je ne sais pas.

fall is my favorite season. i think i forgot how much i like seeing the leaves change, or the crisp of the morning. maybe it's because i've lived in an urban environment for a few years, away from "trees". the chateau is basically in the middle of a forest, so we're seeing the changing of the leaves in full splendor. makes me want to pick some apples, or drink some cider, or carve a pumpkin. also, chicago seems to skip over autumnal weather. somehow it goes from super hot to really cold in a matter of days (speaking of, didn't you guys get some snow last week? what was up with that?) thanks to the gulf stream, or some other weather phenomenon that i am unaware of, temperatures here have been lovely. crisp in the morning, warm sun by afternoon. j'taime francais.

we had a quiet weekend. most people were taking it easy (and by easy i mean not spending any money) to save for london. excursions were pretty low-key too. friday we visited the european parliment. for some reason, we took a bus, though it is literally a mile down the road from the chateau. call me a geek, but i was excited. first off, i dressed up in my "stylish, confident designer" outfit, aka the one i wear for presentations, and looked snazzy. uli, the woman whose family owns the chateau, escorted us on this excursion. her husband is in government, but he's a representative for german parliment so she didn't really have that much insider info on how the EU is run. we were met by a guide, some french political aide who spoke with a thick accent and was rather hard to pay attention to at 9:00 in the morning. but we tried. anyways, it was interesting to learn about the shift in governmental power currently happening in europe. in the past, individual countries held quite a lot of power and went about trying to conquer the world (you know, as they are prone to do). now, it seems like they are more interested in working together as a unit; a continental force, if you will. it's interesting to hear how they try to reconcile the interests of their individual nations with the prospect of a unified europe. right now it seems like their main focus is humanitarian efforts.

wow, reading that got boring really fast.

caucus. they call these structures "tulips"

also of note was the architecture of the complex. very modern, very cutting edge, very progressive. quite a contrast to the neoclassical designs of america's government buildings.

saturday we visited the kronenburg brewery. first of all, no beer is currently brewed at this location, so that disappointed right off the bat. i've never been on such a tour, but i had an image in my head of walking on some scaffolding above a giant floor of machinery; bottles rolling down the production line. just like the theme song to laverne and shirley. except in french. anywho, while visiting the museum of beer, we learned lots about how beer is made. and the history of kronenburg beer. afterwards, we finally got to the good part: the tasting. i tried one that was fruity, the 1664 blanc. it was not very good. i don't like my beer to taste like fruity pebbles. other people liked it, though. then i had another beer, which i also did not care for. it's possible i don't like french beer. finally, i tried an irish stout. it had a strong coffee flavor, which i enjoyed. then they let us come behind the bar to try our hand at pulling a pint. so i got behind the bar and poured myself a fresh one from the tap. that was fun, but i think i'm much better at pulling shots from an espresso machine.

speaking of which, i think there is nothing i miss more than intelligentsia espresso (except my friends and family, of course). there is nothing like a freshly pulled double espresso to start a morning. the coffee here. . . is not good. even the espressos i've had in cafés have been disappointing. but i will continue my search.

i guess that's about it. thursday we leave for london. i'm really excited to go to london. our itinerary looks fun; mostly free time to explore on our own. expect fun blogs post-london. whoo-hoo.

before i go, i'd like to give a shoutout to jen- happy birthday. and shoutout to dan- hope you're having fun in D.C.

signing off,
-katie

oh, i also updated my photo albums. you know, a bit of catching up before london. so there are now more pictures in the "munich album", and a whole new album of fun! yeah!