Advertisement
may 13, 2011 002
Downtown DresdenLast night proved to be "Dr. G takes us on the tram and then into old downtown Dresden", which meant more walking but also more things to keep us from falling asleep. The tram/train & subsequent transportation systems (other than taxis) are free for us since we have TUD student cards (the Dresden university we are technically part-time students at). This is actually cool for me, because I've never studied abroad, so it's fun. We haven't actually seen the university yet, but it's past my dorm up on the hill, and I imagine we will go soon in order to get university wi-fi set up on our laptops so we have unlimited internet on campus (our dorms are not technically part of campus).
We got to old downtown and walked around a little bit, with Dr. G pointing out stuff, and then he took us to a beer garden and bought us all a drink! We sat by the river overlooking cathedrals and palaces and this amazing old architecture, and I was just like this is the coolest thing by far that I have ever done. We sat around discussing post-program traveling options for Anna and Alex, who are both
staying longer. I'd like to mention that due to having no luggage, I was out without any make-up at all, which is like... unheard of for me. I get really uncomfortable going anywhere without foundation. :x So there aren't many pictures, since ewwwww. lol
Then he took us down into downtown Dresden and pointed out the cathedrals, the Protestant church, the old Saxon parliament building, the opera house, and took us into this old palace. We actually were standing IN the courtyard of this palace, in the middle amongst the paths and the reflecting pools and oh my god it was the coolest thing in the history of ever. Seriously. He even asked us, "who painted this picture?" to one of the posters hanging up nearby, and I was the only person who was like, "Raphael!" Finally, all those art history classes in undergrad are paying off!
We headed back towards the train and took it back towards campus, since our luggage had arrived at the airport. We were pretty much dead, given we were at something like 30 hours being awake, so we went with Dr. G to the airport to get our stuff. YES I HAVE
may 13, 2011 005
Statue on a ped mall street in downtown Dresden LUGGAGE AGAIN my god, my own things have never looked so beautiful.
I crashed around 10 PM and slept until, like, 9:15 this morning. Anna and I got up to run some more errands and go explore a bit. We ended up going to the ped mall again to hit the T-Mobile store, where we bought prepaid German phones. So I now have a phone! We need to put more money on, and the woman was so nice. I've noticed that people here are really, really good at using any English they have with us in order to communicate. It's strange because in the United States, if someone doesn't know English, we just kind of get annoyed, but here, people are so willing to help. The woman who worked at T-Mobile knew a bit, so she was awesome (and this super cute guy employee came in later and was laughing at her and teasing her that she should take more English classes. He looked like the German equivalent of Junno. SO HOT.)
We also hit up the media store again so I could get triple A batteries for my clock.
Then we decided to go to the
may 13, 2011 006
Facade on some buildings in downtown Dresden grocery store to buy ourselves food + lunch, to save money. Luckily, it went much smoother this time because we knew where the bags were and how to get around. Unfortunately, my shoes were the worst life choice ever, at least for a lot of walking around, because it was there that I discovered the pain/blister on my heel was actually blood running down the back of my foot. Umm.... we came back to eat and put our food away and in an hour we are going to head back out and hit some of the museums that Dr. G pointed out in downtown. asjfkdas art omg. :x
It's funny, because with all my language fail in Japan, this is so much different. If I went back now, I'd definitely have enough to get my point across and try to communicate with people all in Japanese. But I don't know ANY German (though I pulled out "Danke" today, twice!! #winning) and so it's not even remotely an option to try to do any of this in German. So we are really, really stuck with people's goodwill and varied English knowledge. And they've been so amazing. I mean, I've seriously
may 13, 2011 007
Statue of Augustus. been really impressed. These aren't people who work in tourist areas, either, just normal everyday people trying to do their jobs.
Anyway, I'm super glad I threw in my flip flops at the last minute because I'm wearing them the rest of today. My foot is really, really unhappy, and I only brought three band-aids. Anna's got some first aid stuff, so I'll probably use that. And my German phone is all in German so I have absolutely no idea how to do anything other than call people, LOL. I can't even find the language option (if there is one).
Oh, I'm getting angry emails from Kent State about how I'm no longer registered for this practicum class because my tuition wasn't paid. I'm like, "Um, I don't pay my tuition..." and Dr. G said someone must not have done what they were supposed to back home to take care of our waivers. So I re-registered today and sent him an email, so I hope this gets taken care of. LMAO always fail with them.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.039s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0173s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
