"Hey guys, let's bike to Germany."

One of the upsides to being absolutely uncommitted after class: deciding on a whim to bike to another country.

It was about 45 degrees (obviously Fahrenheit) and the sun was just about to set. Seven of us internationals planned a 15-20 km. route through the village of Berg en Dal, hoping to cross the border into Germany and go north for a little bit, then head back west to Nijmegen.

These pictures don't quite do justice to the sunset we caught just outside Berg en Dal, but I hope they give some idea:

And then we arrived in Germany!


And we saw a German gas station! And a German pasture with assorted German cows! And then we turned around.

Nijmegen and its environs are known as being extremely hilly areas (read: not completely and utterly flat). As we whizzed down Berg en Dalseweg on the way out, it looked as if it would be a heck of a climb back up. Little did we know what a climb it would be. God, am I going to have great legs by the time July rolls around.

Italy is booked! Venice for two days, Florence for three, and Roma for four. If you have any suggestions as to what we should do/see, please let me know...I am so overwhelmed by the amount of fantastic art and monuments and ruins and canals out there that I simply can't decide where my touristy priorities should lie.

As for more mundane news, class registration continues to be a disaster. I will be so grateful to return to the normalcy of BC UIS, where at the end of the day, even if they're not the classes you hoped for, you're at least getting credit for something.

And perhaps this seems mundane as well, but I'm actually pretty proud: I went on a 4.5-mile run this afternoon and didn't get lost once.

Time for bed. A big day of grocery shopping, itinerary-creating, important-government-form-submitting, and copying awaits.