Afua Goes to Göttingen: First Day of Classes

Currently 1:00 AM in Duestchland! Today was my first day of classes and it was amazing , besides waking up at 6:40am to get ready. First off, the sun does not rise here until like 9:30am so I had to get up and walk in the dark. I took about 30 minutes for me and the other students to make it to walk to the Institut. During the walk I passed some artsy graffiti on benches and walls.

Once I got to the building I checked the bulletin board to see what class I was placed in. I ended up being in A.2.1 I rushed upstairs to get to the classroom ; my professor ended up being the lady that interviewed me the day before. We started out class doing an activity going around introducing ourselves. My diverse class size was about 11 students with students coming from Brazil, Netherlands, Belgium, China, South Korea, England, and China. I was the only American student in my class and currently at the Institut surprisingly. After class introductions we covered German past tense , vacation terms, and vocabulary, luckily we had two twenty minute breaks between each hour and 30 minutes. Class ended around 1 PM; as we were dismissed from class one of my classmates Ingrid (from Brazil) invited me out to lunch with her.

Our other classmates Tom (Netherlands), Antoine (Belgium), and Gustavo (Italy) joined us as well. Before we headed to eat I needed to head to a bank for an ATM Machine. We walked into the city center and went to the Duetsche bank to retrieve Euros. Now I can finally eat elsewhere besides McDonald's! Bless up! Next, Antoine and Gustavo needed to purchase bus tickets so we walked around in circles looking for the bus office. It turns out it was right next to the bank -_- . When we arrived at the office they needed photos and discount codes to obtain the pass. My stomach continually growling from not eating this morning decided to look for the closest food place. I ended up at a Backeri (Bakery) ordering a turkey sand which on fresh baked bread and an original German Fanta ( Fanta originated in Germany during WW2). From there we rushed back to the Insititut to go on a tour of Göttingen, even though we covered about 3/4 of it looking for the bus office hahahaha. Back at the Institut no was there besides us so we decided to sit down and chat. We ended up all getting along , getting numbers, Facebook names, Instagrams and even creating a group chat. We also decided to do group dinners in the kitchen alternating cooking. Tomorrow is my night to cook and I am planning on making steak and french fries. :)

Finally the tour guide arrived, A University of Göttingen student, guided us through a walking tour of the town back to our apartment. Tired and freezing from the long tour I headed back to my apartment to warm up and take a nap. I woke up a few hours later to head to the grocery store with Antoine to buy some appetizers and drinks for the dinner. The grocery store had multiple escalators and very cheap prices for everything! We headed back from the grocery store to help the rest of our friends with cooking, We ended up preparing Brazilian and Italian food. Ingrid made bolinhos de chuva a Brazilian fried donut that was sweet, hot, crispy, and delicious. Gustavo made spaghetti with tomato garlic sauce. While waiting on the food we munched on Paprika chips. During dinner we talked about the classes, our interests, and what brought us to be apart of the Goethe Institut Program. Dinner lasted about 3 hours and was lovely and a great way to become better friends. I might even call them my squad! Now I am in bed finishing blogging and about to complete my homework as well. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

P.S. I have a few people that I plan to talk to assist with my research including students from Egypt and Syrian refugees.

Guten Nacht,

Afua Asenso

(Walking to class)

(Dinner)