Hanne

28 April 2009

Ok, Freiburg is awesome. Everything: the people, the city, the Bretzels. And I can't believe that I am up to week four already!

You can really tell that this is a student town from the crazy number of parties. Every weekend, but not just on weekends, as every night is ‘Student Night’ somewhere in town. On Wednesday I went along with my flatmate to the StuSie bar, which is the equivalent of Shadows. Wednesday is ‘Shots Night’, with 20 shots for 10 Euro, and it was madness. People dancing everywhere, with the DJ downstairs and trestle tables upstairs where you could take a rest. The only annoying thing was how many people were smoking, which was rather different to clubs in NZ… My clothes absolutely STANK the next day and I got a burn on my arm from a cigarette butt, which HURT! But it was slightly better on Saturday, when we went to the Semester Opening Party there and they opened up the third dance floor. More space to boogey!

Saturday was a particularly busy day as I also went on a trip to Heidelberg with ‘Studitours’. This tour was an interesting experience… not having been on a ‘tour’ before I was not too sure what to expect. Turns out Heidelberg is gorgeous, but we spend far too little time there! We had to be at the train station at 7.45am and arrived in Heidelberg at 12, only to leave again at 5pm. Seven hours on a train!!! But we had a tour of the castle and a few churches. Oh, and the University Prison. Turns out that students used to be under the direct jurisdiction of the uni, not the local council. So if they did naughty things like ‘public drunkenness’ or ‘chasing the neighbours’ pigs’ they were put in the uni prison for 1-3 weeks. The walls are all painted with stories and pictures and signatures of ‘inmates’, and it was considered embarrassing to go through the uni without being put in jail at least once. They were allowed visitors there too, and beer, and to attend lectures. Interesting concept, this uni prison!

The guide who took our tour though, he was very odd. Perhaps he really belonged in the cell. He kept hitting on our friend Hanne Marie and told her she had a nice ‘bauch’ (stomach) after she bent over to do up her shoe. Then he took another girl to look at a lake and tried to get very friendly with her, too… so that was quite strange. Next time we might organize our own trip and stay a little longer.

On Monday I went along to the endurance running meeting again and we ran up another mountain. Which was fun. Only I was running with a guy from northern Germany, slightly ahead of the slow group. And then we lost the slow group and had to speed up with the super fast, super fits dudes who hop to the top of a hill in a flash. They also warned us that if you go running in the forest you have to watch out for ticks, which can give you meningitis. Eek, this was at the top of the hill, so the whole way down I was super paranoid about them. Yuk! But by the time I get back I will be super fit, between the running and boxing and hiking and ‘fitness gymnastics’. It is fantastic that there are so many free activities on offer to students at the uni sport centre!

The mensa (cafeteria) is also very cool, although some of the menu items are rather amusing. Yeasterday one of the dishes was ‘Piccata Milanese von der Pute’. The German explanation went something like this: "The Milanese breadcrumb coating consists of a mix of egg and parmesan." But the English comment was rather different: "This Milanese breadcrumb coating is held together by the delicious cooperations of egg and parmesan cheese". Delicious cooperations, indeed!

On the theme of food, Holly and I were very patriotic on Friday, making ANZAC biscuits to take on the Heidelberg trip. The first batch were more like ANZAC balls really, but the second batch showed marked aesthetic improvement. We will never end up looking like Germany’s Next Top Models if we keep baking like this! Germany’s Next Top Model (or GNT, as the boys call it, to avoid awkward questions as to why they watch such a show) is a Thursday date. From 8pm until 10pm, full of pouting and posing. I watched it with a few of my flatmates and learnt quite a bit of new vocabulary. Particularly vocabulary to do with straightening one’s hair and posing in only one shoe. Mean skills,

I suppose I really should make some mention of uni, seeing as that is what I am actually here for. But at the moment being social and/or sporty seems so much more fun! My Danish class is going well, not looking forward to all the reading for the literature papers though, but I guess in some ways uni is the same wherever you go in that regard… Better go and get some of that reading done now I am free this weekend!

Tschüß,

Hanne