It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.

So it has begun.... this dangerous business of going out your door! It has been a number of days since we arrived in Deutschland, however we have been without internet for most of it. But now that we have some internet occasionally, I figured that I can try to make some posts. I hope that I can remember everything, or at least as much as possible, that happened to us. And don't worry, the past week won't all be in one post!

Morning over Great Britain

So Mariko and I flew out of Denver International Airport at 10:30 on Saturday Aug 6th. It was rather fun checking all our luggage in at that time. We had 3 large rolling suitcases, a medium rolling suitcase, two backpacks, a small duffel and one purse! Yeah WAAAAYYYY too much. And it gets better! When we attempted to check in, we discovered that our large rolling suitcases were all overweight by 10 lbs. We were able to purchase another small duffel and shift around some luggage so that only one suitcase was overweight.  Getting onto the plane was rather easy after that, security went smooth and plenty of time to get to the gate. Our seats on both flights were on the side, and luckily there were only two seats near the window and we got both of them... I was nice enough to let her have the window. Our second leg of the journey left from Dallas/Ft Worth, and was much simpler than our first part.  The nine hour flight across the Atlantic was fairly standard.... some sleep, some eating, some reading and then some more sleeping.



Landing in Frankfurt, both Mariko and I turned to each other and knew what the other was thinking..... "We are actually doing this, there is no turning back now!" We got off the plane, grabbed our luggage and made our way through customs. Which was very simple as most of the airport was empty at 7:30. Through customs, we made our way to the train station beneath the airport.... which is super convenient. Tickets to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Train station) check! Getting the luggage on the train.... a little more difficult, but we were able to get it accomplished.  The train ride was very nice, and the scenery was of course beautiful!The train to Marburg from Frankfurt was lovely as well, but once again getting so much luggage onto the train with only two people was hectic.

We arrived in Marburg, a tiny little stop in comparison with Frankfurt, and luckily had our coordinator, Raphael, to help us get to the dorms. A short taxi ride later and we were able to leave our luggage in one location (A major plus for both of us). After a small nap, we met up with another Fulbrighter that we had been introduced to earlier, Julian. He had already been in Marburg for a day and offered to show us around. Sadly all shops were closed so any eating that we wanted to do would be in restaurants. But my heart was lifted with our first meal here.... it was a Döner and so yummy!

We walked around town a little, which helped me get my bearings! I almost forgot how much walking there was in Germany... my feet are still angry at me. The buses had stopped running at a regular time by now, so we walked back to the dorms with Julian leading the way..... and I still shudder at the memory of walking up the hill. It was probably close to a 40 degree angle, and not a short distance in the least. I had to take a few breaks going up, and it just went to remind me that I need to get into shape so as not to die here in Germany with all the walking.

By the time we got back to the dorm we were both exhausted and ready to call it a day. A quick shower later we had both squeezed onto the small bed we had and we on our way to sleep on our first night in Germany.

Obviously it has been some time since we first arrived and now, when the post is made, but we have been lacking in internet in our dorms and only have a small time before and after classes Mon-Fri. I hope that our internet issue resolves itself, but there is no foreseeable future for this. Post will probably be a little few until we reach Braunscheig, but we will do our best to keep them coming... as well as pictures on Facebook.