We had another written test and, once again, I got done within the time limit, feeling confident about my work. After our second break we heard a presentation from a classmate. Her name is Sanaa and she teaches German in Egypt. She spoke about the political happenings in Egypt, which included the overthrowing of the Egyptian government and the many lives lost in the riots. It was just an amazing presentation and it was even more astounding to have have heard it from an Egyptian woman herself.
After class I went downstairs for lunch: fried fish, salad, and German potato salad. Stephen asked if anyone was yet interested in going to Heidelberg tomorrow. I didn't really want to because so far it was sounding a little expensive. After lunch I played the piano for a bit, because Sanaa had asked that I play at least once before she left.
I walked back to the dorms with Anneke, Pathan, and Andy. Since it was Friday afternoon, I decided that I would take things easy and just chill out until the Goethe party at the Institute. I spent the afternoon casually watching a Disney movie and cleaning my room.
At 8:00 I started to get ready for the party. I put on a blue button-down oxford, my dark wash blue jeans, and my green plaid bow tie, which took about 10 minutes and a youtube video to get right. Anna Paula knocked on my door to see if I was coming to the party. I told her that I'd meet her later downstairs.
I went to the kitchen to see if anyone was there and found it full. Jesse asked if I wanted anything to drink and told me to grab a beer for myself from his fridge. It was a Krombacher which is the brand of the glass mug that I found in Germany two years ago. Nina asked if I'd finish off the rest of her wine, which I did. Then we all headed off to the party, but first Nina and I headed to Rewe (the grocery store) to grab some cheaper drinks. I got a few beers for -.38 and the deposit.
We got to the party and I had a great time talking with everyone. I eventually realized how hungry I was so I decided to leave for a bit and treat myself to a Döner-kebab, which is essentially in the same family as the Gryo. However they both were claimed as the original by the Greeks and the Turks kind of like Istanbul/Constantinople: same city, different name.
Anyway, after my dinner, I went back to the pub to join my friends. I ended up chatting with Peter and Matt (both UofM students) about their classes and what they were doing at school / with a German minor. After a while, everyone started saying that we were going to go to a different bar in the city. Yuka came up to me before we left just to say hi. She had had a bit too much to drink and was getting super sad, because tonight was her last night in town. She's going to Marburg tomorrow to study at the university there.
We all started walking to the bar, but Yuka was too drunk to be able to be going any more. So, Anneke, Nina, Irina, and I walked back to the dorms with Yuka who was crying, because she didn't want to forget us. Yes, she was drunk so her emotions were a little more pronounced, but it was still really sweet that she cared so much after only knowing us for two weeks.
Once we got back to the dorm, I let the girls take care of Yuka and I headed to bed. I wasn't tired yet, so I started watching a movie and then drifted off to sleep.
This morning I got up at 7:30, because Yuka had asked if I could knock on her door at 8:00 to make sure that she was getting herself packed and ready to catch her train. I let myself wake up a bit, brushed my teeth, and then at 8:00 went downstairs to knock on her door. She had just gotten up. She said that if it hadn't been for me she would probably have drifted off to sleep again. She gave me a hug and then I went back upstairs again to check my email and Facebook accounts.
At 8:45 I went back downstairs again to check on Yuka and to get a bowl for my cereal. When I went into the kitchen I saw that the drying rack was full so I moved a few things so that I could start putting a few things away, but then evrything shifted and a glass fell to the floor and shattered. I cleaned it up and then, when I was heading back upstairs saw Anna Paula and Anneke looking out the door watching as Yuka was leaving. I went upstairs to the hall window and yelled out and waved goodbye. I went back to my room.
After cereal, I went back to sleep. When I woke up a little bit later I decided to start watching Pretty Woman. Halfway through I got a message on Facebook from Nina asking when I wanted to go and get lunch. She and I had been talking recently about a Vietnamese restaurant in town that we both wanted to try so we decided that we'd go today for lunch. I told her that I needed 10 minuted to get ready and then I'd meet her by the entryway.
As I was waiting for Nina, Stephen came upstairs and asked what i was up to. I told him and he mentioned that tonight we were doing a wine and cheese night again. Nina was ready so we headed to the restaurant. Once we got there we ordered and chatted about future plans in general. She graduated from high school a semester early so she could come to Europe. It was great food and good conversation.
After lunch we headed back to the dorm to see if Stephen wanted to go shopping with us, but we couldn't find him so we went to the store. I bought a wedge of soft brie cheese, some club crackers, and a bottle of Merlot for the party and a carton of grapefruit juice for myself. Once we were done there we headed back to the dorms and to our separate rooms.
I cleaned my room and listened to my iTunes collection. It's funny how often I can clean then find it necessary after only the duration of twelve hours! I kept busy until I got ready for the party, which was comfy casual so there wasn't much work involved. When I got to the kitchen, I put on some water so that I could make some spaghetti for dinner. Meanwhile, everyone started in by popping corks, slicing cheeses, and plating meats. The conversation was so loud that the other people that had been in the kitchen abandoned it and headed back to their rooms.
As the night went on more empty bottles appeared in the middle of the table. Andy juggled some empty wine bottles, only one of which was shattered, and some of Pathan's friends from last semester came to visit. They stayed for about a half an hour then most everyone decided to go to the bar. I didn't really feel like drinking more and stuff needed to get cleaned up so I stayed behind. Jesse and Nina did the same. Nina and I did the dishes and then she and Jesse started debating.
It was great listening to them because, besides being extremely reasonable, they are both so passionate about what they believe. I continued to dry and put away dishes as I listened to the debate. Stephen came in and decided to listen in too. At one point they split off, because Jesse was debating with a guy from Russia and Nina was debating with Jean Marc who is (I believe) from Kenya.
Once the dishes were done I mopped and dried the floor. Then Stephen and I started talking about Catholicism vs Protestantism compared to what we had both experienced at the Evangelical service last Sunday at St. Michael's. It was an interesting discussion which Nina and Jean Marc then decided to join. We talked for about an hour until we all decided that we needed to be able to get up tomorrow at a decent time.
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