-
A Quick One While He's Away...
2002-07-18 03:03:01
After updating last nite I ended up hanging out in the Bürglhaus for a bit and had a nice long talk with a few people about US politics and culture with another american and two of the Austrian students. It was all nice and interesting and such, but went on far too late, until about 12:30AM or so.
Got up, had breakfast. Don't like the dark breads, did like having the Müsli with chocolate bits in it smothered in Strawberry Jogurt. Das schmeckt mir sehr gut.
Ich habe 12 Seiten von Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban gedruckt, das ich in meine Deutschstunde lesen würde.
Guess there's not too much to say when I post at night. Time to see if my laundry's been washed yet and to take a shower and maybe get a short nap. -
Don't insult the B13R
2002-07-17 15:26:16
It's Stiegl, not Stieger, see what happens when I type while tired?
Class this morning was OK. Turning Points is interesting when we're having discussion, but otherwise it's a lot on the minority issues after WW1 and how that's been leading to things, which is important and relevant, but not my favorite area of the whole historical spectrum, but so it goes. It's only for two weeks, but it's two long hours each day. On the other hand, all I have to do is look out the window and it's all worth it.
It rained for most of the day sadly, but there was enough of a break for me to go into town and get some Chocolate. I got a couple Milka bars (one of which I've eaten while surfing, reading mail, etc.) and some other varieties. If I'd had more than 8 Euros on me I probably would have gotten some liqour as it was quite cheap, but so it goes. I spent 6 on the chocolate =)
German class is....disappointing. The teacher is playing to the lowest common demoninator, to the point where we spent over an hour doing a couple of readings and exercises on the use of a small set of conjunctions, after which she gives us a short break, little time to do a conversation exercise, and then dumps a couple of vocabulary worksheets on us with the instruction to do it in tutorial (our time to converse with the Austrian students, get help, etc.) so in tutorial we all did our homework, while our Austrian student worked on her assignments for her political science class as well. What really sucks ass about all this is that 1)I'm only finding out anything about these words because I'm looking them up in my dictionary since the teacher hasn't even bothered to make us a vocab list that's official, and 2)She has yet to even ask about our other assignments, which leads me to believe that she won't even have us bring this one out of our binders again. So it goes. Just keep looking at the mountains.
I have to postpone windsurfing lessons to Friday, as there's another joint seminar coming up and all of us in the history and main political science classes have to meet up and discuss what our country has done that's bad in its history, including a nice big group of us Yanks. Unfortunately our group leader felt that tomorrow during Sport would be a perfect meeting time/place, which is when I was going to have windsurfing. Fortunately Helmut, the sport instructor, is nice and is very cool about rescheduling for Friday. Saturday is the excusion to St. Wolfgang, should be fun, I'm already signed up.
Lunch was quite good, but dinner was a bit disappointing. Not bad, but not quite my taste either. At least it's better than what I would have made for myself. In the meantime, I have no work to do before tomorrow morning, so I may go walking around for a bit or hang out at the bar and have conversation with people and NOT buy another bier - can't afford it with where the Euro's at right now. Still, I wonder if I can get Stiegl at home...anyone in the DC area know of an alcohol store or bar that has it?
I'm out for now, thanks to everyone for their replies!! -
The best laid plans never last more than five minutes...
2002-07-17 03:23:53
After net time yesterday morning, I had my first class, which was OK except that some romanian girl kept interrupting to comment on EVERYTHING which was quite annoying...and for the older American lady who teaches a course on the rise of nationalism but has never taken a history course also interjecting regularly. At least the professor is nice and open to discussion and all that sort of thing.
Lunch was good, and very veggie, yay. Good food and good conversation and a game of "Keep switching the yogurts so that David gets the mixed fruit one that he hates". Eventually he just gave up and after two tries passed it off to another table to get one that was blueberry.
After lunch was actually a quick computer run, followed by doing some homework for Turning Points (keeping ahead on reading = good) and then doing something that I can't remember, I think just hanging out in my room, until it was time for German.
German was a bit dull yesterday, even if the teacher DID hand out something with porno on it (it was one of those "make a story from the 8 cartoons" handouts, and in picture 2 there's a guy buying a newspaper from a kiosk and one of the magazines in the display has a naked lady on the cover.) The teacher zoomed WAY too fast through the vocabulary bits, which is really what I need to study the most.
After German was, of course, dinner, also quite good. We had Knoddeln, with a cow goulash for the carnivores and a red bean one for the rest of us, as well as salad, leftover soup from lunch (barley), and some nice cake. Mmmm, sugar rush.
I had a little time free after dinner, and spent it explaining to Yakob, one of the Austrian students, and Helmut, the sport instructor, about the DC mass transit system and the desire I had to get out of the dead (literally) center of the country and out to civilization.
Tutorial was a bit dull, we spent a lot of time going over just that - telling time and refreshing ourselves on the fact that there are 5 ways to tell time in German and all of them are considered correct. Unfortunately, our tutorial leader didn't believe me when I said she was using a permanent marker to write on the whiteboard, and had a panic attack at the end when she tried to get it off and couldn't. sigh. People need to listen when I'm telling them something like that!
Tutorial was followed by our first interdisciplinary seminar, a long two hours about the expansion of the EU and what it means for the future of Europe. The panel was made up of three political scientists (one being the aforementioned sumida-seemalike) and one historian (the professor I have for class). This has reaffirmed the old saying that historians and political scientists can't agree on anything because the historians can actually look at facts to make their theories while political scientists pull it out of their orifice of choice. It was long, fairly dull, and drawn out.
After tutorial David suggested a few people going swimming, but it didn't happen...it was too cold for his taste so he stayed in and did some studying, and after an hour of waiting for him to come and tell me this (which he never did), I went to the Bürgelhaus (the building where some of our classrooms are, as well as the seminar/dance course room) and had a beer. Stieger is good stuff, but 500ml was a lot...and it definately had an effect although I was able to stand on one foot for a few minutes while taking a shower afterwards upon getting home.
Unfortunately, going to get a drink and having some interesting conversations (or just watching others as was the case with Eshi giving a rather thorough and loud lecture on Turkish politics to someone from Bulgaria) means getting to bed late, so I didn't end up going to sleep until something like 12:30AM.
After getting up at 7:30, I found out that it was, indeed, raining rather seriously (it was really raining and not spitting like it does most of the time back home). Got dressed, grabbed the brolly, and had a rather quiet breakfast.
Now I am here, and I think that it may be a good idea to go home, drop off my laundry (the machines here must be TINY - I've split the equivelant of some 5 days clothes between two bags for loads and that's just the darks!) and maybe take a nap or steal a newspaper from the library before they're moved. I just hope the Euro either STAYS at parity with the dollar or begins to fall again - I can't afford to be hit by a bad currency exchange.
Some final news about onlineness, Trillian doesn't work here either, so email is the true way to go. Send a little, send a lot, I just love being able to come in the morning and read it. -
Auf Englisch...
2002-07-16 03:29:03
Dance class was fun. Tiring, but fun. I think I surprised a lot of the girls by the fact that this fat sweaty american could actually move decently on his feet and still swing them around with a lot of energy...thank you hours and hours of playing DDR.
After the dance class last night, a bunch of people went swimming, but I was gross and nasty and tired so I went home, took a shower, listened to some ELO, and went to bed. Slept much better, mostly because I took the extra blanket that we have (regularly we've got down ones that are soft and fluffy and quite warm) and put that under the pillow (also featherriffic) and viola. Much better. I think i got up once during the night anyways, but I don't really remember it.
Also found out two people around here have CD burners so before the next party I can convert some MP3s. These people have got to hear some good Eurobeat and mebbe a little bit of Hedwig...and of course Afronova.
The mountains today are, as always, beautiful. It was raining on the way to breakfast (just a little bit, not a lot), so it was extra cloudy. At one point I looked up from my semmeln and käse and saw a gorgeous sight of one of the mountains being mostly covered in clouds, except for a small run on the side, as if there was a stream of forest breaking through the clouds. I need to start carrying my camera to more places because I wish I'd taken a picture. It's very easy to fall in love with a place like this. I think I have.
Anyone know of a high school needing an English or History teacher in Germany or Austria willing to get me a visa in a year after I graduate? -
I'm writing a journal and this is 2020
2002-07-15 14:26:19
Die Uhr ist 2020 und ich habe meine danczeklasse in 10 minuten.
Meine geschichte klasse war ok, ein bischen langweilig, aber gut. Ich muss die hausaufgaben am morgen nach meine Internet zeit. Der Professor ist gut, und ich hoffe für eine interessante zwei woche.
Mittagessen war sehr schön und immer lecker. Ich habe kartoffeln, gebratene käse, und ein eclair gegessen. Mmmmm.
Ich bin geschwommen. Der See ist ein bischen kalt, aber in 5 minuten ich fühle warm.
Meine deutsch Stunde ist nicht so schwach, und die Lehrerin ist nett. Wir haben Hausaufgaben, aber das ist nicht so schlecht.
Am morgen, gehe ich und eine bekannter oder zwei werden im Supermarkt für Schokolade gehen.
Now it is time for me to run like mad and still be late for dance class. A report on that, possibly in English will come in the morning.
Also, I don't guarantee constant computer access outside my scheduled time, please email or leave a private message in the forum in case I don't get to catch your reply (but thank you for leaving one anyways.)
JOURNAL: iserlohn
Current server time: Mar 24, 2026 13:15:52