My life. So far. Today
Most importantly, I am just finishing a cone of chocolate-rose petal-pink peppercorn gelato. I wish I could tell you that it is as delicious as it is bizarre, but that's a tall order, and it's still pretty good.
So, I met my tandem partner, Sabrina today. The idea of tandems is that you meet up with a German and speak German for half an hour, and English for a half an hour. We ended up talking for about two hours, and she invited me to come with her to her hometown (Landshut) which is home to the tallest brick tower in the world. If the weather is nice we'll probably go on Saturday.
I finally found the Regensburg Public Library, and got an 8 Euro library card. This should be a more cost efficient way to find a text to translate than just buying books willy-nilly. I found two books by Hilde Domin, a Jewish German author who left Germany in 1932 and then returned in the 50s. I really admire the people who were able to come back after the Holocaust. It must have been extremely hard.
The library itself is really neat. It turns out it's about a block away from my room and I just never noticed. I will have to post a photo later, as it is covered with scaffolding. It shares the building with a handful of other offices and businesses, but the reference desk backs up to a door that opens to a balcony overlooking Haidplatz. Being that librarian must rule. The library is also cute and tiny. It is one floor with a mezzanine above it. It has a whole room dedicated to foreign language materials, and just looking in the American section was a little jarring. They had the Moosewood cookbook, Mom!
The most surprising thing about the library is that the building it's in has this ridiculous Italienate courtyard. I promise to take a photo of it. The inner walls of the building are lined with these elaborate marble-looking arches. I don't know how to describe it.
ETA: Okay, so the libary is in a building called the Thon-Dittmer Palais, and here is a photo of the interior. Also, here is a website about the area. It's in German, but the pictures are what matters.
