Happy 4th of July. I am writing this now for the 2nd time because the internet connection just lost my blog entry. So here we go, I will try to recreate. I am now in Tirana, Albania and wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. This has been quite an adventure so far and we are having a fabulous time. Here is a short and quick overview of what we have done so far. Plane from Stuttgart to Zagreb, Croaita. Few hours to see the sights and eat a large plate of meat. Watched Spain win their seat in the final [View Full Entry]

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Our departure from Dubrovnik was fairly easy. After being dropped off at the bus station, we proceeded to buy our tickets for the bus to Kotor which runs twice a day. We were glad we arrived early, by the time we got on the bus it was all sold out. There were a mix of cultures joining us, Australians, Europeans, Americans, and locals as well. The well air conditioned bus departed on time and we were off to the border. It took only about 45 minutes to reach the border stations into Montenegro. And the border crossing process was quite easy. [View Full Entry]

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Our bus ride from Korcula to Dubrovnik was, well, unbelievable. I would have stopped on every turn for a good week, the landscape was absolutely gorgeous and the water a color of blue I can not describe. We came into Dubrovnik across a huge bridge and then made our way down the hill to the bus station near the new harbor. As we exited the bus, we were immediately greeted by many locals offering up private housing. We had not pre-arranged any place to sleep, so after surveying the crowd, no wait, after being maimed by locals, we went with a [View Full Entry]

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Out adventure to Korcula began a lot later than expected. We had a fabulous time with our fellow hostelers at the bar, well too good of a time, and did not wake up at 5:30 as planned to catch our 6:30 Ferry. Instead I awoke to Justus whispering to me at 8:30 am that we were late, really late. We gathered our stuff quickly and stumbled down to the ferry office to see what we could do in regards to exchanging our pre-purchased tickets. By some sheer luck, we ended up getting money back for our tickets and took a later [View Full Entry]

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Some entertaining reverse cultural things for you: - I keep forgetting to look at my gas gauge on my car. I swear Im going to run out of gas one day. - Movie Theaters don't have reserved seats here - Debit Cards. I forgot completely about them. - Tips and Tax. It's hard to have to add money to a bill - English. Everyone speaks it but I keep listening into random people's conversations on the street because I forget I'm not in Germany. SO. Onto the next part of the adventure... We arrived, exactly one hour late (due to our [View Full Entry]

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A year is over. I am back in Austin, I cant believe that I am already repacking for my next life adventure in Nashville. I have not forgotten of course that no blogs have been written for the last 3 weeks of travel. The last week at home has been quite busy catching up with family and friends as well as trying to readjust to things like driving and get organized for my move. So....here we go. There are lots of blogs coming, so I will start from the very beginning and space them out as much as possible so you [View Full Entry]

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My bags are packed...I'm ready to go...well kind of... WHAT A YEAR! As I end my time here in Germany and embark on my crazy adventure through Europe and then back to the United States, I can't help but take the time to reflect over this year and what it has meant to me. It has been filled with extreme emotional highs and lows as well as plenty of time for self reflection. Even though the good times definitely outweigh the hard times, it is important that I don't forget even the major lows. Spending time alone with yourself can be [View Full Entry]

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In my time living in Baden-Wuerttemberg, I have been lucky enough to travel around to most of the region and discover a new part of Germany. However, I had never been in the Black Forest or to the Bodensee(Lake Constance) both of which I had heard were beautiful. I was luckily enough to be offered the chance to take a day trip to both, by none other than a local Schwarzwalder, Bruno. Bruno grew up in the Black Forest and therefore was the perfect guide for my first trip to the region. (not to mention he speaks Schwaebisch - a dialect [View Full Entry]

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Well the time is flying by and I have now attended the Abschluss-Seminar (End of Year Seminar) for my program in Berlin. I am in shock that this has already come and gone, I remember putting in my calendar back in August and thinking, wow that is so far away! Even including a few rough patches in the winter and spring, this year has just flown by.... The 73 "Young Professionals" from our program convened for our last official gathering in Germany on Tuesday May 27. The ride felt a little bit like a slowly growing caravan. Michael hopped on the [View Full Entry]

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I apologize for the absence of blogs lately. I have just been in Berlin for a week for my final year seminar with my program. I will definitely write about that next, but wanted to catch everyone up on another trip I made in May to Vienna with Alex, a fellow Vanderbilt MBA student! Alex had planned to come to Europe to travel around and we decided it would be fun to meet up for a weekend and see something new and different. I had always heard fabulous things about Vienna and it was fairly easy to get to from Germany, [View Full Entry]

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