Video Post: Christmas in Munich/Olching

Hi,

I made a video for y'all instead of typing something out. You could say a little Christmas treat. Enjoy!

Adam

[UPDATE]

Blogger won't work in uploading the video. I am going to post it to youtube and put the link on here when I am done. Sorry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYtC8NLj6q4

Weekend in Basel

What a RIDICULOUS weekend. That's the best description I can give you to start of what I did last weekend.

Friday (Dec. 10th) was relatively normal. I went to the Jüdische Gemeinde (congregation) for Friday night Shabbat services. It was really nice to be with lots of Jews. Certainly refreshing. At UT, I'm with Jews about 95% of the time (basically, only when I'm not in class). Afterward, there was a small dinner downstairs. It wasn't really what I expected exactly, but still good. I guess its hard to have hot kosher food. They actually had a few bottles of Manischewitz wine.

After synagogue, a few students (including myself) went to a cafe/bar and had drinks and talked for a couple of hours. Fun, but I had to go to bed early to get rest for the remainder of my weekend.

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I woke up around 8:30 (yes, in the morning and it was tough) to be able to catch my train at 10:02. I got dressed, packed my last few things and got on the street car headed toward the main train station (Hauptbahnhof).

I find my track with 20 minutes to spare and pop on the headphones. Finally a gray train pulls up and I hop on. Quite exciting for two reasons: 1. It's the really fast train called ICE (Inter-City Express) and is really nice. And 2. I'm finally getting out Freiburg. I find a place to sit and settle in. ICE is like an airplane, but you don't have to go through security and you can use electronics the whole time.

After 45 minutes, the train stops at BBB (I'll explain in a minute). I stay on until the next stop at SBB, only a mere 5 minutes thereafter. I walk down to the main hall, where Martin, Marc Alexander's former exchange student, should be waiting for me. I call him up, and there was a slight confusion...

BBB stands for Basel Badische Bahnhof. The key word here is "badische" which refers to the German state Baden-Württemburg. Badische is the adjective form of Baden, the region. This means the station is still in Germany.

SBB stands for Schweizerische Bundesbahnen. The key word here is "schweizerische" which refers to Switzerland. This means the station is in Switzerland.

Since I went to the SBB, I made the mistake of paying more for my train ticket. Not a huge deal, but Martin assumed I was arriving at BBB. I waited a while for him to find me, then we finally headed to his house to drop my bag off.

We headed back to the heart of the city. We walked around, went into a few stores and talked about random stuff. Martin is really excited about his trip next summer back to the US. He just couldn't get enough I guess. I ended up buying two things: a Roger Federer shirt with his RF logo on it and a soccer scarf supporting the team FC Basel, that we were going to see the next day. Everything is expensive in Basel. Everything.

After we ate lunch, we met up with a friend of his, Michi. We walked over to the Rhine river, which flows through the city. I took some photos, and there was this small boat that you can use to cross over to the other side. I took some photos from the boat too.

The Rhine and Basel

Martin and I
 (I wish there was someway to digitally comb my hair)
The one really tall building to the right of me is the office of Martin's dad

On the boat

We went over to the soccer stadium where FC Basel plays their home games, called St. Jakob Park. We couldn't get in, but I took a few pictures. You can see "FC BASEL" written using the seats in the stands.

St. Jakob Park

We went back to Martin's house, made dinner and I showed him the best websites for watching American TV shows online. Another friend, Michel ate with us, as Michi had gone home for awhile. We got dressed up and prepared for our night out.

First stop was the casino. Not to gamble, but to drink. Apparently on the back of McDonald's receipts, there is a coupon for a free drink worth up to 9 CHF (Swiss Francs, which are about the same in value as the dollar). We had a bunch of these coupons, so we stayed there for a few hours. A 3rd friend, Duong played some roulette and ended up winning 40 CHF.

The 5 of us (Me, Martin, Michi, Michel and Duong) headed over to the big party near the soccer stadium. They have a really cool and cost effective way of hosting parties at this particular venue. At the beginning of the night, you receive a scan card, take your photo and have it electronically stored on the card. If you want to buy a drink from the bar (it's REALLY REALLY expensive) you give the bartender your card and he/she charges it to you. At the end of the night, you can't leave unless you go through the booth, give them your card and pay the total. Cover was 15 CHF and I had a beer at 5.50 CHF, so I paid 20.50. Other people there drank a lot more than I did. I can't imagine what it cost them.

The party was fun. There were two dance floors, separated into different rooms with different music. I preferred the hip hop/rap dance floor to the latin infused dance music, like Shakira. The funniest thing that night happened after we left.

We called hours ahead to have a taxi ready for us when we wanted to leave. We had a coupon, of course, for 10 CHF off a special taxi service company that uses Bio-fuel. Our taxi, however, wasn't there. We waited and called and waited more, but we grew impatient, as it was late and raining outside. Eventually, Martin convinced another cab driver, from a completely different company, to take our coupon. We silently laughed the whole ride home. Went to bed, not really knowing what to expect the next day. Wow, was I in for a surprise.

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I'll be brief with the unimportant things:

Woke up. Got food near the SBB. Hopped on a train with 2000 other FC Basel fans headed to Zurich. Everyone is smoking cigarettes (I reeked of smoke for days after) and drinking beer. The train ride is an hour.

Someone pulls the emergency brake on the train. I hear things that sound like bombs. Extremely loud. We get out of the train in a fury and run on the tracks for a little, all 2000 people. The mob forms on the street. More tremendously loud explosions. Chanting and singing. We march down the streets of Zurich. Police cutting off our route so we don't wander off and cause more problems in the neighborhoods. It's cold. More explosions but even louder. The mob is leaving stickers supporting FC Basel all over the street signs, cars and buildings. It sounds like a blitzkrieg. Bombs, marching, flares.

People are lighting flares, red and blue. I see mobsters throw beer bottles and cans at the lines of police. I hear more explosions. I cover my ears at the first crack of the firework, hoping to avoid the louder explosion that follows just seconds later. Red and Blue smoke bombs thrown on the street. The mob grows angrier, cursing and using obscenities at the onlookers from their balconies. We march down their streets pillaging their town.

The litter left on the ground was like the tail of a comet; you could tell there was something big there. Unfortunately, no pictures. I was told by Martin that someone would destroy my camera if I tried. Based upon what I'd witnessed so far, I kept it in my pocket. The mob marched on. We reached the stadium prior to game time and went through security. I got patted down like I had just opted out of the new scanners at the airport.

We get into our place inside the stadium (standing of course) and continued our endless chanting and singing. FC Basel fans don't stop singing. I respect that. I quickly caught on with the cheers and the lineups were announced. The mob had a HUGE flag with a checkerboard pattern of red and blue that covered the entire stadium section. People lit flares in the stadium, which is pretty dangerous with so many people bunched up. Again, no pictures allowed. Game started and so continued the singing. More obscenities and it got really cold.

Grasshopper Club or GC scored a goal in the 12th minute. The mob was initially silent, throwing rolls of toilet paper at the police guarding the field. The cheering started again. Trying to rally the team, the FC Basel fanatics were louder than before. That is, until GC scored a second goal just two minutes later.

A 2-0 deficit is a large gap to bridge for any team. Were FC Basel up for the challenge? The team started to dominate GC on the sheer number of goal chances they had, but no one was willing to shoot the ball. The first half ended 2-0.

The second half saw a somewhat weaker FC Basel side. They had fewer chances and were sloppy with possession. At one point, FCB shot the ball, it was saved by the keeper, but the rebound went right to a Basel player. He slotted it home, but was pulled for offsides. Naturally, the FCB fans were outraged.

With 15 minutes left in the match, FCB cut the lead in half with a strong attack on goal. The score 2-1, the fanatics lit up the flares and were ready to help their team rally.

Time was running down on the match and GC players would fall down and roll around like the had both of their legs shot. They acted like they were in such big pain to stall and run time off. And it worked. After wasting a few more chances and the 4 minutes of injury time, the referee whistled the match to a close, the final 2-1 for Grasshopper Club Zurich.

We left the stadium, Michel, Martin and I. We wanted to get out to the street as fast as we could. Police vans were videotaping people leaving the stadium so if a fight broke out, they would have evidence. We waited and met up with the mob a couple of blocks from the stadium. Then began the silent march back to the train. Methodically, we escaped the town we had pillaged, leaving behind even more stickers on cars, lamp posts and street signs.

About 20 minutes of walking passed and we got to the train station. A few more of these "bomb fireworks" were thrown from our train onto another track, scaring the shit out of me. Our 1 hour train ride with people smoking and drinking again arrived back in Basel, hours before I was to get on my train back to Freiburg.

I decided to take an earlier train. Martin helped me "smuggle" a case of swiss beer onto the train to bring back with me. I don't think it was actually illegal to do that...

When I arrived back in Freiburg, I got on the first Straßenbahn and made it home within 15 minutes. I was dead tired. Took a quick shower and slept after a quite interesting weekend.

Adam

(I have another post written that I still need to type up, so be on the lookout for that this week)

Weekly Routine and More and Pictures

Hi everyone,

This may be an aberration, but I'm going to try to write 2 Posts in one week. I know its almost unheard of, but I have more to explain.

Usually when the semester starts, I take a few weeks to figure out my schedule outside of class. That could mean anything from when I study, with whom I study, what time I eat meals day to day or even what is the latest I can wake up and still make it to class without being late. It sounds trivial, but without this plan, there is no way I could make it through the average week.

Everyone has a routine; I'll just go through the main (and calculated) parts:

• If I have class on a particular day, I have to set my first alarm for 1 hour and 15 minutes before class starts. I hit the snooze button twice (each time for 15 minutes)
• I have to be out the door at 41 past the hour in order to make the Straßenbahn (street car) that arrives at 48 past the hour
• If I don't have class, I will set my alarm for 1 PM, but I don't actually have to wake up by then. It's just to make sure I do wake up at some point
• On Mondays, I play basketball with Tobias at the University Sporthall from 8:30 to 10. We form teams with other people who play there regularly. On Fridays, we play again, but it's earlier, 7-8:30
• I don't have a planned part of the week where I go grocery shopping, because I usually just pick up groceries whenever I need something specific. That could mean anytime of the week, except Sundays. Nothing is open on Sundays. (Chick-Fil-A would fit right in)
• Unlike when I'm in Austin, meal times are very variable. I usually have to cook, so I'll eat when I'm not too tired to do so.
• On Sundays, I'm on the computer from 7 PM-1:30 AM watching NFL. Don't bother me, unless it's to comment on football or fantasy football.

That is the main list of important things. There are other even smaller things, but less important. Now, I'll touch on some other happenings.

Yesterday was my first attempt to reach out to the Jewish community in Freiburg. On Thursday (Dec. 1st) around 4 PM,  Tobias (He's not Jewish, just intrigued) and I went to the Jüdische Gemeinde Freiburg to see what the place was like and if they were doing anything for Hanukkah. We wandered around the place at first, just looking at all of the memorials and Jewish artifacts. It was much, much different than my synagogue in Houston.

I met the Rabbi, and then it was time for Mincha and Ma'ariv. We went into the sanctuary and it was nice to do something Jewish for the first time in a while. Afterward, we lit the candles for Hanukkah and there was a small reception downstairs. Tobias left to go play volleyball (that would be on his list of his weekly routine if he had a blog and decided to do a post like this one).

Now I was alone. I had met the Rabbi (in the last paragraph), but certainly he was busy with the members to just talk to me the whole time. That's when a few other students, a little older than I am, asked if I wanted to sit with them for coffee. I met a few of them and we had a nice conversation for awhile. By the end, I learned that they have student events from time to time, including a group who all go to Shabbat services on specific weekends. Unfortunately, the cool event they have having is when I will be in Basel (On Saturday!!!), but I can still go on Friday night for services.

What I found funniest about this German synagogue was the transliteration from Hebrew to German. In the German language, the letter "W" sounds like the letter "V" in English. A "V" sounds like an "F" in German as well. So, words like Soviet are spelled, Sowjet in German. This makes the transliterations hilarious looking from an English perspective. It was actually really hard to read it like it should sound. "Oseh Shalom Bimromaw" just looks funny at the end...Whatever, I thought it was funny.

Hopefully, you could see my menorah pictures that I put up on facebook. I'll include one here too.

Last comments before pictures: Texans played the Eagles and lost this past Thursday. Texans have to beat the Ravens this week to stay in the playoff hunt. Go Texans!

I'm also going to try to go skiing soon. I've never been before, so it should be entertaining.
and...Going to Basel on Saturday, then Zurich on Sunday. Gonna be a blast.

Picture time, say cheese (You can click the pictures to enlarge them):

1) SC Freiburg 1-0 FSV Mainz 05

Lewis Holtby!! (Mainz Player)

2) Re-Opening of Street Car Line #2 Party

Freiburg Public Transportation Map

Straßenbahn Times for My Stop

3) First Snow of the Year

  

    View from my Window
(Schlossberg is the big mountain behind
the building)

The Monastery from atop Schlossberg

Where I live (from the Schlossberg Tower)

4) A Beautiful Afternoon

The really small tower to the left of the weather vane is the Schlossberg Tower
Just to show some perspective where I live

5) 7th Night of Hanukkah (Dec. 7th)

My Menorah made out of Bread

Bored in Literature (Written at 10:30 AM CET)

I am sitting in my Literature class right now putting pen to paper the old fashioned way to give you a post, because if I am going to do anything literary today, I've decided it will be on my own terms

Obviously, because I have been holding off on writing, I am somewhat lazy and not a consistent writer. I never have been. From the 6th-12th grades, I only received one A in English, and that was partially because I was friends with the teacher's son.

So now that I've made my lame excuse that my cyber dog ate my blogpost, I will finally break my hermit status. I don't even know where to begin...(it's been that long)

Three weekends ago, my friend Tobias and I went to the SC Freiburg soccer match against Mainz. Freiburg won 1-0 on a late penalty taken by Papiss Demba Cisse. It was extremely exciting because Mainz is the number 2 team in the league. Our standing places were on the south side of the stadium, which means we were closer to the field and it was less dense. A good experience overall.

I'll lump this in here: Sometime between now and that game, I got an email from YouTube saying my soccer video I posted was a violation of a copyright held by the German Football League. LAME. My video only semi had their song in it. It was mostly of the other people around singing.

My pen just died, but I have another.

The next thing of importance (I can't even begin to think about an accurate timeline, so bear with me) is that I have made some plans to travel. My first trip is a big one, a full 45 minute train ride to Basel, Switzerland. Does anyone who reads this know Marc Alexander? Yeah, me neither...just kidding Marc. (He'll never read this, but in case he does), he's a very ________ kid.

Anyway, last year his family hosted an exchange student from Basel. I had the chance to meet him during Parent's Weekend or sometime in the Fall, and spoke with him in German. I hadn't really seen him since, but we are friends on Facebook so it wasn't hard to keep in contact if we wanted. He messaged me a few weeks ago and asked if I have been to Basel yet. I said I haven't yet, then he said I could come anytime to visit. So I said, "December 11th." He had to get back to me to see if he was free.

If you can get context clues, then you can tell that he wasn't busy. I suggested we go to an FC Basel soccer match (I like soccer if you couldn't tell) on the 12th. He said that game is actually in Zurich. Now I am also going to Zurich that weekend. I plan on staying with Martin (is his name) the first day, then taking a train with him to Zurich to the game, come back to Basel and then take the train back to Freiburg that night. Of course, I will take and post pictures, Dad.

My other travel plans include a Christmas trip to Munich to stay with my second host family, the Gigl's for a little more than a week. Not that I don't want to stay in Freiburg or that I'm sick of it, but everyone else goes home for Christmas or even on some weekends, and it's sort of like my home in Germany. And it should be fun. I'm definitely looking forward to not having to cook every meal. Pasta gets old, so do turkey sandwiches. Oh and frozen pizzas too, no matter how many toppings I put on myself. My Texas Chili, however, is always good. Back on track...it's finally 11 AM, only 45 minutes more of hearing about Thomas Mann in German this week...

Train travel is not so cheap in Europe. A trip to Basel and another one to Munich cost a pretty penny, even when booked in advance. That's why there is this great thing called BahnCard 50. I recently purchased this BahnCard 50 discount card that gives you, you guessed it, 50 percent off all domestic tickets. What a deal, right? You haven't even heard the deal yet. This BahnCard 50 card costs 237 Euros normally is good for a whole year, but for students under the age of 27, it is only 118 Euros. Still 118 Euros is a lot of dough, but the savings are huge. A trip to Munich two days prior to Christmas and the return trip being the day after New Years will run you 168 Euros! This is a head spinning amount. Since I bought the BahnCard 50, I get half off or a savings of around 80 Euros. The card is 118, so it has almost already paid for itself. And that was only one trip. Revolutionary.

Christmas is a special time in Germany. I guess I don't really notice it as much at home because I'm always with Jews. All the time. Christmas here for me means 2 things: Kartoffelpuffen and Snow! Yes, it snowed. Not like Texas snow, it stayed on the ground and snowed for consecutive days. It was somewhere between 5-10 centimeters, so what did I do when I woke up last Friday morning? I called Tobias to see if he wanted to go to the big mountain that overlooks the city.
He was already there.

He met me in the main town area, and we went back up. I took some pictures. I plan on doing a photo dump on here later on. We climbed to the top and I went up in the tower and took more pictures. Later we had a snowball fight. I kicked his ass. Thanks Westbury Little League. They only play cricket in Australia, so they have no idea how to throw properly.

Kartoffelpuffen. What the heck is that? I'll tell you that it is a compound, funny sounding German word... for Latke. But they don't know it. From November 22nd until December 23rd, there is a large festival called Weihnachtsmarkt in a town square. A Christmas market. You can go any time of the day, but it is much more crowded at night. You can find lots of small booths with people selling Christmas themed stuff (or junk, in my opinion). There is also food and drink. I know what you're thinking, German's can't drink beer when it's freezing outside. And you'd be right. Instead of ice cold beer, there is another alcoholic substance of choice (not Vodka, wrong country) called Glühwein. I'm not exactly sure what "Glüh" means, but basically it's spiced red wine heated up. Strange, strange concept. And, if you are really an alcoholic, you can get your Glühwein spiked with rum or brandy.

Now to the food. I went to the festival with a few friends without having eaten dinner. I was scared they would only have pork to eat, but to my surprise, I found Kartoffelpuffen. There is a stand that serves these latkes and you can even get them served with Apfelmuß (applesauce)!!! [Note: Australians don't know what applesauce is] It was just like Hanukkah, so I was really happy. I am going to go back on Wednesday night and get some to eat for the first night. Unfortunately, I don't have a Hanukiah here. I'll have to think of something. Make-shift Menorah, that's alliteration. I learned something in Literature today.

I'll stop here. Expect photos and a post about basketball in the future. It's 11:33, class is over at 11:45. Time to learn more about Mann and Adorno.

Adam

Updates

I have been extremely lacking in posting to this blog. (Sorry, mom)

I am going to explain exactly what I’ve been doing for the last two weeks (besides class, of course).

Two weekends ago (Friday the 22^nd), a group of other international students, of whom I know a few, decided to rent this “contraption” called a Bierbike (yes, like Beer) for 2 hours. We rented this huge wagon, powered by pedaling, that has room for 12 people to pedal, four to just sit and two to stand in the middle.

The reason it is called Bierbike is because the service comes with beer. While you pedal and ride around the city, you have 40L of beer for everyone.

It was quite awesome, and we got lots of funny looks from everyone we rode by in downtown. Not only was it fun, it was a great workout. However, I did hurt my leg when my foot slid off the pedal, causing my leg to hit a metal board on the bike. I took a break from pedaling, and still enjoyed the adventure. I’m fine.

The next day, I got to do something that I have wanted to do for a really long time. My friend Tobias and I went to a Bundesliga (German Soccer League) match. It was SC Freiburg against Kaiserslautern, an important match for Freiburg to win.

Early on, Kaiserslautern scored a goal to take the 1-0 lead. But Freiburg hit back right before halftime to take a 1-1 tie to the second half with a goal from Papiss Demba Cisse, the leading scorer in the Bundesliga (at the time).

In the second half, Freiburg dominated the game, with substitute Stefan Reisinger giving them the lead in the 60^th minute. The crowd was really pumped up at this point, with people jumping up and down and singing the club cheers. Yes, I already learned some of SC Freiburg’s theme song.

The game ended 2-1 for Freiburg, and it was an amazing first experience at a European soccer match. So amazing, that I have tickets to tomorrow’s game against Mainz, the second place team in the Bundesliga. Should be a highly entertaining match.

IMPORTANT: WATCH THIS VIDEO I TOOK AT THE GAME AND PUT ON YOUTUBE
It's really cool....just saying.

During the week, I just had classes. Nothing too exciting, but I finally feel as though I’m settled in to my class schedule.

Last weekend was on the more chill side; basically I did nothing for Halloween. I don’t have classes on Fridays, as my loyal readers know. So from Thursday afternoon until Tuesday I had no responsibilities (Yes, I said Tuesday, because of the Christian Holiday, All Saints Day, all class were cancelled on Monday).

Friday night to Saturday was the birthday of one of my suitemates. She had a party at an apartment of a friend. I went with two of my other suitemates, but unfortunately for me, I don’t have a bicycle (just a Bierbike). The problem is the buses and streetcars don’t operate very late. As a result, I had to walk 4 kilometer (2.5 miles) home alone at 2 AM. It wasn’t all that bad and probably was good exercise. It was a fun night.

I really did nothing on Saturday, and just watched football on Sunday.

On Monday, I went hiking in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) with Tobias and three of his suitemates. We took a train from Freiburg eastward to the Titisee, about a 40-minute ride. When we got there, we took a few pictures of the lake and then started to hike.

Titisee

Black Forest (Schwarzwald)

View from Hochfirst

Cool Paragliding

Again, Paragliding (unfortunately, not me doing it)

The city of Neustadt

The hike was very tough at times, going uphill at pretty high angles. Our range of elevation was 400 meters, so it was a lot of up and down. In total we calculated we hiked 10 kilometers in 2 hours with some breaks for pictures and water.

It was really fun and strenuous, but I enjoyed talking with Tobias and his suitemates about American TV series and the election.

Speaking of which, I stayed up until 6 AM on Tuesday to watch the election results on Fox News. It was a very interesting night and the direction of American politics is definitely changing for the better. I am already looking forward to the presidential election in 2012. It should be an exciting time.

Alright, I am going to go enjoy my weekend, after all, it is Thursday afternoon, which means I am done for the week. I'm really excited for SC Freiburg vs. Mainz on Saturday.

Until next time (I promise to write sooner than later),

Adam

My Monday Diversions for 10/25

Back with some diversions!


First you have to listen to this song by David Guetta [Ft. KiD CuDi]. It's called Memories and has been out for a while, but I kept listening to it over and over again today.

I love soccer, but when people commit acts like Dani Alves did in FC Barcelona's 2:0 win against Real Zaragoza, it gives the sport a bad name. It is really funny just how committed he was to drawing the call. Watch him continue to roll on the ground.

While using Stumble Upon last week, I found this huge game of Scrabble that you play with thousands of other users. Make sure not to swap tiles too many times or you will run out of lives. You can literally play this game for hours upon days.
Hint: If you form a word on a white star (which symbolizes the middle of the board, even though there are infinite amounts of boards put together), you can earn extra lives.


If you are a dedicated Fantasy Football player like me, I suggest springing a for this. It is a service offered by Bloomberg Sports that uses years worth of data to suggest which player is the best play in a given week. It does a direct comparison between two players you can choose, and will tell you how much risk is involved if you choose a certain player. Very useful indeed. I give it an 8/10 because I used it and I won in all 5 of my Fantasy Football leagues this week.

I want to give a final shout out to one of the YouTube channels I subscribe to. Ray William Johnson is the guy's name and he is absolutely hilarious. Usually once or twice a week, he will review a few of the up and coming viral videos hitting YouTube. I would watch at least a few of these if I were new to it, and then if you like it, subscribe. As you can see, he ends up getting more hits on YouTube than the videos he reviews.

Thats all my diversions for this week. Have a great week of class. I have so many hours of class tomorrow.....grrrrr

Adam

Class Schedule

Hi again,

As I lay on my bed eating a delicious pretzel and listening to Taylor Swift (Taylor, if you ever read this, marry me even though you aren’t Jewish), I write to everyone about my first week of classes.

As I last left my blog, I was scrambling to find classes to take and to set up my schedule. Well, I can tell you that I had some success and some failure.

The Failure? Having no idea for long stretches of time what the professors were saying. That might be a problem somewhere in the near future.

The Success? I made it to all my classes, I think…. Let me elaborate a little bit more

I also want to note a few things that are different about German classes. First, there are two different time distinctions in terms of classes. If you look on the course catalog, you will see either a c.t. or s.t. after the scheduled time of class. The c.t. means that class begins 15 minutes after the hour (and ends 15 minutes before if it is a two hour class). The s.t. means it runs the entire 2 hours. All of my classes are c.t. 

Secondly, there is something very unique and funny that accompanies the end of every class. In a university class, when the teacher says class is over, everyone knocks on the table with their fists. It lasts for about 5 seconds and is supposed to be like applause??? It isn't something we do in America and it made me laugh. In my first class, which I will talk about shortly, there are 200 people, so it was quite a loud noise. Germans are strange.

So, I woke up on a Monday for the first time in 5 months with the explicit goal to go to class. And I made it there. I only have one class on Mondays from 12 to 1 called, Einführung in die Linguistik (General German Linguistics). Even though it is a huge class (around 200 students), it isn’t easy to register for. After the first session, I talked with the professor about joining the class. The thing is, you had to register for it by the 15^th and I only found out about the class on the 17^th, and even then, I didn't have the ability to do so. I have to go meet with the German Advisor about this minor clerical issue, except I couldn’t get an appointment until the 2^nd of November.  BUT ANYWAY, the class was very interesting. The professor was funny and somewhat easy to understand.

I was born on May 22, 1990, which was a Tuesday for those of you who didn't know. It had therefore become my favorite day of the week. No longer is that the case. For the rest of the semester, I will dread Tuesdays, because I scheduled 5 hours of class within a 6-hour time period.

It wasn’t a disaster, but definitely fatiguing. The first two hours (10-12) is a class called Literatur der Nachkriegzeit (1945-1967) (Post-WWII Literature). While I find Post-WWII topics to be interesting, I absolutely hate Literature. This was only exacerbated by the fact I understood less than 10 percent of what the professor was saying. It shouldn’t be too bad, and this is one of the few classes that I actually need to get credit for. Reading whole books in German is going to be tough.

From 12 to 1 is the second session of the week for Einführung in die Linguistik. It was pretty much the same on Tuesday, but I felt like I understood less. Not really sure if I have homework….small problem.

Then after a 1 hour break for lunch, I have Finanzwissenschaft I (Financial Studies) from 2-4. While it was very interesting, I was clueless because many of the complicated words that are used in economics talk are very hard to understand. I spoke with the professor, Dr. Wolfgang Eggert, after class and told him I am an exchange student. He seems very understanding that it is a difficult subject. At this point in time, I don’t need this class. I may drop it pending difficulty.

That was my dreadful Tuesday.  Listening to professors talk really fast in German about difficult topics can really wear an exchange student out.

Wednesday was solid. I got to my European Union Economics class that I have with my friend Tobias, see Digital Adventure post, and who teaches it? Dr. Wolfgang Eggert

This class was much easier to understand than the first economics one and it was also more interesting. Not to mention, the textbooks used in the class are in English. I am pretty sure that exchange students get leniency during the grading period, so having the same professor twice will be positive.

Thursday is another one of my important classes that I need to get credit for UT. It is called, Krieg, Recht und Gesellschaft der 20. Jahrhundert (War, Justice and Society of the 20^th Century) and is from 12 to 2. It was difficult to understand, but from what I gathered, the class will mostly be about victims of war and organizations that help them (Red Cross).

And that is it….sorta

Those are my planned classes, but most of them have scheduled tutoring sessions and practice sessions. I haven’t looked that up yet, but it adds a significant number of hours to my school week. Each economics class has a two-hour session for practicing problems and my linguistics course has two hours of optional tutorials and two hours of mandatory extra sessions per week. That doesn’t make me a happy camper.

What makes up for that?

For the first time in my life, I DON’T HAVE CLASS ON FRIDAYS!!!!

NOTE*** While writing this, I had to look up a few easy words (like an antonym for mandatory and a synonym for to detail) in the thesaurus. I think I am forgetting English, if I even really knew it in the first place.

I also did some ridiculous thing tonight that I will post eventually. I have photo and video evidence. And it is hilarious.

Have a nice weekend,

Adam

P.S. Just wanted to note that I watched the videos of the “Propaganda” event that occurred this week at UT. I like how the Youtube videos had the word propaganda to describe the event, when indeed the video was propaganda. Just saying.

P.P.S. I am a conservative and I am highly amused by the mess of things that have occurred following Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View. While he wasn’t being PC, he has a point (even the liberal NPR guy, who got fired after statements about being afraid of Muslims every time he gets on a plane, tended to agree with O’Reilly. The US is about to change sides, when the Republicans will take over both the House and the Senate. Can’t wait for Election Day!

It’s been a while…

 Hey everyone,

I know I’ve been a slacker (at least on my blog), so I apologize.

But, I have been productive in other facets of life. I’ve registered as a student. I’ve purchased my semester ticket for the local public transportation. I’ve cleaned up my room and hung some stuff up. Hell, I even did laundry today.

Here are some pictures of my room and our little TV area:

I finished all my appointments. I opened a bank account. I picked out classes….oh wait, still haven’t done that. When does school start??? TOMORROW!!

Priority 1, besides writing this blog post and fantasy football, is making sure I have a viable class schedule for this semester. And while I am not exactly sure how the system will work tomorrow, I’m not too worried about it.

Priority 2 is paying rent, but that can wait.

From what I have deduced, the beginning of the semester is very different than what it is like at UT. For the fall semester at UT, you register for your classes back in the spring and then you just go.

Germany is very last minute in my opinion. I am supposed to look online which classes I want to take, and then go to the class on the first day and register in class. The whole process doesn’t really start until the first class day (tomorrow).

So at this point in time, I have no idea what time I am going to class tomorrow. I guess that is what the next few hours before the NFL starts are for.

I have a general idea what I need, but the specifics are mostly up to me. I have a degree plan that I brought with me. I have to correspond with an advisor whether or not I can get credit at UT for certain classes.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I hope to write again soon. Hopefully school doesn’t take over my life.

For those of you keeping score at home, my last day of class last semester was May 14^th. Tomorrow is October 18^th. That is 5 months since I had class. I might be a little rusty.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Go Texans!!! And send money Mom!!

Adam

Digital Adventure

It has also been a fun few days.

Ever since I arrived on Sunday, I have been meeting people from around the world and settling in.

My apartment is shared between 7 people. We have 5 guys, 2 girls, one kitchen, one small TV area and two bathrooms (sorta). So far only 6 of us are here. Four (Thomas, Raphael, Catherina and Sarah) are from different parts of Germany and one (Richard) is from Sydney, Australia. The missing tenant is Olli (I think) and he is also from Germany, but hasn't moved in yet. Everyone is very nice and we interact only in German, including my conversations with Richard.

In fact, I understand Richard's German better than his Australian accent.

Besides my apartment, I have made a few international friends who live in the same complex. There are a few Brits, another Australian (Tobias), a couple of Finns, and a few others. Tobias and I already had a few adventures in the past couple of days.

On Tuesday, Tobias and I saw each other in the same internet cafe before a day of orientation. I talked to him for a minute, printed something out, then left for orientation. I came back that way an hour and a half later and he is still on the same computer skyping with his girlfriend back in Australia.

He then explains to me that he ordered a laptop to be delivered to an electronics store in the southern part of the city, called Media Markt. I had nothing better to do, so I met up with him a bit later and we took the street car down there.

Since I don't have the semester transportation ticket yet, I didn't want to pay so much for rides so after the street car, we walked the rest of the way instead of the bus. We finally get to Media Markt to buy the laptop and we have trouble getting helped. After looking around at stuff and finally getting attention, we are told it will be 15 minutes until it is available. It's a huge electronics store, so that is not a big deal at all. We listened to music and it was fun.

Fifteen minutes pass and the laptop comes. Tobias goes to check out, BUT his Mastercard doesn't work at the register. He goes to the ATM in the store to withdraw 800 Euros, but it also doesn't work. We then have to schlepp out to a bank all the way near the street car station, about 1.5 miles away. We get there and he uses the ATM, but can only get 760 Euros out of the 800 he needs. Luckily, I had enough to lend him (he already paid me back, mom).

We walk all the way back to Media Markt and finally pays for the damn thing. Instead of having to walk again to the street car, we took the bus back all the way to a connecting bus station we needed to take to get back home.

It ended up taking 3 hours and was a lot of walking, but I tend to like these mini-adventures. We had fun with it, and now Tobias doesn't have to sit in an internet cafe all day. He repaid me also with help on all my bureaucratic problems described in the last post.

I also went out a few times, but you can look forward to reading that stuff later

Adam

Bureaucracy

It has been a stressful few days.

Today is my 4th full day in Freiburg and I have passed a few of the opening "tests" for registration. Everything is very complicated to master to prepare to start school. I thought I had already finished the hard part when I filled out my study abroad application at UT, but was I wrong.

My welcoming packet came with a list of 8 steps to complete in order to enroll in the university. 8 steps doesn't seem so bad, except instead of steps, it is more like tasks. All I can say before I describe my trials is that juggling every one of these things together has been very difficult.

Not to mention, a slight language barrier.

The first step was to register for an apartment, which I had already done months ago. Step 1 (Check)

The second step was to register for residency in the city of Freiburg at the international office. This was very troublesome for two reasons: (a) I didn't know where the office was and (b) I didn't understand which documents I needed to have. Turns out I had to print a few things out, but I had no printer. Thank god for internet cafes. I needed to have my passport and proof of apartment reservation. I thought that I needed a visa, so I started to semi-worry. I made a few phone calls back home and got my parents more worried than I was. Turns out I didn't need it to do a future step, so everything is alright. Step 2 (Check)

The third step is to open a german bank account so I can pay rent. I attempted to do this today. I went in with the necessary documents: Passport, the Residency Registration Confirmation (that I received in Step 2) and the proof of acceptance into the university (Zulassungsbeschied). Big words still confuse me; that's why I was very unaware of how to complete all the steps. I went to the Deutsche Bank location nearby, but they were unavailable to help me today, so I set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. Step 3 (In Progress)

The fourth step is to get proof of health insurance. You have to go into an agency and either sign up and pay for insurance or prove you already bought it and get an exemption from the student insurance. I brought in my Passport, Zuassungsbeschied (see step 3) and my insurance card from the US student insurance I already bought. Step 4 (Check)

The fifth step is where everything gets a little bit dicey. You need to have an appointment in the International office of the city in the Foreign Study department. I called in this morning and made my appointment, but the earliest they can see me is on the 14th, a week from today. I took it, but the deadline for Step 6 is the 15th. It's gonna be close. In order to get my Aufenthaltserlaubnis (Student Residence Permit), I have to bring my Passport, 1 passport photo, my Zulassungsbeschied, my health care exemption form and proof of financial payment (I still don't understand what this document is, but I have a week to figure out). Step 6 (In Progress)

The sixth step is to matriculate in the university. It isn't a difficult thing to do, but you need to have everything else first. I need the Zulassungsbeschied, Passport, Proof of Higher Education entrance qualification from my home university (?!?!?), Confirmation that I did Step 5, Application for registration, the health insurance exemption form and 2 passport photos. It's so many things, but I'm getting there. Step 6 (Incomplete)

The seventh step is easier. I have to go into town and purchase my Semesterticket (Public Transportation Ticket for the whole semester). It costs 73 Euros, which is pricey, but you save a TON of money. I'll explain. Every time you take the bus or street car, you have to pay 2,10 Euros. It adds up, I would know.  You can purchase a 24 hour ticket for 5,30 Euros, which is a sweet deal if you ride 3 times, and I normally do. I have blown so much money on transportation because it is so difficult to get the semester ticket. At least I know how to use the ticketing machine now? Step 7 (Incomplete)

The eighth and final step is a formality. I need to give my bank account information from Step 3 to the Student Social Services so they can withdraw rent every month. Step 8 (Incomplete)

I don't know why this has to be so complicated, but it is. My theory is that this bureaucracy is a test, that if you can pass, you can survive. I'm treading water, but I'm almost back on the dock. By the time I finish this test, it will be time for classes to start.

Looking forward to everything the future holds,

Adam

P.S. Don't think EVERYTHING has been stressful, the post about my fun and adventures is coming up next

My Monday Diversions for 10/4

Hi,

I've been in Freiburg for just over 24 hours, and everything is great. I will do another post later about that. But first are my Monday diversions.

I love watching the NFL, but nothing makes watching football as amazing as hearing Gus Johnson, a play-by-play guy for CBS, call the game. During the Broncos 13-7 victory over the Bengals, he makes this call on what was one of the plays of the 2009 NFL season. My new favorite video (WATCH THE OTHER FIRST FOR REFERENCE), that I have watched over and over again, is a reenactment of the now famous call. Basically, I love Gus Johnson.


If you don't know this next game, you probably are stuck in a different universe. Even my mom plays Text Twist!!! I'm sharing this link because it is great for in class gaming and you probably haven't played in a while. It takes me back to my high-school-computer-science-class days.


My song of the week is The Ghost Inside - Broken Bells. I unfortunately can't watch this particular video, because Germany doesn't have the copyrights to watch some music videos. It isn't what I usually listen to, but it is really catchy and enjoyable. And I'm listening to it now.

This "Article" is hilarious and sort of applies to me. It in no way portrays my current life or lifestyle.

That's enough for now. I will do a normal post later today or tomorrow.

Adam

Oktoberfest

While all of my friends back in Austin are freaking out/emailing me/writing so many things on facebook about the UT Shooter, I am in a completely different world.

This different world is the opposite. People are joyous, celebratory even. It is the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest, also known by Germans as Die Wiesn. There are three types of people there, workers, crazy drunks and the people who laugh at the crazy drunks. Max (2), his friends and I were part of the third group. Just seeing people fall over or hearing Brits chant things about rain and beer was absolutely astounding.

We ventured into the main Hacker-Pschorr brewery tent. As soon as we walk in, we can hear thousands of people singing and drinking. I saw various amounts of people standing on tables or drinking beer or making out with others or some combination of all of those. It was too crowded to get a table so after partaking in the culture, we went back outside and found a table in a much less dense area.

We ordered food and drink and just chilled out in the drizzle for a little. By the time I was about to finish, the rain started picking up, so I hurried and we left the tent area.

The outsides of the 'tents' look like this:

Hacker-Pschorr Brewery Tent

Paulaner Brewery Tent

and Spaten Brewery Tent

Oktoberfest features the big 6 breweries from Munich; Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, Spaten, Löwenbräu, Augustiner and Hofbräuhaus. They all have large traditions and huge pieces of the beer market around town and Germany.

Shortly after doing dinner, we walked around the rest of the area, which has many boardwalk-like games and activities. Including.....this!

The Olympia Rings Roller Coaster

I'm not the biggest fan of roller coasters, but I'll still ride them if they look fun. Apparently, this is a famous roller coaster that is always at Oktoberfest. Naturally, I had to ride it. The end result was me breathing heavily for the next 30 minutes so that I didn't puke or pass out. It seemed like a terrible idea at first, but afterward, it was definitely worth it.

Just a few minutes after the roller coaster, we went on the large-but-not-nearly-as-huge-as-the-Texas-State-Fair ferris wheel. Here are some pictures of it and sights from the ride.

After the ferris wheel, we hit up the House of Mirrors. Its pretty much your standard carnival ride. No picture necessary. All the while, it is raining. I know I went on a terrible day, but it was still a blast. It is on the expensive side, so bring cash if you are going to visit.

So that is what I did, meanwhile some friends of mine were on lockdown in buildings around campus. First UT loses a football game, now the tragedy on campus; I definitely picked the right year to go abroad.

I will post again when I get settled in Freiburg on Sunday or Monday.

Have a great weekend everybody,

Adam