Strasbourg!

I know it's been a few days since I've written, but I have been tired and busy with my family in Freiburg.

Today, we decided to drive over the border to Mexico France. We spent the day in Strasbourg looking through stores and seeing the city center. Since we had rented a car, we got to experience trying to park a car. We ended up driving on the tram tracks and a bicycle lane by accident. We got weird looks, but it was over after a minute.

I got to go the Adidas store and try on my favorite jersey. I think it looks really really nice and I want it so badly. But, I reserved judgment and will just buy a fake one online for a lot cheaper. 80 Euros is just out of my price range.

We ate lunch near the huge cathedral, which played a very impressive chime at 12 noon. I had pizza with salmon and capers on it. so good.

We left around 2 and made our way easily back to Freiburg.

I went to play in a league soccer match at 5. We got beaten 6-2, and I felt like I played okay in the 1st half. 2nd half, I was rubbish. But, for the final time to play on the HUGE, official size goals was a blast. Sunburn on my face will last a few days.

Went to dinner with my parents and brother at a delicious pirate/music/bar themed place. The theme isn't overbearing and the food is delicious. They also serve the best beer in the world on tap, Augustiner. Too bad you can't find it in the US.

Tomorrow is clean up my room and pack day. Can't believe it's here.

AK (3 days left)

Last Week in Freiburg

Sorry about no blog post yesterday. I got back from Berlin pretty late and passed out immediately. Or at least it seemed like that.

I had to wake up this morning at 8:30 to meet with the Hausmeister (person in charge of my building) about my official move out and room inspection. August 1st is my move out date and at 9:30, the room will no longer be mine. So sad.

I didn't go back to sleep like I should have after that, so I just caught up on some YouTube videos and TV shows. Entourage is in its final season and the premiere was last night. I enjoyed it, but it is no where near the quality of previous seasons.

After lunch, I got back to working on my essay. I knocked out a page and a half today, putting me right at 9 pages. If I am just as productive tomorrow and Wednesday, I can be done before my parents arrive on Thursday. That'd be really nice, not to mention, I'd actually get a month of summer vacation. Crazy.

I played soccer this afternoon, but unfortunately not that many people showed up. Later on, when we were playing 2 vs. 2 on the smaller goals, I had some really good moments and scored quite a number of goals. My teammate is a much better player than me, but he is German, so I have a good excuse.

I always manage to eat dinner so late after soccer. Spaghetti at 11:30 was delicious. I have mastered the art.

That's the beginning of the end,

AK (10 days left)

Last Tour of Berlin

I woke up this morning at 4:45 to catch the train at 5:46, like I described yesterday. I made everything on time and had a fairly easy travel.

I decided to book a specific seat on the train, because I know that they get full early in the morning. I ended up getting a good window seat and having to kick some man out of my place. A little rude, but I paid for that seat.

I changed trains once in Hannover and then two hours later I was in Berlin.

I went to the hotel that we are staying at to find my parents and brother. Right as I walked in I saw my mom through the door and she embraced me.10 months is a long time to go without seeing your favorite son, so of course she cried...a lot, well maybe not THAT much. (my brother saw me write this sentence, just pointing out I'm definitely the favorite).

I took my mom to the cool shopping areas and to other places around the city. We don't have all that much time here (leaving tomorrow at 5 PM), so trying to make the most of it.

I ate the most delicious Döner Kebab tonight at Mustafa's, supposedly the best Döner stand in all of Berlin. We had to wait in line nearly 45 minutes, and by the time we got to order, the line was longer than when we had joined it. They add really yummy vegetables that you don't see at other places, plus a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of goat cheese are included. Not to mention, it was also the CHEAPEST Döner I have ever had.

Alright, that's my day, tomorrow night back in Freiburg,

AK (12 days left)

Hitting the Hay

I am going to see my parents and brother tomorrow for the first time in 10 months.

They are in Munich right now and are flying to Berlin tomorrow for the weekend. I've gotta hop on a train at 5:45 tomorrow morning from Freiburg to get there, so I have to go to sleep quite early tonight.

They will be doing some navigating on their own in a foreign country in a foreign language to get to their hotel tomorrow, so hopefully we are able to meet up as planned. Kinda scared about that. I tried to prep them as much as possible for their adventure.

I had a meeting today with my teacher from my poetry course. She said I had been doing a good job on my essay in terms of form and topic, but she didn't actually read it. That makes me a bit queasy. I should be able to finish it all next week after I get back. She gave me some really good ideas for the last few pages, so I will be able to avoid writer's bloc to the finish.

The weather here is like October or November, not what I expected of July. It has rained the last whole week and is barely 60 degrees. Why can't I just have a normal summer? Not really the most conducive weather to playing soccer, but we try anyway.

Gotta sleep now,

AK (13 days left)

Work and Play

Thursdays have a theme each week and that theme is University.

Today I went to school to my classes. My first class of the day was Tendencies of present day german language poetry. I actually really enjoyed the session because the poet we were covering was quite unique and her writings were intricate.

She had this one poem called Jot. Jot in German means the letter J (pronounced yot). Jot in English means to write something down. The other word play in the poem was from the word Just. The english word, Just means exactly or correctly or fair. The poet wrote down something about a "hit to the breast"
which is a common result from the sport of Jousting. See where the Just and Jousting thing play off each other?

Anyway, as I said, I really liked that poet. If you can read German and English, check out the book Falsche Freunde by Uljana Wolf. You won't be disappointed.

During my break between classes, I worked on homework due later in the day. After completing that with some errors, I went to that class, Sentence Semantics, and managed to be extremely bored out of my mind. It was the first time in that class that I didn't understand the concepts. Ruh Roh.

I went home and chilled for a bit until it was time to hit the field. A few friends had planned on playing soccer today, so I joined in. We only managed to get 6 people total, so we only played on the small goals with no goalies, but it was nonetheless fun. Very tiring too, I would say.

I scored a few nice goals, but those don't count as actual game goals, because we play on just a small portion of the whole place and with tiny nets. I was quite dead after.

Planning to go see my parents and brother in Berlin during the weekend. I think I am at a good place in my essay where I can take two days off. We'll see how that goes.

Bye for now,

AK (14 days left)

Good Hair Day

I woke up this morning and got ready for the rest of the day.

After combing my hair, I discovered I was having one of the best hair days of my life. Maybe the best ever. (No pictures were taken of course),

Besides that miracle, today was another slow day. I worked on some stuff for a few hours, but I have a lot more to do before class at 4 PM tomorrow.

I really don't have anything more to say about today than it rained and I watched more soccer on TV. FC Bayern won the meaningless 3rd place game of the LigaTotal Cup in penalty kicks. That was rather underwhelming.

Time to sleep,

AK (15 days left)

Productivity Prevails!

Hey y'all,

Been working most of the day on my paper. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but I got a page and a half done today. Progress is good. I am on my 8th page of 12. 2/3 the way done is a lot better than just a few weeks ago when I had barely started. Maybe I'll make it to Berlin to see my parents.

Today was one of the first preseason soccer tournaments for the German club teams, called the LigaTotal Cup. FC Bayern, my favorite team ever, lost 2-1 to Hamburg SV. Not the most amazing feeling in the world, but at least it's just a preseason game.

I made more rice with curry today, but this time I added some marinated chicken. Quite delicious, but I made too too much rice.

The only other exciting thing in the world today was the release of Rebecca Black's new single and video, called My Moment. I actually enjoyed the song, believe it or not, but the video was quite a snoozefest. At the very least, it wasn't funny, which is what everyone was expecting.

Tomorrow, I gotta work on some other homework and continue on the paper too. Doesn't look so bright, not to mention the weather is supposed to suck again. Rain rain go away....

It is unbelievable that I am moving out of my apartment in 2 weeks. It is gonna be terrible to clean my room up and pack all of my stuff up. Maybe impossible.

But for now,

AK (16 days left)

2:45 IN THE PM

After yesterday's shenanigans, I was dead.

Literally dead.

I went to bed at 2:30 in the morning, just about after writing my post from yesterday and I managed to wake up this "morning" at 2:45 PM.

I created a new system to help me write my essay. I write 100 words, then take a 15-30 minute break (hey, I earned it), then repeat. Today was pretty productive. I didn't meet my goal of 500 words, but 300 isn't so bad. I got rudely interrupted during my work by people playing soccer outside. I just had to join in.

Too bad I played terribly. The weather was so nice, but my feet just didn't want to kick the ball anywhere it was supposed to go.

After those 2 hours, I made dinner, which consisted of rice, onion, bell pepper, curry powder and salt. I think I actually did quite a good job making it. Pretty surprising for a first try and first time.

My parents and brother arrived yesterday in Germany, then traveled to Italy for a week-long vacation on Lake Garda and Verona. I would be joining them if not for this essay and class. I hope to join them in Berlin next week if I can finish everything by then. It could happen if I write a page a day or so.

Imma run along now. It's nearing that 2:30 time again so that means bed.

AK (17 days left)

Frankfurt with Olga

Hi,

Today, I woke up really early (6:30!!!) and hopped on a train to Frankfurt.

As you may or may not know, there was this sporting event going on in Frankfurt this evening. The US was playing in it and so was my future wife, Hope Solo. The women's world cup came to an end with the US being defeated in penalty kicks. But more on that later....

I met Olga for the first time in London when I was traveling with my friend Tony in June. They knew each other from some summer program in middle/high school. I decided it'd be cool if we hung out and maybe try to buy tickets to the World Cup final match.

After we met up in the train station, we went over to the Palmengarten, a huge botanical garden in North-Central Frankfurt. It was quite cool with plants from all over the world, plus large ponds with the cutest baby ducks ever! Olga really wanted to kidnap one, but we didn't have any bread to use as a lure.

From there, we went over to the Römer Platz and looked at a few gift shops for touristy items. She got a shirt for her dad, and I found nothing worthwhile there.

We ventured down by the Main river to see if anything cool was going on, and there happened to be food tents and a stage set up for entertainment to World Cup visitors. We sat down and grabbed something to drink and chatted. She attempted to teach me something about what she is doing in her Neuroscience lab in Frankfurt, but in the end, I really didn't catch much. Complicated stuff if you ask me.

Next was Sachsenhausen, one of my favorite parts of town. I mentioned the Frankfurter grüne Soße in the past, and I really wanted to have more tonight. I took us to the same place that Zach and I ate at in February and it was delicious.

We then hopped on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn in an attempt to score tickets to the match. We get to the packed area around the stadium and there were more people looking for tickets than people selling them. WAY MORE. We heard some people being quote 200 Euros a ticket, so we decided to pass and just ended up documenting that we stood outside of where the match was going on.

We went back to the train station and watched the first half at an Irish Pub across the street until I had to catch a train at 10 PM tonight. I didn't get to watch the 2nd half unfortunately, which turned out to be some of the most amazing soccer this year. Congrats to Japan on winning the World Cup too!

I got home at about 1 AM after a long long long day. Time to pass out.

AK (17 days left)

Lazy Saturday

I woke up around 12:30 to hear Max 1 rummaging through his stuff. He was packing. The first thing he says to me is "I need to leave in 20 minutes." Semi-surprised, I woke up fully and helped him get everything together.

He is on his way to Weimar today to visit a friend, but will be traveling to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki before going back to Munich at the beginning of August. I am damn jealous.

I ate leftovers from the spaghetti I made two days ago, then proceeded to waste my entire day on nothing. I formalized my plans to go to Frankfurt tomorrow, maybe to see the Women's World Cup final, but probably just to hang out with a friend.

I messed around on Photoshop today, making a few cool pictures look even cooler. Here is an example:

Swagger Pose

Red Swagger

Radioactive Swagger

I should really get back to my essay, don't you think? Anyway, gotta wake up in a few hours to make the train to Frankfurt.

AK (18 days left)

Mini Golf and More

It's been quite a long day. Very exhausted.

Max 1 and I woke up relatively late for a normal human being, normal for us. We grabbed some lunch at a Turkish restaurant. He is a vegetarian and I knew they would have something perfect for him there.

Once we were completely full, we went up to the Schlossberger Turm (Schlossberg Tower) to get a view of the whole city. I didn't take any pics today because I had been there a ton of times already. On the way down, we saw a mini golf course and decided to play a round.

After back and forth, Max 1 and I were pretty close in score. Leading up to the last 5 holes, he had a 4 stroke lead on me, but after I hit 2 hole-in-ones in a row, I managed to steal back the lead. It was close until the end, but I came up victorious with a 63 to 69 stroke win.

After we walked around the city center a bit more, we borrowed a bicycle from Richard, my Australian roommate who's birthday party I mentioned last week. The weather was absolutely perfect for a ride, so we went to down to Vauban, the really green, environmental part of town.

I showed him the hippie village, which is literally a ton of trucks and makeshift homes that have been claimed by squatters. Max 1 talked with this one hippie/Marxist and took a lot of photos of Vauban. He said that if he lived in Freiburg someday, it would definitely be in Vauban. (I think he really just wants to be a hippie)

After that, we still had Richard's bike (thanks Richard, if you ever decide to read this) and wanted to check out some cooler places. We road down the river side for quite a bit to the east. The ride was absolutely beautiful and the ride itself was pretty cool. There are a nice amount of hills and slopes for going fast.

When we got back to Händelstrasse, where I live, I saw a bunch of friends playing some Fußball (soccer) so I went downstairs for an hour to play. It wasn't a full game, but I enjoyed playing with these specific people, since we are all friends and can mess around and joke with each other. If someone messes up during a play, we didn't make a fuss about it. Definitely worth playing even after all the bike riding plus soreness from yesterday's soccer game.

Alright, enough for now. Max 1 is planning on leaving tomorrow afternoon, so maybe it will return to a normal weekend for me. Although, I am thinking about going to Frankfurt on Sunday for the Women's World Cup final between USA and Japan. If I can get tickets for a reasonable price, I may go to the game. If not, I have a back up plan to visit a friend who is working in a lab there.

AK (19 days left)

Surprise, I'm Here!!!

Hey,

I had my presentation today in class and it went really well. I found out a lot of good things in class from the other students that I can use in my paper. That was really the goal of the presentation anyway, at least what I had discussed with the grad student who leads the class.

I went back to my apartment later and caught up on some YouTube vids, like I do everyday. I finished them and decided to take a nap between then and my next class. As soon as I set my alarm, I get a text message and a loud awakening. Max 1 texts me, "I'm Here"

I was like, say whaaaaat! I was expecting him to come later in the afternoon, and since we hadn't really discussed when he was coming, there were a lot of unknowns about the situation. I called him and gave him directions to the nearest tram stop to my place and met him there about 20 minutes later.

After making lunch, I decided not to go to my class later in the day so I could play host a little bit. I took him around the city and we grabbed a coffee at a cafe near the river. Nice to catch up since I hadn't seen him since March when I went to Vienna.

After me playing soccer and him taking a nice walk to the city, I made the most delicious spaghetti ever created and we ate way too much. Not too sure what we will do tomorrow, but the weather should be a little better than today.

That was my day.

AK (20 days left)

Presentation tomorrow

Hey,

It's been a pretty boring day. I have a presentation tomorrow about a certain poem by this crazy poet, named Thomas Kling, that I have been reading and studying for the past 8 weeks. Some of his poems make 0 sense and somehow I am writing a 12-15 page paper on them. Yay me!

I've gotta wake up in like 6 hours and give this talk, plus I really have nothing else to say. It rained again today, but no crazy thunder and lightning. I really want to get back on the soccer pitch, but I just can't seem to find the time, not to mention the weather.

Long-aforementioned Max 1 is coming to visit me for a few days starting tomorrow evening as I said yesterday. Definitely excited about that, but I need to find a few things for us to do/ways to chill while he is here.

I appreciate all of my readership. I have gotten some great feedback about my new set of posts and I will continue this until I leave Freiburg. I promise my next few posts will be more interesting than today's. But until then....

Peace out,

AK (21 days left)

She's Thunderstorms

So the title of this post is just a title of the first song on the new Arctic Monkeys album, Suck It and See, but there is a reason.

Aliens have invaded Freiburg! But not really. For a while now, it sure has seemed like it though. The past 3 hours have been filled with crazy lightning strikes and a fury of thunder. The wind and rain make it sound like I live in a wind tunnel they use to test a car's aerodynamics.

This is my attempt to show you what has been going on. Tonight was definitely one of the largest storms I have ever seen. The lightning bolts are huge and light up the sky for seconds upon seconds at a time. It's a good thing something interesting happened tonight because today was just one of those boring old days of working.

Here is a longer video I uploaded to YouTube: Freiburg Lightning Storm

I have a presentation on Thursday, then Max 1 is coming to visit during the weekend. I'm definitely going to make him read and edit my paper while he is here

AK (22 days left)

TORRRRR!!!! (GOOOAAAALLLL)

Hi again,

The weather has never been nicer. 80s with tons of sun!

I heard there was going to be a pick-up soccer game today because the weather was too good not to play, but I kept telling people I couldn't play because I have to write my paper.

By 8 PM, I couldn't take it any longer. You can hear the people playing, kicking the ball and having fun from my window. I put on my gear and headed out to the pitch. I was ready to go

They had been playing for a little while, so some of the players were already tired. A few wanted to stay back and play goalie to catch their breath. I took off my gloves and went on attack. For all 9 months of living here, I have played goalie all but a few times. I was rearing to go and score a goal.

And I did! TORRRRRRRRRR!!! (that means goal in German). I got a great pass from a teammate and completed an easy finish into the back of the net. It was especially awesome since I had never scored on the big (sorta big, but nowhere near regulation size) goal in a game. But that wasn't even my top highlight of the evening.

Late in the game, the ball popped up high in the air and I settled it in one bounce. I was on the left side, probably a good 15 yards away from the goal. I manage to get by the defender who was trying to steal the ball from behind as I settled it. I then headed towards the byline and crossed the ball through the legs of another defender. A teammate was on the receiving end and forcefully struck the ball top shelf. Highlight of my life....

I'm up pretty late now. It's 1:25 AM, normal for me though. Still working on my paper for the day, since I spent 2 hours of prime working time playing footy.

Til next time,

AK (23 days left)

Sunday, Rainy Sunday

Sunday was supposed to be my productive day, and for the most part it actually was.

My goal was to write 3 or 4 pages toward my paper, but I was only able to manage 1. I wouldn't call the day a failure though, because it was the most I've written on any single day thus far.

Today was an interesting day in sports too. At 2 PM, I turned on the Formula 1 English Grand Prix to see my favorite driver, Sebastian Vettel come in 2nd place. Overall, a pretty good day to that point.

After getting some work done, I caught the very very end of the US-Brazil Women's World Cup match. The US leveled the match at 2 a piece in the 120 +2 minute mark. The goal was an amazing cross from 30 yards out for a Abby Wambach header. The game went to penalty kicks, which is always the most exciting and intense thing in all of soccer.

The first taker for the US had her shot saved. I was actually crushed, knowing that was the end of the US at the World Cup. BUT! The referee whistled that the goalie had come off her line too soon and therefore the kick must be retaken. The US then proceeded to make all 5 of their chances. Brazil had great penalty takers too, but the third shot was saved beautifully by a diving Hope Solo. The US had one of the greatest last minutes in all of sports.

Later on after dinner, I went over to my English friend, Joe, to watch Top Gear live on BBC 2. It was a pretty good episode, but especially awesome because they had a whole segment where they interviewed none other than, SEBASTIAN VETTEL!!! Great way to spend the day.

I'm done now. Trying to put a few words together on my essay before I call it quits for the night.

AK (24 days left)

Party Party Party

Some people say that studying abroad is about partying in a different country. And after the past few hours, I can somewhat confirm that.

I'm not the biggest party-goer in the world, but June-July is the "Sommerfest" schedule. All of the main student living places have their own summer festivals with live music, DJs, soccer tournaments and more.

I live in the Händel-Studentwohnheim, and we had our Sommerfest two weekends ago, but I missed it because I was in Berlin with a friend. Last weekend was the StuSie (Studenten Siedlung (Student Settlement)) Sommerfest. The party was really fun and I got to meet some cool people throughout the day.

Today was the last of the three, Vauban Sommerfest. Vauban is a part of town notorious for their hippie lifestyle and crazy environmental habits. It's the place all the REALLY environmentally friendly people live. Every building has solar panels on the roof and was built to some high "green" standards.

Anyway, I played in the 3 on 3 soccer tournament this afternoon. It was pretty fun, but unfortunately, we didn't perform so well. The team I was on drew 2 games and lost 2, so we didn't move on to the semi-finals. Still had a good time and didn't get all cut up by the gravel like a teammate of mine did.

Just now was the party. I was there for a few hours and had a good time. I hung out with lots of people and just chilled. A pretty good time until it started raining. It's pretty insane how at these big summer parties you run into every single person you have met in Freiburg from every little activity you ever participated in. Mindblowing.

That's all. Tomorrow gotta hit the books and write some pages for my paper. I'm thinking I should write 3-4 pages. That would be awesome!

AK (25 days left)

Richard's Birthday!

Hi again,

I'm staying true to my word with posts everyday.

One of my flatmates, Richard from Australia, is having a birthday party in our apartment as I type. I'm taking a small break from the wine and the delicious guacamole I made to write this.

Richard is the only other flatmate of mine who is an exchange student, so we relate to each other pretty well in our situations. He is much more outgoing than I am, but it doesn't stop us from being friends. We only talk in German, which has been really healthy for the development of my german. Maybe his too.

He organized a shindig at our place, as I mentioned, and made so many delicious things to eat. He also has such a wide and diverse group of friends. Quite impressive.

This afternoon, I went searching for the best avocados in all of Freiburg to make the perfect guacamole for the party tonight. I went to 8 grocery stores all around the city to hunt them down. Unfortunately, I had to settle at the end of my adventure for some only decent ones. Didn't matter, I got a ton of exercise riding my bike around town and the guacamole turned out excellent! I'll have to make it for people when I get home.

Anyway, gotta get down on Friday (thanks Rebecca Black),

AK (26 days left)

Thursday = Class

Hi again,

I may have mentioned in the past few days that I only have classes one day a week. That day is Thursday. Today is Thursday. I am currently in between class times, so I get to take a little nap or watch YouTube vids. In 40 minutes, I gotta leave and go to my final session of the day, Satzsemantik (Sentence Semantics). I find it somewhat interesting, but sometimes the professor doesn't engage the class. I generally enjoy it though.

My first class of the day was Tendencies of present day german-language poetry. I wouldn't say I generally enjoy sitting in a dark room for an hour and a half, but today's class was kind of interesting. The poet we were covering has a really unorthodox style when she reads her own poetry. In the recordings we listened to, she used strange tones and similarly spelled/sounding words to confuse the audience. Her allusions to Greek Mythology were interesting too.

I grabbed lunch afterward in the cafeteria with two Swedish friends. Scandinavians are by far the coolest people ever. I never described my love for Denmark on here, but one of the best weeks I had this entire year was my week in Esbjerg, DK. I have some Finnish friends, too. I just need to meet some Norwegians now (just kidding, Norwegians are terrible people (kidding again)).

After class, I need to do a little bit of essay writing. The weather will probably determine that, since if it isn't raining, I'm going to be obligated to playing some soccer outside (like everyday). I should probably still try to get in 100 to 200 words to call today productive.

That's it for now. I'm planning my first road trip right now. I'll report on that once the details get more concrete.

Later,

AK (27 days left)

Swiss Evening

Hello!

I just got back from office hours with my teacher about my paper and presentation (next week) for class. I think it went pretty well, and now I have to prepare for class tomorrow. I have done about 500 words on my essay of the 3000 needed, so I am slowly but surely getting there. We talked about deadline for turning it in and decided there is no actual hard deadline for me. My two goals are to get it in before I leave Germany or before I leave Houston for Orlando on August 8th or 9th.

My last month in Europe is about trying new things and doing new things (and writing my paper). Last night, I went to a "Swiss Dinner" that some friends of mine organized. What do the Swiss make best? Fondue!!! I tried cheese fondue for the first time ever and loved it. Better to eat it made by actual Swiss people than by an American restaurant. (Note: Fondue is a winter food, so it was strange to make it in the middle of the summer, but nonetheless was it delicious.)

There were around 20 people there and I think each person brought at least a bottle of wine. Maybe we all thought it was some sort of house gift, but we managed to down a lot of them. They say that white wine goes well with Fondue. We were just putting that to the test. The bicycle ride home wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Gotta stop procrastinating for now. Hope this new blog writing that I'm doing is fun and easy to read. Let me know if I should change my style

AK (28 days left)

Happy 5th of July....

No parades today. No fireworks. Everyone back to their jobs.

I took my "holiday" yesterday and only managed to write about 150 words on my paper. Today is much more productive, yet maybe a little off topic in my writing. I might get it proofread tomorrow during office hours.

Besides that, I have been taking advantage of some nice weather the past few days. I played some fußball (soccer) the last 2 afternoons and took a small stroll through the city yesterday.

I just got the new Google+ social network, so I have been wasting a lot of my "valuable" time messing around with that. Uploaded some pictures from my trip to London on there for my circles to see. If you don't know what that means, sign up for Google+. I recommend it so far

My last thing of note is my new eating addiction. I was told by a roommate that I don't eat enough vegetables, so I set out to prove him wrong by making and eating a salad for dinner. I mixed some lettuce with diced tomatoes and slices of freshly cut Mozzarella cheese. I added olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil leaves and salt/pepper for taste. I proceeded to eat that for dinner for 4 straight days.

Anyway, back to my paper

AK (29 days left)

ONE MONTH REMAINING

Hi,

I am only in Freiburg for one more month. Absolutely insane. I can't believe anything anymore.

The worst part right now is that I am slightly double homesick. Has that ever happened to anyone else? I want to go home sometimes, but I don't actually want to be there. I want to leave Freiburg sometimes, but I don't actually want to leave. It's a strange sensation that quite frankly, makes no sense at all. I guess I want to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

So what am I doing in my last month here? Writing my essay. That's my goal. I have a 12-15 page paper to write before I leave in 30 days. I started yesterday, only 11-14 pages to go! It's a slow process, but gotta work hard now that time is up.

I am stealing an idea from a newly-formed friend of mine who has her own blog. I am going to post small tiny things multiple times a week up until I leave.

In that case, today is July 4th!!! U S A! U S A!
To celebrate, I ate lunch at Subway. Yummy.

Trying to keep it short and sweet

AK (30 days left)