Kaputt. In German this wonderful word means broken; and it is pretty fun to say until the three words in front of it are “My computer is.” A friend has been nice enough to let me borrow her computer so I can catch up on life a little bit. It�s funny how you never realize how much you need something until it�s gone.

I cannot believe I have already been here for three weeks. Between classes, weekend trips and meeting so many new people, time has just been flying by.

The first weekend a group of us went to Berlin and had an absolute ball. Berlin, even though it�s so stoic and most of its history is covered by graffiti, is definitely one of my favorites. Of course we saw Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, but the Holocaust Memorial, the East Side Galleria, and the old Olympic stadium were fascinating. I have never seen so much concrete as in the Olympic stadium.

I did get to meet up with a friend from Mines. ‘Woot woot’ for CSM students in Europe!

Everyone Celebrating Fourth of July in Germany

Everyone celebrating Fourth of July in Germany

Even though many in our group aren’t American, we celebrated July 4 with sparklers, a cookout and as many American games as we could think of. We sang three different national anthems, guess that’s the international version of July 4.

The next weekend was filled with German Fests! We went to Hannover for a Schuetzenfest with some Germans. It was similar to any state fair in the U.S., just with more bratwursts than hotdogs. Then we made our way up to Hamburg, where everyone was walking around in �80s clothes. Little did we know we had stumbled upon a Folk Music Festival, which was absolutely crazy. The main street was packed with people in neon wigs and tie-die everything. We all felt slightly under dressed, but still had a great time wandering around.

This past weekend I visited a student in the Harz Mountains at TU Clausthal who is thinking about coming to Mines. The Harz Mountains are amazing; we drove around them for a while and then went to a cave. They remind me a little bit of Colorado, but nowhere near as big and so much greener. I just couldn’t get over how green everything was!

Besides all the trips, daily life here is just as good. Engineering classes started this week, and they are much more interesting than German classes. The other day I walked into the kitchen on my floor and five or six guys were sitting there with all their computers playing WoW; seems like that happens at every engineering school. But they have been so kind and patient letting us practice our German on them. We make them banana pancakes and they help us with German, everyone wins!

The sun has come out a few times. The joke is that if it�s sunny in the morning, it will be pouring by night, most of the time it�s cold and rainy. Regardless, I am loving Germany, and hopefully I can get my computer fixed soon, so I won’t wait so long between posts.

Ciao!

Fun fact: Germans say ‘ciao’ for ‘bye’ more than they say auf weidersehen. But Tch�ss is probably still used the most.

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