More photos

These pictures are from my stroll around the old town last week. Marburg is a city in a valley surrounded by hills. A castle sits on top of one of the hills and the old town, with its very many old quaint houses, shops and cobblestone walkways, sort of spills down on the hill overlooking the more modern part of the city below. It is very charming and I looking forward to exploring it further. (That's my niece Mya in the middle, there, in case all is not clear. I figured as long as I was posting charming pictures . . .)
Rudi was making an undoubtedly fantastic cake when I was last in the kitchen.

†Jared

Cologne

I went with my group on a day trip to Cologne on Saturday. Its about a three hour train ride from Marburg to the Northwest. The weather was great and we had a neat time. There is a magnificent cathedral there that we got to go inside and climb. It was over 400 stairs to the top, but worth the effort. The church took 632 years to complete! Wow, I don't think it took that long to build our entire country.
I went to a church with a few other folks on Sunday, which was really neat. It seems like a good one to go to the rest of my stay here. There's nothing like worshiping the Savior with people from another country and tongue with which the only thing you have in common is that you're sinners saved by grace. We got invited back to a young married couple's flat in the evening for dinner and conversation. Incredible right! They were so nice and friendly. We also took a hike in the afternoon to the top of one of the surrounding hills where there is a tower.
I went shopping today and bought a load of apples, some bananas, bread, chocolate, yogurt and muffins. I'll have to get some more pasta, because I ate the last of that tonight for dinner.
So have a great day and God Bless!

Jared

Guten Tag

So its about quarter after seven in the evening here right now, and I suppose around 1:15 back in the States. I had day number three of German today and its still going very nicely. It appears as though we will get two additional teachers next week taking different days of the week. I hope the other two are as good as Renata. We also had a new student transfer in today. She is from Istanbul.
I had a long interesting conversation with Chris last night. He's the German-Hungarian guy. He is a law major and typically studies in the library from 9:00-6:00 even though its in between "semesters" here right now for the regular students. He tells me that its not uncommon for students to have large projects and papers to work on in preparation for upcoming classes. That means that he hasn't really had a break in the last six months. Yikes! It seems like everyone here is an ultra scholar. Karl is studying to be a doctor, Rudi is about to get the equivalent of a phD in cardiology and Ricardo is a physics major.
The school system here is much more socialized, so its free or cheap for everyone. Apparently, here at the University of Marburg, it cost about 500 Euros for tuition per semester for a German resident. It recently went up from 230.
So I laughed pretty hard when he told me that before he visited Wisconsin, he had major stereotypes of Americans because he had friends who came back and said that Americans asked them questions like: "How long does it take to drive from the US to Germany?" and "Do they have chewing gum in Hungary?" He also showed me a clip of 'Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" on YouTube. A woman was asked what country Budapest was capital of. She thought they might speak French there but wasn't quite sure if France was a country. Ahhh... proud to be an American. Chris was cool with it though.

- Jared

Hallo! (hello)

my room

So I had my first German class today. Wow. It looks like its going to be rather intense. I think I very much like our professor. She is from Hungary and is very pleasant and amiable, yet forthright and exacting at the same time. She speaks to us only in German. The class consists of me, seven fellow IUSP students that I already know, and four other guys from New York, France, Palestine, and India; twelve altogether. I think this is a great way to learn the language. There's nothing like not wanting to look stupid to motivate you to pay attention when you are asked a question in a foreign language in front of the whole class. It was fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the course. Its actually nice to be back studying after over two months of mental atrophy.
After class today, we split up into three groups and were assigned to go to the supermarket and purchase food to cook a favorite homeland dish for an international dinner and social in the evening. There are a few other programs like IUSP, but from Europe and Asia, so the idea was to meet some of those folks. We made fried chicken and something Canadian (due to the Canadian contingent in our group), not quite sure on the name. The dinner was pretty neat, lots of good food from around the globe.
I know that the pictures on this post are not of Marburg, but its been quite foggy here the last two days and not so conducive to photography. So you'll just have to wallow in anticipation a little while longer. Sorry . . .

God Bless,

Jared

Woke up today . . . turns out I'm in Germany

Airport coffee

Hey everyone! My trip went fine. I arrived in Frankfurt Sunday morning and got to Marburg (the town where I'm staying) in the early afternoon. So far there has been a lot of orientation and meeting other people in the program. There are approximately 25 folks in IUSP (the program I am with). They come from Wisconsin, Boston, Chicago, Spokane, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Carson City, New Zealand, New Orleans, Chattanooga, Delaware, and that's all I can remember right now. Pretty cool though! I'm making some good friends already, which is such a blessing and exciting for the future. I also met some German guys in my dorm: Rudi, Chris, Ricardo (he's actually Italian-English and was born in Munich) Karl and Peter. I have had several good conversations so far, especially with Chris.
I had a German placement test yesterday. I think the only thing I wrote was my name. There are 6 or 8 other people in the same boat though, so that at least is a comfort.
There's a lot more I could write and I plan to in future posts, but My computer is about to run out of battery and I haven't gotten a plug adapter yet (that's on today's shopping list). It looks like my internet access might be a little sketchy; sometimes I'll be able to log on, other times not. So if I don't post for a while, don't despair, I'll get to it as soon as possible.
Thanks for your prayers and encouragements! God has been very good to me.

Bye for Now,

Jared

P.S. Cool pictures of Marburg coming soon . . .

Hello Friends and Family

I'm glad you've found your way to my blog (and I hope you are). As you are probably already aware, I will be studying abroad in Germany this spring. I leave February 16th and hope to return on June the 8th. My grand plan is to consistently post updates and pictures of my whereabouts to appease the inquisitive. Feel free to comment; I'm sure it will be encouraging to my uberly European-infiltrated psyche as the weeks and months go by. Thanks, I'll miss you all.