I completely forgot to add a post regarding my first ever opera experience!! WOW how stupid of me. I am completely addicted to classical/operatic music, and I did not even think to write about attending one.
So, during the third week of November (yes this post should precede my most recent post, if you're reading this chronologically, which you should) I went with a small group of friends to Frankfurt's new opera house to enjoy the well-known German opera "Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute", composed way back when by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Considering the fact that I have only watched this piece of theater/music performance in a filmed version or have only listened to excerpts on my computer, I was absolutely blown away. Having the performance acted out in front of you for three and a half hours brings about an ENTIRELY new feature to the music. Also it was nice to see it acted out by different people, on a different stage, with different props, and with different themes.
I don't want to give too much of a review, but everything was great. Even the Queen of the Night's famous aria (which you could watch here if you don't have any clue what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ODfuMMyss), which has been claimed to be one of the most difficult pieces of music to sing, was so much more exhilarating to hear in person. I had goosebumps throughout almost the entire opera.
But that's enough about that. I would suggest to ANYONE to go see this opera if they have the chance. It's really quite interesting, and it is considered a comedy, so you don't have to worry about being bored to sleep, as operas stereotypically do to some people.
My up-coming musical attendances will be coming up in the next couple of months, and then toward the end of Spring. I will be attending, accordingly, "Das Phantom der Oper/The Phantom of the Opera," which I do not yet know if it will be in English or German; and then I will be attending "Don Giovanni" in May, which is another one of Mozart's operas.
Until next time, thank you for reading!
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
A taste of home and some Christmas Spirit!
I realize it has been several weeks since my last post; Amsterdam happened at the beginning of November, and it is now December. In saying that, I really have not done much those last two-three weeks worthy of posting on my blog. The studies have been going well, I did get sick and have been for about a week and a half now, and I have been spending my evenings and weekends doing the same old eating, visiting with friends, and going to a few parties here and there.
BUT! Last Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving, the four other Americans in Frankfurt and I had decided to plan a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner to share with our international friends, seeing as we are one of if not the only country in the world which celebrates Turkey Day. On Wednesday the shopping took place, and it was starting to look like a great dinner. I was unable to stay for long, for I had made plans earlier in the week to attend the opening night of the Frankfurt Christmas Market.
**Digression to discuss the Christmas market**
Wow, I'm used to visiting Chicago's Christmas Market every year for the last six years. And now I go to Germany, and the Christmas market here (I've only seen Frankfurt's) is almost four times as large!! I also was able to enjoy my first legal Glühwein (a traditional, spiced and warmed red wine, served at all Christmas markets around Europe), and I didn't even have to worried about being carded (that has been a plus ever since I've been in Germany). I had gone to the market with one of my friends, Debora, and we ended up meeting up with a huge group of our international friends (with a group as large as we, we see each other all over the place). I also have, to date, visited the Frankfurt Christmas Market four times. I'll be visiting it about five more times before it closes after Christmas.
Back to the Thanksgiving Dinner.
On Thursday, some of the Americans went without lectures, so they spent the whole day preparing all three of our turkeys, the green beans, the mashed potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, and various other Turkey Day delights. Unfortunately, I had a lot of courses, so I was unable to join in the prep work. I showed up right around the beginning of the party, and there were already about 20 internationals there, all ready to eat up a hearty American tradition.
When the dinner was ready, as expected, everyone dug in. I'm quite surprised that with the about 50 people crammed into the tiny kitchen, none of the food ended up on the ground. For that we were all thankful!! :D
After dinner, I was able to walk heavily and stuffed up to my room to skype my family, who was at that time also just beginning to gather for Thanksgiving in the USA. After skyping with them, I returned to the kitchen to help clean up; dishes took almost 45 minutes, for there were so many of them, and it was so greasy!!! But I didn't help with the preparation, so I felt obligated to clean the dishes.
After the dinner, I returned to my room, and I stayed up a bit too late, for when I woke up about 4 hours later, I had to quickly clean my room, eat breakfast, and head off to the airport to pick up my other taste of home, Deven, who was visiting me for the weekend from Spain!!
Okay, I have to say, I was worried I wouldn't find her, for the airport in Frankfurt is absolutely enormous!! But I found Deven, and it almost seemed unreal, seeing a face, which I hadn't seen in more than three months!!! Since she packed super lightly, we were able to right away ride into the city, and I made a city tour for her, hitting up all of the major "must-sees" in Frankfurt. After that, since it was only about noon, we headed back to my building, so we could meet up with my friends to eat something. After lunch, we spent some time in my room; Deven napped, for she had hardly any sleep, and I was making some plans for the evening, to visit the Christmas market. We headed off to the Christmas market in a group of our internationals, and Deven got a real taste of what Christmas feels like in Germany.
After the market, our group decided we wanted to do something else. It was a quick decision, for it had begun to rain, hard. We met up near the movie theater, and we unfortunately arrived too late to get tickets to a movie, without having to wait another two hours. So we continued walking aimlessly around a part of Frankfurt, near Echescheimer Tor, before meeting up with the other half of the scattered group. At the end of the night, we decided to go back to our building, and just sit around, eat some snacks, drink some tea, and talk. Then it was off to bed!
The next morning, Saturday, Deven and I went to a nearby café for breakfast and coffee (of course we got coffee; we're both coffee fanatics!!) After that, we did some small grocery shopping, dropped that stuff off in my room, and made our way through the Grüneburgpark towards my Campus Westend. After spending a little over an hour there, we made our way to Campus Bockenheim (the not so beautifully modern campus), then we had enough time to make it back to my building for dinner with my some of the other friends in my building.
After dinner, which was fantastic, we went together out to one of the student sponsored parties. It was an interesting excursion, since we left our building quite late, with the usual, large group of internationals, and we had to take a tram 20 minutes, then walk another 30 minutes just to get to this place (Thanks, Google Maps!!). It was quite a cramped yet fun dance/party/thing inside of a building which on the outside resembled a restaurant but on the inside resembled a large house without any furniture; that made more room for us! We arrived around 12:00am, and we left at about 3:20am. However, we did not want to walk 45 minutes to the Hauptbahnhof just to take the first tram home, so we hailed a taxi. Then it was right to bed.
The next morning, Sunday, started out quite lazily. I think, if I remember correctly, we slept until maybe 13:00, and then we at and bummed around a bit. Then, we were again meeting to cook with my friends, so we got together in the kitchen and cooked from 14:00 ish until about 16:30, at which time Deven and I packed her things up, went one last time to the Christmas market to grab some sweets and gifts for Deven to bring home with her. We power walked, as fast as the surrounding mob of people would allow us, to the main train stop, then I noticed that one of the two trains which was to take us to the airport was not going to arrive for 20 minutes, and it is about a 20 minute ride. AH!!
That is when Deven and I began thinking we may not get her to her plane in time!! But, while waiting, we found out all of the important information regarding her terminal, where she needed to pick up her tickets, and so on. Then when we arrived at the airport, we rushed to her terminal to get her ticket, and then thankfully there was not a long line for security (she ended up getting through security and to her gate just a few minutes before boarding began; what perfect, yet mildly stressful timing we have!!)! I said my good-byes to Deven, for I will not be seeing her for about 7 more months!
I have to say that having a close friend from home actually being here with me in person in Germany has made me realize how excited I am to have my family come visit me for the holidays!!!!!!!!!!!! I only wish that I could bring all of my friends and family with me to Germany to spend no less than a week here!! I may just have to move here permanently after university to make that a reality.
Thank you all for reading!!
BUT! Last Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving, the four other Americans in Frankfurt and I had decided to plan a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner to share with our international friends, seeing as we are one of if not the only country in the world which celebrates Turkey Day. On Wednesday the shopping took place, and it was starting to look like a great dinner. I was unable to stay for long, for I had made plans earlier in the week to attend the opening night of the Frankfurt Christmas Market.
**Digression to discuss the Christmas market**
Wow, I'm used to visiting Chicago's Christmas Market every year for the last six years. And now I go to Germany, and the Christmas market here (I've only seen Frankfurt's) is almost four times as large!! I also was able to enjoy my first legal Glühwein (a traditional, spiced and warmed red wine, served at all Christmas markets around Europe), and I didn't even have to worried about being carded (that has been a plus ever since I've been in Germany). I had gone to the market with one of my friends, Debora, and we ended up meeting up with a huge group of our international friends (with a group as large as we, we see each other all over the place). I also have, to date, visited the Frankfurt Christmas Market four times. I'll be visiting it about five more times before it closes after Christmas.
Back to the Thanksgiving Dinner.
On Thursday, some of the Americans went without lectures, so they spent the whole day preparing all three of our turkeys, the green beans, the mashed potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, and various other Turkey Day delights. Unfortunately, I had a lot of courses, so I was unable to join in the prep work. I showed up right around the beginning of the party, and there were already about 20 internationals there, all ready to eat up a hearty American tradition.
When the dinner was ready, as expected, everyone dug in. I'm quite surprised that with the about 50 people crammed into the tiny kitchen, none of the food ended up on the ground. For that we were all thankful!! :D
After dinner, I was able to walk heavily and stuffed up to my room to skype my family, who was at that time also just beginning to gather for Thanksgiving in the USA. After skyping with them, I returned to the kitchen to help clean up; dishes took almost 45 minutes, for there were so many of them, and it was so greasy!!! But I didn't help with the preparation, so I felt obligated to clean the dishes.
After the dinner, I returned to my room, and I stayed up a bit too late, for when I woke up about 4 hours later, I had to quickly clean my room, eat breakfast, and head off to the airport to pick up my other taste of home, Deven, who was visiting me for the weekend from Spain!!
Okay, I have to say, I was worried I wouldn't find her, for the airport in Frankfurt is absolutely enormous!! But I found Deven, and it almost seemed unreal, seeing a face, which I hadn't seen in more than three months!!! Since she packed super lightly, we were able to right away ride into the city, and I made a city tour for her, hitting up all of the major "must-sees" in Frankfurt. After that, since it was only about noon, we headed back to my building, so we could meet up with my friends to eat something. After lunch, we spent some time in my room; Deven napped, for she had hardly any sleep, and I was making some plans for the evening, to visit the Christmas market. We headed off to the Christmas market in a group of our internationals, and Deven got a real taste of what Christmas feels like in Germany.
After the market, our group decided we wanted to do something else. It was a quick decision, for it had begun to rain, hard. We met up near the movie theater, and we unfortunately arrived too late to get tickets to a movie, without having to wait another two hours. So we continued walking aimlessly around a part of Frankfurt, near Echescheimer Tor, before meeting up with the other half of the scattered group. At the end of the night, we decided to go back to our building, and just sit around, eat some snacks, drink some tea, and talk. Then it was off to bed!
The next morning, Saturday, Deven and I went to a nearby café for breakfast and coffee (of course we got coffee; we're both coffee fanatics!!) After that, we did some small grocery shopping, dropped that stuff off in my room, and made our way through the Grüneburgpark towards my Campus Westend. After spending a little over an hour there, we made our way to Campus Bockenheim (the not so beautifully modern campus), then we had enough time to make it back to my building for dinner with my some of the other friends in my building.
After dinner, which was fantastic, we went together out to one of the student sponsored parties. It was an interesting excursion, since we left our building quite late, with the usual, large group of internationals, and we had to take a tram 20 minutes, then walk another 30 minutes just to get to this place (Thanks, Google Maps!!). It was quite a cramped yet fun dance/party/thing inside of a building which on the outside resembled a restaurant but on the inside resembled a large house without any furniture; that made more room for us! We arrived around 12:00am, and we left at about 3:20am. However, we did not want to walk 45 minutes to the Hauptbahnhof just to take the first tram home, so we hailed a taxi. Then it was right to bed.
The next morning, Sunday, started out quite lazily. I think, if I remember correctly, we slept until maybe 13:00, and then we at and bummed around a bit. Then, we were again meeting to cook with my friends, so we got together in the kitchen and cooked from 14:00 ish until about 16:30, at which time Deven and I packed her things up, went one last time to the Christmas market to grab some sweets and gifts for Deven to bring home with her. We power walked, as fast as the surrounding mob of people would allow us, to the main train stop, then I noticed that one of the two trains which was to take us to the airport was not going to arrive for 20 minutes, and it is about a 20 minute ride. AH!!
That is when Deven and I began thinking we may not get her to her plane in time!! But, while waiting, we found out all of the important information regarding her terminal, where she needed to pick up her tickets, and so on. Then when we arrived at the airport, we rushed to her terminal to get her ticket, and then thankfully there was not a long line for security (she ended up getting through security and to her gate just a few minutes before boarding began; what perfect, yet mildly stressful timing we have!!)! I said my good-byes to Deven, for I will not be seeing her for about 7 more months!
I have to say that having a close friend from home actually being here with me in person in Germany has made me realize how excited I am to have my family come visit me for the holidays!!!!!!!!!!!! I only wish that I could bring all of my friends and family with me to Germany to spend no less than a week here!! I may just have to move here permanently after university to make that a reality.
Thank you all for reading!!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Project: Amsterdam; a.k.a. Two Greeks, a Finn, and an American
And now to discuss my weekend in Amsterdam, Holland.
Friday, November 8: I forced myself to wake up at 6:30, though I had gone to bed at 2:00, in order to grab coffee and breakfast in my room while I dressed and organized my luggage one last time for the weekend trip to Amsterdam. WOOO! At around 7:40, I met my two Greek buddies, Nikos and Kostas, outside of the building, to head to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), at which we would meet the rest of the group of travelers before boarding the bus and embarking on our journey. The bus left around 9:00-9:30, and we knew that the bus ride was to be about six hours. Most of us slept, I, of course, having drunk a large amount of coffee, could not sleep in the bus (also due to the fact that I cannot typically sleep in vehicles). But around 14:30-15:30, we arrived in Amsterdam! We had chosen our roommates for the Jugendherberge (youth hostel) in the bus, so once we arrived at the hostel, we only had to wait about 30 minutes to get checked in, and then we were able to move into the room and relax a bit!
The room in our hostel was AMAZING!!! So clean; four beds (two on the floor, two bunked), which are way more comfortable than the bed in my room in Frankfurt; a large, warm shower; a toilet and sink (naturally; and a lot of room to move around. My roommates for the weekend included my Greeks, Nikos, Kostas, and Oskar, my friend from Finland.
After freshening up from the long bus ride, the whole group of internationals got together to head into the inner city of Amsterdam to visit the monuments, take a tour, and, of course, visit the Red Light District (I am going to abbreviate this: RLD). The bus ride to the city was about 30-40 minutes, and after we arrived, it had been dark for a while, we noticed that the entire city was lit-up! Continuing on into the RLD, it was a very interesting, new, and entirely different experience than anything I have known before. I do not mean that just because there were women standing in almost all of the windows, which are street level, but I also mean the neon lights which lit-up not only the streets, but which also lit-up the canals which ran down the middle of most of the RLD.
We had finished touring the RLD and other parts of the inner city, when we broke for some late dinner, and returned to walk to another part of the city to go to a party/bar. The bar we ended up at was an Australian bar, and since Amsterdam is full of tourists and other international people, almost everybody in the bar spoke either English or Australian English. My three roommates and I stayed from about 21:00 until 23:30, and then we grabbed some food and water on the way home before catching the last tram to the central station, from which we would take a night bus about 45 minutes to get back to our hostel. After a bit of discussing, we decided we would wake up the following morning at 9:00 in order to get to breakfast before everyone else and have time to relax in the morning.
Saturday: As I said above, we woke at 9:00 and were down to breakfast shortly after. And WOW! the breakfast was really something. We had so much food, juice, and, of course the most important part of a Zach Herriges breakfast, coffee!!! After breakfast, we were to meet at 11:00 to head back into the inner city to take a led tour. While waiting, Nikos and I took part in a game of giant chess (the pieces were about as tall as my knees), which I unfortunately lost, but not without attempting to take every last piece!! But I still lost.
We took the bus into the city and met up with our tour guide around the same place we were walking the day before. Which looked something like this! This is Dam Square on a Saturday morning in November.
We were then lead on a tour of the RLD, which was actually a lot different during the day. There were still women working, not as many, of course, and there were many, many people walking around. After the tour of the RLD and Dam Square, we took a break for lunch around 1:00, and then continued on into the part of the city called Jordaan, in which the Anne Frank Museum and a few other monuments are located. At around 14:30, we parted ways with our guide, and a group of friends and I headed south to try to visit the Rijksmuseum, one of the largest art museums, if not the largest, in Amsterdam. Our back up plan was to visit the Van Gogh Museum, which would have also been cool to see. Unfortunately, by the time we got down there, which was later than expected due to a tram being disabled entirely and having had to walk for about 45 minutes, we did not have enough time to visit either museum, before they closed, with enough time to get our 15€-worth out of the trip. We did, however, get some experience out of it, for we were able to take pictures in front of the "I AMSTERDAM" monument/sign/thing which stands in front of the Rijksmuseum!
(Photo credit goes to my friend Adelaide, from whom I borrowed these pictures, since I did not take any of my own)
Since we were tired, hungry, cold, and were not able to go into any of the museums, we chose to head back into the city a bit, grab some warm, traditional.......New York-Style pizza (the second time in two days for me)!! It was after dinner that we scampered through the rain, cold, and confusion of finding/asking for directions in a foreign city in order to find our way to the tram that would take us all the way back to our hostel. We made it back, still wet and cold, but we then split up, once again to freshen up in our respective rooms, and to take some time to rest before the entire group met up at 22:00 to go out to another, much better party in the city.
Since I am hungry all the time, as most of you know, I spent the entire free-time time convincing my roommates to come down to the bar area to get some food. Eventually we all went down at around 21:00. At this time we ordered some Döner, and during our wait time, we played a game of Texas Hold'em Poker, using Jenga pieces as chips! Our food was running late, and when we finally got it, we were disappointed. Well, at least I was. A Döner in Germany is practically an art-style, for which the Turkish-Germans pride themselves. In Amsterdam, we were handed two slices of a pita bread-like roll which had been filled messily with practically tasteless chunks (yes, chunks, not thinly sliced deliciousness) of meat, which I assumed to be lamb; who knows. We also were given some ridiculously sharp chili sauce, to add "flavor"/burning to said practically tasteless meat, along with some mild sauce, also adding flavor and eliminating the burning of the chili sauce. I scarfed mine down, since they had come late, and then rushed up to my room (I took the stairs six floors up after eating a LOT of very greasy meat) to brush my teeth. I thankfully did not vomit. Moral of the story for anyone traveling to Amsterdam: a Döner in Amsterdam is not really a Döner.
We left the building around 22:30 to get to the party around 23:00. After arriving, we had to wait outside, for the was some sort of mess up with the number of people we were bringing or something like that, but we were let in after about 20 minutes. The party was on the second floor (or first floor if you are talking about European buildings), and we received glow stick glasses and/or ears! It was a cool party; there was another floor above the floor in which we were dancing, and our group ended up there by the end of the night. It was not until 2:00 that I realized what time it was, for we were having such a great time!! But at that time, we decided to head outside to decide what to do next. A few of the group went home by night bus, and a small group of friends and I went to a very delicious muffin shop (which was serving NORMAL muffins only, just to clarify). From there we took a night bus to the central station, then another bus to our hostel. It was roughly 4:00 when we arrived home.
Sunday: I know it has been a lot to read, but I am almost finished with the weekend!! So my roommates and I woke again around 9:00-9:30 to head down to breakfast. After breakfast, at around 11:00, we were to be all checked out of our rooms, store our luggage, and meet outside to go one last time into the city. In the city, a group of friends and I went in the direction of Jordaan to attempt to gain entrance to the Anne Frank museum, which turned out to be an impossibility, due to the 300 people waiting in line. We then decided to make an excursion of the area of Jordaan, known for some of its vintage shops and cafés. It was during this time that we finally found a museum to visit: the Cheese museum!! haha Oh, well they had delicious cheese there anyways. After that some of us went into a café to grab some coffee while the rest of the group went to purchase some souvenirs an see more of the city. We met back up, took a group picture, seen below (one which I also borrowed from my friend Adelaide) in front of one of the many canals in Amsterdam, before taking the bus back to the hostel one last time to grab our luggage and head home.
The bus ride back took another six hours, which was spent reminiscing the weekend in a new city and talking as quietly as I could, so as not to wake the other 50 people on the bus, trying to sleep; I apparently have a voice which is deep and resonating; sleepy people do not like it.
When we finally arrived at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, I had a strange feeling, as if I had just come home from being away from it for an extended period of time. Huh, I guess I have become so accustomed to Frankfurt that it is becoming my new home, at least temporarily! Do not worry, Mom and Dad, I will spend a few years in the US before contemplating my return trip! :)
Well, if you are reading this hear, then you are really great for having read this entire post, considering its monstrosity! Thank you once again, and I will make sure to keep up to date with any more interesting experiences I have!
Friday, November 8: I forced myself to wake up at 6:30, though I had gone to bed at 2:00, in order to grab coffee and breakfast in my room while I dressed and organized my luggage one last time for the weekend trip to Amsterdam. WOOO! At around 7:40, I met my two Greek buddies, Nikos and Kostas, outside of the building, to head to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), at which we would meet the rest of the group of travelers before boarding the bus and embarking on our journey. The bus left around 9:00-9:30, and we knew that the bus ride was to be about six hours. Most of us slept, I, of course, having drunk a large amount of coffee, could not sleep in the bus (also due to the fact that I cannot typically sleep in vehicles). But around 14:30-15:30, we arrived in Amsterdam! We had chosen our roommates for the Jugendherberge (youth hostel) in the bus, so once we arrived at the hostel, we only had to wait about 30 minutes to get checked in, and then we were able to move into the room and relax a bit!
The room in our hostel was AMAZING!!! So clean; four beds (two on the floor, two bunked), which are way more comfortable than the bed in my room in Frankfurt; a large, warm shower; a toilet and sink (naturally; and a lot of room to move around. My roommates for the weekend included my Greeks, Nikos, Kostas, and Oskar, my friend from Finland.
After freshening up from the long bus ride, the whole group of internationals got together to head into the inner city of Amsterdam to visit the monuments, take a tour, and, of course, visit the Red Light District (I am going to abbreviate this: RLD). The bus ride to the city was about 30-40 minutes, and after we arrived, it had been dark for a while, we noticed that the entire city was lit-up! Continuing on into the RLD, it was a very interesting, new, and entirely different experience than anything I have known before. I do not mean that just because there were women standing in almost all of the windows, which are street level, but I also mean the neon lights which lit-up not only the streets, but which also lit-up the canals which ran down the middle of most of the RLD.
We had finished touring the RLD and other parts of the inner city, when we broke for some late dinner, and returned to walk to another part of the city to go to a party/bar. The bar we ended up at was an Australian bar, and since Amsterdam is full of tourists and other international people, almost everybody in the bar spoke either English or Australian English. My three roommates and I stayed from about 21:00 until 23:30, and then we grabbed some food and water on the way home before catching the last tram to the central station, from which we would take a night bus about 45 minutes to get back to our hostel. After a bit of discussing, we decided we would wake up the following morning at 9:00 in order to get to breakfast before everyone else and have time to relax in the morning.
Saturday: As I said above, we woke at 9:00 and were down to breakfast shortly after. And WOW! the breakfast was really something. We had so much food, juice, and, of course the most important part of a Zach Herriges breakfast, coffee!!! After breakfast, we were to meet at 11:00 to head back into the inner city to take a led tour. While waiting, Nikos and I took part in a game of giant chess (the pieces were about as tall as my knees), which I unfortunately lost, but not without attempting to take every last piece!! But I still lost.
We took the bus into the city and met up with our tour guide around the same place we were walking the day before. Which looked something like this! This is Dam Square on a Saturday morning in November.
Since we were tired, hungry, cold, and were not able to go into any of the museums, we chose to head back into the city a bit, grab some warm, traditional.......New York-Style pizza (the second time in two days for me)!! It was after dinner that we scampered through the rain, cold, and confusion of finding/asking for directions in a foreign city in order to find our way to the tram that would take us all the way back to our hostel. We made it back, still wet and cold, but we then split up, once again to freshen up in our respective rooms, and to take some time to rest before the entire group met up at 22:00 to go out to another, much better party in the city.
Since I am hungry all the time, as most of you know, I spent the entire free-time time convincing my roommates to come down to the bar area to get some food. Eventually we all went down at around 21:00. At this time we ordered some Döner, and during our wait time, we played a game of Texas Hold'em Poker, using Jenga pieces as chips! Our food was running late, and when we finally got it, we were disappointed. Well, at least I was. A Döner in Germany is practically an art-style, for which the Turkish-Germans pride themselves. In Amsterdam, we were handed two slices of a pita bread-like roll which had been filled messily with practically tasteless chunks (yes, chunks, not thinly sliced deliciousness) of meat, which I assumed to be lamb; who knows. We also were given some ridiculously sharp chili sauce, to add "flavor"/burning to said practically tasteless meat, along with some mild sauce, also adding flavor and eliminating the burning of the chili sauce. I scarfed mine down, since they had come late, and then rushed up to my room (I took the stairs six floors up after eating a LOT of very greasy meat) to brush my teeth. I thankfully did not vomit. Moral of the story for anyone traveling to Amsterdam: a Döner in Amsterdam is not really a Döner.
We left the building around 22:30 to get to the party around 23:00. After arriving, we had to wait outside, for the was some sort of mess up with the number of people we were bringing or something like that, but we were let in after about 20 minutes. The party was on the second floor (or first floor if you are talking about European buildings), and we received glow stick glasses and/or ears! It was a cool party; there was another floor above the floor in which we were dancing, and our group ended up there by the end of the night. It was not until 2:00 that I realized what time it was, for we were having such a great time!! But at that time, we decided to head outside to decide what to do next. A few of the group went home by night bus, and a small group of friends and I went to a very delicious muffin shop (which was serving NORMAL muffins only, just to clarify). From there we took a night bus to the central station, then another bus to our hostel. It was roughly 4:00 when we arrived home.
Sunday: I know it has been a lot to read, but I am almost finished with the weekend!! So my roommates and I woke again around 9:00-9:30 to head down to breakfast. After breakfast, at around 11:00, we were to be all checked out of our rooms, store our luggage, and meet outside to go one last time into the city. In the city, a group of friends and I went in the direction of Jordaan to attempt to gain entrance to the Anne Frank museum, which turned out to be an impossibility, due to the 300 people waiting in line. We then decided to make an excursion of the area of Jordaan, known for some of its vintage shops and cafés. It was during this time that we finally found a museum to visit: the Cheese museum!! haha Oh, well they had delicious cheese there anyways. After that some of us went into a café to grab some coffee while the rest of the group went to purchase some souvenirs an see more of the city. We met back up, took a group picture, seen below (one which I also borrowed from my friend Adelaide) in front of one of the many canals in Amsterdam, before taking the bus back to the hostel one last time to grab our luggage and head home.
The bus ride back took another six hours, which was spent reminiscing the weekend in a new city and talking as quietly as I could, so as not to wake the other 50 people on the bus, trying to sleep; I apparently have a voice which is deep and resonating; sleepy people do not like it.
When we finally arrived at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, I had a strange feeling, as if I had just come home from being away from it for an extended period of time. Huh, I guess I have become so accustomed to Frankfurt that it is becoming my new home, at least temporarily! Do not worry, Mom and Dad, I will spend a few years in the US before contemplating my return trip! :)
Well, if you are reading this hear, then you are really great for having read this entire post, considering its monstrosity! Thank you once again, and I will make sure to keep up to date with any more interesting experiences I have!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Cologne, Germany with the DAAD Stipend Recipiants
Hello Everybody!
To start, I would like to say that unfortunately my weeks tend to be pretty typical, so if there is a week when I do not post, it is because I have not done anything more out of the ordinary than going to lectures, cooking, eating, exercising, and learning. I figure that stuff is not all that interesting, so I can leave it out for now. In saying that, however, my studies are becoming a little bit easier!! After the first two weeks, I am starting to develop a routine and getting used to the speed at which the lectures are being taught. For every lecture I have, the professor has his/her notes posted online that I can print out, bring with me to lecture, and make my own notes! It's a perfect situation! Anyways, let us talk about Cologne!
Well last week Friday, I was to wake up at about 6:00am for I had to pack, eat breakfast, and prepare to head off to Köln/Cologne, Germany for that Friday and Saturday. I got to the train without any troubles, for I had woken up early enough to recompense for any delays. The train ride was only about one hour, and it left and arrived just as punctually as the reputation (which is more of a stereotype) of the German train system upholds! After arriving in Köln, I had to walk but five minutes from the train station to the hostel, in which I was to be staying over night. Once there, I met up with a small group of other DAAD students, and we waited together until our check-in time at 11:30am, so about one hour.
Once we received our keys, we went up to a conference room to meet the faces of our contacts at DAAD, with whom we had up until that weekend only been communicating through email, and to receive some general information about the itinerary for the weekend and the DAAD organization. The it was off to see some sights!
Our hostel was on the east side of the Rhein River, and we were walking over to the west side to see the Dom. A side note that we learned from a Köln resident on our tour: the West side of the river in Köln is considered the 'right' side, and the East side of the river is considered the 'wrong' side by the Köln people!
But anyways, here was the first sight we could see as we began crossing the bridge to the 'Right' side of Köln.
We were then met by a group of tour guides, who took us on a tour around some of the historical areas in Köln, including a museum with a very wonderful mosaic, unfortunately I did not take many pictures during my stay in Köln. We also got to learn a lot about the Dom and some of the other surrounding monuments.
The Dom wasn't finished until the 19th century, if I remember what our guide said correctly, but it also is the home of the bones of the Three Wise Men, for those of you who know the story. At the peak of the Dom, there is a gold star, the Star of Bethlehem, under which the bones of the Wise Men were to be held, but they are instead held underneath a different part of the Dom, and there is a golden cross for the Wise Men to rest under. (In the first picture, you can sort of see the cross and the Star of Bethlehem.)
On the south side of the Dom there is also a door with a blue crest on it. Our guide told us that that door is only opened for one person: the Pope.
The rest of our tour took us through some other historic sites, like I had said, including a Roman structure, which was completely destroyed during WWII and rebuilt, and the world's first cologne production facility. No, cologne was not invented in France, it was in fact invented in Köln (Cologne), Germany. Go figure.
After our tour, we went to a tower to see a 360 degree view of Köln. The weather was not very nice, so I only managed to get two good pictures from this tower.
Then we ate a fabulous dinner at this restaurant called L'Orange. After that we went back to the hostel for a short while before heading back across the river to have a few drinks and experience the beer famously known as 'Kölsch.' Since we had to wake up early for breakfast the next day, we all were back in the hostel around 11:30 for bed.
The next day was a bit less exciting. We had breakfast, and then we were given a lot of information about the higher education system in Germany, and it gave me some ideas for if I wanted to pursue further education after my Bachelor degree. We had a coffee break during the information session to catch up and talk with many others about our experiences in Germany so far and what not. After the information session, we had lunch and were then released from our DAAD responsibilities for the weekend. A friend of mine, who I had just met on Friday, and I went on another short tour of Köln before I needed to head to the Hauptbahnhof to catch my train back to Frankfurt.
That was it for the DAAD weekend in Köln! I met a lot of really awesome people from Canada and the USA, and I hope that I can visit some of them if I am ever in the cities in Germany in which they are currently studying!
To start, I would like to say that unfortunately my weeks tend to be pretty typical, so if there is a week when I do not post, it is because I have not done anything more out of the ordinary than going to lectures, cooking, eating, exercising, and learning. I figure that stuff is not all that interesting, so I can leave it out for now. In saying that, however, my studies are becoming a little bit easier!! After the first two weeks, I am starting to develop a routine and getting used to the speed at which the lectures are being taught. For every lecture I have, the professor has his/her notes posted online that I can print out, bring with me to lecture, and make my own notes! It's a perfect situation! Anyways, let us talk about Cologne!
Well last week Friday, I was to wake up at about 6:00am for I had to pack, eat breakfast, and prepare to head off to Köln/Cologne, Germany for that Friday and Saturday. I got to the train without any troubles, for I had woken up early enough to recompense for any delays. The train ride was only about one hour, and it left and arrived just as punctually as the reputation (which is more of a stereotype) of the German train system upholds! After arriving in Köln, I had to walk but five minutes from the train station to the hostel, in which I was to be staying over night. Once there, I met up with a small group of other DAAD students, and we waited together until our check-in time at 11:30am, so about one hour.
Once we received our keys, we went up to a conference room to meet the faces of our contacts at DAAD, with whom we had up until that weekend only been communicating through email, and to receive some general information about the itinerary for the weekend and the DAAD organization. The it was off to see some sights!
Our hostel was on the east side of the Rhein River, and we were walking over to the west side to see the Dom. A side note that we learned from a Köln resident on our tour: the West side of the river in Köln is considered the 'right' side, and the East side of the river is considered the 'wrong' side by the Köln people!
But anyways, here was the first sight we could see as we began crossing the bridge to the 'Right' side of Köln.
And as we crept up upon the Dom from the south side, this is what we saw.
And then again the Dom from the west side of it. You can see that while standing under it, it is very difficult to capture all of its monstrosity.
We were then met by a group of tour guides, who took us on a tour around some of the historical areas in Köln, including a museum with a very wonderful mosaic, unfortunately I did not take many pictures during my stay in Köln. We also got to learn a lot about the Dom and some of the other surrounding monuments.
The Dom wasn't finished until the 19th century, if I remember what our guide said correctly, but it also is the home of the bones of the Three Wise Men, for those of you who know the story. At the peak of the Dom, there is a gold star, the Star of Bethlehem, under which the bones of the Wise Men were to be held, but they are instead held underneath a different part of the Dom, and there is a golden cross for the Wise Men to rest under. (In the first picture, you can sort of see the cross and the Star of Bethlehem.)
On the south side of the Dom there is also a door with a blue crest on it. Our guide told us that that door is only opened for one person: the Pope.
The rest of our tour took us through some other historic sites, like I had said, including a Roman structure, which was completely destroyed during WWII and rebuilt, and the world's first cologne production facility. No, cologne was not invented in France, it was in fact invented in Köln (Cologne), Germany. Go figure.
After our tour, we went to a tower to see a 360 degree view of Köln. The weather was not very nice, so I only managed to get two good pictures from this tower.
Then we ate a fabulous dinner at this restaurant called L'Orange. After that we went back to the hostel for a short while before heading back across the river to have a few drinks and experience the beer famously known as 'Kölsch.' Since we had to wake up early for breakfast the next day, we all were back in the hostel around 11:30 for bed.
The next day was a bit less exciting. We had breakfast, and then we were given a lot of information about the higher education system in Germany, and it gave me some ideas for if I wanted to pursue further education after my Bachelor degree. We had a coffee break during the information session to catch up and talk with many others about our experiences in Germany so far and what not. After the information session, we had lunch and were then released from our DAAD responsibilities for the weekend. A friend of mine, who I had just met on Friday, and I went on another short tour of Köln before I needed to head to the Hauptbahnhof to catch my train back to Frankfurt.
That was it for the DAAD weekend in Köln! I met a lot of really awesome people from Canada and the USA, and I hope that I can visit some of them if I am ever in the cities in Germany in which they are currently studying!
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Strasbourg, France
So at around 5:30 on Saturday morning, I awoke to the bright, shining moon!! "Ah, it is going to be a good day, for I woke up before the sun," I thought to myself. I ate breakfast, met a friend outside of the building, and we were off to the Hauptbahnhof, at which we met up with the group of fellow travelers all going in the direction: Strasbourg!
We got on the bus at around 8:00, and we were off on a three hour trip to France.
Once we arrived in France, we were immediately bombarded by three or four men trying to sell us those little umbrella hat things, sunglasses, beads, and other things which would scream, "TOURIST!!" After we all got off of the bus, we began walking, in a group of about 50, towards the Place de la Cathédrale, to see one of the largest cathedrals in the Europe, which had been the largest building in the world until sometime in the 19th Century. That is pretty cool!
After taking a few pictures, we began on a tour towards what is known as little France. We saw several older buildings and houses, which had the traditional German cross beam designs. The reasoning for that is that Strasbourg had switched between German and French ownership at least five times throughout history.
The views were nice, and because so many people wanted to take pictures, we actually lost a good half of the group during our walk through this city.
We had met up again at 13:45 to get on a boat tour, which would take us along a small river known as L'Ill. The tour lasted almost an hour, and we got to listen to some of the history of the city Strasbourg. After our tour, the small group of friends, with whom I was, and I went to a traditional French restaurant to have Tarte flambée/Flammenkuchen (really thin pizza without sauce; only butter, cheese, and bacon bits). It was so delicious!!!
By the time we finished, it was time to meet back up at the cathedral, for we were then to head home for the day. We got home around 21:30, and I just had some late dinner and wine with a group of friends, most of whom were not on the trip to Strasbourg, so we got to discuss some of the things we did. As per usual, our discussions were fun and went a long time, and I turned in late to bed, to wake up even later on Sunday. But that was okay, because it was a good weekend nonetheless!!
Once we arrived in France, we were immediately bombarded by three or four men trying to sell us those little umbrella hat things, sunglasses, beads, and other things which would scream, "TOURIST!!" After we all got off of the bus, we began walking, in a group of about 50, towards the Place de la Cathédrale, to see one of the largest cathedrals in the Europe, which had been the largest building in the world until sometime in the 19th Century. That is pretty cool!
 |
| Place de la Cathédrale |
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| Cathédrale |
After taking a few pictures, we began on a tour towards what is known as little France. We saw several older buildings and houses, which had the traditional German cross beam designs. The reasoning for that is that Strasbourg had switched between German and French ownership at least five times throughout history.
The views were nice, and because so many people wanted to take pictures, we actually lost a good half of the group during our walk through this city.
We had met up again at 13:45 to get on a boat tour, which would take us along a small river known as L'Ill. The tour lasted almost an hour, and we got to listen to some of the history of the city Strasbourg. After our tour, the small group of friends, with whom I was, and I went to a traditional French restaurant to have Tarte flambée/Flammenkuchen (really thin pizza without sauce; only butter, cheese, and bacon bits). It was so delicious!!!
By the time we finished, it was time to meet back up at the cathedral, for we were then to head home for the day. We got home around 21:30, and I just had some late dinner and wine with a group of friends, most of whom were not on the trip to Strasbourg, so we got to discuss some of the things we did. As per usual, our discussions were fun and went a long time, and I turned in late to bed, to wake up even later on Sunday. But that was okay, because it was a good weekend nonetheless!!
First week of classes!!!
Though I realize it has been a while since I posted, maybe a week or two, I cannot remember, I have a good reason. My charging cord for my computer and cell phone both broke, and because of that, when I had time to post this weekend, I had no energy on any of these devices. But that has been taken care of.
Talk about that extremely frightening, overwhelming first day of school feeling. I am not talking about coming back for your senior year of high school; I am talking about full-fledged HOLY COW College is scary, or even first day of middle school type stuff. Except that needs to be multiplied by German^2 (That is "German*German," the speed at which the German in my lectures was spoken is provided in the multiplication of German by German.) My first lecture of the week was the most difficult thing I think I have yet to have experienced. 90 minutes of Linear Algebra is hard in English, but multiply that by the German^2, which I explained earlier, and it becomes anybody's worst nightmare. I suppose I should probably just explain my whole week shortly.
Monday:
10:00-11:45 Linear Algebra. I frantically took notes to keep up with what the professor was writing on the smart board. It was not until later in the day, that I found out that all of her written notes from lecture, a voice recording of each lecture, and her past lecture sheets were all online!!! That makes learning the material that much easier; PLUS! one of the recommended literatures is written in English!
11:46-12:23 I was on the bus from Campus Bockenheim to go to Campus Westend for my Mikroökonomie 2 course. Yes, unfortunately I have to switch campuses one to three times a day... But it is a good thing I have a bicycle, so the commute is only about 8 minutes, as opposed to waiting for the bus, then being crammed into it like a sardine for 10 minutes. After I arrived at Campus Westend, found my room, sat down, and waited until the travel period between courses (about 30 minutes) was over, someone in the room announced that our course would not be held until the following week. Woo! No class on the first day. I then went to grab a bite to eat at the student cafeteria in Campus Westend.
12:30-16:00 After lunch, I walked back toward Campus Bockenheim, which only took about 20 minutes, so that I could relax and figure out my schedule for the coming semester before I had a German writing course (which I have since then decided is not what I thought it would be, and I dropped it.) Then I sat through that course, and afterwords went back home, ate dinner, and copied some of my Lin. Algebra notes into a cleaner notebook. I used the online resources to have many an epiphany about some of the things in lecture, which made no sense due to the language barrier.
Tuesday:
I woke up not so early, but I was able to get to meet up with friends and go to my first lecture/course, which was supposed to be a German course for which I had already registered. Upon arriving at the lecture and talking with the professor, I was informed that there was no room, though I had been assured of the opposite, and was told to come again on Thursday. So I had then time to exercise, which is always great!
I then had no lectures until 14:00, which was Marketing 1. The professor spoke very articulately and at a good pace, so I had not any problems understanding what he was explaining. After that course ended at 15:45, I had to rush from Campus Westend, where I was, to Campus Bockenheim on my bike.
Back in Bockenheim, I was to attend the Übung (practice/tutoring/exercise) session for my Linear Algebra course. This session lasted until 18:00, after which I went home, ate, studied, and went to bed.
Wednesday was fantastic this week, for I had NO lectures!!! But I bought some warmer bed sheets, trained at the gym, ate, and studied a lot of Linear Algebra!
Thursday was the fun day. I had lecture from 8:00-16:30 in the following order:
Management (which will eventually be taught in English, but on the first day was all in German)
Linear Algebra (once again, ridiculously difficult to understand)
Another German writing course (which turned out to be again not what I was expecting the course to be, plus there were too many people in the small lecture room.)
AkadeMi (which was the course I attended Tuesday, but was told to come back on Thursday, which I did, and I was allowed to take part in the course.)
FRIDAY! I had off!! I went to the Ausländerbehörde in order to turn in my paper work to get my residence permit, which will be coming shortly. In the meantime, I have to carry around a form saying that I have received my permit, it is just in processing at the moment. After that, which took two and a half hours, though I had an appointment, I was able to train, study, eat a good few meals, spend time with friends, and then turn in not too late, for I had a new adventure the next day!! Which I will write about in the next post.
Talk about that extremely frightening, overwhelming first day of school feeling. I am not talking about coming back for your senior year of high school; I am talking about full-fledged HOLY COW College is scary, or even first day of middle school type stuff. Except that needs to be multiplied by German^2 (That is "German*German," the speed at which the German in my lectures was spoken is provided in the multiplication of German by German.) My first lecture of the week was the most difficult thing I think I have yet to have experienced. 90 minutes of Linear Algebra is hard in English, but multiply that by the German^2, which I explained earlier, and it becomes anybody's worst nightmare. I suppose I should probably just explain my whole week shortly.
Monday:
10:00-11:45 Linear Algebra. I frantically took notes to keep up with what the professor was writing on the smart board. It was not until later in the day, that I found out that all of her written notes from lecture, a voice recording of each lecture, and her past lecture sheets were all online!!! That makes learning the material that much easier; PLUS! one of the recommended literatures is written in English!
11:46-12:23 I was on the bus from Campus Bockenheim to go to Campus Westend for my Mikroökonomie 2 course. Yes, unfortunately I have to switch campuses one to three times a day... But it is a good thing I have a bicycle, so the commute is only about 8 minutes, as opposed to waiting for the bus, then being crammed into it like a sardine for 10 minutes. After I arrived at Campus Westend, found my room, sat down, and waited until the travel period between courses (about 30 minutes) was over, someone in the room announced that our course would not be held until the following week. Woo! No class on the first day. I then went to grab a bite to eat at the student cafeteria in Campus Westend.
12:30-16:00 After lunch, I walked back toward Campus Bockenheim, which only took about 20 minutes, so that I could relax and figure out my schedule for the coming semester before I had a German writing course (which I have since then decided is not what I thought it would be, and I dropped it.) Then I sat through that course, and afterwords went back home, ate dinner, and copied some of my Lin. Algebra notes into a cleaner notebook. I used the online resources to have many an epiphany about some of the things in lecture, which made no sense due to the language barrier.
Tuesday:
I woke up not so early, but I was able to get to meet up with friends and go to my first lecture/course, which was supposed to be a German course for which I had already registered. Upon arriving at the lecture and talking with the professor, I was informed that there was no room, though I had been assured of the opposite, and was told to come again on Thursday. So I had then time to exercise, which is always great!
I then had no lectures until 14:00, which was Marketing 1. The professor spoke very articulately and at a good pace, so I had not any problems understanding what he was explaining. After that course ended at 15:45, I had to rush from Campus Westend, where I was, to Campus Bockenheim on my bike.
Back in Bockenheim, I was to attend the Übung (practice/tutoring/exercise) session for my Linear Algebra course. This session lasted until 18:00, after which I went home, ate, studied, and went to bed.
Wednesday was fantastic this week, for I had NO lectures!!! But I bought some warmer bed sheets, trained at the gym, ate, and studied a lot of Linear Algebra!
Thursday was the fun day. I had lecture from 8:00-16:30 in the following order:
Management (which will eventually be taught in English, but on the first day was all in German)
Linear Algebra (once again, ridiculously difficult to understand)
Another German writing course (which turned out to be again not what I was expecting the course to be, plus there were too many people in the small lecture room.)
AkadeMi (which was the course I attended Tuesday, but was told to come back on Thursday, which I did, and I was allowed to take part in the course.)
FRIDAY! I had off!! I went to the Ausländerbehörde in order to turn in my paper work to get my residence permit, which will be coming shortly. In the meantime, I have to carry around a form saying that I have received my permit, it is just in processing at the moment. After that, which took two and a half hours, though I had an appointment, I was able to train, study, eat a good few meals, spend time with friends, and then turn in not too late, for I had a new adventure the next day!! Which I will write about in the next post.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Catching up!!
All right, I know it has been some time since my last post, and I am here now to alleviate any curiosity you may have been having about what I have been up to! :)
Since my trip to Oktoberfest, I have had the entire week free of responsibilities!! And I have been enjoying it a lot. Most of the time I have gotten some extra sleep, gone to the gym, and purchased a few important things like notebooks and the works.
Some of my other purchases have been a bit more substantial, because they will be bringing with them a great deal of life long memories (at least that is the plan)! These include: a reserved place on a day trip to Strasbourg, France, next weekend; a reserved place on a bus to Amsterdam for the weekend; a train ticket to and from Cologne, Germany for a orientation reception for my DAAD Stipend; a ticket to see the operas "Don Giovanni" (in May; the tickets were practically sold out!!) and "The Magic Flute"; another purchase was for a performance of Beethoven's "9th Symphony".
As many of those who know me well know, I will be thoroughly enjoying those last three events because of my constant listening to classical music and finding enjoyment from watching operas!! I am just glad because I will actually get to see them in REAL LIFE!!!
Some other things I have done this week include attending an information session, giving me a lot of helpful information regarding lectures, exams, and the university in general; taking part in a campus tour through one of the four campuses at my university, Campus Westend; and most recently, attending a party hosted by/for medical students at the Goethe-Universität. The cool thing about this party is that it was right on the same block as the Klinikum (university clinic), where all of the medical students will be either attending courses or working on a Praktikum (internship). This party was thrown in this rundown building, and it was absolutely a ton of fun!! Our attendance fee/entrance charge was mainly recommended for entrance, but it was to support the medical students, as sort of a fundraiser. The music was great, the building was packed full of people, but we all still had a wonderful time, and we danced so long, that we were able to catch the first Straßenbahn (tram) home at 4:00am!!
Starting Monday, however, I will begin attending lectures; I will only have one or two a day, but after we get into lectures more, I will be attending what are called Übungen (practices), where you get to work on the things learned in lectures with smaller groups of people. Since the course selection system is different here than in the States, I am a bit worried about doing something in correctly, but I have been ensured many a time that it is way easier than I think! We will see how that goes.
Until next time!
Since my trip to Oktoberfest, I have had the entire week free of responsibilities!! And I have been enjoying it a lot. Most of the time I have gotten some extra sleep, gone to the gym, and purchased a few important things like notebooks and the works.
Some of my other purchases have been a bit more substantial, because they will be bringing with them a great deal of life long memories (at least that is the plan)! These include: a reserved place on a day trip to Strasbourg, France, next weekend; a reserved place on a bus to Amsterdam for the weekend; a train ticket to and from Cologne, Germany for a orientation reception for my DAAD Stipend; a ticket to see the operas "Don Giovanni" (in May; the tickets were practically sold out!!) and "The Magic Flute"; another purchase was for a performance of Beethoven's "9th Symphony".
As many of those who know me well know, I will be thoroughly enjoying those last three events because of my constant listening to classical music and finding enjoyment from watching operas!! I am just glad because I will actually get to see them in REAL LIFE!!!
Some other things I have done this week include attending an information session, giving me a lot of helpful information regarding lectures, exams, and the university in general; taking part in a campus tour through one of the four campuses at my university, Campus Westend; and most recently, attending a party hosted by/for medical students at the Goethe-Universität. The cool thing about this party is that it was right on the same block as the Klinikum (university clinic), where all of the medical students will be either attending courses or working on a Praktikum (internship). This party was thrown in this rundown building, and it was absolutely a ton of fun!! Our attendance fee/entrance charge was mainly recommended for entrance, but it was to support the medical students, as sort of a fundraiser. The music was great, the building was packed full of people, but we all still had a wonderful time, and we danced so long, that we were able to catch the first Straßenbahn (tram) home at 4:00am!!
Starting Monday, however, I will begin attending lectures; I will only have one or two a day, but after we get into lectures more, I will be attending what are called Übungen (practices), where you get to work on the things learned in lectures with smaller groups of people. Since the course selection system is different here than in the States, I am a bit worried about doing something in correctly, but I have been ensured many a time that it is way easier than I think! We will see how that goes.
Until next time!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
End of class and other assorted events!!
After four weeks of taking a language intensive course, I have taken the closing exam and received my grade. I received a 2, which is typically equivalent to a B in American school systems, and with it I received confirmation that I could potentially receive some credit back at my university in the States, which would be nice.
After our exam, that Wednesday, the majority of my language group and I went to a nice restaurant to celebrate the end of the course and the friends we have made along the way! Then we returned to the building, in which I live, for there was also an event being held by one of the international groups, and that was a meeting point. We then went down into the inner city to visit a very popular night club, which unfortunately only a portion of our large group was able to enter, my not being part of it, but another group of friends and I were able to go to another bar and enjoy the night!!
The following day, I spent mostly resting from the night before, and then on Friday I met early in the morning for a follow up lecture with the language course. After the lecture concluded, I met with a few other students from the course, and we took a day trip to Wiesbaden, which is near Frankfurt.
We enjoyed walking around the city, having some frozen yoghurt, and grabbing some coffee before heading back to Frankfurt.
That day I turned in a bit early because on Saturday...
I woke up at 6:00 to prepare for a day trip to Munich to visit Oktoberfest on its last weekend!! Two friends and I met up with our ride share at 8:00 to begin the three-ish hour drive, by car, to Munich. When we arrived slightly after 11:00, the three of us walked to the festival grounds! We waited in line at one of the beer tents, in which all manner of fun Oktoberfest music could be heard. My two friends were able to get into the building when the first large group was let in, but I, unfortunately, did not make the cut, and was forced to wait in line. I waited for several hours, hoping they would let us in soon, but eventually was tired of waiting, so I decided to take off, grab a bite to eat, and it was then that I was informed that two of my friends, one from America, Erin, and one an old GAPP buddy, Lupo, were excited to meet up with me! I informed my two friends, who were in the beer tent, that I was going, and we had made plans to meet up with the ride share guy at the end of the night.
I then spent several hours warming up, eating dinner, and conversing with Erin about her experiences in Bonn for the last month and catching up with Lupo about his studies! Erin then took Lupo and me to meet some of her international friends, whom she met in Bonn and with whom she was staying in Munich. At around 21:40 (9:40pm), I parted with Lupo and Erin at the main Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and met with one of my friends at our meeting point. We had unfortunately lost our other buddy, but the two of us made it back to Frankfurt at around 1:45am Sunday morning, and our friend was able to get home as well, by train.
Tips for those wishing to visit Oktoberfest: plan very far ahead; reserve a place, so you do not have to wait in line; and prepare thoroughly for the weather.
After our exam, that Wednesday, the majority of my language group and I went to a nice restaurant to celebrate the end of the course and the friends we have made along the way! Then we returned to the building, in which I live, for there was also an event being held by one of the international groups, and that was a meeting point. We then went down into the inner city to visit a very popular night club, which unfortunately only a portion of our large group was able to enter, my not being part of it, but another group of friends and I were able to go to another bar and enjoy the night!!
The following day, I spent mostly resting from the night before, and then on Friday I met early in the morning for a follow up lecture with the language course. After the lecture concluded, I met with a few other students from the course, and we took a day trip to Wiesbaden, which is near Frankfurt.
We enjoyed walking around the city, having some frozen yoghurt, and grabbing some coffee before heading back to Frankfurt.
That day I turned in a bit early because on Saturday...
I woke up at 6:00 to prepare for a day trip to Munich to visit Oktoberfest on its last weekend!! Two friends and I met up with our ride share at 8:00 to begin the three-ish hour drive, by car, to Munich. When we arrived slightly after 11:00, the three of us walked to the festival grounds! We waited in line at one of the beer tents, in which all manner of fun Oktoberfest music could be heard. My two friends were able to get into the building when the first large group was let in, but I, unfortunately, did not make the cut, and was forced to wait in line. I waited for several hours, hoping they would let us in soon, but eventually was tired of waiting, so I decided to take off, grab a bite to eat, and it was then that I was informed that two of my friends, one from America, Erin, and one an old GAPP buddy, Lupo, were excited to meet up with me! I informed my two friends, who were in the beer tent, that I was going, and we had made plans to meet up with the ride share guy at the end of the night.
I then spent several hours warming up, eating dinner, and conversing with Erin about her experiences in Bonn for the last month and catching up with Lupo about his studies! Erin then took Lupo and me to meet some of her international friends, whom she met in Bonn and with whom she was staying in Munich. At around 21:40 (9:40pm), I parted with Lupo and Erin at the main Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and met with one of my friends at our meeting point. We had unfortunately lost our other buddy, but the two of us made it back to Frankfurt at around 1:45am Sunday morning, and our friend was able to get home as well, by train.
Tips for those wishing to visit Oktoberfest: plan very far ahead; reserve a place, so you do not have to wait in line; and prepare thoroughly for the weather.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Illness strikes
Hello readers! (I felt like it might be a bit more appropriate to address you all, because you are wonderful readers, friends, family, et cetera! And it makes me feel like I am actually talking to people instead of typing into a computer!)
Well, as per my typical schedule of illness, I have come down with what is a combination of stuffed sinuses, runny nose, coughing, sniffling, i.e. the Common Cold. I have been drinking some nice Chinese tea that one of my neighbors had given me a few weeks ago for lending her 1€, orange juice, and plenty of water. Sleep has been about as good as it can be when I stay up late and wake up early; well, that is just the usual schedule of my inadequate amounts of sleep. But I digress.
What I should have done last week, was go to the store to try to find some simple cold remedies. Since many of my friends from the language course and in my building have been getting sick, we've all been sharing remedy ideas.
Point is, since I think I have been rambling, it would be a good idea for study abroaders to think about stocking up on simple medications. I should have done that a month ago. Darn. Oh well!
Simple post, keep reading! Bye for now!
Well, as per my typical schedule of illness, I have come down with what is a combination of stuffed sinuses, runny nose, coughing, sniffling, i.e. the Common Cold. I have been drinking some nice Chinese tea that one of my neighbors had given me a few weeks ago for lending her 1€, orange juice, and plenty of water. Sleep has been about as good as it can be when I stay up late and wake up early; well, that is just the usual schedule of my inadequate amounts of sleep. But I digress.
What I should have done last week, was go to the store to try to find some simple cold remedies. Since many of my friends from the language course and in my building have been getting sick, we've all been sharing remedy ideas.
Point is, since I think I have been rambling, it would be a good idea for study abroaders to think about stocking up on simple medications. I should have done that a month ago. Darn. Oh well!
Simple post, keep reading! Bye for now!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Birthday Weekend
Although this post may be a bit late, I would like to take the time to describe an interesting event following my quasi-birthday celebration.
Last week Friday, the night of my birthday, a few friends and I decided to cook some dinner before we attended an event with many of the other international students. The dinner was great, the night was fun, and at around 1:30, a few of us decided to go back home.
Unfortunately for us, the trams, buses, and trains all tend to stop running at about 12:30am, with the exception of a few. We were able to take the last tram to the main train station. From there we had either the decision to walk or to rent a taxi. The vote was in favor of a taxi.
Across the street from the tram stop is not only the main train station entrance but also the taxi gathering place. After the decision to travel by taxi, we crossed the street. When the light was red, signaling "do not cross." Upon reaching the other side of the street, we were approached by two police officers, who then asked for our identification. We then handed over our identification, and after about 20 minutes of waiting, we were let off with not only a warning (to not cross the street on red), but I was also given good tidings from the officers for my birthday!
We took the taxi home, and that was the end of a really fun night!
There was another small random party happening on Saturday as well, which further added some enjoyment to my birthday!
Last week Friday, the night of my birthday, a few friends and I decided to cook some dinner before we attended an event with many of the other international students. The dinner was great, the night was fun, and at around 1:30, a few of us decided to go back home.
Unfortunately for us, the trams, buses, and trains all tend to stop running at about 12:30am, with the exception of a few. We were able to take the last tram to the main train station. From there we had either the decision to walk or to rent a taxi. The vote was in favor of a taxi.
Across the street from the tram stop is not only the main train station entrance but also the taxi gathering place. After the decision to travel by taxi, we crossed the street. When the light was red, signaling "do not cross." Upon reaching the other side of the street, we were approached by two police officers, who then asked for our identification. We then handed over our identification, and after about 20 minutes of waiting, we were let off with not only a warning (to not cross the street on red), but I was also given good tidings from the officers for my birthday!
We took the taxi home, and that was the end of a really fun night!
There was another small random party happening on Saturday as well, which further added some enjoyment to my birthday!
Sunday, September 15, 2013
A really German weekend!
Although I have been in Germany now for over a week, the only German I have been exposed to has been in my language course, which consists of mostly listening and not much discussion; speaking German with other exchange students, which can sometimes be difficult when we do not know the words to explain what we want in German, so we usually switch languages; and talking to shop owners or people on the street (for directions for example). Not until this week have I really been fully and entirely drowned in German, and I mean that in a really positive way!!
After my small mishap with getting to the bus on time, and after a four hour bus ride, I arrived in Nürnberg, Germany to meet up with old GAPP exchange partners and to reunite some long-awaited friendships! Dani and Tobi picked me up from the bus stop, and thus began the beginning of a great weekend!
Upon arriving at their house, in which I was to stay the whole weekend, I met Dani and Tobi's parents for the first time in person, which was exciting!! After being shown my room and eating a very delicious and filling dinner, Dani, Tobi, and I went out on our own small bar tour, which turned out to be one of my longest and most entertaining nights in Germany! During our tour of a few bars, I met a lot of new faces, and I also got to see Moni and Anna, who were GAPP students in 2011 with Dani. Our final stop of the night was at a "club" known as A3 which had no more than 15 people in it, and the music played was some of the silliest music I have ever heard! BUT we danced and it was fun anyways! The night ended around 4:30am after a long yet fun trek back home.
The next morning, we ate breakfast, and shortly after, Dani and I met up with Jana and Jonas, my host sister and host brother from 2009!! We ate lunch, walked around Altdorf for a while, and then we made our way back to Dani's house. It was absolutely wonderful seeing friends (although they are more like family) whom I have not seen in such a long time!! :)
With Dani's family, we drove Tobi to his university in Bayreuth, and I had dinner with the family at a restaurant known as Oskar's. And upon returning home for the night, Dani, Moni, Anna (friends of Dani), and I played a board game, whose name is currently failing me, which required the players to write down answers to excruciatingly difficult questions, in order to bluff his/her way into receiving points to make it all around the game board. At the beginning of the game I was doing very well, winning I mean, but toward the end of the game, Moni overtook me and won the game; I came in second!! By then, I think, I had expended as much of my German speaking as I could, and we all turned in for the night around 1:00am.
In the morning, we ate breakfast and sat around the table into the afternoon, and afterwards we went to the Grundschule (grade school) for Dani and his parents, Jürgen and Sandra, to vote. Then it was goodbye to Jürgen and Sandra, and Dani and I drove to pick up another long-lost friend, Lupo!!! The three of us then drove to Nürnberg for one last meal together and a nice stroll through Nürnberg, and many memories began to flow back to me, seeing Nürnberg again! Thereafter we walked to the bus station for a few last words, some goodbyes, and I was off again to Frankfurt.
The whole weekend was really wonderful for a plethora of reasons. The most important was that I got to see great friends again whom I had not seen for two or four years! Another very great thing about the weekend was that I spoke German 98% of the time, and those around me also spoke only German; so this weekend was really my first taste of actually being fully aware that I am indeed in Germany. It was a great practice for my language, as well as an excitement for those around me who had not seen me for so long; the last time I was in Germany, I could speak maybe 20 different sentences, all of which were memorized and simple. And after speaking German for 72 hours, I hope that it really pushes me to speak more German, and I really do await my semester beginning, for I know I will have much more German there as well.
After my small mishap with getting to the bus on time, and after a four hour bus ride, I arrived in Nürnberg, Germany to meet up with old GAPP exchange partners and to reunite some long-awaited friendships! Dani and Tobi picked me up from the bus stop, and thus began the beginning of a great weekend!
Upon arriving at their house, in which I was to stay the whole weekend, I met Dani and Tobi's parents for the first time in person, which was exciting!! After being shown my room and eating a very delicious and filling dinner, Dani, Tobi, and I went out on our own small bar tour, which turned out to be one of my longest and most entertaining nights in Germany! During our tour of a few bars, I met a lot of new faces, and I also got to see Moni and Anna, who were GAPP students in 2011 with Dani. Our final stop of the night was at a "club" known as A3 which had no more than 15 people in it, and the music played was some of the silliest music I have ever heard! BUT we danced and it was fun anyways! The night ended around 4:30am after a long yet fun trek back home.
The next morning, we ate breakfast, and shortly after, Dani and I met up with Jana and Jonas, my host sister and host brother from 2009!! We ate lunch, walked around Altdorf for a while, and then we made our way back to Dani's house. It was absolutely wonderful seeing friends (although they are more like family) whom I have not seen in such a long time!! :)
With Dani's family, we drove Tobi to his university in Bayreuth, and I had dinner with the family at a restaurant known as Oskar's. And upon returning home for the night, Dani, Moni, Anna (friends of Dani), and I played a board game, whose name is currently failing me, which required the players to write down answers to excruciatingly difficult questions, in order to bluff his/her way into receiving points to make it all around the game board. At the beginning of the game I was doing very well, winning I mean, but toward the end of the game, Moni overtook me and won the game; I came in second!! By then, I think, I had expended as much of my German speaking as I could, and we all turned in for the night around 1:00am.
In the morning, we ate breakfast and sat around the table into the afternoon, and afterwards we went to the Grundschule (grade school) for Dani and his parents, Jürgen and Sandra, to vote. Then it was goodbye to Jürgen and Sandra, and Dani and I drove to pick up another long-lost friend, Lupo!!! The three of us then drove to Nürnberg for one last meal together and a nice stroll through Nürnberg, and many memories began to flow back to me, seeing Nürnberg again! Thereafter we walked to the bus station for a few last words, some goodbyes, and I was off again to Frankfurt.
The whole weekend was really wonderful for a plethora of reasons. The most important was that I got to see great friends again whom I had not seen for two or four years! Another very great thing about the weekend was that I spoke German 98% of the time, and those around me also spoke only German; so this weekend was really my first taste of actually being fully aware that I am indeed in Germany. It was a great practice for my language, as well as an excitement for those around me who had not seen me for so long; the last time I was in Germany, I could speak maybe 20 different sentences, all of which were memorized and simple. And after speaking German for 72 hours, I hope that it really pushes me to speak more German, and I really do await my semester beginning, for I know I will have much more German there as well.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Trip to Nürnberg almost began badly!!
This will be a short post.
Today I had tickets for the inexpensive bus transit to Nürnberg from Frankfurt and back again for the weekend. The bus left at 15:05, exactly five minutes after its scheduled departure. Due to a train which was entfällt (forgotten/lost/skipped) and my less than good knowledge of the transit system, I arrived at the bus, after running inbetween traffic of other buses, cars, and trams, at exactly 15:03; I had just enough time to ask the driver if this was the bus going to Nürnberg before he shut the door!
Travellers beware! Be sure you allow enough time for mishaps like I had if you need to make a certain deadline!
But I made it, and soon I will be reunited with some old GAPP friends and families! :)
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Meeting friends and the perks that come with them!
After the first week, well it was not really a full week, but you get the point, I began to meet some more people. So far, I have met many, many people from around Europe, most of whom are students on a European wide exchange program called ERASMUS. I have met and befriended many students from Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Finland, Holland, Ireland, et cetera, you get the point! What is really cool about having newly made friends from around Europe, is that they all speak German really well, and they also speak English. These last few days we have had small gatherings in one of the communal kitchens in our building, and the conversations bounce around between German, English, Greek, and Polish! I am actually starting to learn just small bits and pieces of Greek and Polish!! :)
I have also met two awesome guys who are from UW-Lacrosse!! Small world!
Another great thing about having met my group of international friends, is that their organization, ERASMUS, has planned out for them different trips, on which the entire group goes together, and I plan on tagging along on many of these trips, just to experience parts of this country with my friends! Why not, right?!
One of the events took place last night. At 20:00 (8:00pm) the ERASMUS students were to meet by the Südhauptbahnhof, where they were going to go on a pub-crawl to four different bars in the inner city. I, of course, decided to tag along! Before we left our building, my friends and I met at 18:00 to have a group dinner and have a few drinks before heading out to the event. We had a nice smorgasbord of sausages, bread, very soupy spinach, and some sauce filled meat balls, along with some other random fixings. Like many of our other nights spent in the kitchen, our conversations bounced around the different languages! Then we left for the pub-crawl to join up with a group of about 100 international students. 100 students all going to different bars together! "This will be interesting," I thought to myself, but we made it work! Each of the bars we went to, although tiny, was able to accommodate about 1/3 to 1/2 of our group at a time; people would get there drinks then go outside the bars to enjoy them, because in Germany, it is legal to drink alcohol out in the open air no matter where you are.
Throughout the night I got to meet a lot more of the international students, who were friends with the friends I had already met, and again conversations ranged between a variety of languages; but if I had to keep track, I think that 75% of the conversations I was a part of took place in German!! (By now I have been in Germany for more than one week, and as of this past Tuesday, I have felt that my brain is now beginning to process German much easier than the last week; I have had my language course for about 3-6 hours a day, and I have just been exposed to the language for a lot longer now.)
At the end of the night, we were luckily able to catch the LAST train home!
This morning then, Thursday, I was able to go with my friend, Aga, to FINALLY get our Immatrikulation (enrollment) paperwork turned in, so in two weeks, I can pick up my student ID/free transit ticket, my GoetheCard, and that will mean the only more paperwork I need to get is my residence permit to stay in the country!!
That about does it for now. I have bought bus tickets to go down to Nürnberg to visit some of my old GAPP exchange students this weekend!! I am so excited for that!!
I have also met two awesome guys who are from UW-Lacrosse!! Small world!
Another great thing about having met my group of international friends, is that their organization, ERASMUS, has planned out for them different trips, on which the entire group goes together, and I plan on tagging along on many of these trips, just to experience parts of this country with my friends! Why not, right?!
One of the events took place last night. At 20:00 (8:00pm) the ERASMUS students were to meet by the Südhauptbahnhof, where they were going to go on a pub-crawl to four different bars in the inner city. I, of course, decided to tag along! Before we left our building, my friends and I met at 18:00 to have a group dinner and have a few drinks before heading out to the event. We had a nice smorgasbord of sausages, bread, very soupy spinach, and some sauce filled meat balls, along with some other random fixings. Like many of our other nights spent in the kitchen, our conversations bounced around the different languages! Then we left for the pub-crawl to join up with a group of about 100 international students. 100 students all going to different bars together! "This will be interesting," I thought to myself, but we made it work! Each of the bars we went to, although tiny, was able to accommodate about 1/3 to 1/2 of our group at a time; people would get there drinks then go outside the bars to enjoy them, because in Germany, it is legal to drink alcohol out in the open air no matter where you are.
Throughout the night I got to meet a lot more of the international students, who were friends with the friends I had already met, and again conversations ranged between a variety of languages; but if I had to keep track, I think that 75% of the conversations I was a part of took place in German!! (By now I have been in Germany for more than one week, and as of this past Tuesday, I have felt that my brain is now beginning to process German much easier than the last week; I have had my language course for about 3-6 hours a day, and I have just been exposed to the language for a lot longer now.)
At the end of the night, we were luckily able to catch the LAST train home!
This morning then, Thursday, I was able to go with my friend, Aga, to FINALLY get our Immatrikulation (enrollment) paperwork turned in, so in two weeks, I can pick up my student ID/free transit ticket, my GoetheCard, and that will mean the only more paperwork I need to get is my residence permit to stay in the country!!
That about does it for now. I have bought bus tickets to go down to Nürnberg to visit some of my old GAPP exchange students this weekend!! I am so excited for that!!
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Wandering: can be very helpful and can do some damage!
Today began quite as calmly as it could have, being a Saturday morning and having absolutely no responsibilities or plans of any kind. After I woke up, had breakfast, and bought some very delicious food, which I directly after prepared for lunch, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood to a) get a bit lost, b) to find my way to the Grüneburgpark, which is very, very delightful and calm, and c) to walk to the main campus of my university, Campus Westend.
Walking through the neighborhood and the park was nice, for I had gotten lost and found my direction again quite easily. The park was nice, and I plan on spending many a morning/afternoon running through it for my exercise in the coming months. While wandering my campus also, I was amazed at how large many of the buildings are, many twice the size of Hyland Hall (for you Whitewater people), but all of them at least the same size as Hyland.
One of the buildings I decided to go into was one I had visited the other day to attempt to turn in some paperwork. While I was looking around, checking out the different areas, I walked to the end of the hallway and through a door, which proceeded to lock behind me. At first I thought it was no problem, for I was then in a stairwell, and I presumed their may be a door leading out of the building or to one of the ground floors. And there were, except that the doors to every other floor were locked, and the door to the outside was a Notfall Tür (emergency door).
After trying every single door on every single floor (seven floors total), I decided that my only option was to call the only emergency number I knew, 112, which gets one to the Feuerwerk (fire department). I explained to the operator on the phone that I was an exchange student who had been in Frankfurt for a few days now and had been exploring the campus and one of the buildings, the name of which the operator did not know, but I was able to explain where it was on the campus, and he explained to me that I was to use the Notfall Tür, pressing the emergency button to open the door, and he would take care of everything else. He was very helpful, even though I had lost service and had to call back, possibly blocking up their emergency lines, but what was I to do!? I was quite literally trapped! I asked him if he needed my name or information to inform anyone from the building, and he told me that every was good, and I need not worry about any consequences. He also was surprised when I told him that I was from the USA because I had conducted the entire 10 minute, mildly scared and a bit exasperated, good, understandable German.
Moral of the story, for those of you possibly studying abroad: though it may not be vital to know the host language of the country, it can prove to be EXCRUCIATINGLY helpful in emergency situations; wandering is good, but make sure you do not get yourself in a tight situation; KNOW THE EMERGENCY NUMBERS!! without prior knowledge of the emergency numbers in Germany (110 and 112), I would have been stuck in that building, or I would have had to use the emergency exit without an emergency, and I could have gotten in trouble; minor tip: have a map or know building names, landmarks, street names, bus stops, bus route number, train numbers, et cetera.
Walking through the neighborhood and the park was nice, for I had gotten lost and found my direction again quite easily. The park was nice, and I plan on spending many a morning/afternoon running through it for my exercise in the coming months. While wandering my campus also, I was amazed at how large many of the buildings are, many twice the size of Hyland Hall (for you Whitewater people), but all of them at least the same size as Hyland.
One of the buildings I decided to go into was one I had visited the other day to attempt to turn in some paperwork. While I was looking around, checking out the different areas, I walked to the end of the hallway and through a door, which proceeded to lock behind me. At first I thought it was no problem, for I was then in a stairwell, and I presumed their may be a door leading out of the building or to one of the ground floors. And there were, except that the doors to every other floor were locked, and the door to the outside was a Notfall Tür (emergency door).
After trying every single door on every single floor (seven floors total), I decided that my only option was to call the only emergency number I knew, 112, which gets one to the Feuerwerk (fire department). I explained to the operator on the phone that I was an exchange student who had been in Frankfurt for a few days now and had been exploring the campus and one of the buildings, the name of which the operator did not know, but I was able to explain where it was on the campus, and he explained to me that I was to use the Notfall Tür, pressing the emergency button to open the door, and he would take care of everything else. He was very helpful, even though I had lost service and had to call back, possibly blocking up their emergency lines, but what was I to do!? I was quite literally trapped! I asked him if he needed my name or information to inform anyone from the building, and he told me that every was good, and I need not worry about any consequences. He also was surprised when I told him that I was from the USA because I had conducted the entire 10 minute, mildly scared and a bit exasperated, good, understandable German.
Moral of the story, for those of you possibly studying abroad: though it may not be vital to know the host language of the country, it can prove to be EXCRUCIATINGLY helpful in emergency situations; wandering is good, but make sure you do not get yourself in a tight situation; KNOW THE EMERGENCY NUMBERS!! without prior knowledge of the emergency numbers in Germany (110 and 112), I would have been stuck in that building, or I would have had to use the emergency exit without an emergency, and I could have gotten in trouble; minor tip: have a map or know building names, landmarks, street names, bus stops, bus route number, train numbers, et cetera.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Day 2 and a bit of Day 3
Day two in Germany; Day two sneaking time off of Starbucks' Internet! Although, if I come back tomorrow, I get a half priced drink!
On my second day in Germany, fear not I will not be posting every day, but much more is happening in these first couple of days, I had many a thing to do during the day. The first, after sleeping only seven hours yet feeling fantastisch, was to go to an appointment at Commerzbank to open a bank account with them. My newly befriended Polish friend and I went together to the Commerzbank right off of one of the Straßenbahn Warten (tram stops). When we arrived, and I spoke with the teller asking about my appointment, he informed me that I was at the wrong bank, for I had made an appointment with the Filiale (headquarters of the bank, so to speak), and we had to walk down the street about five blocks to find the correct address, after we had walked two blocks in the wrong direction! Alles klar! We arrived finally, later than we should have, but we had not known in which directions the bus routes went, though the bus would have taken us directly in front of the building in 1/3 the time. The woman at the bank was very friendly, helpful, and understanding to my situation, but I was able to conduct the entire bank account opening progress in the most German I had used in months! There were only a few times when I had to ask her to either say it another way, in German, or try to explain in English. By the end of the appointment, I had a bank account, had put money into it, transferred money to the proper accounts for my Immatrikulation (enrollment fees), as well as transfer money for my Polish friend, Aga, who would not be able to open her account for a week or so, and I also acted as a quasi-interpreter between the woman at the bank and Aga, in order to get some of the basic paperwork done for her account.
This second event, with the interpreting, took place after Aga and I had gone to the Bürgeramt (municipal building) to register our places of residence with the police/city/state/country? I am not quite sure, but it is an important document which international residents are required to get. That was about a fifteen minute appointment. So that was good!
After all of this, she and I returned to our residences, and then I had plans with which to follow up, to meet with Andrew Pechmann at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). He and I managed to find a delicious restaurant, serving some sort of delicious curry-pork-rice-vegetable mixture! That and the few beers we had (my first beers of being in Germany), brought us back to the Hauptbahnhof, where he left and I went back to my residence around 8:30pm, to fall asleep promptly afterward, for I was still quite exhausted from a bit of jet-lag and my first day of being awake 30+ hours and walking everywhere.
Now onto the third day, a bit shorter, I ate breakfast and met with Aga, for we had to find our testing room before 10am. It is quite close to our residence, and after asking directions of two separate people, we found the way to the room, whilst bringing along another small group of international students. The test was quite different from what I expected. We had thirty minutes maximum to write answers to four questions, in German obviously: Why we chose to study in Germany; why we chose the Goethe-Uni; what our reasons were; and what sorts of expectations we had about Frankfurt, the Uni, und so weiter (et cetera). After finishing the test, I called the International Office to try to figure out when we could get our Immatrikulation (one of the LAST, and right now most difficult, documents we need to acquire) from said office, and it seems that Monday we should be able to go right after our language course to get these papers. After this, she and I met up with my wonderful friend and guide to Frankfurt, Svenja (!!!), to help us find many a necessity in our dorm/apartment-style residences. I was able to get some inexpensive silverware, dishes, cooking utensils, a pot and a pan, and, FINALLY, a pair of sandals to wear around in the shower. CAUTION: Those studying abroad, if you will be living in a dorm with a common toilet room/shower room, bring your own sandals; we went to five stores to find mine today, and there were in a fitness store and much more expensive than they needed to be for a cheap pair of sandals, meaning, if you can bring $1 sandals from home, do it!
Positives so far: the language is becoming easier, now that I have more sleep, and I have had to use it to do some very adult things, i.e. open a bank account, make phone calls to register classes, ask for directions, und so weiter; I am excited for my language course to begin; I am becoming ever more familiar with this city, in its enormity, and its transit system; I vow to learn how to cook, for buying food at street vendors and restaurants would be expensive (so if you have any simple recipes for noodles or chicken or something with vegetables or a mixture of things, PLEASE!! let me know via Facebook or a comment here)! There is a lot of room for exciting things to take place!!!!
Negatives: for I have not been exposed to many students my age, I have not had a chance to practice German in my free time, and I have not met many people, but this will change through the language program I hope!; down time is difficult to enjoy, for I have no Internet access and familiarizing myself with the city does become very tiring after a long day; it is relatively expensive to start off a new life in another country, having to buy a lot of things right away, things which one would not normally think about because we are used to having them so close at hand when living at home; not having student dining services fifty feet from my room (Drumlin Dining Hall, for those who know UW-Whitewater) forces one to have to cook for oneself or spend time and money looking for a place to eat in the city (which is hard to do efficiently without Internet access); limited Internet access, also a bummer.
Alles wird besser!! (Everything will become better!!)
Thank you for reading, and we will see how the weekend goes!
On my second day in Germany, fear not I will not be posting every day, but much more is happening in these first couple of days, I had many a thing to do during the day. The first, after sleeping only seven hours yet feeling fantastisch, was to go to an appointment at Commerzbank to open a bank account with them. My newly befriended Polish friend and I went together to the Commerzbank right off of one of the Straßenbahn Warten (tram stops). When we arrived, and I spoke with the teller asking about my appointment, he informed me that I was at the wrong bank, for I had made an appointment with the Filiale (headquarters of the bank, so to speak), and we had to walk down the street about five blocks to find the correct address, after we had walked two blocks in the wrong direction! Alles klar! We arrived finally, later than we should have, but we had not known in which directions the bus routes went, though the bus would have taken us directly in front of the building in 1/3 the time. The woman at the bank was very friendly, helpful, and understanding to my situation, but I was able to conduct the entire bank account opening progress in the most German I had used in months! There were only a few times when I had to ask her to either say it another way, in German, or try to explain in English. By the end of the appointment, I had a bank account, had put money into it, transferred money to the proper accounts for my Immatrikulation (enrollment fees), as well as transfer money for my Polish friend, Aga, who would not be able to open her account for a week or so, and I also acted as a quasi-interpreter between the woman at the bank and Aga, in order to get some of the basic paperwork done for her account.
This second event, with the interpreting, took place after Aga and I had gone to the Bürgeramt (municipal building) to register our places of residence with the police/city/state/country? I am not quite sure, but it is an important document which international residents are required to get. That was about a fifteen minute appointment. So that was good!
After all of this, she and I returned to our residences, and then I had plans with which to follow up, to meet with Andrew Pechmann at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). He and I managed to find a delicious restaurant, serving some sort of delicious curry-pork-rice-vegetable mixture! That and the few beers we had (my first beers of being in Germany), brought us back to the Hauptbahnhof, where he left and I went back to my residence around 8:30pm, to fall asleep promptly afterward, for I was still quite exhausted from a bit of jet-lag and my first day of being awake 30+ hours and walking everywhere.
Now onto the third day, a bit shorter, I ate breakfast and met with Aga, for we had to find our testing room before 10am. It is quite close to our residence, and after asking directions of two separate people, we found the way to the room, whilst bringing along another small group of international students. The test was quite different from what I expected. We had thirty minutes maximum to write answers to four questions, in German obviously: Why we chose to study in Germany; why we chose the Goethe-Uni; what our reasons were; and what sorts of expectations we had about Frankfurt, the Uni, und so weiter (et cetera). After finishing the test, I called the International Office to try to figure out when we could get our Immatrikulation (one of the LAST, and right now most difficult, documents we need to acquire) from said office, and it seems that Monday we should be able to go right after our language course to get these papers. After this, she and I met up with my wonderful friend and guide to Frankfurt, Svenja (!!!), to help us find many a necessity in our dorm/apartment-style residences. I was able to get some inexpensive silverware, dishes, cooking utensils, a pot and a pan, and, FINALLY, a pair of sandals to wear around in the shower. CAUTION: Those studying abroad, if you will be living in a dorm with a common toilet room/shower room, bring your own sandals; we went to five stores to find mine today, and there were in a fitness store and much more expensive than they needed to be for a cheap pair of sandals, meaning, if you can bring $1 sandals from home, do it!
Positives so far: the language is becoming easier, now that I have more sleep, and I have had to use it to do some very adult things, i.e. open a bank account, make phone calls to register classes, ask for directions, und so weiter; I am excited for my language course to begin; I am becoming ever more familiar with this city, in its enormity, and its transit system; I vow to learn how to cook, for buying food at street vendors and restaurants would be expensive (so if you have any simple recipes for noodles or chicken or something with vegetables or a mixture of things, PLEASE!! let me know via Facebook or a comment here)! There is a lot of room for exciting things to take place!!!!
Negatives: for I have not been exposed to many students my age, I have not had a chance to practice German in my free time, and I have not met many people, but this will change through the language program I hope!; down time is difficult to enjoy, for I have no Internet access and familiarizing myself with the city does become very tiring after a long day; it is relatively expensive to start off a new life in another country, having to buy a lot of things right away, things which one would not normally think about because we are used to having them so close at hand when living at home; not having student dining services fifty feet from my room (Drumlin Dining Hall, for those who know UW-Whitewater) forces one to have to cook for oneself or spend time and money looking for a place to eat in the city (which is hard to do efficiently without Internet access); limited Internet access, also a bummer.
Alles wird besser!! (Everything will become better!!)
Thank you for reading, and we will see how the weekend goes!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Day 1
Well, I am currently able to write this post due to my Wi-Fi mooching abilities; thank you, Starbucks. So, my first day:
Of course it is difficult to get a lot of sleep the night before one leaves the country for a year. In saying that, I was only able to acquire about five hours of sleep my first night, and I did not get any on the plane to Germany (do not do that!! Sleep on the plane!!). However, once I arrived in Germany, I immediately had a conversation in German with a girl who was sitting in front of me on the plane, coming home to Germany from an internship in the States. After saying good-bye to her, I was able to grab some coffee and breakfast with two friends, Erin and Svenja, who were so very kind to wake up at 6am to pick me up from the airport! Svenja, who lives in Frankfurt, showed us around a little. After breakfast, I dragged my luggage through the Bahnhof (train station), which was silly because I guess I could have left them in the luggage lockers until I acquired my room. I got to my housing office to fill out paperwork, and afterwords, I was given the task of showing a Polish exchange student the way to our building; I mistakenly spoke German to her at first, thinking she was a German student helping me find my way to my building, but that was figured out shortly. When we arrived at our building, we were given very quickly-spoken instructions about the rooms, the paper work, and other things which I cannot remember, and I had to do my best to understand myself and translate for my newly found friend. She and I parted ways, and I moved my things into my room, not really putting anything away, though.
It was around 10:30am when I had finished these things so far, and I decided to try to set up my Internet and find out some of the hours of the buildings I needed to go to in the next couple of days. Unknown to me, I was unable to get connected to the Internet in my building, for I needed my student account information for that, which I will be getting today. So, I decided to take a trip around on the trains, for I had bought a week-long pass, allowing me to travel on any of the public transit vehicles, an unlimited amount of times for one week. I went down to the Bürgeramt (municipal office/hall) to try to acquire one of the many documents I need to prove I exist in this country, but I arrived a bit too late, for it was getting busy, and the building was closing soon, and I needed to meet up with friends for lunch. That, however, was difficult in itself. Keep in mind, I have no Internet, no cellphone, and a map to show me around. We had agreed on a place to meet, but I had forgotten exactly which part of the train stop I was supposed to wait, so I spent about thirty minutes walking around looking for my two friends. We finally found each other, after I had randomly gotten a bloody nose and had been on my feet for hours and was very hungry, so we went to eat.
After eating a quick meal on the street, we went shopping, for I needed many many things to be able to function overnight; things such as shampoo, a broom and dustbin (my floor is tile and was left dirty), wet wipes, and OH YEAH! bed sheets and a pillow (I could not bring that on the plane; not enough room). So after many stores having been searched by us, we found some fairly inexpensive bed sheets and a large pillow for me. Then the three of us went back to my Wohnheim to unpack, show them around, and get my room ready to live in. I also was able to set up my cellphone with a SIM card I bought during our shopping excursion! After we did this, it was time to eat again, and we hopped on the Straßebahn (tram) to head to a very good Döner Imbissstube (Döner snack stand) for some delicious döner and a trip to Svenja's apartment to enjoy them. Around 9:45, I headed back the way I came, surprisingly finding my way home despite being over-tired, unfamiliar with the area, and without my very helpful map. When I was home at last, it was around 10:30, and because we are not supposed to use the floor shower room between 10pm and 6am to be courteous, I just used the sink in my room to wipe away some of the sweat, and I almost immediately crashed on my newly made bed, to sleep a wonderful eight-ish hours to begin a new, and soon to be very busy day!
Thank you for reading about my first day; I know it was long, but a lot happened! It was very stressful at times and also very promising and fun in others. I got to really feel how alone one can really be in a huge city, but I also forced myself to become familiar with the public transit system and rely on directions from maps and locals, and really utilize some of my language skills, which are by no means in the best of shape; I am very rusty with a summer without German.
More posts to come!
It was around 10:30am when I had finished these things so far, and I decided to try to set up my Internet and find out some of the hours of the buildings I needed to go to in the next couple of days. Unknown to me, I was unable to get connected to the Internet in my building, for I needed my student account information for that, which I will be getting today. So, I decided to take a trip around on the trains, for I had bought a week-long pass, allowing me to travel on any of the public transit vehicles, an unlimited amount of times for one week. I went down to the Bürgeramt (municipal office/hall) to try to acquire one of the many documents I need to prove I exist in this country, but I arrived a bit too late, for it was getting busy, and the building was closing soon, and I needed to meet up with friends for lunch. That, however, was difficult in itself. Keep in mind, I have no Internet, no cellphone, and a map to show me around. We had agreed on a place to meet, but I had forgotten exactly which part of the train stop I was supposed to wait, so I spent about thirty minutes walking around looking for my two friends. We finally found each other, after I had randomly gotten a bloody nose and had been on my feet for hours and was very hungry, so we went to eat.
After eating a quick meal on the street, we went shopping, for I needed many many things to be able to function overnight; things such as shampoo, a broom and dustbin (my floor is tile and was left dirty), wet wipes, and OH YEAH! bed sheets and a pillow (I could not bring that on the plane; not enough room). So after many stores having been searched by us, we found some fairly inexpensive bed sheets and a large pillow for me. Then the three of us went back to my Wohnheim to unpack, show them around, and get my room ready to live in. I also was able to set up my cellphone with a SIM card I bought during our shopping excursion! After we did this, it was time to eat again, and we hopped on the Straßebahn (tram) to head to a very good Döner Imbissstube (Döner snack stand) for some delicious döner and a trip to Svenja's apartment to enjoy them. Around 9:45, I headed back the way I came, surprisingly finding my way home despite being over-tired, unfamiliar with the area, and without my very helpful map. When I was home at last, it was around 10:30, and because we are not supposed to use the floor shower room between 10pm and 6am to be courteous, I just used the sink in my room to wipe away some of the sweat, and I almost immediately crashed on my newly made bed, to sleep a wonderful eight-ish hours to begin a new, and soon to be very busy day!
Thank you for reading about my first day; I know it was long, but a lot happened! It was very stressful at times and also very promising and fun in others. I got to really feel how alone one can really be in a huge city, but I also forced myself to become familiar with the public transit system and rely on directions from maps and locals, and really utilize some of my language skills, which are by no means in the best of shape; I am very rusty with a summer without German.
More posts to come!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Pre-departure nerves, where are you?!
Today is currently 01. September, meaning that I depart for Germany in fewer than two days (One day, 21 hours, and 20 minutes, roughly)!!! The thing is, I do not even feel as though I will be leaving the country yet, despite the fact that I will be gone for just over 11 months, we can call it a year.
Everything seems to be done and prepared, though. I have my bags packed with as much as I am able to take at the moment, which is not nearly everything I'll need for a year; I have got my Euro; I have made copies of, stacked, and organized all of the paper work I will need to: open a bank account, enroll at my university, move into my Studentenwohnheim (student dormitory), apply for my visa, and I have also generally familiarized myself with my area, the locations of these places, and some of the train schedules/locations. Even though I have done all of this, I have not once really become nervous for the immense transition it will be to begin a new year/new life in another country.
On another note, it may be prudent to put this in writing, so that anyone reading this can call me out on it if I am not posting regularly: I would like to post once a week minimum to this blog! When I first arrive in Germany, however, I am sure there will be much down time, and I will be able to post some of my first impressions, difficulties, achievements, et cetera, but after the first couple of weeks, expect to be able to read this once a week; I will most likely post on Sundays in the morning or afternoon.
If I promise to keep up with my blog, I want you to do me the honor of reading it as often as possible (if not every week)!! I am leaving a lot of people behind this year, and it would be very difficult, time consuming, and taking from my experiences in Germany if I were to have many the same conversation about what I am doing/what I have done with each one of you. This blog is my way of not only making a memoir of my wonderful year to come, but it is also a way to stay connected with all of my family and friends in America (as well as to be able to inform anyone, who is contemplating studying abroad in college, of some difficulties and advantages of studying abroad; this goes out to you guys, too!)!!!
Everything seems to be done and prepared, though. I have my bags packed with as much as I am able to take at the moment, which is not nearly everything I'll need for a year; I have got my Euro; I have made copies of, stacked, and organized all of the paper work I will need to: open a bank account, enroll at my university, move into my Studentenwohnheim (student dormitory), apply for my visa, and I have also generally familiarized myself with my area, the locations of these places, and some of the train schedules/locations. Even though I have done all of this, I have not once really become nervous for the immense transition it will be to begin a new year/new life in another country.
On another note, it may be prudent to put this in writing, so that anyone reading this can call me out on it if I am not posting regularly: I would like to post once a week minimum to this blog! When I first arrive in Germany, however, I am sure there will be much down time, and I will be able to post some of my first impressions, difficulties, achievements, et cetera, but after the first couple of weeks, expect to be able to read this once a week; I will most likely post on Sundays in the morning or afternoon.
If I promise to keep up with my blog, I want you to do me the honor of reading it as often as possible (if not every week)!! I am leaving a lot of people behind this year, and it would be very difficult, time consuming, and taking from my experiences in Germany if I were to have many the same conversation about what I am doing/what I have done with each one of you. This blog is my way of not only making a memoir of my wonderful year to come, but it is also a way to stay connected with all of my family and friends in America (as well as to be able to inform anyone, who is contemplating studying abroad in college, of some difficulties and advantages of studying abroad; this goes out to you guys, too!)!!!
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Update on the pre-departure information
It has been a while since my last post, but the reasoning for that is because I have not had too much to discuss in the passing months. Since I have really just been working throughout my summer and not thinking too much about the coming journey, I have had little to say.
I have recently begun to look into ticket prices for my flight to Germany. I have not, however, booked any flights, for I am still waiting to figure out some more information about the language intensive course I could take prior to the beginning of my actual studies at the Goethe Universität. This information is to come in about a month.
Since my last post, I have been awarded three very helpful scholarships. Two of them were awarded to me through the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The third, as foretold in my last post, was from the highly esteemed DAAD. I finally received my gigantic packet of information and my official letter of award, which had been so neatly typed out on a typewriter!
More to be told in the coming months!! Tentative departure date, in my mind, is September 2, 2013.
I have recently begun to look into ticket prices for my flight to Germany. I have not, however, booked any flights, for I am still waiting to figure out some more information about the language intensive course I could take prior to the beginning of my actual studies at the Goethe Universität. This information is to come in about a month.
Since my last post, I have been awarded three very helpful scholarships. Two of them were awarded to me through the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The third, as foretold in my last post, was from the highly esteemed DAAD. I finally received my gigantic packet of information and my official letter of award, which had been so neatly typed out on a typewriter!
More to be told in the coming months!! Tentative departure date, in my mind, is September 2, 2013.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Unofficial Acceptance
This is my first post on this soon to be heavily used blog! I would first like to inform everyone, who may not already know, that I have been unofficially accepted to study at the Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Germany! I receive my official letter of acceptance sometime in July, but I have received notification that I will be attending this university for the following academic year 2013-2014! I also have received information from the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst/German Academic Exchange Service) that I have received their prestigious Undergraduate Scholarship stipend. This stipend was one, for which I applied in January 2013 and had been developing and correcting since early October 2012! I have my German professor to thank for all of the help I received!
Having received information about both of these wonderful events within three days of one another, I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, for I hate waiting for huge news like this! Since the waiting game is over, I only have a few more things I need to complete before it's time to travel abroad!
Please keep up with this blog, for I will be doing the same, because it will be easier to update this blog from time to time than to consistently contact all of my friends and family, who will be missing me, daily/weekly/et cetera.
Having received information about both of these wonderful events within three days of one another, I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, for I hate waiting for huge news like this! Since the waiting game is over, I only have a few more things I need to complete before it's time to travel abroad!
Please keep up with this blog, for I will be doing the same, because it will be easier to update this blog from time to time than to consistently contact all of my friends and family, who will be missing me, daily/weekly/et cetera.
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