Tag 55 - Bad Dürkheim

31.3.2012 - Samstag, Saturday

I convinced Rachel to go with me to a not too far away distant land! Yay! We only needed to take one of our local trams if that helps, although it was about 30 minutes. Anyhow, we hop on a bus, get to the Hbf hop on a 4 and ride it to Oggersheim, at where it turned around. We were both confused so we hopped off the tram, looked at a schedule, and saw that only one tram an hour travels to Bad Dürkheim, which wasn't the one we were on. We had about 30 minutes to kill so we wandered through a little park and then were hungry so we bought some things in the near by Netto Markt.

(The park - Antholes in the park, already - Mini Amerikaner treat, "Mini Americans".)

Rachel bought some Bananenschnitt or something along those lines, but I liked the Mini Amerikaners more because I could make so many jokes with them. She said she was going to steal them, and I said she's not allowed to be a kid-napper, and they went on. They tasted like donut cookies, to be honest.

After our fun, we finally caught the appropriate tram to get there. It was fairly uneventful aside from seeing a lot of this: 

(I wasn't sure if these were grape vines or something, turns out they are. - The fountain in the middle of the town. - Another fountain with the hills in the background.)

(As we were walking toward the more exciting area of things to do, we wandered passed this entrance way.  I have no idea what it is or where it goes to. We couldn't get any closer because of fences and barbed wire, unfortunately. - This is a little chapel on top of the hill, surrounded by tons of wine. When I say small, I mean,  small. Rachel put it as, "I could lay down one and a half times in it". - I'm not totally sure what it is, but it's constantly dripping water over what looks like dead plants.)

(World's Largest Wine Barrel, 1.700.000 L, now a restaurant. - I though this Stein/ Krug was cool looking. - On top of the previously pictured hill. I had to go up it.)

 

(I saw the cliff and couldn't help myself - Rachel followed suit - Picture from on top of the hill)

(Naturally, I needed to find and enter the local Gothic Church, unfortunately we were too late. Therefore, it was time to play on the playground in the meantime.)

It started to drizzle a little and we decided to call it a quits and went home. Fortunately, we caught a tram with a few minutes to spare. On the way back, I noticed the girl across from me had something very strange in her mouth... a piercing. It was a ring that went through the little flap of skin that connects your gums to your upper-lip area so it would hang down just enough to be visible when she talked or smiled... strange.

(Next time I go to Bad Dürkheim, I'm going to that white speck on the hill, I've decided.)

Tage 53 & 54 - Travel Investment and Productivity!

29.3.2012 - Donnerstag, Thursday

I slept in a little trying to get as much sleep as possible, and skipped a shower for my one class. I think I forgot to mention that the previous day I found out that Technische Mechanik 3 was cancelled until April 5th, so only one class again. Skipping the shower was probably the worst idea I've had. Besides that, I missed my bus so I was running late, but still got to class like 5 minutes before it started at least. Although, I was so tired I was having a hard time concentrating.

Blah blah, time passed, and Rachel and I went back to school to sign up for the culture events and to check out a movie again. We signed up to go to Dresden and for "Grillen" im Park, girll in the park. Dresden is a 4 day trip with rooms, half of the food, and tours included, and the grilling is food and having fun. Both of these together were 81,-€. I'm quite excited about that!

30.3.2012 - Freitag, Friday

So, forcing myself to wake up a little earlier and taking a shower was a very good investment. I was awake, ready to go, made it to my bus and mostly understood everything! Not to mention I woke up from a dream of me buying Diablo 3!

I came home and was pretty productive. I updated this with four blog posts, I worked on the SWE website to have it more oriented to how some of the Exec's wanted it, and did homework, investigated a near by place I wanted to travel to, read my John Deere contract (I found out I'm getting paid 650,- and have 8 days off. Awesome!), and then returned to school to scan a few things for John Deere. At which, I took pictures of the little museum they have there. You'll see why.

(Some old computery bits - FORTRAN cards in a museum, the computing programming language that I learned in 2009 is in a museum. Granted, it is the punch card version, but still...)

Also, people/ students are artsy:

Rachel and I ended the day with watching The Departed. That is such a ridiculous movie. The end just makes you sit there wondering what the heck just happened. Spoiler: EVERYONE DIES! Except Mark Wahlberg, of course.

Day 52 - Foosball = Foolsball

28.3.2012 - Mittwoch, Wednesday

Classes were classes, but that day I finally remembered that it was the final day to sign up for one of the culture programs that the Auslandsamt set up for us exchange students. What I didn't realize was that 50% of this Tour of a Brewery was open to non-exchange students, so I wasn't able to sign up. It seemed like it would have been a good thing to go to. a) I was in Germany, they practically invented Bier, therefore I should probably learn more about it, b) I could potentially try good quality Bier there, even though I probably wouldn't like it c) a buffet was included d) it was only 5€ for all of that. That's how I learned that signing up early is really important! While there, I looked through a few of the other programs and was quickly convinced to go to all of them, however you had to pay when you signed up so I only signed up for the free tour of Daimler EvoBus facility.

I had a bit to eat, and then I remembered seeing a sign talking about a game night and my neighbor said something about it too, and then was reminded about it at about 7pm that it was at 8pm. I felt like I had to go, so I messaged Rachel and invited her along. I'm too scared to do things by myself. We wander down, my kind neighbor quickly introduced us to everyone. I still can't get over people's faces when we tell them that I'm in Maschinenbau (and that no one knows what Rachel is doing). Anyhow, apparently the soccer game wasn't going to be starting until 8.25, so we had a bit of time to kill. A few people were playing foosball (they call it Kickertisch/ Kicker Table) and we watched. They were pretty competitive and it was a close game, so that was entertaining. After everyone sort of dispersed, Rachel and I decided we would try to play. I wanted to make sure to play when no one was around because I am terrible at it. Of course, a guy comes along and offers to help me, and then another helped Rachel. I'm pretty sure I did the opposite of impressing anyone by scoring a goal or two on myself... Yeah. Hand-Eye Coordination is not my strong point.

Anyways, after a while, the game was on and the room filled up very quickly. I ate a Wuerstchen mit Broetchen, little wurst with little bread, and had German curry ketch-up, it was strange, but absolutely delicious. Not after long, no one had scored a goal and I realized it was getting late. I had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning. Rachel and I snuck out and wandered back to our rooms.

I got back, chatted with Jason for a very short period, yay 1 year anniversary, and then went to sleep later than I should have.

Tag 51 - German Stereotype Destroyed, and The Hunger Games

27.3.2012 - Dienstag, Tuesday

What a day. My appointment was at 10am, at which I was hoping to receive my Aufenthaltstitel, allowing me to live and work here in Germany. But first, I needed to go get €35 to pay for it. I managed that without an issue and got to the Buergerdienst in a likewise fashion.

As Rachel had explained to me when she went, it took about 1.5 hours because your appointment time "is more of an approximate time in which they will see five other people". I got there early, about 9:45, thinking it would be best if I wasn't late for something so important. I get there, go into the waiting room for a little bit and then frantically search through all of my papers to find the passport photo that I had with me last time. I couldn't find it anywhere, after scrounging through my bag, I realized that I also didn't have my passport. I look at the time and see that it's 10:00, I poke my head in, and she told me to wait outside because she was still working with people. I wait until the person came out, and then as I was walking towards the door, another man slipped in before the door shut. A frowned, but dealt with it anyways, I think he had been there for maybe a longer time, I can't say. As he left, a man and a woman came out of no where and walked right in as I was approaching the door. I sighed, looked up at the clock, and realized I could have gone home and come back with my passport in the amount of time I had waited. After a few more minutes, I figured 'Hey, they don't seem to do anything on-time, I'll run home, grab my passport, look for my photo and come back.'

I walked home very quickly, and it was warm out, so I got home feeling a little damp. I found my passport pretty easily, flipped through it to look for the picture, set it down, then continue looking through my drawers. I gave up and quickly went back, I knew it was in my things somewhere.

I arrived back at about 10:30, and no one was in sight. I knocked and walked in and she helped me with everything just like that. It also turned out that she had taped my picture to one of the back of my documents. What a relief! But, I left my passport on my desk! How could I have done that? Oh well, I gave her what I had, told her I forgot it, but she had scanned it the last time, so it wasn't an issue. Then she looked over my bank documents she said it wasn't enough again. That scared me. Apparently when I wrote down I had a Stipendium (Scholarship) I was supposed to have a separate document. I wasn't told that, and all my money was already in the account that I showed her. She spoke with the other lady, and she said it was fine, again, relief. Then she told me that I wouldn't actually be getting the ID for another 4 weeks... Things take too long here. I think it was something about being registered with Berlin. Oh well.

In other news, I was finally going to have my first Dynamiks class! Yay, less worrying, finally. I get to class early, settle in and wait. The room could probably hold 60, so when there were only 7 or so other people and no teacher 5 minutes after I was worried. It was then that some other guy came in and said something about the third floor. I was pretty sure my list said the room I was in. We went to the third floor and saw a sign there (not outside of the classroom) saying the class was cancelled until the 5th. Another week and a half, of course! [What's worse is, several days later, I realized the 5th is the first day of Easter Break. Really? Sneaky and annoying teacher...]

I get home, meet up with Rachel to see if she wanted to go food shopping, at which point in time she asks if I wanted to go see The Hunger Games. It seemed abrupt, but hey, why not, I had time. We reserved seats in the Cinemax and the tickets were 7,60 or something. It seemed a little high, but that was fine with me. We wandered around, I bought some food to eat during the show, we get to a movie theater, tell her our reservation number, and she asked "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"? We said no, that's not what we wanted, we wanted the Hunger Games at 5. Turns out Mannheim has both a "Cinemax" and a "Cineplex". We said we wanted tickets for the 5:30 showing of it from here then, since we hadn't purchased any. They were 9,90 each. That hurt a little bit, but we bought them and then had 30 minutes longer to kill.

We wandered around and found a little home made (I think) gummi store. At first we were just looking, then the owner handed us each a freshly made easter bunny and we continued looking through the store. There were normal things, and then there were these:

(They also had Playboys. I'm pretty sure these don't qualify as the "Bears" in "Bearland")

I ended up buying Saure Fruchtsaft-Johannisbeeren, which is sour fruitjuice currants. Sooo delicious! I only knew about them because my mom had sent me some in a care package while I was still at ISU. Rachel ended up getting sour cherry cola gummis. They honestly tasted like cherry cola wrapped in sour sugar. Not a fan of the cola, but it wasn't bad. As for my bag, I probably ate half of it during the movie. I thought the Gospel music being played while we were waiting seemed a little out of place.

(Long, but great! movie!)

I ended up getting home at about 9, went out and bought a few essentials: milk, muesli, yogurt, went to sleep about 11.

Day 50 - LAL HA, Not as easy as I was hoping.

26.3.2012 - Montag, Monday

Typical morning, got to school early, messed around on a computer until 9:25 and then met wit the Linear Algebra teacher to go over a few things. He was a very kind man and explained what had gone on in the class and chatted with me some. After a little bit, he somehow managed to suggest that I become a tutor in Physics or a math class, which would pay 9€ an hour. This probably came up because I mentioned that I don't know very many people or very many technical terms and it would be a good way to learn. It's a tempting offer, but I don't feel confident enough to be responsible for another student's understanding, especially if they are struggling and I can't actually convey how to do things properly. (Even in my mother tongue of English...)

After that I wandered home and spotted this fun looking event:

(By the hauptbahnhof, there is basically a Taxi hub were there are literally 100 taxis lined up to take someone somewhere. If you aren't in front, you get to wait a while. The two men in the middle have appeared to take up chess as their pastime.)

I made it home, cooked lunch, ate, and then had to hop on a bus back to school to go to my first Linear Algebra class! It was a lot about matrices that day, which I didn't remember everything about and then some things about vectors, which I haven't learned about in a year and a half or so, in other words: it took me a moment to catch up. By the end of class, I had a pretty good grasp of everything going on, which was a good feeling. Math is a universal language that I can generally understand, so that was good!

After that, I went to my Hoerverstandnis Deutsch Unterricht, listening comprehension part of the German course. It's also I class I enjoy going to because it's at a level where I can understand most things, but I'm still able to learn about new things. Afterwards was the "Tutorium" which also wasn't too bad.

I came home, cooked, ate, and then decided to look at the Linear Algebra online platform, I found some practices that he posted and tried to do as many of them as I could, however there were some that I could just not remember how to do. So, I decided to send the first professor an e-mail to ask to copy the script, and he said I could. Yay, more learning. I think one of my favorite things about the homework for the class is that I can label it at "LAL HA", which just sounds like a joke. HA: Hausaufgaben, homework. I have no idea what the second L in LAL is though... Oh well, my internet stopped working so I couldn't look up things, so I decided to go to sleep. After all, I had another Buergerdienst appointment the next day!

Tag 49 - Lazy Sunday, and Expensive Laundry

25.3.2012 - Sonntag, Sunday

I woke up somewhat early for whatever reason, but fell back asleep fortunately. When I woke up again, I had slept for about 10 hours, this is not including

(I ate a kiwi, set it down, and it looked like a little troll to me...)

The day was super lazy and boring. I did laundry in a small machine for 1,80€, luckily I don't have many clothes so most of it fit. As I started pulling everything out, it seemed relatively dry, so I chose to hang my clothes all about my room to dry rather that to pay 1,80€ again. It worked pretty well, and the day was beautiful, so that helped dry them too.

It finally got interesting about 8pm when my neighbor invited me over for dinner with her, a friend, and Mohammed (my other roommate). It turns out the other girl, whose name I can't remember, was also studying Maschinenbau at Hoschule Mannheim too! But technically a year behind me, I think. The systems are weird, I'll leave it at that. Even though I had already eaten a sandwich, I was still hungry so the pasta with sauce and cheese was quite delicious. After eating, we chatted a little more and I tried a turkish sunflower(?) seed, or something almost identical. They're rather strange and the other three seemed like experts at eating them. I like sunflower seeds, but I just don't eat them as much as I used too, and the American version had harder shells that didn't seem to crumble as easily. It was certainly an experience. After that, I decided I ought to go to sleep with having to meet with the Linear Algebra teacher the next morning and all, and because I was tired, of course.

Tag 48 - No internet? No problem!

24.3.2012 - Samstag, Saturday

As I said, I went to sleep sometime around 6 that morning, and ended up waking up around 12:30, unfortunately. My body couldn't stand the idea of sleeping the day away, I suppose. I ended up hardly doing anything with it, other than playing games on a website trying to win some things that I could use back at college. It didn't really help me much, but at least it was fun?

I ate my left overs from the day before, it was just as good cold! Mmm, you can't go wrong with Chicken, usually.

I probably watched an episode of Futurama in German, and sometime around 6:30 or 7 I chatted with my mom for a few hours. After that, I chatted with Jason until my internet completely stopped working. That was really unfortunate for me, because I wasn't planning on doing anything for the whole day. Although, being so stagnant was not making me feel great, so I decided to wander about town for half an hour, just because.

I bought myself some needed food and then I found a few interesting places, a Metzgerei and a Friseur, a butcher/ deli and a hair cuttery place, and saw a lot of people. On my walk out, it's hard to see in this picture, but someone had a projector out of their window on the building across the way. It sent out purple water ripples across the whole building, along with hundreds of small green and red laser lights that seemed to wander endlessly. It was really fascinating so I tried to take a picture of it when I left, and when I came back. It didn't work out too well, sorry.

There was also a sign for something called the "Kultur Bruecken Jungbusch", I didn't know what it was so I took a picture and figured I would look it up later. It turns out it's a company that has events during the week that are open to students for fun and what not, and I think for free. I may have to check it out sometime.

I arrived back home around 11.30 or so and decided to go to sleep. And sleep I did... for 10 hours, time change included.

Tag 47 - 23.5 Hour Day. Heh...

23.03.12 - Freitag, Friday

I woke up around 6:15 or something, went to class, and then went straight to the gym afterwards. I figured I ought to, I had time, why not. I also noticed there was an Apotheke, apothecary/ pharmacy near by, and decided I would buy some hydrogen peroxide. I couldn't get the splinter out. I go in there, and I'm pretty sure he said they didn't have any and said it was only for disinfecting, so he pulled out some "Abszess-Salbe" which he said would do the trick of pulling it out and disinfecting it. I said okay, but wasn't sure. I did what he said, but my band-aid fell off and it didn't seem to help [There's 9,70 down the drain...]. (Today, a week later, I still have the splinter in my hand... I couldn't get it out with Tweezers either.)

After that I came home, wasted a bit of time on facebook and then made myself a delicious dish. It consisted of the Hahnchen, Paprika, Nuedeln, and Broccoli (Chicken, peppers, noodles, broccoli), as you can see in this picture. I had bought a pack of red, yellow, and green peppers, but unfortunately the green pepper has a small rotten part. I thought I could try to save it, but it was so soft and full of liquid. I was disappointed, I was looking forward to having all the nice colors of the peppers. At least I had broccoli for some green. I cooked the chicken in the Arrabatische Sosse, it's a bit of a spicy spaghetti sauce. Oh boy, that was good. I also tried to eat it later in the day around 1:30 or so because a few days earlier one of the other exchange students invited Rachel and I over to cook food and hang out. That was at 8 pm. It's hard enough to go 3 hours without munching on something for me.

It won't let me turn it the correct way, oh well.

I decided I wanted to watch something while I ate, and remembered I had rented Avatar: Aufbruch nach Pandora by James Cameron. It was dubbed over in German, so that was good for me to hear the German and I turned on German subtitles eventually to solidify everything, except what they displayed wasn't always what they said. Nevertheless, I forgot how pretty Pandora was and how good and how long the movie was. Sheesh. I paused it to take a shower it, then went back to watching it.

At 7:30, Rachel and I left to go to the place. We got there a bit after 8 and realized we didn't know what room they were in. Some people walked out and we walked in and looked at the mailbox looking for a familiar. I thought I saw one, but wasn't sure. She saw one, but still we weren't sure. We then figured that it was set up that ten people shared one kitchen and the elevator went up next to the kitchens so we up one floor at a time poking our heads out to see if we saw anyone familiar. Finally, fourth floor we did. I thought it was interesting that we were there at 8:10 and they were surprised we were there so soon. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

Then a few people wandered into the kitchen who shared it and started talking to us. One of the guys was suuper drunk, like teetering. It was odd, but oh well. He also said his English was terrible, but it didn't seem that bad. Any who, we spoke with him in German as much as we could. He really seemed to like Rachel, everyone does. :P Especially after they find out we're American. He also kept saying she should go out with them to dinner and whatnot. It would be her last night to hang out/ party with him. He also was continuously drinking during this time so the idea wasn't something we wanted and was becoming more and more unpleasant.

We met a handful of other people who lived there and one of the guys said he's going to study in So. Cal. and was asking about the idea of "man" and "guy" when talking to people. It sounded so strange when he said it. Oh well. Later on, we were chatting with two guys named Chris, they seemed pretty interesting people. The other girls from Sweden showed up and then we all tried to play a card game, but no one was really focused. Oh well. Fortunately, but unfortunately, the food was done and set out (This is like 10:30 or so). I was practically ravenous at this point so I kept eating and eating.

It was about 12:30 when the other exchange students said they were going to go out to town. Rachel and I shrugged and figured it could be fun. Especially since we actually knew them. We get to the place called "The Zimmer" and then we're told there's a 6€ charge just to enter. I didn't really have enough money and I didn't really want to go in at that point - the same went for Rachel - so we ended up waiting for a tram home for about 30 minutes. We ended up getting home around 2.30am.  

We get home, both Rachel and I hop on facebook before we head to bed and it turns out both Jason and Kate were on so we all ended up playing an online version of Apples to Apples, but it definitely seemed for an older crowd with some of the content. One of the cards was "Glen Beck projectile vomiting [something] everywhere", and there were other strange things like that. It was really fun. The four of us ended up staying  awake until almost 6am. It was worth it. :)

Tag 46 - Slides, Splinters and Yufkas

22.03.12 - Donnerstag, Thursday

Thursday was a better day than Wednesday in comparison. Well, aside from waking up at 6:13 in the morning. I wasn't a huge fan of that. I went to class, came home, worked on the details of my the Linear Algebra class and sent them to my advisor, typed up a few blog posts, and then wandered down to Rachel to wander about and do a few errands. We didn't end up making the bus, but that was okay. It was such a beautiful day and there was a huge slide that had been taunting us from that bus stop for a while. We had time for some fun. There was also a rubber trampoline that was ground level (that was a ton of fun) and a raised wooden platform that rotates. It looked like a giant crow's nest. I had fun pushing it around with and hopping on with Rachel, man that was hard to walk on.

(Rachel looking - Me climbing, and then staring at the splinter I got from the stupid post - I'm on top of the world!)

After running some errands about town, it was getting kind of late. Well, late enough for me to be reallly hungry. It was then that Rachel suggested we buy Yufkas from City Doener. Apparently they were delicious, huge, and well-priced. So we bought one. All of the above were true. It's basically a huge Gyro, probably a foot long packed full of the meat, cabbage, veggies, jogurtsauce and I got Jalepenos on mine. Mmm! All for 4€. I'm not proud to admit this, but I scarfed down that whole Yufka that night. Maybe not quite in one sitting, but through out the night.

(Rachel's on top of the world! - My splinter, which isn't really showing up... - My first Yufka! It's a footlong Gyro basically)

Later that night, I remembered that I should probably buy some chicken so I could eat more filling food than the sandwiches I had been making. So, I did. I got a pound of chicken breast fillets for 2.87€. I love the prices here. It's going to be a huge shock when I get back to Ames.

Tag 45 - What A Terrible Day!

21.03.12 - Mittwoch, Wednesday

Finally, I was going to receive my Residence Permit and everything was going to be good! I would be able to get everything sent to John Deere, everything would work out, and I would just have to settle in for the rest of the semester. Oh boy, did I have it wrong.

So, again, no class early Wednesday, like I was supposed to. But that worked out all in my favor because I had an appointment to meet with the Buergerdienst about getting a residence permit! I had made sure I had everything together, passport, papers, everything, and filled out everything to the best of my knowledge. I made sure to get there a little early, after all, the last thing I wanted to do was leave a bad impression!

I get there, give them everything I have, she looks through a few things and pointed out a few places that I needed to fill out and explained them a little more. I wandered to the waiting room and filled it out to the best of my knowledge. She scanned my passport, did a few other things and then asked for things about my bank. She looks at me and asks how I'm paying for everything. I told her with my money. I showed her that I had just opened an account and that I had one deposit slip of 150€ "That's not enough, how are we supposed to know you have money?" I suppose it was my fault for not looking more closely at the forms and hoping that they would be lenient since it was a new account. I shouldn't assume things. Of course I'm getting all nervous and a little annoyed at myself for this. I ask her how much money I'm supposed to have and she tells me I'm supposed to have 700€ per month for the next 9 months. This makes me even more nervous and a little upset because there was no way I had that much money, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I don't even spend that much money per month usually anyways. She told me that I would need to print out information for the last three months on my bank account to prove I could afford to live here and that I would need to make another appointment. I knew there was nothing I could do at this point, and accepted the temporary defeat. Fortunately, I wouldn't have to wait two weeks, just until Tuesday.

I got home, and following up on the inability to take the Thermodynamiks class, I searched and searched for classes that could possibly transfer, it was difficult. There are quite a few Unterschiede, differences, between our school systems and what's taught. In the end, I decided to go with another Tech Elective, something that I knew I would understand: Lineare Algebra (Abbreviated LAL here.) Math is a universal language, and if it's offered to second semester students, I didn't think it would be too bad. I sent the info to my adviser, hoping it would work.

Then it was time to go to class. I missed the bus, so I decided I would take a near-by tram to Paradeplatz and transfer to the number 1 to get me to class. The picture below, unfortunately is too hard to read, read "MA Hauptfriedhof" I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be Hauptbahnhof. Who knows.

Anyhow, I catch the tram, transfer to the one. In my rush, I manage to catch the 1 in the wrong direction! Because I've become so familiar with the city, the names of the stations were familiar. It wasn't until I got to Alte Feuerwache (the direction of the Bank, which is North) did I realize I had just gone 10 minutes in the wrong direction. I hopped off and caught another tram a few minutes later. At this point, it was already a few minutes after my German class was supposed to start. I finally got there 20 minutes late. I just seemed to have such bad luck that day.

After German class, I arrived at the Hauptbahnhof just a bit too late and wasn't able to catch the 60 before it switched to coming every 30 minutes. So, I decided I would walk over to a #2 stop. On my way over I bought a Crème brûlée flavored scoop of Eis (Ice cream/ gelato) and everything was good. Aside from my internet cutting in and out. I also ended up doing homework for about 3.5 hours because the internet wasn't working. Yaaay.

Day 44 - No Class, and Ausgezeichnet Markt Prices

20.03.12 - Dienstag, Tuesday

So, I had no class, because, as usual, my Technische Mechaniks class was cancelled. But, I certainly did a lot! I wandered out about, decided that I wanted to go work out, since I had time. Went to the center, did my thing, then wandered into a nearby super market to buy some desperately needed groceries. I bought Paprika, Broccoli, Kiwis, Kopfsalat, Bierwurst, a Berliner, a Quarktasche (Kind of a sweet-cheese filled pastry), and Brot all for 6,07€ The kiwis themselves were only ,89 cents/kg. Which is approximately 2.2 lbs for $1.16! How amazing is that! I found out later that this was because they were incredibly unripe, to the point of the skin being harder to get through than a really crisp apple. I'm not quite sure how to describe it aside from that. During my walk, I two a few pictures, one of the Swanseaplatz, because apparently Mannheim's British sister city is Swansea. Who knew! It's ironic because several of Rachel and my friends go there... Another picture I took was of a cigarette advertisement, for several reasons: because it so blatantly says "Smoking can be deadly" on a third of the box, two because it lists exactly the amount of bad things are in a cigarette underneath in the white, and three because Lucky Strike made me think of Mad Men, and it's a show that I like.

Well, looking back now, it didn't look like a lot, but I managed to have a pretty filled day. I learned a little bit of German, and played some games. Unfortunately, my internet decided to die later that night, so I had nothing but homework and solitaire to do.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I found out that the Themo class I wanted to take wouldn't transfer back to ISU properly. Not to mention it was an ABET accreditation year, so there was absolutely no chance. It was time for me to find a new class. I was happy to hear that I would at least get credit for the two courses that I was actually attending at this point. But I still wouldn't know about Dynamics until later.

Day 42 & 43 - I don't think I went outside... & My First Monday

18.03.12 - Sontag, Sunday

I woke up around 9. Meandered on to facebook, wasted time, played Sim City 4 Deluxe, went through excel sheet for my budget and updated everything. Oddly, I enjoy the idea of budgeting and tracking expenses because it's nice to figure out how much money you actually need, and how much money is in your wallet +/- 10 cents. I had to readjust my schedule again to have German on Wednesdays.

It was a boring/ bum day, you need to have them every once in a while I suppose. Plus, nothing is open on Sundays.

19.03.12 - Montag, Monday

In order to get myself more accustomed to early morning classes, I went to sleep early and woke up early, so I was up by 8:30ish, even though I didn't have class until 1:40. I chatted with a few folks, helped Rachel with her schedule-ish, then decided I was going to go work out again. I went, ran on a treadmill, lifted weights and ran again then walked home. I hopped on my computer to see they were serving fish in the Mensa (Cafeteria) as one of the meals, so I thought about going early. That didn't end up happening and I just had a sandwich and an orange.

We arrived a bit early, because the only options are early or late, and wandered a bit trying to find the German teacher's office because it had a list outside of it displaying who was in which class. On our way of wandering between floors and half floors we found this:

I have no idea what the point of this was. But I had to take a picture and show how college students are weird everywhere. I also decided that my sandwich and orange weren't enough so I bought a delicious chocolate chip muffin with tiny pellets of chocolate were through the whole thing. Mmm. I was just a tad late back, but nothing had actually started yet, everyone was just saying their names, first day things and all that. Rachel was able to get into the German class and everything was good.

With an hour to kill between the German classes, I went up to the computer lab and squared away a few things like signing up for a housing contract with ISU and waiving the fall semester because I was abroad. I also realized that I needed to talk to ISU admissions about transferring credit from the Goethe Institut and not the Intitut itself, yadda yadda. Finish up there, still feel hungry-ish, buy a hot chocolate, and go to the German Tutorium (like a small tutor class where you can ask questions and review things from class). Proceed to go home at 6:30, manage to miss the bus because it changes at 7 and wander around the Hauptbahnhof because we had time to kill and it was passed my dinnertime. I found yet another interesting thing during this venture:

This is inside the Hauptbahnhof. This is a pigeon, inside on the bottom floor, which is underground. I don't know how that works and why it happened, but I thought it was interesting.

We catch our bus back, I ate another sandwich and proceeded to waste time on the internet. I found out from Jason that envelopes with "Priority" on them only take 3 business days (Wed-Mon), that's good to know. I also didn't have class the next day because Thermodynamics and Dynamics were still canceled. So, I went to sleep late, midnight! oooh. 

Day 41 - The Neckar River, and an Irish Holiday

17.03.12 - Samstag, Saturday

The day itself was absolutely beautiful day with the weather. After a while, I was tired of being cooped up in my room with nothing to do, I decided that I wanted to go out for a walk. My only problem with walking is I feel the need to have a destination. I decided I would walk to a Deutsche Bank, transfer money from one account to another to pay my rent, then make my way back. I looked online and found the nearest location was  over the Neckar River, one that I had never been to, so the idea of an adventure pleased me. 

I walked along the path which had me wander through the ADM Cocoa facility area. Sure, it was unfortunate that I wasn't closer to the water, but the smell of cocoa surrounding you is also quite enjoyable, and I got to see how big the corporation actual is.

I finally made it to the bridge. Having passed it several times not knowing where it led, it was an experience. I was constantly on the look out for people wearing green because it was far scarcer than it is in America/ Chicagoland. I might have seen one other person wearing green, but it didn't seem to be for St. Patty's Day. I suppose this is Germany, nor Ireland after all. I did see some other green though. On the other side of the river was a long patch of grass that many people were enjoying. I saw people playing frisbee, grilling, and all sorts of other things with friends and family. When you live in a concrete jungle, it's not a big surprise so many people would take advantage of the green space by the water.

I went in and out of the Bank pretty quickly. Well, the bank was closed (it was after 5pm after all), but the ATM area was open. I wandered back the way I came and beheld another scene, which I took a picture of because it was beautiful.

I've been taking too many sunrise pictures, a sunset was due at some point.

I arrived home, and not to long after I was on skype with my mom, when my roommate knocked on my door to let me know she was going to be cooking and that she would let me know when it was done. I couldn't help but be a little excited about someone else cooking for me. I mean, I live very simply and don't cook extravagant things like I used to at home. After waiting for some time, she knocked on my door again to let me know the food was done and she was going to bring me some.

Oh man, it was delicious! It was mostacholi noodles with beef, beans, onions, a few other vegetables and delicious spices. It's a good thing I like spicy foods, because it added a lot of flavor. I scarfed it down, to say the least, and went back for a little more even though I was full.

After that, Rachel and I decided that we wanted to see what St. Patty's day was like in Germany, and maybe (maybe!) meet people. What better place than a place with the name "Fitzgerald's". We got together and walked over to the Irish restaurant/ pub. There were definitely people there with green leprechaun hats drinking "Leprechaun Pee". As we were about to walk in, a guy stopped us saying there was a 5€ charge. I stepped back outside and discussed with Rachel if we really wanted to go in. We decided we'd go in try one thing then leave. So, we did. She ordered something and, because I don't like beer, just ordered a cider. 

(I thought the sign was kind of amusing, and you can see a man in green drinking green in the background. - A picture of Rachel and I, a little fuzzy due to no flash and being a phone.)

We left around 11:30 maybe, came home, I munched on leftovers from dinner, then went to sleep.

Day 40 - Zurueck nach (back to) Speyer!

16.03.12 - Freitag, Friday

So, I woke up before the sun again (it's really pretty, so I don't really mind it), and went to class, blah blah. Different location, but I was able to hear better! So that was nice. Class ended at 9:30, and I made my way home quickly. After telling Rachel and Trevor of my Speyer experience, I had them sold on going, and I would be their personal tour guide, which meant the sooner I got back, the sooner we could leave and enjoy, what turned out to be, an absolutely wonderful day [19+ degrees]! I think the pictures will narrate most of this story.

We left and arrived at the Hauptbahnhof on time, but somehow managed to distract ourselves and miss the train. We had another 30 minutes until the next one came so we bought some food from a Backerei (bakery). She and Trevor bought some of the most powder-sugar covered Berliners we had seen and I bought a Marzipanhörnchen, which I regret not taking a picture of because it was delicious. It's called a "little marzipan horn" in English because it was a pastry in the shape of a U filled with marzipan/ almond paste.

When we arrived in Speyer, and made our way to the Altpörtel and the Kaiserdom we were still a little hungry so the two of them bought Gelato because there were so many shops and for relatively cheap! I love it! I ended up buying myself a sandwich with Gouda cheese. I completely butchered the pronunciation auf Deutsch. I never know if they use the English way for some words. I said gOOdah and it's pronounced gOWdah. Nevertheless, it was delicious and very enjoyable, minus the ingredients not saying mayonnaise.

(The beautiful sunrise - Front of the Kaiserdom - I got a picture on the city wall this time!)

(Some kinds hanging out in the bowl outside of the Kaiserdom - A better picture [with better lighting] of the organ - And a better picture of the interior)

(We decided to go into the crypt since I don't think any of us had been in one before! It was smaller than I had expected.)

(Graves - List of people in the following picture - Well, you can't actually see them here...)

(After touring the Dom again, we got some more snacks [I bought a "MonCherie" gelato scoop. Chocolate with some cherries.] and decided to copy the kids from earlier, eating in the bowl. - I really liked the way this building looked, and with the sun, it looks even better!)

(After looking at a map in an attempt to find the Gothic church I had seen from the Altpörtel, I led us astray. I don't actually know what this church was. - The monocle and mustache must mean this is the gentleman's drink - A picture of the green area behind the church and the "Gothic Chapel")

(This was another church I had wanted to see/ had seen. This one turned out to be the catholic church! - This church was also incredibly beautiful. The churches never cease to amaze me.)

(The Alter - A few of the beautiful stations of the cross - The stairs to the organ)

(Now this is what I was talking about. The architecture is really awesome looking. It turns out that this is actually a Gothic Protehdral [protestant church] )

(To save space of all my pictures, here's a quick tour! I enjoyed that someone was playing the organ while we were there too.)

(Some stairs we wandered up and down - A view of the prothedral and the catholic church in the background - another view of the catholic church)

After visiting both of the churches, we remembered that there was a technik museum (technology museum). I had grabbed an info brochure from the train station and showed it to the others. After looking it over, it was only a vehicle museum and maybe a few planes, not quite what we wanted. We ended up calling it a day. After all, we had been in Speyer for 4 hours! After meandering back, the two of them decided they wanted to get gelato from a side street vendor, just for the heck of it. We sat down and continued to enjoy the weather. 

After they finished up, we made our way back to the Hauptbahnhof, we passed a cheese shop. We all like cheese and decided to take a peak. We walked in and the man got up and started chatting with us. I felt bad because we were all there just to look and to smell. After a bit, he called his wife over because she could speak English and said we could try the cheese if we wanted. Again, we declined because we weren't planning on buying anything. Finally, she made the choice for us and sliced up a few pieces and gave it to us. It was soo good, that I had to buy some! The cheese was a slightly softer cheese called "Winzerpastete". I would definitely recommend it, the price also seemed pretty reasonable. If you're ever in Speyer, I would recommend Michael Bader on Gildenstrasse for cheese! ooh boy!

Anyhow, we got to the Hauptbahnhof and boarded the train. It was a little busier this time around so we had to sit with another person. I asked if the seat was free and said thank you in German and she responded in what sounded like American English. After a little bit the three of us were talking and somehow we came upon the topic of the British version of Jersey Shore and someone wondered if they had one in Germany. i said the Germans were too good for that show, but the woman sitting next to me piped up that they watch Jersey Shore here.

For the rest of the ride we chatted with her. We found out that she was from Washington DC area and that she studied art and could not find herself a job, ended up being a waitress, a maid, all sorts of things that were not worthy of a bachelor's degree. Finally, she decided to become an Au Pair in Germany and then became an English Teacher at Blitzer. It was very interesting, listening to her summed up life story. It was probably best that she didn't ask what we were studying, especially since all three of us are studying to be engineers, since we'll more than likely be able to find jobs. We also found out from her that there is apparently a lot of people who are milking the system with their unemployment/ welfare system. I didn't quite understand it all, but she seemed rather against the social system they have in Germany.

Ah well, we arrived home around just before dinner time. We decided we would go out to eat, well, they decided, I had delicious chicken soup without water leftovers. I joined them, figuring I could just hangout and get something to drink. We find a Greek restaurant and it's completely empty, we didn't see a waiter or anything. After I called out "Hallo?", a man came out saying he wasn't expecting customers for another 3 or 4 hours. He seemed a little disorganized with everything. I tried to order something to drink, something strawberry and lime, I think, and he had no idea what it was. I pointed it on the menu and he shook his head saying his son did those things. It made no sense to me, but at least Rachel and Trevor got gyros. The man wandered off before they could order their drinks. They got their food, it all looked very delicious, and a little while later he realized he didn't ask for drinks. 

I ended up mooching some fries and most of Rachel's tzatzitki sauce, since she didn't like it. It was all quite delicious. After that, we all hung out for a bit with mannheim steamrollers, watched several LMFAO videos, and then I let them be since Trevor would be leaving the following day.

Whew, that was a more exciting day than I expected. I guess the pictures really help fill it up...