Saturday, August 29, 2009

I done bought me a bonsai tree.

Good news! I now have the internets in my room.
Badish news! We only get 3g of downloading/uploading per month. That oughtta be more than enough for normal people, except I can use up that much in a day uploading photos. Thus, picture things will have to wait to be uploaded until I can bathe in wireless at the Smith Center. That could be tomorrow. Who knows.

So I'm in Hamburg. It's slowly starting to sink in that I'll be here for a bit now that I've started nesting a little. My room is pretty grand: there's a little entry way room that has my large wooden closet on one side and sink and mirror on the other (YAY, SINK!), then the main room itself is somewhat larger than a Ziskind single with a comfy bed and bedside table, desk and chair. One side of the wall is lined with three big shelves, which is handy when one needs to put things places. Another plus is that, like Ziskind, one wall is a giant window (two, rather) with a heater underneath. Unlike Ziskind, I can open these windows ENTIRELY so they swing into the room so that my whole room is like a giant balcony, or I can have them slant open at the top. Like Ziskind, (Z is my big beautiful white glass box house at school, for those of you who don't know), everything is white. Luckily we made an IKEA excursion today in which I got colored things to help with the bleakness, though more colored things would always be appreciated. (Nudge, nudge.) I also got a little bonsai tree that I'm debating naming Georg or Liesel. Green things!To finish describing my new abode, I'm on the fourth floor in a room that is cornered with the terraces from the other side of the house. My view is part parking lot and part green lawn, duck pond, and trees with little rooftops peeking out from behind. Sometimes the ducks make hilarious noises, WHANKWHANKWHANKWHANKWHANK!! That got me wondering if German ducks spoke a different dialect or even different duck language than ducks in other parts of the world. (Sounds like an Ignobel Prize just waiting to happen.) I also face east, so like in Ziskind, I get lots of happy morning sun. There are many common rooms in the house, as well as pool tables, fussball, etc, etc. Every wing has a cute kitchen that everyone shares. In my wing, two people share a mini fridge and everyone has their own cupboard, both of which lock.

It's been splendidly beautiful until today when we had mucho rain and wind and HAIL LIKE WHOA! Also crazy thunderlightning, etc.. It was great.



What have I been doing, you ask? Well, Wednesday I arrived via the wunderbare Sabine, met up with Joe (my Smith German advisor/professor/program director) and his wife, Sue, at their place for a bit before going to my dorm. We had nothing scheduled until lunch the next day, so I looked through some orientation info and met up with the 3 other Smithies in my house (photos are Martha, Carolyn, and Liz Chase to put faces to names), all whom are groovy people that I have known for two years now. There was exploring of places and a cup o' noodles dinner, then unpacking and sleep. We went grocery shopping the next morning, as we will be providing food for ourselves all year. 'Twas so exciting! I'd never gone grocery shopping JUST for me before and had a hard time thinking of what I would need, as well as a hard time figuring out proportions for just me, as I normally shop for four. I ended up with some delicious nectarines, broccoli, milk, cheese, yogurt, juice, muesli, and probably a couple other things I forgot. (Later I found a vegetarian friendly store and marveled in the wonders of a basil-tofu, tomato, mozzarella, broccoli, garlic, lemony concoction for dinner that was sehr sehr lecker!) I don't know why I just wrote all that down.

At our Thursday luncheon we met with our orientation teachers and the rest of our group (9 students in total) and were delightfully overfed by Sue, who then insisted we take home the rest. She also prepared a special pot of decaf tea for me because she rememberd me always asking for some while at their house a couple times last spring. It made me very happy.

We spent the rest of the day spending time in each others dorms, chit-chatting, hence getting out all our English while we still had the chance. We had a business meeting the next day where we discussed VERY IMPORTANT ISSUES, then went around shopping again with Joe, who then kindly bought us all ice cream, not endorsed by Smith College, of course. We had today completely off. We went on our IKEA adventure until the mid-afternoon (photo is of the IKEA stairs at the train station) when we S-Bahn'ed and bused it home in the torrential rains. Kassia and I were planning on going to the big festival around the lake this evening, but the schlechtes schlechtes Wetters put an end to that. I've been here by myself all afternoon fitting the purple curtains I got to my windows, organizing, and much enjoying the rain and cool breezes that blow. It's still raining now. Mmm.

Tomorrow we have an afternoon tea with our "big sisters;" Smithies that did the JYA program and are now living in Hamburg or German students that spent a year at Smith. Everyone is assigned to a person that helps you out over the year, shows you around, provides an ear, coffee, whatever. I think it's a swell idea. Monday we have a grammar placement test and then our orientation program begins and goes until mid-October. We have a grammar/language course and Hamburg seminar every other corresponding with a "practical orientation," which I think involves actually going out and doing things. Next weekend we take an excursion to the medieval town of Luebeck and we go to Berlin for four days in October. Good things are afoot.

Speaking of feet, my foot is asleep and I need some tea.

I'll probably put some pictures up soon (*loik, now. This one is the view from the other dorm.), so keep checking! OH, and I fixed the comment thing so now anyone can leave one.

I'll leave you with a funny happening: we were talking with a German student in our dorm and someone sneezed, to which he said, "Gesundheit! How do you say that in English? Cheers?"

Cheers.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

ICH BIN IN DEUTSCHLAND!

Quick update while I bum internet off of Liz Chase -

The rest of my Belgian adventure went well and I arrived in Germany yesterday by train. I was met by the wonderful Sabine (Jonas' mom for those that know him) and stayed the night at their home. I was surprised this morning by their family all wishing me a happy birthday with much singing and bestowing of gifts. 'Twas really wonderful, particularly because I'd forgotten about such things. Today Sabine drove me to Hamburg and I am now settled into my dorm. Unfortunately I didn't bring an ethernet cable and thus must wait for internets in my room. After speaking German for a whole day, my brain is pretty wiped und ich will bald schlafen. Gute Nacht.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Testing, testing, 123...

HALLO VON BELGIEN! Oder... Voilà un petit bonjour de Belgique! In reality, I have yet to make it to Germany as I am still in Belgium visiting friends and host family here that I have not seen since my departure in '06. To tell the truth, the thought of a me_in_germany (though that domain name was taken) hadn't even crossed my mind until a whole lot of people mentioned it upon my departure. So here I go. It'll probably take a while to get this up and running as I have minimal time sur l'ordinateur de Régine, but I'll get there eventually. In the meantime, welcome! (Willkommen, Bienvenue!)

My flight across the big blue was pretty uneventful, thankfully. I spent the night at a good friend's place in Brooklyn, NY the night before my big flight, and there discovered that lugging all my luggage through the NYC subway system over 5 or so transfers and many stairs was really, really not worth the cheap price. I took a taxi in the next day and was overcharged like CRAZY (still upset about that), but at least I got there safely and in the divine comfort of air conditioning.

I flew from JFK to Dublin, landing at about 4.45am their time. I was taken aback by how golden and... swirled the pattern of streetlights looked compared to other places while flying over Ireland. It was quite berautiful, but not as much as the having the whole universe on display outside my window while flying over the Atlantic. I didn't sleep much on the long-haul flight and was hoping to sleep some more on my flight from Dublin to Brussels. Once in Dublin, we had to go through security all over again, which meant lots of people waiting in long lines very early in the morning. The only plus side to that was chatting with the very handsome fellow on his way to Paris who had been across from me on the flight from JKF. (P.S. I had my row to myself on that flight - yesssss. Also, the entertainment system and tofu dinner on Aer Lingus flights rock. ) Long story short, I found myself surrounded by a very loud and immature Irish basketball team of high school aged guys on my flight to Bruxelles, so no sleeping there. Once in Bruxelles, I had to wait a while outside to airport for Régine to appear in the car because of horrid traffic. Sarah, my younger host sister (now a mother of a 2-yr-old at 26ish), was with her. I was embarrassed to find on the ride home how slow my French was returning with my extreme lack of sleep, but thankfully it has since returned.

Since I've been here, I've spent a lot of time at Régine's swell café talking with people and playing around with Elisa, Sarah's adorable daughter. Yesterday Régine and I went to visit our old Turkish neighbors that I love very much and spent a lot of time with during my year here. Régine moved in with a great fellow in Binche two years ago, so she hasn't seen much of Zaidé, Akkun, and Atilla since then. It was great to see them again, on both sides I think. Then lastnight Christelle, Paulo, and their almost 3-yr-old daughter, Thaïssa, came for dinner to celebrate Régine's/my birthday. We ate yummy things. It was great. Ouais.















This afternoon Régine and I are going to an ancient farming celebration and then I'm going to go hang out with my dear school friends, Aurélie and Anne-Hélène. Hopefully I get to see Claire tomorrow (HOORAY!) and then I'm spending the night in Bruxelles with my friend Olivia before taking the train the next day to Germany, where I will quite happily spend the night with Jonas' family. They will take me to Hamburg the next day (Wednesday) and a whole new adventure will begin.

The only other thing I'm going to mention before walking to the café (I can feel Jonathan shooting me death glares from the couch behind me) is how surprised I am at how much things really haven't changed. I came expecting huge differences, especially with the café, Régine having moved in with a man and with all the babies, but they really haven't. Everything looks the same. Everyone talks about the same things. The personalities are the same. The problems are the same. It's really quite interesting.



Voilà, Jonathan, j'ai fini.