Frankfurt- Friedrich Dessauer Haus- Rm D10
Last night was a lot of fun. First, we met two kids from Tunisia who were absolutely shocked to learn that we knew where Tunisia was and further shocked that we also spoke German--go America! You could tell they expected a lot less from us, and I think we bumped their opinion of Americans up a few pegs. We played a few games of pool and parted ways. Later, we got cheap dinners in Sachsenhausen. I won't say exactly what we ate, but it was shaved off a rotating shank of meat by a man who called me 'pretty American lady' and the boys 'boss'...
After a decidedly unGerman dinner, we continued our rebellion against reality by choosing to patronize the Anglo-Irish, a British-Irish pub in the neighborhood. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect-- middle-aged Irish men at the bar exuding the strange mix of anger and joviality I've come to associate with the Irish, Iro-centric memorabilia on the walls, lewd phrases in the bathrooms, and soccer on the tvs. We told ourselves we would merely stop in here, get our fill of English and move on to German bars, but it didn't happen in the end.
By midnight we were all exhausted, still feeling the jet-lag. So we headed back to the hostel, had a few drinks in the Backpackers' Lounge and headed to bed.
This morning we slept through our 6AM alarm, but woke up at a respectable 7:20. We got ready quickly (having packed the night before), grabbed breakfast in the cafeteria, and checked out.
Having hauled our stuff downstairs, we called 2 cabs and headed across town to Friedrich Dessauer Haus, the Catholic dorm TCNJ had arranged for us to stay in. (At first I found it odd that our God-less public college would choose to have a housing arrangement with the Catholic church, but upon seeing the comparative size of other private dorm rooms, I thanked Roscoe with all my heart).
Checking in was a bit of a struggle because the office staff spoke no English (ironically our cabbie spoke it impeccably). However, between slow talking on their part and hand motions on ours, we got it all sorted out. It helped of course that the saintly woman in the office had inexhaustible patience--she definitely wasn't a nun. Not speaking too well was getting annoying, but I was reassured when the woman in the office handed me the list of Haus rules and told me with a smile that in two months I would be able to read it completely.
My room is really nice--clean and bright with a huge window and tons of storage space which I didn't even begin to fill--shopping necessary? I think so.
I feel a little cut off in this dorm, though--your room key opens the stairwell on the ground floor, then the door to your hallway and of course, your room. The result is an apartment building-esque isolation, far removed from the fully explorable dorms of TCNJ. For example, to visit Milana or Conor, who are in my building but different floors, I have to buzz them and be allowed in--weird. Along with that, most students aren't here yet because the semester starts on April 1; those who are here keep their doors closed and are very quiet--quite a change from Decker or Travers Halls and of course from the 24-party palace that is Browning.
The internet here is reasonably quick but a little patchy so far, which I hope is temporary.
Tomorrow is the DIA course (a 3-week, daily language immersion class) placement test. I know there is little reason to be, but I'm nervous that they'll take one look at my test and book me a flight home because my German sucks far too badly. Oh well! Que sera sera.
Ffm obsvs:
Cell phones (Handys) are necessary here
German architecture looks like Ikea designers were set loose on a city
Spartan and sterile design are growing on me, but not too much
Jolly Germans are great, but mean ones are the worst thing ever (a mean German voice automatically triggers horrible fears in me... thanks history and pop culture)
I may need to liven up this dorm singlehandedly
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