Travel and Arrival

Well, we made it. The whole day, especially parting ways at the hotel and airport, was an emotional roller coaster. Maybe it’s just how I’m wired, but I was uptight all the way up until right about now (finally got some wine and cheese). That may be normal for one’s first extensive international travel experience, but who knows. The flight was easy, but I barely slept half an hour. We departed 4:00 pm Atlanta time, arriving in Frankfurt at about 7:00 am local time, essentially starting a whole new day on no sleep. When we made it through customs and to our rendezvous point, we found a small German beer counter and yes they were open at 7 in the morning. The server was chipper, happy to serve about 8 young American travelers a cold pint at sunrise. Our shuttles from the airport to the campus were late and disorganized, but after a long drive through the German countryside, spectacular views of rolling meadows covered in bright yellow flowers (didn’t get a picture, it was hard enough to hold my eyes open at this point), we got to our dorm on GTL’s campus. Jeff and I share a room and bathroom of pretty fair size. Once we set up here, we made our way to the Academic building, a ten minute walk, for dinner. There is a lake/pond in the center of campus and a running/biking track circling it. We’re planning on making that a daily routine. After dinner, we took our big travel backpacks and headed to Cora. Cora is the equivalent of a French Walmart and is also about a 10-15 minute walk from our dorm. We ran around in there like chickens with our heads cut off, looking for various necessities (cheap wine, toilet paper, etc.). We got some baguettes, 2 kilograms of spaghetti, a giant Babybel Cheese wheel, and aforementioned essentials. Now it’s time for bed. We have a busy orientation tomorrow and a hopefully informative tour of Metz. Bonne nuit!