Day 1--Spring Break

To update you all on the Buck's game, BOSTON WON!

It's snowing here in the middle west and I can't help but to look forward to my move to North Carolina.

So, the infamous Byrne family St.Patrick's Day party was cut small this year. The basement was louder than ever, stuffed with my friends, some had exchange students as well.

It is really great to see the funny things they do, like dare each other to drink root beer because they don't like it. A photo of the German exchange students at the party.

So, the guy laying across everyone is Sebastian. Before they all arrived, Mike, his exchange partner, started to call him "Sea Bass" when he would talk about him to us Americans. When he found out that Mike was calling him Sea Bass, he didn't particularly like the name. However, on the day of the party, we were watching Me Myself & Irene. He happened to walk in just as a character was referring to another as SeaBass. Though his liking for the name has not changed, we all got a laugh out of it.

Our teacher has really booked our schedule full. And most of us seniors have created quite a few fill-ins to take up the rest of our free time. The weekend schedule is as follows:

Friday (today): Bake & Decorate easter cookies at Dan's house, party at Mike's, and somewhere decorate easter eggs.

Saturday: 7am train to the city of Chicago, 9-12 at the Field Museum, Lunch at a chicago pizza place, Shopping on Michigan Ave., dinner hopefully at the Artist Cafe, train home at 8pm.

Sunday: rest, Easter Dinner with Sarah's family.

Monday: meet at 7 for a flight to washington d.c.

--a photo of the dogs in the SPRING snow--

---and that is where i'll leave you for today---

The First Week

Things started off a bit quiet. More so than I had expected. However, over the course of the past week Karen and I have definately broken the ice and become more comfortable with communicating with each other. We have also become more comfortable with our inability to sometimes communicate with each other. Things are going quite well.
Tonight we are going to the Gymnastics Factory to burn off some extra energy. Friday night is always a lovely time to burn off the burst of weekend energy, because I don't intend on using much of it. If I forget my camera, the place has lots of trampolines, foam pits, bars, rings, and so on. It should be fun.
Tomorrow night we are going to the Milwaukee Buck's game.
-more later-

First Weekend

Karen arrived Friday afternoon. They were forced to wait at beautiful O'Hare Airport for four hours until the bus could pick them up. A few of us students went down to the Airport to greet them. On the ride back I couldn't help but think of America as from the mind of a foreigner. It is big. We like big things. Our cars are huge. Stores are open everyday of the week (in Germany stores must be closed on Sundays, by law...what a brilliant concept, to give people a break). American consumption is nonstop.
Yesterday we all went to Chicago, the cold and windy city, for an outdoor tour of the architectural history of the city. We walked many miles in the cold. The Germans were troopers. It is not nearly as cold in Germany as it is here this time of year, or ever for that matter. Then we went to the aquarium for an hour of wandering. I thought the Shedd had more interesting architecture inside. Nope. It is quite simple and boring. But enjoyable nonetheless.
Today...a day of rest. And chocolate chip pancakes.
Later.