Bike time!

Yesterday (monday) was my first day of Vorlesung (lecture). It was...interesting to say the least.  And by interesting i mean very stressfull.

Turns out my 8am lecture is about 6+ kilometers away in Wedding, a different area north of the normal TU campus.  Having mapped out my quest online i thought it would only take about 15 minutes.  I was wrong.  I got super lost and 20 minutes later i ended up at where i thought my class was.  I circled the place about 5 times and interrupted a few labs accidentally until the friendly grounds worker let me know here the Hörsaal (lecture hall) was.  I ran into a few other lost students and we walked in later and i took my seat on the floor because there were none left.

this was my Mikrobiologie course.  I didn't really understand what the prof was saying but i understood what he wrote down on the overhead and it was all stuff i already know so that's good. I thought my bladder was going to burst i had to visit the restroom so badly (naturally), and when i returned the  room was all a commotion and people were filling out small white pieces of paper.  I discovered how bad my german gets when i'm nervous from when i had to ask the dozent what was going on.  Finally i got something, checked off some classes that don't conflict with my schedule and headed out of there.

I was soooo relieved to leave the room.  It was just like a whole worldwind of stress. Sounded like something only retail therapy could cure :)

so, i went to warschauer Straße and bought some suppper cute jeans, then headed off to Ikea and got the remainder of essentials that i was lacking; i.e. opaque curtains, tupperware, a knife.

today i had another full day of lectures.

early morning i had what i thought was going to be my Biological Psychology course.  I found the room and it was really small, only about 7 chairs and completely empty.  Some other people showed up, all wayy older than me and we waited for a while.  During this time i found out it was a masters course and i somehow accidentally ended up saying i was a masters student. i was too embarrassed to correct myself and my brain was racing for a way to get myself out of there gracefully. THANK GOODNESS the professor never showed up so i just left...and am not going to come back.

this left me with some time to relax in my room until my next class.

picked up my scholarship letter from the international students office and then went to my next lecture, Biochemistry.  This was also in another obscure part of the building.  Can i just tangent for a moment to say how incredibly confusing all of these buildings are?  It's insanity, one would think that for a technical university things would make more sense.

...anyhow. I ended up sitting next to really loud people eating schnitzel (seriously), and chatting, so listening to the professor was kind of difficult.  He kept talking about how this course is difficult and how it's very important to know organic chemistry well.

um,

haven't taken organic chemistry yet...

but i understood the first lecture but i think i'm gonna have to drop it which really sucks because they don't have all that many courses that i can apply to my major.  and i can't take genetics also because it's sandwiched between two of my courses and it's in a different campus...45 minutes away, when i only have 20 minutes in between.

so that counts out two courses that i can apply to my major. 

quite stressful because i really need to fulfill my major requirements in order to stay the year.  and i'm a bit discouraged because i planned out all my remaining college courses if i stay the year and all the courses transfer and i would  still have to stay an extra year as a super senior PLUS do summer school. that sucks, BAD.

can't life just ever be simple!>??

but i think i'm always going to be haunted by conundrums. ach, so is life.

BUT, after the professor went over in time i rushed to the trainstation and made my way east to Kotbusser Tor, to the turksiche markt to buy a bike.  Some old turkish man tried to sell me an ugly old bike but i said i would think about it. walked around in the incredibly crowded market and returned to find him with another man and two really cute bikes.  I haggled myself a super cute red, danish style bike for only 28 euro! Downside: it's really heavy. I worked up quite a sweat managing this thing on the subway and s-bahn and recieved help twice from friendly strangers.  I guess i won't have to go to the gym as often!  and it's so much faster and more fun than walking.  i zipped my way to class and to the grocery store.  if you could strut your stuff on a bike, that is exactly how i am on my cute little red cruiser. it has a bell and a light! all i need is a basket to put groceries, books, flowers, and puppies (i wish!) in.

i rode it to my third class of the day, Irresponsible Science.  Again I didn't really understand what the prof was saying but i could understand the slides.  I think it'll be an interesting class.

My friend told me that you can just check out textbooks for the month and keep rechecking them out so you don't have to buy them. only problem, i don't know how to find out what textbooks i need....i think that may be an essential fact to know.

just ate a good dinner with a dormmate. i feel more motivated to actually make stuff now that i have tupperware...

but tomorrow i only have my german as a foreign language class so i can sleep in a bit and go jogging seeing as it doesn't start until 2.

i still haven't recieved all my immatrikulation stuff in the mail, and it's getting quite annoying because i'm wasting all this money on train tickets when i already paid for my semester ticket! i it just hasn't come!

ach so,

time to practice oboe.

speaking of which, the orchestra website said they only needed a clarinet and a trumpet, but maybe it's still worth an email.