Making Music in Slavakia

http://www.badongo.com/playlist/121800

here you can hear Texas A&M University Women's Chorus' Concert in Bojnice Castle in Slavakia!

It was such an amazing concert, I'm so glad someone recorded it! All of our concerts where so wonderful because of the amazing places we sang, but this concert i feel was our best because everything just worked and melded. Our softs were soft and our louds were not too loud (which might be because our choir was only 40 girls instead of the regular 70).

It is a wonder to think that we sang a full concert, with no intermission, after hiking the whole day! Every one of us went for a 2 hour hike through the gold and silver mines in Banska Stiavanice (the small town we stayed in). Half way through the concert we were dropping like flies. I think we had a record 3 girls almost faint and sit down during a song and i know that I almost fainted just before my solo in song #9, "Didn' my Lord Deliver Daniel" .

I'm pretty sure that everyone in the room cried during the song "Out of the Morning" the end just faded into the corners of the castle room....

Anyway, I hope you enjoy our concert :-)

Rockin' Interlaken (Switzerland!)

Interlaken, Switzerland 2009!!!

The forcast for this weekend was aweful! The weathermen said that there was 60% chance of rain all three days we were going to be in the Alps, and all the extreme sports were supposed to be cancelled.... that was until the weather heard that the Fightin' Texas Aggies were invading Switzerland and, naturally, the clouds decided to change their ways! The weather this weekend was amazing! There were a few light showers but only during our naps :-)

The first day we were there the weather was ideal for Paragliding, so I jumped off a mountain and flew over the valley below with a very experienced pilot :-) and yeah... as you can see in the pictures... i was a little excited...

Here are views from the ski that I took as I was gliding to the ground.

The second day were were there, a group of us went hiking to a small town in the mountains called Linderbauchen ... or something sounding like that? It was so beautiful! There were like 8 waterfalls comming out of the side of the mountains and a gorgeous view of the glacier and snow capped mountains in the distance. We hiked to Trummelbach Falls which was really neat! Basically they have an elevator that goes into the mountain (into a cave) where they have viewing decks of about 10 different waterfalls inside the cliffs ... its really neat! (the 11th picture is one of the falls)
Sunday, a couple of us rented scooters and rode around Interlaken to see the lakes and went back into the mountain to that little town Linderbauchen and went past it closer to the mountains till the road ended. What a sight!! it was pretty amazing! We had a fun time on those scooters... so much fun that I ran out of gas on the way down -lol - luckily we were really close to a gas station and I could coast to the pump!

We stayed at Balmer's Hostel which seemed to be the place to hang out because we met like two other Texas A&M groups staying there at the same time as us! what a small world!!!

Well I'm on to study for my finals and then I'm heading back to Houston on Friday. I'm sad to be leaving this amazing weather -lately though, its been about 80 in the heat of the day, which actually is really aweful because they dont have A/C anywhere on the continent... so i'm excited to get back to Air Conditioned buildings! ... and mexican food and my puppy :-) llol and my family

Jennifer

When in Rome...

Howdy! so this weekend I went to Rome!! I had an amazing time seeing all the old stuff there! After our unbearable 10 hour sleeper train to Rome (note to all, never, ever, offer to take the top bunk! just say no!) we headed to our hotel, that was really a glorified hostel (no A/C) we headed out to see the long awaited Colesseum and Roman Forum! We found a column with a Texas A&M sign carved into it!!! A-Whoop!

Here is Amanda and Me outside the Colesseum

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The group of us found this Texas A&M symbol carved into one of the columns at the collesseum and had to show our pride -class of 2010 Whoop!

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Here is the Roman Forum from the top of a hill...it was really neat and... old...

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some more old stuff

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Here is the Roman Capital building!

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Here is one of the Ceasars!! I think he wants to ask a question and is raising his hand?

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Best Gelato in Italy!!!
I got Carmel, Vanila Merangue, and Creme Gelato -yum yum!!

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Trevi Fountain!!!!!!

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Making a wish!!

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Spanish Steps! I can't believe we were there!! Oh and it kinda looked smaller than I was expecting... its really just he space between two buildings that lead up to another building... lol but it was still pretty neat to sit on it. There were a lot of cops around and they would not let you eat or drink on the steps so we moved on to the park at the top of the hill.

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Vatican city!! Here is St. Peter's Square and Basilica in the back ground.

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Here is the Sistine Chapel (i sneaked a picture, you'll have to tilt your head a little to fully enjoy it) We got yelled at several times for trying to take pictures of it, but i'm not ashamed, they turned out pretty well :-)

Here is an amazing stair case in the Vatican Museum! it reminded me of a curly fries (i miss american food!)

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Inside St. Peter's basilica! Just to let you know how tall this is... see the people on the far end to the left of the picture, yeah those dots are people!! Oh man it was amazing!! Of all the churches that I have seen in Europe -and its a LOT!- the Vatican definately puts them in their place! so much marbel and relics... We also got to go underneath to the tombs of the popes... It was pretty neat!

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Swiss Guard -arent they cute??!!

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Night trip to the Colesseum, I got to pass judgement on Ryan for getting us confused with the buss routes... lol jk

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Here is the Pantheon!! Oh man it was beautiful!!! Just think, its been there for over 2,000 years! It was built by the Romans for all of their gods, and was converted to be a monument for God. The dome is amazing and is the only window in the place...

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This is Raphael's tomb(painter, sculptor and architect) in the Pantheon -pretty neat huh?


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Outside the Pantheon... i think the obalisk was also in Angels and Demonds movie


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inside the Pantheon!! Isnt it amazing!!! the whole in the rough was soooo big! I dont think you can really tell in this picture but yeah amazing!

oh man i loved Rome! The pizza was amaaaazing! so was the spagetti and Gelato. We saw a lot in 3 days and i'm starting to be tired of seeing old things, but that didnt make rome any less amazing for me. We went shopping in the Vatican the last day were were there and I got some Italian shoes :-) The sleeper train back wasnt as bad as the first one, but then again I got the bottom bunk so I was actually cold instead of sticky hot.

Yay Rome!

Jennifer

Paris IV: Paris!!!

Here is an amazing view from the second deck of the Eiffel Tower! You can see all of the west bank and the Seine River and all the Museums!

The second picture is Place de Concord. This obalisk was placed in the place where the Gillatine once stood. This massive square is where the revolutionaries carried out their revolution, cutting off the heads of all the nobles and even the revolutionaries themselves.

Next is the eiffel tower!!! oh man, its pretty!! I saw it from every angle possible i think!

The fifth picture is where the Musketeers used to hang out! Dartanion, the musketeer really did live here and so did the other three :-) I was really excited when i heard about it! We saw it from our boat tour of Paris.

The last three pictures were taken on our stroll through Paris our first night. And by stroll i really mean hike -b/c our hotel was almost completely outside paris and so we walked along the river to the sights to save on a little money.

It was really neat though because we saw the night life on the river. This was deffinately my favorite part of Paris because it was something you dont get to see at all the touristy sights. Along the river there were little ampitheaters that faced the water adn each one had a different group of parisians hanging out, drinking wine, dancing to different types of music and each had a different age group! It was really neat but i felt like such a tourist walking through stairing with a big american smile on my face...
Here are pictures of Notre Dame at night -first from far away and then up close. Then we walked next door to the Louvre to take a picture with the Texas A&M Flag in front of the glass pyramid! It was really really neat to see it at night!!

What an adventure! This trip to Paris really made me fall in love with the city for all new reasons. I really got to see the everyday Paris, with people lounging on the grass and eating and drinking at night and I got to see how they hang out on friday nights.

Oh! and at 10:30 on friday nights, the cops close down a few streets and thousands of rollerbladers go riding around the city! it was crazy! I got pictures of that too! but how fun -this city is amazing! I'm so glad I got to go!

J'ame le Paris!
Jen

Paris Pictures III: Versailles

Rising early from my bed, Our class traveled from Paris to Chateau de Versailles built by King Louis XIV, the Sun King. When we arrived, the tour guides were on strike so we waited for an hour to be let into the palace. Funny Story, the gate in this first picture was originally made out of solid gold, but misteriously vanished during the revolution. Nepolian eventually refurbished Versailles when he was Emporor (the revolutionaries completely ransacked the place!)
The second picture is the Chapel inside Versailles, this first floor is where the commoners stood, and the second level is where King Louis XIV stood.
The third picture is just to show how gorgeous all the cealings were! All of them were this way, with cherubs and scenes from greek and roman mythology with king Louis some how worked into the picture.


The next pictue is of his bed room. Where his subjects would fight and wait in lines to go in and put his socks on him.

Next is the hall of Mirrors! It was so beautiful and ornate! There were a wall of mirrors for each window along the hall way.

Next is the Queen's room. All together there were 16 princes born in this room! (or something like that) This is also where Marie Antinette (Louis XVI's wife) escaped to the guard room where she was eventually found and brought to the Bastille.

Then we went out into the gaurdens and took a few pictures, we were again low on time because of the strike and did not get to see much of the gaurdens, but we were there to see the fountains turn on! it was really neat!! Versailles was amazing but still... just a house ;-)

ha -Paris! I'm still reeling from the journey
Jen