Day 2 in Magdeburg

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So, the apartment fell though. Here’s the story. I left for my 11am appointment at 9:45am, so as not to be late. I waited for the bus for 1.5 hours; it is extremely unreliable on Sundays. Then, nobody knew how to get to Walter-Rathenau-Strasse, so it took an additional hour on top of that to find the building. Long story short: I was ridiculously late for the appointment. I rang the doorbell anyway, and the student let me in. He was not pleased with my tardiness. Turns out, only students can rent the apartment. Not only do I not have an apartment, but I wasted 3 hours of the day trying to find it. This deserves a resounding, “FML.”

Immediately afterward, while I was feeling bad for myself, I went back to the internet café, emailed Kevin and my parents again, and sent out more emails for apartments. Many Germans/students do not check emails on the weekend, so I hope to find several responses at the internet café tomorrow morning. For now, I booked my hotel for another night. While the single room is cheap, it is too expensive to stay for more than a few days.

I start my internship tomorrow, and my director seems sympathetic, as regards helping me find a place to live. Maybe he will let me off for a day to move into a new place. Hmph. Okay, enough feeling bad for myself.

I will probably go back to the internet café tonight, as it is open until midnight - miraculously, even on Sundays. This internet café and Doener appear to be the only places open. Anyway, I desperately need to work on my human rights paper, and the internet café only charges 1 euro/hour. I needed to rewind at my hotel for a bit first.

This is definitely an adventure.

A quick word about the language barrier before leaving: Most Magdeburgers, especially older Magdeburgers, do not understand English. In Rome and a few brief trips to Germany, people - young and old - responded to me in English, even when I asked a question in Italian or German. Guess what I forgot? While English was mandatory from kindergarten in West Germany, Russian was mandatory in East Germany. Before that, neither was required. That explains why so many Russians vacation here! Upon asking questions in German, many Magdeburgers respond: “Sprichst du Englisch? Ich spreche nur auch Russisch,” or in translation: “Do you speak English? I only speak Russian as well.” This means two things: 1.) East Germany is extra interesting, given my fascination with everything Russian and 2.) I need to work on my German accent! The nice woman who owns my hotel told me: “Du sprichst schoenes Deutsch!” or “You speak beautiful German!” She was surprised that, as an American, my knowledge of German extended beyond, “Ich spreche Deutsch,” or, “I speak German.” Americans always say that to me when they find out I speak German. Why is the phrase so popular? The ironic part is, no, you do not speak German!

I plan on taking every opportunity to strengthen my language skills until August, i.e. TV, newspapers, my (to be determined) roommates and more! More later. I could type for hours! This is probably because I haven’t been able to blab Kevin’s ears off in a few days J

Auf Wiedersehen,
Christine

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