bonn: arrival

Bonn!

So, I arrived here yesterday in Bonn...I was fortunate in that I was not jet-lagged like some unlucky American/Canadians, but I did have to get up at four in the morning to catch a flight from Poland. Suffice to say, it was a long day. I arrived at the International Office accompanied by Janina, who picked me up from the Hauptbahnhof (the main train/bus station here) and was on my way to confusion. First of all, I entered a room with a bunch of other confused students looking around as if I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I didn't. But, the advisors were quasi-helpful, at least in German, so I found my way. Everything was explained to me in quiet, college level German with me just nodding and smiling. Yep, big fan of nodding and smiling these days, even when it gets me into trouble. For instance, today I was at a store where they sold water cookers (that's a literal german translation, I honestly don't know what they're called in English. those things that boil water...?) and I thought the guy at the counter asked me if I wanted a bag, but really he asked me if I had a frequent buyers card. I just said ja! happily because I totally thought I knew what I was talking about, but he just looked at me expectantly. Then I gave him more money because I postulated that that may have been an issue. Nope. It was not my finest moment.

My room, shortly after arriving

My dorm room here is alright, after a good clorox wiping. It's large and the bed is sanitary enough, I share a co-ed bathroom though which is alright except for the toilet seat thing. I have my own sink in my room (AGAIN! say whaaaat?!) and I bought a beautiful toe shaped bath mat to serve as a rug beside my bed. I also didn't have any decorations so I taped up all the maps from all the cities/museums we visited before this so it doesn't look so stark. It's actually not so bad in here, it doesn't even echo! One downside, however, is that my window opens into a church yard. A really old church, which has a wonderful chime every fifteen minutes and on the hour chimes twice as many times as it really needs to. At least I know I won't be able to sleep past 8, the hour it starts its mayhem at.

Anyway, we took a German test this morning which was not a piece of cake despite the rumors circling it. It was actually quite hard and only a native speaker could have scored 100% because many of the questions were based on customs here, for instance: what vocabulary would we use for drinking red wine at dinner tonight? A cup? A glass? A bottle? A different type of glass? A stein?
They're all vessels for holding liquid. What the hell do I know.

And the rest of the day was spent talking with the other International Students and "getting to know the campus better." What really happened was that we were supposed to go to lunch with a Bonn Buddy (not our own), but my group leader, complete with one gray eyebrow, didn't get the memo and ditched us and never returned. I ditched him first (taking the high road as always) to eat lunch, which was a good call because I ended up procuring a much needed laundry/cafeteria card anyway.

As for German...it's scary. It's scary to be spoken at in another language, and it takes a second to realize that I actually speak it too! A weird feeling, honestly. It's like, I have to switch my brain over and then translate for myself which is a process that is much slower than thinking in English, but I've been told I'll get better and faster. It will just take time.