Words cannot describe how happy I am to be finished, for now anyhow, with T-Punkt. I finally tracked down my “Schplitter” at the post office today and for the first time since I arrived I can function normally online without spending a fortune in time and money at the internet cafe near the university. I know I’ve spent too much time at the T-Punkt store also because today when we walked in “The Dude” not only recognized me and the guys I was with, but anticipated our problem and remembered our address from the millions of other trips in there. We decided that Deutsche Telekom and the postal service must be at war and we just got caught in the middle because it’s just astonishing how many things have gone wrong. So much for German efficiency. The End.
Today started off as a really crappy day, but when I got home this afternoon I had a letter from Kate which improved my mood a ton, and then we won the internet war. So it’s turned out to be not such a bad day afterall. Sadly, I missed volleyball today, but there’s always tomorrow. A trip to the grocery store may not be a bad idea; provisions are running low. But then again, maybe I should try to finish some of the food I already have, because it will go bad in another day or two. Everything here seems to go bad really quickly. I guess the lack of preservatives will do that.
This has been quite a week. Tuesday was the 21st birthday of this Irish kid, Aidan. So a bunch of people from our German course met at an Irish pub to celebrate. We were a pretty wild bunch, but it’s an Irish pub, so that’s acceptable. People bought me a couple of beers for my “birthday eve” so by the time we tried to catch the last subway back at 1 am, I was pretty drunk. German beer is stronger than American beer, and it’s served by the half liter, so it doesn’t take many. The evening was a blast, but we didn’t leave quite early enough. We missed the last train by about 4 minutes and then had an interesting time getting back. We were under the train station so we walked up there but apparently it pretty much shuts down at 1 am. They were closing most of the entrances so we went back down through the subway station where they were also closing some of the exits and got out that way. It was a really cool evening, probably around 50, and we weren’t really dressed for it. We ended up walking most of the way across Frankfurt back to our dorms. Lots of things about it would have sucked a lot more if I hadn’t been drunk, but I’m glad I had people with me who could find the way home because I certainly wouldn’t have. An hour and a half later we finally got back and crashed.
Yesterday I finally got around to setting up my university e-mail account. To do that I had to go to the new campus of the university which is nowhere near the subway stop that has the same name. Luckily I had just picked up a map of the city or I probably would have given up. On the way I walked down this street with all these barricades and tons of barbed wire and police with machine guns and a police tank. It must have been an embassy building or something but it wasn’t at all what I would expect an embassy to look like, so who knows.
Last night we had a party. Surprise, surprise. It was a combination 21st birthday party for me and party for a Brazilian girl who has been in Germany for one month now. Any excuse… I really thought that having my birthday in Germany was going to suck, but aside from wishing I was with friends from home, it was a great birthday.

Pictures are here! More later this week when I can connect through my laptop. But the fun has begun.

We went out for Thai food last night; it was pretty cheap and surprisingly good, an important combination. There’s a Tex-Mex restaurant that I’m tempted, but hesitant to try. And next to the university is a café with a menu in English that I’m told serves American style food. I need to get out and try more restaurants or vary my cooking repertoire a little because right now my diet consists of pasta and the occasional frozen pizza. I’m meeting people at a park this afternoon to play soccer so I should probably try to get some homework done and find an internet café that’s open on Sunday, God forbid.
September 11 in Germany was interesting. I saw coverage of the anniversary ceremonies on CNN and BBC but otherwise there was no mention of it at all here. And we’re isolated enough that a couple of the other Americans didn’t even realize what day it was. Then last night as we walked up to this plaza where we were supposed to meet people, we heard Carmina Burana playing and saw lots of people gathered around something with lights, which turned out to be a replica of the twin towers. We all found it a little strange. Not that there was a memorial, but that it obviously wasn’t sponsored by Americans, or even by Germans, but Iranians. And there was a painting of some Iranian man who died in the attack. Aside from the oddity of it, it was nicely done and very respectful.

Some of the Americans, Italians, and Portuguese have started playing volleyball regularly, at least as long as the weather is nice. We’re all quite awful, but it’s fun anyhow. We play at the university sport center that is next to one of the dorms. There is a grassy hill, sand volleyball courts and a track that we can access without being registered at the center. By far the highlight of our games though, is the “Fitnessleute,” as we call them. “Fitness people.” They are a group of about 40 people, many older men and women, but all ages, who meet at the other end of the track at the same time we play volleyball. The sheer joy of watching them is beyond words, but I’ll do my best to describe this phenomenon. They begin by running in a large circle, waving their arms and dancing. Then they run or jump in place and make similar gestures. They conclude an hour later by laying on the ground and waving their legs, bicycling and the like. This is all accompanied by music of some sort, usually loud, bad, techno, but sometimes Michael Jackson and other interesting choices. It’s really something you have to see to appreciate. On Friday I walked over there with my camera to try to capture the ridiculous display. Some of the pictures are decent but the video on my camera won’t zoom so none of that is any good unless you know exactly what you’re looking at. I’ll work on getting better pictures this week, because you all have to see this. In short, it’s hilarious.
The other students enrolled in the German course that live at my dorm are 4 American guys. My next door neighbor calls them my entourage of boys that show up at mealtimes to eat my food. Which is more or less true; often we do cook dinner together in my kitchen; it’s easier than 5 of us cooking individually. But through extensive dealings with Deutsche Telekom, we have learned this one important German principle: Germans don’t believe in customer service. This is apparent by looking at business hours of offices, stores and other businesses. But between 4 of us we have scheduled a grand total of 9 appointments this week to set up phone lines or internet connections. The technician failed to show up to 6 of those appointments. And these “Schplitter” things that are supposed to come in the mail for the DSL connections haven’t come at all, though T-Punkt claimed they would be here days ago.
We got yelled at by the cashier at the university cafeteria this week. The hot meals are really cheap and good enough, but when we checked out she practically shouted at us, “Ein Salat dazu!” Apparently salad is included with the meal, and this all fits with our theory that the Germans are trying to fatten us up and eventually serve us for lunch. Every day the Spätzle gets bigger and bigger and they cover more of your plate with it. So either they want us to eat more or this lady was determined to make us eat our veggies.

Wow, they’ve kept me really busy over the last week with all sorts of things, most of them not very interesting. So I’ll spare you all the boredom of hearing about them all. I’m finally getting a telephone line today, so this will be short because I have to go meet the guy at my room in 20 minutes. I haven’t gotten to do a whole lot just for fun in the last few days so when someone suggested going to a movie tonight, in English, it sounded like a great idea. But the movie that was chosen was Chronicles of Riddick and I don’t have much interest in seeing that. I’ve heard it’s pretty bad. I may back out and go to a party the Germans in my dorm are throwing instead. We’ll see. No class tomorrow so hopefully I’ll have more time to update. Gotta run.

Finally here in Frankfurt, and the first day was like a whirlwind. Not having slept in 2 days already I got in at 7 am and spent the entire day running errands with no chance for a nap. Late in the afternoon I was finally left alone and slept for a few hours. When I got up, I ate cheese for dinner because I hadn’t done any grocery shopping and met some people in the kitchen/lounge area of the student dorms. That was the first chance I had to talk to people and I am almost convinced that there are no other girls living on my floor. All of the people that came in or out and everyone I’ve seen in the hallways are guys. Today I was supposed to register with the university, but I didn’t get the papers they sent to Houston over a month ago, so I can’t do that till next week. But there is a tour of the university for the foreign students after lunch and maybe some grocery shopping is in order. More later when I can be on my own computer. The German keyboards make typing anything with y or z and punctuation really annoying. Hope Houston’s still functioning. Later

As I head off to the other side of the planet I find myself both reflecting and looking forward with excitement. I have no idea what to expect when I arrive in Germany but I’m ready. Ready for a new culture, new language, new people, new experiences, new life, new me. Hopefully this website will be a way to keep in touch with the people back home. I’ll try to write regularly and post pictures when I can. It may take me a while to figure out the internet situation in Germany, but I’ll do my best.
I hate goodbyes. They’re never easy. I have some awesome friends who I am really going to miss and they have made this past week a blast. From the glow-in-the-dark mini golf that never happened to all the ice cream we ate to this website, you guys are the coolest people ever and I’m so grateful for everything. Many thanks to Matt Mullenweg.
Now it is time for me to catch a few hours of sleep before heading out. Honestly? I’m scared.