Am Anfang

At the beginning.

Saturday morning Matt and I set off to Ingolstadt Nordbahnhof, the closest train station to the villa we stayed in. One large bag, a carry on and a backpack seems like it would travel lightly, but when you have to lug those onto and then off the train by yourself, it becomes more heavy than light. But I managed. We arrived at the Eichstätt Bahnhof safe and sound. However, the was a misunderstanding about which Bahnhof Matt and I were supposed to be picked up at. There is the Eichstätt Bahnhof, and there is also the Eichstätt Stadt Bahnhof. We waited at the train station for almost 45 minutes before deciding to buy a ticket for the Eichstätt Stadt Bahnhof, as this train ran every hour. The train arrived, we got on, and a few minutes before we were set to go, my German tutor (who is more like a “buddy” than tutor), Anabel, came on the train, and ushered us to her friend's car for the ride into the city. One thing to note about the cars and roads here in Germany is that everything is much smaller. Anabel and I sat in the back seat, holding the large suitcases in our laps, and there was barely room enough to fit everything. But we managed. And it was quite an adventure. For the first time, we really got to converse with other German students. It's quite thrilling to talk to native-German speakers, because it really tests your knowledge of the language. However, a lot of people here speak English as well, and so it's helpful right away in case we don't know a word auf Deutsch.

Sunday was hell. I didn't sleep well. I wasn't feeling well. I just wanted to go home. Sunday night around eight we met up with other international students at a restaurant and talked with them for a while. I went, but I wasn't much for talking. At that point, I still wanted to go home. I did get to talk to my parents, which was probably the only highlight of my day – at 11:30 PM. But after talking with them, I felt ready enough to face the four months that I have to be here. Also decided that I need to get myself a phone card.

Monday was the beginning of class. My sleeping schedule is still not quite on par with the time zone over here, so even after being dead tired, I still managed to wake up in the middle of the night for a while. So when my “alarm” went off (I still don't have an alarm clock, so I have to have someone buzz my doorbell to wake me up) I wasn't ready to get up. Went down to the city early. And by going down to the city, I mean that we hike down the mountain. Because we live on a mountain that is a 15 minute hike from town, and the university. It's quite a trek, and I will definitely be in shape by the end of my four months here. I also won't have to worry about how much food I eat – I'll burn it all off, just walking to class and back. Withdrew needed money, since all I had had since Saturday was one Euro. The beginning of our school day started off with a test in order to place us according to level. Even though at St. Cloud, I'm one of the better German students, here there are many people who have studied German for a long time, and so I got placed in the lowest out of three groups. I've chosen to go with it, and not get upset about it. There's a lot that I still don't know in German, and by skipping ahead the semester that I did, I probably lost some grammar and vocabulary that other people here have. Lunch was an adventure. Matt, I, and two other students from the US went to eat Dönners. For those of you that enjoy gyros, it is Turkish version of a gyros. And very good. I would go back there in a heartbeat. We finally got our user name and password so that we're able to log on the internet. I still have to bring my computer in to get it set up on the wireless system, but right now I'm just happy having internet access again, even though the German keyboards are different, and a bit frustrating when certain letters have been switched around on you. The most annoying is having the “y” and the “z” switched around. As English speakers, we use the letter “y” a lot more than Germans do, and trying to type emails auf Englisch can be difficult when many of the words contain the letter “y.”

Tuesday (today) was the first full day of our classes. Three hours of grammar is not fun! Though much of it is familiar, so it's not that bad. Bought an alarm clock during lunch, so now I don't have to have Matt wake me up in the mornings. Which is good, because today I almost hit my head on my nightstand trying to get out of bed right away. We also got homework today (blah), which I haven't yet done, since I decided that writing my emails and staying in touch with everyone was a better use of my time, because it would keep me a little happier. Tonight there is a movie night, but I am not yet sure that I am going to go. If other people go, then I will, but I certainly don't want to have to climb the mountain all by myself when it's dark outside!

I still haven't taken any pictures here yet, but I intend to. We don't have school on Friday, so I will get out then, and get picture adventuring.

There's still a lot of stuff ahead of us (as well as way too much to pay for), but I'm actually looking forward to getting settled into the semester and do a little traveling. Two of the planned excursions this semester that I would like to go on are to Salzburg, and to Dresden.

Bis später,
Amanda