We went to Lubeck two weeks ago. It’s a smaller city in the North of Germany by the North Sea. It had a central “island” with all the main attractions (old city with all the churches and other historical buildings). The tour of the city we had planned on the last day fell through… I guess the guide just didn’t feel like showing up and decided against informing us of this. So the only planned activity we really had was a boat tour through all the canals and rivers of the city. Which turned out to be awesome, everyone was still a little hung-over from the night before, so we could all at least sit down and see some of the city rather then have to walk.
One church we went into seemed to be turned into an art gallery, where it was full of plants with IV bags filled with green liquid hooked up to them. Although I’m aware I lack any artistic sense, I thought it was pretty cool.
During the nights, we typically went down by the ports and sat by the water with a couple drinks when the sun went down. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip, just to hang out and see the sun fall down behind the boats and port buildings. We just went out to a couple bars the first night along the river. The second night we went to a club that was a huge boat docked on the side of the river. It didn’t seem too large from the outside, but after you went in and walked downstairs, it was a lot bigger, with two separate dance floors with different music and a nice patio on the top to cool off on. We ended up having an awesome time then and finally walking back.
Waking up the next day on less then three hours of sleep, which seems to becoming the norm in these situations, we left to go to the beach for the day. Although the beach was real pretty and pretty much empty… it was that way for a reason. It was sunny out, but the strong wind coming off the cold North Sea made it so that even I was forced to keep my shirt on for the most of the time. Nevertheless, some of the other students decided to jump in the water, what I wasn’t nearly ready to do with the cold temperature mixed with the effects I was still feeling from the last night. I know I might have not lived up to some of the expectations, seeing how I’m Canadian, and live in a igloo year round, most people thought I would jump right in. The bus ride home was pretty uneventful, really just one giant sleep-fest, as everyone was trying to catch up on the sleep lost.
Now on some random things I’ve done or noticed in the past couple weeks
-As far as schoolwork goes, each class has a 10-15 page paper and a presentation/project. Both of these things aren’t exactly easy, but the odd thing is that there is no final exam. So as soon as you finish the 2 components of the class, there isn’t much left for you to do, I really don’t even think the prof would notice if you weren’t there. All us international students have a supplemental 3 hours of tutorial each week for each class to get our credit hours up, as we leave before the official semester is over. These tutorials can help discuss certain topics the prof only covered in German, but most of the time it’s the tutor watching you read or teaching you random things just to pass the time. My one tutor just lets us watch some movies that are related to scientific images for half the sessions, so it’s not all bad… From what I have seen here (not saying it is all this way) but I am much happier with the smaller workload/class then back home.
- I have recently finished a month without meat. I didn’t really think I would be able to do it, as the last attempt ended after three days at a buffet at the Calgary Stampede. I think I ended up eating more meat at that buffet then I would’ve with just my normal eating for three days. Needless to say, this attempt went much better. I was pretty curious to see how I would feel health wise, but I don’t really too much happened. I probably lost about 5 pounds, but I’ve also been running a ton as well so that could be the reason. Not sure if it is because of the lack of meat, but I notice I was getting tired a lot easier and earlier at night, something that I didn’t exactly enjoy. It was easier then I thought here, as I normally don’t eat anything meaty for breakfast, the Mensa (student subsidized cafeteria) has a vegetarian meal everyday, and for supper I usually cook with some friends and flatmates who are vegetarian or eat mostly vegetarian. The hardest part is when your traveling or out on the town and all the convenient food has meat in it. But overall, I’m happy I tried it and now have a little idea of what it’s like to be a vegetarian.
-I was lucky enough to meet up with some people I worked with last summer. This was the internship I had with Mike (or I could say Dr. Mike now… as he got his Ph.D when I was there last summer) in a animal physiology lab. We meet up for a BBQ at his lab in Giessen (which is only about 30 min away by train from Marburg), and I got to see some other familiar faces from there. It was awesome to see them all again.
-I might have talked about this a little before, but I’m really enjoying the location of where I’m living. It’s on the edge of town, so if I decide to go running, it takes me only a few minutes and I’m on a trail running through the woods. There is also a medieval tower that you can run up to, and see over the city. My place is still close enough from the city so that I can walk home if I don’t feel like waiting for a bus or they have stopped running. And it’s also cool that the majority of my friends live in buildings no more then 5 min away as it’s a pretty huge residence complex. One funny thing is that it’s not in the nicest area of town, so you can watch all the young degenerates (aka bonehead) get up to no good. You get to know which ones are getting up to what.
-Talking about German people. I’ve spoke a little about this on my blog last year, but I’ll touch on it again. Some people might get the impression that Germans are all business, without much emotion. Some people get this impression at first, almost feeling brushed off, but I think it’s too easy to take it the wrong way. It’s not that they want to be rude, they just aren’t there to be overly superficially nice to you, they won’t try covering up how they feel. That being said, once you make a friends with a German, they can be some of the nicest people in the world. I’ve noticed they really mean what they say. At supper a couple weeks ago, I was telling two of my flatmates how Berlin is my favorite city in the world. Turns out one of them, Patrick, grew up in East Germany until age 7 or 8 when the wall fell. He stayed there for 2 hours telling me absolutely unbelievable stories about his time there, and stories of his family. I can’t remember the last time I was so interested or enthralled by a conversation. I could listen to these stories for ever. Another flatmate, Michaela, was with us, and the next day, she gives me her memory stick with a whole bunch of information and reading about Berlin she had. Another day I was practicing my German with her, and stated how I’d like to practice more. She comes back with a couple movies in German and gives them to me so I can watch them when I get back and practice. I could give plenty more example of this, with them and other Germans I’ve befriended (both this year and last), how they insist on making sure your having a good time. I describe them as having a much more truthful dialogue and friendship. If they invite you for supper or to hang out, they truly want to, they aren’t just inviting as a formality or to be nice.
-Going biking soon! My parents are coming to visit on Friday. So after meeting them at the airport, heading back to Marburg, we’ll have the weekend to visit. There is a festival in town, and it’ll be nice to show them where I live, the old part of the city, the castle and churches and whatever else in town. After the weekend, they’re gonna head off on the bike trip, I’ll finish my last couple days of school, then take the train to meet up with them with my bike. I’m pretty excited to see them and have a nice break from school, as I’ve been writing papers and working on projects for a lot of my last couple weeks.
One of my favorite places to hang out in Marburg is near the river that runs right by the University cafeteria. There are a bunch of benches on one side, and a bunch of grass and green space on the other side. After lunch, we'll usually go lay on the grass for a while. We go there to BBQ on the weekends sometimes, but it's literally packed with other students doing the same. It a real relaxed and fun place.
I probably forgot plenty of things.. and probably will forget to write them on here once I do remember. Sorry...?
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