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!

meine Freizeit

I'm sure you're all wondering "What do you do with all of your spare time, Colin?" Well, hopefully I can answer this pressing question (j/k all, of course).

1) Read - Thank you, massive, labyrinthine UoK library, for having an enormous English-language section! I found The Third Policeman at the U's library with ease (well, relative ease - it took me about an hour to find the physical book, but I found its listing in the catalog in mere seconds). I also checked out ("lieh aus") The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which looks interesting as well. I'm already about finished with Policeman.

2) Doodle - I brought crayons, pencils, markers and paints with to Germany. It's therapeutic, so my insurance should cover the airline's mulct for my luggage's weighing too much, right?

Still Life


Mater Dolorosa

*I forgot to mention, three paintings I submitted to St. Olaf's other magazine, The Quarry, were accepted for this year's edition (Sadko, Mona Lisa, and The Sudan).

3) Experiment with this foreign concept of "cooking" (in the sense that "cooking" is equivalent with "heating things that I also unwrap") - The waffles and whipped cream were a very wise purchase.

yum!

4) Hike - I think you might have already figured this one out from my last couple of posts ;)

near Mainau

5) And naturally schoolwork/homework/studying… NOT! But seriously, though, I do have a decent number of lecture hours a week.

So that's it, just a brief post.
And Anna, enjoy your grad party! Wish I could be there; they're loads of fun! Con-gradu-lations again :P

Ciao amici!

dem Heim ähnlich

Hallo Leute!
So before I upload my pictures of beautiful Constance, I just wanted to inform you of my three pieces of quality news:
1) I had my first Arabic class today. I went to the intro course, and the professor told me I should be in the second highest level of Arabic! Then I visited this course, and I'm at least as good as everyone else (if not a little better than average).
2) I got elected to an executive position in Alpha Phi Omega again for next year.
3) One of my paintings ("Annaliese") was chosen to be on this year's cover of St. Olaf's The Reed magazine!
Alright, now the boring stuff is out of the way.


the strangest looking university ever


see above


view from my room in Sonnenbühl Ost
It's actually pretty, but I still have no internet.


Lake Constance and the Alps in the background


Everything's blooming here. This is Sonnenbühl Ost again.


Now this is funny. First off rauchfrei means "no smoking," so no one smokes inside the buildings, just right outside every exit. Then the massive German word Studiengebührenboykott means they're boycotting tuition. Thus far higher education here in Constance is free, but now they're thinking about making it €500/semester. Okay, so €500 sounds like a pittance compared to the leviathan cost of American college, but I agree: Boycott the increase before it gets out of hand like it has for us!


Have I mentioned this university is obscene?


The walk to the U from Sonnenbühl Ost takes about 20 minutes and cuts through these gorgeous natural lands. There are loads of birds, butterflies, people walking their dogs, etc. It's a very nice way to start the day.

Exkursion Meersburg

I've got more photos!

I've had free time recently to doodle a little!

This one you might recognize from somewhere. Anyone? I've also painted a little, but no photos yet. Here's a shameless plug: If you haven't checked out my website yet, click here to see more of my loverly art!

On Wednesday we went to Meersburg, a small touristy town only a 15 minute ride by ferry (Autofähre) from Constance.


This photo is of Kirsten and me on the Autofähre. It was chilly on the ride. It was probably only 40°F that day. It's not a very good photo, but I know you all like seeing my smiling/grimacing face.


Here's a photo of Burg Meersburg, a somewhat redundant name. In English it would be "Castle Castle on the Sea." Here is where our tour of the ridiculous structure began. This time the German tour was led by this hilarious man. It was a blast. He teaches one of the sections of the language course. The tour itself was much better, but the subject of the tour (mainly these two castles in Meersburg) was really trashy.


So this is what I mean by "ridiculous" and "trashy." This young man was dressed up in what is apparently supposed to be garb from the Middle Ages. He was also wearing jeans, and that sword is definitely plastic.


These are skulls of very, very small deer. The Burg had skulls and animal heads all over, but they were very poorly kept up. There was also this moose head whose hide was almost completely decayed off. It was sort of disgusting.


Then there were these bizarre putti-babies with antlers for legs. (It's a chandelier, too!)


Here I am in a room with just suits of armor. And yes, that is the infamous Sir Pumpkinhead on my right.


Did I mention Meersburg is actually really pretty, tho?


This is the shoreline on the way back to the ferry. Five seconds after I took this photo, two swans swam up. Swans are all over Lake Constance.


And this one is for Teri. Not only is the region warm enough for magnolias, but also for palms. But yeah, I concede, it wasn't very warm at all during our tour of Meersburg.


And here's a photo of Germany giving the finger to political correctness.

Well, happy Easter all (or Frohe Ostern, as they say in my country)! Rolf Egenberger is coming down from Augsburg to spend the day with me in Constance this Saturday, and then I'm probably going back with him for an Egenberger family Easter celebration! He told me they're having something like a "small Oktoberfest" in Augsburg for the holiday.

So my language course is almost finished - only one week left! Next up is my tour of Germany, and then back to "real" life: The semester begins April 19! Expect another post after Easter holiday is over, and things open up again (ie, so I can use wireless).