Dienstag, 20. Oktober 2009

Day 56

Oh man, I haven't updated in a whole week. It has been a very busy week too. It's gonna be a long one. On Wednesday last week, I tried out two more classes a cultural studies class and a media class. Both were pretty hard to understand, because the professors talked really fast and the material was very dense. After the particularly frustrating media history class, we were told that we weren't allowed to take the class, so it felt like a complete waste of two hours.

Thursday is my busiest day in the week. I have class from 11am to 8pm with a few short breaks. Thankfully one of my classes, Deustch in Filmen, didn't start on Thursday, so my day was easier than it will be. In the morning, Liz and I met up to walk to our Lit class together. The class was too full and the professor kept trying to get people to leave, but he seemed nice and funny, so no one wanted to. We sit in a U-shape and a lot of class will be discussion, so that will be good for getting better at speaking german. We all had to introduce ourselves and say why we wanted to study literature. I even raised my hand and spoke about the text we were discussing, even though I knew my german wasn't perfect. Then, we all hung out during the day until Frau Heckmann's class at night. That class is nice because it is all AJY kids, so we are all already comfortable with each other, but it will also be harder, because she expects more of us and will know when we are doing the homework for her class or not. Almost everyone in the program is trying to take her class, so she is trying to get people to drop it as well. We have 4 homework assignments and a mini presentation on how we used the library this week for the second class. Hopefully there won't be this much homework the entire semester. After class, we had a meeting/party with our language partners. Viviane and I had a good conversation, and then she took Liv and I to this bar where they give free champagne to girls. It was way too crowded and way too loud, so Viviane went home and Liv and I went to another quieter cafe to get a drink. We sat there and talked for an hour or so, then we met up with a few friends and went bar hopping for a while. Liz, Liv and I had a sleepover.

Friday morning, Liv and I realized we didn't have our gender film class, when the professor sent Liv an email and addressed her as Octavia. It was hilarious. So I went home and talked to my suitemate for a while then went to the train station to meet Justin and his uncle in Frankfurt for the day. The weather was terrible (so cold and rainy) and my train was delayed so I didn't get there until close to 4. Thankfully, the weather was much better in Frankfurt, so Justin and I walked around for a few hours while his uncle had meetings. I bought a really pretty colorful scarf for only 3 euro, I was so excited. Scarfs are my new obsession, considering it has been so cold that I don't take my jacket off, scarfs are my only accessory. We met Justin's Uncle Brandon at 7 for dinner. He took us to this really nice Italian restaurant, where I had the specialty, which was venison with a berry sauce. It was delicious. Dinner was really nice and we had a good time. Then, I went back to Heidelberg for the night.

On Saturday, they got into Heidelberg around noon. The weather wasn't great in Heidelberg, still kind of rainy and cold, but we made the best of it. We had a pretty typical german meal at Perkeo, a restaurant with some local folklore. Then, when we thought it had finally stopped raining, we walked up to the castle and toured there for a while. Justin and I hung out in the center for a while his uncle did a little work, then we all went out to dinner together at their hotel. Again, dinner was really good and we had more typical german food. After dinner, Justin and I wanted to hang out with my friends for a little while, but Liv was really feeling sick and my other friends were far away, so we decided to bring Liv my computer so she could watch tv in bed, because Liv doesn't have internet at home either. We ended up staying for a while and just hanging out and talking with Liv, until we decided to call it a night, because we had to get up really early the next day.

On Sunday I had to be up and on the bus before 8am. It reminded me of when I used to have that grammar class everyday and had to wake up early and I didn't like it. It was weird to see Heidelberg and Hauptstrasse so deserted, because there are normally so many tourists or just people. We drove about 2 hours to go to Rothenburg. It was a really cool little city that was really old and was completely surrounded by a defensive wall, that was rebuilt after WWII. It was not as shopping touristy as Heidelberg, but a large tourist spot for many germans as well, so it was a really nice place to get to see. We walked all along the wall and went inside a church/museum. Then, we split up for a few hours. Justin and I had lunch and went to the Justice museum, which was really a torture museum. It was really cool and we spent over an hour in there. Then, we walked around taking pictures and going in the touristy shops. We got back to Heidelberg in time for dinner with my friends. Greg, Liv, Justin, and I went to a hostel for dinner, because it is really reasonably priced and I loved what I had there last time I went when Drew stayed there. It was a chicken dish with a sweet and sour chili sauce. Everyone else had schnitzel, haha. Then the four of us hung out for a while and tried to get crepes, but the place was closed. Sunday nights are not the best nights to just be walking around in Heidelberg, because not much is open, so we all went home.

Yesterday was more of a day to relax and just hang out and the weather actually cooperated! Justin and I met up for lunch at the mensa with Liv and Liz, so he got to experience where I actually eat most of the time, haha. Then, I had to get some groceries and little things for class, like I needed a little mirror for my intonation class. We hadn't seen Uncle Brandon in a while, so we decided to meet up with him around 2:30 to do some souvenir shopping. We found things for Justin's mom and grandmom and I even got some special german dessert gummi bears for Justin to take back to Professor Deslippe who I worked with this summer. Then, we got the crepes that we had wanted, and walked down to the bridge. It was so beautiful by the bridge. It had been so rainy and cold, that the sun made it feel ten degrees warmer. We got some nice pictures and talked for a while. While we were shopping, I saw something that Justin's uncle had eyed, but said he didn't have enough room in his suitcase for, so once we spilt up, Justin and I went back to the book store to get the calendar for him and I will ship it to them as a thank you, because he took me to dinner two of the nights. Then I had to write a little paragraph for my online class, so Justin and I went back to the center for a while. We had dinner at an Italian place, then met up with Liv and Liz at Liv's where they had been baking cookies. They didn't use measuring cups and had been trying to make chocolate chip cookies, but they actually ended up tasting exactly like snickerdoodles with a few chocolate chips in them. They were really good. It was getting late and Justin had to be up really early for a full day of traveling today and I wanted to do a little homework, so we called it a night.

Today, I had my second Intonation and Phonetics class. I really like the professor, she seems so nice, but she gets frustrated with us, because it is mostly AJY kids and we just can't seem to make the sounds she wants us to. I think we sound a lot better after today, but I really wish the class were more than once a week, because it will be hard to retain and practice on our own. After class on Tuesdays, we have a meeting with everyone in AJY at the study center, so we can't get lunch right away. The meetings are very informative, but also kind of scare us because it is stressful to think about credit transfer and if we don't do well in these classes. At least that's what this one was about. Since then, I went to lunch in the mensa and have been reading some things for my online class and playing on the internet. Most people are in this theater class right now, and after that is over I think some of us are going to Margaux's for mac and cheese for dinner. I wish I had internet at home, so I could go right home after that and finish up things for my online class, but I still don't have internet in my room. I also haven't seen my suitemate since Friday and I feel really bad, because she is new and doesn't have many friends. But we are just on a totally different schedule, she goes to bed around 10:30 and I don't get back from the center until then at the earliest and she gets up around 8 and i don't get up until after she leaves most days. Oh well, I will probably see her tonight.

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