Week 1 (long)

Assc. Photos: Set2

This post will serve as a recap of my whole last week.  It'll be a long one but I will shorten to the best parts.

Friday:
Arrived in Stuttgart, went to an orientation for the intensive course, had dinner downtown at Alte Kanzlei, a Swabische (Swabish) restaurant.  Later went out with the international group for a welcome party to Landespavilion, a cool bar downtown.

This was the first taste of European nightlife I've had.  Everyone was really nice and it was a great time.  The music was a bit old - Rude boy and Run it were played.. but so was a remix of Moves like Jagger.  Interesting how some music gets here quickly.  It was also kind of funny that some of the European gals I was with were singing along to the American music and had a bit of the lyrics confused.  I stayed out and danced until 3:00 am, then caught a night bus (3:30 is the last one) home and was asleep around 5:00am!  Some people even stayed later, and caught the first train home at 5:30am.

Saturday:
Hung out with Anne and Lindsey and Erik for a few hours before she caught the train home.  We had lunch and  strolled around downtown for a bit.  On our own officially!

Sunday:
We had a Stadt Rally or Schnitzeljagd - a scavenger hunt through the city proper to get oriented with a lot of locations, get a bit of history, learn what the grandiose buildings were originally built for and who occupies them nowadays, and most importantly, bond with some other students.  It was a blast!!

Our Group- Myself, Agata (Polen), Cle'ment (Frankreich), Anne (Finnland), and Malin (Schweden)

We didn't win - prizes included Jagermeister, wine, and traditional German food, but it was a helluva Sunday afternoon.

Monday-Tuesday:
Nothing exciting; we had our placement tests for classes to see which level or group we'd be in.  We went out both nights for a beer to one of the (3) on-campus bars as a big group.
Fun fact: this bar has a drinking challenge - a 3 liter beer.  Can't wait to do it! One of our friends already has done it (twice).

Can't. Wait.

Wednesday:
First day of class! We introduced ourselves to our classmates and chatted with our instructor for about an hour, then had a short break to run to the bakery and get a snack.  After that we met up with another group - so about 40 students total - and took a walking tour of the downtown Stuttgart area.  The instructors
(Sebastian from Berlin and I don't remember the woman's name..) told us the best bars and which kind of music they play, where to go to the market, and some of the history of the buildings.

I met Tanja (Ukrainian) on Wednesday and we spent the morning together on the tour chatting in German.. new friends rock :).  I was warned about becoming too close with just Int'l students when I first got here, but I'm also meeting Germans.  Plus, when we speak only in German then I think it's just as good.  The only problem is when we as a group all speak English... detrimental to the learning.

Thursday:
Took an Oral exam to help narrow down class.  Seems strange to do this after the first day of classes is already over, but a lot of people get moved around.  Tanja, myself, and Jamie (Brit, great fun) are getting moved up to a higher level.  Erik is as well, with his class.  So, we'll all be taking class together in the mornings woo!

Weekend:
Will be covered in the next post to keep this from being superduper long!