The First Week

Today has ended my first week in another country, and so far it is has been a bit tough adjusting to the new culture and language. The second day started out a bit badly, as I got lost trying to find where the building was, since Google maps had pointed me to the wrong building. After that debacle I finally meet up with the people from my program. The program is called IUSP and run by the university here. There are second semester students and people who have been in Marburg before to help. After meeting with people I was told where I would be staying. I have a single room to myself, a shared bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. Here is my dorm.

Burt certainly likes the bed.

The rest of the week was focused more on doing the paper for getting myself settled in and exploring part of the city. I mostly explored the part of town called the Oberstadt, or the upper city. Marburg is built into the hills of the region and the Oberstadt is the upper part of the town. There is a castle located on the top of the hill overlooking the city. The Oberstadt is the older part of town as well but there are a lot of stairs or just steep roads in general to get up and down. I will definitely be fit by the end of this trip thanks to all the walking and climbing I have to do. The pictures are of the Oberstadt.

During this week we also took our German placement test for the language course we will be taking which starts on Thursday this week. Before the test started a teacher explained what the test would be like in German and then someone else translated into English, everyone who didn’t understand the German at all was told to leave, and most of the room did. My German is certainly not the best here, specially considering it has been three years since I took it, but I can understand a good part of things. The written test wasn’t that bad, but then came the oral section which was the worse part. A teacher spoke to you in German and you had to respond to their questions in German as well. I understood almost all of what he said, but speaking it was a bit rough. Overall I feel like my placement will be appropriate and if I need a harder class or lower level, they said they can move me easily.

The biggest issue this week has been my internet, as there is trouble setting it up in my room, but luckily I have data and there is a place nearby that I can access the internet, so it hasn’t been too bad.

My first week has gone pretty good overall though and I am excited to continue to explore. The food here has been interesting but very good, and I even had a local dish called Auflauf which is hard to describe, but it was very good. I hope to keep updating this blog, and hopefully soon from my room. Here is hoping next week goes as good as this one.

The Adventure Begins

My journey to Germany started at 5:30 am when we started the long drive to Chicago from Ames in snowy and icy weather, though there was no issue with the drive. Dad and I arrived at the airport about 12:30 pm where I said goodbye.

Checking in and going through TSA was not a problem and it all went well. The airplane boarded at 3:45 pm and the wait in the airport was no bad at all and I even talked to a lady who had a flight out after ours left. Boarding went smoothly but because the bad weather we had to wait for them to deice the plane, and for some other passengers. It was delayed a bit more by the poor conditions in O'Hare but we were taking off about 5:30 pm.

My plane that flew me to Germany

The flight was not as bad as it would seem, and the cabin crew did a good job as well. The inflight entertainment had good options and worked well; one downside to the flight was the food. While it was good for the most part my choice for the main course was poor. I had the chicken with rice and should have chosen the pasta option, since the chicken had a weird taste to it, but the rest of the food was very good and the breakfast they served was delicious. I had trouble sleeping on the flight though and this caused some issues because my lack of sleep. Landing and deboarding went well and the security in Germany was easy, I didn't even have to pass through customs.

Burt enjoying his flight with me

Then the trouble started. I had to find a ticket office for DB, the train company. I found the right area but not the ticket office and I had to run around a bit of the airport to find it. I then got a ticket and everything seemed like it would be good, then I missed my train. It went to a different part of the platform then I thought, it was early, and I didn't know how trains worked. It was my fault, so I asked for some information and they told me to get a different train so I did without realizing I needed to get a new ticket. I transferred to a new train in Frankfurt's main train station, after missing the connecting train for the second time basically. While riding it the conductor got me a proper ticket for the train and fined me as well. I was running on 5 hours of sleep with a couple hours of napping and at this point and had been awake for about 24 hours.

A German train in Frankfurt's main station

It was a rough start to my time in Germany, but it is a definite learning experience. Always make sure your ticket matches your train and know that they check your ticket after you have boarded. I made it to Marburg in one piece and luckily saw that my hotel, the Hotel Marburg Hof, was only about 10 minutes away by foot. The hotel was very nice and my room was great, unfortunately I was too exhausted at that point to take any pictures of it for this blog. That ended my trip from Sunday to Monday.

The next blog post will probably be this weekend detailing all the stuff that happened this week.

Introduction

Hello everybody! My trip abroad is approaching quickly now, and I can say I am so excited for this chance. My flight out of the United States is on the 17th of February and I will be flying back on the 17th of June. It will 4 months of challenges and adventure. I will be studying at Philipps Universität in Marburg, Germany through their international studies program. I will keep this blog updated as much as possible so be sure to check back for updates!

Burt helping me plan.