Germany!

I landed in Frankfurt yesterday- the flight was fine, and they showed 'It's Complicated', in which I saw Mr. Duffy's sleeve. I slept for about 2 hours on the flight, and had a glass of wine with dinner. Lutfhansa is quite nice.
I had given myself 2 hours from when the plane landed to get to the train, but it only took about 45 minutes, so I hung out in the train station for a while. I set up a little fort to read my book.




From said fort, I could see some more of the platform:


I could also see outside to Frankfurt:



I then took a train to Wurzburg. First of all, some people have reserved seats with their tickets. Although I had a 'guaranteed seat' I didn't have a seat number. Confusing. So, I sat down, and then was told to move a few times because I was in another person's seat. Finally, I found a seat that wasn't reserved, and was sitting next to a guy in the US military, who was stationed in Germany. Apparently I seem like I knew a lot about how to work the train, because, in his words "For someone who has never been to Germany before, you're sure an expert on this train". I cited my experience with NYC trains. After LIRR, Metro-North, and that creepy guy in Penn Station, I'm sure I can handle pretty much any public transportation situation. From the train, I could tell that Germany is a lot greener than New Jersey. Also, the little towns along the train tracks look so much like what you would imagine from a fairy tale book.

Steffi from the lab picked me up at the Wurzburg train station, and brought me to the lab. I got here at about 11:20, and everyone in the lab goes out to lunch together at 11:30, so we immediately all went to the 'casino', which is what they call the cafeteria. There's also another cafeteria, and a small convenience store, so I don't know why that is called the casino. They have really big lunches here. You get WAY more food for 5 euros than you do with a meal swipe at KBT or Durfees. Also, everyone waits for everyone at the table to be seated before anyone starts eating.
After lunch, I played foosball, which they call table soccer. We're thinking of starting up a summer tournament, which I decided we should call the World Cup. I'm also really bad at foosball, but I shall practice all summer.
After we lost 2 of 3 games, I went to my apartment, and one of the technicians at the lab, Gudrun, showed me around the apartment building because she lived there before. I have a room, with a huge amount of closet space, and my own bathroom. There's a shared kitchen, but there are no pots or pans for common use, so I need to somehow find some. As well as dishes and silverware. The supermarket nearby is way huge though, so I'm sure I can find dishes there, and Gudrun said that she could maybe lend me cooking things. But as I said, lunch is huge, so I wasn't even really that hungry for dinner. There's also both a burger king and mcdonalds within walking distance...
I worked in the lab until about 5 because I didn't want to stop working so that I wouldn't fall asleep at some weird hour of the mid-afternoon. The lab is gigantic. And all of the hallways look the same, so I got lost about 10 times yesterday. Today I only went through the wrong door once. (so far).
Right now I just got back from lunch, and am waiting for Florian, the PhD student I'm working with until Steffi gets back from her Synchrotron trip (SYNCHROTRON!!!!!), returns.
I now have internet on my computer in the lab, but it is unclear if I will be able to get internet in my apartment.

OH and Verena, one of the other people in the lab, is going to show me around Germany with her younger sister over the course of the summer. Tomorrow is a public holiday (although no one apparently knows what holiday it is... Verena said 'It's something Christian'), so no one will be working, so we will explore the main city of Wurzburg. I haven't been downtown yet, so that will be exciting. And the lab is all having dinner together downtown tomorrow night and they invited me to come too. And there's a wine festival in Verena's town on Saturday, so she's taking me there and she said I can meet all of her friends, too.

I should probably go make another venture out in the lab to find Florian.
The next post will have pictures of the apartment, lab, and hopefully lots of exciting things in Wurzburg.