Starting school

We started school officially on Tuesday. The first 6 weeks are lots of class. On day 2 here we took a placement test. There is ground level all the way up yo level six. I got into stuffe 2, which is third level. I can speak above my level I think, but my grammar is terrible, much like my English, so this should be a good course for me. We have class from 9 till 1. The one saving grace is we get about a half hour break in the middle. I am in class with about 10 people from our group, and people from a few other countries, Spain, Poland, and Turkey to name a few.

Our class is on floor nine, so the tenth floor. Fritz and I have argued about this a few times. He says it makes sense to have a ground floor and the first floor is the floor above the ground. I still think the first floor is the one you walk in on. Anyways, the view from our room go straight over the river and looks directly at the castle and the surrounding hills, which are easily bigger than anything we have in Iowa.

---> Robyn, Fritz, and I at one of the local student places. A Canadian, a German, and an American all peaceful together.

This next week our second class starts. This is the history and culture course. It will be just for the people from our program, around 55 of us. It goes from 2 till 4 or 5 everyday. I have not had this much class since elementary school. I am really looking forward to it however. At least Friday is always one of the 4 o'clock days.

Tonight is another USA vs Canada hockey game. So I am going to get my flag back out and go cheer on my team. The last game was extremely fun to watch, and we are all looking forward to another fun time. Thankfully it starts about 9:30 here, much better than 3:45 in the morning. Four hours of class starting at nine would not be very much fun.

Fritz and I made some really late night pasta. He has never had garlic bread with pasta before, and was using it to clean the sauce pan.

Bis später! (Until later)

A bit about Marburg and my Dorm

Hello again. The video up there is my dorm. Sorry I am no (insert your favorite director, or at least a famous one here), but hopefully you get the gist of it. The building I am in have 7 floors. I am on the bottom. Though the front door is between floors 1 and 2, being on floor 0 has its advantages. Floor 0? Over here everything starts with floor 0. I am sure there is good reason for this. I like being here though, because my kitchen is down the hall and out floor has its own back door only we can unlock there. The kitchen is fairly small, but is big enough for us. It has two small fridges, which are packed already and a 6 burner stove top. It serves our floor of 16 rooms.

When I first got here I met our hausfrau. None of them speak English, but she talks slow for me. It seemed as if I was the only one here for a while, but now a few other people are coming back from break, I think.

Ok, Marburg time. This city is beautiful. I will not get into the history because I could talk about it all day, but currently there are about 50,000 people here with another 30,000 in the near area. Of that there are about 20,000 students, of which 12% are foreigners. There is math there, but I am not going to do it.

The city has multiple parts. Marburgerschloss, or the castle of Marburg, is at the top of this really big hill. Three sides are very steep. Up on the hill is the Oberstadt. To get up there the least steep side is opposite from where I always am, but they have a few elevators that go up to the Oberstadt. That is also where all the rest of the oldest parts are. Its crowded with old buildings and cobblestone streets that are too small for even smart cars.

Then there is the main part of the city. Philipps University has its main building on Rudolphsplatz, or the square, though its more a triangle of streets really. The Cineplex and some banks are there too. Across the river is the Mediamarkt, like Best Buy, and some of the grocery stores and stuff. Think of it like a backwards L.The little part is the Oberstadt, the joint being the platz. Going up is the way to the train station. Keep going and you get there, then go further and you get the Studentendorf, or student village, or home. Every section takes about, slow walking, 20 minutes or so.

So maybe one quick little chill story. Fritz, my German buddy, calls and wants to get dinner. I walk to the train station and we go get groceries near there. We walk back up and have the most relaxing time. We sat in our kitchen watching Supertroopers, and made homemade french fries with cheese and bacon, and eventually had another Turkish girl join us.

<---- After signing some papers way too early in the morning, Desa and I went to this little Cafe in the Oberstadt. The view was awesome, overlooking the rest of the city and the river. I could not get any good pictures but I will go back and get some. But here is a moment of zen.

This was supposed to be up yesterday, but my internet hates me. Skype and internet explorer do not work, along with anything else. It says I am not connected to the internet now, but Fritz got me on through Google Chrome. And the program I have to use for the video makes it weird. Oh well, later all.

Arrival

Well, today is day 5 of Germany. I just got internet and I already have more stories than could be told if I typed from now till the end of my stay here. Lets see though. I got randomly searched in Chicago, and the TSA agents were really chill and we joked around some. After getting from the airport to the train station I met my cousin Kandis, who is here on business. Then found my way to Marburg.

<--- Elisabethkirche (Church), have not been inside but bussed by it many times. Beautiful.

The first person I met from the program was the guy who picked us all up, Andrew from near Belfast in N. Ireland. Then next person to step off the train that I met was a Canadian, Robyn. I thought slightly strange, but I am glad it turned out. We were driven to the university and eventually given our rooms and met lots of other people.

The first night we were supposed to meet in front of the Train Station at 7pm. Well in my lack of sleep, 30 hours at this point, I went to the Cineplex, our meeting point for everything else. After realizing I was alone I bussed back to the dorm and met the only onther person on our empty floor, Fritz. He is actually a student here from Germany. I said hi to him and about ten minutes later got a knock on my door. There was a smiling Fritz with a question that should be more of a comment. "Beer?" So istead of sleep I opted for 3 hours of chillin with Fritz and his music selection

Desa with a dönet-kabab. Its the greatest thing, and you can find on at anytime day or night, lots of people like them at night. ---->

Since then I have met the other people in our program and they are pretty chill. Right now everyone is still super excited and everyone has fallen in love with Marburg.

The only other person in my building from our side of the pond is Desa from Penn State. We spent a while going back and forth in the city getting random things and exploring some of the roads.

There are some people returning for a second semester. A few are Jonathan, Joe Canada, and Steve. A few names you may hear as well as many more, but too many for now.

Hockey, US vs Canada. Victoria and I cheering for the US. The game actually came on at 3:45 in the morning and we had to sign papers in town at 8:45 in the morning. So only a few stayed. And yes, thats all my stuff I brought to Germany.

I'm off!

Well its the night before I leave. The answer is yes, I am very excited. It's been a long wait and I am ready. Looking at all the stuff I need to survive for four months in another country is almost sad. Just my suitcase, which still has plenty of room in it, my backpack for my laptop, and, of course, my fencing stuff. Hopefully I don't have any problems carrying that through the airport to another country. Not too much else to say. I am sure there will be some good stories soon. I set off the alarms and get asked if I have any guns at least once a trip. One of these days I am going to say yes and point to my arms, but I want to get to Germany first, so not this trip. I like the due process the USA has, just in case. Thanks for all the support I have had so far, and I hope to see you all soon.