November 27
We had a short class this morning because we are taking a trip to Vienna for the weekend. We left the Schloss around 11:30 and took the train to Zell. From Zell we went to Salzburg but the train there was full and for some reason we couldn’t just stand on it. We tried to get to the next train for Vienna but we just missed it. We only had to wait a half hour for the next train. I watched the movie Ink on the train. Very weird.
The group split up because we are staying at 3 different hotels. We had to hustle to get to ours and then hustle to our meeting point for dinner. Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet. This is only the second buffet we’ve had on this trip. The food was really good but we had to hurry because it was closing not too long after we got there.
That night we tried to get out to the Christmas market but they were just closing up as we got there. We will have time to go tomorrow.
November 28
Breakfast at the hotel was good. We had eggs and bacon and nectarines. That’s a weird combination. We spent most of the day at the Christmas markets and shopping. So it wasn’t the most fun day for me. I did get to see a lot of the city and eat at a really good Japanese restaurant. We did a lot of walking and I’m really tired right now. I called home and talked to the family because I didn’t talk to them on Thanksgiving. At night we went back out to the Christmas markets again and got some hot drinks.
November 29
It was a long train ride back to the Schloss. Fortunately our longest train had electricity and I just watched heroes for about 4 hours. I was really glad that I decided to bring my computer on this trip. We got back just in time for dinner.
November 30
We only have a few days of class left. We got our review sheet for our international business final today. The end of the semester is almost here. We have finals on Thursday and Friday. I don’t actually have to have all of my homework done by then but it would feel nice.
Today was a day to work on our group projects. They are so confusing because there are 4-5 of them and with only 26 people I’m in so many different groups with so many different people. Right now everybody is freaking out about homework and finals.
December 1
December 2
Today we gave our presentations for international business. Mine was about bringing mountain dew to Austria. We also gave presentations for Studying for final, flag factory
December 3
Couldn’t sleep, final int business
December 4
Krampus, sledding, Final consumer b. Snowball fight. Goodbye laura, snowboard bindngs
December 5
I think 13 of us are going snowboarding today. We left the Schloss by 6:30, carrying all of our snowboarding gear down the hill. I wore my snowboarding boots and it was so much easier to get down the hill.
We took the bus to a second bus that took us to Kaprun.
December 6
What a strange day. Really the day started at 3 AM when I got up to start packing. My alarm went off and I couldn’t find it so it beeped for a couple minutes. My bag is the fullest it’s ever been. Until now I’ve had extra space and didn’t ever have much trouble packing. Our bus leaves at 4:30 but we’re supposed to go down to the lower parking lot at 4:15.
The bus ride was nice. We talked for about 15 minutes and then everybody fell asleep. We got to the airport in Munich by 7. Saying goodbye was sad. We’ve been traveling together for over three months now. Today is our 96th day in Europe. In that time we’ve all been together except for our separate Goethe institute stays, a week of free travel, and a couple weekend trips where a few people stayed behind. Only 5 people from the trip are not flying home today. We already said goodbye to Laura Sharer, Christine’s parents are traveling with her for a week, Amy is going to Norway and central Europe for some snowboarding, and Jake and I are going to Germany and Greece.
Amy took the subway with us to the Munchen Hauptbahnhof. She was traveling on to Frankfurt that day for her flight. We said our last goodbyes and left for our hotel in Munich.
It’s now around 9 AM and we’re very tired. Jake didn’t get any sleep at all last night and didn’t sleep on the bus either. I hadn’t gotten a full nights’ sleep in 3 days. At this point I figured out that I’d slept 15 of the past 72 hours. We got to the hotel but our rooms weren’t going to be ready until 4 PM. So now we have 7 hours to kill before we can get in a bed.
We stowed our luggage at the hotel’s luggage room and went out to look for some food. Since it’s Sunday morning most things are closed. As we walked I eyed every bench and dry spot thinking that I could take a little nap there. We found a little Turkish pizza place and tried to eat as slowly as possible. We managed to drag that out until around 11. We were too tired to keep walking around the city so we went back to the hotel.
Down by the luggage room there’s a couple pinball machines and other games. It looked like as good a place as any so I took a nap. At first I was using my jacket as a pillow but I was sleeping on some very cold tile next to a very cold concrete wall. It was too cold so I had to put my jacket on. It was very uncomfortable but I slept about three hours total. Jake couldn’t sleep so he did some homework and watched a movie or two. During this time we took turns checking to see if our room was done yet. The door was wide open but it hadn’t been cleaned yet. Thinking back I should have just gone in the room and slept even if it was dirty.
Though they said we might be able to get in our room by 1 or 2 it ended up being 4 before we finally got in. I was starting to wake up by now because I took a good nap but Jake was about ready to collapse. I was still cold from sleeping on the tile so I turned up the heat and hopped in bed. We both took hot baths and then finally got some rest.
I slept for another 4 hours until around 9 PM. We both tried to get up for dinner around 7 but we were both too lazy and tired. By 9 I was fairly awake and I did a little homework and watched stuff on my computer until 1 AM. I set my alarm for 7 and went to sleep.
December 7
Somehow I slept through most of last night. I was worried that I would be up all night but that wasn’t the case. I was very surprised when my alarm went off because I was expecting to wake up earlier than the time I’d set it for.
We were too lazy to unpack all of our stuff last night so we didn’t have much packing to do in the morning. I left Mickey’s slippers behind because my bag is a little over weight and completely full. The train station was a 20 minute walk away and we went to subway for breakfast.
Our train went through Nuremburg on our way to Leipzig. Ludwig met us at the train station in Leipzig. We took the street car to his apartment. We put our stuff down and then went out to lunch. Ludwig bought us lunch at the kebap place. He had to go to class so he gave us a map of Leipzig and we wandered around for a while. It was really cold so we spent most of the time in the Thomaskirche and a café.
Ludwig bought some pizzas for us and we ate at his place. He only asked that we help him with the dishes afterwards. He’s been too generous so we wanted to give him something back. We had some extra EUrail passes from the guys in our group so we gave them to him. They’re worth about 40 euros for each day of travel so if he went on a trip he could save a lot of money by using them.
That night we went out to a bar with Ludwig and his roommates Christina and Peter. We watched a soccer game on the TV and played some foosball, which Ludwig is pretty good at.
Ludwig let me sleep on his bed and he slept on his couch. They had an extra mattress for Jake to use.
December 8
We ate breakfast and talked for over an hour this morning. Christina asked us a lot of questions about the US and about our travels through Europe. It was good preparation for all of the questions people are going to ask when we get home.
We didn’t want to come back to Ludwig’s apartment for our luggage so we took it with us and dropped it off at Ludwig’s friend’s apartment in town. It was raining pretty hard and a car driving by went through a puddle and got Jake really wet.
Ludwig showed us the college campus and some of the old buildings in the city. He showed us the other main church and we sat down and had some Gluhwein in a teepee in the town square.
Since it was raining we left Leipzig a little earlier than we planned. An earlier train was running late so we got on right away and got to Berlin a couple hours earlier than we planned.
This was my first time really staying in a youth hostel with a bunch of random people. When I opened the door to our room there was a girl with multicolored dreadlocks spreading her clothes all over the room. She was from Israel but was traveling around Europe looking for work. There were two other people who slept there that night but I didn’t really talk to the other ones.
We took the street car out to Freidreichsplatz where there was another big Christmas market. We walked back through Berlin and saw the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichsstag building. It was a long walk back to our hotel but we made it eventually.
December 9
The hostel had a luggage room so we stored our stuff in there and went out for the day. We took the very confusing subway system to the Reichsstag building, which is the German capital building. We stopped at another Christmas market on the way there to get some food. There was a really long line to get inside the Reichsstag. The last time I was in Berlin the line was about the same and we didn’t wait that time. I didn’t know what else we would do in Berlin so we decided to just wait in line. The view from the top of the Reichsstag was really good and there was a free audio tour so we got to learn some about the city. We followed the path of the Berlin Wall past the Brandenburg Gate and found this very strange monument to the Jews who died in the Holocaust. It was a full city block of stone blocks about 4 feet wide by 8 feet long. They varied in height from a few inches to about 15 feet tall. The middle of the memorial was where all the really tall ones were and the ground around the blocks wasn’t level at all. I took a video that would explain it a lot better.
We followed the wall through Potzdammer Platz where they had a big snow tubing hill. The markings where the wall was don’t stand out too much. It’s really just a foot wide path through the street where the stones are sunk down about an inch. We went to checkpoint Charlie and thought about going in the museum there but we didn’t want to spend 10 Euros on it.
We decided to get back to the hostel, pick up our stuff, and find the next train to Dortmund. We found our hostel, which was pretty expensive. There was another Christmas market here but it was closing up.
December 10
Our flight left around 9:45 so we tried to get to the airport early. We caught a bus and made it there in plenty of time. We’re flying easyjet again. At least it isn’t Ryanair. It’s not the nicest way to fly but it’s still pretty cheap. The flight was around 3 hours.
After getting our luggage and a bus ticket, we got on the crowded bus for the next 45 minutes. I was standing the whole time, which was no fun. The ticket was only 50 cents though. The guy at the tickets office jokingly said it you would be 2000 euros.
Our hotel was called the Atlantis and it was on the busiest street in Thessaloniki. That made it easier to find and it wasn’t noisy in the rooms or anything. We rested up for a little while and then went and walked along the bayside.
December 11
Since we had already been down by the sea we decided to look around the hilltop side of the city. We saw a couple churches on the way there. We ended up going to the highest part of the old city wall and looking down over the city. We still had to figure out where we are going for the next week. So after visiting the old agora and some orthodox churches we decided to just go to Athens since that would be easiest.
December 12
The train ride from Thessaloniki to Athens is about 6 hours long. It would have been nice if we had had electricity like the German trains do. I slept some of the way and got a lot of homework done. I still have a few assignments left to finish.
Our hotel was really close to the train station but we didn’t really remember the name. We knew it started with neo. We found it without any trouble. They had free internet there so we tried to figure out our trip to Delphi
December 13
We were planning to leave the hotel around 6 in the morning but we decided to sleep in a bit and take the 10:30 bus instead of the 7:00. The bus station was about a half hour walk away, and it’s off the map that we have of Athens.
We made it to the bus in time to grab a few sandwiches and find our seats. We were confused at first because there were some girls in our seats. They didn’t know that there were assigned seat numbers on the tickets.
The bus ride took around 3 hours. When we arrived at Delphi we started walking in the direction of the ruins. Unfortunately we had to do a little off road hiking through long wet grass and down some pretty steep hills. We actually came down the hill behind the museum. The museum there was ok but I was more interested in the ruins outside.
As we were walking from the museum to the ruins we came across several cats. Most of the cats we’ve seen have run away whenever we got close to them but these ones were very friendly. I was petting one and a kitten jumped up onto my leg. Jake got some pictures. As we kept on walking we kept on seeing cats everywhere. There were probably around 30 cats living there.
Going up through the ruins was quite a hike. We climbed up the hill and saw the altar of Apollo and the amphitheater and the stadium all the way at the top. We then went all the way down the hill to see the temple of Athena and the gymnasium.
We had some really bad pizza for dinner. It probably was microwaved frozen pizza and it wasn’t even warm. We didn’t want to be hungry on the bus back so we ate as much as we could.
After getting back to the hotel we booked our hotels through the rest of our stay. We’re going to Corinth tomorrow and then to Nafplion for the two days after that, and then we’re coming back to Athens for a couple days. It’s finally sinking in that the trip is almost over. These last few days have been really tough because traveling in Greece is harder than traveling in any of the other countries we’ve been in. Part of it is that the alphabet isn’t even the same. They also don’t have many trains and use buses instead. It doesn’t have the nice train schedules that Germany, Austria, and France had.
December 14
We left our big bags at the hotel in Athens and just took our small backpacks with us for the next few days. We took the 10:30 bus to Korinthos (Corinth). We got lost on the way there because it’s at a different bus station from last time and it’s also off the map. We got there just in time. We got stuck in traffic for a while and an ambulance had to squeeze past the traffic. It wasn’t going anywhere fast though.
Our hotel is right next to the bus station in Louraki, which is close to Corinth. It’s actually really nice here, especially compared to Athens. We are only a block away from the beach. Once we put our backpacks in the hotel we went into Corinth. The bus system is really confusing here so we had to get a taxi to the ruins of old Corinth. We also stopped at the big canal that links the Aegean and Adriatic seas.
There was a nice pathway along the beach so we walked along that for a while. Then we saw a man-made waterfall and some paths leading up to it. It was under construction and I stepped in a really big puddle. We went back to the water and there was a outdoor gym there. It had a lot of the equipment that a normal gym would have but it was outside in a park.
December 15
The trip to Nafplio was nice and short. Nafplio has three castles, and we explored the one closest to our hotel first. This castle was on the peninsula right next to the town. Most of the castle had been destroyed by the Ottomans but the walls were still there. It took us a while to walk through the maze of cacti and old walls.
We went for a swim in the bay. The waves were higher than I expected. It wasn’t nearly as cold as when we went swimming at Normandy but I was still numb and tired by then end. We didn’t have any energy left after that so we went to sleep
December 16
It was nice to be in the same place for a few days. The hotel people brought us breakfast in bed. We didn’t know what time they were coming besides that it would be between 8 and 10. After our breakfast we climbed up to the biggest of the three castles. It took us about 20 minutes to get up the stairs and then we explored it for about 3 hours. It was a really big castle, and the part we could see before was mostly the stairs going up. I think there were over 1000 steps to get to the highest part of the castle. We meandered our way through so we probably climbed more steps than that.
We grabbed a gyro for a late lunch and went back to the hotel to rest. We watched a movie in the hotel until dinner time. After dinner we walked by the sea for a while and went out to the long tide break that went out into the bay. The third castle of Nafplio is actually on a small island in the bay. It was used to protect the bay from pirates. We didn’t go out to it but going out on the tide break was as close as we could get on land.
I tried to do some homework that night, and I did get a little done. I’m really hoping that I can get it all finished before I get home.
December 17
After another nice breakfast in bed we packed up and got on the bus to Athens. We had to go through Corinth, and we saw the big canal again. Once we got back into Athens the traffic was horrible so we added another half hour to our trip.
We stayed at the same hotel that we were at before because it was really cheap (12 euro a night each). We walked to the nearest subway station and bought a 24 hour pass. So far the subway is the nicest part of Athens. We’d seen a lot of the Athenian ghetto, which looks like Mexico. We went to the Acropolis station and were able to see the Parthenon at a distance. It was closed by the time we got up to it, so we’ll have to go in tomorrow. We tried to find some places that would still be open, so we went to the Olympic stadium and some gardens by the capital building.
I finished most of my homework once we got back to the hotel. It feels great to actually be done. I just have one more little thing to fix on my resume and then I’ll be completely done.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
this is what I have.
November 7
Today we went to a place where they showed us about how they made chocolate. It really wasn’t worth seeing and the chocolate was super expensive. We got out of the bus and ate our lunch in the cold November drizzle.
We visited the Cathedral, which is like any other one and then looked at a tapestry from 1070 which told the history of William the Conqueror. Then we watched a video about the making of the tapestry and then slept through the next two showings because our bus driver wasn’t going to come back until later.
November 8
I forgot to mention Frank in my last posts. Every day on my way to and from the main building I get to stop and pet Frank. Frank is a golden retriever. He lives in the backyard of a bakery and he will stand up with his front paws over his fence and let you pet him. We don’t know his real name so we named him Frank because the ottoman (which is a dog) in Beauty and the Beast was played by a guy named Frank.
Today we hopped on the bus at 9, skipping French language and culture lessons. We went in Caen, where William the conqueror’s chateau is. There is a big farmers market in Caen and we spent a good hour looking through it. Most of the touristy stuff was around the edge and then there was a ton of food stands in the center.
We briefly went into the fine art museum but honestly it was a boring one. The history of Normandy museum wasn’t that great either. We saw a bunch of rusted spearheads and some butter churns. We came back to base to eat our lunch and I took a 3 hour nap and the verandah. It was raining most of the time and it was real nice to take a nap inside.
November 9
Today we set out for St. Michaels, which is a big castle/abbey on the coast of France. It is the second biggest tourist attraction in France after Paris. We had an audio tour of the buildings. The view is great. I wish I could have been there at high and low tide. When we were there it was low tide so there is sand for miles before it reaches the ocean. When the tide is really high it covers where we parked our bus and leaves only a small road out to the castle. In the past the abbey would become an island at high tide and then would only be connected by a land bridge at low tide.
The abbey is named after the archangel Michael. Supposedly he appeared to a local bishop twice in dreams and told him to build an abbey. The abbey was started in the year 708 and has been added on to slowly over the years. The abbey has never been taken by force.
We had plenty of time to eat lunch and visit the abbey. After the visit we said goodbye to the last of our instructor from Merville-Franceville and were off to Brittany.
We arrived in Lorient at 6:00 and were quickly separated and sent off with our host families. Every student had a different family. I am staying with Christopher Hellec. He speaks decent English though he is hard to understand. Neither of his parents speak English so communication will be hard.
For dinner we had stew and then a cheese course and then a banana for desert. I showed Christopher my pictures from the trip and we played a few facebook games with each other. I went to bed a little early because I have to register for classes at 3:30 in the morning.
November 10
I woke up at 3:30 to register and I got into all the classes I wanted. Almost everybody on the trip is trying to get into managerial finance and there were only 21 spots left when I was done registering. I saved one spot in the class for Jesse.
I woke up for the second time at 7:00. Christopher’s classes start at 8:00 every day. We had yoghurt and drinkable yoghurt for breakfast with a little pastry. The French don’t do much for breakfast.
Spencer was the first one at the school so I sat and talked to him as people slowly started coming in. It was an hour before the whole group got there. I guess Spencer has his own guest house and some very good English speakers.
We did a little meet and greet with some French students and ate crescents and coffee for a couple hours. The French spend a lot of time sitting around and talking. The room we were in was too small so we couldn’t move around and talk to new people very easily. It was an awkward situation.
From our second breakfast half of us went to a German class and the other half to a Spanish class. Obviously I was in the German class. I was surprised that the students there didn’t speak very good German. Tom was astounded. They had been learning German for 6-10 years. He said that two months at the Goethe institute would have been the equivalent to how much they knew. The German teacher really didn’t have much to talk about and it was not a very good class. We talked about the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall falling, which was the day before.
We had lunch at the school. The cafeteria is run by Sodexho, which is the same food service provider that Bethel has. The food was nowhere near as good. I guess it was really overpriced too so the French students avoid eating there.
After lunch we had a long discussion with the French students who are coming to Bethel this spring about the differences between the US and France. Then we did pretty much the same thing with an English class.
Right now I’m hoping that dinner will be soon because it is almost 8:00. We are going to play trivial pursuit in English after dinner tonight and that sounds like fun. An English foster kid who stayed or is currently staying with my family showed up tonight. She speaks fluent French so now I have a good translator.
November 11
November 16
Point du Raz
November 17
Today was my last morning in Brittany. I got all of my stuff packed up and they took me to the train station. I said goodbye to Christopher and his mom. They stuck around for a bit and when they finally left Christopher started crying and he gave Tom a hug as we left. I guess Yan feels like he has to take him on the trip to the states this spring because of this experience.
November 18
We went to the Louvre today. We were there for almost two hours. Paul got all the way there before he realized that he forgot his museum pass. He had to go all the way back on the subway to get it. The people at the entrance didn’t even glance over at our passes as we went in, so maybe he didn’t have to go back for his.
We saw the Mona Lisa of course. Spencer and I made up commentaries some of the paintings we passed. There were some more interesting paintings here than there were at the museum we went to yesterday.
There is a street that goes straight from the Louvre to the Arch de Triumph. We walked this street and ate at a burger place on the way. Our group split up and some of us went shopping and the rest went right to the Arch. I didn’t want to shop so I went to the Arch right away. Our passes let us go all the way to the top and there’s a nice view of the Eifel Tower from the top.
After the arch we decided to take the subway to a modern art museum which had some interesting parts but wasn’t that great. We ran into another group of Bethel students here and chatted for a little bit. We had actually ran into them on the way to the arch as well.
There are some major soccer games going on tonight. Algeria won the first one and France won the second one. The Algerians made a bunch of noise and set off some flares. They were still driving around the city honking their horns at 2 in the morning.
November 19
Today is our long day of travel from Paris to Prague. We left our hotel at 8:00. Not much to say besides I read my book, watched some movies, and did a little homework on the way. We went through Frankfurt and Dresden on the way. We had about 50 minutes in Dresden so we looked around a little. It’s a very nice and modern city. It’s a nice contrast from Paris.
We took a bus from the train station to our hotel. It’s the same bus we will be using these few days and it will drive us all the way back to Mittersill. The hotel is a 4 star, but I wouldn’t call it luxurious. A lot of people are sharing double beds or sleeping on fold out chairs or couches. I’m rooming with Kenny and Dan Chang in the highest room in the hotel. Climbing 79 steps with my luggage wasn’t fun but it’s a nice room.
November 20
The original plan was to leave at 7 for our day but after so many hours of traveling, Tom let us sleep in a bit. The bus ride to the glass blowing factory was longer than I thought it would be. It was around 2 hours long. The glassblowing factory wasn’t really that great. They didn’t even know we were coming. The glassblowing wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen many times at the Renaissance festival. We ate lunch at a place where we could see some glassblowing, but it wasn’t set up very well.
The afternoon was spent at the Skoda factory, which was a bit of a letdown. It was a lot like the Opel tour we went on only the tour guide wasn’t as good. Really this day could have been cut out of the trip.
November 21
This morning we had a tour of Prague. Our tour guide Fredrick is a good guy. I think he’s a communist and he has some serious discussions with Tom during the tour. After our tour and lunch we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We looked around the city a little more and went to the Tesco.
For dinner we had a little buffet dinner on a boat. We went down the river for about 45 minutes and then came back up. The food wasn’t fantastic but it was fine. We walked around some more after the boat ride and I was starting to get tired. I went back to my room and finished my book. I guess I’ll have to start a new one on the way to the Schloss tomorrow.
November 22
We took our bus all the way to the Schloss today. It took somewhere around 6 hours. I slept some of the way and watched a movie. I must be getting used to traveling around because it was a really easy ride. We stopped at a truck stop diner for lunch. It felt really American only they had Austrian food.
When we got to the Schloss we all went back to our old rooms. It was almost like being home. We hooked up the projector in the classroom and watched “Away We Go”. It was a nice relaxing night after so much moving around.
November 23
We had class as usual but then we had some time to relax. I needed some time to do nothing after traveling so much. We watched “In Bruges” on the big screen.
November 24
We had a tour of the Nordica/Blizzard ski factory that is in Mittersill. I couldn’t hear the tour guide very well because it was in factory. It was really interesting how them make all of the designs for the skis and how different the wood was for each kind of ski. They don’t make any snowboards here, only skis.
November 25
Norm came and talked to us again. He rambles on an on so I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. He’s a geneticist who’s been working for the UN for decades. We went to his house after dinner and had some time to chat. He had each one of us introduce ourselves. It’s weird when people talked about themselves because by this time I know them pretty well.
We watched the first episode of Band of Brothers which is really long. It’s a good thing we didn’t have class the next day. Some people want to watch the whole Band of Brothers series but I don’t think we’ll have time. I watched the whole thing back in Germany at the Goethe.
November 26
No class today because it’s thanksgiving. I got to sleep in and then do some reading for class and take a nap. Thanksgiving dinner was great. Tom found some turkeys at the supermarket and they cooked them up at the Schloss. We had mashed potatoes and stuffing and gravy. We all sat at one big long table.
That night we played sardines with all of the lights off in the Schloss. It was more fun scaring people than looking for the people that were hiding. We finished off the night with a dance party in the auditorium. Lots of fun.
Today we went to a place where they showed us about how they made chocolate. It really wasn’t worth seeing and the chocolate was super expensive. We got out of the bus and ate our lunch in the cold November drizzle.
We visited the Cathedral, which is like any other one and then looked at a tapestry from 1070 which told the history of William the Conqueror. Then we watched a video about the making of the tapestry and then slept through the next two showings because our bus driver wasn’t going to come back until later.
November 8
I forgot to mention Frank in my last posts. Every day on my way to and from the main building I get to stop and pet Frank. Frank is a golden retriever. He lives in the backyard of a bakery and he will stand up with his front paws over his fence and let you pet him. We don’t know his real name so we named him Frank because the ottoman (which is a dog) in Beauty and the Beast was played by a guy named Frank.
Today we hopped on the bus at 9, skipping French language and culture lessons. We went in Caen, where William the conqueror’s chateau is. There is a big farmers market in Caen and we spent a good hour looking through it. Most of the touristy stuff was around the edge and then there was a ton of food stands in the center.
We briefly went into the fine art museum but honestly it was a boring one. The history of Normandy museum wasn’t that great either. We saw a bunch of rusted spearheads and some butter churns. We came back to base to eat our lunch and I took a 3 hour nap and the verandah. It was raining most of the time and it was real nice to take a nap inside.
November 9
Today we set out for St. Michaels, which is a big castle/abbey on the coast of France. It is the second biggest tourist attraction in France after Paris. We had an audio tour of the buildings. The view is great. I wish I could have been there at high and low tide. When we were there it was low tide so there is sand for miles before it reaches the ocean. When the tide is really high it covers where we parked our bus and leaves only a small road out to the castle. In the past the abbey would become an island at high tide and then would only be connected by a land bridge at low tide.
The abbey is named after the archangel Michael. Supposedly he appeared to a local bishop twice in dreams and told him to build an abbey. The abbey was started in the year 708 and has been added on to slowly over the years. The abbey has never been taken by force.
We had plenty of time to eat lunch and visit the abbey. After the visit we said goodbye to the last of our instructor from Merville-Franceville and were off to Brittany.
We arrived in Lorient at 6:00 and were quickly separated and sent off with our host families. Every student had a different family. I am staying with Christopher Hellec. He speaks decent English though he is hard to understand. Neither of his parents speak English so communication will be hard.
For dinner we had stew and then a cheese course and then a banana for desert. I showed Christopher my pictures from the trip and we played a few facebook games with each other. I went to bed a little early because I have to register for classes at 3:30 in the morning.
November 10
I woke up at 3:30 to register and I got into all the classes I wanted. Almost everybody on the trip is trying to get into managerial finance and there were only 21 spots left when I was done registering. I saved one spot in the class for Jesse.
I woke up for the second time at 7:00. Christopher’s classes start at 8:00 every day. We had yoghurt and drinkable yoghurt for breakfast with a little pastry. The French don’t do much for breakfast.
Spencer was the first one at the school so I sat and talked to him as people slowly started coming in. It was an hour before the whole group got there. I guess Spencer has his own guest house and some very good English speakers.
We did a little meet and greet with some French students and ate crescents and coffee for a couple hours. The French spend a lot of time sitting around and talking. The room we were in was too small so we couldn’t move around and talk to new people very easily. It was an awkward situation.
From our second breakfast half of us went to a German class and the other half to a Spanish class. Obviously I was in the German class. I was surprised that the students there didn’t speak very good German. Tom was astounded. They had been learning German for 6-10 years. He said that two months at the Goethe institute would have been the equivalent to how much they knew. The German teacher really didn’t have much to talk about and it was not a very good class. We talked about the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall falling, which was the day before.
We had lunch at the school. The cafeteria is run by Sodexho, which is the same food service provider that Bethel has. The food was nowhere near as good. I guess it was really overpriced too so the French students avoid eating there.
After lunch we had a long discussion with the French students who are coming to Bethel this spring about the differences between the US and France. Then we did pretty much the same thing with an English class.
Right now I’m hoping that dinner will be soon because it is almost 8:00. We are going to play trivial pursuit in English after dinner tonight and that sounds like fun. An English foster kid who stayed or is currently staying with my family showed up tonight. She speaks fluent French so now I have a good translator.
November 11
November 16
Point du Raz
November 17
Today was my last morning in Brittany. I got all of my stuff packed up and they took me to the train station. I said goodbye to Christopher and his mom. They stuck around for a bit and when they finally left Christopher started crying and he gave Tom a hug as we left. I guess Yan feels like he has to take him on the trip to the states this spring because of this experience.
November 18
We went to the Louvre today. We were there for almost two hours. Paul got all the way there before he realized that he forgot his museum pass. He had to go all the way back on the subway to get it. The people at the entrance didn’t even glance over at our passes as we went in, so maybe he didn’t have to go back for his.
We saw the Mona Lisa of course. Spencer and I made up commentaries some of the paintings we passed. There were some more interesting paintings here than there were at the museum we went to yesterday.
There is a street that goes straight from the Louvre to the Arch de Triumph. We walked this street and ate at a burger place on the way. Our group split up and some of us went shopping and the rest went right to the Arch. I didn’t want to shop so I went to the Arch right away. Our passes let us go all the way to the top and there’s a nice view of the Eifel Tower from the top.
After the arch we decided to take the subway to a modern art museum which had some interesting parts but wasn’t that great. We ran into another group of Bethel students here and chatted for a little bit. We had actually ran into them on the way to the arch as well.
There are some major soccer games going on tonight. Algeria won the first one and France won the second one. The Algerians made a bunch of noise and set off some flares. They were still driving around the city honking their horns at 2 in the morning.
November 19
Today is our long day of travel from Paris to Prague. We left our hotel at 8:00. Not much to say besides I read my book, watched some movies, and did a little homework on the way. We went through Frankfurt and Dresden on the way. We had about 50 minutes in Dresden so we looked around a little. It’s a very nice and modern city. It’s a nice contrast from Paris.
We took a bus from the train station to our hotel. It’s the same bus we will be using these few days and it will drive us all the way back to Mittersill. The hotel is a 4 star, but I wouldn’t call it luxurious. A lot of people are sharing double beds or sleeping on fold out chairs or couches. I’m rooming with Kenny and Dan Chang in the highest room in the hotel. Climbing 79 steps with my luggage wasn’t fun but it’s a nice room.
November 20
The original plan was to leave at 7 for our day but after so many hours of traveling, Tom let us sleep in a bit. The bus ride to the glass blowing factory was longer than I thought it would be. It was around 2 hours long. The glassblowing factory wasn’t really that great. They didn’t even know we were coming. The glassblowing wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen many times at the Renaissance festival. We ate lunch at a place where we could see some glassblowing, but it wasn’t set up very well.
The afternoon was spent at the Skoda factory, which was a bit of a letdown. It was a lot like the Opel tour we went on only the tour guide wasn’t as good. Really this day could have been cut out of the trip.
November 21
This morning we had a tour of Prague. Our tour guide Fredrick is a good guy. I think he’s a communist and he has some serious discussions with Tom during the tour. After our tour and lunch we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We looked around the city a little more and went to the Tesco.
For dinner we had a little buffet dinner on a boat. We went down the river for about 45 minutes and then came back up. The food wasn’t fantastic but it was fine. We walked around some more after the boat ride and I was starting to get tired. I went back to my room and finished my book. I guess I’ll have to start a new one on the way to the Schloss tomorrow.
November 22
We took our bus all the way to the Schloss today. It took somewhere around 6 hours. I slept some of the way and watched a movie. I must be getting used to traveling around because it was a really easy ride. We stopped at a truck stop diner for lunch. It felt really American only they had Austrian food.
When we got to the Schloss we all went back to our old rooms. It was almost like being home. We hooked up the projector in the classroom and watched “Away We Go”. It was a nice relaxing night after so much moving around.
November 23
We had class as usual but then we had some time to relax. I needed some time to do nothing after traveling so much. We watched “In Bruges” on the big screen.
November 24
We had a tour of the Nordica/Blizzard ski factory that is in Mittersill. I couldn’t hear the tour guide very well because it was in factory. It was really interesting how them make all of the designs for the skis and how different the wood was for each kind of ski. They don’t make any snowboards here, only skis.
November 25
Norm came and talked to us again. He rambles on an on so I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. He’s a geneticist who’s been working for the UN for decades. We went to his house after dinner and had some time to chat. He had each one of us introduce ourselves. It’s weird when people talked about themselves because by this time I know them pretty well.
We watched the first episode of Band of Brothers which is really long. It’s a good thing we didn’t have class the next day. Some people want to watch the whole Band of Brothers series but I don’t think we’ll have time. I watched the whole thing back in Germany at the Goethe.
November 26
No class today because it’s thanksgiving. I got to sleep in and then do some reading for class and take a nap. Thanksgiving dinner was great. Tom found some turkeys at the supermarket and they cooked them up at the Schloss. We had mashed potatoes and stuffing and gravy. We all sat at one big long table.
That night we played sardines with all of the lights off in the Schloss. It was more fun scaring people than looking for the people that were hiding. We finished off the night with a dance party in the auditorium. Lots of fun.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Now in France, trying to catch up on journaling
October 22
Our tests were due at noon, so after breakfast I finished mine up. It was for our International business class. I finally did my German test with Tom today and it went really well. We did a tour of the Guinness brewery and I bought a Guinness Rugby shirt for myself. We went to a pub that night and there were some people doing Irish dances.
October 23
We left our hotel by 5 in the morning because our flight left at 7. Our cab driver was very lively and he gave us some advice about what to do the next time we come to Ireland. For the next 9 days I’ll be with Jesse, Spencer, and Jake. We ran into Erik at the airport because his flight left at about the same time.
The flight didn’t feel long at all because I was sleeping the whole time. We arrived in Milan around 10 in the morning. We had to get bus tickets from the airport to the center of Milan because the airport is a long ways from the city center.
We couldn’t find the street that led to our hotel but a man walked up to us and asked us where we were going and gave us directions. We didn’t even have to ask him, he just knew that we were lost. The hotel wasn’t very far from the train station. It was on the fourth floor of the building and the elevator was so small that only two of us at a time could fit with our bags.
The manager was really nice and spoke English. He gave us a map and pointed out all of the places that we could go. One thing that is strange about Italy is that the people at the hotel hold onto your key for you. It’s nice that you don’t have to worry about carrying it around.
I realize that I’m writing a lot more now that we’re in Italy than I was at other places. I think that’s because I don’t have any homework to drag me down.
Once we had gotten settled I took a little nap and then we went out to eat. We ate at a little street café. We didn’t know that there’s almost always a flat service fee whenever you eat at a restaurant, but we had heard that eating in Italy is expensive. We visited a few stores and then went to the Duomo. I think it is the third biggest cathedral in the world.
We ate at the embassy for dinner. We’ve started to call McDonalds the embassy because it’s American and you are never more than 5 blocks away from one at any time. In fact there are two almost facing each other in front of the main train station.
We watched a little IT Crowd before going to bed a little early. It was really nice to get a full night’s sleep after such an early morning.
October 24
Our second day in Milan we slept in and got up to get our train reservations for the next day. We went to the train station but the system was more complicated than we thought and the lines were really long. We didn’t have our Eurail passes with us at the time so we didn’t want to risk waiting in line forever and maybe needing them.
The all day subway pass was only 3 Euro so we bought one of those each. We could have easily figured the ticket machine by ourselves but some gypsy followed us around and insisted on pushing all of the buttons herself. Then one of the people that worked at the subway came over and helped us. We had the machine set to English so we were having no problems. I guess we just looked helpless and the gypsy wanted our money.
We took the subway to the castle of Milan. It was huge, and was much more fortress-like than most of the other ones we visited. There we also about 20 cats playing in the moats inside and outside the castle. When we left the castle through another exit we found a little Celtic renaissance festival. There were people dressed up and they had little tents and they were selling things.
After the castle we walked around and found some authentic Italian brick oven pizza. It was very good and it was in a big oval shape.
Fortunately that night when we got back to the hotel the manager reminded us that it was daylight savings time. If he hadn’t told us we would have gotten to the train station an hour early and we would have been very confused.
October 25
Today we got up and paid for our hotel. It was a little less than 35 Euro a night each. The train ride to Bologna was 2 hours long and I just read my book the whole way there. When we got to Bologna we got lost because the streets are not labeled very well and the directions we had were a little confusing. Jake asked some policemen and they gave us directions to our hotel. Jake had to ask another person once we got closer to the hotel but eventually we got there.
Our room wasn’t quite ready so we had to wait in the lobby for a while. Me and Spencer made a run to McDonalds and bought some food for everybody. We wandered around the city for a while but there really isn’t much to see here. We found a big park with a fountain but the fountain was all dried up and sad looking. Once we had rested up at the park and visited the basilica (5th largest church in the world, it was originally going to be bigger than the others but it was scaled down so as not to be greater than those in the Vatican) and then napped at the hotel until dinner time.
Dinner was at a little restaurant not far from the hotel. The waiter and waitress both spoke English and the waiter probably was actually the manager or owner of the place. He joked with us and complained about us not knowing what anything on the menu was.
There was nothing to do after dinner so we went to the main town plaza and sat by the fountain. There were some fire jugglers who actually weren’t very good. They kept on dropping things but it was fun anyway.
October 26
We didn’t really know what to do today so we started working on a consumer behavior assignment where we had to watch people in stores. We had to do it sometime during free travel and we didn’t want to do it in Florence or Rome.
Once we finished the observation part of the assignment we walked around the city some more. Today was a very relaxed day. That night we went out to eat at a bar. They have a deal where you buy a drink and then you get to eat all the food you want. The food isn’t fantastic, but it was only 6 Euro so it was only a little more expensive than McDonalds would have been.
October 27
Our trip to Florence was probably our shortest trip during our free travel. When we got to Florence we were walking to our hotel and ran into Tom and Cheryl at an internet café. Jesse spotted Cheryl as he walked by.
Our hotel rooms are small but they’ll be ok. We explored the side of the river that our hotel was on and sat by the river for a while. We saw where the statue of David originally was, and there were some more sculptures there too.
We went to dinner with Erik and Tyler, who were staying at the youth hostel not far from our hotel. We went to the hostel and used their steam room, sauna, and pool.
October 28
We met up with Erik and Tyler and took the train to Cique Terra, which is by Pisa on the coast. We met up with Laura Christine and Stefanie at Cique Terra. Unfortunately they had to carry all of their luggage with them. A lot of train stations have lockers where you can stash stuff but not this one.
I forgot my swimsuit so I ran into one of the nearby stores and bought a Speedo. Don’t worry; nobody got a picture of me in it. We went from town to town on the train and went cliff jumping at one of them. Stefanie said that my legs were so white that they looked like flashlights in the water.
By the time we went to all 5 of the cities on the coast it was getting late and it was dark. Tyler was the only one who went to see the tower of Pisa. I didn’t think it would be worth it at night. I guess I’ll have to come back to Italy later in life.
October 29
This was our last full day in Florence. We went and saw the real David early in the morning. It wasn’t really worth the ten Euro to get in. The museum didn’t have much besides David. We went to the markets where they sell tourist junk and ran into Jen, Betsy, and Christy. I didn’t even know they were in Italy. We made plans to meet up for dinner that night. We wandered around the city some more and went to the far side of the river. There is a big garden there and we walked through it for a couple hours. We ran into those three girls again by accident. We talked to them a little and went our separate ways
After walking through the garden we went to the river and then went to find some lunch. We were wandering towards an overlook of the city when we saw Jen Betsy and Christy eating at a café. So that was the third time we saw them that day without planning it.
The overlook was nice and we met up with all the people that were in Florence that night. There were 11 of us out of 26 on the trip. We tried to watch the sunset but it was cloudy and there was an awful violin player whose violin was way out of tune. He kept playing the first 12 notes of ode to joy and then playing some random notes. A random guy walking by came and tuned his violin for him but he still couldn’t play anything.
The group of us took a long walk to what Erik said was the best Gelato in Florence. It was good but probably not worth the long walk. The 11 of us ate dinner together at a place Tom recommended. I had veal for the first time. It wasn’t all that unusual.
October 30
We left for Rome in the morning. Rome was my city to book a hotel for so I had to guide us once we got there. I would say that I got us to our hotel with less trouble than the other guys had. The directions were really easy though. We stayed at the fountain terrace hostel which was the cheapest place we stayed for free travel at 15 euro a night each. It was also the most run down place we stayed. There was only one outlet in the room and the wiring wasn’t run through the wall, it was just a cable running out of the wall and onto the floor. The bathrooms were down the hall and none of them had soap or any way to dry your hands.
We met up with Anna, Kay, and Kelsey at the Trevi fountain and ate lunch with them there. We picked up some pizza and went to the Pantheon. The pantheon was smaller than I thought it would be. I didn’t know that it was just one big room.
We wanted to save some sights for the next day so we went to the Spanish steps for a while and then wandered over towards the Vatican. We sat in front of St Peter’s Basilica as the sun set. After a while we walked around and found some dinner.
October 31
We slept in a bit more than we planned but still got to the Coliseum and Roman Forum by noon or so. The Coliseum was huge and a fun site to see. I wish there had been better displays about the history of the place though. We bought our tickets at the forum because the lines there are about one quarter as long as they are at the Coliseum. The forum wasn’t really very interesting. There wasn’t any information about what was where or what happened there. Maybe we should have taken a tour.
Jesse wasn’t feeling so good so he went back to the hotel to rest. Spencer, Jake, and I took the subway to the Vatican. The subway system in Rome is really weird because it only has two lines. The Vatican museum was huge. It’s a big maze that takes hours to walk through. I could see people taking the whole day to get through the museum. Guess who we ran into randomly here, those three girls we saw three times in Florence.
The final room of the museum is the Sistine Chapel. We couldn’t take pictures in Chapel but I snuck a few anyway. They’re all blurry or zoomed out too far. Jake got caught trying to take a picture and the guard tried to make him leave. Jake was able to get back in though.
We went inside St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s huge. It is a lot bigger than any of the other churches we went to. There was a mass going on, so we listened in for twenty minutes or so while we walked through the basilica.
November 1
We didn’t have to wake up too early for our flight. We left around 8 and took a taxi to the airport. Only Ryanair and Ezjet fly out of this airport that we went to. They are the two cheapest airlines in Europe. The airport looked like some temporary buildings stuck together and all the departure gates were in the same room.
The flight went fine. Flying Ezjet is much better than Ryanair. It’s just much less stressful because they don’t worry about weight and size limits for luggage. When we got to Paris it was drizzling. We had to take a bus to the subway. The subways in Paris are awful for hauling your luggage through. There are several flights of steps to go up and down every time you transfer trains and you have to go through those one way gates which are fine for people but incredibly hard when bringing a suitcase through.
When we got out of the subway we went the wrong way and had to ask for directions. We asked at a little bakery and everybody in the bakery tried to help us out. It turns out that the subway station we left was within sight of our hotel.
It was still raining so we ate lunch at a diner right next to the hotel. We started seeing the rest of the group come up from the subway as we ate. They give you bread with every meal here but I ordered a hamburger and it came without a bun. I tried to use the French bread on the table to make a bun but it didn’t work well. The good news is that ketchup is free again and you don’t have to pay 10 or 50 cents for a packet like you have to in Italy.
Our tests were due at noon, so after breakfast I finished mine up. It was for our International business class. I finally did my German test with Tom today and it went really well. We did a tour of the Guinness brewery and I bought a Guinness Rugby shirt for myself. We went to a pub that night and there were some people doing Irish dances.
October 23
We left our hotel by 5 in the morning because our flight left at 7. Our cab driver was very lively and he gave us some advice about what to do the next time we come to Ireland. For the next 9 days I’ll be with Jesse, Spencer, and Jake. We ran into Erik at the airport because his flight left at about the same time.
The flight didn’t feel long at all because I was sleeping the whole time. We arrived in Milan around 10 in the morning. We had to get bus tickets from the airport to the center of Milan because the airport is a long ways from the city center.
We couldn’t find the street that led to our hotel but a man walked up to us and asked us where we were going and gave us directions. We didn’t even have to ask him, he just knew that we were lost. The hotel wasn’t very far from the train station. It was on the fourth floor of the building and the elevator was so small that only two of us at a time could fit with our bags.
The manager was really nice and spoke English. He gave us a map and pointed out all of the places that we could go. One thing that is strange about Italy is that the people at the hotel hold onto your key for you. It’s nice that you don’t have to worry about carrying it around.
I realize that I’m writing a lot more now that we’re in Italy than I was at other places. I think that’s because I don’t have any homework to drag me down.
Once we had gotten settled I took a little nap and then we went out to eat. We ate at a little street café. We didn’t know that there’s almost always a flat service fee whenever you eat at a restaurant, but we had heard that eating in Italy is expensive. We visited a few stores and then went to the Duomo. I think it is the third biggest cathedral in the world.
We ate at the embassy for dinner. We’ve started to call McDonalds the embassy because it’s American and you are never more than 5 blocks away from one at any time. In fact there are two almost facing each other in front of the main train station.
We watched a little IT Crowd before going to bed a little early. It was really nice to get a full night’s sleep after such an early morning.
October 24
Our second day in Milan we slept in and got up to get our train reservations for the next day. We went to the train station but the system was more complicated than we thought and the lines were really long. We didn’t have our Eurail passes with us at the time so we didn’t want to risk waiting in line forever and maybe needing them.
The all day subway pass was only 3 Euro so we bought one of those each. We could have easily figured the ticket machine by ourselves but some gypsy followed us around and insisted on pushing all of the buttons herself. Then one of the people that worked at the subway came over and helped us. We had the machine set to English so we were having no problems. I guess we just looked helpless and the gypsy wanted our money.
We took the subway to the castle of Milan. It was huge, and was much more fortress-like than most of the other ones we visited. There we also about 20 cats playing in the moats inside and outside the castle. When we left the castle through another exit we found a little Celtic renaissance festival. There were people dressed up and they had little tents and they were selling things.
After the castle we walked around and found some authentic Italian brick oven pizza. It was very good and it was in a big oval shape.
Fortunately that night when we got back to the hotel the manager reminded us that it was daylight savings time. If he hadn’t told us we would have gotten to the train station an hour early and we would have been very confused.
October 25
Today we got up and paid for our hotel. It was a little less than 35 Euro a night each. The train ride to Bologna was 2 hours long and I just read my book the whole way there. When we got to Bologna we got lost because the streets are not labeled very well and the directions we had were a little confusing. Jake asked some policemen and they gave us directions to our hotel. Jake had to ask another person once we got closer to the hotel but eventually we got there.
Our room wasn’t quite ready so we had to wait in the lobby for a while. Me and Spencer made a run to McDonalds and bought some food for everybody. We wandered around the city for a while but there really isn’t much to see here. We found a big park with a fountain but the fountain was all dried up and sad looking. Once we had rested up at the park and visited the basilica (5th largest church in the world, it was originally going to be bigger than the others but it was scaled down so as not to be greater than those in the Vatican) and then napped at the hotel until dinner time.
Dinner was at a little restaurant not far from the hotel. The waiter and waitress both spoke English and the waiter probably was actually the manager or owner of the place. He joked with us and complained about us not knowing what anything on the menu was.
There was nothing to do after dinner so we went to the main town plaza and sat by the fountain. There were some fire jugglers who actually weren’t very good. They kept on dropping things but it was fun anyway.
October 26
We didn’t really know what to do today so we started working on a consumer behavior assignment where we had to watch people in stores. We had to do it sometime during free travel and we didn’t want to do it in Florence or Rome.
Once we finished the observation part of the assignment we walked around the city some more. Today was a very relaxed day. That night we went out to eat at a bar. They have a deal where you buy a drink and then you get to eat all the food you want. The food isn’t fantastic, but it was only 6 Euro so it was only a little more expensive than McDonalds would have been.
October 27
Our trip to Florence was probably our shortest trip during our free travel. When we got to Florence we were walking to our hotel and ran into Tom and Cheryl at an internet café. Jesse spotted Cheryl as he walked by.
Our hotel rooms are small but they’ll be ok. We explored the side of the river that our hotel was on and sat by the river for a while. We saw where the statue of David originally was, and there were some more sculptures there too.
We went to dinner with Erik and Tyler, who were staying at the youth hostel not far from our hotel. We went to the hostel and used their steam room, sauna, and pool.
October 28
We met up with Erik and Tyler and took the train to Cique Terra, which is by Pisa on the coast. We met up with Laura Christine and Stefanie at Cique Terra. Unfortunately they had to carry all of their luggage with them. A lot of train stations have lockers where you can stash stuff but not this one.
I forgot my swimsuit so I ran into one of the nearby stores and bought a Speedo. Don’t worry; nobody got a picture of me in it. We went from town to town on the train and went cliff jumping at one of them. Stefanie said that my legs were so white that they looked like flashlights in the water.
By the time we went to all 5 of the cities on the coast it was getting late and it was dark. Tyler was the only one who went to see the tower of Pisa. I didn’t think it would be worth it at night. I guess I’ll have to come back to Italy later in life.
October 29
This was our last full day in Florence. We went and saw the real David early in the morning. It wasn’t really worth the ten Euro to get in. The museum didn’t have much besides David. We went to the markets where they sell tourist junk and ran into Jen, Betsy, and Christy. I didn’t even know they were in Italy. We made plans to meet up for dinner that night. We wandered around the city some more and went to the far side of the river. There is a big garden there and we walked through it for a couple hours. We ran into those three girls again by accident. We talked to them a little and went our separate ways
After walking through the garden we went to the river and then went to find some lunch. We were wandering towards an overlook of the city when we saw Jen Betsy and Christy eating at a café. So that was the third time we saw them that day without planning it.
The overlook was nice and we met up with all the people that were in Florence that night. There were 11 of us out of 26 on the trip. We tried to watch the sunset but it was cloudy and there was an awful violin player whose violin was way out of tune. He kept playing the first 12 notes of ode to joy and then playing some random notes. A random guy walking by came and tuned his violin for him but he still couldn’t play anything.
The group of us took a long walk to what Erik said was the best Gelato in Florence. It was good but probably not worth the long walk. The 11 of us ate dinner together at a place Tom recommended. I had veal for the first time. It wasn’t all that unusual.
October 30
We left for Rome in the morning. Rome was my city to book a hotel for so I had to guide us once we got there. I would say that I got us to our hotel with less trouble than the other guys had. The directions were really easy though. We stayed at the fountain terrace hostel which was the cheapest place we stayed for free travel at 15 euro a night each. It was also the most run down place we stayed. There was only one outlet in the room and the wiring wasn’t run through the wall, it was just a cable running out of the wall and onto the floor. The bathrooms were down the hall and none of them had soap or any way to dry your hands.
We met up with Anna, Kay, and Kelsey at the Trevi fountain and ate lunch with them there. We picked up some pizza and went to the Pantheon. The pantheon was smaller than I thought it would be. I didn’t know that it was just one big room.
We wanted to save some sights for the next day so we went to the Spanish steps for a while and then wandered over towards the Vatican. We sat in front of St Peter’s Basilica as the sun set. After a while we walked around and found some dinner.
October 31
We slept in a bit more than we planned but still got to the Coliseum and Roman Forum by noon or so. The Coliseum was huge and a fun site to see. I wish there had been better displays about the history of the place though. We bought our tickets at the forum because the lines there are about one quarter as long as they are at the Coliseum. The forum wasn’t really very interesting. There wasn’t any information about what was where or what happened there. Maybe we should have taken a tour.
Jesse wasn’t feeling so good so he went back to the hotel to rest. Spencer, Jake, and I took the subway to the Vatican. The subway system in Rome is really weird because it only has two lines. The Vatican museum was huge. It’s a big maze that takes hours to walk through. I could see people taking the whole day to get through the museum. Guess who we ran into randomly here, those three girls we saw three times in Florence.
The final room of the museum is the Sistine Chapel. We couldn’t take pictures in Chapel but I snuck a few anyway. They’re all blurry or zoomed out too far. Jake got caught trying to take a picture and the guard tried to make him leave. Jake was able to get back in though.
We went inside St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s huge. It is a lot bigger than any of the other churches we went to. There was a mass going on, so we listened in for twenty minutes or so while we walked through the basilica.
November 1
We didn’t have to wake up too early for our flight. We left around 8 and took a taxi to the airport. Only Ryanair and Ezjet fly out of this airport that we went to. They are the two cheapest airlines in Europe. The airport looked like some temporary buildings stuck together and all the departure gates were in the same room.
The flight went fine. Flying Ezjet is much better than Ryanair. It’s just much less stressful because they don’t worry about weight and size limits for luggage. When we got to Paris it was drizzling. We had to take a bus to the subway. The subways in Paris are awful for hauling your luggage through. There are several flights of steps to go up and down every time you transfer trains and you have to go through those one way gates which are fine for people but incredibly hard when bringing a suitcase through.
When we got out of the subway we went the wrong way and had to ask for directions. We asked at a little bakery and everybody in the bakery tried to help us out. It turns out that the subway station we left was within sight of our hotel.
It was still raining so we ate lunch at a diner right next to the hotel. We started seeing the rest of the group come up from the subway as we ate. They give you bread with every meal here but I ordered a hamburger and it came without a bun. I tried to use the French bread on the table to make a bun but it didn’t work well. The good news is that ketchup is free again and you don’t have to pay 10 or 50 cents for a packet like you have to in Italy.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
A long time without internet!
October 10
Today we leave for London. We took a bus to the Salzburg airport. Our flight left at 5 and we got to England in two hours. The time zone is different, so I am now 6 hours off from Minnesota time. Once we got to the airport we took a bus for two hours to get into the center of London, where our hotel was. We didn’t have a chance to eat dinner until around 1030.
October 11
It was Sunday so we went to church in the morning. We went to a mega church at the Dominion. The music was great; it was like being at a rock concert. The preacher was from Singapore and a bit strange.
camden
October 12
We went to see the Camden market in London today. It was really packed and I didn’t want to stay long. We also saw Wicked, which was a really good show. I’d probably go see it again sometime.
October 13
I saw Avenue Q, which is a comedy show, with a few friends. I don’t remember what else we did. The show was funny but Wicked was much better.
October 16
Today we had a test for consumer behavior. I think it went ok, but it probably won’t be my best test of the year. Everybody was really nervous because this was the first test of the semester.
October 17
I woke up late and took the bus down to what we thought would be a nice beach but it was more of a shipyard. We walked through the mall there and got some food before taking another bus ride to the real beach. We took some pictures and walked on the beach for a little bit. There was a rugby match in town so we went and saw that. It was Edinburgh against Ulster and Edinburgh won. It was fun to watch a real Rugby game. Jake, Kelsey, and I had to try to explain the rules to everyone.
After the game we got back to the hostel in time to get some dessert, but no real food. We went to Wannaburger for some food and walked around town a bit.
October 18
Today we went to church at a small Baptist church. The pastor was American but he was away on vacation this week. There were probably 35 people there total and about 15 of them were from our group.
We grabbed a little lunch at Tesco, which is a cheap convenience store, because we were all running out of pounds.
October 19
Our taxis left the hotel at 6:15 in the morning. Our flight left at 8:20 to Ireland. It was a short flight, but then we had a 3 hour train ride from Dublin to Galway. Once we got there I did a little homework and relaxed a bit. We had class outside today. It was cold and uncomfortable but not too long. After we had class we were supposed to ask people on the street what they thought of Ireland being part of the EU and using the Euro. We got some mixed results but everybody said that everything costs more now that they are using the Euro.
October 20
Today we tried to have class in a mall but we got kicked out by security. We found a place right next to a fountain in the park to finish class. I had a lot of homework to catch up on so a lot of my time was taken up by that.
October 21
We were leaving Galway at 1000 so I got up a little early and went out to the bay for a little walk. I did a little shopping as well. The train ride was another three hours back to Dublin. Our hotel rooms are huge here. We had class inside my room. All of us fit inside fine but only 3 of us are sleeping here. We went to a really fancy restaurant. I took a peek at the bill and it was 543 Euro. That’s about $800. I guess it all fits in the budget but I doubt we’ll being going to more places like that. We have a take home test due tomorrow so I had to put an hour or so into that.
Today we leave for London. We took a bus to the Salzburg airport. Our flight left at 5 and we got to England in two hours. The time zone is different, so I am now 6 hours off from Minnesota time. Once we got to the airport we took a bus for two hours to get into the center of London, where our hotel was. We didn’t have a chance to eat dinner until around 1030.
October 11
It was Sunday so we went to church in the morning. We went to a mega church at the Dominion. The music was great; it was like being at a rock concert. The preacher was from Singapore and a bit strange.
camden
October 12
We went to see the Camden market in London today. It was really packed and I didn’t want to stay long. We also saw Wicked, which was a really good show. I’d probably go see it again sometime.
October 13
I saw Avenue Q, which is a comedy show, with a few friends. I don’t remember what else we did. The show was funny but Wicked was much better.
October 16
Today we had a test for consumer behavior. I think it went ok, but it probably won’t be my best test of the year. Everybody was really nervous because this was the first test of the semester.
October 17
I woke up late and took the bus down to what we thought would be a nice beach but it was more of a shipyard. We walked through the mall there and got some food before taking another bus ride to the real beach. We took some pictures and walked on the beach for a little bit. There was a rugby match in town so we went and saw that. It was Edinburgh against Ulster and Edinburgh won. It was fun to watch a real Rugby game. Jake, Kelsey, and I had to try to explain the rules to everyone.
After the game we got back to the hostel in time to get some dessert, but no real food. We went to Wannaburger for some food and walked around town a bit.
October 18
Today we went to church at a small Baptist church. The pastor was American but he was away on vacation this week. There were probably 35 people there total and about 15 of them were from our group.
We grabbed a little lunch at Tesco, which is a cheap convenience store, because we were all running out of pounds.
October 19
Our taxis left the hotel at 6:15 in the morning. Our flight left at 8:20 to Ireland. It was a short flight, but then we had a 3 hour train ride from Dublin to Galway. Once we got there I did a little homework and relaxed a bit. We had class outside today. It was cold and uncomfortable but not too long. After we had class we were supposed to ask people on the street what they thought of Ireland being part of the EU and using the Euro. We got some mixed results but everybody said that everything costs more now that they are using the Euro.
October 20
Today we tried to have class in a mall but we got kicked out by security. We found a place right next to a fountain in the park to finish class. I had a lot of homework to catch up on so a lot of my time was taken up by that.
October 21
We were leaving Galway at 1000 so I got up a little early and went out to the bay for a little walk. I did a little shopping as well. The train ride was another three hours back to Dublin. Our hotel rooms are huge here. We had class inside my room. All of us fit inside fine but only 3 of us are sleeping here. We went to a really fancy restaurant. I took a peek at the bill and it was 543 Euro. That’s about $800. I guess it all fits in the budget but I doubt we’ll being going to more places like that. We have a take home test due tomorrow so I had to put an hour or so into that.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
October
October 2
Right after class I went and cleaned my room because we were leaving the country for the weekend. We used our Eurail passes to get us to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Slovenia is in Eastern Europe, and borders Austria to the east. They are the only Eastern European country to use the Euro, so we didn't have to exchange currency. It was about a 5-6 hour train ride there and many of us are feeling sick. Jesse stayed back at the Schloss for the weekend.
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, and is pretty modern. The GDP per capita in Slovenia is about half of what it is in the US. Just about everything was a little cheaper here than in Austria or Germany. We ate at a really good Mexican restaurant as a big group. With 28 people it took forever to get our food. The first night most people just went to sleep, but Jake, Peter, and I went up to the castle and looked down at the city lights.
October 3
After sleeping in a bit, a group of us went up to the castle. It was locked the night before so we couldn’t actually get in. It wasn’t much of a hike compared to the hike to the castle at Mittersill. It was still pretty tough for Kay who is done with crutches but still has a heavy boot.
I was tired so I took a long nap and got up in time for dinner. We split up into groups of 4 and tried to go to different restaurants. It’s much easier this way than eating together in a huge group. Three groups ended up at the same restaurant, but we sat separately.
October 4
As soon as we woke up it was time to get back on the train for Austria. I was feeling a little sick throughout most of the day and especially once I got back to the Schloss. It’s just some cold/flu symptoms that I should get over in a couple days. Once I got my reading done for class I went to bed and got a nice night of sleep.
October 8
We had a special speaker come in today and he talked for a very long time. It was interesting, but it was almost 2 by the time he was done. We usually get done with class by 12. He talked about the history of genetically engineered food and about how the bible relates to business and the economy. His name was John Hodges, and he worked for the UN for a long time.
October 9
Today was our last day of class. I was supposed to have my German test today, but I was an hour late. Nobody else that was supposed to go today showed up, so I didn’t even have to go. Tom got some grading done, and I get to put it off a little longer.
Right after class I went and cleaned my room because we were leaving the country for the weekend. We used our Eurail passes to get us to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Slovenia is in Eastern Europe, and borders Austria to the east. They are the only Eastern European country to use the Euro, so we didn't have to exchange currency. It was about a 5-6 hour train ride there and many of us are feeling sick. Jesse stayed back at the Schloss for the weekend.
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, and is pretty modern. The GDP per capita in Slovenia is about half of what it is in the US. Just about everything was a little cheaper here than in Austria or Germany. We ate at a really good Mexican restaurant as a big group. With 28 people it took forever to get our food. The first night most people just went to sleep, but Jake, Peter, and I went up to the castle and looked down at the city lights.
October 3
After sleeping in a bit, a group of us went up to the castle. It was locked the night before so we couldn’t actually get in. It wasn’t much of a hike compared to the hike to the castle at Mittersill. It was still pretty tough for Kay who is done with crutches but still has a heavy boot.
I was tired so I took a long nap and got up in time for dinner. We split up into groups of 4 and tried to go to different restaurants. It’s much easier this way than eating together in a huge group. Three groups ended up at the same restaurant, but we sat separately.
October 4
As soon as we woke up it was time to get back on the train for Austria. I was feeling a little sick throughout most of the day and especially once I got back to the Schloss. It’s just some cold/flu symptoms that I should get over in a couple days. Once I got my reading done for class I went to bed and got a nice night of sleep.
October 8
We had a special speaker come in today and he talked for a very long time. It was interesting, but it was almost 2 by the time he was done. We usually get done with class by 12. He talked about the history of genetically engineered food and about how the bible relates to business and the economy. His name was John Hodges, and he worked for the UN for a long time.
October 9
Today was our last day of class. I was supposed to have my German test today, but I was an hour late. Nobody else that was supposed to go today showed up, so I didn’t even have to go. Tom got some grading done, and I get to put it off a little longer.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Austria...Australia?
September 19
I slept in quite a bit even though I had taken a long nap the day before. I made some quesadillas for lunch/breakfast. We went to a different Discothek for a little while.
September 20
Nothing
September 21
Nothing
September 22
Tom was in town today, I think he was just on the way to pick up his wife at some airport. There was another open air concert with a couple of guys playing guitar. We watched them for a little while and then went to the farewell party at the Goethe Institut. We had a good time partying and dancing some more.
September 23
Today was our last day of classes here. Most of the class showed up late and with hangovers. During the first half of the day we went over the different prepositions that go with certain verbs IE 'I am waiting for some one' is the English way, but in German you say ' I am waiting on someone'. After our break, we signed our class photos and got email addresses. We went to the town square to get some coffee at a cafe. We sat and talked for the rest of the class time. The one person who didn't show up for class was at the market buying fruit, so he hung out with us at the cafe.
September 24
Today we got up at 630 and ate our last breakfast in Schwaebisch Hall. We had to get to the train station by 730. It was a long train ride going through Nuremburg and Munich, which were both a ways out of the way. We got to Salzburg and Tom's directions were awful. We asked at a different hotel and they told us the wrong place. When we go to the wrong place we asked a woman and she knew right where it was and took us most of the way there.
September 25
Today we slept in late because we had gotten up early the last few days. We had breakfast at the hotel and packed up all of our stuff. Jesse, Spencer, Jake, Kay, Paul, Eric, and I went to the castle hohensalz. There was a great view from the top.
We got back to the hotel in time to buy some energy drinks at the nearest Spar and get our stuff on the bus. I was about one minute and thirty seconds late and Tom said that he almost left without me. I guess we really have to be on time down to the minute.
The drive to Mittersill was really nice, and it really reminded me of Switzerland. Most of the time we were driving through a valley with a river running through it. The bus brought us almost all the way to the top of the hill where the Schloss is. (Schloss means castle or palace in German) We got into our rooms and ate our first dinner at the Schloss. Dinner was good, we had spaghetti and some garlic soup which some people though might have been alfredo sauce but we weren't sure. That night we got a short introduction to the history of the schloss, and we shared stories about our adventures in Germany.
Jesse got the key to the sound room in our little auditorium/classroom and we worked with it for a couple hours, getting sound and video from a laptop to come up on the projector. We also figured out how to get the light system working so we can do some disco dancing up there.
September 26
Breakfast was mostly the same as our breakfasts in Schwaebisch Hall, with the addition of hard boiled eggs. We took the train to Zell am See today. I was here in spring of 2005 for a German class trip. I was also in Salzburg on that same trip. We went skiing there in 2005 and I didn't get to see much of the city. Today we walked about a third of the way around the lake before we had too turn back. Some groups made it all the way around the lake but we took our time eating and walking. Jesse, Jake, Mark, Dan Chang, and I all jumped in the lake. It was cold, but not so cold that you couldn't get used to it.
We went shopping briefly after getting back to Mittersill, picking up some snacks and some clothes. Today was our first chance to hike up the hill to the Schloss. When you look at the pictures I've put up then you can see that its a bit of a hike from the town to the schloss. I only took one short break on my way up, so I was winded and sweating by the time we got to the top.
Jesse set up the Bethel homecoming game on the projector, but it was really choppy. We're really hoping we can get tomorrow's Vikings game to work better. It's just a matter of how fast the internet is.
September 27
This morning we had a little church service where Dan Chang played some guitar and Spencer played piano. Then they hooked up a little podcast for us to listen to. A couple on vacation joined us for our little service. There is only one real church in town and its a catholic one. There is also a house church but it usually only could handle 10-15 people and our group would just be too big. I'm glad we didn't go all the way down the hill for church.
We took a bus from the train station over a few towns to the highest waterfall in Europe. I think that means that it's the highest in elevation, not the highest fall. It was a good three hour hike, and my group only went two thirds of the way up. Some others went all the way to the top but they really had to hurry. We ate our sack lunches on the rocks by the river and it was a really nice way to spend the day. Tom came up after us and also go the the two thirds point. He's in pretty good shape.
This time coming up the hill I took the easier path, which is not as steep but more slippery. I prefer the steep one. Tom slipped and fell down part of the “easy” path yesterday, its a good thing he didn't get hurt. Some trees kept him from falling all the way down.
The vikings game was put up on the projector, but it was in Danish so it wasn't the best. We had a fair bit of homework to do tonight, mostly reading.
I slept in quite a bit even though I had taken a long nap the day before. I made some quesadillas for lunch/breakfast. We went to a different Discothek for a little while.
September 20
Nothing
September 21
Nothing
September 22
Tom was in town today, I think he was just on the way to pick up his wife at some airport. There was another open air concert with a couple of guys playing guitar. We watched them for a little while and then went to the farewell party at the Goethe Institut. We had a good time partying and dancing some more.
September 23
Today was our last day of classes here. Most of the class showed up late and with hangovers. During the first half of the day we went over the different prepositions that go with certain verbs IE 'I am waiting for some one' is the English way, but in German you say ' I am waiting on someone'. After our break, we signed our class photos and got email addresses. We went to the town square to get some coffee at a cafe. We sat and talked for the rest of the class time. The one person who didn't show up for class was at the market buying fruit, so he hung out with us at the cafe.
September 24
Today we got up at 630 and ate our last breakfast in Schwaebisch Hall. We had to get to the train station by 730. It was a long train ride going through Nuremburg and Munich, which were both a ways out of the way. We got to Salzburg and Tom's directions were awful. We asked at a different hotel and they told us the wrong place. When we go to the wrong place we asked a woman and she knew right where it was and took us most of the way there.
September 25
Today we slept in late because we had gotten up early the last few days. We had breakfast at the hotel and packed up all of our stuff. Jesse, Spencer, Jake, Kay, Paul, Eric, and I went to the castle hohensalz. There was a great view from the top.
We got back to the hotel in time to buy some energy drinks at the nearest Spar and get our stuff on the bus. I was about one minute and thirty seconds late and Tom said that he almost left without me. I guess we really have to be on time down to the minute.
The drive to Mittersill was really nice, and it really reminded me of Switzerland. Most of the time we were driving through a valley with a river running through it. The bus brought us almost all the way to the top of the hill where the Schloss is. (Schloss means castle or palace in German) We got into our rooms and ate our first dinner at the Schloss. Dinner was good, we had spaghetti and some garlic soup which some people though might have been alfredo sauce but we weren't sure. That night we got a short introduction to the history of the schloss, and we shared stories about our adventures in Germany.
Jesse got the key to the sound room in our little auditorium/classroom and we worked with it for a couple hours, getting sound and video from a laptop to come up on the projector. We also figured out how to get the light system working so we can do some disco dancing up there.
September 26
Breakfast was mostly the same as our breakfasts in Schwaebisch Hall, with the addition of hard boiled eggs. We took the train to Zell am See today. I was here in spring of 2005 for a German class trip. I was also in Salzburg on that same trip. We went skiing there in 2005 and I didn't get to see much of the city. Today we walked about a third of the way around the lake before we had too turn back. Some groups made it all the way around the lake but we took our time eating and walking. Jesse, Jake, Mark, Dan Chang, and I all jumped in the lake. It was cold, but not so cold that you couldn't get used to it.
We went shopping briefly after getting back to Mittersill, picking up some snacks and some clothes. Today was our first chance to hike up the hill to the Schloss. When you look at the pictures I've put up then you can see that its a bit of a hike from the town to the schloss. I only took one short break on my way up, so I was winded and sweating by the time we got to the top.
Jesse set up the Bethel homecoming game on the projector, but it was really choppy. We're really hoping we can get tomorrow's Vikings game to work better. It's just a matter of how fast the internet is.
September 27
This morning we had a little church service where Dan Chang played some guitar and Spencer played piano. Then they hooked up a little podcast for us to listen to. A couple on vacation joined us for our little service. There is only one real church in town and its a catholic one. There is also a house church but it usually only could handle 10-15 people and our group would just be too big. I'm glad we didn't go all the way down the hill for church.
We took a bus from the train station over a few towns to the highest waterfall in Europe. I think that means that it's the highest in elevation, not the highest fall. It was a good three hour hike, and my group only went two thirds of the way up. Some others went all the way to the top but they really had to hurry. We ate our sack lunches on the rocks by the river and it was a really nice way to spend the day. Tom came up after us and also go the the two thirds point. He's in pretty good shape.
This time coming up the hill I took the easier path, which is not as steep but more slippery. I prefer the steep one. Tom slipped and fell down part of the “easy” path yesterday, its a good thing he didn't get hurt. Some trees kept him from falling all the way down.
The vikings game was put up on the projector, but it was in Danish so it wasn't the best. We had a fair bit of homework to do tonight, mostly reading.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
A whole week in one post.
September 12
This was our big day in Switzerland. Jake and Spencer went out skydiving and I think Anika and Laura did too. The rest of us took a bus to a train that brought us up into the mountains a bit and then we hiked. I took a ton of pictures. For most of the way, the hike was a wide paved path through a valley between two mountains. Basejumpers would jump off of one of the cliffs and you could always hear their parachutes opening up.
After a couple hours, the group split into two and half of us went back. I went on ahead for another couple hours. I'm grad I did because then I got to get up real close to the second waterfall. The hiking started to get a little tougher after the waterfall. The path was now dirt and steadily uphill. We still had a long ways to walk back so 4 of us turned back. Only Jesse, Mickey, and Paul kept going. They eventually got all the way up to a glacier.
I think it was on their way back from the glacier that they crossed over one of the little bridges over the river. Paul was still on the bridge when they all heard a cracking noise. Part of the glacier must have cracked and let a bunch of water out because it flooded the river and swept away the bridge that they had just crossed.
It was about an hour and a half walk down the mountain back to the train station. We were pretty hungry but the prices in Switzerland are horrible. I eventually paid for two cheeseburgers at McDonalds for about $5.
When we finally got back to our hotel, Jake and Spencer were back from their skydiving. We hung out at the hotel for a while until Mickey, Jesse, and Paul got back. They really were starving because it was about 10 o'clock by then. We found them some food and went to sleep.
September 13
We were all exhausted after yesterday's hike so we slept in some and got ready for our 6.5 hour train ride back to Schwaebisch Hall. We picked up some Ok brand energy drinks for the ride. Our route back was really confusing and we had to take the S bahn at one point. That was a really bumpy and noisy ride.
We got back to Schwaebisch Hall just in time for the 7:00 bells. We had a little time to do some homework and recuperate and then get ready for our last full week of classes.
September 14
Second to last Monday of German class.
September 15
Tuesday... nothing.
September 16
Not too much happened today, it was standard weekday. Me and Jesse watched two episodes of the Colony together.
September 17
My class had another test today. I think it could have gone better, but we're not graded by bethel according to these tests. I don't know how we're going to be graded though, or if its taken pass/fail. Since it's Thursday, we went to the grocery store for lunch and they had Hawaiian pizza, which was the best one yet. This is probably the last day for pizza at the grocery store because we will be leaving early next Thursday.
September 18
The weekend is finally here. I was so tired that I took a 3 hour nap right after class. I made some brats for dinner and relaxed in my room until about 8:00 where we went to check out the party at the Goethe Pub. We played a little foosball and some cards, but then everybody was leaving so we left too. We walked around for a little while and considered going out to some discothek, but we didn't know where it was or where to find a taxi. Kelsey and Anna went back to go to sleep.
We ran into some Brazilian guys that we knew from the Goethe Institut who were going to the discothek outside of town. They convinced us to go and we jumped in some taxis and went. We had a great time dancing at the disco until about 3 in the morning and then we left. One of the girls we came with was outside and still very drunk so we took her back to her place. She kept on talking to us but she switched between German, Spanish, and English so none of us could understand more than 2/3 of what she was saying. I think she tried to use a fake ID to get into the club and they called the police. Anyway, she was real thankful that we helped her get back to her place.
This was our big day in Switzerland. Jake and Spencer went out skydiving and I think Anika and Laura did too. The rest of us took a bus to a train that brought us up into the mountains a bit and then we hiked. I took a ton of pictures. For most of the way, the hike was a wide paved path through a valley between two mountains. Basejumpers would jump off of one of the cliffs and you could always hear their parachutes opening up.
After a couple hours, the group split into two and half of us went back. I went on ahead for another couple hours. I'm grad I did because then I got to get up real close to the second waterfall. The hiking started to get a little tougher after the waterfall. The path was now dirt and steadily uphill. We still had a long ways to walk back so 4 of us turned back. Only Jesse, Mickey, and Paul kept going. They eventually got all the way up to a glacier.
I think it was on their way back from the glacier that they crossed over one of the little bridges over the river. Paul was still on the bridge when they all heard a cracking noise. Part of the glacier must have cracked and let a bunch of water out because it flooded the river and swept away the bridge that they had just crossed.
It was about an hour and a half walk down the mountain back to the train station. We were pretty hungry but the prices in Switzerland are horrible. I eventually paid for two cheeseburgers at McDonalds for about $5.
When we finally got back to our hotel, Jake and Spencer were back from their skydiving. We hung out at the hotel for a while until Mickey, Jesse, and Paul got back. They really were starving because it was about 10 o'clock by then. We found them some food and went to sleep.
September 13
We were all exhausted after yesterday's hike so we slept in some and got ready for our 6.5 hour train ride back to Schwaebisch Hall. We picked up some Ok brand energy drinks for the ride. Our route back was really confusing and we had to take the S bahn at one point. That was a really bumpy and noisy ride.
We got back to Schwaebisch Hall just in time for the 7:00 bells. We had a little time to do some homework and recuperate and then get ready for our last full week of classes.
September 14
Second to last Monday of German class.
September 15
Tuesday... nothing.
September 16
Not too much happened today, it was standard weekday. Me and Jesse watched two episodes of the Colony together.
September 17
My class had another test today. I think it could have gone better, but we're not graded by bethel according to these tests. I don't know how we're going to be graded though, or if its taken pass/fail. Since it's Thursday, we went to the grocery store for lunch and they had Hawaiian pizza, which was the best one yet. This is probably the last day for pizza at the grocery store because we will be leaving early next Thursday.
September 18
The weekend is finally here. I was so tired that I took a 3 hour nap right after class. I made some brats for dinner and relaxed in my room until about 8:00 where we went to check out the party at the Goethe Pub. We played a little foosball and some cards, but then everybody was leaving so we left too. We walked around for a little while and considered going out to some discothek, but we didn't know where it was or where to find a taxi. Kelsey and Anna went back to go to sleep.
We ran into some Brazilian guys that we knew from the Goethe Institut who were going to the discothek outside of town. They convinced us to go and we jumped in some taxis and went. We had a great time dancing at the disco until about 3 in the morning and then we left. One of the girls we came with was outside and still very drunk so we took her back to her place. She kept on talking to us but she switched between German, Spanish, and English so none of us could understand more than 2/3 of what she was saying. I think she tried to use a fake ID to get into the club and they called the police. Anyway, she was real thankful that we helped her get back to her place.
Switzerland
September 11
Today we had our test and I think it went well. I don't think that the tests actually count for anything as far as Bethel is concerned. Right after class we all rushed back to our rooms and grab our stuff for the weekend. I kept on forgetting things and had to run back twice, but we made it to the train station on time. We bought tickets to Stuttgart so that we could validate our EUrail passes. Tom said that the people in the small towns don't always know what they're doing and the pass costs 400
Euros so we didn't want that to happen.
Once we got to Stuttgart, we validated the passes and got on the train to Interlaken. It was a long ride, about 6 hours from Stuttgart. We got to Interlaken late and apparently the people in our group who booked our hotel didn't look up how to get there. We wandered around a bit asking people where the hotel was. About half the people we asked didn't know what it was. We eventually went to Hooters to get directions. It was one of the few places still open. They told us it was somewhere on the other side of the park, very helpful. Finally we stopped at another hotel and they gave us a map and directions.
Once we got our stuff in the hotel we were all really hungry so we went out to look for some food. Of course the only place was the Hooters we asked for directions at. That was my first time eating there, and I got a burger and it was good. The prices were a little insane. I think it was 17 swiss francs which is about $17. And since I had to pay in Euros, it was more expensive because they charge extra for the currency exchange.
By the time we got back to the hotel the group from Freiburg was there. Their train ride was 3 hours shorter than ours. It was fun to see Jake and Spencer again (not that I don't like the rest of the Freiburg group).
Today we had our test and I think it went well. I don't think that the tests actually count for anything as far as Bethel is concerned. Right after class we all rushed back to our rooms and grab our stuff for the weekend. I kept on forgetting things and had to run back twice, but we made it to the train station on time. We bought tickets to Stuttgart so that we could validate our EUrail passes. Tom said that the people in the small towns don't always know what they're doing and the pass costs 400
Euros so we didn't want that to happen.
Once we got to Stuttgart, we validated the passes and got on the train to Interlaken. It was a long ride, about 6 hours from Stuttgart. We got to Interlaken late and apparently the people in our group who booked our hotel didn't look up how to get there. We wandered around a bit asking people where the hotel was. About half the people we asked didn't know what it was. We eventually went to Hooters to get directions. It was one of the few places still open. They told us it was somewhere on the other side of the park, very helpful. Finally we stopped at another hotel and they gave us a map and directions.
Once we got our stuff in the hotel we were all really hungry so we went out to look for some food. Of course the only place was the Hooters we asked for directions at. That was my first time eating there, and I got a burger and it was good. The prices were a little insane. I think it was 17 swiss francs which is about $17. And since I had to pay in Euros, it was more expensive because they charge extra for the currency exchange.
By the time we got back to the hotel the group from Freiburg was there. Their train ride was 3 hours shorter than ours. It was fun to see Jake and Spencer again (not that I don't like the rest of the Freiburg group).
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Donnerstag ist Pizzatag
September 10
I got half of my homework done at breakfast today and rushed through the rest of it during the first part of class. Tom met up with us on our break and gave us some more money. He gave us 90 Euros for meals and housing on one weekend of our free travel. I was running low and I didn't want to go to the bank, so that worked out well. He told us to check out the art museum in town and that it was really interesting.
During the second half of our class the teacher took us on a field trip... to the art museum that Tom was talking about. There was an exhibit there by David Hockney who does paintings with many canvases put together. The exhibit was all trees, and he did some 4 season paintings of the same trees. There were only 30 or so paintings but they were really big, one of the biggest ones was about 25 feet across and 20 feet high. We were supposed to split up into groups and describe a painting in German. I wound up in a group with Angela from Spain and Hisham from Tripoli, Libya. Once we had done that we had to read the description to the whole class when they came and looked at our painting. The field trip was a lot more fun than sitting in class all day and I wish we would do some more things like that.
Since it's Thursday, we went to the supermarket because they have really good pizza but only on Thursdays. I think they use only Parmesan cheese on the pizza, so it tastes different but really good.
After the hike back up the hill to our little apartments I was tired so I read for a little bit and took a nap. After my nap I got caught up on some homework and blogging.
I got half of my homework done at breakfast today and rushed through the rest of it during the first part of class. Tom met up with us on our break and gave us some more money. He gave us 90 Euros for meals and housing on one weekend of our free travel. I was running low and I didn't want to go to the bank, so that worked out well. He told us to check out the art museum in town and that it was really interesting.
During the second half of our class the teacher took us on a field trip... to the art museum that Tom was talking about. There was an exhibit there by David Hockney who does paintings with many canvases put together. The exhibit was all trees, and he did some 4 season paintings of the same trees. There were only 30 or so paintings but they were really big, one of the biggest ones was about 25 feet across and 20 feet high. We were supposed to split up into groups and describe a painting in German. I wound up in a group with Angela from Spain and Hisham from Tripoli, Libya. Once we had done that we had to read the description to the whole class when they came and looked at our painting. The field trip was a lot more fun than sitting in class all day and I wish we would do some more things like that.
Since it's Thursday, we went to the supermarket because they have really good pizza but only on Thursdays. I think they use only Parmesan cheese on the pizza, so it tastes different but really good.
After the hike back up the hill to our little apartments I was tired so I read for a little bit and took a nap. After my nap I got caught up on some homework and blogging.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
New Book
September 9
Today I found out that I have another test on Friday. Some of the people in other groups are finally having their first tests. We played a little 500 with a football during our break. Nobody outside of our group joined in, I guess they were too busy smoking.
After class I hung out in my room a little bit and then listened to my Ipod in the park. We played some catch, and the ball attracted a few dogs for us to pet. Everybody loves their dogs here. They are allowed in any store.
I started reading a new book called “A Game of Thrones”. A review of the book said that you would probably call in sick the next day so that you would have more time to read it. It made me skip my homework, so I guess it was pretty close. The review also said that the author has no qualms about killing off the main characters, which is refreshing sometimes because sometimes the main characters are just too invincible and unbelievable.
Today I found out that I have another test on Friday. Some of the people in other groups are finally having their first tests. We played a little 500 with a football during our break. Nobody outside of our group joined in, I guess they were too busy smoking.
After class I hung out in my room a little bit and then listened to my Ipod in the park. We played some catch, and the ball attracted a few dogs for us to pet. Everybody loves their dogs here. They are allowed in any store.
I started reading a new book called “A Game of Thrones”. A review of the book said that you would probably call in sick the next day so that you would have more time to read it. It made me skip my homework, so I guess it was pretty close. The review also said that the author has no qualms about killing off the main characters, which is refreshing sometimes because sometimes the main characters are just too invincible and unbelievable.
Piano in the park
September 8
After classes, we rushed over to the train station to pick up Tom. Everybody made little signs welcoming him to Swaebish Hall. He wasn't expecting such a greeting and was surprised to see us. We walked him back to his hotel, which is a restaurant and hotel right on the central square of the town. Its a really nice place, but being right next to the town bells with be annoying I bet.
I don't think I mentioned yet how annoying the bells are. I know there's one at 600 or 630 in the morning, but I rarely hear that one. I keep my window shut at night so that one doesn't wake me up. There are some other bells at almost random times through the day. They're not even always on the hour. The 700 pm bells are the worst though, they ring for a full five minutes every day.
We ate dinner at Tom's hotel and I had something like hash browns with slices of tomatoes and cheese on top. It wasn't bad, I even ate the tomatoes. Two of the girls ordered an Italian dish that sounded like a steak salad. It turned out to be some paper-thin pieces of raw tasting meat with a few leaves of lettuce on top. Neither of them liked it, so everybody else gave it a try; it was awful.
We took a walk down to the park and found something unexpected. There was a big crowd of people there and a guy playing the piano (with speakers and everything set up). When we got there he was playing Elton John songs, and he was doing a really good job of it. He was also singing in English so that was neat too. It was just a nice evening in the park and we stayed there for a couple hours until he was done playing around 10. He played a little Billy Joel, Robbie Williams, Phil Collins and Stevie Wonder. I think the guy's name was Donavon Aston. I really had a good time there sitting on a little hill and listening.
We went to the town square and all the buildings are lit up really nicely so we took a few pictures and just talked there. After a while it was time to do my homework and get to bed.
After classes, we rushed over to the train station to pick up Tom. Everybody made little signs welcoming him to Swaebish Hall. He wasn't expecting such a greeting and was surprised to see us. We walked him back to his hotel, which is a restaurant and hotel right on the central square of the town. Its a really nice place, but being right next to the town bells with be annoying I bet.
I don't think I mentioned yet how annoying the bells are. I know there's one at 600 or 630 in the morning, but I rarely hear that one. I keep my window shut at night so that one doesn't wake me up. There are some other bells at almost random times through the day. They're not even always on the hour. The 700 pm bells are the worst though, they ring for a full five minutes every day.
We ate dinner at Tom's hotel and I had something like hash browns with slices of tomatoes and cheese on top. It wasn't bad, I even ate the tomatoes. Two of the girls ordered an Italian dish that sounded like a steak salad. It turned out to be some paper-thin pieces of raw tasting meat with a few leaves of lettuce on top. Neither of them liked it, so everybody else gave it a try; it was awful.
We took a walk down to the park and found something unexpected. There was a big crowd of people there and a guy playing the piano (with speakers and everything set up). When we got there he was playing Elton John songs, and he was doing a really good job of it. He was also singing in English so that was neat too. It was just a nice evening in the park and we stayed there for a couple hours until he was done playing around 10. He played a little Billy Joel, Robbie Williams, Phil Collins and Stevie Wonder. I think the guy's name was Donavon Aston. I really had a good time there sitting on a little hill and listening.
We went to the town square and all the buildings are lit up really nicely so we took a few pictures and just talked there. After a while it was time to do my homework and get to bed.
Another day of classes
September 7
We made it to the store today after class. I picked up quite a bit of food. I got 4 bottles of juice/pop. I got some frozen curry rice which was okay, but not fantastic.
Me and Jesse watched a couple episodes of The Colony, which is a really great show on the discovery channel.
Tom Johnson is coming to our town tomorrow. He's been making the rounds and was coming from Freiberg.
We made it to the store today after class. I picked up quite a bit of food. I got 4 bottles of juice/pop. I got some frozen curry rice which was okay, but not fantastic.
Me and Jesse watched a couple episodes of The Colony, which is a really great show on the discovery channel.
Tom Johnson is coming to our town tomorrow. He's been making the rounds and was coming from Freiberg.
Lazy Sunday
September 6
I slept in a bit on Sunday and then watched John Piper's broadcast on the internet. We tried to go to the store, but it was closed because it was Sunday. We didn't have much food left to eat so we stopped at a Kebab stand that we hadn't been to before. It wasn't great, they really loaded on the red cabbage.
I had a little homework to do and I did a video chat with the family on Skype. Grandma (Waller) thought that was the coolest thing ever. Then I played a couple of games with Andy online and then went to bed.
I slept in a bit on Sunday and then watched John Piper's broadcast on the internet. We tried to go to the store, but it was closed because it was Sunday. We didn't have much food left to eat so we stopped at a Kebab stand that we hadn't been to before. It wasn't great, they really loaded on the red cabbage.
I had a little homework to do and I did a video chat with the family on Skype. Grandma (Waller) thought that was the coolest thing ever. Then I played a couple of games with Andy online and then went to bed.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Adventure Day
September 5
Today is our first Saturday in Swaebish Hall. Mickey cooked some scrambled eggs for everyone this morning. We decided to go on a hike/walk together this afternoon. I suspected it was going to be a long one because most of our group is the “get up early and run around” type. And so our 4 hour hike began at noon. We didn't have a specific direction we wanted to go, but we saw the nearby castle up on a hill so we set that as our target.
The castle was a cool little place. We got around to the inside but they were doing some repairs to the street. We couldn't find another good way up so we climbed up on the the inner part of the wall, which is a walkway all the way around the castle. We took a break next to the big church in the center of the place. It wasn't open so we couldn't go in.
From the top of the walls we could see hang gliders off in the distance by some kind of tower. It was a long ways away, but we decided to try to walk up there and see what we could see. We had to walk to the next town, which is where we had to change trains on the way to Swaebish Hall. It was called Hessental.
From Hessental we caught a brief look at the tower up on the hill and just started walking in that direction. We saw two little hedgehogs on the side of the road and played with them a little bit.
The road we took split off into a nice looking trail and the main road. The trail was going in the right direction so we took it. It turned out to be very muddy and steep. After a horribly tiring climb we finally got to the top and rested. We still had a little more road to cover, but then we got to the top of the hill.
I wish I had some pictures to show, but I don't. Everybody else took pictures and I'll get them later. The top of the hill was a nice grassy field with a great view. The tower that we saw earlier was part of an old church with only the walls still standing. The tower was open though and we got to go in and go all the way to the top.
We played around at this little park at the top of the hill and took some pictures and then tried to find a better way back to Swaebish Hall. We took a more direct route through a field. It was a steep trip down but on the way there was an apple tree. I was the only one in the group who hadn't brought an apple with me so I picked one from the tree. Most of the apples were bad, but I found one and it was fantastic.
The trip back to our rooms was long and my feet had really started to hurt. I was so tired when we got back around 400 that I took a shower and then a 3 hour nap. When I woke up me and Jesse made some spaghetti for dinner. It was probably around 9 by the time we were done. One woman came into the kitchen to make some food. I think it's Ramadan, because she was there around that time the day before.
I hung out in the kitchen with Jesse, Mickey, and Amy for an hour or two and then went to sleep.
Today is our first Saturday in Swaebish Hall. Mickey cooked some scrambled eggs for everyone this morning. We decided to go on a hike/walk together this afternoon. I suspected it was going to be a long one because most of our group is the “get up early and run around” type. And so our 4 hour hike began at noon. We didn't have a specific direction we wanted to go, but we saw the nearby castle up on a hill so we set that as our target.
The castle was a cool little place. We got around to the inside but they were doing some repairs to the street. We couldn't find another good way up so we climbed up on the the inner part of the wall, which is a walkway all the way around the castle. We took a break next to the big church in the center of the place. It wasn't open so we couldn't go in.
From the top of the walls we could see hang gliders off in the distance by some kind of tower. It was a long ways away, but we decided to try to walk up there and see what we could see. We had to walk to the next town, which is where we had to change trains on the way to Swaebish Hall. It was called Hessental.
From Hessental we caught a brief look at the tower up on the hill and just started walking in that direction. We saw two little hedgehogs on the side of the road and played with them a little bit.
The road we took split off into a nice looking trail and the main road. The trail was going in the right direction so we took it. It turned out to be very muddy and steep. After a horribly tiring climb we finally got to the top and rested. We still had a little more road to cover, but then we got to the top of the hill.
I wish I had some pictures to show, but I don't. Everybody else took pictures and I'll get them later. The top of the hill was a nice grassy field with a great view. The tower that we saw earlier was part of an old church with only the walls still standing. The tower was open though and we got to go in and go all the way to the top.
We played around at this little park at the top of the hill and took some pictures and then tried to find a better way back to Swaebish Hall. We took a more direct route through a field. It was a steep trip down but on the way there was an apple tree. I was the only one in the group who hadn't brought an apple with me so I picked one from the tree. Most of the apples were bad, but I found one and it was fantastic.
The trip back to our rooms was long and my feet had really started to hurt. I was so tired when we got back around 400 that I took a shower and then a 3 hour nap. When I woke up me and Jesse made some spaghetti for dinner. It was probably around 9 by the time we were done. One woman came into the kitchen to make some food. I think it's Ramadan, because she was there around that time the day before.
I hung out in the kitchen with Jesse, Mickey, and Amy for an hour or two and then went to sleep.
Weekend
September 4
We had a test today in German class. I think it went well, but I've been making a lot of little mistakes on the homework. Its nice that we get a weekend. Classes really aren't too bad but it will be nice to have some more time off. We didn't do anything too exciting besides watch the whole second season of the IT Crowd.
We had a test today in German class. I think it went well, but I've been making a lot of little mistakes on the homework. Its nice that we get a weekend. Classes really aren't too bad but it will be nice to have some more time off. We didn't do anything too exciting besides watch the whole second season of the IT Crowd.
Untitled
September 2
Now that we've settled into our routine at the Goethe institute, there isn't so much to write about. I'm not traveling all over Germany and seeing all the sights, or really doing anything interesting. The daily routine is that I wake up at 720 and go to breakfast at the institute. I usually meet up with the other Bethel students there. Then we have classes until 1245 and I usually go to the supermarket with Jesse to pick up some food for lunch and dinner. After the decently tiring and hot walk up the hill to our rooms I'm usually a little tired and take a nap. On the weekends there might be some more exciting things happening, but for now not so much.
Now that we've settled into our routine at the Goethe institute, there isn't so much to write about. I'm not traveling all over Germany and seeing all the sights, or really doing anything interesting. The daily routine is that I wake up at 720 and go to breakfast at the institute. I usually meet up with the other Bethel students there. Then we have classes until 1245 and I usually go to the supermarket with Jesse to pick up some food for lunch and dinner. After the decently tiring and hot walk up the hill to our rooms I'm usually a little tired and take a nap. On the weekends there might be some more exciting things happening, but for now not so much.
A new month
September 1
I had the great pleasure of getting up at 700 this morning. Breakfast only goes from 700 until 800 and classes begin at 815 so I'll be on an early schedule. It's a lot different than sleeping from 3 AM until 11 AM like I was usually doing in the summer.
Breakfast was exactly the same as every other breakfast so far. That might get old, but for now it's still good. All of the students met up in this chapel room and they called out our names for our classes. My teacher is Jochen Gaile. He's a little strange but that way he keeps my interest.
Class goes from 815 to 1245 with a 30 minute break and a 15 minute break. In our first class we learned all of our classmate's names and where they came from. At the beginning of the class I was the only person from an English speaking country, but a guy from Ireland came in late. There are two people from Japan, two from The United Arab Emirates, one from China, two from Spain, one from France, one from Moldova, one from Thailand, and one from Ireland. The class work wasn't so hard today but I think it will be harder tomorrow.
I went back to my room after class and ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. We relaxed until there was a tour of the city. We started going with the tour but we had already explored so much of the city that it wasn't really interesting. Jesse and I tried to find the Aldi store in town and eventually found it. It's a bit out of the way but everything there is really cheap. One interesting thing is that at the grocery stores you have to pay for your own bag. At Aldi's in MN they don't give you a bag so I was expecting that, but the main supermarket was the same way.
We took the long hike back to our room and cooked up some bratwurst for dinner. I finished my book, and started the long process of blogging about the last few days. I also put up a couple hundred pictures, which still aren't done uploading now. Now I'm going to do my German homework and go to bed.
I had the great pleasure of getting up at 700 this morning. Breakfast only goes from 700 until 800 and classes begin at 815 so I'll be on an early schedule. It's a lot different than sleeping from 3 AM until 11 AM like I was usually doing in the summer.
Breakfast was exactly the same as every other breakfast so far. That might get old, but for now it's still good. All of the students met up in this chapel room and they called out our names for our classes. My teacher is Jochen Gaile. He's a little strange but that way he keeps my interest.
Class goes from 815 to 1245 with a 30 minute break and a 15 minute break. In our first class we learned all of our classmate's names and where they came from. At the beginning of the class I was the only person from an English speaking country, but a guy from Ireland came in late. There are two people from Japan, two from The United Arab Emirates, one from China, two from Spain, one from France, one from Moldova, one from Thailand, and one from Ireland. The class work wasn't so hard today but I think it will be harder tomorrow.
I went back to my room after class and ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. We relaxed until there was a tour of the city. We started going with the tour but we had already explored so much of the city that it wasn't really interesting. Jesse and I tried to find the Aldi store in town and eventually found it. It's a bit out of the way but everything there is really cheap. One interesting thing is that at the grocery stores you have to pay for your own bag. At Aldi's in MN they don't give you a bag so I was expecting that, but the main supermarket was the same way.
We took the long hike back to our room and cooked up some bratwurst for dinner. I finished my book, and started the long process of blogging about the last few days. I also put up a couple hundred pictures, which still aren't done uploading now. Now I'm going to do my German homework and go to bed.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Last Day of August
Aug 31
Today is Monday and it is the day that our group splits up into 4 smaller groups. The Swaebish Hall (It's really spelled with an umlaut over the the first a, but I'm not going to bother to type it) group which is myself, Jesse, Amy, Mickey, Paul, Anna, and Kelsey left around 830 in the morning from our hostel. All the other groups were going to start using their EUrail passes, but we didn't because we had such a short trip. This way we have one more EUrail pass to use later.
Since we changed trains by not using the passes, we had to wait about an hour and a half at the train station for our train. It left at 1030 and we got to Swaebish Hall by 1200. I had to ask people on the street where the Goethe institute was because we really didn't know. They were really helpful and we got there without a problem.
Once we got to the Goethe institute we were told a little bit about where to find stores and where our rooms were. Paul and I had to take a proficiency test in German, and we both thought it was really hard. The test took a little over an hour and it really tired me out. The students are divided into ten or so classes depending on how much German they knew. Everybody except for me and Paul are in the A0 class. I think Paul is in the A 2.1 class and I'm in the A 2.2 class. That is the highest class of the beginner classes. I also got my room key and trekked up the hill (a pattern?) to my room.
The rooms here are single bed rooms, and every two rooms are connected by a bathroom. My room is right next to Jesse's so we share a bathroom and shower. The room is about the size of the one I lived in when I was a Freshman at Bethel, so it's roomy for one person. We also get our own refrigerators, which will be nice because we only have breakfasts provided for us.
I only had a few minutes to throw all my stuff in my room because the others had been waiting for me to finish the test and eat lunch with them. We found the nearest Kebap stand and ate there. After eating we went shopping for some food and drinks to keep in our rooms.
I took a little time to read a book in my room and relax a little bit. I had started reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown at the train station, and by the end of the day I had finished half of it (I got to page 450). We went on a short excursion into the town to buy some dinner. We ate Lahmacun, which is like a rolled up pizza with no cheese. I went to bed early so that I would be fresh in the morning.
Today is Monday and it is the day that our group splits up into 4 smaller groups. The Swaebish Hall (It's really spelled with an umlaut over the the first a, but I'm not going to bother to type it) group which is myself, Jesse, Amy, Mickey, Paul, Anna, and Kelsey left around 830 in the morning from our hostel. All the other groups were going to start using their EUrail passes, but we didn't because we had such a short trip. This way we have one more EUrail pass to use later.
Since we changed trains by not using the passes, we had to wait about an hour and a half at the train station for our train. It left at 1030 and we got to Swaebish Hall by 1200. I had to ask people on the street where the Goethe institute was because we really didn't know. They were really helpful and we got there without a problem.
Once we got to the Goethe institute we were told a little bit about where to find stores and where our rooms were. Paul and I had to take a proficiency test in German, and we both thought it was really hard. The test took a little over an hour and it really tired me out. The students are divided into ten or so classes depending on how much German they knew. Everybody except for me and Paul are in the A0 class. I think Paul is in the A 2.1 class and I'm in the A 2.2 class. That is the highest class of the beginner classes. I also got my room key and trekked up the hill (a pattern?) to my room.
The rooms here are single bed rooms, and every two rooms are connected by a bathroom. My room is right next to Jesse's so we share a bathroom and shower. The room is about the size of the one I lived in when I was a Freshman at Bethel, so it's roomy for one person. We also get our own refrigerators, which will be nice because we only have breakfasts provided for us.
I only had a few minutes to throw all my stuff in my room because the others had been waiting for me to finish the test and eat lunch with them. We found the nearest Kebap stand and ate there. After eating we went shopping for some food and drinks to keep in our rooms.
I took a little time to read a book in my room and relax a little bit. I had started reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown at the train station, and by the end of the day I had finished half of it (I got to page 450). We went on a short excursion into the town to buy some dinner. We ate Lahmacun, which is like a rolled up pizza with no cheese. I went to bed early so that I would be fresh in the morning.
Last Full Day In Nuremberg
Aug 30
Today I got up and ate breakfast and promptly went back to bed. I didn't really realize how tired I was until I woke up again at noon. The best thing to follow the patter of Sleep -> Food -> Sleep is of course more food. Our entire group went out to eat at a nice German restaurant. Half our group (the guy half) all ordered what's called “something I couldn't possibly spell so lets forget what it's called”. It was a big hunk of meat of some kind. After lunch I was feeling tired so I went back to the hotel and slept some more (This is a lie, I just wanted to continue my sleep -> food cycle).
After lunch our group got on a bus and went to the Nazi party rally grounds. There are really two parts to this trip. The first is big stadium-like field (The zeppelin field) where Hitler used to give speeches. It's mostly intact but not maintained because it was built by the Nazis. After we saw the zeppelin field we took a long walk around the lake. It was a really nice park area with people feeding the ducks and riding around on paddle boats. I could have done without the walk around the lake. We've been doing a lot of walking lately. The second part of our trip is the Party Congress Hall which looks like the Colosseum from one side and has a very boring boxy bunker-like building attached to make a connected horseshoe shape. Inside was a museum detailing the history of the Nazis and they building projects in Nuremberg. They were planning on building several more buildings but they must not have gotten around to it. The museum was very detailed but it was all in German so we had to listen to some portable audio devices that were uncomfortable to hold up to your ear for more than ten minutes.
I went back into the main part of Nuremberg and went to Starbucks, which is right next to the river, and chatted until dinnertime. We made our hike up the big hill to our youth hostel and ate our last dinner in Nuremberg.
That night we had a class. Tom promised that this would be the only Sunday class that we would be having. Our other class was postponed because of Kay's accident. This was our first real business writing class because the other one was more of an introduction.
We went out for ice cream after the class and I talked with Jake and Spencer for a while. I won't be seeing them for a couple weeks, but we might meet up if we take a weekend trip to Switzerland.
Today I got up and ate breakfast and promptly went back to bed. I didn't really realize how tired I was until I woke up again at noon. The best thing to follow the patter of Sleep -> Food -> Sleep is of course more food. Our entire group went out to eat at a nice German restaurant. Half our group (the guy half) all ordered what's called “something I couldn't possibly spell so lets forget what it's called”. It was a big hunk of meat of some kind. After lunch I was feeling tired so I went back to the hotel and slept some more (This is a lie, I just wanted to continue my sleep -> food cycle).
After lunch our group got on a bus and went to the Nazi party rally grounds. There are really two parts to this trip. The first is big stadium-like field (The zeppelin field) where Hitler used to give speeches. It's mostly intact but not maintained because it was built by the Nazis. After we saw the zeppelin field we took a long walk around the lake. It was a really nice park area with people feeding the ducks and riding around on paddle boats. I could have done without the walk around the lake. We've been doing a lot of walking lately. The second part of our trip is the Party Congress Hall which looks like the Colosseum from one side and has a very boring boxy bunker-like building attached to make a connected horseshoe shape. Inside was a museum detailing the history of the Nazis and they building projects in Nuremberg. They were planning on building several more buildings but they must not have gotten around to it. The museum was very detailed but it was all in German so we had to listen to some portable audio devices that were uncomfortable to hold up to your ear for more than ten minutes.
I went back into the main part of Nuremberg and went to Starbucks, which is right next to the river, and chatted until dinnertime. We made our hike up the big hill to our youth hostel and ate our last dinner in Nuremberg.
That night we had a class. Tom promised that this would be the only Sunday class that we would be having. Our other class was postponed because of Kay's accident. This was our first real business writing class because the other one was more of an introduction.
We went out for ice cream after the class and I talked with Jake and Spencer for a while. I won't be seeing them for a couple weeks, but we might meet up if we take a weekend trip to Switzerland.
Quick Post
I've started to upload my pictures and videos to the internet. Its a long process so bear with me. The upload speed here is decent so I should be able to get all of my stuff up soon, but I also have to do homework and all that other good stuff. Here is the link to my photos
http://europeblog09.shutterfly.com/
Nice how I used the same name right? For my youtube videos it would be fastest to just look up my username and look at all of my videos (username is LanCaiMadowki) Here's a link anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lancaimadowki&search_type=&aq=f
I'll put up the last few days of my travels once I finish writing them.
http://europeblog09.shutterfly.com/
Nice how I used the same name right? For my youtube videos it would be fastest to just look up my username and look at all of my videos (username is LanCaiMadowki) Here's a link anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lancaimadowki&search_type=&aq=f
I'll put up the last few days of my travels once I finish writing them.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Aug 28
I woke up early, around 7, and couldn't really sleep anymore. We had a class on a big arc sculpture. It was about 95 degrees but I was in a really comfortable position so it was okay. I ate lunch at a bratwurst stand, which wasn't all that good. I'm looking forward to some better bratwurst later. We had a lot of time to do whatever so we hung out on a bridge and watched people. We waited for the bus to bring us to Nuremberg. It was a three hour bus ride. Right before we got on the bus Kay tripped on one of the stairs and was really in pain. When we got to Nuremberg she went to the hospital and had broken one of the bones in her foot. She has to have surgery on Monday and then a couple weeks or rest. She's a tough girl, she wouldn't let me carry her up to the youth hostel. She couldn't walk on her foot so someone else eventually convinced her to let them carry her up the hill.
We ate dinner at the JHB (youth hostel). It was kinda like cafeteria food and not that great, but it was good enough to eat I guess. We went out to explore the city a bit (Jesse, Jake, Spencer, Me, Eric). It has some really cool old buildings. I'll have to upload some pictures later. We got some ice cream at a stand, and walked around the city until it was almost dark. Right before it got completely dark we went to the highest part of the city, which it right next to the JHB. We looked out over the city and tried to take a few pictures before the sun set. We came back later while it was dark, looking for stars, but there were fireworks instead, and a crowd of people. We played with our cameras and tied to take some night shots.
The JHB where we are staying was the main headquarters of the Hitler Youth during WWII. It was also a prison and it's built like one. On one side there is a 70 foot wall that we are on top of.
Aug 29
We had to get up around 730 to get breakfast and get on the train by 908. It was the most crowded train I have ever been on. We were all standing and crammed into the last car with two babies and a handicapped girl. It was an hour and a half standing in a hot train with no windows that oppened. The doors opened at the stop and without the breeze that came in then it would have been unbearable. Our next train was completely empty and we got to sit and put our feet up.
We got to Dachau around 1130 and visited until around 100. It is a really huge place. It was a really depressing way to start the day. Dachau wasn't a death camp like Auscwitz, but 32,000 people still died there during the 11 or so years it was in operation. The camp was more fore anybody who opposed the Nazis rather than Jews.
After Dachau we went on to Munich for the rest of the day. In our big group we walked a long ways through the main part of the city. It was really crowded and we walked all the way to the Hofbrauhaus from the main train station.
The Hofbrauhaus wasn't all that interesting, but we ate at the restaurant right next door. It was much quieter and nicer. It was a little expensive but we ordered some authentic German food. I had duck and pork knuckle with some potatoes that where made into a gelatin ball. It was a really nice place to take a break after all the walking we did. Our group for today was me Jesse, Jake, Spencer, and Tyler. We looked around in some shops and in the big church, but there wasn't much more that we wanted to do. There was a soccer game but I don't think we would have been able to find tickets. I'm writing now on the train back to Nuremburg. I'm looking forward to doing a little resting when I get back to the JHB.
The train ride back was really long and we almost missed one of our connecting trains. When we got back into town we were heading back towards our hotel and we ran into some street hip-hop dancers. It was a competition and we watched for about an hour and a half.
I woke up early, around 7, and couldn't really sleep anymore. We had a class on a big arc sculpture. It was about 95 degrees but I was in a really comfortable position so it was okay. I ate lunch at a bratwurst stand, which wasn't all that good. I'm looking forward to some better bratwurst later. We had a lot of time to do whatever so we hung out on a bridge and watched people. We waited for the bus to bring us to Nuremberg. It was a three hour bus ride. Right before we got on the bus Kay tripped on one of the stairs and was really in pain. When we got to Nuremberg she went to the hospital and had broken one of the bones in her foot. She has to have surgery on Monday and then a couple weeks or rest. She's a tough girl, she wouldn't let me carry her up to the youth hostel. She couldn't walk on her foot so someone else eventually convinced her to let them carry her up the hill.
We ate dinner at the JHB (youth hostel). It was kinda like cafeteria food and not that great, but it was good enough to eat I guess. We went out to explore the city a bit (Jesse, Jake, Spencer, Me, Eric). It has some really cool old buildings. I'll have to upload some pictures later. We got some ice cream at a stand, and walked around the city until it was almost dark. Right before it got completely dark we went to the highest part of the city, which it right next to the JHB. We looked out over the city and tried to take a few pictures before the sun set. We came back later while it was dark, looking for stars, but there were fireworks instead, and a crowd of people. We played with our cameras and tied to take some night shots.
The JHB where we are staying was the main headquarters of the Hitler Youth during WWII. It was also a prison and it's built like one. On one side there is a 70 foot wall that we are on top of.
Aug 29
We had to get up around 730 to get breakfast and get on the train by 908. It was the most crowded train I have ever been on. We were all standing and crammed into the last car with two babies and a handicapped girl. It was an hour and a half standing in a hot train with no windows that oppened. The doors opened at the stop and without the breeze that came in then it would have been unbearable. Our next train was completely empty and we got to sit and put our feet up.
We got to Dachau around 1130 and visited until around 100. It is a really huge place. It was a really depressing way to start the day. Dachau wasn't a death camp like Auscwitz, but 32,000 people still died there during the 11 or so years it was in operation. The camp was more fore anybody who opposed the Nazis rather than Jews.
After Dachau we went on to Munich for the rest of the day. In our big group we walked a long ways through the main part of the city. It was really crowded and we walked all the way to the Hofbrauhaus from the main train station.
The Hofbrauhaus wasn't all that interesting, but we ate at the restaurant right next door. It was much quieter and nicer. It was a little expensive but we ordered some authentic German food. I had duck and pork knuckle with some potatoes that where made into a gelatin ball. It was a really nice place to take a break after all the walking we did. Our group for today was me Jesse, Jake, Spencer, and Tyler. We looked around in some shops and in the big church, but there wasn't much more that we wanted to do. There was a soccer game but I don't think we would have been able to find tickets. I'm writing now on the train back to Nuremburg. I'm looking forward to doing a little resting when I get back to the JHB.
The train ride back was really long and we almost missed one of our connecting trains. When we got back into town we were heading back towards our hotel and we ran into some street hip-hop dancers. It was a competition and we watched for about an hour and a half.
Finally got some internet
Aug 28
I woke up early, around 7, and couldn't really sleep anymore. We had a class on a big arc sculpture. It was about 95 degrees but I was in a really comfortable position so it was okay. I ate lunch at a bratwurst stand, which wasn't all that good. I'm looking forward to some better bratwurst later. We had a lot of time to do whatever so we hung out on a bridge and watched people. We waited for the bus to bring us to Nuremberg. It was a three hour bus ride. Right before we got on the bus Kay tripped on one of the stairs and was really in pain. When we got to Nuremberg she went to the hospital and had broken one of the bones in her foot. She has to have surgery on Monday and then a couple weeks or rest. She's a tough girl, she wouldn't let me carry her up to the youth hostel. She couldn't walk on her foot so someone else eventually convinced her to let them carry her up the hill.
We ate dinner at the JHB (youth hostel). It was kinda like cafeteria food and not that great, but it was good enough to eat I guess. We went out to explore the city a bit (Jesse, Jake, Spencer, Me, Eric). It has some really cool old buildings. I'll have to upload some pictures later. We got some ice cream at a stand, and walked around the city until it was almost dark. Right before it got completely dark we went to the highest part of the city, which it right next to the JHB. We looked out over the city and tried to take a few pictures before the sun set. We came back later while it was dark, looking for stars, but there were fireworks instead, and a crowd of people. We played with our cameras and tied to take some night shots.
The JHB where we are staying was the main headquarters of the Hitler Youth during WWII. It was also a prison and it's built like one. On one side there is a 70 foot wall that we are on top of.
I woke up early, around 7, and couldn't really sleep anymore. We had a class on a big arc sculpture. It was about 95 degrees but I was in a really comfortable position so it was okay. I ate lunch at a bratwurst stand, which wasn't all that good. I'm looking forward to some better bratwurst later. We had a lot of time to do whatever so we hung out on a bridge and watched people. We waited for the bus to bring us to Nuremberg. It was a three hour bus ride. Right before we got on the bus Kay tripped on one of the stairs and was really in pain. When we got to Nuremberg she went to the hospital and had broken one of the bones in her foot. She has to have surgery on Monday and then a couple weeks or rest. She's a tough girl, she wouldn't let me carry her up to the youth hostel. She couldn't walk on her foot so someone else eventually convinced her to let them carry her up the hill.
We ate dinner at the JHB (youth hostel). It was kinda like cafeteria food and not that great, but it was good enough to eat I guess. We went out to explore the city a bit (Jesse, Jake, Spencer, Me, Eric). It has some really cool old buildings. I'll have to upload some pictures later. We got some ice cream at a stand, and walked around the city until it was almost dark. Right before it got completely dark we went to the highest part of the city, which it right next to the JHB. We looked out over the city and tried to take a few pictures before the sun set. We came back later while it was dark, looking for stars, but there were fireworks instead, and a crowd of people. We played with our cameras and tied to take some night shots.
The JHB where we are staying was the main headquarters of the Hitler Youth during WWII. It was also a prison and it's built like one. On one side there is a 70 foot wall that we are on top of.
Opel Factory
August 27
Today started with breakfast at the hotel, like usual. We had our first international business class right next to the WWI and WWII memorial. We went over the syllabus and chose countries for some project that I don't know anything about yet. After class we took the train to Russelheim, where the Opel factory is. Opel is a part of GM and is not profitable right now. GM is looking at selling it. Some Saturns are actually Opels with the Saturn logo on them. We ate lunch at a Kebab stand and then got a tour of the factory. It was a hot day so some people were falling asleep during the tour. The factory was very large, one room we were in was a half kilometer long.
After our tour ended we decided to go to Mainz to see the cathedral there. This wasn't really in the plan but we had already paid for our train tickets for the day so we put them to good use. On the way to the church a few of us stopped to put our feet in a fountain and we got left behind. We made it to the church just fine though. We actually were there before the main group because they went to the wrong entrance.
The cathedral was really amazing. I took a bunch of pictures but it was dark in there even in the middle of the day. After the church we split up into groups of 5 because that was how many people are allowed on each train ticket. We had an extra ticket so we actually had a group of 12. We went down to see the Rhein river and ate at an Italian restaurant. Some people in our group went to subway instead and met a guy from Bemidji. We had a long train ride with some transfers and some waiting and we finally got back to Gelnhausen around 10:30.
Today started with breakfast at the hotel, like usual. We had our first international business class right next to the WWI and WWII memorial. We went over the syllabus and chose countries for some project that I don't know anything about yet. After class we took the train to Russelheim, where the Opel factory is. Opel is a part of GM and is not profitable right now. GM is looking at selling it. Some Saturns are actually Opels with the Saturn logo on them. We ate lunch at a Kebab stand and then got a tour of the factory. It was a hot day so some people were falling asleep during the tour. The factory was very large, one room we were in was a half kilometer long.
After our tour ended we decided to go to Mainz to see the cathedral there. This wasn't really in the plan but we had already paid for our train tickets for the day so we put them to good use. On the way to the church a few of us stopped to put our feet in a fountain and we got left behind. We made it to the church just fine though. We actually were there before the main group because they went to the wrong entrance.
The cathedral was really amazing. I took a bunch of pictures but it was dark in there even in the middle of the day. After the church we split up into groups of 5 because that was how many people are allowed on each train ticket. We had an extra ticket so we actually had a group of 12. We went down to see the Rhein river and ate at an Italian restaurant. Some people in our group went to subway instead and met a guy from Bemidji. We had a long train ride with some transfers and some waiting and we finally got back to Gelnhausen around 10:30.
the 26th
August 26
I woke up around 7 and wrote about yesterday's journey in my journal. We had our first German breakfast and ate/talked for a couple of hours. After breakfast we had our first class on some steps by the church. We went over the syllabus for business writing and some other general trip stuff. We have some sort of writing assignment due in a couple days.
After class we numbered off and walked around town looking for restaurants that took credit cards. We didn't find any but Tom found one. We had until 4:30 to walk around town and do what we wanted, but first we ate at a Kebab stand. Kebabs are like gyros only much better, and the one I had here was a little hotter with some crushed red pepper. We found a cheap store like Aldi's and bought some delicious chocolate and other candy. We also found an old graveyard that was several hundred years old. We couldn't read any of the gravestones because they looked like they were in Hebrew. We later found out that it was a Jewish graveyard, so it was all in Hebrew.
At 430 we had a tour with a very British sounding guy who grew up in Gelnhausen. He didn't have a German accent at all so he must have lived in England for a while. He told us the history of the city, explaining that Gelnhausen was once the third biggest city in Germany. The city took a beating in the 30 years war and by the end less than ten percent of the population was still there. Our guide showed us the inside of the old church there and said that the people from Little People Big World were there a few weeks ago and he will probably be in that episode. His name was Jorg Hoeller.
After the tour we went out to dinner again and went to a fancy restaurant called Burg Muhle. I had a nice steak and potatoes. We explored the city some more in the dark while looking for a good place to look at the stars, but instead we found a playground and we had some fun there.
I woke up around 7 and wrote about yesterday's journey in my journal. We had our first German breakfast and ate/talked for a couple of hours. After breakfast we had our first class on some steps by the church. We went over the syllabus for business writing and some other general trip stuff. We have some sort of writing assignment due in a couple days.
After class we numbered off and walked around town looking for restaurants that took credit cards. We didn't find any but Tom found one. We had until 4:30 to walk around town and do what we wanted, but first we ate at a Kebab stand. Kebabs are like gyros only much better, and the one I had here was a little hotter with some crushed red pepper. We found a cheap store like Aldi's and bought some delicious chocolate and other candy. We also found an old graveyard that was several hundred years old. We couldn't read any of the gravestones because they looked like they were in Hebrew. We later found out that it was a Jewish graveyard, so it was all in Hebrew.
At 430 we had a tour with a very British sounding guy who grew up in Gelnhausen. He didn't have a German accent at all so he must have lived in England for a while. He told us the history of the city, explaining that Gelnhausen was once the third biggest city in Germany. The city took a beating in the 30 years war and by the end less than ten percent of the population was still there. Our guide showed us the inside of the old church there and said that the people from Little People Big World were there a few weeks ago and he will probably be in that episode. His name was Jorg Hoeller.
After the tour we went out to dinner again and went to a fancy restaurant called Burg Muhle. I had a nice steak and potatoes. We explored the city some more in the dark while looking for a good place to look at the stars, but instead we found a playground and we had some fun there.
Day By Day
We flew out of MN at 9:15 at night. The first thing I did was break my watch at security. The scanner beeped at me because I had forgotten to take it off. I took it off and either broke it there or had earlier. The watch still works but if it unlatches then it will fall off completely, and I'm expecting it to fall off at a very bad time and lose it.
Anyway, on the plane I had an aisle seat and sat next to a guy from Fresno, California. Spencer and Jake were right across the aisle from me. It was a 7 hour flight and I slept for about an hour and a half. Most of the people I talked to got less sleep, and many of them didn't sleep at all. I watched Gran Torino, which was pretty good. When we finally got we went through security again and got on the plane to Frankfurt Germany. I slept through this entire flight, but the stewardess bumped into me every time she went past and woke me up. They gave us food but I fell asleep before I could eat it. Once we landed we took a couple of trains to the main Frankfurt train station and then went to Gelnhausen.
We were all in rooms of 2 and I was with Jesse. Most of the rooms were slightly different and of all the ones I saw, ours was the worst. The whole group went out to eat at a German restaurant. I had something called Swaebische Spaetzlepfanne, which is egg noodles with a ton of bacon on it. It was good but it was also very salty. They don't drink water with their meals so I ordered a Fanta. All I got was a .2L glass which is about 7 ounces. Everybody was super thirsty so we all went back to the hotel and drank several glasses of tap water.
We went on a walk for about a half hour then we all got our Euros from an ATM. I took out 200 because I know that there will be a fee every time I take out money. I wish I knew what the exchange rate was but I don't have any access to the internet. Then we all went back to the hotel and finally got some sleep.
Our room
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Gelnhausen
This has been my first chance to write. The long plane ride was not fun. We made it though. I slept through the entire second plane ride to frankfurt. From there we took a train to Gelnhausen, which is where we stayed for the night. Im rooming with my friend Jesse, and I might be with Spencer tonight. We had our first class today, mostly we talked about the syllabus. I could pay for internet at the hotel, but its cheaper to pay by the minute here at a casino. the keyboard is mostly the same, but it hard to use. I'll try to put up some pictures as soon as I can, but for that I would need internet access with my laptop. That's all for now bye
Monday, August 24, 2009
Leaving day
We fly out today at 9 pm or so. We're meeting up at the airport at 6:45. I visited some friends at Bethel last night and this morning and now I'm getting ready to go. My textbook finally came today, that was a close call. I ordered it earlier but somehow my order didn't go through. I'll post again the next time I get a chance, I don't know when that will be though.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
First Post
I decided to put up the blog before I left so that everybody could get it saved in their bookmarks. I'll probably be posting at least twice a week, but I may post info on more than one day at a time. This blog will be there too inform you but also to help me remember what happens.
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