Kurse und Freizeit

It’s now two weeks into the semester and I guess things are going alright. School is school and it will never be my favorite thing in the world but outside of the classroom I’m having the time of my life. I’ll tell you a little bit about my classes and then a bit about what I’ve been up to lately.
I have four classes during the week: A class on the Literature and Culture of the Early Middle Ages, a class auf Deutsch on the Relationship Between the Romans and the Germanic Tribes, a class on Pop Culture and the last is a Creative Writing class auf Deutsch. I also had a weekend seminar which met Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend and the one before that. It was on Chivalry, Knighthood and the sort and it was all auf Deutsch. And it totally kicked my ass but at least it’s over. On Wednesdays, I tutor English and geography at the Hauptschule in the Nordstadt. The Hauptschule is the lowest level of public schooling in Deutschland. I guess it’s sort of like an inner-city school in the US. And the Nordstadt is the “rough” district of the city. Eighty percent of the kids are non-German –mostly Turkish. But I find it very interesting. The students range in age from fifth grade to tenth and I don’t think they’re all that wild. I’ve definitely seen worse behaved kids in Western North Carolina. In June and July there are also several bloc seminar classes that I want to take such as one on Deutsche Film, one on Anti-Americanism and one on the Opinions of the American South in the Duetsche Imagination. So I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me this semester but I’m not gonna work too hard at it and I’m definitely not going to stress over it. I don’t need any of the credits and I don’t want to ruin my experience by having to stress myself into making deadlines.
That being said, I was out until 4:30 Saturday morning (yes, the same morning I had that weekend seminar). The university had a big party all across the campus and the south campus with 20 bands and DJs in eight different areas. It was a blast. The day before, me and a bunch of my friends grilled bratwursts in the garden behind my dorm and we hung out until about midnight. I’ve also gone bowling here which was ridiculously expensive but I came in first out of 13 people and amazed everybody because apparently no one in Deutschland has ever seen a technical and they all freaked out the first time I threw one. Sunday I went to the Westfalenpark, Dortmund’s equivalent of the Tiergarten in Berlin or Central Park in NY. It was spectacular. I swear it was one of the best days of my life. I’ve also been keeping up with a lot of the other exchange students; we eat lunch together, go to the bars on Monday and Wednesday and sometimes have movie night where we all cram into Simone’s tiny dorm room and watch a random movie on a laptop.
I’m also pretty broke at the moment which sucks. I deposited the rest of my money I brought into my bank here about two weeks ago but for some reason or another they said I wouldn’t be able to take any of it out for about two weeks unless I paid a 20€ penalty. Two weeks later and I still can’t take it out… I can see my money in the ATM but I can’t touch it. It’s quite frustrating. Especially since we have a three-day weekend coming up and people are making plans to travel and I can’t commit to anything because I may have just 4€ still on Friday.
May is just around the corner though and I’ll be getting my meal stipend for the month so I’m not that worried about it. What I am concerned about is the lack of comments my blog has. (Thanks, Ang) I even posted a link to the other one with my poems and stuff and as far as I know, no one has even looked at it :’(
Lemme know what you guys are up to and what you think of my posts, please.
Peace