A Quick & Scattered Update

Hello everyone!
So sorry for the blog silence. We haven't had a moment to rest since we departed AUS, and some of us are still figuring out internet things.

JFK airport

Our flights were uneventful, though more turbulence than I'm used to. Flying across the Atlantic made me realize just how BIG it is. That is one long flight. They did give us a ton of movies to choose from. I finally watched Catching Fire, while others of us watched the Lego movie and more. I wanted to stay up all night and watch movies...but night while flying east is only about four hours long. Very odd to see the sunrise ~4 hours after sunset! I got a little bit of sleep while watching my favorite episode of Sherlock, but it wasn't enough to keep me from sleeping again on the train ride from Frankfurt to Würzburg.

Our student tutors met us at the train station and we split up to go to our respective dorms. Miquela and I spent the rest of the day registering with the city, doing some grocery shopping, and getting our phones. We got €20 phones with €15/month plans of unlimited Germany texting and 100 minutes of Germany calling. Not bad, except it's a phone that hails from the 2000s. Texting brevity has once again become a thing.

in front of the physics building

The next day, yesterday, we were officially admitted to the university, got our student ID cards, got our insurance confirmed, did more grocery shopping ("Haben Sie ein baguette?"), explored the physics and astronomy buildings, and got German bank accounts. Not in that order, haha.

We've all dealt with jet lag differently. For me, I basically didn't sleep {except for those brief stints on the flight and train} from when I woke up Monday morning until 11pm Tuesday night, Germany time. That's over 24 hours awake, but it got me on the German schedule really fast. Tried to take it out all in one day instead of spreading it out. I'm not much for naps, anyway.

The part of Würzburg that we have explored the most is called the Marketplace on the map, though my tutor told me it was called, in German, the Old City. It is street after street of small, specialized shops. There is nothing really to compare it to in the US. Times Square and NYC come the closest, in my experience, and maybe parts of San Antonio. Miquela commented that it was like a glorified downtown Austin. There is an abundance of clothing stores and bakeries. So many bakeries! So much bread! I want to eat it all. Yesterday, Miquela, Robby, Thomas, and I had pretzels for breakfast. They were delicious. We've also sampled Käsebrötchen {cheese bread} and a Schokocreme Croissant {a croissant filled with chocolate and drizzled with chocolate}. Everything feels cheaper here because it's in Euros; you have to remind yourself that something that costs €0.62 is actually close to a dollar of your money.

We were informed before coming that you don't have to know German, that everyone speaks English. Ehh, not so true. For one thing, everything is written in German. And we've only encountered a few people who were fluent in English. English here is comparable to Spanish in Austin and the surrounding areas. Most people know it, but only enough to get by. German is definitely the preferred language. Within the university, it may be different, but in town, German is spoken.

the Marketplace at dusk

Also an interesting discovery, the city shuts down at about 8pm. The shops close, good night. It's very disorienting for us Austin college students. We're used to a city that barely sleeps, to an Amy's ice cream that's open until 1 in the morning. Not so here.

All in all, things are going well. Miquela and I {our rooms are next door to each other} were accosted yesterday morning by cold showers. Ugh! {All I could think of was that, here I was in Germany forced to take a cold shower, while my friend in Uganda had access to hot showers. Ha!} {She has informed me that she does, though it is not always hot.} We were considering alternative sources of showers when we met an Australian student in our hall. She told us that her roommate had complained about a cold shower yesterday morning; it is not a normal thing, thank goodness. True enough, the hot water in the shower was working when we went to bed last night! {We spent over an hour chatting with our Australian friend last night. This was the first time we'd had a chance to really converse with someone about things. She's awesome, super helpful, and I'm so glad we met!}