Just a few things…

I don’t spreche Deutsch.  Not even a little.  That’s what I found out today in my first German class.  We spent 3 hours going over even the easiest of German phrases, My name is…, I come from… in…, I speak…, My hobbies are…  Even after all that, I couldn’t remember one thing when my host sister asked today.  I’m the dumb kid in school .  Maybe it’s not that bad, but it’s going to be challenging, but that’s fun.  I’ve only been here four days, and I’m already really frustrated that I can’t understand anything that’s going on around me.   Over the next 6 weeks, though, I will definitely spreche Deutsch.

Matt and I rode the bus/train downtown today, with no hiccups.  Now that we have passes for all the transportation systems, we don’t have to worry about dealing with petty cash and communicating with bus drivers to buy tickets.  No joke, the first day, I practiced my German phrase like 25 times so I could say it correctly to the bus driver, and I still needed to repeat myself for him to understand.  It’s harder than I thought, being Mr. American and all.  The weather here is great, a lot like SD at this time, without the risk of snow, but it is a bit more temperate.  No big swings like we get in the Midwest.  The food is really good, as well.  There are German bakeries EVERYWHERE, no joke, they are just about every 50 ft. when you get into the downtown area.  That’s a great thing, though, because their bread is magnificent.  You know the bread that makes those big pretzels?  That bread was invented in Stuttgart.  And they make it in loaves.  It’s unbelievable.  I could eat 50 a day.  Also, (Mom and Dad stop reading) they don’t have any sort of open container laws, so we walk into a shop, buy a beer, and then walk around town with it.  That’s pretty nice, and, since I’m taking all public transportation, I don’t have to worry about driving.  (Ok, M&D, you can read that last part…and be proud! ) Anyways, I am starting to get to know some of the other students here, and they are all pretty cool.  They are from all over the US, Canada, Singapore, China, and Mexico.

After German class today, we all hopped on to take a bus tour of Stuttgart.  (Afternoon subject courses start tomorrow.  I’m taking Transportation and Urban Planning.  It should be sweet.) As for the tour. Our tour guide was a Swabian (local dialect of German) woman who was completely flighty and a bit nuts, I think.  Anyway, she would just chat away on the microphone on this bus, talking all sorts of nonsense that made sense only about half of the time.  To be honest, she was quite entertaining.  However, after the trip went past the 2 hour mark, 1/3 of the bus was sleeping.  I got in about 20 mins.  Solid nap. 

After that, Matt and I were too beat to do much else, so we headed back to our Host-Family’s place, checking out all the different routes to get there and back.  We’re still on the lookout for the perfect route, hitting all the timings just right, but we’ll get there.

I’m hoping tonight I will begin to get acquainted to Germany’s time zone.  I still feel awake late at night here and sleepy during the day.  It will just come with time, I suppose.

Here are some pics that I’ve taken over the first few days, check ‘em out:

That is me with my magnetically attracted silverware.  It wasn’t supposed to be.  It fried my brain.  At least that’s my excuse.

That’s the TV tower we climbed to get a great birds-eye view of Stuttgart.

That’s the view from the aforementioned TV tower. Pretty cool.

This is a shot from our welcome reception with students and host-families.

If you want to catch some more pics, check out my Flickr gallery at http://flickr.com/chris_daugaard