When I'm Gone

The Thrilling Account of Rachel's Time Abroad in Würzburg, Germany

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Missing you, wherever you are

Has it really been six months since I was in Europe? Has it been six months since the train rides and German wine and fumbling languages and ancient museums and gothic churches? It feels both like yesterday and like a lifetime ago. I don't think I understood wanderlust, Fernweh, until I came back. I didn't know what I was missing. There's so much I want to do and see out there, so much more to Europe, and then there entire continents I've yet to scratch the surface. I can't wait to travel again.

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How much German did you know when you first came to Germany??

When I first went to Germany, I had taken two semester of German at an American university. Basically, I was a little below conversational in skill, but waaaaay below conversational in talent. I'm still not fluent, but I can speak in German pretty confidently now, and I love it! 

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Hey, you don't know me, but I came across your blog and thought I'd let you know that I loved reading it! I plan on studying German at UNT and going abroad, so reading about your time there is really exciting. Just thought I'd let you know! Also I'm from just north of Dallas so I thought it was sweet that you're from Austin... hope the rest of your time in Europe goes great!

Hi, I'm so sorry I just saw this! I hope learning German is going well for you. If you ever want someone to practice with, shoot me another message! I love speaking German with people. And best of luck studying abroad. It absolutely changed my life, and I hope it's just as magical for you. 

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The Last Day

The last day in Würzburg was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I had to wake up exceptionally early to start packing my entire dorm up. I spent all morning working on the suitcase that I had to ship home, then went into town and mailed it off. However, I got distracted and realized that these were my absolute last moments in a little city that I’d grown to love, so I decided to spend the afternoon in town instead of cleaning. I grabbed a delicious lunch at the same place where Bridget, Charley, and I ate our first lunch in Würzburg, then Dillon and I went to relax by the Main river. I just stared at the city for a long time thinking about all the memories I’d made, and all the things that I never had the time to do. We had a huge dinner together as a program on the other side of the river, then we went to drink wine together on the Alte Mainbrücke one last time.

I didn’t anticipate how difficult the goodbyes would be, but they were rough. People seemed to leave in an order that made everything worse, too. First, I said goodbye to a lot of people from the upper division German class that I hadn’t spent as much time with, and we all agreed that we wanted to spend more time together when we got to the states. Then some of my good guy friends who I’d gotten to know better had to leave, and of course, I started crying. Then Chad left, and then Erin, and I was crying more and more until it was just Adam, Bridget, Charley, and I on the bridge, staring up at the Festung where we’d all watched the sunrise before. We stayed there a bit longer, then walked home all together and hugged and cried more (mostly Bridget and I). We’ve all promised that we want to stay friends when we get back to the states, and it shouldn’t be difficult, but it was still awful to say goodbye to all the great friends I’ve made and the beautiful city.

Of course, my afternoon and night of unproductivity meant that my last morning in Würzburg was insane. I had an hour and a half to do a load of laundry, pack the rest of my clothes, and clean my entire room. I was supposed to check out with the Hausmeister, but to do that, the entire apartment would have had to been clean, and my roommate was still living there, so I just left my keys and ran to the bus. With literally two minutes to spare, Charley and I got on our train to Paris, and I started writing this.

From here, I’ve got ten days in Paris and London to finish off my time in Europe. It’s been a wild adventure, and I’m glad I get to see two more countries before I leave. I will miss Germany terribly, though. I grew to love that country over the past ten weeks, and I can’t wait until I get to go back again.

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Pictures from Berlin!

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Ich Bin Ein Berliner

And, just like that, my time in Germany is over. I’m incredibly sad to see it go, but I certainly made the most of my last few days there.

As a program, we got to go to Berlin for five days all together after our classes were over. Right off the bat, I really enjoyed Berlin. We were staying in the East side near a neighborhood called Kreuzberg, so we headed over there for lunch, and it instantly reminded me of Austin. We ate delicious hamburgers under a train station and people watched for a while. We saw a lot of young, hipster type people, and there was interesting graffiti on every building around us. After lunch, we walked through the East Side Gallery. What used to be the Berlin Wall was now covered with beautiful street art that had signatures and drawings added on top of that in the past few years. On our first night, we grabbed a few beers from a little hidden artisan market and played black light mini-golf. I got a raspberry flavored beer, and it was one of the best beers I’ve ever had. The mini-golf was super fun, albeit a bit difficult and we spent some time in a really cool graffiti park while we were in the area. We got a solid night’s sleep that night to wake up early for the festivities the next day.

On our second day, we spent the morning doing a bus tour of the city. We got to the Checkpoint Charlie, more of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburger Tor, and several other memorable spots throughout the city. The train dropped most of the group off at an antique market, but I could not possibly fit another souvenir in my bag, so I went with the group that headed back to the hotel. We ate lunch, and then the rest of that small group wanted to watch Formula 1 on TV, so Dillon and I went to the Berlin Zoo. It was a fun, relaxing way to enjoy the afternoon. My only pair of sandals on this continent finally gave up while we walked through the zoo, which was a very emotional time for me. Rest in peace, nude Target sandals. We rested at the hotel for a while, then that night, about half of our group decided to hit up da clubz. We went to a place called Weekend, where we met a ton of really interesting international people. True to Germany style, the party didn’t even get going until one or two in the morning and was still raging when we left around four.

The next morning, understandably, was a late start. Bridget and I woke up early enough to get the hotel breakfast, then went straight back to bed. We finally emerged for activities around noon when she, Adam, and I headed out to the Olympic Stadium. The long train ride was so worth it. Initially, it was just thrilling to be there. The Olympics! Soccer field! This is where Jesse Owens was! It was really magnificent to see. However, the longer we were there, the more you could tell it was a 1930’s German building. After the Olympic Stadium, we met up with friends back at the hotel and headed to a Jamaican fake beach on the Spree River. We sat around with our toes in the sand, listened to awesome Reggae music, ate delicious Jamaican food, and talked for a couple hours about all sorts of topics. We stayed there until it got dark, then headed back to the hotel. There, Bridget and I met up with Austin, Becky, Dillon, and Ora to BREAK INTO AN ABANDONED AMUSEMENT PARK. It wasn’t how I imagined spending my night, but it sounded better than going to a club or staying in the hotel alone. It was easily one of the most terrifying experiences of my entire life, and I felt like an idiot when we were there, but it was actually one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We made it out alive, and all agreed that it was a night we’d remember for the rest of our lives.

The next day was dedicated to museums and sightseeing. We started off at a lovely art museum. We wanted to go to the Neue Museum, but the line was too long and we had no time to waste, so we went to the art museum next door. After that, I grabbed a quick lunch with Charley, Dylan, and Chad before heading to the Berliner Dom with Dillon. The Dom was a beautiful rococo-style church with a hella creepy royal crypt beneath it. Dillon and I chilled in a park between museums for a moment before seeing the Deutsches Historisches Museum. It was fascinating, but very large, and we’d been looking at things for the past several hours, so we only saw two of the floors before heading back to the hotel for a nap. We grabbed dinner at a super cheap Italian place in Kreuzberg, then met up with a larger group of people to grab a few drinks and celebrate Adam’s birthday. We all took turns buying Adam drinks and telling him how much we loved him until he was white-girl-wasted, and then headed home.

Our last day in Berlin wasn’t a full day, and we had another late morning after Adam’s party the night before, so we took it relatively easy. We walked through West Berlin for a while, then I went to enjoy the Dali exhibit on my own. It was absolutely astounding, and probably my favorite museum of the trip. The most exciting part of that day was when our connecting train between Hannover and Würzburg was delayed an hour and we thought we wouldn’t make it home. Lo and behold, they fixed the train, but it was a tense time considering we all had so much packing to do.

All in all, Berlin is absolutely one of my favorite cities that I’ve visited so far, and probably my favorite city in Germany right after Würzburg. It was a great way to end the program—surrounded by friends, in a huge and interesting city, doing something new and exciting every day.

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Beginning of the end

My classes are officially over! I have a whole month off of school, which is more time off than I've had since last summer. It's so relieving not to worry about homework and assignments for a moment. Now, it's off to Berlin for five days with the whole program. I can't wait!

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The End of Classes

I took my final German test yesterday! I was more prepared for the first one, but I feel like this one went well. It's surreal to believe that I'm officially considered "proficient" in the German language. I've decided to sign up for a section of upper division German for next semester. I was only planning on taking 12 hours, but I feel like taking the full 15 and getting to continue learning German will be worth it. 

In terms of my paper.... still working on that one. It's due tonight at midnight, so I have time, but I'm feeling a little burnt out after studying so hard for the test. I only have four or so more pages to write, so hopefully I can knock this out in the next hour and a half and be done with classes for the summer. My vacation can finally begin! (Hah.)

I also need to start taking care of my piles of laundry and cleaning up my dorm. I managed to keep my room fairly organized throughout the summer, but I didn't invest in any cleaning supplied when I got here, so cleaning this whole place before move out should be fun. I only have tomorrow before we head to Berlin, then one day when we get back to clean and pack up everything I own. I can't believe I've only got another week here in Germany. 

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Super Deutschland

GERMANY WON THE WORLD CUP GERMANY WON THE WORLD CUP GERMANY WON THE WORLD CUP AHHHHHHHH!

Ok, I got that out of my system. This weekend we had to short program excursion to Rothenburg and Bamberg, small towns not too far from Würzburg. The trips themselves weren't overly exciting. A German professor here from the Uni goes on these excursions with us and gives really long winded and detailed tours about the cities' history, art history, architecture, und so weiter. The man, Dr. Süß, is brilliant, but two long tours in a row were rough to sit through. 

The highlights of Rothenburg were a huge Christmas store/museum and the top of the town hall looking across the city. Rothenburg, for whatever reason, has a massive Christmas store in the middle of the city that's open year round. It was filled with ornaments and trees and nutcrackers and various Christmas regalia. It was cute to see, but it also made me realize how much I miss home. The whole time I was in the store I was thinking of my mom and her friend Miss Kelli who both love Christmas decorations. The top of the town hall had a beautiful view and was absolutely worth the 10 flights of tiny and steep stairs we had to climb. After Rothenburg, we met up as group and played some drinking games to entertain ourselves for the night. After we ran out of games to play, a few of us gathered around the piano and sang sounds for half an hour or so before walking home.

Bamberg was a really lovely city. I would've liked to spend more time there, but we only had two hours or so to get lunch and explore the city after our tour. Also, it was raining off and on all day long, so Emily, Dillon, and I sought out shelter in various cafes and restaurants for most of the afternoon. Before we left, we got to do a beer tasting of Rauchbier, which tasted strangely like bacon and was much more enjoyable than I expected it to be. 

In Würzburg news, exciting things have been happening outside of the World Cup as well. We got to due a white wine tasting with Dr. Süß and it was AWESOME. The wine was absolutely delicious, the conversations were good, and it was interesting to learn about the production and history of wine in the Franconian region of Germany. At the end of the seven glass tasting, Dr. Süß surprised us with an old and incredibly sweet wine to thank us for being such a lively and agreeable study abroad group, which was just the nicest thing. There's a festival in Würzburg right now for Saint Kiliani, and it's very similar to a standard American carnival. There are huge rides, lots of food, and stupid rigged carnival games everywhere. I've been twice because they have ladies' night on Mondays, so every ride is a euro fifty and there are free drinks and it's great. Also a plus is the fact that everyone wears Lederhosen and Dirndls to Kilianifest, so it's a great excuse to wear my dirndl and feel like a Bavarian princess. I got an A on the long paper I wrote all in German. Life in general is going swimmingly. 

Now back to the World Cup.

On Sunday after we got back from Bamberg, I rushed home, put on my Schweinsteiger jersey, and headed downtown. I wanted to grab a quick bite to eat, so Charley, Bridget, Inga, Inga's family, and I sat a stone's throw away from Posthalle to eat. We rushed to Posthalle as soon as I was finished, but they were already over capacity. We ended up on a street outside of a beer garden to watch the game (though we eventually got to go inside and stand on a bench). The game itself was super tense. The crowd was absolutely rapt, but the teams were playing evenly and tensions got super high when it went into extra time. When Goetze scored his goal, the crowd went absolutely wild. I swear we were a second away from breaking the bench we were standing on. From there, it was just a rush to the end of the extra time; no one wanted Argentina to score at all. The game ended and our celebration began.

We walked through the streets and everyone was cheering. People chanted and clapped, and as we approached busier streets, we heard cars honking over and over again. We went to Sanderstraße with the intention of finding a cool bar or party. We were so wrong. The street was packed with thousands of people sardined together around one screen playing the celebrations in Brazil. People were doing crazy chants, throwing beer all over each other, and setting off flares for hours. We didn't stay too long because we wanted to go to a party, but the hour or so that we were there was insane. I've never seen such a happy crowd of people, especially in Germany where people are normally so reserved. Even today, people were wearing there jerseys and chanting in the streets every now and then. Only half of our class even showed up. It was awesome. 

This week I have my last test for my language class and a seven page paper to write for the literature class, which will make enjoying my last full week in Würzburg a little difficult. There's so much I still want to do and so many things that I haven't seen, but classes have to come first. I wish I had more time in Würzburg, but I'm also starting to feel ready to go home. Next week our whole program goes to Berlin, then I'm going to Paris and London before I'm home in Texas once more. 

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Switzerland. No explanation necessary. 

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A few photos of the architecture and modern art we saw in Nürnberg.

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Amsterdam pictures!

The I AMsterdam sign in front of the Rijksmuseum (which we unfortunately did not get to visit :( ), the sign in front of the Heineken Experience, me with the R of I AMsterdam, a beautiful old church, a slightly damp picture of interesting Amsterdam architecture, selfies with Dylan while waiting for the bus tour in the rain, some more of Amsterdam's pretty buildings, and the Rijksmuseum which reads "Art is therapy."

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SWITZERLAND. DIE SCHWEIZ. LAUTERBRUNNEN. HEAVEN ON EARTH.

So I just came home from the most amazing weekend of my entire life, and I'm having a difficult time putting it into words. I think my friend Dillon put it best when he said: 

Everything around me is gray, unimpressive, and generally meh. My brain fizzled out at about 6,000 feet above sea level when I drank fresh, running glacier water out of a stream. I can no longer enjoy average things and sex is essentially useless to me at this point.

I skipped class on Friday to go to Switzerland with Dillon, Brandon, Michael, Stephen, Amelia, Malia, Inga, Matthew, and Audrey. We took a relatively early train, so I just didn't sleep the night before and passed out on the train ride there. I awoke to some of the most amazing sites in the world.

Snow capped mountains in the distance. Sheer cliff faces towering 4000 meters above. Clear, bright blue rivers and lakes running through the valleys. Cozy villages scattered in the mountain side. Switzerland might actually be heaven on Earth. 

Upon our Friday arrival, we checked into our hotel, grabbed a quick lunch, and started exploring Lauterbrunnen valley, where we stayed for the weekend. It was another grey, rainy weekend, but that didn't stop us from walking a few miles around the valley, trying to skip rocks on the water rapids, climbing up a waterfall, and drinking the purest fresh water I've ever tasted. We went back to the hotel momentarily for the Deutschland game (another win, #blessed) and ate a light dinner. Then, to celebrate the fourth of July, we hiked back up the waterfall train to a tunnel and light sparklers! Dillon is a great photographer, so he took a lot of fun long exposure shots of us spelling words, making shapes, and goofing off in the tunnel. As soon as he edits them to his liking, I will post them here, because there are super cool. After the sparklers, we headed to bed so we could wake up early for one of the best days of our young lives. 

On Saturday, we hiked through the Swiss alps. We went at a snails pace because every 100 years we would see another absolutely breath-taking site, or a cool rock to climb, or a waterfall to stare at, or a stream upon whose banks we needed to stroll. (Also, it was really steep and our legs needed the breaks.) I really cannot explain how beautiful and perfect it was. There are moments in life when everything feels aligned and when you realized how absolutely lucky you are to be alive and to experience the things you're feeling, and that was every other moment in those mountains. Hopefully the pictures I post will even due those mountains an ounce of justice, but I doubt that's possible. 

We got lunch in a little town the at end of the trail, then walked across the valley back to Lauterbrunnen for one of the most satisfying naps of my life. We we all awoke about two hours later, we grabbed some dinner and spent the night conversing and goofing around at our hotel. Stephen, Dillon, Michael (when he wasn't watching football), and I sat on the porch looking out to the mountains and talked about life, politics, classes, and interests for hours, which was a perfect way to end a day of adventure. We went to stargaze for half an hour or so before bed, then promptly passed out. 

Another early morning on Sunday. We only had a few hours before we headed on a train back to Deutschland, so we decided to make the most of it by going to Interlaken and kayaking! Most of the group shared kayaks, but I got to try stand-up paddle boarding for the first time with Dillon and Stephen. After almost falling in and a solid ten minutes of fearing for my life, I got the hang of it and it was SO fun. We were water-sporting in a huge, bright blue lake in the valley of the mountains half an hour way from where we were hiking the previous day. It was sunny and beautiful, and such a fun experience. My only regret is not taking 1000 more pictures, but I was afraid of dropping my camera into the water. From there, we grabbed lunch and hopped on the train to our home away from home. 

And now I'm back in Würzburg, wondering if any life experience will ever top what I was able to do this weekend. I'm pretty sure I didn't just peak in Switzerland, but if I did, god damn is this world beautiful. 

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OOPS

Yikes, I haven't updated in about three weeks and now I have way too much ground to cover to accurately describe HOW FANTASTIC LIFE IS. Let's talk about Amsterdam and Nürnberg first. 

So three weekends ago, I went to Amsterdam with Charley and our friend Dylan. We took the ICE there. It was a relatively cold and rainy weekend, which somewhat limited the amount of activities we could do, but we managed to squeeze a lot into those four days anyway. Our first night we just did the typical thing: dinner, find hotels/hostels, explore the city a little, and sleep. 

The next day, we woke up early and grabbed a delicious breakfast from the train station area before deciding to go on a bus tour. The bus tour was a nice way to see the city and hear about all the attractions/neighborhoods before deciding what we wanted to do. It also kept us out of the pouring rain, which is always a plus. We took the bus two times around before getting off at a cool area that was packed with restaurants. We grabbed lunch from an Italian place (there was SO much Italian food in this city dear god), then went to the Van Gogh museum. The Van Gogh museum was absolutely incredible. It taught me a lot about Van Gogh's painting style and progression as an artist, AND I got to see more of his sunflowers. From there, we just went back to the area of restaurants, got dinner, and wandered about until it was time to head in for the night. 

On our last full day there, we decided to take a tour of the canals of Amsterdam by boat. It was finally a nice, sunny day when we toured the canals, so it made the city seem a thousand times more beautiful than it looked in the rain. After that, Charley and I went to the Heineken Experience, which is a tour of an old Heineken brewery with historical information and activities and (of course) beer. Then that night we met back up with Dylan to watch the German football game. Charley and I pondered going clubbing once the game was over, but entry fees and drinks were quite expensive, so we just took a walk through Vogelpark and went home. 

All in all, Amsterdam was a really interesting city to visit. It was nice to be in a city that was't just destroyed by World War II, and reading Dutch was incredibly interesting after learning German for so long. I was disappointed that we didn't get to visit the Anne Frank house, but I enjoyed the trip over all.

The next weekend, aka last weekend, we had a study abroad program excursion to Nürnberg, which is about an hour and a half away from Würzburg. We toured the city with a German professor, Dr. Süß, who showed us the oldest churches, a castle, and Dürer's house in the Alte  Stadt. After our guided tour, we grabbed lunch and did a little souvenier shopping, where I got the best beer stein ever. Then it started to rain (IT ALWAYS RAINS ON ME), so Chad, Charley, Bridget, Dillon, and I went to a modern art museum across the city. We wanted to go to the former Nazi rally grounds, but there wasn't enough time, so we wandered around the city a little more, grabbed coffee, and headed back home.

In class/gerenal Würzburg news, life is going swimmingly. Deutschland is still in the world cup, which is super exciting. There's a great atmosphere when we go to watch the games at this huge warehouse thing that's filled with students. Another wine fest came through Würzburg, though this one was in the gardens of the Residenz, and therefore absolutely beautiful. I got to tour the inside of the Residenz with my art history class, which was fascinating. I wrote a super long paper for my German class, ALL auf Deutsch, which made me feel incredibly accomplished (especially since a more advanced student said my German wasn't terrible, yay!). I've wandered through parks and worn a Dirndl and watched a lot of movies. Basically, everything is perfect. I will post some highlight pics of all these great things right now. 

But then, I must write about my weekend in Switzerland. 

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Rothenfels and Fußball

Hello again! Time for another quick update. This past weekend, I went to Rothenfels castle with my literature class to watch cross-cultural movies and discuss them. The castle itself is rather small and has been transformed into a kind of family hostel/conference center. It's a 45 minute drive from the Uni campus in Würzburg. We drove there in cars with people from our classes. I actually had no idea how much I missed being in a car until I was there; it was nice to listen to loud music and have someone driving around, however short it was. 

At the castle, we didn't do too much apart from watching the movies. In typical German fashion, we watched a lot of the football world cup games that weekend. I met a lot of German friends, which was super awesome. They asked a lot of questions about how we felt about gun control, obesity, the German language, and other interesting topics. Then in return they taught Michael, Malia, and I fun soccer phrases in German. They also made me say a lot of complicated words (Eichhörnchen, and other words with umlauts) since I was the worst at German in the group and it amused them. There was a sort of tower attached to the castle which you could climb to the top to and look across the city and country-side, which was absolutely beautiful. All in all, it was an enjoyable weekend. 

Back in Würzburg, we threw a surprise party for Malia's 22nd birthday in our friend Robert's dorm. We ordered pizzas, bought way too many chips, drank beer, and gave her a few little presents. After we got kicked out by the Hausmeister for being too loud on a Sunday, we went and played soccer for an hour then ate delicious Italian food at one of the only places open on a Sunday evening. 

Monday was the first game for both Germany and the USA in the world cup, so we, as the kids would say, turned up. I got a Schweinsteiger jersey (kid's size, yay discounts!) and headed to a biergarten early to snag seats for my friends who were still in class. The biergarten, Konak, ended up being packed, but we fit everyone in one place to watch the game. Germany won against Portugal 4-0, and the crowd went wild. The USA game was a little less exciting. We went to a different bar to watch that with some international students, but the game wasn't as exciting and Bridget and I were being harassed by some pushy guys. All in all, though, it was a lovely night of football and friends. 

From there, I've just been doing normal Würzburg things. Going to class, drinking coffee at Mozart, spending evenings in the Innenstadt with friends, etc. 

This weekend, Charley, Dylan, and I are going to Amsterdam. We leave tomorrow morning because this is another long Catholic holiday weekend. We're planning on seeing the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum, and Rijksmuseus. There might by a Holi celebration happening while we're there, too, which would be insanely fun. No matter what, I'm sure we'll have a great time.  

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Frankfurt pictures!

A mural dedicated to Apfelwein (apple wine, which is a thing but not a very delicious one), some buildings in downtown Frankfurt, chilling in a park (Adam had already left when we took this one), Charley and Chad on the Main, me carrying Charley (what how I don't know), grumpy Apfelwein pictures because I was sleepy, Bridget and me caught in the rain outside of the hostel, Bridget and me at the main, ferris wheel selfie at the festival we went to, and that bridge thing that European people love doing. 

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Frankfurt, Würzburg, Rothenfels, oh my!

Hello loved ones! Time for an update on allll my life. I'll try to keep things succinct. 

Saturday afternoon, I departed for Frankfurt with Charley, Chad, Bridget, and Adam. It was our second long weekend for the program. Originally, Charley and I planned on going to Florence or Rome that weekend, but timing and pricing just didn't work out. However, we still wanted to travel and take advantage of the time off, so Frankfurt it was.

Frankfurt is about an hour and a half bus ride away from Würzburg. We stayed in a hostel when we got there. We didn't realize until after we'd book from a website that our hostel was in Frankfurt's red light district, though. Talk about a culture shock. Within one block, the city changes from a normal, industrialized place, to lots of drugs and lots of sex clubs. It was disorienting and a little unnerving, but I always had a friend or four with me, so we were very safe. The only problem with the hostel was the noise on the street below. Our first too nights there, loud music played until around five or six in the morning, and we could hear every. single. person who walked by. But hey, free breakfast in the morning. You win some, you lose some. 

We didn't do too many activities in Frankfurt. Sunday, most things are closed, and even more things were closed on Monday for the holiday, so we improvised a lot. Saturday, we just hung around the Main river for a while (the same river that runs through Würzburg!) then went to an area with some pubs that was strangely reminiscent of 6th Street in Austin. Saturday, we spent almost the entire day at an amazing outdoor pool in this lovely park on the outskirts of the city. Then that night, we went back to the Main to stare at the river, watch the sunset, and do more relaxing after our long day of relaxing. On Monday, we went to a combination fair/carnival/wine festival in the middle of the forest area somewhere around the city. We rode a ferris wheel and did bumper cars, and it was just generally lots of fun. That night, back to the Main. We went back to our hostel pretty early most nights to play pool, meet people, and get some sleep. I think everyone was tired from all the traveling we'd done and our classes, so it was nice to spend a weekend just lounging around. 

Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience. The weather was sunny and hot all weekend, so it really felt like summer time. My only regret is not taking more pictures. I didn't want to bring my camera to the pool, then I forgot to put the battery in during the festival. I'll post the few pictures I did take, though. 

On Tuesday we came back from Frankfurt. Wednesday was a normal class day. I had my first paper due for my art history class. It was easy enough to write, as little as I know about art history in general. Wednesday night, a bunch of people from our program wanted to play soccer in a field. As the least athletic person in the world, I decided to just bring a book and watch them play from the sidelines. Thursday (today) was another normal class day. I've got my first test in my German class tomorrow, so I spent all afternoon studying and doing exercises to practice all the things we've learned. (I should be studying now but I needed a break.) 

Tomorrow, I'll take my test and pack for this weekend! Once again, I'm going out of town. However, this time I'm leaving for the literature class. My lit class meets with local students from the Uni, students whose classes were supposed to start a few weeks before the American students arrived. To accommodate the classes that weren't held until the American students arrived, WE'RE SPENDING THIS WEEKEND IN A CASTLE. I MISSED SCHOOL, SO I GET TO LIVE IN A CASTLE FOR A FEW DAYS. We'll spend Friday evening, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning watching cross-cultural movies and talking about the book I just finished, Goodbye to Berlin. I'll be doing a group presentation over the book. I just finished my research tonight. I'm really exciting to get to know some German students from the University. And also to stay in a castle. 

So, that's about it from my end. It's been an incredibly busy week with Frankfurt and all the major assignments I had for class, but I'm ready to have an awesome weekend and learn about some literature. And I promise I'll take more pictures this time.