Nachfüllen gratis

I found a place with free refills in Aachen today. It's a Subway. The McDonalds I've tried so far haven't had them, so I'm glad to have found this Subway. And I finally figured out what to call it, since I have thought for a month and asked multiple people and come up with no good answer. Free Refills in German is "Nachfüllen gratis." So now you know what to ask for. Speaking of free refills, there's a Pizza Hut in the center of town with all you can eat that I'll try out one of these weeks.

Belgium and the Netherlands

This weekend Charlie visited again. We went to the Barbecue on Friday at my place with a lot of the people I live with. There's one almost every week and it's a great place to go and just relax and talk with people while grilling some food. It's held right outside next to the tiny stream at my place. I went with Charlie to see the start of the bike race on Sunday. They weren't yet racing where I saw them ride by -- they have pace cars like in Nascar for certain parts of the race. We had a Belgian beer and some Belgian Waffles and then Charlie biked off for the race and, once I had walked through a couple-mile-long outdoor market, I decided to use my all-day train+bus pass to go to Maastricht, Netherlands.
First, the market. It was interesting. They have lots of chickens, live and dead. People were buying cooked chickens on one side of the aisle and buying one to put in a box on the other side. Old-school 'for here' and 'to-go'. And they literally just put the live chicken into a cardboard box when they sold it. That's different. They had a lot of stuff to sell, actually. Sweets, clothes, fruits, waffles. They even had guys like Billy Mays who sell things in TV commercials. Vacuums, Knife Sets, and the like.
Something I particularly liked was that when I was ordering french fries I said everything correctly in French (most of Belgium speaks French) but I said the word "large" in German and the owner of the stand changed languages immediately and I finished my transaction in German. I was impressed that she was fluent in both and picked up on the mistake I made.
Okay, so now to Maastricht. Maastricht is beautiful and jam-packed with history. Impressively clean and architecturally a great blend of past and present. My favorite part of the city was Stichting Dierenpark because it felt like an accidental zoo. Before reaching it, I saw a moving artistic display of dying or extinct animals. Once there I saw a new animal. It is like a deer mixed with a calf. It is pretty.
To get back to the main train station I wanted to take the bus and, after 10 minutes of waiting, I realized I was at an out of use bus stop. It said something in Dutch that I hadn't read upon arrival about being closed.
Dutch. That's something I should write about. My first impression of the Dutch language, written just after arriving: It's like a German speaker and an English speaker got together and they weren't sure how to spell or say things so they just took their words, mixed them together, and then added and changed letters.
Examples: "Price List" + "Preisliste" = "Prijslijst"; "Drink" + "Trank" = "Dranken"; "French Fries" + "Pommes Frites" = "Franse Frietjes"
It's actually kind of nice that I can read and understand almost everything.
Passed a coffee shop that required membership cards / ID on my walk back.

A German girl on the bus had the Australian song Waltzing Matilda as her ringtone.

Jocelyn and Charlie's Visit

This weekend was fun. Charlie and Jocelyn came to visit. While Charlie biked insane distances both Saturday and Sunday, Jocelyn and I checked out part of Aachen. We tried to go to the Lindt Chocolate factory but, since it had already closed, we went to the Oesher Bend, a temporary, mini-amusement park (I later looked up the right term: funfair. It doesn't have animals so 'fair' didn't seem to fit). It was fun. I had cotton candy for the first time in a long time and I had a half-meter bratwurst. The 50m elevated swings weren't that much fun, though they did give a great view, but the ride that spun was great. I can't describe it very well. I just know it's very similar to the Matterhorn, but on a smaller scale. Also, there was a ride that wanted to tell people to pick up a picture taken of themselves during the ride and it kept saying in English, "Don't forget you!", which I thought was a funny direct translation from German. Watched Pulp Fiction for the first time as well. Not a bad movie. Quite a few people I've talked to here like the movie, especially the opening quotes about Europe being different than the US.

I remembered something from way back in Cologne. There was a guy that called himself DJ Mark that did Karaoke every week in Köln. He brought in what looked to be a kid's mini-training-electric guitar, a recorder, and a harmonica to accompany his singing. He was very entertaining. About 45 years old, too. But the mini-electric actually plugged into the sound system and somewhat worked. It was about as big as my forearm. Don't know why I'm remembering that now, but I thought I'd share it with you.

Saturn and German University

I went into a Saturn store today. It's the German equivalent of Best Buy.
I really liked their video games section because of two things I saw.
First a sign that read:
"Erst Schule,
Dann spielen.
Unsere Konsolen sind bis 14.00 ausgeschaltet."
First School, then Play. Our consoles are off until 2pm. They are either helping to prevent children from playing hooky, or they are just using school as an excuse to save power. Either way, I'm a big fan.

FIFA 2008 was displayed across 2 large screens with 1. FC Koeln against Alemannia Aachen. Awesome!! I have spent time in each of those cities and the German pride in their city's "Football Club" cannot be matched. You know when it's a game day. I was excited to see the German league teams playing against each other in the video on the demo. 1. FC Köln (read "erste eff-say cooln"), stands for "first football club in Cologne" and is the team from that region. Alemannia is the name of the soccer team in Aachen. Seeing that really brightened my day.

I went to class at RWTH Aachen today. That's Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, the theory-based engineering school here, most equivalent to UC's College of Engineering. My supervisor wants me to gain academic progress as well as professional experience on this co-op. It was all in German and, therefore, difficult to glean a lot from. There's too many new technical words flying by too quickly. It's not nearly so nice or electronically advanced as schools in the US, as is typical in Germany. The most surprising difference I noted was that they really pack students in. There's no aisle, so if you want to sit in the middle, everyone between you and your seat must get up and fold up their desks and seats to let you through. For those of you familiar with the size of classrooms at UC, the 160 seats in the class I went to today fit in a room smaller than 755 Baldwin. UC's website says that room should hold no more than 72 people.

Easter Travel 5 - And I'm back

Wow. I had no idea how happy I would feel upon returning to Aachen! I walked off the train into the station and my heart felt light and a smile sprung to my face. I could read and understand everything! I felt so confident in my German as I ordered dinner. I'm really glad to be back. I really do like Germany. Especially in comparison to France. (No offense meant to anyone who is a fan of France. But without knowledge of the language it is much more difficult to get by there then it is in Germany. France is not nearly so foreigner-friendly.)
On the train ride back I was able to help point out to some Indians on the train some things to see in Cologne since they were going to have a 2 hour layover there and wanted to see some stuff in town. They are living and working in IT in Sweden and on their way back from Brussels. Apparently not an interesting place. They suggested that I never even visit it.

Hm. Another €2.30 to ride the bus back home after the train station. It's so expensive and it's the only way for me to get around other than over an hour of walking each way or a more expensive taxi ride! I wish I had more options like in the bigger cities I've stayed in.

I have my wonderful paperwork meeting downtown for foreigner registration. I hope all goes well there and that my German is good enough to explain what I need. And I hope that the next bus doesn't drive away so quickly. I just missed this one because the driver didn't even wait long enough for me to walk from the bench at the bus stop to the curb to be picked up :-/

Easter Travel 4 - Paris Again!

I am having a wonderful time in Paris seeing everything the city has to offer (not literally because this is a Gigantic city on the same level of scale as New York or Chicago and it has hundreds of years of history).

As an example of how busy but how interesting my time is right now, see the following quickly typed itinerary of what I did today on Easter Sunday:
Started out waking up and getting breakfast at the hostel.
Then had a bunch of walking to do because metro line 7 was partially closed for Easter
Saw the Notre Dame but before Mass started went to Sainte-Chapelle (crown of thorns church), and viewed the amazing stained glass windows. It was built in only 6 years!
Open air market with birds and flowers
Notre Dame grounds and then looking through the offerings of individual's shops along the river Seine
Notre Dame Easter Mass
La Conciergerie, the prison that held Marie Antoinette before her beheading
Then authentic french lunch and pastries along the river
The Louvre (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, works from Raphael, De Vinci, and many many others)
Musée d'Orsay (impressionist paintings from Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, etc.)
Metro to the Mount of Martyrs
Awesome smoothie made of nothing but actual fruit
Walk up to the church at the top of the hill, the highest point in Paris
Enjoyed the great original artwork there, on sale by people painting
Enjoyed the spontaneous music performance on the steps of the church Sacré Cœur with the great view of the whole city.
Walked down some famous steps to a famous intersection and ate at that corner at an authentic French restaurant. I had duck accompanied by french wine and it was awesome.
Walked down the mount and took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top so, as night had fallen, we could look out from the roof onto the Avenue des Champs-Élysées back towards Notre Dame with all the cars' headlights and taillights and many pedestrians. Also saw the rest of the city again from a high perspective, as we did from the Eiffel Tower, and it was beautiful yet again.
After we came down we walked the entire Champs-Élysées to the Egyptian Obelisk and then headed back to the hostel.
Another very full day in the awesome city of Paris.

Easter Travel 3 - Versailles!

We visited Versailles today. I'm back at the hostel now, resting my feet. I was standing or, more often, walking for a total of 12 hours today. All on cobblestone. But my feet and how hot it is in this room are the only two things that I can complain about today.
The palace at Versailles was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and the palace grounds are Gigantic and Beautiful. Everyone should see the display of the fountains there at some point in their life.
We got a tip from a local to go to one of the more secluded fountains when they turn on and it was just awesome.
I looked it up later. It is called "Bosquet of the Salle de Bal" and you can see a picture of it without the fountains running here.
The Palace at Versailles was one of the most ornate palaces and was used for many years by Louis the XIV and XV and XVI and where Marie Antoinette last lived before she was captured and beheaded during the revolution. A lot of very neat history there, too. Definitely worth a full day to see the Palace and the Gardens.

The first thing I tried to read in France when I got off the train from Germany was a tourist information desk sign. There were 100 person lines at all the desks for tickets and info so I went to the closed window to glean what I could without waiting. The English translation said "No Tourist Information at this window now. Thank you for your comprehension." Haha. The French word for "understanding" is compréhension. I have actually learned quite a bit of French while in France. 3 years of Latin, 2 years of Spanish, 9 months of German, and 21 years of English help a lot :-)
But I think I like reading poor translations much more than correct ones. 'Not a Passageway' was what the French said. The English translation: "No Way"

Easter Travel 2 - Paris!

I took some short notes while traveling through Paris whenever something came into my head. I'll let you read them as I wrote them ...

This is really hard.
I'm completely unsure of where I'm going, but I'm on the subway going there. My German phone costs tons of money to use here so it's not a viable solution. I haven't yet found an English speaker, but at least one guy knew how to say 42 in English, so I found the right subway gate (I think)!
Aw! I just missed my group's boat ride by the Eiffel tower! They texted me just now.
Somehow I must still look like I know what I'm doing because I've had 3 people come up to me and ask for help. Interestingly, though one man was French, the other two were Germans! So I could speak to them, but I still don't have a clue what I'm doing. New plan: find a cafe by the Eiffel tower, I hope, for an hour wait till their boat ride gets over!
Darn. I was not on the right train (though I did find the right gate I got on the wrong train at that gate). I try again. Now I must take 3 trains to get to where I want to be. I think I understand the system now.

...And all of the above occurred within the space of five minutes.
A little later ...

Okay, I made it! Only took 2 tries and 4 trains and 40 minutes. Plenty of time left for some Ice Cream under the "Tour Eifel" :-D
It's very crowded here now. It's Good Friday and tons of Europeans are vacationing in Paris. I heard a lot of German and Spanish today. It was about 3 hours from time we got in line till time we left the tower. It's really cool! At first it didn't seem that big then it looked really big and then, from halfway to the top, it seemed gigantic. Weather was great, only sprinkled a few times, and we could see probably 30 miles from the tower. And wow, Paris is big. Just enormous.
We were there as they did the Light Show on the Eiffel Tower and we watched from the Tower at the city as the sun set and all the lights across Paris turned on. Very beautiful.

Easter Travel 1

I finally have my Easter travel all booked. I'm really late in booking, so it will be €180 for trains to and from Paris and €90 to stay in the youth hostel for 3 nights. My first trip outside of Germany in Europe! And I get to see Paris! Alright!
Time for some sleep. It's now 3am so it's certainly my bedtime.

In Aachen

I am safely in Aachen, where I'll be living for the next 6 months. I'm doing great, the place I'm living is fantastic, and I have already met at least 20 people! Everything here is good except that I am, very unfortunately, without internet.
I have to go for now since Im using someone else's internet (and keyboard if you see no apostrophes and mistypes the keyboards are different over here and this one particular computer is set to type in Polish :-) )