Jetzt bin ich im Deutschland!

I arrived safely in Frankfurt on Monday morning and immediately made my way to the train station. It was rather difficult moving around with all my luggage (something I did not really think about since before I had only traveled by train with a backpack). Luckily the people in Germany are incredibly friendly and so they alway offered to help when I was getting on and off the train.
From Frankfurt I took the train to Göttingen (pictured in the photos at left), where our orientation was. I arrived about an hour before the shuttle to our hotel began and so spent some time hanging out on a park bench. Immediately I met another Fulbrighter. It was not difficult to distinguish who was a Fulbrighter because of all the luggage that we all had packed. It was fun to meet everyone and all of us students had a great time getting to know one another. We also made tentative plans for traveling during our large breaks by Christmas and in the spring. I am positive that we will be spending a great deal of time traveling to the various cities where everyone is living. During orientation we took a small city tour and were able to see what Göttingen has to offer. It is a small university town. It looks like a typical German town. We encountered some students from the University who were undergoing orientation themselves (and also a bit of hazing by the older students - pictured in the large photo above). In the middle of the town they were having to run around and complete certain challenges, one of which was to remove their clothing (except undergarments) and then line their clothing up on the ground. It was all comical and made it difficult to concentrate on what our tour guide was saying about the town history. The rest of the orientation consisted of discussing the next year and getting to know one another. A big group of us ventured out to the pubs every night in order to explore the city and get to know each other better.
After our 2.5 day orientation was complete I caught a train from Göttingen to Moers (a small city close to Duisburg). The train ride itself was not very eventful but unfortunately I missed a connecting train in Hannover and had to wait there for an hour before I could catch the next train. Finally I arrived in Moers and my host mother, Wilma, met me at the train station.
Wilma is an incredibly nice and energetic woman. She is in her early sixties and has been a school teacher at a Grundschule (elementary school) but had to take a leave due to the death of her parents. She lives alone in a large house (which is nice because it provides me with my own apartment - pictured at right). She has two children, both of whom are grown. Martin (her son) lives with his girlfriend Britta in Duisburg. They are both teachers at a Gymnasium (like a high school). I met them both on the first night. Martin and Britta took me out to dinner because Wilma was attending a symphony concert that had been sold out and she could not buy a ticket for me. Wilma also has a daughter who is a teacher in Hamburg. Her daughter, Melanie, is married and has a 1.5 year old son.
So far everybody has been incredibly nice and they are allowing me to practice my German because they are very interested in talking to me. They can all speak English, but they understand that I need to prepare myself for the beginning of classes at the University in Duisburg and so they are happy to oblige me. My ability to speak German is much better than I thought. I think it helps to be surrounded by the language and I found that it is much easier to think in German here than it was at the Fulbright orientation (where we spoke only English).
I have also been pleasantly surprised at the food here. It is different than in Austria and southern Germany (healthier and reasonable portion sizes). Every day I eat with Wilma. First we have breakfast which consists of bread, cheese, and coldcuts as well as coffee and fruit. Lunch is always the biggest meal and it is always warm. Today we had Nürnberger sausages, potatoes, and vegetables but tomorrow I believe we are having scrambled eggs with spinach and then mashed potatoes. After lunch we have dessert which consists of Quark (I do not know what to compare it to in the U.S.), Yogurt, or Fruit. At around 5 p.m. we have coffee and cake (the cake is like coffee cake only with various fruits) or cookies. Then around 7 p.m. we have dinner which is similar to breakfast. I do not feel as though the food here is too much to take in and always feel satisfied and not overly full.
In the past two days I have had the opportunity to explore the city. Yesterday Wilma and I walked around the city center and then in the afternoon took a bike ride around the outskirts. There is a castle here that used to be occupied by a count. I will try to post some pictures soon. Moers is about 20 minutes from Duisburg (which is where I will live the rest of the year) and about 20 minutes from Holland. Next week I will be going with Wilma and a friend of hers to visit Holland.
More to come later. Tschuss.