Schatz

Home Sweet Texas

I am finally home in Texas. This is my last post. Thanks again to my wonderful host family in Munich, my amazing friends, and my loving family. This experience would have been nothing if it weren't for the poeple God blessed me to share it with. Of course saying good bye to my year abroad was tough, but I am excited to be starting nursing school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston next month (I am, however, not looking forward to wearing burnt orange scrubs). This experience went beyond my expectations in every way it could and I am forever thankful to have had this opportunity. I am so thankful for these precious memories and relationships that have come out of this. I am better because of it by God's grace. I know I will be back in Munich again one day and thankful that it became a second home to me.

"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anyting else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. " Romans 8:37-39

The Beautiful Paris

Paris gave the phrase strolling down the street its meaning. What a beatuiful city. It's full of museums and cafes. Just like the movies. Except yes, we had many encouters with very unpleasant French people. But we had enough pleasant encounters as well to counter act it. We had three completely full days of sights in Paris. If you need a sightseeing itinerary, here is ours and it served us well :)

Wednesday: Pantheon, Walking tour, Eiffel Tower, Trocadero and Palais de Challiot, and a boat ride down the Seine River!

We started out in the morning at the Pantheon. (I passed for a 17 year old and got in for free!) It is a really impressive buildling. It used to be a church but is now a burial place for the distingished. We saw Rousseau's tomb in there and several kings.

We split up in the afternoon and I went on a walking tour. A very interesting one about the graphic, gruesome French history. Quite eye opening. These people were sick. But we toured all over and had a great day. It just so happened that another friend from Munich, Cristina, was there at the same time as us so we met up and got to play all day!

Thursday: Saint Chapelle Church, Conciergerie (where Marie Antonette was kept in prison),  the Rodin Museum, shopped and strolled down the Champs Elysees street, went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and a long walk back to the hotel (yes, we walked, for some reason).

Saint Chapelle is the most beautiful stain glass church. The entire place was covered perfectly with biblical stories on colored glass.

We went to this museum just to see the Thinker statue.

 The Champs Elysees Street leads right up to the Arc de Triomphe monument.

 There is a traffic round about of chaos and death that circle it. I wouldn't make it out of that. But the view from the top is really spectacular because several streets come in all at different sides of the circle. It is quite the 360 view.

Friday (Chrunch time): Climb the steps of the Eiffel Tower (a bucket list item, check), Montmarte district and Basillica, Notre Dame, ending at the Louvre.

Where every tourist in Paris goes to. We waited in line only 5 minutes - get there early!

 A gray day, but no rain.

This district is up on a hill top in Paris and is known to be an artist district from past and present.

All the artist have a little stand set up on the street. They were painting and making charicatures. It was really cool. Katy and Aunt Kathy even bought a painting there.

This is one of my most incredible buildings I've ever seen. Inside and out and every side of it is stunning.

And of course we had to go to the Louvre to see all the world famous art. We only had a few hours in there but we got to see a lot; the Mona Lisa of course, 3,000 year old Egyptian works, and endless halls of historical paintings. We stayed until closing at nearly 10pm and had a great time even though it was a little rushed.

This city is amazing! But I'm ready to go home to Texas!

Saturday: Airport.

Ciao Bella

Venice is a city unlike any other. It is known for it's water ways full of gondola singers.  There really aren't any pavement streets or cars (unlike Zermatt that had the little electric cars at least). Just little canals and bridges. Beautiful canals and bridges.  A lot of the alley ways are only big enough for a single file line. The buildings are not too tall and old and rustic looking. This city was designed to get pleasantly lost in. It is like a giant maze.

We had a rough day traveling but finally made it. We arrived just before dinner time on Sunday. We walked for a bit before we ate. Monday morning we headed straight for the main square and up the bell tower. Another beautiful Italian red roofed view. We were even up in the tower when the giant bell went off right above our heads - it was loud and sort of terrifying to be that close to it.

We had the priveldge in the afternoon to tour the Murano Glass Factory. If you have been to Italy, you have seen the Murano glass. It is beautiful! Everything they make is considered one of a kind by the way they blow it. We got to see a few of them in action - they made it look so easy. The two glass blowers made their works of art (a vase and a little horse) in less than ten minutes! It was unbelievable! Then we got to walk through the place a bit - what looked like a glass museum show room of beauty. I would never want to take a small child or a large backpack through here. (However, I did ask our tour guide if I could look at some sort of drink pitcher, and when he picked it up, he dropped the lid of it.. I felt so bad - but I'm so glad it wasn't me.) And not only was that a "must do in Venice" thing, but on our water taxi ride out there, he let me drive the boat :) Check that off the bucket list.

We continued doing the whole tourist thing - walking around, looking at the churches and bridges, taking obnoxious photos, and of course touring the Doges Palace.

And then we toured the Doge's Chapel: St. Mark's. The girls and I were wearing shorts so we had to wrap a cloth around our legs like a toga. It was funny. The entire chruch is a Mosaic. It is completely made up and decorated with little pieces of gold, bronze, and stones. When we were inside, I got to see the Pala d'Oro. It's a jaw dropping altar piece. My friend Jessica told me to go see it because it is incredible, and because one of her history professors at TAMU slept on top of it during WWII (? is that right Jess?) to protect it. I can see why he wanted to protect it. Wow.

A symbol of Venice, we learned, is the winged lion. It has to do with the legend that St. Mark and Venetian Lagoon being his resting place. I was always curious too how such a city came to be about. Why is it all water ways? You could assume it's from fisherman and traders but I never found my answer when we were there. We never got to go on a walking tour or anything which was a big bummer because a city like this I know is full of stories and literary references and artistic settings.




I could never put my camera away because the entire city is like a painting. I have heard rumors of this city being on the verge of sinking. I hope it doesn't becuase it is an amazing place to visit.

And the biggest surprise of all was seeing this guy. Pearce is a friend from Camp Allen who just so happened to be sitting at the table next to me at some random little pizza place. Not planned or anything - it was crazy!

And now on to Paris!