August 9th-10th, 2011

Here I am sitting in the London Airport Admirals Club counting down the hours until I head home to Texas Soil! I cannot wait and the anticipation is killing me! Yesterday was our last day in Munich and that day consisted of visiting Dachau, a concentration work camp. We spent a total of three hours there and that was way too long. We had a guided tour around the entire facility and then watched a documentary movie. The prison on the camp grounds along with the main building are both original buildings but the sleeping bunkers were burned down after liberation because of all the diseases in them. They have re-built two bunkers to create the effect and understanding of this camp and the hell these prisoners went through. Dachau was the first concentration camp and was also the camp that the others were modeled after. It hosted the more intelligent and threatening prisoners that Hitler wanted removed so his authority wasn't threatened. Over all the camp was educational but nonetheless something I will probably not do again solely because how emotionally draining it is. One of the most baffling parts of the camp was the amount of children running around that the tourist brought. I think it is sick to have children around those pictures without being able to comprehend the history behind it.

Following the camp we headed back to do some last bit of souvenir shopping and to pack all of our crap up for the last time!!! Yay! We met at 7 that night for a fabulous last night at the Hofbrauhaus. This was so much fun! There was live German music and dancing and a lot of liters of beer were consumed. I even got my professor to do some German dancing with all of us! We had such a great time letting loose on the last night!

This morning was rough, to say the least. We had to get up at 6 to finish packing and get to the airport. This morning was also entertaining! Caitlin, Molly, and I all took the “cab” to the Airport but it ended up being a hatch back (ew) Mercedes Benz. Hey, we will take that! We got all of our bags jam packed in and headed to the airport, which would take 45 minutes. Well, about 30 minutes into the ride I got ‘motion sickness’ if you will (I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that we had a bunch of beer the night before). Well the sweet cab driver pulled out a plastic bag for me to throw up in and I let loose in it. The only problem was that it had a hole in it and it started leaking all over my white pants and in the car. Then I proceed to open the window and let the bag hang out the window while the cab driver is cussing at me. Oh joy. I finally decide to let the bag go on the Autobahn after a good 30 seconds leaving the entire side of the Mercedes Benz covered in- well you got it. We finally made it to the airport and he charged us 15 dollars more for the disgusting mess we made and we went on our merry way.

Then there was check-in: measured in kilograms. And well known enough I was 6 kilograms over. We were allowed 32 and I was at 36 which means I was about twelve pounds over. You should have seen Molly jumping on top of my suitcase after moving the heaving things from one bag to another and trying to get my big suitcase to close again. Finally, I was on my way and thank goodness because I was losing my patience.

I also wanted to share the wonderful story of getting Molly into the Admirals club for American. We got to the Munich airport about 2 ½ hours early and that was after security and customs. So we decided to see if I could get her into the club even without proof of that my grandparents were gold members; because if you are a gold member you are allowed one guest who isn’t flying first class. Well we get up to the club and the guy working the desk is already laughing at us because we were there so early. Then he proceeds to find out Molly isn’t first class. So I ask if he wouldn’t mind letting her in as long as she didn’t eat anything. Then he says “well only if you show me a big smile.” So I did so and then he winked at me and our wish was his command. It’s amazing what being a girl can get you.

So now here I am in London and I will be sure to wrap things up with one last blog when I get home!