Real Deutsche Shule

I didn't post yesterday because maybe I am getting sick and had to get to bed. It is quite understandable with all of the things that I am doing. Jetlag is the worst thing since sliced bre... I mean, horrible. I have not fallen asleep before midnight once my entire stay here. I think that this lack of sleep combined with all of the energy that I have been expending learning so many new things has finally started to catch up with me. I woke up with no voice this morning, and I was feeling really groggy, so I decided that it would be better if I stayed home and slept rather than go to German school. I hated doing that because I am so eager to learn, but I really need to nip this illness in the bud so that it does not do any further harm to my trip. It was a good decision because I woke up at 12:40 in the afternoon. Then I went downstairs to have breakfast and have been having a quiet day since. I do not want to get sick. I have so little time to do everything that I want as it is. The four cups of herbal tea that Belen made for me has really helped and I will go to bed early, whether I can sleep or not.

So. Yesterday. Another long day. I woke up early to talk to my college counselor in the U.S. then shoveled down some muesli and hopped on my bike to class. I am learning important new things everyday there. I ask a lot of questions, even though the other students hardly ever have any. The funny thing is, they don't know the answer to my questions either. I guess that they are just to shy to ask. Yesterday we learned names of parts of a house, and I asked questioins that led to us learning pronounciation and gender rules as well. We also practice reading out loud, and I have to work to keep myself from laughing. One of the Italian boys, Marco, has such a strong Italian accent that he is difficult o understand. He adds an "eh" to the end of every word and speaks with the up and down accent of the Italian people. He sounds very funny to me, and I am sure that I sound ridiculous to him. Of course, I am biased when I say that my pronounciation is generally not so bad.

After school, I went over to a cantina next door where I was supposed to meet Ramon for lunch, then go to school with him. However, when I talked to the chef, there was not one thing on the menu that did not have milk, and they don't cook things fresh in a cafeteria. Because I am allergic to milk, I had to find some other place to eat. I figured that I would be able to make it back in time to meet Ramon by the end of lunch and walk my bike back to school with him.

And so I went on an adventure. I love going on adventures. I hopped on my bike and rode around through town, on a quest for a good german lunch. Strangely enough, there were no German restaurants to be found. I even found a Tahitian restaurant, but nothing German. And I was desperate for some good vurst. Here in the south of Germany, in Bavaria, there is a lot of Italian influence. So there is a lot of Italian food. I guess that there aren't very many American restaurants lying around town back home either. Mostly foreign.

I locked my bike up and walked downtown. To my surprise, there were Tom and Mate as I rounded the corner. We all said hello and I asked them about food. They would take me to a good place, then back to school with them so I didn't have to go all the way to the other side of town again. Took me to this wonderful place called Walk. We walked up to the window on the street, and started salivating at the sight of all of the lunchmeats for sandwiches being kept warm behind the glass. Mate ordered ham, and the lady chopped off a two thick slices, almost an inch thick and put it steaming onto a sourdough bun, which she gave to Mate. Upon seeing this, and that she only charged him 1,40 Euro for it, I quickly followed suit. It was german ambrosia. Who would have known that a piece of meat put between two slices of bread by itself could possibly taste so good. And for only $1.75? I took a mental picture of the location so that I could come by myself in the future.

We met Ramon by chance on the way to school, and I walked with him through the gates to the school. It is a very pretty complex, and once again is full of nett loite. Nice people. We checked in at the office and walked as slowly as possible to his next class: physics. Physics was very boring, except for Danny behind me making funny noises at the teacher. I was relieved whe the bell rang.

I left the school for Ramon's Biology class, which Ramon described with some four-letter words, to take my bike to the local bike-shop because one of the links of the chain was half-broken. After dropping the bike off to pick up after school I walked back to Walk and got another sadwhich, this time roasted pig. I was very thirsty so I stopped at a water fountain to get a drink. They have things like this all around town, and the water is good to drink.

I'll finish this post later. I am sick.