Day 22

Tuesday morning I woke up and had breakfast without coffee. I’d had had quite a lot in the past few weeks so I was kind of coffee’d out. In class we worked on the topics from Monday which included Vegetarianism and the Olympic Games.

During the first and second break I worked on learning the second verse to La Vie En Rose from Cecile. I had only ever learned the first verse for my singing lessons at Wabash, but the only karaoke tracks I could find on Youtube included both verses.

Right before class ended I sang for the class. Carmen said that she bet that everyone in the class would be singing that song in their heads for the rest of the day.

After lunch Charlotte went with me to C&A so that I could get another onion on the awesome camel-colored pants. After another good review I bought them! We headed back to the dorms and I went to my room to put on my new pants.

I had the balcony doors open because it was such a nice day. I was listening to music when I heard Paithan calling my name. I looked out the window and saw that he was leaning out of Stephen’s window on the first floor. He said that Stephen, Jesse, and he were going to go for a run and he wanted to know if I’d like to come along. Naïvely I said yes.

I got ready and met them all outside of the dorm. The plan was to run to palace near Comburg that Jesse and Paithan had discovered a few days previous. I had stupidly assumed that nearby meant that the cool spot would be closer than Comburg. I was wrong.

We started out at a pretty fast pace and even though I was behind the others I was still keeping a decent pace. Sadly there is one thing that I’ve come to hate about Germany: hills! Each time we went down a hill I kept thinking about how I would have to go back up it when I came back and how much more tired I would be when that happened.

We eventually reached Comburg. The guys had stopped because they were waiting for me, but as soon as I caught up with them they started going again. We ran for a while longer through a little village and started up a curved hill near a forest. We stopped there and took a little path to a stone cliff. Jesse, Paithan, and Stephen climbed into a cave there and I, still being out of breath, stayed on the knoll watching them. 

We threw rock around for a while, then they said that they were ready to keep going. KEEP GOING?!?! I was under the impression that we were going to run to the place near Comburg and then turn around, not keep going!

We ran up a hill to a green pasture. We made our way through a small subdivision (well, as subdivision-y as Germany can get) and as we were getting close to the main road I told the guys that I was going to turn back because I had to prep for the presentation that I would be giving the next day. They waved goodbye and I headed on my way back to the dorm.

It was really interesting going back because I hardly recognized anything. I realized that on my way there I had been running so fast („fast“) that I hadn’t time to see much more than the others running ahead of me. Really all I remembered was my vision bouncing as I ran along to keep up with the guys.

I got back to the dorm and immediately went up to Charlotte’s room to complain about how dead tired I was and how stupid it was of me to take Paithan up on his offer. I headed back to my room and took a shower. I took my sweet time and then put on comfy clothes.

A little later I got a Facebook message from Andy. He said that Anneke and he were going to get burgers for dinner and that I should invite Yoann too. I did and we got ready for dinner. Charlotte, Stephen, and Jesse were in the kitchen with their class. They were making sushi for dinner. I was offered some so I tried it and it actually tasted pretty good!

When the four of us were all ready, we walked to Big Russel, the burger restaurant and ordered Big Russel burgers which consisted of two patties, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a really good bun. We could all tell that they were really good burgers because after the first bite our plates were covered in grease. Somehow we got onto the topic of pets and Anneke told us about her general dislike of house pets. We headed back to the dorms listening to a horror story about Anneke and a family whose demon dog she had nannied for.

When we got back we had a little time before we had our last Stammtisch. It was at the same bar as the first Stammtisch so we headed over there as a group. Stephen and I sat at a table with Lauren (from UofM) and Nina. We ordered banana beers. Since we had run earlier it seemed quite logical that we  have something with such good post-run ingredients as banana juice (don’t ask me how they juice a banana… I don’t know) and beer. Stephen had discovered them at the last Stammtisch and had me try it.

After a while I decided to head home to work on my presentation for the following day. Since I hadn’t really settled on a subject, I spent a good deal of time figuring out what that would be. I eventually settled on throwing events: Hammerwurf, Discuswurf, & Kugelstoß. (Pretty easy translation, no?). After getting most of the presentation done, I headed to bed.