As I write this in my room today I am wearing my warmest socks, my winter coat, and a scarf. More on that later, but temperatures are dropping quickly here. Today, I thought it would be nice to tell everyone a little bit about where I live and the people I’ve met, since I’ve had a few of you ask me about that already.

I live in a Student Wohnheim, a big dorm-like building where students from both the University and the Hochschule live together. Each corridor has a shower room, a kitchen, and a bathroom (toilet). It’s not much different from American dorms, except for the fact that I mentioned before where you have to walk through the guys’ bathroom to get to the girls’ (which is apparently pretty unusual.) In the kitchen I’ve had a few small victories figuring out the instructions on packages to make dinner, so that if I make spaghetti or frozen pizza correctly I’m very proud of myself. The room itself is nice and has far too much storage space with drawers and cubbies and bookshelves everywhere. Since I didn’t bring much it looks a bit bare and I’m trying to fix that with this free calendar I’ve taped to the wall. It’s a start. Downstairs there are laundry machines that I don’t know how to use yet, and a party room with a dance floor. All dorms should have that, right?

Oh, and one thing that really puzzles me: it’s freezing here, but they really don’t like to heat the rooms that much. The bathrooms are always freezing (and I mean that, I think it’s actually as cold in there as it is outside) in part because they don’t use the space heaters and also because they open the windows all the time for air circulation. In the rooms, in the kitchen, even the offices at the Hochschule. I don’t really understand that, honestly I’d prefer stuffy and warm to fresh and freezing.

The people here are fantastic! They’re all so friendly and have already invited me to several events, plus weekend excursions to Köln (Cologne). Most of them are older than me, as in Germany they finish school later than in America and also take gap years. The average age I’ve seen is 25, though a few are 22 or 30. Some of them are very excited to have an American student here to help them improve their English, which is usually very good anyway, and a few of them are glad simply because they want to show me around and to share traditions with me. As my German gets better (and I remember more of what I learned this summer) I am able to talk to more of them. One of the guys in the hallway doesn’t speak English so he always has to talk to me in German, but he’s patient with my responses and doesn’t seem to mind that I have trouble talking sometimes. I’m really happy about that because I need to speak German to make it better so I talk to him quite a bit. Something that I think is really interesting is that they watch American TV so we all know the same TV shows, and also the same songs since the radio plays popular American and German music.

Today I spent the morning talking to a few of them in the kitchen over breakfast and then showed them pictures of Texas and the Sommerschule in New Mexico. It’s a lot easier to communicate with them than I thought it would be and they’re all wonderful. I get asked some interesting questions though. Do I own a gun? Can I shoot a gun? How much does it cost to go to an American university? Why does it cost so much? Why do I study German? They seem surprised that anyone would have any interest in studying German at all, as if they are used to people not wanting to learn about their language and culture. It’s sad really, and I hope that I can spread the word about how great it is here in Koblenz once I am back at St. Edward’s so that more people will want to come. Since I’m still having internet problems I’ve been unable to upload photos, but when I can, I will, so that I can talk a bit about this beautiful city!