Europe is so friggin expensive
because everything here is 1.25 times the price you think it is . . .
So this weekend I went to Robocup in Bremen and visited a few people from MIT including Andrew, Cindy, and Bob. The Robocup was friggin awesome. The MIT team had built 4 little . . . 3/4 ft tall, 6in diam ish . . . robots. They ran around a little soccer field and played with the other teams!! well, sometimes they did. They did really awesomely (is that a word?), though, considering they were mostly undergrads in an 8 month old extracurricular robotics club against grad students on 5 year old teams formed through classes . . . and most teams don't even compete in their first year! MIT student continue to amaze me. I think that when we set our minds to something, it gets done! (it's because we're trained to run without sleep, I think.) Anyway, it was lots of fun, and I got my dinner paid for a few times, because we mostly went out with the team, and they paid (geez loueez, they were sponsered by HP, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and I think 2 different departments and both MIT and Harvard.). Bremen was cool. Mostly we had authentic german food on the river and soberly enjoyed ourselves because the team was on probation for something nearly all of them didn't do in Georgia . . . but you know I had to buy a beer just to pick on them . . .
I got back on Saturday afternoon, and went out to watch the US not suck it up in soccer! It was great! a friend of mine from MIT brought out an American flag and started waving it around, and I feared for his life. But he turned out fine. At least I think he did . . . I can't say I've seen him in the past 36 hours . . .
Sunday I got up a little early (it was too early, and I still missed the first train) and hopped a train with Neel to Koblenz and then down to Sankt Goar. Koblenz was cool. we walked around there for a bit and looked down the Rhein and at all the cool architecture. We wished it wasn't so hot, thought. We then went on down to Sankt Goar and walked up a mountain to see a castle! It was really cool. It was however, very sad that by the time we got all the way up there they had just closed. Apparently you could run around inside of it. It was really just what remained of the castle. Part of it was destroyed way back when (I don't remember--it was a long time ago). We then went to a german restaurant and had some nice white wine from the area. It was great and the food was, too! Then we hopped back on a train, rode all the way back to Aachen, I got home, and fell down on my bed. whew. That was tiring.
Today I went to the post office, and if you get a post card from me, you should be very happy, because it costs a whole euro to send a postcard! I don't even know how long it will take, either. My dad was a little worried that I would fall in love over here and end up staying, but I don't really think that's going to be a problem. It just seems so cut off here. Maybe it's my american point of view, but it's terribly frustrating when it costs $1.25 to send a postcard, around 5$ for an hour long phone call, .29 euro/min for any sort of cell phone convo or a dollar if you've got an american plan. I don't understand why everything is so expensive. It seems like it would be much easier to live in America and be calling europe every now and then but America most of the time instead of the other way around.
I think that's all for today. I'll put pictures up sometime, I swear
Kendall
Music: I've got this playlist "boyz boyz" that I listened to for most of the Bremen trip. It's got all male (I think) rock bands in it like Jack's Manequin, 3EB, Mollys Yes, Stroke 9, JEW, The Killers, Eve 6. For the Sankt Goar trip, mostly the Pixies and Modest Mouse--float on! Right now it's Modest Mouse, Panic! At the Disco, Mollys Yes, and O-zone. heh
So this weekend I went to Robocup in Bremen and visited a few people from MIT including Andrew, Cindy, and Bob. The Robocup was friggin awesome. The MIT team had built 4 little . . . 3/4 ft tall, 6in diam ish . . . robots. They ran around a little soccer field and played with the other teams!! well, sometimes they did. They did really awesomely (is that a word?), though, considering they were mostly undergrads in an 8 month old extracurricular robotics club against grad students on 5 year old teams formed through classes . . . and most teams don't even compete in their first year! MIT student continue to amaze me. I think that when we set our minds to something, it gets done! (it's because we're trained to run without sleep, I think.) Anyway, it was lots of fun, and I got my dinner paid for a few times, because we mostly went out with the team, and they paid (geez loueez, they were sponsered by HP, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and I think 2 different departments and both MIT and Harvard.). Bremen was cool. Mostly we had authentic german food on the river and soberly enjoyed ourselves because the team was on probation for something nearly all of them didn't do in Georgia . . . but you know I had to buy a beer just to pick on them . . .
I got back on Saturday afternoon, and went out to watch the US not suck it up in soccer! It was great! a friend of mine from MIT brought out an American flag and started waving it around, and I feared for his life. But he turned out fine. At least I think he did . . . I can't say I've seen him in the past 36 hours . . .
Sunday I got up a little early (it was too early, and I still missed the first train) and hopped a train with Neel to Koblenz and then down to Sankt Goar. Koblenz was cool. we walked around there for a bit and looked down the Rhein and at all the cool architecture. We wished it wasn't so hot, thought. We then went on down to Sankt Goar and walked up a mountain to see a castle! It was really cool. It was however, very sad that by the time we got all the way up there they had just closed. Apparently you could run around inside of it. It was really just what remained of the castle. Part of it was destroyed way back when (I don't remember--it was a long time ago). We then went to a german restaurant and had some nice white wine from the area. It was great and the food was, too! Then we hopped back on a train, rode all the way back to Aachen, I got home, and fell down on my bed. whew. That was tiring.
Today I went to the post office, and if you get a post card from me, you should be very happy, because it costs a whole euro to send a postcard! I don't even know how long it will take, either. My dad was a little worried that I would fall in love over here and end up staying, but I don't really think that's going to be a problem. It just seems so cut off here. Maybe it's my american point of view, but it's terribly frustrating when it costs $1.25 to send a postcard, around 5$ for an hour long phone call, .29 euro/min for any sort of cell phone convo or a dollar if you've got an american plan. I don't understand why everything is so expensive. It seems like it would be much easier to live in America and be calling europe every now and then but America most of the time instead of the other way around.
I think that's all for today. I'll put pictures up sometime, I swear
Kendall
Music: I've got this playlist "boyz boyz" that I listened to for most of the Bremen trip. It's got all male (I think) rock bands in it like Jack's Manequin, 3EB, Mollys Yes, Stroke 9, JEW, The Killers, Eve 6. For the Sankt Goar trip, mostly the Pixies and Modest Mouse--float on! Right now it's Modest Mouse, Panic! At the Disco, Mollys Yes, and O-zone. heh
posted by Kendall @ 9:21 AM
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