23.07.2018 + 24.07.2018
Before breakfast a few people tried to "lose" the cakes and other sweets from the past days with some morning sport activities, e.g. going for a run or sweating in the gym. After the first big meal we had our very first sustainability class, where we had to do research and make a presentation about the counties in western Pennsylvania. Then we had a lunch break, when a few of us bought the first hoodies of the college’s collection. The first English lesson was much more fun than the ones in our past. After that we took pictures of us for our student identity card. Followed by a break of a few hours, which we mostly used to read the homework text for the next day. With just a blink of an eye dinner was ready. Filled with tons of food we were on our way to play mini golf. Splinted in groups of 6 we played against each other. One group won with the lowest score of 288. After the funny activity we tried a very sweet and famous ice cream near the mini golf place. At the end of the day the group was hanging out together or finished the reading of the homework.
Tuesday started off with yet another heavy breakfast and the sustainability class with Corey, who lovingly called us his “little German trains”. We talked more about the historical past of the Pittsburgh region and the role that immigrants played in the uprising steel industry. Also we spoke about the problems which arose simultaneously and compared several aspects to German society and culture.
In English class Cathy introduced us to “Pittsburghese”, which is the local language used only in Pittsburgh. Here’s a small insight:
Kennywood's Open: Meaning that the zipper of your pants is down.
Yinzer: Resident from Pittsburgh
Jagoff: A commonly used insult
The worsh: laundry
Pittsburgh chair: A chair used to reserve a parallel parking space after a heavy snow
The really fun part of the day started in the afternoon, when we all met at the alumni house to make pierogi (dumplings from Eastern Europe). However, we made so many of them that we could have fed a whole football team. We basically all ended up in a food coma. After we finished our homework for the following day and enjoyed some quality time altogether, we were desperately in need of a good night’s sleep.
