stories from a survivor of the BC excursion

haha you'll get the title towards the end.

Anyways, on Saturday, Susan planned an excursion for us with the Georgetown students and BCA (=Brethren Colleges Abroad, I think) students. Only Caitlin, Rebecca and Sam and I went out of the BC kids, but it was cool, definitely worth it, especially since everything was free.

We left from IEP at 9 and went on an hour ish bus ride to the Memorial of Alsace in Shirmeck, which was really cool and very well done. It chronicles the story of the Alsace region from the 1800s to now, and shows how the region changed hands from Germany to France multiple times. The most interesting section was definitely the WWII parts, which were really interesting and especially well done because that part was made to look like a battle scene, it was dark and there were [fake] trees and it sounded like you were being bombed. I'm butchering this exhibit, its really cool, a lot better than how I describe it. If you find yourself in Alsace with nothing to do for a day, go to Shirmeck lol.

From there we went and got lunch at this really good restaurant. We got a 3 course meal, complete with wine and coffee for free! We started with an entrée, which is like an appetizer plate, and it had grated carrots, beets, some other stuff and terriné, which is sort of similar to paté, I think. I didn't really like it, but oh well. The next course was a beef stew type dish and it was delicious, the beef was all tender and juicy and the sauce was delicious and it came with cabbage (bleh), mashed potatos (yay), a cooked pear (so good), and spaetzle! I love spaetzle, its a type of pasta that's made with egg, flour and water, basically. and its terrible for you because you usually fry it, but its really good. Then we finished with a dessert: some kind of cake with liquor and ice cream. I think it was a rum cake, but I couldn't tell what type of liquor it was. Whatever it was, it was amazing. That is one thing I'll miss about France - the food! haha then again, I do miss american food also... we'll see lol. oh yeah and then at the very end we got coffee or tea (I got café au lait, of course)

And then from there, we moved our massive girths (we all were stuffed) back to the bus to go on a hike. wellllll.... the road was closed. so we went on a scenic route to the same point, but from the back I think. We finally got to the convent where the hike started (Mt. Saint Odile) and looked around there for 30 minutes or so, took some pictures (it was on the side of the mountain overlooking cliffs) and then started our hike. The leader of our hike, Alex, was the leader of the BCA program. He knew the hike well, but we didn't. And he walked fast. The path was in the middle of the forest, covered with snow and ice and we were wearing regular walking shoes and regular clothes (I was in my pea coat, for example). So, obviously, many people fell behind. Well, that would've been fine if there was only one way in and out. Nope, lots of criss crossing paths going every which way. And did we have a map? of course not! That would be silly. Well, we luckily kept up with Alex, mostly by scrambling over rocks and jogging through ice and snow and hoping and praying we didn't fall or slip and break an ankle. Because if we did fall behind, we would've been on our own to find the way back to the bus. And a lot of people were behind and had to figured out their way back. Not to mention we started our hike at 4:30 and didn't finish until after 6, so the sun was starting to set and not everyone was back yet. Basically, it was a coordinator's nightmare, and the setting of a horror movie: dun duh duh dunnnnn: college students lost in the woods in a foreign country at night. And I could tell that's what Alex was thinking too, but he never stopped to wait for anyone, he just kept jogging along, at a quick pace and left people in the dust. Luckily, though, everyone made it back safe and sound and there weren't any broken ankles or really bad falls. They did straggle in for awhile, though, and if I were them, I would've been worried, because being lost in the woods at night is not my idea of fun. It actually could've been a disaster if someone had gotten hurt and couldn't get back to the bus or if someone had wandered off and gotten lost... thank goodness that didn't happen.

Then, with everyone safe on the bus and no one lost in the woods, we headed home. I was exhausted, but it was a fun day with adventures... pics coming soon :)