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!