Chris Daugaard -- Just a Few Things...

Thoughts on being almost done here…

By chris | July 12, 2009

I’ll be home soon, actually. That’s kind of weird to think about. I’ve been all over the place, through at least seven countries so far, (If I’m remembering to count them all) and I’ve seen so much. Many places I’ve visited have been starkly different.

Some places were quite beautiful. Others were so damaged during WWII that they were but a shell of their former selves, which is a terrible shame. Just think, with a thing like war, and with a large majority of Europe being hit one time or another, how much architecture, art, and history were lost in the process, never to be seen or heard of again. It’s kind of crazy to think about, all that we have, when so much more may have been, but is now lost.

Some places were incredibly expensive, with goods that reached triple what I would pay in the US for similar goods or services. Other places were “cheap,” an expression I use that really means “costs about the same as the US.” A large majority of countries were more expensive than the US, for just about everything, making more expensive the norm here.

Things (for the most part) Europe doesn’t have:

1. Mountain Dew. (I have seen 2 places that have had it. And one was Seven-Eleven, which I don’t think counts…)

2. SUVs.

3. Men wearing white socks. (My german host family said that they could pick out Americans by their short, white socks.)

4. Free bathrooms. (Even in public places. You have to buy something or pay to use the facilities.)

5. Deodorant sticks. (I couldn’t believe it! The closest thing they had was roll-0n, and I wasn’t about to convert…I reverted to Axe deodorant spray, circa Middle School gym class. )

6. An alcohol-stigma. (People drink alcohol younger, more often (but in a lower quantity than the US), and have less trouble with the substance)

7. Tar shingles. (almost all clay or steel roofs. Or living roofs with vegitation growing to lessen their water shed issues)

8. 24-hour businesses. (A lot of places weren’t open at all on the weekends, much less late at night)

9. Air conditioning. (Virtually none of the places I’ve been here, except museums, have had air conditioning.)

10. People under 30 that only speak one language. (I haven’t met a person under 30, in ANY country, that hasn’t been able to communicate with me in English. Try doing this in the US with German. Or French. Or Danish. Or Czech. Or even Spanish.)

Well, there are probably more, but I thought I’d round it off at an even 10. That keeps it simple, in the vein of “Top 1o lists,” and was about when I stopped having good ideas. :) I have about 5 days left to travel, and I’m heading to the Swiss Alps next. I’m super stoked to see the mountains, but I actually have to buy some warm clothes to go there, as I’m not exactly prepared for 30 degree weather. Maybe I’ll go skiing. Who knows.

Until next time…keep it real.

-Chris

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Daugård, Denmark

By chris |

I went to Denmark in search of our family’s Danish roots. That meant hoofing it to the tiny town of Daugård, Denmark. I didn’t know what I’d find there, or even if I would find public transportation to get me there, but I set out to find whatever the place had to offer. (I did find a bus to get there, Europe has phenomenal transportation systems, and there were buses running through town about every 20 mins…)

I learned from my Danish friend that the suffix “gaard” means farm, so the town, and our ancestors, started out as a farming community. When I got to Daugård, I could believe that this place started as a farm. It was very rural, surrounded by what looked like corn, wheat, and somthing like alfalfa. Actually, southern Denmark looks amazingly like the upper midwest. It was, by far, the place in all my travels that looks closest to back home. Cattle, fields, farms, corn, wheat, soybeans…the whole bit. Maybe a little more like Minnesota or Iowa, though, because they have a few more trees than good ol’ SoDak.

Daugaard is a bedroom community for nearby Vejle, Denmark, a town of about 50,000. It makes sense that Daugård wouldn’t have many businesses or town proper, as it used to be a big farm. (By the way, the “å” when translated to English is just a “aa,” so it is the same thing…) I was a little disappointed, because I wanted to really “experience the town,” but there wasn’t a restaurant, pub, bar, or bakery to be found in the town. There was only a small convenience store that acts as post office, flower shop, liquor store, bakery, and grocery store among other things. I went there and got a real, authentic “Danish.” I figured I’d better eat a Danish in Denmark, right? What better place to do it than Daugård, where I could just FEEL my ancestors? :) Well, maybe not. But the Danish was awesome anyway.

While I was searching around for Daugård, I stayed in Århus, Denmark. (In the seediest hostel ever, I think) I didn’t stay long in Denmark, though, because everything was SO expensive! The Danish currency is the Krone (Crown). I thought I might see a movie as the night was kind of dead in town, but I went to the theater, did some quick mental math, and realized that they expected me to pay the equivalent of $18 to see a movie. Let’s just say that I passed. I couldn’t have afforded anything in that town, so I think I ate 3 meals at the Seven-Eleven. They were good, though.

(A quick side-note. The Seven-Eleven, just like McDonald’s and Burger King, seem to be much more respected in Europe than in the US. For example, even though the ingredients are the same, I get a better made burger in Europe than I do in the US. The Seven-Eleven was nice, clean, and had REALLY GOOD food! People in Europe are not used to chains, as they are slowly migrating from the US to some places in Europe, and it seems like they take more care with the business than you see in the US. An interesting observation, but one that has been unfailing since I’ve been here.)

All in all, Daugård was worth the trip. I got to tramp around town, seeing all there was to see. (I actually walked from end-to-end, all the way through town and back) Denmark was really cool, and looked A LOT like back home, which was, in all actuality, really cool. I took some great pictures of myself with the Daugård town sign, and I have more to show when I get back home.

That red line indicates that you’re “leaving Daugård.”

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Ireland

By chris | July 7, 2009

I’ve got a great WiFi connection here in Cologne (where I’m sleeping over before heading to Denmark tomorrow) so I’m taking this chance to do some web work, do some laundry (Yes, mom, I’m actually doing laundry. I won’t have to throw away all my clothes when I get back after all…), and generally get caught up before my 6:00 A.M. train tomorrow. (6:00 A.M!!!)

So…Ireland. Ireland was my favorite country so far. I had high expectations even before I arrived, but the Emerald Isle didn’t disappoint. It didn’t hurt that I got to travel on a ferry from Cherbourg, France to Rosslare, “Ireland’s Premier Seaport.” (Or so their advertisements say…) I got to sail through the Atlantic, which I’ve never done before, and that was awesome as well. My boat was named the Oscar Wilde (after an Irish writer) and it was kind of like a wannabe cruise ship. It had a bunch of restaurants, a few bars, entertainment, and two movie theaters. Not bad for a student’s ticket price. I got some great shots of the sunset that evening, so be sure to check Flickr once I get them all uploaded.

When I arrived in Rosslare, Ireland was just how I had imagined: green, overcast, rainy, and friendly, with beautiful seashore. I met two guys on the train to Dublin. One, John Keating, (just like Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society, a GREAT movie, one of my favorites…) who was a recent HS grad on his way to Utah State University in the fall. He had a sweet collapsible bike that he carried around with him, perfect for this sort of thing. I actually see them all over Europe, they’re popular with the hybrid commuter group. (train/bike, bus/bike, etc.) He was going all around Europe using trains, ferries, his bike, and hitchhiking when he needed to. Cool guy. The other guy I met on the train, Steve Ryan, was a native Dubliner, a 30-something software programmer. It was really great to meet him because he was a great sport as John and I quizzed him for the entire 3-hour train ride all about Ireland and Dublin and where we should go and where we shouldn’t. I wanted to see the pubs (of course) so he gave me a list of about 15 that I should check out. (No, Mom, I didn’t go to them all…not quite, anyway…) But he was awesome. In fact, John was able to crash on his couch for a couple days as it was hard to find a place suitable to camp in the middle of Dublin. (a 1,000,000+ metro area)

Steve was nice enough that he showed me a train stop to get off, before my scheduled stop, that was actually closer to my hostel than the other one. He showed me and John how to get there, waited while I checked in, then gave us a quick tour of the Temple Bar district on the way to his place. John and I went to a pub (a local place, named Neery’s, that Steve liked) while Steve showered up, and he met us later. John and I went on a quick sightseeing tour, saw Trinity College, watched some Cricket, got in trouble for drinking beer in public, (It was only campus security, and we were only about 50 yards from a place it was allowed…we hid it better the second time… :) ) and then got a bite to eat before meeting Steve and some of his friends for a night out. It was a blast, I had a bunch of Guinness and Carlsberg, and ended the night at Eamonn Dorans…a pretty cool pub that had some dancing late.

While in Dublin, I also checked out the Guinness Brewery, which was awesome. I am certified in pouring a perfect Guinness Pint, I am also open for lessons, $50 an hour, plus beer. :) The brewery was pretty sweet, and of course, I did happen to visit their shop. Guinness memorabilia is ALL OVER Ireland, in every tourist shop, so I had to wait until I got to the actual place to buy anything. I wanted to get the stuff that you can only get there, you know? Anyway, I found some sweet goods and was happy. (*sigh of contentment*)

Another goal of mine was to get to the Irish coast, so I packed up and headed to Tralee, the closest to the part of the coast my train pass would get me. I met this awesome guy named Stephen who runs the Castle Hostel in Tralee, and he was a great tour guide, getting me set up for my bus/train itinerary for the next day. His hospitality needs to be commended, as he went out of his way to help me out, giving me a personal tour of the place, getting everything ready, teaching me about Gaelic hurling and football (their national sports), letting me store my stuff there while I toured Dingle (more on that to come later), and I started reading a book from the hostel’s library that I hadn’t finished before I left, so he just let me have it. Great guy.

I walked through the hills of the Dingle Peninsula hoping to get my views of the green countryside and cliffs. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and I could just walk through it at will. It had maybe 1/4 of the tourists any of the Black Hills attractions normally have, so it was awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, it was cool, sunny, with enough wind to feel Irish. Google “Dingle Peninsula” (if you click on the link, I did the work for you ) and look at some of the pictures…or better yet…look at some of mine, when I have them up… :).

After Dingle, I took a bus to Cork, where I stayed overnight. I got up the next morning and took a bus to Blarney, home to the famous Blarney Stone, in the Blarney Castle. Boy, did I kiss the crap out of that thing. You have to lean back over this ledge and hold onto these bars to do it, but it was pretty cool. Very touristy, but still cool. The actual town of Blarney is very pretty as well, with streams and caves, and some beautiful grounds to go along with the castle and stone. I was actually walking down the street, proudly sporting my “South Dakota State University” shirt, and a car pulls over, and asks, “Are you really from South Dakota?,” in a VERY Mid-Western accent. When I told them I was, they asked where I was from, and I replied, “Dell Rapids,” they were pretty excited as they were all from Mitchell, SD just touring Ireland. That was pretty cool. Oh, I forgot to mention, when John and I were watching Cricket, we saw these two girls throwing a frisbee who were obviously Ultimate Frisbee players. Being the frisbee nut I am, we sauntered on over there to see if they were playing a pick-up game anytime while I was in town. They weren’t, but as were were just throwing around with them, I found out one of the girls (on this campus in the middle of Dublin) was from Minnesota, and was a High School friend of my SDSU buddy, Brady Mallory. Finding a mutual acquaintance with a stranger in the middle of Dublin, Ireland is pretty crazy, don’t you think?

I’ll skip over some of the boring travel details…bus/train/hostel/bus/plane/train/walk/hostel…that brought me to Cologne, but tomorrow I’m heading to Aerhus, Denmark in search of the wondrous metropolis of Daugård, Denmark. Yes, over there it’s only one ‘A’, but it has this weird circle over it (å), I’ll have to find out what that means/how it’s pronounced. I did a little google-mapping, adn the town’s only 3/4 of a mile across at its widest point, so I don’t know if I’ll find a place to stay there, but who knows? At least, I’m hoping to find a city hall or somewhere that I can look up some family history details. Until then, stay tuned, and I’ll work as hard as I can to get some pictures up…oh, have you checked out the video that Jeff and I made in Paris? If you haven’t…click here :) Enjoy!

Posted in Europe '09, Travels | Tagged Cricket, Denmark, Gaelic, Ireland, Pub, Travel, WiFi | Leave a comment

Weekend in Paris: Not for Public Consumption

By chris |

So, Jeff and I made this video while we were in Paris, and it actually has very little to do with Paris, but it was fun nonetheless. It took me forever to get it uploaded, sorry it took so long…but here it is. Warning: This may feature European dress in one part. You’ll know what I mean.

Posted in Europe '09 | Tagged Paris, Travel, video | Leave a comment

Train/Train/Boat

By chris | July 1, 2009

As I write this , I’m cruisin’ through The Netherlands and Belgium on my way back to Paris, which I left yesterday morning, by the way, to catch a train to Cherbourg, a seaport. In Cherbourg, I’m hopping on a ferryboat that will take me to the Emerald-Wonderland of Guiness, Ireland. I’m stoked for Ireland, here’s why:

1st - I can actually speak English with the locals for the first time since about May 16, which is LONG overdue…

2nd - It will be cooler, as the weather has been really hot lately, and not so much fun to spend most of your days outside, on foot…

3rd - Irish Pubs.

4th - The countryside is supposed to be absolutely beautiful, and I am gonna absolutely dig just chillin’ on the Irish coast…

5th - I’ll be “On A Boat” (shout out to anyone who listens to terrible popular music, like I do sometimes)
Um…there are probably more, but that’s all I can think of right now.

ALSO - Jeff and I made a pretty cool short movie of our time in Paris, and I’ll be finishing the editing and uploading it soon. It should be a fun 4-5 minutes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Amsterdam, Europe Travels, Ferry, Ireland, Paris | Leave a comment

End of Studies/Beginning of Travels

By chris | June 27, 2009

Hi Everybody,

I just thought I’d shoot up a little video update at the start of my three week journey around Europa. Sorry it’s rough, but I catch a train in about 15 mins. I’m off to Paris. Ciao!

Video Update/The End of Studies/Beginning of Travels from Chris Daugaard on Vimeo.

Posted in Europe '09 | Tagged Paris, Travel Update, video | 1 Comment

Berlin for the Weekend

By chris | May 30, 2009

I went to Berlin this weekend. It was a long weekend, as Germany had Monday off for a public holiday, so Matt and I took off Saturday morning and headed Northeast. It was about a 6 hour train ride, but it didn’t seem too bad at all. First off, we were in a train compartment, which let us have a lot of leg room and ample space for our bags and such. It was actually really comfortable. Those trains also have power outlets for every seat, which is a HUGE plus in my book. I’m kind of an electronics nerd…anyway, it was a good ride. I’ve decided that I’m going to pass a lot of my train time by reading some classics. So far, I’ve finished Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe. Next up is The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s been great getting back into reading again. It had been altogether too long.

Well, I also had my first hostel experience that Saturday night, as we stayed in the A&O hostel in Berlin. It was a 8-bed room (4-bunks), with all guys. We locked our luggage in a locker, and had a communal shower facility and restroom on the same floor. That said, it was clean, newly renovated, and altogether very nice. On Saturday, we visited the Brandenburg Gate, the Tiergarten, the Reichstag (Germany’s Capitol Building), a Holocaust memorial, a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, the Victory Column, and Checkpoint Charlie. That was all after noon! Anyway, my favorites were the Victory Column, with its great views of the city and suicide staircase, the Reichstag, a very impressive capitol building, and Checkpoint Charlie, just for the historical significance, as not much is there anymore but one little building. Patrick Weber would be glad to know that while in my Hostel bar, I teamed up with a South American named Andrea (a guy) and kicked some butt at a game of foosball. It wasn’t the same level of competition as back home a Jim’s Tap, that’s for sure.

On Sunday, Matt and I got up early and hustled over to the Sachenhausen Concentration Camp, which was just outside the reach of Berlin’s transit system. I can’t even describe what kind of a place it was. It was well preserved, and a great museum and site, with no entry fee at all. Being able to walk through that place was like walking into another world. It was altogether incredibly interesting, but everyone that was there wished they would never have had to learn of such a place. I took pictures, and I can tell you more if you wish, but it just doesn’t seem like the sort of thing to share here. I felt bad even taking the pictures, but I guess it seemed that I took them for the right reasons, with the right perspective, I don’t know…It was just a sad, sad place.

The afternoon was spent checking into our new Hostel, the All-In Hostel (only 10 Euro! - awesome.), and bumming around town. We went to the fairly new Jewish Museum which, in stark contrast to our morning trip, had very little coverage of the Holocaust. That said, I guess that if I was Jewish, I would probably not like to be singly identified with our nation’s darkest period, though, either. It was pretty interesting, and was fairly informative about may Jewish customs of which I was previously unaware. We took pictures of the big TV tower, and happened to go into the Berlin Dom (pronounced dome), and that was one of the most magnificent sights I’ve ever seen. Combine St. Joseph’s Cathedral with the SD Capitol Dome and an ornamental pipe organ the size of Kansas and you’d be three-fourths there. You’ll have to see the pictures, although I’m sure they won’t do it justice.

I had really hoped to see the Blue Man Group, as they have a permanent theater here in Berlin, but the Sunday night tickets are 50 Euros, at the cheapest. Well, since that’d be 60-65 US Dollars, I just can’t do it. Although I really want to. Tomorrow we’ll get up and ride the train home to Stuttgart, just in time to go back to class on Tuesday. I think tis trip was good for me, as I was ‘broken in’ to the whole hostel experience and got a glimpse of what my three week travels post-Stuttgart are going to be like. I’m excited, just hoping that my money lasts until then.

Berlinnin’ with the Best of ‘Em,
Chris

Checkpoint Charlie

The Reichstag

They have a marker running in the ground that marks the former position of the Berlin wall.

This is a memorial for all of the Jewish people killed during the Holocaust.

Posted in Europe '09, Travels | Tagged Berlin, Berlin Dome, DB Bahn, Reichstag | Leave a comment

Birthday Schnitzel

By chris | May 28, 2009

May 28th was my birthday. I am unsure how I feel about turning 22. First, I fully realize that I am no longer a college student, and that I must enter the ranks of working adults. That saddens me. (No offense, parents, family, and others…:) ) On the other hand, I had a Schnitzel that was the size of Texas, and I ate it all, to the detriment of my own comfort, health, and judgement. I kept it down. Barely. All in all it was a great birthday. Ally, my host-sister, and Ron, her boyfriend, gave me a Stuttgart T-Shirt as a present, which was and is really awesome. I was glad to have a bit of the town to bring back with me. Thank you all for your birthday wishes, whether they came by phone, Facebook, or email, I really appreciate them. It was good to know that everyone hadn’t forgotten about little old me over here in Europa. Talk to you soon, probably at the conclusion of my trip to Berlin. Until then, keep it German! Later!

Posted in Europe '09 | Tagged birthday, Schnitzel, Stuttgart | Leave a comment

Deutschland, Week 1 Recap

By chris | May 24, 2009

This first full week was an eventful one, so you’ll have to keep up. Starting where I left off…on Wednesday…

Wednesday we went out to a club, as Thursday was a national holiday here in Germany. We went to a place named TONSTUDIO. It was pretty darn sweet, as Matt and I had never been to a European club before, we didn’t know what to expect. It didn’t disappoint. It was the night of a ‘Neon-Party’ so they had prizes for the best neon outfits, and they were handing out neon at the door. Be sure to check the pics below for some of these gems. It was a 3-story club, with a mostly hip-hop soundtrack. We waited about 30 minutes to get in, but were lucky to do so, as our group had more guys than girls, which is EXTREMELY frowned upon by the bouncers at local clubs. They say, “It better be 50-50, or else ‘we’re at capacity, sorry.’” We slipped by ‘em, though.

After class on Friday, our whole group went to the Mercedes-Benz museum. Stuttgart (where my University is) is home to the headquarters of both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. They both have big museums and corporate operations here, but so far, we’ve only visited the Mercedes Museum. I digress…The M-B museum was pretty darn sweet. I liked the cars and all, but the history of it was the most interesting. They had a great historical dialog that told of their early days experimenting with the most simple of gasoline engines to their involvement in developing the first modern passenger car to their involvement in WWII and afterward. Pretty cool stuff. Their museum was other-worldly, as well, as you see on the right, was very space-age design oriented. One disappointment was that we didn’t get to see any of their actual operation, their manufactring plants and the like. I’m guessing most of that is intellectual property anyway…oh, well.

On Saturday, we boarded the bus early on the University campus to head to Heidelberg Germany. We took the bus for a couple hours and then boarded a boat, for a trip up the Rhine river to Heidelberg. Very, very beautiful surroundings. Great hills with forest cover, and every so often a castle or medieval-era building or settlement would just pop up. Great stuff. While in Heidelberg we visited the castle there, and it was awesome. The same type of stuff you’d see in movies. WWII did a heck of a job on this region, with most of the old-era buildings requiring restoration, which is a bummer, but I couldn’t tell for most of it. They do a great job with era-accurate restorations. Along with the castle, I drank beer out of a boot (a glass boot), bought some local gummy-bears (they’re famous), and bummed around picturesque Germany like there was no tomorrow. I have great stories that must be told in person, so be sure to ask when I get back.

Well, here’s a good one that you might enjoy…Last night Matt and I got back to town at about 9:00 after the trip. To get home, we knew we would have to catch a train to our bus stop, and our bus left on the hour, every hour at :04. Matt caught a ride to the train station, but I decided to walk to a different train, just for fun, but we both ended up at our bus stop at 10:00. Just in time to catch the 10:04…or so we thought. So, as Matt and I are BS’ing at the bus stop, I happen to glance at the bus schedule, and say, “Dude, no way!” I’m pointing at the stop schedule and it says that on Saturdays, the bus stops there every hour, from 7 A.M. to 11 P.M., at :04 past the hour, EXCEPT for 10:04. It makes no sense, but it’s the truth. Whatever, we say, and we decide to make the walk home. It’s only about a 40 minute walk, and we’ve made it before, no biggie, so we set out on our trek home. Using the same general direction, but not the identical route, we trudge through the streets of Mühle thinking that we’ll hit the highway eventually, and use that to navigate the rest of the way home. Let’s just say that we didn’t hit the highway. After about 30 minutes of walking (last time we hit the highway after about 10 mins.) we decide that it might be a good idea to reassess our path. Our two best options are to enter the woods, and as it’s now dark, we don’t think that either of those paths are good ideas, so we decide to head back into town to find a landmark and call our host family and have them point us in the right direction from there. We start walking through town, and aren’t finding any landmarks, so we think, “maybe we’ll just retrace our steps and end up at the bus stop in time for the 11:04.” That sounds good and all, except for the fact that we weren’t sure we were really retracing our steps…anyway. We ended up running across a bus that said it was going toward the train-line that we rode to our bus stop, so we ran to get on that, and that took us to the end of the train line. We ended up riding the train 15 minutes back to our bus stop, and then waited 15 minutes for the 11:04 to pick us up. An eventful ending to a long day. :) We had walked the wrong way through one municipality, through another, and then into a third. Crazy, huh?

All in all, it was a good week. I’m getting into a sort of groove, and hopefully, if my rail-pass comes this week, I’ll be able to travel this weekend, as it’s a long weekend. Thanks to all for reading, and thanks for all the good emails and comments. Remember, if you want to receive my blog posts via email, just click on the envelope button in the top-right portion of my site. Tschüss! (Bye!)

Pictures of the week

Here’s me being ridiculous in my neon-ware.

Here I am pre-boot.

…and post-boot. My camera-man was shaky, not me.

This is in the back of the Heidelberg castle.

And the castle from the east.

Also, be sure to check out my Flickr photostream, at flickr.com/chris_daugaard, because I’ve posted more photos there. They just take longer to put them all in blog posts.

Posted in Europe '09 | Tagged clubbing, heidelberg, Mercedes-Benz, Public Transportation | Leave a comment

First day of German

By chris | May 19, 2009

I don’t spreche Deutsch. Not even a little. That’s what I found out today in my first German class. We spent 3 hours going over even the easiest of German phrases, My name is…, I come from… in…, I speak…, My hobbies are… Even after all that, I couldn’t remember one thing when my host sister asked today. I’m the dumb kid in school ;). Maybe it’s not that bad, but it’s going to be challenging, but that’s fun. I’ve only been here four days, and I’m already really frustrated that I can’t understand anything that’s going on around me. Over the next 6 weeks, though, I will definitely spreche Deutsch.

Matt and I rode the bus/train downtown today, with no hiccups. Now that we have passes for all the transportation systems, we don’t have to worry about dealing with petty cash and communicating with bus drivers to buy tickets. No joke, the first day, I practiced my German phrase like 25 times so I could say it correctly to the bus driver, and I still needed to repeat myself for him to understand. It’s harder than I thought, being Mr. American and all. The weather here is great, a lot like SD at this time, without the risk of snow, but it is a bit more temperate. No big swings like we get in the Midwest. The food is really good, as well. There are German bakeries EVERYWHERE, no joke, they are just about every 50 ft. when you get into the downtown area. That’s a great thing, though, because their bread is magnificent. You know the bread that makes those big pretzels? That bread was invented in Stuttgart. And they make it in loaves. It’s unbelievable. I could eat 50 a day. Also, (Mom and Dad stop reading) they don’t have any sort of open container laws, so we walk into a shop, buy a beer, and then walk around town with it. That’s pretty nice, and, since I’m taking all public transportation, I don’t have to worry about driving. (Ok, M&D, you can read that last part…and be proud! ) Anyways, I am starting to get to know some of the other students here, and they are all pretty cool. They are from all over the US, Canada, Singapore, China, and Mexico.

After German class today, we all hopped on to take a bus tour of Stuttgart. (Afternoon subject courses start tomorrow. I’m taking Transportation and Urban Planning. It should be sweet.) As for the tour. Our tour guide was a Swabian (local dialect of German) woman who was completely flighty and a bit nuts, I think. Anyway, she would just chat away on the microphone on this bus, talking all sorts of nonsense that made sense only about half of the time. To be honest, she was quite entertaining. However, after the trip went past the 2 hour mark, 1/3 of the bus was sleeping. I got in about 20 mins. Solid nap.

After that, Matt and I were too beat to do much else, so we headed back to our Host-Family’s place, checking out all the different routes to get there and back. We’re still on the lookout for the perfect route, hitting all the timings just right, but we’ll get there.

I’m hoping tonight I will begin to get acquainted to Germany’s time zone. I still feel awake late at night here and sleepy during the day. It will just come with time, I suppose.

Here are some pics that I’ve taken over the first few days, check ‘em out: