Berlin Bound

If I were to leave Germany now, I would feel much better about my experience than had you asked me a week ago. Why? Because I can finally say I’ve been to Berlin! I was struggling with the idea that I may not visit not just the capital of Germany but also one of the most historically known cities in all of Europe. And what an awesome city it is! Don’t get my wrong, I’m so much happier I’m studying in Freiburg because I can see now that I’ve saved myself from getting lost a countless number of times. Berlin is massive! I had no idea it was so enormous! Even though I feel accomplished in my trip to Berlin, there must be an infinite amount of sights, museums, and buildings I didn’t see.

I went with my two friends Jackie and Curtis. It was a spur of the moment trip, and we had to take an 11 hour bus ride to and from Berlin, but it was all worth it. I got to see the Berlin Wall, the East Wall Mural, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial for the Jews, the Dalí Museum, the Television Tower, and all the wonderfully busy shopping streets. It was a lot of walking, and I’ve got some award winning blisters to prove it. Of course, I saw the Ampelmann, too. You can bet I got a mug with him on it.

We had so much fun walking around and eating döner (wow it’s so much better in Berlin). Friday evening, we went on a Berlin Pub Tour, and our host was an awesome British man who went by the name of Hollywood. I can only wonder what the background to that name is! In total, there were probably 50 people on the tour, so we got to meet some other Americans, Frenchies and Spaniards. Definitely a memorable evening.

I think I would go back to Berlin for the sole purpose of eating more döner and falafel. It was heavenly. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat it here in Freiburg again.

Highlight of the trip: being able to take so many photos of the East Side Mural. Enjoy the photos!

Had to get a photo with the Ampelmann

Famous kissing painting at the Berlin Wall

It was a bubble kind of day in Berlin

It was really incredible to see all these paintings.

Got asked to blow some bubbles, too! Couldn’t say no!

Me and Jackie in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Me and Jackie at the memorial for the Jews who died during the Holocaust.

My favorite painting.

Well said.

Counseling Beats Schools

Weekends away make it hard for me to believe I’m supposed to be learning and doing school! I had such an awesome weekend in Langenbruck, Switzerland working as a camp counselor and teaching Swiss kids English. The theme for the weekend was “Let’s go to the USA”, so we got to make s’mores, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and (the best part) eat waffles and pancakes for breakfast. The weekend exhausted me, but it was so worth it to get to hang out with kids and be encouraged to speak English! It was also fun to create my own “American name”, but I never really got used to being called “Sabrina”.

I was so impressed that such a camp existed for kids for just one weekend. I had never heard of a weekend long language immersion camp, but they are such a good idea! The kids were anywhere from 12-17 years old, and they really loved getting a chance to hang out with their friends and learn English by playing games and singing songs. I would have loved going to a camp like that when I was younger!

The highlight of the weekend (besides the food, of course) was on Saturday night. All the counselors dressed up as fairy tale characters, and the kids split up into groups and came to talk to each of us individually. I was a pirate, and the other characters were an evil witch, a mysterious fortune teller, a cowgirl who owned sheep, a fabulous prince named Prince Fabulous, a crazy werewolf, and a beautiful princess.We each told them our own stories about our relationships with the other characters, and at the end, the students wrote their own stories about us, and we had to act it out. At the end of almost all the stories, 90% of the characters ended up dead, which was pretty amusing.

The camp was held at a creepy old orphanage, but the view from outside was incredible! I didn’t take my nice camera, so the pictures of the scenery came out a bit lackluster, unfortunately.

After all the kids had gone home on Sunday, Kate, the director of the camp, took all the counselors to dinner at her house. We had the best dinner. It was literally melted cheese on potatoes and melted cheese on bread. Then there was ice cream for desert. I wish that was an acceptable meal at my house in the US! All in all, it was a truly unique weekend.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think these are the Jura Mountains

Another snapshot of the gorgeous view!

Left to Right: Joe, Hannah, Marika, Ashlyn, Micah, Jack, and Eric or Wicked Witch, Fortune Teller, Princess, Cowgirl, Pirate, Werewolf, and Prince Fabulous

So comical that I was in charge of the basketball activity.

Just laughing about getting stuck in the playground structure.

Eric somehow got stuck and took at least 10 minutes to get out. Hilarious.

Vacationing from Vacation

Just spent a lovely week exploring Germany! I went with 7 other IES students, and I was able to hang out with some people I don’t usually hang out with, which was really cool. On the trip, we went to Weimar and Dresden. In between cities, we saw the historic Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible and we also visited the Buchenwald concentration camp, which was a really moving experience to say the least. I took tons of pictures of the castle, but I didn’t feel right taking photos of Buchenwald.

Of the cities, Weimar was by far the most boring. My friends and I tried to find food at only 7:30 in the evening, but the only place that was open was a Subway! And there were hardly any people walking around, like it was a ghost town. I recommended that in the future, IES skips going to that city altogether. However, Dresden was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was finicky, but lucky for us, it worked out so that we got a beautiful day in Dresden.

On the first night in Dresden we got really cheap tickets to see Romeo and Juliet at the opera house. Although I could really only hear the music, and if I wanted to see I had to lean over the people in front of me just to glimpse one half of the stage, the experience was really cool. The opera house is so gorgeous! I’m so impressed that it got reconstructed after the war to mirror the original opera house.

The next day in Dresden we went down the Art Passage which has really cool buildings, although I’m not really sure why it exists other than it looks really cool. We also went wine tasting with the whole group which was really fun. We had fresh bread, cheese, and olives, and we tried three different types of white wine. My favorite was the Riesling, but I don’t know if I actually could taste the difference if you gave me them all at once. Maybe one day I will learn how to distinguish them!

I wish we had had more time to see the rest of Dresden. It’s history is so interesting, and the city is really beautiful. Every time I think of Dresden, I can’t help but think of Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Ever since I read that book, I had wanted to visit Dresden and now I can finally say I have!

Crossing the Border

It’s amazing how much the culture changes after just one hour of driving! Last week, we we went to Colmar, France, which is only a 90 minute drive from Freiburg, and I could immediately tell the difference between German and French cultures. Firstly, everything and everyone spoke French (obviously), but it was still interesting to see such a drastic linguistic jump just by driving 20 minutes over the French border! Secondly, Colmar was so quite and quaint. Although Freiburg is small, it’s busy! The only things in Colmar were restaurants and bakeries, at least that I could see. To be fair, though, I was quite hungry the whole time so maybe my attention was targeting just food places.

Though it was small, it was a really lovely town! We went on a gorgeous day, and although we encountered some really unfriendly Frenchmen and ate some interesting looking meat, overall it was a pleasant day.

Gotta love the French wine!

On our drive back to Germany, we stopped at a winery called Ihringer, which was really interesting. We tried three different types of wines: the red wine, the white wine, and the rosé. I think the rosé was ultimately everyones favorite, and I bought a bottle to take back to my parents. Most of the people on the trip were unsatisfied with the trip to France, but I thought it was nice to see another town for the day, even if we didn’t end up doing much. I will suggest, though, if you find yourself in Colmar, don’t go to the Unterlinden Museum. The people working there were incredibly rude and irritated that we could not speak French. The exhibits were subpar and the main attraction was closed due to reconstruction. Personally, I would not recommend it, and I’m not sure many others on my trip would either.

I’m excited for my next blog post because it will be after or during my trip to Dresden and Prague! Bis bald!

Entering March

Tomorrow starts a new month here in Freiburg, and hopefully with the change in the month comes a more permanent change in the weather. I would love for Freiburg to warm up and a bit and for the sun to set later. I’m definitely ready for summer, or even spring. Although the other day I went wandering around the nearby lake, and it most certainly felt like springtime.

Classes have finally started! Well, by classes I mean a language intensive class that is FOUR hours long. I’m pretty sure that’s a bit excessive, although if it improves my very poor German skills, then I guess I’m a fan! In the very least, having a class to go to everyday and homework to complete gives me something to do during the mornings and afternoons. It’s nice to have some sort of a schedule.

In two days time, I’ll be exploring a whole new country! (even if it’s just for a day). We are going hiking in the Swiss Alps, and I think I’m more excited about saying I’ve been to Switzerland than actually hiking. Although we do get to take a gondola ride back down the Alps, which sounds way more exciting than hiking.

I’m off to bed now, but enjoy the lake pictures! I’m pretty proud of them myself

Snowshoeing in Schwarzwald

I finally can say I feel a bit more settled here in Freiburg. I can't believe it's only been a week! IES has kept us pretty busy with orientation meetings and excursions, and now our language intensive courses have started. It's been hard getting adjusted to making my own food and budgeting my money! I'm not sure if I quite have it down but hopefully I'll figure it out before the last month that I'm here.

The highlight of my week was definitely on Sunday. We went into the Black Forest to snow shoe up the mountain. First, the Black Forest sounds like somewhere out of Harry Potter, so that was exciting in and of itself. On top of the name, the early mountain fog and the snow covered trees gave the whole forest an eerie mystical feel. Second, I have never in my life seen so much snow! Literally, the snow almost came up to my head. I guess a surprise like that is what you get if you come from Georgia!

The snow could cover me up!

My snowboarding boots look like little nuggets!

 I don't know how many people have heard of snow shoeing (I certainly hadn't before), but essentially you hike up a big snowy mountain with a special racket attached to your feet. I mean it's pretty straightforward, but the hike was was more strenuous than I would have thought. The snow was three feet deep and some of the hills we climbed we pretty steep especially with heavy snowboarding boots and bulky rackets with spikes. I was definitely sweating when we reached the top, but wow the view was incredible! The sky was a perfect blue with only a few puffy white clouds, the forest stretched on for ages, and everything was covered in snow.

So far, Freiburg has been amazing. Definitely still miss my family and friends at home, but I've met some really cool people here. They say the first week is always the hardest, so the way I see it, my trip can only get better!

From the left: Ashlyn, me, Emma, and Jackie. Ready to snowshoe!