Again, so much has happened, but I'm gonna talk about the highlights since the last update :)
Wednesday, July 11th
We went to Heidelberg! Let me tell you my friends, this place is awesome. The two hour bus ride with the bus driver who was torturing us by playing German Polka music over the speakers at a volume that could be heard all the way in Mongolia was totally worth it. We started the trip by taking a tour of the Heidelberg Castle. It was really cool, but I''ll admit, the highlight of the tour was the guide company's fascination with George Clooney. There is this one statue of this prince in the castle that they SWEAR looks identical to the Cloon-meister. Personally, I didn't see it. But the guide sat there for a solid 30 minutes gushing over it. Then she whips out an autographed photo of Mr. Clooney himself explaining how they had mailed him a picture of the statue and had received that in return. Literally, we were standing in front of a 800 year old castle, filled to the brim with history, and the guide is more excited about George Clooney.
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| The awe inspiring George Clooney Statue |
We spent the rest of the day poking around stores and having lunch. We ate at this little Italian cafe, and the handmade ravioli in cream sauce that I had was delicious. Yummm!
Near the end of the day we came to a small shop that sold Schneeballen. For those of you who don't know, Schneeballs are these German desserts that are kind like sugar cookies that are rolled into this weird ball and then covered in an assortment of things (ie. sprinkles and chocolate). I got so excited, because I remember trying these in Rothenburg the last time that my family and I were in Germany. I gathered the team around and spend a good 5 minutes describing how these delectable treats were God's gift to mankind, and how they were the best things these people would ever taste, and how they make birds sing prettier and colors seem brighter, and how we needed to go inside immediately and purchase a small truckload amount because they were just so damn good! My friends finally cut me off and we went into the shop and settled on splitting one.
And it was awful. Dry and plain and yucky. And they all looked at me like I was crazy, which is when I remembered, when we tried them in Rothenburg, we hated them too. So I had remembered eating them, and I had remembered having an overwhelming feeling for them, but I guess I had just confused exactly which feeling it was. Oops. Taught them to listen to me anymore.
Friday, July 13th
Highlight of the day was going to the movies. We went and saw "The Chernobyl Diaries". The whole thing was in German and I was very proud that I understood almost all of it. Go me! The best part of the experience though was going down the 3-story slide. Yes, my friends, in the movie theatre here they have a 3-story, super steep, spiral slide. I was the first to attempt it, and it was awesome! I didn't expect to go as fast as I did, and I squealed the whole time that I flipped and flopped down it. I ended up coming out at the end upside-down and backwards and sans shoes. The theatre employees laughed at me.
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| Small part of the Heidelberg Castle |
Miya and I decided that we needed a little spontaneity in our lives, and so we went to the train station with no plan in mind. Being students of the university here means that we have train passes that will take us about an hour out of the city for free, and so we boarded the first train that came that would be free for us and road it until we saw a bunch of people exit, and we got off too. The stop was for a town called Kirchzarten, and that was good enough for us.
When we first got off the train, it looked like we had ended up in a neighbourhood. We figured we'd walk in one direction for a little bit and headed onwards.
Thank goodness we did. Kirchzarten ended up being this sweet little town. "Quaint" would be the perfect word to describe it. There were little shops and bakeries in the square, a campground with a neat public swimming pool, rows of houses and bed & breakfasts, and a big church in the middle. On this particular day, there was a big wedding at the church. There was a German "oompa" band playing tubas and whatnot, and all the men had on goofy looking German hats.
We wandered around the streets looking at the cute homes and inns and finally made it to the edge of the town where we had a killer view of the Schwarzwald Mountains. After we took around 3453498 pictures (more or less), we grabbed some ice cream (obviously) and then made our way back to Freiburg. We're planning on going again soon to show our other friends our little find.
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| View from Kirchzarten |
The four of us (Me, Melissa, Miya, and Traci) plus one German friend all woke up at 6 am and train-ed it to EUROPA PARK! This place was awesome! Think Disneyland/World for Germany. I'm not kidding. Like... I really don't know how Disney hasn't sued this place in some way. There were so many similarities to Disney that it couldn't have been a coincidence. Consider the following...
a.) Their main "mascot", which can be seen all over the park, is a mouse.
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| Mouse knock-off (and random Dolphin...) |
c.) The park is divided into different "pavilions" of different European countries. Very EPCOT-esque.
d.) There is a "Kali River Rapids" ride
e.) There is a (really shitty) Jungle Cruise
f.) There is an EPCOT ball. It is very irrelevant, and smaller than ours at Disney, but why would they have this?
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| What!? Really?! |
h.) And this is the most eerie one... They have a "Haunted Mansion" that is almost EXACTLY like Disney's. You get into the ride and get into an elevator. Disney. The elevator stretches. Disney. When the elevator stretches, the seemingly sweet portraits on the wall become longer and show dangerous situations. Disney. There are doors that are knocking with no one there. Disney. There is a ballroom scene with dancing ghosts. Disney. They even have those same singing statue heads!! DISNEY!!!
Even though this place was cramping on my Disney style, it was still pretty damn awesome. It was raining all day so there were virtually no lines, which was perfect because we were able to walk right onto some of the HUGE roller coasters. These things means business! The last one we went on was definitely the most intense coaster I have ever been on. So much fun! The park also had cool shows in each of the "countries", and we saw a circ-du-solei type show in Holland, a Flamenco dancing show in Spain, and a Ice Skating show in Greece.
One highlight of the day was our dinner. The place we ate was called the "food loop", and it was epic. Basically, you sit in a circular table where there are 15 people divided into 3 smaller groups. In the center of our circle was this twisty metal track that spawned from the ceiling. There was also a rotating platform in the center which housed condiments, silverware, and a place to put dishes. Your specific seat has a number, for example, I was seat number 7. For the 5 of us in our group we had one computer. This computer is how we order. So I ordered my food via computer and put it in as seat number 7, and a few minutes later, a pot with my dinner came flying down a ramp from an unknown location, spiraled down the ramp in the middle of the table, and stopped at my place. Dinner was served. It was so cool!!
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| Inside picture of the "Food Loop" |
We made a group dinner, and then sat on Anna's (another friend in the group) porch and talked for hours. I can't say this enough, but I seriously lucked out with the people on this trip. We get along so great, and literally never run out of things to talk about. Last night we ended up each posing a new philosophical question, and then answered them. I can't explain to anyone outside of the program how well we mesh together. We laugh more than I can explain, and we can talk about incredibly immature topics, as well as topics that are so deep and question everything I've ever thought about life. We've only known each other for 3 weeks, and yet we've formed this inseparable family. And the best part is that it can continue after this program. So many time I've made friendships that mean so much to me, but once we finish camp/study abroad/the internship or what have you, we all have to move back to our respective states and our friendship fizzles out. But the great thing about us here is that we all go to CSU, so when we move back, it's not the end. And thank goodness, because these friendships aren't something I could give up easily.
Tuesday, July 17th
I've got to be honest, today was probably my favourite day in Freiburg thus far. After class, the 5 of us (Traci, Anna, Miya, Adara and I) went to the market that is in the Church square. We meandered from stand to stand and had real, honest to God conversations with local Freiburgers, completely in German. We talked to the woman at the Honey stand for a good 15 minutes, and she let us try local honey and honey schnapps. We had a conversation with the man who made homemade mustard and balsamic vinegar. The lady at the herb stand gave us free candies, and the man who worked at the toy stand taught how to properly pronounce the word for "squirrel" in German (Eichhornchen... it is physically impossible for American's to say correctly). It was just so amazing interacting with these people in this foreign language. This is why I came here. Everyone was so friendly to us and wanted to get to know us and the whole time we were just beaming with pride because of our ability to speak this language. I mean, my German is far, far from perfect, and I have an insurmountable amount to learn still, but I can get around Germany in their language on their terms, and that, to me, is priceless.
So friends, things are good here in Germany. I am really feeling at home and I'm becoming loads more comfortable with everything.
Tomorrow we are going to Titisee for the day, and Thursday we leave for our next adventure... 4 days in AUSTRIA.
Until Next Time,
Meggie
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