Another day, another adventure

Life in General
This last week was filled with some pretty excellent things. I've finally finished my book, Pillars of the Earth, and though I've read it before I still think it is an excellent book. I've started working on some plans for the breaks we have throughout the semester. I'm looking at Amsterdam in April and Rome/Florence in May.
I've finally setteled into the living situation, it only took me a month! It's been really intersting trying to figure out the customs and ways of doing things within my flat and figuring out how everything works. My flat-mates are pretty quiet folks, it's customary in Germany to leave your door closed while in your room, which is different from home where an open door means "come on in." One of my flatmates recently got a Tenor Saxophone, which couldn't possibly make me more excited. As I left my sax at home I'm really looking forward to playing a little, and helping him learn a bit!

The Weekend

Last weekend I spent Saturday around Freiburg, checking out some more places and doing ever more exploring. I went for a hike through the Black Forest, only about 1/2 mile from my building. It was nice to get outside and into the wild at least for a bit. I walked over to Günterstal, another village near Freiburg, then took the tram back into town where I walked up another hill above downtown called Schlossburg. There are some old fortifications and look out towers on the hill and at the very top is a lookout tower. Unfortunately by the time I got to the top it was getting dark and starting to snow, so I didn't get any good pictures. Just means I will have to go back later.
That evening a group of us went downtown to the Discotheke and enjoyed some dancing.

Morgenstraich
On Sunday night, at about 12 midnight I headed to Basel, Switzerland for the final Fasnacht celebration, called Morgenstraich. This giant parade occurs at 4 AM! All of the lights in the city are turned out, and the only illumination comes from the lanterns of the paraders. I'ts really amazing to see all of the amazing artwork on the lanterns, floats, and costumes. Even after the parade was over you could still find groups of drummers and pipers wandering the streets playing.The festivities were still going on even when we were leaving at 7 in the morning! I don't think I had ever seen quite so many people in one place at that hour of the night, it seemed like the whole city was out, young and old alike.

I got home around 8:30AM, headed back to my room and... took a shower and went to class all day on Monday. Best I can figure I got around 10 hours of sleep between Friday morning when I woke up and Monday night.

Not much else exciting going on this week, it finally felt like spring this week and we've had plenty of rain, but also some warm and sunny days. I took a German test today and have been working on presentations, essays, and assignments for all my classes. This study abroad thing sure includes a lot of studying. This coming week is our second field study trip. I'll be heading to Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris for the week. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and post them online!

Skiing the Alps & Fasnacht

Alps
This past weekend I had the awesome opprotunity to go skiing in the Alps for a day. It was a super cool time and is something I won't soon forget.
After an incredibly early morning, starting at 5 AM on Saturday, we headed toward Grindelwald, Switzerland. We got on the mountain around 11 and started the excellent skiing. We spent the day skiing in the shadow of the alps, namely the Eiger, Jungfrau, and the Mönch. The weather was perfect, cold, but completely clear, with fresh snow. The ski area is huge, I probably skied only about 20% of the total area in 6 hours of skiing. The snow was impecable, nice a fluffy and stuck to the hill real well.

The views from the slopes were truly amazing, with the mountains and perfect blue sky. I've put a few pictures from my phone below, because I didn't have a camera at the time. At the end of the day we were able to ski down the entire mountain, through the various villages, and all the way back to Grindelwald, a run that took us more than 30 minutes! I certainly want to go back and ski this area again if I have the chance, or even just go back to admire the views. A number of the IES group went sledding around Grindelwald, which also sounded like a lot of fun and looked like a good time from all their pictures! For now I'll stick to skiing though.

Feldberg
Because the equipment I had rented in Freiburg was mine until Monday my friend Bridger and I decided that Sunday was the perfect opprotunity to check out the skiing the Black Forest had to offer.
So we headed over to Feldberg, the highest point in the Black Forest, which is about an hour from Freiburg by train and skied for the second day in the weekend.

The weather at Feldberg was not nearly as nice, and the area isn't nearly as expansive, but it still had quite a bit to offer once we got to the good stuff on the far side of the hill.

I throughly enjoyed two days of skiing, despite the terrible shape of my thighs today! It was definately a worth while experience that I really want to repeat again soon.

Fasnacht
This weekend was also the German celebration of Fasnacht, or Karneval. Fasnacht is a celebration similar to Mardi Gras or Halloween in the U.S. and lasts from Thursday through Tuesday and ends on Ash Wednesday. There are parades, speacial foods, games, and just a general party atmosphere. Most of the IES people enjoyed the festivities on Rosenmonntag by watching the parades, cruising the booths downtown, and partaking in the cultural atmosphere by eating some fried pastries and drinking Glüwein (warm, spiced, wine). The party continued late into the evening and long after we all went to bed before getting up for class on Tuesday.
Fasnacht was originally created as an outlet for the Catholics in Germany before Ash Wednesday, or the beginning of Lent. It was a chance to misbehave and sin like crazy before having to behave. Today it has become much more of a cultural event and an excellent excuse to party.
There are a number of different clubs that perform and parade around the streets, each one dressed differently. The costumes worn are of all kinds of different things, from insects, to birds, bears, cats, witches, and devils. Most of the groups wear hand carved wooden masks that are distinct to the club.

Overall it was an exciting and wonderful week. There were many different experiences and things to see. Hopefully the next few weeks will be filled with more fun! In 2 weeks we leave Freiburg to visit more EU institutions in Luxembourg, Belgium, and in Paris!

What is this 'school' thing you speak of?

So this week and a half since returning from Berlin and Prague has not been nearly as exciting, as we've actually started classes in earnest and are beginning to learn things. Imagine that!

Some fun things I've done this week:
We went to a German Kegel Haus. Kegel is a game sort of like bowling, but there are only 9 pins and the balls are much smaller. You also play a number of different types of games, not just 10 frames and stop. This was a really fun experience and we had a wonderful time playing together.
I've been on a couple walks around different parts of the city, both on purpose and by accident, and seen some cool new areas. We spent last Sunday morning walking up to a little cafe on Schloßreben that used to be a Jesuit monastery. There are usually very good views from up on the hill, but it was foggy that morning and we couldn't see anything!
Yesterday we took a trip to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France and sat in on a debate about the SWIFT Act, which is about data transfer of bank account information. It was cool to sit in the gallery and just listen to the proceedings and hear what people had to say. There were headphones at every seat with the speaker being translated into 23 different languages, is spent most of my time on the English channel.
The building Parliament is in is really pretty cool and there are lots of very modern things about it. It was built in 1999 and houses offices, the chamber (which I've called the "Hive" because of it's circular shape.), and lots of other important facilities for the 736 members of European Parliament.

Class
Classes so far have been pretty good, though they are somewhat of a departue from what I'm used to at CSU. All of my classes are quite small (10-20 students) and mostly encourage lots of participation, discussion and interaction, which is really pretty great. The glaring exception is my History class, wherein the professor walks in, sits down, and talks at us for 1 1/2 hours, which is terribly boring at 11 AM despite the fact that the information is really interesting.
My favorite class so far is Relations between the EU and the Muslim World. This class has some really interesting information and focuses alot on the current events taking place between the "West" and the Islamic areas. The class also encourages a lot of discussion about the topics and includes lots of debating about the validity of the author's points.
German is really interesting and fun, but is quickly becoming more challenging as we begin to learn the grammatical differences between it and English as well as picking up new vocabulary.

This weekend we are going to the Swiss Alps around Grindenwald to ski and enjoy the beautiful European mountains. It should be an exciting adventure and I'll keep everyone updated with what is going on!
This week is also Fasnacht, the German Carnival leading up to Ash Wednesday before Lent. There are celebrations all over the city this week and continuing on into next week.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying February.
If you have any comments or questions please email me or leave your comments below!

Berlin & Prague pt. 2

Time for round two of the epic Berlin/Prague adventure! Ready - Go!

Prague
This is an amazing city, there are so many amazing sights and beautiful buildings everywhere you look. My camera is going to need a break after this. Luckily Prague was slightly warmer than Berlin and I didn't have to wear 5 layers at all times. Prague is a huge city which makes it hard to get from one place to the other unless you use public transportation, which is plentiful. We spent lots of time walking around the squares and streets and enjoying the excellent atmosphere. This is definitely a city I'd like to visit again soon. Here's the day by day rundown.

Wednesday
Though we arrived rather late in the evening (around 10 PM) we got to see the area around our hotel, called Andel (Angel in Czech) and went in search of some food.

Thursday
We were up very early for a quick breakfast and then a meeting with Juraj Chmiel, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs and his staff. We learned about the Czech position in the EU and their actions as a member state. The Czech Republic President (Vaclav Klaus) is a professed "Euro-skeptic" or one who doesn't believe in European Integration, which as far as we can tell is not the opinion held by most Czechs. 
After an excellent (and cheap) authentic Czech lunch, we headed off to the Institute for International Relations, a local "think-tank" on foreign policy. After that meeting we went on a city walk across the Charles Bridge, through the main squares, saw several churches, towers and other exciting landmarks. I accidentally dropped my camera on the Charles Bridge, but managed to fix it with a little help from my Leatherman (yay Leatherman, yay Canon - you both make excellent products).
That evening (after a nap) several of us ventured out into town in search of authentic Czech food and good beer. We found a place downtown with Goulash and Pilsner - a perfect combo. Fun fact: Pilsner beer was invented in Pilzen, Czech Republic, and the Czech Republic is also home to the original Budweiser (Much better than the "All American Lager").
Friday
Another early morning with excellent European style breakfast (Cold meats, cheeses, cereals, coffee, fruits and vegetables). After breakfast we headed for a meeting with Martin Ehl, the Editor for the Czech economic daily. We had an interesting conversation about the views of the EU by the Czech people (as opposed to government leaders).
That afternoon we went and did some more sight seeing up the the Palace overlooking the city and went inside the big cathedral on top of the hill. Prague has more churches per capita than most cities, but the Czech Republic is the most atheist country in the world.
That evening included a debreifing for the trip, dinner and then a trip to the largest nightclub in Central Europe, a giant 5 story club with at least 10 bars and tons of music. We danced until the wee hours of the morning, and hit on all the pretty Czech girls.
Saturday
The group stumbled downstairs for some breakfast, checked out of our rooms and headed out into the city for our final day in Prague. We strolled around the city streets and into shops during the afternoon. The weather was beautiful and we took full advantage by taking tons of pictures with blue sky for a background.
Unfortunately it was time for us to leave. So we headed to the train station and took an overnight train back to Freiburg, arriving about 7 AM on Sunday morning.

General Impressions
Prague is an amazing city, there is so much to see and it would be hard to see all of it in a month, much less 3 days. The opinions I had about the city and warnings I'd heard from others about the city turned out the be largely false (I didn't even get pick-pocketed!). It was really nice to see a developing country of the EU and their outlook on their position as a European state in comparison with the larger, more powerful Germany. The people we met and the places we saw were awesome, and there are so many reasons I would like to return as soon as I have a chance.

That does it for our first Field Study trip around Europe and now we're on to normal classes and school for the next 4 weeks. It's hard to believe that it's already February, and that we're already almost a month through the program. I've made some excellent friends and hope to continue to grow those in the near future.

Until next time - Evan