The second full day at Altenberg included planning leading a mock English lesson (in groups). Trying to pretend that you are back at school, speak fluent German but have limited English is more difficult than you might think! Some quality impressions of Germans speaking English though. Food had its ups and downs - schnitzel and cheesy potatoes was the most filling meal yet, but the cauliflower cheese and veggie/nut fishcake style thing left something to be desired, although the one-off luxury of ice cream for pudding did make up for it!
'Pub' quiz in the evening... my team came 2nd!! Never done that well in a quiz. Would love to say it was all down to my contributions but that would be blatant lies. There's just one problem with the 'ehemalige' (past students) being the ones that put on the quiz, as well as the ones running the bar (in a different building) - the pub part of the pub quiz was somewhat lacking... Still once they opened the bar afterwards, this morning's 6am wake up call became somewhat more painful for many! Definitely going to miss being surrounded by so many people all in the same situation.
We arrived back in Köln-Hauptbahnhof before 8.30 in the morning (unnaturally early) so with the whole day ahead me and Marina decided to attempt to 'einschreiben' (enrol) at Cologne Uni because you can then get a Semester ticket which gives you free travel across all trains/buses etc through all of Nordrhein-Westfalen, not bad for just over €200! After many perplexed moments, some questions and a few circles around Köln-Hbf U-bahn, we eventually sussed the route and bought our tickets for an U-bahn and tram trip across the city. The staff at Köln uni are soooo helpful, and enrolling was much much easier than we'd feared. Free travel and use of all their facilites achieved!
Seeing as the day was on a roll I decided to go and 'anmelden' too - something I apparently should have done within a week of arriving at a fixed address, whoops. After visiting the wrong building, speaking to 3 people and failing to answer the question "which is your first name?" (their own fault for using Rufname instead of Vorname), I am now officially registered with the German authorities and the err proud(?!) owner of the rubbish collection calendar.... Not to mention feeling knackered after lugging my luggage (including laptop and forest of paperwork courtesy of Altenberg) around all day after not enough hours sleep!
I have decided that the embarassment of failing to understand something pretty basic can actually be fairly beneficial, as consequently people tend to speak a touch more slowly and simply, as well as giving you clearer instructions. I have also decided that women are easier to understand than men. Also, I can't help but wonder just how many people in Germany now have a copy of my passport... it seems to been passed under many a photocopier.
Now just to try and get hold of my landlord to give him back his plate, tell him that one of the blinds/shutters no longer works, and nag about getting the internet!
Scrap that - he came to me, internet sorted! Woop :)
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