School

So I finally started school here in the middle of October. Since my German isn’t that great, I’m not taking any courses at the actual University yet. I’m taking two courses that are run through AYF (the program I came here with). These courses are German history and German literature. I’m also taking two classes that are run through the SprachLehrInstitut. Basically these classes are meant for foreign students such as myself. Those two classes that I’m taking are Germany and Europe and 60 Years of the German Federal Republic. The final class I’m taking is at the Pädagogische Hochschule. Basically in Germany they do education differently, and when some students don’t go to the university, they go to the hochschule instead. So my class has all German students in it, except for me and three other Americans from my program. This class is basically learning about girl books versus boy books. This class is probably one of my more intense ones. I already have to read 4 books in German and write papers on them. It’s not TOO bad, but very time consuming.

A cool thing I find with German schools, is that after the teacher or professor lectures, everyone claps by knocking the knuckles of their hands against the desk. (sorry it’s kind of hard to describe) It’s pretty cool because it shows a sign of respect for your teacher and it’s a way of saying “thanks for teaching and sharing your knowledge with us.”

Randoms

There’s some random things that are different from the U.S. The grocery store here is called “Kaufland” and it is two stories high… so they have an escalator for grocery carts! It’s really cool!

Also, I have to take the Straßenbahn practically everywhere. The Straßenbahn is the streetcar that runs all through Freiburg.

One thing that bugs me here about the crosswalks is that if you don’t leave to cross the street RIGHT when it turns green, it’ll turn red on you while you’re crossing. Although, if I’m catching onto the method here correctly, the traffic lights don’t turn green for the cars at that point; it’s still a red light for them a little longer.

A cool thing about dogs here, is that they all just kind of roam on their own. An owner will be walking with their dog through the city, and the dog will have no leash on. The dog behaves and when the owner calls the dog, he’ll just go running towards the owner. Dogs are allowed on the Straßenbahns and in stores too. It’s really weird, and I’m still getting used to seeing random dogs in these places.

Also I have to mention that this past week there were student protests throughout Freiburg. They were protesting the cost of tuition here. In Baden-Württemberg students have to pay 500 Euros a semester. This kind of put me in shock because if that's the amount of tuition that I had to pay, I'd be super excited and happy. Apparently, tuition used to be free for them, and now that they have to pay this money they are protesting it. I guess if I grew up with tuiton being free and then I had to pay that money, I might be protesting too.

ITALY!!

I went to Italy a while back before school started, but now I’ll share my trip! I took a train from Freiburg to Vicenza, which is where I’ll be staying whenever I come to Italy- it’s where my brother Justin lives. :) I arrived at his apartment, and it is absolutely gorgeous! The first night we just went out and ate doner kebabs and I met a few of his friends.

The next day was my first day of venturing Italy in the daylight, and I loved it! Everything was so pretty and sooo different from Germany! That’s one thing I will never get over about Europe: you barely go any distance and yet there is a completely different culture right around the corner! But Italy is amazing. Justin took me out to wander through Vicenza, and we had a small hike going on! We hiked up a gigantic staircase and huge hill to a church. There was a sidewalk on one side that had a covering over it; Justin told me it was where people would do a knee-crawl to the church. They built the covering over it so that people could do it while it was raining. The church was absolutely gorgeous though. Justin told me that many people here visit churches for the artwork, and I definitely see why. The whole church is just like an entire piece of artwork; it’s completely different from any churches I’ve seen in Germany. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures. After this Justin had to stop by work real quick at the army base. When we got there, he told me that there was a grocery store with ALL American stuff, and I took advantage of it. I got American taco seasoning, taco shells, Kraft macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, and pancake mix!!! EVERTHING I’VE BEEN DYING TO GET MY HANDS ON SINCE I GOT HERE! And to make me even happier, they had a taco bell, which was my dinner!

On a different day we went to Venice. This city is soooo beautiful! It was crazy to see all the water that goes up to a person’s doorstep in person! I loved seeing all the gondolas too. Just how it looked in textbooks. :) The first half of the day it was pouring and storming outside so after we church hopped, we went to a pizzeria to avoid the rain. We saw a bunch of different churches and they are all so beautiful. We also went to St. Mark’s church that was in Venice; his remains are in the church still. The church had SO much gold in it! It was ridiculous!!! It was very pretty, but too decorated for me. They also had relics of dead body parts of people they considered holy in the church. Not going to lie, that was pretty disgusting.

Another day that I was here we went to an antique market with Justin’s landlord and landlord’s wife. It was pretty cool to see antiques from a different country because everything is much, much older here.

Finally I just have to mention that I took a train back to Freiburg that went through Switzerland. At one point, I woke up and looked out the window and the train was going through the Alps!!! It was so beautiful! I would’ve taken pictures, but the window was really dirty so they wouldn’t have turned out. I definitely want to check the Alps out again; they look so much better in real life than in pictures!