Aachen

I can't believe that I've been in Germany less than a week. Already so much has happened and I've encountered so many awesome people and places. After two days of traveling, I arrived exactly on time early Saturday morning at the Dusseldorf airport. I had been exhausted on the plane but managed to sleep for a majority of the flight and also got to know a really interesting girl from Canada who was in the seat beside me. As soon as I stepped into the terminal all of my reservations sort of melted away and I was overwhelmed by an incredible sense of excitement as I looked out on the sun coming up over a German morning. A few minutes later I had cleared customs and collected my bags, then wandered out of the airport and across the street to the airport train station.

It was pretty amusing to immediately see the German efficiency at work as I walked to a ticket booth and was guided completely through the selection of a route to Aachen. The train arrived the exact minute it was supposed to and hit each of the successive stops without any hitch. My shortcomings with the language surfaced quickly as I was unsure of the station names, and after traveling for a while into increasingly rural areas I got off the train to figure out exactly where I was. A brief encounter with a man who spoke no English but was good with a map had me back on course and I was able to arrive at the main terminal just in time to catch the train to Aachen.

The scene outside began to change from industrial to suburban to rural and back again as the train sped west. There were a couple of sights that I particularly liked, including a building with a giant exclamation point (something which I thought was a fitting descriptor of my feelings) and an incredible mural of a thoughtful monkey which read simply, "Was tun?".

I loved the blend of rural fields, houses, and wind turbines as the train got closer to Aachen, and was surprised at how quickly the city arrived. I double checked my stop and was able to disembark in the main station at almost exactly the expected time. However, after a bit of wandering through the terminal I began to worry when I didn't encounter my assigned "buddy" for the program, Arne. Just as I began rooting through my bad for his phone number, a friendly voice asked if I was Chris, and I looked up to find a tall brown haired guy standing with his smiling girlfriend. After some quick introductions Arne and Miriam, as they turned out to be, took me to a bus station where we found a ride to my new home, Kullenhofster.

When the bus stopped, I realized that my mind had been so overloaded with new sights and conversation that I had absolutely no idea where I was. Arne and Miriam led me through a series of courtyards (where I found out that Germans often don't appreciate people walking on the grass) and up some flights of stairs to my room. "Naked" had been how Arne had described the room in an email, which I think was pretty accurate. A sink, wardrobe, bed, and desk were about all there was to see, but I was excited for my corner windows and high-level view of trees and the courtyard below. As I set down my bags I realized completely for the first time that I was not only in a completely foreign place, but that I was also getting ready to settle in here. Fortunately, I think my new friends picked up on this and smiled with a simple, "Alright, well shall we go?"