Hike Hike Baby

We got to go on one of the best, and possibly hardest, hikes of my life on Monday. I will let these pictures speak for the greatness of what it was:

At the beginning. Thankful for a beautiful blue sky.

Working our way up.

Getting farther into the gorge. We had to be careful walking right next to the cliff drop off on the narrow pathway.

View facing the other way. The glacier we were walking toward and the view we had the whole time kept getting better and better.

At the top! After we took some pictures, fed some sheep, threw some rocks, and called out for an echo, we headed back down.

And now we are all sore.

Farst Family Field Trip

So for the next 2 weeks I will be out and about in Europe with my family. Right now we are making a Swiss Safari Tour. It’s been pretty much awesome. After everyone’s crazy crazy travels to finally get to Switzerland, they made it! We started in Zurich seeing the fancy little town and then we went to another fancy little town, Luzern. Both are fancy and beautiful and have lakes. I enjoy them both very much. Neither have an overwhelming big city feel to it. They are very classy and clean. It is so nice to have our own little tour guide man. He knows all the insider stories and is a great bus driver – I’m riding shot gun! We drove through the towns and walked through towns and played in the towns. The Tour der Schweiz Bicycle Race was coming through Luzern so it was pretty crowded.

 We didn’t spend too much time in the cities because we wanted to get out into the mountains, of course! After the city highlights and ice cream stops, we headed toward our next destination in Grindelwald. On the way, we had to stop at a dairy farm and take a look around the cheese factory. Smelled terrible but was a fun thing to do and enjoyed our cheese samples! Then, on we continued and made it to Grindelwald for dinner time on Sunday night. This town is tucked away in the mountains in a very famous area in Switzerland. - Jungfrau region. It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth, I think. We will stay here for 3 days of action and then head onto Zermatt.

Traveling in style!

Good Bye for now Munich

The past few months have been quite an emotional ride. And the past few days have maxed me out. I had to say good bye to my host family last Thursday. That was so hard. I have been so thankful and felt truly blessed to stay with them for a year. I have so many wonderful memories of adventures playing with the boys as my little brothers. I love them so much and cannot wait to see them again as they grow up! I learned so much from Nevena and have felt overjoyed to become so close to the boys and to also be here when the new baby came. Saying good byes to family is hard. But, this had to come at some point..

Later that day on Thursday, I welcomed my Oma and two of my Aunts to Munich! It was so great to see family and have them here to show them my life in Munich. So Friday I showed them around the city and took one final look at my favorite spots!

Friday night we met most of my friends in a Beer garden for a Bavarian Picnic farewell party! It was awesome! Everyone brought typical Bayerisch food to share and we watched Germany’s national soccer team play on the big screen. It was a difficult night, but a perfect way to say good bye to all of my sweet friends here. They were sweet enough to give me a photo book and write me notes which was so thoughtful and makes me feel so special. I am so thankful for all of you. I will never forget my amazing experiences here in Germany mainly because of the incredible company. Y’all made it that much more special. Thanks! My heart hurts because I will miss you all so much. I am excited to see you again in the future!

Saturday morning, I got on the train with Oma, Aunt Karen, and Aunt Cindy to head to Switzerland to meet the rest of our family to begin our tour through der Schweiz. I don’t know if I could have gotten on the train if my family wasn’t there to support me. It was hard to leave Munich. It was an emotional train ride for me. But, we finally made it to Zurich and met more of our family after several travel complication on everyone’s end. (Everyone missed their connecting flights – yes, everyone.) First arriving were 2 Baldocks and 2 Farsts from Texas. So I anxiously awaited in the Zurich airport for 2 hours before I finally got to see my brother and his wife after one year! 4 Keirns from Maryland met us the next day in Luzern after a hectic travel schedule. So we all finally met together and hopped on our family (Mercedes Benz!) tour bus and headed out.

So, I have spent the majority of these few days in tears – from joy, sadness, tiredness, you name it. I’m excited to go home to Texas to see everyone, but I am afraid to think about how different home is going to be now that I have been gone for a year and that living over here has become my normal. I am so happy to spend this time with family and leave my year abroad in Europe with a bang! But I am so sad to leave my home and family in Germany. I could not have asked for this to be a better blessing.

Here it Comes

So, this is the last week with my host family... Last day... I am leaving the Vuksanovic Family tomorrow and going to meet up with my Aunt, Oma, and Great Aunt in Munich. And then starts the long journey home. Saturday is the big day. So the past week or so I have been organizing things to get ready for another international move. I truly, deeply hate packing. Shipping things over the Atlantic is not cheap. So it's been a bit stressful but I have also gotten to spend a lot of time with the boys. I'm going to miss them so much. I already have 2 older brothers, but now it feels like I have 2 little brothers and now a little baby sister. I look forward to seeing them in the future!
We will leave Munich on Saturday morning and train ride our way to Zurich to meet more of our family. There are 12 of us total making a tour around Switzerland. I am so excited to see them so soon!!! But my heart is above being overwhelmed because I am extremely upset to being leaving my life in Munich. Friday night I'll have to say good bye to my friends. I have already had to do this a few times with other people who went back home. Get ready for the water works. I have been so thankful to be in such a great place like Munich surrounded by a wonderful group of friends and be apart of a new family. My experiences here have gone above and beyond what my expectations were a year ago when I moved to Germany. I can't believe this year is over. I am so thankful for this time in my life. I am thankful for the wisdom and encouragement God has gracously and continuously given me. I am thankfull to have a new family here and know that these relationships will continue to grow.

So here it comes. Starting the count down to Texas. 18 days!

The Lone Star State Reputation

So today I just happen to be walking down the street in the city and ran into a group of Aggies! They were on the marketing study abroad trip and it also just so happens that a few farmiliar faces from tri delta are here :) So I took my first whooping pictures in Europe with them! And then I realized I have got to post a Texas blog..

Being from Texas, I get all kinds of funny questions over here...

 

 

My favorite question first: Are you a redneck?

I've gotten that as a sincere question twice now. One of the guys who asked me that is now a good friend of mine, but that was the very first thing he said to me.

 

 

George Bush is from Texas... Did you vote for Bush? Did you vote for Obama?

Europeans always want to discuss American politics for some reason. An area I am not so well informed about, surprise surprise.

 

 

Do you have a cowboy hat?

 

 

Can you ice skate?

How many guns do you have?

Why does your state still have the death penalty?

You don't sound like you're from Texas.

Are you really from Texas? Are you really?... Really?

I can't answer these questions to people without laughing. I get a lot of good questions too, not just silly ones. Our state is famous even though it's not a typical trip to take on holiday :) I'm excited to be back in our great state soon!

Chiemsee und Koenigsschloss

This is a long overdue post. About three weeks ago Michaela, Mary, Andrew, and I went to Chiemsee. Unfortunately, it was a really rainy day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. There are 2 popular islands on this lake. Herreninsel und Fraueninsel  haha Man island and Woman island. On Herreninsel, there is a stunning castle, another one of Kind Ludwig II's - the Bavarian King who also built Neuschwannsteinschloss, the "Disney castle". This one he modeled directly after the Palace of Versailles in France. Everything in the castle is ment to have a French style. They said the king didn't want anything about the castle to look Bavarian. Odd idea for a king to want a house that looks like another country? I wish I could've taken pictures inside because it was unbelieveably tacky. It was way way way too much - it was all gold, marble, imported wood and a long list of other extremely valueable things, worth a great deal, but way over done. We couldn't help but giggle from how ridiculously over the top everything looked.

It was about an hour and a half train ride, a 20 min walk from the train station, a 15 min boat ride, and then another 30 min walk to the castle... in the rain... it was worth it.

The garten was absolutely beautiful. The fountains were works of art and from both sides of the palace you could see the lake on either side. It is super fancy and a cool palace, but I could never live like that. It looked like a movie set up.

 

In the pouring rain but enjoying our time together. So this is another wonderful day trip to take in Bavaria! Another one to check off our wish list!

Turning 23

I had a wonderful weekend celebration for my birthday! Turning 23 in Germany was great! Friday night I hung out with a few friends and then I spent the night at my friend Laura's flat. We woke up, had a lovely breakfast together and made our way to the train station to go to Garmisch for the day and take a leisurely hike in the mountains.

The train ride was entertaining, of course, with our group of people: the loud people speaking Englisch, with hair braiding and magic tricks. But getting there is always a part of the fun of a trip.

We got to walk through a beautiful gorge down there in the Bavarian Alps with a rushing river right under us. It was incredible. And the water was ridiculously cold!

Then we made our way up and got to see another beautiful sight. The weather was perfect which made the day even more perfect. I took 200 pictures so this is the sneak view.

With Michaela, Azra, and Cristina. And Paul and Oliver were there to take the pictures ;)

Then we went back to Munich and met a few other friends and enjoyed the rest of the day at the Biergarten. It was such an incredible day! I felt so special to get to celebrate with friends here.

Sunday I celebrated with my host family and we had a great time together! Their gift to me was 2 tickets to a water park in another city near Munich. So Sunday night, Anna and I got to go play there! It was so much fun! It is a completely indoor place with a big pool, bar, and water slides. It was no Schlitterbahn (and just after typing that word I realized its a German word, nice New Braunfels) but it was so awesome! We had a blast!

 This past year has exteeded my expectations time and time again and I am thrilled to see where God leads me in a new year of life. He taught me a lot with 22 so I can't imagine what He has in store for me with 23 :)

So it was an all around wonderful birthday weekend celebration, but it did make me miss home a bit. Thanks everyone back home for the birthday wishes! I miss y'all so much and will be happy to celebrate with everyone when I am  home in one month!

"Therefor let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

 Hebrews 12:28