A few things I've noticed...

I just wanted to write a quick post about a few things that I’ve noticed about the Germans since I’ve been here, some good, some not so good, some funny, some interesting, but all worth writing about!

1. People always say that Germans never jaywalk and they will give you murderous looks if you ever dare to do it, but all I’ve experienced is waiting (for forever!) for the light to change to green while everyone else around me crosses the street while the light is red. Maybe it’s because Freiburg is kind of a college town and is full of young people who don’t care, but that kind of surprised me.

2. I also read an article back at U of M about how the Germans hate open windows and breezes because they’re afraid of getting sick from a draft, but everyone here keeps their windows open! They love breezes and fresh air here in Freiburg.

3. If you’re eating in a restaurant, the waitress will not come up to you periodically and ask you how your meal is, if you need anything else, or if you’d like the check. Once you order, you’re essentially on your own and you have to flag down the waitress when you want to pay. I actually like this system because the waiters/waitresses in America have an annoying habit of speaking to you when your mouth is full of food and all you can do is nod and grunt.

4. If an elderly person comes on the tram and you try to give up your seat, more often than not he/she will refuse it and choose to stand. My intensive course instructor said you know when they want to sit because they’ll look you in the eye and ask for your seat directly.

5. Where are the water fountains? I feel constantly dehydrated and have taken to carrying around a liter bottle of water everywhere I go because I have yet to see a water fountain in this city. Not one. They’re playing “Let’s Hide from the American!”

I don’t know how the Germans do it.

6. Everyone knows this but I’ll say it anyway. Germans are very prompt and on time. They are also dependable, I asked my roommate Temel for the time and place where I pick up my router for my internet and he said he’d look it up for me. Apparently I was out when he came to tell me and he didn’t have my phone number, so he slapped it on my door in the form of a Post-It note and it was waiting for me the next morning!

7. Almost always strangers on the street speak to each other when they pass each other. It caught me of guard the first couple of times but now I’m quick to respond with a friendly “Hallo!”

8. If you start a conversation with a German in German and they can tell you’re American, they automatically switch to English. I’m sure they think they’re being helpful and making it easier on us, but all we want to do is practice our German!

That’s all I’ve noticed for now but I’m sure there will be more things to come!

Markthalle, Reward Hiking with Good Food!

Early last week I ate a wonderful dinner of chicken curry with my friend Allison. We went to a place downtown, which is essentially a food court, but a thousand times better. You can choose from Persian, Indian, Arabic, Brazilian, French, “American”, and Bavarian dishes, and probably a lot more that I’m forgetting! Allison and I both opted to have the chicken curry dish. It was a plate piled with fresh rice, huge chunks of chicken in curry sauce, lettuce, a tomato slice, and a chip (yes, just one), all for just 7 Euros. It was perfectly filling and magically delicious, just like lucky charms!

By the way, this entire entry is going to be about food. Just a heads up!

On Sunday morning, Allison, Michael, Marisa and I met around 9:30 in the morning and grabbed some coffee and something small for breakfast, then hopped on the trap towards downtown. We got off at the same stop where the restaurant that we had the fancy reception party a short while ago is. That restaurant is built onto/into a mountain and that’s the mountain we needed to hike up. The goal was to find another restaurant (whose name eludes me at the moment) located about 4 kilometers up the hiking path that has an absolutely wonderful Sunday brunch. There were a lot of signs along the path so it was easy to get there and the walk went pretty quickly because I was with good people and there was no lack of conversation!

Delicious brunch spread

Once we made it to the restaurant one of the waitresses took our drink orders (the buffet came with one cold drink like orange juice and one hot drink) and told us to grab a plate and head on through the buffet. The spread was incredible: regular croissants, croissants filled with chocolate, an assortment of breads, three different kinds of jams/spreads, little packets of Nutella (they love Nutella here!), fresh fruit salad, fresh sliced tomato and chunks of mozzarella, strawberry and plain yogurt, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, salmon, what I believe was thinly sliced turkey, granola and muesli. The food was delicious and it was the perfect reward for our morning hike, despite a freak incident involving a fork, flying cheese, and an unfortunately placed cup of coffee.

We should make everyone back in America hike before they eat. They’ll enjoy the food so much more!

Until next time!

Colmar, Crêpes and Castles (Ah, alliteration!)

Whew, it’s been a while! So much to tell, so much to say!

So, first off: I think I’m in love with Germany. The people, their mannerisms, the way they advertise things - “Gut und gunstig!” (“Good and inexpensive!”), packs of hotdog buns with the American flag in the shape of a heart, etc. - and the food. Ohhh, the food. I’m actually licking my lips as I write this. Not because I’m a creeper. No, I’m actually eating my dinner of peppered salami and cheddar cheese on crackers. The taste is good enough to try to get every last speck of pepper! :) I was kind of intimidated in the kitchen yesterday when my roommate Temel cooked the best pasta dish I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting, so I decided to go for something simple tonight and just work my way back up to hot foods. Well, that and I’m a bit faul (lazy).

So. What have I been doing for the past week, you ask? Well…last week I took two German tests, one for my intensive grammar course and the other was more of a vocabulary test. I got the German equivalent of an A/A- on both, so I suppose I’m learning something! Aside from taking tests, I also did a bit of traveling and hanging out with friends. I’ll skip the “hanging out” bit; you've seen one club you’ve seen ‘em all!

So on Saturday a group of about 20 of us went to visit the Alsace (Elsass in German), a region about one hour away by bus in France. First we went to “Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg”, a castle that was built centuries ago and changed hands between the Germans and the French over the course of many years. Everybody wanted it, and not just because it’s a pretty nice castle. It lies atop a mountain (hence the translation of the name “Castle of the High King’s Mountain”) and it was strategically built so as to be able to look over the lands below and easily fire upon them with it’s canons. It was laid siege to many times since it was such an asset, but now it’s a museum located in France that many Germans and French alike come to visit. A perfect example of “can’t we all just get along?”

Aaand as I’m typing this, I’ve realized that I’ve lost my camera. I have no idea where it’s wandered off to, so no pictures for you this time. And possibly never again, unfortunately… Gosh, what bad luck. No, seriously, I just scoured my whole room and it’s nowhere to be found. In the future I’ll just have to pilfer some pics from Allison’s camera. :(

*10 minutes later*

False alarm! I left it in Allison’s kitchen! That’s why there's a picture in the post above after all! :D

Anyway, the second part of the field trip was visiting Colmar, a beautiful little Alsatian city with wonderful cafes and streets full of shopping possibilities. Allison, Sophia and I were hungry and settled upon an unassuming little place whose name I’ve forgotten. But when we went in, we saw Ulli (our program Dad), his two sons Benny and Alex, and Sabine Goelz (the program’s resident director). They invited us to join them and I had a wonderful lunch of the French version of Flammkuchen and a glass of Riesling. We also ordered a plate of escargots to share but the waitress forgot them and we were running low on time. :(

After lunch we visited a museum in Colmar called the Unterlinden. The artwork was of the type that I can enjoy; not abstract and imagined, rather colorful and realistic. There were also really awesome things like old crossbows, swords, extravagant locks and skeleton keys, and china. The whole experience was very enjoyable. We even had enough time to snag a crêpe before we headed back to Freiburg. It was wonderfully delicious!

I spent the ride home dozing and listening to my iPod, which I’ve found I don’t do nearly as often as I did back home. Stupid Europe and friends. Stupid traveling and sightseeing. Stupid fun. Sucking up all of the time I should be devoting to my technology. 

Keep your eyes peeled for my next post, it will be up soon!

Basel, Switzerland and Americans Abroad

Today we took a day trip to Basel, Switzerland, which is only about 45 minutes away by train from Freiburg. We all met at the Hauptbahnhof around 9 this morning, ate a breakfast of buttered pretzels on the way there, and hopped off once we reached the main train station in Basel. We got a brief tour from Ulli, our "Dad" while we're abroad, we visited the Münster, a large and old cathedral, and then we broke off and went to explore the city on our own. We saw plenty of clothing shops, wine bars, regular bars, souvenir shops, underwear stores, sex supply shops (at least three in the city; they're not playing around!), fresh markets, and ethnic restaurants. I hung out with my good friend Allison as well as Tucker, a new friend who also attends U of M.

We were awed not only by the beautiful sights that Basel has to offer, but also by the ridiculously expensive prices of everything! The food, drinks, clothing, postcards, everything! We got to the point where we were really hungry, but not willing to pay 30 Swiss Francs for a mid-sized lunch. So we shopped around...Ok, 23 Francs, that's a little better...Oh! Here's an Indian restaurant with meals for 19 Francs! Hmm...Thai food at a shady looking place on the corner for 15 Francs... We weren't really happy with having to bite the bullet and dish out ridiculous amounts of cash for a quick meal, but then someone had a brilliant idea! Let's just go to a grocery store, buy some bread, cheese, salami, grapes, wine, whatever, and have a nice picnic! So we went to Aldi, stocked up, and had an absolutely delicious lunch which totaled to 5 Francs (about $5.40) per person! And we had chocolate pudding for dessert. :)

While we were wandering around we ran into a group of five elderly Americans who recognized us because we spoke "American." They asked where we were from and one of them saw that I was wearing a U of M shirt. She said, "Oh, a very good school! They've gotten lots of money from me!" It turns out that her son had graduated from Michigan! We spoke for a while, told them we were doing an exchange year in Freiburg, and they randomly asked, "So who are you voting for?" The question kind of caught us off guard and and we just "ummed" around, but then the elderly gentleman in the group said, "Obviously they're voting for Romney; they're clearly Mormon!" I recognized the sarcasm and then they laughed and jokingly said, "If you're not voting for Obama, your vote doesn't count!" (I figured you would appreciate this story, Dad.) They were a nice group of people and they told us to stay out of trouble and enjoy our year abroad.

Around 4 in the afternoon we all met back up on the bridge headed back to the main train station and caught the 4:45 train back to Freiburg. We played a word game on the train and before we knew it we were back in our home for the next year! Basel was a nice city, but you definitely have to be making a lot of money to live there comfortably.

Schauinsland, Reception, After Par-tay

On Sunday we took an excursion to Schauinsland which is a mountain area on the outskirts of Freiburg. It's a popular spot to go to and the weather was beautiful when we went. We first hiked up the mountain a bit until we arrived at a museum. The tour guide explained how the people lived on the mountain back in the day, including how they cooked their food and their relatively low quality of life. We had lunch at the museum and continued our hike up the mountain. There was one stretch during which everyone thought they wouldn't make it, but the hike was a nice little workout and the beautiful photo ops more than made up for my displeasure at having to furiously chug copious amount of water!

On Wednesday night the Freiburg-Madison Gesellschaft threw a reception party for all of the AYF students (but especially the ones from Wisconsin) to welcome us to Freiburg and kick off the year on a good note. They do it every year in a fancy restaurant on a hill overlooking the whole of Freiburg. The view was absolutely fantastic! The reception had wine and champaign and absolutely delicious finger food like bruschetta and Flammkuchen, which is similar to a pizza with really thin crust except the dough is better, the cheese is fancier, and the toppings are absolutely amazing.After the reception a large group us went out to Uni Cafe, a pretty nice bar/cafe that's popular with the Uni kids. They even give out blankets to wrap up in when it gets chilly! I tried a Radler (which is actually very delicious!) as well as a Pils and I had a few great conversations with my new friends. Or Bekannter as the Germans would say. We ended up catching the last tram home (around 12:30 AM) and I had planned on crashing for the night, but my Hungarian roommate Fakars had other ideas. I watched some Hungarian news (with English subtitles), listened to some Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald (apparently they love Blues music in Hungary) and we made of fun of some of the terrible audition videos for Hungary's version of "The X-Factor."I didn't stumble into bed until a little after 2:30 but overall, last night was a great night and I got a lot of German practice in!

My Room in StuSie

The sink in the corner with my
99 cent rug from IKEA :)

The desk area. Printer, laptop, lamp, a treat from the
 bakery in the red and white paper bag...

The bookshelf that I use to hold
everything but books.

The wardrobe. The first time in college that
I've had more than enough room for my clothes!

My plants from IKEA. I got a lucky bamboo
 swirl and a cotton branch. They make my
room nicer somehow.

The bed. The red sheets and fleece blanket and Charlie make
it really nice to go to sleep at night! And the alarm
clock was the best purchase ever. Awesome German radio
for only $1. The large rug was also a good buy from IKEA.

Midnight Grocery Shopping, Hungarian Delicacies, IKEA

Remember my roommate Fakars aka Farek? Well, I finally got to know him a bit Thursday night! I was trying to figure out what one of the signs on our wall meant (there were words I didn’t know and didn’t have the resources to look up at the moment) and he came wandering through and helped me translate them. We have a Putzplan (cleaning plan) to keep the flat looking nice and the duties rotate every week, so he detailed what exactly the person “in charge” is supposed to do.

We sat in the kitchen and talked for a while and I learned a lot about Hungary (where he’s from) and Hungarian history. Apparently his family can trace their lineage back over a thousand years and his family is a “noble family”, which he told me pretty much means nothing today. At midnight he decided he needed more beer, so we went to the penny-market across the street where Fakars showed me the layout and explained the German method of bagging your own groceries and how to return your plastic bottles for money. When we got back, Fakars showed me pictures of his family back in Hungary and his university, as well as his work in the forest (he’s a forest engineer).

On Friday, Fakars cooked a Hungarian delicacy consisting of sliced potatoes, copious amounts of paprika, rosemary, parsley, bacon, and bratwurst in a huge pot. Anna had invited over two friends of hers (Enrique and Pablo) from Spain who are studying beginners’ German at the language school and an American (Kenton?) from California who is also in their class. Fakars decided to feed us all his Hungarian meal so we had a feast! Enrique and I were speaking in English and a tiny bit of German and Spanish, I translated from German to English for Anna, Enrique translated from my English to Spanish for Anna if she didn’t quite understand, Fakars spoke a bit of Spanish he had picked up because his ex-girlfriend of four years was from Valencia, Fakars later spoke a bit of Hungarian because we wanted to hear what it sounded like, and Temel was speaking on the phone in Turkish to a friend of his, occasionally contributing to our conversation. It was incredibly fun and rewarding to be able to communicate with everyone and to hear all of the languages. At one point we had four different languages flying across the dinner table! For dessert, we had a thin cake that was layered with fruit and a sweet glaze. Another Hungarian specialty, apparently! We ended up talking around the table until 2:30 am, when we finally decided to turn in. I had a great time- and you can’t beat free food! Since then we’ve all sat around the table every night and talked, some nights until past one in the morning (like last night). I’m definitely starting to feel my age haha! :)

On Saturday a group of us took a trip to IKEA on the city bus and bought a few necessities and decorations for our rooms. I got a couple of towels and washcloths, a big rug for my floor, a small mall for the floor near my sink, and bamboo swirl and cotton plant (they’re so cool!), a fleece blanket, and a plastic bin to use as a shower caddy. Now that my room is pretty, I’ll post pictures in a separate entry! 

Campfires and Irish Beer

Campfires and Irish Beer

We started Wednesday with three hours of lugging our purchases from the flea market to our dorms. Let me tell you: with a small television, a printer, three trash cans, an alarm clock, hangers, and a laundry basket, I had it easy. There are some people who still have to go back later to pick up the rest of their things. I also picked up my German phone, which is an adorable brick of a Nokia. :)

For lunch we all ate at an Italian Pizzeria called “La Piazza.” I had a Margherita pizza- it was on thin crust and the toppings were so fresh! I also had the opportunity to converse with one of the mentors, Justin, who was an AYF student two years ago. The other mentors are also wonderful. There’s Sabrina, who is a native German with the most awesome accent, then there is Myka who is also German, Bryan who is the definition of a crazy American, Simeon, a German who we’ve all decided can only be described as “incredibly adorable”, and Jan who is also German.

Wednesday night we had a barbeque where we grilled bratwurst and peppers. People brought Brot (bread) and Bier, the mentors set up colorful lights and played music, and we talked and had a great time. Afterward, a pretty large group of us went to O’Kelly’s, one of the two popular Irish pubs in the city. We hung out for an hour and a half or so and I got to know more of the program participants. Unfortunately, we had to leave pretty early (around 12:15 or so) because the Strassenbahn stops running at 12:33.)

Today (Thursday) began on a very slow and sleepy note. I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock three times, ambled downstairs to wake up James (who seems to have appointed me as his caretaker), wandered back upstairs, laid down for a couple more minutes, then slowly got ready to head to the Innenstadt (downtown). After meeting up with the rest of my group, we headed to the SWFR office where we signed our housing contracts. Then we took care of getting phones and a prepaid AldiTalk plan, ate lunch in the university cafeteria, and attended a seminar on German finances.

Now I’m at Starbucks (the only place with convenient internet at the moment) typing this and drinking a lukewarm café latte. Tomorrow is the “paperwork marathon”. We’ll also be getting a biometric passport photo (I have no idea what that is) and taking our placement exams for the Sprachkurs that begins next week.

Bis Später!

Der Anfang (The Beginning)

I apologize in advance for this obnoxiously long entry.

Okay, so much to tell! Well, I arrived in Freiburg around 2:30 Monday afternoon German time (so 8:30 AM in the US, eastern time). That was after a looong trip. I caught a plane from DTW to JFK, had a 6 hr layover, flew from JFK to Frankfurt, got lost twice, took a two hr train ride to Freiburg, and finally a streetcar ride to the student living community. Even worse, I had to deal with Allison the whole trip! Just kidding- I’m glad she was with me; she definitely made it all more bearable, even if neither of us can navigate to save our lives. We also ran into James at the train station in Frankfurt, so we all rode to Freiburg together.

I got lost again looking for my dorm. When I found my building, I found out that floor two (which I live on) is actually floor three because they don’t count the ground floor. So I had to carry my 50 lb suitcase and two extra full bags up two flights of stairs (there was no elevator). Then, my room’s lock-and-key-setup is so typically German (complicated yet simple and efficient at the same time), I stood outside my door for 5 minutes trying to unlock it. And that was after I found the right key on my key ring (I have five keys: one for my room, for the mailbox, for the building door, for the bike shelter, and I’m assuming the last is for the laundry room).

Once I finally got in my room, I took a look around. It’s pretty nice! There’s a desk, a huge wardrobe, a bookshelf, bed, nightstand, sink, and tall mirror. There is also a huge window (with blinds, Mom :D). I took an hour to unpack and sweep and relax, and then the AYF program threw the students a pizza party to say “Welcome!” and help us get to know each other. Afterward, a group of us went downtown (those who weren’t already dead tired) to an outdoor Biergarten called Feierling. It apparently has the best beer in all of Freiburg. I personally didn’t like it, but shhh. Don’t tell the Germans I said that!

I also met three of my roommates. The first is called Temel. He was born in Germany and is of Turkish decent. He speaks English, Turkish, and German fluently and is working on Arabic. He’s been very helpful and gave me a grand tour of the Wohnung, or “dorm.” He’s the main person I go to with questions about the German language and how to find places around town. The second is called Vakars aka Farek. I haven’t said much more than “hello” and “goodbye” to him yet, but he seems nice enough. I also met Anna, who has the room next to mine. She comes from Spain and speaks English and Spanish, but not German. It’s easy enough to get by without it here, I suppose. The other 6 roommates should arrive closer to the start of the semester in October. I sat with my Mitbewohneren (roommates) in the living room and watched “How I Met Your Mother” auf Deutsch. The German voices are really terrible which makes the show even funnier!

So, Tag 2 (Day 2):  The day started with opening a bank account at a local branch of Volksbank , which also has branches in other major German cities. We then did a bit of a walking tour and ate lunch at die Mensa, or university cafeteria. The food was pretty good. Sidenote: The deposits for plastic bottles pay really well here in Germany! You can get anywhere from 30 to 50 Euro-cent for returning a bottle, which is approximately 38-63 U.S. cents! There are actually some stores where you can buy a six pack of mineral water or sparkling juice and the amount in bottle returns that you get is more than what you paid for the drinks themselves! I jokingly said earlier that I might just buy bottled beverages and live off the return profits instead of getting a job. It’s just something to consider…

 I got to know downtown Freiburg a bit- it’s incredibly beautiful. And may I just say: The Germans are truly defying all stereotypes! Well, mostly- I just saw a lady wearing socks with sandals. But seriously, they’re nice and funny and so far very cheerful and helpful. And a lot of strangers say hello when you walk past them, which surprised me at first but now I’m used to it. But maybe that’s because Freiburg itself is a warm city. I also love the diversity. I read somewhere that 1 in 10 people living in Freiburg is originally from a foreign country and I can believe it! The only downside to the city that I’ve seen so far is the number of people who smoke. It’s a lot more prevalent here unfortunately, but thankfully all of the shops are nonsmoking for the most part. Oh, and the coffee is sehr gut here!

I also went grocery shopping at a pretty inexpensive grocery store called Lidl. I got shampoo, conditioner, soap, spaghetti noodles, a wine cooler, toothpaste, mouthwash, bread, jam, bananas, milk, and muesli, all for less than 15 Euros. That’s $19! I also scoped out a few good department stores in downtown Freiburg, so I know where to go if I need electronics, makeup, clothes, shoes, a light bulb, etc. The Strassenbahn, or streetcar, is nice and easy to use. It also runs very frequently which makes it convenient. I will need to take the number 1 line to get downtown and to my university classes come October.

I’ve been suffering without Internet since I’ve been here, so I went to a McDonald’s/Café with Allison to use the Wi-Fi. Buuut…you can’t use it unless you have a cell phone for them to send the access code to. And I won’t receive my phone until tomorrow (Wednesday).  So I just decided to type the blog entry now and post it whenever I’m around some Internet. Tomorrow is the flea market pick-up, so I’ll get some colorful bedding, my phone, a drying rack, an alarm clock, and some other stuff I don’t remember. It’ll be like Christmas, four months early!

Obviously I saved the best for last, so…. Today I checked my mailbox and guess what I found? Aside from spam and a clothing catalog, there were three pieces of mail for me from my Dad! He sent me three cards, which absolutely made my day! I don’t know when I’ll talk to you next Dad, so I’ll say thank you through my blog post: Vielen dank, mein lieber Vater!

Well, that’s all for now! I’ll be sure to post some pictures of my room, the campus, and downtown Freiburg soon. Allison is nagging at me to read her blog post; she swears it’s oh-so-lustig (funny), but I’m not so sure…

Tschuss!