Don't get me wrong - my apartment is adorable, and furnished, and spacious, and in an attic with skylights (the type of room I've always wanted to try living in, at least) - but settling into a new place is always tricky, and moving to a township of 16 000 people has involved some interesting realizations over the past week:
"Hmm, the bells actually ring every quarter hour."
"Oh my goodness, what are those? Oxen? Cows?"*
"Wait, only the cafes are allowed to open on Sundays?"
"Are those horses that I'm hearing?"
"Oh-my-god-there-are-HORSES-AND-SHEEP-AND-CHICKENS"
I've also seen several roadside shrines and crosses on people's lawns (Christianity was an important part of Paderborn's development), which has been a little surprising to my urbanite, secular mindset.
On the bright side though, the perks of living here include reasonable rent, a great bakery whose workers are wonderfully patient with my pointing-and-smiling method of shopping, peaceful bicycle paths even on main roads, calm quiet evenings, and catching a ride with my supervisor to work each morning.
The university itself is in Central Paderborn (population 80 000), a twenty minute drive by German highway (zoom!). Everyone so far has been really friendly and the researchers go together for lunch each day at the MENSA (German student cafeteria) which is incredibly cheap, as well as filling - the main meal of the day in Germany is lunch, while supper is pretty light. Eating is still a bit of a gamble, and today I accidentally took two main courses (the first one looked like potatoes)! But my neighbours have kindly lent me a dictionary and I'm on the hunt for a phrase book - I lost mine when the train service mixed up my seat reservation. So hopefully I'll soon be able to buy mixes from the store and read the preparation instructions!
The German immersion is interesting - although my supervisor speaks English with me, at lunch or in the common room for photocopying/printing/meeting/coffee I'm surrounded by long conversations that I don't understand a word of. I can smile at people laughing, but not what they're laughing at. Hopefully with internet access now I can start learning some German online...or at least enough to be a bit more talkative at the bakery.
*To anyone with better familiarity of country animals than myself, help with identifying them would be appreciated:
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Robin, it sounds incredible! I am more of a country mouse myself (although I can hold my own as a city mouse too!), so your environment sounds absolutely wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you in the coming months!
Jen Lucking