Well, sorry for the delay in blogs. I have been a little sick this week and trying to figure out the university system here. I am going to slowly catch up on the events of the last few weeks. However, what better to begin with than Oktoberfest!! I planned the trip to Munich back in March when I found out that I would be coming this year to Germany. Going to the real Oktoberfest in Munich has always been a trip I have wanted to make. Thanks to Steve, we booked a hotel that he reccomended that was right next to [View Full Entry]

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My first couch surfing experience could not have been any better. Language school was finished, bags were gone, and pretty much most of the group had left Cologne. So Justus and I decided...lets go to France! Warum Nicht!? (Why not?) - This is going to become my new motto for life I think. I stayed out a bit too late on Friday...ok 4 am...partying the night away with the kids from our exchange group. Great way to end our 2 months in Cologne, but didn't fare to well when my alarm went off at 7 am in the morning. I somehow [View Full Entry]

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I appologize for my lack of blogs recently. I have been wrapped up in school, going out, and getting ready for my next adventure! But...lets catch up, shall we? Two weeks ago, I stayed in Cologne for the weekend, went to a wine festival on Sunday in Bonn that was very entertaining. They have a parade and the whole time, these people just pass out wine, free wine. Like the mayor of the town pours people free wine while sitting atop a convertible. Very entertaining and very dangerous, but fun! Last weekend, I was lucky enough to have an invitation from [View Full Entry]

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Well, no big trips lately to update on, but I have been up to some pretty great stuff in and around the Cologne area. I have discovered a fabulous website Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com). Well I have known about it for a while and was a bit skeptical at first, but now I am actually hooked. Its this website with a crazy amount of random travel addicts. Everyone makes a profile and can then search for "couches" to stay on when they travel. You, in return open up your couch to other people to travel to your city. It is an incredible [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam. A destination I have heard much about and have always wanted to visit. I think it lived up to every expectation, and I definitely enjoyed my weekend there with Brooke and Megan. We kicked off the weekend on the ICE train from Cologne. The trip was only about 2 1/2 hrs, which was easy and comfortable on the nice train. We found our little hostel in the south of town pretty easily and dragged our things up the daunting stairs. All the buildings in Amsterdam are really tall and narrow, so the staircases are quite a feat. I picked up [View Full Entry]

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On Saturday, I was one of 1.2 million people to attend the famous Love Parde! This parade used to be held in Berlin and originally stemmed from a peace demonstration in the late 80's. Now, it has turned itself into a day long massive dance party! We woke up a little early on Saturday so we had time to meet at the train station and catch a train to Essen. Essen is a small town in the Ruhr area about an 1.5 hours away by train. When we boarded our train in Köln, there were barely any people. By the time [View Full Entry]

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"You are what you eat" - Gosh im clever! Well, not much to talk about. I am getting up every morning and going to class, studying most of the afternoon, and coming home to go to sleep. I realized last week, stupid me, that I will have to be doing my Case Interviews for Consulting positions IN GERMAN!!! ahh...so I ordered a very complicated tips book auf deutsch so I can learn some better vocabulary. But wish me luck. I got through 4 pages in 2 hrs yesterday.... I found out for Hamburg I am going to be living in a [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend, 6 of us from the CDC Language school took off (some slightly hungover from the kneipe tour...yours truly included) for the small and beautiful town of Bacharach. Bacharach is on the Rhein south of Koblenz and north of Mainz. It is one of the prettiest sections of the famous river. We took the train to Koblenz and then switched to another train to Bacharach. I think in total the trip was about 2 hours. We got a Schones Wochenende ticket which basically means that you can travel anywhere in Germany on the Regional Trains with a group of [View Full Entry]

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So I figured I'd take a few minutes to give you an idea of what a day in the life of Paige Brown is now. :-) I wake up usually around 7:15, get ready for school and look outside to see what the weather looks like. It was really hot for a few days and then the last few days have been super rainy and cold, so my clothing varies a lot between the week. I try to leave my house around 8 am so that I can make either the 8:07 or the 8:17 S-Bahn (schnell stadtbahn) into town. I [View Full Entry]

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I have only been in Cologne for 5 days, but it feels like it has been a long time. The city has welcomed us with open arms and I have barely had time to sit and think about what has been happening over the last week. Washington DC was definitely a good time. Lots of information and time to meet the other participants. Thanks to Brenna and Rick for housing me in Baltimore on Friday night! It was so fun to hang out with them and catch up! They took me to Georgetown on Saturday and to the dorm. It felt [View Full Entry]

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