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