13 Things (That Happened to Me Yesterday)

Yes, my lovely followers, it's true, I'm finally in Chemnitz!

I'll be posting photos soon, but for now because I'm still a wee bit jet-lagged, here's a list of a what happened to me yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday? Anyway, it doesn't matter):

1) A long plane ride to Amsterdam (Note to Self: get aisle seat next time)

2) A long wait at the Amsterdam airport for the flight to Berlin where Your Humble Blogger who never drinks coffee, discovered the joys of being fully awake thanks to coffee.  I WAS NEVER MORE AWAKE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.  And then it wore off and I wasn't. Bummer.

3) A very short, but very embarrassing bus ride to the main train station in Berlin with all my luggage. Contrary to popular belief, some Americans can speak German and we understand just perfectly when being scolded by Germans. (Note to Self: Take taxi next time.)

4) Hanging out the Berlin train station and munching on the world's biggest Bretzel.  Am happy to report that it was delicious and perfect.  Also happy to report that using the ticket kiosks in the train station brought back all my latent German, including several swear words.

5) Train from Berlin to Leipzig.  Met an adorable little old lady on the train who wanted nothing more to chat with me in English until she got kicked out of her seat by someone with a reservation. Also learned about seat reservations on trains.

6) Train from Leipzig to Chemnitz.  A group of drunk punk-goth gypsies (yes, you read that right) got kicked off the train.  Sadly, most of the yelling and the police intervention happened on the platform, not on the train, so no gossip.

7) My cooperating teacher, Andrea, picked me up from the train station!! She even had a little sign! I was so happy to see her.  She loaded up all my luggage into her car (it fit, thank goodness) and she drove me around town a bit.  We went into the city center to get dinner where....

8) We ran into Maria and Kaylee, two of the ETAs from last year in Chemnitz.  Luckily, Maria recognized me from my photos on Facebook! Huzzah for the internet!

9) After dinner, Andrea took me to my apartment where my landlord, who is really nice, gave me a pick of 4 rooms in several WGs (Wohngemeinschaft aka a flat share) in the apartment which he both lives in and renovates.  I am the first person to live in this new WG so I may be all by my lonesome until October, when the semester at the Uni starts.  I picked a big room with lots of natural light on the 3rd floor and I have a lovely view of a little park behind the apartment.

10) Andrea is amazing - for many reasons, but especially because she brought me sheets and towels!

11) Maria and Kaylee draw me a city map on a pizza box lid since I have no paper.

12) The three of us head down to Lidl and I get some food for breakfast. Mmmmm yogurt and Musli. I feel German already.

13) I crash onto my new bed for a blissful 14 hours of sleeping.

Oot and Aboot in Tübingen

My parents always joke and say: "Anything you want to see in Europe is uphill."

They weren't kidding.  Tübingen is an especially hilly and rolly city because of the Neckar river that flows through it.  This is something someone should have told me.

Not my pic, but you get the gist.

Despite the hills and the uneven cobblestones, which makes walking an adventure even without a walking boot/cast, Tübingen is an amazingly beautiful city. (Or to use CC language - it is picturesque and scenic.) The Altstadt (literally "Old City"; the main downtown area where I live along with Emily and Rachel) is a tangle of intersecting curving streets.  Needless to say, we got lost.  A lot.

Here are some photos of the downtown area:

 View from the Neckar River

 Bridge over the Neckar River

 Downtown area

 Emily and Rachel downtown

 Pedestrian sign at crosswalk 

 "Stand (on the sidewalk) when red.  Be an example to children." 

So German!

I live on the top a hill in the main part of town. The pictures really don't do the building justice because it's huge.  Even though my room is a 300 number, which you would assume to mean on the 3rd floor (but we know what assuming does), it's actually up at least 7 flights of very, very warped and curved wooden steps.  It's an unnaturally hot summer here in Tübingen.  So here's a quick math lesson:


7 flights of stairs + two pieces of extremely overweight luggage - air conditioning + jet lag + broken foot in boot = one very cranky, tired, sweaty blogger.

Here are some photos of my dorm:

It isn't home yet, but it will be soon! (I hope!)

Good Morning Germany!

Let me just say this: staying up for two days straight is difficult.
But I did it!

We left from O'Hare in the early evening and made our way to Heathrow by about 6:30 am.  It was raining. Typical.  The rain delayed us a bit and the British security was a mess - seriously, for the people who invented the word queue, there wasn't one - and I got to have a nice full body pat down when my boot set off the metal detector.  Then it was off to Stuttgart!  We arrived there on time and we were all happy to see the director of the  program in the next city (we don't have one) there.  We got our keys to our apartments and information about the slightly smaller, yet nevertheless annoying, bureaucratic hoops we have to jump through to get everything all for our dorm/apartment/Wohnheim.

It was difficult to get adjusted to the city: a) because none of us have cell phones, b) none of us had internet (thank God I was able to summon up the courage to ask a dorm mate in exceptionally terrible German - I was so tired and cranky by then - for the internet password.

We got lost.  A lot.

Luckily, a former exchange student, Clara, was there to help us find our way.  The Altstadt (The main downtown) is literally like a beehive, filled with nooks and crannies and once we found ourselves walking in a circle.  As Rachel put it, "There is something to be said for city planning on grids."

I'll post more on my dorm and the city itself in a bit.  I just wanted to say, that yes, I made it here! Day 2 is a go (well...wait and see if I can figure out the showers)!

It may be hot here (did I really leave the Midwest, the heat is the same), but I'm sure no one at home has my view: