Today Matt got to cross a pretty major item off of his "To Do" list...we walked across a country. Yep, a whole country. You're probably wondering which country...Liechtenstein. For those of you not up on your European geography Liechtenstein is located between Switzerland and Austria and before you go getting too impressed it's only about 8 miles across. Liechtenstein is the 6th smallest country in the world and is about 62 square miles. It's also the only German-speaking country that doesn't border Germany. Before you run off and search Google for the smallest country in the world (you know you want to) it's the Vatican. You never would have thought of that one, would you? I know I didn't :) It wasn't just Matt and I on this trek...we went with our friends Crystan, Paul, April, ... read more

Our original plans for this weekend were to go to Ireland since Matt had a 4-day weekend (Friday and Monday off from work) but, as it turned out, he had to work Friday after all. There was some speculation that he was going to have to work on Saturday (he didn't) so our road trip was kind of thrown together last minute. Matt didn't get home from work until 3am Friday night/Saturday morning so we had a late start on Saturday but by lunch time we were on the road. It was a fun trip...I brought snacks (I made Rice Krispie treats lol) and we played music and chatted. It's a 4.5 hour drive from Mannheim to Berchtesgaden when there are no traffic jams. However, if you've ever driven on the autobahn in Germany you know ... read more

It all started one night a few months ago in Mannheim when a bunch of us were all sitting around talking and someone, I'm not naming any names (Tom and Heather), suggested it would be fun to run the Athens Marathon. I wasn't fooled but apparently I was the only one not to jump on that wagon because 12 of us met up in Athens this weekend for the marathon. We all arrived in Athens on Thursday and most of us stayed at Hotel Economy in what turned out to be the worst neighborhood in Athens, Omonia. I guess that's why it was so cheap. The staff were really friendly, the rooms were clean, and the free breakfast was actually pretty good but it was LOUD. I don't think that neighborhood ever slept...and I mean EVER. ... read more

I got to take my third trip to London and Matt finally got to go for his first! We flew RyanAir (of course) which meant we arrived at London Stansted at 6:40am Friday morning, August 29th (Matt wasn’t thrilled about leaving for the airport here in Germany at 3:30 in the morning) but that meant that we arrived in downtown London by 9am and had the whole day ahead of us. We went to our hotel and, miracle of miracles, our room was ready early and they let us check in! We stayed at the Apollo Hotel, which is literally a block away from Kings Cross station and paid 60 pounds per night for the room, which included breakfast. For anyone not up on exchange rates, that’s $120 a night, and the breakfast will get you ... read more

After a week on campus I headed up to Cleveland to see my friends and family. I stayed with my sister Stacie, who was in the process of moving to Nashville so part of my vacation was spent helping her clean ad pack. I got to spend time with my mom and Elaine and my grandmothers, see my dad, aunts, uncles and cousins, and see my friends from high school. The trip was just too short to do everything I wanted to do. I really want to go country line dancing and go karaoke-ing next trip. But I DID get to go to Cracker Barrel...twice!! I went once for breakfast (yummm...hash brown casserole!) and once for dinner (is there anything better than Cracker Barrel's Chicken and Dumplings?). On my last night I took my mom and ... read more