So, Saturday morning after my first night's sleep in the new place, I was pleasantly awoken by the sunshine (I have no curtains). I did some organising and unpacking, as I hadn't done the night before and headed downstairs at about 11.30 ish. 2 of my housemates were around and Debo's cousin was also here, he invited me to join them in town and then on the beach. Given that I hadn't eaten and wasn't reallly ready to go out, I said I would join them later, took Debo's number and came back upstairs after having a nice cuppa and chat with Debo's cousin, Marco. A bit later, I heard some noises and went downstairs to find myself face to face with a complete stranger (this seems to be quite normal here). Turns out they didn't go to the beach and came back here, so I joined them on the balcony in the glorious sun and heat, we drank some Sekt, chatted, drank some cider and had some weird German thing that I think you are supposed to put in vodka. It's like fizzy stuff, tastes quite nice, apparently better with vodka. To be confirmed.
After sitting out in the sun for a couple of hours, and having said bye to Marco and Missy (the random stranger I ran into pre-shower), I went out to invest in some Diet Coke after sorting out the key debacle (I didn't have a key and nobody was in. A note about the key, it's IMPOSSIBLE to turn, what with so many copies having been made, and the fact that it's generally an old house. I will get some pics up in the next few days). I then retreated to my room, which was nice and cool (the sun was on the front of the house and I had left my window open) and blogged, probably. I was so busy, I didn't really notice the time going by. Which was good. I then cooked and decided to go out with Debo and Nils to Debo's other cousins. I am glad I went out, I heard some German, spoke some German and met some nice people. I also experienced something cultural. The night before (and on) the 1st May, there are demonstrations in lots of German cities about lots of things. I remember steering clear of Tübingen city centre a few years ago. But I found myself on Saturday night, slap bang in the middle of all the action. I will post some pictures soon, but they don't really do justice to what I saw. I have never seen so many police in my life! It was crazy. Police vans everywhere, people dressed in black and marching in the street. Luckily, we were inside at Debo's cousin's flat. But we watched from the window, it was so intriguing (especially given that we don't have anything like that in England on the 1st May, only Maypole dancing usw)! It was nice to try and understand what on earth was occurring, speak some German and be in a German environment. I really feel like each day my German is getting a bit better! We then went to go out. Given that we were about 10, and nobody really wanted to pay 9€ to go into a bar, it was taking AGES to decide where to go. Nils and I got bored and decided to go home. Now Nils doesn't speak a great amount of English so I was forced to speak to him in German. We stopped by a pizza place and sat and chatted whilst we ate. We laughed a lot, probably because I was slightly tipsy and couldn't express myself properly and was talking lots with my hands and kept saying "Aber du verstehst mich, oder?" and he kept saying yes. Probably just to be polite. But it was fun! We eventually got back at about 2.30 and I collapsed in bed and woke up probably at about 9.30 with the mix of my alarm and the sunshine.
The house was so quiet, unlike the Saturday morning. I figured it was Sunday, and Nils and I were the first back, Julia had gone to a house party and I'm not so sure about Andy, so most people would be sleeping in. I headed downstairs at about 11.30 and ran into Julia. We sat in the living room and chatted about the night before and our plans for the day. She was going to a Scout meeting, then they were going for a barbecue on the river. I asked if I could join them, trying to make the most of any opportunity I have to meet people and so on. She gave me directions so I could join them after there meeting which would be "pretty boring". Of course, I was by this point the only one in the house, Nils had gone out, Andy had disappeared and Debo had gone to demonstrate, so it took me about 5 minutes to lock the door. Once the door was locked, I headed on my merry way. There were 5 of us and the weather was perfect for BBQs. We found a nice spot by the river and got the barbie going. After some yummy salad and garlic bread amongst other things, a few of us headed off to find ice cream. My first of the year! It was a thouroughly excellent moment and of course, I probably smeared it all over my face, as I happen to be one of the most catastrophic ice cream eaters in the world. I then came home and watched the City match on the internet. It's so exciting to be able to do that, because after 8 months in Vert Bois with its appalling internet, I had been going slightly (slash very) insane.
After the match and some blogging, I decided to go and watch some Shameless (Julia had remembered that I liked it and taken the entire first series out on DVD from the library in case I got homesick!), although there was a murder/crime mystery thing on TV, so we watched that instead and I ate a tomato and mozzarella salad. It was YUM. Then Debo appeared from nowhere and talked about getting some food delivered. Despite the fact that I had eaten lunch relatively late and had just eaten a tomamozz salad, I ordered a baked potato with sour cream. Today (Monday, so not that much later on in the week), half of it is sitting in tinfoil in the fridge to be eaten at a later date. The food ended up coming quite late and I went to bed pretty much straight afterwards, having watched a bit of The Dark Knight with Nils. I had planned to get up early the next morning to go to the Burgeramt to register with the city. Hm. We'll see shall we?
Ciao for now x
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