I've got a Sinking Feeling...

Yeah yeah, I should stop the puns. But seriously this sucks, my sink not only became completely clogged but the clog is past the pvc piping in the wall. Some of you may wonder how I found this out and in that case you don't know me too well. Having found out it would take nearly two weeks to have someone fix it I of course decided to take it apart and fix it myself. Unfortunately I am not cut out to be a plumber as one of the PVC pipe connections shattered when I released it. Perhaps it was cemented? Either way I now have a sink that doesn't drain how it should but is very good at flooding my kitchen.On the bright side I haven't done check in yet and I spoke to the German in charge of check in and it's going to be fixed for free. Until then my sink is held together with packaging tape and dreams.

(It's actually worse then this picture makes it seem...)

ADVENTUIRE TIME!

On the bright side I did have a small adventure last night with Moakes and Nick. Moakes came to my room at 9 ringing my doorbell and informing me of exactly how bored he was, my initial and overly lazy response was that I didn't know what I could do to help. He mentioned he might go for a walk and after a while I decided there was still some area to explore in this city.

While walking we decided to enjoy our right to public drinking while on the streets and each grabbed a beer as we set off with no particular destination. Since Moakes hadn't seen the Red Light district we had to give him the walking tour, which ended with us finding a nearly hidden back alley painted bright green that led to a section none of us had realized existed. To be fair none of us has ever actually spent more then 2 minutes walking through but we were still surprised that we hadn't noticed a bright hallway before.

Having shown Moakes the street we walked around looking for interesting bars for the weekend and we ran into a very strange possible Italian man. The man was beyond belligerently drunk and may have been threatening us though I'm not sure why or what with, so we continued our walk. He followed us for a few minutes before we randomly lost him outside a construction site. Having lost our unwanted follower we walked around and I took the side picture here of flower with a statue in the back, unfortunately it was too dark for me to be able to turn my flash off so this will have to do until I pass the area in daylight.Having explored enough for the day we turned back and once again bumped into our belligerent friend, we couldn't believe that we had managed to run itno him considering the zig-zag filled route we had taken but we simply waited for him to stumble past our street before we headed to the tram.

Random Fact for the Day: I want to get some plants and maybe a fish for my room. I'm tired of looking at white walls and nothing else...

Is my name really that hard to say?

I've come to the conclusion since coming here that Sean must not be very common in Germany, Brazil, Spain, or this general part of Europe. Everyone I meet assumes my name is Seen. And if I correct them they often think it is Shun. In one of my classes yesterday I actually introduced myself as "Sean not Seen". I'm pretty sure my instructor wrote my name down as exactly that, which gave me and the other Americans a kick.

We took a tour today of the city with our class, and though I've seen most of it by now I found that the buildings were still really well built. I find the older German architecture really appealing and want to take more pictures of it, but alas, I left my camera in my room this morning.

Architecture Picture: (They're old but hey, it'll do till I get back out with my camera)

A Real Class Act

So today was the second day of classes and our first Tuesday night not going to the Jolly Joker. It's honestly a nice change to sleep during the night, though my body didn't adjust well Sunday night. I went through the first day of school with only 2 hours sleep but apparently did well enough on the placement exams to place in the middle level class. Now that I've had two full days of class I can honestly say it won't be too bad though the days seem to run a little longer then I'd like.

On a lighter note I decked my room out a little more with a rug. Now I'm considering wether it's worth getting a 99 euro futon or not. I'm leaning towards yes but could use some input. Also thinking about finding some kind of growable plant to sit beside my basil plant... We'll see though.

Overall the last two days have been boring but I'm thinking about doing some traveling this weekend. So hopefully I'll have some more interesting things to write about.

A Little Birdy Told Me a Secret...

So last night was my friend Paul's belated birthday celebration (yes we did go to the wild geese to celebrate but there wasn't any cake so it didn't count!). Lara (Still not sure if I'm spelling that right) Neil and I spent some time earlier in the day making muffins for the party. We made both chocolate and vanilla but filled both with chocolate chips and frosted them with chocolate frosting. I managed to get a nice little burn taking the muffins out, but just hissed and avoided dropping them on the floor thankfully.

The other interesting event during baking was when we realized we had to heat the frosting, lacking a working microwave I made a double boiler pot supports over my electric stove with dual butter knife supports. After making my little mechanism I was informed by Lara how much of an engineer I was lol.

After making the muffins we all had a fairly good time, playing a little bit of kings and just generally talking throughout the night. We had a good crowd, around 12 people came which made my kitchen feel rather small and a bit cramped. We did manage to steal enough chairs from Alex and Brendan's room to seat everybody though.

After the party wrapped up I was doing a quick cleaning when Paul knocked on my door, apparently he had missed the last tram back so was going to hang out until the trams started again at 5. We got some burgers and just generally shot the shit until the trams started again and I walked up to my room ready to catch some sleep before our 3 o'clock orientation coming up that afternoon.

As I dozed fitfully I was rudely awoken around 8 or so in the morning when one of the bottles I was saving for pfand refund fell from my windowsill. Immediately alarmed I awoke wondering what could possibly be in my room that close to my bed. I then noticed a small bird flying around my room occasionally landing on my dresser and shelves tweeting. For a little while I considered trying to have a pet bird but decided it'd A, be unfair to the bird, and B too much work for me. I opened my other window and watched it hang out in my room for a few more minutes before it simply flew away.

Between the bird and the rabbits I feel like Snow White. Maybe I shouldn't eat those apples I bought the other day...

Condensed photo album:

Calm before the Storm

Muffin Party, waiting for Paul

I finally got to hang out with one of my room mates! Guy on the far left! Also, you will notice Matt Hooks trying to look gorgeous in the middle of this picture.

Alex Paul and Lara catching up on some sleep

Publish Post

My only regret is that I was not awake enough to take a picture of my bird visitor this morning, perhaps I'll be able to get a picture of the rabbits outside in the near future...

Oh Hamburg, How I Missed You...

You know how I said we've been having a lot of crazy nights? This one takes the cake. I won't be going into every detail but some parts of this night remind me of the Hangover, you know, the movie where they get really drunk in a random city and have crazy random adventures and some of them completely forget what happened?

The night started at around 5 when we left and got on the train. We played a bunch of High Low Jack and just generally chatted while the time passed by.

Upon arriving we went to an American style BBQ place and we all settled on some gold old fashioned burgers or burritos, nothing like a taste of home while abroad.

Having finished our meals I began to regret not bringing my camera with me. I knew it would prolly get destroyed in the trip but the Reeperbahn is a very interesting street though definitely rated R. We spent the night visiting clubs, bars and other places of ill repute and eventually even landed ourselves in some strip clubs. I won't go into detail here but some very interesting stories happened throughout these and I'll be more then willing to share them with anyone who shoots me a message. Some of the stuff involved a 200 bottle dollar of champagne and loss of clothing of persons not employed by the strip club. But I will maintain that there is no, and will be no, and there was no, sex in the champagne room.

Suffice to say it's a night I'll never forget, and a night 2 or 3 of the others will never remember.

The only nerve racking part of this adventure was trying to find our way home, with two of our friends beyond drunk and tensions running high with no sleep. After several train stops and a tram ride we finally made it back, exhausted and ready for sleep at 10am.

Do germans really do this every night? I don't think I can keep this up when I actually have classes...

No picture for this one guys, sorry

A Trip to Remember, but a City to Forget

So a earlier this week we decided we were going to take a day trip. We did the classic practice of walking to the train station and taking the first train out to anywhere in Niedersachsen. (All the trains are free for us in this region!).

The city of choice turned out to be Lebenstedt, one of the divisions of the larger city Salzgitter.

The train ride there was uneventful but had really nice views of the country side and we got there after probably a 20 minute ride. This part of Salzgitter was very quaint and I took well over 50 pictures and posted them on my Facebook so feel free to check them out!

While we explored we decided to stop for a cup of coffee, which was 2 euro (ridiculous I say!) and sat for a little just enjoying the laid back feel of the area. Half way through our coffee break I got a call from Lara, one of the peer mentors leading us through our stay here. Apparently our friend Neil had just arrived in the country and needed internet to activate his phone. I explained that we were in Lebenstedt drinking coffee and Lara asked "Why would you go all the way there for a cup of coffee?". At a loss for an answer I simply said I didn't know and laughed a little.

After our coffee break we took a walk around the park, I climbed some random rusty scaffolding and we decided we should catch the next train since there was a two hour gap between trains and we had already spent 2 hours wandering the area.

Overall I'd have to say this was a good start to our day trips, and I'm hoping to take another this Sunday.

Random Picture: Brendan Alex and Steve, posing for the cover of their Boyband, the Amerikids. Check out their hit single Döner für Immer

Oh What a Wicked Gang We Are

 It's sure been one hell of a trip. Last night was the first night we were at a club when it closed and oh boy did we have a night.

Throughout the night I ran into a bunch of the people we live with and haven't gotten to hang out much with and made friends with a few of them. Paul and I also managed to meet and befriend a few Germans who bought us several drinks throughout the night. By far the craziest part of the night was how we met these guys though, we met them because they were trying to speak to the police who had just arrested our American friend. In the country less then two full weeks and one of us has already had a run in with the police lol. Shoulda expected it I guess.

On a non partying note I made my first turkey burgers today, seasoned with lemon zest, fresh basil, chopping onions, garlic and some salt and pepper. They were delicious and we topped them with a buttery hot sauce, some swiss cheese avacado and tomatoes. By the end of this trip I will be a proficient cook lol.

So I think I missed posting about Paul's bday celebration. We went to our normal Wild Geese hang out during the night but switched it up during the day  by going to an American style all you can eat rib buffet. While eating we met Andrew's roommate Sep, who is a really funny and chill German. After eating our weight in bbq ribs we had an unfourtunate bout of confusion involving the check but finally got it straightened out and walked around the city. If you've read my older posts you'll remember the older gentlemen who we met, and this is when he came around.

Been having a ton of fun here, but I'm glad I finally have my passport back. Kind of want to do some trips, going out every night is fun but I want to explore!

Random Fact: When your sink is clogged and filled with water a saucer like plate will double effectively as a plunger!

Picture: The American Locust Swarm

Playing Catch Up

So I don't think I'm going to be posting for everyday since we got here but I'll see if I can do a quick run through.

So how do American college students in a foreign country spend their time without school?

We've spent a bit of time getting paperwork together but I won't bore anyone with the interesting game known as German Bureaucracy. I will say that both my temporary and permanent student ID are made of paper and aren't even laminated. Probably going to have to use some packaging tape to fix that in the near future...

Aside from paperwork we've been wandering the city finding the supermarkts we like and trying various Döner shops. I'm pretty sure that more of our German conversations start with random Turkish men who after making us our kebaps want to speak to the interesting Americans. They're all generally friendly and we'll practice our German for a bit until they eventually ask where we come from in English. Though they've been the main source of conversation we've also had conversations with several strangers throughout Braunschweig (most interested in the fact that we're American).

One of the nights we were out I randomly ran into Brendan and Alex, two of the students traveling with me, and they were talking to a random guy and his two friends. Surprised to have met up with them after losing the group hours ago in the club I started talking to them as well. Alex pointed and laughed at me asking what happened to my shirt and I realized with much less chagrin then I should have that I had taken my tshirt off after the club and was only in a wife beater. Being a little less then sober and having a shirt that was far from comfortable (It's really warm in the clubs here), I decided I'd handle the heckling and stay as I was. It turns out the guy they had met was really cool and super nice, though I still think he was really sketchy. He went back to the club with us for a while and we danced until Brendan started being harassed by one of the people dancing there and we decided to leave. Another surprise waited for us when we found one of the kids who'd come with us half asleep at one of the tram stops! (We stayed out long enough for them to start running again this night). We called to the kid at the tram stop and he looked up and got on, responding to our questions with a few quick blinks. After a second he explained that he wasn't sure where he'd gone, but he woke up somewhere and had to walk a while to find the tram stop. We all started laughing immediately, and continue to make jokes about it even now.

Other conversations had less interesting outcomes but perhaps a deeper cultural aspect. We met an older gentleman who claimed that he was French in France, German in Germany and English in England. Though his introduction was rough and he had a heavily non-German accent (French perhaps?), he launched into a few different stories and explanations that were pretty interesting. I had a hard time understanding a lot of the English he spoke but caught the German when he slowed down. It was not that his English was bad he just had a heavy accent. He spoke to us of historical events, most of which were well known, though he had stopped to ask us questions such as, Do you know Normandy? and Have you heard of the Boston Tea Party?. Excluding his lack of apparent confidence in our historical knowledge it was great speaking with him and he spoke a bit about how some of the older buildings in Braunschweig came to be. When we finally left him he had bridged a conversation from the Vietnam war to the war in Iraq and was explaining why he was against it. This man likely provided us with our most educated random conversation in Germany to date.

And even still other conversations have little meaning one way or the other. From quick conversations with Germans in the club, yelled over loud music and barely understood by either party to conversations with people who merely want to practice speaking their English or find our German amusing. Brendan is quickly making a relationship with the owner of the Wild Geese Irish Pub. The pub has become our Monday night weekly hang out spot, at first because of the 1 euro tequilla shots but also because of it's atmosphere. I personally love the music, as it's pretty hard to find Irish music playing in Germany and the general setting of the place just feels right. We've gone there with both Elena, our peer mentor I mentioned before, and Lara, our peer mentor I haven't mentioned yet.

Lara is quite and interesting girl and has been a big help in finding adventures throughout Germany. She is another blonde German and could be described as almost mischievous, though not in a bad way. Through her we met Nicholas who is involved in the check in and check out process at Westsstadt and is quite possibly the funniest German I've met. Nick even invited us over to his WG (apartment) one night to hang out and drink a bit before we left and went to Sole (I think that's how it's spelled) which is street style club that plays drum and bass.

I'm getting hungry now so I think I'll let this post settle, but I assure you there is more to come.

Random Fact: We have a family of at least four rabbits living in our yard at Weststadt!
Random Picture: Piraten Partei! Yes, it's the pirate party. They are legitimate, though they are only a single issue party and hence normally not much interest to me but they're just so baller.

Everybody bring it back ya'll, ten days this time

Having arrived 10 days ago I feel this blog is a little late in being posted. I'm also realizing the monstrous number of things we've done since arriving here.

Our first adventure after arriving was a group trip to Ikea where we quickly learned several things. First we learned Americans are generally much louder then Germans. We also learned Ikea doesn't sell comforters but instead they sell blankets requiring a covers apparently known to everyone aside from me as Dubai (spelling?) covers. And just for the record I'm honestly still not completely sold on the idea and generally miss my normal single piece blanket from home. Aside from a few other purchases the rest of the first day was uneventful. But as in every country, once the sun sets, the fun starts. We went out with two of the Germans who were helping us get settled. Elena is a blonde German girl who has helped us do a majority of our paper work and is keeping in this country. Mahmoud is our dark haired extremely nice German friend, who'd take us to later football (soccer) adventures.

Not knowing much about the town we trusted the nights events to our two German friends and were not led astray. We arrived at a bar which had a theme which still escapes me, but it involved a stuffed elk as well as a vicious looking stuffed badger and several interesting German quotes. Having not been in Braunschweig long we asked Elena and Mahmoud about local beer. The local beer here is apparently Wollter's, it's cheap, it's good, and I had several that very night. Another suggested beer was beck's which tasted surprisingly decent and was just as cheap.

As time rolled by we began to notice how empty the bar was staying, and we were rather surprised. This was our first lesson in German night life, they don't even go out until nearly 11 or 12 and nothing gets really busy until nearly 1am in most cases! To be fair I need to follow this with the fact that they legitimately party until 6 maybe 7 in the morning. We have yet to be the last group to leave a bar or club, and we've been out often and long.

Despite the fact that the bar had become extremely busy we began to get tired and made plans to head back to Weststadt (our dorm). Brendan and I were figuring on walking back and said as much when Elena insisted on us taking a cab. After failing to convince her otherwise we agreed, thinking that we'd be able to sneak away when she left without hailing a cab. Little did we know that as we left she would hail the cab for us as well as explain to the cab driver to bring us to weststadt 3 or 4 times. Though at the time Brendan and I though it funny, I now realize the walk is upwards of 20 minutes without getting lost and we were probably better off with the cab fare then with no sleep.

Though this post's late I hope to start catching up on some of the others in the near future!

Culture Shock: So many Germans smoke!

Picture of the Post: Weststadt, my dorm.