The Adventure Continues

Finally getting a little bit more in to this living-in-Germany thing (absolutely still in disbelief).  Yesterday I spent the morning wandering through the city center exploring.  I bought a month long bus card for 35 Euro because they won’t accept my temporary student ID on the bus since it doesn’t have a picture on it (they are hardcore about having your picture on things here) so I can get downtown and back.  I was really angry today when I saw some guys get on and off with their temporary cards, some bus drivers allow it but a lot do not.  I evidently had not yet come across a nice one and had spent a large amount on bus fare so I broke down and got the unlimited card.  Ugh!

I wandered around downtown, went to Max Platz where there is something like a farmer’s market slash flee market set up, went in and out of little stores and generally just window shopped.  I could have spent a lot of money, but instead I only bought a pocket dictionary (yes, I came to Germany and left all three of my dictionaries at home, stupid stupid stupid) at a used bookstore for 5 Euro (so much better than the 15 Euro they were trying to charge at the regular bookstore).  I also walked up and down the river and took touristy pictures.  They aren’t that great because it’s been so overcast.  I spent some time getting myself lost and finding my way back to the bus stop.  It was good for me, I feel much more confident about navigating now.  I know how to get to the International Office, the Mensa (cafeteria, which everyone tells me is awful so I haven’t eaten there) and some other buildings the Uni has downtown (there is no such thing as campus here, Uni buildings are spread out all across town, for example the business building is next to my apartment and the psychology building is downtown).

I had leftovers for lunch and then Lee and I went downtown, sat in a café (I splurged on a latte, what a luxury considering I only have instant coffee) and did more wandering for a while before dinner.  For dinner we had real German food (first since I got here).  I had gemischter Bratwurstteller (“mixed sausage plate”) which came with three types of Wurst over Sauerkraut with a hearty bread and mustard.  I also had the light beer brewed in house.  The interesting thing about a lot of places here is that they are a combination of three things: brewery, restaurant and hotel (!).  This was one of those places.  It’s also cool because you can get a pint of beer brewed in house for less than 3 Euro!  That’s a deal to me.  Everything was delicious, and I enjoyed my local German beer. I couldn’t finish it even though I really wanted to and it was probably the most I’ve eaten since I got here.  Food is interesting here, in my opinion.  I’ve found that on nutrition facts they provide information for a portion of 100g and generally whatever it is I’m eating is only a bottle/bar/bag of 200g.  I was eating chocolate today and turned it over to see what the nutrition facts were and was absolutely astounded to see that it was 40 grams of fat!  Then I remembered the 100g thing and turned it over to find out the whole bar was 100g, whew.

As per usual I was a bumpkin and came home at 9 last night.  I’m still fighting jetlag and yearn for my bed about when 5pm rolls around (excuse me, 17 o’clock).  At least I managed to stay up until 9:30 two nights ago and I slept through the night, it was great sleep too.  My new blanket is awesome, unfortunately I can’t say the same for my pillows.  They are ginormous, but they’re down so when you lay on them they all but disappear.  I didn’t sleep that well last night, but I’m not doing anything today (since the town shuts down on Sunday) so it doesn’t really matter.

Tchüss,

Martha