The First Week

OK, so I had this crack pot idea to come to Germany a whole week early to see my friends down here in Stuttgart. It's actually been really cool even though it's totally not how I'd picutred it. Here's a recap:

I got to Frankfurt on Monday a little after 3 pm. The flight was non-stop from San Francisco. Which was awesome PS cause I didn't worry about them losing my luggage (a constant fear when I have layovers) and the flight was only 10.5 hours but felt considerably longer since my stomache hurt most of the time. But whatever. I passed the time watching movies and listening to my ipod.

After landing in Frankfurt, I got my luggage and went through customs and all that then headed to the trainstation. Lo and behold, I had a text but I couldn't respond to it on my American cell phone. Thank goodness I have a German one. My friend Esther had to tutor and couldn't meet me at the train station but her parents were at the institute three bus stops away. I've been to the institute more times than I care to think about (mostly because of who I was with) so it wasn't a problem getting there. They almost didn't recognize me, we had FHE with some JAEs, and played games. It was nice.

I slept through my alarm on Tuesday and woke up at like 10 or something. I went to the Mercedes-Benz museum after getting ready and all that boring stuff. It was pretty cool. I got lost along the way, though. I looked up the address online and saw that it's on Mercedes Straße. Shoke. So then I looked up how to get to Mercedes Straße and took the U-bahn to that stop (aptly named Mercedes Straße). Unfortunately, as soon as we were leaving Bad Canstatt and I could see the museum, I knew I was heading in the wrong direction. I was going straight, the museum was way the heck to the left. So I got off the U-Bahn and went to Bad Canstatt again. After walking aroung for like 5 minutes I found the bus stop that said "Mercedes Museum" as the end station. Next bus: 20 minutes. I had just missed it. I'm good at that. So then I waited.

I'm pretty much positive that I rode schwarz to the museum. This is bad, but I always take comfort in the knowledge that I can act like a stupid American tourist, especially when doing touristy things like going to a museum. Thankfully, I haven't had to see if that works. I'm guessing it won't go over too well. Anyway, I got to the museum and they had all these old cars and history and I got a really bad headache half-way through that I had the rest of the night. From one of the rooms I could see them testing cars out on their test track. A Benz vs. a Smart car. Just guess who was winning. I'd forgotten my camera though so I didn't take any pictures. Lame, I know.

I then made my way over to institute. I walked to the S-bahn station that I knew was there from going through it in December. Since I'd never really used it before it took a while for me to find, but I did it. I got to institute like 15 minutes before it started. Samira was there. I didn't expect that. She was supposed to be on vacation. There was a forum instead of regular classes. I would have preferred the classes. The speaker was this Swiss guy named Francois and he pretty much gave us a presentation about his book Babylon am Abgrund: Der vorgezeichnete Untergang der westlichen Kultur (I can't translate very well but here you go Babylon on the Edge: the Chronicled Destruction of Western Culture). It was less than interesting. And he bad mouthed my country. I don't like that very much.

Wednesday's highlight was the Staatsgalerie. They had a cool Pop Art exhibit that I only had to pay 2€ for because I'm not over 20. HAHA! Then I guess every Wednesday is free admition into the collection. Not bad. You know what I really like though? Jugendstil. They didn't have any. I need Vienna for that. Although there was some Casper David Friedrich, Monet, and Paul Klee that I really liked.

After that I went "home" (aka Esther's) for like 20 minutes before I had to leave for a birthday party. This girl Geli turned 19. It took me an hour to get there. And I didn't even get lost. It's just that far from Fellbach to Freiberg am Neckar. The party was cool. There were like 10 of us there. We hung out, played games. I had to leave early to catch the last S-Bahn at 23:30. What happened next, well look in "Fellbach Hopf" and you'll see.

Thursday was a holiday and therefore very chill. Esther didn't have school, her dad didn't have work so we all got to have lunch together before her parents left for Frankfurt to visit her brother and his family. Esther, Silke, and I went to the gym. YEAH FITNESS!! That'll probably be the last time I go to a real gym for like 4 months. Then we went to dinner at this Restaurant called Woody's. It's like German-American fusion cooking and also German versions of American food that don't quite work. After that we went to the movies and saw 21. Now, I know what some of you are thing "but that's rated R!" Well, maybe in America it is but here you can see it from 12 on up. And I'm not in America anymore. I'm in Germany. So when in Rome, you know? I liked the movie. I don't know that I'd pay 6€ (student price, I love it) to see it again but it was still good. I'm happy to report that I did not get lost on Thursday.

Nor did I get lost today. I did, however, sleep until noon. The Rollladen were all the way down so it was still totally dark in "my room" so I had absolutely no concept of time and just fell back asleep whenever I woke up. I was also home alone so there wasn't noise in the apartment to wake me up. (Esther was at work) So I took my jolly sweet time getting ready and went to the Army Post. I walked from the Bahnhof to the Post. I'd done it once before with Esther last summer so I knew the way. It took like 45 minutes. (I had to get a new ID and I'm no longer registered there so next time I want to bring guests, I have to register first to be in the computer database. They get confused because I don't actually live there.) I made sure while I was walking there to pay attention to the busses so I would know which one to take back and where the closest stop is to the Post. (number 84, incase you're dying to know, which I know you are).

I bought stuff at the commissary, packed it in my Timbuk2 bag (Thank you Tisha, I LOVE IT) and walked to the bus stop. That took a good 20 minutes. I then headed back to the institute for waffel night. No joke. The waffels here are different. They're made with dough rather than with batter. It melts when it hits the waffel iron and then spreds out. And they have tons of sugar in them. I ate like 3 which is why I made sure to walk to Hauptbahnhof. Then I got to walk from Fellbach Lutherkirche to the Müller's apartment, or else I would have never gotten back.

Esther wasn't home when I got back but when she did she told me something that made me laugh for a good two minutes straight.