First Impressions

I've just arrived in Germany and I must say, it's quite different. Growing up in the city, I've grown used to the hard grey cement and metropolitan style architecture. Here in Germany however, it's filled with tons of green scenery where there are plenty of trees along the freeways and surrounding each town. As we were flying closer to the ground to finally land at the airport, this is the view I got (the picture below is from the internet, but it is basically the same)

Here you can see just one town, but you can imagine that as you're flying over Germany, you can tell distinctly where each city is based on the little cluster of red roofs. In America, it would be very hard to determine where each city begins and ends. The way things are laid out in Europe is quite unique and I like it.

I have to mention that when I used the public restroom in the Frankfurt Hahn airport, I was very confused. Rather than having a very grid like layout for the stalls, there were a lot of twists and turns. So it was kinda like a very scrunched up "S" layout for the stalls. I was very confused when I first entered and saw what I thought was a very small amount of stalls until I peeked around the first stall and saw a "row" of stalls. Also, the "towel dispensing" device was totally different from a normal towel dispenser. It was more like a cloth towel that you pull down with both hands and then it retracts from the bottom like a scroll would. I feel like Europe is probably very eco-friendly if they even have towel "dispensers" like those.

The Frankfurt Hahn airport was very large but it was also very empty. I didn't really hear much German at the airport and instead, American English was the predominant language I heard from travelers. I also found it quite odd how there was only one window at customs for both EU and non-EU travelers, luckily the line still went by pretty fast. I guess they aren't that paranoid in Europe (at this point, I have to say I went through the body scan at SFO, it was ok I guess...). When I got to the arrival hall, I easily found my PhD student due to a picture I found online of all the people in the lab I am going to be working in.

Before you say it Wen, I must say that I am not a crazy stalker. My dad made me look up all the information possible about my PhD student in case I was entering some scam program. He was pretty paranoid about the entire thing. Anyways, Sven is the one on the far left. He is very nice and I think I would describe him as the "cool guy" type with his 4 ear piercings (3:1 on the ear) and fairly stylish way of dress. He's very funny and cute because he downloaded an English-German dictionary on his iPhone because he was afraid he wouldn't understand me very well. He doesn't understand everything I say sometimes, so I may have to rephrase what I say with simpler vocabulary or explain the word. He only whipped out the application once so far lol. He has a mediocre sense of direction in that he can't remember where he parked (even though each aisle is numbered...he forgot the number. lol. At least he got the correct floor of the garage) and barely remembered where my first flat for the summer was. Initially, I thought he was total baller since he drove a brand new BMW but as we were driving on the freeway, I noticed that all the cars on the streets are German (lots of BMWs and Volkswagons with not a Toyota or Honda in site). I guess it's quite common to be baller.

After I dropped off my luggage at my flat, Sven walked me to the main bus stop where all the buses run and told me which line to take (well, we did a little searching because he wasn't totally sure. There were A LOT of bus and tram lines and we were looking for one specific line). I could tell he wasn't very prepared to help me out with all the things I needed because there were a lot of moments where we would have to ask some people at shops to look for where things were. After around three hours of wandering around the same area, we finally 1) exchanged my USD to Euro 2) got a SIM card 3) confirmed Deutsche Bank allows me to withdraw money without an ATM fee 4) ate a 10 minute sandwich lunch 5) brought groceries. It was quite fun wandering around the area and it was funny how lost we were. But hey, we got everything done :P. Afterwards, I finally got back to the flat and took a nap :).

I'll give you a mini tour of the flat I will be staying in for June:

As you can see, the room I'm subletting has a nice bed and desk for me. It's very nicely decorated with a very homey feel to it.

The kitchen is quite small but has everything I need.

The living room is very small, it ends where that black couch is and it begins where the green couch is. It can seat 4 people in very close proximity to each other.

Look how short I am in front of the mirror. I can't even see myself LOL.

Here's a different mirror. I can see myself only because I'm on my tippy toes. :P

I'm too lazy to take pictures of other parts of the flat, but it's very nice. Very tall ceilings and whatnot. The other flatmate that will be with me is named Marion. She's very friendly in that she gave me a quick tour of the flat and we had a nice chat for an hour or two. Apparently, most students in Germany take time off between high school and university to do something else before they return to schooling, so Marion is already 28 years old! So much older than me! She told me how she thought American architecture was strange. Well, I guess it's not architecture, but more the layout of cities. She explained that the center of most German cities are normally where the oldest parts of the city are located. The government funds people to renovate these buildings, and I guess it might be a way to keep their culture. She said in American cities, the center of the city is also quite old, but it is also where all the poor people live and there are no renovating of buildings in the United States. People just build new ones and toss out the old.

Another neat thing about her is that she rolls her own cigarettes! At first I thought it was weed, but the contents looked more like cigarette. It was very different, and I have never seen it in my life. Anyways, that's my quick blurb for the night and I'll tell you more when I get super culture shocked again :P