Croatia:
Bosnia-Herzegovina:
Jewish Museum in Bosnia-Herzegovina:
This inscription made me laugh.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures Galore
Well the end of our stay here in Freiburg has been a bit anticlimactic. My nose has been scraping my textbooks for my upcoming final exams. But I did promise some pictures from my trip and here they are, along with a video or two!!
Croatia:
Bosnia-Herzegovina:
Jewish Museum in Bosnia-Herzegovina:
This inscription made me laugh.
Croatia:
Bosnia-Herzegovina:
Jewish Museum in Bosnia-Herzegovina:
This inscription made me laugh.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I'm BACCKKKKK!!!
PICTURES TO COME IN NEXT POST, STILL UPLOADING THEM
Hey everyone!!
Sorry it's been a while, I had a fantastic time on the trip. For starters we went to Croatia, which was interesting because I've never seen an Eastern European country, especially one that was so recently involved in a war (1991). The most interesting thing of note there were the Soviet buildings.
They look SO DIFFERENT from buildings I'm used to seeing. Apparently the Soviets had no idea how to build something aesthetically pleasing at all, but I guess that's what you get without a Capitalist system.
We spoke with a professor and a famous news reporter in the area. We were supposed to be visited by an MP, but unfortunately the jerk cancelled on us. Oh, and the prices were SUPERB. It was amazing to be in a place where the dollar was actually strong. Who knew it existed? I bought a few interesting little dodads, but nothing major.
Before I go on, let me tellk you a bit about the hotels we were staying at: They had a 5-star system in all the countries we went to, and all the hotels posted on their sign how many stars they were.
Perhaps it was government mandated or simply a custom throughout Europe and Turkey that just doesn't exist in the US? Anyway, we always stayed in 4-star hotels (out of 5-star), and they were NICE. They were obviously meant for Western tourists as they had pools, wireless internet access, and everyone spoke English as a necessity.
Following that trip, we went to Bosnia-Herzegovina. For those that dont know it's a pretty messed up country, and I could go on about all I've learned about it for quite a while. Essentially, it's a tripartite government with three micro-countries within it. The first is Republica Serbska, the piece of the coutnry that's majority Serbian. They have their own government.
The second is the Federation, as it's called, which is essentially a confederation of 10 provincial governments. They're split so that they're either large-majority Croat with minority Bosniak or large-majority Bosniak with minority Croat. Yea, really confusing? Don't even get me started...
The third is the weirdest, it's a tiny little province in the north east that's split just about 50-50 between Croats and Bosniaks. When the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords partitioned all this stuff, they wanted to separate this province from the other two partitions because they were fearful of ethnic clashes with both sides so close in number.
That prediction has proven completely wrong, and this 50-50 split province is actually the most prosperous province all all of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Anyway, we visited Bana Luka in Republica Serbska first, and this was perhaps the most interesting part of the trip educationally for me. There were 18 of us and we got to meet with 18 college students at Bana Luka University (they all spoke English) to talk and exchange ideas.
That conversation was a truly revealing moment for me. They had such a different experience than I did in life. They were all young children when the war was going on mostly, but quite a few had lost relatives in it.
What struck me most was their lack of opportunity. Since they weren't an EU member state, they had to get expensive 300 Euro visas to travel. With the average wage their so low, this was nearly impossible.
Unemployment was over 30% and even after graduating from college they had slim prospects for work. I spoke with a few of the students, and let me tell you, they're sharp.
They're at least as smart as I am and a few quite a bit smarter. That I should have all the opportunities in the world and them absolute crap simply because of a genetic lottery on where we were born seemed horribly absurd...
They're stuck in this tiny piece of land in a country that they have no identity with (they consider themselves Serbs, not Bosnians) with few prospects for the future. Despite the grim outlook they were optimistic about their future, which amazed me at their resilience to adversity.
One of the most interesting people I met there was the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Republica Serbska (he was 22 like me). We had some truly interesting discussions on politics and it was amazing to hear such a different perspective on world events and world leaders.
This trip certainly made me more motivated for where I want to go in life. I now know I definitely want to get into International Relations. I'm going to grad school to study it, although I don't know where yet (my friend Mike goes to Texas A&M and told me that it has an excellent IR program so I'll certainly be taking a look at that one).
I may try to take a year off after I graduate undergrad to perhaps take on an Internship. With my poor GPA I'll certainly need something extra on my transcript to help me out.
Anyway, after Bana Luka we went to Sarajevo where the Serbs essentially pulverized it into the ground barely a decade ago. We met with some businessmen and the OSCE (UN organization meant to help progress along) which was alright but not great. Walking around the city was the most amazing part.
I expected everything to be totally destroyed but it wasn't like that. There were certainly hefty war scars everywhere, but life seemed moderately normal. There were markets, shopping, plays, stuff you'd find anywhere. The big difference was every now and then you'd see bullet holes...
I also got to see the exact spot where Franz Ferdinand was murdered, that was a pretty cool piece of history. World War I, anyone? The bazaar there was pretty cool, they had all sorts of old stuff from the war for sale. There were so many things I wanted to purchase but that the airplane probably wouldn't let me take on ;(
Finally, we went to Turkey to see Ankara, Istanbul, and Troy. This is what I was waiting for the whole time I was here. How different was Turkey than the West. Were the people friendly? Were they ready to join the EU?
Before I say anything, THE TOILETS!!! They don't use Western style toilets (except in the hotels meant for Western guests). They were a bit creepy to use, but I managed alright...
Ankara was our first stop. Next to our 4-star hotel was a 5-star hotel, and outside of it we saw a very large black limosine with a US flag on it, clearly someone super-important from the US government (found out later it was a Senator or Representative).
Ankara was pretty damn Western if you ask me. They had the call to prayer 5 times a day, which scared the living bejeezus out of me the first time I heard it. Other than that, though, the people were friendly, quite a few spoke English, and there were some giant skyscrapers.
So we got back to the hotel, and....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! MY MONEYBAG WASN'T IN MY BACKPACK!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I HAD LOST $100, MY CREDIT CARD, DEBIT CARD, AND DRIVERS LICENSE (passport safe). AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I HAD NO WAY TO TAKE OUT MONEY!! Frantically, I took out my cell phone and called every family member I could find. Finally (of all people), Uncle Dan picks up his phone. THis is weird because Dan is notorious for not being there when I call. I asked him to call my Mom and tell her of my dilemma.
I use a wireless network and the excellent iPhone app TextFree to text my mom (my Uncle called to tell her I was texting her, she never knows to look for them) and she tells me to call her. I do, but after a minute, the call drops with a weird German message. I was OUT OF MONEY ON MY CELL PHONE
WHAT?!?!?!?! I had 40 Euros left yesterday that was absurd!! Then I thoguht about it... OH!! It was meant to be an EU international phone. Turkey is NOT in the EU, and I called 8 people in the span of an hour. 8 calls outside the EU and 5 Euro per International call...OOPS!!
I had a lot to communicate with my mother and shes the slowest texter in the world (no offense, mom, I do appreciate your help wholeheartedly), not to mention i had no money for a pay phone, my iPhone had no phone service, and my cell phone was out of cash. Oh, and the instructions to refill my cell phone WERE IN GERMAN.
What to do...Aha! Pull out my handy-dandy iPhone, connect to the WiFi network in the lobby, and download Skype for the iPhone!! Normally you have to pay for calls on iPhone skype, but I remembered they had a promotion where you got One Free Call!! I downloaded it and called my mom's cell ASAP.
Told her the problem, and we discussed how to get money to me through Western Union, etc. Just as she was cancelling my credit card, the bus driver contacted us and said he found my money bag in a corner of the bus under a seat. It had fallen out...
WHEW!! Well, my credit card was cancelled but my money was safe. I sent out a big thanks to my mom (thanks again, btw) and all was well in the world...
Back to the trip though...
We entered quite a few bazaars...BE CAREFUL WHEN DOING SO!! The merchants there have little stands set up and they're very aggressive (in a good way) to get you to buy their wares.
They clearly know what they're doing, as their English is better than many people in the US, and they always charge massively too much with people from the US (they all ask where you're from, seemingly out of curiosity, but it's clearly to gauge how much to charge you). They have silver tongues and like to tell you how good their wares are.
I learned to haggle pretty damn well (at least I thought) out of necessity than anything else. From what I understood at the end, depending on how touristy you look, where you're from, and how stupid you look, they charge anywhere from 20% to 150% above what a "fair" price would be. To discover this I spied on a stand while he sold the same brand of apple tea to 5 different customers.
When I started I was only able to get an item down from 32 lira (Turkish currency, about $0.66 each) to 30, but by the end I managed to get a watch down from 40 to 25. Knowing how to haggle is a great skill to have and I'm glad I was able to get a crash course in it while I was there.
Istanbul was even more cool than Ankara. We visited countless ancient and historical sites, including the tomb of Ataturk, the Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque. Really cool place. Also the Bazaars were bigger and the salesman even MORE aggressive in shoving their wares. Not only the salesman but the restaurant owners too, they would stand outside their restaurants and try to allure tourists with deals.
We visited Troy at the end which had some pretty incredible ruins from ancient times. I'm not a huge ancient history buff but everyone knows about Troy so it was pretty cool to see what they used back then.
Anyway, the trip itself was stupendously interesting. I know more about the Balkans and Turkey then I could ever learn out of books or in a classroom. I now have gifts for quite a few people (except for cousins Max and Ben, those guys are REALLY hard to shop for!!) We got back our midterms today and I got a "B" on both of them which is fine and dandy. Ahead of me I have 3 papers all due Monday so I'll be working my ass off...
See everyone later!!
Hey everyone!!
Sorry it's been a while, I had a fantastic time on the trip. For starters we went to Croatia, which was interesting because I've never seen an Eastern European country, especially one that was so recently involved in a war (1991). The most interesting thing of note there were the Soviet buildings.
They look SO DIFFERENT from buildings I'm used to seeing. Apparently the Soviets had no idea how to build something aesthetically pleasing at all, but I guess that's what you get without a Capitalist system.
We spoke with a professor and a famous news reporter in the area. We were supposed to be visited by an MP, but unfortunately the jerk cancelled on us. Oh, and the prices were SUPERB. It was amazing to be in a place where the dollar was actually strong. Who knew it existed? I bought a few interesting little dodads, but nothing major.
Before I go on, let me tellk you a bit about the hotels we were staying at: They had a 5-star system in all the countries we went to, and all the hotels posted on their sign how many stars they were.
Perhaps it was government mandated or simply a custom throughout Europe and Turkey that just doesn't exist in the US? Anyway, we always stayed in 4-star hotels (out of 5-star), and they were NICE. They were obviously meant for Western tourists as they had pools, wireless internet access, and everyone spoke English as a necessity.
Following that trip, we went to Bosnia-Herzegovina. For those that dont know it's a pretty messed up country, and I could go on about all I've learned about it for quite a while. Essentially, it's a tripartite government with three micro-countries within it. The first is Republica Serbska, the piece of the coutnry that's majority Serbian. They have their own government.
The second is the Federation, as it's called, which is essentially a confederation of 10 provincial governments. They're split so that they're either large-majority Croat with minority Bosniak or large-majority Bosniak with minority Croat. Yea, really confusing? Don't even get me started...
The third is the weirdest, it's a tiny little province in the north east that's split just about 50-50 between Croats and Bosniaks. When the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords partitioned all this stuff, they wanted to separate this province from the other two partitions because they were fearful of ethnic clashes with both sides so close in number.
That prediction has proven completely wrong, and this 50-50 split province is actually the most prosperous province all all of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Anyway, we visited Bana Luka in Republica Serbska first, and this was perhaps the most interesting part of the trip educationally for me. There were 18 of us and we got to meet with 18 college students at Bana Luka University (they all spoke English) to talk and exchange ideas.
That conversation was a truly revealing moment for me. They had such a different experience than I did in life. They were all young children when the war was going on mostly, but quite a few had lost relatives in it.
What struck me most was their lack of opportunity. Since they weren't an EU member state, they had to get expensive 300 Euro visas to travel. With the average wage their so low, this was nearly impossible.
Unemployment was over 30% and even after graduating from college they had slim prospects for work. I spoke with a few of the students, and let me tell you, they're sharp.
They're at least as smart as I am and a few quite a bit smarter. That I should have all the opportunities in the world and them absolute crap simply because of a genetic lottery on where we were born seemed horribly absurd...
They're stuck in this tiny piece of land in a country that they have no identity with (they consider themselves Serbs, not Bosnians) with few prospects for the future. Despite the grim outlook they were optimistic about their future, which amazed me at their resilience to adversity.
One of the most interesting people I met there was the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Republica Serbska (he was 22 like me). We had some truly interesting discussions on politics and it was amazing to hear such a different perspective on world events and world leaders.
This trip certainly made me more motivated for where I want to go in life. I now know I definitely want to get into International Relations. I'm going to grad school to study it, although I don't know where yet (my friend Mike goes to Texas A&M and told me that it has an excellent IR program so I'll certainly be taking a look at that one).
I may try to take a year off after I graduate undergrad to perhaps take on an Internship. With my poor GPA I'll certainly need something extra on my transcript to help me out.
Anyway, after Bana Luka we went to Sarajevo where the Serbs essentially pulverized it into the ground barely a decade ago. We met with some businessmen and the OSCE (UN organization meant to help progress along) which was alright but not great. Walking around the city was the most amazing part.
I expected everything to be totally destroyed but it wasn't like that. There were certainly hefty war scars everywhere, but life seemed moderately normal. There were markets, shopping, plays, stuff you'd find anywhere. The big difference was every now and then you'd see bullet holes...
I also got to see the exact spot where Franz Ferdinand was murdered, that was a pretty cool piece of history. World War I, anyone? The bazaar there was pretty cool, they had all sorts of old stuff from the war for sale. There were so many things I wanted to purchase but that the airplane probably wouldn't let me take on ;(
Finally, we went to Turkey to see Ankara, Istanbul, and Troy. This is what I was waiting for the whole time I was here. How different was Turkey than the West. Were the people friendly? Were they ready to join the EU?
Before I say anything, THE TOILETS!!! They don't use Western style toilets (except in the hotels meant for Western guests). They were a bit creepy to use, but I managed alright...
Ankara was our first stop. Next to our 4-star hotel was a 5-star hotel, and outside of it we saw a very large black limosine with a US flag on it, clearly someone super-important from the US government (found out later it was a Senator or Representative).
Ankara was pretty damn Western if you ask me. They had the call to prayer 5 times a day, which scared the living bejeezus out of me the first time I heard it. Other than that, though, the people were friendly, quite a few spoke English, and there were some giant skyscrapers.
So we got back to the hotel, and....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! MY MONEYBAG WASN'T IN MY BACKPACK!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I HAD LOST $100, MY CREDIT CARD, DEBIT CARD, AND DRIVERS LICENSE (passport safe). AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I HAD NO WAY TO TAKE OUT MONEY!! Frantically, I took out my cell phone and called every family member I could find. Finally (of all people), Uncle Dan picks up his phone. THis is weird because Dan is notorious for not being there when I call. I asked him to call my Mom and tell her of my dilemma.
I use a wireless network and the excellent iPhone app TextFree to text my mom (my Uncle called to tell her I was texting her, she never knows to look for them) and she tells me to call her. I do, but after a minute, the call drops with a weird German message. I was OUT OF MONEY ON MY CELL PHONE
WHAT?!?!?!?! I had 40 Euros left yesterday that was absurd!! Then I thoguht about it... OH!! It was meant to be an EU international phone. Turkey is NOT in the EU, and I called 8 people in the span of an hour. 8 calls outside the EU and 5 Euro per International call...OOPS!!
I had a lot to communicate with my mother and shes the slowest texter in the world (no offense, mom, I do appreciate your help wholeheartedly), not to mention i had no money for a pay phone, my iPhone had no phone service, and my cell phone was out of cash. Oh, and the instructions to refill my cell phone WERE IN GERMAN.
What to do...Aha! Pull out my handy-dandy iPhone, connect to the WiFi network in the lobby, and download Skype for the iPhone!! Normally you have to pay for calls on iPhone skype, but I remembered they had a promotion where you got One Free Call!! I downloaded it and called my mom's cell ASAP.
Told her the problem, and we discussed how to get money to me through Western Union, etc. Just as she was cancelling my credit card, the bus driver contacted us and said he found my money bag in a corner of the bus under a seat. It had fallen out...
WHEW!! Well, my credit card was cancelled but my money was safe. I sent out a big thanks to my mom (thanks again, btw) and all was well in the world...
Back to the trip though...
We entered quite a few bazaars...BE CAREFUL WHEN DOING SO!! The merchants there have little stands set up and they're very aggressive (in a good way) to get you to buy their wares.
They clearly know what they're doing, as their English is better than many people in the US, and they always charge massively too much with people from the US (they all ask where you're from, seemingly out of curiosity, but it's clearly to gauge how much to charge you). They have silver tongues and like to tell you how good their wares are.
I learned to haggle pretty damn well (at least I thought) out of necessity than anything else. From what I understood at the end, depending on how touristy you look, where you're from, and how stupid you look, they charge anywhere from 20% to 150% above what a "fair" price would be. To discover this I spied on a stand while he sold the same brand of apple tea to 5 different customers.
When I started I was only able to get an item down from 32 lira (Turkish currency, about $0.66 each) to 30, but by the end I managed to get a watch down from 40 to 25. Knowing how to haggle is a great skill to have and I'm glad I was able to get a crash course in it while I was there.
Istanbul was even more cool than Ankara. We visited countless ancient and historical sites, including the tomb of Ataturk, the Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque. Really cool place. Also the Bazaars were bigger and the salesman even MORE aggressive in shoving their wares. Not only the salesman but the restaurant owners too, they would stand outside their restaurants and try to allure tourists with deals.
We visited Troy at the end which had some pretty incredible ruins from ancient times. I'm not a huge ancient history buff but everyone knows about Troy so it was pretty cool to see what they used back then.
Anyway, the trip itself was stupendously interesting. I know more about the Balkans and Turkey then I could ever learn out of books or in a classroom. I now have gifts for quite a few people (except for cousins Max and Ben, those guys are REALLY hard to shop for!!) We got back our midterms today and I got a "B" on both of them which is fine and dandy. Ahead of me I have 3 papers all due Monday so I'll be working my ass off...
See everyone later!!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Till June 23rd
Well, this week has been pretty chill which is why i havent written much. I was not partying or drinking, but studying for my midterms here. Yea, GASP, I know, Josh studying whoever would have guessed it big shocker etc etc.
I went to a Go tournament here in Freiburg which was nice. I got 1st place as well and got a nice T-Shirt and free beer (the tournament was held at a BEER GARDEN. Is Germany great or WHAT?!!??!)
Anyway, not too much happened. I tried to be frugal this week, since I'm going to definitely be buying a lot of stuff in Turkey.
Oh that's right, did I mention that? I'm leaving for Sarajevo, Zagreb, Istanbul, and Ankara over the next two weeks
im gonna be taking some great photos and videos and gifts but i may be off the blogging and cell phone radar so don't worry about me i'm fine.
See ya!!
Josh
I went to a Go tournament here in Freiburg which was nice. I got 1st place as well and got a nice T-Shirt and free beer (the tournament was held at a BEER GARDEN. Is Germany great or WHAT?!!??!)
Anyway, not too much happened. I tried to be frugal this week, since I'm going to definitely be buying a lot of stuff in Turkey.
Oh that's right, did I mention that? I'm leaving for Sarajevo, Zagreb, Istanbul, and Ankara over the next two weeks
im gonna be taking some great photos and videos and gifts but i may be off the blogging and cell phone radar so don't worry about me i'm fine.
See ya!!
Josh
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Commenting on Iran
For those of you that don't know, Iran is having a huge thing going on right now. The people are really pissed off that their votes weren't counted (they claim) and have taken to the streets in the hundreds of thousands, at least.
Being a numbers guy, I took a quick look at the statistical evidence to see if there was any merit to the protestors claims. According to the official Government results, Ahmedinejad won by about 63-32 over his reformist rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
The protestors obviously thought different, so I did some number crunching:
Apparnetly, Mir-Hossein Mousavi isnt exactly a Persian, but a minority called Azeri Turk. In his home district, it's almost entirely Azeri Turk, and in the history of Iranian elections nobody has ever lost their own home district.
Not only did Mousavi lose among Azeri Turks, he lost his home district. This would be equivalent to Obama losing the vote in Chicago, or losing the African-American vote nationwide. It is simply unrealistic to this that this is plausible. Thus, I throw my hat in with those who believe that the election was a total sham.
Like most repressive governments, the Iranian government has sharply curtailed what media outlets could publish, restricted journalists, and essentially censored most information. But this didnt stop the Iranian people...
Like never before, they've been using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. to get their message out. The Huffington Post actually has an incredible LiveBlog with updates by the minute. Make sure to go to their last page to start with to get everything thats been done during the course of the protests.
Now, to get into the blogging program that IES offers, I had to write a creative writing piece. Take a look at what I wrote it on, ironically enough, but here it is word for word from a month ago:
Am I prescient or what hehe. When I apply for some sort of International Relations job, Iäm so going to show them that I wrote this only month before it started becoming reality.
Being a numbers guy, I took a quick look at the statistical evidence to see if there was any merit to the protestors claims. According to the official Government results, Ahmedinejad won by about 63-32 over his reformist rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
The protestors obviously thought different, so I did some number crunching:
Apparnetly, Mir-Hossein Mousavi isnt exactly a Persian, but a minority called Azeri Turk. In his home district, it's almost entirely Azeri Turk, and in the history of Iranian elections nobody has ever lost their own home district.
Not only did Mousavi lose among Azeri Turks, he lost his home district. This would be equivalent to Obama losing the vote in Chicago, or losing the African-American vote nationwide. It is simply unrealistic to this that this is plausible. Thus, I throw my hat in with those who believe that the election was a total sham.
Like most repressive governments, the Iranian government has sharply curtailed what media outlets could publish, restricted journalists, and essentially censored most information. But this didnt stop the Iranian people...
Like never before, they've been using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. to get their message out. The Huffington Post actually has an incredible LiveBlog with updates by the minute. Make sure to go to their last page to start with to get everything thats been done during the course of the protests.
Now, to get into the blogging program that IES offers, I had to write a creative writing piece. Take a look at what I wrote it on, ironically enough, but here it is word for word from a month ago:
The Internet, especially blogging, will soon become the greatest tool for the spread of Democracy the world has ever seen. A powerful statement, I know, but I truly believe it will become reality. As soon as I understood how blogging worked, my imagination soared with the possibilities. Blogging is like no communication medium ever invented before it. The entry requirements are about $80/yr and an Internet-ready computer. In no other time of human history has mass communication been available at so little cost to so many people. The "little guy" can finally be heard.
We are seeing incredible growth being made before our eyes. Think about life a dozen years ago in 1997. Could anyone imagine what's going on today with the Internet? A perfect example, and the primary focus of this piece, is Twitter, a "micro-blogging" service that's taken the US [and many other countries] by storm. Essentially, it allows you to make tiny blog posts [140 characters, text-message sized] that are then forwarded to anyone that chooses to "follow" you, either to their computer or their cell phone. They in turn can forward it to their "followers", and if the information is important, it will obviously spread like wildfire. This allows one person to have a bigger voice than a gigantic network like CNN. Let's take a look at what real-world accomplishments Twitter has made occur in it's few short years of existence:
Firstly, Twitter has immensely helped to cure Malaria. In the recent race to 1 million followers, both Ashton Kutcher and CNN pledged to donate 10,000 nets if they won and 1,000 nets if they lost. A friendly competition to get the most friends became a superb avenue for fighting a vicious disease. Furthermore, other celebrities joined in and donated their own 10,000 nets. For all we know, Twitter might destroy the scourge that is malaria once and for all.
Secondly, protesters have used Twitter to great effect against authoritarian governments. In countries ranging from Georgia to Moldova, where many of the young people are unhappy with the government, they used Twitter to communicate the times and dates of protests, and were able to turn out impressive crowds.
Finally, it allows the rich, powerful, and/or famous/political people to circumvent the classic model of having a spokesman and the media, and directly communicate with their fans or constituents. Politicians in Washington have taken to Twitter en masse. While many of them have posted some pretty silly "Tweets" from their cell phones, it's also been used as a way to communicate with their constituents directly, allowing for people to get to know their representatives on a more personal level. For actors and other famous people, they can post exactly what they want, and circumvent the horror of the tabloids to tell their fans what they're up to.
These are just the accomplishments in a few short years. Let's think about the future...In under a minute, Twitter allows you to communicate with people across the world. Facebook already has over 200 million users and is still growing quickly. There is no reason why Twitter can't obtain an even larger following, as Internet access grows worldwide. Dictators will have a hard time keeping genocide under wraps when any person can yell about it to the world. I see a far brighter future in store for the world, so long as we don't nuke ourselves or destroy the planet with global warming first.
Am I prescient or what hehe. When I apply for some sort of International Relations job, Iäm so going to show them that I wrote this only month before it started becoming reality.
Monday, June 15, 2009
June 11-15 - Onward to Florence!!
Day 12-17 - To Italia!! (Florence, baby!)
Hey everyone, sorry my post was delayed so much. It was a bit of a crazy trip as I'll describe below and I'm dealing with a bunch of other stuff as well (midterm on Thursday).
So, we decided this time to go to Florence, Italy, as I described in my last post. I waited till the last second for my Eurail pass to come, but they totally screwed it up and it didn't come in time, so i had to buy a regular ticket at the last minute. I had to go on a train to Italy separate from the rest of my group (although on the way back we were together).
Obviously, international train travel when i don't speak the language and by myself on an overnight train was NOT exactly my cup of tea. But oh boy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into...
So, we decided to do overnight trains to save a night on hotel rooms. Right when i was about to leave in the evening, my backpack bottom broke. As I was already running a bit close, I hurriedly put my stuff in my other backpack and ran out the door.
I made it to the train on time (thankfully!). It was a sleeping train, and I found out I had a "ticket" but not a "reservation". Apparently the guy at the travel agent where I reserved my ticket made a terrible mistake. With just a "ticket", I could stand in the train halls, but I had no seat to sleep or sit on.
This was going to be an EIGHT HOUR TRAIN RIDE, OVERNIGHT, so this REALLY didn't appeal to me, especially since that ticket alone cost me 93 euros, and the reservation was only an extra 5 had that stupid guy not forgotten to put it on there.
So, what to do? Stand for 8 hours overnight? **** no!! I played the "helpless American" card with one of the important-looking train people. He thankfully was a very kind man and gave me a seat number. I was in a relatively small compartment with 5 other people, but that was fine.
So I sit down, relieved to have a seat, and drift off to sleep...
A few hours later...
Suddenly I hear a voice coming closer and I go into that half-awake/half-asleep state. Oh, I thought, he was checking passports. We must have crossed the national border from Germany into Switzerland on the way to Italy.
Then, my mind turned totally inward for a second. And a revelation moment that I will remember for the rest of my life occurred... Time itself literally froze... I could see air particles in front of me.
In my mind's eye, I was racing back to my room, inside, into the hidden inside compartment of my busted backpack i had left behind since it broke, and there in my mind's eye... I saw... my passport.
Oh. Shit. (Iim not even going to censor it, it was that bad)
Oh, I was awake. Cappuccino, caffeine, stimulants, they got nothing on the sudden burst of adrenaline racing through my body. I ripped open the new backpack like wildfire, and... as I feared, no passport. To briefly describe my emotional state:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!11
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHAHAHAHHAHAHAH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
*breathes deeply*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH!!! I WAS DOING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL WITHOUT A PASSPORT!! AHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHH!! THEY WERE COMING AROUND TO CHECK THEM THIS INSTANT! AHHHHHHHHH!! **** **** **** **** **** ****!!! ****!!
This all occurred in me head in about a 10 second period. Had my bladder been full...who knows what would have happened. These guys looked like the Swiss Guard and I was scared ****less they were going to either throw me off the train or take me to Swiss authorities.
So they came into our compartment and asked me for my passport. I stumbled, mumbled, and just about everything I could think of short of bowing down and begging forgiveness. I tried to play the "foolish American" card.
They gave me this dirty look and asked for my drivers license. They grunted "American, eh? If we were in your country, wouldn't we need a passport?". "Yes", I mumbled.
Then one of them went on his phone, probably to his superior, and talked for like 10 minutes in Swiss. Quite possibly one of the longest 10 minutes of my life...
They gave me back my drivers license, and to my relief one of them just scolded me. Let me tell you: I. Love. Being. A. U.S. Citizen. Seriously, if I was from any other non-European country without a passport, I think they would have detained me or thrown me off.
Don't think I'm just saying that, either. On the way back through Italy, the Swiss guards checked one person on our entire section. I guess they were running low on time. However, it seemed oddly suspicious that the one person they checked was clearly from North Africa.
Not only did they check her passport, they scanned it in a special machine they brought, put it up to the light, use a special magnifying glass to check it's authenticity, and searched through the pages to see where she had been. They also asked her multiple questions about where she was going and staying and for how long.
So, back to the story: With color slowly returning to my body and the feeling coming back to my legs, I went back to sleep...
And was woken up 10 minutes later. Apparently the Swiss were pretty thorough, this time they sent in a dog to sniff around, apparently for Cocaine. It found none and I tried to go back to sleep...but to no avail.
15 minutes LATER, another dog came in, this time we were told it was a marijuana-sniffing dog. I thought it would just sniff and leave, but then suddenly it started digging in and attacking one of the guy's suitcases in our compartment.
The guard took it, and sure enough, in the front compartment where the dog sniffed there was this tiny piece of a blunt left (really small).
He was unceremoniously taken off the train by two very large guards and taken to the police station to be reported. I learned from his friends that he was released, but had to buy a whole new train ticket and got no refund.
So to recap:
Forgetting passport during International travel: Harsh scolding
Tiny piece of blunt: thrown of train and fingerprinted at police station.
WHEW what an adventure!! I switched trains a few times along the way but nothing else important really happened. When I got to Florence, I was there a few hours later than everyone else in my group so i was on my own to find the Hostel we were staying at, Plus Florence.
Alright, I had wrote earlier I thought Germany had messed up streets, right? Oh no, not even close. They don't even stand a chance. Italy's roads are some of the most screwed up things I've ever seen. Ever. Seriously. They are TINY, cramped, the sidewalks are almost non-existent, and on either sides you have aging buildings that need paint jobs.
Oh, and they LOVE motorcycles. Not like, not enjoy, LOVE motorcycles. I think I saw more motorcycles than cars. Speaking of cars, did you know that single person cars existed? Yea, one person cars. THese things were 3-wheeled tiny machines that no self-respecting American would be caught dead in, but they were there too.
Nevertheless, I managed to find it alright. I was tired (lack of sleep), angry, frustrated, and a whole range of other emotions. I had gotten there at 11AM, and all I wanted was sleep.
But my troubles weren't over yet, oooohhhhh no.... I couldn't get sleep. You know what they asked for at the hostel to check in? MY PASSPORT! Yea, I know, right?
I had my incredibly heavy bag, and at they said that a faxed copy was unacceptable that they needed the real thing in front of them to document. I had a friend back in Freiburg who could have rushed my passport to me with shipping, and I would have recieved it in the next morning. But this wasn't good enough for the hostel people...they REFUSED to check me in without a passport in front of me...
I REALLY didn't want to spend the night sleeping like a homeless person, so then I had a brilliant idea: The US Consulate of Florence!! Their JOB was to help out incredibly stupid Americans like me who get in these situations, right?
I asked for a map and the location of the US Consulate, and I was off. Unfortunately, it was a 30 minute walk away!! I had my giant hiking backpack and tired beyond belief, but I set out...
Needless to say, I got completely lost on Italy's absurd streets (did I mention I REALLY didn't like Italy's streets?). I finally found the general area I was going, but i still couldn't find the US embassy.
The time was 12:15 PM, and I had just found out that Consulate's close at 12:30PM. As for why they close so ****ing early, is anyone's guess. So I'm scrambling as fast as I can to find it before they close, and you know what flag I see? Not the US one, but the next best thing:
The British flag!!! I was saved!! Someone who spoke English who could at least point me in the right direction. Hail the motherland! I was right! They were very friendly to me there, and they told me where to go. In case anyone questions it, oh yea, the Brits got our backs, no doubt about it.
So it's 12:25PM right now and I'm RUNNING flat-out, tired out of my mind, with a giant hiking backpack through Florence to the US Consulate. Just as the guy is about to lock the door, I reach him.
He told me that they'd closed up shop, and I told him my Hostel problem. Let me tell you something: I. LOVE. BEING. A. US. CITIZEN. SO. MUCH. I really have so much love for my country right now.
After checking my driver's license, he called the Hostel for me, informed them of the situation, and said that he had convinced them to allow a faxed or printed copy. YES!!
So I call my Mom a few hours later, and she goes through her own struggles to get me my backup passport copy relatively intact (seriously, it loses a lot of quality when you scan it).
But we did it, and I checked in. WHEW!! What an adventure, and that was just getting to Florence. Florence was pretty fun I have to admit. We saw the "Duomo", and loads of other MASSIVE churches.
I climbed some incredibly tall towers, and got lost on 4 separate occasions wandering the cramped roads of Italy. I must have seen more pasta and pizza stores lined up then anywhere else in my life. Oh, and I saw two homeless guys yelling at each other really loudly. One of them picked up a wine bottle and I got the **** out of there real fast.
But it was pretty fun. I got to see the sun set from this incredible vista overlooking all of Florence, truly a sight to behold. I also bought some excellent gifts for some family and friends back home, hope you like them :)
Apparently, Italy has NO IDEA how to run a decent train service. We were 25 minutes late, which caused us to miss ALL of our connecting trains through Switzerland and Germany so we had to constantly reschedule. We literally had TWELVE HOURS of travel on the way back, not at all pleasant.
Anyway, not much happened on the 15th. We were all really tired. I wrote a note on my door asking "did you remember your passport today". Oh, and my EURAIL PASS FINALLY ARRIVED HOORAY!!
See all of you later!!
Josh
Hey everyone, sorry my post was delayed so much. It was a bit of a crazy trip as I'll describe below and I'm dealing with a bunch of other stuff as well (midterm on Thursday).
So, we decided this time to go to Florence, Italy, as I described in my last post. I waited till the last second for my Eurail pass to come, but they totally screwed it up and it didn't come in time, so i had to buy a regular ticket at the last minute. I had to go on a train to Italy separate from the rest of my group (although on the way back we were together).
Obviously, international train travel when i don't speak the language and by myself on an overnight train was NOT exactly my cup of tea. But oh boy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into...
So, we decided to do overnight trains to save a night on hotel rooms. Right when i was about to leave in the evening, my backpack bottom broke. As I was already running a bit close, I hurriedly put my stuff in my other backpack and ran out the door.
I made it to the train on time (thankfully!). It was a sleeping train, and I found out I had a "ticket" but not a "reservation". Apparently the guy at the travel agent where I reserved my ticket made a terrible mistake. With just a "ticket", I could stand in the train halls, but I had no seat to sleep or sit on.
This was going to be an EIGHT HOUR TRAIN RIDE, OVERNIGHT, so this REALLY didn't appeal to me, especially since that ticket alone cost me 93 euros, and the reservation was only an extra 5 had that stupid guy not forgotten to put it on there.
So, what to do? Stand for 8 hours overnight? **** no!! I played the "helpless American" card with one of the important-looking train people. He thankfully was a very kind man and gave me a seat number. I was in a relatively small compartment with 5 other people, but that was fine.
So I sit down, relieved to have a seat, and drift off to sleep...
A few hours later...
Suddenly I hear a voice coming closer and I go into that half-awake/half-asleep state. Oh, I thought, he was checking passports. We must have crossed the national border from Germany into Switzerland on the way to Italy.
Then, my mind turned totally inward for a second. And a revelation moment that I will remember for the rest of my life occurred... Time itself literally froze... I could see air particles in front of me.
In my mind's eye, I was racing back to my room, inside, into the hidden inside compartment of my busted backpack i had left behind since it broke, and there in my mind's eye... I saw... my passport.
Oh. Shit. (Iim not even going to censor it, it was that bad)
Oh, I was awake. Cappuccino, caffeine, stimulants, they got nothing on the sudden burst of adrenaline racing through my body. I ripped open the new backpack like wildfire, and... as I feared, no passport. To briefly describe my emotional state:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!11
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHAHAHAHHAHAHAH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
*breathes deeply*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH!!! I WAS DOING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL WITHOUT A PASSPORT!! AHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHH!! THEY WERE COMING AROUND TO CHECK THEM THIS INSTANT! AHHHHHHHHH!! **** **** **** **** **** ****!!! ****!!
This all occurred in me head in about a 10 second period. Had my bladder been full...who knows what would have happened. These guys looked like the Swiss Guard and I was scared ****less they were going to either throw me off the train or take me to Swiss authorities.
So they came into our compartment and asked me for my passport. I stumbled, mumbled, and just about everything I could think of short of bowing down and begging forgiveness. I tried to play the "foolish American" card.
They gave me this dirty look and asked for my drivers license. They grunted "American, eh? If we were in your country, wouldn't we need a passport?". "Yes", I mumbled.
Then one of them went on his phone, probably to his superior, and talked for like 10 minutes in Swiss. Quite possibly one of the longest 10 minutes of my life...
They gave me back my drivers license, and to my relief one of them just scolded me. Let me tell you: I. Love. Being. A. U.S. Citizen. Seriously, if I was from any other non-European country without a passport, I think they would have detained me or thrown me off.
Don't think I'm just saying that, either. On the way back through Italy, the Swiss guards checked one person on our entire section. I guess they were running low on time. However, it seemed oddly suspicious that the one person they checked was clearly from North Africa.
Not only did they check her passport, they scanned it in a special machine they brought, put it up to the light, use a special magnifying glass to check it's authenticity, and searched through the pages to see where she had been. They also asked her multiple questions about where she was going and staying and for how long.
So, back to the story: With color slowly returning to my body and the feeling coming back to my legs, I went back to sleep...
And was woken up 10 minutes later. Apparently the Swiss were pretty thorough, this time they sent in a dog to sniff around, apparently for Cocaine. It found none and I tried to go back to sleep...but to no avail.
15 minutes LATER, another dog came in, this time we were told it was a marijuana-sniffing dog. I thought it would just sniff and leave, but then suddenly it started digging in and attacking one of the guy's suitcases in our compartment.
The guard took it, and sure enough, in the front compartment where the dog sniffed there was this tiny piece of a blunt left (really small).
He was unceremoniously taken off the train by two very large guards and taken to the police station to be reported. I learned from his friends that he was released, but had to buy a whole new train ticket and got no refund.
So to recap:
Forgetting passport during International travel: Harsh scolding
Tiny piece of blunt: thrown of train and fingerprinted at police station.
WHEW what an adventure!! I switched trains a few times along the way but nothing else important really happened. When I got to Florence, I was there a few hours later than everyone else in my group so i was on my own to find the Hostel we were staying at, Plus Florence.
Alright, I had wrote earlier I thought Germany had messed up streets, right? Oh no, not even close. They don't even stand a chance. Italy's roads are some of the most screwed up things I've ever seen. Ever. Seriously. They are TINY, cramped, the sidewalks are almost non-existent, and on either sides you have aging buildings that need paint jobs.
Oh, and they LOVE motorcycles. Not like, not enjoy, LOVE motorcycles. I think I saw more motorcycles than cars. Speaking of cars, did you know that single person cars existed? Yea, one person cars. THese things were 3-wheeled tiny machines that no self-respecting American would be caught dead in, but they were there too.
Nevertheless, I managed to find it alright. I was tired (lack of sleep), angry, frustrated, and a whole range of other emotions. I had gotten there at 11AM, and all I wanted was sleep.
But my troubles weren't over yet, oooohhhhh no.... I couldn't get sleep. You know what they asked for at the hostel to check in? MY PASSPORT! Yea, I know, right?
I had my incredibly heavy bag, and at they said that a faxed copy was unacceptable that they needed the real thing in front of them to document. I had a friend back in Freiburg who could have rushed my passport to me with shipping, and I would have recieved it in the next morning. But this wasn't good enough for the hostel people...they REFUSED to check me in without a passport in front of me...
I REALLY didn't want to spend the night sleeping like a homeless person, so then I had a brilliant idea: The US Consulate of Florence!! Their JOB was to help out incredibly stupid Americans like me who get in these situations, right?
I asked for a map and the location of the US Consulate, and I was off. Unfortunately, it was a 30 minute walk away!! I had my giant hiking backpack and tired beyond belief, but I set out...
Needless to say, I got completely lost on Italy's absurd streets (did I mention I REALLY didn't like Italy's streets?). I finally found the general area I was going, but i still couldn't find the US embassy.
The time was 12:15 PM, and I had just found out that Consulate's close at 12:30PM. As for why they close so ****ing early, is anyone's guess. So I'm scrambling as fast as I can to find it before they close, and you know what flag I see? Not the US one, but the next best thing:
The British flag!!! I was saved!! Someone who spoke English who could at least point me in the right direction. Hail the motherland! I was right! They were very friendly to me there, and they told me where to go. In case anyone questions it, oh yea, the Brits got our backs, no doubt about it.
So it's 12:25PM right now and I'm RUNNING flat-out, tired out of my mind, with a giant hiking backpack through Florence to the US Consulate. Just as the guy is about to lock the door, I reach him.
He told me that they'd closed up shop, and I told him my Hostel problem. Let me tell you something: I. LOVE. BEING. A. US. CITIZEN. SO. MUCH. I really have so much love for my country right now.
After checking my driver's license, he called the Hostel for me, informed them of the situation, and said that he had convinced them to allow a faxed or printed copy. YES!!
So I call my Mom a few hours later, and she goes through her own struggles to get me my backup passport copy relatively intact (seriously, it loses a lot of quality when you scan it).
But we did it, and I checked in. WHEW!! What an adventure, and that was just getting to Florence. Florence was pretty fun I have to admit. We saw the "Duomo", and loads of other MASSIVE churches.
I climbed some incredibly tall towers, and got lost on 4 separate occasions wandering the cramped roads of Italy. I must have seen more pasta and pizza stores lined up then anywhere else in my life. Oh, and I saw two homeless guys yelling at each other really loudly. One of them picked up a wine bottle and I got the **** out of there real fast.
But it was pretty fun. I got to see the sun set from this incredible vista overlooking all of Florence, truly a sight to behold. I also bought some excellent gifts for some family and friends back home, hope you like them :)
Apparently, Italy has NO IDEA how to run a decent train service. We were 25 minutes late, which caused us to miss ALL of our connecting trains through Switzerland and Germany so we had to constantly reschedule. We literally had TWELVE HOURS of travel on the way back, not at all pleasant.
Anyway, not much happened on the 15th. We were all really tired. I wrote a note on my door asking "did you remember your passport today". Oh, and my EURAIL PASS FINALLY ARRIVED HOORAY!!
See all of you later!!
Josh
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
June 8-10
Day 14-16 - Party, baby!
Today was a bit of a party few days. There is a place called "the morgue". During WWII it literally was a morgue, but now it's simply a party area for college students in the area. I know, sounds creepy, and it's underground, but they've really turned it into somehwhere cool.
I want to K-I-L-L the people from Eurail. I paid an extra 25 euros to get super speed shipping and NOOOOOOO it's STILL NOT HERE. So (sorry mom) I had to put my 4-day trip on the credit card.
But it's not like I'm paying money i wouldnt have to anyway. Now my Eurail pass will last the entire time my parents are up here so they won't have to pay a thing for my transportation going to Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Luxemborg, the Netherlands, or Switzerland. Had I used my Eurail pass for this 4-day trip it probably wouldn't have lasted the entire two weeks.
So on the 9th I found a place that advertised a free 1-liter coke with any meal. Since I've already complained about how expensive (BUT SO GOOD, THANK YOU SUGAR AND CURSE CORN SYRUP!!) the coke is here i jumped on it. For your knowledge, by the way, I actually read the sign IN GERMAN, so you you should all be very impressed with me ;)
It's no wonder they could give a free coke, their FOOD WAS SO AWFUL AGGHHHHHH!!! Really, it was the soggiest shnitzel (sp?) I've ever had.
I'm going to be off the radar until Sunday, so mom don't worry about me ;) I'm going to... Florence, Italy for a 4-day weekend, go me!! I can't wait to see all the fun sites, it's going to be an incredible experience I'm sure. I have no idea what exactly I want to see, but I'm getting a map and I'm sure there are some tours and gift shops in English, right? Who knows, maybe the Italians accept Visa...Germany is horrible at it.
Mom, get yourself a Eurail pass nice and early so you don't have to deal with any of the crap I'm going through, it's a really cost effective way to travel.
I'm really pissed about all of the blocked websites in Germany. Hulu is blocked, for example. As are many news video sites. The reason, you may ask? Well, the German government didn't block them, the site owners blocked all access in Germany. Apparently, their advertisers that they put in these video streams are based in the US and don't want to advertise to Germans who can't buy their products. Since these news sites (and Hulu) don't want to waste any more money than they have to, they simply decided to block all access to countries where it wasn't profitable for advertisers.
Yea, the recession sucks, doesn't it? Anyway, I herad Obama's Egypt speech and thought it was pretty good. I'm hopeful he can make some progress, but we'll see, there are endless obstacles in the way.
Also in the news...Italy's Berlusconi is HILARIOUS. So funny..., Iran is having an election in 2 days. Hopefully the psycho Ahmedinejad (sp? - oh wait i dont care) will be thrown out of office, I don't care who replaces him just ANYONE ELSE. Apparently Iranian youth are extremely against Ahmedinejad, so let's hope so.
See ya'll later. Oh, and I still haven't found Katlyn a gift yet (though I do have Misters Feinman and Trager selected, I think they'll enjoy them immensely).
Today was a bit of a party few days. There is a place called "the morgue". During WWII it literally was a morgue, but now it's simply a party area for college students in the area. I know, sounds creepy, and it's underground, but they've really turned it into somehwhere cool.
I want to K-I-L-L the people from Eurail. I paid an extra 25 euros to get super speed shipping and NOOOOOOO it's STILL NOT HERE. So (sorry mom) I had to put my 4-day trip on the credit card.
But it's not like I'm paying money i wouldnt have to anyway. Now my Eurail pass will last the entire time my parents are up here so they won't have to pay a thing for my transportation going to Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Luxemborg, the Netherlands, or Switzerland. Had I used my Eurail pass for this 4-day trip it probably wouldn't have lasted the entire two weeks.
So on the 9th I found a place that advertised a free 1-liter coke with any meal. Since I've already complained about how expensive (BUT SO GOOD, THANK YOU SUGAR AND CURSE CORN SYRUP!!) the coke is here i jumped on it. For your knowledge, by the way, I actually read the sign IN GERMAN, so you you should all be very impressed with me ;)
It's no wonder they could give a free coke, their FOOD WAS SO AWFUL AGGHHHHHH!!! Really, it was the soggiest shnitzel (sp?) I've ever had.
I'm going to be off the radar until Sunday, so mom don't worry about me ;) I'm going to... Florence, Italy for a 4-day weekend, go me!! I can't wait to see all the fun sites, it's going to be an incredible experience I'm sure. I have no idea what exactly I want to see, but I'm getting a map and I'm sure there are some tours and gift shops in English, right? Who knows, maybe the Italians accept Visa...Germany is horrible at it.
Mom, get yourself a Eurail pass nice and early so you don't have to deal with any of the crap I'm going through, it's a really cost effective way to travel.
I'm really pissed about all of the blocked websites in Germany. Hulu is blocked, for example. As are many news video sites. The reason, you may ask? Well, the German government didn't block them, the site owners blocked all access in Germany. Apparently, their advertisers that they put in these video streams are based in the US and don't want to advertise to Germans who can't buy their products. Since these news sites (and Hulu) don't want to waste any more money than they have to, they simply decided to block all access to countries where it wasn't profitable for advertisers.
Yea, the recession sucks, doesn't it? Anyway, I herad Obama's Egypt speech and thought it was pretty good. I'm hopeful he can make some progress, but we'll see, there are endless obstacles in the way.
Also in the news...Italy's Berlusconi is HILARIOUS. So funny..., Iran is having an election in 2 days. Hopefully the psycho Ahmedinejad (sp? - oh wait i dont care) will be thrown out of office, I don't care who replaces him just ANYONE ELSE. Apparently Iranian youth are extremely against Ahmedinejad, so let's hope so.
See ya'll later. Oh, and I still haven't found Katlyn a gift yet (though I do have Misters Feinman and Trager selected, I think they'll enjoy them immensely).
Sunday, June 7, 2009
June 4-7 - My Trip To...Munich!!
Day 10-13, Prep + Munich
First off, some bad news: I wasn't able to go to Basel yet :( We decided to cancel our trip because the trains weren't going at the times we needed. But it's alright, I'll make sure to head their later.
Anyway, my Eurail pass arrived LATE (and here I payed an extra 20 euros for expedited delivery). So, I was pretty depressed since I wouldn't be able to go to Straussborg, but luckily another group going to Munich had a spot open, so i jumped at the chance!
No Eurail pass wasn't a problem; we were going to do the backpacker's way: regional train hopping. We switched trains 4 times each way, but the train fare was only 23 euros so that can't be beat.
I must say running from train to train was fun. When we finally got there, it was pretty rainy. Oh, and we decided to stay in a hostel. No, not a hotel, not a motel. Those were far too expensive. For those that don't know, a hostel is essentially packing 14 people into bunk beds in a relatively small room with 2 bathrooms.
I had never stayed in a hostel before, but I thought it would be a pretty fun experience to try out. I made sure to lock everything in my personal locker (you never know, right?, and the first night was a breeze. We woke up bright and early, and headed out to the Marianplaz.
Let me tell you: Munich is the COOLEST CITY ON THE PLANET!! Obviously, it hosts Oktoberfest, the largest beer festival in the world, but it also has such an amazing history. We took a tour all around, including finding the most famous beer hall in the world, the legendary Hofbrauhaus, a place older than Christopher Columbus (LITERALLY). Oh, and i mean come on, it has it's own VOMITORIUM!! Really, that's what it's called!! There are few things on the planet hotter than Bavarian women in full costume carrying 10 Liters of beer to our table.
Oh, and check out this church (sorry for the poor quality, took it on my iPhone):
We also learned some details of the Holocaust from a Munich perspective. The Nazi party was essentially based in Munich, so obviously they tried to be as ruthless as possible when dealing with the Jews.
Only 81 Jews survived out of over 8,000 in the city. In 2006, the Jewish community of Munich was large enough to rebuild a very large Synagogue. I know that the outside looks a bit ugly, but inside is one of the most beautiful synagogues I've ever seen, both for the symbolic message it sends and it's sheer beauty.
Beyond that, of course, was the BEER!! SO MUCH BEER!! EVERYWHERE!! Apparently, Munich set up their first standards for what could go into beer in the 1500's (Wolfgang I think?), far before anyone else. During the late 1800's, they had cow festivals every year and drank wine. However, they decided that it was too expensive to continue doing that, so they instead decided to change it for the more profitable beer. For years after the beer festivals would get larger and larger, and Oktoberfest was born!! Munich's size of 1.4 million grows to 5.3 million for that period of time.
Another story: back in the day, only the nobles were allowed to have Wheat Beer. Then one of the Kings of Munich decided that he wanted to sell it to the people. So he set out two declarations: First, that only HE could brew and sell wheat beer, and second, that he had gathered a group of top scientists together (this is the 1600's I think) and they concluded that for men 8 Liters of beer per day was healthy and for women 7 Liters (literally true!!).
You would think that would make everyone fat, but they got so drunk that they thought it made everyone else more hot ;) Of course, those two policies were totally unrelated I'm sure.
They also have this holy grail of beer. It has all the beer recipes from the major brewers of Munich, and it had 4 keys. All keys must be inserted simultaneously to open it, but they're apparently lost. Legend has it Budweiser is on a worldwide mission searching for the keys. Every year at the end of May they have a church ceremony honoring this grail (I saw the ACTUAL grail, it's really just a wooden case and it's over 500 years old)
They have 16% (?!?) volume beer which i find absolutely incredible, and is the highest potency beer on the planet i think. I don't think i can ever drink Budweiser again...it's officially "piss water" in my book. Seriously, this beer is so much better.
Our guide Ricky told us a funny story about a guy from Alabama who was a big drinker. He bragged to Ricky that he could down 15 beers in a sitting, unlike Ricky who could only down 6.
Ricky challenged him, and the poor kid curled up in a corner after 4 beers...Munich beer is STRONG!! Anyway, enough about beer (although did I mention it was really good in Munich??). The rest of the trip involved visiting the sites, all sorts of huge churches and the synagogue, as well as taking this great tour around the city. But the most memorable experience didn't occur till later that night...
I also met English-speakers of all varieties on the tour which was so cool! I met a Canadian, Australian, a Scottish couple, Brits, and of course a Deep South American (that's an accent!). So many accents trying to speak the same language, but it sounded so weird to anyone watching i guess that we were able to fully understand one another. English is such a cool language.
Here's the story that I'll remember for quite a while... So we needed to stay in Munich for a second night at the hostel. We got back around midnight and we all got to sleep pretty quick. Remember, this is a hostel so there are far more people than simply the 5 of us who went together. At around 3 AM I was awoken by an...odd noise.
The blog is PG-13, so I'll only put in some subtle innuendo... Let's just say that the bunkbed next to mine was very clearly lacking in WD-40, in all the wrong ways. Being groggy, I confusedly looked around for the source of the noise that woke me...yea, site I never want to see again. Really, to do it in a public hostel was nothing short of insulting. And the guy wasn't even staying in the hostel.
So I'm the closest bed to them (they covered the opening *mostly* with a blanket, how thoughtful...), and it goes on for a good 45 minutes, all the while me hearing things that I really didn't want to hear and wishing I had a giant thing of WD-40 and earmuffs.
If I wasn't scared that the guy would pop my face in, I would have just yelled my ass off at them. I couldn't fall asleep so I just read a book, all the while this WD-40-induced sound (and others, unfortunately...) continued.
Now I have an all-new one for the great game "Never have I ever..." lol.
There goes my sanity and 45 minutes of sleep that night...When the rest of my friends in the hostel found out they were cracking up to no end (they were separated by a door so they didn't wake up from it.
Anyway, I'm back in Freiburg now. Gotta do my homework, shower, and head to bed, so talk to you all later!! Still searching for the perfect gift for Katlyn :) I considered this outfit from Munich, but it was too expensive ;)
First off, some bad news: I wasn't able to go to Basel yet :( We decided to cancel our trip because the trains weren't going at the times we needed. But it's alright, I'll make sure to head their later.
Anyway, my Eurail pass arrived LATE (and here I payed an extra 20 euros for expedited delivery). So, I was pretty depressed since I wouldn't be able to go to Straussborg, but luckily another group going to Munich had a spot open, so i jumped at the chance!
No Eurail pass wasn't a problem; we were going to do the backpacker's way: regional train hopping. We switched trains 4 times each way, but the train fare was only 23 euros so that can't be beat.
I must say running from train to train was fun. When we finally got there, it was pretty rainy. Oh, and we decided to stay in a hostel. No, not a hotel, not a motel. Those were far too expensive. For those that don't know, a hostel is essentially packing 14 people into bunk beds in a relatively small room with 2 bathrooms.
I had never stayed in a hostel before, but I thought it would be a pretty fun experience to try out. I made sure to lock everything in my personal locker (you never know, right?, and the first night was a breeze. We woke up bright and early, and headed out to the Marianplaz.
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Let me tell you: Munich is the COOLEST CITY ON THE PLANET!! Obviously, it hosts Oktoberfest, the largest beer festival in the world, but it also has such an amazing history. We took a tour all around, including finding the most famous beer hall in the world, the legendary Hofbrauhaus, a place older than Christopher Columbus (LITERALLY). Oh, and i mean come on, it has it's own VOMITORIUM!! Really, that's what it's called!! There are few things on the planet hotter than Bavarian women in full costume carrying 10 Liters of beer to our table.
Oh, and check out this church (sorry for the poor quality, took it on my iPhone):
We also learned some details of the Holocaust from a Munich perspective. The Nazi party was essentially based in Munich, so obviously they tried to be as ruthless as possible when dealing with the Jews.
Only 81 Jews survived out of over 8,000 in the city. In 2006, the Jewish community of Munich was large enough to rebuild a very large Synagogue. I know that the outside looks a bit ugly, but inside is one of the most beautiful synagogues I've ever seen, both for the symbolic message it sends and it's sheer beauty.
Beyond that, of course, was the BEER!! SO MUCH BEER!! EVERYWHERE!! Apparently, Munich set up their first standards for what could go into beer in the 1500's (Wolfgang I think?), far before anyone else. During the late 1800's, they had cow festivals every year and drank wine. However, they decided that it was too expensive to continue doing that, so they instead decided to change it for the more profitable beer. For years after the beer festivals would get larger and larger, and Oktoberfest was born!! Munich's size of 1.4 million grows to 5.3 million for that period of time.
Another story: back in the day, only the nobles were allowed to have Wheat Beer. Then one of the Kings of Munich decided that he wanted to sell it to the people. So he set out two declarations: First, that only HE could brew and sell wheat beer, and second, that he had gathered a group of top scientists together (this is the 1600's I think) and they concluded that for men 8 Liters of beer per day was healthy and for women 7 Liters (literally true!!).
You would think that would make everyone fat, but they got so drunk that they thought it made everyone else more hot ;) Of course, those two policies were totally unrelated I'm sure.
They also have this holy grail of beer. It has all the beer recipes from the major brewers of Munich, and it had 4 keys. All keys must be inserted simultaneously to open it, but they're apparently lost. Legend has it Budweiser is on a worldwide mission searching for the keys. Every year at the end of May they have a church ceremony honoring this grail (I saw the ACTUAL grail, it's really just a wooden case and it's over 500 years old)
They have 16% (?!?) volume beer which i find absolutely incredible, and is the highest potency beer on the planet i think. I don't think i can ever drink Budweiser again...it's officially "piss water" in my book. Seriously, this beer is so much better.
Our guide Ricky told us a funny story about a guy from Alabama who was a big drinker. He bragged to Ricky that he could down 15 beers in a sitting, unlike Ricky who could only down 6.
Ricky challenged him, and the poor kid curled up in a corner after 4 beers...Munich beer is STRONG!! Anyway, enough about beer (although did I mention it was really good in Munich??). The rest of the trip involved visiting the sites, all sorts of huge churches and the synagogue, as well as taking this great tour around the city. But the most memorable experience didn't occur till later that night...
I also met English-speakers of all varieties on the tour which was so cool! I met a Canadian, Australian, a Scottish couple, Brits, and of course a Deep South American (that's an accent!). So many accents trying to speak the same language, but it sounded so weird to anyone watching i guess that we were able to fully understand one another. English is such a cool language.
Here's the story that I'll remember for quite a while... So we needed to stay in Munich for a second night at the hostel. We got back around midnight and we all got to sleep pretty quick. Remember, this is a hostel so there are far more people than simply the 5 of us who went together. At around 3 AM I was awoken by an...odd noise.
The blog is PG-13, so I'll only put in some subtle innuendo... Let's just say that the bunkbed next to mine was very clearly lacking in WD-40, in all the wrong ways. Being groggy, I confusedly looked around for the source of the noise that woke me...yea, site I never want to see again. Really, to do it in a public hostel was nothing short of insulting. And the guy wasn't even staying in the hostel.
So I'm the closest bed to them (they covered the opening *mostly* with a blanket, how thoughtful...), and it goes on for a good 45 minutes, all the while me hearing things that I really didn't want to hear and wishing I had a giant thing of WD-40 and earmuffs.
If I wasn't scared that the guy would pop my face in, I would have just yelled my ass off at them. I couldn't fall asleep so I just read a book, all the while this WD-40-induced sound (and others, unfortunately...) continued.
Now I have an all-new one for the great game "Never have I ever..." lol.
There goes my sanity and 45 minutes of sleep that night...When the rest of my friends in the hostel found out they were cracking up to no end (they were separated by a door so they didn't wake up from it.
Anyway, I'm back in Freiburg now. Gotta do my homework, shower, and head to bed, so talk to you all later!! Still searching for the perfect gift for Katlyn :) I considered this outfit from Munich, but it was too expensive ;)
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
OMG WIRELESS INTERNET!!
Day 9, June 3rd
Today, something incredible happened: I got wireless internet! I made sure to bring a spare wireless router from home (and an extra plug converter), but like so many other shoddily made products it requires different current amounts than Germany gives it. Thus, it wouldn't work.
So, I spent hours searching through every electronics store in Freiburg until I found it: a current adapter, which allows my router to work. However, the current adapter was 40 euros, which I found absurd.
I found a German wireless router that cost only 20 euros (I know, right?) so I figured that would be the better option. So today, FINALLY, I can happily say that I have a wireless network!! I can finally surf the web and download new iPhone Apps *sob*, it's so nice. Also, the ability to walk anywhere in my building using the Internet is fantastic. And you can never give enough credit to the incredible power of port forwarding.
Besides that, I've another item to add to the now-famous list of "I Can't Believe I Forgot That!": My digital camera battery charger!! I was taking this really nice video today and wouldn't you know it, the camera died. I went back to my room to charge it, and oh crap, I had no charger!!
None of the electronics stores sold Sanyo digital video cameras/chargers, so I thought i was screwed. Then i remembered the incredible power of the Internet, mainly eBay. I found a German vendor on eBay who was selling the charger I needed for only 5 euros and free shipping, so i jumped on that pretty quick. I'll have video up in a jiffy!
Prices in this country are really screwed up...
Tiny glass of coke: 2 euros
Ice Cream: 1 euro
Wireless-G Router: 20 euros (in the US they're at least $40)
Also, funny experience on the tram: so Germans from what I've seen are a quiet people just about anywhere, compared to Americans. Some Americans perceive it as being less friendly (they really don't smile as much as Americans, I've noticed, it's actually true), but I think it's more cultural difference than lack of happiness or something.
Anyway, so I was on the tram with a friend and we saw this German guy who was singing on the tram. Not especially loudly, but I'd never seen a German speak on the tram save for his/her cell phone or to a friend, so this was quite the occasion.
After a few minutes he noticed my friend and I, and saw that we were obviously not German. He spoke only some broken English but immediately started a conversation with us, a first for us.
"English?", he asked. "No, American", said Ben. "Ah, American!", he laughs. "Barack Obama, eh?" he said with a smile on his face. Ben and I start cracking up. "Surprised me!", he said, then he exited off the tram.
Other Germans were clearly giving him looks like he was insane, but Ben and I were cracking up for quite a while. The funniest guy I've met so far in Germany, and everyone thinks he's crazy. Just goes to show you the cultural differences, I guess. Also, that you can't judge an entire people by a stereotypes, as this guy clearly fit no stereotype I had ever heard for Germans.
In health related issues, there seems to be an ongoing competition with my body right now, and I don't know what will win out: On the one hand, we have German food and beer. The food is DELICIOUS but not especially healthy, and the beer...mmmmm...sooooo good.
On the other hand, we have the excessive exercise requirements every day. I easily walk 20x times the distance each day I did in the US; you literally have to walk everywhere if there's not a tram going to the location you want to. Going to lunch every day is a hike even. We'll see what happens, who knows what my weight will be when I get back to the US.
In other news, I've been searching the whole **** city for a newspaper shop that sells the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times international publication. Today, I finally found a place with it that's close by, so more superb news. Otherwise, we're still learning about the various complex relationship that the Balkans have to Western Europe. I really haven't studied the Balkans region much before so it's really interesting to learn about it's deep historical roots and also the genocide and human rights abuses that went on in the area.
In more other news, Obama is supposed to make a speech in Germany soon! I wish I had the day off, I'd so go see him, but he's far away in Hamburg I think. Oh well...
Finally, I'm heading to Basel, Switzerland tomorrow for an afternoon. The tram goes directly there and it's only like 20 minutes away from where I am now so I figure why not, right? It's free anyway. Over the weekend I think I might go to Strasbourg, France, which should be pretty fun. With any luck my EuroRail pass will have arrived by then.
I'd post a picture and video, but oh yea, my battery died and I am charger-less. Till next time, peeps!
Today, something incredible happened: I got wireless internet! I made sure to bring a spare wireless router from home (and an extra plug converter), but like so many other shoddily made products it requires different current amounts than Germany gives it. Thus, it wouldn't work.
So, I spent hours searching through every electronics store in Freiburg until I found it: a current adapter, which allows my router to work. However, the current adapter was 40 euros, which I found absurd.
I found a German wireless router that cost only 20 euros (I know, right?) so I figured that would be the better option. So today, FINALLY, I can happily say that I have a wireless network!! I can finally surf the web and download new iPhone Apps *sob*, it's so nice. Also, the ability to walk anywhere in my building using the Internet is fantastic. And you can never give enough credit to the incredible power of port forwarding.
Besides that, I've another item to add to the now-famous list of "I Can't Believe I Forgot That!": My digital camera battery charger!! I was taking this really nice video today and wouldn't you know it, the camera died. I went back to my room to charge it, and oh crap, I had no charger!!
None of the electronics stores sold Sanyo digital video cameras/chargers, so I thought i was screwed. Then i remembered the incredible power of the Internet, mainly eBay. I found a German vendor on eBay who was selling the charger I needed for only 5 euros and free shipping, so i jumped on that pretty quick. I'll have video up in a jiffy!
Prices in this country are really screwed up...
Tiny glass of coke: 2 euros
Ice Cream: 1 euro
Wireless-G Router: 20 euros (in the US they're at least $40)
Also, funny experience on the tram: so Germans from what I've seen are a quiet people just about anywhere, compared to Americans. Some Americans perceive it as being less friendly (they really don't smile as much as Americans, I've noticed, it's actually true), but I think it's more cultural difference than lack of happiness or something.
Anyway, so I was on the tram with a friend and we saw this German guy who was singing on the tram. Not especially loudly, but I'd never seen a German speak on the tram save for his/her cell phone or to a friend, so this was quite the occasion.
After a few minutes he noticed my friend and I, and saw that we were obviously not German. He spoke only some broken English but immediately started a conversation with us, a first for us.
"English?", he asked. "No, American", said Ben. "Ah, American!", he laughs. "Barack Obama, eh?" he said with a smile on his face. Ben and I start cracking up. "Surprised me!", he said, then he exited off the tram.
Other Germans were clearly giving him looks like he was insane, but Ben and I were cracking up for quite a while. The funniest guy I've met so far in Germany, and everyone thinks he's crazy. Just goes to show you the cultural differences, I guess. Also, that you can't judge an entire people by a stereotypes, as this guy clearly fit no stereotype I had ever heard for Germans.
In health related issues, there seems to be an ongoing competition with my body right now, and I don't know what will win out: On the one hand, we have German food and beer. The food is DELICIOUS but not especially healthy, and the beer...mmmmm...sooooo good.
On the other hand, we have the excessive exercise requirements every day. I easily walk 20x times the distance each day I did in the US; you literally have to walk everywhere if there's not a tram going to the location you want to. Going to lunch every day is a hike even. We'll see what happens, who knows what my weight will be when I get back to the US.
In other news, I've been searching the whole **** city for a newspaper shop that sells the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times international publication. Today, I finally found a place with it that's close by, so more superb news. Otherwise, we're still learning about the various complex relationship that the Balkans have to Western Europe. I really haven't studied the Balkans region much before so it's really interesting to learn about it's deep historical roots and also the genocide and human rights abuses that went on in the area.
In more other news, Obama is supposed to make a speech in Germany soon! I wish I had the day off, I'd so go see him, but he's far away in Hamburg I think. Oh well...
Finally, I'm heading to Basel, Switzerland tomorrow for an afternoon. The tram goes directly there and it's only like 20 minutes away from where I am now so I figure why not, right? It's free anyway. Over the weekend I think I might go to Strasbourg, France, which should be pretty fun. With any luck my EuroRail pass will have arrived by then.
I'd post a picture and video, but oh yea, my battery died and I am charger-less. Till next time, peeps!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Mmmm....Wine...
Day 8, June 2nd
Today was pretty interesting, actually. Morning classes were alright; we're currently learning the fundamentals of the European Union. They really like the word "council" in naming stuff. Apparently there are three different bodies within the EU that are considered Councils.
I'm also learning some more German, which is good. I conducted my first transaction at a store entirely in German today, which I think is spectacular.
After class was when the day really got fun, though. Micheal and I had heard that there were many local wineries in Freiburg, and that there was a store that only sold local Freiburg wine. Being a relative novice in the world of wine (as compared to Beer), we decided to check out what they had.
The people in there were incredibly nice (and spoke English!). They gave us a few free samples of some of the better wines they sold, and we decided to split a bottle of delicious locally made white wine for 11 euros (the "euro" symbol doesn't work on Blogspot...)
After that, we explored the town for some nice bread, cheese, and chocolate to eat with the wine. We got some incredible 75% pure dark chocolate, some great Brie cheese, and of course a baguette. Then we decided to head back to the park to go and have our delicious wine-bread-cheese-chocolate meal.
On the way back through the Farmers Market, we noticed a *distinctive smell* that any college student is well aware of. Certainly audacious to say the very least out in public like that. Then again, Freiburg is called by some the "California of Germany". If you don't understand what I'm talking about, then it's for the better since this is a PG-13 blog :)
In the evening, I planned to go out to a local club, which should have been nice, but was unfortunately stopped by me missing the **** little *** **** elephant **** interplanetary **** **** stupid train again (portions redacted). In fairness, this time I didn't oversleep, but instead thought we were meeting at the wrong train. Yea yea, go laugh, and then shut ur pie holes, you jerks ;)
I also have some fun plans coming up this week. I found out that my monthly rail pass goes straight into Basel, Switzerland. Thus, on Thursday I intend to visit Switzerland with a few people just for the day, which should be pretty fun. Gotta look up some fun stuff to do.
On the weekend, I'm considering going to Straussborg, which I've heard is simply beautiful. Thank you, EuroRail Pass (hopefully coming in the mail Thursday thanks to rush shipping!!)
P.S. For those of you that play Go and are reading this, apparently KGS don't work where I live. It just refuses to connect at all. I have absolutely no idea why this should be but it's pretty frustrating. Any ideas?
Today was pretty interesting, actually. Morning classes were alright; we're currently learning the fundamentals of the European Union. They really like the word "council" in naming stuff. Apparently there are three different bodies within the EU that are considered Councils.
I'm also learning some more German, which is good. I conducted my first transaction at a store entirely in German today, which I think is spectacular.
After class was when the day really got fun, though. Micheal and I had heard that there were many local wineries in Freiburg, and that there was a store that only sold local Freiburg wine. Being a relative novice in the world of wine (as compared to Beer), we decided to check out what they had.
The people in there were incredibly nice (and spoke English!). They gave us a few free samples of some of the better wines they sold, and we decided to split a bottle of delicious locally made white wine for 11 euros (the "euro" symbol doesn't work on Blogspot...)
After that, we explored the town for some nice bread, cheese, and chocolate to eat with the wine. We got some incredible 75% pure dark chocolate, some great Brie cheese, and of course a baguette. Then we decided to head back to the park to go and have our delicious wine-bread-cheese-chocolate meal.
On the way back through the Farmers Market, we noticed a *distinctive smell* that any college student is well aware of. Certainly audacious to say the very least out in public like that. Then again, Freiburg is called by some the "California of Germany". If you don't understand what I'm talking about, then it's for the better since this is a PG-13 blog :)
In the evening, I planned to go out to a local club, which should have been nice, but was unfortunately stopped by me missing the **** little *** **** elephant **** interplanetary **** **** stupid train again (portions redacted). In fairness, this time I didn't oversleep, but instead thought we were meeting at the wrong train. Yea yea, go laugh, and then shut ur pie holes, you jerks ;)
I also have some fun plans coming up this week. I found out that my monthly rail pass goes straight into Basel, Switzerland. Thus, on Thursday I intend to visit Switzerland with a few people just for the day, which should be pretty fun. Gotta look up some fun stuff to do.
On the weekend, I'm considering going to Straussborg, which I've heard is simply beautiful. Thank you, EuroRail Pass (hopefully coming in the mail Thursday thanks to rush shipping!!)
P.S. For those of you that play Go and are reading this, apparently KGS don't work where I live. It just refuses to connect at all. I have absolutely no idea why this should be but it's pretty frustrating. Any ideas?
Monday, June 1, 2009
June Begins
Day 7, June 1st
Today was a pretty fun day. It was some sort of holiday so we had no classes. Anyway, we decided to go out to mini golf and explore some more beer gardens, which was certainly pretty fun.
Thankfully, my monthlong RailPass activated today so I no longer have to waste 5 euros a day riding the stupid tram to school. Also, I learned that it's a good idea to ALWAYS have a ticket on you... not having a ticket led to bad consequences today.
Apparently 2 people in our group thought it would be fine to play the laws of statistical probabilities and not buy a tram ticket. About 1 in every 50 tram rides (from what I'm told), a ticket-checker walks around the tram and fines people 40 euros if they don't have a valid ticket.
Well, wouldn't you know it, today was the day the ticket-checker came and they both got fined. Whew! Thankfully, I have a ticket so all is well in the world.
In the evening I went to play Go again, which was quite fun. I walked 4 km to get there, which was certainly an interesting journey. Tomorrow I'm going to ask how to take the tram to get there next time now that I have a month long ticket, since it took me about 45 minutes to walk there. Had quite a bit of fun, and I hope to continue such fun throughout my stay here in Germany.
I'm slowly learning German, believe it or not. Immersion really does work, apparently. I can now say "Please", "Hello", "Goodbye", "Where Is?", "Beer", "Welcome", "How Much", and count from 1 to 12. Additionally, I'm finally learning how to pronounce this language...let me tell you, not easy.
They also call English a Germanic language for a reason, there are a LOT of similarities between English and German. While verbs are generally pretty different, nouns and pronouns are surprisingly similar. I'm glad I chose Germany for my stay. Anyway, got class SO EARLY tomorrow morning (8:30 AM). Stay tuned next time, ya'll!!
Today was a pretty fun day. It was some sort of holiday so we had no classes. Anyway, we decided to go out to mini golf and explore some more beer gardens, which was certainly pretty fun.
Thankfully, my monthlong RailPass activated today so I no longer have to waste 5 euros a day riding the stupid tram to school. Also, I learned that it's a good idea to ALWAYS have a ticket on you... not having a ticket led to bad consequences today.
Apparently 2 people in our group thought it would be fine to play the laws of statistical probabilities and not buy a tram ticket. About 1 in every 50 tram rides (from what I'm told), a ticket-checker walks around the tram and fines people 40 euros if they don't have a valid ticket.
Well, wouldn't you know it, today was the day the ticket-checker came and they both got fined. Whew! Thankfully, I have a ticket so all is well in the world.
In the evening I went to play Go again, which was quite fun. I walked 4 km to get there, which was certainly an interesting journey. Tomorrow I'm going to ask how to take the tram to get there next time now that I have a month long ticket, since it took me about 45 minutes to walk there. Had quite a bit of fun, and I hope to continue such fun throughout my stay here in Germany.
I'm slowly learning German, believe it or not. Immersion really does work, apparently. I can now say "Please", "Hello", "Goodbye", "Where Is?", "Beer", "Welcome", "How Much", and count from 1 to 12. Additionally, I'm finally learning how to pronounce this language...let me tell you, not easy.
They also call English a Germanic language for a reason, there are a LOT of similarities between English and German. While verbs are generally pretty different, nouns and pronouns are surprisingly similar. I'm glad I chose Germany for my stay. Anyway, got class SO EARLY tomorrow morning (8:30 AM). Stay tuned next time, ya'll!!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Day 5+6
Day 5, May 29th
Today started off poorly enough. So I *kinda* got a *little* bit drunk last night at the party , and sort of overslept through my first class :) Thankfully , I got the notes and made it for my next two classes, so no harm done.
Oh, big lesson for anyone traveling to Germany: plug adapters for German outlets are CRAP by themselves. You need to convert the current to the proper amount too, I'm unable to make my wireless network go up and running, which is pretty annoying (especially when I want to use my iPhone's WiFi, let me tell you...).
Also, after this EuroRail pass (going to buy it sometime tomorrow) I've probably used up just about all of my Bar Mitzvah money, so oh well, though it's certainly gone to a good cause.
But it's worth it: 10 days of total travel over a 2 month period to 5 countries of my choice (I chose Germany, BeNeLux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg count as 1), France, Switzerland, and Austria; this will also work when my parents get here so I'm set for my whole trip)
Classes are starting to get a bit tougher and I feel like I'm in college a bit, but Freiburg is still an awesome place to be. Seriously, Germans have no conception of the term "cross walk", they just cross wherever they feel like which I find interesting.
Plus, the concept of "free refills" is imaginary here; a small glass of coke can cost over 2 euros. If I haven't talked about it before, German water annoys me too. It's essentially seltzer. That's right, carbonated water with a tiny bit of flavoring. If you ask them at restaurants for non-carbonated water they give you a funny look, almost as if the natural choice is carbonated water when you ask for water.
The terrible thing about carbonated water isn't that it tastes bad (it's actually quite good), but that it goes flat like soda. When it goes flat, it tastes absolutely awful, so you can't take it with you on hikes and you have to drink it quickly.
I also found a Synagogue in the city, as well as a third Starbucks. I've taken up a liking for their cappuccino, which gives me a great jolt in the morning (when I'm not running late to EVERYTHING). Also, today marks the first day I made it back from the university to my dorm without getting lost once, a feat I consider pretty impressive ;)
But alas, perfection was not to be. I had found out a while earlier (thanks for the info, Paul, but I already found it) that a Go club meets here in Freiburg and I wanted to check it out. I did a Google Maps search and found it was only 2 km away, which was certainly walkable on my part.
So at around 6:30 PM I headed out (note: still daylight). I had a great time meeting some German go players (they're generally pretty fluent in English) and at around 11 PM I decided to head back. That's when the fun began...
Apparently, it's a lot tougher finding which street to go on in a foreign city when it's pitch black compared to when it's bright out (go figure, right?). Needless to say, being me, I got myself lost on the final leg of the journey back. I knew I was within 10 minutes of home, but had no idea how to get there.
With my iPhone's GPS not working in Europe and everyone's number in Germany that I had not answering or sleeping (11:30 PM), I continued wandering aimlessly for a bit.
Finally, I decided to pocket any remaining shred of dignity I could cling to and called up the one and only Mr. Kyle Trager (tried Mr. Feinman but he was sleeping at work apparently, remember 6 hour time difference). After laughing for a bit, he used Google Maps Germany to plot where I was based on the intersections I was at (some really funky street names in Germany, btw).
Then, using a bird's eye satellite view from Google Maps (and some bare-bones memory from me about where I lived) he guided me back to my dorm, which was awfully kind of him. This will certainly be a fun one for the memory books, and now I guess I have to get him something besides the German 1st Grader's subtraction book I was planning on giving him :).
Besides wasting a good 20 minutes of time (costing me 69 cents/minute, sorry Mom!) on my cell, I was freezing cold when I got back. I plopped in bed and fell asleep near instantly. I thought my troubles were over, but UhOh...
Day 6, May 30th
My cell phone rings at 10:56 AM...I'm sleeping and thinking who would call me on a Saturday morning when I was taking a well-deserved long night sleep. It was Elyssa, whose also in our IES group, asking me where I was.
That's right!! We had a Saturday field trip to the Black Forest (cool place on the edge of Freiburg). It was originally scheduled for Sunday and I had totally spaced that it changed. The train was leaving at 11:15 AM and I was in no state to leave the dorm.
Dressing at approximately Warp Factor 9.9 (Warp 10 is physically impossible!), I sped out of the dorm and onto the tram to get to the major train we were leaving from (when I say "tram", I mean the Freiburg slow and local tram, but when I say "train", I mean the larger transportation system for Germany as a whole).
When I was two stops away, Elyssa calls me again telling me that the train was about to get there and that I wouldn't make it in time. Well, I was going to see about that..
So the tram gets to the train station and I zoom out dashing at top speed. I see the train I need to get on (#7), and run down steps 3 at a time. Then, I swear the scene comes right out of a Hollywood movie...
I see someone in my group get on the train (the last person), and I'm running as fast as I can. When I'm perhaps 100 ft. away, the train closes it's doors and starts moving... Nobody in my group sees me, and I run after the train for a second before giving up...Stupid Hollywood...
Aw crap, I just missed a fun field trip for the day! Well, after a good 5 minutes of sulking dejectedly at my own absurd stupidity, I decide to make the best of it. I'm a naive optimist I guess (according to polling in Germany, that's one of the most common stereotypes they give to Americans) I drown my sorrows in Flammkuchen (delicious!) and then buy gifts for family back home. I see a museum, a theater, go into some churches, and try and use my non-existent German to mingle with the populace. The farmers market is pretty cool, got some delicious Freiburg strawberries!!
At around 5 PM I meet my group that just got back from the Black Forest. After we all have a great laugh about me missing the train by a few microns (or a hundred feet, but whose counting...), we get some snacks and go back to the dorms. Thankfully, the evening ended quite a bit better than my continual mishaps.
We all decided to go out to dinner as a group to a relatively nice restaurant, and I had some sort of salami-eggs-baked potato meal, which was divine. We chatted for a bit about our respective days (everyone wanted to know how mine was since I kinda missed the scheduled activity), and about Israeli politics, what would happen in the Iranian election (you have a bunch of International Relations students at the same table, what do you expect?), and then a bachelor party started next door to us...
German bachelor parties are WEIRD!! Instead of just having a crazy drunken party, all of the bachelor's friends buy a special shirt for the occasion, and then go running around town selling stuff and making a scene to try and pay for it and maybe get some more cash for the bachelor party. Yea, I know, what?
At least that's what I understood from a local German's broken English...suffice it to say, it was pretty funny and you can check out the funny video below. I decided to buy a cigar which the bachelor party people were selling, which was pretty good.
Oh, and my MOM has how Google Friended this blog...seriously, anyone who reads this and doesn't has no idea how to use a computer ;) Don't be outdone by Judy Gelber on the computer :)
Anyway, that's all the fun for this time, see ya next time!!
Today started off poorly enough. So I *kinda* got a *little* bit drunk last night at the party , and sort of overslept through my first class :) Thankfully , I got the notes and made it for my next two classes, so no harm done.
Oh, big lesson for anyone traveling to Germany: plug adapters for German outlets are CRAP by themselves. You need to convert the current to the proper amount too, I'm unable to make my wireless network go up and running, which is pretty annoying (especially when I want to use my iPhone's WiFi, let me tell you...).
Also, after this EuroRail pass (going to buy it sometime tomorrow) I've probably used up just about all of my Bar Mitzvah money, so oh well, though it's certainly gone to a good cause.
But it's worth it: 10 days of total travel over a 2 month period to 5 countries of my choice (I chose Germany, BeNeLux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg count as 1), France, Switzerland, and Austria; this will also work when my parents get here so I'm set for my whole trip)
Classes are starting to get a bit tougher and I feel like I'm in college a bit, but Freiburg is still an awesome place to be. Seriously, Germans have no conception of the term "cross walk", they just cross wherever they feel like which I find interesting.
Plus, the concept of "free refills" is imaginary here; a small glass of coke can cost over 2 euros. If I haven't talked about it before, German water annoys me too. It's essentially seltzer. That's right, carbonated water with a tiny bit of flavoring. If you ask them at restaurants for non-carbonated water they give you a funny look, almost as if the natural choice is carbonated water when you ask for water.
The terrible thing about carbonated water isn't that it tastes bad (it's actually quite good), but that it goes flat like soda. When it goes flat, it tastes absolutely awful, so you can't take it with you on hikes and you have to drink it quickly.
I also found a Synagogue in the city, as well as a third Starbucks. I've taken up a liking for their cappuccino, which gives me a great jolt in the morning (when I'm not running late to EVERYTHING). Also, today marks the first day I made it back from the university to my dorm without getting lost once, a feat I consider pretty impressive ;)
But alas, perfection was not to be. I had found out a while earlier (thanks for the info, Paul, but I already found it) that a Go club meets here in Freiburg and I wanted to check it out. I did a Google Maps search and found it was only 2 km away, which was certainly walkable on my part.
So at around 6:30 PM I headed out (note: still daylight). I had a great time meeting some German go players (they're generally pretty fluent in English) and at around 11 PM I decided to head back. That's when the fun began...
Apparently, it's a lot tougher finding which street to go on in a foreign city when it's pitch black compared to when it's bright out (go figure, right?). Needless to say, being me, I got myself lost on the final leg of the journey back. I knew I was within 10 minutes of home, but had no idea how to get there.
With my iPhone's GPS not working in Europe and everyone's number in Germany that I had not answering or sleeping (11:30 PM), I continued wandering aimlessly for a bit.
Finally, I decided to pocket any remaining shred of dignity I could cling to and called up the one and only Mr. Kyle Trager (tried Mr. Feinman but he was sleeping at work apparently, remember 6 hour time difference). After laughing for a bit, he used Google Maps Germany to plot where I was based on the intersections I was at (some really funky street names in Germany, btw).
Then, using a bird's eye satellite view from Google Maps (and some bare-bones memory from me about where I lived) he guided me back to my dorm, which was awfully kind of him. This will certainly be a fun one for the memory books, and now I guess I have to get him something besides the German 1st Grader's subtraction book I was planning on giving him :).
Besides wasting a good 20 minutes of time (costing me 69 cents/minute, sorry Mom!) on my cell, I was freezing cold when I got back. I plopped in bed and fell asleep near instantly. I thought my troubles were over, but UhOh...
Day 6, May 30th
My cell phone rings at 10:56 AM...I'm sleeping and thinking who would call me on a Saturday morning when I was taking a well-deserved long night sleep. It was Elyssa, whose also in our IES group, asking me where I was.
That's right!! We had a Saturday field trip to the Black Forest (cool place on the edge of Freiburg). It was originally scheduled for Sunday and I had totally spaced that it changed. The train was leaving at 11:15 AM and I was in no state to leave the dorm.
Dressing at approximately Warp Factor 9.9 (Warp 10 is physically impossible!), I sped out of the dorm and onto the tram to get to the major train we were leaving from (when I say "tram", I mean the Freiburg slow and local tram, but when I say "train", I mean the larger transportation system for Germany as a whole).
When I was two stops away, Elyssa calls me again telling me that the train was about to get there and that I wouldn't make it in time. Well, I was going to see about that..
So the tram gets to the train station and I zoom out dashing at top speed. I see the train I need to get on (#7), and run down steps 3 at a time. Then, I swear the scene comes right out of a Hollywood movie...
I see someone in my group get on the train (the last person), and I'm running as fast as I can. When I'm perhaps 100 ft. away, the train closes it's doors and starts moving... Nobody in my group sees me, and I run after the train for a second before giving up...Stupid Hollywood...
Aw crap, I just missed a fun field trip for the day! Well, after a good 5 minutes of sulking dejectedly at my own absurd stupidity, I decide to make the best of it. I'm a naive optimist I guess (according to polling in Germany, that's one of the most common stereotypes they give to Americans) I drown my sorrows in Flammkuchen (delicious!) and then buy gifts for family back home. I see a museum, a theater, go into some churches, and try and use my non-existent German to mingle with the populace. The farmers market is pretty cool, got some delicious Freiburg strawberries!!
At around 5 PM I meet my group that just got back from the Black Forest. After we all have a great laugh about me missing the train by a few microns (or a hundred feet, but whose counting...), we get some snacks and go back to the dorms. Thankfully, the evening ended quite a bit better than my continual mishaps.
We all decided to go out to dinner as a group to a relatively nice restaurant, and I had some sort of salami-eggs-baked potato meal, which was divine. We chatted for a bit about our respective days (everyone wanted to know how mine was since I kinda missed the scheduled activity), and about Israeli politics, what would happen in the Iranian election (you have a bunch of International Relations students at the same table, what do you expect?), and then a bachelor party started next door to us...
German bachelor parties are WEIRD!! Instead of just having a crazy drunken party, all of the bachelor's friends buy a special shirt for the occasion, and then go running around town selling stuff and making a scene to try and pay for it and maybe get some more cash for the bachelor party. Yea, I know, what?
At least that's what I understood from a local German's broken English...suffice it to say, it was pretty funny and you can check out the funny video below. I decided to buy a cigar which the bachelor party people were selling, which was pretty good.
Oh, and my MOM has how Google Friended this blog...seriously, anyone who reads this and doesn't has no idea how to use a computer ;) Don't be outdone by Judy Gelber on the computer :)
Anyway, that's all the fun for this time, see ya next time!!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Mmmm...German Beer...
Day 4, May 28th
Hey everyone! Well I'm a little woozy right now...just had a few beers, a few shots, and all is well in the world of my brain.
Anyway, before we had the party tonight and I got *slightly* marginally inebriated, the day was fun. We had our first day of real classes which was nice. I forgot to bring a notebook for classes, argh!! How could I have been so stupid?? Where's a walmart when you need it, right?
That is #1928575 on my list of "Things Josh Forgot To Bring". Following classes, we went to this really cool Turkish restaurant (they're all over Germany, as are Chinese restaurants) where I tried "Lambcuch", or something, which is like hummus, lamb, pita, and a few other spices mixed together. So good! I know my new favorite food while I'm in Turkey.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to beg my mom to allow me to buy a Eurorail pass. Apparently EVERYONE ELSE HAS ONE, and we have so much free time over the weekends that I don't think I could afford not to get one. Then again, this trip already costs close to a billion dollars so who knows?
I got friendly with quite a few more people today (thank you alcohol!), from both the US and native German students. I'm going to join some of the Germans in my dorm room for a casual game of soccer later in the week so we'll see how that goes.
Anyway, at the party we drank, talked of times past, and of course I made a complete fool of myself dancing. Thankfully I banned all cameras from taking pictures of me, so dont expect any facebook embarrassments to laugh at:)
I had a shot called a "Sour Apple" (thats how it was translated, dunno if it was perfect), which tasted surprisingly like sour apple and was pretty good. Anyway, I'm just typing whatever random thought appears in my head, so sorry if this post is a little unorganized and rambling (oh, and Germans don't have nearly the obesity problems the US has).
I have reading to do, so in retrospect I probably should have done it BEFORE i got drunk, but it's all good ;)
Oh, and one last thing: curse Iowa!! Those Iowans and their stupid High Fructose Corn Syrup...I challenge everyone reading this to have a cola product made with SUGAR instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup (like 99% of US soda's have) and taste the difference...that damned corn lobby really screwed us. I mean, HFCS is even WORSE for you than sugar, tastes worse, IS worse, and just about any other criticism you can lay on it.
Went to GameStop today (go figure, right?)...new PS3 and XBOX360 games are 70 EUROS!!! Utter insanity...
Life lesson for today: when getting drunk in a foreign country, make sure that you're always with friends (I was, of course) to ensure you don't do anything to make Americans look even stupider than the stereotypes that Germans already have for us (I've heard them all...)
Or maybe 'Germans having a "stupid" stereotype for Americans' is itself a stereotype? Philosophical, I know...but I'm too tired to rant about aimless subjects anymore so good night everyone ;)
Few personal notes before I pass out:
-Grandpa Howard - Congrats on learning how to read my blog ;) You're definitely better with computers than my other grandpa :)
-Feinman - Good to know that SOMEONE understands the concept of "google friend", unlike the rest of you lame-o's.
-Katlyn (a.k.a. Mrs. Feinman)- You're one tough customer to find a gift for, seriously... For all those times you cleaned our house and made me the most delicious dinners ever, I'm going to find you the perfect gift from Europe if it kills me ;) *(Psst...any ideas Mr. Feinman?!?!?!?)
-Kyle - Reading the news for the first time in a few days and you know what I saw? HAH!! HAH!! I TOLD YOU BURRIS WAS A CROOK!! HAH!! HAH!! DID YOU SEE THIS CRAP?!!? HAH!! YOU SUCK!! HAH!! Ahem...sorry, small amount of alcohol in system...
-Maddy - Thanks for leaving a comment :) I didn't know you were that good with a computer, bwahahahahha! Make sure to teach Claudia and Sophie (and maybe Hannah) how to read my blog too, you're the boss while I'm gone :) When you start your blog tell me.
-Mom - Banks suck really badly everywhere...not only does Suntrust charge me $5, and a 3% conversion-to-euro fee, but now I'm told that most German banks charge an ADDITIONAL $5 for international transfers...sheesh they're total jerks.. I need to withdraw at least 200-300 Euros at a time for it to be even worth it
-Everyone Else - Leave comments! I'll find them a lot easier than everyone emailing me their responses to each of my posts (*cough* barbara *cough*) It's way too easy, right at the bottom of each post you'll find a comments hyperlink, click it.
Hey everyone! Well I'm a little woozy right now...just had a few beers, a few shots, and all is well in the world of my brain.
Anyway, before we had the party tonight and I got *slightly* marginally inebriated, the day was fun. We had our first day of real classes which was nice. I forgot to bring a notebook for classes, argh!! How could I have been so stupid?? Where's a walmart when you need it, right?
That is #1928575 on my list of "Things Josh Forgot To Bring". Following classes, we went to this really cool Turkish restaurant (they're all over Germany, as are Chinese restaurants) where I tried "Lambcuch", or something, which is like hummus, lamb, pita, and a few other spices mixed together. So good! I know my new favorite food while I'm in Turkey.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to beg my mom to allow me to buy a Eurorail pass. Apparently EVERYONE ELSE HAS ONE, and we have so much free time over the weekends that I don't think I could afford not to get one. Then again, this trip already costs close to a billion dollars so who knows?
I got friendly with quite a few more people today (thank you alcohol!), from both the US and native German students. I'm going to join some of the Germans in my dorm room for a casual game of soccer later in the week so we'll see how that goes.
Anyway, at the party we drank, talked of times past, and of course I made a complete fool of myself dancing. Thankfully I banned all cameras from taking pictures of me, so dont expect any facebook embarrassments to laugh at:)
I had a shot called a "Sour Apple" (thats how it was translated, dunno if it was perfect), which tasted surprisingly like sour apple and was pretty good. Anyway, I'm just typing whatever random thought appears in my head, so sorry if this post is a little unorganized and rambling (oh, and Germans don't have nearly the obesity problems the US has).
I have reading to do, so in retrospect I probably should have done it BEFORE i got drunk, but it's all good ;)
Oh, and one last thing: curse Iowa!! Those Iowans and their stupid High Fructose Corn Syrup...I challenge everyone reading this to have a cola product made with SUGAR instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup (like 99% of US soda's have) and taste the difference...that damned corn lobby really screwed us. I mean, HFCS is even WORSE for you than sugar, tastes worse, IS worse, and just about any other criticism you can lay on it.
Went to GameStop today (go figure, right?)...new PS3 and XBOX360 games are 70 EUROS!!! Utter insanity...
Life lesson for today: when getting drunk in a foreign country, make sure that you're always with friends (I was, of course) to ensure you don't do anything to make Americans look even stupider than the stereotypes that Germans already have for us (I've heard them all...)
Or maybe 'Germans having a "stupid" stereotype for Americans' is itself a stereotype? Philosophical, I know...but I'm too tired to rant about aimless subjects anymore so good night everyone ;)
Few personal notes before I pass out:
-Grandpa Howard - Congrats on learning how to read my blog ;) You're definitely better with computers than my other grandpa :)
-Feinman - Good to know that SOMEONE understands the concept of "google friend", unlike the rest of you lame-o's.
-Katlyn (a.k.a. Mrs. Feinman)- You're one tough customer to find a gift for, seriously... For all those times you cleaned our house and made me the most delicious dinners ever, I'm going to find you the perfect gift from Europe if it kills me ;) *(Psst...any ideas Mr. Feinman?!?!?!?)
-Kyle - Reading the news for the first time in a few days and you know what I saw? HAH!! HAH!! I TOLD YOU BURRIS WAS A CROOK!! HAH!! HAH!! DID YOU SEE THIS CRAP?!!? HAH!! YOU SUCK!! HAH!! Ahem...sorry, small amount of alcohol in system...
-Maddy - Thanks for leaving a comment :) I didn't know you were that good with a computer, bwahahahahha! Make sure to teach Claudia and Sophie (and maybe Hannah) how to read my blog too, you're the boss while I'm gone :) When you start your blog tell me.
-Mom - Banks suck really badly everywhere...not only does Suntrust charge me $5, and a 3% conversion-to-euro fee, but now I'm told that most German banks charge an ADDITIONAL $5 for international transfers...sheesh they're total jerks.. I need to withdraw at least 200-300 Euros at a time for it to be even worth it
-Everyone Else - Leave comments! I'll find them a lot easier than everyone emailing me their responses to each of my posts (*cough* barbara *cough*) It's way too easy, right at the bottom of each post you'll find a comments hyperlink, click it.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Day 2 + 3
We had a fun time taking pictures of a few of the US stores that we found. Take a look at these.
Day 2, May 26th
Day 2 was our first day of real orientation. I forgot a few things (a comb, floss, washcloths, the list could go on but i prefer not to embarrass myself further) that I had to buy. Freiburg is a beautiful city of about 200,000 people. Everyone gets everywhere on these little local trains which is pretty cool.
The other people in the program (17 others and me) all seem like pretty nice people. We come from as diverse places as Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregan, and quite a few more. No other Floridians besides me though.
As you might figure, about 10 of the people are International Relations majors which makes for fun political discussions.
Ok, got to my room, few fun things I discovered:
-The toilet has TWO BUTTONS to choose from...apparently button one is for #1 and button two is for #2...
-I'm living with 4 Germans and another American in my suite (I have my own room, we share 2x bathroom and kitchen
-Bikes are HUGE in Germany, people ride them everywhere and there are quite a few bike lanes
-The street and sidewalk are somewhat merged together in places, making travel a bit annoying.
-You have to PAY for ketchup packets in McDonalds (I've seen 2 MCDonalds so far)
-We've invaded Germany...I've seen 2x Starbucks, a gamestop, a subway, a few high-end clothing stores, and a CitiBank)
-I've already decided what I'm getting a few people (among them Misters Feinman and Trager)...I'm sure you'll enjoy it
-Germans don't drive SmartCars (seen only 2), most are regular cars that are pretty fuel efficient nevertheless.
-Many Germans speak a little English which makes life so much easier.
Day 3, May 27th
Today is almost finished (going out later tonight). I spent about 2 hours exploring the Freiburg area, which is actually pretty cool. Classes are starting tomorrow and I don't really know what to expect. Also, a few of us are planning a mini-trip this weekend to possibly Switzerland, which is really close by.
My friend Ben and I decided to go aimlessly wandering around the city today, which was pretty fun. While having an HD video camera is pretty cool, unfortunately the videos take FOREVER to load...
Take a look at all the fun sights we saw:
My First Post - A Few Days in Germany
Today is officiall Day 3, so I'm going to retroactively write about Day 0 and 1 here, and 2 and 3 in my next posting.
Day 0, May 24
Today is the day I left. Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare for the trip (Barbara, thanks for the endless advice on "various things")
I'm excited to see what I can manage in Germany, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, I'm flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Michigan to Frankfurt, which is a bit out of the way but oh well.
The trip to Michigan was pretty painless. However, due to weather complications, I got in 30 minutes late. International flights must be boarded 30 minutes prior to departure, and I got into the airport perhaps 45 minutes before departure. I'm sure I looked like a funny scene running with a massive backpack, laptop, and suitcase in tow. I made it with the gate *quite literally* closing right behind me.
THe trip to Frankfurt had it's ups and downs. The TV's had dozens of new release movies for my perusal which was nice, but I had the classic "seat next to extremely overweight person" dilemma which was annoying.
Day 1, May 25
Once I got to Frankfurt on the 25th, more fun awaited me. I had a huge amount of dollars in my pocket that I really wanted to turn into Euros ASAP. I saw a currency exchange at the airport and decided to do it there. Unfortunately, unbeknown to me (fine print written in German, go figure), those ****s at the airport charge a 7% fee on any conversion, and the conversion rate is mediocre. Lost some money, but oh well...
To get from Frankfurt to Freiburg, I knew that I had to take 2 trains and a taxi. Deciding to test out my newly-gained basic German (studied on the plane ride), I attempted to buy my train tickets completely using German.
That was a mistake...I bought first class tickets by mistake and spent an extra 50 euros meaninglessly...Yea, I know, "classic Josh", don't even get me started Kyle...
Well, let me tell you, first class costs 50 euros more for a reason...it's NICE!! The first train was 30 minutes long and I had a great time, getting personally served free soda (with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, go Europe!) by the attendants. I thought I had made the best mistake ever, but that wasn't to last...
The train was a bit late and I almost missed the connecting train, but thankfully I made it. I got into the front of the train barely in time, but I'd made another stupid mistake...
It was the back of the train. First class was 8 train cars away and I had a giant backpack, giant suitcase, and laptop in tow. I could take my licks and spend 2 hours in coach, or dodge my way through 8 cars.
Like hell i was going to waste 50 euors...I spent the next 20 minutes going through the cars, and when I finally made it to first class it felt like the promised land. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.
When I finally made it into Freiburg (pronounced Fry-Burg, not Free-Burg), I got myself a disposable cell phone, got a quick cab, and I made it. WHEW!!
Day 0, May 24
Today is the day I left. Thanks to everyone who helped me prepare for the trip (Barbara, thanks for the endless advice on "various things")
I'm excited to see what I can manage in Germany, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, I'm flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Michigan to Frankfurt, which is a bit out of the way but oh well.
The trip to Michigan was pretty painless. However, due to weather complications, I got in 30 minutes late. International flights must be boarded 30 minutes prior to departure, and I got into the airport perhaps 45 minutes before departure. I'm sure I looked like a funny scene running with a massive backpack, laptop, and suitcase in tow. I made it with the gate *quite literally* closing right behind me.
THe trip to Frankfurt had it's ups and downs. The TV's had dozens of new release movies for my perusal which was nice, but I had the classic "seat next to extremely overweight person" dilemma which was annoying.
Day 1, May 25
Once I got to Frankfurt on the 25th, more fun awaited me. I had a huge amount of dollars in my pocket that I really wanted to turn into Euros ASAP. I saw a currency exchange at the airport and decided to do it there. Unfortunately, unbeknown to me (fine print written in German, go figure), those ****s at the airport charge a 7% fee on any conversion, and the conversion rate is mediocre. Lost some money, but oh well...
To get from Frankfurt to Freiburg, I knew that I had to take 2 trains and a taxi. Deciding to test out my newly-gained basic German (studied on the plane ride), I attempted to buy my train tickets completely using German.
That was a mistake...I bought first class tickets by mistake and spent an extra 50 euros meaninglessly...Yea, I know, "classic Josh", don't even get me started Kyle...
Well, let me tell you, first class costs 50 euros more for a reason...it's NICE!! The first train was 30 minutes long and I had a great time, getting personally served free soda (with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, go Europe!) by the attendants. I thought I had made the best mistake ever, but that wasn't to last...
The train was a bit late and I almost missed the connecting train, but thankfully I made it. I got into the front of the train barely in time, but I'd made another stupid mistake...
It was the back of the train. First class was 8 train cars away and I had a giant backpack, giant suitcase, and laptop in tow. I could take my licks and spend 2 hours in coach, or dodge my way through 8 cars.
Like hell i was going to waste 50 euors...I spent the next 20 minutes going through the cars, and when I finally made it to first class it felt like the promised land. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.
When I finally made it into Freiburg (pronounced Fry-Burg, not Free-Burg), I got myself a disposable cell phone, got a quick cab, and I made it. WHEW!!
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