Welcome to Vorarlberg

SOOOOOO. This is what I get for getting up EARLY ON A SATURDAY MORNING TO GO TO THE LIBRARY. My purse was stolen. Along with my wallet and its contents and phone. Instead of writing my paper as planned I spent the day filing a police report. And getting kicked off the train at by the VAG kontrollers because right after my purse was stolen they WOULD be doing random ticket checks on the strassen-bahn. My ticket was in my wallet....

Sorry for the tangent, lets get this post back on track.

There are many advantages to studying abroad in Catholic Southern Germany, a major one being all sorts of random religious holidays.  So this week I am on Pentecost break!

Saturday morning Heather, Kevin and I headed to Vorarlberg, Austria to hang out with my family for a long weekend. We were able to get a fantastic deal on the train tickets through Gleisnost, a train travel agency in Freiburg that charges no fees.

Never heard of Vorarlberg? You're not alone. I don't even think Rick Steves has been there.

Bordering Switzerland, Vorarlberg is the western-most, smallest, and 2nd least-sparsely populated province in Austria. Culturally and linguistically, it is closer to Switzerland than Austria. They speak a distinct dialect, Vorarlbergerisch, that is incomprehensible to many German speakers. So I was prepared to do a lot of translating for Heather and Kevin, both of whom speak German perfectly well.

We headed out on Monday on a gray cloudy day, but I had my fingers crossed for better weather. Upon arrival in Altach, Oma Schuster had prepared Goulash with Knödel. Deliiicccioussss.

Later that night we went into Bregenz with William and walked around the harbor by Lake Constance. We then headed to Alexandra's where some of the fam were having a little fest. The wine flowed (maybe a little to much...) and a good time was had by all.

Lake Constance/Bodensee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we woke up to cheery skies and chirpy birds. It was officially time for a Schuster-led family hike. The eleven of us went on a hike through the mountains near Tante Ilse and Hans' House. The views were gorgeous, needless to say.

Heather living out her Sound of Music fantasy

After the hike we headed back to Ilse's house for a meal. And of course I was super excited to see the tailless cat. Meow!

Unfortunately the weather gds felt they were being to generous as Monday was a rainy nasty yuck day. H, K and I went to the inatura exhibit in dornbirn. Waaay to many crowds and small children, so we didn't stay long. In the evening we headed over to William's for a film abend.

Tuesday was thankfully another beautiful day! We took the train to Bregenz and rented one of those little paddle boats.

It was HOTT outside, and a dip in the sea was exactly what we needed. Heather and I dove in and swam out into the water, which was surprisingly not too cold. It felt wonderful! I had been dying to go swimming for sooo long. Unfortunately I was a little lax with the sun screen and looked like a lobster by the end of the day.

Right were we swam!

Then it was back to William's for the evening. The German translation of Star Wars that we watched was hilarious. Almost as funny as me asking, "are they going to make a fourth episode do you think?"

On Wednesday we had a good chunk of time before our train. H K and I got on our bikes and did a little bike tour along the Rhine. Beeeaaauuutttiiifffuuulllll.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend with amaaaaaaaazing food courtesy of Oma Schuster and great company. Hopefully I will be able to visit again before August comes!

Unfortunately I learned some sad news after getting back. The off-campus studies director at Wooster was killed in a tragic car accident over the weekend. Kim Tunnicliff was one of the funniest and nicest people I ever knew at Wooster, and I was incredibly sad to hear that someone who had been instrumental to me getting to come to Germany had passed away.

That's all for now folks. Come Wednesday papers and exams are DONE!!! I can't wait.

E. coli and Other Dramatic Happenings

So if you've been paying any attention to the news at all you've heard about the E. coli outbreak in Germany. Beginning in early May a particularly virulent strain of E. coli  that is believed to have originated in northern Germany slowly reached the rest of Europe and around the world. Two thousand people have been sickened and about 25 have died. I'd been getting scary emails from IES and my parents warning us about the outbreak but beyond that it's hardly been central to my daily life here.

Shortly after dropping Claire off at the train station early Saturday morning I started to feel sick. I get short little episodes of stomach virus/food poisoning from time to time, so I knew I would take it easy for the day and feel fine by the next. As the day wore on the pain got worse and worse until they were the absolute WORST stomach pains I have ever felt. The sensation was one of acid burning away in my stomach. I tried to sleep through it but all I could do was writhe and squirm around, I could not find a comfortable position to lessen the pain even a little bit. At this point I was beginning to wonder if these were, in fact, signs of sickness. The idea of getting E. coli was certainly not impossible. It had spread to southern Germany and I had eaten raw vegetables that week, thought to be the source of the outbreak. If the pain continued, I decided, I would go to the hospital.

After what seemed like a light year the pain finally started to go away. By the time I went to bed the worst was over but I knew this was not going to be a quick bout of the usual stomach bug. I woke up early the next morning with the burning acid sensation back, though thankfully it was not as severe. Later in the day I felt well enough to go to Seepark with Heather, though my stomach still felt totally off. Once again I could feel another wave of burning pain coming on so I rushed home, curled up in bed and waited for it to pass.

On Monday I felt better, and by Tuesday evening I felt almost completely back to normal.


phew....have I been able to rein you in with this dramatic little story?

So thankfully I managed to avoided E. coli. Or I had it and my immune system fought if off well, though I think that is unlikely.

What other dramatic events have taken place here lately? Neal and Claire came to visit! It was wonderful to have people from Wooster and from home here in Freiburg. We had a fantastic time together and I was so happy to be able to show them around my third home after NoVA and Wooster.

Sorry for the lack of posts and stories, y'all. It's a stressful time for right now as I am deep into term papers and final exams. I feel very conflicted: On the one hand I can't wait for June 24 to come because it means I am DONE with work, on the other hand I want the days to go by slower as it means some great people will be leaving us and I am closer to leaving Freiburg! Next week is Pentecostal break (one of the many benefits of being in Catholic southern Germany) so I will be headed on a little trip. I won't spill the dets yet but expect a big post on that sometime next week. In the meantime I will say I'll be going to a place that looks something like this:

Jealous much? I know I can't wait.....:D