It's raining beer in Karlsruhe Stadium!

Guten Abend Freunden und Familie! Good evening family and friends!

This weekend marked an awesome turn in my love of German culture and all things European. On Friday evening, I joined a few of my Singaporean friends for a Southeast Asian food night at a church on the American military base in Heidelberg. It was strange going onto the base (which I didn't really realize we were visiting), as it was like I'd fallen off the edge of Germany into a hidden pit of über-American culture. The people I met there were extremely nice, however, and it was a good learning experience, I guess.

Saturday followed with perhaps my most "Euro" experience so far...German soccer! A German friend I met in one of my classes hooked me up with an awesome last-minute ticket to see the Karlsruhe versus Hoffenheim game. Karlsruhe, the team for which I was instructed to cheer, apparently had been going through more than a dry spell (no goals in 2 months), but lucky for me, they broke their spell on Saturday! The game concluded with a 2:2 tie and an almost-game-winning shot that bounced off the goal post with less than 2 minutes to go, but the fans were still thrilled. There was lots of singing, shouting, hugging strangers, and beer raining from the upper levels when Karlsruhe scored its first goal. I was still wiping dried-up beer off my face when the game ended.

I also got to see a good bit of Karlsruhe (a beautiful city, by the way), ate a delicious bratwurst-like sandwich, and really got to practice my German. There were definitely some fans shouting words and phrases that were not included in my textbook vocabulary...(ehem).

I now love Euro soccer and would love to do it again!! Fantastic experience!!

My parents are coming in just 6 days now, so I'll send out another update then!

Love to all,

Lizzie

Rachel, Rachel, and Fiona (all from my other study abroad home, the Nat'l University of Singapore) at our SE Asia night

Sandra (Uni Karlsruhe) and Dirk (Uni Heidelberg) before the game

Video of the awesome pre-game song: "Baden: Das schönste Land in Deutschlands Gau'n." Basically a bragging song about the greatness of Baden-Württemburg (the state that Karlsruhe and Heidelberg are in). The video isn't very good, but it's cool to listen.

Easter in Luxembourg!

Hello again and Happy Easter! Monday, I returned from a lovely Easter weekend in Luxembourg City with 4 of my American friends from Heidelberg. Luxembourg is an easy journey in theory, as the city is not far from Heidelberg (only 2 hours by car), but with our super-discount tickets, our train ended up being about 5-7 hours each way (blech). Nevertheless, we had a great time!

Luxembourg City is built on a mountain, with the city center at the top. Thus, the architecture and natural surroundings of Luxembourg City make it quite a unique spot. We visited some of the underground tunnels from the city's medieval fortress days and the Lux. City history museum, but mostly we spent our time wandering the parks and admiring the architecture (and delicious ice cream).

On Sunday morning, my friend Sean and I attended a Catholic church for Easter services. In choosing a church, I simply picked the one closest to our hostel, and hoped for the best. Knowing German and being able to pick up on a good bit of Luxembourgish, I had a 2-in-3 chance of understanding the service, right? As we realized about 2 minutes into the service, however, it was mostly in French and a little Luxembourgish....alas, just my luck. The service, which was only attended by about 50 people, was lovely, however, and we even got Easter eggs as we were leaving.

All in all, it was a great time! I'm back in Heidelberg now and have resumed classes. Other fun bits of news:

--I am the newest member of the "Grosse Chor der Universitaet Heidelberg" (or the University Chorus), which is about a 100-member co-ed choir. We will have one concert at the end of the semester, where we will perform Haydn's "Missa in Angustiis." For Mom and Dad, you can listen to clips of it here: http://music.barnesandnoble.com/Haydn-Missa-in-angustiis-Nelsonmesse-Te-Deum/Nikolaus-Harnoncourt/e/825646985784

--On Friday, I'm having a SE Asian food party at some church that my Singaporean friends attend on the American military base.

-- I got an awesome offer from a German friend in my literature class to watch some big German soccer game in Karlsruhe on Saturday. I thought it was some little thing until I was informed that this thing will be attended by 30,000+...anyone want to teach me the basics of soccer again?

And I think that's all!

Love and miss you all. Until next time,

Lizzie

My traveling comrades on the way to the hostel

Luxembourg has 3 national languages: French, German, and Luxembourgish (a mixture of French and German). Above is an example of Luxembourgish, which reads "I want to stay as I am." This sentence would look almost exactly the same in German...

The Grand Ducal Palace (House of Government)

Central Square in spring (did I mention that it's FINALLY spring??)

Notre-Dame Cathedral (Luxembourg-style)

Central park running through the city. We spent a lot of our time here; wandering, napping, eating ice cream, etc...

Spring in Europe!!! Who knew things could bloom here?!?

Luxembourg City is built on the side of a mountain...sadly our hostel was at the bottom and the city center was at the top... Here's a view of the city from the top of the mountain.

A church built into the side of the mountain in the central park.

Travel gang hanging out in the hostel

Luxembourg City from the bottom of the mountain

Travel gang with Notre-Dame Cathedral

We didn't eat here, but it's important to note...McDonald's is so expensive in Luxembourg!! A cheeseburger, med fries, and a drink = 7,65 € (more than US$10)

Our Easter Sunday church

End of the First Week of Classes and a 3:30am National Championship

Hello again!! Sorry it's been a while since we last talked, but I'll try to catch you up.

Last week was the first week of classes, but somehow--through a long series of mishaps and coincidences--I failed to attend a single "real" class...leave it to the German system. Some of my classes were delayed until this week, some professors didn't show, some of my classes were moved to different days of the week...and, oh yea, did you know that Germany just jumped forward with daylight's savings time? I didn't. Try telling that to 100 Germans when you walk into their lecture an hour late...

This week was much more successful, however. I attended all my classes and am reasonably pleased with them. I have 3 classes which together meet only 3 days a week:

-- Monday: 4:30-6:00pm: "Upper-level German."

-- Wednesday: 11:15-12:45: "American Romanticism" (an "English" lecture that's really 50% German/50% English)
4:30-6:00pm: "Upper-level German" (Part II)

-- Thursday: 1:45-5:00pm: "Germans in Film." A surprisingly intense German lecture starting with the dawn of film.

Most excitingly, I've met 3 Singaporean students in my classes so far! They all go to the same university where I studied 2 summers ago and are very familiar with UNC because of the strong UNC-NUS (Nat'l Uni Singapore) relationship. We even discovered some mutual friends at NUS and UNC! SMALL WORLD. We're getting together next week for a SE Asian food night!


On another note, however, for all of you who have been asking, I did get to watch all of the basketball tournament. There was screaming, jumping, hugging, crying, and a huge need for chocolate to soothe the nerves.

We watched the whole tournament on various UNCer's computers in high definition, as the NCAA fortunately broadcasts abroad. Three of my die-hard UNC friends and I watched all the games, and a few others joined now and then, depending on who could stay awake. As most of the games started between midnight and 3:30am our time, asking non-basketball fans to stay up for the games was a bit much to ask.

Yet we partied nonetheless and had a fantastic time. I've never missed Chapel Hill as much as I did that night (I wept like a little girl at the sight of Franklin Street), but there's nothing like chanting "TAAARRR" .... "HEEEEEELS" on the streets of Heidelberg. We tried to keep our voices down, but as the birds were already chirping at that point, we didn't really care...


That's it for me, I guess. Tomorrow morning I'm taking the train to Luxembourg with 4 friends for the Easter weekend. I'll be gone for 3 days and will return on Sunday evening (or midday for most of you).

Love to all and Happy Easter,

Lizzie

So proud of our homemade pizza that we made before the Final Four game vs. Villanova

Chopping up our friend, the organic basil plant

Poor John never made it to see our glorious Final Four win. We just couldn't keep this ASU fan going until 5:30am on a weeknight...

(PS...sorry there aren't any National Championship pictures...I'm an idiot and didn't take any. Miss you all!)