Wilkommen im Freiburg!

It's my fifth day in Freiburg! Already, my English is deteriorating so that whenever I say or write something, it comes out sounding like it's been translated from German. But, my German is improving!

Today is Sunday, which means nothing is open. Not even supermarkets. I'm using it as an opportunity to sleep late and catch up on writing. Maybe I'll go exploring in a little while, but right now I'm enjoying doing nothing.

Aside from German, I have improved in a few other areas. I now know how to navigate the s-bahn, which is the public transportation system throughout the city. You can also take the bus, but the s-bahn stops across the street from my room, which makes it much more convenient. It comes every 7 minutes or so, from 4 am until 12.30 pm. A few nights ago, we accidentally took it too far and ended up on the outskirts of town with nothing around but a video store (which had a giant sign saying 'EROTIK' on the outside...) and a gas station. The gas station attendant kindly called us a cab, and we took it back to our dorm. Now we know which stop is ours.

My very colorful dorm

My dorm is on the western part of town (I think), in a more residential area. Across the street is the s-bahn, and behind us are houses and apartments. Beyond that, about 5 minutes from us, is a bakery, a small supermarket, and a few more small stores. I bought groceries a few days ago - just the staples like bread, meat, cheese, butter, and nutella - and yesterday I bought more at a different store in town that looked like it had better produce. Our first grocery experience involved us accidentally stealing a lady's shopping cart. Apparently the carts are locked together outside, and you need to put a euro in to unlock one, which you get back after you lock the cart back up. We didn't know this, and just took the first cart we saw. The lady was very nice about it, though, and explained how it works and what to do next time. She even said we speak very good German! I've found everyone to be incredibly nice here, which is a relief. And though people are a lot more private, they are for the most part very friendly.

The view from my window. Those are mountains in the background!

Freiburg is picturesque

Downtown Freiburg