A Tearful Goodbye

What a busy week!  Since having recovered from my sickness I've been doing so much.  So here's the long and short of it.  On Tuesday, my friends and I decided to visit the town of Rothenburg, a city that is still contained within its medieval walls.  We hopped on a train after classes were over with the idea that we would be able to see the town and visit one of not some of the town's many museums.  We discovered soon after our arrival that all of the museums had closed before we arrived, were only open on the weekend, or were closed during the tourist off-season.  However, we still had the opportunity to take pictures of this absolutely amazing town in all of its ancient glory.  This made the trip more than worth our effort, especially since we arrived during sunset, which cast the down in a delightfully dramatic light.  The pictures were amazing!  On top of this, Rothenburg, being such a tourist attraction has more souvenir shops than anywhere else we've been.  I was able to find both a German and an Austrian flag.  My spirits were further bolstered after having a full conversation with the Germans working at the souvenir shop.  It felt so good to put my speaking abilities to the test and see that, yes, I had improved since attending the institute. 

 

Currently, the background on my computer.

 

Wednesday brought with it the opportunity to visit the Haller Löwenbrauerei, the local brewery.  A group of us from the Institute were treated to a full tour of the facilities by one of the Institute faculty members.  She showed us the whole process of brewing from the hops to the bottling, and we even got to try out the freshly brewed beer on tap right at the bottom of one of the tanks!  The automated bottling plant was perhaps the most interesting part, where we got to see all of the machinery at work.  We were then treated to as much beer as we wanted along with dinner, which consisted of some kind of hot dog-meatloaf and pickled potatoes.  It was very tasty, very German, and an excellent compliment to the fresh beer.  Well worth it.

 

 

On Thursday, we decided to visit ruins that Rachel had discovered on her own a week or so ago.  These ruins are within Schwäbisch Hall itself, set high on a hill overlooking a good majority of the town.  It seems to have once been a fortress for protecting the town (I later learned that it is 1,200 years old) and had since crumbled.  There were catacombs, turrets, towers, and tunnels, all in various stages of ruin and much of it covered in ivy.  It was absolutely full of Indiana Jones excitement and I took a disgusting amount of pictures.  It was a very satisfying sight to see after having hiked all the way up a very steep hill to get there.  We have vowed to return with a picnic lunch.

 

  

Thursday evening brought with it my second meeting with my "tandem partner."  I met Beate, a middle-aged mother, on Sunday for our first meeting at a local cafe.  The idea was that I would help her improve her English and she would help me improve my German.  The first meeting (Sunday) was somewhat awkward since the fact that we were complete strangers was somewhat compounded by the language barrier.  However, our second meeting (Thursday) went much more smoothly since we had gotten to know each other.  Beate has a 12-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter and lives in town, near the castle-church we visited on our first weekend.  We talk about all sorts of things, most often related to hobbies and interests and the differences between America and Deutschland.  It really does work well as an opportunity to exercise my German and it is fascinating to get to know someone from such a different world view.

 

Thursday night was the last of the Goethe parties to be held this month.  Many of the international students I've gotten to know so well are leaving after this month, and this was the last opportunity to hang out with them and say goodbye.  And Friday was our final day of class for the month.  I will miss the class that I've gotten to know so well.  I've come to love all the international quirks and it was extremely hard to say goodbye.  This was especially true when Pawel, a Russian student gave each of the class-members an individualized gift and handwritten letter.  He gave me a Russian Christmas tree ornament and a bottle of Russian vodka inside a giant Russian doll, with the following explanation in his letter: he had heard that I had been sick earlier in the month and wanted to give me some kind of medicine.  In Russia, he says, the best medicine is vodka.  You can't make this stuff up.
 

Top: Terrada (Japan), Pawel (Russia), Ana (Venezuela), Frau Lukasch (Germany), Me.  Bottom: Le (Vietnam), Darko (Bosnia), Tommy (America), Jin (China), Reira (Japan), Rachel (America), Bernardo (Brazil), Adnan (Saudi Arabia).
 

Tomorrow, we're off to Berlin for the week with a stop off at Dresden for the weekend.  I can't wait to visit the setting of Slaughterhouse-Five and do all there is to do in Berlin.  If I can find an internet cafe while I'm there, I will try to post and keep everyone updated (though I doubt there will be pictures).