Seeing the Sights in Downtown Leipzig

Today Amy and I got up early and walked to a bakery that is literally on the corner of the street we live on here (our street is Erich-Koln-Strasse). The lady at the bakery spoke no english so when I ordered I said in English "Can I have two of these?" and pointed to the pastry I wanted. And she said "zwie?" And I was like "Two?" and She said "zwie?" Eventually I realized she just trying to tell me zwie means two. She was a cute little grandma type, very sweet and I am going to try to learn how to say a few things to her in German because I hate that I can't talk to anyone I meet here! The pastries ROCKED. I have no idea what I got but I want more!

After that we came back to our flat and ate our pastries and drank coffee until we had class in Dr. Beck's flatt at 10. We had orientation today, aka rule time. Basically we need to not be dumb while we are here and not drink. I can do both of those so I should be good to go.

Dr. Beck gave us some notes on the Berlin wall and the Cold War and then we were free to go finish our sigh seeing that we were assigned yesterday. Amy and Amanda (my two roomies here) and then two other girls, Stephanie and Dayami, and I all went together downtown. I rented a phone for 10 euro (15 american dollars wooohoo!) and then we went to Leipzig University and walked around aimlessly for a few minutes and then we went to the Museum of Contemporary History. That was a really cool place. After walking around it for like half an hour a worker there asked me if I spoke English and then gave me a booklet that you return to them when you are done. The booklet is an English translation of all the German descriptions of the different things in the exhibition. I was already done and we had to move on, but I am definitely going back on a free day because I want to know what all the stuff said! After the museum we went to H&M which is actually a store that's from America and the other girls bought some stuff. Then we went to St. Thomas Church which is the church Bach worked at for a while and he composed a lot of stuff there. His remains are actually buried under the choir room and you can see a big brass plate on the ground over where they are located. It was really cool (of course the choir nerd in me loved it). The church was beautiful and had an awesome organ! It also had a small room that was set up in the style of a museum that was very interesting.

After that Amanda and I were pooped so we headed back to the tram. We got back to our flat and I went to the grocery store. I picked the worst time ever to go. I had no clue what time it was because I hadn't set my phone up yet, but it had to have been like 5 or 6 because the little store was packed. I learned how to rent a shopping cart (you pay a 1 euro deposit for a shopping cart) and then did my shopping. I bought bread, turkey, Gouda cheese (yeah baby), fruit, NUTELLA (I'm in LOVE), coke, etc. Stocked the fridge basically. I need to go back and get cereal though. Anyways. Then I had to stand in a line that was forever long and pay and pack my bag while people were staring me down because I was taking forever and I know they were thinking "stupid American." I am sure I will get the hang of how to efficiently grocery shop here. After that I came home, made a nutella sandwhich and journaled for a bit because our first entries are due tomorrow. Then I set up my phone and then I realized it was almost 8:30 at night. It was light enough outside I thought it was like 6, so then I realized I needed to hustle because....

Tomorrow we go to Berlin! I packed and I'm ready to go now. We leave at 8:30 in the morning. I won't have my laptop because I won't have internet access there, but I'll be available for you to call me on the phone I rented (that's for Mom).

Alright...I need to sleeeeep, so peace out!

PS...Thank you all for your comments! I love them!