Some Misadventure is still Adventure!

Please forgive my bad grammar, poor fluidity, and structural errors within my blog posts. I really just kinda sit down and type and don't review just so I can get it all down before forgetting it!

May 20, 2012

                Well I’ve had quite a week to say the least. I had Friday and Thursday off, which should have spelled homework but instead spelled friends and fun. To begin with yesterday, we had planned to get to Zurich and spend a day trip in the high Swiss city, but fate and a little bit of ignorance on our part got in our way. We had planned to go to Basel and from Basel buy a ticket to Zurich from there, which we saw online was only 15 franc. Not too shabby. So we get up at the butt crack of dawn, get to the Hauptbahnhof, spend 30 euros to get our ticket to basel, and away we went full of excitement. Well we were as excited as 3 college students on a Saturday at 8am could be. But anyway, the train ride to Basel was lovely (I love riding trains! I feel so progressive!). We got to Basel at about 9 and got to the main train station in the city where we were supposed to buy our tickets. I’ll just take a minute here to note the very Victorian looking train station, the very quaint parks sprinkled in the crowded city, and how Basel looks better in summer than in spring. Anyway, made it to the main train station and went up to the ticket lady to ask her to get our tickets. Now she was a nice woman overall who was just obeying rules, but we proceeded to ask her about the special tickets we saw online to Zurich.

No, we don’t have them here. You have to buy them online.

                Well that kind of shocked us. How much for a ticket here then?

30 euros one way. 60 euros there and back.

                For all 3 of us?

For one of you.

                GAH! Lost to the fateful lure of a special online only price and now stuck in Basel with our plans for the day shattered! We left the line and tried to figure out what to do. We decided we would either have to go back to Freiburg or spend the day in Basel. Since we were convinced to make the most of the day, we decided to conquer Basel. Eric in our group really wanted to see the “Dreilandereck” or where France, Germany, and Switzerland come together at this monument. We knew the general direction where it was, so we headed off west and just started walking…

An hour and a half later we were in the Industrial District in Basel, enjoying the emptied shipping yards, concrete works, and warehouse piers on the Rhien. I can now say I’ve had a full experience and educational adventure into the topics of Swiss Industrial shipping and factory layouts! And let me tell you… fascinating!

We finally hit a dead end in the endless landscape of warehouses at a construction site and decided to cut back. The gods must have decided to start smiling on us because we quickly found a bridge into Germany where there was a shopping center and a place to eat (we were hungry by now). Of course, as we were walking to Germany over the bridge what should our eyes stumble across but a monument sticking out of the water in the Rhein with 3 beautiful national flags waving in the breeze but the Dreilandereck. At the end of some miscellaneous pier. And not as grand as we had assumed. Nonetheless, we nabbed a picture (remember, I took a PICTURE) and it was great.

Lunch we ate on the edge of the Rhein and after our meal we took a little tour of France, the town across the way. It was pretty. Also empty. It would have been more beautiful had there not been construction in the main square of the town! But I took a bunch of pictures! Yeah!

                Well we decided to head back to Freiburg at that point and watch a nice rugby match. Why not. Salvage the day with a nice Guiness and a rugby game. Of course we JUST missed our train back to Freiburg and had to wait an hour until the next train came.

                While we were waiting, I decided to go through the many pictures I took of Basel, the industrial park, France, and Germany. And of course my camera didn’t have an SD card. The entire day. None at all. I’m sure Lady Luck and Fate were laughing there fat female asses off, and they would have more if it hadn’t been my own damn fault for forgetting to put the SD card in my camera. Ok a few strikes, but damn it we weren’t out!

                We got back to Freiburg and saw a flea market where I bought a stein! After, we went to an Irish Pub to watch some Rugby, drink a few beers, and eat. And man was it good. I had this huge burger with onions, sour cream, mushrooms, and just everything good. With a Guiness. It was great. The rugby team we wanted lost sadly. After that I went to watch the soccer game with the Italians. Chelsea versus Bayern. It was a good game and great company, but damn lady luck was not with us today and Bayern lost. I truly got to experience community depression walking home. Grown men crying and silence on the trams. It was a sad but interesting experience to say the least.

                Let me run through quickly what else I did this week!

Friday: Pizza from 8pm until midnight with friends! It was a blast!

Thursday: Shopping! Workout! Reading! The Opera with the Italians! Then dinner, and dancing! Kamikaze, Shooter Stars, Agar. Teaching American English to Itialians was great! Andrea, Matteo, Go, Federica, Allie, Carl

Wednesday: Hung out in Mcdonalds for 2 hours! Then hung out with friends and drank some wine until the early morning!

Tuesday:  Just regular classes; met a Russian friend to practice German.

Monday: Walked home from class, part of the way with Sonia!

All in all it was a great week that I’m sure I’m going to look back on someday and smile. I am really loving life and loving Germany!

I prefer to think of it as the Lake of the Earth, not the lake at the bottom... or Lake Konstanz

May 14, 2012

                Happy Mother’s Day! I just got off skype with my Mom, who I’m so glad I got to talk to for just a little bit today! Being able to talk to her and Kim really made my day! I’m realizing just how valuable Skype really is! I feel like this experience would be a great advertisement!

                This weekend I went to Constance Germany! It’s this gorgeous semi-large town right at the very bottom of Germany, bordering Switzerland. It sits on the Bodensee that stretches for quite a ways into Switzerland and sets the background as the alps. Right near the outskirts of the town is another town called Singen, where the largest castle ruins in Germany are. We started off our trip in the ruins! It took about 20 minutes to walk to the base of the hill, from which it jutted seemingly straight up into the clouds. Well the fog. It was raining when we went unfortunately and I was smart enough only to wear shorts and a light jacket (not the waterproof kind either), so I was nice and soaked by the time we got to the admission place. I was contemplating staying there for fear I’d catch pneumonia when the guy at the booth let us borrow some umbrellas! The umbrella definitely warmed up my spirits and we continued our upward climb (dodging snails along the way… a few times we weren’t so good at dodging and you’d hear a loud crunch). Looking out over the overcast, rainy, cloudy day made the castle seem like it sat high up in the clouds, looking over a mysterious sea of white mists and smoke. It was pretty cool. The ruins on top of the hill themselves were massive. Different levels, periods, and keeps all constituted the entire place. There were secret halls, deep mysterious and creepy cellars, and a few wells here and there. The central keep was very cool, and it almost seemed like a villa at the top, what with its bedrooms, center open area, and great bay windows along all sides. Clearly meant for a king!

                After the castle ruins we headed to Constance. You ride the train into the heart of the city, crossing over the Rhine and following the coast of the Bodensee until you get to the Hauptbahnhof. There, you’re thrown back hundreds of years with gorgeous old buildings. The difference between the architecture is very noticeable. Clean lines and a uniform gray stone made up the buildings, but the accents truly made the architecture seem very modern. There were many older buildings too that had survived many wars that had passed through the times. There’s also a statue of a prostitute rotating out in the harbor, who’s name is Imperia. She apparently was so beautiful that she even swayed kings and popes to her will. That was interesting to say the least! So we toured a bit, jumped over to Switzerland, had some dinner, then went back home and played some good old Monopoly, while enjoying a few drinks. Needless to say it became very fun and by the time 3 rolled around we were all ready for bed! Brent, who we stayed with, was awesome… he offered and tried to sleep on the floor so we all would have a bed. We didn’t let him do it… but still what a great guy!

                Today we left at around nine thirty and took a train to take a bus to take 3 more trains to get home. The adventure in totaled about 4 hours of travel and involved going from Germany to Switzerland to Germany to Switzerland to Germany to Switzerland to Germany to Switzerland and back to Germany! It sounds long, but the ride was breathtakingly beautiful. The fields of wheat were unnervingly picturesque… the rolling hills in the back too well placed to be an accident. I kept flashing to these day dreams of myself walking through the wheat bare foot, feeling  a summers breeze catch my hair… I drifted off to sleep a few times thinking about running off with that dream.

                Tonight I went out with the Italians and Sonia for dinner at a Pfannkuchen Restaurant! It was very good and the company better! I love those guys man! All in all I had a great weekend with some awesome people and definitely made memories I’m not going to forget!

Everything is not as it seems!

May 10, 2012

                Well, today is Wednesday. Middle of the week! I don’t know why but this week I’ve been so off on my dates and times. I’ve been late to two classes and I really am just off of a schedule! It’s be quite discombobulating and I’m not really sure why. Today I had two classes, my evening sprachkurse and then my morning german history course. They were both quite interesting as always. After my evening class I went to a discussion on American and EU foreign relations and policy. Professor Schuler presented the relationship from a European perspective and the questions he got after from the audience were very similar questions that I’ve been getting from my European friends. Why are the parties in America so divided? Will America hate Europe if a Republican is elected? Its quite interesting, they study or hear about America’s political situation like its some kind of backwards tribal process that has yet to catch up with the modern era. In this sense, they always talk about it like a documentary; “I saw on this show once… I heard on the news that….” And of course they see the most extreme people; which are pretty common in America, but that still is missing a bigger portion of the politics in America that go more normal… although as of late it seems they are drifting farther from the land of sanity and more towards idiocracy. I’m guessing its because I’m not in America.

                I also won my first Siedlers von Catan game today! That was pretty awesome! It was a lot of fun, because we played outside on my porch by candlelight, which made it that much more epic!

                Monday we had our WG dinner and Jannick and I stayed up until 4 in the morning switching and sharing music… That’s why Tuesday was so off and most likely why I’ve been discombobulated this week!

                Also, jetzt vielleicht soll ich ein bisschen auf deutsch probieren. Ich glaube dass mein deutsch viel besser ist als ich erst angekommen bin. Aber leider denke ich dass es nicht gut genug ist! Immer so mit die gleiche Wörter benutze ich langweilige satzen mich zu erklären. Wenn ich besser deutsch konnte, würde ich mit mehr interessnte Aussprache erzählen. Also am schlimmsten jetzt ist meine Ausprachen... Immer so wenn ich mit deutschen bin, habe ich angst und vergesse so viel deutsch bzw. Die stellung meiner Verben.  Warum werfen die deutschen das wort am ende der Satz?? Es macht kein sinn... vielleicht kann man argumentieren dass es die Satz rahmt aber allerdings meiner meinung nach ist Verben zusammen besser als getrennt. Und jetzt habe ich die Problem, wie kann ich mein deutsch wirklich am besten verbessern? Ein tandempartner? Ein Untterricht? Habe keine Ahnung... sondern ich mache nur was kommt.

Also ich bin müde jetzt und habe Unterrich in 8 studen so ich glaube dass ich schalfen muss! Auf wiedersehen!

Take opportunities when they come!

May 7, 2012

                Another Sunday, another week in Germany. I can’t really believe it sometimes, that I’m here in Germany. I guess its become normal now. The thing is, everyday I find something little that just makes me so happy and just reminds me what kind of incredible opportunity I have right now. I had two of those moments today. One was this morning, while I was sitting eating a nice Sunday Brunch, I looked out the window to see off in the distance the two towering green steeples of one of my favorite churches in Freiburg. Behind the two tall towers the crystal blue sky and the swabs of white cotton clouds sailing through the sky. I think that picture will be in my mind forever. The second was just about an hour ago, I was out walking on Seepark and I was on the edge of the water and I just couldn’t believe where I was. The water in front of me, still as can be, all the way to the back-lying mountains with their wind turbines flashing red softly in the night. I mean yes it was just a park at night, but this was a place that I had gotten too… that made it that special… It wasn’t just a park that I was walking in, but it was a park that I had reached on my adventure, and it made the beauty that much more enchanting. I’m going to miss these moments when I’m home, but I shouldn’t be thinking about that now.

                This week was a lot of fun. It was the second week of my classes (The first week being kinda bogus, since it was obviously just hand out materials, except for one class….one that was really hard) and we had Tuesday off for 1. May! Woo Hoo Labor! Anyway, on Tuesday we went to Breisach, the German border town to France. I went with the Itailan group and it was quite a lot of fun! We saw the main gate, the church, a statue representing Europe, had lunch on a terrace, walked to France, played some games in the streets, and then had some nice afternoon snacks at a restaurant before heading home. Guh I love that group!

                This Friday and Saturday I had my block seminare for one of my political science classes… and let me tell you what hard in a classroom is like. Its like a complex political theory discussion in another language when the professor turns to you and clearly asks you a question because the way he and everyone else in the room look at you, but you have no inkling as to what he may be asking. And then also giving a presentation (with some other Germans) on Saturday on the American political system (which wasn’t bad! Well at least the material…) I really liked my group there was this girl named Carolyn (Caro for short) she was from somewhere north of Munich… on the Main river. But she wanted to move to Hamburg. Dominique was also another guy in my group. He was checking out a Diablo 3 website while we were waiting on our pizza to be delivered, so I’m pretty sure we would get along pretty well too. Overall though the blockseminare took 14 hours of my time this weekend! A long time! 

On Saturday after my blockseminare I had dinner with Destiny, Eric, and Emily and then played my first game of Siedler von Catan! It was pretty fun, but my first time didn’t go so well… I didn’t really know how to strategize… but NOW I know what I’m doing hahaha! So that was fun. After that I went to a cinco de Mayo party! I was only there for a little bit because everyone soon after left to go to the city middle to catch the last train, but it was nice to be with everyone together!

Was noch?? Hmmm I also joined a gym this week! The Germans  do work out stuff a little differently than we do in the states, so I kinda looked like a black sheep in a mound of snow, trying to figure out where everything was. It was pricey, but I really needed it. And the facilty is quite lovely if I may say so!

I guess sad news is my SD card still wont work… some of my classes may overlap… and well I think those might be the biggest ones.

Anyway, ya things are going well here! I hope to have more adventures soon!

Happy Tag der Arbeit or May Day! Celebrate workers everywhere!

Well I know its been a while since we last communicated, me and you, blogging internet service, and I'd like to apologize. I apparently messed with the technology gods and had been having some troubles with electronics since. My laptop has had stopped working 3 times during this trip for 3+ days, my cell phone has stopped working, I've lost my camera case, my SD card has stopped working with 1500 pictures on it from London before I could get them off... :( :( annnnd ya well I was through with dealing with computers for a while.

Today I was in Breisach for the day! I went with the group of Italians and Andrea; we left about 10 and took a local train from Freiburg for about 20 minutes to the edge of Germany. For such an early train it was way crowded... But Breisach was a pretty nice little town on the edge of the Rhine River. Of course it had a giant church in the middle, which was very interesting. I guess the problem was everything inside cost money to do anything, and I get a church has to keep itself running, and maybe because it was a catholic church it was losing attendees, but even still charging to turn light on an alter is a little cheap to me. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting church, and the bells at noon were also wonderful. From the top of the hill where the church was you could look out over the Rhine and see France! We sat at this spot for a while eating a lunch and talking. I promised to call Giordiannos eyes green and beautiful if he was to buy me a beer...

I believe my English is slowly getting worse. I'm forgetting words and how to construct simple sentences. But at the same time, my German isn't too much improving... its just I'm getting used to bad German as my language now, so I'm forgetting all my others!

Last week my classes began. I have 2 university classes and let me tell you, they are quite the challenge. Of course they are all in German and of course they don't have any special help for foreign exchange students. But aside from that and having no idea what I need to do for my end of the semester presentation or paper... they aren't too terrible! They are actually really interesting. It was so weird, because normally when Germans are talking German with one another I feel very foreign, obviously. But when we talked about social conceptions of power and then politics, I felt like I was back at school. I felt much more apart of things, which made the class much better.

Speaking of feeling apart of things, and belonging, there are small things here and there in Germany that just remind me and throw me back home. Music for example always reminds me and makes me feel like I'm home when I hear it here. Most of the time its American, but its always good. Like really Germans have a great taste in music. Or maybe just my roommates. But even still, every time I go into the kitchen I can sing along with the song or feel like dancing to it, it just makes you feel good! It is really true that music is a universal language.

I've decided that I have to become fluent in German. I mean I already am in the sense I can get around, but no. I mean I need to be really good at German. It will be a skill that not only has practical applications, but I'm discovering the more I know in German, the more I can express myself in all ways and really understand my thoughts too. German has some pretty cool words that English doesn't, and I'd rattle them off for you now, but that's where the I'm going to learn and get better part come in!

I went to go study on campus tonight, and of course all the buildings were closed... so I ended up heading to starbucks and read there until they closed at 930... and then moved on to Mcdonalds.

The weather here for the past few days has been truly wonderful! Its been like seventy and sunny... just a great way to start summer. I've enjoyed every second outside and have even taken off my shoes to go barfoot in the city! One of my favorite times was walking back home from school, I thought I was going to take the S-Bahn, but I enjoyed being barefoot so much, I just kept on walking and made it home before I knew it.

I totally forgot to mention! Mom and Dan came to visit me this weekend. They got here on Thursday and left Sunday in the afternoon. The first day we just kinda chilled out and I took Dan to a bar after mom went to bed and got really drunk from ONE thing of Absinthe... it was pretty intense. And Dan of course had to finish things off with a beer. He drank a lot of beer here... Friday we went around Freiburg, went shopping, went to Seepark, and then went out to dinner! Saturday we went into the Black Forest to Triberg where I had been before and they loved the town! The coocoo clock shops, the restaurants and the nature were perfect for them. Dan and I even did the high ropes course again! It was a lot of fun. At one point I was translating for mom and Dan and mom asked me what Fleischkase was... I said well something like meat and cheese together I'm not sure... Well she thought that sounded good, so she got it, but it ended up being like spam... I only found out later that fleischkase is a very specific meat and its called fleischkase because its meat with the consistancy of cheese... Not the same as meat with cheese hahaha. They also tried the Schwarzwaldkrischtorte, which they liked well enough, but apparently it was doused in cherry schnapps (of course). Finally, Sunday we just spent the day enjoying the quiet city and got to catch up  a little bit. It was very nice to see them. It was so hard to let them go on to their train... Mom of course cried and she got me very close to shedding a tear to, but it was nice to see them for a little bit