Here are some highlights from my trip/first day in Germany:
Oh, Lufthansa. Your airplanes offer such good service. The stewardess talked to me the whole time in German while talking to the German guy next to me in English. Also, they give out free German newspapers and magazines before departure and offer beverage service literally every hour.
Pro tip: Don't drink two cups of coffee with your breakfast, even if you know you only slept about 20 minutes. You will have to use the WC as soon as the seatbelt sign comes back on for landing. When you're in a plane this big, that stage takes about 45 minutes.
I then took the train from Frankfurt to Erfurt. It was nice because I didn't have to switch trains...but my suitcase was so heavy that I couldn't get it up on the luggage rack. Luckily, a friendly German man was around when I put it up and took it down so I didn't have to do it alone.
Then I met my host teacher and her family - they were really nice and gave me a lot of food. After that, I went to my apartment. There was a lot of talk about paying for phone overages which I didn't totally pay attention to because I was pretty tired at that point, but my teacher's husband had driven me over there and helped by translating almost everything for me (jet lag = no German skills). So now I'm sitting in an adorable 1-bedroom apartment that is all mine until the end of July.
Today I've had several adventures. This morning I went to Kaufland (it's a lot like Wal-Mart). It's not far from my apartment, so I walked there and back. I didn't get that much because I didn't want to carry it and I didn't have a Euro to rent the cart with. (I tried to explain my problem to a girl who was bringing back a cart and switch her a Euro in smaller change for an actual Euro coins, but she just looked at me and walked away.)
This afternoon I decided to learn about the tram system and visit the Dom. I bought a day ticket and set off from the stop that's not very far from my apartment! I think there's some sort of construction that prevents direct trams from my apartment to the Dom - I'm pretty sure we get really close then have to go a long way around before actually getting there. But this detour took me by my school and the University, which was nice.
Anyhow, I finally got to the Dom.
It's very beautiful. It may be my favorite church that I've visited! There was a stone in the floor commemorating Pope Benedict's visit 2 years ago, which was very cool.
The weirdest thing about the Domplatz is that it isn't just this beautiful church. There's another church right beside it, about 3 feet behind where I stood to take the photo above.
After that I walked up this hill:
There was a sort of citadel there. I don't really know much about it.
But this was the view from the top. The tallest steeple is the Dom and the roof on the right is St. Severi.
My trip back was pretty uneventful. I stopped in the Bahnhof to get some food (I really love German McDonald's. The cashier spoke English to me.) and grab some stuff from the Rossman in the station. While I was there I heard a bunch of rowdy Rot-Weiss Erfurt fans. Evidently they had just come from a game, because they were singing all through the station. I saw one getting mouthy with a policeman, which made me laugh.
Overall, it's been fun so far. My German is a bit rusty, and being so tired yesterday didn't help much. I'm confused by the recycling here and how to get money for my bottles, but I can figure that out later. I keep on smiling at strangers, which Germans think is weird.
I'm still very tired and jet lagged. I tend to get overemotional when tired, so I've been feeling a bit homesick and lonely, but I think that's to be expected since I don't know anyone besides my teacher and her family in this city. I'm ready for work and my University class to begin so I have something to do!
However, tomorrow I'm leaving Erfurt and heading to Koeln to have dinner with Werner before Fulbright Orientation begins on Monday!
No comments:
Post a Comment