Progress

Yesterday (Sunday, 4th) was our first day without having to do anything. It was so nice not having to be in a hurry or waiting around for something/someone. First order of business was to sleep in. Emily and I met up around 13.00 to walk to town. Here is the main thing: nothing is open in Marburg on a Sunday. The only things that were open were a few bars and restaurants, and I really had no problem with that because I only really wanted to just sit and people watch. I did, however, get a little disappointed to find a couple of my newly found favorite bars to be closed. Bad form.
Majority of the day was spent on the Internet trying to figure out how to activate my prepaid cell phone. This is probably the worst process ever. There is no translation for all of the text, it’s all in German and I had no idea what was going on. I know basic account information, but this was going waaay too in depth. It’s a goddamn prepaid phone, you guys. Seriously. So I think I did everything correctly, now I’m just waiting for my phone to activate (which they said could take 24 hours and right now I’m at about 14/24 hours).

After this, Emily and I walked around Universitaet Strasse and found somewhere to go for lunch. Now, Emily and I both were talking to each other about how neither of us have been able to eat an entire meal in Germany yet. Reasons unknown, but we figured it was just nerves. Where we went had the first full meal either of us has eaten so far (and I think you may know where this is going): Doener.
The Doener’s we had were excellent, a little too much cabbage on it though. Other than that, it was absolutely fantastic. There is another burger/doener place called “Mr. King” so tempted to go there just because of the name. I’m doing much better at finding my way around to certain places. It will come with time, I’m sure. It almost seems funny that we could not find our way to the Bahnhof and had to ask those Brazilians. Even though it’s about a day or so later, I know how to find it. Especially after last night’s ventures.

When you want to go to Oberstadt there are two ways in which you can get there: walk up a bunch of hills, or walk for a while and then take a really crowded elevator. Honestly with the amount of walking we’ve been doing, we have been willing to just smoosh ourselves into the elevator with the other Germans and Tourists. What is entertaining about this elevator is how AWKWARD it is. Here you are touching belly button to belly button with the person across from you. You both know that you don’t speak each other’s language very well so you just sit there in silence touching bellybuttons. THEN… there is this voice that comes on the speakers when you reach the top that says, “Oberstadt” in this really high/ stereotypical German voice. It makes us laugh every time. I’ll try to get it on video at some point so that you’ll see what I mean.

On the topic of beer:

On the night of the 3rd a bunch of us (IUSP kids) drank and hung out in Katerina’s dorm balcony. It’s a very pretty location that looks over the city of Marburg (castle and all). By midnight we were all a bit bored and walked to town, beers in hand. Went to a great bar, hung out some more, met a nice girl named Lisa (Lee-zuh), and then went to a 24 hour restaurant where we discussed entropy. Oooof course.

A note on nature: The owls here are absolutely insane. I’m convinced. They sound like wookies and owls who had children that like to dive bomb each other. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen these owls dive bomb each other out of trees. It is funny yet sad, but a little terrifying because the noise they make is so crazy.
The most common bird in Marburg is the Crow. Which makes me really happy considering that Crows are my 2nd favorite kind of bird. They are EVERYWHERE. Pigeon population is minimal (strangely shocking for Europe). One of the guides told me that they have wild hedgehogs and my friend saw one. I NEED ONE RIGHT NOW.

Anyway, not much more to report. Going to sleep for a little bit more because it is 6.45 am and I have to meet a couple people to go down to language classes around 8.00.

Farewell from Marburg!