This past weekend the new students from Wisconsin and Massachusetts (took me awhile to find out how to spell that) were cordially invited to a all expenses paid trip to a quaint city on the Rhein River. Now you're probably asking what that city was called and I it pains me to say that I literally have no idea where I was I just know that there was a city near it called Ponyland and that I had a lot of fun.....sort of. Now I checked the weather prior to leaving and it said a nice balmy 54 degrees and I'm like alright I'm feeling nice athletic pants and a sweatshirt will be just enough for today's events...boy was I wrong, so very wrong. We had to take a train to Geissen to meet with the two organizers of the whole trip and while we were walking it was slightly raining and not slightly gusting. Oh and a little insight in my health at this point is that I had a cold, and acute bronchitis, and I had also hurt my ankle playing basketball the day before so you can guess how i felt about being pushed around by wind while I couldnt breath out of my nose, while simultaneously coughing up a lung haha. Now dont get me wrong I survived just fine and the trip was great, so dont think that it was a bad trip. But I digress. So here were only 14 people on the trip. We had 5 people from Wisconsin who are in Marburg along with 2 people from Massachusetts that also go to Marburg. We had 3 people from Kassel, one being a Senior who goes to Whitewater, who I only know a little bit, but it was nice to see a face from home, and we also had 2 people from Queensland, Australia who also have a Hessen- Queensland exchange. Now to the trip, we started by piling in a van and driving about an hour and a half to our destination on which I peacefully passed out on my backpack and woke up when we got there. Then we got on a sky lift up the mountain which was I'd like to say delightful, but there again was even more hurricane force winds while on this lift, and my face was being pelted with high velocity rain drops. Once at the top it was alot better because it stopped raining and since we were in a pretty dense forest there wasn't any wind. We walked to all of the sightseeing spots on the trail and took great pictures, but pictures really couldnt capture just how majestic not only the Rhein is, but also the town around it and the massive mountains surrounding it. While we were walking we came across a rain deer farm and we got some of them to come over with the russelling of bags full of food. Then we took a sky lift down, which was much much better cause the sun was out and there wasnt any wind or rain. When at the bottom we got on this huge boat that took us up river to where we started. And the boat was like a smaller luxury cruise/ touring boat that tourists go down the Rhein in and stop at different destinations on the Rhein. And a little taste of home that I saw was this little old man that was all Green Bay Packered up! He had the championship hat one and had a big Packer letter jacket on which a big green and gold G on the back of it, so I went up to him and asked where he was from and we talked for a bit, which was really nice. Then we had an hour before we left to do some shopping which at this point I just wanted somewhere to sit and rest, because i was pretty spent, and to make it better was it started to rain almost as soon as we started so we just took shelter in one of the many weird souvenir shops they had there. I guess its a big tourist town cause the amount of stores and the amount of very just simply odd things they sold were peculiarly odd. Then finally we all got back on the van and drove back to Geissen where we just caught a train going to Marburg so we didnt have to wait, and I took a very healthy nap the whole way home. Oh also if you've been following at home 3 days ago marked the 2 month mark since I've been here which is just simply amazing to thinking about how long I've been here and now how I only have 7 weeks left till I come home. Classes are going great and this weekend we are taking another group trip, but this time were going to Dresden which I cant wait for. The weekend after that I'm going to Munich to visit a friend who's from Wisconsin. The weekend after that my mom finally gets here!!! I hopefully plan on taking her to both Berlin and Munich so lets hope all those plans become reality with as little stressful planning as possible. She's here for 2 weeks until the 23rd then the weekend after that I have nothing planned, but hopefully fill that with either a trip to Amsterdam or maybe even a trip to London. Then the weekend after that we have the last group trip to Hamburg the first weekend of June and then after that will be our very last week of school and of the program, but I leave the next week, so I hope to take one last trip with from friends to Budapest, so after thinking about all that, it really seems like time is just gonna fly by. I hope everything is going great back at home with all of you. For everyone in school I hope your semester is coming to a peaceful close and that the summer heat is waiting for all of you when you get home. Till next time!
"Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to face the day and put one foot in front of the other. Take heart, for even hard times have an end."
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