Adventures in Freiburg

I think that it's safe to say that all of you (assuming anyone is actually reading this blog, which I doubt somewhat) have begun to gather that I am not a terrific blogger. Unfortunately, this is somewhat true. In my own defense, it's very difficult to muster the motivation to both write in my journal - which I have been doing almost every day for the past decade - and to post a blog. I'm a lazy human being, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. ;)

Anyway, some things just need to be written about, and having a new facebook relationship status is one of those things. It's a rather long story, but it's very much in line with the way I like my life to work - unpredictably and full of amusing coincidences.

So last weekend I went to Freiburg, which (for those of you who don't know) is located very close to the borders of France and Switzerland. For those of you who still don't know, here's the link to a map: http://skl13.ukl.uni-freiburg.de/plaene/freiburg-germany.jpg. I took the train on Thursday afternoon around 1:30, which would have been fine had I not planned to leave at 11:30, bought my ticket, and then left my passport at the Collegio and realized it only when I was on my way to Stazione Centrale. I'm a smart cookie sometimes, I tell you what.

So having gone back to the Collegio, gotten my passport, bought a new ticket, gone to Centrale, sat on a train for 5 1/2 beautiful-Swiss-landscape-filled hours, gotten to Basel, bought a ticket to Freiburg in Basel, and had a 40 minute train ride in a train 1000 times more beautiful than the Cisalpino train I took to Basel, I finally arrived in Freiburg. Lisa was waiting with a sunflower. :) I got a bit of a migraine around that point, so after I saw her apartment, met some of her roommates, and had some dinner, I went to bed.

The next morning, we ate some really amazing cereal filled with Nutella (really) and had coffee with some of Lisa's classmates. Then I went to class with her and kept myself occupied by looking up words like Tintenfisch and Biber... "octopus" and "beaver" for those of you who are not Germanically-inclined. Afterward, we met Lisa's (and Kyle Fyr's) mentor and friend Pamina for lunch, delicious dessert and coffee, and an impromptu tour of Freiburg. Afterward, we caught a ride with some girls from the very modest Freiburg lindy scene and rode slightly out of town to a dance with them. Everyone was incredibly nice, and the dancing wasn't too bad. We had lots of fun, but got back a little tired out.

On Saturday, we got up early and caught a ride with Pamina on the beautiful fast train to Basel. We spent the morning and early afternoon walking around, eating the most amazing apfelstruedel I have ever even conceptualized, looking at a gigantic flea market by the university, having some delicious hot chocolate, and talking while we climbed up one of the hills. When we got back in town, we messed around for a bit after we met Pamina's husband Reto at the train station, and then we stopped by Aldi (the German answer to Walmart, only somehow much, much worse) to get some food for a birthday party for Lisa's friend Cameron.

And that's where the really interesting part of the story starts.

To summarize, my relationship with Cameron started with making out and then moved on from there. Cameron actually got confused about where we were all meeting and came over to Lisa's apartment a little bit before the party actually started (well, technically it was a good 20 minutes after the party was supposed to have started, but it obviously hadn't started yet if he wasn't there), and I noticed that he was a very good-looking guy. We had met on the tram Thursday night and had seen each other briefly Friday morning, but I hadn't really noticed him... After a bit, we went over to Lisa's friend Trish's apartment and got somewhat tipsy pre-gaming on some kind of alcoholic something made from apples, some other kind of fig-flavored alcoholic something, and some nice dark beer. Then got on a tram and went to Stusiebar and kept ourselves that way for a while with (in my case) some more semi-local dark beer. When in Germany...

There was a dance floor with lame & phenomenal mid-90s dance music and eventuallyCameron and I started dancing with each other... and then dancing close with each other... and then we did some good kissing. As my mother aptly pointed out, there's nothing like a little alcohol to break the ice. And even though we were drunk, he did not get fresh with me; instead he told me I was beautiful. I was surprised and quite pleased, to be honest.

Gradually we started to sober up and went outside, and then we sat there and talked until the bar kicked us out at 5:00 in the morning, then talked some more waiting for the bus, and he seems pretty great - I don't ever remember clicking with someone so fast. Ever. We've talked a couple times and emailed a lot this week, and he's coming to Milan next week during part of their break.

So that's the story so far... I met a guy and made out with him and then realized that he was pretty cool and now we're starting our relationship long-distance. It's ridiculously not-me, but I really don't have much to lose just getting to know him and seeing what happens. But he studies linguistics (we talked about phonetics when we were trashed, which was a major factor in the decision to give it a try) and speaks German very well and is learning Korean... A pretty cool guy. We'll see what happens!

Anyway. I'm sorry if that offended anyone's sensibilities with my story (particularly those of any family members who might be reading this), but I will close with the disclaimer that I neither get trashed nor make out with strangers on a regular basis, and that I try to conduct myself with dignity at least 95% of the time. Last Saturday night just happened to fall into the other 5%, but even then I still stayed in control. Don't worry, you raised me well. ;)

I have a bit of a nasty cold from last weekend's exhaustion and the cold, rainy weather we've had here for the last few days, so I think that I'm going to head for bed pretty soon. Hope you're all doing well!

About time.

As of today, I've been in Italy for a full calendar month, and it would appear that that's how long it takes me to get in gear and create a blog. I went to Genova & Tarazze over the weekend, so I'm pretty exhausted and am certainly not going to do a full update right now, but the incredibly-short version goes something like this:

• August 16 - I arrive in Rome and then spend 5 days alone in an empty city (it was still ferrie, or country-wide holiday fun time, when I arrived) trying to find a grocery store and to apply for my permesso di soggiorno.
• August 21ish - Lisa comes! We spend the next two weeks doing everything there is to do in Rome. Some incredibly good times... Feel free to look at the albums on my facebook if you haven't already.
• September 4 - I take a train to Milan from Rome, have lunch with Beatrice, and then get shipped to an agriturismo called La Torrezzetta (the actual spelling espcapes me) with the other 100 IES Milan kids. We get oriented, and I meet the music kids from Denver University and some others.
• September 6 - I move into the Collegio di Milano with 9 other IES kids. Single rooms, 90 Italian students, every meal in the cafeteria with the Italian kids. We all sit together and talk at every meal, which is nice but exhausting (and is still exhausting two weeks later).
• After that, we start our intensive Italian. I like my class a lot, although I moved myself down to be in it because it's what I need after skipping so many levels at IU.
• Last week, I and the Denver kids discover Le Scimmie, home to live music every night and an excellent aperitivo (very good drinks, okay food, but all very cheap). That night an Italian band called Dio della Love plays, and we all fall in love with them. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have any albums out. :(
  
• This weekend, by strange coincidence I and the Denver kids end up at the same hostel in Genoa. We have a great time exploring the city and climbing many, many more miles uphill than we had ever even considered wanting to climb when we were looking for the hostel (located on top of a monstrous hill/mountain) on Friday, and then we go to the beach at Tarazze on Saturday. A great trip. Sunday night when I get back, Brandon is in town for the evening and we have a nice aperitivo at a bar in the same neighborhood as Le Scimmie. We have a lot of fun, and Vienna sounds fabulous. I can't wait to visit!

Tomorrow we finally audition for the voice teacher, so I'm going to get some sleep so I can at least attempt to do a decent job. I can't wait to meet her!

Hope you're all doing well... I'm having a great time, but I do miss you all a lot.

(Also, I had to edit this post because I changed tenses in the middle of the list of bullets. I was very disappointed in myself. Not okay.)