Yellow light means slow down. 

"Radio" - a sculpture carved from the stump of a single tree. 

The wall surrounding the medieval-style town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 

Translation: To Hell, 120 meters. 

Rather than build window frames, this church decided to save some money by painting them on. Rick Steves "German and Austria" book describes this church as such: "Overripe with decoration, but bright and bursting with beauty, this church is a divine droplet, a curly curlicue, the final flowering of the Baroque movement." The inside was a bit more impressive, but in the words of the Daily Show's Rob Cordry, "Commmme on." 

Neuschwanstein Castle. The inspiration for the castle in Disney World, and also probably the White Castle Logo, and even less directly, the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. 

Ruins under repair. One repaired, they will look like this, still ruined. 

"Welcome to my crib" - Sam. Actually, he didn't say that. 

Castle graffiti in Salzburg, Austria. 

How much do Europeans love soccer? You can play soccer while Eur-a-pee'n. Installing a soccer goal with a little white ball on a green urinal mat is a bit crazy. Regardless, the game is actually fun. We need a basketball version in the Dean Dome. I couldn't figure out what the stationary little red balls in the urinal were for. Just for reference, this urinal is located in a cafe in Salzburg, Austria. At this point, I'm getting good at taking pictures of urinals. 

Translation of text: "What bad disease is in here?" 

Most likely the greenest escalator in the world, located in Munich. I have no idea why the entire escalator is full of plants. Needless to say, it does not function. 

For people who can't decide if they want a Volkswagen or a motorcycle. 

To be continued...

I've been traveling the past few weeks, and now I'm dealing with lots of bureaucracy, but I'll post some major updates (mostly in the form of photos) within a week, probably later rather than sooner. Hopefully that'll catch everyone up on what I've been up to. I'm sorry to leave you all stranded; expect more stabilty now that I'm settled in to a permanent location.

Discovery of the Day

Today, after living here for 20 days, I discovered that the Dreisam River is less than 75 meters (wahoo for the metric system) from my apartment. To illustrate this, I have included my building and the river in the same picutre (mine is the only visible building on the left side). It is too bad that I made this discovery so late; I move out in four days. My next home, "The Stusie," has a lake.

Quaint French houses and shops in Colmar, equipped with satellite TV dishes and antennas, just like in the olden days.

Solar Powered Calendar

This is a calendar, located on the side of a church in Colmar, France. See the black shadow? That is the marker for determining the month. If you zoom in, you can see that it is lying between March and April, but leaning slightly towards April. Today was March 19. It works! We need to get one of these for the planetarium in Chapel Hill and place it near the sundial. We also need a tip jar, or at least a cut from the gravity well, but that is a different matter.

All the pretty little mopeds and motorcycles

The only place in America where you can find so many multicolored motorcycles is nowhere. I didn't even have to stage this picture. Europeans, or at least the French and Germans, seem to like color a lot more than Americans.

Little streams in gullies like this one flow through Freiburg and are called Bächle. Originally, these streams were used as a water supply or for sewage or to fight fires, depending on whom you ask. Legend has it that if you step in one, then you have to marry a Freiburger. Even worse, your foot is wet. I have yet to see anyone step into a Bächle, but I'll keep you posted.

On a street light.

Bathroom humor doesn't change; it is just translated. In case you are wondering, taking this picture felt really awkward, and the whole time I was hoping that no one would walk in.

Converse shoes in the Strassenbahn, reflecting off of the glass panel.

Her House is Now a Burger King

This is a "Stolpersteine," or in English, a stumbling stone. They are little memorials on the sidewalks in front of houses of those who were deported and killed during the Holocaust. This one says "Here lived Flora Baer, born Stern. 1892. Deported 1940. Murdered in Grafeneck." Now her house is a Burger King.

I Get Visual

Here in the Blogosphere, there is an age-old saying: One photo is worth about 20 blog posts. By my calculations, I just posted about 300 entries today.

The weather finally resembled Spring, and I was feeling shutter-happy today, so I walked around my little town of Littenweiler, just outside Freiburg, and took some pictures. I then figured out how to photoblog using Hello, which is quite easy.

But wait, how do you have photos in posts dating back to February?! Well, I sneakily backdated the old ones to preserve the timeline of my experience.

In the future, I plan to sprinkle photos among the text entries or vice versa, depending on what medium I use more frequently.

Edeka: Expensively providing nourishment since two weeks ago. 

Nifty stairwell in the admin building of my current appartment. 

Graffiti on the train station in my neighborhood, Littenweiler. If you are a parent and seeing this, don't worry. Everyone here is actually quite friendly to me.