I got back from dropping Zach off in Frankfurt on Sunday, February 13th. We had spent a whole day in Frankfurt, which was very nice. In the grand scheme of things that I include on my blog, Frankfurt was not worth its own blog post. We went to a soccer match, saw Goethe’s house and ate some crazy good food (Frankfurter Grünesoße).
February 13th left me with exactly one week until Tobias went back to Australia. Being gone for two weeks may have been a little unfair, but unfortunately, there was no other good timing for my previous trip.
On Monday, we played our usual basketball at the university sport hall, but for the last time together. Of course, we whooped the other teams.
On Tuesday, we went to an Eis Hockey game (That’s ice hockey in German). The EHC (That’s Eis Hockey Club) Freiburg Wölves were playing against the Ravensburg Towerstars (yeah, terrible name). The tickets were pretty cheap so we got standing places and enjoyed the game.
Freiburg started out very well, scoring two goals in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. It wouldn’t last long, as Ravensburg knotted it at 2 during the third period. At 2-2, the game went to a rather exciting 5-minute overtime. Neither team managed a goal, so the game was to be decided in the shootout.
Freiburg managed to stop the first shot and score their own, to take the advantage early. After both teams scored in the second of three rounds, Freiburg took the win by stopping the third attempt by Ravensburg.
I have always wanted to see a shootout at a hockey game. It was pretty cool and tense as well.
The weather was starting to get nice. I took to the Fußball pitch outside with some of the other lads. We are finally playing outside again on more than just Sundays. It is still a bit cold, so it still depends on the weather a little bit.
On Thursday (February 17th), I cooked spaghetti (like every single day I have spent in Freiburg), but this time for Tobias and I. He was struggling and rushing to finish his essays to turn in before he left. Because of his work, we weren’t able to complete all the things on his “bucket list.”
Friday was his going away party. He and his roommates made Spätzle from scratch. Spätzle are these typical german noodles that short and thick. I think they are made of wheat, but I’m not too sure. I usually just cook spaghetti. I went over to his place and ate some dinner.
Afterward, I threw down all my Mario Kart skills on his roommates. They have the Wii version, but I still managed to win 98% of the races I drove in. That is quite a small exaggeration. It was more like 100%. But actually, it wasn’t that competitive and we all had a fun time.
We said our goodbyes and he flew home on Sunday. Life in Freiburg is definitely different without my partner in crime. I am taking new applications though. You have to like soccer or basketball, be willing to put up with me, speak German and like to do random things. I haven’t received any applications so far.
Fast forward about a week and I receive a facebook message from someone that has Zach (from all my other posts) as a mutual friend. His name is Seth and he explained how he was in Freiburg studying this semester. He told me he had read a blog post of mine in which I talked about not being involved in enough Jewish “things” in Freiburg. Seth told me about this Jewish family in Freiburg that hosts students for Friday night Shabbat dinner if they are in town.
This sounded awesome, so I emailed the mother and she saved a place for me. I met Seth (for the first time at this point) at the Straßenbahn station close to the house. We walked from there and I met the world famous Uschi Amitai. Apparently, she has been hosting Shabbat dinners for students for many years. She told me a story about two college students in the US meeting for the first time in their lives, but having something already in common; both had eaten Shabbat dinner at Uschi’s house in Freiburg.
I stayed for about 4 hours.
There was so much delicious food and nice people. After dinner, we talked for a long time about random things in English, German and Hebrew (well, I didn’t speak Hebrew). Upon leaving, I said I would try to make it back the next week, but I wasn’t sure if I would be arriving back from Hamburg in time. Uschi told me to tell her by Thursday afternoon. I would try my best.
My time between February 26th and March 1st was spent organizing plans for trips and trying to memorize songs from the band Yuck before I was to see them live in concert in Hamburg.
Thanks for reading my significantly shorter post than the previous few. I am on a train from Vienna (after an extremely fun and cool 4 days with Max 1) to Budapest to meet some friends who are spending their spring break helping the Jewish community.
Bis dann (Until then),
Adam
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