As I’ve been having quite a few internet problems, I wrote my first few blog entries and saved them on Word to be shared later. Here’s what I had to say about my first 30 hours in Koblenz:

Hast du gut geschlafen? NEIN!

Guten Morgen! Or Guten Abend, depending on which city I’m talking to. Right now it is 6:07 PM in Koblenz, but 11:07 AM in Austin. I finally made it to Germany this morning around 7:00 AM Koblenz time.  It’s been a long two days and I haven’t slept a wink in about 29 hours. So, how did that all go? Well, the first day has been quite an adventure.

Given this is my first international trip, I think it’s going quite well. The hardest part was saying goodbye to my family in Houston, which left me so flustered for the TSA screening that I forgot to take my boots off (fortunately they thought that was very Texan of me and got a good laugh out of how they could make me take off my belt and remove my laptop but NEVER my boots). Travel tip: you have to sign your passport. And Houston security agents are just not morning people.

The flights were rather uneventful but long, and I found myself getting especially bored on the Atlanta-Frankfurt flight. They did have the Avengers on demand so that was a plus,  but then everyone around me started falling asleep and apparently I’m not comfortable enough 3,500 feet in the air to sleep. But that’s all boring news anyway: the best part was when we landed in Frankfurt, and the guy sitting by the window actually opened the shade so I could see. And it was so wonderful to actually see Germany, in person and not in pictures. I was so happy I almost cried. Okay maybe I did cry, but they were happy tears I swear!

After I picked up my baggage, Franziska (a student who has been helping me a lot at the Hochschule) picked me up to take me to Koblenz. She’s really amazing—found me with no problem and took me on the train. Wow the countryside from Frankfurt to Koblenz is gorgeous. It was town after town on the Rhein full of cute German houses, very old churches, and even some castles! (I’ve seen my first official castles, and I know that’s not a big deal to the people here but it’s mind-blowing to me.) After we arrived in Koblenz, Franziska bought me a pretzel and we headed over to the bus to get to my new home for the next 7 months. After we arrived I signed some paperwork and got an hour break to unpack a little. Then we headed over to the Hochschule where I met an insurance representative in a van (seriously, his office is in a van and I climbed in anyway), met with the team at the International Office, and got some lunch. Ms. Dommershausen encouraged me not to get any sleep until this evening if I could help it, although by that time I was sort of stumbling around and must have looked pretty bad. Then Franziska and I took the bus to the main area of town and I bought some food and soap and things. I can barely comprehend finally being in the country and there’s just a lot to process. All in all, it’s been such an exciting day that now I’m a bit too wired to sleep. Given that I have to get up for a 9:00 meeting though, I might want to think about that. Crazy first days right?

Now, things are really different here, and if some of you have never been to Germany, or you have so many times you forgot how strange some of these things might look to me, these differences are a little funny. First of all, the pillow they gave me for my bed is HUGE. Big and square and I’m not sure what to do with it but fold it over. Apparently it’s a standard size but I could be wrong. Second, the grocery store contained almost nothing familiar. So, when I say I want bread, I see dozens of little tiny loaves of bread—like half an American loaf, all with unfamiliar names. Oh, and the bathrooms in the dorm are really weird! We all share these bathrooms down the hall, and there are individual stalls, but the guys’ and girls’ rooms are connected. As in, you have to walk through the guys’ shower room to get to the girls’. Now, they’ve got it so there’s an area for the guys to change and you won’t see that, but it still seems a bit odd to me. I feel trapped in the back room…it’s a bit awkward. And we don’t get those nice changing areas since they guys don’t walk through ours. I think it’s like that for the toilet too but I’d have to check again.

At the end of day 1, I have successfully found my way back to my dorm from the bus stop, said enough in German to cashiers and bus drivers to be understood, started understanding a whole lot more of the language than even at the beginning of the day (seems it comes back to me quickly), visited the school, visited the city, and moved in to a new room. I’d say that’s plenty for one day. Tomorrow I’ll work on speaking less English and more German.