SWF Seeks Adventure!

Dear Friends,

Okay, I realize the title is lame, but I'm running out of creative ideas, folks!!

Last Saturday I took my first daytrip by myself. It was GREAT! I ventured to Mainz for the day, which is the capital of the state, Rhineland Palatinate. I got myself a map, a museum day pass, and I trekked through the whole city for about 6 hours. I definitely got my exercise and I saw some really cool stuff (pictures to come!). The whole point of taking this trip by myself was to get over the fear of traveling alone. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people here that have the time and/or money to travel, so especially to get around and see the cities in Germany, I may very well be on my own.

So I successfully planned a trip to Rome, that is definitely on, and I've fully prepared an itinerary for a week in Paris! I have found someone to go with, finally, and I think the most fun part so far has been sticking to a budget... we set a budget for 350 Euro for one week (6 days, 7 nights), including all entry fees, transportation, and accommodation, and the total is 277 Euro! That is crazy cheap... that leaves plenty left over to try out some French food, get some souvenirs, etc.
I found out there is a card for 60 Euro you can buy that allows you into ALL the museums and landmarks, etc, unlimited for 6 days, and you don't have to stand in line!!

Over the weekend I went to Amsterdam with my friend Philipp from class. We had a lot of fun. We stayed in a houseboat and did a ton of walking. There are soooo many canals and bridges in Amsterdam, and only one of them is natural! They have to circulate the water manually. And there are 92138185623 bikes in Amsterdam, too. I saw a postcard with a machine pulling a crapload of them out of one of the canals. They also have really cheap flowers there... they have a flower market which is an entire street set up with merchants selling 50 tulips for $10, souvenirs... they are really good at making souvenirs... I wanted to buy everything!!! We went to the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh Museum, but skipped out on the Rijksmuseum because it was huuuuge and we didn't have enough time. The french fries in Holland are AMAZING, there are little joints all over the place that sell JUST french fries with like 20 different sauces. I got low fat mayo, ha ha... Saturday night we went out for Indian food, it was my first time eating it and it was soooooo good!

Here are the photo albums I haven't posted here yet, just in case someone still reads this and wants to see them, ha ha...

Trier (Part I)
Trier (Part II)
Koblenz (City, Uni, etc.)
Bonn & Köln
Nürnberg
More Random Pics of Friends (Part II)
A Very German Christmas
Salzburg, Austria (Part I)
Salzburg, Austria (Part II)
A Grand Day Out
Daytrip to Mainz


I am trying to get the Amsterdam pics loaded, keep an eye out for them in Facebook...

Here is my travel schedule as of yet:

February 22--?: Headed up north with Philipp to just drive around, options and points of definite interest include Berlin, Kiel, Copenhagen, London, and definitely Bremen (he lives there :-))

March 11--18: Paris

April 1 -- 8: Rome

April 22--27: Poland (visiting a friend!)


Well, other than that, traveling and such, I am still sticking to my fitness goals and am now focusing more on eating. I've recently embarked on a quest to kick my sugar habit, that is, I no longer keep it in the house. I am going to kick the cravings in the behind!!! We have our exam in Translation in 2 weeks... I am excited to have really nothing to do, ha ha... I'm supposed to be getting more translation assignments from the VP soon, so at least I'll have something keeping my brain juices flowing during the semester break. I found out that I am actually going to miss the first day of school for the summer semester because I will still be in Rome... lol... but the professor knows and is okay with it as far as I know. Last class I got a little peeved by the professor because he said that "the political row between the UK and Russia has today escalated" was a good sentence and would likely be found in newspapers... whereas I had written down "the political tension between the UK and Russia escalated today"... I actually went home and googled "today escalated" and compared the hits located to "escalated today"... and there were THOUSANDS more hits for the latter (my sentence) than his... I just emailed him about it, I'm anxious to see what he says... I made a strong case :-).

Well it's getting late and I don't feel like sitting at the computer, maybe those pics'll get uploaded one day later this week... sorry, Mom :-(


Love,
Caitlin