Saturday was spent traveling to Titisee in the Black Forest to take pictures and shop. Sara, Catherine, Jess, Eliza and I went and had a good time. We’ll have to go back in the summer though, because there’s a big lake there that was frozen over. It must look amazing in warmer weather. Saturday night was a beer pong tournament that I had just a little too much to drink at.
The week has been quite boring. Monday was spent in class and in the Sprachlabor. The Sprachlabor is a computer lab where we are required to log 18 hours and 45 minutes of self-study. I've been doing what little homework I have and then reading. Tuesday was the same thing, minus the fact that I didn't feel good and didn't go to class. Wednesday was obviously more of that, though it was Saint Patrick's Day. We celebrated at the StusieBar because O'Kelly's was packed and the Irish Pub had a 4 euro entrance fee. I had my test on Thursday, which went alright, and Sara made a delicious chicken and pasta dinner for a bunch of us. Today was spent buying a very expensive Eurorail pass, which hopefully will allow me to travel everywhere I want to go. Tomorrow we are heading to Basel, hopefully.
Like I said, not so exciting.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Another Week!
Friday and Saturday night were both spent at the StusieBar with Sara, Emily, Catherine, Jess, Eliza, Sean, Mati, Marcel, and many other people. We also met a lot of new people, including Americans also studying abroad. Sara and I met a crazy German guy named Moe Friday night who insisted we try a bunch of different drinks, since Marcel is a bartender at the StusieBar. We tried Zombies, Cuba Libres, Long Island Iced Teas, and other drinks, all for free. Saturday some of us participated in a Beer Pong Tournament, and hung out downstairs at the bar for a while. Both nights were pretty great because we met a lot of people. Sven the tournament organizer was particularly cool. There was a very touchy-feely Canadian couple, a Russian-German kid with a girlfriend who was eyeing Sara a little too much during the Beer Pong Tournament (she was purposely smiling at him to distract him) and a bunch of other people. Both nights were great times. It’s always great to meet new people, especially in a foreign country where everyone is really different from the people I’m used to meeting. Anyways, this weekend turned out slightly different than what we planned. We were hoping to travel, but we stayed at the StusieBar far too late both nights to get up and make a trip somewhere. Hopefully next weekend we can travel to Colmar in France or Basel or something equally as interesting.
Monday was spent getting lost on a bus with Sara trying to find IKEA. We got on Bus 11 (the one that goes to IKEA) but it went the wrong direction, became Bus 14, went all through the city, and eventually back to the main bus hub, where we planned to catch a tram to the Hauptbahnhof. We got on the tram, sat down, and two minutes later the conductor yelled that it was the end of the line and we had to get off. We proceeded to cross the tracks to the outgoing line, watch the tram turn around, and promptly sat down in the same seats. I was so close to throwing Sara’s water bottle at the man. Damn Germans and their anal retentive rules. We made it to IKEA and were back by 8. We met Sara’s friend from class, Kate the Australian girl, at Martin’s Brau for a couple pitchers of beer and then went home to pass out.
Tuesday and Wednesday weren’t very eventful. We had classes. We entertained ourselves. Sara cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner Tuesday night. Wednesday we walked around the city taking pictures. That’s about it. Oh, and we found awesome musical steins. And Wednesday night we socialized at the StusieBar with Sean and Mati. Thursday was just as boring. We had our meetings with our advisor, Silke, on registering for classes and stuff. We had dinner at an Irish bar with six of us.
Friday was quite the opposite of the rest of the week. Sara and I signed up for the SLI trip to Strasbourg, which included about 30 or so people from other classes, including Claudio and Adel from my class and some from hers. We left at 8:30 and got to Strasbourg around 10. We arrived at the European Parliament building and got a VIP tour around the building. Highlights include listening to the German representative use toothpaste container sizes as an example for economic standardization and Sara, Claudio, the two SLI women and a few others of us getting separated from the tour was we got distracted taking pictures. You’ll notice security guards in later photos; I think we were considered a security risk. Our guide kept making references to “staying together” after that point. We left the EP building and travelled into the city proper where we were let off and told to entertain ourselves for two hours before meeting at the Münster. Sara and I met up with Sean, Mati, Claudio, Adel, and a few others where we ate lunch at this delicious and far too expensive French restaurant. We also ended up being nearly half an hour late for the meeting, despite being told to “bitte bitte bitte bitte” be on time. But we saw a lot of awesome parts of the city and ate some delicious food. After meeting up with them, we took a tour of the city, which basically consisted of taking a lot (a lot) of pictures and pretending like I could understand everything our tour guide was saying, as it was in German. When they finally let us go again, we went to the Münster again, this time actually going inside. The building is absolutely incredible, especially on the outside. It’s huge, not to mention the detail in some of the carvings. I wish the pictures from the inside came out better, because it was quite a sight inside, too. They didn’t allow flash inside and my camera refused to produce clear pictures. After touring the cathedral, our same group went to a café for drinks and a bakery for bread before meeting back up with the group and heading home. Overall, it was quite the experience. And I can now say I’ve been to France. Hopefully this weekend we’ll be taking a picture-trip into the Black Forest and a trip to Colmar in France, also in Alsace. I’m looking forward to all of this!
Monday was spent getting lost on a bus with Sara trying to find IKEA. We got on Bus 11 (the one that goes to IKEA) but it went the wrong direction, became Bus 14, went all through the city, and eventually back to the main bus hub, where we planned to catch a tram to the Hauptbahnhof. We got on the tram, sat down, and two minutes later the conductor yelled that it was the end of the line and we had to get off. We proceeded to cross the tracks to the outgoing line, watch the tram turn around, and promptly sat down in the same seats. I was so close to throwing Sara’s water bottle at the man. Damn Germans and their anal retentive rules. We made it to IKEA and were back by 8. We met Sara’s friend from class, Kate the Australian girl, at Martin’s Brau for a couple pitchers of beer and then went home to pass out.
Tuesday and Wednesday weren’t very eventful. We had classes. We entertained ourselves. Sara cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner Tuesday night. Wednesday we walked around the city taking pictures. That’s about it. Oh, and we found awesome musical steins. And Wednesday night we socialized at the StusieBar with Sean and Mati. Thursday was just as boring. We had our meetings with our advisor, Silke, on registering for classes and stuff. We had dinner at an Irish bar with six of us.
Friday was quite the opposite of the rest of the week. Sara and I signed up for the SLI trip to Strasbourg, which included about 30 or so people from other classes, including Claudio and Adel from my class and some from hers. We left at 8:30 and got to Strasbourg around 10. We arrived at the European Parliament building and got a VIP tour around the building. Highlights include listening to the German representative use toothpaste container sizes as an example for economic standardization and Sara, Claudio, the two SLI women and a few others of us getting separated from the tour was we got distracted taking pictures. You’ll notice security guards in later photos; I think we were considered a security risk. Our guide kept making references to “staying together” after that point. We left the EP building and travelled into the city proper where we were let off and told to entertain ourselves for two hours before meeting at the Münster. Sara and I met up with Sean, Mati, Claudio, Adel, and a few others where we ate lunch at this delicious and far too expensive French restaurant. We also ended up being nearly half an hour late for the meeting, despite being told to “bitte bitte bitte bitte” be on time. But we saw a lot of awesome parts of the city and ate some delicious food. After meeting up with them, we took a tour of the city, which basically consisted of taking a lot (a lot) of pictures and pretending like I could understand everything our tour guide was saying, as it was in German. When they finally let us go again, we went to the Münster again, this time actually going inside. The building is absolutely incredible, especially on the outside. It’s huge, not to mention the detail in some of the carvings. I wish the pictures from the inside came out better, because it was quite a sight inside, too. They didn’t allow flash inside and my camera refused to produce clear pictures. After touring the cathedral, our same group went to a café for drinks and a bakery for bread before meeting back up with the group and heading home. Overall, it was quite the experience. And I can now say I’ve been to France. Hopefully this weekend we’ll be taking a picture-trip into the Black Forest and a trip to Colmar in France, also in Alsace. I’m looking forward to all of this!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Drei Tage
So, it's been three days since I've written anything for this blog. So the last thing I wrote about was the Night of the Not-Crepes, which was quite the adventure and quite the hilarious night. But I think Wednesday might just have it beat. I had class in the morning, well until 12:45, then we got lunch at the Mensa. These lasst days have been busy so my memory isn't too clear on the details. Sara and I went to Markthalle for dinner, where we got delicious Indian food. Markthalle was recommended to us by our wonderfully helpful and enthusiastic bank teller from Tuesday. It's very similar to Fanuel Hall, with stands of foods from all over, plenty of bars, and such. It's a pretty awesome place. Emily eventually came and joined us. [Blog edited for PG-13 Rating.] Sara bought the correct form of flour too on Wednesday, so when we got back to her dorm she decided to make Emily and me real crepes, which turned out pretty damn well. It was quite the day.
Thursday wasn't quite as exciting as Wednesday, mainly because Sara had to work on an essay -for an internship at the State Department she was applying for. We had class in the morning, as usual, and most of the UMass kids met at the mensa for lunch. After that, Sara and I headed back to the classrooms to make use of the free wifi. She worked on her essay while I got in some much-needed internet usage. Emily joined us after she did whatever she needed to do. Eventually, we decided to go out for dinner, which ended up shopping for a little while, with the three of us grabbing food in a bakery, where I got a delicious cheese-covered pretzel. Emily ditched us to go hang out with friends from her German language course, so Sara and I headed back to Markthalle for a drink with our meals. We grabbed a beer from a bar in there, where Sara got very angry when the bartender asked "Bist-du sechtzehn?" and Sara got very angry and responded with "Ich bin zwanzig!" The bartender forgot to charge her for her bier, too. The bier ended up being awful, but we got some chicken wings from a Mexican stand and finished the bier with those.
Sara and I returned to the school so that she could finish her essay and submit her documents, where we found out we were locked out of the classroom, where Sara had left a few books. It wasn't a big deal. She was nearly finished with everything she had to do when a very annoyed janitor came up to us, at 22:00, and told us that we had to leave and proceeded to stand there, waiting for us to leave. Sara packed up and we headed out, only to stop outside where Sara stayed close to the building and used the Wifi to finish sending her forms and finished her application. It was a good thing too, because she was going to finish it at the StusieBar, since it was due that night, but it turns out the StusieBar is closed on Thursdays. We went back to Sara's kitchen and had an interesting discussion about politics, DeGrassi, and other stuff. It was a good night, even if it was a little more work-oriented than Wednesday was.
Today has been pretty fun, too. We had classes, of course, and most of the normal group met at the Mensa, minus Sara. We had received emails from Silke saying that we had to attend Sprachlabor, so Emily, Catherine, Jess, and I went to the Korzburo to figure out what to do for it, where a lady told us which classroom to go to. Emily and I went to the Sprachlabor and did the required work and the rest of our homework, so thankfully we're set for the rest of the weekend. After that, Emily went to nap, I went shopping and bumped into Sara, who was doing the same thing. We went shopping for basic supplies at the cheap Euro store we finally found, then went back to the school to make use of their wonderful internet. We're at the StusieBar now, planning a trip to Basel tomorrow and we may be seeing Alice and Wonderland tonight. That's the plan for now. We'll see how it goes!
Here's some pictures from the first week so far.
It's the hallway where our classrooms are!
A neat church near the Hauptbahnhof (Train Station)
Thursday wasn't quite as exciting as Wednesday, mainly because Sara had to work on an essay -for an internship at the State Department she was applying for. We had class in the morning, as usual, and most of the UMass kids met at the mensa for lunch. After that, Sara and I headed back to the classrooms to make use of the free wifi. She worked on her essay while I got in some much-needed internet usage. Emily joined us after she did whatever she needed to do. Eventually, we decided to go out for dinner, which ended up shopping for a little while, with the three of us grabbing food in a bakery, where I got a delicious cheese-covered pretzel. Emily ditched us to go hang out with friends from her German language course, so Sara and I headed back to Markthalle for a drink with our meals. We grabbed a beer from a bar in there, where Sara got very angry when the bartender asked "Bist-du sechtzehn?" and Sara got very angry and responded with "Ich bin zwanzig!" The bartender forgot to charge her for her bier, too. The bier ended up being awful, but we got some chicken wings from a Mexican stand and finished the bier with those.
Sara and I returned to the school so that she could finish her essay and submit her documents, where we found out we were locked out of the classroom, where Sara had left a few books. It wasn't a big deal. She was nearly finished with everything she had to do when a very annoyed janitor came up to us, at 22:00, and told us that we had to leave and proceeded to stand there, waiting for us to leave. Sara packed up and we headed out, only to stop outside where Sara stayed close to the building and used the Wifi to finish sending her forms and finished her application. It was a good thing too, because she was going to finish it at the StusieBar, since it was due that night, but it turns out the StusieBar is closed on Thursdays. We went back to Sara's kitchen and had an interesting discussion about politics, DeGrassi, and other stuff. It was a good night, even if it was a little more work-oriented than Wednesday was.
Today has been pretty fun, too. We had classes, of course, and most of the normal group met at the Mensa, minus Sara. We had received emails from Silke saying that we had to attend Sprachlabor, so Emily, Catherine, Jess, and I went to the Korzburo to figure out what to do for it, where a lady told us which classroom to go to. Emily and I went to the Sprachlabor and did the required work and the rest of our homework, so thankfully we're set for the rest of the weekend. After that, Emily went to nap, I went shopping and bumped into Sara, who was doing the same thing. We went shopping for basic supplies at the cheap Euro store we finally found, then went back to the school to make use of their wonderful internet. We're at the StusieBar now, planning a trip to Basel tomorrow and we may be seeing Alice and Wonderland tonight. That's the plan for now. We'll see how it goes!
Here's some pictures from the first week so far.
It's the hallway where our classrooms are!
A neat church near the Hauptbahnhof (Train Station)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Ich bin in Deutschland
So I'm in Germany, third day now, actually, if I count the day of arrival which is a bit of a haze. Internet at the dorms is non-existent unless we pay nearly 80 euro for the month of March. Come April, we will be getting internet in the dorms since the semester will actually start at Uni Freiburg. So right now, I'm with Sara and Catherine in the Uni building where our classes are being held, since it's either here or the Stusiebar for internet access, and at the Stusiebar you need to buy a drink for WiFi access. I did that last night. So let me try to sum up these past two and a half days. They have been quite interesting.
At Logan, I managed to find all four girls who Silke, our Resident Advisor in Freiburg, had told me would be taking the same flight/train as me - Emily, Catherine, Jessica, and Grace. They're all great people, and the others from the UMASS program are all great. Sara, Sean, Maddie, Eliza, and Peter are all entertaining people. Our flight was rather uneventful, and I bumped into the four of them right off the plane, which was nice. Customs was quick, and Grace managed to order her and my tickets for the train to Freiburg in German, which made her happy. We got food/coffee at the cafe in the train station, and then caught the two hour train ride to Freiburg, which was quite cramped. Our multiple large suitcases were not making us very popular on an overcrowded train.
We made it to Freiburg and only had to wait about ten minutes for Silke to get there. She gave us phones/keys/welcome packets and took us to the trolley station, where she sent us off to our dorms to settle. It was rather weird, because she just left us at 10 in the morning, with instructions to meet her at six that night in the same spot, and to entertain ourselves for those hours. We were all determined not to nap and make our jet lag worse, so we explored the supermarkt and other stores across from our dorms, and Emily and I explored some random parts of Freiburg that we really had no need to go to. When we met Silke, we met the rest of the UMass kids, minus Peter, as his flight was delayed. Silke took us on a tour to her office, the bank, and finally to Fierelings, a bar in Freiburg where we got dinner. The sausage there was quite delicious. When we got back to our dorms, we all pretty much passed out.
The next day Silke got us registered with the city and then we went to our first day of language course, which was amazing. The class was entirely in German, and if not for the fact that everyone in the room could pretty much speak basic English, despite the fact that I was the only American/English-native in the room, I might not have gotten through it. Adel, an Egyptian guy, was particularly helpful and entertaining to talk to. After classes, we had a few hours to kill before meeting Silke at the Deutsch Bank to set up accounts. when the time finally came, Eliza, Jessica and I couldn't find the bank. We tried asking for directions, but apparently no one knows where the giant DB is. One guy even completely snubbed us. Eliza eventually got directions from Silke.
Sean, Peter, Sara, Jessica and I all had one bank teller set up our accounts, who told us all the coolest places to go. He mentioned a food market that sells all the best foods from all over, and a shot bar that we have visit before I try to describe it. He was very enthusiastic, and I'm pretty sure Sara now has a crush on him. Oh well. After the bank, we went to a reception the language course was hosting, which was quite hard to find. Sara and I accidentally walked into it and ended up being the first ones in. They had champagne, pretzels, and some orange-juice cocktail. All pretty good, and we all got to talk for a while. We then went back to the dorms and Sara, Emily and I went to the StusieBar to get internet access. We got a few drinks, got to plan out some adventures, and had a good time. After the bar, we went on an adventure through town, got a bit lost, found a Turkish place where Sara and Emily grabbed food before we headed back to Sara's dorm. We tried making crepes, but the flour was the wrong type, so we ended up making some noodle concoction. Add a little nutella and it was edible. We ended up dubbing the night the night of the not-crepes, and we went to bed way too late. Today is not over, so I'll save that for another time.
I haven't taken many pictures so far, so I apologize, but as soon as I take some, I'll be sure to try to upload them. Freiburg has some really beautiful locations in it.
Auf Wiedersehen!
At Logan, I managed to find all four girls who Silke, our Resident Advisor in Freiburg, had told me would be taking the same flight/train as me - Emily, Catherine, Jessica, and Grace. They're all great people, and the others from the UMASS program are all great. Sara, Sean, Maddie, Eliza, and Peter are all entertaining people. Our flight was rather uneventful, and I bumped into the four of them right off the plane, which was nice. Customs was quick, and Grace managed to order her and my tickets for the train to Freiburg in German, which made her happy. We got food/coffee at the cafe in the train station, and then caught the two hour train ride to Freiburg, which was quite cramped. Our multiple large suitcases were not making us very popular on an overcrowded train.
We made it to Freiburg and only had to wait about ten minutes for Silke to get there. She gave us phones/keys/welcome packets and took us to the trolley station, where she sent us off to our dorms to settle. It was rather weird, because she just left us at 10 in the morning, with instructions to meet her at six that night in the same spot, and to entertain ourselves for those hours. We were all determined not to nap and make our jet lag worse, so we explored the supermarkt and other stores across from our dorms, and Emily and I explored some random parts of Freiburg that we really had no need to go to. When we met Silke, we met the rest of the UMass kids, minus Peter, as his flight was delayed. Silke took us on a tour to her office, the bank, and finally to Fierelings, a bar in Freiburg where we got dinner. The sausage there was quite delicious. When we got back to our dorms, we all pretty much passed out.
The next day Silke got us registered with the city and then we went to our first day of language course, which was amazing. The class was entirely in German, and if not for the fact that everyone in the room could pretty much speak basic English, despite the fact that I was the only American/English-native in the room, I might not have gotten through it. Adel, an Egyptian guy, was particularly helpful and entertaining to talk to. After classes, we had a few hours to kill before meeting Silke at the Deutsch Bank to set up accounts. when the time finally came, Eliza, Jessica and I couldn't find the bank. We tried asking for directions, but apparently no one knows where the giant DB is. One guy even completely snubbed us. Eliza eventually got directions from Silke.
Sean, Peter, Sara, Jessica and I all had one bank teller set up our accounts, who told us all the coolest places to go. He mentioned a food market that sells all the best foods from all over, and a shot bar that we have visit before I try to describe it. He was very enthusiastic, and I'm pretty sure Sara now has a crush on him. Oh well. After the bank, we went to a reception the language course was hosting, which was quite hard to find. Sara and I accidentally walked into it and ended up being the first ones in. They had champagne, pretzels, and some orange-juice cocktail. All pretty good, and we all got to talk for a while. We then went back to the dorms and Sara, Emily and I went to the StusieBar to get internet access. We got a few drinks, got to plan out some adventures, and had a good time. After the bar, we went on an adventure through town, got a bit lost, found a Turkish place where Sara and Emily grabbed food before we headed back to Sara's dorm. We tried making crepes, but the flour was the wrong type, so we ended up making some noodle concoction. Add a little nutella and it was edible. We ended up dubbing the night the night of the not-crepes, and we went to bed way too late. Today is not over, so I'll save that for another time.
I haven't taken many pictures so far, so I apologize, but as soon as I take some, I'll be sure to try to upload them. Freiburg has some really beautiful locations in it.
Auf Wiedersehen!
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