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...)