These are a few pictures from the last excursion we took with the Fulbright group. We went to Die Grenze!! That is, The Border. We went to a small city 2 hours from Marburg where the wall(s) that divided East and West Germany used to stand. The area is now a museum so they have a lot of artifacts and materials regarding the wall and former East Germany.

I learned SOOO much on this trip. Let me highlight just a few examples:

1. There were actually TWO walls. Even if someone got over one wall they could run about one football field length until they had to climb the second wall.

2. East German Border Patrols were ordered to fire at any person they saw trying to get over the border. If a patrol didn't shoot to kill, they would be reported and punished.

3. For a short time there were automatic guns installed on the fence such that if a person tripped the wire a SPRAY of bullets would be fired instantly.

4. They had "aggressive" dogs patrolling between the two walls.

5. The fence material had such small holes it was very difficult to climb, not to mention the barbed wire at the top.

6. There were tall towers as well as short and low huts where border patrols were one guard 24 hours a day.

We also learned all about how East Germans lived during that time. I had no idea (I was 2 when the wall come down) how very different East Germany was from the rest of Europe. Very, very interesting. It was such a neat experience to stand out in the open fields with gorgeous scenery knowing that 20 years ago the walls still stood!

These are some pictures from the "meditation hike" we went on in Meunchhausen (near Marburg). It was by far the most beautiful hike thus far. Parts of it were deep in the forest and parts were across open countryside. The top brought us to a small church built hundreds of years ago of course. The stream running through the forest was so clear we could drink from it! They even provided a tin cup for people that is permanently attached to the river bank. We went with our friends T.J. and Jessica and their daughter Penelope (4 months).

Here we are on the tour of the "Casemates" underneath and around the Marburg Castle! There is really no good english translation for Casemates. Basically they are the tunnels and under ground forts that the men in Marburg built to defend the Castle. They fired their cannons from this room we are standing in and they landed somewhere outside that window.

The other pictures are from the tour as well.

Mainz!

We have arrived safely in Mainz!

It is a very different feel than Marburg- bigger and newer and even the fashion is better/more current (Marburg fashion was basically bad 90's American fashion)! We are living right in the middle of the "Altstadt". So there is always a lot going on, lots of people, lots to do. I think it is a great location! Just a couple drawbacks...the big beautiful Dom (Cathedral) across the street is great to look at but we also have to LISTEN. They ring their bells ALL the dang time! Honest, they are ringing for 10 minutes at the top of each hour and for 5 minutes at the half. Even longer at noon. I don't really know the schedule they have going on but they love their bells!

Also, because we are right "down town" there are lots of people to be heard...people who like to stay out late. So far it hasn't been a big problem. It is easier to ignore people talking loudly when you don't understand what they are saying.

We also have wonderful natural sunlight beaming in our room. Most of the time it is okay, especially now that it is cooling off.

Okay enough complaining...Mainz is really great! Our room is actually LARGER than we were expecting. We were able to move some superfluous furniture to the basement. We plan to buy a futon (as of now I sleep on the couch/bed and Sam sleeps on the fold out cot). We have plenty of storage space. FREE laundry! FINALLY....INTERNET!!! A big kitchen. All the people who live here seem very nice. They are all very busy working hard on papers most of the time. Last night we got a drink with 4 of the other PhD students here. They are very nice but their German is FAR better than ours. We just try to absorb whatever we can and try not to be embarrassed when we attempt to speak.

We have a lot of settling in things to do. Sam has to register at the University, we have to register as residents with the Stadtburo (City Hall), get bus passes etc. We also need to spend a lot of time getting to know the terrain. Street names are not used as often here. You kind of just have to figure out which cobblestone path leads to which store/bakery/grocery store etc...

Grocery shopping is an adventure of it's own. We have found a few places here but they are all SO small. If you meet a person with a cart coming towards you in an aisle, one must reverse because the aisles are not big enough for two! It just isn't like America where we have soooooo many options for all of our food. There is one very large grocery comparable to a Super Target but it is a 25 minute bike ride away...we will definitely have to take the bus if we want to go there.

Mainz has a WONDERFUL market in the town square every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Everything is so fresh and looks great! Unfortunately everything is more expensive there. We will splurge on fresh veggies and fruit every once in awhile I think.

We went to church this morning but after yet another hour and a half of straining to pick out some common vocab words we have decided we want to find an English speaking church. Our German teachers would be appalled. Everyone says how helpful it is for our German to go to German church but we are really missing the whole message so there is not much point.

It is a beautiful sunny Sunday. About 65 degrees. EVERYTHING is closed of course. We plan to go for a run along the river, such amazing scenery compared to the residential streets of Bloomington or even the Madison campus (although I do miss running in Madison).

Today is VOTING DAY!!! Tonight we find out who is the new chancellor of Deutschland. Although from what we hear it sounds like the current Chancellor has a great chance of being re-elected.

Well, take care, enjoy some American Football for us : )
ciao!

Tschüss Marburg!

Well, our time in Marburg is up! We leave for Mainz tomorrow morning. We are a little sad to leave this quaint little town but I think we are ready for the excitement of a bigger city. We wish we could take some of the Fulbright friends we made here with us. Hopefully we will make new friends in Mainz : )

Last night we went out to dinner with the whole group and Fulbright paid! The resturaunt was great, a nice place in the center Marktplatz in die Altstadt (Market Place in the old city). The food was amazing! All you can eat AND drink! I would love to know how much that bill was. We stayed out very late for us...12:30. Other people stayed at the restaurant until 3am!! Then they went to another bar. I thought Madison was a party place but there all the bars close at 2am, amateurs!

We walked around with a friend today and visited a church that was built in 1280! Later we are having pizza with friends and saying our good-byes.

We have made a bold decision to attempt to spend the rest of the year living in the student housing at the institute in Mainz. We are committed to making our small room as homey as possible so we are comfortable there. It might be tough but we really really want to try and make it work because we will save OVER 400€ every month. We can use that money to travel if we want. We won't feel guilty about going out to dinner every now and then or going to a movie. This way we will be able to go out and do things rather than have a really nice apartment but not having any money to go out and do anything.

We are not making any committment to the institute, we can leave whenever we want, but I would rather come home next summer and say that we got to explore Germany and Europe instead of just the city of Mainz.

That's all for now. When we get to Mainz we will have internet access 24/7 and hopefully will be able to get some more pictures up. Without class everyday I will be able to spend more time on the blog so hopefully it will be more interesting.

Hope all is well in the States!

Auf Wiedersehen!

only 2 weeks left!

Guten Tag!

Our time in Marburg is really flying! It is a little scary that we are done with class in 2 weeks because my German is definitely not as good as I would like it to be. I'm glad Sam will be able to take German class the rest of the year at the University of Mainz. Unfortunately I will have to make do. Which really shouldn't be TOO hard. Almost everyone here can speak at least a little English.

We have run in to only a couple situations where the language barrier has created a bit of a problem. For example, there is work being done in our apartment. They are replacing the windows. For some reason it has taken them more then 2 weeks to replace 4 windows. The problem is that we never know when they are coming. Like 7:30am perhaps when we are just waking up. Or in the middle of the day on our day off. It has been a real challenge to communicate with the workers to figure out their schedule. Also we had to request that they cover up the work area. They had left the old wood and insulation completely exposed and that caused my allergies to go nuts! Considering I am allergic to mold and dust, I had a rough few days.

Enough complaining, we have had a lot of fun lately with friends here. We had a young couple and their 4 month old dughter over for dinner on Saturday. We had home made pizza! We got an oven from our neighbor who moved out. It is really just a very large toaster oven. Just the right size for a pizza.

Friday afternoon (I'm going in reverse order) we went for an incredible hike with friends through real German countryside! It was awesome. It was actually a "meditation hike". It was roughly 5 or 6 miles of trail with 13 different "pearls" along the way. Each pearl had an inspirational quote or prayer either from the Bible or some other well-known author. Parts of the trail were steep and in the heart of a beautiful forest and other parts cut right inbetween wide open farmland. The cows were just hanging out, we picked fruit along the way and there was even a fresh water stream that we could drink from! We have some pictures that I will TRY to upload soon.

Of course we are having problems getting pictures from Sam's camera to my computer. They transfer to his computer but his computer cannot access internet. My computer uploaded them just fine last week but now this week it just isn't happening. Who knows? We're getting used to thinks not working they way we would expect them to.

Last week we went to the German theatre to see the movie "Inglorious Bastards" with Brad Pitt. Not sure if anyone over there saw it but it was great!! The actors speak German, French and English throughout the film so if you go see it there will be subtitles. We saw it with German subtitles. Surprisingly, we understood most everything that was going on except for a couple scenes in French. The movie was quite brutal at some parts and very bloody (I just closed my eyes) but the plot was incredible. We loved it, you should see it (if you don't mind a little violence).

The last couple days have been quite cold and rainy! Lots of inside time studying and reading. Sam is actually sick right now. Just a cold but a pretty bad one. We found some chicken noodle soup and hot tea. Hopefully he will be better real soon!

We decided we are going to live in the Mainz Institute housing for a couple of weeks when we get back. Just until we find a permanent apartment. We will save a lot of money this way. Otherwise we would have had to travel to Mainz over a weekend while here to search for housing, pay for a place to stay over the weekend and there would be no gaurantee we would find something. So hopefully it wont take long to find a place because the institute housing is extremely small and we share a bathroom, kitchen and "living room" with the rest of the floor.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Keep an eye out for pictures.

Go Vikings!

es tut mir Leid!

"es tut mir Leid" means "I'm sorry!"

I apologize for not posting in over a week!

We have been very busy! Last week we finally got cell phones, we set up a bank account and we started our apartment seach. That might not sound like a lot for one week but in our circumstances everything takes a lot longer than it would in the U.S.

Our phones are convenient within Germany but expensive to talk with people in the U.S. They will be good for Sam and I to talk (once we move to Mainz and aren't side by side every waking and sleeping moment), and for Sam to be in touch with Professors and Universities for his research.

We had to register ourselves with the city of Marburg. Everywhere in Germany you have to report your address to the local Polizei with proof of income! As far as I know, the U.S. doesn't have anything like this policy. Everytime anyone in Germany moves they have to report their new information to the city. This is normally a very easy process however our situation was different. We were able to change my last name on everything (bank cards, SS card and driver's license) but did not have time to change the passport before leaving the U.S. Of course that is the only form of ID they would take here so even though we have our marriage certificate I had to register as Jamie Gervais. Not that big of a deal but it just makes things confusing.

Once we were registered we were able to open a bank account. For students under the age of 30 bank accounts are free. Of course, Sam turns 30 in April so we decided to put the account under my name. The bank goes by the city registration so the account had to be under Jamie Gervais. We couldn't figure out why we had not got any of our bank info in the mail after everyone else had but then we realized the name on our mailbox says Sam and Jamie LACY...you are catching on to the complications I'm sure...anyways, it will all work out eventually.

On Friday we had two friends over for dinner! It was fun to host them because they live in single dorms where they have not been able to cook at all. After dinner all of the Fulbrighters watched a movie called "Good Bye Lenin". It was in German with Engligh subtitles. It was about the fall of the Berlin wall. Very interesting.

On Saturday we went to Frankfurt- the only city in Germany with a skyline! It was a very neat place. Last weekend was the Museumfest. There were 3 MILLION people in the city for the event. The population of Frankfurt is 670,000. So it was fun but also so crowded that I think it was a different experience than a typical weekend in Frankfurt.

The city was so interesting because of the combonation of very old buildings amongst very new architecture. We were able to ride to the top of a 200 meter building (2nd tallest in Deutschland) and look over the whole city. I am going to try and attach a slideshow of pictures with this blog. We'll see if I am successful.

As we were getting ready to leave Frankfurt we witnessed a flashmob!! A big group of people suddenly got together and started dancing to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and "Thriller". The dancers were not that good but it was interesting! Then a group of 3 Jamaican guys came out and did about a 20 minute show of crazy acrobatics. Basically a 3 man Cirque du Soleil. It was amazing. Hopefully you can see some of those pictures.

On Sunday we went to church -I understood even LESS this week : ( and then we hiked to the Kaiser Willhelm Tower again but this time with a camera so you can see some of Marburg!

Another full week of classes! I feel like we are learning a lot. This weekend is the half way point of our time in Marburg so all the Fulbrighters are going out to celebrate. Called a "Bergfest" (literally "Mountain Celebration") this a typical German custom where people make a celebration out of getting through the halfway point of something. Maybe similar to our "Hump-day" but with a lot more beer. For this we might go see the ONE English showing of the movie "Inglorious Bastards" with Brad Pitt. On Sunday we get a tour of the underground area beneath the Marburg castle! We'll let ya know how that goes.

Well, break is over, it's back to class. Hope you all are enjoying the transition from the MN Summer to Fall! I know I'll miss it. Hopefully it is just as pretty here.

Bis nachste Zeit (till next time)

Sam and Jam : )