Peter Comes To Visit!

I was incredibly lucky to have my boyfriend come visit me while I was studying in Germany! Peter spent one week in Germany and split his time between Tübingen and Kronberg, where his mom lives. We had a great time! His first day here, we went with a group of friends to the Stuttgart Frühlingsfest which was basically a big carnival/amusement park. Sadly my camera had no battery, but here is a photo of the amazing rollercoaster we went on with Jennifer and David:

While Peter was here I had two big exams, so we didn't exactly do lots of exciting things. But he was a great help in studying especially since he is rather good at German. (Ha, ha.) Here he is in the park with my favorite cheap pizza and a döner for lunch the day of my big culture exam:

On Peter's last day here we had breakfast in the beautiful square by the Rathaus (city hall), followed by a long walk towards Bebenhausen and a dinner at a greek restaurant nearby. Then he flew back to New York to start summer classes!

(Here we are together at breakfast. In two-and-a-half weeks we have our third anniversary!)

Heidelberg

Several weeks ago I visited the lovely city of Heidelberg. I went with my friends Jennifer and David and we got up early and spent our day walking around the city.

Our train had a one-hour layover in Stuttgart, and we decided to stroll through the park next to the train station there. It was really interesting because right now the city is trying to build a new, high-tech,entirelyunderground train station, referred to as the Stuttgart 21 project. Basicallyeveryone I have spoken to opposes this plan: it would take away a lot of € from other city organizations and rip up the park. A protest against it several months ago resulted in some police violence and many Germans as well asAustrians are quite upset: photos of protesters who had been injured in the riots were up all around the station. When we went through a group of people had set up a protest camp in the park, and had also filled the trees with stuffed toys, lanterns, Christmas ornaments, and signs.
Here is the protest camp:

Here is an example of one of the trees. This sign quotes the fifth Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."

After our walk through the park we got onto our second train and

eventually reached Heidelberg. It was a gorgeous day and we decided to

walk through the park along the river, where we found the best playground

ever. Here are David and Jennifer enjoying the amazing see-saw type flying machine:

After a good chunk of time appreciating German playground

construction, we continued walking until we stumbled upon signs pointing to Philosophenweg. David

and I had both read about this road in the hills where many philosophers and university professors had strolled, thought, and made their homes. We took an enormous staircase up and enjoyed the walk along grand houses and flowers - with amazing views of the city below.

Here is the first staircase - but trust me, it just keeps going up via hills for a long long way!

We walked through a beautiful garden as well before beginning our descent. Here is a shot of the city on our way down:

We then crossed one of the many lovely bridges (the one in the above photo) to go into the old city. Here I am with a statue featuring goddesses:

We immediately found a crepe stand and feasted on inexpensive but delicious tomato-and-cheese crepes.

We then wandered through the old city and visited the two biggest churches we could find before catching an evening train back to Tübingen. It was a lovely day!

Trip to Stuttgart

On April 29th, my whole program took a field trip to Stuttgart, which is the capital of Baden-Württemberg (the state in which Tübingen is). It was a cool and cloudy day, and we visited the Mercedes-Benz museum, walked through the city, and took a tour at the Haus der GeschichteBaden-Württemberg (House ofHistory of Baden-Württemberg).
Here is the Mercedes-Benz museum:

The best part of the museum was the timeline. One takes an elevator

to the top, and then follows a slanting ramp downwards through time --

when you get out of the elevator, they have a model horse representing pre-car travel! The walls of the rampway had a timeline noting major historical events of all kind: scientific, auto-related, economic, political, cultural, etc. It was really neat to see historical events lain out all together in that way, and to see what was 'significant' from the point of view of this museum. Oh, there were some cool cars, too. :P

Here is a statue of an elk at the entryway to the building where the state government sits. The elk is a very (very!) old cultural symbol in this part of the world.

Just for fun, here are some cute ducklings in a pond near the opera building:

This is the entrance to the history museum. We had an amazing tour,

and the museum is very high tech and creatively designed. Our tour guide, a retired Gymnasium teacher named Manfred Kaut, was enthusiastic, sweet, and knowledgable. My favorite line of the many wise things he said was, "The first thing to die in war is the truth."

We had a really nice day and I got to spend lots of time with my friend Jennifer. After the tour, she and I visited some stores and bought some delicious candy and souvenirs for friends at home. We had the luck to discover that the (very tall) department store we were in had an amazing roof terrace with a view of the city. Here I am, with Stuttgart spread out behind me!

Easter Weekend

After the Bebenhausen trip we had a lot of regular classes and were all relieved for our first big breakfor Easter weekend. I was lucky enough to get to spend a beautiful weekend with Peter's mom, Ane, as well as her boyfriend Wolf and his daughters Liane and Thea.I traveled up to Kronberg, where Ane lives, on Saturday. She cooked an amazing white asparagus gratin from a Swiss cookbook (it was perfection: white asparagus plus Swiss cheese!)which made a lovely meal with some wine and great conversation.

The next morning we were up early for the 6 AM Easter service. It was a beautiful service and I even understood some of the sermon!

Later, we breakfasted and went back for the second service, in which Ane

sang some very lovely music. I sat with Peter's friend Clara, who had just returned from her many-month long trip to Peru.

After the service, Ane and I took a train to Wolf's house, which is in the countryside outside of Nürnberg. It is a beautiful house-in-progress and we had a great afternoon and evening searching for Easter baskets, gazing down the hillside from the hammock-style chairs, enjoying dinner on the balcony, and talking in Denglish (German - English) with Wolf and his kids.

Here are some images of the house - my beautiful guest nook, and the house itself:

Bebenhausen

(This post is sooo late. Apologies!)

Our first Friday we took an amazing hike to the nearby village and monastery Bebenhausen. It is completely gorgeous! We hiked down from where we all live in the W.H.O. neighborhood -- a lot of our walk was through some gorgeous forest trails that are easily accessible from my dorm. Then we rounded a corner and saw the amazing view:

The monastery was fascinating and gorgeous. Originally built in the 1180s, there have been of course a variety of renovations and constructions. It has been a Catholic monastery, a Protestant monastery, and a hunting lodge. Also, at one point, it served as the location of the town council and government. Today, it is a museum and its main chapel is a fully-functioning church.

Here is the passageway around the

perimeter: to the inside is the garden, and on the outside are stairs to the various rooms (chapel, dormitories, etc.).

This angel is on the ceiling in the room that became the meeting place of the local government:

Another gorgeous room:

After the monastery, we stopped for some Radler as a whole school.

Later, most people took the bus back (Bebenhausen is at the bottom of a hill, so the return walk is less fun), but I walked back with a group of friends and then we went out for a delicious Swabian dinner.

My Room

This is just a little post to show everyone where I live. :)

I am a resident of the 8th floor of Fichtenweg 15 in the W.H.O. (What??) I live high up in a building in a little student-residential neighborhood called Waldhäuser Ost - forest-

houses east. We are up in the hills from campus, and there are frequent buses that take us from here to most anywhere we would want to go: the Uni-Viertel (university quarter), the Aldstadt

(old city), and the Hauptbahnhof (main station). There is not much in W.H.O., mostly although there are a few grocery stores and a bakery, and a lot of access to nice walking/running trails. Also, right near me in Fichtenweg 5 are our mailboxes as well as the student bar, which is cheap and has a weekly party.

My room is quite lovely, and I have the most incredible view. When you come in, there is a tiny little hall type area with my sink and my closet.

Afterwards the main room begins, with a bed, a desk and chair, quite a few shelves, and a big window with a deep sill.

This is what my room looks like after I do laundry, since our dryers a) are expensive and b) suck:

And this is what my view looks like on a good morning:

School

So, picking up where we left off...school! Our classes are very small, since we are just this one program. I think there are 12 students in my class, which is a great number. Mornings most days we have Sprachunterricht (language lesson) with Susanne, our wonderful teacher. We practice grammar and some vocabulary, with a variety of activities - sometimes changing all the verbs in a story from one tense to another, asking as many questions as we want, reviewing homework exercises, writing or speaking sentences, and of course Susanne teaches more traditional lessons as well for us to learn from. (And she begs us, "Nicht fragen! Accepterien!" [Don't ask! Accept!] when teaching inexplicable things like irregular verbs.) That class is generally from 9 - 12:15, with a wee break in the middle. And once you are in the classroom and Susanne is there, it is all-German all-the-time. We often engage in a bit of miming to get our points across. :)

Then we have lunch, and I usually eat in one of the student cafeterias with friends from class. There I can get a meal (for example, sandwich + Apfelschorle + candy bar/yogurt) for around 3 Euro.

After our lunch break, we have Konversation and Tutorium with Rosi, our tutor. These classes are also great and tons of fun -- we play lots of games, have "cocktail parties" in which we must introduce ourselves and make small-talk in German, and also get help with difficult concepts from Sprach Unterricht.

Finally, once a week we have Landeskunde. This is our only class taught in English, and it is a relief to be able to express more complicated concepts! Landeskunde is taught by Klaus, who is a professor of philosophy and absolutely wonderful guy. He is funny and smart, and the class is really a great exercise for my intellectual side. We study some German history, and also modern events and culture - for example, in our last class, we studied the German political system. We even had a mock election where various groups had to make a speech representing a party. Klaus believes that one great way to discuss cultural values and differences is through minutae - leading to our wonderful and LONG discussions of, for example, why the US has water fountains, and German doesn't. Last class we had a great talk about dialects and accents, and why they are so much stronger in Germany than in the states. Landeskunde is several hours long and always flies by because it's just so interesting and fun! (For nerds like me.)

So far we have already had one quiz, and next Wednesday is a Big Exam. Eep!