Ein Tage im Wolfsburg!

Hallo! Little early for the posting but I am tired from the day and might go to bed early or just hangout with some friends.  No crazy nights tonight, everyone is too tired haha.  So today started out the same as every other, alarm going off and me going "already?!"  But today was worth it because class was shorter.  So I get up and get ready, head off to the bus, grab a bun/donut and get to class.  Nothing really new in class, we went over past perfect and past conversational verbs and thats all we had time for because it was time to head to Wolfsburg for the Volkswagen tour!  So we all hop on a bus, now keep in mind ALL of us went, like 34 of us, so we take up a bus purdy good, kinda like this:

and as I post this i realize I got Jordan (in the foreground) at a really good time eh? haha and yes these are two part buses that swivel when they turn haha.  The majority of people on the bus are SENSE folks, only like the man in the red and like half the front car are natives haha.  Anyways, we take the bus to the Hauptbahnhof (train station) and get on my first ever train ride!

Excitment! ahaha and no Mom im not slouching i didn't want the sleep pad in my face for the picture haha.  So we get to Wolfsburg and head over to the VW factory.  Now the factory is behind the Haupbahnhof in Wolfsburg so we have to go into a tunnel under the tracks to get to where we need to go haha.  This is what we go down into.

Purdy neat, ya? haha so you head over the the factory and you can't take anything that has a camera past the sercuity post right outside the tunnel so the last shot for the tour was this, the front of the VW factory.

If i remember right thats the new VW Gulf or Golf sitting in front there.  Anyways, the tour itself was alright, I'm not a big car guy but I can appreciate a good machine and 50-60ton press if need be haha.  Honestly the only thing I wanted to take a picture of was how we got around on the tour.  We didn't walk at all we were pulled on a trolly ish thing by a VW car with the top sawed off through the plant! haha it was epic! Anyways afterwords we headed over the Autostadt (car city).  It is so nice! There are a lot more pictures on facebook but here are a few of my favorites.

Pretty cool ya? Check out facebook for some more! They are under "SENSE 2001 Braunschweig, Germany".  Thats about it for today, a whole lot of walking and seeing and I finally got my camera! haha I think this weekend or the next we will head up to Berlin for the day but we shall see, it was just suggested about an hour ago so yeah.  Hope to hear from you! Bis Dann!

Random Things:
1. Holly, one of our interns, is scared of birds but not ducks
2. Getting spun on the keyhole thing (like the girl is above) is really disorienting.
3. Trains are trains, not very exciting.
4. Remember to put jelly into the fridge.

Picture of the Day!
-pick any of the above! haha

First Day of Class!

Class... joyous class....eh, it's not that bad I guess.  Ok a little background I guess in case people don't know or forgot.  By the way, its gets a little complicated so stay with me.

Weeks 1-3: German language and cultural sensitivity training
-6 hours a day, 5 days a week
-I am in the advanced class
-On Friday our teacher is going to split the advanced class into the advanced and the advanced advanced (not their real names but true enough haha)
-I really don't want to be in the advanced advanced cause then I will miss lunch as the Mensa (caf)

Weeks 4-7: Biology Research and German Language
-Biology Research is 8 hours a day 5 days a week
-I will be working on, what I believe to be, a signal pathway from a bacteria.
-German will be reduced down to two hours a day 8-10pm

So that's my summer schedule in a nut shell, and yes the last four weeks will probably be a little crazy but hey, that suits me just fine : D.

So yeah, today, class: pretty chill, after class: chill, haha OH ok so lunch at the Mensa (caf) is really cheap! kinda...like the main dish (such as a cordon bleu like today) is around 2E for students, everything you add to that is around ,50E ("," means point, so like 50 cent euro) so  lunch today for a cordon bleu, potatoes, pudding and a coke was like 4,30E ish, roughly 6 USD. So not bad in general, and its not like dorm food back in the states, this is like momma made each one. Delicious.  So yeah, finally found a bank today that will exchange USD into Euro but they open tomorrow so hitting that after class then I don't know what haha.  Tonight was my quiet night, just chilled out and talked with some people.

Random Things:
1. In Germany lunch is the big meal of the day , hence the cordon bleu at lunch but dinner I had salami with mayo on a fresh bun.
2. My temp student ID is a printed out 8.5x10 piece of paper that i have to get out everytime i ride the bus haha
3. SEND ME EMAILS OR COMMENT ON POSTS OR FACEBOOK! I'd love to hear from you :)

Picture of the Day!

My "supermarkt"! Literally like a 2 min walk from the dorm, they charge you for a car, a bag and they check out really really fast!

First Day and Pub!

6/27/11 Pub!

Ok first off I need to A) start carring a bag around and B) in said bag carry a camera. Its helpful.  Anyways...first day of the program! WOOO! got up at 745am showered (i will post pics of our bathroom, we are in a community style dorm not separate apartments), and met up with the group at half 7, as our interns say haha.  Headed over to the International Office on TU's campus, had a orientation meeting with paperwork and all then had a campus tour.  Now realize that they don't really have tour guides per say like most Uni's do, we we were shown around the mail points of the campus.  Like the Mensa (cafeteria) and a few other random buildings but that was really it.  Then at the last mensa our tour guide said well you can stay here and eat lunch but i am going back to the international office.  Well we all kind of stared at him and went "how do we get back if we stay here?" and he is like ohh.  So we all troop back the office with no lunch only leftovers from breakfast (which by the way is like a brunch type thing in the States, lots of meats and cheeses on bread) which weren't there. So me and two other guys went to the supermarkt and got some water and when we got back there was a bit of breakfast they had brought in so we had then then chilled out for two hours waiting for our city tour.  Now the city tour was awesome and i was pissed i didn't bring my camera (keep in mind none of us knew what we were doing today) but eventually i will get around to getting pictures this weekend.  So we had our city tour then came back and signed up for internet, i went to the supermarkt to grab bread and jam for pb and j sandwiches (AND THEY HAVE PEANUT BUTTER HERE!!!...but its in like little 8oz cans so im glad i brought my Jiff : D ).  Then after dinner about 15 of us went out to an irish pub in the city and had a good time haha.  Found out my faviorte kind of bier is dark or in German "dunkle".  Now we are back and its 1am here and i have to be up at 7ish WOOO haha but that way my day in a nutshell, tomorrow bring the first day of advanced german class and hopefully finding a place to exchange american money. Bis Spaeter!





6/26/11 First day in Braunschweig

So I made it to Braunschweig, got picked up at the Hanover airport and driven to my dorm on the autobahn!
Not really that exciting haha Interesting though is that there are speed limits or suggested speeds given by
these electronic signs like we have for exits and information.  Sometimes they are on and sometimes they are off,also like the traffic lights here haha.  As we were driving through I noticed that some of the lights weren't
even on only like one or two were on that we pasted in totally, it was really weird.  Anyways got the dorm and realizedit is a dorm, no apartments haha here are some pics of my new digs :)

Today we all just hung out cause there is no internet yet for us, supposedly they can only grant internet for three hours each monday and if you miss that window you have to wait till next week. Rough stuff over here.  So we ordered some pizza for dinner tonight and let me tell you, it is not the same pizza we have over there haha.  We all put in 6E and our interns (Libby and Holly) went and got us a smorgishboard of pizza.  We had hawaiian, hotdog, texas (wich islike all peppers and a whole bunch of other stuff), this weird one with hot sauce and bacon, salami and we also got  acheese to be plain haha.  The real kicker is that the pizza over here isn't precut, thank goodness they supplyed uswith knifes and such haha.  It was a great night, talking with new people (from india, bombay, the states, cananda, UK,brazil just to name a few) and we watched some horriable soccer and finished it with watching part of the hulk...in German of course! haha.  Most of us have called it a night early (about 9-10pm) since alot of us got here either today or last night.  Here are some pictures of my flights and travels so far! Bis Spaeter!

Amsterdam!

SO CLOSE! haha All that is left is a little 1 hour jaunt over to Hanover then a car ride to my apartment! So the main thing on my mind that TSA at Metro stole my Peanut Butter! (expletive)! *sigh* at least I still have a another jar in my checked bag ;).  But yeah so out of Metro we were delayed 2 hours on the tarmac and then at the gate because they loaded our plane with another plane's luggage.  Well then,  my first thought is how does someone catch that? One of the bagger dudes go "Uhhh hey guys these don't look like the right bags for this flight!"...I think not haha.  Good thing I have a 4 hour layover here : D. So eventually we take off and get going and I get my first airplane food! Picture will come later once I feel situated in Germany haha.  But i slept for probably a whole hour maybe two so I will be runnning on about that for the rest of today...its only 12 noon here...joy haha.   But that's it so far, still ticked about the peanut debacale but life goes on haha. Bis Spaeter! (Until later!)

The Day Before...

Don, don donnnnnnnnnnnn *dramatic music* tis the night before my flight! Getting everything ready, doing a little packing and making sure I have all the odds and ends before the last run to the store haha.  Starting to get a little excited to head over and get started on my new adventure! I'm sure these first few posts will be a little short but as I get use to the days and nights over there I'm sure they will be getting longer.  Hope you check back often!

Ben