Wien, Österreich! (and some other stuff)

So for my first trip outside of Germany, Cody and I headed to Vienna, Austria.  The four/five hour train ride was a lot better than the previous trip to Switzerland, since this time we only had to change trains a few times, not seven like my aforementioned Switzerland trip.  I also wasn't crazy tired.  Always a plus.

Eichstätt, Deutschland nach Wien, Österreich

Once in Austria, we checked into our hostel, which was awesome.  It was located very close to the train station, so it was easy to get to once we arrived and it was easy to get around once we bought train tickets.  The room was pretty good, too.  We had minimal interaction with our roommates, which is fine.  It's better than having bad roommates.

For the first night Cody and I mostly just planned for the weekend, but we did head out for a little.  There was actually a protest that had something to do with the Kurds and Syria (I think).  Two people almost got in a fight (quickly broken up by the police).

Vienna is beautiful with tons of awesome cathedrals, churches, and other buildings.  Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) was particularly impressive.  It caught fire back during World War II, and most of the cathedral's stained glass was destroyed (some had been removed prior to the fire and are persevered in one of Vienna's many museums).

Stephansdom

The roof of the cathedral was a beautiful, intricate design, such as double-headed eagle, a symbol of the Austrian Empire from back in the day.

Stephansdoms Dach

We were even treated to some music outside of the cathedral.

Vienna had tons of statues all over the place.  Tons of them draw on upon Greco-Roman myths and figures. Hercules was a very common sight around the city, as were various gods and goddesses.  Athena and Poseidon were the most easily identifiable.

some cool Austrian sculptures

Food was pretty good in Vienna, as well.  Especially this delicious Apfelstrudel.  It really was quite delicious.

Apfelstrudel

Back in the day, Vienna was home to a Roman fort, built to prevent intrusion from the badass Germans from the north (whom the Romans were never able to conquer, hence the reason why languages south of the Danube River are Latin-based, and languages north of the river are Germanic).  There were some ruins right underneath the streets of the city, which I got to (almost) touch!  It was so cool and interesting; there were no barriers preventing you from touching these 2000+ year old structures.  It's not like the 3€ entrance fee would cover it if people started removing souvenirs.  (Hopefully no one actually does such a thing!)  What's also cool is that, as I mentioned before, I'm actually underneath the street right now.

me with Roman ruins!

There was lots of cool street performers as well, especially this guy.  He was making some awesome art with just spray paint.

A definite highlight of the trip were all the directions that were up for Christkindelsmarkt (or Wiehnachtsmarkt in Germany).  The entire city was directed, and there were multiple Christmas markets all over the city.  All of them had great food, cool stuff to buy, and delicious Punsch, which is a fruity drink (available in both alcoholic and nonalcoholic varieties).  We drank plenty of that stuff.  It's so good.

decorated for the holiday season

decorated for the holiday season

Parliament building with the Rathaus in the background.
The Weihnachtsmarkt was on the grounds in front of the
Rathaus.  It was pretty big area.

entrance to Christkindelsmarkt

delicious Christkindelsmarkt food

Rathaus

Finally, we visited Schloß Schönbrunn, home to the late Franz Joseph I of the Hapsburg Dynastry.  It was a pretty palace, but we were unfortunately not allowed to take pictures of the interior.

Schloß Schönbrunn

Schloß Schönbrunn (with Vienna in background)

Here's another really cool cathedral:

Maria vom Siege

I've got more pictures on Facebook and Google+.  Check them out too:

Tentative Spring Break Schedule

Below is a tentative schedule for spring break.  By no means set in stone, it shows what I think will be a pretty fun two months.  Likely changes are:

• I don't know how many days I'll be in Israel, but likely four or five.
• Mike, Max, and Brian have all expressed interest in coming, but nothing is certain yet.
• The U.K. and Ireland will be a week-long trip, like Greece and Turkey.
• Due to the crazy October snow, my Mom's not sure if she's going to have enough spring break to make the trip.

Also, John Carey and I will be chillaxing in Germany in January.

Just Keeping You Updated...

Nuremburg mit AK International

So, I've obviously been doing a lot, so here's a collage of pictures depicting a lot of my time thus far in Eichstätt:

Teaching country swing to those unfortunate

Europeans who never had a chance to learn it.

Studihaus mit Chiara (Italien), Laura (Italien), und Martin (Frankreich)

Bad Taste Party mit Cody (Illinois) und Chiara (Italien)

making pigs-in-a-blanket

So the pigs-in-a-blanket picture has a fun story to go with it.  It was Ayaka's birthday and everyone was asked to bring something, so Cody and I are wondering what we can bring.  We had snacks and drinks, so we thought about bringing something with more substance.  "We can just make hotdogs," Cody pointed out, "That'll be pretty American."  This led me to the awesome idea of making pigs in a blanket for everyone.  While we're patting ourselves on the back for our great idea, a woman in the store overhears our conversation, and, after mistaking us for incompetent foreign college students with no idea of how to cook food, went and got us hot dog rolls, explaining in broken English that they were what we needed.  After we explained to her in German what it was we were making, she realized our degree of competence was at least slightly higher than she had originally thought, and let us go on our way. Of course, they ended up being awesome.

Chillaxen' in Edith Stein mit Marta (Polen), Chiara (Italien),
Martin (Frankreich), another Chiara (Italy), und  Laurent (Frankreich)

I totally rocked the toilette paper mummy costume.  Also,
Cody's Braveheart costume was my idea.  Just saying.

Chillaxin' in St. Michael

Some stuff I don't have pictures for:

• I've been attending Zumba classes.  For those of you who don't know what that is, check it out here.  Essentially, it's dancing for exercise.  It's a lot of fun.  The fact that it's 30 girls and then me is pretty nice too.  And I'm not going to argue with having a gorgeous instructor.
• Speaking of dancing, the University Ball is tonight, and I made an attempt to learn waltzing and such.  I'm better at swing dancing.
• Classes are going well.  U.S. Foreign Policy is easily my favorite class.  Deutsch Landeskunde nach '45 is good too.  The rest are all less exciting, yet essential, German language classes.
• Haven't done much travelling yet, but plans are in the works.  Potential destinations include England and Ireland (one trip), Rome, Prague, Greece, Turkey, and, of course, all over Germany.  I'm contemplating going to Israel, as well, but that one will be a little bit pricey, so I don't know if it's going to happen.  Russia would be cool too.  If anyone's got recommendations, I'd be happy to hear them.

(A Long Overdue) Switzerland Post!

It's been two weeks since I was in Switzerland, and I'm finally getting around to writing about it.  Sorry.  So on October 21, I headed on over to Switzerland to visit my oma and her nephew's family.  It was a bit of a rough ride; a combination of start-of-the-semester party and a class at 8:00 AM Friday morning (U.S. Foreign Policy (it's awesome)) left me pretty tired.  Fortunately, I was able to navigate the seven or so stops on the seven hour train ride to Switzerland.

Once there, I met up with Oma and Heinz Hersberger at the train station and it was off to the Hersberger household.  Everyone was really great.  And, when they spoke (High) German, I could actually understand them, at least some of the time.  Swiss German, on the other hand, is another language entirely; I can't understand a word of it.  Luckily, they all spoke English and High German, in addition to Swiss.

Also, (and in some ways, most importantly) the food was great.  I had deer, red cabbage, various Swiss cheeses, pork, cold cuts, soup, jelly, chocolate (brought some back with me, too), and a bunch of other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.  All of it was so good.  So good.

So anyway, the first day we went to visit Uncle Ernst near Lake Luzerne.  Check out the view of the lake from his house here:

I think that's a pretty nice view, but that's just me.  We also went to a restaurant with Uncle Ernst, at which I ate the aforementioned deer.  Also at Uncle Ernst's house were books.  Tons and tons of books.  He had an awesome library of new and old books (all in German, of course).  I was told that I could take what I wanted, but unfortunately I didn't have any way take take them home.  I grabbed Frankreich in Hitlers Europa by Eberhard Jäckel and a 1954 German copy of Die Gute Erde (The Good Earth) by Pearl S. Buck.  (I grabbed the latter because I have the book in English and I thought that was pretty cool.  It's a great book about Chinese villiage life in the early 1900s, just prior to World War II.)  Hopefully, I'll be able to take more next time I go.

Here's a video of the view from <insert mountain name here>, where we had lunch with Uncle Ernst.  Again, pretty nice.  That is Luzern again.

So early (well, not early-early, but at about 7:45 or so) on Monday morning I headed out into Aarau for some pictures.  It was quite dark at first, but it lightened up after a while.  It's a very pretty city.  A video of the town is below, and you can check out more pictures of everything on Google+ (just scroll down in the album a bit).

While making this post, I realized I don't have a picture of me with the Hersberger family.  Oh well...  I guess I'll just have to go back and visit them again, this time getting such a picture.  A big thanks to the Hersberger family and, of course, Oma for a great weekend.  I look forward to the next time.  Until then, I'll just have to somehow satisfy myself with all of this Swiss chocolate.  I don't know how I'll ever get by...

Zungenbrecher (auf Deutsch, Englisch, Italienisch)

The topic of tongue twisters (Zungenbrecher, auf Deutsch) came up in conversation, so here are a list of some things that make language ridiculous:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.  Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?  Peter Piper put the peck of pickled peppers in the pantry.

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

Toy boat toy boat toy boat. (Say that one quickly.)

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

John, where Jake had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'had had' had had the teacher's approval.

Longest word: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters)

Trentatre trentini entrarono in trento, tutti e trentatre trotterellando.

Longest word: precipitevolissimevolmente (26 letters)

Fischer

Fritz fischt frische Fische. Frische Fische fischt Fischer Fritz.

Longest word: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetzeshüter (71 letters)

Possibly more to come.

Reflections

The pre-semester language course is over, and classes started Monday.  So how are things looking for this year abroad?

Just a little self congratulations.

First off, the last three weeks.  After three weeks in Germany and the two-week intensive course (5 1/2 hours Monday through Friday and 4 hours on Saturday!), my German is definitely improving.  Am I still missing a bunch of what people say?  Unfortunately, yes.  However, I'd be selling myself short if I said I haven't made any progress.  (At least I would like to think so.)  I got a 2.0 (roughly a B+ in the American system) in the intensive course, which is a good place to start.

The international students hikes up to
Willibaldsburg (castle in Eichstätt).

So far, I'm loving everything about Eichstätt, Germany, and Europe in general.  It's been awesome meeting and getting to know so many people from so many different backgrounds.  My Facebook newsfeed is now flooded with a bunch of other languages which, while meaningless to me, I find pretty cool.  Not that I was necessarily expecting it, I haven't gotten any anti-American sentiment directed towards me.  I did get one lecture on the flaws of America as a whole, but the guy was perfectly fine with me personally.  Also, the 75% female student population continues to be nice.

Our running dinner team and dessert guests.  From left to
right, someone (Germany), Meliha (Bosnia), myself (USA),
Mario (Bosnia), Marta (Poland), Nurshod (Uzbekistan),
Chiara (black top, Italy), Joanna (red top, Poland), and
Javier (Spain).

So much fun was the running dinner put on by AK International (the university group helping international students acclimate).  Divided into to teams, we were instructed to make either a appetizer, a main course, or a dessert.  My group decided that reading and following instructions is for yellow-bellies, and we made a main course instead of our instructed dessert.  We then brought our main course to the first meeting place.  After discovering that not only were we not supposed to do bring our food to the studihaus, but that we were supposed to make a dessert, we carried our pot of spätzle with cheese and tomatoes around Eichstätt for the next three hours.  Meanwhile, we tried to come up with a dessert we could make with our negligible amount of time left available to us.  Ultimately, we had chopped apples covered in cinnamon sugar with tea.  I think it went over pretty well.

On the topic of food, I think I've been pretty good about eating anything put in front of me.  I probably ate more raw tomatoes, something I never ate at home, over the course of the running dinner than I have eaten in my entire life (tomato sauce aside).  Everything here (and from all around Europe), has been really great.

For the next semester, I'll be doing a lot of German language classes with the hope that my German will improve to the level at which I'll be able to take history classes in Germany.  My German language classes are as follows: Deutsch B1, Textarbeit, and Konversation und Hörverstehen.  In addition, I'm taking Deutsche Landeskunde nach '45, which is history class designed for low-level German speakers.  Finally, I'll be taking two classes taught in English: Media Sociology and US Foreign Policy.  All should be pretty interesting.

I don't know if it's just because I'm not tuned into the party aspect of college at Wyoming, but the amount of partying that goes on here is ridiculous.  There are parties all the time.  Last night was the 'official' year beginning party at Guttman's (a bar), that went until 4:00 AM this morning.  On Thursday, there is another 'official' year beginning party at Dasda (a club).  I'm just glad I didn't have class today.  Not because I'm hung over, mind you, but because not going to sleep until 6:00 AM doesn't really allow you to wake up at a reasonable time.

That's all for now.  I'm off to Switzerland this weekend to hang out with my oma, which will be awesome.  Tschüss.

Oktoberfest

From Wikipedia:  "Oktoberfest is a 16-18 day festival held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October.  it is one of the most famous events in Germany and is the world's largest fair, with more than 5 million people attending every year.  The Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, having been held [almost without exception] since 1810."

UW German Club in Germany!

Before heading down to Oktoberfest, we stopped off to visit our Karen (our German teacher), Josh, and their baby.  Credit for tricking us in coming over here belongs to Karen, so we figured we pay her a visit on our way to Munich.

After meeting up with the Tabogas, we headed over to a Biergarten for a smaller Oktoberfest celebration.  It was awesome.  Lots of people celebrating, but not to crowed; great food like giant pretzels and some absolutely delicious chicken; and even the beer was pretty good (at least as far as beer is concerned)  We watched some exciting soccer on some big screens.  It was great.

Our food from the Biergarten.  It was awesome.

After spending the night at Josh and Karen's, we headed out to the actual Oktoberfest celebration.  Even before we reached the actual fairgrounds, the streets (and trains) were packed with people.  It was almost difficult to move around the fairgrounds.

After we explored the fairgrounds and went on a couple of rides (including a great roller coaster), we attempted to get into a beer tent.  After waiting 30 minutes at one and realizing we weren't getting in, we went to another.  This one actually seemed to be letting people in, and, after another 20, 30 minutes, we were in.  Not that it mattered, though, since the inside of the beer tent was more packed than the fairgrounds were.

Inside the beer tent.

We finally found some awesome Australians (or Irish people, as Erika thought they were) to sit with.  They were in Europe for a several-week vacation.  It sounded pretty awesome.

The beer at Oktoberfest was pretty good (at least as far as beer goes).  The same goes for the beer I had at the Biergarten the previous day.  Unfortunately, the beer was really expensive: 10€ for one Maß.  Sure, it's a whole liter, but still, that's a lot.

Our Aussie friends.

To send you off, here's the video James Willey of Australia made of his Oktoberfest experience.  More pictures can be seen on Google+.  Tschüss!

All pictures were shameless stolen from Erika Yagi.  The video was as shamelessly stolen from James Willey.

Thanks, guys, for your kind albeit unknown contributions.

Though, really, I took virtually every one of Erika's pictures, so I totally get to take them.

Meine WG

I live in what's called a Wohngemeinschaft, or WG for short.  It's an apartment with multiple rooms and a shared kitchen and bath(s) that is rented by multiple people.  Here's a quick tour of my WG:

Here are some brighter pictures of the WG's upstairs/attic area:

On an unrelated note, there's something comforting about watching native German speakers argue about whether a word should be accompanied by der, die, or das.  I don't feel nearly as bad about not know them myself.

UPDATE: Handy und Weißwurst

The city's a lot bigger than I thought.  In fact, I got lost today.  I'm currently back on that desert island my plane crashed on a while back.

Also, my Handy now works.  Score.

Handy und Weißwurst

Eichstätt is very small.  Already, (I believe) I have seen most of it over the course of the three days I have been here.  However, it's still got that new car smell so I haven't tired of it yet.

I now have ein Handy ('cell phone' auf Deutsch ist 'Handy'), albeit one that does not work.  I need to go back to the store soon to find out why this phone has no reception anywhere in Eichstätt.  It does have a built-in flashlight, which is pretty cool.  It also works as a radio and an alarm clock.  If only it worked as a phone, too...

I walked into the kitchen the other day to find Doro, one of my flatmates, labeling everything in German for me.  So far they've been great about helping me with my German (they all speak varying degrees of English, but are, for the most part, refusing to do so).  Hopefully they don't tired of helping me along and continue to act like this, because that would be fantastic.

Today began with a 'traditional' Bavarian breakfast, courtesy of my flatmates.  (Apparently, you have breakfast at 11:30 AM, but oh well.)  We had pretzels, Weißwurst (literally 'white sausage'), a sweet mustard, and beer.  Pretzels: good; Weißwurst: good; sweet mustard: okay; beer: still bad.  For those hoping I'd come back from Germany with a change of heart towards alcohol, sorry guys; it's not looking good.

Later, Doro, Leo (another flatmate), and I made Apfelkuchen.  It got burned, but turned out tasty nonetheless.

I suppose that's all for now.  Tschüss!

Day 0: Arrival

After eight or so hours in the air, an hour and a half in London, and about three hours of trains, I'm in Eichstätt. So far, so good. My roommates seem good, my apartment is awesome, and the town itself is great. It's quite small (apparently, the smallest university town in Europe), but I don't think that will be a problem for me. The weather is fantastic (so far). So far, it's been sunny and warm during the day and cool during the night.

University stuff doesn't start until Tuesday, October 4, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing until then. My roommates are doing a traditional Bavarian breakfast for me on Wednesday morning, which should be good. Oktoberfest runs until October 3, so I may make the three-hour trip back down there for that. Will keep you posted!

Pictures will be posted to Facebook and Google+. You should be able to view both without an account.

If anyone's interested, here's my address:

Jeff Wilson

Ostenstraße 4

85072 Eichstätt

Germany