Orientation week and Baking!!!

However will we climb conquer the Fortress?

So orientation started this week! That means I will have some normalcy in my life again!!!! I can’t wait for actual school, we haven’t started yet. Yes, I am that excited. Most of our friends, in the States, have been in class for a month and a half and I feel left out. Also, this means I won’t have enough time to bake. So I save money.

Speaking of baking, I made a Kit-Kat cake. The cake part is vegan, my first time trying something like this, and the rest is well non-vegan. It turned out to be a fortress cake and it is taking a while for my flat-mates to eat it. The reason that it is vegan is because I made it with a vegan friend, but he hasn’t been able to try it yet. I am also getting a reputation among some of my friends as the baker. This Friday I went to Bremen to make some cookies with a friend, the one whose name I fine beyond entertaining. I made raspberry chocolate chunk cookies. They taste just as yummy as they sound. I left some at my flat and with the flat below mine and they disappeared. I have one guy asking for the recipe! Maybe I should start asking for a small price for my baked goods that I can hand out. ;) Just to cover the costs. I do this for the fun of it, but man it gets to be expensive in both Germany and the States, but less in the states because we can buy huge things of flower and sugar. I am also getting used to making using different ingredients or the same ingredients but in different forms like brown sugar here is dry and crystallized unlike the State’s wet and heavy brown sugar. It is fun no matter what.

Creating the Fortress

Enough of my baking experiences, maybe I should start a blog about what I’ve been baking. Orientation week was full of fun games, people, and well that’s it.

 Our first day you could tell who knew who from Facebook, flats, or class but that all ended very fast. We all blended in and mingled just perfectly. I felt like I was in the October Rotary conference! It was a wonderful feeling.  Some of the Americans skipped the campus tour, naughty naughty, but we got to hang out and get to know each other better. I found out about a movie night that happens frequently and helped them with a few things around Lappan, with Emily’s help of course.

Just starting the night

                Not much happened on Tuesday. We took a tour of the library, ooh exciting stuff, and learned about the technical part of registering for class.  I think we all spent more time goofing off during breaks than anything. Then Emily and I went out with two of the Americans, one had never been in a bar legally before. Let’s say the guided tour Wednesday wasn’t very much fun for me.  ;)

Wednesday was also the day we took our German proficiency exams. I ended up writing about the wrong thing but I put in everything that they were looking for, I just can’t follow instructions. The second part of the test was killer. It put Jon’s test to the challenge in my eyes. Instead of crying, which is what I do on Jon’s tests, I said screw it. I let my mind relax and fill in the blanks with words it saw fit. I must have did something right because I got placed in the 3^rd level class out of 6. It’s not the best, but I’m happy for now. After that not much happened. There was a cocktail party Thursday that I didn’t stay too long for. One of the international students spilled my beer on me, but it was funny. Oh, the Finnish guy gave me stickers with the cutest animals on it. It feels good to be making friends and getting out of the flat once in a while now. Who knows what next week will bring. One more week before classes!!!

Some of the fun fun games.

Travel Tips (that Emily would like me to put):

1.       If you walk a lot, or bought cheap shoes, you might have to buy new shoes. Not always a bad thing, I had to do this Saturday. =.=*

2.       Try to pay attention in your orientation.

3.       Read my other travel tips, since I would just be repeating myself and no one likes a broken record.

Ash