We woke up to more rain and less thunder around 6. We joined two people from our group, a married couple who are Maria's friends, for breakfast. There we met of with our tour director lady and her husband. Everyone was nice and cheerful. The breakfast was in the hotel and it was really good, they had a large selection of foods spread out for picking. I had cheese, eggs, a croissant, and fruit and yogurt.
Two more ladies from our group joined us. In total there's 12 people. Maria was chatty and told everyone about us paying for the taxi in Oslo ('cleansing breathes' I reminded myself) and about the beer glass. "We went to a bar in Berlin during the soccer mach and I stole, I mean Calla stole a beer glass" she told our table. Perhaps going to Amsterdam this weekend with Maria is not my best idea. Whatever happens I'll have to live with her telling everyone about over and over again. I should make a game out of her telling people about the Oslo taxi ride. I've been counting because I like to torture myself and she's mentioned it 7 times (not counting her telling her family).
I waited in the lobby by myself for our bus and played on my kindle. Some girl sat beside me. Turns out this girl is from School of Mines in Rapid City and was on the Aalen tour as well. She's the only one from Mines and is a freshman and a chemical engineer. I forgot to ask if she knows Ian. I will ask tomorrow.
Our Aalen group in total consists of 2 professors from BHSU, the dean of business and natural science (she is the one who put this trip together and is like the head lady organizer person), and the dean's husband. We have 8 students from BHSU, this girl from Mines, and one guy from somewhere in Ohio. Everyone is very nice and cheery and we laugh a lot.
We left at 10 and the hotels shuttle took us to Aalen University where we met some people and gathered in a little business rooms with orange juice, apple juice, a fizzy water for us. They had little booklets for us, giving us our own personal wifi username and password for the university, a map of Aalen, spare notebook paper, and some school brochures.
To: Calla From: Aalen
Then we listened to an Aalen professor give us the run down on the school. I don't know if I've mentioned what I'm doing here at Aalen. I think it would be beneficial to put in my blog what I'm doing so I can look back on it and go "Oh yeah, that's why I was in Germany." But I'm still not sure what I'm doing. Aalen and BHSU are very similar schools and they want to create a exchange program. So I'm here to judge if Aalen is good enough for our little students. I think? Who cares, I'm in Germany!
This professor told us about Aalen and how their school works and answered any questions we had. I didn't take notes because who cares, I'm in Germany! We ended up breaking for an early lunch because our next speaker was running late.
It was still rainy at noon. We had to walk maybe 10 minutes to the main campus (we were in the International Students section). The cafeteria was a cafeteria, what more can you say. I had spaghetti and yogurt for dessert and sat with this girl Rachel who is very funny and this guy... I can't remember his name, crap. He's from the states and exchanged to Aalen a year ago and now he works here too I think. He is very nice and Rachel and I asked all the questions.
I found out something mind blowing. To take a semester of school at Aalen, it costs around 80 euros. Also, you can do all your learning in English. WHAT. THE. HELL. This guy is a science major too. If Trinity College in Dublin was for my Camin, Aalen University was all for Ian. He should absolutely go here, it's cheap as hell and they have science. The more I learned about Aalen the more fantastic it sounded (for Ian).
My spaghetti was spaghetti and I didn't take a picture because I was busy talking and it was cafeteria spaghetti, what more can you say.
We walked back to the International offices and back to our meeting room where a lady named Professor Doctor so and so talked to us about German history. She was awesome. I really loved it and would take any history class she was teaching. She asked questions and I was surprised by how much I knew. When we were done Maria said something like "You learned more than me in Berlin". But I hadn't. I just knew things from growing up in a family that gets a kick out of history and WW2.
Although I felt proud of myself, I still wouldn't have done half as well as either of my brothers. I love having a well read family. Whenever it's my moment to shine in these types of situations I mostly feel bummed they weren't here to join in the discussion. Camin would have just owned this conversation. Ian too.
We then walked back to the main campus in the rain and into the science rooms. This I will not be able to document well. We had 3 or 4 different guides in total, each showing us their area of expertise and the labs they work in. It was lots of science talk that went over my head. I would have had to take notes as they were speaking to remember everything we saw but here it goes.
We started by looking at microscopes. In our group of 12 students I think 3 of us are science majors. They asked questions.
Science happening.
Then we went to another room and looked at a big microscope that is 4 weeks old. I think it's considered impressive by lab people.
Zooming in on steel on the right screen.
Then we walked to another floor where they had an x-ray defraction device. It was a year old. I have no idea what x-ray defraction is. I'll ask Ian later (no I won't).
Look at this nerd shit
So at Aalen they do a lot of injection molding. They test stuff to see how long it takes to break down. They do science. We saw a lot of science. You might say I was blinded by it.
We also went to a garage type place where more science happens. Aalen also works with lens (for eyeglasses) and hearing aids. You can get your eyesight tested for free here.
After all that science we walked to the city center in the rain. It wasn't pouring but when you're in the rain for 20 minutes you get wet. I had my rain jacket on.
In the city center we got a tour guide who showed us around town. I was cold and wet and tired from walking around in the university. Aalen has a lot of specialty shops and no big shopping malls. Everything is like a strip mall but not tacky. It's quaint and cute and not ugly.
We saw Aalen's coat of arms.
This is cute
This is cute!
THIS IS CUTE!
There was lots of walking. Aalen's city center has a walking friendly area, meaning no cars come through it (they go elsewhere).
Postcard worthy
Our tour guide gave us Aalen history and like most German towns WW2 left it damaged. But it was still nice! I can't say how big the town was because I don't do directions and that sort of stuff. But we saw more pretty buildings! The most recognizable ones are called half timbered buildings. There are 8 in Aalen that are original.
6 of the 8
A farm style house where livestock was stored during war
Isn't this cute!?
Some of the reasons why Aalen is famous is because off their fires and as well as a poet named Schubart who used to chill here before going to jail for years for pissing off the monarchy.
Aalen had some crazy fires and their watchtower burnt down. It was rebuilt. And then that tower collapsed and the nightwatchmen's two daughters died. That was sad. The watchtower is very tall and I didn't think to get a picture.
But what I'm getting at is Aalen has been burned by fire. This is where the Spy of Aalen comes from, perhaps Aalen's most famous landmark.
Can you spot the spy?
Forget that statue to the right. The spy is above the clock.
He looks out east!
It's a head that turns left to right looking over Aalen for fires. And he has a pipe in his mouth! How quirky!
We had 30 minutes until dinner so our group, minus two individuals, walked over to the restaurant.
Those two individuals who didn't follow went to a candy shop. And it was lovely! They had so many pretty truffles to choose from. I'll have to come back to pick up stuff for my mom but for now I just bought a bag of mini truffles and little hard candies I didn't recognize. It cost 5 something euros.
At 6, Maria and I found the restaurant without a problem and the group was nice enough to leave us two seats next to each other because everyone knows we're buddies.
Dinner took forever. My side of the table was super chatty. We talked about Game of Thrones and I can appreciate that. The guy from Ohio is a huge fan. After a long time they took our order and I got salmon. After another very long time we got our food.
Oh hell yes
I love salmon. I've just decided to put it in my top 10 favorite foods. The veggies were good but the rice was gross. It had this sweet sauce I hated. Maria said her salmon was raw on the inside and I checked and mine was too. Well it wasn't "raw" but it looked cool. It looked raw. I don't know! Maria was afraid we would get sick and didn't eat her's. I was more afraid of going hungry again so I ate all of mine. Only time will tell if it was a poor decision. It tasted good.
We waited eleven years for dessert. When they brought out dessert the plates were so big we were wondering if we were to share with other people. But everyone got a plate!
You get a dessert! And you get a dessert!
My first impression was "That part looks like dog poo". Then I ate everything. The dog poo was chocolate mousse, the ice cream to the left was ice cream, the thing in the glass with the leaf is a fruit. I can't remember what the guy I had lunch with said it was (by the way, he and our tour lady and our professor guy were all there) but he said they are popular in Brazil. I ate it and it was good. To the left of that are giant grapes and the yellow square is like a sponge cake with strawberry yogurt. The green sprinkles are mint. Whew.
It was nice except the mousse in the jar. Didn't like that. By now it was 9 and we all got back on the bus to go to the hotel.
When Maria and I got back she did laundry in the tub. Last night she laughed at me. Now she's stomping on her wet clothes in the bathtub. Oh how the tables have turned. I took several pictures and a video.
While she was stomping around I wandered outside behind our hotel. There are slugs everywhere! It's great! I remember living in Washington and having slugs crawl along the sidewalks and these slugs reminded me of that.
After chilling some more I got to FaceTime with my dad! That was fun and Maria wanted to say hi too so she popped in! After we hung up Maria and I were really hyper and chatty even though it was around 12.
"Your dad's really cool." She said out of nowhere. I had to agree.
Maria and I could not stop talking. We kept saying "Goodnight" and then seconds later would bring something up and laugh about it. It was fun! We're both so glad to be friends.
Maria fell asleep around 1:30 and I finished typing. Last night we had my clothes everywhere to dry. Tonight she has her's all over the place. While I was typing in the dark I heard the distinct sound of clothing falling down and hitting the ground. I looked at our balcony where we had items hanging. There is a missing spot where nothing is hanging there.
"Oh shit, oh shit" I said and ran to turn on the lights. I looked outside but it was only darkness, My iphone flashlight didn't show me any items laying on the wet grass 1 story below us. I never found any items of wet clothing on the floor. I have no idea what that sound was and now I'm creeped out. I went to bed a little after 2 am.
Ian should go to school here. It's absolutely perfect for him and I know what's best for him. He can do science at Aalen University for hella cheap and his girlfriend can work at the massage place by my hotel.
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