Germany – Page 19 – Valpo Voyager

Category: Germany (page 19 of 26)

So, there aren't really pictures that would fit this post, so you all should enjoy some great German fall colors!

Classes in Tübingen

So, it’s been another crazy week here in Tübingen. I’m getting ready to go visit some family this weekend that lives here in Germany, so I’ve been trying to get as much schoolwork finished before I leave. That will take up most of my weekend, so I wanted to get my homework out of the way first! Add that to the presentation I have to give later today, and you’ve got a pretty stressed out college kid!

So, there aren't really pictures that would fit this post, so you all should enjoy some great German fall colors!

In any case, I promised you all a post about my classes here in Tübingen! So here it its!

The semester here in Germany starts significantly later than back in America. We only started the second week of October, so we’re still relatively at the beginning of the semester.

Here in Tübingen I’m not going to take any classes needed for my Biology or Chemistry majors, but instead I’m just going to finish working on my General Education credits and getting some things out of the way for my German major.

So, with that in mind, I chose to take a class on the “Literature of the German Romantic Period,” one on “Mass Media and Advertising in Germany,” another on German Pronunciation, a lecture in Sociology, and a theology class called “On the Essence of Human Freedom.”

The first week of my classes went okay, and I got by understanding almost everything that was happening. It was a little intimidating to find out that I’d have to give big presentations and write a 20-page paper for almost every class at the end of the semester, but all in all, I couldn’t complain too much.

The second week came, and things came to a boil in my theology class. I went out and bought the books we needed for the class, and set my goal of getting through the assigned reading. But understanding a text on German theological philosophy written in 1809 is easier said than done. The sentences were half a page long, and some had 4 semicolons in them. The words were huge, incomprehensible, and sometimes unable to translate. I thought I might die.

But I didn’t throw in the towel right away; first I focused on approaching the text in different ways. I read it 6 or 7 times, trying to get a little more out of it each time. I took notes each time, typed them up, revised them and then tried to read it again. But this just wasn’t happening. So I found the text in English online. And that helped, but it was still confusing.

But you know what? I stuck to my guns and went to class anyways. Anddddd, it got worse. I understood maybe 2% of what was said in the class. I couldn’t contribute anything to the discussion because I couldn’t even tell you WHAT they were talking about, much less everyone’s opinion about it. It also didn’t help that the Professor kept mumbling to himself.

For example, the Professor would stand at the front of the room and say, “Now, THIS isn’t what is important about this topic. It’s really not. You shouldn’t care about THIS, THAT, or THIS OTHER THING. What you should really care about is… kalskdjf a;liewfkjasdj klna;fdjsg lkajdf” And then I’d sit there and be like, “Great, I understood all the things that aren’t important, but I miss the one crucial concept!? Really? REALLY!?”

So, I resigned myself to failure and decided to look for another course. It wasn’t going to help me to sit all semester in a course that I had no hope of understanding, much less comprehending well enough to write a 20-page paper about and contribute regularly in class discussions. But luckily enough, I found a theology class on Religion and Literature in the 19^th Century, which started meeting the next day!

I e-mailed the Professor, and got a spot! I actually love the new class – not only because the topic is really interesting, but it’s also in English! At first I felt guilty for taking a class in English (not the best for improving my German), but I figure that I deserve to understand what’s happening for just 2-hours each week, right?

In any case, all my other 4 classes are completely in German, and they are all going really well. I’ve been able to make friends in every class, and the German students are always really helpful if I don’t understand something.

My literature class is probably the dullest, but I can’t complain too much. I actually really like the professor, it’s just that poetry and old texts were never “my thing.” But that’s all right, we all need to be well-rounded people, and the class does a lot to improve my German.

My mass media class is super interesting – I’ve never taken a marketing class before. It’s really just an overview of everything from newspapers, magazines, and television to Facebook and Twitter. The Professor is strict though, and is one of those that will just call on you at any random minute. You’ve got to always be prepared to say something at least somewhat intelligent.

The Aussprache (Pronunciation) class I’m in is actually somewhat difficult for me. My written German has always been better than my spoken German, so I’m taking this course to work on that. But my pronunciation is terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE. So the Professor always makes me say things ten times over, and at the end it’s usually still not right. Oh well, that’s what I’m in the class for, right?

Lastly, my Sociology lecture is going pretty well. One of the German friends I made here in Tübingen is also in the class, so she is my personal human dictionary, and explains things I don’t understand. But all in all, the class is fascinating. We’re currently studying Karl Marx and his sociological principles. After we look at all the people that laid the groundwork for modern Sociology, we’ll start looking at modern principles of society.

So, I hope I didn’t bore you all to death with an analysis of all my classes! I think I’m going to enjoy the semester, and I’ll be sure to keep updating how everything in my classes is going, every now-and-then.

Until next time!

Tschüß!

Heaven on Earth

November 4, 2011 / Stephanie Volz / 0 Comments

Sunrise over Corsica

Our next stop after Venice was the island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean off the coasts of Italy and France. We arrived in Toulon, France by dinnertime Tuesday, met up with Matt and Molly, who were coming from Paris after doing their own things for the first weekend, and grabbed some Chinese food. Spiciness, finally, I’d been missing it like crazy here in Europe. And then we boarded a ferry, which was more of a cruise ship, but super cheap considering, overnight to Corsica. Even though we had been up early the day before to catch our train to Toulon, we got up early Wednesday morning to see the sunrise over the island.

It was gorgeous. Like heaven on earth, hence the title of this blog. I mean, just take a look at the pictures. I knew from pictures and people talking that Corsica was supposed to be amazing, but it just didn’t compare to being there ourselves. (I didn’t get to see dolphins… That was a huge disappointment, but the rest of Corsica definitely made up for it.)

On the beach by the citadel

So we landed early in the morning, found a tourist office to leave our luggage at, grabbed some coffee to keep us awake, and then headed to a beach! We found one by the walls of an old citadel after only five minutes of walking. It was seriously beautiful. And really warm, perfect temperature to be in the Mediterranean on an island. And sunny. Really, just the perfect day. So we played in the sand for a bit, clambered over rocks on the coastline, and ran into the sea to swim in the perfectly crystal-clear water. And tossed a Frisbee, probably my favorite part.

Frisbee in the Mediterranean 🙂

After relaxing for a few hours, though, we decided it was time for lunch and to go get some open water kayaks. So we did. Sarah and Molly actually did get into a kayak, I was so proud of them! Even though they freaked out and decided staying on the beach was a better idea. So Matt and I headed out for a few hours of pure bliss off the coast of the most beautiful island in the most beautiful sea in the world. In my humble opinion. The best few hours of the entire trip so far, without contest, and that’s saying something. Although seeing my best friend Kate in Athens tomorrow may just be up there too. It’ll be a hard choice!

Matt on a kayak

By the time we got back and FINALLY found food that was open, it was dark and we only had a couple hours before our overnight ferry back to Toulon left, so we relaxed for a bit and got ready to live in a moving water palace again for a night. And to shower, because all that saltwater and wet clothes just weren’t gonna cut it for another 24 hours. And after all that exercise and the great fried dinner we got on the boat, we crashed like babies.

So now I’m in Rome (after way too long on trains) for the night, ready to board my flight to Athens in the morning. And I really can’t wait to see just how the second weekend and then next week of break compare to the first. If it’s even close, these will be some of the best two weeks of my life.

Rest of the photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/100454144518688283131/HeavenOnEarth

Venezia

November 4, 2011 / Stephanie Volz / 0 Comments

Sunrise behind Doge's Palace

Venice was amazing, beautiful, relaxing, and just really really cool. We left Rome late at night, and got into Venice at 5:30. Yes, a.m. Which turned out to be a great decision, because we were able to see the sunrise over Venice. And since Venice is a huge tourist trap, being there in the wee early hours of the morning gave us a glimpse of its beauty before being invaded by humans. After finding the square with Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica, we sat for a while and just enjoyed the beauty of the sea and the old buildings and the sunrise. And then found somewhere to get hot chocolate and croissants at like 8 for breakfast. We were starving at that point, obviously. But nobody else was up yet, so we had the outside café all to ourselves (well, we shared with the pigeons).

After our hostel opened and we could drop our bags off, we headed out again to tour St. Mark’s Basilica before the afternoon, hoping to beat the crowds. Fail. I doubt there’s such a thing as beating the crowds in Venice. But still, we got to see it, and it was just magnificent. Especially the golden altarpiece and the ceilings, which were painted gold or had gold mosaic or something gold. And the bones of St. Mark were under the altar (supposedly, obviously). So after facing the crowds, we decided it was time to wander the streets a bit, since the best part of being in Venice was getting lost with all the canals and bridges and old houses surrounding you.

But we were also starving, so we cut our wanderings a bit short in search of good fish. Which was also a fail. Guess our trying to find something fast and cheapish gave us that quality of fish too. So to counteract our disappointment and tiredness we grabbed a seat on the steps on the Grand Canal and took a good hour, two hour nap. And were still a bit lazy afterwards and so decided wandering again was our best option. We found so many Venetian mask shops, and some cannoli (yum), and even some people walking around wearing costumes. It WAS Halloween, so it wasn’t just because they were crazy Venetians. Maybe.

St. Mark's Basilica

We headed back to the hostel a bit early, since we had been up since like five, and relaxed for a few hours before our free dinner with the rest of the people staying at the hostel. Which was a great chance to meet everyone from around the world and share travel stories (and the free food might’ve been the best part. I mean, I’m a student traveling. I appreciate ANYTHING that’s free). And then the staff of our hostel took us out on the city for a few hours, and though Venice at night was also super cool, it just can’t beat the sunrise.

Venice, though, is totally worth a trip. It was amazing, relaxing, and just beautiful. Even if it is a bit touristy. So to see all my pictures, follow this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/100454144518688283131/Venizia

On the Grand Canal

When in Rome.

November 3, 2011 / Stephanie Volz / 1 Comment

Now that my break is one week over (not halfway, not halfway until Saturday. Yes, I’m keeping track of every single day), and now that I have a bit of internet for once, I can add a few blogs to let y’all know what I’ve been up to for the past week. It’s been exciting! And will probably take a few different blogs.

So we (Sarah and I) started off our break on a night train to Rome. Didn’t want to waste any time by waiting until Saturday to travel! And we had a reservation, like we needed, so we get onto the train ready to grab our seats. Turns out we had reserved the wrong date.. It was confusing, ok? There were two dates since it was an overnight train. That’s our excuse. So we ended up trying to sleep on the floor by one of the doors. Which was just fine actually, had some room to spread out and it was pretty quiet, considering. Until like 3 a.m. when a huge group of Italians got on the train and decided the area we were in was the best part of the train to be in. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep after that. Especially since they stole all of our leg room. Some of the stereotypes about Italians, being loud and boisterous, are alas true.

Hall of maps inside the Vatican

But then we made it to Rome around 9 ready (somewhat) to start a sightseeing-packed day. Once we finally found our hostel and dropped our stuff off, we headed out to Vatican City. It was really really cool, in case you doubted it for some reason. We got hassled by about five different recruiters for tour guides before giving in and taking a tour. Bright side, we got to skip long lines and take a pretty personal tour, only five of us on it, and got more information than we would have otherwise. Downside, we paid a little extra and practically sprinted through the Vatican.. But if anyone wants to go visit, go with Discover Rome tours, we took them the next day for the Colosseum and they were GREAT and do a Vatican tour too. Even though we were rushed, we still got to see all the amazing things. Like the Sistine Chapel with it’s completely famous Michaelangelo paintings.

Altar in St. Peter's Basilica

Our tour ended in St. Peter’s Basilica where we had all the time we wanted to wander around. After studying the Reformation and Luther’s stance against this church, since it was the cause for all the indulgences, it was interesting to see what made those indulgences worth the scandal. Might not be worth the scandal, but the church was absolutely gorgeous. And full of history, obviously. And of course, outside the Vatican were all the colorfully, goofily (is that a word? It is now..) dressed Swiss guard.

If we had come back the next day at noon (Sunday) we could’ve seen the Pope! Which would’ve been awesome. But then again, there was so much more of Rome that we wanted to see, since we only had two days. Saturday night we saw the Pantheon and ate an Italian pasta dinner outside, then trekked to the Trevi fountain to see it at night and to the Colosseum to see it all lit up. Both were absolutely gorgeous.

Sarah and the Colosseum

So the first day was mostly our Vatican day, but Sunday was our ancient Roman history day. We started off with the Colosseum, which is where we found the Discover Rome tour which was great. We even learned that they probably didn’t throw the Christians to the lions, that that was only recorded way after the events. But the rest of the Colosseum was in no way a letdown.

After allowing us time to walk around the Colosseum ourselves, we met up with the tour group again for the second part, the Roman Forum. Which actually turned out to not be not through the Roman Forum, but rather through ancient palace ruins on top of the hill above the Roman Forum as well as information about the Forum. I had had no idea that all that cool stuff was there, I was just expecting a few columns and stuff from the Forum. Instead, we got to see the first “private entertainment system,” the emperor/king/whatever-he-was-called’s private battle arena. And Mussolini’s palace (which is now just a museum of artifacts, but still, the outside has his symbol and everything). And then we got to go out on our own to the Forum. And the Forum itself, like the courtyard, was just ruins of pillars, a few still standing. But surrounding it were old temples transformed into churches, and the first voting building, and practically the oldest street in the world. All of which fascinated me.

Roman Forum

Trevi fountain

After the tour, we got pasta again, saw the Trevi fountain again to make our wishes, and then headed to the Spanish steps. Which were kinda disappointing, not gonna lie. There were tons of people, like I expected, but they were literally just steps, no architecture or anything. But we can say we were there! Which is true of all of Rome now! Thing is, it never sank in while we were there that we were in Rome. It was very strange, because we had been looking forward to it for so long. And the pictures are amazing, and so we can look back on it and be amazed with ourselves for being there. Hopefully it’ll sink in soon! On the other hand, Venice was much better. So see the next blog for our adventures there!

The Hofburg, Vienna

Living large in Vienna! (Part III)

October 25, 2011 / Jake Stefan / 0 Comments

And the Vienna saga continues with Part III! If you missed Part II or Part I, you can find them at these links!

After our failed visit to the United Nations building, we decided to head to the Hofburg, the largest palace in Vienna. It was home to the royal Habsburg family, who ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Perhaps you all might recognize it better as the seat of the Holy Roman Empire until Napoleon? In any case, it was an important place – and still is! It currently is home to many museums and serves as the official residence of the Austrian President.

The Hofburg, Vienna

The Hofburg is less of a palace and more of a compound. It’s huge! The palace and surrounding buildings underwent many, many renovations and additions! It’s a maze just finding the entrance!

We all decided that we wanted to tour the inside, and chose the tour that featured the National Silver Collection, The “Sisi” Museum, as well as the Royal Apartments.

Hofburg Museums, Vienna

The National Silver Collection was, umm… interesting? I didn’t know they needed so many dishes. It was like room, after room, after room, after room of dishes. These Habsburgs had all the plates, silverware, centerpieces, cups and mugs anyone could ever want. I’d imagine during the time of the empire it went something like, “Hey honey, do you want to eat off the china from the Queen of England or the plates made for the emperor of Mexico?” “Oh! Why don’t we dine off the solid gold plates?” “Great idea! We can have the 30 foot long centerpiece polished for dinner as well!”

So that was fun for about 10 minutes, but after 45 minutes of looking at dishes, we all lost our patience with that. Luckily, we were on to something a little more exciting. Now, to explain the rest of the tour I might have to go a little “history teacher on you guys,” so bear with me.

The Hofburg has a pretty decently sized museum called the “Sisi” museum. The museum is dedicated to Elisabeth (nicknamed Sisi), who was the Empress of Austria from 1854 until 1898. She married her cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph, when she was quite young (15, I think?) and was then forced into the royal spotlight. She was always kind of a “royal-rebel,” and towards the end of her life refused to partake in events and official ceremonies. Sisi also struggled with depression and (some believe) anorexia; her dresses were always measured to have a waist size between 18 and 19 inches!

It was fascinating seeing all the memorabilia from the time of Empress Elisabeth as well as learn about the history. This part of the Hofburg took another 50 minutes to get through, but it was definitely more interesting than the dishes. 😉 Perhaps my favorite quote from her was one she said after she heard that the emperor wanted to marry her. She said something along the lines of, “I do really like Franz Joseph, I only wish he weren’t the emperor.”

Franz Joseph's entrance to the royal apartments

The last part of the tour was the royal apartments, and royal they were. Done up to the finest of Viennese standards, it was quite amazing. Those of you who have seen Schönbrunn will find it very similar (Schönbrunn was mainly used as their summer home, whereas The Hofburg was their main residence).

After this we were all pretty burnt out. Half of us decided to take a little break and head back to the hostel for an hour or two before dinner, while the others headed off to the Esperanto Museum. (Esperanto was a language that was constructed using elements of many languages and is very easy to learn. It was developed in Vienna to be the new international language, but never really caught on.)

We met up again for dinner at our favorite little Viennese restaurant and enjoyed our last “Wiener Schnitzel!” – which was fantastic, by the way!

The next day our flight didn’t leave until 4 p.m. or so, and because of that we had sort of an awkward amount of time where we had to be out of the hostel, but couldn’t go right to the airport, we bummed around in Starbucks. Quite literally.

Starbucks, Vienna

We were all pretty exhausted from the long days of tourism, and (most of us) ended up falling asleep! Rachel even somehow ended up horizontal! The Starbucks workers in Vienna must of thought we were homeless or something.

All in all, it was quite the trip. We got to see lots of exciting things, much of which we’d only learned about in class or read in books!

In my next update, you all can look forward to hearing all about my classes here in Tübingen! Bis dann! Tschüß!

Life

October 23, 2011 / Stephanie Volz / 0 Comments

Since the last time I posted, I haven’t really done much exciting traveling. I know, disappointing, but it’s only been a week or so.. But this gives me a chance to post about life in general in Reutlingen, what my average day-to-day activities are. As average as life gets here, anyway. Which isn’t that average. I mean, it’s Germany. And our professors always move classes around, so no two weeks have the same schedule. Makes things interesting.

So I guess I’ll talk about classes first. We have classes just with the other Valpo students and mostly with Valpo professors, which for this semester means there are five of us with one professor in a classroom. For all of our classes. Very different than at Valpo. We have five different classes: German language, German literature, Luther and Bach (all taught by Valpo professors), Art/Art History/Architecture (taught by a professor from another town close by), and International Economics, which also focuses on the region Reutlingen’s in and Germany and is taught by the man in charge of the international program at Reutlingen. So those five diverse classes make up our weeks, and all of them are actually pretty interesting. The only downside to these classes is that it’s just the five Valpo students in them, instead of many other programs which integrate the students into the university or at least into an international program with hundreds of other students.

Looking down from a hill onto part of Reutlingen

Instead of using classes to meet other students, we meet them most often in our dorm. These are different than dorms at Valpo. Here most rooms are singles, although I am one of the very few in a double room. Each floor in my dorm (so like 20 people) shares two toilets and two showers, one for guys and one for girls, and a kitchen/lounge area. This kitchen is where you actually meet the most people; since the cafeteria is only open for lunch, there’s always people in there cooking and watching tv or just sitting around talking. Cooking, by the way, is an adventure. Since, you know, everything’s in German. And since my German isn’t good enough to be able to read ingredients and stuff, I just make it up as I go. Problem is, I probably won’t be able to bring my newfound skills and recipes, if you call them that, to the U.S. because I won’t actually know what the ingredients are.. I just know what the bottles or packages look like! And they probably wouldn’t taste as good anyway, because Germans put much less preservatives and other junk in their food.

The best part of Reutlingen, though, is the nature, and I’ve been taking full advantage of that. There’s plenty of hills around to hike, a big outdoors sport complex with tons of fields to throw a frisbee or play some soccer on, and while out running I’ve found a big expanse of woods with trails and an absolutely beautiful nature park. And of course it’s even better now that fall is in full swing and the ground is covered with yellows, lime greens, and oranges.

One of the paths on campus yesterday

So that’s pretty much my life on a general day. And even though it does sound amazing (it is, let’s be serious), I really miss everyone back home. My best friend who’s in Athens studying abroad this semester, my boyfriend, my family, my frisbee team, and all of my other friends.. The whole experience has been a series of ups and downs, and I’ve broken down a few times because of the downs. It really is hard to be away from everyone you care about for months, and I’m only halfway through. At the same time, though, I’m already halfway through, and I feel like I’ve just started. And by the time I have everything figured out, it’ll be December and time to go home. So for these next couple of months, I’m concentrating on having the time of my life and learning more than I think possible and gaining a global perspective on things and becoming the person I want to be. And I’d say I have a pretty good start 🙂

Secession House, Vienna

Living large in Vienna! (Part II)

October 22, 2011 / Jake Stefan / 0 Comments

So you are all probably saying to yourselves right now, “Long time no post! What in the world have you been up to, Jake? We’re all waiting on the edge of our seats to read the next saga in your crazy European adventures!”

I know, I know. It’s been another one of those crazy weeks here in Tübingen with a spontaneous trip to Vienna and the first week of classes! So I’ll try my best to catch you all up during the next few days!

Because we had a little bit of free time between the end of my “Deutsch-Kompakt-Kurs” and the start of the semester, Zach, Hannah, Rachel, Emily, Helena (our Canadian friend) and I decided to do something called “Blind Booking” through the German discount airline Germanwings. We paid only 60 Euros for a two-way ticket, but we could have ended up in London, Lisbon, Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, or Vienna. Because we all simply want to see as much of Europe as we can, it wasn’t important to us that we choose exactly where we ended up!

Since Zach and I both went on the trip, we decided that he would blog about the first half, and I’d write a little about the second half! Before you read the rest of this post, you might be interested in reading Zach’s latest post first!

On Saturday we packed as much into one day as humanly possible (you think I’m joking). We woke up in the morning and had our usual hostel breakfast, and then made our way to Schönbrunn, which is conveniently right on the subway line that runs between the hostel we stayed in and downtown.

Schönbrunn (Vienna, Austria)

We spent an hour or two wandering the never-ending gardens, but decided not to take a tour of the inside. There are many palaces in Vienna, and rather than touring all of them, we decided that later on Saturday we’d go and tour the Hofburg. (The Hofburg is in the middle of the city and was the emperor’s normal residence; Schönbrunn was mainly used as a summer home.)

After Schönbrunn, we made our way to the Naschmarkt, the largest and most famous street market in Vienna. The market seemed to stretch on forever! We’d walk for a little bit, think we’d reached the end, but it would just keep going! Because we went on Saturday, it was particularly busy; at some points I was getting a little claustrophobic because there were so many people.

The Naschmarkt had so many interesting offerings. Vendors bring fresh meats, cheeses, olives, baked goods, deserts and everything else you can think of! We ended up finding a cheap Döner stand for lunch – Döner is German gyros-type meat that’s served with veggies like a sandwich. It’s often sold in Turkish snack stands, so people assume it’s Turkish, but many Germans are quick to correct you that it the Döner Sandwich actually came from Berlin.

Secession House, Vienna

After lunch we headed to the Secession House, the home of the rebellious art movement “The Vienna Secession,” founded by Gustav Klimt and other artists in 1897. The artists broke off from the primary “Wien Künstlerhaus” because they found the group too conservative and thought the group tended to copy earlier styles of art instead of pioneering innovative ways to present the ideas of the time.

The architecture of the Secession House is, in and of itself, worth seeing and the building also houses Klimt’s famous Beethoven frieze. Seeing the giant frieze in person was incredible, especially after reading about its history and the meaning behind all the panels. However, the rest of the exhibits in the Secession House left much to be desired.

The House presumably wants to keep with the “mold-breaking” nature that it’s founders intended, but some of the modern art presented there has gone a little too far. For example, the exhibits were simply random words on walls, or even air conditioning. You read that right, air conditioning. One exhibit was air conditioning a room to an uncomfortable temperature. To them that is “art.” It’s a little much, in my opinion.

We then quickly made our way the United Nations building in Vienna, because someone had told us there were daily tours. But it turned out that those daily tours were only Monday-Friday. So we saw the outside! That counts for something, right?

United Nations, Vienna

I’ve got to finish up some homework and things before I meet up with my friends later in the Altstadt, so I’ve got to leave you all hanging! In the next post (Vienna: Part III), you can look forward to hearing about The Hofburg Palace, our last night in Vienna dinner, as well as our trip back home!

Unfortunately, I had forgot the memory card for my camera in Tuebingen, so I couldn’t take any pictures in Vienna, so I’m stealing Zach’s. You can check out his pictures from the trip on his Picasa account here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117445044945979223598

Belvedere from the front

Living large in Vienna!

October 19, 2011 / Zach Nelson / 0 Comments

With the end of our five-week intensive German course came a small, one-week break prior to the start of the semester this week Monday. So, we had the last-minute idea to travel somewhere and take advantage of this last opportunity until Christmas break. At first, we decided to go to Berlin, but after some disappointing searches for cheap flights, I uncovered something called “Blind Booking,” through Germanwings, a discount airline that flies out of nearby Stuttgart.

Hostel Hütteldorf

For €60 per person, we could get round-trip tickets to one of six cities: London, Lisbon, Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, or Vienna. The only catch is that you don’t find out where you are being sent until after the transaction has been processed. A surprise trip was fine with us! We figured that we had a one out of six chance of getting our original wish (for more than €100 cheaper) and that we would gladly go to any of those cities. For €5, you could pay to exclude a city, which we had originally planned to do with London, as we will all have friends studying in nearby Cambridge next semester who we had planned on visiting anyway. With the five of us plus a Canadian friend named Helina who wanted to come along, this addition put us over the limit of my credit card, so we just had to keep London in the mix and hope for the best! It was a bit of a pain having to pay for all of our tickets together, but it was better than the alternative of everyone paying their own way and being sent to six different cities in Europe.

Emily, Jake, Hannah, Helina, and Rachel at breakfast! Maybe not quite awake yet...

As we excitedly clicked through the online purchasing process, we soon learned that we would be flying to Vienna, and the search for a Youth Hostel began shortly after. I used HostelWorld, whom I follow on Twitter, to search for a place to stay and I was very pleased with the result. The website had excellent reviews and information, and the hostel turned out to be perfect. It was a little further out of the city, but within 5 minutes of a subway station, where trains into the city came every 3-8 minutes. It was only a 15 minute ride, and I was extremely impressed with the public transportation system in Vienna. I don’t think we ever waited more than 5 minutes for the subway. It seemed like every time we walked up the stairs to the platform, one was just pulling in to take us wherever we wanted to go. At the hostel, we had the option of purchasing “Vienna Cards,” which allowed us to travel on any tram, bus, or train for 72 hours for €18. It also came with discounts to museums, so it was really an incredible value. Although everything in Vienna was pretty expensive, train travel compared to Germany was very cheap.

Vienna's shopping/commercial district

Our housing accommodations for the five-day trip, “Hostel Hütteldorf,” were quite comfortable. We shared a six-person room complete with a table and chairs where we sat every night to plan our next day’s activities. The hostel came with free internet access and free breakfast, which we did out best to fill up on every morning. As an added bonus, there was almost always a big bowl of apples on the front desk, from which I always grabbed a couple for snacks or to pack in my lunch for the next day. When you’re a poor college student traveling through another country, it’s amazing how a bowl of free apples can seem like a luxury… In any case, we had really good luck with the hostel, and would gladly go back or recommend it to anyone.

We arrived in Vienna around 8:00 PM on October 12^th, and checked into our hostel after an excellent dinner at a Viennese restaurant that Jake knew of, from having been there a few short weeks before.

We accomplished so incredibly much over five days that I hope I’ll be able to describe the first half of the trip with enough detail! Jake will be doing a post soon on the second half.

The Stephansdom

On Thursday, we woke up in time to catch breakfast, which was put away promptly each day at 9:00, and took the subway into the city. We checked out the Karlsplatz train station, built in the Jugendstil style of architecture, (as recommended by Professor DeMaris) before visiting a few churches, and making our way through the shopping district, and the Altstadt (Old City.) We also purchased tickets for a musical that we saw later that night, as well as tickets for an opera that we saw on Friday night. The Musical was called, “Ich war noch niemals in New York” (“I have never been to New York,” or “I have not yet been to New York,”) and it is fairly popular here in Europe right now. It is based on the songs of Austrian composer Udo Jürgens, and although you could tell the plot was written to include the music, it was nonetheless enjoyable. The songs were great and well-performed, and the story was light and funny. The opera for which we bought tickets was Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (The Magic Flute) and it was excellent!

Ich war noch niemals in New York!

While we were walking through the city, we saw a bunch of police officers near the Opera house. They asked us all to wait on the street, and although we didn’t understand why, we of course complied. A few minutes later, a motorcade of police motorcycles and Mercedes-Benzes bearing Saudi Arabian flags drove by, as we all watched curiously. Later, we learned that they had just come from a ceremony in which a Saudi-backed religious center in Vienna was officially opened. In Saudi Arabia, the only legal religion is Islam. The idea behind the religious center in Vienna is that by funding a council of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus to engage others in inter-religious dialogue, the Saudis can also learn how to slowly begin to integrate other religions into their country as well. I think it’s an interesting concept.

Anyway, we also visited an art museum called “Belvedere,” which took up all of Thursday afternoon. The museum wasn’t obscenely giant like the Chicago art institute, but it was big enough to tire you out after a couple hours of taking it all in. It was great to see so many works of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, whom we spent a lot of time discussing in German 220. The museum was located inside of an old palace and the grounds as well as the building itself were absolutely stunning.

Belvedere

Emily, Jake, Hannah, Rachel and Me in front of Belvedere

Belvedere from the front

On Friday, we did a little shopping (I bought a new coat!) and later explored the altstadt a little more, this time going inside of the Stephansdom (a giant church in the city center) as well as visiting Mozart’s house. We decided not to take a tour of Mozart’s house in the interest of time, but we did poke around inside just for a bit. Afterwards, we took the tram down the historic “Ringstraße” (Ring Street) to the Austrian Parliament building. Where the “Ringstraße” currently stands there once stood a wall that surrounded the city of Vienna. As the city expanded, there simply wasn’t enough space inside the wall, so it was torn down, as the need for protection had also grown weaker over the years. At Parliament, we took a fifty-minute tour of the building and the various chambers, and learned a little about how the Austrian government functions. The tour was given in German as well as English, so although we understood nearly everything, it was nice to have the English in case there were technical government terms that we didn’t get the first time around in German. The Austrian Parliament was heavily damaged during World War II, but has since been restored to its original likeness. It’s a beautiful building! While we were touring one of the open reception lobby-type areas, tables were being set up for some sort of a formal state dinner that was to occur the following night.

Mozart's house!

Me in front of the Austrian Parliament

Assembly chamber - Austrian Parliament

On Saturday, Rachel, I, and our Canadian friend Helina visited the Esperanto Museum at the Austrian National Library. Esperanto is a planned language that was invented during the early 1900’s, and this museum, housed entirely in one room, is the only one of its kind. The idea behind Esperanto was that it could serve as a new international language that was very easy to learn and understand. It is a combination of many European languages (specifically Romance Languages) and it is the most successful planned language ever created. Its founder, Ludwig Zamenhof, grew up in a town in present-day Poland where the languages of Polish, German, Yiddish, Russian, and Belarusian were spoken among the many immigrants living there. His goal was to devise a language to bridge the language barriers among the various ethnic groups in his town. The museum was very interesting, and I’m almost positive it’s the only place in the world where you can choose to read or hear the exhibits in either German, English, or Esperanto.

That’s all for now! Check out my pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/117445044945979223598

Thanks for reading!

Bis Dann!

Mercedes-Benz Museum

Catch up part 2: Weekend excursion and field trips to Stuttgart!

October 17, 2011 / Zach Nelson / 0 Comments

Okay, now that I am back from my five-day trip to Vienna (blog to come!) I can finally continue to play blog entry catch up.

On Friday September 30th, I traveled to northern Hessen (a centrally-located state in Germany) to visit some friends for the long weekend, as Monday, October 3rd is a national holiday in Germany (Day of German Reunification.) As a high school student, I had the opportunity to travel to both Germany and northern Italy with my German class during the spring of my junior year in 2008. Since then, I have remained good friends with my host family (the Stübers).

I began my travels with the train from Tübingen to Stuttgart, and then by car with a perfect stranger from Stuttgart to Fulda, from which point I continued with the train to Eschwege. In Germany, there is a website called “Mitfahrgelegenheit” (literally, “Opportunity to ride along”) where people can post trips they are making by car, and how much space they have for others to ride along and split the cost of gas. It is somewhat similar to the “Rideshare” board back at VU, and in other ways it is essentially glorified hitchhiking. It is, however, significantly cheaper than taking the train, and although I had my qualms about it at first, it turned out to be a very nice way to travel. There were three of us riding along plus the driver, so it was a very cramped ride in the back seat of a tiny BMW, but everyone was very nice and it was an excellent opportunity to practice my German as well. In the United States, I think many people would see the concept of “Mitfahrgelegenheit” as dangerous, or untrustworthy. In Germany, where the conservation of resources and money is a high cultural priority, it is seen as a way to be less wasteful and to save time and money. Before picking up the other two passengers, I talked for awhile with the driver about Mitfahrgelegenheit in respect to the culture of Germany, and why many Americans would be weary about trusting someone they didn’t know to drive them somewhere. He told me an interesting story about an American friend of his, who was under the impression that Germany was a dangerous place because people were not allowed to carry guns and defend themselves if necessary. We both had a good laugh about that one…

Anyway, the weekend of September 30th was an especially eventful one in the Stübers little town near Eschwege, because it happened to be the weekend of their annual “Kirmes” festival. Jonas, my high school exchange partner, was one of the event organizers this year, so both he and his family were kept very busy putting on the festival.

Every night there was a different themed dance party in a giant beer tent, and during the day there were parades, bumper cars, carnival-type games, and other festivities. I arrived late on Friday – shortly before midnight – but after unpacking all of my things, I was dropped off at the tent where we proceeded to partake in the Kirmes revelry until 4:30 AM. It took almost eight hours to get from Tübingen to Eschwege, mostly due to an obscenely long traffic jam on the Autobahn, so I was already exhausted at midnight. Needless to say, but 4:30 I was quite ready for bed.

The disco parties every night where pretty similar, with the exception of the music, which changed. Friday night was a mix of everything, Saturday night was more traditional German music, and Sunday night featured a live band playing “Oldies” music from both Germany and the United States, among other countries. I was introduced to so many people I could barely keep up with what was happening as I tried to dance along to music I had never heard before. As someone who does not speak German as a native language, it is enough of a mental workout for me to understand everything that’s going on in normal conversation. The music was so loud that most of the time I could barely hear well enough to struggle through the task of comprehending what was being said to me, so I did a lot of nodding and smiling. It’s amazing what you can tell just by a person’s facial expressions, even if you can’t hear or understand them.

The thing that shocked everyone I was introduced to most was not that an American had come to attend a beerfest in a town of 700 people, but that I could not actually drink the beer; I’m gluten intolerant. Many people after meeting me and talking with me for awhile would abruptly interrupt the conversation to ask if I would like a drink. And not just any drink, but a beer. Before they would disappear into the enormous crowd, I would have to explain that although I would love something to drink, that I was allergic to wheat and couldn’t drink beer. “You can’t drink beer?!?” they would ask. “Then what can you drink?” At first, I didn’t know myself what was on the menu, so I would just say, “I’m not sure… What other things do they serve here?” After a few long minutes of thought, my friend Daisy answered, “Whiskey cola!” So, from that point onward, I was brought many whiskey colas. It was as if some mad bartender kept mixing them up just for me, and sending them out to the dance floor on a long conveyor belt, from which everyone then grabbed a drink to offer to the Stübers’ American friend. At one point I had three whiskey colas to finish…

A blurry picture of kids with lanterns in the Fackelumzug

The Kirmes festivities also included two parades, both of which I was asked to participate in. The first parade was a Torch Parade, or, “Fackelumzug.” All the adults carried torches (with giant, dangerous, blazing flames) and the kids all carried battery-operated lanterns to prevent the town from burning to the ground. Daisy and Jonas’ seven-year-old sister could barely contain her excitement for the entire day leading up to the torch parade – she was so excited to walk through the town with me and to carry her lantern. I am quite certain that I was introduced to every child in the entire town as, “Zach, mein Freund aus Amerika!” (Zach, my friend from America.)

My friend Daisy and I in the Fackelumzug

My second Kirmes parade experience was without a giant torch, but I did get to wear a chef hat and carry a banner! My friend Daisy plays on a women’s soccer team comprised of two neighboring towns, and a couple of the players from her team got together to walk in the parade. The coach dressed up like a chef, and I helped carry one of two banners with phrases that fit the cooking theme. Daisy’s little sister took on the role of throwing candy to the children watching the parade from the sidewalk. I found this to be a little funny, because the streets were so narrow that “throwing” the candy really wasn’t necessary as it is in parades back home. All she had to do was drop it on the ground next to the curb, or maybe toss it just a little bit.

Me with Daisy’s soccer team before the parade

After sleeping in a little bit on Monday, I was back to the train station to make the long trip back to Tübingen via train and Mitfahrgelegenheit. All in all, my weekend with the Stübers / at the Kirmes festival was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed comparing their “small town festival” to those back home. There were more similarities that I would have imagined.

Mercedes-Benz Museum

Since I was caught up on my blogging, I have also been on two field trips to nearby Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg. The first time was with my German course, and consisted of seeing the Mercedes-Benz museum, and then watching an Opera – La Traviata. The Mercedes-Benz Museum was excellent, and as a car enthusiast, I enjoyed myself very much. Even for those who aren’t all that car-crazy, I still think it would be a really fun museum to visit. For example, there is a “Room of Celebrities” exhibit that features Princess Diana’s Mercedes-Benz sports car as well as a Popemobile. The architecture of the building is great, both exterior and interior. Once inside, everyone receives an audio guide, and is taken to the top floor via elevator, where you arrive in a room with just a model of a horse in the middle to represent the age before cars were invented. Shortly after comes the exhibit about the first cars ever invented. After this point, the museum splits into two downward intertwining spiral directions – one featuring more technical exhibits, and the other featuring more historical exhibits. I made sure I saw both sides before descending to the floor below! Although I’m not a big opera fan, La Traviata was interesting to see and hear. (I was actually able to see Die Zauberflöte in Vienna a few days ago, which was really cool, so maybe my opinion on Operas has changed? More to come on that soon! At any rate, La Traviata wasn’t my favorite.)

Me in front of the Mercedes-Benz Museum

Hannah, Emily, Jake and Rachel with their audio guides – Mercedes-Benz Museum

The second field trip to Stuttgart was to visit the Canstatter Wasen – the world’s second largest “Beerfest” after Oktoberfest in Munich. The Canstatter Wasen is not as well known because unlike Oktoberfest, it’s not a tourist destination. I was completely blown away by how large it was. The only thing I could compare it to would be the Wisconsin Sate Fair – complete with rides, roller coaters, carnival games, stores, and giant beer “tents.” Valpo’s connections with nearby Reutlingen University enabled us Tübingen students to get tickets to go along, as obtaining seats in the giant portable buildings they call “tents” can be difficult. Seeing the beerfest was an interesting experience, but it is not one that I need to repeat. Everyone from Valpo was given one coupon for food, and two coupons for beer – each coupon was redeemable for 1 “Mass” of beer, a giant mug filled with nearly two liters of beer. Because I can’t drink beer, standing on a table dancing among thousands of people holding giant mugs filled with two liters of beer while singing, dancing, spilling on you, blocking every imaginable exit, and being completely obnoxious wasn’t exactly enjoyable for me. I am sure that if I were also able to drink a two-liter mug of beer that my experiences would have been much different! All of the beer drinkers loved it. I however, had to pay almost €10 for carbonated apple juice. I would also like to point out that contrary to common belief, the German’s don’t actually walk around in public wearing lederhosen. Except for at beerfests, which are lederhosen extravaganzas. (The lederhosen-wearing, giant beer-drinking stereotype of Germans is largely untrue most every part of the year, except for beerfests such as the Canstatter Wasen.)

The Canstatter Wasen

A whole lot of crazy. And this was just the very beginning…

That’s all for this blog post! I’ll try to get my Vienna experiences up as soon as possible!

Bis Dann

Ketchup

October 14, 2011 / Stephanie Volz / 0 Comments

What did the mommy tomato say to the baby tomato when he fell behind? …Ketchup! So since I haven’t posted in a while, I thought I’d play a little “ketchup” here. Like catch up, get it? I make myself laugh sometimes. So anyway. On a more serious note. Two weeks ago we left on a week-and-a-half-long adventure to Luther- and Bach-land for our Luther and Bach course. See, this is why studying abroad is amazing. Because “class” consists of traveling and seeing the stuff you read about in real life. It’s kinda awesome.

St. Thomas Church

Anyway, our first stop was Leipzig for the weekend. While there, we took a tour of the Stadtmitte (I’m gonna keep using this word in my posts. It’s literally “city middle,” and it means the old part of the city that’s now a pedestrian zone, usually with an old church or two, cobblestone streets and sidewalks, and lots and lots of outside restaurants and shops and pidgeons). So on this tour of Leipzig’s Stadtmitte, we got to see the churches that Bach worked at, and Goethe’s favorite restaurant, which hosted a legendary barrel ride by Faust (the person, before Goethe wrote about it), among other things. While in Leipzig, we also visited the Bach museum. The highlight of this part, however, was hearing the Thomanerchor (the young boy’s choir for the St. Thomas Church, where Bach did a lot of his stuff) sing the Bach cantata that we studied in class the week before. Pretty cool stuff.

In front of the 95-theses door!

Our next stop was Wittenberg, the famous Luther city. This was my favorite part of the trip, since I’m such a big Luther geek. But he’s awesome. Anyway, we took a tour of this city too. We got to see the Luther museum in the Luther house, which had THE LUTHER BIBLE. Like, THE ORIGINAL ONE THAT HE TRANSLATED. It was amazing. And then of course we got to see the church where he nailed the 95 theses to the door. Even though the door burned down in a fire, it was still the same place, still super cool. And we even got to see the church where he did his pastor work. The church is now considered the Mother of the Reformation. So yeah, Wittenberg was amazing. Especially for a Lutheran/Luther geek like me.

Wartburg Castle

The next day we stopped in Erfurt and took a tour of the city. (Yes, again. They did get a little old..) This one wasn’t too interesting. Although we did get to see the monastery where Luther spent some time. There were also some beautiful churches. And our guide pointed out where the Pope had stood only two weeks previously, which was kinda cool. But then the next day was cooler, in Eisenach. Yeah, we never stayed long in one place.. But anyway, Eisenach had Bach’s childhood home and a bunch of instruments of the time. And a great music room where you could sit and listen to Bach’s compositions for hours. This town also has Wartburg castle, which we visited in the afternoon. This is the castle where Luther spent ten months when he was hiding from the authorities who wanted to kill him. So we got to see his room where he translated the Bible. Which was also really cool.

But then we had a few days off until we had to be back in Reutlingen. So a few of us decided to head to southern Bavaria to see the Alps. They were incredible. And it was just beautiful. So I’m gonna attach a few pics.. It really was absolutely beautiful. And the town we were in, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, hosted the Winter Olympics not too long ago, so the ski jump and ice rink are still operating. We wanted to go skating in the olympic skating rink, but ran out of time.. Because we were on the highest peak in Germany!!! In a snowstorm 🙂 Which was actually a little sad, because apparently the view is absolutely incredible. But we could only see maybe 100 feet away. If that. But still, we were in a snowstorm. And then got to play on a glacier. Not bad for a day’s work.

Neuschwanstein

Snowstorm! And at the highest point!

View from our hostel... What??

On the way home on Saturday, we went to Neuschwanstein, the famous Cinderella castle. I had been here before, but was still amazed at how cool the inside and outside was. Surrounded by mountains and with a brilliant blue lake, but the inside had a grotto. (Literally, he had a cave installed in the castle. We called it his Batcave. Although Batman probably had a better car.) It’s hard to choose which one was better.

So we got back Saturday night to Reutlingen. And the next day we had Oktoberfest! Well, technically the Cannstatter Volksfest, since it’s not the one in Munich. But the one in Stuttgart is the second-biggest one, and apparently a lot less touristy. So, more authentic. And it was. Authentic, and amazing. Guys wearing lederhosen and those German dresses on girls. Complete with huge glasses of beer. One Mass = one liter of beer. And being part of the Reutlingen University group, we got two free Mass, and dinner. Pretty sweet deal. Germans are so uptight most of the time, that this is their one excuse to go crazy. And go crazy they do. Carnival rides (even roller coasters), massive beer tents (which aren’t tents really, but more like gigantic wooden structures they construct just for this event), cool market shops, and lots and lots of German sausages.

Awesome people.

One of the beer tents before people got there

So that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to for the past two weeks. That and “normal” class. Been pretty busy. Obviously. So I’ll write more soon!

Valpo Voyager

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