First Weeks

Casual pyramid entombing the remains of Prince Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau in Branitz Park

When moving to a foreign country, it's nice to have an easy, simple journey there. And I DID have a relatively painless car-plane-plane-bus-train-taxi ride to my new home. The first flight, to Munich, left in the evening, so I was flying into the sunset. I felt filled with wonder, excitement, and opportunity. Of course, that had mostly transformed to utter exhaustion by the time I flopped onto my new bed.

Altmarkt from a tower view, and yes, there were plush tower toys for sale

Since then, wonder has taken a backseat to practicality and bureaucracy- so essentially, I am having a very German time. I have been working on some basic, you would think, and very mandatory projects such as:

• registering and paying for school

• buying health insurance

• opening a bank account

• registering as a resident of the city

• getting a visa

• tracking down my student ID

• buying must-haves like bedding*, a bike**, German A.1.1 books***, and nutritional yeast****

And don't ignore the follow up trips to these administrators to bring more photos, more copies, more documents, more stamps, more signatures, more forms, more Official Business. At this point, it should be well-documented for all of posterity (in Cottbus) that I moved here to go to school in late summer of 2016, with photocopies for all- heaven forbid there is a fire with all this paper filed away.

The town itself has been quiet so far since school does not start until next week. The only students in town seem to be those taking my German Intensive, those finishing up Thesis work, and those packing up to move to Berlin and look for jobs. Additionally, surprisingly (or not so surprisingly, as on a scale from 1 - German, Cottbus is pretty Polish), not very many of the locals speak English. My Charades game is on point though. I have also had time to explore some on my own- the numerous parks, the campus, the altmarkt, the planetarium...just me and the crayfish.

Wait. Hold the phone. The crayfish?

Oh, I hadn't mentioned the giant lobsters haunting the city? Apparently, the crayfish, which shows up on the Cottbus coat of arms and decorates numerous buildings, sports paraphernalia, and general atmosphere, is the mascot of the town as well as of the American Football (yes, I know) team, and probably others. Here is a family of them on the doors of the Stadthalle:

Anyway, after two weeks of quiet shellfish, I made for the big city: Berlin. But that is a post for another day!

Local architecture of interest including, but not limited to, 11 roofs. Can you spot them all?

* Why are the pillows here all big and square (80x80cm)? WHY?

** Be sure to look out for me on the mean streets of Cottbus with my super-cool, "Retro", hunk of bike that is probably from GDR and has mountain bike tires. If it doesn't get stolen, which I hear is...likely.

*** I've been "learning" German "intensively" which means daily, all morning, and may I just say...OY VEY. Would you look at the grammar on that language? Whewee! So pretty much I have just, at the 2.5 week mark, settled into, "Ich spreche kein Deutsch", "Wiederholen Sie, bitte", and "WAS IST DAS?"

**** Living in Germany as an almost-vegan who does not like carbonated beverages is... not that bad actually! Tofu is actually pretty ubiquitous, at grocery stores if not on menus, and there is an Asian grocery in town as well. I even found nooch, or HEFEFLOCKEN (yes), at the Bio store for a semi-exorbitant price. And besides, if I need anything else, vegan-wise, Berlin is the most plant-based-friendly place I have ever been, with no less than three exclusively vegan markets.