This week was not too eventful during the week. German class every morning followed by other assorted activities including running, basketball, shopping, and going to the grocery store. It is weird to have to go to the store so often, and I do not have a freezer so that makes things difficult at times. We have one freezer that could maybe house oh I don't know, a box of fish sticks maybe and that is shared amongst the 9 people living in my flat. The people who share a bathroom with me are moving out and a new boy will move in, a new boy moved in on the floor beneath me, as well as another one moving in at the beginning of October. He has a tarantula...a snake...and an ant farm...yuck! I was thinking it would be much nicer if he had a puppy or something :)
I am getting better at understanding what people say, I just am no good at speaking German. So many weird sounds I am not used to hearing or making in English though some of the Spanish people are not even capable of making them! I guess German is quite a hard language for them to learn. This week there was another birthday, a roommate of one of the erasmus students from France. So there was a birthday party for him here at the dorms, followed by an outing to the student club/bar. There are many people that live in Karlshof, but I feel that I only see the same 50 people or so always. Right now many of the students are on "urlaub" or holiday. There exams last for 5 weeks or so and the tests can be anywhere during that time. I think the end of the 5 weeks is this Friday, and there is a week break before classes start back up again. For my "urlaub" I will go to Munich, Venice, and Rome! I will be leaving Saturday 9-26 to go to Munich to see the Oktoberfest festivities, then taking the night train from Munich to Venice, Italy where I will stay 2/3 days with Mary and Stephanie (our friend who is studying in Potsdam). Then we will go to Rome and meet up with Jackie and Jenae for 4 days in Rome! I am so excited!!
This past Saturday we travelled to Mainz, which is an old Roman town about an hour from Darmstadt. It was not as picturesque as Heidelberg, but there was a pretty church with very beautiful stained glass windows made by the famous glass artist Chagall. They cast a really pretty blue glow throughout the church, which was a much different feel from a normal church.
There was also a market going on with all sorts of fresh fruits, vegetables, crafts, pastries, and juices. They sell a lot of fresh apple and orange juices and wine. I did not buy anything at the market as I had just bought a lot of fruit at the market and did not want anything to go bad. Hopefully there will be another market going on where I can actually buy things! We ate at a really cute cafe for lunch where the food was very fresh and flavorful, I've noticed much of the German food is kind of bland, consisting of sausage, hard chewy bread, and potatoes. So it was nice to have something fresher. There seem to be not a whole lot of lighter, more refreshing options like salads and such, and everyone cleans their plate spotless here! It seems though that Germany, much like the states, just steals food from other cultures, there is Asian, italian, and lots of Turkish food here.
Tomorrow I am going on a trip to a town called Marburg that is supposed to be very cute. Then just a few days before Oktoberfest and my Italian adventure!
Glad to see the bucks pulled off the win, although my hometown UT pride wanted UT to do a little better I think. Oh well. Hope all is fantastic with everyone in Ohio (and Chicago and New York alike!) I just talked to my mom and dad and Lindsey is having the baby right now!! I will update when I hear although most of you will know before me I am sure! Love you all!
Meg
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