BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

Hello world!  I am still here...just extremely busy, as usual!  This past week we were wrapping up our preparatory course before taking the DSH placement exam, so a lot of time was spent reviewing ALL the grammar we've learned for the past month!  We also had our final intercultural visit, so my group visited a museum here in Heidelberg about the persecution of the Sinti and Roma (gypsies) in Germany by the Nazis.  It was pretty interesting.  Since the weather was also nice this past week, my friends and i went to the Heidelberg ZOO!  How fun!  It definitely wasn't the best zoo, as could be seen by the goats and chickens that had escaped and were running around, but it was a fun afternoon :]  On Thursday, my class went on yet another excursion, this time to Schwetzingen, the summer palace of the prince electorate of the Palatinate.  The palace was not as large as some others, however the gardens were MASSIVE!  We probably spent nearly 3 hours wandering the labyrinth of hedges filled with fountains and statues and temples to Greek gods.  It was so beautiful, but also a very tiring experience walking around all afternoon in the sun, which is rather uncommon here!  Then on Friday, Kaia, Krista, Olivia and I took the train to Munich after class!  We stayed with my Aunt in Pfaffenhofen and she was once again a great host!  On Saturday we took the train in to Munich at 8am and it was already packed with people drinking beer!  Once we arrived in Munich, we pretty much followed the lederhosen until we got to Oktoberfest!  Unfortunately the weather was not very nice.  We basically just got in line to enter the first tent we came upon so that we could get a table, and the tent just happened to be the Hofbraeu tent, which is probably the most famous Munich brewery!  So of course it was crowded, but it was really cool to be inside!  There were barely any places to sit but we found a spot next to some guys from Austria!  We all ordered beers (at 9:30am!), which are only served by the liter!  So I was somewhat drunk by the time we were kicked out of the table at 11 so the people who reserved it could use it :(  We wound up leaving the tent because our group got split up and we couldn't find each other or hear the phone calls, so we never got back in!  We tried and waited in line for over an hour and just gave up.  We then walked around the rest of the Oktoberfest and eventually left to see some sights in Munich!  On Sunday morning, we took the train back to Heidelberg, which meant 3 hours to study for the placement exam!  After the train ride, I just returned to my room to relax and study some more!!!  This morning was freezing and we had to meet at the "new" university to take the exam.  This building, however, is completely covered in scaffolding and tarps and the inside is full of dust and workmen.  So, taking the exam in a freezing construction zone was not really ideal, but I think I did alright!  The first section was reading comprehension, which I felt went well.  Then was a section that required us to manipulate the grammar in a given statement to say the same thing in another way.  That part was actually fun haha!  Then we had a listening comprehension section, which was also not terrible.  Lastly was the short essay section, which kind of threw me off since our instructor had told us about and prepared us very well for all the other sections but this one!  So, hopefully I passed!  That would be exciting.  I leave soon for Copenhagen and London for my fall break, so I likely won't be updating for a while.  But when I do, I'm sure I'll have much to tell!!!!

Lake where we picnicked!

Mosque in the garden

Typical lane in the garden :]

Entrance to Oktoberfest!

Hofbraeu Festival Tent!

Inside the Hofbraeu tent!

Waitress carrying 10 mugs of beer!

Me and my liter of beer!

View of Munich from the top of the Frauenkirche!

Fernsehen, France und Feste!

Hello everyone!  This past week has been quite busy for me!  My grammar class has been getting intense as we prepare for the DHS placement exam...which is in about 1 week!  It's quite nerve-wracking considering our ability to take classes at the university hinges on passing this exam!!!  Assuming I pass the exam, I would like to take a German history class, a class on Luther's catechism, as well as Spanish, Chinese, and Swedish classes, which all require additional placement tests!  the extremely frustrating thing about the German university system is how disorganized it is!  School begins in about 3 week and there is still no official course book, so I can't even plan a schedule.  Also, every course here has it's own rules about when and where to sign up, if you even need to sign up, so everything is just confusing!!!  And the advising staff here is not as helpful as we would all like...they seem to expect us to just figure it out on our own!  So hopefully that all works out!
As a part of the curriculum for our preparatory course, we have to break into small groups to go on intercultural field trips once a week, from which we must create a presentation for the rest of the group.  This week I went to Mannheim to visit Rhein-Neckar Fernsehen (RNF) which is the regional television network.  We met with the assistant manager and got a tour of the studio.  Then we sat in on a live broadcast of "RNF Life," a local news program, and we appeared on TV!  So that was cool!
On Thursday, my class went on a field trip to FRANCE!  We took a coach bus to Struthof, a concentration camp in the mountains that was used for French resistance fighters against the Nazis.  It was interesting to see, but slightly disturbing.  Then we drove to Odilienberg, a monastery in the mountains of Alsace.  Afterwards, we headed to Strasbourg, which is the capital of the Alsace region of France.  It was beautiful!  We visited the incredible Notre Dame Cathedral and climbed to the top!  It was so exhausting, but the view was great!  Then we had about an hour to explore the city on our own...which was totally not enough time!!!
Yesterday, my friends and I visited the town of Bad Duerkheim in Germany's Rheinland-Pfalz region...also known as wine country!  This town hosts the world's largest wine festival, so we had to check it out!  It turned out to be more like a creepy children's carnival with very little wine and made us wonder how it got it's title!  Nevertheless, we had a great time.  The town was very beautiful and the festival was still fun!

Driving through France!

Odilienberg Monastery

Strasbourg Cathedral!

View from the cathedral

Inside the cathedral!

Strasbourg on the Ill River

View of Rheinland-Pfalz from the ferris wheel

Bad Duerkheim Wine Festival

Bad Duerkheim Castle Church

Die Romantische Strasse

Hallo!  This past weekend, the AJY program left Heidelberg for a study trip on the Romantic Road.  We met at the train station at 9am and took a train to Kloster Bronnbach, a monastery in the middle of nowhere.  The town it's in consists of the monastery, a hotel, a restaurant, and the train station.  We checked into the hotel and then toured the monastery which was very beautiful.  Then we boarded another train to the charming, Medieval village of Wertheim on the Tauber and Main Rivers.  My professor, Herr Doerr, gave us a tour of the old city and church and then we had free time.  My friends and I climbed to the top of the fortress for an amazing view of the city!  Afterwards, we stopped at an ice cream cafe and then visited the old Jewish cemetery.  Then we strolled along the Tauber River as we made our way back to the train station.  We had dinner in the restaurant next to the monastery and it was a really great time :]  Then I played cards with my friends until bed time.  On Saturday morning, we woke up at 7am, ate breakfast and boarded the train to Wuerzburg, a city in Bavaria and the capital of the region of Franken!  We first toured the giant baroque palace and then had free time.  My friends and I stopped in some churches and then walked to the old bridge over the Main River, which was beautiful.  It was quite a lively place since there was a music festival taking place in the city that day.  The bridge also provided excellent views of the huge fortress on the hill!  After we stopped for lunch, we visited the enormous baroque gardens behind the palace, which were absolutely gorgeous.  We then had a 2 and a half hour train ride back to Heidelberg to end our great study trip!

Kloster Bronnbach

Chapel in Kloster Bronnbach

Courtyard

Wertheimer Altstadt

View of Wertheim from the fortress

Me, Tom, Olivia, Kaia, and Krista at the fortress!

Jewish cemetery

Wertheim on the Tauber River

Residenzschloss in Wuerzburg

Overlooking Wuerzburg

Festung Marienburg - the fortress

The old bridge over the Main River

Inside the gardens

Palace gardens!

Garden fountain

Vorbereitungskurs

Hey everyone!  Sorry it's been a while since my last update.  I have no internet connection in my room and it's not always convenient to lug my laptop around everyday so I've been putting this off until I had some free time!  Everything in Heidelberg is going well!  During the first weekend we had orientation sessions at the AJY center which is right on Hauptstrasse in the Heidelberg Altstadt.  It's a pretty cool location and it's a 250 year old building.  I spend a lot of time here!  Aside from the orientation, I went grocery shopping!  The store by my apartment is called Lidl and everything is really cheap so that is nice!!!  I also went out with some friends to a cool restaurant and drank beer out of a horn, which was interesting.  Then we went up to the ruins of Heidelberg castle which was somewhat foggy and creepy in the night.  I also went to the Heiliggeist Kirche, which is the oldest church here.  I went up to the top of the tower for only 60 cents and got to listen to a Mozart concert that was taking place in the sanctuary.  The view from the top is AMAZING!  On Monday we started our Vorbereitungskurs (or Preparatory Course in English).  We took a fill-in-the-blank test to determine in which class we would be placed and it which was quite challenging!  But, I ended up getting the 3rd highest score out of the 24 students here and was placed in the more advanced class!  My teacher is Herr Doerr and he is a really funny older man.  He kind of makes fun of everyone when they make mistakes but it's fun and I think he likes me.  It's just been a challenging course since we are learning some intense grammar, like conjugating verbs in the situational passive voice in the subjunctive mood!  But I love it...there goes my inner grammar freak :]  On Monday evening, I went with a group of friends on the train to Mannheim.  Although this study abroad program is somewhat expensive, it does have it's perks.  We all have free train and bus transportation within the Rhein-Neckar area so that is very convenient!!  Mannheim was interesting - much more modern than quaint little Heidelberg!  On Tuesday we started a dinner group, which has been pretty fun!  We usually meet at my friend Tom's apartment since his is closest to the AJY center and he has a big kitchen.  So pretty much Tom from Ohio, Krista from NYC, Kaia from Alaska, Olivia from LA, Pat from Maine and I have been hanging out every night.  We made pasta, soup, and chicken stir-fry.  So it's been fun shopping and cooking and making new friends in the process!!  On Friday we all walked around a neighborhood in Heidelberg and the went out to dinner at a nice German restaurant and then we went to a bar.  I would not recommend cognac to any of you reading...unless you are partial to cough syrup :/  This past Saturday was also really fun!  It was the first day that I didn't have anything planned!  So, I slept in and then took an adventure to the Philosphenweg (Philosopher's Way).  It is a steep trail up a "mountain" that philosophers would visit in the 19th century.  Anyhow, it has some pretty great views of the Altstadt and Neckar River!  After that, I explored a bit in the Altstadt and went to Lidl to pick up some more groceries!!  Then I went out with my friends to a falafel restaurant...which I would also not recommend.  Afterwards, we got ice cream and then headed to the old bridge for the Schlossbeleuchtung und Feuerwerke!  Three times every summer, the castle is lit up and fireworks are shot off by the old bridge to recreate the attack on the Altstadt by the French.  It was hands down the best fireworks show I have ever seen!  The castle looked like it was actually on fire and the fireworks coming off the bridge over the river were incredible!!!  So that was a lot of fun!  Then we went to a night club called Jinx in the Altstadt.  It was pretty fun dancing til 2 in the morning!!  By that time we were starving and went to a doener shop.  It was so good - one of the positives of all the Turkish immigrants in Germany!  So, I've been incredibly busy but it's been fun.  I'm glad that I'm experiencing a lot.  I've only been in Heidelberg for a week, but it feels like I've been here forever...which is nice :]

The AJY Center in University Square

My classroom in the AJY Center

Horn of beer

Heidelberg Castle at night!

Inside Heiliggeist Kirche

View of the castle from the Heiliggeist Kirche

Largest Baroque castle in Germany - in Mannheim

The ruins of Heidelberg Castle

 View of the Neckar River from the castle

 View of the Altstadt from Philosophen Weg

 The Alte Bruecke on the Neckar!

The Neckar!

Krista, Kaia, Tom, Pat & Olivia - waiting for the fireworks!

Heidelberg Castle on fire!

Fireworks over the Neckar!

 Amazing finale!