14 February, 2007

After partaking in Butterfly’s famous breakfast, we set out to see as much of Bucharest as possible before catching our train to Chisinau in the evening. First we went back to Gara de Nord to get our tickets, which was much easier than I expected. Then, we hopped on the subway to go check out some of the sights. This turned into ( Read more... )

11 February, 2007

We woke up early the next morning and began our quick exploration of the city. We only planned to spend the day in Cluj, then take a bus or train to Sibiu. Remember that best-laid plans go oft awry. More on that later.

Cluj, or Cluj-Napoca, is one of Romania’s most important academic, cultural, and historic centers. In the 2nd ( Read more... )

7 February, 2007

Oh, what a day it has been! I got up early to prep for my speaking exam and proceeded to miss the tram. This was not exactly my fault because the stupid tram definitely came early as I watched it sail off into the distance at exactly 8:06 (it’s supposed to come to my stop at 8:07). Cursing a blue streak which caused the paint on ( Read more... )

19 December, 2006

I got up bright and early to say farewell to Prague (especially the yummy sweet rolls on the Square) and catch my train to Munich. I was super excited to be on my way because not only was I going to a new, never before visited country, but I was going to Munich, another of my little obsessions. I sat with two (smart) Japanese ( Read more... )

16 December, 2006

What an adventure already! I was so nervous about the prospect of traveling completely on my own really for the first time that I was up half the night worrying about whether I’d done everything right. Questions ranging from “Did I pack enough socks?” to “Do I have the directions to the hostels? My airplane info?” and “ ( Read more... )

A very wise Miss Cam once said that the only way to learn is to learn through pain. Granted, she was talking in a fictional situation, but good Lord can the sentiment be applied in real life!

I wearily type this after being completely bludgeoned to death by my midterms. Now, I will admit that I have serious pre-test anxiety but this time around was ( Read more... )

Before today, I have been lucky enough to have spent every Thanksgiving with at least some of my family. Sure there was a jaunt to participate in the Macy's Parade and a nasty 15-hour snow delay in O'Hare, but I managed to come home from both in time to enjoy family cheer and plenty of my mother's excellent sweet potato pie. Needless to say, I was ( Read more... )

30 October, 2006

After much planning and assorted craziness, we set out on our crazy whirlwind car tour of the Baltic States.  This morning, the guys went and got the car-a brand new Nissan we christened Zabka (little frog)-and I threw my things in around 1pm. The car is very nice, with only 1,000km on it, but tiny and very “Euro-looking” with ( Read more... )

On Friday evening (the 27th) my friend Stephanie and I hopped on the train to visit her friend Emila in Lublin. We got in quite late because there really isn't a direct train to Lublin--it makes stops in Kielce, Radom, and Pulawy to name a few--which is strange because it is a fairly major town and I assume has a lot of people coming and going to ( Read more... )

Yesterday, Luke and Tae-huyk invited me to come out to Tesco with them. Even though Tesco is basically the European Wal Mart and I have this weird thing about keeping bad American influences (fast food and large super stores) on the other side of the pond, I was delighted to have an excuse to get out of the dorm. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my ( Read more... )