Catch up

Lots to catch up on:

Strasbourg on the 18th

We had to be on the bus by 7am to go to the European Parliament. Any other semester this might not have been that exciting, but we happened to be going on the day that Angela Merkel was addressing parliament because Germany just took over the presidency! We were greeted by an assistant to and MEP who led us directly to the red carpet where we waited for Merkel to arrive. We were right up front and saw her come in and greet the press:



We were led to the gallery of the European Parliament where we sat and watched Merkel give a speech, thenn Barroso (the President of the European Commission), then all the replies by the heads of the parties to Merkel's speech. European politics are much more entertaining than American, especially when the socialist and Green parties responded...some criticizing her for being a woman, or for not having a strong enough socialist agenda...Merkel's favorite word by the way was "toleranz."

We wandered around Strasbourg for a while, got a great lunch, then went to the Council of Europe which is in a gorgeous building (for the most part, some rooms are stuck in the 70's). We heard a lecture on the role of the Council and then went back to Freiburg where we had a wonderful pasta meal that Alyssa cooked and I cut veggies and made the noodles.

Alsace

Today we went to Alsace region to see an old castle on top of a mountain. When we got there we discovered that it was going to be closed until the 22nd due to the storm that's been sweeping across Europe (don't worry everyone, Freiburg wasn't hit that hard and we all just stayed in that night...someone tell Granny Button please). "Der Schloss war geschlossen." Mom, I took lots of pictures so you can show your class...although it was refurbished in the early 1900's. We walked around outside the castle exploring and trying to lay siege and enter without getting in trouble...we failed.



We went to a very small town instead of spending more time at the castle and there were no people. We had excellent puff pastry with apples inside though.

In Colmer, the next town we went to there was more to do. We found some sandwiches for lunch and again pastry for dessert (when in France, eat pastry). Alyssa, Paul and I wandered around the city for a while and then met up with the whole group again to head back to the buses when a guy tried to steal a moped and a fight broke out. We were quickly sent toward the bus.

Our last stop of the day was at Wolfberger (prounounced the french way, not the German) Winery where we learned how they make wine. It ended with a mini-wine tasting lesson and then a busride home.

Just got done watching Office Space with a bunch of people and we've all become lame and go to bed before 12. So good night!