What am I learning?

So what I repeatedly heard from people encouraging me to go on this trip was, "It'll be life changing! You'll learn so much about yourself!" So what have I learned about myself? Well, so far, I know that I need a lot of time to myself. Why? Because after so long, I want to strangle people. I'm frustrated with myself though, and I wonder why I get so frustrated with people? I try and make excuses like, "Well, they are a lot younger than you are, you are at a different frame of mind," Well, maybe so, but I'm afraid that's just the excuse I make for myself. I have friends here, but I can only take them for so long before they start waining pretty thin on me. I've asked myself, "Is this normal for me?" Well, it's hard to say. There are 9 people that I am spending the majority of my time here with. I suppose it's logical that I would get really sick of them. However, I spend a lot of my time with the same people while I'm at home. On the other hand, I suppose I pick that lot of people myself. I know most logical leap would be that I should start trying to make friends outside of the group. Well, right now, that's looking like a pretty big leap. I don't have a lot of confidence in speaking German, and top that onto your normal lack of confidence and it does seem a bit more overwhelming. Well, yes, that's where the learning is supposed to come in. That's where you are just supposed to grow a pair and make some changes. Well, we'll see. But damn it, sometimes I feel like busting some ass and taking some names...

Mondays aren't always so bad.

My hostmom and host sister are downstairs in the kitchen together singing, but I'm not sure what it is. It's pretty cute, I have to say.
Yesterday was better though. I went out with my hostfamily again, but we went by car. We went to Walhalla, which is a neoclassical piece of architecture on the Donau, which was modeled after one of the Greek pantheons... I think there were more than one anyway :) I was really excited about this, since I had studied about it last semester. I'm going to have to take the pictures to my prof when I get home. Isabella and Fabian were not too excited about this though..apparently they go all they time with school. I can't remember what it was that Renate was asking him, but Fabian just repeating ,"no", over and over. He wasn't insolent about it though..just a typical 12 year old! It was funny though. It was a really gorgeous day, so there were a lot of people outside, sitting on the steps. It seemed to be a pretty popular meeting place. Not a lot of people actually inside though, I guess, as you have to pay. I really enjoyed going inside. There are a bunch of busts of famous artists of Germany...composers, writers, inventors, poets, painters, kings, etc..It was really pretty inside.
After that we went to this Nepali Buddhist temple that was a short drive from Walhalla. Today was the last day of the season for it to be open, so there were quite a few people there. It was gorgeous, but I had a hard time believing I was still in Germany. Apparently the temple originated in Nepal, was deconstructed and brought to some other city in Germany, and then bought by a guy who lived in this area, and then reconstructed. I have no idea how they would even do that with something so large. There was also a zen garden complete with Bonsai trees. It was really peaceful, and I really enjoyed it. We all had a really good time there, and I'm glad I got to go with them. They had a pond full of koi, and I explained to them how one of my friends is deathly afraid of fish...actually, I got a little worried too, because they had stones to cross the pond with, and it made me a bit anxious. The rocks were kind of slick..There were lots of really gorgeous Buddhist statues as well. The whole family spent a few minutes trying to get the hand gesture, and there was a bit of arguing, but it was all in good fun. The hands of the statue actually looked a bit odd and out of proportion, so that was probably the biggest culprit. It was a really nice day, over all, and I think we all really had fun, despite what Fabian might say!

Oktoberfest and Salzburg

I am a bit late on writing about Oktoberfest, as we went last Sunday. There actually ended up being quite a lot of us that went. My host mother, Renate, and host sister Isabella went along, as well as Kevin's host parents, Elyse's host parents, and then Bo and Allison. It was a pretty large group. After we got off the train to München, we had to walk for a bit, and then we got to the Oktoberfest parade mostly this involved lots of wagons from different breweries pulled by cart horses, with lots of drunk/drinking people on board. But of course, everyone was wearing Dirndle and Lederhosen, so that was really nice. There were also a lot of marching bands. I really liked this, but it was a LONG parade, and after a while, it was kind of the same stuff over and over. I was ready to actually go into the fairgrounds. I say fairgrounds, because that's all Oktoberfest really is. A glorified state fair, with lots of alcohol and fewer animals. There are horses, but that's about it. As it turns out, none of us actually drank at Oktoberfest. Each of the different breweries has a beer hall that you can go into, and it's neat because they all are decorated elaborately on the outside, I guess in an attempt to draw you in of course. My favourite was the Löwen Bräu hall, because it had a big mechanical lion (löwen means lion...) with a beer stein, that would rumble "Lowen brau every few minutes.( Remember that a w is pronounced as a v though... I wish I could have gotten my camera to record with sound).
They are very strict about getting into these beer halls. First you have to order a drink outside in there deck area, or maybe more than one, I don't know. They won't let you in unless they know they're going to make money off of you. They don't want tourists in wandering around, mostly because it is already so ridiculously crowded.
There were so many different stands for souvenirs, food, and glazed nuts, it was crazy. My favorite stands were for the Lebkuchenherz, which are basically just the gingerbread cookies in the shape of a heart, with words in frosting, and a string so you can wear it around your neck. They say things like "I love you", or "You're the only one for me" and you give them to your sweetheart. So there are lots of girls in dirndle with lebkuchenherz around their necks. As we were wandering around we got some glazed nuts; Renate got sugared almonds, and I got hazelnuts. I am REALLY going to miss hazelnut when I go home!! They were really tasty. Then Renate talked me into eating this big Leberkässe sandwhich, which is neither liver or cheese, but really looks like a thick piece of bologna. It was scary looking, but it actually wasn't bad! They eat it with sweet mustard. I would probably eat it again...That pretty much sums up Oktoberfest though. It was fun, but it is incredibly crowded and we got seperated from each other and didn't find each other until about an hour or so later when we met at a restaurant for dinner. Renate and Isa had tried to stop to buy a Lebkuchenherz, and we didn't see them again for a while!! I just followed the main group though, I sure as heck was not getting lost in there with all those drunks!!
Yesterday was our excursion day for the week, and we went to Salzburg. I can't begin to describe how this city makes me feel. It's just a powerful feeling. I'm in love with the city. I have to say though, that this time around wasn't as fun, because I couldn't get ANYONE to sing with me. I really tried. No one was interested. And no one was interested in running through the veranda thing. I was NOT happy about that. I did really put my foot down and headed over to the main gate of Mirabell gardens ala SOM, when everyone walked off. I didn't care. I wanted my picture damnit! It turns out that everyone made it there eventually though, so I didn't have a lot to worry about.
At first, we spent a lot of time just wandering around the city. There was mini Oktober fest going on, but I have had about all I can take from Oktober fest. It was fun, but it wasn't all its cracked up to be. We were given some money to go and check out some museums, but pretty much no one used their money to go to a museum. I did, however!! The two heads of the group, Leonie and Orlando, wanted to go to the Museum of Modern Art, and I thought that sounded like a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it, but I think it was a bit too futurist for them :) The only display on exhibit was about "The Art of Sound" which had a lot of Dada and Futurist art. There were lots of sculptural pieces, that you could push a button for and it would make a noise. Lots of them were sirens. I can understand why Leonie was a bit overwhelmed by all the noise, but I thought it was incredibly cool. Not my choice of art, but still very interesting none the less. One of my favorite pieces was a sculpture that had been a performance piece..I can't remember who the artist was, but the guy pounded a bunch of nails into the piano and then painted it white. I especially liked the placard that had some info about the piece..it said that when the artist had performed this piece, he went into it knowing he would have to go and continue to pound every single last nail in without stopping in order to have the effect he wanted. The audience was of course stunned. I would have actually have liked to see that. I was really excited, because I was able to see the Man Ray print, L' Violon D'Ingres. It's interesting because he named the print for the Neoclassical painter, Jean Ingres, who was well known for his repetitious "bather" paintings. He kind of got a bad wrap for it...kind of a one hit wonder. So the back of this woman in the photo makes sense. That is my vague recollection of learning about this..
anyway. But really, my favourite part was the kid's room. They had a lot of noise maker things. They had this really interesting rocking chair that had strings on the side like a harp, and when you sat in the chair, the wood of made the noise reverberate very loudly, and you could hear it much better. It was really neat, but I wish they would have had strings of different keys.. one side was all one note, and the other side was all of a different note. Another thing they had that I really enjoyed was this pinball like wooden box, that was on springs and you could move around. There were a few metal balls inside the box, and there were different things the ball could interact with to make a different noise. My favorite part was the music box though. They had a bunch of little crank handle music boxes, and some pieces of paper with the music scale on it, and some hole punches. You could punch holes into the paper and then crank it through to hear your own composition. And then you could turn the paper over and get something even more different! It was really neat.
We really didn't get to stay in the museum for very long, we only had forty-five minutes. After that, we met up with the rest of the group to go up in the HohenSalzburg Festung, which is the fortress up on the hill. I was excited about this because we decided not to go the last time I was there. I didn't really go through the museum inside the fortress much though. Originally I was with Bo, Allison, and Kevin, but I tend to wander off sometimes, so I just checked it out on my own. I took a long of really neat pictures, and I've been trying to edit them a bit in photoshop to create depth of field and such. I'm liking how they turned out so far. Even though the weather was a bit icky, it ended up that it made for some really interesting pictures. We stayed at the fortress for an hour maybe and they took the traincar back down (that only takes a few minutes). Then we all went out for dinner.

Heute ist Freitag

Now it feels like things have flip flopped a bit. Comprehension in my classes seems to be getting easier, but understanding every day language is still hard. I think the vocabulary in class is quite a bit smaller, just because it seems like words we use in class are words I can remember studying. I suppose the vocabulary used in everyday life is just ... much broader. Also, I can look up a word in my dictionary, and then the same word is usually repeated in class. I still feel very out of touch with what is going on around me though. I wish I could communicate better. And then of course, my friend Allison came over to my host family's house yesterday, and she can talk up a storm in German, and it makes me feel stupid. Later, when I was helping my host mom, Renate, cook dinner, she said something like, Allison has been taking German for a while, yes? I know she wasn't trying to make me feel bad, and she even apologized as soon as she saw the look on my face, but man did it make me feel stupid. Well, not stupid, but just frustrated that I can't communicate so clearly. I know I'm not stupid, obviously, I just haven't studied as long. It doesn't make it any less frustrating though..
I went shopping again today, because I needed some black socks. I brought some with me, but it turns out that they didn't match. One thing I am really am missing is cheap, comprehensive stores you can find in America, like Walmart, or Target. As far as I can tell, you have to go to a specialty shop to really find what you want. Kaufland is somewhat comprehensive, but their selection is not so wide, so for example, if you want school supplies, you have to go to a paperstore; if you want running pants, you have to go to a sport store.... etc. I suppose that this is not completely true...but man! It sure would be nice to just be able to go to Target and get everything I need!!! Shoes, clothes, school supplies...etc.
But interestingly enough, I went to a bookstore (wow...I actually started to type out the German word for book, buch, and for a minute there I couldn't remember how to spell it in English...) and I found some really cheap dvds. I found Kiki's Delivery Service in German! I'm really excited to watch it. In German it's called "Kiki's kleiner Lieferservice" which is really just Kiki's little deliverys ervice, so not a whole lot of difference.. Speaking of Kiki's Delivery Service, yesterday while in Nürnberg, I saw a bunch of signs that made me think of Kiki!

Stammtisch und Nürnberg

Since we have our excursion day on Wednesday, we all go out for stammtisch on Tuesdsay night. Stammtisch means something like to meet at the table; in other words, the whole group goes out for drinks. Even our three directors went, which I think makes it even more fun. I really like them a lot, and it is nice for me as well because I enjoy a more mature crowd at times. Its nice to talk about more serious things sometimes.. Anyway. Bo won an award from last stammtisch, because he was the one who found the most bars and got the right quesstions, as I explained a week or so ago. They gave him a little certificate, it was pretty funny. I had some really good dark beer, which I really enjoyed, but then after the first place, we went to another bar that was kind of in a basement. The atmosphere was neat; they had those cool circular chinese paper laterns (which seem to be very popular here. I have one in my bedroom, and I've seen them in other houses as well!) Unfortunately though, I ordered this stupid drink called Diva, which tasted something like grapefruit and vodka. It was horrid! Here's the thing though; I know now why there aren't so many DUI problems in Europe; it's not because they necessarily handle their alcohol better, but because public transportation is so great! No one ever needs to drive!! Anyhow. I ended up regretting it the next day, as we all had to meet at the train station the next morning at nine for Nürnberg, and I suffered from a bad headache for most of the day. I was a bit on the cranky side. :( So I had better take it easy next time!
Nürnberg was beautiful though! It took us about an hour to get there by train, which was an enjoyable ride. Again, public transport is amazing. It was pretty cold yesterday though, and I had a scarf, a sweater, and a light jacket on. Colder than it would be at home anyway. Our first view of Nürnberg was pretty exciting. You can see this to the left. I know how awful this sounds, but I don't think I ever really heard what exactly this was. We walked around for a while on our way to Albrecht Dürer's house. For those of you art history ignorant people, he was a famous painter/printer. We saw a lot of cute shops, and one of my favorite things I saw was this adorable little bakery that made the cutest little deserts!
This one is even more adorable! Unfortunately, I really didn't take any pictures at the Albrecht Durer house. It was neat though, because they had a woman as the historical impersonator playing Albrecht's wife, and she was our tour guide. Let me just say, she was JUST as convincing as Benjamin Franklin, in the office. Thankfully though, she didn't develop any crushes on any of use. Unfortunately, I was one of the two that didn't really understand what she was saying. This lack of understanding is REALLY starting to wear thin on me, especially since it seems that everyone else is leaps and bounds ahead of me. And yet, I never seem to have time to get a lot of "extra" studying in, to try and learn some verbs and vocab that I've forgotten. I understood a good portion of it, but still, I was pretty frustrated, which added to my sour mood. And then, to make things even better, after the Durer house we went to the "Nazi Hall of Fame", as Kevin, my neighbor put it. It made me laugh, and I think that he was just trying to lighten the mood after such a sobering experience. Instead of being a museum focusing on the victims and terrors of the Holocaust, this museum was really more geared towards the rise and fall of the Nazi's. Of course, it had to include information about the concentration camps and such, but that was not it's focal point. It included a lot of information on things such as the Nazi Youth, and different sects of the Nazi party. Thank goodness we were able to use the little headsets, so I could understand this time. What was even better though, was that it was simply narrating the placards on the wall, which were in German. I thought that this was a pretty good way to learn some German! I wish I would have taken my camera inside though, because it turns out the building used for this museum was originally a Nazi rally ground, but you don't really realize this until the end of the exhibit, when you are able to walk outside on this platform over the rally ground. It is an overwhelming experience, and unfortunately I don't have pictures of it. I would advise googling it. After this, we were all pretty tired and hungry, and we decided to stay in Nürnberg a little bit longer. The group split in half, with only a few of us going with Leonie and Orlando. But in the end, we all ended up eating in the same restaurant! It was pretty funny actually, that we all ended up there! I really enjoy getting to talk to Leonie and Orlando though. Orlando had actually thought about becoming a graphic designer as well, but it sounds like getting into any kind of art school here is quite difficult. Now, he works in theater, which he seems to enjoy very well.
After we ate, we headed back to the train station, and we all welcomed the hour long ride home, as we were all quite tired. So tired in fact, that we all joked about the idea of sleeping at the train station for the night! It was a good day overall, though. And of course, as always, if you'd like to see more of my photos, you can look at my photo albums on facebook. There were way to many photos to upload here!!

Out with the family

Normally, shops and stores are not open in Germany on Sunday. However, yesterday was a special day, as school starts back for most students tomorrow. Because of this, everything was open. Sunday is usually when the family spends time together and does things like ride bikes or go on walks. Not that they aren't always riding bikes anyway. So all five of us got out the bikes and rode into town. It was a pretty enjoyable ride, but it was slightly cold outside, so when riding the bike it was even a bit worse. Riding bikes on the street makes me slightly nervous, as the roads are so narrow, but I know I shouldn't worry too much because hitting a pedestrian and/or bike rider here is a huge offense. I think they said that in addition to getting a huge fine, I think your license may also be taken away permanently. Or maybe just for a really long time..not sure on that one. Despite this, I still felt intimidated.
We all headed out to a beer garden type place that had a typical Bavarian menu. My host dad and host sister both order weinerschnitzle, which is basically a big breaded piece of pork. It was the biggest thing I had ever seen!! After asking for a bit of advice, I decided to order this prime rib type thing ( I can't remember what it was called), with a side of Reiderknödle (that's probably misspelled), which is a potato ball. The potato ball is made up of both cooked and uncooked potatoes, and it is kind of tacky and sticky. All of this was covered in the juices from the meat. It was very very very very good, and I would definitely order it again. The Reiderknödle wasn't actually as good as I had anticipated, so maybe I'll get something else. Renate, Werner, and I all had beer, of course. Riding the bike afterwards did not sound like such a great idea..
Next we went to the old courthouse, where they have a wine fountain. I believe they said it goes back to when King Ludwig was on the throne, and this fountain was used for special occasions, I think only once a year. Now, the Regensburgers can still enjoy wine from the fountain once a year. So we were fairly lucky to have been able to take part in this!

After this, Kevin, Eva & Carl (Kevin's host parents), Renate, and I went to the historical museum. Regensburg was established sometime during the Roman empire, I believe, and there is still an archway standing from this era. There were a lot of really interesting tombstones, jewelery, pottery, etc, to look at. Werner, Isa, and Fabian went home, as Isa and Fabian have both been to the museum many times with their schools. There is a coffee shop inside the museum as well, and afterwards, (we really only had an hour to look around before the museum closed), Renate, Eva, and I sat down for some coffee. I had an amaretto cafe late or something to that extent, and Renate had the same minus the amaretto. Eva didn't have anything because caffeine keeps her up. I should have done the same, but thankfully I managed to fall asleep!

I like this commercial

So I took a little break from homework to check out the boobtube..and I saw a cute commercial. And now you can watch it!

Der Regensburger Dom

Yesterday we went on a city tour of Regensburg, which was really neat, but now I have blisters. Wednesdays we have off so that we can go on trips and excusions. Next week we will go to Nüremburg, which should be really awesome too.




For the first part of the tour, we went to the workshop of the Regensburg cathedral. Renovations have been going on their for quite some time, do to deterioration from acid rain and such. That was most probably my favourite part. There was a younger girl working in there, who had her masters. I couldn't quite catch what she was saying, but I later had someone explain it to me. Apparently she had to go through a LOT to be working in there. Hmm. Maybe I'll know what to write my Fulbright proposal for?
Then we walked around the cathedral a bit and we were able to see where an excavation was being done. Apparently, some centuries ago, a new part of the cathedral was built, and it must have been built on top of a cemetary. Only just recently they were able to find these bones, and they could be anyone! They said it looks like a man, a woman, and a baby. It was kind of sad really, but very interesting!!


























Anyhow, we were really lucky, and went on a special tour of the cathedral. Most people don't
get to go on the tour we went on, where you get to go up in the towers and look down. The tour guide had to unlock a special little door and then we all went up. It looked like it should have been a winding staircase, only there weren't any stairs built!! It went up and up forever, and we were all getting really tired. I was able to get some really great pictures of the city though, from the tower windows. Here is a picture of the Regensburg bridge, which I believe is even older than the St Charles bridge in Prague. This one is nice, but not nearly as cool, because there aren't street artists and such on this bridge. They told us several stories about this bridge, but I only half understood them. Something about that in the mideval century, no one was allowed to fight or duel on the bridge, and anyone who did would have their head chopped off! And then there was something else about the devil trying to destroy the bridge by lifting it up from below, but all he did was raise it.




It was kind of a pain to walk up all the spiral staircases, and everything, and get all the way to the top, but i was worth it. The posts in the upper part are all original wood, and the architects had designed a special ventilation system that keeps air flowng throughout the entire church, which has helped to preserved the wood. They showed us this special elevator thing, and you open it up and it goes all the way down to the floor of the church. They warned us to be careful of taking pictures because if we dropped anything, it would kill whomever it hit!! There was a big wheel that was used to bring the pulley up and down, and they said it took a couple of people to work it. Obviously, you can see how big it is!!



And here are two of my closest classmats, Bozhidar, or Bo, as we call him, and Allison. Allison is from Evansville as well!! Who would have thought?!
Well, I took a LOT of pictures of this trip, and it takes a while for them to load and format, so if you want to see them all, check them out on facebook. I'm about to upload them now!

Excaliber City!

Many of you have probably heard about the famed Excaliber City, that Ray, Ben, and I came upon while driving from Vienna to Prague. Last night, we all visited a few bars, and I brought it up to see if some of the local Germans had ever heard of it. I couldn't quite remember the name, so I googled it, and THANK GOD...I found it. It was described as a "tax free mini Las Vegas". I'm thinking I should insist that we all go and visit it in all of it's Glory! Ray didn't want to go last time....but now I need to make it my first priority to visit it!!!!!!!!

An Early Start

I thought I had to be at class today at 8:30, but it turns out I don't have class until 10:15, so I have a little bit of extra time. I will probably leave for university in about twenty minutes I guess. I woke up after having a strange dream this morning, around five, and it took me a while to go back to sleep. Then I woke up for class at seven, took a shower, got dressed and such, and had some breakfast. Again, bread with butter and this time, orange marmalade. I also had a macchiato. I think I called it something else yesterday, but today, after thinking about it, I think that is technically what it is. I know this from working at the Starbucks in the dining hall at school occasionally. I really liked working there, it was kind of fun being a barrista! Anyway, macchiato means to mark the foam, I believe. So first you put in the hot, foamy milk, and then you put in the coffee. Usually I guess it is espresso though. I went out for a walk, and took some pictures of the neighborhood.
Here is the entrance to our house. It's pretty, I think. Martinweg nummer 9. Weg just means way, basically. I can't remember if it is Renate or Werner's mother, but she lives right next door. I talked to her for a bit, but she doesn't know any English at all, so it makes it a little difficult. I think she told me that she was going to go into the city to meet an old school friend for breakfast. Either that, or she already had. And that she was going to go the park, I believe. It's really neat that they live next door, I think. They kind of share a garden together, and there is small pen in the grandmother's yard that the guinea pig and the bunny stay in sometimes. Usually the bunny is in the garage, where they keep their bikes. The guinea pig mostly stays in the house, but goes outside sometimes too. The bunny is much bigger than the guinea pig, and is in charge. I think the bunny kept trying to bite the guinea pig! It was pretty funny. So I went into the shed/garage to play with Willi, the bunny for a little bit. They used to have another bunny, I can't remember what his name is, but it died. :( Poor bunny.
He is very fidgety though, which I guess is normal for bunnies. He was a bit skittish when I tried to pet him, but if I put my hand out, he would kind of butt it/nuzzle it with his nose. It was a bit more forceful than a nuzzle though. I think he wanted to be scratched on the head, but I'm not too familiar with bunnies. But he was being cutesy! I love him, so far. I hope he never bites me.

I took a few pictures of some of the neighbor houses as well, and a few pictures of the recycling bins. Germans really know what they are doing here with recycling, as I'm sure you can guess!





This means, stop! Exit free!, literally. They are on most of the gates outside the neighborhood houses. I think it just means don't come in.. Maybe. I'll have to ask.







And here are the apples from the apple trees.













And the backyard. Behind those balls is rock that is a little fountain! It's really cute! Ok, well, I need to head of to class. More, later, maybe!

What a good day

What can I say? Today was a very good day. Very busy, but very good. I woke around seven this morning to get ready. I had some bread and jam for breakfast along with what was basically a Cafe Americano...or coffee with steamed, foamy milk. My family has a coffee press, which is nice. I talked to my guestfather, Werner, for a bit as we ate, and then Kevin, who lives across the street from me, knocked on the door. Werner gave me a bottle of water to take, but of course it is carbonated water, as that is all they really drink if they drink water. I don't really like it, but I am going to have to get used to it. You can get still water, but you have to ask for "Stihlwasser" or Leigewasser. I think that's how it's spelled..or even said, but it means tap water. One thing we all have to get used to is the Bayerish, or Bavarian slang. It is very different than what we have all learned, which is HochDeutsch, or High German. For example, a lot of the articles are different from what we have learned. So if we learned Die Butter, for butter, here it might be Der Butter. I can't remember what the article. For any of you that have never taken a Fremdsprache, or foreign language, the article is bascially "the", but each word is designated male, female, or neuter. I have noticed that my guestfather often says, "He must do this", but the article should be it in English. For example, when we were trying to set up my computer for the internet, he spoke English. When he referred to the diaologue box, he used the article he, instead of it. I don't know if that makes much sense, but I think it should if you are familiar with foreign langauge. Anyway, such a digression. Well, here is another thought. I know this sounds silly, as I have only been here todays, but I am finding that it is sometimes difficult for me to think of a word in English, sometimes even commonly used words. I think maybe, since my brain works creatively, (which I can't remember if that is left, or right brain dominated) that maybe that is just the way my brain works. It just has a hard time trying to work both ways. I don't know if that makes sense either, and I know it sounds crazy because I have barely been here at all. Today, I think I made a lot of progress though. Yesterday was very hard, but today I am finding that I am able to comprehend and even speak much more. So I am very hopeful now! Ok..moving on.

So the ten people on the trip were to meet at the Albertstrasse (Strasse means street) bus stop so we could all take the bus together. Leonie and Orlando (two of the heads of the trip) met us there, and helped us get to the University. Kevin and I won't have to take the bus though, and walking to the bus was actually silly for us, because it is back tracking. We live very close to the university. We met up with the rest of the group there, and I met two new members who we weren't able to meet at the trainstation. Bozhidar, or Bo, who is from Bulgaria, but goes to school in the states, and Allison, who goes to Murray, but is actually from Evansville! Later, as we all filled out our registration forms, we found this out.

So we all made it to the university and we went to the classroom where we will have class. They will all pretty much be in the same classroom, because we are the only ten students taking these classes, as they are directed just for us! It actually will be quite nice I think. Today is Elyse's 21 birthday, so they had a cake waiting for her in the classroom. It was really nice! Oh, and they gave her this tiny Bavarian shot glass, that has a little spout that you drink from. Then we got our student ID cards, went over some schedules and student codes. And then we got our cards for the Mensa, or the cafeteria, but most of them didnt' work! Another head of the trip, Andi, had to have them worked out for us. After we went over those things, we went to eat in the Mensa. I got some kind of meat in a gravy, with rice. It was pretty good, but Orlando and Leonie warned us that the food in the Mensa can be quite bad, which isn't that different from Ball State. I also had a Fanta with lunch. WOOHOO!

We took a tour of campus, mostly to buildings we will never again visit, as all our classes are in the same place! Also, for the German registration, we have to have special biometric passport photos. I tried to have one taken at home, but apparently it wouldn't work. Leave it to the Germans to be strict on that, right? Well there are photobooths all over the place here, kind of like those sticker booths in the mall, where you can take the photo. Several of us had to take photos, and that was quite the experience!! Oh, another funny thing we all found out..Ted, another guy on the trip, mentioned that at first he had been very confused by some of the signs posted over the doors. The word ausgang means exit, but the signs have NOT in front of it, so it's NOTAUSGANG. Ted thought that this was a combination of German and English..so of course he was confused that over all the exit doors there would be a sign that says "not exit" But it turns ou that NOTAUSGANG means emergency exit. We all laughed about it for quite a while!

After the tour, we headed back to the bus station. Bo mentioned that he thought we should be going on the opposite bus to go home, as we were getting back on the bus we had came on to get where we were...does that make sense? Ok, anyway. So Orlando was very evasive. We rode the bus for a little while, and Kate mentioned, "Oh, I know where we are! We're near my house!" Elyse and Kate live very close to each other as well, but Elyse had not noticed where we were..haha. So it turned out we all went to Elyse's guestfamily house for a birthday party for her. Their house was very pretty! It was very funny, because Elyse's family doesn't really know any English. The mother's favourite thing to do is to make everyone eat way more than they can, so they had made about five different kinds of cakes, (a bundtcake, which seems to be common, an applecake, and some kind of berryroll) and there were two tables set, each with huge plates of cookies! The tables were set very nicely! It was so much fun, actually! We talked a lot, and had a lot of fun. Andi came later, and Elyse's mom gave him a plate with a piece of each cake, so he was very overwhelmed. She also made each of us have at least two pieces of cake, and would NOT take no for an answer! Also, the guestfather likes the Eagles a lot, and he had a live DVD playing on their tv. Also, we noticed a painting of him and his son, and he was wearing an Eagles tshirt! They also have a cat, which I played with a bit, and I am very jealous. We stayed there for a bit, and then a few of us went in Andi's car to go to the mall to get a few things. Allison and Kevin needed some notebooks and pins, and I needed some facewash, as the Germans confiscated mine in the Munich airport! Shopping was quite an experience. First we went to Kaufland (Kaufen means to shop..I think you can get the rest..) It reminded me a bit of a dollar general, in some ways, but it had two levels; with the top being things like householdy items, and the bottom was grocery and then some other items like cleaning supplies, cat food, and bath items. I was really amused because every so often the loud speaker would blare this little jingle, but all it said was "Kaaaaufen" in a female, singsongy voice. I laughed to myself, imagining being in Walmart, and only hearing "Shooooppping!!" Another funny point of interest. I was trying to get the german word for facewash, so I could know what to look for. Well, the word for face is gesicht. So face wash is somethig like Gesichtwasser, or facewater. But the word or history is geschishte (sp? I know how to say it though..) I am more familiar with the word for history, so I ended up saying I needed to get some "historywater". Needless to say, everyone teased me about that for quite a while! Anway, there were so many different types of face wash, and I really couldn't tell which to get. Luckily the ingredients are listed the same here as in America, because I am algeric to certain ingredients. I ended up just squirting out a bit to find a gel like substance that had the scrubby things. Sorry to the males reading this, I'm sure you're lost. Anyway. I also bought a waterbottle, but I had to go to a sports store for that. I really had a lot of fun shopping, which is unusual, but it was something very new! I mostly tried to do everything on my own, but Leonie was there to help. She was very helpful...but I did kind of just want to do it by trial and error, and I think I paid the cashier ok, because she didn't look at me weird or anything! I'm sure she knew I was foreign though..I could always tell if someone was when I worked at the grocery store. The four of us who went ot the shopping center ended up splitting up to go to seperate stores. Leonie wanted to make sure we could get home okay, and I assured here I knew, even though I wasn't really too sure. I took the roundabout way, but I made it! I was nervous about it, but I made it! I know mom will be mad to hear it, but guess what, you can't do anything. haha! But I was really proud of myself. I knew I was headed in the right direction though, because Renate pointed out to me that all the streets around ours are named after famous composers, so that really helped!!

I made it home fine, to find Fabian outside with his friends, doing skateboard things. We all sat down for dinner together, and the had made these apple pancake things, that we poured vanilla pudding over. I suppose they eat a lot of apple recipes, as they have the apple trees outside. We also had some bread, with meat and cheese. Here you don't always make a sandwhich, and sometimes just eat it openface. We had ementaller cheese, and brie. I liked both quite a bit. Werner, Renate, and I had some wine, and they let Isabella have some too, even though she isn't old enough. Or maybe, she just isn't old enough to order it in public? I thought the drinking age was 16, but I'm not sure. Or I think her birthday is coming up, and she is almost 16. I get a bit confused :)!! We actually had a really good conversation, mostly in German. I really only understand bits and pieces so far, but that is a lot better than before, and it is enough mostly to get the gist. Anything I really didn't understand, they just tried to explain in English. Then, after dinner, Renate, Isabella, and I watched "Memoirs of a Geisha", which in Germany is just called "Die Geisha". It was in German, but we put the english subtitles on, which I think helped me learn a lot, actually! We did this a lot in German classes, but I don't think I ever really paid enough attention to the German to really learn anything, but this time I thought it was really helpful. I really enjoyed watching the movie with them, and Isabella is super sweet!

I have to say it again, it was a really good day, and all I could think of was how happy I am that I came. I know there will probably be some tougher days, but for now, alles ist gut!