Greetings from the land beyond

Never thought I'd be so happy to see the sun (or Sonne as I learnt last week). Now I guess I can understand why Europeans would rush out when there's even a hint of sunlight. Over my last stay in Paris it was never so cold in autumn and we often see blue skies with a bit of le soleil.

It's been more than 2 weeks since I've arrived here in Tuebingen. And for the most part, the only sort of weather we've been having have been various degrees of cold or the sun plays hide-and-seek so it's warm one moment and cold the next.

I'm so behind on posting (A few drafts have accumulated since my last post which I hope I will finish up sometime soon). Today's my last totally free day. Tomorrow school starts for real. Am feeling somewhat nervous. Will I be able to learn as all the fresh graduates will, being the oldest person in the course?? Can I cope with school??

I miss my family, friends, rowing. The homesickness comes and goes. And it seems to hit the hardest over weekends. :( Not that I have anything to grouse about, the little town's pretty, (even if the living cost's quite high, quite unlike what the Prof here claimed) most of my classmates seem quite nice. I guess I'll get used to being away after a while.

Today's weather was beautiful so I went for an hour exploratory run in the afternoon. Along the way, there were big open green fields, horses, apple trees laden with so much fruit the branches drooped and smashed apples lay along the roads. I'd wanted to get to the woods my friends told me were nearby. I managed to find it and ran for as far as I thought I should go before I lose my way. I've lost much of my normal fitness, being out of it for so long now. Hope I'll be able to get back into it soon.

Not much has gone on in the past 17 days. (Has it really only been that? It felt like I've left for ages!! Sigh.) A lot of paperwork; opening bank account, getting matriculated, registered under the city, getting a mobile number etc. 3-hours of German class every afternoon (German's difficult!!). Then there was the going out for drinks almost every night (Swabian restaurant, Irish pub, Jazz bar...), else beer with dinner (not for me of cos. I'm still only on radlers). Almost all of my classmates love alcohol. One even declared it'll b one of his missions here to teach me how to drink! haha. The nights out were usually good fun, takes a bit of my mind off home. ^_^

One of the best evenings I've had so far was the Friday just past, at the house of good friends (Helen and Jan) of my friend (Xavier, who studied here before) and had introduced me to them over email. The couple's very warm and friendly (quite unlike the typical German - rather cold and distant). And their baby's so so cute!!! They made a very very delicious German-French dinner and Helen even lent me some warm clothes cos' I'd mentioned in one of my emails that it's really cold and I'd not expected it so bad.

One interesting (at least for me it was) place we visited was the Ritter Sport factory, about 20km outside of the town. Our German teacher brought us, because we were supposed to have a boat tour on the Neckar river but due to the crappy weather we couldn't go. We couldn't actually visit the factory but there was a small exhibition, all about Cacao and the Ritter brand. And a Schokoladenmarkt where u can buy all kinds of Ritter Sport flavours. It took a lot of restraint for me to just buy 2 kinds (imagine)! haha...

Ok, gotta hit the sacks now. I shall catch up again when I can. Good night.