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Germany, here I come!!!!

December 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Hi, my name is Mary-Ann and I'm one of the Reutlingen bloggers!

When I prepare for the grocery store, I make a list of everything I need. I mean usually I end up leaving with more than on my list, but hey, who doesn’t?? During finals (and I’m sure you can relate to this!) I make lists of everything that needs to get done. Sometimes I’m so swamped that I even need to write down time to relax and to stop stressing. Story of my LIFE!!!! Finding out I was accepted into the study abroad program and that I was going to be studying abroad in Reutlingen the spring of 2013, what did I do? That’s right. Made like 80 lists of everything that I was planning on taking with, what I wanted to see, things I wanted to do….writing lists was probably the stupidest thing I could have done at the time. Why? The whole point of writing lists, for me at least, was to reassure myself that I don’t need to stress about everything. Boy was I stupid. With each list I got more and more nervous. Try so nervous that I had almost-couldn’t-hold-the-pen-cause-my-palms-were-so-sweaty kind of nervous (which for a girl is pretty disgusting to admit – so I apologize in advance). Nervous couldn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling. I started to think about all the things that could go wrong. Not to freak you guys out, but it was stuff like forgetting my passport (not even possible, though who thinks rationally when they’re freaking out?!?!), not having enough money, buying the right passes, not packing too much or (oh my gosh!) not packing enough……you get the idea. But then a thought occurred to me. (And I hope with all this worrying, that I didn’t freak you out about studying abroad. Trust me; I can worry enough for the both of us.) And let me impart this wisdom upon you: anything this nerve racking (and stressful!!!) must be exciting and worth all of the mixed emotions. Mixed emotions usually indicate something that is going to be so worthwhile that we often times look back and wonder just why we were so nervous and hesitant to begin with. Life is more unpredictable this way (and even a little fun!). And let me tell you, I am not comfortable with the unknown, but there’s just something about finally going to a place where I might not know what’s going to happen that gets me a little excited and that whatever will happen, I know that it’ll be worth it. Don’t get me wrong, family and friends will be sorely missed, but I also know that if I don’t take the chance to go now, when will the next chance for me to travel come? Never let an opportunity as priceless as this one be passed up. With the end of the semester coming, I might be stressing out about finals (let’s be real, I AM stressing out about finals), but the thought that I would be going on my own little adventure next semester keeps me going and makes it all worthwhile. Germany, here I come!!!!

By Mary-Ann Craft, German and Biology Majors from Kendallville, Indiana.  More posts to come soon!!

Why Reutlingen?

December 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

                I chose to go to Reutlingen because I have always wanted to go to Germany. I am a German Major and have been studying the language for almost 6 years now. However, despite all this time, I have never actually been to Germany. As a German major, this can be really tough because the majority of my peers have already visited Germany. I look forward to going to Germany and see exactly what my peers have been telling me and what I have learned in class. I choose Reutlingen for these exact reasons and I hope to show everyone what my learning experience.

            Despite all these years of learning German, I still do not know a lot about daily life and popular culture in Germany. I am excited to not only learn more about the daily culture, but to experience it myself! I hope to make a lot of friends while I am there too, to help me with the culture shock. Also I

To prepare for Germany, I lived at the German House! Here's our fancy Easter Dinner.

wish to perfect my speaking proficiency while in Reutlingen, bringing me to the same level as my peers. This way I hope to become someone that my peers can also look up to, such as I have looked up to them.

Another reason why I choose Reutlingen is to visit the many places I learn about in my German classes. Our professors have set up a list of places to visit while we are in Germany, many of them relating to what we have learned. I hope to visit all of them and visit many other parts of Germany as well. I also choose going to Reutlingen because it is near the border of other countries. Because of that, I hope to visit as many new places as I can while I am there, in Germany and other countries as well. Having never been outside of the United States before, I am super excited to experience all these new places and cultures!

My friends and I getting ready for Homecoming!

I really am going to miss home and all my friends back at Valpo, but this is a trip that I have been looking forward to for a long time. I only wish that all my friends could have come with me to experience Germany with me as well! Realistically though, I hope that they will keep in contact with me and support me as I learn and grow. I hope that they and other Valpo students can learn from my experiences. With the prospects of visiting so many new places and increasing my language skills, there is no reason why I would not go to Reutlingen!

 

 

By Emily Wambach, German Major, Japanese & Communication Minors, from Knoxville, Tennessee. More posts to come!!

Why I Chose Cambridge

December 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

There are so many things I could say about this topic. Why I chose Cambridge? The reasons are too many to count! The main reason I chose to study abroad in England, is that it has always fascinated me. Starting when I was around 10 years old, Great Britain has been an obsession of mine. I love everything about it. Their history is so amazing and so vast. It spans back centuries and it is so full of mystery and opportunity. I love reading about the history of England. Just to think, the city of Cambridge first came into being around the time that Christ was alive. So many thousands of years of history! I cannot wait to explore that history. So then, when an opportunity to travel 2 weeks in Europe was presented to me my sophomore year of high school, I jumped at the chance to experience all that I was so enamored with. I told my parents about it, and my Dad told me that I could travel for two weeks in high school, or I could take a semester in college and study abroad for a full 5 months. I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe my luck that my parents would let me do something like that. Looking back now, I kind of think that it was my parent’s way of getting me off my travel kick for the moment and keep me safely in the U.S. I don’t think they ever dreamed that I would grasp onto that promise- that I would be able to travel in college- and I would never let it go. When I was searching and applying for colleges one of my stipulations for attending any college was that it had to have a superb study abroad program so that I knew I would have the best experience possible. So when I found out that Valparaiso had such a good Nursing school, I immediately set to searching about its study abroad programs and what I found thrilled me. Not only did they have a fabulous study abroad program, they had a study site in Cambridge, England! I was beyond thrilled! My wildest dreams were going to come true. I knew for sure I was going to Cambridge.

I am looking forward to so many things while I am living in another country. I am looking forward to a new culture, a new way of doing things, and a new way of viewing the world. I am looking forward to learning more of their history, and meeting new people. And most of all, I am looking forward to traveling. All over the world! From London, to Paris. From Berlin, to Venice and Rome. I cannot wait to go on a gondola ride in Venice, or climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I can’t wait to touch the Berlin wall and walk through the castle that inspired the one and only Cinderella’s Castle. I can’t wait to see the Stonehenge and wander through the Colosseum in Rome. So many things I have on my bucket list that I hope to do while I am over there. I am so excited writing this that I can’t even contain myself! There are so many other things that I wish to do, but I don’t want to write too much!

Although a lot of people probably don’t add this, I am looking forward to the classes I will take while I am abroad. They can teach me more about the country I will be living in for my semester abroad. I can’t wait to write blogs and journals. I love writing, and to be able to write about my experiences in the most exciting 6 months of my life will be a blast!

By Abby Lorenzo, Nursing major from Seymour, Indiana.  More posts to come soon!

 

Christmas carousel...

Medieval Christmas Market in Esslingen

December 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I have definitely never heard of a medieval Christmas market before, so this was quite an interesting experience. There was a normal German Christmas market, but the main attraction for most visitors is the medieval market. One could buy period clothing, handmade crafts and baskets, as well as make candles and throw knives or axes. If you ventured up a steep staircase to a great viewpoint over the town, you could also shoot a bow and arrow (which cost 8 Euro!), but the view was great.

Esslingen am Neckar!

Some people needed a little help...

As part of the medieval motif, there was food served on sticks, such as “Stockbrot”, which would be literally translated as “stick bread”…

"Stockbrot".

One of my favorite things at the Christmas market was a giant Christmas carousel…

Christmas carousel...

There were also people that dressed up to fit the period, as well as musicians and fire demonstrations for entertainment. Most importantly, though, there were stores that were open late, because it was only 20 degrees Fahrenheit, so although I enjoyed myself, at the end of the day I was definitely happy to be back on the warm train and heading home.

One of the various projections...

Chocolate Market in Tübingen

December 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Tübingen hosted a chocolate market this past week from the 4th through the 9th of December, which was great! I am also a chocolate lover (it is practically part of my diet), so I especially loved it. There were vendors from all over the world, as well as items ranging from chocolate covered fruit on a stick to regular hot chocolate, chocolate salami, chocolate beer, and chocolate shots. Also, there were samples! In fact, I am going to go to a store here in Tübingen that I never went into before, just because I absolutely loved the sample that they offered.

A moderately busy day at the chocolate market.

The market was also a chocolART festival, so you could watch sculptures being made, or view some pieces on display that had chocolate painted on them. I am not sure if people bought any of the various art pieces, though.

Watching the chocolate artists at work!

During the night was the best time to go to the chocolate market (in my opinion). There were projections on the buildings in the main market areas, which were interesting to look at, and they added more of a Christmas flair to the whole market. Also, at night one can enjoy a hot chocolate, Glühwein (a mulled wine sold during the winter in Germany), or a chocolate shot, which is also sold in a chocolate shot glass.

One of the various projections...

Almost looks like a gingerbread house!

The chocolate market was also directly in front of my building…

They had a nice assortment...

Getting a creepy photo from my room...

 

I wish there was just something like this in the US. Nothing comes close.

KTV

December 9, 2012 / / 0 Comments

As young college students, I think we can all agree that one of our favorite things is the weekend. Some spend the weekend partying while others relax or hang out with friends. Here in China, when I ask college-aged Chinese people what they enjoy doing when they’re not studying or doing work, there is an extremely popular answer: KTV. KTV TV screen

KTV is just karaoke, but it is much different than the Western sense of karaoke. Western-style karaoke usually involves someone gathering enough courage to go on stage and belt out a song in front of a crowd of strangers in a bar. Karaoke in the East is so popular that there are actual designated karaoke buildings. Eastern-style karaoke involves you and a group of friends getting your own private room with a huge screen and a comfy sofa. These rooms are rather high-tech—there is a touch-screen pad that you can use to select what song is next, call a waiter over, choose to do a duet with the original singer of the song or if you want do belt out a solo, etc. KTV is very popular in China with everyone- I have seen teenagers crowded in a room, and I have also seen middle-aged Chinese partying in their own KTV room…sometimes what looks like to be an after-work party!

I have done KTV 5 or 6 times here in China, and every time I go it is a blast. Each KTV place has a different selection of songs but for the most part you can find a decent selection of English songs, both new and old. This past weekend I indulged in our last day of KTV with some Chinese friends and the rest of H-23. They stuffed 13 of us in a small room, but in a way that is what made it even more entertaining. At first, KTV generally starts off sort of slow, especially if you have some shy people in the group. But once you get the ball rolling, everyone has an awesome time. My own personal motto is: It doesn’t matter whether or not you are a good singer; all that matters is that you try to enjoy yourself. I can’t carry a tune to save my life, but I don’t mind getting up and backup dancing to Beyonce’s “Love on Top” or attempting to sing “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys. Let me tell you, it is just great to see a shy Chinese person stand up and croon along to “Rolling in the Deep”. A few of us even took a shot at singing Chinese songs! All that matter is that we enjoyed each other’s company—and it doesn’t hurt that we got a mini concert out of it!

Think seriously about Study Abroad: your new favorite semester at Valpo.

December 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Alumni Guest Blog.

Daniel Jarratt, Valpo alum, studied abroad in Reutlingen, Germany in 2005 (R-75) and writes about how his experience impacted him.  Valpo alumni are invited to email study.abroad@valpo.edu to share their story on how studying abroad impacted their lives.

Studying abroad is — plain and simple — a lot of fun.  How about jumping into thermal baths and caving in Budapest, punting boats on a river through a medieval German town, or summiting the tallest mountain in Wales?

Studying abroad is unique.  Where else can you have an entire castle tower to yourself for a night in a youth hostel?  See the Queen of England from 3 feet away?  Walk through Roman catacombs, part of the tangible history of the early church?

Studying abroad is living history.  Stand where Martin Luther translated the Bible and where Shakespeare was born.  See bombed-out Coventry Cathedral, the home of the Community of the Cross of Nails of which our Chapel of the Resurrection is a part.  If you have ancestors in the area you’re studying, find their old homes and people who share your name.

My co-hort – R-75

I lived in Reutlingen, Germany, for three semesters (spring 2005, fall 2007, spring 2008) on two Valpo overseas programs (including one after graduation), and I did everything above and much, much more.  My time in Germany was, far and away, one of the most meaningful experiences that Valpo provided.

  • You can and should finish your degree in four years, except for a small handful of majors which have special arrangements.
  • I was frugal, and you’ll be afforded student rates on almost everything if you head to Europe (or another touristed area).  Studying abroad was a very good value.
  • There is a long history of the Grand Tour, and many of Valpo’s students (and the University itself) are its heirs.  Over the last four centuries of Western higher education, students who wished to further their education traveled extensively specifically to learn about the world beyond their community and nation.  If you have the chance to study abroad during college and you don’t, you’re cheating yourself.

Study abroad is important for many of the same reasons the liberal arts are important.  If you believe that education should be about more than just vocational training (and you’re at Valpo, so I assume you do), studying abroad is a key method of learning the liberal arts.  In fact, it may be the most effective: immersing yourself in a work — a book, a symphony, or a place — outshines lectures by even the best professors.

You (yes, you) should study abroad.  Living in Germany was one of the best decisions of my life, and my only regret is I couldn’t stay longer.  You’ll feel the same way too.

in front of the Brandenburg Gate

 

Daniel Jarratt, VU’07 with TV/Radio Production and Humanities majors and a German minor.

Is this real life? Prince William and Princess Kate!

December 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Now let me tell you, when I first heard the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were coming to Cambridge for the first time since their marriage, I literally squealed out loud. I mean, who wouldn’t? This is Prince William and Kate that we are talking about! Yes, I was one of those girls who sighed as I watched the Royal Kiss and hoped to have a prince for myself one day. (But I mean, let’s be real…I’m pretty serious!)

The entire Cambridge community was also excited to hear this news and it was on the newspaper for days. Finally it was revealed where they were going to be and what they would be doing. We had classes this day, but thankfully after working things out we were able to make it out to the city centre where William and Kate were going to be waving to the crowd.
On the morning of November 28th, I woke up extra early for classes. I couldn’t contain my excitement. I brought everything I needed to my classes so that I can peace out as soon as class ended; which is exactly what I did.
All of C-90 walked as fast as we could to the market square, and there were already so many people there. After waiting patiently for about 30 minutes, they finally came out!
I couldn’t believe that I was seeing a real life prince and princess with my bare eyes!

There they are!

The entire crowd cheered with excitement and many were yelling out their names. This was probably the most spirited I have seen of the people here!

The handsome Duke and the beautiful Duchess

Duchess Kate is known for her great sense of fashion and I’ve heard that the girls here love it and it was so true! There was a group of girls near me and I heard them mentioning many times how cute her ankle boots were and that they wanted it. They also couldn’t get enough of her coat. And I do have to say, her outfit was very classy and I loved it too!
A couple other girls and I tried moving towards an area that we thought they might walk past. This was the closest I got to Prince William!

Hello Prince William!

He was quite a handsome man! One of the girls in C-90 were able to shake hands with him and I couldn’t have been more jealous! She definitely was a lucky one.
One of the great things besides actually being able to see William and Kate was to see how many people were there and how excited everyone was. It was so nice seeing an entire town come together and celebrate this historical moment. It was such a memorable experience for me as well and I was thrilled to be a part of this Cambridge history. This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and although I was jealous of my friend for being able to shake Prince William’s hand, I knew that I was also very lucky to be able to have this experience. Who else can say that they have studied abroad and was able to see the country’s prince? I do hope though, that they will be coming back more often after this time, and the future Cambridge groups will also have opportunities to see them as well!

 

Cheers until next time!

 

On a side note, it was released a couple days after this visit that Kate is pregnant with her first baby. So this means that we were able to see William, Kate, AND the future heir to the throne! haha. Definitely a cool experience.

A Dream Come True: Neuschwanstein Castle

December 3, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I’m sure everyone knows about the Cinderella/Princess Castle that’s in Disney World and Disneyland, right?
Well, there is a castle called the Neuschwanstein Castle that is located in Fussen, Germany which is what the Cinderella castle was based off of. Being a huge Disney fan that I am, seeing this castle has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. Going to see this princess castle was one of the things that I knew I had to do while I was abroad and it finally became a reality the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Holly and I flew over to Munich, Germany which is about two hours away from the castle. During our first night there, we adventured around the city centre of Munich. It was night time, but there were many Christmas lights that lit up the city beautifully!

We were also able to see a gorgeous night view of the New Town Hall, which essentially is a HUGE clock tower. The way that the light was shining on it made it absolutely beautiful.

There were Christmas markets all around the area of the New Town Hall. Sadly, they were all closed at this time so we were only able to see the stands and people starting to close up any remaining stands. But all of the stands had Christmas decorations and it was still very fun to walk through the streets.
One thing that caught our attention was this huge display at a mall. The mall had a stuffed animal store inside it, so it was a display of many, many animals celebrating the Christmas season! It was absolutely adorable and I wished I could take them all home with me…or even better, I wish I could have that display at home! This was probably hands down the cutest display that I have ever seen and it looked like a lot of effort went into it! Here are a couple pictures I took:

Little bears making a snowman!

 

Look how cute they are (:

At this point, I hadn’t seen a whole bunch of Christmas decorations at Cambridge yet, so this definitely put me into the Christmas spirit. There were so many people there looking at the display and taking pictures; many of them were happy, little children! It made me really happy to see that this display brought out so many smiles on people walking down the street. I wish the States had intricate mall displays like these!

 

The following day was dedicated to the castle: the day that I have been waiting for (:
We took a train down to Fussen, Munich, and then a bus right to the bottom of the Alps mountain where the castle stands.
It was a very pleasant hike up to the castle. Nothing too difficult, but it wasn’t just flat, boring roads either. I was hoping for some snow, which we didn’t see, but most of the leaves that were on the mountains were red and yellow and colored the mountains beautifully.

View from the walk to the castle!

As we neared closer to the castle, I was almost hyperventilating from excitement (a little dramatic, I know).
We finally made it to the top, and the castle was everything that I hoped for. It really was just like the Cinderella castle at Disney and I could really tell that it was modeled off of this.

I was so happy to see it up close, but I also wanted to see the view that I’ve seen in pictures. I knew there had to be a way to get up there, and while Holly and I went inside the castle grounds and looked out to the beautiful view, we found it:

The bridge!

So our next task was to find how to get to the bridge since it seemed like it was on the other end of this part of the mountain. It wasn’t too difficult though, since we realized that there were a bunch of people heading the same direction. On the way to the bridge, we were able to see some great views. This was a more rural area, compared to Munich, and it was very beautiful in its own way.

There aren’t mountains in Cambridge (the biggest “lump” of land we have is the Castle Hill, which really is just a hill) so it’s a nice change seeing such big mountains. Not to mention, they are just beautiful. If I had more time here, I would loved to have gone hiking. But our nice, little hike up to the castle and to the bridge will have to do for this time!
Finally arriving at the bridge, it took me a lot of courage to walk on it, but it was definitely worth it. Here is the castle of my dreams!

Hello, Neuschwanstein Castle (:

Aaaaaand crossing that off my bucket list (:

I could not have been more thrilled to see the castle of my dreams. Being abroad gave me the opportunity for me to accomplish something that I have always wanted to do and I am so thankful for that. This was the last out-of-England trip that I made, and it was a great way to start wrapping up the semester. After traveling to Italy, Ireland, and Germany this semester, it strongly encouraged my desire to come back to Europe one day again. Next time, I will know exactly the places that I want to go to but will also be willing to see new things as well. Flying (and taking the ferry!) is right under my belt, and I’ve become a much more confident traveler 🙂 Maybe backpacking throughout Europe will become a reality one day in the near future!

Until next time,

Cheers!

GreenSpot

November 30, 2012 / / 0 Comments

For one of our last development classes we went to GreenSpot organic farm in Okahandja. Manjo Smith, who runs the farm, gave us a thorough tour of the property before serving us a delicious organic breakfast cooked on their very own solar stove.

It was really refreshing to see how all aspects of nature work together in an efficient, self-sustaining farm that is still able to make a profit each year. With no prior experience in farming, Smith jumped right in to organic farming for over 8 years and though she has studied farming since then, she has really learned the most through trial and error over the years. Her passion and commitment to the farm are really an inspiration – if a former private sector employee can turn a plot of land into one of the country’s most successful organic farms, then surely I can attempt to grow a small garden once I get back to the states!

Some of Smith’s tricks for farming seem so clever..but then again they are more like common sense when you actually think about it. Seeing how the farm functions without the use of pesticides and GMOs like in big commercial farms was really great. The chickens on the farm eat up all the insects and weeds as they rotate throughout different pieces of land. They allow the chickens to naturally hatch the number of chickens they choose while keeping the extra eggs for consumption. The chicks grow up with a mother hen, which has proven to produce better quality meat and eggs. Smith is still trying to build up the chicken population on the farm, so right now they do not have enough eggs or chicken meat to sell, but in a few years they hope to have the chicken coup up to full capacity.

The cat and dog take care of snake and rodent issues around the farm. And the calf is allowed to graze openly in certain plots. Smith explained the importance of rotating crops each season as certain crops take away nitrogen and other infuse nitrogen back into the soil. This way no chemicals are needed to maintain the quality of the soil. Each year the farmers throw small red-painted rocks into the strawberry fields right before harvest so that when the berries are actually ripe, the birds will not eat them because they’ll associate the strawberries with the hard rocks. Smith is also trying to grow squash next to the corn this year since the height differences in the plants are believed to distract the fruit flies.

I was so impressed by the farm’s ability to produce such delicious produce without any pesticides or GMOs. Smith is a strong advocate against GMOs, especially genetically-modified corn, since Namibia and South Africa are the two main countries that eat corn as a staple food – much of the subsidized GMO corn in the U.S. is used for bio-fuel and not consumption. Smith’s organic farm also has their own bee hives, which have not been affected in the slightest by the mysterious colony collapse disorder that has swept the United States and is believed by some to be linked to Monsanto GMO crops.

South Africa recently opened their borders to Monsanto’s GMO seeds, and the backlash from environmental activists has been enormous. The strain of corn being used in South Africa contains one of the two active ingredients in the infamous Agent Orange, also a product of Monsanto. The Green Times reports that exposure to 2,4-D corn has been linked to non-Hodgkins lymphoma and has been shown in studies to cause birth defects, neurological damage, and interference with reproductive organs. Unfortunately anti-GMO activists have had difficulty actually proving the link between Monsanto GMOs and cancer.

Either way, the thought of eating food infused and/or sprayed with chemicals that were based off of the chemicals used in Nazi gas chambers is not appealing. Thankfully Namibia has not yet allowed GMO seeds into the country. Imported food in the grocery stores is not exempt though.

South African activists are pushing petitions to ban Monsanto GMOs in the country. In spite of their efforts, Monsanto maintains a worldwide monopoly on the agriculture industry. Big money means big power and big influence in politics as we’ve seen year after year through Monsanto’s powerful lobbyists and lawyers. I agree with Smith though, the power to the change the system lies in the hands of the consumers. Slowly, but surely, I think consumers will open their eyes to the damage of Monsanto’s chemicals and change the demand “back to basics” and the innovative technology that organic farming entails.

 

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