preface: this blog post was written at three different times. i always started writing then get sidetracked or tired. so needless to say, i’m posting this now… no questions asked. i hope you enjoy!

written on
part one :: may 9th :: still in good ole’ germany
part two :: may 11th :: two days after arriving home
part three :: may 16th :: exactly one week on US soil

part one:

[written may 9th]
i’m sitting here trying to stuff my last four months of life into 2 suitcases and a carry-on. it seems to be a loosing battle.

as i sit here, soaking up my last few moments as a resident of the city of bonn, i’m contemplating if the last few months have been merely a dream or in fact a reality? when i think about a few of the adventures i’ve stumbled into it along the way, all gets a little hazy. perhaps it was just an episode of a new MTV reality show (you know the one where the small town girl spends a semester in europe discovering herself?) yes, that one. i’m sure you’ve seen it before. it plays on channel 331 every other hour.

between the canal tours in amsterdam, gelato in rome, the mountain scape of salzburg, seaside of spain and even the crazy karneval nights in köln. it has to be a dream, right? there is no way all of this could be my life. it’s too surreal.

these are memories i will never forget… walking around lost in the pouring rain in rome, and even eating mussels in barcelona with bro nathan and family.

i’m blessed beyond my years. i have had some opportunities of a lifetime, and i STILL get to home to my loving family. i’d say it’s the best of both worlds…

rissa and i were giddy on the plane ride back!

part two: 

[written may 11th]
i made it back to the good ole’ US of A. it’s strange. so, so strange.

it’s a weird balance of going back to the things you know, and things you wish you still had. in one of my favorite movies 10 things i hate about you the preppy girls Chastity says, “I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?” the other ditzy girl Bianca replies, “I think you can in Europe.”

i think this statement pretty much sums it up. i loved europe, but i missed home. now i’m home and i miss europe. what a terrible problem to have, right?

people have been asking me… “so, would you do it again?” the answer is yes. in a heartbeat. i just got to expierence something most people in their entire lives don’t get to do, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD I NOT DO IT AGAIN?

in fact, we’ve decided some of us girls (marissa, allison and myself) are going to take a reunion to visit some of our favorite spots. sorry future husbands we are going to leave you at home with the kids. we’re terribly sorry about this inconvenience.

arriving in the houston airport with my momma!

then we ate mexican food, yummmm

my girls!

part three:

[written may 16th]
i sit here in the comfort of my room in college station still thinking how weird it is to be back home. i love getting ice in my drinks and driving in my car, but i do miss germany.

i still haven’t unpacked yet. it’s a … err… work in progress? i know it’s something i need to do but i’ve just been going going going. brownsboro, to college station, to san antonio, back to college station, then back to brownsboro soon! whew. the traveling never ends!

in conclusion, i hope you’ve enjoy reading all about my travels and experiences. i’m sorry to say i won’t really be posting here anymore! sniff, sniff. although, i will be leaving the site active so if you’ve having a bad day and need to get away or just want to relive some of the good times… just venture online to this blog!

thanks for reading! it really does means a lot to me! no, really!

and for the last time,

tschüss!

xoxo- jill

technically my last day in bonn! which brings mixed feelings.

my host mom invited me to go to their “new” house out in the country. it was so beautiful, reminds me of east texas!

after a little manual labor, we had a barbecue. then i headed home to pack up.

i hate packing and i’m terrible at it. that is all.

hallo hallo!

it’s weird that the time is almost here for me to head back to the lone star state. such a crazy feeling.

today was our “last minute errand running day” so we went to the haribo factory again! nom nom! then to the book store and a few other places.

then allison and i went back to rissa’s house where i proceeded to take a THREE hour nap. oops. my badddd. then we went down for dinner and ate outside. it was nice. i really enjoy talking to felix (marissa’s host dad) we talked about my decision not to drink, and the difference in drinking in germany vs. the states. interesting fella. i’m going to miss all of them! they treat me like their own kid.

hey, guess what. I LEARNED HOW TO FRENCH BRAID. yay me! (i’m not that great yet, but i will be!) this was only like my second practice round and i’m getting much faster. allison has gladly donated her hair for my practice. check, check it out!

after a little french brainding it was time for some FIREWORKS on the rhein!

it’s a traditional ‘festival’ type of deal in bonn to have fireworks and live music along the river. such a nice way to wrap up our semester.

only one day to pack up and get ready. THEN IT’S TEXAS TIME.

i’m pretty excited!

i’m going to go ahead and write about today. although, it’s pretty early on… i won’t have internet for awhile. here in stuttgart we are staying at a youth hostel. it’s really nice, with amazing views of the city. we are literally perched on a hill above the entire city, BUT there is no internet… well there is, but i heard it was slow AND like 5 euro an hour. DUMB. thus, no blogging for jill!

[may 6]

i’m not even sure what happened on this day. obviously, it was suuuper exciting. if i think of something awesome to write i’ll edit this.

bahaha. sorry!

“dobby: the final chapter”
this was a presentation given by framestore, a company based out of the UK. ILM did the original dobby, but seeing as how the director of harry potter switched after the [third] movie, dobby had to be recreated. it was really neat to see the intense process of dobby. from the texturing, to skinning, rigs, and all of the million of drafts the team went through.

after our conference talk we met with donna and arriane (our program coordinator) for lunch. i didn’t really eat lunch, i just had an iced coffee. it was pretty good, although not near as good as the one from vienna.

then it was shopping time. i’ve been eyeing these sneakers from the store in bonn for months. well today they had them and for 40% off, if that’s not a sign, then i don’t know what is. PLUS the bag i really really wanted was also on sale. SCORE. so i bought both. i figured “hey it’s my last 4 days in germany…. might as well!”

rissa got a red pair and i got my favorite color. see. cute and european, right?

Stuttgart! last trip of the semester, crazy!

we met at the main train station in bonn at 8:30 this morning. after about a four hour train ride we arrived in stuttgart.

anytime i’ve told a german we were going to stuttgart they’ve said “why?” as allison said, it’s like going on vacation to lubbock (sorry aunt di!)

well, the truth is we are here for a conference called FMX. it’s a annual event help here in stuttgart. i will admit it’s not really my thing, but some of it is pretty interesting. even so, it’s a nice final trip to just relax and enjoy germany. you can read a little more about FMX down there. enjoy.

i even got this sweet badge!

this boy looked just like gavin. we stalked him for a bit, then i decided i would just ask to take a picture with him. it was strange how much he reminded me of you, gavin! you have a german twin!

we had a group dinner tonight at a traditional german restaurant. marissa and i decided we were going to drink some beer…. some alcohol free beer, that is. AIB was buying and we thought, hey! let’s just try this… (mind you, i’ve never had a sip of alcohol in my life, so i have no idea really what to expect.) even though it was alcohol free is still tasted AWFUL…. like almost the worst thing i’ve ever drank. so no worries on that front, i won’t be drinking any beer anytime soon!

so we decided to trick the boys and see if they could tell it was nonalcoholic beer…. they couldn’t. they thought they were all cool drinking more beer… bahaha! silly boys.

breaking news -> i painted my nails. “ogre the top blue” from opi…. it’s allison’s… but she let me borrow it. i love it! it’s a great color! if there’s one thing i truly love, it’s painting my nails. i love finding a color that suits my mood and catches people’s eye. makes my day every time!

today was an early day. we met at the hauptbahnhof at 8:15 to catch a train to our “day excursion” adventure. we were taking a train to a tiny medieval town, then a rhein river boat cruise along the river to another small town with one of the oldest remaining castles in germany.

the riverboat cruise was lovely besides the wind factor. us girls (and donna) sat up on the top sunning, while trying not to be blown away by the chilly wind.

once we arrived to marksburg we ate lunch and then hiked to up to the castle.

this hike was MUCH MUCH better than our first castle hike (remember that one? it was the video where i was PANTING like a dog… yeah…. that one) Well ,this one was a lot shorter and less steep than dragonfels. whew!

the castle was actually a “legit” castle. it is over 800 years old, and one of the only castle left still preserved from the war.

a little building dating back to the 1300s. crazy.

marksburg castle!

river scenery.

another castle along the river.

there it is!

typical.

thanks for reading! sorry it’s taken me so long to post!

//preface. so listen, allison harbin said my blog has been “slackin” and i agree. i  am terribly sorry about this mishap. it just seems after 103 days of blogging i’m not sure exactly what else to say. the days are getting longer and not all that exciting. but really, school has actually consumed my days lately. with final projects due, we had to do some work. other than school, it’s just been relaxing and stayin in bonn. THUS, not too much to blog about. i guess i could give you a play by play of the days. wake up at an unproper hour. eat shoko müsli. play on the internet. lay in the sun. listen to nelo. go into bonn. eat dinner. repeat. //end preface

today is sunday. the day of rest, so i wake up at 7:30, of course. oh well.

i decided to take advantage of that time and do some soul searching. i made a pot of coffee, took a blanket and sat out side for awhile. then decided to come in and drink some more coffee while being productive.

this song makes me HAppy.

brandon heath is one of my new favorite artist. this song is beautiful, and very encouraging. you should listen to it. since i’m such a nice girl… i even linked it ^up there for you.  here are some of the lyrics. yes yes. enjoy!

Comfortable, don’t get comfortable.
I am gonna’ move this mountain then I’m gonna move you in.

Yesterday, this is not yesterday.
You were standing on my shoulders now; you’re standing on the edge.
You’ve been looking for a sign all this time.

I am gonna show you what I mean
I am gonna love like you’ve never seen
You are gonna live like you used to dream
This is your new song

So afraid but you don’t have to be afraid
Even if you make mistakes
You know that I’ll remain
You’ve been looking for a sign all this time.
If you seek you’ll find me every time.

Can you feel the call of love?
Is it moving you to be a child of God of love?
Is it reaching you?
It’s everywhere the call of love.

this morning while i was being super productive… i posted some new logo work on my website. (click here) this is a logo contest for the ideas challenge at tx a&m university. they needed a new look, so i submitted a design and i won! yay! it will be cool to have my logo at a&m even after i leave… plus i won 100 bucks aka NEW SHOES FOR THA SUMMERRR.

this is what i looked like when i woke up at 7 this morning. my hair was a MESS. not sure exactly how that happened. i thought it was a good look, right?

we wore our lovely t-shirt marissa’s miimii got for us! we thought it was only appropriate since we where headed to a barbecue… texas style.

//random-thought// i’m going to miss seeing this on the side of my facebook. good ole’ german flag. although i’m NOT going to miss google in german.

farewell barbecue

aib (our school) put on a “farewell barbecue” for all of us students. it was pretty lovely! aib has been really good about coordinating events and what not for us.

here are some pics from our shin-dig.

nom nom nomz.

my host sister and brother came to eat with us! fun!

the viz kids! (plus one random LMU kid…?)

our favorite’s gouda. hahaha.

my favorite girls.

i hope this blog was better than my last few blog posts! (cough, allison)

PS**there are a lot of links hidden in this post, be sure to click them… it’s like an easter egg hunt! good luck!

what a relaxing day!

slept till around 11:30, laid in bed for awhile, ate some breakfast/lunch.

sunned with rissa & allison.

later we went into town. i wanted to buy like 5 different things… don’t worry mom, i didn’t buy ONE SINGLE THING. (even though i REALLY wanted to)

then we met up with donna, did some more shopping. grabbed dinner and then got ice cream.

overall a really nice relaxing day. living the life… the sweet life.

day 1-0-0. day one-zero-zero. what a big day!

& donna came to germany today… yessssss.

how lovely! i’ve missed her.

(sorry i know this blog is awful. i’m tired and busy working away on my project.)

[april 29]

today (friday) I FINISHED MY CLASSES.

like… all of them… they are done. yay!

so all i have to do now is travel to stuttgart, sleep, pack and finish seeing all of europe. whew. tough life.

here is my final studio project… well i say “final” but i’m still working on it. (or would like to, maybe that’s a good project for the 13 hour plane ride home)

in other news….

rachel, marissa, allison, and myself had a girls night tonight. we made gnocchi with homemade tomato sauce. i must say it turned out INCREDIBLY well, especially since we had no idea what we were doing.

nom nom.

going to sleep in tomorrow since school is over, then hang out with momma donna (donna is my graphic’s teacher from tx a&m whom i cherish!)

that is all for now, going to relax and celebrate the end of the week!

see you all SOON. like 9 days. get excited.