Glückspilz/kostenloses Wochenende!

So I really lucked out this weekend: I paid for just about nothing and still did tons of stuff!

My weekend started on Thursday (I don't have any real class on Friday - just tandem team). That night my March language course group got together at a beer garden on the harbor.


Here's my half of the table. (The guy next to me is Denis, my tandem partner.)


Our professor came, too. She is great. I gave her this drawing I did of her as a gift, and she loved it and kissed me on the cheek and kept thanking me. That was sweet. (I purposefully did it on notebook paper, because she always teased me about my doodling during class. She said once that she wanted me to make a booklet of all of my best doodles from class.)

On Saturday we Oles went to Sea Life Center (yes, that's its German name), which is an aquarium mainly for little kids – screaming little kids with microscopic attention spans. We got in for free with a coupon from the booklet that we got when we became residents.


What's a blog post without a photo of Chrissy doing something weird?


There was a cool tank with baby sharks and rays and the real mermaid's purses from which they "hatch."


And they had one of those tunnels you walk through with sharks and sea turtles and eels on all sides. I'm a sucker for those tunnels.

At the end there was this wall where kids stuck post-its answering the posed question "What do you wish for the future of the lake?" Here's my favorite response:

DAS GANS FILE DELFi NE GiBT. [sic]
(dass [es] ganz viele Delfine gibt. that [there] are lots of dolphins.)

After that we went to a free museum above Sea Life with taxidermied animals, which was also cool.


I love Constance.


Then we split up, and Kirsten and I went to Osiander Café to use another coupon (Gutschein) for free hot chocolate (heiße Schocki), which was perfect on a somewhat chilly day. (Don't worry, parents, it's already back to beautiful today!)

After that the two of us went to the Archäologisches Museum, which is free Saturdays. It has artifacts from all over Baden-Württemberg from the prehistoric up through about the 14th century.


Here are some trepanned skulls.


And here's a Carnival (Faschnacht) mask and part of a window from an old Gothic church.

Then yesterday six of us (one German and five foreigners) went to Kreuzlingen, our Swiss neighbor city, to watch Germany wallop Poland in the European Football Championships. While we were standing in line, some extremely nice woman offered us her tickets for free (they had cost her 11 franks, or about $11, a piece)! We lucked out so much! Plus she said there were only four tickets, but it turned out there were six (perfect)!


Deutschland schalala!

Tonight I'm going Shamrocks for their Monday special: delicious half-price hamburgers and €1 off a pitcher of beer! And better yet, my family is coming from the US to visit on Wednesday!

Ende des Sprachkurses

So yesterday (Friday) we had our last day of class. Now I'm on vacation until April 14, when my semester at the university finally begins.

For our last day of class, we took another tour of Constance. This time we only hit up historical sites, including the Bismarck Tower and old French military housing from the days when Constance was part of the French Zone.


another historical site, The Bus


This is where we eat lunch.


And here I am with my wonderful (ex-)professor, Hilde.

Last night four of us (two Americans, a Turk and a Russian) took the bus to Switzerland. We got coupon books with our residency permits and wanted to use one to get into the planetarium in Kreuzlingen. But here's the deal: We finally get there, and so far everyone's been really nice (especially the bus driver, who even pointed out exactly how to get to the planetarium). Then we arrive at the actual planetarium, and the guy working the counter there is … hmm, what's a nice word for it… it starts with an "as" and ends in a "shole." Anyway, unhelpful Herr Ihateyouall tells us that we have two choices. Either we don't use the coupon, and we pay the student price (€5,00) or we use the coupon and take off €2 off of the adult price (€8,50 - therefore we'd pay €6,50). So our "coupon" would actually cost us an extra €1,50! Unbelievable.
Obviously we didn't go. Instead we wandered around Kreuzlingen and walked back across the border into Germany, where we bought gelato and then shared a bottle of wine in one of our dorms.

Then today I had a massive hassle with reserving the train back from Paris to Constance. My teller was from Korea, didn't speak especially good Germany, and was truthfully one of the least helpful people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I spent an hour with him. It ended with his drawing a picture of a train full of people. This was supposed to explain to me what I would have understood with the word "ausverkauft" (sold out). He also smiled condescendingly the entire time - as if my German wasn't better than his. Anyway, then I spent an hour on the internet in McDonald's (remember how I don't have internet in my room), and then went back. I got a different teller who said he spoke English, but didn't really. We spoke German again. He was very confused by the whole mess, but in the end was very helpful and nice. The trip back won't be ideal (four transfers and a total of about 12 hrs of transit), but it'll take place, and that's all that matters at this point.

And tomorrow I'm off!

Saras Besuch und die Schweiz

This will be a short post since I just updated the blog a couple of days ago.

Sara Thatcher, a friend from college, came to visit me. She stayed in my room and made use of my snazzy extra mattress. The first day she was here, we walked across the border into Switzerland! Check off another country from your list, Sara!

We actually spent a good amount of time in the neighboring town of Kreuzlingen. I hadn’t been there before (unless you count just driving through), and it’s actually quite pretty. It’s also right on lake Constance, ergo a similarly attractive landscape.


In this little bay area there were about fifty billion birds: ducks, gulls, cormorants, and lots of other birds I don’t know the English names of.


Look at how sea green the lake is! I love it.


Say cheese[y photo op]!
Sara poses with wild swans near a petting zoo.


I believe this building is Hotel Seeburg.


crossing back into Germany

and a couple post-scripts:
I am now officially a resident of Germany! I’m also officially (finally) a registered student at the University of Constance.
And lastly, I leave on my trip around Germany on the 30th (i.e., this coming Sunday). Sara’s been traveling around Europe now for a couple weeks (she’s on Spring break), and she told me most hostels will have free wireless, so I just might finally be able to get on Skype. My Skype address is colinhalverson, so add me and ring me up if you see me come online!