Sunday, August 7, 2011

Day Thirty-One: Willkommen


June 30, 2011
4 hours of sleep. Yep. I set my alarm early so that I could shower- lost the hot water right before I was about to condition my hair. Ugh. Then came breakfast. I finished packing. Just me, a huge suitcase, backpack, and bag of wine for Julian. Bus ride to Paris. We got to St. Christopher’s at 2:10ish. It was surreal saying bye because it was so informal. I hit the ground running and scatted off to the Laumiere stop to ride the metro to Gare du Nord. Royally embarrassed myself . like I’m sure everyone watching was like “damn Americans” but this nice old guy got the information lady to open the side door so that I could get into the metro stop with my 60 pounds of luggage. Earlier, I was trying to get my luggage and myself through the turners. More metro. Then uphill. Another nice guy helped me carry my luggage up the stairs. I arrived at Gare du Nord with time to spare. So I stood around and waited. Apparently I was looking at the wrong board- I knew something was off so I asked the lady at the Thayls booth for help again. Got the right board- and holy goodness I thought I was in a Harry Potter film with the way they change the train information. Walked about ½ a mile to my specific car on the train. Hottt. My seat on the train was next to Max, a 19 year old German who just started college in Paris and is from Cologne. . He was reading War of the Worlds; he is an economics major and he has no idea about the major he picked- but he will. I ended up chatting/ looking out the window/ entertaining him with my musical preferences for the last hour and a half. In Belgium, the police boarded the train and started checking passports. Apparently they don’t normally do that… I finally got to the train station at Cologne and met Julian. ESTATIC to see him. ESTATIC. Still tall and skinny- no surprises there. He grabbed my heavy luggage and I felt horrible. He let me know “God damn!” right away. He took me outside the station to see the cathedral. Holy goodness. Woah. Then we hustled back inside to board a train to Bonn. We went to his cute, and steal, of an apartment. So cute. He and his girlfriend have a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, living room, balcony, garden view, and a cute entry way. He is studying to be a doctor and she’s pre-law. He works three days and goes to school two. We went to pick up Pizza Mann for dinner- different but good- thin crust pepperoni pizza with pepperonis under the cheese and a chicken salad. He misses ranch dressing. Overall AMAZING first day in Germany. 

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