some things: tuesday addition.

here are some things (i figured i haven't done this in a while, so i thought it was time to do it again. also i'm procrastinating):
i need a hair cut so badly that it's a very good thing i don't own a pair of scissors and that i'm not willing to buy any for the short while i have left, otherwise i definitely would have cut it myself by now. so instead i either pin my bangs back the second i wake up or spend the entire day pushing them out of my face like some lost emo girl who managed to escape '06 (or is that still a thing these days? i'm so out of the loop)

i have roughly 30-45 pages worth of papers to write in the next four weeks. ahhhhhh!
as a direct result of that crippling number, i have just cleaned my room. it hasn't looked this good since... my german midterm.

my brother comes home in one week. another ahhhh!

i finished a really good book today, and it's making me want to reread all the books i fell in love with a few years ago instead of reading what i'm being assigned. i realize that's not particularly interesting, but that's the sort of thing we specialize here in maria-land. you're welcome.

also, i feel the need to once again thank my mom for my kindle. i got one for christmas, something i'd never even considered asking for, but it's become such a life savor. i can't tell you how many times i've had to wait across town for my bus to make it's rounds on it's 15-30 minute route and instead of being forced to pull my hair out of boredom, i've been able to open my kindle and choose from 150 books to read. ooh technology, you have my heart.

speaking of buses... kinda... there was a man standing at my bus stop today who was just chillin with his pants around his ankles. just standing there. like that's a normal thing for a 60 year old man to be doing. and it was not normal. luckily he had the foresight to wear a long shirt today. which is so strange to me, because he didn't even have the whereabouts to pull his pants back up. no worries though, i used one of my few but highly coveted super powers, avoiding eye contact of any sort, to spare myself from viewing anything too awkward.

while you're here want to see some incredibly awkward pictures of me? okay!

why i let rakel take such pictures is beyond me. why i don't delete them... is a whole other question.

other things... oh, i only have a month left here. not that that's a HUGE FREAKING DEAL or anything. i'm aware we already went through this a few days ago but i'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. as i have my internal struggle between wishing that time would simultaneously hurry and stop, time is playing coy and pretending not to notice, moving on like nothing is wrong. oh time, you respecter of no man. i admire you for that.

lets end on a good note shall we? so, at least three times a week i go to bed around midnight and wake up before 8 AM. i knew when i moved over here that i would change and grow in ways that i couldn't even imagine, but i had no idea it was going to fix the unfixable. if you would have told me that i was going to have to move to europe to fix my sleep schedule i would have started harboring a severely dysfunctional circadian rhythm loooong ago.

so. it's been... a few hours. i should probably start on that paper, eh?
wah.

preemptive walk down memory lane.

i'm kind of at a loss here, guys. part of me has been feeling compelled to write in here for a good few weeks while the another part of me has been absolutely forbidding it. i only have a month left with time picking up speed each day, turning my mind into the very definition of conflict and confusion and therefore not really conducive for writing others would want to read (as you're about to find out).

i have so many things i'm looking forward to at home, like being reunited with my brother after a very long two years and a few exciting trips with people i have been really, really missing. but at the same time thinking about leaving this place makes me feel like frantically running around the city clinging to every surface possible.

i don't want to leave. i don't feel ready to say goodbye yet. there's so much i haven't seen, felt or eaten and to think of leaving before doing all that makes me feel like i'm never going to have an opportunity to.

but even beyond all that, i don't want to leave the people i've met here. guys, i've been so lucky. the branch here is full of such loving and giving members. if my belief in the christ-like nature that our church tries to instill in it's members was ever called to question, these people have more than validated it. i can't even imagine having to say goodbye to the missionary couple here, they've been like my european grandparents, always giving me a handshake and a hug every time they see me. not to mention the other friendships i've forged with the young single adults. every single one of them have been such a blessing in my life. to think that the time is coming where i won't get to see them every sunday, monday and thursday, or truthfully maybe ever again, is something i am having a hard time wrapping my head around. they've become such an anchor in my daily life that there is definitely going to be a gaping hole there once i leave.

i'm really going to miss planning elaborate trips that somehow end up happening. i'm going to miss friday night's dinner and a movie every weekend. i'm going to miss waiting for an extra 12-25 minutes at sillpark for my bus after FHE/JAE just so we can talk a little while longer. i'm going to miss watching ping pong games that seem to go on forever but always end up in consuming and infectious laughter. i'm just all around gong to miss getting to hang out with such amazing diverse people.

when i first signed up to come here i thought only of the experiences i was going to have, but i completely forgot to factor in the people who i was bound to care for way too much for my own good. 

  

i'm really going to miss these guys. 

remember that time i went to rome...

the Vatican

so in my last post i mentioned that i had a draft saved about my adventures in rome, but i hadn't organized them into readable sentences or anything yet. i figured i should probably make that a priority before it becomes outdated and irrelevant (i wrote that last sentence about a month ago. so i think it's a little too late for that. oops.) like all the other twenty some odd drafts i have saved on here. but because i'm tired and i'm pretty sure i don't have long to do this, i'm going to make one of my famous lists. shall we?

rome was... quite the experience. i'd be lying if i said i absolutely loved it from the start, heck it'd be lying if i said i liked it from the start.
first, we arrived mid-morning after spending the night attempting to sleep sitting up on the train. any day that begins off with train sleep as it's backer is doomed from the start. when we'd told people we were heading to rome we were greeted with handfuls of warnings about pick pockets and thieves. with all these warnings fresh in my mind i stepped off the train tired, sore, and immediately overwhelmed.

after gaining some semblance of our barrings, me and marissa attempted to find the tourist office to get a map and recommendations on hostels worth staying at. a few laps around the station confirmed the last thing i wanted to hear, there was no tourist office... or none that we could find. our aimless wanderings found us in front of a map of the station trying our hardest to hopefully see the tourist office that we'd somehow missed. after only a minute of staring but not understanding what my eyes were seeing, we were confronted by an elderly-ish man (whom i took it upon myself to immediately distrust very, very strongly. my intense aversion to him was probably a mix of sleep deprivation and residual paranoia from my loved one's warnings. the combination of which is much more powerful than i ever could have anticipated.) this italian grandfather then proceeded to, repeatedly, give us a sales pitch on his abilities to find the cheapest and closest hotels that would best suit our needs because he'd just helped a group of eleven find a hostel clear across town for 10 euro a piece and then they ended up coming back to him to stay in the first hotel he'd recommended that was near the station and only 27 euro a piece and how the people were so grateful to him and how he was not going to charge us any commission, like the people at the booths would and how we should trust him because he just helped a group of eleven find a hostel clear across town for 10 euro a piece and then they ended up coming back to him to stay in the first hotel he'd recommended that was near the station and only 27 euro a piece... seriously. exactly like that. he talked in circles.  he offered to take us to the nearby hotel and just as i was about to open my mouth to say no thank you marissa agreed. so we went.
the hotel he promised us ended up being less like a hotel and more like the sketchiest hotel i'd ever set foot in. there was no sign out front to mark it, and we had to use three separate keys to get inside the building, inside the gate that was inside the building, and then inside our room. upon entering our bedroom i realized this wouldn't be so bad. that is until i noticed there was only a full sized bed in there. yep. one bed. two girls.
the fact that we had a private bathroom totally won me over and then i realized we had a bidet.  and that's when i couldn't stop laughing.
the next hour contained the overly friendly Italian grandpa from the train station coming and getting us from the hotel to take us to the open tour, tour bus company to help us purchase a ticket, which we surely didn't need, and then to a different tour bus company to purchase another ticket which would take us to Pompeii and Naples the next day, which is something we actually wanted.

the rest of the Rome trip definitely got better, well that is after a small incident in the internet cafe, where we were reassuring loved ones that we had made it safe, which was speaking a little too soon. i had just finished using my half of our purchased 30 minutes when i heard something happening behind me. turning around i saw two men in an awkward embrace of sorts, which turned out to be less of an embrace more of an attack. after semi wrestling for a minute or two the second man whipped out some handcuffs, and after slapping the first man around a few times, he cuffed the man and led him out of the store. i could taste the adrenalin in my mouth.
after that everything definitely went up hill. i wish i could give you a play by play of our next few days but, due to the time that's passed and my awesome memory, i couldn't do that even if i tried. so instead here's a list of things i managed to jot down in my phone while we were there:

• while on the train from Rome to Florence i definitely saw a rather detailed piece of graffiti of the monster dude from the goonies.... sloth, i think? yeah. it was pretty top notch. 
• i managed to eat at mcdonalds twice while i was there. before you judge, i managed to eat something they don't offer back at home. so that makes it ok... right? right.
• our bus ride to pompeii was rather long and with my talent of sleeping on public transportation i rested my head on the window and slept the whole time. sounds simple enough. nope. the ride was so bumpy and i was so tired that i didn't even notice my head being repeatedly hit on the window giving me a surprisingly massive raised bruise on the left side of my head about the size of the side of my hand, from the tip of my pinky to the base of my hand. 
• i forgot my camera charger, which is still my biggest regret over the past three months. i didn't get nearly as many pictures of rome or florence that i wanted. i'm still sad about that. 

to conserve battery in my camera i started taking pictures on my phone. this was one of my favorites of the Colosseum. 

• my favorite memory in rome was easily sitting at the trevi fountain on our last day, eating bueno flavored gelato, the temperature was 75 degrees and being perfectly content. i could have sat there for hours.

• my cold uninviting personality finally paid off. tons of soulless italian salesmen felt the chill that is my cold shoulder over the two days we were there. every time one would approach me and marissa i'd quickly emasculate them with a flick of the hand and a "no thank you." only one man recovered quickly enough to retort with a "no gratzi?!" (i'm totally kidding by the way, they don't think twice about being rejected because it literally happens every two seconds to them. on the bottom of the list of jobs that strip you of any and all dignity resides the street salesmen.)
• in other heart breaking news: i am nearly out of chap stick. i have probably two more uses out of it before i have to stoop to scooping some out of the bottom of it with my finger. those of you who offered to send me some are liars. that is all. (due to my untimliness of posting this, i have since completely run out of chap stick and replaced it with some that will do for now)
• the day we tried to leave rome was a train strike. yep. when the lady at the ticket booth told us that i didn't know whether to laugh at our horrible luck or to cry at our horrible luck.

needless to say we eventually made it home safe and upon reflection of all the wrong it's done me, i've decided i definitely want to go back to rome. soon.

Lets break my comfort zone, everybody together now!

So while I was brushing my teeth to get ready for bed I realized I didn't smell anything. Normally that's a good thing but it alarmed me because that means my apartment no longer has that distinct Europe smell. My nose has finally acclimated to it. And it's not just that, but my building's doors no longer confuse me. I've finally learned which way each individual one opens. And when going somewhere I no longer have to take five minutes planning my course, but instead I have the buses memorized and know exactly when to leave and what connections to take (alright that one isn't entirely true. I got lost just last week but still, I've made significant improvements).

I realized I've been here for 71 days. That means I only have 79 days to go. My time here is nearly half over. This brought about on an onslaught of overbearing fears that maybe I'm not doing enough. That I'm not fully taking every advantage of the opportunity that I've been given to come here. That I'm going to leave wanting. That I'm going to leave with regret. So, in order to avoid that I've decided to give myself a challenge.

Every few days I would like to do something that puts me outside of my comfort zone, if only just a little bit. It can either take ten seconds or two hours, doesn't matter. Just so long as it's something that new that's going to help me grow just a little bit more. The only problem now is I can't think of enough goals. And that's where you come in, Mom and the three other people who actually read this. I need ideas. Help me think of simple things I can do to take full advantage of my time here. Ready? Go!
Here are some that I've already come up with:

Goals to avoid becoming complacent: 

order food completely in german

initiate conversation with someone i don't know

take a bus i've never taken before and ride it's route

be a tourist for a day where i live

go to the castle

carry my camera all day 

actually study in the library

get a picture of me with each of the people in my life here.

visit a temple

cook an elaborate dinner with friends

go on a run

sit alone by the river for an hour or two

carry a journal around all day and write 

visit an antique store

finally send off my post cards (i am the worst you guys, i'm so sorry)
go on a day long adventure with Rakel -by Rakel, obviously
see a sunrise -Dad
visit Sleeping Beauty's Castle- Mom
take a sketch book around for a day and draw everything -Evelyn
Go to Wattens
visit the zoo
Hike a mountain -Johanna

as i get more i'll add them here, and maybe i'll even include the name of the person who suggested it to me. such an honor! i know.

lets end on a positive note: here are a few of my new favorite things, my collection of post cards and fruit tea :)

venice the novel: heading north to go south and other delightful experiences.

so. i have a lot of stories to tell you guys, but, i'm beyond tired (as the story always goes.). so lets see if i can get this all written before my brain turns to mush. ready? go.

the day of our italy trip i took a three hour nap in preparation for the 6 1/2 hour night train i knew i had ahead of me. this turned out to be bad decision number one. because of that nap i wasn't able to sleep on the train. at. all. lack of sleep combined with how unnaturally hot our cabin was combined with the two dudes who, every time i looked at them while they were awake, were staring at me, made for a very... interesting, and not in the good way, train ride.

we arrived at our destination in vincenza at 5 AM, and had a little bit of time to kill before 6 when my aunt was coming to retrieve us. so we were chillin in the... the room with all the chairs... area. we'd been sitting for maybe five minutes and i had just settled back into my grumpy/tired pants when an interesting african guy came over and asked us for change for 10 euro so he could buy coffee. i put on my best "go away" face and told him no. but instead of seeing how much i did not want to be alive at the moment, let alone talk to him, all he heard was my american accent. he promptly sat down between me and marissa and started talking.  his topics of choice included, but were not limited to: asking where i was from, my name (which he proceeded to laugh at since i was american with a supposedly italian name), if i had a facebook, if i'd add him on facebook, how long i was planning on staying in Vincenza,  if i'd ever been to Amsterdam, if i would like to join him in Amsterdam, if i wanted him to buy me a coffee, if i was willing to meet up with him that night to go to a club. he also felt the need to tell me, multiple times, that i had beautiful eyes, that i wasn't like most italian girls, even though he thought i was italian at first, and that he liked my shoes. he also told me his name was, and i'm not even kidding, Freedom Rasta. i swear it. after about 20 minutes of painfully one sided conversation i finally pretended our ride was here and so we got up and left to go stand outside and wait. he then promptly followed us outside and offered me a smoke and luckily our ride arrived just in time so i didn't have to give him an answer. (keep this encounter in mind for a story of similar unwantedness is to come.) i was praying this strange interaction was not to be an omen of how the whole trip was going to be.
luckily it wasn't... entirely.

it took us ten minutes to get to my aunts house which, turns out is beyond amazing. she lives in a house connected to an old church built in the 1200's. the house is fantastic, gorgeous, and beyond anything i can ever hope to live in myself. i was planning on taking a million pictures of it while we were there but exhaustion and traveling got in the way. i suppose i'll just have to go back. pity.

eventually we got some good food in us and around 10:00 we found ourselves on a train to go spend the day in venice. only, it wasn't a train on it's way to venice. turns out it was a train coming from venice, to milan. yes folks, that is the wrong direction. but it wasn't until we reached the verona train station we realized our mistake which, unfortunately, that's half an hour in the wrong direction. double unfortunately, we didn't realize we should get off and switch trains util we'd already pulled out of verona. it took another hour to reach the next train station, the name of which i still don't remember, where we smartly hopped off the train to find the next train back to venice. when was the next train leaving said unnamed town, you ask? in two hours. so we walked from the train station to the center of town, which also happened to be a shoreline of a massive lake, and we bought some gilato, took pictures, and chased pigeons. i suppose if we had to be stranded in a random town for two hours, the place we ended up wasn't so bad.

you can't read it but it says maria on that lighthouse. just like everything else over here. 

so after the four and a half hours it took us to travel a 30 minute distance, (wow this is getting long, honestly i'm amazed you're still reading. shall we continue? we shall.) we ended up in venice and oh my lanta was it worth it. guys, lets all go to venice, ok? because, get this, they don't have streets, but instead have canals. yes. canals. those gondola dudes in the striped shirts that you have probably seen on tv or some chick flick movie? they're real. and it turns out they're also really expensive, unless you're simply taking pictures of them like a poor college student, like i was.

we wandered around venice for four hours, watching random groups of tourists pay for a bag of what i'm going to assume was full of bread crumbs, in order to bribe disease ridden rats with wings to land on them and eat out of their hands. yes, there were tons of groups of people doing this. and yes, i got pictures.

the pigeon trainer himself. he came to venice without diseases, and  he'll be darned if he leaves without 'em. 

remember when i told you to remember that creepy man story from before? well i was planning on telling you another story that had to do with that, but i'm getting tired, it's getting late and this is getting really long, so i'll give you the condensed version.

so we were traversing the back-ish alley ways towards the train station to end our tragically magical day in venice when these two dudes started walking behind us. they heard us talking in english and so they asked, in their thick accents, if we were headed towards the train station too. i replied accordingly so they said they were just going to follow us. but they didn't just follow us. instead one of them insisted on asking me questions from like 15 feet behind me... which was awkward and difficult to hear. and here is a list of questions he was asking me: where are you guys from? (utah) oh, i'm from there too! (oh yeah? because you totally sound like it) ha, no. i am from california though *wink* (really.) yep. *wink wink* so you guys ever been to turkey? (nope.) ah, too bad. you want to go!? (nope.) do you have plans tonight? (siiiiigh)

it continued like that until we took a purposely wrong turn and lost them. i must say italy, for all your enticing ruins, your men kind of come off as desperate scum bags.

our day ended similar to the way it began. i bought a massive white dessert thing that ended up being nothing more than a glob of meringue bigger than my face, which after one bite, neither me nor marissa wanted it.

until next time venice, you were truly... something else.

spring is (trying to be) here!!

it was warm today for the first time in... forever. want to know how my body reacted? instant hives. good to know i've still got it.

despite my spontaneous reaction of hival proportions, today was a gorgeous day. marissa and i ate lunch at this park, next to a lake full of half confused ducks (this guy was attempting to feed them by throwing perfectly good bread into the water near where they were sitting and they swam away in fear. ducks. are. retarded. speaking of how retarded ducks are, we also reached the hypothesis that while pigeons are the rats of the birds, ducks are definitely like that kid from elementary who would eat gum off the bottom of desks and sucks on the collar of his shirt and jump around like a frog during recess. you know the type of kid i'm talking about. but i digress...). the sun was out, the snow was melted, the tulips are bravely poking their little heads out of the still wet flower beds, and the lunch we'd purchased from the nearby spar was one of the best sandwiches/massive chocolate covered creme puff things i've had in a while (or i was just extremely hungry. either answers are valid).

after we were done eating we sat there in glutton-ed contentment until this middle eastern looking dude sat on the bench nearest us and started blasting "music" of equally middle eastern quality.  i'm usually one of those people who can ignore rude and obnoxious people and their behavior but this time was different. i'd waited so long for this perfect sunny day and from that point forward i couldn't completely enjoy it because of his stupid music. /rant.

 guys. innsbruck is so pretty. i walk out my door everyday to stand at the bus stop facing the alps (which i live in the middle of), and just remind myself of how lucky i am to be here. i cannot wait until everything comes back to life and turns green and warm and friendly and i'll feel compelled again to never leave my house without my camera.


school update: it's only week two and i'm already ready to go back to running around europe, and reading nonsense novels and skyping until 4 am every night. i'm so bad at being a productive human being.

oh, and don't worry, i saved the best news for last! guys. i bought tickets to ireland tonight! i am so excited. for as long as i can remember i've had this inner pull to find a way to go to ireland, and it's finally happening. we're going to be there from april 2nd to the 8th, hopefully by then everything will be fully green. i'll make sure to take pictures of every castle i encounter while there.

everything is beautiful and nothing hurts :)

zurich: the tale of being locked out at midnight.

on our way home aboard the train yesterday i actually got a little excited thinking about how i could write a nice short entry about our pleasant, simple, fun, yet uncomplicated time we had in zurich as opposed to the longer entries i find myself writing for our previous adventures.
and then i came home to a locked door, no roommate, and a missing key.

and that's when i realized this post was going to be a lot longer than anticipated.

first things first: zurich is lovely, albeit expensive. a "cheap" lunch was about 9 swiss franks, which roughly translates into $9.70. we got there around 11 AM and spent the day walking from church to church and then around the river and the lake. we climbed the 186 steps to the top of the grossmunster church's tower and enjoyed the unobstructed view of the city. one of zurich's (or i guess a lot of cities in europe do this) most charming feature was the beautiful "drinking" fountains they have all around town, in squares and parks, for people to drink out of. when marissa first told me they were meant to be drank (drunk... drinked?) from i didn't believe her, and then we watched quite a few locals do it. after some intense laughter and a lot of coaxing she managed to get a picture of me drinking from one.

all in all, the weather was warm, the skies were clear, and the buildings might as well have come straight out of a fairy tale. our last purchase was spending 28 franks on the best pastries i've had in a long time, which we ate on the 3 1/2 hour train ride home. but, within the first hour my stomach was already completely regretting spending more than 5 franks on pastries. i was tempted to sleep it off but i refrained because i wanted to go to bed early and consequently wake up early the next morning.

we arrived in innsbruck at about 10:10, tired but happy. but all that changed at about 10:40 when i found myself standing in front of my apartment door dumping the contents of my purse out our welcome mat in search of my keys. which were no where to be found. after a few unfruitful phone calls in search of help i managed to run into two nice girls, one of whom spoke english. i explained my situation to her and asked if she knew how to get a hold of someone who could unlock my door. we spent the next half an hour searching three floors of the building with no result. we eventually ran into some people in the 4th floor kitchen. i explained my problem and was then pawned off from the two nice girls (who, i feel it is worth mentioning, offered to let me stay with them if i didn't find a way into my apartment.) to a very tall, very... thick indian guy. he took me to the third floor to knock on the door of the janitor's house, who apparently didn't feel it necessary to answer.

after twenty minutes and a few more phone calls later i ended up in the car of the brother of a friend, on my way to his and his wife's apartment to sleep on their couch. once we arrived it was clear i had interrupted their alone time, as their baby had just fallen asleep, but they were nothing less than sweet, kind and helpful in spite of my intrusion.

by 1:30 i was finally able to sleep.

i awoke at 8:30 the next morning, to an empty apartment (the family i was staying with had gone to salzburg for a meeting and left me their keys to lock up the place when i was ready to leave, which i find extraordinary, seeing as how the whole reason i was with them was because i couldn't keep track of a set of keys in the first place, but i digress). after a brisk walk and a few different bus routes i found myself in front of the janitor's door again. this time he answered.11 hours after the initial discovery of being locked out i was once again safe inside my little dorm.

i never thought the sight of ikea furniture could be so comforting.


lets end this post on a good note: here are some pictures of just how beautiful zurich is.

also, i have my post for rome half-ish written. i shall finish it... next week. promise. (because i know you're all on the edge of your seats, waiting impatiently. ooh maria, you and your self flattery.)

walking pants and running noses.

it's 1:30 AM on a sunday night, i'm exhausted and so i thought i'd blog some things (makes sense, right? always):

first, i'm sick. this reeeeally bites because i just barely got over a nasty sickness i contracted around mid januray. yes, that's right. i've barely had a few weeks respite before my body gave in to another illness. i've been doing so much walking with my legs as of late that it's like my nose is trying to catch up by running continuously. (that sentence probably sounded better in my head but i'm leaving it. yep)the worst part? sickness + expensive medicine= high probability for sinus infection. wah.

because medicine is so expensive over here i figure letting myself sleep is the next best thing to getting healthy again. between feeling under the weather and coming home so late last night from traveling, i let myself lounge around all day today.
story time: because we got home late-ish last night from our week long adventures around germany i was feeling sick, i was tired, and i had zero desire to unpack. so basically when i woke up this morning my apartment was a wreck. i had no plans of really leaving my apartment today so i broke out the laptop and started editing pictures (which i still have a crap ton to edit: speaking of which, PICTURE BREAK!)

me on prague's oldest bridge, looking as suave as ever.

 in my pajamas. no make up, bed head, the whole package. at about one there was a knock at my door. i was aware of just how attractive i must have looked at the moment so i contemplated just ignoring it. luckily, i braved the knocks because it turned out to be my roommate and her boyfriend. her name is marina, she's 18 and from russia and her english is a little rusty. and i met her in full blown hobo mode. so embarrassing. even though i looked super gross she still talked to me, with the help of her boyfriend who translated a little. she even gave me some of this little cupcake/muffin thing her mom made. i'm glad that was her first impression of me. i figure i'm setting the bar really really low so it'll be all uphill from there, right? right...

oh! part of taking today easy also consisted of finding the where my mail comes in this building. and consequently finding a valentine's card from my mom. what's the best kind of valentine? one that comes a little late and therefore a very unexpected and pleasant surprise.

today also marks the first day i've cooked dinner for myself in the kitchen here, which i know sounds a little ridiculous because it's been nearly 4 weeks but i've been traveling so much that i'm either gone or out and about with friends at dinner time. the best part of my dinner adventure was googling the instructions of how to make my soup, which i'm going to guess was of the potato slash onion variety, and then improvising because i only bought a sauce pan, not a pot. oh, and i had no way to measure 3/4 liters of water, so i just kind of eye balled it. honestly, the experience could have gone a lot worse. also, it was tasty. dinner= success.

alright, on to the depressing part: a big part of traveling so much and being cheap is you end up walking. everywhere. we've been traveling so much by foot these past few weeks that i literally walked holes into my pants. "but why is this so depressing, maria?" thank you for asking, inquisitive reader, as a reward for being such an active reader i shall answer your question. those were/are my favorite pair of pants. and they don't make them anymore. also, raise your hand if you agree with me that buying pants is THE WORST. so when i find a pair i like i will basically wear them until they fall apart. because of my uncharacteristically high amount of walking oriented activities i participated in, my pants have reached the end of their life prematurely. i thought i'd have at least another year left in them, optimistically speaking. so to console/reward myself i purchased a slightly different pair from ebay, which should be arriving at my parent's house in a timely manner this week, conveniently 5,000 miles away from me. which is awesome.

as the red circle advertises, these jeans are clearly classy. 

in other news, the light in my bathroom is still broken. which makes showering fun. also, school starts in a week. i'm kind of nervous about that actually. it's been quite a few months since i've had to attempt to think critically or academically. i'll let you all know how that pans out.

courtesy of the many hours i've spent on trains these past few weeks i've finished three books. only one of which was i able to say "i'm glad i read that" after i finished it. i really need to stop reading young adult literature. i'm currently taking recommendations on what to read next, if you're passionate enough about a book you've recently read, let me know?

so let me sum up my past week: berlin was awesome. freezing and slightly depressing but awesome. dresden was smaller than expected but that didn't stop it from meeting my expectations for evidence of it's previous war-torn state. prague was... intimidating. the language was even worse than german, the money was insane (18 koruns to each dollar, so a meal at mcdonals was like 74 koruns. riddykong), and poor planning lead to a lot of aimless wandering. you'd think we would have learned better than that by now. apparently not. and the cherry on top of my travels: people continue to amaze me with their undeserved kindness towards me. the atm at dresden's train station glitched and refused to give me my money. i couldn't read the attention/warning/important note thing it was displaying in german, so i went to ask two train station employees who were standing not too far from me, and wouldn't you guess it, they don't speak any english. a random dude heard me so obviously struggling to communicate to them with my severely limited german and he attempted to help me. he failed, but at least he attempted. things like that keep happening to me. or i'll see random strangers come together to help a young mother maneuver her bulky stroller, or a weary luggage burdened traveler, onto or off various public transportation. i don't know why seeing goodness in people still surprises me. that can't be a good sign.

up coming travels: tomorrow night at 11 we're taking a night train to rome where we're planning on spending a few days before heading to florence for a few more days. no lies, i'm preeeetty excited.

closing thought: i've been ruminating over this for the past few weeks as i've been traveling places. i've slowly come to realize that places and things don't matter. it's people who make the difference. i feel like i could, or should, expound on that a little more but it's now 2 AM and i have a sinus headache that has nearly succeeded in making me cross eyed. safe to say it's time for bed.

the brother: reunited.

i kinda feel weird being this excited about seeing jesse again, like siblings aren't supposed to get along or want to hang out or miss each other. so let me explain. my brother is easily my best friend. for the two years i stayed at dixie college he was basically my only friend. we hung out daily, stayed up late watching youtube videos on my laptop, and had more inside jokes than even we could keep track of. once he went on his mission i decided i didn't need to live at home anymore. (no worries, i still love you very much mom. you too christee.)

not even kidding, within two minutes of talking to him again it felt like he hadn't been 5,500 miles away for the past 606 days. i asked the sister missionaries if they thought we looked like siblings, they kind of debated back and forth between each other, "eh, i don't know.." "yeah kinda. look at the eyes." while me and jesse started joking back and forth, as we do. after a few sarcastic comments were passed between us, marissa turned to me and said, "yeah, i definitely see the resemblance now" rest assured, our humor is still the same.

he managed to get the family hosting him for dinner to agree to feed me and marissa, which was awesome. not only did that mean we were going to get to try a "real" german meal, but we also got to spend a few more hours together. after dinner he gave the family a spiritual thought, as is customary for missionaries to do.. apparently. he said it in german so the people it was intended for could understand it and i'm pretty sure that was also so i couldn't understand him. occasionally he would motion to me and say something like "meine schwester", and then i caught something about lehi and then he asked how to say disneyland in german. from that point on i knew almost exactly what he story he was telling as he recounted the tale of how it took my family 1-3 years (we debated on exactly how long it took us... i think 1 1/2 years but he's been telling people 3) to go 30 days without contention to earn a trip to disneyland, courtesy of the bank of M.J.Wilson.  at the very end of the story i could tell he went into testimony mode as he started talking about my family. that's when he got a little teary-eyed, as he has a tendency to do. i didn't pick up on most of what he said, although i'm sure i can guess, but there is one part i have no question what he was talking about. i heard it almost as if he'd said it in english: "meine schwester ist meine beste freundin"

we were attempting to take a serious picture when he blurted out "BAND PIC!" aaand i started uncontrollably laughing, like usual. 

guys, i've really missed that kid.

we left shortly after that, me and marissa to wander around leipzig for a few hours before dark, and him and his companion to go to an appointment. we met up the next day at noon to eat lunch and visit and such.

our time together on monday was spent mostly laughing, talking, taking/sharing pictures (like the ones you see above) and generally acting like we'd only just seen each other yesterday. i can't imagine any of you really want to read a play-by-play of our interaction together (except you mom, no worries i'll message you on facebook... or something). as we were parting, me and marissa leaving to head towards the train station to leave for berlin and him and his companion (elder voran, who some of you might know if you went to snow canyon.) were heading to go play soccer with the other missionaries. jesse shook marissa's hand goodbye and then went to shake mine. as i confusedly put my hand out he pulled me into a hug just as i was about to start complaining. that kid... you just never know with him.

it's weird, as we walked away from each other i didn't feel the type of sadness that i thought i was going to. i mean, i'm sad because i miss him. but it's just like i miss any of you. and that's the thing, the next time i see him will be at the same time i see the rest of you. i miss everyone equally (except for you katrina, you know i miss you more. oh, and you too mom.). it was refreshing to get to spend some time with someone i love over here.

oh, and turns out one of the 6 other people we shared a room with in the hostel in Leipzig was a member. when we went to the front desk to ask them how to get to the street the lds church was on she said she'd just barely googled that same address. we thought it was a little weird but didn't think about it too much. after getting home from church the asian lady who sat in front of us at church walked into our hostel room. both me and marissa turned towards each other with the same "ahha!" face. turns out her name is lee and she's from hong kong and was in leipzig visiting a professor (that knowledge was brought to you by marissa, who is friendly and talks to random people... unlike me.). when i told jesse about all this he got super excited. apparently all the missionaries know lee because she's been investigating the church for like three years. they're teaching some pretty awesome/strange people over here.



totally unrelated note: in my first two and a half weeks here in europe i have heard three of my favorite songs being played out in the streets. songs that i'm sure the radio stations in the US haven't even heard of, let alone have on file. that's how cool europe is, it GETS me. (wow, how pretentious did i sound just barely? -10 points.)

want to hear a gem of a song? it's a cover of one of my favorite songs: young blood (which i've heard echoing through the beautiful streets of innsbruck during a snowboarding thing)

not so much of an update as an attempt to maintain composure.

the lady sitting at the front desk of the hostel that we're staying at looks an awful lot like an unkempt, dark haired version of the foreign writer on 30 rock, only with a bigger nose and an actual real accent.

may i present to you, sue galloway, the foreign writer from 30 rock. pretty sure her name is holga or helga or something else tragically Norweigian.

she's been playing whitney houston songs for the past hour and a half or so, in what i can only imagine is her attempt at a small scale homage to the recently deceased music artist. currently she's playing i want to dance with somebody and singing rather enthusiastically. and by "rather" i mean "very".

this really doesn't have much to do with anything, but i'm having a really hard time not laughing at her, so i'm choosing to focus all my energy on this instead. success.


another reason for this useless update is we have a train to catch in three hours and nothing to do. so we're currently killing time. i've complained about this enough that i'm sure you're all familiar with my lack of reliable internet here, therefore perusing entertainment via the web isn't a smart option. it produces slight anger storms and it's not a pretty sight.


i don't really have much else to write about today. we did spend an hour and a half traversing the creepiest/coolest cemetery ever though, and no worries, i took probably 150 pictures. i'm crossing my fingers that our train will have power outlets so i can work on those pictures tonight.

yep, i think that's about it.

tschussy!

paris makes you fall in love with the food and their history. that's how they get you.

first things first: my skin hurts. i think it’s what they call wind burn, actually. it’s making my face and hands all fake-warm and burn-y and in need of some serious moisturizing, which i shall have to postpone until after i write my daily novel for you. so, shall we begin?

i started off today less than ideal with the weirdest dream i've had in a looong, long time. the kind that leaves the rest of your day all tainty and such. you know the type. no worries my weirdness surrounding my dream was immediately pushed to the back of my mind the second i saw myself in the mirror. last night i fell asleep with wet hair. this morning i woke up looking rather Medusa-esque. very chic, very Paris. and that is the hair that i chose to immortalize by being in a bunch of pictures today. i make the best decisions.

anyway, we started off our day on a business oriented foot. we headed to the train station and purchased our train ticket for tomorrow night. 8:20 PM- 7:30 AM. thrilled. we also met a nice lady from minnesota who was staying with her cousin in Frankfurt and was here in Paris by herself for the day. we seem to have a knack for finding the lonely, women travelers from the states over here. i guess our knack could be worse, such as attracting those people who hand out fliers on the street or people who have recently eaten a bowl of onions. but i digress.

at noon we met up with marissa's friend and his two cousins in front of notre dame. we talked for a few minutes and then they took us to a fancy pants restaurant just across the street, called Cafe Panis. now, i remember telling someone once that i wasn't a huge foodie; that i didn't really care about food, and that i ate mostly to not die. i've since realized that’s because i really was just eating to not die by stuffing myself with the cheapest and most boring stuff i could find. paris has opened my eyes to real food and i have a feeling i'm going to pay for this realization once i go back to feeding myself on a college student's budget. in this restaurant i had the best Crème Brûlée anyone has ever had. ever. 

marissa's friends were so generous, they shared all their food with us so we would be able to experience as many authentic french foods as possible. (side note: my meal came with french fries which were probably the worst fries i'd ever had. jeez france, step up your fry game. honestly.) at the end of our meal they "insisted" me and marissa absolutely had to see the bathroom, because it was fancy or something. so we did, and it wasn't anything at all. in fact it was rather cramped and it smelled funny, as public restrooms do. but when we came back we found out they had insisted because they wanted to pay for the whole bill, and it was no small bill at that. i am constantly dumbfounded by generosity like that from practical strangers. 

us in front of the fancy restaurant: the guy on the left was marissa's friend. (the picture is slightly blurry because i have a camera that no one knows how to operate. apologies)

after that we walked across the stree to visit Notre Dame, which thankfully was free. and gorgeous to boot. worry-ith not, for i took loads of pictures inside and you shall all see them soon enough.

marissa's friend insisted they take a picture of us in front of notre dame. so we did. notice the awesome hair.

Notre Dame was only around the corner from Sainte Chappelle's cathedral so we headed in that direction. i'd learned about Sainte Chappelle's in my art history class last semester so i knew this was one of the major things i had to see. and it did not disappoint. the outside of the building just might be more impressive than the inside with spires so thin they remind me of fish bones; so delicate and spindly. the architecture is so precisely thin that the entire thing seems to be made of stained glass. speaking of stain-glass, the entire top layer of the cathedral is just stain glass and it's absolutely breathtaking. i actually took a video of the stain glass windows, which i just attempted to upload on here for you to all enjoy. but the internet would have not of that. so you're going to have to do without. apologies. 

right around the corner form Sainte Chappelle's we visited the Conciergerie, which started out as a palace for the city's royalty and was then turned into a prison, which housed marie antoinette in the last days before she was executed. the first floor of the building was being used for some super strange, modern art show- we were unaware of this and so we were both confused when unicorn skin, "bird houses" full of books made of legit bird feathers, and a bear rug made of wood greeted us, instead of the prison we were promised. however we were not entirely wrong, for it was the basement of the building that is full of historical information surrounding the prisoners it housed and their situations for being put there. 

i left the concierge with a sense of bittersweet awe. the way the stories of those executed during the french revolution were presented gave a sense of sadness and reverence for those who gave their lives. it left me actually wanting to search out about the revolution and it's history on my own, which is something i can say i've never felt before about any other country's revolutionary history. 

all in all, today was a really great day full of really great experiences. i think after being here for four days i've finally gotten past all the overwhelming fluff that paris tries to throw in your face and i'm starting to see and really value the rich history this place has to offer. not going to lie, i'm kinda sad to go. 

oh! funny-ish story time: so i've seen a lot of pigeons lately (especially today where this dude at Notre Dame was putting pieces of bread in his mouth and letting the birds come eat the bread from his mouth. it was as if he wanted every disease ever). i was actually almost ran into by two separate birds who decided to fly right where i was about to step, but anyway...  on the way home from the Conciergerie i actually saw a lady act like a pigeon. like legit the first thing i thought when i saw her running was, "wow, she looks exactly like a pigeon!" background story: our bus driver today was insane. like, i'm sure he is the man solely responsible for giving all of France a bad name. he's loud and scary and when people see him driving- they run. about 40 to 50 people were walking across the street at the crosswalk, where they're supposed to walk, when he suddenly felt entitled to honk his way right through it. so he did. this is when he almost hit the unsuspecting lady. she was about half way through the crosswalk when he started laying on his horn. it scared her so bad that her first step was more jump than step, but even that feels incorrect because it was really more flight than jump. she then ran away with her arms flailing behind her very pigeon-esque. not going to lie, i laughed. and how could i not? she looked like a pigeon! haha, i'm still laughing, not sorry. 

his insanity couldn't be all fun and games forever though, so he did almost hit a little five or six year old boy. and that had nobody laughing. when i saw the little boy run out into the street without knowledge of who was driving right for him, my heart lept. i legit thought we were going to hit him. luckily my bus driver did what he does best and he layed on the horn long and loud enough that the boy jumped/flew back onto the sidewalk, where his very caring and absolutely mortified mother was there waiting for him with words of love, fear, and threats and a lot of tight arm grabbing and shaking. can't say i blame her though, i thought he was a goner as well. 

so the tour bus that we've been riding around in plays music in between each fun fact about the city. want to hear the song that's was played ten times more than any other song? 

this is just one version of it, not the actual one that we've had the privilege of listening to for the past three days straight. i say that like i hate the song now, i actually don't. just to be clear. 

Paris day three: Panthéon, shakespeare and company, and cinnamon hot chocolate.

i swear the internet here is trying to kill me. after playing the game of "connecting to the login site/can't connect to the login site/connecting to the login site" for about 5 whole minutes (not the exaggerating type of minutes either. but like, legit i timed this five minutes. ridiculous.) i was about ready to force the other twelve people in the lobby off their laptops so i could get some uninterrupted bandwidth. no worries though, we're finally connected. for now.

today has been super low key, which seems a little ungrateful to say once i list off all the once-in-a-lifetime things we've done and seen in about 8 hours time. first thing we did was visit a chocolate museum, which i thought was going to be awesome considering european chocolate is supposed to be the best. yeeeeaah... that may be the case but i guess i forgot the best chocolate doesn't necessarily equal the most interesting museum. and it was cold, (i think that's the thing i'm struggling with most here. there is no warmth. the tour bus is cold. the bus stops are cold. the stores are cold. the sites are cold. while waiting for our bus today i found myself moving down the street in line with the small sliver of sunshine that had fought it's way in between the massive buildings. i ended up quite a ways from marissa, who was waiting in line where i was supposed to be. the only place that's warm is my bed and i would totally hate myself forever if i stayed in bed the whole time i was in paris.) long, and in french. we got to taste some really fancy hot chocolate after and i chose milk chocolate and cinnamon, which was easily the best cinnamon hot chocolate i've ever had in my life, albeit it was also the only cinnamon hot chocolate i've ever had, but i digress. i think they whipped warm milk and then put the flavor in that because it was so creamy and rich. i'm tempted to try making it on my own but i know it'll never live up to what i had today.
oh! also, at the end of the tour they had a room full of stupidly fancy cups that royalty used to drink their hot chocolate out from. one of the cups was designed in such a way that the gentlemen using it could enjoy their cup-o-cocoa without dirtying their mustache. hilarious. don't worry, i totally took a picture. (as seen to the right) i find the flowery design on the mustache cup to be awfully fitting. do you think those fancy pants dudes were also desperately afraid their lipstick would come off onto their precious floral-to-the-max cup? buh dun dun tch! (jk, to be fair all the french men i've seen this trip have been very, very ruggedly manly. rest assured. i'm only calling the old royal men, who wore powdered wigs and tights, girls. buuut moving on)


the highlight of my day was easily our trip to shakespeare and company, which enabled me to cross something off my bucket list that i completely forgot to even put on my bucket list. shakespeare and company is a world famous bookstore on paris's left bank most well known for being the gathering place for writers such as ernest hemingway and james joyce. it's been featured in a few films and is basically heaven for literature nerds everywhere. including me. i could have easily spent the entire day in that little store. unfortunately you're not allowed to take pictures, which nearly killed me. nearly. and so with my nikon in my backpack i figured i'd compromise with the store and only take pictures with my less than amazing phone. that way everyone wins... right? right. the walls were completely covered with gorgeous new, and gorgeous old books alike. there were a few books i wanted to buy so badly because they were old and full of character. but alas, books are heavy and money is for food at this point. so....

i decided that i was allowed to purchase only one book there. i wanted to make it a classic that i knew i already loved, so naturally i purchased the picture of dorian gray. <<<
this was my favorite book that i read last year and this specific version of the book is so absolutely gorgeous, i couldn't resist. swoooooon. one of my favorite things they do at the store is when you purchase a book they stamp it with the official "shakespeare and company stamp" and i totally got one >>>

this isn't my actual stamp, 

i'm too lazy to get it out and take a picture of it right now, 

but i'm sure you'll see mine soon enough.

our next stop was the pantheon, which i managed to only call the parthenon once, ten points! it was adequately freezing, enormous, and fancy inside. we went down to the basement to the crypt of all the famous french people who were buried there including mrs. marie curie and the author of my favorite movie, the count of monte cristo: alexander dumas. i took pictures of these things as well buuut you get to wait a few days for me to finally take them off my camera (i'm currently up to 430 photos. yay!), edit, and upload them. the pantheon is also house to foucault's pendulum, which claims to hold completely still even though it gently swings in the middle of the pantheon. the explanation? the pendulum isn't moving but rather it's the pantheon that's moving with the rotation of the earth and all that other trippy stuff. honestly it's hard for me to wrap my mind that. i took a video of the pendulum swinging buuut i shall save that for another day. or i'll put it up here later and just not tell you. who knows. 

on our way back to the hostel from the pantheon we stopped at a random place for linner/dunch. we both wanted to try authentic paninis and crepes while we were here so i ordered some random panini, a lemon crepe, and cherry coke (which tasted sugar free and a little weird). the lemon crepe alone was reason enough to stay here in paris for the rest of my life. they do lemon perfect here. mmmmm. the dude who ran the place was a little overbearing, but still charming.

alright, i can tell i'm getting tired because i just want to write about the rest of today's experiences in short three word sentences. crepes are good. he was nice. we walked far. it was freezing. i'm finally warm. i love chocolate. blah blah blah.

day three was easily a success.

writing frozen is hard, but paris is so worth it.

today has been ultra surreal. although now that i'm thinking about it, it started off as anything but.
me and marissa woke up this morning in a room with a young korean couple, who had decided to shower sans curtain last night making it necessary to wear boots to wade through all the water. wet sock, to the extreme.

the day was all uphill from there though.

at about 10:30 we caught a bus to the Louvre Museum, (aaand we totally got in fo' free! thank you Innsbruck Student Pass) where we spent a good chunk of our day. turns out i have a huge affinity for greek statues, but we all kind of already knew that. i took a bunch of pictures that i'm not willing to sort through right now, but once i do i'm sure i'll let you all know.

at about 3 we decided to find our way over to the Eiffel Tower via tour bus, which we got at an inflated "discounted" price from our hostel. Marissa reminded me that i probably wasn't going to have a chance to sit on top of a tour bus while it traversed Paris ever again, so i braved the cold and we sat on top (a decision i am stiff suffering the consequences of as i sit here in the lobby in my scarf and coat, even after three hours of being indoors). all day i was on the hunt for an eiffel tower charm for my unfortunately bare charm bracelet, and i'm happy to report i found one in the gift shop at the base of the tower for only 12 euros.

i took this from the top of the tour bus. all of paris looks amazing like this. i wish i even knew what this was a picture of, but alas i do not. 

the view from on top of the tower was something i don't think i'll soon forget. we went at sundown, which is apparently the best time to go, and i swear the city seems to stretch on forever. it's gorgeous.

the view from the eiffel tower. uhmm amazing. 

me, frozen. i fully realize i'm going to look the EXACT same in every picture because it's freezing and i'm wearing as many layers as humanly possible. 

but since i was already so unfortunately frozen i couldn't stay up there for long and we ended up leaving after only five minutes. we made a mad dash for our bus in hopes that it would be there sooner than later to minimize our time outdoors and after a very heartfelt impromptu song i made up and preformed to entice the bus to hurry, it arrived, just in time for me to realize i had misplaced (or rather lost) my 32 euro, two day ticket. after waiting in the cold. with no other way to get home. i frantically searched all my pockets as the bus that was supposed to take me and marissa home left without us. for the first time in a few hours my thoughts weren't consumed with how frozen i was, but instead they were focused on just how retarded i was to lose that pass now that we were the farthest from our hostel that we planned on going.

so with no other way to get home we decided to take a taxi, which didn't end up costing as much as i thought it was going to, plus it was warm. oh! also i promise to never complain about St. George drivers again. oh. my. gosh. as far as i can tell there are no traffic rules here. or at least no rules that are followed. pedestrians walk when they want. drivers know no lanes. and car horns are apparently necessary... pure insanity.

we made it though. we purchased quite the inventive lunch/dinner of random items we found at the market a few buildings down (side note! they're playing "hey there delilah" here in the lobby. aw... american music) and sat down to eat it in the lobby here right next to steve, an older gentleman from southern california, who felt it was his duty and his right to inform us of... everything. we got a nice little lecture on how mass with in an ancient catholic church is living art, how republicans are doing their best to destroy america, and on the history of paris, van gough (and his film maker grand-nephew... who get a muslem murdered or something), the lucrative LA art movement in the 80's, and a bunch of other random bits about this dude's financial status, or lack thereof, how many mormon's he's ever met and his opinion of each and every one of them, and how many times he's been to whichever country. we seriously talked to him for an hour.

it's now almost 10 PM my toes are still frozen, i just finished my hot chocolate and one of my ribs is fighting to pop out of place so i'm going to call it a night.