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)