So, where were we, ah yes, we’re in the dorm meeting the other folks on my floor.
Miss Montana (MM) is very nice. A little shy, and doesn’t like to go out much, but nice. When I got there she had just finished baking chocolate chip cookies and was cleaning the kitchen, because honestly, the kitchen probably hadn’t been cleaned in months. I talked with MM for a little while in English, and she mentioned that she wanted to work on her German so that we should speak German from then on, and that works for me, so we speak German with each other, even if others in the dorm and in my courses, choose not to.
Mr. Brazil (MB) was not in when I got there, but I could smell a faint whiff of some sort of men’s body spray wafting from underneath his door, so I suspected I could figure out what he looked like from that. And indeed, when he came back to the building, I was not the slightest bit surprised. When his door is open, and Brazilian music is, well I don’t want to say blaring, but yes, blaring, from out of his room, you can smell the copious amounts of cologne from down the hall. It’s really quite something.
This was Thursday, and I had already called my friend Steffi to let her know the status of my arrival and where I was in the process. We decided to meet for dinner at 6:00, but that if I needed help with my bags, she was more than happy to hop on a bus and meet me at the train station. I figured I could move most of my stuff myself – in several trips of course – and headed back down to the train station. I grabbed my two purple bags, which were in one locker, and headed back to my dorm. There are two ways to get to my dorm, the first is through a pedestrian area that is entirely cobblestone, and the other is through a main street that has well paved sidewalks. Both paths have a rather significant incline. I chose the well paved path, since I figured rolling my 50+ lbs of crap over cobblestones was not something I wanted to try this late in the day.
Once I got to the dorm, I tried to open it and realized that my key wasn’t working. Crap! So I rang the bell and nobody answered, I kept ringing and ringing, until I realized that the door to my dorm was the next set of brown wooden doors down, and that for the last 5 minutes I had been standing outside the door to – I believe the private part of the Apotheke – looking like a crazy person. Awesome. So I sheepishly headed over to the next door, and it opened right up and I schlepped the two bags up the stairs and into my room.
I figured I would wait to grab the second one until I had a bit of help, so I found a payphone and called Steffi to ask if we could meet 15 minutes earlier at the train station. In the meantime, I set up my computer, and tested out the Ethernet line. It works, but I needed a username and password for it, and I had picked up an instruction sheet from the Wohnheimverwaltung which made it clear that I was probably not going to be able to get that username and password for a week or so because there was a lot more bureaucracy to go through before they would hand over such precious power. On the up side, however, I found out that the converters I purchased at Walmart do indeed work, and that electronics that claim to be able to handle 110-220 power are indeed capable of that. So yea!! I was a little concerned that the first time I plugged my computer in, it was going to start smoking and then I would have a lovely paperweight for the rest of my stay here in Germany.
Anyway, I had some time to kill so I wandered around a bit trying to get my bearings. I went to the tourist information center and asked if they knew where one could find an internet café, and they pointed in the direction of two, so I knew I was set with regard to that, and I eventually found both of them and was able to both check email and call home, which was very nice. Finally met up with Steffi and she helped me carry my final bag back to the dorm, then we headed to a restaurant called Neckarmüller for dinner. It was what you would consider typical German food. But it was super tasty after a long day of traveling and moving. When we were done with dinner, we wandered around a bit and Steffi showed me some of the various sights in the old part of town. Then she headed off to her train for her ride home – which apparently ended up being way more exciting than she thought it would be.
I headed back to the dorm made my bed, unpacked some of my stuff and went to bed for an exciting first night in Tübingen.
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