Genglisch.

Today we learned that Genglisch is the correct word for the mishmash of English and German, not denglish, engleutsch, deutlish, or any of the other words we'd been playing around with. Good to know!

Also today, Carolyn and I got some ice cream after class and I accidentally used the French word, boule, for "scoop" instead of the German one, Kugel. I didn't realize it until afterward when she asked me what that word was, because she didn't know it in German. Oops. They do have the same internal vowel sound! Then we laughed heartily, because finally we must have been mistaken for French tourists instead of American ones.

Normally the Smithies in my dorm cook dinner together in Liz' shared kitchen, and for the last couple weeks I'd been looking at this poster thinking, "Golly, gee, that sure does look a lot like White Sands National Monument in New Mexico." I finally read the fine print on the bottom and discovered that I was correct! How ironic that there would be a poster of a New Mexican landmark that I visited recently in my dorm in Germany.


Saturday had sehr schönes Wetters, so Carolyn and I went for a stroll in the sun. Apparently last year those in power decided to cut down all the trees on our street in order to enlarge it for more traffic. There were huge protests against this decision, especially from the children who go to the school on this street. The kiddies won and a lot of the posters from that protest are still up. This one says, "I am a LIFE TREE!"

Later that day, Kassia, Liz Chase, and I decided to go on an adventure. We got on a random S-Bahn train to see where it went and ended up getting off at the botanical gardens. Seeing that it was free, we let ourselves in and had a wonderful walk around.


There was a big pond with lots of ducks and HUGE fish that kept coming to the surface and opening their mouths. They were highly entertaining.


My favorite part was that they had a "Nord Amerika" section. How exotic!


To continue that day's adventure, we went to a large superstore and found that their grocery department had an Amerika section! (It was right next to the Russian section. Go figure.) You could buy Betty Crocker muffin mix for 5 euro (about $7), real A-grade Canadian maple syrup for 4 euro, fake American maple syrup for 5 euro (someone missed that memo), Hershey's, Campbells tomato soup, Mac 'n' Cheese for 2.50 euro (almost $5 a box..ahaha), and other fine American delicacies.

On Sunday we all got to go to a splendid concert, where the Klassichen Philharmonie Bonn played Mozart, Hummel, and Mendelssohn. There was a giant cube covered with Brahms' face to one side of the building. Apparently he lived in Hamburg for a while, thus the Hamburgers are alllll about the aforementioned Johannes.


After feeding our musical desires, we fed our hungry stomachs at a Kulturfest going on at the university. We decided to try out a Handbrot stand, where bread was baked in long strips while stuffed with delicious cheese and mushrooms or ham, then topped with sour cream. It was amazing. So much better than cotton candy. Also, I was so full afterward that I only had some boiled carrots and zucchini for dinner and still felt like I'd swallowed a large stone. Mmmm.



Classes on Monday, then after talking about Uni-Hamburg things in our practical orientation on Tuesday, we all went to explore the Iselmarkt, which is the city's oldest market. It now runs underneath the S-Bahn.

There were lots of produce, meat, and cheese stands among the various artists and other vendors. Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.

There were also lots of flowers. Several places were selling these crazy-looking ones. I have no idea what it is. Anyone?


That's where I bought my leckerleckerlecker marzipan muffin. I also bought a basil plant (Basilikum auf deutsch), which I promptly named "Basil."

Brilliant, I know.