Tuebingen and Birthday Things

Guten morgen, everyone! It is a lovely Monday morning here in Tuebingen. Last night we had the gnarliest thunderstorm ever. The stuff that movie storms are made of. Amanda and I ran around the hostel trying to find the best views. But this morning is sunny and cool, thank goodness. It's been hot and humid around here the last few days, but you should be proud, I have not been sunburnt, despite the excessive amounts of time I've spent outside.

Let's see, what has happened since my last entry... Well, we had a concert at a really cool 800 year old monastary called Bebenhausen, just outside the city. It was actually the reason why we came. It was kind of a celebration banquet concert thingy in honor of the 40 year old Oregon exchange program with Baden Wuertenburg. President Ed and his wife were there from OSU, along with a bunch of other University people from here and there. The important thing is, the food was delicious.

My birthday was pretty much awesome. I was sung to by my friends from sunrise to sundown. We went on a walking tour of the city with some students from Oregon on exchange here. Then we had a ride on the river on these long boats that are basically gondollas, pushed along by long poles. For dinner we went to this Schwaebian restaurant (food typical of the southern area of Germany that we are in) and I got free strudel for my birthday with ice cream and strawberries and cream. Have I mentioned the food is good here?

Yesterday was pretty quiet, being a Sunday. It was a free day for us, but everything is closed around here on Sundays, so we pretty much just kicked back and relaxed. I walked through one of the city parks on the river, got some gelato with Amanda, and later some of us found a great deal on paddle boat rentals on the river. Then of course, the Italy vs. Spain game was last night, so a bunch of us went to the outdoor biergarten to watch the action while consuming kraut and wieners. Viva Espana! (pretend there's a tilde on the n)

We're off today to visit the Black Forest on the way to Freiburg for the next few days. The bus is leaving in about a half hour. I will hopefully have better internet access there, and will be able to update the blog more often instead of leaving one long, newsy post like this one. Anyway, thanks for all your birthday wishes. Ich liebe dich!!!