odds and ends

sunset over the mountains from my balcony

So I've spent the last several days mostly hibernating in my apartment writing final exams. Just finished the exams and moving on to grading 80-odd undergrad papers!

Interesting events:

- Butterbretzels, or buttered pretzels, are amazing. yum yum.

- when I went to the grocery store on Saturday, my cell phone thought I went to Switzerland. It sent me a text in German, the only part of which I understood was "Wilkommen aus Schweiz!" (European cell phones text you when you leave the country to let you know you're roaming.) I mean, it was only a few miles off, but I'm not sure it knows it's back in Germany yet, haha.

- I found pancake mix at the grocery store! I spent about five minutes trying to determine what was flour and what was sugar, and eventually turned around and discovered shake and pour pancake mix! it was fabulous. I had pancakes for dinner Saturday night.

- on the downside of my shopping adventure, I bought turkey breast when I meant to buy chicken, and celery salt when I wanted table salt. Oh well, almost the same thing...it's difficult to shop when you don't speak the language, but everything you successfully find does feel like a victory! (my kitchen is pretty much fully outfitted now and I feel great about it)

- Swiss chocolate makes finals ten times better.

- I'm still having some issues with jet lag, but maybe those will be better when finals are over and I can actually have a chance to leave my apartment.

- my online German course is going well and I feel like I know a few more words now. Still way more nouns than verbs, but we'll see. I can now identify vegetables and various body parts, as well as all the layers of my bed linens. Useful, no?

-I now have health insurance so I am free to get run down by insane German cyclists.

-realized the other day that I can see Switzerland from my apartment. Then I kind of felt like Sarah Palin.

-planning a fun weekend once Thursday hits and I'm done with everything remaining at Rutgers! Exploring Konstanz and also planning to check out Meersburg, the town across the lake.

German words of the day:

-Genau!---Germans say this literally EVERY 5 SECONDS. I haven't even been around that many German people and I have already noticed this. Thanks to Alex I know that it means "right" or "exactly"

-Tschuss!--"bye". Again, thanks to Alex, I now know what cashiers are saying to me when I leave stores.