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

Well Well Well Look who decided to blog again...

I´m sorry, alright? Running off on adventures, travelling Europe, makes it harder to take some time out of my day to type out what I did. Even more so when you spill a high sugar alcoholic beverage all over your laptop. Im in a computer lab right now, having just bought a new laptop keyboard and decided to at least draw an outline for the adventures I had since my last blog to help me remember later on when perhaps Ill delve further into my journeys. In the last two weeks I took something like 1500 pictures, touched over a millineum of history, and visited with some wonderful friends along the way. I dont think I would have been able to have done everything I did without the generosity of friends and family. Its nice to have friends in far flung areas of the world. The ideas of hosptiality are truly global.

Anyway here´s an outline for what I did. Going backwards is best for me and my spacey memory.

Sunday: Löhne Visit- Flea Market, Monuments to Hermann the German, Wilhelm der Zweite, and myterious rocks where cults gather, and to top it all off a modern theatrical performance something like circe de sole

Saturday: Visited Bielefeld! Did a little window shopping, some city exploring, and then bought a really nice wallet!

Friday: Arrived in Germany and had a wonderful night watching German Who wants to be a Millionare!

Thursday: Got back from London, slept during the day and then went out that night to Agar and danced the night away!

Wednesday: My last day in London! Got a private tour of Parliament and then went out with Kieran and Laticia in Soho!

And I´ll have to go back through my photos to figure out what I did before that on what days... err old man syndrome. But I can tell you I saw most of the sites in London and also had a blast doing them! Ive got to run and I know I cut this short, but Ill follow up soon!!!!

A lot of beer, a lot of chocolate, and a lot of walking

Basically those three things sum up a lot of my recent activities pretty well. I'm beat from today. We took a train at about 11 this morning (me, Destiny, Vanky, and Emily) to this town called Triberg where there's Germany's highest waterfall. The train ride there was pretty normal, until you got into the black forest. Then your train was on the side of a hill overlooking a valley of forested pines and rolling green hills of farm land. That second half of the train ride was unlike anything I've done before... (I don't think I've ever been so moved by transportation! I couldn't stop taking pictures). The town of Triberg is not too large and is really situated in a valley between the hills. The center of town was rather deserted when we got there, first of all because it wasn't tourist season and second of all because it was lunch time, when every business decided to close for two hours. It was hard to find somewhere to eat lunch and we ended up just getting stuff from a bakery.

Because the town was a tourist town, there were a lot of signs in English and a few American flags flying around. To see the waterfall itself it cost 3 euro of course, but the walk up to the top of the waterfall was straight out of lord of the rings. I honestly think if I would have sat on a rock near those falls for a week or two, I could become inspired enough to churn out a great novel, they were breathtaking. The forests around the waterfall were just as cool; 200-300 year old fir trees and then giant boulders covered in moss. We hiked around the waterfall when we noticed there was a sign for a high ropes course. Curious we followed the english signs until we found, you would never guess, a really cool high ropes course. It was one of the most fun things I've done in Germany so far. We did the top two levels that were the hardest and the highest... Which looking back it might have been better to start off slow, but it was alright in the end. There were a few parts in the beginning though were I had to force myself to jump or to climb. And it was well worth it. One of the courses went high up in the trees in the hills and midway there was a clearing so you could look down the valley and over the town. It was truly awesome. Also, jumping off of a small platform a hundred feet off the ground even with a harness can make you nervous. But the exhilaration made the pain of death-gripping the wire cables totally worth it.

After our 3 hour adventure in the trees, we went down to town and ate at a local restaurant. I had a pork steak with potatoes and onions and of course a local beer and chocolate for desert. Who needs vegetables? But it was really good. We got lucky and caught the next train home which took about an hour and a half. But I love riding on that train out of the black forest. I think I may write a poem or prose about that train ride some day. Someone needs to for god sakes.

Anyway so that was today. Yesterday we went to a cool student bar in the evening after I had a productive day of setting up a bank and planning my classes.

Day before that we all went to the bars for Yana's last night in town. It was really sad to see her go. Our professor also met up with us at the bars and that was really fun. After the bars we went downtown to try to go to a club, but Yana forgot her ID sadly and they wouldn't let us in. I tried to get us into a second bar close to that one, but it was a fancy club, and my bad German didn't impress the picky bouncer, who assumed we all were drunk and not classy enough for his snobby bar. Guy didn't know what he missed out on!

Right now my computer has a virus... which sucks... I'm also trying to plan my trip to the UK now so I'll probably finish that tomorrow! I'm beat now, so I'm gonna hit the hay! Night!

Good Afternoon Friends!

I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but here its sunny, about 75 degrees, and just the perfect day to be alive! This is the second day like this we've had in a row where I've been finally able to start wearing my shorts! WooHoo!! So why am I inside blogging? Because this is about the only time I'll have free time! Tonight I'm planning on going to a work out group thing and then later we are having a good bye party for our dear Russian Friend Yana! Busy night!

This week has been very busy! Our Sprach Kurse (Language Class) is ending, meaning we are going to get our break soon! But that also means this week we have the final tests and presentations. My final test was Monday and for each section it was either hit or miss; but overall in the class I ended up doing well, despite not doing so well on the test. But to celebrate our class being over, our teacher took us on a picnic and nature walk near the small town of Ihringen today. We met at the main train station at 8:40 in the morning and took the train about 15 minutes of town. From there, we were in the beautiful little town of Ihringen and we walked to the "Kaisersstuhl" or the seat of the king; It was on the cusp of this once active volcano and also in the middle of wine country. It was truly beautiful! There on the top of a hill we had lunch (within 100 yards of a beehive too) and it was pretty cool. We then walked back to town and now I'm beat! That's two days in a row I've walked up and down hills!

Yesterday, I went on a castle tour. We took a train to Emmendingen (I like the way that sounds haha) and it took us about an hour and a half to two hours to walk to this castle from there. But once again the walk might have been hard but it was beautiful. Rolling just-green hills, fresh spring air, all set within farm country and small little villages sprouting up right at the foothills. The castle itself had many different levels, most of which obviously had much damage, but it was on top of one of the hills where you could see the three main towns in the area. It was very easy to imagine that being the seat of government and being the heart of these cities. I'm sure those surrounding areas were vinyards and cow fields 500 years ago too! The castle itself was really interesting; you could see in the different levels what period in time they were built and each level had a history; usually always something to do with the French, a war, and then a fire. The many hidden little nooks and storage rooms were great places to hide; but they would have sucked to have to live in one of those holes during a war. The main part of the castle, which looked like it was once really cool, was burned down to the ground (I think by the French? Who may have also built the main part of the castle? I'm not entirely sure his German was a little too badisch for me to understand). After this adventure and the one today, I'm a little beat!

I guess the other big event that happened recently was my trip to France! Last Saturday, a group of five of us took the train to Strasbourg, France for the day! We got off the train at Kehl and walked over the Rhein Bridge and did the whole "Half of my body is in France, the other half's in Germany thing" The bikers passing by I swear just rolled their eyes. Damn Tourists. I've been getting that a lot lately. Totally expected.

I'd like to interrupt this blog with an announcement. The 6pm bells are ringing now! They sound so beautiful!

Anyway, we walked into France which wasn't too bad of a walk and then made it into the very edge of the city, which to be honest scared us a little at first. At the very edge of the city, at the last train stop, it was only half finished construction sites everywhere, and no people. It was a little too twilight zone for comfort. When we got onto the street train station, we had to figure out what kind of ticket we needed; luckily one in our group spoke French to some degree (she said not a lot, but I'm pretty sure she knew French pretty well) and she got us 24 hour tickets. The first big difference between France and Germany, I have noted, has been the street trains. In France, they are usually all the same design, very sleek and artsy, and the inside is all color coded and some cool music plays whenever youre at a stop. In Germany, the street car trains are more designed for effectiveness; the inside is designed to hold the most people, and the only thing that plays on the speakers are the options you have when you step off at each spot. This might just be a Freiburg, Strasbourg difference though; I'll have to visit more to tell for sure. Anyway, we made it into the main part of the city (some stop called the Iron Man) and just started walking around. The German influence was obvious, but to fathom all the people here spoke French; sure some of them spoke German, but still to think that within 30 miles people couldn't communicate easily was shocking to see in reality. I think that just adds to my theory that experiencing something in real life is very different than reading it in a book. I mean yeah you can know the fact that France and Germany speak French and German, but when you're there experiencing it, seeing it and hearing it, it solidifies this fact into feeling and life. It makes that original fact hold more weight and make some kind of deeper impression on you.

What also has made an impression on my for the rest of my life is the Cathedral at Strasbourg. We were just walking around and we turned a corner when the cathedral seemingly materialized out of thin air. It took up my whole vision and blocked out the sun. All five of us just stopped and stared and couldn't do anything else. I'm pretty sure we blocked the street for a few minutes as we slowly walked toward the cathedral in a zombie like fashion, fixated on the towering spires. But nonetheless when we made it to the square we all decided to eat something on the square next to the cathedral. Our waiter was really nice. He knew we were foreigners but couldn't figure out if we wanted to talk in English or German (half of us did english, half of us did german) The poor guy who speaks French very well had to know at least two different languages just to be a waiter. I'm pretty sure if he got smart he would employ his services as a translator! I had a steak with green-garlic butter; it was delicious. And right half way through our meal, the midday bells began. It was breathtaking to just listen to them for about fifteen minutes. It wasn't like traditional bells that I'm used to hearing that have some kind of tune they play or some kind of specific harmony. But instead it was a whole spectrum of bells from different times in history playing together making all different kinds of harmonies; and then there would be the biggest bell that would seemingly shake you to your core it was so loud and deep. It was a great experience.

After that we took a Canal Tour around the city and saw many of the historic districts! From the canal we saw the gorgeous and gigantic European Parliament. We even went through two locks in the city. After the tour we walked around for a bit longer before settling down and getting something to eat midday at a chocolate cafe. It was truly some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had. AND it came in a giant bowl, not a cup. After a long day we headed back to Germany and home, where we later that night went to see "Die Tribute von Panem"; which turned out to be a good movie!

Tonight, I've skipped out on going to Sport Fitness stuff and instead will cook a nice dinner and eat it out on the porch :) later I'm excited to go out and see everyone for Yana's goodbye party!

I hope everything is going well with you wherever you are, whenever you are reading this and I'll write again soon!