It's nice being able to wear t-shirts and sandals in late autumn.

Today started out looking like a busy day, but it ended up being nice. First, I got up at 9:30 and went to the AYF office 45 minutes later. There I talked to Ulli and read an article entitled ‘Homophobic Slang as Coercive Language on College Campuses’. It was boring and dumb. Then I went to Herr Dihlmann’s office hour to talk about my presentation thing that I have to do. He looked at the questions that I made up from the text and said that they were good.

Then I had time before I had to meet my tandem partner, and so I went to the Christmas market, bought some Christmas ornaments, and gorged myself on food. I ate a cheese Wurst with sautéed onions and a bowl of pesto tortellini. The Wurst was good, but the tortellini didn’t have much taste.

After the Weihnachtsmarkt, I met my tandem partner and talked to her for an hour, and then I met my Language & Gender group and worked on our homework. That was fun and easy. Then I went back to the Weihnachtsmarkt and bought more stuff. But I’m going to tell my parents how much money I’m spending and they’ll probably say that it’s ok because I’m in Germany, and then I’ll feel better.

When I got home, I made dinner and it was good. I had pasta with sauce and I made the sauce myself.

There were some annoying experiences with the bank and the bookstore today, but I don’t feel like talking about those.

What gender is the cheese???

said Maryia emphatically.

At 10:30 this morning, I had slept for 15 of the previous 24 hours. Quite impressive.

After my class this afternoon, I ventured over to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) and looked around. It was exciting. Today was the first day it was open and it goes until December 23. I saw so much stuff that I wanted to get for people (and some for myself too). All I bought today was Flammkuchen, Glühwein, and come candied cashews. Flammkuchen is thin, soft bread (kind of like pizza dough) with white soft/gooey cheese on top and ham, and it tastes like it was smoked. It’s really good. Glühwein is hot, spiced wine. That was also pretty good. It came in a cool cup, which I had to pay a €1 Pfand for. You get the Pfand back when you take the cup back, but I kept the cup. I’m going to go back tomorrow if I have time. Tomorrow is a busy day.

I got an 88% on my German test. Yay. It’s a good grade and I’m satisfied.

Kevin from UM just told me about a thank you card he saw in a store. It says “Thank you, or as they say in Germany…” and then you open it up and it says “donkey chain!” with a chain of donkeys in a circle (danke schön). And actually the Swiss say it more like that than the Germans.

...wild weekend.

Yesterday afternoon I finally found a large collection of Freiburg/Germany tourist souvenirs. Everything was way overpriced, but I didn’t let that stop me.

Tuesday night I went over to Sonny’s apartment. We watched a corny 80’s horror movie dubbed into German and ate dinner.

Last night there was a WG (pronounced vay-gay) party at Händelstraße. I was going to leave after an hour because I wanted to catch a Strassenbahn home, but I ended up staying until 1:30ish and then walking home with a drunk German that I barely knew. Alex offered me his couch, but I just wanted my bed. It was really fun. We had no idea where we were going and had to ask a lot of people. But when we got to the Hauptbahnhof, we ate McDonald’s.

Today I had to get up to meet Michael (my pole) outside the Münster. We had ice cream and walked around. It was nice. And then I went home and slept for five hours. I’ve barely gotten any sleep these past few days. Well, ok, I’ve gotten enough, but not as much as I’m used to… 6 hours on Thursday, 7 hours on Friday, and 7 hours on Saturday. Ok, so that’s not bad at all, but I’m not used to it.

The Day of Turkey in the Land of the Deutschen.

Wednesday was like any other day. Class, etc. I had a stomachache in the evening though. That was most unpleasant. I talked to Ulli about getting caller ID because I’d like to avoid Ibrahim. He said he would call the phone company. But despite my unpleasant experience with Ibrahim Tuesday night, I did learn some French from him. I’m going to try my hardest to take French next semester.

Yesterday afternoon I got my daddy a Christmas present. And I also got some blue glittery pinecone ornaments for my tree. It’s going to cost me over €30 to send my tree home, but I like it so much that I think I’m going to do it. Today I got some red balls for my tree.

Thanksgiving last night was great. There were a bunch of Americans and Germans there and some random other people. AYF supplied the turkey and drinks and everyone else had to bring something. I took bread and corn. It was Ben Ernst’s birthday, so we sang the American song but with German accents. It was hilarious. Beki, Joslyn, Mary, and I went to Mary’s afterwards and watched Howl’s Moving Castle. I liked it, but we didn’t get to finish it.

In my class Wednesday, I was thinking about the relationship that those of us have within AYF. It’s nothing like the relationship between students at home. Obviously the situation is different here, but it’s still cool how everyone is with everyone else.

Caller ID would be nice.

I got two packages in the mail today! Yay! One was from Ellie and the other one was a memory card for my camera, which I ordered from amazon.de. It’s 512MB (considerably better than my 16MB one). Ellie sent me a Thanksgiving card and some other random things.

The Wetter was rainy and windy this morning and afternoon, but then it started to clear up as the Sonne was setting. I have a Prüfung tomorrow in my International House class. It’s over all the grammar and crap we’ve done. It should be ok. I don’t plan to study much. And I need to find an English/German version of the Buch ‘Faust’ by Goethe. (I threw some German words in there for you). ;)

Ibrahim was way too insistent today. I had to physically push him away from me and almost physically push him out the door. But I have a picture of him now if anyone is curious.

Something New...?

I’m really looking forward to coming home for Christmas. It seems so weird to just randomly be in the US again for a couple weeks. I’m really looking forward to seeing all my friends at home and all my family in PA and my friends in Ann Arbor.

So far since I’ve been here, I’ve seen two great commercials. The first one was the ladybug sex one. But today I saw another fun one. There were random foods smashing into walls like cars do with crash crash-test dummies. It showed a sushi thing hit the wall and break into a million piece and some other ones that I don’t remember exactly. But then it showed a baguette (like French bread) hit the wall and just bounce back. Then it said on the screen ‘the safest cars come from France’. I laughed.

Oh, and I drank one glass of water today. I'm not sure if I had some apple juice eariler or not.

Only 5 weeks until Christmas!

I never knew what the point of fluffing a pillow was until I came here. These pillows have to be fluffed every night or else they are completely flat. But when they’re fluffed, they’re big and squishy.

Yesterday was a lazy day. I watched School of Rock, some TV, and I read the rest of Othello. But when I was on the Strassenbahn, a kid (12-14) asked me if my feet were cold because I was wearing sandals. He was… interesting. This was during the 15 minutes delay. A different Strassenbahn train ahead of us wasn’t functioning.

Today was really nice. I could’ve met Beki and Joslyn at 11:00 to do some Christmas shopping, but I was too lazy to get up. So instead I went at noon and kicked myself for not getting up an hour earlier to go with them. My shopping trip consisted mostly of nothing too special. I got some dried fruit and a Bratwurst from the Münsterplatz, some food from a grocery store, a gift (for someone who consistently reads my blog) ;), an extension cord, and a couple Christmas ornaments. When I was looking at the ornaments, some lady knocked a bunch onto the floor and broke them. Then she just kind of pushed them together with her foot and walked away. Hmm. I also saw a few people playing music on the street and a couple guys painting. There was a really nice guy that talked to me when I was buying the gift.

I’ve only worn one pair of socks in the past month. And I only wore them once (not for the whole month like Ross thought)! I found out this random sock fact because I did my laundry today! For the first time in month! Yay! But I still really don’t have clean clothes because I only washed 2 pairs of jeans and a couple shirts. The rest was towels, sheets, and various undergarments. When I run out of underwear, I know it’s time to do laundry.

Living in Germany has really boosted my German proficiency, I think. In the summer, I took CMU’s German placement test online and I got a couple points more than when I took UM’s in January (they use the same program). Then I took CMU’s test a couple weeks ago and got about 200 more points than in the summer. Each test had about the same amount of time between. So… I’m happy. But people still ask me if I speak English…

Today could've gone better.

Arg. Someone shoot me now. Today was painful. As it turns out, I really really hate one of my classes, but without it I’ll only have 10 credits. So that creates a problem that is a pain to fix.

Last week I was in my Language and Gender class and I was talking to some Germans (in English). They asked my why I would ever want to learn German since I already know English.

It’s official. I really have no idea what is going on in anyone’s life because no one writes in their blogs anymore. What do I know? I know Ross just registered for classes, Ryan is getting a cold, Lyne has numerous children, Vanessa is BSing a paper, Tina is going to be traveling soon, Leslie is alive (and just turned 22), BethAnne is mad at a boy, Hannah went to a Pillar concert, and Ben is getting sick of Christmas band music. But that is pretty much all that I know.

Klar soweit?

German teenage boys are weird and I don’t like them. They remind me of idiot boys when I was in high school. And yes, that is a HUGE generalization, and so I’m only talking about the idiot German ones, not all of them. But anyway, a lot of them wear big fluffy coats.
...
Today was really warm (almost 70). I enjoyed it immensely.
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Beki almost killed me on Monday. Ok, not really. I was crossing the street near the International House before the crosswalk light had turned green... I hadn’t seen Beki standing there and she didn’t notice me until I was past her and on the road, and so she called out my name. Surprised, I slowed/stopped and turned. And then I realized I was in the middle of the road and that traffic had a green light.
...
A long time ago, I went to go to sleep, but I was too far up the bed when I was laying down and I smashed my head on the wall. It hurt. I’m more careful now. I’ve been wanting to share that for a while now.
...
This afternoon I sent out 5 postcards and bought a Christmas tree. Ah, it was fun! But, seriously, someone really needs to lock up my money, especially since it’s nearing Christmas. I’ll be buying Christmas decorations (…and I need to get some cookie cutters…) and going nuts with presents, because everything I see, I think ‘Oh! I should get that for [your name here]’. I’m not used to having about $9,000 at my disposal. I mean, yes, I do have to use some of it to pay for insurance, housing, food, etc., but there’s still about €300 per month that I can use for whatever. And, yes, a lot of it is loan money… but let’s not think about that right now.
...
It’s too bad none of you have universal DVD players. I bought Troy, Gladiator, and School of Rock yesterday.
...
I think I’m going to get red tinsel for my tree. I already have gold balls, 6 silver ornaments, a couple other random ornaments, and white lights. The so-called “tree skirt” is red too. (It’s actually some weird rug/blanket thing that was in the room when I moved in).
...
There’s an advertisement for condoms here that says “Gib AIDS keine Chance” [give AIDS no chance]. In one of my classes, we were talking about the population decline in Germany and other industrialized countries, and one of the stated reasons was birth control, to which Joslyn cleverly remarked, “gib AIDS und Kinder [children] keine Chance”. I found it incredibly humorous. It was just good placement. The class was just all around humorous today with sluts, a snort from Terra, and ‘Klar soweit’ (what Cpt. Jack Sparrow says in the German PotC instead of ‘Savvy’).

Where's that feeling that I don't feel?

I absolutely love Müsli. I could live off of Müsli for a long time.
...
This afternoon I bought a kiss, or so I tell myself. I was walking along, minding my own business, when a random guy came up to me and started rambling at me and showing me some coins in his hand. I wasn’t sure what he wanted at first. All I knew was that it had something to do with money. So I told him to slow down because I wasn’t understanding anything. I also said that I wasn’t sure, and he assured me that he wasn’t an alcoholic, although that wasn’t even what I wasn’t sure about (I still wasn’t sure what he wanted). So I gave him €3 and he was quite happy and excitedly gave me a kiss on the cheek. I really have no idea what he really needed the money for. Maybe he was telling the truth. I don’t know. But if I were in the situation of actually desperately needing money, I would want someone to trust me and give me the money. And if he was a drug addict that just needed his next fix, then I paid €3 for the kiss and the smile it put on my face. I think a smile is worth that much to me.
...
I bought a bunch more Christmas stuff. It was fun. I about had a Christmas orgasm in Karstadt. There were so many ornaments and candles and trees and gingerbread houses.
...
When I was done, I needed to find some matches. I looked everywhere and ended up buying chocolate… Christmas chocolate. Then I sat down on a bench and the brass ensemble started playing down the street. So I pondered my matches dilemma while I listened to good music. There was a guy kind of standing around, and I thought about asking him where I could buy matches, but I decided against it. Then he sat down next to me and pulled out a book. I looked at the title and did a double take: the title was in English. I decided that was as good of a reason as any, and so I asked him where I could buy some matches. He told me where I might be able to find some, and then he started talking to me a little. After a while I left to check out the brass ensemble and get my lighter.
...
AYF is putting on a potluck thanksgiving dinner. They’re supplying the turkey and everyone else has to bring the other dishes. And, just for the record, I don’t like pumpkin pie.

It's a long way from yesterday to where I am today.

Yesterday nothing happened. I wore pajama pants all day and didn’t leave my room. It was nice. I watched the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy that I had downloaded. Yeah, I paid about $35 just to be able to see the new season of Grey’s Anatomy. Oh well. It’s nice to be able to watch something in English.

Today I only had one class (from 6-8) because my other one was canceled. So because I have no classes tomorrow, it’s basically a 5-day weekend for me.

I went shopping this evening. Ah, it was fun… so fun. I bought some Christmas decorations, a Germany glass, 5 postcards, and a gift for Leslie.

Things I miss about the USA:
- English
- TV shows in English
- Stores open on Sunday
- A university system that I’m familiar with
- Driving
- The cashiers bagging the groceries
- Cheese that I’ve heard of
- American pizza
Yeah, that’s about everything.

Oh, and I have a test on Thanksgiving. That is so cruel.

Ben and I are going to open a business.

Yesterday I had to meet Ibrahim again. He was nice and normal and not so creepy (and only 23), which was good. But he still couldn’t understand me, and in the end I brought him back to my room to try and clear up what ‘Fluch der Karibik’ (‘Pirates of the Caribbean’) was. And it was in this time that I noticed something. My first hint was when I showed him my little pictures that had French vocabulary on them, and he didn’t seem to get the significance. Then we began to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, but there wasn’t French speaking, only subtitles. I asked if that was ok, and he said yes. So we were watching it, and I noticed that he was reading the French out loud quietly to himself, and it was always just the first few words. There were a few times when I asked him if he was understanding and he always said that he was. So then he started talking to me, and around this time I was trying to figure out what the difference in pronunciation in French was between ‘finger’, ‘you’ (accusative), and ‘three’. But he had no idea what I was getting at, so I drew a picture and wrote the French words under it. Under the number 3, I had written ‘trois’, and when I was trying to get him to say ‘trois’, he asked if what I had written was English. I had been wondering it before, but this was the convincing moment, and so I asked him if he could read. At first he tried to divert it to whether he could read German. But I said that I was talking about French, and he said that he could not read very much French (and I assume German as well). Finally it all made sense. That’s why he never looked at the menu and was insistent that I pick something. That’s why he ordered the same thing as I did. That’s why when I had written something down before, he didn’t seem to get it.

Besides that, nothing much happened yesterday. Sonny called and wanted me to come over, but I had the thing with Ibrahim and this weekend just isn’t good in general.

This afternoon I made pizza dough from scratch. It’s enough for four small pizzas. And then I made sauce. When the sauce was done, I made a pizza. Mmm, it was good.

“So I cleaned our bathroom yesterday and I think doing my road kill project in advanced bio was less disgusting.” –Ross

Tonight I went to the StuSie bar with Alex, Beki, Joslyn, Mary, and Sarah to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. It was fun. I like the music.

I'm tired and I can't think of a title.

I had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn this morning, a.k.a. 7:00. But I hit the snooze for about 30 minutes. I like sleeping.

Tuesday evening I was at Sonny’s and he made Nigerian food for dinner. It was plantains and eggs and it was good. We ate it while watching CNN, which is the only channel in English. We saw some of CSI: Miami in German later.

Yesterday when I was making dinner, my Mitbewohner came in with her parents, her aunt, and her uncle. I was quite surprised, and they said ‘hola’ to me.

Germans can sure be pushy… and smelly.

The tall trees that I can see from my window have lost almost all of their leaves. It’s colder now, but the past few days haven’t been bad.

On this date, five important things happened in German history.

Speaking of history, Freiburg has a fairly interesting one.

My Language and Gender class was fun today because the Germans in my group were asking me why I am studying German and why I came to Freiburg and where I was from and stuff like that (and also how to pronounce a word in English). I enjoyed being the exception.

...and I'll take the low road...

Monday night before I went to bed, I was having an idea/creative overload. I thought of something to give my dad for Christmas, figured out how I would design it, thought of ideas for my paper, and more still. I couldn’t get to sleep because I was so excited.

Yesterday I saw a cello and oboe ensemble. I also bought a little leather pouch yesterday to hold my important cards in my backpack for easy access. Here you can’t take backpacks or coats into libraries, so you have to leave them unattended on the floor outside. At the main library you can check them in somewhere though.

As it turns out, Sonny is 32. I guess that’s not extremely old. And I wasn’t sure before, but Sonny definitely ‘likes’ me. Yeah, he’s 32 and divorced and originally from Nigeria… but he’s a German citizen. So… yeah.

There's not much to say today.

I found this on a message boards and thought it was amusing.
"What kinda guy is your roommate?"
"Well, last night, he banged his shins on a chair, and said, 'Oh, the perversity of inanimate objects.'"

The good news is, we have a new shower head. So no more hose showers!

When I was in the center of the city this afternoon, I saw a brass quintet playing on the street. There were two trumpets, a French horn, a trombone, and a tuba.

I have a paradoxical conundrum. I’m really angry that I was screwed over and put in 302 instead of 402, but at the same time I really love the class that I’m in. And therefore I never know how I should feel. Oh well.

Yeah, I don’t have much to say today. I had a Döner for dinner, and it wasn’t as good as usual. I think he used turkey meat instead of Döner meat.

One of these days I'm going to make pizza!

I’ve been missing really random stuff lately, like Ben Franklin (the store) and Thanksgiving dinner (which hasn’t even happened yet). I had a dream last night that I went home for the weekend. Odd.

A while ago, I bought You’ve Got Mail in German. I don’t know if I mentioned that.

About 33% of Germans have blonde hair, about 33% have brown or black hair, about 1% have red hair, and about 33% have gray or no hair. Interesting.

HA! I just got an email from my Pole! It made me smile.

This is the view out of my window a while ago. There are considerably less leaves and green things now.

"I rode the Hasselhof"

I had Burger King for lunch yesterday because I was craving greasy American food. Mmm. It was good, but the crispy chicken tasted really weird. It was either the cheese or the mayonnaise, but it definitely tasted weird. Then I went and got my free Universität Freiburg t-shirt.

For those that haven’t seen me in a couple months, I’ve developed an interesting tongue clicking habit.

This afternoon, I downloaded a bunch of Scottish reels. They all sound fairly similar so far, but once I listen to them more, I’m sure I’ll find some favorites.

Last night I went to the play, Othello, in the theatre. It was definitely weird… There was just the simplest set. It was modern. They all came out in normal clothes at first and did a weird dance/chant thing, and then they stripped on stage and changed into their ‘costumes’, which were still fairly normal. Iago, Cassio, and Othello wore camouflage, Roderigo wore leather pants, the women wore dresses, and then there were two guys in suits. I like Iago the most, and I liked the play too. A lot of people from AYF didn’t like it, but I did.

Then when I got home, I watched the Spongebob movie. Heh, it was entertaining.
...
It’s nice being settled in and used to everything, but now that the newness of things is gone, it is a little less interesting. Old hat. Now, don’t get my wrong, I like old hats. They’re comfortable, but that also means that old hats have lost their freshness. They’re familiar and rountine-ish. Ah, oh well.

You know you've studied abroad in Germany when...

1. You have sorted your garbage into at least 3 garbage cans and you know the difference (or should know the difference) between "Gelbe Sacke" and "Restmull". It's annoying.
2. You have ever drank: a Maß, Meter or Stiefel of beer. Not yet, but eventually.
3. You have ever had or not had "lust" to do something. Hast du Lust?
4. You get excited that CNN is in English. Oh, yeah. And I was disappointed when my TV didn't get it.
5. You know what a Döner is, and you've eaten more than one in the same week from a different "Imbiss" each time. I think my record was 4 in one week.
6. You've been to Oktoberfest. Not yet...
7. You've worried before about catching "the last Strassenbahn" home. Gotta watch that clock at Scottich dancing.
8. You've ever been stressed out at the grocery store while checking out, and have noted that you will never take "baggers" for granted ever again. But it is so efficient and good for the environment.
9. You've enjoyed the ablility to walk down the street/ride the strassenbahn/hang out in public drinking a beer or other alcoholic beverage. I have not taken advantage of this right yet.
10. You've watched the Simpsons in German and hated it. It was weird at first, but now I like it.
11. You've ordered more than one Kugel of Eis a day...everyday... Na, ja... Gelatto...
12. You've laughed at someone trying to say "squirrel". Augustine, dear Augustine.
13. You know what a "Klo" is and you've gone "auf" one. ...yes.
14. You know what the "German Stare" is. It can get a little creepy sometimes.
15. You know what DB stands for. Naturally.
16. You've ever explained to someone what a "pinata" is. Yeah, we had to explain it to our instructor.
17. You've ever visited the local gas station on a Sunday because it's the only thing open. Not the gas station, but the train station.
18. You know the difference between Milka and Ritter Sport. I'm not sure, but I think I prefer Ritter Sport.
19. You know what a WG is, and have lived in one. Perhaps unfortunately...
20. You've ever been totally confused on how to open any and all windows/doors/locks. OH YES. This was a HUGE problem for me in the beginning.

Today started early and without the convenience of my alarms working. I went to class at 8:30, and it was interesting enough to justify the early hour. After class ended, I still had 4 hours before my next class, so I went to the AYF office to buy a ticket for Othello and then searched out the international office. At the international office, I wandered around until someone asked what I was looking for. They gave me directions and I eventually found it. When in the office, I managed to make enough of a fool of myself to probably make them wonder why they gave me a scholarship in the first place. But I got my certificate for a free t-shirt and also a free Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg mug.

This evening I went to the Irish pub to do some Scottish dancing again. Es machte spaß.

All the Colors of Fall

It’s November!!! How exciting! It’s nice that it’s November 1st and I have my window wide open.



Last night we had an extremely American Halloween party. There was food, candy, pumpkins, caramel apples, apple fritters (that I made, yes it IS true), and a homemade pumpkin piñata. And so, actually, it was kind of a Mexican themed American Halloween party (because of the piñata and the Mexican food for dinner), which was nice because it’s almost impossible to get Mexican food around here.

I went for a very brief walk yesterday and took some fall pictures of the Seepark. And on my way back, I decided to restrain myself and not be incredibly creepy.

When I went into Kaufhof yesterday, they had a big section of Christmas stuff out. It was exciting. I am definitely not going to be able to restrain myself during this Christmas season.

When I was making my apple fritters, I splashed hot oil and burned my finger. It hurt for a while, but not so much anymore.

It’s fun watching TV and being able to say, “But it’s helping me improve my German!”

Me, being the genius I am, just realized something. The jokes that say “what do you get when you cross a ____ with a ____” are not talking about those things meeting in the street and ‘crossing’ paths, but instead are talking about mating and genetics. The same with “it’s a cross between a ____ and a ____”. Huh, I never realized that before.