I am at an internet cafe and have little time but much to tell. So here goes! I went on a language immersion weekend this past weekend at an old castle along with 20 other new foreign students. People were from literally all over the world - Kosovo, Serbia, Mexico, Belgium, France, Russia, Poland, Iran, S.Korea, Japan, Bulgaria, etc. I was the only native English speaker and certainly the only American. We had all studied German for varying lengths of time but were pretty much novices at it. The weekend was full of activities done in German - think something like Freshman Orientation Week but in German, or Peer Group Orientation but in German. Thankfully, no lame-ass M&M game haha. A lot of fun, but exhausting...and of course we slept late so I was exhausted by the time we returned. I made good friends with a Mexican guy (Dante, flute player - we spoke mostly Spanish together), 2 Belgians (cellists, Frederika and Mathilde), 2 French people (Alice, pianist, and Thomas, tubist), and an Iranian named Arya (pianist - we had some interesting discussions about America and Iran - thankfully he is level headed so we were able to carry on actual intelligent discourse and not just anger although there was some of that on his behalf). I am actually meeting up with them for tea tonight at Frederika's apartment. People were so interested in India, more so than in asking about America. Alice has actually travelled all over north and south India with her parents and could speak just a tiny bit of Hindi! People often told me, "Oh I had Indian food, it was amazing!" They also loved to speak English with me, much to the dismay of our teachers. They wanted to practice English with a native speaker...while I was trying to learn German! Many people also said to me, "It is nice to meet such an intelligent American...that is sort of rare, isn't it? Someone who speaks more than languages, etc? Ah, but then you are not really American...you are Indian!" I had to clear up many misconceptions about Americans ("No, we don't all like George Bush. No, we don't all support war.") At one point, we were watching shooting stars, and Thomas said he likes falling stars, and I said, "Oh, okay, shooting stars, yeah." And then one Polish girl, Ella, joked, "Shooting stars? Ah you Americans, it's always about shooting!" It was pretty funny. Generally, people are really interested to talk with me at the Hochschule - being American, and especially Indian-American is somewhat exotic, I suppose. Today I had my first lesson with my teacher, Frau Mathe´. It went really well - 3 hours well! I was completely exhausted after it. She is going to the U.S. for 2 weeks and returns on the 24th. We have a studio performance class on that date and she wants me to perform in it so I can meet everyone else. I met two other violinists in her studio today, Asli from Turkey and Ingrid from Berlin. They were really nice. She asked me if I wanted to play Handel's Messiah in December with a Baroque chamber orchestra!!! I would have loved to, but I am gone by December 16 and the concert is December 20. Too bad....toooo bad. I would have loved to play. I think, though, that Frederika, Mathilde, and I are going to try and organize Schubert's String Quintet and get it coached as our chamber music. Tomorrow we have German class. There are three levels: Anfängerkurs, Mittelkurs, and Aufbaukurs. Anfängerkurs is the beginner level, and that is what I chose to be in, as my 4 months of German are hardly much. Mathilde and I are going to meet before the class to go to the farmers market. It is every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and is absolutely fantastic - some of the freshest cheeses and produce that you could imagine. I also have to open a bank account here and finally bought a German-English Wörterbuch (dictionary) today. I can't wait until I have internet so I can SKYPE home! In the meantime, everyone, keep reading and writing and be well!