Relaxing

This morning I woke up so annoyed. The cleaning ladies who come here every morning are driving me insane. They come everyday between 6 and 6:30 AM and stay until around 7. They are so obnoxiously loud and I don't even think they do anything. I mean, I really don't know what they clean! My bathroom looks the same as it does when I go to bed! One time I saw a woman mopping, but she was just throwing around a wet mop not really doing much. Grossed me out more than it made me feel like I had a clean bathroom! They leave our front door open when the come so all of this cold air comes in and then I'm freezing when I get out of bed. It's a pain because if they're here, I can't take a shower. From what I can hear, they go to other apartments and clean them and then come and dump water in my toilet. I just don't understand! On the mornings when they're especially loud, Keith and I talk about how annoyed we are. Today we decided that they can just skip "cleaning" our apartment and we'll do it ourselves.

Their being here prevented me from showering this morning so I just slept until around 8 again. In class I talked about the interview I had with Katharina the other night. It was really short, but so was everyone else's. After we finished with that, off we went to grammar class! It wasn't quite as exciting as the day before, but it was shorter since we had the presentations. Every day we have a break in between our class periods and today I just hung out in the study center. We aren't allowed to get on the computers at that time so I just watched some TV and talked with the others. I really like that little break.

My group met today about our project after class. I think its going to turn out pretty cool! We are all going to ask our Sprachpartners "Was ist typisch Deutsch?" and then bring our answers back on Thursday. Depending on what they say, we will try to find pictures to put on our powerpoint. One guy in my group, Eric lives in an actual house and is going to ask his host mother. I will ask Katharina and the others will ask their friends. Heidi is in my group! I forgot to mention that! Things just work out so well sometimes! I think we all sat around and talked for about an hour. My favorite John is in my group so of course that made it interesting. He ALWAYS has something to say!

Heidi and I decided to give the Hauptbahnhof another try. We got in the right line but then after we waited in line forever, found out that we had to have a student ID with us to get the pass we wanted. UGH! Then they told me that I couldn't even get that pass because I'm not staying the full semester (until February). That makes no sense! They would still get my money and I wouldn't be using the pass! We have to talk to AJY tomorrow to figure out what was up with all of that. Burger King was at the Hauptbahnhof so we went there for lunch. Mmm! Yum Yum! Probably not the healthiest thing I could have chosen, but we totally deserved it after all of that mess.

Erika sent me the recipe for her mom's southern white chili. I absolutely love that stuff and want to try to make it since its a recipe that doesn't require an oven! Heidi and I checked out that grocery store (it's called Rewe by the way) that I found last week to see if they had the ingredients. I think they have the majority of them, but the names of the foods were different so I needed more time to process it all. I bought some apples, bananas, a bag of tortelloni, yogurt, cheese and bread and then we headed to PennyMarkt. There I bought plastic baggies, sponges for the kitchen and dish rags. I love how cheap that place is!

When we got back I got a message from Katharina saying she arrived in Heidelberg! She got here about 15 minutes later and had a bday gift for me! She gave me a pass to Holiday Park (the amusement park we went to last time I was here) and a new duvet cover for my bed! She's also going to bring another light for my room so that it wont be so dark. I'm just so happy that she lives nearby! I love that we already know each other so well and that she is willing to help me with things around here! What a nice comfort to have!

I was really confused about how to do laundry here so she helped me figure that out. I had to select a temperature and cycle, but didn't know what to do. She called her mom and we figured it all out. We talked a lot (mostly in English) and then walked to Subway because she was starving. When we got back we put my clothes in the dryer and hoped that they wouldn't shrink! There is only one washer and one dryer for this whole building. I thought the set up in the dorms at Elon was a little frustrating! Hopefully it won't be too bad here with waiting for others to wash. The washer and dryer are also a lot smaller here. Katharina said that they were pretty old and most are larger now. I was able to wash the clothes that I wanted to, so I have no complaints, really!

Katharina mentioned that today is 9/11. I realized that this morning when I went to write my homework down, but other than that had completely forgotten. Since I don't watch much TV here or don't really read the newspaper, there was nothing to remind me of it. I really need to at least read a few articles from the paper each day. It would really help build my vocab among other things. 9/11 is just so different here than in the States, but understandably so.

I need to start talking to Katharina in German. We're just so used to speaking in English to each other, it's hard to break the habit. She's my best resource right now and I really need to take advantage of that!! I'll try to make it a point to speak mostly German next time I see her!

After she left I didn't really do too much. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and also had an apple. It was so great! I made two sandwiches because the bread I bought is quite small. Delicious! Then I put my clean, unshrunken clothes away and answered emails for awhile. It was so nice to just bum around this afternoon and not have anywhere I needed to be.