What a first day!! I was really nervous this morning. Woke up early and got ready.. so I ended up being ready about 45 minutes before I needed to be!! I wasted some time, ate a little breakfast, and went across the street to "get it over with!" I looked in the lecture room and there were only 2 people in there, so I sat down for a while outside and wasted time.. again! Finally, I sucked it up and went into the classroom.

As I walk in, this Japanese girl turns and smiles, waves me over, saying, (imagine a REALLY strong Japanese accent for this)"Sit, sit! Hi!!" She was practically bouncing in her seat to have someone sit next to her! Turns out, her English is far from good but her German is probably worse! We stumbled through a conversation as other people came in the room. Finally, the instructors came in and welcomed us all. They told us we would be taking our placement exam today and gave us a little schedule. The students with absolutely no knowledge of German were told to go ahead and go to class today since the exam would be a waste of time. Then we started our exam.

They told us to make sure we took the entire test because there was more than one part. So, I finished the first page and turned the test over and there was another section, so I took that section as well. I thought, there's no way I can really be done already! We had an hour to take the exam and it'd been 15 minutes. Another girl got up and handed her test in so I thought, okay then... When we came back into the classroom an hour later, we were split into groups to perform interviews. After calling my name, the instructor asked why I hadn't completed the rest of the test!! OF COURSE!! Luckily, I was able to finish the test while others in my group were interviewed. While the first half of the test was soo easy, I felt like I got over 90% correct, the second half was much harder! One page was a story that asked us to fill in the blanks with words provided. Easy enough.... but not. I was positive on about... 5.. MAYBE 5. The rest, I tried to look at the stems of the words and figure everything out but not sure that it was anything other than random choice! The next part was a little easier but.. We were given two paragraphs with blanks and expected to know how the writer intended to form the sentence.. but given the topic, I thought there really could be several options... But even after some confusion and frustration, I finished my test, and interviewed with the instructor without too much worry!

After that we had about an hour break. During the break, a bunch of the international students congregated together and we talked (in English, I know... horrible!) and were able to get a bit of a feel for each other. It was really neat because in each group of people that I would be talking to, there would be me from the US and then, almost always, 3 or 4 people from 3 or 4 different countries.

Once we went back into the class, we were split into groups based on our level of proficiency. Group 1 had already gone because they know no German. So group 2 is the next lowest up to group 5. Being the paranoid nut that I am, I was soo scared my name would be called in one of the first few groups!! But I am happy to say that I am a member of Group 5! YAY!! The highest group :) That feels pretty good, I won't lie. Of course, that doesn't really mean a lot. It's not like there's a score that I must achieve to be in it, it's just I'm one of the top 8 or so in this particular group. But still.. pretty cool!!!!

So moving on to an entirely unrelated note: Everyone has told me that the city center is not too far by foot. I've gone into town several times by bus and it's about a 10 minute trip. Today I wanted to go into town and look at H&M and get groceries on my way home... no big deal! Once I was in town and ready to head home, I thought I'd just grab my groceries at the store by the main bus stop and hop on the bus and go home.. but then I didn't have the one euro to get a cart, so I was grabbing only the bare essentials.. then I had to pay 20 euro to charge my cell phone... All okay. As I'm walking out of the store, my bus is waiting. Perfect timing!! I run to the bus, pull out my wallet and only have a 100 and 50 euro bills and about 80 cents in change! I thought about going inside and getting change for my bills but then decided I could walk home. HAHA. Not a funny joke on myself. The walk took me about 45 minutes!!! IN NOT COMFORTABLE SHOES!!! And it's COLD and rainy!! Always an adventure with me! :)

Well... random highlights of my day! I think I might try to go to the store down the street and do my REAL grocery shopping now.