Hello from Darmstadt!

This week has been busy still but with a bit more time to explore and catch up on some sleep. We have been taking a german language course from 9am-12:15 everyday usually followed by lunch and another activity or if we are lucky, a nap :)

On Monday we went to a bar/restaurant called "The Hobbit" for our new Irish friend's birthday. The bar sold pizzas in the names of characters from Lord of the Rings which was really cool and I will be going back soon to eat some Gimli or some Gandolf I am sure! I was hoping there would be souvenirs there, but no such luck, there is not a lot of Darmstadt Pride here in the form of tshirts and mugs and such. Maybe that is just an American thing. A very tragic thing did happen to me on monday though...the lady at the mensa (dining hall) gyped me 5 euros...which is approx $7.50 and I didn't realize she had given me the wrong change until much later. I do suppose it could have been much worse though, but still I totally could have gotten another meal out of that money!

On Tuesday we went to the school library, pretty boring per usual. Then we went to this student club/bar at night which was not so fun and my friend Yaya paid 7 Euro for a mojito that was 90% ice...too expensive for me! Wednesday was just class and a bit of shopping in the town square called the "Luisenplatz" and then one of the guys from Spain had a birthday. We had a potluck dinner party which was fun. Today (Friday) we went to ESOC building in Darmstadt, which is like the NASA of Europe. I was totally hoping to ride in simulators and crawl inside rockets, but it was a rather drab tour instead...with a few models of the satellites and such. I did score a free poster to hang in my very drab room. Although I do have pictures of all your smiling faces looking at me to bring some life and ohio into my jail cell/bedroom. (It's really not that bad, just very impersonal). 

Tomorrow we are taking a trip to Heidelberg which should be really cool because there are castles and all sorts of historical sights there, so I am very excited. And now that I have money in my german bank account and have paid my first month's rent, I am much more relieved. 

Hope all is well in Ohio, New York, and Chicago (I think that covers most anyone who would be reading this!) We are going to splurge and spend $15 to watch the USC game here on the computer, so hopefully the bucks do us all proud!! (It won't be on until 2 am here!) So go bucks! Miss and love you all!

p.s. please post comments so I can hear from you, or else I have deserted my much slicker tumblr blog for no good reason!