All moved in, me and my parents decided to get the S-Bahn (which runs directly from the Uni, handy), into town. Big mistake. Having been massively relieved to leave Bradford on the eve of a big far-right demo, it turns out we just moved to somewhere boasting a huge Nazi demo tomorrow. Not so clever. Even worse that I was wearing my black jacket and black jeans, I really have to say I've never felt so conspicuous in my life. After a nice beer and odd Ruhrgebiet food, we decided to scarper, and I ended up spending a night watching American Pie 2 in German and drinking Yorkshire Tea. An odd day to say the least.
The weekend was the weekend of awesome German flea markets. At the one at the Uni I got myself a huge carrier bag of yoghurt and puddings for 5€, which I considered to be a pretty good day's work. On Sunday I wandered over to the biggest park in Dortmund (Westfalenpark), to find that the whole huge place had been taken over by a flea market. I left there with a bike for 40€, German scrabble and a Deutschland leiis. Not bad. Going up the TV tower showed me how green Dortmund actually is - since the place was bombed to shit in the war they've gone about making it actually really nice and habitable, top notch trains and bike lanes everywhere.
On Monday I saw my ERASMUS group for the first time, and more importantly discovered the wonders of the Mensa (student canteen). For the paltry sum of 1€85 you can get a big piece of meat (nice and stereotypical) with 3 extra dishes. I plan to just eat that every day and just keep myself going with Marmite and beer after that. I also went to WENKER's Bar.
Tuesday saw the start of my language course, and my realisation of how much beaurocracy there is here. In order to get a little job helping at the stats department I first had to fill in my name, address, DOB etc and sign at least 8 forms, after which I was told I still needed a health certificate, passport photos, a tax card, a CV and my full bank details. Unbelievable. I later found out that in order to get internet in my block I need to send a FAX to a company for them to set it up - its like living in the 80s. I also met my coordinator Frau KUHNT.
Wednesday was the first big party in SPUNK, which is one of the best student nights at the Uni (basically every block has their own bar which is open one night a week, serving a healthy portion of beer for 1€ and usually an unhealthy portion of Bon Jovi), where I met my first proper Germans and was bought rhubarb shots, which made me particularly happy. Are you seeing a pattern with the names here? Dortmund is a bit filthy all in all.
Thursday was the first Currywurst I had in Dortmund. I know, 6 days without Currywurst is a long time.
Best night out yet on Friday. Hugo (a belgian) invited us over for Crepes, where I introduced ring of fire to the international crew. Needless to say, they loved it. We attempted to go to the big club in town but only half of us made it in (because of ring of fire obviously) and went to a mexican bar. Mental is the only word. We ended up dicking about with glowsticks, dancing on the bar and having tequila poured into our mouths. The fact we were the only people there dancing didn't mean anything, it rocked.
The weekend was my first encounter with real Dortmund culture (forget all that Ruhr capital of culture rubbish), that is the beautiful coming together of beer and football. Our naive little Erasmus group met at the Hauptbahnhof at 11am, where we were also met by a ridiculous amount of Borussia Dortmund (or BVB) fans, all completely pissed and swigging beer, vodka, Jäger and just anything in the station and around the whole city. The whole city was turned black and yellow (that's their colours, there weren't any fights...) and the awesome atmosphere in the U-Bahn on the way to the stadium means in the actual place it must be amazing. This place is truly football obsessed and I love it.
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