Party Stuttgart 2005

Last Sunday our host family took us out to Sonnenbühl, Germany to go caving, which was cool. We hit up two caves and saw stalactites and stalagmites.


Hard to see because it's dark, but check out our host sister, Viola, and Jon.


Here's Jon trying to get out of part of the cave that was unlit and where we probably weren't supposed to be running around. We used our camera LED's as flashlights; not a bright idea.

On Wednesday we went to the Haus der Geschichte (the Museum of History) that specializes in the history of southwest Germany, where Stuttgart is located. It wasn't that big, but it was designed very stylistically and was really interesting. When you walked in there was an electronic floor map about 20' x 20' of Baden-Württemberg before the unification of Germany (German became a nation in only 1871). Before then, the region was broken up into hundreds of autonomous kingdoms, and when you put your feet a particular kingdom on the map, that section lit up and information about it was projection on the walls. The rest of the museum was really well done, I think, as there were white curtains with projections of video of the similarities between WWI and WWII because they were reflecting how some historians believe that the entirety of WWI through WWII, including the Weimar Republic, was really Germany's second 30 Years War. Then there was a room with trees hanging down, where wood slabs could be pulled out with information about the resources and famous aspects of the Black Forest are. At the end, there was a room where you could sit in hanging clear bubble chairs and watch video projected onto white curtains in 360 degrees. It was pretty tight, but unfortunately no cameras were permitted.

So we went drinking at an outdoor bar on Wednesday called Palast der Republik, which is where a lot of university students and local oddballs congregate everyday for some brew. You sit outside at tables, but since there is such an overflow, many people sit on the concrete floor in the middle of the sidewalk. Thursday night we went out to a club called Kactus, which played some American hip-hop music, to celebrate a birthday. There were about 20 of us and we pregamed at Aneta's flat with wine, bootleg Jager, and beer. Arizona Jon and Aneta also helped make hors d'oeuvres that were awesome. We had tuna sandwiches, ham and mozzarella sandwiches, cheese, olives, and a great spinach and artichoke dip for some bread. Happy birthday Erika!

I don't have pictures from the club, though others do, so I'll link them soon. But here are some from Palast. Check out some of the picture sites from the other students; I've linked them on the right.


But do you notice anything interesting about this statue above the bank next to Palast der Republik?


How about this one?


Eins, zwei, drei! Jesus only drinks Cuervo, doesn't drink alone, and doesn't drink just one shot of Cuervo, so Jon was coerced into doing three shots of tequila with him because Heidi paid if they would dance with the "gypsie whore." So this is three shots of tequila in about eight seconds. Brad is having a good time looking on.


So the "gypsie whore" was this balding dude that started out with a leather jacket , stripped, and danced rather poorly around Palast. Brad has video of him dancing which I'll try to get you. Heidi bought the tequila shots with the condition that Jesus and Jon would dance with him. After a couple beers, Allison decided to join in as well. Apparantly he's very congenial.

More to come soon. About half of the students decided to travel to other European cities this weekend, different groups going to different places. Travel sites include London, Belgium, Amsterdam, Rome, and Munich. On Sunday some of us are going to Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria. It's supposed to be amazing and the inspiration for the Disney castle. Bis morgen.