Twenty-Sixth Day in Dortmund

Sept. 26, 2012

Today we had our final. I think it went really well. We only had two essay questions, and  I didn’t have to describe myself or anyone else! A question that we did have involved saying what we liked to do in our free time, so not too bad! 

There was also a fill in the blank question that made me laugh.  A little background info: The word for bad is “schlecht.” The first blank said Britney Spears ist _______. So Britney Spears is bad. The next blank was Lady Gaga ist _____. Lady Gaga is worse, or “schlechter.” The final blank really made me laugh: Justin Bieber ist ______. He is the worst, or “am schlechtesten.” I didn’t expect to laugh during a test, but it was really funny.

Our teacher was also really supportive and you could tell she wanted you to succeed. She would walk around and point out simple mistakes (like forgetting to include a verb in the sentence you are writing, which I did several times).

After that, I met with my group for our skit on Friday. For all my bellyaching earlier, it’s actually been a fun experience and I think our skit is pretty funny. I may be a bit biased though.

The whole international group is planning on doing a flash mob after the skits on Friday. While I have never been part of one,  I’ve witnessed one, and they always seem like a lot of fun. We will be dancing to Gangnam Style. The moves are pretty easy, so everyone should be able to do it. We want to surprise the teachers, and I think this is a good way.

Bilge and I stopped at a bakery on  our way back from the group meeting. I got a Schweineohren, literally “pig-ear.” I guess it sorta looks like one. It was delicious and not at all pork-related.

Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Die Bäckerei- “bakery” Die Bäckerei is the perfect place to try new desserts.  

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. 

Twenty-Fourth Day in Dortmund

Sept. 24, 2012

Woke up this morning and my throat was completely raw. It hurt to swallow and felt like I hadn’t had a drink of water in 6 months. Apparently, I have not improved. I went to class anyway. Today, the teacher had four tables set up each with a different worksheet. We had to work our way around the room. It was a good review for our final exam on Wednesday. We also ended class early for yet another assembly. This time, it was with the head of the language division and he told us about the language courses being offered this semester.  I also found out that I am not the only sick person in the international student group. During this assembly there was a lot of coughing, wheezing, sniffling, and nose blowing. I counted at least 10 other people who seemed to be suffering from something. After this, I went to the library to check emails. I had planned on going in to town to get cough drops, but started to feel really drained. Luckily, I had asked Sarah if she had any leftover medicine from when she was sick, and she gave me a lot of stuff. I decided on going to the Lidl (the grocery store closest to campus). I got orange juice, chicken soup, and some sort of cough drops called Fisherman’s Friend.

They aren’t Halls or Ricolla, but they get the job done. I also splurged on some sweets. I walked through the aisle and they caught my eye, I thought to myself, I feel like crap, these look delicious, they’re on sale, I’m getting them.

They turned out to be really good, and maybe the orange filling will boost my Vitamin C level. I also opened my second Kinder Egg today, and since I know you are all dying to know what the prize was, I took some pictures of that as well.

Luv me buddies? Definitely not as cool as my wolf, but it entertained me for five minutes (it was a hard puzzle, ok?) That's if for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Der Orangensaft- “Orange juice” If you just brushed your teeth, don’t drink der Orangensaft. 

Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Day in Dortmund

Sept. 22, 2012

This Saturday was a lazy one. But I have an excuse since my raspy throat has turned into a full-fledged cold, and I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. I slept until noon and got up and ate some cereal. I cleaned up a little bit and then went straight back to bed and slept till 6. I did get to Skype with Leslie, who was visiting our grandma. She didn’t really understand how Skype worked, or that I could see her, but it was still nice to talk with her and see how she was doing. Chris invited me to see a movie with his double, Laura. I felt a little better after sleeping all day and decided to go.

 It was a lot of fun. We watched Borat and Team America, two films that really satirize American culture. I thought they were hilarious, especially since they were in German. Respect to the German guy that dubbed Borat, he at least tried to do the accent. In Team America, all the songs were original, so that was hilarious. It was interesting, because I had seen both movies several times, so I could kind of follow along and recognize what the German equivalent was. When we walked back, the temperature had dropped at least 10 degrees. We kept complaining how cold it was, and it’s still only September! I am not looking forward to the dead of winter in Germany. Long-johns don’t fail me now!

German word of the day: Herbst- “Fall”- Herbst is my favorite season because it’s when the leaves change color.

Sept. 23, 2012

Sorry, this is going to continue to be boring until my cold decides to release me from its grippe. (Get it? It’s a pun! Teehee) I’m kind of glad Damla went home for the weekend, otherwise she would have had to listen to me cough all night and blow my nose constantly. I sound like a hardcore smoker, and when I hack up mucus, I gross myself out. So, I am sure she would be ready to move out if she had been around to experience all of this firsthand. I’ve already gone through a whole box of Kleenex and will have to make a trip into town to gather some medicinal supplies, mainly leeches (just kidding). You know, Vicks Vaporub would’ve come in handy right about now, but as a friend suggested, maybe I can find Eucalyptus oil instead. On the plus side, I don’t feel as crappy as I did yesterday, and my energy level is up, so maybe I’m improving. I’ve been trying to eat fruit and drink lots of water.

 I promised in an earlier post that this blog wouldn’t be about the maladies of Joanna, but here is yet another entry all about sickness. Maybe I can get over this and get back to experiencing Germany.  Chris came over to eat lunch (leftover baked potato casserole) and it turns out he is sick as well. So, it seems the cold has been passed from Sarah to Mike, Mike to me, and me to Chris. I hope we all get well soon!

German Word of the day: Husten- “cough” I really wish I had some Husten-syrup right now. 

Twenty-First Day in Dortmund

Sept. 21, 2012

Today in class we covered prepositions. We learned an awesome song to go with it, and I might make a video to share with all (probably not).

Chris came over we made our baked potato casserole. It was fun, we discussed our respective school cafeterias and Paula Deen. We kept saying we would write an angry email if this thing didn’t turn out. We put it in the oven, and when we checked it 30 minutes later, we could see the grease pooling all around the edges. We decided it must be done. Thanks Paula! 

Nutritious! 

Then we went to the movie. Once again, I was impressed with the food that everyone brought. This time, the French were my favorite, as they had some sort of croque monsier that was delicious. I laughed so hard when Mike showed up. He’s the only Canadian in the whole program, so he brought a can of opened Pringles and a bottle of Coke.  It was a true representation of Canada. Haha. I was happy to see that our dish got eaten. Sarah tried to make cornbread, but didn’t have baking soda. She did, however, have pancake mix and figured that it must have some baking soda in it. What she brought tasted a little like cake. It was definitely a funny representation of “cornbread.” The movie we watched was called "The Edukators" I enjoyed it, especially since there were English subtitles. After that I made my way home and went to bed. I was supposed to go out dancing with Ann-Kathrin afterwards, but my cold had completely drained me. I will hopefully get better soon. Schüss!

German Word of the Day: die Kartoffel- “potato” If you are from Idaho or Ireland, you are probably very familiar with die Kartoffel. 

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. 

Nineteenth Day in Dortmund

Sept. 19th, 2012

I got up for breakfast around 8:30 as usual. I grabbed a yogurt for breakfast and tried a new flavor. It was basically chocolate pudding. My kind of breakfast!

We learned how to talk about the weather in class today. Basically Sonnig is sunny and bewöklt is cloudy. That’s about all you need to know.

We had a shortened class today as well because we were to gather for another meeting in one room. Everyone crammed in and the teachers announced that we would be doing another presentation. I was not as enthused about this one. Firstly, no food involved. Secondly, I already did one presentation and while I had fun doing it, I don’t want it to be a weekly sort of thing. However, my opinion doesn’t matter and we were told to make groups of 6. The difference from last time was that each group had to have people from different countries. I could no longer huddle with the Americans, but had to strike out and find another group. Luckily, Bilge and I found one that needed two people. Our group consisted of Cristina and Luiz from Spain,  Florin from Romania, and Miriam from Brazil.

Our presentation had to be a 5 minute skit about our experience in Germany so far. The teachers said to make it funny. Grrrrreeeeeeat. (That’s sarcasm, not Tony the Tiger). While we had a slow time getting started, we eventually came up with some really good ideas and even wrote a script for our skit. We have a week to get everything together, and I am looking forward to rehearsal so that we don’t crash and burn.

After that, I grabbed a quick lunch with everyone and then Chris, Britney, Mike and I went into town for groceries. Chris and I were specifically gathering ingredients for a loaded baked potato casserole.

We have another group outing on Friday, but this time we are watching a movie, and each country is expected to bring a dish (sort of like the international breakfast). We couldn’t think of anything more American than taking a relatively healthy dish (a baked potato) and putting cheese, bacon, sour cream , butter, and ham on it. It did occur to me that since we brought hashbrowns to the breakfast and now are planning on bringing another potato dish to the movie on Friday, that everyone will think Americans only eat  potatoes. But we also snack on French fries and potato chips… so maybe it’s true?

We are using a Paula Deen recipe, so we had to buy butter of course, but we also had to look for bacon. We finally assembled everything and will cook it before the movie on Friday. They haven’t told us what movie we will be watching, I really hope it isn’t a war movie or documentary. That’s it for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Speck- “Bacon” Speck is delicious on everything.

Eighteenth Day in Dortmund

Sept. 18th, 2012

Today was a fun day in class. We learned about adjectives. They are my favorite parts of speech! Some of my favorite English adjectives include: rotund, sketchy, and scrumtrelescent. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Scrumtrulescent My new favorites in German are: nicht lustig (unfunny), schwarzhaarig (brunette), and hässlich (ugly).

We also learned how to compare things. You use the word “als” if you want to say something is bigger, prettier, sketchier, etc than something else. For example, Die Prinzessin ist schöner als der Troll. (The Princess is prettier than the troll).

After class, we all went to the Mensa. It was rush hour, and I randomly picked a line since I couldn’t really see what they were serving. Of course I chose the line that was serving something with mushrooms. Ew. There was some sort of chicken to go along with them though, and it wasn’t too terribly bad.

When I went to pay, the lunch lady yelled at me. She asked if I was a student and when I nodded, she asked for my ID. I showed her my library card, which I thought was sufficient since it’s the only form of University ID they’ve given us. Apparently, it was not. She said a bunch of stuff… not sure what any of it was, but I got the idea that a library card is not sufficient to get the student discount. I just said OK and paid my 5 Euro and went on. She kept talking at me as I moved on (probably calling me an idiot), but I just kept my head down and found a table with the rest of the group. I didn’t feel so bad, because everyone else was basically yelled at too.

I’ll be happy when I finally get my Dortmund University ID so I can then put it on a lanyard and flash it right under her nose. I might even go through the line 3 times, just so she can see it more than once a day! I’m being mean… I guess she was just doing her job, but I have a theory that all Germans sound scary when they talk quickly, even when they aren’t criticizing you.

After lunch, I trekked back to my dorm to get started on homework and leisurely surf the Internet. Now that I have access, I don’t have to set up a prescribed time to do this at the library, which is both a good and bad thing. Mostly bad. It took me 3 hours to do a simple worksheet. Curse you Facebook!

I also had tea with Bilge and we talked about our favorite books. We got on the subject of Disney and she loves Pochahontas! So we talked about that for about 30 minutes. Then she tried to describe a fairy tale she read when she was younger (this was after our discussion of Cinderella). She said it involved a man with a blue beard and had seven wives. I thought it was specific to Turkey, but we looked it up, and it’s by the same guy that wrote Little Red Riding Hood, Charles Perrault http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard 

His eyes crack me up.

  Then we talked about desserts from our country. She described a Turkish milk with cinnamon that looked delicious. She asked about “barbequing marshmallows” and I told her all about S’mores, which she has never had! We made a plan to try and make some soon. She has also never had a rice krispie treat, so those will have to made as well. 

No cathedrals or travelling this post, sorry, but I will keep you updated!

Schüss!

German Word of the Day: weiß- “white” Marshmallows are often weiß, until you barbeque or burn them.