DEUTSCHLAND!!!!

I have arrived safely in Germany. My epic trip began at 3:30 in the morning when my friend H was kind enough to drive me to Edinburgh so I could catch my plane. Edinburgh – London Heathrow – Frankfurt all went smoothly. I was making my way through Frankfurt, following signs to the Bahnhof (train station) when I woman came up behind me and said “parlez-vous français?” Well, needless to say I was a little taken aback, but without a moment’s thought said “oui” then helped her with her question. So needless to say, my brain automatically went into French mode and I spent the rest of my journey through the airport trying to get French out of my head and remember the little German I do know so that I could at least try and communicate with people when I saw them.

I found my train with no problem, and I feel like I need a little aside about German trains. First, they are always on time. If it says the train is getting in at 15:33 and leaving the station at 15:35 it will get in at 15:33 and leave right at 15:35. Second, on the sign announcing the next train at the station there will be a little picture explaining exactly where each car on that train is and where they will stop on the platform. This is quite a novel concept compared to British trains, which are never labelled, never stop at the same platform, and aren’t even in order (the worst I think might have been C,F,A,B,H,D). Third, the trains always leave from the same platform. If you are going to Munich, then you should stand on platform 5 at the station at Frankfurt airport. Always. Fourth, they are clean. The toilets work, the doors close, and you don’t end up sitting on gum or someone else’s lunch. Finally, and this is something about European (and British) transit in general, it was so easy to get from the airport to where I needed to go! My experience in Canada is that you basically need a car or have someone drive you (or take a cab). There is rarely any public transport that takes you to and from the airport easily (although there are some exceptions). At Frankfurt, I got on a direct train to my town. Granted not all trains go through the airport, but those that don’t, you just get on the train (at Terminal 1 at the airport, you can even take the trolleys with your luggage on them right down to the platform), it takes about 15 minutes to get to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) and from there you can get pretty much anywhere.

Ok, so where was I. Oh, right, the train. So, I’m sitting on the train, I have my baggage all nicely stowed and a family gets on a sits right in front of me. And guess what language they were speaking. French! So for my two and a half hour train journey all I heard was them speaking French to each other. So by the time I reached my town, I couldn’t remember any German at all, and really wished that Germany’s language was French not German.

So, once in town, I hit my only problem for the whole trip. There were no taxis outside of the Hauptbahnhof. Thankfully, the place I am living is right off the tramline and I had been there before so I remembered how to get there. Got settled into my accommodation (it’s pretty much a dive but I’m only here for 4 months and it comes with furniture, bedding, towels, etc. Kind of like the place I lived in when I was in Toronto minus the cockroaches) and then headed out to pick up some groceries and other household stuff.

Today, I headed out to the Kolleg to meet with the professor I will be working with, my supervisor (who is also here), and get settled in. The German research council was doing an audit of the Kolleg and so when I showed up, the place was a little crazy. I got to sit in on the first half an hour where the professors got to describe the Kolleg and the project being run there (in German of course). I caught little bits of it, but they spoke a little too quickly for me. If only life came with subtitles. Then one of the PhDs associated with the project took me around, introduced me to one of the secretaries, and got me my keys, showed me the computer lab and my office. I have my own office! (although I will have to share it with one other student once the semester starts), right in the Kolleg with my very own computer, albeit with a crazy German keyboard that takes some getting used to. (this means that I probably won't be able to post any pictures for the next little bit until I can figure out how to connect my lappy to the internet). So I pretty much have my own space and having met with one of the professors, it sounds like there is a lot of stuff going on. I’m quite looking forward to these next four months even if I’ll be a bit lonely for the first month until semester starts. It’s about 30 degrees at the moment here and unfortunately, because I could only bring so much stuff, I’m a little limited in my summer clothes. It’s just too hot at the moment, and I’m quite looking forward to the autumn and winter...

My town is in Eastern Germany but some people have at least a little English. I bought a new SIM card for my phone today with a nice mix of half German/half English as neither the saleswoman nor I spoke the other language very well. Tomorrow’s job: Opening a bank account. I’m sure my German is going to get exponentially better over the next four months!