My Second weekend in Deutschland

Sunday, October 23, 2005
The eight hour-long orientation was actually really fun. The two girls running it were really nice and helpful. We just played get-to-know-you games and they talked to us about adjusting to living here. Then in the afternoon we were put into groups for another game. Each group had a cooked egg, which we had to take out in the town and see if we could get people to change it with us for something better. Whichever group had the best stuff at the end got a prize. My group went around and asked people on the street but other groups went into stores. After exchanging with a few people, we ended up with a dirty napkin. We finally managed to find someone with a free flier and returned back. I think every other group went into stores instead because they ended up with some pretty cool stuff. For example, Katja’s group (who ended up winning) managed to score some stickers, candy, a cool hangy thing, and a sailor shirt.

Friday night all of the exchange students went to a pub (or Kneipe) where we all got to meet out tutors. My tutor is really nice. She’s actually half American and speaks English without a German accent. Pubs are really fun but ugh, so much smoke. I have to air out my clothes for a couple days before I can wear them again. I probably spent about two hours just walking on Friday (walk to the Banhof in the morning and then two times from my room to the town and back). I don’t mind the walking though (although later I think I might!). It’s good exercise and it’s nice when there are other people to walk with. I’m considering investing in a used bike though. There are some nice trails around and it would be fun to go by bike because you can see so much more. Also, getting around would take much less time and since we have to carry everything we buy, it would be nice to have to go shopping.

On Saturday I took the train to Urs’ house. Saturday night we went to Anna’s house for her birthday. It was a kind of dinner party. A bunch of the people there went into the kitchen and cooked and then we all ate together. It was ok but I didn’t understand very well. We got there at 7:00 and stayed until almost 1:00am. It was good to hear so much German but no one really tried to talk to me except one guy at the beginning and we spoke in English. I knew it was cheating but it was nice just to communicate with someone and it made me feel a lot more at ease because everyone else knew each other. I got kind of frustrated because I could understand a few words but no whole ideas. The only full idea I picked up on was when someone said to Urs: “Does she understand German?” Someone else said, “She understands when you speak slowly but we are talking too fast.” That was kind of awkward but I have to say, my favorite awkward situation is when the conversation goes something like this:

person one: DeutschdeutschdeutschdeutschdeutschANDREAdeutschdeutsch.
person two:DeutschdeutschdeutschANDREAdeutschdeutschdeutsch.
person three: oh ja, ANDREAdeutschdeutschdeutschdeutschdeutschdeutsch...
...and then everyone looks at me with a kind of half smile and an expression on their face like, do you know that we are all talking about you?

Oh well, it was kind of Anna to invite me, and I don’t anyone to feel like they have to entertain me. It was Urs chance to see friends that he hasn’t seen for a while, and that was the most important.

Today I am hanging out at Urs’ house and will probably head back to Landau in a little bit. Bye for now :-)