Leeds to Mannheim

Hallo!

This past week has been one of the most terrifying, exciting and crazy weeks of my life and has felt like forever. It feels like nearly a month ago since I arrived in Frankfurt and dragged two full cases through a massive airport, on a skyline and up and down many, many escalators. The actual journey here was fine apart from for both plane and train delays and I have a great VISUM buddy who met me at Mannheim station and helped me bring my cases up the four flights of stairs to my apartment. Ultimately, it seemed like a bad start; I was tired, homesick and fed up by the time I reached my apartment and then I had to unpack and try and sleep with very little bedding. However, I’ve realised that all this is just a part of studying abroad; you must meet challenges so that you learn how to deal with them!

On my first full day I was quite lonely as I had only met my VISUM buddy who was busy, and I didn’t want to go on walks through the city to explore because at 35 it was far too hot for a girl used to English weather. I found the first shopping centre I could and bought all the food that seemed familiar only to later discover that this shop, ReWe, is one of the more expensive supermarkets (another learning point). Fortunately, on my way back I found an Aldi so will probably shop there from now on. I also found a Primark for bedding so that I didn’t have to sleep on my coat anymore which is always a positive.

At this point, I decided I had to do something to meet people, so I searched through every Facebook page on Mannheim I could and all of the information that the University had sent. Finally, I found a group for international exchange students, wrote a Facebook post and immediately received around 30 comments from people also looking to meet. This led to an invite to an event that night- Flunkyball- where I met people from all over the world and the creation of a group chat to organise meet-ups for the rest of the week. As of today, from going to different evening meet-ups, I have met people from Columbia, Chile, Brazil, USA, Canada, Russia, Egypt, UK, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Spain!

The most annoying and stressful part of the week has been dealing with German bureaucracy and the University registration. I thought registering at the university on the first day would be easiest but unfortunately most people had the same idea. This led to the process taking 3 and a half hours just to get a piece of paper that confirmed I was enrolled. I then had to go to three separate places over the course of the next few days to create, receive and put money on my student card. Somewhere along the way I even managed to lose and, luckily, also find my EHIC. The most stressful part is that I need to register to live in Mannheim within the first two weeks of arrival and for this I need a confirmation from my landlord that I am living here but he is yet to send me the form despite numerous emails and WhatsApps! I think all of that has made the start of this process a lot more stressful than it needs to be so having a few afternoons alone to plan what I need to do and sort out a timetable for the next few weeks has been key.

There have been a lot of highlights to this week as well though! Last Saturday I went on a spontaneous trip with Sam from the USA to Europa-park. Europa-park is Europe’s second biggest theme park after Disneyland Paris and it was amazing. There were plenty of rollercoasters and the whole park was split into different countries from Europe. Due to the weather being the worst it had been for a while, there were also not that many people there, so we got to go on everything including our favourite ride twice! Whilst there I also tried Frikadellen and Bobbe which were both delicious.

Another highlight was a trip to Herzogenried Park which is absolutely beautiful and full of things to do. They had a mini farm, mini golf, various sports courts, an outside gym, cafes and restaurants and a separate waterpark. The only thing I found strange about Herzogenried and Germany in general is that you seem to have to pay to go to most parks which is quite rare in the UK. It is understandable with the amount in the park and isn’t that expensive if you can get a student ticket, but I still found it very surprising.

I finished the week yesterday with a trip to stunning Heidelberg with a few of the girls I have met. Heidelberg really is a beautiful city with plenty to do. We went on cable cars to the top of the hill where the views are incredible, we visited der Schloss (the castle) which had amazing architecture and included, quite randomly, a pharmacy museum and we also did a bit of shopping. For breakfast at a bakery I tried Quarktasche which is like cheesecake on a round croissant and was very nice and for lunch I had Hausgemacht Gulasch mit Spätzle. The Gulasch was lovely but I wasn’t keen on the Spätzle which is kind of like fat egg noodles! Later on we also found a shop which sold Schneeball which is essentially soft biscuit baked into the shape of snowballs and sometimes filled with flavoured cream. I tried the original one which was simply dusted with icing sugar which was yummy but very filling. That all felt like a very German day and made me feel a bit more at home here.

Throughout the week I have also discovered a couple of things that are very different to England. Firstly, the trains are much smoother which is in no way a bad thing. However, they do seem to be struggling with delays just as much as the UK! One of the strangest things I found was in the University Mensa (Cafeteria) where they weighed our plates to determine how much we should pay for the food rather than having a set price per meal (which I thought was what the menu suggested). Finally, there are no inside swimming pools that I’ve been able to find here, instead Germans swim in outside pools or in lakes. Apparently in the summer if German families don’t go on holiday they instead just make a trip to the lake, sunbathe and swim. This was something I found out when I paned up in my dress and everyone else was in swimming shorts and bikini!

Overall, it’s been a good week! I’ve learnt a lot, met so many lovely people and got to be a little bit German! I’m looking forward to starting real Uni within the next week, so I can see what that is like.