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!

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.