(E.A. Part 17)

Day 17.

Today Dani and Megan woke Cole and I up. Both of our heads of hair were messed up and pointing outward everywhere. We took our showers and got ready for the day. We filled our sport bags with headphones, journals, and water bottles. When we went down to breakfast everyone was eating cereal. I got a big bowl of Trix and and cup of coffee. After breakfast we all got on the bus and drove for an hour to our destination. We were dropped off in a huge open area. There was a magazine shoot happening at the time and we all saw about 8 different models. We could also see the eiffel tower and it was huge. I just rememeber thinking that I've only seen the eiffel tower in pictures and to see it in person was just unbelievable. We all walked through a vast system of paths that led through parks, over bridges, up and down sets of stairs, and a lot of interesting structures until we finally got to the Eiffel Tower. It was HUGE! We all got in line in front of one of the legs of the Eiffel Tower and got tickets to go up. We all got partners and Cole and I went up the lift that led to the top. We got halfway and had to walk to an elevator that led to the very top. We got lots of pictures and had an awesome time. We decided walking down would be a new experience so we did that. It took about 20 minutes to get from the top to the mid section. We then joined up with Brian, Dani, Tyler, Jake, Kara, Megan, Allyson, Maddy, Dylan, and Daisy. We all got a sprite and pizza roll that was at the moment being sold at the heart of the Eiffel Tower. We were really tired so we just waited 10 minutes for the lift to take us down. No one wanted to walk down anymore. Once we got to the bottom we figured we had one hour of free time. So we started negotiating with street vendors about getting little trinkets. We all got drinks and sat down. We saw military men with guns come and force out the street vendors who were selling illegal merchandise. We got a picture with one of the military man. Afterwards we all met up as a delegation outside one of the stands around the Eiffel Tower. We started heading in a different direction to meet Gary. On our way we saw a man propose and we all clapped. hahaa  

When we got to the bus we silently road for a few minutes to the Louvre Museum. We got out and got our tickets to go in. We had to wait an hour so we went down the road to shop a little bit. I got a sweatshirt and an Eiffel Tower pendant. I helped other people shop a little bit too. We left the shops and walked back to The Louvre where we were all checked by security. We split up the delegation into two groups and we all toured different parts of the huge complex museum. We saw alot of different famous paintings. We went underground for a moment and saw a model of a brick wall with a projector shining soldiers fighting along the wall. When we got to the Mona Lisa, everyone was a little shocked by its size. We all thought it would be much bigger but it was a about two feet in both directions. We saw a few artistic sculptures too. We didn't get much time to tour everything so when it was time to go we all went down the escalators that led to the bottom of the complex and went to the parking garage that we met Gary at. We drove back to our hotel and went to our rooms to put on our swimming suits. We all met at the pool and everyone though the water was really cool. Cole and I had a weird (back-flip into the water) contest and we both won. We had chicken wars and water fights and we all had alot of fun. When we went back to our room for the night me and Cole watch a stand up comedy with our weird "Paris Candy" snacks. It was a skinny breaded pretzil covered in chocolate. Then we went to bed and that was that. It had already been such an amazing trip

(E.A. Part 16)

Tourist Center Cross

Day 16.

Today, as usual Daniella woke up again. It was around 7:15 and we were all really tired. We got dressed and packed our bags. We left our rooms and met up with Cole and Tyler at breakfast. We sat with everyone and ate bread and orange juice. Afterwards we got our bags and left the hotel. We drove for a couple hours until we got to a big Cathedral. We walked around the church for a little bit and it was huge! Everything was made out of marble and rock and it was really cool. It was kind of a Gothic styled church. In the upper right corner of the church there was a giant cross and a whole bunch of different colored lights surrounding it. But you had to put a 20 Euro Cent piece in the foot of the cross to turn all the lights on. I'm guessing it was just a tourist attraction. We walked out off the church and saw a bunch of giant puppets everywhere. We took a group photo and split up into groups to tour. We had about 3 hours to tour the are so we used it well. Me and Cole hung outside and listened to music while the girls went shopping in a shoe store. Next we went to a clock department store. It was really odd and there were so many clocks. I think the cheapest one was 65 Euros. We negotiated with some street vendors and I got some Shutter Shades that were originally 25 Euro, for 1 Euro. It was pretty cool. Then we walked around some glass shops and saw a few cool things like giant glass animals and portraits of different buildings and rivers. Then we came upon a marry-go-round and we decided 3 Euros was worth a good joke picture on a kiddy ride. So we rode that for about 2 minutes of fun and then left. After hours of shopping we got back together as a delegation and went to lunch. We walked up to a building to then be shown down stairs and set up at our own tables. I sat with Brian, Cole, Maddy, Daisy, and Allyson. We had salad, Sprite, and salmon. The Salmon was alright but the salad had a really odd dressing on it. Once we were done eating we left the restaurant and made our way towards Gary, who was waiting for us at the bus station. We had a long bus ride to Paris. About 7 hours, and it wasn't gonna be fun. We watched Journey to the Center of the Earth to pass time and Liberty, Cole, Allyson, Joe, Tyler, and just about everyone on the bus played cards for a few hours. We played with iPods, iPads, and iPhones for awhile. I think we must have tried to sleep but it was around the middle of the day so no one could. We stopped at a restaurant about 6 hours into the trip. We all sat down and waited patiently for our dinner. There was a stage in the room and Mrs. Berrie thought it would be a fun idea to have the kids performance. So she asked around if anyone wanted to show us their talents and the only person that did was Adam. He got up on the stage and started break dancing like a pro. hahaa, he did the worm too, not sure how. When our food came out we were all really hungry. We had some bread, fish, and mashed potatoes. We drank red flavored water and ginger ale. We all had to go to the bathroom but it was kind of hectic. It was a uni-sex bathroom and it was all too awkward. There was one stall and a urinal. No one used the urinal because everyone was watching and it was out in the open. It took about 45 minutes for everyone to use the bathroom. Afterwards we all walked out to the bus and got in. We drove for another hour until we got to our hotel. It was pretty huge. The outside didn't make it seem all too great. But the entire wall was made out of glass which I guess was pretty interesting. We got to pick our roommates this time so me and Cole had finally gotten to room up. The lobby was really cool. There was a coy pond, trees and plants, an XBOX arcade room, snack bar room, a soda bar, and a lot of futuristic furniture.We got our room keys and made our way towards the elevators. We were all on a different floor. Cole and I got a room on floor six and we didn't want to wait for the elevators so we put our luggage on our backs and sprinted up the stairs. We went up 12 flights of stairs with 14 steps per flight..... do the math. We were really tired and when we got to our room we were kind of disappointed. This was our last hotel of the trip and we were expecting it to be first class 5 STAR. But it really wasn't. We expected a balcony. There wasn't one. The room had one huge bed and a couch. An oddly twitchy Television and a mini fridge. The mini fridge was locked because there was alcohol in it. The bathroom was pretty cool. There was a bidet, an open shower, and a Jesus mirror. There was a room right next to the shower room with a toilet in it. The Jesus mirror was a mirror that wouldn't fog up when you take a shower. It was really cool. Whilst we were in our room, Cole threw his bag on the floor and we heard a crack. I guess his home stay family had given him a jar of honey and it broke in his bag all over it's continents. The honey wasn't even all that good and he was about to throw it away anyway. We cleaned his bag up and found that 65 dollars in US cash had been covered and he threw it all away. I called him in idiotic human being and dug out out. We figured out that if we were careful we could wash it. We soaked it and carefully scrubbed the US currency until it was clean. We then through away the stuff that was to sticky and broken and we went downstairs to where we got some soda and French treats from the lobby to store up for the night. it was a pretty fun day!

(E.A. Part 15)

Day 15.
Today I didn't really do much. I woke up in the morning with Daniella and a few other people pounding on the door to waken me. I guess I hung out in the hallway with everyone for a little bit, talking about how the night before had gotten a little crazy with the curfew restrictions. We all made jokes and laughed in the tiny hallway and then we all left to go get ready for the day. I took a shower in the "weirdly too steamy" bathroom, got dressed, and packed up my suitcase. We didn't really stay in one single hotel for a few days. We were usually in a different hotel every night. I packed up my little People to People sports bag, slung it over my shoulders, and left. When I returned my key to the front desk I walked to the left and went to breakfast. I got a big glass of orange juice and sat down with Megan and Tyler. Tyler and Joe had to talk to the leaders about the trouble that apparently went on last night. Once they did, so did I. I just explained that I was up to get some pain medicine and everything was OK. We left the hotel and drove for a couple hours until we stopped at a gas station. We pulled out the apple strudel that we made the other day and we sat on the park benches and ate it. It was really cold and kind of stail because we didn't eat it fast enough and the apples were kind of frozen. So a word from the wise, if you make apple strudel, eat it as soon as its done. hahaa, The bathroom of the station cost 85 Euro Cents to use and that was crazy because they wouldn't give us change for it and no one had exactly 85 euro cents so we all just held it in. We got back on the bus and made our way through Lucerne, Switzerland. A few hours later, we got out of our bus and made our way through the city on a city walk. We walked down a lot of narrow paths until we got to a Swiss Watch shop. It turned into our new meeting place. We all got in groups again and started touring the city by ourselves. We went into a lot of neatly placed shops and saw a lot of cool fountains. We also met up with another People to People delegation. They were from Florida and they were pretty cool. We all just hung out and walked around. We saw alot of chocolate shops and watch&knife shops. It was all the same basic stuff that was being sold everywhere. We also saw a few different churches and a lot of awesome architectural stuff. Once we were done touring we went on an adventure dinner. I was in my usually group of 4 and we all walked around the city for a bite to eat. Once we found a place we all got 4 tiny slices of pizza and a Cola.  I tried to buy a swatch and some amazing chocolates with Dylan but my credit card got denied because it didn't work in Switzerland. It was sad but I got the chocolates anyway with some Swiss francs. When everything was over and we were done eating and touring, we waited next to a bus stop for Gary. I gave all of the leaders some chocolate and we left. When we got back to our new hotel, just about everyone got in the pool that it had except for Cole, Maddy, Joe, Kara, and I. We hung out in our rooms and had an awesome time just making jokes and all. The hotel was a little weird. It had two floors and an open blue staircase at the end of both hallways. The guys were on the first floor and the girls were on the second. On the second floor there was a little loft with a few couches and a TV and we all just hung out in there most of the time. I had a room with Joe and Parker that night and Me and Joe got the two beds at one end of the room whilst Parker got the cot by the door. The bathroom was a little odd. You could literally push the shower across the floor. It was one of those glass boxes with a drain at the bottom, but it was on wheels and you could slide it from one end of the room to the other. It was really weird. There wasn't a bidet in this room unlike all of the other hotel rooms. Which was odd. We never used the bidet (butt/feet washer that is in European hotel bathrooms) though . We all had an awesome time just hanging out and talking in this hotel.

(E.A. Part 14

Day 14.
Today Dani woke me and Dylan up around 7:30. We were pretty tired but we woke up to some red bull. I took a shower and got ready to leave and then we both had a scoop of Nutella and went to breakfast. For breakfast we had a loaf of bread with Nutella and honey on it. We got our rooms checked and we left the hotel. When we got on the bus, the leaders made a rule for a day that the guys had to sit in the front of the bus and and the girls had to sit in the back. We drove for a few hours until we got to a giant building that said "Culinary Arts School" in German. We walked into the giant architectural masterpiece, and went down a large hallway and into a room where there a prepared table with supplies for making some sort of sweet. We all got a seat and watch a professional chef come and start preparing an apple strudel tart. He rolled, crushed, and poured ingredients into a giant bowl and thrown all the supplies onto a slate of dough. It was really cool. I noticed that the chef only had eight fingers. It was really creepy but it was amazing how he created a dish like that. After the dish was made, we split up into groups and made our own the way that the pro chef did it. We poured alot of rum into the dish to give it the flavor or something. Hahaa, it was really interesting how he explained the instructions to us. After we put it in the oven we made our way towards the roof of the building. We walked up 6 flights of stairs and we came up on the roof and there were pots with vegetable and fruit plants in them. It was where the made their ingredients and there were plants everywhere!! From the rooftop you could see the ramp that was set up on a mountain for the Winter Olympics. We then walked down to the main floor again and saw that the school had set up a dining place for us to eat. We sat down and I ate with Dani, Tyler, and the delegation leaders. We all ate prepared pork, potatoes, and fresh veggies. With some red flavored water. Later we left onto a 5 hour bus ride for a boat trip down a large river that ran through the mountains in Austria. We grouped up at the top and had an awesome time! It was on 10 degrees though:/ we were on the boat for about thirty minutes and we went to a restaurant on the edge of the river. We walked up to the restaurant once we got off the boat and we sat at our tables. I sat with Sydney Boyd, Danniella Spagnola, and a kid named Parker. We had some more red flavored water. And a weird tasty pasta. We then left to go to our hotel. I was staying with Morgan that night. He was kinda weird but cool I guess. We all left the hotel  and McDonalds. We got some sweet tea, and walked to the bank to get some swiss francs. Me and Jake were practicing parkour and jumping off of walls and all. Then we walked to our hotel and went to bed. I got up to get some aspirin from my friend Joe and Tyler. We got in a little trouble for being up late. So that was how my day went...



(E.A. Part 13)



Scary noise room



Day 13.

Today was the day that I was leaving my host family. I had a lot of fun but it was time to go. I had woken up really early so that I could get ready to leave. I took a shower. Packed up all of my (still damp) laundry. I also wrote a note to my family explaining my gratitude and respect towards them. I left that on the bed and we left. We had gotten to the sight pretty early. I saw all of my delegation members and we all hugged and got all dramatic and all, then we said good bye to our families and left on our bus. A few hours into the bus ride and we took a pit stop. I got a breakfast sandwich because I didn't eat anything that morning. We all stood around and some people got giant smoothies as a joke but the leaders got mad at them. We got back on the road and drove another hour until we got to a Concentration Camp. We grouped up outside and talked about the rules and regulations of the place. We got into groups and I walked with Allyson, Cole, Kara, Megan, and Jake. The girls got really scared because there was a building that you walked into that made horribly awful sounds that scared the hello out of everybody. We walked through the rooms and it was really hard to see how people had to live there and to see how hard that must have been. I wondered how it would have been for me if I had to go through all of that. We walked up and down the big road that had buildings on either side. We went down a set of stairs that had a big room at the bottom with flowers all over it. It was just a huge corridor system that had different horrible and painfully scary rooms everywhere. A few times while we were in the buildings me and a few people would feel something grab our leg or rubbing our next or something. And usually we would be standing up next to a solid object and no one had jokingly tried to scare us so we were pretty freaked out. We went to go sit down on the gravel road and talk and take pictures. Just to take a break of touring. Later we all grouped up and left the camp. Joe and I found a soda machine and we got in a little trouble because it was "disrespectful to buy drinks outside a camp where people died". I didn't quiet understand their logic there but whatever. Afterwards we left and went to eat lunch at a 4 STAR restaurant. It was kind of a Viking Maiden type of theme. We had salad and soup for an appetizer with red flavored water. For a meal they mashed potato filled meat squares. It was really tasty. Once we had eaten, Dylan and I were searching for a bathroom. We walked through the kitchen, up three flights of stairs, past a gift shop, and through a few hallways. We then realized that the restaurant was also a hotel and we freaked because we were lost. We eventually found the bathroom and made our way back through the diner/hotel and we found our group. I left my table that I was sitting at with Maddy, Brian, and Daisy to go sit with my friends Cole, Kara, Megan, and everybody else. We talked and laughed at the costumes that the waiters and waitresses were wearing. After lunch we left to go on a city-tour quest through Salzburg City. We saw a really big church. I had a contest with my friend Jake on who could jump the highest and touch a metal bar the was nailed tothe cealing. I won but I cut my hand pretty bad, so Dr. Katelyn (not actually a doctor) brought out a band-aid kit and welded up my hand. We walked through the city some more and we saw a lot of little gift stands and street performers. We also went through the graveyard that was at the end of the movie "Sound of Music". It was really cool and flowers were everywhere. We then saw the apartment that Mozart had lived in. One of his family members lives there now. She was just an old woman that kept looking out the window. After we were done touring, we walked back to the bus stop and Gary picked us up. We went to a really amazing restaurant and had a cool  flakey pasta and soup that made your taste buds jump! On our way back to the hotel we realized it would take alot of manuvering to get the bus into the spot it needed to be. Gary worked and worked and worked and finally got us to pull a complete 360 degree turn and speed up with 2 feet of elbow room and not much time. He was a pro. This hotel was a little different. I got a room with Dylan and it was pretty neat. We bought Nutella and we were selling little pretzils covered in Nutella to everyone. We also bought some redbull and spilt it all over our bed. The hotel had a big game room right of of the entrance. It had bowling, putt putt, and an arcade with pool tables and gaming machines. Allyson, Cole, Kara and I played Putt Putt and we got to play until the third hole but Kara fell over and started crying. She had a major stomach problem and it really hurt her. So we took her to her room and she went to sleep. The rest of us just hung out around the hotel and talked and told stories of our lives back home. When it was time to go to our rooms we said goodnight to everyone and left. Dylan and I had 5inch long nails so we left our room to go searching for finger nail clippers and we figured Libby had some so we borrowed hers. Then we just hung out and starred out our window the rest of the time. We went straight to bed after about an hour and a half. 







Street art figurines.



(E.A. Part 12)

Day 12.
Today I woke up early to go to Valentina's school. I had one dry shirt and a pair of jeans that I could wear. I took a shower and got ready to leave. I had packed up a little sack with all of my P2P gear and stuff. I then walked out with Valentina and we skipped through 9 peoples yards to get to the main road where her bus picks her up. We waited for about 30 minutes and then people started coming along. When we got on the bus I met a few of her friends and we all shared some (German) laughs because "my accent was funny." hahaa, I saw Katelyn with her host person on the bus and we exchanged tales of excitement for awhile. The bus ride was about 50 minutes long and when we finally got to her school we had to take off our shoes and put on flip flops. I met up with Tyler, Bay, and RJ and we all got sparkling water and laughed and joked around with some kids with gay swishy hair who were making fun of us. We went into the performing arts room where the kids were setting up for an opening night project and we talked to the schools English teacher. She explained to us everything that was happening that day and she then pointed us to an outside gaming area where there was a ping pong table and alot of other neat games that we played on while everyone was working on their projects and stuff. Tyler and I played ping pong for a little bit whilst Bay and RJ talked about their home stay families. There were four kids that came out and started playing on another table. They started talking to us in German and supposedly making fun of me and Tyler. After a few laughs and jokes and pointed fingers, me and Tyler hushed them and told them that they should feel very good about trying to pwn us because we didn't understand a word they were saying. So then they started snickering and making fun of our accents, and me and Tyler told them off and they freaked out and walked away. After about an hour our home stay kids came out of their class room and told us that they were going to walk into the city and get lunch. We all started walking towards the town where we then got some more ice-cream and crackers. Tyler and I were searching for other P2P members and after 10 minutes we finally saw Kara, Megan, and Maddy in the middle of town. We all hugged and shared stories and caught up whilst our host kids watched a street performance. Then we had to leave and we said goodbye. When we got back to the school they worked for an hour and then our families picked us up and we went home. I later had helped Valentina with a power point presentation because she didn't understand how to work it. I helped her with all the slides and editing and it worked out perfectly. We put it on a flash drive so she could have it for her school performance later that day. Her mom brought us to her piano teachers house and I noticed really fast that the dude was freaking creepy. He had crazy glasses. A weird laugh and he was really interested in Vally... But she was really good at the piano and he seemed like he knew what he was doing so it didn't quiet matter that much. Vallies mom paid 50 Euros for a thirty minute lesson and afterwards her mom dropped us off in the city again. We once again met up with Tyler and Bay and went shopping for a little bit. I almost bought a camera because mine was trashed and not working. But my credit card wouldn't allow it. I bought more Nutella and realized I was addicted to the stuff. Tyler and I bought some (Infinity Style) AXE spray and we got pretty cool pretty quick. Afterwards we all set out to the girl's school where they had a big performance that night. Us Americans sat in the back and watched while everyone spoke German for 2 hours. They did introduce us at the beginning, welcoming the Americans to Austria. We didn't understand anything that they were doing but we clapped and applauded anyway. When the play was over, we started a game of soccer on the astro-turf that was in the back of the school. Tyler and I were the first ones picked and kicked some ass! It was crazy how much momentum we got out of that game. We both scored at least 5 goals each and we had an awesome time! After the game was over we all went inside and exchanged names that we could look up on facebook. Then we went home and fell asleep instantly. It was a really fun day

(E.A. Part 11)



Valentina Zepletal



The room I stayed in.



Day 11.So today was my first official day alone in Austria. I was in a little city called Haag and it was definitely a new experience for me. I got up in the morning around 6 to go on a run. When I had gotten ready and left my room I noticed that Valentina was already up and prepping to go on a run too. So we both left and she showed me a little trail that led up through the hills. We jogged through the park and we saw a lot of little public work out stations that the city had set up. We started running up a hill until we got to what looked like a zip-lining camp that was set up in the trees. It was a little like the Canopy Tours that are in West Virginia. Except it wasn't nearly as high and the kids that were part of it were doing everything on their own. With no help from adults. It was pretty breezy and it could have been about 50 degrees. We walked over a lot of small rope vine bridges and saw a lot of great views and it was just amazing. We walked over a bridge that had a little pond under it, but you couldn't really see the water because there were little lilies everywhere. We walked for a little while until we got to a huge watch tower that was on top of the hills. It took about 15 minutes to get to the top and it got pretty chilly and windy up there, but it was beautiful. I could see about 5 different cities from the top of it and it was crazy awesome. We started climbing down and we ran back home. We got back around 8:30 and everyone was already up and eating croissants with milk. When we were done eating Valentina's mom took us into the city and we met up with her best friend. She was also hosting one of my delegation people. I met up with Tyler and Bay in the city and we all got some awesome ice cream. It was vanilla caramel with wafers in the middle and it tasted like Jesus. Me and Tyler went into the store and bought a huge Jar of Nutella and a giant spoon and that was our lunch(: While we were walking through the stores we saw our friends Dylan and Adam. We all slow-motioningly ran towards each other and hugged! hahaa, it was a funny gag because we hadn't seen each other for awhile and we were in a whole nother world. After that Tyler left us and so it was just Vally, Bay, and Bay's host. We went to Vally's friend Dominic's house so we could swim. Once we all changed into our swimming clothes we went to the back of his house and jumped into the pool. Not thinking about how disgusting it was. Seriously it was gross. When I got out of the pool I was literally green from the neck down. We all jumped out and decided it was a bad idea to do that. We all went back to Bay's hosting house and we watched the Princess Bride. It was kind of a chick day and I kinda wish I had a guy host. But I made do and it was OK(;  We then played some sort of German board game and me and my partner dominated in it. Bay's host's brother who was maybe 10 years old had a weird looking haircut. He said I looked like Justin Bieber and he asked me to flex my arm for him to see if I was wimpy or not. So this kid was kind of pudgy and when I flexed he freaked out because I looked pretty strong. When me and Valentina left their house we went back to her house and watched (eng dub) Step Up 3. It was a dance movie... I then tried to teach her the meaning of the word random and spontaneous. I went to bed around 10 that night.



(E.A. Part 10)

Day 10. Today I woke up in luxury with Dani and Kara pounding on my door to wake me and my roommates up. We took showers and got dressed and went to breakfast. It was an absolutely huge room that had three different visible levels that had tables and tables of amazing food on them. I sat with Brian, Tyler, and Cole and we all had this weird pasta and bologna & cheese. When we were finished we all headed back upstairs to get our luggage. We were all really disappointed to leave the hotel because it was by far our favorite one yet. The bus stopped in the middle of the city so we could have a city-quest adventure. It was basically a time where we split up into groups and each group got one delegation leader. We had to find certain points in the city and navigate through the city. My group that consisted of Me, Jake, Joe, Tyler, Brian, Liberty, Maddy, and a few other people had gotten the leader Mr. Coneway. Now Mr. Coneway was pretty cool so he didn't really care if we fallowed the map or not, as long as we got to the finish point in time. He was really just interested in taking pictures for his family. We went way off the map and had an awesome time. Joe, Jake and I had a contest to see how parkour we could be. We were jumping off of everything and we were being absolutely mental! At one point we were getting ready to go into a STARBUCKS and there was a metal chain that was hanging over a ditch and a few tires were in front of it. So I start sprinting towards it, jump and grabbed the chain and then swing over the tires. Jake tries to copy me and right off the bat he falls flat on his face. So we recovered our strength in the STARBUCKS with Mocha Frappuccino and scones. After that we found a really neat hot dog stand that sold "two foot long" hot dogs. They took giant loaves of bread and hollowed them out, filled them with condiments  and then stuck two giant hot dogs in them. It was a really interesting experience and we were all amazed. There was a lot of public art and fountains in the city. Afterwards we walked up a random escalator that was just in the middle of the street, and we had a contest on who could run down the up escalator the fastest. Jake and I tied. We saw a little skate park and we were free styling and doing jumps and crazy stuff like parkour. I bought a snow globe but it kind of shattered later that day. I got another coffee and then we met up with our full delegation. We got back on the buses and went to the PRATER AMUSEMENT PARK. We met up outside the bus and walked to a little sausage stand. Nobody got anything because we had huge hot dogs an hour earlier. We started walking around and my group and I decided not to ride anything because we were going to be on a 3 hour trip after this activity and we didn't want to get sick. You had to pay fifty Euro Cents to go to the bathroom, which got really interesting. Once we were finished with the "fun" park, we got on the buses and made our way towards the meeting point for all of the home stay families. We were going to be gone for three days so we were all pretty sad to say goodbye. When we stopped and saw all the families grouping up, we got kind of nervous about who our families would be and how they would act. I was one of the last ones off the bus along with Tyler. When I got off I grabbed my luggage and was greeted by a girl named Valentina Zepletal. She was a month younger than me and she was really nice. She spoke pretty good English but I had to use google translate a lot. I also met her father at the pick-up point and he seemed pretty nice. But he was a pretty interesting character. But over all he was a pretty pro person.  It was a thirty minute drive to her house and we talked about the area and school and such. When we got to her house it wasn't as shabby as I thought it would be. It was pretty small but it definitely had a long history to it. I met her bet rabbits and they were really cute. There was a white rabbit named snow drop and a brown rabbit named Bugs Bunny. I met her mother that day too and she seemed really nice. The whole idea about how they lived and did things was kind of creepy at first but I adapted pretty fast. I also met her brother. He was really cool and spoke almost perfect English. I didn't see him much of the time because he was in his room on the computer. He goes to a computer arts school so he was always working on it.
Her mother made us dumplings and eggs for dinner and we didn't eat much of it though. Then I figured out that they didn't have Wi-fi or Internet because her mom was afraid of radiation and I almost cried. They had set me a little space in Valentina's room and it came all too clear to me that she was a teenager because there were pop star pictures of KE$HA and Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez and alot of other teen stars. She had posters everywhere and i stayed on a pink sheeted mattress with teddy bears everywhere. But I got used to it pretty fast and it didn't bother me much. Because at least I had a mattress to sleep on. We stayed up until 1 in the morning playing German Sorry the board game. That night I also started my laundry. I gave her all of my clothes that night expecting to get them in the morning, but I quickly realized that I wouldnt get them for 3 whole days until they dried because they didnt have a dryer. I had to wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt for three days straight :P Awesome.

(E.A. Part 9)

Day 9.

Today we traveled to Vienna, Austria. When we woke up, we all looked dirt poor. Our hair was greasy and standing up and weird. We couldn't take a shower since we were staying in a tent. We all brushed our teeth, packed up our stuff, and made our way towards the restaurant that we went to the night before. People to People asked this Viking restaurant to set a breakfast table out in the courtyard. It had a lot of bread and butter. It had a Nutella spread, and a giant bowl of cereal that people could scoop out of. It was a decent breakfast and we all filled up. Afterwards we went to a little medieval construction sight and saw half-finished buildings and it was really neat. It was a Sunday and no one was working. This construction sight was being worked on by a bunch of grown men. They were using old techniques to build the place. There was a blacksmiths shop. They set up an irrigation system and we all got fresh water from a place that's pretty far away. We saw a woodworking shop and a little pulley system that helps get giant logs up a hill. We also managed to see a little area where they were hollowing out a trunk and making a canoe. When we were done touring the area and taking pictures we walked back to our "hotel" got our bags, said goodbye to Feefee and left. Cole and I played "Feed me oil" on my iPad and Dani and Kara sat behind us and made fun of us because our hair was so messed up and crazy. After about an hour we stopped and got a sack lunch. We had a sandwich and a pre-made cookie with apple juice. It wasn't the best but it got us through. We got back on the bus and went to our hotel. We all noticed pretty fast that our hotel was 5 STAR. It was incredible. The hedgings in the front looked like gods. The lobby was big and vast and had amazing furniture. It was huge and our rooms were crazy awesome. I stayed with Chris and Adam and we all got peacock feather blankets and candy on our pillows. It was a huge bed so I got that with Adam and then Chris set his stuff up on the cot. It was still the middle of the day and we had alot planned so we all took showers and got dressed in preppy clothes and then went to the lobby. We hhad to have ties for the place we were going to tonight and me and a handful of my friends didn't have ties. So we went on a tie hunt around the hotel frantically asking people if we could borrow, buy, or use someone's tie. At one point my friend Joe dares me to ask some guy if I could buy his cool cartoon tie. I go over and in German, ask if i could buy his tie. He then knew we spoke English and asked if we all needed one. We said yes and he led us to a room in the lobby. We found out later that he was the hotel manager. He gave us all his card and then he showed us a room full of ties. We all picked one and saw the price tags on them. I got one that was €150. It was just something that we all borrowed so we didnt need to pay. Shortly after we left to go talk to a Holocaust survivor. We met up with the highschool delegation and went into a room. There was a plump old man that seemed really agrivated at someone. He had a skinny proffessor standing next to him. The proffessor was the holocaust survivors translater. The holocaust survivor only spoke German so we heard his tale through the skinny looking man. He talked to us about how hard times were and how cruel some of the generals of the time were. He picked two people out of the crowd and compared them and told them what would happen to them if they were born in that time. It was really weird and hard to think about. Afterwards when he was done with the speech, people to people gave a present. My group and I then left and we all started walking towards our restaurant. We sat down and looked around and it was a pretty elegant place. I sat next to Brian, Dani, Tyler, and Joe. We all got red flavored water and edible flowers. By the time that we got our food we were already starving. We got a plate of chopped potatoes and some shnitzel with lemon. Schnitzel is a traditional Austrian dish made with boneless meat thinned with a mallet, coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It tasted really good and especially with the lemon on it. We all took our squished lemons and threw them into the flavored water pitcher. We all had alot of fun. When we were done we got out of the restaurant and walked through a park to get to our bus. When we got on the bus and left we started heading to a huge orchestra. I sat next to Allyson and Dylan and we laughed at some of the guys who were singing because their voices went up really high. Once we got to the intermission we all left the great hall and went outside to sit and cool off in the cold night air, because at this time it was pretty dark ouside. We took lots of pictures of some of the statues and had a great time. Then we went inside and got some rootbeer. Afterwards we went and sat back down and listened to grown men sing for another two hours. When the orchestra was over, we all started walking through the lighted streets. We got to newspaper stand and waited there until a trolly came and picked us up. We were on the trolly for thirty minutes to an hour and it was pretty interesting. My friends were yelling in the back and throwing gum everywhere. Some people were starring at me and Ally through eye holes in a magazine. And Parker surprisingly sat with a 6'2 blond who wouldnt stay off her phone. When we got off the trolly we started walking towards the hotel and made our way through crowds of men that were just hanging out on the street. It was pretty scary since it was like midnight. We got back to the hotel and started talking to people in othe rooms from the balcony-like area outside the window. We got a bunch of Michigan candy from our friend Daisy and we threw Chrises ipod across the hotel roof. It was an awesome day and I loved it!

(E.A. Part 8)

                                                       Day 8.

Today was our day in Freesach, Austria. We got up and got ready for our travels. We packed all of our stuff up and got dressed. When we left the room we buffed our shoes in the shoe buffer and turned our room keys in. We got onto the bus and I sat next to Allyson and Jake. An hour into the bus ride we took off our DARK sunglasses and noticed that we were passing incredibly high mountains and beautiful trees. The scenery was amazing. We kept on driving and I passed out from exhaustion and 2 hours later I woke up and we had stopped at a preschool. We watched as little kids gathered around the windows and starred at us. There was a sign on the door that said "Welcome Americans". We walked in and we were greeted by the Mayor of the town. We were given some red looking flavored water and apple strudel. It was a party that was set up to welcome us into Austria. It was really neat and the Mayor talked to us about how beautiful the area was and how nice that Austria can be. Once her speech was over, a dog with three legs comes bolting in and looks for us to start petting her. It was a really nice do. We then took a tour around the preschool. Apparently the school was built next to a cemetery so we all got to walk next door and see the little cell of a door that led into what was almost a cave. There were bones everywhere and it was really creepy. Once we were done with the touring, we got back on the bus and went to our "hotel". It was a giant medieval tent that was set up for tourists. It was on an open field next to a bunch of mountains and it was just one giant circus tent that had smaller tents inside it to separate boys and girls. It also had a sort of a lobby. There were mirrors everywhere. There was a giant zebra couch that zig-zagged through the "hotel" and that became our favorite place to hangout. Once we got our stuff set up we walked out of the lot and met up with our tour guild of the day, Feefee. We got to know him and he seemed like a pro. He played soccer and rugby and he was a pretty down to Earth guy. We then started walking down the streets. It got pretty cold around this time. We got to our restaurant and it was anything but etiquette. We got fancy hats that must have been from 1500bc. It was a sort of medieval restaurant and it definitely was special. There was a guy who ran around in different costumes and scared us and made us laugh. Like a jester he was pretty weird. We had pulled pork and chicken and potatoes and other stuff. We had big goblets where we drank water and red flavored water. When our dinner was done we went outside into what was some sort of courtyard and then we got in groups and played games. We shot arrows and cracked walnuts with a giant hammer and tossed arrows at a giant dart board. We got certain points for doing certain things and at the end we tallied up the points and it was a tie. It was really interesting. When we started walking towards our "hotel", we got stopped short and our leaders took another turn. All of us were so tired that we didn't really care. We got into a building that looked just like a normal old house basement, but then someone rolled out a DJ table and turned on colorful strobe lights and music started playing and then a fog machine was turned on and Feefee told us to unwind and dance our little heads off. It was a big surprise and no one was prepared so we were shocked and un-movable for like ten minutes. But then people start to chill out and dance when Adam starts break-dancing and a really funny kid named Joe starts grinding against people. It was a really fun time and we all danced and gave break dancing a shot and started to scream at eachother to have more fun. They played alot of really new and fun USA remix songs. After about two hours we all got really tired so we got big mugs of water and started walking back to the "hotel". We started a bonfire in the pit next to it and we sat out and enjoyed the fire and talked. Then our delegation group was joined by another older delegation group and they started break dancing and doing weird crap around the fire, so me and my good group of friends went inside and passed out on top of each other on the zebra couch. We then played a therapist game and explained our messed up problems to each other. We then fell asleep against each other and 30 minutes later our delegation leader told us to go to our tents and go to bed. We went to our tents and picked which ones we wanted. I shared a bunk with Tyler and Cole shared one with Parker. We were starting to fall asleep and then Mr. Talbot came in and we asked him to tuck us in as a joke. So he came over and tucked Me, Joe, Tyler, and Chris into bed. He then said, "goodnight and sleep well.... you little girl babies". We all laughed and went to bed. It was a pretty productive day and we had alot of fun.

Keywords of the day: 

Tents. Weird wooden toilet chair. Seven thousand for five star. Zebra couch. Heated bathrooms. Bunk beds. Back flip contest. Nachos. Strobe lights.



Notice that the barn has a pillar under it???





Boys were bloy tents. Girls were pink tents.





Our "hotel".



(E.A. Part 7)

This morning I woke up to someone pounding on my door. It was 6:30. Thirty minutes before our wake-up call. I through a shoe at Tyler, put on some pants, and opened the door. Tyler's sister was at the door because I guess in a weird state the night before we all asked her to wake us up in the morning. She continuously woke us up for the rest of the trip so we could have more time to wake up. Me and Tyler put on our "ITALIANA" sweatshirts and our sunglasses. Then we sprayed ourselves with the AXE and walked on. We got to the lobby and went to breakfast with everyone else. There wasn't much of a choice. There was cereal and warm milk, or bologna and ham. I just had some coffee and ham. Our destination for the day was Venice and it was awesome. We rode on the bus to the train station and then we took a 45 minute train over and under water. It was insane. A kid named Morgan had a panic attack because he didn't like trains, or being over water or something. Once we got off the train and walked around the station for a little bit, we walked over to the Entrance into the city and we instantly saw the gondolas and the water and all the fun and shops and it was beautiful. Jake and I were partners for a bit. We got lost at one point and started running around with our little translation book asking for people to direct us towards our group. We figured out that they were at a glass making shop and we ran after them. We go there and saw a pro working over an oven with a gooey substance. He then formed it into a horse and it froze into a solid. It was really cool. He made an item right in front of  us that was sold in the shop for 320 Euros. Me and Brian got a little glass jewel that was 25 Euros each. It was really cool. After that we walked into a square area in the middle of town. We had someone explain stuff to us about an old church. There were pigeons everywhere so me and my group started drop kicking them everywhere. It was insane. At one point we had free time where we got in groups and walked all over the city. I was in a group with my friends Cole, Kara, Abbey, Megan and Jake. We got some ice-cream and we bought Cole another watch because his was smashed by the very lovely Mrs. Kara Belsky. The events leading up to it were pretty funny. Every day that we got in groups together Abbey got lost and couldn't find anyone for an hour. It happened almost every day because she wouldn't tell anyone where shes going. We soon started calling it the "where's Abbey game". On this day I think we found her in a church talking to some monks in orange robes. After that, we lined up and got ready for a Gondola ride. Jake and I had a little bit of a let-down for the gondola rides. We weren't aloud to ride with the people we wanted to ride with so we had to sit with a a few people we didn't quite know yet. We took alot of pictures and we almost tipped the boat into crab-infested waters. We then went to lunch with a crazy intertainment system. We all had vegan raviolli. A guy comes out of nowhere and starts playing the accordian right behind Cole, Kara, Maddy, and I. He scares the crap out of us and we all just about peed ourselves. He played alot of common songs. He then brought out ice-cream after a thirty minute show. After that we walked around the city a little bit in our groups and just toured the place. Then I grabbed Brian's shirt and pushed him so that he thought he was falling into the water. He yelled at a beast named Dylan because he thought he did it. Then a few hours later whilst we were in groups we went to dinner and went to a pizza place. The waiter gave me a bottle of water and told me to shake it up. I did and he started laughing his tail off at me because there was no cork on the bottle. So I got me and my friends covered in sparkleing water and it was really funny. When we were done with everything we went back to the hotel and played soccer out in the parking lot. Daisy had an amazing kick that sent the ball flying through a bush and onto the highway. We finally got it 10 minutes later. We kept playing and when I went up against JoJo the Soccer Pro I tore up my right soe for kicking the ball/ concrete too hard. I also later gained three scars on my hands and one on my left leg from being kicked with Brians cleated shoes. After Dr. Katelyn bandaged me up, Morgan came around and kicked the ball really hard trying to be funny. It again went through the bush and supposedly onto the highway. We searched for it for about half an hour untill finally we realized it was stuck in the bush barrier that kept the highway on one side and the hotel on the other. We climbed through the bush and recovered the ball , only to be told soon after that it was time for room-checks. Tyler knocked out at around 10. I stayed up and talked to people on a chat room that I set up on IM. Tomorrow was gonna be our long drive to Austria. It was gonna be fun.

(E.A. Part 6)

Day 6

Me and Brian woke up with a surprised Mr. Talbot standing over us. I guess we forgot to lock our door the night before and we were late to breakfast. He was surprised because we were both sleeping in a pair of joke boxers with hearts on them. The thing was that it was 88 degrees in our room the night before and the AC sucked. Once we got up and put our RED/PURPLE people to people shirts on, we went down stairs and both grabbed some coffee. It wasn't to good at all. It was straight up black coffee and gross because there wasn't any milk or sweetener. We were on a 'one night per hotel' streak so we had to clean our room and get our luggage onto the bus. We were all disappointed because we had a five our trip out of Florence and are leaders immediately fell asleep to music. So I guess they didn't have any games or rest stops planned. I played cards with my friends Maddy, Allyson, Cole, Joe, Sam, Tyler, and at one point I pulled out my iPad and we played games and watched movies on that. 3 hours into the trip, the bus pulls over to a weird European rest stop. There were the gas pumps and right next to them there was a giant staircase that went into the station. We walked up like 6 sets of stairs to get in and then we went into a "one way" rotating lock that tallies how many people go in per day. We all went into the uni-sex bathroom and then got snacks and drinks. We quickly realized that we couldn't go out the way we came in and we couldn't find the exit so me and my friend Cole jumped over the "one way" rotating lock barrier (#Swagg) and sprinted down the stairs. We were acting like pros. But I guess there was an exit in the back of the bathrooms so everyone went out of that.  We got back on the bus and we just listened to music and kept to ourselves the rest of the way. When our bus finally reached The inner city of Pisa, we got out and walked around for a little bit. Our bus was parked and we got on another bus so we could get to the leaning tower of Pisa. When we got on the bus we saw a lot of odd people. It was a 20 minute drive and I had to stand up in the back of the bus with Sydney Boyd. We laughed at the guy in front of us who was wearing some weird cowboy pants. When the bus dropped us off, we were immediately jumped by like 20 African Americans selling fake Rolex's and illegal bags and purses and stuff. We dodged them and ran away. We got to a church that was right next to the leaning tower. We looked around the church for a bit and saw a lot of graves and marble statues. Me and my group of four left and toured the street shops. We got hats and sweatshirts and all that stuff. We saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa but we decided not to go up because it was 35 Euros. My small group was pestered a lotbuy the guys selling the fake and illegal stuff and Cole and I acted like true body guards because we were pulling our friends out of messes that they got themselves into and we were pushing the guys away. At one point they snipped my bag and tried to steal it. I turned around and told the guy off and we told them to walk away, hahaa. We were bigger and beefier than most of them so it was OK. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and slept. We had walked all day. I stayed with my friend Tyler that night and we had some laughs. We we're both insane about AXE body spray. We also kept a conversation going with the room below us. It was Megan and Maddies room. The floors weren't that thick so we just talked all night. It was a fun day.