The Honeymoon Phase

Wow. I've just completed my first full day in Deutschland, and I know that I'm in the honeymoon phase of this thing, but that means that I'm totally enjoying myself. 

I will say that I'm ever grateful that the program provided us detailed instructions on how to get here. I never would've figured out which train ticket at the airport to buy, or that the same ticket would also be valid for the train from Hamburg to Lueneburg.

I regret to say that I have no pictures at this time to post; we had a scavenger hunt around the middle of the city today, and I forgot my camera. I'm definitely going back, though. There are several large churches to explore, two dozen bakeries and cafes, a tea shop and the tourist information center, among other things.

Today was an all-day orientation, so after the hunt and a lunch (complete with minor panic of "All this looks only half-familiar what on earth should I eat?"), we had a quick tour of campus and a four-hour orientation (not a good idea. My body, despite sleeping and waking according to this time zone, is still not fully adjusted and I halfway-dozed off several times), which had a lot of valuable information. They addressed cultural differences, transportation, classes (and how to get there), and most everything else we desperately needed to know.

One of which is: bikes. Basically, everyone walks or bikes around here. For one thing, it's a long and expensive (1000< euro according to one professor) to get a driver's license, and in cities like this the public transport is EXCELLENT. They're all on time, and students ride free. Outside of the buses, bikes are here in abundance, and I need to get/rent one while I'm here. It'll make the trip to the university quicker, and provide me an easy way to store groceries.

Speaking of groceries, a lot are cheap compared to home, even when converting from euros to dollars! I bought a tub of strawberries (would run ~$5 in the US) for euro 1.92 (~$2.80). Two kiwis for euro .22, and chocolate pudding (for dessert!) for .19 (on the other hand, my apple cost me about 75 US cents, so it's not across the board). They're a much-needed sweet to my home-diet at the moment, which consists mainly of gouda cheese and meat (German baloney-ish?) sandwiches, because I want to ask my housemates if there are any rules for the kitchen before I actually commit to buying a lot. Suffice to say I'll have to go shopping tomorrow because most shops aren't open on Sundays.

One other thing: recycling. I already knew about Germany's recycling, in which trash goes into one of like five different containers depending on what it it. What's cool, though, is that there are things where you can return bottles for money. Even the cafeteria had one for coke bottles!