Luxembourg and Bruxelles

Behold the one and only Manneken Pis, the symbol of Brussels

I’m having a really hard time comparing this past week to our previous trip to Prague and Berlin. Both were extremely different in the things we did, what we saw, and the cities that we visited. Though I can confidently say that I had such a wonderful (albeit exhausting) week between Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris. Paris will have to be its own post in itself, solely because we did so much in the short time we had (and I need to recount our flaming fondue experience). This trip was significantly more academic than the last one, and we were in business formal attire every day for these institutions that we visited (Saturday was so nice not having to dress up). But alas, I digress. So let me begin this story with my poor packing skills, a 4-country bus-ride, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Shenanigans on the bus (oh hey Jack)

I hate packing. Really I don’t think hate is a strong enough word. Loathe may be more appropriate. I will procrastinate packing as long as possible, and then I stress out about it because I do it last minute. So trust me, this trip was no different. After my dinner with everyone last Sunday, I watched 2 episodes of Dexter with my roommates and Elise in an attempt to put off packing. Therefore it was about 1am before I even opened up my suitcase (with a 6:25am departure the next morning). Packing the business formal was easy because you don’t have many options to begin with when it comes to that. But then I also needed regular clothes, going out clothes, toiletries, etc. And mind you, this is for a week long trip…in a carryon and backpack. By 2:30 I was finally done, and looking at my handiwork, I realized that I simply do not understand the meaning of packing light…at all.

Ugh it's always such a struggle

So we found a playground in Lux...it was terrifyingly fun.

The bus ride to Luxembourg was luckily uneventful. I slept until we were in France where we were supposed to visit the St. Avignon military cemetery. But thanks to the US gov’t shutdown it was closed (see, it affected us abroad as well!). After a break at some random bus station, I fell back asleep until we arrived in Luxembourg (the city)! Now I had visited Luxembourg before with Erika and DW, so there wasn’t really anything that I needed to see. So we walked around, they got lunch (I had packed one) and then we went to Oberweiss and each got a macaron (I got coffee flavored, yum!). Afterwards, Rin and I had to head back to go to the EIB. Our speaker was the Press Officer and it was a very interesting presentation, solely because we have nothing like the EIB in the States. It was a good hour and a half long session there, and then we left to go to Brussels!!

Hello Luxembourg!

Inside of Oberweiss

Jimmy and I looking pretty spiffy at the EIB

The room was pretty official (we had our own mics), oh and it was straight our of the 70s - orange carpet.

We arrived around dinner time to heavy traffic and rain. After settling in at the hostel, we made our way to go get dinner. One of the IES Abroad supervisors had recommended this one restaurant, Chez Leon,  for mussels (because mussels in Brussels is apparently very popular). IT WAS SO GOOD! Basically this week was heaven when it came to food. After dinner, Rin and I went back since it had been such a long day, thus concluding Day 1 of our trip. 

Mussels, fries and beer. Yum. 

Day 2 I was actually able to start the day off in casual attire, as our first meeting of the day was with Open Europe, a think tank with an office in Brussels. Our speaker was fascinating - and quite good looking hehe - because he is the only speaker I've had who was openly Euroskeptic. I have my doubts about the future of the Eurozone, and he voiced all of the doubts that I had been having. After that we had a walking city tour of Brussels and our guide gave a pretty good tour, historical and everything. 

Turtle selfie. It was cold. 

 

Just one of the few beautiful buildings (albeit asymmetrical) at the Grand Place

After a quick lunch, we were allowed back into our rooms at the hostel to change into business formal before we went to the Council of the EU. Our speaker was Head of Unit, DG of Foreign Affairs, Enlargement and Civil Protection. He had a great sense of humor and was quite articulate and insightful. Enlargement policy in the EU is one of the policies that I find very interesting and relevant to now because of the Eurocrisis. We also got our picture taken by the official photographer so we should end up on their FB page soon!

At the Council of the EU!

Just reppin' Austria, nbd. (I'm the Foreign Minister for our Model EU)

 After our meeting, we proceeded to go back to the hostel, change and go out for food and beverage. Elise and I found this great little corner cafe to eat at, had some interactions with a Jamaican and his guitar and a homeless man on the steps of the Stock Exchange, and then proceeded to go to this bar Celtica because they had a 2 Euro beer happy hour! It was also the Belgium vs. Wales qualifier game for the World Cup so needless to say it was pretty packed with diehard Belgium fans. A sizeable group of us found our way there, and decided to relocate to the upstairs bar where the less popular England vs. Poland game was on. Emma and I had a good life chat, drank some great Belgian beer, and when I thought we were going to leave for the club, the DJ started playing and the bar area quickly turned into a dance floor. The DJ played some great music and I had a blast dancing until some pretty creepy Belgian men started closing in on the group...we left shortly after. Instead of going to the other club, we decided to just head back. OMG on the way back I'm pretty sure we walked through a crime scene!!! There was blood all over the ground and splattered on this white barrier and a little ways on there were bloody clothes surrounding the trash can. It was so scary! Don't worry, I didn't have any nightmares though.

I just thought the Opera House looked super pretty that night. 

Wednesday (Day 3) was nice because 1) I was able to sleep in 2) I only had one meeting 3) I got free lunch. Our meeting was fairly dull in my opinion as it was with the DG Agriculture for the EC. And personally, I could care less about agriculture; I would rather had it been about US-EU trade in general. Afterwards we had our reflection session during lunch, which turned out to be 15 minutes of reflection and then an hour long debate about immigration in the EU. Whoops.

European Commission sign (kinda had to take a pic)

Our teensy-tiny conference room

After getting back to the hostel, changing, Mayaan and I met up with Emma to go to the Cantillon brewery. It brews and sells Lambic beer and has been doing so for the past 100 years in the same building. It was a really cool brewery, and yes we did sample. But with this beer, it's pretty sour tasting because it undergoes spontaneous fermentation (so it ferments 1-3 years). Definitely not my favorite, but it was neat nonetheless.

I <3 beer

It was sour cherry flavored! Hence the red color. 

For dinner, we were super indecisive and had to be convinced by this meteorologist from Alabama to eat at this Italian place after he heard us bickering. Ma and I split parmesan fondue that turned out to not be fondue, but I got free wine out of it so I'm not complaining! Afterwards I got my first Belgian waffle. Heaven in my mouth, my goodness. Walking through the Grand Place was also so beautiful at night with all the building lit up. We then went to Delirium, which is one of the coolest bars I've ever been to (they have over 2000 kinds of beer to choose from!). I had a drink before we went back to the hostel, calling it an early night since we had to checkout so early.

The Grand Place at night!!!

OMG this waffle though. I can't even. 

At Delirium with Ma 

On Thursday (day 4), we made our way to the Commission, and had two different speakers there (I preferred the first one personally as he talked about economic affairs). After a solid morning at the Commission, we grabbed a quick lunch (and bus food) from a supermarket before heading to the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the EU (a long name, I know). This was for my Transition to Market Economies class and our speaker really didn't talk about Poland and its economy whatsoever, but more so what they do in Brussels. But he also threw in little quips about Buddhism and the Big Bang. Luckily for us, we got out half an hour early which gave us enough time to grab one last waffle before getting back on the bus to head to Paris!!

At the Commission!! 

I think we were both shocked with how professional this selfie was.

Brussels was indeed full of a lot of speakers and meetings, so there wasn't all that much free time. Though I have to remind myself that I am actually here for school and to learn, so I probably shouldn't complain too much about listening to a speaker for an hour and a half. Especially when these people interact with Heads of State pretty often, which in my opinion is pretty dang cool. 

Song of the Trip: Garden Gnome by Julie Slonecki (she's my Great Great Grandbig!)

Best Meal: Are waffles considered a meal? Because that waffle (pictured above) was actually the best. Whipped cream and chocolate. Yum. Super messy though so grab some extra napkins.

Gelato: SPECULOOS GELATO. It was pretty pricey because I bought it from a stand in the mall (2 Euro), but it was soooo worth it. 

Brussels Must Do: Go to the Grand Place at night. It's breathtakingly beautiful. And then go grab drinks at Delirium.

Brussels Don't Do: DO NOT WEAR HEELS AROUND GRAND PLACE. The cobblestones there...I'm surprised I didn't fall on my face. 

Shenanigans with the Roomies

So this past week was an eventful one in my apartment! We finally have a full apartment (ok well Louisa is still in Southeast Asia until Friday), and it’s an even split with 3 guys and 3 girls. I’ve already mentioned David as he was the first to move in. He was shortly followed up with the arrival of  Patryk (he’s Polish) and the return of Paul (another German). All of my roommates are really good about only speaking German with me except for David because he wants to practice his English. I mean I’m pretty ok with that, and I think that’s why we’ve become fast friends. Birgit has really opened up this past week, and it’s probably because more Germans are living in the apartment again or maybe it’s that I’ve told her to only speak in German with me. Either way, it’s so nice to come back to my apartment and have people to interact with. They’re all so nice and friendly and I feel truly blessed with my living situation.

Other events of note this week was my discovery of the running paths next to the river near my dorm which really does turn out to be a beautiful run. There are lots of really cool bridges and graffiti. Oh and have I mentioned that it’s finally autumn here? The leaves are all starting to turn and I’ve actually had to break out the peacoat this week. And it hailed this week! Like what? The two times I’ve seen hail this year have both been in Germany, pretty odd if you think about it.

Fall in Freiburg!

Ok well back to the roommates! So David had his friend Fynn come stay with him this week so I hung out with them quite a bit. They even cooked for me! On Wednesday I was out in the city shopping with Emma (well I was mostly window shopping while she purchased business attire) and we were just walking and happened to run into them. First they offered this chocolate-toffee candy called Toffifee which is delicious, and then they invited me to eat with them! So by the time I was done with clothes and food shopping, I came home to a dinner already on the table. This was followed by a round of Mario Party on David’s Gamecube, and just some really fun company. Quite often they forced/coerced me into playing a round or two of Super Smash Melee as a homework break. Trust me, it never took much convincing. Basically, to sum up why I think David is so awesome:

1. He watches Dexter
2. He plays Super Smash and insists that I play with him
3.  He likes hanging out with me and my friends
4.  He plays guitar
5. He thinks I’m a great cook/wants me to give him cooking lessons (talk about ego boost!)

He’s also great at not making things awkward when I come out of the bathroom in my towel and happen to run into him. Sharing a bathroom with two boys is a learning experience in itself, that’s for sure. I’m so used to living with only girls where I would walk all the way from the bathroom to my room in just my towel and never have to worry about interacting with a male. Whereas now, I secretly pray that no guy is in the hall before I dash to my room. But overall, I really like living with guys. It’s a great experience for me as it teaches me what I can kind of expect later down the road when I’m actually living with a significant other.

Let’s see, to highlight my other roomies: Birgit has really opened up a lot, I’m pretty sure soup is her favorite food, and she bakes a lot of cakes (yum). She’s super sweet and always curious as to how my trips are. Paul is from Berlin and is always really interested in talking to me, especially about politics. Just last night we got into a discussion about the government shutdown and the debt ceiling. I had all my roommates do a poll about the EU for my POL 350 seminar, and since then he’s really been interested in learning more about EU politics. Patryk is quite soft-spoken and seems pretty shy, but I’m trying to engage him in more conversations when I see him in the kitchen. Oh and on that note, I’ve basically made the kitchen table my desk/the kitchen is now my second room according to David. Hehe oh well.

Elise also has new roommates as well, but the only one I’ve met is Doro. She’s a first year (they call them “Ersties” here) and is so bubbly and sweet! Elise and I were doing a soup night when I met her, so she ate with us and is just adorable. We hung out at their place Friday night as well and when everyone else decided to go out, David, Elise, Doro and I all stayed in and talked till about 2:30 before we decided it was bedtime. The following morning I had promised everyone Belgian Waffles, so Doro, Elise, David, Birgit, Paul and Jared all got to sample my waffle making skills. I don’t know if I’ve ever done homemade waffles, but they turned out awesome! Then that evening Elise, David and I all went out to this club StuSie which is not even a 10 minute walk from my dorm – so super convenient. It was a late night as I didn’t get back till probably around 4:30, but it was a great time.

Sunday was sleeping in, FaceTiming and Google Chatting my loved ones, and preparing dinner for about 12 people (remember, I’m the ultimate hostess). I made French onion soup (my fav soup) and salad. Oh and chocolate chip cookies which were a huge hit with the boys (I think Anders and David had about 4 each). The cookies were great because it’s just that little taste of home that I had been craving. I had the Berliner kids over, and invited all my roommates over to eat with us as well and I think it went really well. I try to include my roommates in almost everything that I do, and I think that they really like that I try to make such an effort to include them and interact with them.

These international relationships are something that I really treasure, as I did not have the same relationship with my roommates this past summer. But I’ve learned that I have to put the effort forward first, if I want to build these relationships. This is why I’m the one to knock on their doors and ask if they want to eat with me. And as a result, I see them reciprocating more and more. David knocks on my door just to talk to me about my day, invite me to watch Dexter, or simply to just say good night. They were all so interested in my upcoming trip to Luxembourg, Brussels and Paris, so I think I may just have to come back with a few sweet surprises for them! :)

One of the many bridges

Song of the Week: The Mother We Share by CHVRCHES

Meal of the Week: Definitely my French onion soup!

Highlight: Soup night with Elise and Doro! It was such a great time cooking with those girls. 

Travel Tuesday: My Bavarian Weekend with Caroline

So let's rewind about three and a half months ago, to when my very good friend Caroline came to stay with me for a long weekend before she headed off to Oxford for 6 weeks. We really didn't have any plans for the weekend (or at least I hadn't shared my ideas with her yet), so we kinda winged it as with what we were going to do. While there was a crazy summer storm (hail and everything) going on outside my window, I was booking our hostels and mapping out our 3-day trip throughout Bavaria! Between fingers of peanut butter (yes she is a saint and brought me a jar of JIF from the States!) and catching up on the past few months, we decided our trip would be Munich to Füssen to Dachau to back to Bayreuth. A lot of train travel for sure, but with the Bayern Ticket for the both of us, it only cost us €14/day to travel. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

A Bavarian pretzel at Hauptbahnhof. Bigger than Caroline's head. 

So on Friday we departed early in the morning to go to Munich After several hours on the train, and planning our post-grad-cross-country-road-trip, we arrived and set off to check into our hostel. The youth hostel ended up being the cheapest option for us, even though it was still about €27 a night. But we were very happy with it, as it was very clean, we had a small room, and the breakfast was great (we even made lunch from it). And after using the free wifi for a bit, we headed off to go explore the Altstadt of Munich. We saw the Viktualienmarkt, Marienplatz, Frauenkirche, and browsed some of the stores in the area. Make sure if you visit, to get to Marienplatz in front of the Rathaus at 5:00 pm for a performance from the Glockenspiel (though it also plays at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm).

Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz

We wandered in the Englischer Garten for a while (ok so we got lost for a while) and enjoyed the fresh produce that we had purchased earlier at the Viktualienmarkt. The weather in mid-June was perfect for sitting in the grass and watching one of the many football games going on in the park. After finally managing to find our way out of the park, we headed back to the hostel to change for dinner.

Oh you know, just posing in the Englischer Garten

Now Caroline had real German food on the brain, so naturally my thought was "oh we should go to Hofbräuhaus" as it is essentially a landmark in the city of Munich, known for the infamous Maß (1L of beer) that they sell. Well we found Hofbräuhaus, but because of how famous it is and pair that with a Friday night, there were no tables to be found. Slightly discouraged, but even more determined, I set out to find us an equally great German restaurant. After what was probably 15-20 minutes of walking around and looking at various menus, we stumbled upon this Bavarian restaurant tucked away down a side street. People seemed to happily be eating at all the tables outside, however the inside was practically empty. This made me a little nervous, but I checked out the menu anyways and was encouraged to eat there by the 60 year old man sitting at one of the tables who proceeded to tell me that the best beer in Munich was sold there. As soon as let him know we would indeed be staying (the food was only around €10 for a meal), he insisted that Caroline and I sit with him at his table. Now this evening with George, actually turned out to be the highlight of the weekend. What a character! He didn't know really any English, so I had to act as interpreter for Caroline (oh he also had invited a couple from Darmstadt to eat with him too). Great things about George:

1) He was a regular and basically always had this table reserved for him and drank from his own beer stein

2) He could not get over the fact that my name is Sommer. He told every person that walked by the table that my name was Sommer, like the season. G: "Deine Name ist Sommer? (He motions outside) Genau wie der Sommer?" Me: "Ja, es ist genau wie der Sommer..."

3) When Caroline told him her name he started singing "Sweet Caroline"

4) He got us free postcards of the restaurant!

I look gross, but George is fabulous!

The food was actually really good, as was the beer to George's credit (he basically ordered for us). Caroline and I continued to meander throughout the city for the rest of the evening, stopping for another drink before heading back to the hostel. The next morning, we got up bright and early, said goodbye to our Australian roommate, ate breakfast and went and caught the train to Füssen, our next destination. The train ride was great, as we were actually going into the mountains (these were the first real mountains I had seen all summer). As soon as we got there, we hopped on the bus to Neuschwanstein Castle! We had about 2 hours before our scheduled tour of the castle, so we wandered through the town, checked out Hohenschwangau (the castle like right across from Neuschwanstein), and walked around the lake before hiking up to the castle.

Throwin' the arrow! PPL from Germany of course!

THE LAKE WAS SO CLEAR HOW COULD I NOT GET MY FEET WET? It was freezing btw

Why are there two castles across from each other in the same little Bavarian village you may ask? GREAT QUESTION! Sorry if I go all history nerd on you. King Ludwig II (aka the most beloved King of Bavaria) was a tad extravagent with his castles. He had lived at Hohenschwangau Schloss as a child and loved the area. So he had Neuschwanstein built basically right next to it, and lived in Hohenschwangau to watch its construction (let's not forget about his other castles: Linderhof Castle and Herrenchiemsee). Oh he also only got to live in Neuschwanstein for 172 days before he mysteriously died. Anyway, the palace is breathtaking. It's the one that Walt Disney based his Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland off of. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the inside. But to give you a picture of the extravagance, the woodwork in his bedroom took over 4 years to complete...so yeah.

PPL!  #throwwhatyouknow

Our random photographer had asked us if we wanted the castle in the background. I really wanted to respond, "No, actually I want the group of tourists in the background instead." I bit my tongue instead. 

Courtesy of the Neuschwanstein website. DAT CANOPY. OMG.

After our tour, we headed back to Füssen. And after a lot of walking around trying to find the hostel (I had lost the sheet of paper with the address and name on it...whoops), we finally arrived to check in! The guy who worked there was super chill and funny (pretty flirtatious too), the wifi was a hell of a lot better than our hostel in Munich, and for €22/night the price was pretty good too. I must say, I found Füssen absolutely adorable. We found the cutest place to eat with an adorable Russian waitress and DELICIOUS Bavarian food! It was such a great find for dinner. We had a fairly early night as we had to be up early to check out and catch the train to Dachau. But I know for sure that if I want to ever go hike Zugspitze, I'll probably stay again at the Old King's Hostel in Füssen. I kinda fell in love with the town.

View of the area around Neuscwanstein from the castle. Gorgeous. 

Jäger Schnitzel, Spätzle, und Dunkelbier. Himmel. 

Our hostel!

So let's talk about Dachau. I think Caroline did the best in describing how we both felt about it. "I could either stay for 4 more hours here, or I need to leave in the next 5 minutes." The various emotions that washed over me as I walked through the camp, I just don't have words for them. I literally was speechless the entire time. Caroline and I didn't talk to each other as we walked through the exhibits and read about the countless lives lost. The WWII and the Holocaust, for me, has always held a special interest. I can't tell you how many different books (fiction and non-fiction) that I have read about it. Btw, my favorite fiction one is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (READ IT). This was my first visit to an actual concentration camp though (and interesting enough, it's the only one mentioned in The Book Thief). There were several times that I was moved to tears as I walked through the haunting buildings. We only spent an hour there, but I was so emotionally overwhelmed by the end, it definitely felt like so much longer. Side note: It's free to visit, so I highly recommend going if you're in the Munich area.

"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men."

"Arbeit macht frei" - "Work makes you free"

Overall the weekend was fantastic. It made me realize how much I missed hanging out with a close girlfriend and was also very rich with German history. *Probably half of the photos above were Caroline's. Thanks Caroline!*

Song of the Trip: Legs by Jer Coons - ok the music video is super lame, but the song is awesome

Best Meal: Experience was definitely with George. Food though was at our restaurant in Füssen!

Munich Must Do: Spend part of the day in the Englischer Garten! It's huge and beautiful! But be warned, apparently there is a nude part of the park. 

Munich Don't Do: Get hung up on going to the Hofbraühaus. You can get a great dinner for cheaper somewhere else with beer that's just as good. 

Füssen Must Do: Visit the castles of course! The area is breathtaking. Just make sure you wear good shoes if you plan on hiking up to the castle. My feet took a beating that day. 

Füssen Don't Do: Plan on shopping after 5 pm. Most all of the stores there closed early. Oh and as a rule of thumb, never plan on shopping in Bavaria on a Sunday. It just won't happen. 

Market, Geneva, and Brennan's Visit

After such an exciting and active weekend, I was wondering how the week was going to follow that. I will say that Monday and Tuesday were fairly uneventful with the highlight being Tuesday evening hanging out in Rin’s room where Emma, Rin and I all went through each others Facebook photos, commenting and liking on the worst ones of course haha it was hilarious. I love hanging out with them, but it does make me miss my close girlfriends back home like my sister, Shaun and Caroline. Wednesday we all decided we wanted to hit up the farmer’s market, so Rin and I met Emma after she was done with class (yay no Wednesday classes!) and we went into the city center. Our first stop was the thrift store that I discovered by Augustiner Platz because they’d been wanting to check it out, and I was the only one who knew where it was. If I need any clothes throughout the semester, this place will definitely be my go-to first. It’s a really neat second-hand store with definitely a lot of vintage pieces (oh and free postcards, so you better believe I snagged a few). They each made their respective purchases, and then we made our way towards the Münster which is where the farmer’s market is on Wednesdays. 

Market!

First off, I need to say that I absolutely adore farmer’s markets. I’m 100% behind the idea of buying local, buying fresh ingredients. And a lot of the time, the stuff that the vendors sell will actually be cheaper than in the stores and taste so much better. Now from my walk around the market the previous Wednesday with Erika, Doug, and Mamaw, I knew that there was a spice vendor with an enormous variety of spices. This was stop #1 for me, as I needed some spices for the lentil soup that I was making: cilantro and cumin. Side note: fresh cilantro is near impossible to find in normal grocery stores here (it’s also called Koriander). I was successful though in buying dried cilantro, as well as cumin, dried chillies, and chai tea. As an added bonus, she threw in a little bag of honey-flavored bonbons.

The spice lady

SO MANY SPICES

Meandering further in the market I also ended up buying 50g of organic ginger and a bag of apples for €1,25. We also saw the cutest St. Bernard puppy, a massive wheel of cheese, and a line of assorted rubber duckies in one of the Bächle.

So many fresh fruits

THE MASSIVE WHEEL OF CHEESE

Die Bächle

After they grabbed lunch at the hummus place, we parted ways and I went home to start on my soup. What a productive day it turned out to be! I made my lentil soup (which is delicious btw), did all my laundry, went to the store, and went on an hr long exploratory bike ride around Freiburg. I did actually think I was lost for a little bit until I found the Dreisam River, which I just followed into town.

Martinstor in the city center

Dis bridge, crossin' it erryday 

One of the many fields I went past

Action shot on Lola!

Thursday morning, bright and early, we departed for Geneva, Switzerland to go visit the WTO and UN for class (casual, I know). Actually business casual to be exact, which in case you were wondering, it isn't the most comfortable thing to try and sleep on a bus in. We arrived at the WTO and after going through our security check (they withhold your passport...not a fan), we went and listened to our speaker who really gave us an overview of the WTO and how they function. Afterwards we were given a two hour lunch break with limited restaurants around. We ate in the botanical gardens, and while they were beautiful, it was the most expensive salad of my life. But afterwards we walked around and went down to Lake Geneva where we also found some grapes growing (I think they were technically still part of the botanical gardens) so we ate some grapes. Actually we ate a lot of grapes and they were delicious and we're pretty sure we weren't supposed to...whoops.

Our speaker at the WTO

Lake Geneva

Emma eating stolen grapes

We made our way to the UN after lunch for our guided tour. From first glance, I was very unimpressed with the building. But the inside, boy was it cool. Except for the carpet. The carpet was gross and felt weird on my feet. Our tour guide was really good, and the human rights room and other meeting rooms were really cool. Also, it's really neat how it's kind of a museum as so many countries have donated art pieces to the UN in Geneva.

One of the meeting rooms

The ceiling in the Room of Human Rights

I mean I guess I'm pretty professional or something like that

By the time we got to downtown Geneva, we really only had time for dinner. We found this great little place called Chez Ma Cousine  which was reasonably priced for Switzerland and had phenomenal chicken. Afterwards we still had about an hour, so we walked around, saw the outside of the cathedral and some cute little streets. At that point though, my wallet was hurting, so I'm glad we left when we did. Geneva is gorgeous, but stupid expensive.

It's not a trip with me without the selfies 

Cathedral in Geneva (don't remember the name and too lazy to look it up)

The average shops in Geneva...Rolex and Hermes

After getting home at midnight, I was pleasantly surprised to see homemade truffles made by my roommate Birgitt which were left out for everyone. OMG talk about a delicious surprise! Friday was pretty chill, though everyone was very eager for class to be over as most everyone went to Oktoberfest this past weekend. I wish I could have gone, but I couldn't justify spending $300 to go to a beer fest and drink. I'm glad I stayed home though because my friend Brennan got to visit me for the weekend! We met during the language program I did in Münster, and now he's working in Germany about 4 hours north of me. So I prepared for his visit, cleaning and such and going grocery shopping with my new roommate (his name is David and he's awesome btw). Elise, David and I all hung out at my place and waited for Brennan to arrive. After he arrived we just hung out and talked and had a couple of beers. It was so great just getting to catch up with him. The following day I took him on a little tour of Freiburg and we went to the market around the Münster and ended our day at the Feierling Brewery in town. We sat there for several hours just talking, making friends with some Israelis from Heidelberg, and just having a great time in general.

Das Münster on a beautiful sunny day

Hanging out at the brewery bar

Gotta love that local brew

We came back and went to the store to get stuff for dinner because I had planned to make a "bitchin" Käse Spätzle with a green salad. It's essentially the German version of mac n' cheese, only better. Elise and David joined Brennan and I for dinner and after hanging out and eating with great company, we all made our way out to hit up Schlappen, basically the go-to student bar. However, when we got there, Brennan realized he had forgotten his wallet, so we had to take a taxi back to the dorm to get that for him. Ugh, talk about your inconvenience. We get back to everyone ordering absinthe...so we had to join in on this. Woof, talk about some potent stuff. Though luckily after seeing Chase order it in Prague, we were able to do it correctly! It was a great night with great company (Miruna had joined us at Schlappen as well).

Oh dear. Something that green can't be good for you.

Brennan: "Oh I definitely don't remember taking that picture." (btw the other guy is David, my new roomie!)

Brennan, David and I all slept in this morning and just hung out casually for the rest of the day. After eating leftover Käse Spätzle and Bratkartoffeln, Brennan sadly had to leave. I had so much fun with him this weekend, and he's already planning on coming back! Yay! Now it's back to school work and the daily grind. But hey, my daily grind is in beautiful Freiburg, Germany, so I guess things could be a lot worse! And now we're just one week away from our Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris trip. I mean three different countries in one week I suppose is just typical for studying abroad. Oh wait, just kidding not really hehehe.

Song of the Week: The Love Club by Lorde

Best meal: The käse spätzle I made myself, duh. Recipe here. 

Geneva must do: Do the tour of the UN! It was wicked cool.

Geneva don't do: Eat. No like I'm serious. A tall hot chocolate at Starbucks was like 7 Swiss Francs. roughly about $7.50. So yeah. 

Highlight of the week: Saturday walking around the market with Brennan! We tried some delicious new wine (wine that isn't fully fermented) and ate something delicious that we still don't even know what was in it.