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.