Hallo aus Deutschland!
So here I am! I’ve
been in Stuttgart for about 24 hours now, so here’s the low-down.
THE ROOM
 |
| the bit cut out of the desk |
 |
| Cell? |
When I first walked in it looked like a cell. Seriously.
White painted walls, white-light wooden coloured furniture, 2m white
tiling around the sink, turquoise plastic floor. All the stuff in it is
really nice, with lots of storage space, a huuuge desk and a comfy bed. Don’t think I’ll be moving the stuff
around too much though, as it all looks nice and seems to be made to fit the
room. (For example, the desk has a bit
cut out of it so that the radiator pipes will fit). Typical German efficiency
there! I’ve now sorted out my room,
anyway. It looks a bit more homely – it
now has bedding, and pictures and cards all over the place. 
I think I might need to get a rug or
something for the floor, and maybe something for the walls. I’ve not put the pictures on the walls
because I have no curtains – something that I was not expecting at all! No bedding, I expected. No curtains... what?! There’s a curtain rail (it even features in
the inventory) but no curtains. I just
can’t get over it! Anyway, now my photos have made a kind-of curtain. The light didn’t wake me up this morning, so
I guess it’s ok, but I might go and get some anyway. You know, just to seem normal!
THE HALLS
The halls are alright.
In each flat (I’m in 46 F) there are a number of rooms – 11 in my
case. We all share two “Dusche-WC”
(bathrooms) and one was already claimed as the boys’ when I got here. Fine by me!
In the one that’s left (presumably the girls’) there are two toilets and
two showers. The showers are nice-
powerful and hot – and the toilets have the sink in the cubicle too. This bathroom is right next to the kitchen,
so I have to go upstairs. The Kitchen consists of a cooking area and a living
area. The cooking area has a cupboard
for each of us (we were given a key for it) and a lockable cupboard in the
fridge for each of us too. We have half
a drawer in the freezer, so I won’t be able to freeze so much stuff this year! There are about 6 hobs and an oven, a microwave
and a toaster. I think there was a
kettle too, but can’t quite remember.
There’s already a rubbish rota up that lasts until January, and it’s not
my turn until November, which suits me fine! All the rubbish is separated
here. The living area has a big table
for everyone to sit around, a sofa, a TV and a radio. I’ve only met one person who’s in my flat so
far – Johannes, who lives opposite. He
seems nice enough, but I’m kicking myself for turning down a tour of the
flat! Stupid girl. I’m yet to meet anyone else, partly because I
don’t really know what time people eat round here, partly because they still
have exams at the moment and partly because I’m actually quite scared of
meeting people. Silly, I know, but I’m
still in the “argh-German-help!”
stage. It’s so easy to just shut the
door of your room (especially as I’m at the end of a corridor) and isolate
yourself, which I mustn’t allow to happen!
Spent last night watching any TV I had downloaded already (Cherry Healey’s Body Dilemmas and Doctor Who) as had nothing else to do...
Side note: also yet to find the sauna.
THE UNI
The main bit of uni isn’t even 5 minutes walk away from my
halls. I’ve managed to set up a Bank
Account (woo) even if the man decided to speak English to me just because I
misheard “data” (“Daten”) as “date” (“Datum”), which I think is an easy mistake
to make and would explain my confused face!
Still, I think he got the idea that I wasn’t totally stupid when I
understood what he was saying a bit later on, but I still would have much
rather he’s done it in German with me.
OH well! I’ve yet to explore
other areas of the campus – I think there’s a little shop here which sells
fresh bread and things. I also went over
to the International Centre, but there didn’t seem to be much happening, other
than a banner that said “Welcome International Students”. I need to try to get the Internet at some
point as well, but I have no idea where to get that from! I’m writing this on Thursday, so we’ll have
to see how long it takes for me to find it... It’s quite annoying as everything
is on the internet as well – all the posters say “register here *give internet
address*” and I can’t access emails either!
:’-(
THE CULTURE
I took a trip to Lidl’s in Vaihingen (the village-y area
that the campus is attached to) yesterday and got a few things, but I’m already
noticing the lack of variety. No
chickpeas or kidney beans! Also couldn’t
find oil, rice, stock cubes or mince, which surprised me, but then maybe I’m
looking in the wrong place. I know that
there’s a market in Stuttgart, so I’ll have to go over there at some point and
see if they have a butcher or something!
So far I think I’ve done alright:
Good points:
:) Got a room with bedding
:) Got food
:) Have at least one flat mate
:) Nice showers and toilets
:) Jumpers coming in handy
Bad points:
:( No internet (therefore can’t transfer money to
account, can’t Skype, can’t email, can’t blog!)
:( Acting like a recluse (therefore no friends and
therefore lonely L)
:( No idea how to get internet (therefore no internet
– see above)
:( No idea how to sign up to things to get involved
and stop acting like a recluse (therefore acting like a recluse – see above)
So I have more good points than bad points, which must be
good really! It’s just easier to focus
on the bad things at the moment. Looking
forward to getting internet so that I can sign up for things and get in contact
with people!
UPDATE: obviously now have internet!
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