London, England

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So despite my deepest desire to travel to london and only have pictures, I have been provided a number of interesting stories. The first one goes back almost two weeks and sets illuminates the my feelings toward BVG, the berlin transportation company that owns all of the subways, trams, buses, etc. I could have purchased three month long cards while i was in berin for 72 euros each, but I waited three days before i bought my second month pass. I would also only be in berlin for two months and three weeks. After my first two months had expired, I only had two and a half weeks left. For these two and a half weeks, i would be out of the country for six days traveling to poland and the czech republic. I was thinking about not buying a ticket. A single ride ticket which i would pay for 2x a day cost 3.5 euros and a day pass is 7 euros. Obviously it's ridiculously overpriced. In the end, my month pass expired and i completely forgot. I didn't have the option to renew it. I got checked for a pass when i had 8 days left in berlin. They gave me a ticket for 40 euros and were much nicer than i've heard from most people. they wrote down my driver's license number which means nothing and misspelled my address. That means, there's no way for them to find me. I will probably get away without paying for this ticket. I felt really bad though and really wanted to purchase a pass. I didn't want to get checked again and risk having to pay two tickets. The best option for me was a week card which costs 27.50. Much cheaper than 7 euros per day, and more expensive than 72.50 per month. Since i bought a ticket, fate dictated that i wouldn't get checked for the rest of my stay in berlin. Arggg.
Fate, it would appear, is a cruel and unusual enemy. When i had all my luggage and was going to the airport, i was checked for a pass. I was happy and pulled out my pass. The guy informed me that my ticket was not stamped with the date. he mistook the serial number on the ticket for the date i purchased the ticket, and although my believe that I have bought the ticket the day before, he still gave me a ticket. They are paid for ever ticket they give out and they are not paid well. I argued with them a little. I was very polite and they wrote me the ticket anyways. Since i had all my suitcases, it was obvious that i also had my passport. that means the ticket is officially linked to me in the german government :-( They have my old address, and i didn't leave a forwarding address. However, in the government systems my address will be updated when i 'officially register in nürtingen. When got off the s-bahn and was walking to the airport, i gave my week card for free to someone waiting in line to buy one. I told them my situation and that it was still good. Lots of people try to sell fake cards at the machines.

Anticipating being lost or some other problem, i arranged to arrive that airport 3.5 hours early. Although it's a major airport, the line for security is really short. I was in terminal 2 which is an Easy Jet terminal. i flew on easy jet. their color is orange, so all the people wear orange, the heaters are orange, and the walls are orange. I meet a really nice girl at the airport.

My flight left at 9:20 so check in started at 7:20. At 6:45, three italian school groups got in line. Knowing that they would take a long time, i got in line at 7:00. I made it to the front of the line pretty fast, at 7:15. They opened the flight for me and weighed my bags. I had two bags. One of 21 kgs and one of 17 kgs. I was very impressed with myself because i was able to sit and jump on them enough to close them. EasyJet policy is to allow only one bag/ carry-on. Aside from the only item you may carry, everything else must be checked in. This is a little weird but makes sense. I paid online for two checked in suitcases. They weighed my first suitcase at 21 kgs and ignored that it was a little over (perhaps because of my second suitcase). It came to 17kgs. They informed me that each person is only allowed to bring 20kgs with them. For every kilogram over 20, you have to pay 12 euros. They told me to please pay 17 kilograms x 12 euros = 204 euros. My flight cost about 70 euros. The chinese german lady told me that this mistake happens all the time. people either pay the money or throw away their clothes. I asked her if she was serious several times. I was in shock. I couldn't believe it.
I told her that i wasn't going to pay the money and i started to walk away. She asked if she should cancel my ticket. I told her no. Just to wait. She said that I had already been checked in and that she would need to cancel my ticket. There were some 'tense' words and she decided to wait. I stood next to the lines for about 5 minutes pondering my options. I thought about calling juergin and asking to stay with him or going to a hostel. A hostel would be about 15 euros per night. Flying at the last minute, especially with a normal airliner, would be very expensive. I also needed to go to london for my visa. Mailing my clothes was an option, but it would take a lot of time. I had two hours before my plane left, an hour and a half before check in closed. Mailing would also be at least 60 euros, less than easyjet's crazy charge but I wasn't willing to spend that much money. i was really wishing that i had made friends with some people who would go with me to the airport and could have held my bags. I went to the bathroom since it was next to the line. In the bathroom, a crazy idea occurred to me, why not wear all my clothes? I have lots of tight clothes and lots of loose clothes. I sorted my clothes into loose and tight pants and shirts. I put on everything that would fit. Five pairs of boxers, three pairs of thermals/long underwear, two pairs of pants, a pair of sweats, and two pairs of my peruvian pants. I wore five or six white t-shirts, all of my collared shirts, five long sleeved shirts (some for sleeping and some with collars), all of my button down short sleeved t-shirts, a sweater, and then my two jackets. I went back to the chinese lady (the line was gone) who weighed my bags and told me that my bags were 22 and 7 kgs. A much smaller fine 108 euros. I asked her if she was serious again. She said yes again, even though it was very obvious that i was wearing tons of clothes. I went back to the bathroom. I began reshuffling everything. All six pairs of shoes went into my heavy jacket along with my laptop and cellphone chargers. The dinner I brought was thrown in the trash can along with my nice 2.50 euro plastic lunch box. :-( I went back up to her and my large bag was approximately 19.5 kg. My small bag that is considered a carry on in the US was completely empty and weighed 4 kgs. She told me that it would cost 36 euros to send. Since the cost of the bag was high but also a sunk investment, i figured that 36 euros could be used to send the nice carry-on or buy a new one. The Chinese lady told me to put the minisuitcase into the carry-on max-size box. It fit, but i had to wiggle it around to get the wheels in. They suitcase has the maximum dimensions and the wheels are extra. She told me to empty my backpack into the carryon and take it through security because it was about size of a carryon. I emptied my backpack int the carryon which wasn't easy because my expands and actually has more space. I did so and the sides of the carry on bulged out a little. I went to security, but since it was a EasyJet only terminal, they had two easyjet people there which told every person with a carryon that wasn't a backpack to put it into the box. My carryon didn't fit because of the bulge and the wheeles. I could have squished it the bulging on each side and wiggled in the wheeles, but the easyjet people saw that it didn't fit in easily and told me to go check it in and pay for it. I went back to the chinese lady and she said, "I told you it wouldn't fit." I moved everyone back into my backpack and left the small suitcase in the middle of the lobby. If i had access to a bomb, i would have put one in there. I was slightly upset.
Security had me take off my belt and they all had a good laugh at how fat i was. They were speaking in really fast german and laughing a lot. They were making fun of me but since it wasn't my fault and i did just escape a 200 euro surcharge, it really made me feel good. I came out feeling much better. My ticket didn't have a gate number, and it wasn't shown on any of the monitors. I laid down on the floor the best i could against a wall and and in front of a monitor. After 15 minutes of smiling and waving at people who were pointing at me and laughing, the gate appeared. I went to the gate and was surprised to find it was a customs booth. After having your passport stamped, you go through the door behind customs to the gate. This was german customs of people leaving germany. they asked me a lot of questions and ran my name through the computer several times. Eventually, they let me leave germany.

I sat in the gate-room with the other people from our flight for another 20 minutes. I took off my shoes so that my feet could sit on the tile and cool. We all boarded the plane and it took off. I had someone take my picture in the gate. Wearing all the clothes and walking turned my face very red. (It's not obvious in the pictures). I also sweat profusely. In the plane i stopped sweating, my body which was burning up before started to feel cold. a few of the stewardesses where watching me a lot. I was wearing so many collared shirts that i couldn't put my head on my shoulder, it was naturally propped up. I could only turn it. One of my greek friends told me that easyjet is greek. Our flight attendants were british. Eventually a stewardess named Grace Kington came over and asked in her funny british accent, "Are you hot in all those clothes? Do you want a bag to take them off?" She said she would only give me one trash bag. I went to the bathroom and realized that I could only take off my sweater (my jacket was on the seat next to me). I opened the door had her help me take off button up shirts (none of which were buttoned. At the time i couldn't life my arms higher than my shoulders so i was unable put the shirts off. She took of four fo them and then i went back into the bathroom. I pulled off all my shirts and put them in the bag. I think it took me 15 minutes to get off everything. the pants were very tricky because they kept getting caught on my heels, and you can't take them off 3 at a time. Eventually I came out and her mouth dropped. The other stewardesses just started at my. My trash bag was complete full. This happened at the bathroom in the front of the plane and they had me stand there with my bag and they made an announcement. They gave me 3 extra trashbags because the bag was so heavy and compact that my fingers were tearing holes in the sides. Two of the other stewardesses told me that they thought i was really sick and was wearing a brace.
When the plane was getting ready to land, they came and took my bag of those. They put it in the bathroom. When we landed i waited for everyone to get off the plane because getting my clothes when people were trying to leave would have impeded the crowd. The stewardesses took several pictures with me and told me that my picture were going up in the crew room. Ha ha ha.
It turns out that our plane landed in bristol at the furthest gate from the terminal. I took me 20 minutes to walk to the terminal (no escalators or conveyor belts to stand on). Customs was very friendly and asked me lots of questions (in part because of my trash bag). I went to the baggage pickup and got my big bag. They airport staff was already taking it to their office as a lost. When i was going to germany, i had a put a duffel bag into my suitcase because i assumed that i would buy souvenirs. I put this out and emptied the breaking tash bags into it. The duffel isn't really really big so i had to put part of the clothes into my other suitcase. I was really hot in the plane so i went through all of my white t-shirts and all of my boxers. They made my clothes absolutely disgusting.
I met Vivian and Daniel at 11:15 or 11:30. my plane landed at 10:30. Daniel dropped us off at vivian's apartment and we spoke and unloaded my bags. We hung lots of my clothes around vivian's apartment, so it would dry. I really really wanted to wash it, but vivian has to pay 1 pound per wash to wash her clothes. I also didn't know how my flight back to germany was going to work out.
My schedule in England was as follows...
Wake up late on Saturday morning at 6:00am. Run to the bus station with vivian. Spend all day touring london. It cost 25 pounds to purchase a tour bus card. The tour buses have their own routes and come every 20 minutes. That was too expensive to vivian and I bought a day pass for normal transportation, 6.6 pounds. We went a supermarket called Sainsbury for breakfast. We didn't eat lunch and ate at Cafe de HongKong for dinner. The cheapest food in london is chinese. You can buy a plate of food for as low as 6 pounds! After dinner we went to a different chinese restaurant for dessert with some friends (Hayatt and her fiance). We went to the bus station and arrived 10 minutes early. People boarded out bus 15 minutes early and someone closed the door. I noticed when the bus started to leave and we ran out to get on the bus. The driver swerved and almost hit us. He didn't bother to stop. Hyatt's finance was really really upset and yelling at the bus attendants. Vivian wrote a letter to filed a complaint and snail mailed the bus company (since all communication need to be through letters). She received the money back for the tickets two days later. :-O We arrived home at 2:30am instead of 12:30am. We went to sleep and woke up at 8am the next day, Sunday. We made sandwiches and went to Exeter. Daniel drove us. Exeter is a nice town and is really big in British tourism. People go there to buy cars, clothes, furniture, etc. There are some romantic places. Vivian had be eat a british sausage covered in bread. It was strange.
Monday I woke up late and went to one of vivians classes. We met one of her friends, a beautiful and friendly italian girl (also with a fiance).
Tuesday, i went to bath. the schedule said it takes 50 minutes to get there. it really only took like 20 in the bus. i took an 90 minute bus back that went through a lot of very small towns on the way. the english countryside is really pretty.
Wednesday, I woke up and went to the bus station with Vivian and Alice. I took the bus to london. Katie was a little late because our phone's couldn't connect. We were wandering around in different parts of the bus station until she went to a pay phone and called me. We met and she was great. She has a lot of facial expressions that i noticed daniela has. I've also seen a few of them on marina, my german friend who i met in the US. we dropped my stuff off at her place and then went walking around london. she takes pictures of nice cars which i thought was really strange. Katie is a great person and i'm kind of sad that we won't live in the same city. We went back to her apartment around midnight and spoke to daniela online. i got my stuff ready and finally left for the airport at 2am. we were both really tired. She was doing job interviews and stuff. I took a bus to the airport bus stop. it took about 30 minutes. My bus left for the airport at 3am. it was supposed to arrive at 4:30 but there's wasn't too much traffic. ha ha ha. we arrived at 4am. my flight to stuttgart was at 8am and check in started at 6am. I found the terminal, went to the bathroom, and got comfortable. (but not too comfortable, i didn't want to fall asleep and miss my plane.) i tried to check in my bags. everyone was right, german wings are very nice and friendly. they still said no. my bags were 19 and 7 kilos. i decided in bristol that i didn't need so much clothes. i threw away my jeans that ripped when i was coming over (they were too tight). i also threw away my dad's old thick collard shirts. I've never actually worn them, but i liked knowing that i had them. In bristol, i accidentally forgot my dirty clothes, one back t-shirt, all my white under shirts except for one, a few pairs of socks, and most of my underwear. Since the total weight was 26 kilos, i only had to wear 6 kilos of clothes this time. in vivian and katie's apartments, i actually arranged some of my clothes. I looked professional putting it all on. :-) the security in stansted was not so cool though. they had me take off all my clothes except for my skin tight undershirt and thermals (long underwear) (not a pretty picture). It was fine though. i arrived early so i would have time to put all my clothes on and possibly do this at security. lots of people were laughing at me and i think i'm becoming a but of a celebrity in airports. ha ha ha. once the plane took off, i took off all my clothes and put it in trash bags. I arrived in stuttgart exhausted, obviously since i didn't sleep the night before. i went to information and bought a ticket to nürtingen. i arrived and a girl picked me up and took me to the dorms. she gave me the key to my room and helped me get situated a little. later i found the landlord and did the official stuff. I took a nap and then went to one of the kitchens. i found a bunch of people there and we celebrated our arrived to the dorms. :-) it was fantastic. friday night, everyone went to stuttgart to party. the party was legendary and apparently the checks were too. Ha ha ha. friday night i went with marina and her boyfriend. We went shopping and went to dinner. I bought underwear. Afterwards we went to an american restaurant/bar. i slept saturday and then went to the grocery store across the street, Real. I missed an optional 'intercultural seminar' and it was definitely worth it. sleep felt good and i heard it was boring. saturday night, we had a party in one of the student's rooms and then went to The club in our town. it cost 5 euros to get in so a few of us decided the bar next door was better. sunday, i went with marina, her sister, and her sister's bf to the ruins of a castle. there's now a restaurant on top and the castle is being reconstructed. the view wasn't good because of the weather, but it was still incredible! i took some pictures but they didn't turn out. the other foreign exchange students went to a spa.

Monday
10:30 Welcome at Nuertingen-Geislingen University, KII 002
11:00 Payment of social service fee 74.35 Euros for Nuertingen
11:15 Discussing health insurance
11:30 Campus Tour starting in front of KII
12:30 Lunch Break (i went a bakery with a few people)
13:30 Registration at the university, KII 002
15:00 Open a bank account and pay the money for the deposit and
the rent for March. Do not forget to bring 620 Euros with you.
18:00 Welcome party in the school cellar, Kleiner Keller

Tuesday
9:00 Preparing your forms for the town hall, KII 002 (not mandatory)
My buddy Steffen, picked me up and we got there at 10:15. We registered for the town hall. My 'biometric' photo from the US wasn't accepted because you could see my teeth. i had to pay 13 euros at the photo shop across from the town hall for a 1inch x 1 inch picture. i was ready to kill the shop owner. I didn't have to pay the 60 euros processing fee because i have a scholarship here. :-)
11:00 General information on studies and courses at HfWU, KII 002
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Introduction to Living in Germany, KII 002 to 16:15. The lady was 45 minutes late and literly read her notes word for word for an hour and half. We had a 15 minute break and and the australian girl none of the americans came back from their break. ha ha ha. seriously it was one of the worst things in the world. we made notes to eachother and whispered the whole time. oh my gosh!
16:30 Preparation of your Learning Agreements with the help of your buddies. i didn't do this because i had already chosen my classes. they were saved on my laptop in my dormroom.

Wednesday
Discussion of Learning Agreements with Andrea Heissler and Martina Hart
at the International Office in Uhlandstr. 3
9:00 Students from Fullerton (4)
9:30 Students from USC, Australia (1), Fresno (1), Monterrey, Mexico(1)
10:00 Students from Piraeus (2)
10:30 Students from ISCID (1) and ICN (1)
11:00 Students from Ajou, South Korea(7)
I arrived at 9:30 and stayed there until almost noon working on my classes. They now let me choose master's classes and one of the classes i chose previousl that didn't have a class time ended up on friday. i completely redid my schedule.
14:30 Presentation of the new module ‘Social Sciences and Voluntary Work’, KII 002 (very interesting)
15:00 FAQs about living and studying in Nuertingen, KII 002 (very informative)
16:15 Presentation of Gerhard Schmücker’s course ‘Germany in the Heart of Europe’, KII 002. i'm taking this class and it seems awesome!
Afterwards, i went home and slept from 8pm until 4:30am. :-)


It's currently 6am on Thursday....

Thursday Train ride to Geislingen and Ulm
8:50 Meeting point at Nuertingen train station
10:09 Arrival at Geislingen train station
10:30 Factory tour at WMF AG (tableware and kitchenware company)
12:00 Lunch break
13:23 Train ride to Ulm
13:49 Arrival in Ulm
14:00 Guided tour in Ulm
15:30 Explore Ulm on your own
18:10/:54 Return to Nuertingen. Arrival in Nuertingen: 19:25/19:54

Friday
9:00 Information on library services, KII 002
10:00 Information on IT services offered by HfWU, KII 002
to 10:30
11:00 Presentation of the German online course offered by Irmi Baumann to 12:00 (Reutlingen University), KII 002
13:00 Tour of the town with Lydia Rambold
Meeting point: in front of KII

Monday, March 21
9:00 Semester opening by the Rector of NGU: Prof. Dr. Werner Ziegler
in the Kinopalast movie theater in Uhlandstraße
14:00 Classes start
21:00 ‘Schwarze-Loch’ (‘Black hole’) Party
organized by the AStA student union
Großer Keller (Big Cellar) in KII.
Free entrance for students of the first semester

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