After breakfast in the Mensa, we were off to classes. At first, class continues about 1.5 hours until the coffee break. Class includes listening to the instructor, working small groups (two or three), and sometimes working as a whole class standing up and moving around the room talking to each other doing a task or all standing at a board or something and doing a task. Much talking in German happens. We all have some difficulty speaking in German at a times so there's no embarrassment for getting it wrong. The instructor is very nice to correct and help us and we sometimes help each other. Everything we do in class is in German except when one of us gets stuck and tries to throw in a word in another language (usually English, but sometimes others).
At 10:00 there is always a half hour coffee break. Coffee and water are available in the Mensa. Many folks just walk into the courtyard to be outside for a while. Everyone is talking in varying qualities of German most of the time. We meet up for a few minutes at this time to see how we are doing, have a quick kiss and then go back to class. Class then continues until about noon, at which time we have a ten minute break, then we continue until 1pm. That last 50 minutes is very hard one the brain!
By 1pm our brains are pretty toasted, of course. We head down to the Mensa for lunch. Usually there are two options and one is vegetarian. Today's was some sort of spiced ground beef with rice with a chunky tomato sauce. It was good.
After lunch we headed out with Andy's new classmate, Michael from Connecticut. He just finished his first year at one of the universities in Rochester. Today was his first day here for some reason. He was a bit overwhelmed. So we went looking for the post and the ATM and such and showed him where some things were. We bought stamps, withdrew some euros, and bought a few groceries and some baked goods. Everyone was shopping because tomorrow is a holiday and nothing will be open other than restaurants.
We also walked to the nearest bike shop to get some tubes. They have a vending machine for that for after hours needs! We went inside, though, since they were open. We found Andy a good cheap road bike but since we already bought him a bike this trip, we didn't buy this one. A pity. Perhaps if we make another trip here some day, we'll start with this bike shop.
In the evening we were so tired. We did a little homework and then went to the nearby Italian restaurant (at which the waiter knows us well by now) and had pizza.
Afterwards we took a half hour bike ride to explore the Radweg (bike path) toward the south. Some of this path was gravel and some was bridges, including one very long narrow one that was wood and covered and the planks were laid longways, which was a bit disconcerting and it took TWO ninety degree turns. Pretty funky on a bike path.
This is the view of the southern part of the Innenstadt (city center) from across the Kocher from the bike path.
We saw some other cool things including other folks on bikes, people walking, people walking dogs, and so forth. We can go in a moment from being in the middle of the Innenstadt (city center) to being in a forest with no one around to being by a riverside cafe to just cycling down the river path with not much else to see but some houses and trees to then coming out of the trees to see a giant monastery poised on top of a hill above us across a big open field.
We knew Kloster Comburg was nearby but hadn't seen it yet. It was less than 15 minutes by bike to have the view (more to get up to it, no doubt). We biked over a bridge at that point into a little town called Steinbach and looked at a few funny things, including the little coin operated marionette theaters and a large metal robot.
We can't make this stuff up!
We biked back over the river again into the Innenstadt and stopped to have ice cream at a gelateria. It was good. One euro per scoop! Amelia and vanilla and Andy had strawberry.
Then we biked home and did a bit more homework before wandering off to bed a bit late, knowing we don't have to get up early on Thursday because it is a holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment