So I think I have forgotten to tell about some of the weird things. Here are some curious things:
Doors are not normal. Some open in, some open out, you can never tell. Also, they have little raised parts where the door is, and I trip on it every time.
Pillows are these fabulous-looking things resembling large clouds, that decide to lower your head to the height of the bed, so it is really not a pillow at all and I have been using my sweatshirt.
Bikers - everyone here is a biker, not just not normal people. Classy ladies, punks, preppies, everyone.
Yesterday my host family broke out the bike and tried to get the seat down to my level, but it won't go down, so I have to push off the pedal to get up.
Dinners - dude, for DINNER, you eat bread and cheese. Awesome!
There are GREEN paper towels in the bathroom by my classes.
Okay, so Monday, 7-19-04:
Today is Sica's birthday. I hope she got my email. I slept so well that when I heard the static radio sound I sat up and didn't know where I was for a moment. I had black bread, which is WEIRD stuff, but the yummy marmelade covered it well. My hostmom took me to school. My first class is great. We will be studying Märchen, or fairy tales. Today for homework I had to read "Sneewittchen". Guess what that is. It was hard at first, but it got easier. I still don't understand how Snow White wakes up, though. Then many of us went to the computer ab. Yay! Email and my blog worked! I stayed on the full two hours of break, typing up my blog, sending pics, and writing emails. My second class is focused on grammar. We reviewed, and it's a good thing. Ulli (our teacher) has varietous and good methods. She also explains very well. We did little activities, like drawing with prepositions and placing items to figure out if they should be dative or accusative.
Liz and I ran for the wrong bus (outgoing, not incoming), so we got off 2 stops later so as not to be too embarrassed and got the bus going the correct direction before the others. She is great at interacting with Germans.
I got off at the AlteMarkt and looked at stores. Flip-flops were 1,95. I almost bought some skater shoes for 20,90, but they didn't have the right siye (40). I found the H&M, a good clothing store, and along with it, cute clothes. I had no idea what size though, so I had to try on a couple before deciding 36-38. Their shirts were LONG! I bought a shirt to wear to bed and a green wide-necked shirt and a dusty-rose/michemily skirt with interesting pleats. I've been struggling with my German Rs, and when I told my hostmom that I bought a "Rock", or skirt, she looked at me blankly, because I tried to say it the way her daughter does.
Then I went into a cell phone shop and asked a zillion questions. A nice phone that takes pics it only 9,95. I might buy one and bring it back to America just because of the nice phone. No way. The activation fee is 24,95 and the montly fee is 9,95. To call America would be ,11 a minute. I don't know if that's cheaper or not. I saw a cool jewelry store, so I pulled on the door handle until I realized I needed to push. I laughed, as well as the lady behind me. I found the kind of jewel for which I've been looking (michemily), but it was HUGE. It is called something like rijou battou . . .
I tried to call Matt, but it's only 9 or 10, so I don't know. He usually answers, though. Finally I got to a bus stop and felt nervous about which bus to take. I took the 501, felt nervous about where to get off, but found it just fine. The walk through the neighborhood was nice. I took pics of houses and horses. Dinner is so cool! Cheese, bread, strawberries in yogurt. Dude! For Dinner! To me that was always a snack. Mike always made fun of me for just eating cheese and crackers. I finished up my homework in the gartenraum, read some, and went downstairs. I'm still wondering what the Heizraum is, but it says it is forbidden.