I AM NO MAN!

The presession is over - here are my thoughts:

The organization I’m working with is called IES, and their Freiburg branch only deals with students from IU and Minnesota. The language institute I’m studying at, however, has students from all over the world. I’ve met people from Spain, France, Britain, Ireland, Norway, Russia, Australia, Canada, Japan, Finland, and Estonia - there are a few more but you get the idea: it’s a very international environment. The American students are from all over the United States, too, which means their accents and slang are as different from mine as they are from the Japanese students. I have to add that I’m also somewhat surprised by how similar we all are no matter where we’re from - I expected problems with communicative or behavioral compatibility, but I haven’t had any reason to explain something I’ve said or done. I guess a shared pop culture makes us more alike than I thought it could. 

The concept of a globe-spanning student body is awesome in and of itself, but the best part of this environment is that these people are interesting. They’re intelligent and fun, and they engage themselves in a wide variety of talents and pastimes, from dancing to making music to playing sports. It’s a very diverse mix of people but regardless of who we are we can relate to each other because right now, we’re all in the same situation, and German is a common thread. 

…

You already know about my trips out of Freiburg, but there have been all kinds of institute-organized activities that allow the students to get together in bowling alleys, bars, and discotheques without having to worry about organizing it themselves.  

Since Freiburg is such a small city there’s a much better chance of serendipitous meetings. For instance, I was exploring Freiburg alone and stopped into an Irish pub to honor Guinness Day, and I ran into a group of students who were also there to celebrate the poorly diluted tar that’s somehow legally sold as a beverage.

The difference between this and any other German day: balloons. 

On the academic front, I took a language class which consisted nearly entirely of summarizing summaries of summarizations and attended a lecture about intercultural communication that never left the ground because it was bogged down by extravagant theory describing embarrassingly simple ideas.  

The whole three-week session almost fell apart, too. I had a weird exchange with SLI (the language institute) that essentially went like this: 

 

SLI: “You’re getting credit for attending the lecture.”
   

Jared: “Okay.” 
   

SLI: “You’re not getting credit for anything you’ve done.”
 

Jared: “What?” 
   

SLI: “You’re getting credit.”
   

Jared: “. . . ” 

Academic disaster narrowly averted!

 

…

On a personal note, I’ve learned that no matter how much you want to convince yourself that pastries and coffee are essential to a good education, you have to take control, be a man, and buy cereal. 

…

Some of you know that the biggest German festival of our lifetime is underway. Those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about might want to sit down or hold onto something. 

It’s the 200^th anniversary of Oktoberfest. 

Now pick yourself up off the floor and keep reading because I promise you will be very impressed with me in about twenty seconds. I actually found a hostel in Munich with available beds, an insanely difficult thing to find, and it’s between 10.50 and 21.50 Euros a night. 21.50! Let’s put this in perspective: the biggest, cheapest hostel in the downtown area is 47 Euros a night – that’s not per room, that’s per person; therefore, I found an absolutely incredible deal.  I’m excited. Are you excited? Of course you’re excited, because you know I’m going to do a video entry on this. 

You have no idea how incredible that post is going to be.

I leave for Munich – and my destiny – on Tuesday, and I don’t have any plans between now and then. It’s already been a long wait. I hope I can keep myself occupied. 

Update:  If you are wondering exactly how I’ve been keeping myself occupied, here is today’s project of the evening, and yes, it is an animated image of me stabbing a Nazgul in the face. 

Bis bald, 

-Jared Boze

There will be a blog entry by nightfall, but until then amuse yourself with this animated GIF of me stabbing a Nazgul in the face.

Trips out of Freiburg

A written update with more details about my day-to-day existence in Freiburg will arrive next week. 

A Very Late Report

 

I’m back from Bulgaria, and I don’t have much to show for it, apart from some pictures. For those of you unaware with the details of this leg of the trip, I spent three weeks visiting my aunt and uncle in Dabravino, a remote Gypsy village about an hour away from the Black Sea. During my stay I had plenty of time to draft several stories and essays that I have some potential, but I did not have the time to finish them. Do not fear, because I have no doubt that a few of these anecdotes and essays will make it onto the web.

I had some very unique experiences over there, and since I haven't done a long picture gallery on this blog I figure I can do that instead of write something interesting on, say, IU's official overseas study blog, iuoverseas.wordpress.com, for which I am now a contributor.

 Now for the pictures! 

Beekeeping! It may sound crazy, but I was a beekeeper for a day, a job that entailed smoking them out and examining the frames you see above. The bees were surprisingly docile, and I wasn’t stung once, even when I took off my gloves and mask. For that moment, they may not have cared about my presence, but the piles of dead wasps in front of every hive reminded me that they were murderous little buggers.

 This is a typical Turkish Gypsy wedding. The explosions were intentional.

I visited the remains of an ancient Roman complex. Below is a large mosaic and a wide shot of what's left of it. Not pictured is the litter which fills every open hole, well, and tomb. 

I witnessed a mass stork migration,which was... unique, I guess. It was valuable in the sense that I will never be around so many storks for the rest of my life.

 A highlight was Risk, the favorite pastime among the men of the house. Tempers flared every 30 seconds, and strategy was, to some, subordinate to vengeance. 

Ah yes, and this tooth: 

 It is a fossilized tooth from the shark genus lamna. 

Now, something else happened  that I’ve been trying to put to print. No. I cannot describe the magic show. Perhaps I may eventually find the words to do so, but I must regain my sanity first. A new post will arrive shortly.