Sick in Germany

I've been sick for four days now with a cold, "Erkaeltung". I could feel it coming on Saturday while walking around in the rain at the zoo, but it hit me when I woke up on Sunday. It started off with an itchy, sore throat and how now progressed to a runny nose and irritating cough which brings up mucus. Fun fun! I decided not to go to class Monday... or today. There's nothing I hate worse than sitting in a quiet classroom and trying to constrain my breathing so I don't sound like Darth Vader. Also, blowing my nose every 5 minutes seems a little distracting.

The pharmacy near to my school is making bank this month, solely from all the purchases I've been making. I bought some DayMed (similar to DayQuil, though it doesn't do shit) for ten euros (!), some Nasen Spray which just makes my nose run more, some Ricola honey lozenges and some green tea. The last two seem to take an edge off of the coughing, but I'm hoping to find something else soon. I think I might have a sinus infection... but I'm going to see if my body can tackle this one on its own for now. I'll give it till next Monday.

I did bring some Centrum Multivitamins, which I've been taking once a day. I'm hoping that helps my immune system recover faster.

Although I didn't go to class today, I'm still planning on going to the stables. I am supposed to horseback ride today with the university's riding club, but from the way I've been coughing all morning I'm not sure that'll be possible. Since I don't have the head woman's phone number, I don't have enough time to send an email and reschedule today's lesson. I figure I'll just go out there and meet her if nothing else. Maybe I'll meet the horses and get a tour. I just took some DayMeds now, so maybe that'll help a bit and I can ride for half an hour. Fingers crossed! :)

Oh, and I hope I don't get lost...

The third week is already coming to an end!

This week is going by super fast. Class is slowing down... I feel like we waste a lot of time, though I'm still glad to be in this class. There's one guy in my class from Oman who is really obnoxious. He likes to shout out random words the entire class period (which, I should mention, is 4 hours. He raises his hand and shouts "ICH! ICH!" in hopes of getting the teacher's attention. There's only 13ish students in my class, so this is entirely unnecessary. When the teacher finally calls on him, he doesn't know where we are in the book OR how to format his sentences. I asked him today in German when we were broken up into small group if he could try for once not to talk in class. He apologized and said that he "must talk, because he doesn't understand". I told him that he in fact doesn't need to talk, but maybe should instead shut his mouth raise his hand for once. I don't think that'll really change anything, but if he's super distracting in class tomorrow I'm prepared to call him out.

I emailed the Volkshochschule about volunteering in the English classes, and got a reply but it only contained the woman's contact information. She called me to tell me she sent me an email. I messed up my sentence on the phone so she automatically switched to English (what we all absolutely hate). I emailed her back saying that her email was blank, and I offered to come and talk with her in person. Not sure what's going to happen with that, but I found a horseback riding club through the university! I send them an email and a girl wrote back saying I could come out next Wednesday and ride. They have 5 school horses, all of which know western so I'll do that. I'm a little nervous but more so excited! It seems pretty laid back. I'm not sure if it costs anything or not, but I asked her. I'm assuming it doesn't. Also, I'm not quite sure how to get there... but I also asked her this in the email. Hopefully there's a bus I can take.

I went grocery shopping two days ago and bought wayyy too much food. I mean, I'm glad I have all of it because honestly I'll probably eat it all by next week... but it was such a bitch to carry it all up to my room! I won't make that mistake again. Only 3 days worth of groceries at a time, haha. I love apple juice mixed with mineral water... it's super cheap here. You know what's not cheap? Normal water. Water fountains don't exist and free water at restaurants are unheard of. I brought a stainless steel water bottle with me though, and I just fill it up in the bathrooms of wherever I go.

Also I've noticed at public places like train stations and "public bathrooms" in general charge a fee of like, 1 euro. I know people who jump the gate but that's something so convenient that I definitely took for granted in the states.

Some people from Eau Claire and Stevens Point went on a little tour of the city last weekend. A decent amount of people didn't go, though the email was sent out late and some people already made other plans. I'm pretty sure a lot of people were hungover too. It was really informative, and I learned a lot of quirky things about the city. For instance, the scratches alongside a lot of the old stone foundations in Oberstadt are from stage coaches taking the corners too fast and scratching the stone. That's why you can see large random stones alongside the walls in some spots, because the coaches had to keep far enough away from the walls, otherwise the stones would ruin the wheels. Apparently these stones were also useful for helping small men of nobility get on their horses. It was far less embarrassing to step up on a rock and climb aboard your horse than to get a leg up!

I saw a movie last Friday with my friends Kifah, Jean, Brittany, Ashley and Maki. We saw Rubbel die Katze. It was funny!-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm847JiO_Zw

There was a trailer for Jack and Jill (in German of course)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S3QZqcYAgA
I started cracking up watching this trailer in the theater. Adam Sandler movies are dumb in English, but they're even dumber in German.

Some of us got dinner at a nice restaurant before the movie. I don't remember the name of it. We sort of just wandered through the old part of town and stumbled upon this place. I had pasta with broccoli and zucchini along with a bananenweisse bier... sooo good. Perfect, actually.

Sunday Professor Leek took us all out to eat at this little pizza place. I got a hawaiian pizza... again, delicious! Afterwards Maggie, Sam, Ashley, Eric, Professor Leek and I went to Sudhaus for some drinks. It was a good time! Afterwards Ashley, Eric and I walked to a Mexican restaurant near the church to meet some people and watch the Packers game. I didn't end up staying very long, just enough time to drink a margarita. Apparently I didn't miss much. I caught the last bus but had to wait a half an hour outside in between buses. :/ It was a tad bit nipply!

Tonight, Brittany, Michael, Jean, Ashley, Anton, Maki and myself are all getting together for some sushi. I'm so excited! Maki is from Japan and offered to make it herself. :D

I don't have anything planned this weekend... I'd like to plan for a tour of the catacombs underneath the castle. I need atleast 6 people total for it to be affordable. It's 56 euros per group for a two hour tour, so of course with 6 people it'll be about 10 euros each. I know one or two people who are interested... so maybe I'll send out an email now and see if anyone else wants to. With my student pass I can ride the slow trains in the state of Hessen for free, so one of these weekends I want to take advantage of that and travel a bit. Maybe Sunday. Sometime I need to go to the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt along with the Frankfurt Zoo. Strange, putting those two things next to each other in a sentence.

I should finish my homework. Thanks for reading to anyone who made it this far! :)

Pudding, Unterricht und Das Schloss

This week has gone by fast! With class only taking up half of the day, I have a lot of free time. For one of my online classes at UWSP, I have to get involved with an organization, club or cause and write about it throughout the semester. I just sent an email to the administrators at the Volkhochschule, which is a type of community college open to everyone of all ages. One of my teachers earlier this week brought in a catalog from the school and listed were English classes of all levels. I'd love to assist in one of the classes, whether it be as an assistant to students in class or as a tutor out of class. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Yesterday Maggie and I made our way up to the castle. It was a beautiful walk through Oberstadt and up the side of a very large hill. Because of its location, the castle is easy to find anywhere in the city. Just look up! I had fun taking pictures of the castle outside, but I really wanted to go inside and either take a tour or go through the museum. For some reason, neither Maggie nor I could find a door to go inside. There were plenty of doors... but they all looked private! I didn't see one that had a welcome or enter sign over it. Some other people from my group said the same thing, so I know I'm not completely retarded.

I still have to visit the Elizabethkirche, which is centrally located in town. I think it's lit up at night on the inside, from some of the postcards that I've seen. That'd be cool.

My group's German tutor, Rouven, talked about setting up some type of tour for the groups from UW Stevens Point and UW Eau Claire this weekend. I was asked to ask the group whether or not they're interested if they end up having to pay 10 euros, and everyone (except one person) is interested. I think it'd be a great bonding experience for the group and we'll hopefully gain a completely different view of the city. There's catacombs located underneath the castle... I want to see that so bad! Who knows, though. I hope it works out!

Brittany invited people from her class and from the group to her kitchen last night for spaghetti and to watch Cast Away in German. It turned out Cast Away wasn't supposed to be on tv that night, but we ended up watching some King of Queens instead. It was a lot of fun, getting to know people from my group and people from all over the world. I met a really nice girl from Japan, who is making our group sushi next Wednesday. :D We've all decided to make this dinner date a weekly event.

I'm planning to go to the movies tomorrow night with my friend Keifa (Israeli) from my class and Maki (from Japan). I don't know yet what we're going to see... but I don't really care. Rubbel die Katze looks pretty funny... and dumb. But dumb usually equals simple language usage, which is good for me! Some people from UWSP are going to see the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tonight, but I haven't decided if I'm going yet. It's only 3 or 4 euros for students, so I could afford it... but I brought the book with me, and I kind of wanted to read it before I saw it. I guess it doesn't matter too much, because it's in German so I won't fully understand it anyways. Seeing it again in English will probably be like me seeing it for the first time, haha.

I almost forgot to write about last weekend! Last weekend, Maggie, Marcel and I went to Magdeburg to visit the group of German students I worked with last summer in Stevens Point. The train ride consisted of two stops each way, with it being 5 hours each way. It went by fast, though. I noticed some changes as we went from Hessen, which is centrally located in Germany to Saxon-Anhalt, which is located in east Germany. The buildings seemed a little bit more run-down and the city itself didn't have the charm that Marburg seems to have. I feel safe in Marburg, where as I wouldn't want to travel around Magdeburg along not knowing the city. Both cities have a lot of graffiti, but the graffiti in Marburg seems to have more of a positive message than the contrary. Saturday night we met everyone out at a bar, including one of the German professors from UWSP who was in town. It was nice catching up with everyone! Afterwards we went back to Marcel's place and drank more. Mortiz compiled all of his videos he shot while in the US and turned it into a movie for everyone to watch. It was hilarious! At the end of the night, I ended up sleeping in Marcel's roommate's smelly bedroom because Moritz and Susann were pissing me off, haha. I'm ready to sleep when 6 am rolls around. Jesus.
The next day I met up with my friend Franzi and her boyfriend. She picked me up and we all had something to eat at her place. After talking for a while, they drove me to the Dom, aka old church in the city and we walked around a bit. I also saw the Hundertwasserhaus, built by Austrian Friedenreich Hundertwasser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

Overall, I've been having a great time so far in Germany. I'm looking forward to what's to come in the following weeks! I'm starting to plan my excursions for the semester... so far it's Ireland, Spain and a roadtrip with my host sister through southern Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. I also need to make time to see a concentration camp... European history at it's worse. As morbid as it is, I'd like to see it for myself.

Thanks for reading!

Freitag, 06. Januar

News- I'm online! At the mensa. Hopefully when I go back to my dorm my internet will be up and running. It wasn't when I woke up this morning. Maggie's is working in her room and she was told it wouldn't be up until Monday, so I'm staying hopeful. :p
I'm skyping with Steve now, and it's so nice! I'm so excited to see him again. :) And I talked to my mom on Facebook. Her internet connection is too slow for her to use her webcam, though she could see me. Maybe it'll be better at my dorm.
Hulu and Netflix don't work here...maybe if I go straight to the network's website like ABC or whatever it'll work. Who knows.
Everyone from UWSP and Eau Claire is meeting tonight at 8pm by the cinema, to go have a few drinks and get to know one another. Should be a good time.
This weekend I'm going with Maggie and Marcel to Magdeburg, and Saturday night we will meet up with friends around 8pm at a bar. Professor Leek from UWSP will be there too. :) Then we will take on the 5 hour bus ride Sunday night and start school again Monday. Time goes by so fast here...

Donnerstag, 05. Januar

Ich schreibe jetzt in meinem Zimmer, mit der Fenster oftnet. I opened the windows because I was warm from walking up so many hills! The weather here in Marburg is a bit depressing. It’s always raining and the sky is grey. The temperature is temperate though, with temps 30-50 degrees F. I do prefer rain over snow and freezing cold temperatures, so I can’t really complain.

-Hey mom, that mini umbrella you bought me has really come in handy! It’s perfect to fit in my coat pocket and purse. :p

It’s been strange, not having internet access. I’ve gone the entire week only going online one time, and for only an hour or so. Some people have internet access in their dorms, though I won’t until tomorrow. I contacted the “Internet Tutor” today and he configured my laptop, so that I should be able to automatically connect to the internet. It should be up and running tomorrow. Really, I haven’t missed not having a phone or the internet as much as I thought I would. I can live without facebook and I don’t miss checking my emails. It’d just be hard for me not to have any sort of way to communicate with my boyfriend, my family and my friends. Skype is so nice...
I feel so bad! I have only talked to my mom once since arriving, unless she read my last blog post. I was able to use Maggie’s phone to call Steve this evening. It was really nice. I was sure he was worrying about me... the last time I saw or really talked to him was last Sunday (with today being Friday).

I’m really enjoying living in Marburg. I’m getting the hang of the bus system and it’s really not so bad. I got lost probably 4 times with other people this week, the most recent time being last night when Maggie and I were trying to meet our German friend Marcel at the train station. I misheard Maggie and got off at “Sudbahnhofstrasse” instead of “Bahnhofstrasse”. I thought, “hey, it’s just the south part of the train station, we can walk north.” Not possible. We walked for what seemed a few miles until we figured something out. By the end of the night, we were exhausted. Instead of going to sleep, though, we all went to the bar next to my dorm and had a few drinks and talked. Afterwards, it was agreed I’d sleep with Maggie in her bed and Marcel would sleep on the floor. Since I have a little bit of a cold, post-nasal drip was making me cough and making it impossible to fall asleep. Marcel and I talked until nearly 5:30am, until I decided to walk back to my dorm and sleep in my own bed. I had to wake up at 7:00am. Wednesday was a long day.

I have been grocery shopping almost every other day, because I can’t buy too much at one time when I take the bus. I was able to find some spaghetti tonight, so I’m pretty excited. I don’t want to spend too much money eating out. I bought some German milk (3,5 percent fat) because everyone says it tastes different than American milk, so we will see. Oh, I bought Schöfferhofer (a type of beer with cactus). It’s really good!

I like my class. I met a girl from Israel who is probably too good to be in level 1, but she said she could use some review in grammar. We got coffee on our lunch break and hopefully we can hang out while I’m here. :) We only speak in German when we’re together, unless I don’t know how to say something and I give up and say it in English. It’s really cool, being in a class where German is the common language. I look forward to seeing how much my German improves by the end of the semester! Every day I’m learning something new. Class is relatively easy and I feel that I’m learning a lot. I’d rather be here in level 1 and understand 95% of what is being said than to be in level 2 where some of my friends say they occasionally struggle.

A few times while I’ve been out whether it is at a grocery store or at the city hall, someone asks me something in German and I attempt to respond, but they immediately recognize my accent and start speaking in English. Most of the time, even if I mess up formatting my sentences, people respond in German. It’s such good practice and it really is satisfying being able to function with another language. Though if I’m doing something important, like filling out paperwork, I automatically speak in English just to make sure that the information is correct.

I keep forgetting to buy postcards... maybe I can do that next week. I haven’t really taken any pictures yet, either.

So tomorrow after class we all have to meet at the Mensa, or cafeteria, one last time to hand in some paperwork. If my internet is not working in my dorm when I wake up, I will bring my laptop to the Mensa and try to go online there. Fingers crossed!

The city of Marburg is beautiful, with the castle being lit up at night on top of the hill. Maybe I can go visit it tomorrow, though I’m not in a big rush. I do have 19 more weeks here to explore. :-) There’s a lot of graffiti, but much of it is positive... I saw one sign that said “end sexism” and another that said "voice your opinion". There is an underpass between the Mensa and the library, where the walls are completely covered in posters and graffiti. It’s pretty interesting. I will take a picture of it one of these days.

I’m going to finish some homework and get ready for bed. Thanks to those who read this... hope to hear from you soon! Love and miss you all!

First few days in Deutschland

After getting through security rather easy, I boarded the plane and was seated next to two strangers, though close to the other students in my group. Turned out I was seated next to a girl named Lacey who is about my age from Texas. She's stationed with the military in Germany. The other girl, Sabrina, is a German who married an American and now goes to school in Colorado. She was coming back home for her winter break. We all got along well, and they invited me out next weekend in Frankfurt. Lacey offered to pick me up and drive me there, which is necessary because I have not mastered the train or bus systems yet. I haven't decided for sure if I'm going to go because I might just want to explore the city of Marburg, but I can do that any other weekend. I am here 5 months...

I bought a cell phone yesterday at Media Mart for 9 euros and 25 euros worth of calling minutes. I still have to call the number to activate the minutes, though it's all in German so I'm waiting for my friend Marcel to arrive here from Magdeburg to do it for me. I sort of wish I had brought shampoo, conditioner, those sort of things with me because I reallllly wanted to take a shower last night. I ended up buying shampoo and conditioner so I could wash my hair in the sink in my room. I'm going to the store again with some friends after I get offline to get a towel. :I

I feel like I'm spending a lot of money, but that's just because I have to pay for all of these up-front costs like my visa, student id, housing deposit, essential food and beauty products... I hate that feeling though. Especially knowing that all of the prices I'm looking at aren't US dollars, but more. Conversion rate is 1 to 1.3.

My room is nice, small but tucked away in the corner by a little deck. There's a community kitchen which is ok, I'm nervous putting my food in the fridge. I don't want anyone to steal anything so I'm keeping the rest in my room. Eventually I'll put my insulin in the fridge... I don't know why anyone would steal it. I'm just so protective of it.

I haven't been able to use my credit or debit card anywhere! I have to just keep taking out money from the ATM. I still have the euros I brought with me. I'm glad I did that.

I had class this morning. I was placed in the lowest class along with 2 other people from Eau Claire. It's insanely easy, so I might move up to stufe 2 next week but we'll see. For most of the students in the class, our common language is German. Kind of cool. Most of them are from Oman. There's only 13 students in the class, it was split in two. I wouldn't really mind I guess if I don't move up, but some people who were in my class in Point who I thought did worse than me in class are in a higher class here, so I just want to be wherever I'll learn the most. I didn't do well on the placement test obviously, but it was retarded anyways. I'm impressed though... almost everyone else from WI placed pretty high. I'm trying to not let that effect my pride haha. I know it doesn't really matter though, because i'm here to improve MY German. I shouldn't compare myself to others. My teacher is nice.

The bus system is nice, but kind of complicated (for now). All of us took the wrong bus last night because it switches at 8pm, so we were out in the country. Not really, but it felt like it. Thanks to two people in our group who talked to the bus driver, he told us where to go from there. I did SO MUCH WALKING yesterday! A few miles atleast. I'm sore all over. Oh, and I live on the 5th floor of my building. I will lose some weight, for sure. haha

My friend Marcel from Magdeburg is coming to stay the night in Marburg tonight. Maggie and I worked with his group of exchange students this summer. I'm going to have him set up my german cell phone for me, thank god. Can't wait to have that. It's really hard getting around without internet or a phone! We had to all agree at a time to meet this morning at the bus station. Everyone who wasn't there was left on their own. It's kind of scary! I almost got left behind the first day when we were all going to dinner downtown because no one told me what time we were meeting. I was on a separate van because there wasn't enough room for me (when we got off the train and were getting dropped off at our dorms). I thought we had to meet at 3:30 when we had to meet 10 to 3, so I was going to go for a walk. I ran into one of our tutors, who was going to come to my room and see if maybe I was sleeping. If I was left behind, there was no way I could've found that restaurant downtown. :I Complicated.

They sort of threw us out at the dorms and we've all had to figure things out ourselves. Staying in groups has been essential! I kept laughing when I got off the airplane, when everyone around me was speaking German.

Ok, well I'm getting kicked out. I hope to write soon. Thanks to everyone who's read all of this, or even skimmed. Love you all!

4 weeks until I'm in Germany...

Well, I depart for Germany in exactly four weeks from today. I'm getting super excited! I'm also growing tired of hearing people talk about their experiences abroad; what to do and what not to do, what to pack, ect. I just want to be there already! I have to say though, I am thankful I have these four weeks to finish things up and prepare to say goodbye. It'll be hard to say goodbye to my boyfriend, Steve, my mom and dad, and my sisters along with my nephew. I know even in six months my nephew will have grown and developed so much (he's two years old). My parents have an old desktop computer, so I'm not too positive it can handle a skype session. Fingers crossed! None of my family members or boyfriend can come visit me abroad, unfortunately. Traveling ain't cheap!

I hope to have a little going away party when I come back to Woodstock at the end of the month. It'd be nice to see all my friends once more before leaving. Not quite sure yet where that's going to happen...

I was the only person to apply for the Overseas Program Assistant Position for my group studying abroad through UWSP, so I got it! I'm really looking forward to the extra responsibilities. Not only will it look great on my resume, but this is the perfect opportunity for me to improve my leadership skills along with my German.

I did some preparing this weekend and visited Christkindlemarket in Chicago with the UWSP German Club. Had some Gluehwein along with a brat with sauerkraut. SO FREAKIN GOOD. We all ate dinner at the Essenhaus in Madison (really good!), and of course I had to get a Franzoesischen Weiss to go with it.

Only one and a half weeks to go and I'm done with classes! Until then....