Explorations

So after having been in Tübingen for almost a week, I feel I've had time to explore most of the city. There are still plenty of places I haven't been, but without a language course or anything to do during the day, Catie and I have done a lot of exploring. Our neighborhood is really nice, and about a ten minute walk from the city center. Just up our road a little way is a small tributary of the Neckar, that is shallow and slow-moving. People picnic there and wade in the rocky riverbed, and it's already a favorite place for me to go and read.

When you walk into town from where I live, the first thing you encounter is the Neckar river and the Neckarbrücke. People punt along the river, and there are various kinds of boats you can rent. We saw someone setting up food in one of the boats, and learned that you can have a romantic, candlelit dinner, while being punted down the river. How perfect! Here are some photos of the Neckar:

This island park runs between the two sides of the Neckar 

Catie and I also walked up to the castle, once on purpose and once accidentally. The view up there is really nice, and as the castle houses the classical archaeology department, Catie was exceptionally happy. There is also a place for archery practice in the back, which I think is great. Tübingen really keeps its medieval traditions alive. There are many fraternities here, none of which are like fraternities in the U.S. They are much more like secret societies, and they have their own, castle-like buildings, and date from the middle ages. My housemate spent a wild night in one of their buildings, with a shirtless professor and crates of beer. Many of them seem to involve activities like fencing and archery, keeping alive this idea of a medieval university. You can see some of their buildings marked with crossed swords or the like.

Views from the Castle:

One thing I like about Tübingen is that is has a more youthful feel in many ways than Regensburg. I consistently told people thinking about going abroad to Regensburg about how young the city was, with all of the students and nightclubs and cafes. But the feel here in Tübingen is really different. The first thing is the graffiti that is all around the city. I love this, because a lot of it is clever or political, and it really gives a flavor to the city. My favorite is right outside our building, where it says "Organsiert Euch" with an anarchist symbol through the "A." This phrase means something along the lines of "organize yourselves" in English, making the anarchist symbol particularly amusing.

I've also found these few gems:

This is not common in Germany

Cartoon pope

I've also noticed more diversity in Tübingen than in Regensburg. Germany has an incredibly homogeneous population, and has had many issues with immigration in the past few decades along with the rest of Europe. However Regensburg was most certainly the least diverse place I have ever lived, and I'm from a small suburban town in New England. The streets near ours seem to house many Turkish families, which while relatively common in Germany, was not so common in Regensburg. I've really enjoyed seeing more than the white catholics that I encountered in Bavaria, and it adds to the feeling I've gotten of the city in my first week in Tübingen. However, it is still Germany, meaning that there are many racial generalizations. One of my favorite things is how Germans group together all of Asia, commonly having "Asia Markets" or "Asian Food." There is a restaurant in Tübingen called "Asia Bambus," for example. A few of my other favorites:

!!!!

Aside from taking photos in inappropriate places (I found the "Orientalischer Lustfinger" in a bathroom at a bar and then was asked why I had run back out to get my camera to bring it into the bathroom), Catie and I have been eating a lot of delicious food and exploring the city. We've had multiple delicious breakfasts and been getting to know the people on our program.

An incredibly delicious rhubarb cake that cost only 50 cents because it was from the day before

Just part of an incredible breakfast, with many kinds of rolls and müsli and juice and coffee

My German housemate also appeared, and turns out to be great. She cooked dinner with my housemate Mike and myself, and we talked quite a bit about the differences between America and Germany. I've been having that conversation a lot, like last night when Catie and I met these two guys who came up to us when they heard us speaking American English. One is German, and one is Russian but has lived here for 13 years, and both are construction workers who dig holes to test dykes. The Russian spoke no English, so Catie and I spent the night having really interesting conversations with the two of them, all in German. We met up with them again this afternoon when they were done with work, and when their jobs take them back to Tübingen we're going to see them again. I hadn't ever spoken to working-class, non-student, Germans, and so it was really interesting to talk to them. It's fascinating what Germans assume about America. I find that they really can't believe how much we have to pay for, and so while they complain about their taxes, they're then shocked when we say children don't automatically have free health care.  Last night we were trying to explain how it can be too expensive to have children, and the two guys we were with could not truly grasp that the state doesn't provide families with what children need. I've also noticed a pervasive belief in the American dream and the possibility of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. Alex, the guy from Russia, was telling me that if you work hard enough in America you can always get farther, and I had a really hard time convincing him that that wasn't always true. He kept saying things like, "if you need more money for your kids you just work more, because in America you just need to work hard to get far." It's hard to explain the complicated politics of such a large country to someone who doesn't really believe you when you say you can drive for six hours and stay within one state.

Tomorrow we are getting up really early to take a day-trip to Mainz. There is a museum of old books there, which I believe may be the closest thing I can imagine to heaven. We're going with one of the people on our program, who is a theology grad student from Yale. He also loves old books, so this should be fun! On Friday I get to meet the little boy that a friend of mine babysat for last year in Tübingen. I'm incredibly excited because she said he was a great kid, and I'm excited to get to play with a toddler. And when I spoke to his father on the phone, he was incredibly nice and helpful. It's crazy, but I feel like I'm actually starting a life here.

Home Sweet Home

I am now settled into my enormous room in Tübingen, relaxing after two busy busy days. The craziness began when I arrived at the airport to discover that two bags are no longer free on international flights. While Luftansa may pamper you to death with copious amounts of free food and alcohol, they will not allow a second bag onto the plane without you paying 70 dollars. Now that wouldn't have been that bad if I hadn't already known my first bag was overweight. Like, very overweight. It was only three kilos over if you combined it with my first, which was underweight, but ten kilos over on one bag is pretty big. And apparently even if it had only been those three kilos over, I would have had to pay the 150 dollar overweight fee. Having been prepared for maybe a 50-100 dollar overweight fee, I freaked out upon hearing I now owed more than 200 dollars. As I frantically pulled things out of my suitcases, threw things at my dad for him to take home, and tried not to panic about how I was ruining my careful packing organization, the man behind the counter took pity on me and told me he would waive the overweight fee. So after a very stressful 15 minutes, I met up with Catie and we got on the plane.

The plane ride was pretty easy, with tons of movies to choose from, and the copious amount of alcohol as mentioned before. But even with that we were unable to sleep much, so we landed in Frankfurt the next day very tired. Too tired, it turned out, to effectively carry our luggage across the huge platform and down and up two giant staircases in the eight minutes between trains. We got to our second train, saw the conductor watching us, and then as we pushed the button to open the door the train started to move. Angry, hot, and frustrated, we realized the next train to Tübingen wouldn't be coming for half an hour, meaning we would not make it to the housing office that day. Our peer advisor thankfully let us sleep on her floor, meaning we did not have to stay in a hostel.

Today, however, we moved into our rooms. And they are FANTASTIC. This room makes up for my three years of shitty housing luck, no question. The location of our dorm is about a ten minute walk from the Altstadt, or a five minute bus ride. Once we get our bikes in a week or so, it will be like two minutes away (and all flat!). The neighbourhood is incredibly pretty, and there is a Kaufland literally a two minute walk away. What else could I want? Oh I know, a giant, beautiful, new room, with two windows larger than myself.

This is the bed from the door

And here is my desk

And, as mentioned, the giant windows

There is even more space than can be seen in these photos (I didn't want to photograph my half-unpacked suitcases, although you can see bits and pieces). I brought more than 100 photos from home that I am going to use to decorate my room, as well as whatever else I can find.

The most exciting piece of house news, however, is that my kitchen has an oven! I had a sudden panic attack when I remembered that my Wohnheim in Regensburg did not. But this one does does! I'm living with two other people, only one of whom I've met. He's an American who goes to Tufts, and he is also staying here for a year. He and his friends seem very nice.

Today we went and got our keys, moved into our house, got bus passes, opened bank accounts, and got phones, so all in all a very productive day. We finished it with a large dinner with the other people on our program, where I got Käsespätzle and housemade Weissbier. They had a dunkles Weisse that Catie got that was delicious, and something I'd never tried before. After dinner we went to Kaufhaus and got just a little bit of chocolate :) What else could I want from my first day in Germany?

We have another week before our language program starts, so we're expecting to do a lot of exploring. We might also take some day trips with the Baden-Württemberg Ticket, so expect a lot of pretty travel photos soon!