Twentieth Day in Dortmund

Sept. 20th, 2012

Today we reviewed medicine in class. We did a worksheet that had pictures of ailments and had to write what was wrong with the person. My favorite by far was durchfall. I will just post the picture and let you figure it out for yourself.

After class, I went to the main train station with Britney. She was looking to buy a ticket to Cologne to see a band. I am not ashamed to admit that I’ve had a waffle on a stick three days in a row now. The stand is right next to the platform we arrive on. The lady behind the counter totally recognized me and smiled knowingly. As an added bonus, they had just dipped the waffles in chocolate, and you could still see it glistening. It was delicious as usual.

I went back to my dorm after this. Since the walk back to my dorm takes about 15 minutes, I’ve started listening to an audiobook on my iPod. It’s World War Z (I think they’re already making a movie out of it with Brad Pitt), and I scare myself because they play really creepy music as each chapter changes. I was walking along the path listening, and right when the chapter changed, a cheese wrapper blew in front of me.I jumped about three feet. I was happy there was no one around to witness that.

I also cleaned the apartment today. Damla showed me where the supplies were and how the mop thing works. It took me a little while to get it, but our apartment is now sparkly clean.

After this, Bilge texted me and asked if I wanted to go to a party. I didn’t have any homework, and decided to go out. It was probably not the best decision, since I have picked up a cold somewhere. It’s not the worst ever, my nose isn’t that stuffy, but my throat is raspy, and breathing in the cold night air for an extended period did not help matters. But I had a great time, so I guess it was worth it.

We had to take the field path to get to the party. I was not really enthused about this since it is dark and you can’t really avoid the holes/manure. I was convinced I was going to twist my ankle, but we made it safely across. We met up with other international students, Elif, Cremyet, Otze, and Mina. The party turned out to be at a bar in one of the dorms (yes, they have bars on the bottom floor of student dorms. Each bar is only open one day of the week, so you have to plan accordingly). I tried the local beer, Dortmunder Kronen. It was a very dark ale and not my favorite. However, I paid two good Euro for it, it was a huge bottle, and I decided to finish it. It was like I had the never-ending bottle. I kept thinking… does this thing never end? Maybe it’s like a cup that keeps refilling itself. In the midst of choking down this beer, I got to talk to a lot of international students that I’d never met before. It was fun to mingle and try and speak what little German I knew to the locals. When the bar closed, Bilge and I made our way back to our dorms. All in all a good day, minus the cold.

German Word of the Day: Der Käse- "cheese." Der Käse can get moldy if left for too long.