frutti.gummi

ich habe meine Deutsch Prüfung bestanden! :D

When I arrived at the train station, I was only expecting Laurent and was suprised the gang of friends were also there to meet me. We went for dinner at a nearby little asian shop. The food portion is huge, probably similar in size to the portion in Chicago chinatown. The next day, we met up with Jose and had dinner in front of the Rathaus. We chose the restaurant next to Starbucks so that we could go there for coffee after dinner. I found out that both of them loved the huge comfy chairs there as well. Hehe. Unfortunately, Starbucks was closed after we finished dinner. I think it closed at 8pm. So decided to go to one of the ice cafes for ice cream. They sell very fancy ice cream combinations just like here in Italy but only for 2/3 of the price. We looked at the menu and chose the smallest type and it still turned out to be big. Bigger than the picture really.

After my German exam on Friday, I walked around town and did some shopping. Then, I went to the bookstore to get some books to read during the vacation. There are so many nice books and it was difficult to decide what to buy. I picked a few books and went to the seating area and started to read the first few pages to see how I like them. I was reading Mitch Albom's latest, For One More Day, and when I stopped and looked up I saw that I've already read 50 pages. That's about a third of the book. Since I have time I decided to finish the book. I skipped a couple of sub stories but in the end I know whether it's a ghost story or not.

We went to Cologne on Saturday. Our itinerary include KFC for lunch, shopping for backpack, shoes and sleeping bag, and watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. They weren't many people watching it and there's no commercial. I think the cinema in KL would still be very crowded.
On Sunday, we had a bbq session at the park and were worried that it might rain. The weather was cool and the sky was mostly cloudy. It drizzled lightly for a few minutes while we were grilling the meat. Then the clouds moved away. The weather was just perfect. Cool with the sun mostly covered by clouds. The breeze is a bit chilly though. When I got back to Italy, I'm dreading the hot hot sun again. Going to be staying home as much as I could.

If I really tried, I think I might be able to write this post in German.

We ordered a pot (2 portions) of typical Bavarian dishes. It consists of sausages, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, knodel dumplings, schweinshaxe (pork meat), and deep fried super crispy something which we think is pork skin; all in rahm sauce. Although I'm not a fan of pork, the food is tasty. However, towards the end of the meal, it starts to taste saltier. I guess that's where the huge mug of beer comes along.

Went for lunch after german class and it turned out to be the four of us again. This time the Spanish guy's Indian colleague also joined us. We decided to have Italian and since the name of the dishes are in Italian, we have no problem with the menu. Hehe. After lunch, Eileen had to do shopping so the rest of us decided to catch a movie in Cologne coz it'll be easier for me to get back to Bonn. We drove there and for the passengers in the car, it was our first time on the autobahn in a car. And yes, some parts of the highway has no limit. When we got into Cologne, the directions to the cinema was quite complicated so we decided to park the car and take a cab. Was lucky we found street parking and only had about 30 minutes left before parking is free (after 6pm) so parking only costs us 1€. Next, we had to look for taxi stand coz you can only take taxi from there. Found one nearby and it was my first time in a german cab. The back just barely fits the three of us with our coats on. I didn't remember Merz having such small space. Well, perhaps our coats really took up space. We paid almost 8€ for 2+ km distance. Taking a train or bus would end up about the same price. Bought tickets for The Prestige and went walking around the area.

We ended up choosing a local bar and the atmosphere was quite lively. We had a funny time ordering food too. Laurent asked if there's chicken with french fries in German, and the waitress said schnitzel (deep fried breaded pork) with french fries. So, he said he'll only have french fries. Then, Jose ordered "Weiner Art" from the menu on the wall and asked if that's chicken in English and the waitress said yes chicken, very good. After the waitress left, Laurent and I were puzzled coz the waitress said earlier there was no chicken. Then Jose said maybe there's no chicken with french fries. Then we started laughing. That's very German indeed! Hahaha. Earlier in the week, Laurent used the wrong color plate at his cafeteria for pasta and he couldn't pay. He had to go back and use the plate with the correct color for pasta. When Jose's food finally came, it turned out to be schnitzel! He was quite mad but he still finished the food.

We went back to the cinema after food and found it packed with people. It's a small cinema with 3 theatres. I've already heard some friends complaining about cinemas in Germany and our German friend told us that's the typical cinema here. We don't have a choice anyway if we want to watch movies in original language. Well, we could also go to Netherlands. Perhaps they have better cinema there.

The Christmas atmosphere here is awesome! At the Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas markets) , one can find all sorts of things for sale. All pretty pretty things. As for food, one can find a variety of meat, potatoes, pastries, candies, roasted nuts, etc etc. They're all tasty! The famous drink is Glühwein, which is warm red wine with cinnamon and some other spices. Throughout the day and night, people would stand around small tables with a drink and chat. It can be cold sometimes but we still do it. It's all the fun with shopping and eating and drinking.


Some of my personal goodies include Christ-stollen, dominosteine, half a bag of chocs from France, and a souvenier mug from Christmas market in Bonn. The stollen a traditional christmas cake in Germany. I guess it's like the English fruit cake but the taste is different all together. It has sugar dusted on top and the one I bought had marzipan filling. Yummy! There are other variety of stollen too; some contains almonds, some has rum. Dominosteine are small layers of gingerbread with jam and marzipan covered with chocolate. I think these are the best choc fillings. Hehe. And the choc pralines are so smooth and it just doesn't feel like choc at all. I could have finish the bag in a day. Also, there's all sorts of Lebkuchen. I've never really liked gingerbread but the ones here are really nice. :D

Ich liebe das Lied :D

The door locks in my dorm are very difficult to use. You can turn the key around and around and when it reaches the end, your key is not in a vertical position that can be taken out and the door cannot be opened. So, you turn it back to a vertical position, try pushing the door but it wouldn't budge. So you turn back another half circle and try again and if it still doesn't work, turn it back another half circle and repeat until you get it to open or you reach the other end. When you reach the other end, turn back and try again and eventually you'll hear a click and the door can be opened. After fumbling with the door for a few times, I realised that if I turn the key half a cirle anti-clockwise first, I will hear a click immediately and the door can be opened. So, I made myself to remember to turn anti-clockwise every time I enter the room. The door is automatically locked when it's shut.

I don't really know how the lock works but I think there are other ways to turn the key to open the door. I know this coz whenever someone has entered my room, I couldn't get the door to open by simply turning the key half circle anti clockwise like I usually do. I kinda had to "reset" it to my style and the next time, it can be opened using my method.

And I was pretty distracted that someone entered my room that I left my keys outside the door the entire night. I didn't realised my keys were missing until I went out this morning and saw it hanging at the door.

Oh, and for the entrace door to the dorm, you had to turn the key half circle clock-wise, stop there, pull open the door, and turn the key back to vertical position to get your key out. At first, I turned the key all the way round and I couldn't get the door to open.

I really don't understand why they design door locks that have so much room to turn and it only works when it's turned half way or something.

I'm starting to like my Saturdays eventhough I have to be up at 5 in the morning to catch a train to Aachen for German class. Perhaps the informal teaching style makes it a fun class to attend. It feels like a bunch of friends hanging out together just chatting. And when we need words, the teacher will help. For the first half of today's class, we talked about what we do during weekends. During the second half, we talked about food and drinks.

Some of use went for lunch together after class today; a Spanish, a French, a Nigerian, a Japanese and a Malaysian. It's just fascinating to learn about other cultures. Found out that in Spain, Santa Claus is called Papa Noel but he's not famous. They have their own "Santa"s which they call the Three Kings. They leave food in the window for the camels to eat and when the camels stop for food, the Three Kings will leave a present or three for you. Interesting! I'm amazed that the French guy have not even heard of the words "Santa Claus". I guess they really don't get much chance to learn things not French. Then, there's the Genghis Khan story which explains Mongolian descendants in Spain!

Oh! And I got to know a North Korean in class last week. All these while we thought he's from South Korea. Hehe. Well, we didn't think North Korean get to travel out of the country.

It started on Wednesday to attend German class in Aachen. I took the earliest bus out from my place to the train station at 5:37am, took a train to Cologne (30 minutes), switch train to Aachen (1 hour), and took the bus to the lecture hall. Travel time is about 2+ hours one way. I did the same today and I was late for class! It turns out that the train that I took on Wed was late so I was able to catch it when I arrived at the train station. Came home, checked the schedule and found that I could take the tram at 5:01am to the train station and will be able to catch the 5:31am train to Cologne. So, I don't have to be late =) But, I have to be up at 4am! The german class is 3 times a week, Wed & Friday for one and a half hours each and Sat(review) for 3 hours. I'm not sure how long I can keep up with this but hopefully long enough until I master the basic stuff. There's no other alternatives except for learning on my own which wouldn't work coz I'll be lazy.

Saw this McD in Aachen today. Found it funny that there's animals on top. Hehe.

People had been asking me "So how's your German so far?" in the 2 weeks prior to my departure. I had been staying up late into the night, almost every night to learn as much German as I could. And, I didn't get far so I was quite worried.
Still, with limited German I managed to get on the bus from the airport in Cologne to Bonn. I know how to ask "Where is the bus stop?" and to understand the answer, it's a combination of the keywords:left, right, straight ahead, turn together with the directions they are making with their hands.
Everytime I want to speak German, I have to think of what words to use and how to structure it correctly and my vocabulary is very limited. There was once that I managed to say something without thinking first. I was standing in front of the Pizza Hut Express Counter just looking at the pizzas and a lady came to counter with a box. I smiled and said "Nein danke" (No thanks) and walked away feeling surprised. Normally, I would smile and wave my hand to indicate no.

I bought my first meal at McD. I figured that's the safest option since most young people here speak English :)

Most frequently used words so far:
Danke -Thanks
Vielen Dank - Thanks a lot
Guten Morgen -Good morning
Guten Tag -Good day/Hello
Enschuldigung - Excuse me/Sorry
Tschüss - Bye!

I have been lazy to continue my german lessons since I got here as I still managed to get by. Hehe.