Classes Started

Now that April is more than half over classes started for me. Which is great because now I can actually have something to do. The last two months in Germany I had spent in German classes, but those classes were not very time demanding. I spent a lot of time just sitting around doing little here, but now I have a few things on my plate.

I'm taking four classes here, three of which started last week. They are Luther's Ethic, Christianity and Islam, Genesis and Exile Literature (Exiles from Germany from 1936-1945). All but the last one started already. My Genesis class meets 4 hours a week where as the others meet only 2 hours a week. After first impressions I would say I am most excited about Genesis because the professor is very good. I will learn a bit about Hebrew in the class too, and since I am actually a language major, that is really exciting to me. They will end towards the end of July.

To go with all that, I am also in two choirs, one from my Church (a SELK congregation) and a catholic choir. They both seem good and I think they will be a lot of fun. It's so wonderful to be active again! I have also started to actually work out regularly, which is great. I have been meaning to make working out a habit and maybe, just maybe, I will make it a habit this semester. I guess time will tell.

A week ago I bought a bike. Living in this town, one needs a bike, it is a lot easier than waiting on busses, that are often not on time (which goes against the punctual Germans as a stereotype). It's been really great to have a bike... but I think I broke it somehow! Oops!! Today or tomorrow I hope to look at it and figure out what are the problems, what I can fix and what needs to be brought back to the shop to be fixed. So now I am out of a bike...

Eating Souls and the Long Night of Museums.

Yes, that is right, eating souls. Here there is something called schwäbische Seele, it's a baked good. Basically a type of bread with a special dough and such. Yummy! I could eat more souls! That's all I really have to mention on that, I just think it's funny!

On the topic of food, I also learned out to make Spätzle, it's also a typical food here in the south. It has very few ingredients, flour, eggs, water and a bit of salt. But a special apparat to make the Spätzle form. I am going to buy one before I leave and experiment with making it myself at home! I love Spätzle, but I have never had good Spätzle in the US, so now I just need to learn to make it well.

Then a few weeks ago I went to something called "The Long Night of Museums" in Stuttgart. Basically we paid 14 euros each to get in lots of museums all over Stuttgart from 7pm till 2am. The thing is that not only are the museum exhibits open, but also there is often live music in the museums and you can buy drinks and food as well. It's all about the atmosphere I think and a good chance to get an idea as to what museum should be visited in more length at another time. Kimberly and I left early though because we had been busy all day and we wanted to get a train that would bring us home without having to wait 4 hours.