Settlin'

HALO!

This weekend I got a little more settled. On Saturday I walked all around the university
campus and then attempted to find the local grocery store. I had a map but as most of you
know that really does me no good. One of my roomates directed me in the general area of
all the stores however I didn't have an exact address. I took a few lovely detours through
some residential areas and through some forested areas and I eventually found the stores.
I bought a few basic things (I sent my Oma my complete shopping list so she wouldn't have
to worry as much) then started to head home. On my way home someone asked me in English
were the cinema was.....obviously I had no idea but we chatted for a bit and I found out
that there was an English theatre in the area. I know I should be learning German but it
was only my second day so I decided to go see 'the Interpreter' later that night....good
movie and kind of ironic that I went to see a movie about a translator ;)

On Sunday I was invited by my Indian roomate for lunch. He and a couple of his freinds
cooked a real indian meal and we ate while watching the Formula 1. The food was really
good and not tooo spicy..........They were soo nice they didn't even let me help clean up.
In the afternoon I went for a walk in the woods right behind the dorm....it's been raining
on and off pretty much the whole time so far but the sun did come out a few times and
there was a nice rainbow.

Today I tried to get things organized. First I went to the 'Hausmeister' (head of the
dorm) and signed my contract, got my card for laundry, etc.....The hausmeister didn't
speak that much English but with the help of other students (and my broken German) we were
able to figure stuff out... 2 of the students offered their numbers incase I needed more
help. The hausmeister has to sign a form for me that I bring to another office in order to
register as a resident. The registration office closed at 1:00 and the hausmeister's
office didn't open till 1:30 so I wasn't able to register. When I went to the bank to open
up an account they needed to see that I was a registered resident......so I wasn't able to
accomplish all that much today but I'll have time tomorrow considering I really don't have
any work to do yet.

I also went downtown and saw, from the outside, the opera house and Neues Schloss. I
wandered through the gardens and saw roman ruins, tons of people playing chess, and swans.
I also did some window shopping downtown......lots of stores and lots of people.

On Wednesday Ariane, my cousin, is picking me up and I will be visiting with her and other
family over the weekend. It's nice having connections.

Steph