When I finally arrived in Luneburg, Soeren helped me find my housing, which ended up being a campus apartment with a full bathroom and kitchen which I share with another person. My flatmate turned out to be a girl, Xin Wang, from China. Upon arrival I could hardly speak any German, and that is all I could manage to ask her, but there will be more about her later. That night I met up with all of the other USAC students, all Americans, at a pub called Die Maelzer, which brews its own beer, hefeweizen and pilsener, both of which are amazing. We hung out at this pub for several hours, each of us trying to break the ice with basic introductory questions to each of our neighbors. When we left that night, I walked home with several members of the group. When I reached my apartment, we said goodnight, then I realized that I had no alarm clock. The others offered to stop by and wake me up, but being the independent person that I am, I refused, briefly explaining to them how a mental alarm clock works (repeating the desired wake up time in your head a few hundred times before you go to sleep). They were very impressed that I had this ability, so they went on their way.
The next morning we had a brief orientation at 10 o clock. My mental alarm clock usually works flawlessly, but occasionally misinterprets my meaning. This particular morning it woke my up at exactly 10 am, much to my dismay. Literally hopping in my chair and grabbing my gloves, I blasted out of my door, setting land speed records on my way to the center of Luneburg where we would start the orientation. Halfway there, I met up with two girls from the group whom were also very late. More relaxed now that I knew I was not the only one fashionably late, I walked with them to town. We made it to the rendezvous point, only to miss our group by ten minutes. We decided to facilitate our own tour of the city, striking off in various locations from the center of the city. The center of the city, by the way, is a big cobble-stoned plaza called Am Sande. On each side of the plaza are old facades of preserved buildings, dating back at least 500 years. (The town itself is over 1000 years old). At one end of the plaza is the massive St. Johannis Kirche. Complete with a huge, copper and brick steeple, the church is more the size of a cathedral. The steeple is so large and tall, one can easily use it to navigate around the city. Anyway, back to the tour. We wandered our way down several pedestrian-only main streets, two of which were Greater and Lesser Baker Streets. On either side, no matter where we went, we saw ritzy boutiques, small kiosks, bakeries, and at least one cafe/restaurant every 50 feet. Realizing the staggering number of cafes per capita, we decided to take advantage of this, so we sat down at one particular cafe owned by some Brazilians. The cappuccino was amazing, as was the marble cake. Halfway into our breakfast, Soeren, who was giving the tour for the group that was on time, found us sipping coffee. He decided to give us a personal tour, much to our surprise. Accompanying him all over the city, he explained the various sights, such as the best bars and cafes, the super-secret hidden bars and cafes, and Der Alte Kran, an old wooden crane that stands next to the banks of the Ilmenau River, which runs through Luneburg. Aparently this crane is over 1000 years old and was used to haul goods to and from boats, especially salt, which was mined underneath the town and sold all over the known world, making Luneburg a very rich city. As we crossed several streets, Soeren pointed out small brass stones set amongst some of the cobblestones in front of various houses throughout the city. Inscribed with family names, each “stumbling stone” marks a house where there used to live a Jewish family who was exterminated in the war. We then walked across Markt Platz (Market Square) where, neatly laid out across the entire square was a sea of tents, each selling various fresh produce. The farmer's market, Soeren told us, had many delicious types of food, but he cautioned us about dealing with the “farming folk”, whom he deemed very blunt, easy to cross people. Markt Platz is also the location of the famous Rathaus (town hall). Other than the church already mentioned, there are two other churches, both at least as big as St. Johannis, but one has a neo-gothic spire and the other has a short, rounded spire. The latter of the two is a church where J.S. Bach sung at, back in the days of yore. There will be more about this church in a later update.
That night we had dinner at a restaurant called Hemmingway's. The food was delicious and feeling daring, I tried spargel, which turned out to be white asparagus, a specialty of northern Germany. It was good, but they slobbered way too much hollandaise sauce on it. Afterwards I demonstrated my wheelchair skills to the group, bumping down several stairs to the bathroom. There was much ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Anyway, after dinner I had to head back to my apartment near campus, which is a good 15 minute walk from the center of town. Later that night I tried to find a billiards establishment where the rest of the group was going to hang out, but I got horribly lost. I ended up in the rough side of town, where I came across several groups of punks/grunge/sketchy hoodlums, all of which were dressed in various forms of black clothing, too much make-up and tattoos, most of whom were drinking some kind of beer (which is not illegal on the street). Giving them an awkward “hallo”, I managed to get past them and through the narrow, gloomy alley that I had found myself in.
Some side notes:
I did end up remembering enough German to ask my flat-mate who she is. Apparently she is 29 and used to live and work in Peking as a journalist of sorts. She has been living in Germany for 3 years, and now she works at the University, teaching students Chinese. She has a big family, with a sister who works for Chinese customs. I asked her what her parents did for a living, and she only told me that they work for the government. I thought later that most people in China must work for the government, so I will have to inquire some more. She likes to cook, and we even cooked some pesto and brats together one night, which she ate with chopsticks. I tried to do the same, and I failed miserably and was laughed at. She is really nice though and very helpful with my language difficulties. Occasionally I get very frustrated because the only language we have remotely in common is German, so I must speak what little I know. She has this super language computer, however, that can translate any word from English, to Chinese, and then to German, then it can also speak the word to you.
Other than that, Luneburg is home to many ethnically diverse peoples. The majority are Turkish, but there are several Africans of sorts, Brazilians, and Cubans. Turkish food is amazing. I have had a doener several times at this place in Am Sande and it is delicious.
My classes are awesome! I am actually learning and retaining what goes on in class! The teacher, Michaela, is very good at making sure you remember and keeping your attention by not staying on one topic too long. The University is very nice. It is a converted army base, with classes in the old barracks and a few cafes, a bookstore, copy center and such in the old tank garages. There seem to be a lot of students as well and they are often outside doing something, making it seem like there are more people here than there really is.
In conclusion, I am having an awesome time, learning a lot, and meeting really cool people.
