It was snowing pretty hard... But I sat must apologize... my days are sat inside the building and finished doing my homework while I watched it snow outside. Class was great! We covered adjective endings, which is one of the hardest and dumbest (in my opinion) things about the German language... that and articles all together! Ok, so maybe I think they are dumb because they are so hard and I just don't get them... but I found out that I definitely not alone in this!
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| Class |
We are starting to learn about the personalities in our classroom and looking past our nationalities as well! It is a great group and as the professor pointed out today, we are becoming a pretty tight group!
Lunch at our mensa (cafeteria) was great again! We had cous cous, which was delicious! I sat by 3 of the Dutch girls and had a fun time listening to them speak Dutch. I think that is my favorite thing about our class... The only ones that speak another language amongst themselves are the Dutch. They don't do it much, but since there are 5 of them in a group of 15, when something doesn't make sense to one of them, the others clear it up in Dutch. It cracks me up!!! For the first day, I really thought they were speaking German and that I didn't understand anything at all! It sounds soooo much like German, but I can't understand a word they are saying... ok maybe a word, but not more. In the afternoon, we discussed the recipes, ingredients, and objects that we would need to know for today (since today our lesson was cooking/eating lunch together!)
After class, my goal was to meet my "buddy" Paul. The Potsdam program pairs you up (if you want it) with a Buddy, who is German, and is here to help you. They are supposed to pick you up from the airport and help you do the first things when you arrive. However, I preferred to get settled first and then contact my "buddy". Paul met me outside and I found him, because he was the one standing in the snow wearing the glasses he said he would wear. He is very nice and we took the bus to Fortstrasse, where he lives. My apartment is in the house (building) next to his! Paul is from Magdeburg and is studying to become a Latin/Spanish teacher. He is super nice and lives with two Spaniards. We went to his dorm, because he though his roommates would be there... but they weren't. So we had the awkward first time meeting conversations for about an hour and then he politely told me that he didn't have much time. Hahaha... so I got on the bus and headed to the center of Potsdam to go and speak with someone at the bank. My goal was to find out why I have not received in the mail my ATM card or my credit card or my pin for online banking.
Lets just say I am sooo proud of myself. I spoke with the lady and had the whole conversation in German without her asking ONCE if I understood or where I was from or anything! Great accomplishment! I also found out that they all got sent back for some reason... So now they are resending everything and I will have to wait and see if I get it this time... After the bank, I took the train back home and made it to my apartment at around 7:30. I was deaaaaddd tired and didn't even open a book... I just fell on my bed and fell asleep.
Therefore.... I had to wake up at 6 today. Once I got up, it was fine and I got my homework done and ready to rewrite on the train! It wasn't snowing today, So everything looked a bit different from yesterday. I am becoming quite the train/tram/bus expert between here and Berlin... or so I though. Our class met in our classroom this morning at ten. Again, we went over grammar, then reviewed some vocabulary from our readings the day before, and then played battle ship with some adjective endings! At 12:00 we all left together and walked to the grocery store. There, we all bought our drinks for lunch (everything from beer to wine) and headed to another one of the University's campus (there are three). At the Golm campus we met our professor (it sounds weird to call a 28 year old who looks sooo young a professor, but she is good enough to deserve the title!) at a huge kitchen!
Yesterday she split us up into 5 groups and gave us each a recipe. My group was to make a marble cake! The other two girls (one Dutch and the other Hungarian) are super sweet and we had a fun time making it! (and it turned out awesome!!!) The other groups made: bratwurst, mashed potato, sauerkraut, potatoes with quark mixed with dill, onions, and some other delicious things, wiener schnitzel, kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes), a German pasta salad, and a very stereotypical German cucumber salad. We all had a blast making it... well... kinda all.. One of the brazilian guys cut his finger pretty badly, so the Australian girl had to go with him to the hospital. She went because she's lived here for 6 months and was the most capable one out of all of us to accompany him. He never came back, but I think he was fine... I doubt he will be needing any stitches.
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| The woman on the left... that's our professor... |
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| Making mashed potatoes |
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| The guys with the FOX sweatshirt... yup he is the one who cut his finger... |
After eating and cleaning up, we all headed to the bus station. Now picture this:
-15 foreign exchange students walking to the bus station.
- a Brazilian student notices that a Regional train station is there.
- A student from Denmark, a Dutch student, and I notice it with excitement...
- Then... the four of us start running!
- We are almost there!
- Then we hear someone yelling..
- We turn around to hear Cristin (the professor) running and saying that it is the wrong train...
- soooo... the four of us walk down the stair around the corner and go to the other side...
- at that point we notice that the other train says Berlin!
- sooooo... the four of us run to the other side, pass Cristin and yell on our way that IT IS the right train and she apologizes.
- The four foreigners run up the stairs
- Out of breath we finally make it on the train
- All of the Germans are staring at the out of breath foreigners who sit down and discuss the run in their broken German.
- Then... the foreigners look at the upcoming stops and realize that Cristin was clearly right and they were on the wrong train. (side note... a regional train makes very few stops... so getting off at the next stop to come back on a train going in the opposite direction mean waiting 10 minutes on the train)
- The Dutch guy decides to stay on the train and ride to the end, (east) and then take a train north into Berlin.
- Danish girl, Brazilian guy, and I get off here:
Also known as Saarmund or the middle of nowhere. The station was tiny... and the train... according to Mette's app (the Danish girl) came in 30 minutes.... So there we stood... Between the fields of Germany and waited. It was actually wonderful though! We got to talk about the different education systems in the different countries and politics, etc... All in German. Their German is waaaayyy better than mine, but I at least knew all of the vocabulary that they were using. My issue is thinking of that vocabulary when I'm making my own sentences!!! Oh well... time will help. Once our train finally came, we rode to Potsdam Haupbahnhof .... so 1 hour later, we were still in Potsdam. Oh well.... Mette and I bought some delicious fruit and coffee and headed to the train. Again, the conversations were wonderful and made time fly by! The regional train to Berlin was another 20 minute wait, so we took the slower option. At around 7:00, I finally made it to my humble abode in Prenzlauer Berg. I'm exhausted, but happy! It has been 2 more wonderful days in Germany and everyday I'm meeting more and more wonderful people.
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