Christmas Goodness

The American Alliance of Gundelfingen gathered on this glorious Sunday to bake up a storm - of Christmas cookies!  Between the two of us, I can safely say we baked about 20 dozen cookies of varying sorts.  Sugar cookies, M&M cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and (of course) Gingerbread.  :-)

Our little (plastic) tree -- This year we could actually light it thanks to a battery operated strand of LED lights - thanks mom.

Thanksgiving time

I made pumpkin pie.

Boozin'

Statue in Elzach, Germany.  Note the workers trying to resurrect the structure while the one sitting atop drinks a beer.

Display created for one of the many alcohol stands at the Plaza Culinaria in Freiburg.  It continued to the right, outlining the top of the door frame.

Knitta

From the knit graffiti movement that began in Texas to... Tübingen, Germany!  "Making street art a little more warm and fuzzy."

Also, check out Magda Sayeg (founder of this movement, and mother of 'yarn bombing').

A Sunday in Rottenburg

While in Tübingen, we decided to take a short train ride to Rottenburg, a small town rumored to be quite beautiful.  It was rainy and quiet, everything was close and barely anyone was out and about... but I can concur it is a lovely little town.

Tübingen

This weekend we went to visit a good friend in the little University-town of Tübingen.  Here are just a few of the sites, for your voyeuristic intention.

We took a walk along the river.  In truth, the river is disgustingly dirty, dirty water (Charles River dirty, I'd say), but it was a lovely stroll nevertheless.  Besides, once the sun started to set all of the fall foliage took on beautiful hues, and the murky water served as a surprisingly ideal backdrop.

Simply love the exposed beams and sloping roofs of old German houses.  This one has obviously been touched up a bit and doesn't have the natural, dark ruggedness that is usually portrayed; but the lines and the coloring of the light, yellowy wood against the light blue, cloudy sky are so appealing to the eye.

Graffitied home to a (democratic/social) movement of sorts.  A house of ideas and speech, perhaps.  Honestly I don't really know, i couldn't get enough info from our host about what it really was other than these vague ideas.  Regardless, perched at a busy intersection it certainly stood out from the dull greyness of its modern city surroundings.

Birthday/Halloween Goodies

For my 3rd Birthday/Halloween in Germany, I celebrated with all of the many indulgences I've grown to love:

A lovely b-day package from mom allowed me to nom on some Halloween-themed Mac 'n Cheese.  Oh, edible nostalgia!

For my birthday dinner, I treated my guests to my favorite-to-make Halloween meal: stuffed Jack-O-Peppers (pictured) and stuffed intestines.  I made both meat and veggie versions (for the Peppers, I used kidney beans instead of ground beef, and for the intestines I added ground beef).  Check out the recipes and try them for yourself!

mmmm... I attempted some Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes for the first time and they were yummy!  I didn't bother with the ganache, since I thought it would make too much of a mess (and, quite frankly, I didn't have any extra time to fuss with it), but I'm sure it makes them taste even more amazing.

Lastly, a shot of 'Brain Hemorrhage'.  This was at a bar, so I didn't make it myself, but it had Bailey's in it, which always makes for a tasty treat in my book.  :-)

48 Go Green

The last weekend of September my good friend Hannah and I participated in the 48 Hour Go Green Film Festival.  Standard 48 hour proceedure, however all films deal with an environmental theme and the videos are uploaded online, not sent in.  Our theme was "save the forests.'

It was lots of fun!  We had tons of ideas to go with, but we ended up going with an artsy/sci-fi approach by twisting reality and using some excellent mimes.  You can check out our submission here.  Voting has just ended for the people's choice award (darn my infrequent blog posts!).  We'll find out the contender on the 13th.  If we do end up as said contender, I will certainly be pushing for votes come December when the 3rd and final group finishes their films.

go green!

Winzergenossenschaft Glottertal

Today we voyaged into the vineyard-dotted area of Glottertal to the "Winzergenossenschaft Glottertal" to celebrate the birth of and welcome to the world a little bundle of joy.  Her parents couldn't have chosen a more perfect setting - a private tour of a small vineyard with a wine tasting and some homemade nibbles to follow.  It was truly a delight and I whole-heartedly recommend a visit to this vineyard.  Prost!

One of the larger wooden wine barrels.

I spy...

A paraglider!

Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus

Today we ventured to the Rothaus Brauerei (brewery) in Rothaus, near Schluchsee.  We had a delightful uphill trek through the woods, with a crisscross of pavement here and some cows there.  Once atop, we had a some beer, a tour of the facilities, and then some more beer and a 'traditional Black Forest lunch' (as it was called).  As the sun set we descended back to 'see'-level and took the train back home.  A great way to spend a Thursday!

Bottled, foiled, and ready to be boxed.

Where the yeast rises.  Or settles, I can't remember which...

Sun setting on Schluchsee

Zähringer Berg

Took a little walk this summer's day just across 'town' to the Zähringer Berg with some friends and a dog named Mr. Bailey.  We got lost in the woods for a bit, but the view was well worth it.  The countryside looked just like a painting of a landscape.

My what big fruit you have...

Some of this summer's yield from Alex's dad's garden...

Zucchini versus a bottle of Spätburgunder rot wein.

Zucchini versus a bottle of Malibu

Tomato (yes, that is one tomato) versus my hand

Hello, Tour de France

Today I took a bit of a road trip with some friends down to der Schweiz to catch a glimpse of the Tour de France.  Our travels took us into the hills of the Delémont region.  We did get a bit lost on the way there, however that just provided us the chance to see some of the lovely scenic countryside.

This was my first "official" bike race (aside from a couple Dana Alia races I attended with my good friend Johanna) and it was tons of fun!  Of course, since I went along with 2 cycling enthusiasts, that made it even more exciting.  The hills of Montavon were a-buzz, and then almost eerily quite in the moments leading up to the emergence of the riders around the bend, which then led to various eruptions of encouragement by flag-wielding fans.  It was quite the experience.

All-in-all a great day.  You can check out further stages and obtain further Tour-related info at their official site.

Titisee

It's been hard to get a break from the rain this month, but the sun was out today, so I made a run up tot he lake with a good friend and her dogs.  It was a perfect day to be in Titisee!  We were there early enough to enjoy the cool morning and beat the crowds.  We enjoyed a full walk around the lake, not running into too many tourists but we did stumble upon a very small cow pasture.

Once we made it all the way around, we took a seat on the grass and spent the rest of our time gazing at the lake and boat-goers.  All-in-all a very relaxing day.

Elztalblick

Today I reunited with a past student of mine.  She took me to a lovely little "Campingplatz" (campsite) nestled in Simonswald, not too far from where we used to have classes.  It it a truly tiny campsite, however it is as quaint, clean, and serene as can be.  Not to mention the view!

Nothing says summer in Germany like enjoying a cool beverage, watching the sun set over the hills.

And then the rain came down...

...but the flowers, they looked so pretty.

Purple Rain...

Week 2 of rain everyday.  At least it makes for pretty sites at dusk.

Bologna's Ts

According to my local expert, Bologna is most famous for its 3 Ts:

1) Towers

Way back when, in Bologna power was demonstrated through tower building.  He who built the largest tower was obviously the most powerful.    These are le due Torri, or "the two towers".  The one in the foreground actually used to be twice that size, but they had to cut it off in the middle because, as you can see, it would have toppled over.  The tower in the background is open for people to climb up it's ever winding staircase for a well-worth-the-3-Euro view of the entire city.

2) Tortellini

Now this is technically tortelloni, which is what most people outside of Italy would call Tortellini anyways.  Tortelloni is basically large Tortellini.  Tomato, Tomahto, it was the most delicious pasta dish I've every had.

3) Tits

This is one of the mermaid women from the base of the famous Neptune statue in Piazza Maggiore ("Big Square").  As you can see from this photo, the mermaids play a key role in the water fountain's design as they shoot water from their nipples.  According to my local expert, they actually used to cover the naked Neptune so as to not offend/disgust the women of the city center.  But apparently the site of a woman holding her breasts with perky water spouts for nipples was never an abhorrent site to see for anyone.

Ciao, bella Italia!

And the beautiful countryside that is Mercatale.

I visited a good friend of mine in this lovely town (though apparently EXTREMELY lame, as said by a 40-year resident we met at the bus stop) in the countryside near Bologna, Italy.  Picturesque rolling hills dotted with vineyards, all in the bloom of spring.

There were also many seedlings in the air and covering the grass like summer snow.  They were so light and fluffy and at one point on our early evening walk we found ourselves enswarmed with these cotton-like seeds.  It was very surreal.  I took a short video as still photos couldn't quite capture the feeling...

Erste Mai

On May 1st, or "Erste Mai", it's custom in Germany to go out for a bit of a hike with your family or friends.  Last year the weather didn't heed for a long hike, but this year it was perfect!  Not too warm, not too cool, and just enough sun.  I partook in a short hike up to visit the "Burgruine" (castle ruins) in Waldkirch.

For a little castle it was quite busy!  The Waldkirch Fire Brigade was also there, selling cakes and beer and whatnot, as well as plenty of families out and about for the day.

The path to the ruins is winding and not too steep, but with a noticeable incline.  It is sporadically marked with wooden "Ritter" (knight) sculptures.  Each sculpture or carving has a small tablet next to it, describing a particular knight from the castle's heyday.  A few are the typical "good" knights, helping the poor and saving people, but the majority of the tablets spoke of vicious knights who would steal and set things on fire.

The view from the castle is very nice - you can see all the way to Freiburg on a clear day - but what peaked my interest more, however, was the presence of green liveliness that existed among the cold stone walls.  It was a lovely day!

Rainy April

April is almost over and I'm both happy and dismayed by this.

Happy because the rain has been non-stop.  Just when I thought the day would be sunny and warm, the clouds roll in and a downpour begins!  On the bright side, there haven't been nearly as many fat brown slugs as there usually are in the fall, and instead there has been an emergence of itty bitty snails.  My friend Kate was in town for the weekend, and this snail made me think of her and her old snail-ridden sub-garden-level apartment.  And it looked brilliant from afar, almost electric yellow.  Upon further investigation it is more of an opaque color I guess.

Dismayed because that just means it's been another month of me trying to find work.  There were some prospects that have fallen through, so I'm not completely disheartened, just dismayed.  I'm looking into internship possibilities now since I am pretty set on getting into the digital media field, and though there are opportunities, I feel that I don't have the "Ausbildung" or "Praktikum" they desire/require.

In other news, I will be posting my most recent video to my Vimeo page, the one I made in collaboration with some friends for this year's DocChallenge.  It turned out nicely, so be sure to look for that.  I am still continuing to work on my "Ausländer" video with Hannah Huddy, hoping to do some more filming this week and next.

Swiss Vending Machine

4 condoms = 5 CHF

1 "maybe baby" pregnancy test = 15 CHF

Your choice.

...or you can just live it up with some "Party sticks" for 3 CHF

Good Good Friday Dinner

Fresh trout - it was delicious!

Freiburg Marathon

This weekend Freiburg hosted it's annual marathon, half marathon, and s'cool run.

The route winded through the inner-city, but it began and ended at the Freiburg Messe, which is also where the Pope held mass when he came to visit last fall.

Fun with stop action

Did some stop action with my good friend Hannah Huddy.  It was my first attempt and it took AGES!  Hannah believes we probably have a good 16 seconds after our 3 hours of work.  Can't wait to see how it looks incorporated in the documentary we're working on together.

Who let the dogs out?

This Sunday marked the first ever (and perhaps soon to be annual) Gundelfingen Hundeschau!  There was quite the turn out.

Doc Challenge 2012

This past weekend I embarked once more down the path of the Documentary Challenge, this time with a team!  A handful of friends and friends of friends helped me put together and later pull off a short (6.30 minutes) "experimental" documentary with the given theme of "cycles".  It was a lot of fun and I think we were all pretty happy about the results.  Here is a peek behind the scenes:

I will post the video later, once the top 12 have been chosen.

Edit: Here's the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/reelculture/allweknow