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