It's been a while since I wrote anything.. Mostly because I didn't have access to a computer, but I'm also really busy with school and everything. I had my birthday on the 5th. Here at Maugenhard, the tradition is to pie them (with a cream pie) then "creek" (throw you into a creek that runs through and around town). But this year they decided to start a new tradition and "pond" me, the pond is a nasty body of parasite infested algae water a couple minutes away. I was the guinea pig and since I survived, that's the new birthday tradition. A couple other guys have also had their birthdays too. School is going good, German is pretty hard, but you defiantly learn it! It's been like a month or so and I can say my name, my address, where I go to school, where I come from, how old I am, how many brothers/sisters & cousins/grandparents I have and I can count to like infinity.
The town of Kandern is pretty small, apparently it's the smallest city in Germany. There's 3 grocery/supermarkets and a couple restaurants, but no gas station. Maugenhard is on the edge of the town, it's on a hill so we have a great view of the town and the surroundings. Everyday I walk to school.. rain or shine.. I'm not really looking foreward to walking in the snow though. It's cool to finaly see distinct seasons, leaves are turning yellow and red and it's getting colder.
The other week we went for an overnight camping trip to a place called "Sausenburg" the hike was about 2ish hours uphill. We camped at this tower place that was once a castle or compound of some sort.. There was a tower and some old walls. Climbing up the tower was toatly worth the view.. you could see all the surrounding towns and villages. That night, we had 2 chickens, bread and a couple dozen brotwurst to eat, there were only 12 or so of us, so there was alot of food.. I think I had 7 or so brotwurst. It was really nice, the stars were so clear and beautiful but it was really cold! In the morning, there was alot of mist/fog so it looked like we were on an island of land in an ocean of mist. Walking back we passed some fruit trees and everyone got either an apple or a couple of plums, we also refilled our water bottles at a fountain place. I love how there's literal (drinking) water fountains scattered around. We came home to a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and hashbrowny things.
We had a long weekend this week, yesterday some of us went to the nearby city Freiburg. We went for Ikea, Subway and Starbucks. I had a good time walking around with a couple other guys. I wanted to find a poster store, because so far, I don't have anything on my walls.. My room is the only one with nothing on the walls, so it's plain and boring.. Today (Monday) we had a game of (American) football with one of the other guy dorms (HBR). A lot of other people from other dorms showed up to watch, it was funny because no one in our dorm had ever played before so we were totally unprepared. I didn't really get into it that much, I did play defensive linesmen a couple of times.. Last year they played rugby and a couple people had to go to the hospital. This game wasn't too violent, it ended up as a tie even though there's some dispute over that. I don't really care, it was fun and it was something to do.
Study hours are over for tonight and I want to get a good sleep, so I'm done writing for now. I'll make sure to update soon!
