As promised...
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Hohenlohe Video
Hello errrrbody,
It's been a while - mostly because the internet here has been so uncooperative, but also because of classes, traveling, sleeping, etc. I'm almost out of space to upload photos and video here, so I've discovered that it'd be better if I combine pictures and video all into a video slideshow of sorts. Also, this lets me put music to pictures/video, which makes everything 100 times more magical. So here's the video with my video/pictures I took last Wednesday when we went on our Hohenlohe bus tour:
Also, Lindsay had quite a fun time making the bed the other day.
I'm working on a Munich video...get ready.
It's been a while - mostly because the internet here has been so uncooperative, but also because of classes, traveling, sleeping, etc. I'm almost out of space to upload photos and video here, so I've discovered that it'd be better if I combine pictures and video all into a video slideshow of sorts. Also, this lets me put music to pictures/video, which makes everything 100 times more magical. So here's the video with my video/pictures I took last Wednesday when we went on our Hohenlohe bus tour:
Also, Lindsay had quite a fun time making the bed the other day.
I'm working on a Munich video...get ready.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Days 16-20
It's been a while, bloggers, and I really don't have any good reason for it.
Since last we spoke, 5 full days have gone by. What has happened, you ask? Let me tell ya!
On Thursday, nothing really happened. Schwartzkopf said some funny things and probably did something a little perverted, as he's apt to do, and then school got out. But then at 4, the best thing ever happened. It was cake day.
There's this group of people living in Schwaebisch Hall called the "Friends of the Goethe Institut" or something equivalent, and they do various events with the Institut over the course of the year.
Well on Thursday, they all baked some cake and brought it to the cafeteria for all of us students to eat. That's right: free cake. As much as we wanted! All home made!
There were probably like 25+ cakes there. It filled an entire table, and we were in heaven.
My favorite was the apple cake, although the cheese cake was pretty good too.
On Friday, there was a few Fussball games worth mentioning. Germany played and we went down to the pub to watch the game. They lost, 0:1, and it was a big upset. It didn't help that the day was cloudy and rainy anyway. The mood really downshifted from there. The USA game was much better, and this marked the second tie for the US. If the US tie again or win the next game, there's an extremely good chance that they will go on to the final 16, something that they have not been able to do for many many years.
Friday night was Goethe club, and there was plenty of drinking and dancing. A highlight of the night for Lindsay was when Vladimir, a 40 something Russian man of questionable background, came and danced with her. She loves Russians, apparently, and I took a picture of the happy couple.
Saturday was a red letter day for all of us, though, because we ventured out of our happy little Hall of Schaebs, and took a train all the way to Munich, or Muenchen, auf Deutsch.
Lindsay, Caroline, and I were joined by fellow U of M students Chris, Ross, Matt, Davey, Kirsten, and Bryan, and a North Carolinian named Lark.
The train ride to Munich took about 3 hours, and was mostly uneventful, although we passed by Dachau, the town where there was a concentration camp during WWII.
Upon our arrival at the train station in Munich, everyone was so excited they could barely contain themselves.
The first thing I noticed about Munich is just how many fountains there were. You couldn't move from all the fountains. Every turn, a fountain. What's that? Oh, it's a fountain. Here's one now!
We ate lunch at the Augustiner, an old beer cellar turned restaurant in the 1880s. It looked a bit like this:
I ordered the Weisswurst, it looked like this:
Chris realized that there were baskets of giant pretzels at every table, and he looked a bit like this:
We all looked a bit like that, actually, and hungrily gobbled up a crap-ton of pretzels.
After we ate our lunch and got the bill, we learned that the pretzels were not free. Far from it in fact. We all grumbled but the fact of the matter was that we ate the pretzels so we paid for our meal and left.
We then explored the city a little. The old town hall may be the most beautiful building i've ever seen in my entire life.
From there we meandered around a bit longer until we found our final destination: THE HAUFBRAUHAUS.
This may be the most famous place to drink beer in the entire world. It's known for selling beer by the liter and just being a big drunken mess.
Things begin to get a little hazy from here on out, but here are some fun pictures.
At one point some drunk german youths came up and hit on Kirsten for a good long while.
Oh! Also, it was so crowded that we couldn't all sit together, so me and Matt went and sat with this German family. They were really nice, and excited to hear us speaking German at them. They wanted to try out their english on us. They were awful, which made me feel better about my bad German. It was a great multicultural experience.
After like 3 hours at the Haus, we moved on and did some shopping.
The only thing I ended up buying was that Fussball shirt I'm wearing there. Caroline bought some shirts and some glasses I think. Lindsay bought a shirt? I'm really not sure. This is still in the hazy part of the day.
After that we explored the city some more
And made fun of cultures we didn't understand
We took a walk around the Royal Palace and through the Royal gardens where they had about 10 more fountains.
After that we absorbed some art
And then we admired some architecture.
After that we had to leave, so we did.
Sunday was spent, my me at least, sleeping, uploading photos, and watching episodes of Bones on my computer.
Today, day 20, has been pretty fun so far. We got another new teacher in B1.2 today. Her name, I think, is Renette Koehl-Kuhn. As Matt putts it, she's Germany's answer to Katie Couric. She was just pretty fun and bubble. Today in class we listened to music, sang a song, drew pictures, and did other things that were reminiscent of 1st grade.
I think I'm going to go take a nap now, and then get up and go to the pub and watch the Chile v Switzerland game with my Chilean friend Benjamin.
Look for the youtube vid of Munich. I should finish it today some time.
Since last we spoke, 5 full days have gone by. What has happened, you ask? Let me tell ya!
On Thursday, nothing really happened. Schwartzkopf said some funny things and probably did something a little perverted, as he's apt to do, and then school got out. But then at 4, the best thing ever happened. It was cake day.
There's this group of people living in Schwaebisch Hall called the "Friends of the Goethe Institut" or something equivalent, and they do various events with the Institut over the course of the year.
Well on Thursday, they all baked some cake and brought it to the cafeteria for all of us students to eat. That's right: free cake. As much as we wanted! All home made!
There were probably like 25+ cakes there. It filled an entire table, and we were in heaven.
My favorite was the apple cake, although the cheese cake was pretty good too.
On Friday, there was a few Fussball games worth mentioning. Germany played and we went down to the pub to watch the game. They lost, 0:1, and it was a big upset. It didn't help that the day was cloudy and rainy anyway. The mood really downshifted from there. The USA game was much better, and this marked the second tie for the US. If the US tie again or win the next game, there's an extremely good chance that they will go on to the final 16, something that they have not been able to do for many many years.
Friday night was Goethe club, and there was plenty of drinking and dancing. A highlight of the night for Lindsay was when Vladimir, a 40 something Russian man of questionable background, came and danced with her. She loves Russians, apparently, and I took a picture of the happy couple.
Saturday was a red letter day for all of us, though, because we ventured out of our happy little Hall of Schaebs, and took a train all the way to Munich, or Muenchen, auf Deutsch.
Lindsay, Caroline, and I were joined by fellow U of M students Chris, Ross, Matt, Davey, Kirsten, and Bryan, and a North Carolinian named Lark.
The train ride to Munich took about 3 hours, and was mostly uneventful, although we passed by Dachau, the town where there was a concentration camp during WWII.
Upon our arrival at the train station in Munich, everyone was so excited they could barely contain themselves.
The first thing I noticed about Munich is just how many fountains there were. You couldn't move from all the fountains. Every turn, a fountain. What's that? Oh, it's a fountain. Here's one now!
We ate lunch at the Augustiner, an old beer cellar turned restaurant in the 1880s. It looked a bit like this:
I ordered the Weisswurst, it looked like this:
Chris realized that there were baskets of giant pretzels at every table, and he looked a bit like this:
We all looked a bit like that, actually, and hungrily gobbled up a crap-ton of pretzels.
After we ate our lunch and got the bill, we learned that the pretzels were not free. Far from it in fact. We all grumbled but the fact of the matter was that we ate the pretzels so we paid for our meal and left.
We then explored the city a little. The old town hall may be the most beautiful building i've ever seen in my entire life.
From there we meandered around a bit longer until we found our final destination: THE HAUFBRAUHAUS.
This may be the most famous place to drink beer in the entire world. It's known for selling beer by the liter and just being a big drunken mess.
Things begin to get a little hazy from here on out, but here are some fun pictures.
At one point some drunk german youths came up and hit on Kirsten for a good long while.
Oh! Also, it was so crowded that we couldn't all sit together, so me and Matt went and sat with this German family. They were really nice, and excited to hear us speaking German at them. They wanted to try out their english on us. They were awful, which made me feel better about my bad German. It was a great multicultural experience.
After like 3 hours at the Haus, we moved on and did some shopping.
The only thing I ended up buying was that Fussball shirt I'm wearing there. Caroline bought some shirts and some glasses I think. Lindsay bought a shirt? I'm really not sure. This is still in the hazy part of the day.
After that we explored the city some more
And made fun of cultures we didn't understand
We took a walk around the Royal Palace and through the Royal gardens where they had about 10 more fountains.
After that we absorbed some art
And then we admired some architecture.
After that we had to leave, so we did.
Sunday was spent, my me at least, sleeping, uploading photos, and watching episodes of Bones on my computer.
Today, day 20, has been pretty fun so far. We got another new teacher in B1.2 today. Her name, I think, is Renette Koehl-Kuhn. As Matt putts it, she's Germany's answer to Katie Couric. She was just pretty fun and bubble. Today in class we listened to music, sang a song, drew pictures, and did other things that were reminiscent of 1st grade.
I think I'm going to go take a nap now, and then get up and go to the pub and watch the Chile v Switzerland game with my Chilean friend Benjamin.
Look for the youtube vid of Munich. I should finish it today some time.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Day 15: Bus Tour
Today after class we took a four hour bus tour. It was long and we all kind of fell asleep once or twice. But there were moments of sheer beauty.
I'm pretty sure Caroline took more pictures than me, so she'll probably be making a post soon. Here's mine though.
SO EXCITED TO LEAVE
On the way out of town we passed this neato lookin hotel.
Once we were out in the country there wasn't much more than grass, crops, and sheeps.
Yet another castle.
Caroline showing off the gorgeous view from our first stop in Waldenburg.
This is the castle from a farther away view
Different Castle
After this we took another long bus ride to a cloister with some churches and stuff. This is where I sort of stopped taking pictures. The video sheds better light on it but that'll be up in a day or two. This was a Jesus on the ceiling in the church.
Some artful tomb covers.
After the cloister tour we ate a little snack at the cafe (in the cloister), and then took a bus ride home.
The rest of the day was spent looking around for some German Weltmeisterschaft apparel so we could show our support. Not much luck though. the only things we found were 70 Euro. Better luck tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Laundry day.
Also there should be 1 or 2 videos up very soon!
I'm pretty sure Caroline took more pictures than me, so she'll probably be making a post soon. Here's mine though.
SO EXCITED TO LEAVE
On the way out of town we passed this neato lookin hotel.
Once we were out in the country there wasn't much more than grass, crops, and sheeps.
Yet another castle.
Caroline showing off the gorgeous view from our first stop in Waldenburg.
This is the castle from a farther away view
Different Castle
After this we took another long bus ride to a cloister with some churches and stuff. This is where I sort of stopped taking pictures. The video sheds better light on it but that'll be up in a day or two. This was a Jesus on the ceiling in the church.
Some artful tomb covers.
After the cloister tour we ate a little snack at the cafe (in the cloister), and then took a bus ride home.
The rest of the day was spent looking around for some German Weltmeisterschaft apparel so we could show our support. Not much luck though. the only things we found were 70 Euro. Better luck tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Laundry day.
Also there should be 1 or 2 videos up very soon!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Oh no! New Teacher!
So we lost Guenter Hasenfuss today. Apparently he had some business in Munich that's going to take him at least a month and so today we got a new teacher.
Enter Wolfgang Schwartzkopf.
What the heck is it with punny names in Germany? First we have Rabbit's Foot/Coward, and now we have Black Head. He isn't black though. He also doesn't have black hair because he's bald.
He seems like a pretty groovy guy, although in the first day he managed to propose to one girl, tell another one he'd like to dance with her, tell another he loved her, and take another one out on a dinner date. These were all pretend examples to help get his teaching point across, but still, it bordered on creepy.
For the last third of the class he decided to take us on a walking tour of the Hall. One the positive side, it was a nice change from sitting in the stuffy classroom, and I feel like I learned more today than I have during my whole stay.
On the downside, he decided to go over by quite a bit. Class ends at 12:45 usually, but today, due to the tour, it ended at 1:30.
I'll have a video of the tour up later.
In other news, Caroline's birthday went well. We bought a nice cake and some ice cream and sang happy birthday and did all the required things to have a good birthday celebration.
We're setting our sights for Munich this weekend, so stay tuned for that.
Enter Wolfgang Schwartzkopf.
What the heck is it with punny names in Germany? First we have Rabbit's Foot/Coward, and now we have Black Head. He isn't black though. He also doesn't have black hair because he's bald.
He seems like a pretty groovy guy, although in the first day he managed to propose to one girl, tell another one he'd like to dance with her, tell another he loved her, and take another one out on a dinner date. These were all pretend examples to help get his teaching point across, but still, it bordered on creepy.
For the last third of the class he decided to take us on a walking tour of the Hall. One the positive side, it was a nice change from sitting in the stuffy classroom, and I feel like I learned more today than I have during my whole stay.
On the downside, he decided to go over by quite a bit. Class ends at 12:45 usually, but today, due to the tour, it ended at 1:30.
I'll have a video of the tour up later.
In other news, Caroline's birthday went well. We bought a nice cake and some ice cream and sang happy birthday and did all the required things to have a good birthday celebration.
We're setting our sights for Munich this weekend, so stay tuned for that.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Happy Birthday to Caroline!
Let's look back on all the good times...
Here's to 21 years of Caroline. Let's have 21 more, shall we?
Here's to 21 years of Caroline. Let's have 21 more, shall we?
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Nuremburg/Nürnberg Pictures
We went to Nuremburg (Nürnberg auf Deutsch) yesterday. It was really awesome. If you haven't already done so, watch Jon's video. Here's some pictures of the highlights of the day:
First, we went to the Justizgebaeude or Justizpalast (Palace of Justice) where the Nuremburg Trials took place. These were the trials in which many Nazis were tried and convicted of warcrimes, the most notable being Hermann Göring (President of the Reichtag 1932-1945), Rudolf Hess (Deputy Führer 1933-1941). There were no tours going on when we were there, but at least we got to walk around the building.
Next, we went to the Germanishes Nationalmuseum. Outside of the museum, there were some fun things to play with. Here's Jon making some wheel spin around using a spiral water thing.
Also outside of the museum, there was an arch and a long row of pillars that had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written on them in German and a variety of other languages.
Then we went into the museum. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum has a lot of old stuff. Most of what we saw was art and artifacts from the church. We also saw some old tombstones, some old musical instruments, some old scientific instruments (like the globe from my last post), and some old things from life in the 1400s. According to the museum's founder, it is "well-ordered compendium of all available source material for German history, literature and art". It was all really interesting. Also, the museum building incorporates the remaining parts of the Nuremburg Charterhouse - a monastery built in the 1380s. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's a few of the many pictures we took at the museum.
A painting from Albrecht Dürer, who is from Nuremburg
After the museum, we went and had our favorite lunch, Doener, while we watched part of a soccer game.
Then, we went to St. Lorenzkirche. This was my favorite part of our time in Germany so far. The church was built in 1250 and was one of the first churches to become Lutheran in Germany (in 1525). The church was severely damaged in the bombings by the Allies on Nuremburg in WWII, but was reconstructed after the war.
Walking into the church was the best. There was a choir practice going on at the time, and the singing combined with the beauty of the church and everything else was overwhleming. It was absolutely amazing. Here's a video I took - sitting and listening to the choir and walking around the church.
After we went in the church, we walked through the Marktplatz. It was really busy and there were a lot of street performers out. This guy was pretty impressive.
Then we went into another church, St. Sebaldus Church. Construction on this church started in the 1230s and ended around 1275. Johann Pachelbel (who composed Canon in D) was the organist here from 1695-1705 (when he died). The church was also damaged severely in the bombings, but reconstructed after the war.
After St. Sebaldus, we went to the Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle). We didn't go into the castle (we didn't want to pay), but we still walked around the castle grounds. There was a really nice view of the city from the top.
After we went to the castle, we were pretty much done. We saw a few other things on the long walk back to the train station (but I don't want to put the pictures up, since I'm running out of space to put pictures up here). It was a really fun day, and we saw a lot of cool stuff. Watch Jon's video to see more about our day in Nuremburg.
First, we went to the Justizgebaeude or Justizpalast (Palace of Justice) where the Nuremburg Trials took place. These were the trials in which many Nazis were tried and convicted of warcrimes, the most notable being Hermann Göring (President of the Reichtag 1932-1945), Rudolf Hess (Deputy Führer 1933-1941). There were no tours going on when we were there, but at least we got to walk around the building.
Next, we went to the Germanishes Nationalmuseum. Outside of the museum, there were some fun things to play with. Here's Jon making some wheel spin around using a spiral water thing.
Also outside of the museum, there was an arch and a long row of pillars that had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written on them in German and a variety of other languages.
Then we went into the museum. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum has a lot of old stuff. Most of what we saw was art and artifacts from the church. We also saw some old tombstones, some old musical instruments, some old scientific instruments (like the globe from my last post), and some old things from life in the 1400s. According to the museum's founder, it is "well-ordered compendium of all available source material for German history, literature and art". It was all really interesting. Also, the museum building incorporates the remaining parts of the Nuremburg Charterhouse - a monastery built in the 1380s. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's a few of the many pictures we took at the museum.
A painting from Albrecht Dürer, who is from Nuremburg
After the museum, we went and had our favorite lunch, Doener, while we watched part of a soccer game.
Then, we went to St. Lorenzkirche. This was my favorite part of our time in Germany so far. The church was built in 1250 and was one of the first churches to become Lutheran in Germany (in 1525). The church was severely damaged in the bombings by the Allies on Nuremburg in WWII, but was reconstructed after the war.
Walking into the church was the best. There was a choir practice going on at the time, and the singing combined with the beauty of the church and everything else was overwhleming. It was absolutely amazing. Here's a video I took - sitting and listening to the choir and walking around the church.
After we went in the church, we walked through the Marktplatz. It was really busy and there were a lot of street performers out. This guy was pretty impressive.
Then we went into another church, St. Sebaldus Church. Construction on this church started in the 1230s and ended around 1275. Johann Pachelbel (who composed Canon in D) was the organist here from 1695-1705 (when he died). The church was also damaged severely in the bombings, but reconstructed after the war.
After St. Sebaldus, we went to the Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle). We didn't go into the castle (we didn't want to pay), but we still walked around the castle grounds. There was a really nice view of the city from the top.
After we went to the castle, we were pretty much done. We saw a few other things on the long walk back to the train station (but I don't want to put the pictures up, since I'm running out of space to put pictures up here). It was a really fun day, and we saw a lot of cool stuff. Watch Jon's video to see more about our day in Nuremburg.
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