arrival

I have arrived! It took me a little while, travelling by train from Groningen to Mainz, as German punktlichkeit is not what it used to be, and caused me to wander round Frankfurt Flughafen in wait for the lokal train to Mainz. I was lucky to still be in time to meet Mwamba, who is a friend of my landlady Lan. I am renting her appartment for two months while she is visiting her family in Vietnam. It is a little strange to be camping in her place as the two major themes in the interior decoration are 'Vietnam' and 'Buddhism', neither of which I have any connection with. So far I feel like a guest without a hostess. Still, it is a nice and cosy appartment, situated ideally between the main trainstation and two major supermarkets.
Today I spent most of my morning figuring out the internet (as you can see it was a struggle in which I finally triumphed!) and finishing up some marking for the course I have been teaching in the Netherlands. With this chore done I can focus 100 % on my placement here at the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur. For those of you who don't know (i.e. my imaginary readers -they will also need to know I am just a tiny bit crazy), I have the good fortune of being allowed to participate in the Forschungen zur antike Sklaverei project for the next two months, and, most importantly, use its library. A future blog will no doubt fill you in on the details of my Phd-research, but for now I will keep this simple, since, frankly, that is my present state of mind.
I can offer no sufficient excuses for not having done any work today, but if I were to blame it on anything, it would be on the Tourist Information, where I had planned to go and get a map and, map in hand, explore the university campus (I am saving the Akademie for monday, when, or so I have been informed, everyone will be there for a new year's reception). Now, why would anybody plant the Tourist Information on top of a carpark?! And which fool has turned all the signs round so that I have walked round the Dom at least three times before realising I had to go in the direct opposite direction? I have to admit that the Dom is rather nice, but I have seen more than enough of it in one day, thank you very much. When I got there, their cash register did not work. Coffee was needed and only after that I was finally able to get my map. By that time it was getting dark and I decided I would not risk losing my way again in search of the university.
My adventure has however taught me one thing: it is far nicer to be able to ask (and understand!!) directions in proper German than in the very limited German I now have. I have therefore registered with an online Sprachkurse Deutsch which starts on the first of February. And that, regrettably, is my succes of the day.

Bis schnell! Lydia