First Week in Dresden

Well, tomorrow will be one week of my program complete and so I figured I would get on for a quick update.

Things are starting slow, much of this week has just been bureaucratic in nature, signing paper-work, paying housing fees, getting biometric photos for the government, going to ikea to pick up supplies, and exploring the city a little bit.

The dorm where I am staying is about a 25 minute walk from the old city part of town, so thats kinda long, but I have done it like 6 times so far. It is a very pretty city, downtown is very new (because of reconstruction), but very cool. They have done an amazing job of re-creating historic buildings.

The biggest challenge so far has been to figure out food, because we are given a stipend, and told to figure it out. Going to the grocery store, which I'm not sure I could 100% do in the United States, got 100x harder when I stepped into the german market and NOTHING is in English, and none of the same brands are present. I put it off about 5 days (eating out, eating other stuff) but last night I made my first attempt at cooking. I made a chicken stir fry, and it was actually pretty dang good. So look at me, I can feed myself! Woohoo.

I am starting my German classes tomorrow, so that will be really nice to be able to learn a little of their language out here. Not a lot of people speak English, especially away from the tourist area's.

I am hoping things will begin to pick up as we are starting class, visiting a brewery, Prague, and Berlin in the next 3 weekends, and finally feeling like we kinda understand how the city works. Who knows though, cause Organic Chemistry is just around the corner......