Enjoy the Ride

New site

2009-09-17T17:13:00.004-06:00

So, you've probably noticed that I'm not really posting much anymore. I got married and started school again. What do you expect? Here's the other problem. My husband and I have a blog and sometimes remembering to update both is a lot of work.

Here's the deal. Since I'm focusing a little more on my other blog, you should probably go to it to se any updates. :)

http://benandallyson.blogspot.com/

Ore-o-no!!

2009-05-20T15:24:00.013-06:00

So, after moving into our apartment, we've discovered a few problems (leaky drains, broken air-conditioning, etc...) and I've become fairly good friends with the maintenance team. However, I discovered the biggest problem when I decided to make those home-made Oreos for Ben.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees like the recipe said, but not knowing exactly how our oven worked, I decided to check the cookies at 5 minutes instead of cooking them for the recommended 9. I began to imagine how excited Ben would be when he came home to freshly baked Oreos, but was jarred back to reality when the smoke detector started beeping only 3 minutes after I had put the cookies into the oven! I pulled them out of the oven as quickly as I could as the smoke billowed out of it (melting my hot-pad in the process!) and started fanning the smoke away from the screeching device on the ceiling.

After I cleared out most of the smoke and got the alarm to stop beeping, I decided to do something rather drastic and turn the oven temperature down a whole 100 degrees! It seemed like a bit much, but after breaking one of the previous "cookies" in half and finding nothing but charcoal, I decided baking them at 275 for 7 minutes would be fine.

Boy was I wrong!

Imagine my frustration when only five minutes later the smoke detector started beeping again. I ran through the same drill, pulling the former cookies out of the oven and then running over to fan the smoke away from the alarm.

By this point I was hot and sweaty and disappointed about the two dozen cookies that now sat as a pile of charcoal nuggets in the garbage. I decided to try one more time. I made a single cookie and baked it for 3 minutes at 175 degrees and.... it worked!! I was so excited.

After far-too-much hassle, I ended up going to the dinner smelling like a campfire, but with delicious bite-sized Oreo cookies that I over-heard Ben say were "better than the real thing!" And now we know the smoke detector works. :)

................... Homemade Oreos

A word of warning: this cookie is rather sweet, calling for a whopping 1 1/2 cups of sugar! This would be great just by itself as a cookie, or maybe sandwiching some black cherry ice cream (or whatever flavor you like), but combined with the incredibly sweet filling, a few of these are liable to put you into a diabetic coma! If you're looking for something closer to the original, and more palatable so that you can eat them by the handful, take out a full half cup of sugar.

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F. (This temperature has worked for numerous other people, so unless your oven is as weird as mine, you shouldn't have any problems.)

2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass. *Note: it stays really crumbly for a while. Keep mixing! It will come together.*

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

**You can try numerous variations on this recipe as well - it's only limited by your imagination. Two that I plan on trying are adding mint to make Mint Oreos, or filling the cookies with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese frosting.

Enjoy!

Smiling in Ohio

2009-05-19T13:36:00.004-06:00

I’ve been married for one week shy of a month now, and I’m finally getting to break into my role as wife and homemaker. You’d think after a month of marriage I would have been overjoyed at the chance to cook every day. Alas, last night was the first time I’ve made dinner for the two of in quite some time. A honeymoon encompassing three wedding receptions along with the drive from California to Ohio left little time for me to master, or even attempt, some form of culinary creation. Last night however, I made Butter Chicken with Sautéed Onions and Mashed Potatoes, with Cheesecake for dessert. The food, of course, was excellent. :) Ben loved it and it felt so good - not only be cooking again, but to make dinner for my wonderful husband and have it waiting for him when he got home from a long day at work.

If you had asked where I see myself in 5 years in January, Ohio would have been one of the last places I thought of, if I even thought of it at all. Yet, here I am! We’ve only been here for a couple days, so I can’t complain about anything yet. :) It does seem like a nice little place though, and we were lucky enough to get here while the weather's still a little cool, before the humidity really sets in. We have our very own little 2 bedroom apartment and I can’t get over the excitement of having my own place. (Ok, its not completely mine, but I’m sharing it with my husband, not 5 other girls.) Just opening the refrigerator is a joyous experience because I don’t have to dig through piles of food belonging to my roommates in order to find something with my name on it. So while Ben goes to work everyday from noon until around 10pm, I stay at home and do.... what? I'm still working on that one, so I'll have to get back to you.

Tuesdays we have small group dinners where some of the married folk feed the single ones. I’m in charge of dessert today and I'm rather excited. Ben is basically in love with Oreos – he has been since I met him, and probably long before that. I’m quite the opposite. I’m not really much of a fan of store bought/processed foods. If I can make it from scratch, I’d much rather do it that way. It’s definitely healthier and I think things taste better when made from scratch. Well, it just so happens that in one of my random recipe searches I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade Oreos that boast tasting just like the store-bought variety. So my project for tonight: make Homemade Oreos and test them on a group of guys who all know and love the “real” ones. I had to stop by the store to pick up some necessary ingredients and as I was checking out I had the following conversation with the cashier – a cute old man who looked to be in his 70’s.

Cashier: How’re ya doin’ today?

Me: Pretty well, how about yourself?

Cashier: Just fantastic. Couldn’t be better. If I was any better I’d be twins!

*pause as he starts ringing up my groceries*

Cashier: Ya know, people just aren’t as happy as they used to be. They don’t enjoy life anymore. If people enjoyed life as much as I do they’d sure be a lot happier.

Me: So tell me, what’s your secret to enjoying life?

Cashier: Keeping a positive attitude and Smiling. People just need to smile more. Ya see, I’m like a mirror. If you smile at me I’ll smile right back. Don’t you forget it either. Keep on smiling and you’ll enjoy life just as much as I do.

And you know, he’s right! As I left the store, I couldn’t help but smile - not just to myself, but at everyone I passed as well. Maybe it was the hint of “down home country” in his speech or the way that he said it, or maybe it was just my lack of human (other than Ben) in the past couple days, but whatever the reason, his comment hit me and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.

So, I guess that's what's been going on lately. I'll post the results when I finish those cookies later!

Where oh where has my brain gone?

2009-04-07T21:14:00.009-06:00

What a day, oh, what a day... Tuesdays and Thursdays are my "free days." I don't have classes and the only thing that I have to do is show up for an hour to help with the class that I TA. Well, my mom's in town this week to help with wedding plans so I didn't even have to go to campus today. "Lucky" you might think. I didn't have to do a thing! Well, I wish it were so.

After waking up extra early to grade all 80+ of the assignments that I had completely forgotten about, I headed out with my mom and my gramma to get an early start on the wedding planning for the day. At about noon I remembered that I was supposed to meet with my German group to film a movie for class AND... I was supposed to make an apple pie for that as well! Something that big you'd think I would have remembered! After I finished the pie, the three of us ran to the tux shop and another tie store. I think I've reached a point where I never, Ever want to see a green tie again! We looked at so many - and that was after mom and gramma narrowed the selection down for me! :) Then I rushed off to campus to meet with my group. A five minute skit took 3 hours to film!!!! I feel bad for all of the people who take part in movie-making. That seems less glamorous than ever, now!

So now I'm sitting here trying to do some homework before tomorrow. Obviously I'm getting pretty far with that one. I'm able to focus on a lot of other things, but that German paper is still hanging over my head and I can't seem to get back into the "German groove." I've officially decided that my brain ran away without me. Here we are, the week before finals and I'm left without a brain! The same sort of thing happens with computers sometimes: There's too much information going on and so it just shuts off. That must be the problem that girls have. We try to do far too much and once we're working on about 17 projects as well as taking on our kids'/friends' problems, we just start forgetting things. Our brains just get far too busy to keep up with everything so they just turn off every once in a while.

Now if I could just figure out how to schedule that "reboot" period to better fit my life...

Bridals!

2009-03-12T15:00:00.017-06:00

This past weekend was a blast! Saturday I had my bridal pictures taken. I got lucky because not only did my sister come with me, my mom just happened to be in Utah so she got to come down as well. We all went up to the Capitol building in Salt Lake City. I've never been there before and I was amazed. It's absolutely beautiful!

I had hoped to be able to do the bridals outside, but on a cold, windy day with snow in the forcast, there's only so much you can do. And a classical building with marble and pillars made a beautiful second choice. Mom took some pictures while we were there as well and as much as I'd love to post all of them, I can't. Ben doen't want to see me in my dress(/isn't supposed to see me) until the wedding day. So here's a couple that are maybe a little less "revealing." :D I'll post the rest later.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, we were graced by Marshall Nielsen's presence for the weekend as well. He flew out for the weekend to go skiing with Ben and Scotty. Aside from everyone getting sick, they all had a great time. :)

If you didn't guess, Ben's on the phone with me in that picture!

We also did a little test run on the restaurant Ben and I are wanting to have our wedding dinner at: Gloria's Little Italy. Like usual we gave high reviews. Since Ben and I first visited it in November, Gloria's has become our favorite restaurant. (In fact, Ben was going to propose there, but they were in the process of moving to a bigger and better location, so he chose La Caille instead.) Gloria's has the best Italian food I've had since I was in Italy!

Josh came down with mom and got to spend Saturday hanging out with "the guys" - Ben and Marshall. Afterwards well all went to dinner.

Bucket List

2009-02-25T13:37:00.009-07:00

So I'm giving in and finally doing some of these tags. I guess that's what happens when you're sick at home and tired of doing homework. Oh well.... The first part is some of my own things, followed by the actual 'bucket list' tag. I made comments next to the ones that I've already done, and left the others blank.

See the Giant's Causway and visit County Cork, Irelan
Watch the sun rise and set over the oceans... on the same day!
Make a chair/blanket/pillow fort and have a picnic inside
Do an impressionist style painting
See the northern lights in Alaska
Learn to sail
Sail around Greece
Become fluent in German, Italian, Spanish, French, ...........
See the Amazon
while there, go fishing for piranhas and eat them roasted in banana leaves
Visit Punxautawney Phil on Groundhog's Day (again)
Go iceskating in Central Park
"frolic" in a huge field with long grass and lots of wild flowers
Spend a day building sand castles
Own a little restaurant/cafe/book shop

And now to the tag....

Donated Blood
Skipped school - saddly, yes
Watched someone die
Watched a baby being born - 4 in fact, my siblings as well as one of my cousins!
Been to Canada
Been to Mexico
Been to Florida
Been to Hawaii
Been to Africa
Been to Russia - does a half-Russian speaking country (Ukraine) count?
Been on a plane - definitely
Been on a helicopter
Been on a Glider Plane
Been lost - a few times, my favorite was getting lost in Florence and discovering we were miles off the map
Gone to Washington, DC
Hugged a homeless person
Swam in the ocean - most definitely, I can't seem to go anywhere near the ocean without getting wet
Seen a Glacier
Swam with Stingrays
Been sailing in the ocean
Cried yourself to sleep - another one of those unfortunately affirmative answers
Played cops and robbers
Recently colored with crayons
Ran a marathon
Sang Karaoke - Love it!!
Volunteered at a soup kitchen
Paid for a meal with coins only - to the dismay of the servers...
Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
Seen the Northern Lights
Been Parasailing
Been on TV - I think so, but I don't remember at the moment. :)
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't - yep: some I probably regret and some were awesome!
Been Streaking
Made prank phone calls
Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose - Orange Juice. Ouch!
Fed an elephant
Caught a snowflake on your tongue - Yes, but Ben always laughs at me when I try
Fired a gun - Of course.
Danced in the rain - So much fun! What could be better?
Been to the Opera - Shall I list them? My favorite is still The Barber of Saville
Written a letter to Santa Claus - And got a reply... Boojah!
Serenaded someone - That's what happenes when you play guitar
Seen a U.S.President in person
Been kissed under the mistletoe
Watched the sunrise with someone - No, but watching a sunset on the beach should count for something. :)
Driven a race car
Been to a National Museum
Been to a Wax Museum
Eaten caviar - One of those things I said I'd never do... and did. It wasn't terrible.
Blown bubbles - "Blasen" (bubbles) are one of the favorite passtimes in my apartment!
Gone ice-skating - in my back yard, in fact.
Gone to the movies - probably too often.
Been deep sea fishing
Driven across the United States
Been sky diving
Gone snowmobiling - does riding with my dad when I was 5 count?
Have seen the "Green Flash" at sunset
Lived in more than one country - Austria, baby! Can't wait to go back! :)
Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets - One of the most incredible, awe-inspiring, and breath-taking things a person could do. Too bad there aren't more places you can see the stars.
Seen a falling star and made a wish - Most recently was driving to CA last October.
Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
Seen the Grand Canyon
Seen the Statue of Liberty - From a distance
Been to Times Square - Yep, it's quite a sight at night.
Been to Las Vegas - Sure have!
Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
Been on a cruise
Traveled by train - Regular train (to Slovakia) and night train (to Italy) in fact.
Traveled by motorcycle - (on the back that is)
Been horse back riding - since I was two
Ridden on a San Francisco cable car
Been to Disneyland OR Disney World - Disneyland. My sister and I are working on the record for "the most consecutive rides on the 'Thunder Mountain Railroad'." We lost track last time.
Truly believe in the power of prayer - When you've actually seen the power of prayer, how can you not believe.
Been in a rain forest
Seen whales in the ocean
Been to Niagara Falls
Ridden on an Elephant
Ridden on a Camel
Swam with dolphins
Been to the Olympics
Walked on the Great Wall of China
Seen the Pyramids in Egypt
Been snow-skiing - Only once - I usually snowboard.
Been to Westminster Abbey
Been to the Louvre - Loved it, although I was half-asleep through some of it.
Swam in the Mediterranean
Been to a Major League Baseball game
Been to a National Football League game
Swam with sharks
Been White Water Rafting
Written a book or screen play - And won a contest with my book and had it put in the county library (that was in third grade though).

Inspiration

2009-02-19T10:26:00.008-07:00

Just some of the ideas I've come up with for wedding themes/ideas while poking around the internet. :)

Engagement Pictures

2009-01-27T17:51:00.014-07:00

While we were in Montana over Christmas Break, we decided to have a good friend of mine (Margie Judd) take our Engagement Pictures. It was freezing! Actually, it was below freezing and it was snowing and the wind was blowing really hard. However, it was worth the pain and loss of minor limbs. Margie is a great photographer and I love the way our pictures turned out!

This last picture is my engagement ring. I acutally got to design it and I absolutely love it!
Ben did a great job. :)

If you didn't get it from my last post...

2009-01-27T15:28:00.039-07:00

...I'm Engaged!!!

Ben and I met over the summer on a blind date while I was visiting my "sister" in San Francisco. She thought it'd be fun for me to go on a date while I was there and arranged, with his sister-in-law, for us to meet. He had a fun evening planned with dinner followed by a sand-castle-building-competition at the beach. We went to the Elephant Bar Restaurant in Burlingame where I had the MisoYaki Fresh Grilled Salmon.
It was absolutely delicious! In fact, I still crave it every so often. Ben decided to be original with a couple mini-burgers and fries. We started talking and basically never stopped. By the time we finished our Chocolate molten lava cake and That was Wednesday.

On Thursday we decided to go to the beach for part 2 of our first date: The Sand Castle Competition. The competition part didn't work out so well, but we did end up making one fine sand castle.
Ben was so cute though! He brought a blanket and buckets and even packed a picnic dinner. After building the sand castle and getting drenched in the tide (like usual, I can't go to the ocean and stay dry), he carried me back to the car where we dried off and then sat on a bench to watch the sun set. Wie romantisch!
Afterwards we went back to Meagan's and helped her set up a facebook account. :)

Friday I was going to babysit for Meagan and Benj while they went on a date. At the last minute I decided to take Ben up on his offer to help me babysit. He came over and we had a blast taking care of Meagan's girls.

I discovered that Ben is great with kids!
I remeber thinking that it was too bad I wasn't that interested in him, because he was going to make a great father some day. He read to Ella while I put Anne to bed and then the three of us had a dance party in the living room.

***4 Months Later***

The Engagement Story. December 5, 2008

We were studying/watching a movie at my house when he got a phone call and had to leave suddenly. I was grading papers and paying more attention to the movie than to his phone call, so I didn't really mind, especially when he said it would only take 30 minutes.
Soon after he left, the doorbell rang and there were 5 roses sitting on the front porch, each with a different reason of why he loves me tied to it. It was so cute! At first I had a feeling that he was going to propose, but I talkled myself out of it saying that he did cute things like that all the time. I put the roses in a vase and sat back down to continue my movie/grading. As soon as I got comfortable, the doorbell rang again! There were another few roses with more reasons. I put those in the vase as well and sat down again. Just like before, as soon as I got comfortable the doorbell rang again!
This continued until I had 23 roses, each with a different reason why he loves me. The last rose came just before I sat down (thankfully) with a note telling me that I had dinner reservations at 6 and my chauffer would be picking me up at 5, to put on a nice dress and call my sister if I had any questions.
So... I sat down and finished grading the papers. When I looked at the clock I only had 10 minutes to get ready, so I panicked and ran around trying to find something to wear. I finished getting ready just as his roommate arrived and we headed out on the long drive to Sandy, UT, to the most incredible restaurant I've been to this side of the Atlantic: La Caille. It's a beautiful French restaurant built in the style of a French Chateau with most of the antiques imported from France.
We drove up the tree-lined drive where everything was decorated with Christmas lights and I was completely in awe of the whole thing. When we arrived, we went up to the third floor where Ben was waiting for me. He had the whole floor reserved so that we were completely alone. We had an amazing meal (Baked Onion Soup, Apple and Walnut salad on Butter lettuce, and Eastern Duck in a pomegranate sauce for me and Lobster Bisque, Arugula and Goat cheese salad, and a Steak with Scotch-Peppercorn sauce for Ben). It was another one of those meals where, afterward, I never wanted to eat again, for fear of doing that meal an injustice.
After dinner we went outside in what may have seemed a futile attempt to die of frostbite, but was really just another part of a wonderfully romantic evening - looking at all the Christmas lights. We walked around the grounds and then up the hill to a gazebo by a little pond. I was completely enthralled by the swan so I didn't notice the bench or the little box sitting on it. Ben suggested that we sit down and I when turned around he pretended to be startled and asked what it was. He sat me down on the bench and then got down on one knee and told me how much he loves me and asked me to marry him. As I said yes, I noticed camera flashes all around us. Then my sister and cousin jumped out of the bushes and took a ton of pictures of us, making us pose all over the grounds as well. He was so cute about all of it and it really couldn't have been more perfect. :)

Be Careful What You Wish For...

2009-01-26T23:57:00.001-07:00

Wow. It's already the end of January! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. As I looked at the date on my last post I decided that I should probably write something. My life has taken some interesting twists and turns in the past few months.
When I was younger, I used to look at people in the movies and think that they had to coolest lives and I would wish that my life was more exciting. Well, I got my wish. Basically, my life is like a movie, and just when I think it's finally over, something new happens. Recently it's been rather stressful (that, and school are what have kept me from adding to my blog), but when I'm able to take a step back and look at the big picture, it's rather amusing!
(*keep in mind movies like "The Notebook," "Made of Honor," and "Bride Wars.")

"Once upon a time there was a girl... She was dating a really great guy, but while visiting an out-of-state friend she was set up on a blind 'fun date'. She had a great time with the blind date, but still really liked her boyfriend. Sadly, her boyfriend went to a different school so she rarely got to see him. Mr. Blind Date, however, went to the same school as her and they enjoyed spending most of their time together doing fun things that friends do. Soon, Mr. Blind Date became Mr. Wonderful and she broke up with her boyfriend and started dating Mr. Wonderful. Just when she thought things were going smoothly, Mr. Fantastic decided to jump into the picture.

Mr. Fantastic was her best friend and missionary whom she had been writing to faithfully for 3.5 years. He came home from his mission and she decided to take a road trip out to see him. As fantastic and awesome as he was, and even though she had hoped/planned to marry him soon after he came home, she was falling in love with Mr. Wonderful. She started talking to Mr. Fantastic more often and she found out that they would be living next door starting in January, as well as taking one of the same classes. Then one night he asked her not to rush into the decision she was facing with Mr. Wonderful and to marry him instead. Unsure of what to do, she decided she needed some time away from both guys to figure things out. She wasn't that lucky. Then very next day, she was swept off to an incredible restaurant by Mr. Wonderful where he asked her to be his wife. As if two proposals in two days by the two men int the world she would marry wasn't quite enough excitement, she received a surprising phone call the following day. Mr. Fantastic had flown out to visit for the weekend! Talk about crazy!

After spending time with both Mr. Wonderful and Mr. Fantastic, she knew she had to make a decision fast. There was more stress, confusion, and sleep deprivation than she would have liked, and she almost lost the most incredible man in world, but in the end it all worked out. Taking into account the timing of things and her future plans among many other things, she realized that marrying Mr. Wonderful was the right decision. It was one of the hardest decisions she'd ever made, but now she is completely in love with Mr. Wonderful and couldn't be happier because that's exactly what he is: wonderful.

Now she had hoped that was the end of the story and they would get married and live happily ever after. Well, for the most part that's how it goes. But you didn't think her life would be so dull did you? Since October she had been tentatively planning bits and pieces of her wedding and was now able to dive in full force and get everything planned. The wedding date was set. As she searched for a place to hold the reception, she got the exciting news. Her roommate was getting married! What fun! Now the two of them could work on wedding plans together. Then they set the date and picked a location. Her roommate was getting married the same day as her. In the same place. One hour after she was!!! Was this some kind of joke? How impossible! Ah, but of course, knowing the story of her life, she should have expected something like this. Now not only does she have to plan a wedding while going to school, but she gets to make sure everything stays civil and friendly in all of the wedding planning that's going on.

I guess we'll just have to wait to see what will happen next..."

I Left My Heart in San Fransisco

2008-09-15T19:06:00.046-06:00

Here's a whirlwind picture tour of my visit to the "city by the Bay." Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, a must-see for anyone visiting San Francisco, where we walked past a guy swallowing fire. That was interesting to say the least. Of course, on our way over to see the Sea Lions we had to stop and point out Alcatraz. After a rather awkward incident trying to get a guy to take a picture of Meagan and I and having him totally ignore us, we were off to the main attraction. Yep, the Sea Lions.

Ella was thoroughly engrossed and didn't want to leave. Although she seemed a little confused as to why she kept hearing dogs barking and couldn't see anything other than those strange water creatures.

As we walked down the street we had the option to have our pictures taken with a guy dressed up as a dog and his dogs dressed up as guys... we opted to keep walking. We also watched a baker at Boudin's create incredible works of "bread art" including crabs, turtles, bears, and 6 ft long alligators!

After fighting off Seagulls as we ate clam chowder bread bowls for dinner, we headed off to Ghirardelli's for hot fudge sundaes.

Sie schmecken (they tasted great) and as you can see, Benj and Ella thoroughly enjoyed theirs. I must say though, European chocolate is still eleventy-billion times better. :) But, I guess you have to take what you can get.

I also had an opportunity to go with Meagan and visit the Oakland Temple. It was beautiful! Throughout the grounds there are small speakers playing hymns. It was amazing how peaceful it was, especially right in the middle of such a big city.

We took a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge
- what trip to San Francisco would be complete without doing that? As we started out we were reminded by flashing signs to 'drive with extreme caution' because of the 'heavy fog.' Heavy fog was right! You could barely see the bridge while driving across it. However, as we got over to the other side we came out of the fog and everything was so pretty! It was pretty cool to see the bridge disappear into the fog from the other side as well.

On the way home, Ella and I stopped and played at a little park. She had a blast on the swings and enjoyed making music on the garbage can lid, but quickly lost interest when some older boys brought their dogs to the park.

I've never seen a child so excited to see a dog! Most of the
time if a dog comes up and gets in their face they start crying...

Ella just squealed with delight!

I decided that I needed a little more cultural diversity so I took a trip to China.

Chinatown that is. We all went to lunch at the House of Nanking. Although the idea was kind of fun - to tell the chef what kinds of Chinese foods you like and dislike and then have him go make you something - I wasn't terribly impressed with the food. It seems that most people either love it or hate it. It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't my favorite either. After 'ordering' though, I was able to go for a walk through the streets of Chinatown. I wish I'd had more time to spend doing that. It was so cool! :) Luckily for me though, I left my purse with Meagan when I left.

This wouldn't be complete without a couple pictures of the darling girls who stole my heart in San Francisco.

Tony Bennett was right - I left my heart in San Francisco.

Back to School

2008-09-07T16:37:00.012-06:00

Well, after a long and event filled summer, I'm finally back in school. I've only had four days of classes and already I've had tests and assignments and the promise of presentations next week. Whatever happened to that nice, relaxing first week of class? It's good to be back though. I'm really excited for this semester!

This year I'm living in the Foreign Language Housing, speaking German. That means that I'm required to be home each evening for "house" dinners with all the German speakers. Inside the apartment we are only allowed to speak German. Actually, I'm really excited for it. In the past couple weeks I've already learned/remembered so much! So along with my German class, I'm also taking finance, design, dance, health/wellness, and religion. I also am a TA for one of my design professors. It's definitely a rather busy schedule, but I think it's going to be really fun.

For my last hurrah before heading off to school, I was able to go to San Francisco and visit my "adopted" big sister, Meagan Becker and her family. I had such a blast while I was there! I absolutely loved seeing the way Benj and Meagen interact. They're so cute together! Meagan, as always, was full of tips and pieces of advice, and I learned a lot about parenting. Benj is a wonderful husband to Meagan and a great dad to Ella and Anne. He also inadvertently helped me narrow down my "list of qualities in my future husband." [Although he would narrow it down even further to just one word: Michael] I think if I found someone as amazingly awesome as my Dad and Benj I'd be pretty happy.

Ella and Anne are some of the cutest little girls ever and I love them to death! I think my favorite thing was having Ella wake me up saying, "book, book!" and then run off, only to come back moments later carrying a stack of Dr. Seuss books and a big teddy bear. I think we read "Hop on Pop" and "I can read with my Eyes Shut" at least a couple times every day (not to mention all the others). Anne on the other hand, seems a little more subdued and she is such a doll! I did get to see her smile a few times while I was there, which was so cute! :D

So here's a little thank you to the Beckers for letting me stay with them for a week and play with their kids. I had a wonderful time!

And now, back to pressing matters at hand: Learning German! :)

PS - I'll put up pictures as soon as I can.

A few reasons why I love Montana...

2008-07-29T11:58:00.009-06:00

I had the opportunity a little while ago to go for a drive through one of my favorite places in Montana - the Bitterroot Valley. It's so beautiful there! I was reminded of why I love it here so much. Enduring the long, miserably cold winters are more than worth it.

Along with some of the most beautiful mountains, meadows, and fields of wild flowers (perfect for frolicking in), Montana is blessed with amazing thunderstorms and sunsets - two of my favorite things. Summer sunsets provide a vast range of ideas on a giant canvas and a never ending color palate.

Come one, Come all!! It's the National Folk Festival!!!

2008-07-14T12:52:00.005-06:00

Need I say more? The National Folk Festival has been around for 70 years... and this is the first time it's been west of the Mississippi!

I was lucky enough to still be "stuck" in Butte this past weekend, so I went uptown to enjoy some of the festival. It was so much fun! It was hard to walk down the street without dancing. There were stages with bands playing all over the place, booths set up selling anything imaginable. The air smelled like grilling meat and kettle corn. Mmmmmm....

It was impossible to see everyone that played, but my two favorite bands were Le Vent du Nord and Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. The only thing cooler than a band with an accordion is a band with an accordion and either a hurdy gurdy or a rub board! Woo Hoo!!

And the best part.... the Festival will be here for two more years!! So grab your friends and get ready to head up to Montana for a music filled weekend next July!

A chicken with it's head cut off.....

2008-07-14T09:36:00.012-06:00

Yep. That's kind of how I feel lately. I've been so busy, but I'm not really sure what all I've been doing either. I guess that's what happens when you're working all the time. However, this summer's been filled with little adventures as well.

In June we took our final family vacation. Well, final in that my sister's starting college next week, so with both of us off at school it's quite a bit harder to get the family together for trips the way we used to. Since we were going to be taking Hannah down to school anyway, we decided to go down to St. George for a week. It was so much fun and so nice to be able to just relax!

While we were down there we visited the Tuacahn Theater (I would definitely recommend it to anyone - visiting that area or not!). The first show we saw was Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables". This is my absolute favorite secular book of all time, so seeing the Operetta was wonderful! It was very exciting. The story is amazing and I've always loved the music as well. Especially the way it has recurring themes throughout the show. I.e.: there are multiple songs that talk of "unrequited love"; each has different lyrics and a different singer, but when you hear that melody, you know what the song's about.

The next show we went to was Rogers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music". This story (the movie) has been near and dear to my heart for most of my life. It goes all the way back to when my mom would sing to me as a little munchkin. I can still remember watching The Sound of Music for the first time and hearing "My Favorite Things" and being so excited because "that's the song that mommy sang to me!" After that I would watch the movie religiously and, along with my sister, sing "Do Re Mi" to anyone and everyone that would give me a few seconds' attention. To top it all off, during my semester abroad I had the opportunity to visit Salzburg, Austria... the place where The Sound of Music takes place and was filmed. So, needless to say, I was pretty excited to see the play at the Tuacahn. ...and it was wonderful!

After our fun-filled week in St. George, my dad, brother and I headed back home for work and scout camp. I made it to 3 days of work before heading out on my next adventure: Seattle.

A little before I went to St. George, I received a phone call from an old friend inviting me to be his date for the wedding of a mutual friend. So... after sitting up to all hours of the night on the phone with my favorite person, I got up at 4:30 in the morning to make it to the airport for my 6:00 am flight. (I have my wonderful friend to thank for that one.) After arriving in Seattle, meeting his roommates and giving him a crash course in ballroom dance basics, we headed down to Vancouver (Washington) for the wedding. It was such a blast and I got to see some of my old friends from 5th-9th grade. It's amazing how little some of them had changed. :)

The next day we headed back up to Seattle and made a stop in the little town of Westport. It just so happened that they were having their annual "Pirate Days" celebration. It was so cool! There was a cute little street market selling everything you can imagine, pirate-y and non, "Tug Boat" (along with others) singing pirate songs, and everyone was dressed up as pirates!!! I've always had a secret desire to be a pirate, so this was pretty exciting for me. I even saw a cute little old lady dressed as a pirate riding one of those motorized wheelchairs. I decided that'll be me in about 60 years.

Typical of the Pacific Northwest coast, it was about 58 degrees, cloudy, windy, and cold. Just what I was hoping for. I wandered around looking for seashells until I couldn't contain myself any longer and I kicked off my shoes and ran out into the tide. Then I turned around and ran right back out. It was freezing!! After a few minutes though, I was pretty numb to the cold and I had fun running around, in and out of the waves. Just before we were going to leave I saw a really cool seashell so I bent down to pick it up. I stood up just in time to see a HUGE wave hit me right at the waist. I was pretty wet after that. Luckily I had a change of clothes in the car. It would've been a long, miserable car ride otherwise. We even made it back to Seattle in time to watch people fly kites into the sunset at Gasworks Park. It was just like a scene out of a movie!

My last day in Seattle was spent wandering the streets of downtown Seattle. We visited the Pike Place Market and saw some of the most beautiful flowers and of course, the famous fish toss. And a trip to the market would not be complete without a visit to one of the pastry shops. There was a little Russian pastry shop, Piroshky Piroshky, and everything looked and smelled amazing. It was impossible to walk past without at least stopping to look in the window and enjoying the aroma of freshly baked goodies. We stopped. And bought pastries. And devoured them. They were absolutely delectable! Before heading back to the get my bags and go to the airport, we made a stop at the Sculpture Park. It was, ummm, interesting. I kind of liked some of the sculptures, but they were definitely very different and modern. Very fitting for Seattle.

Before I knew it, I was on an airplane heading back home. And although I only had a few sleep-deprived days there, it was such fun! And as for my big traveling adventures, that's my last one.... until August! :D

2008-04-09T19:11:00.002-06:00

Wait, I take that back - It's not snowing. I think the correct term would be blizzarding. Joy. :)

So much for spring...

2008-04-09T18:42:00.003-06:00

Well, I guess I got my hopes up a little too soon. It's snowing! It was really nice earlier today, but like the past little while, Mother Nature has been rather deceiving. We didn't get the typical 6-12 inches of snow on 1 April, but I guess all of this is just making up for it. :)

Last week I finished up my entry for a fashion design competition and it felt so good to be drawing and designing things again! I have no idea how I'll do in the competition, but it was fun nonetheless. Now I'll just have to keep up the designing... maybe come up with one new thing every week or two. Now, the trick is making the time for that, and everything else I want to do.

One thing is nice though. This is my last week working one of my jobs! I've been working at a clinic and it has been, well.... interesting. I'd say I have a ton of crazy stories, but unfortunately, everything is confidential. Oh well. I've definitely learned a lot working there, and it's been fun, but it will be so nice to start doing something else. Hopefully something with a better paycheck... :)

Thoughts...

2008-03-24T22:42:00.010-06:00

So, lately I've been feeling a little restless here in Butte. After gallivanting around Europe for 4 months, being "stuck" in a town where the hangout [for non-drinkers] is Walmart is not quite my idea of fun. Every so often I think, "to heck with school, I'm buying a ticket back to Europe!" Then my better judgment kicks in [luckily] before I do anything rash. **Here's an interesting fact - the verb "rashen" in German means to rush. I thought that was cool.** But I guess really, you could be "stuck" anywhere - it's not so much being stuck in a small town or something, but actually being stuck in a [negative] state of mind. So now I just have to find ways to stay busy and to do the things I want to. I don't have to live in New York or Paris just to design. I can (and should) do it wherever I am.

Well, along with everything else, I've been doing a little re-evaluation of what I want to do with my life. I'm currently majoring in Interior Design - and I love it, but I'm not completely satisfied. The problem? I love to cook, to bake, to create culinary delights. How to solve this problem? "Go to culinary school!" my chef-friend tells me. Well that sounds wonderful. Actually, it's something I've always wanted to do, but never really thought it was something I could do. Well, phooey on them, because I'm going. I don't know when exactly, and it won't be for a couple years yet, but I'm excited to have finally decided on it.

I decided that what I want to do is finish up and graduate at BYU (as quickly as possible) and then move to New York and attend the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and complete their Associates program. It's one of the best cooking schools there is, and with world-class chefs coming in from around the world as instructors, it's exactly what I want. ....Now to come up with the money....

On a different note, spring seems to finally be coming in Butte. Slowly, yes, but it's coming! I'm so excited! I think I'm being a little stubborn as well. Anytime the temperature reaches above 38 degrees I roll down my windows when I'm driving (even if it means turning the heat onto my feet so I don't freeze) :) It's so nice to finally have the sun out along with halfway decent weather! I even saw flowers starting to come up the other day!

Success!

2008-03-09T22:17:00.004-06:00

Weeks of "devouring" the Food Network's chocolate competitions has finally paid off! Not only have I come up with a rather long list of variations to a chocolate truffle, but I finally made an excellent ganache. Smooth and creamy, yet firm... until you bite into it, that is. Then it just melts in your mouth. Today I opted for a basic dark chocolate and almond ganache rolled in powdered almonds. Mmmmm...
That, along with my portabello mushroom and potato soup creation of last week, I'm feeling pretty confident with where my cooking skills are at right now. I think I'll stick with truffles for a little while right now though - there're still so many flavors to create and I still haven't done anything with a chocolate shell.

Just a note...

2008-02-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

So today, I decided I ought to update my blog. I'm still not sure what to do about the title. Seeing as I'm no longer in Europe, I feel that I should probably change it. Any suggestions will be welcomed indeed!

Anyway, I picked this lovely new template and was quite pleased with the way everything looked. Then I visited Liesl's blog. No wonder I liked that template so much. Liesl's already got it. So, I thought about changing it, but I liked this one too much. Oh well.

So Liesl, if you don't like the fact that we're matching, you're gonna have to change this time! :)

Rude Awakening

2008-02-03T16:25:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and something doesn’t feel quite right? You walk down the street and you notice that something feels just a little bit different than what you're used to. Then it hits you. You're not in Europe anymore.

Welcome to my life. It's been over a month, and yet occasionally I'll say something in German before realizing that no one here understands that language. I still have trouble shopping for produce and not looking for the little scale/price machine. And those little wilty bundles of soup vegetables were ever so lovely. Pushing a cart feels rather odd as well.

Something interesting though, is that since being home, I'm noticing things - European-type things - more often. Butte's cool that way. The old buildings with their pediments and ornate decor, the random little pub on the corner, the rooftops of little Victorian-style homes all clumped together. Granted, most people who live here, or come through here say there's nothing to do. I'll have to agree with that for the most part. Unless you're a heavy drinker, your options are: going bowling or going to the movies, or there's always the option to wander through Wal-mart. The thing that a lot of people don't realize is that Butte has a very rich history, and there's actually quite a bit to do. You just have to look.

So that's one of my goals for the next little while. I'm taking a semester off of school and working here at home, so since I'm gonna be here for a while, I may as well make the best of it right? I'm determined to find at least 5 cool things here in Butte. And the refrigerated section of Wal-mart doesn't count. Maybe I'll be able to find some new and different "local cuisine" to sample. I'm already a fan of the pasties, and since I don't drink, I'll have to pass on the beer. I still haven't tried corned beef and cabbage. I'll have to do that - St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon and everyone eats it around that time of year. I've gotta live up to my Irish heritage somehow.

The Death of a Prophet

2008-01-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take a moment to remember our beloved President Gordon B. Hinckley. As the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for the past 12 years, he was able to do many things that he will be greatly remembered for. (for more articles on the recent event go here and here)

Although I have vague memoried of other prophets living and dying when I was younger, President Hinckley has been the prophet during some of the most influential days of my youth. Like many, I came to love the humorus, caring, and all around wonderful man whom the Lord called to be our prophet so many years ago, and I will truly miss him. However, my initial feeling, when hearing the news, was peace.

One of the things that he seemed to focus on during his service, was building temples. Just recently I had the opportunity to attend the open house for the new Temple built in Rexburg, Idaho. Like every other Temple I've had the privilege to be in, or seen pictures of, it was absolutely beautiful. It is amazing the peace that can be felt in these buildings. The fact is that they are so much more than just buildings that makes them so special. Each is dedicated as a house of the Lord Jesus Christ as a place of holiness and peace, where (among other things) one can be sealed to their family for time and all eternity.

It was such a wonderful experience for me to be able to walk through the Temple, especially having a "tour guide" to explain more about Temples, and the one I attended in particular. I would definitely recommend a tour at the open house of whichever Temple is being dedicated next.

A few of the temples that have special meaning to me.

Baden, Liesl, and Home.

2007-12-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago, we took a jaunt over to Baden. It’s a lovely little town that is basically built around the hot springs. We spent a couple hours wandering around the won before we headed to the baths. We walked through a few of the Christmas Markets and then took a detailed tour of the parking complex for the baths while we searched for the baths themselves. Finally we found it, noted the prices and hours it was open, and headed out to find lunch. I opted for my typical European afternoon meal – bread, meat, and cheese. Like usual, it was excellent.

After lunch, we hiked up to the Beethoven Temple. It gave us a really pretty view over the town. After we had seen that, we walked past the Mozart Temple before heading to the baths.

The baths were fantastic! In one of the pools, the water was just the perfect temperature. Every few minutes there were different water jets that would go off every couple minutes. Some places the water was shooting up out of the ground and others it was bubbling all over. It was really fun to try to jump/swim over the jets. It was pretty forceful and rather hard to get over. If you did it just right though, you could float on your back on top of the jet, above the rest of the water. It was so cool! After playing in that pool, we crawled under the bridge and jumped into the next pool. This one was a little deeper and there were no fun islands or water jets. However, I liked this pool much better. The water was a little cooler – the perfect temperature for swimming laps. The ceiling/roof above the pool was made of big glass tiles that you could kind of see through. You could also wee your reflection in it. It was amazing! You could see yourself floating through the sky and it looked like you were flying. What was even cooler, was that there was water playing under water! When you were swimming you could hear the music. It was cool underwater-type music and it kind of makes you feel like a mermaid! It was such a fun day!

Now on to the main reason for this post. Liesl. On the way home from Baden, I had my camera and got bored. Liesl was sitting across from me, so I had some fun. She has so many crazy facial expressions! It’s great!

My next item of business - I'm coming home tomorrow!!! I can't believe it's come so soon! Things are all going so fast. I'll add more pictures to this blog later. I've gotta run to dinner and then finish packing!

Thanksgiving... Europen Style.

2007-12-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

As you may know, Thanksgiving is a North American holiday. So, being in Austria during the holiday led us to question what exactly we would be doing. To celebrate or to not celebrate.... that definitely was the question. Luckily for us, (instead of paying the 20+ Euro for the dinner that school set up) Elder and Sister Robison set up a huge Thanksgiving Dinner for us at the LDS Institute Building. It was great! We all pitched in and made a wonderful dinner. I was put in charge of the sweet potatoes and so I got to make my sweet potato cheesecake and some candied sweet potatoes. I thought they turned out pretty good.

Kimberlee, Heather, and Anne making mashed potatoes

David being domestic... way to go Dave!

Our dinner was really good, and it was fun to have us all eating together like that. After we stuffed ourselves on turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, peas, fruit salad, and rolls, it was time for dessert. There were pumpkin pies, apple crisp, and of course, my sweet potato cheese cake. We all ate so much it hurt!! After dessert, a couple of us went for a walk to try and alleviate some of the pain. Then it was time for the talent show.

Dessert... Guess which one I made. :)

The first act was an interpretive dance themed on the First Thanksgiving. I think “interesting” would be a good word for it. We could hardly hear the music because everyone was laughing so hard! It was great! Our second act was me. OK, so that sounded really weird. I played my guitar. It was kind of funny, because I didn’t know that I was going second and so when they called my name, I still hadn’t picked a song to do. I had to kill some time with the story of Marty – my guitar – while I chose a song to sing. It was fun though and I thought it went rather well. After that, we were graced with everything from hula dancing, to music videos, to violin concertos! Over all, it was definitely a great day.

Lainzer Tiergarten

2007-11-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

Another week come and [almost] gone here in Vienna. This week, Eric and I finally made it out to the Lainzer Tiergarten. We didn't have any big trips or tests to worry about and it was quite relaxing to just have a few days to just spend peacefully in Vienna. The Tiergarten was the perfect choice. It's a great wildlife preserve out it the 23rd district of Vienna (out it the country). It's so beautiful out there and it was really nice to get out of the city for a while. We also picked the perfect day head out because it started snowing at noon today and it's suppsed to snow for the rest of the weekend! We discovered some fun, new animals.

There was the Damwild (or Fallow Deer, in English)

and the Mufflon (aka: Mouflon)

and even European Bison.

Aparently, the Mouflon is a kind of wild sheep or “goat antelopes." We learned that it is thought to be one of the two ancestors of modern sheep breeds! They were pretty cool, but not nearly as friendly as the Fallow Deer. In fact, one of the deer came right up to the fence and after a little sniffing, one of them let me pet him!

He was terribly cute! Then two adorable little kids with their grandma came over and we all pet/fed the deer.

The little girl was just darling! She looked about three and she kept picking "mitten-fulls" of grass and then she would hold it out to me and say "Bitte, bitte!" (Asking me to feed it to the deer). [Note: Fallow Deer prefer clover to grass; just in case you were wondering.]

Right now is getting to the end of the "Rut season" for Fallow Deer and we got to watch a few chases. One of the males was being rather territorial and would chase off all the other males. He chased one poor female all around the field (and was joined by two other males), until she had the sense to go back to her group of girlfriends - then the guys left her alone. Sounds just like humans! I think the best part was the lady's explanation to her grandchildren of what the deer were doing and saying. "Er sagt, 'Ich liebe dich, ich leibe dich'!" It was quite fun.

After thoroughly enjoying the deer and the sheep, we went looking for the wild boar that they apparently have in the park. Unfortunately, the only other animals that we saw were European Bison, or as Eric would say, "Sissy French Buffalo". It wasn't nearly as exciting as frolicking boar would have been, but I guess that just means that we'll have to go back in the snow and look for them again!

**This sad little pile of snow is all that is left from the snow that we got last Sunday. Hopefully next time I got to the park there will be a little more snow than this!**

Dublin, Prague, and then some...

2007-11-09T03:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, here I am, late again with my posts. So much has happened in the past couple weeks! Two weeks ago was our last group trip… to Prague! Our train ride there was lovely. The countryside through the Czech Republic was so beautiful! There were so many cute little villages with cute little houses! It was great! I didn’t really know what to expect once we got to Prague. I had been told how wonderful and beautiful it was, but other than the Charles Bridge, I didn’t really know what it had to offer.

It was amazing! The weather forecast had predicted rain for the whole week, but somehow we got lucky and only got a 5 minute sprinkling on the second day we were there. (Taylor claims that since her offering of an apple core to Mother Nature back on our trip to Melk, the weather has been in our favor…) Although it didn’t rain, it was cloudy and overcast the whole time we were there and it made all of the colors seem so much more vibrant. I loved it in Prague. Every couple minutes I would have to just stop and remind myself that I was really there.

We had a tour almost every morning with our wonderful tour guide, Vladimir. The first tour took us around the city, mostly to get our bearings. The next morning we went down to the Jewish Quarter. There were some interesting memorials and a really cool cemetery. It was more of a tombstone forest than anything else. Our tour the next day took us up to castle hill and on a tour of St. Vitus and St. George’s Cathedrals, to name a few. I think, for me, the one of the coolest things in Prague is the different architecture and design. Every building is so different and just standing in one square you can see styles ranging from Gothic to Romanesque to Art Nouveau to Cubist to Baroque. It’s really fascinating. I also think that Prague has one of the coolest skylines – sticking out above all of the other buildings are hundreds of different spires, including those of the “Sleeping Beauty” castle. We saw the Powder Tower, the Charles Bridge, the Old Bridge Tower, the Prague Castle, St. Vitas’ Cathedral, St. George’s Basilica, Wenceslas. Square, etc…. One of the things that I got to see while we were there was really interesting. It was a museum of medieval torture devices! I’ve never seen one and it was disgusting, sick, terrible, heart-wrenching, cruel and unusual, and all around fascinating!

One of the things that Prague is known for is it’s beer. I couldn’t tell you from first-hand experience, but apparently Pilsner Urquell is some of the best in the world! Every meal in Prague consisted of beer and maybe some food to keep you from getting too sick the next morning. (actually, they even make soap, makeup, and bath products out of beer!) The Czech Republic is also one of the only places in the world where Absinth is even legal… and they sell it everywhere! According to Eric’s “Cheap Eats” book about Prague, Absinth is a very strong alcoholic drink to say the least. It is made from wormwood and side effects range from hallucinations, to seizures, to amnesia, and the flavor has been compared to bilge water at it’s best, to toxic waste at it’s worst. In case I really need to say it, Prague is a rather drunken city. Our first night in Prague we went to dinner and our waiter so completely drunk – he could hardly walk straight! He had a hard time taking our orders, and then later, figuring out how to give us our bill. While we were there, he broke a huge mug and then a set of salt and pepper shakers. Then as we were leaving, he took our plates in the back and immediately we heard a huge crash! I kind of felt bad for the guy, but it was really funny!

Along with drinking, a very popular pastime in Prague seems to be defenestrating people, or in other words, throwing each other out of windows. Apparently there have been multiple “Defenestrations of Prague.” We were very lucky and got to walk right under the window where the 2^nd Defenestration of Prague took place. “….and threw him out the window, the window, the second story window….” It gives such a new meaning to the old nursery rhyme.

Another of my highlights was our lunch adventure on Friday. We went to a little restaurant in the more residential area, where we were the only people not speaking Czech. That was fun enough in itself, but then I saw the menu for the daily special. They were serving vareyky! I was so excited! I’ve been craving some good varenyky since I was in Ukraine and this definitely fulfilled my desire (now I want more… oh dear). Even better though, I got the very last – as soon as I ordered, they crossed it off the menu board! It was great!

We got home from Prague and that gave me a couple days to get my laundry done, get packed and ready to leave for Dublin, and brace myself to go from one drunken city to he next. I thoroughly enjoyed those couple days of soberness. We took a bus to Bratislava and it was kind of cool to get to look out at the city as we were driving through it. The last time we were in Bratislava it was raining so hard and we didn’t get to really see a whole lot. Bratislava looks like a pretty cool place! After a little confusion with our tickets, we got on the plane and we were off to Ireland! It was around this time that we remembered it was Halloween. We knew that in Austria they don’t celebrate Halloween and we wondered if was just an American tradition, or if other European countries (Ireland included) celebrated Halloween. Boy, were we in for a big surprise. As we flew in over Dublin, we could see huge bonfires and fireworks going off everywhere! It kind of reminded me of the view of Butte from my house on the Fourth of July where you can see fireworks going off in almost every direction! It was so cool to see fireworks from above. Once we got settled into our hostel and started walking around town, we saw so many people wearing costumes! Many more teenagers and young-ish adults, and not as many children. We decided that the interpretation of Halloween in Ireland was to see how much leg you could show and still be legal. Most all of the girls were wearing mini-skirts in one form or another, and we even saw a couple guys in mini-skirts. That was a little disturbing.

Dublin felt like a mix between America and Europe. It was kind of strange. Most of the signs were written in two languages: English and Celtic, although most everyone speaks English there. And then there were European restaurants and stores, with a scattering of things like McDonalds, Quiznos, TGIFridays, etc… So fun! Another rather interesting thing is that, just like in England, they drive on the left side of the road! I didn’t realize this at first until I walked past a parked car with someone sitting in the drivers’ seat and it was on the “wrong side!” It was so crazy! It didn’t really affect me when we were walking down the road, but it was the little things, like remembering which way to look when crossing the street that made me really confused. Luckily for us, at the crosswalks, they had little things painted on the road saying “Look Left” or “Look Right” or there would be a picture of an eye with an arrow showing you which way you needed to look. They were very helpful! I guess they had too many tourists get squished so they put in signs. Our first full day in Dublin we spent in the city, seeing all the sights. We started our day at Phoenix Park and then went to [part of] the National Museum of Ireland. My favorite exhibit there (of course) was the one that was specifically furniture and design. They had a beautiful exhibition of a style that I have never seen before! It’s called Neo Celtic. It’s very cool! It seems to incorporate a few different styles, but mainly uses different Celtic patterns and designs. I really like it, and it was really cool to see something completely different. We also went to see the Guinness Storehouse, the Christ Church Cathedral, the Dublin castle, the Book of Kells, and then instead of taking a tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, we heard that they were having a special musical service for All Saint’s Day that evening, so we went to that. The music was absolutely beautiful! We got to see so many other things while we were walking around as well.

Then on Friday we got up and did a little bit of shopping and stuff and then we caught a train to a little town called Howth. It's right on the coast and everything was so beautiful! We started walking towards a lookout point that we had seen when we were getting off the train and ended up walking all over the place. We had a lovely little picnic lunch on the extremely green side yard of a little church that we past. Then we kept walking. After quite some time we figured we had probably gone too far or something and we were going to turn back, but then we saw a horse. With 5 girls, Eric was slightly out numbered and so we stopped to feed, play with, and take pictures of the horse. Finally we turned around and went up a different road. That led us right where we wanted to be. We found a lighthouse on the edge of the white cliffs and right next to it we saw a little staircase that went down the side of the cliffs right to a little beach. Of course, we went down to it and climbed on the rocks and played in the water. It was so fun! It’s been so long since I was at the coast and it was really nice. The water itself was cold, but not freezing. Actually, the weather there was really nice the whole time and everything was so green! Yes, it is the Emerald Isle, but I didn't expect it to look and smell like spring in November. There were even flowers everywhere!

Overall, I loved getting to spend time in Ireland. It’s someplace that I’ve always wanted to go and now that I’ve had a little taste of it, I can’t wait to go back!

DUBLIN

HOWTH and THE COAST

Budapest

2007-10-21T10:58:00.000-06:00

Well, I’m getting this up a little later than I had planned, but last week we had our trip to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is such a beautiful city! There was quite a bit that was similar to Vienna, but overall there was a different feel to the town. The Danube runs right through the middle of the two towns, Buda and Pest, and they are connected by the Chain Bridge (among other bridges). On thing that I found very interesting about Budapest is that instead of cleaning up and rebuilding everything after the wars, they have left bullet holes in buildings, and created countless monuments to war victims and such. They also managed to keep their “Hungarian-ness” so now, visiting the country, you are still able to see, feel and taste their culture. I decided to do something a little different this time. Instead of writing everything I did, I'm going to take you on a picture tour of my stay in Budapest.

The money (Forints) was really fun - like playing Monopoly... they didn't have "dollars and cents" - we dealt in thousands!

The week in Budapest was perfect - nice weather and beautiful fall colors.

We took a tour that took up into the castle district ... they were so beautiful!

Hungarian, or Magyar is a very interesting language. It's not similar to anything else! I felt completely helpless. My Germanic and Romantic language skills did not serve me well at all.

There were quite a few homeless people sleeping in parks and other areas. Walking up these stairs it felt like I was intruding on someone's home.

Backyard community laundry. It was somewhat run-down but it had a nice feel to it.

Watching the sunset from the castle district on the first night in Budapest while writing in my journal. It was so beautiful! I took a series of pictures about every five minutes. It was great.

This was beautiful little walking path along the castle wall. The beautiful view of the city and the fall colors came complete with cannons.

This is the beautiful Chain Bridge over the Danube. The way everything was light up at night was potentially more amazing than the buildings themselves during the day.

This is a rather interesting Synagogue. It was designed/built by a catholic man who had never been in a synagogue before. It looks just like a cathedral, except that where there should be crosses, there are Stars of David.

"Whoever saves a life is considered as if he has saved an entire world."

Holocaust Memorial - each leaf has a name on it.

This is one of the bombed out buildings - you can see the bullet holes in the side... the largest being in the middle of the wall just between the two cars. The inside of the building is not much more than an empty shell.

We were going take these stairs down the hill, but they didn't go very far...

The stairs we ended up taking...

Sunrise on the Danube. Beautiful! What more can I say? It was such a great way to start out the day.

The train station built by Gustav Eiffel - also known for designing the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the train station is not kept up quite as well as the Tower. It was pretty awesome though.

We found a mini zip-line at one of the parks we went to. It was really fun, but we were pretty worried about scraping the ground as we went.

Rebekah and I on the bridge just before we went to Margret's Island. It was so windy!! The island was really cool though. There were so many wonderful trees and we stopped to climb quite a few of them.

One of the spectacular trees that we climbed. This one was just perfect for sitting, swinging, and/or reading in.

I don't know what this was for... it was just standing out on the side of the road. Weird.

We hiked up to see the "Lady Liberty" on the hill and on the way we passed a little waterfall. It is actually part of some monument and the waterfall is man-made... but it looked pretty cool anyway.

Up on the hill with the Lady Liberty statue, we found a line of huge machine gun/cannons. Of course, we had to stop and take pictures on them. They were kind of scary.

It was really cold up on the hill and so we stopped for some hot chocolate in an amazing little cafe. The whole place was done in a very modern design. It was very sleek and artsy feeling. They were out of hot chocolate, so they brought out some hot carmel. It was wonderful! We enjoyed our hot carmel so much, so we decided to order some chocolate cake. It was so good! I've never had anything like it! It looked amazing and it tasted better than it looked!

On the way back to Veinna, we passed seemingly endless fields of windmills. They were so beautiful.

Der schönste Mantel in der Welt

2007-10-16T04:11:00.000-06:00

I forgot to post this earlier, but while we were in Salzburg I found the most spectacular, amazing, and wonderful coat ever. I instantly fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I didn't have the 700 + Euro that it cost. It is one of the most beautiful coats ever... the color is great and the cut is very flattering. I'm sad I didn't get it (it's probably for the best, though), but at least I have a picture of it.

PS - Christmas is coming up soon... If anyone is wondering what I'd like for a Christmas present when I get home, this would be the perfect gift. I'm sure some sort of group gifting could be arranged... ;)

Belated pictures from Venice

2007-10-14T11:01:00.000-06:00

Es tut mir leid that I didn't get these up sooner. Hungary is coming soon....

Pictures from Florence, Italy!

2007-10-08T09:55:00.000-06:00

Better Late than Never...

2007-09-30T09:58:00.000-06:00

What a week. Actually, the past few weeks have been so busy and so amazing! This past week was reasonably slow in comparison to the weeks before. We had class and we took a trip to three little towns just outside Vienna, including Carnuntum to see the Roman ruins! It was pretty cool. I bought a German cook book in our stop at Eisenstadt and I’m really excited to try it out. All the recipes look fantastic! The week before last was our trip to Italy, and the week before that was Salzburg.

Our trip to Salzburg included stops at Mauthausen, Hallstadt, the cathedral at St. Wolfgang, and of course, Salzburg. Our first stop was Mauthausen at the Concentration Camp. I took a few pictures, but I really struggled going through the whole thing. They had a museum with pictures of the prisoners and some of their clothing, and some of the "tools" used to "discipline" them (i.e. whips, etc...) It was very sobering. It was kind of ironic, but really nice - across the street from the Camp was a huge field of the most beautiful sunflowers I've ever seen. It helped to kind of lighten the mood.

Our next stop was in Hallstadt. A beautiful little alpine town tucked into the mountains on the edge of a lake. Can things really get more beautiful that that? We were there for only one night, but it was spectacular! We had the whole afternoon/evening to wander around the town and that’s exactly what we did. We found a giant chess board next to one of the building, so Anne and I challenged Eric to a game. We lost. :_( We also went into a lot of the little shops. There were quite a few that sold soap and salt! One of the shops had the most amazing soaps that I’ve seen! There were roses that looked absolutely real, and fruit that looked and smelled good enough to eat!! For dinner we ate at this amazing restaurant where the ivy that's growing up the outside of the building actually comes in the windows and grows around the room. It was really cool, and the food was spectacular. I had a filet of deer with a spectacular mushroom sauce and the most amazing mixed vegetables and potato croquets, and other things. Mmm… Lecker! It was one of the best things I've ever eaten and after dinner, I decided that I would never eat again because food can never quite compare with that. : )

The next morning we went on a tour of the world's oldest salt mine that just happens to still be running! Apparently, they started mining salt in Hallstadt around the same time that the Egyptians started building pyramids, and there's even a historic period named after this town. (you know, like all of the dinosaur periods and stuff). We also went to see the “Bone House.” The big church in the town has a beautiful little cemetery, but the problem is that it’s too small. So, to fix that problem, a long time ago they made it more of a rented space. So… after about 10 years, they’ll dig you up to make room for someone else. For years, after digging up the body, they would take the bones, paint the names and dates (and any other decoration on them) and put them in the bone house. It was cool, but kind of weird at the same time. Of the places we visited during this trip, Hallstadt was by far my favorite.

We stopped on the way to Salzburg for a mini-tour of the cathedral in St. Wolfgang. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we enjoyed sitting along the wall outside the cathedral, overlooking the lake…especially after our tour - It was very cold inside the church. We learned that, as the story goes,(the builder of the cathedral??) made a deal with the devil to help build the cathedral. Apparently, he promised the devil the soul of the first living being to enter the cathedral after it’s completion in return for help building the cathedral. When it was completed, the first thing that walked into the church was a wolf, and the devil was so mad that he shot right out of the church through a hole in the roof… which is still there! Crazy.

There were a lot of cool carvings here... this was one of the more crazy ones.

Super awesome picture with a fine door specimen.

Eric making fun of my door picture...

Marie and I soaking in the sunny afternoon.

From there we went on to Salzburg. It was a beautiful town, and there was so much to see. It was definitely much more touristy. The two (huge) things that Salzburg is known for are: 1) the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (and part of his growing up days), and 2) the setting/filming place of The Sound of Music. Needless to say, there were a lot of people and a lot of things going on. They were also having a festival/carnival thing celebrating their patron saint, St. Rupert. We went on a tour of the city in the morning and then we were free to wander. We went to Mirabell gardens, which were so beautiful! We also found a cute little park in the middle of them with the most amazing slide! It was super fun…and definitely made it up there in the Top 10 Slides list. : ) On one of the streets (as part of the festival) there were multiple booths set up where you could see different professions and watch the people working. It was so cool! There was a watch/clock maker, a baker, a rug maker, a blacksmith, a hat maker, not to mention many other things! There were so many fun things going on, and so many guys wearing lederhosen! It was quite funny. There was a stage set up in one of the squares with a bunch of men doing some traditional dances. It was quite fun to watch. We hiked up the hill to the castle and while we were up there we decided to eat dinner. The food was pretty good and the view was spectacular! While we were up there, I found a little marionette museum. It was cool, but kind of freaky at the same time. There was one set up so that you could try it, so I put on my own little puppet show. After dinner, we went back into town for dessert. We went to what could very well be the oldest restaurant in the world! The restaurant (St. Peter’s) was established in 803! We ordered Salzburg Nockerl, (which was divine) and we had the coolest waiter ever! Besides the fact that we witnessed him switch (fluently) between four different languages, when I asked him what was in the Nockerl, he told me exactly how they make it and told me I could make it at home! Most restaurants like that won’t tell you how to make the food… The next day we found a spectacular tree (the one in some of the pictures that Michael Voge sent me) and took a big group picture on it. After that, we took at tour of the house that Mozart grew up in. Very cool. Then for lunch, Eric and I decided to sample some of the gourmet food back at St. Peter’s. We figured that since the restaurant it’s self was beautiful, and the dessert was really good, the actual food would probably be phenomenal. I ordered “three kinds of salted herring with pumpernickel” (we were in Salzburg… I though the salted fish would be a nice addition to my experience) and a creamy tomato soup. It was served beautifully and the food was so good! The fish was definitely salty, but oh so good! After lunch we all loaded back onto the bus and headed back to Vienna.

Our Italy trip was so great! We stayed in two different towns: Florence and Venice! I still can’t believe that I was in Italy! We left Monday afternoon and took a night train to Italy (it was terribly uncomfortable). There were little fold down bunks, scratchy blankets, and pillows that don’t deserve to be called pillows. After folding it into quarters it was still too flat! We arrived in Florence at about 6:30 Tuesday morning and dropped off our bags at the hotel. Then we headed out into town and had one of the longest days ever! Our first stop was the Duomo, as they say it in Italy. We got there while everything was still closed and there were (amazingly) hardly any people around, so we got to walk around the outside and admire the beautiful architecture and watch the sunrise! Finally we were able to go inside and we walked up all 464 steps to the very top of the dome. We were able to see all of the beautiful frescos on the ceiling, and then we went up a little further and it took us right out onto the roof! We had the most spectacular view of the city, and with the sun just coming up, it kind of gave you the feeling that you could just fly! From the roof, we could see a little market, so eventually we went back down all 464 steps and went over to the market. By the time we were supposed to meet the group back at the hotel at noon to check in, we were all pooped and so we took naps and showers and got all freshened up to head back into town. There were so many people!!! We went past the Duomo again and the square was so thick with people that it was actually hard to walk through! (I've learned that I really don't like tourists, or being a tourist, so I tend to avoid the huge throngs.) Heather, Liesl, Eric and I spent the day wandering the streets of Florence and it was spectacular! We found a little gelato (Italian ice-cream) shop and it was so good! After eating it there, all the rest that we tried wasn’t even mediocre! That evening we met the whole group at Michelangelo Piazza and we were all going to get some food and watch the sun set. Heather, Eric and I had heard of a really good restaurant that we wanted to try, so we set off on a hunt for the restaurant. After walking for an hour, we still hadn’t found it, so we decided to turn around and go to this amazing little pizzeria that we had seen earlier. After the 1 hour walk back to town and then walking to the other side of town, we were really hungry! There was a half hour wait to get into the restaurant, so we went to a little park/square nearby and watched a guy running around on crazy springy shoe type things. The pizza was exceptional, and I think the fact that we were so hungry made it even better! We calculated that, subtracting a few hours for showering, napping, and eating, we had been walking for 14 hours straight that day! Amazing. No wonder my feet were a little sore!

On Wednesday most of the group was going to Pisa. It sounded kind of fun, but the 3 hours spent on a train, not to mention waiting time, was a slight deterrent especially when there was so much to see and do in Florence! So, needless to say, I didn't go. Instead I hung out with Liesl (the professor's daughter – he’s so worried about her, and so worried that she’s going to be a burden on us because she’s younger…) and Eric. We went back and wandered around the different street markets. They’re some of my favorite places in every town. There are so many different sights, smells, and sounds to take it. It’s so fun! Well, we were in Italy, so after a lot of haggling with three different vendors, I bought an Italian leather jacket! I quite like it, and I even got complements from other jacket vendors on my jacket while walking through the market! It was pretty funny. Actually, everything I've been told about how Italian men are very forward is so true! I got hit on so often I just had to laugh! For example, when we were finally leaving the market, on of the vendors said hi as we passed - they all do that - and then he was like, "Remember me? This morning you told me you loved me!" We all laughed pretty hard after that one. On Thursday we went to see Michelangelo's David. It was amazing! There were little David souvenirs all over town, and two big replicas in different parks, but after seeing the really thing, they looked so terrible! It's so amazing that someone could create something so perfect, and doing it in stone makes it just that much more spectacular! I really could have sat there all day. There was so much emotion in the face. Although the sculpture seems too muscular to be a young boy (however young David actually was), it's as if Michelangelo was using that to show David's inner strength. It was interesting to look at the sculpture and think that only Michelangelo could create something so beautiful and so perfect, and then to realize that God did the same thing, in creating something so beautiful and so perfect, but the amazing difference is that God’s creation works! Wow. I took a picture of David and then was told by the guards to put my camera away, so it's not the greatest shot, but it's better than nothing. : ) After that, we were going to go to the Medici palace and gardens, but it was a little too expensive, so we just kind of wandered around enjoying all the sights, sounds, and smells of Florence. We came across a beautiful little winding path lined with trees so we followed it to a park. It was just lightly raining on and off and the sun kept coming out and it was so beautiful! We took a lot of pictures in the park and then kept walking. We were already pretty far off the beaten, tourist track, discovering some beautiful new stuff and it was great. We ended up in some little neighborhoods and they were so cute! We had to get back to the hotel to catch the train to Venice and at this point we had no idea where we were! Eventually we found a gorgeous hotel and they had a little map showing where they were in relation to town. As Eric put it, we were a good 3-4 inches off the map, south of town! It started raining a little harder and we saw a bus so we jumped on. Just in time too - when we sat down, it started hailing! The bus dropped us off right by our hotel and we even had time to stop for lunch (we had been ready for lunch for about 4 hours)!

We got to Venice and I was so excited! It was evening and raining when we got there. Apparently there had been flooding the day before, so the hotels we short some rooms and we ended up being split up into 3 different hotels! At this point I was starting to feel a little sick (everyone in the group was getting sort of sick), but I decided to ignore it and enjoy Italy. I'm sure I wasn't the only one praying for sun while we were there, but when we woke up it was still overcast, cold and rainy.

Friday was our only full day in Venice and after about 5 minutes we were officially lost. Basically we spent the day wandering around and it was so great! I think it’s impossible to NOT be lost in Venice. It makes me wonder how people could live there. We had 2 different maps, but they didn't help much because the little alleys - aka "roads" were not labeled at all! After being very cold for a while, the sun did finally come out and it was quite warm. My very favorite part of Venice was when we went to St. Marco's Piazza. From the direction we entered it, you could see the beautiful buildings down at the far end, and the rest of the plaza was full of pigeons! There must have been thousands! And, they were fairly tame. At first we just stood there and watched what was going on around us and they would just walk right over our shoes! Then one came and landed on my shoulder! It was so cool! They were selling birdseed for 1 Euro, so I bought some and as soon as the birds saw the envelope in my hand, I was covered in birds! It was so fun! They were on my head, shoulders, arms, hands, clinging to my coat, sitting in my purse, everywhere! They were even cooing in my ear! It was the most fun thing ever! I would definitely go back to Venice just to go play in the birds again! On Saturday, Eric and I found an amazing post office, built in the Spanish influence style (also perfect for Italy), and sat down to write/send off our postcards. The day went by far too quickly. There were so many things that we wanted to do, but before we knew it, we were on a train back to Vienna. At one of the first stops, they announced that we were waiting for a train from Rome and it would be a 30 min wait. Well, David and Prof. and Sis. Hansen got off the train to grab a water bottle and some McDonalds really quickly. Prof. Hansen was really worried about the train leaving because he had the tickets so he came back as quickly as he could. After 10 minutes the conductor announced that we were leaving and David and Sis Hansen weren't back yet! Prof. Hansen started to panic, so he gave Liesl the tickets and jumped off just as the train left. Then it was just us on the train. What a scary thought… the Professor and the most responsible person in the group missing. I’m amazed we didn’t end up in Greece or something! About an hour or so down the road another announcement was made, saying that we were waiting for a train with some people going to Vienna. It was the one they were supposed to wait for the first time, but didn't. So, after sitting at that station for over an hour, the train caught up with us and lo and behold, there was David, Prof, and Sis Hansen! It was great! Unfortunately that put us getting back to Vienna at about midnight.

All in all, it was a spectacular trip and a great couple weeks. They’ve been fairly rough on all of us though and I think the slowness of this week has been a welcome break for everyone. Our next trip is to Budapest and I can’t wait!

2007-09-18T02:47:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday out group took a bus out to Melk. The countryside in Austria is amazing! We took a tour through the Melk Abbey before heading off the the bike rental place. Melk Abbey is absolutely beautiful! Besides the beautiful architecture and design, there is something else that makes the Abbey amazing. It has one of the most amazing "Trompe L'Oeil" finishes (French for illusion). The Library has the barrel-shaped dome ceiling that was common to the time period. The Marble room however, does not. The interesting thing about this, is that the difference between the two ceilings is not noticible without studying it intently.

The first picture is the curved ceiling in the Library. The second picture is the flat ceiling in the Marble room. Isn't it amazing?!
Another interesting thing that Melk Abbey has are relics. These include a piece of the cross of Christ, bones of the apostles and different saints, and even enitre bodies. In the main part of the church there are many different "mini-alters" dedicated to different saints. Each alter is different, but a few of them hold some of the most fancy corpses I've ever seen!

When we left the Abbey, we went and rented bikes and then we rode our bikes from Melk all the way down to Kremms. It took the entire day, but it was beautiful! Anne, Eric, and I rode together and we went exploring in most of the little towns we passed through. We also found quite a few little tunnels that we went exploring in. We found a beautiful little waterfall through one of the tunnels, and through another, we found a little forest path that went right along a brook. For our lunch, we stopped at various fruit stands and bought plums, apples, and the most amazing grapes ever! We also stopped later at a Bakery and bought some bread and some delicious pastries. Here's some of the pictures that I took while on the bike ride.

Once upon a cold, rainy day in Bratislava

2007-09-07T03:15:00.000-06:00

Right now it's almost Friday afternoon and it's been raining since Tuesday! Things are wonderful here, regardless!!! Tuesday I bought an "authentic Austrian made" umbrella and it came in very handy. Wednesday morning we got up early and took a train to Bratislava. It was very cold and rainy the whole day! Aparently we're having weather that is very typical to the end of November. Hopefully it'll warm up by next week.

Anyway, In Bratislava we went to Primate's Palace and got to walk around the museum. After that we split up and walked around the town. A few of us went to lunch (the food was really good) and spent approx. 400 crowns each!!! It was crazy. Granted, 1 crown is worth about 4 cents USD, so it wasn't as expensive as it sounds, but it was still pretty bad. When we finished lunch, we went to the Castle and went down into a tunnel to see the castle well. It was definitely cool.
Then we headed down to St. Martin's Cathedral. By the time we got down the hill, we were drenched. the water was pouring down the street and it was more like walking in a stream than anything else.
The church was absolutely beautiful! We also got to go down into the Crypt. It sort of creepy, but really nice and peaceful at the same time. We took some pretty fun pictures down there though...

2007-09-04T05:34:00.000-06:00

Hi! So, Vienna is absolutely amazing! I'm so excited to be here and to learn everything. Yesterday I finally rode the U-bahn (subway) for the first time by myself. It's kinda scary, but fun at the same time. (Definitely not something that you come across in Montana.) Before church on Sunday a couple of us went to Mass at the St. Augustin Cathedral. The choir sang Mozart's "Laudate Dominum" with a live orchestra and everything! It was so amazing! This next Sunday the Pope is coming to Vienna so we decided that we're going to try to ga and see him.
Mein Hausfrau (the woman I am living with) is Margret Weymann. She is such a sweetheart! I really like her. Margret's husband is German-Canadian and he's actually in Canada until November. Next week she's actually going to Canada so I'll be by myself for a little while. I don't have a roommate, but it's kinda nice. I'm having fun figuring out my way around everything. There's so much to see here in Vienna!!

This was our first morning in Vienna at breakfast. We had hot chocolate and it was probably the most amazing thing I have ever had! All of the chocolate here is amazing!

..more pics coming soon...

Austria

2007-08-30T22:48:00.000-06:00

Guten Tag Familien und Freunden! I'm in Vienna! I still can't quite believe that I'm really here. Everything over the past couple days has been a blur, but so exciting! I couldn't sleep very well on the flight over to Austria, but I did end up making a new friend. My seat partner was a guy from Albania named Erjon. We had a blast trying to pass the time on the plane. We arrived here the morning of the 30th and then we spent the whole day walking around the city, trying to stay awake. Vienna was lightly overcast when we got in and we did get rained on a little bit. We also stopped to get some icecream. It was spectacular! Then last night we ate at a wonderful little Italian pizzeria. The food was so good!
We stayed in a hotel last night and this morning, we had a little problem with our clocks. We woke up at 5 and were all ready to go down to breakfast when we realized that we were an hour ahead! Today we have orientation and then we're going to meet our host families! So far we haven't done much in the way of speaking German, but hopefully that'll change once we get with our families.
I've gotta run - it's time for breakfast for real this time. I'll post pictures soon!
Bis spater!

Fun times in Butte!

2007-08-23T10:47:00.000-06:00

I can't believe the summer's over already! School's starting and we had our first frost yesterday! We acctually had to scrape the windshield before leaving for work yesterday - and in the middle of August!! I have less than a week left before I fly out to Vienna and I can't wait!
Yesterday, Justin came to visit! I met him in 6th grade when I lived in Vancouver, WA and we were in the same classes all the way through 9th grade. During my freshman year in highschool we hung out all the time, but that summer I moved. We haven't seen or really talkted to each other for 5 years but we were able to "pick up right where we left off."

I had a blast showing him all around Butte and it was so fun catching up on the past 5 years!

Justin was enthralled by how small and quite Butte is... it is a pretty big difference from Seattle!!

2007-08-10T19:46:00.000-06:00

Only 19 days until Vienna! I'm soooo excited! I fly out on 29. Aug. 2007. I can't believe that the summer's gone by so fast! I guess life just goes by faster as you get older. I'm officially 20 now (as of last Saturday) and I'm having so much fun teasing my parents about how old they are!
In retrospect, I'm so glad that I came home for the summer. I know I would have had a blast down in Provo, but I've been able to learn so much this summer - about myself. It's really been great getting to work with my dad, too. I feel like I've been able to spend a lot more time with my family (obviously more than I would have had I stayed in Provo) and develop a little better relationship with my parents. I've also been able to focus on developing a sronger relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I'm very grateful for that opportunity.
Last week I realized that, since I'll be in Vienna I won't be able to write to Michael as regularly as I have been (and I won't be in the states to send him something on his 1year mark - Oct. 18) so, I decided to send him a care package now. I actually had a lot of fun putting it together - nothing too extravagant, just a few treats complete with quotes and scriptures. I was also in the mood to draw something and I decided to do one of the temples. I looked at a few and decided on the Newport Beach, CA Temple. I think it's abslutely beautiful. It also happens to be "Michael's temple," so I sent that to him also. I love doing things like that (coming up with cute and creative ideas and sending people care packages) - it's so fun! :D
Now I'm down to the line just trying to take care of some last minute details before I leave. Like packing. I really ought to start soon so I know what I still need... hmmm
Well, there's no time like the present, so I'll be back soon!
Bis bald!

2007-07-29T15:43:00.001-06:00

Well, I finally got around to posting a few pictures. I decided the easiest thing would be to just make a slide of some of my more favorite pictures/memories from the past year at BYU. Enjoy!

Good times at BYU!

2007-07-29T15:22:00.001-06:00

2007-07-20T09:18:00.000-06:00

I (finally) decided on a project that I want to work on while I'm home for the summer. Too bad summer's almost over. Oh well. I decided I'm going to make a hat. Yes, I usually knit hats, scarves, etc. in the winter, but this isn't just any hat. It has a knit top, but it's a wide brim - similar to the hats in Marc Jacobs' Fall 2007 "ready to wear" collection. They have a very "Audrey Hepburn" type feel and I love that style! So I'm probably crazy for even attempting it, but I'm excited. I already have some ideas for new designs! ...maybe I'll be a hat designer... hmmm... I'll have to post some pics once I get it done.
I also finally got my visa application sent off for my Vienna trip. We were having problems, with the school financial account and the insurance company, so it took longer that I had hoped. It's always hard when you're ready to do something but you're waiting on someone else. Wir müssen Geduld haben. But it's taken care of now and that gets rid of a lot of stress.

Vienna!!!

2007-07-05T12:04:00.000-06:00

So, after a lot of thinking and going back and forth, I am going to Vienna!!! I applied for the study abroad over Christmas and was accepted. Then when I came home for the summer, I didn't feel like I should go right now, so I canceled the trip. I was fine with that decision up until last week. I talked to a bunch of people and I contacted my professor and decided to go! I'm so excited. Now I'm trying to figure out how I can get enough money for the trip.
So it's a semester long Study Abroad - we leave on Aug 30 and come home Dec 13. How cool is that? During the course of the semester, we will be living in Vienna, Austria and taking various "side-trips." These trips include Salzburg, Venice, Florence, Prague, Budapest, and Bratislava. (*note: Vienna is in Austria; Venice is in Italy.... people tend to get these two confused*) I'll also be in Vienna for the beginning of the huge Christmas market! Woo Hoo!!!
Also, we will probably have an opportunity to go on a side trip at some point during the semester and I really wanted to go back to Ukraine. The problem with that comes when I add the fact that no one in the group speaks Ukrainian (not yet at least) and with places like Paris, Rome, and London, it's going to be hard to convince anyone else to go with me. My other thought was to go visit the LDS Temple in Frankfurt. Germany.
I'm minoring in German, so this will be an excellent chance to work on that. I'm not going to have a roommate while I'm there, and I requested a family that didn't speak English! (I'll find out later if that was one of my "not-quite-so-genius" moments or not.) It will also be so fun to see all of the architectural and design styles that I've been studying. I'll definitely be posting some great pictures once I get over there! Not quite 2 months left! : )

2007-06-17T16:34:00.000-06:00

OK, so I'm back in Butte for the summer, working for my dad. It's pretty much great!
Anyways, since I've been home, my lil sis and I have been hanging out with an old friend, Jeff Brown, and playing bluegrass/country music around town. Hannah and I both play guitar and Jeff is an amazing fiddle player. Yesterday we went to Deer Lodge and entered a country music competition... very last minute... It was really fun - we didn't win, but that's ok - it was a super fun learning experience. Unfortunately, Jeff's heading down to Provo on Thursday, so our marvelous music making days are coming to a screeching halt.... oh well!