This week marks halfway through term 1 and our first break!

Many students are travelling, going home, or visiting friends/family, so the campus feels very empty. It’s a bit strange having our house so quiet and no line in the Mensa, but this week was a wonderful opportunity to catch up on sleep (and not wake up to an alarm for the first time in months!), read, relax, and do a bit of schoolwork.

Mon. Oct. 28

A group of us went skating in the afternoon which I really enjoyed! I haven’t been on the ice in figure skates in years, and it was so rejuvenating to glide across the ice and feel the cold air of a rink against my face again.

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My roommate and I finished our puzzle, but unfortunately it’s missing two pieces… a few days later, my other roommate found one in her book! It must have gotten caught in it before she left, and she carried it all the way home 🙂

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Tues. Oct. 29

Before I left, a family friend told me her niece was living near Freiburg, and since it was fall break, I asked if she wanted to meet up. She invited me to her home in Eichstetten for lunch, and I had my first experience with the regional transit system and spent a wonderful afternoon with her and her very energetic three sons.

Usually, you can take one train from the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof (central station) to Eichstetten, but since they are doing some work on the train, you need to take the replacement bus to Bötzingen and the train one more stop to Eichstetten. The train only runs every half-hour and I got to Bötzingen early in case something went wrong. The train half an hour earlier than the one I was expecting to take was there, but I was a bit confused about directions, so I didn’t get on it. I waited for the next one, and then I realized bahn.de (the German train system website) had told me to walk to the next station. At this point, I had 10 minutes to walk what Google maps told me would take 15 minutes, and I had to orient myself, so I got to the next station just as the train arrived… but it had a different final destination on it than the one I was expecting… so I didn’t get on. A minute later, I looked at the map and realized it was just a town a little bit beyond the one I had written down, and so I waited another half-hour for the next train. (It turns out I didn’t need to walk to the next station anyway…) Essentially, I waited in Bötzingen for an hour to take the train 1 stop (less than 5 minutes!), but at least now I know!

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Sat. Nov. 2

I finally finished reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, which my mom recommended to me, and I quite liked it! It’s about how we deal with mortality in medicine and what is important to people at the end of their lives.

Students will be returning on Sunday, ready to head into the second half of the term!

Until next time!