random scraps
I keep meeting people when I am at my worst. Another night of dragging myself back to my room feeling nauseous, and then I have to run into someone in the kitchen. I can barely think in English, I don't know how I am supposed to not only explain myself in German, but understand German spoken with a Chinese accent.
Friday was mostly a wash, though now I can say that I have ordered banana beer (Hefe mit Anana). I stayed up too late Thursday night writing, and even after having taken a nap after our tour of the Nord Uni (north part of the university), I feel like someone has swung a bat at not only my stomach but at any social skills I have been in posession of the past two decades. Instead of going to the "rally" downtown (when one of the orientation leaders annouced we were going to a rally everyone sort of looked blankly around at one another... we finally figured out he meant something more akin to a scavenger hunt than a rally), all my tired friends and I watched a Chinese version of Hero in the living room on Jacky's floor. I had wanted to go do the hunt, and then go with the group to a club afterwards, but everyone I would have wanted to hang out with was too tired to walk back down to town, and I couldn't really say that I didn't feel the same. All the same guys from Jacky's floor that we had met the night previous were around, and I felt like a complete loser when I said that instead of drinking with them, or going into town later to a bar or club or something, I was going back to my room to pass out. Unfortunately I can't just pass out because my body is rebelling againist me once again, so I am forcing down some bread and cheese. I'd eat the nectarine I took from our lunch at the Nord Mensa, but I have got to have something for tomorrow. This is pitiful, my eating habits are really moving into scavenger mode. Once I start riding a bike everywhere (which will hopefully be soon, because my legs are literally aching from walking every waking moment) I think my body might feel better. Apparently we have to pay 30 Euro a month to use the gym, and so in an effort to be able to provide our bodies with sufficent sustenance (using money for food rather than to lift weights) Jacky and I are planning to go on riding expeditions together through town. If I ride my bike everywhere then the need to use a gym will be lessened considerably. I am also hoping that I am going to be able to take some dance classes once the semester starts up.
I am sure everyone I hang out with a regular basis here (so far, mostly my better friends that came here from Santa Cruz) is sick of me saying this, but I think when you all see me next I am going to be missing big patches of flesh, or at the very least dropped down a weight class. My limbs are going to rebel from lack of sustenance and just tear themselves away from the main unit. Its a grim picture but I can't really see any alternative. Jacky and I have been doing a little shopping, and trying to each get the cheapest things between us to share and try out together. Right now I am hewing away at this block of compact bread called Roggenkraft (only 0,39 Euro). Its pretty decent with other things, a little harder plain like I am encountering now. The rest of my food is in the kitchen all the way down the hall and down the stairs, and right now that is too far away for me.
Apart from scare-eating, we need to take into account the excessive walking. Walking is really nice, but when you have to stop and take breathers to stretch your calves because you live three Atlantics away from all the places you are having to visit on a daily basis, it just feels a little too ridiculous. Of course I am exaggerating (more like three North Seas), because I really do like the walking. Even the getting-lost hasn't been bad, because we've (again, just Jacky and I) really gotten to see a lot of the city that I don't think other people have (which, have I mentioned yet, I am pretty much in love with). But yeah, the walking. I like to think that it is preparing me for the cross-continent excursions I am hoping for myself come vacation time. When Jackie and I were busy getting late for Professor Keller's welcome brunch today, she commented that she thought we'd be good traveling together (this is while we are lost). I think she is right. I suggested that for our three(?) week break (after the ILP [Intensive Language Program] ends and before the semester starts), we head down to some places in Eastern Europe, after we do Oktoberfest. There we will probably be able to use our German all the time, and it makes more sense to go from Southern Germany to Eastern Europe now rather than later.
Jacky and I have been trying to speak to one another in German most of the time... its a lot harder to speak German with the other English students than I would have thought. I guess other people don't realize that after a certain point people are going to stop speaking English to us (this time being at least when the semester starts and our classes are, guess what guys, taught exclusively auf Deutsch). The only people I am speaking English with are the other Americans... the shopkeepers of Weender Strasse and related streets have already gotten their dose of my poor German.
Going back to talking about food: If there is one thing I already do not understand about the people of this nation, it is why everyone is okay with every single drink being carbonated. I'd think there would have been protests or something by this point. Its ridiculous. The only non carbonated water you can find is tap water, and that is only served if you ask specifically for it (Leitungswasser, or Wasser ohne Kohlensaeure). So Dehydration and I have once again met up as old friends, and now and then I try to combat her gentle advances with large quantities of apple juice and (get this) banana juice. But as one could guess, this might not be the best planning. After I finished the written test on Wednesday, I went downstairs to a soda machine and was overjoyed when I saw something labeled as "table water." Wrong again my friends. Still carbonated.
Friday was mostly a wash, though now I can say that I have ordered banana beer (Hefe mit Anana). I stayed up too late Thursday night writing, and even after having taken a nap after our tour of the Nord Uni (north part of the university), I feel like someone has swung a bat at not only my stomach but at any social skills I have been in posession of the past two decades. Instead of going to the "rally" downtown (when one of the orientation leaders annouced we were going to a rally everyone sort of looked blankly around at one another... we finally figured out he meant something more akin to a scavenger hunt than a rally), all my tired friends and I watched a Chinese version of Hero in the living room on Jacky's floor. I had wanted to go do the hunt, and then go with the group to a club afterwards, but everyone I would have wanted to hang out with was too tired to walk back down to town, and I couldn't really say that I didn't feel the same. All the same guys from Jacky's floor that we had met the night previous were around, and I felt like a complete loser when I said that instead of drinking with them, or going into town later to a bar or club or something, I was going back to my room to pass out. Unfortunately I can't just pass out because my body is rebelling againist me once again, so I am forcing down some bread and cheese. I'd eat the nectarine I took from our lunch at the Nord Mensa, but I have got to have something for tomorrow. This is pitiful, my eating habits are really moving into scavenger mode. Once I start riding a bike everywhere (which will hopefully be soon, because my legs are literally aching from walking every waking moment) I think my body might feel better. Apparently we have to pay 30 Euro a month to use the gym, and so in an effort to be able to provide our bodies with sufficent sustenance (using money for food rather than to lift weights) Jacky and I are planning to go on riding expeditions together through town. If I ride my bike everywhere then the need to use a gym will be lessened considerably. I am also hoping that I am going to be able to take some dance classes once the semester starts up.
I am sure everyone I hang out with a regular basis here (so far, mostly my better friends that came here from Santa Cruz) is sick of me saying this, but I think when you all see me next I am going to be missing big patches of flesh, or at the very least dropped down a weight class. My limbs are going to rebel from lack of sustenance and just tear themselves away from the main unit. Its a grim picture but I can't really see any alternative. Jacky and I have been doing a little shopping, and trying to each get the cheapest things between us to share and try out together. Right now I am hewing away at this block of compact bread called Roggenkraft (only 0,39 Euro). Its pretty decent with other things, a little harder plain like I am encountering now. The rest of my food is in the kitchen all the way down the hall and down the stairs, and right now that is too far away for me.
Apart from scare-eating, we need to take into account the excessive walking. Walking is really nice, but when you have to stop and take breathers to stretch your calves because you live three Atlantics away from all the places you are having to visit on a daily basis, it just feels a little too ridiculous. Of course I am exaggerating (more like three North Seas), because I really do like the walking. Even the getting-lost hasn't been bad, because we've (again, just Jacky and I) really gotten to see a lot of the city that I don't think other people have (which, have I mentioned yet, I am pretty much in love with). But yeah, the walking. I like to think that it is preparing me for the cross-continent excursions I am hoping for myself come vacation time. When Jackie and I were busy getting late for Professor Keller's welcome brunch today, she commented that she thought we'd be good traveling together (this is while we are lost). I think she is right. I suggested that for our three(?) week break (after the ILP [Intensive Language Program] ends and before the semester starts), we head down to some places in Eastern Europe, after we do Oktoberfest. There we will probably be able to use our German all the time, and it makes more sense to go from Southern Germany to Eastern Europe now rather than later.
Jacky and I have been trying to speak to one another in German most of the time... its a lot harder to speak German with the other English students than I would have thought. I guess other people don't realize that after a certain point people are going to stop speaking English to us (this time being at least when the semester starts and our classes are, guess what guys, taught exclusively auf Deutsch). The only people I am speaking English with are the other Americans... the shopkeepers of Weender Strasse and related streets have already gotten their dose of my poor German.
Going back to talking about food: If there is one thing I already do not understand about the people of this nation, it is why everyone is okay with every single drink being carbonated. I'd think there would have been protests or something by this point. Its ridiculous. The only non carbonated water you can find is tap water, and that is only served if you ask specifically for it (Leitungswasser, or Wasser ohne Kohlensaeure). So Dehydration and I have once again met up as old friends, and now and then I try to combat her gentle advances with large quantities of apple juice and (get this) banana juice. But as one could guess, this might not be the best planning. After I finished the written test on Wednesday, I went downstairs to a soda machine and was overjoyed when I saw something labeled as "table water." Wrong again my friends. Still carbonated.
posted by Meredesu at 12:00 AM
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