"I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing" -- Homer Simpson

Greetings all.

A weekend of fun has just come to an end.

Friday, I basked in the fact that I have no class by sleeping in. My roommate wanted to go second-hand clothing shopping, so I went with her. We walked all over Freiburg for about 2 hours, and then I called it quits so I could do grocery shopping. I loaded up on groceries for the week, barely fitting all of them into my backpack and plastic bag that I had brought along (remember, you have to pay for plastic bags in Germany). There was a party for international students at one of the dorm complexes, so we went over. It turned out to be pretty low-key, and we all called it a night fairly early.

On Saturday, I woke up around 7:30, and boarded a train with two friends for Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Wuerttemburg. Thus began my Oktoberfest experience. This isn’t THE Oktoberfest of which so many people speak. Rather, it’s a regional one which is very similar. After being kicked off one train (our ticket apparently good for the express train), we boarded a regional train for Stuttgart. We could tell that the Volksfest was most of the passengers’ destination, as people were decked out in traditional German clothing, were singing German folk songs, and were dancing in the aisles. After about 45 minutes, we arrived at Stuttgart’s main train station. Rather than look for signs or ask around, we just followed the crowd, which took us to the S-Bahn (Schnellbahn or Stadtbahn; public transportation) and then boarded a local train labeled “Volksfestlinie.” We arrived at the festival grounds after a few stops. It was a huge area, complete with two ferris wheels, roller coasters, and the main attractions, Festzelten. Literally, that means “party tent.” They weren’t so much tents as static structures. Inside each one were kitchens, bathrooms, rows and rows of picnic tables, stages and soundsystems. We walked into the first one we saw. A band was playing inside, and people were standing on the tables, dancing and singing along. We couldn’t find seats inside, but we eventually found outdoor seating which was ultimately more rewarding, because it was such a beautiful day. Our waitress promptly walked up and asked us what we wanted. We each ordered a liter of beer (the standard size at German festivals) and half of a chicken. Not 5 minutes later, we were presented with the biggest beers I had ever seen, and the most tender, succulent chicken I’ve ever eaten (next to the chicken prepared by my mother J). Everything was so good, we ordered another round. I had another half-chicken, and my friends ate traditional German Wurst, sausages. We wandered around for a bit more, and my friends wanted to stop at another tent. We picked one and were immediately singled out by people from, of all places, Penn State! My friend was wearing his PSU t-shirt. We sat and talked with them for a bit, and then moved on.

We didn’t think it would be smart to ride a roller coaster after 2 liters of beer and a whole chicken. We are indeed smart individuals.

We caught the 9:15 train back to Freiburg, at which point I was exhausted. I slept in late on Sunday morning, and then went to meet some people in town to go to a soccer game.

Freiburg’s soccer team is called S.C. Freiburg, Sport Club Freiburg. Whereas in America sport teams’ names are usually the city followed by the name (i.e. Philadelphia Phillies), most European sport teams have an abbreviation followed by the city’s name (for example, F.C. is the most common, standing for “Football Club”). Most teams also have a nickname given to them by their fans. S.C. Freiburg are referred to as the “Breisgau-Brasilianer,” meaning “the Brazilians from the Breisgau.” This is a take on the fact that Brazil is regarded as the best international soccer team, and Breisgau is the region in which Freiburg lies.

Anyways, I donned my S.C. Freiburg scarf and we headed out to the stadium. It’s a small venue compared to Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Ballpark, but the fan’s enthusiasm counterbalanced the stadium’s size. Almost non-stop from when the team walked out to do warm-ups to the game’s last whistle, people were yelling, chanting, and beating drums. When the starting lineups were announced, sometimes the fans shouted “Fussballgott” after a particular player was announced. The nickname denotes particularly skilled players, and translates to “god of soccer.” Whereas in Philadelphia if, say, Pat Burrell were to foul out or strike out, he’d get booed by all the fans. In Freiburg, when a player missed a shot, they were lauded for their effort. In the end, Freiburg won 2-0. At almost the same time, the German national team won the Women’s World Cup against Brazil, so there was much celebration in the stadium.

Well, it was a fun-filled weekend, but I have homework to do. We have a packed weekend coming up, including hiking the Alps, a trip to a smaller German town called Staufen, a soccer game against the program staff, and a concert featuring one of the staff members’ country music band (believe it or not).

So I leave you by saying, Prost!

#4 - Pictures

Well, I've been explaining how everything is, so now it's time to show you all how it is.
Welcome to Stühlinger. This is a view outside of my room's window.

Münstermarkt, the fresh food market in the town square.

The European Parliament.

Strasbourg, France. Beautiful.

My new home, Freiburg, Germany.

The Black Forest.

Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle near Colmar, France.

A street in Eguisheim, France. It's almost out of a child's storybook.

At the German Foreign Ministry.

The town square in Tallinn, Estonia.

The "vicious" guard dogs at the Irish embassy in Estonia.

Tallinn's Old Town section.

Hope you enjoyed this! More to come!

Blog #3 - Cows and Communism

Hey everyone. We just returned to Freiburg from our second academic field trip, this one going to Berlin and Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Before I get into that, here are pictures from the cow festival I mentioned in the last blog entry.

It was an interesting festival. The baby cows were cute until someone yelled out “hey, look at the veal!” I also rode a mechanical bull with mild success. I don’t plan on taking it up as a hobby.

So, back to the field trip. We left Freiburg around 8AM last Tuesday. We took a train to Mannheim, another town in Baden-Württemburg, and changed trains for Berlin. On the train ride I learned to appreciate something called Frikadellenbrötchen, a Danish meatball sandwich. They are delectable. If you ever get the chance I highly suggest trying one.

Traveling by train is more fun than traveling by plane, in my opinion. I really enjoyed seeing the German countryside as we sped along at upwards of 200 km/h. We rode Germany’s equivalent of Acela, the ICE. That stands for InterCity Express. It was a smooth, comfortable 5-hour train ride from Mannheim to Berlin. We arrived at Berlin Hauptbanhof, a new train station that was built not too long ago. It is a very fancy-looking building, with east-west trains running above ground and north-south trains running on ground level.

We took a local train to Friedrichstrasse, and then walked a few blocks to our hostel. It was a very modern building, and had a bar that showed soccer…er…football games. At night the bar would fill up with young fans who hooped and hollered every time a goal was scored. What’s interesting about staying at hostels is that you meet lots of people around your age who come from all over the world. We made up most of the American population, but we mostly ran into Australians. We sat down and talked with three of them about our cultures. One of the more amusing things I found out was that Australians don’t like to use complete words. They always described themselves as “’Stralians” and were not hesitant to admit their linguistic laziness. I was interested to find out that when Australians travel, they travel for months at a time because their country is so much farther away from the world’s more popular travel destinations.

But enough about the Aussies. Berlin caught me somewhat off guard. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect about the city. I knew that it had been divided from 1961 to 1989, but I wasn’t sure how that would’ve affected the city’s physical makeup. We stayed in the former East Berlin, which was a sorry system of Socialist-style structures. Sorry, I was in an alliterative mood. As to be expected, a lot of East Berlin’s buildings were built in the Socialist style, which means large, grey and bland. We didn’t venture into the West too much. We visited the Jewish Memorial which was designed by a New York architect and walked through the Brandenburger Tor, which was completed in 1791, survived complete destruction in World War II, and was where John F. Kennedy pronounced himself a jelly donut in 1963. We saw the Reichstag building from our tour bus, as well as the new, ultra-modern Chancellery building.

We visited Humboldt University, one of Europe’s most prestigious universities. There we met with the Secretary General of the European Movement, a government-funded grassroots (kind of oxymoronic, no?) organization that seeks to speed up communication between the German federal government and the European Union. His speech was a little contradictory, in that he stated that his organization sees Europe as becoming an increasingly federal system, yet he denied the existence of any “pan-European” identity. But hey, I’ll save the political analysis for my essay that’s due in two days.

Our next meeting was with Mr. Gernot Erler, one of Germany’s two Ministers of State. That is, he is the second most powerful figure in Germany’s Foreign Ministry. He is a member of the Social Democrat Party which is currently in coalition with the Christian Democrat/Christian Social Union parties. He is also the most intimidating-looking person I’ve ever met.

All that aside, his speech was a very thorough summary of Germany’s accomplishments during its presidency of the European Union. He answered all of our questions very articulately, unlike most politicians who like to sidestep questions. On a side not, he sounded like Henry Kissinger.

After Berlin we flew to the cold lands of the north. That is, we went to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Estonia is the northernmost Baltic State, which borders Russia to the east and Latvia to the south. It’s a small country, but is very excited to be a member of the European Union as we learned from out meeting with Aivo Orav, a political director at Estonia’s foreign ministry. This was my first trip to a former Soviet Republic. I’ve been to a former Soviet satellite (Czech Republic). You can tell that the memory of the Soviet era still looms, as characterized by more big grey buildings, buses that look like they’re from the early 1980’s, and the omnipresence of the Russian language. Estonia’s largest minority are Russians, who came over from Russia during the Soviet era. Almost every sign is written in Estonia (one of the goofiest languages I’ve ever seen; I’ll elaborate later), Russian and English.

I was very impressed with Tallinn. We stayed in the “up-town,” the older section. The city’s medieval walls and town hall still stand. There is a town square with neat little alleyways and streets jutting off of it. The downtown area was just as modern as any other major city though. Sure enough, there were McDonalds’ and 5-story shopping malls. What impressed me most about Tallinn, however, was how many people spoke English and how well they spoke it. I was quite glad that they did, because I could not understand Estonian at all. Imagine a few common English words, then double up on the vowels and add a few extra syllables, and you’ve got something that resembles Estonian. For example, a souvenir store is called “suuveniiridid.” I thought Dutch was a goofy-looking language, but then I saw Estonian. Streets bore names such as “Toompea” and “Rahukohtu,” while signs advertised things such as “Kohvik-Restoran Merevaikus Patkuli Vaateplats.” Don’t ask me what it means. You’d think “Pood” would mean “food,” but it doesn’t.

My main complaint about Tallinn was the weather. It wasn’t quite as cold as I thought it would be, but it did rain an awful lot. Much to my dismay, my umbrella with the European Union’s circle of stars refused to function and kept on flipping inside out. I hope that isn’t a microcosm of how the European Union functions. I hope it continues to work properly.

Myself and 4 others braved the rain and wind, walking 2 kilometers to a palace that formerly belonged to Peter the Great, a Russian czar. The palace has been turned into a museum housing artwork that Peter owned. It had a lot of nice pieces of art, and had a well-kept courtyard garden out back. We wandered a little further up the street and found the residence of the Estonian president. Instead of a White House, they have a Pink House. How quaint.

Our time in Tallinn ended with a farewell dinner at a traditional Estonian restaurant. While we were eating we were serenaded by an Estonian accordion player. Due to a mixup in the menu, I was given a plate of salmon. As most of you know, I hate seafood, but I thought to myself “when in Tallinn, do as the Tallinners (?) do.” So I ate salmon, and it wasn’t too bad. For dessert we had caramel cake, which tasted a bit like graham crackers. Yum!

Our time in Tallinn was also marred by the departure. We were supposed to wake up at 4AM and be on the bus by 5AM, in preparation for our 7AM flight. My alarm didn’t go off, and we didn’t receive our wake-up call, so I woke up to one of my roommates (who had been partaking of Tallinn’s vibrant nightlife) stumbling into the room and saying “guys, everyone is on the bus, we have to get downstairs now!” I packed in about 30 seconds, losing a pair of flip-flops and my razor in the process. We got on the bus about 10 after 5 and got to the airport, boarded our flight, and arrived in Frankfurt am Main at 8AM.

That said, I’m still a bit tired. I’m going to rest for a bit and then start to write my essay.

Thanks for stopping by.

-Dave

#2

Hallo und herzlich Gruß aus Freiburg, Deutschland!

I have been in Germany for almost two weeks now, and I think it’s time for an update.

First, a little about the area in which I live. I live in southwest Germany, in a state called Baden-Württemburg. Baden and Württemburg used to be sovereign states before the German unification process in the late 1800’s. After World War II the area was occupied by France, and then was incorporated into the Federal German Republic, aka West Germany.

I live in one of Baden-Württemburg’s larger towns, Freiburg im Breisgau. It is about 45 minutes away from France and about an hour away from Switzerland. The town was founded sometime around 1120, when it was an independent trading town. Several centuries later it was placed under the protection of the Austrian (Habsburg) Empire. It is a beautiful town which blends old and new. For example, the town’s main church, Münster, was built in the 13^th century and a large portion of the city features cobblestone streets, but these are accompanied by stores such as Foot Locker, H&M, and unfortunately McDonald’s. In fact, one of the town’s two gates, Martinstor, is emblazoned with the McDonald’s logo. It’s kind of sickening. I’ll post pictures as soon as I have internet access in my room.

Anyways, I left Philadelphia on September 1 at 6PM and arrived in Barcelona, Spain around 8AM. With a four hour layover, I decided to keep myself busy by buying a duty-free bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin and by doing a bit of reading. After my layover I flew to Basel, Switzerland and then caught a bus to Freiburg. I took a cab to my hostel and got into contact with some of my trip-mates who had posted their phone numbers online. I quickly made friends with them.

Our first few days consisted of more orientation meetings than I would have liked, and more beer-drinking sessions than I’d like to admit.

Our class schedule right now consists of 2 hours of German and 2 hours of political science each day. We even had class on Saturday, much to our dismay. After classes are over, people usually go out to eat in groups or go shopping, as we are all still tying up loose ends with clothing and living arrangements. Dinner parties are a popular nighttime activity, as well as going to pubs or beer gardens.

Last Tuesday we went to Strasbourg, France to visit the European Parliament building. The European Parliament is an interesting establishment, in which delegates speak in their own languages, which are translated and repeated to other delegates through the use of headphones. While it may seem confusing, this is part of the EU’s attempt to negate the idea that the EU’s ultimate goal is to homogenize European culture, i.e. one universal language.

Last Saturday we went out to a club. Yes, I danced, believe it or not.

On Sunday we went hiking in the Black Forest, which is east of Freiburg im Breisgau. It offered spectacular views of the German countryside, as well as a look at a small village called St. (in German, Sankt) Peter.

Yesterday I bought a pair of bongos and jammed with a kid who bought a guitar. We are going to practice a few times and then go out to be street performers. If I can make 35 Euros before we leave Germany, I will have broken even on my musical expenses and will be satisfied.

This weekend, we are taking a trip to Alsace on Saturday, and then attending something called “Almabtrieb” in the Black Forest. It’s some kind of festival that involves dressing cows up in costumes. I’ll be sure to post pictures of that. On Tuesday the 18^th we leave for Berlin, then onto Tallinn (the capital city of Estonia, the northernmost Baltic state)

As for the Germans, they’re interesting people. Most of them speak very good English, especially the younger people. They have a good fashion sense as well. However, Germany has not escaped America’s influence in that area as well. The oh-so-popular emo style and hip hop style have permeated German society as well. Black jeans with black jackets and white studded belts can be seen, as well as Roca-Wear jeans along with flat-brimmed slightly sideways New York Yankees baseball hats. The strangest thing I’ve seen, however, is the popularity of the mullet. Kids wear mullets, sometimes spiked, sometimes with dyed hair tips, sometimes with patterns shaven into the sides of their heads.

They have interesting customs that threw me off initially. When going to a supermarket, most people bring their own bags, as plastic shopping bags cost a little extra. That said, the Germans are very environmentally conscious. Whereas an average American kitchen will have one trash can and maybe a recycle bucket, every German kitchen has four receptacles. One is for paper, one is for plastic recyclables, and one is Restmüll, biodegradable material such as banana peels and cake crumbs. The fourth is a crate for glass bottles, which are taken to recycling bins labeled Weißglas, Braunglas, or Grünglas (white, brown and green glass). Beer and soda bottles made of glass can also be returned to stores for a Pfand, a deposit refund. It sounds complicated, but I got used to it after about a week.

Further evidence of their environmentally-friendly nature is the fact that Freiburg’s mayor is from the Green Party, and that Freiburg’s area provided more votes for Green Party members to parliament than any other area in Germany. The preferred mode of transportation in Freiburg is the bicycle. Cars are a rare sight in the older part of town, save for the occasional delivery truck.

Another thing I found interesting is their wedding customs. In America, people used to tie cans to strings and drag them from behind a limo when a couple gets married. In Germany, wedding processions ride through the streets beeping their horns and waving at anyone walking by. Anyone who says that the Germans are stern, expressionless people clearly has not been to Germany yet.

Well, I should probably get back to homework now. More to come.

Bis dann,

Dave