cobblestones

This post is entitled "cobblestones" because I have developed a very love/hate relationship with them in the past few days. I think they're gorgeous, and the streets here in Münster wouldn't look the same with pavement; however, they are also very slippery when wet. I discovered this this morning when I went searching for a coffee shop with free wi-fi where I could finish my German Aufsatz (essay) and check my email. I got a little bit turned around in the Altstadt, which is ironic considering I was using a gigantic cathedral as my landmark for the cafe I wanted. Who thought you could lose a cathedral?


We started classes on Monday, and a few of us took a "first day of school" picture in front of the community center where we have our classes. As you can tell from the picture, we were really excited. I really like my classes so far--German grammar frustrates me to no end, but I'm getting better at speaking, which is what I really care about. The other classes sound like they'll be a lot of fun--we have to do a couple of presentations for our Paideia II class, and it sounds like we basically get to choose the speed of my seminar class, so if we get all the work done in two months, then we're done!

My friends Hailey, Megan, and I have been eating dinner with each others' host families a lot this week, and it has been really fun to get to know the other families. Tonight, we're eating at Hailey's house with her host mother, father, and sister. We ate with my host family last night, and my host mother made fahnkuchen (pancakes) for us, and we put nutella and jam and applesauce on them and they were amazing. We ended up talking with my host parents and sisters for a couple hours about tons of different subjects--we talked about our families and friends in the United States, my host sister's schools, our classes here, and Münster in general. It's been a crazy cold winter for all of Europe compared to what they're used to, so all of our host families have been warning us about the frigid temperatures we're likely to face on any given day. It's not pleasantly warm outside, but it's no January in Iowa, either. The weather's supposed to turn nicer in a couple weeks, so it'll be fun to be able to really enjoy all of the outdoor activities Münster has to offer.

Bis Später!