I am hoping that the delightful image of Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte will distract you from how long it has been since I last posted a blog update. Sorry, everyone! I could tell you that the reason I have been neglectful is because my classes have started here so I am busy studying away, and while that is a little bit true, closer to the truth is the fact that the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL so I have been spending my time outside in the sun. I trust that you'll forgive me :)
This picture also brings to mind a certain phrase that my mom coined when she came to visit and pretty much explains my eating habits here: "Dough Diet." Now, I have had plenty of nutrition classes in my life, but having the multitude of pastries, breads, and let's not forget pretzels is quite tempting. Add the fact that German's seem to only eat pork and vegetables are not as common as you'd think, and a dough diet occurs. Don't worry, mom, I am eating my fruits and veggies! And Marissa? Today is the beginning of my running regiment (though, again to be honest, that has more to do with how beautiful the scenery is here than the dough diet...)
Last week a few friends and I were seriously craving some Mexican food so we found a restaurant called "El Gallo" or something. It was delicious, but very German-tasting Mexican, ha. We ordered the nachos Tijuana (and confused the waitress with our pronunciation of what she called "tih-jew-ahn-ah") and had delightful refried beans, jalepenos and guac.
I really do things other than just eat.. I am realizing that this entire blog is about food.
This weekend I went with some friends to Triberg, Germany. It is about 1.5 hours away from Freiburg and home to Germany's largest waterfall.. Don't get too excited, the waterfall isn't actually that large.. ha. The guidebooks say "Well, it isn't Niagra Falls" = understatement of the decade, ha. But it is in the Black Forest so it is just a beautiful walk through nature. It reminded me of walking through the red woods in N. California and made me miss Anna and Aunt Mary so if you are reading this, I'm thinking of you!
Some pictures of the beautiful park we hiked through:
In other news, my classes are going really well. Senior year English paid off as we discussed "Othello" in my theater class! I won't bore you with the list of classes, I'll just mention that I am learning about things like medieval Germany and Germany's participation in the EU. Last week I had a moment in one of my classes when I realized that all of my classes are in German and if they were in another language like Spanish or French I would literally have no idea what was going on. Crazy, right? Languages are pretty awesome is what I concluded from that little moment.
Oh! And I got controlled (they checked to see if I had a ticket) for the first time in Germany! Woo, buying that semester ticket for the strassenbahn finally paid off!
What's coming up for Heather, you ask? Mark is visiting for a few days on his Europa Reise and my spring break to Greece is getting closer and closer!
Love you and miss you!
Yesterday we went to Zurich to meet the Chief Investment Officer of a foreign money bank in Switzerland. This was for my business course in which we are comparing companies in France, Switzerland and Germany to see the cultural and structural differences between the companies based on location and management. It was really interesting to learn about the Swiss stereotypes and the way that the government affects the competitive nature of the country. Plus, again, it was just beautiful.
