"Nur Bares ist wahres."

Bruxelles Central Train Station

Bruxelles : L'hôtel de ville

Bruxelles : Brent, Zou, Max, myself, Louise

Bruxelles

Bruxelles : Manneken Pis

Bruxelles : Le Palais Royal : Zou, myself, Max, Brent, Louise

Bruxelles : La cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule

Durbuy : Max, Brent, myself, Zou, Louise

Warre

Durbuy : Zou, Brent, Max, Louise, myself

Durbuy

Durbuy : view from above : Max, myself, Brent, Zou

Liège

Liège

Liège : La montage de Bueren

Liège : La montagne de Bueren

Liège : view from above

Liège : Le carré

Liège : La cathédrale Saint-Paul

"Wie gewinnen, so zerronnen."

     My last exciting weekend abroad was this past weekend when I went to Belgium. I had never been to Belgium before, and I was excited to see some old friends from MSU. I met Zou and Louise when they came to study abroad at MSU, and they are both from the area around Liège in Belgium. I also met Max when he came to study at MSU, but as you may remember, he's from Germany. Finally, Brent is a friend from MSU, though he's American, and he's spending the summer studying in London. Belgium was the center point, so we decided to meet there.

     Last Thursday was my last day of classes and also my last day of exams, as well as the day that Clare left. Between my class and my exam, I met up with Matt and Clare to get some delicious french fries and say goodbye to Clare. As expected, it was sad to say goodbye to Clare. It's weird to think about how some people are only in your life for such a short amount of time, and that's ok. It's just sad to let go and move on. After my last exam, I rushed home to finish packing and caught my first of three trains to Belgium. The first train ended up being delayed 10 minutes, so I ended up missing my second train and therefore my third train. I ended up in Aachen, Germany, with no more trains leaving for Liège that night. Luckily, Aachen is only about 45 minutes by car from Liège, and my friends were able to come pick me up. It was a bit touch and go for a little while, but it all ended up working out. We got back to Louise'e apartment in Liège around 1am, and we sat and chatted a little before we went to bed.

     Friday was perhaps the most eventful day of the weekend. We got up and headed to Bruxelles in the morning, not coming back until 5pm. We ate lunch and walked around sight seeing. I love being able to walk around a big city and see so many interesting and historical sites. I got to eat my first Belgian waffle, which was pretty good. Belgian waffles are essentially coated with a sugar glaze, making them sweet without anything else added to them, but there's always something else added to them. I got chocolate sauce on mine. It was delicious. We took the train back to Liège, got changed, collected our things, and then headed out to Durbuy, the village where Louise is from. Louise's Dad owns several restaurants and hotels in the village, as well as a spa. When we arrived, we had drinks and appetizers at one of his restaurants, headed to a different hotel to drop off our bags, then went to eat at the restaurant connected to the hotel. Everything was absolutely delicious. I'm actually getting hungry just thinking about it as I type. After dinner, we headed to a bar where we met Louise's friends. We had a few drinks, a couple of shots that were on fire, then headed to the next village where a massive tent party was taking place. We danced and had a good time for a few hours. By the end of the night, condensated water had formed on the ceiling of the tent and was dripping on us. We headed back to the village where we went to an after party. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 5am. It was a fantastic day.

     As you can imagine, we had a slow start on Saturday morning. Once we finally got moving, we headed to a smaller village, Warre, next to Durbuy where Louise's family has their house. Afterwards, we headed back to Durbuy, did some sight seeing, then had lunch at another one of Louise's Dad's restaurants. It was also delicious. We had to head back to Liège so that Max could catch his train back to Germany. After a little nap, the rest of us headed out to do some sight-seeing around Liege. For dinner, we went to a local burger place, which was more delicious than many burger places in the US. We went out for drinks and got peket, a specialty from Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. It was also delicious, as everything else I ate and drank while I was in Belgium. Speaking of which, Belgium has some awesome beer that I like. They have a LOT of fruit beers, and I liked every single one that I tried (the first time in my life that I wanted to drink beer!). While we were walking around Liège after dinner, we got stopped by two American guys in the Air Force. One of them grabbed my arm to stop us and asked, "Are you from the US?!" He was so excited to have met "real" Americans speaking "real" English. We chatted with them for a little. While we were chatting, I noticed a homeless man who was chasing a pigeon. The pigeon was clearly hurt and was incapable of flying away. Once the man caught the pigeon, he put it in a plastic bag and killed it. Once he had done that, another man came over and took the pigeon away. It was once of the strangest and disturbing sites that I have seen while I was here.

     Sunday morning we got up early to walk around the market in Liège. It was like the markets I've been to in Germany, and I wish we had markets like these in the US outside of big cities. You can find most anything you want to buy. I caught the first of two trains back to Mainz around lunchtime. Despite train delays, I made it back to Mainz in the afternoon. In the late afternoon, I met up with Matt, Marcella, Frank, Daniel, Judith, and Judith's sister for some ice cream. It was the last time that I was going to see Matt, and probably Daniel and Judith as well. Just like the last time I hung out with Clare, it was a bittersweet moment. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with all of them.

I will post some pictures of the weekend later!

"Scheiß darauf!"

It's been over a week since my last post, so I'm going to split the past week and a half into two posts.

     I had my first and last hair cut experience in Germany on Thursday the 17th. Though the cut wasn't exactly what I wanted, there's nothing wrong with it. I think that the hairdresser wasn't really concerned with devoting much time to me because she knew I was an exchange student. After class, I went to get ice cream with Marcella, Clare, and Matt. We sat by a fountain and enjoyed our ice cream. Both Christian and Daniel ended up walking by, so we got their attention and they both stopped for a chat. It was nice to hang out and relax before my weekend of studying and exams began.

     To my dismay, I spent most of my weekend studying or taking oral exams. On Friday the 18th, I spent nearly the entire day studying. I took a break and met Matt for a döner. While we were eating, some other kids our age heard us speaking English, and they asked us if we were American. Matt said that I was, but that he's English. The guy immediately turns to Matt and asks in English, "Do you lift?" Apparently he was referencing some YouTube video? It was strange.

     On Saturday, July 19th, I had two oral exams, one for my Schiller class, and one for my Dürrenmatt class, which I have the same professor for. One was in the morning and one was in the late afternoon, so I had plenty of time to study in between (and even nap!). After my first exam, Clare and I talked about it and compared questions. We both decided that the exam was quite ridiculous. The professor asked very specific questions about a lengthy story, a fair amount of which I wasn't able to answer. The second exam wasn't quite as bad as the first, but it was still not pleasant. I was just very, very, glad to be done when it was over. Since I had been stuck in my room for most of that day and the day before, so I went into town do to some shopping. It was nice to get some fresh air and be around people.

     I had some more school work to do on Sunday the 20th, so I again found myself feeling restless in my room. Once I finished the work, I went out in town. I had planned to go for a walk along the Rhein, and ended up walking through the Bierbörse, a beer festival. I sat and watched some classic American line dancing for a little while, which was not something I would have ever thought I'd find in Germany.

     Last week was the last week of classes. I can't believe the semester went by so fast. It was definitely a bittersweet week. It was nice to be done with classes, but it was also sad to realize that my time here really is almost over. A week from today, Monday the 21st, I got stopped on my way to the bus stop and was asked for directions. I won't lie, I actually enjoy these encounters now. I met with Clare, Marcella, and Matt, and we went to the Bürgeramt to de-register from the city. When I registered with the city, I ended up having to do it in English. This time, I did it all in German! Afterwards, I went to my bank, Sparkasse, to close my account. I also did this all in German and the whole process was very simple and took 10 minutes. After grocery shopping and eating lunch, I had yet more errands to run on campus. Most of the offices I needed were closed, so I had to mark down all of their open hours and go back the next day. After class, I went to an awesome and local french fry/bratwurst place called "Best Worscht" (the name is a Mainz dialect). After the awesome fries, we went to Nirgendwo, a local bar whose name means "Nowhere" in English. It was fantastic to hang out with my friends, especially since I hadn't seen them all weekend.

     Tuesday, the 22nd, wasn't too eventful. I was able to go to most of the offices on campus and run most of the errands that I had been needing to do. The following day, Wednesday the 23rd, was much more exciting. I went to class, I came home, did laundry, cleaned, and did some other miscellaneous things around my room. That evening, I met with Marcella, Frank, Clare, and Matt, and we went for our last meal together, as Clare left the next day. We went to a good German place that I had never been before and my meal was delicious. We met up with some other friends after dinner to have some last drinks together. It was a really awesome night, though also sad at the same time.

I'll post the details of my weekend in Belgium later. It was an awesome weekend!

Das ist Pipifax!

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Kölner Dom

Heinzelmännchen

EL-DE Haus

EL-DE Haus : Apparently, they used to put so many people in a cell at once that they wouldn't be able to sit or lay down, simply stand. They also found nearly 1,800 writings on the walls throughout the prison of the prisoners who were kept there.

"Deutschland ist... WELTMEISTER!!!!"

     I decided to venture to Köln (Cologne) by myself on Friday. No one could go with me, and it was the last place in Germany that I had really been wanting to visit. It's only about a 2.5 hour bus ride from here to there, and I got my tickets for 19 euros total. I arrived in Köln around 10am. My first stop was the Dom, which was literally steps away from the Hauptbahnhof. I must have spent nearly two hours there. The Kölner Dom is absolutely huge. I didn't find it particularly pretty, but its size alone amazed me. I walked up the 500 steps to the top of the tower to see Köln from above, which was also awesome. The 500 steps to the top were almost entirely in a spiral staircase, so it was pretty tight if people were coming up and going down. After the Dom, I went to see the Heinzelmännchen, which is a statue that tells the legend of how Köln was built. According to legend, Koln was built by dwarves during the night because the residents of Köln were too lazy to do the work themselves. One night, a woman wanted to see the dwarves, so she waited up for them, turned on a light when they had arrived, and scared them, which led to them falling and hurting themselves. Because of this, the dwarves never came back again, so the residents of Köln had to get up and do the work themselves. Since I didn't have much time in Köln, I decided to go to the EL-DE Haus next. The EL-DE Haus is the NS (national socialist) Documentation Center. In the basement, there are old prison cells that were used in WW2 by the Gestapo. The Gestapo would imprison and torture people here who they accused of going against the Nazi cause. It was an interesting contrast to Dachau, where I visited just the week before.  Though the crimes committed here were different than those committed at concentration camps, they were just as awful. After this, it was time for me to head back to the Hauptbahnhof. I took my time and meandered around the old city, enjoying the view and feel of a new place. I ate my lunch on the steps of the Dom just before I headed to my bus. Because of the bad weather, most public transport was delayed to some extent, and I ended up getting back to Mainz nearly two hours later than planned. Despite this, the day was fabulous and I'm glad I went.

     On Saturday, I went to Wiesbaden to meet up with Joe. We walked around a bit, got some lunch, walked around some more, and then went to the American Army base. I had needed a few things, and Joe was gracious enough to help me out. It was weird being back in American culture like that. Hearing English be spoken all around me just felt wrong. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like when I get back to the US!

     As most of you probably know by now, the World Cup championship game was Sunday. After a long day of homework, I met Matt at the Hbf, where we left to get some döner before the match. We made our way to Christian and Jan's place, and arrived just before the game started. Aside from Matt and I, there were 6 other Germans and 1 Argentinean there to watch the game. When the final whistle blew and the match was over, the atmosphere was electric. We all left the apartment and went into the streets, like nearly everyone else in Mainz. People just walked around screaming chants while wrapped in their Germany flags. I will truly never forget it.

     The semester is coming to an end here. I've already taken one of my finals, and I've already turned in my final assignment for another class. Next week is the last week of courses/finals. I really can't believe that my time here is about to be over. I don't know where the time went. It makes me sad thinking about how I'll be going home soon, but such is life.

     Tomorrow, I'm going to get my haircut. This will possibly be the biggest test of my German speaking abilities yet. I guess we'll see tomorrow if I succeeded or not!

'schland

Here are some pictures from München and Dachau. I'm going to Köln (Cologne, in English) tomorrow, so there will be more pictures coming soon!

Michaelskirche

Michaelskirche

Michaelskirche

Frauenkirche

City Map of München outside the Frauenkirche

Neues Rathaus

Heilig Geist : They were filming a movie here. I saw the director's chair and it said "Franz X Bogner," whoever he is.

Outside the Hofbrauhaus

The door to the entrance of the prisoners camp

The prisoners barracks

Inside the prisoners barracks

Inside the prisoners barracks

Inside the prisoners barracks

The footprints of where the rest of the prisoners barracks used to be.

Sign at the entrance to the crematorium. Rough translation: "Think about how we died here."

The new crematorium

The ovens in the new crematorium

The gassing room : It was hard to stand in here.