UNIVERSIDAD de OVIEDO

Week #1 (4/4/08-4/8/08)

After an amazing time traveling with Brittany the past two weeks, it is once again time to start studying. I do not feel very apprehensive towards starting school here in Spain due to the fact that I have looked forward to this moment for the past four-to-five months. My speaking ability slowly left me while studying in Alemania, but I have no reservations that I will be able to get it back and also improve upon it.

On Monday all of us new students walked with Reme, one of the coordinators for the AHA International Study Abroad program, to the Universidad de Oviedo so that we could take our placement test and begin our orientation. Upon arriving to the campus I felt very relieved that I was finally here! We walked into the auditorium where the other new students were sitting and the Universidad language staff was waiting to start the orientation program.

Almost immediately, the director of the foreign language program started speaking in Spanish to all of us, not slowing down for anything. I will give the credit for being very articulate and speaking well! Soon after he was done talking we started our placement test. Just sitting in our seats trying to remember everything we could. I found myself quite pleased with how well I did. It was a test that had some very advanced material on it and I felt as though I got some of that stuff right rather than a lot of the easier material!!!

After being placed within our respective courses, we all left with our professors to meet them and go over what we will be covering in class throughout the month. To give you a brief background about my professor, his name is Victor. He is married and has one newborn son. At this point, I feel very thankful to have him as a professor. Not only have I heard great things about him, I have got to experience some of his humor already. He loves to use Santa Clause as an example when explaining certain things to us!

Throughout this week in class I felt very welcomed. All of the professors, including Victor are very nice and are willing to help you in any way possible. Other than the other American students that are in my class, there are also some students from Alemania. There are a few others from Austria, France, and some other neighboring European countries. I feel as though it is a very good mix of students.

Our first official weekend as students of the Universidad de Oviedo, we went on an excursion that the Universidad had planned for us. Throughout the term we have three such excursions, all taking place on Saturday of each week. The school rents a couple buses for all of us students that are attending the language courses during the summer so that we can make our way to some very neat places within Asturias. This week our excursion took us to the towns/cities of Coaña and Luarca. They are both beautiful beach towns with amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean. One of the neat things about these excursions is that a couple of our professors join us for the day. They will give us some history about the city we are visiting and tell us some cool places to see/visit and then let us do as we please! And if you think any English is being spoken, you’re wrong! Nothing but Spanish from the professors!

We arrived back in Oviedo around 7:00pm and had to immediately get ready for the ESPICHA! The Espicha is the welcoming party that the Universidad throws for all the foreign language students. They rented out one of the popular sidrarias here in Oviedo to host our party. The Espicha included all the students from my program in Oregon, the German students, and the other various groups of students from the neighboring countries. This event was something that all of us looked forward to throughout the whole first week….we all had great anticipation! There was live Celtic music, all the tapas you could eat and all the wine/sidra/sangria that you could drink! On top of that, all of our professors were there to witness us students take advantage of free food and drinks….catastrophe waiting to happen! It ended up being a very fun night in which a lot of us got to know our professors, the other students, and the city quite a bit better!

7/13/2008

I didn’t have all that much Sangria last night and it was still difficult to get out of bed this morning J!

Today I hung out with my friend from school and some of her friends who are currently studying in the same program here in Oviedo. In talking to them about their classes thus far, they all say they are happy with the program and the way that they are being taught. Each one of them truly feels as though they are learning a lot!

7/12/2008

Today I spent more time at one of the internet cafes in town trying to get in contact with my friend from school. Finally I got directions to the student housing and made my way over there. This is the same student housing that I will be staying at during my term in August.

After spending a couple hours using the internet at the housing, we all went out to have some “Sangria” and then to the bars. Sangria is a sweet red wine that is served in a glass pitcher. Within the pitcher along with the Sangria are thin slices of oranges and lemons. It’s a good drink, but one that you would not want to have a lot of…..! A lot of sangria equals an adventurous night and an awful next morning!

Typical of Spain, we started our night at around 12am at one of the local Sangria bars. From there we made our way to different bars around downtown Oviedo. As the night went on, I started to notice that partying in Spain doesn’t really start until around 2am. We all eventually decided to call it a night around 4am!

7/11/2008

My first full day in Oviedo consisted of me mulling around my flat trying to entertain myself and also wandering around town trying to find a lavadoria and an internet café. Luckily I found both! Funny thing is that when you ask the Spaniards where an internet café is they look at you as though you have just cursed! They obviously do not call them internet cafes here in Espana!

Reme, the homestay coordinator from the University of Oviedo came to pick me up for some afternoon coffee. She is a very nice woman in her 50’s I believe. However, she does not speak english! We went out for some coffee and a short tour of the city. I was surprised with how well I did communicating with her. After being in Germany for the past three months, I really have not forgotten all that much Spanish. It’s just difficult to put a grammatically correct sentence together!

The landlord of the apartment/flat that I am staying is a very nice woman. Her mother, an 80 year old motor mouth, comes over every day around lunch time to clean. Me calling her motor mouth stems from her speaking to me as though I was born and raised in Spain. She talks a mile a minute! I am grateful that she comes over to clean my room
and make my bed everyday.

I have a friend from Oregon State that is studying in Oviedo during July. So I spent much of my day trying to get in touch with her. It was problematic due to not having a phone! And after a few uses of the pay phones, you start to become broke….those things eat your money up like its nothing!

7/10/2008

Wooden benches don’t have to much give in them! Both Scott and I woke up around 7am. He headed out to catch the early train back to Barcelona so he could continue with his traveling before he returned home. I went inside the station and found a nice comfy seat in which I sat in for the next few hours until my train was to arrive.

I specifically remember talking to a ticket agent the night before when we were stranded at the Zaragoza train station about whether or not I would need a reservation for the train to Oviedo. He told me I would not need one; that my euro rail pass is sufficient. Well when it came time to board the train the conductor asked for my ticket and I showed him my pass. He immediately started raising his voice and telling me in Spanish to go get a reservation. At this point I was beside myself and so pissed off that I could not gather any Spanish words together to reply to him. So I went ahead and raised my voice in my mother tongue haha! He was not too pleased!! After some pointless arguing the conductor stepped onto the train and shut the door in my face. At that very moment the thought about spending another night on wooden bench began to cross my mind.

Luckily I stayed calm and found a bus that departed at 1:15pm from Zaragoza. What ensued was an 8 hour bus ride to Oviedo. I’m happy to say that I survived the eight hours and am now here in Oviedo! The only beneficial thing about the bus ride was that I got to see a lot more of the country than I would have if I had taken the train. Where the scenery started to get really impressive was when we entered the state of Asturias or the Pyrenees Mountains. The tall mountains, trees, and lakes remind me somewhat of the Sierras. If anybody ever has the chance to visit the Pyrenees Mountains, do it, they are beautiful!

7/9/2008

After spending the night in Barcelona, we woke up early to catch a train to Pamplona. What we thought was going to be a rather quick journey to Pamplona ended up being a strenuous/tiring one. Our train from Barcelona departed around 9am and was to arrive in Zaragoza around 10:30am. Well it took us until 2:30pm to arrive in Zaragoza! Arriving this late meant that we missed our connection to Pamplona. While in Zaragoza we were told that we needed to take the train that departed two and a half hours later. So we waited around and boarded the train. What we were told and also thought was to going take us to Pamplona ended up being a train ride for people coming from Pamplona heading back to Barcelona. The train basically took us out to the middle of nowhere so the people heading back to Barcelona could switch trains and board one that would take them the rest of the way to Barcelona. When the train stopped to make its connection in the loneliest city within Spain, I asked the conductor if we needed to change. He replied to me that we were on the correct train. We watched the majority of the people get off and board the other train. As our train departed I asked the conductor once again where the train was headed. He replied, “Zaragoza!” I could not believe it!!! In all, we spent around 10 hours on the trains today, making it only halfway to our destination! On top of spending all that time on a train, the conductor of the train that we boarded in Zaragoza told me that we are on the correct train if we would like to go to Pamplona!!! This guy was full of it all afternoon! Our day was doomed from the moment we set foot on that first train in Barcelona!

Upon arriving back in Zaragoza, we got something to eat and then scouted for a place to sleep within the train station. Eventually at 12:00am we got kicked out and had to move outside. There we found wooden benches that looked more comfy than anything else around. I am sad to say that this is my second time sleeping at a train station during my stay here in Europe. I hope it was my last!

7/8/2008

Yet another travel day! Spent on a train from Nice to Barcelona! I had been warned by a few friends that the rail system within Spain is not the best….well I should have believed them! Our last connection at Port Bou (I think at the border of Spain and France) we boarded our final train. This train was neither the best looking train nor the fastest looking train! The seats were simply plastic covered in fabric…made for an excellent seatJ! We happened to be on this train for about 3 hours…!

At this point in the journey it was finally starting to set in that I am actually in Spain! It is refreshing to be here, knowing that I can finally start furthering my speaking ability without feeling some sort of awkwardness!

7/7/2008

Beginning our first and only day in Nice, we set out to walk around and see the city at about 11:00am. We walked down toward the beach and then along the boardwalk for awhile. After the awhile the boardwalk became quite boring so we planted ourselves on the beach. An important note is that the beaches in Nice are all pebble beaches! We were probably some of the only ones on the beach that day just lying on the pebbles without any towels or beach mat! One of the cool things about the beach in Nice is that the commercial jets line up for final right over the beach, so they are only a few hundred feet above you!

During the evening we went out with Jared to get some quality French cuisine at the local McDonalds and to see more of Nice at night. To get a better view of the city we hiked up to a lookout point. This gave us an amazing view of the entire city and also the Mediterranean. We could see clearly all the way down to Canne! While we were up there along with a few other people and it was nearing closing time, the guard came walking up the stairs with his moped helmet on blowing his whistle and yelling at all of us to get out as if there was a life threatening fire coming up the mountain. It was pretty funny to see…..French Rent-a-Cop! Then as we walked down the mountain, we could here the rent-a-cop blowing his whistle constantly as he reprimanded each and every person who was still on the mountain at this point.

7/6/2008

Being another travel day, we awoke to pack our bags and head to the Genova train station. Once again we were pressed for time, but eventually made it on the correct train!

We arrived in Nice, France around 6:00pm. The weather/temperature was much the same as it was in Genova, rather cool and dry! We checked into our hostel, which was about a block away from the train station. Surprisingly in a nice part of Nice! The other roommates consisted of two young people from Chile, a girl from Australia who currently works in London as a comp. programmer, and a guy who recently graduated from Northeastern University.

After unpacking our things and getting a bite to eat at one of the local fast food restaurants with Jared, the guy from Northeastern, we headed out to catch the train to Monaco! In talking to Wesley about the boats in Monaco, he mentioned that they have some of the nicest boats in the world. By my standards he is right! The boats that we saw in Monaco make you wonder how people can afford something so extravagant.

But we toured the harbor and saw some amazing yachts/boats and then we made our way up the hill to the Monte Carlo Casino. Within the most recent James Bond, Casino Royal, they filmed the majority of the casino shots at the Monte Carlo. After wandering around outside and looking at all of the Ferraris, Bentleys, Maseratis, Rolls Royce’s, and Aston Martins, we went inside the hotel/casino. Due to the admission cost of ten euro each to get into the European gambling room we just walked around the foyer. Walking back down the hill to the main city you are offered some amazing views of the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is truly a beautiful place!

7/5/2008

It’s Saturday, however it does not feel like Saturday! I keep thinking that I should be studying or doing something productive rather than walk around an Italian city on the Mediterranean coast! Our hostel is situated up in the hills behind Genova…the good thing is that I can look out my window right now and see the city of Genova along with the whole Mediterranean Sea! There are only four of us staying in our 8 person room. I have only met one of the other guys that are staying in our room. He hails from Tazmania, Australia! Very nice guy, older, I think retired. He said he used to be a CPA down in Tazmania. The other guy, whom I have not met yet, is from South Africa and has been here for a couple weeks now trying to become a ship captain. From what the Australian guy told me he has been working as a deck hand trying to meet the right people in order to become a captain or something of that nature.

Today we woke up around 8:30am to make it down stairs in time for some complementary breakfast. They served a bread roll, juice, and jam. Not the best hostel breakfast that I have had. After breakfast we headed out for the day. We took the short us ride up to the Funicular. The 15 minute funicular ride took us down to the medieval part of the city. The medieval city has some neat things to see, but the most intriguing of them all are how the buildings are so close together. You can really only fit one small car down them at a time. We then took a short amount of time to see the Harbor. Some pretty nice and also very expensive yachts we getting ready to head out for the day!

After the Harbor we made it out to a beach that had a bit of an older crowd! I have since learned that you don’t want to go to the beach where the older crowd is!

Upon coming home from the beach we sat in our room to gather some energy so we could go out later. As we sat in our room, in walks the South African. He immediately introduced himself to Scott and me. His name is Wesley (sorry no last name, has slipped my mind)! But for the next 30 minutes or so he went on to tell us what he’s doing in Genova and plans to do with the rest of his life. To make it brief, he attained his college degree in South Africa. Upon graduating he worked as an agent representing some of his buddies who are well known surfers within South Africa. He then got the idea that he wanted to make some money while traveling all over the world and quit doing the agent thing to be a deck hand. He travels all over the world to be a deck hand at harbors that have some of the nicest yachts known to man! He’s only 25 right now and said he hopes to become captain of a yacht in about three years time. He said he makes some good money doing it….about 120 euro for 8 hours work being a deck hand. When converting that to the South African currency, that’s a lot of money!

One of the more interesting things that he talked to us about was his viewpoint of Paul Allen. To keep it PG -13, I will leave it out as to what he thinks of him! But he has worked on a harbor in France and has seen one of Allen’s four yachts. The story behind this particular yacht is that Allen went a whole year without ever using it……! He just paid millions in docking and maintenance costs. The guy apparently knows how to waste a lot of money!

Later that evening Scott and I went out to grab a bite to eat with Wesley. We went to a rather nice seafood restaurant in the middle of Genova. Scott and I were both apprehensive about the place due to the fact that we were both trying to stick to a budget and did not want to pay 10 euro for dinner. But we stuck it out and had a pretty good meal! And a FOUR euro beer as well!!!!

7/4/2008

Happy Fourth! My Independence Day was spent on a train ride from the extremely warm city of Rome to the cool coastal city of Genova. Overall I think we spent about 8-9 hours on the train when it should have taken around five hours.

We got to the Rome Termini station in plenty of time to catch our 10:30am train. However the one thing that we did not know about the Italian train system is that they frequently change platforms on you. So we sat there until about 10:28am noticing that our train had not shown up yet. Scott went down to ask someone at the other end of the platform if our train platform had been switched…it had been switched to the platform right across from ours. We both scooped up our backpacks and luggage, turned around only to see the train departing! Everything turned out to be fine. We caught a later train at about 11:30am. Only this train was a regional train (not as nice and a lot slower) that was about to break down. About five hours into our journey to Genova the train did indeed break down and we were told we would have to switch trains. I immediately asked the older couple across from me on the train, in Spanish, what we were supposed to do and how long it would take for the next train to come pick us up. One of the beneficial things about being able to speak Spanish pretty well is that I have been able to communicate with many Italians. Even though we’re not in Spain yet I figure I should try to communicate somehow….good thing is that pretty much all Italians understand what I am asking them or saying to them!

7/3/2008

Today we woke around 8:30am to make it out to the Coliseum in time to get tickets without waiting in the line too long! We went to the ruins or more commonly known as the Palantine to get our tickets for the day. At the Palantine they give you a ticket for both access to the Palantine and the Coliseum. Bad thing was that Scott was in line ahead of me and told the ticket agent that he American…..no student discount after that!!! So we both paid 11 euro each. To see both the Palantine and the Coliseum for that price is a pretty good deal!

While first walking around the Palantine, I found myself trying to picture the Romans going about there daily routine or getting ready to go see a gladiator fight at the nearby coliseum. One thing about the Palantine is that it is a very large piece of land. The ruins stretch for almost ½ mile in all directions. I was astonished to see the marble pillars still standing. One other observation that I had was that even though the Romans seemed quite barbaric, they were very precise architects. By looking at some of the ruins you can see just how precise each brick was placed or how each archway is in perfect line with the one across from it.

The coliseum was another amazing sight! If you have ever seen the movie “Gladiator,” you can’t help but try and picture Marcus Aurelias fending off three other gladiators, all the while having thousands of screaming Romans either waving their white flags in mercy or giving the thumbs down if they were feeling like they needed to see somebody killed. Underneath the ground of the coliseum are a bunch of pathways, almost looked like a maze. It was an eerie feeling knowing that many prisoners were led through these pathways under the ground of the coliseum only minutes later to be slaughtered in front of thousands of people. I will mention that the most annoying thing about being a visitor to the coliseum is that you have to deal with many illegal swindlers….I can’t tell you how many times I had to say no.

7/2/2008

Sleeping in a bit to catch up on some sleep, we finally left the hostel around 10am. We set out to see the Vatican for the majority of the day.

With temperatures reaching into the high 90’s and the humidity becoming almost unbearable we spent some time within the Basillica. The Basillica took over 150 years to complete….once you see the inside it becomes very apparent why! The inside is absolutely amazing! We also saw the tombs of the past popes. To no surprise, once arriving at John Paul’s tomb, there were quite a few people kneeling down and praying.

After seeing the Vatican we headed down to eat some lunch at one of the many local pizzerias. My first real Italian pizza was the Napoli! The Napoli is basically a margarita pizza with a few anchovies on it! My first bite did not disappoint….it was very good!

The rest of the day we spent walking around Rome just looking at whatever we passed by. At one moment in time, we were looking for a certain plaza and had found ourselves seeking some directions. I stopped and made my best attempt at speaking Italian and asking a man how to get to the plaza. Next thing I know a girl walks up from behind me and asked if she could help. Turns out this girl was studying in Rome for the past four months and definitely knew her way around the city! While following her to our destination we talked and found out that she was from Connecticut. She is currently a senior at UMASS Amherst. Once we arrived at the plaza we had been looking for she invited us both to come out for the night with her and some friends. With nothing yet to do, we accepted the invitation!

We met up with her and her friends at the Coliseum around 9:30pm (still very hot and humid). What I thought was just going to be a sit in one place and “chat” kind of hangout, turned out to be a night tour of Rome. We went to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and finally the Vatican…..couldn’t have asked for a better night tour!

One funny thing that happened while we were at the Trevi Fountain was that there were two dozen illegal swindlers trying to sell you there little toys. Well I became so fed up with it that I thought I might as well have some fun with telling them off. So one of the “jibrones” (trying to keep it PG-13) came up to me and tried to get me to play with one of the toys he was selling. I then proceeded to play the starring game with him! The funny thing about it was that he asked me about thirteen times within a 30 second span if I would like to try one!

7/1/2008

On this first day of July, we woke up and caught an early train to Roma, Italy! Upon arriving in Roma or Rome, we were met with a very hot and humid atmosphere. It was not as pleasant of a temperature as we had in Interlaken! Our hostel is nice, but the management chooses to turn the A/C on at night so they can save themselves some money…don’t blame them! Included in our cheap price of 22 euros per night is a complementary breakfast and dinner. The breakfast is simple, just rolls, jam, and cereal. The dinner gets a little better with some rigatoni noodles and some pretty good tomato pasta sauce.

6/30/2008

During our second full day within Interlaken we took part in an extreme sport apply called “canyoning!” Canyoning consists of repelling into a canyon and making your way down it via cliff jumping, slides, and a little more repelling. It is an extremely fun way to move around within a canyon….let alone a canyon within the Swiss Alps! During two of our many jumps that we made into the pools of the canyon we were told by our guides that we had to do flips! Both my front flip and back flip ended up being a back flop and a belly flop due to under rotation…..good thing I had a wetsuit and lifejacket on! But overall the adventure was fun! Within our group were some recent graduates from the Air Force Academy who were getting some traveling in before flight school and also a SIGMA CHI from Northeastern Kentucky University.

6/29/08

Our first full day of Interlaken fun! I could not sleep all that well the first night at the Funny Farm due to overbearing noise from the beer tent behind our building. Not sleeping well spurred me to arise at about 7:00am to a warm Interlaken town. Scott and I went down to the local grocery store named “COOP” to gather up some breakfast! My choice for the morning was a pasta salad, tuna sandwich, and some bananas! After eating some breakfast with the girls from Florence that we met (one studies at Shenandoa Univ., another at ASU, and the other at Univ. Portland) we looked into renting a couple mopeds for the day to do some sight seeing around the Swiss Alps! We figured the mopeds would be our best bet for covering the most amount of ground in the shortest amount of time. Throughout our four hour trip on the mopeds we visited a couple towns, one called Grendalwald and the other called Lauterbrunnen. Both of these towns are very scenic!

Later that night we both watched the final of the Euro Cup 2008. The final was between Germany and Spain! Throughout a hard fought battle, Spain ended up being the victor! Not to my surprise, I wasn’t too pleased with the outcome. Having been living in Germany for the past three months it is no wonder I was not happy with Spain winning.

Sorry for the slight delay…..:)

It is now Wednesday July 2, 2008….been awhile since I have updated this blog/journal!!!

Currently I sit in Roma, Italy in my hostel room where it is currently 32 degrees Celsius….IN THE ROOM!!!! Warmer in here than it is outside! The A/C in our room doesn’t seem to help at all….I know this because I am sitting right under it and do not feel a thing…..and yes it is turned on!

Upon the completion of my international business degree at the Berufsakadamie in Bad Mergentheim, Germany this past week (June 27, 2008) Scott and I have taken off, moved out of our apartment in BM and have begun our short journey through southern Europe together.

Leaving BM, we boarded a train bound for Interlaken, Switzerland! Interlaken is called this due to it being geographically situated between two very large lakes. One of the lakes is the deepest in the world, one of our tour guides (a man who has very dirty jokes) told us that it goes below sea level! After sitting on the train for about 8 hour’s en-route to Interlaken we finally arrived. Lugging all of my bags around with me, included within this luggage is a 50 pound backpackL, we walked the 15 minutes to the hostel we were staying at for the three nights. The hostels name is “Funny Farm!” The layout of the area is situated in a rather weird way…the check-in is located at the Funny Farm hotel. You can just picture walking up to this rather nice looking hotel and thinking to yourself “how could I have booked this good of a hostel…OH YEA!” Once you check-in you are given the awful news that the hostel where you will be kept is about a few hundred feet behind the hotel….great! I may be making this out to sound like it was an absolute dump…..it was not! The hostel was actually very nice even though it was located within an old barn type building. Written above the main door to our hostel was “be kind to others, don’t waste beer!” It’s an underlying theme to the Funny Farm hostel I think.

4/28/08-5/4/08

First off, I don't think I have mentioned that I moved! Scott and I both moved downtown, about a two minute walk to class! The two minute walk to class is not the only upside to this deal. We now have wireless internet and are paying a much more reasonable price for rent! The apartment as a whole has 6 bedrooms...only five of them occupied. Our other three roommates are really nice guys! All three of them are in their late 20's. Two of them are construction workers and the other is a supply chain/operations manager for a company in Bad Mergentheim.

This past week went by very fast! It does not seem as though I have been here for six weeks already....time is flying by! But the week consisted of two tests and long macroeconomic theory lectures.....great fun!

Yesterday, I traveled to Stuttgart to visit the new Mercedes Museum. Stuttgart is about 50 miles south of Bad Mergentheim. A rather short train ride that was only two and half hours. Upon arriving at the train station in Bad Mergentheim I noticed one guy with a Stuttgart soccer jersey on. At the next stop just up the road from Bad Mergentheim, I noticed quite a few more soccer fans! It then dawned on me that I was most likely in for a long and crazy train ride to Stuttgart. At different stops the train made along the way to Stuttgart, more and more fans would be waiting to board the already very crowded train! Also, at each stop, the fans who were boarding the train seemed to be a bit more wasted than the group that boarded at the previous stop.

What ensued on this train ride were beer bottles being thrown from the train, respective team chants, smoking (non-smoking signs are posted everywhere within the trains)......! To say the least I am glad I got to experience it but would have rather not smelt like smoke all day!

I arrived in Stuttgart around 1pm and began my long walk (6 miles) across town to the Mercedes Museum. I am happy that I chose to walk instead of take the subway due to the fact that I got to see one of Stuttgart's famed parks. Along the journey to the museum I had to pass the soccer stadium where thousands of fans were stumbling their way to the match. I have never seen so many police congregated in one area before!

The museum was everything that the German students said it was....amazing! I spent about 3 hours doing the audio tour and just taking pictures of the many different cars they had on display. Its a toss up as to what museum I liked better, the Audi or Mercedes....they were both very nice!

The return train ride back to Bad Mergentheim consisted of much of the same as the train ride to Stuttgart. I was lucky enough to have another chain-smoker sit right next to me on the return trip!!!!! I'm going to start carrying a gas mask around with me!

4/14/08-4/18/08

Having class from 9am-4:30pm Monday thru Friday is tough enough! When you have to sit through a macroeconomic theory class for that long it makes it even tougher! I wish I could report that this past week was a nice change of pace, but sadly due to macroeconomic theory, it has been change of pace that I would rather not have had!

On Thursday, my class got a day off from lecture so we could visit the Audi headquarters in Neckarsulm, Germany. We got a tour of the main showroom building and also a tour of the A8 manufacturing plant. Seeing first hand how a car is made is really amazing! The Germans really love their automobiles!

München 4/11/08-4/13/08

München, as the Germans call it, is an amazing city! It is definitely a city that one needs to visit more than once, not just to drink beer in the “beer capital of the world,” but also to gain a better understanding of what transpired here during WWII.

Leaving Bad Mergentheim on Friday morning put us in Munich in the early afternoon. Upon arrival we all went to the Hoftbrauhous (a world famous beer hall that Hitler would frequently visit) to drink our first ever “mas” (one-liter glass beer mug). On Saturday, before we took our bike tour, we went to see the Glockenspiel in the Merianplatz! After witnessing the Glockenspiel’s show, we embarked on our bike tour around Munich. I would say the highlight from the tour was seeing the Nazi Air Force building and also the Munich Parliament. The old Nazi Air Force building was not bombed during WWII due to the fact that Hitler had the building camouflaged and in turn our armed forces used it as a point of strategic reference for fighting the war within Munich. The Munich Parliament caught my eye because the pillars in front of the building are a vivid reminder of what happened here during the war. Each one of the pillars has cavities from shrapnel hitting them during the war.

On Sunday we traveled to Dachau to see the concentration camp. Although much of the camp has been reconstructed, it is still a very sobering feeling taking it all in. There was not one highlight of the trip to Dachau for me. But I can say that the one sight that has stayed with me since the visit is the crematorium. Knowing that many innocent people were executed within this building had the biggest effect on me that day.

4/6/08-4/10/08

With our first business class starting on Monday, it has been nice to finally get into the rhythm that I have been seeking since I arrived here in Germany. I do not know if I have mentioned it yet, but the schedule is in blocks of classes throughout the next 11 weeks. As we did this week, we will be taking one class at a time and then having a final test when the class culminates after about 1 ½ weeks to 2 weeks time.

Our first class of the term, project management, started this past Monday. As I write this I am happy to say I have already completed one class within four days time! With lecture starting at 9am and going until 4:30pm you really cover A LOT of material. One thing you don’t really think about when beginning a class schedule like that is the energy it takes to listen and pay attention for that length of time. Only after four days of it I am already feeling the effects. I am confident that I will get used to it by next week!

Within our project management class we had a professor who has had quite a bit of practical experience. He has worked for numerous companies throughout the world, conducting projects that they have specifically hired him to complete. His lecture style was rather engaging most of the time. But as you can imagine, paying attention from 9am to 4:30pm is rather impossible! One side note about this is that the German students were the only ones to bring laptops to class on Monday. Since they have been through this learning style much of their lives, they know what tools they need to keep themselves entertained throughout class. On Wednesday almost everybody brought their laptop to class……gaming and facebooking during lecture makes it go by a little quicker!

With our final group presentations going well on Thursday, it makes it a lot easier to enjoy Munich this weekend. The five of us OSU students are headed there to see the sights! Should be awesome!

4/5/08

During the day I just lounged around the apartment and read….! I am reading a book titled “Echo Park,” by Michael Connelly. After only reading about 10 chapter of it thus far, I can tell you a very interesting mystery is brewing!

Tonight around 6pm, all of us international students went over to one of the German students apartment to have a small party before we headed out to take part in the “Night Groove!” The German students fixed a bunch of traditional German finger food for us to try. It was very good! To explain what “night groove” is, it happens once every year and consists of each bar in Bad Mergentheim having an in-house band. It is pretty much a big bar hop….going from one bar to another throughout the night. In the middle of town there is a big town square where there was a beer garden set up with a live band.

The highlight of the night took place once the bars started closing at 2am when we all went to the “discotec!” We got a short bus ride to the discotec with a bunch of Europeans that started a traditional fútbol song…..craziest bus ride I have ever been a part of! Upon arriving at the discotec we waited in line for about 20 minutes to get in. Once within this place you immediately start checking for your wallet and other valuable belongings to make sure you are still in possession of them! Some of the most interesting looking people inhabited this place on Saturday night…some that looked rather normal and others that looked as though they had done a few too many drugs! We finally left at 3am…spending one hour too long at this place! Happy to say my clothes I wore that night still smell like smoke….I probably do as well!

4/4/08

German class is finally coming to an end. Although it was a great experience learning the basics of the German language for a week, I am ready to move onto the business classes. The German students keep telling us that the business classes are rather challenging. I want Monday to arrive so I can finally find out for myself!

With today being the last day of German class, our teacher, who is from Würzburg, Germany (about a 30 minute drive to the north of Bad Mergentheim), gave us a celebration lunch in which she wanted us to experience one of her favorite German meals. The meal consisted of a white sausage, sweet mustard, and large pretzels. She really wanted us to be able to experience her favorite beer with the meal as well but didn’t want her chef (boss) to become agitated that she fed us beer before our German test, which was going to be taking place later in the day.

All seven of us students and our teacher went over to the Singapore student’s apartment, which is right next to campus, to cook the sausages and eventually eat the delicious food. Our teacher cooked 35 sausages for the eight of us to consume right before our test! Not to mention, we had about 20 large pretzels that also needed to be consumed. After five very good sausages, three large pretzels, and sweet mustard, I felt as though I would not be hungry for the next few days!

Later in the evening, Theresa, who is one of the German students at the University and also involved in the student government, set up a fun night for all of us to hangout at one of the local bars. All of us international students were there except for the Singapore students (they travel in a bunch…..when one stays behind they all stay behind). Either way it was a fun night of meeting more German students and also getting to know the other international students better.

Internet Update: After class I rushed home to meet our landlords (Herr Heppner and Frau Heppner) who were coming to pick up the rent money. After collecting the money, Herr Heppner informed me that his wife and daughter talked about the internet and decided that it was not going to work out due to security reasons. What ensued was 10 minutes of me trying to persuade them to give us the code to the wireless internet that their daughter has. Happy to say after those 10 minutes, they finally gave in and said they will come by tomorrow and supply us with the code. I really hope they do not fall back on their word seeing how this our last chance to get any type of internet at the apartment.

4/3/08

I can honestly say that German class has gotten much more entertaining over the past few days! Besides learning the basics of German, our teacher has also introduced us to German words that one would not want to repeat at church.

Yesterday in German class our teacher was telling us how to count in German. She used her hand as a tool and ended up giving us all the one-fingered salute! This launched us into a talk about German slang! Since she didn’t seem to have any problem flipping us off, we thought she would be a good source for German slang! We started the talk and it lasted for about a good 30 minutes! I will stop now without getting into to much detail.

Today consisted of much more of the same, German class, lunch, and more German class! After class, all of us international students were supposed to get a tour of Bad Mergentheim….unfortunately it was raining. We instead stuck to our information packets and listened to our would be tour guide give us some interesting information within one of the classrooms at the university about the “romantic road,” a building where Beethoven supposedly stayed within the city for about two weeks (don’t worry I have a picture of it), a restaurant within BM that has grape vines growing on the ceiling, and other areas of interest within BM. Aside from the tour guide stuff, we learned that we will be visiting Wurzburg, Germany as a class to view some of the sights within that city. Another day trip for the whole class is a trip to the headquarters of Audi!!! These day trips will be taking place on something the school calls “excursion days.” They are placed throughout the 12 weeks of school and are meant to give us an opportunity to see things that we may not have the chance to see on our own.

We have been trying to get internet within our apartment for some time now! After eating some dinner tonight, Scott and I figured that we needed to take things into our own hands to accomplish anything regarding establishing an internet connection. We have noticed that we get a strong signal from some other secured wireless network very close to our apartment. As it turns out, it is coming from the apartment above ours! The daughter of our landlord lives there with her three children. So us knowing full well that she does not speak any English, wrote her a note in German using the skills that we have gained from this short week of language class. We ventured up to her apartment and gave her the note. Basically what we were asking her for was the password to her wireless network so we could use the internet from our own apartment to call our family and friends. We offered to pay part of her monthly bill if she would let us use it. What ensued were a lot of SCHIZAS….obviously coming from her mouth! She was clearly upset at the language barrier. What came out of the “very hard to understand conversation,” was that she will let us know tomorrow if it will be ok for us to use her wireless internet. Hopefully she lets us….!

4/1/08

After a week of feeling rather homesick, I am slowly getting over it as I talk to you all back home and am reassured that you are all doing well. I guess the homesickness can be expected since this is my first trip to Europe and also since I will be here for five months. While on the plane to Europe I thought a lot about how I would have loved to have had my family and friends on this trip with me. But I have been trying to look at it from the perspective of I will come out of this a much stronger person for traveling here by myself. Not to mention, the relationships I have with my family members and friends will also be strengthened.

Since starting our orientation week on the 31^st I have been able to relieve some stress and the feeling of homesickness by trying to keep myself entertained while taking introductory German. It has been extremely hard at times to keep my mind off of my family and friends back at home. I have been trying to make the most of this opportunity to develop a basic understanding of the German language, but it’s extremely hard to stay focused even when you have the slightest feeling of homesickness.

First Week - Finally Here!

The sole purpose of this journal is to provide you all, my family and friends, with a way to keep up with what is happening/going on in my life while I am over here in Europe. I also intend for this to be a reference for myself for years to come as I look back on my first trip to Europe!

From the start of the flight from SFO to Frankfurt, I could not help but think about what could potentially go wrong once I arrived within Frankfurt. Also on my mind was how much I was going to miss my family and friends while I am on this five month long journey. From the beginning of the flight out of SFO I tried to engulf my mind in the Spanish papers that I brought along with me hoping that it would keep my mind off of the potential disasters upon arrival within Frankfurt and also my family and friends. Sad to say….it did not work! While looking over my Spanish papers for the first few hours of the flight I constantly became sidetracked about every five minutes due to thoughts about family and friends.

Trying not to make this a sob story of a journal entry, I did in fact find some solace and entertainment during the flight. It came through not having anyone sit in the middle seat (I had the window seat) so I could talk with the Irish born businessman who sat in the isle seat of my respective row. From the start of the flight I made the comment of how thankful I was that nobody was sitting in the middle seat between the two of us. He quickly agreed that his flight will be a lot less stressful due to the fact that nobody claimed the seat between us. Throughout the flight we talked about everything from what life was like for him growing up in Dublin, Ireland to the beer that he recommends within Germany. Most of my listening happened during the parts about “beer in Germany!”

Upon arrival within Frankfurt, it was about 33 degrees Fahrenheit, the kind of temperature and weather I did not want to arrive to. I quickly made my way to the baggage claim and got my backpack which was packed within a big duffle bag. What I should have done when I got my luggage was take it out of the duffle bag and carry it the correct way on my back! Well I decided to keep it within the duffle bag and drag this thing around like I had a nice suitcase with wheels. Judging by how much dust my duffle bag picked up while I was dragging it through the airport in Frankfurt, I would have to say I did the janitors job for them! Making my way through the heavy traffic of people within the airport I finally found the long distance train station. After getting my Euro rail ticket to Bad Mergentheim, I tried running with my huge backpack stuffed within the duffle bag so I could make the train correct train that had just arrived. I went down the escalator to the train platforms and saw the sign that said Wursberg. I stood in front of the open door to the train telling myself to say “sprechen sie english,” to the many people packed onto the train. It did not come out of my mouth….and as a result the doors to the train shut right in my face! I waited for another hour and got on the next train to Wursberg. Two hours later I arrived within Bad Mergentheim to very cold temperatures and some snow on the ground.

Within the next couple of days Scott and I traveled to Saanen, Switzerland to ski the Swiss Alps! We traveled by train for seven and a half hours during the day to finally arrive within the small town of Saanen. The train ride offered some spectacular views, especially when we entered the Swiss Alps! Once arriving in Saanen, Scott and I walked aimlessly around town with our backpacks looking for the hostel! We eventually found it after asking numerous people within the town to point us in the right direction. We spent the next day skiing in the alps of Switzerland!

Arriving back home to Bad Mergentheim from our quick trip to Saanen, we ate dinner at Scotts homestay. The mother cooked us a very good wiener schnitzel dinner. While eating our dinner she broke the news to us that our apartment only had one bed in it! This may be funny to some of you, but when you are faced with the actual reality of having to share a bed with another guy for 13 weeks, trust me, it’s not funny! The mother of the homestay, Frau Haag, took us over to the apartment to meet the owners and to also move in. We got a tour of the apartment from the husband and wife, both of whom do not speak english! I now know what it feels like to be talked to with A LOT of hand motions and very very slowly in a foreign language! You think it helps people understand….well it doesn’t! We found our bed (queen frame with two twin mattresses) within the lone bedroom of the apartment during our amazing tour in German! Luckily the apartment has a living room with two couches, one of which folds out like a futon. Also within the living room is a flat screen T.V. Funny how the owners manage to install a flat screen television with cable but no internet!

I hope everybody is well back home within California and Oregon!

I miss you all!

-Blair

Europa

Bidding you Godspeed!