the sunniest city in germany

You wouldn't have known it a few weeks ago when it was raining all the time, but Freiburg is known as having the best weather in Germany, and I'm intent on soaking it up before I leave.


On my friend Fiona's last day in Freiburg, we grabbed a blanket, bread, cheese and wine and headed to a local park by a lake.


Needless to say, it was wonderful, as lounging around in the sun usually is.


A few days later I spent a Saturday morning outside on the same blanket with a cup of coffee and a good book. This will likely happen tomorrow morning as well, but with the sources for my term paper. I enjoyed my personal ban on homework while it lasted (just a weekend).


A good way to enjoy Freiburg, but as it turns out, Berlin is quite sunny as well.

An American holiday in Germany

Maybe one of the three firework displays that Sidonie attended can make up for my total lack of fireworks this Fourth of July. I did, however, attend a Fourth of July party put on by a local foundation for American-German relations. It was at a brewery, so there was plenty of good beer along with country music, barbecue (do you think it's weird that barbecue doesn't have a 'Q' in it?), American flags and a discussion about the upcoming elections (more intellectual than the typical Independence Day party).



My other Fourth of July activity was baking chocolate chip cookies, with chocolate chips sent by my mom. Unfortunately no pictures, since they were gone within a few hours. Depending on who you ask, they were either "really, really delicious" or "unglaublich lecker". My mom sent my grandma's recipe, on an old hand-written notecard that I've seen many times before.

Luckily, I froze some of the dough, so maybe I'll bake some more cookies later this week and be quicker with the camera.