Let the classes begin...

Today marked our first day of real class. The subject; architectural and art history...ALL DAY! That’s right, we started at 10:15am and didn't get out until a little after 5pm. Now doesn't that sound like fun? Of course we had about an hour lunch break to ease the brain. I am not sure how this whole one class per day thing is going to work out. My attention span just does not like to cooperate with keeping on task for long periods of time. This should be interesting =) They have to schedule these classes this way because we do not meet very often. For instance, the next 2 classes will be Jan 28th and then Feb 11th. On the plus side, there are no tests! You know at first we were really upset about the absence of this popular form of student torture, but I think if we really try, we might be able to recover from this shocking news and make the best of things =)

After class, Jacob, Savannah, Geoff, and I, went to a store to purchase some school supplies. You see our professor will not let us use our computers to take notes on. Apparently they are catching on to the fact that some students "note taking" consists of facebook, email, or internet games. Sad for those of us who actually stay true to Microsoft Word, but what can you do? So we ended up in the Galeria Kaufhof where a college ruled spiral just did not exist. Apparently they use either our equivalent to wide ruled paper or graph paper. Go figure. I settled on the cheapest thing I found that would provide decent note taking space and I walked away with a red spiral that contained 80 sheets of graphing paper. Any guesses on the cost of such an item? Try 2,75 euros! And don't forget, 1 Euro = 1.58 US dollars. This paper better be magical or something!

In the end, this silly spiral ended up costing me more than a few euros. While I was wondering around the department store, I lost my mittens =( Yes it is true. My favorite, multi-colored, striped mittens with removable flap for ultimate finger dexterity have vanished! At some point they wiggled loose from my messenger bag and are now probably being enjoyed by some random German who has way too many gloves at home and won't fully appreciate the exposable thumb feature. I am telling you, these mittens were amazing! There is still hope though! Tomorrow I will return to this mitten snatching store and see if by chance someone was nice enough to turn then in the lost and found. That is my prayer for tonight; that my mittens will not be gone forever!!! I miss them already =( Sad, I know. But if you had cool mittens like these, you would be as sad as I am.


On a happier note, dinner tonight was amazing! I am luck to have a host lady who loves to cook! And she cooks well! The first few nights were pretty rocky because the menu only contained vegetables cooked many different ways. And, well, let's just say that I have never really been big on those green "food" items. I always feel like a rabbit crunching on some grass. I mean, why not just go eat a tree. When I eat a lot of green veggies I always have to stop my urge to grab the next tree limb and see if it tastes the same. Especially broccoli! It even looks like mini trees! Ohh boy. But tonight we had spaghetti with meat! I can handle that =) She always has great presentation too! Check it out...


This is the salad with dessert. Ohh boy the salad was actually amazing!


Spaghetti!!!


And here is a picture of my host lady! She is really nice =)
Not to great at the whole speaking English thing, but she is getting better each day!

Ohh and last night she had 5 ladies over. They all spoke a little English which made it fun for me. They would have this long conversation in German and every once in a while the lady sitting next to me would lean over and tell me what the conversation was about. Try following a conversation where you have not even the slightest idea as to what is being said and then having to act like you are interested. Haha. It was crazy! Here is how the evening went. These ladies meet every two months and they all bring food. Then they sit down, have some wine, eat the food, and talk about everything! And when I say they eat food, I mean they EAT food! I think there about 6 different courses served. I missed the first two because I was taking a nap. When I woke up, my host lady saw my light on and offered for me to join them. When I got there they were on their 3rd table full of goodies. It was one of two dessert times that evening. Then they cleared the deserts from the table. They filled the table with cheeses and sauerkraut (yuck). Cleared the table again and filled it with a big dish of lasagna (which by the way means pasta, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese). They cleared the table again for some form of chicken legs in a soup with spinach and some red stuff. Cleared the table for the last time and wrapped up the evening with more dessert. It was insane. These ladies could eat!

At some point in the evening I was offered cake. Of course the cake was out of sight so I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Not thinking, I responded yes, to which I was served a big hunk of chocolate cake! And if you know me, then you know I dislike chocolate very very very much!!! But as she was serving it to me she explained how it was the specialty of one of the ladies there. And I looked over to see that lady's face shinning with happiness because she was about to see how this silly American kid would like her cake. I mean, what do you do? So I did the unthinkable. For the first time in my LIFE, I ate that whole piece of chocolate cake. With a smile too! =) And I am happy to report that she was overjoyed that I "liked" her cake. Ohh man!


Here it is. The cake I will never forget!