Iceland!

Hello from Iceland! It looks like the moon here. Pictures later, the internet is painfully slow here. We left at 4pm and got here at 4pm because of the time change. I'm currently talking to Eric, a PHD student from Ohio that is also staying in our hostel. It's fun, hearing a midwest accent!

Home in 5 daaaaays! I miss it quite a lot. It has been a stressful week, the lack of blog updates due to a horrible incident that happened to my roommate here. More updates on the previous days later.

See you soon!

Birthday in Italy!

I'm going to just glance over the past week in Germany. It was relatively full of school, and trees, and something called a fish ladder. Doesn't that sound like a fantastic swear alternative? "FISH LADDERS!" I will show you some pictures from our trip to the Stuttgart Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical garden. Otherwise it has been more of the black forest and not much that I found interesting.

Oh, but on the 4th it was a wine tasting! That was very fun, even though I only tried three of the six because I am not a fan of wine generally. The wild sauer kirsche likour at the end was fantastic though! That translates roughly to wild sour cherry liquor.

This was from the fish hatchery. These little toads were everywhere.

So there were forests and wine involved, which was fun, minus spilling wine on my shirt, cleaning it off, then losing the shirt somewhere.

Then I got invited to go with a group to Florence on my birthday. Which is where I currently am! Yay Italy!

Meet the Duomo! Absolutely gorgeous!

So we got free birthday lemon shots from our Italian waiter named Antonio. He also wanted us to meet him at a bar afterward, and gave me his number, Hahahaha. That's one for the scrap book.

Today we had a lot of success shopping! I found scarves and a really warm hoodie for iceland. We also got to do laundry since everything smells like hiking boot, which is disgusting.

Tomorrow we're going to go see the statue of David!

More blog posts on Italy later, I'm getting tired. We did a lot of shopping today, and I'm almost done getting souvenirs!

Home sick

Well, the free weekend was absolutely lovely. I spent time with Tina from couch surfing and her family, and they helped five of us coordinate a trip to the Wilhema Zoo in Stuttgart on Saturday. It was a stunning botanical garden as well. We accidentally went during a giant pride festival though so the hotel cost a little more than we anticipated originally but bus and train tickets were cheaper so it evened out. I spent a little more money than I wanted to over the weekend but it will be worth it to not have stayed at the castle the entire time. Sunday was spent navigating the train system to get back then Tina and her Mom were kind enough to pick us up in Altensteig and drive us back to the castle. I got invited to go to Florence with Joelle and Shelly so that’s what we’re doing for the next free weekend.

Today was rather…interesting. We cut down spruce trees to make habitat areas for a large bird called the capercale. Someone cutting down a large tree was not watching and I got hit in the head. I’m certain I swore in several languages and Pat was kind enough to walk back to the car with me to get advil. Luckily my head is used to abuse and it really doesn’t hurt anymore, it’s just a little sensitive. In the afternoon we went looking for deer browse evidence and it was relatively boring, especially because there was no bathroom break until we got back to the castle.

Then my luck increased, haha. Europeans are fond of these one inch steps for doorways and I forgot the placement of one. I took off about a quarter of my toe nail and about as much skin with it. Simply not my day, my roommates were joking that I am no longer allowed out of the room. I’m hoping my luck changes, because I would like to not be stressed/injured on my birthday.

Homesickness has definitely set in. I’m having nightmares, one including Reid and have woken up in a cold sweat twice now. I thought talking to my family for 2 hours on Saturday would have helped, but it really just realized the fact that we are only halfway done with this trip and I won’t see them for over two weeks. Reid decided to be in the Colorado mountains while I was trying to call him so I haven’t heard his voice in over 2 weeks. I’m missing everyone so much, and with my luck today all I want to do is sleep and wake up in Wisconsin. I know this trip is generally marvelous, and I should be grateful I can be gone for so long, and afford to go, but all I want right now is some Wisconsin mac and cheese and to cuddle with my boyfriend and watch a movie with my family and my dog. I want to go to Noodles with Jess and kung fu with Simone and strawberry picking with Britni. I want to go to coffee with Rachel and Larry and have a movie night with Hannah Mankowsky.

Speaking of dogs, I got an offer to work at a new dog day care. Two days a week starting, then 5 when business picks up. I have no idea how this will work out with Resnet. I do not know what days, or pay rate, or anything of the like yet. I’m thrilled because the more I think about it the more domestic animals seem like a career path I’d like to follow, and I’d also get some farm experience helping Renea. One day at a time, I suppose.

Tomorrow we go to Freiburg, where we may or may not have enough internet access for me to upload this.