julieinfulda

[julieinfulda]

4.8.17

I’ve now had almost a week to process my arrival back in the States and the journey home, and let me tell you, it was awful. 

I hated leaving Fulda and my friends there, but at about 11:45am I boarded the train with my two bulky suitcases and rode to the airport which only took about an hour and a half. Once getting off the train, I had a heck of a time trying to find the terminal I was supposed to be at to check my luggage and head to my gate. Frankfurt airport is seriously the most confusing airport I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been to my fair share of airports. However, with the help of some nice airport people, I got to the Air Canada kiosk, checked my 1kg-overweight luggage (but he didn’t charge me the overage fee) and I wound up going through security and happening upon the gate I needed to be at, by the grace of God, I seriously had no idea where I was going. 

I shopped around and waited around for about 3 hours before boarding, and that was just disorganized and terrible too... I’m not the biggest fan of Air Canada let’s just say that. After that, though, my flight was smooth even though I sat in the middle seat. I was next to some nice people and was awake the whole flight, I watched 3 movies (Queen of Katwe, 27 Dresses, and The Zookeepers Wife) and listened to some music and before I knew it the 7.5 hours was over and we landed in Toronto! It was about 2am Germany time and about 7pm in Toronto, so I was feeling a little sleepy but still rockin’ and rollin’ until I got to the US Customs people. 

I always take my snow globes with me in my backpack to make sure they don’t break, but the US Customs people did not like that I had my snow globes, specifically my Fulda snow globe (arguably the most important one), because it was *definitely* over 100ml and they confiscated it. I collect snow globes and I was sleep deprived and sad so I just stared crying to myself and it was the worst and they still took my snow globe. Pretty much everything hit the fan after that happened, and I really wasn’t in a great mental state to deal with the fan-hitting-everything. Going through customs took forever because Canada has to scan your checked baggage before you can proceed in line so I waited for a long time there, and once I got through customs I found out that my flight had been delayed 2 hours. Then 3 hours. But the Air Canada people gave us all on the Toronto-Pittsburgh flight $15 vouchers at the airport bagel shop, so I guess that was a silver lining. We waited around forever and finally got on the flight after midnight and got to Pittsburgh at 2am. 

My Bible study leader Duana and a couple of my friends, Hayley and Maria, were there at the airport waiting to pick me up and I was so happy to see them I started crying, it was just a long day. At that point I had stayed up 23 or so hours and we still had to get back to Morgantown. We made it back and I immediately unpacked all of my things and took a shower, by that time it was 5:30am and I passed right on out. 26 hours of being awake total.

Looking back on the journey now, I was sleep deprived and sad, and that dampened the whole thing, but I got my luggage and I ended up safe, so I can’t really complain that much. It was not, however, the icing on the amazing trip cake that I was hoping for. Sunday I did errands and Monday I was back at Pittsburgh airport flying to Fort Meyers, FL for my family’s beach vacation in Napels, and I’m headed back up north tomorrow with my sister. This vacation has been so nice just to decompress from my time in Germany and get my jet lag under control, although it was way worse going to Germany than coming back. Still, this vacation was nice, and I think I’m almost ready to get back in the fall semester. I still have my reflection paper to write about this entire experience, and I’m hoping that it will sum up more than this blog did.

Overall, I’m really happy that I kept this blog while studying abroad, I will always have this chronicle to look back on and know exactly what happened day by day and what I was feeling at the time. I’m also glad that I kept the blog for my family, they really enjoyed reading along throughout my adventure. Honestly I’m tempted to continue a blog while I’m in Morgantown, but I doubt it would be exciting. Definitely food for thought, though! 

Consider this the end of my study abroad blogging. Thanks for reading! 

[julieinfulda]

28.7.17

Today was a long day. The last day. So much to be done and only so many hours to do it! 

After going to bed at 4 last night (this morning?) I woke up at 9:30 and McKenna and I rode our bikes for the last time to return them! It was a nice, cool morning and the ride was nice, I’m glad I had a bike here but didn’t use it as much as I thought I would. That has something to do with the fact that we lived on top of a steep incline... the struggle is real! 

After we returned our bikes we walked back to the nearest bus station on our route, saw that we had 25 minutes until it came so we got Doener from Kaufland! It was just meat and sauce over french fries AKA the best breakfast imaginable! We brought one back for Stella too, it was a good morning! 

We then took the bus back to the dorms and chilled for a bit before having to get ready to go downtown and hike up to the Fulda overlook! A couple of us had heard of a great spot to see Fulda from, so Katie, Grace, McKenna, Stella and I all went up there! I was a little over-dressed for the occasion, but we made it up and discovered a church up there and took a look around! The view was worth the trek and we got some pictures up there. 

We came back down and went shopping! We were still on the hunt for Fulda souvenirs and some random things to buy, like I needed to buy a carry-on suitcase! One we finished up shopping we hit McDonalds for a snack (I had some sort of crinkle fries) and then went to the Fulda Transfer building for the closing ceremonies. It was really nice! They served champagne and gave us all certificates and gave us food! It was a nice event, but after a couple hours it was just getting sad and so Stella and I went to go back to the dorms and change out of our dresses for the evening. We took the 8:07 bus back downtown and met up with a bunch of people at the Wiesenmuehle-- where we first ate on the first day! I ended and started my trip at the same place, this amazing beer garden. If you ever find yourself in Fulda, Germany, this place is great! Wouter sang “Perfect” by P!nk for me there and I’m just so happy that man exists.

We basically just hung out there and took a little walk around before taking the last bus (10:30) home to the dorms so that we could pack and get ready for tomorrow. At the bus stop we saw some people from our program and they were saying goodbye to each other and crying which made me cry... so I feel like tomorrow there will be lots of crying. I’ve just loved the people I met and even if most of them are in the states it’s quite the trek to go see Stella and McKenna in Wisconsin or Phoebe in Delaware, I’m glad Katie and the other WVU people are close enough to see often if we wanted to! But it was just kinda a sad day, lots of goodbyes that I don’t think I’m ready for more tomorrow. 

Tomorrow will be an absolute adventure. I bought that little purple suitcase to keep the costs on my return trip lower than when I came here-- two words: overweight fee-- but now I have to maneuver my way on and off a train and through an airport to get all my stuff back with me. I know it will work out okay, but it’s still a little stressful and I’m not strong enough to be confident! Hopefully some nice strangers will take pity on me and help me, that’s all I can hope for! 

So, it’s now about 1:30am and I’m ending my last day in Fulda with really great memories and with meeting amazing people, but I’m also sad and anxious for the trip ahead. As always, please pray for me as I travel and wrestle with my emotions. I’ll probably update periodically throughout the day tomorrow to document the trip home, but for now-- AMERICA HERE I COME! 

[julieinfulda]

27.7.17

Today was a very long but good day. It’s now 4am here, so definitely the longest I’ve stayed up so far this trip, and I’m pretty tired.

This morning I woke up and was pretty nervous for my seminar test, and when we got to class I thought we would immediately start with it but we actually finished up the presentations and took our break and THEN took the test, which actually gave me more time to look over my notes-- so that turned out okay! The test was just as expected and I think it went really well overall! She let us use a German dictionary and that helped a bit on words I was uncertain about, so that was nice of Dr. Chalupa.

After the test, which took me the entire hour and a half class period, lots of us went to the Mensa to grab some food and return the card that we used to get food on. We stopped into the university’s main building and bought Hochschule Fulda merchandise, I got a shirt, and headed back to the Transfer station! 

German class was good today, too! We got our grades back from our tests (I only missed one point) and our grade in the course while also getting to watch a movie! It was called Ziemlich Beste Freunde, and in English the title is The Intouchables. Really good movie, but the level of German was a bit too high for us, more C1 or C2 level of German when we’re only at A1/B2. The context of the movie helped my understanding for sure! 

Our German teacher let us out ten minutes early so we caught the 4:45 bus back to our dorms and I just watched some TV and got ready to go out with friends at 8! We met up at the bus stop to go back downtown, went to Kaufland (a grocery store) for drinks, and headed to Amanda’s apartment where a lot of people were gathered. We stayed there for about 20 or 30 minutes before heading out as a large group to find a dance club, with no dice. Stella and I decided to break away from the large group and grab some dinner, and we just ate at an Italian restaurant in the Altstadt (old city). I had some Bruschetta and it was amazing! 

Stella and I then walked to the main city center and found most everyone from the ISU program at Havana Club! Fulda is a small city and nothing really was open on a Thursday except Havana so we all went there and I had a good time! There was dancing and eating and drinking, I’m sure all of us annoyed the waiters because we were such a large group.

Stella and I left about 1 for the dorms and the taxi we called got to us at about 1:30 so we got back here pretty late. The silliest decision of the day was the one to start Burlesque that late at night, but Stella and I just finished that movie and I”m back in my room writing this blog! Such a long day-- and tomorrow is no better! We have to return our bikes, I need to buy another suitcase, and just experience the rest of Fulda in one day! No pressure! Last full day in Germany is tomorrow, I’m sad about it but honestly it’ll just be nice to be home. 

[julieinfulda]

26.7.17

Today was really an interesting day, and a very busy one at that! I did not get off to a great start this morning, I accidentally forgot to set my alarm last night so I woke up at 7:48 when my suitemate Katie poked her head into my room to ask if I was going to class or not. I was. The bus comes at 7:52 and the stop is down the street, so I hopped out of bed, threw on clothes, threw my jewelry in my backpack, grabbed a belt and a hair tie and was out the door. I made the bus but looked an absolute wreck! Hair not brushed, holding the belt I needed to be wearing, and all backpack zippers open. But I made it. If it weren’t for Katie I would’ve been in bad shape! 

So with that fun start to the morning, the rest of the day went fairly smoothly! Went to seminar where we had 4 presentations to get through and had some visitors for some of the class time. Some ladies from Fulda’s German-American Women’s Club came to talk with us about the fall of the Berlin Wall and their life experiences when Germany was separated into East and West. My group spoke with Ute, a lady who is so cool! She was living with her family on the eastern side until she was 10, when her family crossed the border by dressing as farmers who had land on both sides of the border. She and her family were shot at by Soviet soldiers but they escaped and made a new life with relatives living in the west. She was a really interesting person and it was so cool to talk with her, engaging with history in real time. So so cool. 

For our lunch break, Stella, Yehonatan (from Israel), Grace and I grabbed food and came back to the Transfer building to study more for our German test. We made the most of our time but when we got to the test there was a lot of stuff we didn’t prepare for! So that was rather frustrating. Overall though, I think it went okay for me! I’m thinking I missed 5 or so points out of 45, and since the test is worth 50% of our grade, that should be good enough to pull a solid A in the course! At least I’m hoping so. The other 50% is over class participation and our fairy tale presentations, which have both been fine for me.

After our test we had to meet the large group of ISU people up at the bus station to travel to Point Alpha, a former American Cold War observation post on the border of West and East Germany, obviously on the western side. There’s now a museum and replica border models to show us how exactly the Cold War and East/West German relations were during this time. It was such a cool experience to go there and take a tour-- our guide Karl was super patient with us and did a great job of showing us around. We started inside in the museum and then walked out to the American base/observation tower. On the former base was a museum dedicated to American efforts there on the border, so it was really interesting to see American pride and the flag after a month of being away from it all! 

We had some free time after the tour was over, but we soon hopped back on the bus to Fulda. We caught the bus back to our dorms shortly after we arrived and I have been working on my Was ist Deutschland test for tomorrow! The nice thing about it is that there are no surprises, she gave us the exact test, but we must write many, MANY short explanations and an essay all in German. I’m really wishing that my German vocabulary is better, but its not, and the preparation took a long time that now I won’t have much time to review what I’ve written down for it all. I’m hoping Dr. Chalupa will have pity on me and will take my German into consideration, but I have a feeling that it may go poorly tomorrow-- despite the fact that I’ve prepared for it. But, it’s now 1am and I have to shower and look over my notes, but I’m glad because after tomorrow at 11:45 I’ll be free as a bird! 

[julieinfulda]

25.7.17

From my lack of pictures, you can see that today was not really an exciting one! It rained all day, so that was awful, especially since the volleyball tournament was cancelled with no talk of rescheduling! I’m so bummed, I was really looking forward to playing volleyball again, and just when my team was getting good! 

So the rain ruined today, and it was really cold all day too, like a high of 60*F. I woke up, had some breakfast, and got to the bus stop! Seminar was good today, we reviewed a little for our test on Thursday and talked about the DDR, but mostly there was just presentations. I’m so so glad mine has been over for a week now! Still such a relief. I hope to hear back from Dr, Chalupa my grade on it soon! 

During our lunch hour I ate chicken nuggets and fries with Stella, Nick, and Matt (from WVU) at the Doener place around the corner from the Transfer building, and then Stella and I branched off to go shopping! After I get back to the states I have a day to recuperate before repacking and heading to Florida with my family, and we do a traditional family picture in white and khaki on the beach each time. So, I went shopping with Stella to find a white dress but APPARENTLY there is no such thing here in Fulda! I’ve been to five or six different clothing stores and have not found one white dress. Let alone a dress that fits or looks nice, there aren’t any white dresses to begin with! That was a bit frustrating, I guess I’ll just hit up Old Navy the Sunday before I leave for the beach. 

We had German for 3 hours after lunch like normal, and our test is tomorrow so we just reviewed the whole time. I feel pretty confident about the test tomorrow, we’ve gone over a lot of stuff over this month though, I hope I don’t blank on any of it. Since volleyball was cancelled, I just came back to my dorm after class and watched some TV with the intention of going out to dinner. However, I didn’t realize where the restaurant was to meet up with McKenna and Stella so ended up having leftovers as I worked on the test material for the seminar test on Thursday. At about 8, Grace (from WVU) and I studied for our German test in the kitchen together and that really helped me a lot since it was mostly me teaching her, and that always helps me better understand. It was a win-win! I’m just now getting to bed around 1am, time flies when you’re working hard on German! Lol.

I’m hoping the weather and my disposition will be better tomorrow, but the two are definitely linked so I’ll find out! I always appreciate prayers, especially as I go into two days of testing. Tomorrow we’re going to what was the last American checkpoint into East Germany which is near Fulda; look forward to more (and better) pictures tomorrow! 

[julieinfulda]

Here is a short video of the salsa night at Mea Mea! Who knew Fulda, Germany would be such a hub for amazing salsa dancers?? 

24.7.17

[julieinfulda]

24.7.17

Happy Monday! Today was a rainy day here in Fulda (as usual) and I can’t say much about classes except they were long and in German and long (as usual). Stella got a warning last week from Dr. Chalupa during seminar that she’ll dock Stella’s grade if she falls asleep in class any more, so that was pretty much the most exciting thing I did during class... keep her awake! 

Today we talked about Hitler in seminar. Before January, I would have told you that learning about the Second World War was my favorite part of history, but then I took HIST 421: Hitler and the Third Reich. It was by far the most difficult course I have taken, and it took a lot out of me emotionally. I’m an extremely emotional person, but reading and seeing and regularly talking about the atrocities committed during the 1930s-1940s made me numb to my emotions pretty much all last semester. The class was great, don’t get me wrong, and I learned so much, but it really was taxing in almost every way. So today when we were talking about Hitler and the National Socialist Party (Nazis) I was overcome with emotion that I didn’t feel all last semester, like it was all catching up to me.

So I was in a really sad mood all morning, and there was nothing really for me to do except cry, but I didn’t! Some of you (*cough cough* my family) may be surprised to hear that. But seriously my Hitler class in the spring took my emotions away from me. Instead I was extremely sad and just got Chinese food for lunch after the seminar class was over. 

German was rough today too, but for different reasons. We have our test on Wednesday in there but today we were still going over stuff like Passiv that really just hurts your brain and it wasn’t very fun. Here’s an example in English: 

I am petting the dog. (This sentence is in active present tense)

The dog is being pet by me. (This sentence is passive present)

And then after working with present tense we did stuff with the past forms, which just adds more verbs than seems necessary and is a big pain. But I am learning some! But after about an hour and a half of that, we had a short break and I decided to do some pushups and ab workouts to wake myself up, and just to feel a bit better. My friend Nick (from WVU) did the exercises with me so that was nice! We finished out the class with some review for the test, so it ended up being okay.

We took the bus back to our dorms after class, and I took a nap and watched a little TV before getting ready for dinner and Salsa party! Stella, Stella’s friend David, McKenna, and I went to dinner at Mea Mea Lounge which was where the salsa party was, and it was nice to just hang out! People started showing up about 9:30/10 to dance and we watched and danced a little until about 11:45 when we took a cab home. Anyone who knows me knows I only have one (really bad) dance move, so salsa dancing was fun but I wasn’t very good! Plus, the volleyball workshop and salsa workshop is always at the same time, so I never get to attend salsa. 

Anyways, it was a lot of fun! We’re trying to soak up the last week to the fullest and I think this Monday was a great start, especially since I got a nap in too! Tomorrow should be jam-packed, we have a full day of classes, our volleyball tournament, and I need to tutor McKenna in German and study for my own German test on Wednesday. It should be a ball! (lol, no pun intended)

[julieinfulda]

23.7.17

Best day ever! 

Seriously, today is what I would do on a normal lazy day back in the States, but hello, it’s Germany-- so so much better! 

I woke up throughout the morning, at 7, 8:30, 10, and noon... but kept falling back asleep until about noon when I got up and ate some breakfast. I stayed in my PJs all day and watched a ridiculous amount of How I Met Your Mother... and then started getting ready for dinner at about 5:30! Had some leftover Doener for lunch and it was a really nice break from gallavanting around the country on excursions. I think I finally kicked that cold, too! Lots of sleep just does wonders.

Stella wanted some of us to meet David (her friend that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog) at dinner, so a group of 6 of us met for dinner and drinks at the Havana Club, a restaurant right across from the Stadtschloss (near the Dom). I had a strawberry daiquiri and some pepperoni pizza, and it was really nice to just be with some people! It was Stella, David, myself, Garreth, Talena, and Nick, who are all from WVU. McKenna is coming back from Munich tonight so she couldn’t make it, and Denis was working on some homework. But overall it was a nice dinner! Our group was definitely attracting some attention for how loud we were... just fulfilling everyone’s stereotypes of Americans for the evening! 

After dinner we just took the bus home, I just showered and watched a couple more episodes-- it’s really getting good! Totally a boring day and not much to blog about, but I feel like this next week will be crazy busy so I’m glad to have gotten the time of rest. Two tests, a volleyball tournament, and experiencing everything else Fulda has to offer all before Saturday morning! I’m getting more sad for the upcoming trip home, but I can’t dwell on it, this week is going to be great. I have to get up for class tomorrow, so my fun Sunday is now at a close. 

[julieinfulda]

22.7.17

Today I took my third excursion of the weekend to Weimar! The past couple days have kicked my butt, so much activity and so much to do! But I’m just more thankful every day to be able to be here and enjoying every moment. Weimar was such a cute little town, and we also took a tour at Buchenwald Concentration Camp so it was overall a really nice but tough day.

This morning we had to wake up so darn early to catch the bus downtown! On weekends the bus schedule changes and it only comes once an hour, so we took the 7:07 bus downtown to meet everyone at 8:15 at the bus. I hung out with Wouter all day and it was really fun! He’s such an interesting guy... but he sure does talk a lot. We got food at the bakery near the train station and had lots of time to kill so we just ate and talked. I included a picture above of my chocolate croissant to just give you a visual of how awesome it is! The inside is also filled with chocolate. It was a good morning, two mornings in a row! We got to the bus and I sat with Wouter for the ride to Weimar, which was about 2 hours. I just napped, watched a little Dexter, and listened to my music and before I knew it we were there!

We stopped at a random mall to use the restroom (50 cents, of course. I miss America where you don’t pay to use the restroom, very common thing in Europe and even in Mexico). Then we walked to the city center to start our walking city tour! Our tour guide did a nice job, and she mostly concentrated on the history of Goethe and Schiller in the city, and only touched a little on the Weimar Republic years of 1919-1933. But it was still a lovely walking tour through the city. After it was done, our large group split up into smaller groups for free time and I was with Nick, Hannah, and Phoebe. We ate some delicious Bratwurst, which is a big deal for me to say since I don’t hotdogs or anything of the like, and walked around the city a bit for souvenir hunting! We ended up circling back to where our tour started, got some ice cream, and went back to where we were to meet everyone. We had too much free time in Weimar, it’s about the same size of Fulda, 60,000, and there wasn’t much to do despite the long and interesting history of the city. 

Once meeting up with everyone else, we walked back to the bus for the short drive over to Buchenwald. I visited Dachau last year while in Germany, so it wasn’t my first time at a concentration camp, but it was still just as hard to grapple with. So many people, about 65,000, lost their lives at Buchenwald. It was a men’s labor camp, but it may have well been a death camp due to the terrible conditions of the camp and the treatment prisoners received there. It was a nice day that did not match the mood of the place, this is one time where I wished it was raining to reflect the mood. However, the tour was very nice and the guide did a great job, just the subject matter is difficult to face. 

After Buchenwald we hopped in the bus and headed home, which took 3 hours because the bus driver took a wrong turn. We were on a windy road for the last hour and a couple people got car sick... thanks Route 7 for teaching me to hold my own! Lol

We got to Fulda about 8:35 and I got some food with Nick and Wouter before getting on our bus at 9:30 for the dorms. And I got a lovely surprise on the way back! Stella and her friend David got on the bus! I was happy to see her, she didn’t go on this excursion because David was visiting, so it was so fun to briefly catch up! I have a feeling I’m going to miss her so much, we’ve become fast friends. So we got to the dorms shortly after that and I’ve just been goofing off here because tomorrow I have NOTHING TO DO!! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 WHOLE WEEKS!! I was planning on going to visit my old babysitter Sandra, but it was just going to be such a long trip for such little time with her, and I’m already exhausted from this weekend-- I’m sure we’ll get together one day! But for now, I’m excited to sleep in, wear pajamas all day, and watch some serious TV. Bis bald! 

[julieinfulda]

21.7.17

Today was a really good but intense day! We woke up and got downtown at about 8:30 so we had some time for breakfast before hopping on the charter bus for Franconia, so I ate this amazing chocolate croissant and it was a good decision. 

The bus ride there was only about an hour and 15 minutes, only about 40 miles from Fulda. So that was nice! It was a perfect nap time. Not too many people went on this excursion so there was a lot of room on the bus and a lot of flexibility in general all day, so that was really nice! We got to Bad Bocklet at about 10:30 and took a tour of a castle there, the Schloss Aschach. The woman giving the tour was in character the whole time and was not used to giving English tours, so it wasn’t the best but I enjoyed seeing the castle! We had a picnic lunch after so that was nice! The program director hooked us up with fresh bakery items and it was delicious! We then took a short walk to where we were to start canoeing. There were 3-person canoes so McKenna steered while Stella and I paddled and we were killing it! We went about 5 or 6 miles down the Fraenkische Saale River and it was just so beautiful and nice out. Sunny at parts but it was mostly just cloudy and nice! The water was cold, but we didn’t get it in so that was a win! We saw 4 swans along the way and it was just a nice time! A lot of work though, and it brought me back to my church camp days. Good times!

So it took about 2 hours to canoe down the river so by the time we got out we were hungry and ready to leave. We waited for everyone and then walked to a boat dock where a bigger boat took us further down the river to Bad Kissingen where we had dinner at this cool restaurant. It was on the river, but had a ton of sand there and tried to make it seem beachy. The food was good and my drink was amazing, but it was a little pricey. We then hopped on the bus home and once back in Fulda a couple of us went to Havana Club (a restaurant and bar) for more drinks and then caught the 9:30 bus back to our dorms! 

Overall, a really good (but tiring) day! And I’m due to go on another great excursion tomorrow to Weimar and Buchenwald (the concentration camp) so it may be tough tomorrow as well, but in a different way. So looking forward to it! My cold got a lot better today, I think being outside helped a lot, and sleeping helped a lot! My bug bite/sting from yesterday looked a lot better this morning, so now its just itchy and have to let it run its course on my body. I lucked out though, my roommate Katie is in nursing at WVU so she’s been checking up on me! I’m happy with all the people I’ve met here, a week from tomorrow and I fly back to the US. It’s going by so fast! 

[julieinfulda]

Do20.7.17

I am writing this and it’s a reasonable hour of the night! I’m so happy to be home, we got here at 8pm from our excursion to Kassel, and it’s just nice to be ready for bed before 2am. Today was a decent day, definitely not one of my favorites because I did come down with a cold so all day was just really a hassle.

This morning was really nice though, we only had an hour and a half of seminar and that was it for class! So nice! Stella and I went to the pharmacy to pick up some cold medicine for me, we went shopping at H&M, and then got McDonalds before catching the 12:19 train to Kassel! It was a busy morning, shopping always tires me out. But overall, really nice morning! The train ride to Kassel was about an hour and a half, and it went by fairly quick and I got to take a short nap. We pretty much started the city tour right off the train, so that was nice! Not a lot of waiting around.

So the reason we went to Kassel is because every 5 years there’s this art exhibit set up all around the city called Documenta, so we went to look at the art! The city tour was actually more of an outside-exhibit tour, which was really cool! I just think I wasn’t having any of it today, just really wasn’t in the mood. The coolest thing we saw (I think) was the Parthenon of Books, which was being constructed in a city square. The books are all ones that have been or currently are banned from any sort of country, state, school, or organization-- from all around the world. It was really interesting to see it, and just was so cool! After looking at that we saw some other outside exhibitions and the tour was over! We didn’t all come back to Fulda together, and the way we did it was they bought tickets for us that can be used with up to 5 people, so we had to go back in groups of five, so we got into our little group after the tour and did our own thing. We decided to come back early (thank goodness) on the 6:10 train and it was about 4:45 when the tour was over, so we had some time to stop in at a museum! It was pretty cool, but I have definitely been to better art museums... I was spoiled with the MFA in Houston! My group was Wouter, Stella, Jahniece (from NYC) and I, we couldn’t find a 5th person. 

After the museum we went to find some food and ended up in a sort of mall, but found this AMAZING burger place that was super cheap! So we ate, it was delicious, and we caught the train home! Everything was going super great until about 2 minutes after I got off the train. Apparently some sort of bug stung me because I felt this burning pinch on my stomach and this welt appeared... So I have this weird bite/sting on my stomach and it hurts and swelled up a bit, so hopefully it’s all better in the morning! Not the best end to my day, but I’m just happy that sleep is within my grasp at a reasonable hour. Tomorrow I need full strength because we’re kayaking for 3 hours!! Apparently we’re going to tour a castle and kayak around it, so that’ll be really interesting! 

Definitely keep you posted on my bite/sting and the kayaking, but for now-- actual sleep!

[julieinfulda]

Co19.7.17

Today was the BEST DAY EVER after my presentation this morning! I was a total wreck this morning... running on 4 hours of sleep the past 2 nights is not how I usually roll, and I was super nervous for the presentation and was just in a bad state. But, after a long time in seminar listening to history, Vita and I did our presentation and it went as well as could be expected! I stumbled on my speaking a bit, but tried my best not to rely on my notes or the slides. As we were talking about Jewish culture it was really cool to get the perspective of a Jewish person on our presentation-- and a guy from Israel, Yehonatan, came up to Vita after our presentation and told her how much he appreciated it. Such a win! I think we did really well, overall :)

So after that ordeal, I was on top of the world (and still am)! I went to lunch with Klaske and Stella after helping Stella with her fairy tale project. We had the Asian place down the street from the Transfer (again) which is great because they give you so much food, I took a box home! It was nice to speak more with Klaske, she’s from the Netherlands and is just the sweetest thing. After lunch we had German, where most of the time was spent doing presentations, so I just got to relax! Toward the end of the class, though, we did some work with Passiv and Aktiv sentences in present, perfect, and praeteritum, so that was a little tough. It was so so hot out today and the room we’re in has no AC and we were all dying of heat. So, not the most pleasant time, but really I was just happy to be there and with no stress. 

After dinner, all the WVU people that came went to the Stadtschloss to take a group picture! Most of us had on our WVU shirts and had a proper photo shoot, with posing and just having a lot of fun! Then, we hopped on the bus to go to the pool! It was actually sunny this time, so we got to swim and lay out a bit before it started lightning and storming. Stella, McKenna, and I went to Kaufland (directly translated to “Buy Land”) for some groceries... AKA wine and chocolate. By the time we left the store it was storming like crazy as we waited for the bus back to the dorms.

I showered and ate the other half of the Doener I had last night while watching How I Met Your Mother, while Stella was in the kitchen making mashed potatoes! She’s just so wonderful. So I had some mashed potatoes and then our friend Wouter came in and sang “Halleluhjah” by Leonard Cohen for us! Since the other night, we’ve been pestering him to sing for us, and he finally did! He is also from the Netherlands and is just the most interesting guy. He speaks like 5 languages (all well) and is good at volleyball and singing-- he can do it all! His voice is surprisingly lovely, so it was such a nice evening! 

To top off the night, Stella and I just finished watching Cry-Baby (1990) which is a really big step in our friendship! I only watch that movie, my favorite Johnny Depp movie, with those who I know will appreciate it; it’s a real-friendship move. So that was really exciting! So although I’m still going to bed late (about 1am), at least it’s because of something I love and not something that stresses me out. Plus, tomorrow we only have 1.5 hours of seminar and then an excursion to Kassel! I can sleep on the train-- this is super good news. But I definitely need to get some sleep, today during German my nose started running and hasn’t stopped since then, so I really really don’t want to get sick. Pray for me! 

[julieinfulda]

18.7.17

I feel like during the week I don’t have much to say! Today was a super long day, especially since I went to bed so late last night and woke up early for class. McKenna and I biked to the Transfer building this morning, and my backpack was so heavy from my laptop, school stuff, and volleyball stuff. But! We made it to class with time to spare and feeling more awake than when riding the bus (so that’s a perk!).

Today in seminar we played a Jeopardy review game, talked about the causes of WW1, and watched Stella and Nick’s presentation, so it was a good class overall! When we had our 15-minute break during the class I had to grab some coffee though, I was feeling the lack of sleep at about 10. Stella was really nervous for her presentation because she’s not confident in her German, so I was a good friend and organized her school papers instead of listening to her project (which she appreciated) but I’m sure it was great! I’m getting nervous for my presentation tomorrow... after translating everything I would want to say in English it just is now a whole bunch of complicated German so it may be a struggle. I hate to rely on Vita, but I think she’s carrying the team right now. I feel largely useless when it comes to speaking over the intricacies of Jewish culture, so it’ll be interesting at best! I really would hate to have my worst grade in my college career come from a summer German course, so I want to do well on this project, as it’s 35% of my grade.

Anyways, after seminar we had a shortened lunch period, only an hour rather than an hour and a half because my German teacher wanted to make this week nicer for us. On Thursday we have an excursion starting in the afternoon and that means that German was only going to be an hour and a half on that day. Instead of making us come for that little bit, our teacher told us to show up early today and tomorrow to make up that time and just not come on Thursday. So today and tomorrow we have 4 hours of German... so that’s pretty brutal but Thursday will be nice! During the lunch break there was a picnic out in the Stadtschloss gardens that a couple people from the Stress Management Seminar organized. There was sandwich stuff and chips, and it was really nice to just eat outside with some friends! Although I’m feeling more and more that my diet here is just sandwiches.... it’s casual. 

We went to German and immediately started out with projects. Klaske from the Netherlands went first and she spoke over a fairy tale from her country and although I didn’t get much of what she said, it seemed really interesting! Then Phoebe went with Johnny Appleseed, then Nick with Sleepy Hollow, and then me with John Henry! I think everyone liked the Disney short and I think the presentation couldn’t have gone better for me! I felt comfortable and it was nice to share my interest of this tall tale with everyone! We did a lot of grammar after I went, so the hours passed by slowly after that. I’m just happy that one of the projects is done! And this time tomorrow, two of two will be done! Just have to get through seminar tomorrow. 

After class we waited around for an hour or so to go to volleyball! The salsa workshop that usually happens at the same time as volleyball was cancelled so a TON of people came to volleyball! Like 24! We had enough people to occupy both sand courts to the max. It was really fun! Way better than last week. Most of us took a short dip in the pool after playing, and that was really nice too. A bunch of people are going to the pool tomorrow since it’s supposed to be hot, so that should be fun! Vita and I were supposed to work on our project this evening together after volleyball, but she decided to have us work online instead.... so McKenna and I biked up to the dorms and I got to work on my project. Again, its about 1:30am here now and I’ve been working on my project all night. I just don’t feel prepared at all, and that’s scary since tomorrow we present. 

Another long day ahead, but I know it’ll be great after seminar tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but I’m still worried and nervous for it. Tomorrow should be an easier day after the presentation, so I’m looking forward to that. So tired, need to sleep. Bis bald! 

[julieinfulda]

17.7.17

I really can’t say much about today, except it was a lot of class and a lot of working on classwork after class! 

Waking up this morning was tougher than usual, probably because this weekend I got used to sleeping in a tad more, so all day I was feeling sluggish. Once we got to the Transfer building, it didn’t help that we were still talking about art styles before WW1 and that just puts me to sleep like nothing else. I’m hoping seminar will get better, presentations are about to be in full swing so hopefully that will be more interesting! I really like when we talk about history, because that’s much easier to follow. With art, I can barely interpret that for you in English... forget in German! It’s just getting harder every day, it seems...

After a super long seminar class, I took the bus to the Hochschule and had lunch at the Mensa. Fish sticks and fries and apricots... and it wasn’t so bad! They give you so much food there and its relatively cheap. A group of us walked back to the Transfer just to get some exercise in, and then started back up with German class! That class wasn’t so bad today, but it just was slow and I was super tired. During our 15 minute break I grabbed a cappuccino so the second half of the class was much better! I volunteered to present my fairytale tomorrow, so that set me up for a fun evening! 

After class a bunch of us went grocery shopping and hopped on the 5:15 bus back to the dorms. Since then, I just was working on my two presentations. My John Henry presentation for tomorrow and then my Jewish culture one on Wednesday. No rest for the weary! Stella and I did take a walk from 9-9:45pm just around the neighborhood here to stretch our legs and get some fresh air-- it was nice to take a little break from all the work! After that it was back nose to the grindstone working on these projects. It’s now 1am and I”m just now thinking about shower and bed, so it’ll be a late night yet. I have faith that it’ll all be done, and Wednesday evening will be a good time! Just have to make it to then. As always, prayers are appreciated :) 

But for now, I definitely need to think about getting to bed for a long day ahead tomorrow! Tschuss! 

[julieinfulda]

16.7.17

Holy moly today was a good but long day (as per usual)! I don’t know what it is about travelling, but it really takes it all out of you. This morning I got to sleep in (!!) for like the first time this trip... and sleeping in here is about 8am! My body woke me up at 6:30 and it was so nice to be able to fall back asleep until 8. 

So I woke up, had a little breakfast, and packed my backpack before calling a taxi to take me to the train station. The bus on Sunday doesn’t run until about 10 so I had to call a cab and it was typical! I got in, told her where I wanted to go, she took me, and I paid an outrageous price for the Sunday morning ride! But, it got me where I needed to be at the right time, so I really can’t complain. I waited on the platform for my train and got on the 9:48 train to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station)! It all went really smooth until I got to the main train station. There were so many people, no real common seating area, and my texts to McKenna weren’t going through. BUT I got a drink at Starbucks, sat at a little bench, and waited for McKenna to get there (once my texts did go through, she was on her way to meet me). I waited all of 2 minutes before spotting a girl from my program, Connie, walking by! I called out to her and just was saying hi when about that time McKenna saw us and came over. When Connie heard that we were going to watch some quidditch she was game so we all went together! McKenna traveled from Ireland this morning and Connie was passing through from Amsterdam-- they’re such cool people honestly. 

We had some time before the matches started (at 1:30 and it was 11 at this point) and McKenna was starved so we went to a Mexican place down from the train station. It was amazing! I had nachos, McKenna had tacos, and Connie wasn’t hungry so she got a beer. We stayed there until about 12:45 when we then made our way back to the train station, bought city tickets for it, and rode it outside of the city a little bit to where the quidditch tournament was being held. It was a 25 minute walk from that station to the fields, so we got our steps in! The quidditch tournament we went to was a fantasy one, meaning that the teams consisted of players that didn’t necessarily play together on a regular basis, and anyone could sign up to play. If I had realized that sooner, I would have gone to participate, but the timing was bad! So we just watched. It was really fun to watch McKenna get a grasp for the sport and Connie napped so it was a good time by all! It really just made me excited for the fall when I get back to Morgantown and can start building up a team again! I was a little burned out at the end of spring semester but now I’m ready to get at it! 

We made our way back to the small train station outside the city after the last game of the tournement (so we watched 2 long games in total) and then to the main train station. From there, we bought tickets back to Fulda on a regional train, not like the long-distance (faster) trains like I’ve ridden on before. Luckily, we were 30 minutes out from the last regional train going to Fulda so it worked out perfect! We got on the train and it took so many stops, but it got us to Fulda at about 7:00pm. We took a taxi back to avoid waiting for the bus and that ended my long journey for the day! 

Vita and I decided to work a little more on our projects today, so I rode my bike down to her dorm at about 9 and stayed an hour and a half or so and biked back. Honestly it’s just been a long day of travel and work. So much for a relaxing day off! Our presentation for that class is on Wednesday so that will be my focus for the next couple days, and then my German class presentation on John Henry is sometime this week as well. Busy third week of the program! I can’t believe 2 whole weeks have already passed here, I’ve had the best time so far! The people here are great and I’m more thankful every day for the opportunity to be here. What a life! 

[julieinfulda]

15.7.17

Today was absolutely amazing! The bus ride was short, it didn’t rain at all (equivalent of a Christmas miracle in Germany), and Würzburg was just the most amazing little city. I enjoyed myself so much today! 

I woke up and was getting ready along with my suit-mate Katie (also from WVU) when we realized that the bus schedule changes on Saturday and that we had to catch the 8:07 bus instead of the 8:22 bus like we had planned... so we quickly grabbed all our stuff at about 8:03 and told Stella real quick and we ran to catch the bus. We really have to nail that schedule down, it’s been a pain in the butt for me this weekend! So we got to downtown and bought breakfast at the bakery before boarding the bus for Würzburg. The ride was only an hour/hour and a half, so it was lovely compared to yesterday’s trip to Nuremberg! We got there and immediately started a tour of The Würzburg Residence which was built in 1744, fully decorated in 1780, and held the seat of the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg until 1802 when Napoleon controlled the region. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures so that was a bummer, it was gorgeous inside! But the outside was grand and lovely, we got to explore the gardens after dinner. 

After touring the Residence, we started a city tour. I liked the guide we had today the best of them so far, she was tall and spoke with a loud and clear voice, and had a lot of really interesting things to say! That also just comes with covering such a cool city. I didn’t know the place existed until signing up for this excursion, but I was so pleasantly surprised! It’s a city of only about 130,000 residents and one out of every 10 of those residents are students at the university, so it’s a really young city, and reminded me a lot of Morgantown but a bit bigger and older and cooler. Not to mention, it’s wine country!! I really wouldn’t have minded to stay there a lot longer.

After our tour we hiked up this giant hill to the city’s fortress for a picnic. It was a rough time getting up there, but the view was gorgeous! You could see the whole city. For lunch we had bread and a cheese spread, sausage, cucumbers, radishes, and wine (of course)-- all apparently traditional Franconian food. In 1803 Franconia was given to the kingdom of Bavaria, so really Würzburg is in Bavaria but the people there still don’t like to be called Bavarian, even if Franconia hasn’t existed as a state in over 200 years. So we had traditional Franconian food for lunch, and it was okay, a little weird for my tastes but I tried it! We then had some free time where Stella, Denis, and I went down to the market square to look for souvenirs (with no luck) and then did a bit of actual shopping before heading back to The Residence to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner and wine at the wine festival they were having there! I had some amazing white wine (that was actually enjoyable to drink) and shared Flammkuchen and homemade potato chips with Stella. So so yummy! After eating we wandered around the gardens (wine in tow) until it was time to hop on the bus back.

Such a lovely day! A guy in my program, Tom from Australia, has a birthday tomorrow so a lot of people went out to celebrate with him tonight, but I decided to stay in because I’m watching German quidditch tomorrow!! I’m meeting McKenna in Frankfurt tomorrow to watch a tournament that the Frankfurt Mainticores are hosting in the city. She’s flying back from Dublin tomorrow morning so it should work out perfectly! We were planning on shopping and getting lunch before going to the tournament, but realized that NOTHING is open in Germany on Sundays except the public transit and McDonalds. So, I’ll be packing lots of snacks and am largely excited to go! I’m still not totally comfortable with riding the trains, so that’s another fun experience I’ll have tomorrow (again). Also, I’ll be getting a taxi to the train system because Sunday. It should be fun, I’m excited! I get to sleep in (until like, 8) so I’m looking forward to that. Best day today, excited for tomorrow... Germany is just amazing.

[julieinfulda]

14.7.17

Today was a super long (but fun) day in Nuremberg! I woke up this morning about the same time I do for school, so I didn’t get to sleep in AND I totally underestimated how long it would take to get ready... so I was pretty much running out the door this morning to catch the bus with Stella. When we got downtown we got McDonald’s breakfast and headed to the bus! We had one charter bus for all of us and I sat with Stella there and back. The ride there was nice, it seemed pretty long, but I napped a little and listened to Harry Styles and Lorde the whole way so it was great! 

When we arrived in Nuremberg we went immediately to the Germanic National Museum and toured it with a guide and had a little time to wander around on our own. The museum was founded in 1852 and has items in its collection dating to 600,000 BCE and that is so so cool! I really enjoyed it, it was full of paintings, ceramics, weapons, sculptures, and so much other stuff collected from all German-speaking lands for a while now! It was really cool, I could’ve spent the entire day there and not have been satisfied with the visit, there was just so much to see! 

After the museum we walked to the city center where Stella and I got the most amazing lunch ever! We had Coca-Cola Light (AKA Diet Coke) and both ordered schnitzel with ham and cheese INSIDE of it! With a side of french fries! It was so amazing. I didn’t eat dinner because it was so much food! After lunch we met up with the group and took a walking city tour for an hour or so, it was nice! After the tour we walked for a long long time and got to a small Biergarten where most had dinner and beer, I just hung out because I didn’t need dinner and don’t like beer! After that we got on the bus and headed home! 

I really liked Nuremberg, the city is really rich in history and seemed like a decent-sized city. I would love to go back! I didn’t see nearly as much as I wanted to, so I hope to get back there one day! Tomorrow we go to Würzburg for another day trip, so it’s really shaping up to be a busy weekend! Overall, great day, and looking forward to sleeping in about 20 minutes longer tomorrow!