Alright folks,

Here is my first official post! I know it's come a little late since I have first arrived first, everything has been very busy since I arrived and second, previous attempts were made at trying to write this blog but each time I did it it was accidentally deleted and I was far too frustrated to try and write it out again. So here goes again!

All was good with my arrival on the 1st of March aside from my getting lost on the automated train system from Zurich to Konstanz. I had to speak with several different passengers to find my way to the correct platform but eventually, I arrived in Konstanz although an hour late. I called my friend Adrienne's cell phone from a pay phone and both her and my other friend Sara came and picked me up and walked me from the train station through scenic Old Konstanz where some buildings date back to the 13th century. Luckily they had avoided being bombed during the war because the towns people had left their lights on at night just as Switzerland, making the bombers believe that they were in fact part of Switzerland, being south of the Rhein. Anyways, I arrived and managed to move into my WG (Wohngemeinschaft), or residence, and Adrienne proceeded to take me on a little tour of where I could buy groceries and other essentials like a cable for my internet connection. That evening I was invited to a small getogether with a group of people that had been here the whole year where I met students from France, Italy, Sweden and the USA. Everyone was great and gave me a warm welcome.

On the 3rd I began my orientation at the university of Konstanz where we were given the layout of the month of March and an outline as to what would need to be done before we began course on the 12th of March. We were introduced to several student groups that would be aiding us in our quest towards conquering the intense bureaucratic state that is Germany. There was much paperwork to fill out throughout the month and the opening of bank accounts (Deutsche Bank for me), choosing and registering for health insurance, and registering for our residence permit and our immatriculation into the university of Konstanz.

There was also another student group that organized the fun that we would be having throughout the month, i.e., parties and pub tours. The first friday night we had a bad-taste party which basically entails us wearing clothes that are in bad taste (mismatched colours or things that were cool) and having a great time. Our second night out was our Kniepetour (basically a pub crawl) where we went to several different bars throughout the night. Unfortunately for me, my original plan to stay up through the night backfired and I ended up missing our trip to Freiburg. Let`s just say I was not pleased with myself! Regardless, our most recent event was the club equivalent of our pub crawl and everyone had a great time...although I`m not a huge fan of the club scene. Our last party before our break in April will actually be organized by yours truly along with other student volunteers. Actually there isn`t much to organize. The party will consist of everyone wearing a plain white t-shirt and everyone will be given hiliters (sp?) and will be able to write messages on people's t-shirts that will glow in the blacklights at the campus bar K-9.

There have also been many excursions organized to appreciate a little more than the party scene in Konstanz and the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Aside from the Freiburg trip that I missed we have done historical tours through the city of Old Konstanz, in German of course, where we learned a great deal about the major events and the significance of many very old buildings. Konstanz was home to a important papal signing and was a central hub for trade for Germany with product coming from both the east and the west. Our second excursion was to the old town of Meersburg. We took the ferry across a small inlet of the Bodensee and were given a guided tour of the castle and surrounding village and finished up with a coffee in a cafe on the waterfront. The most recent trip was to the either the Rothaus brewery or in my case the Fuerstenberg brewery where we were once again given a guided tour through the original brewing process that occurred hundreds of years ago. We ended our tour with a sampling of different sorts of beer and with some Flammkuchen (a very thin and simple sort of pizza enjoyed throughout Europe). We also left with a small mug with the Fuerstenberg logo on it.

All in all my journey here has been a great time, I have met a load of different people from different countries and have had ample chances to practice my German as there are some students who do not speak very good English. It's actually kind of funny when you are only able to communicate with another student in a language that for both is their second or third language. However, I was fortunate enough to have some native German speakers as roommates. We are still waiting for our 4th and final roommate to arrive but so far we have been getting along swimmingly.

If anyone wants to see pictures just visit my facebook. Unfortunately I have been neglecting to take a large amount of pictures myself, but I have been tagged in loads of pictures from other people that you should be able to access through my page. And lastly, feel free to send me an e-mail with questions if I haven't touched everything here in this first blog! Hope to hear from you soon!

Alex