End of Woche 1

Sorry I haven't blogged for a couple days, I've just been very busy!

I feel that our class time has gotten better every day. It seems like our teacher is more comfortable with us, and we have more interesting and engaging things to do and talk about in class. It is still a long class session, at 3 hours, but it is certainly manageable.

Tuesday for interactive practice it was raining, so we met at the Schloß (castle) in Mannheim, and we went around. It's actually part of the university, so there are several libraries there, and many many many rooms. It is quite easy to get lost inside it! We also saw the attached Kirche (church) and the Antikensaal-Galerie, which houses 20 (more on how I know the exact number later) copies of famous statues.

The more fun part of Tuesday was playing Monopoly with Wolf and Nina, our interaction leaders. The game was in Deutsch Marks, so it was a bit hard to gauge how much everything was actually worth- you got 4000 Marks just for passing "Los"! We were able to practice our German, and our interaction leaders are really cool.

On Wednesday after class, we had a scavenger hunt for interactive practice. We had to go all around the city finding answers to various questions, like what the Mensa was serving that day, how many fountains there are in the Paradeplatz, or how many statues there are in the Antikensaal-Galerie (20!). A few of the questions required talking to random people around Mannheim, so those were the most challenging. Did you know that Mannheim has an Eishockey team called the Mannheimer Adler?

Today our interactive practice involved going to stores in Mannheim on certain missions. We had to hijack an employee and ask things like whether the clothes came in another color, size, etc, whether we could try them on, and whether the color looked good on us! Fortunately we were able to find someone around our age to whom we explained our project, and she very nicely helped us. For the next part we had to go to a different store and ask a Verkäuferin (sales woman) what the words auf Deutsch were for items we didn't know the name of. We found some women's capris (Kurze Hose), boxer shorts (Ünterhosen), and suspenders (Hosenträger).

I find that talking to people in shops and other places has become easier, and we have also become more polite. Our new go-to phrase is now "Können Sie mir bitte sagen..." which means, "Could you please tell me..." It comes in handy for asking for directions, especially. We have also started eating lunch in the EO, which is a student café in the Schloß. You actually pay by the weight of the food, so you really only take what you know you'll eat. I still have to get used to paying for ketchup, though. The food there is really good, and it changes daily. I have been bringing my own water bottle to save money on drinks, for as in the words of another student, soda is like "black gold" here.

It feels like I have been here already for quite a while, and now we can get around the city easily by walking and taking buses and S-Bahns. I have done more walking here than I have ever before, and it's nice that everything is so accessible. Our Studentenwohnheim is in a little bit sketchy part of town, though, so we're sure to travel in groups wherever we go. Our dorm has been good overall, although there is a slew of minor things we've laughed about. We actually wrote out a list of our so-called "grievances," which are actually quite amusing, in a pretend letter to our "Lieber Hausmeister." I believe we came to 33 in all, and perhaps I will post it. But not to worry, everyone at home, because we're all safe and doing fine.

Tomorrow is our first weekend trip, and we're headed straight from school to Berlin! We have 5 people in all- the four girls plus Joey, who is part of our group. I won't have my computer then, but I'll let you know how it goes!

Tschüss!