That little thing called school....

Yes, to answer your unasked question, I do indeed go to school while I'm here (and all of my classes are in German with German students). I am taking 4 academic classes plus a yoga and Irish/Scottish dance class. Each class meets for only an hour-and-a-half per week. I will describe each of them so you can get an idea of what I'm doing here (other than seeing Europe):

Intimate Relationships Scientifically Considered" (Yes, that's seriously what it's called):

I have never met the professor. Each day a small group of students gives a 90minute presentation and the teacher's aid gives them a grade. We were told that the reading is optional and our entire grade comes from our presentation. I do the reading because I want to learn something. It is normal for students in the audience to talk during presentations, the presenters just shout over them.

"Personality Psychology"

This is a big lecture class. The professor drops off at the end of her sentences which makes understanding her especially difficult. As in the above class, students talk during lecture, which makes it even harder to understand. My grade in this class comes from a one-hour exam at the end of the class. Again, reading is optional and "pretty much unnecessary for the exam" because the exam I am taking is reduced for international students and students who don't normally study psychology. After class I have to print out her slides and try to figure out what exactly she was talking about. I'd say I only comprehend about 70% of what she says.



"Motivational Psychology"

I will describe the first day: Professor enters; says "Guten Tag"; assigns each student a scientific article to present during a specific class period; leaves 10 minutes later, after telling us we won't have class for the next two weeks. hmmm. My grade comes from a 20 minute presentation and it is not expected of us, or even recommended to us, that we read the articles students present. The professor's lecture, however, is really interesting and he is very clear and organized. I can understand him!!



"German: Applied Geography"

This is a class for German language learners, and most people in it have already been here at least a semester. We listen to current German news and discuss it. I am learning a lot about the German social and political structure this way. Our discussions are especially interesting because the class includes students from Columbia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Isreal, Ireland, Estonia, Bulgaria and Hungary.



Irish and Scottish Dance

This class is as fun as it sounds! We spend the whole time jumping around on our toes laughing over our attempts at Irish dancing. I am meeting a lot of really nice Germans in this class, and it's so nice to know that on Thursdays from 6-7:30 I will be laughing! I'm actually getting pretty good, and I make sure to stand up nice and straight when I dance, so perhaps I'll try out for Riverdance when I get back..... :)



In addition to all of this, I will be tutoring/mentoring either an immigrant elementary student or a student living in a state orphanage (haven't received my assignment yet), meet once/week with my Polish housemate (who speaks fluent German) to improve my German and teach him English, and will be visiting schools in the area to present on topics dealing with the US. This last program is called "Rent an American" and I had training for it last weekend up in Stuttgart. I'm really excited to do things like simulate job interviews with students, throw elementary students an American style birthday party, be interviewed about what it's really like in the US etc!



Alright, so now perhaps you have a better idea of my life here. I know my language is improving, but I still feel like I've been bombarded by heavy, piercing German words at rapid-fire speed after sitting through three hours of class on Thursdays. It takes a lot of energy to go to class! Daydreaming for even a second is not an option-- it takes 110% concentration to keep up with the lessons.



I know everybody else's classes are ending right now, but here in Konstanz we have classes until the 21st of July, so we're just starting to get into the semester.

Wien!!! (Vienna)

Hello friends!

I am back from Vienna and actually have some homework to do for my classes-- man, it's been forever since I've done any real school work.... more on classes later. Vienna was (guess what I'm going to say....) yep, BEAUTIFUL! It was as pretty as Paris, just more relaxed and not as crowded. As with all of my trips so far, the weather was perfect-- sunny and about 7odegrees. It took us 10hrs. by train to get there and 13 to get back (thanks to a delayed train that made us miss the rest of our connections). I am really becoming a pro at riding German trains!


This was the view from our hostel window.



Vienna is known for its coffee houses, and most specifically, for the Melange (milk coffee) and Sachre Torte (chocolate cake with thin Apricot glaze in the middle). MMMM!!!!

This is probably the most famous coffee house in Vienna (which is saying a lot). It looks super fancy, although people just come in jeans and sit for hours drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Notice in this picture the DOG ON THE FANCY BENCH! Yes, it is completely allowed (and completely) common to find dogs everywhere, including in restaurants.

And now for my favorite part of Vienna-- the Vienna State Opera!! Amelia and I got to see Mozart's Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute) for 3.50 Euros. Yes, 3.50 and the people sitting directly in front of us paid over 200 Euro for their seats. Okay, granted we had to wait in line for 3 hours before the show to get standing room tickets, and then we had to stand for the performance, but we had a rail to lean on and LITERALLY had the best standing room tickets in the whole opera. This is a picture I took at the end of the performance without any zoom-- we were that close to the stage!


A view from our standing room spots inside the Opera House.


A view of the very short distance between us and the stage (and of the very nicely dressed people who sat in very expensive seats).


Amelia and me looking pretty on the stairs at the Opera. I'd never been to an opera before, but I think we saw an especially great one! It was hilarious and had a happy ending and I think I smiled for three hours straight. They also had little LCD screens in front of each of our places that showed the text of the opera so we could follow along.


Vienna by day.

Vienna was the center of the Habsburg Monarchy and thus is full of----crap, I can only think of the German word for what I want to say.....okay....I actually had to look up the English translation of the word----traces of the royal family. In this picture you see the coffin of the Maria Theresa and her husband. Apparently they were so in love they were 'buried' together in a coffin that's supposed to resemble a big bed. We saw this in the slightly creepy but really cool Kaisergruft (Imperial Burial Vault), which is where are all of the Habsburg family is laid to rest when they die. The last person to be buried there actually died last year, and there's still room for about 5 more people.

We also saw the historic Spanish Riding School's Lippizaner horses (which still operates in the tradition of the Habsburg family), and gives their horses 3 months of vacation per year in the fresh air in the hills of Austria. They were so pretty! Unfortunately we didn't get to see them perform, we just got a tour of the stables. We also saw the "silver chamber" of the monarchy (ie. all of their silver and china and porcelain--- actually a lot more interesting than it sounds), their "treasure chamber" (ie. their coronation crowns, religious items, royal dress, jewelry etc), and a museum dedicated to the extremely intriguing and sad life story of the Queen/Empress "Sissi."

We also climbed to the top of one of the spires of the St. Stephan's Cathedral. 300+ stairs helped us feel less guilty about the amazing gelatto we ate earlier. This is a picture from the top.

Hmmmm, this is something big. And pretty. And important. Oh yeah, it's part of the HUGE palace called Hofburg that is located directly in the middle of the city. The Habsburgs ruled from here for over 700 years, and today it houses a bunch of museums, the office of the Austrian President and some offices of Congress. It's interesting that the museums the government offices are, and how little security the office have (especially in comparison to DC)!

So there's a little flavor of my trip!

Europe is beautiful, but nowhere is as pretty as the place that houses the people I love. I miss you guys!

Feeling Foreign and Fitting in

Hi! I haven’t written in a while, partly because I no longer have internet in my house (apparently they were just testing it and then decided to turn it off for a while when they realized it worked…). The last couple of weeks, however, have been very eventful for me, and I thought I’d update you on it all.

Firstly, the weather—I think it has become summer around here! The weather has been consistently warm and sunny, and everything is in bloom. Since it’s been so nice, I’ve spent a lot of time outside and have lots of pictures to show for it. See below:

A small part of the harbor in town.


Colin and I walked to an island nearby (via a bridge) called Insel Mainau, which is entirely covered in flowers. It was gorgeous!


A view of the Alps from the island.

There was also a butterfly house. The butterflies were frantically flying all over the place, so I was so excited to be able to take this picture of a still one.

This is part of the neighborhood we walked through to get to the island.

The same beautiful neighborhood.

This is where I live. If you pretend like the big, ugly cement buildings (ie. our houses) aren't there, it's really very pretty.

A view of the lake and a neighborhood from the University.

The University. They call this modern art.

Another view of the strange architecture at the Uni.

The view of the Uni I see everyday on my way to class.

My house decided to have a grill party on Saturday. Those of us who could pull ourselves out of bed by 10am went grocery shopping together in the morning, and then we spent the evening grilling and having fun. It was possibly one of the best nights I've had here! Not everyone could make it (and some people from other houses joined us), but pictured here from the house are Eve (Poland), Augustina (Lithuania), Marcus (Sweden), Brigi (Hungary), Arthur (Poland), and Mehmet (Turkey/Kurdistan). Missing are Yen (China), Annelise (Estonia), Lina (Bulgaria), Francois (France), and Isabella (Romania).

Just last week I found myself starting to lose patience with all of the cultural differences I am encountering here. Because I’ve always loved learning about and experiencing other cultures, I was surprised that the differences I usually find so intriguing were getting so very annoying. I realized, however, that I was simply sick of being aware of how ‘different’ I am; I was sick of being foreign. For example, I was sick of being told that I was “too thinly clothed for the weather” and responding that in Minnesota, this weather is considered warm. Although I found my housemates’ amusing preconceptions about America amusing (we eat ice-cream at every meal, school shootings are so common we are afraid to go to school, we are the greatest country in the world, we are the worst country in the world etc.), I was getting sick of being the American and of discussing American politics. I was getting sick of the response, “Ohh…” that inevitably followed when somebody found out I was from the States (and of not knowing exactly what that person meant with this one little word). I was getting sick of having my meals critically scrutinized. The worst, however, was when I wore flip-flops into town last weekend and was subject to people blatantly staring at my toes for the rest of the day. It is not fun to be stared at! I still am not sure why they found my footwear so odd—perhaps the weather wasn’t quite warm enough for them yet. While being foreign and different is often uncomfortable, being in the position of the ‘different’ one is humbling and is teaching me real empathy for everyone else who, because of their clothing, accent, skin color, food of choice, body shape etc., is subject to stares and criticism in the place where I fit in as ‘normal.’

Then, one day, something clicked and I suddenly felt like I belonged here. Granted, I have been seriously considering telling people that I’m from Canada and not the US, but I am beginning to feel like I am really a part of the community around me. I have been going to dinners hosted by the Catholic club on campus (and am finally meeting some Germans!!), and am comfortable and familiar enough with the people there that I can joke with them and feel like a ‘regular.’ My house is also becoming more close-knit, and I am really getting to know the people I live with. I am becoming the house’s English tutor, as most people in the house are either taking English classes, wish they were, or are in classes that require knowledge of English. It feels great to be useful!! So, I guess the discomfort of feeling foreign had to build-up and reach its breaking point before things got better and I really started to feel like I fit in here.

On a last note, I am going to Vienna Friday thru Tuesday. I still have two travel days left on my Eurail train pass that have to be used before the end of the month, and Monday is a holiday here, so I thought-- why not! Neither Amelia nor I really have class on Friday or Tuesday, so we’re going to make the 10 hour trip.

Paris-- the city that loves Love and loaths English

Our trip to Paris was my first adventure on an overnight train, and I think it's one of those adventures you only need to experience once. We got on the train around 10pm and were supposed to arrive in Mannheim, Germany at 4:45am and catch a train into Paris at 6:45am. I slept at most 2 hrs., and then woke everyone up at 4:25 so we could ready to get off. After 4:45 came and went and the train didn't stop, we asked two different train people (I can't think of the English title for them) where we were and when we would get to Mannheim. They were both super crabby and said they had no idea. We found a more helpful lady who told us that we were delayed 2 hrs. due to some electrical problem. We tried to go back to bed, but at this point, we only had an hour or so left until we were expected to arrive. Luckily we made our connecting train in Mannheim, and made it to Paris.

The people working in the ticket booths at one of the largest train stations in Paris were so unhelpful (and of course, could not speak German or English) that it took us a solid half an hour to figure out which ticket to buy for the metro. By the end of the whole transaction we were having a very hard time not bursting into laughter-- their uselessness (and arrogance) was just that hilarious! This trip was the first time I've ever been somewhere where I can't speak the language. It was quite frustrating, but definitely an experience everybody should have at some point in their life. It really gives you empathy for people who struggle with English in the States. It was kind of funny-- no matter how hard I tried to use the few French words I learned, German came out of my mouth whenever I tried to communicate what I wanted.

It's true-- the French love to demonstrate! This protest was one of the first things I saw in the city. I saw three protests/demonstrations in three days!

Parisians relaxing at a cafe overlooking beautiful gardens. I LOVE THIS CITY!! Life just seemed so beautiful here.

The Place de la Concorde, the center of the French Revolution. It was a bit surreal to be standing in such a historically signicant place.

The metro at night. We became pros at riding the super-crowded metro (and always spoke to each other in German while riding so that people wouldn't think we were ugly Americans).

Notre Dame at night.

Notre Dame and the Seine river during the day. I got to go to Saturday night mass here.

A cool-looking shop on the Champs Elysees, a super chic shopping street that leads directly to the Arc de Triomphe.

This is a mall!! I told you this city was beautiful! Amelia and I spent a bit of time wandering This was about the time when we lost Colin in this huge city.

We met up with Erik Davis and Kelly, another St. Olaf student who is studying in France and had a picnic dinner on the garden of the Louvre. We had fresh baguettes, chicken, brie cheese, strawberries, and French wine. mmmm! The Eiffel Tower was also in the background, you just can't see it in this picture.

The Louvre! Friday night from 6-10 was free for students, so we saved a lot of money.

I will spare you from having to look at the billions of pictures I took in the Louvre, but I like this one of the Sphinx...

...and this one of the crowd surrounding the Mona Lisa..

...and this one of me in Napolean's private apartments... (apparently he lived in one of the wings of the Louvre- he lived pretty well, huh!?)

Ever since I watched the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson movie Passport to Paris when I was 11, the Arc de Triomphe and the traffic circle surrounding it has symbolized Paris for me. I was so excited to actually be able to see it in real life! I took this picture from the middle of the street and almost got run over (Parisian drivers are insane!), but it was worth it. Don't worry, I only acted like a stupid tourist in Paris, not while I was traveling around Germany.

Ahhhh-- just looking at this picture again makes me so happy!! This is the Museum l'Orangerie, which is a small museum filled with impressionist paintings. My favorite part were the two circular rooms in which Monet's waterlilies paintings spanned the entire length of the wall. I just sat in the middle of the room and stared at them for a while.

Creme Brulee! It was soooo good! We unabashedly ate our way through Paris, including: crepes (desert and savory), chocolate macarons, chocolate eclairs, baguette sandwiches, baguettes with a hotdog in the middle, espresso, and french onion soup. France tastes SO much better than Germany!

And, of course we made it the Eiffel Tower. At the top of every hour at night they make it blink-- it was pretty dang cool!

We walked along the Seine from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower one night, and I probably took 50 pictures of the tower-- it just kept looking better and better! I'm in this one (in the left corner).

It took us 10 hours (and six trains) to get home from Paris. I spent the whole time staring out the window and listening to my mp3 player-- the ride was so gorgeous I literally had tears in my eyes at time. We drove through the French country side past little villages, through the German Black Forest, and around the sparkling Lake Constance with the Alps in the distance.

Eastern Germany-- Leipzig and Dresden

After leaving Berlin, we stopped in Leipzig for six hours or so on our way to Dresden. In case you are not a Germany geography wizard, these cities are both in Eastern Germany.


This is the Nikolaikirche, which is a church where some of the first successful resistance to the GDR (Eastern Germany regime) began. People used to meet here for 'prayer meetings' and would actually conspire against the government.



We also visited Thomaskirche, the church where Bach worked for 27 years. He is buried underneath the church.



These blue pipes are above-ground water pipes. I'm not sure if they are unique to Eastern Germany, but we'd never seen them before.

We also went to a Stasi (East German secret police) museum in Leipzig. It was really interesting to see the technology they used to monitor mail, phones and people's homes and learn about the techniques they used in questioning suspected dissidents.

We also went to the Leipzig Zoo, which is world-known for its research in ape communication. It was the prettiest zoo I've ever seen, and the animals are actually kept in something similar to their native environment. This ape decided to pose for me!

This picture was taken without zoom-- the monkey was literally right in front of my face because the Leipzig Zoo has some free-roaming monkeys who are not afraid of humans.

Notice the big, scary lion in the background and the very short fence. Okay, I realize that there is a bit of water between us and the lion, but it seemed a little dangerous to me. I don't think you'd ever find something like this in the US!



This is the Zwinger in Dresden, which my guide book says "used to be a party place for royals." Dresden must have been pretty wealthy place back in the day-- nobody even lived here, the multiple castles are elsewhere in the city. Now the buildings house museums, a few of which we visited.

This is part of Dresden's sky-line. Walking around this city I often felt overwhelmed by the beauty-- it was literally too much to take in! My guide book says that "there are few city silhouttes more striking than Dresden's" and that in the 18th century, Dresden was known as the "Florence of the north."

We had to wait in Dresden until 10pm to catch our overnight train to Paris, so when it got dark, we went to the Botanical Gardens. They had a tropical house, and I saw a banana tree!