Orientation in the Black Forest

This weekend the UMass exchange group took a trip into the Black Forest. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, everything from the landscape to the 400-year-old farm we toured to the sunrise over the hilltops to our midnight stargazing. For UMass students who plan on studying in Baden-Württemberg, make sure to hike back after the orientation weekend is complete. You'll get some of the best pictures. Also don't touch the harmless-looking wires on the side of the road unless you like getting shocked.
Here are some of the pictures I took with my phone:

Heidelberg

This Thursday, I returned to one of the most beautiful - and tourist-ridden - cities in Germany: Heidelberg. There is a German word that describes the city perfectly: Märchenhaft - fairytale, magical, picturesque. Heidelberg is an historic city nested in the Rhine Rift Valley in northern Baden-Württemberg. The Neckar splits the city in two distinct parts, connected by the Karl-Theodor Bridge which,  at the double-tower gate, meets the Altstadt (lit. old city) centered around the 500-year-old church. Overlooking the city is the medieval castle, which is believed to have been built exactly 800 years ago. On the other side of the river, the hills are vibrant with foliage and vineyards.

This time I went to meet up with a good friend from my year abroad up north. Three years ago, at the same time of year and possibly even on the same day, I was in Heidelberg with my dad. It wasn't too much different, but I did manage to find a new route through the castle grounds.

I would absolutely recommend going to Heidelberg in late March or early April, when the weather is beautiful and the tourists aren't there yet. If you go in May or in the summer, you're likely to find too many tourists.

I also recommend eating crepes right on the side of the church facing the Neckar. They were such good crepes that we saw a camera crew filming the guy who made them.

My Class Schedule

I finally have an idea on which courses I'll be taking in April:
1. Computer Vision
2. Novellas from the Romantics to today
3. History of the Middle Ages
4. A film class on the Freiburg School of Pedagogy, which I still need to choose

All of my classes are in German except Computer Vision. Most of them are intended to fulfill the requirements for my secondary major in German. I'm really excited for Computer Vision, even though it's in English, and hopefully I can find a film class that really interests me.

Green City Freiburg

Green City Freiburg: Ecology Meets Economy - Seminar

The city of Freiburg is internationally renowned for its innovations in renewable energy and strides in environmental sciences. In 1973, construction of a nuclear power plant in Whyl, approximately 30 km from Freiburg, was met with widespread protests throughout the Schwarzwald region. Four years later, the project abruptly ended. In 1986, following the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, a nearby village called Schönau decided to take action, first by consciously reducing their energy consumption, 20% of which was nuclear energy at the time. They then urged their power provider to charge more for higher power usage, in order to encourage conscious energy saving. However, the market for energy was oligopolized (think oligarchy + monopoly) and entirely dependent on gas, oil and nuclear energy, meaning there were no environmentally friendly options.

The village of Schönau then decided to supply their own energy. However, this entailed various legal, financial and technical problems, and they were still dependent on gas, oil and nuclear energy. After the city's bold actions, scientists, technicians, lawyers, etc. from all over the country willing came to contribute to the Schönauer Project, without any pay or compensation. They were able to reduce energy consumption significantly and were able to spread a green mentality throughout Baden-Württemberg.

However, reducing energy consumption is simply not enough and is certainly not a long-term solution. With the prognosis that gas and oil resources may be nearly depleted by 2050, research in renewable energy is essential. Freiburg is the world's leading innovator in solar energy and is home to the world's only soccer field that runs primarily on solar energy. Rolf Disch also created the first PlusEnergy house, the heliotrope, which generates nearly five times as much energy than it expends. The house slowly rotates in order to optimize its solar energy production.

It's important to realize that Freiburg has a nice blend of circumstances, which makes all of this possible: It is the sunniest city in Germany resting in the middle of the a dense forest with sufficient wind, lending itself well to renewable energy; it is a compact city, enabling easy transport by foot, bike or tram; it is a fairly wealthy city - and therefore the most expensive city in Germany, after income is accounted for - and can afford to spend large amount of money in environmental research, smart technologies and eco-friendly products and services; it is a college city, housing innovators, researchers and leaders; and it is by no means an industrial city, making its ecological footprint tremendously smaller.

Freiburg is an example for the rest of the world. But we first need to understand, how we can make it work in other cities, where the circumstances may not lend themselves as well to this goal.

Game Night - Die Siedler von Katan

It shouldn't take too long for an American to translate the name of that famous, originally German board game.

The Fachschaft (der Technischen Fakultät), which is a Computer Science group on the Freiburg Uni, holds a monthly board game event called Spieleabend. Of course, this wasn't anything new to me, and neither were the games, since the majority of the most popular board games in America were created in Germany. I was just very excited to meet some people here who like to play settlers.

Cooking in Germany

I've already had the pleasure of cooking with a group of friends from my language course three times in the last few weeks.

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CHICKEN, POTATOES & APPLE CRUMBLE

The first time, we tried - and didn't quite succeed - to cook a whole chicken.

-e Suppenhänchen,- (n.): A chicken intended for soup, pretty clear from its name.

Since it was ridiculously cheaper than any other chicken, we decided to use this, which turned out to be a mistake. Soup chickens tend to have very little meat on them, which is why they are used for soups. Oops!

Nonetheless, it turned out to be a pretty good meal. The potatoes and salad were delicious, and the lack of chicken left us plenty of room for the apple crumble!

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RACLETTE BAKED OVER POTATOES, MISO SOUP & FRUIT SALAD WITH CHOCOLATE FONDUE

It was intended to be a Swiss dinner but some miso soup never hurts! I bought the raclette cheese in Switzerland and we baked it over the potatoes in the oven due to the lack of a raclette machine. Then we had sweet onion pearls and pickles on the side. For desert (I'm half surprised we made it that far!), we had an enormous bowl of fruit salad and a chocolate fondue.

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TUNA & TERIYAKI BEEF SUSHI & CHEESE CAKE WITH ELDER BERRY-BANANA YOGURT SAUCE

It was Japanese night! So we got together some tuna, teriyaki pork, fried eggs, avocado, cucumber and pickled ginger and made some sushi. I had bought some elder berry juice out of curiosity, so we decided to turn that into a sauce for the cheese cake we had bought. It was all delicious and very presentable!

Journey through the Schwarzwald - March 8

It's very difficult to capture in words what you see here. Even a video doesn't do it justice.

Don't use mobile blogger...

I thought it would be more convenient to blog from my phone, since I've been very busy in the last couple of weeks and I'm usually out all day from morning to night. But unfortunately, the Blogger app is terrible and none of the posts I publish from my phone are actually published. I'll make sure to put up some of those posts when I get a chance, probably tonight since nothing is ever open on Sunday anyway. And lesson learned, never use the Blogger app.

Basel, Switzerland

On Saturday we took a trip into the multilingual country of chocolate and cheese. We took the Deutsche Bahn directly into the three-quarters Swiss, one-quarter German city of Basel. The Rhein ran right through the city, separating the two nations.

It didn't take long to learn that Basel is a very expensive city. Even with the favorable Euro-to-Franck exchange rate, I still found myself paying nearly 10 euros for a block of raclette (I had to!). I was told that many people who live on the German-Swiss border work in Switzerland to avoid paying high taxes and buy their food in Germany where it's tremendously cheaper.

Between the four of us in our group, we came back to Deutschland with 1.5 kg of Leckerli, a must-have regional cookie similar to Lebkuchen or gingerbread!

Unfortunately we didn't stay too long since the weather was not very pleasant. Luckily I can go to Basel with the train for free on any day! I have to say, having the ability to travel to France or Switzerland pretty much whenever I feel like it is an amazing opportunity.

15 degrees and sunny!

If I told you it's 15 degrees in Freiburg you might think it's not any warmer than it is at home in Massachusetts. But remember in Germany they use Celsius. That means that it's around 60 degrees Fahrenheit here! Apparently while the United States was being hit hard and heavy with snow and cold winds this winter, most of Europe didn't even get any snow. An exchange student from Cambridge was telling me how it rained nearly every day this winter in England. And the Germans and Swiss were amazed at how little snow they had this year. Nonetheless there was still some snow to be found up in the mountainous regions of the Schwarzwald.

Im Schwarzwald

Our very first Saturday was spent in the quaint and quiet black forest. With our Regiokarte we were able to travel for free around the area surrounding Freiburg. So we decided to check out St. Peter, a small village centered around a gorgeous medieval church and a library (which was unfortunately closed); Titisee, which lies on a lake hidden in the middle of a mountainous forest; and Neustadt, a small town that has the feel of a city, what the Germans call a Flecken.