First Week in Hamburg

Hello everyone,

I really can't believe this week. The time seemed to pass so quickly, yet not. What I mean is that it also seems like I have done so much in such a little time. So, where to start?

First: The Arrival.
I was greeted at the airport by Elena, a local IAESTE member. Needless to say that I was elated to see her after a long, long flight. I have to add that coming into Germany was the easiest boarder crossing that I have ever experienced. I showed the immigration man my Norwegian passport, he scanned it, and that was that. Not one word. No "hello", or "how long will you be staying?". Nothing. I was momentarily taken off guard and I asked, "Is that all?".

Elena and I then took the bus all the way to Rahlstedt, where I am staying. Elena told me that I was the first trainee to arrive. New in Germany, I thought, at least I knew one friendly face. Speaking of the Studentenwohnheim, it is a nice place. The room is long and narrow and has a huge sturdily built German window. There are actually two different ways to open it. After a long rest I woke up to find that all the stores close at 8pm. Great....

Here is a picture of my home away from home. It used to be an old US army dorm back in the day.

Here is a pic of my room. I share 3 bathrooms and a kitchen/TV room with three Chinese students, a middle eastern student, a Swiss student, a German student, and a Polish student.

Secondly: The Next Day.
I rather stupidly made the decision that Friday was going to be my first day of work. Due to the jet lag, I took the last half of my emergency sleeping pill to sleep through the night. Another detail that I did not expect was that the sun started to shine through my window at about 3:30-4 in the morning. The curtains are pretty light, so it was a life saver that I had one of those eye cover patches from a toiletry kit from Papa. The next day a work, with my blood shot eyes and grimy appearance, I met my supervisor and his boss, both of whom are really nice.

My supervisor is a soft spoken man, probably in his very early 30's who recently got his PHD. He is quite smart, but his mind does tend to be on another plane quite a lot of the time. His boss is completely opposite. The phrase "organized chaos" suits him very well. He has papers everywhere to remind him what next to do. He is very focused, but his mind is always multi tasking on many topics. He was nice to take me to get a buss pass, and show he the fastest route to get to work. The first day I took an incredibly long route,but now after 2 busses and 1 train I get to work in about 25 min. The commute goes very fast. Another surprise is that I have a huge office. It feels odd.

It also turns out that, due to regulations on student jobs at the university, that I am technically only paid for 18 hours of work a week. It's great. My boss gets in around 10am, and I come in around then too. I then leave around two or three. Great deal, I tell yea. My supervisors words "It's your own motivation".
Here is a picture of Helmut Schmidt University, or Universitat der Bundeswher (they recently changed the name to HSU). It is a military university and needless to say, the number of females are unbelievable small. Here is a pic of where I work and of a dorm on campus.


Thirdly: The Long Weekend.
On the weekend, I went into the city and wandered around for three days (Monday was a bank holiday). Downtown Hamburg is about 45 min away, so not too bad. The architecture downtown is beautiful. On Saturday, which was sort of chilly, there was a beach volleyball tournament in front of city hall. Around the tournament they had beer stands, more beer stands, and sausage stands. In this one stand, below, they had a huge metal vat hanging from the ceiling over flames. In the vat where huge sausages.

For the World Cup, there is definitely football fever in the air. Apparently, there has been a countdown clock for an entire year. Here is a pic of some art work that is all around town. It is a depiction of the Hamburg Water man, which has some historical importance, but I am not sure what it is.

Fourthly: A few things I noticed.
Food and Drink
-There are really no public water fountains as German like their bubbly mineral water.
-The Doner, or Turkish treat similar to a gyro, is incredibly popular here and there are stores everywhere. They are usually the stores that are open the latest.
-There are bakery chains everywhere selling fresh and high quality baked goods. Also, in the vending machines and overall, they have high quality Ritter sport and other chocolate and treats. Germans also love their ice cream. Even when it is cold outside, if it is summer time the ice cream is there.
-German people drink all over the place. Unlike the US, or in most places for that matter (the Irish student here said he was shocked), people are drinking outside. They have beer on the train, the bus, the station, you name it. A lot of poorer Germans tend to hang out by the stations drinking.

Fashion
-One word, two parts "Euro-chic". Cool jeans, designer labels, and neat accessories. The men are very stylish here, I must say. Guys, especially the younger ones, like their hair gel. The semi Mohawk is big right now.

Odds and ends
-Germans don't tend to jay walk. You may be waiting at a cross walk with tons of people with no cars coming in any direction and still no one will cross. I have talked with quite a few people about this and they say that it one way to spot a German abroad.

The walk around town was nice, though a little bit lonely by the third day. On Monday, though, I met up with Peter from Northern Ireland and two local IAESTE members for hello and sight seeing. I found this Burger King that is in a historical building. Turns out that even Burger King is fancy here (I was told that they wanted to make it into an information building, but only BK had the money to up-keep the place).

Fifth: Friday.
Today was the first day of the FIFA World Cup. The match featured Costa Rica vs. Germany. I mentioned earlier about football fever, well, I think on this day it was a football pandemic. I talked with a few people about their views on the matter and here are some of the things I've realized. There are some people who couldn't give a rats ass about it, one of whom is my supervisor, Marc. However, he is in the minority. One huge consequence of the World Cup being here, is that for the first time in a long while Germans don't feel ashamed of showing their pride. I was told that before now, people did not feel comfortable waving German flags everywhere and being so patriotic. I was told that, for example, compared to France, or Spain, Germany has been hesitant because of their past to fully express national pride. A lot of Germans I have talked to are still shocked.

After work I popped home before taking the bus down to meet other IAESTE people. I then met a Finnish trainee, who arrived later in the day on the same day I landed (eek, I said that very ineloquently). I can only imagine she was a bit lonely. I had met with fellow IAESTE members on Wednesday and had met Peter, from Northern Ireland, who came on Monday (we work at the HSU in different labs). Along with Miguel, a Spaniard who was a trainee two years ago at HSU and decided to work here; Jaer, former IAESTE local member originally from Shri Lanka; Marja former IAESTE local committee from Bavaria with Croatian parents; Yuki former IAESTE local member originally from Hong Kong; and Claudio (I think that's his name) who is a friend of the people went to Fischmarkt to watch the big opening game. It is by the docks and it is a beautiful building. The place was already full of fans who were drinking and singing. "Deutschland, Deutschland....!!"



Afterwards, we went to the Red light district just up the hill to go to a bar. The streets were filled with honking cars, screaming people, crazy costumes, etc. There are prostitutes around, sex shops, but also cool bars and discoteques. Cool place to go with friends. At a KFC, where some of the group wanted to meet, Miguel chatted to a guy from Argentina who had come to film the match in Hamburg on Saturday. When we all said hello and where we were from he looked at me and said "USA...TEXAS!" I smiled and he shook my hand. Below is a pic of, from left to right, Peter (Ireland), Jaer, Marja, Claudio, me, a friend of Marja's from Austria, Yuki, and Miguel.

OK, well this was long. Hope you enjoy. I am starting to settle in and will hopefully start experiments next week (this week I can say that I barely did anything).