Rachel's in Germany!: All moved in!

Spent the last two days getting moved in . . . finally got all my stuff organized! The kitchen and bathroom were in a not-so-clean state when I got here, so I took about 4 hours to clean yesterday. Today I got my room arranged and put all my stuff away. It looks great! Right now it's super tidy--I'll try to keep it that way!

I'm staying in Georgi-Haus (pronounced gay-OR-ghee house), which is northeast of the city center. The building is on a little street that runs along a canal. Seven or eight students share an "apartment" that is made up of a hallway, rooms/bathrooms, and a shared kitchen and living area. Each pair of rooms has a shared bathroom. I am on the back (north) side of the building, so I can look over the back yards of the apartment buildings across the way. At night when the curtains are open, I'm able to see everybody in the apartments as they go about their evening. Kind of feels like the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window. . .

I haven't met all my apartment mates yet, but I really like the two girls I've met so far. Indra lives across the hallway and is a physics major. She is from a small town outside Hamburg. It turns out that we have a lot of shared interests, including singing. Her voice is beautiful--she is a soprano and really likes classical music and opera/musicals. Petra, who lives in the room next to mine, is from Calgary, Alberta and is an art major like I am. She plays multiple instruments, and she is super tidy. Both she and I were super relieved to find out that we are both neat, because both of us had been worried about sharing a bathroom with somebody messy!

Last night Petra, Indra, and I were up till almost midnight talking. We talked about our interests and about the differences between our countries. It's been surprising for all of us to find out how many things aren't the same in different nations. For example, I learned that homeschooling is generally not allowed in Germany, and Indra was amazed that not everybody in America has healthcare.

I've been starting to explore a little bit too. Yesterday I went to the main campus of HAW Hamburg, the university I'll be attending, and helped my friend Candace get checked into her housing there. After that, we took the U-Bahn (subway train) to my housing. We had to make one transfer and we got on the wrong train, so we had to get off and go back, but we figured it out eventually. This afternoon, Indra gave me a tour of part of the Stadtpark, which is a big regional park just north of our housing. It has a lake for swimming, a big lawn for barbecues, a rose garden, a planetarium, and more. Even though it's still looking very wintry there, the weather has been warmer than usual and there were a lot of people out. We walked for more than an hour. It was super nice.

Tomorrow starts the Welcome Week at HAW! We're doing a scavenger hunt with all the other guest students. Should be fun!