The first week

I'm sure you're all wondering why I haven't posted and are anxiously awaiting hearing about my week. Well, I had a wonderful 3 day headache trying to get access to the internet and finally fixed it about 30 hours ago. Thank god, my room felt small and empty without internet connection... Oh what technology has done to me. After problems with the room number and then the network server, along with finally my computer needing to download and extra program since it's running an older version of XP, it was a huge nightmare. I'm still annoyed at the extremely closed network which isn't allowing me to purchase skype credit to call friends back home. I had to go to the cafe next door and use their 1 euro cent/minute computer to do it... fun stuff.

So this week was a long one but now it's the weekend. Things have finally settled a bit, into a routine of sorts. The public transportation is fantastic here; multiple buses pick up a half block from my dorm and bring me directly to the university main building. They come every ten minutes, without fail, and drive quickly and efficiently.
Tuesday, arrival day, I moved in after Lydia and Jonas brought me to the city. At first, I had no idea what to do with my time since there was nothing planned for the entire day besides moving in. I went exploring to find a grocery store, bought some things to make sandwiches and snack foods, and got settled in my dorm. Unfortunately, it was extremely dusty and dirty and I was told to clean it up myself... with an ancient vacuum that spit out more than it picked up.
Yea, looks fun, huh? So I cleaned a bit. Went out to dinner with more students from Madison and the entire international program here. My Bonn Buddy, Sanja, also came. She's very sweet, about my size, and we have similar taste in a lot of things like music, literature, bad television... I think we'll be great friends throughout this semester. Dinner was alright, Mexican food, and the service was... well, up to German standards. Going out to dinner here is an event because it takes a long time anywhere for the server to notice you, since they aren't making tips and have no incentive, and when you ask for something... like a refill (which you have to pay for) or condiments, don't except them any sooner than 5 minutes from then. I wasn't in the world's best mood at dinner because I was already feeling extremely homesick. After Lydia and Jonas left me, and I was left with nothing to do really, it felt like being away at college for the first time again. I didn't know what to do with my time. I felt very alone... I kept trying to tell myself that things would get better within the next few days but all I could feel was a gaping hole somewhere inside me, like everything I loved was missing and was going to stay out of reach for a long, long time. It's a painful and lonely feeling.
Wednesday was the Orientation day, which was spent watching a slideshow presentation that was presented in English and German and thus took two times as long as it should have, and then we were taken on a walking tour of the campus, though my group only saw the library really, and ate lunch at the Mensa (student cafeteria).
(The slide to the right is from the Orientation. It says: "German beer: *is probably the best in the world *contains a lot of alcohol". yep)
That afternoon, while still trying frantically to connect to the internet, I encountered a red haired american looking girl wearing both Uggs, a northface hoodie, and then an American Eagle sweatshirt underneath. She seemed lost and confused, so I offered her help. Her name is Mandy, she's from Louisiana, was also born here in Germany and moved away as a child, but she didn't have the benefit of a great college German program so her German speaking abilities are underdeveloped. Or so she thinks, I think she's doing just fine. She reminds me of Julia Roberts, both in appearance and in her voice, possibly the slight southern accent. It's cute. We started to hang out after she let me use her internet, seeing as I still didn't have any, and realized how lonely and homesick we both were. We've basically been inseparable since Wednesday afternoon and everyone else we hang out with seems to assume we've known each other for much longer. I think we're going to be great friends through out the whole semester and probably after... she's very low drama and the same sort of girl I fancy myself to be.
Thursday morning was the German placement test. Cue the dramatic music! We had an hour long test, consisting of six parts, which tested our ability to hear German, to pose questions, vocabulary, prepositions, article endings and cases, and a comprehension section where we filled in missing things in a paragraph. It was definitely interesting and I felt like I did pretty well on it leaving the test. Mandy and I then went to run errands, like registering for the City. They took my German passport and crossed out "brookfield, Wi USA" and stamped "Bonn" over it. Pretty hardcore... We also opened a bank account for her and took care of Lease contracts at the Studentenwerk Building. I continued to try to fix my internet there...
Thursday night we went to Sanja's house to watch the premiere of Germany's Next Top Model, which Heidi Klum hosts, and enjoyed a feast of German junk food. It was strange to hear Heidi speak in German and not in English with her cute accent... she was somehow less charming this way. Sanja claims if you listen closely, you can tell by Heidi's syntax that she is losing her German speaking abilities in lieu of her America lifestyle. Interesting...
Friday we received the results of the placement test. We sat in a room, all ~110 students, and were told to listen for our names. 11 teachers, forming 11 groups, called off their students. Slowly the Asians were called off... then american students... no one from Madison until group 6 or so... then I looked around and realized there were maybe 20 people left and I started to think I had done really well on this test. Then Mandy's name was called for group 10... and only 11 of us remained. We were the cream of the crop. 3 of us from Madison, 4 of us having German roots in the group, and 3 girls from China who have only studied German for 2 years apparently. I placed in the top group... wow. I couldn't stop smiling. It feels nice to have something acknowledge my German skill level I suppose, besides people telling me "aber du sprechst doch gut deutsch!"
We had a couple hours of introducing one another and getting to know the teacher, and picking a German workshop in the afternoon. I chose two: grammar for the upper level and modern short prose works. We'll see how interesting they are... There's another test on April 1st which should be difficult but hopefully I'm well prepared. I'm excited to have some sort of structure now, to be starting classes after 2 or 3 months of not being in class. Actual classes will start in April and that will also prove interesting I'm sure.
Last night we had a welcome kick off party with a free chinese buffet and some free beer and soda. It was an enjoyable time and I've been getting to know a lot of students from all over the States, China, and Germany. I'm excited to build these friendships and branch out from the people from Madison, though they are also pretty cool :)

Now we're off to buy Mandy a cell phone since we can't unlock the main doors to each others floors and we feel pretty ridiculous skyping together in the same building... or awesome. I mean whatever you want to call it. I definitely still miss home, miss my friends, my boyfriend? whatever you want to call him... not sure if he's reading this ha ha but things are getting better. I feel like I'm going to like the city, like five months will go by quickly, and like I will enjoy this experience. I'm starting to think in German too so my next post might not be intelligible...