ZAC

Gutentaug from Berlin.

or actually we're back now, but just barely and we like to try and keep our German up. 

We had an amazing time skipping school and jet-setting off to Germany.

Europe has increased our rebellious side. 

So anyways we got to Berlin on Thursday after traveling all night long and met up with our great tour guide Oliver who showed us around Berlin.

Oliver, our travel mate Jessica's old friend from high school, showed us around the city Thursday and Saturday introducing us to the unseen side of Berlin. Or just the nontouristy sections we guess. Friday we did the Fat Tire Bike Tour...our 4th and last, and got a free t-shirts out of it! Or maybe more like an 80 Euro t-shirt, but we don't like to think of it like that...

We went to some crazy Turkish markets, had the best falafal in Berlin and consumed more than our fair share of kebabs. 

Ashley would have to say the highlight for her (besides what will be mentioned later) was going to Oliver's house to have a traditional German meal of ham, sauerkraut and potatoes. DELISH! Berlin was very interesting...Ashley decided "cool" didn't quite fit, since everything kind of sucked there the past 60 years...so "interesting" was a better adjective.

Emily's highlight was, if you haven't seen the pictures yet, ZAC EFRON.

YES, we saw him, breathed in his scent, and were punched and kicked and attacked by fifteen year old crazy German girls. 

The story goes like this...

We decided to go see a movie Saturday in Potzdamerplatz because it was "cheap" and they had movies in English. So we decided on Defiance (very good).

So we get to the theater and see all these 17 Again posters and gaterailings around and were a bit confused. So Emily went the next morning and tried to figure out what was going on. Thanks to google, we found out that Zac was going to be in Berlin today, grabbed our cameras and ran back to the theater.

It was quite the experience. We waited two hours until the beginning of the premiere (because we had nothing else to do and this was free) and lo and behold he came.

Girls went nuts.

It was hilarious.

Ashley's sister is going to be crazy jealous.

So now we are back and have exactly one week left.

CRAZY.

We are trying to do as many Oxford things as possible in the next seven days, i.e. Nando's, Ben's Cookies, On the Hoof, University Parks, Tea Parties, Backyard cook outs, Green's Cafe, City Center in general...

just enjoying everything and all things Oxford.

We are both excited to come home and see everyone, but looove Oxford so much, it will be tough to leave and reenter the "real world" as Ashley likes to refer to it.

Hope this last week goes quickly for you as we know you are dying to see us. 

Peace & Reconciliation,

Em and Ash

Our 10 Day Road Trip...Basically...and beyond

We're sorry, we're sorry, we're sorry. We do not update regularly enough. For that, we are sorry.

Granted, it's hard to update when your nearest computer is 10 days away. 

So now we have been on our huge group trip. It was pretty legit. Sometimes long, but overall legit. Quite a bit of charter bus time, but who doesn't love that? Oh wait...Ashley gets motion sickness? Even so, you know we have fun in any and every situation.

Here we go...I will try to make it as concise as possible, but get ready. It's a long post.

So we started the trip off by visiting Verdun, France where one of the largest battles of WWI was fought. It was very educational, but kind of depressing. Then we went to Strasbourg, France where we went on a tour of the Council of Europe which is basically like the United Nations, but for just Europe.

Then it was off to our new favorite place...SWITZERLAND!!!! We spent an afternoon in Interlaken and then went to our hotel in Wilderswil. The hotel was really cool as it was perched on the side of a mountain. Cool, but quite the trek to get there. On Wednesday morning, we woke up ready to enjoy possibly one of our favorite days all semester. We took our bus into Grindelwald where we decided to go ice skating. 

After lunch, we hit up the slopes. No not skiing. Better. Yes. SLEDDING. We 

were expecting to go down the mountain via tubes, but we soon learned that we were going to have to master legit Swiss sleds. After looking around, we (us, Bailey, and Jen) noticed that we were all wearing Siggie sweatshirts. Naturally, we had to capture the moment.

After Switzerland, it was off to Taize, a French monastery. We were a little skeptical at first, but when we got there we realized it was a lot like Church camp. Our favorite part was group time every morning. It was really cool to get to interact and talk to kids (we were the oldest group there. Most of the people we talked to were around 16 or 17) from other countries. This is a picture of some people from ACU and some girls from France and Germany.

Our last day and a half of the trip was spent in Paris. Since we'd been already, it was nice to do a few things and then relax and enjoy some of our favorite places (i.e. Montmarte). Other than that, we spent our last time in Paris this semester doing what we do best...eating crepes. We love that city so much and hope we can return someday.

And now we've been back in Oxford for about a week. A rundown of our week? Ok. Well, homework (duh). Other than that we as a group of Texans decided that we're sick and tired of missing Mexican Food. Therefore, we had Mexican Food night, complete with homemade salsas, queso, and lots of tacos!

Since we're all about group unity now, the girls decided to band together and have dessert night on Friday. In case you weren't all aware. Girls. Love. Chocolate. The night was made complete with "When Harry Met Sally" and guest appearances by Amy Couchman and Andrea Lucado. Shout out to Miss Payton Jones in this next picture.

The more time we spend here walking around, going into small shops, and spending time with the rest of our group, the more we love it. It's sad to think that there's only about three weeks left. The last travel break is this weekend and we will be spending it in....(drumroll please).....OXFORD!! That's right. It's a long story, but we couldn't be happier about the way things are turning out. We're already planning cookouts, pajama parties, and lots of time outside in (hopefully) beautiful weather that we've started to experience all with some really amazing people. Can't wait to tell you all about it! And hopefully our next post will be sometime while we're still IN Oxford...