A Tale of Two Cities

There is no way for me to give justice to this first week within this blog entry. However, maybe it will offer a little perspective to say that I feel like I have been here for closer to a month. Last Thursday I touched down in Frankfurt, Germany, and this Thursday my head feels like it is going to explode, no doubt more than partly due to the intensive German language course classes that started Monday! I won't be able to even come close to going into great detail about all of the things that I have been blessed enough to take part in, but I will make a list, detail a few events, and throw an army of pictures at you to give you an idea.

But, back to the beginning, I promised you a little introduction to my host family. They are the absolute nicest people on earth, and certainly here in this land of stone-faced drifters. The mother, Susanne, and her husband, Arved, picked my up from Frankfurt and drove me the hour and a half back to the town in which they live, Karlstadt. Arved works for the state as a manager in the horticulture department, and oversees a university 17km or so from Karlstadt. He is an extremely fun, happy man who is all for learning English as he teaches me a little German, and is known to throw out some of the most endearing language blunders. Susanne stays at home but also has her certificate as a Agricultural Engineer. She is extremely good-spirited also and her strong will sometimes enjoys to demonstrate itself via crisp corrections of Arved's English blunders. They have two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter, maybe 22, is named Xenia. The next oldest is the 20 year old son named Thilo, and the youngest is the 10 year old Emile.

The whole family has been remarkably kind, thoughtful, and intensly vital to my survival of the German culture and education system.

Before I throw too many pictures at you maybe it is best to describe Karlstadt, Wuerzburg, and how they relate to me. Karlstadt is a very old and beautiful smaller town which I live in. Many of the houses are of the older Bavarian architecture and it has a wall that runs around and through parts of it, around what used to be the old city. The city is located on the River Main, a river that flows through Wuerzburg also and all the way to Frankfurt and up into Nurmberg. My room is on the third floor and I have a splendid view of the ruins of an old castle up on a hill on the other side of the river from my window. Karlstadt is considered to be a small town, but here in Germany even the small town have all shops that they might need. The population is about 14,000.

Wuerzburg is about 30km from Karlstadt to the south, with a population of about 134,000. Wuerzburg is also on the Main River, which provides some very breath-taking scenery. This is the city in which the University of Wuerzburg campus is and which I commute to every day for intensive course classes. The city boasts near 200 churches, as well as a castle which sits on a hill and looks over the whole of the city. Wuerzburg is also the college scene and is where many students will go to vists bars, discothek, and other more happening places.

I take a 20 minute train ride into Wuerzburg and then ride buses and street cars to get to the university. On Monday the intensive German course began, a four hour a day immersion course to help us better learn the language. However, actual courses with the university for the semestre will begin on the 15th of October.

Ok, so over the past week I have:

• went to the local Karlstadt weinfest
• went on a bike ride with Arved and the neighbor to a bakery in a nearby town
• went with the family to a fishefest 4km away and had a fresh fish cooked over coals
• biked to Würzburg and back (40 miles)
• received a tour by Arved of his institution
• had 4 intensive language courses
• went to the Rathaus (government house) in Würzburg to register as a resident, only to find out I needed to do that in Karlstadt
• opened up a German bank account with a bank called Sparkasse
• had a beer at a biergarten
• visited a few of the larger churches in Würzburg
• met a fellow Lobo and befriended a stedent from Paris and a student from Belgium
• ate döner kababs
• purchased a month bus pass at the student rate
• purchased a month train pass at the student rate
• visited the Karlstadt Rathaus and successfully registered
• tasted many delicious German recipes
• explored Karlstadt a little
• explored Würzburg a little
• visited Arved's mother in Bamberg and toured a 1000 year old cathedral there

And now, here is the best part, pictures......






















My room for the next 6 months












With my snug little 2 meter bed!

 

You can kind of see the ruins on the hill there.














Back yard.








 






Patio, with Mooki (the dog) present.
















Flora, the new family member.

 

1,000 year old Cathedral in Bamburg

 

                                               Normal sight in Germany, a castle. This one on a Bamberg hill.

 

Rose Garden in Bamberg.














Olden device to lift stone for building making.

Old architecture in Karlstadt.








Wall in Karlstadt.

Biking to Würzburg, vineyards.

 

Bike path scenery.

 

 Stream flowing into the Main River.

More vineyards, wine is what the region that I am staying in is known for.

The beast that took me to Würzburg and back.

 



 

It is now 23:22 here in Karlstadt and that means that it is now time for me to go to sleep! Hope all is going well to everyone on the other side of the Atlantic and I will write soon with scenery from Würzburg as well as a few stories of the first week of language courses and exploring the city!