Trier
Haus der Geschichte
Drachenfals
Bonn
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Trier
Last Saturday we spent all day visiting Trier, Germany's oldest city. It's stunning, as is all of Germany, in my opinion. Plus the weather was gorgeous, so that didn't hurt. We took a tour around the city and saw a ginormous church, a beautiful pink and gold castle, and the remnants of the old city wall. Some of the girls and I had a delicious traditional Schnitzel lunch in the city center, tanned in the grass pavilion in front of the castle, and ended the day walking along the Moselle River.
Spent literally all of Sunday in Starbucks, mooching the bananas off their free Wi-Fi and cram studying for our final Prüfung for the month long intensive language course on Monday. Thank goodness I memorized that entire list of 20 reflexive verbs and their prepositions, because I got them all right on the test! I did fine on the exam, but it's crazy that the Einführungskurs is already over. Our teacher wasn't really the 'grades' type, so who knows what letter grade I actually got/how many credits are going to transfer back to UW, but I'll sort that all out later. Based of my class recommendations, I'm going to try to register for Intensive Course C, Theatre, and Deutsche Medien as my three classes, then maybe shadow a class through the Universität Bonn. We're on break until next week, when actual classes start!
We've all been spending a lot of time laying out in the Hofgarten. It's like Bonn's version of Bascom and the Kohl Center lawn wrapped up in one big area in front of the Hauptgebäude. I saw The Hunger Games, auf Deutsch, on Tuesday. I was confused, but overall it was a pretty good movie. I'm Team Peeta Bread, I guess?
In unrelated news, I found out that I got my dream job- Director of the WUD Film Committee for 2012-2013! I'm so pumped for the year ahead of me and am ready to get to work planning. I've got many the Skype date ahead with my Union peeps. All I can think about is Nic Cage!
I swear I'm still working on the whole lack of internet thing. It's bit of an illusive quest, it seems. But THEN I can upload pictures! Promises promises!
Spent literally all of Sunday in Starbucks, mooching the bananas off their free Wi-Fi and cram studying for our final Prüfung for the month long intensive language course on Monday. Thank goodness I memorized that entire list of 20 reflexive verbs and their prepositions, because I got them all right on the test! I did fine on the exam, but it's crazy that the Einführungskurs is already over. Our teacher wasn't really the 'grades' type, so who knows what letter grade I actually got/how many credits are going to transfer back to UW, but I'll sort that all out later. Based of my class recommendations, I'm going to try to register for Intensive Course C, Theatre, and Deutsche Medien as my three classes, then maybe shadow a class through the Universität Bonn. We're on break until next week, when actual classes start!
We've all been spending a lot of time laying out in the Hofgarten. It's like Bonn's version of Bascom and the Kohl Center lawn wrapped up in one big area in front of the Hauptgebäude. I saw The Hunger Games, auf Deutsch, on Tuesday. I was confused, but overall it was a pretty good movie. I'm Team Peeta Bread, I guess?
In unrelated news, I found out that I got my dream job- Director of the WUD Film Committee for 2012-2013! I'm so pumped for the year ahead of me and am ready to get to work planning. I've got many the Skype date ahead with my Union peeps. All I can think about is Nic Cage!
I swear I'm still working on the whole lack of internet thing. It's bit of an illusive quest, it seems. But THEN I can upload pictures! Promises promises!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Kein Internet macht jedesding schwerer, ich muss sagen.
I've come down with another cold, which is ridiculous, because I NEVER get sick. I'm blaming it on exotic European flu stains or something. I felt too sick to go out anywhere this morning, so I started compiling my own dictionary out of words I've learned during this month long intensive learning course in preparation for the final exam (next week!!). I haven't internet at my dorm yet, and my dictionary is one of those Deutsch als Fremdsprache types, so the definitions are in German as well, so it's a bit difficult.
I have finally met all four of my roommates and they're all great. All German students, all super nice! We sang karaoke in our kitchen for like 3 hours last week XD We're all so busy though, I rarely see everyone. It's still semester break for the Universität Bonn so once classes resume on April 1, I'm sure everyone's time lines will completely change, again. Until then, I've been enjoying exploring Bonn. I've gone running a couple times throughout the city. People definitely don't run on the streets as much as in America. Also, fun fact about Germans, they will NOT move for your on the sidewalk! It would be more hilarious if it wasn't a bit frustrating. People do not veer, they do not notice, and they do not care. Europe, am I right?
I'm basically in love with my Bonn Buddy Maja. We're the most amazing Foosball/Kicker team known to man. Or woman. :D Last week, our program went to the Haus der Geschichte, which is a museum of German history since 1945. It was fascinating! I loved all the pop culture artifacts, like old comic books (Nick Knatterton!), I watched some of an old German musical, saw JFK's original "Ich bin ein Berliner" note, and lots of Trabis.
Right now I'm camped out in Starbucks again, mooching off their internet. I tried going to the student union equivalent to get my computer stuff figured out last Thursday, but they were on lunch break until 2, which is when I had class. The office is closed on Fridays, then the weekend, and today I woke up early to go before my 9 am class, but there were already 8 peoples waiting in line ahead of me before it even opened! I'm going to have to go tomorrow morning and miss the beginning of class :(
A little late to the game, but here's my awesome clean because these were taken my first night dorm room! It's more cluttered and colorful now, with a little tree I bought from IKEA named Schmitz and a little sunflower someone gave me on the street and lots of rose scented tea candles because I'm apparently obsessed with tea candles not. Basically, it looks a whole lot more like a Rayna-room now. :] Big windows and/or a balcony will forever be must-haves in my future houses.
Also, my hair is properly pink now! Faded from purple. I might buy some bleach from DM today and do something about those roots!
I have finally met all four of my roommates and they're all great. All German students, all super nice! We sang karaoke in our kitchen for like 3 hours last week XD We're all so busy though, I rarely see everyone. It's still semester break for the Universität Bonn so once classes resume on April 1, I'm sure everyone's time lines will completely change, again. Until then, I've been enjoying exploring Bonn. I've gone running a couple times throughout the city. People definitely don't run on the streets as much as in America. Also, fun fact about Germans, they will NOT move for your on the sidewalk! It would be more hilarious if it wasn't a bit frustrating. People do not veer, they do not notice, and they do not care. Europe, am I right?
I'm basically in love with my Bonn Buddy Maja. We're the most amazing Foosball/Kicker team known to man. Or woman. :D Last week, our program went to the Haus der Geschichte, which is a museum of German history since 1945. It was fascinating! I loved all the pop culture artifacts, like old comic books (Nick Knatterton!), I watched some of an old German musical, saw JFK's original "Ich bin ein Berliner" note, and lots of Trabis.
Right now I'm camped out in Starbucks again, mooching off their internet. I tried going to the student union equivalent to get my computer stuff figured out last Thursday, but they were on lunch break until 2, which is when I had class. The office is closed on Fridays, then the weekend, and today I woke up early to go before my 9 am class, but there were already 8 peoples waiting in line ahead of me before it even opened! I'm going to have to go tomorrow morning and miss the beginning of class :(
A little late to the game, but here's my awesome clean because these were taken my first night dorm room! It's more cluttered and colorful now, with a little tree I bought from IKEA named Schmitz and a little sunflower someone gave me on the street and lots of rose scented tea candles because I'm apparently obsessed with tea candles not. Basically, it looks a whole lot more like a Rayna-room now. :] Big windows and/or a balcony will forever be must-haves in my future houses.
Also, my hair is properly pink now! Faded from purple. I might buy some bleach from DM today and do something about those roots!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Alles schon gut
Since it's the first couple of weeks of the program, I'm still in the Germany honeymoon slash stereotypical phase. I've gone on multiple castle hikes this past week and have had Schnitzel, Wurst, and Döner many times :] Today we visited Marksburg castle. The view over the Rhein River was amazingly beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a better day weather-wise to visit. 
We got a tour throughout the castle grounds and saw the kitchen area, bedroom, old musical instruments, ever the torture room. It's all from the middle ages and totally preserved. Then we visited Mayschloss and had a wine tasting. It was actually very successful coordinating a group on 150 international students on three buses throughout Germany. As the wine cellar, each country had to sing a song in their Muttersprache. For America, we put on a medley (there's so many of us, it was the most democratic way to decide what to do). I started off by singing the first verse of Eminem's 'Cleaning Out My Closet' in front of a hundred people, then Take Me Out to the Ball Game, then All-Star by Smash Mouth. It was so much fun! The Wisconsin kids all sang 'Varsity' later in the night and we all broke into 'Build Me Up Buttercup' probably half a dozen times during the trip. Come on, you can't have a bus ride and not break into song!
Tomorrow I might head to a big female-centered flea market near Bonn, and then Ikea with some Wisco girls, and maybe Thai massages and face masks in the afternoon. We may not be in university level classes yet, but hey, intensive school every morning for 3 and a half hours is stressful! We need a girls' weekend :]
I can't stress enough how awesome a lot of the kids I've met here are. A bunch of us watched Across the Universe the other night and it was so much fun! I did have my first "holy crap, we're here for 5 more months" moment the other day, but it's all good in the hood. There's just so much more to do and learn!
Tomorrow I might head to a big female-centered flea market near Bonn, and then Ikea with some Wisco girls, and maybe Thai massages and face masks in the afternoon. We may not be in university level classes yet, but hey, intensive school every morning for 3 and a half hours is stressful! We need a girls' weekend :]
I can't stress enough how awesome a lot of the kids I've met here are. A bunch of us watched Across the Universe the other night and it was so much fun! I did have my first "holy crap, we're here for 5 more months" moment the other day, but it's all good in the hood. There's just so much more to do and learn!
Monday, March 5, 2012
So, Germany's awesome.
Turns out I lucked out and live in the nicest dorm of the Uni! It's called Karl-Shurz-Haus, only three blocks from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), and I have machine operated blinds and sound proof windows. What whaaat!
Also, before I even start, just apologizing in advanced if this post looks like a third grader got ahold of a computer. The z and y keys are backwards and who knows where half the punctuation mark are on this thing, but I'm trying my best! Finally figured out the apostrophe, but only after sending a conjunction filled e-mail back home. Oh well. ;)
Today was our first day of the month long intensive language course. I might move up to a high group level depending on how the rest of the week goes. I love my teacher, Frau Singer, but most of the people in my group have only taken 1 or 2 years of German and I'm at 7.5. I just want to speak to people I can learn from so I'm as proficient as possible come term start in April! We'll see. I've met so many people! Nearly everyone from my program is great and nice. There's kids from Canada, France, Estonia, China, Japan, Michigan, Kansas, Tennessee, Singapore, England, Australia, and more. On Saturday we went on a surprise hike to Drachenfalls up to the ruins of an old castle. It was a HIKE. It felt like the entire trip was at 45° haha. But the view over the Rhein river and all the German style buildings? So worth it.
On Sundays, everything is closed, but we didn't let the city being shut down stop us from exploring! A couple of us walked all around Bonn just familiarizing us with everything and seeing what was up. Today, the Rektor of the University welcomed us in this little semi-formal speech and I finally met my super awesome Bonn Buddy named Maja. I love becoming friends with actual Germans- they can show us the best places to go! :D Tonight will probably be chill (laundry on the 6th floor, ugh kill me now) but tomorrow ist Karaoke Nacht! Oh jaaa. Let`s unleash my aweeeesome singing voice upon the country (a.k.a. I apologize, Germany, for singing karaoke tomorrow).
I still don't have internet access (an Internet cafe, you smart ass) but hopefully tomorrow I'll ask about it at Kaffeestunde at the International Office and figure dis shiz out. I'll upload Prague and Bonn pictures! Until then, I've been becoming re-obsessed with Das Racist and watching my five dollar Monk DVD. #livingthelife
Also, before I even start, just apologizing in advanced if this post looks like a third grader got ahold of a computer. The z and y keys are backwards and who knows where half the punctuation mark are on this thing, but I'm trying my best! Finally figured out the apostrophe, but only after sending a conjunction filled e-mail back home. Oh well. ;)
Today was our first day of the month long intensive language course. I might move up to a high group level depending on how the rest of the week goes. I love my teacher, Frau Singer, but most of the people in my group have only taken 1 or 2 years of German and I'm at 7.5. I just want to speak to people I can learn from so I'm as proficient as possible come term start in April! We'll see. I've met so many people! Nearly everyone from my program is great and nice. There's kids from Canada, France, Estonia, China, Japan, Michigan, Kansas, Tennessee, Singapore, England, Australia, and more. On Saturday we went on a surprise hike to Drachenfalls up to the ruins of an old castle. It was a HIKE. It felt like the entire trip was at 45° haha. But the view over the Rhein river and all the German style buildings? So worth it.
On Sundays, everything is closed, but we didn't let the city being shut down stop us from exploring! A couple of us walked all around Bonn just familiarizing us with everything and seeing what was up. Today, the Rektor of the University welcomed us in this little semi-formal speech and I finally met my super awesome Bonn Buddy named Maja. I love becoming friends with actual Germans- they can show us the best places to go! :D Tonight will probably be chill (laundry on the 6th floor, ugh kill me now) but tomorrow ist Karaoke Nacht! Oh jaaa. Let`s unleash my aweeeesome singing voice upon the country (a.k.a. I apologize, Germany, for singing karaoke tomorrow).
I still don't have internet access (an Internet cafe, you smart ass) but hopefully tomorrow I'll ask about it at Kaffeestunde at the International Office and figure dis shiz out. I'll upload Prague and Bonn pictures! Until then, I've been becoming re-obsessed with Das Racist and watching my five dollar Monk DVD. #livingthelife
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)