SO PRETTY MUCH... I LOVE IT HERE

Ok, well I've been here in lovely Göttingen for about two weeks now, and the list of reasons to never return to the U.S. is just getting longer and longer. I absolutely love it here and I feel like I'm living in a freakin fairy tail.

I guess I should start at the beginning with a horror story about how terrible it was trying to get here... luckily I don't really have one. I met someone on the plane who was going to the Goethe Institut (this is where I'm studying) and pretty much led me along from the plane, to the train, to the taxi, to the Institut. It was pretty awesome. There's no way I'll luck out twice so I'm sure the trip back is going to be terrible. Oh well. It'll be worth it just to have an easy trip here. The only problem I had was that I had to live in an apartment about 20 minutes away from the Institut which can be a real pain because all of my friends live at the Institut. It's all good though. I bought myself a little bike and life is pretty much awesome now.

This is the first time since I've been here that I've had more than one hour of time to myself (other than sleeping). Life has been incredibly busy. The Institut plans activities everyday and since the Weltmeisterschaft (World Cup) has been going on, I've been trying to keep up with that. I'll go into the town with some friends and we'll watch it outside at a cafe or something like that. Lesson #1- when it comes to soccer, the Germans don't mess around. The town goes absolutely crazy. I was here for Germany's win against Australia (4-0) and it was probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. I went to an arena near the main train station where thousands of people gathered to watch Germany dominate. Everyone was waving flags, blowing horns, and cheering throughout the entire game. Afterwards, everyone went into the streets and there was this guy with a loudspeaker (kind of resembling a bird) who got hundreds of people to sit down in the middle of the street (while cars were sitting there honking their horns (out of excitement, not anger)), yell the score, and then stand up and cheer. Ridiculous. There were even more people downtown climbing on buildings and the Gänseliesel (the big tourist attraction which is a statue of a little girl holding geese that everyone kisses when they finish a doctorate at the university in Göttingen). There are pictures and video to come. It made any victory at Wake look like a birthday party for a five-year-old. It was legitimately one of the most exciting experiences of my life.

Yesterday was a particularly amazing day. We rented bikes to go to two of the castles near Göttingen- Plesseberg and Hardenberg (which also makes Schnapps). The bikes we rented were very nice bikes, but hardly fit to take us into the mountains. You can't legitimately be expected to get up a huge hill with a bike that has a basket on it - lesson #2. We spent most of the time trying to push our unusually heavy bikes up the hills. It was well worth it though because the view at the top was amazing. We could see some beautiful Germany countryside as well as the little villages in the surrounding area. Gorgeous. Reason #2894 to never come back to the US. There is nothing like this there. We took a tour of the second castle and Schnapps factory which is where my camera finally died (I felt like my mother, I was taking so many pictures). It was so much fun and we got to try some Schnapps and keep the shot glass at the end of the tour. After that, me and three girls from the Institut went out to eat at the Nudelhaus (which really looks like Nude House at first glance but is a place for noodles/pasta). I ate my first schnitzel in Germany and it was delicious. Then we went out for ice cream which is incredibly cheap here (,80 eurocents per scoop). Aside from the cranky man selling ice cream (is it even possible to be cranky when you're surrounded by gallons upon gallons of ice cream?), it was a perfect day. I was exhausted and went to sleep at 9 o'clock. It was supposed to be a nap, but I woke up at ten this morning instead. I was in great need of some sleep.

It's about time to end this post, but before I do there are a few things that I've learned. Since I really like making lists, I'm going to put it all in a list.

1. Normallewasser ≠ regular tap water. It has carbonation and costs money.

2. Fried cheese is actually pretty good.

3. Alcohol is cheaper than water.

4. Having a bike makes you a cool kid once again.

5. Nutella on a banana = thebomb.com

6. Even though it's just adding, military time can take awhile to get used to.

7. If Germany wins a big game... you will get beer thrown on you. Bring. A. Raincoat.

8. Ice cream is everywhere and acceptable at any time of day.

9. Germans and Wake students both party on Wednesday nights for some unknown reason.

10. Drinking water from a stream/pond/pool thing makes you feel super outdoorsy and tastes pretty darn good.

11. It's freakin gorgeous here.

Though I absolutely love it here, I still miss my friends and family back in the US. So don't worry, I will be coming back (unless I could import everyone to Germany... that'd be pretty sweet). I think that's about it for now. There will be more updates to come.

Später Gater (I promise this rhymes in German),

Lauren