Mainz

So I’ve finally arrived in Mainz. I just got my computer account and password yesterday so I couldn’t post anything to my blog until now. Everything is great so far. I’ve had to fill out a lot of forms and go to a lot of informational meetings for foreign students but it’s all been very helpful and I have almost all of the details taken care of now so I can relax a little. Every foreign student is assigned a few helpers or “path-finders” and they have been terrific. They all picked me up at the airport and helped me get moved in. They’ve also gone to the all of the activities and meetings with me. They’ve been so helpful especially Gabiela and Esther who are my two main path-finders. Here’s a pic of them.

My dorm room is very small but it’s clean and right on campus so for now it’s fine. I may try and find a bigger room somewhere or even get an apartment. I’m not sure yet. Here’s a pic of it.

You can see my building in the background here.

and here’s Esther.

The other night they organized a pub-crawl for all the foreign students and it was fun because we got to see downtown Mainz and some of the local bars. I met some other americans at one of the bars who are going to teach english here at the Uni. Here’s all of us.
Esther, Avery, Gabi, Erin, Jill, and Kevin

Here's Esther, Avery, and I

And then later Esther, Gabi and I went to a club called the Havana.

Gabi and Esther have been so nice and helpful. They took me into town the other day to open a bank account and go grocery shopping. We’ve been hanging out a lot and they’re both a lot of fun. Last night Esther and I went downtown and to the Altstadt and it was so pretty by the cathedral. It was too dark to get any good pictures but there are two large sqaures on either side of the church. I used a long shutter setting on my camera to try and get some pictures so they are a little fuzzy but here is Esther and I on the square.



Esther lives near the Altstadt so we stopped by her apartment. It’s small but it has a lot of character. She told me it used to be a large house but half of it was destroyed in WWII so now all the rooms are much smaller because they didn’t rebuild the whole thing. It’s very nice though because it still has the original wood and old fashioned german architecture. Here is Esther in her apartment.

Later that night we went to a nice restuarant called the “Schiller” where Gabi works. I’ve met so many cool people so far and I think my german has improved a lot just in this week... probably because Gabi and Esther force me to speak german and correct me without laughing (usually) when I say something ganzfalsch. I was also very happy to hear that there is a place I can go to watch football and baseball. My other path-finder named Eva is a cheerleader for the team here and is really into sports. She also studied in Colorado a few years ago so she understands american sports. Anyway she told me that she usually goes with some of her friends on sundays to this golf club place that has a satellite dish and shows football. The only problem is that most of the games are on kind of late here but the early games are on at like 7:00pm here.

Although I have my computer account now so I can get online, my building is just outside of the range of the wireless signal so for now I have to go outside to the courtyard in front. Right now it’s not so bad because the weather is nice but I’m not too excited about the prospect of having to do all my emailing and internet stuff outside in the middle of january. On monday Gabi and Esther are going to help me see if I can get a dicect connection in my room. Right now I don’t have a phone but I will be getting an handy (cell phone) next week. For now there’s a cheap place in the mensa where I can call home but it closes at 4:00 here so I can only call the states early in the morning. Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun and I’m finally over my jet lag. The first couple days I slept from about 6:00pm to 6:00am. I hope everything is fine in the states and I’ll try and report again soon.