After learning that Mark will be submitting a paper to a conference in Germany and attending another there as well (in Bonn), we planned to spend another week there after the conference to travel abroad. I am very excited! Both of my parents were stationed and met in Germany and they have such wonderful stories from there. It will be a treat to see so many of the places I have heard about. This will be my first trip out of the country (we did go to Thunderbay, Canada for our honeymoon- but this is the first non-English speaking country that I will be going to). Mark was fortunate to go to Porto, Portugal last year for another conference.

I am eager to learn all I can about this facinating country. First stop- Wisconsin Union Student Travel desk. There I met two wonderfully helpful young ladies who had both been to Germany- one even spent a whole year there! They were full of wonderful advice and tips about traveling in Germany. Since we will be staying in the more conservative Bavaria, they also had great dressing tips!

Second stop- STA ticket center. Such long lines, but great flight deals! After waiting for a bit, I spoke to an agent from Germany! It must have been my lucky day. After talking about some of the highlights (got to take a boat tour of the Rhine- 30 castles down one river- amazing), he found a great ticket from India air for just under $800- so far we have only found a tickets for over $1000.

To learn some more about the culture and traveling tips I headed to our online Seqoya branch of the Wisconsin public library. There I found some wonderful travel books, videos, tapes and some language guides. Fortunately Mark took German in high school, but I am starting from scratch. I can't wait until the books come in!