End of German University

This morning I wrote my final, final test. 6 down NONE to go!
The course went as follows,
Last week, that of 15th-21st, was spent with a test on Wednesday for Renaissance in Venice, Thursday morning with History of Germany.
This week of 22nd - today (the 27th) was
Tuesday- Investments (Upper division)
Wednesday- Finance Analysis and Porfolio Management (Upper Division)
Friday- Fundamentals of Finance (Lower Division)

Look through that once and think about it for a moment. Yeah. I definately was not too worried for Friday's Fundamental's test because the content had already been tested on Tues & Wed where they assumed I knew all the fundamental stuff already. But while Friday's test was not as stressful, just imagine how bad Tuesday's was.

The tests went well and if I ask myself "Did I pass" i think I can answer yes. I'll have to wait a month, yeah it takes that long if not longer, to get my grades back. Until then it's time to enjoy Germany.

Tomorrow I travel off to Trier Germany for the afternoon. Uebernachten, then
Sonday in Luxembourg, Luxemburg. A good friend from Freiburg, Linda, actually is from there so we'll meet up and see the city. Thereafter I'm off to Liege, Belgium (maybe with an excursion farther west to Brugge (sp?)) thereafter back to Germany; my first time in Koeln (a.k.a. Cologne) for two days. Then Thursday I zip back to Freiburg to celebrate with friends the end of the semester for everyone.
Because my best friends here, Viktor and Philipp, still have tests this coming week (with the worst one being on Thursday for Game Theory) I didn't want to mull around Freiburg alone while they studied, so I decided to go to Luxemburg and Belgium.

Thereafter awaits so many adventures.
I've already assembled a full list of restaurants and bars in Freiburg (68 so far, so I'm setting my goal at visiting 30 different ones of them before leaving). Plus in the middle is a vacation to London & Ireland with Vik & Philipp, and also an excursion to Loerrach (Philipp's hometown) and Basel, Switzerland. Then there are the adventures on the Trams. I want to see the city so I want to go everywhere the trams go. Plus there's always the sleeping in late, jogging 10 KM each night or every other night, and then catching up on some SAFA stuff, but in all enjoying Germany without obligations, with German friends, and with the desire to do and see it all. Here is the beginning of a month I will never forget for life.

Until the next update.
Later Days,

Rick

P.S. Sorry for the absence of photos. As you read, there was nothing this and last week other than tests, so there would only be REALLY boring photos of either my desk, my coffee pot, or my pillow-the neglected desire.

The "No English" threshold

So 3 finals down, 3 finals remaining.
At this point I've learned a very good lesson. A night without sleep definately shuts off the abstract part of my brain. This means that I can study until late at night and still perform well for accounting, statictics, or calculus, but not for history, and especially not while speaking in German.

I'll get back to that in a moment. First was the adventures of the last weekend. Melanie, a great friend from the U of M who was studying at Barcelona, came to visit in Freiburg. Arriving on Thursday night, the next day was packed with an early morning tour of Freiburg and then an afternoon in Basel, Switzerland (which is just 40 minutes away by train). Then after a late night, Melanie flew back on Saturday.

Sunday was spent with a British friend, Lisa, who is fluent in French so we went to Colmar, France. A very small, charming town really close to Freiburg, but took over an hour to get there. There was an international music festival going on until that day and actually, Lisa's former flute teacher was the lead flutist with the Orchestra of Paris, the featured performers. So we met up with him and he invited us in to hear the rehearsal. Aside from having to leave early to catch the bus, the practice was fantastic as the orchestra is one of the best in the world.

So that was the weekend...

And now the story of the week... the story goes that I was supposed to have my Renaissance in Venice test last week and then this week just focus on History of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1945. But the Renaissance test was moved to this week and I had to cut my History study time in half. But the Renaissance test came and went without a hitch. The oral exam was made very simple by the professor and didn't require too much strain. That meant that I had overstudied for it, and consequently under-studied for the History. The next morning came, after a night without sleep, and my brain just couldn't say anything in German, or remember much of the content I had just covered.

So now I sit, gearing up for 3 finance finals this week and therefore declare it an English Holiday. I have to improve my German as these are now written exams which require as much explanation as calculations. Calculations are fine since math is an international language; the explanations are not.

Well, that's been the summary of my week and learnings. Hope you're having a blast back home and until then.

Later Days,
Rick

woah, time to catch up

July is 1/2 over. Woah.
I realize that the last post was quite a while ago so I will try to catch up with everything that's been going on. Pretty much a great summary is...studying, well in Theory it's studying.




Last weekend I went on Thursday to Munich for the day, then on Friday rode to Graz, Austria where Brianna (seen here on left) studied for the past semester. The city was great, unfortunately Brianna wasn't as gung ho as she was upon her departure. She is departing Graz tomorrow (Friday the 13th) and traveling for 2 weeks before being back in Wisconsin. Here we are at a fountain between Hauptplatz and Jakominy Platz.




After two days of seeing Graz, we headed to Slovenia (Maribor was the town name) for Sunday and after only an hour on the train we were in former Eastern Europe.

Here I stand in front of the oldest vine in the world--440 (approx) years old. Brianna bought a bottle of wine and we tasted it that evening with some Austrian (flavor, Stracchietelle) ice cream.




Then we made our way back to Austria to crash for the evening and next day.
Pictured here is me in front of the Central Station with the glowing green clock, which is in front of the odd red & silver liquid-like painting covering the inside of the train station, then on the right the OBB (translated into Austrian national Train) (And the Pass auf sign means pay attention)







So back in Freiburg by 7:00 a.m. after 13 hours of traveling on Tuesday and then in class by 8:30 a.m.
Class ran as usual with me struggling to stay awake during my Investments class.
But that night we held "Taco Tuesday" at my apartment just like back home at the U of M every Tuesday with the percussionist and music friends.
Philipp is on left and Viktor on right. Both are Business students here at Freiburg and these are the two with whom I'm traveling through England and Ireland.

This week at the Uni there is a big celebration for the 550th Anniversary. (Christopher Columbus was 6 years old when they established the University). So there are tents all around, a volleyball tournament (national championship of Germany), concerts, and exhibits. The funniest, and simultaneously worst, thing is that the BIG stage is set up on the Place of the White Rose which is situated directly between 3 of our main buildings (we have College Buildings #1-4, and this is encircled by #'s 1, 2, & 3. So with the concerts going, all our classes are disturbed, studying is disrupted, and worst of all, the poor students taking a International & Domestic Tax Law Final Exam today have to do it during the Drum Circle on the main stage. They really should have better planned the days for this celebration.

Well, now I need to take care of SAFA stuff for July, get back to studying for the two tests next week (the Renaissance in Venice test was postponed to next week, the day before the History of Germany test) and the three tests the week after (all of which are Finance, and all of which I need to study way more for). So the next two weeks will be really schlimm here for me. Although tonight Melanie Cox (from the U of M) is arriving to visit until Saturday afternoon, so it will be a bit of a break and a nice little trip around SW Germany.

Fortunately I do have something to look forward to, the day after the last test on July 27, I ride up to Luxembourg, then Belgium, then Cologne (in Germany), then back home just in time to celebrate for the end of Philipp's college career.

Until then.
Later Days,
Rick