28th March - Sprachkurs Field trip

 My favorite day here so far...

Every sprachkurs group gets to take one day-long field trip. The class I'm in, being the best group (aka we have the highest German proficiency, and we are just awesome ) went on, what I very much believe to be the best field trip.

 Most of the classes took trips to the Mercedes Museum or to a castle in a suburb of Ludwigsburg, or to a beer garten. And not to say that those are boring things, because they are definitely not, and in fact they are things I would like to see myself, HOWEVER, we could do that just about any day. AND our teacher, Anne, being an artsy free-spirit adventurous person, decided she wanted to take us hiking up a mountain, and at the top we could spend some time drinking before making it back down.
So in short, that is exactly what we did.
But, the long version of our adventure is much more exciting, and unfortunately I don't think I can capture the feelings I had that day in words, but I will do my best, so bare with me.

First let me describe Anne, the 2nd of our 2 teachers. She is the one who we saw sing at the "Lange Nacht der Museum" a week or 2 ago.
I truly think that if Oona had a relative in Germany, it would be Anne. She told us that early in her career she was a fairly well known artist in Stuttgart, and then decided to move to Barcelona where she realized she was a nobody, and to get by, she unhappily started teaching German- while barely knowing any Spanish. Eventually she came back here, and has been teaching for 12 years I think she said, but we are her last class ever, because in the next few months, she is taking a job as a course coordinator or something like that. Which means, that not only are we the best class, but we are her last class- so I think we are pretty special, and I feel like she really tries to and succeeds in connecting with us.

Anyway, Anne loves hiking and biking and being outdoors, and so she decided a trip to the nearby town of Kircheim where there is a Burg (fortress on a mountain top) would be the best field trip.
There was much debate after looking at the weather forecast as to whether the trip would even be possible for the planned day, because it was supposed to be cold and snowy. But, a vast majority of us in the class were in favor of going, and so we did.

 I opted to wear jeans, t-shirt, winter coat, gym shoes, my only pair of gloves/mittens, and my hair in a ponytail with my bangs bobby pinned out of my face.
 2 comments I received on my appearance that day:
      -" Did you do your eyebrows? They look thinner." - from one of the Spanish guys
     - "You look different today."
Both to which I responded " ...thank you???  ...My hair is just out of my face today"

It was about a 30 minute train ride to Kircheim followed by a short train ride through the cute little town to get to the beginning of the Mountain.

The first part was so pretty, despite the cold and foggy weather, and we walked through an area that reminded me of an orchard the way the trees were spread out.

And then I ran into a problem. The landscape became naturally terraced, in other words, imagine a grass staircase made for giants. The ground would be at about a 10 degree slope for 10 meters, and then very suddenly jump up a meter (by jump up, I mean it was like a 45 degree incline over a few feet of space). The boys in the class were all able to just get a good start and hop up to the next level. I made it up the first one ok, and then after that any time I tried to scramble up, my shoes would slide right through the snow and I would be right back where I started.
 There were 8 of these terraces, and on the top one, there was a very steep incline to get to a road.
By this time I had learned that it was more effective if I just crawled, and I only made it to the road with the help of 2 Finnish people.  >.<
 Later I realized that the whole problem was that my shoes, even though they were gym shoes, were INCREDIBLY slippery.

And so thank goodness that once we reached the road, there was a paved path for about a kilometer before reaching a forest path that although windy and varying in slope, was not too snow covered or slick. At this point, our group of 14 students plus Anne, split up into a small group of us who wanted to continue on the paved route, and the adventurous, well-shoed group who chose to continue hiking though the forest.

It was an extremely good workout regardless of the route choice, and I was mostly exhausted by the time we made it through the Fortress gates at the mountain top, and it was such a relief to sit down at the little restaurant with the whole group and relax. A few of us had soaking wet shoes and socks by the time we got there, and secretly took them off and stuffed them underneath the heater in a corner to dry somewhat during the hour we rested there.

I must say that the food was FANTASTIC. I ordered something that is a swabian version or mac& cheese. If it weren't such a pain in the ass to get to the mountain top restaurant, I would go there again next weekend. I couldn't finish all of my lunch and so I asked the waiter to pack it up for me to take home, and thankfully it was wrapped in a little paper bowl and in a few layers of tin foil, because my backpack (where I stored it) took a beating on the journey down the mountain.
 

You see, as we were paying for our meals and drinks, we were discussing how it would be awesome to go sledding down the mountain instead of walking. I was the one who brought it up, I think because of how many times I kept falling. Someone commented how we had no sleds, and jokingly I said, well hey, we could just steal these menus, at home people use cafeteria trays and it works pretty well.
At this point, Anne got really excited and said: Oh! We could ask for some plastic bags!
And being the awesome lady that she is, she very politely asked the waiter if we could buy some plastic bags from the restaurant. He said "no, but I can give you as many as you need." AKA, we got free "sleds"

The sledding area was still about a kilometer away (some what further down too) from where we were, and winding downhill through the woods in my shoes felt like rollerblading, except that I had no breaks. It was amusing but also terrifying. And I fell 3 times on one staircase. (It did however help me get down quicker)

But eventually we made it to the sledding hilly part, and I was so relieved.

I may suck at hiking, but I kick ass at sledding.
The only person who had a better sledding run than I did was the Spanish guy Edu, because he inadvertently went right through a mud-slush puddle, which I witnessed and found rather humorous, and fell over at the bottom of the hill.
I will also note that had it not been muddy underneath the thin snow layers, the plastic bags would have been unnecessary- every time I fell, I slid a good 12 feel down anyway.

 
 

So by the time we made it back to a bus stop- to take us to the train station- my pants were completely soaked with snow, and slightly muddy, Edu was covered in dirt, and one of the French guys somehow managed to get just the back of his pants smeared with mud. 
It was an hilarious event. Even more so, to see how the normal people on the bus an train started awkwardly at our energetic and horrible looking group.

I learned that day why Finish people love Saunas. There was nothing more I wanted walking back to my dorm from the train station in cold, wet, and therefore stiff jeans, and soaked winter coat and wool mittens, than to be in hot room, with relaxing steam.

Instead I settled for buying a 0,50 Euro cappuccino from a vending machine and taking a hot shower.

Even so, it was such a funny, and tiring day, and it also made me realize that in our class, we are all friends. I had gotten so used to college classes with giant lectures where I barely talked to anyone. And so, I think, that is the most important thing I will have gained from my Sprachkurs.