fliplover

Hello everyone! It's been a couple of days since Week 2 ended, but now is when I have time to catch up on everything! First, let me reassure everyone that I'm having a WONDERFUL time here, especially now that some of the 'newness' of everything has worn off, my stomach has gotten used to all of the food, and I'm undertanding the majority of what people are saying to me. :) Classes: This was a crazily busy week! Between a ten minute oral report on Heinrich Zille (he was a famous Berlin characturist and illustrator in the early 1900s), a two page essay comparing the standard of living in Berlin and San Diego (which is not long at all but it seems it when you're writing in a foreign language!), a mid-term exam, a journal entry, ... read more

Hello everyone! I'm back again, and once again recounting various German tales. This time, though, I'm up north in Berlin participating in a study abroad program called FUBiS, which is run through the Freie Universität Berlin. So, my trip in a nutshell: take German classes all morning and early afternoon, hang out around Berlin or do extracurricular activities at the uni, then have dinner/hang out with host family/do homework in the evenings. Of course, weekends will be a whole different story. ;) So far, however, my trip has been full of airplanes, settling in, and sleep. Apart from a quick sprint through Frankfurt Airport in order to make my connection, the flights were blessedly uneventful. My host mother, Sylvia, was kind enough to meet me at the airport so I didn't have to figure out the ... read more

Today was combination travel day and Stuttgart exploration. We gave ourselves some extra time to sleep in (which is a weird concept on its own, as anyone who knows us will understand. Jet lag does some odd stuff to you. :) ) Got ready to go, packed up, etc, then we headed down to the continental breakfast. Once again, I enjoyed my Nutella and croissant. Once we had checked out, we headed out of town on the way to Stuttgart. It's a pretty good drive, but the view was wonderful. Germany occasionally experiences this really cool weather phenomenon where the early morning fog freezes on the trees, so it looks like fairies have come in overnight and spun delicate ice frosting all over them. It is at moments like this when you start to understand why ... read more

Welcome to Germany trip 2009! This trip was a Christmas present from Mom and Dad-got to go with Dad and his coworker George on a business trip through Southern Germany. I don't want to forget anything (though I'm afraid I already have!) so I'm starting this blog to keep track of and share my experiences. Hope you all enjoy it. Day 1: Plane flight over was so painless! We got to ride in business class, which was AMAZING!!!! As soon as we got on board, they offered us free drinks. The goody bag with little travel bits was so neat (I especially appreciated the eye shades) and there were lots of movie options, etc. We even got a gourmet dinner (with wine, I might add...). Talk about the celebrity treatment. Anyway, we got into Frankfurt airport ... read more