Lots of forms to sign - Day 3, Part 1

Alright, so I've already blogged a lot tonight about my room and about yesterday, and I'm getting tired, but I want to write about today (Day 3) right now, so that tomorrow night I don't have to play catch-up like I did tonight.  So let's hope I'm coherent enough to write about today.

We had to meet up at the JYM building at 10:00 this morning, so I didn't have much chance to do anything before I left, but I did have a bit of Nutella and brotchen first - just as delicious as ever.  (Yesterday I had eine Aepfelrolle for breakfast from a little bakery stand in the U-bahn station that was so yummy...I might be going there pretty often for breakfast).  At JYM, we had a coffee hour (more Nutella and brotchen) and I met more of the others, with plenty of the expected "where are you from, what school do you go to, and what are you studying?" conversation.

From left to right: Jessie, Emily, Ellie (my fellow math major!), and Kit

The girls from das rotes Haus (the house in the StuStadt where I live).  

From left to right: me, Kathryn, Kristin, and Shelby

The JYM building is pretty interesting.  In the main room, there is a pretty good library, and throughout the room they've hung pendants from all the schools that have had students participate in the JYM program over the years.

My favorite, is of course the one in the middle on the right hand side of the second picture, and I thought Mom would appreciate the one on the bottom. I know the picture is a little blurry, so for those of you whose eyes aren't as good as mine, the middle one says Mary Washington College (a little outdated now, but I think I might be the first person to come to JYM since MWC became UMW), and the one on the bottom says Douglass College.

We didn't do anything terribly exciting, mostly just signed forms - our housing/lease contracts, our German health insurance contracts, and information for our residency permits.  We went though all of this in groups, so there were plenty of breaks between forms where we could keep chatting and getting to know each other a bit.

After everyone was done with all the forms, we went as a group to a nearby Mensa - one of the dining halls that are spread throughout the city for students to use.  It was nothing fancy, and there weren't as many options as at UMW, but as Hans Peter (the director of JYM) said, the food was filling, warm, and cheap.  I had a dumpling soup that reminded me of the pancake soup I had in Austria years ago when we went as a family to learn to ski.  I don't know how I remember that far back, but it was good.  I think the Mensas will be a good option for lunches once classes start.  I'm glad to have three weeks of orientation before classes - most days we only have group plans and obligations for part of the day, so we can spend the rest of our time exploring the city and the surrounding areas, which is great, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to figuring out what classes I want to take and getting into some kind of routine.  Once that happens, I know I'll wish for free time again, so I'm going to enjoy the time now as best as I can.

Speaking of free time (nice little transition there, if I do say so myself), we had free time from about 2:00 this afternoon on, so I went with a group of girls to the closest IKEA to pick up some supplies for my room, but I'll make that another post, since I have lots of pictures to share.  After IKEA, I've had a pretty quiet night, which I'm definitely grateful for.  I had eine leckere Pizza at the Tribuehne for dinner, and then I've been relaxing in my room most of the evening, blogging and skyping, and hopefully heading to bed soon. 

I can't believe I've already been here for two full days...these four months are going to fly by!