Settling in

There's not so much news to report here, but I thought it would be nice to give you an idea of what my life looks like now.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have class at eight, which means my alarm goes of at seven. I switch it off as soon as I can, grab my glasses, put on my socks, and stumble to the kitchen to switch on the coffee machine. Then I try to get my clothes from the room without making too much noise (difficult, seeing how I'm still half-asleep at this point. My jet-lag is really over now), get dressed in the bathroom. I drink my coffee and eat my cereal, I pack my bag and I'm good to go! It's about a 25 minute walk to campus, so I leave around half past. My first class on those three days is Human Genetics, which takes place in a very big, very moderly equipped classroom with screens descending from the ceiling at the push of a button. The teachers use microphones :-

After the class I go to Ackerman Union to see if one of the comfortable chairs there is free. Today there was a free chair, but most of the time they're all occupied. I spend an hour reading. Actually, a lot of people are sitting in the book and magazine section of Ackerman Union reading, just on the floor everywhere. It surprised me at first, but it's a great way to spend an hour between classes.

At ten my Physics class starts, in a tiny little classroom this time. At eleven, when it ends, I either go directly home directly or go by the grocery store first (today, for example, I needed laundry detergent badly, mostly because I have only two pieces of underwear left). I leave for my afternoon classes half an hour is advance as well, I eat dinner around six or seven, and go to bed around eleven.

That's about it, I guess. Not very exciting, but nice.

To close with, some small things I think are funny about the US, things I still notice. For example, the teller machines at the grocery store have only bills in them, your coin change is automatically dispensed by a small machine. Also, the priority rules are entirely different. The first person who arrives at the crossroads gets to go first! There are many small things like that, like that a) there are commercials for medication on TV here and b) theymention all the side effects.

I have to go check on my laundry...

Cheers!

Hedwig