So, nothing too exciting. Morning was boring, ate, shower, blah blah. We went to see Professor Schad, our contact at the HS, to talk about classes. He had a few ideas, but only names, we had no idea what times things were, where they were, etc. It's difficult because they call things different things (not just a language barrier here, I think). However, we did get a tour of some of the facilities that Maschinenbau Fakultaet [Mechanical Faculty] has, so that was nice, but I still felt so in the dark about classes. Fortunately we set up another appointment to meet on Monday, hopefully we'll get more help.
I came home and the rest of the night was a dull blur. I must have played solitaire for like two hours or something and eaten at some point. So boring, I have no pictures.
09.04.12 - Freitag, Friday
Friday on the other hand, was quite different.
It was our first "Welcome Day" that the Akademische Auslandsamt [Academic Foreigner Office] had set up for us. The first thing on the agenda was breakfast. Delicious bread, pretzels, yogurt, with some information packets about the city and the school. Afterward we leaned more about actually studying at the HS through a presentation, during which he also sent around a bit of food. Then it was Mittagspause, midday pause/ lunch, time. I had eaten sooo much earlier, I only had a hot chocolate, that was absolutely delicious! We visited and learned about the computer center they have and how to use our computers on campus and a short tour of the library. I later discovered they have Star Trek auf Deutsch, I'm quite excited. After that we went separate ways.
I arrived home and not too much later my neighbor wanted to see if one of my flatmates was around, who wasn't, to borrow her drying rack (no one uses dryers here...). She then invited me to go out shopping with her and a floormate from across the hall so I could have something to go out in later that night (to a spanish music club thing). I figured it couldn't hurt.
It was during this time I was shocked back into reality of how little German I know, or rather, colloquialisms. It was good though, I suppose, knowing now rather than later. I needed fashion advice and help, and they helped me out, which was nice. After a while, I just gave in and bought a dress so we could move on. I like(d) it though! We moved onto shoes, but that died out quickly and we resorted to me simply borrowing someone else's. It was about 7 o'clock, so we wandered to a food place which sold Doeners, which are quite similar to Gyros, but on a flat bread rather than wrapped up. Delicious! but hard to eat when you've been chewing gum and your jaw doesn't want to open.
We all wandered home, prepped ourselves a bit and then met in my neighbors apartment to get ready. Me being me, have no make up, purses, etc. so they helped me out with just about everything. They even straightened my hair. My neighbors are really kind people! Anyhow, I did take pictures because it's rather unlikely I'll look like that again. My neighbor ended up lending me some bright red suede heels with black vinyl back and heel that were probably 3 inches or so high, and a medium clutch. I felt really pretty (still can't get all of the eye liner off though). [I figured it would be interesting to meet my neighbors and do something out of my comfort zone]
(They sell Bier and Wein in the HS cafe - the dress - me after getting dolled up)
We left on a 10:30 bus to go to Zapatos which was really close to the Hauptbahnhof, so that was nice later. It was kind of odd but also really cool, the lower floor was a typical bar/cafe area where they had salsa music playing and people dancing to it. It was very impressive because they actually knew how to dance, probably because they had been taking lessons there. However, that was not the floor we were headed to, we were going to the top floor, where there was a Spanish DJ playing Spanish dance music. It was quite fun. I'm terrible at dancing, but I was slowly learning, meanwhile my neighbors are very skilled in moving their bodies fluidly, it was quite impressive.
It was almost impossible to hear anything at the location we were at, which made the German even more difficult to understand, but I survived. It was also impossible to breathe without inhaling second-hand smoke, unfortunately. Aside from the those things and the heat, I had a very good time. I even had a guy from Spain try to talk to me but hardly knew and German and almost no English, so that was very short-lived. I think he was trying to talk to me because of the two girls I was with.
Anyhow, it was about 1:30 or so when I decided I wanted to leave, after all I needed to be awake in 9 hours for the next day's activities with the HS. Unfortunately, it wasn't until then that I found out the others were planning on staying until 3 and the buses that I can take for free were no longer running. But, being so close to the Hbf meant there were lots of taxis near by. I took one home for 9,30 which felt slow and expensive. At least I didn't have to walk! My feet hurt so much at that point. I wasn't too tired so I ended up staying awake for another hour before I fell asleep.
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