First Day at University of Bremen

Just some images of the room that I'm currently staying at.





Well, we woke up to Wednesday, and it was going to be a fairly interesting day. Not as inventful as Monday/Tuesday, but eventful none the less. Woke up to find that Frank had got up early, although not intentional. It seemed that he was still in a crabby mood, so I figured that it was still due to the long flight and to give him some time. So I hop in the shower, get dressed and find out that Mrs. C had gone down to the corner bakery and bought some Crouissants for breakfast. I also think that she had some homemade Strawberry Jelly waiting for us (or at least it was in an unlabeled jar), and the combination of the two were wonderful. A little lite as breakfasts go, but hey, I wasn't complaining. So after breakfast I wanted to get a little exploring in before we went to work. Supposedly everyone that works where we would be working at get in at varying times, typically around 10am. So Frank and I figured that 10am would be fine as well, but I wanted to check out the University a little bit. Frank didn't feel like exploring yet, so I hop on one of the two bikes that were provided for us, and take off. Well, the bike that I grabbed needed some work done on it prior to riding. It's back mud guard had come lose, and I had to place the "spoke" of the guard back into its holder. The tire was rubbing against the metal creating quite a bit of noise. When I finally stopped to put the "spoke" into the holder, one German came riding along and said something to me. I could only assume that it was about the noise, but I couldn't understand. That was the first lost in translation for me for the day. So with everything "fixed" I continue on my way. Mr. W had said that all I would have to do is to follow the students that ride the same path, and he was right. They took me right to the university.

Now Mr. W had said that we would be at a red building at the edge of the university, and I found it fairly easily or at least I found the 2 red bricked buildings right next to each other. But don't worry, Frank and I found the right place without too much hassle. Well, I park my bike, and once again a German lady (possible faculty) started talking to me in full German. I asked if she knew English which she didn't. I had completely forgot that I had a translation guide in my pocket. So that was the second lost in translation. So I walked around the campus. Taking a few pictures here and there. Didn't want to look too much like the "tourist". :-) Took a picture of a grassy parking lot, which is interesting. Not only do they park on the sidewalk... but they park in grass too. This will take a little adjustment (in that I have to watch out for cars in the street, on the sidewalk, AND on the grass). :-) I guess that the rail-lines are safe from cars, so there's that. ;-)




So I found what I could only assume is the University Union, and took a couple of pictures. I found the main walkway, the Boulevard, as its called. and went past the Mensa (which is the main cafeteria). There are a few spots to get something to eat, but the Mensa I guess is the cheapest with the better food (???). I'll have to explore the other eatery's around the university. Well, by this time it was getting around 10am, so I started walking back.

I went to the furthest building thinking that if I didn't find it there then I would check out the other building. That's when I spotted Frank, he was looking around the bike racks in front of the building. Come to find out, I had taken the bike that had his particular bike lock on it, and he had to walk to the University. He was in a happier mood, so I think the walk did some good. He was okay about the mistake. (Can we say whoops?) But then again, I had thought that he was handed his bike lock by Mrs. C, like I was, so figured that he had it with him. Oh well. No harm, no foul. So we get in, which we were on the fourth floor, not the third floor that Mr. W said. We actually got in before Mr. W got in, so Mr. D, (the person that I had been talking to the prior months) showed us around. We got introduced to everyone that was currently in. Then when Mr. W got in we went with him to fill out some more paperwork. After the paperwork, they told us to look at some topics for our work there, we went to the Mensa for some food. Thankful I still had enough coin for the food there. And they have pictures of cows, chickens, or pigs, to say what's in the food. I'll have to remember to take a picture. But the food was pretty good. Mr. W showed us around the cafeteria telling us what the different "queues" (lines of people) led to. There was about 5 different food areas, actually I think more than that, I'll have to recount. So Frank and I get the cheapest food that we could get (2 euros) and following Mr. W to their normal eating location. After lunch we went back to continue reading up on our work. Frank left early because he was feeling tired. I stayed till around 5pm, trying to understand what exactly were they looking for, from me.

I get back to the house, and Mrs. C was going to take a drive to the bank which is right next to downtown, and asked if Frank and I wanted to come with. Which we did. So we all piled into the car, and Mrs. C gave us the 2 cent tour of Bremen. Instead of going straight to the bank and back, we actually went all over the town practically. Seeing the Weser, the Dome, the Quarters, as well as others. It was fun having a small tour. Come to find out, downtown Bremen used to be the site of a castle. This will require further exploration. :-)

So we get back home, and Frank and I go to the corner grocery store because we needed dinner. Frank was thinking of using this one recipe that he got from the web about Pasmesean Chicken. Yeah, it might have been easy to make (mix and cook basically), but we didn't have the materials, and well, I was getting too tired to search. So we ended up getting some spagetti, some sauce, some hamburger meat, and had basically spagetti w/ meat sauce. It wasn't too bad, the sauce (once again) was interesting. Well, we put the remaining food in the refrig, we had made too much, and went to bed.