The Life Abroad

Program End

2008-12-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished my last final today, I've turned in my insurance card and student meal card. My program officially ends Saturday, but as you know I am sticking around for a while. To have the opportunity to pack up and move to Germany for three months is something most students in America will never have the chance to do, for that I am grateful. While I have some complaints about the program, I cannot ignore how amazing and very surreal this experience has been for me. It has tested my patience and my ability to respond to change and adapt to that change. In some ways, I have grown up a bit after being here and developed my own sense of who I am. I am going to miss the people in my program and I hope we will all keep in touch, parting will be bittersweet, as we all want to go home, but at the same time, we all want to stay as well.

I will still keep you all in the loop on my trip, though, so no worries. We will have one more excursion tomorrow afternoon, to Schloss Thurn und Thaxis (castle of the very wealthy family in Regengsburg) and afterwards the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market). Friday will be open, for us to pack and say our farewells to each other. I will leave early saturday morning to pick up Dad from the airport, at 8:00 am.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone when I return.

Dresden

2008-11-28T05:42:00.001-08:00

The Frauenkirche

View from atop the Frauenkirche

Glühwein!

Altstadtplatz

I thought Prague was a beautiful city, but that was before I saw Dresden. Dresden lies about 2 hours by train, north of Prague in the Bundesland Sachsen (federal state of Saxony). Dresden of course was completely destroyed by allied bombing in World War II, but everything was rebuilt to how it looked exactly as before. The entire Altstadt was just phenomenal. While Dave and I were there, we saw preparations for the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market), which opens today. One place in particular had Glühwein (mulled wine), and Dave and I probably had about 10 cups or so the entire time we were there. There is just no way to describe a city like Dresden, especially when it is covered in snow, so I have a few pictures for you to see, of course, they don't do it justice.

I have finals this week, it is really hard to believe that my program is almost over. Looking back, I don't think I accomplished everything I wanted to. My German skills have definitely improved, but not to the extent I would have liked. Dad flies into Munich early next Saturday morning, and from there we are taking a trip of our own up into Lübeck in northern Germany, in the Bundesland Schleswig-Holstein, very close to Hamburg. Afterwards we plan on renting a car in Stuttgart and traveling around to different ancestral cities in Baden-Würtemburg, in southwest Germany, in and around the Schwarzwald (black forest). Lauren will fly into Munich on the 13th and from there we will use Munich as a central hub, visiting several places in Bavaria. Our plane departs from Munich on the 19th of December. So while my program comes to an end, I will still get to experience much of Germany with family.

Praha

2008-11-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

This blog update will be a couple days in the making, as I am currently typing from Hostel Tyn in the Old City of Prague. Just to let you readers know how ridiculous our day was, Prague is roughly four hours from Regensburg. Dave, Erin, Elyse and I wake up very early to catch a train into Schwandorf (swan village) where we would have changed trains to get to Prague. Our train left Regensburg at 6:20 AM. We arrived in Prague at 2:50 PM. You may be asking yourselves, what happened to those other four hours? Funny story...and by funny, I mean it was very aggravating. Our train from Regensburg into Schwandorf was only half an hour, and our connecting train to Prague was supposed to leave at 6:55 from Schwandorf. Well...for some reason our train stopped in the middle of the track about a couple minutes from the Schwandorf Hauptbahnhof. It was stopped for about 10 minutes and ended up reaching Schwandorf at exactly 6:56. Our connecting train left without us...and because the others have a special type of Fahrkarte (train ticket) we ended up being stuck in Schwandorf for about four hours. Despite this major inconvenience, we walked around Schwandorf for a couple hours seeing the Altstadt (old city) and the beginnings of a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). We ended up having a lot of fun in a small town we had never heard of before and really made the most out of a bad situation. Our next train arrived at 10:56 which would put us in Prague by 2:45, which unfortunately, is only a couple hours before sunset...

While Bavaria is beautiful by train, what with quaint little villages and architecture and whatnot, the Czech Republic is almost like a third-world country. Everything everywhere was dirty and falling apart and just seemed very poor. However, Prague is a different story. The architecture is absolutely amazing and could be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Like I said previously, we only had a couple hours of daylight and most of it was spent getting from the train station to our hostel and checking in. By the time we actually got everything situated and went to search for some food, it was already pitch black. The cathedral at night is very strange; it is a black cathedral (very strange) and the towers are lit with orange lights at night. It looked very Halloween-ish. I will have more to follow on Prague, as we are going to Catholic mass at the Infant Jesus of Prague church followed by a tour of the city at 2:00 PM. Afterwards, the girls are leaving for Regensburg while Dave and I head for Dresden.

One funny thing we have come across, is that we have absolutely no idea how to say anything in Czech. Not "hello" or "thanks" or "please," nothing at all. I was really hoping I would not have to show the international sign for hunger and rub my belly, groan and point at something. Luckily, everyone speaks English!

Pictures will be added to this blog update after I return, I am sure everyone will want to see what Prague looks like covered in snow, as it is absolutely beautiful!!!

TSV 1860 München vs. FC Augsburg

2008-11-15T04:57:00.000-08:00

State of the art Allianz Arena-home of FC Bayern and 1860 München. When FC Bayern plays, the stadium is lit up in red.

Free kick-awarded after a foul

not at this point, but at one point, one of the forwards got a break, took the ball towards the net and almost scored. A man behind us yelled, "Lauf meine Junge! Lauf!!!" (Run my boy! Run!)

Fan section

Agony of defeat

I was lucky enough last night to attend a Fußball (soccer) game last night in Munich. The German Bundesliga (federal soccer league) has three different tiers, Bundesliga I, II and III. Bundesliga I is the the league of the highest paid, best soccer players in Germany. These teams compete against each other for their own domestic cup, the Deutsche Pokal, but they also compete in the Champions League, which is known as UEFA (Union of European Football Associations). The UEFA cup takes each team that qualifies for the cup and pits them against other teams all across Europe to see who is the best football team in Europe. Last May, the final was between Manchester United and Chelsea, two English teams, to my dismay, Manchester United was the victor in penalty kicks (one-on-one, kicker and keeper, decided after 120 minutes of a tied match). The Bundesliga II is the league right under Bundesliga I. They are not quite good enough to be competing against the better teams in Bundesliga I. There are two huge teams in Munich, FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München. FC Bayern München is heralded as the best team in German football and frequently make it very far into the UEFA cup. TSV 1860 München is Bundesliga II, but they still draw quite a following. Many Münchners consider them to be the "real" team of Bavaria. While FC Bayern draws a crowd at each home match of at least 80-90,000 people, 1860 draws a still formidable crowd of roughly 20-25,000. Last night I was able to attend an 1860 match. Tickets were 26 Euros and I had one of the best seats I have ever had at any sporting event, ever (most FC Bayern tickets must be reserved up to two years in advance and cost upwards of 200 Euros). The match was TSV 1860 Münich against their local rivals FC Augsburg. It was a really thrilling match, just being able to actually be there in person and see the type of fan support...it was really amazing. Unfortunately, the match ended 1-0 with FC Augsburg as the victors, with an early goal scored in the first 15 minutes. While it was a sad ending, this was definitely one of the highlights of my entire trip, I might even go see another game on the 30th with Dave. If you have any questions about the sport or the Bundesliga, ask, as I will most likely be able to answer you.

Londontown

2008-11-09T03:48:00.000-08:00

I arrived back in Munich on Friday evening after a week long hiatus in London with my sister. It was a really fun trip and London is a beautiful city, but I am glad to be back in Regensburg, I am a lot more comfortable here (how does that work?). London is just a huge city and very expensive. But I suppose I can give you all a play by play of my week in London. I called Lauren when I got through UK Border/Passport Control (which is a bit ridiculous) and I took the Underground to Covent Garden where she met me outside the station. We went back to her place and later went to a pub in Covent Garden called The Porter House. I ended up sleeping on the floor that night, slightly uncomfortable...but Sunday we were able to go to Camden Market and the British Museum, later we saw fireworks with her Parliament friend. Monday we walked around London, seeing a few parks and randomly running into Buckingham Palace at the exact time changing of the guard was happening, so that was pretty interesting to see. That night I was able to hang out with Chad Bruce and some of his friends. Chad is my roommate at Transy and he is on study abroad in London this semester. So Chad, several of his friends and I went to a few clubs that night, it was a good time, and nice to see another familiar face. The next day (Tuesday) Lauren had class, so I went around to a few different museums like the Natural History Museum, which I am glad I went to, as they had a photography exhibit of BBC's "Wildlife" Magazine-the best photography of 2008. It was a fantastic exhibit. I also went to the National Gallery. Of course, that night was election night-but this is not a political blog, so I will not go into it much-we went somewhere at LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) and watched the election coverage on CNN. What a great night. Lauren had class on Wednesday as well, so I went out on my own again to see a few more art exhibits, including an Andy Warhol and Robin Rohde exhibit, then to the Tate Modern, Globe Theater and St. Paul's Cathedral. I was unfortunately unable to go inside St. Paul's as it was blocked off for some reason. Thursday Lauren and I went out to Kensington Palace and Gardens and walked around for a bit, she left early to go to class, but I walked around some more, and then went up to Regent's Park in hopes of randomly running into my friend Ashley Humphrey (also goes to Transy and on study abroad at Regent's College in London). Of course I did not find her, but did see much of the college. I ended up going down to Leicester Square to buy tickets for "Spamalot" in the West End at the Palace Theater, and later went to the National Portrait Gallery for an Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit, which was really impressive. Lauren and I saw "Spamalot" at 8:00 pm, and it was absolutely hilarious. I called Ashley and we met in Picadilly Circus to go to a pub. I was glad that I was able to see her too. I left the next morning (Friday) at 12:30 and didn't get back to Regensburg till about 5:30 pm. I had a really good trip, but I am glad to be back.

Domspatzen Gymnasium

2008-10-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I had a pretty interesting day today. Our Ausflug (excursion) kept us in Regensburg again today, but that's okay, as it is pretty rainy and nasty...big surprise. Anyway, we had an appointment to meet with several classes at the Domspatzen Gymnasium (Cathedral Sparrows school). This was a boarding school-of sorts-that is dedicated to the cathedral men's choir. Boys go here (either their- or their parents choice) and study many subjects like a normal school, but also focus perfecting their vocal chords for choir. My host brother, Mario, is a member of this school. Today they had us split up into groups of 3 and go to several classes and talk to everyone, in english, as many of them had no experience speaking english to an American before. My first group today were boys about to graduate in a couple years. Mario was actually in one of the classes I went to today, too. They asked us several questions related to America in general and much about the upcoming election. Then they also asked what our impressions of Germany and Regensburg were so far. This was a pretty good group and they seemed to really appreciate talking to us, and their english was very good. The second group was a class full of 6th graders, and many of them had only had one of two years of english, but their teacher still talked to us in english and asked us to respond in English. Many of these kids may have never seen an American and they asked some pretty silly questions (with one exception) like, "what do you not like about America?" or "where is Kentucky?" Then their teacher asked the class if they had heard much about the election in America, and nearly all of them knew of Barack Obama, few of them knew about McCain. Only one knew of Sarah Palin. This one kid that asked us also started talking about the economy, and then actually asked us, and I am not joking at all, "so, what is the sub-prime mortgage crisis?" I was completely blown away. This kid is in 6th grade, having maybe two years of english and he was wondering about sub-prime mortgage loans. Their teacher was absolutely hysterical, as he had absolutely no idea what a sub-prime mortgage loan was. I tried to explain the economic crisis as well as I could, but I don't think they understood it. Their teacher later said that they probably understood very basic points of what we were saying, but didn't pick up much.

Afterwards we sat in on a choir practice for some very young boys, and I was absolutely amazed by the things they had to learn. They had to learn latin for singing, in 5th/6th grade!

It was a really interesting afternoon, followed by lunch in a little Chinese buffet. I tried sushi for the first time, but wasn't really impressed. So I have the rest of the afternoon off, better get some studying done. I am really looking forward to fall break, I leave on Saturday to visit Lauren (my sister) in London for a week. So we will be able to watch the election together. I will also be able to see 007 in London and be there for Guy Fawkes day. Till then...

Berchtesgaden

2008-10-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

The first snow covered Alps I have seen

If you zoom into this picture, you can see Hitler's Eagles Next on top of the mountain.

We didn't have much of an excursion this past wednesday, which is why I haven't updated this week. We did go to the altes Rathaus, which is like the city hall that was built 500 years ago. It still had the original doors and much of the original woodwork on the inside, as well as the torture chamber in the cellar. All the torture instruments were the original pieces and nothing had been changed, it was somewhat creepy. But to get to my main point, yesterday Dave and I had our own excursion, again. Elyse and Erin were planning on going with us, but they backed out at the last minute, so it was just Dave and I. We went to the little town of Berchtesgaden, which is in the southernmost point of Germany. It was a long trip down, as we had to switch trains in Munich and in Salzburg, making it about 5 hours in one direction, so we only had about 2-3 hours total in Berchtesgaden, which was not enough at all. I definitely want to take Dad and Lauren back there this winter, and maybe spend the full day. During the tourist season, Berchtesgaden is crawling with people, but yesterday there weren't very many, except for a bus of Chinese/Japanese/Korean tourists (I couldn't really tell). But anyways, there isn't just a great deal to do in Berchtesgaden if you do not do a tourist activity. However, Dave and I did not have enough time to do any of those things, so instead we found a hiking trail (5K) that led to Königssee (Kings Lake), and this hike was well worth it. Berchtesgaden is situated in the lowest point in Bavaria, directly in the Bavarian Alps. In the Zweiten Weltkrieg (WWII), Hitler had his famous "Eagle's Nest" built in Berchtesgaden-A mountain vacation house on top of one of the large mountains in the area. This house was accessible by a golden elevator dug into the mountain below it. There was one point while we were there that I could see the house, but it was very far away. There are tours of it, so I hope to be able to go back this winter. Like I said there wasn't a great deal we could do yesterday as we were under time constraints. We missed the train in Salzburg by about 10 minutes and ended up having to wait another hour for the next one, which put us back in Regensburg after midnight. This was pretty annoying as none of the buses run after midnight, so I had to take a taxi home. The trip was pretty cloudy as well, but the clouds opened up a few times to make for some nice pictures.

Dachau

2008-10-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

there was a gate blocking off this section of prison cells, someone had tossed a rose which had since wilted. I thought it made for a good picture.

this is written above the gate of many labor camps. "Arbeit macht frei" "work will set you free"

these beds were built in the barracks to hold 250 people, by the end of the war the barracks held over 1600.

Hey everyone. Dave and I had our own trip this weekend, as Elyse and Kate went to Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg, and Erin was in Rome visiting some family. So yesterday Dave and I decided to go to Dachau. Dachau is a little city about 20 min northwest of Munich by subway, but it is mainly known for the Konzentrationslager (concentration camp). Dachau was the very first concentration camp opened in Germany in March of 1933, and was used for political prisoners of the Nazi party. Because of this, Dachau served as a prototype for all other concentration camps. In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau. About 2/3 were political prisoners and 1/3 Jews. 25,613 people are believed to have died in the camp and another 10,000 in it's subcamps, many from execution, disease, malnutrition and suicide. Dachau was the second camp to be liberated by American and British forces, and therefore was one of the first places where the West was exposed to the realities of Nazi brutality.

The camp was built (by the prisoners themselves) to hold 6,000, but upon liberation the camp was full with over 32,000.

After liberation, Dachau served as an internment camp for German prisoners of war, it is said that many officers who served at Dachau became prisoners there as well.

It is an incredibly eerie place, most everything has since been torn down, but several buildings remain, including special prisoner cells for interrogation and torture, as well as a barrack complete with wooden beds. There were once 32 barracks built by the prisoners, which is now an open lot, but it is just an incredibly depressing experience. I took several pictures, some of which are more artistic, but I think they speak for themselves.

Next weekend Dave, Erin, Elyse and I are going to Berchtesgaden in southern Bavaria, overlooking the Alps and also the location of Hitler's "Eagle's Nest." More to come on that later.

München

2008-10-16T03:46:00.000-07:00

Hofbräuhaus

Opera house, see lower story

"baby church"-creepy

Glockenspiel

Yesterday we had an Ausflug (excursion) in Munich. Thankfully, the weather was on our side all day, so it was really enjoyable. Munich is probably one of my favorite places we have visited thus far. We got off the train at the Hauptbahnhof and immediately took the U-Bahn (like the subway) into Marienplatz, sort of the center of the Altstadt (old city). In Marienplatz lies the Rathaus-Glockenspiel (literally means "set of bells," but it's a bell tower in the town hall), this is sort of the icon of Munich; it looks really old, but actually only dates back to about 1908, it was built, however, to commemorate the markets and tournaments held in the city square during the middle ages, which date back to 1158.

We had a guided tour that started here at the Rathaus. The tour guide was overly eccentric and borderline annoying, plus I could barely understand her, but then her demeanor was also the reason why I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. Anyways, we took a tour throughout the city seeing some pretty interesting places, including the Hofbräuhaus (where we ate lunch) and the Opera house. An interesting story about the opera house...apparently there is a legend that says several hundred years ago, during the winter months, the opera house caught fire. Supposedly it was so cold that all the water was frozen, so fire-fighters switched to the next best alternative to put out the fire...beer. The legend says the people of Munich were able to salvage the opera house by completely dousing the fire with thousands of liters of beer.

Only in Bavaria...

We were finally able to get rid of the tour guide and visit some more places on our own, such as the "baby church," a gift from König (king) Ludwig to his wife. This church is very baroque and completely covered in white ornamentation. While it looks really pretty from far away, when you get up close to some of the statues, you notice that nearly every statue has baby faces, and there are hundreds of them! It's really somewhat creepy.

We ate lunch at the Hofbräuhaus following that, which I must say, was a complete disappointment. It doesn't surprise me all that much, but with restaurants as world-renown as the Hofbräuhaus, you would expect choirs of angels to sing as you take your first bite and be filled with a heavenly aura that resonates through your entire body with every gulp of that golden beer. I fully expected my beer to be the sweet nectar of the gods.

Not so...the beer was pretty bitter and the food just mediocre, not worth my 12 Euros. It really was a big disappointment.

We went through a museum after lunch that may have been the most interesting place we have visited thus far. It was called, "Walt Disneys wunderbare Welt und ihre Wurzeln in der europäischen Kunst" (Walt Disney's wonderful world and it's roots in European art).

Basically it was a museum about Walt Disney's movies and how they were influenced by Europe. It was incredibly interesting and I will probably take Dad and Lauren there in December.

Weltenburger Kloster

2008-10-11T08:45:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday we had another excursion, this one to Kelheim and the Weltenburger Kloster (monastery). This monastery has been brewing beer for about 1000 years, and trust me, they know what they are doing. Their beer is pretty excellent. For most of the day the weather was kind of crap. It was completely foggy up until about 2:00 pm, we walked into a chapel in the monastery, came out about 20 minutes later and the weather was beautiful. I was not very fond of the chapel, it was very gaudy on the inside. It was very very baroque and incredibly decorated, but it really didn't do much for me. But we were able to walk up a hill behind the monastery and see much of the surrounding countryside, which was really impressive. Afterwards we took a little boat ride on the Danube for several miles and that was really beautiful, the weather was perfect. I don't really have much to say about the trip, but I will share some pictures with you anyway. Tomorrow David's host parents are taking us on another boat ride, apparently that will go under the Steinere Brücke (stone bridge) and we will be able to see much of the city.

Die Dom Masse

2008-10-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

This post is mainly for the Catholics reading, but anyone of any faith can probably appreciate it.

This morning I attended the Catholic Mass at the Regensburger Dom (cathedral), which is the seat of the Bishop of Regensburg. Mass started promptly at 10:00 am (Germans do like their punctuality), and the entire cathedral was completely packed. Erin and I went together this morning and we got a seat on the side. There was a large column blocking the view of most of the front of the cathedral, but we could at least see the altar from where we were sitting. Of course everything was in German, so I could only barely follow along with the readings, gospel and homily, but I couldn't help but notice the similarities between mass here and mass everywhere else I have been. Everyone responds at the same time we would in English, the prayers of the faithful are very similar, the order of everything is the same. I just found it really amazing that even though I couldn't quite understand what was being said, I knew what was going on. The language barrier may exist, but faith is the same in every language.

Perhaps the most impressive thing I have ever seen was during the blessing over the Eucharist. The entire cathedral was fairly dark the entirety of mass, up until the liturgy of the Eucharist. It was like everything was coordinated and timed out perfectly. Two altar servers dressed in black walked down the steps and blessed the congregation with incense at the foot of the altar. The incense smoke slowly rose to the heights of the cathedral, creating a type of haze in the air, however as soon as the priest lowered his hands over the Eucharist and prayed, the smoke had reached a high enough level in the cathedral and the sun was in the exact right position that the entire cathedral was suddenly engulfed in this beautiful sunlight shining through hundreds of stained glass windows, the smoke of the incense creating virtual rays of white light, illuminating every corner of the massive cathedral. At this moment the Domspatzen (men's choir) reached an awe-inspiring crescendo that echoed through the halls of the Dom. It really was a heavenly experience and quite possibly one the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed.

Augsburg-The Oldest City in Bavaria

2008-10-03T11:48:00.001-07:00

Inside the Augsburger Dom

Exact replica of the oldest stained glass window in Europe.

Outside the Bertol Brecht house, there is a small river running pretty quickly through the middle of the city.

This is me. This is me drenched. This is me drenched in the projects.

We had our excursion today in Augsburg, which is why it has been a while since I last posted. Typically our trips are on Wednesdays, but as today was a national holiday (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) classes were cancelled, so the excursion was switched from Wednesday to Friday, with our classes that were supposed to be today on Wednesday (got that?).

Typically every morning a bus comes every 10-15 minutes, and we were supposed to meet at the Hauptbahnhof (train station) at 8:30 am. Naturally, I figured I would take the bus about 10 minutes after 8:00, but oh no...I received a text message from Orlando saying that today the buses run on the Sunday/Feiertag (holiday) schedule. This put me in somewhat of a bind, as my bus left 15 minutes before I got to the bus stop. Our train to Augsburg was supposed to leave at 8:44 am, but the next bus would not arrive until 8:47 am and it would have been a solid 1/2 hour walk to the train station. So I called Orlando and he gave me the number for the Taxi company and told me I would be reimbursed. I call the number and someone answers the phone saying something completely illegible, but I told them I needed a Taxi at the Kaulbachweg Bus Haltestelle (bus stop) to take to the Hauptbahnhof, the man on the other end said (and I mean word for word here), "okayfünfminutendankeciao" which would actually look like "okay, 5 minutes, thanks, bye." The taxi was there in only a couple minutes and took me to the Hbf for only 6,40 Euro. Apparently some of the others also had to take a taxi that morning.

We had several adults going with us this time, including two professors, Andi Legner (also a KIIS director) und Christina Kramel (my culture and civ professor, who was from Augsburg), but we also had Herr Weber join us as well. Herr Weber is my German professor at Transy who flew in yesterday to spend a couple weeks with us, so it was nice to see familiar face, plus I think he recognized how much my German has improved.

And what do you know...it rained. Was für eine Überraschung...(what a surprise). I really am getting sick of the weather here...after leaving the train station we stopped to get a bite to eat, thankfully a Döner Kebap store was just around the corner, and it was delicious.

The first place we stopped was St. Anna Lutheran Church, which if you know anything about Augsburg (which I don't either), you know that this is the monastery in which Martin Luther stayed during his heresy trials. It was here in Augsburg that he refused to repent and thus escaped into exile in the middle of the night. The "Augsburg Confession" was drafted here and counseled by Martin Luther and stands today as the basis of belief and doctrine for 66 million Lutherans in the world. Also a chapel in this monastery is said to be designed by the artist Albrecht Dürer.

The second place we stopped was the Augsburger Dom (cathedral) which was a strange mix of Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. This cathedral was pretty impressive, but it still didn't have the completely "take your breath away" feeling as the cathedral in Regensburg.

Then came the Bertol Brecht house, which was really pretty interesting. If you haven't heard of him before, he was a very famous German playwright/poet. I don't really have much to say about this place, it was really interesting, but mainly just rooms full of poetry.

The last place we visited was very strange, The Fuggerei (know idea what that translates too!), but it is basically the oldest government subsidized social settlement in the world, meaning the projects...we saw the oldest project in the world. Here people can live with full utilities, tv, kitchen, laundry, everything...for 0.88 Euro per year! Yeah that's less than one Euro, as in cents!

On the way back to the Hauptbahnhof it absolutely poured, so we were all completely soaked by the time we got on the train. It was a really fun afternoon, but we were all glad to go home and get out of the weather.

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

2008-10-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I last posted, so I figured I would give you a treat tonight with two posts, this one being about the German feiertag (holiday) today and the next being about my trip to Augsburg.

To start off: a brief history lesson...

At the end of the zweiten Weltkrieg (WWII) Germany was divided into four seperate zones:

The Americans occupied the southeast.

The French the southwest,

The British occupied the northwest

And the Soviets occupied the northeast (with the exception of Berlin)

Berlin, the Hauptstadt (capital), was divided into the similar four zones.

The rising problems with the Cold War caused the French, British and Americans to come together to form West Germany (BRD-Bundes Republik Deutschland) while the USSR had their own government set up in East Germany (DDR-Deutsches Demokratisches Republik).

The economy in West Germany was very strong and many East Germans wanted to move to the other side, this caused problems between the USSR and the West, which led Stalin to create a very dangerous border between the two nations. On the 13th of August, 1961, police closed the border between east and west Berlin and erected the Berliner Mauer (the Berlin Wall). The border was known as the "Iron Curtain" between the eastern and western Europe.

For 28 years the people of East Berlin were trapped inside this communist city, separated from their families with very little freedom. On November 9, 1989, East Berliners crossed the wall into West Berlin after weeks of mass demonstrations and civil unrest. It was this date that the wall began to come down and these East Berliners were reunited with their families after 28 years of separation.

October 3, 1990 was the day of German reunification (Wieder Vereinigung), where the two Germanys came back to form one unified nation, the Federal Republic of Germany. This is why October 3 is known as the Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Day of Germany Unity).

See I told you it would be very brief!

Oktoberfest

2008-09-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

That is some serious cheese

Dave, Erin and I traveled to München (Munich) this morning to get a sample of what Oktoberfest is like, now I can easily say I never want to go back.

We met at the Hauptbahnhof at 9:00 am and purchased the Bayern ticket to München, unfortunately the train didn't arrive until 9:45, however, we did meet some new friends in the train station. When we went to purchase the ticket, two girls came up to us and asked if it was just the three of us going, wondering if they could join us and make the price drop. You see, the Bayern ticket is 27 Euros for up to five people, so instead of having to pay nine Euros for three travelers, we only had to pay a little over five Euros for five travelers. The funny thing was, though, that I could completely understand everything they said, and they responded to me as if I were a German, not immediately recognizing that we were American. The reason was they were Brazilian and had a similar study abroad host-stay program in Regensburg as us, only they had been there for about 10 months! So that was the reason that they couldn't tell the difference, they weren't German! But anyways, these girls joined us on the train into München which was completely packed, standing room only. The train was so packed that I was pushed up against an automatic door on the outside of the train, it was fairly uncomfortable.

After leaving the München Hauptbahnhof, we sort of just followed the mass exodus towards Oktoberfest, which was probably a good 15 minute walk. Oktoberfest itself can best be described as a massive parking lot. Imagine a couple square miles of parking lot, yeah, that in itself is weird to imagine, but imagine about 15 enormous tents. Some of these tents can hold up to 10,000 people. That's no typo, 10K, ten-thousand, and every last one of these tents are completely packed, as in standing room only. That is a LOT of people. Here are just a few figures...

In 2007...

6.9 million liters of beer were consumed (one liter=ein Maß=roughly 3 cans of beer).

521,873 chickens were roasted.

58,446 pork "knuckles" were grilled.

and 104 oxen were eaten.

Among the things found after Oktoberfest that people had left...

wallets

clothes

false teeth

glass eyes

wheelchairs

and even a prosthetic limb

So yes, Oktoberfest is a fairly large party. There are horses resupplying the beer by pulling huge kegs to each tent, so most everywhere you go smells like what the horses left behind. But this beer does not come cheap. Oh no, it is very expensive, but that doesn't stop many people from drinking. The price this year for a Maß is higher than it has ever been, at 8,50 Euro, or about $12 American. Especially considering the typical price of a Maß is around 5,60 Euro. So if you ever could get into one of these massive beer tents and actually find a place to sit down and put back a few liters, your wallet would empty before your brain cells.

I'm really glad that I went for an afternoon, just to say that I have experienced Oktoberfest, and now I don't have to go back...ever.

(The above mentioned figures were taken from www.spiegel.de)

Salzburg

2008-09-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well every Wednesday is an excursion day, and yesterday we traveled to Salzburg, Österreich (Austria). For anyone that has seen Sound of Music, you might recognize a couple of the pictures. Anyway, Salzburg is a beautiful city, the only unfortunate part of the day is that the weather was very cloudy. It tried to rain as we were getting ready to leave, but the clouds made it very difficult to see the Alps, which was a huge disappointment. There was also another festival going on in Salzburg, so it was fairly crowded. We had to switch trains in Munich, and that was a pain, as it is still Oktoberfest, and the train station was PACKED! But we made it on the train in time, and saw several some of the foothills of the Alps on the way towards Salzburg, but like I said, the sky was pretty cloudy. We visited a couple places before the center of the city, such as Schloss Mirabell, which is really more of a mansion, but the gardens were used in the Sound of Music. The Dom was very pretty as well. This is the same cathedral that Fräulein Maria and Captain von Traap were married in, which was amazing on the inside. The one thing different about Salzburg from everywhere else that I have seen is the architecture. Nearly all of Salzburg is Baroque, which stands in stark contrast to Regensburg which is mostly 500 years older. There is a small chocolate in Salzburg called the Mozartkugel (Mozart ball), which is a chocolate ball with a pistachio and nougat center. I didn't like it that much, but you can only get them in Salzburg. We also visited Festung Hohensalzburg (Festung=fort, hohe=high), which I soon learned is only visited by American and Chinese/Japanese tourists (I can't tell them apart...). Salzburg is the only city thus far that I have visited that have had groups of American tourists. Every now and then I will hear English from a British person, but rarely American English, well, in Salzburg it's everywhere. It wasn't even the tourist season and I probably still heard more English than I did German...

There really isn't anyway to describe Salzburg in words, but you really should visit, it's an amazing city.

Nothing Important

2008-09-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

I don't really have much of an update, except that I leave tomorrow morning for Salzburg, Austria for the day. I hear the train ride is supposed to be really pretty, as Salzburg lies directly in the Alps. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain tomorrow...big surprise. I have only seen the sun about 4 or 5 days in the 2.5 weeks that I have been here; it stays consistently cloudy, which keeps the temperature low, today was no different.

I have a couple funny stories to share. One was last night, my Gastvater (guest father) asked me what was my favorite thing about Germany that I have experienced thus far, without a hesitation I said, "Sechs mit Kraut." I think I have mentioned it before, it's referring to food. Well, my Gastvater got this strange expression on his face. An expression of embarrassment and confusion and just sort of mouthed what I said to himself in amusement. My Gastmutter (guest mother) turned to him and said that I meant sechs Bratwurst mit Kraut. My Gastvater then started laughing. I got the joke. You see, in German, the "ch" sounds different than "ck" or "x." Apparently, since I just said it quickly without thinking, it sounded more like "sex mit Kraut," which would definitely mean sex with a german.

My second story comes from today. My composition professor, Herr Nagelmüller came around the class during our group work, listening to us pronounce words and correcting us when we are wrong. When he got to me, I was reading something with the word "Restaurant" in it. Restaurant is a french word and is pronounced thus in German as well, something I learned from Herr Weber. So I pronounced the word in French and my professor looked at me strangely and asked me if I spoke French, because it was pronounced perfectly. I laughed and just said, "Je suis un ananas," which in French means, "I am a pineapple." I think I like that class the most because he compliments my pronunciation more than the other professors.

That's pretty much all I have. My sister, Lauren, leaves for London, England tonight, so everyone wish her good luck and a safe flight!

Nürnberg Revisited

2008-09-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

That is a lot of beer

golden ring

David Vickery, Elyse French, Erin Loch, Kate Eckert and I went back to Nürnberg today. Erin and I arrived at the Hauptbahnhof this morning at about 9:00 am and purchased the train ticket. With one Bayern ticket, five people can go anywhere in Bavaria for a day for a total of only 27 Euros, which is probably about $40. Split up between everyone though, it makes for a pretty cheap trip. Upon arriving in Nürnberg, I asked if anyone remembered to bring a map (our KIIS directors gave us one last Wednesday). Of course, no one remembered. I'm glad we went to the tourist information center to get one, though, as we were wandering aimlessly without it, and I was the only one of the group that had any since of direction. Apparently no one in the group could read a map....seriously? Yeah....

Anyways...our idea was to try to find the castle in Nürnberg. You would think, oh okay, a castle, that has got to stick out like a sore thumb. I mean...its a massive towering structure of thousands and thousands of stones with sky reaching towers and a wall encompassing all of it. You ask yourself, how could you possibly miss a thousand year old building, something the city was probably built around?...........well..................you can, and we did....

While wandering around searching for this castle, we ran into a parade, so we stopped to watch it. That by itself was worth the money for the trip. There were floats of beer barrels pulled by enormous horses, bigger than I have ever seen, with the crowd singing beloved Bavarian drinking songs as the multitude of bands put the music to the words. At the tail of the parade, one float carrying about 10 kegs of beer was handing out plastic cups full of beer to everyone in the crowd. Did I mention everyone in the parade was wearing some form of Lederhosen or Medieval outfit? I think the parade was probably celebrating the opening weekend of Altstadtfest, which actually started on Thursday. After watching the parade we made for Altstadtfest in St. Lorenzplatz where we chowed down on several different kinds of Nürnberger Bratwursts, which were once again fantastic. One of the pictures shows the Schöne Brunnen (fountain) with the famous gold ring. If you haven't heard of it before, this ring is a marvel of architecture, as it has been there since the fountain was built about a thousand years ago. The solid gold ring is not segmented, is not broken, and is completely encompassed by the iron gate, however, it is completely free inside the gate, allowing it to spin. No one knows how this happened, and should be a physical impossibility for it's time. It is considered good luck to touch the ring and give it a full turn.

We wandered over to the Fürth district of Nürnberg, in hopes of finding a castle, but what we found was something very different. I was looking at the map I got earlier that day, and some man came up to me and asked if I needed help (very strange for a German). I asked him, "Kennen Sie, ob ein Schloss in der Fürth Nähe liegt?" I think that was right, meaning, "do you know if there is a castle around here?" He said no, but that there was a big church nearby, and gave me directions to it, all in German. On the way, we had to walk through a certain section of town that looked like a tornado had hit. I assumed a festival had just ended, or so it looked, but there was trash, literally everywhere! Germany is a very clean country, so any trash around is a strange sight, but this was like a third-world country. There were people digging around in the trash, salvaging things like old clothes, shoes and other random things. It reminded me of somewhere in very eastern Europe. The church was closed for renovations too....

It was a pretty strange day, to say the least. But it was well worth the money to go over there. I really recommend Nürnberg to anyone, it's absolutely beautiful, and the Lebkuchen is amazing. Also, if you happen to find a castle, could you send me some directions?

Bis dann!

Meine Nürnberger Reise

2008-09-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Der Nürnberger Dom

Schöne Brunnen

Old city wall, rebuilt after WWII

Because we have Wednesdays off in this program, they are always set aside for excursions. Yesterday, we traveled to Nürnberg (Nuremburg). Traveling in a group within Bavaria is incredibly inexpensive. One can purchase a Bayern ticket for roughly 25 Euros, but a Bayern ticket allows 5 people, so it is only about 5-7 Euros to travel anywhere in Bavaria by slow speed train, including Salzburg, which is actually in Austria. The train ride was about an hour and a half and I was able to see a lot of the Bavarian countryside. The geography really reminded me of the Knobs of Kentucky, only less desolate. There were little villages that we passed that were maybe the size of Owenton, but definitely more compact. They seemed to pop up out of nowhere around every bend.

We arrived in the Nürnberg Hbf around 10:45 yesterday morning. The streets were lined with your traditional german style shops...Starbucks...Burger King...McDonalds...and other odds and ins shops along the streets. On the sidewalks...well, the entire street is a sidewalk, but in the middle of the street would be little stands set up for people selling various things, many of them were handmade crafts or clothes, some were different types of Mediterranean foods and then there was also the much beloved stands for Nürnberger Lebkuchen. If you have not heard of this fine cookie before, you really are missing out. They are basically gingerbread cookies, but made only in Nürnberg...and they are delicious. Anyways, we walked through the Fußgängerzone (pedestrian district) all the way to St. Lorenzplatz, which houses the well known Schöne Brunnen (beautiful fountain). In the Middle Ages, the area around the Schöne Brunnen was the center of trade and commerce in Nürnberg, and also the main water supply for the city. I think it may have somehow survived the allied bombings of World War II, which is a blessing, as the majority of the city was completely destroyed. The Nürnberger Altstadtfest (old city fesitval) begins today, so we just missed it by going yesterday. I assume this will be something similar to Dult in Regensburg. We started the day off in Nürnberg at the Albrecht Dürer house, a very famous artist of the late 15th and early 16th century, which was followed by lunch at a very popular Nürnberger Wurstkuche (sausage kitchen). The Bratwurst in Nürnberg are much different than in Regensburg, but still incredibly good. I ordered "sechs mit Kartofelsalat" meaning, "six bratwursts with potato salad." If you have had my mom's german potato salad before, you probably wouldn't tell much difference in the two. It was very good (understatement of the century). Lunch was followed by a tour through the Reichsparteitagsgelände (whew!), which was an enormous structure built by the Nazis for whatever reasons. The tour was about the Nazi occupation of Nürnberg and the subsequent creation of the concentration camp at Dachau.

I think some of us are planning on going back to Nürnberg this saturday for the Altstadtfest and also just to shop around.

I really wish the sun would have come out yesterday, it has been overcast skies for about a week now. Have I mentioned how cold it has gotten recently? When I first arrived in Munich it was 75 degrees. Now my thermometer is reading 34 degrees. It seemed to drop that badly overnight last week, and what do you know....I have a cold.

2008-09-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

Picture from Dult one night...me, David, Erin and Elyse

More of the big tent

From a concert Saturday night. Me, my sister's friend and my host sister, Carina.

Just a few random pictures to show everyone. Also at the concert, most host sister starting dancing out in the floor, in what I thought was a very good example of European dancing....bad. While it was just her and her friend out there, an old man came out there and danced with them. It was a free concert, I just couldn't figure out why he was there. He seemed to be enjoying himself though. Might want to turn the volume down when you watch it, I was directly right of one of the giant speakers, so the video could be pretty loud.

Well, I have been here for over a week and I am really starting to get comfortable with the place. The bus system is incredibly convenient and easy to understand (when I got lost I was pretty much just guessing). Not really much to update on. I have my literature class in about 30 minutes. We were assigned to read a Grimm Märchen (Grimms fairy tale), Schneeweißchen in particular (snow white). Believe me, the one we are reading is a LOT different than the sugar coated Disney version. Speaking of class, have I said how incredibly ugly this campus is? Regensburg is probably one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen, but unfortunately, the University of Regensburg was built in 1964 and it's a prime example of beautiful East German architecture. So modern with its hundreds of concrete buildings, and concrete walkways, and concrete cafeterias, concrete courtyards, and concrete trees...okay that last one was a lie, but it may as well be true. The few trees that are here only serve to block out the ugliness of the building next door. Imagine Northern Kentucky University...only about 5 times worse. There is no single word in the English language to describe how ugly this place is. Just take my word for it.

Random Thoughts

2008-09-12T02:47:00.000-07:00

Funny thing I have noticed in my first week here...my listening comprehension has drastically improved already. Just being in situations where I have no choice but to understand what is going on really helps. My family speaks no English, but I have been able to understand most everything they tell me, well, except for when they go off into long fast german tangents. Typically I can relate back to them how my day was, or what I will be doing later, or anything about myself, my family and my home. It just seems so strange that I can barely comprehend what I am speaking back to them sometimes, but they still understand everything I say. It's like some strange coded form of English. I don't know how to describe the feeling of speaking in a foreign language, but it feels so different, obviously since it is not my mother tongue, but it just doesn't make sense that everyone can understand it when I can't. Even animals understand it better than me. The fact that my dog here at my host parent's house does not respond to English completely blows my mind. Language really is a beautiful thing.

Der Dom

2008-09-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

Der Regensburger Dom (Cathedral), or St. Peter's Cathedral began being built around the year 1260 and wasn't finished for another 250 years. It was finished around 1520 and is currently the seat of the Catholic Diocese of Regensburg. My host brother, Mario, is a member of the Regensburg Domspatzen (literally cathedral sparrows but refers to the mens choir) and I am going to see him sing on Sunday morning. Yesterday, though, we were given the rare chance to see the belltowers, so we were led on a guided tour alllllllllll the way up. They had just recently unearthed a burial site, so we were right next to the archeologists at work. Here are just a few pictures from inside, as well as a video on the way up.

Oh an don't click on the link for the text, I don't know what happened....

Dult, Getting Lost and the First Day of Class

2008-09-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hallo alle!

I said on Sunday that we were getting ready to head to Dult, which was a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of May Fest in Gratz Park and Sweet Owen Days in Owenton. It was a very similar kind of festival, shops were everywhere with people selling all kinds of hand crafted things. I saw a Bayerische Fahne (Bavarian flag) that I really wanted, but I could get it somewhere else I am sure. We ate dinner under this enormous beer tent, I think the restaurant was called Glöckl, but I'm not quite sure. But I ordered...well, Peter ordered for me, but I ordered Bratenteller mit Knödel und Sauerkraut, which I don't even know how to describe. It's an incredibly tender, mouth-watering pork roast with dumpling balls and cabbage, I assume most of you are familiar with sauerkraut. With that came your olympic frisbee size bavarian pretzel, and ein maß Bier (one litre, which is the equivalent of probably 3.5 beers in America. Carina and I rode some of the rides around the festival, such as the Achterbahn (roller coaster) and Geister Villa (Ghost Village, a kiddie ride). It was a pretty fun night.

Monday was a completely different story, as I got my first taste of the Regensburg bus system, which was an adventure to say the least. Peter drove me to the Hauptbahnhof that morning and all the KIIS students met on Albertstrasse. Most of the day was just a tour of the incredibly ugly east-german styled Universität. But it was built in 1964...

Around 4:30 I think, we headed to a "surprise" location, which Elyse French pointed out, looked uncannily like her host family's neighborhood (It was her 21st birthday yesterday). So her host family invited the entire group over for Kaffee und Kuchen (desserts, which were yummy). On the way back from the party, we had a choice of whether to have Orlando (a KIIS director) drive us home, or take the bus ourselves. Perhaps I was too bold...........

Needless to say, I got lost in Regensburg. On the Busfahrplan (bus system map) my stops looked like they were just across the street from each other, that's how most of them are, right? Wrong! Apparently I was supposed to go up a large hill, turn right, and walk for about 2 minutes to find the next Bus Haltestelle (bus stop). I ended up walking around downtown for about an hour trying to get my bearings, unfortunately though, I had no bearings to get a grip on, so it was really just mindless wandering. I did find my way back to Albertstrasse, though, and did eventually make it back home.

I went out again that night with several others in the program for Elyse's birthday. We stopped into the Hofbräu Biergarten for about an hour and a half, but had to leave soon after to catch the last bus home.

Today was my first real day of class. I had Contemporary German Culture and Civilization at 8:30 in the morning, and the professor was very hard to understand. Afterwards was German Conversation, which was much more enjoyable. Andreas Legner (another KIIS director) taught the class today, our real professor, Dagmar Schlögl, should be in next week. He had all of us pronouncing some random german words like stolz, Überforderung and sechzig, and really complimented me on my pronunciation. It was a short day of class, so I am back in my room now. Am halb sechs heute abend (5:30 this evening) we are meeting at die Brauerei Kneitinger (a brewery) for dinner and going on a Kneipe tour (pub tour) afterwards.

Bis dann!

The First Day Abroad

2008-09-07T04:26:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, the flight from Chicago to München (Munich) was reeeeeeeally long. German babies were crying the whole time, so I didn't get very much sleep. On the plane was when it really hit me, as everyone around me was speaking German. The man next to me on the flight was an American serving in the military, he was on his way to Italy where he is stationed. He was fairly interesting to talk to. After landing, we grabbed our bags and went through customs. All they asked me was, "How long are you going to be here? 3.5 months? Okay, have a good trip!" And the stamped my passport. The weather in Munich was a lot hotter than I anticipated and all of us were sweating by the time we arrived in Regensburg via train. My host father, Peter, and host sister Carina met me in the Hauptbahnhof (train station) and we drove about ten minutes back to their house. Regensburg is a beautiful city and looks distinctly European. Nearly anywhere you go in Regensburg you can see the Danube River. My host mother, Karola, and host brother, Mario were already at the house, as well as the oldest daughter, Verena, who lives in Marburg studying Japanese. My family cooked a very good lunch (in Germany it's the biggest meal of the day) of Bavarian bratwursts and fleisch (chicken). In talking to my family for about an hour or two, I noticed mein Deutsch überrascht mir (that my German really surprises me). When they spoke slowly, I really could understand them and was fairly able to answer their questions. After lunch Carina convinced me to go swimming....in der Donau! So Peter let me borrow some Badehosen to go swimming and we met several of Carina's friends right by the riverside. Their German was so fast I barely picked up on any of it, so I remained fairly quiet most of the time, it was pretty intimidating. We all jumped off a bridge, probably 20-25 ft high, into the Danube. It was pretty fun, and a couple of her friends there spoke some English, so I wasn't completely left out, although I did try to answer back mostly in German. We came back to the house and ate dinner (a much smaller meal in Germany) which consisted of baguettes and cold meat. Peter gave me a Greifensteiner, a Bavarian beer I assumed, which of course was delicious. About 9:00 pm Carina and I went out again into downtown Regensburg in the Fußgängerzone (pedestrian district). We met most of her friends in and around the town, going from Kneipe to Kneipe (pub to pub). It was a pretty fun evening, but I was getting pretty tired, I think my jet lag was catching up with me, so Carina and I headed back to Albertstrasse to catch a bus back to the house....

It is Sonntag (Sunday) and tonight we are going to Dult (a festival in Regensburg similar to Oktoberfest). It should be pretty fun....

Going Away Party

2008-09-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

I don't think I said before, but my sister Lauren is also leaving for Europe a couple weeks after me. She will be attending graduate school at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, England for one year. So since Lauren will be gone for a year and I will not be back until January, we threw a little going away party at the house last night. I think everyone there really seemed to enjoy themselves. Several of us got out on some kayaks and a couple canoes and played around in the water for a while, we even got a good laugh as Erik Weber managed to capsize his kayak. I found out some interesting news from Lauren Covert, a recent graduate of Transy who did the Regensburg program three years ago, that I have the same host family as she had. I will post some pictures of the party as soon as the beautiful Chelsey Spencer-the photographer of the evening-posts them on Facebook. The food was great, the beer was cold, and spirits were high (cliche, right?), as our friends came to bid Lauren and me farewell. So thanks to everyone that came! Lauren and I will both miss all of you while we are gone.

Bis dann!

The Epic Begins

2008-08-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

To anyone reading, this is my first attempt at blogging and I intend to use it primarily as a travel blog. Not necessarily just my personal stories, but reflections on the culture, such as how they live and interact, the things they eat, and the their acceptance with an American student. One week from today I will be on a plane bound for Munich, from there I will take a train to the town of Regensburg, Germany, where I will live for 3.5 months. For my friends and family back home, I hope for this to be a way of keeping me close during my extended absence, and for everyone else, a culturally enriching experience. I would very much like for this to be a video travel blog, so perhaps the first video will be before the plane departs. You might even learn a thing or two about the German language, as I learn it as well.

Bis nächste Woche!