It's a small world

July 29-31, 2005

Hello all!

My roommate Katie moved out on the Friday :( She had to catch a plane to Barcelona really early on Friday morning so I was left with the responsibility of handing in her key. I was hoping that when I gave the Hausmeister the key that I could convince him to leave Katie's room open for me because I knew that I was having 3 guests that weekend (my friend Lara from Ottawa, and my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Nadine). The first time I asked the hausmeister he flat out refused and gave me a "why are you even asking" kind of look......the Germans like to play it by the rules. I asked him a couple more times during and after he checked Katie's room for broken furniture etc. Eventually I convinced him to leave the door open because I told him it was my responsible cousin coming to visit me. This was a big relief because there is no way 4 people could have slept in my tiny room.

On Friday I left work early (surprise surprise) to pick up my friend Lara from the train station. Lara and I used to work at Carleton pool together back in Ottawa and she is currently working in Geneva. I briefly showed her around the university campus then we went back to my place and had dinner with my friend Shawn. Later, one of my roommates took us downtown and we searched for a jazz club that supposedly had live music. After discovering that there was no live music that night we went to a couple places around downtown Stuttgart for some drinks.

The next day I thought it would be nice to take Lara to see Ludwigsburg (a castle modelled after chateau Versailles that is 20 min from Stuttgart) since everyone tells me how beautiful it is and I had still not visited it. My German roommate, Tobias, had also not seen the schloss and decided to come with us......this was to our benefit since he had a car. On the way to Ludwigsburg we visited a gummy bear factory, where Lara purchased some erotic gummy bears for the girls back at the office in Geneva. Once we got to the castle we took an English tour and saw the elaborate decor within the castle......there was even a room full of mirrors (kind of like the hall of mirrors in Versailles but only smaller). From one of the windows we could see a tower in the Garden and our guide mentioned that this was Rapunzel's tower........after the tour and after a traditional Swabish lunch we went on a mission to find the tower. Within the gardens of Ludwigsburg we entered a fairytale land, designed for children, and learnt all about German fairytales (including Rapunzel, and another story where a donkey spits money out of his mouth).

That night my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Nadine came to my house around 8:00. We were planning to go to the zoo early the next day and since they were coming all the way from Heidelberg we thought it best they stay the night. After some great confusion trying to organize where Lara, Mike, Nadine, and I would meet some of my Stuttgart friends we headed downtown for the night. We met up with some other students (friends of mine) but did not end up staying out too late since we were on a tight schedule.

At 6 in the morning I was woken up by Nadine, she wanted to let me know that Mike was really sick and that they wouldn't be able to go to the zoo. They decided to leave right then and there so Mike could recover at home.......it was too bad since I was looking forward to spending the day with them again. Instead Lara, Shawn, Tobias and I went to the zoo..........there were tons of animals from all over the world and I noticed that the zoo is a great place to go people watching too. After the zoo we walked through the park that leads from the zoo to the downtown of Stuttgart. By that time we were famished so we went to one of the Beer Gardens. Found some Roman ruins and vineyards

That night we had a BBQ at my place and then later went to a goodbye party for one of the American students who was leaving the next day.

Lara stayed until Monday but sadly I had to go to work and wasn't able to show her around.....but I did give here a pile of tourist brochures and sent her packing :)

Fun, busy weekend.

Tchuss,

Steph

Munich on a shoestring (make that half a shoestring)

July 21-25, 2005

Hello All,

I went and saw the wedding crashers this week...in English grrr…..I
really need to start seeing some German movies.

On Saturday morning I got up bright and early and was at the train
station before 6 am. I was going to meet Gusti (my mother's friend
from Austria) and her family in Munich for the weekend. I wandered
around the station looking for people who were taking the train using
the 'schönes Wochenende' (happy weekend) ticket. This ticket costs 30€
and up to 5 people can use the ticket to travel anywhere in Germany
using only regional trains (the slower trains that stop at most
stations). Before I had the chance to ask anyone I had 2 boys ask me
if I was travelling with the ticket. They weren't going as far as I
was so it wouldn't have work out that well. So I went and asked around
and found 2 elderly couples who were going for a day trip to Munich.
They were very friendly and would not except any money from me for
letting me travel with them using their ticket. It was supposed to be
a 3 hour train ride but in Augsburg there was a little delay......at
first they announced a 5 to 8 minute delay then it eventually grew to
an undetermined amount of time. Since the elderly couples were only
planning on going for the day they decided to take another train
somewhere else. Before I knew it, it was 9:30 and I was still stuck in
Augsburg. I was supposed to meet Gusti at the hotel between 9:30 and
10 and it was obvious that I wasn't going to make it…..so I did a
little more asking around and was able to borrow someones cell phone
to call the hotel and let them know I was late….again people were so
generous and immediately handed their phone to me. By the time the
trains were allowed to head towards Munich ( I really don't know
what happened but something must have been wrong with the track) there
were a ton of people on the train. I figured I would be safe without a
ticket considering there was no room to even move in the train….there
were people on the stairs, in the corridor, everywhere….and besides
the elderly couples I was travelling with before told me I should just
go without the ticket and explain the situation if someone came along
to check. I made it to Munich at 11am just fine and without a fine.

I met up with Gusti et al and we spent the day wandering downtown
Munich seeing all the old beautiful palaces, churches, Rathause…. We
climbed up to the top of St. Peters church and got a great view of the
city. Saw the English garden but we didn't see the giant wave everyone
talks about….but that's ok because Ann Marie and I will be going back
to Munich soon. That day we had some really great and a great amount
of food but we needed all the energy we could get because of all the
walking we did ;)

That night Mickey, Raffi and I went out for some drinks. The famous
Hofbräu house was packed and super loud so we found a quaint place to
sit outside.

The next day we went to the Deutsche museum and toured around the city
a little more. Gusti, Julia and I also decided to take the tram to see
a little more of the city….it's nice how public transportation is so
accessible here in Germany.

I got to the train station around 6pm on Sunday and started looking
for someone travelling with the weekend ticket. I was having problems
finding someone for the train ride home because this wasn't a train
direct to Stuttgart so most people where just travelling within
Bavaria and therefore were using a different ticket. I asked a few
people but eventually I got discouraged and just started chatting with
someone…..I told the person that I kinda felt like I was begging……he
assured me that everyone does it. After he said that, I asked one more
person and sure enough she was travelling with the ticket. I gave her
5€ and she got me to the outskirts of Bavaria. At my next connection I
started the process of asking again….the second people I asked were a
group of 4 international students from Stuttgart…..what are the
chances of that. This was perfect since I could travel the rest of the
way with them even though there was another connection to get to
Stuttgart. They were very friendly and were happy to let me share
their ticket free of charge – I did give them all some Ritter Sport
chocolate though since earlier that week one of my roommates drove
Katie and I to the factory. There was a guy from France, one from
Malaysia, one from China, and a girl from Spain……it was so weird that
all these international students with so many different languages had
to communicate to each other using English. We did speak a little
German too but the majority of the time it was English.

I got home around 11 and after eating the rest of my giant Bavarian
pretzel I went straight to bed.

THANKS GUSTI, RICHARD, MICKEY, RAFFI, AND JULIA for such a nice weekend.

Tschüs,
Steph

Sleepless in Stuttgart

Hello All!

It's been awhile! I'm a couple weeks behind on my updates so hopefully
I remember all the important details.

July 14-17, 2005

This weekend there was a student meeting in Heidelberg for all the
Americans and Canadians that are part of the Research and Internships
in Science and Engineering Program (RISE). I went to work Thursday
morning and in the afternoon left with Shawn (since he is in the same
program as me) to take a train to the meeting. Once in Heidelberg we
almost immediately met up with other students…..there were about 90
students and we were all put up at a very nice youth hostel. The DAAD
(German Academic exchange program), who runs the RISE program and
provides the students with the stipend, organized and paid for the
entire weekend. At the giant Hostel we met other students got settled
in our rooms and then listened to a few presentations. There was a
short presentation about the DAAD and the weekend activities and of
course we were served cake and dinner. We were also told about
studying opportunities in Germany. There is this one Masters program
that seems ideal.....multiple universities from different EU countries
got together and developed a masters program . This collaboration
means that I could potentially study in 3 different countries in order
to get my masters degree. And the DAAD has scholarship money available
for the program.

That night we went downtown for a little ......we found a jazz club
that seemed to be in an
old wine cellar but sadly there was no live music.

There were actually 2 other people in the RISE program from my school, Carleton
University.  One of the girls, Theresa, was actually in engineering in
the same year as
me, and in the co-op program but I had never met her before....she
didn't even look
familiar.....but now when I go back to school in September I'll have
to meet up with Theresa.

Early the next morning we were divided into groups and were driven to
different German companies to learn a little more about job
opportunities in Germany. Since I'm an engineer, I was sent to Daimler
Crystler. I wasn't too excited about this since one of the other
groups was going to BASF, a chemical company that does some work with
wastewater. Also I had to go by bus all the way back to Stuttgart.
There was no possibility of going to another company because the exact
names of the visitors were needed weeks in advance for security
reasons.

Anyways it didn't end up being so bad as there was a presentation
concerning Daimler Crystlers' commitment to the environment. As well
we got to go to the Mercedes Benz museum and got a tour of a car motor
assembly plant. Emil, I'm sure you would have enjoyed it.

That night there was a dinner at a downtown restaurant where we had
some real German food and German beer……. this meal was courtesy of
German tax payers ;) (DAAD is government funded).

The next day there were some more presentations and then we were taken
on a walking tour of Heidelberg. I had already had a pretty complete
tour from my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Nadine a few weeks earlier
but I did learn a few new things. At one point a few of us strayed
from the tour in order to enjoy the warm sun and our packed lunches.
After the goodbyes I and a few other people walked the philosopher
path. We headed back to Stuttgart around 4.

On Saturday night I went with a couple friends downtown  Stuttgart. We
didn't get back
till 3am and I had to get up at 5 the next morning in order to catch
the train to
EuropaPark (an amusement park near Freiburg). I had arranged to meet
David, the boys, my German cousin Ariane and her boyfriend Marcus at
9:30 at the park. We had a lot of fun and one roller coaster really
knocked my socks off......it had one of the biggest drops I've ever
been on but no loops. It was weird that I ended up seeing David and
his boys more in Germany than I would have if we were both back home.

As you can imagine I didn't get much sleep during the students meeting
in Heidelberg since we had such a busy schedule and I only had a
couple days to learn about all the other students' experiences. And
then on top of that I ended up taking advantage of the opportunity to
see my cousin (et al) one last time in Europa park. After my busy
weekend I was able to make it to bed before midnight and naturally
slept like a baby.

Gruß,

Steph

Family family everywhere

July 9 to July 11, 2005

Hello All,

Two weekends ago I visited Owingen, near Bodensee, again. This was the last chance to see
my family (on this trip) before I head back home on August 31st. Also, Uncle Hansel,
Auntie Rita, David, Lousie, Joey and Danny, family from Canada, were going to be arriving
on Sunday and I thought it would be great to see how their travels had been so far.
Ariane was nice enough to come pick me up on Saturday morning and she was nice enough not
to tell anyone how messy my room was (or was she ;) )...don't worry Oma, I've cleaned it
up since then. We agreed that she would come at about 10 am but she ended up driving like
a real German and got to my place at 9:30....poor Ariane had to wait for me since I was
expecting her a bit later.  We had a nice drive down and after tanking and stopping for a
bite to eat it was already afternoon when we got to Owingen.

That same day I got to ride Ariane,s horse. I was able to walk with the horse for a bit
but supposedly she can be quite sensitive so I spent most of my time on the lunge line. I
trotted and got to gallop as well.....definitely not as easy as it looks. The horse
(sorry, can't remember the name now) is gorgeous and was very patient with me even though
I am still a beginner.

That night I went with Ariane to a BBQ that one of her friends had organized. The group of
people were partly getting together to start planning a dance routine for the next
Fasching (kind of like Halloween/Mardi Gras) party. We played a game of German
charades....of course I didn't understand a word since they try and think of obscure
things that no one will be able to guess. It was a lot of fun seeing people act all crazy
and I was able to guess a few English movies.

On Sunday morning I had a nice big breakfast with Sylvie, Manfred and Ariane. Later we
went to Affenberg, a large fenced in area where you feed popcorn to monkeys. There is only
one species of monkey there but they are all different ages and seem to be very
friendly....when you have popcorn.

When we stopped by Adela and Uncle Kosteka's (my Oma's sister and her husband) we noticed
that they were both very excited about Uncle Hansel and the rest of the group's arrival.
Adela was busy in the kitchen and Kosteka actually set up a bench outside at 1:30 pm so
that he could keep an eye out and open the gate when they came. Of course my Canadian
family (Hansel) did not arrive until around 6 pm....what patience. It was weird seeing
people from back home but we had a lot of stories to tell about eating, eating, and more
eating. I was doing some translating between German and English and then the Canadian
family would talk amongst themselves in French. I could understand the French but as soon
as I tried to speak French, German would start coming out. Language overload!

On Monday Manfred drove me back to Stuttgart just in time for work. He was also working in
the area ... the same as last time.

THANKS again to everyone in Owingen!

Gruss,
Steph

Recharge Weekend..........

June 28 - July 8, 2005
Hello All,

Work has been good...still no lab work but I did get a chance to visit a wastewater
treatment plant that is being built near Heidelberg. It is a one of a kind plant that will
test out new technology.

My Canadian friend, Allisha, and I went to a Modern dance performance in Ludwigsberg. The
dance company was from Montreal and the show was definitely very modern.....not really my
style. I did however find out that Allisha, who like me has absolutely no Irish blood, is
an avid Irish dancer. She actually could have competed at the worlds if she had had the
time or money.... I'll have to get her to show me a few steps.

2 weekends ago was the first weekend since I got here that I actually stayed in Stuttgart.
And it was my first time in a long time to really sleep in. On Friday night a German
friend of mine, who I sadly speak English to, took me to someone's graduation party. The
party was in a park on the outskirts of town, there was a big bonfire, music and tents set
up. We spent most of the night around the fire since it was a bit chilly - and I kept
wondering where the marshmallows were ;)

On Saturday I went downtown and there was a Bio Fair going on ... they were selling a
whole bunch of organic things and there were lots of activities and some live music.
There was even an acapella boy band performing really corny backstreet boys/n'sync song
but with a German accent.......really funny. That night Katie and I organized a pizza
party. One of our other friends made pizza dough and we all pitched in and made pizzas.

Sunday I actually did a little cleaning (don't think it was the first time I cleaned)
since our kitchen and bathrooms really needed it. Then Katie and I went to Esslingen, a
small town with buildings from the middle ages. Again there was some kind of fair going on
with live music, rides and lots of food. After some good Ethiopian food we rummaged
through the flea market, then headed home.

On July 8 I saw the Tour de France. A leg of the race was finishing in Karlsruhe, a 1.5
hour train ride away, so I and 3 other friends left work early and caught a little bit of
the race. When I say a little I really mean a little. All the bikers were bunched together
and they were going so fast that it was all over in a matter of seconds. It was still
great to see and the atmosphere was simply electric ;)

See ya,
Steph

The hills are alive with the sound of cow bells....

June 24 - June 30, 2005

Grutzi,

It seems that all my weekends are now booked up until my flight back to Ottawa on August
31st. Here's a sneak preview of some of my up and coming trips: Owingen again, Munchen
with Gusti, Heidelberg to meet the other students in my program, Straussburg with Thorstan,
and of course the rest of Europe with my cousin Anne Marie ;)

Two weeks ago I decided I wanted to go to Switzerland. I went to the train station and
tried to find a cheap train to somewhere high up in Switzerland but all I found was a one
way ticket for 24 euros to Zurich. I really wanted to go hiking in the alps but I decided that
I could probably figure something out after I got to Zurich. I asked a few people if they
were wanting to go to Switzerland but most people didn't have the time or money. However,
Shawn, who is an American in the same program as me decided he would like to go as well.

We left Stuttgart at 2pm and got to Zurich around 5pm. Once there, we asked the tourist
office about places to stay and places to go walking. There were some small hills in the
area but no mountains. On the advice of the tourist office we went to a backpackers hostel
in the heart of the old city. We got the last 2 beds in a dormitory.....it was 31 Swiss
francs per person for just the bed (sheets would have been extra but luckily I had brought
by sleeping bag).....also, the youth hostel on the outskirts of town would have been 40
francs......so I guess we did get a good deal.

Before we left Stuttgart, Shawn did some research and found out that you can borrow (yes,
borrow means FREE) bikes in Zurich. After handing over a 20 franc deposit and our
passports to a, most probably, high/intoxicated man in a small trailor, we rode our bikes
around Zurich See (lake). It did seem a bit sketchy but we assumed that this was a 'make
work' program set up by the government so we would most likely get our precious passports
back. After all we ended up having no problems. That night we walked around downtown and
saw an amazing light show. There was a thunder storm in the distance and you could see the
lightning in the distance, over the hills. Before we made it back to the hostel the storm
caught up with us and we were cooled off with a torrential downpour and some hail.

On Saturday, another hot and sunny morning, Shawn asked someone at the hostel about places
to go hiking in the Alps. We got some info, walked to the train station, got our tickets
to Braunwald (Linthal) then got some food since we really had no idea how small the town
was going to be. We were waiting for our train when we noticed a sign saying it was
cancelled. We found out from an employee that there had been a fire on the train - ...The
Swiss have been having some bad luck with their trains. The Wednesday before our trip to
Switzerland all the trains, in the entire country, were down due to a power failure.
Millions of people were stranded or stuck on a train going nowhere....- Anyways, it wasn't
so bad for us because we hopped on a local S-Bahn that brought us to another station close
by where we started our picturesque train ride. The train went through a valley and
after about half an hour of travel the hills around us turned into snow peaked mountains.
In Linthal we took a train/cable car/funicular type thing to Braunwald. This train, which
had the capacity to carry about 70 people, took us up a very steep slope to a town where
there were no cars, just a few tractors and construction trucks. When we got up to the
village there were accordions being played and we could still see a bit of the mountains
around us however the rain was settling in and the clouds were hanging low. We had found
out earlier that there was a hostel in the village so we went to go find a place to stay.
The adrenaline Hostel (yes that's really a cheesy name), a 2 min walk from the train
station, was not open until 4 o'clock so we decided to see if the youth hostel had space
for us. We kind of figured that the youth hostel would be a little more expensive but
maybe they would let us leave our bags there until 4pm. The youth hostel was way up on the
ski slope so we had to walk about 20 min on a windy steep path and by that time the rain
was picking up. When we finally got to the hostel we were told that they were completely
booked. We were surprised because we were told, that morning, that there was
absolutely no one staying at the Adrenaline hostel. So we left our bags at the youth
hostel, went for a little hike, saw lots of cows grazing on the green ski slopes. Shawn
accidentally grazed one of the electrical cow fences and got a bit of a shock, after that
we were a little more careful.

Later that day we checked in to the Adrenaline hostel. Turns out there was no one at the
hostel....I had flashbacks of my time in Schwatzwald.

The next day we got up early and hiked up to 2000m before noon. There were lots of people
out and we learned, very fast, the traditional Swiss-German greeting: Grutzi (guten tag).
We saw a bunch of rock climbers, lots of cows, ski lifts, waterfalls, blue sky, and alps.

Around 3:30 we started our journey back. It took a total of 8 hours to get back to
Stuttgart/home because in Zurich we decided that we weren't going to pay the 60 francs to
get back to Stuttgart. Instead we got a 17 franc ticket to Schafhausen where there was
supposedly a deutsche bahn ticket booth....however we got there a few minutes too late so we
ended up taking another train to Singen for 6 francs. In Singen (Germany) we got a special
weekend ticket where up to 5 people can travel for 23 euros It took a little time but we did
end up saving some money.

Happy Belated Canada Day! On June 30th another Canadian girl and I organized a Canada Day
Party (we had to do it a day early because some people were leaving town)......there were
5 Canadians, a ton of Americans, some French, German, Italian and Greek......very
multicultural. It was a good time but I'm sure it would have been alot more fun
celebrating in Canada.

Bis spÃter,
Steph