79. I Swear I'm Not Trying to Rob You

I am a girl. Obviously, I carry a purse around. Here is what is usually in my purse: hand sanitizer, lotion, chap stick, bobby pins, camera, and phone. Here is a list of what is never ever in my purse: bombs, lasers, knives, glass cutting equipment, medical gloves, enough room to fit an ancient civilization artifact. All of Germany thinks my purse is used for the latter. So every time we walk into a museum I am spoken at in German and directed to the cloakroom where I can safely store my threatening bag. It's not my fault I can't go anywhere without a tube of chap stick!

It has become Brody's favorite job to be the carrier of the key. In fact, I think that closing and opening the locker is his favorite part of museum visits. Unless the museum contains ancient Assyrian ruins. Which Pergamon Museum is full of. Brody walks around and marvels at the giant building ruins and replicas. Not because he appreciates the history behind them, or the skill it took to build them, but because he is imagining how great his clan in the iPhone app "Clash of Clans" would be if he could buy buildings like the Assyrians built. In fact he might redesign his clan layout to match that of the ancient Assyrians.Whatever keeps him interested.

Try fitting THIS in your purse

The girls and I really enjoyed the Neues Museum because we got to see all the pretty Egyptian Statues. One of these was Nefertiti who, according to Scarlet, looks exactly like my friend Meagan from back home, but with lighter skin. I decided my favorite era of Egyptian statues were from the 3rd dynasty. Whenever
I hear about Egypt, those are the statues I picture.

On our walk home, we took a turn to pass by an ice cream place, and through the tunnel behind it there was a carnival! I love stumbling on these things. It's not too far from our place either, so everyone is crossing their fingers that we can go back tomorrow. There were shops, giant trampoline contraptions, cotton candy stands, and best of all, performers. They were singing a German song that, judging by the dance moves that went along with it, could only be about farting. I'm not kidding. The dance was very very clear about this. Maybe tomorrow we will learn it and join in!

78. Don't Fall for Their Traps

Some type of school break ended today in Germany. The end of break means everyone traveling back home. By train. With reservations. I wasn't aware of this break, so we did not spend extra money on reservations. This means we could still get on any regional train with our Eurail passes, but had no guarantee of an open seat. So I have nicknamed this ride "the musical chairs train ride" at every stop we crossed our fingers that no one had reserved the seats we were sitting in, and at most every stop, someone ended up relocating. 5 hours of this was pretty annoying, and Scarlet made sure that I was aware of this. Finally Mom, Dad, and Brody gave up and headed up to take advantage of their first class tickets where they got free candy, and peace. They left Arden, Scarlet and I in the back with the baby who kept crawling around harassing strangers, and a man with a hook for a hand.

What's really been on my mind lately, though, is the videos that are played in art museums. Bottom line: They are a trap. After being away from Netflix binging and late night movies in the Theta basement, it's easy to be attracted to any type of movement on a screen. If you ever go to an art museum and see a video playing, DON'T FALL FOR IT! They start out interesting and make you want to watch to the end, but here's the thing: there is no end. They are all psychotic, and will leave you feeling not inspired, or thoughtful, but deeply disturbed, and empty. I want to describe to you three examples.

1. I walk into a small pitch black room with a projector playing a movie to your right. It is an avatar that looks very close to human sitting in a big rolly chair in front of an all grey wall. She is talking - in English! - about something I must have missed. It kind of seems like she's talking to a therapist about her problems, but I can only hear her side of the conversation. Soon she fades to black and on the left wall she pops up again. Same story, only this time, it seems like she is in  the roll of the psychologist, and I can only hear her side. Soon I try to remember what girl one was talking about to see if the conversations match up. They don't. I swear I spent so much time watching the screens go back and fourth staying on each avatar for minutes at a time. I couldn't find any patterns and decided that I had just been tricked into listening to gibberish for the last 20 minutes.

2. A man sits next to a bed on which he is making a giant salad that covers up the entire middle. He isn't just throwing lettuce onto a bed, there is an art to it, and he is placing each piece of the salad in a precise place. After about 5 minutes of watching this guy make a salad, he stands up and covers it up with a blanket. The scene changes to this guy going on a date. He brings the girl back to the creepy salad bed room, uncovers the masterpiece and convinces her to lay on it. At this point I'm ready to haul out of there, but then he announces that he forgot the crackers. The veiwer is then forced to watch a painfully long take of the guy walking to the grocery store, buying crackers, and then going back to what we think is the room. It ends up being an entirely different room that is decorated lavishly. He then layes down in his bed and eats the crackers. End scene.

3. This is the most disturbing by far. Here is my take on the back story of this compilation. The "artist" finds an abandoned museum. He/She then fills each room with creepy things:strobe lights, broken art pieces, a nonsensical video on loop, etc... Then he gets about 20 people, puts them on acid, lets them loose in the museum, and records their behavior. He even lets them get into a costume box, but some just go for their birthday suit. Not sure what the point of this experiment was, but I shouldn't have watched it as long as I did to find out. Mostly because there NEVER is a point to these things.

On the other hand, if you like feeling disturbed and creeped out, I think art museum videos could be your thing.

77. The Stairs of Death

Today we took a vote. This was the first time voting has been involved in deciding what we are going to do today. In the end, it wasn't much different than what we do every other day, but people like having a say in things. So walking out of the apartment I knew we were heading to the Cologne Cathedral. I didn't know we were going to climb a million steps to get to the top of that cathedral. Have you seen how tall this thing is?!

I couldn't even get a picture that showed the top and the bottom! And the steps to the top, weren't just normal staircases. I'm talking spiral staircases, people. So we are basically walking straight up these narrow steps while the oxygen is thinning, and the lactic acid is taking over my legs. If this weren't bad enough, there was only one staircase. That means everyone who walks up, comes down the same way. So we are climbing up on the inner part of the stairwell, on our tiptoes, about 1 centimeter away from slipping and plummeting to our deaths.

In the end, the view was worth it! And we saw the worlds larges free swinging bell.

We went to an art museum and an artifact museum today too, but the real highlights were the french fries and milkshakes. Someday us spoiled kids will appreciate all the "boring" history stuff we struggle through over here. For now, I'll keep encouraging Brody to ask for snacks along our walks each day :)

76. Why We Love Museums

 

Looking back, I wish I would have kept track of how many museums we have been to. I'd say at least 70. So by now we are pros! Or at least we should be. Here are some reasons we love going to museums.

1.We get to know the area! Okay this one is obvious, but when we are going to a different city each week, it's hard to study up on it's history and why it's important. Museums can tells us all that and more in under two hours.

2. There's always a nice viewing bench to sit on. We are on our feet walking around most of the day, so we love to be the lazy tourists and have our whole family take up an entire bench. When we don't know what the display is, and are too far to read the information, I get out my camera, take a picture of the information plaque, zoom in, and read it out loud to anyone around.

3.Sometimes, the museums are entirely in a different language, so we don't have to do anything but look at pictures.

4. When it gets boring, I have time to harvest my crops in my Smurf Village, an app that doesn't need internet!

5. Crazy photo shoots. These are the best in modern art museums. Today's artists come up with the weirdest stuff and I like to take pictures to remind myself that someone is making a living off of this giant solid blue canvas.

6. Free restrooms. Yes, most everyone is aware that in Europe, everyone pays for the loo. I don't usually have a problem with this because high school - with 4 minute passing periods - trained me to never need to use the bathroom during the day. Thanks FCHS. But the rest of the family cannot help but take a pit stop every hour or so.

7. The tickets make for good scrap paper to put our chewed gum in. Who wants to walk around looking for a trashcan when there's a perfectly good piece of paper at the bottom of your purse?

8. The cultural experience is unparalleled. In both small and large museums, we see a lot of different countries represented. The best is to watch what everyone takes pictures of. Sure we are all guilty of taking useless pictures. Sometimes, I think something is really cool, and as soon as I get home I don't even recognize what I was aiming for in the shot. But after following some fellow tourists around, it's obvious that some people just want to record every second of their museum visit. Even the type of carpet they are walking on.

9. They're not all boring! It's pretty great being the oldest child all the time, but when having younger siblings gives me an excuse to go to some interactive kid museum, I like it even more.

10.The beggars can't get to us. Even after 76 days of being exposed to these people, I am still super awkward around them. When I see a grungy looking old lady coming near, my thought process goes something like this:
If I look busy on my phone, maybe she wont come over here - as long as I don't make eye contact I'm fine - I wonder if its a scam, shes probably actually some young gypsy - don't look - DON'T LOOK - okay just a glance - SHOOT - she's definitely old - I think she's coming over here - why did I look! - well I definitely don't speak her language, so I'm exempt from giving money right? - she's definitely coming closer - I'll just duck behind Scarlet - that's it, I'm taking the long way to get around this lady.
It just goes on and on until the beggar isn't in sight.

Today we hit three Köln museums.The first was a modern art museum that had a very intriguing temporary exhibition. I think they had a whole bunch of people do acid, let them loose in a really creepy abandoned warehouse, filmed everything they did, and called it art. Next was a museum with old Roman artifacts. It was cool, but not as cool as the actual Roman Forum. and last was a German war museum. I think it told a lot of history on both of the world wars, but seeing as I have no knowledge of the German language, and most everything was in German, I couldn't really tell you. They did have some english info in the basement which was a prison in World War 2. So all wasn't lost!

After another quick run by the local McDonalds for a milkshake, we headed home for an authentic German meal of glorified German hot dogs. I'm sure there's some fancy name, and I've now offended someone.

75. Vlogging

Scarlet, Arden, and I have decided to start a vlog. This is a video blog for those who don't know. The reason behind this decision is kind of shaky. In the end, we've just had too much time to spend on youtube, and want to be like all the famous video bloggers we have - creepily - come to know and love. Today was the perfect day to start on this vlog. We went on a city tour and the huge Köln Cathedral. So we made sure to video along the way and while we don't really know the direction we are going to take quite yet, it'll be fun to explore the realm of video editing. Scarlet has already uploaded a short edited video to her Facebook.

City Walks are fun because we get to people watch and see all of the historical buildings. Our favorite people today were:
1.The Elvis dancing king.  A guy, not a street performer, just a normal guy doing his thing. This thing was dancing at the top of the stairs of the Köln Cathedral. Brody admires him.
2. The Under the Sea Street Performer. This guy stays in the center of town playing his drum thing and his music sounds exactly like it's out of a Disney movie. Also, I think he might live in the square because he is ALWAYS there.
3. McDonalds cashier. There is a McDonalds a block away from our house. Today it was hot. Today we got McDonalds milkshakes. The cashier spoke excellent English and gave us exactly what we wanted.
4. Dogs. Every single dog. We love watching the dogs. When we get home we are getting a huge dog, and are constantly brainstorming name ideas for this dog.
5. Sk8er boi. That's right, we saw you fall.
6. Cathedral Police. They all look totally authoritative in their long red male dresses.

 Speaking of the cathedral this thing is HUGE. It's the fourth biggest out of a certain categorization of cathedrals. I don't really know. Its just big.

To put it in perspective, the picture on the left shows a model of what is on the top of the spire in the picture on the right.

Another amazing thing we saw was a cologne shop that had a fountain of flowing cologne. A FOUNTAIN OF COLOGNE. I took a picture.

Our day ended in a trip to Brody's favorite place - the grocery store - where we think we were scolded by a clerk, but we can't speak this language, so we're not really sure.

74. So Close and Yet So Far

You know those scenes in movies where the protagonist desperately needs to get somewhere fast so they try to catch a last minute train only to watch it pull away as they are scrambling up the escalator? That happened to us today. Twice. Most of our train trips run like clockwork. Until today. I've learned that it is impossible for the Eurostar to arrive on time. It has been late 100% of the time I've had to use it. It also happens to be the only train to run under the chunnel (Mom's term for the tunnel under the channel) At least today it was only 18 minutes late as opposed to rolling in 4 hours late like last time.

20 minutes is a perfect layover time for train stations. We've had 5 minute layovers and made it in plenty of time! So 20 minutes to get from the Eurostar to our connecting 2 hour trip to Cologne should have been a breeze. Not in 2 minutes. We found our platform 5a without a problem, ran up the escalator just in time to watch the tail end of the train pull out of the station. Thus began the nightmare of hopping on regional trains to random little towns until we ended up in Köln. One of these little trains had some trouble procuring a conductor. So there was another late train that caused us to miss the next one.

We never just accepted defeat when we knew we had no time to make a train.There was always a mad dash for the platform. 6 people running around with giant backpacks looking crazy.  What could have been a 2 hour trip to Cologne turned into 4 hours on and off trains. Finally we made it to the apartment which is about as big as Arden and Scarlet's room back home. But it's decorated really nicely, so I still like it.

 As soon as we connected to the internet, the young people retired to the loft to catch up with the world. This is when we learned that Ed Sheeran was ALSO in Cologne! I try to keep up with where my favorite artists are, but I didn't think I'd actually be able to see any of them in the short times I stay in these cities. So this was a great surprise! I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to navigate the german interwebs to figure out exactly what was going on.

After wading through many pop-ups - my computer is somehow virus infested and I'm no where near any of my computer geek friends who could fix it - and loosely translated sites, I found the time and place for his exclusive radio concert. And it was only a 20 minute walk! Around 8:30 Arden, Scarlet, and I found our cleanest, nicest pair of sweatpants to wear to the Kulturkirche for the concert that started at 9. We grabbed cameras and Dad - because a 19 year old is not safe on the streets at night - and crossed our fingers that somehow we could score some tickets, or sneak in somehow.

 These ended up being our seats for the night. If I zoomed in with my camera, I could see his poster on the door...

People without tickets for this "exclusive radio sponsored concert" needed some type of connection to get past the gate. Unfortunately, I had no German connections. So we were left outwith all the other low life groupies. It was great! They tried to shut the doors so we couldn't hear, but Ed Sheeran doesn't let two sets of thick wooden double doors hold him back! Plus one of the girls pulled out a radio and tuned into the station that was playing the concert live, so it was almost like we were right inside! Except instead of staring at Ed Sheeran, we were staring at the security guards hoping that one of them would let us slip past. The concert only lasted about an hour - yeah only one hour, apparently Germany doesn't throw down like America. And we stayed the entire time. It was so worth it! We heard some songs from his new album, and on a smoke break, a girl came outside and let us watch a video she took from inside. I'm still not embarrassed. As Arden pointed out, we were closer to Ed Sheeran than we would be to One Direction at their concert in August.

I'd call tonight a fangirl success, I guess I'll just have to wait for his new album tour in America to actually be in the same room as him!

73. Free Stuff!

Today was a day of running around doing every free thing London had to offer. I think my feet are going to fall off. Between stuffing our faces with M&M's, looking for Arden, and watching a Shakespeare improv group,we are all quite exhausted.  We have managed to find a lot of free places to visit. Mom says it's because the stuff in the museums doesn't actually belong to Great Britain... Lucky for us!

Our fist stop was the library where we saw a Gutenburg Bible, Magna Carta, Michelangelo, Di Vinci, and Shakespeare's notebooks,  and some old beetles notes!

Next was the other half of the British Museum. The highlight was the insides of the Parthenon. All of the statues,and reliefs that the British somehow got a hold of. It really made me realize how huge and detailed these places were! For example the following is a scene that was placed in the triangle at the top of the front of the Parthenon. The backs, which aren't ever supposed to be seen, were almost as detailed as the fronts. 

Trafalgar square was also really lively. Not sure what the celebration was all about, but there was a band, food, games, and about 1000 people to wade through to get anywhere. Everyone split up, and enjoyed the street performers, and the people watching before heading to Shakespeare's Globe. Today was his 450th Birthday. There were balloon swords, puppet shows, coloring tables, and a show in the actual theater which everyone enjoyed. The actors had a lot of audience participation and it reminded me of the improv group The Crazy Monkeys.

The rest of the night was spent off our feet. Brody made us all dinner, we drank some tea, and enjoyed our last night of English TV!

72. The Holiday Tradition

When the first Twilight movie came out, opening night was sometime around Christmas Eve. So while most families stayed home, sang carols, watched The Grinch Stole Christmas, or read The Christmas Story, the Friends went out for a night at the cinema. Since then, going to the movies on or around Christmas Eve has become somewhat of a tradition. Today this tradition spread to Easter. Scarlet, Mom, and I all headed to Leicester Square to see Divergent. This wasn't on some whim, I had been planning this since we got on the plane to Europe. I read the book a few years ago and have since been very impatiently awaiting for the movie to be released. Too bad I haven't been in a country that speaks English until now. But the wait was so worth it! Now I'm going to spend the rest of the trip daydreaming about what my life would be like if I were Tris. Then again, I guess I have it a little better than a teenager in an apocalyptic world.

For Easter Sunday we headed out to St. Pauls where we admired everybody's nice clothes and pretended we weren't wearing travel outfits and hiking shoes. It was areally rainy out today, so we spent the afternoon inside browsing TV channels and planning what Museums we could duck into before the movie. The National Gallery won. Here we went around and admired all of the art that doesn't really belong to Great Britain according to Mom. In the National Portrait Gallery we had one mission. To find the portrait of James Scott. On the London Tower tour we were told that After James Scott was beheaded, they realized that no one had ever painted a portrait of him. So they sewed the head back to the body and sat him up for a painting. We were unsuccessful in the time we had before the movie, but Dad, Arden, and Brody headed back to investigate more. I can't work out all the details from Arden but apparently "It wasn't him" that's her explanation. I asked for some elaboration, but this is sometimes the best you get from Arden. So somehow the story was wrong!

We had dinner in the basement of some building that was about as big as my room back home. It was a great cultural experience! We were seated right next to a group of 9 guys who ended up breaking a chair, and had 3 courses that I think were cooked by our waitress. Who knows?

71. Caffine Addicts

We pick up a lot of traveling brochures at train stations, information centers, tourists offices,and at the main city attractions. Sometimes these brochures come with coupons,that are often worthless. However, the London city map we took from the station in Belgium has proven to be our best find yet. There was a voucher for free tea! We went to Twinings and got away with 2 free boxes of green tea and some free samples on top of that. Not only is the UK really into tea, coffee is making a big comeback. In the square mile or so of land we covered, Arden and Scarlet counted 12 Starbucks coffee shops! Well I for one think that Purdue could really benefit from taking after London in this respect.

Our day was so full, I hardly know where to start. We went on 2 city walks, visited the Tower of London, and the Tate Modern Museum. In all, we were out from 10 to 8:30. The best part were the beefeaters at the Tower of London. They were hilarious! We found some actors to follow around as well. Now we have a secret gang sign, and know how to steal the crown Jewels.

We spent most of the day at the tower, but after another city walk from Rick Steves found ourselves at the Tate Modern art museum. Sure with Modern art, you aren't going to see the famous big names like in classical art museums, but unlike the predictable portraits of religious events you find in those places, modern art museums are never predictable.Scarlet and I walked through the Naked Lady room, the Long Line room, the This Looks Like Poop Room, the Creepy Psychologist Room, The Mannequins wrapped in tape room, and the Things Stuffed in Pantyhose Room. There were plenty more, but we made sure to take our time in order to appreciate the art. Here's a little sneak peak of the Angry Quilter Room:

 

In case you can't see it, here's a little quote: "There is no one in this room who has not thought of killing" Go Feminism!


And of course, I can't leave out Dad and Brody's favorite room

I actually don't know if this is an exibit or an empty room. Maybe the eggshell white painting has some kind of meaning behind it...

70. Honey Badgers

 

We have a TV. The stations all in English. We can't get enough. Brody is in charge of the remote tonight, so I walked in on a Honey Badger documentary. I've concluded that Honey Badgers are the most hysterical creatures I've ever observed. All they do is escape from any cage they are placed in, and break things. The entire documentary is about how clever they are. Half the time, the crew is just trying to keep their equipment from being destroyed.

We started the day with the changing of the guards where moms OCD kept her from enjoying anything. Reserving our spot at the front of the gate was a methodical event. If anyone screwed it up, the day was ruined. It started with us making a body barrier by making sure our feet were spread and touching the famiily member next to us. This gave us a little more space when people started pushing. Everyone had an assigned spot, and no moving was allowed. After an hour we heard a little from the band, watched the guys in funny hats march around, and felt the tension from everyone around us who wanted to get closer to see absolutely nothing. In all, the changing of the guard, I concluded is something that is nice to glance at as you walk by, but nothing special enough to stand and watch. Lesson learned.

 

Our apartment this week is basically in the middle of everything, we aren't worried about how to get anywhere, because everything is in walking distance! Seeing as we are super close to Buckingham, Big Ben, and the London eye, we didn't expect this part of town to be in our backyard. But I've grown to like this place! The art is pretty creative, the train lulls us to sleep, and the apartment was stocked with little soaps we will steal.

The afternoon was spent at the British Museum where we go t to see all of the stuff they stole from Egypt. Poor Egypt. We got about halfway through before being kicked out at closing time.

This gave us enough time to check out the old Egyptian statues, the one above is Ramesses II which we all recognized from the Prince of Egypt movie we loved as kids. We also saw some old mummies that were stolen from their graves and homeland for science. I might feel more emotional about this disgrace if I didnt find them so cool and interesting... We have plans to go back so we can see everything Great Britain stole from ancient Greece. Should make for a good time.

69. The Long Journey

A story of a train ride no one ever thought would end.

Chapter 1.

She sat in the train train terminal  waiting to head back to London with her two best friends, and her boyfriend. An announcement suddenly came over the loud speaker "Mesdames et messieurs, Train 9145 à Londres a été retardé pendant 60 minutes, désolé pour la gêne occasionnée. Ladies and gentleman, Train 9145 to London has been delayed for 60 minutes, sorry for the inconvenience." But it was no inconvenience for her. Sure she was ready to get back home after this vacation, but she had Rory and her friends to keep her company. And a bag of chips, she loved bags of chips and as she sat chatting in the terminal about the discipline of children in modern times, she crunched on handfuls at a time oblivious to the stares from the bald man with four kids sitting two rows away from her.

Finally the train arrived and she pushed through the crowd to find her seat on Cart 4. It turned out, her party of four, got the four seats in the cart facing each other with a table in between. She's just had the best luck. The entire train ride was spent talking of the holiday in Belgium, and teasing Rory about being untidy. He'd have to change that before they moved in together after the wedding. Right now a friend was letting Rory stay with him for only 600 pounds a month, and soon they'd have their own place together in the city. As they pulled up to the next station in Lille, she let her mind drift to wedding plans and made a mental to do list for when she got home.

~~~~~

Scarlett (sidenote- not Scarlet Friend, but her name really was Scarlett) had had enough of this day. Traveling was the absolute worst. She had already taken a train from Paris to Lille, and just wanted to get home to see George. Her Mom, Dad, and Brother Brody (sidenote- not a joke. Scarlet and Brody.) had just gone on a holiday to Disney World in Paris so she was decked out with a Micky Mouse bow in her ponytail, and a tiara on top. Who said only little girls could be princesses? She made her way slowly down the aisle of Cart 4, only to find out that someone was in her dad's seat was taken. And not just her dad, the old lady in front of him didn't have a seat, and the two girls in the aisle behind her. In fact, most everyone had their seats taken by people who were already on the train. This can't be happening. Someone found the conductor. Apparently most seats were double booked because the train was changed after a delay in Belgium. Great this was going to take another 20 minutes to sort out. So much for a one hour trip across the channel. Finally everthing was sorted out and Scarlet felt the train lurch forward.

Next to her, Brody was playing one of his ridiculous iPad games that all 8 year olds loved. She leaned over and whispered "Brody, not everyone in this cart wants to hear 'It's a Small World' in French and Japanese." The train started slowing and came to a stop. There wasn't a connection until after the tunnel, right? It didn't take long for the conductor to make the announcement. "Ladies and gentleman, our trip has been delayed due to a broken down train in the tunnel. I'll give you more information as soon as I can." This was it, she couldn't take it anymore. Scarlet curled up in a ball and started crying. She didn't care that she was 17 years old, wearing a tiarra, and balling in public, her mom traded seats with Brody and started to comfort her. "I'm fed up, Mom! All I want is to go home and see George! This is ridiculous!" Brody giggled to himself, but added in, "Mother, I'm fed up too, I'm only laughing because of Scarlet's reaction, it's really not funny at all"

It had been an hour, she was not going to see George today. She never should have gone on this trip.

~~~~ 

Another leg of her journey was about to start. With her parents heading back to Brazil, she was heading to London to keep working on her PhD and get some sight seeing in along the way. She remembered when she was a little kid, and she and her best friend had always said they would visit London together one day. Now her friend had been there twice without her, and it was her turn to explore the city, even if she was alone. After a week in Amsterdam with her parents, she was ready for some alone time.

She sat down next to the mother of a family who had just visited Paris, she could tell from all the tourist shopping bags they were loaded up with. It didn't take long for the youngest son, Brody, to start telling Tatiana all about his family's trip to Disney world. It always amazed her how much energy 8 year old boys had. Brody went on and on about his dog back home, who looks scarey, but really isn't at all. Then about school and how he once pulled a  red card for coughing and another time for not sitting down properly. 

Normally, Tatiana didn't get to know her neighbors this well on train rides, however this train had run into many delays. Once, when everyone had trouble finding their seats, another before entering the tunnel, and now in the tunnel. She didn't mind their company, though. She told Brody's Mom all about her life back in Brazil and how she was learning to speak French and German. By the time the train started moving again, she and Brody had exchanged YouTube channel information and Brody had spent time looking through all of her sketches. She wasn't a professional by any means, but she still enjoyed drawing when she was in the mood. Soon the conversation petered out, and she passed the time by reading through the trip journal she had been keeping.

~~~~

THE END of Chapter 1

This story is the result of two things 1. being stuck on a train for five extra hours and 2. being in a country where I speak the language. It's like my ears want to hear all the English they can while I'm here. In the end we made it to the apartment after getting our key from "a blue shop under the bridge" around midnight just in time for bed. Also, everything stated in this story is the absolute truth. The names, the thoughts, the random facts. Nothing was made up. Some people are just very very vocal in enclosed spaces.

68. Can't We Just Stay Here?

With shouts of "Brody, stop killing me!" met with the response "Get out of my way then, Scarlet, and start destroying everything in the room!" I sit here uploading pictures finding it hard to believe this week has gone by so fast and tomorrow, we will be in a new house, most likely not furnished with an American wii and the Harry Potter lego game. It's been so great to live in a fully furnished home this week. And to get a little taste of American foods our hosts left us. But in the spirit of adventure, it's time to pack up and go!

For our last full day in Belgium we took a trip to Gent which we pronounced hhhent with a guttural g. We prevailed in finding a parking garage underneath the middle of the city, and set out for a self guided walking tour with none other than Rick Steves.

Here's lunch in one of the many town squares with the gothic styled stair step gabled roofs in the background.

After a satisfying lunch of PB&J's with an apple, we headed to St.  Niklaas Kerk or St Nicholas Church. Whatever. The highlight of churches today though was St Bavo church where there was a famous Vaneyck altarpiece. We knew there were two sets of this painting: one original, and one copy. To see the original, we had to pay, so we passed on that and headed for what we thought was the copy. There was some hustle and bustle in this chapel - two tour groups and the Friend Family. This should have tipped us off, but there was no one asking for tickets, so we marched right up to it, and even touched it a little. Afterward we went to a chapel across the way and saw a miniature version of the altarpiece. So now We are pretty sure we accidentally touched the original. The Art Gods are frowning on us today.

 This is something we haven't seen yet. This entire street is dedicated to young artists, with the need to express themselves.

Our last stop was a crowd pleaser. We took a tour of the Court Castle, built not to protect the people, but to intimidate them. Cue the torture rooms!

The blade on this guillotine is original. creepy.

This room held various items of torture, descriptions of use, and manikins set up to make sure the process was clear. Also creepy. Arden loved it.

67. Throw What You Know

I wish I could say that all I left behind this semester was 18 credit hours and endless studying. That wouldn't be a bad tradeoff at all for a chance to backpack around Europe. But academics aren't all that I left back home. I also sacrificed a semester of performances and road trips with the Purduettes, events and sister bonding time with Thetas, and endless adventures with friends on and off campus.

Although I can't fully fill this void, I can still try to make up for it in some way. So we dubbed today "Sorority Picture Day!" Something that every sorority girl is good at is throwing up their sorority sign and gracefully pulling off the sorority squat all in time to capture the perfect sorority picture. If you don't believe me, stalk any sorority girl's instagram pictures. It's practically a requirement for rush.

For Theta - Kappa Alpha Theta, that is - we have an endless supply of signs to show our loyalty to our sorority in the most public way possible. I mean the set up alone is enough to attract the attention of passerby. There's the hand sign that shows KAΘ, the 2 - ∞ person kite, and any other way you can depict a theta or a kite - we get pretty creative. Here is our walk through Bruges, Belgium as told through sorority pics.

First stop: City center! There was a carnival in the square and we got some french fries upon Brody's request. He has been carrying around a book of things to do in Belgium, and taking a mental note of every single food we have to try.

The old town wall has since been built over, like in most old towns. In this case, what was built over it was a Hotel  and the only way they were able to build there was if they kept the basement open for anyone to come in and admire the old wall.

Another square! In this square there is a cathedral that houses a vile of Jesus' blood taken by Joseph of Arimathea. It was closed >:(

Here is the inside of town hall, the building in the background of the last picture. There was nothing free inside, we were just cold. And wanted to take a picture of course.

The black square on the wall in the background is apparently there to show how dirty the walls were before they were cleaned a long time ago. Before I clean city walls, I think about sectioning off part of them for tourists too.

Sometimes you just have to pose in front of statues you know nothing about.

Scarlet yelled "Hey! Does this look like a kite??" Sure Scarlet... I'll give you this one.

This was a type of convent for women who were religious, but not nuns. During wars, women who were left without husbands flocked here to have a safe place to live and work.

You are totally allowed to take multiple sorority pictures in the same spot.

Sometimes, Sorority Picture Day seemed to turn into Photo Bomb Brenna's Picture's Day

Scarlet really wasn't into the traditional poses.

Took a couple takes to get this one just right, and Brody still wasn't on board,  but he'll learn.

The only place we didn't get pictures was the World War I  museum. We were smushed between elderly tour groups who spoke all kinds of different languages the whole time, but still found it really well put together and interesting. Apparently farmers today still dig up old war gear while planting. They find old weapons all the time, and keep them in their sheds for their own personal collections. It wasn't long before it hit 6 o'clock and a lady came by to shoo us out. Before heading home though, we made sure to find a place that sold Belgian waffles. It's top priority every day.