i got a flower!

hi! I got a flower! Actually, I got a flower on Saturday, I was just too excited about my camera to think about putting it up on here. No, it's nothing romantic...this past Sunday was "Wahl 2005" which means "Choice (aka Decision) 2005." In other words, this past Sunday was election day here in Germany. They voted for their parlaiment people. Don't ask me exactly how the German system works, but I do know that parlaiment is a big deal (as it is in any country). So, on Saturday people who were running in the elections (i think they were local people in local elections, like for mayor in the US for instance) were walking around where are shopping center is (like a strip mall, only European) and were handing out flowers. I think this is an ingenious idea... give the women flowers as a way of campaigning (or men flowers to give to their women). So, in short: even though I'm not a voter... I still got a pretty red rose. This makes me happy.

Okay, what else? Well, first of all: I know people are visiting my site (I have a counter.. and if I don't visit the site and the counter keeps counting, it means someone or some people are visiting me.. this makes me happy!)but no one is commenting... it's so sad... so, leave me a nice hello if you can when reading.. it'd make me smile!

Okay, so when I applied to come to germany, here was my original thought of how life would be:

July 9 - arrive
rest of July and August - relax, enjoy summer vacation. try not to die of near boredom.
September - start Intensive German course which is 22 hours per week, and also has film evenings, day excursions, and other such activities to get me out w/people more and to meet more people.
October - February - german courses, not as intensive, but still good for me...
March - July/beginning of August 06 - classes at Univerisity, not completely decided.

Except... when I applied I applied for the wrong German course. So instead of the 22 hour/week one I really wanted.. I got a measly "16 hour a week" (really 13 hours) course which is for people who need to pass a german proficiency test before they can start their studies at the University. So, the entire course is geared for passing this test. Except, since i'm only here a year, I don't have to take the test. So, I'm learning german, and it's helping: but not like i really expected. this is sad because i spent months looking forward to a class i can't take. On the bright side: i saved 500 Euro because of my mistake. so that's good... and why am i talking about all this now? because I just learned YESTERDAY that the course I'm in isn't just a dissapointing version of the course I WANTED.

And this just goes to prove one thing about germany: you can't get information here worth crap. Websites are misleading, offices (even government ones that are "important") are often only open for 2 hours, 2 days a week (and of course they are the hours you CAN NOT go there)...when you arrive they give you 80 pamphelets of info which all are misleading or confusing AND are only in German, so once you understand it, you realize you don't know where to go to sign up for the thing you want to do or what time it is or what day it starts...

another example: there is a champagne trying out day in Luxembourg (a country which is a short drive from here). I would like to go and get the chance to hang out w/new people and maybe meet a friend or something... but no where does it say what time the day trip is or by what day i have to apply. sadly, i'm sure i can't go because i have class.. but you'd think the time of departure and return would be ON the advertisements for it... but nope, apparantly you have to go apply to go on the trip to find out.

it's just frustrating. on the bright side, I did find out that I can take a two hour/week phonetic course during the semester which i may do since it would really help me... and i also learned who i can e-mail about taking a class in english (like British lit or something) at the Univeristy through the actual semester (which doesn't begin until almost november!) which will fill up my extra time that i have. and tomorrow i can call the zoo about volunteering there... so, things are once again... or more like, still... looking up!

but off I go to check my e-mail then clean... we're having someone over later and our dishes desperately need attention... and our room could use some attention too. have a great day everyone!