This is die Deutsche Bahn!

Today was a last hurrah in Strasbourg for us all starting out in the morning with a boat tour down the Ill River with Alicia and Molly (two girls from the program who were there with us overlapping 2 days). Then we walked over to the Contemporary Art Museum to see an exhibit called "Instants anonymes" aka anonomous instants which follows the art of amateur photography since the Brownie camera in the early 1900s. It was so fun to see all the silly pictures of people at the beach and the hilarious pictures of kids!

Then following a mad dash back to the hostel to pick up our bags and stopping by a boulangerie to get the most flour-encrusted bread ever, we made it to the train station and caught our TGV to Stuttgart. Julie and I had an hour layover there, so since trains are so lax, we were able to walk out and see the city for about 30 mins before we had to head back and get on our Deutsche Bahn-run train to Ansbach. Since our tickets had our whole trip on them, we had punched them like you're supposed to in France. Then we got lectured by the conductor on our way to Ansbach - hier ist die Deutsche Bahn! Eeep!

Once arriving in Ansbach, we had a little adventure with me buying us tickets for a bus to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (where we would be staying for the next 5 days) and then the bus never coming. Luckily, there was a train-tram combo that would get us there too, but unluckily, the ticket office was closed by the time we realized the bus was never coming! So, we ran up and caught a nice-looking man getting on the train and tried to explain the situation to him. However, my German was so rusty he couldn't really get what I was saying. Finally he asked if we spoke English! Yays! Apparently he thought I was French because of my accent in German! Even better was the fact that the German railway and bus system is the same, so we were able to use our ticket for the train-tram. Once we were in Rothenburg, we had to stop at a hotel to ask for directions, but eventually got to our hostel safely. This was followed by a lovely dinner of muesli, peach rings, trail mix, and petit ecoliers. Mmm.

Diplomatic Travels

Today Julie and I tried to make the most of our last day in Strasbourg. First, we went to the cathedral again because we both wanted to see the astronomical clock with the movie (it was 1 euro to go again), so we bought tickets early and then kind of walked around for a bit stopping into various papeteries to see if she could find a cool fountain pen for her boyfriend. Unfortunately, many papeteries later, our search was still going.

We then went back and saw the movie again at noon, after which, we headed back to the hostel to rent bikes for the afternoon. We then rode over to the EU sector of Strasbourg and saw all the EU buildings (the human rights building was particularly cool). We also found out you can't get tours unless you're with a group of 25 or more. Booo. I did feel very French riding around on my bike that afternoon though. Yay!

Then we tried to find the Orangerie, but the signs kept leading us in circles and when we looked at the map, we should have passed it numerous times, but it wasn't there. Only later did we find out we were about a block away the whole time! So instead, taking our impeccable map-reading skills, we realized we had 2 hours left on our rentals and had done everything we wanted, so why don't we see if we can bike across the Rhine into Germany? And indeed, we did! The ride was a little dubious at the end with all the industrial parks around and us sneaking by the customs booth on the highway, but we made it, took lots of pictures, and then it started to rain. By the time we made it back to the hostel, both of us were significantly less dry and wind-chafed than before we left. But it was worth it; we biked to Germany!

A Jolly Holiday with Mary!

Today was wonderful! It was just amazing seeing Mary again and being able to pick up like we hadn't not seen each other since last May! We started out the day by almost missing breakfast at the hostel, but a nice guy let us in even though we had technically already checked out and didn't have our keys as proof that we were guests there.

Then we walked over to the island that is the olde towne of Strasbourg and saw the cathedral. We stopped by the tourism office first to grab maps and see if anything cool was going on in the city and then we hiked up to the top of the cathedral (not the very top, because it's being redone, but we were very high up there. It was good weather for that again, so it was great for picture taking and general viewing. Mary and I were able to leave our own special mark in the guestbook of the cathedral tower.

We were able to go and see the astronomical clock for free since it was Sunday but it was only sort of working (the lights went off for a while randomly). It was cool to hear the announcements in French and German.

Then, the plan was for us to go on the riverboat tour, but it was closed for high water, which somehow turned into "haeut Haeuser." Whoops. A small reversal of syllables and combining French and German makes for funny sounding words. Another indecisive lunch followed, but pizza baguettes turned out to be quite delicious.

Also, today was the main filming day for an up-and-coming new feature series on Animal Planet... okay, not really, but Ducks In Action will be a huge success. Especially the special editions.

The afternoon instead of going on the boat tour was spent at the Strasbourg city museum where it was heartily emphasized that Strasbourg has always considered itself an independent city and that the people from Strasbourg are the best ever. Made me laugh.

We then ended up going to Flan's for dinner, which is apparently the place to go for flamenkuche(the sort of creme-based pizza tart) where our neighbors left a few pieces of their dessert banana-chocolate one and since the tables were so close, we were able to sneak a piece.

Then back to the hostel to pick up Mary's bag and check back in for Julie and I (we ended up in the same room as before!) and we went to the Bahnhof together to say goodbye. After much picture-taking, the night train left with Mary safely ensconced in her compartment like in Harry Potter.

Spring Break in Strasbourg

This morning started out bright and early doing last-minute packing before catching the 8h34 train to Strasbourg. Unfortunately I didn't have an assigned seat, so when we got to Angers and lots of people boarded, I was kicked out of my seat only to find one next to a very kind older French woman. Then a little boy that got on the TGV in Le Mans bumped me out of that seat and I ended up sitting in the jumper seats by the toilets for two hours until Julie came and got me to sit by her.

Before, when I was still buddy-buddy with the toilets, we had to pull into the CDG TGV station because somehow the radio transmitter on our train fell off or was swiped off by a vengeful tree we went by.

Well, we got into Strasbourg around 2pm and met Mary! It was so great to see her and we had such a good time catching up! She had been in the city since 7 that morning, so she was able to show us the way to our hostel pretty quickly. After checking in and dropping off all our stuff, we just went out and walked around. The weather was lovely and sunny the entire afternoon. We found a cool old covered bridge that spans the River Ill (yes, as in sick) that used to house syphillus patients. (I think the pun is quite funny.) Then we saw the old part of the city with all of the half-timbered houses, called "Petite France," and eventually found ourselves wandering closer and closer to the suburbs. A strangely difficult period of trying to figure out what to eat followed, but we compromised and found a lovely place that wasn't too expensive but still offered traditional Alsacian food. We got something called "rognons" covered in a mustard sauce with fries on the side and a pizza sort of tart. The rognons looked like either solidified pate or funny little sliced mushrooms. Turns out rognons = kidneys, but we didn't find that out until a few days later. Even if the taste was questionable at times, it's good to be adventurous and try new food!

Granola is good, but crunch time is not

Excusez-moi for my long absence from the blog. This week has been a little busy what with spring break starting tomorrow and my last real paper due Wednesday. There was much researching going on and I haven't even been online to talk to people at home for a while. But now my self-deprivation and crunch time are over!

In other news, scheduling is tonight at midnight, so I'm going to see if the wireless stays up that long...if not, I suppose I can send one of my friends my info and see if they can schedule for me. A catch though: do I take German or French next fall? Technically, my major is finished here, but I really do want to take another French class before student teaching. However, I do need to finish my German minor and the only times Curriculum and Instruction is offered is during my French and German classes - so I must make a choice. Booo bad scheduling.

I got my TA job back for next fall as well, so things seem to be working out! I just need to finish my essays for my camp counselor application.

Cheesy Noodle Bake!

It's Friday!!! And two of my papers are done! I only have two more - one is due this Wednesday, the other is due May 5th. Today was very relaxing and fun - grammar, then a quick trip to Laurel's house with her, back to IES for lunch, and then off to the apartment for some fun times. My host mom is in Paris this weekend, so Laurel came over to keep me company, with the permission of my host mom of course.

We ended up sharing basically all our music, which took a few hours, and then we went downstairs to the Marche U and got food for dinner - cheesy noodle bake! Mmmm - I'd forgotten how good cheesy pasta is. While we ate dinner, we watched Mission Cleopatra, the Asterix and Oblelix movie from about 4 years ago - it was really funny! I liked it better than the newest Asterix movie, and it really is as good as everyone says it is. Then we also watched Enchanted, again. It was that good. And the second time around, I noticed more references to the other Disney princess movies - they were quite creative and you had to really look for some of them.

Double-spacing saves the day!

After the art paper, I took a night off and went to bed around 9ish Tuesday. But then Wednesday arrived and I realized my Middle East paper was due today. So, I got some books from the library and worked on it a bit last night and then went to bed early, got up early this morning, and was at IES a little before 8am. Then the real work began and I worked on revising and adding information to my paper until 11:30am, when class started. Phew! I think my paper was alright though, the Crisis of Suez has a lot of information and there was no way I could limit it to 4 pages, double-spaced. Instead, it ended up being around 6 1/2 pages, double-spaced, a little long, but comparatively short to my Art History paper and some other people that wrote close to 12 pages.

Now a short break between paper writing Friday and Saturday and back to the grind on Sunday. Then break starts next Friday, April 12th and mom is coming on the 21st! Yays!

German Expressionism shall haunt me no more!

My art history paper is done! I have never enjoyed and hated a paper more at the same time before. And that was not supposed to rhyme.

This paper was crazy - 8 pages, single-spaced, no margins. In French, no less. It was a lot, but the good thing was there is a lot of information on German Expressionism and I was able to include small jpgs of the paintings I referenced within the document, so it made it look longer, even if it wasn't actually.

Thankfully, it is finished. Only now I have to write a 4 page (double-spaced!) paper on the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956 for Thursday and then another paper on my favorite French, Catholic theologian for Religion next Wednesday. That one should be very interesting to write, especially since I'm not Catholic. Hmm... I must ponder this subject....

Even more good news is I recieved my first ticket from die Deutsche Bahn in the mail yesterday! At least I know I'll be able to get from Strasbourg to Ansbach and I guess we'll see if I'll get the other ticket and be able to get back!