Monday, September 22, 2008
Captian's Log #4 Stardate 6741
Three weeks have gone by, and the days past have started to blur together. Now, whether this is a good thing or not is debatable, and I', not quite sure how I feel about it.
Second week of class was much like the first, only with midterms on Thursday and Friday which turned out well. I'll have to study harder for the finals though (I do want an A). We're delving into modal verbs currently, and if they're not a breeze then I'll be a bit ashamed of myself.
As for after-class activities, I've began expanding and have been hanging out the Händelstraße people, who are pretty much awesome. Only draw-back is that they are, in fact, American, and as such my German is not improving. We watched the 4 episode mini-series beginning to Battlestar Galatica, which I heartily enjoyed, and'll be continuing the series throughout the year. I did not attend Stusie shot not, and opted instead to study for my test. . .what else? BG was Friday night, I made everyone Amaretto Sours, as they are tasty. Before BG I stopped by a concert hall called the Jazzhouse to inquire about a job, got told that they currently weren't hiring, but would take my name and number and call if anything came up. I don't think they'll be calling though, since he made it out to be very intense and was dubious as to my grasp of the German language. Oh well. Hopefully I'll get the babysitting job instead (ideally, both!)
Let's continue with Saturday, shall we? It started at 8:15 AM (aka 7AM wake-up), were around 30 of the AYFers board a bus bound for. . .France! Elysass to be exact. After about a 45 minute trip (We chartered a bus paid for by our program fees), which consisted of far to many round-abouts (they're literally every 5,10 minutes or so, gesus), we get to the bottom of a very large hill, and begin the ascent to visit a castle called Hohkönigsburg, originally built in the 13 hundreds, and then rebuilt in early 1900s by Wilhem II. In its rebuilding it was remodeled to be more fanciful, and it was definitely gorgeous. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed free-reign inside. There was a set path, although if I had been a little more adventourous/less consious of rules I would've stepped over the bars and climbed to the top.
Must be sweet to work there though, right? You could clamber about willy-nilly before and after hours. . .
The castle also really made me want to watch Knight movies.
At 11:30ish, we reconvined on the bus, and drove to the cutest little town. I've forgotten the name, but it still had its Medieval wall! Unfortunately, it was a very popular tourist attractions, so at lunchtime the resturants were packed, and the bus elected to continue on to our next desination: Colmar.
Colmar was nice, not as cute as the other city, and similar to Freiburg, but there were small difference such as the style of Houses. We went to a place similar to Za's for lunch, only it was only pasta and not as tasty (but still delicious), and we had a fun time ordering:
Cashier: "ojflja poewiprn?"
Me: "Ja, ich hatte gern Pesto" (I'd like pasta)
Cashier: "iaje afkljjedsla?"
Me: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" (Do you speak German?)
Cashier: "No. How about English?"
Me: "I guess that works too. . . "
After that we went to the Colmar museum (Called the Unterlinden), which is host to a beautiful alter piece ( le Retable d´Issenheim) with some pretty amazing pyschadelic colours to it. No kidding. One of the pieces to the Retable is Jesus ascending to heaven, and I kept looking for a unicorn. I've added the image to the left, the it doesn't fo it justice.
The museum itself was once a Convent, and the hallway around the courtyard SCREAMED of Harry Potter. I do believe it was the same arch designs and everything.
After getting back from France, I had dinner, then headed to Händelstraße for S1 Ep1 of Battlestar Galatica, thereafter we went to what is my favourtie bar-club: Elpi. Turns out, on Saturday night theres a cover charge of 3,5 euro, so most of our group decided to go somewhere else. I stayed. Turns out again that you got a Drink-card worht 1,5 euro making the cover only 2 euro.
Not a bad price for the amout of dancing I did.
Saturday was an excellent day indeed.
More of my Mitbewohneren (floor-mates) have moved in, and tonight we played a game called "rummiesweg," which was similar to Rummy. It was fun, and I won both games, despite never having played it before, so that pretty sweet.
Other than that, the weathers been averaging between 55-65 degrees.
Next update tentatively Monday.
Second week of class was much like the first, only with midterms on Thursday and Friday which turned out well. I'll have to study harder for the finals though (I do want an A). We're delving into modal verbs currently, and if they're not a breeze then I'll be a bit ashamed of myself.
As for after-class activities, I've began expanding and have been hanging out the Händelstraße people, who are pretty much awesome. Only draw-back is that they are, in fact, American, and as such my German is not improving. We watched the 4 episode mini-series beginning to Battlestar Galatica, which I heartily enjoyed, and'll be continuing the series throughout the year. I did not attend Stusie shot not, and opted instead to study for my test. . .what else? BG was Friday night, I made everyone Amaretto Sours, as they are tasty. Before BG I stopped by a concert hall called the Jazzhouse to inquire about a job, got told that they currently weren't hiring, but would take my name and number and call if anything came up. I don't think they'll be calling though, since he made it out to be very intense and was dubious as to my grasp of the German language. Oh well. Hopefully I'll get the babysitting job instead (ideally, both!)
Let's continue with Saturday, shall we? It started at 8:15 AM (aka 7AM wake-up), were around 30 of the AYFers board a bus bound for. . .France! Elysass to be exact. After about a 45 minute trip (We chartered a bus paid for by our program fees), which consisted of far to many round-abouts (they're literally every 5,10 minutes or so, gesus), we get to the bottom of a very large hill, and begin the ascent to visit a castle called Hohkönigsburg, originally built in the 13 hundreds, and then rebuilt in early 1900s by Wilhem II. In its rebuilding it was remodeled to be more fanciful, and it was definitely gorgeous. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed free-reign inside. There was a set path, although if I had been a little more adventourous/less consious of rules I would've stepped over the bars and climbed to the top.
Must be sweet to work there though, right? You could clamber about willy-nilly before and after hours. . .
The castle also really made me want to watch Knight movies.
At 11:30ish, we reconvined on the bus, and drove to the cutest little town. I've forgotten the name, but it still had its Medieval wall! Unfortunately, it was a very popular tourist attractions, so at lunchtime the resturants were packed, and the bus elected to continue on to our next desination: Colmar.
Colmar was nice, not as cute as the other city, and similar to Freiburg, but there were small difference such as the style of Houses. We went to a place similar to Za's for lunch, only it was only pasta and not as tasty (but still delicious), and we had a fun time ordering:
Cashier: "ojflja poewiprn?"
Me: "Ja, ich hatte gern Pesto" (I'd like pasta)
Cashier: "iaje afkljjedsla?"
Me: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" (Do you speak German?)
Cashier: "No. How about English?"
Me: "I guess that works too. . . "
After that we went to the Colmar museum (Called the Unterlinden), which is host to a beautiful alter piece ( le Retable d´Issenheim) with some pretty amazing pyschadelic colours to it. No kidding. One of the pieces to the Retable is Jesus ascending to heaven, and I kept looking for a unicorn. I've added the image to the left, the it doesn't fo it justice.
The museum itself was once a Convent, and the hallway around the courtyard SCREAMED of Harry Potter. I do believe it was the same arch designs and everything.
After getting back from France, I had dinner, then headed to Händelstraße for S1 Ep1 of Battlestar Galatica, thereafter we went to what is my favourtie bar-club: Elpi. Turns out, on Saturday night theres a cover charge of 3,5 euro, so most of our group decided to go somewhere else. I stayed. Turns out again that you got a Drink-card worht 1,5 euro making the cover only 2 euro.
Not a bad price for the amout of dancing I did.
Saturday was an excellent day indeed.
More of my Mitbewohneren (floor-mates) have moved in, and tonight we played a game called "rummiesweg," which was similar to Rummy. It was fun, and I won both games, despite never having played it before, so that pretty sweet.
Other than that, the weathers been averaging between 55-65 degrees.
Next update tentatively Monday.
1:47 PM
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