Salzburg..in Suits

Yesterday, Thursday we went for a salt mines tour in Bavaria, just twenty minutes from the Austrian border. It was awesome, our whole group, 13 in total, bused it to the site, got there, put on our black suits and took a two hour tour first on a little rail car in the underground rail in the mountain and learned all about how "salz" was like gold back in the day. We learned about the process (in German and English) and actually got the slide down old slides to get from one place to another and we went on a boat (since flushign water in is part of the process). It was great.

After the tour we took the bus back and had lunch with everyone at a nice Italian restaurant...pizza was a nice treat. Then we met the faculty at this funny large golden ball statue with a man standing on top in one of the central plazas. We met to go to a brewery that Walt, the older Dean of the school of Education at USF who takes students every year, said was amazing and not touristy. I was like perfect lets go! He said it was a great brewery, but he did not tell us that the scenic route to get there involved like 250 steps up...though it took us a while and I was huffing and puffing, it was a great route above the city. When we got there, it was awesome, Walt bought us liter beers made by the monks where you get your mug, wash it out and get the beer from a huge keg! Having Noah and Jerry (the other faculty) come was great as well! Everyone on the trip is really great and nice!

Then Walt again recommended a restaurant for all of us to go to called something "Fuchs" which means fox and we had the most amazing food, including Kangaroo (not me because I am a vegetarian) and cheese dumplings!

Day 1 Seminar

Today we woke up a little later and came to the Schloss or Castle where the Sound of Music was filmed. We moved into our little single dormish rooms in the residence next to the castle and I have a beautiful view of the lake...There are about 60 students and amazing faculty.

I am tired now but will write more later....

Salzburg Day 2 May 27th Wednesday

Wow is it easy to loose track of days when you don't have work, meetings, class, obligations, and are on vacation (at least until the seminar starts on Friday)!! Today we had a walking tour at 9am and it was cold! It was drizzling all day until the afternoon. This cute old Austrian, Fred, gave us a tour and learned a lot about the city. Salzburg's economy is 80% based off of tourism and is barely effected by the downturn in the economy. There are also 46 churches in the city and 45 are Catholic! There is one Gothic church but mostly Baroque. The periods start from gothic influence to Renaissance to Baroque and then the Rococo. The Baroque churches are known for their more decorated towers with round shapes at the top versus the plain grey or black tall towers at the top of churches. We also say St. Peter's Cemetery and the University market. Afterwards we walked around the old town and went to the Mirabell Gardens, where the Sound of Music filmed a scene. There was a little maze made of tall green bushes and secret passage ways that were really fun to explore. There were also great sculptures of lions and unicorns. After the gardens we went to the Sacher Hotel where they make really famous chocolate cake and have been doing so for about two hundred years. Then we headed back to the hostel after being tired of walking around for hours. For dinner we went to a Mozart dinner and listened to his beautiful music played by a small orchestra and we had a great dinner with the whole group.

Will put up pictures soon!

Munich

Munich was so much fun! We arrived in the morning and met our friend Alex, who we stayed with, at the Marienplatz- the central plaza, and dropped off our luggage at his house and then went out for the whole day walking everywhere! He knows all the history and everything so we saw a lot of the cathedrals and gardens and parliament buildings. We had lunch at the St. Ahustin cafe near the cathedral just off the Marienplatz. On Monday night, we went out with his family to the beer garden in the English Garden near the Japanese Tower. We had prezels with Bavarian cheese and dip, with veggies, everyone else had half a chicken and we all had a liter beer!! We slept well that night...after not resting on our first day in Europe and a large beer. Then Tuesday morning, we left and took the train to Salzburg which was about an hour and half long...not bad!

We arrived to Salzburg and it was definitely hot, but really nice out. Then we met everyone at the hostel, checked in, rested a little, then went out to dinner.

(Alex is the guy on the right of the pictures and Lizzy is the girl I am traveling with, we just met but she is super nice!)

Salzburg

Graduation!!!

Yours truly!

I don't what I am doing...we took a million pictures...thanks to kate who is camera happy!

This is of me and my three friends who had our 1st grade pictures taped to the top of our caps...for memory's sake!

Here I am with Priscilla!

Here I am with Priscilla in the middle and Steph on the right...my great friends who I sat next to at Graduation. This is before the ceremony waiting in line and taking photo shoots together.

Almost Done!

On Monday I had my final for my Social Worlds of Children's class and today I just finished my Understanding the Environment final for science and I am almost done! I have to finish a paper due tomorrow for the World Since 1945 on the Rwandan Genocide and two other ones for Philosophy, and then it is a party!

Speaking of, I had my graduation party on Saturday afternoon and it was soooo hot in Atherton but it was a great party! I will have to post pictures later. Thanks you everyone for making my graduation so special.

Mj made a slide show for me from when I was a baby until now and it was so special! My dad talked afterwards and he totally cried which made me cry and it was great!

Friday is coming up...the big day!

I love my residents!

So I am in my room, la de da, doing homework, and I get a knock on my door, and two of my fav rezzies Jordan (who I went to Arkansas with and who also has flight benefits like me) and Beth come giggling and take me into the hall, make me close my eyes (I am a little skeptical and scared at this point) and they take me to Beth's room and make me sit on the bed, put something in my hand, and I open my eyes....

They made a string pulley that opens and closes their door without having to get out of bed! This is hilarious because if you knew, Beth's roommate, she never gets out of her bed to open the door, so this is perfect for her. But how creative are bored freshman...making a string pulley thing that opens and closes the dorm door without having to get out of bed! They even "copy righted" it.

I will miss them....