Rock the Casbah

I know this doesn't have much to do with my travelling. But I want this bracelet!

Here's to:

• learning Flemish.
• drinking beer.
• working in Europe.
• lunches at IKEA with the roommate.
• le meilleur crew de danse des etats unis.
• shake ton booty on MTV.
• 9 PM movies on the Dutch channels because they don't dub.
• cursing the Internet multiple times an hour. 
• Carrefour runs for baguettes and cheese.

I have 21 days to go. While I'm really happy to be here and will be sad when it comes time to leave, I am also excited about going home and seeing my friends. This is definitely the longest I have ever been away. 

Time to Switch Gears

The study abroad is over. At least the 'study' part. Our simulation was on Friday, good bye dinner later that night and then we all started packing our bags in Krakow and saying our goodbyes. I didn't think I would be sad, since I wasn't leaving Europe, but some of the people I was with would.

"I'm stuck in Europe for 6 more weeks," I would say. Kind of jealous that people got to go home and see their friends. (I would say family too, but I'm off to Finland tomorrow to see my parents for a week.) But I committed to an internship, and committed to 13 weeks in Europe when I bought my flights. It's crazy how 13 weeks isn't that long, but I'm barely halfway done and I feel like I've been here for a good bit.

Arriving 'home' in Brussels today felt nice. It was really nice to see familiar places and go home- to my own room. It felt like I was just on vacation for a few weeks and it was just time to come home.

Anyways, the rest of the summer is just going to be "Time to Switch Gears." I'm going home to Finland and unwind from the site visits and hotel living, see my Finnish family and friends and then come back and be serious for some work. I graduate within a year, and I have an awesome internship where I will be making some awesome connections. Maybe grad school in Europe is starting to look a little more realistic day by day after all. Or perhaps even a real grown up job.

Happy 4th!

So yet another year, where I'm not states side to celebrate, but this year has been a complete 180 from how I was able to celebrate in Paris last year. Since we are only in Krakow for one week, we don't exactly have time to take off a day, so unfortunately we had the most depressing visit of this whole study abroad today. We went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It definitely was a downer to our day, to walk through the grounds where over one million people were killed. The only other concentration camp that I have visited is Dachau in Germany in 2006, but this one was by far much larger. 


Tonight, hopefully we will be able to lift our spirits a bit when we spend some time at Hard Rock Cafe right down the street from where we live. 


Monday and Tuesday of this week were spent with a tour guide - a walking tour. My feet HURT! It has been almost 30C here, and with no air conditioning + living on the 4th floor it has been almost torturous at times. 

California Club Sandwich & Polish Beer at Hard Rock Cafe

Two nights ago, I soaked a towel in cold water and laid it over me as I went to bed. I woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night just hugging the towel to cool myself down. I also cannot re-wear anything here without washing it first. So that of course means time to do some laundry à la français- in the sinks. I should at least be good until I go to Finland next week. 


I am pleasantly surprised with Krakow though. It is a very cute little city with lots of history. I love the dragon stories surrounding Polish history. It also couldn't be any more appropriate for me to be reading 'Game of Thrones' with the dragons in that as well. 


I also really like the market in the center of the town, although it is more geared for tourists, but hey, I am one. I bought myself a rabbit fur hat from there on Monday night. Pupu Jonna (pronounced 'Yonah') now has a pupu hat! They also have really cute scarves, hand carved wooden chess sets, and amber jewelry! I am really tempted to go buy some chess sets as souvenirs. They come in all sorts of colors, and they aren't that big. 

Witamy w Polsce

"Welcome to Poland"

I have to write a short post about my adventure to Poland, just because of how ridiculous it was. We left our hotel in Berlin at 8:30 AM on Sunday morning. One of the girls suitcases broke, first encounter of problems. 12 of us make the train no problem, 3 make it last minute. One of those three was our professor WITH THE TICKETS! In the words of one of the grad students, "I almost heart attacked on the floor" when the train started moving in Berlin and our professor was no where in sight.

Our train ride was 10 hours and 10 minutes. At times I feel like I could've walked faster alongside the train. In one city, we attached a restaurant car to our train. Let's just say it wasn't exactly "smooth" as it seemed like the trains just simply crashed into one another.

Best part of the trip? We had no A/C. It was honestly to be expected in my opinion, but I must note it. I just rode in a sauna for 10 hours.

After we got off the train though and saw a little bit of Krakow, I feel like I am going to love this city. It kind of reminds me of Pula, Croatia.

Still surviving on one backpack 6 weeks in. 7 more to go!

The view from my hotel room in Krakow.