Ice-skating is the same everywhere: a mix of 80s, top 40, and Black-Eyed Peas songs, and a sturdy barrier to hang on to.

Though jumping into a pile of leaves sounds
much more fun than falling down on ice!

Of course, I've only been ice-skating in two places ever, so I can't really say that it's the same everywhere. But I'm going to anyway. As I was sitting down during one of the many breaks yesterday, I started thinking to myself about why I didn't want to go back out onto the ice. I decided that there were two reasons; I didn't want to hurt myself, and I didn't want to look like an idiot. Really, considering the pain I'm in today, I think the former reason is quite valid.

The latter reason, however, is something that I struggle with every day that I'm in Germany (well, and indeed every day I'm not, but foreign language beats all). I don't want to look like an idiot, but every time I open my mouth and speak (German), I'm afraid that I do. Obviously I'm an exchange student and not a native speaker, so no one expects me to be any good (and are in fact quite taken aback when I do speak and am actually not awful), but I still expect it of myself. I'm afraid to take the metaphorical step out onto the ice of the German language and try it out. The bonus of this metaphor is, of course, that if I do fall over, at least it won't hurt the next day.

 Today was a lovely 18 degrees and sunny when I left the house - perfect for taking some Autumn photos! I caught the bus a couple of stops to print some things, then walked for a few more stops until a bus came. I took that bus a few more stops, then got off, and put my (painty) coat in to be dry cleaned (only €10.50! (~$14)). My plan was to walk to the English department to hand in this week's translation, but I spent perhaps too long taking photos from the bridge, and ran out of time, so decided to just walk the long way around to Max-Weber-Haus where I had my German lesson. It was beautiful and sunny when I went in... and the moon was up when I came out an hour and a half later. BOO to end of daylight savings!

Tequila, a shopping trolley, and ice-skating

Thursday: End of week 3! Met up with Laurence and we had Japanese at MoschMosch, then went to the Brass Monkey and did the pub quiz with some other people.

Friday: I went to Mannheim with a group of Americans/ Canadians/ Irish...ans (what on earth is the collective noun?!). We were going to go to the Mannheim Oktoberfest, but it was a massive fail because they were only just setting up (the one tent) when we got there about 2pm. So, we decided to go shopping. It was a lovely day - I had to carry my coat for most of the day because it was so warm! Nice to actually walk around Mannheim a bit more, too.

Fail tent

Saturday: did my grocery shopping (including the purchase of 100 tea lights so that every night can be candle night!). That night was the Siedlungsfest. Siedlung translates as: settlement, colony, estate, village, habitation, housing scheme, housing estate (or in this case, large block of student accommodation), and a Fest is a party. There is a Siedlungsfest every semester; I went last semester after seeing the Wise Guys in concert, but it wasn't that amazing. Still fun, but we didn't stay for very long.

We did succeed in stealing some hats... ;)

Last night, however, I had a lot of fun. It was meant to start at 7pm, and Odett (housemate) and her friend Angela were going to go about 8:30 or 9 (and I was going with them). However, by 8:30 there wasn't even music going. Around 8:45 we started to hear some music, and so left here just after 9. We got there, and there were so few other people there, it was super awkward. The band was doing soundcheck (and they weren't amazing), so we talked to some people that we knew - the guy at the tequila stand does uni with Odett and Angela, and Alex (from whom we get internet) was helping man the bar. His housemate Fabian was also there (and his brother was on exchange in Adelaide for a year?! OH ADELAIDE. Even in Germany I cannot escape you). 

The empties at the tequila stand when we left

I suggested we go and drink the liqueur that Chrissi gave me for my birthday, but as we had no shot glasses at home we just took the bottle with us and got shot glasses from the tequila stand (we bribed them with peach liqueur which was, by the way, delicious). After we finished the bottle things were a lot more fun. We also had some tequila, and 'Bowle' (kind of like Gluehwein, but less delicious and with fruit floating at the top), and a 'Zombie' which had about 2498 types of alcohol but still just tasted like juice... delicious! We made several friends, one of whom we dubbed Hans-Peter after he wouldn't tell us his name (he later told me it is Sebastian, but Hans-Peter stuck), and we continually tried to steal his hat. Poor guy. Another friend we made I have no idea of his name, but he wanted to 'Prost!' (cheers) with us, and I didn't have a drink, so he gave me his beer to prost with and I had some and it was Becksish. At one point, we were all dancing, and Angela said "Einkaufswagen!" (shopping trolley)... AND THEN PROCEEDED to do the shopping trolley "dance" move!! I LOST IT, I couldn't stop laughing. I love discovering things like that that are just international. Anyway, it was a fun night. We came home about 2am I think, but I could hear the music so loudly through my window that I didn't sleep for a little while.

The walk to the ice arena was full of pretty scenery

Sunday (today), I woke up feeling not amazing, but surprisingly not tooooo bad. The extra hour (because daylight savings finished :( ) probably helped. At 1, I left the house to go and meet some girls from my Hauskreis to go Eislaufen or Schlittschuhfahren (ice-skating). We took the tram to a neighbouring town, Eppelheim, met a fourth girl there (whom I hadn't met before but whose sister was on exchange in Adelaide last semester - WHAT IS THIS?!), and we were all like, oh I don't remember the last time I went ice-skating! ...I won though, given the last time I remember was in 2004. It was like the Ice Arena, but unlike Mt Thebarton, there was no small beginner's rink, just one GIANT one. So that was fairly scary. Clodia and I made good friends with the barrier while Angela and Steffi skated like pros. We all joined hands after a while to try to get me and Clodia off the wall, but then I fell down and it CANED. So I had a bit of a Pause (break), then went back to it. After a while I fell over again so had another break. The others eventually came and had Pauses with me, then we all went back on the ice. Steffi and I went around the rink twice holding hands, and after that I thought I'd tempted fate enough so went and sat down again. This was, of course, incredibly painful, but it was better than falling down for a third time, I thought.

Randoms in a giant chain on the ice

After ice-skating, Steffi drove us (I love driving with Germans, it's just such a novelty!) to Jana's where we had hot chocolate and chilled in her room before going to church together (through the slowest traffic lights EVER!). The sermon went for about a year, and I was super tired, so I just didn't listen at all (it was a guest-sermoner), then afterwards Lisa, who is in my translation class, came up to us for a chat. I asked if she'd done the translation for this week and she said yes, and it was way harder than the last ones. I haven't done it yet, and it's due tomorrow, so I am going to stop blogging and do some work. DO NOT WANT. But I must.

UM WHAT?

There are less than 100 days until the end of semester, which means that it'll probably be just over 100 until I go back to Australia. That is not enough time.

The Doctor, doctor, fun.

Perhaps one of the reasons I've grown so fond of Doctor Who so quickly is because the title sequence is so reminiscent of Stargate SG-1's wormholes. Oh, how many nights were spent watching episode after episode of Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, and Sam going through space to fight aliens/ save Earth. Wow, when I say it like that, no wonder I like Doctor Who so much. But there was one point in my youth, I would say it was the summer between year 10 and year 11... in fact it would definitely have had to have been then - anyway, Joel burnt me a whole lot of episodes onto dvds (oh the days before external hard drives were commonplace!) and I would stay up til all hours of the morning watching the four of them battle the Goa'uld/ Jack's sarcasm. Once I'm done with DW (hey! DW! ... never calling it that again) I shall watch more SG-1, as I acquired it from Simon when he was here, and haven't really watched any since that time and a small pocket in 2009 when I watched some crap new season. Haha, Wikipedia says "the series was a ratings success for Showtime and the Sci Fi Channel, and was particularly popular in Europe and Australia". Heck ja it was.

My third phone was a 3315 (after this (which was Dad's then Mum's, but you could change the colour of the front panel! I made mine yellow. And this (also previously belonged to both parents (not that I'm complaining - at least I had a mobile!))), and as everyone who had one (so... everyone) knows, you could compose your own ringtone on it. I made the Stargate theme (with some help from a friend, who I think almost had it). And that stayed my ringtone for YEARS until I got a new phone (first year). Oh, how I miss old Nokias that could take a beating and still function completely! (Read: throwing phone off a three-storey building, along concrete, down stairs onto tiles... some accidents, some trying to break it... ;)

Ramble ramble ramble

Ridiculous things I've seen or heard in the last few days.

1. I just said (out loud, to myself), "I hate sentences!", as I am trying to write ten example sentences for verbs with prepositions. It's not difficult to formulate the sentences, I just don't have any ideas for them. Frustrating.

2. Last week sometime I saw some Asians taking photos of the brass monkey (the actual monkey, not the pub) with their iPads. I get that they're meant to be portable, but isn't a camera more portable than an iPad? There were at least two of them doing it as well, it wasn't just one man. They were possibly even related. It just looked really stupid.

One of the photos my clothes were ruined for.
Didn't even come out as I'd hoped, but a nice photo all the same.

3. Getting paint all over myself. I stopped to take photos of the hills/ castle on my way to class this afternoon, not noticing the signs that said that the fence was freshly painted. I ended up with some on the bottom of my backpack which I didn't notice. Because I then swung my backpack up, it got all over my coat, and skirt, and stockings. I've managed to mostly get it out of my skirt, and will try to take my coat to the dry cleaner's tomorrow.

4. Getting attached to fictional characters and being upset when they die/ regenerate. I watched the last episode with David Tennant as the Doctor last night, and had tears running down my face. I mean, it was all very emotional. It was also 4am. But when I finally went to bed, I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd read a bit... nearly up to the part where Fred dies. WHY, fictional characters, WHY?!

5. The Hausmeister (in charge of the accommodation here, also the broken washing machines) requiring us to submit a piece of paper that pretty much says we're still students. Surely this being student accommodation, they should have access to some sort of records? It's not like the piece of paper would be hard to fake.

6. The washing machine situation. It's unfortunately back to normal, where one must wait for at least 30 minutes to get a machine.

7. Uni accommodation. Had to put up with builders all last semester/ all summer installing internet cabling. No internet coming through cables. No word on when it's going to happen.

8. No cheap flights to London for the last weekend of November! The cheapest is with Ryanair for over 100 euro! Of course, that's actually still quite cheap, but once you've experienced the SUPER cheap, going to regularly cheap just hurts a bit.

9. Thinking that 14 degrees is a nice day. What has happened to me?! Mind you, it was sunny and really quite warm. Lovely!

When the highs are higher and the lows lower

The view from my window on a sunny autumn day.

Being an exchange student is hard. Don't get me wrong, I've had some awesome experiences so far this year. But I've also had some rubbish ones. Being so far from friends and family and all that is familiar and safe means that emotional states that are usually extreme are here EXTREME. Super happy, or super sad. I've also experienced a quietly satisfied, and putter along most of the time at a indifferent kind of happy.

Trafalgar Square

Excited to have wristbands!
Fountain in the background.

Laura has just started uploading photos from our big UK trip of August, starting, of course, with London. There was a photo of our beloved fountain next to/ on which we sat, slept, stood, and kneeled for about 24 hours while waiting for the Harry Potter premiere. Such fond memories. So much rain. It's just going to be interesting, any time I go back to London and see it, I'm going to remember that. And sure, that happens with any place you see a lot, or at which something significant happens... but I guess this is different because it's not something I see every day.

Cannstatter Volksfest

Now that I've caught up on the trips to Munich, I thought I'd write about Stuttgart's answer to Oktoberfest: the Cannstatter Volksfest.

On one of the last nice (20 degrees+) days of the year, Ze (an internet friend who was visiting me) and I took a train to Stuttgart. There we met up with Rosie (a girl from Perth who returned there after doing the six-week language course with me in Stuttgart and is now back for her year abroad) and her friends, and went to the Wasen (the Schwäbisch answer to the Wiesn).

I again had the overall feeling of the Royal Adelaide Show, just with more beer and roasted almonds (mmm, gebrannte Mandeln). Overall, it was fairly similar to Oktoberfest, just smaller and with more Germans than tourists. Also the glasses looked way cooler and weren't as expensive. It all led to dancing on tables, singing Sweet Caroline and Das geht ab, and shouting PROST!. That first night was a lot of fun. Then we went to Tübingen and stayed at Rosie's to have a tour of the town the next day.

Our Wednesday group. Note pretty glasses!

One of the excursions with the Stuttgart course was to Tübingen, but we went at night (for some stupid reason), and also it was winter, so seeing it at the end of summer in the day time was just lovely. There were lots of flowers out and it was really pretty.

Unfortunately, that Thursday was the day that the bad weather started. Just as we were finishing our (pizza) lunch (eaten on the wall with our legs dangling over the river), it started to rain. Home I went (Ze flew back to London), and woke on Friday to really quite a cold day (by the standards of the weather we'd been having).

Rosie and me enjoying delicious
(cheap) beverages on the Wed.

But, back on a train I hopped and went back to Stuttgart to meet up with Rosie & co. for another day of drinking shenanigans. We found her friends at a table in quite a large hall, which was reserved from 5pm, so we still had about an hour. Some German guys came and sat next to us after a while and we talked to them a bit, they were kind of strange ("no we can't eat chips, our bodies are all that we've got, we've got to take care of them!" ... yet they were drinking beer?), though the one sitting next to me thought I was actually German, so YAY for that. Though they were also excited to find out that Rosie and I are Australian.

Crowd dancing on benches :)

Once it got to about 5, we left in search of a table somewhere else, and I ran into a few friends from Heidelberg! They'd been there since quite early in the morning so much emotional hugging was had. We parted ways and continued our search. It was really unsuccessful, being a Friday night, so we went back to the Heidelberg group who had a table outside, but it was just cold and miserable, so eventually just decided to give up. I caught the train back with Tanya, Laurence, and Neil.

The next day, Rosie came to visit and we made Käsespätzle.

Thursday (as in, two days ago), I had my second Translation class. I think it's my favourite class (at this point). It's really quite challenging, especially as I'm the only native English-speaker and I don't speak British English, nor do I speak fluent German, so a lot of words have to be explained to me, but it's still really good. Also, I don't have to buy the textbook because it's about differentiating English words that are similar.

I wanted to go with some of the English to a film in Mannheim that night, but was unfortunately let out of class a few minutes late so couldn't make the bus, plus it was raining and I'd forgotten my umbrella, so just decided to give up and go home. It was an Erasmus-party that night, so after pre-drinks where I met a bunch of Americans and Canadians at an Irish girl's WG, we went to Ziegler's and partied on down.

The music wasn't as awful and stuck-in-the-80s as most of Germany seems to be - I think they played songs that were released if not this year, then definitely last year! Very exciting times. Also they played D.A.N.C.E. which was played a LOT during our nights out (...at Shotz...) in 2007 when I still required loads of alcohol to have the desire to dance... oh how times have changed. Anyway, it was fun, split a taxi (finally have met people who live out here!) about 2am, then stayed up on fb chat with Mum for a little while.

Taken from the bus window on Thursday evening.
Apparently when it rains, everyone decides to drive, which caused a massive traffic jam on Brückenstraße!

Waking up on Friday morning was painful - not because I was hungover, just because I hadn't had enough sleep. I had to get up to work on a group assignment for German, though it turned out to be pretty easy. One of the people didn't turn up so after 15 minutes of sitting on a freezing metal bench (it was 4 degrees out), Emily (NZ) and I decided to just go to the Mensa and do the assignment while eating some delicious food. We basically had to get into groups and 'research' a German newspaper - target audience, difficulty of language, that sort of thing - but luckily Emily already reads Die Zeit, so pretty much knew all of the answers. Easy!

I then went to Kaufland to do some grocery shopping (I'd been putting it off for a while, really). Last night I made minestrone soup and also a chocolate self-saucing pudding, both of which were delicious (surprising, given my lack of cooking skill and need to substitute German ingredients for Australian ingredients, where the recipe comes from (and yes, it does make a difference. Brown sugar. Just sayin'.)) and both of which I will be eating for a while! Clearly the best thing about cooking for one - a recipe serves four, or lasts me a week! :)

Haha, I just went onto YouTube, and one of the pre-roll ads was for.. I'm not even sure what. But the amount of English in it actually me think it was an English ad for a second. Then it got to the second thing and I realised that it was just another case of English being everywhere. (Make-up basics, tolle looks, tipps & tricks.)

Now to return to my translation or to Doctor Who... decisions, decisions...

Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany, because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights. Sorry about that.

Yeah, you know what? After enduring this for the last 10 months, it's really not ok. I love you a lot, but get your act together, Germany.

Oktoberfest mk II

Crowds. So so so many people.

For weeks I've been saying that I'll write about my journey returning to Oktoberfest, and I started writing it just now, but I'm really just not feeling it.

The basic story, however, is this:

I left my house at about 07:13 on the 1st of October. We arrived to Oktoberfest after 15:00, though I'm not exactly sure when. There were delays (so many people wanting to go), and we missed a connection in Ulm (due to the delays).

Once we finally got to Oktoberfest, it was so different from my previous experience. For one thing, it was really quite warm, and for another, the crowds were so huge that sometimes you could barely move. Not the most fun after being on public transport for 8 hours already that day.

Eventually we got into a tent, and the Kellnerin (waitress) told us that we had to order food with our beer, so we all ordered very typical German meals (I had potato salad, which as Mum will tell you with delight is called Kartoffelsalat). We eventually started talking to the people at the tables neighbouring ours, which turned out to be two tables of people in the U.S. Army (there are a lot of army bases in Germany. And I mean a lot).

After a few beers (well, I'd only had one litre at that point, but one guy I think got through three in that time..!) someone tried to order another one, but the Kellnerin said we had to finish and get out. Not really sure why, though I suspect it had to do with certain people on the table's rowdy behaviour... in any case, Laurence, who had previously hopped over to the neighbouring table with the less obnoxious Americans (much less shouting) told me to come over as well, so climb over I did. We spent a while talking to those three, eventually left, went on a ride, had some Bratwurst (yes, even me, it was so delicious last time that I wanted MOAR), found some others, lost some others, I lost everyone, went to the station, and thankfully met up at the appointed time and place with Laurence and Chris. I was so relieved.

So at sometime past 23:00 we boarded the first of the three trains that would take us back to our pretty little town. I think it took two hours, though I unfortunately couldn't sleep on that train.

How to pass time with a friend on a train: listen to the same
song at the same time with one language in each ear.

We arrived at Ulm.

And so began our three-hour wait.

Yes, we had to wait for three hours.

So, we decided to go and see a bit of Ulm. We didn't really know anything about the town, just that there was a big church somewhere. Which we found. Then we found a couple of fountains. And then two of those things that are in playgrounds that you sit on and they have springs underneath them and you rock back and forth on them. Sometimes they're shaped like animals. I hope you know what I'm talking about, because we spent a good while rocking on those in the company of the penguins.

Laurence and Chris conquering the poor penguin.

We headed back to the station after a while, got drinks at Burger King, and finally boarded the second train to Stuttgart at 04:something.

At this point, we didn't have a ticket, so we used the old 'pretend to be asleep' trick, and it worked. I also actually fell asleep.

After about a half hour change at Stuttgart (so speedy!) we finally got onto the last of our trains for the day, and after putting Neil's coat (which Chris had been carrying all day) over my knees, I promptly fell back asleep.

Why is the penguin crying blood..?

It was really strange to go to sleep when it was completely dark out, and to wake up to the sun. I realise that that's what we do every day, but because I was seeing it out of a train window, and perhaps because we'd been up all night as well, it just felt different and stranger.

Finally, at 07:46, we arrived at the train station, only to find that the bus had gone just recently, and there was 16 minutes until the next one. So, we decided to walk. I kept checking the bus timetables, and kept going further and further, just one more bus stop, until it got to the point that I would be catching the bus two stops... one stop... and then I climbed over the bushes next to my building just as the bus was rounding the corner to my stop. Ridiculous public transport fail.

But finally, I was home. I collapsed into bed to snatch a few hours' sleep before Steph came to visit.

The thing is though, as much of an ordeal as it was (and it was!), the travel time just adds to the tale. At the time it was awful, and I just wanted it to be over, it definitely was part of the adventure, which would not have been the same otherwise. I already look back on it semi-fondly (though still have no intention of repeating that in the near future), and when retelling the story it has just become an amusing part of it.

And that's the funny thing about experiences like that. They just become a part of the telling.

I kind of feel like playing the piano.

Unfortunately, there is no piano conveniently located within my house, so I will have to wait until February to do that.

Today was the first day of my German course. Yes, my other classes are in German (well, Translation is taught in English, but definitely requires a good knowledge of German), but this course will be like a normal German class at an Australian university - with grammar, and listening comprehension, and oral  presentations, and all those fun things that we really all hate, but put up with because we all want to improve our German. (We all in this case may only refer to me, but I somehow doubt that.)

The leaves on the trees are slowly turning brown, and the
weather getting rapidly colder. Today a top of 9 was forecast!

Anyway, so last Wednesday was the placement test, and I wrote that I thought it was easy. Apparently I didn't do too well in it, though, because I ended up in Mittelstufe 2 (B2) - which is a level below where I was in March. Outraged, I sat went to the class anyway, and met a girl who was here last semester! I'd seen her around a bit and thought she was here last semester, but had never really had an opportunity to talk to her.

The class eventually started, and we had to say our names and something that we like to do. And yeah, sure, this was the first lesson... but the mistakes that were being made were pretty elementary. We got to me, though, and the teacher couldn't find me on the list, so I pointed out my name... but turns out that was on the evening list, rather than the afternoon list. I was told to go downstairs and get it sorted out. So, incredibly annoyed at our incompetent exchange co-ordinator at this point, I went and stood in the line. It took half an hour to get to the front, but eventually I did, and explained (in German) that I had asked to be put in the afternoon class but was on the list for the evening class, and also that I was in the Oberstufe (C1) in March, and maybe my German has got worse. The two people were lovely and very helpful, and they asked if I wanted to be in the afternoon or evening class, and said that by the sounds of it my German is fine, and so put me up to C1.

So hooray for that debacle being sorted out!

What do the Queen, Stephen Fry, and Alan Davies have in common?

They're all in Australia right now.

I was just reading an article on AdelaideNow about the royal visit. This, apparently, was deemed newsworthy:

Many of the ladies, including Mrs Abbott, were wearing hats and the children waved Australian flags as the aircraft taxied down the runway toward the ceremonial welcome area.

Many of the ladies were wearing hats? Gosh, I'm glad that that was reported.

Wish I could go to QI live in Australia, I think it'd be awesome, especially if the panellists are Australians :D let's hope there's some sort of torrent of it or something...

Some crazy ridiculous facts about Facebook...

Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004

I've just finished watching Season 2 (of the new series) of Doctor Who. I can't believe I didn't get into it earlier, it is right up my alley. I think I knew that, but never did watch it, except for the occasional episode. But really, what kind of a stupid timeslot is 6:30 on a Saturday evening?! I may have cried in the last episode. In my defence, it's 2am and I didn't sleep much last night. But really, I don't really care; you can all know that I cried, it was sad and I do not want Catherine Tate to be the new girl, I am indeed bovvered.

Tonight we were meant to have a WG meeting, but when I went into the kitchen this morning there was a note from the newest housemate saying that she's gone to Berlin until Friday. So the three of us had a meeting anyway; we made a cleaning roster, and a shopping list, and we gave the kitchen a MASSIVE clean (because it wasn't our mess, and it was too big a job for one person). We haven't vacuumed or mopped yet - our vacuum is pretty rubbish (and for some reason we don't seem to have a broom...), and we couldn't be bothered going upstairs to ask if we could borrow the guys' vacuum. We made more traps for the fruit flies, so hopefully soon we'll be able to cook in the kitchen without fear of the flies getting in everything. (Seriously, though. My dinner was a roll with cheese, Vanessa ordered a pizza, and Odett ate extra before she came home so she wouldn't have to cook.)

You know you're lazy when...

You're talking to two of your three housemates on Facebook chat, and you know they're talking to each other too.

Mind you, at the moment it's kind of a necessity (that we talk, not necessarily over Facebook, but one of them didn't even know if I was at home or not and therefore had to ask), because we have been INVADED by fruit flies. Seriously, there are SO MANY. They're here (not to point fingers or anything, but I'm going to) because the newest member of our WG left a cake out for about two weeks. She often leaves food out. She cooks a lot and that's fine, but it is not fine that she leaves it in the saucepan on the stove for days and days. Anyway, I should not complain. Thankfully from this, we're going to actually have a WG meeting tomorrow to discuss a cleaning plan because it has been absolutely ridiculous since the last housemate left (haha, I really wanted to say that she was evicted from the house, but couldn't quite bring myself to stoop so low as to reference that stupid show), because none of us really care that much. Or perhaps it's just that we're all really lazy.

An English class and a(nother) Waschsalon disaster

So, here I am at the end of my first week of second semester. Sure, it's only Thursday night, but as any Arts/ Erasmus/ exchange student, I have Fridays off.

Yesterday I had Textverstehen und Textproduktion (text comprehension and production) and it looks like it could go either way and be super interesting or really boring. It reminded me a little of a linguistics class, in that we were analysing texts (but not in an English-y way). It was a bit of a boring lesson, though, as it was just an introduction and we didn't really do anything, so we got an early half an hour which worked out well for me, as I had to get back to where I live to take a placement test.

The test itself (I don't actually think I was meant to do it as I was in level C1 in the March course, but just wrote that I'd forgotten what level I was, and took the test anyway) was a lot easier than the test that we had to do in March. I'm not just saying that because my German is better (which it is), it really was a LOT easier. The results (or at least which class we're in) are posted next Wednesday at 10am, so I'll have to swing by and look where I've been put before I go to my other class next week.

Today I had Advanced translation into English, which was actually a lot of fun. I am the only native English speaker in the class, and the tutor reminds me of my Grandad (because he's old and English). He also makes fun of Australian English, just for the lulz. (Well, I'm sure it's probably because he thinks it's inferior, but we'll go with for the lulz.) Today we worked in pairs trying to find a translation for a whole lot of words which were basically untranslatable, and the poor girl I was paired with basically had to explain them all to me, because of course as there's no equivalent in English, I didn't know most of them. She was a little incredulous that there was no English word for a couple of them, like Geisterfahrer (someone who drives on the wrong side of the road), and insisted that there must be a word for it, because what do they say on the traffic reports if there's no word for it?! I think that I will learn a lot of German, and about Germans/y as well. So that is just super.

When I left the class ("this is the only time we'll finish early!"), it was 17:45, and the sun was shining its weak Autumn rays down on the lovely cobblestone streets, and I realised that I really do love Heidelberg.

I took this from the Philosophenweg when Steph came to visit Heidelberg a couple of weeks ago.

 I arrived home to my housemate telling me that a package had arrived for me (I'd been expecting it, it was from Mum with a couple of jumpers, my retainer, and a kilo of brown sugar), so it was nice to get that. I thought it was about time to do a load of washing, so gathered ALL the things, as well as the tea towels from the kitchen (which have been knocking around for at least a month, I think. Kinda gross.) and went down to the Waschsalon (laundry room). I'm sure that I've blogged about my laundry room experiences before, but in case I haven't, they range in being wonderful (eg there being a machine free, it's also the first time we really spoke to Grant), to being awful (eg having to wait an hour, or the machine stopping, or the fact that there are 10 machines, half of which are broken, that have to service all the students living out here) - as you can see, they are mainly not positive. The last few times that I've been have been good, there's always been a machine free, but that's just because everyone was gone for the summer, and there was no one out here.

BUT anyway, there were a couple of people in there as I walked past, and so I thought I might have to wait for a machine, but to my surprise and JOY, there were loads of machines free! As I had two towels and a set of bed linen, as well as my Dirndl and a whole lot of clothes, I decided I might as well use two machines. So I put all my washing in, paid up, left, then came back an hour later.

The load that had all my clothes in it was finished, but it appeared that the machine that had my linen and towels in it had just stopped halfway through the cycle. This has happened once before (machine #2) but I was using machine #9 which has always been kind to us (my favourites are 10 and 11). So I took the things out (I had to manually open the door, using the little latch thing down the bottom of the machine), and they were dripping (literally). I tried to wring them out a bit over the sink in there, but it was quite difficult, given how big they are. So I brought them back here, with the intention of washing them out in the shower or something. That didn't work out so well, so now they're drying so that I can put them back in my dirty clothes basket and wash them again. YAY.

It's lucky that I'd had such a good day up to that point, else I would be a lot less happy than I am now. As much as I said I love Heidelberg (and I do!), I cannot WAIT to get back to a proper washing machine that doesn't cost €1.70 to do half a load and then stop.

An advertisement that came up on the STA Travel.de website when I was searching for a flight home.

I need to remember this in terms of speaking German.

Gemeinsam essen

Today was the first day of the Winter semester, which is bizarre, considering that everyone at home has just had the mid-semester break and now has three weeks of lectures until Summer holidays (well, exams, then Summer).

I only had one class today - Wortschatz B. It wasn't hugely interesting; we compared two dictionary entries about the word Wort (word) - what information was included in each entry. Let's hope that it gets more interesting as the semester goes on.

After class, Jamie (the only other Australian I've met so far this semester!), Sara (American), and I went to Penny Markt to get some bread and cheese, then went back to Jamie's and ate a delicious lunch. Mmmm, cheese. The others had class at 2:15, so we parted ways, and I went and paid €12 for a pair of trackies from C&A. Soooo comfy :D Vanessa cooked dinner for us all tonight, and it was delicious! Eating with other people is always so much nicer than eating alone :)

I don't have any classes tomorrow, just a Skype date with John (hopefully, though it hasn't actually been organised yet), and Hauskreis tomorrow night (and yes, the Thema-crisis has mostly been averted!). I also need to do some washing, I think. Not because I need to, actually, but because I have Tuesdays off, so I might as well make it my washing day, and I have bed linen as I had two visitors last week (oooooh, FRIEND!)

This is what I was doing a year ago.
ROFL-ing at a 90s-themed party, dressed as Misty.
The costume was much better before it got too cold to be wearing shorts and a singlet while going for a drunk walk/ having fun with hard rubbish... lying on mattresses... racing on office chairs... discussing "unimportant" things in German so the others wouldn't know what was going on... ah good times.

We're getting closer to updates about Oktoberfest/ Canstatter Wasenfest. Promise.

Semester starts tomorrow.

So, just went on AdelaideNow which I do sometimes to keep up with the Adelaide news (ha, ha, ha), and three of the main stories on the page were: Paul McCartney's third marriage; the end of the nuclear family; and that Mike Rann supports gay marriage. Do you suppose old Mr Murdoch is trying to tell us something about what he thinks of gay marriage?

Semester starts tomorrow. I'm taking four classes: Wortschatz B (vocabulary), Textverstehen und textproduktion (text comprehension and production), Deutschkurs (German ;), and advanced translation into English. I've only got Wortschatz tomorrow as the Deutschkurs doesn't start until next week (except for the placement test on Wednesday). Crazy to think that the summer holidays are over though. Also crazy to think that I'm pretty sure it's the end of the mid-semester break for Adelaide students now... and then they'll be almost done for the semester, and enjoying their summer. Ah I'm going to be jealous, I can tell.

Anyway, I should have gone to bed hours ago but instead watched the first season of The Inbetweeners which was quite good. Very awkward at times, but still good. Also my third housemate got home so the three of us who were here last semester all sat around drinking tea, trying to work out Vanessa's timetable, and chatting about cats giving birth. As you do.

I've used a hairdryer more in the last week than I probably have in the last two years.

(I've used it twice, though I suspect with winter coming I will be using it more and more.)

Winter is definitely heading this way. Very quickly. It was amazing how fast the weather changed - Tuesday was beautiful and quite warm (I think about 28). Wednesday was slightly cooler but still warm enough that I didn't need to wear stockings with my Dirndl. Thursday dawned bright, sunny, and warm in Tübingen, but about lunch time the clouds started coming and then the rain did. Today there was a maximum of 12. TWELVE DEGREES. It makes me sad. I hope this isn't the end of summer completely. Or at least autumn... I can't even think what April weather is usually like... and it is messing with my head! It's meant to be my birthday soon because it's autumn... and it's not. Ahhhh!

So I'm having a little freak out here. As some of you may know, but most of you probably don't, I attended a home group very intermittently last semester (like... I went maybe three times). It's not that I don't like the girls in the group - I do! - but I find small talk in German really difficult, and biblical terms is not a set of vocabulary usually taught in high school/ uni German, so that makes it all the more difficult too. At least at church I can just kind of tune out during the sermon, or the main point is said enough/ in enough depth that I pretty much manage to grasp it.

Anyway, so with the new semester, Hauskreis is starting up again, and I intend to go more regularly this semester. A couple of months ago, a tentative timetable for location/ who was leading (or doing the Thema)/ etc was sent around. I was down for doing the Thema once, fairly late in the semester. As much as I didn't really want to do it at all, I didn't say anything as I figured once I knew what it actually involved, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad.

I checked my emails just then, and discovered that the timetable has changed, and that I'm meant to be doing the Thema this week. As in, the first week. I haven't even been to a proper Hauskreis over here, and it's not like I did anything but listen and occasionally contribute in Adelaide. So I'm panicking more than slightly now. However, it is only Friday (well, Saturday morning, I suppose), and I have sent an email saying that I don't want to do the Thema (and hinted at not wanting to do it at all - though my German ist so schlecht gewesen I don't know if that even came across properly) and asked if someone else can do it. Sooo let's hope that yields results that don't involve me bailing.

I went to Stuttgart's answer to Oktoberfest today, the Canstatter Volksfest. However, that, last week's mammoth journey to/ from Oktoberfest, and Wednesday's trip to the Wasen (Volksfest) will have to be saved for another day, because it's 2:30am and I don't think I can do all the trips justice at this hour!