PROST!

Munich, Germany - Wednesday, May 26

"Listen, this is the beer capitol of the world. We don't "screw" around."

Welcome to Germany! And yes, we're in the beer capital of the world. Before going into details about the trip, I should probably start with my expectations heading into Germany, which have been met and far exceeded.

What did I know about Germany? Not much: It's France's neighbor, borders the sea to the north, and famous (at least to my generation) for the wrong reasons (World Wars and the Holocaust). The people yell at you when they speak. Even if they're not trying to be rude, that's just the nature of their language. Brad, our resident German language expert, informed us on the night train that all you have to do is yell and sound angry and you'll fit right in. In all actuality, Brad is from Alabama. He pulls for Alabama. And the only thing he is really an expert on is Star Wars, overalls and white shrimp boots. But I digress. I had heard Germany was really clean and had a very low crime rate, which only enhanced my vision that Germans were probably rude, angry and very strict. I still figured I would have a good time just because I was getting to see something new and going to a new country. But in all honesty, I didn't know what to expect out of Munich, so I hadn't set a very high bar for it to pass. I heard good things about the city. Heard it was nice. Heard it was fun. But I wasn't expecting much. I was glad I was going to get to get to see a new country.

My expectations have been far exceeded. Germany is GREAT! The people are, by far, the friendliest of the five countries I've been to in Europe so far (England, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and now Germany). Most of them speak a little English, at least enough to get you by. Their language is near impossible to understand. Every now and then, I catch something that seems remotely familiar. But, for the most part, their language seems like an endless string of syllables. (Though, we probably sound the same way to them.) But seriously, the people here are fantastic! They are very friendly. Very willing to help. And very proud of their city (Munich), region (Bavaria), and country. They're more than happy to point you in the right direction, and/or give you advice on places to go and things to see and experience.

Friends and websites were correct. Germany is very VERY clean. All the sidewalks and buildings look like they've been pressure washed. You don't see gum stuck to the streets or sidewalks. You don't see trash randomly accumulating anywhere. It's pretty nice. Germany is also supposedly the safest country in Europe, and Munich is the safest city in Germany. The crime here seems to be non-existent. Matter of fact, our bartender told us our first night that the police here literally have nothing to do. He said we had a greater chance of getting a jay-walking ticket than we did of witnessing and/or being affected by a crime. We didn't get a chance to really explore the city like some people might, but we hit the main parts and there wasn't a single time where I felt like we were in a sketchy part of town. It's almost as if troublemakers (if there were any) knew better. You get the sense that the German people are proud and wouldn't tolerate stupid crap like that from people.

Ok, so like I said in my last post, we arrive in Munich around 10:00am on Wednesday, 3:00am US central time). We were excited just getting off the train because the train station was much nicer, cleaner, and more convenient than either of the Paris train stations we had been to. We made our way to the ticket depot, which was an accomplishment in itself, because EVERYTHING was in German (imagine that). Thank God numbers are universal. They help get us on the right trains at the right time. But back on track now. There was a English only line in the ticket depot for dumb Americans like us. The ticket guy spoke perfect English and perfect smart-ass. He was our first introduction to anyone German, and I'm glad he was.

He explained how our passes work and how if we don't do certain things properly, we run the risk of having our passes torn up (which would mean $1100 down the drain). So, again, very glad we met this guy. After the debacle that was the Amsterdam to Paris train expedition, we decided to book our tickets for our next destination as soon as we got to our current stop. So, we were going to Prague next. Our German ticket guy informed us that we didn't need tickets for that train, because our passes would suffice (normally you have to at least get a seat reservation which costs at least 4 euro). "This is not France. This is Germany. We do things much better than the French." (which seems to be the universal sentiment of all Europeans towards France.) But, we did book our overnight train from Vienna to Rome on Monday night.

I'm not going to make a habit of talking the bathrooms I encounter on this trip, but the one in the Munich station was one of the nicest I had ever been in. You had to pay .80 euro to enter the bathroom, but once you did, you had showers available to you, shaving stations and sinks, and actual private bathrooms. It was cleaner/nicer (I know I keep using that word) than your average hotel bathroom, and worth the mention.

Ok. From there, we became your typical American tourists; lugging baggage around, randomly stopping in the middle of walking lanes to try to figure things out, endlessly staring at maps (which were in German and hard to figure out without help) and just walking around generally confused and lost. Kierstyn had directions to our hostel on her phone, but it was still hard to get our bearings and finally get there. Once we got our bearings though, it was not hard at all to find our place.

After about a 20-25 minute walk, we got tour hostel: Easy Palace Hostel and Hotel, Munich. Kierstyn reserved a room for us the night before from her phone. So we knew we had a place to stay. (The girls don't believe in "winging it".) But when we got there, Easy Palace's computers had screwed something up and instead of reservations Wednesday and Thursday, we had reservations for Friday and Saturday. But, it ended up working to our advantage. Instead of staying in a 4 person & then an 8 person room and having to deal with luggage on successive days, we got a 4-person room for both days. Their screw up turned out to be a good thing.

Having never stayed in a hostel before, I had no idea what to expect. I had heard both good and bad things. But, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The room was pretty nice. We stayed in 310 (and when I put stuff like that in a post, it's mainly a way for me to remember little details later on). But, though we were 310, we were actually on the 4th floor. The room had 4 decent beds. I've stayed on worse. 2 of the beds were side by side. And by that, I mean they were literally touching, and the other pair of beds was a set of bunk beds. The girls got the side by side beds. The room had no A/C, but the window opened up & night temps dropped down into the 50s, so it was never an issue. We also had a closet, which was convenient. And, we also had a private bathroom. Brad and I were completely unphased by this, but the girls said this was a huge deal for a hostel. Apparently they're very rare. Anyway, beyond that, the room was pretty basic. But that's all we really needed. The room was 24 Euro a night per person. Not bad at all.

After we settled in, I guess it was about noon, it was time to eat and see the city. We walked for about 30-45 minutes in no particular direction until we found a little café. We sat outside and experienced for the first time that German waitstaff is never ever EVER in a hurry. We sat for probably 10 minutes before a waiter even acknowledged we were there. Every 10-25 minutes, the waiter would come back or at least close enough for us to grab him. They are in absolutely no hurry. The entire stop at the café lasted about 2 hours and all we got were sandwiches, water, and 1 beer for Brad. We waited about 30 minutes for the check before we finally had a chance to grab him and ask for it. (After 3 restaurants, we finally figured out that you have to ask for your check or they won't give it to you.) I hope I don't seem like I'm complaining here. I'm just trying to give you an idea of the atmosphere. We were fine with the waiting. It was relaxing. It was nice. And the food was delicious.

After that, we spent the next couple of hours exploring and taking things in. I believe they call this site-seeing. We found the old town square Marienplatz, snapped pictures, and continued wandering. We didn't & pretty much still don't know the history of any of the stuff we saw, but the scenery really was beautiful. The architecture is very unique (at least to me, for now. It may be the same in Austria), and if there is one thing I can say, the Germans LOVE their clock-towers. They're everywhere. After site seeing, we went back to the hostel for everyone to rest, shower and do whatever else they felt like doing.

About 3 hours or so later, we headed downstairs for a complimentary beer tasting. Our bartender, Alex from Canada, walked us through the history of beer throughout the world and then its history in Munich. Alex is responsible for the quote at the top of this post. (Side note: most of the people that gave tours and/or interacted with us on a substantial bases were not native Germans. We met workers from Canada, Ireland and Australia to name a few. They came here and never saw reason to leave. And I can definitely understand that. It's a nice life out here.) As Alex made his way through the making of beer and finally the making of beer in Bavaria (Munich's province within Germany), he gave us samplings of the various beers he talked about (Lite, Wheat, Pilsner, and Dark). With each drink, we would toast or PROST!, which means "cheers" in German (and I'm not even sure if I can use it as a verb. Probably not).

But, Munich is the beer capital of the world. They are very proud of this fact and they take their beer seriously. Everyone here drinks. Workers take a break… they have a beer. Get off of work… time for a beer. They LOVE their beer here so much that the Bavarian government started taxing beer and at one point got 25% of its tax revenue from beer taxes. That's a lot of beer! Alex said they looked at drinking beer as a part of their civic duty, and they did it willingly.

This tax lead to the Bavarian Purity Laws, which for us, all that means is that you can't get a hangover if all you drink is Bavarian Beer. It doesn't matter the amount. There are no preservatives (by law) in their beer. So if all you have to drink is Bavarian beer, you may wake up with dry mouth (which I did), but you won't have a hangover (which is true). We started PROST(ing) about 8:30 and went strong for about 6 hours.

From the Easy Palace bar, we went to Hofbräuhaus to eat and drink. Hofbräuhaus was a pretty cool place. They had a German band playing. The waiters and waitresses were in old time German garb. You seat yourself and sit at tables where there are generally other people. (This was true for other beer taverns as well.)

I was quite apprehensive of what I was about to eat. We ordered traditional German sausages with sauerkraut, bread, pretzels, and beer. And while it didn't look particularly appetizing, it was delicious. We drank and played cards until they kicked us out, went back to the hostel and drank a couple more beers. Finally the alcohol and the time change caught up with us and we went to bed.

Thursday, and this will mostly be another post, we went to a German concentration camp. It was a truly sobering experience. We met at the main plaza in the city and then made our way to the train. The camp was about 30 minutes outside of Munich and we pretty much spent the day there, getting back about 7:00 that night. On our way back to the hostel, we stumbled into a place very similar to Hofbrauhouse called Augustinerbräu and ate another traditional German meal (sausages and beer). I didn't realize it at the time, but looking over my stuff from home, this was one of the places Ms. Britany Cormier recommended I go. (Thank you mam!) When we finally got back to the room at about 10:30, we did a combination of sleeping, doing things on the internet, journaling, blogging, and whatever else.

We also made the decision Thursday night to skip Prague. We heard mixed things about the safety of the city, figured we could party anywhere, and weren't ready to call it quits in Munich. And I'm glad we stayed too.

Friday, we split up. The girls wanted to see a garden in Munich (much like Central Park), and the guys wanted to see a castle. So, Brad and I caught a train to the south of Germany, pretty much in the Alps and almost to the Austrian border. The castle and trip there were beautiful. I'll do a separate post for the castle as well. But it was a great day. I'm very glad we stayed! Friday night we grabbed a meal and in the gathering area of the hostel drinking and just hanging out (well, they drank anyway).

Other Pictures:

And that was Munich. Saturday morning we packed up and headed by train to Vienna. The city is beautiful! It's going to be a great time!!!

And on a side note…. HOW BOUT THEM TIGERS!!!!!!

"Super Start to a Super Summer fellas"

That line comes from American Pie II, and it's the first thing I thought of after I left the train ticket portal in the Amsterdam airport. As I write this, I am tired. Scratch that, I'm exhausted. I barely slept the two days before I left, anticipating that I would sleep on the plane. Welllll, I didn't. I maybe got a 30 minute nap. Maybe.

And now I'm in Amsterdam. Or, at least, I'm in the plane and train station that's designated Amsterdam. I left off with the last post as I was boarding the plane. My reserved seat was the very last row on the left side of the plane against the window. That's not where I sat. I was one of the last ones to board the plane hoping that I didn't have to sit way in the back. Luckily, the plane was nowhere near full. I sat in the back section, but not nearly all the way to the back. I had two seats to myself, so I was able to sprawl out a little bit.

The plane left on time, right at 3:40. I don't think the plane ever stopped once it backed away from the terminal. We went straight to the runway and took off. No waiting anywhere. The plane ride was fairly uneventful. We landed at 8:20, right on time. Though, truth be told, we definitely could have made it faster. The pilot took a crazy route over St. Louis, then Illinois, then the Great Lakes, then just into Canada and finally out over the Atlantic. The sun sat right before we got out over the ocean and rose again like 3-4 hours later… Still over the Atlantic. It was pretty cool flying into Amsterdam. They have water everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It makes me wonder what Venice is like, because Amsterdam literally has canals all over the place. Fields have multiple "bayous" running through them. They're set up and run across the land so that they look like roads everywhere.

But other than the cool flight in, Amsterdam has not been the best. I picked up my luggage on the carousal and one of the back wheels is missing. (Welcome to Europe!) The continental rep said "That's awfully inconvenient, sir. You're just starting your trip." Thanks for that sir. Yes. Yes is it inconvenient.................... to say the least.

Thennnnn, I got to the ticket counter. For the rail system in Europe, they offer what's called the Eurail Pass. The one I bought allows me 15 days of travel to 21 European countries within a two month time period. So I talk to the lady at the ticket counter, trying to get my train to Paris. The plan was to meet Brad, Kierstyn, and Erica at Gare du Nord train station in Paris at 1:30. Whoops! The train I needed to take was completely booked. So, I had to wait. Really, didn't have to wait that much longer, 11:10, instead of 10:30. But, the difference in arrival times was going to be 3.5 hours late. I saved $100, but I don't know if it was worth it. The stress of possibly not being able to find my friends combined with it being 2:00 in the morning back home/I was tired, was not a friendly combination.

So, to kill time for 2 hours, I walked around the train station, looked at all the shops and sent emails back home and to Kierstyn to let them know how they should attempt to find me. And if there's one thing I noticed in all of that, Amsterdam is EXPENSIVE. Burger King wanted 3.75 Euro for chicken nuggets. That's roughly $5.00 and it wasn't for a value meal. I paid $4.00 for 15 minutes of internet(before the bank fee). Yes, it's a little expensive.

But now for the people. Everybody I've dealt with has been nice. They don't have quite the courtesy of US people, but they are nice. If they're talking to another worker or something and you walk up, they're going to finish their conversation or whatever they're doing, and then get to you. But when they finally do, they're nice and helpful.

Now for the train rides.

I left Amsterdam and traveled to Antwerp station in Belgium. The train ride was 2 hours long, and pretty uneventful. I watched the Dutch countryside for a while and finally fell asleep with my bags in my lap and at my feet.

When I got to the Antwerp station, the train I was supposed to take next was still an hour away. So, I sat at the station and talked to a couple from Florida that was literally backpacking and camping through Europe. They had a tent. They had just finished camping on the side of a lake in Amsterdam and were now headed to Paris for 4-5 days. We hopped on the same train together and headed to Lille, France. My next train (to Paris) was due to leave at 4:00, theirs at 4:30, and I was due to get into Lille at 3:52. We talked for a bit about how impressive the European trains were and how on time they were. If they said arriving at 11:53 and leaving at 11:54, that's what they did. As karma would have it, this train from Antwerp to Lille was late departing and arriving. We arrived in Lille at 4:07, so I had to find the train manager of the next train and get him to let me get on the backpackers' train.

I got on the next train without a problem, but still got to Paris at 5:30 instead of 5:00. Which meant Brad, Kierstyn and Erica had to look for me at Gare du Nord for 45 minutes without any way for me to get in touch with them saying I would be late. The train was one of the highspeed trains you've probably heard about, and it definitely went fast, but I'm not sure how fast. We made it to Paris in right at an hour, but still 30 minutes late.

I got into Paris right at 5:30, praying I would be able to find my group. I was decked out in LSU gear (shirt, bag, and hat), hoping that I would be easily identifiable. Couldn't find them. I walked all over the station. Nothing. Went to a balcony where I stood out and could see everywhere. Still… nothing. Our contingency plan was to head to Gare de l'Est, the train station that would take us on the overnight train to Munich, buy tickets and just (hopefully) meet each other right before boarding the train.

So, I left Gare du Nord, headed to an orientation stand to check out a map, and this crazy girl runs up to me and just stands in my way. Took a second to register, but as it did, overwhelming relief! Kierstyn found me. Thank you God! Goodbye anxiety! - In all seriousness, the odds of us finding each other were very small. The station was huge. There were people everywhere, and it really was overwhelming.

But there they were. They had started looking for me an hour ago, and finally went outside figuring they had a better chance of finding me once I left the station. We were all relieved. From there, we made our way to Paris Est, bought our tickets for Munich, and laid down on our luggage in the train station.

We got a sleeper car from Paris to Munich. It was supposed to be an 11 hour trip (8:20pm - 7:20am), which we were fine with because we wanted the rest. We were all pretty much exhausted by this point. The car itself was very very small. It had 6 beds but we only needed 4 and prayed they didn't stick anyone else in our compartment. Almost as soon as the train started moving, the girls started drinking champagne, Brad started playing video games, and I fell asleep. The train stopped multiple times throughout the night, sometimes for as long as 45 minutes. For the most part, everyone slept right through the stops. Sometimes when the train came to a stop, or was going slowly through a station, it would make this horrible screeching sound. Sometimes that would wake us up, but for the most part, it was a pretty relaxed ride. We all woke up about 5:00. We had gotten a decent little nap, the sun was already up, and our train was supposed to be stopping for good in about 2 hours. So we all started cutting up, making fun of each other, and eventually falling back asleep. And it's a good thing too, because we didn't arrive in Munich until 10:00 am.

I'm not going to lie. It was a hell of a trip to get here. From the time I left on Monday from Lafayette to the time I arrived in Munich, I traveled for a solid 39 hours. I spent 10.5 in the air & 18.5 on a train, with 10 hours of layovers. But I made it, and everything is fine. My next post will be about Munich and I'll try to have that up ASAP.

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I'm posting these late, because it's a circus trying to split one charger with 4 people. So my computer isn't always up and running. Thank God that Brad brought his transformer so our American stuff could work. Otherwise, we'd be out of luck. But I don't get to type as much as I'd like. So a lot of this stuff is written on notepads and stuff and then transferred. So that's why they're often a couple days late. But I am trying to catch up.

This post was written when I was EXTREMELY tired and things just weren't going right. But Munich has been awesome. We ended up cancelling Prague, staying an extra day in Munich, and then heading to Vienna early. Like I said, I'll get the munich stuff up pretty soon. But just know, this trip, so far, has been a blast.

1.... 2.... JUMP!

ONE! - Rock forward. TWO! - Rock back. THR… - I'm already out the airplane.

You see it in movies all the time. Danny Glover and Mel Gibson never could get it figured out in the Lethal Weapons. Seth Rogen and James Franco had a hard time figuring it out in Pineapple Express. "On three, ok?" "OK!... Wait, wait, wait. Is it 1, 2, and go on 3? …… Or is it 1, 2, 3, GO?" Gold Coast Skydivers in Lumberton, Mississippi eliminates the guesswork. There is no 3. You won't hear it come out of anyone's mouth.

(written May 24, 2010)

I went skydiving for the first time yesterday. My brother - Cory, my cousin - Katie, and I left Lafayette at 5:30 in the morning and made the 3 hour drive out to the airport in the middle of nowhere. Cory jumped for the first time back in January and vowed to do it again after he graduated (CONGRATS!). Katie said it's something she's always wanted to do. And me, well I couldn't see any good reason not to jump, AND I still can't think of a better way to start a summer I know I'll never forget.

Three years ago, almost to the day, I gave my two weeks notice at LSU for a job in Pennsylvania. I had no idea what to expect. But, the idea of jumping off into something completely unknown was exciting to say the least. I liked the idea of "Jumping" off into things, particularly things completely unknown. Theses situations require, quite literally, a LEAP of faith. And that's what that summer was.

This was what I put as my facebook profile picture. It isn't me, obviously. But, it represented what I felt I was doing. Jumping off with no idea what was going to happen. You can see quite clearly where you're going, but you have no idea what lies beneath the surface. Again, it was a leap of faith that that was the right place for me to be. And it was.

Pennsylvania was one of the best experiences of my life. I lived in the Scranton area for 6 months. I got to see just about every season. I got there when it was still somewhat cool in the mornings and the plants were still blooming. I got to experience a summer without humidity. I got to see the beautiful autumn of Northeastern Pennsylvania. I got to see and play in SNOW for the first time ever. I went to New York city in summer and winter. I went to Washington DC for the 4th of July. I went to a Phillies game in Philadelphia. I sat on the wall on the 1st base line in Baltimore for an Orioles game. I got to go in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. I went to Niagra Falls and every state in the northeast. I saw deer, wild turkeys, chipmunks, groundhogs, and porcupines. I went Canadian goose and duck hunting. And I made friends with some truly great people. Again, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I can't tell you how glad I am I did it.

Which brings me to this summer and my current facebook picture. Again, it's a picture of someone jumping. Only this time, it's me. Different sort of jump, same mindset. A leap of faith. Choosing to jump into one hell of an adventure, and trusting that everything will turn out fine. The jump was unbelievable! And everything did turn out fine.

Like I said, this was Cory's graduation gig. We made the drive out early, and we were the first jump of the day. When you get there, you have the pre-jump briefing. They tell you what to expect, ask you a few questions, and then get you in a jumpsuit and harness. Then, there was a bit of a wait, as all the other jumpers had to get there equipment ready. Each of us had a camera guy jumping with us who did a brief pre-flight interview on the ground and snapped a couple of pictures. Then we boarded the plane, took more pictures, straddled a bench and slid to the back of the plane. As we went up, you could feel the excitement in the plane. If there was any nervousness, I didn't see it on anyone's face, and I certainly didn't feel any myself. It's all excitement!!!

As the plane climbed, our tandem partners (mine was Jason) went over the same stuff we heard on the ground. Then they strapped us up to their harness once we got to about 9,000ft. Our ears popped every so often the higher we went, but it's nothing worth getting in a fuss over. Gold Coast lets you jump from 14,000 - 15,000 feet. Damn near 3 miles up in the air!!! So we continued to climb.

Then the door opens, and people started disappearing. It's real now! You don't realize until you actually see people falling, just how fast they really are going. It's unbelievable! Cory was third to last, katie 2nd, and I was the last one in the plane. We slid along the benches with our tandem jumper and camera guy. When we got to the end of the bench we dropped to our knees and "walked" on our knees about 10 feet to the door (All the while, watching people literally disappear in front of you.) When I saw Katie jump, that was the first time I felt any sort of nerves. She fell SO damn fast, words can't describe it well enough.

MY TURN! We had to make another circle because with all the jumpers, we were too far from the airport and wouldn't have made it back (Cory didn't, LOL). So I got an extra minute to stand with the door open and watch everything. I would say it was awesome, but that would do injustice to the actual jump. Standing at the door was "cool" in comparison to the rest of the experience. NOW, it's my turn. My camera guy CLIMBS OUT OF THE PLANE and holds onto this bar they have specially designed for people to RIDE THE FREAKIN' PLANE. I scoot up to the edge of the door. My knees are literally hanging out of the plane. And it's time for 1, 2, 3.

Jason has me tuck my thumbs under the harness.

1 - Lean forward. Holy crap that's a long way down!

2 - Lean back. We're actually going jump out of plane!

JUMP!!!! He didn't say anything. The time between lean back and him throwing you out of the plane is a micro-second. Matt (the camera guy) jumped at the same time. We did a flip out of the plane, but I have no idea how many times we flipped. After 2-3 seconds of flipping, Jason threw a small stabilizer chute. It slowed us down to a "mere" 120 mph. Matt stayed in my face pretty much the entire time. The whole thing was utterly surreal. I expected to feel my stomach drop. It didn't. Nothing even close to that. We flip out of the plane. We stop. We start spinning in the air. We stop. Matt's back in my face out of nowhere, snapping pictures and taking video. The entire ride/fall goes by so quickly, it's unreal. I can't begin to describe the wind or the feeling of falling other than AWESOME, UNBELIEVABLE, INCREDIBLE!!!!! And anything but scary. It was all surreal. I don't even remember looking at the ground, but the video shows I did. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7aomTss2OU)

We got to free fall for about 10,000ft. It was a good minute before Jason pulled the parachute. Matt waived bye and continued to fall, and it was only then (when the chute caught and I got to see Matt continuing to fall) that I realized how fast we really were falling. All of sudden, Jason and I just started slowing down. It wasn't an abrupt jerk like it looks like in videos. It's a gradual slowing down. And then you just float down. It's not loud at all. You can "sit" and talk to your tandem jumper the whole time. We floated down for about 5 minutes. We went through a cloud. That was pretty cool because as you go through the cloud, your shadow makes a rainbow on the cloud itself. It gets smaller and smaller as you get close to it and eventually you go right through the middle of it. We semi-circled the airport and came in right over one of the buildings. It was a slow sliding landing on the grass next to the airport hanger, and it was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! I can't wait to do it again!

I couldn't think of a better way to start this blog than with that post. And now for the purpose behind this blog. This is a tool to communicate with my family and friends back home. Rather than flooding their email boxes with multiple reports from Europe, and likely forgetting someone in an email here and there, I'm setting this up so they can check it at their leisure. This is a way for me to let everyone know what's going on with me. That's the main purpose. I'll be posting stories, pictures, and videos, along with my perspective this morning. I'll be putting other stuff on here periodically that is not Euro-trip related, and this blog is certainly up for anyone to read. But, please keep in mind/be respectful/understand the family aspect of this blog right now if you choose to post comments. If you don't like something I've said, shoot me an email (skooterlouis@gmail.com) or facebook message. But for the most part, leave the negative comments off the blog itself.

Like I said, periodically, I'll post stories, pictures, videos, poems and various other things that I've written. Often times, you'll find me to be a bit long winded. I'm sorry I'm not sorry. I'll try as best I can to post headnotes so those that don't want to, don't have to read the whole thing. But, no promises. I won't always be able/want to do that. But whoever you are, I do hope you enjoy reading it and feel free to pass it along to your friends or whoever else you think might like the read.

As I finish this up on the plane from Lafayette to Houston, I'm hoping I'll find some internet so I can post it in Houston. If not it will have to wait until Europe, so everything will be a few days delayed. But I'll still go ahead and write everything I plan on doing this summer, even though by the time I post this, I will have done some of it so far.

Ok, for those of you who don't know, I am studying abroad this summer in Lyon, France. It's a 6-week summer semester put together by the LSU Law School, with classes taught by LSU faculty. 2 friends and I have an apartment rented a few blocks from the school and will be walking back and forth each day. We'll be getting to Lyon on Saturday, June 5. Classes start June 7 and run until July 17. The classes are split into 1 hour and 3 hour courses. 1 hour classes run an hour each day for three weeks. Then we take a final. The 3 hour classes run an hour and a half each day and last all 6 weeks. I'll be taking a 1 hour Slavery and Human Trafficking class and a 3 hour Law of Wine Class. But that's the boring stuff. I'll tell you more about the classes later if I feel anybody will be remotely interested.

But now for the fun stuff, the traveling. Classes run Monday-Thursday, 8:00 am until 1:30 pm (depending on the classes you're taking). The rest of the time is ours. So we will be traveling. My group (Brad Scott, Erica Schirling, and Kierstyn Mosco) is leaving two weeks before classes start to travel.We're all meeting in Paris and then taking a train to Munich, Germany. The way my reward points worked out, I will be flying into Amsterdam and taking a train to Paris and should be getting there around 1:30pm. The rest of the crew will be arriving in Paris anywhere from 8:00am - 12:00pm and then meeting me at the train station in the heart of Paris.Like I said, from Paris, we'll be taking an overnight train to Munich, leaving about 8:30pm and getting to Munich around 7:00am. We're going to spend 2 days in Munich seeing the city and then hop a train Friday morning to Prague, Czech Republic. Prague will be another 2 day stop. Then we'll take a train to Vienna, Austria. Spend a day there, then take an overnight train to Rome. We'll get to Rome Tuesday morning and leave Saturday morning for Lyon.

Like I said about the class schedule, we'll have the weekends (Thursday afternoon - Sunday night) to ourselves. For the most part this same group will be traveling together, but a few of us want to go different places, so some weekends we'll split up. Right now, the plans are to go to a Mediterranean beach in the South of France the first weekend. Second weekend, we'll be going to Amsterdam for the 4 days. 3rd weekend, I believe we'll have to take our final for the 1 hour class, so travelling anywhere far from Lyon will likely be out of the question. The 4th weekend, we'll be going to Interlaken Switzerland. And the 5th weekend, we'll be heading to Pamplona Spain for the running of the bulls (and yes, I plan to run). The 6th weekend will be our last weekend in France. We'll take our 3-hour class final on Saturday, July 17 and then Sunday, go our separate ways. The plan for me as of now is to leave Sunday, the 18th, and go back to Rome for a week. Most everybody else will be going home on the 19th, and I plan to make it back home on the 26th. I'll get more detailed about the trips as they approach. But for now that is the general overview of everything.

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am about this entire to trip. I can't imagine the things I'm going to see and experience. It literally is the trip of a lifetime! Beyond just the travel. The actual stay in Lyon is going to be exciting, to say the least. The World Cup starts on June 11. So I will get to see Europe in all it's Futbol (soccer) glory. Also, the Tour de France will be running throughout the months we are here, and should be passing within about 45 minutes of Lyon, so a group of us plan to hit that up too. Again, the trip of a lifetime!

And so, here I am, on the ground between flights in Houston. The internet is sketchy here, so it doesn't look like I'll be able to upload anything until I get to Europe. Disappointing? Yes, but it's ok.It's weird. I went skydiving yesterday, but as I sit here waiting to board, I'm more anxious about getting on this plane than I was getting on that one yesterday. While I have an idea of where I will probably go this summer, (as thoroughly detailed above), I have no idea what I'm actually going to experience, but I have full faith that it's going to be one of the greatest rides of my life! So, I jump!No hesitation, no apprehension, no worries about what may or may not happen while I'm here. I will miss all of you back home, really I will. But I will stay in touch as much as possible, and be back before you know it. Ok, the plane is boarding. Time to go. This is going to be one hell of a trip and I plan to live it to the fullest!!!

1.... 2.... Talk to you from the other side of the pond!!!!!!

"Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving

safely in a pretty, well-preserved body, but rather to skid

in broadside, thoroughly used up and loudly proclaiming

"WOW! What a ride!"