My past weekend trips

Either the first or second weekend here, the program took a trip to Basel, Switzerland. I loved everything about it except for the prices. Just about everything was way overpriced. The German there is also harder to understand because everyone has the Swiss-German accent. On the positive side, I was able to see the river Rhein for the first time! I also was able to check out a few very old churches. I love visiting old churches; they are all so beautiful and have amazing architecture.

Another weekend we went to Schauinsland. What this means is that I did a TON of hiking! I believe the program told us that it would be a short walk, but it definitely wasn’t! We basically ended up taking a bus up part of the way, and then hiked the rest. We stopped by an old house which was built in 1593 I believe. There was an old German guy giving us a tour; it was great. :) After this we hiked. A lot. But it was totally worth it because of all the beautiful pictures and views I got. It was absolutely gorgeous. Most of the time I literally felt like I was just looking at a painting the whole time. It’s still hard to believe that I’m actually seeing all this in real life! At the highest point we reached, you can see the Alps on a clear day. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy so we couldn’t, but I’m definitely planning on going back to check it all out again! It is already one of my favorite places in Freiburg.

The final field trip that my program took was to France. We stopped by Hoh Koenigsburg. This is a medieval castle, and a lot of it was rebuilt for Wilhelm the Second. It was soooo beautiful. I didn’t want to leave! The outside of the castle was gorgeous and had an amazing view from all the windows. After this we stopped by Colmar, a city in France. My first time in a French town; it was great! I could just sit there and watch those buildings all day. I wandered off with a few friends and we found this giant fountain and a two-story carousel (of course I had to go on it!) It was awesome. After this we went to an art museum that used to be a monastery if I remember correctly. It had so many beautiful religious artworks. It also had a huge alter piece, which was absolutely amazing to look at.

One Sunday I went with a group of about 15 people to Stuttgart’s Volkfest. The train ride was interesting to say the least. The trains were completely packed with people. I was very, very lucky and somehow managed to have a seat the whole way there! When we arrived there it was completely different than what I was expecting. It was just like a state fair back in the states. There were rides everywhere, little tents set up for people to sell stuff, and beer gardens everywhere. I went on the Ferris wheel with a few friends. After that we went to a few booths and…I finally bought a dirndl! That is the German female dress. The process of buying one was very interesting though. There was an old lady dressing me and yelling at me in German. Then when I told her I wanted to buy the dress, she wouldn’t let my put my other clothes back on. She told me that I had to buy it while wearing it and wear it out of the store. Normally I would be fine with this, but unfortunately I was wearing pumas that day. I just looked tacky the rest of the day, but it ended up working out in the end. After that we decided to wander around Stuttgart for a few hours. When we took a train back, one of our stops was for two hours in a city called Offenburg. It was about midnight at this time and nothing to do so we decided to check the city out: absolutely no night life there. Needless to say, I was happy when the train came back. I ended up not getting back to my apartment until about 3:00. Overall, it was a great day though. :)

Trying to summarize the very beginning

So I’ve been wanting to start a blog to track my whole year in Germany and see how it goes and such. And…I am finally starting it! Now that I’m a month in I’m going to try to rewind and remember everything. If I think of anything I forgot later on, I will be sure to add it in later! But here goes!!!!

So I flew from the Detroit airport on August 31, 2009 and switched planes in Washington D.C. and Vienna, Austria. I finally arrived in Frankfurt, Germany and all my flights were pretty good. Unfortunately, when I went to get my bags, I discovered that the airlines had lost them. My luck as usual. On a good note though, I didn’t have to try and carry huge suitcases with me on the train, which was a mess. I took a train from Frankfurt to Freiburg which lasted probably about an hour and half since I had to switch trains halfway through. Once I arrived I went to the table where we meet people from the program and they gave me the keys to my apartment and my room! There was someone there from the program who was also going to the same apartment so we decided to share a cab there together. I am so happy I did, cause otherwise I would have been completely lost! We arrived at the building, and sadly it probably took us about 20 minutes to figure out just how to find our apartments! We asked around for help and someone finally showed us how to find it. When I went into my room I met two of my roommates, one guy and one girl. When I explained that the airlines had lost my luggage, my female roommate took me to her closet and lent me some clothes and towels to use until I got my luggage back. It was VERY nice of her! Overall, I’m going to have six roommates. We have a bathroom with 2 toilets and a urinal, all in separate stalls of course! We also have a shower room with two showers in them, which is kind of stupid because we don’t take showers at the same time, but oh well! I absolutely love my room though. I finally have a closet I can fit all my clothes in, and the view is absolutely amazing. As soon as I walked into my room I walked straight to the window because it has a view overlooking the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). It is absolutely amazing. I am so lucky to be able to wake up to that every day.

The entire first week was basically getting used to the city of Freiburg. We took a few walking tours of the city and got used to the Straßenbahns (streetcars). Without those, I would never be able to get anywhere! I did purchase a bike, but I still have to get it. Whoops. Not too much happened this week. I was just trying to get used to where I live. The next four weeks we took a “German Language Intensive Course”. It just ended this past week and we now have a few weeks off until the University starts which is good. I feel like I knew a lot of the stuff they taught, but it was a good review, and I at least learned more vocabulary which will DEFINITELY help me during my time here.