8 days, 2.5 papers, 1 exam and 1 presentation away from freedom

Liebe Leute,

A very brief post today, once again due to large amounts of work:

My time here is now winding down--eight days away from my flights home.
It's exciting and strange and sad to spend my last days here in Freiburg, knowing that not only is the end now in sight, but it's looming in the near future. I only wish I weren't drowning in work, so I could really spend my time here enjoying my last few moments rather than stressing about 18 pages of unwritten papers, one art history exam and one presentation (that means I've completed 3 papers, 1 exam, and 1 45-minute presentation in the last week and a half). I'm used to juggling only three classes worth of final exams and papers, so this is a bit more than I'm used to dealing with.

Yesterday I spent afternoon and evening in Basil (Switzerland!). I went with my drama class to see a play: Die Zofen, which is The Maids in English. It has been snowing for a few days (snow showers, unfortunately, which means the wet kind that barely sticks) and seeing the city covered in Christmas lights and snow was beautiful. Freiburg at night is also a bit magical. In these last few weeks it's been easy to notice how lovely the city is, as I realize how much I'm going to miss it.

This week my drama class also went to our teacher's house for dinner with him and his wife. They cooked a delicious meal that started with Pflammkuchen (my personal favorite), a very German (meaning bitter) salat, large amounts of ham (from the thigh, whatever that's called in English), and then finished with a cheesecake dessert (cooked by yours truly). Not to mention, before, during and after the meal we enjoyed homemade cranberry schnapps, 6 bottles of wine in verying degrees of quality (starting with the most basic and finishing with a really nice Buergunder) and finished with dessert wine and rasberry schnapps. What a fantastic meal and a fantastic night!

This weekend's tasks include finishing and editing my German paper, writing my Art History paper, outlining my medieval paper and preparing my presentation for Monday...and somewhere in there finding time to head over to the Christmas market, relax and! Sunday... we rented out the Party Wagon on the S-Bahn line. The Party wagon is basically a tram that runs all the lines on our tram system, but it includes tables, a bar and a music system. It's going to be a fun, but busy weekend...and I think we're all about to find out how much I can take.

Time to get started.

Until very, very soon,

Sara

Thanksgiving and Paris

Liebe Leute,

Another weekend gone, another slew of adventures...
Thanksgiving was fantastic. I enjoyed three Thanksgiving dinners: a pot luck with all my favorites, an extremely expensive 4-course meal (wine and sekt included) courtesy of IES, and a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner cooked by yours truly with much help from my Mitbewohner and friends.

The first dinner was brief, since I had to run off to my program's dinner...but I'm always shocked by how well people my age can cook. I hope to get there one day.
The IES dinner was phenomenal. It began with large quantities of sekt (or orange juice) and social interaction. After a good hour or so of socializing and drinking, we were seated and promplty served our first course: creamy pumpkin soup. Delectable. Between each course there was much time for socializing, and--you guessed it--drinking. I would have to say that the best part of this situation, which I have yet to mention, is that this event was not only thrown for the students, but for the teachers and program administrators as well... Let's just say that the stars of the party were not the drunken students. Note Klaus, my German Professor on the left of me. Not only are his drunken antics and hilarity captured on camera, but also on video. On the right is my Film Professor, Franz Leithold. Although a bit tamer than Klaus, he had a good time.
The next picture illustrates yet another drunken professor: Peter, our drama professor. He's also one of my favorites, and will be treating our class on Tuesday to a home-cooked, traditionally Badisch meal...as well as a short tutorial in wine types, as per usual.

Friday morning, I dragged myself out of bed in order to catch an 8 o'clock train to Paris to visit Sharon! Paris was fantastic...although a better shoe choice may have been in order. In two days we managed to hit the biggest tourist spots and see the sights of Paris. We also managed to see some of the most fantastic museums including the Rodin Museum (sculptures including "The Thinker" and "Balzac") as well as an exquisite Picasso museum that is temporary and included two (elaborate) levels of works from "Picasso and his Masters". Just a side note, his masters included Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Rembrandt, Titian, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Cezanne. The Picasso exhibit had pieces that were truly awe-inspiring, but the exhibit itself was perhaps a bit overdone--a bit too much. Although a glamorized version of art, about which we all know at least enough to appreciate, it was hard to be anything but impressed and humbled by the amount of vision in one place.
Overall, Paris was fantastic. We saw the touristy sights and did the Parisian things to do...and as usual, I enjoyed my time away, but was ecstatic to return to Germany, where people obey traffic laws and speak a language I understand.
I returned Sunday afternoon and was immediately in the kitchen helping with the Thanksgiving dinner Heather, my other American roommate, and I had planned. We cooked a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, oatmeal bread, made gravy and cut up some American cranberry sauce, compliments of the American Commissary in Stuttgart. All but one of my Mitbewohners was there, and Jay, another American, saved the day with his turkey carving abilities (we were resorting to youtube-ing the proper way to carve a turkey online)...
In the end, the dinner was a success, and we stayed up eating and drinking until after 3am. Class the next day wasn't exactly fun, but it was well worth it.

In the end, I can honestly say I had one of my most memorable Thanksgivings ever. It certainly wasn't the same as gathering around a table with my sometimes strange, but loving family and the food was just a little off (it doesn't help that Germany doesn't have turkeys or stuffing...or most of the things we needed, for that matter). But! It was my first time planning and executing Thanksgiving, and I think if I can do that extraordinarily difficult task, I am probably capable of a lot.

Next weekend I'm not flying to London in favor of sanity (4 papers and 3 presentations looming) and having enough money to more comfortably finish the semester. It also turns out that I like it here, so staying is not as disappointing as it might seem.

As of 44 minutes ago, I return in 17 days.
Bis Dann-

Deine,

Sara