Tag Elf (Day Eleven)

This morning before leaving for class, I went to wait outside my landlady’s office so that I could discuss my personal lake with her. The lake, by the way, went down overnight, but not completely…perhaps halfway. Of course, I have by now figured out that “German punctuality” is a bit of a myth. Busses are always a couple minutes late. Teachers are a couple minutes late. Program coordinators are a couple minutes late. And it is not my watch that is a couple minutes fast either. But I digress…there I was waiting outside her office. And waiting. And waiting. At last I needed to go catch the bus, so I decided to just return tomorrow. Not a big deal. Chance of rain is pretty low for the rest of this week, so as long as I get to talk to her at some point soon, things will be good.

Language class today was pretty uneventful. At one point we made posters of our favourite German words, and we had to tell why we liked them. A few of the words I contributed were das Meerschweinchen (“the guinea pig”…a totally nonsensical word, because it literally breaks down to “little sea-pig”) and der Schatz / Schatzi (“the treasure” and the diminutive form of the word…also used as term of endearment in German). Someone else beat me to adding der Igel (“the hedgehog”).

After class, half of our study abroad group jumped on a bus with two of our program coordinators and headed off to the Stadtbüro (city office) to work on applications for our student visas/residence permits and to register our presence/residence with the city of Marburg. Working with the visa-officer on that application was easy. Despite his assurances to the contrary, his English was far better than my German, so that conversational had its language chosen for it. Then I went to talk to one of the people in charge of managing registration of residence with the city. After several lost-in-translation moments, and a conversation that oddly switched back and forth between German and English, I was officially registered with the city. Now I have to wait to receive some papers in the mail from them and then go down again in order to actually pick up my visa. Fourteen days or less before leaving Marburg, I get to make one final trip to the Stadtbüro to let them know that I will be leaving the city and my residency will be ending.

Following the piles-of-paperwork adventure, I headed off with a couple friends to the Mensa for a snack and homework time, then to Rewe (a local grocery store that I might have mentioned previously) to pick up a couple things that I forgot to buy on Saturday.

In the process of wandering through Rewe I finally, after eleven days, realised the one thing that I did not bring with me that I have not yet found here. Rather, it is not one thing, but one type of thing – hot sauce. In the entirety of Rewe there were two types of salsa (one of which I purchased), but that was it. Tobasco, Tapatio, and Taco Bell sauces…I miss you so much.

Having already completed my homework it looks like this evening will be open for tea-drinking, a workout, maybe some laundry washing, and a little studying. Oh, and an update on my lake: The floodwaters have receded (evaporated) and my floor is once again dry.

Tschuss für heute!