American Girl in Europe - They Drive Crazy Here

Verviers. 

Today was our first day of school. I slept much better last night and even though I could have slept longer, I was thankful I rested peacefully.

However, just something I have learned about Europe, they drive crazy here. Every night we try to go to sleep to the sound of screeching tires and cars racing down the street outside our windows. I don't understand the joy in reckless driving at midnight but whatevs.

ANYWAY. We all woke up around 8ish and ate breakfast. None of us really got ready today but rather stayed in comfy clothes. Our first day of school outfits are on point. We started French class at 8:30. We watched a video of our french teacher going over the syllabus and then listened to her narrate PowerPoint slides. We mainly just repeated French words and phrases after her and then did some partner work.

(to be continued)
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American Girl in Europe 8 Aachen

Aachen also has a lot of restaurants. When we got hungry we tried using a map to find a certain restaurant but their roads are very confusing. They have like open circular areas with like 5 roads leading in different directions or the streets intersect and sometimes become new streets. It is just a mess. So we didn't find that particular restaurant. But like I said there were many options. After walking a good bit we decided on a restaurant next to Charlemagne's palace and ate outside because the weather was like a perfect 70 degrees.

It felt wonderful. It is pretty warm inside the buildings since they don't have air in most places. We ended up going to cafe extrablatt. We were a bit concerned when the menus were in German and when our waiter started talking in German but luckily he spoke English and was helpful. I got a chili wrap (Yes Ansley, chili. I guess I do like it more than I realized.) It was delicious. After dinner we headed back to the train station but stopped at Nobis to get printen cookies. They are like gingerbread cookies with an extra spice filled twist. We took the train back and went back to the facility. I am currently about to go to our first tea time. How adorbs. 
I kind of like it here. (aka I love it)

(to be continued)
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Europe 7 Aachen - Breathtaking Architecture

 Brandon (the last and final group leader to mention) led the whole group around Aachen on a small tour.

We visited the Aachen cathedral and Charlemagne's palace. Both had breathtaking architecture and detail.

We visited many fountains and walked a lot of its cobblestone streets. We also visited Elisenbrunnen, or Elisa fountain, which is a symbol for Aachen's designation as a spa town. You can drink the water from this fountain and many of us did. It's sulfur water and a hot spring so yeah, hot eggs describes it quite well.

Aachen holds a lot of old buildings and streets and everywhere you look is a picture perfect scene. Eventually the group split up into smaller groups and hit the town. It was the first time we were responsible on finding our way around and back to the train station. We just started walking and entering any store that caught our eye.

It was neat to just walk the streets and look at the outsides of the buildings and window shop. The stores were just normal shopping stores for clothes, shoes, glasses, and household items. We went into a bookstore at one point and it was cool to see typical books but in German. I bought a few Polaroid pictures with some German words on them there. They are cute but I have no clue what they say.

(to be continued)
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JaninTravel - Mursi Village: Lip Plates

JaninTravel - Mursi Village: Lip Plates

How are Mursi women inserting and removing their famous lip plates?

Will one of them bite my finger off?

SLOVENIA SUCKS TOO !!

 SLOVENIA SUCKS 

Europe 6 The Day of Aachen, Germany

Aachen, 08/24/2017
First night in the building did not go well. Whether it was the time change, jet lag, heat, loud noises, or the unfamiliar bed and pillow; my night was restless.
I went to sleep at about 9 and slept decently until about 4 AM. That is when the exhaustion started. I tried every sleeping position, earplugs in and out, sleep mask on and off, different pillow placements, and breathing techniques and nothing was allowing me to go back to sleep. I tried for about two hours and finally after some time spent on my phone checking out everybody's' first day of school outfits at Freed, I fell back to sleep at 6. The next hour of sleep passed quickly and I was not ready to wake up at 7.
I was finally comfortable and slightly chilled, the perfect sleeping combo. I got ready for the day and Marie and Hannah (another other group leader,) laid out an array of breakfast foods. There was cereal, bread and spreads (nutella, speculoos, and honey,) juices, coffee, and tea.
After breakfast and much needed coffee, we had a mini orientation to the facilities and important information. Then we had about an hour to go to the market and get needed toiletries and go to the ATM for some of those 'euro euro bills'. (like dolla dolla bills. get it? lame joke, whatever. too sleepy to care)
After we made our sandwich lunches to eat on the train, we departed for our day trip to Aachen. We walked to Verviers-Central train station to catch the train to Aachen but it didn't leave until 12:30. We ended up eating our lunches while at the train station because it was going to be like an hour wait.
The train ride was about a 30 minute ride and then we arrived at the Aachen train station, Hauptbahnhof.
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(to be continued)

Europe 5 Verviers

When we got off our last train, all 26 of us beelined it for the housing that we would be staying at for the semester. 

It was quite a scene. 26 Americans rolling their huge suitcases across cobblestone sidewalks with huge backpacks on. We received a lot of strange looks and stares. 

The part of the building we occupy is above a French speaking Church of Christ and has 2 floors. The first floor has a girls bedroom that has about 8 bunk beds, a kitchen, an eating area, and the boys room. The second floor has another girls bedroom with about 3 bunk beds and a room for class and lounging. It’s small but it’s perfect. I feel like I am at church camp, but it’s pretty cozy! 

After our tour, Marie Johnson made us an array of sandwich “fixins” and we ate lunch. It was amazing! After not eating during all that train traveling and walking, we were starving. 

After lunch, we set up our beds and got settled in and got ready to leave at 5 for dinner. We had reservations at a pizza place called Cucina Restaurant at 6. During the hour gap, the Johnsons took us on a tour of Verviers. 

It is a small town and has a lot of charm. The buildings just hold so much age and history. The pizza was delicious but our whole group was just so done for the day. We were falling asleep at the table after we ate. So we bustled back to the building to take our showers and hit the hay. So day one in Verviers ends early but it was the perfect start to what will be a great semester! 

Tomorrow: Aachen, Germany! 
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(to be continued)