Wie gehts?

Hello all! Thank you for all of you support and help over what has nearly been a month since arriving in Germany. I don't have anything spectacular to share, so I'll just give a general update about my planned adventures, sight-seeing in Bremen, work, and my personal life, in that order.

First of all, I have some good stuff coming up that I'm really excited about! I'm a little bit nervous that I won't get to sleep in the near future, but you only live once (YOLO) right? Newest development, my uncle will be about 2 hours away by train, so I may take off work on Tuesday to go hang out with him. This is as of 20 seconds ago. The 8th of February is Matheus' birthday, so I'm going to let him decide what's on the docket then. On Friday the 15th, I will jump on a train to Munich. We will spend the 16th in the Austrian Alps skiing. The bus leaves at 5:45 and will bring us back later that day. Then we will explore Munich on the 17th. I, being the smart person that I am, decided to take the late train back, so I will arrive in Bremen at 7am to be at work by 8 or so.

The following weekend, a group of us are traveling to Prague on the 22nd-24th. Of course, I booked overnight trips so I can make the most of my time exploring. One week later, I will be going on another skiing trip similar to the previous ones. Different mountain in the Alps, same bus schedule and weekend plan. Crazy! Some of us plan to spend our Easter in Paris. Will and I want to go to Disney World while we're there. I can book really cheap flights from Bremen to places around Europe, so I may try to fit a trip in before Easter (I probably will). No rest for the wicked!

Last weekend, I finally had the opportunity to see Bremen...kind of. My explorations were cut short by rain. I'm told it rains quite a bit here. The climate is very similar to that of northern Ohio. It gets fairly cold and receives some snow in the winter and mildly warm in the summer. Anyway some pictures are below.

The Bremen Dom (Cathedral)

Nothing like Bremen in the winter!

The Dom in the middle of the snow

Once it warms up I will go around and take more pictures. There are a lot of really awesome older buildings around the city that have been preserved, and I have only seen parts of the city myself.

Work goes pretty well because I like the people I work with and sometimes what I do. MATLAB (programming tool) pisses me off sometimes, but I guess that happens. I have yet to receive the key to my office, so I moved into the room with the rest of the interns and students. I may just stay there. They're fun to be around when I need a distraction. Thimo and I talked about "How I Met Your Mother" for quite some time today. He knows it pretty well, which makes me happy! Here's a picture that shows you the development plan of DLR and the German space program:

lolz

On a personal level, things are going pretty well. I have made a few challenges for myself while I'm in Germany. I want to get in shape to do a triathlon when I return to the United States. My cooking abilities have already increased dramatically (easy to do when the only place to go is up), but I plan to challenge myself a little more in the near future. Homemade pizza coming soon. I also challenged myself to write to my little brother 3-4 times a week. He's in basic training for the National Guard right now, and I want to keep him busy when he gets free time. I told my coworkers that next week we are only allowed to speak German. Thimo said he would give me the silent treatment unless I'm talking in German. I came here to learn the language so I guess I should get on that. Another coworker, Ali, and I are going to play in a volleyball league on Tuesday nights! This past week was awesome, and I'm excited to be playing, even if I don't understand most of what they're saying to me. Despite being on the other side of the country, I'm still pretty involved in SigEp (my Fraternity). I am constantly talking with those guys, meeting with them via the internet, and sending them things on Facebook. Plans are in the works to talk to my grandparents this weekend on Skype! That is going to be awesome. Finally, I want to get a bike, hike, and travel as much as possible. There's no time to waste, and I don't plan on having any money left when I'm done. I'm 100% sure I'm going to exhaust myself, but that's why I'm eating healthy and exercising regularly so my mind and body can keep up with each other.