Bring me another bicycle, bitte?
September 2, 2008 by kwalker10
After a 2-hour drive, three flights, and a bus ride- with luggage that weighs about as much, if not more, than I do- I’m here!
My brand-new, bright orange dorm puts CMC to shame. My room is huge, has a decently large closet, and a TV (which is worthless with my lack of German, but a nice touch nonetheless). And, unlike most German dorms, it has internet! Rather, it will once my “housing tutor” (a German student who was hired to serve as a liason to the Americans in his dorm) looks at my computer and figures out why I can’t log in. Five other students live in the apartment: one Chinese girl and the rest are Germans. Two will not arrive until October. (The German universities operate on a much different schedule). The two I have met both seem like nice girls, and they both speak perfect English. I met them after I cleaned up a lot of mz makeup cases, (an eyeshadow shattered so everything was COVERED in pink makeup), and left them all out to dry because I couldn’t find any towels- paper or otherwise- in the apartment . I was hoping to ease people into the fact that Iäm not always the most organized. Instead, “Hi! I’m an American slob who can’t speak your language!”
I’m happy to discover that food is much cheaper here than in France. I had a huge pasta dish last night for dinner for three euros. Today I splurged on a Turkish lunch at “Restaurant Harem” for €5.70! I was rather amused to be seated under a copy of the Last Supper, but one student decided that Jesus hung with prostitutes so the decor was still appropriate.
Other German observations and anecdotes:
- The women here wear little, if any makeup. I know I’m still pretty made up for an American, but I felt a bit cartoonish walking around with highlighted cheek bones, blush on the apples, and bronzer in the hollows, base shadow, crease shadow, and filled in brows. I doubt I’ll get to the point where I’ll feel so cartoonish that I stop wearing make-up entirely, but I’m certainly going to wear less tomorrow.
- Beer tastes better with lemonade mixed in. They call this drink a Radler, which made me think of the word Fahrrad (bike), so I confused the waiter when I ordered a bicycle when he asked me if I wanted another drink.
- Today, I stepped into Germanys oldest building: a hotel that was built in 1120!
- There are condom ads everywhere. A current campaign features various fruits wearing condoms. So far, no bananas, surprisingly. The poster outside my tram stop shows a protected pear, which made for an immature moment with our breakfast of pears and croissants.
- My first night out concluded without anyone getting into a fist fight over me. Apparently, that’s just a French thing.
Miss you!