Freiburg, Germany

Freiburg, Germany

In retrospect, my 10 hour bus ride from Prague, Czech Republic to Freiburg, Germany wasn’t so bad. I munched on my pre-made nutella + raspberry jam sandwiches, listened to my iTouch (Mr. Touchy-feely) read some Harry Potter et la coupe de feu, and managed to fit in a nap or two. In fact, all went quite well until I watched a man drop off his daughter and her friends: he came onto the bus, talked to them a few minutes, waited outside next to the bus for another 15 minutes, and watched and waved goodbye as the bus pulled away from Nürnberg. I immediately could picture my dad doing it. In fact, he has done it several times at airports. Anyway, in my growing homesickness, the whole scene made me miss my dad something awful and my eyes began to water. I decided to just go in for the kill and listen to Ben Fold’s “Gracie” and cry for 3 minutes. Afterwards, I felt a bit better. Right. Anyway, I got to Freiburg around 7pm Friday. Trev came to pick me up and head back to his residence, coincidentally located in an area of the city named after a French general who designed Lille’s Citadelle. I was too sleepy to be very exciting, so we mainly ended up watching “Goldeneye” (my third James Bond movie!) and falling asleep. We started Saturday off right with eggs + toast for breakfast. Trev took me on a tour of the city, complete with the market outside the Münster, the Münster itself, the Haribo store (!!), a stone alligator, Erasmus’ house, the 2 towers of the city, ad a sweet lookout point from a mountain. Oh, and bratwurst from a vendor at the market. Delicious! We walked to his friend’s residence, located just next to a really awesome park. We had a small cookout, hamburgers included! I met more of Trev’s friends and I’m very pleased to report that they are all very friendly, funny, and likeable. After sitting in the park for hours, we ended up switching between apartments for hanging out, chatting, and general fun. Until 5:30am. Yep.
We took the tram home to crash and woke up late (read: I took too long getting ready) so had to runt o the tram stop to go have Easter Brunch at Ashley’s apartment. Ashley happens to be a linguistics major at Iowa as well, so we talked a bit about courses and spent the day watching movies (Zodic and Quantum of Solac (in German)). When Trev and I got back to his place that night, I was able to skype with my family!

On Monday, Trev, Alyssa and I hopped onto a train to go to Schluchsee, a beautiful lake in the black forest. We attempted to get some schoolwork done, but I mainly watched other people and ate the cookies that I had brought for our picnic. Following Alyssa’s dramatic recapturing of my notes as they blew away, we went back to Freiburg. Later on, we went to O’Kelley’s Irish Pub, had some beer, and participated in the pub quiz, which I found to be loads of fun.

Trev has class on Tuesdays, so I did some preparation for my takehome exam while he was gone. After I made potato wedges and we watched a few Law and Order episodes, Trev took me back into the city to get ice cream. I had a cone of chocolate hazelnut and Bailey’s. Mmmmmmmmmmm. We walked a bit, returned home for a strange variation on schnitzel (that was yummy all the same, I assure you), then went to David’s. Or we tried to. He wasn’t checking his phone, nor buzzing us up, and the park was fairly empty. Trev and I walked most of the way home and realed. We unsuccessfully tried to watch Dr. No, but gave up and went to sleep instead. Now, as I write, I am on my train from Strasbourg to Lille. TGV are fast. I mean, that’s the point: train à grande vitesse. High speed train. But seriously,it’s amazing to watch the scenery go by once the train really starts chugging along. We actually slowed to a stop earlier and waited 5-10 minutes due to a security threat of some sort. There’s still about 2.5 hours left of my trip and it appears we’re just now arriving at Lorraine station. Mmm, quiche Lorraine… And mmm, Mumford and Sons on Mr. Touchyfeely… My window is starting to be splattered with rain and it’s nice. My plan is to continue working/studying/planning. I do believe an academic update is in order for this blog…

A plus tard!

La vie, la vie, la vie avec des amis.

Righto, friends.

Been another fair bit of time, and I do think it's time to update with some hilarious photos, and assurances that I am trying my darnedest to enjoy the rest of my time here with the people who have made it such a lovely experience.


About a month ago, my Irish penpal m'a rendu visite. It was lovely to actually meet him after more than two years of correspondence, and safe to say we got on fairly well. The first evening, we went to dinner with Laura, Georgie, and Jeremiah, before Laura, James and I headed across the street to the orchestra concert. Our dinner was at La Patatiere, which is a delicious baked potato restaurant and so much food none of us could finish, and the concert included works by Beethoven, Wagner, and Strauss. Friday night, after having blown up balloons, baked cupcakes, and a short trip to La Piscine (a museum in Roubaix), we threw a St. Patrick's Day party chez Georgie and Laura which was oodles of fun. We found time to go to le Marche de Wazemmes, see "Never Let Me Go" at a really nice, small movie theater, walk the perimeter of the Citadelle, enjoy the zoo, and wander around Lille a bit. Overall, I'm so pleased he could come see me and stay, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again in Dublin when I travel there with my family in May.

Nachos. Gettin' down on Friiiiidaaaaaaaay.Vianney is SO pro at making photos awesome.
James. Me. Lookin' awful.La Piscine.

Also in March, the Club Angellier of Lille 3 hosted a "rock party" night at the bar Le Saloon. A professor of a class on London and members of the club are organizing a trip to London for Lille 3 students, which is coincidentally happening right now. Two of our friends, Vianney and Saskia, were the main organizers and I'm certain they've done an excellent job. :) Anyway, this "rock party" was really meant to be a bit of a fundraiser and was inspired by The Clash's "London Calling". It was a jolly time with friends, as usual. Le Saloon is particularly awesome because they have lots of American decorations (license plates, ESPN on the TV, a dollar bill on the wall...)

Jeremiah and Baptiste. :D
Georgie and Jeremiah.
That IS a Phillies symbol...
Me, Georgie, Rory.
Vianney, once more makin' the photo great.
Friendsfriendsfriends.


We had a bit of a masquerade for Jeremiah's birthday at the bar called Drugstore. (Yes, really.) Also related to this, Jeremiah is a wonderful chef, and he made us a very delicious meal of orange duck, au gratin potatoes, and a faaabulous salad with strawberries and feta and almonds! :D He also made us Jambalaya back in March. Another very delicious meal we had recently was chicken pie with roast potatoes, followed up by a few raspberry + chocolate muffins made by Rory. Soo-purb.

Vianney's mask was terrifying.
Tous ensemble.
Jambalaya night.
WE WANT FOOD.
Santeeeeeeee!
Georgie, Laura, Gregory, Jeremiah.


Laura had two of her friends from school (the University of Leeds) come visit for a long weekend as well. The girls were lovely, and it was my first trip to the Beaurepaire creperie downtown. Sooooo good. They all peer pressured/tricked me into ordering a Speculoos crepe for dessert...

Georgie and I ventured out of the city a bit to meet Rory and Anna in Parc Barbieux which is absolutely lovely and green and happy.
Men playing Boules. Georgie was very excited and wanted a photo.

We also had an early birthday party for Georgie (who turns 21 in two days, on the 18th! Yahooooo! Joyeux anniversaire <3), themed as a Mad Hatter Tea Party. Really, we just sort of dressed a bit wacky and had a cheese board, and made super awesome "eat me!" and "drink me!" tags for things. We even made little party favor cups with a playing card, a hat with a quote from the Alice in Wonderland novel, and some candies inside.

Our cute little cups!
Falling over. Nothing out of the ordinary..
Hannahhh.
Emma, Alex, and Hannah.
Loic and Clemence. :D
Hahahahahhaahaha.
RABBITS.
:)
"Drink me" tags.


Brian, my homeboy from York, had a "grosse teuf" the other night which ended up being great fun. We had hamburgers, a small child (Brian's host family little brother) trying to give everyone snacks and beers, some dancing, some photos, and lots of good times.


Jeremiah, Anna, Clemence, Georgie, Spike, meeeeee.
Georgie.
Bustin' a move.
Bustin' better moves.
We found some play swords..
And a tiny chair.
=O
We're very serious Pennsylvanians..

Otherwise, it's mainly been trying to spend time with my friends before we all start returning to our homes. Georgie and Laura, who have been my stability and my love and my sunshine all this time (also chefs who feed me delicious food all the time), return to England tomorrow. We have made plans to get together again before I return home in a month, but it still feels a bit like a desperate grab to see each other again. We've been spending copious amounts of time together eating, walking, drinking tea, going to the zoo, eating, taking some pictures, watching movies, eating, laughing, etc, etc, eating, etc... (We mainly eat.)
Georgie at Wazemmes.Wazemmes. We really did go to class. At 8:30am..

Meert: fancy pastries for fancy people.
Nomnomnomnom...


A plus <3