At length, I arrive in Greifswald

You know all those times you asked me in the months/weeks/days before I left whether I was excited about going to Germany? Well, I most likely wasn't. With the exception of a few brief periods of genuine excitement, the enthusiasm you saw was largely put on for the camera, or the sake of enjoyable conversation. I didn't feel much when packing, or going to the airport, or boarding the plane. The first 8 hours of the transatlantic flight were uneventful. It was during a chance glance out the window on our way down over Munich that the smiling finally began. It's southern Germany, after all. Bavaria, Alps country. At sunrise at that. Absolutely gorgeous. Munich is a big city. Big enough for Americans to give it their own easier-to-pronounce name. But from an airplane, it doesn't look that way. No skyscrapers, that is, and when I looked out I saw mostly fields. Bright green grass and distincly German, red-roofed houses. And nicely, strangely, I felt that I was coming home.

In the Munich airport, I couldn't stop smiling. Seriously. I must have looked ridiculous. Fortunately, Germans are pretty good about minding their own business, so they let me enjoy my pretzel and complimentary coffee and newspaper as I waited for my connection in peace.*

Since then, it's only gotten better. General upward trend, in any case. Nice people at the orientation in Köln.* The practice lesson I had to present went very well. I had surprisingly little trouble* with the hundred-and-twenty-pounds of luggage that became an extention of my body on the trains from Köln to Hamburg to Rostock to Stralsund to Greifswald to (finally!) the very nice room in my dorm. Nice people here so far: very friendly and very helpful. When I didn't think I could get Internet in my room until at least Monday because I couldn't go register with the dorm director, the boyfriend of someone in my hall gave me his university ID and password to use. And on top of all of that: beautiful scenery and beautiful weather.

So that's where I stand with this trip. Lots of exploring today: saw the school and city center and walked around the very-residential area where I live. Discovered that German doesn't really have a word for "residential." Got some biometric passport-sized photos taken in preparation for the battle with bureaucracy that will begin again on Monday früh. The weekend will continue in the exploration vein, I suppose, but with less school and more German TV.

*******
Hey, there are footnotes! Isn't this great? You can read for more info, or you can just skip if this post was already way too long for you!

*everybody was American. That really surprised me. And everyone (including the German directors) was speaking English. That surprised me even more. I have a tendency to anticipate the wrong language at gatherings like this.

*yeah, free! Lufthansa's great. It was my first time to fly LH domestic...I felt so German!

*though I did get some pretty impressive bruises! See?