Orientation week

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Orientation for school began this week, and I thought my brain was going to shrivel up and fall out my ear from all the paperwork and trying to communicate in German. All 8 of us newly arrived finally met each other on Monday the 8th where we promptly started filling out residency permits, school enrollment papers, and any manner of other forms, none of which I really understood, so I kind of hope I didn’t sign my soul over to the devil, or anything drastic like that. The eight of us hail from a nice assortment of places: KSU, of course, Mexico (Raúl, from Ikea), Italy, Lithuania and Czech Republic. And we, of course, do not have any one language in common; it’s mostly split that the North Americans all know English, and the Europeans all know German, so we… deal. There is some overlap, which will hopefully improve shortly.
The international office here at Fachhochschule Coburg thought our introduction to life in Coburg wouldn’t be complete without a 90 minute aerobic workout, so the eight ‘ausländere’ and the two student employees of the international office all set out for the Veste Coburg. I thought the hill I lived on top of was big. Kate took the liberty of informing us that the Veste’s hill is only about 500 feet shy of being classified as a mountain. We all made it, and I was dead last to cross the finish line. Upon arrival, we wanted to go to the museum, but hey, wouldn’t you know it, “it only opens at 1pm, and it’s 12:10 right now.” It was *way* too cold to stay on top of that windy hill, so we turned around and went back down.
In all seriousness, the week was filled with a lot of helpful information, and we also got some more cultural enlightenment with a guided tour of the city center (in English, thankfully). On my own time, I partook of a famous Coburger Bratwurst, and of course the requisite exploration of the nightlife scene.

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Photos

Michele, Agne, Pavel
from Italy, Lithuania and Czech Republic, respectively. that's pronounced "Mee-keh-leh." You wouldn't want to offend an Italian, would you...?

Raul, Melissa, Kate
In front of the Rathaus, the town hall. There's a little green (copper) man at the top of the pediment: he's holding a baton that is said to be the official length of a real coburger brat, 32 cm. Though they have shrunk in recent years to about 25cm, evidently...

The other exchange students
in front of the most important building: the cafeteria.

Michele, Kate and Pavel
On one of the many dangerously fun kids toys you can find in the city streets.

Climbing to the Veste
The last leg of the stairs up.

Kate at the Veste
...and me!

Guido and Esther
making sure they look alright (at Sonderbar).

Kate and Raul
Kicking back at Sonderbar