Freiburg and Beyond: A Stag in Germany

I hate clubs. They really are the epitome of everything that I dislike in the world. Loud techno music, superficial relationships, and the inability to carry out a conversation. I have been to a few clubs since I have come here, and every time I tell myself it is going to be different this time. Never has it actually been better. I suppose part of that has to do with my discomfort with walking up and dancing with random women, but also I just do not enjoy the whole atmosphere. I believe that in order for one to truly enjoy this experience, one would have to be hopped up on some serious drugs, partially retarded, or simply a woman. Now hold on before you judge me for including women in that list. Women in general love clubs. Women have the ability to go into a place and just enjoy dancing with no agenda, nor any desire for anything more. Men in general cannot do that. A man walks into a club with one purpose: women. He is not there to dance in a circle of friends by himself, he is hoping that he can find some random attractive woman.

Personally, I cannot walk into a club and enjoy the stupid awkward dancing with friends, or the sitting and listening to stupid pounding music. Give me an ice cold beer, some nice rock and roll, and a small table where one can talk. That is the ideal. Nevertheless, everytime someone says: “lets go to a club,” I always forget these ruminitions and start the whole process over again. I can do nothing but shake my fist in anger at the cosmos, and carry on with the stupid endless cycle.

For all those who do not know, this weekend was the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France. This was particularly interesting because Strasbourg is only about an hour away from Freiburg, so there was a considerable amount of activity in and around Freiburg. The week began with a very large peace rally that took place in downtown Freiburg. I, along with many other IES people, decided to go down and investigate (hoping against hope that we would see people getting tear-gassed and all that good stuff). The crowd was full of communists, hippies of all sorts, general anti-war people, and a few curious participants who were caught up in the crowd and ended up marching around Freiburg (like me). The chants of “Anti-Capitalismo” “Solidarity” and other various anti-NATO slogans aimed at riling up the crowd. Overall it was a fairly solid peace rally, but not as exciting as I was hoping. I did get to see what a peaceful German protest looks like though and it actually is peaceful.

The next portion of my week involved a vist to a center in Freiburg dedicated to the eradication of small arms exportation. Present at the center was an ex-military guy from America, who had been a guard at Guantanamo Bay and is now a pacifist. He gave a long talk about the evils of military and how it is all a big conspiracy by the rich white people to keep the rest of America down. He actually made a couple interesting points, but the majority was so naive and pathetic that I actually began to get angry. I consider myself a pretty liberal guy, but I am also a realist. It would be awesome if there was a chance to eliminate the military but there is no way it is going to happen. The elimination of our military would not solve anything, and in all likelihood would actually drop the world deeper in to chaos. One of our people actually had to get up and leave, and I began criticizing many of the points that he was making. Primarily because they actually had no back up plan. It was: lets get rid of the military. Well what next? “Um.. we don’t know, we are not experts in that sort of stuff.”  !!!!!!!!!!!! I became quite angry at that point. We actually had quite a civilized debate until our Egyptian colleague, Dena, decided that she was going to start ripping on the United States and refering to all of us as naive and unwilling to accept the faults of our country. When you cannot have an argument without getting out of control and outrageously emotional, I will not take the time to try to have a discussion with you. All I can do in that situation is yell back, and to be honest, I do not enjoy pointless screaming matches. It was a fairly interesting experience, but it really made me angry with the idiocy of pacifists.

The coup-de-grace of this whole week was my opportunity to go to the Atlantic Youth Summit in Strasbourg, which allowed me to participate in a forum between 300 students and a good portion of the movers and shakers of NATO. It was an absolutely amazing experience. I had the opportunity to listen to the Secretary General of NATO speak and in fact was sitting within a foot of him before he spoke. I tell you it is an absolutely amazing experience to listen to a man who refers to NATO policy in the first person. He is a brilliant man, and also appears to be a fantastic person as well. I was really impressed with his speech and his overall intelligence. I also heard: the Director of Military Operations, the director of policy for the secretary general, Bernard-Henri Levy a French Philosopher, one of the chief correspondents for the Financial Times, and many many others. The whole discussion revolved around the future of NATO and whether is and would remain justified in its operations. Granted alot of it was propaganda, but it really was interesting. Even more exciting than that is that I was able to go see President Obama speak in his first major public speech in Europe. His whole speech revolved around the concept of a new “Era of Responsibility” in economics, foreign relations, nuclear proliferation, climate, and energy. I was impressed with his speech, but the most amazing part was his ability in answering questions. The man is incredible. He can take a stupid question, make it sound important and interesting, make that person feel important and interesting for asking it, and take it in the direction that he knows everyone wants to hear. It is actually a fairly overwhelming experience.

This whole week was quite an experience, one that very few people get to have, and one that makes me increasingly grateful for the opportunity to study over here. In all honesty this was a once in a life time experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing {mso-style-priority:1; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

This trip began at 6:15 in the morning on Friday. I had had about 5 hours of sleep, a ham sandwich for breakfast, and was on a bus. Needless to say I was a tad grouchy, but really I was excited. Not every day does one get to go to Eastern/Central Europe. It was a long bus ride. I am completely unable to sleep in buses unless I am semi-comatose due to sickness, so it was about 2.5 hours in a bus just kinda chillin. Lots of fun. When we got to the airport in Stuttgart we had about 2 hours till our plane was about to take-off so we split up into groups and got lunch/breakfast. I had a nice sandwich, for 6 Euro. My group then sat around talking South Park and making jokes until about 30 minutes before boarding and we headed to the gate. In security my belt set off the alarm, so I was groped by the security guard (seriously this was way more invasive than anything I have gotten in the past) told to take off my shoes (at which point the wand was passed over my feet), and generally felt up all over. To top it off, once we got to the gate and were sitting there for a while it became apparent that our flight was not going to load on time. Turns out there were technical difficulties and we had to switch planes and wait another hour. You know I am a pretty cheerful guy, but my patience was dwindling steadily by this point. Finally we got on the plane, and flew to a small city about an hour from Krakow (apparently pronounced Krakov).

Poland looked exactly like I imagined when we landed. It was dreary, grey, and kinda looked like the Midwest as far as landscape goes. All the while to Krakow, Ewa, a polish girl in our program, was explaining to us some Polish language, customs, and legends. It is always fun to listen to a person from a particular culture explain it to you, because they take such joy in sharing it.

Krakow is a beautiful city, and I must say that Poland really agrees with me. They are really into meat, it is very traditional looking, and they all speak English. We spent 2 nights and days in Krakow and I really loved it. It is filled with a mix of Soviet buildings, and Slavic/Catholic architecture. I loved just about everything about it.

After Krakow we took a small detour and traveled to Auschwitz. Though I was fairly prepared for what it was going to be, I still was blown away. To be perfectly honest, the sensations of the place are indescribable in a blog such as this. Suffice it to say that I was very moved by the feeling of the place, and the examples of cruelty. It is very hard to walk around and simply see the size. The operation was so enormous. I really can’t find the words to do justice to the sensations that are arisen in that place.

The bus ride to Prague was long, very long. However when we arrived I found that Prague was almost as cool as Krakow. It was far more impressive, but a lot less approachable. The sheer size was overwhelming. The first night in Prague we went to a local restaurant, got some fantastic food and then went to TGIF to watch the Basketball game. It was a very interesting experience. The next day we had to sit through two different lectures. The main problem that I had with the lectures was that they were very similar to the ones in Poland. All of the Eastern European countries have very similar views on Foreign Policy, get close to the US, get more involved in the EU, and balance as much as possible against Russia. That day we went and walked around the Prague castle and just enjoyed the city. That night I joined a group of people and went to the famous 5 story club in Prague. It was pretty obnoxious, but still quite entertaining. I must say I led the dancing effort, doing everything from dancing on top of a wall to leaping into a pounding Techno pit and having a dance battle with some random Italian chick. Very fun. The next day we did a City Walk in a blizzard, which was rather miserable. Afterwards I had a delicious meal of Duck and dumplings, followed by strudel. Eastern Europe kicks some major butt with food. Lots of meat, potatoes, and sweet sauerkraut. I love it.

The next day we took an extremely long bus ride to Bratislava and then to Budapest. Bratislava is actually a pretty cool little city. It is very small, rather plain, but has its own charm. I very much enjoyed walking around and looking at everything. It was pretty cool also that I saw the Archbishop of Bratislava while I was there. Something that not everyone can say. Beyond that the Bratislava stop was kind of annoying. We just got two speeches and then pretty much left for Budapest.

Budapest is an absolutely amazing city with incredible architecture and a sense of grandeur that is extremely ironic when put in context of their current economic woes. Budapest is actually two separate cities that were combined into one in the 19^th century. Buda is hilly and contains the castle hill and other beautiful monuments, while Pest is almost perfectly flat. They are divided by the Danube river. It is really a beautiful city. The first night in Budapest I was exhausted so I basically watched TV and slept. The next day we went to a lecture at the Central European University, which was actually quite good. It got me thinking about the possibility of studying there especially since they give you a huge stipend when you are trying to get your masters or PhD. After that we went to the Parliament. The Parliament building was beyond cool. That building is one of the most amazing buildings that I have seen. The inside is coated in gold leaf, while the outside consists of spires which remind one of a palace or cathedral. The lecture did not match the brilliance of the building sadly, but it was informational. After that we walked around the city visiting the castle Buda, and Fisherman’s Bastion. Next we went on a night tour of the Danube, which was mostly fun because we were on a boat in Hungary at night. It was not a particularly good tour but it was fun nevertheless. The next day we went back to the University and then to the House of Terror, a museum on the horrors of the soviet regime. Though it was very good in its set up, it was really hard for me to connect to the display after witnessing Auschwitz. To be honest I really was not that affected by that museum. After that we went to this place called Wasabi which had all you can eat asian food. It was awesome. I came out stuffed. Unfortunately later we had our farewell dinner so I was unable to enjoy that as much as I could have. It was nowhere near the one in Paris, but still tasty. I just think that my expectations were too high.

The next day we said goodbye to Eastern Europe and began our trip home. Overall I really enjoyed this trip. It was informative, but not to the extreme, and I was able to fully experience all of these cities. Add that to the tastiness of the food and the likeability of the people, and this trip was easily my favorite one so far this semester. Plus I got to be in a country when the government fell, that was exciting.

To see pictures follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100626&id=757669487&l=bc04dca6f1

Well it has been a long time since I have written anything on this blog, but I do have a good reason for this. I have been on a week long trip through Western Europe, visiting all the lovely institutions of the European Union. And trust me when I say, there are oh so many institutions. The only thing that Europeans love more than techno, their respective alcohols, and glow-sticks is institutions. Their governmental structure is hard enough with the Council, the Commission, the Parliament, the Council of Ministers, and the European Court of Justice, on top of every nation’s individual government structures. Yeah… it is alot. But then you add in NATO, SHAPE, the UN, and the European Security and Defense Policy structure, and just make it oh so great for everyone involved.

This trip was pretty awesome, since it was basically a massive European road trip. Only with limited excitement, repeated lectures, and an extremely cramped bus. But really, besides that it was awesome. We started out in Luxembourg, and began very strongly with a tour of the American Forces Cemetery in Luxembourg. It is a beautiful tribute to those who fought for freedom in World War II, and a touching memorial of the price that occasionally must be paid to maintain our way of life. This is the biggest cemetery of American forces on foreign ground, and truly a fantastic experience. After this we went to Luxembourg city, a tiny little city with way more money then it knows what to do with. Luxembourg is known mostly for its shady money deals, and very little else. Plus it houses the ECJ which we visited. I believe our stop in Luxembourg was a waste of time. I am glad I visited Luxembourg but besides that I could have cared less. After that we went to Brussels.

Brussels is an awesome city, with both a big and small city feel. There are some amazing architectural monuments there along with most of the institutions in the European Union. Thus, it is called the capital of Europe. While there I had some incredible meals, consisting of (not at the same time) oysters, mussels, escargot, rabbit, and, of course, waffles. Delicious. We visited every major EU institution there and received additional talks by a representative of the German Marshall Fund and the NATO speech writer. Very interesting, but extremely long. I also almost got into a fight with some drunk Belgians, I’m pretty sure we would have been fine, seeing as I was with an MMA fighter, but it broke up by police presence before anything really got started. It was a very cool experience, as those things often are.

After Brussels, we visited SHAPE outside of Brussels, which was extremely interesting especially since we received a speech from a representative of the ESDP that was very anti-US involvement. After that we moved on to the City of Love. That first night was spent wandering the Champs de Elysee, seeing the Arc de Triumph and going all the way to the top of the Eiffel tower. I had done everything before, except the latter, but not at night, and that made it a completely different experience. The next day we went to the French Foreign Ministry and the ISS (the think tank for security policy in Europe). Also interesting, but truth be told I was extremely happy to leave. We then had the whole rest of the time to ourselves. Which I filled with Notre Dame and the Louvre that night. And then the Mussee de les Invalides/Tomb of Napoleon, Rodin museum, Luxembourg Gardens, Parthenon, and Sacre Cour the next day. That day was really fun since I had not been to most of those places, and it was cool to see something new. At night, IES provided us all with a fancy meal with 3 courses and wine. I got Foie Gras, Duck, and Flaming Alaskan. All absolutely phenomenal. Makes me want to have lots of money so I can eat like that every day. Finally we made our 7 hour bus trip back to Freiburg, and I arrived exhausted, tired of people, and ready to sleep. Fortunately I had class the next day at 9 and an application due. Well, everything is done for now, and this week is going really fast.

It is an extremely difficult thing to do to sit around for an entire day and not do anything. While fun to a certain degree, the mental demands are also quite extreme. To have to tell yourself that every moment that you sit in front of the computer screen is not actually wasted, for in fact there is nothing better you could be doing right now. Now I have been doing the best I can to get out and do things, considering the fact that I am in Germany and it doesn’t seem right to just sit in my room all day, but when it is a crappy day and you are leaving on a big trip the next day it is hard to muster up the spiritual fortitude to engage in something as strenuous as walking half a mile downtown. Yesterday, I was able to get some people to come with me and go down to Basel for a few hours. That, on top of two nights straight of poker, has been able to keep my mind and body busy for the last two days. Nevertheless, today I spent around 10 hours doing absolutely nothing. Quite a monumental achievement. I am starting to blame IES for this stupid planning, of giving us this weekend instead of next one. Not that I don’t appreciate a free weekend, but I really wish we didn’t have to sit around for this weekend only to be thrust abruptly back into class 10 hours after we return from Paris. Kind of poor planning if I do say so myself.

Happy President’s Day everyone, I hope you were lucky enough not to have class/work. I was not, but oh well I’ll be in Luxembourg in a week. This weekend was fairly interesting. We had an American Burger Night last night and enjoyed some traditional American food while gathering with many other Americans. It was pretty cool, nice to have a little taste of home. Besides that I discovered that I will probably be getting an internship this summer, I only have to do a month long process or so in a week to get it paid for by CMC. Hopefully that will work, I would rather like 3500$. That would be quite nice. I apologize for my lack of insights lately I simply have not had much inspiration. Next week will be better I am sure, but until then you might just have to read all this drivel that I am putting out in order to keep myself busy. Sorry… I guess… hahaha.

That is a terrible pun… wow… you will understand what I mean when you read this. This happened about 2 hours after I left the area yesterday.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=28403

Ahh Switzerland, thou bastion of neutrality that costeth so much for poor young students like myself. Where a man can speak three different languages, with accents unrecognizable, and English in to boot. Yea who refuse to join the EU, have your own brightly colored currency, and house oh so many shady business deals. Thou art a fickle country, so beautiful yet thou speakest French that dreaded language of the America haters (yeah I had to throw that in there). Ahh Switzerland, I love thee, yet I hate thee.

Well if you hadn’t gathered I spent the last couple days in Switzerland, Geneva to be more precise, and spent way too much money for what I received. I bought a freaking 14 CHF (~12$) Whopper meal! It was really good but still. We left early Thursday morning in the middle of a blizzard,  drove around 5 hours in a bus in business formal wear, and arrived just in time for our first lecture at the UN building in Geneva. After 2 interminable lectures and one interesting one we left and went to the hotel. I then was privilaged enough to  enjoy my first traditional Swiss fondue with a white wine included. Very, very good. I love swiss cheese, I love bread, I love wine (not so much this one but oh well). Now melt the cheese (throw a little Grappa in there for good measure) give me an extremely large fork and a small glass of wine, and I will dive into that meal. Apparently it is also necessary to scrape off the baked cheese after the majority is gone and eat that as well. Though I felt my arteries clogging, I could not help but enjoy the whole experience.

After a long night we once agains were fortunate enough to listen to lectures by UN personnel. Then we were set loose in Geneva for 2 hours. Now in those two short hours I was able to have a door opened for me by a man in a top hat, and enjoy the best “meal” of my life. It consisted of a glass of scotch and a 20$ cuban cigar. Well worth the cost. There is really nothing that makes you feel more like a man than smoking a good cigar and drinking scotch, in a suit. I also surprised myself by blowing smoke rings. I am quite amazing I know. That experiece (along with a few others that I have had at school) are really making me want to be in a position of power. Screw the money, I want to be able to smoke cigars and drink fine liquour in a suit with some powerful people in an exotic place.

Well now I tired, and I say to Switzerland adieu, auf wiedersehen, and ciao. Guten Nacht.

So I went to the gym in Freiburg today for my first big work out since I got here. Consequently I am extremely sore and ready to go to bed. However, I thought it best to comment first on the experience. As anyone who regularly goes to a gym will attest, there is a certain comraderie that develops between those working out in the same place. Whether it is all the testosterone flowing, or a sort of primal totemic ritual arising a collective effervescence (a la Durkheim) I do not know, but there definitely is some sort of communion that develops almost immediately when working out in a small weight room. I thought that it was particularly interesting that this feeling trancends language and culture barriers to function even in such a different place. Everyone in a weight room (who legitimately works out) understands one another. I was able to communicate far easier with the guys in this weight room than I have with any other group of Germans that I have met. Granted it is probably because the conversation consisted of a few words and grunts, but I felt as if I was actually getting my point accross. I really felt at home for the first time since I got here. I will post some other time on my Eliadian interpretation of why this is, but for now, suffice it to say that in a weight room I feel as if we are all related despite the barriers that exist in the real world.

So I have learned, as my Facebook status states, that no matter what the continent is there is no reason to do today what you can put off till tomorrow. It is hard to really get motivated to do anything without an imminent deadline especially when I am in a completely alien environment. I am slowly but surely getting used to living in this apartment in Freiburg, but I am still having trouble coming to grips with the fact that I have to actually do work while I am here. It is kinda sad I know, but in order to do things here I have to change my entire process of doing work and it is messing with my head. I don’t like writing on a laptop and there is really no computer lab that I can go to type papers at 10 o’clock at night. This sounds quite bitchy I know, but if you think about it it really is a problem that would hit anyone. I guess this is another thing that studying abroad is going to teach me: how to work productively in a completely different setting. But anyway, apart from my inability to actually do work I have had a pretty enjoyable weekend. Watched about 7 movies, and spent alot of time just recovering from the last couple weeks. It was kind of funny, one of my German flatmates even called me lazy today. He’s definitely right, I mean I haven’t gotten out of my pajamas in two days, but seriously I feel like I deserve a couple days off. Tomorrow it is back to work with no end in sight for about a month so I am going to enjoy this general laziness as long as I possibly can.