Amsterdam!

Bonjour! Just returned from Amsterdam this weekend and absolutely loved it! Now, when you think about Amsterdam the immediate thoughts that come to your mind are all the things that are legal there...but Amsterdam, putting all that it is known for aside, is probably one of my favorite cities I have been to.

A group of us left very early Friday morning (4:20 AM to be exact) to catch our flight to Amsterdam. I had no idea what to expect. Would I love it regardless of all the things that it is known for or would I hate it because of the things Amsterdam is known for. I was surprised to say the least. We arrived and immediately started by going to the Rijksmuseum where the works of Vermeer and Rembrandt are housed. It was really interesting to see all of the flemish artists that I have studied in school. Right after, we searched for a place to each lunch. We found a restaurant where I had a traditional dutch meal: a chicken burrito. Needless to say, it wasn't quite like Southern California Mexican food, but it did the job. After lunch, we went to the Van Gogh museum, probably my favorite thing we did all weekend. Van Gogh is my favorite artist so getting to see all of his works in person was incredible. I could've spent days in the museum looking at all of his work. We got to stay at a nice hotel just outside of town which was great. we were so tired from getting up so early that we called it a day after seeing those two museums and rested the rest of the night.

The next day we started out pretty early again to make sure we got a ticket to go inside of Anne Frank's house. As we went through, I started to remember her diary and all the things she wrote about at just the age of 13. The house has been beautifully preserved and the way the museum set it up with quotes on the walls just made it so much more touching. Walking behind the bookshelf into the Secret Annex was so surreal. The one room that tore my heart to pieces was her bedroom. She had put up pictures on her walls of celebrities, people she looked up to, animals, etc. To see all of her personal belongings there just filled me with sadness. Anne frank was an incredible person and writer for being such a young girl. After going through Anne Frank's house, we explore the rest of Amsterdam. The canals and buildings are gorgeous. People ride bikes everywhere! There is a bike lane and light on every street. It was crazy. I have never seen so many bike in my life. We also had an opportunity to see the beautiful flower markets. The Dutch are very welcoming and friendly, probably the most friendly in Europe. I had great experiences interacting with them.

If you ever have a chance, you should definitely visit Amsterdam for the things its not well known for. The canals, museums, and the people are great!

Greece EFT!

Kalimera everyone! I just returned from our group educational field trip to Greece! Here's and overview of my incredible experience there!

Monday-We had to get up at around 6:00 AM Lausanne time to get to the Geneva airport for our flight. I got lucky and got on the direct flight while the other half had to go through Zurich. We arrived in Athens around 3:30 PM. I love Greece and I was so excited to go back! We drove through Athens to get to our hotel (a four start at the base of the Acropolis!) We had the chance to explore the city and see all the ruins in Athens. Our whole group of 72 got to go out to dinner together for a traditional Greek meal at the base of the Acropolis. It was amazing!

Tuesday- Tuesday was our day to explore the islands of Greece! We had to get up super early (but the Greek yogurt for breakfast made it worthwhile) We took the hydra-foil boats to the islands of Poros and Hydra. It was about an hour boat ride to the island of Poros. Nestled in a little cove of islands, Poros was a gorgeous island. We all got to explore for about an hour. A bunch of us hiked up to the clock tower on the top of the island where there were panoramic views of all the islands! After we walked for a bit and saw the town we had lunch at a cute little restaurant over looking the bay (Greek yogurt again for dessert, so good!) After lunch, we went to the island of Hydra. Hydra was beautiful. All the houses were on the hills and there were CATS galore. We literally counted about 30 of them in this one garden. Aside from the stray cat problem, Hydra was a gorgeous island that I would love to go back to. The views were completely breathtaking. Every second seemed like a little slice of heaven. It was a very long day, but definitely one of my favorite on the trip.

Wednesday-Wednesday was our longest day on the EFT. We drove three hours the the archaeological site of Dephi (think about the movie 300-oracle at Delphi). It was a beautiful drive through the "breadbasket" of Greece and into the mountain ranges that still had traces of snow. Once, we got to Delphi, we took a tour of the museum there that is filled with artifacts, statues, and jewelry all found on the site. The most spectacular part though was walking among the ruins of this sacred site. Seeing the Temple of Apollo and the original Olympic track was amazing and the view couldn't have been any better. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It was great to go to such a historical and sacred site for the people of the ancient world and see a completely amazing city with most things still relatively in tact for thousands of years.

Thursday-On Thursday, we got to explore the wonders of Athens! Although, I had seen the sites of Athens previously with my parents, it was great to go and experience it with all my friends. First, we stepped out of our hotel and went to the Acropolis (notice the use of the word stepped, literally thats all we had to do!) Seeing the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechthion was incredible. These ruins are so great! After we wandered around for about an hour (and took plenty of jumping pictures in front of the Parthenon) we went to Mars Hill where the apostle Paul preached in Athens. This was something I never got to see with my parents. It was such a spiritual experience. To have our whole group standing on this giant rock in front of the Acropolis (were the ancient Greeks worshipped their gods) was so cool. Our professor read Acts 17 (Paul preaching to the Athenians from Mars Hill) to everyone and it was the most incredible experience. I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it was to just feel the power of God in Athens that day with our whole group. We then made our way below to the Agora, the ancient marketplace. It was so fun to walk around and see all the ruins there. After a extremely long Greek lunch (so good!) we went to the New Acropolis museum right next to our hotel. It was really neat to go in there and see all the things from the Parthenon and the Acropolis because the last time I was in Athens they were still building it and the old museum was closed while they were transferring all of the artifacts. Seeing what was in the Parthenon and on it, the metopes, friezes, and pediments was amazing. Last year at Pepperdine, I took a Greek and Roman art history class so seeing all of these things specifically that we studied from the Acropolis truly made my learning come to life and I realized how blessed I was to have taken that class (no matter how difficult it might have been-over 150 slide memorized!) It was a great way to end the trip.

I loved having the opportunity to go back to Greece. It was great to actually get to stay in Athens this time and do it with my friends. It's such a unique experience getting to travel with basically 7o ish of your best friends. Once again, the EFT blew my mind!

Swiss Adventures!

Bonjour from Lausanne! It's been great being back at La Croisée for three weeks now. The new semester is going great and I love all of the spring semester students that have joined us here! I've gotten to spend a lot more time exploring Switzerland the past couple of weeks during new student orientation and the past two weekends.

During the new student orientation during the first week of school, our whole group go to go see Fribourg, about an hour outside Lausanne, and the Swiss capital of Bern. Fribourg was very interesting. It's the one of the only cities in Switzerland where half of the population speaks French and half speak Swiss-German. Fribourg is also home to the Tinguely Museum of Modern Art whih we also had the opportunity to visit. After lunch, we drove to Bern, which I had visited previously. This time we got to take a tour of the Swiss Parliament! It was so interesting to learn more about Switzerland and their government.

The next weekend I had the opportunity to go to Verbier, Switzerland to do a little snowboarding on the Swiss Alps! Verbier is gorgeous. The alps majestically surround this tiny Swiss village. The area and scenery was truly inspiring. Although my snowboarding skills are not the best, it was fun to go to Verbier with friends and just have a great day.

This past weekend, over sixty of us in the Lausanne program went on a spiritual retreat in Villars, Switzerland. We all stayed in a Swiss chalet together and had a great time! It was a time for us to reflect on our Creator and on our relationships as followers of Jesus Christ. We spent time worshipping together, hearing messages from our visiting faculty, Professor Daum, and in small groups. I think we would all say that we got to know everyone better in the house on a deeper level, regardless of their spiritual affiliation. Some people also took this opportunity to snowboard, ski, snowshoe, or just walk around Villars. It was great weekend and I believe that I saw God move in enormous ways in the house.

This weekend I am going to Versailles and Disneyland Paris with some friends. I hope that all of you are having a great 2011 thus far and continue to pray for me in my last couple of months abroad!

Winter Break Wolfpack

Greetings! Happy 2011 everyone! I hope the holidays treated everyone well. Although I wasn't able to be with my own family, it was nice to be with my friend family consisting of Nick and Lauren (we have truly become the 3 best friends that anyone could have :]) So here is a recap of our winter break after the Romania mission trip:

Once we left Romania, Nick, Lauren, and I headed off for Edinburgh, Scotland! We stayed there for two nights and it was great! Edinburgh is probably one of my favorite places I have been thus far in my life. The Scottish are so nice and welcoming and the city was so beautiful! We stayed at a hostel (the best rated in Scotland) right at the base of the famous castle! After Edinburgh, we went on a quest. We sought the holy grail (well not really, just the castle it was filmed at...). We went up to Doune, Scotland to visit Doune Castle aka Monty Python castle! It was great minus the fact that it was snowing the whole time. It was great to see where one of my favorite movies was filmed and we all throughly enjoyed it! We stayed the night in Glasgow that night. Didn't really see much, but looked like a great place! Scotland is definitely a place I would like to go back to someday!

After our three days in Scotland, we flew to Dublin, Ireland! Once we arrived (thank God because we thought we weren't going to make it on Ryanair...) we started exploring the city. We had some authentic Irish breakfast for lunch at a cafe and made our way toward the shining glory of the city of Dublin: the Guinness factory! We started the tour and finished about 2 hours later! It was the coolest tour I have ever been on anywhere. I also became a certified pourer of Guinness! We really enjoyed the factory and was definitely the highlight of our Dublin trip. The next day we explored, went to the Irish Museum, Temple Bar, and made some Irish friends at breakfast. The Irish are very nice (can't say the same for the adolescents of Ireland...they throw snowballs at random people, hitting Nick in the head and myself on the leg on separate occasions, not so much a fan of them.) The Irish adults are great! Very fun and vibrant!

We then headed for Wales via ferry! The ferries are very nice and we happened to be on the fastest ferry in the world! It was a beautiful ride to Holyhead, Wales! We had originally intended to go on castle tours the whole day, but unfortunately all the castles in Wales were closed because of the snow and ice (needless to say, nick was beyond bummed...). We decided to just head straight for Manchester, England where we would be spending the next days for Christmas! We were fortunate enough to get an awesome apartment! We rested and made a great Christmas Eve dinner, complete with steak, mac n' cheese pie, salad, garlic bread, and apple pie with ice cream for dessert! It was great. We also got each other some gifts and opened presents underneath the tree (our foil Poundland tree :]). For not being home with family, it was a great Christmas and we had a great time just relaxing and spending time with each other over the holiday.

After Manchester, we started to move south. We stopped for lunch in Oxford and ate at the pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis frequented called The Eagle and Child. Very cool to see where they discussed and debated with each other as well as dreamed up the mysterious lands they wrote about! After eating lunch, London was calling! London is one of my favorite cities. I might even dare to say I'm a bit obsessed! We checked into our hotel and went out to get some English food (Steak and Ale pie with mash...mmmmmhhhhhh)! Our first day in London, we saw all the main sites. We used the Tube everywhere! It's the best in London, even got myself a pair of Tube socks! We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey! It was great to finally see all the things that i have wanted to see for so long! The next day, we used our last Britrail day and went out to Stonehenge. It was a great day trip. It was foggy out so it made everything very spooky. I was a little skeptical to go at first, but in the end it was definitely worth it! The next day we decided to go to the Tower of London! This was probably one of my favorites. We walked around, saw the Royal armor from all the kings, and most importantly, the crown jewels of England! It was incredible to see the size of these jewels! After the Tower, we went to the British National Museum and did a whirlwind tour of the highlights including the Rosetta Stone, the pediment from the Parthenon, and a head from Easter Island. We left pretty early to go and see the musical Wicked! This was my second time seeing and I loved it again! We all really enjoyed it. Our last day in London we passed the day by going to Piccadilly Circus to shop a little and by going to Harrods. Harrods was incredible. It was huge! We got our bags from the luggage hold at the train station and made our way toward Westminster to ring in the new year! It was unbelievably crowded, but we managed to find a spot with a view of the London Eye! The new years firework display was crazy! Definitely try to youtube it because it was incredible! The most crowded and craziest New years of my life, but one of the most fun for sure. After the fireworks, we left for the airport for our 7 AM flight! London was amazing and I would love to go back someday!

Our last destination was Copenhagen, Denmark. It was beautiful, but too cold! It was about 10-25 Fahrenheit during the day! The first day we just decided to walk around, we ended up in the fashion district for a little while and then headed back to our hotel to check in. The next day we walked around and went to the Carlsberg factory, whch happens to be Lauren's favorite. We took a tour and got to see all there is about making Carlsberg! It was really interesting and Lauren really enjoyed it. The third day, we decided to take a quick thirty minute train ride to Malmo, Sweden! Unfortunately, Malmo is known for their impressive beaches (obviously during the summer) so there really wasn't much to do. We walked around in the park and by the fortress and ended up sitting in a coffee shop for quite some time. Very cute and would definitely like to go back someday! Our last day in Copenhagen, we walked around some more to see some more sites. We saw the original little mermaid! We also got a chance to see the WWII forts and some of the canals. Copenhagen was a great city that i would like to go back to once it is warmer!

We had a great break, but are glad to be home in Switzerland!