Ein Besuch!!

Sharon is coming to visit tomorrow!
I couldn't be happier to see someone from home if I tried.
The last people I saw from home (my Lawrence home, that is) were Kelly and Lindsay. They came from Vienna and stayed the weekend, and it was really nice to finally share the people and things I constantly talk about with people from home.
Tonight I'm going to see our school's hockey team play. Yep, Germans playing hockey. It should be interesting, and fun, to say the least!
I go to Colmar tomorrow to visit a Monestary of some sort for my Medieval Mindset course, and then I come back and meet up with Sharon!
(Kelly, Lindsay and I)
Alles Gute!
Ciao!

Berlin!

A late, but needed "summary" of my week in Berlin:
Once again, sorry, but it's better late than never...

Although it has only been two weeks, it feels as though I was there nearly a lifetime ago...
Berlin! An amazing city with so much to offer, see and do.
We did so much in one week, and yet, I feel as though I barely saw Berlin. We stayed in the Transit-Loft Hotel in East Berlin, only an 8-minute S-Bahn ride away from the ever famous Alexanderplatz.
We went through museum after museum, tour after tour. My favorite museums would have to be the Jewish Museum, special not only because of the important and interesting history discussed, but also because the building itself is a piece of art. My other favorite was the Pergamon Museum, which housed amazing Greek and Babylonian history. The Museum itself was set up in two parts: myth and fact. At the end it even had the Gate of Ishtar! It was amazing!

(The First picture is a section of the east side of the Berlin wall. The second is a picture of some of the parliament buildings)
We had a tour of the Bundestag one day, where there was unfortunately no meeting that particular day. It's interesting to see how similar, and also different, the German system is to our own!
Unfortunately, to my dismay, we spent Friday, October 3rd (Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit...German reunifiaction day) in Potsdam! Potsdam happens to be a lovely place, but to be in Berlin! on Reunification Day! was exactly the opportunity I was excited about. We got back late in the evening, and found, luckily, that people continued to celebrate into the night. (I know, big surprise)
We got to the city center around 10:00pm and found hundreds of people singing, dancing and celebrating in the street. We were also frighteningly confronted with large numbers of policemen escorting drunken crowds out of sight. We retreated into a building with my friend Eddie, who knows some "authentic" Berliners and found an amazing building decorated with grafiti-art, a club/bar on one floor, and an amazingly unique art gallery upstairs.

We did the touristy things, we saw the touristy sights, and I am positive that I barely saw any of Berlin. We wanted to get to the otherside of Berlin one evening, so we had to take the S-Bahn, get off and hop on a bus, get on the U-Bahn, and then walk a few blocks. I'm not sure I could master that system in a year!

In the end, I discovered that I love Berlin!...but I love coming home to Freiburg. Big cities are amazing because they have so much to offer, but a small city like Frieburg is a place I will always feel safe and at home in. People in Berlin were pushier, less friendly, and as soon as they discovered I spoke English, were too quick to give up on speaking German. Nearly everyone spoke English, and I found myself straying too much from speaking German simply because it was easier to speak English.
I would love to go back to Berlin again, in a smaller group (a little less obvious and touristy) and discover more, but for now I am content to enjoy the amazing, and perfectly sized place in which I currently reside: Freiburg.

Heimat in Freiburg

Liebe Freunde und Familie,

I am so sorry that's it's been so long since my last post. Life here has been...busy, to say the least.
Since my last post I will briefly say that I have spent a week in Berlin, a weekend in Köln, and have discovered that Freiburg is a place I am glad to call home.

I'm just going to take the 10 minutes I have to let you know how life here is going, and next time I will post about my trips to Berlin and Köln (pictures included, natürlich).

When I first arrived, I wasn't sure whether Freiburg would be a place in which I would permanently feel like an outsider or a place I could eventually call home. It's taken some time, but it's clear that I am falling in love with Freiburg.

I'm now taking courses in German, and discovering that it's not the struggle I initially assumed it would be. German becomes a little more natural each day. Some days I wake up and speak an English-German hybrid ("Denglish," if you'll humor me), and it takes some time before I figure out which language I am speaking.
Classes are mostly fun: they include trips to the local theater, trips to Cloisters, churches, and hiking (rough, hey?). Don't get me wrong, I'm writing papers and doing the occasional reading and studying, but it's certainly no Lawrence. It gives me the opportunity to really spend time here doing what I want. Everyone deserves a term off, right?

It's also getting much better in my WG. I know all my roommates, and occasionally spend some time talking with them. We had a WG dinner last Monday. Feli cooked a delicious soup and we all "helped." I cut up some peppers for the salad... We talked about the WG theme party we are planning for a few weeks from now. And then we ate...and then we ate some more. Thorston cooked some delicious dessert Pflammkuchen. Our dinner began at 8pm and lasted until I excused myself and went to bed around midnight.
I also get made fun of a little less each day as I attempt to cook in the kitchen, which is nice. They laugh occasionally, still though, because mom sent me some much appreciated Mac 'n Cheese, among other things. It's nice to just hang around the kitchen and talk with my roommates every once in a while, but I am also learning to really enjoy the time I have to myself. It's easy to get lost in trying to be, speak and feel German, so I've been going through books like it's nobody's business in the free time I have to myself.

I've gotten to know a lot of really great people here, too. I really like the people in my program, and it turns out there are a lot of other Americans in different programs who are great to be around. Although I am beyond sad that I could not be at Greg and Kerry's wedding, it has been so worth it to be here experiencing everything with other people who are as excited to be here as I am.

Trips to come:
London (Dec 5-7)
Paris (november, not sure which weekend)
Vienna (first or second weekend in Nov.)
I'd still love to go to Italy, but it looks like it may be too expensive. Either way, I've got a lot to look forward to.

I have to go to class, but I will post later about my trips to Berlin and Cologne.

Miss you. Love you.