I'm in very much a routine, and so I haven't done a whole lot. There also isn't a whole lot to do here that I haven't already done. As far as the Altstadt goes (old city), I've already walked around and shown you pictures and stuff, I haven't eaten anything terribly exotic or exciting, and I haven't learned anything new. So, I guess I'll tell you about my mundane week in excruciating detail...? I'll also post some pictures that I've taken over the last few weeks that just hadn't come up yet.
So, I wake up at 6:40 every morning. For no good reason. My roommate has really bad hearing, so her alarm is so painfully loud that I wake up thinking that I've been invaded by a discotheque every morning. Nothing like a good heart attack to start your morning.
Then I go eat breakfast. Yogurt and toast. Yogurt and toast. The nice man brings me coffee. I drink too much. I regret my life later. I'll say why in a minute.
Then, to help wake myself up and to pad that half hour during which I could be sleeping but instead have to be awake for, I walk to school. Note, it's a five minute train ride easy, but twenty minute walk. It's not a great walk, but I get to be alone for it so that is a major plus. I don't do so well surrounded by people 24/7, even if it's people I like.
I pass very little of consequence, but I do get to go by a nice park (not as nice as my spanish park, but it's a lot more open and useable). It's the Leibniz park, should that name be familiar to you. Yep, it's named after a philosopher. I can get behind that. They really like Leibniz up here in the north.
I get to school early anyway, so I sit around, check up on my daily stuff, wander around like a lost puppy, then I go to class.
Our class is 3.5 hours long, with a half hour break in the middle for a snack or something. Most people use this time for breakfast, but I already had free breakfast, so I only get something if I'm starving.
After class, we eat lunch. I have mentioned that the cafeteria is a cheap lunching option, with decently tasty and healthy food options, so I always get something. It's almost always chicken though. So sorry if you hate chicken! I'm not sick of that yet, and its a welcome relief from pork and beef. This is one of the few times when our group is all gathered together, though so I tend to find this is my social time, when you talk about your classes, discuss afternoon plans, gripe about the only trump supporter in the entire country of Germany....
It's hilarious to hear the German and Austrian talk about what they're learning though. Since they're (obviously) in the advanced class, they already speak the language so they're going deep into hard-core stuff. Last week, they were moping about how they were being lectured in german about various economic and political dryness by one of those crusty old professors... Ouch. Meanwhile... we're learning how to read clocks. Its also amusing to hear them discussing these magical grammar terms as if they've never heard them before. (There are these things called prefixes... and you can remove them to change the meanings of the words! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS??? -It's called a separable prefix verb, you've been doing them all the time- WHAAAAT???)
The afternoons are typically free, though I've been super motivated to study these last few days as I realized that the grammar I'm learning in class is not new, so I have to study vocab on my own. I've also been... drumroll... planning a trip to Berlin this weekend! Yay! I'm super nervous, as I'm doing it entirely on my own which I've never done before... eep! Should be ok. Should be. The other people are going too, but a day earlier, so they'll be in Berlin should anything horrible happen to me. But I want to do this on my own. More on my trip later, I don't want to give away too much yet, but I'm planning some neat stuff! At least I think it's neat.
I've done a couple things on my own out and about, like buy some german books (Siddhartha and MOMO, was gonna get Neverending Story but it was only in hardback, weighed a billion pounds and cost a lot). I've also gone and gotten some chocolate, walked around Schnoor, which is the super claustrophobic fishing village, walked around the shopping area, and walked a lot. A lot.
For dinner, I've been going out and about, trying to eat relatively healthy... It's sehr hard. If you're going light food, you're limited to straight salad, just potatoes, or chicken. Usually you go for foreign cuisine since german food is not light. At. All.
I should mention döner kebabs, maybe... I've yet to have them since they're greasy meat (usually beef or veal) wrapped in pita, but they're the fast food of germany. It's a kind of turkish food, and they come from these tiny little shops that have a bunch of ingredients that they roast and plop on your plate. Basically, it's like schwarma, but it took off BIG TIME in Deutschland. Why? Who knows? But it's everywhere, super cheap and fast. IE: the ideal college dining experience... or something.
And that's all I have to say, really. I'm studying a lot, planning a lot for Berlin, and am just going on with my daily life.
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