Communication, Finally!

I'm getting closer to being on a relatively normal sleep schedule, still found it difficult to go to sleep last night, but I woke up at 8:30am without an alarm. I figure I'll have to get up before 7 on Wednesday morning as I have to be at work for 8:30am. I'll be working in Donaueschingen, a small town that is about a 15 minute train ride away, or so I've been told. Might try to find it tomorrow although the transit systems (yes there are multiple systems) are on reduced schedules as tomorrow is a holiday here, May Day.

Although it was a pretty uneventful day, I managed to get a few things accomplished. I should explain that the internship that I'm doing was arranged through a partnership that UNB has with a university here called Hochschule Furtwangen University where UNB students come to Germany to do a co-op work term each summer and each September a few German students go to Fredericton to study for four months. I think we get the better deal. So I first went to the university today, which is just a block away, as I have to register as a student, which will hopefully give me access to the wifi there. Unfortunately because tomorrow is a holiday, most people were not in today and the international office was closed, not sure when I'll find time to get back there while it's open, I guess I'll have to take advantage of my "flex-hours." I left the university and went to the mall where I was able to find a bottle of contact solution that says it is meant for a peroxide system, so hopefully that'll work, otherwise I'll be back to wearing glasses all summer.

I then decided that I had enough of being cut off from the world and went shopping for a sim card to put in my phone, something that I find painful enough when it's in my own language. Thankfully most of the people working in the cell phone stores were young enough that they knew some English. People under 30 were likely exposed to English in school, although I've tried to talk to a number of people under 30 who really didn't know English. I went to two cell phone stores in the mall, Vodafone and O₂, I was leaning towards O₂ simply because I could understand the guy better, but I went to the Vodafone store outside of the mall and spoke with someone who know English quite well and ended up buying a sim card for 25€, which included 25€ of credit, so the card was really free. I wanted to add on a mobile internet package but had to go back two hours later to do so. I made lunch and went back and he added it on in no time. Unfortunately the internet didn't work so I went back again (yep, I'm a regular at a Vodafone). He changed some settings but had no luck and told me to come back on Wednesday when the technical guy was in, better than in Canada where they just tell you to call tech support. It wasn't until after I left the internet cafe that I noticed the internet finally decided to work, so at least I won't have to make a trip back on Wednesday.

I headed down to the train station to the tourist office and asked if they knew where an internet cafe was and they directed me to the one that is no longer exists. I went into the casino (which is more like a small smoky room with VLTs) in the basement of the building and the bartender gave me confusing directions to another internet cafe that I surprisingly found. It was 1.80€ per hour to use the computers, so I stayed there for about an hour and a half. Chatted with my mom on Skype for a bit, checked email/facebook, and finally created this blog. I came back and had a kebap from the place next door for supper, and brought my own tap water this time!

I went for a walk through the park and took some pictures with my phone:

 The train station, and the tallest building around in the background

 The Neckarquelle, the 'source' of the Neckar River

 The Eishockey Arena

The park, not the greatest picture

Well I didn't think I'd have much more to write about the day, but as I was writing this I got a call from Sean, one of the guys from UNB, that there was a party going on in one of the classrooms at the university so he and a German girl, Kitty, came and got me to show me where to go. It seemed a bit strange to be allowed to have a party in the school, but things are different here. It was organized by two American students, and they were teaching other people how to play beer pong, as most of them had never played before. It was a good time, I met a bunch of people from all over; Germany, France, Peru, Spain, and there were probably others. We then headed to a club attached to the train station that is apparently the best club in Schwenningen, there was a bit of a wait to get in and it cost 5€ to get in, but it was worth it. It was fun, and it was packed, just wall to wall people. We stayed there until around 5am, since I don't think they have a time they have to close by, and the sun was starting to come up by the time I headed home. I then slept almost until noon, so I've probably completely messed up my sleep schedule again.

Here are a few pictures of where I'm living:

 My room

 The kitchen, complete with Spongebob?