This one is boring.

Once again, two weeks to cover, this time rightfully so. I ve been doing a hell of a lot, but not much of it is noteworthy, it all involves me and a book and a dictionary and often grinding teeth. From the moment classes started last Monday until, now, I’ve just worked worked worked, which is great, can’t say I’m not learning, but man. It certainly doesn’t make for an interesting story.
All of my classes are amazing. The biggest I have is 15 people, the smallest, six. Six students, two professors. We sit around a table, and talk about the psychology behind how poetry transports emotions. I talk quite a bit in my classes, which I’m happy about and have to keep up. I have soo much reading to do and it goes oh so slowly, but it’s all extremely interesting reading, and it’s getting easier. Sometimes, for example, I now find a sentence in which I don’t need to look up every single word.
Progress is being made.
Yesterday, in my Novelle class (German short stories), the teacher started reciting a German poem and she asked us to tell her what it was and who it was by, if we knew (sidenote: my teachers just recite stuff left and right. They love what they do). Anyway, I knew what it was almost immediately, so I told her. The one American kid in the class of Germans knew the poem, it felt great, I turned heads (it was Der Panther, by Rilke. Thank you Dc. Carroll). Anyway, that was a nice, impressive five minutes in the class for me. I then commented on something else and defiantly proved that, though perhaps I know a poem, I can’t speak the language. In my language class we read an essay by Mark Twain about the German language. It’s entertaining and well written. If anyone is interested, it’s called “The Terrible German Language.”
My one break last weekend was pretty cool. I went to a café, one that, after eight o clock, turns off the lights and hands out candles. It was so cozy, I stayed there until they closed.
I played American football with some of the students where I teach this week, that was a blast. They were surprising good.
Unfortunately I have nothing exciting to share. My balance has been broken the past two weeks. But not today! Today I do no work.

View from my class room.

The University.

Picture extension

Hey here are some pictures. I'm waiting anxiously for my first class. I can not wait to be in school again.


Bike sea number one of oh so many.
This is where I work.
This is also where I work.
This is simply a lady on a bridge above the Freiburg central Train Station.

okayy, have a lovely Monday!

Classes, Gutach, and a Bicyle for me.

Once again I must backtrack and remember things to share, seeing as my post is two weeks late. Last weekend the international office at the University here hosted a welcoming party for international students. I went, expecting a medium sized room with fifty or so people eating crackers and drinking water spitzer. It appears the university international office’s idea of a party is quite similar to that of a college child. There were hundreds of people, bartenders who burned a thousand calories to the hour, and live music. Finding the place was rather difficult, I ran into a parade of Quebec-inites in the street and we spent thirty minutes walking to and fro. At the party I sat down next to a group of eight or so Germans who were more than happy to immediately attack me with questions concerning American viewpoints. Small talk at the University here is different; no one really cares about the weather (though in Madison’s defense, it is really fascinating how cold it can actually get). They were very friendly and drove me home at the nights end.
Friday I got a job offer, Sunday I went to check it out. It’s in a little village called “Gutach” about a 25 minute train ride out of Freiburg. I teach English. It’s a blast. Sunday was “Speed Talking.” I sat behind a table, and every five minutes a new person would come and we would speak English. I spoke with almost four generations: some six or seven year old children, and an eighty year old man (who I had a fascinating conversation with after I told him I was a philosophy major. He and I are meeting on Wednesday and he is going to teach me what he knows, over coffee and chocolates). At any rate I took the job and last Wednesday had my first real day. It’s a great deal. I teach English for three hours, then I receive an hour and a half of one on one German Tutoring. And I get paid.
On Tuesday I confirmed all of my classes. It looks like this. I have classes Monday through Thursday. I’m taking courses at lots of different places. At the International House here, I’m taking an “Aufbau Kurs,” basically a building up my German skills class. A German class, simply put. At the Speech Institute here I’m taking a “Verbal Exercise” class. At the University I’m taking a “Poetry after 1989” class (which has a focus on slam poetry!! I’m really excited about that) and a “poetry and emotion” class. Then at the Pedegogische University I’m taking a literature class about “Die Novelle” which is a German structure of writing, very popular. These books are usually 100-150 pages. Not a short story, not a novel, a Novelle.
I’m excited about my courses. I’ve always had the following hypothesis. Creativity in the English language concerns itself very much with word play, word selections, how two words sound together, how one can describe things. It’s the words that matter. I’ve thought that the German language, creatively, works a little different, with a great focus on the structure of the sentence, as opposed to the word selection. The other day I received my first poetry reading assignments, and the very first poem I read was nothing but structure play, and it was amazing, it made me happy (actually, it wasn’t the first poem I read, it was just the first one I understood. The other two? Goodness. Don’t ask.).
Today I went to a flea market. I finally bought a BICYCLE. Six weeks without a bike, though I could borrow one, is the longest stretch without for me in the last, I don’t know, decade. It’s wonderful. The man I bought it from was very friendly, we traded numbers, and after my year with it I’m bringing it back to him and he’s going to give me my money back :). I also bought clothing for pennies because at flea markets here that’s all it takes. The market was in a different land and I blindly took a bus there so I didn’t know how to bike back, but I met someone who was leaving to go back to the city as well and followed her. Turns out she lives a few doors down from me. That has happened a few times, I love it.
This Monday I finally start classes, I can’t wait. It’s funny to think that everyone is Madison, everyone who has survived Swine Flu that is, is already done with midterms and finals are far, but looming.

pictures soon. this internet connection can't handle black and white.

ciao ciao.

A Long, Long Overdue Update

Last week was busied with studying for finals on Thursday. The weekend before we got down to working, my friend Mark and I took a train 30 minutes out of Freiburg into the Black Forest to “Titisee.” We hiked around, chatted with some friendly and some unfriendly people, and found a spot on the beach to camp out. We made a little house of it: a wood oven kitchen under one canopy, an open sandy foyer, and a bedroom under canopy two. We had class the next morning, so we got up early got back early, wrote our essays, and that was that.
Tests were tests, and in three and a half weeks I had magically earned three credits. Wonderful.
Thursday afternoon brought exams. Friday morning brought me a train that carried me quietly and quickly to Aix-en-Provence, Southern France. Within the first hour of my flight on rails I’d been through three countries (Germany, Switzerland, France). That was pretty cool. The realization came when all of sudden German and English were dropped from train announcements. Germany, Switzerland: internationally accommodating. You are bound to hear a language you understand when announcements are made. France: you either know French or you suppose what is going on, but it’s simply a guess. I stayed in Aix with my there studying friend Nick for four solid days. We drank lots of coffee, lots of tea, took a day trip to Marseille, got a good amount of walking in. We also had lots of conversations that went somewhat along the lines of “oh you have that problem too? Cool. I thought it was just me who had lost all basics in communication.” France always amazes me because it is so French. It’s very easy to bunch all the European countries together simply as Europa. False. France is absolutely a different country than Germany. And the others.
I took an overnight train back to Freiburg Tuesday morning. That was fun, though the extremely reclinable chairs didn’t really serve their purpose. Tuesday day I slept and slept in preparation for a German heavy night. I went to a dinner party with my roommate and eight or nine Germans. They are all some of the nicest and friendliest people here I think. I was quite happy and content at the start of the evening. Then we sat down for dinner and I swear for 90 minutes I didn’t say one word. Not one. Topics at the table were foreign, sometimes entirely not understandable, and always fassst. My silent bought slung me into a lonely depression on the porch. A breath of fresh, silent air, no misunderstanding there. People joined me on the porch and I could finally click into conversation. That’s what it took that night. 90 minutes of dejection. Completely worth it. No doubt. We went to a party later and the entire night I could talk talk talk as much as I pleased. I had a wonderful evening.
Today I took care of some logistical matters and met with one of my teachers from my language course. I tried to translate a piece of creative writing from English to German and my teacher was more than happy to swim through seas of completely nonsensical expressions with me. I certainly improved my translation.
I still have two weeks before classes start. This week I will register for my classes. Friday I have an appointment with an advisor to figure stuff out.
Fall is most certainly upon us. :)

Ah! I forgot about Critical Mass. For those of you who don't know, every month there is an international bike ride that takes place where ever the population is large enough. Any commuters/bike enthusiasts get together and ride slowly through the streets "celebrating bikes as transportation." It's a blast. I rode with Freiburg Critical Mass this past week. I had a bike out of the 30's, before they used brake cables. It's built with metal rods with joints to operate the brakes. The ride was great. I met a few people who took me to a camp after the ride. I really don't know what kind of camp it was. There were a good amount of people, lots of Turks, it was a raise racial awareness camp (sort of). Lots and lots and lots of Turkish children who loved to breakdance. Right when I got there I took up salad duties and prepared food with a few people. I met someone else there and she invited me to a punk show. After the camp we went to the show, I was incredibly pleased with how good the music was. The first band was out of Freiburg. The headline band was from Pittsburgh.

It was really just Mark and I at our camp spot. But there were also a dozen ducks, and they were fearless. One tried to bite a tortellini off of marks fork, but it's beak wasn't strong enough.

View from our beach.
We brought and set up candles for light, in addition to our fire.

The Kitchen.

Living Quarters.

Oye I forgot about this too. I live next to a squatter camp/"wagenplatz" (car place) where people live. They have built their own community. They have a theatre (every wednesday and Saturday at dusk, free chai, free movie!). They throw festivals often, including this one. I played table soccer with a group of kids that was fun. I also watched this man and his two friends juggle fire, classy entertainment.

Yay! Nick and I in Marseille :)

Marseille.

Beautiful Park in Aix (Nick and his friend Mark)

Tea House.

Cafe.

Marseille.

Marseille.

Aix. :)