Today was probably the most enjoyable day here in class.
Granted, we played some games in the beginning but at least when we went inside
we were able to use all our time before lunch to focus on our projects, which
are coming up rather quickly now that we are at the end of our fourth week.
After lunch we had phonetics which for some reason wasn’t so
terrible today. Two possibilities: one, we are getting better at these sounds
or, two, I cant think of another reason why/how phonetics would be more enjoyable; it seems impossible.
After Phonetics Jennifer and I and two of the South Carolina
students volunteered to help the Halle students with their project. They had us
read a section of text and they asked us a few questions which we had to answer
in both English and German. Questions like, where are you from, how long have
you studied German, etc… It lasted about 10 minutes and then Jennifer and I
returned to our houses to get ready to go to Leipzig. Thomas, David, Jennifer,
and I met at the Wittenberg Bahnhof at 4:30pm to get on the 4:45pm train to Leipzig.
What we had forgotten was to get the tickets beforehand, so of course we wasted
a lot of time trying to figure out the ticket machine before we actually went
to the ticket person in the building and had them help us. By then we were late
and had to take the 5:11 train. We got to Leipzig and walked to our Hostel, we
got lost first but that is a good way to get to know a city, think. We just
made it in time to check in at 8pm, which was the hostel’s cut off time for
checking in.
After we settled in we went out to a public viewing of the
Soccer match between Greece and Germany. It was incredible. Leipzig is a
student town it seems, especially when you are publicly watching a soccer game
right next to the University. We were invited by some of the students to go to
a student end of the semester party in the University which was really
interesting since we got to see inside the university then and talk to some of
the students. They wanted to know about guns and alcohol rules in America, one
of them said he dreams of one day visiting America and he wants to go to the
south for the country music. We didn’t stay too late, we listened to the German
Rock Band that played, said goodbye to the students who invited us, and went
back to the hostel.
Words:
FlΓΌstern = to whisper
Hintergrund =
background
Wartliste = watch
list (this is what they called the list that they put their names on when they
wanted a car, the Trabi, at least, this is what the Halle student, Linda, told us
when we asked its name)
Ganz (adj) =
whole, all, total
Standesperson (f)
= dignitary
glad that you got to talk to some university students in Leipzig. That's a good way to practice German and make friends. I'm also glad that you all figured out the ticket machine. They're tricky, especially when you are buying a state ticket.
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