Erstaunliche Abenteuer

Well I have made it through a whole week in Germany! It started off hard but it ended on a better note. When I arrived in Germany I got a message from my brother saying my grandpa wasn't doing very well and they didn't think he would make it long. So that added with the jet lag, made it so I didn't leave the bed for most of the first two days. My grandpa passed away that Sunday and there will be a funeral tomorrow the 27th. My sister just got a new phone so I will be skyping her during the funeral so that I can be there in a way.

Last Monday I went and played some indoor soccer with Jan and some of his friends. Of course being the "American" I wasn't nearly as good as any of them. It was still fun though and I got to play soccer so it cheered me up. Then on Thursday I went to an actual soccer game to watch. It was cold but it was fun for me.

We have had a couple down days where we have just read our books but it is good because I have finished two books and I am starting on my third. I think it might be some kind of record for me. I think it helps that Iris is reading the books right after me, so I am determined to finish them before her so that she doesn't have to wait to start the next one.

Heather and I have been having problems left and right with our university in Boise and the university here. It started out with Heather's housing situation. On our contracts they sent us before we left it said that the max rent would be 220 Euros for the room she wanted. They gave her the room she wanted but told her she had four days to transfer her security deposit and first months rent. After doing the math she realized that is is about 35 Euros more per month. When we went to talk to the housing people they said that it is always 255 Euros and that it never changes. But the paper we got was from them and not from our university so it was a mess up in their system. So she will be staying where I am staying for the whole time.

Our next problem was our course. We are supposed to be taking this thing called Studienkolleg. On the form the university sent us it said that our course was free. We, however, got an email just before we left saying it was going to cost 250 Euros. That is a lot of money. So we asked about that when we went to the university too and they said that because we are from Boise State and they have a special thing with them we won't have to pay. So that was good news.

Since all of this costs money, naturally we would have some of those problems too. Heather and I both received loans from BSU. When we were looking Heather noticed that she didn't get the correct amount of money back and was stuck with very little money to live on until our next disbursement of money in May. When I looked I noticed that my money hadn't even been released yet. So Heather sent an email to the lady at BSU and she said she knew about the problem and was trying to get it fixed. So now that is taken care of as well except I still have a scholarship that was supposed to go through before we even left the states that hasn't gone through yet. My dad will hopefully get that straightened out for me.

Most of our problems seem to be working themselves out! Below are some pictures of what we have been doing the past couple of days