I figure that this is a good forum to let people in on what my general summer plans are. My parents fly out of Frankfurt on the Monday the 31st of May, and after that I am traveling independently until July 11th when I fly out of Dublin to begin my journey home. For those of you who are not so hot at math: that’s about 6 weeks. I currently don’t know exactly what my schedule will be from day to day, or even week to week. I have destinations in mind and a Eurail pass that will take me almost anywhere on the continent. My plan is just to “wing it” as much as possible and live out of my backpack in either Hostels or by Couchsurfing. This is a foreign concept to me and most everyone, but I’m a fast learner and I’m sure I’ll have it all figured out in a week or two. I’m also not traveling with a computer (too much weight) and will have to do thing the “old fashioned way” by booking things by phone or just going hostel to hostel until I find a place to stay. If all else fails I have friends who will be in Brussels, Freiburg, Oldenburg, Dublin, and Italy that I can stay with for a bit.
The general plan is to head north from Frankfurt, hit the Cologne/Rhine area, then swing over to Brussels for a few days to visit IES folk, then head back into Germany to visit my friend Lexi in Oldenburg (near Hamburg and Bremen). From there things get a little less planned. I’m thinking Denmark and Norway before heading for warmer waters. I have heard good things about the fjords in Norway and want to see those. Then I will head southeast, probably hitting Berlin again for a few days, hopefully stopping off in Prague again as well. I’m hoping from there to see Austria, Croatia, hit some other parts of Switzerland, the French Rivera, and then the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal). Once I get that far I will probably be close to the end of my time and have to head back toward Ireland. I’m planning to have a few days in Great Britain and Ireland too before I leave, and get re-acclimated to English.
As I’ve already said before I will probably be quite unreachable for the most part. I’ll have occasional access to computers in Hostels or whatever, so drop me emails and stuff! I will also have my telephone on me. My German number will be my primary contact until I run out of minutes, then it will be back to my American number.
I don’t really know what this summer holds, but I’m sure whatever it is it will be quite the experience. I look forward to seeing everyone when I get home (and before I head to Oregon for a family trip).
04 June 2010
So this is how it ends
I am posting this from a hostel in Hamburg Germany.
Well the semester has ended. It feels weird that it is all over – almost as if it has just begun. I can’t believe that these 4 months have flown by and created such memories. I’ve had some great experiences and made some great friends. For this post I’ll go through the end of the semester and talk about my general recollections about everything. Hopefully I can say some things that will be interesting or inspire others to study abroad.
In Conclusion:
I returned home from Rome with more to do in the following two weeks than I had really planned for or anticipated. In the next 6 days I had 5 finals and 2 papers to complete. Immediately after that I was to start Model EU (our culminating mock summit meeting) which lasted for 3 days. Then on May 17th my parents were arriving to being our 2 week journey through Europe. Every spare moment I had was spent organizing, planning, and packing.
I won’t bore you by talking about finals, that would be silly and like reliving a bad nightmare for me. Instead I’ll tell you that I think I did alright, but my hand hurt from hand-writing at least 15 pages in those few days (every class had an essay test, no multiple choice). However it felt really good to have everything done. I also wrote a 15 page paper on Turkey for my European Integration class and a 14 pager for my Muslim World class. This required quite a bit of effort as that much writing is obscene. I pulled out all the stops and used all my ‘patented-paper-lengthening-techniques.’ This included rambling incessantly, using headings, larger font faces, footnotes, citations, and I may or may not have messed with the margins ;-).
After all that was over I got to start with Model EU, which turned out to be quite the experience. The first day I was just there to look pretty, foreign ministers didn’t have to speak, but then IES took us out for cocktails at Kagan, the 17th story club in Freiburg, fed us dinner, and set us lose on the town. It was a good time and we were all plenty warm on the inside. We danced the night away, though it was an early night by German standards, I was home and in bed by 1am.
The next 2 days were all for business. As the Foreign Minister from Finland I wasn’t expecting to do anything too exciting or really need to have much of an opinion (officially Finland has its own ideas, unofficially – they just follow Sweden). However it turned out that a large proportion of the people in the foreign minister room weren’t big talkers and didn’t understand how these meetings were supposed to work. Therefore, I ended up talking a lot – drafting tons of proposals, suggesting amendments, and being generally argumentative. It turned out to be a really fun time (for me, lots of people sat there bored for 2 days) and taught me quite a bit. I really would have liked to have some more information leading up to the summit about how the procedure was supposed to work – as we spent large portions of the meeting trying to figure out how things were supposed to be done, who could make/second motions, when majority voting was okay or if unanimity was required. Overall the meetings were an okay time and it was a good way to end the semester for all of us.
On Sunday we (finally) went on the long awaited black forest hike. I chose to do the longer, more strenuous hike, simply because I haven’t been hiking enough. The weather was gross, with rain and general nastiness the whole time. The hike was to end at a cheese dairy in the forest where IES was giving us a final farewell dinner. Our group did however, manage to get quite lost for awhile before arriving. The dairy tour was interesting and brief (we just wanted food). However, we were slightly disappointed by the “dinner” we got. As we were at a dairy farm that also ran a pretty good pork business we were expecting pork and cheese (duh). We got both. Only problem was that our dinner was more like heavy hors-d’oeuvres – cold cheese, bread, and cold preserved meats. Most of us ended up going back multiple times to even fill up. I just felt bad for our lactose intolerant vegetarian. Poor Jane.
Of course, as we are college students, and most people were leaving Germany in a matter of days, we also spent large portions of the week end partying hard and seeing each other as much as possible before departures. We had several receptions after model EU and other get-togethers, but the waterworks really came on Tuesday night at Schlappen. Everyone came to say our final farewells and drink the last German Bier. It was sad to see everyone go but also amazing to see how closely the 60 of us had bonded in such a short time.
The memories:
It will be fun to see what I remember about this semester a year, 5 years, or 10 years down the road. I know that some of it will stick with me for life and I hope some of the friends I’ve made will last just as long. At this point though, it is hard to say exactly what my greatest memories are. The things that stick most in my head are the trips (because they were awesome), the people (because they’re like family now), and the experiences I’ve had. Below I’ve listed a few things that pop to my head right now for memories.
Living next to hippies and squatters
Spooning with 5 people on a night train from Prague
Seeing tons of churches
Walking in on my roommate “not” having sex in London
Ben consistently getting lost and arriving back in our room at odd hours of the morning
Friday dinners
Nights at Agar, Kagan, Schlappen and in people’s apartments
Getting rejected by Czech girls in Prague
Delerium in Brussels
Avenue Q in London
Skiing in the Alps – Black Forest too!
4AM Fasnacht in Basel, Switzerland
Doing Rent an American with German students
Touring Rome in a marathon day
1st annual Freiburg International Beer Pong tournament
Climbing St. Peter’s Basilica and seeing the Sistine Chapel
Church service in Westminster Abbey
SC Freiburg Football
Talking torture at the Tower of London
Doing things completely legally in Amsterdam
Getting lost in former Soviet Russia
Blacking out on a crazy Baltic Cruise
Playing with Zlaty
Eating great food from all around Europe
Seeing a 17th century ‘Pirate’ ship
Eiffel Tower light shows
Private tours of the Reichstag
Walls of Skulls in the Paris catacombs
Poorly translated menus, warnings, signs etc.
Seeing engineering at its finest in the Mercedes Museum
Learning more than anyone (except Anitta Hipper) wanted to know about the EU
Drinking too much beer, eating too much, taking too many pictures, and having more fun than I thought I could
Achieving the 10/10/10 strategy – 10 more pounds, 10% less decency, and 10% more fun by 2010
Well that is about all I have for now. Hope you enjoyed it!
I’ve worked harder than I thought I would on this blog and become really interested in trying to explain what is going on in my head this whole time. I hope that it has been as much an experience reading it for you as it has been for me to write it. I’ll do what I can to write over the summer, but my posts will be sporadic and short as any time I have on the internet I will most likely be paying for, and there are just some things that come first (emailing parents, checking facebook etc. etc.). I am however going to attempt to write a journal (on real paper with real ink!) even though I write much slower than I type. I’ll try to abridge some of that and put it online when I have a chance. I have no idea what will become of this blog after I return home – maybe it will become a continuing travel log and a place for thoughts, who knows.
Once again, thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed a view into my life as a study abroad student these past months!
Sincerely,
Evan Kaverman
Well the semester has ended. It feels weird that it is all over – almost as if it has just begun. I can’t believe that these 4 months have flown by and created such memories. I’ve had some great experiences and made some great friends. For this post I’ll go through the end of the semester and talk about my general recollections about everything. Hopefully I can say some things that will be interesting or inspire others to study abroad.
In Conclusion:
I returned home from Rome with more to do in the following two weeks than I had really planned for or anticipated. In the next 6 days I had 5 finals and 2 papers to complete. Immediately after that I was to start Model EU (our culminating mock summit meeting) which lasted for 3 days. Then on May 17th my parents were arriving to being our 2 week journey through Europe. Every spare moment I had was spent organizing, planning, and packing.
I won’t bore you by talking about finals, that would be silly and like reliving a bad nightmare for me. Instead I’ll tell you that I think I did alright, but my hand hurt from hand-writing at least 15 pages in those few days (every class had an essay test, no multiple choice). However it felt really good to have everything done. I also wrote a 15 page paper on Turkey for my European Integration class and a 14 pager for my Muslim World class. This required quite a bit of effort as that much writing is obscene. I pulled out all the stops and used all my ‘patented-paper-lengthening-techniques.’ This included rambling incessantly, using headings, larger font faces, footnotes, citations, and I may or may not have messed with the margins ;-).
After all that was over I got to start with Model EU, which turned out to be quite the experience. The first day I was just there to look pretty, foreign ministers didn’t have to speak, but then IES took us out for cocktails at Kagan, the 17th story club in Freiburg, fed us dinner, and set us lose on the town. It was a good time and we were all plenty warm on the inside. We danced the night away, though it was an early night by German standards, I was home and in bed by 1am.
The next 2 days were all for business. As the Foreign Minister from Finland I wasn’t expecting to do anything too exciting or really need to have much of an opinion (officially Finland has its own ideas, unofficially – they just follow Sweden). However it turned out that a large proportion of the people in the foreign minister room weren’t big talkers and didn’t understand how these meetings were supposed to work. Therefore, I ended up talking a lot – drafting tons of proposals, suggesting amendments, and being generally argumentative. It turned out to be a really fun time (for me, lots of people sat there bored for 2 days) and taught me quite a bit. I really would have liked to have some more information leading up to the summit about how the procedure was supposed to work – as we spent large portions of the meeting trying to figure out how things were supposed to be done, who could make/second motions, when majority voting was okay or if unanimity was required. Overall the meetings were an okay time and it was a good way to end the semester for all of us.
On Sunday we (finally) went on the long awaited black forest hike. I chose to do the longer, more strenuous hike, simply because I haven’t been hiking enough. The weather was gross, with rain and general nastiness the whole time. The hike was to end at a cheese dairy in the forest where IES was giving us a final farewell dinner. Our group did however, manage to get quite lost for awhile before arriving. The dairy tour was interesting and brief (we just wanted food). However, we were slightly disappointed by the “dinner” we got. As we were at a dairy farm that also ran a pretty good pork business we were expecting pork and cheese (duh). We got both. Only problem was that our dinner was more like heavy hors-d’oeuvres – cold cheese, bread, and cold preserved meats. Most of us ended up going back multiple times to even fill up. I just felt bad for our lactose intolerant vegetarian. Poor Jane.
Of course, as we are college students, and most people were leaving Germany in a matter of days, we also spent large portions of the week end partying hard and seeing each other as much as possible before departures. We had several receptions after model EU and other get-togethers, but the waterworks really came on Tuesday night at Schlappen. Everyone came to say our final farewells and drink the last German Bier. It was sad to see everyone go but also amazing to see how closely the 60 of us had bonded in such a short time.
The memories:
It will be fun to see what I remember about this semester a year, 5 years, or 10 years down the road. I know that some of it will stick with me for life and I hope some of the friends I’ve made will last just as long. At this point though, it is hard to say exactly what my greatest memories are. The things that stick most in my head are the trips (because they were awesome), the people (because they’re like family now), and the experiences I’ve had. Below I’ve listed a few things that pop to my head right now for memories.
Living next to hippies and squatters
Spooning with 5 people on a night train from Prague
Seeing tons of churches
Walking in on my roommate “not” having sex in London
Ben consistently getting lost and arriving back in our room at odd hours of the morning
Friday dinners
Nights at Agar, Kagan, Schlappen and in people’s apartments
Getting rejected by Czech girls in Prague
Delerium in Brussels
Avenue Q in London
Skiing in the Alps – Black Forest too!
4AM Fasnacht in Basel, Switzerland
Doing Rent an American with German students
Touring Rome in a marathon day
1st annual Freiburg International Beer Pong tournament
Climbing St. Peter’s Basilica and seeing the Sistine Chapel
Church service in Westminster Abbey
SC Freiburg Football
Talking torture at the Tower of London
Doing things completely legally in Amsterdam
Getting lost in former Soviet Russia
Blacking out on a crazy Baltic Cruise
Playing with Zlaty
Eating great food from all around Europe
Seeing a 17th century ‘Pirate’ ship
Eiffel Tower light shows
Private tours of the Reichstag
Walls of Skulls in the Paris catacombs
Poorly translated menus, warnings, signs etc.
Seeing engineering at its finest in the Mercedes Museum
Learning more than anyone (except Anitta Hipper) wanted to know about the EU
Drinking too much beer, eating too much, taking too many pictures, and having more fun than I thought I could
Achieving the 10/10/10 strategy – 10 more pounds, 10% less decency, and 10% more fun by 2010
Well that is about all I have for now. Hope you enjoyed it!
I’ve worked harder than I thought I would on this blog and become really interested in trying to explain what is going on in my head this whole time. I hope that it has been as much an experience reading it for you as it has been for me to write it. I’ll do what I can to write over the summer, but my posts will be sporadic and short as any time I have on the internet I will most likely be paying for, and there are just some things that come first (emailing parents, checking facebook etc. etc.). I am however going to attempt to write a journal (on real paper with real ink!) even though I write much slower than I type. I’ll try to abridge some of that and put it online when I have a chance. I have no idea what will become of this blog after I return home – maybe it will become a continuing travel log and a place for thoughts, who knows.
Once again, thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed a view into my life as a study abroad student these past months!
Sincerely,
Evan Kaverman
25 May 2010
Wow... time sure does fly
Its hard to believe that my last post was May 9th - I really haven't been keeping up! In my defense, I have been incredibly busy. After my last post I was headed to Rome and Cavriglia Italy for 7 days, then immediately came back to Freiburg for final exams, then paper writing, them Model EU, then my parents arrived and I started travelling with them (hitting Amsterdam and Paris so far). So obviously I've had a lot on my plate. Rather than try and give anyone a day by day for the last 3 weeks - which I'm sure would turn into a novel - I'll give a brief rundown of the key points and impressions of the things and places I saw. I'll do a separate post for the "end of semester" impressions and recollections, as that is vastly more important to me.
In the interest of time (and my sanity) I'll avoid posting pictures from everywhere in this blog post, but If you'd like to view all the pictures of my visits please visit my Picasa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/ekaverman.
OK - overview:
I headed to Rome on April 30 and arrived in the early afternoon after getting myself to Basel to catch my plane and skipping my classes that Friday. Once I arrived I headed to the "campground" I was staying in - more on that later. After check in I headed over to Ostia, and old Roman port city (now about 2 km inland, showing how things have moved in the last 1000 years.). The ruins were real cool as it was the complete remains of a whole city and had houses, shops, plazas etc. which you don't see much of in Rome. I headed to the beach near there in the evening. The beaches near Rome are oddly underdeveloped. In the US every square inch of property within a mile of the beach would be hotels, condos and resorts. In Rome the beach is "owned" by clubs that you usually have to pay to access, though there are some free ones. Other than that the area around the beaches are pretty sparse, with mostly low income housing and a few minor shops. There were almost no tourists.
I headed back to my bungalow in Club Castelfusano, which was a "camping" area about 40 minutes commute from Rome. The area was quiet, as it was not yet high season but the cabin I stayed in was fine and I slept comfortably the nights I was there. The area also had swimming pools (closed) a market (sporadic hours) and a restaurant serving decent pizza.
The next day was literally a marathon. In order - I did: Palatine Hill, The Roman Forum, Capital Hill, The Coliseum (including a cool gladiator exhibit), The Parthenon, many piazzas (Navona, Popolo), Trastevere, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and a ton of walking. It was a really great day in Rome and I'm glad I got to see so much as the weather was great and I was dogged tired by the end of the day. It was interesting to learn the history of all the places I visited and see some of the places up close. This day was also one of my first full days of travelling completely alone and on my own time frame and I learned a few things. 1. Travelling alone is well... lonely. I found myself wanting to exclaim some random thought I had but realized nobody was there to listen to me. 2. I can see what I want to see, when I want to see it, stay as long as I want, and stop when I'm tired. Takes stress of working with other's schedules out of the deal. 3. Its amazing how far I can push myself and what I can see in just one day.
I was out to see the Vatican Museums the next morning - but they were closed (whoops) - so I headed to St. Peter's and spent hours seeing the inside, the crypts, and of course, climbing the Dome. The view from the top was outstanding and it felt really cool to look out over all of Rome. Other things I did: laugh at Swiss Guard uniforms, get blessed by the Pope (via giant television screen), wonder what happens when they run out of space on the pope list, ate gelato, and naturally - walk more than was really reasonable. I also headed over to the Castel St. Angelo, which was the pope's palace in days of old. I didn't go inside ($$$) but had to see it for the sake of 'Angels and Demons.' The evening was rainy so I headed back to the Bungalow and read my book while drinking beer.
Next day was Vatican Museum time. I managed to sneak in toward the front of the line (probably a sin) since I was alone and on a limited time schedule. I meandered through tons of artwork, easily the most extensive collection I've ever seen. I then proceeded to sneak some pictures of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (also probably a sin), and pay too much for coffee.
That afternoon I hopped on a train to Montevarchi, a small town about 50km south of Florence. I hung out in Montevarchi for a few hours and then Tanya came and picked me up! My parents and I met Tanya and Silvano Falcioni on a cruise in 2000. They now live in Cavriglia Italy, in Tuscany. They own a house above the town part of which they rent out for vacationers. They also have a thriving olive orchard.
I decided that relaxing in Tuscany wouldn't be a bad way to spend a few days leading up to final exams. Unlucky for me the weather didn't really cooperate and it rained the whole time I was there, making for lousy sunbathing weather. I did however get to spend a lot of time with Tanya and the kids (Lorenzo, 8, and Letizia, 6). It was nice to have a bit of 'family time' with my Italian family and enjoy some home cooking.
I headed back to Freiburg on Thursday May 6, founding out a nice week long trip to Italy. To get home I ended up taking 3 trains, 1 bus, 1 airplane, and 2 trams - ah the glory of European public transit.
Sorry once again I haven't posted in forever. I'll write a post about the end of the semester and one about general impressions of the semester in coming days. I'll also try to get a least one more post about my parent's visit before I leave my computer behind and travel on my own for 6 weeks.
In the interest of time (and my sanity) I'll avoid posting pictures from everywhere in this blog post, but If you'd like to view all the pictures of my visits please visit my Picasa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/ekaverman.
OK - overview:
I headed to Rome on April 30 and arrived in the early afternoon after getting myself to Basel to catch my plane and skipping my classes that Friday. Once I arrived I headed to the "campground" I was staying in - more on that later. After check in I headed over to Ostia, and old Roman port city (now about 2 km inland, showing how things have moved in the last 1000 years.). The ruins were real cool as it was the complete remains of a whole city and had houses, shops, plazas etc. which you don't see much of in Rome. I headed to the beach near there in the evening. The beaches near Rome are oddly underdeveloped. In the US every square inch of property within a mile of the beach would be hotels, condos and resorts. In Rome the beach is "owned" by clubs that you usually have to pay to access, though there are some free ones. Other than that the area around the beaches are pretty sparse, with mostly low income housing and a few minor shops. There were almost no tourists.
I headed back to my bungalow in Club Castelfusano, which was a "camping" area about 40 minutes commute from Rome. The area was quiet, as it was not yet high season but the cabin I stayed in was fine and I slept comfortably the nights I was there. The area also had swimming pools (closed) a market (sporadic hours) and a restaurant serving decent pizza.
The next day was literally a marathon. In order - I did: Palatine Hill, The Roman Forum, Capital Hill, The Coliseum (including a cool gladiator exhibit), The Parthenon, many piazzas (Navona, Popolo), Trastevere, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and a ton of walking. It was a really great day in Rome and I'm glad I got to see so much as the weather was great and I was dogged tired by the end of the day. It was interesting to learn the history of all the places I visited and see some of the places up close. This day was also one of my first full days of travelling completely alone and on my own time frame and I learned a few things. 1. Travelling alone is well... lonely. I found myself wanting to exclaim some random thought I had but realized nobody was there to listen to me. 2. I can see what I want to see, when I want to see it, stay as long as I want, and stop when I'm tired. Takes stress of working with other's schedules out of the deal. 3. Its amazing how far I can push myself and what I can see in just one day.
I was out to see the Vatican Museums the next morning - but they were closed (whoops) - so I headed to St. Peter's and spent hours seeing the inside, the crypts, and of course, climbing the Dome. The view from the top was outstanding and it felt really cool to look out over all of Rome. Other things I did: laugh at Swiss Guard uniforms, get blessed by the Pope (via giant television screen), wonder what happens when they run out of space on the pope list, ate gelato, and naturally - walk more than was really reasonable. I also headed over to the Castel St. Angelo, which was the pope's palace in days of old. I didn't go inside ($$$) but had to see it for the sake of 'Angels and Demons.' The evening was rainy so I headed back to the Bungalow and read my book while drinking beer.
Next day was Vatican Museum time. I managed to sneak in toward the front of the line (probably a sin) since I was alone and on a limited time schedule. I meandered through tons of artwork, easily the most extensive collection I've ever seen. I then proceeded to sneak some pictures of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (also probably a sin), and pay too much for coffee.
That afternoon I hopped on a train to Montevarchi, a small town about 50km south of Florence. I hung out in Montevarchi for a few hours and then Tanya came and picked me up! My parents and I met Tanya and Silvano Falcioni on a cruise in 2000. They now live in Cavriglia Italy, in Tuscany. They own a house above the town part of which they rent out for vacationers. They also have a thriving olive orchard.
I decided that relaxing in Tuscany wouldn't be a bad way to spend a few days leading up to final exams. Unlucky for me the weather didn't really cooperate and it rained the whole time I was there, making for lousy sunbathing weather. I did however get to spend a lot of time with Tanya and the kids (Lorenzo, 8, and Letizia, 6). It was nice to have a bit of 'family time' with my Italian family and enjoy some home cooking.
I headed back to Freiburg on Thursday May 6, founding out a nice week long trip to Italy. To get home I ended up taking 3 trains, 1 bus, 1 airplane, and 2 trams - ah the glory of European public transit.
Sorry once again I haven't posted in forever. I'll write a post about the end of the semester and one about general impressions of the semester in coming days. I'll also try to get a least one more post about my parent's visit before I leave my computer behind and travel on my own for 6 weeks.
09 May 2010
London seems like so long ago
And honestly, it sort of was. I got back from London on April 19th, and it is now May 9th. That may have been the fastest 20 days ever. It also shows me just how far behind I am in writing my posts. I have a lot to cover in this one, so stick with me!
In the week after I returned from London I managed to completely fill every spare moment I had. On Tuesday I met with Michaela, the teacher at a school in Bad Säckingen, who I had talked to about doing the "Rent an American" program for. After the chaos of London I was hardly on my feet and had to start thinking about what I was going to talk about to a group of 7th and 12th grade Germans. I'll talk more about that when I get to Thursday.
Classes on Tuesday and Wednesday were also all kinds of messed up because people in the program were scattered around all of Europe so some classes were cancelled, other re-scheduled, some ran when they were supposed to. It was general disarray, which was really interesting. The IES center was real quiet for 2 days.
On Wednesday I met with Sarah, the organizer of the Rent an American program and had a crash course in how Rent an American works and basics about German culture. Usually before you can do the Rent an American thing you take their 5 hour course on German culture and do role playing etc. I got none of that, basically - I'm awesome. I also of course attended all of my classes and tried to get my head on straight before I missed class on Thursday for Rent an American.
On Thursday I got up early and hopped on the train to go to Bad Säckingen, a quaint, small town right on the Rhine river between Germany and Switzerland. It took me about an hour to get there and once I did I met Michaela again before walking to the Scheffel Gymnasium school.
I was initially given a bit of a tour of the school and met some of the other teachers at the school and talked about what I was doing in Germany and at their school. I then headed over to a 7th grade class, with kids who were about 12 or 13 and already spoke great English. I wish I could speak German half as well as they speak English... I talked with them about myself, where I'm from and showed them some pictures of me when I was 12, which they thought was pretty funny. I then talked with them about American pastimes and sports, which (aside from American Football and Baseball) are basically the same in Germany. We then did a bit of Q&A where the kids asked me all about myself: Who is your favorite actor? What is your favorite music? What TV shows do you watch? etc. etc. I even read a bit of my novel to them aloud in class - to which they stared open mouthed at me. I also found it rather funny (and disturbing) that the German kids knew all the terrible American TV shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and most notably South Park. I tried to explain to them that South Park (the place) is in the state where I live - none of them seemed to get it.
After the class I relaxed for a few minutes and met a few more teachers before heading off to a 12th grade class. The 12th graders were all much older, between 17 and 19. The subject matter in their class was more complex, including 9/11, Terrorism, and immigration. The 12th graders were surprisingly timid and seemed afraid to talk to me, even though they speak English about as well as I do, albeit with a nice German accent. It was interesting to hear their points of view and discuss American Foreign policy with them. I got some very complex, direct questions about the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which I attempted to answer as diplomatically as possible, though I let my opinion slide in quite a bit. My favorite part of the presentation was talking about stereotypes of Americans and Germans. I asked them what they thought of when they thought of Americans and immediately got back what I had assumed I would - Fat, Stupid, ignorant, petty etc. I then asked what they thought American think about Germans as, which they hit spot on - Lederhosen, Beer, Sausage, and sauerkraut, and of course, punctuality. It was interesting to talk about how those were hardly accurate and that it was unfair to assume those things about a culture.
After the presentations Michaela took me on a little tour of Bad Säckingen, which took about 30 minutes. It is a small town, but it is cute and nice, and the weather was beautiful. We ate lunch at a little cafe downtown and walked through the town. I also got to see the longest-covered-wooden-bridge in Europe, which goes from Germany to Switzerland over the Rhine. It was generally a nice relaxing afternoon.
On Friday we all went to class in the morning and then in the beautiful weather that afternoon put together a giant pick up soccer game. We had almost 2 full teams just of IES people and were able to play a really competitive, exciting game. It was a nice break from the stress of all of the classes and papers that we had coming up.
Luckily sometime during that week IES realized that they had made everything due all the same day and decided to give us extensions on a number of papers, making my life much easier.
On Sunday April 25 a group of us headed to Lichtenstein, the 4th smallest country in Europe to have a look around. Lichtenstein is a country that is about 60 square miles and is home to just 35,000 people, but it also houses 75,000 companies because of it's favorable corporate tax system. Lichtenstein has the highest GDP per capita in the world and it shows - I saw at least 2 Lamborghinis, dozens of Porches, and a couple Maseratis. Vaduz, Lichtenstein's capital, is home to 5000 people and can literally be seen in just under 2 hours. Given that we where there for almost 4 we got bored pretty fast. We walked the entire length of the city, saw the government offices and parliament (A table with 25 seats), and main Church in just a few minutes since they are all neighbors on the same street. We also climbed up to the Prince's castle. It was very modest (as castles go) for a guy worth $5.5 billion. We were happy at the end of the day to get back to Germany were pizzas weren't 10CHF and the people weren't quite so stuck up.
During the weekend I also had a chance to help my parents plan for their imminent trip to Europe in May. We finally nailed down the whole rail pass, transport, and itinerary situation. We're going to spend 2 weeks after the IES program is over seeing Germany, Amsterdam, Paris, and the area around Normandy in France before they fly home on the 30th. After that of course I head out on my own to see the rest of the continent and travel freely for the summer. I'm super excited about this as I have been looking forward to it since before I even knew I was coming to Europe!
The last week in April was pretty normal, which was nice as it was the last normal week we had in the program. I was also busy finishing up my final prep for my trip to Italy. We did make a few trips to the Biergarten (Beer garden) to enjoy the beautiful weather and drink as much fine German beer as possible before heading home.
It is hard to believe that as I sit here and write this post on May 9th we have just 9 days until the program is over and all the new friends I've made will be heading home. We'll certainly have to make the best of our remaining time here and make some memories that will last a lifetime.
I'm going to write about my Italy adventure in a separate post soon. I want to do it complete justice :-)
Thanks everyone!
In the week after I returned from London I managed to completely fill every spare moment I had. On Tuesday I met with Michaela, the teacher at a school in Bad Säckingen, who I had talked to about doing the "Rent an American" program for. After the chaos of London I was hardly on my feet and had to start thinking about what I was going to talk about to a group of 7th and 12th grade Germans. I'll talk more about that when I get to Thursday.
Classes on Tuesday and Wednesday were also all kinds of messed up because people in the program were scattered around all of Europe so some classes were cancelled, other re-scheduled, some ran when they were supposed to. It was general disarray, which was really interesting. The IES center was real quiet for 2 days.
On Wednesday I met with Sarah, the organizer of the Rent an American program and had a crash course in how Rent an American works and basics about German culture. Usually before you can do the Rent an American thing you take their 5 hour course on German culture and do role playing etc. I got none of that, basically - I'm awesome. I also of course attended all of my classes and tried to get my head on straight before I missed class on Thursday for Rent an American.
On Thursday I got up early and hopped on the train to go to Bad Säckingen, a quaint, small town right on the Rhine river between Germany and Switzerland. It took me about an hour to get there and once I did I met Michaela again before walking to the Scheffel Gymnasium school.
I was initially given a bit of a tour of the school and met some of the other teachers at the school and talked about what I was doing in Germany and at their school. I then headed over to a 7th grade class, with kids who were about 12 or 13 and already spoke great English. I wish I could speak German half as well as they speak English... I talked with them about myself, where I'm from and showed them some pictures of me when I was 12, which they thought was pretty funny. I then talked with them about American pastimes and sports, which (aside from American Football and Baseball) are basically the same in Germany. We then did a bit of Q&A where the kids asked me all about myself: Who is your favorite actor? What is your favorite music? What TV shows do you watch? etc. etc. I even read a bit of my novel to them aloud in class - to which they stared open mouthed at me. I also found it rather funny (and disturbing) that the German kids knew all the terrible American TV shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and most notably South Park. I tried to explain to them that South Park (the place) is in the state where I live - none of them seemed to get it.
After the class I relaxed for a few minutes and met a few more teachers before heading off to a 12th grade class. The 12th graders were all much older, between 17 and 19. The subject matter in their class was more complex, including 9/11, Terrorism, and immigration. The 12th graders were surprisingly timid and seemed afraid to talk to me, even though they speak English about as well as I do, albeit with a nice German accent. It was interesting to hear their points of view and discuss American Foreign policy with them. I got some very complex, direct questions about the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which I attempted to answer as diplomatically as possible, though I let my opinion slide in quite a bit. My favorite part of the presentation was talking about stereotypes of Americans and Germans. I asked them what they thought of when they thought of Americans and immediately got back what I had assumed I would - Fat, Stupid, ignorant, petty etc. I then asked what they thought American think about Germans as, which they hit spot on - Lederhosen, Beer, Sausage, and sauerkraut, and of course, punctuality. It was interesting to talk about how those were hardly accurate and that it was unfair to assume those things about a culture.
After the presentations Michaela took me on a little tour of Bad Säckingen, which took about 30 minutes. It is a small town, but it is cute and nice, and the weather was beautiful. We ate lunch at a little cafe downtown and walked through the town. I also got to see the longest-covered-wooden-bridge in Europe, which goes from Germany to Switzerland over the Rhine. It was generally a nice relaxing afternoon.
On Friday we all went to class in the morning and then in the beautiful weather that afternoon put together a giant pick up soccer game. We had almost 2 full teams just of IES people and were able to play a really competitive, exciting game. It was a nice break from the stress of all of the classes and papers that we had coming up.
Luckily sometime during that week IES realized that they had made everything due all the same day and decided to give us extensions on a number of papers, making my life much easier.
On Sunday April 25 a group of us headed to Lichtenstein, the 4th smallest country in Europe to have a look around. Lichtenstein is a country that is about 60 square miles and is home to just 35,000 people, but it also houses 75,000 companies because of it's favorable corporate tax system. Lichtenstein has the highest GDP per capita in the world and it shows - I saw at least 2 Lamborghinis, dozens of Porches, and a couple Maseratis. Vaduz, Lichtenstein's capital, is home to 5000 people and can literally be seen in just under 2 hours. Given that we where there for almost 4 we got bored pretty fast. We walked the entire length of the city, saw the government offices and parliament (A table with 25 seats), and main Church in just a few minutes since they are all neighbors on the same street. We also climbed up to the Prince's castle. It was very modest (as castles go) for a guy worth $5.5 billion. We were happy at the end of the day to get back to Germany were pizzas weren't 10CHF and the people weren't quite so stuck up.
During the weekend I also had a chance to help my parents plan for their imminent trip to Europe in May. We finally nailed down the whole rail pass, transport, and itinerary situation. We're going to spend 2 weeks after the IES program is over seeing Germany, Amsterdam, Paris, and the area around Normandy in France before they fly home on the 30th. After that of course I head out on my own to see the rest of the continent and travel freely for the summer. I'm super excited about this as I have been looking forward to it since before I even knew I was coming to Europe!
The last week in April was pretty normal, which was nice as it was the last normal week we had in the program. I was also busy finishing up my final prep for my trip to Italy. We did make a few trips to the Biergarten (Beer garden) to enjoy the beautiful weather and drink as much fine German beer as possible before heading home.
It is hard to believe that as I sit here and write this post on May 9th we have just 9 days until the program is over and all the new friends I've made will be heading home. We'll certainly have to make the best of our remaining time here and make some memories that will last a lifetime.
I'm going to write about my Italy adventure in a separate post soon. I want to do it complete justice :-)
Thanks everyone!
26 April 2010
I don't have any witty titles for London
As a final addition to my third field study trip through 3 European countries we stopped in London, UK. This awesome city was almost like a dose of home, with full cooked breakfasts, English being spoken at every turn, and ice in my drinks. It was a great way to wrap up the trip, despite the minor setback of becoming a victim of the most catastrophic airline failure EVER. But what am I doing complaining, there are millions of worse places to be stuck in this world than London, though many far cheaper places too. So here is my recount of my London adventures.
Tuesday
I know I already covered my Tuesday in my blog post about Tallinn, but my British experience really began in Tallinn, and somewhere over the North Sea.
After getting through emigration, which you do when you leave the Schengen area, and standing in line to board our flight to London we came across a group of British guys who had spend the weekend partying in Tallinn and were now heading home. As we were passing onto the jetway to get on the plane I overheard a conversation about one of the Brits having lost his passport and not being able to get on the plane, with all his buddies standing around him I gave him a friendly "That sucks, man" to which he slurred at me (yes, he was drunk): "You don't even care do you, you just think it's funny!" Now I'll admit, it was a little funny, but only for a moment, because he did manage to find his passport and get on the plane. Naturally, being the classy fellow he was, he scoped the plane for a seat and decided to sit next to 2 pretty girls he saw, that just happened to be Liz and Tabitha, girls from our program, and right behind me. After a few laughs at his antics and flirting he passed out for most of the flight, before waking up minutes before landing and getting suddenly violently sick. Luckily I managed not to get any on me! Once we landed we wished him good luck and hoped he would get better soon.
We passed through immigration, adding another important stamp to my passport(!), and after only a brief issue finding my luggage, got headed to our lodging, which was at an IES run dormitory in Chelsea.
Wednesday
We headed out in the morning to a meeting at the IES London center and learned about British politics, which may or may not be the most complicated thing ever. I thought the EU was confusing, but man are British politics all kinds of turned around. Right now, they are in election season, which lasts less than 2 months, and only occurs when the Prime Minister decides to call elections. Gordon Brown decided to do this, then promptly dissolved Parliament and resigned. So until elections on May 6, nobody is running the British government. God save the Queen.
Our second meeting was with an American woman who has been working in the UK to develop understanding about different business practices and social styles between Britain and the US. Though pretty interesting and largely factual we found many of her assumptions to be overarching generalizations about a country. This was further rebuked when she continuously said "British people are this way, but this is just a generalization." She kept refuting herself, which made it hard for us to believe what she was saying.
After our meetings we struck out to have some food and delicious English beer. My friend Ryan and I headed to a little out of the way pub where I encountered my first real live British Fish & Chips, complete with mushy peas and a hand pumped ale. We also had a nice conversation with the bartender about good places to go see and things to do while we were in London, as well as picked up some insider tips.
After an incredibly filling lunch we met up with some others at the British Museum. This museum is literally the complete collection of the British imperial empire. They have the plundering from every corner of the world, Egypt, Rome & Greece, the Far East, the Americas, plus tons of British history. The museum is so massive that no person could hope to see it in one sitting, but luckily you can come back as often as you like, because the whole museum, along with many others in London, is completely free to the public. Given that everything in London seems excessively pricey, not to mention the terrible exchange rate, this is a great deal for us! Some cool things we saw inside include: The actual Rosetta Stone, giant Greek and Roman pillars and capitals, the majority of art from the Parthenon in Athens (which we saw more of than the IES trip that actually went there), an exhibit about the life of a British person, including all the medication they had taken over the course of their lives, ancient clocks, and much, much more!
After all that Matt and I headed back out to go visit the Queen. Okay, we didn't actually visit her, but we did go see Buckingham palace lit up at night and stroll by the major sights at night. We checked out Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, where I called my mother to let her hear the bells chime, the London Eye. We started to get a little hungry so we walked past #10 Downing Street, up through Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and almost all the way back to the British Museum before settling on an Indian place.
After ordering my meal I was acosted by 2 British women for my order. The conversation here vaguely follows what was said (Just imagine her lines in an awesome British accent, its better that way):
Her: "Excuse me, did you just order a Vindaloo?"
Me: "Yes, why?"
Her: "You do know that is the spiciest thing you can order, right?"
Me: "Oh, I think I'll be able to handle it, I've eaten lots of spicy things before"
Her: "Oh, well good luck" and when she was leaving - "Enjoy your Vindaloo"
Best thing about this is, that the meal wasn't even that spicy, it was just the right amount of spice I was looking for. I guess all the Mexican food back home has built up a resistance to spice.
Matt and I did a little more walking around and then headed back to Chelsea.
Thursday
Matt and I woke up early with a mission: Find a good, reasonably priced English Breakfast. And behold, just a block from our dormitory there was a cafe serving full English Breakfast and coffee for only 5 Pounds. This amazing meal is something I could honestly eat for the remainder of my life: Beans, toast, eggs, pork sausage, bacon, and tomatoes, all together on one plate. It was delicious.
After our breakfast of kings we headed to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Our speaker, a Bulgarian man was very long winded and didn't seem to understand American, or German humor. Eric, one of our chaperons tried to make a joke after the presentation by saying "I just have one more question. Why is it that banks always have the buildings with such nice views?" Now of course we all laughed and started to pack up, but our speaker actually took the time to answer the question, explaining how the money they had and prestige they possessed got them such nice views. It was rather awkward.
We originally had a plan to go see a session of Parliament in the afternoon, but as discussed earlier - there was no Parliament, so that wasn't going to happen. We instead headed off to see the Imperial War Museum.
The Imperial War Museum chronicles the British military through a number of conflicts but mainly focusing on the World Wars, and modern conflicts. The museum also has a large exhibit on espionage and the actions of MI5 and MI6, as well as the British SAS (Special Air Service). The exhibition is incredibly interesting and makes me wonder what the implications of a release of that kind of information about the CIA or FBI would be like in the US. The main lobby of the museum is the "Toys for Boys" room with lines of tanks, planes, missiles, and submarines.
That afternoon we headed back to town to check out some of the sights during the day, getting me better pictures of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and everything else. After a little deliberation we headed into the Abbey to watch the Evensong service and see the inside of the Abbey, which usually costs 12 Pounds, which just seems unreasonable. We enjoyed a little improv Organ playing and listened to the service while checking out the great architecture, famous tombs, and coronation chair.
In the evening we headed out to our IES farewell dinner, and we drank some good beer, ate some good food, and enjoyed each others company for the evening. At this point we've become aware of the volcanic eruption in Iceland and have started wondering what will happen. Some of the group was supposed to leave Friday morning, but we were pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. As most of our flights were on Sunday we weren't too worried. IES gets info from all of us about our flight plans and lodging.
Afterward we met up with Tyler's friend who was studying in London and went out for a few more drinks around town before heading back.
Friday
Woke up late, had leisurely breakfast at a little cafe down the street from the dorm in Chelsea while checking on some email and the volcano situation. I then headed to the Tower of London with Matt and Ryan in the early afternoon. I have decided that whenever you think of a Medieval castle, you're actually thinking of the tower of London, whether you know it or not. We arrived and grabbed some tickets. Met some rude American girls while we were at it (They got all pissed when I told them the UK's currency was Pounds after they said "It's $17... or whatever"). Its interesting how my perspectives have changed so much.
We headed into the Tower and hit up one of the free tours with the Beefeaters. They walked us through the whole tower and gave us some interesting information on the history of the rulers, the building, and the prisoners there. We ran into Tyler and his friend Chris again and wandered around with them through the Royal Armories where they have the armor of old British Kings, including: King Henry VIII, King James. They also have a bunch of other exhibits about the history of the Tower, royal gifts and other cool stuff. We then headed to check out the Queen's crown Jewels. Unfortunately they don't allow pictures, but it was cool to see the ridiculously large stones mounted in a crown that gets worn once. There are also an odd assortment of other things like royal plates, spoons, and staffs. We then headed to check out the torture chambers and walk around the wall.
After a couple hours at the tower we cruised across the Tower bridge and to the other side of town. We walked down the path for a few minutes and past a few cool buildings before we hopped the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral. We arrived literally just as they were closing and missed going inside, but on strong recommendations decided to come back later.
We headed back downtown to check on possibly seeing a play that evening. There was a play that I have wanted to see for a long time that was showing. Avenue Q, a quirky musical that makes fun of other musicals and is considerably vulgar, and also hilarious. We picked up some tickets, found a pub to have some food and beer before the show, and headed inside. The show that ensued had me laughing from beginning to end, and singing along with all the parts I knew.
We headed to a bar down the street afterward for some 1.50 beer and just relaxed while talking about life. We then headed back to the dorm where some drama ensued, without getting into too much deal let me just say that I didn't get to sleep until after 2 AM.
Saturday
Matt and I got up and headed down toward to Buckingham Palace with the intention of seeing the changing of the guard. We picked up some English Breakfast on the way of course! When we got down to Buckingham we realized pretty slowly that they weren't doing the ceremony today. Whoops! Got some nice pictures though.
Instead we headed back to St. Paul's to climb the dome. The dome at St. Paul's is bested only by St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It also has the whispering wall, a balcony where you can hear someone opposite whisper because of the perfectly circular room. We slowly climbed over 1000 steps to get to the top and got some great views along the way. Unfortunately some genius decided to build a high rise between St. Paul's and the Parliament building, completely blocking it from view. But other than that the city view was great! After fighting our way around the tiny balcony at the top of the cathedral we headed back down and out to see some other parts of the city. We stalled briefly for lunch at the Starbucks and checked some more email.
We strolled across the Millennium Bridge with the original intention of going to see the Tate Modern museum, but because it was such a beautiful day, we opted for a walk along the River toward the London Eye.
We saw some really great parts of the city and admired many Londoners in their true form, enjoying the weather and relaxing on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We wandered through an open air book market, watched some street musicians, and ended up heading back to the dorm for a bit with the intention of maybe going out later.
We had a packaged meal bought from Tesco, as we were starting to run out of money, and rested our weary legs for a little while. We met up with Ryan later and headed out to meet some friends of his downtown. Unfortunately by the time we got downtown they had already left and the night turned into a bust. You win some you lose some I guess.
Sunday
I was originally supposed to go home today, but thanks to the wonderful "Act of God" we were part of my flight was cancelled. After briefly figuring out that the IES staff planned to have a meeting that evening with us we struck out for the day to see the changing of the guard for real. Matt and I stopped, now throughly addicted, for another English Breakfast - I told you I could eat them for my whole life! We got to Buckingham a bit before the show so we looked around and did some excellent people watching.
I was rather uninspired by the whole changing of the guard ceremony. I was expecting something a bit like the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. Nothing like that. The group of guards about to go off duty arrived led by a pipe and drum band, and proceeded to stand or pace around for 10 minutes. Then the new guards arrived led by a full band. Then everyone stood around for 5 minutes while a couple guards walked out and met each other in the middle, walked to the Palace door, and stood around some more. Then there was some random chaos as the band set up to play a few numbers. They played (surprisingly) some popular music tunes, that weren't so awesome. Then there was a massive bit of scuffling about and the bands an guards set up to leave. Then they all marched out and the whole thing was over. Really, not very exciting, but now I can say I've seen it.
We then wandered through St. James park and lounged on the grass for a bit while deciding our next move. We decided to head to Greenwich to check out the Royal observatory and the Prime Meridian. The city of Greenwich really isn't much and is only famous probably for Greenwich Mean Time, the Prime Meridian and a few boats. We hiked up the hill to the observatory, obligatorily stood on both sides of the world at once, you know, no big deal, I've been in 4 US states at once. We took a quick peruse through the Naval museum and around the Royal naval academy. We grabbed a quick snack and headed back to the dorm for our meeting with the IES staff. They informed us we would be taking a Eurostar and bus the next morning to reach Freiburg.
Tesco was the option for dinner yet again and I opted to watch a movie and take it easy on our last night instead of trying to go crazy my last night in London. More drama in the room when I returned, what fun!
Monday and the Journey Home
Lucky for us we didn't have to be on a train until 10:00, but needed to get to the station early for check in, immigration, and to fight the crowds. We snagged some breakfast and snacks for the ride home before hopping on the train.
The Eurostar is really just a train. I don't quite know why people get so excited about it. Yes, you do travel under the English Channel, but from the window of the train it is just a 22 minute long tunnel. The amazing thing is that you can zip from London all the way to Paris in just 2 hours.
After getting to Paris we hopped on our good old Freiburg bus and headed home. We took a brief stop for dinner and got all the way home before 10 PM.
Not bad for 12 hours of traveling.
Whew... General Impressions
London is huge, I was there for 5 days and could have easily spent another 10 with no trouble. They also have great public transit which is good in such a huge city. Between the Tube and the Buses you could get anywhere fast. Mind the Gap.
I was really impressed that most of the major museums were free, it was nice to be able to visit all the cool places without paying a dime, and to soak up so much history and information is always a joy. Other than the musuems though, London is pretty expensive. 3.50 for a beer doesn't sound bad, but when you add in the exchange rate it hurts. The money here shows though. London rakes in 3/4 of the UK's GDP.
Some of my main favorite things: Tower of London (great value), River walks, Avenue Q, Westminster area (Abbey, Parliament etc.), Royal Parks, St. Pauls.
The Volcano extravaganza was a big deal, but ultimately had almost no impact on my trip. I gained a bit of time in London, which was great, but didn't have any huge financial or travel issues because of it. It is cool to be part of the history that it will bring and will make a great story for the future when I talk about my trip! I have to give a huge thanks to the IES staff for working out our transport home!
In other news: IES EU lost the championship for best study abroad location to Nantes, France. But given that we were scattered all over the continent it is amazing we did so well. We're the runner up best place to study, but we all know that Freiburg is a better place to be! Far fewer crazy French people.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this incredibly long post! It might even be a new record
Tuesday
I know I already covered my Tuesday in my blog post about Tallinn, but my British experience really began in Tallinn, and somewhere over the North Sea.
We passed through immigration, adding another important stamp to my passport(!), and after only a brief issue finding my luggage, got headed to our lodging, which was at an IES run dormitory in Chelsea.
Wednesday
We headed out in the morning to a meeting at the IES London center and learned about British politics, which may or may not be the most complicated thing ever. I thought the EU was confusing, but man are British politics all kinds of turned around. Right now, they are in election season, which lasts less than 2 months, and only occurs when the Prime Minister decides to call elections. Gordon Brown decided to do this, then promptly dissolved Parliament and resigned. So until elections on May 6, nobody is running the British government. God save the Queen.
Our second meeting was with an American woman who has been working in the UK to develop understanding about different business practices and social styles between Britain and the US. Though pretty interesting and largely factual we found many of her assumptions to be overarching generalizations about a country. This was further rebuked when she continuously said "British people are this way, but this is just a generalization." She kept refuting herself, which made it hard for us to believe what she was saying.After our meetings we struck out to have some food and delicious English beer. My friend Ryan and I headed to a little out of the way pub where I encountered my first real live British Fish & Chips, complete with mushy peas and a hand pumped ale. We also had a nice conversation with the bartender about good places to go see and things to do while we were in London, as well as picked up some insider tips.
After all that Matt and I headed back out to go visit the Queen. Okay, we didn't actually visit her, but we did go see Buckingham palace lit up at night and stroll by the major sights at night. We checked out Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, where I called my mother to let her hear the bells chime, the London Eye. We started to get a little hungry so we walked past #10 Downing Street, up through Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and almost all the way back to the British Museum before settling on an Indian place.After ordering my meal I was acosted by 2 British women for my order. The conversation here vaguely follows what was said (Just imagine her lines in an awesome British accent, its better that way):
Her: "Excuse me, did you just order a Vindaloo?"
Me: "Yes, why?"
Her: "You do know that is the spiciest thing you can order, right?"
Me: "Oh, I think I'll be able to handle it, I've eaten lots of spicy things before"
Her: "Oh, well good luck" and when she was leaving - "Enjoy your Vindaloo"
Best thing about this is, that the meal wasn't even that spicy, it was just the right amount of spice I was looking for. I guess all the Mexican food back home has built up a resistance to spice.
Matt and I did a little more walking around and then headed back to Chelsea.
Thursday
After our breakfast of kings we headed to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Our speaker, a Bulgarian man was very long winded and didn't seem to understand American, or German humor. Eric, one of our chaperons tried to make a joke after the presentation by saying "I just have one more question. Why is it that banks always have the buildings with such nice views?" Now of course we all laughed and started to pack up, but our speaker actually took the time to answer the question, explaining how the money they had and prestige they possessed got them such nice views. It was rather awkward.
We originally had a plan to go see a session of Parliament in the afternoon, but as discussed earlier - there was no Parliament, so that wasn't going to happen. We instead headed off to see the Imperial War Museum.
That afternoon we headed back to town to check out some of the sights during the day, getting me better pictures of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and everything else. After a little deliberation we headed into the Abbey to watch the Evensong service and see the inside of the Abbey, which usually costs 12 Pounds, which just seems unreasonable. We enjoyed a little improv Organ playing and listened to the service while checking out the great architecture, famous tombs, and coronation chair.
Afterward we met up with Tyler's friend who was studying in London and went out for a few more drinks around town before heading back.
Friday
We headed back downtown to check on possibly seeing a play that evening. There was a play that I have wanted to see for a long time that was showing. Avenue Q, a quirky musical that makes fun of other musicals and is considerably vulgar, and also hilarious. We picked up some tickets, found a pub to have some food and beer before the show, and headed inside. The show that ensued had me laughing from beginning to end, and singing along with all the parts I knew.
We headed to a bar down the street afterward for some 1.50 beer and just relaxed while talking about life. We then headed back to the dorm where some drama ensued, without getting into too much deal let me just say that I didn't get to sleep until after 2 AM.
Saturday
Instead we headed back to St. Paul's to climb the dome. The dome at St. Paul's is bested only by St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It also has the whispering wall, a balcony where you can hear someone opposite whisper because of the perfectly circular room. We slowly climbed over 1000 steps to get to the top and got some great views along the way. Unfortunately some genius decided to build a high rise between St. Paul's and the Parliament building, completely blocking it from view. But other than that the city view was great! After fighting our way around the tiny balcony at the top of the cathedral we headed back down and out to see some other parts of the city. We stalled briefly for lunch at the Starbucks and checked some more email.
We strolled across the Millennium Bridge with the original intention of going to see the Tate Modern museum, but because it was such a beautiful day, we opted for a walk along the River toward the London Eye.We saw some really great parts of the city and admired many Londoners in their true form, enjoying the weather and relaxing on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We wandered through an open air book market, watched some street musicians, and ended up heading back to the dorm for a bit with the intention of maybe going out later.
We had a packaged meal bought from Tesco, as we were starting to run out of money, and rested our weary legs for a little while. We met up with Ryan later and headed out to meet some friends of his downtown. Unfortunately by the time we got downtown they had already left and the night turned into a bust. You win some you lose some I guess.
Sunday
Tesco was the option for dinner yet again and I opted to watch a movie and take it easy on our last night instead of trying to go crazy my last night in London. More drama in the room when I returned, what fun!
Monday and the Journey HomeLucky for us we didn't have to be on a train until 10:00, but needed to get to the station early for check in, immigration, and to fight the crowds. We snagged some breakfast and snacks for the ride home before hopping on the train.
The Eurostar is really just a train. I don't quite know why people get so excited about it. Yes, you do travel under the English Channel, but from the window of the train it is just a 22 minute long tunnel. The amazing thing is that you can zip from London all the way to Paris in just 2 hours.
After getting to Paris we hopped on our good old Freiburg bus and headed home. We took a brief stop for dinner and got all the way home before 10 PM.
Not bad for 12 hours of traveling.
Whew... General Impressions
London is huge, I was there for 5 days and could have easily spent another 10 with no trouble. They also have great public transit which is good in such a huge city. Between the Tube and the Buses you could get anywhere fast. Mind the Gap.
I was really impressed that most of the major museums were free, it was nice to be able to visit all the cool places without paying a dime, and to soak up so much history and information is always a joy. Other than the musuems though, London is pretty expensive. 3.50 for a beer doesn't sound bad, but when you add in the exchange rate it hurts. The money here shows though. London rakes in 3/4 of the UK's GDP.Some of my main favorite things: Tower of London (great value), River walks, Avenue Q, Westminster area (Abbey, Parliament etc.), Royal Parks, St. Pauls.
The Volcano extravaganza was a big deal, but ultimately had almost no impact on my trip. I gained a bit of time in London, which was great, but didn't have any huge financial or travel issues because of it. It is cool to be part of the history that it will bring and will make a great story for the future when I talk about my trip! I have to give a huge thanks to the IES staff for working out our transport home!
In other news: IES EU lost the championship for best study abroad location to Nantes, France. But given that we were scattered all over the continent it is amazing we did so well. We're the runner up best place to study, but we all know that Freiburg is a better place to be! Far fewer crazy French people.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this incredibly long post! It might even be a new record
23 April 2010
In (former) Soviet Russia....
Hi everyone, sorry for being so 'postless' the last couple days, it's been crazy and I have barely had any time to write. Besides that, I was lucky enough to be one of the 300,000 stranded travelers out of London this week! So I'm just getting around to working on some blog posts of the remainder of our trip. Here goes...
Tallinn, Estonia
We arrived early in the morning, a murky thick fog covering the water, we didn't see the city until we were almost upon in. Okay, just kidding, we got in around 10 in the morning and walked into the brilliant northern sun along the Baltic coast. And so started our adventure in Tallinn. Fun fact: Tallinn, is the most Northern locations I have ever been on Earth, it's also the northernmost capital of the European continent (not including Scandinavia).
Sunday
After getting checked in to our surprisingly upscale hotel near downtown Tallinn, I immediately went back to bed for a few hours before heading out to see the city.
In the afternoon, we took a tour of Tallinn in a few different groups and discovered some different parts of the city. My group learned about Medieval Tallinn. The city has numerous old fortifications and interesting buildings that have been around for centuries. It's amazing that many of them are still standing as Estonia has been ruled by other countries until only 1991. Our walk took us through the old town area and we tried some traditional food, saw some old shops and talked with a few locals. We got lost a couple times on our journey, but that just proved to be an experience all its own. After our tour was finished we regrouped to talk about our tours and show the pictures we had taken.
By this time we were all famished and headed to get some food at a pancake place recommended to us by a local for cheap, filling meals. Now when I think pancakes I think of light fluffy dough with butter and maple syrup. I don't think they've ever heard of maple syrup in Estonia. These pancakes were something completely different, they were easily a foot across, and folded up into quarters after being stuffed with different things, like chicken, fish, cottage cheese, shrimp, anything really. It was really a 'one pancake meal'.
After dinner we took another nice walk around the town to see what we might find and ended up taking some great pictures over the town and out toward the Baltic before heading back to the hotel.
Monday
We were up and fed early for a meeting with a Canadian (in Estonia?) Andres Kasekamp, about Estonian relations with the EU and Russia. The meeting was pretty intersting and provided us with some good information on Estonia that we would not have known otherwise.
After my academic lunch, where we eat with a teacher and talk about what we've done on the trip so far, we went to the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We had 3 different meetings about Estonia's role in the world through organizations and the EU. Being such a small country, both geographically and demographically (there are only 1.5 million people in Estonia, 300,000 of whom are Russian), Estonia has to try very hard to make itself heard. It was interesting to learn that Estonia thinks of itself more like a Nordic country, similar to Finland and Sweden than it does a Baltic country.
In the evening, though it felt more like the afternoon as the sun was still high in the sky because we were so far north, just south of the 60th parallel, my friends, Nao, Tyler, Matt, and I headed out to see the Estonian singing grounds. This was the location of the 1989 "Singing Revolution" that separated the Baltic states from Russia. The song grounds would fill with up to 400,000 people who would all sing together. I can only imagine how moving it might have been to see it.
We did not, however, get to the song grounds in a timely fashion, we managed to get lost on the Tallinn bus system. After taking the wrong numbered bus, we ended up quite literally in former Soviet Russia. We were surrounded by old empty warehouses and dilapidated railways. It literally looked like we had jumped back 30 years in time. After a little confusion and reversal of our route we did manage to get back to the main bus station and onto the right bus. Quite the adventure.
Our detour may have also been a blessing however, because by the time we got to the Song grounds the sun was just beginning to set and we were able to take some very good pictures of the song grounds, amphitheater, and stroll along the Baltic coast during sunset. The Baltic isn't the prettiest sea I've ever seen, the area around it is trash filled and the sea bed is filled with old chemicals and pesticides. In recent years there have been efforts to reverse the negative effects and keep the sea a clean and safe place. This is important as many of the people in this region depend on the Baltic for their welfare.
We headed back into town and had some dinner, some excellent, and hearty dishes with some authentic Estonian beer.
Tuesday
Our final day in Tallinn, we headed to meet with a local professor about the impacts of the EU on everyday Estonian life an the support for the EU in Estonia. We did have a bit of free time before we headed to London, so several of us decided to visit the Museum of Occupation. This 1 room museum shows the chronology of occupation in Estonia from the Russians, the the Nazis, to the Russians again. The Estonians initially treated the Nazis as liberators when they first came because of the previous years of Russian oppression. However the occupation didn't last long and at the end of the Second World War Estonia became part of the USSR for the next 40 years. The museum has some interesting artifacts of the occupations including old telephone booths, suitcases, prison doors, and even a copy of Mein Kampf.
After the museum we took one more stroll around old town Tallinn before collecting our luggage and heading to London.
We arrived very late to London and got started early the next morning - More about London in my next post!
Overall Thoughts
Estonia is a country that's very different from other European countries and has developed in a very different way. Because of it's tormented past and numerous occupations, the Estonians are rather mistrustful of other and are slow to open up. They are however very excited to meet Americans, as many of them have never seen one in real life. We met a guy on our cruise who was so excited to meet us and take pictures with us. He told us how much he loved America and that he wanted to go there someday. It was kind of a nice change of pace from the Germans and French who just wish we would go away sometimes...
The city of Tallinn is an odd mix of 3 or 4 time periods, from it's medieval old town, to it's 18th and 19th century churches, to the blocks of Soviet built apartments and office buildings, to the new downtown area with high-rise glass banks. It's a city that cherishes the old, but also loves the new, and as a result is a city with a rich and troubled history, but also a very modern look, feel, and approach to life. It quite possibly seemed less "Eastern European" than even Prague was, surprising, as it was actually part of the USSR, not just a satellite state.
They're also incredibly technologically advanced. Every citizen can cast national ballots online using a special identity card, they created Skype, and are working to give every citizen internet access in the coming years.
Overall Tallinn was a nice surprise as a city and a culture. I leaned a lot about somewhere that is usually skimmed over in every history book ever printed.
Tallinn, Estonia
We arrived early in the morning, a murky thick fog covering the water, we didn't see the city until we were almost upon in. Okay, just kidding, we got in around 10 in the morning and walked into the brilliant northern sun along the Baltic coast. And so started our adventure in Tallinn. Fun fact: Tallinn, is the most Northern locations I have ever been on Earth, it's also the northernmost capital of the European continent (not including Scandinavia).
Sunday
After getting checked in to our surprisingly upscale hotel near downtown Tallinn, I immediately went back to bed for a few hours before heading out to see the city.
In the afternoon, we took a tour of Tallinn in a few different groups and discovered some different parts of the city. My group learned about Medieval Tallinn. The city has numerous old fortifications and interesting buildings that have been around for centuries. It's amazing that many of them are still standing as Estonia has been ruled by other countries until only 1991. Our walk took us through the old town area and we tried some traditional food, saw some old shops and talked with a few locals. We got lost a couple times on our journey, but that just proved to be an experience all its own. After our tour was finished we regrouped to talk about our tours and show the pictures we had taken.By this time we were all famished and headed to get some food at a pancake place recommended to us by a local for cheap, filling meals. Now when I think pancakes I think of light fluffy dough with butter and maple syrup. I don't think they've ever heard of maple syrup in Estonia. These pancakes were something completely different, they were easily a foot across, and folded up into quarters after being stuffed with different things, like chicken, fish, cottage cheese, shrimp, anything really. It was really a 'one pancake meal'.
Monday
We were up and fed early for a meeting with a Canadian (in Estonia?) Andres Kasekamp, about Estonian relations with the EU and Russia. The meeting was pretty intersting and provided us with some good information on Estonia that we would not have known otherwise.
In the evening, though it felt more like the afternoon as the sun was still high in the sky because we were so far north, just south of the 60th parallel, my friends, Nao, Tyler, Matt, and I headed out to see the Estonian singing grounds. This was the location of the 1989 "Singing Revolution" that separated the Baltic states from Russia. The song grounds would fill with up to 400,000 people who would all sing together. I can only imagine how moving it might have been to see it.
We did not, however, get to the song grounds in a timely fashion, we managed to get lost on the Tallinn bus system. After taking the wrong numbered bus, we ended up quite literally in former Soviet Russia. We were surrounded by old empty warehouses and dilapidated railways. It literally looked like we had jumped back 30 years in time. After a little confusion and reversal of our route we did manage to get back to the main bus station and onto the right bus. Quite the adventure.
We headed back into town and had some dinner, some excellent, and hearty dishes with some authentic Estonian beer.
Tuesday
After the museum we took one more stroll around old town Tallinn before collecting our luggage and heading to London.
We arrived very late to London and got started early the next morning - More about London in my next post!
Overall ThoughtsEstonia is a country that's very different from other European countries and has developed in a very different way. Because of it's tormented past and numerous occupations, the Estonians are rather mistrustful of other and are slow to open up. They are however very excited to meet Americans, as many of them have never seen one in real life. We met a guy on our cruise who was so excited to meet us and take pictures with us. He told us how much he loved America and that he wanted to go there someday. It was kind of a nice change of pace from the Germans and French who just wish we would go away sometimes...
The city of Tallinn is an odd mix of 3 or 4 time periods, from it's medieval old town, to it's 18th and 19th century churches, to the blocks of Soviet built apartments and office buildings, to the new downtown area with high-rise glass banks. It's a city that cherishes the old, but also loves the new, and as a result is a city with a rich and troubled history, but also a very modern look, feel, and approach to life. It quite possibly seemed less "Eastern European" than even Prague was, surprising, as it was actually part of the USSR, not just a satellite state.
They're also incredibly technologically advanced. Every citizen can cast national ballots online using a special identity card, they created Skype, and are working to give every citizen internet access in the coming years.Overall Tallinn was a nice surprise as a city and a culture. I leaned a lot about somewhere that is usually skimmed over in every history book ever printed.
11 April 2010
Stockholm Syndrome
After much anticipation and lots of waiting we started our 3rd and final field study trip to Stockholm, Tallinn, and London. We headed to the airport on Wednesday afternoon around 3 and were in Stockholm before midnight. Because it was late and we'd been travelling all day, it was time for some rest so we could hit it hard on Thursday.
Thursday
Up and out of the hotel early to meet with a representitive from the Swedish Institute for European Studies. We learned about Sweden's position on important EU issues and were able to learn a lot about Sweden and their opinions.
We then headed out to get some lunch in town. We had a couple free hours so we wandered to Gamla Stan, the old town area where Stockholm was founded. We enjoyed seeing the Royal Palace, walking through the small alleys, and strolling by the Baltic sea. The weather was great and a light jacket was all I needed to keep warm. We of course came across a number of attractive Swedes, because they are literally everywhere.
After lunch we headed Ericsson to have a meeting with their treasury department. We also took a tour of the company history and learned about the development of telecommunications since the beginning of the industry. Our guide also had all the new and exciting cell phone toys, including a watch that was connected to his phone to tell him who is calling and locate his phone. The meetings turned out to be rather boring, with lots of technical treasury info and money management in a large industry. However we then had the evening free and after a quick change of clothes we headed out to find some traditional Swedish food.
We ended up just across the street from our hotel in a highly recommended restaurant called Vurma. They offered traditional dishes like: Reindeer, Swedish meatballs and fish stew. We throughly enjoyed our dinner and awesome waiter who helped us learn about the Swedish language (which is a lot like German), good bars, and places to see.
We then headed back into town to see the city at night and find some (cheap) beer. Sweden has massive taxes of up to 25% on alcohol, making going out a very expensive prospect. An average beer goes for around 50 Kronor, which is about €5, a little different than €1 beer in Freiburg. We did however manage to find some decently priced drinks in the cheaper, up and coming, part of town. We then headed back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for another exciting day. I also had a chance to chat with my Dad for a few minutes about my parent's imminent trip to Europe!
Friday
We were up and out early to head over to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We had several speakers who informed us about Sweden's government setup, which is a little different as they primarily use outside agencies for research and policy recommendations. We also talked about Sweden's foreign policy with concern to the EU and about Sweden's recent EU presidency. We then had what so far has been the most interesting presentation we've had in the whole program. We learned about the affect of migration on trade. According to the study immigrants from a certain country increase trade between their home country and Sweden 3-6%. Pretty amazing that just moving can affect trade relations.
We made a quick dash back to the hotel to change before our Stockholm boat tour. While not the best tour ever I learned some interesting things about Sweden and got some pictures. The weather had turned to a heavy fog which caused picture problems unfortunately.
After the tour we decided to go check out a few museums. We ended up in the Nobel museum and learned all about the life of Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prizes. He was a fascinating and intelligent man who seemed to regret his creation of a powerful explosive and dedicated his fortune to pursuits of good.
Saturday
We woke up a leisurely hour and checked out of the hotel, and then headed over to Skansen island, a living history museum that shows traditional Swedish life. We walked around for a bit, enjoyed seeing some animals at their Zoo, and headed to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a 17th century war ship that sunk after traveling only a few kilometers due to having too little ballast stone. The boat has been preserved and looks outstanding. It is amazing to stand right next to the ship and realize just how big it is, it stands 7 stories tall! Though we didn't get to go on the boat, I did get some great pictures of it and learn a lot about naval warfare.
After a quick snack we headed got ready for our Baltic cruise.
I have officially decided that boat travel is the way to go. We took a wonderful "ferry" ride from Stockholm to Tallinn. This was no dinky ferry, it carries up to 2500 passengers, has a duty free grocery store, multiple restaurants, a dance club, and bars everywhere. We spent an exciting evening enjoying everything the boat had to offer and danced the night away. We arrived in Tallinn around 10 and started our next adventure. Now if only there was a ferry from Tallinn to London... oh well.
Well that is all I have for now. I will have another update on Tallinn and London both.
Thursday
Up and out of the hotel early to meet with a representitive from the Swedish Institute for European Studies. We learned about Sweden's position on important EU issues and were able to learn a lot about Sweden and their opinions.
After lunch we headed Ericsson to have a meeting with their treasury department. We also took a tour of the company history and learned about the development of telecommunications since the beginning of the industry. Our guide also had all the new and exciting cell phone toys, including a watch that was connected to his phone to tell him who is calling and locate his phone. The meetings turned out to be rather boring, with lots of technical treasury info and money management in a large industry. However we then had the evening free and after a quick change of clothes we headed out to find some traditional Swedish food.
We ended up just across the street from our hotel in a highly recommended restaurant called Vurma. They offered traditional dishes like: Reindeer, Swedish meatballs and fish stew. We throughly enjoyed our dinner and awesome waiter who helped us learn about the Swedish language (which is a lot like German), good bars, and places to see.We then headed back into town to see the city at night and find some (cheap) beer. Sweden has massive taxes of up to 25% on alcohol, making going out a very expensive prospect. An average beer goes for around 50 Kronor, which is about €5, a little different than €1 beer in Freiburg. We did however manage to find some decently priced drinks in the cheaper, up and coming, part of town. We then headed back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for another exciting day. I also had a chance to chat with my Dad for a few minutes about my parent's imminent trip to Europe!
We made a quick dash back to the hotel to change before our Stockholm boat tour. While not the best tour ever I learned some interesting things about Sweden and got some pictures. The weather had turned to a heavy fog which caused picture problems unfortunately.
Saturday
We woke up a leisurely hour and checked out of the hotel, and then headed over to Skansen island, a living history museum that shows traditional Swedish life. We walked around for a bit, enjoyed seeing some animals at their Zoo, and headed to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a 17th century war ship that sunk after traveling only a few kilometers due to having too little ballast stone. The boat has been preserved and looks outstanding. It is amazing to stand right next to the ship and realize just how big it is, it stands 7 stories tall! Though we didn't get to go on the boat, I did get some great pictures of it and learn a lot about naval warfare.
I have officially decided that boat travel is the way to go. We took a wonderful "ferry" ride from Stockholm to Tallinn. This was no dinky ferry, it carries up to 2500 passengers, has a duty free grocery store, multiple restaurants, a dance club, and bars everywhere. We spent an exciting evening enjoying everything the boat had to offer and danced the night away. We arrived in Tallinn around 10 and started our next adventure. Now if only there was a ferry from Tallinn to London... oh well.
Well that is all I have for now. I will have another update on Tallinn and London both.
30 March 2010
What a "Dam" Trip
Welcome to another edition of what I'm doing in Europe! (pictures coming soon!)
First off: I'd like to urge everyone who reads this to vote for IES EU PROGRAM IN GERMANY in the IES study abroad tournament. We're in the second round and up against Paris! We need your help and the help of everyone you know. It is only 3 simple clicks!
First off: I'd like to urge everyone who reads this to vote for IES EU PROGRAM IN GERMANY in the IES study abroad tournament. We're in the second round and up against Paris! We need your help and the help of everyone you know. It is only 3 simple clicks!
So this weekend I headed to one of the most popular destinations in Europe - Amsterdam. It was everything I'd heard and more, and was a catalyst for interesting experiences in life. I left for Amsterdam after class on Friday to meet up with my friends Lexi and Neveen from high school. Lexi is studying in Oldenburg, Germany, in the north part.
On the train ride there I met a couple of Americans from Georgia who are studying in London and are currently on spring break, travelling around Europe. They were on their 4th train of the day, coming all the way from Venice. I had a a nice conversation with them about all kinds of things and reminisced about home for a bit before wishing them a farewell in Amsterdam.
I arrived around 11:30 PM and promptly headed to my hostel to drop off my stuff and head out to see the city night life. We went to a couple bars in one part of town and got a good taste of the night life and saw some interesting people, mostly tourists. We did see some Dutch men sporting what Lexi called the "Dutch Mullet" - or long hair gelled back on the head, an odd look I must say.
Saturday
On Saturday we woke up, had some food at the hostel, and headed into downtown to see the sights. We hopped on with a free tour around the city, which is probably the best value ever. Free tour, 3 hours, all over the city. We learned some cool facts about the founding of Amsterdam and the massive amount of terrain modification that has happened in the Netherlands. The country has literally been reclaimed from the sea, though only barely - the average altitude in the country is -.5 Meters. The buildings in the city are also very intersting, as they are all built on the shifting sands. Many of them are tilting at extreme angles and on some streets literally look like they are hanging over you. We saw some classic sights such as the Dutch East India Company, St. Nicholas's Church, the Old and New Church (that's really their names), the Red Light District, and even the Marijuana museum.
Speaking of Marijuana - It became legal in Amsterdam in 1975 and you can carry up to 30 grams at any time. Though you can only buy it at licensed coffee houses in the city 5 grams at a time. The industry generated 4 billion Euros in revenue for The Netherlands last year alone. It has become part of the culture in Amsterdam and makes it a completely unique place. The Marijuana museum displays the history of cannabis culture in the Netherlands, talks about the benefits of Cannabis for both health, and agricultural practices (Hemp). It also goes through the prohibition of Marijuana in the US and other countries around the world and comments on the "Drug War." It was a very interesting visit and provided a lot of education about the plant and the culture.
Another integral part of the culture in Amsterdam is prostitution, yes really. It's a fully legal and as I understand, a pretty lucrative position. It's interesting to walk through the Red Light District and see scantily clad women looking out at you from behind the glass doors. One might expect the Red Light District to be a shady, or sketchy place. However, I found it to be quite the opposite, it was a safe and well maintained area that far exceeds the conditions in many other cities through Europe.
That afternoon we took some time to wander the city and stumbled upon a nice English Bookstore. I purchased another guide for my European adventures this summer, and a new novel as I was about to finish mine and needed a new book to read.
That evening while hanging out at the hostel we met another group of students, mostly from Cornell, who were visiting Amsterdam for the weekend. Several of them were studying in Maastricht (another Dutch city), and others in a other European cities. We ended up heading out into the town with them and having some beers, and genuinely enjoying ourselves with our new found friends.
Sunday
Lexi and Neveen had to head back to Oldenburg in the morning, and as my train didn't leave until later in the evening, I was left with most of a day to see more of the city and the surrounding countryside. In the early afternoon I headed out to the Tulip gardens at Keukenhof. This huge garden houses tulips of every color, size, and shape imaginable. They boast as being the most commonly photographed place in the world - pretty good for a place open from March - May! I spent several hours relaxing around the gardens and seeing the fields. Unfortunately, a lot of the Tulips were not fully in bloom, just leaves in the ground. After getting back to Amsterdam proper I spend a little more time wandering around and getting some food to take on the night train with me.
While wandering around I came upon a gay pride parade/demonstration in Dam square. The group came through and proceeded to dance and party for about 15 minutes. The group had just completed a couple days of workshops and wanted to bring a greater understanding of their culture and their hopes to the city. Their main goal is to stop segregation in social, political, and economic circles.
My train headed out of Amsterdam around 8:30 PM and I promptly found my seat and took a nap (a tip I picked up from my new found travel guide on how to keep a Cabin to yourself!). I spent some time reading my book and sleeping before I was promptly woken up by a Deutsch Bundespolizei (German Federal Police). I had crossed into Germany and he simply wanted to see my passport. I managed to carry on the conversation with him in 1/2 German 1/2 English and was back asleep in under 5 minutes. I thought my encounters with the police were over for the night before I was awoken again at 2:30 AM by 2 more Bundespolizei who questioned me (in my very groggy state) as to where I was coming from and going to. Now obviously since I'm an American tourist they assumed I was carrying weed with me and proceeded to search my bag and frisk me in the cabin until they were satisfied that I didn't have anything. An annoying wake up call, but its good to see the boys in green (they have green uniforms) doing their work.
So after a very exciting 2 days I was back in Freiburg around 6 AM and headed back to school on Monday morning.
This coming week is filled with tests, papers, and prep for our upcoming trip to Stockholm, Tallinn, and London. I'll be leaving on the 8th of April, and not returning to Freiburg until the 18th.
Remember to vote for IES EU PROGRAM IN GERMANY!
22 March 2010
Your average week
Hi Everyone,
So I've finished another glorious week in Freiburg and don't really have any crazy stories or anything to share, so I'll tell you what I have done.
On March 10th a group of us went wine tasting at a local winery. We had a private tour and got to see all the important rooms for the wine making operation. The coolest thing is that they have giant wine barrels, that stand as tall as a 2 people. They all have cool carved fronts and hold tons of wine. The evening also included lots of wine drinking, all of them quite good. The red wines aren't a big deal in Germany and it's more focused on the whites. They also divide their grapes by quality and harvest time which makes for much more variety and many more choices when looking for a bottle.
The next Wednesday was St. Patrick's day, and as you can imagine we had some pretty good time. We all got together at someone's apartment and had an "Irish Flag" meal with Orange, Green and White dishes. It was good fun and nice to get together with everyone for a meal and a few bottles of Guinness.
Last weekend we had a long weekend and had originally planned to take the trains over to Munich for some sightseeing on Saturday, however the plans feel through due to time, cost, and homework constraints. Instead we stayed a little closer to home.
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Friday
On Friday we went to Heidelberg, a town about 2 hours north of Freiburg to see the castle and enjoy the beautiful weather. We took the local trains using the great Deutsch Bahn deals to get there and back for only €5.60 each. We arrived and took a nice stroll by the river until we reached the part of town with the castle. Heidelberg castle rests on top of a hill overlooking Heidelberg, so we got our exercise in by walking up to the castle. Unfortunately the only way to see the inside of the castle is to pay an additional fee on top of the entrance fee, which we didn't want to, but we enjoyed check out the castle facade and the pharmacy museum that is part of the compound.
Heidelberg was never hit during WWII so the whole town and castle are still in great condition. Naturally, like every sight in Europe, there was restoration work happening on the castle so some of my pictures were scarred by scaffolding.
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After the castle visit we headed back into town to have some late lunch and a local beer. Because the weather was so great we also figured that we needed to get some authentic German Eis (ice cream). By the time we had finished enjoying the town and the sights it was already time to head home.
Saturday
On Saturday I decided to head to the SC Freiburg soccer game against Mainz. This is an experience in itself just being part of the crowd, singing the songs and doing all the chants. It also happened to be Freiburg's first win in 12 games which made it that much more exciting. Final Score: Freiburg 1 - Mainz 0. I of course had to get the traditional soccer scarf to wear proudly around the stadium and around town after the victory! It was a really exciting time and we enjoyed the company of good friends and crazy German soccer fans very much. GO SC FREIBURG!
That's about all for this week, but next weekend I'm headed to Amsterdam to meet up with my friend Lexi and see the Netherlands!
So I've finished another glorious week in Freiburg and don't really have any crazy stories or anything to share, so I'll tell you what I have done.
The next Wednesday was St. Patrick's day, and as you can imagine we had some pretty good time. We all got together at someone's apartment and had an "Irish Flag" meal with Orange, Green and White dishes. It was good fun and nice to get together with everyone for a meal and a few bottles of Guinness.
Last weekend we had a long weekend and had originally planned to take the trains over to Munich for some sightseeing on Saturday, however the plans feel through due to time, cost, and homework constraints. Instead we stayed a little closer to home.
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FridayOn Friday we went to Heidelberg, a town about 2 hours north of Freiburg to see the castle and enjoy the beautiful weather. We took the local trains using the great Deutsch Bahn deals to get there and back for only €5.60 each. We arrived and took a nice stroll by the river until we reached the part of town with the castle. Heidelberg castle rests on top of a hill overlooking Heidelberg, so we got our exercise in by walking up to the castle. Unfortunately the only way to see the inside of the castle is to pay an additional fee on top of the entrance fee, which we didn't want to, but we enjoyed check out the castle facade and the pharmacy museum that is part of the compound.
Heidelberg was never hit during WWII so the whole town and castle are still in great condition. Naturally, like every sight in Europe, there was restoration work happening on the castle so some of my pictures were scarred by scaffolding.
.JPG)
After the castle visit we headed back into town to have some late lunch and a local beer. Because the weather was so great we also figured that we needed to get some authentic German Eis (ice cream). By the time we had finished enjoying the town and the sights it was already time to head home.
Saturday
On Saturday I decided to head to the SC Freiburg soccer game against Mainz. This is an experience in itself just being part of the crowd, singing the songs and doing all the chants. It also happened to be Freiburg's first win in 12 games which made it that much more exciting. Final Score: Freiburg 1 - Mainz 0. I of course had to get the traditional soccer scarf to wear proudly around the stadium and around town after the victory! It was a really exciting time and we enjoyed the company of good friends and crazy German soccer fans very much. GO SC FREIBURG!
16 March 2010
I'd tell you what I've been doing - but I don't know past tense
There hasn't been a whole lot going on since our return from our last field study trip. It has been kind of nice to have a bit of time to relax and re-charge my batteries.
I've been doing quite a bit of school work, as this week is Midterm, which of course means tests for all of us and the the lots of studying involved. I've also had to start figuring out what I'm going to write my several term papers on as well as writing a number of smaller essays for other classes.
I've also been trying to nail down travel plans for the remainder of the semester and develop a bit of a travel schedule for after the program. This weekend I'll be heading to Munich, to Amsterdam for our "spring break" in April. This is followed by our third, and final, field study trip to Stockholm, Tallinn, and London. I'm also planning on heading to Italy to visit Rome an my friends the Falcioni's near Florence in early May.
Once the program ends I'll (hopefully) travel with my parents for awhile, and maybe meet up with some other friends or people from the program who are staying in Europe for a while.
But let's talk about something everyone loves... Food
German food is great, there are lots of different foods you can't get in the states, and some really unique dishes. I'll write a little about good foods, and normal things about shopping and eating.
Foods:
Wurst:
The good old traditional German sausage, which is like no sausage you've ever eaten before. They come in hundreds of varities, shapes, and sizes. Wurst can be purchaced in your local store, at a butcher, or my favorite way, from a cart on the Münster Platz for lunch!
Weiner Schnitzel:
Despite the rather odd sounding name Weiner Schnitzel is a pretty simple thing. It's a think pork steak, breaded and fried. Usually served with some sort of sauce or topping and Pommes (Fries) it makes a good hearty meal at a good price. There are a number of restaurants that serve good Weiner Schnitzel around Freiburg and I've tried several types, all excellent.
Dönner Kebab:
Dönner is not actually a German dish, but it is more common here than McDonalds in the US (I'm seriously not kidding, there are dozens within walking distance from the IES center). Dönner is a Turkish food, consisting of sliced chicken or lamb, with a cabbage and tomato salad, and a special sauce. There are a number of different ways to have a Kebab, but my favorite is "im Yufka" or rolled in a thin tortilla like bread. A thurougly excellent meal that we consume several times a week.
Brot, Brotchen, Bretzeln, and Pastries:
Bakeries are almost as prevalent as Dönner Kebab stands, and have all kinds of delectable treats. Germans love their bread and will visit the bakery several times a week to get fresh bread. There are tons of different breads but they are usually a dense, dark loaf with a seed on top. Bretzeln (Pretzels) area also another excellent snack. They are different (and better) than baked pretzels, but are still soft and tasty. Some are even sliced in half and have butter spread on them.
Bier:
Of course I couldn't leave my most important food group out... ok, maybe not. But all kidding aside Germans are known for their good Bier, and for good reason. The beer is some of the best on the planet and Germans consume more of it than almost everyone in the world (except the Czech's). There are specific beer makings laws, dating back hundreds of years, that allow only 4 ingredients: Water, hops, barley, and yeast, to be used in beer making, and it pays off with awesome beer.
Shopping and Life in General:
My experiences with shopping and dining in Germany have been largely successful but there are some distinct differences.
Most obvious is that everything is smaller. Grocery stores are smaller, serving sizes are smaller, refrigerators are smaller, hell, even my lettuce heads are smaller. As a result I am shopping more often, but taking home much less. I go to the grocery store about once a week, and only come home with 1 or 2 bags of items.
Another strange thing I've noticed is that food doesn't seem to keep as long. The refrigerator is not kept as cold, so food doesn't keep as long, another reason to buy less, less often.
The recycling system here is also excellent. All bottles you buy have a Pfand (deposit) on them that you get back by returning them to the store, and pretty much everything else can be recycled in the bins outside our apartment.
It's finally starting to warm up in Freiburg, I even wore flip flops outside today. Tomorrow we're expecting temperature in the 60s with sun all day. Maybe I'll even break out the shorts!
I've been doing quite a bit of school work, as this week is Midterm, which of course means tests for all of us and the the lots of studying involved. I've also had to start figuring out what I'm going to write my several term papers on as well as writing a number of smaller essays for other classes.
I've also been trying to nail down travel plans for the remainder of the semester and develop a bit of a travel schedule for after the program. This weekend I'll be heading to Munich, to Amsterdam for our "spring break" in April. This is followed by our third, and final, field study trip to Stockholm, Tallinn, and London. I'm also planning on heading to Italy to visit Rome an my friends the Falcioni's near Florence in early May.
Once the program ends I'll (hopefully) travel with my parents for awhile, and maybe meet up with some other friends or people from the program who are staying in Europe for a while.
But let's talk about something everyone loves... Food
German food is great, there are lots of different foods you can't get in the states, and some really unique dishes. I'll write a little about good foods, and normal things about shopping and eating.
Foods:
Wurst:
The good old traditional German sausage, which is like no sausage you've ever eaten before. They come in hundreds of varities, shapes, and sizes. Wurst can be purchaced in your local store, at a butcher, or my favorite way, from a cart on the Münster Platz for lunch!
Weiner Schnitzel:
Despite the rather odd sounding name Weiner Schnitzel is a pretty simple thing. It's a think pork steak, breaded and fried. Usually served with some sort of sauce or topping and Pommes (Fries) it makes a good hearty meal at a good price. There are a number of restaurants that serve good Weiner Schnitzel around Freiburg and I've tried several types, all excellent.
Dönner Kebab:
Dönner is not actually a German dish, but it is more common here than McDonalds in the US (I'm seriously not kidding, there are dozens within walking distance from the IES center). Dönner is a Turkish food, consisting of sliced chicken or lamb, with a cabbage and tomato salad, and a special sauce. There are a number of different ways to have a Kebab, but my favorite is "im Yufka" or rolled in a thin tortilla like bread. A thurougly excellent meal that we consume several times a week.
Brot, Brotchen, Bretzeln, and Pastries:
Bakeries are almost as prevalent as Dönner Kebab stands, and have all kinds of delectable treats. Germans love their bread and will visit the bakery several times a week to get fresh bread. There are tons of different breads but they are usually a dense, dark loaf with a seed on top. Bretzeln (Pretzels) area also another excellent snack. They are different (and better) than baked pretzels, but are still soft and tasty. Some are even sliced in half and have butter spread on them.
Bier:
Of course I couldn't leave my most important food group out... ok, maybe not. But all kidding aside Germans are known for their good Bier, and for good reason. The beer is some of the best on the planet and Germans consume more of it than almost everyone in the world (except the Czech's). There are specific beer makings laws, dating back hundreds of years, that allow only 4 ingredients: Water, hops, barley, and yeast, to be used in beer making, and it pays off with awesome beer.
Shopping and Life in General:
My experiences with shopping and dining in Germany have been largely successful but there are some distinct differences.
Most obvious is that everything is smaller. Grocery stores are smaller, serving sizes are smaller, refrigerators are smaller, hell, even my lettuce heads are smaller. As a result I am shopping more often, but taking home much less. I go to the grocery store about once a week, and only come home with 1 or 2 bags of items.
Another strange thing I've noticed is that food doesn't seem to keep as long. The refrigerator is not kept as cold, so food doesn't keep as long, another reason to buy less, less often.
The recycling system here is also excellent. All bottles you buy have a Pfand (deposit) on them that you get back by returning them to the store, and pretty much everything else can be recycled in the bins outside our apartment.
It's finally starting to warm up in Freiburg, I even wore flip flops outside today. Tomorrow we're expecting temperature in the 60s with sun all day. Maybe I'll even break out the shorts!
08 March 2010
From Paris, with Pictures
So this is the second part of the wonderful trip to Luxembourg, Belgium and France. And it is the part you've all been waiting for. PARIS FRANCE baby!
Unfortunately, our second meeting, with the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs was cancelled, and we were left to determine a different schedule for the afternoon. I visited an exhibition on Charles de Gaulle for one of my classes, and learned about the French leader's history from childhood all the way through both world wars, the building of the EU and all about his policies in France. This museum is also the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit the old emperor of France, so we went and saw his tomb, a massive 10 foot high coffin made of huge red stones. Funny, since Napoleon was under 5 feet tall. Afterward a group of us headed out to see the remainder of the city in the daylight. After strolling some of the streets and a local market we came to the Parc du Champs de Mars, better known as the location of the Eiffel Tower. The group I was with proceeded to make very slow progress toward the tower taking lots of pictures and having a really good time. We continued up to the Palais de Chaillot to get some more views of the tower. Sadly, I had taken too many pictures and my camera died. Luckily someone else had one, as a result. there are lots of pictures of me!
Afterward we headed over to Notre Dame to check it out at night and view the area around it. We met up with a few other people in the area and figured out what we wanted to do for dinner.
We started off with a tour of the interior of the building, seeing the Chapel, Royal bed chambers, studies, and of course the Hall of Mirrors. Fun fact - the queen's bed chamber was also the location of 18 royal births, all of which were public. This was to "legitimize" the birth of the heirs and have witnesses to their royal blood. There were also daily "Royal Rising" ceremonies when the king would wake and begin his day. The connotations and innuendos there are too many to count. The palace also contains some very nice artwork and excellent ceiling frescoes. There are paintings that are literally 56 square feet. Amazing..JPG)
After heading back into Paris the group broke up and we headed off to see the Paris Catacombs. The Catacombs are in what used to be an old mine deep beneath the streets of Paris (below the Metro even). They were not used for some time, but in the 1780's the cities growth, and public health forced the Church to relocate several mass graves and cemeteries. They chose the mine as a good location, consecrated it and began moving bodies to it. There are now over an estimated 6 million sets of human remains that are here. The bones are stacked in walls along the original walls of the mine and consist of all parts of the body. Walking through the Catacombs in the darkness is a eerie and almost scary experience; definitely not something for the faint of heart..JPG)
After rising back to the surface and breathing fresh air we headed off to Notre Dame, which I hadn't had a chance to go into the night before. We walked around inside and were over awed by the beauty of the church. Despite the beauty of the church, I have one point of contention - here is my rant: Why is Notre Dame so popular? It is not the biggest, highest, oldest, most beautiful, most Gothic, or the church with the best art or stained glass. It's really not remarkable in any way. What on earth makes it so popular, besides it's reputation? Perhaps there were pilgrimages there in ancient times, but i doubt that the millions of people who visit Notre Dame every year are there to see holy relics. I just don't get it..JPG)
Next we went to the best light show in town, the lighting and hourly flashing of the Eiffel Tower. We spent a bit of time watching the tower and enjoying the views of Paris lit at night before heading off to dinner.
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After getting to sleep in for a bit (finally) I got up and had breakfast before heading to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. The Basilica is located on the highest point in Paris and offers great views of the city. We hiked up the stairs and took plenty of pictures of the Paris skyline. We headed inside the beautiful Basilica and gawked at the huge arches that held up the dome. Sacre Coeur stands in sharp contrast with Notre Dame as it is Romanesque while Notre Dame is Gothic. This was a nice way to end our trip to Paris before we boarded the bus to head home.
Paris was amazing, I had an awesome time and saw some really really cool stuff. It's amazing that although we arrived on Thursday night and left on Sunday afternoon, I feel like I hardly touched the surface of what Paris has to offer. Part of the reason for this is the sheer size of the city, it's massive, and getting from one sight to the other basically requires getting on the Metro, making 2 transfers and getting off somewhere else. The other is that there is just so much to see, with all the museums, monuments, squares, gardens, sights, cafes, shopping, and everything else in between there is no way that you would be able to see all of it in a week, much less 3 days.
The other important thing to note is that I took a lot, repeat A LOT of pictures. My count for the entire trip is 739, with 458 of those being in Paris (and probably 150+ of those having the Eiffel tower somehow present.). I figure this is the best way to coordinate my thoughts and remember stuff. Hopefully they'll be fun for you to view as well. I am adding a few pictures to this post, however, you can see the whole album on Picasa and select photos on my Facebook.
With all that said - Here is a description of everything I did, in as short a format as I can fit it into:
Thursday Night
We arrived to the hotel around 7:30 and after getting changed and organized struck out into Paris to check out the town and search for some food. We took the metro to downtown and walked down the river bank from near Notre Dame. We stopped at the Louvre and admired the building while it was lit up. the massive pyramid on the plaza stood in stark contrast to the rest of the building. Naturally, I took pictures.
We continued our tour by walking through the Gardens toward Concorde, which is at the Southeast end of Champs-Elysees. After strolling up the Avenue for a bit toward the Arc de Triomphe some of our party broke off to head back to the hotel. Several more of us continued on and met up with another group heading into town. We walked with them, still in search of dinner.
We crossed the river and went into a very nice district of town where we found an excellent Sushi place. Now I know sushi is not French, not even close, but by this time it was 11:00PM and everything was closed. Once we had finished dinner we headed back outside with the intention of making it to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately high winds and bitter cold temeratures stopped us in our tracks and we headed back toward the hotel.
Friday
We were up early this morning to head out to our first meeting in Paris. The meeting was at the EU 'Think-Tank' called the Instutite for Security Studies. We discussed the pros and cons of Nuclear weapons, disarmament, and proliferation with one of their researches and learned some interesting things about the way the EU looks on the nuclear debate as well as threats of nuclear power from other countries, such as Iran and North Korea.
Unfortunately, our second meeting, with the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs was cancelled, and we were left to determine a different schedule for the afternoon. I visited an exhibition on Charles de Gaulle for one of my classes, and learned about the French leader's history from childhood all the way through both world wars, the building of the EU and all about his policies in France. This museum is also the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit the old emperor of France, so we went and saw his tomb, a massive 10 foot high coffin made of huge red stones. Funny, since Napoleon was under 5 feet tall. Afterward a group of us headed out to see the remainder of the city in the daylight. After strolling some of the streets and a local market we came to the Parc du Champs de Mars, better known as the location of the Eiffel Tower. The group I was with proceeded to make very slow progress toward the tower taking lots of pictures and having a really good time. We continued up to the Palais de Chaillot to get some more views of the tower. Sadly, I had taken too many pictures and my camera died. Luckily someone else had one, as a result. there are lots of pictures of me!
Some of the folks in my program met up with some friends of theirs in Paris and we all headed out to have dinner in the Latin Quarter. This is an area where there are tons of restaurants, and often the propreitors or staff will haggle you on the street to come inside. The dynamic is very intersting and makes choosing a place to eat almost stressful. We finally settled on a small typically French restaurant. Here I had my first encounter and taste of escargot. It was quite an enjoyable experience and I can't say that it wasn't rather good. Basically reminded me of every other shellfish I've eaten. I also enjoyed some wonderful lamb chops and chocolate ice cream. After a long dinner and with a belly full of food I was ready for bed. So I headed home to sleep.
Saturday
Another early morning, but not for meetings. We were going to Versailles! The group headed out to the giant palace that was home to French monarchs for generations. The place is simply amazing. I do not know how such a construction project was undertaken and am just amazed at the intricacy, detail, and complexity of the building. Not only is the palace at Versailles amazing, but the gardens are equally beautiful. The scale of the royal power during that time and Versailles in particular, if nothing else, taught me one thing: If your people are starving, don't build a gigantic palace - they'll probably revolt... and fancy that, they did.
We started off with a tour of the interior of the building, seeing the Chapel, Royal bed chambers, studies, and of course the Hall of Mirrors. Fun fact - the queen's bed chamber was also the location of 18 royal births, all of which were public. This was to "legitimize" the birth of the heirs and have witnesses to their royal blood. There were also daily "Royal Rising" ceremonies when the king would wake and begin his day. The connotations and innuendos there are too many to count. The palace also contains some very nice artwork and excellent ceiling frescoes. There are paintings that are literally 56 square feet. Amazing.After seeing the inside we decided to head outside to check out the gardens. We spent quite a bit of time wandering through the gardens, viewing the palace and enjoying the nice weather (for a change). Though the weather was nice on this particular day, the gardens were not in bloom, and in fact had very little life to speak of. It would have been wonderful to see with all the colors and the fountains filled, but I guess that will have to wait until another time.
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After heading back into Paris the group broke up and we headed off to see the Paris Catacombs. The Catacombs are in what used to be an old mine deep beneath the streets of Paris (below the Metro even). They were not used for some time, but in the 1780's the cities growth, and public health forced the Church to relocate several mass graves and cemeteries. They chose the mine as a good location, consecrated it and began moving bodies to it. There are now over an estimated 6 million sets of human remains that are here. The bones are stacked in walls along the original walls of the mine and consist of all parts of the body. Walking through the Catacombs in the darkness is a eerie and almost scary experience; definitely not something for the faint of heart..JPG)
Anyway, after Notre Dame we walked over to the Louvre again to see it in the daylight. We enjoyed a walk around the plaza, and watching the people. There of course were good times to be had and pictures to be taken.
After that we went over the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon as a gateway he would pass through after conquering all of Europe. It was never finished during his reign, and his grand army never marched through it; Through several other armies have. We spent a few minutes walking around the Arc and looking at the sculpture and sheer size of the construction. The French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies under the Arc, and while we were there a ceremony was being conducted around it.
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For dinner we went to another French place with quite possibly the worlds worst translated menu. I had: Pig, rib cooks in oven sweet chestnuts & crushed by potato - which was actually: Pork rib, with sweet chestnut sauce & mashed potatoes. Oh the beauty of language. We also enjoyed some wonderful wine and and spent the rest of our evening recollecting the day before going to bed.
(Whew)
Sunday
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On the way back to Freiburg we made a stop at the Lorraine Military Cemetery and Monument. There are over 10,000 American soldiers from WWII buried in this cemetery who served their country honorably. Though this was not the happiest or most exciting ending to our trip, it was nevertheless a chance to think about the role the US has played in Europe and the continuing role it plays in the world.
We arrived back in Freiburg about 9PM, safely and happily after enjoying a wonderful trip to the Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris.
In order to not complety bore the readers out of your minds, I'll abstain from any further thoughts or writing. Hope you enjoyed the post!
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