How often...

…do you hear opera singing while standing on an almost deserted train platform at midnight?

Well now… Tübingen was fun. I had a really good time. Tübingen is Ann Arbor’s sister city, and so only the people from UM went. It took about three hours to get there even though it’s fairly close. The trains have to go around the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). When we got there, we met our host families. They were pretty much all older ladies. Ruth, the lady I had, is married and has two sons. Philip, the oldest one, is 26 and living at home. The youngest one is in Boston, I think. Alex’s person wasn’t there, so he went with me and Ruth took us around the city. Then we went back to her house and had coffee and waited for dinner. Right before dinner, we met Philip.

After dinner, we went to watch an old German movie outside. I forget what it was called, but it was funny. My neck still hurts from having to look around people’s heads. Afterwards, we went to DAF where they had a little reception for us… or something like that. None of us were exactly sure what it was all about, but there was wine and appetizers. The daughter of Alex’s people met him there, and Alex and she and her boyfriend went out with Philip and me to some bar thing. Then Alex and the other two left, but Philip, his friend, and I went to some club and stood outside for a little bit while his friend talked to people. Then we went back to his friend’s apartment and had a beer. Philip taught me how to open it with a lighter. I need to practice. Philip and I went home around 1am.

The first thing next day was breakfast. I met the father. He was really nice and determined to make sure I spoke German and got in contact with German families in Freiburg. Then Ruth and I went into the town and met up with Alex and Ben. We walked around and saw buildings and museums. After Ben left, we walked around a little more, and then Ruth left and Alex and I looked around the Weihnachtsmarkt.

Then in the evening, Alex’s host-dad picked us up and we had dinner at his house. It was really good. But our train was leaving at 6:35, and we ended up leaving later than I thought was smart. And, as it turned out, I was right. The Reise Zentrum (where you buy tickets) was not open and none of the ticket machines (Automat) were cooperating with us. So after much stress and hassle, we missed our train going south. The other option was to go north, but we missed that one too. Then the next one going north to Stuttgart left at 7pm, and we got that one. But then in Stuttgart there were no possible ‘umsteigens’ (train transfers) for an hour. And so Alex and I went to the Stuttgart Weihnachtsmarkt again (we had gone two weeks ago). We then got from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe and Karlsruhe to Offenburg without problem. But then in Offenburg, there were no possible trains until 12:45am. So we ended up buying another ticket for a more expensive train that was coming at 11:50pm and got back in Freiburg around 12:20, over five hours after we started. Everything considered, it was a wonderfully enjoyable experience.

This afternoon there was a small gift exchange at Liz’s apartment. …Generally a good time.