First Class!

Hi everybody!

This day is wrapping up for me here in Deutschland. It was a pretty good day. I met up with Agya at the University and we decided it would be a good idea to go into Vegesack for some lunch. Neither of us have ridden the buses without someone more experienced with us, but we decided to try it out. We managed to get into town without a problem. We found a little restaurant in the Haven-Hoovt and, with minimum struggle and some laughs, we ordered food. After doing some very small shopping (I needed nail clippers) we decided it was time to go back to the University. We went back to the bus station and got on what we thought was our bus from before, but, of course, it wasn't. Somehow we got on a different bus completely. We lucked out though and the bus dropped us off kinda near the University. Everyday, even with the smallest things, it's an adventure here.

I attended my first class tonight, Transnational & Global Communication Issues. I am not sure about the professor. He has a German accent, is monotone, rambles, and speaks slowly. This sounds like a set up for disaster from the description, but it was quite as bad as it could have been. Granted it wasn't great, but I think I got the main points. Even if I didn't, my friend Kate is in the class and we're going to compare notes after class to make sure we got the important info.

One thing that I had no idea about was that at the break (it's a 3 hour class) and at the end, the students rap their knuckles on the desks. Apparently it's a sign of agreement and respect for the professors. I had no idea. It's kinda interesting.

Tomorrow I have 2 classes - Writing Beyond the Nation-State and German Language. I'm auditing the German class, but it I think it will be good for me to pick up some of the basics.

I'm really hungry and I have to go deal with my landlord about using the washing machine (apparently clothes dryers don't exist over here much to my chagrin), so I will talk to you soon.

Love,
Bits