One Step Up

Hallo meine Lieben!

Monday:

Our first day of "actual" class. We got there at 8:40 and had to take a grammar test to determine if we were in the advanced or the regular class for our 4 week intensive course. I took the test and low and behold...I'm in the regular class haha! I'm actually kind of pleased with it because at least it will be semi-easy and I think it's going to be pretty helpful. I LOOOVE the teacher, Frau Hanne Heckmann. She reminds me a lot of Nanny (my gma) in a sense...very mothery and sweet and goes at a slow pace so that no one is left behind, which is really nice. Anyway so we took that test and then had to endure a TON of paperwork. We finally applied for our Residence Visas as well as Insurance stuff and other things...regardless it was a TON of papers we had to fill out all in German. Afterwards, Anna and I went to PennyMarkt to find cheap food for dinner that night because we had planned to make alfredo pasta with the Ringstrasse boys. As we were walking in we ran into Judith!! (One of Patrick's housemates who hung out with us Saturday night). She spoke German to both of us at a fairly normal rate and I understood 95% of what she was saying!! HUGE improvement!! We both have decided that we like Judith a LOT (and it's pronounced JUD-IT...interesting!) After that we ended up buying tons of pasta, big bottles of water (cuz u cant drink from the tap here), cream cheese and butter (for my bagels duh!) and juice for mixers (haha). It was a huge success! Then we got back to the Ringstrasse (home) and Pat came over to help me move my furniture around to how i wanted it set up. I plan to put pics up asap but that requires having time to take them and load them...so we'll see how soon they get up here. After that we hung with Pat for a while then he left and Peter & Dan came up and we decided to visit the Hof (Our grocery store...Handelshof) and find cheese since PennyMarkt didn't have any. We ended up making the BEST alfredo sauce EVER and had a TON of pasta which was fabulous! It was the first time I've used my kitchen and was kind of excited about it!! My suitemate, Theresa, finally was home while I was home and hung out with us for a few before going out...I really like her, she seems like a really sweet girl! (The other suitemates are slightly...bizarre...) Anyway, so we cooked until 10ish then Peter & I took Anna home so she wasn't by herself and when I got back here i passed out.. it was a very eventful day!

Tuesday(TODAY!):
We got to AJY at 8:20ish so I had tons of time to check facebook/email/studi and I had a message from KATRIN!!! It was SO good to hear from someone that I knew here that was anxious to see me. We're attempting to plan a trip to Frankfurt and then to BK/Neu Bamberg which is FANTASTIC!! Loni schnitzel here I come!!! So I was excited about that and then class started at 8:40 again. We had a really good class today. Altho a lot of it is HUGE review, as in things I did WAAAAY back in like German 2 with Frau Old (haha) its still nice to get this kind of review as opposed to not having it. Then at 10:15 class ended and we went on a tour of the Alt-stadt with Herr Dorr. It was interesting but I'm extremely "toured" out. I'd like to really get a chance to explore my town with my friends and then after living here hear all about why it's so famous. Ugh. That lasted until 12:30 and then me, jesse, anna and kayla went to find a Resturant that was cheap and ended up picking the same one that our ENTIRE class was already eating in! SO ironic haha! So we had Bratwurst & Pommes for 3.50e which is SO cheap here and then ended up parting ways. Anna and I went to visit Pat for a while to pick up his text book and then made our way to Woolworths to buy cheap school supplies and odds and ends. I finally have a clock in my room which should make life easier. Afterwards we came back to Ringstrasse to drop off my things, talk to my mommy and then made our way to Rohrbach 110 where Anna lives. Her rooms cute...its a lot like a typical dorm room except all the furniture is built into the walls which is weird. We also made an improvement! I got her to speak to a guy on her hall! So now at least she knows one person!! For dinner we met Jesse & Kayla at Raja's for some cheap Indian food! (YAY NAV haha!) I had Butter Chicken and Basmati Rice with a Samosa and Nan...SOOOO good and it was like 6.00 which isn't terrible! Plus, it was fun to kind of explore the other part of town that wasn't just Hauptstrasse. Afterwards, Jesse & Anna came back to my room and Peter came up and we all did our homework together which was cute...a lot like back at Elon except Peter was here and not Pat... :-\

Tomorrow we're going on another "tour" of a museum here in Heidelberg...god I am SO sick of it lol! But afterwards, Peter, Dan, Anna and I are cooking some type of chicken with buttered pasta...which should be good and then on Friday we're having a dance-party/going out clubbing night with Kayla and Jesse! So things are going really well here! It's surprising how quickly I adjusted/and how interesting it is I haven't had a "meltdown" yet. We looked through Elon pics today which made me kind of sad, and made me realize just how much I missed being at Elon, however as soon as we stepped out of my room it was a lot easier to simply enjoy this amazing city. I can't express just how much I love it here! Anna told me today that the past 3 days she's heard me laugh more than she's ever heard me laugh at Elon...which is very interesting. I think this was possibly one of the best decisions Ive ever made...thank god.

Anyway, I'm off to bed because I have class at 8:40 again but I love and miss you all so so much and keep me updated, PLEASE!! I need to know about your lives!!

xoxo,
Becca