Random thoughts...

Guten Tag! I hope all is well back home! These past two weeks have absolutely flown by! My parents visited as I told you about in the other posts, and my friend, Steven Rosenbaum, who went to my high school and is currently studying in Italy, came to visit me for 3 days! I literally am with people (not including my exchange friends from MN) from Minnesota for almost 4 weeks straight! Tonight is one of two nights that I have from October 15-November 7 that I am not playing host to someone. I love having people visit though, I always do my best to show them the wonderful city of Cologne. Steven and I were able to get tickets to a FC Koeln futbol match this Tuesday. Going to a futbol match was one thing that I NEEDED to do while I was in Europe because at the professional level, futbol is virtually non-existent in the states. The fans were pretty crazy (though quite tame when compared to what you see on TV) and there was constant singing and cheering. FC Koeln is actually one of the worst teams in Germany, but surprisingly, we won! On Wednesday, my German buddy, Cosima, had me and a few other exchange students over for a typical German dinner. We had wurst(pretty much breakfast sausage), sauerkraut, and potatoes; I don't think you can get any more German than that! It was a really good time :) Sorry no pictures for now, my laziness has take over! Clayton is coming to visit from tomorrow night until Sunday the 7th. I am so incredibly excited to see him, two months apart is a REALLY long time! Tschuss for now!

Bukowski's in Europe - Part 2

Well, another week has flown by. I am sadly on my way back to Cologne from a weekend in Karlsruhe. I just parted with my family after 9 days of being together, which was pretty sad, knowing that I won’t see them again for three months, or as my mom likes to say, “none of this 3 month stuff, only 74 days!” I had such a great time while they were here though. Last Thursday, I took a train and met up with my family after classes in Heidelberg. We went to dinner in the Old City and called it a night. As a word of advice to people who want to go to Heidelberg, do NOT attempt to drive in the old city. I’m pretty sure my family and I drove our car down streets that were pedestrian zones and it was incredibly difficult to find a good parking spot. The next day, we ventured up to the Heidelberg Castle. This was definitely one of the coolest castles that I have toured so far; the city of Heidelberg has done an amazing job of restoring the castle and the tour that we took was excellent. A few interesting facts about the castle…back in the day, it was extremely unsafe to drink water (they still didn’t know that boiling gets rid of the bacteria and diseases). Instead of water, they drank wine.

This wasn't even the biggest barrel, the other one was at least twice this size!

The wine barrel in the castle held nearly 230,000 liters of wine, the largest wine barrel in the world! Needless to say, they drank A LOT back in the day. One of the rulers of Heidelberg was also a big wine drinker. He weighed 500 pounds, couldn’t walk by himself, and insisted on being carried by his servants down into the city everyday! It took us about ten minutes to drive up to the castle, so you could imagine how long it would take to get to the bottom…while carrying a 500 pound man! We then continued on our journey and stopped in Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden is known for its casino. You can only take tours in the casino until 2:00 pm, then the gambling starts. You pretty much have to be a high roller to even be let into the casino! The city was pretty ritzy and very clean…I would definitely recommend it, but you won’t need more than a couple hours there. Our last stop of the day, and where my family and I stayed over the weekend, was Matthias and Simone Langerdoerfer’s house. I had stayed there before, and quickly found out that these people are extremely hospitable! We went over to Matthias’ parents house for a dinner of pumpkin soup, spaetzle with venison, and chocolate mousse. The Langerdoergers are not very closely related to us. I believe that Matthias’ parents were cousins with my Grandpa Herm. Nevertheless, they are the closest thing that I have to family in Europe so I take advantage of that! There was a huge language barrier because his parents do not speak English and my family and I speak little to no German. We made do with our helpful translators and it turned out to be a great night. The next day we started with a wonderful German brunch. We then hopped in the car and headed to France! We toured another castle (if you haven’t guessed by now, Europe has a lot of them!), which again was really cool. I’m blanking on the name right now, but it was somewhere near the town of Strasbourg, France. We then headed to Strasbourg, France.

Strasbourg is a town that is influenced by both France and Germany. The architecture was absolutely stunning to see houses influenced by both architectural styles of the two countries. We toured the Cathedral, walked in around “La Petite France” or the historic city, did a little souvenir shopping, and took a canal tour. I definitely could have spent at least a full one or two days there! It was one of my favorite cities so far and I would highly recommend it! It is also known for its Christmas markets, so I would love to go back when Clayton and I go backpacking over the Christmas and New Years holidays. Our time was short in Strasbourg because we needed to make it in time for our dinner reservations. The specialty of the restaurant that we ate at was Flammkuchen. It’s a somewhat difficult dish to explain, but it’s a very thin dough crust covered in sour cream, with toppings like onions, cheese, garlic, bacon, and other spices. It is to die for!! The dish is specific to the region that we were in, but I am still going to seek our places that have it in Cologne! It was a great meal to have with a large group of people because we would order one Flammkuchen for the group, cut it into 8 slices, and order another once we were finished! It was so delicious; I will probably attempt to make some when I return to the states, so if anyone is willing to be my guinea pig and try it, let me know J When we arrived back at their house, Matthias showed us the family tree that he has been working on for the past few weeks. We have been able to go pretty far back in our lineage so its been very cool to see where I come from! On Sunday morning, we were able to drive to the town of Beitigheim, where my grandpa was born. Matthias’ parents still live in this town and it was pretty close to where Matthias and Simone live. It was weird to think that if my grandpa hadn’t come to the United States, I probably would have been living in that small town! We saw a few houses where my great-grandfather and some other relatives lived. We then ventured on to our last stop of the day, a horse race track! The afternoon was spent betting on horses and eating delicious German food.

 I, unfortunately, didn’t win pick any winning (or even placing!) horses, but my dad won 17 Euros when one of his horses won! Even with that winning, my family as a whole still came out a loss, but it was such a good time. They brought me to the train station, where we said good bye to the Langerdoerfers, and then to my family. I didn’t cry as much as I did when I left for Europe in August, but it was still pretty tough to hold back the tears. Either way, I know that these last three months (and just for you, mom, 73 days!!) will go by in a flash. It is very weird to think that my time is almost half over here, I can’t even fathom going back to the States yet! Anyways, my friend, Steven, who is currently studying in Italy, is coming to visit me tomorrow for 3 days, and Clayton comes to visit for a week on Friday. They both have fall breaks at their University; Cologne isn’t that nice and they don’t allow us any breaks. On the plus side, I can show them the wonderful city of Cologne! Alright, I’ll wrap it up for now so you don’t fall asleep (if you haven’t already!) with my extremely long tangents. Tschuss!

Bukowski's in Europe - Part 1

Well, needless to say, this week has definitely been a highlight of my stay in Europe so far! My family came to visit me! I met up with them at the Dachau Bahnhof, and even after multiple hours of travel for both parties, we managed to arrive within minutes of each other! Our first destination was the concentration camp in Dachau. That was a place that I felt was necessary to go to while I was studying. It was an intense experience and pretty sad. After we finished that, we drove to our hotel in a small town in southern Germany, within eyesight of the Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as the Cinderella Castle to Disney lovers. We went to dinner in Fussen. I was having a huge craving for Weiner Schnitzel so I was finally able to satisfy my craving! The next morning, we drove near Neuschwanstein and another castle, Hohenschwangau.

We then went on a castle tour at Linderhof. All of the three castles that I mentioned were owned by the same king, and all were quite spectacular. I also introduced my family to the traditional Bavarian bratwurst, called “Weiss Wurst”. Weisswurst is essentially a white brat, with more spices than a normal brat. They are normally eaten with mustard and a giant pretzel..and are SO delicious! We then moved onto Oberammergau, the town known for putting on the “Passion Play”. The Passion Play was started in the 1600s and is produced once every ten years, with everyone who lives in the small town playing a part or working behind the scenes. Then my mom spontaneously decided that we should go to Munich and see the Glockenspiel ring, so we did! We then drove to our final destination of the day, Salzburg, Austria. Its was very nice to be able to travel with my parents because they rented a car. It would have been virtually impossible for me to see all that I did, had I only been able to travel by train. One giant downside of our weekend…RAIN! It was raining and really cold (you know its really cold when we think its cold…and we’re from Minnesota!). The next day we toured a Salt Mine (where we got to dress in silly white suits and go down slides into the mines), went to Mozart’s Birth house, went to Mirabell Gardens (which is where “The Sound of Music” is shot during the song “Do Re Mi”), and took a “Sound of Music” bus tour. The Sound of Music tour was definitely the coolest for me. I took after my mom and am very into musicals. It’s one of her favorite musicals, which meant we listened to it non-stop as a child, so I know all of the words…to every song. The tour was four hours; it took us to various sites around Salzburg where the movie was filmed, and we drove outside of Salzburg into the country, which made for some great views. The picture of Emilie and I is in front of the house in the movie. This is only the back of the house though, the house in the movie actually was two separate houses, one for the front shot and one for the back! That night we ate at a church/brewery where in older times, the Monks brewed beer, so I don’t know how much of a church it is anymore ;) 

Our Monday was spent driving across the full country of Germany to Cologne, just in time for me to get back for class. That night, we took my German buddy, Cosima, out to dinner. My buddy has been the BIGGEST help and I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy. I have no idea how to repay her for all that she has done for me. My family loved her also, so it was a great time. The next day, I had class but was able to meet up with my family in between for a bit of sightseeing. That night, we went over to my relative’s house. Johanna and Volker are the greatest hosts and I always have such a good time when I go there. We showed them a bunch of pictures of our family, and told their curious daughters as much as we could about America! I was even able to converse a little bit in German with them too! I could understand a lot of what they were saying, but I’m definitely not too great at speaking back to them in German. 

On Wednesday, we traveled to Bonn in the morning and toured Beethoven’s birth house. Bonn, the former capital of Germany, was okay. Just the fact that it was cold and rainy made it not as pleasant as it could have been. But, the cathedral in Bonn was really cool on the inside. When we got back, I headed off to class and my family headed to the Zoo. We met up later at night for dinner with another of my relatives, Loretta. She has a two-year-old daughter named Mathilda, who Emilie successfully taught how to “pound it”. It was pretty funny, and Mathilda wanted to pound it to everyone for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we are heading to Heidelberg, and then to Karlsruhe to visit more relatives. It has been so action-packed with my family, and it’s really nice not having to plan everything for ourselves when I travel with my friends! Not to mention having a car too! The time has gone by so fast with them here, and I’m already getting sad about them leaving because I won’t see them for the next three months! But that is what Skype is for, right? 

Amsterdam

This past weekend's excursion was Amsterdam. This trip was only the 4 students from Minnesota, but a bunch of other exchange students were going as well. We saw a few of them randomly in the city though. We hopped on a train early Saturday morning and arrived in Amsterdam in the early afternoon. I had been to Amsterdam before when I was twelve, and wasn't a huge fan of it. I felt that I needed to go back during my semester abroad so that I could see it again! And boy, I'm glad I did! The city is absolutely wonderful; the architecture is stunning and the city is quite unique. The majority of what we did was wander around the city. This may not sound too fun, but I'm not very into paying 10 euro for an entrance to a museum multiple times a day. So Saturday we wandered, laid down in a park, took pictures by the gigantic "amsterdam" letters, and explored the city.

We didn't have much of a plan, but we ended up seeing the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, the central square, the Red Light District, and many other places. Our hostel was literally a campsite. It was a 30 minute bus ride and a 30 minute walk to our campsite...the walk was quite scary because we literally had to walk through a forest with no lights! Anyways, our 4-person cabin was about 10 x 10 feet, so pretty cozy. We were also not informed that the campsite did not provide toilet paper for the bathrooms, so that made for an awesome night for Katie and I! We got a good nights rest (as good as we could at a hostel..which isn't saying much!) and headed back into the city. We first went to the Heineken brewery museum. If you are ever in Amsterdam, this is one place that I would definitely recommend seeing! They gave us a complete history of the company, how the beer is brewed, how the beer is bottled, we rode on a ride within the museum, and were given 2 beers with the price of admission. It is definitely worth the money and I'm very glad that we did it! I also realized that the whole museum was a marketing tool...I'm finally starting to think like a Marketing Major! After that we headed out for lunch...we ate at a "fast food" Asian restaurant that makes your own "made-to-order" stirfry.

We also had that for dinner the night before; it was very difficult to find something healthier and cheaper to eat so we just went twice. For the rest of the day we wandered again. I had some fries with Mayo (Europeans are very into fries..they are everywhere!) which was delicious! Once our day came to an end, we hopped on our train back to Cologne. It overall was a great weekend and I was glad I could share it with my fellow Minnesotans.
And now classes are finally starting! I had my first lecture yesterday, "Psychology of Marketing and Advertising". All of my classes are taught in English, but I did not expect the teacher to be American, and he was! I figured that he was midwestern after he said "awesome", "you guys", my office hours are from "2-3pm" rather than "14:00-15:00", and when his computer screen displayed on the overhead projector, the time was still set to the central time zone! He is young and quirky; I am very much looking forward to this class! Besides that class, I am taking "Product Management", "Cultural Immersion", and "Transnational Social Policy". A bunch of my friends are in a "Leadership and Motivation" class so I may take that as well, it can't hurt right?! Its very weird though to think that I will only be in classes for the next two months! Its also nice having my German class over now, I have a lot more free time on my hands since most classes only meet for 1.5 hours per week!

My family is coming to Germany in 3 days! I can't wait to meet up with them, its been so long! We are going to Munich, Dachau, Salzburg, and a few other small towns next weekend. It will be action packed and stressful, but I'll enjoy every minute of it! So be prepared for an awesome next blog! :)

My "first" weekend in Cologne

Hi all! I just realized that is has been a LONG time since I have posted, I apologize! Things have been a bit crazy here! A few hours ago, I took my final exam for my 5 week language intensive class. I definitely didn't ace it, but I'm confident that I passed the class :) And good news, I finally got over my sickness! I still have a cough, but that is something that I can deal with. My parents and Emilie are coming to Germany in a week; I am getting so excited to see them!
So this past weekend, was technically my first weekend in Cologne! I did stay one weekend with my relatives in Hurth, a suburb of Cologne, but I'm not counting it. It has been so nice to travel every weekend and see as much as I can, but I definitely was in need of a weekend to relax, catch up on sleep, and chill out. Little did I know that I was in for a big surprise! My friend, Alex, who is studying this year in Berlin, found last minute train tickets to Cologne for Sunday-Tuesday. He and I both found out that he was coming Saturday night! His train was scheduled to arrive around 12:30 pm, so I thought it would be logical if I leave about an hour early to pick him up. Boy was I wrong! There was a marathon in Cologne on Sunday, which meant that almost all of public transportation was shut down, bummer for me! So I ended up walking about 3 miles, taking maybe 5 trains, and finally getting to him about two hours later! It was all worth it though; it was nice to see another face that I recognized from Minnesota. We surprised my friend, Katie, who is also from the U of M and is also friends with Alex. Later that day, we climbed the Dom, walked across the Rhein bridge, and meandered through the Old City. This is when I realized that there isn't too much to do in Cologne for free!

This week has been pretty "normal" otherwise. I finished my German class, did my normal routine of cultural night on Monday (the Belgians made Fries and Meatloaf..delicious!), student night at a pub on Tuesday, etc. I have gone shopping a few times in the last few weeks; I am attempting to dress as much like a European as possible! Since I have been here, I've bought my first pair of fancy boots and skinny jeans! I was also very proud when I picked Alex up from the train station and he didn't recognize me at first because I dressed European..I took that as a compliment! Tonight I went to an international exchange student dinner. We each had to make a dish from our home country to share with the others. Two other Americans and I made ceasar salad. To be honest, its really difficult to find something easy, simple, and native to America. Most of what we eat comes from other places! Otherwise, it was a great dinner and I got to enjoy eating dishes from other countries. My fellow Americans and I are leaving for Amsterdam tomorrow morning. We will only be there for a night, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. I don't remember having the greatest impression from when I went last, at twelve years old, but I also wasn't in the right age category to enjoy the night life. I am hoping that this time will leave me with a better impression. I'd better get going; of course I have completely put off packing until the last minute! Tschuss!