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Published: August 15th 2006
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Josenturm
This is the actual tower. The building I live in is to the left of the tower, just out of sight. I realized that I haven't really made any comments about my living conditions and the like, so here goes...
I live in a building called Josenturm, and for those of you who know what a turm is, the answer to your question is no, I do not live in a tower. :-) But there is a tower attached to the building by a deck/walkway about two stories up. I live on the ground floor with three other women. Each floor is set up apartment-style and two people share a bedroom. Our floor only has two bedrooms, but every other floor has 3 or four. This is because our floor has the only washer and dryer in the whole building, so we often have traffic coming through our apartment. The central area of the apartment is the kitchen, which connects all of the rooms. The school supplied us with the basic cooking essentials (pots, pans, silverware, dishes), so all we have to supply is the food. The program I'm enrolled in includes breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria five days a week and then I'm on my own for suppers and weekends.
My roommate is from Hungary, and is slowly
Schwäbisch Hall
I took this picture on a walk Sunday morning. It wasn't raining and I took advantage of it. learning English. It's a good thing, though, because then we're forced to speak in German to each other. The two other girls are from Japan and America (California). We all have a pretty good time. My roommate brought a card-game with her called SOLO. It's exactly like UNO except the pictures on the action cards are different. We've found that playing cards is a good way to meet other people. It seems as though UNO/SOLO is pretty universal, so most everyone already knows how to play.
There are insects everywhere here in Schwäbisch Hall, especially honey-bees and spiders. The honey bees tend to congregate around the cafes and bakeries, and usually just want a taste of your apple strudel or ice cream. In general they're harmless, but a bit annoying. Now, if you've lived with me, you know how I am with spiders... Well, we've had our fair share of them in the apartment already, which is to be expected since we open the windows to let fresh air in (no air conditioning). Within the first few days here, however, there was a decent-sized one in the shower, and needless to say, it didn't last very long. We have
Bus Tour
The garden. several that have made webs in our windows in the kitchen. It's a logical spot for them, as the bugs are attracted to the lights inside at night and so the spiders haave a pretty good feast on a daily basis. One of the girls I live with has 'made friends with them' and so she won't let me do anything, but I told her that the second they come inside, it will be a different story. I've grown to enjoy watching them at night, however, because just after sunset, the spiders rebuild their entire web so that it's fresh for catching insects throughout the night. Then by morning, the web looks old and useless, and the spider is gone. It's quite the process to watch.
Last week we took a bus tour around the area and visited several cities. I don't recall the names of them all, but we only were able to spend 30-50 minutes in each one, so I didn't become very familiar with any of them. We got to see a castle, however we couldn't go inside as it was closed that day. The castle's garden was gorgeous and behind it was a wonderful view.
Rose
Rose Garden in Bahmberg. We spent a fair amount of time at a local cafe, and I've discovered a new flavor of ice cream that I rather like: Stracciatella. It's quite a bit like chocolate chip, but richer. I've found that it's a flavor of joghurt here, as well. I'm having such a good time trying out new flavors while I'm here. :-) I've found that hot milk and honey has a nice flavor to it...I'll share more as I come across them.
On Saturday I took a day-trip to Bahmberg. This was another excursion planned by the Institut. I'm taking full advantage of the activities the Institut has to offer. I think the faculty here tries their best to make sure that students to get experience as much as possible while they are here. Some students only stay for one month and then must go back. I'll be here for two months, so I still have many more opportunities to come. While we were in Bahmberg, we did the typical tourist thing and had a city-tour. The tour was two hours long, and it rained off and on the entire time. Despite the rain, however, the city was beautiful. Among many other places, we saw the rose garden, which I thought was very pretty covered in little droplets of water. You'll see one of the roses posted here. In the afternoon we took a river-tour of the city, which I thought was a nice way to wrap up the day. We were on a ferry and were served coffee and cake, which was a nice opportunity to enjoy the company of the others who went on the trip.
I went to a phonetic seminar last week and we were given several phrases which we were asked to speak. I think most of you know a little bit of German, and if you don't, I think you'll get the idea. I'm going to share a phrase with you that's a bit of a tongue-twister, and I dare you to say it three times fast: "Bierbrauer Breuer braut braunes Bier" :-) Translated, it means "Beerbrewer Breuer brews brown beer". It's along the lines of "Sally sells seashells..." I think some of you can get some entertainment out of it. :-)
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Jeanne Emken
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Annie, I signed up to be notified when you add to your blog, so I am keeping up on your comings and goings. Very enjoyable and I'm learning a lot from your travelings. Keep up the good work !!