So in case you haven't noticed, I haven't updated this thing in a while. Well, there's a good reason why -- I don't have time. Yeah, I'm busy doing other things. While it would be nice to regularly update this blog, I just don't find it to be that worthwhile. I'd much rather have fun and also focus on my studies while I'm here in Germany and not worry about updating a blog. You can still follow my life somewhat on Facebook, so just continue doing that. :P
So...yep. For me, it's definitely more important to just experience things rather than to steal time away from experiencing things in order to update a blog. So I will no longer update hurr.
Tschüss and see you on Facebook!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
A long overdue post
Wow, okay.
So firstly, sorry to all of the people that kept asking me to update!
Secondly, I am still having fun in/enjoying Germany. I guess that's a good thing.
Well, for a quick update...I have a job now. I work in the AYF program office. Good times. My intensive German course ends next week, I believe. More good times. I've celebrated my 20th birthday in Germany! That was pretty awesome, it involved a karaoke bar.
Yeeeeah, so I'll post a more proper update sometime soon. I promise. For reals.
So firstly, sorry to all of the people that kept asking me to update!
Secondly, I am still having fun in/enjoying Germany. I guess that's a good thing.
Well, for a quick update...I have a job now. I work in the AYF program office. Good times. My intensive German course ends next week, I believe. More good times. I've celebrated my 20th birthday in Germany! That was pretty awesome, it involved a karaoke bar.
Yeeeeah, so I'll post a more proper update sometime soon. I promise. For reals.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Arrival in the DE
D-Day (D for Departure, that is)/Arrival
So as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my room here in Freiburg. It’s about 8 am on Friday and the sun is shining. This place is amazingly pretty. It’s very green – both in terms of trees, grass, flowers and other types of plants, but also in terms of the buildings. I’ve never been to a place that has so many houses and buildings fitted with solar panels. But anyway, let’s rewind a bit.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMEBER 1
Okay, so on September 1st I showed up at JFK, aka Hellhole, at about 7. I went through security and stuff etc. My flight was scheduled to take off at 9:25 pm, but that got pushed to about 9:45 pm. I flew with Singapore Airlines – which I must say is *the* best airline in the world. Hands down. The dinner they served was delicious, as were the copious amounts of white wine, water, orange juice and coffee that I consumed.
The service was top-notch – it was just so excellent of an experience, I was tempted to stay on the flight as it continued from Frankfurt to Singapore. We arrived in Frankfurt at around 10:45 am (4:45 am EST).
(I guess this is where THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 begins.)
From Frankfurt, myself and nearly all of the AYFers from UIowa (and an AYFer from Michigan State) got onto the Deutsche Bahn to finally get to Freiburg. After a train transfer in Mannheim (on this train, we had to stand because of a lack of available seating/space for our luggage) we were truly on our way to Freiburg.
So upon arrival in Freiburg, we headed over to the AYF Table that was set up in the train station to greet us/give us our keys/a folder packed with maps, timetables, miscellaneous information and such). I then took a cab to Vauban (the neighborhood I live in) with another AYFer from Michigan State. I finally was able to just dump my luggage somewhere and not be concerned about it! But I ended up dealing with unpacking upon arrival here anyway. About two hours later, all of the AYF students went off to the AYF Pizza Party, where we ate pizza (obvs) and received a brief welcome to Freiburg from the AYF director and Prof. Steakley of Wisconsin-Madison, the coordinator for the 2010-2011 year. After this, a few of us from Vauban went to the supermarket in our neighborhood. Rewe (Ray-veh) is a pretty nice supermarket. I bought stuff. Stuff that one would typically pay a lot for in the US. And I spent only 10 euro. I love grocery shopping in Germany.
So yeah, today we’re going to take a tour of Freiburg and of the University, so that should be fun. Hmkay, that is all for now. Tschüs!
So as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my room here in Freiburg. It’s about 8 am on Friday and the sun is shining. This place is amazingly pretty. It’s very green – both in terms of trees, grass, flowers and other types of plants, but also in terms of the buildings. I’ve never been to a place that has so many houses and buildings fitted with solar panels. But anyway, let’s rewind a bit.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMEBER 1
Okay, so on September 1st I showed up at JFK, aka Hellhole, at about 7. I went through security and stuff etc. My flight was scheduled to take off at 9:25 pm, but that got pushed to about 9:45 pm. I flew with Singapore Airlines – which I must say is *the* best airline in the world. Hands down. The dinner they served was delicious, as were the copious amounts of white wine, water, orange juice and coffee that I consumed.
The service was top-notch – it was just so excellent of an experience, I was tempted to stay on the flight as it continued from Frankfurt to Singapore. We arrived in Frankfurt at around 10:45 am (4:45 am EST).
(I guess this is where THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 begins.)
From Frankfurt, myself and nearly all of the AYFers from UIowa (and an AYFer from Michigan State) got onto the Deutsche Bahn to finally get to Freiburg. After a train transfer in Mannheim (on this train, we had to stand because of a lack of available seating/space for our luggage) we were truly on our way to Freiburg.
So upon arrival in Freiburg, we headed over to the AYF Table that was set up in the train station to greet us/give us our keys/a folder packed with maps, timetables, miscellaneous information and such). I then took a cab to Vauban (the neighborhood I live in) with another AYFer from Michigan State. I finally was able to just dump my luggage somewhere and not be concerned about it! But I ended up dealing with unpacking upon arrival here anyway. About two hours later, all of the AYF students went off to the AYF Pizza Party, where we ate pizza (obvs) and received a brief welcome to Freiburg from the AYF director and Prof. Steakley of Wisconsin-Madison, the coordinator for the 2010-2011 year. After this, a few of us from Vauban went to the supermarket in our neighborhood. Rewe (Ray-veh) is a pretty nice supermarket. I bought stuff. Stuff that one would typically pay a lot for in the US. And I spent only 10 euro. I love grocery shopping in Germany.
So yeah, today we’re going to take a tour of Freiburg and of the University, so that should be fun. Hmkay, that is all for now. Tschüs!
Monday, August 16, 2010
15 Days/The Euro
15 days = 15 days until I leave. Yessss.
The Euro = an evil currency.
So, for those of you who aren't obsessively looking at exchange rates, the Euro is more valuable than the US dollar. Which means, when one purchases euros, it costs a -wonderful- amount of dollars to buy them. I ordered some euros from my bank at the end of last week, and picked them up today. I bought them at roughly 1 USD = 0.74 EUR, which is not too bad. (btw, the exchange rates that you see on xe.com or something like that are not really exchange rates for the general public, they're really rates for buying/selling very, very large amounts of currency. So, when an individual buys another currency, they get a lower rate. This is when you say "oh, okay.")
So yeah, I bought 200 euros. You can see them below. I'm going to have to get accustomed to dealing with bills that come in different sizes depending on their value...
In any case, Germany should totally go back to the Deutsche Mark. Just sayin'.
The Euro = an evil currency.
So, for those of you who aren't obsessively looking at exchange rates, the Euro is more valuable than the US dollar. Which means, when one purchases euros, it costs a -wonderful- amount of dollars to buy them. I ordered some euros from my bank at the end of last week, and picked them up today. I bought them at roughly 1 USD = 0.74 EUR, which is not too bad. (btw, the exchange rates that you see on xe.com or something like that are not really exchange rates for the general public, they're really rates for buying/selling very, very large amounts of currency. So, when an individual buys another currency, they get a lower rate. This is when you say "oh, okay.")
So yeah, I bought 200 euros. You can see them below. I'm going to have to get accustomed to dealing with bills that come in different sizes depending on their value...
In any case, Germany should totally go back to the Deutsche Mark. Just sayin'.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Audio Post #1 - Vorbereitungen und langweiligkeit: Preparations and boredom
Okay, so. Since I was bored, I started thinking of things to do. Then it came to me...I should look into making audio posts! So, here it is. The first one. Please listen.
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Start of Something
Hmkay, so this is pretty much the obligatory first post, since one obviously can't start something without having a starting point! But anyway, yeah. I'll be in Germany in...a little less than three months (I'm much too lazy to count the days right now, but I think the last time I did it was 80something days). But moving on...
Beginning this September (cue the dramatic music), I will be studying in Freiburg, Germany for an entire academic year with the Academic Year in Freiburg program (a consortium of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa, Michigan State and UMichigan). This means I will be in Germany from September to July/August. This is because 1) this program has month-long intensive German classes in September and 2) the German academic calendar is wonky. The Fall semester (actually the "Wintersemester" [Winter semester] in Germany) runs from mid-October to mid-February, then the Spring semester ("Sommersemester" Summer semester) runs from mid-April to mid-July.
Sure, people say "oh, it'll be fine. It's only a year." But like...it's a YEAR. It's almost literally ONE YEAR. My time at Iowa is shorter than this program....and while I'm in Iowa I'm still in the US and everyone speaks English (though the ICC this year was questionable when it comes to this point). But I can pretty much proudly say I have no worries at this point. Naturally I am worried about the epic 8 hour flight across the Atlantic and how I could end up sitting near some crying baby that would drive me to suicide, or having the customs agents in Germany say "NO YOU CAN'T COME IN >:O" but these worries are nothing major (the latter might be a problem, however). I do also worry about all of the awesome things I'll be missing in Iowa, but then I'm comforted by the fact that I'll be 21 when I come back.
I am, though, a bit concerned about language. Time and time again, I've been told that I should have no problems communicating with people. Yet fears still consume me about arriving in Germany and forgetting everything I've learned in the past two years. Hopefully that won't happen.
Yeah, so this is the first post of this blog. I'll probably make more as the summer progresses, since I'm really bored and currently jobless.
Beginning this September (cue the dramatic music), I will be studying in Freiburg, Germany for an entire academic year with the Academic Year in Freiburg program (a consortium of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Iowa, Michigan State and UMichigan). This means I will be in Germany from September to July/August. This is because 1) this program has month-long intensive German classes in September and 2) the German academic calendar is wonky. The Fall semester (actually the "Wintersemester" [Winter semester] in Germany) runs from mid-October to mid-February, then the Spring semester ("Sommersemester" Summer semester) runs from mid-April to mid-July.
Sure, people say "oh, it'll be fine. It's only a year." But like...it's a YEAR. It's almost literally ONE YEAR. My time at Iowa is shorter than this program....and while I'm in Iowa I'm still in the US and everyone speaks English (though the ICC this year was questionable when it comes to this point). But I can pretty much proudly say I have no worries at this point. Naturally I am worried about the epic 8 hour flight across the Atlantic and how I could end up sitting near some crying baby that would drive me to suicide, or having the customs agents in Germany say "NO YOU CAN'T COME IN >:O" but these worries are nothing major (the latter might be a problem, however). I do also worry about all of the awesome things I'll be missing in Iowa, but then I'm comforted by the fact that I'll be 21 when I come back.
I am, though, a bit concerned about language. Time and time again, I've been told that I should have no problems communicating with people. Yet fears still consume me about arriving in Germany and forgetting everything I've learned in the past two years. Hopefully that won't happen.
Yeah, so this is the first post of this blog. I'll probably make more as the summer progresses, since I'm really bored and currently jobless.
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