Munich, Germany Dec. 26-29th

It took a really long time to get to Munich from Strasbourg.  This is because there was a lot of snow and ice on the rails that does not allow the train to pass over at high speeds due to safety concerns.  At one time, the train came to a stop and then could not make it up the slight gradient because of ice. It had to back up and then build speed.

When I got to Munich it was very dark, I was cold and tired.  I stayed with a German lady who is a friends of someone my mother knows in Raleigh.  I arrived at the apartment around 9 or 10 PM.  She cooked dinner for me and then I went to bed.  The 26th of December was pretty much spent just traveling.

When I woke up the next day, she had already prepared a large breakfast of toast, eggs, cheese, ham, orange juice and coffee.  She explained the Bavarian (south german) culture to me.  I spent the day just walking around Munich.  Munich has a lot of old buildings that are very impressive, yet still has brand new shopping districts.  That is what amazed me the most, Heidelberg was old while Stuttgart was new; Munich was both at the same time.  The city is very large.  Interestingly enough, I found myself walking along l'Isère, the river that runs right by dorm room in Grenoble also runs around Munich, so next time I visit Munich, I could try rowing there.

I walked around the shopping district where the main cathedrale is.  The food in Germany is closer to American style than French style.  They have a lot of sandwhich shops where you can walk in and out very quickly with either a sandwich or hotdog for less than 3 euros.  The coffee that they drink is also what you find in America, the French drink what we call Espresso, if you want American coffee in France you have to ask for an Americano.  They love to eat pretzels while they drink beer.  Hot dogs are also taken very seriously, I ate many Bratwursts, Weisswursts and plates of Currywurst while I was there.

The cars that I saw on the street were incredible.  Tons of 5 and 7 series BMW's, in Germany they often prefer station-wagons rather than coupés or sedans.  There were also lots of big Mercedes and Audi's, the Germans love to drive big powerful cars from their own country, the French do the same with Citroën, Peugoet and Renault, they however prefer small compact-size hatchbacks.

When I finally returned home, I drank tea while she translated German films and explained more about the culture of the South German region.

The next day, I was again treated to a large breakfast when I woke up.  Today I visited the Deutsches Museum, "the world's largest museum of technology and science".  I actually spent most of the day here.  They had everything you could think of, in its historical enitrety and fully explained.  A lot of things were interactive.  There were so many sections that you could spend hours just learning the complete historical evolution and basic principles of lenses or printers.  I spent most of the time in the boats, motors and airplane sections.  Wanna guess which photos posted below come from the museum?

After 

GOING TO CENTRE-VILLE, I WILL CONTINUE TO WORK ON THIS LATER, ITS NOT FINISHED

Some government building

The right side of the above government building

Examples of German jet-engine technology by the end of World War 2.

How a large commercial Boeing works.

Assortment of planes.

There were about 5 floors if I remember correctly.

BMW motorcycle in the 1950's cultural section.

Not just for show, you were allowed to choose a song, watch the mechanism pick a record and then listen/dance.

Munich has two soccer teams.  To solve the team color problem, they can change the color of the light that they project onto the pillow-like stadium.

Very high-class shopping.  Munich is the most expensive city in Germany.

To the top.

February 13th was a warm day.  I left Grenoble at 9AM to hike to the top of the mountain that I see everyday from my window. Because I walked the whole way, the trip took 8 hours.

Still in Grenoble

Still in Grenoble

Grenoble is as flat as the beach, this changes quickly considering that we are bordered by mountains. So when the elevation changes... it changes really really fast.

The last town on the way up

An elementary school

An old Citroën

Not too high up, looking down

Tiny Alpine village over the ridge

The road leading up started to get steep

Looking onto Grenoble

Fortress at the top

Today I just road my bike in a circle

That is essentially what I did.  Next week is the vacation for all students in my region of France.  Most students have left so the internet is very fast.  Because of the high demand for flights, the prices are not good right now.  Combined with my large winter trip, I felt like staying in Grenoble, practicing my French and traveling locally.  So today I just rode around the town.

I have once again taken a bunch of pictures and then digitally stitched them together into a panoramic.

Along the river, coming into town from the West side. You can see the Bastille- Fortifications overlooking Grenoble

Along the same road, just further West

What I see when I look out my window on campus

Small road leading to "centre ville" aka "downtown"

My Métrovélo, rented it for 6 months, 70 euros if I remember correctly, they handle repairs.

Feb. 24th

They let me prepare my own salad today, so I stacked it until it fell out.

Further reading

Just a reminder, there is another American here who has a blog.  If you are more curious about Grenoble, and less about my lunch... you can find the link here (click the blue text).

Its been a while

I went skiing for the fifth time and rented higher quality skiis.  I didn't realize how much of a difference it could make.  They were lighter and more flexible.  This meant that I could turn very fast and at any time that I wanted to without a delay.  The flexibility meant that they maintained traction even over bumps.  I definitely recommend not cheaping out on skiing equipment, especially considering that it can be a rather dangerous sport.

As you have probably noticed, the skiing photos look funny this time.  That is because I am giving you a wide-angle / panoramic view.  I took between 4 and 10 photos for each, then used a computer program to "stitch" them together.  Because I didn't take photos of the sky, or didn't perfectly align the shots, information is lost in certain areas... which is why the photos are irregularly shaped.

Classes are going good.  I didn't think I have mentioned my schedule yet, but that can be partly due to the fact that I just finished signing up last Wednesday around lunch time; although mainly the lack of posting is due to me being lazy.  I am finding it harder to sit in front of the computer and take the time to recount what I have already done in English. Short-term it is a waste of time, however long-term it is good for preserving memories and informing my audience of what I am doing.

So here it is:

Monday:

8h-11h> Economie Internationale

10h-12h> Histoire de la Mondialisation (history of globilization from 1870 to today)

15h30-17h30> Littératures Francophones (yes, we do use the 24 hour clock here, so 3:30PM-5:30PM. The class is based on two novels from the french speaking parts of Africa)
*Yes, I do have two overlapping classes; you are not imagining things. I go to economics just until 10am, then miss the last hour to attend my history class.

Tuesday:

8h-10h> Théories de la Croissance (an economics class about growth)

14h-16h> Histoire de la Mondialisation Travail Dirigé (history of globilization study hall, "TD" is a required study hall where you read and analyse specific documents)

Wednesday:

8h-9h30> Chimie TD (remember "TD"? So this is organic chemistry study hall)

14h-16h> Economie Internationale TD

16h-18h> Théories de la Croissance TD

18h30-20h15> Football Masculin (men's football, a class for some people, I am doing it as a club sport)

Thursday:

8h-9h30> Chimie

10h-12h> Didactiques des Langues (psychology of learning language(s) and methods for teaching foreign languages)

Friday:

10h-12h> Les Francs (history of the Franks, the french tribes during the dark ages and into the begining of the medieval age)

14h-16h> Les Francs TD

As you can see from my class list above, I have an 8 o'clock class every morning except Friday, so I choose to wake up at 6 AM. I start everyday with a shower.  Breakfast fluctuates, today was yogurt with diced kiwis, other days it is as plain as cereal and milk.  From there, I usually cook coffee with my italian coffee maker and eat a piece of 72% dark chocolate.  I like to walk to class, unless I am late, then I ride my bicycle.  Lunch is always at the school dinning hall.  It is 3 euros for a main plate... you get enough of the photos.  Apparently the meal is valued at 6 euros though, the government subsidizes 3 euros.  The meal is very well balanced, and couldn't even be cooked for that price with groccery store-bought items. However... they are only open for lunch. Dinner is always what I cook with food from the groccery store except the occasional pizza night.

The center of town

Ham today

Raisin Bread, very good but hard to take a picture of.

Creme dessert with steak over stew.

The bottom of the resort (and far away) where the buses let the college students (poor people) out.

High up in the mountains, view of one of the runs.

Taking the cable car up over the first mountian ridge, resort town visible in bottom right.

Up high, looking around.

Three lunches!

Apple sauce, Samon ontop of noodles and a salad.

The Valentine's Day meal

There is pita bread and hummus for the salad.

Coat be gone!

Yesterday was the first day that I was able to leave the coat at home.  Its been great, people are coming back out of hibernation to play soccer and eventually return to eating outside.

Thrusday Lunch at the Cafeteria

A curry salad and cheese with raisins to put inside the bread roll.  The main plate was green beans, lentils and breaded-fish.

5th time to the small town on the hill, Venon.

Weather was warm enough to shed the coat. What better way to celebrate the first warm day in a while than to go hiking?  The pictures are from the same town that has already appeared on the blog four times before, Venon.

4th time skiing.

Now that I have been skiing at the same resort four times, there is not a whole lot new to say.  As typical, I have been making progress.  I now find it easy to descend down little hills that once used to require a lot of zig-zagging.  I can now easily do the blue level trails and no longer fall on the red trails, although they still require a lot of concentration and effort.  I even found out that the trails on the very top (the glacier) are not actually that steep, it's the ones along the side of the mountains that are really steep.  However, it is so cold at the very top of the mountain that my metal keychain ring broke; snapped right in half.

Tomorrow I will try and post my stay in Munich, but I am too tired for that tonight, skiing is 7am-7pm, a full 12 hours away from Grenoble.

High up.

Really high up

Lowest point at the resort, even below the town. German and Canadian in photo.

Same as above, bus drop-off point.

Strasbourg, France Dec. 24-25th

I really enjoyed Germany for the half week I was there, but it was nice to return to France.  Everyone in Germany speaks English, even the elderly.  This however does not mean that you can read the signs.  Being back in France does not mean that I can talk to more people, it just means that I know what I am buying at the groccery store, and I can read posted signs.

It was amazing that just crossing the border of Germany meant that everyone was speaking French again.  When you look at the maps below, I have posted the normal route between cities to keep with the Christmas Vacation standard template, but I have also posted a new map showing the location of my hostel (did I really go to France?)  Interestingly, the hostel was closer to Germany than it was to Strasbourg; this is because this hostel was the only hostel that I stayed at during my vacation that was not located in the city, but rather outside of it. In fact, the hostel was next to the park that had a bridge crossing over the Rhine river.

Strasbourg itself was about a foot deep in snow and 4 miles away by foot.  Almost everything was closed on Christmas, but the city itself was pretty.  For dinner I ate at a Flam buffet (think pizza).
Because of the architecture and winding rivers everywhere, this was one of the prettiest cities during my vacation, I will need to revisit it one day on a warm and non-holiday day.



Heidelberg to Strasbourg.









Notice that Germany is just across the river to the right.

Christmas market in front of the cathedral

The city's main Christmas Tree

The bridge to Germany next to my hostel

Walking to downtown Strasbourg

Trains were delayed because of the snow

Two lunches, one post, one lazy student in France.

Spaghetti and meatballs

Fish covered in almonds and onions