Holiday Entry

Today is a German national holidy (Corpus Christi...must have something to do with Jesus Christ but I'm not sure about the details). I just got my internet access at my dorm, therefore I have the material and time-why not writing something.

I started my internship this week and it's not very stressful. The people speak German at work, but at the same time they speak amazingly good English. Although I've learned it for two years I still don't understand what they are saying most of the time, but I think it's good because it gives me a chance to improve my German and forces me to reach out to people more often.

Dortmund is a lively city with great night life. It's an old city with its foundation dated back to 1100 and was once an imperial court for one of the Germanic kingdoms. During the WWII the region is the center for weapon manufacturing, therefore almost all the city was burned down by the Americans. As a result, most of the buildings one see here are no more than 100 years old.

The stores here close fairly early; that means I have basically nothing to do at night unless I go to downtown, where a lot of beer gardens, bars, and night clubs are situated. But often I am too tired to do so after work, and it's really boring to just go by myself. The Germans are quite sociable actually. They throw a lot of public, outdoor parties in which you can meet a lot of people and drink as many beers as you like (the beers are not free of course).