Tour of a Sekt Cellar (May 24, 2007)

Complete Set of Photos

This Thursday the international student organization group offered a tour of the Kessler Sekt cellar in Esslingen, a suburb of Stuttgart which I have previously blogged about. Sekt is essentially German champagne, but they can't say champagne because that's a trademark of the area in France.

The cellar was located right next to the main church in Esslingen in a ~700 year old building! It was a cool tour - we got to see the bottling equipment, the racks in the cellar, how they go around and hand turn the bottles to make the yeast sediment settle on the bottom, how the wines are selected to be made into champagne,

At the end of the tour, of course, we got to sample some of the Sekt! There were three different kinds that had fermented right in the cellar underneath us. They were pretty good too!

VFB Stuttgart is the German Champion! (May 19, 2007)

Complete Set of Photos

So, this Saturday, VfB Stuttgart beat Energie Cottbus to become the German Bundesliga champions! This is very cool because we beat out the team from Bavaria, Bayern München, that is usually the German champion. Now, Stuttgart gets to play other international teams, like Real Madrid, Liverpool, etc.

The game was played here in Stuttgart, but my "source" couldn't get me tickets for this game (my roommate Peter's uncle works for VfB and can sometimes get us some free tickets to home games). The city of Stuttgart though projected the game onto a big screen in Schloßplatz (the same place where they had the crowds during the World Cup). So, most of us international students decided to attend this viewing. We left two hours before the game started, which proved to be a mistake!

The city was absolutely packed with people. The S-Bahn trains running to the city center were even three cars long (normally they're one or two), and there were packed. The conductor even told people not to get on - there just wasn't room. We had to wait through two or three completely full trains just to get on one to downtown. Once we got off the train, it still took 15 minutes or so for everyone to get out of the station, and then another 1/2 hour to get to the screen!


There was absolutely no room anywhere to see the screen. We had to wander through the crowds (I think I heard it was 500,000 people there that day or something), by the riot police, horse police, police with video cameras, and police helicopters, making sure we didn't step in the broken beer bottles that were everywhere, before finally we found a cafe in the park with a TV where I could see the corner if I stood on my tip-toes and looked through about three other fans!










Well, Stuttgart won the game, and there was much rejoicing in the city! We decided to get out of there before stuff got out of control (we did see a shirt or something burning!), so we made our way to the store to pick up limes and then went back to the Uni and made margaritas (it was a very, very hot day!). There was still a wild party going on that night when the team members made it downtown and they had a little parade. It was very cool that our team was the new German champion and it happened right here in our city!

Wilhelma Zoo & Botanical Garden (May 18, 2007)

Complete Set of Photos

On Friday, because Thursday was a holiday and no one had class on the Friday, we decided to go to the Wilhelma, which is the famous zoo and botanical garden here in Stuttgart. It was pretty cool - it had been a while since any of us had been to a zoo and it was nice to get out of our apartments and do something outside for once!







I really enjoyed the aquarium - they had a lot of fish (from the oceans as well as German fish), like trout. There were also alligators, turtles, snakes, and all sorts of cool animals.

Outside, they had the standard lions, tigers, elephants, etc. They also had a few polar bears, which we got to see swimming around. The two giraffes were swinging their necks and hitting each other in the butt with their heads, and two monkeys were... enjoying each other... in front of small children and their parents! Overall, it was a good time!

Online Course from Michigan Tech

There was one course I needed to take (CS 2311 Discrete Structures) that didn't really line up with what they offer here, so I am taking it online from MTU this summer. It's very cool - I download the homework, upload scans of my papers when I have the homework completed, and all communication is through the internet or email. Here's screenshot of the course web site, where you have to submit homework and stuff:


And here's a picture from the middle of a lecture. The professor is talking on the left, and a slide is open on the right where he just solved a problem. The lectures are recorded in the special classroom at Tech and then streamed online (I don't have to watch them live, which is good because it would be at night here!), and there's even another screen that shows the instructor's computer screen/projector. The professor also uses a tablet PC, so he can draw on the screen with a stylus.


There's no way they can see me, so I could theoretically sit here in my underwear with a "beverage" while "going to class" (don't worry, I don't!) It's really nice having pause, rewind, and mute buttons for your professor though!

Climbing Indoors

Complete Set of Photos

Because it has been cold, cloudy, rainy weather the past two Wednesdays, the climbing club from the university has gone to an indoor climbing hall. It's located in Korb, a small town to the north of Stuttgart. We still carpool there because it's not on an S-Bahn route. Now that I have some climbing shoes (I had to ride the S-Bahn for 40 minutes, then ride my bike 2km to the store!), it's much easier to climb.

The wall I'm on to the left is for bouldering (it's only about 10 feet tall). There's a little electric controller thing you get that when you push the "next" button, a light will light up on the well next to the hold you have to grab next. It was pretty neat, but also difficult because you have to grab a specific hold!

Here's a picture of the main room with 15m walls (50 feet or so). There's also Gero, one of my German climbing partners.

Weil der Stadt (May 17, 2007)

Complete Set of Photos

This last Thursday was yet another German holiday, so we had the day off from the university. Isaac, Tania, and I decided to check out Weil der Stadt, a town at the end of the S-Bahn line to the west of Stuttgart. The interesting thing about this town is that is the birthplace of Johannes Kepler, a famous astronomer and physicist. It's also just a neat little town with the cobblestone alleys and the high church tower and so on. Isaac is a physicist/astronomer, so this was especially interesting for him!

Kepler was born in this house, on a small street around the corner from the main church. The small house is now a museum about his achievements (about planetary motion). We spent a good hour there though - there's a lot of stuff that he did and it's all confusing planetary motion stuff - it was nice to have Isaac to explain everything!





There was also a cool fountain and a statue in the town square. There is also a fortified town wall left from the 30 Years' War, but it was raining so we didn't go to see it.

Beer! (of the root variety) (May 15, 2007)

Complete Set of Photos

Isaac came back from Saarbrücken last week with a special treat - A & W Root Beer! He had found it at a bar and brought back a few cans. This is special because they just don't drink root beer here in Germany. We opened the can to share and then decided we should let some Germans give it a whirl too - Martina and her friend were here, so we poured them a shot glass each of root beer (we knew they wouldn't like it so we didn't give them much), just to watch their faces! At first, Martina and Andrea declined, saying it was too early to drink beer (we then explained what root beer is). Isaac and I really enjoyed it, of course, but they both grimaced, politely finished their shot glasses, and then laughed. They said it tasted like medicine!













It's funny how exiciting it is for us to eat or drink something that we enjoy from back home but haven't had in a while. I now have some Vernors and Mountain Dew (which I have also shared a little bit), Isaac has his root beer and now, salty and buttery popcorn. In Germany, popcorn is usually made with sugar and cinnamon, not salt and butter like we're used to. We have to make it from scratch in a pan on the stove! It's also fun to share it with other people - like I've done with Coney Dogs and my pickled eggs.

Here's also a picture of me at Kaufhof, where they have the ethnic "USA" section of food! This contains stuff like real mayonnaise, Pop Tarts, Swiss Miss cocoa, BBQ sauce, Campbell's clam chowder, and maple syrup. The Pop Tarts were 6€, so about $9 a box!

Biking around Stuttgart

Complete Set of Photos

Johannes, our fearless German guide, has taken us on (as of now) two bike rides through, up, down, and around Stuttgart. We show up for these trips expecting a leisurely ride. But - it's Stuttgart! The city is in a valley on all sides. We have to ride up these huge hills, then down them again, then back up the next hill - and he tries to take us around the whole city! We got tired way before that though and had to cut the trips short a bit.

It's really cool riding around though - you get to see stuff that's not right next to a train station, like normal neighborhoods, parks, and special bike trails though the woods. We were also riding through some vineyards too!

Tübingen (May 1, 2007)

Complete Set of Photos

On May 1, Labor Day in Germany, me, Isaac, Kasia, and her two friends from Poland decided to go to Tübingen, a city just 20 miles south of Stuttgart (but it takes 45 min to get there on the train). This city is famous for its old buildings and the narrow, cobblestone alleyways. There wasn't any industry here, so it wasn't destroyed in WWII, which means that the buildings are original!

We checked out the big church in the middle (there were cool medieval stone carvings on the side), as well as Schloss Hohentübingen (a castle on a hill here), and the Marktplatz (marketplace), which has a lot of the famous buildings. There's not much tourist stuff to do, but it's a really cool place to see because of all of the old buildings. When people think of a medieval German city, this is what they're imagining!