Writing at/about the Marina.

Today, sitting in the Marina, looking at the other yachts, looking at ours, the "Ya Munn" i realize how lucky i am to live in such a great state, great city and have a great family. The breeze is only a light ripple along the glassy Tchefuncte river. The palm trees hardly swaying, the yacht bouncing from side to side. People in the marina readying their yachts and sail boats for the afternoon. My mother watching Glenn Beck, im sure. Watching the flags flapp in the wind, i can hear the tall masts of the sail boats slapping their ropes causing an almost "wind chime" sound to reach my ears.

I am typing this, along with finishing my journal about my "Sem Abrd" and its a great place to sit out on the deck that overlooks the marina, and just write - no distractions, just write!

Later on tonight, i will watch American Idol, i love that show - Im pulling for Danny Gokey, Lil Rounds, and Jorge Nunez!

Later- Dan

Semester Abroad ( Sopron, Hungary)

Our first outing was to Sopron, Hungary – Jade had the idea to go there – I had never even heard of it. I can remember that we invited a few friends and randomly told others that we were going, Jade and I thought that it would only be us two … well, in the morning we showed up and there were almost 10 people! Anja, Jade, Daniel, Samouli, Marika, Darren, Quin, Tuba, and another girl from Turkey ( whose name escapes me @ the moment). We left the common room and boarded the bus – bound for the WN Hopbanhof – and arrived safely in Sopron around 9:00 am. When we got there we walked around to find the main square, it was like walking around in communist Russia – there was NO BODY out walking around, and the town was barren – full of rusting cars and deteriorating shops! We finally approached a building that had a sign “tourist Information” so we headed inside – (time appx. 9:45) – when we got inside the shop was closed until 10:00 am – so we waited for a bit until some people came and opened it. It was soo funny, because it was such a dismal day – the clouds were blocking the sun, it was very foggy and very cold, the trees had no leaves and the tips of the branches were covered in frost: (as seen on the left). We then found a neat little coffee shop that was 2 stories and had a beautiful staircase and chandelier. We ate a light breakfast there, took a few pictures and headed to the main square. Sopron, like I've alluded to, is nothing to scream about – we were among 20 other tourists there that day, which is sad- because we were a party of 9! We had wanted to go visit some castles but they were all closed that day, save for one. It was out in the country – we would have to take a bus – but no one spoke Hungarian, so we winged it. We arrived at the bus station and began to ask around in German, Turkish, French, English – and maybe even in Finnish…. We arrived at the castle, we had to walk a ways but finally made it there – ummm, this is the castle ( I remember saying in my head) it was more like a large house. If you took 2 of my houses, this would be the same size – HEY, maybe we should call the Munn home a castle!!! HAHA. We toured the place ( B-O-R-I-N-G) and left. We waited for the next bus and finally hopped on and headed back to Buenos Aires … ( not really, just wanted to make this more interesting ) … when we got back we realized we had about 45 mns until the next train got there – so we ate at a pizza place – I ordered a fanta and a pizza. We were eating and talking and the time FLEW by. We were late and we hadn’t finished, and my white ass wasn’t about to let 7 euros worth of pizza go to waste, so to the distain of the others, I asked for a “TO GO BOX” … I waited with bated breath to discover …. “YEAH” they had one! So I took my pizza to go, shot a smug look at the others, and we boarded the 100 foot yacht ( I'm doing it again .. sorry) back to Wiener Neustadt, the city of dreams ( last time I promise)

Semester Abroad ( leaving NOLA ... arriving in Vienna)

Leaving New Orleans for 6 months, not completely knowing if I would ever return to see my city or family, was a weird feeling, I love to look on the bright side, but sometimes I have stupid thoughts, like teriorist attacks on the Euro Cup city of Vienna, my home for the next 6 months, or getting robbed, mugged or killed. I can honestly say I was never “robbed” on this trip, well – we would have to discuss the meaning of robbed, because we were screwed over plenty of times, Romanian Taxi drivers (oh they royally stink) and other times, that we will soon discuss so lets get to it, leaving NOLA – my parents brought me to the airport and I can remember them saying good-bye plenty of times, and walking through the metal detectors and they watched as I walked out of sight, that was sad. I wore my heavy jacket on the plane, so it was hot but I just had to think, “Daniel, your going to Vienna, where its gonna be cold” (little did I know, I wore that jacket a total of 4 times the entire time I was there. Vienna was mildly temperate (can I say that??) the whole time I was there. I switched in DC, knowing that by chance there a girl from Arkansas/Missouri that had AGAIN by chance, booked the same exact flight. I sat there looking at girls (yes pops, it was appropriate) and wondering which one was Katie. Young girl, after young girl came in, but they just didn’t fit the bill (I had heard her voice on the phone, but didn’t know what she looked like) and then this gorgeous blonde with blue eyes walked in, HA – it wasn’t her. WAIT, tricked ya – it was her. She was on the phone and I could recognize her voice, she told me that the phone she was using was giver to her by a friend and that it was an expensive European phone (*^* theres a reason I'm telling you this) She was soo nice and we ate at Subway, for what seemed would be the last time, NOT – (ie: London, Barcelona) We talked like we were old friends and had a great time waiting for our plane. I can distinctly remember a crazy man walking down the corridors of the airport singing and we got a really good laugh out of that, then someone told him to shut up, that was the kicker. Then our flight was here, I grabbed my subway cup and we hustled to the gate, kate finished her drink and told me I couldn’t take mine on the plane, I told her I would sneak it on. Unexpectedly, the lady asked me for my ticket, as I fidgeted for it, I dropped my cup and Dr. Pepper went everywhere – boy did we crack up! On the plane I sat next to a chubby lady, who was nice, her husband worked in Vienna and she was going to visit him. She was a Christian and we discussed what I would do while over in Europe. (You might ask, what did you do?? Well, I became my own pastor – I read my devotional daily, even bringing it on some trips. Towards the middle of the trip I lapsed, but then when I began to travel to the most beautiful places that I had ever seen, one has to be reminded who made them beautiful. I never attended church, but I grew really close to God during my time in Europe, we had little conversations thought the days and it was a good experience) (that was a long parenthesis thing HUH). I watched “the comeback kid” with Ben Stiller, it was pretty bad, I also didn’t get a lick of sleep.

Semester Abroad (leaving New Orleans)

This is a reflection on my 5 months living in Europe. I began my journey on Feb 07 2008, what an adventure. I have visited almost every major European country, 23 of them, and I’ve also taken almost as many flights and trains to visit them all, about 17 flights and over 50 trains. The list of countries I’ve been to include (in the order of which I visited): Greece, Turkey, France, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Gibraltar, England, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Romania, Switzerland, Monaco, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Croatia, and Slovenia. The flags of the countries I have visited are shown above including other countries I have lived in or visited. Each country was different and wonderful. Here are some thoughts on them: