The Last Day

Today was finals day, and for the most part the tests went very well.  We could pick two of the four seminars to test on and had three hours to take both.  I chose Central Banking and European Law – hopefully the credits transfer back smoothly!  Tonight is the closing ceremony at Goethe University and then the group is going out for one last dinner at the Castle (a local German restaurant).

Tomorrow my friend and I have to catch the 4:20 am train to Strasbourg, France.  We will be staying in Strasbourg for two nights and then head off to Paris.  I am so excited to see the Eiffel Tower and all of the sightseeing in Paris. I can’t wait!  Unfortunately this will be my last blog post because I will not have access to Internet after I depart from Frankfurt.

Well I better get started packing hopefully everything fits!

Germany Week 4

Where has the time gone?  I can’t believe I have already been in Germany for four weeks and only have two full days left!

Today we had our European Law class in the morning and then went on a company tour of Possmann – the famous Apflewein manufacturer located in Frankfurt.  Since apples are not in season we didn’t get to actually see how the Apflewein is made, but we did get to see the many steps that go into making it.  After the tour Possmann let our group sample the different flavors of wine along with the apple juice they make.  I was really surprised to learn that they are able to produce enough Apflewein in the fall to last Germany the entire year!  We were able to see the massive holding tanks – which are actually submarines.  Our tour guide told us about how difficult it was for Possmann to purchase these holding tanks because they were considered “weapons of warfare” at the time, and the US was hesitant to sell Germany such enormous submarines.  Thankfully the US agreed after they found out what they were being used for!

Yesterday morning we attended class at the European Central Bank.  It was really neat to be in such an important building.  Our first lecture was on central banking itself, and the second lecture was on the importance of European integration in European central banking.  After lecture the ECB provided us with a wonderful lunch and then it was back to Goethe University to take a German exam.  I am a little nervous to see my score, but lets just hope all of the studying paid off!

Tonight we have another birthday, so the group is on the hunt to go find das boot!

Munich

Yesterday a few friends and I traveled into Munich for the day to see Dachau Concentration camp along with the White Rose memorial at Munich University and the Haufbrauhaus – Munich’s famous beer garden. 

We left Frankfurt at 5:50 and arrived to Munich at 9:00.  From Munich central station we took the train to Munich University to see the memorial site.  The White Rose was a group of six students that attended Munich University and became known for their anonymous campaign against Adolf Hitler’s regime.  In 1943, the members of the White Rose were caught at Munich University handing out opposition flyers and were later executed by decapitation. Today, the members of the White Rose are honored amongst some of Germany’s greatest heros. 

After visiting Munich University we headed to Dachau Concentration camp, which is located about 25 minutes outside of Munich.  Dachau was one of the first concentration camps in Germany and the only camp to have existed throughout the entire 12 years of Nazi rule.

Today it was finally nice outside so a group of us went downtown to the Main festival.  It was really neat – they had shops and food stands located alongside the river, which is nice because everything is closed on Sundays.

Right now we are having a German study group.  Our test is on Tuesday and I am not looking forward to it… The German language is a bit difficult! 

Goethe University

The first few days at Goethe University have been great.  The campus huge (40,000 students) and is beautiful.  After class on Monday, we got a tour of the University and learned some pretty interesting things about its history.  The Campus Westend (where I am attending classes) was built by a chemical company - I.G. Farbenindustrie in 1928.  There chemists invented a poisen known as Zyklon B.  Zyklon B was originally used for pest control, but sadly ended up being used as the extermination gas at concentration camps.  Campus Westend was also used as a shelter for local Frankfurters during the Allied air strikes of WWII.  After WWII, Allied forces divided up the control of Germany and the I.G. Farbenindustrie building became the American Army headquarters under US Gerneral Eisenhower until 1995.  After the Americans left, Goethe University officials bought the building with the surrounding land and decided to relocate to its current position.  The dorms of course are new, along with the lecture hall building but it is so neat to be taking classes at a school with such interesting history!

Today most of the group went on an optional trip to Strasbourg France.  I decided to stay back because I will be staying in Strasbourg for 2 days after I leave Frankfurt and was feeling a little run down – the cold/rainy weather doesn’t help, especially when you bring all summer clothes!

Tomorrow is a normal day of classes and then Bier Bike!  I better go get my studying done.

Berlin

Berlin was quite an experience!  To my surprise the hostel we stayed in turned out to be really nice.  The room I stayed in had three sets of bunk beds and two bathrooms – way nicer than a college dorm.  They also provided breakfast for in the morning, which was nice.  Unfortunately the weather in Berlin was even colder/wetter than Frankfurt.  Coming from Minnesota I am pretty used to a cold climate, but not all year!  One thing that stood out to me while in Berlin was the outrageous amount of drinking.  Whether it was 7:00 am, 3:00 pm, or midnight, everywhere you looked someone was carrying around a bottle of alcohol – I don’t know how they do it!

Some of the trips highlights included:

• A tour of the German parliament
• Trying the famous Berliner Vice (A punch flavored type of beer)
• Going on a walking tour of the city
• Seeing the remains of the Berlin wall
• Visiting the Berliner Dom
• Walking over one of Hitler’s bunkers (we couldn’t go inside because it is not open to the public)
• Visiting the former Nazi Air force headquarters (the building is now used as a tax office)
• Going to the disco
• Learning the history behind what was once East and West Germany and how the two sides were reunited
• Visiting Checkpoint Charlie
• Walking through Berlin’s Jewish Memorial site
•  

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the third week, which means we will now be attending classes at Goethe University.  German class will be the same, but the history class is replaced with European Central Banking.  Goethe is a little bit further than FH (it requires a train and subway ride), so I better get to bed!

Guten Nacht 

Rhine River Valley

Wow, has this week gone by fast!  My European economics class has been quite challenging.  Yesterday, for one class we got a 61-page review packet.  Thankfully German class has been fun.  So far we have learned basic phrases, numbers, days of the week, etc…

Wednesday the group went on an excursion to the Rhine River Valley.  We went on a lovely boat tour down the river and saw a variety of castle ruins.  After the boat tour the ISU team set up wine tasting for us at a local vineyard.  We were all pulled in little carriages and got a tour on the vineyard, which was beautiful (their was even castle ruins located on the vineyard.)

Thursday was my friend from Eau Claire’s birthday so everyone decided to surprise him with a little birthday celebration.  After a long hunt all over Frankfurt we finally found him a birthday cake.  I guess it is not common in Germany to buy an entire cake – they are usually sold only by the piece.  Nonetheless after all of the searching we found him a traditional German black forest cake.

Today is another day of classes and then we are all taking the train to Berlin for the weekend.  We are staying in a hostel, which makes me a little nervous, but should be an interesting experience.  Hopefully Berlin has better weather than Frankfurt.  I haven’t seen any sun since I have arrived!

Climbing Park

 

Yesterday was a blast!  Part of our group went to the climbing park, located about 30 minutes out of Frankfurt. At the climbing park there was zip lining and obstacle courses located 25 meters off the ground – it was SCARY.  Only two members of our group were able to complete level 11, which was the highest course (It required you to pull yourself 12 feet up a rope to even start the course) but I did complete level 10.  After the climbing park we all went to grab dinner at a small little Italian restaurant and then came back to the hotel to get some rest before going out to the disco.  It was my first experience at a disco and I have to say, it was pretty fun!  The guy checking ID’s at the door was intrigued by the huge group of Americans and kept asking about where each and every one of us was from.  The also switched the music over to American music once we all got in, it was funny. 

Today some of us went down to the Romer (the town center) to watch the Ironmen triathlon.  It was packed full of people and we even fortunate enough to see the winner cross the finish line!  The winner, who happened to be from Germany finished in just under 8 hours. 

Day 6

Guten Abend!

Today was a very interesting day.  For our history class we had a guest speaker from the European Parliament. He talked about the importance of the Eurozone monetary policy along with the debt crisis going on in Greece. We learned that yesterday, the European Union decided to grant Greece a second bailout package worth 109 billion Euros along with debt relief, tax breaks, and extended credit payback periods. 

Since the speaker finished early we had about two hours for a lunch break before German started so a few of us went to go explore more around the school.  We ended up finding a little supermarket that sold sandwiches and pastries.  We also decided to stock up on chocolate since it is SO good, much better than the chocolate in the US.

Tonight we are going out to eat as a group and then going to see Harry Potter.  The weather is starting to get a little better, but still cold! Today was the first day it didn’t rain and hopefully it stays that way for the climbing park tomorrow.

GERMANY

Yay, I finally made it to Frankfurt!  The past few days have been SUPER busy, but I have been enjoying every minute of it.

My friend and I arrived to Frankfurt on Sunday morning after a long 24 hours of traveling.  We left the Barcelona train station at 9:00 am on Saturday and then had connections in Figueres, Paris, and Stuttgart.  It was a great experience traveling through the French countryside, but the overnight ride got a little long… I think next time I flying would be a better option!  Once I arrived at the hotel, I met my roommate (who is from Shanghai) and took a quick nap.  That night the whole group, which consists of about 40 students ranging in age from 17 – 26 took the train down to watch the public viewing of the USA take on Japan in women’s world cup.  Since the world cup was being held in Frankfurt the crowd was crazy. We tried to get tickets to the actual game but unfortunately it was sold out.

Monday was our first day of class – for the first two weeks classes are held at Fachhochschule University and the last two weeks classes are at Goethe University.  The entire group went to a seminar on intercultural communication and took the German language placement test.  That night we had the ISU opening ceremony at Fachhochschule and had apfelwein and pretzels with the staff. Apfelwein (apple wine) is a traditional German drink that somewhat resembles a cider. Let’s just say it is definitely one of my new favorite drinks (it’s cheaper than water too, so that’s a plus).

After class on Tuesday the group went to a museum called Dialog in the Silence, where we learned about the deaf culture – literally. We had soundproof headphones on the entire two hours and were led through activities by a deaf tour guide.  It was a very neat experience and really made me appreciate my good health and sense of hearing.  Tuesday night the group went out to a local bar to grab dinner.  I ordered a very German dinner consisting of Apfelwein, sausage, and sauerkraut.  The sausage was good, but I didn’t care for the sauerkraut.

Today we started a new seminar on the History of European Integration.  The professor covered A LOT of material for one class, so lets hope the test isn’t too hard!  After class we were split into two groups and went on a walking tour of Frankfurt.  We also got to go to the top of the Maintower, a 656-foot skyscraper built in 2000.   The views from the top were gorgeous, but I had to go down right away because of my fear of heights!    

La Rambla

Today was a day full of walking.  My friend and I took the bus into Barcelona once again to check out La Rambla.  La Rambla is one of Barcelona’s most popular streets, stretching over a mile of decadent shops, museums, markets, cafes, and churches.  We stopped to check out the Picasso art museum and the museu de la xocolata (chocolate museum).  The ticket into the museu de la xocolata was a chocolate bar – it can’t really get much better than that!  As pictured below the chocolate sculptures were amazing.  I have no idea how someone could sculpt something so beautiful out of chocolate.

For lunch we stopped at an outdoor café to have paella, a traditional Spanish dish.  It was very good except for the little lobsters that had their entire bodies intact… eyeballs and all. Eww.

After lunch we explored Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter.  It was really neat to see all of the old buildings (some date back to medieval times) and the remains of the historic Roman Wall.  There were also many beautiful churches randomly located down side streets.

While walking back to the bus we decided to check out The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, which I later found out to be one of the city’s most famous markets.  They had tons of fresh fruits and vegetables laid out everywhere.  One thing I found rather odd was the meat selection.  All of the meat is hanging by the leg, outside in the heat, yet still manages to stay good…

After getting back to Sitges we decided to take quick swim in Maria’s pool.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Spain, so time to get some rest!

 

Barcelona

The past three have been busy, busy, busy!  Thursday my friend and I took the bus from Sitges into Barcelona and took the Barcelona city bus tour.  I had no idea Barcelona was so big.  There were people and cars everywhere! 

Some of my favorite things in Barcelona were:

• ·      Looking at Goudi’s artwork
• ·      Eating the delicious napolitanas
• ·      Shopping
• ·      Taking a tour of the famous Barcelona Futbol Stadium

Friday we decided to relax and hit the Sitges beach.  The beach is beautiful, with its white sand and crystal blue water.  When we returned from the beach we celebrated Elana’s 13^th birthday (the daughter of the family I am staying with.)  Maria (Elana’s mother) made a wonderful chocolate cake and a variety of other desserts.  After the birthday celebration I was ready to go to bed, but no we hadn’t even eaten dinner yet!  This was at about 10:30 pm… Eating dinner at 11:00 pm is something I definitely have to get used to – I hope it’s not like that in Frankfurt!

Today Maria took everyone into Barcelona for lunch.  We also went to look at Parc Guelle – also one of Gaudi’s masterpieces.  This park/sculpture was originally built on private property and later transformed into one of Barcelona’s most famous public parks.

Espana

And the adventure begins! Yesterday my plane left for Barcelona Spain at 12:00pm.  We had what was supposed to be a quick layover in Atlanta turn into about a four-hour layover because our plane was late arriving from Rome… I was a little nervous knowing that our plane had just flown from Rome and literally 45 minutes later was heading back overseas, but nevertheless I made it! 

I am traveling with a fellow UWEC classmate and we are staying with his family in Sitges, Spain.  Sitges is a small city located on the Mediterranean and about 30 minutes from Barcelona.  The drive from the airport to Sitges was rather interesting… no speed limits on windy mountain roads.  Let’s just say I closed my eyes more than once.  

Once we dropped our stuff off at his cousin Maria’s flat, we went to explore downtown Sitges.  I am off to bed now – running on 42 hours of no sleep is not very much fun, but there is just too much to do and see! Tomorrow we are taking the bus to Barcelona, which I am really looking forward to.  Buenas noches!