St. Goar, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden

St. Goar

Two weekends ago, I went to St. Goar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of a weekend trip put on by the international office of the University and Fachhochschule. It was a weekend to meet many new people studying in Mainz, and also to check out one of the many historical castles along the Rhein River. It was a beautiful place, and the weather was perfect for the whole weekend, making the trip that much more pleasant. Saturday consisted of "getting to know you" games, a Stadt rally (basically where you run around town to different stations answering questions about the city and getting help from the locals), and ended with a huge party in the wine cellar of our youth hostel. One of the other Americans on the trip and I spent most of the night teaching people from Finland, Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, (and I'm sure some other places) how to play various American drinking games. Most people knew Kings, loved Flip Cup, hated Quarters, but the funnest game was Thumper. Thumper is essentially when each person has their own unique sound and symbol and when a person begins, they do their sign and symbol first, followed by the sign and symbol of somebody else, signaling that it's their turn. It's a really loud, obnoxious, but absolutely hilarious game.

Sunday we woke up really early and climbed who knows how many steps to the top of the hill to tour the castle. Apparently this specific castle was housed by tax collectors, and they would stop people on the river in order to pay taxes. Interesting. It was the first castle I have ever been in, which left me pretty fascinated by everything I saw or heard about its history.


Frankfurt

Friday, me, Khoa, Howard, and two girls from France (one of our friends from the Fachhochschule, Jenny, and Fanni (?) her friend that was visiting) went to Frankfurt, which is only about a 20-30 minute train ride from Mainz. We basically just walked around the city, checked out the Altstadt (old part of the city), and the huge mall (where I FINALLY got a warmer coat and scarf). I don't even know how many levels it had, but the design of the building was awesome. We also saw that there was a HUGE line, on both sides of the entrance, to the Hollister they had. We asked a person in line what was going on, and she told us that this was the only Hollister in all of Germany, so it's constantly busy. We found this quite hilarious, since Hollister is "California clothing," and you can't wear more than half that stuff in Germany's weather anyway.We also stopped by this little tavern called Adolf Wagner, to try their regional specialty, Apfelwein (apple wine), which is basically just fermented apple juice and very acidic.

All in all, I really liked Frankfurt. It was certainly a change in scenery from other German cities, with towering skyscrapers (it has the tallest buildings in Europe) and its cosmopolitan feel. I will definitely be going back to check out its nightlife, restaurants and museums. I am also going to look for internships around there, seeing as its the financial capital of Germany and its fourth largest city.

We made it back to Mainz around dinner time, and Jenny and her friend offered to make us all homemade French crepes (yes, please!!) We hung out eating Nutella-filled crepes and watching Marie Antoinette (and  also learned some French history). It was nice to just chill out for a night.

Wiesbaden

Saturday, Khoa, Howard, and I headed to Wiesbaden, which is a city only about 10 minutes away from Mainz. 5 other people from CBYX are placed in Wiesbaden, and there is also an American military base there. We went there to check out the city, but most importantly, to try to get on the military base to get some American products! We took a bus to the city (which took an hour... won't be doing that again), and then got pretty lost trying to find the right bus to take us to the military base, only to find out that the bus we were looking for didn't run on Saturdays. We finally found our way, walked for a while through the rain and cold, only to be turned away by some angry German guard. Apparently I'm supposed to register my military ID before I can enter the base, and if I want to bring American friends, they have to bring their passports and get registered as well. What the hell. He couldn't even tell me where this place was to register because he didn't know the road names, and it wasn't open on the weekends. Epic. Fail. Khoa and Howard said they have no desire to return to Wiesbaden so looks like i will trying again one day alone. Ah well.

Saturday night I hung out with my friend from Poland, Marta, and we met Joey, a CBYXer, at the train station. We also met a random German from Frankfurt and he decided to come along with us for the night. He was really funny (still pretty intoxicated from the soccer match earlier that day between Mainz and Hamburg) and taught us some hilarious German jokes. The night pretty much consisted of us waiting for a bunch of Marta's Spanish friends, and then not getting in places because they were too full. I was entertained by the German though, so I had fun. Joey, me, and the German ended up staying out until 5 in the morning, and I waited with them at the train station for the next train back to Frankfurt, then took a taxi home (no way I was walking 30 minutes home with how cold it was!!).

University Life

School hasn't been too eventful. I dropped my Human Resources class because I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and instead added the Marketing class that Khoa and Howard are in. I've taken Marketing before and the German terms are pretty similar to the English terms, so it will be easier to pick up on the vocabulary. I also added a Master's class taught in English, just for fun (ha...) It's International Accounting, but I didn't want to take the International Students class (it's on Monday mornings, no thank you) so I am in the all German students class. We already had to give a group presentation, and the people in my group, after realizing I wasn't German, said "Oh man, I bet you think we're butchering your language".... hahah it was funny. Most young people in Germany are actually really good at speaking English, but it is still funny to hear the way they say some things. For example, they kept saying the word "paytence" over and over... and I was like "what is this word you guys keep saying??" and apparently they meant "Patents". Even the teacher said it like that. The teacher came up to me during break and asked me if his English was good.... hahah YES! You guys are awesome. Definitely much better than any German speaking I can do. My favorite translation Germans say in English is "I make party" or "Let's make party" hahaha because in German you say "Party machen" (machen=to make/do) if you want to have a party, etc. It always makes me laugh.

Anyway, the class doesn't seem too hard, but it did make me realize I have forgot a lot of stuff. My other classes that are taught in German just makes me realize how much German I DON'T know, but I'm getting a lot of vocabulary out of it. My German language class doesn't seem too hard yet, almost too easy, so I'm hoping it gets to be more challenging. I don't want to change to the advanced class either, because I hear it is a huge jump. We did ask our InWent tutor, though, if it would be possible to sit in on the University's German language classes, because only taking it one night a week is not enough. Hopefully we'll be able to. So now, I only have classes on Wednesday and Thursday, leaving the rest of my week pretty open to whatever. I'm excited about that :)

Other Events

-- Went to the Mainz Oktoberfest.... the main tent was too full so we went to the second, smaller tent, where you had to pay to get in and they didn't sell the traditional liter Oktoberfest beers. It was pretty much an empty room with a DJ and bar and a couple tables. We made the best of it, though, and had a lot of fun bouncing on the tables and making dance circles on the empty dance floor. The DJ played cheesy American hits, including some songs from the Grease soundtrack (hilarious) and a lot of German songs I never heard of, but apparently were very popular. We also made sure to ride around on the bumper cars before we left.

-- Next weekend is (maybe) a school trip to Heidelberg (where the infamous Heidelberg Castle lies)... and maybe meeting up with some CBYXers? We'll see.

-- Been trying to plan out my trips for the year and I am very overwhelmed. There are so many places I want to see, but I have no idea when the best times to go are, etc. I just have a lot more to research, but I don't know how to narrow it down. Any travel planning tips anyone??? It would be greatly appreciated!!

Hope all is well with everyone back home. Glad to hear the Rangers are holding their own against the Yankees (for the most part). Keep me updated!