Munich, Hamburg, Schloß

A lot has happened since I had did this. I will get some boring stuff out of the way. We started our university classes. My two are German-French Relations from the 19th and 20th century and Intro to Near and Middle East Politics since 1800. We have about 14 hours of class a week now. Each actual lecture meets once a week for 2 hours, but we have 4 hours of special tutorial sessions per class, then a 2 hour conversation course. My tutors are both very good. I talk a lot in them, but especially in the German-French relations. Its nice because I took both my classes in German, but the tutors teach us in English, so all the stuff I got get (most of it) it retaught to us. I also only have class Tuesday-Thursday, and Thursday is only from 9-10 am.

Ok, now fun stuff. Lets see... the weekend after I went exploring with Fritz I went to Munich. This was just a fun trip with just 6 of us. Jack, Megan, Steph, Desa, and Mark all went with me. During this time of year Munich has Frühlingsfest (Spring Festival). Its like Oktoberfest, but mostly Germans instead of tourists. It was most excellent. We saw guys like the guy up there ^ a lot. I mean, look at the Scchnurrbart (mustache, but I really like that word).

We explored the city and enjoyed the weather for a while, then I decided I wanted to go to a Bayern Munich game. I eventually made my way there after leaving everyone else in this really nice park, It was totally sold out, but I made it in during halftime. I got a free flag and found my spot... right behind the goal where they were shooting for the second half! They played Hannover 96, and killed them 7-0. I saw four of them, and the crowd loved it. Never have I seen so much energy. There were multiple 69,000 person waves, and near the end the Hannover fans were leaving, and the stadium went quite, then the Bayern fans erupted in a chant that just went Auf Wiedersehen, Auf Wiedersehen (basically good-bye). It was funny. But possibly my favorite part of this whole trip was at the end when the played the Bayern theme song, which I happen to know. So I got to sing it with a full stadium of people. Awesome. We then went to a big beer hall. There was a corner of about 15 guys decked out in Lederhosen singing and yelling for over 3 hours, also cool.

The next morning we woke up early and went to Neuschwanstein. Well, Mark slept in and headed back, Jack and Megan missed their alarms, so were late, so Desa, Steph and I went to Neuschwanstein. The castle was just like I remembered it... beautiful. We went on the English tour, and some lady started talking to me. Because I didn't know her I started speaking German, because thats my normal response, then she looked at me funny and I realized what I had done. Desa and I then embarked on the 10 hour train ride back, and the rest stayed longer.

During the week we went to Sudhaus to watch the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals. Bayern vs Lyon, a French team. I think we had a campfire too at some point. The next weekend (last weekend) was also amazing. Our program took us to Hamburg. We got there, and one guy in our group worked there for a few months and knew a few people, so about 7 of us met up with him, and explored Hamburg for a while. We got back to our hostel at 615 am. Everyone else went to bed, but Joe Omaha and I realized breakfast was in 45 min, so we sat on the stairs and waited. I then slept for an hour, got up and did a city tour, took another one hour nap in the park, played Frisbee, then prepared for the night.

We went out again that night. By about 430 everyone had turned in for the night, but despite lack of sleep I was just not tired. I remembered that at 5 am the fish market opened, and I felt like bartering. So I went there, got a shirt for half price and watched the sun come up over the harbor. I then went back and stayed awake for breakfast, after having a nice chat with a hobo. I slept for 2 hours, then we got on the bus and went back. I saw every sunrise and sun set from Friday till past midnight on Sunday, with about 5 hours of sleep.

This week we watched part two of Bayern vs. Lyon, as the easily won to go to the final for the first time since 2001. Wednesday I found the university fencing club. I have not been able to really go to the city club, because of timing, but this one is a lot of fun. I am now 6-3 against Germany. Thursday was legendary in my mind though. We had a group of about 25 or so, went up to the castle and had a grill-out. Then we hung out for a while. Just sitting on some 700 year old walls having a good time, overlooking a beautiful city is so relaxing. I didn't ever want to leave, but I have to because of a 730 train this morning.

Where is Lance now... Bonn. Back in high school Waukee had some German exchange students that I met. The one that lived with Amanda for 3 weeks or so is Marijke. I recently got into contact with her again and am in the city where she studies. She picked me up from the train station and I saw her instantly before the train even stopped. She showed me her place quick and we walked around part of the city for a bit, the she went to class. When she is done we are going to her home town, Dortmund. I was exploring the city, when my bag got heavy, and thats where I am now. More later.

Staches, Berlin, Kelkheim

Hello everyone. My what a two weeks it has been. Tuesday night, March 30th was a great day. That was the mustache party. Over there on the left are the brave few that made it through the month, Thomas, Lee, Joe Canada, Jonathan, Steve, and me, granted Jonathan had about 7 hairs.

The student bar was closed that night because of the first leg of Champions League, Bayern Munich vs Manchester United, so we ended up in a parking garage. I have some battery powered speakers, and we, like Germans, made party. We put a sign on the door and told people where to go. Lots of random people showed up and it was really fun.

Thursday was the real fun though. We left about for Berlin about 2 and got there about 9ish. Our hostel was in a really weird part of town. It was not in a ghetto, but there was part of what looked like a building that was still partially bombed, and it had hobos everywhere. Right up the street was one of the largest indoor stages in the world, if I listened correctly. We were about 2 blocks away from the river Spree,a fairly large one that runs through Berlin.

Friday morning was a really cool city tour given by Klaas, our instructor for our culture course these past six weeks. We also went to the Stasi Museum, the East Germany state security. They were... very intense. One trick they did was make people sit on a special chair that had a removable seat cover. They had to sit on their hands and they would sweat into the cover. They Stasi would then take the seat cover and put it in glass containers, that way they would have scents on file for certain people.

Desa and me with the bug TV tower ---->

Someone knew a few people from Berlin, so we ended up getting on a train and going to a completely different part of town, and its Berlin, so there is a lot of town. We got off at one stop and Joe Omaha and I started walking. We were about a half block out of the train station when we realized everyone was following us and we had no clue where we were going. We realized we were told the wring stop, so had to get back on the train anyway. We finally ended up at a Singaporeeze, Singaporian... a restaurant where they serve food from Singapore. Then we went back to our hostel and went to the Brandenburg Gate around midnight. Its gigantic, and looks even bigger at night all lit up.

Saturday was really cool, for me anyway, as I went to four museums. Brady, Kyle, Desa, and I set off around 10 in the morning and went to Museum Island. The Spree splits in the middle of town, and on that island there are 5 museums that you can go to. We are students, so we payed 7 Euros for a day ticket. The first was the Bode Museum. The building was really cool and inside were a lot of cool statues and figures. The next was awesome. The Pergamon. It was named after an old Greek town in modern day Turkey. The museum has an old temple to the Greek Gods, and there is a huge mural about the gods battling the giants. The temple steps and part of the walls rebuilt in this museum. This also a huge gate from an old town in Turkey and some really cool walls... I could go on for a while.

<----Part of an old market gate moved to Berlin.

The third was the Old National Art Gallery. It had some art even I enjoyed looking at, though I still think Monet is overrated. The last one just Desa and I went to, the New Museum. It had lots of old Egyptian stuff and old Germanic trive stuff. Weapons, tools, and a bust of Nefertiti that most people have probably seen pictures of, as its featured in any presentation on Egyptian stuff. I didn't realize it till I saw it how much its used.

After that we ended up getting to the hostel and just walking past it for 20 minutes or so till we found a Döner shop that looked good. And good it was. It was life-changing. Then we did the only thing I wanted to do that whole day, got on the Ring. Its a train circuit that goes around Berlin. I wanted to see the coty from the ring at night. You can tell in parts where the West and the East parts of the city are different and all kinds of cool stuff.

Sunday I went to a huge flea market about a 20 minute walk from the hostel, and after that went to an old Nazi bunker. The top floor is now a haunted house, the middle floor is an exhibit on some old medical techniques and the bottom floor is about the bunker, including stuff left in it after the soldiers fled. The thing that made me think the most was a large seashell that got left behind.

Our professor looking at comic books, he bought a batman one.---->

Monday was our wonderful bus ride back. We had a huge test on Tuesday, part one of two that determined if we passed the language course and got 6 credits. Some people studied on the bus that weekend or in the hostel. Like normal I told myself I would study on the way there, put it off saying I would study in the hostel. I put that off to study on the bus ride back. I then told myself I would study in my room. After some getting back I decided to wing it. We took the test and had to wait till Friday for results.

Our class had about 18 people, including about half from countries not the US, so when our teacher said we did poorly on the test and 5 failed I was a bit nervous. The first past was three parts... if that makes any sense, and you had to pass each part with above a 50 and average a 60 total. Which sounds easy, but they graded these classes really hard. I ended up passing with a bit over 1 percent to spare. Other people passed with less room. I think the highest was 68%, so I will take me 61 something percent. Then we had the speaking test, which I got 84 on. The teacher said I was terrible at first, but once I forgot I was speaking German, I was excellent.

And finally this weekend. Fritz and I caught a morning train to Frankfurt. After staying up till 3 with Joe Omaha just chillin, that 10 train seemed kinda early. We then caught another train to Fritz's hometown of Kelkheim. We got there and he showed me some of his old places he grew up. We then got Döner (sense a trend? They are really good.) and even got some for his family. They just moved, so there were a lot of boxes, but I met his mom, dad, and brother. While he took a shower, I moved some boxes and talked with his parents. It was fast at first, but I started to get used to it.

We then met my cousin Kandis back in Frankfurt, where she has been living since February. It was nice to see a familiar face, and I think she thought the same. It was not enough time, but it was still good. Then I went with Fritz to Hofheim, a town that Fritz also knows well. We met some friends of his, including the guys house we were staying at. Overall a really good weekend, and an exciting and busy last few weeks.

<------Kandis in Frankfurt

And I even forgot to mention the games. The second leg of the Champions League of Munich vs Man Utd, was on that Wednesday. We watched that at Sudhaus. They were down 3-0 way too quick, and that hurt a lot. But they ended up advancing to the semi-finals and the cheering at the end of the game was crazy, even in a bar in small town Marburg.

As soon as I get the site to work better I will put up more pictures.