First 6 Weeks in Germany

Well, time sure is flying by! I am already beginning week 7 here in Germany, and everything is going pretty good. I even finally got internet in my room!

The flights from Boston to Munich, and Munich to Hannover, went very well, and I ended up catching up on sleep upon arriving at my residence hall, Weststadt. Weststadt is a 25 minute train ride from TU Braunschweig, but overall it has been pretty decent. I have a good size room, and my suitemates (we share a kitchen, bathroom, and water closet) are all really nice. Ivan and Noemi are from the Canary Islands and speak Spanish, and Frieda is from Berlin and speaks German. So, we have a pretty international suite. So far, things have gone well.

I have had quite a bit of free time since arriving, and have taken lots of time to familiarize myself with Braunschweig. I made sure to remember the Bahn routes right away, and we even went on a walking guided tour of the old city, which is really nice. Braunschweig is pretty small, but still a lot bigger than Clinton. There's still been plenty to do to keep busy. We've gone to quite a few parties put on through the school, visited a few of the local bars, and also gone to a couple night clubs.....the Jolly Joker and Dax. Every now and then we have to grab a Döner at Döner King as well. I have also been going to a few professional basketball games, to watch the Braunschweig New Yorker Phantoms, and playing volleyball a couple of times a week at the school as well. One night we even went to the Battle of the Year: the world championships of break dancing. It was actually pretty awesome. To try to help getting around the city easier, I ended up buying a cheap bike from the police auction.....hopefully that will start to come in handy soon!

So far, the hardest part has been keeping up with all of the cooking, cleaning, and shopping while trying to fit everything in. As much as I love shopping (Hahaha), I'm sure not going to miss the weekly trips to Lidle and XtraMart.

We finished up with our summer immersion program 2 weeks ago, and started the Winter semester a few days after. As of now, I am taking 3 German classes, a Hydromechanics class, and a communications class, all taught in German. It should definately be an interesting experience.....especially the Hydromechanics one, as it is part of a Master's program. In addition, I meet with a professor at the Wasserbau Institute tomorrow, to discuss part time research during the semester. The best part is that I don't have class on Friday or Monday, so I should have time to get a lot of travelling in on weekends.

We have already travelled to a few places, though not outside of Germany yet. We went to Hamburg and Berlin with the immersion program, and they were both awesome. Hamburg is the largest port city in Germany, so was obviously an interest to me. And, Berlin was unbelievably huge and just loaded with history of all kinds. We also went to the next town over to tour the Jägermeister plant, and to Wolfsburg to tour VW. Plus, I took a train to Bonn for a DAAD seminar, and took a quick stop in Köln on the way home, which was interesting with the train strikes going on.

Everything is still going well, and classes have really started now, so hopefully I can keep up with them. We just booked a trip to Malta tonight, for November 10-13. So, we will be spending next weekend in the warm Mediterranean Islands! I won't be jealous of the weather back home then!

I hope all is going well for everybody back in the US!

It's always good to hear from you!