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.