Twenty-Fifth Day in Dortmund

Sept. 25th, 2012

Today we took a pre-test. Our final is tomorrow, and it determines what level we will be placed in for the upcoming semester. I cannot get over the fact that school is still not officially in session. I read all these posts on Facebook from friends back home about looking forward to fall break and my semester hasn’t even started! It’s really weird. In any case, I’ve got all my classes planned out, including whatever language course I place in to. If I don’t completely mess up the test tomorrow, I can move up to the intermediate level.

The pre-test wasn’t that bad. There were only a few that I had no idea what was being asked of me. There were a lot of essay questions too. One involved describing yourself and your best friend. I absolutely hate this type of question because I only know like, 4 adjectives. This is how my essay would read in English:

My best friend is very nice. She is as old as me. She is pretty. She is better than me at math. She is taller than me. I am not as tall as her.

Genius! I guess I shouldn’t be too harsh on myself. I have only been learning German for three weeks, and I guess I was expecting to be able to write a novel by now. However, my kindergarten sentences will have to do.

After this, we had another group excursion, this time to Signal Iduna Park, home of the Borussia Dortmund Football (Soccer) team. I don’t think the team has anything to do with Russia, though it is one of the oldest soccer leagues in Europe. We got to tour the stadium and even go out on the field. When there’s a home game, the Dortmunders fill up one side of the stadium and start jumping. They are known as the yellow wave. As you can imagine, people are really avid soccer fans over here. I would love to come to a game sometime, but our guide told us it’s almost impossible to get tickets. She said it’s easier to inherit a season ticket, and since that’s not happening anytime soon, maybe I can buy one from a scalper.

In the museum, they also had these creepy mannequins who were famous soccer stars back in the day, “The Drei Alfredos.”

I enjoyed the tour, and got some fun pictures as well.

Pretending to kick an imaginary soccer ball, also known as jazz hands. 

Bilge and Me center-field. 

Mike and Bilge on the “bench.” These seats are for the players, and really comfortable. They’re heated and recline as well!

That’s it for today Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Foulen “to commit a foul (in sports)” The other team has a lot more Foulen than ours.