Scheeschuhe

I finally can say I feel a bit more settled here in Freiburg. I can’t believe it’s only been a week! IES has kept us pretty busy with orientation meetings and excursions, and now our language intensive courses have started. It’s been hard getting adjusted to making my own food and budgeting my money! I’m not sure if I quite have it down but hopefully I’ll figure it out before the last month that I’m here.

The highlight of my week was definitely on Sunday. We went into the Black Forest to snow shoe up the mountain. First, the Black Forest sounds like somewhere out of Harry Potter, so that was exciting in and of itself. On top of the name, the early mountain fog and the snow covered trees gave the whole forest an eerie mystical feel. Second, I have never in my life seen so much snow! Literally, the snow almost came up to my head. I guess a surprise like that is what you get if you come from Georgia!

I don’t know how many people have heard of snow shoeing (I certainly hadn’t before), but essentially you hike up a big snowy mountain with a special racket attached to your feet. I mean it’s pretty straightforward, but the hike was was more strenuous than I would have thought. The snow was three feet deep and some of the hills we climbed we pretty steep especially with heavy snowboarding boots and bulky rackets with spikes. I was definitely sweating when we reached the top, but wow the view was incredible! The sky was a perfect blue with only a few puffy white clouds, the forest stretched on for ages, and everything was covered in snow.

So far, Freiburg has been amazing. Definitely still miss my family and friends at home, but I’ve met some really cool people here. They say the first week is always the hardest, so the way I see it, my trip can only get better!