Days 11-14

Mmmh, asparagus and tomato lasagna for dinner. Another delicious creation of my host-mother's, who likes to say she's an experimental cook. That is true, but she could also just say she's very skilled. :P Dinner has been the highlight of each day these past few days; nothing much has been going on.

Classes are moving along pretty well, and I am still enjoying them. We took a test in class today, and I'll find out how I did on Tuesday. Though I even studied, it was challenging, and I'm not sure what kind of score I'll get back.

Today we also went to see the movie Almanya: Wilkommen in Deutschland. It was a pretty good movie, and genuinely funny. It was more about what it means to be family than about the cultural differences between Turkey and Germany, though. That didn't make any less of a good movie, just not exactly what I had been expecting. I understood about 3/4 of it, which I thought was pretty decent. :)

This weekend is a long weekend, and tomorrow I will be heading out on the ICE to Munich with 9 other students. I intend to visit Dachau, one of (if not the) first concentration camps. This might not exactly be fun, but it will be interesting and I feel it's something I should experience. Other than that, I'm not sure what exactly we'll be getting up to in Munich. Probably some sight seeing and some beer drinking. :P

I don't think I'll have internet while in Munich, and I don't really want to take my computer along with me anyway; too nervous about something happening to it. When I get back, though, I should have plenty of photos, stories, and trivia to share. :) Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Hello again! It’s been a couple days since I’ve posted… Andrew and I are doing fine though, just crazy busy and I’ve lately been too tired to blog at night :P. On Friday, it just happened that there was really nothing to blog about. We didn’t have class, we had a session on “travel information” at which it was explained to us where we could go and what we could use with our transportation cards called “Entdecker Tickets.” Then we were also filled in on where and how to use our German Rail passes. The Entdecker tickets are what we use to get on the Straßenbahn, the busses, and the Sbahn.  They cover a pretty large area: about 40km from Heidelberg in every direction. This means that we can travel to any of the cities in the surrounding area and use all of the public transportation there for the duration of our time here.

The German Rail pass is different in that it gets us on the ICE, the German high-speed rail train. We get eight days on the train for our month here, and will be using to get to and from Berlin in two weeks and to get to and from wherever we decide to go this upcoming weekend. 

After all of this was explained to us, and some suggestions were made about where we might want to visit, etc. we did a scavenger hunt around Heidelberg. This was slightly annoying to me, it was hot and I’m getting rather tired of walking around Heidelberg for the fun of it. Once we finished that, we ate lunch, hung out by the river for a while, ate dinner and went home.

Saturday was more exciting than Friday; we had our excursion to the Black Forest! (Schwarz Wald) We got on the bus in the morning and the ride there took a couple hours. Our first stop was a museum consisting of all sorts of information about the traditional way of life in the Black Forest. This mainly consisted of numerous farm houses imported in from all different areas of the Black Forest. 

One of the old houses. They kept the animals in the house with them, on the first floor, and lived in the top floors.

A grain mill, powered by a water mill.

These were very interesting to walk through; most of them were at least two hundred years old and some of them as old as four hundred years. In one of the exhibits in these houses I learned that Hans Thoma (from Hans-Thoma-Platz, where I meet Andrew every day) was a famous artist from the Black Forest from the 19^th century. They even had some farm animals in place, to make sure you really got a feel for the way of life I suppose.

Once we had spent a couple hours working our way through the museum, we got back on the bus and drove another hour or so to our picnic location. We found a spot on the top of one of the hills, to afford us this outstanding view of the mountains of the Black Forest.

Finally, we rode for a while longer on the bus and came to a small town in the Black Forest to see a cloister ruin and some waterfalls. The cloister was built in the 12^th-ish century, and unlike most other ruins, which were destroyed by war, weather and time simply got the best of this one. The waterfalls were obviously beautiful, but the best part was that our bus was waiting for us at the bottom of the rather long decent. :P Just kidding.

Andrew and I took a few pictures together today, it took a few tries before Andrew could get his act together and take a nice picture. :P

And then there was this thing. :P I don't know what it is, or why it's there, but I thought it was kind of cute.

We made our way back to Heidelberg at about 7pm. Andrew and I tagged along with a few other students; we went to grab some dinner and then headed to the riverside park to relax and wait for the lighting of the castle. On that day several hundred years ago, the French destroyed the Heidelberg Schloss, I’m pretty sure we were celebrating its survival and reconstruction though, not its previous demise. The castle was lit up yellow, and then red, and then there were fireworks. It was pretty cool, but I didn’t catch any pictures. After that, we waited for the Straßenbahn for half an hour. We had to fight to get a place on it; I have never seen it so crowded, we were packed even more tightly than sardines! When I got home after that, I fell straight asleep.

Today was a relaxing day. After shower and breakfast, I went on a hike with my host-father up the mountain where they grow grapes for wine, as well as strawberries, cherries, chestnuts, blackberries, and more. It was a very very hot and humid and steep hike up, and I’m pretty sure I just sweated off all of the sunscreen I was so sure to put on. But, it was still fun and I learned a couple things and was rewarded with a breeze and a lovely view on the top.

The mountain is named Madonnaberg, and there is a statue of Bella Madonna on it about ¾ of the way up. My host-father is part of an organization that tries to ensure that nature is open for the public to use and explore. We made the hike because there is a vineyard owner who put up fences to protect his grapes from the wild boars, but cut off access to that part of the forest in the process. Johannes and a few others had been writing letters asking him to create an access point, and today we found out that he actually had. I also learned a few more German words for different plants (Castanien for chestnuts, for example). 

The Madonna, surveying the lands.

The vineyard! Already thick with baby grapes. :)

I met up with Andrew for lunch after that, and we enjoyed ourselves walking around and then chilling in another, quieter section of the riverside park, this one by the old bridge instead of the new. I then went back to Schriesheim for a cook out with the other Schriesheim residents housing American students for the next few weeks. That was pretty fun, too. :)

My understanding of German is definitely progressing, but I’m not sure about my speaking. If I can express more than I could before, I can’t tell. I do know I speak more, but that’s just because it’s much more mandatory here than at school where I can get away with being quiet. :P But, I’m really happy that I can understand so much more than before! I can now read most of what I see around town, and can understand bits and pieces of conversations I hear as I’m walking around. It’s not such a headache to try and concentrate and understand what is being said anymore. I watched the bee movie in German the other day, and actually understood most of it. :) So, I guess this trip has already been pretty beneficial, here’s hoping I make some more progress before it’s all over!

Days Six and Seven - Freier Tag!

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but I didn’t do too much and went to bed late so I figured I would just put two days together today. We had a really tough class yesterday. We have two professors, and today was our first day with the second one. He speaks a lot faster than the first one, and the subject matter was more difficult to understand quickly. We listened to songs in German and watched a couple short tourist films; one on Heidelberg and one on Leipzig. After class, we went to eat and then ended up at a bar. So I had my first German beer, and while it was good enough, the experience just wasn't that special. Ah well. I went home after that and just relaxed, helped to make dinner and then read.

Today, we didn’t have school because of the Ascension and also Vater Tag. I had a great day! Johannes took me and Andrew to a town called Speyer not too far from Heidelberg (it’s about a 45 minutes ride on the S-bahn. The S-Bahn is different than the Straßenbahn, it’s for distances between cities more than just around one city).

In Speyer, we first visited a Jewish museum. A Jewish community lived in Speyer for about 400 years during the middle ages. They were wiped out in the 14^th century or so though, and never quite made a recovery. They did leave many interesting artifacts and buildings behind, though.  The museum itself is very small, only three or so rooms to walk through, but then you go outside to take a look at the old synagogue and the ritual bath building. This was very interesting to me, and exciting because I could actually read about 75% of the explanations on the walls. :D

What's left of the old synagogue

The ritual bath building, very cool. Inside is even cooler though.

After this museum, we went to see the gigantic old Catholic church. On our way there, we passed these two guys, and I completely thought they were statues so I snapped a picture. Then,as I walked by one of them moved and made a clicking sound! Turns out they were mimes? actors? anyway the one in blue beckoned me over, kissed my hand and then had me pose for a picture. :P 

The "statues"

This kind of made my day, though I felt pretty silly for thinking they were statues. They stood really still, though, okay... Anywho, the church itself is huge, but what I found most interesting was the crypt and tomb. There are a few German kings buried there with members of their immediate family along with five bishops.

    

               

The church in Speyer

We then grabbed some lunch at a really cute Italian restaurant named “Pasta Pasta” and had some quite delicious food. Finally, we went to visit a Technology Museum. This too was extremely cool! The museum is privately owned but has an amazing collection of technological artifacts, from all sorts of old cars, motor bikes, fire trucks, tractors and trains, to several planes, a U Boat and finally, a Soviet Union space shuttle. I thought the coolest part was the space shuttle.

The Soviet space shuttle. Whoever owns this museum has ALOT of money.

The inside of the space shuttle

More of the museum, but not all. There are two more buildings and a ton of stuff outside too

After all that, we headed back home to Heidelberg. We met up with the rest of my host family and two other families from the neighborhood to head up the mountain to have dinner at a restaurant built next to the ruin of a lookout tower they have here in Schriesheim. What a beautiful restaurant, and what delicious food! We talked in German and English and played some card games and then headed home. I am truly grateful that my host family is so generous and welcoming, they're making this experience even better than it already would be. :)

Mine and Andrew's view during dinner tonight :D

The outside section of this restaurant. You can kind of see the ruin behind the trees in the back

 Tomorrow, we are going to have a scavenger hunt around Heidelberg, now that we have gotten to know our way around. We are doing that instead of class, so I am not complaining. :P Good night!

Day Five - Schloss Heidelberg

Hallo, liebe leser. I don't have much to report today. It seems we are settling into a somewhat regular routine. We had class again, and it was actually easier today than yesterday. I was really, really tired today and had to battle to stay awake for the first half of class. I woke up a little more during our break though, and the second half was enjoyable.

After class, we had to run across town to make the meeting for the castle visit on time. We had just enough time to grab some lunch. Andrew and I both had tuna fish sandwiches like we'd never seen before. Think corn and eggs with tuna, on a crunchy bun with lettuce. It was good, for all that it was a bit weird.

Then we met up with another professor and he took us through the two huge churches, explained the history of those and a few other historical buildings in Heidelberg along with a short version of Heidelberg's history, before taking us up to the castle. All of this in German! The castle was really cool, but unfortunately I was feeling pretty tired and crabby while we were up there. It was also raining. Me and Andrew plan to go back again on a nicer day, on our own time. Ah, I did get to see the largest wine cask in the world; that thing is like two stories wide. It apparently can hold almost 200,000 liters.

I forgot to take the camera with today, so unfortunately no pictures... :( After visiting the castle, we just went home. I had supper and did my homework, now I'm going to read for a bit to relax and head to bed early. Night night. :)

Day Four - First Day of Classes

Today was the first day of classes. I was a bit nervous about class because I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out pretty well. The class was challenging, and I definitely have to work to keep up, but since I can keep up, I think it's just at the perfect level. The first professor is great, friendly, a little funny, very clear, and also very informative (as one would hope). I think I learned as much this one day in class as I might have in about a week of class at SDSU. That might be because I was in class for three hours, where at SDSU I'm in class for one hour a day, three times a week. This is indeed intensive language training.

After class, we went off to buy books and to attend a "Kultur Pur" class, or cultural sampler. This class is just for our own enjoyment and consists of going to movies, concerts, etc.There is homework, but no grade and no credit. The first event we have scheduled is a movie titled "Almanya: Wilkommen in Deutschland;" Almanya is Germany in Turkish. (I used three different words for Germany in that sentence! :P) The film is about a Turkish man who comes to work in Germany as a "Gastarbeiter" or guest worker or temporary laborer, and about how he brought his family here and then etc. There are a lot of Turkish people in Germany, and the situation is similar to Mexicans in America (but not the same). It should be an interesting film. Also, it's a comedy, and intelligent comedy. My kind of comedy.

Once we were free for the day, some of our classmates, Andrew, and I all grabbed some beers (and wine) from the Penny Markt (a store with cheap stuff) and found a spot to sit on the grass under a bridge in a park by the Neckar River. (That's a lot of prepositions...) It was nice to relax and hang out (and speak English).

A view of the park by the river.

Chillen.

Andrew and I both went home for dinner (I had a salad a bit similar to cole slaw, but with kohl rabi and apple, and also new potatoes with something inbetween cottage cheese and sour cream (it was smooth, no chunks) with chives and fresh parsley in it which was absolutely delicious with the potatoes. That might be my favorite food here so far) and then met up later to ride our bikes around Heidelberg. We rode from Burgstrasse to the Altstadt to sit by the river and do some homework. Then Andrew rode with me allllll the way back to Schriesheim. He's a wonderful boyfriend. :) He took the Strassenbahn home.

Some graffiti along the river wall spelling out Heidelberg.      

All in all, a pretty good day. I've been riding an emotional rollercoaster all day, going from sad to frustrated to happy to annoyed to I-don't-even-care-anymore. I think I just need more sleep, and maybe also more water. So, gute Nacht!

Day Three

Last night, I had trouble sleeping. My mind was just racing with thoughts, and then translating what of thoughts it could into German. I couldn't stop thinking about how I might say this or that, I think all of the German speaking is making my mind work pretty hard, lol. So, I slept in a little today (my host family was wonderful about it, they're great about everything!) and went to lunch with Andrew after I got up.

The stop I get off to go to Andrew's: Hanz-Thoma-Platz.

This is Andrew's host-family's house. Andrew lives alll the way up in the attic. Beautiful, no?

We went to a place called Kebapzentrum (kebob-center :P) I had a pizza, and Andrew had a sandwich thing and it was all pretty yummy. We had originally planned on grabbing some things from an Aldi and finding a place near the river for a picnic, but ALL German stores are closed on Sunday. Aldi is somewhat similar to a Walmart. It has food, a lot of the food is in bulk, and it has a limited selection of other items such as clothing, etc. The best part: it's really cheap! :)

We met up with our classmates again soon after that and the director of the summer program took us all out for some Italian ice cream. I probably don't even need to tell you how yummy that was. Then, we walked the Philosophenweg (Philosopher's Way). It was a steep, hot and sweaty climb but once I cooled off, I decided it was worth the view. Behold some photos of Heidelberg, taken from the near-top of a hill across the river.

This was the first good, clear view we got. That's the Neckar River. 

Here you can see Schloss Heidelberg, I hear it's the home of the world's largest wine cask. ;)

In this one, you can see the old bridge, the castle, and the gigantic catholic church in the Altstadt.

Me and Andrew, enjoying the view from Philosophenweg. :)

Today was another day I went home with sore feet, but with the added bonus of a bad sunburn. (Anyone surprised?) It doesn't matter much, though, I had a good time overall! :) And when I got home, my host-mother made a delicious meal. I tried some pickled cherry red peppers stuffed with some kind of cheese (yumm) and she also made cucumber salad (Gurckensalat). There was also two other dishes, one vegetarian and one with beans, I don't know what they were called but they too were great. I'm going to eat very well here in Germany. :P I'm so glad I got such a wonderful host-family. We sat outside and ate, and afterwards my host-father took out his guitar and played a couple songs, which was fun! He even sang some in English. :) To top off an already lovely evening, our luggage arrived!! :D :D

Tomorrow is the first day of classes, so I'm going to see if I can't get a better night's sleep than yesterday. Gute nacht, liebe leser!

Day Two

Here is the only picture I took on the first day, since I didn't post it yesterday:

Me and Andrew upon arriving in Franfurt. Apparently, we were pretty tired. :P

Today I had the opportunity (möglichkeit, auf Deutsch) to take full advantage of the public transportation system here in Heidelberg. Four other students from SDSU live in the same neighborhood in Schriesheim, and we all left together this morning. First, we took the “Straßenbahn“ or „street train.“ I’m not even sure what it would be called in America, since I’m not familiar with our public transportation either, but it’s pretty much a bus on tracks… if that makes sense.  We were a little confused about which one to take, but ended up choosing the correct one on our first try (whoo hoo!) and from there had no problems making it to our meeting point at the University.

What is behind the building we met in for orientation. I think those buildings are student residencies.

I learned today that Germans tend to walk rather fast; I once walked for five minutes with a rock in my shoe because I was afraid if I paused to remove it I would be left behind. :P At the University, we did some paper work, and some talking and some walking. We saw the Neckar, the river which runs straight through Heidelberg, separating the “Neustadt” from the “Altstadt.” (New city from the old) It’s beautiful! After all that, we took a bus to the “Altstadt” with some American students studying here in Heidelberg for an entire year. The bus was super crowded, and we stood for the whole ride there.

The Arts half of Heidelberg University is housed in the Altstadt (English, German, French, History, Art, Philosophy, etc…). We ate at the cafeteria there, and I was very surprised to find that the food was great, and cheap!  This is a nice change from SDSU, where the food is ridiculously expensive and more on the mediocre side. I had my first encounter with “Tablewasser” today. Germans, for some reason unknown and not understood by Americans, prefer their water sparkling. Needless to say, now that I can say I’ve tried it, I won’t feel bad about passing on it from now on. Not for me, danke. Since, I’ve made a point to order “stillwasser” or tap water. :)

After lunch, we toured the Altstadt, getting a look at the “alte Brücke” (old bridge), Königstuhl (the mountain, its name means “king’s chair (or seat? I don’t know)). There is an old castle on this mountain, which I intend to make the trek up to see sometime during my visit. In the Altstadt, we walked down the Hauptstraße, which is the main shopping street in Heidelberg. It is pedestrian (and cyclist) only, and I think they said it’s the longest pedestrian-only city in the world, but don’t cite me on that

 

 Left: HUGE OLD Catholic church. Middle: Street in the Altstadt. Right: The entrance to the old bridge over the Neckar.

Me and Andrew on the HauptStraße, having fun but starting to get tired.

We must have toured the city for a couple hours before heading back to Schriesheim. At this point, my feet and back were killing me and I was ready for a break and something more to eat.

Within minutes of my arrival home, however, my host-father showed me the spare bicycle that they have that I get to use. (YAY! :)) We then went on a bike ride, so no rest for me. I didn’t mind though, and riding the bike was very nice, not to mention easier on my feet than walking. First we went to a shop so that I could buy an outfit as my luggage STILL hasn’t arrived and I STILL haven’t even HEARD ANYTHING from the STUPID STUPID airline... It’s a little aggravating. Anyway, we then rode our bikes a few kilometers to another town. I got another look at an absolutely gorgeous section of the Neckar near a campground; I’d like to go back there for a picnic lunch or something sometime. :) Then we went and had dinner at a very nice restaurant called the Onion. (and I mean nice! They even brought blankets out to us as the night grew a little chilly) I think the waiter figured out that I was American as soon as I asked for stillwasser. :P He might also have been tipped off by my American accent, but I spoke German to him, I promise!

The food was amazing! I had trout, with new potatoes, diced tomatoes, and a pile of very very thinly sliced cucumbers. Mmmmh. :) I also got to try something new called Bionade, which is a German lemonade that was made specifically to be less sweet than other lemonades. It seems this is a very popular drink in Germany, and I can see why, it was perfekt! We rode home in the dark (the bikes have head and taillights!) and my final adventure for the night was to ride through a couple sprinklers and to have a moth fly directly down my shirt. Ick.

So far, I’m feeling pretty good about my adjustment to German culture, I think I was well prepared. I still feel like I speak baby-German, but it is the same with the other students so I don’t feel terrible about it. I think my host family might be getting tired of hearing “ich verstehe nicht” (I don’t understand) and “langsamer, bitte?” (slower, please?) but I suppose it can’t really be helped. I have noticed that they speak a little slower and in simpler terms tonight, so maybe they’re getting used to me. :) This is the first time that they have hosted a student in their home, so I have the added pressure of setting a good precedent! I hope I manage alright. :P

Eventually, I’ll provide you all with some information about Heidelberg and the difference between Germany and America but right now I’m still figuring all of that out. I hope you’re not bored with the daily run-down in the meantime… and besides, I enjoy logging my thoughts and activities at the end of the day. :) It’s very late here in Germany (7 hours later than Brookings, and 8 hours later than in Rapid City) so I must sleep! Gute nacht, liebe freunde und familie!

Day...One?

Greetings from Schriesheim, Germany! :)

There was a one hour delay in the departure of our flight from Sioux Falls to Chicago which very nearly made us miss our connection to Ottawa. Andrew and I literally had about ten minutes to race across O'Hare to make it to boarding on time. We arrived a little late for boarding, but thankfully they started boarding late (just as we arrived) so we made our flight. Unfortunately, United Express was convinced that we wouldn't make our flight, so even though we did make it, they re-booked us on another flight. That wouldn't really be a problem, but our luggage was apparently re-booked as well and didn't make it onto the original plane with us to Ottawa. It kind of sucks being here with nothing but what I had in my carry-on (thank goodness I packed my toothbrush in there!), but with any luck the baggage will arrive sometime tomorrow.

I slept for almost the entire flight from Ottawa to Frankfurt, and with the help of some coffee to keep me awake for today, I think I might have managed to adjust to the new time zone. Either that or my body has absolutely no idea if it's supposed to be sleeping or active; I suppose we'll have to see how the next couple of days turn out. It's about eight o'clock now, anyway and I'm completely exhausted. Today was an easy day, we met the rest of the students at the airport in Frankfurt and then took a bus to Heidelberg which dropped us off with our host-families.

My host-family has turned out to be great so far! I'm staying with a couple named Anika and Johannes and their young boy (8) and girl (10). Anika took the time to show me around the smallish town of Schriesheim, which I have so far found to be very charming. :) Schriesheim is about 10km from Heidelberg. Everything here is green and lush and smells like flowers, mostly roses. The buildings are old, and the town has a lively feel. I'm looking forward to spending some more time exploring and really getting a feel for this place. Since it's so close to Heidelberg, and there are well established bicycle routes, and my host-family has a spare cycle for me, I think I might be riding a bike to school instead of the train once I understand the route a little better. :D

After our walk, we ate fresh strawberries and played Uno with the kids. Finally, we went to a pizza party to meet up with the rest of the summer program students and all of their host-families. I got to speak mostly English today, but will be expected to speak mostly German tomorrow and pretty much exclusively German from Sunday onward. I think that will be tough at first, but hopefully I'll become comfortable speaking it all the time without too much awkwardness. I'll be riding a train to Heidelberg tomorrow for an orientation and a tour of Heidelberg. I'll start posting pictures tomorrow, too. :) Until then, I'm going to try to get as much sleep as possible. Tchuss!

Pre-Journey Test Post

Right now, I have about two days before I leave for Heidelberg, Germany. Classes ended a couple weeks ago; my German is starting to feel rather rusty. But, my future fellow travelers and I took a European Studies class designed to prepare us for Germany, taught by one of our German language professors (the one coming on the trip with us). In this class we discussed what we might experience in Germany, heard from a couple students who went on this trip two years ago, and worked away at the ridiculous amount of paperwork we had to fill out prior to our departure.

Some of the things we've learned about Germany (and Germans):

•          We might be stared at. In the words of my professor, "You might look across the aisle on a bus and see a guy just staring at you. It’s pretty normal. You can stare back, or look the other way and pretend you don't see him..."

•          Recycling is required by law in Germany! Apparently, there is actually someone that goes through people’s trash, and if there is glass in the same container as paper or something, the guilty one has to pay a fine. It seems I’ll learn a thing or two about serious recycling; I’m not complaining!

•          Germans don't have the same concept of personal space as Americans do. They jostle you around in line, and stand uncomfortably close. I don’t think I’ll particularly enjoy this, but I can deal with it.

•          Heidelberg is very bike-friendly, and has an extensive network of bike paths and bike lanes. The people who use these bike paths/lanes are very protective of their right to use them; it sounds like being yelled at for being in a bike lane is not an uncommon occurrence. There might even be some cases of pedestrians being run down by bicyclists? I’m not sure about that, though.

•          On the third or so day of our trip, we will cry and possibly even pack our bags and beg to go home. A combination of jet lag and a couple days of constant concentration on understanding and speaking German will cause us to be mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted and therefore susceptible to emotional breakdown. I'm already preparing myself for this, for I have no doubt that I will be among those who suffer from the third day blues.

•          Most Germans know more about American politics than most Americans. I shall need to be prepared to discuss, and even potentially argue politics with some of the people I meet in Germany. I think I can handle that. :)

While I don't look forward to being uncomfortable, nervous, and emotionally unstable...I’m definitely mostly just excited that I get to go on this trip!

If your curious as to the details of the study abroad trip (what I'll be doing, where I'll be going, etc.) check out the About page!