European Adventures: Pfannküchen, rain, and the Alps

So since I last wrote I've had some more social activity and experienced how gorgeous Konstanz can be!

The weather has taken a turn for the worse, but overall is still pretty nice--I was supposed to go to a barbecue Saturday that unfortunately got rained out. So Sunday Thorin, my new friend, invited me to go to Cafe Aran, a popular cafe here, with some of his friends. We walked all the way across town to get there, but it was a nice walk! We hung out in the cafe and then checked out a street fair on the German-Swiss border. The best part was this thing they had for kids--it was like plastic hamster balls but in a kiddie pool! It was so funny to watch. I was excited because I had learned weather words that morning and everyone was talking about the terrible weather and I could actually understand some of what people said! Unfortunately, then it started raining and buses don't run very often on Sundays because it's Europe and nothing is open on Sundays. So we only got a bus part of the way home and then proceeded to get soaked. But it was fun!

I spent the early part of the week with some more meetings, and I finally a) have a residence permit and b) am registered as a student! So I can start my research, once they clean the asbestos off the books for me...the library here has a lot of great resources but most of it is closed due to a little asbestos problem, so they have to clean the books before they let you take them out. So it takes a few days. I've been working on some stuff I brought with me in the meantime, and keeping up with my German lessons.

Wednesday I was really excited because the haze over the Alps finally lifted (as it does rarely, apparently) and we could see them! I could see them from my balcony, but decided to take myself on a walk around the lake and the center of town to get a better view. It was absolutely gorgeous--the pictures don't even do it justice. It made me really excited for the trip to Geneva and Interlaken I'm planning for next week. In the evening, Thorin invited me to get German pancakes with some of his friends who are from Russia. The pancakes (Pfannkuchen) were delicious! They were like French crepes, very thin, but not folded, so they were pretty much the size of a pizza in America. I got mine with Nutella, of course. It was a really fun evening.

Thursday I had lunch with Alessia, one of my Italian friends! We had a really nice time and hopefully I can learn some Italian from her when I get settled into German a bit more. I met two of her friends, one of whom was giving a presentation in English that day, so he was excited to practice. His class was on 9/11 literature, which I found fascinating. I saw him today and we had a longer conversation about it. I personally can't believe that there's enough 9/11 literature to make an entire class on it, or that it's been long enough that there can be a class already. But it was really interesting to hear him speak about it.

Today I met my language partner, Ulf, for the first time! The university has a tandem conversation exchange through which you can learn various languages--Ulf is a native German from outside Stuttgart who wants to refresh his English before taking the TOEFL to study abroad in Toronto. We mostly spoke in English today because I still don't know a lot of German verbs. But he's very nice and next week we are going to meet in the city so he can show me around a bit more! I'm excited to learn some more verbs so we can alternate speaking German and English.

Right now what everyone in Germany is talking about is Eurovision: it's kind of like the European version of American Idol, except that each European nation sends a competitor. Azerbaijan won and this came as a shock to many people, apparently.

So now that I have library privileges, this weekend I'll probably prepare for my trip to Switzerland, start my research, and keep up with the German!