Last Two Days in Bonn

Last Two Days -

- I took a random day trip to the Netherlands... teehee... including some really really delicious Dutch apple pie and waffles.

- Farewell dinner for the intensive month long orientation program! The Chinese food was actually pretty good, and it was nice to see everyone again. Still, I'm really glad the real semester is starting. Some fresh blood will be nice, as will be seeing a little less of the International Office's top officials (they make me feel like I'm in grade school again, occasionally).

- I met another random former Mizzou student who works at Deutsche Welle! After Mizzou, he went to the same small liberal arts college at Stephanie! Weird!

- I bought a bike at the bike fair! It cost me 58 euros including the bike lock. Not the 30 euros I was told was possible, and my friend In had the lowest price in our group with 40 euros. Still, it's not that bad, it actually fits me well (75% of the bikes were too tall for me) and I think the extra 15 euros made a big difference. In's gears have already gone off once. Mine seems to run great, and the guy gave me a card with his phone number in case something goes wrong with it. I think I'll use it a lot! And even by cutting my grocery store commute by 2/3th it's just about worth the price... Anyway, it's shiny and blue and pretty! :)

- Cologne yesterday reaffirmed that we hadn't gone as wrong as we'd thought on our last visit - there was pretty much the cathedral and the chocolate museum. (If we'd only been brave enough to take day trips, though!) However, it also reaffirmed that the cathedral and the chocolate museum are awesome! The chocolate museum was twice the size as in my memory and the samples were still good. It's not even that expensive (5 euros). We spent an embarrassingly long 3 hours there.

- Cologne Cathedral - wow. Sorry, Santiago de Compostela. I adore you, but the Kölner Dom is my first love. It's just so expansive, warm, peaceful inside... so dark and foreboding and massive from the outside.




- Class registration continues (first classes tomorrow). The professors here have all emailed me back giving me the green light to participate! It's been more complicated here than I'd hoped, but I think it'll be okay in the end even if not the golden ideal. I'm taking two classes from the International Office - Preparation for the DSH and Deutsche Medien. The former is pushing it for my ability level and is the top German language class for foreigners offered here. The second is quite a bit easier, but the subject matter fits my major, and hey, a nice little break that keeps me in touch with the other exchange students will be nice. All in all, with these and the introduction course, looks like I'm going to get 9 hours of upper-level German elective. Sweet!

-Then, I'm taking three Spanish classes (possibility of dropping the hardest one though) - Latin American Environmental Discourse, the Discovery and Conquest of the Americas, and Intercultural Studies Spain and Morocco. I'm having trouble getting SPANISH credit for them. But, I also need a few credits in general Social Sciences, which is how they're looking to transfer, so not the end of the world... just the weird thing of taking classes in Spanish in Germany. But hey, they look interesting at least. Finally, I'm going to try to take a Norwegian course. Based on my one email to the Norwegian professor, he wants me to take a literature or translation class. He said Norwegian II is also an option although it might be a little boring for me. I doubt it - I've never had a formal Norwegian class before and little things that I'm not used to having to worry about on MSN convo's are likely to kick my butt. Now, the most important thing... I have Fridays off!! :D :D

- I booked my tickets to Finland. I'll have a good chunk of time there - three full days and some left over. I am skipping two classes. However, I don't have any plans to go further than Finland while I'm here. It was a good place to use them. The flight was 100 euros (with the taxes and fees and everything!) and rounding up I'll probably be spending 200 to get to Liisa's place and back to mine with busses and trains and everything thrown in. Then it's just food and activities, so it's not that insane (and again, it's probably my biggest or second biggest trip here).

- Slovakian dinner last night was tasty - weird potato noodle things with a yogurt cheese sauce and bacon! How could we say no? German apple waffles for dessert, and a game that mixed taboo, pictionary, and charades.

- Looks like I have an elementary school to volunteer at! Wednesday mornings most likely. Good for my resume, my teaching experience, and my German skills. Plus I think I'll enjoy it! :D A win-win.

- Allergies have started. FML.