We're back!

Hi Everyone!

Aniela and I just got back from Europe tonight. I'll be in NJ until the 23rd and then back to Chicago...I'll post pictures soon!

Krakow, Poland

Just a little update...

We're in Krakow for the next couple days. It's a very cool city with an awesome central square with a ton of cafes and restaurants and shops. We went to the salt mines outside the city yesterday. We did a tour that was like 150 meters underground. There's a cathedral, statues, and another chapel all carved out of the salt in the ground.

Today we'll hang around the city center and then tomorrow we'll visit Auschwitz. Then tomorrow night we take a night train to Berlin.

We're in Naples, Italy

So I've been terrible about updating you all. Sorry. We are still alive. :) We're in Naples, Italy right now. It's been really good. We took the train to Sorrento, a smaller town on the coast yesterday and just relaxed by the water. Today we visited Pompei and Vesuvius, which were both really cool. Tomorrow morning, we take the train back to Rome and then fly out to Warsaw, Poland. Then we go to Krakow, then Berlin, then fly out of Munich to New Jersey!

The trip has flown by very quickly. We have had a blast. We loved Cinque Terre, Italy--an area on the coast with five small towns on the Mediterranean. We also loved Rome. We stayed at a great hostel there and met some really fun people who we ended up hanging out with quite a bit. We also got a great tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, went to the Vatican and didn't have to wait in any lines for anything, and ate tons of gelato and pizza.

Sorry this update is short and lame. I'm really tired and my brain is barely functioning enough to write coherent sentences. :)

I love and miss you all! Sorry I haven't been able to post pictures...we usually don't have enough internet time or we can't do that on certain hostel computers. I'll make sure to post some when I get back.

Also, FYI in case anyone was curious, I fly back to Chicago the night of the 23rd...and real life begins! AHH!

Love,

Sarah

Europe with Aniela

Hello All,

So Aniela and I are in Salzburg, Austria right now. We started in Munich and had an awesome time wandering the city, taking a day trip to Neuschwenstein (sp?) and Linderhof castles, going on a free walking tour, and eating lots of good pastries. We arrived in Salzburg last night and have had a great day in the city today. It's an awesome city with cool shops, markets, and cafes. We also visited Mozart's residence and went up this little mountain thing to get an awesome view of the city. We do have a tentative itinerary for the next week or so (the dates given are the dates we are sleeping in that city):

5/23-24: Salzburg
25-26: Vienna
27: night train to Venice
28: Venice, Italy
29-30: Cinque Terre
31-1: Florence
6/2-5: Rome, Italy
6/6-8: Naples/Sorrento, Italy
6/9-11: Warsaw, Poland
6/12-14: Krakow, Poland
6/15-16: Berlin, Germany
6/17: Munich, Germany
6/18: Park Ridge, NJ

This probably will change a bit as far as the exact dates, but this is basically the idea.

Love you all!
Sarah

Pictures of Apartment

Aniela and Holly, 2 of my roommates


Ugly bathroom tile


Living room, looking into the kitchen




My Room



Living Room

I GOT THE JOB!

I GOT THE JOB! YAY! Just to update you all, I got the job I've been looking at and waiting to hear from. It's for an organization called By the Hand Club for Kids. You can look it up online at www.bythehand.org if you want. I will be a "team leader" for 4th graders. In other words, I am assigned a class of 4th grade kids, kind of like a teaching position but it's an after-school program that does a bunch of different kinds of things. It starts around August 1st (I don't have the exact date yet).

I'll be in the Cabrini-Green location right downtown in Chicago. Fortunately, it's a straight shot on the Brown Line from my new apartment! :)

Thanks for your prayers. Love you all!

Life Update

A couple things...first, WE GOT AN APARTMENT! I am living with Aniela and another girl, Holly, next year. They'll both be in grad school in Chicago and we found a place in the North Center neighborhood (kind of near Wrigley Field). It's pretty much official; we're just waiting for our check and stuff to go through. YAY! Everyone needs to come visit! Now begins the VERY long task of repaying everyone for all of the time I've spent at each of your houses sleeping over and eating your food. It's 3 bedrooms and it's right near the brown line which would take me directly to where I will hopefully be working...

And that brings me to my next point. I had the final two interviews for this job at By the Hand Club this week. They went pretty well (I was much happier how the second one went compared to the first, but they were both fine). So hopefully I'll here back from them soon. Thanks for your prayers and I'll keep you updated.