While we were riding back from class on the bus today, we had our first experience with the Fahrschein conductors. Everyone riding the bus obviously must have a ticket, that can be purchased at any small gas station or tobacco shop. It doesn't happen often, but every once in awhile, a person in plain clothes will enter the bus at a stop and check everyone's ticket, to make sure that no one is "Schwarzfahren." (literally: "riding black") Of course, we all were within the law and had our Monatskarten in our bags, but we saw the lady remove several people from the bus and take down their information for the 80 euro fine. It's a good incentive to remember your ticket.
The weather hasn't been very good thus far this week, but it's given us the chance to enjoy some indoor activities. Monday afternoon, Shireen, Laura and I spent the afternoon at Cappomio in the Altstadt, a very posh coffee shop that serves everything from green tea to tomato mozzarella sandwiches on Semmel. We had some reading to catch up on, and it was nice to enjoy the very Austrian Kaffeehaus Kultur, known for its stylish and intellectual atmosphere. I finished Fraulein Else by Arthur Schnitzler yesterday for Herr Pertlwieser's literature class. It's amazing how much easier it's become to read a novel in German. I've come a long way since Andrea's 341 class! I suppose it comes with getting a better grip on speaking the language.
We also met our conversation partners on Monday afternoon. Bärbel partnered our class with a college English pronunciation course and assigned us partners. It's up to us whether we meet up with them again, but mine seems really nice and I think we'll probably go for coffee sometime early next week.
We had another Heimbar Monday night and we were all out pretty late, so we've been trying to catch up on our sleep. This is always the toughest part of the quarter for me academically. After midterms are over and projects are coming due, it's important to keep the motivation going. Luckily, in this beautiful city, where we are constantly using what we learn, it's not too hard to stay interested.
In about a half hour, we'll go to Bernhard's class, then spend the rest of the afternoon touring a museum. Of course, I'll be posting again soon.
The Embassy? Are you kidding? That's pretty funny. My only hope is that the food there is a little healthier than the McDonald's we have here... Ooh that coffee shop sounds fun! Glad you got some reading done. It's a good place to do it for sure. I think it's wonderful that you're getting to be so fluent in German, both in reading and speaking the language! Props to you... How's the conversing going in general? Scraping by okay? Good luck on your midterms and tests! I keep forgetting you're in Europe for academic reasons. You seem to have such a blast just having fun and exploring the city. But it's great that you're learning so much too, both inside and outside of the classroom. :)
ReplyDelete