It is one in the morning, Friday, January 16th. Finally I have time and energy to write and reflect on the previous few days. I just caught the last tram back from Brett Aho’s flat on the other side of town. I had a couple of beers with Brett and Justin. It was the first time I had a chance to catch up with them since I arrived here on Wednesday.
After my flight was cancelled in Los Angeles they rebooked me for a flight direct to Frankfurt, but it was scheduled to fly out of L.A. about six hours after my original flight was supposed to have left.
Originally I was supposed to have flown to Dallas from L.A. and then from Dallas to Frankfurt. Since my flight was now an international flight, I had to go through security again. I believe I would have had to do this again anyway, had I gone through Dallas, I would have had to go through the check point in the Dallas airport, but it was still frustrating going through the annoying check point in the same airport twice.
The international terminal is much different than the domestic terminal. There is less food and other shops. I found a place that sold food. It was called Martina’s Bar. Nothing was special about it besides the “B” rating it earned from the L.A. County Health department. I ate a hotdog and a bowl of soup and then tried to sleep. I slept some and then my flight started to board at 2:30 p.m.
I was heartbroken to find that my seat assignment was the middle seat. The flight wasn’t with American Airlines, it was with Lufshana, a German airline. It was nice but a little crammed. The two people that sat next to me were German men, but they didn’t speak to me and I didn’t speak to them. I slept for a few hours, but not nearly enough. We ate two meals on the flight. They were better than I had expected, but still airplane food.
Finally I landed in Frankfurt only to find that my bags were lost. Somehow they didn’t get the bags to the plane I was flying on. Either American of Lufshana messed up. Based on American’s track record, I’m betting it was their fault.
Well I had to wait for at least a half an hour at the baggage claim, only to not find my bag and then another half hour at the lost luggage desk. It was a wonderful welcome to Germany.
Well then I went to the train station and bought a ticket from Frankfurt to Mannheim and then from Mannheim to Freiburg. On my ticket I thought it said platform 5, long distance. So I went to platform 5 and got on the train, only this train was headed north toward Hammburg, which is in the complete opposite direction of Freiburg. I realized this mistake soon, after I had been on the train for an hour when the stop in Mannheim should only had been 20 minutes, and got off in a small city called Kassell. There I got on another train that was headed straight to Freiburg on its way to Basil. That was a life saver. I arrived in Freiburg at six, about an hour after I was assigned to arrive and maybe seven hours after I had expected had all things gone right. Apparently, I was supposed to get on the short destinations plat form 5, not long distance. At least that’s what I think I did wrong. I was tired and I thought I was in the right place. I even showed a competent looking German man my ticket and he assured me that I was in the right place. Well, I have my ticket still and it makes for a good story.
They got me registered when I arrived at the IES center in Freiburg. They assured me that it was fine that I was late and to meet with my dorm group upstairs. After they got me signed in we went out to pizza. The people in my group were okey. Most of them were from the Midwest or the East coast, only one girl was from the West. There were about 15 kids in my dorm group which was the smallest of the three dorm groups.
Justin and Brett hunted me down and found us at the pizza parlor. I was surprised to see them. I guess they asked around and found out we were there. So they joined us and had a few drinks with us. Brett and Justin then left us because I had to go check into the dorm and they wanted to go to the student bar, and I told them I’d meet them there.
But before we could go to the dorm, our German student hosts insisted that we go to the local brewery and drink a beer. Of course, my group consented. It was a good beer, but not the best German beer I’ve had. The kids in my dorm group are alright, some I can see getting along better with than others. There are a few that are dumb asses and others that seem to have there shit together, I’ll try to stay with the have-there-shit-together folks.
After the brewery, we went to my dorm. I got checked in, but didn’t meet any of my roommates. They were all either out or asleep. We then went to the student bar, it was about half past 11. I was tired, but I wanted to see Brett and Justin again, since I hadn’t seen them in some time. But we got there and Brett and Justin were no where to be found. I found out today that they had left minutes before we arrived. So that was too bad. I only stayed for about an hour. Most of us left because there was nothing really to do. All the music was American pop music, so it wasn’t very good. I mostly talked football with some of the other guys from the group until we left.
I woke up this morning at 7:50, for some reason I was able to get up early. I’m not sure why, I had not set my alarm to go off until 8:30. So I woke up and met some of my suitemates, but didn’t have any real time to talk with them. I took a shower and used the pair of extra clothes, thank God I brought them. I had breakfast and then sat through a few hours of orientation bullshit. It was boring really, not much to write. I met a few new Americans from the program in the whole process, but I don’t think it was really necessary.
I got a tour of the city from a University of Freiburg student. It made the city of Freiburg seem a lot more manageable. I got lunch with a few of the guys from my tour group in the Mensa (cafeteria). Then we had some more orientation stuff. After that I went with a large group of students and bought a cell phone. It was pretty much the cheapest one they had.
I then took a train back to my dorm and found Justin had stocked me again. He had found out which dorm I was living in (I had not told either him or Brett the night before because I didn’t even know.). I opened the door to my suite and saw him sitting there drinking a cup of coffee with my suitemate Merriam. He said he asked around and had nothing better to do than find out where I was living. We talked with Merriam for a while and then went to get my checked luggage witch had arrived at the IES center. I picked it up and returned to my suite. Justin and I then ate home made German Pizza with my suitemates.
At dinner I had a chance to talk with all of them. I really wish my German was better. They all understood English, but only to a certain extent and I knew no German. We all got along very well. I think they like me and I appreciate them feeding me for the night. Justin and I then met up with Brett and hung out at his place, which is on the other side of town, until I came back here to write this a half an hour ago.
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