Week 3!

Hallo!

I can't believe another week has already gone by. Jede Woche ist besser als die letzen. (Every week is better than the last). I guess I need to start with Monday, if I can remember everything!

I met Lizzy after class. She brought me eine Küche! Well, actually it was a pot, pan, wooden spoon, cutting board, and knife that she is allowing me to use. How nice! I have not had time to cook yet, but I hope to next week! She happened to be meeting a friend, and asked me to come along. We went in two different elevators that take you to the top of the city so that you don't have to climb endless numbers of hills and steps! Her friend lives in a WG (shared apartment) that overlooks the city- great view. He served us really good cake and coffee, and we sat around for a few hours talking German and English with two of her friends, which I think were named Fabian and Florian, but don't count on that! This was a nice way to spend a very rainy afternoon. Lizzy also gave me a fantasy novel to read by a German author! Should be good! That evening, I went home and ending up eating PB toast and pretzels-typical college dorm dinner.

On Tuesday, language class was really hard to get through...thinking and learning and speaking in a foreign language is draining! That evening, I looked around with a Fulbrighter in her quest to find flip flops. This was quite the challenge, and only found one or two stores with flip flops! Crazy! Everything summer is on sale now, and flips flops are super hard to come by.

Wednesday, we made HUGE progress.....I now have a bank account with Deutsche Bank!!! Nora spoke with DB and set up appointments for all all but about 2 people in our group. That is 30 Americans with little German knowledge attempting to set up a bank account! The employees were so nice, and they took our documents, copied them, and basically told us to sign on about 5 places. It was super easy, and I should have a working bank account with a debit card and a credit card by next week! You really can't do much in Germany without a bank account. There is no such thing as checks anymore. Everything is done via transfer. Z.B., you can set up direct withdrawal for your rent, your cell phone, etc. Also, if you want to pay a friend back, you just transfer money into their account online. You get a list of about 80 TAN numbers, which are essentially transfer numbers that allow you to transfer money online to another person's account (and you actually tell people your bank account number!) You pretty much need a bank account to function here! You also have to use a credit card if you want to purchase anything online. Btw, if you have Bank of America, you can withdraw money without a processing fee because they are affiliated with DB. I also discovered DM- it is like a CVS without the medicine part...and it was air conditioned! Omg, it was glorious!

That afternoon, I met Lizzy and her friends at Aldi. We bought groceries to make Musaka, a Greek dish that they always cook. It has potatoes, onions, eggplant, ground beef, cheese and cheese. While dinner was cooking, we road bikes to the video store. This was the first time I had ridden a bike in a city on a road, and I definitely had fears, but it was totally fun! We came back and ate dinner around a table with about 8 people, drank good wine, and ate lots of Musaka. Lots of fun, and good practice for my German! It has been really great to hang out with German students and get out of the Studentendorf!

Thursday, after another full day of language class, I came back to the dorm and chilled out. I went back to the worship service. This time, I could understand the the message much more! It was awesome to understand much more.

Friday, we got out of class at lunchtime. I picked up my first care package- Thanks Marianne! I also chilled out in the dorm. Downtime is a rare commodity around here! That evening, I took the bus to Rudolfsplatz to buy dinner at a backery. I also went to the grocery store to get some really good chocolate and a mini bottle of wine for the movie. I love that you can buy wine and drink it anywhere! I went back to the building we have class in with food and wine in tote, and watched Goodbye Lenin with everyone. Good movie. I had seen it before in my German film class, but forgot most of it. I recommend it. Good film concerning East and West Germany.

Well, I could write much more, but there is only so much time. I am starting to get settled in much more and getting used to living here. I am starting to think and speak in Danglish...sometimes I can't say anything because German and English get mixed up in my head and nothing ends of coming out!

Tomorrow we have a day trip to Frankfurt. Should be good!

Bis später,

Rebecca