(Posted after I finally got internet in my room)
Day two in Aachen went about as well and exhaustingly as day one. Class starts at 8:15, which means I have to get to the bus stop by 7:45, which means I have to be up by 7:00. Anyone who knows me knows that 7:00 is not typically an hour I would choose to wake up. To go to sleep? Maybe. But to get up for class? No.
After the 3 1/2 hours straight of German class, we were left with free time until 5. So I decided to wander around the center of town with a few of my classmates. We eventually found our way to a German bookstore, where I attempted to find the two books I’ve promised to obtain for friends back in the US – Die Undendliche Geschicte and a translated copy of Elfstones of Shanara. I managed to find some books by Terry Brooks, but only the latest ones. I couldn’t figure out where to find the Neverending Story.
From there, I spent the majority of time sitting around in a student cafe waiting for our program’s welcome meeting. This gave me a chance to meet Audrey and Ryan, two other participants in the UROP program.
The meeting was interesting. It was presented mostly by two professors who are actually from North America. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to meet with our advisors who will be working with us during the research part of the program, and also got to eat the well-known German food known as “pizza” (and apparently the worst pizza in Aachen by my advisor’s opinion). It’s okay it wasn’t actually a traditional German dish, seeing as I did have schnitzel for lunch (which was delicious, by the way).
The meeting concluded and a large group of us headed over to a bar, where we proceeded to do what one typically does at bars–drink beer and make friends. There’s an interesting smattering of students in this program. Majors range everywhere from Rhetoric to Psychology to Chemical Engineering, and home towns range from Costa Rica to Canada. Interestingly, the largest group of students from any school comes from Georgia Tech.
Unfortunately, I am still left without internet in my dorm. I shall be taking my laptop to class tomorrow to catch up with the world.
