Alpine Summer

Where we go on field trips seems to be ever-changing. For this first trip, Dr. Norwood decided to conduct a joint field trip with Dr. Johnson's Nazi State course. This was actually a really good idea, because Dr. Johnson lived in Tübingen for a year, so he knows his way around the town and also, and more importantly, knows the rail system like the back of his hand. All in all, between the two classes, all but three of our students were on the trip to Tübingen; the others went to Ulm with the German language class.

The day started with a walk to the Schwäbisch Gmünd train station. Everyday I learn that this town is a lot bigger than I think it is. The walk was about 35 minutes, with no stops. When we get to the station, we notice huge groups of small children gathered around a few adults every here and there. Dr. Johnson explained that Germany has a year-round school system and that today was a field trip for them, too. The train was backed with children and others. Our group wound up scattered over about 10 or 12 cars, which made some of us pretty nervous. We knew (( i.e. thought )) we were supposed to get off at Stuttgart, but no one was really sure where we were at any given time. In the end, it was no problem; all got off at the right stop.

While on the train, a little girl named Gina taught me how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors (( or Paper, Scissors, Rock )): Blat, Schere, Undt. I'm not at all sure about the spelling of those, I'll look it up later.

We ate lunch at a gorgeous biergarten right on the river / creek / some small body of water. It was the first place where I got tap water for free! Yay for free water! I don't know why they all drink bottled water; maybe it's for business, maybe convenience. Dr. Noll said that the tap water here is probably even cleaner than most of the bottled water, and my experience thus far has corroborated. For lunch, Luke and I shared a biergartenbrezel (( giant pretzel )) and an ofenkartoffel (( baked potato )) with some sort of sour cream sauce and chives. It was all very good.






















The real reason we were in Tübingen was Hölderlin. We visited both his tower (( outside )) and his grave. When we first arrived in Tübingen, it began to rain. It was miserable, but it cleared up soon. The dark sky and the wet feeling around us fit perfectly for talking about Hölderlin -- he spent the last 36 years of his life in Tübingen, schizophrenic and depressed. At his grave, we observed it silently for a while, and then read his poem, "Brevity" aloud. According to the marker, we missed the anniversary of his death by 9 days.






















We had a little bit of a hard time trying to find his tower, partly because it's poorly marked and partly because we had split up from Dr. Johnson's group at the beginning of the cemetery -- they were there to see things related to the war. But, going past the tower gave us a good opportunity for a group shot of our class. On the way back, I noticed a little sign poking out of a hedge about 10 feet off the ground where "rlinhaus" was visible. When we got closer, we saw that it indeed pointed us where we wanted to go. We weren't able to enter it; I think they offered tours but the next one wasn't until after we had to leave.

Tübingen's environment was different than anywhere else I'd been so far in Germany. Everyone seemed to move a little slower; the pace was more relaxed. Dr. Norwood said that this was because it's an intellectual center and a university town. While most Americans associate being in college with being in a fast-paced environment where you have to fight to keep up, this seems to be reversed here. Their education is so important to them that they enjoy slowing down to take it more seriously. It's a refreshing view on something that hits so close to home for me. I always feel like I'm running in place with school. Instead of seeing the pro-side to school in the end, when opportunities arise for employment, they take advantage of every step and enjoy it along the way.