A Soccer Game and the Biggest Spider I Have EVER Seen

Today was a game of sit and wait in the morning. I had one Students for Students ambassador come to pick up a key for his student today, and actually had an international student come pick up his own key today as well. I sat around and relaxed after I woke up, and ended up watching Oblivion. That movie started out really good, but then I got a little bored towards the end. Nice try, though, Tom Cruise!

The boys came and went, and then I got ready for the soccer game that I was supposed to meet everyone for at 2:45.

The game was SO FUN! Reutlingen played Spielberg and the game was a good one. 

Getting ready to enter the Reutlingen stadium for the game.

I grabbed a Raddler (half lemonade, half beer) and a bratwurst and took me seat to watch the game. A lot of players got hurt, which got pretty old after a while. One of the Valpo students mentioned that she thinks more injuries happened during this game than during the hockey game she had been to.

Reutlingen v. Spielberg

Overall, a pretty good game. There was some good footwork, and a few almost-goals that had the crowd roaring. The final score was Reutlingen 2 - Spielberg 0. Hoorah! I really want to get to know some of the cheers that the super fan section was screaming throughout the entire game. They were so loud! I was proud to hear that they didn't get tired and just gave up after half of the game, which happened at most of the U.S. sports games that I have been to.

         The awesome cheering section.                                                 The final score! 2-0

I ended up making some chicken schnitzel for dinner tonight, during which I had an extremely traumatic experience. A HUGE spider decided to crawl into my kitchen from the laundry room. I attempted to squash it with my shoe, but missed, and it scurried into the small, dark space between my fridge and the wall. Holy TERRIFYING.

I frantically finished my schnitzel, all the while on the lookout for a chance to destroy the creature. I was like a pig around Easter, let me tell you - I jumped at the slightest thing. My fear was a feasible object.

What caused me to have this response? I have no idea. But I was thoroughly freaked out.

I then proceeded to scour the internet for cheap, easy ways to get spiders to leave the place they are. Thankfully, I came across the bit of advice that spiders dislike the citrusy smell of lemons. I happened to have a quarter of a lemon wedge with me for my schnitzel, the other 3/4 in my fridge, and 3 other lemons with that 3/4.

Before I went to put my plate in the sink in my kitchen, I literally rubbed my lemon on all sides of my doorframe to discourage the spider from crawling even closer to where I slept! I then continued on and grabbed the other 3/4 of my lemon and squeezed it everywhere in my kitchen, making sure I left a nice path open to the door; I also left the lemon wedges out to discourage my spider friend from making his home in my kitchen for the rest of his life, ruining the next year of MY life.

Yikes.

After that, I did not return to my kitchen. Instead, I stayed happily in my room and was on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for a bit. I invited everyone over for a movie night, but it just ended up being me, Allie, Sarah, and Chelsea talking about traveling.

Once they left, I went back on Facebook and found a wonderful post on my wall from one of the newer women in my sorority. It made me realize how much I truly miss my sisters, my family, and my home.

This post prompted a Skype session with Erika, which lasted for a few hours. It is ironic that for the one year that I really wish I was in Valpo for, which I normally would have been in Valpo for, is the year that I get an internship to go abroad! God works in mysterious ways, and everything happens for a reason though.

"It Was One of Those Moments... That I Truly Felt Like I was a Part of the City."

At work today, I continued doing whatever Karin wanted me to do! I can tell that as the day grows closer for the international students to arrive that she is getting more and more stressed!

Yesterday, she had me do what she considered a "donkey job," which has its own word auf Deutsch. She had me go into every single bag that we had packed on Wednesday (over 200, by the way) and insert a flyer that had just come in. So, I spent over an hour doing that grueling task, as well as re-folding and organizing all of these bags.

Anyway, so today at work I got a few keys from Claudia for students coming in this weekend for the program. I also had to give a Students for Students ambassador (a German student who helps an incoming international student get into their room, get settled, and helps them with finding things initially) some bedding for his incoming student. I sell that from the Wurm Haus.

It was then time for Mittagspause! I had a nice chat with some Valpo students before they walked up to Aachelm, made some lunch, and took a nap. Then it was back to work.

Well, kind of! I got into the office and was told about 20 minutes later that I could go home early, if I wanted to. Is that even a QUESTION?! Hoorah! Off of work early. I finished up a few things and headed out that door.

It was grocery shopping time. I made a list and prepared to go to the Penny, when Eric Facebooked me and told me that he was back from Aachelm and wanted to make dinner. We made a recipe I found on pinterest for zucchini pizza and it was one of the best things I had ever eaten! And healthier than the traditional pizza.

Then, I grabbed my list and headed to the grocery store. Eric and I went to Edeka to grab a few things (including mint chocolate chip gelato!) and then went to Penny for most of my stuff. Every time I walk into that store, I forget about the Pfand that I need to use! I have about 2 Euros I could save off of my purchase, but oh well. I am really excited about the fact that I found all of the ingredients for
 a home-made spinach artichoke dip!

I ate some gelato and then headed off to take a bus into town! I went and saw Chroniken der Unterwelt tonight! Alas, I was disappointed (as I have before mentioned, I am an AVID reader of the books), but the experience was a fun one. I had never been to a German movie theater before and now I can say that I have!

It was interesting because instead of just buying your ticket and sitting wherever, you are actually given a seat number in the theater, just like a play. I got a good seat in pretty much the exact middle of the theater!

Because I had read the book, I understood most of what was going on. I was disappointed that the screenplay writer could have easily adapted the movie better to the book, but instead chose to completely remove a set from the movie (Renwicks) and added parts that were never in the book that just took up time that could have been put towards accurately portraying the book.

To be honest, every book that I have loved reading, I have ended up hating the movie the first time I saw it. I do believe I will still go see the movie in Stuttgart when it comes out (in English!). If someone asked me if I wanted a sequel, at this point I would say no! But maybe once I view the film more objectively, I will be okay with the rendition of the first book.

On my way home from the movie, I wanted to stick to the main streets, as I was walking by myself. I ended up walking through the Weindorf (wine festival) to get to the main square. It was so packed, but instead of being uncomfortable and hating the situation, I enjoyed being among all of those people - I had nowhere to be, and it was one of those moments as I looked around at the people in Lederhosen and Dierndls drinking large cups of local wine, all with the beautiful Marienkirche as a backdrop, that I truly felt like I was a part of the city.

The magic faded as I realized I had JUST missed the 10:30 bus and would either have to wait a half hour or walk home. I decided to walk home.

I made it safely and had a very nice and relaxing evening. :)

Heute war ich müde. Oh, und gibt es ein Weindorf in Reutlingen!

Despite going to bed early, I was still exhausted all day today! I may have gotten too much sleep.

Today was a big day at the office - we packed folders with information for the incoming international students who are taking the RIO and ESB intensive courses starting next week. Not only did the RIO team help assemble these packets, but also members of the ESB team, so it was a large group. It took us about an hour to assemble over 200 packets, but they finally were completed.

It was nice to have this hour with people from the RIO office and another office. I got a chance to speak more of my German! There was also a young woman from Mexico who was kind of in the same boat that I am. She came to Germany (although, she knew NO German when she came) and studied here. She got a job or praktikum afterwards, and she is still here 2 years later! She said that it helped a lot that the women in the office only spoke German to her. I will be giving a campus tour with her on Monday when everyone arrives here.

Once the packets were done, I spent the remainder of my work day folding brochures for the RIO tandem program and making name tags for everyone for Monday.

On my break, I decided to start watching the movie Epic. It is a kids movie, but I saw a woman watching it on the plane on my way to Germany and I was really curious ever since.

I was hooked after the first 5 minutes. The movie is adorable and has a great story line! I only got a chance to get through about 45 minutes of the movie before my break was over.

The reason I only had the 45 minutes to watch my movie was because I finally sold my first set of bedding to a student today! He ended up coming over to Wurm Haus around 1 p.m. in the middle of my break. I (hopefully) gave him all the pieces he will need! I only realized after he left that he never paid me.

Of course.

I only realized that AFTER he left.

It worked out fine, though. I had his number that he gave me earlier in the day in case there were any problems, and I sent him a quick text asking him about the money. It turned out that he had already paid for the bedding in the RIO office, which worked out just fine for me!

I got back to work and did my thing for the two hours, and then returned back to my apartment. I made pasta with the veggies that I had in my fridge, which turned out to be pretty good, and then ended up meeting up with some of the Valpo women for a trip downtown. Reutlingen is having it's Weindorf (a wine festival in downtown Reutlingen) and we went to go check it out.

 

The literal translation of "Weindorf" is a small wine city.

 

I tried a Schwarzriesling and then a Rose wine, both native to Baden-Württemberg. At the first place, we were told that we could keep the cup that we had drank our wine out of (a really cute cup, too!) for only ,50€! Obviously we said yes to this. At the second place, they just re-filled our cups with the next bit of wine. The two glasses that I had were ,25 L each, so about 1/4 bottle of wine each. A few of us also grabbed a slice of cake, which was AMAZING! We ended up choosing plum cake which was tart and very much like a strudel. We had them put some whipped cream on top, of course.

The beautiful view of the Marienkirche from our table.
Yes, the Germans had a wine festival in front of, and around, the main church in town.

 

 

  

My delicious rose wine and plum cake.

 

 

Some men with a guitar and accordion playing background music for our Weindorf experience.

 

Once we were finished, we ended up (luckily) catching the 9 p.m. bus out of the Stadtmitte and made our way home.

Another fun night in Reutlingen. :)
 

Aldi Talk and A Nice Day for Grilling

At 1:30 a.m., before I finally went to sleep, I was startled by a light tap on my window. I paused, unsure if the tap was actually someone tapping on my window, or something else outside. It happened again, and then I saw my blinds being moved to the side as someone looked in.

I assumed it was Eric, as he is one of the only people who knows where my room is, but I crept to the window just to make sure. Sure enough, it was him. He had misplaced his keys and needed to be let in the door.

The next morning (or, this morning, I suppose!) I woke up and got ready for work, as usual. The day was also pretty usual. I emailed Eric to see if he would be able to take me to the Aldi (which I had never been to), and he responded with a yes.

I found this Aldi Talk thing that the local Aldi sells where it is only 7.99€ per month for 300 units (so, 300 minutes or texts) and 300 MB of data, which is a pretty good deal. I also ended up buying my smart phone off of Amazon.de. It is a Mobistel Cynus F3 phone, which is on the cheaper end of the smart phone spectrum, but it apparently works very well from the reviews I have read.

Also at Aldi, I found pomogranites for only .99€! I got one and plan on eating it soon, despite how tricky it is to get the seeds. Eric and I also stopped by the Edeka across the street. This Edeka has so much more inside of it! It is nice to know that it is here. I grabbed some tea from Edeka (Chamomile and Peppermint! :))

Once we got back to the university, Eric & I grilled burgers and put them on fresh pretzel buns. We got lucky and made it inside just before the rain came.

It is an early night tonight! I am getting ready to be in bed by about 10 p.m., which is a miracle. Hopefully more exciting things tomorrow. 

Just a Day in the Town of Reutlingen

Back to the daily grind.
 
Last week, I had gotten my passport pictures to continue work on my residency visa application. Today, I continued that work to the max. I talked to Anne-Catherine in the office today, and she is helping me continue my quest to get the residency visa required for the year internship in Germany. I also began filling out paperwork to be technically enrolled as a student at Reutlingen and to receive my student id.
 
The roadblock that we kept running into, an inception of paperwork, if you will, is that I need a local, German bank account number to put on my application for the residency visa, but I cannot get a bank account until I have said visa.
 
So where do I even begin?!
 
Anne-Catherine ended up being able to write me a stamped, official letter from the RIO office stating that I have begun the application for the visa they require and requested that I be allowed to open an account so I may finish up this application. Thank goodness it worked! I am to go back tomorrow to finish up the application.
 
I printed out a bunch of paperwork and hope to have everything all squared away for that visa by tomorrow!
 
Professor Ostoyich, the Valpo resident director, stopped in the office today. He, very kindly, asked if I would like to attend a soccer game with the Valpo students on Saturday (I'll admit, I was really jealous and wanted to go with them when I heard they were going to a game!) and invited me along for a tour of Tubingen the following weekend. Particularly because I know so many of the Valpo students, it is really nice to be included!
 
During my break, I walked to a local Lotto store near campus to pick up some minutes for my work phone. The office pays for the phone card since the number is given to students who are arriving on the weekends and need their keys.
 
I completed a few tasks for Karin in the afternoon part of my shift. After the few hours were up, I met up with my friend Nicki from Aalen!
 
We walked around Reutlingen and I showed her some of the sites we came across.
 

The fountain in the Marktplatz  in downtown Reutlingen.

 

 

A museum on the history of Reutlingen in downtown Reutlingen.

 

The streets of Reutlingen.

 
 
We stopped in Mueller to pick up a few essentials and window shopped the rest of the time. We grabbed a scoop of gelato from a local place by the Stadtmitte and continued walking. We tried on a few dirndls to see which sizes we were. Unfortunately for me, I think it will be an interesting time finding a dirndl that fits properly.

We finally ended up at a Thai restaurant for dinner that came highly recommended from the former resident director.
 
To my surprise, much like Asian restaurants at home, each "entrée" is actually made for at least two people. As Nicki is a vegetarian, my chicken dish was all for me, and it was A LOT. It was also really delicious. I look forward to eating the rest of it tomorrow for lunch.
 
I had some delicious jasmine tea at the restaurant, too. It complimented my meal well.
 

Jasmine Tea

 
 
It got to be about 8 p.m. and Nicki had to go home. On my way back to the Stadtmitte bus stop, I relaxed and breathed in the beautiful night and took some pictures.
 

Near the Stadtmitte bus stop.

 

And now I am back home. I look forward to an exciting week and weekend.

Washing Machines, Another Delicious Meal, and a Skype Date

Sleep. It was a wonderful thing to catch up on sleep this weekend!

I attempted to do some laundry today (I would say I was mostly successful!). As always, I forgot to put in a few things, like the kitchen towel and my bath towel, into the washer and was kicking myself. Everything worked out, though, because one of my washers only took half of the time I put into the machine! I frantically collected what I had forgotten and threw it in and began another cycle.

Very much like the dryers I used at the Laundromat I was at in the States before I left Germany, the money you put in counts for time on the machine. On average, 3 coins are needed to complete a Speed Perfect cycle on the Bosch washers in Wurmhaus.

Side note: Top-end brands are pretty standard here, as many of the companies who create these products are German-based. The first example is that the washers in our old dorm building are Bosch (Bosch has a huge facility in the city of Reutlingen). Another example is the buses. Many of the city buses are made by Mercedes-Benz.

After completing my laundry, Allie, Sarah, Eric, and I made lunch today (pizza and homemade garlic bread) and spent some time together. Once that was done, we wanted to take a walk. Unfortunately, the weather was still not cooperating and it was rainy. Memories of our soaking night last night were still at the forefront of our minds. I ended up in my room reading my book and relaxing, again.

Eric and I decided to make dinner again – the same recipe, but with spaghetti sauce, beef, and onions added to the mix. The results were fabulous. Whether it was just because we were really hungry or because it was really good, we devoured the meal. As we were finishing up, the 4^th Harry Potter movie came on in German! I wished I could have heard more of the movie, but there were some loud people in the kitchen. We ate some of the blueberry cake that Eric bought from the Penny Markt and went to the room to Skype with my wonderful ex-roommate, best friend, and Eric’s girlfriend Amy.

We talked about Amy’s upcoming trip to visit us and where we would like to go for our weekend of travel! Initially we had talked about Ireland. Now, we are choosing between Switzerland and Amsterdam. We’ll see what ends up happening!

More Is On The Way!

I was going to update my blog today, but then it took longer than expected to type out my experiences from this weekend.

Tomorrow, after some editing, I will update my wonderful family and friends on what I have been doing here across the pond.

Thanks for your patience. :)

A Lazy Day and a Night That Just Couldn't Go Right in Tübingen

Well, today was an interesting day! I started off having a relaxing Saturday; I slept in, lazed about for a bit, read some of my book, and waited for the Brazilian international student to arrive. I got an email at about 11 a.m. that the student would not be coming to Reutlingen until 5 p.m., which was not a big deal. Everyone else was out of the city and I was enjoying my day. I made French toast for my breakfast. I ended up seeing a few of the guys from Eric’s floor who I always see when we are making dinner together.

The Valpo group ended up getting back around 5 p.m., and I was still waiting on the student to arrive. Eric and I decided to make dinner once I was done, and I headed out to the Fishbowl to welcome the student to Reutlingen at 5:15. He arrived and we lugged his suitcase up a long series of stairs to the 2^nd floor where his room was. I said my spiel, and was about to leave when he started asking question. Unfortunately, I don’t really know the answers to too many questions quite yet, so I did what I could.

Eric and I ended up making spaetzle with fried zucchini, garlic, and tomato. It ended up being really good with a few extra seasonings thrown in! We met a few girls on Eric’s floor. They had a Keurig-like coffee maker that makes me miss my little Keuring mini!

After dinner, Allie, Sarah, Eric, and I were on our way to Tübingen to check out Top 10.  Another girl from the group, Tammi, ended up going with us. Everything was going so well! We caught the right bus, got to Tübingen okay on the proper train, and then it all went kind of downhill.

First off, I would like to say, that the directions from Naldo.de were extremely confusing. We ended up walking the wrong way from the train station, so we were doomed from the start. Despite this fact, we did end up seeing a bunch of Tübingen, which was gorgeous, and makes me excited to go back to the city when it is a bit more light out! We were lost and I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to get where we were going, so we ended up asking for directions. The people answered that the club was reallllllly far away and that we would be best off going back to the train station to catch a bus or a taxi.

So. We began walking back to the train station. Then, we found this path next to the river with big globe-like lights to illuminate it. It seemed like a good idea to follow the river, as the street we were supposed to take was supposed to cross the river. Well, as the road went on, it got darker and darker, and the distance between lamps got larger and larger. We ended up turning around again and taking a small bridge to get to the train station.

We figured at that point that it wasn’t going to be worth trying to walk to the club and got a taxi. It took all of 5 minutes to get where we were going. Our taxi driver took us a really wacky way with a lot of twists and turns, but we got there! We tried to figure out the money situation and you could tell the taxi driver was getting annoyed. He left before we could give him a tip. But, es war egal. (it didn’t matter).

We had made it! We were excited and ready for the night. But then. The bouncers at the door were checking ids and we realized that someone in our group did not have their id. The bouncers were deaf to our excuses and said that there was no way they would let us in.

Oh.

Well, after all of that, we decided to just go home. We knew which way we were supposed to go now and we just would walk it back to the train station. Easy, right?

Well, it would have been easy if the heavy rain hadn't started. It felt like everything that could go wrong, went wrong tonight.

We made our way to the McDonalds across the street from Top 10, just to get out of the rain and to call a taxi. I asked for the number for a taxi from the woman behind the counter and she gave me a number – it didn’t work.

We then used the wi-fi to find another number for a taxi place in Tübingen. The man answered and told us we were calling the wrong number.

Sigh. Really.

We hung out for a few more minutes and then, once the rain had mostly let up, we walked back to the club to see if they had a number for a taxi company. I called and told them where we needed to be picked up from and how many people we had and he responded in a long string of difficult to understand German words. I had no idea what he was saying, but hoped he was sending a taxi our way.

About five minutes later, when a taxi came to a halt in front of the club, we ran over to it and asked him if he would take us back to the train station, despite having one extra person for his car. He let us know that another driver was coming to pick us up. Things were looking up!

Up pulled the poor taxi man who had gotten us to the club about a half hour before. He laughed and helped us in the van and took us back to where we had begun. Once we got to the station, we looked up at the board to see when trains would be taking us, soaking wet after our adventures in the rain, back to Reutlingen. There was a train leaving AT THAT MOMENT and we ran to see if we could catch it. There was no train on the track, so we knew we missed it – until we saw the sign saying that the train that supposedly left was pulling into the station. We piled on, excited that something had finally gone our way! Then, the train pulled out of the station in the opposite direction that we had thought we came.

Panic set in. Exhaustion set in.

What were we going to do.

Well, thank goodness that we did not have to answer that question. We WERE going the right way and we did make it back to Reutlingen! We decided a visit to the Irish pub was a good way to end a bad night. I got another cider and Allie and I ended up doing an Irish Carbon! I’ll be really honest, I always thought the shot that ends up tasting like chocolate milk was called an Irish Carbomb (Terrible? Yes. But that’s what I thought it was called!). It was delicious and we were on our way to becoming friends with the Greek owner of the Irish pub.

We were at the pub for about an hour, having pleasant conversation. Then, because it started raining again, we took a cab back to the university. Our cab driver was so friendly and, after seeing Tammi start to dance to the music he had playing on in the car, blasted the music and we had our own little dance party.

We had to be thankful – we made it safely to and from Tübingen and had a memorable night. We decided to maybe try again in a few weeks when the pain of the not-so-pleasant and rainy evening has faded from our memories.

The Office, A Discussion on German Weddings, and A Night on the Town

Work happened today. I was in the office and doing more of what I have been doing! I’m helping my boss get together a lot of papers for the intensive German language programs ready for their arrival. Because I finally got my passport pictures taken yesterday at the train station, I could continue working on my residency paperwork, as well. I had the option to get my passport pictures done in English in the photo booth at the train station, and while it was a good thing that I understood everything, it was a mistake… I think the entire train station heard what was going on and most likely judged me for my lack of German skills. I got some looks when I exited the booth.
 
 

Today, Karin left the office a little early because she was going to one of our co-workers church weddings! The reason I say church wedding instead of just wedding is because in Germany, the whole wedding process is not like it is at home. There have to be two completely separate ceremonies for a couple if they want to be legally married and then do the long, white dress kind of wedding that takes place and is performed by a pastor. Claudia, the woman who is getting married, had already been married by the state, but now the church marriage and reception were to happen tonight. Karin and the office all signed this map that was really cute and the office gave that to her as her wedding present.

Once Karin left, I talked to Max about the international student whom I was to welcome on campus tomorrow. Apparently, the student is going to arrive in Reutlingen around 12 or 1 p.m. and I would just have to give him his key and show him where he was living. The Valpo group is heading to Stuttgart tomorrow, and it would have been fun to go, but I figured I should let them have some things that they did on their own.

Tonight, we ended up hitting the town. Eric didn’t want to buy the bus pass for the evening, and it was a beautiful night, so him and I ended up walking to town. Along the way, I helped the Valpo students to the correct bus stop (they were going to go the wrong direction!). Once our walk/tour began, I saw so many new places! This group’s tour of Reutlingen took them to really beautiful places that I never saw on my tour. We walked through a cool tunnel of bushes, down a set of stairs by a waterfall, and past a few new restaurants. Good things to know! I didn’t bring my camera, but I will be going back again as soon as the weather is nice.

Eric and I decided that the Irish pub was the best bet on where to find the Valpo people. When they weren’t there, we went to two other places to see if our fellow Valpo people were there (which they weren’t!). We finally ended up back at the Irish pub for a drink (cider, yum!) and when we left, we found everyone at an outdoor table at the very same pub. Once everyone finished their drink, we walked to another bar that the group had seen on their tour. About half of us ended up trying a Sex on the Beach, the drink special of the day.

It was also here that three of our group members decided to get a Jaeger Bomb. The bartender didn’t know what it was, though, and the person who was ordering described it as red bull and Jaeger. The three of them ended up getting 16 ounce cups full of Jaeger Bombs instead of just the shot!

While we were here, a few of the girls mentioned wanting to go dancing or clubbing, so I mentioned the club, Top 10, in Tübingen. I think we are going to try to go tomorrow when they get back from Stuttgart.

Allie decided she wanted McDonalds tonight, so Eric, Allie, and I walked over by the train station. On the way, we came across the small bar where my group (RT-89) had an amazing, hilarious night.
 

RT-89, Spring 2011 on our bar crawl the first week in Reutlingen.

We stopped by the old place so Allie and I could use the facilities and so Eric could get himself a nice shot of gin (questionable taste, if you ask me!).

On our way out, we ended up talking to one of the men sitting at the counter and he told us (at least I THINK he told us) that we shouldn’t be in this bar, there are better places to be. He ushered us outside and we ended up talking to this man for about 15 minutes about pretty much nothing. He said a lot of “sheiss egal” and told us about this place called Billy Bob’s where there was some good food that we should meet him at in 20 minutes. There was also someone else who came out of the bar, a late 20-something man who was a bit too interested in me and Allie. He took a brief interlude in our conversation to start making out with a girl who followed him outside (in the middle of the sidewalk) and then came back to our conversation. He seemed just as eager to meet us at Billy Bob’s with the other guy. Needless to say, we did not meet our friends to grab some food.

We did, however, make it to McDonalds! I ordered a cheeseburger and Allie ordered a meal off of the Deutschland McDonald’s menu. Just like last time, the woman taking my order knew that I spoke English. When talking to just me, she just smiled a knowing smile and kept speaking in German. When Allie ordered (with me helping along the way) she switched entirely to English.

When we finished ordering, we took a seat and waited for our food. As we were eating, one of the women working behind the counter stopped by our table and asked us, in very good English, where we were from. It turns out she was from Georgia! I think she was excited to see people from the States. We didn’t get to talk to her long, since she had to get back to work, but it was nice knowing we weren’t the only non-natives in the restaurant.

We hiked our way back to the Hochschule once we were finished with our food. It was a nice walk. It was good to hear the first impressions of both Allie and Eric. I think that they will do well in Reutlingen, once they settle in a bit more and begin classes.

What a day! My long blog post attests to that. It’s moments like these that we will never forget.

Another Day in the Office!

The weather here in Reutlingen is kind of strange. We have been having beautiful, sunny, warm days for the most part, but when I wake up in the morning and take my 10 minute walk to work, it is freezing! I feel like I have to wear two different outfits for my day – an outfit for cold weather in the morning, and an outfit for the beautiful summer weather after my two hour lunch break!

Today I have continued to work on formatting schedules and translating said schedules into English for the incoming international students for the two intensive courses that the International Office runs.

It’s so funny thinking back to even just a few months ago when new international ambassadors at Valpo’s International Office were coming to me with questions when now it is my turn to ask everyone around me how to do things. 

There was one time yesterday when there was no one in the office to help a student and  I had to interrupt someone in a meeting to help a student and his father with a key situation. The two were from Georgia, so they spoke English at least, but the procedure was something I had no idea about. 

Anyways, my morning and afternoon were filled with the intensive course schedules, amidst a few letters for international students looking to get semester bus tickets, while my lunch break had me giving some useful advice to the Valpo students! They were looking into going to Stuttgart this weekend and I made sure they knew about the Länder-Ticket; instead of paying 22€ per person for a round-trip ticket to Stuttgart, they’re now only paying about 7 € each to take as many trains as they need to (or can) from 9 a.m. – midnight.

I am going to start one of my newer duties tomorrow – I will be welcoming an international student to Reutlingen and giving them their key. My co-worker, Max, will be showing me the one dorm that I have not yet seen called the Aquarium.

While I wait for 4 p.m. to arrive, I sit here at my desk and write this blog. I am currently being harassed by a bee who stole his way into the office. It's been around for at least an hour and whenever it's near, I don't get any work done! I have a fear of being stung - it hasn't happened in a while and I hope to keep it that way.

I haven't heard such great reviews about The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones, but I still plan on attending not only the German version in Reutlingen, but also the English version in Stuttgart! Yes, I have to wait for both, unfortunately. :( Apparently movie releases are delayed in Germany! It will be about one week before the German version comes out on  my side of the globe. This Chroniken der Unterwelt trailer just gets me all excited for it!

I bought so many yummy veggies yesterday and I used many of them to adorn my burger for dinner this evening. It was delicious. :)

Tonight, the Valpo students asked if I wanted to grab a few drinks downtown. We should have a good time.

And yes, in case you were wondering, the loan situation is slowly being figured out. Hopefully be the end of September, all will be well.

Work, Dinner, and a Little After-Work Wine

Despite having gone to bed early last, I was still exhausted this morning! I managed to drag myself out of bed and shower, though, and I finished getting ready relatively quickly.

Work was much of the same. Despite hearing about how crazy this time of year is, I haven't been given much work. I did sit down with Karin yesterday and we decided which tours I would go on and days that I would come in early to help, but other than that, I found myself sitting around for long periods of time, not wanting to interrupt the meetings and/or work that was going on around me. Once I finally settle into the office more, I will not have to ask for work as much (hopefully!).

After work, I decided to finally get my passport pictures taken at the train station. The other days that I had meant to go downtown to do this were either rainy or I was exhausted. These passport pictures are necessary for my visa for the city of Reutlingen.

I made it to the train station and found myself in an embarrassing situation, indeed. I got into the photo booth to have my picture taken (for which I actually put on eyeliner...) and found that there was a language button. English is still preferable. I pressed the button and got my instructions in English, which, would normally be an okay thing. Unfortunately, there is only a small, half curtain that covered the entrance to the photo booth and the machine giving instructions was very loud - The machine may as well have been screaming to any nearby German native that I didn't speak German very well!

Despite that happening, I got my photos and went about my day. I stopped at the Geldautomat (ATM), as well as a bakery for a snack (Quark bällchen are pretty good!), and ended up at Müller for some laundry supplies. I also stopped at the Penny Markt on the way back to grab some veggies and other things to make some dinner for the next few nights. I did pretty well today, money-wise. I only ended up spending about 17€ on groceries!

Once I got back to my room, I had my door slightly cracked, as I was going to go start some dinner. Eric ended up knocking and we decided to eat dinner! I bought a zucchini to make some zucchini pizzas, but Eric recommended making zucchini pancakes instead. I was game! We ended up on the 6th floor to make some food and met some people on Eric's floor. They were really nice. I miss that aspect of studying in Reutlingen - I liked being able to meet people easily just by going to make a meal!

Our pancakes did not turn out very well, shape-wise. Taste-wise, they were great! Even thought i was basically just grated zucchini, it still tasted pretty good.

Eric and I decided to go grab some wine and meet up with the rest of the Reutlingen group in a dorm room. We wanted to see if the Edeka Getränkmarkt was open, but, alas, it was not. We were really worried that Penny was going to close before we got there, so we hurried over. It turned out that it did not close until 10 p.m., which is good news. We both grabbed some wine and went back to the Wurm Haus.

The group was playing Kings when we got back and we joined in. Once the game was finished (it was already half over by the time Eric and I had arrived), they wanted to grab some dinner. Campus Kebab was the dinner choice again, and we walked down the road. I was not hungry because with my bottle of wine, I got a delicious German pretzel! I was just along for the ride.

Now, here I am! Hanging out in my room and writing material for my blog :)

One more day of work, and then the weekend is here! Woohoo! Have a happy Thursday, everyone, and a happy Friday to follow.

Oh! P.S. There might be a breakthrough in the loan arena! Hopefully it is good news this time.