Sunday, January 22, 2012

Of Computers and Berliners

My first impression of Bonn? The streets are so small! The drive from AIB to my host family's house scared me quite a bit  when buses and *extremely* tiny cars  faced off on miniscule roads.  I have yet to see a crash though so I guess there isn't much to worry about.  These first few days have been awesome despite the cold and rainy weather of late.  Except for one thing, the transportation system.

After reading some of the other posts, I feel a theme coming on: getting lost or left behind on the transportation system.  I was actually doing quite well at first.  I had yet to be late to a class or meeting time and I thought I had finally deciphered the time tables that I religiously keep in my jacket pocket.  That all changed yesterday.  I have two bus stops near my house which arrive about 20 minutes apart.  I left my house with ample time to reach the stop before the bus arrived and waited.  Then I waited some more.  Then, guess what, I waited some more.  I managed to ask someone on the street in German when the bus would come and apparently it wasn't coming for another hour.  I ran to the other stop just in time to see the bus take off down the street without me.  I went back to the other stop and waited the time until the other bus came, but by that point I was at least 20 minutes late to the welcome dinner.  Luckily the event hadn't fully started by the time I arrived but it was still a nervewracking experience.

Despite my misadventures with the bus and my laptop going kaput the minute I arrived in Germany, I am actually really enjoying myself.  I am learning more German each day and am finally getting the hang of typing on the German keyboard that came with the netbook I purchased to replace my dead computer.  I think I might be become addicted to Berliners though (No, not people from Berlin, but these delicious, jelly-filled pieces of heaven that are a bit like doughnuts).  They have jelly in them, so I can pretend they aren't that bad for me right?
<Group picture in the classroom (minus me since I was taking it)>

Anyways, there is always more fun to be had, even on a rainy day like today, so Tchüß for now!

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