Monday, June 25th
I woke up bright and early on Monday morning and made it to the tube station outside Lissie's flat at 5:30 am. I was so nervous and excited about going to Freiburg that I slept for a whopping 15 minutes that night, but I still somehow made it to onto the airplane at Heathrow in one piece. We landed in Frankfurt a bit late and were bussed to customs where there was a huge line for the non-EU passports.
And then the most amazing thing ever happened.
The line at customs was honestly going to take about 30-45 minutes to get through. I was pressed to get my train so I started to worry. Then this man who worked there came over to the line and started grabbing some people. He grabbed a family from back in the line, and then another one from a little but behind me, and sent them to another room. Then, he grabbed me and told me to follow them. Finally, he grabbed one other family and walked with us to this other room. It was another customs area, but there was NO LINE here! They started a new line and for some reason picked us out to go through it first.
The mother in the family behind me asked the man why he had hand-picked us. He responded that he selected us because he "didn't want the children to have to wait". Thats right! Finally, after years of being so sad that I look so young, looking like I am 12 has paid off! He thought I was a child alone in the line and didn't want me to have to wait! Score!
I caught the train, took it for 20 minutes to Mannheim and changed for the two hour one to Freiburg. I was so excited to have two hours to look out the window and see my new home. Trains my favourite type of transportation. Looking at the scenery and the beautiful views is something I think is amazing, and I was so excited to have two full hours to do it. I got lucky and found a booth that was unoccupied. I sat down, pressed my face against the window, and prepared to fall in love with the German countryside.
And then I woke up to my alarm going off telling me I had reached my stop. I literally missed the ENTIRE ride. Cool.
Finally I got to the study abroad office. I received my welcome packet and was sent off to my new "Wohnung". It was a little bit overwhelming to be honest. No one speaks any English to us at all, and I'm pretty sure I sat there with the most confused look on my face for most of this. They handed me my keys and sent me on my way.
The apartment area is really cool. We live in the "bohemian" complex so its colorful and bright and there are a lot of plants. And Buddah statues. Students are always hanging out outside at the bon fire or in the grass or just sitting on the staircase. I live in a flat with 5 (I think) other people. We each have our own room, but we share a kitchen and a bathroom and two showers. I have only officially one of my roommates. Her name is Katarina and she is very, very nice. She showed me around and let me know where I can put my food and everything. There are no pets allowed at the complex, but for some reason we are allowed to have the only "dorm cat". His name is Oskar and he loves me. He is always sleeping on my bed or hanging out at my feet. He loves to be scratched, but when I try to pick him up, blood is shed. And it is mine. This is a problem, because I can't get him out of my room- ever. When I'm leaving for the day and need to lock my door, or am going to bed and don't want to lock him in, he all of a sudden turns into Ninja Kitty, and it is dangerous.
I "met" two of my other roommates this morning at 4:45 am. My fire alarm went off for a good 25 minutes in my room, and besides scaring the living shit out of me, it woke everyone else in Germany up. Two of the girls came into my room and we worked together to build a contraption that we could climb up to take the alarm down. We have REALLY high ceilings, so it took a while for our sleep deprived minds to find enough furniture to stack so we could finally reach it.
Tuesday, June 26th
After some initial "safety and security" presentations, we went on a walking tour of Freiburg. The town is awesome. It is a lot bigger than I expected. For some reason, I had this idea that we were going to be in some Medieval town with no electricity and where we had to walk a mile to get to the shed that was used as a bathroom. There are a lot of shops, a ton of restaurants, and a bunch of bars and diskos. It is super pretty here too. The streets are all cobblestone, and there are a few giant churches. The most noticeable thing however are the mountains. We are surrounded by the Black Forrest, and it is gorgeous. The mountains are more like hills compared to what we have in Boulder, but they are covered in thick, dark green trees. It is stunning.
Oh, and I found the infamous small canals that line the streets. And by "found" I mean "fell into one". I was so distracted by everything in the city that one minute I was looking at a cool window display that housed a neat looking robot fish, and the next I was ankle deep in the canal. Everyone laughed at me because a.) I am an idiot, and b.) the noise I made when I fell was that of a donkey/small chimp. Once they were over it, the tour guide explained some old myth about the canal. Apparently, it is rumored that if you fall into the canal, you will marry a Freiburg-er. So sorry Mom and Dad, I may be bringing home my Freiburg fiance in August!
After the tour a few of us went and had lunch at a pub. While we were there, this man who was sitting at the bar overheard us and came to sit with us. He spoke no English whatsoever, and our German is not very good yet, so our lines of communication were a bit muddled. Eventually, he singled myself and two other girls out, and talked about how cute we were and how we weren't "typical fat americans" and wanted to know how we didn't have boyfriends and wanted to buy us a drink yadda yadda blah blah. But he was a wee bit creepy so we declined and moved on. It was cool to get to talk to a local though, and all in German!
That night we bought a few bottles of wine and some ice cream and sat in the grass and got to know each other. Once it got later, some of the people went to bed, but five of us decided to check out the night life in Freiburg. We discovered that, theoretically, it is cool, just not on a Tuesday night. There weren't too many people there, but we did meet some more locals.
Wednesday, June 27th
Class in the morning. Our professor is very energetic. I am used to the stoic, calm professors from the German department, so this was a bit of a shock. At first, I was actually a little scared, but slowly I'm getting used to the change.
After class, we went to this cool beer garden up in the Black Forest. We chugged down a giant beer, thinking that we were just going to go back to the dorms to nap afterwards. Instead, we went on a long hike up to the top of the hill. Yes, I did this directly after consuming this huge beer, and yes, I was in flip-flops, but it was so worth it. At the top of the hill they have a cool tower that you can climb 200 stairs up to see the view. It was breathtaking. We could actually see all the way into France!
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| View from the Beer Garden. I forgot my camera, but this works! |
Later tonight, we all met up and went to the old town again. We grabbed dinner, where I experienced my first German Doner Kebap. Think gyros, but way better.
We then went and watched the Portugal v. Spain soccer game at a bar. It is so fun to watch those games here. People are all over the streets crowded around televisions trying to see. And it's not just young people. There are children, and grandparents, and foreigners, and more. Everyone stops their life to watch! There is really nothing to compare it to in American. Spain won!
I have class tomorrow morning, and then I leave right after to catch my train to Paris!
Sorry this blog is not up to standards compared to my others, but it is 1:00 am, and I have to pack for tomorrow!
Paris, here we come!
Until Next Time,
Meggie
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