die Insel Mainau und mehr schönes Wetter!

Yesterday was a holiday in Germany (Labor Day, or Tag der Arbeit), so we had no class. Chrissy and I decided to grab the opportunity and go to Insel Mainau, an island about 45 minutes by foot from our dorm.

Our route to Mainau took us through Egg. We saw two little boys working what is apparently the German version of a lemonade stand. We each bought a cup of Apfelschorle, which is something like sparkling apple juice.


Later on we passed this stand. Its owner just left everything on the table, even tho the sign said no one was going to be back to man the “shop” until Sunday!

Well anyway, we obviously made it to Mainau, which is known for its floral gardens.


These are “Star Wars Magnolia hybrids,” according to their sign. They’re definitely pretty, but mainly the name just cracked me up.


one of several flower sculptures


Mainau also has a famous butterfly house (Schmetterlingshaus) with a little waterfall, turtles, and fish. It was ridiculously crowded in there. It was difficult to get photos of the butterflies as they zipped by, but there were hundreds of them.


There is also this big greenhouse of orchids with a really expensive restaurant in the middle.


Chrissy posing as best she can


This is what most of the island looks like.


And I’d feel negligent if I didn’t put up one of my millions of photos of the Alps. This one I took from the U. That gross, lighter-colored building is part of Sonnenbühl Ost.

So my life really isn’t too shabby. And a week from today I’m off to CAIRO!

Rothaus Brauerei

A few days ago I went down to Egg (pronounced kind of like "Ache"), a small neighborhood in Constance. It's really quaint and exactly how you'd picture a small German town. It's also right on the lake, so I got to walk along one of the beaches.

Here are some of my pictures from the brief trip:


mailbox


A bunch of the houses in this region of Germany have these huge rain shelters full of firewood.


Lake Constance as seen from Egg - Unfortunately, this is not one of the angles from which you can see the Alps.


more of Lake Constance
Although you can't see the Alps, you can see basically everything else! You can see the entire way across the lake into Switzerland!

Alright, since there seems to be an enormous amount of interest in my living quarters, below are photos of The Room. I swear I didn't clean before I took the photos; it's actually stayed that clean! (And if you don't believe that, how about "I only cleaned a little bit"?)


before shot
I took this my first night (March 3rd). This isn't the worst view (eg. you can't see the spiders!).


after shot
I did a fair amount of cleaning, buying and decorating.


view of my sink and a chair I sniped off the side of the road - It's actually pretty comfortable.


last shot - I'm sure you've seen enough photos of my room now.


Yesterday on our way to class it rained a little. The result: a full (180°) rainbow looks like it's arching out of the town. Ever ask yourself what's at the end of the rainbow? Now you know: Constance.

After class yesterday we went to the Rothaus Brewery in the Black Forest. It smelled gross everywhere. Even outdoors, which is actually quite the accomplishment. The first thing we did when we got there was watch this heinous movie that was supposedly about the "history of the brewery." Think Clockwork Orange style propaganda. "Rothaus is the best in the land!" It was really cheesy, too.

Then we toured the factory. It's was almost interesting, but you couldn't really hear the tour guide because of all of the machinery noise. Plus she was speaking German.


shot of the inner workings - They make thousands of bottles an hour. I forget the exact amount. I'm thinking 90,000 or 60,000.


This is me next to some huge copper things that I'm pretty sure are used in the fermenting process. (What else would they be used for?)

Overall, tho, I'd have to say I LOVED the trip to the brewery. Want to know why? It was free! Everything. And at the end as a part of this free trip (kostenlose Reise), we got a huge meal with as much beer as we could drink! And the beer was all really good and chilled. Plus I got lots of bread rolls and sausage. Mmm! How much more German can you get? Beer, sausage and pretzels in the Black Forest?

Oh, and PS ANNALIESE - HOLY COW HAVE A GREAT TIME IN JAPAN! I wanna see photos and an email with stories from your trip!