Monday, the 19th of October, was the official day for school to start around here. At least for the Uni Freiburg. My first class was just German 310, offered by UBC and taught by our resident director. I’m quite thankful that he thought I didn’t understand anything in German 300, because I otherwise would not have been allowed to take this course and therefore would not have been able to have gotten the credits for 300 and 310. Just for the record…. it wasn’t that I didn’t understand the concepts, in fact, I’d learned them before. It was mostly that he makes no sense when he explains stuff and Heather and I were the only people who didn’t pretend to understand what he was saying. So we get to take 310 too, a relatively easy course, and get credits.
My next class was… Environmental Policies and Green Business in Freiburg. I knew I wanted to take this course for a very long time. In fact, it was the only course I knew I could take, for a very long time. And it is great. We built things out of aluminum foil, like solar panel models and bicycles to represent all of the “green” things Freiburg does. Yah… 6 ECTS credits. And we get to go on lots of fieldtrips to local green businesses and apparently, I’m guessing for later classes this will become applicable, some background in economics is a good idea. And I’ve got that.
Then…. I had a Mündliche Übung course at the Sprachlehrinstitut (SLI), but we just wrote a really quick placement quiz. Then I was done and went home and then I went to go check out this other class (I can’t even remember what it’s called now…) with Heather. It started at 8 pm and was supposed to be in English but it definitely was not. So we sat there being polite for an hour and a half, waiting for it to end.
Tuesday: I went to my Informatik I class. Yikes. It was all in German and…. ugh. It would have been very time consuming had I decided to stick with it. And only 8 ECTS credits for a lot of work. And a final exam at the beginning of March, which does not work for me. But I really wanted to take it because I want to learn about computers and technology and things. Then. Then I went to the Geo building because there is some course offered pertaining to geothermal energy and I thought that sounded interesting. And it is in English. So I rode there with Peggy Su and got to the room and waited around. And waited and waited. And nobody showed up. Some students came at about quarter past the hour, which is when the class actually would have started. They found a print out on the other side of the hall stating, in German, that the class would start next week. Unimpressive. Very much so. So then I went home and then went to what was to be my next “tech-y” class, Search Engines. And I got there, and waited around. And waited. And waited. And no prof showed up. But there were other confused students there. So I e-mailed the prof later and asked her about it. The class started on Thursday, of course. (?????????)
Wednesday : German 310 was my first class. I was late because I was signing up for an Informatik I Übung, since I had still planned on taking the course at the time. But one of my housemates said he would sign me up, since I thought my class started at 9.00 and not 9.30, as 9.00 was the official time to sign up. But I just did it myself and then went off to be late to German class. And then I don’t think I had any more classes that day…. so what’d I do? I spent a lot of time on the ol’ computer, that’s what. Trying to be productive. Partially succeeding. And then…. later that night I went to go give Alicia some papers she’d left in my room and to ask about the Grammatik class we were starting the next morning, but we ended up chatting with Vlad for a couple of hours, which was very very interesting. Just the differences in perception of culture and roles and things, like, what the role of women is in the household. Apparently, it is to stay home and cook and raise the kids and look pretty. Hahahahaha. Ha. Haha. Good fun all the same, but by the time they were getting tired, it was about 1 am and the hot water was turned off and I was a little unhappy about that, because I really wanted a shower. I’ve taken showers here at 4 am, and it is so unpleasant. It is COLD. But the worst was when I took a shower at 4 am and didn’t have a towel because my laundry was hanging in the basement, damp, and I had washed my bed linen, so I had no bed linen. I should have just not gone to sleep at all. But I definitely know I am brining towels and bed linen from Vancouver at Christmas!
Thursday: Got up early to go to this Grammatik class. Wrote a very short placement test, went to my next class- Culture and Politics. It is the first poli-sci class I’ve ever taken and I am looking forward to it. The prof is really interesting and funny and speaks English. And all I have to do for it is to write a 25 page essay by the end of the term and show up for classes. 10 ECTS credits. And I’ll learn new things. =)
At 4pm, I had an actual Search Engines class. I don’t know why she hadn’t told me that I’d need some level of computer competence, but she didn’t and I was pretty confused for about an hour and a half. The thing is, though, I really want to take some sort of tech class! I know NOTHING about computers or technology or anything, but I think it’s really important. So maybe I can audit a course or something. I don’t know. But I really shouldn’t keep living in such ignorance when the topic is so applicable for my future. Will definitely take a night-course or something. Or ask people to teach me. Or just learn what C++ Java is with the help of the internet (which I know how to use! Basically….!)
Friday: NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!! Isn’t that smart planning? A long weekend every weekend! I did my laundry (which was basically dry by 5 this morning- convenient) and cleaned my room. I also bailed on this guy I was supposed to meet for a “tandem” lesson. That’s when he learns English and I learn German. But it was raining lots and I really didn’t want to meet him in the first place- he’s so hyper and I don’t even know him. He just randomly showed up on my Stockwerk one day (alright, I think he used to live here, egal!) and apparently we’d already met a few days before and he wanted to exchange numbers so we could do this “tandem” lesson. So, unable to say no, I said “ Ja, dass wäre sehr gut!” (“Yeah, that’d be really good!”) and then he just started texting me and calling me to set something up. But I don’t want to! I’m BUSY and NOT INTERESTED. There are many other people he could have arranged this with. I know that. I am not interested. So I’ll ask my friend if she wants to take my place for that instead. Only problem is, I think he may be in my Culture and Politics class. Woops. I write, “may” because I couldn’t really remember what he looked like. Aaaaanyway, so I texted him and told him I had a cold (which is true) and that I didn’t think I should go out that day (which was also true), but then I was Skyping with Heather and she was going to go to Ikea, and I had this clothes-drying rack I had to return from there anyway, and I’ve been putting it off, so I said I would meet her there. I’m a bad person. And God sort of got me back for it. Because, it took me a good 2 hours to get there, in the rain, because of weird bus schedules. But at least I returned it! And got 10 Euro back. And walked home, which was much much faster than busing. Waaaaaaz faster.
Then….. I…. worked on some homework, which was no easy task, because people kept messaging me and trying to arrange things, which is all well and good, but, kahmahn. So I did that and then Alicia told me to check my Facebook, so of course I did, and Vlad had invited us for martinis that night. So then we did that at about 10ish, except I don’t drink, remember????? And they both knew that, but people just don’t comprehend this concept. I don’t know, I don’t know why people try to peer pressure me into it. The more they do, the more I don’t. Maybe I am stubborn (… I am. I just am.), but it isn’t like I try to pressure people into doing all the wonderful things I do. I don’t outright tell them that they should be vegan for ridiculous reasons, like, it’s fun and , it tastes good and don’t you like feeling buzzed? Basically, I say why it is good, I don’t ask them why they aren’t. I hope. Maybe it is difficult to explain, but, I accept that some people are just the way they are, and sometimes they change. But only if they want to. If people don’t want to do something, they won’t do it. If they feel that living without cheese would be such a travesty, they will continue to eat it, regardless of whether or not they are hurting somebody in the process. Same goes for other things from or of animals. And other things. If people can do what they want, they will do what they want (or at least what they think they want, or what is socially acceptable, regardless of other factors). I don’t think I’m articulating this point very well. Anyway, it was fine last night. There wasn’t much peer pressuring and I didn’t drink any martinis. It was really nice- we learned a Russian card game- which I forgot how to play halfway through, some of the Russian language , and talked and watched funny things on Youtube and listened to music and showed each other pictures of our friends. And, Vlad made martinis and Alicia and he drank the martinis, which got to be less and less juice stuff and more and more martini stuff as time went by. And Alicia made popcorn in a POT! Isn’t that amazing? I think so. Had I known how to do this, I wouldn’t have felt so defeated about both of our popcorn makers being broken, and would have used a pot back home in Canada. So we did that all til 4 this morning and then they were getting tired so we cleaned up and Vlad gave us chocolates, hurrah! And then I went to my side of the building and put my basically dry bed linen back on my bed and didn’t even attempt a shower.
And then I woke up and intended on going to the Flea Market but Adrienne hasn’t called me, so I sat here and typed this instead. And then I will be meeting Heather at the market downtown and I would like to take Peggy Su to the bike doctor, because her gears sound odd. And I was supposed to go salsa dancing tonight, but I pretty much don’t want to, as I’d rather sleep and wake up at a decent time tomorrow.
My goodness I can ramble.
<3 gemmer
