What's Sara up to these days?
I haven't written in a while, because, starting Wednesday, my life got busy. Elizabeth, a staff member of the study abroad office at MSU, was in Aachen for an onsite visit. Simone had arranged for us all to have lunch together. Free food!! The previous week, we'd had our monthly meeting--free food! That meeting had been at the Aachener Brauhaus. Ryan R had ordered the meat platter. He had this one very black looking sausage. "I'm not sure what it is, but it tastes all right," he said. Kai, the person responsible for arranging our jobs with the institutes, said he'd wait until Ryan was done eating to tell him what it was. After the meal, we were informed that it was blood sausage. Nasty! My curiousity got the best of me, and I just had to try some. It might have been a mental thing; it might have been that I got some sauerkraut mixed in with the bite I tried; it might have been that blood sausage is just plain bad; but whatever it was, I didn't like it.
There wasn't any blood sausage this time. We ate at an Italian place with a lunch buffet. It was nice to sit back and relax a little, talking about the trip so far. We got into an interesting discussion about language. Elizabeth believes it is very tied to culture, and you aren't the same person when you speak in a different language--not completely different like a Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde thing, but not the same either. It might be true; I sound pretty much like a retard when I speak German. I don't think I'm retarded in English.
After lunch, I had to hurry back to my dorm to get some laundry out of the dryer. I'd tried to squeeze in a load that morning since I was booked the rest of the day. Then I went straight to work; I showed Sebastian, another guy involved in the lung project, how to take PIV measurements, and we recorded a set together. That took a while, and I didn't end up leaving until 6:00.
I went to the Humboldt Haus, where I have my German class. That building is kinda the headquarters for the international center and INCAS, a student organization at RWTH that organizes activities, including the Burg Eltz trip that I went on. All this week, INCAS was hosting a beach party every night. They'd brought in tons of sand and poured it all over the patio out back. When we came to German class on Wednesday morning, there was someone sleeping on a couch there, and there were several empty beer bottles. We could tell it had been some party the previous night. So I decided to check it out on Wednesday. They had a projector screen to view the soccer game. I didn't know anyone so I decided to leave; as I was heading out, though, I saw Sascha, a guy I met on the castle trip. I joined him and his friends; we ate some pizza on Pontstrasse then headed back to the Humboldt Haus. But by that time, it was packed. We ended up standing in a very crowded area on Pontstrasse to watch the game, barely able to see the tv screen. Everytime Germany scored, Turkey would come right back with a goal. But in the end, Germany came out on top! It was pretty crazy afterwards. I saw what I believe was a car on fire. Police were everywhere. Good thing this wasn't MSU, or there'd be tear gas.
That night, even though I was tired, I had some stuff to do. I needed to reserve a few nights at a hostel and start packing. The next day, I was leaving for Warsaw. I'd booked a trip earlier that week, a pretty spontaneous decision on my part. I knew I was going somewhere; staying in Aachen just wasn't an option. Everything was pretty expensive; that was bound to happen when planning a trip so late. Warsaw sounded pretty cool.
So that's where I am right now--Poland! I'm sitting in my hostel utilizing the free internet access. Normally I'd be out and about, but it's thunderstorming right now, and anyway, I'm pretty tired from a long day of walking around.
There wasn't any blood sausage this time. We ate at an Italian place with a lunch buffet. It was nice to sit back and relax a little, talking about the trip so far. We got into an interesting discussion about language. Elizabeth believes it is very tied to culture, and you aren't the same person when you speak in a different language--not completely different like a Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde thing, but not the same either. It might be true; I sound pretty much like a retard when I speak German. I don't think I'm retarded in English.
After lunch, I had to hurry back to my dorm to get some laundry out of the dryer. I'd tried to squeeze in a load that morning since I was booked the rest of the day. Then I went straight to work; I showed Sebastian, another guy involved in the lung project, how to take PIV measurements, and we recorded a set together. That took a while, and I didn't end up leaving until 6:00.
I went to the Humboldt Haus, where I have my German class. That building is kinda the headquarters for the international center and INCAS, a student organization at RWTH that organizes activities, including the Burg Eltz trip that I went on. All this week, INCAS was hosting a beach party every night. They'd brought in tons of sand and poured it all over the patio out back. When we came to German class on Wednesday morning, there was someone sleeping on a couch there, and there were several empty beer bottles. We could tell it had been some party the previous night. So I decided to check it out on Wednesday. They had a projector screen to view the soccer game. I didn't know anyone so I decided to leave; as I was heading out, though, I saw Sascha, a guy I met on the castle trip. I joined him and his friends; we ate some pizza on Pontstrasse then headed back to the Humboldt Haus. But by that time, it was packed. We ended up standing in a very crowded area on Pontstrasse to watch the game, barely able to see the tv screen. Everytime Germany scored, Turkey would come right back with a goal. But in the end, Germany came out on top! It was pretty crazy afterwards. I saw what I believe was a car on fire. Police were everywhere. Good thing this wasn't MSU, or there'd be tear gas.
That night, even though I was tired, I had some stuff to do. I needed to reserve a few nights at a hostel and start packing. The next day, I was leaving for Warsaw. I'd booked a trip earlier that week, a pretty spontaneous decision on my part. I knew I was going somewhere; staying in Aachen just wasn't an option. Everything was pretty expensive; that was bound to happen when planning a trip so late. Warsaw sounded pretty cool.
So that's where I am right now--Poland! I'm sitting in my hostel utilizing the free internet access. Normally I'd be out and about, but it's thunderstorming right now, and anyway, I'm pretty tired from a long day of walking around.
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