It's that time again where I actually should be doing some work, and should actually be grateful that I have homework and am not stuck back in Gilbert getting ready to go work for Harkins; but I feel like procrastinating and being super lazy. This however, could be due to the fact that I went to 3 different bars last night and woke up with a terrible hangover because I didn't drink any water last night. That brings me to my first point.
Water: Water isn't free here like it is in the States. If you order water at a restaurant, you'll get fancy mineral water. And if you want still water, they will bring you a fancy bottle of still water that will cost you around 2-3 euro. You won't find any drinking fountains anywhere (the only place I saw one was in the Deutsche American Institute)At some restaurants it is cheaper or the same price to buy a beer. You can get 1.5 liter bottles in the grocery stores but you have to pay pfand, or a deposit on all plastic bottles that you can get back if you remember to return the bottle to the store. I usually do all of my shopping right after I get back from downtown, where the classroom is and forget to bring my empty bottles back with me so they've been slowly gathering in one of the corners of my room.
Shopping: It's weird, I pretty much have to go grocery shopping every day. There is a shopping center about 5 minutes away from my dormitory. It has two grocery stores, two banks, an apothecary, a flower store, a tobacco store, a small restaurant, and a bakery. Usually in the morning on my way to class, I'll pick up a shoko-crouissant, or pastry for the class pause from the Gauker Bakery. Then I'll go to class from 9-3:30 take the bus back to WHO and go to the "Treff 3000 Discount" store as opposed to "nah und gut"store which is more expensive. The store has a fresh bakery with a wonderful selection of fresh bread. The other day I got an excellent loaf of ciabatta for only 1,05 euro. The bread here tastes much better but it doesn't last as long as American bread. I usually pick up a carton of joghurt because I only have one tiny shelf on the fridge for my stuff so I don't buy as much stuff. Depending on what bread I get, I sometimes get some cheese or meat. My floor kitchen is clean but it's not as nice as some of the others that I've seen. We don't have a microwave or hotpot or anything and only have a limited selection of pots and pans, and they always appear to be dirty.... But I will try and make due with what I have. If I don't make any hot meals in my kitchen, I can always go out to a restaurant.
Restaurants: So far I haven't found any really great restaurants that have excellent food and excellent prices. The one that comes pretty close though is "The Neckar Mueller" It has really good typical German/Swabish food such as Kase-Spatzle which is handmade cheese noodles. It's very very good but expensive. There is a so called "Mexican" food restaurant but it's even more expensive than the Neckar Mueller and I am hesitant to spend 15 euros for non authentic Mexican food. There are lots of cheap Donner Kebap places but I haven't tried any yet. One Imbiss(fast food) place I found had cheeseburgers and really good pommes frites(french fries). I really want to find a sushi place but I won't keep my hopes up. It feels like all my money is being used on food. Which I guess it is. Oh well.
In other news, I wish I hadn't told my mother about skype. Also, men are very annoying. The End!
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