The Underground World of Belgium

Last night we had a Texas style barbeque at the student house. Vincent (our RA), Jaime, and Chris went to the grocery store to buy all the supplies while the majority of the students and the professors were at the movies watching Inception last night. The professors gave them 150 euros from our program to buy supplies for the barbecue. For meat, we had: pork hamburgers, beef steaks, beef shish-kabobs, bratwursts, sausages, and chicken pieces. We also had mushrooms filled with garlic butter (which you can see on the top of the grill picture). For the vegetarians they bought bell peppers, onions, and tortillas. We also had hamburger buns, sausage buns, mayonaise, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, lots of chips, and 4 types of dips (although the "hot" sauce didn't quite taste right). They also made a bucket of sangria wine with fruit in it and Fanta. So, we essentially got lots of food for about 140 euros, not too bad. The food was pretty good. I had a pork hamburger, and I split a bratwurst on a bun with Ann. I also had 2 of my miniature Cola Lights but lots of other students had the Sangria or bottles of Stella Artois beer. I think they finished two cases last night. I was also glad that Dr. Engler and Dr. Munster could come and join in the fun. Some of the students started playing soccer, some played badmitten, and Ann and Kelsey had a hand-stand contest. I decided to show off by doing a roundoff backhandspring. I have been doing it since I was in 5th grade, but it has probably been 3 years or so since I did it last. Needless to say, I landed on my head and tweeked my neck. I felt like I had a horrible crick in my neck. So around 10 PM I came upstairs, took a shower, and then went to sleep. I'm not sure how late others stayed up.

This morning Katie and I woke up at 6 AM to write our Seminar #3 Reports. I finished mine in about 30 minutes and then emailed it to Dr. Munster. Later, I realized that I should have proofread it before sending it. Oh well........ I ate a banana and a Minute Maid orange juice box for breakfast at 6 AM. I also took more Tylenol for my neck. Then I laid back down in bed. About 10 minutes until 8 AM (we were supposed to leave at 8), Brad came and woke me up, thank goodness. I put on some clothes and headed out the door on my bike. However, both of my bike tires are pretty much flat. So it took me forever to make it to the bus stop. The bus left around 8:30 AM this morning. We first went to the Flanders Water Distribution office. We saw a bunch of computer screens and met our tour guide for the morning, Simon. Then we got back on the bus and drove 30 minutes till we got to a water gallery. The water gallery is pretty much were they capture 250 m3/hr of drinking water that is groundwater. It is only slightly treated with chlorine and then passes through a sand filter. It is groundwater that flows by gravity down a mountain into the gallery. The gallery is 600 meters long. It was really awesome. I enjoyed seeing the water that came out of the mountains; it was beautiful. Then we got back on the bus and went to a man-made chalk or phosphate cave that Flanders also pumps drinking water out of. It is a cave that was mined in the middle ages that is all chalk. This phosphate was used for agriculture and for writing. It is now used as the Chalk Aquifer and supplies a lot of the drinking water in Flanders. It was super fun, but most of us got really dirty climbing down about 5 ladders into the cave. We were able to see the water table when we got down in the cave. Then we loaded back on the bus and drove back to our school campus where we had lunch at the sandwich shop. I ate their the past 2 days also, so I am getting tired of it. Today I had a Panini Italiano with ham, cheese, tomato, and pesto with a Cola Light. I didn't like the ham though so I took it off. After they brought out more soup, I also ate a cup of soup because I knew it was going to be a long day. It was a vegetable soup with noodles and a tomato base. It wasn't too bad. Then we got back on the bus and drove a couple hours. I'm not sure how long we drove because everyone was sleeping. We picked up our tour guide for the second half of the field trips, Jan. He is a geology professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium. We stopped the bus along the side of a highway and everyone got off. Then we walked down this narrow path between two barbed wire electrical fences about a quarter of a mile. The path was full of really tall weeds and some people who weren't wearing pants ran into weeds with thorns and such. Then we got to a cliff essentially. He made us go down it until we got to a sink hole where a river found limestone and fell into a sink hole. Now water flows down the river and then directly into the groundwater supply in the area. It was pretty interesting but everyone got SUPER muddy. Some girls were wearing shorts and some were even wearing flip flops. A couple people slipped and fell down the mountain. It was pretty disastrous. My $80 tennis shoes are kind of ruined. I will have to wash them in the washing machine when I get back to Texas. Then we stopped again on some random side of the road and saw the other side of the river that has also turned into a sink hole. It wasn't quite as bad this time though because we knew what to expect. Finally, we got back onto the bus and drove into Liege where we went into caves that are actually tour-led. They were very similar to the Natural Bridge Caverns except they allowed people to touch the stalagtites and stalagmites and other formations in the cave. We had to go down lots of steps but then when we got to the end of the cave, we got into a boat and our tour guide from the cave rowed us back up to the front of the cave. It was an awesome boat ride through the water table in the cave. After the boat ride he asked for a tip but he wasn't too bad looking so I was fine with it. Especially since we didn't tip over like a group of people did 3 years ago. Then we all used the restroom and several people bought some souvenirs. Jaime, Jake, and Brad ran across the road to get some fries with ketchup or samari sauce. Stephanie and I went a couple buildings down to an ice cream shop. We were in the French speaking region of Belgium so it was difficult to communicate with the people in the stores. Then we had a long bus ride back home. We got back to the bus stop around 6:40 which was 40 minutes later than planned.

Then I rode my bike home slowly and cooked some cheese tortellini with tomato sauce and cheese for Brad and me. It was good. Then I uploaded my pictures from last night and today. After I finish this blog I will probably take a nap and then try to start on my 4-6 page field trip report. The group of students that are going to Rome this weekend leave on a plane at 6:45 AM from the Brussels airport. However, the first train to Brussels doesn't leave Leuven until 6:00 AM in the morning. So they are going to have to spend the night in the Brussels airport or get a taxis to pick them up very early in the morning. My plans are to go to the Leuven market tomorrow morning with Brad, Ann, and Liz. Then I need to take my bike to Velo to get the tires aired up so I can actually ride somewhere. I would also like to go to the K.U. Leuven bookstore tomorrow which is only open Monday-Friday from 10-12 and 2-4. I would also like to go to the M Museum which is the new museum in Leuven. Ann wants to do some shopping in town also because all the sales end on Saturday. Stores here are only allowed to have sales in January and July, so once August hits there will be no more sales. Tomorrow evening there will be 5 or 6 stages set up around the town of Leuven with live concerts again. I am not sure what the theme is but I am sure we will try to be around to watch them. Brad wants to go to the post office tomorrow to get stamps for his post cards. I mailed mine this morning because Ann let me buy enough stamps from her. She had a few extra. On Saturday, I think we will go on a day trip to Brussels. It is the capital of Belgium and a much bigger tourist town than Leuven. I am hoping to get some "Belgium" post cards and souvenirs. If the weather is nice, we will go to Oostende to the Belgium beach on Sunday since all the shopping will be closed everywhere anyways. I am not sure what we will do Monday, but if we have time I would like to take a day trip to Luxembourg. Another group of students is planning to go to Normandy, France for the weekend. Next weekend is our overnight field trip and then our final exams are the following Tuesday. So this weekend is pretty much our last 4 day or full weekend to travel anywhere. All of us are exhausted right now and most people are ready to get caught up on their sleep. I am excited that we only have 4 more days of school in our classroom and only 1 more field trip (even though it is an overnight field trip). That means not too many more homeworks and reports until we are done with these classes. Only about 2 more weeks until Texas!!! Whoop!

I just want to say that I miss everyone and I am enjoying myself. My neck is fine but it does feel like I have a horrible crick in it. I have not decided if I will ever attempt a backhandspring again in my lifetime. Although if I do, I will be sure to have a spotter just in case I fall. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. And I hope the weather here clears up and doesn't rain this weekend. It has rained everyday for the last week or so. I like the cool temperatures but I am ready for the rain to stop. Peace and love to everyone from Belgium :)

<3 Sabrina (this <3 is a heart!)

Mid-Terms Over and Seminar #3

For breakfast I had a grapefruit. I ate it by peeling off the entire peeling and then eating it like an orange. It was good, but messy. I usually eat grapefruits with a spoon and sugar. Oh well. At school today we got back our mid-term exams from BAEN 460 that we took yesterday. I made a 45/50 but Dr. Munster threw out the question that I missed. So I ended up getting 100%. Brad made a 50/50 and was upset that we ended up with the same score. Haha! Today we had Dr. Munster's lecture from 8:30 to 9:30. Then we had Dr. Engler's class from 9:45 to 10:45. We worked a homework set about manure treatment during that time. I barely finished it along with about 6 other people. Later, Dr. Engler graded my homework (I made a 53/55) and then gave me the other 5 homeworks to grade. Then at 11 AM we had our third seminar speaker. It was given by Eddy Wille from OVAM. He is the department head of the soil remediation department. OVAM is the public waste agency of Flanders, Belgium. It is similar to the EPA in the United States. The title of his presentationw as: Waste Management and Soil Remediation: Role of the OVAM. OVAM stands for Public Waste Agency of Flanders in Flemish. So the acronym is kind of pointless in English. The seminar was good except it went over about 15 minutes, so it cut our lunch short. (Mr. Wille is hard to see in the pictures below but he is on the right side in front of the chalk board and behind the podium).

At 12:15 when we got out of the seminar, I rushed over to the sandwich shop on the campus of K.U. Leuven where our classes are. I got the panini benglisch again today. It is a panini with ham, cheese, tomato, and pesto. Yesterday it didn't have tomato and pesto. I also got Paprika Lays potato chips which taste like barbeque chips from America. And of course, I got a Cola Light. My total was around 5 euros. The line was super long today. Then when I was done eating, I went back to the classroom and started studying for Dr. Engler's mid-term exam at 1:30 PM. It was 5 multiple choice questions that were closed note/closed book. I think I missed one of them (worth 5 points each). Then the rest was 4 work out problems that made up the other 75 points of the test. I think I did well on this work out portion of the exam. The AGSM 337 students had a different test than the BAEN 465 (engineering) students. When I finished the exam, I started working on Dr. Munster's homework assignment. We had to work a problem about the amount of nitrogen flowing through a river and the amount of salt that needs to be added to the Rec Center pool to make it saltwater. It was about 215,000 lbs of salt. I finished the homework and turned it into Dr. Munster.

Then I left school and went to DelHaize to do some shopping. Today I bought 2 bananas, 3 oranges, a container of pineapple, a container of green grapes, 1 pomegrante, a package of cheese tortellini, a package of shredded swiss cheese, a package of pretzels, and 4 Minute Maid orange juice boxes for in the mornings. I still have 3 pears left from last week. My total at DelHaize was 15 euros. Dr. Munster had told us that we could buy postage stamps at DelHaize. I tried to buy them but they were only for Belgium. They were not international stamps. So, I need to go to the post office soon. I have 4 post cards that I have been wanting to mail. They are addressed and ready to go. If I don't send them soon, I will get home before they make it to America. When I got home from the store, I bought 2 wash and 2 dry tokens from Vincent, our RA. Brad and I separated our darks and whites and are doing 0ur laundry together to save money (and energy of course). Our clothes are still in the washer and dryer now. Then I graded the rest of the papers that Dr. Engler gave me. I also uploaded the 2 pictures that I took today at the seminar and checked my email. After I finish this blog I need to write my 1-2 page seminar report, finish my laundry, talk to my mom on Skype, and then possibly do some research for our plans this weekend.

At 5:00 about half of the students on the program went to the movie theater to see the movie Inception in English. The cost was 9 euros. I wanted to go but I didn't think I would have time to do everything I needed to do tonight if I went to the movies. When these students get back, we are having a barbeque here at our student house. The professors said we have some left-over money from the program that they could use to help us buy the meat. Yesterday, we each receive 120 euros from the professors as a refund from the cost of the program that we paid. They over charged us initially to make sure that they had enough money to cover all of the expenses. So, again I have a busy evening but hopefully more relaxing than last night was. Tomorrow we have our 3rd field trip. We are going to some groundwater facility and some caves. We are leaving on the bus at 8:30 AM. It's about a 20 minute bike ride to the bus stop. Then the bus is returning around lunch time to the sandwich shop at school where I ate the past 2 days. This is where we are eating lunch. Everyone has to buy their own lunch this time. Then we are getting back on the bus to go somewhere else. We are getting home around 6:00 PM tomorrow evening. I plan to work on my 4-6 page field trip report tomorrow night.

Today it rained really hard while we were taking our exam. But luckily it stopped by the time I had to bike home. The weather has been cool and rainy here in Europe recently and it is supposed to stay that way throughout the weekend. Some of the students on the program have booked plane trips/train rides to Rome this weekend. It is costing them about $500. Another group of students has talked about going to Normandy in France. I think I am just going to hang around here and explore Brussels, Oostende, and Leuven. I want to do some shopping before the sales end on Saturday. (Stores here are only allowed to have things on sale in January and July). Well, I guess that is all for tonight. I will try to have another blog post tomorrow evening after our field trip that includes some pictures, of course. To everyone back home in Texas - stay cool and I miss you!!!

Love, BRE

Mid-Term Exams

I am at school and just finished my first mid-term exam in BAEN 460. I'm not sure how I did yet but I think Dr. Munster is going to give us our graded exams back in about an hour. Tomorrow we have a mid-term exam in Dr. Engler's BAEN 465 class. It is most likely going to be a lot harder and more work out problems. The test today was only 10 multiple choice questions.

I had a pear for breakfast this morning and had a ham and cheese panini with a Cola Light from the sandwich shop at school for lunch today. Dr. Munster also assigned a homework assignment that is due tomorrow, even though we had a test today. Dr. Engler has decided to lecture today during our problem solving session. We only have one homework assignment in his class this week. It is due on Tuesday. Tomorrow, we also have a seminar speaker. So tomorrow evening we have to write another 1-2 page report over the seminar that is due on Thursday. On Thursday we are going on a field trip from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM. We are touring a groundwater facility and some caves....? It should be interesting. We have to write another field trip report this weekend. It is a 4-6 page report that is also due on Tuesday. At least I don't have any homework to grade this week. Although I will definitely need to do laundry this week sometime.

Our RA gave Katie and I this little bug zapper to plug into the outlet in our room to keep the bugs from biting us while we sleep. Last night was the first night we used it, and I didn't get any new bug bites. But, we also slept with the windows closed and the door closed because it was really cold. The temperature has really cooled off here. It is cool enough that you need at least a light jacket on while outside. It feels like October or November or even December in Texas. The weather is supposed to be nice on Friday but then rainy on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for our last 4 day weekend here in Europe.

Some things that I have noticed lately is that the hooks in the bathroom stalls in public places for women to hang their purses are on the sides of the stalls, not on the back of the door. Also, it usually costs anywhere from 20 cents to 1 euro to use the restroom in public places in Europe. And, most of the restroom stalls go all the way up to the ceiling and down to the floor. It is basically like a room. And people called it the toilet or WC (water closet). Bathroom refers to the shower and restroom doesn't mean anything really.

Yesterday on our way back to Leuven from Germany, we were on two ICE (high speed German trains). We got free water (not carbonated) and two free orange juice boxes. It was awesome. The German trains are really awesome! I don't know if I said this in my last blog, but I really wish that we would have had just ONE more day in Munich. We wanted to be able to go on the "not-free" walking tour from 11 - 3:30 and also have time to shop while in Germany. I wanted to buy some nice steins, German ornaments, maybe a Cuckoo clock, and Birkenstocks of course! Maybe one day I will be able to make it back to such a beautiful place :)

I am trying to decide what I am going to do this weekend. A group of people are going to Rome but it is going to be like a 12-15 hour travel time. This is enough time to go back to Texas!!! I don't think I can ride the train that long. I want to stay here in the Leuven/Brussels area this weekend. I think it would be fun to go to Oostende to the beach on Friday since the weather is supposed to be clear and 24 degrees C. Then we could come back to Leuven in the evening and be there for the concerts around town. Then on Saturday we could shop in Leuven (I want to go to the I love Leuven shop, find some Birkenstocks, go to the M museum in Leuven, and go to the student bookstore at K.U. Leuven) and then make a day-trip to Brussels. I would like to see some monuments in Brussels and do some souvenir shopping for "Belgium" souvenirs while in Brussels. Then, possibly we could go to Luxembourg on Sunday or Monday for a day-trip since we don't need to be back early to study for exams next week, especially if we get our field trip reports done early. Everything is really up in the air right now but I am leaning towards staying in the area this weekend and touring Belgium. There is also a market in Leuven on Friday morning that is sort of like a trade days or nice flea market. There are lots of little tables and booths set up throughout the square and city hall area. I would love to go to that also. There is also a water park in Brussels that Jacob (the Belgian guy in our classes) told us about. We could also go there if the weather stays nice through the weekend and not rainy. Within the next few days, I guess I will decide for sure my plans for this weekend. I met a family from Amarillo while in Germany and they said that they had toured most of Europe and their favorite place of all was Brussels. So, I think I may just hang around and tour Brussels this weekend. I could save a lot of money by not having to pay for a hostel/hotel this weekend.

A lot of people have been talking about going home lately and being super excited to get back to the U.S....... (Brad!) It is making me really homesick. I miss my parents and Texas soooo much right now. I hope I can focus on studying tonight and get my mind off of Texas. I also miss Texas food. When I get home I want to eat some super good Mexican food - like a giant plate of enchiladas with rice, beans and sweet tea. And maybe a breakfast taco! Also, I would actually like a steak with mashed potatoes and pie or cake of some sort. I noticed that everyone in Germany eats bread with EVERY meal. Most of their diet consists of carbs.... horrible for trying to keep my figure while over here, but delicious of course!

We only have about 16 more days left in Europe. Time is flying by! But, I just want to say, Mom, Dad, Kayla, and everyone else ------ I miss you and will see you soon! And I wish I was going to the Davis wedding with my family this weekend. Love from Belgium, as always!
<3 BRE

Be sure to check out all my photo albums on my Facebook page. I have lots of pictures from all the cool places I have been so far. And wish me luck on my other mid-term exam tomorrow; I will need it!

Pictures from Germany

Germany was incredible! Now back to the books :(

Munich, Germany

(I obviously didn't take these pictures but I found them on the web. They are pictures of the castle that we saw on Saturday! Absolutely beautiful, huh?)

What a great weekend in Germany!!! This weekend I went to Munich, Germany with Brad, Ann, Liz, Derek, Jaime, and Jake. We left from our house at 6:45 AM on Friday morning to head to the train station. We stopped by the ATM to get euros before heading to Germany. We travelled from Leuven to Liege. Then from Liege to Frankfurt, Germany on a high speed train. Then our last train was from Frankfurt to Munich, also on a high speed train. We arrived shortly after 2:00 PM. Then we walked one block to our hostel called Wombats to check in. It is awesome!!! We got one room with 6 beds. There is an awesome bar and atrium at our hostel and they gave us each a free beer ticket for the bar. There is also happy hour at the bar from 6-8 PM and 12-1 AM. As soon as we got settled in and made our beds, we headed out to get some dinner and make our way to the legendary Hofbrauhaus. We stopped to eat at an Italian/German restaurant. Ann and I had the Weinerschnitzel. We expected it to be a sausage with fries, but it was actually a huge piece of veal that was battered and fried. It was very good. I also got the most giant Diet Coke that I have had since I have been in Europe. It was 0.5 Liters! (but it was also 4 euros). Then we walked a little longer until we got to the Hofbrauhaus. We walked into the huge beer hall. We found a table where we could all fit and sat down next to a nice man who only spoke German. We each ordered a beer from our nice little German/Asian waitress who was very flustered the whole time. I had a White Wheat Beer that was only 0.5 Liters. Liz also had one of these but then had some white wine. Jake had a Dunkel or dark beer that was 1 Liter! All the others also had 1 Liter beers. Then, while we were just hanging out and listening to the Om-pah band, four Aggies walked in and sat down at our table with us. Ann decided to try the beer with lemonade. It was sooooooo delicious! I bought some awesome souvenirs at the Hofbrauhaus also. After most of us had 2 liters of beer, we headed back to the hostel. Derek stayed with the Aggies and ended up drinking 7 Liters of beer!!!!!! He somehow made it back to the hostel later that night. The rest of us drank a little bit more at the Wombar with our free beer tickets. We had a fun night, even though it rained the entire day.

On Saturday morning we slept in until almost 10 AM. It was raining again and ended up raining throughout the entire day. Then we went downstairs to eat breakfast which shut at 10:30 AM. It cost 3,70 euros each but it is a buffet style. But, in Germany, people each sandwiches for breakfast. They have a panini maker here at the hostel so I had white bread with ham, cheese, tomato, and strawberry jelly smashed into a panini with Orangesaft (orange juice). It was very good and held us over until we ate a bratwurst at the castles. We had initially planned to go on the free walking tour of the city of Munich provided at Wombats at 11 AM. The tour guide showed up about 30 minutes late and made a very bad first impression on us. He said the tour would last until 3:30 or 4 PM and we would have to pay anywhere between 7 and 17 euros each at the end of the "free" walking tour. So, we decided to bail and head to the castles. We rode a train to Fussen that took around 2 hours. Once we got to Fussen, we had to take a bus to the castles. They are on the border between Germany (Bavaria) and Austria up in the mountains. I actually only had to pay for the bus ride back because a girl we met on the train from Guatemala got me on the bus for free with her pass. The castles that we saw were Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. We saw both of them for 15 euros. Our first tour was at 3:45 of the Hohenschwangau Castle which was the castle that King Ludwig's parents lived in. It is yellow and set above a lake. The name of the castle means Highland of the Swans. On top of the castle there is a giant swan. We were able to go inside and go on an English tour but pictures were not allowed inside so I bought a guide with pictures of the rooms for 3,50 euros. It was a 10 minute walk up to this castle. Our tour of Neuschwanstein started at 5:55 PM, so we decided to walk there instead of paying for a horse carriage or a bus to take us up to the top of the mountain. It was supposed to be a 40 minute walk but we made it up there in about 25 minutes. It was the most difficult climb I have ever been on! I was definitely breathless but it was a beautiful walk in which we saw many natural waterfalls. The rain was a bummer but we made the most out of our day. When we made it up the mountain to the castle, I ate a pretzel and a water. Fabulous snack. Also, when we got up to the castle and were waiting for our English tour to start, I met Lauren, an Aggie whose dad is in the air force and just recently got stationed in Germany near the castles. She is a sophomore at A&M. We also made friend with a family from Florida that were on both of our castle tours. Neuschwanstein was King Ludwig's castle that was built from 1869-1886. However, it was never finished because King Ludwig was found drowned in a lake. He had only lived in the castle for a little over 150 days. And, Bavaria never finished the castle. It was turned over to the people and tours have been given ever since. It is the most beautiful site I have ever seen. Walt Disney got his idea for Sleeping Beauty's castle from Neuschwanstein. The castles that are found at Disney Land and Disney World are based off of this beautiful castle. I got one especially awesome souvenir in a shop outside the castles. We finally made it home to Wombats around 10:30 PM. Ann and I ate pizza and a salad at the pizzeria right outside our hostel. Then we all fell alseep!

Today, we woke up a little bit earlier, around 9:30 AM. I went downstairs and ate breakfast and then waited for the Gordon's tour that we were supposed to be meeting at 10:15 AM. The tour costed 17 euros and was supposed to take us on a 5 hour tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp, the first concentration camp built. However, Gordon got sick so we had to once again go on our own. We rode a subway 21 minutes to the city of Dachau. Then we rode a bus to the actual camp site. The admission to the memorial was free but I bought an audio guide for 2,50 euros. We stayed there until nearly 3 PM just touring the museum and the different buildings remaining at Dachau. We saw many horrifying sites and pictures. We also watched a documentary movie in English at 2:00 PM. It was very, very sad. It was an extremely moving experience though. We saw the bunk houses and the crematorium while there. It was a very sad day but we were glad that the sun was shining and it was not raining. We made it back to Munich around 4:30 PM. We had already decided that we were going to shop during the afternoon today. We had all seen some steins on Friday that we wanted to buy for souvenirs. I also had planned to buy some Birkenstocks that I found right outside our hostel. They were silver t-strap Birkenstocks for only 39,95 euros. However, EVERYTHING was closed!!!! The only place that I could find a stein was in the train station. I was extremely sad about not being able to buy the shoes or steins. But, Ann and Liz and I were able to see the premiere party of Toy Story 3 here in Germany. There were lots of papparazi around to take pictures of the Germans who had done the voices. How cool, huh? Then we all walked to a bier garten/bavarian restaurant about 15 minutes away called Augustiner. It was awesome!!! I had 4 pork brautwursts with potato salad. Brad had liver soup....? And Ann had a GIANT blueberry pancake that was delicious. I had a half liter of beer. It was a great experience.

And now, we are hanging out in the hostel trying to solidify our plans to go home tomorrow. We are leaving here at 9:55 AM tomorrow morning and will not make it back to Leuven, Belgium until after 4:30 PM. I will then have to finish my Field Trip #2 report and then study for both of my mid-term exams. I plan to post some pictures of the castles and such on this blog once I get a chance. We have BAEN 460 mid-term on Tuesday and BAEN 465 mid-term on Wednesday. I still have not decided where I am going next weekend, but I will figure it out soon.

My bug bites have pretty much all healed since we have been here in Germany, but I am sure they will start to bother me again when I get back to the student house and get new bites. I really hope they start leaving me alone. We have been on this study abroad trip for about 18 days and have about 19 days left. We are right in the middle of the program. However, many of us are starting to get homesick and are ready to get back to Texas. I am sure these feelings will intensify over the next 2 weeks. Next weekend is our last full 4 day weekend to travel. The next weekend is our overnight field trip to Bruge, Belgium on Thursday and Friday. We will be able to travel on Saturday and Sunday. Ann and Brad and I had talked about staying in Brussels or other places in Belgium that weekend since we will most likely be BROKE by then! So, since I have so much to do when I get back to Leuven tomorrow, I may not write another blog. But I will try to post pictures from the castles and other German sites on this blog and Facebook whenever I get time. Peace and Love from Munich, Germany!!!