Arrived back in the US on Sunday afternoon. My flight was a whole half hour early, which is always a nice surprise. I got back to campus and into my room with no problems, and collected the critical things I really need right now from Stu's to hold me over until I can con someone with a car into helping me move the rest of it.

I started work the next morning; needless to say, it was a long day. I had woken up at 5:30 due to jetlag (at least I slept though the night...), and ended up staying at work longer than I intended, especially considering I had to make a run after work to g'eagle since I had no food. By the time I was on my way to g'eagle I had a huge headache, which made grocery shopping even less fun than it normally is. By the time I got back to my room I barely had the energy to put away the groceries before collapsing into bed.

I hope to update about my trip soon, but right now isn't really the time (I've been up since 5:30AM, due to jetlag, and I have to be at work soon). Look for an entry this week, hopefully, highlighting the past three weeks of bumming around Eastern Europe. Until then, here are a few of the pictures I took:

Charlie, Uncle Bill, and my Dad (Maastricht, Netherlands)


Stained glass in St. Stephen's Cathedral (Budapest, Hungary)


St. Stephen's at night (Budapest, Hungary)


View of parliament from Buda Castle (Budapest, Hungary)


Ljubjana, Slovenia


Church on the island of Lake Bled (Bled, Slovenia)


Lake Bled, with a view of the Julian Alps (Bled, Slovenia)

Arrived in Budapest yesterday. Prague was absolutely gorgeous- the architecture is amazing. The food and wine is good and cheap, a dangerous combination. Our little Opal rental car is reliable, but lacking power. Sort of takes the fun out of driving on the Autobahn.

From here it's onto Slovakia before heading back to Germany via Austria.

I hope you're all staying out of trouble. Email me or comment and tell me what you're up to- I'll be checking email sporadically for the rest of my trip.

Official change to summer plans:

I'm not going back to California. After finals are over, I leave for a 3 week trip to Eastern Europe, and then return to Pittsburgh to work for Red Team for the remainder of the summer. I apologize to everyone I promised I'd see this summer, but working on this project is an opportunity that I couldn't refuse (especially when the alternative involves spoiled little girls and summer camp food).

I just lived through 4 exams in the past 3 days. I've got a couple of nights to recuperate, and then it's time to start studying for finals, which begin next week.

♥

I decided I don't really feel like updating too specifically.

Long story short: Carnival was hectic, but fun. Driving through Pittsburgh sitting on top of buggies hanging halfway out the trunk of a camry was an interesting experience. Saturday night was pretty messed up due to a drunken fight and an unlikely escort back to my dorm. If you want to know more, you'll just have to ask me yourself. Now it's time to sleep, if I want to have any chance of being coherent tomorrow- I seem to have been lacking that quality for a few days now.

It's been a crazy week.

Last night was insane. I'm still trying to sort everything that happened out...

No time to update, really- I have to help tear down the booth in a few minutes. I just figured I'd let you know I'm still alive and hopefully I'll update about the whole ordeal later tonight, if I get my work done at a reasonable hour.

We're going to California :-D :-D :-D

Prize for winning the ASME Region V Design Contest: A trip to Anaheim, CA, to compete on the National level at the 2004 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition next November.

I'll hopefully get a chance to write about my trip later tonight when I get this lab report done.