Take A Second, Take A Second To Make This Last

Wow, apparently I am the worst of all of my friends at updating regularly. But, to be fair, I take far more pictures than anyone (with the exception of The Little One of course). There is a link to my new flickr page on the right side of the screen. I load all of my pictures on there, so they aren’t really edited. Also, it’s impossible to do everything. You have to decide if it is more important to do your homework and study (supposedly this is expected when you study abroad???), do laundry, go grocery shopping (takes an hour +), fixing meals, cleaning so my new roommate doesn’t freak out, or update my blog. Sorry to say that smelling good and not starving to death takes precedence over updating… Haha. However, if you don’t have your fill of “what’s going on in Courtney’s life” you can always read the blogs of other people in Deutsch Kompakt. They do a very nice job. :)

Ages ago (a week… wait, that’s it??), Deutsch Kompakt took us to Blaubeuren for a week. We were provided with 3 fabulous meals a day and spoiled with having class in the same building that we lived in. In other words, you didn’t need to bundle up or leave really early for class! Also, there were TVs in all of the rooms! YES!!! While other people went out drinking, I would spend the evenings watching German television. I was really excited to find my favorite shows like Monk, House, and Private practice auf Deutsch! Even more exciting, I could actually follow what was going on! Success!
All in all, Blaubeuren was great, but it’s nice to be back in Tuebingen!

This week we had a couple days of regular class and exams; then we had a day long excursion to Ludwigsburg and Esslingen. The bus left at 8:30am and we didn’t get back until 10:30pm. The bus ride was nice. I wish all of my travel in Europe could be by tour busses. They are nice. Also, the tutors came around offering everyone drinks and Bretzeln (soft pretzels). It was a nice surprise. I find that Deutsch Kompakt does that fairly often. We get a LOT for money. I would say the course, although initially pretty expensive, is more than worth it. In fact, now I’m surprised that it didn’t cost a lot more!

We saw the Ludwigsburg Schloss, went on a tour of the Ludwigsburg Film Academy, and then went to Esslingen for the rest of the afternoon and had dinner with wine tasting. My favorite part of the day was definitely the castle tour. Basically, I love castles and it appears that I may have an obsession with chandeliers. Perhaps these obsessions arise from the child that is still in me? Playing princesses was pretty much a daily thing for my friends and me when we were kids. We had some good times, but nobody ever wanted to be the evil witch. I mean, there HAD to be an evil witch! All princesses that rode flying unicorns had an evil witch that lived nearby, right? lol.

Yesterday my class went to the computer lab to look up classes that we want to take this semester. The computers were amusing to some of us. They looked like they were computers from the 80s. Forgive me; I’m used to Mizzou’s state of the art technology in every building. So finding classes at a German university is no easy task. Most of the classes had no credits listed and no way to sign up for them. You just show up on the first day for most lectures. I have no idea if I’m planning to take enough courses this semester. MU says I need 30 ECTS credits… but what happens if I end up with only 28 or something? The classes I’m planning to take are as follows: Intensive Deutsch, 60 Jahre Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Junge Literatur (kiddy lit.), Middle English (the only English class I will be taking) and Aussprachetraning fur International Studierende (a class to help foreigners with German pronunciation).

Finally, after class, I met up with my tandem partner (conversation partner), Markus. Luckily, he recognized me from my Studi picture, because I didn’t recognize him. I think he may have had an older picture up and he was much taller than I had expected. (We’re talking somewhere over 6 feet tall). Markus requested to be my tandem partner because he wanted to improve/practice his English and help me with German. Well, his English is really good. No surprise there! After talking with him for an hour and a half or so, I only used one word that he didn’t know: obesity. Of course Germans wouldn’t need that word. lol. It was entertaining, and we plan to meet again next week. Hopefully I will be able to speak a little more German next time. My brain was kaputt yesterday!