Entdeckungstag (Day of Discovery)

I have no idea if Entdeckungstag is a real word but I like it and when I used it in a sentence with a German person it didn't seem to cause confusion. That's one of the great things about German: you can mix most words together to create new ones. Anyway, a lot seems to have happened in the last two days as I try to come to terms with a new city and work out what there actually is here.

First things first on Friday was to go shopping so that I actually had something to eat in the house. This wasn't all that exciting apart from the fact that I love shopping when I have a definite list of things to buy because there's a much greater feeling of having achieved something at the end. The shop I went to was 'Norma' and it's almost exactly like any of the other German supermarkets that have made their way to England. The most interesting thing I bought were 'Erdnuss Flips' which are like peanutbutter Wotsits. They're pretty strange. The other great thing is that food is pretty cheap over here compared to England so I shouldn't have to worry about overspending.

After that I visited the 'Sportmittel Schule' for the first time to meet all the teachers. The visit only lasted about an hour but everyone was really friendly and they gave me a flower and a 'Zueckertuete' which is a traditional thing that children get when they start school. It was a cone full of sweets and stationery and most exciting of all: a lanyard! I honestly think it's the best thing ever. I know that's pretty sad but I can put my keys on it when I have no pockets and it makes me feel official and business like.

Another thing I did was visit the cinema which is one thing I've found to have intersting differences with English cinema and a topic that I'd potentially like to do my first year abroad essay on. For instance the adverts and trailers are all mixed together and then after an advert for ice cream the lights came on, the curtain closed and they started selling ice cream. Then there were yet more adverts before the film finally started. There is also ample leg room in all seats which allows people to move easily to the seat they've paid for and makes everyone much more comfortable. I saw dubbed 'Johnny English' which was pretty good but there are a couple of actual German films I'd like to see as well which will probably make for a better cinema experience.

I've also spent today exploring the city centre and have decided that Leipzig has too many shops. I checked on my map and saw that I only really covered one grid square but still I think I managed to see a lot. Including two different churches, one of which is the church that Bach went to and is now buried in and the other is the one I will probably go to tomorrow. I think making friends is high up my list of priorities at the moment, so going to the university service tomorrow morning might be a good place to start.

Finally I seem to be generally having good experiences with the actual language side of things. It's still pleasantly surprising to find I can understand a stream of German and am able to reply. Or even better that I can say something in German and not have people reply in English which has so often been the case. Don't get me wrong it's still really scary but with each successive good experience my confidence with German grows.

This seems to have been a rather rambling, listy type blog post so apologies to those who got bored and congratulations if you made it to the end. I'm sure another update will follow as soon as I do something else vaguely interesting or different to my life back in England.

Tschuss!