To describe our first day in Germany it was exciting but packed. Our day started super early because the flight landed at 6:00 and it was go, go, go from there. We took about an hour bus ride from the airport in Munich to Augsburg and arrived at the hotel before we could check in. At this point most of us are all really tired and almost took a nap in the room where we were leaving our suitcases, yet we have the entire day ahead of us. Since Sonya, the program supervisor, wasn’t meeting with us until 10:30, we took a very quick walk into the center area of Augsburg. After that we came back and met Sonja and Simon, the Student Assistant for the trip. With this over, it was on to another city tour with Dr. Feick as our personal tour guide. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at IHLE,  a bakery chain in town. I got a pretzel sandwich as you can see in the picture and it was so good. We saw the town center and went into the town hall which had a really elegant room inside. We got to see a couple different churches as well. After the first part of the tour we went back and were finally able to check in to our rooms!

Next we went to the Fuggerei, a low cost living option set up by Jakob Fugger, a patriarch of a wealthy family in Augsburg. It was only 88 cents for the year, but those who lived there also had to meet four sets of criteria. There’s a long waiting list but for those eligible it was a lot of space. It was also interesting to have gotten a chance to see the set up of an old house versus  the new, renovated ones.

After this tour it was finally time to eat dinner! Best part was it was classical German food, something I’ve always wanted to try and had been looking forward to for some time now. I got jägerschnitzel and späetzle which is meat and noodle dish, it was delicious. Closing of dinner meant the closing of the day, and a very very long one at that.

I’m definitely not wishing my time away, but hopefully the rest of the days won’t feel quite as long as today.

Also a little change to the topic, since its my first time in Germany, thought I’d address culture shock. Did I experience it? In short, I would say yes. However, not initially. Being that my family is from England I’ve been there several times and there were similarities. Driving from the airport especially wasn’t too different: fields and countrysides, roads filled with European brands and types of cars, even just the atmosphere at first felt similar. The initial shock seemed to be covered by excitement and exhilaration. I quickly realized how different everything was. First off, there’s a language difference which doesn’t make anything too complicated but makes you know this really isn’t home anymore.

With this being said, the first day was still very exciting and I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip!

-Gemma