Schloß im Nebel

so, we took this excursion to Hohenzollern three weeks ago. sorry. got a little caught up in living. the week after was a party in Geissweg, the Aufbaukurs Abendessen, Shiori's birthday party, Hungarian goulash with Gabor, helping Lisa for several hours with her resumé in English and an Abendessen with the roomies and a couple guests... all in consecutive days.

the slow, quiet day in the castle seems so foreign now. nice to flashback, though.

it was beautifully foggy, the first bout of cold weather. people complained, but i relaxed in the eeriness. plus, the stones of the building were damp and brought out the colors. gorgeous, in my opinion.

this was my first time actually inside a castle that had an inside to be seen. damn, bitch! check out that bling! you know how i am about woodwork. i spent a lot of time just looking at the ceilings. there are a couple pictures in the album, but the light was minimal and we weren't supposed to be taking pictures at all. haha! did you expect any less of me?

these were also the first death masks i had seen. i have seen dead people, and their faces, but not death masks. i love it! brought back memories of Robin's dad, Brent, working at a prison in Canada were they made death masks of all those executed. it's a wonderful surprise to delve into your reserves and have new experiences with what you already know.

after the castle, we walked back to the train station. again, complaining. i just took pictures and enjoyed the weather and the scenery. no beautiful pictures of a castle on a hill. reminds me of my first time at the Matterhorn. brought back slightly more pleasant memories of Asshole-E. doesn't make me regret my choices, though.

insert crazy, aforementioned week. next week = test on Monday (makes me feel like shit), darkroom photography (thankfulness that my life is not as crazy as when i was submitting to the photo program), brief chat with Tangredi (reminds me of Uncle Tosh), getting a package from friends (surprising flash of INSTANT homesickness, love you though), meeting Francesco's friends from Italy (amp up the missing-the-friends factor), talking with Guy (glad to contribute some photo knowledge and be well-received), bought a turkey with the roommates (thrilled that they are excited), Pirate Party (blow out the homesickness speakers), woke up with my painted-on eyepatch and felt right at home.

Sunday morning was very pleasant. the roomies enjoyed the eyepatch. we sat in the kitchen in our PJs and talked over coffee for a while. the weeks before had a vibe of stress coming from everyone. the parties seemed to work out the kinks. after we got everything out of our system, that morning there was a general atmosphere of camaraderie.

curious. perfect precursor to Thanksgiving.

side note: in several conversations that i have had about roommates, i have the best in the world. can't wait to share Thanksgiving!

btw, i also apologize for lack of captions. not feeling too creative today. grammar time in the studying, not vocabulary. you're smart. fill in the blanks. =)

normale Monat

i got a card from Robin this week. a photo that i took for the wedding was on the front. i read as i was going up the stairs to my Wohnung and walked two floors above mine. my memories of that week are beyond words.

my bike officially has only one gear now. it's not too bad, so i've been lazy about getting it fixed. Vodaphone put advertisement covers on everyone's seat. it was a very welcome surprise since i fight for sheltered parking when it rains.

we finally started Aufbaukurs. i got a sour reminder that in Sommerkurs and Startkurs, i should have been aggressive about getting into a higher class. Giorgio made it into B2 and i was very proud of him.

i didn't feel like spending money on posters that i would probably not take home, so i just hung orange paper on my wall. it's as good as painting, i guess.

had coffee with Guy and also a very nice American conversation. i've got my selective English speaking organized. Diana is for computer/anime geek talk and winter in the mountains. Frances-Kate is for smart-ass North Carolinian. Patrick for books and sailing. Gregor... once he gets rolling, it's out of control and i just go with the flow.

i randomly tried making cookies without any form of measurement and they were quite successful. i tried again and it was catastrophic. still, plain old chocolate chip cookies are in my lineup for Thanksgiving dinner with the roomies. the rest of the team includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw and homemade popcorn. i'm debating about trying my hand at sweet potato pie.

got my SLR body in the mail. only one roll of slide film, but i'm excited to test it out. i missed the best part of Autumn for color. =( we still have the orange and red leaves, but not yellow. my favourite season passes by too quickly here.

looks like not too much activity coming up, so you'll get little blurbs like this. we'll see. Guy and i want to go to Stuttgart and check out the art museum and there is always the photo class.

Erfolg!

i saw the lady who gave me flowers after i left her a gift hanging on her gate. she was pre-winter pruning and gave me the remnants of her Blumen! i managed to gather that her name begins with 'Th'.

ein Teil aus Frankreich

Adam and i had talked about going to Straßbourg for a while now. all we needed was three other people to split the cost of a Baden-Württemburg ticket. well, five people turned into twenty-five, and so we created another große Exkursion like Oktoberfest. the weather was gray and we got a tiny bit of rain at the end, aber alles gut. viel Laufen auch. we took the train to Kehl and then walked into France.

this was one of those instances where the groups mixed together and i never really know who to hang out with. the Startkurs (mainly from Fichtenweg) made a distinct mob and there was my Mitbewohner, his girlfriend, two more aus Frankreich and Violet. the later broke off pretty early natürlich, weil sie nämlich aus Frankreich kommen, und danach gibt es nur Elisée, der nicht in dem Startkurs war. ja ja, das ist ein bißchen mehr als notwendig, aber ich hatte Sprechen auf Deutsch angefangen. entschuldigung. i told you, these things usually aren't important anyway.

[französches Putz-Modewarengeschäft]

France is always beautiful. i was pretty much in straight up tourist mode. Elisée laughed at me taking pictures of everyday französche things. seriously though, EVERYthing is beautiful in France. there is a nice quaint and personal mood ingrained in subtle details. and of course, i love details and subtleties. call me a cheater, but at least i had someone for Erklären. insert interludes with comical Bier posters and honey bread with Kaffee.

[la Cathédrale]

after das Münster, we decided the group was too much and planned a meeting point for later. all was very confusing with managing tickets and what not. oh well, das ist vorbei. Straßbourg has several art museums and i'm not entirely sure which one i was at, but there were a couple works that i recognized from my textbooks. it is always amazing to see works in person. no print can capture the real thing.

[Musée des Beaux-Arts]

i also enjoyed having a fast lens. i would have gotten no photos from the museum without it. even then, most were still too blurry to be worth much, so i made compositions with the environment instead of actual works. check out the album, though. i managed to get the details in a ridiculously small set of paintings (part in why i took the photos). it was fun to look at the layout of everything after taking ART4000. i also noticed discrepancies in the lighting on some of the sculptures. shame. though i feel a bit smarter.

Hochstadt von Baden-Württemburg

i need to write before this leaves my memory. nothing too eventful, though. StudIT made a day trip to Stuttgart. like i said earlier, i bounced around a lot. met a few new faces, ganz toll immer.

[Violet]

sorry to flip flop languages, but i've come to find that some phrases i can only express auf Deutsch. you can look up a translation if you really care. diese Dinge sind schon nicht so wichtig.

um, yeah. Stuttgart. not exactly the prettiest town. it's nice to have a city close by, though. i guess. i'm more interested in snowboarding at the moment. i couldn't go to sleep the other night after Eva said she could bring my board. i'm still debating matters with money, but i think i deserve to have one indulgence (and prep for moving out west). =)

[Schwäbisches Oktoberfest]

not much else is going on before the semester. had a small get together last night with tons of dip, hamburgers and on the fly potatosalad. i'm using the leftover meat for chili. thank you so much to my father for packing Gewürze into film canisters for me (and then to Mom for having the sense to label them with something other than numbers). Leben ist ganz besser mit lecker Essen! i'm enjoying sending my photos as postcards. it's expensive, but something i purposefully prepared myself for. leave your address if you like mail that's not bills. i eat Joghurt for little kids because you get magnets with letters of the alphabet and a corresponding animal. i'm totally going to have thunder thighs when i get back to the States because of the hill my Wohnheim is on. it's already below freezing at night. can't wait for that snow! ... or Weihnachten in Irland ... or the semester to start, for that matter.

suchen einen Platz

i guess it's time to settle down now. the day after Startkurs ended, people had already left for home. i had a small dinner get-together with Shiori, Adam and Diana. things started to unwind. Tuesday we had a more official dinner from Shiori, Miho and Asahi in Fichtenweg.

the photos aren't great. i'm still learning the new lens. apparently it is much more sensitive to color, especially in combination with the low light. i've also found how the short DoF can be have a lot of contrast in close quarters.

still, it's nice to focus (on content) more. editing these images gave me a new perspective on my environment over here. it is definitely not as wild as the Sommerkurs. since i took these photos, David has had an italienisch Abendessen and i've begun planning an amerikanisch Grillparty while the weather is still nice. it will be interesting to see how our networks develop.

maybe i just have a complex where i always think i'm different, but it seems a little off since i've been in Tübingen longer than others and established friends all over the place. i had to leave dinner before all the fun started to try meeting my StudIT mentor, Jasmin (unsuccessful AGAIN). i spent most of the trip to Stuttgart bouncing between Startkurs people, my roommate's friends and StudIT staff. i left David's dinner for Elisée from Sommerkurs. by the time i finally met Tandem partner Gregor yesterday, i didn't even know who i was.

maybe i just need to get a cell phone.

ein Objektiv haltet meinen Herz

so, i've finally gotten off my lazy ass and learned a few things about glass. i knew i was lacking in the aperture department, but not this much. i can never go back. just like how i will probably never go back once i get a full frame camera. though, the short depth of field has gotten me using auto focus more often. call me a sell-out, cheapskate, whatever... i can't afford eye surgery and i would still choose getting more lenses over it anyway.

[memories of Gianluca, Alice und Elisée]

sooooo back to the 50mm, he is my newfound joy. i waited diligently for the UPS man to return (after the weekend!) and promptly went out shooting. i had completely misread an email from my Tandem partner and ended up blowing an hour in the Mensa. no problem. i was definitely occupied.

i still OWN at Tischfußball, btw.

[what i wished my bicycle looked like]

i wandered around die Altstadt for a bit, getting used to the length. i really should make an album of my exkursions in the Altstadt and call it 'Sessions with Martin'. i swear i run into him every time i have my camera out. we're going on three now.

i was still exploring even when i got home. since it's a portrait lens, naturally i had to play with shitty shots of myself. i dunno, maybe it's more interesting than a hand towel on my desk. it's all quite boring and any photo majors are probably still flabbergasted that it took me this long to get something f1.8 and fixed.

oh well, more fun to come. i played with motion as well. it seems to happen a lot lately. also, the aperture still won't do without a flash at a lot of indoor functions. get used to the fuzziness. i'm not perfect... yet.

noch ein andere 'zwitte mal'

i was very pleased that the weather was still warm enough for another ride on the Neckar. this class was better prepared, bringing food and drinks. our Stocherkahner was fun as well.

[Klasse 1 with Tutorin, Felicitas]

he let a few students try their hand at Stocherkahnfahren, which was a hoot of course. Pavel was first up. we zigzagged our way down the river, almost ending up on the banks at least twice. the response of the boot was similar to the Japanese girls fore. =)

[David's self-portrait]

Zahlina and Elvira followed suit, also with little success. our guide just laughed... while he got to sit and drink with the rest of the class. clever man.

[the apprehensive duck]

and so went the last Tutorium of the Startkurs. of all the second time around happenings, there were no goodbyes that wouldn't be undone in a couple of weeks, and that was comforting. i can't be getting too attached to all these second-chances, though. ;) i've got a feeling that i might still get a slap in the face once the Semester starts.

Nachmittag an der Insel

one of my favourite places in Tübingen is a small island in the middle of the Neckar River. there are two rows of giant trees (always beautiful) and you get a perfect view of the leaning houses along the Neckar and in front of the castle. you can also see the famous Hölderlinturm. the houses are colourful and the light is perfect at every time of day, not to mention all the Stocherkähne.

i was leaving Tutorium and Diana looked bored, so i invited her along. we had a nice chat about artsy stuff (her parents have a gallery in Colorado) and the afternoon was as peaceful as the photos. shade v. light is really contrasty, which goes for screwy white balance and bad exposure, but i'm really not that bothered by the images. it just enhances the dreamy sort of feeling.

our next class activity was to be another Stocherkahn ride for me, so sorry about the excess of Stocherkähne. i'm still in love with them.

it feels good to go out just for the purpose of taking photos. earlier this day i bought a bicycle, so i will extend my exkursions through town and might not pay to travel far before the semester starts. we'll see. after all the walking, the bike seems so fast and i need a bit of time to adjust. i think it's helping me prep for a motorcycle, though. maybe it's just from how UNsafe the US is, but riding a bike makes me very conscious of everything on the road. also, i never realized how much i didn't know about a bicycle until after the motorcycle course. i'm catching on to the two-wheel concept pretty quick. =)

Oktoberfest (brauchst du Erklären?)

so, i knew i wouldn't hear the end of it if i spent a year in Germany and did not go to Oktoberfest. enjoy.

the day after the Bodensee Exkursion, i got up at 5am so our 20some group from the Startkurs could leave on the 6.30 train to München (gotta have the real deal and not the Stuttgart spin-off). it was still dark outside! after the first train, we were packed like sardines in Tokyo. some people were already drunk.

[playing with bad exposures on the train]

because we left so early, i didn't eat more than a pear and, because of the packed trains, had no time to grab a Brezel between stations. i ended up by Patrick (from ECU) on the last leg and fell into the trap of speaking English. it was about sailing, though, which puts it up a tiny notch on the 'acceptable' scale. classic East Carolinian, he brought along a bottle of Cap'n Morgen. oh boy.

arrival: our group was too big, so we split at the station. Patrick followed me with Diana (fellow Ami, from Colorado) and her brother Pete (who lives in München) and a couple of his friends that were visiting (for Oktoberfest, of course). the whole day was out of the ordinary, because usually i avoid English speakers like the plague. but, what happens happens. still had fun.

[fliegend Bavarien]

it was like a State Fair, but a million times better. kitchy game booths, food vendors, portable amusement rides... didn't matter. all the Lederhosen und Dirndls made the experience worth it. i was expecting kitchy and fake, but it didn't feel that way. maybe it's because men look absolutely amazing in Lederhosen! yum.

the enormity of everything was pretty impressive too. just now i found an aerial shot on Wikipedia. whoa. and i walked through that big mess! all the walking was not as bad as all the standing. the morning after, my arms hurt something awful and i was very confused before i remembered that i had spent the whole day holding a liter glass full of beer.

[ein Festzelt]

i only consumed two, thank you, but i didn't eat until after that. bad idea. i guess i was too distracted by everything going on. i didn't get sick like the guy in the album, but had a 15min 'nap' in the city park. Pete claimed my camera, and so you have it: Sabrina passed out in public. had to share for the sake of entertainment and consequences of my actions. =) the lighting is pretty nice as well.

[16.00ish]

we had walked to the town center and checked out the giant Glockenspiel before the park (which had a couple beer-bikes? circling around, sorry no pictures). other than that, it was pretty much just the festival and Diana getting to see Pete. all was very enjoyable, though little Deutsch. i don't know how much of the day Patrick remembers. according to Diana (when she was the sober one), "at least you didn't speer bill."

the ride back was 5hrs instead of 3 and EVERYone was at least tipsy this time around, if not completely belligerent. the trains were running late and we had to run to the next platform at EVERY stop. once, i tell you. only once.