First Day of School

Today was my first day of class. I have class Monday through Friday from 1:00 until 6:00. It is a long time. And we are working on a lot of grammar stuff in my class, which I don't find particularily thrilling, but it is stuff that I need to work on, imagine that, me needing to work on grammar.

My class is very diverse, there are six Afgahni women, a boy from Brazil, a girl from Argentina, another boy who speaks arabic, and me. Literally, the only way we are all able to communicate is through German. It is a pretty nifty.


Since I only have class during the afternoon, I have the entire morning to go exploring. This mornings first adventure was to the doctor's office to get some blood work done. It took a lot of time, some great Denglish by both parties, and a German-English online medical dictionary but we were finally able to get the right things ordered and I will go back later on in the week to get the results. There were several differences besides that language that were rather surprising. First, the secretaries don't print lables for vials and things on a computer, they just write names on by hand with a permanent marker. Second, the nurse drawing blood didn't wear gloves. Quite a different experience after being in American doctor's offices my enire life.


After the doctor appointment I headed out to explore the city Bad Godesburg a bit. There is a castle overlooking that city that I wanted to find the entrance too. I set my eyes on the castle and started walking. I reached the hill that the castle is situated on and started climbing when I saw signs that were pointing to the castle cemetary so I let myself get distracted. I think that it was a good life decision. The cemetary was absolutely beautiful and so different from American cemetaries. In this cemetary each plot is clearly defined by a concrete border and the land inside is very carefully tended. Each plot is like its own zen garden. And there were a couple of grave gardener's out tending to all of the displays, watering flowers, lighting candles, pulling weeds etc. There were also a few realtives cleaing up plots as well. This cemetray has been in use since 1805 when the castle was around, and it is still in us today.

Side note: I found a Hans Esch, a C. Pesch at the cemetary, and read about a Michael Lesch in the newspaper. A great day for last names.

I didn't end up making it up to the castle today because I spent so much time in the cemetary. But I always have tomorrow. On my way back to the Goethe Institute I stopped at a supermarket so that I could get some food. I had remembered to bring my shopping bag so I was pretty proud of myself.

I have finished with class for the day and have started on my homework for the night. There are four Americans here, three of which are from WashU, and we all like to stick together. Right now we are heading of to try and cook some dinner.

Here is a quick look at my room. Twobeds, two desks (with touch desklamps), two closets, and a sink. Pretty standard









This is a look down the pathway in the cemetary. You can see the concrete edges of the plots and some of the gardes on the inside. Some were more intricate than others but all were very beautiful.











This is the Mother Earth memorial. Along the bottom is the verse

"From dust you were made, and to dust you shall return"






And this is a pretty sweet poster that I found while walking around the town center. "Who has Jesus, has Life"