Woche 2

Rhein River

Hallo Leute!

The second week has also flown by in a whirl and it was another very good week. I'm starting to feel a little more confident in my German class. Obviously I really like the language so I enjoy learning it and I'm also starting to understand it a bit better now. Earlier in the week I had an incident where my apartment's power went out so I had to go to my house master's office for help. He speaks NO English whatsoever so it's a bit of a challenge trying to communicate with him.
My first experience with him on my second day here didn't go so well, as it took forever to try explain to him I wanted a pillowcase and douvet cover- which I should have got with my bedding I hired, but it was missing. That took about half an hour of gesturing and pointing to get the message through... but my second experience today went a bit better. I knew how to say 'my electrics have gone out' and then we had a conversation about it in which I understood most of it! Hooray. So that was easily fixed.
 


Genius food

Wednesday afternoon we had a trip to town to open our bank accounts and afterwards I checked out the local mall and had a currywurst. (Another one of my favs!) Soo delicious. I had just gotten home and was invited out with a group for a döner kebab. I'd just eaten but I went anyway to be social and just had some fries. I'm eating so much here, but oh well. I'm not going to deny myself because I love the food here too much! Plus I am walking between 8 - 10+ km a day (I have an app that counts) so I'm hoping it's all balancing out!...
In the group I met a new German guy that flats with one of my friends and he is going to take us out sometime and show us some cool places to hang out and drink. I also asked where's the best place for pork knuckle so I have that up my sleeve when the temptation rises!

I am now officially a resident citizen of Konstanz! For a maximum of two years only, but still it's pretty cool. Heaps of people have mentioned to me that they thought I was from America. I think it's because of the long hair and the way I dress. I'll take it as a compliment!
On Friday we had our first German test so I hope that went well. I did forget some things but I reckon I got 75% which isn't too bad. After lunch we met with our department of study co-ordinators to discuss our papers we are choosing and to ask any questions, so that was super helpful. I found out all the papers I'm taking are 300 level as they offer no introductory or lower level psychology in English, its only in German. So that's going to be quite a challenge for me. But at least I'm taking a few other German language and culture papers so I wont go too insane...

Typical students

Afterwards Terese and I went to the shops to get food and drinks for a pre-party we were having at her place before a big party that night organised by the LEI. We wanted to make sangria but we couldn't find a large jug or bowl to make it in. So we bought a bucket! That's how we roll in Germany!
The pre-party was loads of fun. We had pizza and there were about a dozen of us. The sangria turned out very nice and someone else brought home-made glüwein (mulled wine) which tasted like Christmas!
I'm starting to make a list of things I say that foreigners think are hilarious. So far it includes 'crack a beer' and 'have a snooze'. Even 'sweet as' gets a funny look!

We went to the big party at about 10 pm and it was a whole bar hired out for us international students with super cheap drinks- only 1,50 € per beer. There were so many people packed into that room though! It was a fun night and there was dancing involved which means I had too much to drink... I went home at about 2:30 am and felt pretty bad the next day! (I blame the sangria).


Our volleyball team- 'The Raspberries'...

Saturday afternoon was a volleyball tournament at the Uni sports hall. Each language class needed to have a team. I've never played before but I had no choice to sign up because our class is small so we all had to! It was a bit annoying because it was the last thing I felt like doing. But luckily when we got there more people joined our team so after a couple of hours Terese and I snuck off and got a döner kebab! That was the best thing ever. We then did some food shopping because all shops are closed on Sundays (it's so weird!). I got home at 6pm and it was so nice just to relax. There was a BBQ on after the volleyball tournament but I was far too tired and really wanted to chill. Plus its too cold to BBQ at the moment! The weather has been super nice though.
The whole time I've been here there's only been one 'bad' day and that was the day it snowed- which was great! The rest of the time it has been perfect blue sky days, it's quite amazing especially at this time of year.

Sunday was mostly another super chill day just blobbing out, cleaning, washing, skyping home etc. At about 3pm I decided to venture out for a stroll to Switzerland. It is literally a 10 minute walk from the centre of town and you're right in a whole new country! I had an ice cream on the lake front- just because, and walked through the town of Kreuzlingen. It was dead empty as everything's closed, but it was still nice to have a look.
And that's about it for now! Next week I'm looking forward to St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday and on Saturday we have a trip to Freiburg which we are going to via The Black Forest so that's exciting!
Below is a few more pics from my week :)

Tschüss!

This is how we study in Germany...

Room shot 1

Room shot 2

LOVE the old buildings of Konstanz!



The border representation