Where do I even Begin?

Get comfy, because this post has a lot to it.

So, on Friday, November 21st, I headed to Vienna with my Architecture class. I was going to stay there until Wednesday afternoon, then head to Dublin, and then on Saturday, head to Scotland for a day.

As a class, we got to Vienna on Friday, but it was too late to have an organized activity. So some of us made our way from the hotel (which was way nicer than anything I had stayed at previously) to the city. Vienna has so many cool shops and cool Christmas lights that line the streets. I really liked what I was seeing, but it wasn't what I expected.

The next morning, we did lots of walking around as a class. It was pretty miserable and cold, but at least we got a dinner out of it. As we were walking, though, we saw lots of fire trucks and ambulances fly by. We went to see what happened, and we saw that a man had jumped from a ledge to commit suicide. I had never seen anything like it, and I hope I never have to again. But after some rest, we went to dinner as a class, and I (of course, being the Sophomore in a trip full of of Juniors) was elected to give the toast. It wasn't pretty.

Sunday, we did some exploring of Vienna's Christmas Markets. I got a warm apple wine, thinking it was warm apple cider. It still wasn't bad, though. They had live American oldies music playing by an Austrian band, and it was awesome.

Monday, we went in groups to look at housing complexes. It was cool to get to talk to some people that I hadn't talked to a ton. Vienna was like that as a whole. I didn't know anyone particularly well, or any better than anyone else. So it pushed me to not only talk new people, but everyone in the class.

Tuesday, we had different groups. The group was great, but the assignment was pretty boring. It's hard not to think, "Why are we looking at row houses throughout Europe, when we could be looking at palaces and cathedrals?" 

It was our last night, and everyone was excited to make the most of it. But when I got back to the hotel, I got a text from my mom. Bonnie (my grandma) was on her deathbed, and probably wouldn't survive the week. So we booked a flight home to the States for the next day.

Wednesday, I woke up early and made my way to the Vienna Airport alone. I couldn't believe anything that was happening. I was so excited to see my family and to see Bonnie, but I didn't want her to go.

After some flight delays and missed connections, I ended up flying to Amsterdam, then to Atlanta, and then to Detroit, to be picked up by my dad. But when I was about to pick up my luggage, I saw Meg and Erin, who were there waiting for me. My dad and Jamie were waiting in the car. I was so happy to see them all. But we rushed to hospice back in Cleveland, and I got to see my mom and Bonnie.

I walked into Bonnie's room, and gave my mom a big hug. Apparently while that happened, Bonnie looked at me, and sh lit up. I didn't see it cause I was hugging my mom, but I sure lit up when I saw Bonnie. I was worried I wasn't going to be home in time to see her, especially with all the plane delays.

I slept in the hospice room that night, so happy that I could see Bonnie. On Thursday, I stayed most of the day in hospice, until dinner, which some of us ate at my Uncle Mickey's. I went back to hospice for a little after dinner, and then headed to my Uncle Tim's to see the Whitford side of the family. I talked with them for a little while, and then went to see Erin again. It was so nice to just be back in her front room, after 3 months gone.

Friday, I was in and out of hospice for the day. I stopped by the Verizon store, and fixed my phone's connectivity issue which made it only work when I had wifi. So I finally had a 3G connection for the first time in what felt like forever. I could text--not only in certain buildings--and it was liberating.

Friday evening I went back to hospice with Meg and Erin. My mom kicked us out for a while to talk alone with Bonnie, and when I came back, my mom was crying. It seemed like a really somber environment. And even though Bonnie didn't physically look any worse in my opinion, the was a feeling in the air that she had accepted it, and that it was her last night.

When I said goodbye, as I did every night, I said "I love you; See you tomorrow." She would always respond "I love you too; see you tomorrow."but that night it was different. She took a second, and said,"I love you, see you later." I was partially reassured, because it seemed like she knew I would see her later, and I believe her, but I wasn't ready to say see you later.

Bonnie didn't pass away that night, but the next day, Saturday, she wasn't up for visitors other than my mom, Uncle Mickey, and Pop. I accepted the "see you later," and I was happy that she knew she was going to.

So on Saturday night, I headed to Macey Walker's house to catch up with my high school friends and some of their families. It was a blast and it really was amazing to see everybody. I didn't want anyone to leave for school the next day, but they had to. I said my goodbyes, and got ready to be home for a week with family.

Sunday morning, I got up to go to 9:30 mass alone because they were praying for Bonnie during intentions. My mom was visiting Bonnie, and the rest of my family was asleep. When I pulled in the driveway after mass, my mom pulled in behind me. Tears were coming down her face, and she told me Bonnie had passed away that morning. I couldn't believe it. Even with a year and a half of cancer and a few weeks in hospice, it is hard to believe. It's always a surprise, as prepared as you can be.

Sunday night, my family and Pop ate over my Uncle Mickey's house with his family. We talked for a while, and discussed the week's proceedings. Pop was really quiet, and I felt terrible. I had been preparing the eulogy for a couple weeks, because I decided to do it, but I wanted to get a lot more of his perspective.

So on Monday, I went next door to talk to him for a while. He told me that he knew Bonnie was the one for him when he was only 16. That's 4 years ago to me, which is crazy to even imagine. I got a lot more insight on their relationship, and added it to the Eulogy.

On Monday and Tuesday, I did a lot f writing and hanging with family. Chipotle and Subway with Jamie, family movie nights, and suit shopping with Pop and my dad.

I got a navy suit to wear to the wake, which was on Wednesday. Our family got there at 2:00 that day, and stayed until 8:30. It was a long day, and lots of people came. Bonnie looked great, and the one thing everyone in the room shared was good memories with her. It was hard to be very sad while reflecting on the good times. But it was amazingly evident how many people were touched by Bonnie throughout her life.

Erin came back in town for the wake, which was really nice of her. She couldn't go to the funeral because she had an exam that day unfortunately, but it was nice to see her again the night of the wake.

On Thursday morning, we headed to the funeral home to see Bonnie for the last time. It was heartbreaking to say the least. From there, we headed to St. Raphael for the funeral mass. The mass was very important to Pop, and it went great. Meg and Molly read scripture very well, Jamie and Daniel presented the gifts well, My dad and Aunt Stephanie did well with intentions, Father Tim had a great homily, and I "only" made one mistake while giving the eulogy (accidentally saying that when when she was 15, Bonnie met her soulmate: "Mickey Whitford").

Here is the eulogy if you'd like to look at it and try to get an idea of just who my grandma was.

It was also great to see how many people Bonnie had touched, and how supportive they were. The neighborhood all came, and Shannon Sullivan even bussed back from Xavier to make the funeral. I was taken aback with how much everyone there cared for Bonnie, and I'm sure she would've been too. That night, we had Pop over for some pizza, and we just watched TV together as a family.

The next two days were spent mostly relaxing and catching up on my journal entries from this hectic 2 week period. Saturday night, we went to Outback with my Aunt Moe, and it was a great cap to being home. Only like 10 days until I come back. I'm in Amsterdam right now, waiting for my connection to Lux, and I cant wait to be back home.

Czech This Out

This past weekend, I took a trip to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. After leaving on Friday morning, we were able to arrive to the city by 5pm. Madison and I met up with Ryan, who was flying in from his week in Dublin.

Upon arrival, we were astonished to see how little worth the currency had there. One Euro is approximately equal to 28 Czech Koruna, so we were dealing in thousands. On the bright side, things were very cheap.

Our first purchase was pizza at a place nearby our hostel. Each slice was 30 Koruna, so about a Euro.This may not sound out-of-the-ordinary, but compared to European prices, that pizza was dirt cheap. After the pizza, we tried to explore a bit, but it was too dark to really see anything, so we gave up. Next, Ryan, Madison, and I headed to a small pub to sit down and talk because we hadn't seen Ryan in a while due to his weekly travel.

We decided that we should go sit by the river to talk, because it wasn't extremely cold, and there were many cool places to sit by bridges. On the way, we passed up a 5-story night club, which is supposedly the biggest in central Europe. Later in the night, we headed to the club to see what the levels offered.

There were ice bar, hip-hop, oldies, chill, and dance music levels to this club. It was a fun time because there was so much variety in style. We didn't go in the ice bar, but we had fun on the other levels! We headed home, and got Subway on the way. Both times I've had Subway in Europe, I've loved it: partially because it tastes so good, and partially because it reminds me of home.

We woke up the next morning ready to go to a shooting range, an excursion we had booked earlier in the week. The range was 45 minutes out of the city, but they provided a driver both ways. Madison was the first to shoot, which was pretty funny to watch, but she wasn't bad! She came in first place for marksmanship in her group! (She was the only one in her group). Ryan and I got to shoot an AK47, a pump-action shotgun, an M16, and a sniper rifle. Ryan beat me, because he basically perfected shooting an M16, but it was still a blast! Totally worth it.

Next, we headed to see the city square. We hadn't seen much of the Prague that I was expecting yet, just tons of normal-looking buildings. But once we got to the city center, it was just like how I expected Prague. The architecture and layout was really cool, and very different from a lot of what I had seen up until that point of the semester.

We stumbled upon a promotor for a pub crawl, and he asked if we were tourists. He pointed us in the direction of a vantage point with a stunning view of Prague, where we could take some pictures.

So we walked up many stairs on our way to this secluded and elevated park area. We sat down on a ledge for a little bit, but since sunset was 4:15, we had to hurry up to see other things before dark. We headed to see the castle district and the John Lennon wall.

Trying to navigate from the park area to the main castle district was very difficult, and we may or may not have accidentally trespassed on the royal property while doing so. But we eventually found our way to the district. It was full of small shops and cool views of the city, since it was elevated as well. We walked around, walked into "Prague's best christmas shop" (I didn't even have to see another to know it's not the best), and we took pictures from the new great view. Ryan grabbed a random corn on the cob from a stand, and we headed to see the Lennon wall before it got dark.

Since it's only a wall, it is hard to come by unless you know exactly where you're going. But the receptionist at the hostel showed me earlier that day. We got there in time to take pictures while it was still bright, and we took a bunch of pictures again. I was a little bummed, because I had a poster in my room last year of the wall, and it had a famous "Imagine" encompassed by a peace symbol painted onto it. But it must have been painted over, because it was no longer visible. The wall was still astonishing and exciting to see, though.

We got Starbucks (well, I just got WiFi) before we headed to dinner. Dinner was amazing. It was pretty cheap, and ridiculously filling. We took a couple hours to eat, and then headed to an Irish Pub for one drink. We were all exhausted from our long day, so we decided to go back to the hostel.

We left Prague at 8:30 Sunday morning, getting home at like 9pm. The travel did not seem too long though, so it wasn't bad at all. It was such a relaxing weekend; I really enjoyed both Prague and the people I traveled with. I'm so happy I went, and hope to return one day. 88/117.

Brit was a Great Weekend

This past weekend, I headed to London with a couple friends, and I wish I could've stayed much longer. On Friday, we left at 10:15, taking a train to Brussels, and a train through the Chunnel from there to London. Before getting on the train to London we had to go through Customs, which wasn't like customs in other countries I had been to. I quickly realized the hard way that the UK is much more like the USA. After not having the address of my hostel (only the name, due to lack of wifi in the train station) on hand, and not having my returning airplane ticket with me (same wifi issue), I thought I wasn't going to be allowed in to the country. I was ridiculed and lectured by the Customs officer for 10 minutes at least before I was allowed to move on. It makes sense that the information was needed; I just wish I had known that this Customs was different from other Customs in Europe, so that I would've prepared more. But I was able to proceed on my travels.

Kaushik and I met up with Sarah in King's Cross Station as soon as we arrived in London. This big train station is home of Platform 9 3/4. Being a huge Harry Potter fan, my plan was to take a picture at the platform as soon as I arrived. We stood in line, got a great picture, and headed to the hostel (which I got the address for because London is normal and has wifi in the train station).

The hostel was the strangest hostel I had been to yet. Being on the periphery of the city, it would have been difficult to find, had Sarah not arrived that morning and scouted it out. The hostel looked like a family home from the outside. It had no front desk, and no noticeable staff members. After asking around, we found a staff member who showed us to our room. He almost gave one of us a bed that was already taken, only to be told otherwise by someone else in the room. It wasn't the nicest hostel, but you get what you pay for, and it was a way better price than all the other ones we looked at in London.

We headed out to see things soon because it was getting late. Our first stop was Piccadilly Circus. This place was like Times Square, having giant screens on outsides of buildings lining the streets. We walked into probably the coolest sports apparel store I have ever been into. It was so hard not to buy pairs of shoes, which were only £40. But then I remembered that that's like $65. It was hard in London to save money, because of the terrible exchange rate, but we tried to keep that in mind while looking around. We headed to dinner at an Italian joint, and we sat there for 2 hours before actually leaving. Being really late, we started to head home. We saw an M&M store, and we HAD to walk in. Let me tell you, this place smells like how heaven must smell. I'm convinced I gained 5 pounds in there without even eating anything, because I was breathing pure chocolate. It was 4 stories, and filled with as many M&Ms as one could ever need. After experiencing all 4 stories, we were tired and decided to keep making our way home.

We made a brief stop in Trafalgar Square on the way home, which we didn't even recognize until we were there for a few minutes. There were temporary monuments dedicated to the soldiers lost in WWI, which began 100 years ago. The square was big, but dark, so we didn't get to fully take it in. We headed back to the hostel to get some sleep so we could see more on Saturday.

The mentality about getting up early is always different when it's the morning. We ended up sleeping in until 9, and heading out at 9:30. We got to Green Park, which is the stop for Buckingham Palace. Although there are no inside tours of Buckingham this time of year, we got a good view from the outside. We got to see the guards from a distance, and see all decorative intricacy of the gates.

Next, we headed to Westminster, from which we knew we could see Big Ben and the London Eye. Westminster was very cool, but it was too crowded for us to go inside the church. We were able to easily see both Big ben and the London Eye. The Eye, being a massive ferris wheel-type structure that overlooks the city, sounded fun. So, we headed to take a ride upon it.

At the London eye, we paid £22 each and waited for about 40 minutes, but I think it was worth it, because it gave us an absolutely stunning view of the city, with classic London cloudy weather. We were higher than Big Ben, and felt like we were in the clouds. I felt like Peter Pan when he flew by the famous clock tower on the way to Neverland. It was about a half-hour ride, which is plenty of time. 

We got some fish and chips just after the ride, because why not. It was pretty good, but I wasn't able to eat much, because I was so nervous. I was to Skype in to deliver my speech for VP of Philanthropy for my business fraternity. Because speeches and delegations take so long, and I had to be ready for whenever I was called, I waited in the same cafe with wifi for more then 4 hours. Kaushik and Sarah walked around and shopped for soccer gear, but I was sitting and preparing. The four hours were worth it, though, because I ended up winning the position! I was/am so excited, and I felt so much better that I didn't have to worry about it anymore. It just added to the delight of my weekend. I just could've used more time exploring London. Now it gives me an excuse to return one day to see everything that I wanted to.

That night we headed back to Piccadilly Circus, and we got food at Pizza Hut. It was one of the best meals that I've had in Europe, just because I missed American-style pizza so much. The first free refills of the semester weren't bad either. The night before, when I asked if there were free refills, the waiter actually laughed at me. But it's always worth a shot. Pizza hut, being a sit-down restaurant there, took us nearly 3 hours. we headed back to the hostel so that we could get more done in the morning again.

But, like I said earlier, it's always different in the morning. We slept until 9:45, and didn't leave until after 10. We headed to Abbey Road, because that it a must-see. The road is still a normal road with regular traffic, so it is hard to get a good picture. Especially when regular pedestrians are crossing both ways in addition to other tourists. But we waited it out to get the best pictures we could. It was amazing to think that I was in the same place that perhaps the greatest band in the history of the world was. I love small stuff like that.

We then headed to Hyde Park to check it out. On the way, we ran into a couple members of the Royal Band, which look similar enough to the guards. I asked for a selfie, and one of the men laughed, so I'm claiming I made a guard laugh, because the picture looks as if I did.

Overall, London was really amazing, but short-lived. I wish I could've seen/done more or had more time. So, I'm not going to say it was my favorite trip, but I think it had the potential to be. It was so refreshing to be around English-speaking people, and made me realize that I have only 5 weeks left here, so I need to keep making the most of it. 80/117.

On Top of Spaghetti...

Hey All! This is the first post in a while, but for good reason. I took a week-long trip to Italy, and I got to see tons of stuff. So lets start from Friday the 25th...

Madison, Morgan, and I hopped on an 18-hour-long train that took us from Luxembourg to Munich to Rome! On the last leg of the train (9pm-9am), we ran into some guys from our program who were in the cart next to us. They were about to watch "Big Fish" on a laptop. I ducked into their 6-person cart because I'm a big fan of that movie. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend you do. While watching, I couldn't help but relate Ed Bloom's variety of adventures to my own, and to the idea of this Blog. In the movie, Ed finds out how he dies when he is a child, so for the remainder of his days, he is able to do crazy things because he knows they aren't how he will die. While I don't know how I will die, the purpose of my bucket list and this blog is to fight aging and death by experiencing as much as I can while I'm alive.

The train ride was incredibly long and uncomfortable, spanning the entire night. We arrived in Rome Saturday morning, and after a good bit of searching for it, we checked into our hostel. I was deemed navigator for this trip, and if you know me at all, you know that was a bad idea. We soon went to explore, heading first to the Colosseum. On the way, we ran into a large protest complemented by some police with riot shields. Still not sure what the cause was, but the flare smoke and the large crowds made the trip to the Colosseum dreadful.

The Colosseum itself was really cool. We learned that the Romans were completely brutal, and entertained with savage killings. 700,000 people, at the very least, were killed purely for entertainment within that structure. I took the opportunity to channel my inner Russell Crowe and shout "Are you not entertained?!" Cross that off the bucket list!

Next, we headed to see the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. Saint Ignatius was beautiful, and had an amazing ceiling mural. The Pantheon had the most architecturally awe-inspiring dome I've ever seen. I can't fathom how it was created, especially without modern technology. It was also cool to see it,  being a structure common to many text books that I've read for school, in person. The Trevi Fountain is drained for construction, so it wasn't very cool. After exploring, we were starved and tired. The pasta I had that night was legitimately the best pasta I've ever had in my life: Italy really does do pasta right.

The next day, we headed to the Vatican in an attempt to see the Pope say mass. We stood in a giant line which looked like it was to get in to St. Peter's Basilica, and moved our way toward the entrance. While we were about to get in, we heard a voice over speakers. There was a GIANT crowd in St. Peter's Square (which is more of a circle in my opinion) that was listening to this speech. Without a good angle anymore, we were not able to see from where the voice was coming. So after like 20 minutes, we walked into the the Basilica. We participated in a mass said in the Vatican, but it was not said by the Pope, unfortunately. That night, after seeing our peers' Instagrams, we found out that the speech that we were confused by was actually given by the Pope! So although we didn't get to see him, we heard him! Later that day, we headed to the Spanish Steps, but they were basically just a staircase, so that was more of a resting spot than an actual excursion.

Monday morning, we headed to Florence to meet up with our friend Maggie Lane, who is studying in Florence. WARNING: IF YOU ARE ALLERGIC TO LEATHER, DON'T EVEN CONTINUE READING. FLORENCE IS SO FULL OF LEATHER THAT YOU WOULD PROBABLY HAVE A REACTION FROM JUST READING. No joke, there are like a bizillion street vendors of leather purses, wallets, and belts in addition to the billions of actual shops. In Florence, we did a lot of sitting around and looking around shops. Ryan finally met up with us on Tuesday, and we kept looking at shops. But on Wednesday, we headed to a soccer game to watch the Florence team! it was awesome, and so was the stadium hotdog. Brought me back to home. And Florence won! Florence was the typical Italian city, and I really enjoyed it.

On Thursday, we headed to Venice. I was stoked. We got there at like 3pm, and I was amazed immediately. We walked through some streets, crossing over beautiful canals and seeing gondolas. It's just like the pictures. The water is so much nicer than you'd think. We had an awesome and cheap dinner by water, and the pasta was amazing again. We went back to the hostel very early though because it was dark by 5:30, and Venice gets very creepy when the sun sets because it's full of dark alleyways.

The next day, we walked around some more, and took some public boats to different places including a cool island where we got to climb a clocktower that overlooked the Adriatic Sea and Venice. Taking it all in was amazing. It was Halloween, and that just added to the creepiness of Venice at night. I had another great pasta, and we headed back to the hostel.

The last thing we did in Venice was on Saturday morning. We headed to the island of Murano to watch some glassblowing, which is what Murano is known for, dating back to the Middle Ages. It was cool to see such intricate detail being made out of glass in such a short period of time.

We ended our break by training to Milan, staying in the Milan train station and airport for more than 10 hours, flying to Brussels, and then training home to Lux. I can't say it's how I wished to spend my birthday, but I realize I shouldn't be complaining. But I was definitely ready to get back to Lux. 74/117.

Not Often Do You Guetta Chance Like This

This weekend, many of my friends and I headed to Amsterdam, because we had tickets to the Amsterdam Music Festival. We took trains for like 7 hours to finally get to Amsterdam. Immediately after getting off the train, I loved the style of the city. Its old architecture was perfectly contrasted and complemented by the modern-looking lights and signs. We walked around some on Friday night, and it blew my mind how crowded the city was. It made Barcelona seem deserted, which could've been due in part to the Music Festival or the fact that the Amsterdam Marathon was on Sunday. But there were just so many places to go, and the city was lively. We went back to the hostel to rest up for the night because we knew Saturday would be really long. Our hostel's steps were so steep and small that I thought I'd definitely meet my end that weekend. But we made it.

We woke up at 10 on Saturday to make our way to the Anne Frank house. Upon arrival, we realized the line was 2 hours long, so we decided to just take pictures in front of it and spend our time doing more things. We took a cool canal tour, which showed us even more about the city. Bikes lined the rails to the canal throughout the entire city, and the bike traffic was far heavier than that of motorized vehicles. Warning: neither the bikes nor the cars follow traffic instructions, so be cautious.

After the canal tour, we headed to the "I amsterdam" sign by the Rijksmuseum there. We took a bunch of pictures and climbed the giant letters, which was really cool, but also very crowded. Since we were nearby, we headed to the Heineken Brewery to take a tour of the place. Some of the technology there was awesome, from holograms to an interactive and educational "ride" that shook you, heated you up,  bottled you, and shipped you similar to beer. This was a great way of keeping my attention at least. But it was time to head back to the hostel to go to the concert. I was about to jump up and down for 9 hours.

The Festival was originally supposed to open it's doors at 9:00 and start at 11:00, but the times were changed to open at 8:00 and start at 9:00. It seemed like very very few were notified of the change: of our group of like 10, only 1 was notified of the change, so thankfully we had Kaushik haha. We showed up at 8:00 and were able to snag second-row standing spots and move our way to the first row (You can see the Miami flag in the bottom left). 

Keep in mind, this arena ended up being filled with 40,000 of standing room mostly. So we were really really really lucky. The group performing was amazing. Amsterdam is known for producing DJs and loving electronic music, so the best DJs in the world were there. In fact, the top 10 DJs of the year were announced at the event. The top 4 DJs in the world were there, in addition to four more in the top 20.

As Armin Van Buuren (Voted as top-3 DJ for 12 years straight) was giving a speech and the croud settled down, I had moved my way to the front row. I pointed enthusiastically at him with both hands for about 15 seconds, and he made solid eye contact with me. He then pointed back at me with both hands and gave me a thumbs up: it was awesome. I got to see Hardwell, Armin, Dmitri Vegas & Like Mike, Martin Garrix, David Guetta, and Deorro, and Dash Berlin. Each artist had about an hour-long setlist. By 4:30 am I was ready to get some rest, so I went to the stands and took it all in from farther away. It was truly scary. So much fire, chanting, and so many crazy people. I felt like I was at some type of angry mob event or rally. Definitely the craziest thing I have ever been to and probably the craziest thing I will ever go to, and thats fine with me.

It ended at 6:00 am, and we headed to the hostel to pick up our luggage and make an 8:25 train to Lux city. I was tired enough to sleep the whole 6 hours back, and it was much-needed. I'm still feeling knee pain from all the jumping. Glad I got to go though, and I loved how cool of a city Amsterdam was. 59/117.

(S)cool Bussin' through Lux

After such a long week for my Paris and Spain trip, my weekend to stay in Luxembourg could not have been better-scheduled. It was incredibly refreshing to not have to rush onto a train right after class ended on Friday. Instead, I spent an absurd amount of time in my room at home, specifically laying in bed. It was a very lazy weekend, but it was also very much needed and appreciated.

On Friday, I was able to go out with some friends before splitting up to go to go to a cool dinner. Due to a mistake made by the waiter, we got some free wine with our meal. On Saturday, we were to take a party bus around the City and do a brewery tour of Bofferding, which was all planned by an awesome host dad named Norby. Anyway, back to Friday: Norby happened to be at the same restaurant as us, and realized a mistake made by the waiter, thus getting us the free wine. By the time we got back to meet up with our friends, most had left, so we decided to go home.

Saturday, I spent most of my day in bed again. I had to get ready to hop on the "Cool Bus" at 5:30. I even wore a what t-shirt that I wrote "COOL BUS" on with Sharpie.

I met with my friends, and we hopped on the bus. After 5 seconds of being on the bus, the driver slammed the breaks, and people's beer spilled all over them. The first song, picked by Norby, was "Hot Ni**a," a new song that I would have never EVER imagined Norby to have known. The first 2 minutes served as a perfect foreshadowing of the rest of the night.

We stopped, after a while, at the Bofferding Brewery to take our tour. But after waiting for a while, we realize it was closed and we didn't have a booking. But we didn't care, because we could just get right back on the Cool Bus. I deemed myself the new DJ for the bus, setting up in the back.

My music had the people hyped because I had all the jams, and Lily and I were great at picking the best ones. The night got so fun, but people weren't able to control themselves. I got thrown up on--not gonna say by whom--but yeah. So at about 11:00 the night started to get messy.

About an hour later, we all left the bus to go to the bars. We wanted to go to a '90's-themed bar, but The Fray were actually playing there that night, and we didn't have tickets, so we had to find another spot. After realizing it was almost 12:30, I thought it was time to head home, so I headed home.

I woke up on Sunday, and was questioned by several friends about what happened that night. I told them about everything that happened, and they told me about everything they were missing. On friends was missing her purse and phone. One lost a wallet and sweater. One lost her phone. one lost his phone and jacket. I was happy to be in my position.

We got to school today, and tons of people missed their first class because of the crazy weekend. Teachers even asked if there was a big trip to a city that was far away that caused everyone to be so tired, and my one friend replied semi-sarcastically under his breath, "Yeah. Lux City." 51/117.

No Spain, No Gain

From last friday until yesterday, I we had a study tour and a small break. So I have a 9-day break to write about: forgive me if it's long. My study tour lasted from that Friday until Tuesday, and it was in Paris. We were all freaked out, because the Paris subway stations had just received terrorist threats, but our class was headed there nonetheless. Over those four days, we got to go to many museums, try many crepes and macarons, and take many train rides. Since I had already been to Paris, I didn't know if this trip would be as good, but it blew away my expectations. I think that during my first visit, I didn't exactly comprehend how much history lies within Paris. I took it at face value, but I didn't look any deeper. Our class took us to like 5 museums, each completely unique. The most renowned that we visited was the Louvre, within which we saw several of the paintings that we had learned about in class, including the Mona Lisa.

It really was amazing how big some of the paintings were, and how much time must've ben spent collectively creating the works in that museum. But the Louvre wasn't the most impressive to me, because the expectations were so high. My personal favorite was the Musee Rodin, a museum which is home to many works of the French-turned-American artist, Auguste Rodin-- including "The Thinker." This museum made such an impression on me because of the natural beauty that encompassed it. Most of the museum was outside, and the inside looked like a small castle. I could imagine a queen walking out onto her balcony to this sight:

The grass was perfectly cut , and the hedges seemed perfectly trimmed, but this did not take away from the completely natural feeling given off by the scenery. It seemed so real, but so perfect, which is why I was so amazed by this museum. I can only imagine what Versailles would be like to see in person.

Visiting Paris for the second time, I was set on seeing the Catacombs, which, becuase they hold 6 million bodies, are known to be the largest gravesite in the world. After an hour-and-a-half wait, some classmates and I ventured 20 meters below the streets of Paris, into tunnels that were lined with skulls and femurs. It was a creepy but amazing experience to see how each bone fit in just like a puzzle piece. I'm so happy I went to see the Catacombs.

Paris just has so much more to offer than I believed. I think that if I had another week in the city, I still couldn't see everything I'd like to. Paris is definitely somewhere I want to visit again.

The study tour ended at noon on Tuesday, so I could've gotten more time in Paris, but my dream as a kid was to go to Spain. So, for the remainder of my week, I stayed stayed in Barcelona and Valencia. Barcelona was crazy because almost everything for sale there can be haggled down to a lower price. There were awesome shops and restaurants tucked into the smallest corners and alleys in the city that my friends and I stumbled upon. I got to go to the Mediterranean for a little while, but I didn't swim. We did get to go to a bar that was -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). The bar, the walls, and the cups were all made of ice, so it was awesome to go to for the experience. We only stayed for one drink because it was cold, but then we headed to the other clubs that lined the beach. It blew my mind that the Spaniards don't go out until 1:00am and they stay out at the bars and clubs until 6:00am. I felt like a loser because I left at 4:00.

I couldn't handle the Barcelona culture for too long, so I went to Valencia to take a few days to rest. Valencia was so relaxing! We went to the beach on Friday for most of the day, and I got sunburnt in 90 degree weather, while back home in Cleveland it was 40 degrees. Then, while we were walking around toward the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, we saw these big clear balls floating on the water. YES, they were those things you float in and play around. YES, we got to go in them. And YES, it was freaking awesome. Valencia was so relaxing and care-free. But we had to head back to Barca Saturday night to fly back on Sunday.

We ended up going to a bar in Barcelona called BarDowJones. It's pricing methods were based off the variability of stock prices. The costs of drinks fluctuate based on consumer demand for the drink. So, if a Heineken is 2,65Euro when I purchase it, the price will likely rise to something like 2,90Euro immediately after the transaction. And every once in a while, the stock market will crash, making drinks very cheap for a few minutes. A bar based off of finance: every Miami student's dream.

We flew home yesterday morning, and It felt just like coming home to Cleveland from a vacation because the weather was so cold ing Lux compared to Spain. It'll be a great feeling when I do get the actual Cleveland weather stepping off that plane. I loved my week break, but I've never been so happy to be in Lux. 44/117.