It started off well. I had gotten up early, had taken a shower, and had gotten to the institute with enough time to begin working on some review work after breakfast and before class had started.
In class we focused on a review exercise about German prepositions and verbs that need certain prepositions to be used with them. It was supposed to be a review, but it was more of not having seen that sort of stuff for probably two years. But it was okay. That’s why I’m here at the Institute.
After classes finished yesterday all of us in the Vienna program met with our assistant program director and we all had lunch together. Others in the group sometimes have a little more difficult of a time speaking German all the time, but Michaela said that we all should keep on practicing. She told us how very important our time at the institute is, but also how much she is looking forward to having our fun group in Vienna! We even have mailboxes with our names on them at Central’s building in Vienna.
As a part of the program, the Goethe Institut offers weekend excursion trips to different nearby areas of the country. This Saturday, our whole group is going on the trip to Stuttgart where we’ll see the Porsche museum and a few other cool things nearby.
After class yesterday I decided that I wanted to get out and do something as well as see a little more of the town so I went on a run. I had been listening to Anneke earlier that day and she had said that on her run the day before, she had seen a castle. I saw the sign for the castle and started in on a comfortable jog. It was definitely good being active again! The castle was only two kilometers away so it was an easy run. Once I got close I snapped a picture with my phone then headed back for the dorms.
When I got back to the dorm, Charlotte had her door open. I told her that I had just been running. She said that she had wanted to go, but didn’t have anyone to go with. Just then we saw Anneke coming back from a run and then there was Jesse and Stephen who were just getting ready to go for a jog as well. We all chatted for a little, then the guys headed off and I went to my room so that I could take a shower.
After my shower, I decided that I needed a mental break so I watched two episodes of How I Met Your Mother and then started getting ready for Stammtisch. The idea behind Stammtisch is that we would go to the bar together, have a few drinks to loosen up our tongues, and speak German together. The thing is, it actually works.
We met one of the German interns who are currently working at the institute in front of our dorm. Then we all walked to the bar together. Once there, we all sat down and ordered drinks. Since I was looking for something not as bitter, I ordered a Radler. A Radler is a beer and lemonade mix. Sounding a little gross? It isn’t at all! I ended up ordering two more before eventually realizing that German beer is actually much stronger than American beer.
Once our tongues had been freed a little I began talking with two of the guys from UofM (aug Deutsch, of course) and we eventually started talking about Greek life on our campuses and people we might have in common.
After a while, a group of us went to an Irish pub in town. One of the guys ordered two pictures of Guinness for the group. Sadly, it’s not a beer that I particularly like. Anyway, we were all chatting and Anna came in with her friend. Anna is Brazilian and in the same class as me. It’s one of the strangest things to only have a language that you are both learning be your common ground. It makes things really fun though, because you have to be good and getting better to converse with each other.
After a while, we all left. I walked with Charlotte and Anneke to our dorm. I told them goodnight and then called Kelsey. We chatted for 30 minutes just catching up. I hung up and took a shower because, coming from the US where you can’t smoke in public places anymore, I smelled like an ashtray because of the two bars I had visited. I got to bed at around 1:00AM.
Today was Friday!!! My alarm was set for 6:30AM so that I could take a shower, get to breakfast early, and have a generally slow morning. This morning, since I was so tired and since I had already showered, I let myself sleep in. At about 7:15 I got up, got dressed, and headed to the Institute for breakfast.
Even after a long, casual breakfast class was hard to get in to. I spent the first hour struggling to focus. I would catch myself starting to write down a vocabulary word and then would catch myself a few seconds later making incoherent scribbles on the paper.
I was so ready when our first break came around. I downed a big cup of coffee as well as a cup of tea, which was a set of good decisions! I was so peppy and happy when class started back up again. I was so engaged too! We had to read an article that was given to us and follow the prompts. The article was about life-long learning. I was able to get most of the information on the first read through, but I was so frustrated because I thought that it was too hard for me. But then I realized that I just needed to take my time and really think about the words and the context that they were in. I ended up writing a full page for my response and even had time to re-write again, which helped me catch a ton of mistakes I had made. It was great!
After the second break, Fred, Gamsa, and I gave our presentation to the class about peace-services in other countries. Of course this was all in German. Yesterday we had gone to the computer lab to do research on the subject, but instead of finding simple answers, we were swamped with a lot of information that was supposed to be used for a really simple presentation. We decided that we’d give some examples of peace-services offered in Germany and then, in order to provide more information, talk about he organizations in our countries. Gamsa went first and talked about a service organization in Turkey, which surprisingly does not have many service organizations. Fred talked about Doctors Without Borders in Brazil, and I talked about the Peace Corps. Our teacher was very impressed with our presentation!
After class I had lunch with everyone, which today was pasta with “nature sauce”. This just meant that it was a meat and veggie sauce that was probably made with organic foods. Regardless, it tasted great! We sat around the table together and talked for about an hour. By that point everyone else had left the dining hall and the lunch lady came out to get our trays and dishes so that she could wash them and get home. Andrew and Stephen were going to play soccer, today’s Institute outing, and Charlotte and I decided that we needed to go shopping for groceries.
We all walked back to the dorms together and then went to our rooms. I bopped over to Charlotte’s room about fifteen minutes later and asked if she was ready to go shopping. She grabbed her wallet and keys and then we walked to the bank so we could withdraw Euros. We then went to go Institute so that I could cross my name off of the list for the Stuttgart trip tomorrow. I decided that although I would like to go see things, I’d
A) really like to spend a whole day exploring Schwäbisch Hall and
B) really like an excuse to not go back to the Stuttgart train station for a while.
The office was closed, but I found an assistant who said that I could trade with someone who wasn’t going if I talked with Theresa, one of the Institute interns. Charlotte and I hustled outside to see if the people who were meeting to play soccer soon were still there. We had passed them on the way in. They were! I asked Johann if he wanted to take my place and go to Stuttgart tomorrow and he said yes! I explained the transaction to Theresa and she said that it was fine!
With that settled, Charlotte and I headed to Müller which is like the CVS at home. I needed to buy some shampoo and hair gel. I got it and then we headed to Kaufland. There we agreed that since neither of us would be going on tomorrow’s trip, we’d make brunch together in the kitchen. So, besides my groceries of Würstchen (literally means little bratwursts), spaghetti, and some other essentials, we got eggs, the closest thing we could find to bacon (that’s right… Germany doesn’t have American-style bacon).
We left and headed back to Müller so that I could buy some multivitamins. I didn’t want to be missing anything vital to my health just because of a major shift in my eating habits. We headed back to the dorms and went our separate ways. I spent some time cleaning in my room so that if anyone Skyped, I wouldn’t look like a slob.
When I got hungry, I grabbed my spaghetti and garlic salt and headed downstairs to the kitchen. As I was cooking, I talked to Nina. Nina graduated a semester early from high school and is now studying here in Germany for the semester. Cool, no? She had been making tortellini and pasta sauce, but had made too much of the sauce so she donated some to my spaghetti. We chatted for about 40 minutes. It was cool to hear her story, being a fresh high school graduate and still going out on her own and being so adventurous. I finished my spaghetti, cleaned my dishes, and headed upstairs.
When I got to my room I found out that the door was locked! Johann had gone to the party at the Institute which happens every Friday night. So, there I stood wearing my celtics pajama shirt, jeans, and my slippers. I knocked on Charlotte’s door and told her what happened. She said that she was going to the party so we could walk there together, ask Johann for the keys, and then I could come back. That was exactly what I did except that I needed a coat. Charlotte had an extra: a light blue and grey, size women’s medium coat. It barely even zipped and my arms were about six inches too long for it.
We walked to the Institute, me hoping that I wouldn’t be seen by anyone, and found Johann, who gave up his keys as long as I would leave the door unlocked. I walked back and finally got back into my room. After that I relaxed by watching the newest episodes of Modern Family and New Girl.
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