Our graffiti'd train is swallowed by a long tunnel almost immediately after we leave the platform in Pisa. I keep staring at the blackness outside the window anyways, hoping for something more interesting to look at than the featureless back of the gray seat in front of me. Within a few minutes I’m rewarded with... Continue Reading →
Falling in love with Istanbul
Big cities and I have a complicated relationship. Despite my desire to like them, we’ve never gotten along. I know many people who love cities and are drawn to their vibrancy, centering entire vacations around thriving metropolises and then encouraging me to do the same. I always try desperately to make it work: eating the... Continue Reading →
Mastering Life: Excursion to the Bayerischer Wald National Park
Once upon a time, I dove headfirst into a graduate program in a foreign country with no idea what to expect. Even though I’m now in the sixth and last class of my first semester, I still feel a bit like I was tossed overboard during a voyage across the Sea of the Unknown. Luckily,... Continue Reading →
Holidays in a foreign land
When you’re stranded in a foreign country for the holidays and surrounded by people you’ve only known for a few months, there are only three real solutions: fly back to your family, get out of Dodge and travel around, or band together with your fellow expats and make the best of it. Just for something... Continue Reading →
Differences
An in-progress list of cultural differences between Germans and Americans, three months later: Goodbye! I’m not sure if Americans are just not very formal or what have you, but saying “bye” to each other is something we rarely do unless we are conversing with someone we know or we’re hanging up the phone. I’ve lost... Continue Reading →
Chasing the rabbit
When the sun sets on Freiburg - or really any city - its entire persona changes. The shops close and the sidewalks empty. Most nights, the city just rolls over and goes to sleep until dawn. But as the week comes to a close, sunset brings with it a whole other meaning. The shops still... Continue Reading →
Settling In
[I've been in Freiburg for over a month now, and have yet to make a post about my new home city. I finally decided that my problem was that I was focusing solely on the city itself. Instead, I chose to write instead about my personal insights since moving here and intersperse it with pictures... Continue Reading →
Homeless
Everyone sounds the same when they scream. This creepy thought hit me with a jolt as I watched twenty terrified trachten-clad* Germans freefall towards the ground on a rainbow-lit carnival ride. Although I probably wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation with most of these people, their primal screeches of fear didn’t sound any different... Continue Reading →
Drei Tage, Drei Abenteuer
Three days, three adventures 1.... Waking up early on a Saturday morning is one of those unfortunate ideas that never seem to work out. It sounds so grandiose the night before: ah, yes, I shall sit upon my porch and watch the sun rise over the mist-clad Black Forest hills, but the reality the next... Continue Reading →
Staufen
One of my favorite things about the Freiburg region is its incredible public transportation system. Coming from America, where public transportation is an unreliable and pathetic joke almost everywhere, I am floored by this [largely] punctual, clean, efficient, available, and wide-spread system that is actually used by the majority of residents. Even more fantastic is... Continue Reading →
Bodensee
Surprise, surprise: I've been in Germany less than a week and have already taken a trip outside of Freiburg. Twas a well-deserved vacation, I believe, because there's this tiny detail that no one tells you about moving overseas: it is exhausting. Finding edible foods in grocery stores, weathering DMV-esque government agencies, checking something off your... Continue Reading →
The first 36
Let's set something straight: we have already invented time travel, only we call it flying overseas. Two days ago I raced east as the sun headed west, and by the time we met again high above the frigid seas of the north Atlantic, I had lost several hours of my September 1, 2015 down some... Continue Reading →
Window Seat Odyssey 