It's been forever since I've blogged I know! But it's cool to know a lot of people read this :) don't worry though! I have good reason for being away so long. Let's start off with all the homework we've had lately (anyone who knows my study habits understands that). Second, I've done a ton of traveling. I've gone to Germany, Italy, and England all in the last 3 weeks! Its been so fun, but so crazy so I'm gonna stay back in Maastricht for the next few weekends.

So a few updates, I believe I have 6 more days of class, so for all of yall that are getting ready for fall break... I'm almost done! Whoo! Next, well... I have a ton of stories, but I'll start with an overview of our week and a half mid-term trip.

So we flew to Berlin, and I got to fly there 1st class! They ran out of seats in coach so me and a few other Baylor kids got moved up. Being in coach included some random airplane meal BUT it came with a roll and chocolate so the trip started off beautifully. Once we got there, we went on a mini tour of Berlin and it is absolutely gorgeous. The next awesome thing that happened was driving up to hotel. Thank you Baylor for the 4 star hotel and unbelievable german buffet breakfast every morning! (I think everyone would agree the breakfast was the best part of Berlin). We stayed in Berlin for 3 or 4 nights, I've forgotten by now, but I'll tell stories from there later.
After Berlin, we flew to Italy and bused over to Padua. The hotel wasn't as awesome, but it was still nice. My hands down favorite thing about Italy as a whole was the Gelato. It is true, italian gelato is the greatest thing ever to be created and I think everyone should add that to their bucket list if its not on there already. We stayed in Padua for 2 or 3 nights and then went to Venice. There are NO cars in Venice because it is just like all the pictures; people actually boat everywhere it was so cool! We stayed in Venice that night, and went to Milan and Lake Como the next day. I really liked Lake Como, and I plan to have a house there one day once I'm a doctor. And yes, Lake Como is where one of George Clooney's houses are. I'd like to think I saw him, but I will never know for sure if that was actually him.
That night, I took my first night train back to Germany because my group and I had planned to go to Oktoberfest with my friends from Dusseldorf. Oktoberfest is another thing everyone should put on there bucketlist because it was like the state fair except so much cooler! Everyone dressed germans and there were games and rollar coasters and singing and dancing everywhere! It was so awesome. That night we night trained it back to Rome.
We zig-zaged across Europe, I know. But anyways, we get to Rome and... well... maybe I was expecting alot. So if you plan on going to Rome I have a few suggestions: spend the money on a hotel by the train station and rent a Roman so they can show you around. Rome is IMPOSSIBLE to get around in and not get lost. It was crazy rediculous. The sights were cool, the coliseum is really impressive, and I'm glad I already went cause Americans aren't supposed to go to tourist places anymore, but overall it wasn't all I was expecting. This could, of coarse, be because of our lovely hostel on the Harry Heine's of Rome. Again, I'll fill in all the gaps I'm leaving over the next few weeks cause I won't have any more cool stories.
3 long days later, we went back to Milan and stayed the night. We had to walk down a dark alley and on the highway to get there, but we got to our Holiday Inn and slept beautifully until 11 the next morning. We took a taxi to the train station, which took us to the airport, which took us home to Maastricht. I don't know how people backpack for months at a time. It gets so stressful and tiring (and rediculously expensive) for just a week and a half. All of us decided that our three weeks travel might be a little crazier than we thought.

We came back from that trip on a Monday, had a test on tuesday and thursday, then left again for London!

It's 11:30 here, and I'm still behind on reading and sleep so I'll tell about London, my favorite place in the world, tomorrow during a study break. Sorry for the delay in updates but for the next 2 weeks I'll be better, I promise!!