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!