We make a new . . . friend

September 10, 2011 – Emily

Today we spent most of our waking hours walking around Aix and bought books and stationery and other good things.  Even Peter Pan in French!  In the evening we had dinner with the entire group, and somehow all of the Duke students (the three of us and a boy) ended up in a clump and somehow got into a discussion about empiricism and other philosophical things (one of the boy’s majors is philosophy).  Let’s just say that he didn’t defend some of his arguments very well. 

And now for the real news.  We met Renaud.  He is presently in the house.  Unfortunately, the door between our room and his still doesn’t close.  We met him in a haze of smoke, and, unfortunately, he was only partially clothed.  But after introductions and explanations were had, we got along swimmingly.  The only thing left to do tonight is to construct a barricade.

Overheard today:

(during a dinner of crêpes)

Maggie: . . . ugh, after the plane and the train . . .

Emily: . . . and the navette and the cab . . .

Maggie: I’m surprised I didn’t have to take a mule.

(walking home)

Maggie: It smells like . . . something’s burning.

Emily: It’s probably our house.

(A little later . . . we walk inside and there is a lot of smoke.  Renaud is here!  He burned his dinner!) 

(whilst we were discussing having facebook friends who speak other languages)

Maggie: My Lithuanian friends did me no good.  It would show up on my news feed.  Twenty Zs and an L do me no good.

(Maggie talking to her mother on skype, me refusing to take a shower whilst Renaud is in the house; background information: we have to go through the other girls’s room to reach the wash room, and Renaud is in their room right now)

Mrs. Howell: Just run—streak—through their room to get there.

Emily: *squeak*

Maggie: Mom, you just made Emily faint.

September 9th: A plane, a train, a bus, and a car

To preface, when I made my travel plans from Frankfurt Germany, to Aix en Provence France, it seemed easiest to go through Paris.  As I was originally entering Europe (and thus Germany) to Paris it seemed like a good idea to leave the same way I came.  To do that I would fly from Germany to Paris the morning of the 9^th and then take the high speed TGV (train à grande vitesse) to Aix.  In reality, however this idea has proved thus far to complicated, prone to go haywire, and just plain dumb. 

My first leg (driving from Judith’s house 2 hours to the airport) went well  - despite the whole waking-up-at-4: 30am part.  But I dozed in the car (meaning I flitted in and out of consciousness to a soundtrack of German pop radio).  We arrived at the airport at 6 – my flight for Paris leaving nearly 5 hours later at 10:50.  If you are ever in the Frankfurt airport be warned – there are NO outlets.  Anywhere.  At all.  I know because I spent a good part of my 5 hours scouring the baseboards for them.  But there were none.  So I only watched one movie (Once – which was good, but is now kind of hazy because I was sooooooooo tired).  I also read my book.  And I paced the concourse a lot.  Finally I got on my plane, fell asleep, and woke up 20 minutes later to discover that the plane had not moved.  For some unknown reason our plane’s takeoff (aterrissage) was delayed.  We finally took off and I just dozed (not nearly as successfully as my pre-take off nap though). 

My plane landed in Paris, and taxied for about 30 minutes (it felt like that at least).  I got off and went to claim my luggage.  While waiting I had another snack (some Cranberry German granola bar Judith bought for me yesterday – it was pretty good).  I got my bag and then sprinted around Charles de Gaulle airport (I had a luggage trolley so it wasn’t too bad).  Also this time I didn’t run over any people’s feet – meaning that I didn’t feel like a total troll.  At some point whilst changing concourses some lady cornered me and made me sign what I believe was a petition for blind people.  I also gave her 5 euros – even though she wanted 20.  Feeling vaguely swindled I made it to the train station (inside of CGD) only to find out that my train had been delayed 50 minutes.  I finally got on the train – an hour later and passed the roughly 4 hours by napping, listening to my music and watching a movie (Grosse Pointe Blank).

When I arrived in Aix I took a bus from the train station to the center of town.  I then lugged my giant (60+ pound) bag up and down the street looking for a taxi.  After 20 minutes and several frenzied calls to the Vanderbilt center I got in a taxi and drove to the center.  Everyone had already left for dinner but there were some French students (our tuteurs – tutors) waiting for me.  So I battled to get my giant bag up 2 flights of stairs (I only fell down once) and then headed off to dinner.  After dinner I took my stuff to my auberge with Emily and then unpacked a bit. 

So despite all the problems with my train and the glacial pace of my day (see what I did there?) I am finally in Aix and look forward to an exciting semester.  

List of injuries sustained during my day of travel: 

- blisters (from the blue monster bag)

- giant bruise on my knee

- strained shoulder (from lifting blue monster bag to the top luggage rack on the train)

- various scrapes from various bags

September 8th

Our last day in Germany!  Who knew we would all survive?  Despite being a very dreary and dark (and windy and occasionally rainy) day, Judith (per usual) ensured that Emily and I would have a good last day.  We had spaetzel for lunch! For those unlucky souls who don’t know what spaetzel is – it is like German macaroni and cheese (but better!).  Judith made it herself.  All in all, it was a lovely meal and my favorite in Germany (though the Austrian cake-for-lunch meal was a close second). Another wonderful gastronomic tradition that Germans have is a little thing I like to call a “cake break”.  Around 3 everyday they stop and have coffee, tea, and pastries.  It’s like British tea-time, but somehow better (probably because of the cake instead of scones).  So what with the spaetzel and the three o’clock cake break, I was in heaven.

After lunch, Judith took us to an art museum that is owned by a local magnate.  It is also attached to Wurth (the magnate)’s factory (his company makes many industrial products – Judith mentioned screws at one point).  The current exhibition was of modern art.  Judith seemed to really enjoy most of it but Emily and I did not like it as much.  Some of it was really great – Emily especially loved a landscape of Canola flowers (think lots of smudgy yellow).  Some of it was typically terrible (or terribly typical) modern art.  That is to say, it was blothy/shapeless and titled “unnamed”.  Emily had strong opinions about the whole unnamed aspect – in her words, what is the point of creating something if it is totally open to all and every interpretations.  I thought she made a good point.  Also at one point, one of the docents told me not to touch the wall (it was technically a column, with no art on it).  All in all, the trip to the museum was good – except for the persnickety docent.

After the museum we watched the Devil Wears Prada (a classic on any continent).  Emily and I proceeded to quote our favorite line for the whole afternoon.  In fact, don’t be surprised if you hear one of us say, “By all means, move at a glacial pace.  You know how that thrills me” when we get back to Durham (or before).  Later Emily and I went for a walk (in the country – because that’s were Judith lives, pastoral paradise).  We talked a bit (and laughed a lot more) and grabbed some apples from the trees that lined the path.  We also ate some plums.  We think we even found Mangoldsall (the mystery vegetable that Judith’s village is named after)!!  Basically we saw tons of fields of leafy greens (think kale but light green) and we determined that it must be Mangoldsall.  We also saw many many large slugs – they were not nearly as comely as the Mangoldsall. 

After the walk (and snack) we went with Judith to the bar where her older brother, Simon, works.  It was decorated 70s style so there were lots of orange and brown striped things.  It was pretty cool.  When we walked in it was kind of empty (we got there around 8:30) but then the place filled up pretty quickly.  Clearly they all came to see the crazy Americans.  I had hot chocolate – it was very delicious.  We stayed at the bar a VERY long time (especially considering the fact that we had to get up at 4:30 AM the next day).  Towards the end of our stay Emily and I started to get goofier and louder.  If I hadn’t have been so DANG tired, I probably would have tried to calm-it-down.  But I was too tired.  Emily and I many a funny story up about our friends and almost fell out of our bar stools laughing multiple times.  People stared – it was kind of embarrassing.  But like I said, we were too tired to care.  Thankfully we finally went home and went to sleep.  But I didn’t even look at my watch because I didn’t want to see how little time I would have for sleep. 

Quotes of the day:

“Apple trees are not very comfortable.” – Emily Gall

Maggie: “Emily, are you excited about our trip to the German bar tonight?”

Emily: “I don’t know, I’ll tell you afterwards.”

Maggie: “I think we’ve been making a scene for the past 15 minutes.”

Emily in the apple tree

Emily: “Try the past week.”

Let's Take the Scenic Route

September 5th-7th

After our magical day in Spittal, Judith, Emily and I trekked to Salzburg, Austria.  We toured the city - but unfortunately it was raining the entire time.  And if Austria is sensational in the sun, it is down right depressing in the rain.  Despite the steady downpour, we were able to enjoy ourselves and learn some new things.  For instance, Red Bull - the company we Americans know (and love?) for their energy (aka toxic waste) drinks - is so much more than that.  In Austria (the birth place of said softdrink purveyor) it sells clothing!  And the owner/founder/head magician owns a car racing team!  Who knew Red Bull not only gave you wings, it also gives you snappy clothes?  Apparently this whole selling a lifestyle thing is very hip in Europe now.  According to Judith, Mercedes Benz sells clothing and Porsche sells furniture.  Another interesting part of our day was lunch.  I again could not finish my lunch!  I ordered vegetable strudel (think cooked veggies inside a puff pastry shell) with vegetable ratatouille (not just a cartoon rat folks, but also a dish) and boiled potatoes.  I (Emily) had Paradiessuppe (paradise soup), which I suppose was thus named because of its many ingredients.  It had so many, in fact, that I could not distinguish a single one.  It was, however, tasty.  (Back to Maggie).  After lunch we walked around in the rain more and then eventually headed back to Judith's apartment.

The next day we headed to Munich.  We walked around for about two hours.  We visited the English Gardens which were very nice.  My major impression of Munich is that it is the bicycle capital of Germany.  There were tons and tons and tons of bikes.  There were mini parking lots for bikes.  It was intense.  On the way home from Munich we got a flat tire which meant we couldn't drive on the autobahn (highways).  So instead we took the scenic route through Germany and saw many tiny villages.  It was pretty nice.

Today we mostly hung out at Judith's house.  We also crafted!  Judith had these old plain silk scarves and we painted/decorated them with silk paint.  Apparently we have to leave the house on Friday at 4:25 am.  Wonderful!  Looks like Emily and I will be taking lots of mini naps on Friday.

Quote of the day:

A fancy McDonald's sign in Salzburg

"Why can't America have sports teams named after Unicorns and Dragons?" - Emily Gall

Adventures in Austria

September 5th, 2011

So Saturday night Emily, Judith and I drove from Mangoldsall (Judith’s home village) to Salzburg.  It was a 3 hour drive and we arrived at 11pm.  I was pretty tired during the drive but stayed awake the whole time, which was a good thing because German radio plays some real gems at night.  We heard Final Countdown (which many may recognize as song that the Duke Marching Band Plays or as the song Gob Bluth uses in his shows), a song about a jetlagged heart (which Emily woke up to) and a song about Joan of Arc.  Like I said, all winners. 

We awoke the next day at 7:30 so we could drive 2 hours to Spittal Austria where they have an English speaking church that we attended.  The songs were in German but the sermon was in English.  After church we met Judith’s Austrian friend Florian who drove us to a mountain for hiking.  We drove up 85% of the mountain and hiked the peak.  It was all very Sound of Music - except Emily and I looked like TOURISTS.  Florian told Emily that her giant straw hat made her look like a tourist - whoops.  Around 2:30 we stopped for lunch and I ordered what I believed to be an Austrian crepe with apples and raisins.  It turned out to be essentially a very large round pound cake served with cranberry sauce.  Needless to say it was delicious and needless to say I only finished half of it.  Who knew you could order cake as a legitimate lunch in Austria?  Clearly this is a place where I need to spend more time.  I also had a very good Austrian sparkling lemonade which Florian recommended.  On the way back to the car (which involved more uphill walks and downhill walks) we ran into some “friendly” cows.  They barely tolerated us taking pictures of them.  A few minutes later we spied two sheep/rams and Emily got really excited.  She started to run towards them.  Unfortunately they did not share her enthusiasm and were even less pleased with our photo shoot than the cows.  Oh well. 

We finished up our hike, returned to the church (from that morning, it had some apartments upstairs where we were staying) to shower.  Around 6:30 we met Florian again and he drove us to a CASTLE that the church owns for convention and retreat purposes.  But seriously, it was a castle – complete with a prayer tower.  Emily and Judith were in heaven.  At one point Emily noted how the lawn overlooking the river was “a perfect place to have melancholy thoughts”.  We went inside and met the people living there – mostly interns connected with the church and after much Duke style debate (in which nobody can decide anything or make any plans) we watched The Young Victoria.  Did I mention that we were in a castle?  After the movie and a make shift dinner of 2 apples, 7 pocki sticks, and several cheese twist crackers Florian drove Judith, Emily and I back to the church.  On our way home, we were stopped by the Austrian Polizei!!!   Apparently it was a normal weekend checkpoint and luckily we all passed!!  So no Austrian jails for us (this weekend at least…).  Since it was very late Judith, Emily, and I got ready and went to bed.  And we fell asleep – to the rain.  Austria is wonderful place.

Here are some things to avoid or else you will instantly be branded as a tourist:

-      -  do not wear tennis shoes everywhere (which I have done – apparently they are the only shoes I packed for Salzburg/Spittal)

-       - do not wear giant beach style straw hats when mountain climbing

-       - when your new Austrian friend mentions that we can go to Italy for dinner (in all seriousness), do not laugh

Emily and her new "friend"

Quote of the day: “It’s been hours since I’ve stolen a flower!” Emily Gall

Emily and I on TOP of Golddeck Mountain, Austria

A castle, a mountain, and a giant pancake

September 4, 2011 – Emily

On Saturday morning, we went to a castle about 6km away and walked around the town a bit.  We could not go inside, because a certain titled someone actually lives there, but we did catch a glimpse of the chapel and  stared down a well and tried to see the pail at the bottom.  Also the flag was flying outside, which meant that the Duke (or Count?) was there.  Judith says that castles abound in Hohenlohe (her province, pronounced hoe-en lowa) are famous. 

Then, we went to the nearby town of Schwäbisch Hall, where we slipped into a Protestant cathedral right after a wedding and looked around.  Then we walked to a museum established by the man who owns Würthe and who lives in the area.  The museum featured an exhibit of mostly Niki (Catherine Marie-Agnès – who knows how that stuck in my brain) de Saint Phalle.  Some of it was depressing, but she made many sculptures of animals with multicoloured stones and mirrors on them.  The lions, the walrus, and the alligator were the best.  There was a pretty watering can in the gift shop, but it was rather large for a carry-on.  We walked around the town some more, and Maggie bought some postcards in a book shop. 

Then, we went home to Judith’s, ate dinner, packed, and were off to Salzburg!  We heard a song about jet lag, which was still appropriate, and chatted/slept the hours away.  We fell asleep soon after arriving at Judith’s apartment and set off a few minutes after waking up in the morning.  The hour and a half drive to Spittal (still in Austria) was sublime.  The mountains and sheer drops and verdance are of the sort that come only in dreams.  We went to a church that Judith knows about, because Florian, a friend she met during a Bible study conference this summer, goes there.  From what we could gather, a lot of the English speakers visit the nearby church-owned castle, so the sermon was in English and translated into German, and all of the singing was in German.  (Maggie even deduced the German word for kingdom – such a quick study.)

After church (and cake and coffee that followed), Florian drove us up, up, up, and then we all hiked even farther up until we reached the top of Goldeck, a mountain that overlooks Spittal and the surrounding valleys and villages nestled therein.  We found a little hut that is probably far more populated during the ski season and tried Almdudler, an Austrian soda-ish drink.  Maggie had Kaiserschmarren, which was so gigantic that we all ate some and there was still enough left for someone else’s entire meal.  During the rest of our hike, we encountered many cows (and took photographs with them), two sheep (Maggie snapped one, but they were eating and not to be trifled with), and sweet violet flowers.  Tonight, we will sleep in a room above the church, but before that, we are to go to a castle that the church uses as a retreat place sometimes, so we are curious about that.

Whilst we were making plans today...

Florian: Sollen wir nach Italien für Abendessen gehen?

Maggie: What?

Florian: We could go to Italy for dinner tonight.



Here is Florian:

My Arrival

September 2, 2011

It's been an exhausting few days (1 or 2 I'm not quite sure) but I finally made it into Germany this morning.  I began in Jacksonville FL, went to Charlotte NC, then Paris, and finally Frankfurt.  Not to bore you with my travel horrors (of which there were many) but here are some more stand out memories.  I ran over about 7 people's feet in the Paris airport (Charles De Gaulle) - and subsequently almost cried 7 times.  I got my work-out in for the next few days running around CDG - which may in fact be my least favorite place in the world (it is indeed worse than Teer).  Also I was lucky enough to go through security twice in Paris.  After all that though, I just barley made my plane and scampered off to Frankfurt. Our good friend, Judith, picked Emily and I up from the airport and we drove about an hour and a half from Frankfurt to a small town (name to be determined) in Southern Germany.  Luckily Emily and I were able to get some shut eye during the drive in - which was on the AUTOBAHN!!!!!!  I admit, when Judith first told me that the Autobahn was essential to our journey to her house I panicked a bit.  But fear not, Judith is an excellent driver - so smooth that I was able to fall asleep.  After we arrived at her house - which has the cutest garden by the way - we met her family and ate lunch.  Her older brother made us a pasta dish akin to ravioli.  It was like a pasts sandwich (hence the ravioli) filled with a spinach and sausage mixture.  Apparently the monks ate that as a way to disguise their meat.  Who knew that monks were so sneaky?  The cultural learning has already begun!  After lunch we took a long walk through the country (that's right Judith lives in the picturesque countryside).  We saw tons of apple trees (Emily ate two apples) and a castle close by.  Incidentally this area of Germany is known for its castles.  So expect a post about castles - and how much I like them - and how much I want to live in them.  Tonight we are going to a neighborhood barbeque - I am not sure what to expect though.  Who knows what Germans consider a bbq?  I am hoping to see at least on pair of overalls though.  Bonus points for any sort of pie as a dessert.  Heck, bonus points for any dessert!

Here are some things I have already learned:

- German people say "ciao" when they get off the phone and their last name when they answer the phone
- tap water is not normally drunk here - Judith's family (the Reichls) laughed at me when I just asked for tap water
- no German yet - looks like I'll be doing lots of smiling and thumbs up this week...

Auf Wiedersehen, Maggie