Love my Sprachpartnerin!!

I didn't have ANY classes today so I slept in a little bit. Next week I will have a class at 9:15, but this week I went to the one that is offered on Monday. Simone (my language partner) and I planned to meet at 2 in the University Square. We ended up going to a little cafe. I ordered a Latte Macchiato again and the first sip tasted good this time! Woohoo! Who knew that liking coffee could be so easy? The cafe had a cozy feeling and we sat at a corner table. The benches had fluffy pillows on them the atmosphere was just great because we were the only ones sitting inside. Last time Simone and I met, we spoke mainly in German. We're supposed to speak half of the time in English too so that she gets some practice. So I told her that we needed to do that this time and we said that we would do so around 3 since she had to be somewhere at four. Well when we looked at our watches, it was almost 4! We had talked again for almost two hours in German! Sooo cool! We talked about so many things like travel, stuff at the university, friends, shopping, food and a lot more. She was in Minnesota as part of an exchange a few years back and she told me about Mall of America. Totally somewhere I need to go! Then we were talking about Starbucks, Carribou Coffee, Coldstone and on and on. She said that she also loves Applebee's and that she wished they would have those in Germany. I kept thinking, of all the restuarants, you want Applebee's?? She told me that she thinks its so cool that they sing and give cake or ice cream at restuarants when its someone's birthday. She said you would never see that in Germany. I like that about the US too! I told her that some places charge for the birthday desert because quite a few people lie and say its a friend's birthday when really, it isn't. She couldn't believe that and was shocked that they didn't check IDs to make sure. She also said that she would have me over for dinner sometime soon and would made Schnitzel. That's really exciting! Hopefully I can learn too and then make it back in the States!

I ran to AJY briefly after our little meeting and then to a bakery to get something small to eat. Pearl from Scrap Shack asked if I had seen any cool jewelry that she would like and as I was walking I saw some nice jewelry stores. Totally not watching where I was going, I ran into a bike that was propped up against a pole. It fell on me and I am now left wit a sore wrist and a bruised hand. It was a heavy bike! I'm just glad i ran into the bike when it didn't have anyone on it! And even better, that I didn't run into the pole instead!

Later I took my bottles back to the store to get the refund. I think I ended up with about 6 Euros! Pretty cool! I saw Keith while I was there. The gym he joined is in the same building as the grocery store we like. I stopped by H&M on my way back and then caught the bus back to Uniplatz. For dinner awhile later I made some rice. I didn't know what Beutel meant, but apparantly the rice I bought came in a little bag and you drop the bag in boiling water then let it cook for 15 minutes and voila! perfect rice! The box came with 4 of the little bags. It turned out well, but next time I'm going to buy some vegetables to have with it. The rest of the evening was spent emailing and catching up on things around here. Two classes tomorrow then I'm done until Tuesday! AWESOME!