Next stop: Unknown

I last wrote you from Germany's capital city, Berlin. From there Marcus and I used "mitfahrgelegenheit" or organized hitchhiking from Berlin to Dresden. Albeit somewhat strange, it was a successful experience which left me with both of my kidneys. The drivers, Gregor & Hannah were a bit strange although nice. We got to Dresden for 10 euros in under two hours. Something I'd never be able to do with the train.

I love Dresden. The city, atmosphere, the size and the abundance of my friends doesn't help me at all. I'm trying to remain positive about my time here in Aachen but it doesn't help when I have such amazing experiences in Dresden. Last Monday I went to Leipzig and that was great, just a day trip and that was exactly what I needed. I like Dresden more though, although I saw the important things one sees in Leipzig.

Tuesday I flew from Dresden to Cologne-Bonn and then took the "hour long-train" from Cologne to Aachen. Twenty minutes into my trip from the main train station, the train comes to a screeching halt. You could even smell the brakes. I wasn't sure what had happened but we stayed in that position for almost two hours. I got to Aachen three hours later at 1:30 in the morning. Not nice. Turns out, somebody had jumped in front of our train. This, apparently, happens about once a week towards winter and summers end. It bothers me that people would throw themselves in front of a train like that. That goes against our instincts, doesn't it? It was needless to say, disturbing. There were police outside the train and I couldn't figure out what had happened until later because the words the driver used weren't ones associated with suicide. He said "we've had a slight accident." When I asked my German friends what that meant, they informed me it was a nice way of saying suicide. The bad weather causes depression rates to skyrocket here about this time of year and it doesn't help that Valentines Day this week. I'm not taking the train until March.

I only had to work three days last week and my schedule for this week is very light, surprisingly light with only one class on Friday. The weather has been amazing the past five days. Absolutely stellar actually, blue skies, no clouds, mild temperatures, if only it could be like this every day. In less than a month I'll be having guests!

I went to Cologne this weekend with a friend of mine and enjoyed the city. I'm looking forward to going again next month with Matt and Kalin. I did some pre-research on the city for our trip then. Should be fun. This weekend, I'll be having a visitor, a friend of my Dad's from the Air Force. I haven't seen Craig since I was about 15 or so. Maybe younger. Yesterday I cleaned like a madman my apartment which includes cleaning my windows, sweeping and scrubbing my floors and getting out all of the dust. Its absolutely unbelievable how much dust is in my apartment. Never in my life have I seen so much dust or hair accumulate in one place. I got my hair cut on Friday so I'm helping that'll help with the dust for a while.

Well, off to work for me.