1st day of school

I'm back in medic school in the lovely city of Dortmund and wanted to share my first day/night experience.

I'm hotelling it part time because that drive was awful. But this hotel is awfuler. Seriously, the worst night of my life was last night, and I have another one in front of me.

Several of the reviews said the hotel has no AC (not many in Germany do) but if you stay here in Summer, you'll regret it. I have to agree. One review said, "I feel like a chicken broiling in my own sweat in the pan that is this bed." OMG, that's exactly what I felt like last night, I thought I might die.

The staff were kind enough to give me a fan, but even turned on full blast on me, I feel like I'm an oven with the fan on, it just doesn't help.

The breakfast buffet was American style, meaning BACON! (Though fatty and undercooked.) I served myself a huge helping, and some wurst, and some eggs (Scrambled, yay, so American). The lady served me a cup of coffee and I took two bites of my eggs and stopped. I couldn't eat another bite. I couldn't touch the coffee. The hotel is about 87 degrees F, including the breakfast area. I don't think my man has ever seen me unable to eat. (He stayed the one night with me for fun, and it was fun once the sun went away.) He tried and tried to get me to at least taste me coffee. I tried and tried to get him to at least eat something off my plate because of the starving children in Africa, as my mom would say.

Nope, too hot to eat.

Worse, though, was the lack of cold water. They had laid out an impressive stacked array of Gerolsteiner water bottles, both with and without "gas" and a heap of shining glasses beside. All, room temperature. Freaking 30C. I had only one question for the staff today, "Can I have a glass of COLD water?"

She looked at me repentantly and said, "No?" I said, "Do you have ICE CUBES?" She sighed, "Yes, I"ll bring them."

And then it was just like Dana Newman, my favorite Ami Ex-Pat in Germany, when she described it.

"You ask for ice. They are surprised by the request. Then they bring you 2 or 3 little ice cubes for your drink. Into which they melt instantly. SO.....no ice." It's the horrible truth.

The girl brought me a tiny glass of exactly 7 ice cubes. I thanked her and thankfully scooped three into my water glass. I drank happily as my water was no longer HOT on my tongue.

Then they were gone. J said,  "Where are your ice cubes?"

Gone.

I put the last 4 cubes in my little glass (200ml) and poured my water again.

Seriously, by the time my water reached my lips, the ice cubes were gone. The room temp water was just that warm. It amused J...and ok it kind of amused me too cuz I'd never experienced such a thing.

Note to potential tourists: Do not expect ice cubes (or refrigerated water/beer), ever. Even in London, with my parents,  I had to work hard to get us an ice bucket.  Apparently ice is an American thing.

Back to this morning......

He kissed me goodbye and good luck on the street, and reminded me of the time I won a quiz at my last medic class, or, I got second prize but the one who beat me was a *teacher*!!!! It boosted my confidence and I trudged through the unbearable heat to the Catholic Center, because this particular medic course is offered by the Malteser, affiliated with the church.

This time I was ready. I knew where I was going. I didn't get humiliated for being late due to traffic (that's why I wanted a hotel). I was sweating walking up those stairs to the top floor and the building was steaming hot but then I saw the classroom - it had two little AC units! Bravo Germany, for admitting it's HOT here!

All day long those little units tried their best, but top floor, sun-facing windows, plus 25 sweating students, they had no chance. The teacher even opened the windows alongside them, running.

My chair was directly in front of the plastic venting tube, about 7 feet long, from one AC unit. It was so hot I nearly burned my arm on it when I leaned back in my chair. In other words, the AC units were heating the room as fast as they were trying to cool it.  After class I let the teacher know that we should try sticking the majority of the hose outside the window, because it's serving as a radiator. He realized it and agreed and started working on it as I said, "It's not your problem!" The administrator should be the one. But he was suffering too today, standing right in front of it like I was. I'm so glad Germans are finally realizing AC might be necessary! Most Germans see them as a planet killer.

I should say, there is no such thing as an in-window AC unit in Germany, because the windows here swing open like doors. We are lucky and have a cat, so we use the cat door as a wall opening for the hose. It works perfectly, but the cat cannot come in or out all day long, oh well.

At lunch I  went back to my superheated hotel and pulled all the coolant blocks out of my cooler, because my food was roasting, and this hotel has no minibar. I trudged back with them to the school and stuck them in the class kitchen's tiny freezer (6 inches high), and happily they refroze in the next hours of class so right now I might be salvaging my food, in the little cooler I brought.

The social aspect of this class is most difficult for me, because, again, most of the students are half my age, and many are 18! I think the oldest besides me is mid thirties, but he's the only one. I tried to be friendly with the kids around me but they felt no need to speak to me, cuz apparently they all know each other from the last class. *sigh* I hate socializing but I like to have some contact with people I'm stuck next to sweating all day with.  And really, I got to know some of their smells today (as I'm sure they did mine!). But I'm witty and got a few smiles and engagements from the kiddies.

I was thrilled to see I wasn't the fattest person in the class. Seriously, people, if you don't know, Germans are beautiful people. Fair, thin, and virtually no one wears make up. Since it's so hot out, the room was full of tanned muscles and bleached hair. Since this is my second class, I can assure you it's a thing, these are the people Hitler wanted to breed. As with my last class, several of them could be movie stars. And again, the boys are drooling over the girls, and there is much squealing and touching going on. These people know each other on the first day? Oh, they must have had the previous class together, mine was a year ago!

The girl next to me shoved a slip of paper to me with phone numbers scribbled on it. She said, "Write your number to join the group."

"Group? What group?"

The What's App group for the class.

Oh.

"I don't have that."

"YOU DON'T HAVE WHAT'S APP!" omgosh the look on her face. She had never met someone like me. I don't use Germany's chat app. (This is my husband's bane - he refuses as well. I've missed out on things before when people assumed I was in their What's App group, but I refuse. )

So I said no. I passed it on.

Interestingly, this same girl did not seem to be taking notes, but from time to time she'd take a photo with her phone of the Powerpoint presenation screens. One after the other. I kept trying to back out of her photos. I wanted to tell her, taking photos of the presentations is the equivalent of having the book itself, which we all do. WRITING notes is what helps you learn, your hand's movement plasters the info onto your brain....well, with much stronger plaster than your eyes on a book use. *lol*

We were asked to join up in teams of 2, again, for our hands-on tasks in the test at the end (like CPR). No one wrote their name next to mine on the sheet. I was all alone, and dejected, no one knows me, no one would want to be my partner. But then they made the announcement that I have no partner and in a flurry of fast German they argued it out (what?) and this little guy named Linus with a black pony tail and a huge knowledge of the material agreed (consented?) to be my partner. I would have taken anyone, I was so ashamed, but he seems a good one, with all his excess knowledge. He's obviously worked on ambulances a lot.

Holy crap my room is so hot it feels like it might be burning someplace.

Have you ever been so hot in a hotel you used the hair dryer on yourself to COOL DOWN? I just did.

Have you ever left the shower running on full-cold water just to cool the room? I did this morning.

But J just called me and booked the hotel I visited tonight which has AC for me, for Thursday to Saturday. See, I'm trying to stay here in Dortmund half time, so I can come home and relieve my husband of poop scooping duties, and not suffer that drive every day. I love it, he called up and said, "My wife was just there, confirming your AC." The exotic black girl replied to him, "I just met her, she's from Seattle, right?" *grin*

I feel less stress now that I look at my syllabus. I feel more when I look at the weather report *lol*

This class will challenge me massively - it took me two to three times as long to read a chapter as my team mates today.

OH yah, my team! On our first day, not only did I have the stress of the "introductory round" (UGH!) we had to team up and present our research on a topic in front of the class! HORROR. But this is why I'm here........anyway....

My team was number 3 and we had to speak about drowning, the different types and responses. It's more complicated than you'd think. To my shame I took sooooo long to just read the section of the book and take good notes.....but they were kind to me and answered my German questions.

Then I got up there and stood in front of the class and said my two statements (I said I'd only give TWO statements, cuz I've got stage fright/social anxierty).

I was strangely not nervous, but somewhat amused (the heat was going to my head) as I said,

"The best swimmers die in 2 centimeters of water." *pause* *pause* "The book says so! (pointing to it)

Then I said, in English this time, cuz it's always so in the books and previous slideshows I'd seen,

"They are only dead when they are WARM and dead." (No kidding, I heard this line in an episode of NCIS.)

The class sat there silently.

Felitius, the teacher, said, "Would you interpret that?"

I backed away blushing, "No, no way!" The class laughed. I was simply overwhelmed and really prefer hot hotel torture to public speaking.

(And here I am in the hot as heck hotel.....)

There was also a first aid class going on today and at the end of the day when I gathered my ice packs from the freezer, a lady older than me (!!) spoke with me and she was so much friendlier than the kids, I was very grateful. When I left, I saw her standing in the sweltering hall, and said, "See you tomorrow!" even though I have no idea about her class. She grinned back at me, "Til then!"

HOT HOT HOT HOTEL......You'll see the back of me tomorrow.

Sorry no photos, I have them, but did you think this hotel has reliable Internet?! *cringe*  I had hoped.