Erste Tage

Hi everybody! Instead of answering many emails a day about what I'm up to, you guys can just read all about it here.

Yesterday was pretty crazy ridiculous. My plane landed in Frankfurt at 11 after a bumpy flight full of noisy crying children (okay, just one, but he was 2 rows in front of me). I got through baggage claim and passport control at noon, which was kind of a bummer because the nonstop train to Bonn leaves at 11:58 every day. When I went to buy a ticket for the next train, though, the 11:58 train was running 15 minutes late. So I took that and it worked out well, except for the part where I had 2 huge suitcases and all the Europeans judged me. When I got to Bonn I took a cab from the train station to the Goethe Institut in Bad Godesberg (about 15 minutes south) and got all registered and placement tested for class. All the teachers commented on how tired I looked and I didn't do very well on the placement tests, but they might move me up since I explained that I had just flown in from Chicago and hadn't really slept at all. I'll know more after class tomorrow.

My dorm/house is about a 10 minute walk from Goethe, and I think about 10-15 people live here. My room has its own bathroom, which is nice. Last night after the new people got all settled in and unpacked the students who have been here for a few weeks made us dinner and had a party for us. It was a really good time and everyone was really friendly. They got a mini-keg to go with dinner since it was cheaper than bottles of beer and when they tried to open it, it exploded all over everyone in the room... welcome to Germany, here's your beer shower! After dinner we all talked (there were like 15 of us) until about 10, and then my roommate and I were too tired to stay up much longer so we went to bed.

Did I mention my roommate is from Australia? She is. She's really cool. I love how international everyone is here. Last night I met a guy also from Australia, a guy from London, some girls from Brazil, a girl from India (who is 23 and here for an internship with a shoe designer - so cool!! I told her to design some shoes in a size 44), a few guys from Japan and China (they were the ones who made us dinner), and of course some German guys (they work at Goethe). We all felt guilty for speaking English instead of German but whenever anyone would try it was so hard to have a conversation because none of us quite know exactly how to say what we want to say.

Today was the first day of class, which was pretty uneventful. I like German classes because every 1 1/2 hours there is a 15- or 30-minute break. After lunch we went on a walking tour of Bad Godesberg. There's a castle that was built in the 1100s on the hill in the middle of the town, y'know, just hangin out, bein all old and visited. It was destroyed in the 1500s by some Bavarians and never rebuilt but now it's a restaurant and hotel. The stairs were too snowy and steep to climb all the way up, but we're planning on going up there one day. The rest of the town is super cute - there's a Fussgaengerzone like in Freiburg with shops and a movie theater and stuff, and I counted I think 4 ice cream shops while we were walking around. There's also a Tchibo so maybe I'll stop in there and put more money on my phone since there's none on it. There's a T-mobile store right next door so maybe I'll just get a new phone, I dunno (mom and dad - thoughts?).

Tonight the boys at the other dorm (Mark from London and Patrick from Australia) are making everyone dinner so I'll be going over there soon. It's nice not to have to cook but I don't want to go outside... it's coooold. But maybe the heat works over there. It's kind of broken/nonfunctional in this house. Right now I'm wearing slippers, socks, leggings, pants, a sweater, and a blanket, and I'm comfortable but still a little chilly. Anyway. I think after dinner we are going to go out and see if there are any good pubs around... I love Germany. All the people I've met so far are so much fun to hang out with!

We are toying with the idea of visiting Amsterdam this weekend... we'll see if that actually works out or not. I think it'd be a lot of fun and it's so close by train. If we don't do that, there is a trip into Cologne for sightseeing and shopping and stuff so that would be fun too. In a couple weeks there is a ski trip on a Saturday so I'm really excited for that since skiing in Europe was one of the things on my list of things to do.

I'll put up some pictures soon, but not right now, since I haven't taken enough for it to be worth uploading them onto my computer yet.

Go 'Cats.