Hey all

I am back from my travels finally, so glad to be back even though I am overwhelmed with work. It is manageable though. I got my grade back from my political science course, I got a B which is good, most people got B's. Only one guy got an A and no one got a B plus so I figured I did fairly well. I still wish I would of done better because I worked very hard and have been trying to keep a whole straight A's thing. I think I will get an A in all my other classes so hopefully it will make up for it. So I left in my travels in Prague where I saw a little of the town and then left the next morning. I had a long train. I went from Prague to Dresden, Dresden to Frankfurt, and then Frankfurt to Freiburg. One of my trains was late which almost made me miss my last one but luckily things worked out. On the train to Freiburg for a good 15 minutes I got to listen to this one 7 year old boy with a high pitched voice sing "Pretty woman, walking down the street." Those were the only lyrics he knew, it was funny.

I arrived in Freiburg at 5 and Jacki's classes ended at 5 so I waited a little and she came and picked me up with her friend. We took the S-bahn to her house, it is a 15 min ride. She lives in a apartment with 5 other german students, it was fun. We hung out a little and I cleaned up and we went to the grocery store. Then we hung out with her group which is just like mine, 11 people. We had a fun time and she showed me around her town. It is very alive at night, it was fun. Met a lot of interesting people. Jacki has changed a lot in a good way, she has grown a lot as a person. We had a great time. Our second day we were very lethargic. We got some chinese and she gave me a tour of the town and then we hung out and watched the Office. Later that night we played cards with a couple guys from her group. Our last day she had class a little so I planned out the rest of my trip and got organized and when she got back we decided to go out dancing. It was a lot of fun. I miss dances and dancing in general.

Seeing Jacki made me realize how much I am glad I only have one week left here. While all I want to do now is travel I still want the comforts that I haven't had in so long. I miss the people that have been so important to me, family and friends. I miss stability. After Jacki saw me off the next morning I headed to Zurich. I found my hostel and was planning the rest of my day but I ended up falling asleep out of pure exhaustion and when I woke up it was too late to go do anything. A little disappointing but I did get to explore the city earlier a little so I got to see how beautiful it was. My roommate in the hostel was very cool, she was from Thailand and we talked for a long time and then she had an early flight but she left me a note with her email and a bunch of chocolates, it was so sweet. The next day I headed into Bern. Dropped off my luggage and walked around the town. It is a beautiful town. I went to the bear pit, checked out the rose garden which has an amazing view of the entire city. Then I explored by the water. It was a beautiful day. After cleaning up and relaxing a little I went to check out the Parliament and ended up running into a random Turkish festival. It was a lot of fun, live music, good food, and good people. I stood out obviously but it was still great.

After that I relaxed back at my hostel and got some rest, watched a movie. I went to bed to prepare for my long train ride home the next day. I leave Bern in the morning and I am 20 minutes outside of Milan with the train stops. No one seems to know why but then someone says that someone is stuck underneath the train, a little girl. Well eventually they told us to get off the train and wait for the next one to Milan. Turns out that someone was not stuck underneath the train, in reality someone had accidentally fallen under the train and died. It was horrible, people acted so rudely and you could see the body easily from where we were standing. It was a very bad experience. They didn't even try to cover the body for awhile and when they did attempt to they used clear plastic bags and cardboard boxes. It was just very sad, no one seemed sad though, everyone was so focused on getting to their train. It was definitely a turning point for me. It really opened my eyes. I didn't even know how to react at first. It is so shocking. No one had any information so I don't know if the person was a girl or a boy or a child or an adult.

It took two hours to get another train to Milan and then I had to figure out another way to get back, there were a bunch of options. So I got back to Torino and got on a train to Alba but it never left and all of a sudden I see people running from the train so I follow them and a man helps me and tells me where to get off. After a lot of running and franticness I got back to Alba. I started my exam after doing some much needed laundry and unpacking. Today we had our first day of class in a long time with Paul. We watched a movie and talked about our journeys. This week we have mostly off. We have our papers due asap, hopefully before friday if we can. Then our exams are due on Friday. Thursday we use our eurailpass for the last time and go to Turin for the day. Then Paul has to grade our exams this weekend and monday he has to turn in our grades. Monday night we are going to have a big party and it should be fun. We are trying to barbeque but don't know if that will work out. Things are winding down. I am very busy but excited.

So next tuesday our schedule is as follows. We have a bus at 10 to Torino and take a plane from Torino-Paris and get there at 3:00 and then at 4 we leave Paris and arrive in America at 7 (american time) It will be a long day but totally worth it. I can't wait to see you all. I will probably be in touch after I am done with my exam which is hopefully soon. Wish me luck!!

Ciao