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Restaurant/bar in a tower

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Harlem Shake (WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management Edition) OFFICIAL

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Sorry for the gap between posts guys! I've been working on another project that I hope to share with you guys pretty soon, but I'll still update you on my travels here once a week.

Last weekend I went on the biggest adventure of my semester so far...I'm starting to feel like I say that every week. Last week's adventure was to the storied capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam.

Our hostel (the middle building) might look sketchy from the outside, but it was actually clean, safe, and in a decent part of town. After checking in, we traveled to the Van Gogh Experience, an interesting collection of some reproductions of the famous Dutch painter's best-known pieces.

After a relatively low-key night, lots of people woke up early the next morning to travel to the Anne Frank Museum. I left a little later with a few others to meet up with another group at the famous "I Amsterdam" sign for some photo ops. From there, we traveled to the Heineken Experience, my favorite part of the trip. This attraction was the very first Heineken brewery and served as their main brewing facility for years. It was remodeled to incorporate a museum and a brewery tour to show people both the history of the Heineken brand and the process behind brewing high-quality beer. The tour also included a boat ride through one of Amsterdam's famous canals. The canals are lined with houseboats on both sides--we even saw the creator of Wheel of Fortune sitting in his houseboat, just smoking a cigar and watching life go by through the window! Not a bad way to spend your retirement.

After some down time we set out to explore the city at night. This was the lowlight of the trip--two members of our group who had each left with smaller groups to go elsewhere ran into trouble and lost some valuables. I don't want to go into too much detail, but they both handled it extremely well, probably better than I would have. We all regrouped together and set out again into some better parts of town--I went to a fun little EuroPub for a while with a few other people. On Sunday we were able to poke around the city some more because most businesses there remained open, unlike businesses here in Germany.

Overall, Amsterdam can be a crazy and overwhelming place, but it was an amazing city to visit for a weekend. We all handled the little challenges that came with having such a big group in such a busy place very well, and as far as I can tell everyone had a great time. No trip this weekend...gotta be well-rested for one more late-night football viewing on Sunday night/Monday morning. Enjoy the game, everybody!

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After another week filled with classes and some casual get-togethers around Vallendar, I had one of the highlights of my semester so far last Saturday. Together with over 100 other people (some Tauschies and some native Germans,) I toured the Koblenz region in a daytrip organized by the school. We started our trip by traveling to Marksburg Castle, a medieval fortress overlooking the town of Braubach. The castle is unique in that it has never been successfully destroyed in its 700 years of existence. After taking in the sweeping views of the Rhineland from outside the walls, we were able to tour the grounds and see some relics from medieval times.

After we finished at Marksburg, we reboarded our buses and traveled to Lahnstein to tour the local brewery. An employee gave us a tour of the factory, then a second guide/actor gave us a tour of a medieval tower just down the road. Finally, a third guide took us to a beer tasting where we all had some authentic Radler and Weissbeer free of charge.

From the brewery, we moved on to an authentic German restaurant in Lahnstein called Maximilians Brauwiesen. After everyone had made their choices from an impressive beer menu, the servers brought out these massive family-style platters of all the best kinds of German food: rumpsteak, schnitzel, pommes frites, grilled peaches, and so many other types of local meats and vegetables. As far as I can tell, we pretty much unanimously agreed that it was one of the best meals that anyone has eaten since we arrived here.

All in all, the tour provided me with a great opportunity to see some places that I might not have been motivated to visit on my own. After three more short days of class I'll be heading out on my first major trip of the semester next weekend: I'm going to AMSTERDAM with some new friends from Friday morning through Sunday night! This is one of the trips that I've had in mind for a few months now, so obviously I'm pretty pumped to be going. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures and stories to share next week, but until then, thanks for reading. And Go Ravens.

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Second straight day of snow

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What a week!

Last Monday I started my first classes here at WHU. I had my entry-level German course all five days last week; after the intensive start I will only have it twice this week and once a week from next week through the end of the semester. Its been difficult (I have zero experience) but the class is based around lots of practice and repetition so I'm starting to catch on.

My only other class during this first week was Global Supply Management. It was held just once, for 3 hours and 15 minutes on Thursday...11:30 to 3:30 with a 45 minute lunch break at 1. This is apparently the format for most lectures here, so I'll need to get used to that quickly. The semester here is broken down into four short quarters--my German class runs for the entire semester but I'll have Global Supply Management until the end of February, then start several other classes that will run until the end of April. I didn't notice a big difference in difficulty between the GSM class and my classes at Maryland...the professor spoke English better than several professors that I've had back at Maryland. 

The week was also filled with Welcome Week events to get to know the other exchanges: teambuilding competitions at the school on Monday afternoon, an event at Korova (a small bar in Vallendar) that night, an international potluck dinner on Tuesday featuring foods from all of the exchanges' home countries (I provided a box of Ocean City-made Dolle's taffy,) and the great pub crawl through Koblenz on Thursday night. The pub crawl initially had a competitive aspect to it, with the Tauschies separating into 9 teams. Everyone was given lists that provided point values for certain drinks from each of the five or six establishments that we visited during the night. No one's 100% certain who won, but a great time was had by all as we continued to get to know each other while exploring our new home.

I originally planned to travel this weekend, but after some difficulty finding tickets for a music festival in Cologne I shelved those plans for now and spent the weekend in Vallendar/Koblenz. This ended up being a wise move...I witnessed the greatest football game of my lifetime late Saturday night as my Ravens took down the heavily favored Broncos. Seeing Cologne would have been awesome, but I'm already planning to head there for Carnival so I'm not too bummed about missing it this weekend. Right now I'm also in the process of planning trips to Warsaw, Prague, Frankfurt, Ireland, possibly France, possibly Rome, and hopefully a Bundesliga soccer game somewhere in Germany. Travel can be pretty cheap here as long as you plan well in advance and are willing to search around for the best bargains, so I'm trying to do as much as I can with the time and money that I have available.

This week, I'll continue with my two current classes, take a tour of the region with the other Tauschies on Saturday, and continue my ongoing quest to find ONE bar around here that shows American football games. I'm loving every second of this experience so far, and I'm so thankful that I put my initial doubts aside and travelled over here. I'll plan on checking in here every Sunday with more photos and recaps of my new adventures. Until then, tschüss.

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Pic from about 2 hours into last Thursday's Koblenz Pub Crawl. I'll put up a recap of my first full week later tonight!

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New Years Video

Apparently my video of the fireworks in Heidelberg hasn't been visible on some desktop web browsers--here is the video on youtube: http://youtu.be/Kv-FLQYnGs0 . Happy belated New Year!

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It's been a crazy few days...I haven't had any time to post, but today's dreary weather combined with the fact that barely any businesses are open on Sundays here means that I finally have some down time!

After New Years Day, I spent a final half day shopping with my family in Heidelberg before we moved on to Koblenz. It is a small city, probably somewhere between Heidelberg and Rothenburg in terms of both size and things to do. We had our final family meal at another local German restaurant--I had a dunkel (dark German beer) for the first time and enjoyed it a little more than the pils but a little less than the heffeweisen (cloudy wheat-based beer.)

The next morning I moved into InPraxi House in Vallendar, just over the river from Koblenz. My room is a comfortable little studio apartment with a kitchen and its own bathroom, 2 things that I somehow went without for 2.5 years in College Park, so needless to say I'm very comfortable! It is the first time in my life that I've really lived independently--even in Philadelphia I shared a kitchen with my 2 suite mates. This has been weirder than I thought it would be and it will definitely take some time to get used to, but the good news is that there have been plenty of opportunities to get out of the room and meet the other new "Tauschies" (the locals' name for exchange students!)

Friday was a total whirlwind of meeting people and going through orientation at WHU from 9 AM until well into the night. I met people from France, Tunisia, Turkey, Italy, and everywhere in the US from Indiana to Southern California. About half of the roughly 100 Tauschies are Americans. It seems like the vast majority of us have the same basic goal in mind for our semester: travel as much as possible and take every opportunity to get the most out of this experience. If the time I spent this weekend getting to know people in Vallendar and Koblenz is any indication, we're all in for a really unforgettable experience!

Tonight I'll be putting my Ravens fandom to the test as I watch Ray Lewis' final home game on what will most likely be a crappy online stream-- the local bars are more interested in showing Fußball than football on the weekends. Tomorrow I will both register for and start my first classes, and my week will be filled with more opportunities to get to know the other Tauschies. I'm more ready than ever to really get this adventure started!

Condensed version: All good so far!

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A panoramic shot of the Schloss itself.

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We've spent yesterday afternoon and night and all of today in Heidelburg. It's a much larger city than either of the previous two towns that we visited. While it doesn't quite have the old German charm of either Budingen or Rothenburg, it is nice to stay in a modern hotel with working Wifi for a change! For today, New Years Day, we traveled to the Schloss, the ruins of a castle that once sat on a hill overlooking the city. Although it was destroyed in an assault by the French hundreds of years ago, tourists are still able to see most of the grounds. I also managed to take the panoramic shot of the city that you see above. Tomorrow we will spend the morning in Heidelburg before traveling to KOBLENZ in the afternoon! I'll spend my last night with my family tomorrow, then move into my new digs in Vallendar on Thursday morning. Its been a great trip, and I'm looking forward to starting this next great adventure!

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Happy New Year from Heidelberg!

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First really different drink of the trip from lunch in Rothenburg: Radler, a mix of beer and lemonade. It was actually really refreshing.

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In Rothenburg

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We spent today in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, another historic, small German town about two hours north of Budingen. Apparently most businesses here are closed on Sundays, but we managed to find a few places to get some pastries and beers. Other than a few stray rainstorms we've had cold but clear weather. We might have some trouble watching the Ravens tonight, but other than that its been a nice, smooth trip so far.