I'm no long in Germany but I'm still finishing.

This is way after I've left and I've already started a new semester at Texas A&M.


Day 81, 4/11/2010

Well I’m more than a month behind and the trip is over. Sean and I have already gone to Rome and everything. So I guess now would be a good time to finish my blog before the summer stupor erases everything from my brain.
So the final day in Berlin was spent going to the Jewish museum for a few hours before we had to catch our train to get back to Bonn. We started the day like the others with getting up getting ready except today included packing. We headed out after breakfast and caught the usual train to the Hauptbahnhof to get our stuff in a locker. After that we headed toward the Jewish museum. This was a very cool museum mostly because of the architecture. This is one of the first modern architecture buildings I learned about in school when I was still in the architecture program. It is an incredibly interesting building. It’s shaped very similar to a lightning bolt. I really liked the reason the building was built. It was just incredibly interesting. Be took a map and basically made the building into areas where Jews lived and every place that there is a window is a place on the map that there were Jews living on the map. After we had our tour of the most interesting parts of the architecture they allowed us to walk through the museum. Sadly, I only made it through the top floor before we had to leave. I didn’t learn much in this place except that Jews have always been on the outs in Germany. It doesn’t really make since why however. I didn’t really find a reason. Well after that I pretty much had to rush out of the place because it was already past the time they told us to meet. Allie and Lisa found me on their way out and told me. So we headed out and I rushed down to the book store as fast as I could to see if there were any books that I wanted or that mom might want. I found one but I didn’t have time at the moment to find a museum guide which is what I usually get at these places. So I went back out to meet up with the ground and they decided they wanted to check out the shop. So, as they headed in I turned around and headed back in to see if there was a guide. I ended up asking the desk lady if there was a good one and she pointed me toward a few books. I purchased what I wanted then headed out to go with everyone else to head to the train station. Yet, again I think I was a little slow getting outside. So we walked back to the closest train stop to get to the Hauptbahnhof. Then when we got there we grabbed some food again before we needed to catch out train to head out for Bonn. This we another long train ride back. And again I ended up next to Trisha, not by choice. So I had to listen to her for a while. Then finally she put on her ear phones and I didn’t have to listen to her for a while. Sadly, unlike on the trip there I wasn’t able to use a plug in on the way to work on my computer. This time they didn’t have any because we were on a different kind of train so I ended up just reading and talking to the others till we were back in Bonn. It was a long train ride and not exactly fun. By this time all the guys in Germany have about driven me nuts. Finally we got back to Bonn and we all headed home in our separate ways. I took the usual underground train back home to my host house. Then off to bed for school the next day.


Day 82, 4/12/2010

This was just a work day. For working in studio we were going to be working all day long pretty much. At this point I was getting fairly irritated with my partner in the final project because he basically didn’t want to do anything and I needed him to do a little bit of stuff in order to get this project done and a few other thing s that weren’t required but were needed in order to get the top grade in the class. I just wanted an A. But every time I would mention for him to fix something he would tell me that it wasn’t necessary and I just wanted to slap him and say “YES IT IS!!!!” But I held my tongue and didn’t say anything. I wish I had but he just didn’t want to do any more than the minimum and he wouldn’t do any more. So we just worked for the day and I stayed up late yet again to get more and more thing done. I was getting slightly panicky at this moment because it was getting close to the end and we weren’t going to have much time left of finish things. So I worked until late like I did on most of the other nights then sleep of course.


Day 83, 4/13/2010

This was our first day of the Editing Workshop it wasn’t meant to be long one it was only going to last for the entire morning on this first day. So we got there ridiculously early that next day, to start this workshop. I decided to actually try to pay attention and work for what she was trying to teach us but I just couldn’t and I worked on my own computer at the back of the class for the entire workshop. She was trying to teach us Final Cut Pro and the problem is that it only comes on a Mac so the whole workshop was kinda useless for me. So, I was ok with not listening. I just worked. After the workshop we all went to find some lunch. Right after that we headed back to the AIB for our Game History class. Sadly, after this day I think it’s the last one that actually follows the schedule that I have. There were several days that were changed so I can’t exactly say anything about the next two weeks except on the days that we didn’t go to school. There were several days that we went on an excursion instead like other days. I will relate what I remember but for the most part the last part of the week was exculsivly just school. Anyway after game history we worked for the rest of the afternoon. Some people went home while most of us stayed at the school to work. I stayed until fairly late every day this week.


Day 84, 4/14/2010

Yet another day of working on the editing class this time I went to the computer at the front of the class and tried to learn more but still I couldn’t concentrate I actually ended up going to sleep for part of it. I felt kind of bad because it was right next to her. After that I just got up and went back to my computer at the back. At the end of class we finally had the time to get our filming for the videography class off onto the computer. Funny enough we ended up having more film than anyone else in the class so it took a long time to get the film off the tape and onto the computer. After that, Colton, my partner, was finally able to get started on the compositing. Pretty much the rest of the day was just spent working just like the next two. After lunch however we had two blocks of Game history. Then we worked for the rest of the day.


Day 85, 4/15/2010

This was the third day of working and second to last day of the workshop. This time the day started with our studio class so that the professors could get an update on what we were doing for our projects and so they could give us some feedback.

Well I knew that once summer started that I would have a hard time continuing this thing till the end. I suppose I should try to finish soon before all the information is sucked out of my brain. It’s near the end of July now and I’ve been home for nearly 2 months. I only have another month left here in San angelo before I go back to school I know for a fact that once school starts I really won’t have time to finish this so here I go again to push to finish. I don’t really remember all the differences in the schedule so I won’t be able to give much detail on days that were just work days…

So to continue with this day, I remember going to class and it was a feedback and work day. I think they just walked around the room again in the morning. We didn’t do much except try to get work done. That afternoon was the editing workshop. I think this was the day my partner didn’t show up. By this point Colton was driving me crazy because he wouldn’t do anything but the bare minimum. So anyway I had to figure out how to work the program and get the video to our teacher before the end of the day because if I remember right she had canceled our final class. I don’t remember. After that I went home for the day. Like all the other days till the end of the project I worked till I went to sleep.


Day 86, 4/16/2010

This day according to the schedule we had another class of editing. I’m pretty sure I skipped that morning because I didn’t want to get up. Again I don’t remember. I know I worked but that’s it.


Day 87, 4/17/2010

This was Saturday. I know I didn’t go anywhere this weekend but I still don’t know what’s going on. I’m pretty sure I slept late I don’t know. I worked on my homework of course other than that I don’t remember what I did. It’s possible that I went somewhere but I don’t remember. I’m mostly sure that I just worked and stayed home.


Day 88, 4/18/2010

Sunday same as Saturday.


Day 89, 4/19/2010

This was a work day. We had studio like usual and worked on our projects. I worked on the same things, trying to get Mayra’s animation finished. I think this was the day that I didn’t realize we had class in the morning and I ended up sleeping all morning. Well I showed up half way through the day and worked on getting my project finished again. Went home and went to bed after doing the usual for the day.


Day 90, 4/20/2010

This was our final day of Game History, which was sad because it was one of the best classes I’ve had. I learned so much from that class. I just hope I can retain it. The next game class would actually be a test rather than a class. After that of course we had studio for the rest of the day and of course we worked and had our review.


Day 91, 4/21/2010

Today was one of our break days. Today was one of the planned trips from the AIB. They had a boat ride down the Rhine planned for us. The horrible thing that wasn’t planned was the weather. It was the coldest and wettest of the last two weeks. We all bundled up and met Ariane at the train station to head to the town that we would be heading out of on the boat. We got there and it was incredibly cold. When we got off the train we first decided to go up to one of the small castles up on a hill because we had some time before the boat was to come. After we got up there we took some pictures and messed around a bit. Then, we went down to the dock to wait for the boat. People kept milling about waiting and I just listened to people talk. Finally the boat came and we headed outside to go down the river. That only last for about 20 mins of us being outside. This was also about the time that Ariane pulled out these wafer snacks to give to everyone. It was very interesting because they had stickers in them. And about 5 mins after that someone got the idea to start sticking those stickers to Trisha's back. At this point I was so mad at Trisha that I didn't say anything. I even participated. By the time we were done with the boat trip she was covered in stickers all over her back. What was funny is that she didn't even notice. After that most of the group headed down stairs to be inside out of the cold. I stayed outside with a few other people mostly so I could get some good pictures of the castles that we would be passing on this trip. It was awesome. After we passed all the best ones Me and the guys also headed inside. After going inside we just sat and hung out. It was fun. Kevin did some magic card tricks and we played with some of the cards and talked till the end of the ride. After that we were near a castle called Marksburg. That was our next stop. It is the only castle still left standing in its original form instead of being rebuilt. It was one of the best defended castles of the area which is why it was never conquered and torn down. The other reason for its continued existence is that this place was continuously owned by attentive owners, including, I think, one of the popes. It was a very interesting place because I got to see some of the architecture that went into building this place and it was just really neat to be in a place that is original and unchanged. After that we went to the gift store and I just got a squished coin they didn't really have any books. After that We headed to the train station the head back to Bonn and home. Again like so many other times I ended up sitting next to Trisha even though I didn't want to. When we got back I headed home and worked on homework till bed.