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.