and 6 sheets of A4 paper was most likely to be on the exam, what was more important that others. Or which of the 8ish poems my professor said would be on the exam might actually be there. Turns out, almost none of it was on the exam. It was 4 questions, 2 of which were poem analyses (neither poem was on my "these will be on the exam" list). I only felt like I had wasted A LOT of my life. Plus, all exam instructions were given in Estonian. Exam instructions are the same everywhere, so I was able to follow enough to know when I needed to raise my hand for my exam. The English department was giving exams for several classes in the same room, so I had to figure out which exam I needed and then get it. But the exam itself was pretty straightforward. I was in and out in about an hour and a half, having no idea if I'd written enough. Luckily, later that day my grades had been updated and I'd aced it. That's all I needed.
     Lucia's going away party was today. It was our first party in Raatuse, probably the most popular of the dorms. A friend had just moved in and her flatmates hadn't arrived yet, so we took advantage of her large kitchen and empty flat. We had pels (Russian style, served only with sour cream... I'm going to stick with the American curry stuff), potato candy (potatoes, sugar, peanut butter. Not bad.), chips/salsa/awful canned guacamole, sausages, and several other foods. We ate by candlelight, because why not. We played Mafia, as usual, and created a new character, the Pope, which was a fantastic decision. And we had the first to female Popes, the first of which was Lucia. No shocker there. She's usually first on the Mafia chopping block, since she's Italian. Figures that, if she wasn't Mafia, she was the Pope.
    For whatever reason, I'd been wanting to call my gramma, so when I got back from Lucia's going away party, I did. Three and half hours later, we hung up. Usually, conversations with my gramma last a while; we'll sit around in her living room and chat. Never can quite tell when either of us are done talking, but I always love talking to her. I was already tired when I'd called, so when I finally hit the sack at 5am, I was out.

Lucia's so small!

January 27th: Unlike Anna's, Lucia's bus left at 2pm. We'd said if she wanted to do anything for breakfast/lunch/whatever, we were up for it, but she had a few things to finish at the university, so we saw her at the bus station. We said we'll have to find a replacement to make us delicious food, though no one could ever replace Lucia. We're already plotting a trip to her place in Italy. Several of my friends have tissues on them, since the weather's pretty cold, but it's been funny watching the boys pull out tissue packets more frequently as the girls start crying.
     After Lucia left, most of us were left as the only people in our flats, and Lucia's roommate especially didn't want to go back to an empty room. So we went to a cafe instead. We had a drink (Mango Chai!!), played chess, ran through all the German we could think of, etc. As the afternoon wore on we decided what we really needed was pizza and movies. We picked up a pizza and headed to the store for drinks and chips before ending up in my room. We wanted a comedy, and after looking through Netflix, ended up choosing "The Importance of Being Earnest." My favourite version is definitely the Colin Firth/Reese Witherspoon version, but I couldn't get the captions to work, so we ended up with a much earlier version on YouTube. I'd known that reading a language is easier than listening to it, but somehow had never thought that movies would be easier to watch with subtitles. I noticed it when we watched the Hobbit, after tracking down captions, but it's a pretty genius idea, especially with the Victorian-esque English in "Earnest." After the movie, we watched the 2nd episode of "An Idiot Abroad," which took place in India. That was... interesting? Disturbing? A bit hilarious? Agnese's favourite part was when the host met a religious man who'd had his left hand raise for 12 years; the host said something along the lines of "At what point do you decide, 'well, I don't need this'?". I definitely found the "ensuite shed" in his honeymoon suite near the Taj Mahal funny. Ensuite shed! (yeah... you might have had to be there/watch the episode)

January 28th: We went ice skating! None of us fell down, though we watched all the figure skaters around us do it. True, they were all under 10 years old, but whatever. It has definitely been a while since I've skated; the muscles in my feet protested. There was definitely a different skating culture on the ice than we have at home. Instead of moving out of the way of someone skating toward you, if you're not skating at the moment, the Estonians seem to expect everyone to get out of there way. Not a great explanation, but I nearly ran into a few instructors just standing in the middle of the skating area.

Yeah... that's my finger.

Screen too small, couldn't see Agnese's
blurry face. We'll have to go again & take a better one.

She made it to the middle!

Yes, we can skate on one foot.

Cookie batter + Blackadder

January 29th: Going away party for my Czech friend, Michal. I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies... I failed. My mother says it is probably the use of butter instead of Crisco like we use at home. Next time I think I'll just use lard, but we'll see. The cookies turned into cookie flavoured brittle, instead of cookies. We ended up eating a portion of it as cookie dough. Even the burned stuff didn't taste too bad, but they weren't good ol' soft & gooey American chocolate chip cookies. I blame Johann for the burned batch.

Not even the worst of the horror.

"Cookie Brittle like thing"

Just a couple of people...

...Who don't need their left hands. For 12 years.

January 30th: Had to say goodbye to my Czech friend this morning; drug his two suitcases through the snow to a cab. Then I went home and finished up some homework before having a whole day of me time. I'd been meaning to meet two friends to do something after my homework was finished, but I ended up getting sucked into my book, and looked up several hours after I should have called them. Alas. So many things have been happening that this introvert needed a break. Tea, Blackadder, and books made for a good day. I was starting to feel a bit sick, too, which made staying home an even better idea.

January 31st: Didn't go anywhere today, but I did Skype with my family to finish mine & my brother's FAFSA. While I might not have left the dorm, I finished three books, so the day totally not a waste.

February 6th: Riga

February 7th: So far today, I've been writing blog posts. As you can see, we did get things done. Since lectures start on Monday, there's only one day left in my winter holiday, so even though it's not over, I don't feel bad about posting this already. The likelihood that I do something crazy between now and then is pretty small, but if it happens, there's always the option of another post. If nothing else, posting this now means I can cross it off my to-do list!

I hope everyone had an awesome winter holiday and is raring to get back in action!