Happy Thanksgiving

Leute, die ich liebe und vermisse:

Happy Thanksgiving.
As usual, I am extremely busy (and possibly supposed to be in class currently), but it's Thanksgiving, and I just wanted to take five minutes to tell you all how everything is going...

First, and most importantly, I miss you all, and wish I could share Thanksgiving with everyone at home. I've had classes all day, and I'm missing this last one to go to a Thanksgiving dinner with a friend in a few minutes. I would tell you all how much I'm going to miss American food right now, but I'm attending two Thanksgiving dinners tonight with the American programs here...and I'm cooking dinner on Sunday with my Mitbewohner and a few friends. We actually had to order a Turkey from a Metzgerei! As a side note, our Turkey was about 9 Euros/kilo...which means that out Turkey is going to be about 50Euros...talk about a pricey bird. It will be well worth it, though. I'll fill you in next week on how the cooking of said Turkey and fixings actually turns out!

Before I can cook dinner on Sunday, however, I'm going to be rushing back from the train station...after I return from my trip to Paris! Yes, Paris. I leave tomorrow morning and get into Paris around 11:30am. I'll be spending my time with Sharon, whose host family is nice enough to let me stay! I plan on doing the usual touristy stuff, because it's Paris...and it's just what you have to do...To say the least, I am thrilled.

It could come at a better time...with the amount of papers and presentations I have, currently, but it's worth the stress. After all, how many times will the whole of Europe be right at my fingers...?

I guess we'll see.

Happy Thanksgiving.
See you all soon enough.

Reality and School in Freiburg

Liebe Alle,

Another two weeks gone, another two weeks closer to a bittersweet return to my home: Wisconsin.
These last two weeks have been unbelievably busy! Last week, in the midst of the election, not only did I have midterms, but I also had a huge presentation! Sleeping soundly Tuesday night was just not an option. The results and speeches finally came out around 6am, and although I was thrilled with the results, I no longer had an excuse to stay here and shun America, as my plan may have otherwise been (I'm only kidding...sort of...)
This week...I had another presentation, one midterm, and several small papers which are to precede larger papers. To top it off, I didn't even have much of a weekend to relax in between my busy weeks.
Since our WG has 9 people living in it, it's not often that we plan things, so we'd been planning a WG Motto Party for a few weeks. The motto: celebrity/movie star. The timing was poor, but the party was great. We borrowed huge speakers, rearranged out entire WG, spent large amounts of money on drinks and snacks, and, to top the theme off, we put up movie posters, a white backdrop for photo-taking and laid a red carpet up the steps to our WG.
Success? Yes, and no.
Midterms: They all went pretty well. I was slightly disappointed in my German midterm, which was ridiculously hard, but I'm told it translates into the A- range. My presentation went spectacularly! I was well-prepared, understood my theory, and had a really good time. We all brought food, and our professor brought 4 bottles of wine (for a class of 6 people), which we enjoyed between and after presentations.
My last midterm was yesterday in Film. The only word I can think to use is domination. I'm not being arrogant, but I knew everything on the test, and I felt that I did a fairly decent job of communicating the answers.
Party:
fun-check
lots of people-check
spoke german the entire night-check
good costume-check (I was Sarah Palin. It turns out I have a gift for imitating her interestingly Midwestern accent and duplicating many of her unfortunately naive quotes. Germans and Americans both appreciated the costume. Since the election was over, I just put I name tag that said "PALIN-2012." and! my roommate Volker studied in Alaska, and volunteered has Alaska pin for my costume--an unexpected, yet welcome, addition to my costume.)
met people-check
met German- check, check! (Not only do I feel as though preparing for the party helped me get closer to my Mitbewohner, but I met their friends, and friends of their friends, and I think my German was at its best.)
pictures- fail.
Here's the bad news: A poor decision I made that night was to leave my camera out, so people could use it to take pictures....My camera disappeared at some point during the night, and has not been seen since then. To be honest, the camera was nearly broken, anyway. You couldn't change the settings anymore, and sometimes it decided to stop working. Unfortunately, that means I am now camera-less for the remainder of my trip. I'm going to have to steal pictures from people, but I'll figure it out.

I miss everyone at home--friends, family, classmates, etc. I look forward to Christmas at home, and spending time with people I really care about. I miss going home for a weekend. I miss my crazy dog. I miss spending time with my best friends at Lawrence and at home. I miss my big fluffy blanket and good Mexican food.
But as much as I miss everything at home, I can already see the people and things I am going to miss from Freiburg. Because I've been here, Ive discovered things, and people, which I still don't know will translate into life back home. We always lose a little bit in translating words between languages: meaning, connotation, and sometimes the point entirely. Though I love words, they're just words...translating a way of life I've discovered here is going to prove the most difficult, and possibly disappointing part of returning.
I'm starting to accept the reality: 5 weeks left. For better or worse, I'm going to have to leave Freiburg...for now.

Germany
Tuition: thousands...
Plane ticket: $1000
Living expenses: >$110/week
Trips to Berlin, Köln, Bonn, London, Paris...and more: Trips to Berlin, Köln, Bonn, London, Paris...and more: $>1200
gt;1200
Lost phone: $200
Lost Camera: $ lots. TBD
Living in Germany, and learning that some things in life are worth every mistake and every penny: priceless

I wouldn't trade a moment here for anything.

Bis Bald,
Sara

pictures: compliments of my Mitbewohner, Martin (Zorro)

Köln, Bonn, Colmar...and a little update from Deutschland

Liebe Leute,

I dont have as much time as Id like to update you all on where Ive been and what Ive done due to the large amounts of homework and studying that are ahead of me tonight...but Ill try and give you a little update.

On the left is a picture of the Cathedral in Köln: what a beautiful place!...what a long spiral staircase... I believe we climbed something like 308 stairs in a little spiral staircase to get to the viewing area near the top. It was well worth the claustrophobic, semi-hyperventilation I experienced half way to the top. Köln was an amazing city with a lot to offer. I think my favorite part was actually the art museum. Since Ive been taking an art history course here, Ive really found a much greater appreciation for all the museums we visit...and its even more exciting to see a piece of art and recognize it by its style or artist.

On our way to Köln we took a ride on the Rhine River. Although extremely touristy and a little cheesy, it was something I think everyone should do once in a lifetime. It was like taking a trip through a fairy-tale world filled with castles and gorgeous scenery. We enjoyed some whine and beautiful weather with a few people we met from Frankfurt and Minnesota...an unusual, but welcome combination. Ive found more and more that I identify with people from the Midwest-its a culture that is interestingly unique and comfortable, and although I love it here, I am understanding more each day how much I appreciate where it is that I come from.

On the left is a picture from inside the Cloister in which Herman Hesse!! spent a few years of his studies (German author... Siddhartha, Demian...). As cliche as it is, I found it exciting to be in the same place by which someone who created such profound works was influenced, if only for a short time.

On a lighter, although equally influential note, in my opinion, we also visited the chocolate museum in Köln, witnessed 99 red balloons (Luftballoons auf Deutsch), experienced a fantastic time in a Bierhall in Köln, had an extremely long (and not very thrilling) tour of a sect factory (after which we enjoyed 7, yes 7, different varieties of sect, returned home to find Sharon waiting for me with some friends that were nice enough to pick her up from the trainstation, enjoyed a lovely five days with Sharon and I am now in the process (not exactly now) of studying for midterms...
Lots of information in a short amount of time, due to the hour and the amount of work the sits before me.

When I get pictures of Sharons visit, Ill be sure to post them. Ill also be sure to post pictures of Halloween. It turns out I make a fairly convincing Sarah Palin. It was fun to make fun of her with my costume...but also fun to poke a little fun at our liberal ideas as well. It turns out that you cant always be too serious about your beliefs.

One last thing before I go:
VOTE.
Remember how amazing it is to have the right to vote, but its just as important to exercise that right.


bis nächstes Mal...

...Wegen 99 Luftballoons

99 Jahre Kried
Liessen keinen Platz für Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt es nicht mehr
Und auch keinen Düsenflieger
Heute zieh ich meine Runden
Seh die Welt in Trümmen liegen
Hab nun Luftballoon gefunden
Denk an dich und lass ihn fliegen