Hallo alle,
Look at me, not waiting forever to write another blog post! Oh my goodness! I am currently working on getting my pictures online, and if I am done before I post this...post, I will include a link. The problem is that I have a ridiculous amount of pictures, and we only get so much internet bandwith a week, so I'm trying to ration things. Skype takes up a monstrous portion of my allocation, so I'm sorry if I don't get to talk to everyone as often as I want to.
When last you left me (I know, I missed me too), I had two tests the next day. My German test went pretty well (I think), although I know I forgot the possessive pronouns for the formal subject. I did write a very good paragraph, which is very difficult when you have the vocabulary of a four year old and only the present tense to work with. Thursday was exhausting between the two exams and we had a meeting to fill out our residence permits (Germans love paperwork, apparently). We also got our schedules for class, which are just crazy difficult to understand. I spent some time today just writing down all my classes in my datebook and now it makes more sense. Because our program is taught by professors with full loads from TUD (Technische Universitat Dresden), our classes are sort of squeezed into the beginning and the end of the day. Our Biology teacher is apparently some really important guy that travels a lot, so we don't have lecture while he's gone (which is almost three weeks), and then we have a ton of lectures in a row. A few of my classes start at 7:30 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I shouldn't complain because the kids in the program taking stats start at 7:30 _every_ day. Still, 7:30 is an unholy hour. We have organic chemistry three days a week (T, W, Th) at 9:20, and labs start in October.
Honestly, although it's more difficult to understand than BU's schedules, this is much easier. I only have German twice a week, culture class once a week, and then organic as above. We also have no class on Fridays. Whoo three day weekends every weekend! We've got group plans for most of the weekends until the first weekend in October. Next weekend is Meissen (something to do with porcelain?), then Berlin, then Prague. Then it's the last weekend of Oktoberfest, so we're going to buy tickets to Munich.
Yesterday I did some planning with Zeynep and a few other friends for our free weekends and our week long break, but for now I will remain mum until it is 100% certain! Despite being exhausted Thursday, we all managed to drag ourselves out to the club. It was fun as per the usual, but I was tired and I had to take a friend home so I left a little bit earlier than some other people. We also had to wake up at eight thirty for our cultural excursion.
Speaking of, our cultural excursion was phenomenal. We went to Koenigstein (King stone), which is a large fortress/castle a half hour train ride away. It was built in the mountains between Saxony and Bohemia (they didn't get along) and was controlled by various people during it's history. It was at the pinnacle of weapons technology until WWI, and even then it served as French Allied officer prisoner quarters and it contains the oldest soldier's barracks standing in Europe. We walked around and had a tour. Our tour guide said at the end of the tour "I'm sorry, we don't get English speaking tours so often, I forget the words." Which she did not. All of the Germans who have said they "speak terrible English" speak English quite well. Certainly better than I speak German! The fortress was very beautiful, with a wonderful view of the Elbe and the town below and pretty German country side. I hope you take some time to look at the pictures, I really like them.
We came back from our cultural excursions thinking we would do something, but everyone was tired from Thursday night and we had a quiet night in. On Saturday, we woke up early (I mean like 8:30) and got to a flea market near the Elbe. I bought a few smaller things, but most importantly, a bike! I'm very excited to have it, because it's quite a walk to class, and Dresden was made for biking. It's also purple and has a more comfortable seat than I've ever had. Trying to haggle with a language difference is a big pain, but I only paid 35 euro, so it's all good. Then last night we stayed in again, played cards, and drank champagne.
The only frustrating thing was that I started my laundry at 9:00, and here nothing dries. The dryer ate my money twice, and I wasn't going to give it any more, so I am line drying everything. I am changing my attitude toward laundry for Europe. At BU, I just wait until basically everything is dirty, then wash everything. Here, the washing machines are so small that you can't even do that if you don't want to spend 10 euro on laundry. So I have decided to adopt a policy of hand washing things every few days. One girl in my hall told me she's never hand washed anything before and proceeded to ask me how to do it...you use hot water and soap. It's like when you take a shower, but with clothes instead of skin. Oh the rich kids that go to BU. Anyway, I learned my laundry lessons (alliteration!) so I will not make that mistake again. I'm spending the rest of today calling people, cleaning my room, and getting ready for classes on Monday. I am excited and terrified, but mostly excited. By the time you all get around to reading this post, the pictures should be uploaded and labelled, so here's a link: http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z254/rusher116/Studying%20Abroad/Koenigstein/
Happy viewing, and I miss you all!
Love,
Lani
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