One Week Left

In the last hour, it's official, in fact many things are...

1. I just finished my semester in Germany with my last final.
2. I am now a senior.
3. Summer break has started.

The last week or two have been extremely full of thought. I have been studying for tests but taking breaks simply by writing or reading. After finishing The Life of Pi, Shutter Island, and Why Empathy Matters, I have taken on the TOME of GERMANDOM, also known as The German Genius by Peter Watson. I have also been writing random things such as: if I were a professor what would my first day of class speech be about and the first few posts of a science and music blog I want to start making. All in all, I have, as you can tell, a lot of free time.

The cover of The German Genius

I always thought that I would love free time - when I can think and do what I want to, but I realize that is not true. I like a routine, at least one that is regular, but also regularly breakable. The way germans learn is so different than the extremely-participatory, active, and homework-rich education system at home. I know that if I were born into their system, that ours would be completely over the top and almost childish. How one was raised has a lot to do with it.

I think I will like the slow life when I myself slow down.

I realize that I am ready to go home, but I am already missing my time here. I've already had to say goodbye to quite a few friends and it was tough. Those goodbyes showed what good friends I've made here, and I only hope to see them in the future. So after all this seriousness, let us dive into some humor:

What I will miss about Germany:

1. Beer - of course. It's cheaper than water, tastes like it is from the gods, and brings general merriment.
2. Walking through a forest every day - Living in the heart of a state park was pretty cool. If I ever did get bored, I could just go on a hike. I thank the mountain that I live on for not giving me a belly that would have been caused by #1.
3. The Language - Yesterday my power went out and I called my landlady to ask where the fuse box was. Since I didn't know the word for fuse box I explained it and she replied, "Sicherungskaste!" which translates to safety box. The language is practical, but sometimes too practical, as in the case of nipples, which are Brustwarzen. Directly translated it is breast warts. Oh german...
4. The Friends - I did meet quite a few people in my time here, but most of the time I spent with other foreign students. It was awesome because we could speak german at the same level, challenge each other, and talk about where we are from (US, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Russia, Poland, Brazil, Japan, France, etc.)
5. Train System - uh...they have one. That's good enough for me. My Eurailpass, which took me to Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, and Bern) saved me $750 on all those trips.
6. Fests, Music, Shows - It's not often that when you walk into town, you look into a bar and see children putting on a show, then a woman practicing an aria from her 3rd floor, and bavarian oom-pah coming from the town square. Eichstätt is a very musical and artsy town, with a whole secondary school devoted to music and many modern art pieces juxtaposed against the town's baroque backdrop.
7. No Growing Up - Yes, kind of like Neverland. I see parents with dreadlocks pushing baby strollers around and old people with tattoos. In bars, it's not uncommon to have old people at the table next to you imbibing. There is no feeling of once you get a career you are stuck and cannot go out like I feel there is in the US. There is still a creativity, a playfulness, that you don't see often in average America.

As much as Germany is cool, I do miss international food (made by the people of that race and not germans trying to attempt), spicy food, In N'Out, the Giants, and summer weather. I am ready for the LA  and Tahoe trips planned already when I get back. I'm ready, I think.

The Month of June Part I (Roman Fort, Neuschwanstein,

I started the month of June by leading a hike to a Roman Fort not too far away in the village of Pfünz. The Fort, called Castra Vetonianae in its day, was built in the year 90 AD. and was used until around 230 AD. The whole trail generally followed the River Altmühl, going into wheat fields and forest. We also passed through the village of Landershofen. It was a perfect day for hiking as well:

It was a little hard finding the fort since it was on top of a hill and none of the maps I had showed which trail or street to take up. We eventually got there and were greeted with a class of children on a field trip (even though it was the weekend?). Someone remarked: I expect these kids to be screaming and running around and causing mischief, but I forgot...they are german children. They were all chill and did their task of translating some of the latin there, which I tried to do as well. I had to remember that in Latin, one uses many abbreviations and I didn't know all of them. I got some help online. Here were some of the stones there:

IMP(ERATORI)  CAE(SARI)  TI(T)O

AEL(IO)  HADR(IAN)

ANTONIO

AVG(VSTO)  PIO

COH(ORS) I BR(EUCORUM)  R(OMANORUM)

For the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antonius Augustus Pius.

The first cohort of Rome of Breucorus (Bavaria maybe?)

IMP(ERATORI) CAES(ARI) M(ARCO) AUREL(IO)

COMMODO ANTO(NINO)

PIO AVG(VSTO) GERM(ANICO)

SARMATIC(O) CO(N)S(ULI) IIII

COH(ORS) I BREUC(ORUM)

SCIPIO CERIALE

LEG(ATO) AVG(VSTI) PR(O) PR(AETORE)

For Emperor Marus Aurelius Commodus Antonius Pius Augustus, 

victor of the Germans and Sarmatians, 4 consul

First Cohort of Breucorus

Scipius Cerialis,

Imperial Governor and Praetor

It was also the visitation of this site that reminded me of how easy German came to me because of my former knowledge of Latin. Since English is no longer an inflective language, it was easy to pick up the subtleties of the Dative, Accusative, Nominative, and Genitive cases. I have already written a blog post on the oddities of the German language, but have forgotten to put it up. It will be up soon. Here are some other pictures of the hike:

The fort as it is today, you can see two of the other gates on the right and near the trees in the background

Amerikanische Eroberung

We sat down there and had lunch. I explored the other gates and found that yarrow, a plant that I am familiar with from Camp Hi-Sierra, grows in Germany as well. I quickly uprooted one and brought it back to the gang. I took off a purple root and soon my mouth was going numb (supposed to happen). I offered it to the others, but only Lucas was brave enough to try it as well.

We decided to take the forest way back to Eichstätt, which seemed a little more adventurous. We wandered off trail into the Frankish Forest and wandered out an hour later about 200 meters from where we started. I should say, I was not leading. Haha. It was fun going through a pine forest though since the one up on my hill is much more diverse.

A few days after the hike, Nick, my roommate at Boston College came to Germany on his way to Frankfurt where he would fly back to Boston (forgive long sentences, there is no such thing as a run-on sentence in german). We started in Munich and actually one of our hostel-mates, Yi, decided to join in on the tour. The weather was not so great; we ended up running from the Chinesischer Turm Biergarten to the U-Bahn Station through a thunderstorm. Nick and I got up early to head to Neuschwanstein, the castle of mad King Ludwig II. We walked around the grounds and a little bit in the city of Hohenschwangau. Here are some pictures (remember you can click on them to make them larger

Hohenschwangau Castle, the castle of Ludwig II's father

The Bavarian Coat of Arms

The courtyard

A Panorama of the town and start of the German Alps

On the Marienbrücke

Gotta love Bayern

People paragliding

It started to hail on our train back home. It is supposed to be summer!

That's all I can write today. Time to start celebrating the 4th!

Viel Spaß,

Peter

The Month of May Part II (Barcelona and Paris)

So, it seems like I always have an excuse for not writing. This one is big though. I have been completely negative the past 2 weeks. You'd think I shouldn't be, I've been to Berlin, Dresden, Würtzburg, and Regensberg. These things have all kept me from dealing with that awful feeling of grief. I learned two weeks ago that one of my good friends, Kristie, passed away. She was my first friend in college, sat next to me on that first day of biology class. It is hard to deal with being so far away. I have good friends here in Eichstätt that I've talked to, but I have to apologize to anyone I've been negative to in the past few weeks. I don't think anyone can every be a pro at grieving, and thus it is not a well-controllable emotion.

Well, I left off with my first night in Barcelona. The next day, we made our way from Will's place to the beach. My feet melted into the sand as I stepped onto it. I've been landlocked too long. The Mediterranean was clear and the temperature was perfect for swimming. We laid there for hours. I had forgotten to bring my towel, so I went and bought an FC Barcelona beach towel, which is a nice usable souvenir. Because I had not been in such intense sun for so long, I put on sunscreen about four times while we were there. Better safe than sorry.

Relaxation

Written in journal -- I am 15 minutes from my arrival in Paris. I just passed a water treatment facility whose large pools and drums were all somehow artsy, with either a mosaic, painting, or blown up photograph. --

After the beach time, we sat down for tapas and I got some patatas bravas and grilled fish. NOM NOM Seafood! We eventually finished...it took a while...and made our way to Park Güell, one of Gaudi's famous creations. The place was to be a 100-house development for the rich, but only one house and 2 gate houses, a columned market-place, outdoor square, and Gaudied-out paths were made. 

Pictures (Remember you can click on them to see them full size):

I had to give the guy money then. :(

The market

Panorama of Barcelona

Some nice Flora and Fauna - quoted from Emma

Park Güell from above

Will leading the tour

Parrot in the palm tree

People playing soccer in the square

I never did go clubbing in Barcelona, but we did go to an awesome Irish Pub that night with Olivia, another friend from BC. I got a lovely Guinness. There was also a guy playing live music. A group of swedes came in with odd hats that they must have bought from a vendor outside. The waitress, since it was a slow night, chatted us up and we then parted ways.

Emma left in the morning and I had one more day. I went to Sagrada Familia in the morning by myself as Will had a doctor's appt. and class. I spent more than 4 hours there - it takes a while to walk around it when the whole time you want to faint.

One of the to-be 4 facades of the Minor Basilica.

It is supposed to be a forest of columns.

A turtle at the bottom of a column

I took an elevator up one of the towers

The inside of the tower

The way the windows play with light makes them look photoshopped

I went through the museum in the crypt of the cathedral and then headed home. Once Will was done, he gave me a tour of his favorite parts of the city.

Nice fountain!

One side of the Barcelonan Arch of Triumph

Old Church

Facade of a cathedral

The old Roman Section

 This picture is interesting. Those markings in the stone are actually bullet marks. Hitler gave young jewish children to Franco as a gift and Franco used them as target practice on the side of this church. I can't find the source of that anywhere, but I trust Will.

Gaudi's Casa Batllo

Gaudi's Casa Mila

After the tour, Will and I got some kebab and then I went home to get some sleep before my train in the morning to Paris. 

The train to Paris was not that long. I got there and Emma was packing, so I was on my own for the first night. I checked into my hostel and already met a cool guy, Mica, from Seattle. I went to go see some sights for a while and I don't think I have ever taken such good pictures. I think I have to thank the beauty of Paris for that. As a friend said in Munich:

France is a beautiful country...too bad the French live there. HA!

One of the many sights on my train ride. I don't know where it is at all.

I walked around the neighborhood and eventually made it to the Eiffel Tower. Emma had acted out in Barcelona the different ways that Americans and the French look at the tower. The first time I saw it I was completely taken aback. I stayed in the area and took way too many pictures of it. The exhaustion hit me and I eventually sat down and started reading a book about Gaudi that I had bought at La Sagrada Familia. I waited for the crazy light show that everyone talked about.

I walked up to the second level 

I'm pretty sure this pigeon is wondering how to get down

The famed light show.

So, I went home to find all my hostel room-mates there getting ready for bed. 3 were from the US and one from France. We all started talking and I can't explain how much fun I had for that small amount of time. When I was done brushing my teeth in the bathroom outside, a blood-curdling scream of murder, something I have never heard before in my life, came from the bar a floor below. I then heard some commotion and slipped back into the room with all roommates looking at me asking for an answer. I had no idea what happened, and I still don't even after questioning the next day. There were police outside that one of my roommates took a picture of. The police then came upstairs. I was drinking a bottle of wine that the two girls had given me, which was illegal in my hostel, since it was a certified hostel. It was hidden and the police barged in. They made her delete the picture. Man...what a crazy experience.

The next day I met Emma bright and early at the Arc, and she gave me things to do since she was packing and taking finals. I made my way to the Arche de la Defense, which was on my Europe to-do list. I basically went all around Paris not looking at a map. I would see something on the subway line or just far in the distance and I would walk. My train was that night at 8, so it didn't matter.

In the middle of the Champs-Elysees to get a picture

The Arche de la Defense form afar

...and up close

The Louvre Gardens

I waved to this woman on the boat and she waved back

These guys were on a police boat getting some sort of tour

Notre Dame

When I got to the Louvre, I knew I would not have time to go inside, so I just walked around and snapped pictures. Also, the line to get in was crazy long. I wanted more time at Notre Dame. When I got to the cathedral, I wanted some sort of tour, so I got the audio guide in English - sometimes I get them in german now just for fun. The whole time I was there, there was this music which sounded live simply because I could not find the source. It created an intense mood. Sagrada Familia had the same thing. It was cool because most of the songs I heard, I had sung in the Chorale. After all the sites and such, I headed back to the hostel, got in some long lost internet time, got my things, and left for the train station. I got a meal there before the sleep train, and the guy at the cafeteria gave me a free beer. Thank you! It was needed!

I then got on the sleep train, not knowing how these things work. It was an old-school Deutsche Bahn train. The lady at the counter the day before said I should get the top bunk. I had two other people below me and no head space. I did sleep pretty well because of the nice rocking of the car. Now, my Eurail Pass at this moment was no longer good. A sleep train after 6pm is marked as the next day, which was the 26th of May. My pass was good until the 25th. I was taking a risk, but I had to get home somehow. I covered the valid dates with my reservation and the ticket lady stamped my pass and all was good. When one person needed to get off the train, she would wake them up, what a nice way of doing things. I got in at 7am, but everyone was up before that. There was this guy in the car who also had a eurail pass. He was roaming around europe before his wife met up with him in a few days. He saw in another coach that we could run our beds into couches. The other people in the cabin were elated. It was a pretty cool mechanism. 

That night, I went to Theke, the student bar, for my 21st birthday. I was iced by my friends (if you need an explanation, here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icing_(drinking_game) ). I also got a free bottle of champagne for my table, something you wouldn't expect a student bar to do. There were other people in the bar with birthdays, so they played happy birthday on the speakers at midnight. The next day there was a grill party. And the following day, the 28th, I went to Berlin to meet up with my brother. There are no pictures of that time. I did bring my camera, but he is a professional. That was a lot of fun since he just came back from Chernobyl and had an infinite number of stories. He also got to see me use my german, which he had never heard me speak before.

The month of June will be posted tomorrow, just to give it some time to settle. Hope all is well wherever you are!

To come:

Roman Fort

Nick's Visit and Neuschwanstein

Berlin 2.0

Dresden

Regensberg

Würtzburg

My Referat (Presentation)

Altstadfest

Tchüß

Peter