Just some thoughts....

I was walking in the city center the other day, and group of Indian tourists walked past me. One of the men stopped me and asked in English if I knew how to get to Switzerland. "Sure," I told him, "You just walk about 20 meters this way, cross that bridge, turn right and in about five minutes you'll run into a little fence. That's Switzerland." Then it hit me that I had just given somebody directions to Switzerland, not Target, not the nearest Starbucks, not St. Paul, not even Minneapolis, but SWITZERLAND! That was one of those moments where I realized, Wow, I'm really in Europe! Funny how after five months of living here, I'm still experiencing those moments!

Flags on the harbor: Konstanz flag, German flag, EU flag, and Swiss flag

I have now started untangling the crazy web of exit beuracracy here in good ol' Germany. Of course there are just as many things to take care of now (each with their own separate office somewhere in town or at the university, with their own separate open hours), as there were when I moved in. You can't just leave here, and you can't just make a few phone calls to cancel health insurance etc, everybody in the city seems to want to properly document the fact that I am indeed leaving Germany. Oh Germany.... there are some things I won't miss!

But there are a lot of things I will miss! I think I will miss my lifestyle here even more than I will miss the beauty of Konstanz and Germany in general. When is the next time I will be able to say something like, "Hey, we don't have any plans for this weekend. Want to go to Vienna?" I will miss the daily opportunities for adventures, the constant feeling of exploration. While I can still look online at budget European airlines and at train schedules, it will just be for fun, not because I actually have the opportunity to take advantage of any of their deals anymore. I will miss the slower pace of the university life here--- St.Olaf takes up my whole life when I'm home, but here university was only a small part of my experience. I will miss being able to hop on a bus and go into town or to the harbor between classes. And, of course, I will miss the people I've met. Ah,well, life is all about change, and in just over a week it will be time to go home. I am very excited to see everybody at home!! Also, the idea of being able to say EVERYTHING I want to say without having to think for even a second is super exciting!

Lake Constance in the evening.

Mom and Cailie arrive on Wednesday, and then we all come home the following Wednesday, July 30th (although they are on a different flight than me). Wow, I can't believe that this experience is almost done.

See you soon!!

Independence Day in Deutschland and Darmstadt

Happy belated 4th of July!! It was a little bit strange to celebrate the 4th abroad, but all the Americans here got together and threw a big international party (without fireworks, but with "authentic" American products pictured below).

These were found in the grocery store here. The marshmallows say they are made according to the "original American recipe," (whatever that is), but tasted more like vanilla than any American marshmallows I've ever had. Oh the Germans!

Celebrating with the world: pictured are three of us from St. Olaf and friends from Germany, Iraq and Poland. Other nationalities at the party included Brits, New Zealanders, Azerbaijanis, Swedes, Canadians, etc. etc.


Last Sunday Colin, Kirsten and I took a train to Darmstadt, a city about 4 hours north of Konstanz. Colin had a couple extra 1st class tickets left from when his family came to visit, so we rode in style! (see above) After this picture was taken, my camera battery died, so the rest of the pictures from the trip are either from Colin or the internet. We had a rocky start to the day; I somehow ignored my TWO alarms and didn't get up until Colin and Kirsten knocked on my door that morning. I got ready to go in 10 minutes, but we missed our bus and had to call a taxi. The taxi ended up being 15 minutes late because he couldn't find our street, and arrived 9 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. He flew through the city, and we made it on the train with about half a minute to spare!

(photo credit: Colin)
The whole reason we went up to Darmstadt was because they have a museum displaying fossils found in the famous Messel fossil bed near the city. The BBC series "Walking with Beasts," is based on the fossils they found here. Colin really wanted to see the fossils (he admits to being a bit of a nerd) and Kirsten and I agreed to come along--- how could we pass up free travel in first class?? Unfortunately the museum had a big sign on it saying it was closed for renovation until 2011 but that some of the exhibits could be found in another building in town. We eventually found that building, paid our 1 Euro entrance fee and realized that this place wasn't displaying the fossils, but rather the old printing presses from the museum. It was interesting nonetheless, and we got special treatment because we were the only ones in the "museum' (it was actually more like a slightly renovated warehouse).

In Darmstadt we also saw this crazy "Hundertwasser Haus," also known as the "Waldspirale." It's an apartment complex designed by the Austrian artist "Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser." His name translates to "Kingodom-of-Peace Rainy-day Darkly-multicolored Hundered-waters." He created it, obviously.


We also found a cool Russian Orthodox church in Darmstadt. Czar Nicholas II gave the church to Darmstadt in 1894 when he married Pricess Alexandra, who was from the city. I didn't realize that the last Czar family was half German!

So those were adventures of the past couple weeks. I also had my last final--- in personality psychology and am now done with the semester!! Yay! Now it's on to enjoying my last 2 and a half weeks in Konstanz. I can't believe it! Mom and Cailie come in 12 days. We're going to explore Konstanz and venture out to Bern, Switzerland and Strasbourg, France--- I'm really excited! Now if I could just figure out the stupid French train system----remember how they didn't like to speak English in Paris, well they also don't like to translate their webpages into English either. Luckily a guy from France lives in my house!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend! I'll be posting a couple more times before I come home.
Love and miss you all!