Pamplemousse

So I'm down to my last two days in Freiburg, and I figured it was time for some updates!

I was in Paris a couple of weekends ago and it was amazing. My feet were really sore, and my backpack was too heavy, but it was awesome anyway.

Things I like about Paris:

The Combo City

If you have one chance to go to any city in Europe, go to Paris. Its big enough to keep you occupied for a while, and to me it felt like all the other cities I've visited all rolled into one. It has great museums and monuments like Berlin, gorgeous Churches and architecture like Prague, crazy moped drivers like Rome, and shopping like Amsterdam - but better. The distinct neighborhoods of Paris provide every kind of environment imaginable. I don't know if it was my favorite city I've visited, but it definitely had the most to offer.

le Tour de France

Without even realizing it, we planned our trip for the same weekend as le Tour de France. It did make things a little crazier during our visit, but it was worth it! Before the race there was a parade, but not with the slow moving floats you usually expect. There were floats made of fiberglass, weaving up and down the Champs-Elyées at 40mph. There were cars carrying people who had to be strapped into harnesses to keep them from flying off the floats into the crowd.  For the last 40km or so of the race the riders make 8 loops along the Champs-Elysées, the high end shopping street of Paris. So for about an hour we watched the riders zoom past us 16 times. Even though I pay no attention to the cycling world, it was awesome. I never realized how fast  cyclists were until I got back all these blurry pictures. My shutter speed couldn't keep up.

Sadly this leads me to the things I don't like about Paris.

Quacking Pigeons.

For your sake, I am going to replace all less savory words with "quack." This is for my own sake as well; I wont have to type profanity for the next 5 minutes. So all was well and good, as we were waiting for the cyclists to ride into the city. We had been doing a lot of walking, so I decided to sit down and rest my feet. Thank goodness I did. Where I was standing, where the top of my head would have been, there was now quack splattered all over the pavement. I laughed at my good luck. Had I not decided to sit, I would have been covered in pigeon quack. Little did I know there wasn't just one pigeon.

A few minutes later, the woman to my left was quacked on. Then the man on my right. It seemed that this was about to be a Quack Attack. People were using foam fingers, sweaters, anything, to protect their heads, but none of us knew when the quacking would happen. I eventually put a hat on so that at least my hair wouldn't get quacked. It seemed like in this group of people, standing under a pigeon-filled tree, I was the only one who had avoided the quack. I was trying to make myself as small as possible, hoping that the wind, and the bad pigeon aim would save me. Sadly it did not. I would have preferred quack on my hat covered head, but instead I got it all over my bare arm. It was a very good thing a mother of four was standing next to us. She had napkins, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, and she was my savior. After some quick clean up, and a lot of FREAKING OUT I managed to make it through the end of the race. I had a great view of the cyclists, and an interesting story to go with it.

I wish that quacking wasn't half of my post, but it was probably the most memorable part of Paris, for me. The ridiculousness of the situation left all of us laughing for hours - no quack. 

As I said, Paris was so much fun. Unfortunately it was our last European travel adventure before heading home. I'm so sad to leave! This has been an unforgettable experience, and the best five months of my life. I've never made so many amazing friends, and even though it would mean a trip to the dreaded University of Indiana, I'm so glad I can visit at least some of them state side.

Until next post,

Kate

Amnesia

Hi everyone! I know its been far too long. My only excuse for the lack of posting is amnesia, but to make up for it I'm writing this picture-filled post! July has been a fun filled month of festivals (of course throw some classes in there too).

To kick off July the right way, of course, we had our own 4th of July cookout with all the american students. There were even sparklers! Earlier in the day we made an effort to hit up the american franchises in Freiburg. Though I regret the trip to McDonald's, there's nothing like drinking an ice cold Frappuccino for the first time in 5 months.

There have also been wine festivals in the surrounding towns, a month-long music festival, and Sommer Fests  in all of the student neighborhoods. At the Zelt Musik Festival a few friends and I saw Iron and Wine perform and even took a picture with Sam Beam!

One Saturday we hiked up to the windmills overlooking Freiburg and found some fun little critters. I am oddly fascinated by slugs and the ones we found were gigantic! I want to reassure you, that even though according to the camp I went to as a child, it is good luck to lick a slug, I passed on the opportunity this time around. At the Ihringen wine festival that evening, I realized why we didn't see many snails on the hike. I would also like to mention that in German snails are Schnecken while slugs are Nacktschneken or naked-snails. Thats just another example of how literal the german language can be.




As you can see, July has been busy! Its not over yet though. This weekend I'm heading to Paris, my last big trip in Europe. Then in two weeks I'll be heading home!

Until next post,
Kate

What to do when your parents come to visit.

So now you know all about driving around with my parents, but I suppose I should talk about what we did while they were here right? Here goes!

Mmmmm

I was often doing a bit of translating. From ordering at restaurants, to interpreting signs on the Autobahn, and I felt like I was doing a pretty good job. Sometimes, however, I missed the small details that make all the difference. Starting with our first dinner in Freiburg. I had asked for english menus, ordered drinks, and thought I did ok on telling my parents what the unfamiliar dishes were. Then came the Matjesfilet. I assumed based on the "filet" part and because it was on a fish menu that it was just some sort of fillet of some fish. When I ordered it for my dad, the waiter asked me if I knew what it was, and I started to get concerned. Turns out I had ordered him a plate of raw herring. I also might have gotten him a dish that consisted entirely of sliced bologna at some point too. Oops. After that he stuck to schnitzel for a while.

In Salzburg we visited the Mirabell Gardens, a few museums, a castle, Mozart's house etc. etc. All of which was really interesting. We even went to a Mozart concert. But there's one thing in Salzburg that you just can't miss: the Sound of Music tour. Salzburg was not only home to the real Von Trapp family, but also where many of the scenes for the movie were filmed. Now, I like the Sound of Music, though all too often the music stays stuck in my head for weeks, but there are some serious fans out there. As we jumped on the tour bus I could tell we saw a wide range of them. Though most were people like me, we also had a father-daughter pair who were a little obsessed. Every time we stepped off the tour bus for pictures, Dad would video tape Daughter singing songs from the movie. Her rendition of "Sixteen going on Seventeen" in front of the glass pavilion was my favorite. On the other end of the spectrum we had the single, twenty-something guy, who just happened to be in Salzburg and his mom begged him to go. If you could only have seen the terrified look on his face when the tour guide said we would be doing a sing along on the bus. I was feeling pretty sorry for him and then my parents started singing, so we were pretty much in the same boat.

On our way to Munich we stopped at a salt mine, which turned out to be really cool. We also took a tour of the Eagles Nest and Hitler's Obersalzburg complex. Though I learned more about Hitler than I ever thought I would, the best part was the view from the Eagle's Nest.

In Munich we spent a nice, but really rainy weekend with Josi's family, and took some time to find my dad a good pair of Lederhosen.

So there you have it! My parents' visit all rolled up into two blog posts.

Driving through Deutschland

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry I have been so neglectful about posting. I was writing a Hausarbeit for school (yuck) and then we had Pfinkst Pause (no classes for a week) and my parents came to visit! It was great having them here and I really enjoyed showing them Freiburg, but anyway, lets get right to the good stuff:

We didn't just stay in Freiburg for their week long visit. We drove to Salzburg and Munich where we met up with Josi's family. Vacationing with my parents was a nice change, because now I could go out to eat, rather than living off of Nutella sandwiches, or stay in a hotel instead of a 10 bunk hostel room. 

On our trip we drove from Freiburg to Salzburg then to Munich and back to Freiburg. There was no reason to add to the already difficult task of driving through a foreign country, so we chose to take a GPS with us. Dagmar, as we fondly named the GPS, took us on great routes through southern germany, winding around roads through the Black Forest and the Alps. She did try and trick us a few times though. Once she changed our destination entirely (or maybe that was Mom), and she sent us through so many round-a-bouts my head was spinning. 

We stopped in Lindau on the way, a town on the beautiful lake Constance. And other than that though the drive was really scenic, but pretty normal. 

I'm afraid I'm forgetting something though..... There was one more thing about the drive. Getting through Salzburg to our hotel was a bit of an adventure. After Dagmar sent us in circles for half an hour (that was fun) we found our hotel on a tiny little one way street. As we pulled up to the hotel to drop off our luggage we noticed there was construction at the end of the street and the only path to get through it was about the width of a large sidewalk. Marieanne, the hotel manager insisted that we could drive our car through this narrow path and then around the corner to get to the parking lot. Granted, we were driving a VW Golf, which is not very wide, but to anyone who was watching us (and at this point there were quite a few) there was no way that car was fitting between the construction fence and stone building without losing a bit of paint.

After watching us line it up a few times, Marieanne's dad came out to help and moved the construction fence entirely. I don't know how my dad was able to get through with only inches to spare on each side of the car, a growing group of onlookers, and my mom and I on the verge of tears from laughing so hard at the insanity of the situation. 

But it didn't end there. After making it through the alley, we turned on to a pedestrian street. Now, in my experience, PEDESTRIAN street means no cars, but once again Marieanne insisted that this was the right way. So after dodging people on that street for a while we finally made it to the parking lot. We never moved the car again until we left Salzburg. 

More to come! Sorry this Blog is a little picture-less. I was far too busy laughing to take any pictures. But I'll write more about my trip soon (including what we actually did on the trip).

Bye!

Fun times in Freiburg

Hi everyone!
I realize that last week's post about classes wasn't exactly uplifting, and it was completely devoid of pictures, so this week I thought I would tell you all about the fun things to do in Freiburg! Starting with:

Eating Gelato

So simple I know, but gelato is amazing (and I couldn't in good conscience write another post without mentioning food). Unlike in the US where a "serving" is almost too big to eat by yourself, you can get three scoops and still want more. Plus at around 80 cents a scoop its really affordable. There are a lot of times when I'm just walking around the city and can't resist getting a scoop or two. You can also find very unique flavors: Lemon basil with strawberries, papaya, cantaloupe, chocolate ginger, pear...and the list goes on. I don't think I've gone a week without eating gelato at least once.


Winning at Bingo


There are restaurants all around the city that host different events. Some times its trivia, or just meal specials, but last week we found bingo. And I WON! That probably was the best part. On any given day there's always something going on if you want to spend the evening out. From Karaoke to celtic dancing lessons to really cheap movies, you can do it all.

Speaking of movies, the most recent one I saw was "Friendship" ( I know the name sounds ridiculous) and it was so good! Its a german movie, but if you can find it with subtitles, or speak german, you should watch it! Four or five nights a week the university hosts movie events where you can watch a movie for 1.50 Euros and bring your own snacks.

Festivals and Markets


Everyday in the city center there is a huge fresh produce market. Its also a great place to get a Käsewurst if you're hungry. There's a smaller Market two days a week for all the local produce and baked goods. Every month there's a flea market, and a few weeks ago there was even a Medieval market! Like I said, there's always stuff going on.

Last weekend was the stone carving festival. I can hear you saying it : "Stone carving festival??" Yes. It was really cool. Stone carvers from all over the world come to this festival to show off their skills. These craftsmen are actually needed quite a bit in Europe, because all of the old gothic buildings that need restoring, still have all the stone carving done by hand. Some of the stone work was pretty spectacular. At the end of the festival, there was a huge auction to buy the pieces.

If you're interested in something a little more fast-paced, carnivals are also not too hard to find. I have to say, I think the rides at carnivals are a little scarier in europe. There are no signs telling people with heart conditions not to ride, or that you shouldn't ride if your pregnant. How are people going to know not to ride if they have these conditions? The rides also go on forever. I swear we were on one for a good ten minutes. Every time I thought it was going to slow down, it just did another loop.

Well there you have it. Some fun things to do in Freiburg. Until next post!
Kate

Let's get down to business

Well, I'm not sure how interesting this will be, but people keep asking me, so I suppose I should post about it. Classes in Freiburg....GO!

An overview:
I'm going to go ahead and say it. Yes. Classes are hard. Now, whether they are hard in general I don't think I can fully say, but because German is my second language, that about quadruples the difficulty level for me. Lectures seem to be very similar to those in the US, except that they are all 90 minutes, usually don't have a powerpoint, and the majority of the students actually do the reading to prepare class. Oh, I forgot, and they don't have any required work throughout the semester, just a GIGANTIC paper and a 45 minute presentation, or just a final exam at the end of the semester. I guess they aren't really that similar after all. But there are professors. And lectures.

For the diligent student, this is great. You can work on two things for a class the entire semester and make them amazing. For the procrastinating student, this doesn't quite work. For american students, who are used to assignments throughout the semester, lots of deadlines and tests; this is a little difficult to get used to.

My classes:

I am taking five classes, all in German.

1. German History after WWII - with all american students
2. Immigration in Germany - with all international students
3. Writing Practice in German - with all international students
4. Knights of the Middle Ages - with all german students
5. Something like philosophy - with american students, germans students, and some senior citizens

2,3, and 4 are all only one day a week for 90 minutes. 1and 5 are two days a week, but all of these classes are on Tuesday and Wednesday. It has been so great to have the free time during the week to brush up on my German, prepare for class, and start writing papers. 

I often wonder what it would be like to take these courses in English. Because I think they're all interesting, but also because my understanding ranges from 90% - 10% depending on the topic and the professor, so they would definitely be even more interesting if I understood more of what was going on. In addition, if you want to take notes on the lecture, choose wisely on what you write down. You may very well be confused about whats being said for the next 10 minutes and miss something more important than what you decided to write down.

Anybody ready to study abroad yet? I know I'm painting such a great picture. But really, though I was overwhelmed for the first two weeks of classes, and I still, on occasion (or maybe daily basis), wonder what on earth I've gotten myself into, I really am enjoying the challenge and adventure of it all. I continue to realize how gutsy studying abroad is, especially when your classes are not in english.

So there you have it! The whole reason I'm here: to study, and have a great time, in this sunny little town in Germany.

Until next post,

Kate

Amsterdam

I know its been a while, but classes started last week so I've been getting myself organized.
My last trip before classes was to Amsterdam. Its an awesome city to visit in the spring when all the tulips are in bloom! We went just at the right time too. It was peak tulip season and we spent almost an entire day at a garden north of Amsterdam calling every flower our new favorite. There were so many colors and varieties we couldn't keep them straight. I now have an entire album of screen saver pictures from this garden. Most of which involve fun close up camera settings!

But tulips were only one day. We took a tour of the city, ate indonesian - the traditional dutch food, avoided the red light district, visited the Anne Frank house, ate some gouda, tried on clogs, and went to some great street markets.  Amsterdam is not very big, so it gave us a chance to go up and down many of the canal streets. Thanks to our tour guide, I now know lots of things about the canals:

1. They are recirculated three times a week and therefore don't smell (like in Venice - our guide was proud to say)
2. 10,000 bike a year are dragged out of the canals (math time: thats 27.4 every day!)

Well apparently I only know two things about the canals. But they are really pretty and give the whole city a very tranquil feeling.

Because Queens Day was coming up there were carnivals everywhere. Our favorite had very tall swings, and from the top you could see all around the city. This carnival was where we first experienced Joppie sauce. I know you all were waiting for me to talk about food. Joppie sauce is sort of like honey mustard. Sort of. I really don't know how to describe it, but it is a french fry dipping sauce, and is really really tasty. As were the fries.

With all these trips I was very glad to finally be back in Freiburg for a while. Even if that did mean starting classes. In total, I was in Freiburg for 8 days during the month of April. Fortunately, now I will have lots of time to enjoy the city! Well, unless I'm studying.

I promise I will post again soon!

Italian Adventures Pt. II

 Ok so on to the next part of our journey, ROME!

I think I was a little surprised by all the hustle and bustle when we got to Rome. After visiting the sleepy towns of Cinque Terre, it just seemed crazy. Partially because it was. Traffic in Rome was terrifying. Mopeds, cars and trucks all squished together on tiny streets. I'm surprised I only saw one little fender-bender. To add to the chaos, the mopeds drive through stopped traffic to get to the front of a huge line of cars. When the light changes, its like Marokart. Everyone darts and weaves to make sure they get to the finish line fastest.

Besides the tourists everywhere, and the crazy traffic, Rome is a great city that you just can't passover on a trip through Italy. The colosseum, forum, and palatino are all beautiful. Its hard to imagine that people actually fought to the death in the colosseum, walked through the market streets of the forum, or lived in a great Palace on Palatino hill during the time of the Roman empire. We also visited the Vatican and marveled at St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. We took the the stairs to the top of St. Peter's dome, which gave us a great view of the Vatican, as well as Rome.

Though I know I usually spend at least a paragraph talking about food, nothing about the food in Rome is coming to mind. Of course it was great. Pasta, pizza and focaccia are awesome, and there was this great little place by our hostel that was really good as long as you didn't want the tuna surprise. However, there was nothing as amazing as the gelato we got in Florence, our final stop before returning to Germany.

It honestly makes me drool thinking about it. It was absolutely the best gelato I have ever eaten. After doing the math, we figured out that between two of us, in the three days we were in Florence, we could get three scoops a day and try every flavor. Sadly that dream went down the drain when it was closed on Monday, but we still managed to go back more than once. The chocolate was so rich it was like eating cold melted chocolate. The coffee was the perfect balance of coffee and sweetness that is so hard to master. The passion fruit was incredible. The ginger was amazing. I mean there really was not a single flavor that didn't make me want to eat only gelato for the rest of my life. Even the peanut butter, which is not a flavor of gelato I would ever think to get.

Besides gelato, Florence is a cute little italian town, full of renaissance architecture and street markets. We visited the Accademia and saw Michelangelo's David, the Doumo, and many many churches. Sadly after 9 days of picture taking, my camera battery died. I wasn't able to capture much of the city, but all the more reason for you to visit yourself! Then you can really experience haggling prices with street vendors and walking by the river at dusk. 

I just got back from the Netherlands yesterday, so be sure to check back for another post very soon. In the mean time, classes will be starting on Monday which will be very interesting to say the least. I hope I haven't forgotten all my German during this month. 

Until next post,

                 Kate

Italian Adventures!

I'm finally back from my 12 day tour of Italy and because there's just so much to talk about I'm going to make TWO posts.

Cinque Terre

Happy faces packing for our hike

We started our journey in Cinque Terre, an area on the north west coast of Italy with 5 small fishing towns connected by trains and hiking trails. It was absolutely amazing. Our first night was spent in Levanto, the city just north of Cinque Terre where we were really excited to try our hand at camping. Though it seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm not sure its an experience I want to repeat. Though we did borrow a tent from a friend, we only had two sleeping bags for four people. I don't know how good your math is, but even with two measly fleece blankets, all that really adds up to is: not quite warm enough. Clearly we didn't think that one all the way through until it was too late, but the good news is that it was only for one night, and we did enjoy chatting and giggling late into the night about the ridiculous the situation.

After a great night of sleep in the tent we hiked into the first town in Cinque Terre: Monterosso. It was an amazing three hour hike with beautiful views of the Italian coast. Though the terrain was rather rugged and we had packs that must have weighed 1000 pounds, it was probably one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip and now I have beastly leg muscles.

Up the stairs we go!

We stayed in Riomaggiore, the southern most town of Cinque Terre. We spent our days hiking up the hilly trails, visiting all the towns, and relaxing on the rocky coast.

Before heading to Rome we spent the night in La Spezia, a cute little town, but not a tourist destination. There was great shopping and this delicious frozen yogurt place. We only stayed one night, but went to the yogurt place twice for a melted dark chocolate and strawberry covered treat. From La Spezia we were off to Rome!

Visiting Berlin and Prague was amazing! I don't know how to fit everything into one post, but I'll make sure to hit the high points.

I got to Berlin on Thursday and spent time sight seeing. We hit all the high points on our tour but I must say my favorite parts of Berlin involved eating. After visiting the Holocaust Memorial and museum, Brandenburger Tor and the Berlin wall we explored one of the northern sections of Berlin. It was filled with unique little shops and thrift stores and one of the best Vietnamese restaurants. ever. It was like Com Dunwoody on steroids. Maybe it was the familiarity that made it so good, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Holocaust memorial

Friday we went to the Turkish market and ate these spinach and cheese filled fried-flat-bread-things. So tasty. The market was also really interesting. A mix of hand crafts, fabrics, breads, meats (including chicken livers and hearts. yum.) olives, cheeses and other stands all along one street of the Turkish district.

It has become a bit of a tradition here in Freiburg to have Dönner Donnerstag. In english: Turkish gyro Thursday. It sounds much better in German. Even though we were in Berlin, and it was Friday, we kept up the tradition.

This dönner was different than the traditional, with the addition of roasted veggies, and herb bread. Every bite was a little different and always delicious.

Then we took the late afternoon to Prague for the second leg of our adventure. When we got to the main train station, though we had a little trouble adjusting to the language, we made it through the subway to our street. Well, what we thought was our street. It took about half an hour to really figure out where we were going. We finally got streets Jansky and Janska figured out, and made it to our hostel, but they were overbooked. Though there was a brief panic that the streets of Prague might be our hostel for the night,  they said we had been moved to the suite in the four star hotel up the street. We didn't have any problems after that.

Prague was BEAUTIFUL. Every building was unique and full of history that I still don't fully understand.  We spent a lot of time just wandering through the streets. The Prague Castle is a huge area on a hill overlooking Prague. The main building there is not the castle, its the St. Vitus Cathedral, which can be seen from across the river in the Old Town

 

In every city there is some specialty that can't be found anywhere else and in Prague it was trdelniks. Its dough rapped around a big metal rolling pin that is then baked and doused in nuts and cinnamon sugar. They also make really good telescopes.

After four days in Prague, it was back to Freiburg on the night train. Twelve hours on a train is just about as fun as it sounds. Overall it was a great trip and the perfect start to April. In two days I'll be leaving to go to Cinque Terre, the starting point for our tour through Italy. I'll also check out Rome and Florence, possibly Venice as well.

Arrivederci!

Die Störche in Strasbourg

So last week our Sprachkurs ended and now I am getting ready to fly to Berlin! I'm so excited to go back to such a great city and then go on to Prague.

I went to Strasbourg on Monday and had a lovely time there with my good friend Josi. Though I think I like Freiburg better, Stasbourg is lovely too. We saw all the important things: the European Union Complex, Cathedrale, Place Kleber, Petite France, and Place Gutenberg. My favorite was Parc de L'Orangerie. It was a huge park right next to the EU buildings. In the spring, storks fly from Africa to nest there. I don't think I've ever seen storks in the wild before and they were nesting everywhere in this park.

Störche!

Me at the EU building

I know this is a very short post, but I'm off to Berlin! I'll write a lot about my trip when I get back.

Grocery store

This week has been pretty normal, mostly just going to class, nothing too crazy. It is our last week of intensive language courses and then we have all of April off until the summer semester which starts at the beginning of May. I'll probably post a lot about food on this blog, because food is delicious. Starting with this lovely soda I found the other day:


"The Spirit of Georgia" I had to buy it, but it is not peach flavored, as you might initially guess. It is blood orange prickly pear soda, and now thanks to dizzyfinks.com I know that it is in fact a Coke product! Apparently its a lower sugar, less sweet brand Coke is using in Germany. I will have to try the other flavors next: green mango kiwi peach (I believe thats just one flavor) and lime.

So I thought I would take a moment to talk about German grocery stores. I know it seems like of all the places to talk about, why would I pick that right? Well, for a store that is needed everywhere, in Germany they are surprisingly different than in the states.

First of all, it seems like all the Germans go to the store knowing exactly what they want. Food shopping is not leisurely walking down the aisles scoping out all the different cereals. Its more like a mission. Get in, get out, quick decisions. The shoppers aren't the only speedy ones. The cashiers scan everything very quickly. Its impossible to keep up with them as you try to throw everything in your eco-friendly, reusable bag before the next customer's food comes flying in your direction.

The other thing is that you weigh your own produce and put a scanning sticker on it. They don't do it at the register. If you don't put a scan sticker on it, you end up holding up an entire line of people at the register. And to add to it if you have no idea what that cashier is saying when they ask you to weigh it, they go at do it for you, making the situation even more embarrassing. I suppose that only happens once though and then you never do it again. This may or may not be something I know from personal experience.

I have have become a little obsessed with Germany yogurt. Though I rarely eat yogurt in the states, here its amazing. As are the flavors. Does pear apple yogurt exist in the US? I think not.

From left to right is apricot, peach passion fruit and pear apple, three of my favorites. Though I have seen orange marzipan, I have been a little afraid to try it...

With that I will end this post, but I would love to hear thoughts about where to go in Prague, Rome, and Florence. I am planning to visit these cities during April and can always use sight seeing advice!

Food, Freddy, Forest, and Fun!

So it has been about a week since my last post and I thought an update might be nice. I'm taking one german language class and then another about german culture. Its really been great exposure to the language.

Other than classes, this weekend I played tourist and went to a restaurant known for its local specialties and then on Saturday to Schwarzwald - the black forest. Friday night I went with a group of other international students to Ihringer Strauβe - and no I don't mean ostrich. Ihringer is a small town outside of Frieburg and this is where we had our typisches essen. You know how they say its all about the journey not the destination? Well, although the food was excellent as was the wine from the local vineyard, the most interesting part was getting there. We had to walk to this restaurant from the trains station, which is perfectly reasonable, but about halfway through our walk we turned onto a road with no street lamps and only vineyards on either side. So it was a dusky journey to the restaurant and a very, very dark trip back. I think I can speak for everyone in the group when I say we were all on the look out for Freddy Krueger and Jason. As far as I know everyone made it back...

This is Flammkuchen from the restaurant and though it may just look like a pizza, it is sooo much better!

Schwarzwald was absolutely beautiful. Rolling hills with patches of evergreen forest, there really is no better place to be on a sunny day.

After a visit to St. Peters church, we took a leisurely hike to a local restaurant for schnitzel and black forest cake. Did I mention this was a very tourist-y trip? Well, if you haven't thought so yet I'm getting there. After lunch we went to a cuckoo clock workshop, where they have been hand making cuckoo clocks for five generations. Though I wouldn't say that cuckoo clocks are my style, the work they put into them is amazing. Every detail on each clock is hand carved and each craftsman only works on their own clocks to show off their unique style.

 OK now for the piece de resistance. I know you all have been wondering. Before heading back to Freiburg we visited: the worlds largest cuckoo clock. Its basically this little house this guy built that looks like a cuckoo clock on the outside. The slightly more interesting thing about it is that it does actually work. It is run exactly the same as a regular cuckoo clock, except all the gears are about 500 times the regular size. Though it was slightly underwhelming, I'm glad I can say I've seen it. 

Heres the cuckoo clock house in all its glory.

All in all a lovely weekend. Who knows what I'll be seeing next!

Rosenmontag

So I have been in Freiburg for a week now and quite a bit has happened. Right now I'm taking a german language course in the mornings, and I feel like its really helpful. Who knows how much my german will improve with this three week course!

Today we had no class because of Rosenmontag (the german version of pre-lent festivities) and along with that it was the Freiburg Faschings the local festival to get ready for spring. The Freiburger Hexen are witches that "sweep" away winter and in the process they parade through the street, make a lot of noise, and douse people in confetti. Each of the small towns surrounding Freiburg also have their own witches who participate in the parade. They all wore scary wooden masks and would come up to people and scare them or other mischievous things...like give them new hair do's.  

I think that if people wore scary masks like these in a parade in the US all of the kids would be very afraid of them, but here, though a few are, most of the kids loved the attention from the witches.

So thats whats been going on this weekend in Freiburg along with a day trip to Basel and some hiking in the hills. 

More later!

To stamp or not to stamp?

Hello everyone!

      I did make it to Freiburg, although it took me two planes, a bus and a taxi. My flights and such were uneventful, thankfully, but my flight to Basel was late, which made me very worried about catching the bus on time. Upon arriving in Basel I rushed to get my bag and then through customs to make the bus, but I made it with half an hour to spare. I could not figure out why it took so little time. And then it hit me. No one had stamped my passport. I need the stamp to get a visa. So I went back to the information desk to see if I needed to go back through customs and the woman at the desk called the Police. The Policeman came, looked at my passport and said he would take it to get stamped. The whole ten minutes he was gone all I could think was: A. he going to make me go into one of those customs rooms and question me, B. arrest me, or C. just keep my passport and never give it back and then what would I do?!
        In the end, he came back with the stamped passport, and I left to go to the bus. I finally made it to my destination after 14 hours of travel.

I will be sure to post again as soon as something interesting happens, but as of right now I'm mostly just learning how to find my way around the city.

ciao!