The top

So we took the Nordketten Bahnen (the system of trains and lifts that go up the mountain range north of Innsbruck) up to the very top. It was probably the most beautiful scene I have ever seen. To the north we could see Bavaria, and to the south I think we could see Italy. The mountains went on and on for as far as we could see. There was ice from a glacier at the top and there was snow on the ice. We threw snowballs at each other. We also saw a herd of sheep. We took great pictures and a few videos to show you guys. I guess I will put the video on to youtube when I get the chance.
Even though we hate leaving Tirol, the most beautiful place in the world, we can't wait to come back and see every one.

It's the end!

1 exam down, 2 to go. After today, Travis has no more exams at all. After our Anthro exam today, we are finally going to ride the chairlift to the top of the mountain. I feel like time has gone by so fast. I can't wait to get back, see my family and friends and relax in our new Knoxville home! This year is looking like it will be amazing. On the other hand, I will miss being in this beautiful place with my best friend. When we leave Innsbruck, we won't get to spend time together until September. I just keep reminding myself that in 10 months we will never have to do this long distance stuff again!! Thanks so much for following our adventures here--we loved sharing them with you. When I get home, and have a camera cord again, I'll put the best pictures up here for you to see! -Rachel

Venice was Incredible!

Rachel here, and I think Venice is my new favorite city. We got there on Thursday afternoon, and walked around for the rest of the night. It is undoubtedly the dirtiest city we have been to so far, but also the most beautiful. I loved that there were no cars, only boats. When we took the ferry out to Murano (an Island famous for it's glass blowing), I could almost imagine that I was in the Bahamas again. On the first night, we had some super good bruschetta and Travis had cuddlefish, which I am pretty sure can turn different colors. The next day, I did some major shopping and we ended up on Murano. We saw the best demonstration there. We, along with some other tourists, were herded into a warehouse, where an old man made a goop of sand into a horse figurine in about 2 minutes. I couldn't believe it. It almost made me want to be a glassblower again. (The first time was when I couldn't figure out what I wanted to major in, and decided for one night that I could possibly be an artisian)

On that same island, we ate at an 'inexpensive' pizza place. I was rushed by the waiter to order and ended up getting the Pizza Romano, which had ANCHOVIES on it. I hadn't read the entire pizza topping description and thought that there were just steak strips on it. Then I saw the hair-looking bones. I tried to eat one, but right when it hit my tongue, I nearly puked. So, I ate around the anchovies and Travis laughed the whole time.

That same night, Travis and I decided to go on a sunset cruise, a ride on the dirty ferry #2 that goes through the Grand Canal and out into some open water. It was a great idea-- we met some guys from America who essentially gave us a history lecture on the Grand Canal. Then we got to the open water just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing.

The next day, left Venice at 1 and got into Florence at 4. We kind of botched the train times, we were only in Florence for 18 hours! But we got the map out and Travis schooled me on some Renaissance scuptures. We saw the outside of the Duomo and Michaelangelo's David. We tried to get into the Uffizi art museum, where all those famous Renaissance artworks are, but we had to get out of line in order to catch our train. I've realized that if you don't just say 'next time' and shrug your shoulders about failing to see the Uffizi, you will feel bad and guilty. So...next time!

Ritter Kuchl & Ötzi

We have had a pretty eventful past two days. The day before yesterday we were invited by our Austrian friend Johanna to join her for dinner at a place called Ritter Kuchl. Ritter Kuchl is in a town about twenty minutes away called Hall. At Ritter Kuchl you revert back to the ways and dress of the Middle Age. They dont have jousting or anything like that, but you do eat with your hands and a knife and are encouraged to belch and fart. It is a very small place maybe thirty people could fit in it at max and you have to make reservations for it because it is like a private party. I think there are about three people that work there and they make a few people dress up in Medieval garb and one person is knighted. When Johanna told our entertainer that Rachel and I were engaged, he made us dress up like jesters. It was really fun. It was soooo much food. You pay €22 for a huge four course meal all you can eat. It was really great. I got to know my Austrian friend Daniel better and we ended up going out to Limrick Bill's Irish Pub later on that night. Daniel had to dress up like a servant. He had to take his shirt off and wear a burlap apron and a viking helmet with bulls horns on it. It was a great time.
Yesterday we took a field trip to Bolsano, South Tirol, in Italy. I dont think that I have seen anything, even in pictures, more beautiful than Südtirol (South Tirol). Check this out and try not to cry because of how beautiful it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVFzw9QJegk
Im serious, it is hard for me to watch that and not get goose bumps and teary eyed. Did you know that Südtirol grows ten percent of Europes apples!? There are also a lot of vinyards there too. It is such a beautiful place. We went there to see something more than the just the beautiful scenery though. We went to see Ötzi, THE ICEMAN, THE GLACIER MUMMY! Google Ötzi, or just ask me when I get back about him, because the information is amazing but I dont feel like typing it right now. The Ötzi museum was probably the sickest, as in made me want to throw up, museums I have ever been to. There was hundreds of mummified bodies there. They were kinda creepy and I tried to create the sounds that it looked like they were making with their mouths. Rachel got mad at me. Anyway you should go there if you want to see a human being that is 5000 years old! That 3000 years before Jesus! Before Stonehenge! Just think about that!!! He wore underwear! I think that is unbelievable. And he was murdered!!! OMGLOLBYOBBFFJK! but seriously, he was murdered. So cool.
We are going to Italy today. Two nights in Venice and then one night in Florence. Should be a blast.

Before I forget...

I am going to tell you about Paris, but before I forget, I need to update you on what our Anthropology teacher just told us. We were talking about this Tirolean restaurant that serves strong beer, where our teacher used to take the class for a field trip. She said in her great Croatian accent "I don't take students there anymore. I don't want to be responsible-- they drink too much, they pass out. My son- I couldn't find him for two days. There were police involved. He had passed out at a construction site. We didn't know where he was for two days." Everyday it is hard to not burst out laughing in that class. Also, she told us that research has shown that water is alive.

SO Paris was great and so lively. We went on a night train from Munich to Paris and slept in a couchette, which was comfortable. I woke up with a strange man sleeping in the bunk beside me, with his face 2 feet from mine, but that was the only weird moment I experienced. When we got to Paris, we dropped our bags off at the hostel, hopped on a bus, and saw the Champs de Elysees, the Arc de Triomph, and the Eiffel Tower. We took the elevator up and the view was incredible. Paris is huge, by the way. It seems kind of small because of the shorter buildings, but when we were in the Eiffel tower, we could not see the edge of the city. After that, we hopped on a bus going the wrong way and rode for about 1.5 hours. We saw alot of the city, though.

We got dressed up for dinner because we were in Paris, and had a 3 course meal for only 13 Euro, which is great. Travis had Escargo (I tried some-- it was so good!) and I had duck for appetizers. After that we got on a bus and hung out in front of the Eiffel Tower at night. Every five minutes after the hour, the tower 'sparkles' with about 20,000 lights, so that was romantic and cool to see. Also that day Travis' phone dropped on the ground, busted apart, and his battery went into a sewer. haha!

The next day, we ate at the hostel, then went into the *free* Notre Dame Cathedral. It was maybe the biggest, tallest church I've ever been in. We souvenier shopped for a while, then ended up at the Lourve, where we took pictures and then decided to leave. We only had a few hours in Paris left, so I let Travis make the decision (he's the art guy). Instead we went to an open air market that had been described in our travel book as a market for handmade goods and antiques--perfect! Actually, it was more like Chinatown and so crowded that we left after 30 minutes. From there we rode around on the bus, shopped, and went to the Luxembourg Gardens. Then, like real tourists, we found ourselves back at the Eiffel tower, just people watching. Overall, it was a great weekend. We could have jam packed it with museums and tours, but I think I am starting to really enjoy just experiencing the culture.

I'm sure Travis will want to tell you in depth about our not-so-great train ride home, so I will leave that to him. It involved a near trip to Berlin, and sleeping on the floor.

-Rachel

Lantern Hikes and Yodeling

Last night was so unexpected and great! I had read about Lantern Hikes in the Rick Steve's book (thanks Nora!), but simply forgot about them until yesterday. We hiked up to a restaurant connected to a chapel and arrived on the terrace just as the sun was setting. I haven't seen a good sunset in so long because of these enormous mountains around Innsbruck! On the way up to the restaurant, we hiked across a meadow that was an Olympic ski run in the winter. Travis already told you a lot about the night, but he left out two of my favorite parts...

1. The two yodeling musicians made us do a traditional wedding dance, which was really fast paced, uncoordiated, and just a whole lot of jumping sideways.

2. Arthur, one of the yodelers, made our friend Hannah stand up, and then asked to touch her "beautiful long eyelashes". She closed her eyes and he kissed her. On the mouth. Hannah has become a magnet for Austrian men, so this episode with the 69 year old yodeler sent us into hysterics.

This weekend we are off to Paris! I don't really know what to expect, although everyone says that we need to prepare ourselves for being scowled at, mocked, and verbally assaulted. I am not really looking forward to interactions with the locals, but oh well. It will be a good learning experience. And it may even make me homesick. We'll blog about it on Monday!

Happy Birthday MOM!!! Love you!

Why I love Tirol so much

Last night was one of the best nights both of our lives. Definitely in my top ten, Rachel said it is in her top five. This is why:
Last night we were invited by our Austrian friend Johannah to go on a lantern hike up the mountains in the south. It was Rachel, Me, Johannah, our friend Hannah, and a few American students not with our program, but with St. Mary's business school. There was probably about ten of us total. We took a bus to Igls (a small village on the southern mountain range of Innsbruck) and started hiking from there. The hike was a little over 30 minutes, not too bad, and it was on a paved road, so it really wasn't a hike at all. We were hiking to a restaurant called Heiligwasser (Holy Water). When we got there we sat down and had a beer and then these two old men who worked there gave us a private concert, singing us traditional Tirolean folk music, with a lot of yodeling and all that. Then they made us yodel with them. They told me that I was the best yodeler and they took Hannah and I into the back with them and told us that we were going to perform a little skit and the skit was this: they would ask us if we knew the traditional song of Innsbruck and we would say yes. Then they would sing the verses and we would mouth them and make fools of ourselves since we obviously didn't know the words, but it was all for fun. And then, when we got to the yodeling I would yodel the part of the old guy with the accordion, I don't remember his name, and Hannah would yodel the part of Arther, the man playing guitar. It was pretty fantastic. Then before going back out, we all took a shot of what they jokingly called yodeling water (some sort of schnapps). Hannah didnt really know how to yodel, or sing for that matter, and she was drunk anyway so she was literally howling like a wolf and kind of ruining the show but it was ok. After Rachel and I split some Sachertorte (a traditional dessert from Austria, its like chocolate and Apricot cake with Apricot jam in it and a hard layer of chocolate frosting on top) we were informed by Johannah, who was sitting outside this whole time, that some hunters just came up and they had a deer that they had shot with them. We all ran out to see it. The deer was in a canvas sack and it had a branch from a Christmas tree in its mouth. Hannah, who was intoxicated, started freaking out that the deer was eating when they killed it. She didn't understand, even after being told, that it was tradition to take a branch off of a tree and put part of it in the deer's mouth and the other part in the hunters hat. We took pictures with the hunters and with the deer, which was still warm, I felt it. The hunters were so friendly, as are all the people here. It was a great, trational Tirolean night, a fantastic taste of the culture.
-T

HOBO NAPS

The reason I am able to write so much is because I have a break between classes. Sometimes, during that break I take hobo naps on a bench in the school. If Im not doing that or studying I will go on the computer and write. Rachel doesnt have a break so she doesnt have as much time to write or or study or take hobo naps.
-t

Things Travis Forgot:

Although Travis wrote a novel about our adventures in Luzern, I feel like I should contribute in some way. This was definately my favorite weekend so far. Luzern is a much smaller town than Vienna, more relaxing, and prettier (I think). It sits right on a lake and has wonderful mountain scenery in the background. Also, there wasn't a ton of stuff to see, so we weren't rushing all over the city. I think it also had to do with the unexpected nature of the trip. We had no expectations (for Vienna I had alot), so we were able to simply relax and enjoy the city as it was. Plus, there are dozens of swans in the city's river. Our favorite thing to do (other than the incredible nerdy museum) was to watch the swans, and little kids scared of them.

I am so thankful for this European adventure with Travis. I have been warned about letting a wedding take over, and therefore not really thinking about the marriage. But this experience has refocused us (me) on our marriage-- how fun and exciting and difficult it will be at times. I haven't even thought about weddings in 3 weeks!

ITS THE FANS

Thursday night we were supposed to get on the 2305 (1105pm for any of you Americans who have the unfortunate affliction of not being able to do Arithmatic) night train from Innsbruck to Rome. We got to the trainstation on time and went to our platform. Right when we got there it started pouring like crazy. I couldnt believe it. It was like every hurricane I have been in. We were underground, shielded from the rain and wind but a few times I got the courage to go up onto the platform only to run down in fright a few seconds later. About the time the rain let up it was time to board our train. We went on to the platform and waited for it. The train was coming from Munich. Well, we thought it was coming. When the train didnt show up, they delayed it 90 minutes and we waited 90 minutes. When train didnt show up after 90 minutes they delayed it 90 minutes more. When the train didnt show up, and so on... we were there until 345 in the morning and made up our minds that it wasnt worth it any more and took a taxi back to the dorm. At the dorm we made up our minds that we would go to Luzern, Switzerland, which was a place we both somewhat wanted to go if we had the chance. And this was our chance. So we took the train the next morning to Zürich and the regional train from there to Luzern. We spent our first night in Luzern, strolling around Altstadt (old town) looking for a place to eat. Our main goal: find a place with Fondue. Fondue is the national food of Switzerland, so it was imperative that we have some. What we found blew our minds. This is what we found: RESTAURANT FRITSCHI. (I am not able to upload any sort of picture with the computer I am using so do me a favor, open a new window, navigate yourself to google, and do an image search for Restaurant Fritschi.) Here is a history lesson: Restaurant Fritschi opened in 1602. After our Fondue we strolled the city a little more before retiring to our hotel, Hotel Alpha. It was only a two star hotel, so nothing fabulous. We had to take a walk down the hall when ever we wanted to go pee or take a shower, but we did have a sink in our room. It was everything we needed and nothing we didnt at a price we could afford. The next morning we decided we would go to the Verkehrhaus, which is the Swiss Museum of Transport. This may sound nerdy but it is the most visited museum in Switzerland. And thats not just because the Swiss are nerds. It was amazing. It was composed of four differnt builings, each dedicated to one or another form of transportation. The first was air travel. It was probably the largest of the buildings, it had a planetarium, an IMAX theater, about 1000 actual airplanes, a flight simulater, and so on. The other three were dedicated to automobile transportation, locomotive transportation, and nautical transportation. Also there is a video that we made in the Media Exploration part of the museum using a green screen. If anyone wants it I will email it. Just tell me. It was incredible, the best museum experience I have ever had. After spending numerous hours at the Swiss Museum of Transport we decided to visit Löwendenkmal (the Lion Monument aka the dying lion of Luzern). Löwendenkmal is a relief sculpture carved into a small cliff by a pond of a lion with a spear through it. It was made in the honor of Swiss mercenaries who died in a battle some time ago. It is probably disrespectful of me to not remember exactly who it represented but it still had impact on me. It reminded me so much of Aslan, when He is dying in the Chronicles of Narnia. Mark Twain called this monument, THE SADDEST, MOST MOVING PIECE OF ROCK IN THE WORLD. And I would say that I havent seen one sadder.
The next day we went to the trainstation to go back to Innsbruck. We took the regional train to Zürich. In the Zürich trainstation we were chilling on some benches, reading, and waiting for our train when we heard yelling and shouting and singing and chanting coming from the platforms above us. We hurried to see what it was. There was a mob of people, young men most of them, shouting and screaming and singing and waving a flag. I didnt know what was going on. Then the RIOT POLICE with there helmets and shields ran past us in a line and lined up between us and them. The mob was in between two trains, flag waving, shouting. Then they started to rock a train. It was potentially frightening because I didnt know if they were going to charge at us or what. The door to the train opened up, the loud mob got on the train singing and shouting and waving their flag and the tension died down a bit. I had heard that the train workers go on strike every nowandthen, being unionized and all but I didnt think that these young men were unionized train workers. So I asked a police woman, what was that? She didnt speak much English so I asked again and slower, what was going on there? She looked at me and said, OH... FOOTBALL, she rolled her eyes, ITS A PROBLEM, FOOTBALL. That is when I realized that the differnce between American football and European football isnt the fact that they are completely differnt sports, its the fans.
-T

Travis gets the award...

for # 1 Fiance ever. (Sorry, Jamie. I am biased) So this is what happened. Today, while he was napping, I decided to go to the post office for a big envelope and cash some travelers checks. The nearest "post office" on the map was actually just a set of mailboxes. Then I trekked to the nearest bank, that told me I needed a passport (should have known). So I run back to the Rössl to get my passport and go back to cash the checks. Next, I walk for about 40 minutes to the next "post office" that is again, just a row of p.o. boxes. The entire time, it is blustery and wind is making my hair crazy. Plus, I am the only girl wearing shorts, which is kind of frowned upon. Feeling like a floozy, I give up on the post office. I had also been searching for another notebook for class and had to buy a graph paper one, which was really distracting when I got home and tried to write in it.

Then Travis came over, and I was mean/irritated. He left and came back 30 minutes later with....

1. A big envelope
2. A notebook with lined pages
3. A snickers bar.

Incredible. I am the luckiest girl ever.

Lansersee

Yesterday we went took the tram to a lake just outside of Innsbruck called Landsersee. It was pretty awesome. Also pretty freakin cold since it used to be snow and all. We got to see what people mean when they say that Europeans are more liberal with there bodies... aka naked people. Little naked boys and girls running around everywhere. All I could say was, Contamination, when I saw a naked kid riding a bike. And it wasnt just kids who were naked. People too. A little naked girl gave Rachel a leaf as a present. We swam out to the floating dock in the middle and I tried to touch the bottom but it was really one of the scariest things I have done here, considering that the water was so green you couldnt see six feet down and considering how deep Manfred told me it was. Because of his accent I couldnt tell if he said 19 or 90 meters but either way I dove down as far as I could. So far that when I looked up it was just green. I couldnt even tell that the dock was above me. It was creepy. Right now I am in between exams. I just took my art history one and did ok. I think I got a high B, probably not an A, but oh well. In one hour we will be taking our Food & Culture in Europe, which I am not sure how hard it will be. Its on everything from the Danube to Franz Boaz to Tiroler Grösstl. Tonight, a little after 23 (11pm) we are taking the night train to Rome, sleeping in a couchette (it is the sleeping car that has 6 people in a room I think maybe just 4 and in bunkbeds I think.) Anyway we are really pumped for waking up in Rome and then going to Venice the next day, and we really cant wait to show everyone the pictures of our whole trip and tell everyone the stories we didnt post.

-T

The prettier the girl, the bigger the dog.

That is what our Anthropology teacher told us today. Now we know what she thinks about Paris Hilton. SO we (Travis) are booking our hostels for Rome and Venice this weekend. I am so pumped. We are riding on a sleeper train for the first time ever and when we wake up, we'll be in Rome! We had planned a trip to Paris this weekend, but my very intelligent mother called to inform us that the Tour du France is ending in Paris this Saturday. So, Italy here we come! We are spending half our time in Rome and the other half in Venice, which I am really excited about.

This past weekend was so great-- Vienna is beautiful, so historic and pretty low key. We stayed in one of the best hostels in the world, and walked into town every day. Salzburg was more touristy, but we saw a TON of great stuff. The Sound of Music tour was fun and it took us to parts of Salzburg and the Lake District that we would have never seen. My favorite single moment of the weekend was probably when the whole busload of tourists sang the yodeling song from the Sound of Music. You (everyone) would love it. --Rachel

Rory McIlroy

We are back in Innsbruck and had a great time in Wien. Our first night we roomed with two british girls from London and two guys from the USA. The guys left that morning and two new guys came in. One of them was Tom from London. It was hilarious how British he was. He would say BRILLIANT and THATS WICKED FANTASTIC all the time. The other guy was Rick from Amsterdam. He was travelling to Linz to see his girlfriend. On Saturday we went to the Leopold Museum, which had many pieces of art from the 1900s to the 1930s. There was a lot of Klimt and Shiele paintings as well as many others from the Vienna Secession. After the Leopold we headed over to the MuMoK (Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien is the full name). This was perhaps the best\strangest art museum experience I have ever had. The top floors were dedicated to this Abstract artist who, in my professional art opinion, just scribbled on canvas. The other floors were called Mind Expanders and were filled with photos and films of performance art from the seventies. It was very strange\hilarious\uncomfortable. It was funny because there were two pieces that I had studied in art history last year there. That night we ate dinner at the bar in our hostel. At the bar there were these Irish guys that looked at me and started yelling THATS BLOODY RORY MCILROY! They were really drunk and thought that I was the professional golfer from Ireland and that I was skipping The Open for a vacation in Austria. RORY WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE OPEN! They asked me if I knew who Rory McIlroy was and I told them I AM. The next day we left early in the morning on a train to Salzburg to see the sights and go on the SOUND OF MUSIC tour. It was pretty great. They had an on-bus bar on the tour bus and beers were 1.5 €. We sang as we traveled through the living hills.

-Travis

Wien

Well we took the train to Vienna today and made it here in one piece. We are staying in a hostel called Wombats city hostel and it is really nice. There is a bar in it. And it is pretty clean. We are staying through saturday night here. And then we are going to go back to Innsbruck. I think that we are going to Paris next week.
-Travis

PS
Europeans, being progressive as they are, have caught on to my idea that McDonalds should sell beer.

Post Presentation= what a wonderful world

SO Travis and I are finally done with this big ol presentation that we had to do for Food and Wine in Europe. It was ok, mainly because the restaurant room that we reserved for our class was filled with people when we got there. But I think the teacher still likes us because:
1. We went first
2. We paid for her meal
3. We are engaged and she likes romantic love.

After this presentation we reserved our seats for our trains to Vienna, Salzburg, and back. THEN we went to Harry Potter 6. It was really intense, had some scary parts, and made me REALLY excited for Harry Potter 7. I overheard a girl say that there wouldn't be a seventh movie. That they would be combining the 2 books into this last movie, which made me laugh because this movie out of all of them was the most unfinished. Also, a combined movie would be about 7 hours long.

München and Movies

Yesterday we met in München (Munich). She had been at Dachau for the morning and I went to a Renaissance museum that was pretty cool. We met up at the train station and went with her teacher to get lunch at Augustiner Keller, a famous beer garten, with three of our friends who ended up staying there the whole day. After lunch we went to Altstadt (old town) in München and it turned out that there was a huge gay pride festival which was very interesting and fun. There was a huge stage and someone was singing a coldplay song or something. Then we went to Hofbräuhaus and had some beer and pretzels. They have a beer here called Radler which is half beer half lemonade and really good if you like beer and lemonade. I really hope I have a chance to come back here again. It is such a great place. I know that I will come back here again.

Rachel and I have a presentation for Food and Culture in Europe which has turned out to be a pretty intense course, on Wednesday. We are taking the class out for lunch at a place called Stiftskeller, a pretty old restaurant in Altstadt (the one here, not Munich). I cant wait to get it over with because on Wednesday night..... drum rollllll.... WE ARE SEEING HARRY POTTER!!!!! In ENGLISH!!! I cant wait. It will be pretty fun.

The movie theatre here is pretty nice. It has extreme stadium seating (I think if shaq were in front of me I would still be able to see). I saw Brüno there the other day. It was funny seeing it in Brünos home coutry Austria. It was in English but there was a lot of german in it anyway so it made it somewhat hard to follow. I didnt think it was as good as Borat but it was still worth it.

And this is Anthropology.

Rachel here. So I love this place and the mountains and Golden Roof. I have seen more kinds of strange dogs this week than ever in America. But the best is my Food and Culture in Europe class (Travis is also in it too). The teacher is from Croatia and digresses more than any teacher I have ever had. Just to give you an idea of a typical class, this is what we have talked about so far. Remember that this class is actually about food and culture in Europe.
1. Shamans
2. The Afterlife
3. Nudist Gardens
4. How dogs die
5. Public drunkeness
6. How to will yourself to die
7. Romantic love
8. Ghosts
9. Saying "Bless You"
10. A covert prostitution operation
11. Cactus gardens
12. Eating dogs
13. How the first seals were made from fingers.

I have a running list. Today I had a lecture on Dachau, and on Saturday I am actually going to the camp. It is going to be so surreal to stand in that place. I have been taught so much about it and have read numerous books on the Holocaust, but it will be so strange to be there.

In my other class, Schools and Culture, I have learned a lot about the Austrian school system. It is so different than ours. For example, after primary school (age 6-10), all A students are accepted into Grammer Schools. All others go to Secondary Modern Schools. If a student goes to a Grammer School, they will automatically be accepted into a university-- grades do not matter. So a tremendous amount of pressure is put on really young students to make all A's and parents pressure teachers to give all A's. It has been so interesting to see all the differences in culture and to think about which practices are more effective.

Beer

I was amazed to see that they serve beer in the universitys cafeteria. It is pretty awesome.
-Travis

We are here!

Two days ago we arrived in Munich and took a bus to Innsbruck. It is so beautiful here. On all sides of the city are mountains. Huuuuuge mountains. Some time this week we are gonna go up there to the top. I have gotten to use my german language skills a few times and it was fun. Exept one time I was ordering gelato for rachel and intead of saying she wants a cone of strawberry I said they want a cone of strawberry. The people laughed. Innsbruck is on a river called der Inns. It has a stronger current than any river I have ever seen. I guess because it is from all of the snow that melts on the mountains and flows into the river. Things are a lot more expensive here, but rachel and i have found a few bars and imbisses (snack bars) that have fairly cheap food. For dinner last night we had cheeseburgers for around 4€ and they were gigantic. We couldnt finish them. We have made a few friends but mainly all the guys here are in frats and hang out with there own kind and all the girls are in sororities and do the same. Today is the first day of class and I am in between my Art History class and my Food and Culture in Europe class which I have with Rachel. It should be fun.

Travis

Oh also I was surprised to see that they drive on the right side of the road here.