!!! Today is the most successful day of my Erasmus. I finally managed to order most of the books I need for my bachelor thesis (all the most important ones). Since none of the books I need are available anywhere in the Czech Republic, I consider this my studies-saving success. What a relief this I-might-be-actually-able-to-write-my-thesis-one-day feeling. I love German interlibrary loans.

Oh Neal, I am so so so excited to read them alllllllll. Can´t wait for the books to arrive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7mSZWQoBnI


(I went to eat lunch in the Menza to celebrate.)

-          The European Championship was a huge mess but also a huge success for the Czech team. 4 gold, 4 silver and 10 bronze medals only for the first day! Congratulations!

-          Disorganized organization is how I´d describe the event.

-          No time table of the categories (not even for the coaches!), no certificates for the winners, no winners podium (!)

-          Kata eliminations → kumite → kata finals. Logic?

-          There was a drum performance in the middle of the day for some reason.

-     Unless we were standing on the chairs, we couldn´t see anything on the tatami.

-          And the organizers smiled and pretended everything is going according to plan. (what plan?!)

-          I am telling you, this Pünktlichkeit of Germans is just a one big lie. A rumor they created. (Not that it is such a bad thing I guess.)

-          But our flag was hanged properly which is probably the first time.

-          May break: a whole week off! Sometimes I really love Germany. (Actually, it is pretty awesome here most of the time.)

-          Now I will catch up on all my homework, assignments, essays, presentations, kanji and vocabulary studying. I will.

-          Also, I will finally find out where to get literature for my bachelor thesis. I will.

-          Tandem is seriously one of the very best things you can do to improve your speaking skills in a language. Plus it´s free. Do it.

-          Time flies. I am already looking for tickets back home. More than half of my Erasmus stay is over.

-          Despair is: when you forget to buy a tooth paste and the shops are closed on Sundays.

- Der obdachlose Otto und die Fashionistas: my first visit of a German (student) theatre play. Very entertaining (and I even could understand what´s going on most of the time!). Also probably the creepiest play I have ever seen (reality show about girls... made from plastic).
- I met a Slovak guy at the Sprachkafe tonight and he knows who stole our table! (Apparently that person threw it out of the window and the police came too.)
- So many people want to go / actually go to Prague now or soon and ask me for advice. So much responsibility! :-D Any ideas what to recommend them?
- Can´t wait to see the European Karate Championship in Bochum this weekend!

(Got a 100 % on my first test here! Yeah it was just a vocab test but it still feels nice. And it means bonus points for the exam.)

These fountains are my favorite.

- Today was the Christi Himmelfahrt holiday (yeah, I had to look that up...) so I thought I would just relax, catch up on some sleeping and study. So obviously that´s not what happened.

- U-bahn → 7:26 Bochum HBF → Dortmund → Bielefeld → Lemgo: the first goal of our journey. → Detmold: the second goal. → P?something → Hamm → Bochum → U-bahn. (→food →bed)

- A lot of trains for one day.

- Daniel missed his U-bahn so he made it from his dorms to the hbf in 15minuts on a bike and caught our train literally in the last second. Which I had thought was impossible. And which was also very lucky since he was the only one who knew the plan.

Lemgo looked very empty from the main station. It was really empty.

And also very Monet-like pretty.

Stapler. Really?

German elections.

Drugs for rats.

Arminius defeated the Roman army when Jesus was 9. Statue: 53.46 metres. 

- Tomorrow, I have my first test here (in one of my Japanese classes). So it is the perfect time for procrastination on the blog now.
- This Sprachcafé is a really cool thing. I don´t really practice my German there as much as I expected but I did learn how to write my name in Arabic tonight.
- My Tandem family is growing bigger and bigger. On Wednesdays Japanese-English with Sayo, Thursdays German-Czech with Simon and Fridays German-English with Olga and Mustapha. Better than any language course.
- Nobody from the other international students really believes me that I actually have to study while I am here. Where does this rumour that Erasmus is just a long party-vacation come from? Or maybe it´s not a rumour but it excludes students of Japanese.

- I am going to visit Aneta in Brussels in June! (Found tickets for 1 euro again!)

- Somebody stole our table from the kitchen. This accident united us with the floor-mates as nothing before.

(O. has locked herself out of the room four times already. Apparently, you can break into the room using a card like they do in the movies.)

May 2,
Aachen.

- A kind of unexpected trip. Instead of 6 people, 23 showed up.
- It turns out Monika spent last summer in Aachen and she made a perfect guide.
- The cathedral.
- Dreiländereck: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium.
- We lost ...ehm... 10 people on the way back.
- But found them again in an ice cream - waffle shop.

Rathaus.

Happy horse.

The highest point of Netherlands. 322,7 metres above the sea level.

May 1

Münster.

I really don´t know.

You can´t see it but I took this picture because there was a real size spiderman on the balcony. 

The celebrations of the May 1 are crazy. There were thousands of people by the lake. 90 % of them young people getting drunk and the rest families with little children taking a nice walk by the water.

Sloniiii.

(Random stories of this week:
- why would I sign up for karate if I wanted to play basketball. Just WHY did we have to play basketball for half an hour at the second karate practice.)