I'm sorry Joshua has currently stepped out of the office.

Hey everyone, I am very sorry for not writing in so long but I am in the midst of 3 papers and 4 midterm exams. So I just don't have spare minute right now, but after this weekend I should free up and be able to write next week.

Just so I don't forget to write about the places I have been since last entry.. Stuttgart, Luxembourg, Brussels-Belgium,  Paris-France and Basel-Switzerland.

Netherlands, Holland, the Dutch!

Hoi!  I apologize for having such a large gap between my updates, but until this past weekend nothing to exciting has happened. I started all my classes when I arrived back from the Berlin and Prague trip, and I also ended up getting a pretty bad cold, so it made the time in these new classes more miserable and stressful. I went into the Apotheke, which are the pharmacy things here and apparently the only place licensed to sell cold medicine and I went up to the girl, at which point I was not in a mood to speak german, So I said sprechen Sie English, told her I was sick and asked her to just give me what she would buy if she was sick, because they didn’t have the same medicine as in the US. But, I the cold only lasted a week and I am 100% now. 

Let’s see, a quick little run through on my classes, German- is nothing to special, we are split into so many different levels that there are only 8 kids in my class there. Then I have my general EU seminar which is basic European Union history, functions stuff like that and it gears us for each field study trip we take around Europe.   My three new ones I started are European Union Foreign Policy analysis, which is going to be a lot of work and the professor is pretty lame.  EU-US relations is the one I am interested in most and the prof is better, and a EU Policy areas from (A)griculture to (Z)ero Emissions and I still couldn’t really tell you what that class is about, prof dosent seem to know..much. 

I am kind of frustrated of how much work is assigned in my schedule, the classes are at a level which I haven’t had yet and just demand so much. Every single night I have like 50 pages of reading and already wrote some papers and did a presentation in the first two weeks. It must have changed because I heard the program used to be more laid back and they use to even have Fridays off. But..I understand, since we travel for about 30days of the semester when we are in Freiburg and in class we have so much to cram into a short amount of time.

Daily life over the past two weeks hasn’t been to exciting, just get up, take the tram downtown to school at 9 or 10am depending on the day and then classes are an hour and a half, have three a day for the most part. I take my computer with and hangout in the student lounge which is always has a lot of kids studying or relaxin, so we do homework or I just surf the web. Eat lunch downtown, or at the Mensa (university café) with friends. Then I come home, talk to my flatmates for a bit, and then make dinner mostly with friends or flatemates, but also by myself. I am getting better at cooking but I need to look up more recipes to branch away from my various ways of preparing rice and pasta. Then I do my homework, see if anybody from home is online to talk to, check my sites around the web. I always check US sports and news because I feel really out of the loop.

Anyway, we had our first fall “break” this past weekend, which meant we only had Friday off, but still gave everyone enough time to travel. Kids went all over the place, lot of them to Spain. But, Reijer and I decided to go to his home in the Netherlands. Then two of our friends came with to, Nate and Sam. Thursday finally came and we had classes later in the evening, then we came back and I cooked us a good dinner. Fried up some brots in a pan with butter, then cut them up and put into a sauce to go on pasta, with cheese…turned out really good. Then we all packed quick and heading down to the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof where we met Sam and caught our train which left at 9pm. Sam brought some beer for our train ride, Franziskaner Hefeweisse beer..which is my favorite beer over here..well I like the dark one, but either are great. We had to switch trains a few time and had about a 4 hour commute up to Dusseldorf. We got there at about 2:30am where Reijer’s mom was waiting and she drove us into the Netherlands to their house, which was only about an hour away. It was about 3:30am when we got there and just went to sleep, I slept on and off on the train and in the car as well.

 Friday morning we woke up to a breakfast laid out on the table. Mostly, just breads with different jams, thick syrup stuff and these chocolate flakes that you sprinkle on the bread..which were amazing. Reijer’s home was so nice, it was little with just two floors with 4 rooms upstair and 5 or so downstairs, but had a very countryside warm feel, hard to describe how I want to. It was older but had a lot of modern features, which I liked a lot. So we ate in the sun room in the back looking into the garden and then watched some television in the living room, which had big windows a little fire place and heated tile floors! Dutch T.V is really good, because its basically everything we have in America just with Dutch subtitles at the bottom, and this is why they all speak such perfect English in the Netherlands. Oh and they did indeed have wooden shoes! But they were practical, your suppose to wear them out in the garden or something because the ground is really wet there. Then we took a walk around his town, called Overloon, it was a small town about 2000 people, 2 schools and one main area with a grocery store. We went in and got some Dutch cookie things that were awesome. The town was pretty, all the streets lined with rows of trees, all the homes looks the same, just little two story brick with a small yard. Everyone rides bikes everywhere in the Netherlands, my kind of place. Overloon only has two attractions, a zoo and the war museum. So we walked through the park where the war museum is, there were tanks and bunkers in the woods still. The town had a really big battle during World War II, actually the only tank battle in the Netherlands, between the British and Germans. Reijer’s neighbors home even has bullet holes in it still, pretty crazy. Then after our walk we came back and had soup with rice which was good. The weather was really nice so after lunch we went out to the shed got four bikes and went on like a 7 mile bike ride through the Dutch countryside. It was awesome, just one of those really good moments where nothing mattered, just living in the moment with the wind in your hair crusin through the farmland. Oh and they have ferries instead of brides in some spots, so we just ride our bikes right onto the ferry, take it across then ride right off the other side. I also said Hoi! (hello) to everyone but no one said it back on our ride. Hahh.

We came back from our ride and Reijer’s mom already had dinner set out for us. We also met reijers dad for the first time, he was really cool and about 6’6” everybody is so tall there! Christian needs to move there later in life. But yeah his mom and dad were so nice, and his younger brother came home, Jolan, and he was a lot like Reijer. Anyway, the dinner was good, we had quiche, and a liche pie kinda thing, which was a bigger quiche with rice and cheese sauce and fruit salad. Then that evening we walked downtown and met up with Reijer’s parents at this full restaurant just for special gourmet ice cream. Then we got some Dutch beer and snacks and went back to the house and a bunch of Reijer’s friends came over. They were all really cool..I love the Dutch, they speak perfect English, have a good sense of humor, ride bikes and like Americans for the most part. We were up pretty late talking, but got to bed eventually because we had to get up early for our trip up to Amsterdam. We left at 8am caught the train which was only the next town over. Its only a 2 hour ride, but we had to switch train lines 4 times. It was also suppose to be a 95% chance of rain there all day, and we got there and the sun came out so it was perfect. Amsterdam was certainly beautiful, really nice architecture and the houses were well preserved. Then there is the famous winding streets of water going through town, with old boats lining the sides and the bridges with flowers going over them. We weren’t there very long so we just saw all the sites, it is certainly the most liberal city in the world. Lots of interesting sites, pretty weird though, but everyone knows whats there so I digress. But good food and lots of good shopping. and Nate got a Cuban cigar! Hah Then Reijer and Jolan’s friends came into town and showed us around, then we all sat down and got some beers. After that it was about dinner time and we headed back to the train station, oh and saw a big time movie big filmed in the main square there to. Had a director, huge cameras on dollys and all the productions, pretty cool. That night we got back and just had a few more beers, sat around and talked.

The next day we wanted to relax, so we slept in late and then had a big Sunday breakfast with the whole family. Then we just laid around, has the doors of the sunroom wide open into the garden, weather was gorgeous, and we got some homework out of the way so we wouldn’t be super stressed upon our return. We had some pizza’s for lunch and went out for another bike ride because the weather was just so perfect, this time in the other direction though. We went to a manmade lake with a beach and laid out there for a bit and then went to a look out tower. At this point we were pretty far away and realized we had to leave soon, so we rushed home his mom had some crepe things made with Canadian bacon in them..so good once again as was all the food. Then we packed and his dad drove us back to Dusseldorf to catch the train. Overall, it was such a nice weekend. Good to get a recharge, shower in a nice shower, eat homemade meals and just all the comforts of a real home.

Now im just back at my place, putting off studying for a German test tomorrow. Nothing much happening this week. We get briefed on our next trip, which we leave for next week and that is a week long trip to Luxembourg, Brussels Belgium and Paris! 

I have also been getting all these emails from IES, PSU, the state department because there is Terror alerts for Americans traveling in Europe. Soooo I’ll keep my eyes out in Freiburg. Hah but probably not the best time to be traveling with 50 americans next week to Paris. Anyway, now to homework! And check my facebook for pictures of the Netherlands.

Hope all is well!

-Josh

Berlin & Prague, Czech Rep.

Only the third week into the program and we our already leaving for our first field study trip to Berlin and Prague. It was setup so that we leave Monday, for berlin until Thursday then the rest of the time in Prague.  So Monday morning rolls around and I had to be up around 5am and get down to the Hauptbahnhof in freiburg to catch the train that leaves at 6:30am. We all make it, except one kid actually did miss, I was terrified to miss. He had to pay his own way and figure out how to meet us in Berlin on his own. The train ride was about 6 hours long, nothing special at all, the scenery going north in Germany is just like looking out of the window in Lancaster. We finally get to Berlin and we are split into two groups. Im not sure if I like the split or not, because for the rest of the week the other groups stays in different hotels, goes to different events and you don’t see them at all. But it turned out well, got to bond with some other kids. So now there are about 20 of us in my group and we get of the train and walk to our hostel, which had a pretty good location. It was nothing like what you would stereotype a hostel as. Sure it had a few less connivances, but it was basically just a hotel for college kids. My room had a shower, sink, and a bathroom right outside of the door. I was sharing it was three others, Reijer, Matt from Long Island and Jack from Oregon.

We get all checked in our rooms then had time to go out and get lunch. The four of us from my room go back down around the train station where we had seen a lot of restaurants. We ended up going to Brot shop, which would be equivalent of a cheesesteak shop in philly. Had a good Brot, bread roll and pommes frites which are French fries. Then we had to meet back up at the hostel, because we were all going out as a whole for a guided tour through Berlin. Our tour guide was a guy from Minnesota, he said he went to study abroad in berlin and then never ended up leaving, but he was good though and really knew he stuff. We started out at the Reichstag and the minute we started it started to pour! I mean I had an umbrella and it didn’t even matter. It stopped raining hard, but was only a precursor to what would be rain every day except for one in berlin. So the tour was good and we got to see all the big sites, Reichstag, Bundestag, Brandenburg gate, communist East German stuff, Holocaust monument and bullet holes in building from WWII. After the tour we had the rest of the night free and we went out on the town. It was me, reijer, jack, linds, kelly and kaela, who go to San Diego U, and this is who I hung out with for the rest of the trip. We took the subway a few stops downtown after a local said to go there and we found a restaurant and sat outside. Before this I hadn’t been around jack, kaela or kelly much, but we all had a great time, laughs all night. The food at that place was unbelievable, I had a bit of everyones and it was all good. Then we got some ice cream which is always abundant in Europe. We got back to the hostel and downstairs is a lounge and then a bar restaurant thing on the other side. So we decided to grab a beer and talked with some kids from Ireland and Scotland.

The next day we got a free breakfast at the hostel which was a good little buffet and then we were out to go to our first meeting which is why we go on these trips. So we get our suits on, however I forgot my dress shirt, but jack hooked it up with a button up and sweater vest under my suit top, looked fine….and I didn’t have to buy a new shirt.  Of course it was raining again and we walked down to meet with a representative of the Green Party from the Bundestag. The more I learn about the EU the more I am skeptical about it. It certainly works well in some ways but has huge flaws as well.  But I digress. The we grabbed lunch and we had to go the Stasi museum for a german class project. The Stasi were secret police in East Germany during the communist rule that made it their job to know everything about everyone of their citizens. Great history, but I hate to say it the museum was extremely boring. After this was more free time and which the same group we went to the Potsdamer Platz which is like Berlin’s time square. Where we went to eat was in this enclosed circle pavilion thing, it where all the huge movie premiers are and parties. We just got some Kaffee und Eis because it was to expensive. But overall Berlin is nothing like what I would have imagined. It has like 5million residents and I heard it was the NYC of germany, but it wasn’t at all. Very spread out, not many high rises and it seemed Philadelphia is bigger. I know a lot of that is due to it getting destroyed in the war though.  The history is the best part though, it was crazy to see the buildings that you see on the history channel, stood where Hitlers bunker was, the berlin wall and all that.  We had one more meeting late that night with some germans who lived in East Berlin during the cold war. It was interesting and then a singer/songwriter who was jailed for his songs of protest preformed for us which was awesome.

After this I had quite an interesting night. It was already after 10 so me and reijer met some of our buddies from the other group and went to a local bar for a quick beer. Then we headed down into center city. Our friend Chris, from California, is one of those kids who talks to everyone. So we met these two girls from Hamburg and Chris invited the with us, they were cool though. Then we met up with about 10 other kids from our program and hit a better bar. Nobody ever stays together long and we end up splitting up. So its me, reijer, the two Chris’s and the two german girls. The tram lines had stopped running at this point, so we got a cab and went to this club that was pretty far. Not my thing at all the go to discos, but hey probably won’t be in berlin again. So it was a good club, 90% dudes and id thought it would be all wild but the germans dance similar to a middle school dance. Haha. Met some guys from Belgium who thought I was Australian..never got that one before, but at least everyone dosent think im American. Me and Reijer decide to leave, well we were waiting for the trams to start running again at 4am. We were real lost but actually ended up running into more Belgian kids who were actually stay in our same hostel. They spoke Dutch so Riejer could talk to them, they talked the whole way back annnnnd I didn’t understand a thing. Overall an interesting night.

The next day after a few hours of sleep we went down to the Holocaust museum, which was under the monument. It was crazy, then sat out on the monument and talked for a while. Then im not sure what everyone was up to so Reijer and I just walked all over the city because it was the only beautiful day while in Berlin. We had to walk for like 4miles, then we took the subway to Templehof, wasn’t sure what was there but I thought I heard my Dad tell me to check it out. We stumbled upon the old airport there, which was now just used at the city’s beach, it was really nice. Everyone was out flying huge kites, and we laid out by the runway and watched everyone. That night on our way out to grab something to eat we passed the theater down the street and the was a huge red carpet event. It was awesome, just like Hollywood. Tons of people crowded around, the stars showing up, doing interviews with the media. I got a lot of good pictures, so don’t forget to head to my facebook to see them. Anyway got some Turkish pizza, which was awesome and then went back to the hostel. The hostel bar has a huge projector and we watched the Bayern Munich game, lot of people down there and more of our friends joined us..and that was Berlin!

To Prague-

The next day we were up early again, got breakfast quickly, checked out of Berlin and caught the train to Prague, Czech Republic! Train ride was nothing to special yet again until we got into the Czech Republic, I fell asleep a few times listening to my music. It took about 5 hours and then we got into the station in Prague and we had to link a few trains. Traveling in Prague was real stressful the whole time, theres different levels underground, sooo many people and I speak like 3 words of Czech. We get to our hotel outside of town a bit and check in, I was only rooming with Reijer this time. We got briefed to watch everything you own and be super careful, like put your wallets in your front pockets and stuff. Worst city in the world for pick pocketing, they said that had students before that as they were watching somebody cut through their purse with a knife and reached in and stole everything. All while she was wearing the purse! It was defiantly

a little sketchy, everyone had that feel for our stay there. Anyway we had some time to get lunch again quick so me and a few guys went over to this mall which was really nice. We needed to get money out since they don’t use the Euro, they still use Kronos. The currency is worth nothing so I got out a 1000 dollar bill! Haha which is only worth like 50 bucks but still it was cool to roll which thousands. We just got some pizza and pasta for lunch mine was like 130.00 kr for a slice! Ha. Then we headed downtown to meet our tour guide, which is what we will do for each city. Its nice cause then you get an idea of where everything is before you go out by yourself. This tour guide wasn’t as good, and I couldn’t ever hear him or understand him. But it didn’t matter because the city was so incredibly beautiful and massive! Really hard to navigate as well.

Then had free time again so we went out to dinner, food was decent and the service was pretty bad..but overall it was good. Its tuff to figure out if things are cheap or not because the currency difference, the meals are all about 150 to 250 which is only like 7-15Euros. Then we went back to the main strip and went down into this bar had some drinks and watched prague’s soccer team play. Then had the task of figuring out how to get back. Just went to sleep that night because everyone was beat. 

The next day we had our meetings, the first was with the Chief international Editor of Prague’s Business Journal. Then we went across town to the other meeting, which was with the Director and Research Associate of the Institute of European policy. The meetings are good in general, some are a bit dull but for the most part interesting. Then after that I had my academic meeting with IES staff, which everyone has to do at some point on the trip. So it was like 8 of us and they take us for Kaffee und Kuchen and they pay, soo all good. We basically just talked about how we are, how we like everything and how the meetings are. Pretty laid back. I love these trips, I hope they are all like this. It’s basically just a week vacation away from class, and we have 2 and a half more weeks of travel left to do. We have to just go to a few meetings for a couple hours then we can go and do whatever we want in the cities. Anyway after the meeting me and a few kids went up the castle, which we didn’t get to see on the tour. It was so nice, it’s the biggest castle in central Europe and overlooks the whole city. After that we walked down from the castle went to the waterfront and then to the gardens. The gardens were so beautiful and they had peacocks roaming loose all over the place. So after some more sightseeing we went back to the hotel and met back up with that core group, I mentioned earlier that I hang with. We went to this once really nice Czech restaurant. I wanted to get a traditional meal, which I did, and it was sooooo good. Super cheap for what had to be 2 pounds of food easy. Three different types of meat, ham, a roast beef slab, sausage, then potato pancakes and dumplings and bread with sauerkraut.   Then we debated on going out, but didn’t want to get stranded downtown after the trams stopped, because we were told not to use taxis in Prague cause they rip you off. So we hung around the hotel and talked, a nice evening for sure.

Then for our last day we had to check out of rooms at 10am, so we checked our bags into storage had the hotels breakfast, which was so good and then had the whole day free. So again with the same group of kids, we hiked up the mountain overlooking the whole city to Prague’s mini Eiffel tower. We got to the top of the mountain and there was like a whole little festival going on. Kind of reminded me a bit of like the renaissance fair, because of the meat stands and old time bands playing. There were also really nice gardens, so we strolled around them and headed up the Tower. The view was certainly breath taking and you got see how big Prague actually was. Other then that we just went exploring around town more because there was just so much to see. Then we had to meet back at the hotel at 5:30 to take our overnight train home. We get our luggage, take the subways to the main station and as soon as we walk in it says its leaving in 4mins, so were all running down the halls of the station with all our luggage and everybody piles in. We had individual cabins with had six fold out beds, so we went around to different cabins for a while talked with friends then we went to sleep. It was a 12hour train ride cause we had to go back through berlin for some reason. I actually slept ookay, but not great, kinda woke up with half a cold. Then we got back at 7am this morning, got back to my apartment and fell asleep until about 11. Now im writing this, uploading photos and just praying I don’t get a cold. Tomorrow I start my for real classes so we’ll see how that goes, but for the rest of the day im laying in bed and calling and skyping home to friends and family!

Hope everyone is well, and I miss you all!

Josh’

Check-in, Freiburg and France.

I get dropped off at the IES European Union center where all my classes will be held. It is old building from the 1800s, converted into a very modern class setting inside. It is three stories high, has the professors offices downstairs, a full computer lab, student lounge and five classrooms. It is only for myself and the 50 or so other students in my program so it’s nice and just down the street from Freiburg Uni. So I am greeted, and put my bags by the door and was told to go upstairs for refreshments. There we’re four students up there and we talked for a little while about everyone’s commute. Then go down into a room and get briefed about whats going on, we get our Straßenbahn (street tram) passes, which our also good for the regional rain. Got our keys, Freiburg University i.d cards and all that good stuff. Then they called a taxi to take us to our apartments. There are three different complexes in the city and mine is pretty far outside of town, in another area called Vauban. So three of us were heading down that way and we all got into the cab. It was pretty weird meeting everyone that like..kinda reminded me of the first episodes of Real World. Hah. We get to our stop and a german girl meet us and took me into my building first. I’m up a few floors and theres 5 kids living in with me on my flat. One of the kids were in there when she showed me in and then she left. I met David first and he showed me around the flat and gave me the low down on everything. But his English isn’t very good. We have like I said five rooms then share two bathrooms and a kitchen. Then kitchen and bathrooms weren’t very clean, but my room is nice at least. Got a bed, shelf kinda thing, desk, TV, big mirror and a big closet thing. So I threw all my bags on my floor sat down and spaced out for a bit. There were sheets on my bed so I made that and then started to unpack a little bit. I only had like 2 hours before we were to meet down infront of my place to go out to a welcome dinner. We went down to a pizza place with just the EU kids from my apartment complex so like 25 of us. I sat with a group of ten or so and everyone was very nice and then we went back. And I crashed in my white-wash room.

The next day was the start of our two week intensive orientation phase. Get up at like 8am and go over to the tram stop that is only a 2 minute walk away. The public transportation is so nice here, just a 10min ride and I am down in center city. The street trams here are also run by full solar energy. Frieburg is governed by the Green Party, so you will hear about a lot of crazy environmental stuff in my writings. There was a group of us leaving at the same time from Vauban and we get down to school. The orientations were pretty hard to sit through all week it was a lot of, health and safety, cultural information, housing and all that stuff. But there was so good stuff too, we were split up in groups and then sent to different parts of the city to take pictures and do things/eat and then come back so our pictures and talk about what we did. I was in the group to explore the area where I live in Vauban, but it was good because then I got to see what was around. Right around me is a Rewe which is a nice grocery store and also an Aldi. There is a DM which is a general store for toiletries and such. An organic Ice Cream shop which is great and a Doner shop. These Doner shops are extremely popular and a big hit with us students as well. They are basically Turkish fast food, pretty cheap and you get a lot of food. I get the Doner Kabob thing which is like a circular piece of bread cut in half so theres a pocket and they put chicken or beef in it and your choice of vegetables and some special sauce. Real good.

So not to bore you with school things, I will introduce you to everyone I met and hangout with so far. Starting with my flatmates. Like I said I have fiveflat mates and the first night I came back they had some friends over so we we’re all hanging out in the kitchen and I met everyone. There is David, who is older and moving out in October. Theres actually a few moving out because the German semester doesn’t start til something in October so Ill get some new flatmates soon. Then there is Ye , he is from Beijing China and only speaks English so good for me. He is cool but moving out as well. Then there is Benta, she is from Hamburg, germany and she just moved in for her first year here. But she’s back in hamburg getting things, she said she may bring her keyboard and guitar so I hope she does. Then there is Phil who is in the room next to me. I hangout with him the most, maily because hes always here. He’s really cool but certainly unique. He’s a environmental major, wants to live in the woods, have no belongings all that stuff, a for sure hippie. A bit loud sometimes. He always asked me to do stuff, so we make dinner together sometimes, swap music, watch German movies that he insist I must see Ha. And he certainly has his opinions, and it is true German’s really like to debate and discuss current events. Oh and he seriously couldn’t believe me that I said we recycle in America. Because there insane with recycling here..like 10 different trash cans for various kinds of trash. In a year or two he is driving with friends from Germany to India and back for one full year… and everyone speaks English well, cept dave..but he watches ‘Friends’ in English to get better…So yeah.. my flat isn’t to bad. Only complaints is it’s a bit dirty in the kitchen and bathroom. One day I bought all this cleaning stuff and went nuts on everything. So when the new flatmates move in ill have some veteran status and can tell them to clean their shit. But hey, thats college life, at least my room is nice.

Next is all the fellow EU students that are with me in my classes and such. I really thought everyone would branch off into the community here, but no. We are in a bubble and you have to make friends with the kids because were literally together 10hours of the day, everyday, travel together everything. But whatever, so we went out the second night like 15 of us. Which is definitely already the last time I will be doing that, going out on school nights sucks. It’s kind of annoying right now cause most of these kids are a lot younger then me, so this is the first time then can go to bars and they are just going nuts. I’m pretty sure there has been kids that went out every single night so far. I mean I have been out with everyone on the weekends, but they are making me feel old. Haha. When we go out on the weekend is kinda sucks too cause everyone wants to be together and next thing you know we are rolling like 25 kids deep going into bars. For one everyone definitely knows we’re American, and we don’t get into places, and you can get drinks because its so crowded around the bar. And it would be one thing is they wanted to go to the bar which im down for, but they want to hit the disco’s and just dance.

Anyway for my friends, lets see..who im with most is.. Lindsey from Hawaii and shes just like a friend id have at home. Same interests, very chill and into the same exact music which is always awesome. Then there is Reijer (say ryer with a Scottish accent) and he is from the Netherlands. Im with him the most I think, Its funny though he actually goes to F&M and lives in Lancaster when hes in the USA. I was like man, I travel 6000 miles away to meet a Dutch kid in Germany who lives 30mins away from me at home. Weve already talked about hanging out when were back in the States. So me and him are rooming together when we go out are trips out. Oh and he loves to cook so we eat dinner a lot together. And its just easy to get together and cook for like five people at a time. Then there is Nate from Colorado, he’s real chill and the guy you wanna have a beer with. Reminds me of pete or kochel from back home. Annnd to save time one more is Ryan from Michigan and hes in all my classes so we study together and lives one floor below me so we’re all down in his kitchen a lot. Defiantly the kid to joke around with. And there are many more who I like a lot but don’t have time to name them all, im sure you’ll hear about them sooner or later though.

OH and yes we had our first day trip on Wednesday. We went to Strasburg, France to visit the EU Parliament. We had to go in business formal full suits, pretty legit. So we took a bus and got there around lunch. There we a lot of French riot police/ swat guys because france is having a lot of protests right now. So we go in get the full security check basically equivalent to boarding an airplane. Then we first meet with the Green Party Representative from the Freiburg area, and she just told us what she did and a bit more about how the parliament works and what theyre discussing. Then we went into the Debating chamber. It was awesome, we got to sit in on a session. They were debating European Arms exports. It was a huge circular room, 750 seats for the MEPs (the representing members) then the president and other high ranking seats up front. The president would pass the floor to various members who would get to say their argument for 2mins. We got the headsets which you put on and could flip through and find your language and where an interpreter was translating to the second so it was pretty cool. Then we had some time free time in the city, Rejier had a Turkish friend living there so we went to find her, me, viktor, reijer and nate.. Just cruising the streets of France with a Hungarian, a Turk, a Dutch kid haha, but the city was so beautiful! I loved it and want to go back when I have time. Then we had an all you can eat Flamkuchen dinner..which is like a lighter pizza.

This weekend is basically the first time I had a day since I literally got here aug 18th to just do nothing if I want and catch up on emails, photo uploading and writing on here. This orientation phase killed me, drained, tired everyday. We even had class last Saturday and then went hiking in the Schwarzwald(Black Forest). German and European Union seminar classes every single days for hours finished with exams of what we learned so far.  It has been exhausting just doing simple tasks though over here, like buying everything I need, when you can really read what type of milk you need and little stuff like that. They don’t teach you the words for like shampoo and conditioner…ha so it takes forever to shop, but its better now after the first few trips to the grocery store. Luckily all the food is great, ive never had a meal or something I didn’t really like yet.  I have been getting good at cooking and I think it will become something I will now enjoy in the future, and this is the place to learn recipes from all my friends around the world. Phil makes a bread from scratch every week and I want to learn that soon too.  There is certainly things (and friends, family too!)  I miss and that I will appreciate so much more when I get back to the US. Like the foods you can get at home everyday, imagine now being able to get any of it. Or just the comfort of English television on in the background. I get one English channel, CNN. So im taking my external harddrive around and getting movies and tv citcoms from my friends to watch. Annnnnd Sports! I never realized how much I would miss sports.. like the NFL is starting soon and the Flyers are startin up.. Im on Comcastsports.net everyday to get my fix.

Overall everything is well and I really love this city. Can’t complain.

And life isn’t to hard, on Monday I leave for 7 day field study trip to Berlin and Prague, Czech Republic! Can’t wait! So I won’t be able to talk to any all week and I will write about the trip when I get home!

Going to meet some friends and go explore the city or go to the lake today’

Goodbye from Sunny Freiburg!

Josh'

Freiburg

The day finally arrived that we were to make the last leg to my new city of Freiburg, Germany. Once again we checked out of another hotel and this time were driving from Munich all the way to Freiburg. The trip was really long because there isn’t a straight drive so we had to go up to around Stuttgart and then head south. The drive was pretty silent, at this point it was two weeks into everyone seeing eachother all day. The traffic in Stuttgart was real bad, and we got lost for a bit…but nonetheless we made it to Freiburg around 5pm. We drove in through the south of town on the way in and first impression was a little skeptical. Europe as a whole has so much more graffiti then in the US and its actually really good from an artistic standpoint, but freiburg especially from where we came in at there was tons. I was like oh great, where are all these beautiful photos from online that they must have photoshopped. As we drove more into the center city, the old town part it got much more beautiful. So we find our hotel/ bed and breakfast thing which was really nice actually, I liked it a lot and got checked in no problems. Then that evening my new friend, Vanessa, who lives right outside of freiburg came into town. It was really cool she showed us around the whole center of town and it was great to get a feel and perspective on the city before I started. She showed my where by EU building was, where I will have to check in and take my classes. Then all went out to dinner at this Italian restaurant and had a great meal. Then we kinda split into smaller groups some went back to the hotel. But there was a festival or something that night and they had a few streets blocked off by a whole bunch of bars and there were like D.J towers set up, so many people and we got some drinks. Good first night in my new town.

The next day Vanessa’s and her family invited my family and I over for a barbeque. We hopped on the train for a bit and she picked us up in their car and went to their house. The black forest really starts to take shape as you get outside of Freiburg out there it was crazy, big rolling hills with the thick pine forests. Looks a little bit like driving through central Pennsylvania, but better. Anyway, we meet her parents Daniel and Carmen who were super nice. They all speak very good English so the conversations were good and we talked a lot. They showed us around their house which was so modern and amazing, the whole front of the house is glass, with window shutters that slide into place with a flick of switch., Solar panels on the roof.  However their barbeque must be very different then our are idea of one at home because it was like a full sit down three course meal. Food was incredible though, tomato & mozzarella salad, baked potato, then some kabobs of vegetables, steak and lamb on the grill. Then we went on a hike up behind their house. Germans are serious about their hiking, like hours and miles worth. But it was good we hiked up to the top of the mountain where there was a really old lodge on a farm that was a little restaurant. That’s the other big thing, then hike then get  Kaffe & Kuchen (coffee and cake) half way..but you can get water or tea too. It started to rain, but all and all it was a good day. They were so overwhelmingly nice and offered anything I would ever need here or get me out of trouble, anything. So its nice to have that away from home.

Then my family and I head back to the hotel, nothing more exciting that day because it was later and raining. The next day was my last day with my family in Europe. I had to check into school that day but not until 5pm at the latest. Got up had breakfast with my parents and started to pack up all my stuff just to get it out of the way. Then we walked around the city once more, got lunch and went into some shops. I had seen a couple of kids with a mass of suitcases on the street so I figured they were in my program. I was so glad I wasn’t them flying from America that night before and getting in to take a train by themselves with all that luggage and having to find the EU building in the city. So I was getting anxious and just wanted to get checked in. Said all my goodbyes and went over the checkin. Pretty weird at that point, started to feel real then.

I will write the second half in the next update quick, because it will be to long to combine them..So next up is moving in and starting school.

Munich Day trips.

Since I am a bit behind on my writing I will try and update for this whole past week in Munich. Because we did a lot of day trips, but I could not really write being so busy and on top of that the internet access was even worse then in Zurich. In Switzerland I could atleast use the hotel lounge computer for free, but in Munich you had to pay for that! And if I wanted to buy wireless it was 5euro for 30mins, or 10euro for 120..ridiculous.

So, Yes..Munchen! We got in to our new hotel with not to bad of a commute, it was very long however. The train was nice with small tables and it was a very smooth ride, you could have drink glasses out on the train and they would spill or anything. The only bad thing was that it was about a 4 and a half hour ride. We got in at about 6pm after a taxi ride from the bahnhof and we just put our luggage in the rooms. The hotel was up more in the northern part of the city in a residential area it was very nice. Oh and by the way you can only have a max of 3 people in a hotel room in Europe, so it’s always just me and Christian in a room. Then we went down and ate at the restaurant. which was connected to the hotel.

Our first day trip out was on that Tuesday, we picked up our new rental in Munich which was a VW van, I liked it more then the last rental. So we wanted to check out the city of Rottenburg I believe was the name. It is supposed to be one of the best preserved medieval towns in Germany. After a pretty long drive of about an hour and a half we made it okay. Oh and the driving in germany is stereotypical to what you think of the autobahn, not exactly though. On the larger highways there will be usually three lanes, the trucks stay to the right and they even have the speed limit they are aloud to go on the back of their trucks so you can tell when driving behind them which is cool. Then average cars in the other two lanes. But the outside left is for the basically no speed limit part. We’re in the middle lane and these cars just come from no way past you doing about 120mph. If you want to pass in that lane you have to check you rear view for about 3miles back because that how fast they come up on you. And no police either, Ive only seen a few here and there but none really enforcing anything.  Anyway! We get to the old town and it’s really neat, it was like a whole medieval town inside the wall of huge castle walls and only a few small entrances. But very big inside like blocks and blocks worth.

The next day we went out on the castle tours, which is like southwest from Munich. All of the locations we visited were somehow related to King Ludwig. The first was his personal palace where he spent the majority of his time. It was beautiful but real hot that day, we had a running joke going that whatever clothes we wear to match the weather forecast the weather will be completely opposite. We got to tour his palace and it was incredibly beautiful with artistic details I couldn’t even begin to describe. Then we went to his castles. This was neuschwanstein and hohenschwangau.  Neuschwanstein was the castle that Disney modeled their famous castle after..but the actual castle was never finished because King Ludwig went bankrupt and died. SO we went to hohenschwangau instead, they are only like 1 miles apart so you can see them both great. We got a tour inside, but I think outside in the garden was the best part. From the garden you could see the lake, the other castle and mountains for miles. Then we went down to the lake, walked around for a bit and had dinner.

The next day was to be Berchtesgarden and Salzburg, Austria. After a lengthy drive we made it to Berchtesgarden. We found out that the tour there was like 4 hours long so we decided to cut out Austria for that day. The tour of the mountain there was run by all British, so we had a brit tour guide. I never really knew everything about the place. I thought it was just Hitler’s eagles nest, like one little vacation home on top of the mountain. But it was so much more the whole side of the mountain was where Hitler and his top ranking officers lived and had their families. We went down into some underground tunnels from the war, which were pretty creepy. We finally get all the way to the top. The famous eagles nest was only built has a second tea room for Hitler’s 50^th birthday, not to be slept in or anything. So we go up the sketchiest road ever in a big bus, 180 degrees turns with straight 1000ft drops on the sides. Then we had to walk up the tunnel where guests would have been dropped off in a car, the tunnel was 400m long and then the original elevator still works and that’s 400m high in 41seconds. We get the top and the views were insane, and they now have a restaurant up there too. It was certainly weird at the same time too, because there we’re pictures of like Hitler and Eva Braun up there just standing right where we were, had to see and touch the same things. I don’t know why I was thinking that but an eerie feeling overall.

We got back from the trip out to berchtesgarden today, on the way Christian pointed out this random Gypsy dude who was selling whole rotisserie chickens on the side of the road we saw earlier in the day when we got lost a bit. So we stop and he just closed so we got a chicken and he basically gave us another one for free and a thing of pork because he didn’t want to take it home. Half of us ate that, but I was feeling more of a meal so the other half went down to the restaurant here at the hotel. I got a burger and soup and then everyone went up after dinner. But at that point it was only 9pm and I just didn’t feel like being around people so I sat down at the bar and got a beer. This guy was sitting across from me at the bar just us two down there and we start talking cause he was American to, so I get pumped when I hear anybody speakin English. Anyway we were talking for the next two hours and just keep orderin beers. He was a real cool guy from Michigan who was a Pashto translator for the US military (Pashto is the language they speak in Afghanistan) He is stationed here in Germany and he was traveling around with his wife and kids this weekend. He hasn’t been in Germany too long but he gave me a lot of good tips of do’s and don’ts while I live here.

I’m sorry I have been so bad with posting I promise it will get better, it was just hard when I didn’t have internet for the two weeks of travel and now I have been so busy with school I just haven’t had time, But I did get some pictures up! So you can check them out on my facebook.

I am in my apartment in Freiburg now and I will right next time about my new city the whole hectic checking in to school, getting my room, meeting my flatmates, my fellow students, orientation and life here so far!

Hope everything is well back home,

I can now skype (joshbitler) and can answer messages or whatever so hit me up if you want to talk!

-Josh

Top of the world in Suisse & Liechtenstein

We had two days left in Switzerland and we certainly made our last days there worth while. Although I was kind of disappointed with how little I got to see of Zurich, since out hotel was a bit outside of the center city and every single day we our up and out driving by 9am and then don’t get home until 9pm.

That Saturday we were up and out after another breakfast which we have been getting at the hotel lounge or downstairs depending on the day. The food selection is really good, but they put out some things we would view as lunch foods for breakfast like lunch meats, cheese and fish. I have been sticking to the same breakfast lately, I get a croissant roll which I cut open and then I shove eggs and bacon inside of it and make a nice sandwich, sooo good. Then I get a hot Belgium waffle with their syrup here which is always hot and doesn’t have a thick consistency like at home, then just fruit.  We have learned quickly and started stealing a lot of things from breakfast to take with on these day trips. It’s not like home where there’s a gas station or something every five miles to get food or drinks because they like their meals more instead of snacking all day as I like to do. So we always take some fruit, muffins and lots of water. All of that aside of the fact that Switzerland is veeeeery expensive, which you will hear about in a bit

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So yes, Saturday, we are out heading east from Zurich in our large ford transit van or nicknamed the UAV (urban assault vehicle) by Christian. Our first stop of the day was an old medieval town on a lake called Rapperswil. We get parked, which is always a treat in our car, the parking is always underground and you have to take a spiraling tunnel which our antenna is just dragging on the ceiling. We all get out and start heading up to the castle there which was the focal point of the old part of town (Altstadt), The streets we’re all very beautiful and narrow as the twisted up the hill. Got to go inside the castle a little, it was converted into a nice restaurant and the main square inside the castle was being set up for a wedding, talk about a good location. From there we walked down through all these all buildings which churches and vineyards growing up the side of the hill. It’s crazy being over here and seeing buildings that have the year built as like 917 on the side. Just nothing like home where late 1700’s would be the oldest buildings we see.  We were only there for an hour and headed out to our next stop of Appenzell. The roads on the way to the town were like nothing you could ever imagine. Twisting S-turns a thousand feet up a mountain and then the same a thousand feet down on the otherside. We get to Appenzell, which is famous for it’s cheese, but we actually stop before in a much smaller town. This was the first time we we’re out where there we not any tourists. We had lunch at the little restaurant ran just by a husband and wife, and they spoke Zero words of English, which was cool actually. The place was a stereotypical Swiss house with the flower boxes lining the windows outside and everything is the whole place made from wood. The food though was excellent, just this one guy cooking it all and then had they hand churned ice cream which was probably made with milk of a cow they went out and milked that morning, I was living. Ha.

Then again on from there, after a little debate whether we wanted to or not, we drove into Liechtenstein. The mountains got real high and steep as we got into their capital city of Vaduz, which was extremely small, I guess fitting to match the size of the country. We had nothing planned to do there but as we were driving in we saw a little tram ride thing. So we investigated it and found the one we saw was the last one of the day, but it was going up to this one castle overlooking the city. We decided to just head on up there ourselves, as we get up there start to walk around the castle but find everything is private and you can’t get in anywhere. Then we find out by a girl walking by that it is where the Prince of Liechtenstein lives! Quite a bachelor pad let me tell you. Then we just kinda strolled around Vaduz, I went off by myself cause we split up a bit. Very beautiful place, seemed extremely high class though. I figure that I fit in and have the European look because there and other places too, I have been asked in German where things are by other people so I guess they think I’m a local! Hah Anyway, nothing really to do in Liechtenstein, was there for about an hour and a half and left, but hey I can say I was there. That was the end of that day, just headed home which I have been getting into the habit of just passing out at about the same time every night on the ride home and then not being able to fall asleep at night. Oh and we we’re starved and stopped to get some pizza’s and beer to take back to the hotel. We got 4 pizzas and 6 pounder cans of beer.. $98 francs!! Which is basically 94 usdollars, Zurich is nuts.

Sunday, this was my favorite day by far, don’t know how I’m ever going to beat it for the rest of the trip. We were juggling whether to go on this boat tour thing or back up a cog railway to an even bigger mountain. We decided on the mountain which was above the town on Interlaken. It was a pretty far drive out there, but everything is so much closer then driving anywhere in America, this trip was long at 2hours. So after some more unbelievable roads twisting through the alps we stop for some diesel for the hog. And by the way my new dream in life is to buy a Ducati motorcyle over here and just rip through the Swiss alps. There are hundreds of motorcycles over here, and seem to basically have no laws, they pass you on the sketchiest roads and in the city they just weave on both sides and through the middle of traffic, you never at to stop on a motorcycle here. Anyway..we hit this gas station quick stop thing and finally see some reasonable prices, so I got some snacks and a 2liter icetea for like 5 francs. Then arrive in Interlaken, we wanted to take the train up to this mountain we could see coming in, which was entirely snow capped, the first one I saw called Jungfrau I think. 82 degrees in August and theres fresh powder up there.

So the train to that mountain took hours and was so expensive, and we ended up taking one we was next to that mountain which turned out even better. (As we were waiting down in that town like a Porsche gumball race went by with like 40 of the most insane porsches you’d ever see, and then pass and I turn to Christian and was like, dude 20million dollars just drove by you. The cars are just insane here, Mercedes are the crappiest car in Switzerland). Anyway!  If you remember the mountain I talked about going up that entry, that was an ant hill compared to this mountain. I could have never imagined anything like it in my life. This trip up you on the train if you wanted to stand you had to stand on a 45 degree angle to match the incline we were going up. All these crazy dudes were hang gliding off the mountains too, looked awesome. And I still can’t believe there are farms on top of these mountains!  I know they have been doing it for thousands of years but its crazy! After an hour of puttin’ up this mountain we reach the top to a little hotel. But then you had to keep hiking up these goat paths to go higher. So I’m like 10,000feet up on the mountain, basically no people at all and I see this kid with a Villanova shirt on. I was like Do you live anywhere near Villanova, he’s like yeah BrynMawr. I was like holy shit man, I travel 4000 miles across the world, go  10,000 feet into the swiss alps and meet someone from 20minutes away from where I live at home. Anyway It was insane up there just miles of snow covered mountains all around you. We reached a point where we going to go back down to the hotel for a drink and to leave. But we were still like 300 feet from the tip of the mountain. I was like I didn’t come this far to not go to the top. So my and my brother start running to the top. Worst decision ever, 2 minutes later we are both bent over gasping for oxygen. You could never catch your breath, I truly thought this was it I was going to pass out, somehow I didn’t but I must have been close. However I conquered the mountain and made it to the top! What a sight, I will never forgot it.

Today, is Monday and was our last day in Switzerland, we returned our rental and hopped on a train from Zurich to Munich. I passed out, but there was much to look at. We checked into our new hotel in Munich got an nice dinner outdoor, which a tall glass or beer. Tis the life, can’t wait to see what this area has got in store for me. Lots on the plans this week!

I have some unbelievable pictures and will put them up soon however I have no Internet on my computer. Wireless in not free in Europe anywhere! Its insane like 5 Euros to use the internet for 30mins. Its like a precious commodity. In our hotels if you type it in it gets charged to your room. So I have been using the hotels business computer. I may have to wait til I get o my apartment in Freiburg on Monday to upload pics or skype with anyone.

Hope all is well,

Goodnight from Munich,

Josh