I think this is my third day here. I'm not sure. I left on Tuesday evening from Philadelphia. I got to my hostel on Wednesday evening. What a weird experience THAT was. 6 beds to the room - 3 sets of bunks. There were only three people in the room, so that was nice, but we shared a bathroom with another room of people. Blech. Don't get me wrong, the bathroom wasn't disgusting, but you could tell that other people were using it. Hair all over the place. yeesh. The shower kept turning off. It was like one of those annoying faucets in public bathrooms that you push down and it turns off automatically. Except, I don't think it's possible to shower in 2.5 minutes. For anybody. So, I kept pushing the button in, and after maybe 8 minutes, the hot water starting running out on me. sigh. It was not a good shower.
I went to bed around 10:30 pm. The sun had barely set, so it still felt like 8 pm, but then again, it felt like 2 am, because I only got MAYBE (and this is being generous) 4 hours of sleep on the trip here. I'm not talking about 4 hours on the plane. I'm talking about 4 hours between 3 planes, 3 airports (at one of which, I barely made it to my plane because they changed the gate on me. Scary), 2 streetcars and 1 train. 4 hours in total. Maybe. I doubt it. Needless to say, I was TIRED. Anyway.
The bed at the hostel was small and hard, and creaked every time I turned over. They provided the pillow case and a blanket case, for lack of a better term. Basically, they had this comforter and then they gave you a ginormous pillow case to put over it. It was weird. Warm, but weird. For all the good it did me, they might as well have not given me a pillow. It was flat as a sheet - and that's after I folded it in half. I woke up around 2:30 or 3 and was wide awake for awhile. That was really annoying. I finally got back to sleep and had some WEIRD dreams. Mostly about big fluffy pillows - I dreamed that there was one hidden in a secret cupboard in the wall by my bed, but that I didn't discover it until it was time to leave. That did NOT make me happy.
Breakfast was good, though. Meat, cheese, tomato, cucumbers, fruit. yum.
Then, I and two other girls from my program trekked our way to the University. This is when I discovered how much I had packed. I'd had an inkling from the train ride from Berlin to Leipzig, but I didn't KNOW until we took 3 Strassenbahn and then walked for 7 billion miles to the dorms. I think I will just start mailing stuff back. Wear an outfit, mail it home. Do laundry in August. That way, my suitcase will be really light for the trip back!
(I'll finish with today's stuff later. It's almost midnight and I'm gonna go to bed now.)
How much stuff did you pack? I am pretty sure that I should be able to just take a backpack and a dufflebag and have room to spare. I guess I can wear the same pair of underwear 5 times before changing.
ReplyDeleteSure, Phillip, you can get at least 4 wears out of 'em -- forwards, backwards, inside-out-forwards, inside-out-backwards. How you'll get the 5th wear is something I don't even want to contemplate. Yech. It's not right to wear something that will stand up on it's own.
ReplyDeleteBack to the sister... well, at least you've got a story to tell. Josh says to tell you that it IS possible to shower in 2.5 minutes. What he doesn't realize is that while HE believes he's done a decent job, everyone else has to scurry downwind. And again, yech. Glad to hear you're making it out of the jet lag fog! Can't wait to hear more!!!
phillip - that's gross. If you decide to do that, I don't want to know about it.
ReplyDeleteI brought a lot of stuff cuz I'm here for 6 weeks. you shouldn't need that much.
susan - shhh. don't tell josh. It would make him sad. Though, for a smart guy, I'm surprised that he hasn't figured out why we all walk on one side of him and switch when the wind changes.
I'm SOOO glad to hear you made it, safely and mostly intact!
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of shower Dad used to tell us about--a military shower. You're s'posed to wet down, then when it turns off you lather up, then turn it back on for the rinse cycle, LOL! ;)
Phillip, that 5th day is easy (and strangely, also has a military connection....) COMMANDO!!!! ahhhgh!
Okay, I think I just embarrassed myself...
Take care of yourself, sis, and know that I'm praying for you! I hated that I missed your call the other day! Love you bunches and bunches
You beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this needs to be said, but just so we don't have any misunderstandings later, here it is:
ReplyDeleteIf you go commando, DON'T tell me about it. I would rather know that you've worn the same underwear 5 times in a row w/o washing it (and I DEFINITELY don't want to know about THAT).
This goes for EVERYONE. everyone. period.
Woo Woo says... DO make sure you have clean underwear, but DO NOT use Phillip's method!!! He says to tell Phillip to be sure and pack some Preparation H, because that 5th wear is gonna start chaffing!! (I don't EVEN want to know how he knows that...)(see, there ARE still secrets, even after 18yrs of marriage)
ReplyDeleteNow, I just wanna point out that you mispelled the name of your first night's lodging. I'm sure it should have been spelled HOSTILE!! Ick and double ICK ICK!! But, you know what they say... Among other things of course... what doesn't kill you will make you long for a nice long HOT bubble bath in the luxury of your own home!!
We'll go for now. I wish you could have seen the look of relief on Woo Woo's face when he read your post. "at least she's OK!!" and then there was some other smart ass comment, but you don't need to hear that.
Love you bunches, EE
Oh yea, and we need to talk about Sarah missing your call. In order for her to have MISSED your call, you would have had to have MADE a call to her, right? It would have been nice if I could have had the chance to MISS a call too!!! Can't believe you thought you could slip that one by me!! (Can you tell I aced "Guilt 101"?)
Luv ya anyway!!