8 march 2013 : First Friday

Aside from all of the stresses with Beauracracy, the day has gone pretty well. It was rumoured to have reached a temperature of 17 Celsius today! Which is around the low 60s in Fahrenheit.

(p.s. by "stresses" I mean that I returned to the Foreigner's office today to get my residency permit- after, mind you, having made a last minute wire transfer in fear that the 3 months of bank statements from my home bank wouldn't suffice in showing I have enough money to be here, based on how I heard other students saying they needed to prove they had the money in their German bank account- and I was told I have to come back AGAIN because I can only get my permit if I have an appointment!!!)

(standing on the main pedestrian street by some old classic building)

 Mid afternoon I had my Sprache Pruefung. (speaking/language test). It was the next step after the computerized proficiency test so that the instructor can figure out where exactly each of us are at. I heard that in the lower levels, they were given a real test in the sense that they were asked specific questions about grammer and such! But, being the lucky and diligent German student that I am :) , in the level that I am in, the test consisted of just having a conversation with the instructor, and her asking thought provoking questions.
Mine were actually hard to answer, and I felt dumb not being able to come up with anything.
She asked things like
* What characteristics do you think are important/ define a Hero?
    I started describing things that I think my parents are really good at, because as a kid I think the closest thing you see as a "hero" aside from Capitain Planet (which I mentioned and she laughed at) are parents. And then somehow I said something about Politiks. ...oops
* Do you think President Obama is doing a good think with the insurance policies/ do you think he could be viewed as a hero?
  In America I would've felt very uncomfortable talking about that in an oral exam! But it's Germany, so I explained that I like the idea of affordable heathcare very much, especially as a student and an unemployed person. And I think that the idea Obama has mentioned of raising the minimum wage can definitely make him a hero to those struggling families who are only making minimum wage, and that I agree with his policies.  (I hate talking politics to people in general, so I was glad to get off the topic).
 *This branched into me talking about how I was stressed out about going to the Foreigner's office and whatnot.

At the end of the 10 minutes (probably more like 15) she told me that I have a good vocabulary, but I need to work on my prepositions and adjective endings. Which of course I know I don't always use perfectly when talking, but know it well when writing. And thankfully she acknowledged that that is always the hardest part- taking it from paper and knowledge into correct speaking. (heck even in English I make a lot of mistakes! Hence I'm a Math major)         

[ that picture is of my E3,10 lunch. Fish, potato salad, a pretzel roll and a pear. From the mensa]

From there I walked around Boeblinger Strasse (the most fun German name to say. Matt: I hope you read that, because you would enjoy that name- it's with "ooumlaut" instead of oe), the street on which the Sprachekurs building is situated. It was actually really disappointing. There are a lot of cool buildings, but not much in the ways of cafés or little shops. There are a few bars, a bank, a post office, some shady looking Asian food restaurants, a Platos Closet type clothing store- which actually does look cool and seems to have some good stuff, and one little drink/grocery store about a block away. There is however a very beautiful church, and a sand court where people were playing bocce!

 

 

 

(apparently it's amusing to dress up this statue: Emily- make up a story for what the statue man is thinking/ give him a personality!)

From the Boeblingerstrasse, I took the bus to Schwabstrasse to get on the Sbahn to come back to Vaihingen campus. But at the Schwabstrasse stop, I noticed a little corner book store, that had a shelf of used books outside. Naturally I looked through them a little bit, and when I went inside, I found that they have new copies of the Hobbit! In German it's called: Der kleine Hobbit. I was very tempted to buy a copy (it cost Euro 8) but I already had planned to spend money going out tonight to  a welcoming party sponsored by our Welcome buddys associated thing. So maybe one of these days I'll go back. I was also hoping to find copies of the Lord of the Rings Books, but I didn't see any there.
 Instead, I went across the street to check out a little backery because I really wanted a coffee. However, they had donuts shaped like bunny rabbits, and I couldn't help myself. It was 2 for E 2,39! I've eaten one already, the other will be a yummy yummy cute cute Saturday breakfast. (p.s. watch the "fuzzy cute" video on youtube- it has the most adorable real baby bunnies in it)

So made it home before 5, and have been relaxing since.

("quarkteighase" = Quark (its like a yogurt/cheesecake thing) dough bunny)

 

As I mentioned briefly, there's a Welcoming Party tonight. It's at some fancy club in the Stadtmitte, and it's only E5 to get in for the international students tonight. Also typical Germany: we get a free shot if we arrive before midnight, and beer is only like E1. But don't you worry, all you parents and future parents(in laws), I have to meet Helly at the train station at 10am, so I can't stay out too late. Additionally I made a deal with my Australian friend (who is more of a motherly figure and early riser than me!) that we would only stay 2 hours- long enough to get a free drink, and dance if there is music. So I won't be coming home alone.

Alrighty well I'll sign off before this post gets too boring.
 Love, Val

p.s. I wish I could figure out how to turn the picture around. This is the bag for the bakery and it's an excellent example of non-proper german, or the common german which in this area is "schwaebische deutsch". I think this picture is something to effect of the horse saying "you're the first money that has let me back in here." and the money says "youre the first Horse allowed in the backing area." I'm farily certain there is some kind of pun I am missing. Like the word used for horse could really mean "moke" according to leo.de