So this week I attended the German Headstart class, teaching us about German language and culture. I was quick, and it was more about survival skills, so not a whole lot about language. We spent the first two days in the classroom, learning a variety of things. Wednesday we went out into town, the idea was to provide basic orientation on the transit system and of the downtown area. As we walked around, there were a couple different store windows with Lederhosen on display. Before I left, I had joked with the nephews, who as children wore lederhosen mom had bought for them, and I joked that I would find some adult ones for them, so here you go boys...
I didn't even want to find out the prices. The one was in the window of a big name designer store, I forget who, but it was a big name. We wondered about the various squares downtown, then went to the "Rathaus" or city hall, where the bathrooms are free. The other thing they have there is a really cool elevator. It is wooden and runs continuously, there are no doors, you just step on and off as it's moving. There are two shafts side-by-side, one shaft going up, the other going down. It was great fun.
After a lunch we browsed through a chocolate shop that was a dream come true. The nicest thing was that I was unable to unload a bunch of small change Euro coins. The most annoying are the pennies. I mentioned previously that on base they don't use US pennies, just round up and down, but the Euro pennies are really annoying, they are smaller than even US dimes, as illustrated in the picture.
The final thing that I got done Wednesday, was to get myself a Verfundpass. This is a prerequisite to be able to purchase weekly, monthly and annual tram/bus system tickets. There is little savings between buying a weekly ticket and a weeks worth of individual tickets (about 22¢ per trip, if I only take trips to and from work), but it is a lot more convenient than buying a ticket each trip. All that was required was give them my ID card, they scanned the photo and printed it out. I was so excited about finally getting it, I went down to get on the train back to the hotel and I completely forgot to validate my 4-er pass (four trips) and just hopped on the train. After I got back and was walking back through the hotel, I realized this fact, fortunately I didn't get busted by a cop (Polizei).
It rained for most of the afternoon and there is a 70% likelihood of rain tomorrow. I plan to do laundry, although it may be miserable having to hump my laundry 20 minutes to the base and back in the rain. Sunday I meet the guy I'm renting the apartment from, we'll fill in the contract and I have an appointment to get it review next Wednesday by the Housing office. I guess this next week will be my first week of real work, it will be interesting to see what it will be all about.
