Such and Such

So I haven't been getting many comments lately, but I'm gonna keep on posting, at least for myself (and you Mom!)

The last few days have been pretty uneventful.  I was too tired to go out on Saturday night, and then Sunday was just cleaning my room and doing homework.  My German class and homework have been getting a lot easier for me.  It is amazing how quickly one picks up a language when living in the country.  I do spend a lot of time hanging out with the other Libby's and speaking English, but that's because I haven't met anyone else here, and they're the only ones in my classes.  I'm sure that once the regular semester starts our circle of friends will grow.  And although my pronunciation and Wortstellung (word order) are pretty bad, I do try to talk a lot in class (especially after I've had my morning coffee!)

It got cold here really quickly.  Lin and I went to TKMaxx yesterday to get some fall/winter jackets.  And yes, TKMaxx is TJMaxx's sister store, and if I'd remembered to bring my employee discount card along I totally would have tried to use it!  I was amazed at how much cleaner this store was though.  They also didn't seem to have a leaky, caving-in ceiling.  How does one manage that? lol.  The stuff was just as cheap at least, if not more so.  I got a big, warm wool coat for only 40 euros.  It's really heavy, but I'm hoping I can bring it as a carry-on when I come back.  We also found a Fresh Food store with a lot of foreign imports.  (Kinda goes against the idea of "fresh," but oh well.)  I got more peanut butter and some Mini-wheats!  Unfortunately they only had the plain kind. :-(  Still haven't found any Poptarts either...that might be a lost cause.

Today we got our textbooks from the Buchhandlung (bookstore), and I also found a 4 euro DVD of Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) from the 80's.  It'll be a fun way to practice my listening skills, and the hair and costumes are great!

In class today we talked about Racism, Foreigner hate, and the Holocaust.  Heavy stuff.  Anthony was the only one of us who knew much about WWII.  I told our teacher that in American history classes we usually never get past the Civil War haha.  I was thinking about going with Anthony to Poland for our Break, but now that I've really thought about it I don't think I could handle seeing Auschwitz, or any of the Concentration Camps for that matter.  I'm good at distinguishing reality and fiction (thus my love for horror movies), but when the reality is reality it hits me too hard.  I tried taking a Holocaust class in high school and didn't make it past the second day.  

So I think I'll just go to Amsterdam for our break instead.  That's a fun place!  Plus if I want some history I could visit the Anne Frank house.  I don't think that would be too hard on me.  First I have to find someone else who wants to go with me though.  I heard the Hostels there are kinda expensive too.  If it doesn't work out I'll probably just visit friends here in Germany.  Conserve School made sure that I have plenty of friends around the world!

Ihr Seid so Leise by Aquagen

This song sums up my life pretty much. :-)  Not sure if I got the translations right, but I did my bestest!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYSjkaLpymA 

Am 1.Tag schuf Gott die Welt (on the first day God created the World)
Am 2. Tag erschuf Gott die Menschen (on the second day God created the People)
Am 3. Tag schuf Gott die Musik (on the third day God created Music)
Am 4. Tag erschuf Gott den Club (on the fourth day God created the Club)
Und die Menschen tanzten (and the People danced.)
Gott sah, wie die Menge tanzte (God watched as the people danced.)
Am 5. Tag bemerkte Gott, dass die Menschen noch immer nur tanzten (on the fifth day God noticed that the people were still only dancing) 
Und er sah, dass es nicht gut war. (and he saw that this was not good.)
Gott wollte, dass die Menschen feiern. (God wanted the people to celebrate.)
Da schien ein helles Licht vom Himmel herab. (Then a bright light shone down from Heaven.)
Und Gott sprach zu der Menge: "IHR SEID SO LEISE!" (and God spoke to the People: YOU ARE ALL SO QUIET!)
Doch die Menge verstand es nicht und Gott hörte sie nicht. (But the People did not understand it and God did not hear them.) 
Doch er wollte sie hören, wie sie schreiben und feiern. (But he wanted to hear the people, how they write and celebrate.)
Und da sprach Gott zu der Menge: "WARUM SEID IHR SO LEISE!" (And then God spoke to the People: WHY ARE YOU ALL SO QUIET?)
Und Gott sah, wie die Menge feierte (And God saw how the people celebrated)
Ich sagte: "WARUM SEID IHR SO LEISE!" (I said: WHY ARE YOU ALL SO QUIET!"

Und Gott sah, dass es gut war (And God saw that it was good.)

Königstein

On Friday my class had a trip to Konigstein, an old fortress on a mountain about a half hour train ride away from Dresden.  We had to meet our teacher at the Hauptbahnhof, and when we got on the train we all sat by each other, but then she was like, "Remember, you have to talk only in German on this trip, even with each other, or your grade will be marked down."  That was so difficult!  I don't mind talking in only German with native speakers, but it's so hard to stick to German when you know the person you're talking to is also fluent in your native tongue.  It's like what I said before about being so frustrated with my Kinder Sprache (little kid speech.)  So many things I want to say but I can't!

Once we arrived at the train stop, we had to take a bus up the mountain to the fortress.  We rode a rickety little doubledecker that felt like it was about to tip over around every corner.  I was sitting by some little German boys who were the cutest things!  Why is it that little kids are even cuter when you hear them speaking a different language?  Probably because they sound like us lol.

The tour was nice, but it was all in German and I missed a lot of it.  Silke, our teacher, was nice about reiterating some of the main points for me so I didn't miss too much.  We saw a huge cellar that was used for holding wine and beer, and one of the deepest wells in the country (completely dug by hand!)  There was a model of a man digging the well, and he had traditional medieval worksman clothes on (pointy hat and all.)  Silke told us that's where the idea for garden gnomes came from!

We all had lunch at a medieval style restaurant.  They didn't have many choices for vegetarians, but I ended up getting some really good pea soup.  It was a lot saltier than I expected, but I like salty things so I didn't mind.  We did a bit of souvenir shopping, but all I could find for stamps were Deutsche Briefmarke, nothing International yet.  I've been buying a bunch of postcards though, and I want to send them all!  If you've read this far, I think you deserve a postcard from me, so send me your address and I'll get one to you soon!  I'm also trying to find a penpal here in Germany that I can send postcards to and receive some in return.  Otherwise I'll be getting no mail. :-(

As we were about to leave, a big storm came.  It was awesome because we were on the top of such a big mountain that we could actually see the sheet of rain approaching us.  It was also wicked windy, so everyone's umbrella broke too.  We ran for shelter in a little bakery, and I got some delicious strawberry torte cake.  Then everyone had to wait for me to eat it, but oh well!

We made it back to Dresden at about 4:30.  I slept the entire ride back because I'd missed my naptime.  I got back to my dorm and did some more napping and recuperating.  I'd forgotten how exhausting it is trying to speak a foreign language all day!  Then I chatted with Oli for another hour or two, which of course was fun but tired me out again because it requires thinking in German again.  Eventually I needed to make an Englisch Pause and read some Stephen King for awhile.  The rest of my group went to see "Salt," but I'm not a big fan of action movies or Angelina Jolie, so I passed.  Plus the movie would be dubbed in German, and dubbing really distracts me from understanding the words.

Today Lin and I might go see Toy Story 3 in German.  That movie is so cute!  Right now I'm off to do some homework with Amanda.  I'll have to write another blog about last night, it was so crazy!  That one's gonna have to be Adult Only though lol.

Culture Course and Sightseeing in Dresden

I wish I had some cool stories to tell, but my schedule lately has been wake up, run, class, lunch, sleep, internet time, dinner, homework, internet time, sleep.  My sleep schedule is still really messed up.  I get about 5 or 6 hours a night, and then take a 1 or 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  I suppose all together that's not so bad, but I really wish that I could sleep later in the morning.  Early morning insomnia is not a new problem for me unfortunately. :-(  This past summer I was sleeping in to 10 or later, and it freaked me out because I thought something was wrong with me!

German class on Wednesday wasn't so bad.  We had a test, but it ended up just being a little cartoon without words and we had to write a story to go along with it.  It was mostly about food, and we were allowed to use our dictionaries, so no one complained.  I was positive we were going to have to do more Preposition work too!

We worked on adjective endings, which is my least favorite part of German.  For those of you who haven't studied it, when an adjective precedes a noun in German, you need to give the adjective a case ending based on it's case (Nominative, Accusative, Dative, or Genitive)plus whether the adjective follows a definite article, indefinite article, or no article plus its gender (masc, fem, neut, or plural.)  So all in all each adjective has 48 possible case endings!

Then we started talking about diets in German, which was kinda weird and not so useful.  I think our teacher sensed we weren't into it because then she asked what kinds of things we would enjoy talking about in class (in German, of course!)  I said fairytales, especially those by Brother Grimm.  She said we could probably watch a fairytale cartoon in class.  Anthony wants to talk about Rassismus und Sexismus in Germany (racism and sexism), which of course will be an interesting topic considering the country's history.  Lin wants to talk about German movies (I hope we can talk about some of the horror films too!)  I brought up talking about the Youth Culture here, like the Goths and the Punks and the Techno Kultur.  Everyone in our class got excited about that because we all love our own little niche of German music.  Lin and I also love talking about the different styles of clothes here, although I don't think Anthony is quite as interested as us lol.  Hopefully class will be a little more interesting next week!

This morning we met up with the rest of the Libby's to go to our Kultur Kurs with Herr Zeuner.  It was also entirely in German, although he would use English occasionally to explain things we didn't understand (and by "we" I mostly mean "me" because I asked a lot of questions about words and phrases meant.)  I really want to improve my vocabulary!  We talked about the definition of culture, how it's a collective set of beliefs for certain people and all that.  We also discussed Culture Shock and the 5 different stages one goes through (1. Initial Excitement - 2. Embarrassment Over Mistakes - 3. Finding One's Own Culture Much Better than the Foreign One - 4. Understanding the Differences in the Foreign Culture - 5. Making Mistakes but Understanding Why Those Things Are Mistakes Here.

Herr Zeuner asked us what stage we thought we were in.  We all said 1 or 2.  I think I'm somewhere in-between.  I'm still really excited about being here and having all these new experiences, but I'm getting really frustrated with the communication barrier.  I tend to be pretty outgoing and friendly, but it's hard to make friends here when all I can do is Kinder Sprache (kid speech)!  There are so many things I'd like to say, but then I don't know the words so I have to keep simplifying everything down.  I don't mind telling my teacher "Today I saw a kitten.  He was so cute!", but I'd like to be a little more interesting when talking with the local people my age.  Oli and I have been chatting on Facebook a lot, which is much easier for me because I can throw words into my online dictionary and keep up with the conversation a lot better than when speaking.  I can also say what I'm thinking because I have my translator right in front of me to help out with phrases I don't know.  I would say our conversations are about 50% German, 25% English, and 25% Emoticons and lolz.  Everyone can speak the language of the internet!

After the Culture Course, we went to Koerner Platz in Loschwitz, a suburb of Dresden.  There are quite a few old buildings and museums there.  We all had to write a 3 - 5 minute blurb about one of the historical landmarks we were going to see.  Mine was the Loschwitzer Kirche (the Loschwitz Church.)  It didn't have a very interesting history, except that it was bombed flat during WWII and then didn't get rebuilt until the 90's (one of the DDR youth groups was located there for awhile during the 60's though.)  It also had a big sundial on the top. (check out Facebook for my pictures)

After our tour, we all went to one of the Biergartens on the river.  I stupidly ordered an entire beer, so of course I had a bathroom emergency on the way back.  The Bretzeln were quite delicious and salty though!  We also went to a CD store where I bought Club Nights: Live It! (natürlich!) and then we found a bakery with Black Forest Cake!  I've never seen Lin so excited!

We got back at about 5:30 and had plans to go into Neustadt, but everyone was so tired (we had missed our normal afternoon nap time) so we all fell asleep.  See why I feel like a little kid here? lol

Some differences between here and the US

I got my homework done early today!  I'm going to celebrate by spending some time at the Gutz-Kow tonight (the bar in our dorm basement.)  Then it's back to class at 9 am tomorrow... for a test.  Yeah, should probably study for that soonish.

Since there's not much new to write about, but I like procrastinating, I thought I'd write about some of the differences between here and the US.  They warned us of "Culture Shock" (btw I just wrote that as "schock" and had to fix it lol), but I don't think anything here is all that different from other Western culture, except for the language of course.  After studying abroad in Korea, this is like just going to the country next door.

There are still quite a few differences though, some good, some bad, and some just plain annoying.

I'll be positive and start with the good ones! :-)

- Everything is a hell of a lot cheaper here.

- The guys here are all so tall and lanky.

- They also have that romantic European charm lol.

- The clubs actually play music you can dance to!

- The street train system is much cleaner, quieter, and faster than the T.

- By each street train station there's a sign that tells you how many minutes until the next train is coming so you can decide which line is quickest.

- The music and electronic stores have so much "Clubsound" music that I think I've died and gone to heaven!

- The guys give you space to dance in the clubs and don't try to grind up behind you (therefore you don't have to worry about being fondled either.)

- Germans are hardcore about recycling and composting.  Also, only very few of the stores use plastic or paper bags.  If you want to go shopping you have to remember to bring a tote with you.  A lot of the houses have solar panels too.

- You can buy alcohol pretty much anywhere and drink it pretty much anywhere.  And it's all wicked cheap.  The checkout line at the grocery store lets you choose between chocolate and nips.

- The sirens have harmonics.

- The street train runs until 4 am!

- Gibt es viele Fickzeuge Geschaefte mit viele mehre Dinge als Amerikanische Geschaefte!

Ok, time for some of the weirder and not-so-pleasant differences:

- You can't get fresh brewed coffee anywhere.  It's all from an automated machine (which only fills your cup half full, and if you fill it to the top you have to pay double.)

- The kitchens in our dorms don't have freezers (that's not cultural, but it's still annoying.)

- The gyms don't have cardio equipment.

- The dorm windows don't come with curtains or curtain rods.

- The dining hall only serves lunch.

- Pretty much all of the food has little pieces of meat in it that I have to pick around.

- People don't start dancing here until midnight or so because the clubs all stay open until 6 am.

- The weather is so unpredictable, kinda like Colorado.

- They get really strict about jaywalking here.  Don't mess with a German and his auto!

- Getting "controlled" on the street cars for not paying your fare is a 40 euro fine.  (In Boston we usually just get a slap on the wrist and have to pay the normal fare.)

- This is a language difference and not a cultural difference, but knowing the genders and the plurals for all the nouns is so frustrating!  Nothing is predictable in the German language.

- Because most of the guys here dress so nicely, it's hard to tell who's gay and who's metro.  Are there even gays here?  No one seems open about it, which surprises me.

- The mattresses here in the dorms are more like couch cushions.

- There's cobblestone everywhere, which looks cool but ends up hurting your feet like no other.

That's all I have for now.  I'm sure I'll come up with more as I travel around the country!

P.S.  That's a picture of Lin with an American hotdog!

Intensive German!

7:20 am right now.  What is up with this new insomnia I have?  I seriously can't make it past 6 am.  I miss last summer when I couldn't get out of bed before 11!

Yesterday was my first day of German class.  I'm not gonna lie, it was killer.  I got put in the "weniger Stark" (less strong) group with Lin and Anthony.  It's kinda embarrassing being put in the "remedial German" class, but we haven't studied the language as long as the other Libby's (or been here before like most of them have.)  Lin and I were joking around that we would spend the whole day learning animals and the noises they make, but instead we had to spend two hours straight on just Prepositions. :-(  We did learn some new animal names though!  My favorite is Papagei (parrot.)

The class is entirely in German (our teacher only speaks a little bit of English.)  We were all so braindead afterwards that we didn't even try speaking German with each other again for a couple more hours.  Since we were learning Prepositions, we were talking mostly about apartments and living arrangements.  Not the most exciting topic in the world.  Our homework was incredibly difficult.  You'd think "Fill in the blank with the correct preposition" would be a rather easy task, but there are so many words in German that mean the same thing in English!  Plus we also have to determine whether the preposition is Dative, Accusative, or Both (in which case we need to look at the verb to determine if the action includes direction or not.)  Then we have to put the proper case ending on the article or possessive pronoun before the noun.  Back in the day, you used to have to also put a case ending on the main noun itself, but luckily that's obsolete now.  Some of the homework problems really stumped us, and when I asked Oli for help on Facebook he didn't know what some of answers were either, and Deutsch is his Muttersprache so I don't think we should feel too bad. lol

We had to do a little writing exercise, which I always enjoy most about homework, but of course the questions were horrendously boring.  The first was: "Describe your room in Dresden."  The second was: "Describe the difference between living situations in Germany and living situations in the US."  (I put that the most important difference is that in Germany one can drink alcohol in the student dorms!)  The third question was: "What do you need to live?"  I put my computer, iPod, and Handy.  And of course my German techno!  Vielleicht brauche ich auch meine Handschellen zu wohnen? haha

In the afternoon I went for a run through Grosser Garten again, but I got horribly lost.  I didn't have my map or cellphone (or even my glasses for that matter,) so I spent a good hour wandering around in the rain before I finally made my way back.  That park is a lot bigger than I thought!  It even has a little train that runs around the middle of it.  I think next time I'll stick to just running around the edge of the park or something a little less twisty-curvy.

Lin and I went to IKEA again so she could return some stuff and I could get new sheets (goodbye nasty beer stains!)  We ended up getting comforters and pillows a full-length mirror too.  I finally got curtains, but I couldn't get the curtain rod to work so I had to ducttape them over my window!  It's a good thing I have German friends who could translate that for me when I was trying to explain it in my writing exercise.  If only I knew how to say, "My room in Dresden is so ghetto-fab."

By the way, the picture I added is of me dancing at Club Royal last Friday.  Party's Here!

Stadtfest

I'm running on very little sleep again,  but I'm hoping that if I post now I can get out all of my excitement and go back to sleep!

Yesterday morning I went for a jog around the area.  There's a big park nearby called GroBer Garten (lit. big park lol).  It has a lot of nice dirt paths cutting through it.  The sidewalk over there isn't too bad either.  I know I have to be careful about my knee here.  I've been doing a lot of walking and running (and dancing!) on uneven surfaces, and I've been rather lazy about keeping up with my hip abductor strengthening exercises.  I don't know if I'll get a gym membership here because the gym only has weights and no cardio machines.  But I figure dancing is the best cardio anyways!  You should see how sweaty we all get.

After running I went to the Netto-Markt with Lin.  We got some bath stuff and food.  I found some new pickles to try (Partygurken this time.)  I swear, I could live off German pickles for the rest of my time here.  I got some bread, but I couldn't find any Erdnussbutter (peanut butter), only Nutella.  Yes, Nutella is delicious, but when a girl wants her pb&j, a girl needs her pb&j.  I can't go 4 months without a little taste of home!  I ended up finding a jar at the bigger Supermarkt in the mall, and I was so excited that I bought the biggest one and didn't even mind having to carry it around Stadtfest for the rest of the night.

Stadtfest (Cityfest) was so much fun!  Exhausting, but fun.  I met a Dresden guy named Fabian there in the afternoon, and we got some beer and walked around looking at all the booths and the old buildings.  He'd studied abroad for two years in London, so he was able to explain a lot of the history to me in English (most of the German I'd heard on our city bus tour had gone over my head.)  Apparently Dresden is the capital of Saxony, and we saw the old castle where the government would meet.  We also saw the Frauenkirche, which was this really old medieval church that got leveled during WWII.  A replica was rebuilt with new stones and some of the rubble, so the stones in the church are all different colors.

It's pretty to see now, but it's sad to see the old foundations of the church and pictures from after WWII when you can see how all of the beautiful architecture in that area was just gone.  It makes me sad when armies destroy history like that.  Obviously those places weren't army bunkers or anything.  I can see how it definitely destroyed morale for the entire city though.  You grow up with a collective pride for your history, and then all of a sudden your city is just rubble and you have nothing to fight for.

Besides those depressing thoughts, the rest of Stadtfest was a big party.  There were a lot of Medieval booths and reenactments going on.  I met up with Anthony for dinner in the evening, and we walked all over the fairgrounds.  We bought some pink Fruit Wine from a medieval booth (everyone was dressed up!)  It was wicked expensive (3 euros for a glass), but so delicious.  We also split a giant Bretzel and ogled the XXL Donuts.

We crossed the bridge into Neustadt and found an open air dance party.  It was only about 9 pm, so only kids were dancing.  However, I'm not one to turn down a chance to dance to German House music just from fear of looking weird, so I went out and danced with the Kinder while Anthony spent about an hour trying to order and pay for his beer.  The DJ played some German classics, like "Das Geht Ab" and "Disco Pogo" by Atzin.  I felt pretty badass because I could sing along to all the German, American, and Spanish songs he played. :-)

Once it started filling up, the DJ switched to Black Musik and slower stuff, so Anthony and I went back across the bridge into Aldstadt and just hung out.  We saw some nice fireworks over the river.  Lin really wanted to go to the club we went to last night (Club Royal) because they were doing an 80's and 90's night.  Since Anthony and I were separate from the group, we got there early and went inside to wait for them.  Entry was free again, but the drinks there are rather pricey (for Dresden standards, of course they're still only half the price of Boston drinks.)

The only people dancing were middle-aged German couples remembering their courting days.  I didn't feel like sitting the whole time, so I danced by myself for quite a bit.  That seems to be pretty common for me here, but I don't mind.  When will I ever see these people again?  Besides, if I enjoy the music, I don't care if I'm the only one dancing or not.  Eventually I ended up dancing with a girl my age and her mother.  They were impressed that I knew all the words to the English songs.  I told them that I was from America and it was my first time here in Germany and I loved it.  The girl, Anna, said she lives in Berlin and would be happy to let me stay at her place if I ever want to come visit.  Yay for making new friends!

I also met a guy, Oli (Oliver) from Hamburg in north Germany.  He was also really into House music and he told me Hamburg has the best clubs in Germany so I really should come visit.  I definitely want to, although it's a good 7 hours by train I think.  At least I get 50% off the tickets with my student ID.  I'll probably make a trip there soon, especially since my ancestors came from up there, and I'm pretty sure I have some distant relatives from near there that contacted my grandma in Wisconsin.  I'll have to see if she still has the name and address.  From what I know, my mom's family is from north Germany, while my dad's side is British and Austrian.  Maybe I can find some old town records or something.  I'm probably the first one in the family to come back!

So eventually Lin and the other Libby's showed up and the party really got started.  They played a lot of Ace of Base and other techno-pop songs from the period.  Lin got the DJ to play some Billy Idol, and we were all going nuts jumping around and spinning each other.  The Americans dominated this dance floor!  Oli ended up hanging out with us because he was in town with only his Dad, so he didn't know anyone else there.  We did a lot of group shots (Prost!)  I didn't get too drunk, but I did end up calling Oli "Der Hamburger" and giggling for the rest of the night because I'm an immature American like that. :-)

On the walk back to the Haltestelle (train stop), we ended up walking next to a bunch of guys dressed up in costumes.  One of them looked like some creepier version of Freddy Kreuger, and he kept growling and trying to scare us girls.  Then "Superman" would come and promise to protect us!  We were giggling a lot lol.  The guy dressed as a Samurai almost got in a fight with someone in front of the McDonald's (I know, just as classy as Allston,) but Superman broke it up just in time.  I don't know where they had been, but I want to go to that party!

Lass mich endlich tanzen!

I finally got to go dancing last night!  It's Dredsner Stadtfest (the German City Festival), so a lot of the clubs are doing Entritt Frei nights (free entry nights.)  Lin, Amanda, and I went to Club Royal in Aldstadt by the festival grounds.  We walked around for awhile and then found the club, but it was only about 10:30 and not many people were there.  I drank some shots (Absolut and Jagermeister), but they were classy and bought drinks.

I was dying to start dancing because there was already house music playing and dance lights on the floor, but no one else was doing anything.  I danced by myself for a bit while Lin and Amanda laughed at me.  Around 11 the DJ appeared, but he started playing slow Black Musik (that's what the Germans call hiphop and rap.)  I sat down immediately of course, so then no one was dancing.  This went on for about 15 minutes, but then maybe he got the hint because he started playing House so I got back up.  I danced by myself for about 10 minutes but then more people joined.

The music was a lot better than anything I've heard in Boston.  Even the hiphop they played had a house style to it.  It wasn't what I had hoped the German clubs would be (all eurodance, all the time), but it was still much better than anything I've been to before!  We danced straight until 2, only occasionally buying beers to hydrate.  For having such fast music, the Germans are really conservative dancers.  We must have looked really foreign to them with all of our jumping around and fist-pumping lol.  We said, "Wir kommen aus Amerika" a lot to explain our high-energy dancing.

I wanted to stay longer, but my shoes blistered my left heel something awful.  It was more of a wound than a blister.  I had to disinfect it and put on a ton of bandaids and everything.  Only wearing flipflops tonight!

Kein mehr Besorgungen!

(No more errands!)

Today was another busy day.  In the morning we went on a doubledecker bus tour of Dresden.  It was all in German, so I had a hard time following what we were seeing.  I also got pretty carsick and ended up sleeping for the last 15 minutes or so.  What I did see was beautiful though!

Then the Libby's had lunch at an Italian restaurant.  We split pizzas and it wasn't too expensive.  The weather is gorgeous out today (it gets hot during the day and cold at night, kind of like Colorado), so we walked back to the dorms.  Then we had to leave right away for getting our Bankkarten (debit cards).  It wouldn't have taken that long, except that we arrived after both of the Science groups so we had to wait for all 40 of them to go first.  Then we had to go get our pictures taken for our Dresden Residence Permits.  That wasn't too bad, but we weren't allowed to smile.  Die Deutscher sind immer so ernst! (The Germans are always so serious!)

Afterwards we took the StraBebahn to pick up our Handy's (cellphones), but on the way we got "officialed" or something like that, where we had to prove that we had monthly passes or had stamped our pay-as-you-go passes at the right time.  It's basically what the T cops do, except in Boston they just make you pay the fare, and here they bitch you out and make you pay a 40 euro fine.  I was traveling illegally (I didn't want to pay the 35 euros for a monthly pass and usually they don't check.)  Unfortunately he ended up giving Jenny (one of the girls in my group) a really hard time and checked her passport and everything.  She ended up having to pay a fine.  That scared me enough to go and buy my own monthly pass.

On a happier note, before we bought our Handy's (another 50 euros), I was able to go into the grocery store and get a Bacardi & Cola soda for only 1, 30 euros or so.

(In other news, I was just eating a carrot and I set it down somewhere, and now I can't find it.  Who loses a carrot?  I don't think I ate the whole thing because I don't like the ends.  I should probably stop eating in my bed anyways.  We do have a kitchen across the hall.)

Anyways, the Handy's work, but they're prepaid so I'm only going to use mine for emergencies and quick "Where are you?" calls.  I'll probably get an international calling card to call back home now and then too.

The Prüfungsabschlussabschussparty was fun, but now what I expected.  The bar was well-decorated and cheap, but there was no dancing. :-(  It was actually a Schnick-Schnack-Schnuck tournament (Rock-Paper-Scissors.)  Lin and I had a fun time watching it, and we even played it ourselves with Absolut Vanilla Kamikazees.  The odd thing about German drinking games is that both the loser and the winner drink after each round.  Germans understand that in drinking games, "everyone wins!"

Lin and I ended up talking to these two Dresden guys sitting next to us (see the picture, also notice their lack of smiling, lol).  They also study at T.U. and had finished their finals today.  Both were in Computer Science/Engineering.  One was really friendly and willing to talk with us slowly and make fun conversation, but the other was quite scheuern (shy.)  The talkative one said he was leaving for an internship in Ghana on Saturday.  Didn't expect that!  Since he grew up in Dresden, he showed us a bunch of cool places on the map to go to.  He'd never been to America, so we told him how things were different there (mostly how much more expensive everything is!)  It was a good conversation, and we did pretty much the entire thing in German!  I still think that meeting locals is the best way to enjoy a city and improve your language abilities.  Guys especially are much friendlier with us and patient with our mistakes.  I wonder why?  

These guys said that they enjoyed how American girls often dress up when they go out.  Most of the German girls were just wearing t-shirts and jeans.  We were both in dresses and definitely stood out, but I brought all this nice clothes with me that I want to wear while it's still nice out!  I just wish it didn't get so freezing cold at night...

Remember that time we got lost? - Which one?

I had my German placement exam this morning.  It was a lot harder than the RA's let on, but I guess we're not expected to know everything already.  I had a lot of problems with the vocabulary mostly.  A lot of it was business and bank reading comprehension.  I'm used to talking about dancing and vacations!  The oral section wasn't too bad either.  I had a private interview with two of the Deutsch Fremdsprache professors.  They asked where I was from, how long I'd studied German, what kind of classes I wanted to take, etc.  I told them that I'd been studying German for only a year and a half, but I'd been listening to German techno for 5 years now. :-)

Last night was a good bonding experience for my group.  We went to Neustadt with the RA's, and on the way to the bar, one of the RA's had to stop at her friend's apartment to get a book.  The other two RA's went with one of the Libby's to find a bathroom, so six of us waited in the alley.  Let's just say that it took the RA about 30 minutes to "get her book."  We found it pretty funny, but we were also alone in a foreign country in a dark alley, and after about 10 minutes of some creepy guy staring at us and half-smiling, we decided to just leave on our own.  Up the street we found the other two RA's and Christine in a bar lol.  Kind of annoying, but a good bonding experience.  We also saw some sick graffiti (check out my pics.)

We all socialized in the bar for awhile, but it was noisy and the bartender hated Americans, so four of us (Jason, Anthony, Lin, and me) decided to go wandern.  We walked around and window-shopped and checked out all the different bars.  Unfortunately all the ones I liked best were "too expensive" lol.  We ended up at a Doener restaurant, which are everywhere around here.  They're Turkish, but their gyros are a lot bigger than what you get in the states.  We ordered a Funghi (mushroom) pizza and some beers and Bacardi and Cokes (yes, you can get drinks at the fast food places here.)  Did I mentioned that I haven't yet been carded once?  This place rocks!

We left the Turkish place at about 1 and found our way back to the Bahnhoff (train station), but apparently the night schedule is different from the day schedule, so we ended up at the last stop in the outskirts of Dresden, about as far from our dorm as we could be.  We thought we'd been going the right way so we were going to just keep walking along the tracks (although it was already 2 am and the streets were dark and empty), but luckily Lin had brought her map so we realized our mistake and then started freaking out about how to get home.  We thought we would have to walk back (a two hour walk at least) because it was already so late and the trains had probably stopped, but as we were going along a train came.  As soon I heard it, I started sprinting for the stop.  Taking the T has trained me well.  :-)

All in all, it was a good bonding experience, and sometimes it's fun to feel like a freshman again.  Lin and I were talking about how weird we feel in a coed bathroom and the guys were making fun of us.  We told them that whenever a German guy was in a stall we never heard a sound, and it kind of freaked us out.  Anthony replied, "Well, it's a little known fact that Germans actually do their taxes in the bathroom."  That had us laughing all night!

Ok, I'm off to a fancy Welcome Dinner paid for by BU!  Then Lin and I might be going to die Prüfungsabschlussabschussparty (the End of the Finals Kick-Off Party)!

Ich habe Lepra

That's my new phrase of the day!  It means, "I have leprosy."  Could come in handy someday right? :-)

We've been really busy lately.  I'm glad that I have a small group.  We all get along really well.  I'll add our group picture from today.  I admit, we do talk in English with each other most of the time, but all of our Orientation and Registration activities are in German.  Tonight we're going to some bars in Neustadt (literally "New City.")  It's where most of the young people here hang out, but it takes about half an hour on the tram.

I've met most of my Nachbarn (neighbors) already.  There's one girl next to me and the rest of the people in our suite are guys right now.  Two of them (Erik and Jon) came over to my room to drink last night.  A few of the Libby's (Liberal Art Students, aka the people in the picture) came over too.  Just like TJMaxx Thirsty Thursdays back home (except with much less space.)  I figured if we had Germans hanging out with us we would be much less tempted to speak English with each other.  Plus it's just fun to here their opinions on things.  They like to talk about American TV shows and, of course, the drinking culture.

I drank way too much last night, and ended up falling asleep before we made it to the bar. (ein Vorglühen FAIL, or more simply, mein FAILnacht.)  It was embarrassing to be such a lightweight in front of the Germans.  At least I didn't throw up.  I heard that is like the most shameful thing you can do while drinking with Germans.  They'll never respect you after that.

Erik and Jon said that they thought all American girls were shy until they met me.  In German due to content: (Gestern war ich in Erotikwelt gegangen und hab' ich Handschellen und eine Peitsche gekauft.  Die andere Amerikanerinnen haben gedacht, dass sehr seltsam ist, aber die Deutsche haben gesagt, dass lustig ist.  Und das ist warum ich die Deutsche lieben!)

Genau, I have to go get ready to go out.  I'll bring my "Dirty German" to make friends. :-)  All the German guys were asking me where they could buy one.  Unfortunately a large majority of the slang is wrong (or outdated.)  They give the word for ape (Affe) for "hangover," but everyone here says Kater (male cat.)  I don't want to embarrass myself! lol

Tschuss!

Everything is so cheap!

Look at this receipt:

Klostergarten Cornichons (jar of pickles) - 0,89

Konfituere (jam) - 0,89

Muesli Riegel (box of cereal bars) - 0,99

Toasties (English Muffins) - 0,89

Mildeen Plefedusche (bath wash) - 0,65

My total was 4,31 Euros ($5.52)

WOW.  Boston is more expensive than I realized!

Der Erste Tag

Hallo!  It's 6:45 am here, but I can't sleep so I figured I might as well set up my blog.  I've been struggling to upload my pictures for the last half hour or so.  Life is not on my side right now.  I took some beautiful pictures of the Sonnenaufgang (sunrise) this morning, but they're gone now.  So much more sky here!

Yay I just got the pictures up!  This is on the bathroom door here (they're co-ed, kinda awkward.)  It says, "When you don't sit down to pee, everything here gets sprayed!"  I'd like to see some of those signs up in the States!

 So everything went pretty well with the flights.  My only delay was Boston to JFK (the plane had too MUCH fuel ironically.)  I still made it to my Munich flight with plenty of time to spare.  I met most of the other people in my BU group.  (There are 7 of us "Libbies" - Liberal Arts Students and about 30 Science Program sophomores.)  We had a redeye to Munich, but I can't sleep on planes at all.  When I saw Germany for the first time from the plane, I understood why my ancestors immigrated to Wisconsin.  It looked exactly the same lol.  

Then we had a 4 hour layover before we took a tiny propeller jet to Dresden.  All of the roofs of the houses here look the same!  They're all some sort of tiled red brick.  There are a lot of ugly cement apartment buildings with weird 1960's color schemes, but the older architecture is beautiful.

I haven't been able to walk around much yet.  Last night I had a quick Orientation and campus tour, but I was so exhausted that I skipped going into the city for shopping.  That's on my list of things to do today (some sheets and pillows would be nice.)

I'm all unpacked.  I thought I brought a lot but everyone else had more suitcases than me.  Luckily I remembered my bright blue skinny jeans and pleather leggings.  Eurotrash here I come!  I live on the 5th floor of my dorm with the other Libbies and some International students.  My neighbors are from die Berge (the mountains) in central Germany.  They told me they were like Canadian Mounties.  They speak English pretty well, so I spent most of last night talking with them in the bar of our dorm (so convenient!)  I can understand German pretty well if it's quiet out and they talk slow enough, but for the most part they talked to me in English and I replied in German.  The only person I've met who doesn't speak any English is the Hausmeister.  I had to talk to him yesterday when I locked myself out of my room within 10 minutes of moving in.  I thought the desk keys were my room keys.  They fit in the lock, okay?  This probably won't be the first time I lock myself out, but at least I got a Single!

The RA's have been speaking a lot of German to me and the other Libbies.  Most of the Science Program students don't know more than Wie geht's.  Yesterday one of them asked me what two dots over the vowel meant.  Not to be too judgmental, but don't you think you should learn at least a little bit of German before you come here?  I guess that's the Linguist in me.  I get annoyed with myself when someone says something to me in German and I just look at them dumbly.  Unfortunately they usually just say it again in English right away, although I'd prefer if they repeated themselves more slowly and with simpler words.  That's what my 9 weeks of only Deutsch Sprache classes are for I suppose.

Oh, the Chef (boss) of the bar in the basement makes techno.  I talked to him for awhile last night.  He says he makes "Hard Techno," which seems to be Minimal with a heavier beat.  He said that not many people have liked Eurodance since the 90's, so I'm a little late on that front.  Oh well, if it's not that popular that means it'll be even easier (and cheaper) for me to get into clubs and see DJ's I like (maybe even meet them too!)  I'm kinda disappointed that even a lot of Germans will tell me that the techno I like isn't "real" techno, but das ist mein Erleben, nein?  I still have my heart set on seeing Scooter, Basslovers United, and Rob Mayth.  House Rockerz and Scooter will be doing a show in Dresden on Dec 3, and that is the one concert I must attend no matter what!  "Nur Tanzen" is one of my favorite songs.

I miss you all!  Leave comments!

Bis spaeter... (until later...)