I have 23 minutes until I have to leave for school, so I decided to see if I can speed up my posting process. The past few posts have each taken over an hour to write, and I’m sure I can reduce that if I make an attempt. To make this easier, I am writing a recap post (also because I already said I would). Here goes!
Friday evening turned out to be a night to remember. My fellow residents of Ahldorf and I celebrated a successful completion of our first week in PLP (preparatory language program aka German boot camp) by taking some drinks with us out into the Black Forest. We found some tables and a fire pit, so we spent the evening dancing and singing and engaging in other acts of frivolity (any of us can tell you all about how much better swings and teeter totters are in Germany than in the US).
The pale ale that I purchased on Friday afternoon (whose name escapes me at the moment) was pretty good, although I am still holding out for one that floors me. Meine Liebe Gastmutti gave me an India Pale Ale from Denmark that I am saving for a particularly special occasion. Whenever said occasion arises, I will of course let you know how Danish IPAs rank with my tastebuds.
The next morning, we all managed to rouse ourselves out of bed in time to catch our train to Ulm. We arrived after a three hour journey filled with card games and too many English words, and set out on a tour of the city. Ulm is where Albert Einstein was born, and is also home to the Ulmer Münster, the world’s tallest church. The steeple measures 161.5 metres (530 feet) tall and contains 768 steps, and the view from the top is a great reward for such hard work. Once we returned to the bottom, our legs were shaking uncontrollably until we were about halfway back to Stuttgart.
Ulm is a large and busy city, and also provided me my first McDonalds meal in Germany. I will admit that it did taste much better than in the US, however, I still think that I will be avoiding this eatery during my stay here in Europe.
Yesterday was a day of recuperation, and I spent the day alternating between studying and crafting some friendship bracelets with meine Gastschwester. I also watched several different versions of Schneeweißchen (Snow White) as well as Mean Girls 2, and I am starting to realize how much watching TV helps with German language comprehension.
Aaaand I finished this blog post with four minutes left to spare! 😀 thank you for reading, pictures will come another day. Bis später!
RoamingLyon 