Hamburg Adventure

So I am terrible at remembering to do things, this blog included. I have been really busy trying to get everything situated with all of my classes that started last week. My classes have all been good so far, I am struggling in my Deutsch class because my American accent hinders me from being able to pronunciate words properly, so basically the teacher has to correct me all the time. My other classes are just your typical business classes so not too much excitement in those yet. I am not used to the class structure here though. There is no homework or tests throughout the semester, only a presentation and/or an exam at the end. And they don't ever take attendance. So basically if you fail the exam or presentation at the end you fail the class. So weird! Also some of them have class on Saturday and Sunday. You best believe I did not sign up for any classes like that. I like all of my teachers as well. They are pretty normal college professors except they all have accents so sometimes it is hard to understand. The most difficult being my Supply Chain Management teacher. She is from Ukraine and she lives in Germany now and she studied in the US. So she has Ukranian (sounds similar to Russian) and German accents when she teaches in English.

 

Despite all of the stress and everything getting ready for classes, I found some time last Saturday and went exploring in Hamburg with some other International students. It was about an hour and a half train ride from Bremen to Hamburg, so it wasn't too bad of a trip! Here are all of the pictures from the trip!

 

  

 

 The next two pictures are of the Bremen Haptbahnhof aka the central station for the trains and trams.

 

This was the cutest little old guy that was sitting outside of the Haptbahnhof with one of those wooden music box things with a crank that plays music (I tried to look up the actual name and couldn't find it, so don't hate). Also pictured, Madison, the other girl from MSSU.

The next two pictures are of the cathedral, St. Petri

The next five pictures are of the Hamburg Rathous aka the city hall/courthouse



Here's me!

We passed this guy that had a stick with string on the end that was making bubbles. It was awesome.



The next few pictures are of the cathedral, St. Micheal. It was really pretty and a lot more ornate than St. Petri



Gigantic organ

You could pay 4 euro and get to ride a horrific elevator up 20 floors to the top of the tower and look out over the city. Totally worth it, although it was FREEZING.

Another picture of the front of St. Micheal. (It was hard to get a shot of the whole building because it was in the city so it was surrounded by other buildings, I did my best. I actually think it looks kind of artsy, you're welcome.)

Okay, this next picture makes my blood boil. This is a picture of the bathroom in McDonald's where I had to pay 50 cent euro to use the bathroom. That's right you read it correctly, I had TO PAY TO USE THE BATHROOM. I was in shock. The old guy standing there in the white lab coat was like bodyguard that stood by the doors to make sure you paid before entering. I am still in shock that I had to pay to do something that your body HAS to do. Sadly, it was like this all over Hamburg. At Starbucks, your receipt gave you a code for the bathroom door that was locked with a keypad. I guess Germans just really want to get all they can out of tourist. You best believe I held it for the rest of the day because there was no way I was paying to pee again. Just ridiculous. 

As some of you may know, Hamburg is a major port city, so of course we had to go along the water to check out waterside shops and such, it was really cool, except it smelled like fish. Gross.



This was probably my favorite thing of the day. It is a tunnel that goes underwater and connects to an island on the other side. It was first built in the early 1900 and was used for horse drawn carriages, so the road is really narrow, no car would be able to drive in it.

 

 

"Hello from the other sideeeee" of the tunnel.

(My first attempt at taking a panorama, not too bad if I do say so myself)



Here's me again, freezing my butt off.

Here's the sketchy, ancient elevator we had to take to get up to land from the tunnel.



The next two pictures are from a random battle ship that was along the waterside. (The only reason we went on it was because it was free)

 



The next few are pictures looking across this water canal that ran along between buildings. Kind of reminded me of pictures of Italy, although there were no gondola rides :(



This is different view of the Rathous, another artsy shot. You're welcome. 

 

 

Hope you guys enjoyed all the pictures, it took me forever to load them all. I am going to try to be better about updating my blog, but no promises. 

Learning is hard

What I have learned in the past couple days (meaning Monday and Tuesday) is that I am very thankful that at home I don't live in a city where I have to rely on public transportation to get me places, that learning a new language is hard, especially when you've never been around it (I took two years of Spanish in high school, but I had already been around it at school and work before I took it so it wasn't that hard), and lastly, I learned that no matter what country I am in, I will always be able to make a grilled cheese

Monday was my first day of using public transportation..... it was definitely an experience. I was supposed to meet Madison, the other girl from Southern going to Bremen, at 10 at the Hoschule Bremen (the college I am attending here.) I did not arrive until after 10:30 and I left my apartment at 9:30. That means a trip that should have taken 15-20 minutes, took over an hour. That's how lost I was.  I guess I misunderstood the directions I was given. I got on the right tram, tram #3, I just got on it going in the wrong direction. So I rode it to the end and realized "crap, I went the wrong way." So then I had to get off and try to look at the map, which for someone like me who has only ever rode a tram one other time in my life while in Washington DC back in the 10th grade, is quite challenging anyways and then it being all in German just made it worse. I was basically up a creek without a paddle. By then it was already 10, so I wanted to give up and just try and make it back to the stop by my apartment, but seeing as my phone only works over here with Wifi, there was no way for me to tell Madison I wasn't coming. So then it was time to put my big girl pants on and try to figure out how to get to the Hoschule. Many of you know me so you know that I am generally good at figuring things out on my own, I am not one to ask for help, but in this instance it was essential for survival. I then scouted the area around me looking for a friendly German to ask for help, but seeing as I rode the tram all the way to the end, there was only one other person there, an older gentleman just chilling by the stop smoking a cigarette. Keep in mind this is not the United States, so their language is not English, so there was a chance this guy only spoke Deustch (for those of you who don't know, that means German), which would have been ZERO help. Thank goodness God was watching over me because the guy was really nice and spoke not so good English and by not so good I mean I had to show him on the map where I needed to go and he just told me "Tram 3 to tram 10." That was all. So not so good English, but it was better than no help at all! Once on the tram #3, I started to study the map with all of the tram routes on it and upon further investigation realized the guy told me wrong. Greattttttt. Tram #3 was the right direction, but when I looked to see where tram #10 went, it went in the wrong direction of where I wanted to go. I then made an executive decision to just go the way I thought looked right on the map and just go with it and hope for the best. Next stop I got off and looked for another friendly face to ask for help. The first person on my radar was a girl who looked to be close to my age and from what my landlady Anna told me, most younger Germans know English. But after approaching the girl and asking if she spoke English, she just shook her head no. Strike one. And yet again God was watching over me because an elderly lady was standing there and was obviously watching and listening to the whole thing go down because she walked up to me and I asked if she spoke English and clear as day she said "Yes." I wanted to yell out "Hallelujah!" but I didn't want to scare off my one chance at help. I then conversed with her about which tram to take next and lucky me because I was actually right, I needed to take tram #8. So after an hour of being lost and having to ask strangers for help, I finally made it to the school. Blahhhhhh.

So far my Monday was already too stressful so after doing all of my registration and stuff, I was done for the day and not looking forward to trying to get back to my apartment. But luckily it wasn't bad at all because I had remembered which ones to take. I felt very accomplished that I didn't have to ask for help! Once back in my apartment it was time for a nap. Naps are literally the best thing ever. I just love naps. After I woke up from my awesome nap it was already time to go back to the school for a welcome party for all of the international students to get to know each other. That event was very interesting to say the least. When you first arrived you had to sign in and make a name tag, after that they gave you a shot of some kind of liquor. Keep in mind we are at a school function on school grounds... And then once inside the room (which was a classroom by day, but raging party room by night) everyone had either a beer or glass of wine in hand. What the heck? Total culture shock. In the U.S. I am not even allowed to drink alcohol, but here they are giving it out and drinking it on a college campus in a classroom. MAJOR culture shock. It was actually really fun because I got to meet lots of new people from all over the world! From places like Spain, Italy, India, China, England, and I know there's more, but I can't think right now.  So despite Monday having a rough start it ended pretty good!

My Tuesday was good up until I went to my first class at the Hoschule. It is a free course the school offers to exchange students a week before classes start to teach them Deustch. For one we were late to the class (we meaning me and Madison) and second once we got to the class and sat down and started listenibg we realized that we may be in the wrong class. The teacher was only speaking Deustch. NO English whatsoever. I immediately knew I was in the wrong class because I only scored a 1 out of 30 on my placement exam, which means I should have been placed in the lowest level class they offer. So basically like a kindergarten class, but for college students. So I left that class as soon as possible, but not before I was called on introduce myself and all this other stuff in Deustch, so I just looked at the teacher and said "I am clearly in the wrong class. I have no idea what  you're saying. I only know English." So basically I looked like one of those dumb Americans. Sorry guys. I then proceeded to get the heck out of there before I got called on again to make myself look dumb. So my next option was to go down to the front desk lady where I checked in and tell her I was clearly placed in the wrong class and asked her to kindly point me in the direction of the kindergarten class. Once in the lowest level class possible, I finally felt at home. I learned the alphabet, colors, days of the week, months, and how to ask a few basic questions like: What is your name? Where are you from? What is your telephone number? What is your favorite? The only downside to this class is that it is 3 and a half HOURS LONG. That is way too long for me. I can barely make it through a 50 minute course back home and the longest class I have ever take was an hour and a half and I barely survived that! But despite the unnecessary length, I think the class will be beneficial to me for my stay here. So when I get home if you want to learn some kindergarten level Deustch, I got you covered. After my class I had to walk to my tram stop, which was like a 4 minute walk, but the temperature had dropped drastically and it was snowing/sleeting, not pleasant. And Tom's shoes are comfortable and all but they have no traction on snow covered brick paved roads. I almost fell way too many times. Once I finally made it back I was starving so it was time to make some food. So a little backstory, I have been to the market twice now in the 3 days that I have been here and I have bought like 5 or 6 thing each time, a few of which were American things (Lipton peach tea in a bottle and Pringles.) But you know what else I bought? The stuff to make grilled cheese. Nothing makes me feel better than a good ol' grilled cheese. The bread and butter were easy to get, but picking out cheese was a challenge because obviously all of the labels are in German, so I just picked the one that best resembled cheddar and bought it and lucky me it was actually pretty good!

I took this Monday night on my way back to my apartment. I was sitting and waiting on the tram.

This one and next one are pictures of the bathroom at the Hoschule Bremen Werderstrasse (the building where I had my class today)

 This is pretty self explanatory. I started watching How I Met Your Mother. I am pretty excited about that. And just look at the perfect grilled cheese and Pringles :)