Keepin' it Real.

T minus 11 days until I am back in the great state of TEXAS! The wait is almost becoming unbearable. It is really a shame that we are touring one of the greatest countries in the whole world on the final stretch of our backpacking. It is becoming really hard to appreciate what an opportunity we have when going home is so close to our fingertips. Even though it is only 11 days away, it feels like it will never get here. We are in Milan for 2 days, Venice for 3 and Prague for 3 more and then we head back to Maastricht to pack up and get ready for our journey back to the good ol’ USA.

I have been lacking in the blogging, journaling, and picture taking department because travelling has become habit. As horrible as that sounds, it has been my life for almost 3 months and documenting every single day has become very repetitive. Building here, building there, they all start to look the same after a while…

Our plans also got a little sidetracked. Right now we are supposed to be in Cinque Terre, Italy….but there was a major flood and we can’t even get into the city, therefore we are now in Milan. We are using the time here to rest and catch up on sleep since we are all absolutely exhausted. Who knew travelling would be so tiring. 

Any who, I am going to try my best to enjoy the little time I have left in Europe. I know a few months from now when I am sitting in my 9:30am Political Science class I will be wishing that I am back in Maastricht…

Only 17 more sleeps and I will be at home in my own bed….alas.

This is what awaits me in DA WACK <3

As crazy as it sounds….my third semester of college is complete in the middle of October. An even weirder thought is that my friends back at Baylor are just finishing up midterms. Anyways, we (Benton, Brent and I) are in Brussels right about to pretty much take a nap before we head to Ireland in the morning. I probably should get some rest, but with my sleep schedule that isn’t happening anytime soon.

It still hasn’t hit me that we won’t have a place to call “home” for the next month, but it should be amazing. Honestly, I am a little nervous. I was just starting to get comfortable in Maastricht and now it is time to embark on another chapter of our adventure in Europe. I am a person who enjoys familiarity and this trip has definitely forced me out of my comfort zone. Staying up until 2am most nights is definitely out of my comfort zone….yeah I know, I am pretty lame. But seriously, having to move from one city to the other over the next 25 days is going to be stressful and tiring. I am ready for the challenge….I think…

Cliffs of Moher.
I will be here in 3 days. No biggie. 

“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”

I have been confined to the walls of my dorm room for the past 48 hours. No really. I haven’t been outside in 2 days. I have gazed outside from my room, but that is as much interaction as I have had with the world. Anyways, I figured I would take this opportunity to blog. It is going to be a jumbled mess because my thought process changes every 5 seconds, but what is new?

Well, it is exactly one month until I come home. Mixed feelings for sure. I will be so ready to get home and see my family and friends, but at the same time Maastricht has become my home and I don’t know if I am really ready to leave. Yes, we technically have a month in Europe, but I only have 2 more days in here in Maastricht. Weird to think about. And also sad. I have met so many cool people here and we have so many memories together. It will be strange to not eat dinner with them every night or see them in the hall. [terrible segway into my next topic of discussion] Oh, I finished packing for my month long trip this afternoon. Talk about stressful. This whole week has been stressful….last minute hostel bookings, getting all the travel plans together, packing, studying for 2 tests, and a presentation. I have been a little overwhelmed. Anyways, I fit an entire months worth of clothes, toiletries and shoes into a backpack. ANDDD that it only weighs 17.8 pounds :) I am thoroughly impressed with myself considering I ALWAYS overpack. I plan to buy more clothes and souvenirs along the way so I wanted to allow space in my backpack to do so. 

I finished my third final tonight! YES! It is crazy to think that all my friends back home are just now taking midterms….and I only have one more final to take on Wednesday. Sounds good to me :) 

Since I have been making posts about the things that I miss about America, I figured I would name some things that I absolutely adore about Europe and in particular Maastricht:

• Nothing is rushed.
• I have learned to SLOW down and enjoy everyday for what it is worth.
• The market in downtown Maastricht.
• The calmness, yet craziness of this quaint little city, that I call home.
• Highlander and Shamrock.
• Train rides. (believe it or not I will miss them)
• Walking everywhere and not being lazy.
• Bringing your own bag to the grocery store…they obviously care about the earth haha 
• Teikyo.
• Family dinners every single night.
• The granola at breakfast.
• The independence.
• ISIS (pizza and fries)
• Not being attached to my phone all the time. It is nice to enjoy the people you are with. 
• Erlend de Groot. Miss that guy.
• My dorm room bed. It is seriously the best thing when you come back from a long weekend/ when you are really tired/ anytime of the day. 
• Living like a minimalist. 
• My OVChipkaart.
• And last but not least…..SHOARMA! 

The list could go on and on, but I will stop there.

As I promised this post was random, but thats how my thoughts are right now. All scrambled and such.

Cinque Terre, Italy. November 6-8. Yes. :)

I decided to make another post of the things I miss about America:

My car.
Refills on drinks.
Shopping carts at the grocery store.
Television.
Laundry only taking 2 hours.
Food being right across the street, not 15 minutes away.
Familiarity.
The big trees around campus.
Paved roads.
Trucks.
8 lane highways.
Texas-sized portions.
I said this in the last post, but my massive closet. It might be one of the things I miss the most.
Taking a shower without shower shoes.
Microwaves.
Anthropologie.

This list will probably continue to grow as the weeks progress, and I begin to miss America more and more.

 

“You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us”

I don’t know what has gotten into me over the past few weeks, but I have found a new appreciation for life. The only thing I could possibly contribute it to is the presence of God.  When I woke up this morning I felt truly alive and blessed. So blessed however, that I took my Bible off the shelf for the first time in over a month. I know that sounds awful, and it really is. There is no good excuse for it. I have been so consumed with myself that I haven’t even given God a second thought. Last night I had the opportunity to hang out with the beautiful Carrlee Pinder. We talked about life and had a great conversation about God. After our conversation I began to realize how much of a blessing she is in my life. I realized that all my close friends here are blessings and they are all here to have an impact on my life and help me to grow as a person. God has had an overwhelming impact in my life over the past few days, and to say that I am feeling on top of the world would be an understatement. This week I have 2 tests and a presentation that I have to give, and you know what? It isn’t even bothering me because I am loved. I am loved by the Creator of the universe and I think I am finally discovering what that really means. We are always told that “Jesus loves me,” but now I am seeing that put into action. I am beginning to see the love of my Father and it is softening my heart. For any of you that know me really well, I am very stubborn and I worry way too much. Recently, God has just helped me to be more caring and relaxed because there are many more things that could be wrong with my life. I take everything I have for granted back home. I think being away from home has really taught me to appreciate the things I have, but it has really taught me to appreciate the incredible people that are in my life. My dad and I have been butting heads for the longest time, but I got to Skype with him on Sunday and I just wanted to jump through the computer and give him a huge hug and go to breakfast with him. (That’s our thing. We LOVE breakfast.) Four months ago, I wouldn’t have said anything like that. My parents are both amazing people that have given me everything I could ever want and more and I couldn’t be more thankful. It is kind of sad that it took being away from home, over 5000 miles away to realize that my life is unbelievable. But hey, better sooner than later. This all seems so dramatic and drastic, but I guess when you feel God moving in your heart, you REALLY feel it. It is honestly the best feeling in the world. I wouldn’t change a single darn thing. 

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.” 

Psalm 9:1-2 <3

P.S. Mom and Dad I know you are reading this, so I wanted to say thank you and I love you. Can’t wait to come home and see you both! 

“It’s Your love that we adore
It’s like a sea without a shore
We’re lost in You, Were lost in You
It’s Your love that we adore
It’s like a sea without a shore
We’re lost in You, Were lost in You”

-David Crowder

This week I finally came to the realization, that I sincerely, with all my heart, and completely miss home. I haven’t really had time to think about home or the things I miss, but now it has hit me…

I miss…
My parents.
My best friends. 
David.
Texas.
Baylee Jo and Mollie Mae.
Mexican food.
American food…okay just food in general.
Baylor.
My bed.
Ice.
ENGLISH. Seriously.
Driving.
Not doubling the amount I spend on lunch because of the crappy conversion rate. 
American professors.
LL Sams.
Healthy food.
Working out at the SLC.
My huge closet.
Wearing t-shirts to class.

The list is endless, but these are some of the first things that popped into my head. I am absolutely loving my experience here don’t get me wrong, but the conveniences of America are definitely lacking. Everything was thrown at us so quickly I didn’t really have time to digest it until now. I don’t want to gripe and complain about what I am missing back home, but sometimes it would just be nice to have a little Taste of Texas (that restaurant is really good by the way). 

God Bless Texas. God Bless America.

 

So hold on to me tight
Hold on to me tonight
We are stronger here together
Than we could ever be alone
So hold on to me
Don’t you ever let me go

Grooveshark just made my life. Listening to Jack Johnson, Michael Buble, and Josh Groban. Yeah, studying just got 12 times better.

I have about an hour before I leave for my next weekend adventure, and I decided to blog a little. As you can tell by the title of this blog, we are going to Vienna. This was not our original plan however. Let me just start from the beginning….

It was Wednesday, August 30. Everyone was beginning to talk and become anxious about our first weekend of traveling in Europe. Some were going to Germany and others were taking it easy by going to Amsterdam, not us. We wanted to start off with a bang and go to Paris! We had our hostel booked and had to begun to map out our plans. There was another group that had gone to the train station to reserve their tickets to Paris. We figured that we should do the same since Paris is a huge tourist city. Not long after we arrived at the train station in Maastricht, our plans were shot. The lady helping us book tickets told us that there were no seats to Paris for this particular weekend and we would have to wait 3 whole weeks to go. Totally bummed out and having no ideas we made a quick decision to go to Berlin. Let me tell you Berlin was amazing and it all worked out, but making decisions at the last minute was awful and we never wanted to do it again. 

Yesterday came around, and we decided, again, that we need to go to the train station and reserve seats to go to Prague. Now we all figured that a train to Prague would not be so packed because it isn’t such a touristy place. We step up to the counter and the man proceeds to tell us that it will cost each of us 125 Euros for a night seat on the train. My jaw dropped and I was really frustrated because we had already booked a hostel and started to make plans. If anyone knows me really well, I love to have a plan and I don’t like to change my plans once they are made, but once again we had to come up with a last minute weekend vacation. We strolled down to McDonald’s so we could get WIFI. And our choice this weekend is, that’s right, you guessed it, VIENNA. I couldn’t be happier that we have a plan AND the overnight train is booked :) 

I really hope we can avoid playing this “Train Game” again!