Die Ersten Tage

Mein Zimmer

Hey gang. So Air Canada/Lufthansa managed to lose my bag with both my computer cord and ethernet cable. So I have been out of contact for the past day or so, but they managed to get me everything, so now I have the interwebz. Yay! So with that, I will tell you about my first days in Tübingen.  

To start, this place is incredible. It looks like one of those too-perfect towns that are always featured on postcards and the like. All the buildings are super old and brightly coloured. The city wasn't bombed in the war like Stuttgart, so it still has all of the old buildings intact, some of which are from the 1500s. 

Anyways, yesterday, I got dropped off at my apartment at around 1:30PM. It's some pretty cool digs. The building was just remodeled four years ago so the entire thing is quite modern looking and nice. I unpacked most of my stuff and met one of my housemates, a German girl named Charlotte. She is incredibly nice and showed me the ropes, namely how the apartment works and how to do German recycling (that shit is intense). After all of this, I took a shower and a nap and then overslept. So I was late to Ute's office, which is on the other side of town, roughly a 25-30 minute walk from my apartment. 

Und weider

I finally got there (and didn't get lost doing it!), and then the group (5 undergrads, one grad student, and Ute) went for a walk around the city. Like I said, beautiful, old, all that. The highlight of the entire thing was the old University prison. Up until the late 1800s, the University had a prison and was in charge of prosecuting petty crimes committed by those affiliated with the university. So if you backtalked to your professor, you'd end up in prison for like three days or something, but with that, it kind of became a thing to end up the jail. Your friends would bring you provisions (wine and some bread and the like), and you'd graffiti the walls. There's graffiti from famous Tübingen alums like Hegel, really hilarious. 

After walking around, we went to a "Gastbraurei" called Neckarmüller, which serves very delicious schwäbisches Essen and is also a microbrewery. We stayed there for a while, had a few beers and a good dinner, and then Ute left us to our own devices. Which meant we went, booked bus tickets to München (Oktoberfest!), then bought some beers and went and chilled on the steps of St. Johannes Kirche to drink them. There, we got harassed by an old drunk guy with a 1920s hat that had a feather in it (now called Yankee Doodle), who said he didn't want to hear Frauenstimmen...misogynistic bastard. (Note: today, we saw him again--three times--he still was drunk, but he wasn't wearing a shirt and only had on one shoe.) After the church steps, we went to Theron and Elizabeth's rooms in the Altstadt and looked through the treasures previous Tufts students had left them, which included a hollowed out book, a crazy awesome wig, and a red cowboy hat with fringe on it. I got back home around 1:30 and promptly passed out. 

Der Blick vom Schloss

This morning, we had to be at Ute's office at 10:30 for more orienting. This time, we combined wandering and sitting in her office doing tedious paperwork. We opened bank accounts and went to the Schloss (castle) on top of the very large hill. (I will never complain about the Tufts hill again.) On the bright side, at the top of this hill, there was a lovely view of Tübingen. Around 2:30, we stopped and got Döner (nomzzzzzz), and then went back to Ute's office for some last minute talking stuff and to pick up all the crap we left there. Afterwards, we gradually made our way to the Südstadt, stopping to get ethernet cables and attempt to get SIM cards (still  unsuccessful), with me looking like a huge purple turtle ("Ich bin ein Schildkraut") on account of the large backpack, which the airlines had delivered earlier. We dropped that off at my apartment and then went to Kaufland, which seems to be the German equivalent of Wal-Mart. They have everything and my God is it cheap. I got some essentials (cereal, eggs, butter, juice, pasta, and a towel) all for less than 20€. Craziness. 

So yeah, that's about it as far as my time in Tübingen is concerned. It has been great this far, and I keep on thinking that I can't believe I live here. It's too damn cool. 

The Journey Thus Far

So, after ten some odd hours of travelling, I have finally arrived in Munich. Currently, I am waiting to board another flight for the hour-long last leg of my (flying) journey to Stuttgart, where I will meet Ute, my director, at the airport.

The journey, thus far, hasn’t been terribly eventful. My mother and I managed to overshoot O’Hare by 6 miles and then had to dink around in the mess that is the Chicago highway system. Long story short: never miss the exit for O’Hare.

I made it to my O’Hare to Toronto flight in plenty of time. The plane was a large flying cigar with two rows with two seats on each side and barely any overhead storage. Fun times. Nothing too interesting with that. Weird to think that Toronto is only like an hour and a half-long flight away from Chicago.

Swanky plane

Then, there was the Toronto to Munich flight, and boy was that swanky. There is no other word to describe this plane. It was its first flight, and it was by far the nicest plane I have ever flown on. There were tablets implanted in the backs of each seat. So the fun little TV thing had a touch screen…so cool. They also had a pretty good selection of movies and TV shows. I finally watched Dr. Strangelove and made a dent in the 7^th season of 30 Rock.

Other than that, nothing too interesting. I sat next to a guy that kind of looked like a blonde Edward Norton (also had the same glazed look in his eyes that he had in Fight Club), so I started imagining a Fight Club scenario where Edward Norton is Tyler Durden from the start and then he tried to convince me to start a Fight Club. Except since I am going to be in Germany, so it’d be a crazy underground German Fight Club—far more intense.

Other than that, I have just been trying to understand the people talking over the loud speakers in German and French—it’s been rough what with the not speaking German since May and the lack of sleep thing. I am also pretty convinced that I am the only American here, which is completely irrational given I am in an international airport. But it seems like everyone understands the German and the French and all the other languages that they keep playing over the loud speakers. Also, I am pretty sure I am the only one wearing shorts. That one seems less irrational.

In any case, that’s about it for things going on here. 

One Year of Clothes//Vier Tage

Look at how thin it is!

Oi, packing is hard. How does one fit enough clothes for an entire year in 2 suitcases, a duffel bag, and a backpack? This is the question I have been asking myself for the past week. Thus far, it has been going surprisingly well. But give it a few days, and I am sure the wheels will fall off this bus. I have yet to pack my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and sweaters. BUT I do have these funky vacuum bags and they are my only hope for fitting everything. 

So besides that, everything has been a flurry of saying goodbyes (Pookie left for college), eating all sorts of things that I won't have in Europe (burritos are important!!), and doing other "last" things. 

So yeah, that's about it. This entire thing still doesn't seem real. 

Zwei Wochen

“What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? It's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” -Jack Kerouac 

Well, it's not yet a goodbye, but yesterday marked the two week mark until I leave on my German adventure and it seemed like a good time to start this lovely little blog. Currently, I am a mess of saying goodbye to my friends (although Simon informs me it's only a 'smell you later'), finishing up my internship, and packing up my room at my house to ship it back to Wisconsin. (I'm hoping to keep it down to 6 boxes...we'll see how it goes.)

It has been quite weird saying goodbye to everyone. Since living in Germany doesn't even seem close to real yet, I'm stuck in the sad stage of this entire thing. The only thing that is real is leaving my friends. However, I am still beyond excited for Tübingen.

But enough about that nonsense, more about Deutschland. So this is my first real foray into Germany. Although I was in Berlin, Neuruppin, and Dresden for a few days (four if I am remembering correctly) during my senior year of high school, this will be my first time in Germany (and mainland Europe as well) that I am 1) not led around by a tour guide and my high school teachers 2) sort of on my own 3) going to be in a much less metropolitan area in Baden-Würrtemberg and 4) there for a full year--what?! The entire thing is nuts in the most awesome way.  I have more places that I want to visit than I have time for (as documented by the map below, and there will probably be more places added onto that in the near future) and crazy, heretofore unknown adventures to have. 

Note: Reykjavik is also on here, but it was kind of awkward to fit.

In sum, I am quite excited for my "crazy venture beneath the skies" and I hope to tell you all about it (and really anything else that floats my boat--get ready for German history, European politics, food, the outdoors, cute animals, and many other random things) in this nifty little blog.