Parisian Pigeons

So I'm not doing any real updates yet but I wanted show off this video of a pigeon climbing the steps up to Le Sacré Cœur in Paris. All is going well. More updates in a week I reckon!

Vorhersage (forecast)

So not talking about weather but more the up coming plans as my time here winds to a close. Today is Wednesday so I've finished 1.5 of my finals. Tomorrow is the oral part of my German final, and Friday is German culture. That's the one I'm worried about. I have a billion documents in German to read and 98% of the class speaks better German than I do. 10% fail every year... Without that credit, I'm not a full time student and I owe everyone lots of money, but no pressure. Anyways,

So I closed my bank account, de-registered from the University, closed my insurance, and told the state I'm going home. I had set all those things up in English a few months ago, but I ended them in German. That felt good. Saturday is cleaning and packing and scrubbing my room. Saturday night is my birthday party. I plan to introduce everyone to apple crisp and coke floats. I think the floats will freak people out, but nobody can say no to a good apple crisp so everyone should be fine =)

Sunday is church, and then lunch with my pastor. We'll probably cry together or something. When I get home I have to make sure everything is in top shape for handing the keys back over to the caretaker. 10:30 monday morning he'll be there to lock me out of my house. Then I need to run and get back my deposit on the department and run to the train station.

Train goes an hour to Bremen. From Bremen I fly with Ryanair to London. Hopefully they don't scam me out of all my money (click). From the airport I take a train into London and then another one south to Haywards Heath where I'll be staying at the YWAM base "Holmsted Manor" (click). It's beautiful, take a look. I'll be staying there with some friends that used to be involved with YWAM Pittsburgh. Hopefully, I make a trip up to London, but also get to catch up with folks and meet new people. It'll be weird being in a country where everyone speaks English, and should be a lot of fun.

Thursday I take the Eurostar to Paris. That's the train that goes under the English Channel. I'll stay with my cousin who is studying fashion design there in Paris. That's where I'll spend my actual birthday. Hopefully I remember some French because from all I've heard (even from my French friends here) they would rather not speak English with me =P

The next Monday (the 21st) I'll take a train through the Alps to Milan, Italy. Here is where I insert the forecast in Milan for the next week (I promise I was planning on talking about weather when I started writing this) . This isn't the week that I'll be there but I can expect something similar! I'll be staying with my friend Francesca who I met here. I'll probably stop in and visit one of her English classes at the University and enjoy all of the strong Italian accents. My Italian is non-existent except for a few words I learned last year, but hopefully with my "Learn Italian in 7 Days" book, I should learn something. Fortunately there is lot's of English, and Francesca's whole family speaks German because her Mom is German.

In the end I come back to Osnabrück for the weekend and say goodbye to all my church friends. My Swiss flatmate said she's taking at trip home and may have some good Swiss cheeses to do a cheese fondue when I get back. Kind of scares me, and kind of sounds fun.

I fly home Monday the 28th of February, and back at RIT the end of the week. I have way to much to do but it should all be delightful so I'll try not to complain.

See you all soon!

[- R N W -]

Spannend Pläne (exciting plans)

As of today I have officially made some rather exciting plans and bought all the plane and train tickets to make it happen. Our semester ends February 11th and RIT starts March 7th I believe. That means I have some time to see more of Europe. First I'll relax for the weekend. Then Monday through Thursday will be just south of London with some friends from Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Then I take a train under the English channel to Paris. Thursday through Monday I will be there with my cousin. She has been studying there for a few years now. From there I take a train through the Alps to Milan, Italy where I can stay with a friend I met here from Monday till Friday. I have my "7 days to learning conversational Italian" book with me so maybe I'll come back half fluent in Italian too if I'm lucky. That's a good bit of time in Milan so maybe there will be some mini trips involved there to the Alps or the Mediterranean perhaps. This is my first time in Europe and I've hardly seen anything so far, but I'll get to see a fair bit before I leave. RyanAir is the greatest airline ever. It will cost me $20 to fly to London. Maybe after I ride on their trashed plane I won't appreciate them as much, but for now I'm just excited. After Milan I head back to Osnabrück for one last weekend and then Monday February 28th I head back to Pittsburgh to spend some time with the fam.

Also, my mom is visiting on Tuesday till the following Monday. Can't wait. I need a hair cut so the timing is perfect ;) This may be the first haircut of my life that doesn't take place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (excluding any haircuts before the age of 2 since they would have been in Virginia).

Saturday I go with my church to invite people to a Christmas Eve service. If there are enough costumes I may find myself dressed as Santa Claus. We'll see. I hope to have pictures.

later,