March Course Soon Coming to an End

Hello everyone,

well the end of this month is soon approaching and I will starting my real courses at the university. All of this month has been a great experience, from travelling to different cities and well-known locations to partying hearty with the crazy individuals here in residence, but most of all improving my German. I can definitely say that this one month has improved my German immensely as the environment is much more invasive than three hours per week in a classroom in Canada. But I digress...

Yesterday we went to Stuttgart and visited a number of museums as well as a fantastic series of farmer's and flea markets. We ended our trip with a visit to the Mercedes-Benz museum. It was really incredible; one would be surprised how much history there is to the Mercedes-Benz names. They have produced not only road cars but also racing cars, busses, farm equipment, boats, aircrafts, and even the pope-mobile. The whole museum was really quite advanced as well. We were given headsets and these digital interactive remotes that allowed us to interact with the exhibits and would give us a history of everything as we walked.

I will also be leaving on a little trip of my own starting this thursday. We will leave sometime in the afternoon on thursday and take the train to Stuttgart, from which we will take a night bus and arrive in Paris on the morning of the 2nd. We stay in Paris for three days, one of which will be Easter Sunday where we plan to try and be at least inside Notre Dame (although highly unlikely as it will most surely be packed to the rafters). After Paris we travel to Amsterdam, again by bus, on the 5th and stay there as well for three days. On the 8th we plan to travel to Copenhagen via Scandanvian air and stay there for two days. We leave to come back on the morning of the 10th and will take the train to Hamburg and then take a slow train back to Konstanz. And unfortunately, I begin courses on the 12th, although I haven't chosen them yet. I have a meeting on Monday with the OBW exchange correspondant and and academic advisor so that I can work out what courses I have to take. Anyways I won't bore anyone with further details. I hope everyone is doing well back home and feel free to send me an e-mail anytime.

Alex