Hello all,

Well right now I’m riding in a train from Goettingen to Vienna. I’m somewhere in Austria now, and it is just breathtaking. I can see what I think are the Alps and there are lots of little lakes and rolling hills as well. It’s like the sound of music, but better. Speaking of which, I’ll be in Salzburg in a few days. I’m meeting my buddy Olivia at the airport tomorrow and we are going to start part II of my European adventures. So excited. I have to admit, though, I’m a little upset right now because I had to leave Goettingen and all of the people in it. As I’ve said many times before, I absolutely love it there and I hate leaving all of the new friends I’ve made. I was so comfortable there and now I have to start over with the friend making and getting used to a new city. It’s exciting, but kind of scary all at the same time. I know that I have tons of wonderful adventures to come, so that helps me overcome any negative feelings I might be having. It’s mostly just the fact that I’m going to miss the people there so much. All good things must come to an end, though. Unfortunately.

So I’ll update on what the last few weeks have been like. But first I’m going to tell you about what’s going on next to me on the train. There’s this couple who look like they would have fit in very nicely at Woodstock and they have box wine on the table and are drinking it out of their water bottles. Can we say classy? Also, the man is wearing a sparkly headband which I just don’t understand. But back to my last few weeks, I’ve had a lot of visitors actually. First one of my friends from lovely Waldsee (this is the camp I talk about quite often) came to visit me for two days. We mostly ate, but we also rode our bikes to one of the lakes nearby. It was a really nice time, a little hot, but the water was nice and refreshing. It also reinforced the fact that the Germans are a-okay with nudity. It’s always the people you don’t want to see naked though. That’s life I guess. Anyways, I showed her some sights and we got Eis about three times while she was there. Good times. Then one of my friends who was a German exchange student in the Borrito came to visit me. It turns out that she only lives about 25 minutes away from Goettingen. So we hung out, caught up, went shopping, etc. Then my cousin came to visit me on her way back from Uganda (her flight went through Amsterdam so she made a little pit stop). Poor girl was sick the whole time she was here and could barely talk. We didn’t let that ruin our fun, though. We went to Eisenach and saw the Wartburg which is where Martin Luther hid for 10 months, translated the bible into German from Greek, and threw ink at the devil on the wall. We were so exhausted after that, we went to the hotel (which looked like Michael Jackson decorated it and every other song they played was by him). Then we passed out, got dinner downstairs, and passed out again. The next day we traveled to Buchenwald which is a concentration camp in Weimar. I can’t exactly say that it was fun, but it was very informative. It’s one thing to learn about these sorts of things in school, but being there makes it all so much more real. It was a grounding experience and I feel like everyone should try to go to a concentration camp at some point if they get the chance.

One last update- last weekend I went to Heidelberg with a group from the Institut. It is a beautiful city and I would highly recommend going there if the chance arises. There’s this huge castle overlooking the city and a river running through it. It’s fairly touristy, though. I don’t think I’ve heard that much English anywhere else. We actually ran into a professor from Wake while we were there. His two kids were wearing the obnoxiously tie-dyed screamin’ demon t-shirts. Small world. That’s the big stuff for now. There are more updates to come. Yay.

Spaeter Gater