Die Bombe tickt.

Hey gang. So on Wednesday, there was a pretty large demonstration in Tübingen. If you read German, you can read about it here. If you don't, you're stuck with my summary. So when I say pretty large, I mean the largest education protest that Tübingen has seen since 1976. The 4,000 (the largest of all the Baden-Württemberg protests, and roughly 1/7 of the 28,500 students in Tübingen) assembled at the Geschwister-Scholl-Platz in front of the Neue Aula. They had gathered (in conjunction with quite a few professors and high-ranking university officials) in order to protest a very large 10% cut to the university budget. They had tried to turn the fountains red to symbolize the university bleeding out, but mostly they just looked pink (as you can see in the picture), but the protest was incredible. There was simply no way to tell how many people there were because the crowd seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. It started with speeches and then became a march around the city, going from the Neue Aula through the streets to the Marktplatz (a fact that I am sure irritated the bus drivers) and then ended up at the Kupferbau, where students have been camping out for 3 weeks protesting these cuts. I cut my time in the protest short (I only made it to the Marktplatz), because I had to go to work. 


Despite that the entire experience was pretty amazing. It's incredible to see so many students out protesting university and education budget cuts, something that takes little notice in the US outside of an angry media cycle or two. One of my friends, a Republican from Georgetown, claimed that he "found it hard to sympathize when I am paying $60,000 a year for school." But to me, that seems like a perfectly good reason to participate in the protest. No, I am not German, and no, I do not have a government-funded education. But I would never wish the obscenely high American education costs on any country or anyone else. Just because our government has long stopped funding education (and, really our future) doesn't mean that I shouldn't help try and save someone else's. 

So that's my education rant. In any case, it is something to think about, especially considering where our national priorities lie and maybe reassessing those priorities. Anyways, that's what I have got for today. Später, dudes. 

a german breakfast from the store?!?!

Hi gang. So it's weird, the transition from this being a fun travel blog to me being boring and normal again, isn't it? With that being said, I have continued to go to work at Vivat Lingua and do some stuff for school. Mostly for Tufts as it turns out. My thesis crisis continues in that finding a topic that you shall spend a year of your life researching is super daunting. Woooooo. So enough about that. 

This week, I did the whole class thing. Nothing too special going on. I also sat in on English classes for Vivat, which was super fun. However, it's also super weird for me to teach English to adults, but they are very nice and enthusiastic. 

Then the fun part came. If you have seen my Facebook lately, you will see that two of my wonderful friends, Jay and Ray, came to visit me in Tübingen, and boy did we have a fun time. I tried to do all the fun and/or delicious Tübingen things that I could think of. This involved: Neckarmüller dinner, Neckarmüller Biergarten, Kalender döner, Porsche factory, hanging out on the church steps, Kicherbse falafel, Schloss Hohenzollern, hanging out in the Alter Botanischer Garten, Tübingen Schloss, and of course, meeting my friends.

So yeah, of all of those things, I guess some of the most interesting was the Porsche Museum. I had never been there before. So we adventured to the northern part of Stuttgart to go to the museum, and it was so much more interesting than the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I mean, the cars are much cooler for one, but also it wasn't as long and tedious as the Mercedes-Benz Museum. So yeah, Jay and Ray nerded out a little bit with that. Afterwards, we walked around Stuttgart and then went home to hang out with my friends at the church steps. Cool. 

Then the next day there was the Schloss Hohenzollern, which I already talked about so I'll skip over most of that. We did a tour in German, which I had to translate parts of for them, which was kind of funny. Then we went to a Norwegian barbecue, because yesterday was Norway's constitution day, which celebrates independence from Denmark and Sweden. I guess one of the core parts of the holiday is that you get to eat as much ice cream as you want, which is a tradition that I can get behind. 

Then today, the three of us had a german breakfast, the first one I have ever orchestrated, and then chilled with Caroline in Tübingen, but now Ray and Jay are gone and on there way to Budapest and I feel sad. But it was wonderful to have seen them. So that's about it from my end. Stayed tuned. There will be traveling adventures happening very soon. :)

hamster wheels, churning butter, and fabulous beards

Hey, gang. If you watched the Eurovision song contest, you know what the title of this post is about. If you didn't, first off, you missed out, and second, I'll give you a small recap. But first: what I have been doing with my life.

There was Frühlingsfest again last Saturday, which was, as usual, fun and filled with dirndls, and I guess there isn't much more to say than that. 

This past week was full of classes and work, but nothing particularly eventful. But there was one semi-big milestone. This week was the first week that I felt like a high-functioning human auf Deutsch. You may be thinking that: Sarah, it's been 8 some-odd months. How are you just feeling this now? Well, let me explain: I have known enough German to get by for a long time now. Telling people directions, ordering at restaurants, all of that hasn't been stressful since the first month. But with other things I was not as great at. Germans have a habit of switching to English the second that they find out that you are American, but now, it seems that many would rather speak German to me than English. 

But I guess the biggest reason for this hitting now was one particular milestone: calling a German flight company and handling the entire thing in German. Talking to someone in German face-to-face is difficult enough, but on the phone, where you can't see their face, is a whole different ball game. Caroline and I made last minute plans to travel to Thessaloniki a few weekends from now, and so we booked (or in my case, tried to book) tickets via a discount website. Caroline's went through, but mine didn't so I had to call them. My call was picked up by a woman with a Spanish accent who was speaking to me in German. Oh God, I thought, and she didn't speak English. But I managed to get through the entire call in German and get my flight all sorted out. This was when I realized that I think I have turned another corner on this whole language thing. 


There were tacos this weekend as well, because Marlena is a wonderful person and a great cook. I also made guacamole for the occasion, because you can't make germanized-Mexican food without some guac. Then that night, I went to the Kreuzkirche to play Zombies (like tag, but Zombie apocalypse-style) with the Unterwegs folks for Tony, Val, and Emily's birthdays. 

One Ms. Hannah Heagy gets photo credit for this one

On Saturday, I went Stockerkahning with Lasse, Håvard (one of Lasse's friends who is studying here for the semester), Yasmine, and Lasse's friend from Norway. Weather here has been rather variable. So it started out as a lovely sunny boat ride, but by the time we picked up Hannah, Lisa, Lucia, and Mike an hour and a half later, it was about to rain. But luckily, the rain wasn't too terrible. 

Afterwards, we headed up to Lasse's to make pizzas and watch the Eurovision Song Contest, which Buzzfeed has compared to "American Idol on LSD." That is probably the best description that I have heard of it, although it doesn't quite do justice to the fact that the whole thing doesn't seem at all serious. In case you didn't open the article in the link, here is a gist of what this whole thing is. The Eurovision Song Contest is a yearly contested started in 1956, wherein the Europeans decided to put the centuries of fighting each other with deadly weapons in favor fighting each other in song. Every European country (and some countries you might not consider Europe, such as Israel, for example) send a contestant or a group of contestants to sing a song in front of the entirety of Europe. However, many times these songs involve ridiculous costumes or props or maybe the song is ridiculous, whatever. There is inevitably something either absurd or kitschy in the routine. Then all of Europe votes, but they are not allowed to vote for their own country. They tally up the points and whoever wins gets to be King or Queen of Europe and then that country hosts the contest the next year. Cool? Cool.

This year, there were such wonderful acts as Ukraine with a sensual hamster wheel, Poland who sent a female singer and an entourage of big-breasted women to (almost pornographically) wash clothes and churn butter, and France whose group sang about wanting mustaches and who came in last with a resounding 2 points. But the winner was none of these. Instead the winner was a drag queen from Austria named Conchita Wurst. She is absolutely wonderful with a beautiful voice and a signature luxurious beard. Naturally, as you can imagine if you have been paying attention to the news, Russia was not thrilled with her presence in the competition. But the rest of Europe did not agree with Russia (and Belarus's) ridiculous and homophobic stances, and made her the Queen of Europe. Which was super wonderful to see. Oh, and Russia got booed...a lot.

So that's about what I got for you guys. Exciting news for the upcoming week: Ray and Jay are coming to visit on Thursday. Shenanigans will ensue. So for now, bis später, dudes.

Friedrich, Wilhelm, oder Friedrich-Wilhelm

Hey, gang. So, it's been a little while, and I am sorry for that. However, my existence has been pretty mundane these past two weeks. Lots of class things and hanging out with my friends, mostly. However, there have been a few news-worthy events that have been going down. So I'll give you a quick over few of those. 

Last Thursday was a day of Frühlingsfest, which is a spring bierfest in Stuttgart. Similar to Cannstatter Volksfest back in September/October. Which similar to the fall, was filled with bier,  dirndls, and general insanity. In a similar vein, I appreciated how much I love the atmosphere of these fests. (Oktoberfest is a whole different animal. I'm talking about the "smaller" ones.) There is nothing quite like a German bierfest. Certainly nothing that rivals it in the US. Everyone is happy and dancing and the entire thing is jovial. Also, just gonna leave this song here–it pretty accurately summarizes the experience. 

Anyways, after Frühlingsfest, there wasn't much done that weekend, besides homework, because classes this semester have a lot more reading, which I think I mentioned before. So there was a lot of that. Then I started my internship on Monday, which thus far has been organizing books and downloading worksheets. But the people that I work with are super nice, and I ironically get to practice my German a bit despite being the English intern. (Sidenote: I have become totally dependent upon Rocky for transport. He's a pretty wonderful bike.)

Nothing says fun like Neo-Functionalism, amirite?

Then there was my presentation about Heinrich Böll, a German post-war author who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1972. He wrote such things as Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa... (a title which I can only pronounce auf Schwäbisch, which is pretty ridiculous).  But the presentation went well, I think.

Also, Lisa, Hannah, and I have set out on a three-day-a-week work-out regiment called Project Amazon Warrior, which involves a bit of lifting and left me very sore for the majority of this past week.

In weather news, it has been raining (and that I mean periodically monsooning) this week. So no Alter Botanischer Garten or reading outside. Instead, I have been in my hovel (and by that I mean my pretty nicely lit room) reading about the European Union. It also means that I was wrong. It's not quite summer yet. I tempted fate and for that, I am sorry. 

Then there was the castle. Today, Ute took us Tufts Kinder to the Schloss Hohenzollern, which is a fairytale castle only 20 minutes or so away from Tübingen. It's pretty incredible. This castle takes up the entire top of a small mountain (855m/2,805ft), and it overlooks the surrounding area majestically. It belongs to the Hohenzollern family, which is a fancy family which became prominent in the Middle Ages and eventually became German Emperors (think Friedrich the Great). They are on their third version of the castle, because, like the TMC Loj, they have issues with fires. However, unlike the Loj, those fires seem to have been set by invading armies. Props to them for making the hike up that mountain. It's pretty damn steep.

Anyways, after a rather steep and grueling hike up to the castle, we have a pretty sick view of the surrounding area. Then, we got a lovely tour of the castle, which seeing as it is still privately owned, was rather limited. We also buffed their floors–they made us wear hausschuhe, which were pretty ridiculous and made you shuffle around the place. Unfortunately, like many attractions in Europe, you can't take pictures. But it's an absolutely beautiful place on the inside with super beautiful stained glass and all that. (My mother would have probably gone bananas over that.) We also got to see some of the crown jewels and stuff in the Schatzkammer, which was pretty cool. (Don't imagine anything like in London, though.) But it included some nice tea sets and things of that nature. Oh and a sword that is taller than our 5 foot-tall Caroline. Which is always funny. 

Soon after our tour, we had to go back down to catch the bus back into town. It was either that or hike back to the Hauptbahnhof, which was not the most appealing option in the world. So we did that and ended up getting back to Tübingen at 5ish. But before I get to dinner, I have to tell you about the most adorable German child on the train. We sat across from him and his mother, and he heard us speaking English to each other. To which his response was that we were speaking a "komische Sprache" (weird language) and then proceeded to babble about something that Kevin and I couldn't quite understand. Then he asked me "hast du eine Fahrkarte?" (do you have a ticket?). The entire thing was quite funny and cute.



And now for dinner: THAI FOOD. I write that in all caps, because if you have been remarking on the food part of this blog, you have noticed that most of my meals in Tübingen involve schwäbisch food, italian food, or döner. So it was pretty big news when we heard that was a Thai restaurant in the western part of the Altstadt that was good. And, oh boy, is it good. Not having had thai food for about nine months made this possibly one of the more exciting things to have happened in the past month or two. Make as much fun of me all you want, family. All of the other Tufts kids agree with me. I got a duck curry thing with pineapple and lychees, and it was awesome. I promptly went into a food-coma-type-state.

So, dudes, that about what I have for you. A rather uneventful two weeks, but thai food. That's a pretty landmark event. In any case, bis später, gang.