Peanut Butter

I came here with the understanding that some things would be different. It is interesting, though, the things that actually are and the things I thought would be.

Things that are the same:
1. Teenagers. Actually, pre-teens. They're still loud, still take up the most space on the sidewalk, and still don't care if you're trying to get by.

Things that are similar, and you can find if you look:
1. Non-carbonated bottled water. You have to ask for it, and when you translate the word for 'no bubbles', it ends up as 'without gas'. So nice servers who try to speak in English end up asking you if you want 'water without gas.' It's pretty funny when you hear it for the first time.
2. Peanut Butter, though it comes in a small container. Mine has an American Flag on it and the statue of liberty. Apparently, peanut butter is an American thing.
3. A top sheet. They sell them, but most people just use a duvet and a bottom sheet.

Things that you can't find anywhere:
1. Free refills. You pay 3.50 for a soda, and that's all you get until you order another one.
2. Barbecue sauce. They sell 'American BBQ Ketchup', which is not the same.

Also, something that is incredibly different is the way you tip at restaurants. Service is included, but that only means that servers are paid 6.50 per hour rather than 2.50 plus tips (like they are in the states). When you get your bill, you tell the waitress how much you want to give. You usually round up to the closest even number, but if you think you've gotten excellent service, you give more. This is something foreigners everywhere should know about Germany, because it sucks to wait on a table of rowdy teenagers from Italy who then leave you no tip at the end.

Dan visits part 3: Frankfurt, Breisgau Milch, and St. Patty's Day

Dan and I didn't really do that much else while he was here. The weather was pretty awful, and of course it warmed up and stopped raining the day he left. We had planned to go skiing, but it was too warm and rainy, and the Alps were too far away to get back in time for our train to Frankfurt. It takes about 3 hours to get to any ski/sledding locations in the Alps that are worthwhile. We decided instead to go up to Frankfurt early to bum around for a day and be there in time for Dan's morning plane.

Frankfurt was quite an adventure! We booked a hotel across from the train station - 3 stars, well-reviewed, fairly cheap. It sounded like just what we needed. On the train up there, however, we started reading my travel book's entry about Frankfurt, which began with a warning that Frankfurt has a large drug/prostitute scene, most of which is concentrated right around the train station. Great. So we get to our hotel, and they have us booked for a 1 person room, not a 2 person room. This was my fault, since I didn't realize that one bed meant one small twin bed. So they rebooked us, and we went upstairs. We had a little trouble opening our door, but the maid helped us out; we put our things down and went out. We accidentally took a less populated street (right by our hotel) to get to the city center, and passed what was undoubtedly a drug house. I have never seen so many smelly, creepy people. We did not walk down that way again! The rest of Frankfurt was very nice, and very busy! They had closed part of the sidewalk in one of the main parts of the city, and moving down the remaining part of the sidewalk was unbelievable - you couldn't turn around! I've never been so close to so many people in my life. Neither Dan nor I lost our wallets, thank goodness. We wandered for a while, then returned (via a different route) back to our hotel. Once again, we couldn't open our door. Both of us tried, but neither could turn the key far enough. I went downstairs and told the lady that our door still wouldn't open. She walked back up with me, explaining that it was so easy. But as she tried to open our door her eyes got big. The other part of the lock had fallen off on the inside, with all of our things in the room. The manager gave us another room, apologized profusely, and promised that the locksmith would arrive soon so we could get our things. They brought our things up to us an hour later.

The next day was awful, because it meant Dan was leaving. I cried the whole way to the airport, we both cried at the gate, and I continued crying on the train back. A mother sitting across from me noticed how upset I was and gave me a tissue. I finally stopped crying before I transferred to the second train, where I met two new American exchange students, going to Freiburg. We talked, I helped them with their luggage, and sat with them on the train. It was nice, and I certainly wish someone who knew what was going on had been there to help me upon my arrival!

Dan's pommes frites sauce, which means french fry sauce, which is mayonnaise. Gross.

Downtown Frankfurt

A really cool building in Frankfurt. We went inside to escape the crowds, but it was a mall and no less crowded than the streets.

This Tuesday, after Dan left, we took a tour of Breisgau Milch, the local milk factory. Milk is pasturized differently here, and some of it does not need to be refridgerated. Most of the tour was difficult to understand because the guide was both far away and had a very strong Badish accent (Baden is the region I am in, and Badish is the dialect). It was cool, though, to see that, when people recycle milk bottles, they go back to the factory to be washed out and reused. The Germans love their recycling. We also got to wear the stylish outfits, pictured below, complete with hairnets for our tour.

Bryce and BethAnne modeling our milk-tour outfits. Bryce goes to Bowdoin with me.

Our souvenirs from the milk factory.

Tuesday was also St. Patricks day, so of course we dressed in green and went out. A bunch of us ended up at the bar I work for, since it is an Irish pub. They had a live band, and we danced and had green beer. We left early, so that we wouldn't miss our tram, and went to Burger king for late night snacks while we waited for our tram to arrive. Burger King is a little different here - everything is a little more expensive, because they need to know exactly where the meat came from. This was instituted after the most recent mad cow scare. But the fries are still good, and it's a little bit of the US in Freiburg. It also happens to be situated next to McDonald's, Subway, and Starbucks.

My job is pretty awesome. The first night was crazy, because they had us two newbies working the floor alone. The experienced worker had called in sick, and nobody could fill in. I got sassed by some Italians who were underage - you have to be 16 to drink beer and wine, and 18 for hard alcohol. If I serve them and get caught, I personally get fined 1000 euro. I chose to ask them for IDs, and half of the group left. I also got asked for my number 4 times, and got mistaken for being French (again). We finally finished working at 2.3o AM, then sat around and had a beer until the wee hours of the morning. It was nice, though, because I know now that I really do have a home at the Irish pub, and that they would help me if I needed anything.

Burger King after St. Patty's Day

Hiking the Schlossberg

Wednesday, the last day of my language intensive course, we went hiking in the Sclossberg. Schlossberg is Freiburg's local mountain. It's not that tall, but it has amazing views. Here are a few:

The path that goes around Schlossberg. People walk and run this every day.

Downtown Freiburg, and the Munster
Doesn't it look so European?

We then wandered in the Schwarzwald for a while, and finally came to a cathedral where an ugly blind girl washed her eyes in a stream and became beautiful and able to see. Legend says if you wash your eyes, you will be cured of eye problems. I washed my eyes, but unfortunately still need contacts. Maybe it takes a little time to work.

Deutsch is wie ein Legospiel (German is like a lego game) - Dan visits part 2

Another view of my room. The poor plant on the floor is dying, and I was trying to give it some sunlight.

While Dan was here I continued going to class (most days). We learned the longest word in the German language: Donaudamphschiffahrtsgeschellschaftskapitansmütze. It is a very, very specific kind of hat worn by a ship captain. Our teacher explained to us that it is a very logical word - each part is like a building block, or lego game. I still think it's a little ridiculous. We also learned words like a 'Katzensprung' or cat's jump, usually used to explain that something is just a cat's jump away (like a stone's-throw away in English).

We also got to go to the museum of modern art. It was interesting, though I don't have a very great appreciation of modern art.

I also acquired a job at an Irish pub! It's hard work, but I'm excited about it. I'm only working 2 nights a week, for about 4 hours at a time, at 6.50 per hour plus tips. Germans do not tip very well at all. But, the job gives me a home base that's not in IES, and makes me use my German constantly. Most of the time I can get by with what I know and a good smile. Occastionally, though, a Swiss group will come in that I can't understand. A few days ago some Russian teenagers came in with strong accents, too. But for the most part, I can figure it out with some pointing and simple words. The pub itself is pretty fun, and there is always something happening. Tonight, for example, is Karaoke night. The Americans in town love it, while the Germans are pretty fond of Thursday's line dancing. Dan came with me to my first night at work last Wednesday, and sat at the bar until my friends showed up for support. It was wonderful, though I got teased pretty heavily for having to bring my boyfriend to my first night on the job. I'm glad he came, though.

Modern Art

My class at the museum. The lady on the far right is my teacher Bettine.

My favorite piece of art in the museum. It's a painting of Freiburg from the top of one of the old gates. I wish they had copies of this that I could hang in my room.

Dan Visits, Part 1

Dan left yesterday, and his visit is why I haven't updated in a week. The day he got here I took the train to Frankfurt to pick him up, and skipped out on wine tasting in Colmar, France with the other IES stuents. I had to leave my dorm at 5:30 in the morning to get to the train station on time. It was especially hard to get up, since I hadn't slept very well the night before - the smoke detector needed either a filter or battery change, and beeped all night long to alert me. And the dorm's caretaker is only around on Tuesdays and Thursday, which meant it beeped from Friday night to Tuesday morning. Anyway, I took the train to Frankfurt, successfully found Dan, and headed back. We both slept a lot on Saturday, and until about 11:30 AM on Sunday. Thank goodness Kiersten (one of the IES girls) called and woke us up, because we would have missed the soccer game!

The soccer game was such an experience. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were squeezed in like sardines and I couldn't see much beyond what I did take pictures of. That kind of closeness would never have been allowed in the US, but was totally okay in Europe. We bought standing room seats for 7 euros, which meant we had to push our way to wherever we could see. It was actually a lot of fun, even though we were so close. There was so much chanting at the team - the noise was incredible! The cool thing about soccer in Europe is that everyone is on their feet for the whole 90 minutes, and screaming the entire time (unlike baseball games). The game was complete with a fight, which was exciting. I bought a scarf that says "SC Freiburg" to support the team, and had a beer and a wurst while watching the game. Stadium food is actually fairly cheap - 2.50 for a beer and the same price for a wurst. Interestingly, the paraphanalia stands are all closed during the game so that the propriators can watch! Freiburg won the game 2-1. The fans were especially happy because Freiburg is currently first place in their league (which means if they keep on winning, they will be moved up to the top league in Germany), and the team that is currently second in the league lost their game that day.

After the game, Dan and I met up with a few other IES students for a beer at one of the local bars. We ended up ordering a meter of beers, which is literally a meter long box filled with 8 glasses of beer. All in all, we had a fantastic day.

Kiersten, Dan and me at the Soccer game.

The opposing team's fans get segregated so that fights don't break out (which is funny, but actually a good idea). The opposition is in yellow, and Freiburg's fans are in red.

The fight, and a nice view of the back of some heads. This was my view for the entire game.

BethAnne, one of the other IES girls, screaming at the soccer game.

Dan and me! One of my favorite pictures of all time.

A close-up of our meter of beer

Rain, rain, rain

I finally put up pictures in my room, so I could take a picture of the inside of my room. This is the only one so far because it's been so rainy and dark that my white room looks like a bleak cell in photos, though not in real life. It's actually very comfortable. And yes, I make my bed like this every day. Life in Germany is making me more organized, believe it or not. Even my roommates, who are a little messy by German standards, are the cleanest and most organized people I've ever lived with. And very respectful of others' space and things.


For the last few days, Freiburg has had an excessive amount of cold rain. It's the kind of rain that drips steadily all day, creates giant puddles, and gets everything everywhere soaked. And I made the mistake of buying a dollar-store umbrella, which promptly broke. I have now invested in a (slightly) more expensive umbrella. Due to the rain, I don't have any pictures from the last two days. I do, however, have pictures from before that.

Earlier this week we got to go on a field trip during class. Come to think of it, we've done that every day except for today. Anyway, our field trip was a scavenger hunt around a part of the city that we don't know very well. The class split up into two groups, and my group got to go to the part of the city that is essentially a hippie commune. It's actually pretty cool - all of the buildings have solar panels on the roof, and many are made out of recycled materials. Some people live in RVs, old streetcars, and treehouses along the road. Most of the resteraunts are all natural markets. It felt very familiar, and all of the people looked like they belonged at the Common Ground Fair in Maine, which made me comfortable.

On a whole, Germany is much 'greener' than America - everything is recyclable, and people actually take the time to sort things out and recycle them. I'm very impressed with the public transportation, too. And though it's not that fun to have to walk everywhere in the rain, it feels much healthier than at home. Some of the other IES students and I were talking the other day about how people are not necessarily more athletic, but they are thinner. An obese person looks very out of place here, and would have a very hard time doing anything. The seats on the streetcars are small, bathrooms are small, doors are small: everything would be much more difficult as a large person. It would be hard to be big here, since portions are smaller, food has less preservatives, and you walk everywhere. Which is all very good.

The hippie part of town, Vauban.

Mini horses in Vauban

This building is 100% made of recycled materials
Trying to orient ourselves. I did not take this picture, but I like it!

Some of the strange things people live in. That treehouse is someone's home!

A pirate ship playground in the hippie part of town! And Kiersten, one of the other IES girls.

battle with the wash

Today was laundry day, mostly because my roommate decided to show me how to do it. Unfortunately, this meant buying laundry detergent. Who knew that German laundry detergent doesn't smell good, that only fabric softener does. Challenge #1 was finding laundry detergent. Challenge #2: the machine itself. I figured it out eventually, though did not figure out temperature settings in time. Therefore, all of my once white clothes are a lovely shade of gray. Anything pink is slightly purple. Everything else was dark, so it was saved. The culprit, besides my lack of understanding of wash temperature, was a pair of socks that I stole from the airplane. Navy blue socks. I put everything together since I don't have enough to wash yet, and usually it's okay at school as long as I wash it all on cold.
On tomorrow's shopping list? Bleach.

Class

I forgot to add this to the last post! It's prayer flags at the top of the observation tower on the mountain.

Class is so much fun so far! I'm not sure how much I'm actually learning, but hearing German constantly is definitely helping, and so is having a teacher to tell me when my grammar is wrong. Most people in sores or on the street just look at us sympathetically when we try to speak in German. Though, I'm finding that the majority of the time, all you need to do is speak with confidence and people will help you. Unfortunately, that's the first thing to go when I'm tired or stressed.

So far, we haven't had much work at all. Class is 4 hours a day, from 9-1:15 ish with a break for coffee/baked goods in the middle. The bakery is just around the corner, next to a cafe and an erotic store (how classy). But the food is good, and the coffee is better. I have to catch the s-bahn that comes at 8:29 exactly, because German transportation is always on time, and then walk 15 minutes from the s-bahn stop to the school. After class I've been running errands or going to meetings at the IES center. I think most of my errands are done, though. I've been pretty surprised by the things I need, and I'll get home only to discover I've forgotten something. Food was the first thing I got, but I didn't even think about ziplock baggies to take things to class. And I've had a lot of trouble with my Key Bank card - first they blocked it, then cancelled it, and it took THREE phone calls to get it working again. That was yesterday's adventure. That, and a class field trip to the city museum. Freiburg is a very old city, and we learned all about it's history yesterday. We saw how it was built up: it started as a marketplace, then grew, and the citizens bought their freedom from the monarch. We learned that the territory went back and forth between Austria and France, before becoming part of Germany. And we learned that, though most of the city was destroyed by bombs in WWII, the church remained intact.

Part of the University. Our class is inside.

The courtyard of the red University building.

The marketplace next to the church. The white building on the right is the city museum. This was where we had our field trip yesterday.

I also bought some very European looking walking shoes, and have worn them a lot already. Now I really look like a German. If only I could converse like one!

My very European shoes.

Wandern

On Saturday we went 'hiking.' Really, we took a gondola up the hill, wandered around at the top, and had lunch. We could either do this trip or go snowshoeing, and I seriously considered snowshoeing, but decided I would rather get to know people in a relaxed environment than while working out heavily. It was a good decision.

Gondolas

On the way up we passed these windmills. Apparently there was a big debate in Freiburg about whether or not the windmills could be installed on the mountain: while they are energy efficient, they are incredibly ugly. Efficiency won.
'Hiking'

The snow was so high! And it had definitely melted a little by the time we got there.
We had an awesome view at the top of the mountain. Beyond the branches of the tree on the right, you can see the town of Freiburg. The mountains in the background are France!

The other side was even cooler. The mountains in the background (the farthest back - they're hard to see in the picture) are the Swiss Alps. One of them is the Matterhorn, but nobody knew which one. All of the black in the picture is the Black Forest. Julia, one of the IES guides, says that it is very easy to tell what is part of the Black Forest compared to the rest of the forests in Germany because it is distinctly darker from afar.

The hiking group at the top of the mountain.
Carvings like this were all over the top of the mountain. This particular one is called the Spirit of the Black Forest.

Wilkommen im Freiburg!

It's my fifth day in Freiburg! Already, my English is deteriorating so that whenever I say or write something, it comes out sounding like it's been translated from German. But, my German is improving!

Today is Sunday, which means nothing is open. Not even supermarkets. I'm using it as an opportunity to sleep late and catch up on writing. Maybe I'll go exploring in a little while, but right now I'm enjoying doing nothing.

Aside from German, I have improved in a few other areas. I now know how to navigate the s-bahn, which is the public transportation system throughout the city. You can also take the bus, but the s-bahn stops across the street from my room, which makes it much more convenient. It comes every 7 minutes or so, from 4 am until 12.30 pm. A few nights ago, we accidentally took it too far and ended up on the outskirts of town with nothing around but a video store (which had a giant sign saying 'EROTIK' on the outside...) and a gas station. The gas station attendant kindly called us a cab, and we took it back to our dorm. Now we know which stop is ours.

My very colorful dorm

My dorm is on the western part of town (I think), in a more residential area. Across the street is the s-bahn, and behind us are houses and apartments. Beyond that, about 5 minutes from us, is a bakery, a small supermarket, and a few more small stores. I bought groceries a few days ago - just the staples like bread, meat, cheese, butter, and nutella - and yesterday I bought more at a different store in town that looked like it had better produce. Our first grocery experience involved us accidentally stealing a lady's shopping cart. Apparently the carts are locked together outside, and you need to put a euro in to unlock one, which you get back after you lock the cart back up. We didn't know this, and just took the first cart we saw. The lady was very nice about it, though, and explained how it works and what to do next time. She even said we speak very good German! I've found everyone to be incredibly nice here, which is a relief. And though people are a lot more private, they are for the most part very friendly.

The view from my window. Those are mountains in the background!

Freiburg is picturesque

Downtown Freiburg