Seven days in the life of meSo now you have an idea what a week in the life of an exchange student in Germany really involves... Not exactly a typical week, then again no two days are the same over here! It's 70 days til I come home and i can't wait, but then again there's so much still to do and see over here. I'd love to know who is actually reading my blog, so if you have a minute, write a quick comment at the end of this posting! :) Just don't torture me and tell me how much warmer it is wherever you are than here...
Friday - All the way to Karlsruhe for nothingCath and I caught a 6.07am bus to make it to Karlsruhe in time for the scholarship holders' meeting at 9am. Compared to the last scholarship meeting I attended, where we saw a band, heard speeches, a debate, got free postcards, food and alcohol, this one was a real let down! One boring speech was followed by a 1.5 hour coffee break, followed by lunch in the uni cafeteria (Yum... food loaded with MSG and other bad additives). We got to see a bit of Karlsruhe though, which is very industrial and made us very pleased to be living in Tubingen! They do have a nice baroque palace though...
Finally made it home in the evening and went to a pretty good party at the Biology faculty. It was in a non-smoking venue but of course all the Germans had to break the rule didn't they, so you still come home stinking pretty bad. Caught the 2am night bus home... very long day!
Thursday - Too late, I already opened the parcel! MORE TIM TAMS! Yay!!! Thanks Mum!!! That's like one packet per fortnight til I come home... I can almost eat one biscuit per day! By the way, that was very quick service from the time I complained about eating my last one, to the time a new batch arrived. I'm most impressed.
What else did I do today... Well my only class was cancelled so I went and bought some train tickets for my Eastern Europe trip, went to the supermarket, cooked a curry, and rang Martina to say happy birthday! Might go visit her next weekend which would be really cool!
Wednesday - mysterious parcel arrives Who is the parcel from???? May i open it yet???!
Went to the Stuttgart Christmas Markets today with Susie and Cath and went ice skating! I hope we didn't look quite as embarassing as the other Aussies who turned up at the outdoor skating rink - one of them was decked out head to toe in khaki, including an Akubra... No one told her that the current average amount of sunshine per day is 45 minutes.
Tuesday -
Had to go to uni! Yes I had to go to not one class today but two. To make up for the stress of it all, I ate my very last double-coated Tim Tam. Might go across the road now to the pub and see if anyone's there. Where did all my flatmates disappear to tonight?! P.S. As I was typing this message, they barged into my room and we went to the party together :)
Monday -
The day of room cleaning Today, I rearranged my room just one more time! Now it's set up for optimal television viewing, more comfortable sleeping (I put my spare mattress under my normal mattress, clever huh), and has a more spacious feeling for when I have guests and for when I feel claustrophobic in my room because of a lack of desire to go into our empty, cold kitchen!
Sunday -
The day of rest In Germany it's known as Ruhetag, the day where everything is shut, there are only bad movies on the telly, and flatmates disappear off the face of the planet coz we all sleep til midday and only emerge at irregular times for meals!
Saturday - Nürnberg, Christmas markets
The day involved my alarm going off at 5.45am, Cath and I sleeping on a bus for three hours to Nürnberg, and then consuming good Mexican food, Glühwein (mulled hot red wine) and Lebkuchen (gingerbread) til it was time to catch the bus home again.
It's Germany's most famous Christmas market and yesterday it seemed like most of the German population plus a great chunk of America was there!
The very best part was that the Glühwein came in a mug in the shape of a boot, which you get to keep for just EUR 2.50.
