The first few days

Forewarning: The first couple of days have way more information that you may be interested in-

13/2/13 Day 1 -

Business class, a girl can get used to that. Note to self though, change food preferences from ‘vegetarian’ to no preferences- the vegetarian food options on the menu are way better than what you would get as a vegetarian (switch this if you’re flying coach though)!  The gentleman in the seat next me chatted until dinner arrived. He’s a father of 5 from the UK, who moved to Australia, and recently moved to Phoenix (payback from his wife after he moved them to Australia). A bunch of fun conversations with him were had discussing a whole range of topics. He kindly helped me through Heathrow.

Trekking through Heathrow is a pain, I had to exit the terminal to grab my bags to transfer to terminal 1 from 5.  Note, when changing terminals there, you have to take an underground train, be careful that you don’t take the train all the way into London though. Terminal 1 is like a US shopping mall, lots of jewelry, clothing, perfumes shops, and excellent food options. Next time through, buy lots of good chocolate!

Flying into Köln/Bonn airport, I haven’t had to take stairs out of a plane for a very, very long time.  Then we took a bus to the terminal, customs was rather quick and painless. Unfortunately, though I paid for a second bag, one didn’t make it in. The good news- the one I would prefer not to be stuck without showed up, so it’s all good.  Next stop Bonn Hilton, with a view of the Rhine River.

14/2/13 Day 2-

It’s Valentine’s Day! The agenda: Go into the lab and start meeting people- mission accomplished…… however, remembering all 30 names will be a challenge.  Before that, a pain a chocolat and hot chocolate, whoever said I wouldn’t be able to get my hot chocolate here was wrong. Dinner was by myself at a restaurant called ‘Bellini’ and gnocchi was the name of the game. Not too many people were there when I went, so no real people watching opportunities. On the way back to the hotel, I had a lovely surprise- snow, and boy was it coming down!

15/2/13 Day 3-

Uggg, time to deal with immigration. First I have to register with the local office with my residency, and I almost had to return because they had trouble distinguishing the obvious apartment number on my contract….ugggg! At least I had a representative through the whole process who spoke German.   Second trip was to the German immigration office to get my temporary visa, and hand over a new photo for the ‘permanent’ one. I’ll have to go back in another month to get that. Then off to get my apartment which is slightly bigger than I expected, with death defying stairs to the lofted ‘bedroom’. Did I mention that this was on the 4^th floor and I had 2 bags weighing 50+lbs? Crazy!!!  Then I got some help finding out where the local bakery was and how to get to work. I’m so glad that I’m relatively close. So I only had time for a granola bar for breakfast - apple for lunch - and then, I panicked over whether to brave the weather and explore for more food or go to bed hungry.

Of course I ventured out, and I enjoyed dinner at ‘The Fiddler” and is owned by a bloke from Cork. http://www.fiddlers-bonn.com. I found my first local ex-pat hang out. The had the best veggie burger I will ever have which no one in the US has ever made anything that came close to it. Of course every burger comes with fries and did I munch on those. Also tried a beer from Cork, an amber ale. Did I mention that there’s karaoke on Friday and Saturday nights? Guess where I’ll be next weekend?

16/2/13 Day 4-

Has it really been 4 days? Sleep would just not come, and jet lag is kicking my butt. 2 hrs of sleep in the past  ~48. Shopping for groceries and items for the apartment is the first and foremost thing on my mind. Everything shuts down on Sunday except for the gas stations, so you better have everything before then. Shops also tend to close early (2-4ish) so go early. One last bit about shopping, only buy what you can carry and what you can actually bring up to your floor in one go.

About every day here I’ve walked about 5 miles, top that off with a dance party to my iPod as I’m putting everything away J

Tips on things to bring with you prior to leaving the US:

• ·      Granola bars, for when you find yourself stuck and don’t have time or can’t figure out what to eat.
• ·      Re-usable bags- some grocery stores don’t even have bags and those that do, will charge you a pretty penny to buy them.
• ·      Deodorant- a challenge to find here, yes you can eventually find it, but they make you look hard for it.
• ·      Laundry bag (mesh variety)- makes life easier, trust me on this.
• ·      A list of the discount vs other grocery stores. If you enter a discount grocery store and can’t really find anything you can eat, don’t panic, the other stores will have more of what you need.
• ·      Lots of cash in Euros, they don’t really accept credit cards anywhere here.
• o   Know where the local banks are

Aluminum foil (they only have the uber thin variety here) and Ziploc bags (I haven't found these yet)!