The American Mutt

Yesterday in Freiburg, Germany's women's soccer team played against China's. It was apparently a friendly game in preparation for the Olympics. I didn't go, but there was a ton of people wearing Germany stuff and carrying German flags. The Straßenbahn was also really full. We couldn't get on the first one, and some old guy wouldn't let the doors close because he wanted to get on. But the people wouldn't move to let him on. Finally the driver came and yelled at him. And then when the Straßenbahn left, we could see that if the people would've just moved a bit, the man and a few more could've gotten on.

I also bought the fourth Harry Potter book in German yesterday. I didn't buy it before because it wasn't out in soft cover and so it was quite expensive (€23 instead of €10).

There were some Americans eating at an eating place and I recognized them as Americans immediately even though I didn't hear them speak for a while after that. That has happened before too. I don't know what it is...

SwartzFahrer

Today was another lovely day. I managed to pull myself out of bed a bit earlier than yesterday. Nidhal and I went for a walk in the Seepark. The water is a lot lower than in August, but probably not much lower than in December. Flowers are blooming, the air is warm/cool, and it smells like spring. I didn't make it into the city today, but I did do some grocery shopping.

When Nidhal went to work, I watched Anastasia. I was really surprised how much I actually liked it. And then I decided to do some grocery shopping. The only problem was, uh oh, I only have €1. Can't get much food with that. So I walked around for a bit looking for an ATM. There was one, but you need a card to get to it because it was after business hours, and I didn't want to risk my only access to money (aka my ATM card) trying to get in. So I took the Straßenbahn to the next stop where there is a bunch of stores and such even though I didn't have enough money to get a ticket to ride legally. Luckily, there was no 'control'. I figured there had to be an ATM there, and sure enough, I saw a sign for one soon after getting off the Straßenbahn. But alas, it was also behind a door. An old lady was in there using it, so I assumed she had to come out sometime... and she did... and I got my money. But it was, of course, all bills and no coins. So once again, I rode illegally on the Straßenbahn. They call people who ride illegally on public transportation "Schwarzfahrer". I figured it was fitting.

Other than that, my day was nothing interesting. I had a Döner on Monday. Tonight is shot night at the bar, but Nidhal is sleeping already and I don't want to go alone. He actually has been sleeping a lot and at weird times. Today he got up around 7am (after going to sleep at 10 the night before), slept from 3 to 5:20, and then went to bed again at 10. He says he's catching up on missed sleep from before, but I think he needs to deal with it and get on a normal sleep schedule.

Tomorrow had better include some extensive shopping and browsing or else someone's gonna get it.

Eternal Spring

And now I'm in Germany. The airport (DTW) was almost completely empty when I got there. I had never seen it with so few people. It took me five minutes or less to check in, check my bag, and get through security. That is a record. And then I had over an hour until it was time to board the plane, so I wandered around the airport. The plane was also very empty. I would say it was less than half full. I watched four movies during the flight: Stuck On You, Bee Movie, Brother Bear, and Chicken Little. And then I watched some SpongeBob. I saw the moon from the plane. It looked closer.

We got to Frankfurt early and went through customs and all that crap fairly quickly. The most time consuming part was waiting for the luggage to come out. So I got into the normal part of the airport and looked at the time. It was about 7:30am. I had already bought a train ticket through the internet a couple days before, but I had planned to take the 9:54 train to Freiburg. But I knew that trains run every other hour direct to Freiburg and in the other hours, there is just one time where you have to change trains. I didn't want to wait around for more than two hours, so I quickly checked the train schedule to be sure and then went as fast as possible from terminal 2 to the train station. But these two things are about as far apart as they get in this airport, so even though I had 20-30 minutes, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. Luckily, though, I did make it. The train was already there when I got to the platform, but I still had a couple minutes.

Nidhal wanted me to call him from the airport, but I didn't have time because of the train thing, so I called him from the Freiburg train station. He was randomly in town buying me a birthday cake, so he was in the train station even before my money in the pay phone ran out.

In a German TV show last night, they were talking about the thickness of pizza crust, that it varies in the USA but in the rest of the world it's thin/Italian. Then they said that one thing is the same everywhere... that the pizza crust is round. And, of course, they are wrong.

There is a Pepsi Strassenbahn.

It's like spring here. I didn't wake up today until 1pm, but apparently it was really nice this morning. This afternoon it got a little cloudier, but it was still warm/cool. Spring always makes me reminisce. The springs of my freshman and sophomore years made me want to listen to a lot of band music. And the spring of my freshman year also made me want to do my homework. It reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and some movie I used to watch about something/somebody named Argon. Sigh sigh sigh.

One Day Older

Yeah, there was no way that my 22nd birthday could live up to my 21st birthday, but it was still a nice day. I woke up around 9am because of all the crazy birds chirping outside my window. Between this time and 11am, I read the rest of Harry Potter 3 in German. In this time, I got a Happy Birthday phone call from Nidhal. He is quite cute. French was normal except that about half of the class was missing. Today we got baguettes and cheese. Mmm. In my next class, I sat next to a friend from last semester, and so that was also nice.


But then my parents were supposed to be in Ann Arbor at 3:00 to take me out to lunch so that I could go out to a late dinner with a friend or two. But the parents did not show up until 4:25. They were on their way home from Ohio, and they said, 'well, we left right after lunch at 1:00.' No, you were supposed to eat lunch with me! Unacceptable! So I was starving and ended up eating some Chef Boyardee while waiting for them. We went to the Olive Garden. I got bruchetta and chicken marsala (which I will finish up this afternoon). Then it was back to the apartment where Jenny had baked me a cake. :) And she had even managed to buy my favorite frosting! I'm definitely excited to try that. It smelled so good when I walked in.


Later, I went over to Tina's and we sat around with Caroline (one of Tina's math friends) for a while. A little after 8:00, Tina and I went to Palio's for the late dinner. The waiter was nice, and I got my birthday discount and dessert. And the food was good. Then we went to Stucci's, where I got my free birthday ice cream. And that was my 22nd birthday.

This afternoon, I went book shopping with Tina. Afterwards, we ordered pizza and played Taboo with Caroline for hours.

Stupid Weather

I am going to fall one of these days. I don't know how many times I have almost fallen on the ice while walking to and from class.

Messy disgusting living room and kitchen. Gross. Even I am cleaner than that.

Something good happened today. Yesterday, the French instructor had told us that we did really bad on our tests from last week or whenever it was. Of course I was nervous to see the results especially since I wasn't feeling well at all on the day of the test. But we got the tests back today, and I got an A-! I was definitely pleased with that.

Eggs Are Complicated

It's true. Who would've guessed how hard it is to hard boil an egg...

As usual, not much has happened. I had a French test on Monday. Also on Monday, the professor of my 8:30am class brought us coffee and little doughnuts. That was quite nice of him. It was freezing that day (and has been since then). Today, I had free bagels (yes, plural, 2) and coffee and hot chocolate at the Alumni Association thing.

Things are generally stressful at this point in time.

I need to do my laundry.

The snow plower man always wakes me up at 7:00am when he rubs the metal on the asphalt outside my window over and over and over.

Blah blahh blahhh.

I guess I should go see if the eggs are cooled off and if they are actually hard all the way through.

Bonjour, mes amis!

Today was...something. I woke up this morning and got ready to go. I had classes from 12-2 and then work from 4-6, so I thought I would go to come informational meeting from 2:30-3:30 and get some lunch sometime in there. So after my German class from 1-2, I went to Earl of Sandwich to get lunch. I had a coupon, and that was quite nice. But it was still pricey in my opinion. Normally, it's $5-$6 for just a 3x6 sandwich. Although the quality is good, that seems like a little much for just a sandwich. But with my coupon, I got a sandwich, a side (chips), and a fountain pop for a $7.41 (including tax). And I still think that that is a bit expensive. But it does taste oh so good (try the Jamaican Jerk Chicken).

As I was sitting there finishing up my lunch, the thought ran through my head that something was different about work on Fridays. Was the time different on Fridays? I took a minute and thought, and the idea of work being from 2-4 on Fridays did not seem foreign, but my training was from 2-4 on a Friday, so maybe that could explain the feeling. I got out the scheduling paper, but that didn't say the time, just where I had to be on what days. So I left EoS as fast as possible, and speed walked to Angell Hall where I could check my email. Sure enough, there was an email from the student coordinator reminding us that it was 2-4 today. Great.

I rushed up to the second floor (luckily, it was in the same building) and I ended up being about 30 minutes late. I apologized profusely to the head person, and she seemed to understand that it was just a mistake and not irresponsible disregard for a job. But I was quite shaken up. It took me a while to get into it, but I was enjoying myself by the end. I learned about standard deviation, probability, opportunity cost, and membrane transfer proteins. The last one was the best by far.

Last night, I took some test thing to gage how well students are actually doing. It was done by a private organization and they took freshman and seniors for the test. We had to sign a thing that would allow our high school and college GPAs and our ACT/SAT scores to be released to the organization. It was annoying at first, but then I got into it more. And at the end, I got a $50 gift card for Borders.

And that is my story.

It's been a difficult week.

The weather is nuts. Last Friday there was a ton of snow. That was all gone by Monday or Tuesday, and it melted so fast that the campus was practically underwater. Then today after raining all night, it was cold again. There was more water on the ground than I have ever seen in Ann Arbor. Starting around noon, it snowed and then it rained and then it sleeted (but it could've passed for hail) and then it snowed again. And now it's dark and I don't know what is going on outside.

I have a job and I kind of like it. I am a student in a mock classroom setting and I give feedback to potential GSIs whose native language isn't English. Each one does a 15 minute lessen, and it's fun to learn all these random things. No tests, no homework, no obligation. Just the chance to learn something new and then comment on someone's teaching methods and accent. On Monday, I learned about stem cells and aging, beginner's stats, and some psych thing about perspective. Today was photosynthesis, beginner's genetics, and the logic behind insurance.

One of my classes is marked as 'not for credit', but I really need it for credit, so I had to deal with that today. I still don't officially have my French grade from last semester, but I know that the exam was an A and the final grade was an A-. Not bad. And who knows if I will actually decide to graduate.

I need to call my parents back now because it's after 9pm. I'm already 15 minutes over my allotted minutes for this month (but luckily this month only goes until the 7th). À bientôt.