Basic Day at School

Well hello there.  A bit earlier, is it not?  Want to get this in before the games start, so lets get to it!

I woke up.  Ate a ton of yogurt because the breakfasts here consist of either meat, yogurt or meat and gosh darn it I so do not want to eat a sausage at seven in the morning.  The nice man brought me a pot of coffee again this morning, but because of how wired I was yesterday I cut back to two cups.  I like this guy and he needs to come home with me so I can have coffee around the clock. 

We went to class, and I stumbled up to the basic class- thats what it's called.  I'm so basic.  At least I don't drink starbucks.  Sorry for my slang, it was too good to pass up.  Anyway, we started by chatting with the others in the class.  Out of the 10 people in the basic level, 7 are from my school. Two from Spain (Barcelona and Valencia) and one girl from Hong Kong.  I feel bad for those three, because us UNCW kids already know each other and I feel that they're excluded a little bit.  So I sat with the Spanish girls.  Because I'm a bit homesick for a language I know!

We did some basic stuff, like basic questions, basic verbs, basic conjugations, basic sentence structures.  It was nice to have the refresher, but please god don't make this a repeat of Spain where I learn stuff I already know!!  At least here I have the option to move up a level.

So here is my struggle...  My german is very very rusty.  I can read it ok, but speaking?  Oooooh not so great.  But I have a relatively good grasp of the grammar, since that's my specialty and I studied it extensively over the last year.  So if I stay basic, I'll just be polishing up what I already know, working with vocabulary, and getting confidence and whatnot.  Sounds good, doesn't it?

But the trouble is that I need to take a business german class, which is a 300 level course, back at school for the business program.  If I take basic german, I won't be getting those 200 level grammar lessons that I'll need for business german.  I don't know a lot.  So, if I scoot up to intermediate (the level above basic) I'll be on par with the grammar, but my vocab will be lacking because it already is. 

It's a struggle.

Anyway, while we were basically basicking, it rained a lot, which made the temperatures go down even more... yuck.  We're hovering in the 50-70 degree zone here in Northern Europe, so that was not a welcome treat.

I ate at the student cafeteria again before I went back.  Then I did laundry.  Our sketchy hotel doesn't have laundry facilities, so we have to hike a block and a half to the laundromat, where the cranky old german lady yells at you for not operating the dryer her way.  Fortunately, the chances are very high that another student will also be waiting there after class, so you at least have company while the german lady grouches in your general direction.  Who knew the laundromat would be where you socialize with students the most?

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but there
are trails of coins all over the city.  If
you follow them, you'll always end up
at the Brementown Musicians.

Then I went pillow shopping because the ones here are not great and I didn't bring mine from home.  It was an adventure with European pillow shapes.  Either HUGE and square, or thin and long.  I opted for thin and long because it's the one that's most likely gonna fit in my suitcase.

 I was going to eat while I was out, but that pillow was big, and I wanted to get it back and out of my arms (because bags are for wimps and Americans!)  So I decided to try the only restaurant within striking distance, which is one of those shady hole-in-the-wall chinese restaurants.  I tend to like them a lot, and this was no exception.  I also learned what it's like to eat in absolute silence, because I was the only one in there, there is no AC running or anything, and the walls are stone.  Dead silent.  So amazing.  I'll be back.

By the way, these pictures are all from yesterday.  I couldn't fit them into yesterdays post and I didn't get any pictures today, so for now enjoy the pretty photography!  As usual, see you tomorrow!