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. :)

Language and Thought

Much of the same this week, which is of course nothing but exciting. We had tests on Thursday and Friday for our language course, those went well. A few of us from my building bought German monopoly with intentions of playing it but a game has yet to take place. I did play cribbage last night until two in the morning, under an intriguing stop and go conversation. I’m reaching a cool point, one that I think I’ll involuntarily stay at for quite some time, with my thoughts. After talking German for a while, my English words fade to the very back of my mind, I no longer think in English. However, I don’t have the capacity to really think in German, so I don’t think at all. My head is just empty. I speak German, and when I get to a word or expression that I don’t know, I don’t search through English equivalents and look for a translation, for my English has in the moment gone far away, I search though nothingness, through black and white space in the head. It’s like I have a brand new hard drive installed but it doesn’t have much on it. Nonetheless, it’s the one I’m using. It feels like there is so much more space in my head. Sometimes I like it, I feel free. Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting thoughts because I’m not creating them, when I could easily switch back to English if I took a minute. But I guess that is just a step on the way to learning a language. You have to sacrifice fall backs and contingency plans, like English, in order to build your new language.

I had a rather comical slip the other day, it had me laughing for a while. I was sitting at the breakfast table, there were cigarettes laying next to me. Someone asked if I could hand them to him. I said "for sure, do you need an airplane too?" I meant to offer him the lighter. "Feuerzeug" means lighter, literally "a tool for fire." "Flugzeug" means airplane, "a tool for flying."

woops.

I have an oral presentation tomorrow. I'm going to try and teach the class how to play Gaigel, a german trick taking game. Potenially an epic fail. I'm pumped.

Munsterplatz

Vauban, courtyard infront of my apartment. and a Bunny.

a little of where i live

I live in Vauban, a quarter of Freiburg fifteen minutes from the city center. It’s positioning is quite similar to Lakeshore in Madison. A nice, quiet, full spot away from the center of things, but within a stone’s throw. There is one great and magnificent difference between Vauban and Lakeshore, between Freiburg and Madison.
Madison lacks family life. If it doesn’t lack it, it sure doesn’t mesh with student life. I’ve seen perhaps three children my entire time in Madison. Here, I live in an infinite playground. I have to wade through children to get from my door to the train, like pleasantly trudging through the ball bin at your local McDonalds. Not only do I wander through these two feet inhabitants, I scramble through their homes: pirate ships (built to scale, though non-functioning, pirate ships), sand castles, and sliding twirling oscillating contraptions. I live in a small building with students, inside a large complex of nothing but families. This could not be more pleasing to me.
It really is a wonderful neighborhood, full of different people and life. I’m a two minute walk from the cheapest “whole foods” like grocery store in the world. There is a river that runs all around the neighborhood, and operates many water-requiring games and playplaces for the children, of course. There’s always a family (as in, a large group of neighbors, 30 or so multigenerational friends) cooking around a fire. There’s often a crowd of neighbors gathered giving away clothes, books, soup, and chai.
Half of the inhabitants here live in buildings. Apartments. Actual living, built, structures. The other half live in cars, wooden ensembles, and under fabric rain covers.
It’s a fantastical place.

Homes homes homes.

Vauban.

And for anyone who may be interested:

Benjamin Morris

c/o Academic Year in Freiburg

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität

79085 Freiburg

That goes for anything that is through the post. If something uses a courier service (DHL, etc) you'll need a different address. Also if you ever want to send a package, let me know, certain grounds need to be established to get through customs.

End of the week

A group of us from my program went to “Schauinsland” today. It is a village eight miles from Freiburg and it lies in the hills. Think of the shire. We visited an old house, built in 1766, that was quite nice. This morning I went to the Freiburg Muenster church, built in 1250, with a friend I met Friday night. It was very cool, entirely different from services I’m used to. Almost all the songs were sung in Latin. The music was written differently, hard to follow. The organ was beautiful, like none in the U.S. I suppose.

Muenster.


Muenster.Muenster Platz, Munester Place.
Schauinsland.

Bedroom inside the 1766 house. Bed for two. Poor family, but they still had really nice church clothes. Some friends from the Program on our lunch break.


That's Freiburg in the distance. This is shot from the top of Schauinsland. There is a fifteen minute tram car ride that runs from the Top of Schauinsland to the outskirts of Freiburg. We hiked up, rode back :)

Meinen deutschen Kurs

We started our three week intensive Sprachkurs this past monday. A quick orientation, a placement test, and our rusty heads were done for the day. Back into the swing of things, thank goodness. It's great to have some strict academics here. I've been looking foward to this course for a while and could not be happier with it. It keeps me busy from 9:30 in the morning until 8 at night. Three weeks of nothing but German studies, what a great kickoff.

I've met a group of students and roommates living directly above me and we've gotten together a few times now in the evening to cook and play cards. I'm going to teach them bridge soon, looking foward to it :)

For now it's back to tidying up, Feist, and sleeping for my early morning.

There are many tiny streams that run throughout the city center in Freiburg (not as pictured here). They were once used by the fireman, but no longer. I've learned, as anyone does within a week of living in or visiting Freiburg, that if I accidently trip and step in one of these tiny rivers, I must marry a local.

oye oye.

A Quiet Sunday in Europe

Today was a great end to the week and a great start to the next. I went to Basel Switzerland this morning for a few hours. It was extremely quiet and empty, in a peaceful Sunday morning kind of way. Free admission to the Art Museum and a student fair to the Art Hall found me some cool architecture and art. I didn't get a good feeling for Basel, Sunday certainly isn't the best day to capture a city atmosphere.

I came back to Freiburg around 3 to find a take what you will kind of market outside my complex. They were dishing out hot soup and chai from a keg in a shopping cart. I found a long sleeve shirt and a hand sitched/woven stool. I gave the family offering them 1.60 euro and they were more than grateful.

This evening has been the perfect kickoff to the upcoming week. Jazz on my balcony with tea, a quiet evening. An early night rest for an early morning start. Freiburg feels like a home made for me that's simply been waiting my arrival.

A musician sits on a bench in Basel.

An Incomplete Hello from Freiburg

Hello! I've been here five days now. It's felt from the start as if I really am living here. I was worried coming here from Paris that I'd be city hungry but my concerns were quickly abated. I'm very happy to be in a Madison sized city. In Germany. It's the perfect environment to learn and find a knitch for a year.

The train ride here was smooth, though a little unsettling. My first German speaking encounter was on the train with serveral customs and border patrol agents. I was unaware they did their checks on the train and was quite taken aback when the first person to speak German to me was a police officer asking for my passport.

Once in Freiburg I was met by a terrifically friendly crowd that had arranged everything for me, how splendid. I got my key and was off to my apartment. One of my roommates, Romy, greeted me at the door. She is wonderful. I'm very glad things randomly fell in line with her.

I still don't have internet in my room, but I'm working on it. My room, and apartment, is fantastic. The area is great, I'll elaborate once I have pictures to set my descriptions to. For now, the people of Freiburg are helpful and nice. :)

A few pictures of this forever full city. No matter where you are, no matter the time, you are surrounded by people. There are only trains and bikes in the city center. And people people people.