Thirtieth and Thirty-First Day in Dortmund

Sept. 30, 2012 and Oct. 1, 2012

Today I attempted to use up all my internet. There is a 10 GB limit per month (I have no idea how much a gigabyte is, but that’s the limit), and I still had 2 GB’s left. Unfortunately, the stuff you don’t use does not roll over into the next month, so it’s kind of pointless to leave anything left over. I watched a lot of Youtube videos, Skyped with several people, and downloaded some music. However, I still had some left over. Oh well.

At 6, we met Mike’s double, Laura in town. We went to a Mexican restaurant, Sausolito’s and I had one of the best burritos I’ve ever tasted. Germany is full of surprises. We sat for a while and talked about American TV series that we watched. I asked her if there were any German ones she liked. She named one that sounded a little like CSI, where each episode the detectives have to figure out a murder. If I had a TV, I would definitely try that one out. After Sausolito’s, we went to another restaurant, Alex. It reminded me of Panera. It’s a chain restaurant in Germany, and they have really good tea, so we sat down for a drink. It was a nice night, and now I have two new restaurants to frequent. That’s it for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Speichern- "to save (a file)" Be sure to speichern often, or you may lose an important paper or blog post. 

Oct. 1, 2012

Today we had a meeting with Selma. She successfully passed her PhD defense back in the U.S. and had just gotten back. We divided up the discussion groups for the upcoming semester.

Then Mike, Laura, Chris, and I went into town to go shopping. Laura and Mike were looking for swim suits to go hot-tubbing. According to Laura, Germans love water and there are many indoor pools and hot-tubs in Dortmund. It sounds like something fun to do, especially in the colder months. 

When we got back, I worked on a paper for a conference in a few weeks. I’m coming back to the states, October 13-20^th, to present at SECAC (The South-Eastern College Arts Conference). My paper is about Flannery O’Connor and the cartoons she drew while at Georgia State College. I’m looking forward to presenting, but even more excited about getting to see my friends and family after such a short time away. Back to work, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Der Stift- “pen.” When writing down phone numbers, der Stift never seems to be around.