Marburg an der Lahn

On Friday, Rachel and I went up to Marburg, which is north of Gießen, for a date day/night.  It is only a 14 or 30 minute train ride (depending on if you get the fast train).  We had gone before already but the trip had not been for long and there had been other people.  Last time, we left the train station and took a turn that consisted of step stairs leading towards a cemetery and small chapel.  We saw that the path continued and so we continued climbing until we reached the summit of one of the hills of Marburg.  Looking across the valley from way up high and surrounded by trees was very cool.  Quite peaceful as well since there were no other people around.  

On this trip though, Rachel and I started making our way to the castle immediately.  We passed St. Elizabeth's Church, which will be performing Verdi's Requiem soon (I'm thinking of attending).  Marburg has retained its older architecture and road style and as such is very new for me.  Roads twist up and down, stairs connect different street levels, building seems skewed based on the angle of the road and multiple generations of cobblestones pepper the ground.  Beyond Elizabeth's church is a quiet group of streets with small shops and cafes.  For a Friday, the streets here seemed oddly quiet, but I'm sure the dreary weather was a contributing factor.  We stopped in one of these cafes and had chai lattes (amazing!) and a snack.  After that, we worked our way step by step up to the castle.  There are some pictures I hope I'll get to post once Rae gets them up because otherwise I can't say much.  It's large, old, has grounds that you can wander (which we did), and is dominating this hill with a view to kill for.  I promise pictures will be forthcoming. 

After the castle, we made our way down the hill and went to a central plaza area for that shopping area I mentioned.  There we sat and had some beer in a local establishment.  There weren't a lot of people in there and it was nice to escape from the sprinkling rain for a time.  A second round was inevitable and we talked for over hour.  We then decided we were hungry and the most important part of date day/night was upon me - dinner.  

We had passed a place earlier in our wandering named Barfuß, which means barefoot.  Inside was a small, well lit and quiet restaurant.  We were seated and Rachel immediately wanted Auflauf, which it seems (additional research pending) is a local dish and resembles a casserole.  Needless to say I was nervous but we ordered and split the Spinach and Lachs Auflauf.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I hope that says it all.  Having smoked salmon with potatoes, cheese, and spinach all cooked together was the most amazing thing ever.  Of course, I didn't think it would fill me up so we also ordered two more entrees for us.  One wiener schnitzel and filet mignon with accompanying fried potatoes and green noodles in a mushroom cream sauce (respectively) and we are pretty much dead.  We don't know the policy, or if there is one, for doggie bags so we ate as much as we could.  It was amazing though and I'm getting my own Auflauf next time.

We waddled our way back to the train station and caught the train home.  All in all a pretty successful date and visit to another city.  I hope to have those pictures up soon of the castle.  Bis später! 

Let the classes begin!

Guten Morgen everyone!  I trust you had a lovely evening back on the western hemisphere.  Here, it's 9-ish and my first class starts in an hour.  The university here in Gießen employs two primary types of physics classes-theoretical and experimental.  Both are lecture classes but I assume just a different take on the physics.  I signed up for the 3rd semester experimental physics class, which focuses on atomic, nuclear and particle physics.  I've taken some of this before, but I didn't think I would do to well in the 5th semester EP class which was titled core and particle physics (but a different word for particle, go figure).  I am also going to take the electromagnetism course this semester with plans to take the quantum mechanics class next semester.  I haven't actually gotten into the EM class but that kind of thing happens all the time at UW too.  In the meantime, if our calculations are correct, we will be needing a third class and I am hesitantly thinking of trying for a masters level nuclear astrophysics course, which covers the beginnings of the universe through the formation and death of stars.  Relativity, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics are key players.  I'm scared but it's the only astronomy related class.  So in the meantime, I'm going to read a quantum mechanics textbook I brought along.  I'll learn it myself dangit!

Additionally, I sure hope to find the motivation to learn a programming language on my own this semester.  What I really need is a project (like homework) to focus on, otherwise I'm just learning the language and never using it in practice.  When I took a computer science class, they had us doing projects every week and gradually increasing our abilities.  So, it sounds like I need another text book with homework problems in the back. ;)  I'll just keep you posted I guess.  

I have to admit, I'm nervous about taking classes in German.  Yesterday we went to the department's meet-and-greet which turned out to be more like "let's go over the schedules and what's coming up just so you all know."  Naturally it was in German and I understood less than none.  This is probably going to be very bad.  I can only hope the homeworks are straightforward and not word problems. 

The Real Oktoberfest...

...was absolute chaos. Our journey began in Gießen around 5:40a when Jeff, Rachel and myself walked to the Bahnhof (train station) in order to catch a 6:20a train to Frankfurt am Main. Once there, we changed trains to go to Würzburg. Once there, we again exchanged trains for one that was going to Nürnberg. And finally, there we decided the next thing to do was to change trains for one going to München. At last, we made it to the Bahnhof in München after about 7 or 8 hours of traveling. The reason it took so long was because we wanted cheap tickets and on the weekend, a "happy weekend" ticket is good for up to 5 people and costs only 37 euros. The catch, is that you can only take the regional, i.e. slow, trains. Regardless, we got there. And now let the madness begin.

Being an introvert, I have a hard enough time with groups of people exceeding 10 persons, even if they are my friends. So when I heard that weekends at Oktoberfest draw in millions (please note the plural) of people, I naturally grew nervous. But not to worry! The recent announcement by terrorists about possibly attacking Oktoberfest the weekend I was going helped to shy away many of the masses. Only 2.4 million people showed up. HA! (sorry for the histerics.) We weasled our way through the fair grounds, deftly avoiding medical personnel as they rushed to some poor soul lying on the ground and narrowly missing the hordes who didn't know which way was left or right. After seeing the main sites and popular, old tents (which as an aside are not 'tents' but are in fact solidly built wood structures), we took a chance on getting close to a table in an outdoor beer garden adjacent to a particular tent. 40 minutes later, after standing and watching more people than I thought existed pass by me, the beers had not arrived. We cut our losses and moved to other feeding grounds. By now all 3 of us were just wanting to have a beer in our hands. We didn't care if we were actually sitting at a table. Plenty of other people were wandering the fair grounds with their beers, why can't we?

Victory came when we arrived a second beer garden, this time we squirmed through the masses to a table on the outskirts of another outdoor beer garden. Jeff leans over and in German, which I will translate to English, gets this far -- "Hello, my German is not so good, but could you..." -- before they were sliding over and inviting us to sit down. Jeff's intention was only to ask if they would order us beers but an invitation to sit was not something we could refuse. For the next 3 or 4 hours, we sat with the individuals from northern Germany, specifically the Köln area.

We practiced our German and they practiced their English as litre after litre passed us by. People came and went at the surrounding tables. I believe a con artist was also in the area. Sounded British when he spoke English and had some underlying dislike of Americans which only alcohol would bring out. I was scared yet terribly amused at the same time.

Anyway, after wandering a bit more when I was confident in my legs again, Rachel went off and rode the Ferris Wheel and ate some Ox. Yes, ox. It was getting late and the tents and fair were closing down. We made our way back to the Bahnhof with the knowledge we had come and seen the real McCoy. The next 5 hours would involve waiting in the Bahnhof for the 5:04a train that would mirror our trip here. The Bahnhof was filled with people doing the same thing we were doing, that is waiting. Jeff and Rae were pretty tired and I seemed to be on my second wind so we all sat down and I watched over their bodies. I'm laughing just remembering back to the scene. I should also mention that we got Burger King at about 12:30 or 1:00a along with more people that were dead on their feet. The next four hours passed slowly and steadily and we eventually got on the train and headed for home. We arrived in Gießen around 11:30 and were back in our dorm rooms by noon. All in all an exciting 30 hour day.

I just want to say that I will never go again unless I have a reservation at a table that has at least a meter clearance on every side. I have gone and seen. I'm afraid it kicked my ass. But at least I've been. Prost!

Oktoberfest

Tomorrow I'm going to Oktoberfest and I have nearly no idea what I'm about to get into.  Saturday morning, at a time I like to call bright and early, we are leaving for a 3 leg, 6 hour trip.  Upon arrival we will spend the rest of the day at the festival grounds until the tents close up around 11p.  Then we will stay up all night for our return train at 5:45a PDT+9, which also happens to be a 3 leg and 6 hour trip.  It's going to be a little crazy I expect and I will keep you posted....

Stuck in Wonder

Last night was a birthday party for a friend that I've made here.  She is from France and turned 21 yesterday.  I was under the impression that we were throwing her a surprise party.  Rachel and I helped our other friend from France to make her a cake from scratch (which I never saw again at the party which makes me think it didn't turn out).  I should also preface this little story by saying that the dormitories at JLU are spread out and each one leads somewhat to segregation in the student population.  Obviously my dorm has the coolest people in it and the others can just live with that.  See what I mean.  Anyway, surprise party, right?  No.  

Rachel and I show up to Jeff's dorm area and in the common area are already more people than I thought I knew and more and more people from the summer course kept coming through the door.  Turns out this wasn't a surprise anymore and that about 35, maybe more, out of 55 summer course students plus 4 of out mentors made the trek to come to our dorm building.  Not being very good with large groups of people, I promptly placed myself outside with Victor where we could have pleasany discourse and smoke a pipe.  Topics included The Doors, spirits, pipes, karaoke, Romanian drinking practices, beer and more.  

The real point of my story is the following.  While standing outside watching the people inside talking, I realized that I was in Germany listening to conversations around me in English.  Then I noticed that our mentors and some Russian students were talking in German, while the other Russian students were speaking Russian.  Looking in I saw the kids from Spain speaking Spanish or Catalonian.  I also knew we had several people here from Poland that were gathered together at that moment and I'm sure the birthday girl and the other girls from France happened to be speaking their native tongue at that moment.  It was just a very interesting revelation of what a diverse... I don't know... thing I'm doing.  There were more that 6 languages being spoken in an area no larger than 30 or 40 square meters.  It was cool and gave me pause for a moment.

Second Week Down

I've been in Germany now for 2 weeks.  I'm not sure if I've fully acclimated yet or not since I had my first "I want to go home" moments today.  I think I did pretty good by making it to 2 weeks.  Last time I mentioned I'd finally been to the Lahn river which goes through Gießen and I was getting ready to do laundry.  Well, I went with Rachel and together, with some knowledge from friends who had done laundry already, we managed to each get a load of laundry done and dried.  I don't think I'm going to look forward to laundry day ever.  I have to go to a different building in my complex, down a flight of stairs and into a scary room with only 6 machines.  My predication is that it will be absolute chaos in there when the buildings are actually full of students instead of a quarter full for the summer.  

It's been really hard to be motivated to do anything the past week.  The 9 week intensive course of German I took before coming here pretty much wiped me out.  The 5 days after the class and before I flew here went by in a blur of packing and making sure I had everything.  Then this international summer course started and at the end of the second week, it's just like it is the 11th week of the intensive course.  I need a vacation because I'm completely burned out.  That and a nearly complete lack of money means that I am getting some good reading time in since I can't afford to go out.  

We go to Heidelberg tomorrow and it is probably a 1.5 hour to 2 hour bus ride down.  I hear from multiple sources that it is the most beautiful place in Germany.  I guess we'll see and I will get pictures out hopefully on Sunday or Monday.  No other news I guess at the moment except I'm still working on getting a link set up to pictures so everyone can see.  Until later...

Welche Sprache sprichst du?

Okay, finally done with one whole week.  It's astonishing how long it feels it's been when it's only been 8 days or so.  So much has happened that it feels like a month has gone by already.  The summer course goes well.  Quickly, here is the way my week will go for the next 3 weeks.  Everyday there are language tutorials/classes for 1.5 hours followed by a half hour coffee break.  Then another 1.5 hours of tutorials followed by lunch.  On Monday and Wednesday lunch is 1 hour followed by 2 hours of instruction that focuses more on culture and what not (still in German though).  On Tuesday and Thursday lunch is 2 hours followed by 2 hours of a workshop.  I picked the Zeitung, or newspaper, and will be writing a short article on the history of Gießen.  On Fridays classes end at lunch.  Yay!

I've wandered much of Gießen now and must say it is a very interesting city.  The combination of rural and urban is extreme.  I live on the outskirts of town, give or take, and have two giant fields and a forest (nearly) to walk between on my way to a major street with a McDonalds, Burger King, gas station and 3 large stores plus many smaller stores.  There is a large river, the Lahn, flowing through the upper part of the city which I finally went and saw on Thursday I think, maybe it was Wednesday... I just don't know.  

Today I need to figure out where and how to do laundry since I used my last pair of socks on my Frankfurt excursion yesterday.  There, I had my first Starbucks since getting to this country and it was also the largest cup of coffee I'd seen yet.  Folks, just be prepared when you get here for nothing bigger than a tall when you order coffee.  I've been around this town and every place has the same kind of automatic (but freshly ground) coffee machines and the largest cup is a stinking coffee cup size.  I want something bigger!!  Anyhoo.  I'm still working on getting a Picassa thing going so non-Facebookers can see all the pics.  I'll figure it out soon enough.  In the meantime, go here and select the Gießen album or any album name from the places we'll go.  Hope the link works.  Let me know if it doesn't.  Until later....ciao!