Dorm Life: Techno Musik, Sheep and Nudity

So, I promised an entry on Osnabruecker adventures, but, honestly, I don't feel like writing about those just yet. I fully intend to, however, as there are some interesting stories. What I really want to talk about is my living situation.

Initially, when they told us we were going to be living in a dorm, I was excited. Getting to know German students AND living on campus? It sounded so kick ass. They forgot to mention a few details, though, in our information briefings/ packets/ emails. For example, because dorms are a relatively new idea in Germany, oftentimes they aren't that close to the University, which is the case for ours. It's actually kind of nice, as the area where the University is located is the center of the city and can be a bit loud. But it sucks when you really want to go back and take a nap during lunch, as it takes an hour to get to the dorm and back to the classroom.

Another thing that wasn't mentioned was that are dorms were co-ed. Not the Mississippi version of co-ed, but all the way co-ed, including bathrooms. I didn't know this, so imagine my surprise when I see a dude walking out of the stall as I entered. Besides this encounter, though, I've hardly see anyone in the bathroom, let alone a boy, so it's cool. Besides, the Germans, who love their rules, have the bathrooms labeled with signs. You can only "pee standing" in the first stall.

While we're talking about bathrooms, I must tell you about our toilet paper. First off, it's brown and scratchy, but whatever. It's not that bad. What's bad is that they pretty much ration it. Apparently we get 18 rolls per month, and, if we use that up, we don't get any more until the next month. It sucks, especially since I don't know where to buy toilet paper in Osnabrueck, and I certainly didn't pack any.

Enough about the bathrooms, though. There's a vending machine with beer in it. Seriously. In a college dorm, they make beer easily acceptable. There's also a cigarette machine, and you can smoke almost everywhere. The TV room has ashtrays, the halls smell like smoke, and, everytime I go into the kitchen, there's someone leaning out the window with a Lucky Strike. Oh, and you can smoke in your room, too, although they don't seem to encourage this, as they don't put ashtrays in the rooms.

The students in our dorm are big partiers, or maybe it's just because we're here at the beginning of their summer break. Whichever. These kids have been partying a lot. Saturday night, they threw someone a birthday party in the student bar (!), which happens to be two floors below my room. The techno music blasted until two or three in the morning, and I mean blasted. My iPod was turned up all the way to soothing, let's-go-to-sleep music, but I could still hear the steady beat and electronic sound of the techno version of Happy Birthday. And they come in at all hours of the night, talking and singing and--you guessed it--playing techno in their cars.

I've decided that it's actually not that loud, really, and that it's just that my window is open in hopes of catching a breeze. I can hear the most obscure things, like sheep baa-ing. Not kidding. The first time I heard the sheep, I thought it was fake, a ring tone or some stupid toy. Wrong. There's a sheep farm in front of our dorm. With actual sheep. And we're in the middle of the city. My mind is blown every time I hear the wooly animals, who quite often are the reason I wake up from afternoon naps. Sheep can be loud.

As for my room, it looks like something straight out of a 1990 Ikea catalog. I love it, though. It's so German. And I don't have a roommate, which has been so awesome. It's not that I would mind living with someone. It's just that it has been so damn hot here, and there's no air conditioning. I don't even have a fan anymore (see Goettingen). So, in the intense heat, sleeping in anything at all, even Nike shorts and a t-shirt, is too much. Without a roommate, I can be naked all the time, which is so awesome. Although, as it cools down some, I'm enjoying snuggling up in my comforter and falling asleep cozy. It makes me think of Mississippi and the beauty of air conditioning.

So that's my experience with German dorm life thus far. It's been interesting. There have been days when I hated it, when I wanted nothing more to move back to our hotel in Leipzig that had air conditioning and not leave until it's time to go to Amsterdam. But overall, it's been hella fun. Write to you soon about Osnabrueck and our excursions.

Peace,
Elizabeth

Hamburg, and Why Waffle House Sucks.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been so busy with class and getting settled, and somehow, no matter how much time I seem to have, it just evaporates in this unairconditioned heat and leaves me sleeping. Anyway, at the urging of several friends, I will now recount my tales regarding Hamburg

We headed to Hamburg a day early because of the intense heat and lack of things to do in Goettingen. After we checked into the hotel, we went to the Rathaus. It is so, so gorgeous. I felt like I was walking through a palace. Or a Vegas hotel. Whichever. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in the pedestrian zone in front of our hotel, and I was given a rose by the waiter at the end of our meal. We walked around for a while after that, around the lake nearby and through the streets lined with gorgeous buildings. Hamburg is so, so beautiful. I almost didn't want to go back. I wanted to keep walking and to see everything in the city.

The next day we went down to the harbor. It was a really lazy day, just walking up and down, and stopping for fish and chips for lunch. We headed back to the hotel early, though, because that night we had tickets for Der Koenig der Loewen, or the German version of The Lion King on stage. It was phenomenal. The theatre is on the opposite side of the harbor, so you have to take a boat to this massive metal theater. We got there really early, so we sat outside and watched the ships come and go. The play didn't disappoint, either. The music is overall the same, although in German. And the costumes! Ahhh. It was such a good show.

We met up with Jake the next day, and just kind of wandering throughout Hamburg and caught up on all things America and FIFA related. After lunch, we headed to the Reeperbahn, which is the big party street in Hamburg. It was tame when we were there--after all, it was only the early afternoon. Anyway, it has this vibe to it that reminded me of Bourbon Street, but if it was in New York. Our adventures there were uneventful. We discovered that Jim Bean sells mixed drinks in a can--the perfect whiskey and coke, available at your local doener shop/ grocery store. They also sell champagne in a can, a discovery which is right on up there with the Kinder Surprise for me. We managed to stumble upon one of the places The Beatles used to play/ live, which was a nice surprise.

Our last day in Hamburg was spent wandering through the warehouse city on one of the hottest days in my memory. I loved walking through that area, but ended up with a migraine from the heat, and headed back to the hotel to nap and pack. We had dinner that night in the pedestrian zone again, although this time we opted for a typical German restaurant.

There were quite a few recurring topics of discussion throughout our stay in Hamburg, one of which was waffles. We were three weeks into the trip and would have done some horrible things for an American breakfast. It got to the point that I searched waffles in Hamburg, to no avail. However, it occured to me that Waffle House has one of the best (aka most likely to clog your arteries) breakfast spreads in the world. We figured that there had to be a Waffle House in Germany. Wrong. I was so disappointed.

I have since then had a waffle, thanks to my sweet travel companion, who bought waffles and syrup upon our arrival in Osnabrueck. I'll tell you of my more recent adventures soon, although they are admittedly a bit boring, as we've not been doing too much due to the heat.

Peace,
Eli

Goettingen, and Why Little Fans Should Just Stay In America

Goettingen University can claim many famous alumni--Bismarck, the Brothers Grimm, and Werner Heisenberg (the Nazi a-bomb guy. Look him up.)--and is one of the few schools Ole Miss has an exchange program with that doesn't specialize in math/ computers/ something else I have no interest in. Anyway, I wanted to visit and see the town for myself before I make my decision as to where I'll be spending my semester/ year.

We spent Sunday afternoon at a doener restaurant in one of the plazas watching soccer. It was such good game, and the crowd was so responsive. Afterward, people rode around in their cars and honked their horns and waved their flags and yelled "Schland!" just like after every other victory thus far. However, perhaps because this was a more impressive win, or perhaps just because we were in a college town, the honking and waving and yelling went on for hours and well into the night.

Germany isn't too big on air conditioning, which is understandable, seeing as the vast majority of our days here have seen perfect weather. However, Sunday and especially Sunday night were both quite hot. In my prepared-for-all-things suitcase, I had my little fan, so, naturally, I plugged it in to my converter. I sat in the moving air, thinking smugly to myself that it was worth having my obscenely large suitcase, the size of which every cab driver and hotelier has commented on, just to have such things as a fan and appreciated the scent of fresh plastic it blew on my face. That is, until I noticed that it was not, in fact, a scent of fresh plastic, but of burning plastic. In that very instant, sparks flew out from the little fan, this lights shut off, and I fell from my bed in shock. Turns out my converter was just an adapter plus a power surge protector, and I had blown the power for the majority of the second floor.

On Monday, Martin and I walked around Goettingen. We saw their synagogue memorial and a few churches, then grabbed doeners and headed to the University's campus to play the people watching game. It was so much fun, watching German students and making up their slightly melodramatic life stories based solely on their appearances. After hanging out there for a while, we headed back to the hotel for naps, then went for Mexican food and the Chile-Brazil game.

Overall, our time in Goettingen was really laid back. It was nice to kind of just catch our breath and chill out for a bit. I hadn't realized how exhatusted I was until I woke up from Monday's nap and saw that I had slept for five hours. And I'm still mourning the loss of the little fan. It was so cute and worked so well in the few seconds before its demise.

I'll update soon with Hamburger stories.

Peace,
Eli