Paris

At this point, the bus rides are starting to kill me. Tiny seats and minimal leg room are not my best friend. I know I´m not all that tall, but the seats need to give a little. There was still no sleep for me on the ride to Paris.

We arrived and I realized that I was pretty much out of all the cash that I had brought. In addition, I had not yet contacted my bank to let them know I was going to be spending money abroad, so if I used my card, my account would freeze. I didn´t want to deal with that. After a while I finally got that all cleared up and was able to eat again.

Paris is a beautiful city, probably the most beautiful in the world.

To be finished later...

Germany

We took a long ass bus ride to Germany. I couldn´t sleep on the bus, but as soon as we got to Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, I fell asleep during the lecture. I really didn´t want to be rude, but I couldn´t help it. Long nights and jet lag continued to plague me. While we only staying in Frankfurt long enough for the Deutsche Bank info session, I was glad to leave because the entire city appeared dead. As it turns out, most people live outside of Frankfurt and travel into the city to work during the days. The night life is non existent.

About an hour later, we arrived in a nice little town called Heidelberg. It is located directly on River Neckar. Walking around the streets, I realized that Heidelberg was exactly how I pictured a small German Town . Everything was made of brick and there were beer taverns on every corner. It´s too bad that the food wasn´t as good as the beer. Regardless, I did find some inexpensive food.

We stayed at the Perkeo hotel, which was right in the center of Heidelberg (I think). At night a bunch of us went to the local Hard Rock Cafe, which supposedly had no relation to the chain of Hard Rock Cafes, but they may have been pulling our legs a little with that one. From there, we checked out a local bar called Alex because that´s where all the local students go to. Turns out that was truth. After, we got some cheap Kebabs from a middle eastern late night restaruant for like 3 Euros...Great night overall.

The next day we went to the Mercedes-Benz truck production plant and learned about the DaimlerCHrysler merger. We had a full tour of the entire plant and watched every different production step from unloading of materials to the completion of a truck. It was, by far the most well orchestrated tour of the trip. From there, we went back to Heidelberg and I walked up to Heidelberg castle. First experience at a castle, and a good one at that. The place was gigantic and it was on a top of a very high hill that was a bitch to climb, but I was ready for the Trek.

After the castle, we had housing meetings and scheduling... boring. I found falarfels for €2... thought it was a great deal until I actually ate it. Lots of cabbage soaked in vinegar and dry falarfel. That night we met up with the other Eurovision group and went back to the place called Alex. There weren´t as many people there, but it was fun to be with os many Americans again. Some wierd dude with long hair was smiling at all of us while he drank alone the entire night. The only word to describe him is ´wierd.´ Heidelberg was deffinitely a fun place, but I wouldn´t want to stay for more than two nights.

Ready to kick back and get some rest, I got to Amsterdam. We were given an hour to get settled in before the initial Eurovision Orientation so I immediatel went out to find a big cup of coffee... in Europe you generally have to sit down an enjoy your coffee. There is not much of the good old American rush around on the go get your business done quicly mentality. Life here is much more relaxed and laid back. Anyway, the coffee didn´t affect me so much and I fell asleep multiple times during the orientation. Later we went to the Van Gogh museum, where I also fell asleep. This was followed by more orientation that included more dozing. As a welcoming gift, we were taken out to dinner on behalf of Eurovision. The food was pretty good considering it was a set menu. After dinner I walked around with some friends and we ended up getting lost for about an hour because every single house, canal, and street looks exactly the same. Turns out we kept walking down streets that were parallel to our hotel. Go figure. After my roughly 48 hour day I passed out within seconds.

Wake up call sucked at 7am. I had only been asleep for a few hours due to the fact that we had gotten lost the previous night. After breakfast I was still dead tired and my internal clock had no idea what was going on. We went to the Anne Frank house, which was a complete eye opener, yet I still managed to fall alseep at some points during the lecture. Needless to say, it made me feel like an ass... but I couldn´t help it. Lack of sleep definitely gets to me. After Anne Frank, we were treated to a full tour of the Heineken brewery followed by all the free samples, sausages and cheese we could handle. It was awesome... I have never tried so many good beers. The Heineken and Amstel Boks where the best beers and I´ll probably never have the chance to try them again. It was a very notable experience.

After the Heineken tour, a few of us went to dinner at a place called Local. It was damn good. We sat at a long, straight table because all of the buildings in Amsterdam are deep, thin and tall due to the taxes. The wider a building is, the higher it is taxed. For dinner we had skewered duck, chicken, beef and shrimp. Also there was salad, good potatoes and beer. The price was pretty good as well. After dinner we went to explore the Red Light district. What a ridiculous place. There were more fat, black hookers dancing in windows than I have ever imagined. The girls I was with were a little freaked out because guys kept offering to pimp them out. That was definitely an uncomfortable experience for them. We went to a bunch of diffrent bars and I drakn some absinthe for the first time. It is actually really gross... very strong and tastes like unsweetened black licorice. Amsterdam was a great time and I would like to go back and explore some more. in the future.

One very important note about Amsterdam is to watch out for the bicycle riders. They own the streets and don´t stop for anyone. If you hear a bell, get out of the way cause they´re not going to stop for you. I watched a bike rider plow through an entire group of girls on my Eurovision group... it was hilarious...

NYC

NYC was a great time with the family and friends. Thursday night we arrived and found the hotel after a map dabacle. We got some Italian food for dinner on Broadway and saw The Producers, which was hilarious... great first Broadway experience. After the show I met up with Ivan, Kofi and some of their friends. We went to a hookah bar where we got the first one on the house. Mike, Hil and I made it back to the hotel by 3am. Later night than I expected, but well worth it. Friday morning we woke up late and walked around NYC for hours. The NY public libarary was huge and there was a cool exhibit about relgious books. Later that day Austin flew into Jersey and took a bus to the city. We met up with some other guys from the fraternity including Coop, Schaef, Jack, Kofi, and Ivan. Got some dinner at Carmines... lots of pasta, chicken and fried calamari. After dinner we went to a bar called Jake´s dilemma where they had good beers, beer pong, foosball and different rooms. We chilled out in the back room and ordered drinks from the waitress... all in all it was an awesome time.

The next morning I woke up and said my goodbyes to the family after going out for a huge lunch. They were kinda sad to see me off but I am glad they were there. My shuttle bus arrived late, which makes no sense to me considering how he drives. We started off alright in NYC, but once we got on the bridge to Long Island, all hell broke loose. This dude gunned it over the bridge, flew off an exit ramp, blasted around corners, through stop signs, over pot holes. This old Australian woman sitting next to me was clutching my arm for her dear life... poor old woman, I thought she was going to have a heart attack. As we blew past boats and wharehouses, all I could think of was this man driving onto a boat, a large door closing behind us, and we would sail out the ocean where I would become a work slave in Indonesia. That was not the case. Finally the clincher came when the driver flew through a red light while beeping incesentlly in order to cut through two cars sending them both to the sides of the two lane road. We made it to JFK unscathed... no bruises, dents, cuts or anything of that nature... just a little freaked out.

I made it into the airport.... last one on the shuttle bus, first one off. It took about an hour to check in and I was surprised to see a lot of people I knew. I was a little nervous for the long flight, so I got a beer at the airport. I was joined shortly after by the kid behind me in line and his family. They bought a bunch of food for us, but I couldn´t eat because of the huge meal I had with my family before going to the airport. Eventually we boarded the plane and took off. It was one long ass flight and I couldn´t sleep for the life of me, which is generally the case. Luckily there was an extensive movie and TV selection... I watched Four Brothers, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Simpsons, Scrubs and some other food stuff. We arrived in Amsterdam at at about 8am ready to start the day... really, I just wanted to sleep considering my internal clock was screaming ´´its 2am go to sleep!!!´´

To be updated later...

Last Day Home

I'm listening to some music and attempting to relax before I enter final preparations mode for my trip. I leave tomorrow for New York City > Amsterdam > Heidelberg > Paris > Geneva >Toulouse > Barcelona > Madrid. The mere fact that I will be away for an entire 5 months simply amazes me, and I can't wait for it to begin. Beyond what I will learn in Europe, the experience is what I am looking forward to most. I am on the verge of seeing and experiencing so many new and various adventures, sights, cities, towns, cultures, people and so on. Exactly what is to be expected escapes me. What I am expecting is to be involved with as much as possible. I want to see and do everything. No regrets, straight up.