Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Wow! This place could not be more different than Amsterdam! Zach and I arrived in Lauterbrunnen yesterday morning at around 8:30 and took a gondola up to what seemed like a tiny farming community. But, to our joy, we stepped off the gondola and found ourselves in Gimmelwald...the closest thing to Heaven I`ve seen. The Swiss Alps are all around us, there`s not a single cloud in the sky, we are drinking milk straight out of cow utters, the Mountain Hostel is welcoming and homelike, AND all five of us have finally convened to mark the beginning of Brofest Europe. I want to stay here the rest of my life...

Now, it's Switzerland!

After meeting up with Zach Hunter on Wednesday I have had a great time in Amsterdam. Wednesday night, we went to bed at 5:30!...not in the morning, but in the evening...since yesterday we were able to cruise the city as members of a biker gang, visit the Rijksmuseum, have a picnic at Vondelpark, tour the Anne Frank house and become comfortable as true European Navigators. Here are some highlights:

This is the hostel in Vondelpark

I took this illegal picture of Z in front of the secret door in Anne (and Margot) Frank's house

Amsterdam-Centraal Station

Cool Church..not sure of the name

Couple Days in Brugges!

After spending a glorious Saturday morning/afternoon in Seattle with my mom, dad, and little sis I took off for Europe and landed in Amsterdam the next (Sunday) afternoon. On the spur of the moment, I decided to hop on a train and make my way to Brugges, Belgium. I spent two days scouring the city of Brugges and enoying every second of it!

The Brugges bell tower...I climbed 366 stairs to the top!

I met a sheep in the middle of the city...i named him Louis

A little bit of greenery in a town that was lacking

I was in awe of this mural on the second floor of the Chapel of Saint Basil

This is the front side of the Chapel of Saint Basil

"Basilica of the Holy Blood": supposedly the Belgians stole a vial of Christ's blood from Jerusalem in the 12th century and I paid a euro to see it...who knows

One of the many horse-drawn carriages parked in Burg Square

Michelangelo's Madonna and Child in The Church of Our Lady


Today, I met up with Zach Hunter in Amsterdam!!! Stay posted :)

Reality!

This whole adventure is actually becoming real! The Bonderman was on the UW homepage today with a link to the official announcement. So now the whole world knows that I'm a Bonderman Fellow and I am very excited about sharing my passions with those who ask me about my travels...but I kinda enjoyed it when nobody knew :)

I have my first meeting with Brook Kelly on Monday and I'm super excited. By the way, Brook is freakin amazing...the coolest faculty I've met at UW (not to offend anybody else at all, Brook is just that awesome)

More updates will come as necessary.

And I got my camera! Canon Powershot G11...very nice

Gettin Immune..

I just scheduled an appointment with the UW Hall Health Travel clinic to get my immunizations! They asked me for a list of countries I may visit and this is what I said (I definitely said as many countries as I could, just in case)

EUROPE (lots of them) Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, Pakistan??? :), Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan

I'm leaving my options open...

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

I'm currently on the search for a reliable camera that I can take with me on my "yearish-long" exploration. I'm incredibly inexperienced when it comes to photography, so I'm looking for a camera that takes HIGH quality photos, but isn't anything like an SLR (where I actually need to know what I'm doing).

I've narrowed down the selection pool to basically 3 different cameras (I've ranked them according to how much I like them)

1. Canon Powershot G11

2. Canon Powershot S90

3. Panasonic Lumix DMX ZS7

This is a serious decision... who will be my companion for 8+ months?

A New Adventure

I am officially a 2010 Bonderman Fellow!!!!!!! I'm so excited its ridiculous!

For those of you who want to read more about the Bonderman Travel Fellowship, click here!

For those of you who are interested in reading a brief little description about my proposal and the other Bonderman Fellows, click here!

For those of you who want more updates, stay posted :)