Back in Germany for 2006

Hello everyone!

Well, I made it back to beautiful (and freezing cold) Konstanz, Germany. I flew out of Portland at 6:30 AM on Saturday, January 7 to Cincinnati, Ohio. After the 5 hour flight and the 5 hour lay-over, I flew to Frankfurt, Germany. From there I took a train to Stuttgart, where my roommate pick me up at the train station, and then we drove down to Konstanz. I finally made it back here at about 2:00 PM Sunday afternoon.

At the Portland Airport I was once again reminded at just how small the world really is. As I was sitting waiting for my flight, I noticed a girl who I thought recognized from the university here. I wasn’t sure until she pulled the German version of “The Da Vinci Code” out of her bag. So I asked her if she studied here at Konstanz, still unsure of why I felt I knew her. It turned out her twin sister studies Law here, and is a very good friend of a friend of mine.

The flight to Cincinnati was pretty good. I chatted with my neighbor the whole time. We were in a row of three seats and the middle seat was free, so the flight was comfortable as well.

In Cincinnati I sat and talked with Steff, the twin of the friend of a friend. It was strange to be speaking German yet hear English in the background. I’d get lost in conversation and always be shocked into realizing that I was still in the States when I would hear the English in the background.

The eight hour flight to Frankfurt was too long. I didn’t sit next to anybody interesting, and only one movie was shown. Normally for flights that long two are shown, but for some reason they didn’t do that this time. What made it even worse was that it was a horrible movie: Sky High. I watched it anyway, just to try to pass the time.

We made it to Frankfurt a half an hour early, but it took about an hour to get my luggage. I then made my way to Stuttgart and rode down to Constance from there with my roommate, Jo. I was so happy that I was able to get a ride with him instead of taking the train. I had a ton of heavy baggage, and hopping on and off trains is not very easy when weighed down.

Once in Konstanz, I did everything I could to stay awake until at least 10:00 PM. At about 8:00 PM Jo and I started watching the movie “Sahara”. I missed the first 15 minutes because I sat down and promptly fell asleep. Jo woke me up and thereafter I had no more problems staying awake. I think that staying awake as long as possible like that was a good idea, because I don’t seem to have much jet-lag at all.

So, I really am back, and I really do have a ton of work ahead of me. There are only six weeks until the end of the semester. That means I’m going to be spending a lot of time sitting in this chair, trying to wrap my brain around physics and math. For some reason the thought of that just does not fill me with excitement. Oh well.

Chris