My CNY week

The first week has gone by quickly. These are some photos of the university...it's pretty empty since its still the holidays. Exchange students have started school though because we have 7 days of intensive German classes: 830-10 am; 1030-12 noon; 130-330pm. The campus looks really old from the outside, but its actually really nice inside..(to me at least!). It reminds me a bit of the old RJ campus at Mount Sinai..i think its the staircase!

This row of nice houses are actually offices of the faculty!

This is my classroom where I have my German language course. My teacher's name is Frau Franziska Schumann. (Sie heisst Franciska Schumann). I really like her, she's probably in her late 30s but she's really chic and a really good teacher. She absolutely refuses to speak in English at all (ok, until it came to the point when she needed to collect money for our German textbooks haha). Sometimes its quite hilarious because she will just ramble on and on, and then question marks start appearing all over our faces...and we all sit in silence for quite a while. But then, Frau Schumann perseveres and repeats herself, this time with exaggerated hand actions until we get it. In a way its good, because we are forced to listen closely and look at her all the time. I don't have a picture of her yet, but I'll definitely get one at the end. I would liken to audrey hepburn actually...

The German language course is seriously quite intense. Back in SMU when I took Spanish, we had 2 days x 1.5h of class max, here its 1.5h x 3 per day! And the thing about learning languages is the need to listen really attentively to get the pronunciation and meaning right, to jot down notes and in my case- my own 'spelling' for each word to make sure that I can remember the right way to pronounce the word. On top of that, one has to be really conscientious to revise after every lesson...Having said that, I really like learning languages..I find it fun!

Its only the 2nd lesson and already we are swamped with many many worksheets. Homework is 'Hausefgabe' (House-earth-gar-ber) in Deutsch. The first time Franziska said that, I was desperately trying to guess what that meant..."House of garden?...what on earth is that...come on!"

If I were to compare German vis-a-vis Spanish, I would choose the latter anytime. Learning German somehow makes me want to learn Spanish even more! I'm definitely going back to Las Lilas when I go back to SG. I really miss my Spanish class and Aida! Made friends with another student Jorge Garcia from Mexico and I was really excited because I could practise my Spanish...haha! I knew he could speak spanish because his name is just classically spanish- its those kind of names that appear on Spanish textbooks..!

We have been packing sandwiches to school, simply because the food at the school cafeteria really isnt nice and its expensive! Our sandwiches are much better!

I made this snow angel!

Postcard worthy, yes? There was also a frozen swimming pool nearby!

My house mates! Couldn't ask for better ones! Haha!

This week we also signed our housing contract. The lady in charge (Antje) gave us an inventory list of all the things in our house and we were supposed to check that they existed and were in working condition...but when we saw the list of items listed under the kitchen...(see below)

KITCHEN:
Ceiling yes
Window yes
Floor yes
Wall yes

...hmmm don't think we need to walk to the kitchen to check if those items are there or not. Plus there was nothing like '6 plates/ 4 cups' or something like that...so queer!

This is one of the shopping streets at Marktplatz...many things to see! ;)

Last but not least, this is one of the dinners I cooked! Curry!