Settling in again...

Both my suitcases have arrived, as well as the box of winter clothes and shoes from home. Today I finished my unpacking (and re-packing some stuff for storage until I move to the dorm) and decorated a little with pictures from home, my giant map and my Fulbright scarf on the wall. Looks like everything fits! I had the house to myself this morning, which was nice... but as of yet I don't have a key, so if there is nobody around to let me back in I'm kind of stuck. Hopefully I'll get a key and a little more freedom next week.

I did get a city tour yesterday. Christina drove us down to the Stadtzentrum and we walked around for a couple of hours and ran a few errands. I saw all the important stuff… popular meeting points, good cafés, University landmarks, the main Mensa, and of course the best place to get ice cream. We also went to one of the city churches, St. Jacobi, and explored the bell tower. Heights still give me the flying heebie-jeebies from time to time, but I survived. Photo montage to be posted at a later date. I was too scared for my life to take pictures on the way up, but I got some good ones on the way down. A stone spiral staircase led to the space above the ceiling. Wooden stairs to the workings of the clock, which gave way to steep ladder-stair constructions to the four or five upper levels. We stopped at the second-highest. Maybe sometime I'll be brave enough to go all the way...

Göttingen’s smaller than Kiel and very navigable, although I only have the vaguest sense of how downtown fits together. That’ll take a few more trips! I also need to buy a sturdy map. I spent time yesterday looking at the 30-year-old Stadtplan that Christina found around the house, but I don’t think it would survive a year in my purse. The upshot… everything I need is on the north side of town, which is highly convenient since I put no planning into it whatsoever.

I also met Oma yesterday, Christina’s mom, who lives in an Altenheim in Göttingen since last year when Christina’s dad passed away. She’s still up and about and from what I gathered comes over regularly, which is great. She needs help with a few things, so Christina does her laundry and helps her wash and do her hair. Her home is huge… it looks more like a hotel than a nursing home, and she’s got a kitchenette and a big single room. Germany’s population is very unbalanced at the moment. The largest portion comes from Oma’s generation, and the birth rate is low so some schools are actually closing from lack of students. We talk quite a bit in the USA about the aging baby-boomers and what that entails in terms of society, the goals of medicine, policy, etc., and some of the public issues in Germany may be a taste of what’s in store… granted, it’s a very different system: health care is for the most part public and social benefits are very high, zum beispiel.

Well, today. Tomorrow is the delayed election in Dresden, and afterwards the political parties here will either have an important missing piece of the puzzle… or, more likely, a still muddier outlook on how to build a government and even less time in which to do it. Most of what I’ve heard in the media indicates a “wait and see” attitude on the part of the candidates, so a lot of weight has been put on the remaining votes. Both candidates are basically running a platform of reform since the German economy is pulling the rest of the EU down at the moment, but to differing extents. Things like the privatization of health care, the inflated welfare state and joblessness have been hot-button issues all along, so until things settle out of the current state of flux and the new government gets down to the issues at hand it’s hard to paint a picture of how the nation will deal with these strains. Depending on how things shake themselves out, the US stands to learn quite a bit from the examples here.

Back to Oma, though. She doesn’t really like her new home. It’s big and kind of impersonal and… just different. Understandable. I’d like to see more of the place, myself. Oma does ceramic work in her spare time, and they have a kiln, which is fabulous. She gave me a cute pair of little pigs she had made. Maybe they need volunteers…

Today’s goal was to look for a bicycle. Martin advised a trip back to the train station, since apparently a lot of bikes are hocked there. There are of course shops where one can get one new, but that was a last resort as I hoped to spend less than €100. (And of course I’ll get some back when I sell it off next summer. I perused the daily newspaper this morning and found a couple of ads for bicycle shop, but only one ad for a used bike, a little short on details. We called after Wolfgang came home, went for a look-see and ta-da I have a bike!

Again, picture later. It’s a little tall, but it’s a girls bike so the bar is low and I think I can get on the thing… getting started will be another matter, but I’ll get plenty of practice. It came with a lock but no key, so rectifying that and getting a basket and helmet are next on the to-do list. Aluminum with like-new tires, an air-pump (attaches to the bike), a water bottle holder, a bell, a light, a rear-view mirror, and 6 gears, which should be plenty since so far the main parts of town look pretty flat. The seat has a small rip and the paint on the bell is chipped a bit, but otherwise it’s perfect. And… €90. According to the little manual pamphlet it’s called the “Town & Country,” but I think I’ll call her Flora Fahrrad.

After lunch I left Flora behind and walked around. It's been raining all day, but with my new German rain jacket and umbrella (lost the other one on the train) I managed to stay dry. I found the closest Catholic church, about a 15 minute walk. Get this Kenyon folk... It's called St. Vinzenz. Full circle, no? Mass at 10am tomorrow. Then I and my trusty 30-year-old map got a little lost, but I think I managed to find my future dorm, the office I have to go to in order to get said dorm, and the general vicinity of my new lab. It's a little further than I initially thought, but totally doable with a bike. Lab tour Monday, registering with the Uni and signing my rent contract Tuesday. Progress!

The only drawback here so far is that I don’t have internet access on my computer, and the family machine is a little slow. Still, I think I’ll have daily e-mail access. Don’t look for me on Skype or IM in the next month or so, but I’m far from inaccessible. Bis später!