UV Rays

Journey westward

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:53:35 -0700

Journey westward

makin' a run to seattle

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:20:00 -0700

could buy tickets to c hill block party if asked…

der Ausklang.

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:49:43 -0700

So my year has come to an end, and it feels like just yesterday when I was perched up on the low table in my host brothers room typing up my first entry in that awkward first few days of my life in Germany. (cheesy)

My last few days in Germany consisted of buying a suitcase, hanging out with Willis, Joe and Andrew, and with my lovely friends Abby and Javier. As the day got closer and closer to leaving Germany I realized I didn’t actually want this to end and began dreading it. This year really was the best year of my life and it took me up until the last few days of it, to realize that. No more random adventures in trains, drinking and partying in the most random of locations with the most interesting people ever, living my life day to day and not worrying about anything. Life was Simple.

As I got to the airport and said goodbye to everyone I didn’t cry, thankfully. But as the plane took off towards Portland and I reflected on how weird it was to be going home and leaving my other home, my eyes had a mind of their own. I guess it’s time to come back to reality, in a sense, and go on with my life using the things I learned from my year abroad with the next step in my life, college.

I hope to try my best to not miss my life back there as I live the rest of my summer out in Oly, and somehow make it the rest of the summer not worrying about fall.

tschüs tumblr, for now.

noraesther: i miss that kid. i saw himmmmmm! he wanted me to...

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:15:33 -0700

noraesther:

i miss that kid.

i saw himmmmmm! he wanted me to give you a postcard but then i didn’t see him again..

1 liter of one of the best beers in germany. mmm that was a good...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:36:29 -0700

1 liter of one of the best beers in germany. mmm that was a good night

6 days.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:30:51 -0700

Sienna and I got back from our secret trip safely and undiscovered by authority figuers of a certain sort, and I think it’s safe to say we had an amazing time. A bit about it.

Berlin (Day 1 - 4)

Started off the trip with a short train ride (our means of transportation for the whole trip) to Berlin and explored the area. Stayed in a really cool hostel and met the first few, of our many, fellow backpacking people. Doron from Isreal, had a good conversation about Humus and helped Sienna with her boot obsession by finding a sweet second hand shop at 12 at night on our way to a 60’s dance night at a club. Brandon + friend from Orgeon, showed us best hotdogs at around the same time we found the boots. Our days here consisted of sighseeing by day and going out/drinking by night.

Hamburg (Day 5 - 8)

Woke up late and thought we would miss our train, but made it just in time. Becuase it was Sunday, nothing was open. We spent it walking around exploring the area near our hostel (very hotel like…) and relaxing. The next day we took a free tour of the city and had a great time with a small group of other backpackers and went out for a drink with them after the tour. We decided to meet with them later for more partying. I remember several hillarious things about this night..

A) going to McDonalds twice with an adorable English friend from our room named Simon. And stealing a McFlurry from Sienna, falling on the floor, spilling the drink everywhere, then putting it back secretly so no one noticed.. besides simon.

B) talking to 3 boys from denmark.. or norway.. who were obviously trying to impress a couple of girls from Montreal.

C) haggling with the mcdonalds man to give us free ketchup. yes.

In the morning I bought a pair of new shoes while dealing with a hangover and sat in an adorable park with Sienna and Simon for the rest of the afternoon. Hamburg has been and always will be my favorite German city <3.

Düsseldorf (Day 9 - 11)

Very quite town that I felt I had to see for some reason before I left Germany… mostly walked around exploring the city and eating delicious food. i.e Indian and legit Japanese food (düsseldorf is notorious for their Japanese population). We had treated ourselves after only eating bread and cheese for the last few days. Came up with a hillarious drinking game.

Amsterdam (Day 12-13)

missed our train! had to buy new tickets and travled for 4 hours.. but we made it to the beautiful city. Very exciting. It was so strange to see the huge difference between Germans and the Dutch. Explored the city all day then et up with my English friend from Germany for a night out. Coffeeshop called Dolphins. Paranoid we wouldn’t find our way home, met a friendly french/dutch guy that wanted to take us on a boat ride with him and his friends… we politely declined and got cookies at subway.. then milkshakes at mcdonalds.. then a sub… we made it home around 4.

München (Day 14-15)

Arrived at 7:30am after a terrible all night train ride. Free tour, ate, slept. Got up around 9 and walked to the hofbrauhaus and drank a liter of delicious beer. Snuck the mugs in our purses and booked it out of there. Got a free drink at the bar in the hostel chatted, and slept.

Freiburg (Day 16-17)

Beautiful Black Forest. Stayed in a cute hostel at the foot of the mountains and met some boys from Scotland. Went to a wine tasting fetival with them and ended up in a park. Pretty funny kids, awkward. Next day traveld to a nearby village with a lake and explored until it was time to head home to Braunschweig.

I come home quite soon.

marry me!

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:20:12 -0700

marry me!

cuckoo-addie: Matt and Addie in France. HAAHAA creepers

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:46:35 -0700

cuckoo-addie:

Matt and Addie in France.

HAAHAA creepers

hi sienna

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:09:48 -0700

hi sienna

Yea, Matt is in Europe.

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:05:34 -0700

cuckoo-addie:

More like France.
More like Rhone-Alpes
More like Ardèche
More like Etables
More like sleeping in the other room.

Ok that was creeeepy. Night!

sienna is in europe

more like germany

more like braunschweig

more like kanzlerfeld

more like eating like a pig next to me as i type this

ok that was .. night.

karma!

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:18:46 -0700

siennas here! I can feel things starting to turn towards the better again.

i guess...

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:59:44 -0700

i need to be patient and hope for the worst

45 days.

Fri, 29 May 2009 07:35:07 -0700

Up until a few days ago i was excited that the time has come where i can feel everything moving faster towards the end of my exchange. a couple of things have changed my feelings about the time ending though.

a) saying goodbye at airports.

b) kevin.

wish i didn’t have to be in one place at once.

<3 = sekt + strawberry ritta. yours truely acting German.

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:27:40 -0700

<3 = sekt + strawberry ritta. yours truely acting German.

my friend <3

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:36:00 -0700

Me: i told my hostmom i have a boy now
she wasn't surprised at all
what the hell?
Sean: thats cause she thinks youre a whore anyway
Me: your a terrible friend
Sean: i didnt say you were.. just that she thinks you are one

ach du scheisse.

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:19:52 -0700

A couple of things about this long weekend up until today.

Brett is the first of us Americans to head back home to Oaklahoma and I’ve been spending as much time as I can with him. Things such as renting a paddle boat, buyinig a bunch of candy and a bottle of Sekt and enjoying the drunk germans talk to us and sunshine.

Whent to Kiel thursday evening until sunday afternoon, to visit family friends and ended up chilling on the baltic see and the north see. Beautiful weather and got a weird tan. I feel like now I’ve seen all that I really want to see of Germany, the main cities anyways… Kiel, Berlin, Köln, Hamburg, München… oh I still want to go to Düsseldorf. Anyways it was all beautiful up north and my weekend consisted of walking on the beaches, grilling and visiting family of the people I was staying with. Pretty boring, but wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Monday, I got some people together to ride down to Göttingen to have a last farewell hangout with Manu (argentina) and Gretel (mexico) who are leaving next week… We bought a few cases of beer, vodka and sat down in a nice park until late in the night when we ran to catch our train back to Hannover.

I swear I have 20 more copies of this same picture (in the park) but with different people. It’s what we do best.

This morning (Tuesday) I woke up at 4:30 to ride to the airport and say goodbye to Cody. Very sad and very strange to say goodbye to people. Weird that its almost all over.

Brett Swanson.

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:04:56 -0700

Brett Swanson.

Baltic Sea.North Sea (not pictured)

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:03:48 -0700

Baltic Sea.North Sea (not pictured)

mexico.argentina.peru.brazil.finland + U.S (not pictured)

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:00:03 -0700

mexico.argentina.peru.brazil.finland + U.S (not pictured)

also got our euro-tour DVD’s. a little (boring) video one...

Sun, 17 May 2009 04:22:15 -0700

also got our euro-tour DVD’s. a little (boring) video one of the rotexers made.