Kiwi in Konstanz: One month already!

Well I can't believe 4 weeks have passed by so quickly. A quick recap of last week: on Monday evening I went for a few drinks at a flat party. Monday is students night here (which is very weird), so it's the most popular day of the week to go out. I just went for the pre-drinks and skipped the club afterwards because I didn't want to go to class hungover, especially as I had a presentation to do the next day.

The presentation went well, and it was the last of 3 so that was a relief! Late afternoon I was invited to hang out at the Bismarck Tower. We had a couple of beers and watched the sunset. I managed to get a pretty good pic this time! On the way home I walked passed a rotisserie food truck so I got spare ribs and pommes frites for dinner. That was so delicious but I had way too much food and accidentally ate all of it... The food truck is there every Tuesday so that's definitely me once a week! So convenient as it's only 3 minutes walk from my place.

On Wednesday we had an afternoon class activity in town. We had to prepare 10 questions in German and ask 5 people on the street of different age groups. At first we all groaned because it's extremely awkward going up to strangers and trying to talk to them in a language you only know a little bit of. What if they were rude or said something you couldn't understand? But we got to go in pairs and after a while it was kind of fun having real full German conversations and luckily we picked very friendly strangers. So in reflection it was a really good exercise because it definitely made me feel more confident in talking to the locals. Afterwards we all met up and had a nice ice cream at a popular café as a reward.

I finally tried 'Mezzo Mix' which I've seen a lot of people drinking here. It's a very German soft drink of coke and fanta mixed together. It sounds gross but it really is all kinds of amazing!

Am I German yet?

As it was our last test on Friday I turned down a party to stay in and study for it. What a good student.
That was a great feeling finishing our final test and after class some of us went to the river Sein to hang out. We had a few beers and bit of a picnic. I discovered currywurst chips which are now my new favourite! We chilled there for 5 hours, watched the sunset and had a great afternoon.

On Saturday we had a full day hiking tour of the island Reichenau, which is in Lake Constance. It's a World Heritage Site and very historical and beautiful. Only the very rich live there and they all had lovely old houses with impeccable gardens (and a boat). I love how here everyone decorates their trees with painted easter eggs and streamers.
We visited castle ruins, had lunch at a nice café, went to the Münster, an old church from the 8th Century and a museum. It was particularly cool because to the left of the island was Germany and to the right was Switzerland. Apparently you are not allowed to cross over to the Swiss side of the lake by boat! Not even by a few metres- you'll get a huge fine. That was a big day, we walked 17 kms! So afterwards a group of us went to a pub in town for some beers and then we had dinner at a German restaurant. I had me some Weiner Schnitzel! We had a couple more drinks and then went home as we were pretty knackered.

Reichenau

On Sunday I didn't even leave the house except to do my laundry, which is very unusual for me. I really felt like I needed a proper day of rest. Plus nothing's open anyway and it was a crappy weather day. So I just chilled and did a lot of last minute travel planning and research for my impending trip coming up!

This Monday I decided to go out this time because if I keep turning down invites I'll probably stop being invited... And it was a last hoorah with everyone as most people are going away for the 2 week break. There were pre-drinks at a flat and later on we went to the club called Berry's. It's the largest in Konstanz and it's probably the equivalent of two clubs joined together- with a huge smoking bar in the middle (Europe!). Each side of the club had it's own dance floor, stages, bars and different kinds of music. So it was very huge and being student night with half price drinks (which are already very cheap) it was very very packed! I had a bit of fun hanging out with everyone and trying to speak German to strangers but I made sure I didn't have too much to drink. I was home by 3am so at least I got 4 hours sleep! It was quite hard to get up though...
And Tuesday (today) was our last day of the March Course. In the morning we had lessons as normal but in the second half of the day our teacher taught us a German board game that everyone could play which was fun. And then all the international students had a big free lunch together and a small ending ceremony. I gave everyone in my class a small token I brought from New Zealand- a Whittakers L&P chocolate slab, which they liked. My class is so awesome so I'll definitely miss seeing them everyday. I'm sure we'll stay in touch though and hang out once the semester starts up.

I'm super excited for the holidays now! Tomorrow I'm off to Stuttgart for 2 nights to explore the largest city in my state. And on Friday I'm flying to Rome and meeting Gareth there! I'm looking forward to Italy so much. We are also going to Florence and Milan before heading back to Konstanz for my first week of the semester. I can't wait to show off my new city (between classes). For the weekend we're going to Munich, and Frühlingsfest just so happens to be starting there the day we arrive! What a coincidence... It's the biggest beer festival after Oktoberfest, so it should be a lot of fun. Then on Sunday the 19th we come back and Gareth is flying back home via Zurich. :(
So this will probably be my last post in a while, as I'm sure I'll be far too busy having fun to write anything.

And on an end note- here is a link to a YouTube video that I find SO hilarious.
'How German sounds compared to other languages.' https://youtu.be/X5z5edvaPDo

I hope everyone has a nice Easter!
Tschüss!