The Past Two Weeks

After this post, you should be pretty much up-to-date on my life to this point!

On Friday, April 3rd, the group took one last outing to Stuttgart before the course ended. We left in the afternoon, so it wasn't an all-day outing, but it was still great! We went first to the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which was actually pretty interesting. You get a private audio guide (in your choice of language: I chose English because of the specific vocabulary), and so you can actually choose which parts to listen to the guide for and which to avoid. That way, non-car-freaks can avoid the techy parts that we won't really understand anyway! I walked around looking for pretty or interesting cars and listening to the history and/or social impact parts.



This is the outside of the museum. You start at the top and the path gradually winds back down to the bottom.

This was my favorite car in the museum, the Gullwing. Isn't it fun?

This little guy's pretty cute too, though I'm not sure I'd want to drive it! I love how the old cars have all the gold detailing and such...




After that we had some free time in the city to have dinner and go shopping and such. After that we went to a ballet! This one was based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. In the programs that the teachers printed out for the trip there was a plot summary so we knew what was going on (always a plus with ballets!), and it was really pretty good. The opera house is beautiful and old-timey; I wish my camera hadn't died so I could have taken pictures (it seems to do that at the most inconvenient times). But it was also really nice to get to dress up for an evening out. Fun!

On a less fun note, my laptop was out of commission for about a week and a half with a virus. I was in and out of internet cafes to chat with Erick to get it fixed the entire time. Apparently I lucked out and got a new one that doesn't have a program to fix it yet, so we had to wipe the whole thing clean and start over. Luckily I was able to go buy an external hard drive to save all my documents and pictures first! Then, after the laptop was better, I had issues getting internet in my dorm again, and eventually called the dorm internet people and they came out the same day and fixed it! Now all that's better, and I am once again connected with the world. Yay!

I had some issues trying to pin down plans for the break. I didn't want to go anywhere until my laptop was fixed, so that stuck me here until Tuesday or so. I also didn't want to go anywhere by myself, but haven't made any friends here so far that I'm that close to. It was a trick getting a hold of Kate and Courtney to find out their plans, but I finally got together with Kate and we started making plans for the coming week. We had a really neat trip all laid out, but then when we went to book things, we discovered that the price to get to the starting point and the price to get back home were just too high. Everything in the middle had flowed perfectly, but we just couldn't get there.
But it all worked out. Now I am leaving tomorrow afternoon to fly to Vienna (where Kate lives) for the week. She decided she needed some time to rest after living with a family in Salzburg for a week, and Vienna is reputed as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, so it's a win-win situation. Plus, Kate's roommate is out of town, so I can bunk in the spare bed in her room and save on hostel prices! This will leave me with more money to make cool weekend trips during the semester and in June, and I get to see one of the must-see cities in Europe, and spend time with my friends! I'm really excited! I'm all packed, and I just need to get a few things wrapped up here in Tubingen (i.e. extending my residency permit) before I'm off to Stuttgart to catch my flight! And don't worry, I'm bringing spare batteries this time so I won't get caught off guard by a dying camera, haha.

By the way, Happy Easter to everyone, and I hope you had a fabulous day! I went to the big main evangelical church in Tubingen for the service. It was the fullest I expect I will see a church during my stay in Germany, almost 2/3! It's always a neat experience to go to services in the big old cathedrals here, if only because it's so different. There was actually a choir today, which was beautiful and echoed through the church from behind the congregation.



St. Georg Evangelical Stiftskirche
Where I attended Easter services this morning, in the middle of the of the city center. And, yes, St. George as in the dragon-slayer. :)

A really neat Easter decoration in the church. It is a giant crown of thorns with roses suspended from it in their little vases for water. It was hanging over the altar this morning.

The altar as it looked this morning. The gold communion goblets are on it.





Since the weather in April has been so nice (one day it got warm and has just stayed like that!), I think it's time for some long-overdue Tubingen pictures!



Marktplatz (Market Square). The colorful building on the right is the Rathaus (City Hall). Notice all the chairs set out in the square, from the cafes since it's so nice out!

Arguably one of the prettiest views in Tubingen, from the bridge over the Neckar River. The trees on the island were planted by the city undertaker when he, being put out of work by a change in the law, was given a post as a gardener. Fun story, huh? Oh, notice the boats by the willows. Tubingen has boats kind of like the gondolas in Venice, except these have tall seat-backs sticking up on the sides like ribs. Also, the yellow house behind the willows is where the poet Hoelderlin lived.

Another pretty view of the Neckar River.

Still on the bridge, looking the other direction. This area is just so pretty!

Finally, you know you're in Germany when your bank looks like this! Classic German wood-beamed building.







Now you are up-to-date on the happenings in Deutschland. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with friends and family, and I can't wait to see you all again!