Summary

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my time studying abroad. I know plenty of people who wanted to study abroad but could not tear themselves away from their college in the U.S. I felt like I would miss out on a lot of things back at UMass, but I realized that I still have another year to catch up with friends and to make new friends. It was a bit difficult to adjust to German culture (mostly just the language and the fact that I couldn’t buy groceries on Sundays) but I found it to be a very valuable experience. I will miss many things that America lacks, such as beautiful parks everywhere, döner kebab, plenty of bakeries, and much more. The UMass/Baden-Württemberg program lasts a little longer than most study abroad programs, which sometimes makes me anxious to get home. However, I think that to really absorb a foreign culture and its surroundings, a person should try to spend as long as he/she can there, and I can say I am quite satisfied with my six months in Germany. I have made some good friends here (whom I would love to go visit in their respective home countries), I think I have improved my German (or at least thinking in German on the spot), and I have had the chance to travel around Europe and experience German culture. I am excited to go home, but it will also be strange to leave Freiburg after being here for so long.


(Note: This blog reads somewhat backwards, if you want to read from the beginning go to the last page.)

Herz-Jesu Kirche and Stühlinger Platz

Freiburg Bächle

downtown Freiburg, Bertoldsbrunnen

My Travels

Freiburg’s closest airport is the EuroAiport in Basel-Mulhouse. It is shared by Germany, Switzerland, and France. The airline EasyJet services this airport, but only reaches a few destinations. I find trains to be the most convenient form of travel within Europe: virtually no baggage size restraints, usually more punctual than flying, and most importantly, breathtaking views. 

I had the opportunity to go to Barcelona, Spain with another UMass student during the beginning of April. We left in the early morning of April 7^th and I returned back to Freiburg on the 18th, and we managed to book beds in a very pleasant hostel. We booked our flights through EasyJet for rather cheap. We took a very early train to Basel, and then went to the EuroAirport from there. The flight was really short, but over an hour delayed. I really enjoyed my time in Barcelona, especially Park Güell. Barcelona is extremely unique in that it is a truly artistic city. Every detail of the city, down to the sidewalk tiles, was a masterpiece. After seeing hundreds of similar European cathedrals, Barcelona proved to be a breath of fresh air. The Sagrada Família is nothing like any other cathedral. The food was delicious, the people friendly, and the sights unbelievable. I spent a lot of time at the beach (Barcelona is located on the Mediterranean) and walking around the city.

Sagrada Família

Port Olímpic

Casa Milà

Bogatell beach

intricate sidewalk tiles

Parc Güell, Gaudí's masterpiece

Dragon/Lizard statue at Parc Güell

absolutely stunning mosaics at Parc Güell

Arc de Triomf

entrance to the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria

Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria

a plaza by night

I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend come visit me in Europe for 2 weeks. He stayed in Freiburg for a week and a half and we left for Paris after my class on May 19^th. We took a train from Freiburg to Mannheim then from Mannheim to Paris. The whole weekend we were there we had beautiful weather. We went to the second level of the Eiffel Tower very early in the morning, but my boyfriend had made reservations so we got to pass through the giant line. We also spent some time at the Louvre, but since we had both seen the Mona Lisa previously, we didn't bother waiting in line to see it again. We checked out the Notre Dame as well. Paris is an incredibly expensive city, so we only ate out at a restaurant a few times. The cheapest way to eat by far is picnicking. We were able to get a variety of food to feed the two of us for about €10, whereas lunch in a restaurant would cost each of us about €15. He flew back to Boston early Monday, and I took the metro back to the train station and headed back to Freiburg. I needed to make it back to Freiburg in time for my one class (at 16:00) and I arrived in Freiburg with plenty of time to relax at about 13:00. Even though most people try to schedule a four day weekend, I think that my three day weekend was sufficient enough, and luckily my Monday class is later in the day so I had time to travel back to Freiburg.

View of Paris from the Eiffel Tower

The Seine from the Eiffel Tower

My sister and her friend, who were backpacking through western Europe, invited me to join them in Venice before they stayed with me in Freiburg. I ended up purchasing a Bahn Card (costs €25 and gives you a 25% discount on trains within Germany) and took several trains to reach Venice. I really didn’t have any expectations for Venice, except for the picturesque canals. I found Venice to be a beautiful, truly unique city. Venice was rather small and unfortunately packed with tourists, as it apparently has been for centuries. One great aspect of the trip was the incredibly cheap (€9 per night) campsite we stayed at. “PLUS Camping Jolly” in Marghera was unlike any hostel experience I had had, we had an entire tent (on a platform) complete with a lock to ourselves. The tent had one bunk bed and another bed inside. The facilities were all very pleasant for the price. The only frustrating thing about Venice was the confusing bus system. Bus tickets were hard to come by, as you couldn’t always buy them from the driver, nor could you buy them near any stops. I took a train from Venice to Milan in the early morning, then from Milan to Zürich, then Zürich to Basel. From Basel I arrived back to Freiburg by the late afternoon. The train ride through the Alps was one of the best parts of the trip.

Venice

side street in Venice

canals of Venice by sunset

view of the Alps on my train ride through Switzerland

train ride through the Alps

I regret not planning trips for the whole month of April, but I did not know we would have a whole month off before classes started. I probably would have invested in a Bahn Card earlier as well.

Nearby Attractions

I unfortunately did not explore the nearby areas as I would have wished to, such as Titisee, Feldberg, more of the Schauinsland, and Basel. Since I did plenty of traveling, I was able to see a bit of Basel from the airport and train stations. Transportation to most of these places is very cheap with the semester ticket, and I wish I had planned a few excursions in my spare time.

Things to Do in Freiburg

Nightlife

Freiburg may not be a large city, but there is plenty to do at night. Clubs don't close until about 5:00 am, so if you miss the last tram a little after midnight then you should expect to stay out all night or catch a cab home because the trams don't start running again until about 5:30 am. The student bars are very popular because they are so cheap, and if you live at one of the dorms, very convenient. StuSie Bar can be very hit-or-miss, but on the Erasmus Nights there are plenty of people there to socialize with. I have been to the other Studentenwohnheim (student living areas) bars and they all seem to be very similar, and their events are staggered so you can meet up with students on different nights.

Bars with restaurants are also very popular. I really enjoy Schlappen (http://www.schlappen.com/) which is in a popular nightlife area downtown and Tacheles (http://tacheles.reservoir.de/neu/index2.html), which is also downtown. Schlappen can have a slightly older crowd, but if you have a big group of people it can be a fun night. Schlappen serves plenty of mouth-watering food, such as Flammkuchen (a type of pizza), pasta, potato wedges with Quark (a type of cheese) and much more. Tacheles also has an impressive menu, I especially enjoy the Wiener Schnitzel with herb butter. Much like Schalppen, they serve tons of bar appetizers too.

Kastaniengarten (Beergarden) at the Schlossberg

Me enjoying a beer at the Kastaniengarten on the Schlossberg

I have been to a few of the nightclubs, but I find them to be much too smoky for my liking. Although it is indeed illegal to smoke indoors, club owners do not do anything about the scores of people lighting up their cigarettes indoors. I sometimes go to the "Schlager Schicht" at the club Nacht Schicht (http://www.nachtschicht-bw.de/freiburg/frontend/). Schlager is a type of really horrible pop music that they set to a techno beat. Most of it is in German, except for songs from the "Grease" musical soundtrack, Spice Girls, "Macarena," and strangely, "Sweet Caroline". The “Schlager Schicht” event is every Monday, and students get in free. Warning: there is one club called “Räng Teng Teng” (http://raengtengteng.com/) where you must be at least 21 to enter. Not sure why, but it’s not a mean joke the bouncers are trying to pull on you.

If you aren't one to go out every night, I have found that there is not as much to do. I don't like spending a lot of money on nightlife, so I often stay in and Skype with friends and family or watch a movie (unfortunately Netflix does not work abroad though). I happened to find a huge collection of DVDs that a previous tenant had abandoned on the balcony, so I have adopted a few. They are all in German, so it is very interesting to watch if I already know the English version. Dinner parties or just hanging out in the dorms with friends are a few other good ideas for staying in. On Sunday nights, the Isle of Innisfree (http://www.isleofinnisfree.de/) hosts a Bingo Night where you can win food, drinks, and cash.

Eating Out

I don’t tend to eat outside of StuSie, but upon my arrival I became infatuated with Indian food. There is a good and affordable Indian Imbiss (fast food) in the Schwarzwald City mini-mall on Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, and they also have a restaurant location elsewhere downtown. Every once in a while I go to another Irish pub, O’Kelly’s (http://www.okellys.de/), for a delicious burger. One food item that deserves a special mention is the heavenly Döner Kebab, a type of Turkish sandwich that is stuffed with shaved lamb meat from a rotating vertical spit. I have become addicted to döner, which can luckily be found readily on almost every street in the city (and most of Germany). I am still on the hunt for the best döner restaurant in Freiburg.

Döner Kebab

Housing

I was quite impressed with the housing complex I lived in, although not very tidy the space was ample, facilities functioning (for the most part), and the people overall friendly. The UMass students are housed in the Studenten Siedlung, or more commonly referred to as “StuSie,” which is located in the Landwasser district, in the western part of Freiburg. The Service Point is a building in StuSie that services all of StuSie’s inhabitants, selling and renting items such as laundry coins, grills, guest mattresses, prints and copies, and much more. Two bars, StuSie Bar and Rio Café/Bar, are located in the Service Point building as well. The Seepark, a gorgeous lake, is located in StuSie’s backyard. The Seepark is frequented by sunbathers and is the perfect spot for a barbeque. There is a Japanese garden, beautiful pathways, a Biergarten, and an observation tower with an amazing view. The only disappointing aspect is that the lake is not suitable for swimming due to some sort of parasite that can give you a rash. But despite this fact, the Seepark is still one of my favorite places to visit on a beautiful day.

Bridge crossing the lake at the Seepark

Seepark

View of StuSie from the Seepark

StuSie is conveniently located at the tram stop "Am Bischofskreuz". StuSie is well known and one of the largest student housing areas in Freiburg. The Hauptbahnhof (main train station) is only 7 minutes away and the stop "Stadttheater" where most university buildings are found is only around 10 minutes away.

There are at least two grocery stores within walking distance from StuSie. There is also a convenience/CVS-type store called Schlecker nearby.

There is a laundry room in my building (I believe most buildings either have one inside the building or very close nearby) which is nowhere near as competitive as it is at UMass, partially because Germans don't often use dryers but instead use drying racks. There are also many bike garages that can only be accessed with a key from StuSie, meaning that your bike is safer than being locked up outside the cage/garage. I managed to find a flyer for a Fahrradmarkt (bike fair) at which I found an adequate bike for about €65. On especially nice days I enjoy biking to class.

I share my apartment/dorm with a mix of Germans and other foreign exchange students. Since the apartment is divided into two halves (sharing a kitchen, balcony, and living room/dining table) with two hallways, all of the Germans lived on one side and the exchange students on the other. I am not sure what my German roommates actually ate for dinner because I hardly ever saw them using the kitchen. My side has 3 bathrooms (2 with toilets, 1 with a shower), which is shared amongst the 4 people living on that side. We have a bathroom cleaning schedule set up so that the bathrooms do not get too dirty. I have an American roommate who is practically invisible (he moved in in May, so I don't know him very well at all), an Italian roommate who is sometimes around, and a Brazilian roommate, who is a close friend of mine. We never seem to get in each other's way because we have so much space to share. The kitchen is rather large and we share the pots and pans we inherited from previous tenants. The single that I live in is more than adequate space for me (much bigger than any single or even some doubles at UMass) and has plenty of furniture including a large desk, two chairs, twin bed, closet, shelves, and a sort of filing cabinet.

View of StuSie from my window

I do a lot of my own cooking, and since I usually have a lunch break I tend to come back to StuSie to make lunch.  Unfortunately there was a deadly E. coli outbreak during my time in Freiburg, which really changed my diet. I tend to munch on lettuce alone, and eat salads at least once a day, but since we were warned against eating lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes I had to resort to eating only frozen vegetables.

For the duration of the pre-semester language course in March, I lived on the 9^th floor (out of 10) in a suite-style room in a nearby building in StuSie. There were 2 single bedrooms, a small but impressive kitchen, and a very tiny bathroom. My flatmate ended up leaving for an internship for the entire month, so I had the place to myself. The dorms in StuSie are very different from UMass in that there is much variation among rooms, such as furniture and layout. Students are also allowed to paint the walls.

Pre-Semester Language course

I enjoyed the pre-semester language course that took place in March. Since I hadn’t studied German since December, a refresher course was much needed. The SLI-sponsored program placed students in different classes based on their performance of the onDaF placement test. I thought that my class was suitable for my level; even though some parts were review, any type of review is appreciated. We also looked at a lot of texts, varying from biographies to magazine articles. We also did a lot of conversational activities with partners and amongst the whole class. I found the professor to be very supportive, patient, and humorous. During the pre-semester language course I met many people who I consider to be friends even after the course ended. Because we had all recently arrived, it was comforting to know that everyone felt a bit lost in a new place, and we explored the city together. The class ran from 9:15 in the morning until about 1:00 in the afternoon. We have a break in the middle of the class to break up the long time block. After the first week of classes, we began our Vorlesung or Übung (lecture or seminar/discussion). The SLI offers a variety of courses from which to choose in order to get the full credit for the pre-semester course. I ended up choosing “Geschichtes des deustchen Films” (History of German Films). The class meets every weekday from 16:30-18:00. I found the class to be interesting. There was no final project/paper for this lecture, but attendance was mandatory. The lecture followed German film through the decades, starting with films in the late 1800s and finishing in the 2000s. I have not been exposed to many German films, so this topic was very new and intriguing for me. The professor spoke entirely in German, and every so often I had to consult my dictionary. Other than a few unknown words, I was able to grasp most of the synopses he described.

After class we had a break for a few hours before my lecture started at 4:30. The lecture  runs until 6:00 pm, so it's a bit late) and the topic is "Geschichtes des deutschen Films" (history of German films). The class was very interesting, and it met every week day until the end of March.

My Courses

I am currently enrolled in five courses at the university. I am taking three courses through the SprachLehr Institut (SLI, the language program at Uni Freiburg) including: “Deutsche Gesellschaft, Geschichte und Kultur” (German Society, History, and Culture); “Grammatik” (Grammar); and “Schriftliche Uebung” (Written practice). The two other courses I am taking are “The Comparative Typology of English and German” and “Bilingualism”. My schedule goes as follows:

Monday: 16:00-18:00 Comparative Typology of English and German

This is a lecture taught in English. Since I am a linguistics major, this course obviously interested me as I love finding similarities between the two languages. Most of the time we discuss different word connotations, such as why one translated English word may seem to fit due to a German speaker's knowledge of German, and vice versa. I am amazed at my fellow student's grasp of the English language, all of them are near fluent and are striving towards native-like proficiency in the language. We look at examples of German to English translations, some very humorous, and focus on very specific details in word choice, grammar, and sentence structure. I really enjoy this class.

Tuesday: no classes!

Wednesday: 12:00-14:00 Bilingualism

This course is taught in English as well. The professor uses PowerPoint presentations to give her lecture. She puts the lectures online so that students can print them out before lectures and make notes. I enjoy this class, and it is very similar to a lecture that could be taught at UMass. At the end of the semester we will talk about bilingualism in schools and the benefits of bilingualism, which I find to be a very interesting topic. In lieu of a final exam, we must complete a series of 5 assignments which are posted online.

Wednesday: 16:00-18:00 Schriftliche Übung

this course is taught in German and is an SLI course. In class we practice transcribing dictations, we write short and long compositions, and we describe objects, places, people, etc. Every so often we must write a longer composition for homework that is graded and corrected. I believe that there are about 10 graded compositions altogether that we must complete. Overall, I enjoy this class because it helps me write spontaneously and the longer writing pieces about various topics are helpful.

Thursday: 10:00-12:00 Deutsche Gesellschaft, Geschichte und Kultur

This course is taught in German and is an SLI course. The course consists of Referate, which are short presentations, given by students about an assignment historical topic. I am scheduled to give a Referat about German art in late July. I really don't know much about German history, and it seems other foreign students are just as uninformed about it as I am. After the Referat, the professor asks the presenter questions and allows students to ask questions to clarify confusing material as well. I must also write a paper to receive credit.

Thursday: 12:00-14:00 Grammatik

this course is taught in German and is taught by the SLI department. Other than the culture, a main part of why I like German is because it has a pretty strict grammar, with a handful of irregulars that actually make sense phonetically. This class is mostly review (which is always helpful!) with a few new things I have never been taught. A typical class consists of us reviewing the homework (which isn't mandatory, but helpful to do because the teacher expects you to know the answer when she calls on you) then doing some more exercises together, then she will give a review of new grammar rules and clarify any confusion. I really enjoy grammar, so this class is very enjoyable for me. We must only take two tests to get the ECTS points for this class. Attendance is also very important.

One thing to note is that classes actually begin fifteen minutes after their scheduled times. So if a class runs from 4:00-6:00 (16:00-18:00), then the professor will show up around 4:10 and begin teaching at 4:15. Then there is usually a short 5 minute break in the middle, and class will usually end at about 5:50. I was intimidated about how long the classes would be, but for meeting only once a week I think this is perfectly reasonable.