Week 6-9

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Hi all,

So it’s been a month since I made a blog entry. So much has happened; I am actually writing this from Vienna, Austria. I need to do some catching up. Let’s see what happened in the last month. I started my new intensive German class on the first of September. I moved up a level from B1 to B2, woo hoo! The new class definitely entailed more complex writing and reading. I think I did well in the class and made it out alive. Before it got cold or the German phrase that I would us is "asch kalt," I did a lot of soccer playing, bike riding, and walks around the town. I made new friends this month while the old ones went back to their homes. This month I hung out more with people that were from the similar program, but at the same time I got to meek some people that came from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Italy, and others. Later in the month I traveled to a couple of interesting locations in German. One was Bamberg; it’s a town that’s just a little bit bigger than Schwabisch Hall (the town where I resided in Germany for two months). The first stop we stopped at was this castled called Weissstein Schloss. It was a castle that was once owned by a Bishop and unique thing about this castle is it is still owned by the Bishop's family. From what I hear it’s rare to have castles to stay in the same blood line, because of government laws. The rest of the day entailed of seeing old churches, Rose gardens, small expensive shops, and some crazy people in the streets that try to sell you stuff.

The next day I went to an intercultural festival in Schwaebisch Hall. There I saw different groups of people performing traditional dances that are tied to their native countries. There was also some tasty food that was offered for sale. I stayed there for about 3 hours spektating the show.

Hmm, what else. Oh on September 20th was the start of Oktoberfest. I don't know if everyone is familiar with Oktoberfest. It’s a festival that is found in Southern Germany, Munich to be precise. I don't know how to describe it; I'll just use my roommate Andy's words to describe Oktoberfest. Andy: "It’s Disneyland for Alcoholics!" I asked around what was the reason for this long lasting festival where most people eat and drink beer. Well back in the earlier times where Kind Ludwig the 2 ruled he got married and this festival was celebrated for his marriage. Go figure, right! Today Oktoberfest starts on September 20th and goes two or three weeks into October. The festival is a strong part of German culture and beer drinking happens to be a huge part of their culture.

I think that does it for Germany, the last week entailed of saying good bye to friends and taking pictures and going out to a club to spend one last night together.

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Photos

Mr. Hassenfuss (My teacher aka Einstein)
This was my German teacher for the second month of Germany. He was quite different than Hakan, but I did learn a thing or two.

Bike Riding Day
This is one of the days we went bike riding.
Good times.

A Painting of Me
We found random picture frames in the fields and well I got a protrat taken of me.

Second Largest Bridge in Europe
This bridge is 200 meters tall thats rought 656 feet. The tallest bridge in Europe is in France its 900 meters tall (2952 ft). Thats is crazy, I also herd a disturbing fact about this bridge and its that people use it as a suicide tool.

Soccer Time
This picture was taken from us taking a break during an inense soccer game.

Weissstein Schloss (White Stone Castle)
Enterance Gate

Bamberg
A river in Bamber, it was quite eye catching.

Rose Garden
I took this picture, I think I could make it as a photographer considering how well this picture was taken with the sun schining and all.

Crashed
I think I had enough for one day's worth of site seeing!

Multicultural Festival
Croatian Folk Band