The Mission

Hey everyone,

My name is Adam Kaiser and I'm from Houston, TX. I'm a junior at The University of Texas at Austin and am majoring in Economics and German. With the number of hours I earned through AP testing, I have the ability to travel abroad to study in Freiburg, Germany for the entire 2010-11 Academic Year. I am starting this blog for my people in the US to keep track of my adventures and travels.

Freiburg is in the Southwestern region of Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The population is around 200,000 and the city is located on the western edge of the Black Forest. The only famous person I can think of that lives there is the German National Soccer team's head coach Joachim Löw. Anyway, I am convinced that I chose the best place to study for the year.

Speaking of which, I am taking off for Germany on September 20, 2010 with the intention to return to Texas on August 1, 2011. While that is a huge chunk of time, I am aware that once I get there it will fly by me. It is so weird to think that in just 3 weeks I will be away from my family and friends from school for over 10 months (Come visit me, you always have a place to stay).

A little more about me: I am 20 years old (I turn 21 on May 22nd) and am in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. I dedicate a ton of my time to the organization and to my brothers. I also LOVE sports. I watch anything that displays some sort of competition, whether it is soccer, basketball, football, hockey, baseball, golf, NASCAR, horse racing, tennis, poker, competitive eating, cricket, but mostly soccer. One major reason I am studying abroad is to attend my favorite soccer team's matches. The club is called FC Bayern München and has some of my favorite players (Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger). Luckily, Freiburg has a club in the top German flight or Bundesliga, so I will be able to attend matches at the Badenova Stadion. SC Freiburg isn't that great of a team, but they still play recognizable teams. Watching games will be very worthwhile.

Besides being obsessed with sports and German, I love hanging out with friends and taking photos of landscapes. I have an old Canon SD 300 from 2005. Its old, got 4 Megapixels and does the trick, but somehow I feel like I will be getting a new one between now and when I fly out there. My favorite pictures that I've taken are from my time spent in Munich. I will go over that stuff another time.

Actually, I'm gonna call it a night and I'll continue in the next few days since it is about to be 3 AM.

Goodnight,
Adam