Yessssssss. I am finally back in Germany and finally getting settled back into place. I knew this week would be busy, but it turned out quite well actually. But first! The travel report: I arrived in my apartment last Saturday evening at about 7:30pm, which was almost exactly what I had calculated. That means I was traveling 5000 miles in roughly 24 hours, or about 208 miles per hour. Of course that includes time at the airports waiting to catch flights, and the travel time to Minneapolis and from Berlin airport to Erfurt. My initial flight out of Minneapolis to Chicago was cancelled because of weather, and I got lucky and caught a flight later that day direct to Paris, instead of detouring in Chicago (woo!). And another bonus was when I got off the plane in Berlin, it was about 68F and sunny, compared to about 35-40F and overcast in Minneapolis. It was so warm and I was so tired that it was a real struggle to stay awake at the bus station, but eventually my bus arrived and I fell asleep immediately. I don't think I made it out of the neighborhood in Berlin before I was out.
Long story short: Living in big cities is nice for flying because you don't have to take extra time to get to a big enough airport. Coulda shaved 7 hours of traveling if I was in a bigger place.
Okay, travel stories are over. I'm back, and apparently I didn't miss much of class while I was gone. I have one half page make up assignment for a class I missed, but other than that, no problem-o. I got my classes sorted out on Tuesday, and today I got my residence permit stuff taken care of for the most part. I just have to wait for a letter in the mail to come with a pin code, then I take it back to the Foreigner's Office and pick up my new card. And, if I understood the woman who helped me today, I don't even have to pay the 100 euro fee for a residence permit because I have a scholarship. I didn't know I could do that, but I brought in my scholarship documents just for the hell of it and was pleasantly surprised. Bonus!
Everything else is going swell too. My apartment was well in order since renting it to someone for the past couple months, I have my first soccer match today after a long hiatus. And don't worry Mom, I will be extra careful to stretch well and warm up well so I don't hurt my leg again.
Unfortunately I don't have any new pictures or anything. There will be more to come soon when Erika arrives. 2 weeks from today and we will see each other again! I'm looking forward to it very much.
And to all the homies who probably don't read this - It's always sad not to be able to hang out and I hope all is well. Miss the good times with all the late night guys. But I am very happy to be back in Erfurt, doing the school thing again. I feel a little more at ease for whatever reason might cause that. I guess even more at ease knowing that a lot of the bureaucratic crap is over with for awhile.
Much respect!
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