Wrapping up the first month...

I know it has been awhile since I’ve posted, and a lot has happened in the past two weeks. I think, to make it easier on myself and all of you eager readers, I am going to break this down into three posts—my last week of Sprachkurs and Tutorium, Berlin, and Prague. So get ready.

My last week of Sprachkurs and Tutorium was great. I’m so glad I came early and got the chance to get to know all of these amazing international students. I’m a little sad that it is all over now, because I don’t know if all of us will ever be in the same place at the same time again. Hopefully we will all keep seeing a lot of each other as the semester goes on. I am glad the actual course is over, though. I think a lot of it was a little over my head—I’m pretty positive I was near the bottom of the class, and the same class for three hours every day for three weeks gets really old (all you Maryville kids who had to do J-Term understand). I ended up with an A- in the class, which I’m really proud of because I did work really hard and the class was fairly difficult for me. Now I’m ready to take my regular semester German classes, which I’m pretty excited about. It’s really bizarre to think that I’m starting my classes on Tuesday and everyone at home is finishing their semester in less than a month…Oh well.

On Monday (the 30th), a few of us went downtown to check out a Jazz bar. It was pretty great--I really enjoyed just sitting with my new friends, drinking wine and talking, while there was good jazz music playing in the background. I will definitely be revisiting that bar :-D On Wednesday (the 1^st) we took a tour of the brewery, which was really cool. It is called the Dortmunder-Actien Brauerei, and it is the only brewery left in the area (apparently there were 23 in 1901, 8 in 1958, and now there is only one). The tour was really interesting, and it ended with a tasting, which made me really wish that I liked beer. We tried four different beers, and I didn’t really like any of them, but the DAB was my favorite out of them.

When the Brauerei was still fairly new, they used to give workers coins everyday so that they could get beer while at work, and the coins only worked that day, so you could not save them up. Our tour guide said that they were allowed 3 LITERS of beer everyday at work, and a lot of the workers became alcoholics because of this system.

Each of the beers that I tried

Diana and I with our coasters

Friday (the 3rd) was our last day of class, and it was really fun! We divided into groups and made skits about German stereotypes, and they were hilarious. The two most common themes were the obnoxious BVB (the Dortmund football team) fans, and beer. Also, we had a “international breakfast” where everyone had to bring in a traditional breakfast from their country. Steven and I made biscuits. Yum. Overall, it was a good morning, and that evening we went to a bar for our last Tutorium. It was nice to sit and spend time with my new friends, but I left early because we were leaving bright and early the next morning for BERLIN! (but I’ll save that for another post…)

Tori and I with the Schurrbart that she used in her skit--love her :-D

Link to Facebook album for more photos

Tschüss!