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I am a huge fan of the new English-speaking courses because I know that it is hard for some of you guys to act out your hobbies, learn something new or make new friends when everything is always offered in German. That’s why I reached out to vhs stuttgart and teamed up with them. In an interview Daniele Nuccetelli, supervisor of the international program, told me all about the new program and pointed out several fun English-speaking courses for us.

Daniele, vhs stuttgart is launching a very new program for the international community in Stuttgart. What motivated you to do so?
The English-speaking program is a further step to making our institution more open and appealing for new residents and visitors who don’t speak German or are not fluent yet. And the truth is… our city is really international! Did you know that Stuttgart is home to people from over 180 countries and around 40 percent of the total population have some foreign background? It’s quite impressive, isn’it?

It really is! Who can attend the new courses? And who benefits from them the most?
The program is specifically aimed at expats and foreign students and professionals who maybe don’t speak German yet but don’t want to miss the chance to learn something new or stay healthy. More generally, the program is open to everyone comfortable taking classes in English – regardless of their nationality or native language. We’d love to see new and local residents get together, exchange ideas and opinions, and learn more from each other.

What type of courses does vhs stuttgart offer with the new international program?
The program is very diverse and interdisciplinary. This semester, we’re offering courses and events in 10 categories: meditation, yoga, qigong, and pilates classes in Body & Mind, zumba classes in Move it!, regional and international cooking classes in Taste the world,  city tours in Exploring Stuttgart, special language courses for international learners in the category Languages, Literature & Film, singing classes and music workshops in Rhythm & Music, thought-provoking seminars for women in Style & Personality, practical courses for creative minds in Arts & Crafts, computer courses for work and leisure in Go digital, inspiring travel talks in the category Talks. And there’s much more to come in 2019!

A lot of expats who are new to Stuttgart want to learn more about their new hometown, the Swabian culture and history. What courses would you recommend them?
I would definitely recommend the city tour Pearls of Architecture in the Swabian Metropolis to all those who want to know more about the fascinating urban developments of Stuttgart over the centuries till now. And for the ones who want to learn how to cook local specialties: Classics of Swabian Cuisine and Veganese Schwabinese for vegans.

A lot of my readers are passionate foodies. Are there any other classes you would recommend?
Absolutely! If they love Italian food as much as I do, then they should learn how to make Pasta Amatriciana with an experienced chef from Rome. The Lebanese cooking class and Korean cooking class are not to be missed either! Needless to say, at the end of each class the participants will sit together with the teacher and savor their self-cooked specialties in a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

When I want to be creative, which courses can I choose from?
If you want to create your unique style and learn how to make your own clothes, you should take one of our sewing classes for beginners and intermediate learners. Children can create their personal greeting cards with Hand Lettering for Kids. And for art enthusiasts we offer a Watercolor Painting course.

What courses are best for meeting new people and making new friends?
We know it can be really hard moving to a country where the language and culture are so different. That’s why all the courses in the English-speaking program focus on bringing people together and helping them build new meaningful relationships. Besides the cooking classes and fitness courses, I would suggest joining our international choir led by a trained opera singer: music has this magic power of bringing people together. And we’re also planning a special Christmas choir for the Advent Season!

Apart from the courses you just named, what other highlights await us this semester?
The Whisky Tasting is definitely not to be missed! It’s going to be an entertaining and educational evening about Scotland’s favorite drink with live music, snacks and… whisky, of course! For the category Music & Rhythm, I can recommend a seminar on K-Pop, the world sensation from South Korea. And for those who have wanderlust, the speaker of the travel talk Camino de Santiago will explain how to follow the pilgrim route from Germany down to Santiago de Compostela.

Can you tell us a bit more about volkshochschule stuttgart? What type of school is it? What is its goal?
volkshochschule stuttgart, or vhs stuttgart, is one of the largest centers for adult education in Germany. It was founded in 1919 during the Weimar Republic, the first democratic phase in the history of Germany. And now that we’re approaching an important milestone – our 100th anniversary in 2019 –, we believe that although things have changed and evolved dramatically in Europe and the world over the years, vhs stuttgart will stick to its original credo: making education and culture accessible and affordable for everyone.

Thank you very much for all this information, Daniele! And see you soon at vhs stuttgart 🙂

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 Calisthenics are a form of street workout consisting of a variety of natural movements like running, standing, grasping, pushing and so on. You mainly use your body weight to do the exercises. The equipment you find in a calisthenics park, for example monkeyladders, bars and poles, only helps you to increase your performance. The parks I point out in this post are all open for everybody and free of charge so no more excuses not to perform calisthenics in Stuttgart ;-).

Maxim is a fitness-instructor-to-be (check out his fun and inspiring Instagram profile!) and showed me some very effective exercises. 

Then it was my turn. Don’t get fooled by the smile on my face. We took the pictures at the very beginning of the workout. I had to dig in deep afterwards.

If you want to check out the calisthenics park in Stuttgart-Degerloch, here’s the address:

LAC-Stadion, Bopseräcker 4-5, 70597 Stuttgart

The park is open every day. Sometimes sport groups have a reservation. To find out more check out the website of LAC Degerloch and open the pdf named “Belegungsplan”.

If you live in the north of Stuttgart, the calisthenics park in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen might be more convenient for you:

Sersheimer Str. 31, 70437 Stuttgart

Their website states that the park offers chin-up-bars, parallel bars, low bars and a monkeyladder.

And then there’s the calisthenics park at Südheimer Platz in the south of Stuttgart:

Südheimer Platz, 70199 Stuttgart

When I was there recently I noticed amongst others: a climbing pole, headstand-bars, low bars, a monkeyladder and push-up-bars.

Have you ever tried calisthenics in Stuttgart in one of these parks? How did you like them?

If you want to read more about fitness in Stuttgart, check out these older posts:

Introductory class at CrossFit Animarum in Stuttgart

Functional Fitness in Stuttgart

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For those of you who haven’t heard of CrossFit yet, or only have a vague idea what it might be (as I did before I visited CrossFit Animarium in Stuttgart), here’s a brief definition:

CrossFit focuses on strength and condition alike. The workouts include aspects of weightlifting, gymnastics, running, rowing and more and are based on functional movements. The athletes (yep, as soon as you start practicing CrossFit, you can call yourself proudly an athlete :-)) use gear from various disciplines like barbells, gymnastics rings, jump ropes, kettlebells and such. Intensity is essential and it is measured in work divided by time or by power. What makes CrossFit special for me is the idea of community and training in small groups. You cheer when someone has scored a personal record and your trainer doesn’t only know your name but also all your weak points and he or she coaches you how you can get better every day.

I didn’t know what would await me when I stepped into the CrossFit box (yep, box, not studio :-)) in Stuttgart-Stammheim. A group was already lifting weights and it looked super exhausting to me. I observed them for a minute, then my trainer for the intro, Xavier, came up to me. He explained the concept of CrossFit and what makes it so special and different from a normal workout in a gym. Then it was time to get active. We started with some exercises to get warm (rowing was included, too, but I forgot to get a picture)…

… before it was time to learn some new techniques. Have you ever worked with kettlebells? I haven’t. So you can imagine how strange those things looked to me at first.

Xavier showed us how to swing them properly and we worked on this movement for a while.

It felt strange swinging this heavy ball but I noticed some muscles, I didn’t even know I had. It’s always good to try something new! 🙂

Push-ups were next. I am used to doing “lady-push-ups” where you are on your knees, not on your toes (and I even struggle with them! :-)). But in CrossFit, there is no such thing as lady-whatever.  However, if you can’t do them on the ground, there is a box you can use. It helped a lot!

A usual CrossFit class is one hour long and finishes with a stretching part. As this was an introduction and our trainer Xavier answered all of our questions not only patiently but also passionately, we came to the stretching part after two hours 🙂

The intro class at Crossfit Animarum in Stuttgart was definitely great! Xavier is a knowledgeable instructor and CrossFit is definitely an amazing workout. If you want to try it for yourself, the intro classes take place on Thursdays and Saturdays and are always free. And here comes something for all my female readers : On November 3, CrossFit Animarum in Stuttgart organizes a special Ladies’ night: starting at 7:30 pm, an intro class only for women takes place with a goodie bag for all the participants!

Thank you Vale for inviting me to CrossfFit Animarum in Stuttgart-Stammheim and thank you Xavier for the great intro class!

Have you tried CrossFit already? How did you like it? Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section 🙂

More information about:

CrossFit Animarum in Stuttgart-Stammheim

CrossFit in general

Transparency: CrossFit Animarum invited me to try their box for free. My opinion and the contend of this post were not influencd by that.

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For all of you who are new to this blog, I participated in a charity run last Thursday called “Secretary Run”. It was a 5 km Funrun, starting at Stafflenbergstrasse and leading around Uhlandshöhe.

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It was quite a small event, I think we were around 35 runners. But it was a very relaxed atmosphere and everybody was in a good mood.

We were extremely lucky with the weather. Thursday was a rather cold and rainy day in Stuttgart. But the rain stopped five minutes before we started our run and at the end, even the setting sun came out to cheer us up on our last kilometer.

Here are some impressions from the track:

From Stafflenbergstrasse, you have a lovely view over Stuttgart. I wouldn’t mind living there..

The track led through very nice residential areas. I haven’t been in this part of Stuttgart very often in the past so the run included a bit of sightseeing as well.

As I said, it was a very small event so they haven’t blocked the streets, only put up these signs…

Here we come…

And that’s the view we got rewarded with on the finish line… nice, hum?!

I really enjoyed participating in the Secretary Run and I will definitely be in next year, too. I only hope they manage to motivate some more runners and thus raise more money for Brustkrebs Deutschland, that would be nice.

More information about:

Secretary Run (only in German)

Brustkrebs Deutschland e.V. (only in German)

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