The last time I posted on here, I was in the library waiting to go to the neipe, and I ended up having so much fun there! This Kneipe was a little different (which can only be expected because it was in a different place), and one of the main differences was the disko ball and people dancing. It also made a huge different that I stayed much longer—I think I left around 1:00. While I was there, I made a couple of new friends including three French boys (Thiébaud, Oliver, and Simon), a boy from Mexico (José Carlos), and a girl from Turkey (Sevim). One guy from Ireland, Eric, was pretty drunk and starting buying everyone drinks, and he bought me a whole pint of beer. Now most of you know that I don’t really like beer, and I immediately tried to think of a way that I could get rid of it without actually drinking all of it (I did drink a little) or offending Eric (who was probably too drunk to notice anyway). So, whenever Eric wasn’t looking, I would pour some of my beer in Thiébaud’s or Olivier’s glass because they were drinking the same beer. It was so funny because Eric kept looking at me and saying, “Man, Tennessee girls really know how to kick them back!” Haha... The international students here are so friendly, and we all get along pretty well because we are all in the same boat—I’m already wishing I could take them all home with me in July.
At the Kneipe. In the back from left to right is Sevim (Turkey), Thiébaud (France), me, Olivier (France), and some guy I don’t know that jumped in the picture. In the front, Pedro (Portugal) is on the left and Simon (France) is on the right. I’m holding my huge beer that I only actually drank a small portion of :-)
On Thursday we did all of our administrative stuff, then Carina took Steven and me to Roller, which is similar to Ikea, but it has less furniture. There I bought two lamps (there is only one tiny light in my room, and it is entirely too dark), a tea kettle (I just can’t make it 5 months without tea), and a few other odds and ends. We also went to a Real which is similar to a WalMart and bought some groceries. When we got back, Steven and I ate dinner together (it was nice to actually have dinner with another person again), then went to the library to check our email and study for our quiz on Friday. It was a truly exhausting day—we were busy from 9:45 in the morning until about 11:00 or later at night.
Friday night we had our first orientation “trip” which was actually at a café on campus called Sonnendeck (I think I’ve mentioned it before…). I sat with my new friends from the Kneipe, and I drank a Jack and Cola—at which point Simon called me a “true Tennessee girl.” It was over at 8:00, and we felt that was a little early for a Friday night, so we went into the city and found a restaurant/bar called “Alex” which was pretty nice. While we were there, Thiébaud introduced me to a beer that I actually like! It’s a white beer from München that is very dense—you can’t see through it. As soon as I remember the name, I’ll post it on here.
In Alex on Friday night. Thiébaud was jealous of my super cool shades, so he made his own :-) After we took this picture, he said “Crap, you’re going to put that on Facebook aren’t you?” Haha. Yes, Thiébaud, I am!
Saturday was our next orientation trip. This time we went to downtown Dortmund and saw some of the important buildings and stuff. They actually did this in the form of a scavenger hunt where they divided us into groups and gave each group different questions to answer about the different places we had to visit. It turns out that there are some really cool places in Dortmund! At the end of our trip, we met at Westfallenpark, and we all went up to the top of the media tower (about 140 meters). The view was absolutely amazing! I thought it was really cool, because I can see the tower from my room, and I could see my building from the tower. Here are some pictures of my downtown experience:
Rienoldikirche. Part of the church is being renovated, which is very typical around here because all of the buildings are so old.
Oh Lamborghini, you are so very pretty.
The front of the old Stadthaus.
There are flying rhinos all over the town. Each one has an advertisement for the building next to it. I am on a mission to photograph them all. This is my favorite thus far—it says, “When rhinoceros’s fly, they also need a place to land!”
Heather (from Alabama) and I made a new friend outside the new Stadthaus.
The view from the media tower—I circled my building :-)
After our tour, Stephen and I headed home with some people that live in a dorm near ours. Once we got to the bus stop, Stephen told me that was going to eat dinner with the other people, so he was taking a different bus. He told me which bus to get on (he is much more public-transportation-savvy), and I got on by myself. It turns out it was the right bus, but it was going to the wrong direction. After about four or five stops, we came to the last stop and the bus driver kicked me off the bus, leaving me alone and lost in the middle of Dortmund. At this point, it started to rain. Shit. After taking another bus, a couple of subways, and walking quite a bit, I finally made it home—about an hour and a half after I got on the first bus. Needless to say, I was exhausted, perturbed, and a little gross, and I had about 20 minutes to get ready before Carina picked me up to go to her house for dinner again. I’m very glad I went because it put me in a much better mood to eat homemade food and enjoy the pleasant company (Anna came to, and I was very excited because she’s been out of town for almost a week and I’ve missed her). Dinner at Carina’s helps me with my German because we are not really allowed to speak English because her parents don’t understand it, and her dad tells us to stop whenever we start speaking English, which is actually a good thing because most of the international students can speak English much better than German so we speak too much English.
Today was a much deserved lazy day. I’ve spent most of the day cleaning and reading for class (for the record, it is really hard to read a novel in another language). Around 11:00, Stephen brought me a fresh pastry from the bakery as a “peace offering” for putting me on the wrong bus, and we sat and drank tea for awhile. Overall, a good day.
That’s all for now, tomorrow starts another very busy week. Also, just so all of you know, it is now after 8:30, which means this entry took over an hour to write. This explains why I only write about twice a week :-)
Tschüss!
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