Was Sagen Sie???

So, I haven't updated in a couple of days because I don't want to chronicle every moment--even if it's fun for me it'd bore you, I'm sure. Yesterday I overslept for the first time since, like, first semester freshman year...and I freaked out (woke up at 9:40, was supposed to be at the center at 9:30...and it takes me a half hour to get there if I'm lucky) but I called Frau Heckmann (the lady in charge) and she didn't mind at all. When I finally got there she told me she was surprised more people didn't do that. Apparently that's why they don't have classes the first week, so everyone can get over jetlag. Phew.

We went on a tour of the city (and the castle!) yesterday. There is actually a beautiful Jesuit church here! And the castle is one of the only castles left in Germany. It's technically in ruins because of the French, and lightning, but a lot of it is still in tact. There was a huuuuuuge wine caste in the basement, too. It was pretty awesome...but empty, of course. And today, we went to a museum of Heidelberg history. Unfortunately, our tour guide for both days spoke only in German. He spoke relatively slow so I was able to pick up a lot of things and get a general understanding, but I never got to the "Archaeology and Random Historical Terms" chapter in my German class so I did struggle a bit.

You can see all of the pictures I took from the past few days on my Shutterfly! http://teenztravels.shutterfly.com

Anyway, everyone in my 36 person group is very nice, but I always have issues fitting in at first. It's like Freshman year all over again where I have to force myself on people, kind of, and be like "SO CAN I COME WITH YOU GUYS TO DINNER??" There are already groups being defined, sort of, and I've been hovering and hanging out with different people all of the time but I'm not quite sure where I really belong, if anywhere. And, I always feel insecure, like people think I'm strange or uninteresting. I have, like, more friends than I ever imagined at Stonehill and I know that it took time for me to find my niche even though I freaked out at the beginning then, too. But more than anything, I want to travel, and I'm worried that I won't find people to travel with, and you've gotta make those plans in advance. I've begun to accept that I won't be able to travel as much as my brother did when he studied abroad, because he went to Italy with his friends in the first place. But the countries I really, really, REALLY want to visit are:
1. Norway
2. Italy
3. France

I know I'm going to go to Austria and Switzerland because we will get a train pass that lets us go there. I have other places I want to go too, but I would be satisfied if I just went to the above locations. Luckily for me, Dan, the other kid from Stonehill, said he'd go to Norway with me if I wanted!!!! I hope he really meant that...

So the only other thing I'm going to write about is CULTURESHOCK! The strange things I've learned of German Culture so far:

--They have great transportation, seriously. Even though it takes me 15 minutes to get to the city center on my Strassenbahn, it's smooth and clean and always on time...unlike the T!
--Their keyboards are weird! Z and Y are switched, the shift key is tiny, and I'm having trouble figuring out apostrophes...
--Cobblestones are the big thing downtown. I feel like they're not good for my legs but at least I don't wear heels!
--Those orderly Germans don't Jaywalk. There can be no cars coming at all, but if the light doesn't say "walk" yet, you can bet no one will walk...except for me.
--They are really, really, really big on recycling. There's a bin for paper, a bin for brown glass, a bin for white glass, and then a trash bin. You can return plastic bottles to the grocery store and get money, but that didn't exactly work out for me today. I showed the cashier my bottles and she just pointed to a bin, but I thought she didn't realize I wanted money for them. So after I bought my items I walked up to another cashier and asked her if I could get money for the bottles, and she also pointed to the bin. I was confused but I put them in, and then my questions were answered when she pulled out money for me. But then the FIRST cashier started yelling and I had to give the money back, and neither of them spoke English so I had no idea what was going on, but EVERYONE was looking at me. Apparently, the first cashier had already refunded me for the bottles on my original payment. I was like "Jeez, ya could have just SAID that..." Oops.
--The ambulance is frightening sounding!!
--Lots of people have dogs, off-leash. Mostly smaller dogs, but I've seen larger ones around as well. There are signs on the fences outside my dorm that have a red X through a dog pooping. I'm wondering if that means you can't bring dogs, or you can only bring them if they don't poop. It's interesting...
--Healthcare here is amazing. If I want to go to the hospital or a doctor I only need to pay $5 and insurance covers the rest, or something like that. The same goes with prescriptions! So I guess I can get the stomach flu as many times as I want.
--I'm pretty sure I saw a parrot today...

Well, I suppose that's it for now. I still want to work for the UN, by the way, especially if it's like this:



PS, I hope you guys are liking my blog. I made the layout myself for Google Chrome, so idk if it's showing up correctly for other browsers, but I hope it looks nice at least!