Today I went on an excursion with the school into the Alps. They were even more beautiful than I thought they would be. At 9:15am we got on the train for Garmisch, a town right next to the Alps. Unfortunately, there was construction on the tracks so after an hour on the train we had to get off, catch a bus to the next train station, then take a train from there the rest of the way. But we made it. We started by going through a gorge called Partnachklamm that led right to the foot of Alps. The gorge was breath taking. We walked along the side of the gorge on a small ledge. Beautiful blue water rushed through the gorge below and we went through several caves. As soon as you get to the ... read more

September 27, 2010 Today was Mia’s last full day here in Munich. We had a great time. Yesterday she and I walked around the Altstadt. We went inside the Frauenkirche, which was really beautiful. We also went to the top of the Sankt Peterskirche for a full 360-degree view of Munich. It was great ☺ We had pizza for lunch in a small Bavarian café in Marienplatz and dinner at Tapasitas, a great Spanish restaurant that Jordi and I went to after our first classes. Finally, we also went through the Munich Residence Museum, once the home of the Dukes and Dutchesses of Munich that is now a museum. Today we met up with Jordi, from Barcelona, and had kebabs near Marienplatz with 3 of his friends. Afterwards we went to the Viktualenmarkt to a nice ... read more

September 19th 2010 Wiesn is what people in Munich call Oktoberfest. Today was the first day I went and it was pretty exciting. It’s like a giant theme park with rides, games, food, and of course beer. There are huge tents set up for different local brewers and some big names too - Augustiner, Paulaner, Löwenbräu - just to name a few of the big local ones. They seat tons and tons of people and they serve food and beer all day. When you’re outside in the streets it’s just like an American fair or theme park, but when you go inside the beer tents everyone is wasted. There’s usually a live band inside, people dancing on the tables, singing and yelling, and drinking and drinking and drinking. It’s a friendly environment for how many drunken ... read more

Munich feels like a really small town, but today I understood actually how big it is. I didn't even go that far from my flat, but Munich is a big city. First, I had to get currency so I went to the atm and withdrew some Euros. Now that I had money, I needed to find internet so I could contact my family and friends in the US. Unfortunately the usb wifi stick still wasn't working so I set out to find a café with internet. After talking to my family and finding the addresses of the places on my "to do" list, I set off to find food. I found a small Italian restaurant and bought Spaghetti all Carbonara. I had no idea that there was a dish anywhere in the world with spaghetti drenched ... read more

Back to where my trip started! It was kind of a sad last day in China. Jie and his family still aren't here so I went sightseeing by myself. It started thunderstorming as soon as I got into downtown and it rained for the rest of the day. I still decided to stick it out and see some of the things on my list. I went to Nanjing Road, one of the most famous streets in China. It's a huge street for shopping and has everything you would ever need, and then some. As I was walking it started pouring down rain so I got in a taxi and drove to the Oriental Pearl Tower, and enormous purple/pinkish bulbousy tower, right next to the Bund, another famous street along the Huangpu River. I walked around under ... read more