Kartoffeln zum ersten Mal

Doing everything for the first time sounds nice here, but in reality it's way harder.

 Don't you worry everyone, I know it has been three days instead of the usual two, but I am still alive and kicking here in Heidelberg!

Once again I've had some ups and downs in the past few days. On Monday, it was typical: class until 12:15, then lunch, then a meeting about traveling where I didn't really learn anything new. Afterward I did some homework at the AJY center before going home to do some grocery shopping and laundry. At first, I thought the grocery shopping was a big success. I found a tiny corner where they sell "Mexican" food--aka taco shells and cheese dip--and I was in the swing of things. Plus, I had found German Goldfish and popcorn! And then...when I got back to my room, I realized that German Goldfish are actually pretzels (which I'm not really a fan of) and the popcorn was "sweet" popcorn, which I don't like either. And then I remembered I forgot to buy bananas. Life is hard!

 I also wanted to go to Trivia Night at an Irish pub with some of the guys, but I  had to do laundry and finish homework first. The washing machine did not flood on me this time, but I definitely stuffed too many clothes in there because the dryer was not happy with me. At first I was all excited because there was a guy in the laundry room who looked confused, and I just KNEW he wasn't a native German. My suspicions were confirmed when he asked me what to do in German...with a British accent. I was able to help him and I felt pretty proud of myself. Unfortunately, my clothes did not dry like they should have. I put them in and it said an hour and 30 minutes. When I came back, it said I had 15 more minutes. I came back a half hour later and it said there were still 20 minutes remaining! I had to go to trivia, though, so I just opened the door and started taking my clothes out. Mistake. They were still wet and really, really hot. So I had to go back to my room and hang my clothes all over the place to airdry...pants hanging out the window, anyone?

Trivia was fun, though...even though I naturally got lost looking for it. An Italian guy helped me find it though...go figure. Taylor won a raffle and got a free bucket of 6 beers, so I'd call that a win even though we didn't win the trivia game. When I got back I stayed up too late doing homework and eventually went to bed. So, of course, I was grumpy the next day. Class was really hard, and then we had a few hours of a break before we were to go on a field trip to a music academy. During my time off I got a veggie doner and walked along the Haupstrasse in search of good boots. I found a nice looking store but didn't get to look around much because I wanted to go home and take a quick half hour nap before we had to meet up for our trip. The place we went took us about an hour to get to after taking multiple trains, but it was pretty cool. Kind of reminded me of Emerson. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand most of what the guy was saying. Pretty typical. I was also really tired and feeling a cold coming on, so I just wanted to get out of there. When I finally got home, I decided to do something crazy...and I made instant mashed potatoes for dinner. Scandalizing, I know. Well, apparently it was a bad idea. I had no idea how much 325 ML of water was, so I kind of just eyeballed it. Nope, bad idea. Hello, potato soup. I'm super excited I have leftovers of you for at least two more meals. It didn't taste bad, but I was not happy that I couldn't even make instant food correctly.

Luckily, today was a lot better. We went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is a 2 hour bus ride (on a Mercedes Benz bus, so I'm not complaining) to Bavaria. It's basically a well-preserved medieval town! So essentially it's surrounded by a wall and reminded me of a fairytale. First we met with the mayor who explained the town's history in rapid German, and then a man in leiderhosen appeared to offer all of us a gulp from an enormous mug of wine. I feel like I missed some important info in there, but we all got to take a drink from the cup (not so sanitary, but he wiped it with a napkin...and you can't resist free wine from Leiderhosen Man) and it tasted great, so I was happy. Then we basically had a few hours of free time to roam the city. I went with a few friends to an authentic German restaurant (even though it's a very touristy town) and I got some sort of mushroom vegetable pot pie sort of thing in a bread bowl! Looks gross, tasted great!

Then, I explored the town with a couple other friends. We poked into shops and took a bunch of pictures. We even got Schneeballs, which are kind of dough balls in powdered sugar. Sadly, not as good as I was expecting, but it was necessary to try them! PS, even though I think the Middle Ages were a really gross time period, I could appreciate this town for being so incredibly charming and beautiful. It's on the Romantic Road, which we also drove back on, so you can only imagine the beauty of the landscape. Unfortunately it's impossible to take good pictures on a moving bus, but I have uploaded plenty of pictures from the day on HERE! (Some of my friends have pictures that I'm actually in, I'll have to get them!)

Anyway, the beautiful places we visit are worth any disastrous cooking and laundry attempts, thank goodness. It's just that when I have to do something for the first time, it is a guarantee that I am going to mess something up. I know I learn for next time but it'd be nice if it just all went perfectly for once!

Anyway, I've been really stressed out lately because everyone else in my language class has been taking German for at least four years...except me! So there's a lot I can't understand and it's all moving quickly and there are so many words I still don't know! It's really stressful because before we can take classes, we have to take a proficiency exam that dictates what courses we can pick! Ahhh! Can I pleeease just wake up fluent?

I honestly feel like I took the hard route. Most study abroad programs just have you take one language class and the rest of your classes are in English. Nope, not me. None of our tours are even in English, never mind classes. I know that I wanted this and I don't regret it, but I don't even know if I'm really improving. I just don't have the time to memorize new vocabulary! I sometimes wish I had picked a program that takes a lot less effort, but I know it'll be worth it. I just want more sleep...

But, Dr. Bob Kelso is inspiring me!



Talk to you soon! Tschuss!