Dortmund, Rothenburg, Munich Part 2

Last time I wrote I was chillin' in a cafe in the middle of Bonn, waiting for Marijke (pictured over <---- there) to get out of class. I walked around for a while more, found a market, bartered for lunch, then met her at the train station. We went to Köln (Cologne) for a while because it was on the way back. Cologne is home to I believe the biggest cathedral in Germany. Its massive beyond belief. We were there for about 30 minutes or so, then went to Dortmund, her hometown. Her uncle was having a birthday party that night, so we went there. It was really fun to be around a German family. They talked to me a lot and were really nice.

We went back to her parents house, where they had a bed for me. The next day we met up with Mats, anther exchange student I met in America, and explored Dortmund. They have the largest stadium in Germany for their team BVB 09 (Borussia Dortmund). 89,000 people can fit in it. It was also game day. On the train from her house to the town center, our car was filled with people wearing Schwarz und Gelb (black and yellow). There was one guy in the car with a guitar. He was playing BVB songs, and the entire car was singing with him. I think Dortmund loves there team more than any other city. They ended up in 5th this year, but made a European qualifying spot, and the town was nuts.

That night we ate dinner with her mom and sister and watched some German television and just hung out, like I was part of their family. The next day we explored Düsseldorf for a few hours, then I left. I only spoke German from Friday morning till late Sunday night. I was even thinking in German and... it was weird.

The next weekend was Rothenburg ob der Tauber. One of my favorite places. That picture on the right is from the walls an a park garden thing that sticks our, looking at another part of town. Meghan Mccall, a girl I went to high school with and learned German with is studying this semester in Germany too, so took this trip together. We first got into town and I got us a hotel right on the city square. The whole town within the old walls is great. Its all built to Medieval code, so its looks great. Our hotel even had old huge metal keys for the rooms. Spent the first day just walking around and exploring the town. That night we took the Nightwatchman's Tour. Its a guy who dresses like an old Nightwatchman and gives a great city tour at night. I did the English tour 2 years ago, but we were brave and did it in German. It was still hilarious.

The next day we got some breakfast and ate it on the walls. I found a place to sit with my feet dangling over the walls and just looked over the countryside. We spent the rest of the day also walking around and just looking at the shops. There was a festival of some sort celebrating the anniversary of the Romantic Road that runs through Rothenburg, so the town square was busy. There were guys dressed up in Lederhosen, Roman Guys, Musketeer looking guys, and all kinds of crazy stuff. If there was one part I regret about my lsat trip to Germany it was in Rothenburg. There is a bar called Zur Hölle (to hell). Its the oldest house in Rothenburg. Dad and I found out about it and tried to go, but it was closed. Don't worry Dad, I went there. Great asparagus soup. I felt great after that, because I finally closed the door on the long overdue nagging.

Here is me on the walls on the way out of the city. We finally got back to Marburg and I had time to give Meghan my city tour of Marburg before her train came.

That Tuesday we grilled out. We are trying to teach Fritz how a real American BBQ feels like, with lots of people and meat and just fun. Ended up that night with 8 people dragging their bed mattresses to another building to watch Star Wars all night. Basically a huge sleepover like from my childhood. And of course, Joe Canada is rowdy, so he rolled over top of everyone multiple times from the hours of 12 to 4am.

That brings us to this weekend. Munich Part 2. Our bus and hostel was paid for by the University. We were there from Thursday till Sunday. Thursday night was Löwenbräukelller ( Lions Brew... Basement, but implies restaurant.) A 20 min. walk in the rain, but worth it. Friday we had a city tour, then explored and shopped. That night a few of us went with our two guides/helpers/leaders for the program and got to hang out with them. They are students too, so lots of fun. Saturday I decided to spend the day alone. I left about noon by myself and did not speak English for 6 hours. I did give 2 Germans directions to places though, so I must have blended in well. I also found a hunting and fishing museum. That was kinda cool. Then I went to the Agustinerkeller to watch the game. Standing room only, as Bayern Munich played Werder Bremen for the German Cup. Second half I met up with Alex, a guy here, and we went to an Australian themed bar to watch the second half. They won four nill! I had talked with some cops earlier in the day (by my own free will) and discovered there were no pubic viewings, on account of there being a huge church conference in the city and they were using all the parks, but was told if they won, where to find a huge street party. Nice cops.

Alex and I quickly got on the train and went there. We took part in cheers and learned all the chants for about an hour. Hundreds of people were there. Then I got a call, Meghan was in Munich too. So we met here her and a few friends and went out into the city.

I did find out that a 9 hour bus ride kills your soul. For the last 2 hours I moved up by Desa and we were making cloud shapes. That how boring it was. We discovered that they always look like animals. My reasoning... animal crackers, because they kind of look puffy sometimes. Then the sun was too bright and there were not enough clouds to make shapes. After 2 weeks of only clouds in Germany, we were complaining about it being too bright and not enough clouds, and how animal crackers ruin out creativity. The bus was was slowly killing us.

Pictured Meghan, Me, Lauren, and Alejandra.

Oh, and while out in Munich after the game I met a guy who would not believe I was not German. I even showed him my Iowa DL and he thought I did an exchange to Iowa. Thank you loud music for making my German sound good. I also met a guy at the Hofbräuhaus who made thought it was cool, because I now speak German with an accent from Hessen, the state I live in here. We learn high German, but I have a sweet accent to take back home. Meghan, who's German is normal, made fun of me a lot, but I know more German slang and insults and such now, and get along in a normal human conversation just fine. I learned my German on the streets... ish.

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.

Next week is our last week of class from 9-5. That makes all of us very excited, but that means the time to take the big test has come. The test is pass-fail, but apparently is really hard. And we get to take this test at 9 am, when we get back from Berlin about 1 am that morning. I guess I can stop complaining though, because we are going to Berlin for 5 days.

This week was fairly easy week. It got really nice finally. Between our two classes we have about an hour and 15 minutes, and most of that time this week was spent playing disc in the old botanical gardens.

Wednesday was a really nice day for our early class. We got to spend a little over an hour in the city. We had to find a few people and interview them about sport clubs, if they were in them and such. We found a good amount of people fairly early and met up with a few other people from our class, and with that extra time found ice cream.

Friday was supposed to be another tour of the town focusing on famous people that have called Marburg home, like the Brothers Grimm. We got there and decided to cancel the tour because it looked like it was going to rain. About two minutes into the walk home or less it started pouring rain and hailing. I was with a few people going to Edeka, a grocery store, and we just started running as fast as we could. It only rained for about 5 minutes... about the same amount of time we spent outside.

---> This is one of the entrances to our old botanical gardens. The stairs here are very different. On the right you can see two little ramps. They are perfectly spaced out for strollers. It also seems to be easy for people on bikes to get up the stairs and such. Another innovation that I like over here are the windows. Almost every window is the same. They are normally closed, but there are handles on them. If you turn the handle to the side the windows pull in like a door, but if you turn the handle upside down just the top of the window pulls in a few inches and lets air in.

As the month of March draws to an end I get happier and happier, because then I can shave this mustache. In German mustache is called Schnurbart, and to celebrate the brave few that took pride in mustache March were are having a schnurbarty. Its great because many of us don't have our morning class the next day too. I am really sick of looking like a complete creeper. Don't worry, there will be some pictures to see just how bad it looks.

And its finally daylight savings time, two weeks later.

Ok, I am bad at this. Its been another week. Right after I wrote the last blog Fritz and I went to Giessen, a town about 20 minutes by train from us. We mainly just walked around and didn't do anything stressful It was quite awesome, but this dinosaur tried to eat his Döner.

The beginning of the week was fairly normal and not too eventful. Wednesday was St. Patty's Day. I realized I didn't bring anything green with me to Germany. Luckily, most Germans don' even know what this day is. I ended up making some pasta out of noodles that look like four leaf clovers and horseshoes that were colored like the Irish flag. Then we watched Boondock Saints.

Thursday my cousin Andy came to see me. His sister Kandis lives in Frankfurt and he was here for spring break. He came up just in time for karaoke night at Mexicali. When I picked him up I brought Fritz. I snuck behind him and Fritz walked up to him, "Hey Andy, its been a long time," and continued this while Andy just looked confused. We ended up at Meicali, and it was a school planned thing, so our professor was there. He sang "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and it was awesome. I showed Andy Lecker Eck (delicious corner), the food place that is always open, and we ended up making food at my place with a few more people till... late, maybe 3 or 4. I told my teacher my cousin would be in town so I would miss one day of class, so we woke up and caught one of the morning busses. I gave him my version of the city tour and after lunch sent him off.

Right after that we got on the bus and our whole group went on a program trip to Weimar. Weimar is one of the major culture centers of Germany. Also from WWI till 1933, Germany was in the Weimar Republic stage. It was 3 hours by bus. I was in a hostel room with Joe Canada and Joe Omaha. The next day was fantastic. It was Joe Canada's Bday. We had an awesome city tour, then ended up with a whole bunch of people playing frisbee and soccer for 5 hours in Goethe's backyard. Johann Goethe is basically Germany's Da Vinci. He is a big deal here.

Sunday was Buchenwald, a large concentration camp, and the ride back. Overall it was a great weekend, one of the best I have ever had. Here are a few pictures: http://s836.photobucket.com/albums/zz286/carlsonlance/March%2014-21/

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So its been about a week. Sorry about that. I finally remembered my camera this week when I went places. There should be a good amount of pictures to put here over the next couple posts.

This is Joe Canada and me. He had some friends from Canada show up. He went to give them a tour and I tagged along. This is standing up by the castle on one of the paths down. This in one of the big churches in the area. It was built in *(@# and was built to serve most of the locals that lived within the town walls. They rushed it and used wet wood on the spire. When the sun came up it dried the wood on one side faster, and thats why its crooked. Also look at those sweet mustaches. Mustache March is coming along well, though I still just look creepy.

The beginning of the week was normal... for being here. Wednesday was a lot of fun. Fritz was gone for a week and when he came back that night we decided to just go out and walk around the town. I got pictures of the town at night and I got about half the statues in the Oberstadt.

This is me kicking down the door to the basement of Rathaus, the town hall.

Thursday was Max's, a guy in the program, birthday. Fritz also had a good friend come up from Frankfurt. Though, as many nights, it ended with Fritz and I hanging out in our kitchen. Roman, his friends was there to. We made some pasta and played guitar till about 2:30, then I went to bed, but I could here them playing till about 4. When you have to get up for class at about 7:45 every morning, 2:30 isn't bad. Especially since that is about normal this past week.

On Friday Stephanie, another IUSPer who lives far away decided to stay in Desa's room. I let them have my keys with directions to leave my window open so I could crawl in, because I have an extra blanket. I got back about 2:30 or so, window was open, thats good, they left my keys, also good, and I went to bed. As I looked at my bed I noticed something missing, both of my blankets.

Also, because our class gets a day off sometime, we had class Saturday morning. Out of the 10 Americans there were 3 of us there. The total count was about 8 people out of 18 or so.

For some of these pictures its much easier to give you a link. Most of these are from Fritz and my's night out on the town. One picture is from Friday. Stphanie (not pictured) took my coat because it was easier to grab, then when we all went to leave she still had it, so I took hers. Thats why I have to fur coat. You have to click the pictures and go through them too get the descriptions.

http://s836.photobucket.com/albums/zz286/carlsonlance/Marburg%202010/

Well the weather here has been... fun. The first few days were a bit cold with snow on the ground. Then there was a long time where it was overcast and rained all the time. It got rid of the snow, but still was not the most fun. Most of last week was really nice. The sun was shining, and there was even a day where i took my coat off for a while, then on friday night it decided to snow all night. This is the result.

While the sun was shining it made our classroom really bipolar. There was a storm one night and it blew the windows in our classroom open and tore the some of the blinds down. The part where its sunny is beyond hot, and everyone else usually still wears jackets. Mainly in our class it has been Nicole and I sitting right in the sun. We have a perfect little system down. Its nice for while, then we start complaining to each other and making jokes about it being so hot. Then we get our half hour class break and repeat. The past few days everyone has been really tired and falling asleep, or at least not fully focused. But I now know I can't draw ISU's campus very well in my work book, or explain it to Nicole well.

After our culture class on Friday, I went to the store with Justin. We went to Edeka, a store hidden in an alley almost. Got some cheap pizza, 3 for 2,50 Euros, and came back. ---> That is me feeling like a hobo. I only have one plate and Justin was using it, so I ate out of a pan, using my spatula to cut it.

Later on Friday, we went to Südhaus, one of the favorites, if not the favorite, for some of us. We packed around 12 people or so into this table under a stairwell, and were there till about 3.30. Jonathan, Steve, Desa, Robyn, and I went to Döner, well three of them did, then decided to call it a night. After negotiating some we got a taxi back to the dorf. Just when we were going to go to our rooms Steve goes, "Wanna hang out more?" I ended up in Jon's room till almost 8 with him, Steve, and Robyn. Slept two hours, then we went and started Saturday.

According to Joe Canada, it is now mustache March, and he is super happy for it. Among the returners there is one other Joe. We call him Joe Omaha, or Jomaha. Joe Canada spent a long time convincing as many people as possible to not shave mustaches. Jomaha said he might do it, and three hours later was clean shaven. For the past few days when those two are together, its hours of jokes, each one new and more creative than the last. Wow, look at that guy, he's cool, probably because of his mustache. The best was we met a guy who helped us at the beginning get settled. He walks in with a fantastic mustache. Jomaha looks and sighs and hangs his head as Joe C points to the "Sign from God".

Here is Robyn, Steph, and Desa, trying to rock mustaches.