This past weekend has been amazing. I am SO happy to be in Germany! I don't want to toot my own horn, but I have worked really hard and put a lot of planning into this study abroad trip, so I'm having a huge wow-hard-work-really-does-pay-off-and-it-wasn't-all-for-nothing moment! I'm here and I'm ready to get better at German and enjoy my time in this beautiful place that is Schmalkalden, Germany.
Joe flew here with me from England on Friday and we spent the day in Frankfurt. We had a great time and did a LOT of walking! His first impression of Frankfurt may not have been the best, like most, because of the walk through Kaiserstrasse into town is not the best of walks. Lots of sketchy people gather on that street and it makes you feel a little on edge! But we survived and made it to Römer Pils Brunnen only after getting turned around a couple of times.
We were starved by the time we got there, so he especially enjoyed his Frankfurter Wurst meal stacked high with sausages, pork, roasted potatoes and sauerkraut and I feasted on my Hawiian Schnitzel. It was too delicious for words.
We walked to Römerplatz after lunch and then walked over one of the many bridges in Frankfurt that is covered in locks that lovers attach to it. It's so beautiful and I'm waiting for Joe to put a lock on there for us :) hehe.
Joe's definitely the map guy, so he got us through the airport, then Frankfurt, all of the train stations, and Schmalkalden! I don't know what I'm going to do without him now... I will actually have to navigate by myself, and those who have travelled with me know that I am directionally challenged.
The fun part happened on the train to Schmalkalden from Frankfurt. I worked vigilantly to plan ahead and to save screenshots of maps and directions on my phone to avoid getting lost. So we are riding along on the train and I was looking at the hotel reservations and thought suddenly that I had no idea how to get from the Schmalkalden train station to the hotel. I got really panicky and was freaking out because not only did we have no clue how to get to the station, it was pitch black outside.
When the train stopped on the Schmalkalden platform, a girl about my age saw me talking to Joe nervously and asked if she could help us. She looked at the hotel and told us that it was about 100 odd meters away, with a few left and right turns. As I was getting really nervous about this walk because we were so tired (we'd been up since 3AM and walked several miles in Frankfurt), we had heavy luggage, and it was starting to sprinkle rain, a lady pointed to a taxi in front of the station. And y'all, I have never been so happy to see a freaking taxi in my entire life!
So we walked up to the taxi and I talked to the driver about the hotel information and we said, "Oh great... English..." But he ended up being very friendly and helpful! He could have been the meanest old man and I would still be forever indebted to him for being at that station at that time on that night.
We checked into the beautiful Stadthotel Patrizier and fell asleep within the hour. Never had I ever been so tired in my entire life. Breakfast in the morning was wonderful, especially because it had individual packets of Nutella. :)
On Saturday Joe the Navigator led me around town. I knew Schmalkalden was going to be beautiful, but I could not have imagined the beauty that we beholded. We looked around the town square, in which all of the buildings are traditional, old-fashioned German architecture, Schloss Wilhelmsburg, the local castle, and he walked me over to the college grounds. I'm just so glad he got to come to Schmalkalden because I would've been so lost without his help. We had lunch at a local restaurant, and he tried the pork schnitzel with soft, buttery rosemary potatoes and I had tomato pasta! It was delicious. :)
Like I expected, very few people speak fluent English here, which is exactly what I wanted, but is frustrating at times. Ordering food can be difficult if you are unsure what a word/ingredient is, and you can ask but they may not know the translation for it. For instance, Joe wanted a crepe for desert and it came with "Zucker und Zimt," and I had no idea what "Zimt" was, so I asked the waitress in German for a translation, she asked her coworkers, and luckily they were able to translate it to "cinnamon" for us. It just gets complicated sometimes!
Another thing that gets complicated is when someone greets me and German, and I greet them back in German, and they assume that I speak fluent German and will start talking to me... I will usually understand the gist of what they are saying, but when they want a response and I'm not done processing, it just gets awkward! My go-to phrases are: "Ich verstehe nicht" (I don't understand) or "Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch!" (I only speak a little German). Or I just look at them with a super puzzled face and they will try to rephrase it more simply a few times, like the server at breakfast this morning did, but eventually they will give up and I just apologize. Life goes on!!
I am really impressed with Joe because he soaked up a lot of German this weekend! His accent is also really good after looking through my pronunciation book and hearing it spoken around. He's a natural!
So overall, it's been an amazing weekend! A few bumps and awkward moments here and there, but we had so much fun and really enjoyed our last two days together in Germany. He left this morning for England and I did really good, I didn't cry until I saw his train coming around the corner. In May when he was leaving I started crying like three days before he left. Embarrassing, but true. So I was really proud of myself! Plus I will see him in November when he comes to visit for my birthday. One month or so is not anywhere near as bad as the usual 3-4 months between visits that I'm used to. It'll be like a blink of an eye and he'll be back.
After he left I waited at the train station for about 20 minutes for my train to the FH Schmalkalden station, because there was no way I was making it all the way across town (25 minute walk) with two heavy suitcases and two backpacks. So I waited and I cried a little more, got on the train, walked up the massive hill that leads to my dorm (the part where I really started missing Joe because he always lugged my big 50 lbs suitcase around) and finally arrived to the dorm. I met the dorm RA (tutors as they are called here) and moved all of my stuff in. My room looks a little boring because I don't have any decorative stuff, but that's okay, I will collect things here and there for it. At any rate, the nice American downstairs signed into his WIFI for me since I won't be able to get my own until next week so that makes things better!
So even though this is a really long blog, it's only the abbreviated version! I already miss Joe lots, but sometimes you have to do things on your own without your personal navigator. I'm ready and excited for the next five months!
Thanks for reading! :)
Bethany
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