Orientation in Villingen

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  Villingen-Schwenningen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Thursday, May 29, 2008

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.
 
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.
 
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

Founder 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.
 
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.
 
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.

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Fountain Statue	North Tower	Rooster	The Group
Villingen Cathedral	Vogtsbauernhof	Wooden Deer

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