God Bless America(ns)

I had a great weekend. I deliberately forgot all about the mayhem from school for three days and made a distinct effort to just enjoy myself in the city, relax, and have fun. It worked!

I went to Ikea, walked ALL OVER the city, ate lunch at a cafe on the river, got myself acquainted with stuff. Sunday I slept late, read some, and watched some "tv" (the internet is a great tool).

But I think the greatest thing that has happened since Thursday is I now have friends! That's right - and a lot of them too.

I met this kid Jordan at the first international student meeting - we happened to randomly sit next to each other, struck up a conversation (in German of course), and it turns out he's from Pittsburgh and goes to Clemson - at which point we promptly stopped speaking German and resorted to our mother tongue. He is on a DAAD scholarship, which means he's kind of in the same boat I am - on his own and here for a year. A few days later he found me on Facebook, and thus became the only person I have seen/talked to more than once.

Jordan happened to be placed in the international dorm with all the kids on the exchange program from Boston University - there's 30 of them, here for 4.5 months, taking classes in English and not really at the university - because none of them speak German. Friday night Jordan invited me to go out with this group of people, and it was wonderful. (It's very interesting - they are jealous of the fact that I speak German and have the opportunity to meet other non-American people, but I am jealous of the fact that they're here together and have each other.)

Every single person who was with us that night was so excited to meet me, made an effort to have a one-on-one conversation with me, exchanged emails and cell phone numbers, and made plans to see me again. They have two "counselors" with their group who told me to call them if I ever needed anything (but I don't know how much they can do with the university because they're not really affiliated).

They also have a Sunday-night ritual to go to an "American" bar every Sunday night because they show NFL football - Jordan and I went by ourselves last week because they were all out of town, but several of them came this Sunday night. I have plans to see them on Tuesday too! I don't want to be one of those international students who comes here and just makes friends with other Americans, but right now it's really good to know that this whole group of people exists and they want me to feel comfortable here.

Germans are very introverted people and are very hard to meet or have initial conversations with, or to try to see again. I know I will make friends in time, especially once I actually have classes to go to, but it felt really good not to have to pretend I also have an introverted personality in order to meet these people. I don't feel "myself" when I speak German - I feel like I'm pretending to be somebody I'm not and I am only telling half-truths. I know that will also improve with time as I get more comfortable with expressing myself in the language, but it's a weird concept that never crossed my mind before I started only speaking German. We'll see.

But as far as this week goes - I get to go to my first Rotary meeting tomorrow! And still no response from the second round of emails I sent, and it's getting almost too late to do anything about all of that, because this week classes really START. *shrugs shoulders* Not really anything else I can do....