Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Tag: Germany (page 6 of 6)

Cologne and Heidelberg

September 24, 2011 / / 0 Comments

So after our completely amazing Berlin trip, we had to decide where to go that could compare in the least to our last few days. We decided on Cologne (Köln, in German) because of its incredibly massive cathedral. And indeed, the first thing we see as we step out of the train station was this incredibly massive cathedral. That doesn’t even begin to describe the monstrously huge intricate structure blotting out the skyline. It was absolutely beautiful, but the first reaction was naturally “oh my freaking gosh that is so freaking big.” Or something along those lines.

IT'S SO BIG

But since it was already night by the time we got to Köln, we couldn’t go inside until the next day. And we put it off until we had visited other sights the city had to offer. Like the Lindt chocolate museum. With its free chocolate tasting along the way. And chocolate cake and hot chocolate afterwards in the Lindt chocolate cafe. And more chocolate. And an insane chocolate overload afterwards. Totally worth it, though. So to work off our body’s protestations, we wandered around the Stadtmitte for a bit and found a wooden handiwork shop, which had intricate cuckoo clocks and wooden figurines covering the walls. It really was a typical German shop, and I was fascinated by the craftsmanship that went into everything.

Inside the Cathedral

 

THEN we finally got into the cathedral. It was so enormous, and so marvelous. Did I mention enormous? And beautiful. Words really can’t describe how amazing it was, so you’ll just have to check out all my pictures on Picasa (link: picasaweb.google.com). But you can see a few here. And once we had wandered the main part, we climbed way, way too many stairs to one of the two tallest towers to check out the view, and to see again just how enormous the cathedral is. The view really was amazing once we caught our breath, especially since it overlooks the Rhine river.

After making our way downstairs again, we split up to explore on our own. I decided to first check out the Roman-German museum (since Romans occupied most of Germany way back when). Although it didn’t actually give me much history, it did give me a chance to see tons of artifacts from olden days, many from 1st to 3rd century A.D., as well as some older pieces. After steeping myself in history, I went to the Rhine river to sit on the bank and relax for a while. A few minutes later a guy came to sit with me, and we ended up talking in German (brokenly on my part) for a good half hour or 45 minutes. And of everything in Köln, this was one that will stay with me the most, sitting on the banks of a beautiful river practicing my German skills. (German language classes should consider this method, it’s very effective). And that night for dinner we found a restaurant on the edge of the river from which to admire the view.

 

Heidelburg Castle

 

Matt on top of a vat of wine. Believe me now that it's the biggest one in the world?

The next morning we set off for Heidelberg on our way to Reutlingen. I had actually seen this town before when I visited Germany with my family 3 years ago. But seeing it again brought new experiences, naturally. I was still impressed with the famous bridge across the Rhine, and with the outside views of the castle of Heidelberg. However, the inside of the castle was disappointing, because you could only go into the courtyard, and there wasn’t much to see from there. Except, of course, the largest vat of wine in the world. But Heidelberg as a town is still worth the trip, because it is just absolutely beautiful, in the typical German old-town beauty.

That’s it for our Berlin trip! But right now I’m touring Würzburg, a town in northern Bavaria, so be sure to keep up with the blog in the next few days to hear about more of my travels! Bis dann!

 

 

The Coolest City in the World

September 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

The title might be a misnomer. I obviously haven’t visited every city in the world. But I’ve traveled a lot, and by far the coolest one I’ve seen is Berlin. The Reutlingen program brought us to Berlin for a “class” trip for 5 days, and during that time we were able to explore Berlin and learn about all of its crazy and important history and its culture. And even though we didn’t have class per say, just being in that city and touring around and talking to people was so much more informative than sitting in a classroom. So here I’m gonna outline a bit of what we did while there.

We arrived in the late afternoon on Friday, and were set free to explore on our own til the following morning. First order of business after a long train ride was dinner, so we wandered around until we found a typical German restaurant that looked good. Turns out we made the best decision of the day right there, their crispy baked half duck and apfelstrudel was AMAZING. And even despite all the restaurants in Berlin, it was so good that we had to return later that week.

Brandenburg Gate

Wall museum and remnants of the wall

The next morning we met up with Professor Malchow to take a guided tour of the city. During the extremely interesting  tour, we got to see the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag (the German Parliament building), parts of the old Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and the square where the famous photos of Hitler speaking to gathered ranks of Nazis were taken, among many many other places. The tour guide also taught us about the deep history of Berlin, from the Hohenzollern dynasty to Nazi dominance and through the end of the Cold War. It was amazing to see all the places where some of the most well-known history actually happened. That night, a few of us decided it would be really cool to go see an opera or a classical concert or something of the sort, so we found that the famous Deutsche Oper (German Opera) was putting on Das Rheingold that night. Which I had seen as part  of my German 351 class a year ago broadcasted live from Chicago. But seeing it in person (and in Germany!) was so much cooler.

One of the palaces from the bottom of their terraced garden (!)

The next day we took a day (well, afternoon) trip to Potsdam, about a half hour train ride from Berlin. We had heard there was a pretty cool palace there from Frederick the Great called Sansoucci. Pretty cool doesn’t even begin to describe it. We spent about four hours there that afternoon, and didn’t even go inside any of the three gorgeous palaces on the grounds. In my opinion, the gardens themselves are the best part about it. We literally spent all four hours exploring the grounds, and never got bored or ran out of things to explore. It truly was beautiful and amazing (and I took so so so many pictures–you can see them on my Picasa account). In fact, before we left the last day we decided to spend another few hours there.

The next day (Monday) we decided we should actually go inside a few of the sights and museums in the old Eastern part of Berlin, where most of the history is. So we headed to the Berliner Dom (Cathedral), and it was incredibly beautiful. And when we climbed countless steps to reach the top balcony on the outside, we were able to see a lot of the city and overlooked the courtyard where the famous Nazi demonstrations/gatherings were held. Once we finished there, we found some of Berlin’s specialty food, currywurst, which is spicy sausage with sauce served with a roll. It definitely lived up to its expectation. After nourishment, we were on a roll (pun not intended), so we headed to the Reichstag to see if we could get in. Of course they need a reservation 3 days in advance, so we couldn’t.. But we chilled on the vast lawn in front of it for a while. And got a brochure that told us everything we’d need to know about Germany’s Parliament. And on our way back to the hotel we passed by the Prussian Victory Pillar and decided to have a look. Once we finally made it to the top, the view over the big park that surrounded it was amazing. And on our way up we got to see the histories of many important buildings worldwide.

Inside the Berliner Dom

The square that the famous pictures of Nazis always are in. Hitler spoke from the steps on the right.

Our last full day there we visited Checkpoint Charlie as part of our “official” program. It’s really touristy, and not actually as important in the grand scheme of things as America makes it out to be (after all it is the famous American checkpoint, and we’ve got to keep our American pride!) But parts of it still were interesting, and we learned a lot of the history of the wall. I was then going to explore the German History Museum, which is supposedly one of the best museums to visit, but decided a nap was more necessary.. So instead we hit up the Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin after a few hours relaxation. And guess what?? They actually serve free tap water if you want it! Nowhere else in Germany does! It was a little taste of home in a huge foreign city.

Checkpoint Charlie!

Since it was our last night there, a few of us grabbed some drinks and went to sit in a market square to listen to street musicians playing and watch fire twirlers twirling. And nothing made it better than seeing the beautiful architecture lit up at night on the side of the Spree river, along with the culture all around us. Despite us not taking part in Berlin’s great nightlife like we did almost every other night, it was a great relaxing way to have one last hoo-rah in the cultural center and mix of Germanic outdoor eating and relaxation with deep history and with a big city, the great mix that makes Berlin the coolest city in the world.

Like I mentioned earlier, after seeing Potsdam again, we headed away from Berlin the next day (much to everyone’s sadness. The theme of our lives right now is that we still want to be in Berlin). But to hear about our next two days of adventure before making it back to Reutlingen you will have to wait til the next post! Bis dann!

View from the Castle Park where we spent many of our "Summer" days.

The end of “Summer”

September 11, 2011 / / 0 Comments

With the beginning of the “Deutsch Kompakt Kurs” this Monday came the end of my two-week summer vacation in Germany. After the hardest semester of my life this spring and an exhausting summer full of hard work and preparation for my year abroad, it was really nice to have a few weeks to myself to relax and settle in to my new “home” in Tübingen. Yes, indeed, my few short days of summer are over.

View from the Castle Park where we spent many of our "Summer" days.

The week began pretty slow, with some bureaucratic paperwork, a placement test, and a dinner for everyone in the course to get to know each other. Then on Wednesday at 9:00 AM sharp, we all hit the ground running at our first day of German Grammar bootcamp. The class Jake and I were placed into can be relatively difficult (in my opinion,) as well as slightly intimidating at times. One of our classmates is a Norwegian with a bachelors degree in German, who as you could imagine, speaks nearly flawlessly. Another one is a Swedish girl who grew up in Switzerland speaking German her whole life. Us Americans in the course are not quite there yet…

Rachel and I climbing the steps up to the castle!

Luckily, everyone in the course is extremely nice and friendly. The atmosphere is very comfortable, so nobody feels shy to speak up in class – we’re all of the understanding that as a bunch of foreigners here to learn German, we will all inherently make lots of mistakes. Sometimes it seems strange to speak German when the five of us Valpo students are together, or when we are with other Americans. It is much easier, however, to speak it with Koreans, Swedes, Belgians, Russians, and Brazilians, for example. (All you have to do is pretend they don’t speak English… Which they all do.) All in all, I’ve gotten to know a lot of very interesting people, and I’ve really learned a lot in the last week.

 

For this blog post, I’ve decided to do a “Top Ten” list of sorts, consisting of things I learned / found interesting / observed etc. this past week. Naturally, I learned a lot of new grammatical rules and conversational German phrases, but I’ll leave most of those out for the sake of not boring the non-German major blog readers. Many of the things listed below have something to do with the cultures represented in our course, as these are the people I’ve been talking to / getting to know over the last week!

 

1) Scandinavians (minus the Finns, i.e. Norwegians, Swedes, and the Danes) can all speak to each other and understand each other in their native languages. The three languages are pronounced very differently (almost as if they are dialects of the same language) but are still very similar. So similar, that the three nationalities have no problem communicating as long as they speak slow enough to “translate.” There’s also a really neat saying meaning, “Thanks for today,” that the Scandinavians say to each other at the end of the day that is also somewhat similar in each of the three languages.

 

2) Although Europeans in general are known for their ability to speak multiple languages, the Belgians and the Dutch are particularly well-known for their language abilities. For example, many Belgians can speak four languages (one Belgian girl in another class can speak six.) Because Belgium is such a small country, nearly everyone can speak both Flemish and French, regardless of whether they come from the French-speaking region, or the Flemish. They begin learning English at a very young age, and many then choose to learn German and perhaps even more languages. This fascinates me more and more each day as I attempt to learn my second language. Learning German has given me a very strong appreciation of multi-lingual people, because learning a language can feel very deceivingly and unbelievably difficult.

 

3) In German, there are two ways to say “you:” “Sie,” when you want to be formal, and “Du” when you are speaking casually with a family member, friend, or someone who has given you permission to speak to them on a more personal level. The distinction between “Sie” and “Du” is often times a very difficult one that hinges on multiple factors. As we were explained, using “Du” with someone is like a gift: if you are speaking to a superior, coworkers, someone older than you, or those with authority, you should always begin with “Sie.” If and when they tell you it is okay to use “Du,” (which depending on the situation, can be a big deal) it is impolite and rude to continue saying “Sie,” against their wishes. When speaking to kids, family members or other students you always use “Du,” but here are some of the more interesting distinctions we learned between the two forms:

  • When hiking in the mountains, you always greet passersby with “Sie,” unless you are higher in elevation than 1500 meters above sea level, in which case you always use “Du.”
  • Certain political parties in Germany have adopted either one or the other forms of you. For example, the more conservative CDU and FDP parties use Sie, and the more liberal Greens, SPD, and the “Lefts” use du. This applies not only to politicians and those who work for the political parties, but sometimes to the voters as well. An example directly from our teacher: If you typically vote Green, (as the majority of people actually do in this region of Germany,) and you know somebody to be CDU, you probably wouldn’t want to introduce yourself immediately as a Green voter by using “Du.”

 

4) (This one isn’t something I “learned,” per se, more something I’ve observed and find interesting.) Many countries, such as Brazil, are much more lax about citizenship than the United States, and allow for multiple citizenships and passports. One girl in our class is from Brazil, for example, and because her great-grandmother came from Italy, she is eligible for an Italian passport – which she is currently waiting to receive by mail. Just Imagine: how many people would love to have dual citizenship in the United States because their great-grandparents were born in another country? I might be wrong, but I don’t think it’s even possible anymore to have dual citizenship if your parents are from another country, much less grandparents or great-grandparents.

 

5) The alcohol laws across Europe are interesting, and quite varied. In Germany, it is apparently no problem to walk around in public with alcohol, as long as you aren’t belligerently drunk and/or causing problems. Last night, for example, a big group of us from Deutsch Kompakt went out for dinner. Afterwards, we found a bar where they were selling “Cocktails to Go,” for €5. We each bought one, and drank them as we sat on the steps near the marketplace for nearly three hours. In the United States, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find “Cocktails to Go,” (especially with our culture being dependent on cars and driving) or municipalities that would allow the free roaming around in public with Piña Coladas. I’ve always found it crazy that in Indiana, it is illegal to buy alcohol on Sundays. Surprisingly, in Norway, a country known to be quite liberal in comparison to the United States, you cannot buy alcohol not only on Sundays, but also after 8:00 PM on weekdays or after 6:00 PM on Saturdays.

 

6) Wifi is practically impossible to find here in Germany. This, and the fact that credit cards are often not accepted in the country home to Europe’s banking capital, are somewhat surprising to me. Germany is an extremely modernized country. In many ways, for example, its solid infrastructure and economy, I would say it is even more modernized than the United States. (Now gasp, and call me un-American. Just kidding. Kind of.) Still, it has somehow managed to leave widespread Wifi and credit/debit card acceptance in the dust. Interestingly enough, it’s not just us Americans who think this. A girl from New Zealand whom we met couldn’t understand why credit and debit cards are not widely accepted here, and the two Belgians in our class tried to take their laptops to Burger King in an unsuccessful search for Wifi.

 

7) Bureaucracy like you’ve never seen. The Germans love bureaucracy. The more complicated, the more forms, photos, permissions, numbers, passwords, and long lines, the better. Simple things like “Matriculating” that take 5 seconds in the United States can take much longer here. We were commiserating with the Belgians and Scandinavians about this as we stood in line with our envelope full of paperwork (complete with biometric photo) to register as official students – complete with internet access that will arrive in no less than one week. In other parts of Europe as well as at home, this is all done online. We login to DataVU, and click, “YES, I WILL be returning in Fall 2011” or, “NO, I will NOT be returning in Fall 2011.” Then we click to confirm our registration in all of our classes. Then we click “Submit.” Done. The Germans, however, love their paperwork and they love their personal contact. I guess I can see the benefit of personal contact in a world that seems to be losing its ability to interact with others. I just wish it would be a little less complicated and time-consuming. Oh, and did I mention that there is an “Exmatriculation” process that has to be completed when we leave next July?

 

8) English is truly the international language. It is so interesting to me that every time the Czech, Belgian, or Swedish students talk to each other, it is in a language that nobody else understands. When we Americans talk amongst ourselves in English, it’s not hard to see the heads turning and subtly leaning in to listen in on our conversation that everyone else can also understand. It fascinates me greatly that when the Italians have trouble speaking in German to the Danes, for example, or the Norwegians to the Czechs, they automatically switch to English to explain themselves. The Italians typically don’t learn Danish, just as the Danish typically don’t learn Italian, the Norwegians typically don’t learn Czech and the Czechs typically don’t learn Norwegian. They’re all here to learn German, a third or fourth language that is not their own, but when that fails they turn to their second or third foreign language: English. This presents a difficult challenge for Americans learning other languages (I mentioned this in my last entry,) but I also think it’s incredibly motivating to try hard to keep up with them!

 

Tomorrow we leave for our six-day-long class trip to Blaubeuren, a small town in the mountains where the University of Tübingen owns a house. From what we can tell it sounds like it will be a retreat or sorts, kind of a like a one-week German “camp,” complete with hikes to a waterfall. I don’t know much else, but I do know that I’ll be without internet until Friday. I’ll post an entry about the week upon my return!

 

Bis dann!

 

Ambiance (and Alcohol)

September 4, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Germany and America are very different in some ways, I’ve noticed. I mean, that’s probably obvious. We are across the ocean and have a different language. But even with differences like that, people are the same everywhere. We’re all humans, you know? But there are actually big cultural differences. And I think it’s really cool to learn about all this, it’ll be one of the high points of this whole experience, just talking to people from other countries and living in a non-American environment.

One of the many cafes

One of the big differences is the attitude towards alcohol. Germans are so incredibly relaxed about it. Instead of being confined to bars and restaurants and inside someone’s home like in America, you can pretty much get a beer and drink it wherever you want here. So you can just sit at a little outside cafe in the city center and order one or two beers during the afternoon while shopping or just wandering around. It’s just as cheap as water, after all, so why not drink beer?

They do fun stuff to their beer too! Here, beer with cola (actually really really good).

And if you’re lucky, there’s a Biergarten near you. Those things completely epitomize the German way of drinking. There’s one in Tuebingen right on the Neckar river, which is also a restaurant, and also brews its own beer. But in the Biergarten part of it, there are rows and rows of nice wooden picnic tables surrounded by trees and hanging lights and a few canopies just in case it rains. You can either bring your own beer or buy some at the counter on one side, and it can even be a family affair. Bring the kids. If they look like they’re about 14 or older, they can get some. Without being carded. Really, it’s just beer here, there’s no American uptightness about it. And there are young kids in strollers too, and some running around chasing birds or each other.  It really is amazing, and incredibly relaxing, and I vote that we bring the tradition back to America.

That’s the thing about Germany. They work hard when they work, and are very serious about it all. But they’re also very serious about their free time. Hours on businesses and restaurants and stores are very restricted. And almost nothing is open on Sundays, so you have to make sure you have enough food for the weekend by Saturday afternoon. It’s very unlike the customer-focused competitive consumer culture of America, and it’s actually very relaxing once you get used to the fact that you have to work your own schedule around the stores’ schedules.

So that’s what I’m doing this semester. Learning to relax in Germany. And learning to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

We’re in Reutlingen!

August 29, 2011 / / 0 Comments

So since I haven’t actually written about what we’ve been doing the past four days, I think it’s about time. Also, as a side note, when I wrote “four days,” I had to stop and think for a while, because it seems soooo much longer than that.

The narrowest street in the world (and one of the Professor's cute kids hiding at the end)

Anyway. These four days have been amazing. For the most part, the group and I have just been getting acquainted with the city of Reutlingen. One day, we took a tour of the Stadtmitte, which is the only-pedestrian city center where most of the social activity, restaurants, and stores are. Despite our old and soft-spoken guide who was difficult to understand, it was fascinating to see the historical and important sights in the town. Included in the tour were the Marienkirche (St. Mary’s cathedral, the huge cathedral in the city center), the Rose Garden (which was tended by monks who lived in an adjoining building, complete with flowers, benches, and a chapel), and Reutlingen’s claim to fame in the Guinness Book of World Records, the narrowest street in the world. Unfortunately, there are too many cool photos to include in this small blog, so you’ll have to visit my Picasa account at  https://picasaweb.google.com/100454144518688283131 to see the rest of them! Because this small space isn’t even close to enough room to convey the whole experience.

Molly just waiting for the bus.

Much of our time so far has been spent learning the bus and train system and walking around attempting to navigate the town. It’s not that complicated–buses come to our neighborhood every ten minutes, and leave the city center every ten minutes bound for our neighborhood. And there’s one easy route to walk to the city center. But the fact that everything’s in German makes it a bit more complicated. Times like this it’s nice to have our professor herding us around, since he’s fluent! But I’ve got it down now, I think. Time to be independent!

 

Not only are they the best-looking berries ever, they're also the best-tasting. Win-win.

One of the highlights of our time here has been market day, which is like an enormous farmer’s market. Meat vendors, fruit and veggie farmers, bakers, and cheese-makers all come to the market square in the city center every Saturday and Tuesday morning and sell their homemade or homegrown goodies. You can find basically anything you’d want–gigantic loaves of delicious breads, homemade honey and jam, so many fruits and veggies, and can even grab authentic German bratwurst-type sandwiches while you peruse. Again, look on my Picasa account (link above) to see all the delicious goodies, because there are way to many to portray here.

On Sunday, the Reutlingen and Tuebingen groups met up for a tour of Tuebingen given by Dr. Springer, an art history professor at the University in Tuebingen and one of the professors in the Reutlingen Valpo program. It’s a fascinating city. Unlike Reutlingen, it wasn’t destroyed in war, and so all of the buildings are extremely old, especially by American standards. The coolest part, of course, was the castle. It’d be strange if the castle wasn’t the coolest part of any tour. I mean, they’re pretty awesome. And then we got to eat at a restaurant right on the river, which has its own brewery as well as fabulous food. A great day, all in all.

CASTLE.

That’s an overview of life the past few days! Until class on Monday. But even that, too, will be incredibly interesting. After all, we’re in Europe! What isn’t interesting over here?

 

The Beginning

August 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Hier bin ich! (Here I am!)

 

After a nerve-wracking, scary, exciting, and stressful emotional roller coaster ride that was the days prior to departure, I am finally in Germany and somewhat settled in. How I got here though, that’s interesting. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly the plan-ahead type of person, so most of my packing was done the day before I left my house in Alabama. Which meant a bit more stress than if I had started earlier, but like they say, nothing would ever get done if it wasn’t for the last minute! Fortunately, I can’t think of anything important that I forgot. Yet, at least. So it seems that my packing tips might actually be useful (and if it turns out they aren’t, I’ll let you know later when I kick myself for forgetting something). Here goes:

Getting ready to leave

1.   Pack lightly. That’s the first thing anyone will tell you, and it’s true. For our group’s tickets, we only were allowed to bring one bag for free. The second one was $50 (ouch). But most of us brought a second one. After all, it’s almost four months abroad, and drastic season changes occur during the fall semester. Point is, you will need a lot of stuff while abroad, but it’s expensive to bring a lot, so keep it to a minimum.

2.   Leave room for items bought abroad. Not only do you have to pack lightly, but you also want some free room so you can bring more back with you. Christmas presents, for example. Who wouldn’t want a Christmas present from Germany after all? I cheated the system by packing toiletries in mine that I will use up. Shampoo, body wash, that kind of thing. As long as your suitcase is under the weight limit when you leave, it’s fine. But even with the space that will be made by those things, you still want to leave a little extra room, because you will always, always have too much stuff.

3.   Plug adapters. Sometimes the program will have extras that somebody left from a previous year, but it’s better safe than sorry. Know what kind of outlets your country will use, and make sure you have an adapter that will work. And it’s easier to find them in the U.S. than trying to find the right one abroad.

4.   Shoes. You really don’t need many. Just make sure they are good for walking, because that’s the primary mode of transportation for students abroad. You’ll need a pair of shower shoes too if you’re in dorms. Remember tip number one, pack lightly! Four pairs is probably all you really need.

5.   Don’t bring money. It’s a lot easier and cheaper to get money with a debit card from an ATM than it is to try and change American dollars to Euros. Cheap is, of course, a relative term, because you’ll still have to pay a fee to transfer the money, and the exchange rate right now is terrible, about 1.4 dollars to the Euro. Ouch.

6.   Medications. Make sure you bring all the prescription medications you’ll need for your entire time abroad. It’s illegal to ship prescription medicine to Europe. And medicine in Germany like Advil is much more expensive than in the U.S., so it is definitely worth it to pack what you think you’ll need. Before you leave, make sure you find out what the country’s policy and price is for medications.

7.   Water bottle! It’s incredibly useful, especially since water in Germany has to be bought. If you aren’t opposed to tap water, you can always refill it from the sink in your room or dorm and in the bathrooms of restaurants. It will save lots of money in the long run.

8.  Finally, Find out what your program will provide. In Reutlingen, bedding and cooking utensils, among many other things, are provided for the students by the Valpo program. There are also many other items, like desk lamps, shower caddies, and hangers that other students have left behind that are up for grabs by the new students. Talk with your program’s director or a contact at your place of study to see what they can provide for you before you pack.

After I used up all of my brainpower in packing, I left for Valpo for a few days to catch up with my friends and see those I would miss most before leaving for four months. Needless to say, it didn’t help slow down my emotional roller coaster ride thinking that this would be the last time I’d see them for a long time. There were times I didn’t want to leave, and times I was so excited that I just couldn’t sit still. But the time came to leave, and since there really was no turning back after buying a $1500 plane ticket and an $800 Eurail pass, I left for the airport. And after all of the goodbyes, we turned the corner with a last glance back and were ready for our flight!

Our home for 9 long hours

After, of course, spending time getting through security with their fancy new machines… And spending way too much money on Reese’s Pieces because it would be the last peanut butter I’d be able to eat for a while… And sitting for way too many hours waiting for the flight… But then we finally got on board, and after a long, fairly restless, very uneventful flight we made it to Germany and to our dorm safe and sound!

48 hours into our semester, and there are already so many experiences to talk about, but those will have to wait until next time.

Bis später! (Til later!)

Departure for Germany!

August 24, 2011 / / 0 Comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s already August 24th, and that in 12 hours I’ll be on the way to Chicago to catch my flight to Germany! For the past year-and-a-half I’ve planned on spending this year in Tübingen. “A year’s not that long, it’ll go by quickly” and “The classes will be in German, but I’ll catch on,” I would explain nonchalantly when people asked me about my trip. Now that I’m leaving so soon, it’s really starting to hit me how long it will be before I’m back visiting my favorite places, and how much of a challenge university-level courses in German might be.

Underneath the pre-departure nervousness, however, I’m actually very excited. I have both my bags packed (and under the weight limit!), I’ve checked into my flight online, selected my seats, and I’ve enjoyed many goodbye lunches, dinners, coffee dates, and visits with friends and family. I’ve done all I could to gear up for my year abroad, and I’m looking forward to the experiences to come.

Here are some of my packing tips for anyone interested in traveling abroad:

 

1) Start preparing early. I started to slowly add things to my packing list about two months ago. This gave me plenty of time to think everything through, and avoid the last-minute stress of trying to figure out whether I had everything I needed.

2) Leave space for items you will bring home! Many people say, “If you forget anything, you can buy it over there!” I find it helpful to bring as many disposable and toiletry items with you instead of buying them there. That way, you can save money with the bad dollar-to-euro exchange rate, and ensure that you’ll have some space on the way back.

3) Space -saver bags work miracles! For bulky clothing items, such as winter coats, I would highly recommend purchasing some of these. I fit two winter coats into one bag and after squeezing all the air out, my coats took up only a fraction of the space they would have normally needed. Beware: even though objects take up less space, they still weigh the same!

4) Weigh your bags at home, and leave a couple pounds of leeway for scale inaccuracies! A few years ago, I spent a semester in Frankfurt and made the mistake of overpacking. Both of my bags were overweight, which led to a pretty stressful shuffling of items into my carry-on luggage. My scale at home said both suitcases were exactly 50 pounds, but the airport scale said otherwise. This time, I bought a luggage scale, and didn’t fill my suitcases past 47 pounds.

 

That’s all for this post! I’ll post an update from Germany in a couple days once I’m all settled in.

Bis Dann!

(Until then!)

Ich Liebe Dich!

March 16, 2011 / / 0 Comments

The Old Bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland

I can’t say a lot in German, but I did know how to say “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Please,” “Thank You,” and “I love you.” I tried to throw these out as much as possible and “Ich liebe dich” or “I love you” kept coming up. Mostly in reference to the places we were visiting! When we got to Lucerne I immediately noticed the largest difference from England from the entire trip. And that was that Swiss people are so nice, like so, so nice. On the train, a couple overheard us talking about our hostel and they offered directions and helpful bits of advice for our trip without us even asking. Then on the walk to our hostel we stopped to check a map and within the minute a man—dressed as a revolutionary as it was still Mardi Gras—offered us directions yet again! The entire time we had spent in England, I’ve never met such outwardly friendly people.

Gorgeous Lucerne!

Thanks to all the help, we had no trouble finding our hostel where we crashed for the night. The next morning when we emerged from our hostel we were all dumbfounded by the amazing surroundings we hadn’t noticed because of how dark it was when we got in the night before. Lucerne’s quaint buildings and houses were nestled around a cool alpine lake surrounded by the Alps. The water was full of elegant swans and friendly ducks. The mountains rose suddenly, taking bits of the town up with them, into stunning snow covered peaks. We spent the day wondering the streets then sitting, then wandering around the lake then sitting, then hiking in the mountains then sitting. It was a pretty fantastic way to see Lucerne actually.

The Gutsch!!

The highlight of the day by far was when we saw “The Gutsch” (a huge palace like hotel perched high on a mountain side) and decided to walk to it. The walk wasn’t near as bad as expected and the path gave way to a beautiful forest whose trail was marked with a fresh water spring which we all used to quench our thirst. Side note—you can drink all the water from the springs in Switzerland unless specifically noted. The Gutsch offered a stunning panorama of the city, the lake, and the Alps; it really was breathtaking. The biggest drawback to Switzerland was by far the price of food. If I thought food in England was expensive, a quick trip to Switzerland would clear that matter right up.

Pretty Flowers at our picnic spot in Zurich

The next day as we sat on the lake-side stoop we had claimed as our own and ate breakfast, I knew it would be so hard to leave Lucerne. However, I reassured myself that I would be back one day and that I would treat myself to a night at The Gutsch. We got on our train to Zurich and spent the majority of the day there. Zurich was not nearly as pretty or interesting as Lucerne, but it reminded me a lot of Denver and nothing of England. The cars were big like America, not small and “smart” like England and Italy. We ended up eating dinner in a park with food we bought from a grocery store because Swiss food turned out to be too expensive, yet again.

After our make-shift picnic, we got on a train to Munich where we arrived somewhat disheveled but still managed to find our way to the hostel because it was really close to the train station. The next morning, we were dumbfounded by the bus system but eventually figured out how to take the metro/bus to get to Duchau concentration camp. Public transportation in Germany is so much cheaper than England! We got unlimited day transportation for 3.80 Euros a piece, whereas one ride on the London Tube is around 1.80 pounds! So that was awesome. Duchau was sad and humbling. It is hard to believe that human kind could ever have been that heartless and it made me pray that nothing like that will ever happen again.

After returning from Duchau we stopped into a very cute and very authentic German restaurant and had a (relatively inexpensive!) Bavarian style meal! There were men in lederhosen and children drinking beer (ok, apple juice from a beer stein… we think…) and everyone just seemed really happy. It made me very proud of my hair-itage (as I say this as I touch my hair, in honor of the band Lost & Found).

Haufbrauhaus, see my initials!?

We spent the rest of the day exploring Munich until we had all you can eat fajitas (because Europe has Mexican restaurants and England doesn’t!) for dinner and then we went to the Haufbrauhaus. Now, before I go into this, I need to explain to you two things: 1) I hate beer. 2) I love the Haufbrauhaus because it makes me proud to be German and my initials (HB) are one everything. These conflicting feelings made me anxious to go because I wanted to drink beer out of one of their huge awesome steins! But I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand it. What we ended up doing was my friend Lauren and I split one and actually managed— small sips at a time—to finish the whole thing. Go us.

View from the castle!

Neuschwanstein!!

The next day may have been my favorite day of the whole trip, jury is still out. We woke up relatively early and got on a train that took us into the Alps (yay!) to the town of Fussen to see the famous Neuschwanstein castle that inspired Disney’s Cinderella castle. I expected to love the castle, but a couple things caught me off guard. First of all, this place looked so much like my home! The greenery was similar, the mountains were similar, it was just amazing. The second thing was that usually the insides of castles are disappointing. I always expect them to feel grand and lavish, but usually they are cold and stony. Neuschwanstein, however, was absolutely no disappointment. Everything was ornate and decorated and everything there was still originals.

After hiking around the castle, we returned to Munich and met up with Sabrina, a friend of Lauren’s who had studied abroad and stayed at their house some years earlier. Sabrina and her fiancé treated us to my favorite meal of the whole trip. I had an amazing Bavarian meal smothered in mushroom sauce and seemingly endless rounds of drinks (turns out beer is pretty good mixed with lemonade). But the best part by far was the camaraderie, they taught us how to toast like a German (“Prost!”) and told many highly entertaining stories. The brewery was nothing like pubs in England where people tend to keep to themselves and things never seem to be too crowded or too out of hand. This brewery had long tables and you sat and ate and toasted with people you didn’t know. It was so much fun and I really never have been prouder to be a Bauer (which is on many-a signs in Germany) and German. Check out the rest of my pictures here and I look forward to reporting back again soon after Paris this weekend!

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