NIght and Day

What a day!!!! This morning, while I was sitting at the cafeteria writing my blog, I met my Danish friend Mette! Together we went to the German Institute, where we met Daniel (dutch) and went in to schedule our classes.  

I chose Aufbau II and Grammatik I,  both are for B2.2 level students, which is what my test came out to be.  The teacher told me I was definitely at a C1 level, but I am definitely ok with taking these classes! I knew when my teacher told me I shouldn't take anything lower than C1 that I wouldn't get a C1 on a written test where everything was fill in the blank, and I am ok with that!! So that being said, here is my schedule for the semester as of now: 

German Aufbau II -  (4 hours) German speaking, writing, reading, listening for advanced speakers

Grammatik 1 - (2 hours) German grammar for advanced speakers

Berlin in der NS- (2 hours) Diktatur - Berlin during the Nazi dictatorship (in German)

Der Mauerbau - (2 hours) History class on the contraction of the wall (in German)

Musik und Holocaust -  (2 hours) Music and the Holocaust (in German) 

Grundprobleme der europäisch-jüdischen Geschichte der Neuzeit (16.-20. Jh.) -  (2 hours) Basic problems of the European Jewish history in the modern times (16th-20th century)(in German)

Zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert -  (2 hours) History of the Jews in Germany in the 19th century (in German)

Jewish History in the Mediaeval Period under Christian and Muslim Rule -  (2 hours) Yaaaay ! A course in English! 

Total -------- 18 hours! =====> NOT GONNA HAPPEN -- 16 in German and 2 in English

Yeah... this is not going to happen... so instead, I will try all of these next week and then choose the ones that I like the most/seem the most helpful to my research.  The one in English is going to stay, because I'm going to need something to be a bit easier....  The first to go will probably be the one Jews in Germany in the 19th century (it's one century too soon for my research! haha) and then the construction of the wall (though I know it will be great). But we will see.... I will be emailing the professors tomorrow to see what they say about having me in their class... then I'll go from there! 

Now after that, Mette and I headed to the Mensa for lunch.  There we met some more of our buddies from the German course. Again, it was GREAT! It ended up being like 10 of us!  After about an hour and a half of chatting, we headed over to the ZEIK (internet help on campus) to figure out why Mette's internet doesn't work on campus and why my internet doesn't work in my dorm.  After about an hour I headed to my room and tried it (Mette headed home to Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg actually... makes me miss it...). Of course, I checked my mail first to make sure the bank info wasn't in... but no surprise it wasn't.  When I got to my room I tried the internet and it DIDN"T work!!! So I got back on the bus and went back to campus to catch the internet guy again before his 1.5 hours of work were up.  Then.... I met him and another guy that announced in front of him that he had given me the wrong vpn for the cisco he had downloaded... Soooo he redid it and I headed back to my dorm! And it worked!!!!! I was sooo pumped! After a bit of skyping I headed to the main train station to get a phone! 

I went into vodofon (a German cellphone store) and took the first prepaid plan they offered.  I also found out that I had been incorrectly writing my address... Oh well! I should have probably shopped around for plans/phones and I paid way too much... but to tell y'all the truth I didn't have the power to bargain in German...  I couldn't just buy a sim card because my awesome friends at AT&T have my iPhone locked... Sooooo I bought a new phone and again paid way too much. But!!! Now I can communicate!!!! It is wonderful, it has internet, calls, and texts.  Not unlimited, but enough to make me feel like I can communicate in any situation!!!! 

YESTERDAY

TODAY: 

As y'all can imagine I am thrilled!!!!!!!!!!! Now, I am simply laying on my bed writing this blog, instead of sitting outside in this freezing cold weather!! It is absolutely perfect!!!! Ok, well I am headed off to watch a German soap opera, send some emails, Skype or do some other magical stuff that one can do with internet! I really don't know how people got by without it! (actually I do, and it was great for a few days, but 5 days is enough!