Meersburg and Konstanz

Hello again! A few weeks ago we took a field trip to the towns of Meersburg and Konstanz on Lake Bondesee (or Lake Constance). It was a beautiful day and the towns were adorable and very old. Switzerland, Austria, and Germany all border Lake Bondesee. I would have really enjoyed the field, however, most of us were utterly exhausted that day so it was hard to really get into the things they had us doing. In Meersburg we first had to tour the old castle that was there. This sounds glamorous, but it really wasn't. Plus our tour guide's English wasn't great, so she took an extremely long time giving the tour and we were all getting impatient and hungry. Luckily after that we got to go to the wine festival that was going on in town. There were multiple stalls to taste wine and some live music. It was very nice. I tried curry wurst there for the first time too. For those of you who don't know, curry wurst is a very special, yummy dish that I believe originated in Berlin. It is my new favorite food. Period. Well, behind poutine at that Hawthorne food cart...

Anyways, after that we took the ferry over to Konstanz where they had us do a self-guided tour of the city. We were all pretty anxious to get it over with though. But the town was great despite our moods, especially the giant münster (cathedral) and the waterfront area, complete with a giant rotating statue of "Imperia". It commemorates the Council of Constance (1414-1418) and she hold in her hands Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigismund. Don't ask me any more details than that.

Soon to come will be my tales of Berlin and Riga!
Tschüs!

Freiburg and the Black Forest

Guten Tag! As per Ben's request I have created a blog to show you all my journeys in Germany and beyond. I can't believe I've only been here for three weeks! The program has kept us busy non-stop and I've already learned a lot about the EU, made some progress in learning German, and have been on three different trips. I haven't even had time to be homesick.

So, where to begin. First of all, the city of Freiburg is awesome. It's got that small town metropolis feel to it, much like Portland. Also like Portland, Freiburg LOVES to recycle and LOVES bikes. They take these things to the extreme. There are about seven different bins for recycling, and huge bike parking lots all over the place. Our program is in the center of town, right next main buildings of the University of Freiburg. The Münsterplatz is the cute main square in downtown where there is an old cathedral that managed to survive WWII. There is an awesome market there six days a week which I have been to a couple times already. Freiburg also has a series of little stream-like things, called a "Bächle" (picture below), that run through town. The legend goes that if you accidentally step into one you will marry a native Freiburger. The tram system is super easy here, I take it everyday to class. The picture above is the view of Freiburg from a Biergarten on a hill called the Schlossberg. Wednesday is two-for-one student night, so we're taking advantage of that while it's still open for the season.


Overall I'm really enjoying the program and the people here. I've already made some good friends, two of which are from GW but I had never met them before. The IES staff are very friendly, but so far the schedule has been exhausting. We had the "intensive" phase of German and EU seminar class which meant we had two hours or each a day for nine days, plus two Sundays in a row of day trips (one to hike in the Black Forest and the other to go to Meersburg and Konstanz). After the intensive phase we went on a six day trip to Berlin and Riga, Latvia. So basically, we've had very little free time. Today we started normal schedule of classes though, so hopefully we'll slow down a bit.

I will try and set up an online picture viewing site for you all to see the HUNDREDS of pictures that I am taking, because this blog will not do my pictures justice. My next posts will be about the Black Forest, Konstanz, Meersburg, Berlin, and Riga. Each one deserves so much time to talk about but I think I'll spare you the long stories... Tschüs!