Oops.

I just realized there is a plethora of grammar mistakes in the entry below this one, however I am way to lazy to go back and edit them. Its really late at night here, and I was typing really quickly so that I could go to bed. Please don't think I actually deserved a 3.

Oesterreich und Bayern

Okay, I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever, but I think what I'll have to talk about now will make up for it. First, the stuff that happened before I went traveling. We had another WG Essen a couple of weeks ago. Daniel made this really delicious Spanish potato dish. While we ate, we listened to Spanish guitar music. I think its funny how at every WG Essen we have music playing that's supposed to fit with the food we're eating. Though when I made Mexican food they decided to play country western music, because they thought it would remind me of home. But we all know how I feel about country western music.

Also, this is extremely embarrasing to admit, I made a 3 on my English Lit. in-class essay. A 3 is equal to a C in America. Though I really don't think I deserved that grade. We had an hour and forty five minutes to write a three to four page essay analyzing an excerpt from the "Merchant of Venice" which we had never seen before. I got points knocked off because I began my argument in the first paragraph. (Isn't that what the first paragraph is for?) Though I wont bore you with the details of why this was necessary to the topic of my essay, my TA said I should have pointed out that the character in the excerpt, who was claiming to be dim-witted, was actually speaking in a very loft language, which proved she was not dim-witted. How the heck am I supposed to know the difference between lofty and casual Middle English? Sheesh. Picky Germans. At least she gave me the full five points on the score sheet for "knowledge of the English language". As soon as I got back from my trip I began writing an analysis and interpretation of a sonnet for this class that was due on the Monday after the holiday. And people think I'm taking this class because its easier in Germany. Yeah, right.

Perhaps I should move on from this bitter topic.

Okay, on to Austria and Bavaria! I am absolutely thrilled that Kandra invited me to go with her. I would have been real freaked out if I had tried to do it alone. Anyway, as I mentioned before, we travled at night to save money. This means we left Freiburg at 12:30 am. I don't think I slept a wink, which made me really miserable when we got to our first stop, considering it involved hiking up a mountain. Out first stop was a little town called Fussen, which is where the castle Hohenschwangau and probably the most popular site in all of Germany, Neuschwanstein, are located. We first went on a guided tour of Hohenschwangau which is where "Mad" King Ludwig lived as a boy. Then we had to hike about thirty minutes uphill to get to Neuschwanstein, where we took another guided tour. Even though there were about a million tourists, it was really cool to actually be at Neuschwanstein, a place I'd only seen pictures of before. After we toured the castles, we hiked uphill some more to get to a bridge, which offers the most excellent view of the castle and the surrounding mountians. This seems to be the spot where all the photographers snap pictures of it for posters. We snapped lots of pictures of it ourselves. (Well, Kandra snapped lots of pictures. I found out the hard way that the last time I dropped my camera my memory card fell out, which means that I lost all but four of the pictures I had taken since I came to Germany. : `C However, Kandra has made a disk for me of our trip and our excursion to Heidelburg, and in the next day or so I'm going to make a separate blog for it. I promise.). I was really glad to get off that bridge though. It was wobbly wood between me and a painful death on the rocks below. ::shudders::

After we managed the somewhat more painful hike downhill, we caught a bus from Fussen to the Austrian border, and then a train to the city of Innsbruck. Our original plan for accomodations in Innsbruck was to stay with Kandra's friend Nicole (also from Baylor) in the Hilton, however after our consciences kicked in (and our common sense) we realized that wouldn't be possible and so we had to find a hostel as soon as we got there. Fortunately that wasn't a problem. The next day we met up with Nicole and proceeded to do everything in the town that my travel guide suggested. (I swear, that book became like the Bible to us. Before we did anything we always had to consult "The Book"). First we saw a palace on the outskirts of town, which was very interesting. (The walk to the castle is where I learned that Holly and Kristen weren't kidding when they talked about how hot they were in Austria last summer. No bubbles this time though, Gott sei Dank.) Afterwards, we ate lunch at a bakery and then went to see the cathedrals in town and also a Tyrolean Folk Museum. Kandra decided to have one of the artists on the streets do a sketch of her, and even though that took an hour, I totally enjoyed watching the work in action. The artist was really good. After that we went to eat at one of the cafes, where I ordered a plate with a sample of all the German bratwursts on it. Very delicious. Since we had nothing else to do, we planned on going to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie in English (because Nicole doesn't know German), but unfortunately the theater only ran it in English on Tuesday's and it was Saturday. So we went to Nicole's hotel room, where Kandra and Nicole decided to catch up, and I watched Star Wars in German. I was eagerly awaiting the most famous movie quote of all time (the second, in Jenny and Katie's opinion), when the stupid Austrian television cut to commercial and then didn't finish the scene when it came back on! How lame is that? It would have sounded really cool in German: "Nein, Luke. ICH bin dein Vater!". I think of all the places I went, Innsbruck was most beautiful. The city is located directly at the foot of some of the tallest Alps. I decided that wherever I live in the future, its going to be in the mountains. That would never get old.

Anyway, at twleve thirty that night we caught a train to Vienna, no switching trains in between. That was possibly one of the most miserable nights of my life. Our chairs didn't lay down, and there were two women and a little kid in our compartment and so we couldn't stretch out. Not fun. After we arrived and checked into our hostel, we decided to go see a museum of Viennese history and then we went to the Schonbrunn palace, where the Imperial family of Austria lived. That place was awesome. It was incredibly huge and had the most gorgeous rose gardens. After that we decided to go see an opera. (I would have preferred to have gone to the symphony, but "The Book" said the only affordable one was really cheesy, but if you wanted to go, all you had to do was look for one of the many Mozart look-a-likes on the street and buy a ticket). Anyway, we saw "Ariadne auf Naxos" for only 1.50 Euros! Talk about a deal! (Well, okay, we were standing in the nose-bleed section and couldn't see the left half of the stage or Ariadne, who was laying down in depression for most of the opera, but still, I was thrilled, and it was absoltuley fantastic). After that, we were so exhausted we didn't even eat dinner and just collapsed into bed.

The next day, we set out early and went to see the Hofburg, the other palace where the Imperial family of Austria lived. This involved a tour of the royal apartments, the royal silver collection (which I though was jewels, but was actually their dishes), and the Sissi Museum. For those of you who did not take German History with Dr. McGlashan (meaning everyone but Jenny), The Empress Elisabeth (Sissi), was considered the most beautiful woman of her time, and because of her "tragic" life story (mainly about how she was depressed for the rest of her life and wanted to die, because when she vainly decided to accept the emperor's marriage proposal at 15, she didn't realize being the Empress of Austria was going to put a serious restriant on her personal freedom), the city of Vienna decided to use this to attract tourists and make money. Despite this, the museum was really interesting. After this we decided to go see the Bellvedere Palace, however we took the wrong street and accidently ended up going into the entrance of the Vienna Botanical Gardens. Go figure. Apparently, even when I'm not on vacation with my parents, I am cursed to always end up at some sort of arboretum. (I mean blessed! Did I write "cursed"? Must have been a slip of the fingers). Anyway, after walking through the gardens and realizing we'd have walk out and go all the way around them to get to the entrance of the palace, we decided two palaces was more than enough, and instead went to see the Hundertwasser Haus. This is a carzy apartment building desgined by some modern painter, who thought straight lines were pure evil and that trees can be apartment tenets too. Needless to say, we got some interesting pictures. After that we were going to go see a play (Koenig Lear), but decided the line was too long and and so we went walking around downtown for while. We took pictures of the cathedral, watched some street magicians, and went to a few chocolate shops, where we sampled some really delicious treats. Then we went to a restaurant called the Mozart Stube, where we ate some delicious wienerschnizel. Then we crashed into bed again.

The next morning, we caught a train to Salzburg. Since we got there pretty late in the afternoon, we were rushing to see as much as we could before the musuems closed. We first checked into our hostel, which ws my favorite one by far (free breakfast buffet, and movie at night), and then headed straight to the Hohensalzburg Fortres, a pre-Roman castle, which offered an amazing view of Salzburg, and then practically ran to the Mozart's Residence. Unfortuneatly, we only got halfway throught he museum before they kicked us out. It had four room, but the audio guide played part of a Mozart piece at every display. After that we walked around Salzburg for a while, and then we stopped at restaurtant recommended in "The Book", and ate goulash cooked in beer with spaetzle (traditional German noodles). I also had some delicous cottage cheese studel. (It wasn't really cottage cheese, but that's what the English translation in the menu said). After we ate we went back to the hostel, where they were showing my favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music, in the lobby. It was really cool to watch the intermission and be able to think, "Hey! I was just there today!" We decided not to go on the Sound of Music tour, which is tour that takes you around the city to see sights that were in the movie. because first, it was way too expensive, and second, "The Book" said it wasn't that good. Also, we were going to go to some sort of performance (symphony, opera, or folk dance), but it was way too expensive, even for the nose-bleed section.

The next morning we woke up really early in order to go the the little German town of Berchtesgaden, where Hitler's Eagle's Nest is located. The bus ride up the mountain offered the most incredible view of the Alps. It was gorgeous. When we got the Eagle's Nest itself, I realized what a silly Texan I was for thinking that I wouldn't need more than a sweatshirt on the Alps at the end of May. And good half foot on the ground made me realize that. Talk about cold. There's a funny picture of me attempting to warm my hands in the sleeves of my sweatshirt while standing in a snow drift. We pretended we were actually part of some tour going through, so we could here the history of the building. Basically, it was a present for Hitler for 50th birthday, which he never used because he was afraid of hieghts, and he was afraid that the Allies might think a house on peak of a really high mountain was a bit conspiscous, and bomb it. After we took the bus back down, we toured the Nazi Documentation Center (that was a bit depressing) and then toured the Nazi bunkers. After that, we took the bus back to Salzburg, and decided to go into one of the shops, try on a dirndle (a traditional German dress), and take pictures of ourselves wearing them. I don't think the store workers were really thrilled with that, but I didn't really care, because I've always wanted to wear one, and I'm not about to spend 400 Euros to buy myself one. (I am not kidding about the price. The cheapest one I've seen so far is 250 Euros, and that's just the dress. Not the apron of the blouse that's supposed to go under it.) After we finished, we went into a little bakery and bought a slice of Sachertorte, a traditional Austrian chocolate cake, with some sort of orange liquer. It was excellent.

Anyway, after that I caught the train back to Freiburg. I stayed awake on the entire train ride ride back, so that I could look at the scenary. It was so pretty and all the villages are so cute! In Germany, the law requires that all houses have the same type of roof, in order to preserve the aesthitic appeal of the buildings. Part of me thinks this is a horrible infringement on personal freedom, but another part is happy they do it, because all the towns really do look beautiful.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm sorry for making everyone think I dropped off the face of the earth. I'll try to be more prompt. Only two more months to go! (I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I'll probably be both come the end of July).

Ciao!

"Totes Tier" is not a German speciality.

OK, I'm finally going to update again! I am so jealous that everyone is finished with junior year/senior year. I'm only in the fourth week of the semester and I have almost "keine Lust" to do schoolwork. When the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the Alps are beckoning, and on your way to class you see people enjoying themselves at the outdoor cafes, eating ice cream, and just plain having a good ol' time, studying just doesn't seem to fit into all that. ::sigh:: So much for summer vacation. Actually I will get a vacation at the end of May, but it definitely wont be for R&R. Since Kandra and I are hoping to see as much of Bavaria and Austria as possible in five days, we decided to add more time to our trip by cutting out sleep and traveling at night. I feel like I should wear one of those "Sleep is overrated" T-shirts from Common Grounds, even though normally that is not my opinion. Only when I'm exploring Europe. Speaking of which, we are going to spend two days in Vienna! It turned out to be in our budget after all. I'm so excited! We've already bought our train tickets and booked rooms at the youth hostels, so there's no going back now.
Anyway, tonight I cooked Mexican food for my roommates. I know I said I was going to do that last week, but one of them couldn't make it last week, so it was moved to this Monday. (Actually, he didn't show up tonight, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway). I went shopping on Friday for the ingredients and that had to be the most tiring thing I've done so far, outside of the snow hike. I went to four different stores in search of jalapenos with no luck. I also couldn't find enchilada sauce, but I wasn't really expecting to find that anyway. However, I found some other random spicy pepper and used that instead, and I used queso instead of enchilada sauce. Fortunately, one store had an international aisle and I managed to find refried beans, tortillas, and tortilla chips. So the entire meal consisted of enchiladas, refried beans, rice, guacamole, and pico de gallo. My roommates said they loved it and one of them wants the recipe. I was so proud of myself.
During the meal, we discussed who would be making the next WG Essen. My roommate Daniel volunteered and said he didn't know what he was going to make but most likely "totes Tier" with some vegetables. I thought "totes Tier" was just one word and asked him if that was a normal German dish, at which point everyone busted out laughing and said it would be hilarious if I went into a restaurant and ordered "totes Tier". He then repeated himself slowly, at which point I realized "totes Tier" was not one word but two, and meant "dead animal". I feel so sorry for Daniel. Almost every time he speaks German with me, I completely misunderstand him. One time he wanted to know if I would have a problem if he had some friends over for a get together, to which I cheerily replied "yes". Oops. The next time he talked to me, he was trying to explain that I should make a point to buy coffee, because we don't add coffee to the list of the items that we pay each other back for, because not everyone drinks coffee. For some reason, I thought he told me that I shouldn't drink the coffee that I didn't make, and so I apologized and poured the coffee back into the coffee pot. Then tonight, he was trying to explain how to cut the herbs that he had been growing on the window, and I thought he was telling me that it was a part of my kitchen cleaning duties to cut the herbs. Fortunately, he realized what I was thinking and told me very adamantly not to cut back all the herbs he had worked so hard to grow. He was simply saying that I could use them if I wanted. Poor Daniel. Good thing he speaks English.
Anyway, I think that's all for now! Please keep updating your blogs in the summer! I love reading them! It makes me feel connected. Speaking of which, I can't believe its only five more days until Jenny graduates. It seems like it was only yesterday we went to our first Halloween Organ Concert. (Well, not really. But it still seems too soon!).
Okay, everyone, Tschuess!

Classes, Wonderful News, and Future Travel Plans

Hello Everyone! Thanks for waiting so long for me to update. I have lots of questions to answer and lots of stuff to talk about! First off, the semester has finally begun. This feels really weird, because I keep getting e-mails from Baylor people/groups that say things like "Don't study too hard for finals!". I wont be taking my finals until the end of July, and even then I only have two real finals, one for Written German and one for English Literature. For Oral German, I need to give a short presentation, and for the German Literature class I'm taking, all I need to do is print out my notes at the end of the semester and give them to the professor. I'm sure that sounds like the easiest class in the world, but its really hard to take good notes when your German skills are only at the intermediate level and your professor speaks at the collegiate level. I don't have this problem in my other classes because English Lit. is taught in English and the other two classes are designed for international students and the professors are really easy to understand. Fortunately for me, two of my roommates are also taking the German Lit. class, and they've offered to help me. It feels really weird to have each of my classes only one day a week and to have two days in the week on which I don't have class. Also, even though the semester is so short, there's plenty of holidays/breaks. If I calculated correctly, the actual amount of time I'll be spending in class here would be equal to a month of classes at Baylor. And this is a normal German semester! (They have a Winter/Summer semesters instead of our Fall/Spring semesters). One of my roommates was totally shocked to learn that we get a three month break in the summer!
Anyway, to answer Katie's question, a "WG Essen" is just a term we came up with to describe our monthly meal together. (WG stands for Wohngemeinschaft, the apartment/dorm type place we're living in, and "Essen" means "meal" or "food" in German). We decided to have a BBQ outside. More like the German version of a BBQ, which didn't involve BBQ and was a lot healthier. We had grilled pork steaks and turkey sausages, and a ton of grilled vegetables and a vegetable salad. It was really good and I got to practice my German a lot. My roommates kind of roped me into cooking Mexican food for them on Monday night. Every other Monday one person is supposed to cook a meal for the other five. In deciding this, they asked me what my favorite meal was, to which I promptly replied, "chicken enchiladas". They asked if I could cook Mexican food, and upon hearing my affirmative, it was five to one on who would be cooking on Monday night. So tomorrow, I have to spend my day hunting down Mexican food ingredients or similar things with which I can use to improvise. (Shopping on a Sunday is not an option in Germany).

On to my really great news! I just realized I've never mentioned this on my blog, but right before I left for Germany, I got e-mails from Dr. Good and Dr. McGlashan saying they wanted to nominate any junior German majors who wanted to go for a seminar called the Graduate School Experience in German studies at the University of Minnesota. They said the selection process was very competitive, only 15 students in the country would get to go, and if their nomination was successful the trip would be free, covered by a scholarship provided by DAAD. Anyway, I asked to be nominated and my nomination was successful! Yay! Unfortunately, my schedule is going to be a bit tight when I get back, because I'll only have two weeks before I leave for Minnesota, and then I'll get back from Minnesota two days before classes start at Baylor. Not fun, but it'll be worth it.
Anyway, do you remember that German Department scholarship I said I applied for? Well, anyway, I won it! I am SOO happy! I even won more than I won last year! (That could be because there are less German majors this year, but I'd prefer not to think of it that way). Anyway, I've been on Cloud Nine for a week now.
On a more upsetting note, I was forced to take an "Incomplete" for Independent Readings this semester, mainly because stupid Amazon.com just informed me that they recently discovered that they never had in stock one of the books I ordered. Mind you, they tell me this THREE MONTHS after I order it. ????? Anyway, I reordered it through Barns & Noble, and it should arrive next week. (Assuming it doesn't take them a ridiculous amount of time to realize they don't actually have it).

Anyway, at the end of May, there are no classes for a week due to some sort of Catholic holiday. (I think). Kandra and I have decided to travel together to the east part of Germany and to Austria. I'm SOO excited! Our main stops will include Neuschwanstein Castle, Innsbruck, Hitler's Eagle's Nest, and Salzburg. Unfortunately, we wont be going to Vienna. It was part of the original plan until we added up the cost and saw that would be going over our travel budget (even though we're planning on staying in youth hostels and living off of peanut butter and jelly). So we had to either cut out Salzburg or Vienna, and we both agreed to cut out Vienna. Oh, well. Hopefully, I'll get another opportunity in the future.

Finally to answer Jenny's questions. I've been thinking about going to Indiana for graduate school for a while now, I guess I just never mentioned that to you. Sorry. That's not set in stone, though. I also have a couple of other schools in mind and I've also considered applying for a Fulbright Scholarship. We'll have to see. And as much as I'd like to tell you that "Freddy" is some hot German guy I've met, the truth is that "Freddy" is my brother's online name. Please don't ask.

Anyway, that's all for now! I'll update soon!
Ciao!

Update! (Finally)

Okay, I'm really sorry that I haven't updated for ten days, but I've been trying to accumulate stuff to talk about. Okay, here goes.
I've finally finished up all the paper work issues I need to deal with and can finally settle down a bit. The Intensive Course ended last Thursday and since then I've been on "vacation". Unfortunately, this included doing research for Dr. Wisely, which I am really, super, super, behind on even now. I've only written about one page of the paper I need to write for him, that's already overdue. (Though its not too bad because it needs to be two to four pages, and I've already started the next book, so I should be able to catch up easily).
I also had to run around doing paper work junk. I finally finished filling out my lease for my WG, and am now an official student of the university, and also an official temporary resident of Germany, so I wont be deported. (Not that I was really worried about that).
I did do a bit of exploring during the break. Last Saturday, the day it snowed in Texas, (which weirdly enough was really hot here), I went to a nature park on the outskirts of town called the Bergwelt Schauinsland. The park is up in the mountains, so in order to get to it, you can either be really lame and take a bus, or you can take the gondola. I totally thought of how much Katie would have enjoyed the gondola ride, considering I know you feel having one at Baylor would make it a top-rate university. Its the longest gondola ride in the world, (no kidding), lasting forty minutes, there and back. While up there, all I did was walk around on the trials, take pictures of the mountains, and collect rocks for my rock collection. There were a couple of museums there and a mini zoo, but it too far away for me to walk to and manage to catch the last gondola back down the mountain.
Today, Kandra (one of the other girls from Baylor) and I went to the very touristy town of Titisee. We decided to hike around the lake (FYI "see" means "lake" auf Deutsch), and look through all the shops. We also packed our lunch so we could save money. It was a really cheap excursion, and I had lots of fun. My feet were really hurting by the time I got home, though.
Tonight, I went to a beer garden with some of the people who were in the language course. And no, sorry, I didn't drink a beer. Maybe I'll have one to celebrate Jenny's graduation.
I just want to say that I have some really great roommates. (Even though a bag of pasta I bought is now mysteriously missing). They're really helpful with my German and everything else. Next week, all six of us are going to go out for a "WG Essen". I'm really excited about it.
Monday I finally start class. I'm taking four classes, two through the language school and two through the university itself: Oral German, German Writing Skills, An Overview of German Literary History II, and also An Introduction to Literary Studies. (The last one is not a German class, but the one that Baylor will count as British Literature). The classes are each two hours long, and are each only one day a week. So I have two classes on Monday, one on Tuesday, and one on Thursday. Not the most ideal schedule, but I didn't really get a choice.
Okay, that's all for now. I'll try to be a bit more prompt in my updates.
Auf Wiedersehen!

New Dorm, Mexican Food and Foreignors, and Grocery Shopping

Okay, I just told Jenny I wasn't going to update today because of problems with my power converters, but I'm going to try anyway. First thing, is that I moved into my new dorm on Thursday, and I absolutely love it! I have five roommates and we each get a key to a flat. Inside, is sir rooms, a kitchen, a living room, and two bathrooms. I have such a huge room! Its way bigger than my room at Memorial. The bathroom is the size of a broom closet, but oh, well. I'm really happy to have a complete kitchen, complete with dishes. I can cook for myself now! I'm so happy. I totally can't do that at Baylor considering I share one kitchen with about two hundred other people. Three of my roommates are guys, which is really weird. One of them came and introduced himself to me in the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth. Its really hard to speak German around a mouthful of toothpaste.
Anyway, last night one of the other girls from Baylor asked me to go eat with her at that Mexican restaurant I talked about. She also invited four of her friends, an Italian, two French girls, and a girl from England (What do you call them? Franks and Brits?), none of whom have ever eaten Mexican food before. It was funny when they wanted to know the proper way to eat a taco or roll up a fajita. I'm really sad that their first introduction to Mexican food was warped by German culture. Kandra and I explained (or more so Kandra than me, considering her German is much better) that Mexican food is much better in Texas.
Anyway, I went shopping today at a store called Real-. Its kind of like Wal-Mart. Some of the German food packaging/items were really funny. For example, some of the milk isn't kept cold, and you buy American salad dressing, like we buy Italian and French. The salad dressing flavors were really weird. I finally decided to try Jogurt Zitrone (yogurt lemon). Hopefully that doesn't taste bad. I also bought a laundry bag that had its size on the outside of the package in metric units. I assumed it would be large because it was a laundry bag, but I honestly don't think that it could hold more than three outfits. Oh, well. I'm really glad I bought it anyway, because I forgot that German grocery stores make you bag your own groceries in a bag you bring. Oops. People were giving me funny stares while I was tearing open the packaging around the laundry bag and then when I was lugging a laundry bag full of groceries onto the tram.
Okay, I think that's all for now. I still have lots of paperwork/registration issues to deal with, so please pray for me!
Just for you Daddy....Allfeetarethesame!
(We'll see how many people get that.)

Flammkuchen and my Stressful Life

Actually, the Flammkuchen thing was last night, not Monday night, so I really didn't have a lot to talk about yesterday. Flammkuchen could be called the German equivalent of pizza. It was really good, and also the first home-made thing I've eaten in a month. I had lots of fun hanging out with everybody and I got to meet a few new people. I have a really funny story about Maniwa, the Japanese girl I mentioned earlier, however I really don't know how to write about it without sounding dirty or inappropriate. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. Lets just say that the Japanese don't seem to understand the concept of ''personal space''.
Today, I am going to attempt to secure my temporary resident permit, now that I finally have the hundred other documents I need to get it. Please pray that it works out. After I get it, I should be able to matriculate to the university, get my student ID card, and an Internet password. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow morning, but we'll see. I also just realized that my bus pass is going to expire tomorrow, so I need to buy a new one. And I need to pack tonight, because I'm moving into my new dorm tomorrow afternoon. This means I should probably do my laundry tonight, which scares me a bit, considering the German washing and drying machines still confuse me. (Last time I did laundry, I didn't set the dryer right, and my clothes didn't get dry. So naturally, the smart thing to do would be to dry them again. However, you have to go to a place called the Service Point, which, of course, has stupid German office hours and is only open an hour at a time, and buy special coins to put in the machines. So if you run out of washing/drying coins and the office isn't open, you have to improvise. This means that I had all my clothes laid out to dry in every possible open space in my room for two days. Not fun.) Anyway, after I get all of this done, I should be okay. Today was the last day of my language class. Yay! My final grade was a 2, so I'm a bit disappointed, but oh, well. I learned a lot. Tomorrow, there is no class, and then on Friday, the Intensive Course starts, and that lasts for a week. I found out the other day, that only about eight other people signed up for it. This is because everyone wants to go traveling during the Easter holidays. (I'm such a nerd). After the course, I'll only have about five days to go traveling, because I also signed up for an orientation session at the university starting on the tenth. Another interesting thing I found out about German universities, is that if you want to register for a class, you simply show up and the professor will put you on the roster. Weird. I'm planning on taking all of my German classes through the language school, because I don't feel really confident about taking a German literature class with the native speakers. However, that's okay, because I registered to take Medieval German Literature next semester with my favorite German professor. You know, the one who shares my name? ; )
I do feel confident with taking British literature through the university, considering that's taught in English.
Okay, that's all for now. I don't know how often I'm going to update from now on, because tomorrow is the last day I'll get free Internet through the language school. Oh, well.
Wiedersehen!

P.S. Thanks for the camera tips!