Free time? What is that?

Pure Joy

So, this will be a little bit out of order. Emily will be posting about Prague soon, but we decided to tell you guys a bit about being back in school. A lot of it is my week, but I assure you that Emily is just as busy if not more than I am over here. This girl has papers to write, articles about movies to translate, trips to plan, and a melancholy best friend. How does she do it? I don't know, but I respect her for that. She puts up with so much and doesn't ask for too much, if anything, in return. Now this post is going to start off a little bit backwards, because I started writing this Saturday instead of today.

 Saturday has been awesome. I got to spend the day with two lovely ladies, Emily and Emma. It was nothing but a baking fest. I made a lovely white cake while Emily was playing with the fondant, making us flowers. Emma was doing a great job at entertaining us, telling us stories of home and school. I also made some passion-fruit cupcakes without a recipe. I just looked at all the ingredients I had and was just adding things as I saw fit. It was amazing! Today was an overall good day, something I desperately needed.

I’m not saying the week was bad, but I just wanted a break. It felt like nothing was going right or just standing still. Monday, we had an in class debate and since no one from my group wanted to talk. I had to start talking. That didn’t end well. So now I really dislike the class and the teacher after that. There is a reason I don’t talk in class and that is so I don’t make a fool out of myself. The rest of that day went pretty well. I just read some of my homework for my two new classes that started that day. Tuesday was nothing special either. Wake up for my 8 am, participate in class, learn a little bit about German grammar, text Emily during class, and make sure Shigeru didn’t fall asleep too often in class. I mean that was just the first 4 hours of the day. I was convinced, by Corey, to go to the Schützenweg Pinte, a student bar, for a drink or two. From recent experiences I don’t like to drink the day before a class. I did stick to my guns and have a drink. Cheers to being responsible.

Hamburg Freezers

Wednesday was a day of studying with everyone’s favorite Finn. That’s right I got to spend time with Markus! Jeremy, the always entertaining Australian guy, joined later. Studying with both of them for about 45 minutes was productive. Then it was lunch time. Who loves lunch? This girl especially when it is chicken nuggets. After that we were stuck trying to find a place to do homework. I swear people seem to remember that the library exists when it is close to finals time, but before then it seems to repel students. Anyways, we ended up sitting on the floor huddled near an electrical outlet. That was a fun time. It reminds me of sitting in Starbucks trying to work on homework with a bunch of friends and all of us huddled around electrical outlets sharing websites we were finding. Oh the days at NMU. After an eventful day in the library and class, the joys of learning about Modern old English, I got to have drinks with my co-blogger and best friend Emily. We had some pretty good laughs and just caught up on life after vacation. We both have been pretty busy with homework, friends, and some other things. Thursday was spent pretty much the same as Wednesday, except I just stayed home because I wasn’t feeling the best. However, Emily, Boris, Jonathan, Cedric, and Jan made it all better when I was dragged, yes dragged, to Boris’ house for a dinner party. I got to make a super yummy cauliflower oregano lemon soup that Cedric couldn’t get enough of it. It was pretty funny. “Anyone wants anymore?”, and then Cedric just takes the rest of the soup. We also got to pick on poor ole Cedric and our new friend Jan. A fun time was had by all that night. I mean how can you not with awesome company?

Emma's first flower!

Now on to Friday, what happened on Friday? Oh! Emily, Everardo, and I went to Familia! It was Taco night for Emily and she needed to pick up some taco stuff. It was an interesting adventure since we added another person to our grocery shopping event. Friday was also another international student’s birthday. He is originally from Mexico and he has been having trouble finding some of the stuff he needs to do some cooking. Em told him about our little trip and he joined. It was interesting since Familia is like a small Wal-mart for us. It has a little bit of everything. We just love going there to just see what  they have. After the shopping adventure we went our separate ways. I had to get ready for my ice hockey game in Hamburg, while Emily started her cooking. Sadly, because of hockey I missed out on an awesome taco night and friends. However, hockey was simply AMAZING! I went with two other Americans and it was all of our first German hockey game. It was Hamburg Freezers vs. Adler Mannheim. And can the Germans appreciate a fun sport. I almost thought it was a football (soccer) game with some of the things they were doing. It also helped that we had amazing seats. We were three rows from the ice. Like I said the game was amazing. I even got a new scarf.  I will never forget that, I mean they lit fireworks off in the arena!

Tara was beyond excited for her cake.

Even though it has been a bit of a busy week I couldn’t ask for more. I learned I have to time manage more. I discovered that I can make up my own recipes. I found out Emily is bomb at working with fondant and that Emma is great at rolling balls for the cake. I found out that people are protective of their friends and family. I got to see my little sister go into full on mamma bear mode over my nephew. I do have to say it was kind of funny to see that. After a long week I am looking forward towards a nice less chaotic week. Time to buckle down for exams and then it is time to travel again!

Ashley