I made it!

So today I arrived in Freiburg. However, first there was the near 9 hour plan ride which allowed for no sleep thanks to the heavy-bladdered family in front of me with two young children, neither of whom wanted to go to sleep until we landed.

This was the start to the day, a night without sleep. Thanks to the beautiful Freiburg weather, I was able to keep up with it because it felt like I should stay awake. But then the stress of transfering to the train stations from the plane, along with the strain of carrying all my bags wore me out quickly. I will say it was an adventure running to the appropriate cart on the train, only to see the doors close right in front of me. Fortunately another train, this one without transfers, came an hour later.

I will say that I'm impressed with the German trains because they're fantastically smooth and quiet. Although on the ride, there were a group of students chatting a few seats up and I thought that they were headed to the same city, to Freiburg. With this thought in my head, I listened to them speak to hear some odd language that I couldn't make anything out of, aside from a word every paragraph. I was terrified this would be the dialect of the region to which I was headed. Nervous the whole time, they don't get off at Freiburg and my fears fade.

After finally arriving in Freiburg, I got to my apartment, met the Hausmeister Herrn Keil who gave me keys to my apartment (or WG), said that I was the one "who sent all those e-mails". Hey, persistence pays off. And I moved in. The room is huge and the apartment is ginormous. That's right it's a word--look it up. There are 8 people that live here, but the space suits it.

Other than that, I'm ready to go to bed, despite it being only 9;30 here and 2:30 for everyone back in the U.S.
Oh and two cultural notes--the pillow cases go on differently--the long way instead of the short way. And the cashier at the grocery store does not like giving you change. If you have exact, do it to avoid her glare.

Bis Spaeter! Tomorrow will be my adventure of registering with the government, the school, and everyone else in Germany.

Later Days,
Rick