First Full Week

First full week of being in Marburg is complete!

It went by very very very slowly. In a way, I hope it continues to do so. I find that the city is getting smaller and smaller, but there is still a lot that I have not seen. Classes are pretty fun. There are about 8 of us in the class now, and we've just been covering the basics. Our teacher doesn't seem to speak a lot of English seeing as how she has Google Translator on her laptop and it took Spencer and I forever to try and ask why Germans use sponges instead of erasers to erase words on the chalkboard. We never got an answer. Ah well, one of those mysteries that will perhaps manifest itself in the next year.

It takes going to Germany for me to realize how little German I know, and yet how much I DO know. I'm definitely missing a few key vocabulary words, but those are easily fixed. I can now moderately find my way around town. It's really nice being in Marburg where there are tens of thousands of international students. It's nice because the locals seem to be more patient with my German and they speak slowly enough. It gets frustrating because I can understand about 99.9% of what people are saying, but I am incapable of responding in the way that I would like. I'm sure that will come with time and work as well.

The weekend is definitely welcome. I am excited to sleep in and then be able to walk around the city without having anywhere to be. I'll probably grab my camera and get some shots of places I go a lot for reference (i.e. Mensa, Elizabethskircheschule, Rudolphsplatz). Right now I am at the Mensa so that I can use the internet.

Regarding the internet: Wi Fi does not exist at the Studentendorf. I have to have an Ethernet cable. Finally got a hold of an Internet Tutor, who registered the wrong IP address and then told me that my Ethernet cable is broken. I just bought another one and then hopefully I will have internet in my room. One big problem: only 15 gBytes a month. This means: Hardly any Skype. Facebook chat is a big stretch. This is why Germans are so goddamn smart. They don't spend hours in front of the computer socializing.

Tonight looks like a bunch of us are going out on the town. I'll update if anything worth writing about happens.

Tschuess from Marburg!