Nürnberg for goodsies

SUCCESS!! I am now in Nürnberg. I have food, I have shelter, and I have a mailing address. Receivable at this address are letters, postcards, small children, and care packages. (cover me, I'm reloading!!)

So hungry... or at least I was yesterday after getting off the train. Thursday was the last night we all had together in Köln, so of course we all hung out, playing Tischtennis (Tisch = table. “It’s Tischtennis! Not ‘Ping Pong!’” is what our german professor always said) in the basement of the hostel, right next to the disco. (I heard two Ke$ha songs!) So my morning on Friday was a little rough, and all I had to eat was a little musli (granola, or whatever it is) and jogurt before sprinting with Wukie, Julie, both Coreys, Micah, and Justin to the bus stop then to the train station. We made it with 10 minutes to spare! Woot woot! Though I was kinda hoping to be able to have time enough to run realquick to a souvenir shop and get a scarf. Bah. Oh well. Things are cheaper in Nürnberg anyway. And it’s Europe, the land where scarves are proliferous! (it’s true – Bridget wore scarves the entire time we were in Köln, and the scarf gave her such good camouflage that at times she disappeared amongst the locals and we lost her.) Oh yeah, if we had gotten to the train station earlier, I also could have zipped to the bakery and grabbed 600 or so pretzles so I wouldn’t starve. But nooooo.... starve I did. The train ride went so quickly this time around. Thank goodness for friends with which to pass the time. We taught Justin how to play euchre. He was my partner, so we were behind 5-0 at one point. but then we just started pwning, and we came back to win, 10-9. BOOM!!! :D

The windows here are awesome. (“here” = germany) The latch mechanism is so cool. I spent 10 minutes  once just staring at the window while I turned the handle from its “completely locked” position (down), to its “swing open like a door” position (sideways), and to its “hinge from the bottom and open a little bit at the top but not too terribly far” position (up).

still have a residual headache from that mustard I tried at the mustard museum. Preface: when we were in the Chocolate Museum Thursday, we could look across the street, and we spied a “Senf Museum.” (Senf = mustard) So of course, since all the boys wanted to go, we went. The museum part was closed of course, but at least we got to try all the (terrible) mustards they make. Alright, I take that back, I liked one of the mustards. One tasted like beer. Really. The mustard in Germany makes my brain hurt. It’s not spicy in the sense we think of spicy. It’s like wasabi: just plain terrible.

I feel so foreign! It’s quite a unique perspective. I have much more respect for international students, now. I can understand easily (or at least guess for the most part, based on the context) about 80% of what is said to me, and I can only say about 80% of what I want to say, provided I can dumb it down enough to be able to translate. Sometimes, when talking to my roommate, I feel like I’m talking through a very fine sieve, trying to push my meaning through to the German side.

Everywhere in Germany so far, there are those heating unit things against the wall. And every window I’ve seen has one directly underneathh it. One must be careful when looking out the window, since our tendency it to lean up against the wall or whatever.

Whatever.

So apparently everyone misses me... a lot. (cough, MEL, cough)

stupid grocery stores close here at 7 PM. Whaaaaat?! Shoot, everything over here closes at 8! or some other ridiculous, weird, non-american hour of the day. (disclaimer: that is not to say that the shops that close at 7 or 8 PM are ridiculous or weird because they are German, rather, the time of day is ridiculous and weird. And since these times of the day have no lawyer, I can afford to bash them thusly.)

my room echoes. Hardwood floor, bare walls... I need a carpet. Or more furniture, lol. I bought a little bookcase today, and I’m going to use it for my clothes. Wie sagt man “poor college kid?”

I’m really glad that my shoes are relatively new. I’ve done a LOT of walking since being here in Germany. I’m also glad that my crappy cell phone has a flashlight on it: there’s no lights in the stairwell to my room! EEK!

IIII'm goin' ta bed. Or rather, to couch. later!