London

Hey friends,

PICTURE LINKS AT END OF POST!!!

So...this weekend I went on a little excursion to London! Two of my roommates are studying abroad there right now, and I had two other friends from SNC come visit too. It was a really fun time...here's what we did!

Thursday:

Left Frankfurt at around 18:05...arrived in London at 18:40 (it's not that fast...there's a time change!) Mike and Justin met me at the airport which was pretty cool, and we took the Tube (the metro) for what seemed like hours....but we finally arrived where Mike lived! I believe it's around New Cross? But anyway...it was a pretty cool area of London. We went grocery shopping (where I was fantastically amazed...because London has so many things that Germany doesn't, and it reminded me of the US again and how fat I'm going to get!) Then we watched a movie (I slept through most of it) and went to bed. Mike lives in a flat with about five (?) other British students, and it's a pretty nice place. His flatmates were pretty cool! They make fun of everything he eats though (namely pizza and doughnuts).

Friday: Woke up at like...9:30ish or 10. Chilled around the flat until around 13:30, then we headed to meet the girls (Jenn and Autumn, and a friend of theirs from DePauw) and we headed to an Indian restaurant (which was pretty expensive, but still good). I had the HOTTEST FOOD OF MY LIFE! It was a chicken dish, and it was ridiculous. It was only the medium hotness too! Water could not satisfy my ravenous thirst. The mint gum I chewed afterwards felt spicy. Normally I like spicy food (and I did like it) but like...in Germany, when they say spicy, it's not really spicy at all because Germans don't like spicy things. Well anyway...to satisfy the thirst, we went to a pub until it closed, and went to a bar afterwards (there's a difference!) I got back around 2ish to Justin's flat, and we had pizza. Justin is in a different program than Mike, and he lives in Kensington, which is the really nice part of London. He lives in a flat with 3 other guys, and kind of 4 other girls...it's separate (but equal). Went to bed a little after 3.

Saturday: Super cold day. Woke up around 10:30ish, which seemed way too early. We headed out to our destination for the day...WIMBLEDON! This was super exciting for me because...well...my job is just a little tennis related.....it took us a while to get there but we did! We didn't do the tour (which I didn't want to do because Centre Court was under construction) but we went to the museum and saw a few other things. It was so awesome because I've never even been to a pro tennis match (which I need to do badly) so yeah...
That night we went to a pub type place called Goat Tavern. I guess it's one of the oldest ones in London....so cool! I had an overpriced Shepherd's Pie and some cheese potato wedges, but the atmosphere was pretty sweet. Had a few pints...just a pretty chill night. Went to bed around midnight.

Sunday: Woke up at 6:15, got ready and headed for the Picadilly Line to the airport. Unfortunately, on Sundays the line doesn't start until 7:14 AM. This concerned me because my flight was scheduled to leave at 8:55 AM and it takes about 50 mins to get to the airport...so I had breakfast at Starbucks and got on at 7:14. Well I get checked in and by some miracle of God, I get through security in record time and to the gate listing thing at 8:15. I guess other airports might do it too (none that I have ever been to...) but at Heathrow, they don't post the gate until a few minutes beforehand. Well...it gets to being 8:50 and I'm like, where is our plane? The gate finally popped up and we headed over...they had canceled a flight to Stuttgart earlier because of SNOW! Well ours was about an hour late, but that's ok...I didn't have a certain train to make or anything... after taking another train, I was in Marburg at about 14:30, DEAD TIRED!

Some noticeably different things between London and Germany:

Grocery stores: So much more fattening food/pre-packaged food items in London. And more junk food.

Politeness: Everyone in London says "sorry" and "excuse me" all of the time...it's the same in the US, I just didn't really notice it until being here for about three months, where it's hardly said.

Car direction: Well duh. But I never got used to looking the other direction while crossing the street.

Transport: Taxis in London are cool looking, but more expensive (we didn't take one though...) The metro lines are named after places or people (Piccadilly, District, Circle, Victoria, Bakerloo, etc.) as opposed to colors or numbers here, which I admit is pretty boring...

That's kind of all...it was nice to see some familiar faces, since I haven't really at all since I've been here. I'm looking forward to have some friends coming to Germany to visit possibly within the next few weeks.

Speaking of next few weeks, it's going to be BUSY FOR ME! I have four papers due the week before the last week of class. It will be insane to write all of them by that time, but I'm going to try. If it doesn't work out, I'm going to see if I can get one of them deferred until I come back to the states...it might need to happen. I haven't been procrastinating by any means, profs just don't assign them at the beginning of the semester like they do in the states!

Also speaking of next few weeks...I only have a few weeks left! The official count is 26 days, which is craaaaazy talk. Well...I hope to bear down and work hard hard hard! When I come home, I'm only going to have about 10 days before I go back to school for J-Term. More working! UGHHH

That's all...oh yeah, the picture links I promised. Remember my spiel about being a big boy? Yeah...no comments about certain pictures, that's how people roll here!

London #1

London #2

Cheers!

-D

Breaking the bank!

Ok so last time, I said I would keep track of my expenses for one week and would total them up for you!! So here it is...

Sunday
Greek Restaurant- €14
Total- €14

Monday
Copies- €1
Groceries- €12
Total- €13

Tuesday
Laundry- €2
Cafe Felix- €15
Total- €17

Wednesday
Groceries for shared dinner- €7
Total- €7

Thursday
Doctor Visit (DAK Card deductible)- €10
Käsebrötchen (breakfast)- €0,50
Prescription medication- €5
Groceries for shared dinner-€6
Döner- €3,50
Total- €25

Friday
Cafe Felix- €10
Beer- €3
Total- €13

Saturday
Cafe Felix- €10
Groceries- €6
Total- €16

Week Total: €105
Daily Average: €15

I'd say that this is a pretty typical week....mind you, I don't typically go to Cafe Felix that often, and I usually don't go to the doctor every week....but different expenses occur and you just need to go with it. I just got another doctor's bill in the mail from when I was at the hospital in September...it is about €85! Kind of upsetting because I thought I had that all taken care of already, but looks like I'm going to have to shell out a little bit more to be square with them!

Speaking of paying...I think one thing that I'm going to miss when I go back is the money. When you get here, you're like...wow this money is weird. But honestly, like switching to Greenbacks is going to be tough. First of all....comparatively, all of American paper currency looks the same. When you go through your wallet, you need to fish through your bills to figure out which is worth what. Here, not only is the money different colors to differentiate easily, but they're also different sizes! A €5 bill is much smaller than a €50, and so on. The coins, on the other hand...I think I like the American system better. There are denomination coins of €0,01, €0,02, €0,05, €0,10, €0,20, €0,50, €1, and €2. I kind of like those larger denominational coins, but those 2 centers are just ridiculous....all of the BCA group had so many left over "pennies" and "2 centers" that we played poker and betted with them.....it was pretty fun! I still have a ton left and don't really know what to do with them. Oh well.....

Ok so I officially have less than 6 weeks left in Germany. Eek! I have a lot of stuff I need to do. I'm almost done with my 550 page book for my history/literature class, and I need to do a 10 min presentation about the history of that book in two Wednesdays from now. I have a translation test this Wednesday and I have 4 large research papers that I need to write by the time I leave. I'm not going to be modest, I'm a good research paper writer...but four large papers in a short period of time is going to be hard as hell. Oh well...it's the price you pay for leaving before the semester ends here!

Also, more exciting news...I am taking a J-Term when I get back to SNC! I will probably arrive on campus Jan. 3rdish. I'm taking a special topics marketing class which should prove to be pretty interesting...I'll also be looking for jobs/internships so watch out De Pere/Green Bay, Dave is on his way!!

Best,

Me

7 Weeks??

I just counted, and I can't believe I'll be home in 7 weeks! There is no one emotion to characterize how I feel about that...I'll definitely be happy to see people again and to resume my 'normal' education, but I think that I might face a bit of reverse culture shock...but then again, I think there will be some overcompensation of the things I miss (mainly Pop-Tarts, Wii, and short walks to class) that will allow me to easily adjust.

So.....one nice thing about class here is that I pretty much know my entire homework load for the rest of the semester...unfortunately, it's a LOT because I need to finish about 4 months of school in about 2.5 months, as the German academic year is very different compared to the US. Here's what I have so far...

Innovation Economics: 1 paper (10-12 pages), perhaps a test or two

Post-colonialism: 1 550 page book (half finished...), 1 450 page book, a ten minute presentation, and a research paper of currently unkown length

Translation: Two translations for each class, One translated article, Midterm test, Final Test, Final Project

Nationalism & Ethnic Conflict: Unknown amount of reading (at least 500 pages), 10-15 page research paper

Conflict & Conflict Resolution: 10-12 page research paper (sense a pattern?), Oral Examination

So...lot's to do to keep me busy....lots and lots to do...at least I have four day weekends where I can spend pretty much every waking moment doing homework!!!!

I bought a ticket to London recently to see two of my roommates (Mike O. and Justin K.) I'm pretty excited! I'm going Nov. 20-23rd!

I'm just going to try this out once...at the beginning of my stay here, I tried to keep track of all of my expenses....this did not work, it's simply impossible. But for one week, I'm going to try to work really hard to keep track of what I spend, and what I spend it on, just to see how it turns out!

That's all for now. Tschüss!

Dave

Prague et. al.

It's been awhile again, but like I said, it's been pretty busy here the last few weeks!

First and foremost, I went on an excellent weekend trip to Prague! I went with my friend Zach (another BCA student) and we left on Friday morning, the 17th. We were immediately in turmoil as our first train was late. Our train from Marburg to Frankfurt left at 7:49 and was supposed to arrive at 9:07. Unfortunately, as we made a stop at Giessen (a stop along the way to Frankfurt) we were informed that we had pulled into the wrong Gleis (platform) and that another train needed to be connected. There was a 15 minute delay...normally not a problem, but our train to Dresden was to leave Frankfurt at 9:21. If you do the math...things weren't pretty. The Marburg to Frankfurt trip was not included on our ticket either because, since we are students at Philipps Universität, we get free transportation in the state of Hessen. So....if we didn't make the next train, chances were, since we were on a discounted ticket, that we wouldn't be able to reschedule. We slowly made our way to Frankfurt, and when we arrived at 9:22, we saw that our ICE, a few platforms over, was still there! We sprinted there and hopped aboard the train. Just ten seconds later, the train departed! Soooo lucky...unfortunately, our reserved seats were on the front train...so we had to stand around until the next stop, which was an hour away, but at least we made the train!! That's the end of my train stories, but out of the six trains that we took, four were delayed by more than 15 minutes, and one was delayed by 75 minutes!! European intercontinental transportation is not so impressive...

Got to Prague, met up with my sister, and went to her apartment. It was pretty nice...much better than when I visited her five years ago. We ended up going to a nice Czech pub, followed by going clubbing. I won't go into depth, but it was a fun, late night.

The next day was pretty similar......we did a lot of touring because the weather was really nice. Took some nice pictures....pictures can tell more than words, I've been there before so I don't know what else to say, take a look at the link at the bottom of the e-mail for pictures. Reminder: I'm a big boy. I'm 21, and I don't need any insight about drinking, etc. It was just drinking, I didn't get totaled, I didn't smoke anything (I've never even smoked a cigarette, sheesh...) so just take the pictures for what they're worth and enjoy!

Overall the trip was a lot of fun...once you see Prague once, you've pretty much seen it all...it was really nice to go back though. I got to see two of our foriegn exchange students (Zbynek Kralik and Hana Rohackova) which was really cool. I don't know what else to say....you can ask questions about it if you want, it was just a nice break from Germany and the EURO!

Back to German life...school has officially begun! In fact, the second week of class is completed. Here is my new and improved schedule, which will hopefully NOT CHANGE!

Monday: No class

Tuesday: Innovation Economics- 8:30-10:00

Wednesday: Post-Colonial Perspectives: Zadie Smith's White Teeth and On Beauty- 10:15-11:45
Uebersetzen aus dem Deutschen ins Englische I (German to English Translation I)- 2:00-3:30 (the course is taught by the BCA Director)

Thursday: Nationalism & Ethnic Conflict- 10:15-11:45
Conflict & Conflict Resolution- 4:15-5:45

Friday: No class

Ok, so to you SNC students who have class five times per week, this schedule might look like the best of all time...but here are the problems with it:

1. Mondays/Fridays off creates a lot of free time...good for traveling, bad for staying productive...

2. That 8:30 Econ is killer........not only is it pretty tough material, but it's at 8:30. Luckily I can nap afterwards!

3. Every class except for the translation is offered through the University. Because I'm leaving in December (which is pretty much halfway through the German semester) I need to write an additional Hausarbeit (paper) for each class of about 10-15 pages. So....four huge papers. I'm not excited about that. I will probably lose socialite status and be confined to my room for days/weeks.

4. The two Thursday classes are swarmed by Masters students....the content is pretty tough, especially since I'm not a Peace Studies/Psychology/Sociology major, so it will be pretty tough to do decently in the class...but as I said before, all I need is a passing grade to transfer unweighted credit. If I get credit for all of the classes, I will transfer back 19 credits and come back with more fulfilled requirements than I originally thought, so sweet!!

Next...I think I'm just going to talk about a lot of the differences between Germany and the US...some will be obvious, some not so much...I've been thinking about some of them for a while, so I will share...

1. Restaurants/Bars
Pretty big difference...there are a lot of things that they do here differently than in the US. First of all, when you sit down and take a look at the menu, it is considered rude if you do not have a drink picked out by the time the waiter/waitress comes to the table. In the US, it is perfectly acceptable to order free water. In some places here, especially nicer places, it's kind of looked down upon to order Leitungswasser ('pipe water,' or tap water). In Germany I've only seen one or two instances where the waitstaff has refused to give water. It might be worth it though, seeing as most soft drinks are close to 2 Euros, and there are no free refills. Never. It hurts my heart that I need to drink slowly, but it happens. Another thing that digs at my soul is paying for Ketchup. Even though it's usually relatively cheap (25-50 Euro cents) it's something we usually take for granted in the US. When you are finished with your meal, you place the fork and knife at the three o'clock position on your plate, and the direction of the knife can tell whether you enjoyed the meal or not. The waitstaff will usually say Hat's geschmeckt? (Did it taste good?) The waitstaff will never bring you your bill until you tell them Wir wollen bitte bezahlen (We would like to pay, please) or Können wir bitte bezahlen? (Could we pay, please?) This is the good part...in the US, tips are generally required at a rate of about 15% (at least, it's looked down upon if you don't). Tips aren't required in Germany, and they usually consist of rounding up to the nearest Euro. Not too bad...although I would pay 15% in exchange for free refills/free ketchup!!

2. Drivers

Oh German drivers... it seems that traffic cops do not exist in the city. Cars, especially taxis, will go at great speeds that must be higher than the 'speed limit' (only a guideline)...at least speeds that would definitely be cited in the US. However, I think cars are a lot more conscientious...maybe not beeping-wise, but they are very pedestrian-friendly. About 95% of the time that a car is coming when I want to cross the street, the very first car will stop. In the US, I usually have to wait a few minutes until all of the cars are gone.

3. Students
The students here...hmm... they seem pretty friendly. During class, there is very little notetaking compared to the US. I probably take the most notes out of anyone in any of my classes, and my classes are pretty large. People are more interested in listening to the lectures rather than writing stuff down...don't you people need to study, or do you have minds like steel traps? In general, people try to dress to look older, which isn't always the case as in the US. I'm probably the youngest one living in my dorm, and I definitely look like it. The people in my dorm seem kind of clicquey, but the same is probably the same for foreign students in the US...empathy!!

4. Fast food
This category is separate from restaurants for a reason...in the US, the main fast food is the hamburger. In Germany, it is the Döner Kebap. What is a döner you ask? It is a piece of flatbread rolled up with various vegetables, lamb meat, and a garlic or yogurt sauce. It's fantastic. What is popular within the BCA group is the Döner Box, which is a takeout box filled with fries, lamb meat, and sauce. Delicious.

5. Tax
Mehrwehrsteuer (MWST, or sales tax) is included with every price. It's kind of nice that you know what you're paying before you bring it up to the register. Although it is 19%, it doesn't really seem that bad just because you know you're not paying any extra. I have not been to any store or restaurant that adds additional tax.

I guess that's all I have for now...if I think of more, I'll put them in additional posts.

I got a haircut too. It was about 12,50 Euros, not too bad... my first one ever that the world's best cosmetologist (my mom) has not done! It was kind of weird that my hairdresser did not speak any English, but oh well...I talked her through it and it looks good!

Today is the 26th of October (Daylight Savings time here!). I have been in Marburg for 56 days and I have about 54 days remaining. It's so weird to be past the halfway point, and I'm sure the rest of the time will fly by. One of my plans on the horizon is to visit my roomies in London so...I'm sure you will hear more about that soon!

All of the best,

Dave

PS The Prague picture links...are as follows:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth...

!!!PICTURE LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!!!

Hello folks,

Sorry for the delay...things have been quite busy in my life as of lately! I'll try to play a little bit of catch up...

The beginning of October called for the end of my Sprachkurs...thank goodness. I did quite a bit better on the final compared to the 'midterm' test (which I badly failed). I ended up getting a 2,3 in the class (which is comparable to an American good pass....a high B). The grade doesn't matter though, as long as I get a decent pass (anything above a 4) I will get credits transfer, and the grades won't affect my GPA.

We went on our week trip to Berlin last week! It was awesome! We stayed at a pretty sweet hotel near the center of East Berlin. There were so many cool things to see, I can't even start to name them all! I took lots of pictures, and I'll include links at the end of this post... Some of the main things we did included touring museums (including Checkpoint Charlie and the Pergamon), visiting the Brandenburger Tor (one of the many places we were approached by Romanian beggars... "Speak English??"), Berliner Dom, and we ate at several fantastic restaurants. We saw a theater production which was a pretty cool variety show. I went to a goth type bar/club which was really interesting...I was actually sick most of the week (what, me sick? no...) which was kind of a bummer, but I still managed to have a good time!

So what have I been doing with my life? Well...I've been getting ready for classes (which start for me on Tuesday!) and just trying to organize my life here. Here's what my schedule looks like...

Monday: No class
Tuesday: Innovation Economics (8-10)
Wednesday: Foreign Bodies in Modern England (10-12), German to English Translation I (1:15-2:45)
Thursday: Nationalism & Ethnic Conflict (10-12)
Friday: No class

Yes, that means 4 day weekend every weekend! Hopefully I'll get to do a lot of traveling around Germany, even if it means by myself... please send travel monies my way!! :)

Speaking of travel, one of my friends here and I purchased train tickets to see my sister in Prague this Friday! Only 60 Euros by train with the Europa special...not bad at all!! Hopefully she will have some fun things planned for us... hint hint!

I don't really have much else to say... sometimes pictures say more than words, so here are the links that you've been waiting for!!

-Dave

Just click 'em :)

Marburg Randoms

Mainz

Wiesbaden

Kassel

Berlin 1

Berlin 2

One Month! - A Blog Post Long Overdue

Hello everyone,

I apologize for not updating my blog in ten days....it has been difficult to stay updated with no internet...but as of yesterday, I have it in my dorm!! It's pretty sweet...we have a bandwidth allowance of 8 GB per month (hint hint SNC if you want fast internet.....) so I'm trying to accomplish as much as I can today because my allowance will be reset tomorrow.

So...what's been going on? I got sick again....that figures though; once the weather gets cold, I'm sick. It happens...I don't have the stomach/intestinal sickness that I had before, which is pretty good....but man, when I get sick here, weird stuff happens! Like all day yesterday, I kind of felt like I was going to pass out...just really dizzy and stuff. Then like last night right before I went to bed, I started to get really cold....so I put on a sweatshirt, pulled the blanket over my head, and went to bed. Then...I knew I wasn't sleeping, but I started hallucinating. No, I don't do drugs....I think maybe my body was going into shock or something from being so cold or feverish or something...I saw some people from back home and I was talking to them! I knew I wasn't dreaming too! When I snapped out of it, I was just shaking from being so cold. I put some more clothes on, took some ibuprofen (which probably helped a lot) and went to sleep. This morning I felt pretty good, but still kind of dizzy during the day...hopefully I'm reaching the end of it. I'm sure I will be, because my German insurance activates tomorrow! I went to the bank today to pay my hospital bills....they totaled about 256 Euros (about $361) which I guess isn't that bad, but it came out of my food allowance because I had to pay it through the bank, so....yeah. I'll get the money back, but I have to send my receipts and stuff home. Sweet....

What also activates tomorrow is my Studienausweis! It allows for free travel on public transportation in the state of Hessen. So....I can ride the buses for free (finally) and take trains wherever I want in Hessen (Frankfurt, etc.) Sweet!

I guess I should go through a typical day in the life of me...

8:10- Wake up, shower, eat a cereal bar/drink some tea, music, get stuff ready for class

8:55- Leave for my Sprachkurs (which ends this Thursday)

9:10- Arrive at the Sprachenzentrum....it's actually a decent walk, but I've learned how to book it!

9:15- Class starts....It is, well...I guess I am indifferent.

10:45- Pause. It's a nice half hour break we get during class. Usually go to the bakery and grab breakfast #2: a Käsebrötchen!

11:15- Class again...

12:45- Class is over! I would say about half of the time I go out for lunch....there are places nearby if I want to get Pizza, Döner, or whatever....there is also a really nice Asian cuisine place inside the Lahn Center which I often frequent.

Rest of the day....my days are often quite random. I like to hang out with the other BCA students a lot....they are all really awesome! I spend a lot of time at the castle because well...cool people live there! Maybe do some homework in there....go shopping for food, or just do random stuff around the city.

Night: The best time! I like to stop somewhere for dinner, or have my friends cook for me and chip in, but stopping somewhere for cocktails or a Hefeweizen is my fav.

There it is. My real classes will start in approximately two weeks, and I probably should get a little more ready for signing up, but I pretty much have what I'm going to take ready... it looks like I will probably have a 3 day school week with 4-two hour classes. Grand!

I've been getting a lot of questions about my travel plans. I will for sure be going to Berlin from October 6th through the 10th. I need to make some plans to visit my sister in Prague for a weekend coming up soon...I will also be making a trip to France sometime in December with the BCA'ers. That is all that is certain....I want to make a trip to Madrid to visit some of the SNC peeps, as well as possibly Italy and London but....we'll see how far my bank account gets me!

Pictures....well, I'll see if I can post some pictures that I took on different excursions on here, but I can't guarantee anything...if I can't, I will post a link soon!

Gotta go, I hope all is well with everyone!!

Dave

Dog days of summer...

So...this last week (of summer) has been pretty tough. For those of you who hadn't heard, I ended up spending much of Monday in the hospital. I think I ate something that either I was allergic to, or just didn't cooperate with me, and it caused the worst pains I have ever felt. I don't think it is oncurring...I have felt fine for the rest of the week and haven't taken any drugs. Pretty good...

On Wednesday we went to Wiesbaden with our Sprachkurs groups. It was ok...we toured one of the main government buildings and went around the city for a bit...we didn't really have a lot of time to do what we wanted, but we might go back sometime. I have pictures, but I don't have internet yet in my room so...they will have to wait.

Yesterday we went to Kassel, a very pretty town that has a lot of history. We did some touring but similarly to Wiesbaden, we didn't really have time to do what we wanted...I kind of like just spur of the moment trips where you find out what you are going to do along the way. Pictures also to come...

I don't have anything else to say right now...I'm trying to plan a trip to Prague, but I really want to find a cheap ticket and it's impossible... Yes, I know there's RyanAir, but all of the flights from Frankfurt are booked up for the next two months. I will continue to dig...

Until next time,

Dave

Come on Oma, take a picture...

My second week in Germany is finished....and it is just ridiculous how much fun I'm having. I was really apprehensive about coming because I didn't think that I would have any friends and I wouldn't have fun...that is the total opposite of what's been going on so far!

Yesterday we made a little day trip to Mainz...it is the capital of the neighboring "Bundesland" (state) of Rheinland-Pfalz. It was a great town with several cathedrals and a really cool open air market...I took quite a few pictures, but unfortunately can't upload them yet until I get internet in my room...we then traveled to Bacharach (literally "Shrine of Bacchus," the God of Wine...) so what do you think we did? We went to a really old-fashioned restaurant/wine place where an older German lady served us dinner and wine...and then we did some wine tasting...my parents will be so proud of me! It was so traditional! She wouldn't even allow us to take a picture with her...that's pretty old school. I think we'll go back some day...but we chilled near the Rhein for a bit, and then hit the train and got back to Marburg around 2 in the morning...I love going on trips where I have no idea what I want to do! Germany has a cool thing called the "Schönes Wochenende" Ticket, where you can have a group of five people travel anywhere in Germany as many times as you want during the day for 35 Euros (split 5 ways, 7 euros per person!). It's very sweet, I think I might travel every weekend.

Today we celebrated one of the BCAers birthdays at Paprica (just a cafe located in the Marktplatz) and had lunch...I'm going to go play tennis with him now and tonight well...I don't know what the plans are yet. It's really awesome just having like no plans...if I were at SNC, I would be so stressed and scheduled with everything going on, but now I feel like there's a big weight lifted off of me...hopefully it will remain that way for the rest of the semester!!!

I don't really have anything else to write about right now...bis später!

Dave

10 days down...101 to go!!

This title is in no means a hurry to leave, but more of an excitement about what lies ahead. I've had a pretty much awesome time in Marburg so far, and I'm pretty bummed that I haven't been able to write much about it, but because I don't have internet in my room, I am not online all of the time, thus, it gives me more time to do the things I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise!!

Last week was pretty much just an orientation week...we traveled around the town, we were abmelden (became a member of the city) and got bank accounts, cell phones and so on... as a side trip, we traveled to Frankfurt and just chilled for the day (we went to the Goethe museum and got to see where he actually lived...pretty sweet!) We traveled to Herr Riggs' (the BCA adviser, who has a pretty sweet residence) and he bought us all lunch after a hike. Fun times!

I know some of you have been asking about my birthday...well here it is! The night before (when the actual festivities were, because my birthday fell on a Sunday) we started off by going to a pretty classy bar...the beer was good (which is what I had) but I heard the cocktails fell short of expectations....they were pretty teuer as well. We then went to another bar that had pretty cheap cocktails so....more drinks! There was a round of tequila there... ok then some of us went to one final bar and I was purchased a Mas (liter of beer) and as the clock struck midnight, the waitress brought our table a really good type of Schnapps...and after finishing everything we made our way to the castle and chilled with some pizza and watching a movie before checking out around 6AM. The next day, we went to an Indian restaurant called Tandoori, which is pretty much my favorite type of food, and other than being really pricey (and my stomach being a little bit sick still) it was great!

I know I'm probably going to get in some sort of trouble for writing this entry but...this was my 21st birthday, COME ON PEOPLE, at least I still remember it!!!

I started class at the Sprachzentrum a few days ago...I was placed into class D (A being the beginner, G being the expert) which was pretty surprising because I haven't really taken any German that focused on Grammar since Freshman year of SNC! Our teacher is pretty cool...the first couple of days, everyone had trouble understanding her because she spoke kind of fast at times, but I think it's getting a lot better now and everyone is having a good time.

I think that's all for now....I was going to go to Prague to see my sister tomorrow, but the prices for trains and flights are way too expensive at the moment...so we will have to wait a few weeks!

Hope all is going well in the states, or wherever you are!!

All the best,

Dave

Arrived

Wow...talk about a long day. I left Minneapolis at 6:40 after waking up at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday. I had about a 6 hour layover in Philadelphia, and I met Cyle (another SNC student) about halfway through. Met up with everyone else.....took off a little bit late, but arrived in Frankfurt at about 7 in the morning (about midnight in the US). We met up with the Resident Director, Herr Riggs, who helped us to get situated in our dorms. After that, we had lunch at a nice little cafe, got our banking done, and took off in our separate directions. I spent sooo much time walking today, my back and feet hurt so bad, the only reason I came to this internet cafe is to appease my mom who would probably freak out if I didn't e-mail her! As of now, it's likely that I won't have internet in my room for up to 4 weeks....which totally blows. But....maybe there is a way that we can get it without having a student ID. I have so much to complain about right now, but I need to go unpack and just cool off for a bit before I head to bed, at probably 9:00!!

I miss you all!

Dave

PS Obviously there won't be any pictures until I can get my laptop online!

The Final Countdown....

I've finished playing my last tennis in the US of the year probably...now I need to practice on the red clay. Too bad I threw away my TLC clay court shoes...thanks Randy. Just a heads up, don't eat a ton of Mexican food, play five sets of tennis, then go to Culver's for dessert...just...not so smart...

Here is my agenda for the next few days:

Friday: The grandparents arrive...we will talk about stuff, eat some good food, etc etc.....I'll need to get some last minute essentials, and hopefully I'll be close to being finished packing at least one suitcase. Maybe I'll try to go to bed at a decent time.

Saturday: We will head to the cities...I need to stop at Mall of America to get a coat, some casual shoes, and perhaps some other clothes...go out for one last meal, and hopefully go to bed somewhat early.

Sunday: Early, early, early morning. Way too early. I'll probably have to wake up at some ridiculous time like 3 or 3:30. My flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia leaves at 6 AM. Not happy....I'll arrive in Philly at 10:28 (move up one hour) on which flight I will probably sleep. The group flight to Frankfurt from PA does not leave until 4:15...gotta love the six hour layovers. I'll have my phone/comp with me so hopefully I won't get too bored... I can meet some of the other study abroad people and hopefully just settle down a bit. The overseas flight is going to be long......I'm really hoping I can sleep a few hours on it, because...

Monday: Happy September. I arrive in Frankfurt at 6:10 in the morning after an 8 hour flight, so my internal clock is going to go bonkers. With my luck, my bags will get lost, but if everything is ok, then I'll meet Herr Riggs and head to my pad.

I'm starting to accept that I'm going a little bit more...it's not that I'm not excited, it just doesn't really feel like I'm going yet...normally I anticipate things so much, but for this...I don't know! Once I get there, I'll know I'm there, if that makes sense :)

Tschüss,

--D

Last Days

So... I've been finishing my last few days of summer while the last of my Norb's friends have returned to classes. It feels nice, but there's definitely not much to do around Rice Lake...so I did the next best thing and headed to Minnesota for the night yesterday. I had a lot of fun...I stayed with one of my coworkers (JC) from the summer and went to The Great Minnesota Get-Together (AKA The Minnesota State Fair). That place is ridiculous...you can get pretty much any food you can imagine on a stick. I think one of the most ridiculous things I saw was a Spaghetti and Meatball Dinner on a stick. Chocolate covered bacon was up there too...
We went back to his house and watched a pretty good movie (Juno, if you haven't yet seen it) and checked out semi-early. This morning I left semi-early to go out for coffee with two more of my coworkers (CM and KB). Although the GPS is a good invention, it sometimes does more harm than good, especially in Minneapolis...there is a ridiculous amount of construction, and it probably told me to take a non-existent road or closed ramp up to five times. I made it there and back, and that was probably my last hurrah before I leave.
I feel more and more ready to leave, but it still doesn't quite seem like I'm leaving in under five days. I'm not packed...although I haven't really unpacked so much from TLC. I feel like my German is lacking a bit...I'm trying to take some refresher lessons online, but my fault for not taking a grammar class since spring semester freshman year... I hope that the intensive German class that I'll take when I get there will help a lot!
Here are some things I need to do before I leave:

• Get my racket strung and happified...gotta bring TLC to Germany!
• Start getting a list of things I need...that's right, a list in a list.
• Tell my financial service providers that I am leaving the country, so I don't get accounts frozen. That would be a major bummer.
• Finish collecting addresses so I can send stuff to people. If you want my address, it is:

David Lachman
ESG/Vilmarhaus
Rudolf-Bultmann Str. 4
35039 Marburg
Germany

• Buy some more clothes, including a winter jacket and maybe some shoes...?
• Get my life organized

That's all for now... I'll spend my last few days sleeping in, watching The Office, or maybe organizing my mp3 player, watching the US Open, teaching some tennis, or just chilling. Comment if you'd like, nothing interesting is going on yet though!!

--D

Study Abroad

Since this is for my study abroad experience, I won't be writing the blog until September...so look out for it or subscribe for updates!

-Dave