Freiburg and Beyond: A Stag in Germany

I survived skiing in the Alps. Barely, but I did it. I now can say that  the first time that I skied it was in the Alps. Snow tastes great by the way, and when it is forced into your mouth about 12 times because of a head first wipeout-summersault combo it is very sweet indeed. I only skied down one actual run (I spent the first 3 hours doing a class for liability reasons) and that was more than enough for me. I am glad that I have had that experience, but I don’t think that I will do it again anytime soon.  Sports where I can stop when I am tired or when I feel like I am going to die are more along my alley. The whole not being able to stop and then screaming like a little girl immediately before I roll down the hill is not that great of an experience for me. I can understand why people like it, but it really is not for me. But hey, I have now skied the Alps! Pretty sweet.

Let me start this out with the fact that I do not drink coffee at home. However, I am slowly growing to appreciate it despite my misgivings. It does not taste good, it has a very small effect on me, and it makes your bodily functions go crazy. Nevertheless, after having drunk approximately 25 cups of coffee (slight hyperbole) over the course of the last weekend I can safely say that I understand the attraction to it. I think coffee is almost entirely psychological, with its effects being purely based on the placebo effect. Whenever I am convinced that coffee will help, it does, and vice versa. This, when combined with the powerful psychological effects of being in a routine, is what leads people to “not be able to live” without their coffee. The caffeine, I believe, is an almost secondary ingredient in the whole mess.

Ok. Now for beer. I am in basically the beer capital of the world (though to be accurate I would be about 100 miles east in Bavaria), and am loving it. I consider myself able to appreciate the fine tastes of an expertly brewed beer, and I am getting ample opportunity to try some of the best in the world. While some of my program mates have chosen the party scene, I prefer to experience the flavors of German beer in a perfectly sober state of mind. As a friend of mine on this program said: “I do not appreciate all those people who drink just to get drunk, but when I saw you that first night thrust your nose into the glass and savor every sip, I knew that this was a man who loved his beer.” My current plan is to make a list of all the beers I try and write a summary on each of them for the future students in IES EU. A worthy venture if I do say so myself.

So I decided to write a blog along with a good portion of the CMCers abroad, but I am kind of new at this newfangled technology so we will see how far it goes.

I am in Freiburg, Germany, a small, eco-friendly, college town in southern Germany. I am close to France, Switzerland and Austria and in the sunniest place in Germany (which means it only is cloudy about 75% of the time). While here I will be studying the European Union and its various activities both domestically and internationally. All the while I am living in a German dorm with two English speakers and 4 Germans, each with our own room and sharing a kitchen and bathroom.

Freiburg is a very cute and student orientated city. It is fairly small, only a little over 200,000 people and is home to a very prestigious University and a pretty famous old cathedral known here as the M:unster. It is also the environmental capital of Germany, which basically means that people get angry at you if you do not separate your garbage correctly in to the 5 different trashcans.  Still it is typically German with its wonderful local beers and bratwurst, both of which are adding to my already fairly ample girth in a distressing fahion. Thank God for the huge amount of walking.

I came in exhausted almost 3 weeks ago after about 15 hours of traveling. In the first week we did mostly orientation stuff; including walks around the city and a hike up the tallest mountain in the Black Forest in snow shoes. (At the top was the coldest weather I have ever experienced, terrible I miss 60 degrees and sunny).  The next week began an intensive phase in which we had around 4 hours of class a day of German and EU History. At the same time I spent alot of time walking around the city enjoying its small idiosyncrasies and getting to know the back streets. During that time we also  watched the inauguration, eagerly debating the meanings of Obama’s phrases and laughing at some of the absurdities of the American election process with our German professors. By the end of the week I felt comfortable in Freiburg, was recovered from my journey and ready to embark on this crazy European semester.

That weekend was a plunge into German culture. We went to Meersburg and Constance in order to see one of Germany’s historical castles and a beautiful lake. It was a great trip and an interesting look into the past. The next day I experienced a traditional Baden-Wurttenburg festival first creted to scare away the winter. The festival consists of a massive parade of people dressed up in frightening costumes and dancing through the streets. They also throw excessive amounts of confetti and drag young women into the street in order to stuff them with confetti. This festival has been around for centuries and though it has developed into more of a light hearted parade, it is still interesting to see this ancient tradition. One of the biggest things that has impressed me about Germany is the ability to see so far into the past (something not possible in our younger nation).

This last week kicked off the first of my many big trips throughout the EU with the program. We went to Talinn, Estonia, and Berlin. Talinn was a fascinating mix of cultural periods. There were old Russian Orthodox style churches, along side medievil walls and towers, beside broken down Soviet buildings, right across from Western style skyscrapers. It also is one of the most technologically advanced places I have been. There is wireless everywhere, they voted on the Internet and will be doing it on cell phones, and most importantly for me they invented Skype. Estonians also love Americans, something that blew me away when I first went there. They are some of the most enthusiastic supporters of all American policies (including Iraq) I have seen in Europe (almost more so than in the US itself). Granted they simply want the US to protect them against Russia but it is still touching. They also love karaokee (though I have a small sample size for that theory based purely on my experience in a small bar where I received standing ovations for a rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody).

Berlin was interesting for a completely different reason than Talinn. It was simply amazing to stand where Kennedy and Reagan both stood while denouncing the Soviet Union, and to see a powerful memorial in honor of the Jews who were butchered in the Holocaust. I was also very lucky to be able to visit the German Ministry of Defense and the American Embassy, and listen to presentations on German troop deployments and American/German relations respectively. Both were extremely interesting. Perhaps one of the most fascinating things about Berlin is the clear divid that remains between the West and the East. The East remains older and more worn down in appearance, while the West is extremely modern. One can still see a line where the Wall stood, and on both sides the architecture draws one back to the Cold War stand off. It is also interesting to be walking down the street and to see a statue of Marx and Engels in a park, as well as the face of Lenin on a wall in East Berlin.

This weekend I will also be skiing (or probably falling) in the Alps. It should be a good time.