The Last Week in Freiburg

The last week in Freiburg was one of the best. I spent every moment possible with friends and enjoying everything that I knew I would miss.

(Left) Friday night, Philipp and I went to a real German Football (Fussball=soccer) game. We had talked about it for almost a month as he insisted I see a real Football game before I fly to the U.S. We had real Rothaus Bier, we could see the Black Forest mountains behind the stadium, and we wore our Freiburg Sport Club Scarves with pride. My scarf was a parting gift from Philipp and rode by my side the entire flight/trip back to the US.
Philipp also insisted I learn the Baden Lied (the song from the region the team comes from). The entire game, I was cheering on Freiburg and shouting and singing in German with the German fans.

Philipp and Anne. These two are fantastic together and just started dating two weeks before I left Germany. They're adorable and I am (unendlich) endlessly happy for Philipp that he is happy in this relationship.

She works in marketing for the Sport Club Freiburg, and Philipp has been visiting these Football games with his father since he was big enough to stand.

After the game, Philipp and I met his father in the outdoor bier garten to discuss the sport, current developments, and enjoy a Rothaus together. (His father is the manager of the TravelEx banks in Switzerland)

And about Philipp and Anne, this showed me more of the European style of dating. They are more conspicuous in public in comparison to Americans. But the silver lining I found and try to tell myself, is that potentially it's good that I left them in Germany. Then as Philipp spends more and more time with her and less time with Viktor and me, I won't be as hurt as I slowly lost time to spend with him.

Philipp and Viktor after the Football match (Freiburg vs. Paderborn. Freiburg won 1-0!)
We met to enjoy a bier at Feierling Brauerei, Philipp's favorite micro-brewery in Freiburg.

Afterwards we went to the movie theater to see Transformers. Unfortunately, the movie wasn't showing any more that evening so we picked Quentin Tarantino's Deathproof (Todsicher), in which I fell asleep after about 15 mintues of the movie. I made a concious judgement that the movie was not better than sleep, so I opted for that. Good thing too, because Philipp and Viktor told me afterwards that the movie was pointless and absolutely terrible.

If you haven't seen a theme yet, let this remind you--we grill a lot. For my farewell, I invited a few friends over for drinks and grilling. Here Philipp, Anne, and Viktor prepare Shish-Kabobs for enjoyment.










While at the StuSie Bar one night as Viktor was bartending, I met two great Juristen = Law students. Thedo & Melissa gave me the bottle of Baden Champagne (Sekt) that I have at the apartment. We just had so much excitment chatting with one another (quatschen!).

They walked almost an hour to get to the farewell party becuase Thedo thought they were close and decided against taking the tram.

One of the best pictures from Freiburg. The day after the Farewell, Philipp, Viktor, Anne, and I got together for a "Veg-Out" night. We had pizza, bier, sweats, and movies. Well, I had sweats, Viktor was still over-dressed, and Philipp searched for a casual/comfy sweater, which was really great that he gave it the effort.

This was the beauty of my time abroad. Amazing friends having a great time, simply spending time together around a few beers and movies. I know I have my friends in Minneapolis, but I don't have all of them; I don't have some important ones. So I miss 'em.

As "Veg-Out" wrapped up, Viktor, Philipp, and I met the next day to hang out in the city, take photos by the Muenster, cook dinner together, and end the evening with drinks with friends at Philipp's place. That was the hardest night as I had to leave but knew that it was the last time for over a year that I could say "good night (or gute Nacht)" to my friends. It was so unfair that I had to leave all of it behind in Freiburg.

And on the final day, Philipp and Viktor arrived early at my WG, my Apartment, in Vauban to have breakfast together and spend the last four hours together. It meant alot that they came so early to take advantage of the time remaining. So I said my goodbye's to my roommates and we headed off to the train station. There, we waited for the train with all my luggage and in the chaos of climbing on with an apartment's worth of luggage and attempting a final goodbye, Philipp and parted as I began my journey 8000 km away. However, Viktor rode with me for the next hour as he was going in the same direction to go home for Semester Break. Having his company for that bit was a good consolation, but I was still distraught having just said good bye to Philipp and Freiburg in the same moment. Then as Viktor exited the train in Karlsruhe, my European adventure was officially over. I had to return to the United States and I had to leave, what developed to be my home, 8000 KM away.

The story of Readjusting is in the next post.
-Rick