Parental Visit

The week began with the parentals coming to Freiburg to spy on visit me. Parental visits are great because I get FREE FOOD, EVERYTHING PAID FOR to spend some quality time with the parents.

Unfortunately I did not document this parental visit, so just use the picture below for reference.

This week was also the beginning of OIL, our 3-week long German intensive class. In addition to German stuff we get to go on field trips and do all the touristy things like going to the history of Freiburg museum. It's pretty nice, all in all. I mean Wednesday's class theme was on food. Needless to say I was the star participant in class that day. On Thursday, we got to visit the soccer stadium, where Freiburg's team SC Freiburg plays. Here are some pics I took from the stadium and later on the ROOF, where we got to climb up.

 

Views from the roof:

Solar Panels on the roof, Freiburg is know as the most environmentally conscious city in Europe.

Have I mentioned how ridiculously cheap food is here, especially groceries? At Kaufland, a huge nearby supermarket that has pretty much everything my heart desires, I can get bio (that's Deutsch for organic, pronounced like BEE-o) eggs for a little over 1 euro. The other day I stopped at Aldi (European Aldi, which is different from the crappy US one) and got rice, several yogurts, tuna, and muesli all for under 5 euro. Even eating out is not that ridiculously expensive. I had a delicious pasta dish the other night for about 4.50 euros. As always, things are too good to be true....eating out in Germany DOES eventually get expensive because you pay for ALL drinks, including water. With my 4.50 pasta dish I got a puny little glass of bubbly water that I paid 2.50 euros for. No free water or unlimited refills here! I'm still looking for a solution to this whole pay-for-all-drinks-including-water thing. I don't think sneakily holding the glass beneath the table and refilling it with water from my water bottle, as the parentals saw me do at dinner the other night, is going to cut it.
 
This weekend we headed to Colmar, a city in Alsace-Lorraine, France, where I was able to put my 5+ years of French to good use. It has a very unique culture, having changed back and forward between French and German hands 5 times. The culture and language are French with German influences. Here are some pictures:

 

After Colmar we headed to the Badischer Winzerkellar. It's one of the biggest wine processing facilities in the world. We took an extensive tour of the place and then a wine tasting! I didn't take any pictures here because...meh. Wine tasting -- it all tastes just like wine!

I think that about wraps it up for the week. I just realized I haven't posted a single picture of Freiburg the city yet! What a travesty! Here are a few: 

Here's some more pictures from meals and other fun things from Freiburg. 

culinary expertise

shared meals

On the bus on the way to Colmar

Lunch in Colmar, ham and cheese crepe.

How's that for another obligatory post, MOM????