TravelStream™ news feed for member patrickv on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/patrickv en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:42:51 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1217561460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1217561460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1217561460/tpod.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:42:51 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Olathe, Kansas, United States

So, after much time and traveling, I am back in America.In the meantime, after leaving Zürich, me and my three friends drove to Singen, the current hometown of one of our group. His internship is still continuing and thus he had to go back to work. Before we dropped him off, though, we drove partway up a nearby hill and climbed the rest of the way up to the ruined castle of Hohentwiel. We spent a few hours climbing around and enjoying the view.After leaving our friend, the other three of us headed over to the Freiburg area. My co-traveller Marcus had two host families during his internship, and he had left his baggage (along with that of my other co-traveller) with one of the them. We went to visit both; one gave us dinner and the other drinks. That was a rather fun. Then we made the final leg of our communal journey to Stuttgart, but by the time we got there it was dark and late, so we walked around the shopping street for an hour or so, I ate my final falafel, and we went to bed.At four in the morning, I woke up, carried my baggage downstairs, caught an U-bahn and then an S-bahn, and waiting for my flight in the airport. After a long journey through London and Chicago I finally arrived in Kansas City, complete with my baggage. Not too much interesting to report about all that.Well, this will be my final post here. I have no idea when I'll be back to a German-speaking country, but I assure you that it will happen eventually. In a year, we will see where things lie. I have really enjoyed all three of my travels to Germany and Austria and I don't think I'm done yet.For now, I'm still occasionally writing reviews for my other blog, and I'm trying to record my third album before I have to go back to school. Let me know somehow if you want a copy when it's all done.Thanks for reading!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1217299560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1217299560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1217299560/tpod.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:05:41 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Zürich, Switzerland

Last week was my final week of work at Marquardt and homestay with the Minder family. I was pretty sad to have to leave them. They really treated me well. Before leaving, I did one more biking journey around the town to see the springs on the east side and the Alte Berg chapel to the south.Saturday morning I caught a train to Zürich and then checked in to my hostel there. For the first day, I was alone, so I wandered around town, half just sightseeing and half hunting down record stores. Luckily, I found maybe a dozen, but unluckily, they were also incredibly expensive to the point that I couldn't justify buying more than two CDs. (Used and new records and CDs were about 28-32 francs = 26-28 USD.) I also popped into the Cabaret Voltaire, birthplace of dada. They had a dream machine exhibit in the lower level, but the actual cabaret part was closed due to vacation. I ate a falafel (well over twice as expensive as the German and Austrian variety) and then headed back to the hostel to figure out something to do for the evening. I went to my room and found two young Germans there who invited me to go hang around town with them - it was good fun.The next day I spent most of the morning and afternoon in the Swiss National Museum. It's basically a historical and cultural museum of Switzerland - very interesting stuff. There are some gardens behind it that were also quite nice. All the way to the back is the point where the two rivers of Zürich, the Sihl and Limmat, meet up. I happened to notice a plaque there noting that that location was a favorite of James Joyce's while he was living there and writing <i>Finnigan's Wake. In the afternoon I met up with three friends, two Americans through my program and one Canadian also on an internship through the Berufsakadamie.Monday we took our rental car out to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We mostly just walked around all day and enjoyed the beautiful city and landscape. The city sits atop a peninsula formed around a curve in the Aar river. We climbed the tower of the Münster (cathedral) to get a great view. We were going to go wade around in the river, but storm clouds threatened and we decided to head back to Zürich. We waded around a bit in the Zürichsee (Lake Zurich) to make up for it.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1216575900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1216575900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1216575900/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:24:07 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Meersburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

My time is drawing to a close. I have just one week left and then a few days of vacation where I'll be going to Switzerland and then catching a flight home from Stuttgart. Because I'm going to be fairly busy this week, I probably won't post again until I'm back in Kansas, unless one of the hostels I'm staying in has free wifi.Anyway, last weekend was a soccer tournament for the Heuberg (the region I'm living in). As it turns out, Böttingen won. Clearly, I'm living in the right place. My host-cousin took me to a street festival in Aldingen, a town not too far away, and my host father took me to Stuttgart to see the Mercedes-Benz Museum. That was really cool. Very interesting building, too.In the evenings over the past week (or two), I've been reading a lot in German, recording lo-fi demos using my headset mic and my host-sisters acoustic guitar, and trying to plan my time in Switzerland. (I've got most of it figured out by now. Still researching record stores and museums.)This weekend was awesome. Friday night I caught a train in Tuttlingen to Überlingen, where I met Thomas, the French exchange student who was with us in Lindau. He is living in Meersburg (on the Bodensee/Lake Constance), and he invited me and the other Americans to visit. Two others also came. The four us just spent Friday night hanging out in Meersburg, but Saturday we took a ferry across the lake to Konstanz, which we walked around all day. It was great. I went to a bakery and had a chocolaty pastry, and later I found a Turkish Imbiss and had my first falafel sandwich in 14 months. (I've made my own and had similar things in America in the meantime, but nothing is quite like the Turkish Imbiss variety.) It'd been a long time... and it was great. Then we rented a Tretboot, also known as a Pedalo, one of those little boats where the motor is your feet. That was also cool. It's just nice to be on the Bodensee, but apparently all of Germany, Switerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, and half of the rest of Europe also thinks so, because it seems constanty crowded in the summertime. Anyway, it's a really beautiful area to walk around in (while eating falafels).We took the ferry back, dropped one friend off at the Friedrichshafen train station, and then got back to Überlingen so I could catch my train to Tuttlingen to meet my host-brother-in-law. I ate dinner with my host-sisters' families - fake Fleischküchle (meatball is the translation, but that's inexact), ratotouille, and rice. Kept up the tradition of all my meals here being awesome. Then my host-cousin met me again and we went out for a while and ended up at a street fest in Denkingen. I swear, every weekend there is at least one street fest within a 30-kilometer radius of anywhere in Germany.Today my host parents took me to Reichenau (an island in the Bodensee) for lunch and vegetable/garden shopping. Apparently the goods there are high-quality and grown right there. We stopped by a hangout of the Böttingen Obst- und Gartenbauverein (Fruit and Gardening Club) for some cake and then went to a festival in Kolbingen. Good times.So: Germany continues to rock, my language skills are ever-improving, and I keep realizing that the German you learn in school is really only a general guide for how anyone here will actually speak, and by that I mean that it's usually nothing like what you'd expect. It's a fun little challenge. I'm also trying to learn some of the sayings, but it can be hard or weird. One I like is "ich verstehe nur Bahnhof", which literally means "I only understand train station" but is more like our "it's all Greek to me" sort of thing. Anyway. I like it here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1215378300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1215378300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1215378300/tpod.html Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:22:45 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Böttingen, Germany

The last couple weeks have been pleasant but not the most outlandishly exciting. I don't have a lot of great stories or anything; I've just been working and hanging out with the host family.Last weekend I went to Tuttlingen, which is the capital of the region I live in, because there was a big Stadtfest (city festival). Lots of music, food, drink, and people. The next day my host family took me to the Stausee, a lake near Schömberg, which is a few towns over. We took a little boat out and drove around a bit.Friday was of course Independence Day in America; I didn't really celebrate. I attempted to teach my host-niece to play guitar, though. Yesterday was a feedback session for my exchange program, but it was actually a part of an alumni get-together for the Berufsakadamie. We talked some about the program, had some food and drink, and then just talked for a while. The five of us Americans here hung out all afternoon with some of our host family members, our program coordinators and some other affiliated people, and a Canadian exchange student and another from Hungary. Several of us later went to Tuttlingen for a festival in the former castle ruins overlooking the city, but we got there a bit too late and tickets were sold out. We hung around the ruins for a few hours anyway and had a good time.Today there was a big music festival in Königsheim (one town away from Böttingen) in honor of their music club's 100th anniversary. It was in a big tent and there were tons and tons of musicians from nearby towns. There was supposed to be a big procession, but because of intense rain, they had to cancel it. Instead, they had every musician in the place play along to some piece and then the German national anthem. That was cool. Hundreds of musicians, really loud, everyone singing the words to themselves. We stayed for a few hours and enjoyed the music and the company of another local mayor, a regional government official, and the priest of Böttingen. Staying with the mayor of two different cities makes for some interesting situations sometimes.Last weekend I met an Irish guy who came here for a soccer game six years ago and decided he liked it better here and thus never left. Yesterday I met an American who came here twenty years ago on what seemed like a whim, decided he liked it better here, and never left. Hmmm.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1214269200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1214269200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1214269200/tpod.html Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:49:21 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Lindau, Bavaria, Germany

This past weekend was another exciting little adventure. All of the foreign exchange students through the Berufsakadamie were invited to an Ausflug (field trip, vacation) to Lindau, Germany and Bregenz, Austria. There were twelve of us in all, not counting our ever-patient program coordinator: the five Americans in the Villingen-Schwenningen area, two more through Webster in the Heidenheim area, four Russian girls, and one French guy. The mix of languages was fantastic. We tended to operate in English with a lot of German mixed in, but of course plenty of Russian and some French graced our communications.&nbsp;Once we finally starting checking out Lindau on Saturday morning, it was great. It was, however, super hot and sunny out, but I survived the weekend with only minor sunburns. This weather was quite unlike the past week (or today), which has been fairly cloudy and rainy and cool. Anyway, we toured the city, walked around a lot, and then took a boat to Bregenz, which is in Austria but just a short trip across the Bodensee (literally, "bottom sea", perhaps due to its location at the bottom of Germany, but known as Lake Constance). You could look across the lake and see Switzerland, too. In Bregenz we took a cable car up one of the mountains and walked around the peak. Great view. It was really cool being at the convergence of three countries (and I think Liechtenstein wasn't far, too).&nbsp;We came back to Lindau to eat and find a place to watch the Russia-Netherlands soccer game. To our general surprise, Russia won. I still find it strange that I actively avoid watching sports games in America but somehow mildly enjoy the European Championship games here. Part of it is probably that my host family watches the games a lot, but still.&nbsp;Sunday we spent the day swimming in the Bodensee, and although the weather was hot and the water cold, it was fun.&nbsp;My job continues to be fairly good; I'm just happy to be programming. My host family continues to be very kind and helpful, but my host-brother Alex leaves for America early Thursday morning, and after that things might get a bit quieter. The food is still great; I've had a bunch of different vegetarian offerings and none have disappointed (except for some bacon I caught in my potatoes my first week here). The fake meat offerings here are great, the vegetables are great, the spätzle is great, and every form of potato they make here (pancake, french fry, boiled, etc.) is fantastic.&nbsp;On another note, I turned twenty-one last week. I had some fantastic fake sausage, I played on a trampoline with my host brother and nieces, and I had a Warsteiner, one of the best beers I've tasted yet. Funny, though, that turning twenty-one has no special significance here... only in America. Doesn't matter, though, it was a pleasant day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1213581600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1213581600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1213581600/tpod.html Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:19:04 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Second week of work and third weekend already over. Work has been fairly good - I've finally begun to really dig into the programming of my project, and that's always a great feeling. It's working in its preliminary stages already. My comprehension of technical/business German is slowly improving.This past weekend, though, was quite a treat. My parents flew into to Stuttgart and then drove out to Böttingen to meet my host family for dinner at a great Gasthaus (inn). I then spent the weekend with my parents, using Villingen as a home base. Saturday we made our way into the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) and spent the day in Freiburg im Breisgau, a beautiful old university city. The name comes from the fact that the town got so rich they bought their freedom from the ruling counts. Anyway, we spent most of the day just walking around, taking pictures, looking at buildings, and so on. The fantastic Münster (cathedral) was a central focus, but the plentiful tea shops, the two giant gates, the little sidewalk canal/gutter things, and the university were all great. It also happened to be something along the lines of Partner City Day, because near the Rathaus (city hall) were flags and information about all of Freiburg's sister cities. A jazz duo (sax and bass guitar) were making music, and they mentioned (in German) that they were from Madison, Wisconsin, and they were pleased to be playing in their sister city.That night we came back to Villingen to look for dinner, but the streets were pretty dead. We wondered if it was the soccer games (which are hugely popular here; I've watched the Germany games and a few others), but that seems like a stretch, since Germany wasn't playing. We found one street, however, loaded with locals. Underwear was hanging from the roofs, beer and sausages were all around, and flags said "De Rietvogl", which is dialect for "the Riet bird", which apparently is a crow (which the underwear scares away). Riet was the name of the little district hosting the street party, and they were celebrating fifty years of something, presumably existence.Sunday we drove up near Hausach back to the Vogtsbauernhof (the open-air museum of traditional Black Forest farm houses). It was my second time, but since I didn't read or see everything the first time, it was a welcome return, and my parents enjoyed it thoroughly. We came all the way back to Böttingen for coffee and cake with the whole host family, and then my parents headed off in preparation for their trip up to Frankfurt tomorrow morning to visit relatives and some of our family roots. (I wish I could go with them, but duty calls.)Anyway, I did a lot of translating for my parents, but especially between them and my host family, who collectively speak some English but clearly prefer German. It was fun. And I have a lot of pictures, too.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212852480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212852480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212852480/tpod.html Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:46:15 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Böttingen, Germany

It's Saturday and my first week of work is done. The intimidation, miscommunication, and nervousness factors have all gone down - since I speak only in German at my job (and with my host family, and just about everywhere else), my comprehension is improving and I'm slowly getting better and understanding people when they talk to each other. It's really hard, though, especially with the dialect. (First I go to Saxony, then I go to Austria, and now to the Schwabishe Alb. Everytime I tell someone here my first time in Germany was Saxony, they laugh. When I ask why, they say it's the dialect. I don't think it's any different, that is, better or worse, than the Austrian, Bavarian, or Schwabish dialects, but whatever.) When people talk directly with me, slow down a bit, and cut back on the dialect, I can get along pretty well.Programming in a German environment is interesting, though. I'm really happy that my job here is relevant to my career path. I mean, this is literally a dream come true - I'm a programmer in Germany! All my instructions are conversations about my project are in German, but of course, all programming is only done in English. Documentation is done in either language, so I do it in English, but I have to read all the related German documents. And the keyboards! They're getting to me, because all the special characters are moved around, and although when I'm writing something like this you barely notice, in programming you use special characters all the time. (Incidentally, I finally got my computer to connect to the internet.)My project is to make a program that will automatically generate source code files that in turn will do unit testing for ActiveX components that the programmers in our department write. When it comes to writing the basic outlay of the program, I'm fine, but then when it comes to how I am going to automatically and dynamically generate code based off of whatever file the user will input, I'm clueless. Next week hopefully I'll get a better clue how to go about it. In the meantime, I've written some basic code samples to prepare for it and then done a lot of pre-documentation. Within the documentation and preparation phase, though, I basically need to have a pretty good design of how I'm going to write the program... which means I have to figure out the core of what I'm doing. I'm happy to have a good, relevant challenge, though.As I said before, I take the bus to work and that's been fine. The second day, though, the second bus I catch to get to work must have been out of commission or something, because instead of a bus and the regular driver, a woman in what was basically an SUV rushed to the stop at the last second. I asked if she was going to Rietheim and she said she was, so I got in and sure enough, she did, but that was weird.The host family continues to be good. I'm getting along with them well and I'm really happy that they've been helpful with my vegetarianism. It makes it all so much easier. Let me tell you, I've had some good food: spätzle, awesome potatoes, the best fake wurst I've ever had, a variety of good breads, nutella, and of course, schoko müsli. Yes, I'm back in Germany for sure.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212452820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212452820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212452820/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:29:29 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Böttingen, Germany

Friday we went to Schwenningen, which is admittedly the less cool half of Villingen-Schwenningen. We walked around some and toured the Berufsakadmie, which is our partner university here and translates to something like "Career Academy". I am an exchange student with the academy and through them have my internship (<i>Praktikum) at Marquardt. My host brother, Alexander, is also a student at the academy, as are many of the American's host families. Works out well. It's an interesting system that they have (and most German universities are not like this, by the way): it's three years of focused study, alternating between three months of classes and three months of internship at a local company.&nbsp;Anyway, that afternoon we went to a clock manufacturing museum for a tour in German, and then we had a little party where we met our host families. I'm staying with the Minder family and they have been quite welcoming. I am really glad it has worked out and they are so friendly to take me in. They have been really cool about my vegetarianism here. It's kind of funny - it's definitely an exception here, and people wonder about a bit, but it's accepted, and I don't think anyone thinks I'm too weird or anything. I do get questions, though, and sometimes it's hard to explain complex things like this in German. Anyway, both of Alexander's sisters are older, married with a child or two, and living not too far away. They have also been quite welcoming. My host father is actually the mayor of this village and the next one over, which means that everyone knows him, so that's kind of interesting. Saturday morning we went to the local Feuerwehrfest (literally, Fire Defense Festival, but it's really a celebration for all the local volunteer firemen who were having their tests throughout the day) and everyone knew him. I should mention that Alexander is a volunteer fireman and our town of Böttingen successfully passed their silver test.&nbsp;Today was finally my first day of work. I was admittedly a bit nervous, and I still kind of am, since I haven't really actually started my project yet. I know I'm doing something with unit testing, and we program in C#. I'm just happy to be programming in Germany - quite literally a dream come true, even if it is a challenge to understand all the workplace German. Thankfully many technical words are similar to English, but that's not always the case. Me and another of the Americans working in another department had a sort of introduction session for most of the day with other new employees, but we understood little to nothing of the presentations. In my department, though, I think I'm getting along fine. Today I was just acquainted with the area and then instructed to begin installing software on my computer. This morning my father drove me to work, but normally I'll take the bus for about 25 minutes, and that's how I got home today. Not bad.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212097500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212097500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1212097500/tpod.html Sat, 31 May 2008 11:16:28 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Villingen-Schwenningen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Yesterday it suddenly hit me that I really was back in Germany (or more accurately, back to a German-speaking country). We just briefly were in a grocery store, but seeing all the products I came to love while in Vienna really made me feel happy about being here again. My breakfasts have included Schoko-Müsli again, I drank some Hohes C fruit juice, and wonderful German chocolate is abundant.&nbsp;I should explain that for the time being, when I say "we", I'm referring to the group of five Americans (including myself) doing this exchange program in this area. I believe there are two other girls in the Heidenheim area, but I haven't seen them on this side of the Atlantic yet.&nbsp;Anyway, on Wednesday, we had gone to what seems to be the only internet cafe in town, and then we met up with the program coordinator on this side of things, and she took us for lunch. I had Kohlrabischnitzel, and I have no idea how to translate that. Kohlrabi is some time of cabbage-like thing, and it was breaded and fried like schnitzel. Cool. We then went to the tourist center and had a long tour of Villingen. Our guide was great. She was really passionate about the local history, really happy that young foreign students were also at least a bit interested, and a bit opinionated about local politics. It was quite informative.&nbsp;We came back to the Jugendherberge (hostel) for dinner and then went outside to play table tennis, but right as we began to play, the German students who will be going to America through the program came to meet us. The took us into the city and we ended up spending a few hours talking with them (almost entirely in German!). It was really fun, and it was no problem getting along and being understood. I met Alexander, who is sort of my exchange partner. He also works for Marquardt and I will be staying with his family. He will leave with the other Americans for St. Louis in late June.&nbsp;Today we went to the Vogtsbauernhof, which is a museum of old-style Schwarzwald (Black Forest) farm houses. They were built in a particular style to work with the local conditions, meaning the livestock were on the bottom, above that was the living room (heated in part by the animals) and kitchen, and the top floor was a more standard barn set-up, with the back opening up to the outside, but since they were built into hills, they were flush (or nearly so) with the ground level. Quite interesting. Most of the farmhouses there were moved from other locations, but they were pretty old: some were from 500+ years ago.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1211986980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1211986980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/patrickv/2/1211986980/tpod.html Wed, 28 May 2008 05:11:10 -0400 Internship in Germany through the IBIE.

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Villingen-Schwenningen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

So, I finally made it to Germany! We all got back on the airplane late that evening, waited around forever, and finally took off for London. Once we got there, we all went to customer service and worked things out. I was hoping to catch an early flight to Stuttgart so that I'd meet up with my peers and coordinators on time, but I got in too late and had to take an afternoon flight, meaning I had like six hours to hang out in Heathrow. I kept running in to other people from the same diverted flight, so I ate lunch with some and talked to others for a while. It was a bit like all the movies about flights - after a while you really do get to know some of the personalities and you kind of automatically get along.Anyway, I got in to Stuttgart, found out that another of the participants had been delayed and was waiting for me, took a super-expensive cab to Villingen, where we are staying for a few days for orientation. I'm here, baggage and all, and I'm okay. I'm happy enough to be able to say that.I'm at an internet cafe, since I'm not with my host family yet, so I'm paying by the hour. It's been a while now, so I'd better go. Might be a while before I get back on.
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