The season begins...

ESPN's GREATEST COLLEGE RIVALRIES:
#1 - Duke vs. North Carolina
#2 - Connecticut vs. Tennessee (women)
#3 - Louisville vs. Kentucky
#4 - HOPE vs. CALVIN
#5 - Xavier vs. Cincinnati
#6 - Indiana vs. Purdue
#7 - Philadelphia's "Big 5"
#8 - Illinois vs. Missouri
#9 - Penn vs. Princeton
#10 - Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State

NORO

ATTENTION TO ALL:

Hope College has been infected with the norovirus! Sadly (...), all classes and events are cancelled through Tuesday morning. According to the email we received from Hope, "The Holland Police Department or campus safety will immediately disperse any large gatherings of students."

Therefore, 24/7 will be holding a norovirus theme party! Please come dressed as your favorite biohazard material.

Norovirus: 1, Hope College: 0. 

Wisdom Teeth

This summer, the time finally came for me to get my wisdom teeth out. I had been putting it off for far too long, and unfortunately I realized that this summer might be the only logical time for me to get it done. Thankfully I was able to twist my friend Megan's arm into doing it with me!

The procedure went very well, thanks to my beautiful new best friend Valium. I took two pills a few hours before the surgery for my nerves and was happy as ever when they stuck the IV in my arm. Megan and I decided to wear matching tshirts to the doctor's office too, just to give the Doc a laugh (it worked). Sadly I was not very funny when I woke up, but Megan definitely made up for it. Here is a video she made documenting our morning at the dentist:

Wisdom Teeth

Ahh, good times.

Right after the surgery

Megan with the doc.

p.s. The shirts are our sisters', we promise (long story....ask them).  :)

I guess I should probably finish up my Eurotrip blogging so that I can get onto other things...

I know it's been awhile, but here are some pictures from my after-travel to Italy!

Famous bridge in Florence

Standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Eating gelato :)

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre 

The four friends eating an amazing Italian meal!

We love Rome.

Three suggestions for travel in Italy:

1. Go to Cinque Terre,

2. Eat lots and lots of gelato,

3. Never, ever, ever go to Rome in July. 

Ciao!

:)

Wow, it's been awhile! It's about time I update with pictures from the end of my wonderful trip to Vienna. First things first--hiking the Rax Alps in Austria!

Beautiful, isn't it?

The little house in the distance is where we ate lunch!

Hiking in the Alps was probably one of my favorite weekend trips while in Europe. Although I wasn't excited about the 5-hour trek beforehand, it ended up being a lot of fun. Michael really helped keep my spirits up too, which was very kind of him. :) The only downside of the trip--the thunderstorm we hit for 2 hours on the way down. 

Yodel-eh-hee-hooooooo!

Free Weekend

This weekend, our group had the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we wanted to do. Instead of going away to different countries like many of our fellow friends did, the four of us (Mike, Brent, Lama and I) decided to stick around Vienna. 

On Saturday, we took Edith's advice and went to Baden, a small town right outside the Vienna city limits. We had a picnic lunch by the train station, and then wandered into town. The town area was decorated to look like Wien's Graben, with Eurocup flags and soccer statues. It was so cute!

The decorated "Graben".

Green streets!

We then found these great hiking paths, and walked up the mountain until we found a gazebo with a great overlook of the city. We spent about an hour there taking pictures of ourselves jumping off the railings. :)

Michael

Brent

Baden!

For dinner, we ate at another heuligen and had some great new wine. Our dinner was excellent and also very cheap! We Euchre for awhile, too, which was interesting since I'm not too familiar with the game. 

Our dinner: pork, corn salad, mediterranean salad, bread, and wine!

The heuligen sign from the outside.

We decided to head back into Vienna around 8pm so we could go out for Sarah Fetter's birthday. Unfortunately, I was very tired, so we actually ended up just sitting around. No big deal though, it was a perfect day--very relaxing and lots of fun with our friends!

Today (Sunday), Michael and I decided to just sit around downtown Vienna and do some homework. Right now we are sitting at Coffee Day, sipping on a melange and writing our mini papers. We're both taking the class "Senior Seminar--Values in Transit", which is a seminar course about people's values and their philosophies about life. We're reading a book called "This I Believe"--a collection of personal philosophies and things people believe in. It's a very eye-opening and intruiging read; I would definitely suggest it! Check out the website if you're interested in learning more or reading this week's featured essay. It's a great one.

Well, back to our homework. I hope everyone is doing well at home! I'm looking forward to coming back to American culture, but I'm also excited to live it up in Europe for the last 11 days we have here! Enjoy your Sunday, and Happy Father's Day! :)

Bratislava

Yesterday (Wednesday), we took a day trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Even though we only spent a little bit of time there, I enjoyed the city very much.

Of course, our first activity after arriving was a city tour. Woohoo. We got to see a couple of great overlooks of the city though, which were cool. When the tour was finished, we had about 30 minutes of free time before our dinner. We ate at a hotel restaurant, and had chicken...for the first time since May 13th!!! It was amazing. 

Overlooking Bratislava!

Their new (and ugly) bridge.

The main square downtown.

It's Old Greg!

After dinner, our entire group went to the new State Opera House to see Tosca, an opera by Puccini. Sadly, the Italian was translated into Slovakian, so we had a hard time understanding what was going on. The singers, in my opinion, were decent, but I was expecting more. I shouldn't say that though, it really was great. :)

Waiting for the opera to begin.

Luckily, Bratislava is only one hour away from Vienna, so we arrived home just in time to take the last train back.