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...