Two Weeks from Twenty

At the request of my grandmother and great Aunt, I've decided to take some time out of my "busy" schedule and give everybody an update on what I've been up to in the last few weeks.  

Towards the end of October there wasn't much going on.  I'd really settled in, met a bunch of cool people, and was finally in a normal routine, which was nice.  On Halloween, my favorite holiday, I didn't manage to think of a costume, but that was okay as I went with some friends to a non-costume party, which was a really good time.  

After Halloween the days seemed to flow together filled with going to University, walking around the city, cooking with my new found friends, singing the occasional karaoke, and of course sharing one or two beers.  But really, it seems like the whole two months that I've been in Regensburg have just been a few great days being played on repeat.

On November 8th I skipped my Dutch class to go to a question and answer session with the new American to Ambassador to Germany, who was nice enough to grace our (ugly) university with his presence.  After speaking for a few minutes he turned it over to the audience for questions whose topics spanned from the NSA to Iran and even a little bit about the new US-European Trade Agreement which is in the works.  All in all it was a pretty interesting conversation.  

On November 9th I woke up at some ridiculous time of day before the sun was up (I think it's called morning) so that I could spend a few hours in a bus on my way to the super awesome and infamous Neuschwanstein castle.  Upon our arrival the weather was cold and rainy with fog hanging in the air.  Although the weather really wasn't that great, it all looked pretty cool with the mountains as a backdrop.  Our first stop was the castle Hohenschwangau.  Despite being much less known, at least to me, was really interesting to see considering that it is a lot older than Neuschwanstein, it was actually lived in, and that 99% of everything was still original.  The tour that lasted about an hour, but sadly I don't have any pictures, as photography in the castles is prohibited.  After our tour we walked through the woods back into town where we stopped to get some coffee and lunch before making the hike up to Neuschwanstein.  Now for the record, Neuschwanstein was never really something that I wanted, or rather felt the need, to see as I always considered it to be more of a touristy thing.  That being said, it's great.  I can totally understand why people flock there, it is really a super cool looking, completely original castle built by a crazy man with too much money, but it is just an awesome place to have been!  The only part about Neuschwanstein that annoyed me is that it seemed almost as though we ran through the castle.  Although the castle is quite a bit larger than Hohenschwangau, we were inside for a much shorter amount of time and had a much less personal explanation as to what exactly we were seeing.  After the tour it was a quick walk to the hill back to the bus for another multi-hour drive back to Regensburg.

Schloss Hohenschwangau

Schloss Neuschwanstein

After Neuschwanstein I spent a few weeks trying to motive myself to study and get my homework done which wasn't always possible or easy.  Often I was stopped or distracted by the impossible to pass up offers to drink a coffee or tea with somebody in the building, which always seemed to turn into a multi-hour affair.  But I still do find the time to get the things done that I need to get done.  I'm not always sure that I'm studying the right things,  and even more often I'm not really able to see what some things have to do with others, but I'm hopeful that as the semester continues to progress,  that everything will start to make more sense for me.  

On the 15th I spontaneously decided to try and find a ride to Bremen so that I could surprise my host family with a visit.  Everything ended up working out great!  After class on Friday I met with some folk who were headed to Bremen and who were nice to enough to let me tag along.  Around 10:30 p.m. I arrived at the bus stop where Markus (somebody had to know that I was coming) picked me up.  When I walked up the stairs and into the living room I was greeted with confused faces and warm hearts.  After sitting up and talking for a while we all hit the hay.  On Saturday, I hung around with Christoph and Markus for a while before making my way to a birthday party of one of my friends.  As it was a surprise visit, everybody at the party was also surprised and happy to see me, which really made for a great evening.  On Sunday we took the dog for a walk and had an awesome Lunch.  In the evening Markus and I took the dog for a walk in the now empty field, Holly (the dog) at one point came flying out of nowhere at full speed, ran into my leg, and left me laughing on the ground.  Monday morning I was back on my way to Hamburg before making my way back to Regensburg and real life.  All in all the weekend was great.  I'm glad I made the decision to make the short visit and am excited for the end of December when I will get the chance to visit again.  

Last week I tried to keep a little bit lower profile and to spend a little bit less money that I seem to have been giving out lately.  Between going to class, I also found the time to prepare and send off a few Christmas packages and also enjoy a few more beers.  On Friday evening I went back to the University as for my politics class (Foreign Policy of the US) we commemorated the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.  The US Consulate General from Munich was supposed to come, but didn't end up arriving until the last few minutes.  It was interesting, but as I sat there I realized that I know much too little about JFK to really follow/understand a lot of what they were saying.

And already it is a new week.  On Thursday I am going to attempt to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the first time.  For 22 people.  I'm hoping it will be good, otherwise I'll have a lot of disappointed people on my hands, but I've a lot of helpers who have a little better idea on how to cook, so I think that everything should go well.  Also on Thursday the Christmas markets in Regensburg open!  I'm excited as they've been setting them up and lining the city with lights for the last few weeks, so I can't wait to see how it will all look when it's finished and full of people.  The best part is that one of the markets is literally next to our door, and I can see it from my Window.  

On Saturday or Sunday we're planning on going to Munich to the Tollwut Festival.  Sunday is already December.  Crazy.  The weekend after that we're planning on going to the Christmas Market in Nürnberg, then it's my birthday already.  Another week of University and then it's back to good 'ol Norddeutschland for Christmas the New Years.  The time files.  

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy reading this.  Questions and comments are always welcome.

Bis demnächst,

- Der James