Friends, Film Festival, Glühwein

Ben and I went to an outdoor film festival last night with a friend of his and his girlfriend. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what it was when I agreed to going. However, from the name I did think that it would be indoors in a theater or a classroom. And two, I thought it would just be that: a film festival. Wrong and wrong again.

As you can see, it was outside. It's definitely colder than I was expecting Germany to be at the end of April. We were told that the festival started at 7:30pm but nothing started at 7:30pm. We were a bit late because we had just come from dinner, but there were already a ton of university students standing around socializing.

Oh and drinking beer and Glühwein... That seems to be what started at 7:30pm.

And so we had to get some Glühwein too. Did I mention that I ordered my first thing in German? "vier Glühwein, bitte." :-D

Ben's friend, Michael, and his girlfriend Alessia

I don't think this one needs a caption...

So, the film festival consisted of 1.5 hours of socializing, drinking some Glühwein and hopping around to music that a band was playing on stage, plus about one hour of watching short films on a projected screen. The films were interesting although slightly weird. ("komisch" as I learned). All in all, a fun and interesting night.

First German Sunday

We tried to go hiking yesterday. There really isn't much to do on Sundays besides hiking and having cake and coffee. It's very much a family day. Ben and I tried to go out for a hike in the early afternoon, but it was cold and rainy. We managed to get out later in the afternoon for a walk. It was beautiful even though it started hailing while we were out.

This view. I decided that I need to come 

up here every morning.

And on our way back, we found closet in a trash pile! Isn't it great?

The doors were crooked and didn't quite close and it's missing a back, but look at those handles! We were still a good 20 minute walk from the apartment, so we had to carry it to the tram station. Can't say it didn't make me miss having a car. Kind of awkward to carry a closet onto public transportation.

Coffee and Kuchen (cake) is a Sunday tradition. Bakeries are pretty much the only thing open on Sundays. Ben and I walked to one nearby and got some cake. There was quite a line.

Raspberry and Popeye-seed 

It was too late for coffee, so we just had cake. I think the raspberry might have been my favorite. MMmm so good!

I have to post two more pictures. Lots of people have heard how meticulous Germans are about recycling. I'm still getting the hang of separating everything, but I learned about glass recycling yesterday for the first time. Glass recycling is separated by color: white, green, and brown. There's an uncle of mine that I think would appreciate this.

 Also, no recycling on Sundays. Oops. Like anyone follows that rule....

Flankyball

I learned a new drinking game today. Not that I know many of them... Ben and I were sitting at the university cafeteria having lunch when we noticed a group of students below on the campus plaza.

This game is called Flankyball. At first, the set-up kind of reminded me of 6-pins in elementary gym class. The goal of the game is to have all your teammates finish all of their beer before the other team does. Someone from team A throws a ball at the plastic bottle(s) in the middle. If they hit the bottle(s), then the each group member starts drinking their own bottle of beer until team B grabs the ball, sets up the bottle(s) in the middle again and runs back to their spot. I am told this is more common among the younger generation. Ben thought it was only slightly strange that they were playing this on campus. :-P

And our lunch from the cafeteria. Sweet potato
chickpea curry. A little bland.

And I also experienced my first time grocery shopping solo. This is the grocery store near our apartment. Notice the group of people standing to cross the street? This is another cultural norm that I am trying to get used to. I had heard that Germans are law-abiding citizens and no pedestrian would dare cross the street on a red light, even if the street is completely empty. This makes me laugh because it's true to a certain extent. It's not so much that Germans are abiding by the law in these cases as they are abiding by social pressure. Everyone will wait for the light to turn green, that is until someone decides that it's ridiculous and proceeds across the street on a red light :-O This then makes it ok to cross the street because that one person has already broken the unspoken "no J-walking" rule.

I made homemade sweet potato ravioli with a dairy free cream sauce. Check it out. Still getting acquainted with the metric system, so right now I'm just guessing. :-D

I love the view from the tram on my way home from town.

Officially Have an Apartment

Snapchat is now one of my favorite apps. Add me if you have one!

Still feeling pretty jet-lagged today. Can't wait until I can sleep all the way through the night. The weather has been wonderful, though slightly cold. Luckily, it has not snowed again since the night of my arrival. I really wasn't prepared for that.



Ben and I walked to the leasing office this morning. Such a beautiful morning! The scenery....blue skies with some clouds and the mountains....I love being able to walk everywhere. Still haven't figured out the tram (trolley), but soon. We, well Ben chatted, with the leasing guy and filled out all the paperwork. We're officially renting an apartment together. So much cheaper than back home. Only a little over 300 Euros with water and electricity included.
The guy's office though...I've never seen an office that clean. It almost felt uncomfortably clean, like I would've been afraid to touch anything. All the papers were piled neatly on the desk. All the binders standing erect on the bookshelf. Even the computer keyboard was completely spotless. I'm a neat freak, but even that was a bit too neat for me. There was no mess and it made the office lack some character.

And of course I have to add pictures of the bakery we stopped by to grab some breakfast. Don't these just look wonderful? No, I did not eat cake for breakfast. I had the boring but more substantial whole wheat rolls (one was pretzel-like and the other was made with potato ^_^) I just have to drool over these. Plus they make for better pictures.



I will try my hand at grocery shopping by myself and making dinner tonight. We'll see how that goes~

First Day in Germany

This is my first blog post. It's kind of exciting even though I'm not really sure how to use this thing...

So far I've decided that the scenery is beautiful. I love that I can walk around in downtown Jena and see green hills/mountains in the distance. Ben tells me that we will go hiking in one of them sometime soon. Maybe this weekend: Saturday afternoon or maybe we will go hiking Sunday, like good Germans.

Saw this at the Lisbon airport on my search
for a water fountain. Reminded
me of a certain brother of mine.

Still can't understand why water isn't free. This was especially annoying after travelling for hours and not being able to re-fill my water bottle--seems like all of the sinks are too shallow to stick a water bottle underneath. (Do they do this on purpose?) I am only willing to spend so much on bottled water. Such as waste of money and plastic. And though I haven't had any problems yet, I am dreading going on outings and having to pay to use the bathrooms. I guess the two go hand in hand. Don't drink water and don't go to the bathroom, unless absolutely necessary. I'll have to work on that.

I went into a German Language Institute this afternoon to take a placement exam. It's hard to be ok with not understanding anything. I remember feeling this way when I first got to China three years ago, but I had forgotten the feeling until I entered the German Institute for my placement exam. The lady said we had thirty minutes to complete sixty-five questions. Let's just say that I didn't need that much time....and it wasn't because I aced it.

Ben surprised me by having his friend, Michael,
pick me up at the train station. So grateful because
I would've been lost forever. (Ben made the sign)
:-)

Look at these beautiful flowers. <3