as of today i've officially been here for one month! woohoo!! it's kind of scary because this month has gone by incredibly fast, and so there's a duality now in which i'm staring down 10 more months which seems so long, yet since school has begun my time is so segmented and planned out that everything seems to be so short.

class has officially begun and over the last two weeks it has been a really frustrating experience on the whole. first of all, classes at FU can be cancelled for the entire semester, and you won't find out until you show up on the first day to take the class. also, classes can be cancelled for the day at whim because the professor is ill or something. so many of my friends' classes have been canceled, and a few of mine have as well. last week i tried to go to 6 classes, and i really only sat in two, one of which i am under no circumstances allowed to take. it is the one kind of class that exchange students can't take, which i find to be ridiculous, but so be it. my one class - global justice and individual responsibility - was engaging and interesting, and everything has actually worked out with that class. i am enrolled online in 2 of my classes, the rest are kind of up in the air but hopefully after this week it will all be settled. i've gone to all the classes i want to take now, and handed them my letter from heike explaining why they should let me in, but i have to see if i can get through the bureaucratic tangle once more.

secondly, my bank stuff is driving me nuts. my roommate told me to get an account with this internet bank because then i can get an account and go to any ATM in the world for free. this sounds great, in theory, but it's taking forever for them to send me my card and account info and i need to get money over here. i need to transfer my rent money to her account and in 3 weeks i'll have to start paying my health insurance too.

thirdly, the supermarkets here are ridiculous. there are a few really cheap ones, like aldi and lidl and plus, but they feel so weird. there's only one brand of everything in the whole store, and it's really small and kind of dirty. the quality is just as good as anywhere else, but you're really limited in what you can buy. close by i have a supermarket called edeka which is a little more pricey, but just generally nicer to shop in and also has a much better selection. lastly there's a supermarket equally close in the opposite direction under the train station called ullrich's which is actually humongous. it's the closest thing to an american supermarket that i've found, but the germans go CRAZY in it. everyone is so rude and pushy and i feel totally overwhelmed in there. at least in the smaller markets everyone is really polite. i actually almost fell over in the ullrich's and the person didn't even look at me ... all to get at the yogurt. tuesdays and fridays, though, there's a turkish market which is actually amazing and incredibly cheap. it took me a few visits to really get the hang of how to navigate a giant outdoor market, but now that i'm good at it it's the best thing that's happened to me. the vegetable selection here is pretty dismal, so cheap exotic fruits and veggies (dragonfruit!!) as well as basics like tomatos and bananas is a blessing.



now that classes have started i've met a ton of new people. also it's crazy, but i tend to see the same people in random places like on the street or in the train, which i would never have thought possible. i guess it makes sense that we're all students, a lot of us in the same area of campus, but even so - how is it possible to see people in the same train car in a city this huge at random? it's a very reassuring feeling though, to walk into the U-Bahn and see a friend, or to bump into someone by the lockers in the library. it makes me feel like i'm actually here in a weird way, that i'm actually meeting people and living as a working part of the city. sometimes i still get homesick, and i miss a lot of things about the US. firstly, the television here is terrible. the most mindless and gauche MTV shows have suddenly become vital to my existence simply for the fact that they're reminiscent of home. everything is dubbed here, and honestly, watching family guy dubbed in german is enough to bring one to tears. another thing i miss from home is understanding what i'm buying - the vocabulary necessary for food labels or cleaning product labels is still lacking in my life. this weekend will have to be another big shopping weekend for me.



today in the shower i realized that i was almost out of soap. i brought a bar of dial soap from home, and the tiny sliver is like an orange reminder that time is passing and that i've been here for so long. i'm going to have to buy a new soap, and for those who know me REALLY well, they'll know how difficult that is for me. i'm a loyal brand user. buying a german soap brand will be so metaphorical for me ... which is kind of pathetic.