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| Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 | | 12:42 am |
Thoughts/observations about German universities
1.They are practically free
2.That means more people less specialized attention
3.They knock on their desks at the end of class
4.I had a prof tell me this isn’t the US we don’t have to read hundreds of pages a week, just 20-30
5.Internet is not easy to come by
6.I have class in a castle
7.They don’t use erasers, they either have sinks and then use rags to wipe of the board or there is a bucket provided
8.There is no such thing as a bachelors (until next year) everyone gets a masters, in either two main subjects or one major and two minors.
9.Grades are based on one paper or one test or there are no grades you go just to learn
10.You don’t have to buy a stack of books, they sounded upset when we had to buy a courspacket for 15 euro
11.All classes start 15 minutes after the hour, which must put people in the mentality that they should still get there 15 minutes before, ie on the hour. Good for punctuality
12.But punctuality isn’t so big of a problem for me because my earliest class is at 11:15, two days a week
13.Holidays are abounding, so due to all saints day on Nov 1, a Tuesday, prof decided to cancel class on Monday just for fun, so then I just don’t have class on Friday, meaning I have a 5 day weekend this weekend. What am I going to do with myself?
14.You can’t take a backpack or jacket into the library, so you have to carry anything you want… grrr so annoying
15.Oh and everything is in German. And the few terms that are in English, I can’t understand because I’m thinking in German not realizing it is a word I know in English, or I just can’t figure out the German accent. Funny.
Other news: Harp is found!!! First day tomorrow!!! Yay!!! Current Mood: busy | | Sunday, October 23rd, 2005 | | 3:38 am |
LIFE!
Ok so basically I suck at life and updating my journal. First of all it was because I didn’t have interent in my room, and then I was gone for 10 day with the lovely Nicole taking Europe by surprise. And then I came back hungover which turned into illness and now I am finally getting into a normal schedule, ie classes will start. Actually I already had one class last week. I’m pretty sure I understood the prof when he said we weren’t Americans and didn’t have to read hundreds of pages a week, only 60. I may be wrong on that… Ok so to catch up with things, if you are interested in my trip to Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris see my pictures or Nicole’s livejournal because I am just too lazy to write about the wonders of 10 days. Otherwise I am really really really happy here. I absolutely love Tübingen. It is a small town, 80,000 people, which is actually bigger then SLO but it is also somewhat lively. There is always something going on and people are always walking around, drinking coffee or just strolling down the streets. I live in the center of town and any time I feel like getting out of my room I can just walk outside where there are tons of people. I can get pretty much anywhere I want on foot meaning no hassle, no fuss. The market is three days a week, and only a two blocks away, so I can go and buy vegetables from the old man farmer and ask the nice man at the cheese booth what cheese is the best. I also have the joy of walking through this market to hike up to the castle where the Ethnology and Cultural Sciences departments and classrooms are located. They have a library in the castle from which one can look out over the valley of cute houses and fall coloring. After a lazy morning of lying in bed and feeling sorry for myself because I have a cold yesterday, I decided I needed to get out for a bit, so I went and bought a pita pizza thing and ate it in the market place where I was surrounded by happy friendly people. Kids were playing on and around the fountain, including one who claimed he was a tiger and growled at me. Tübingen is really just a happy place. I was so glad to come back after my 10 day vacation. As much as I loved visiting Paris, I don’t think I could live there. I felt like cousin from the country, kind of funny. It was fun to drink cocktails and then go to a 5 story disko place but I really like the student pub up the street with compfy couches and a tiny dance floor where they sometimes play funky Russian Polka. Anyway so my adventures last night… Well my friends somehow convinced me to get over feeling sorry for myself and my cold and we got tickets to a concert in the next town over. So we get on the train and of course it starts pouring down rain when we get off. Like pouring. And we have no idea where we are supposed to go. So we start walking in the direction we think is right, but oh no. So after 15 minutes we are like, this cannot be right. And then we start walking back, and somehow I find a graveyard. Yeah totally lost. So finally we find some people who tell us where to go, and this place it was only really five minutes from the train station. At this point we are all soaking wet. I could ring my hair and my jacket out. Ha! But the band was awesome. They were from Uruguay and a fun mixture of ska, reggae, and rap. Really fun. Oh today should be interesting, my friend Alejandro who was in our language program and with whom I drank at the Volksfest, is actually a priest and is giving a mass tonight. Current Mood:  happy | | Friday, September 23rd, 2005 | | 12:34 pm |
ok so I've been really busy and don't have much time right now because I have to get up early do go to Oktoberfest, but I have updated my fotos http://www.snapfish.com/home/t_=30536339 not sure if that will work, i might have to send you and invite, but let me knwo and i'll do that... | | Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 | | 7:47 am |
ok So i've been pretty bad at updating, but it really sucks not having easy access to internet. but another desperate american is looking into setting it up in our house, so hopefully in a few weeks I will be saved. Other than that I love it here. I have a bakery right below that sometimes leaves extra bread for us on our stairs, the main market is two blocks up and I hear church bells ringing all the time (which actually can be fairly annoying, but I'm getting used to it). I can see how Germans are always on time with the church bells ringing every 15 minutes. Naturally I'm still late, but only by a few minutes.. My neighbor just passed her huge gigantic test covering everything in the last two years of study yesterday so fun times last night. Unfortunately I couldn't go to the disko with them because of class at 9am, but I still enjoyed the pre-game, which consisted of tequila shots with orange and cinnamon. I've now come to think tequilla is more of a german thing because it seems I only drink tequilla here. my first shot was in germany with tequilla and oranges... weird. so that was interesting because they were all german and speaking really really fast and about sciency stuff because they were all studying to become doctors and took this huge test... so yeah but I tried my best to understand and fared pretty well. The weather is not quite so lovely anymore but it is still nice. My room is quite cozy up on the 4th floor where I can look over the city. and it is quite big so I can hang out without feeling claustrophobic. so I have extra blankets and a sleeping bag so you all have an open invitation to come visit me. Current Mood:  content | | Monday, September 5th, 2005 | | 3:55 pm |
Tübingen!
I MADE IT!! oh man! so after 10 day with my mom in Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg we finally made it to my final resting place in Tübingen! I moved into my new apartment this morning, got a bank account this afternoon and am totoally excited. The town is so cute and there will be 24,000 students in a few weeks. The weather as been nothing but 75-80 and beautiful for the past 2 weeks. Much to say, but also much to do, so an update later, but ya'll will have to come visit me. note- I have a 10 day break in October, so I'm taking bids on who I can visit on this side of the Atlantic Ocean... But I'm still planning on Thanksgiving in Paris! only 6.5 hours away on train! | | Monday, August 22nd, 2005 | | 10:12 am |
Tired after a wonderful weekend
I had quite a full weekend, partying it up in the City festival, exploring the national park and canoeing down a river. oh man. and now my shoulders and legs are killing me. Well not really but I could go for a backrub. The national park is less than an hour away on train and is absolutely gorgeous. There are huge cliffs made of rocks with forts and fortresses all around. Oh and I learned a few Brazilian songs which was fun. My friend Henrique is a guitar major so he taught me a few. What a hard language! jeez. Anyway hope to get my photosite up soon. | | Monday, August 15th, 2005 | | 6:45 pm |
German Politics!
So I was about 5 ft away from German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder today. He's actually fairly short. There is an election in September so politics are heating up around here. It was quite fun and I could understand about 75% which was awesome. Yay for slow political speeches with lots of pauses. He actually had some interesting things to say too. There were a fair amount of protesters who blew whistles the entire time which was annoying. For some reason the party handed out handpicket bouquets of flowers which totoally won me over =) ha ha. Tomorrow the opposition, Angella Merkel from the conservative Christian party will come. So I think I might go to that. It is quite interesting that their conservative party is actually called Christian yet really isn't as Christian as our conservative party seeing as it is a women candidate who I think is divorced and has no kids. From what I can understand reading German papers looks like she will win. Germany has a really high unemployment rate (nearly 20% in parts of east Germany) and people are not so happy with Schröder. It will be nice to see a women ruling, but does it have to be from a conservative Christian party? Ok well i really don't know her platform so I can't quite say much, but I don't like the name of the party so I'll stick with what I can induce from the name. good news I didn't break any porcelain on our excursion on Saturday! yay for me! I still fail at life seeing as I managed to set my clock an hour later while trying to set the alarm last night so I woke up quite confused thinking I was late to class, woke up my roommate turned on the lights and then realized it was only 7, not 8... not a good way to start out on a rainy cold Monday Current Mood:  amused | | Friday, August 12th, 2005 | | 4:08 pm |
blah blah
So I'm going to a town famous for porcelin tomorrow (sp? can't do the whole 2 languages with similar words but different spellings. my brain ist "kaputt" as the Germans would say). Watch out! I may manage to break all of the porcelin in town! My Greek roomie is cooking tonight.. yum yum. yesterday was something yumming from Hungary. Next Thursday my class is having a potluck dinner and I need to think of something that I can make in 2 pots on a stove (basically no oven and no complicated utensils I just have a big spoon and an extra knife) that will taste good and feed 12 people. Any ideas would be appreciated. Oh and ingredients must be available here, ie no peanut butter. yes sad I know. So I'll take the best advice I get. Oh and thanks for all the encouragement and advice for live without boy. =) | | Tuesday, August 9th, 2005 | | 8:20 am |
| | Monday, August 8th, 2005 | | 8:57 am |
Sad Day
So David left today and I won't see him until Christmas at the earliest. I didn't think it would be quite so hard to stand on the platform in the train station as he headed back to Prague fo his flight. We've had some great adventures this summer. We spent the last weekend in Leipzig which is only about an hour and a half from here. Weather sucked as usuall, but we had a great time despite the screwy tram system and the fact that somehow I managed to book a hotel 25 minutes away from the center of town. There was this huge memorial to the Battle of Nations that looks like something out of mesopotamia. It was quite funny and looked a bit out of place. Seems weird to think that it has been a symbol of German national pride considering it looks like nothing else in Germany. We got back last night and went to this Greek restaurant where they braught us a shot before dinner and after dinner and then brandy (mine was mixed with cream and warm and David had it straight up). And this was not an extra charge it was for everyone. A bit of an alcoholic meal including the wine we had with dinner... So my new roomie came last Monday night and she is wonderful, from Crete but goes to school in Athens. So I'll look forward to the rest of my month with her. And she knows how to cook! On Wednesday my Mexican friend Vincent taught us how to make tortillas. Oh man soooooooo good! It was really easy too! Just like a pie. So yes I came to Germany and I learned how to make Tortillas. (they are hard to find here so I'm really excited because I could live off tortillas alone). David will testify to my tortilla skills. Anyway I think I'm going to go feel sorry for myself that my boyfriend is on his way to being halfway across the world from me and I'll get no lovin' for a long time... Current Mood:  lonely | | Monday, August 1st, 2005 | | 5:23 am |
oops it is spelled Prost!
Ok so I fail at spelling. So nearly everyone has left Dresden and the next month-long session starts tomorrow. (most people are only here one month) Luckily David was able to come up this weekend or I would have been alone. But unfortunately he was sick, I so got to play nurse and cook for him and I even made a backgammon board out of cardboard and taught him how to play. I'm such a good girlfriend =). We had fun though. We made a pasta salad and brought it to in a pot to the river for a picnic dinner and we went to two museaums. That reminds me. There is this wonderful old painting at the museum and I had to buy postcards because it was just to funny, so if you send me your address I will send you a postcard of a peeing angel drinking wine. I went to mass on Sunday which was pretty much a complete disaster. I had no idea what was going on. So I sat in the back and then the priest starts talking but it was echoing in through this giant vaulted church, so even if I had known the words I couldn't hear them correctly which made everything incomprehensible. And then there weren't any hymnals, people seemed to bring their own. And trying to understand what a muffled congregation was saying was quite difficult. All I could manage was "Amen". But the church was beautiful and I enjoyed it. Oh and there was no wine. WTF?! Current Mood:  calm | | Monday, July 25th, 2005 | | 6:27 am |
Back from Berlin!!
Got back yesterday from a wonderful weekend in Berlin with David and 10 other friends of his from Prague. It was an interesting combination of going around in a massive group of obnoxious loud Americans and then just as couple with David. The weather was less than ideal however. I was sooo cold on Saturday, I'm talking a long sleeve shirt, zippy sweater, jean jacket and then a raincoat. brrr. I think the most interesting thing about Berlin is that although it is old in the classic European sense, the recent history is the most interesting and most visible. You can just feel that possibility and the energy. It amazes me how adaptable the people seem to be. Life goes on with new governments, new opportunities, new boundaries, but life is life no matter where you live. So on Saturday we went with some of Davids friends to this pub crawl which was just about the funniest thing I've ever seen. The flier said free shots, but that really meant one small free flavored vodka shots that could have been drunken out of a glass every time you bought another drink. There were about 60 English speakers, mostly americans, following around this British guide to these small pubs which we completely took over. Between the 1st and 2nd pub we lined up in the park and he pured this sweet vodka stuff down our throats. It was quite funny. Then there was this guy there who I would like to call "Tool." He had on a pink polo shirt, khakies and sneakers. He had his hair combed over and looked the the ultimate prep. But then he was chain smoking and had a cigarette behind his ear trying ever so hard to be cool. He was from Texas. Ok enough said, I was quite amused. But all in all a great weekend. Unfortunately I can't speak German now. After a weekend of solid English I'm fucking everything up. so back to the books! Current Mood: happy | | Thursday, July 21st, 2005 | | 6:45 am |
German toasts
So in Germany you say "Brost" and if you don't look the others in the eyes it means you will have 7 years without sex. so my friends, as Frenchie has always stressed, eye contact is a very important matter when drinking. I've also learned some fun toasts in Spanish and Italian but unfortunately when drinking I'm not quite in a state to remember such things, so sometime I'll have them write it down so I can educate ya'll about drinking matters. Yesterday we went to a party at the government center for german language students, which involved a few long speeches and then wonderful food and free drinks. I mean my glass of wine was not even half gone before they'd come to fill it up again. Germans are really such wonderful people =). Current Mood:  thirsty | | Wednesday, July 20th, 2005 | | 6:42 am |
My internet is back!
Ok so the internet at school has been out for a complete week. I thought I would die. Because I'm really just to cheap to spend the 3E per hour at a cafe. Anyway all is good in Germany. On Saturday we had an adventure into a small town near the Polish boarder which was fun. The town of Bautzen has everything written in two languages because there is a small community of Sorbs who still speak there own language. Very interesting. Then I came back to a fiesta in the parkinglot of my building. This guy from Mexico made homemade tortillas and guacamole. oh man so good. So we chilled outside for about 6 hours drinking, eating, talking, dancing... almost felt like home with the Mexican theme, but then we drank German beer. On Saturday I went for a lovely bikeride up to a asian looking castle thing where this King basically hosted huge parties. Too bad there were only tourists and no parties. Two of us kept going and went halfway to the Czech boarder! crazy. so our bikes were like the most ghetto ever. They were red and clunky complete with a basket and bell. They didn't do so well on cobblestones. We hit a stretch of serious cobblestons which felt like a painful massage. I could barely hold on! I watched a movie yesterday in German and actually understood it. I was really exicted and it was quite good. Headed to Berlin for the weekend with David and others from Prague NU, so should be fun, although it is supposed to rain. Ok now I have to go practice phonetics because my teacher said I sound like an American and my pronunciation is horrible. Oh so we went to this disko thing last friday and they played Michael Jackson, Madonna, and a bunch of old 80s songs and there were tons of German guys rocking out to all of these Madonna songs. Absolutley hilarious. I mean they were rocking out to "Girls just want to have fun" and "Like a Prayer" wish you guys could have been there. ha ha, i wish i had a video camera because i've never seen anything funnier. oh my fotosite is http://aashbaugh.photosite.com/ so take a look at all my fun! Current Mood: amused | | Wednesday, July 13th, 2005 | | 8:10 am |
so productive!!
So I updated my photosite today, although captions would have taken to long, so you can look at pictures and if you want explanations let me know. basically they are of exploring Prague and a little down outside, and of Dresden and drinking with friends. Yesderday I bought an icecream cone and went to the park for a relaxing evening alone to watch the sunset and sort out my mind. I think we need such a park. It was fabulous. Everyone was sitting in groups of friends, in couples or just alone, drinking beer and wine relaxing after a hot day. They had blankets and picknic dinners with their bikes lying on the grass next to them. There were two games of vollyball, some guys kicking around a soccerball, a group of people juggling, and drummers. The music filled the whole park with a happy energetic beat. I love seeing people enjoying themselves, it was fabulous. One can't help but be in a good mood. And so I sat with my strawberry icecream as happy as can be. Current Mood: cheerful | | Monday, July 11th, 2005 | | 9:15 am |
Alle ist gut heir!
So the rain has stopped!!! thank god. the city is finally coming to life. I've just returned from a Brewery where we got free beers at the end. that was quite fun. although I couldn't quite understand much because it was all technical terms and all in German. not a good combination. but I can understand that however the beer gets made, it ends up tasting good. =) yesterday I went to the Opera which was soooo soooo sooo good. We got standing tickets for 8E but the house wasn't all that big so we could still see. the people didn't look like ants. It was Puccini's Turnadot but they left off the ending that someone else wrote, so it ended where Puccini left it (he died before finishing it). It was set in the 80s, very interesting and the voices were incredible!! On Saturday it was the Museum night where you can go to all the museums in the city for 7E which was fun and then we went to the bars and eventually met a friend of a friend who is German. So there were like 6 of us from all over and 6 Germans. It was soooo fun. We ended up staying at the bar until 4:30, when it was getting light. So i was trying to talk politics and religion with these Germans after 4 large beers. ha ha that was quite a funny sight. They said I was making sense, but somehow I don't know how I formulated any coherent sentences. But my German is getting much better considering basically everything I speak is in German now. I'm having a hard time writing in English... A friend here from New Zealand has a friend who studied in Tuebingen where I'm going in fall who absolutely loved it, so that is good. I'm starting to get excited for the rest of the year. The rain depressed me a little, but I think all is good now. So I have an address now and if you want to write me a letter it would be really really really cool! You have to send it to the school and then they bring our mail to us in class so... then I would look really cool if I had real mail. I'm working on postcards... but my address is Goethe-Institut Königsbrücker Str. 84 01099 Dresden Germany Current Mood:  excited | | Thursday, July 7th, 2005 | | 6:54 pm |
Das Bier ist Gut!
So I'v been here for a few days now and there has been too much rain for my liking. We went on a walking tour of Dresden today but it was raining for most of it and rather gross out which is not a good combination with an already dark city. Most of the buildings are made with stone that is now naturally black after time. Last night we went to bar which was quite fun. I have friends from, Italy, Spain, Ireland, France, Mexico, and Russia. Its crazy but we all speak German. Last night on our way to another bar this dog came up and bit my friend. So then we flagged down the police and had them take her to the hospital to get shots etc... fairly unfortunate, but the good news is she doesn't have rabis! This class at 8:30 in the morning is killing me... ugh. i'm sooo not a morning person. Any way i better do my homework now Current Mood: busy | | Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 | | 7:02 am |
Fun times in Europe
Ok so sorry for my lack of updates. I planned to write before I left last wednesday but then half my keyboard turned to numbers and I was on the phone with microsoft sobbing because my computed didn't work and I was supposed to have left for the airport like 15 minutes ago. anyway it works now I got out and am not in Germany after a fabulous 4 days in Prague. So I got to Prague last thursday and wandered around with David, had my first beer sans ID which was fun. Then on friday we went for an adventure in the countryside which involved complicated train systems. We actually got off a stop to early, but it was Ok because the right stop was only a few miles away, so we hoofed it. Then we went up to the castle and to the hunting lodge place/ only hotel in the town, where I successfully made a reservation in German. (David called me last week when I was home to have me make the reservation in German because they didn't speak English). I was a little nervous about that considering my skills are slightly lacking. Then back to Prague on Saturday for more roaming in the Old town and a few beers in the beer garden up on a hill overlooking the city before a Jazz club at night. The saxiphone player was amazing, but he was an unbelievable chain smoker. I lost count as to how many cigarettes he went through! Yesterday I attempted to get to Dresden but had a slight issue because I didn't know my train wasn't direct. So I went to some random Czech town in god knows where where nobody spoke German or English. Needless to say although I set out at 9 in the morning I didn't get to Dresden until 8:05 pm, and thankfully the institute here stayed open for me to give me the key to my room, because otherwise I would have had to find a hotel which would have sucked. For all you planning on traveling by train anywhere in Europe. Don't go with all your shit that you packed for a year! Ugh it was a bit difficult and I felt like an idiot. Anyway so Dresden is fun so far, we had class today... I made friends with a violinist in the Dresden Opera so i'm hoping for Opera tickets. It has been raining all day however and our tour of the city got cancelled... Ok i'm off to figure out the market and to see if I can sucessfully cook for myself... I may starve... Current Mood: excited | | Saturday, June 25th, 2005 | | 1:01 am |
slightly intoxicated at the moment...
Ok so my sister walks into my room last night and says "should I be embarrassed that I was dancing around a tree with my friends and some neighbors saw us and stood there laughing?" oh man so the full moon made my sis a bit crazy, with no alcohol believe it or not. Her dance consisted of "hiyayayay hiyayayay bush bush bush" as they circled a tree in our front yard that was lit up. ha ha ha I claim no relation. Anyway I've been busy packing, just went and drank at my friends house until she started giving her current guy a lap dance which was slighly awkward because there were all of 6 of us... So my friend James rocks my world! He gave me this harp lamp/nigh light thing. That is a like a foot tall harp that glows. It is rather awesome. I'm really sad I can't take it to Europe, but just you wait my friends it will be in Evanston soon enough. I miss my harp! I can actually grow out my nails now! too bad I bite them... anyway I think it is time to sleep... Current Mood:  groggy | | Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005 | | 10:45 pm |
Back from Yosemite!
So I just returned from a fabulous 3 days in Yosemite at my cabin. The waterfalls were humongous!!! oh man!! In fact the normal swimming hole was a raging white water adventure waiting to kill me if I tried to take a dip, which would not happen because, oh wait the water came from freshly melted snow. After about 10 seconds I couldn't feel my feet. Hiked a bit, but mostly sat on my ass and slept because thats really what vacation is about. We hiked from Glacier Point down to the vally which although only a 4.5 mile hike somehow made me incredibly sore the next day. I'm talking sore like you wouldn't believe, like me waddling around because my butt, and calves hurt so much. Amazing how downhill works you so hard. I guess I haven't been using my elevation muscles enough in Chicago! =) The field in front of our cabin was filled with lupin. It smelled sooo good. Sometimes it is nice to just get away from everything, no internet, no people... for a little bit. But civilization has its perks. So my grandpa has been with us for the last few weeks. He is quite a character, an 87 year old former professional football player who is very conservative. Also very strongly opinionalted which as been a lovely combination with my very liberal father who wanted to be a politician. Anyway he's always good entertainment. We went berry picking last week and went and had fish and chips by the ocean. I have recounted below the predictions he has made. The future according to my Grandpa: Unions will destroy everything. After the next election the Democratic party will be nonexistent. If government workers didn't get as much benefits and retirement money we'd be out of debt. I've been sleeping so much lately I'm finally not tired! what do you know? I thought that would never happen. Current Mood:  mellow |
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