After a 4 hour wait, we got moved in. During that wait, I met a bunch of really nice people an we hung out/explored. We divided up the group. One part would watch all the luggage while the other part went searching for sustenance and then we'd switch. That was nice. I'm living in a little apartment-type thing. There is a general area - bathroom, kitchen. The entire area would fit into my bathroom at home. Then there are two rooms, each locks, and I think that technically we have different room numbers. My roommate is Mary from China. She is very nice and has lived in Germany for 5 years. She's really nice and speaks really good German. It's cool to practice with her, although a little intimidating also.
We got together as a group and went to the City-Hochhaus (the tallest building in the city) and looked out over the city:
It's kind of all higgeldy-piggeldy. No straight streets. It makes it a little bit confusing to get around. Here's a picture of where I live:
It's that row of boxes towards the back - very communist-style. This is, after all, the former East Germany.
On the 9th the group went together and walked to the Herder Institute, where we'll be having class. Then, we divided into small groups and were given an assignment. We had to find different places around town and gather information about them. When is this shop open, how much does a beer cost here, etc. We were on our feet from 8:50 AM until the next meeting at 4 pm. My feet hurt!!! It was cool to explore, though! Then we met our partners for the Tandem Program. This program pairs us up with a German student who wants to learn English. Then we simply get together and spend half the time talking in English and the other in German. It's pretty sweet. My partner is named Michael. He speaks much better English than I do German, but he has the stereotypical accent. "Zis is zee Coffeehouz". Not that I mock. Apparently I have a major accent because whenever I speak, they reply in German and then quickly repeat in English. sigh.
The 9th was also the 1st game of the World Cup Soccer Tournament (Weltmeisterschaft). Leipzig set up two giant screen tvs in Augustusplatz and pretty much the entire town showed up to watch that game. Deutschland vs. Costa Rica. Deutschland won, AND scored a goal for Costa Rica. It was amazing. I have never watched soccer before, but it was interesting to see. You should have seen the crowds!
On the 10th, I went grocery shopping. Mostly breakfast type foods, but some other little things as well. That was a weird experience. I never knew how meaningless the pictures on boxes are w/o the word explanations. I got what I needed, but it wasn't exactly like I expected. We watched more soccer games. I was finally able to get my calling card to work and made a much-needed call to my parents. It really helped cure the homesickness, I think.
Ok, I realize that I'm not keeping up with this, but I will try to get all caught up tomorrow. No guarantees. But I'll try!
Higgledy-piggledy... that's one I hadn't heard/used in a while. :) Sounds like everything's coming up Milhouse!!! And about Mary -- is she nice? :P
ReplyDeleteSO very good to hear from you!! I also want to know about the roomy!! I know what you mean about pictures on boxes explaining very little. I've got all those Japanese boxes that would be so confusing. Just tell yourself this: If it's being sold as edible, most likely there's someone out there who's eaten it and most likely hasn't died while doing so, so even though you might not like it, you'll probably be ok. Of course, you might feel queezy when you find out it's entrails of some kind, but hey, what the heck!!
ReplyDeleteLove you so very much. BTW, Susie got me hooked up on the Yahoo IM, and I was so excited until I realized that by the time I get home to my IM, you should be sleeping. "sigh" I guess I'll just keep watching the Blog!!
Woo Woo said to be sure to say Hey Dude when I got a chance. He's really been worried about you!!