Back in Minnesota

Almost one week ago I made the journey back to Minnesota, completing this semester-long adventure in Europe. The closing weeks and days in Freiburg were a lot of fun, but sad too. The weather was beautiful and conducive to outdoor activities such as grilling and playing soccer.

At the end of our academic semester in our program, we held a model European Union summit where each student represented some minister, dignitary or official. I was an EU commissioner. The summit was a lot of fun, and afterwards, IES took us out to eat at the restaurant where the next picture was taken. 
A few days later, after all of our finals were done, IES hosted a bar-b-que at the center where all the students could come together one last time to spend time together. Below is a picture of my german classmates and teacher (third from the left). Our german class met the most often of any class (not including field trips) and so we all got to know each other pretty well.
The next two pictures were taken at my going away party that we held inside my flat's kitchen. The first picture is of all of my roommates and me (from left to right: Alex, Me, Christoph, Benni, and Monti) . I'm holding a poster they made for me that has some memories from throughout the semester and also some cartoon representations of each of us. I really lucked out with these roommates. No one else that I talked to in my program spent as much time together with their roommates hanging out and having fun as I did. 

This picture was another taken from the party. On the right is Konstantin, who studied at my high school back in 11th grade. He is originally from Bonn where I've visited him before, but we lucked out and he now studies molecular biology in Freiburg! It was great being able to hang out with him some more and I hope he is able to make it back to the US to visit again.
I'm not good with grand conclusions, so I'll keep it short. I am now faced with a new challenge. I have to integrate this once in a lifetime experience into my life back in the US. I'm still thinking back over what I experienced and I find it almost surreal. Did that really happen? We'll see how the summer goes and my last year as an undergraduate. The plans after that are not certain and will hopefully come into focus soon. 

London, England

Once again, I am squeezed for time today, but I wanted to catch up a bit on the blog, since I didn't finish my last trip (France and England). So much is flying by in these last remaining days in Europe. But first, the second leg of my "study days" trip ;) From Bayeux in Normandy, France, I took a train back to Paris, where I transfered to a train that would take me to London. A train? But there's a body of water in the way! That's why they built the Chunnel, under the English Channel. After only two hours or so, I arrived in London, hopping off the train and emerged onto the streets of London to see the famous King's Cross Station (mostly famous from Harry Potter) next door to me. 

I once again lucked out with the weather on this trip, and I wanted to get as many pictures as possible before the clouds and rain that London is famous for rolled in. Most of these pictures should be familiar, but that's Big Ben attached to Parliament pictured below.
The day after I arrived, I did a hop on/hop off tour through the famous sights of London. That was great since I didn't have much time in London (and there is far to much to see) and I wanted to get pictures of as much as possible. I did manage to get into one museum, the Central Bank of England. Wooo! Exciting, right?! Well it was one of the few free places. Getting into West Minster Abbey would have set me back around $35... Seeing these sights was especially interesting and fun since so much history has taken place in London and they speak English, which was not easy to come by in the other countries.
After the city tour, I rushed back to my hotel, and booked it down to the borough known as Chelsea in greater London, for a semi final match of the European's Champions League, which by luck was actually taking place right there where I was. I didn't have tickets, but I was right outside when the game began, and then headed to a pub filled with fanatic supporters of Chelsea Football Club (Chelsea FC). The night before, another London team, Arsenal, played in London too, but I stayed near my hotel and found a pub nearby. 
Without a doubt, the pub in Chelsea was way more fun. It would have been neat to see a win for Chelsea, but what happened was also interesting. In added time at the end of the game, Barcelona took their first accurate shot of the entire game and it went in. The shock was made worse by the fact that the refs blew four obvious calls within the box for Chelsea that would have made the game at least 3-0 instead of 1-1. Overall though, amazing experience, seeing football in the heart of a top-English team's home.

Next up: Relaxing on the beach in Alicante, Spain! But I have to go now, so until then.

Normandy, France

Haha, so I completely forgot that I hadn't put up any pictures from Omaha Beach. These were taken from the very beachhead that US soldiers struggled up on June 6th, 1944, beginning the end of Hitler's domination. I saw Pointe du Hoc, where the Rangers scaled the cliffs, Omaha Beach, where the Americans suffered the heaviest losses of D-Day, the German heavy gun bunkers near Juno beach, and the US military memorial/cemetery. In the interest of saving time and the fact that many of these speak for themselves, I will cut off my commentary here.

London and the Last Days

5 hours from now, I will be checking out of my apartment. These past few days have truly been bitter-sweet. Before I get to checking out and beginning the end of my time in Freiburg, I have to recount the time I spent in London, England.

After being in Normandy, France, I took the Chunnel under the English Channel to London. Other than the expensiveness of London, I had a blast. I negotiated for hotels, saw the sights, and took the little time that I had to experience as much English culture as I could. What was perhaps most interesting, was being able to go to a pub in England for not just one, but two UEFA Champions League games (where the top club teams of Europe compete). The first, Arsenal against Manchester United (at Arsenal which is in London :) was a bit of a blowout and not too interesting. However, the second game was at Chelsea and I was able to be just outside the stadium for the beginning of the game. After the first whistle I went to a nearby pub (which was packed) to watch what was happening less than a kilometer away.
Chelsea ended up losing in extra time, which was bogus, if you ask me, but I was with Chelsea fans, so that may influence me ;) Another of the highlights from the trip was the hop on hop off tour of London's most famous sights. I was able to listen to a running commentary about the main historic places London, which was perfect since I didn't have much time (only 1 1/2 days) to see as much as I could. To finish, I saw King's Cross station which, if you've read Harry Potter) know that platform 9 and 3/4 is located there. In other words, this summer with the new movie, I will be able to say I was there! Incredible. The two pics I have here don't illustrate how nice the weather was when I was there, but the hop on hop off tour I did had mostly sunny weather, which is unlikely for London. Overall, an incredibly historical trip that I learned a lot from; and not just historically.
I hope to blog at least once more, but today as I write, many of my closest friends have checked out and headed their separate ways. We had a final BBQ at our program's building which was wonderful but also very sad, because we all realized that our time together was almost gone. We have experience sooooo much, and it will be nearly impossible to be able to explain this experience to anyone, capturing what it has meant to me personally. I can't believe that it is over, and that I will soon be coming back to the US. I have made friendships that I think will last for many years, not just in IES but with my roommates too, which have been an incredible blessing to me too.
Before closing, I want to mention the man pictured above with me and my friend Alex (on the right). Thomas Bauer has been a fun person to talk to, especially about FC Bayern, whom Alex, Thomas and I share a passion for. Together with help from some others, Thomas arranged an IES-wide soccer game where the teachers and staff put together a team against each of three dorms (we intermingled, but it was basically dorm against dorm against dorm against faculty). My team won one, tied one, and lost one (against the faculty :( but it was a blast.

I have to go, but I want to re-emphasize, how sad it is to have to be concluding my time here. This is the last blog I will write from my apartment room. The next will come from either a roommate's room, where I will stay until my flight home, or from Alicante, Spain, where I will be relaxing for a few days before returning to Freiburg and then the US.

Blogging in Bayeux

Sorry for the break in writing, it's been a very hectic week. I had numerous papers due, and on Friday and Saturday, our program ran our model European Union summit (in which I was the EU commissioner for internal and external relations) which ran from 10-6 each day. The papers were not fun but the summit was. Although stressful at times, I felt as if our model EU summit encountered many of the same difficulties that the real prime and foreign ministers would encounter.

Today I am writing while sitting along a little river in the area of Normandy, France (see picture above). The town is called Bayeux and is about 15-20 kilometers from Omaha Beach, where the D-Day assault encountered the strongest resistance. I just booked a ticket for a bus ride to Omaha Beach as well as Pointe du Hoc and the German artillery installments at Longue sur Mer.

The adventure getting here was exciting but also a little stressful. I may write about that more later, but ask me if you are interested.

Tomorrow morning I leave here and take the train back to Paris, where I'll immediately transfer and take the Chunnel to London, where I spend another 48 hours or so before going back to Freiburg. This trip would have been cheaper if I would have cut out the trip to Normandy, but missing the opportunity to see the places that the Allies landed and parachuted into was something I could not do.

I must go now and see an apparently world-famous tapestry that is here in Bayeux before I leave for the beaches. I'll blog again when I am not so rushed and am back in Freiburg. I promise I'll have better pictures. Before I go a reality check for me: Three weeks left in Europe... Wow.