Marburg is in the state of Hessen

Wow, one whole week without internet and we feel completely disconnected from everything! I never thought I was so attached, but I think being in a foriegn country is a pretty good excuse.

Well it has been a crazy week. We arrived in Marburg last Tuesday morning. We dove right in with the Fulbright community. There are about 30 other individuals who are studying with the Fulbright program in Germany this year and we are all in Marburg for this language course. We also sat through many meetings about how this year is going to work. We learned about how to set up banking, a cell phone, housing, transportation and jsut about everything else we need to know. It was very comforting to get all of our questions answered.

Everyone is in a different level class, Sam and I are in level two. He might be moving up to three though. He is SO excited to be in class. He WANTED homework. For me, the class is hard but I'm glad I get to take it. It will be very helpful later on. We have class from 9-4 Mon-Fri with an hour lunch break. On Mon and Wed the portion after lunch is called a culture course. We havn't actually experienced that yet but it sounds interesting.

The first couple days here the Fulbright commission kind of wined and dined us. We had a couple buffets catered to where we had the informational meetings. Very traditional German food. They also took us to a very pretty resaurant on a steep hill overlooking the city right next to the CASTLE! Very fun.

The city of Marburg is absolutely beautiful. Very hilly. Winding, narrow, cobblestone streets through tons of little shops, bakeries and pubs. The buildings are gorgeous- the old timber framed kind. We have been up to the castle a couple times. It is enormous. We got to go on a city tour yesterday and learn about the fascinating history of Marburg. The oldest buildings in town date back to the 13 century!!! The Grimm Brothers went to school here!! They wrote many famous fairytales and there are spots scattered all over town with scenes from his stories.

We just got back from a pretty intense hike. There is this really cool tower built way on top of this hill just on the edge of the city. Sam and I decided we wanted to hike up there as soon as we saw it. Well, we did it. We went straight up the side of the hill. Sam basically ran up. It did not take too long but it was really tough. The tower was so worth it. We got to climb the stairs all the way to the top and look over the whole town. Amazing! The Castle was on the other side of town and it looked small from where we were. We could see the river and the cute homes and the two big cathedrals in town. We took the easier long winding paths on the way down. Much better to slow down and take in the scenery.

So, 5 more weeks in Marburg. Lots of studying to be done. German is a tough language! Hopefully we will find time to explore as well. Our camera should be here in the next week or two and then we can share our view!

Bis später!
That means- till later!
Tschüss!
That means- c ya!