I have the best Sprachpartner...ever!

Yesterday Heidi and I decided we'd have breakfast together at AJY. Since my classes are all later in the afternoon, I find that I have been just sleeping in most days and then don't get a whole lot done. So we're working on having things in the morning...reasons to get up I guess. She brought the butter, jam, etc. and I brought the bread. I also brought some yogurt that I had in my fridge since I wanted to get rid of it before going to London on Thursday. Maressa came too and I actually drank coffee! I did put some milk in it, but no sugar this time. Whoa. I don't drink coffee. I don't understand this!

I was SO tired and didn't really want to get up just to eat breakfast, but I did and I'm glad that I did. The three of us had fun talking and stuff and decided we'd make this a regular thing with a Bible study some mornings. Jenny Craig (haha), an AJY Alum and Uni. Heidelberg Grad Student came in and asked if it was a breakfast club. Not necessarily, but sure. I stayed at AJY for a little while and then went home to clean my room a little. Heidi called shortly after wondering if she could do her laundry at my place since the washers in her building were always busy. She came over looking like Santa Claus with her big bag of laundry. We had to wait a half an hour for the washer to be free. We had to be back at AJY at 1:15 for our bi-weekly meeting. Between the time after the meeting and 2 I booked my trip to Scotland in May! I'm SO excited. #1) I get to go to a new place. #2) I get to see Jessica and where she lives/studies #3) I don't have class on Fridays, Monday is a holiday and my class on Tuesday isn't until 6 PM so I am flying back on Tuesday morning #4) The tickets were relatively inexpensive (20 Euros each way) and I get to fly out of Edinburgh both times! So a good thing all around!

At 2 I met up with Simone. It was just so great to see her again. We went to Marstall for lunch and coffee. I ate lunch (she didn't) and I gave her the gifts I had gotten for her in the States. She loved them and also the magazines that I passed down. We're going to watch the movies together sometime soon. I am liking the Mensa (dining hall) much better this time around. They had good food today and I wanted a little of everything (almost). Then we went to the other part of the Mensa and ordered Latte Macchiatos and cake. Those Germans love their coffee and cake. It's what they do. Like all the time. So I had the Black Forest cake. Oh my gosh! Sooo good! We had a lot of fun catching up and just talking about life in general. I feel so lucky that we have become such good friends. She likes watching a show called Greek (American show) about sororities and fraternities. She was telling me about it and all of the "crazy" things that they do such as snapping, theme parties, matching shirts, different rules, big and little sisters and more. She was in awe as I told her that all of those things are actually real and that we do each and everything thing she talked about!!! There were a few things that had been stretched pretty far, but for the most part they were true. Now she wants so badly to study in the US and to join a sorority. I loved telling her all about it because she was so interested in hearing about all of the different things. She also asked if it was true that we stand in a circle and pass around a candle when someone is engaged and if their boyfriend gives the girl their letters. Umm yea! One of my favorite things we do! So now I'm going to have to watch this show with her sometime.

When we left the Mensa there was a lot of noise and it looked like there was a protest of some sort on the street. But it was a bunch of Lidl workers (discount grocery store) who were taking part in an unusual march where they declared that Lidl is a great place to work and that they liked working there. Lidl has been in the news lately for spying on its employees and even hiring private detectives. Lidl says they did these things to combat shoplifting, but many employees feel violated. So that was kind of interesting. After over 2.5 hours Simone and I said goodbye and went out separate ways. Heidi had my keys since she was washing her clothes while I was with Simone so I ran by her place to get them. We had class at 6 so I went home after a bit and then back again to AJY.

I didn't take Herr Doerr's class last semester because I didn't really like him during the intense grammar class. He just intimidated me a lot and I thought he was kind of mean. But I figured I might as well take his class this semester. It's a writing class (kind of) and we have to write one paper each week. That will be a challenge, but there isn't a test at the end, which is really cool. I mean, we do write 14 papers over the course of the semester so I think that's fair enough. Right before he ended class he asked if anyone had any questions and then looked at me and asked if I was living in the same room this semester and if I got to leave my things here while I went home. I answered yes and then he said a few more things to the class and then it was over. How random!? Totally threw me off! But then after class we talked for a few minutes about the vacation he took over the last few weeks. He was somewhere a little north of Madagascar and it was really warm and sunny. It was good that I got to talk to him because each time I do I get less intimidated and realize that he really isn't mean, just pretty sarcastic and blunt. I got ice cream with Jason, Jessica, John and Tara after class. Wow. There are so many J names in AJY! haha Later I went home, had dinner and did some homework for tomorrow.