First day of uni...

So today was my first day of my language classes. Well, actually tomorrow is the first day, but we had to go today for orientation stuff. And a language test - to see which class to place us in. Erm... I could save you some paper cos that thing is being handed back blank.

But first: a walk through my day, which will be somewhat typical of my days for the next four weeks.

So I got up at 5:55. That's a disgusting time. Unless I haven't gone to bed yet, that's not a time I want to be awake. But that will soon become my new wake up time. (I can already hear Bec saying, "Sarah, that's a sleep in!" No, Rebecca. No.) After showering, dressing and blowdrying I had just enough time to make my bed before I needed to hightail it to the train station, which is about a 15 minute walk away, downhill. Awesome. So I'm walking with my headphones and this little girl calls out, "Sarah!" I look down and there's this girl that Lara tutors who I met on Saturday. She's adorable, but how on earth she recognised me (she probably just saw this girl that looked like death and thought to herself, hey, I met someone who looks like death recently... Sarah!) and remembered my name is anyone's guess. I'm there saying hi and thinking, Crap! I'm sure she had a name! (It turns out her name is Jill. Lara told me this evening.) Then I kept on walking, ducked into a bakery to grab a brӧtchen then made it just in time for my 7:19 train. I paid the 10.50 Euro (ONE WAY! That's $20 ONE WAY!), then made it to Hagen (all the way sure I'd gotten on the wrong train) then changed to a train at Dortmund (all the way sure I'd gotten on the wrong train), then asked at the information counter which platform for the train to the uni, then got on the train, all the way sure I'd gotten on the wrong train.

Somewhere along the way, my neuroses got the better of me. Amongst all the "where is this train going??" thoughts, I suddenly started freaking out about meeting new people. No matter that this is something I've been doing every single day for the past 10 weeks, I came to the conclusion today that I didn't want to do it anymore. I'm so sick of being nice and friendly. It's not a natural state of being. At least not for me. So I had a bit of a panic and messaged my go-to people (and thank you, by the way, for dealing with my issues), then went to class. At first I was doing my don't-talk thing, but then I realised that I suck at not talking so I chatted with the people around me, who all spoke English.

Anyway, we had an orientation, were introduced to our teachers and international office people, then we had our test.

Yeah, I did not like this test. Why? Because part of the test was to ask the person next to us a series of questions, write their answers, then go around the class telling everyone. Yesterday, Lara and her mum taught me how to say some basic sentences: Meine name ist Sarah. Ich komme aus Australien. Ich bin vierundzwansig jahre alt. Ich wohne in Deutschland bei miner Freundin Lara. Yeah. So I could answer two of the questions for my partner. And then I had to say it out loud to the room. So I began with, "Ich spreche kein Deutsch," which I think Judith and Mariam taught me back in our Chicago days and it means that I can't speak German. Then I said my two sentences and said that's all I have. Guess which class I was placed in.

Anyway, we did a tour of the uni. It looks like a uni. As we were touring I got talking to some people. Met a nice girl from Georgia called Sammy. She's 21 and engaged. ENGAGED. Seriously. Everyone in the world is getting married, married, or having babies. And I'm still acting like a little kid, doing my student thing and refusing to settle down with one city, let alone one person. ARGH. Anyway, she was nice. There was one girl that I thought was stupid. She was listening into Sammy and I chatting, so I asked her a question. She answered in German. I told her I couldn't speak or understand German. She answered in German. Obviously, if you speak German only, I'm going to understand the whole speaking in German thing. But she was from America. Don't talk to me then, if you're going to be so rude. She asked me (in German), what I was doing at a German university if I don't speak German. I'm kind of over explaining that I've come here to see my friends, and doing an exchange was the most economical option, so I said, "Ich bin verrückt," which means, "I am crazy." Then she corrected me, saying it wasn't "verrückt" but something else. So I was worried because it's kind of my favourite word. When I got back home I asked Lara's family whether my sentence was right and they said it was. Long story short - I hate people.

Another person to add to my hate list - the man at the service desk at D-Bahn. Argh. Just, generally and arsehole. I'll sum him up with one sentence: I asked if I could pay for my ticket with credit and he tells me of course not, and in German he sneers, "It's Deutsche Bahn, not Deutsche Bank." You're a Deutsche Bastard. It was a legitimate freaking question.

Oh, and I got stung by a wasp. And a woman pushed in front of me when I was lining up to get my morning coffee. Do not push in front of me when I haven't had coffee yet. I'll death stare the crap out of you.