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!

GERMANY: The beginning

Hello friends & family! I finally have an internet connection in my room, so I can start uploading photos and sharing with everyone about my time here in Tübingen. :)

The days since I last posted were filled with a variety of activities. First we had a gorgeous tour of the city, which is a beautiful medieval town clustered around the gorgeous Neckar River.

This photo is the river and town, taken from the courtyard of the castle:

After our walking tour we all went home and relaxed or slept! It is so exhausting adjusting to all the new things - new language, new culture, new people, new bus system - that I always sleep like a log, as soon as my head hits the pillow. :)

The next day was TESTING DAY! It was obviously REALLY fun, and unsurprisingly I don't have any photos of it. We took a placement exam in the morning (both written and oral), and then in the afternoon, all the students from Oregon did the online STAMP test. However, the computer lab didn't have any microphones...so we all had to skip the entire spoken section of the exam! We made that part up just a few days ago (more testing fun!). The evening after all our tests,our tutors took us all on a Kneipentour - or as we'd call it in the US, bar-hopping! We had a great time socializing and drinking beer in a couple of German bars. Our favorite, that my friends and I have returned to, is called "Hades," and it is in the Aldstadt (old city) right near the cathedral.

From left to right: me, Jennifer, Marie, and Pingting with our drinks just before we left the first bar:

The next day school started...and more on that later!

hallo von tuebingen

i am writing on my kindle so apologies for any typos! no internet here yet. but the room is great and we had a great dinner at a local greek restaurant. tomorrow will include a walking tour and some logistics. much love to all and i will write more when i have internet!

a day of hiking

Today Ane and I had a lovely breakfast and then set out to walk in the nearby woods and towns! It was beautiful and we took many photos and had a long, winding conversation - much like the long, winding trails we followed. :)

This morning began with my discovery of a hilarious tea: Heiße Liebe. For those of you without German, this means "Hot Love." Apparently there is a whole line of these funny-named teas! Anyway, it was raspberry-vanilla flavored and quite pink!

After, we went walking into woods around Kronberg and visited a sweet little spot called Viktoria-Tempel, which is a little sitting-gazebo with a marvelous view of Frankfurt and the local towns. It was chosen and created by Queen Viktoria, like the parks around here (hence "Viktoriapark"). Then we continued, more down, and visited a castle, Burg Falkenstein.

It was BEAUTIFUL! Full of people relaxing, having picnics, kids playing, dogs running around. With a marvelous view.

Here is me, at the wall that overlooks Frankfurt and the towns:

And here is the view, Frankfurt in the distance:

Then we went and had ICE CREAM! It was delicious. Now, we are relaxing a bit after having found a train for me tomorrow morning. Tonight we are going to Sabai Sabai, her favorite restaurant, so I can try the (apparently BLUE) kamikaze. And then in the AM I will have my train to Tübingen! Wow! I'm sad to leave Kronberg but sure I will see Ane again this term, and excited to get moved into my room in Tübingen and start school!

Das mag ich am liebsten!

Ok, so this is my new post series, called "Das mag ich am liebsten!" That means, basically, "I like this one best!" I'm going to write about my German "favorites" (as I discover them): favorite food, favorite drink, favorite store, etc. Although I think I am allowed multiple favorites in a category, there is so much great stuff to choose from!

So, today I would like to write about my FAVORITE German cartoon: Die Sendung mit der Maus! [The Show with the Mouse]

Die Sendung mit der Maus features the Maus [mouse, for those of you who aren't as quick] and his friends [der Elefanten und die Ente] in a variety of funny encounters.

You can see the website for it here - it is actually quite fun to play around on! Be warned; it makes sounds.

Also, here is an example of the TV show.

Why was I inspired to write this post? Because of the awesome "Maus" button that Ane gave me!!!

der erste Samstag

Today has been lovely! After Ane came back from her choir rehearsal, we went for a glorious walk. First we stopped at the most adorable French café that is just around the corner from Ane's house. (I ordered an orange juice - it was so warm, I couldn't imagine having a tea or coffee. We also shared a lemon tart, which was AMAZING.) We browsed in their sweet little store, and got a few chocolate eggs (in real eggshells).

And then, a walk! It is a GORGEOUS day here, and we went around looking at all the little blossoms and whatnot. We did a loop of part of the town, and this lovely pond:

Afterwards, Ane made green sauce, and I observed. Here is the recipe from the package (Ane does not need it and also has her own edits to it):

Here is Ane cooking:

And here is the result, a late lunch (since I had breakfast at 11:30!) of hard-boiled eggs and potatoes in green sauce. Yum!

The best part of waking up

is butterbrezel on your plate!!!

So I slept from 9:30 pm until 11:30 am (and I still feel tired! maybe a shower will help). Anyway, Ane has choir rehearsal this morning from 10:30 until something. When I woke up, there was a full breakfast spread for me, including a note from Ane :





Yum!

Photographic proof

that I am here in beautiful Germany. :)

I went for a short walk to the local park, Viktoriapark. It is warm enough that I wore just jeans and a sweater! I hope the weather continues like this or gets warmer - nothing colder please! There were small flowers in the fields in the park, which were so pretty. The fresh air was great, and so was the feeling of going for a walk all by myself in another country. That's a first step and before you know it I'll be doing all sorts of independent things! Yay! Also, I spoke one German word to someone ("entschuldigung"). Go me!

Later, Ane came home from work and made dinner (a delicious salad and ravioli with cream sauce, yum). We had a lovely conversation and meal, and now she is at choir rehearsal and I am making myself stay up for another 30 minutes before bed-time! Go Laura!

So here are some photos : me, in Viktoriapark, on a bench that Peter and I took photos at last summer (yeah, yeah, I look a little tired...one hour of sleep!):

One of my favorite views - out the kitchen window:

The desk from which I am blogging:

My next destination - my cozy bed!

I have arrived!

I am in Germany at Peter's mom's house (although she is now at work). So is my luggage. WIN-WIN!

The travel was ok! I did not sleep much, but that is nothing unexpected. Iceland was a bit rushed: since I was coming from a non-EU country, I had to go through security and passport control there. So on the negative side, it was a little nerve-wracking. But on the positive side I now have an Iceland stamp on my passport!

Then, Ane met me as I came out of baggage claim and drove me to her house. She got me set up and then went back to work for the afternoon and I have since showered and called both my mom and Peter. So, alles gut!

I am SO tired, but I am going to stay up until at least 9 pm so I adjust. :) Plans for the rest of today: perhaps a walk (Viktoriapark, or getting a pretzel?), digging my pajamas out of the suitcase, dinner with Ane (she got asparagus just for me! and grüne Soße, which is a local specialty [green sauce]), and sleep!!!

Ich bin so müde!! [I am so tired!!]