Day 1 - Jetlagged and Broke!

Saturday:

-1:00 p.m. - Leave parents' house in noVA

-2:45 p.m. - Reagan National - Get in line to board plane; ran into Melissa Sumner from JMU, and two Mary Baldwin affiliates, Rachel Q (former JMU) and Katherine (MB student), all of whom are studying on this trip

-3:15 p.m. - On plane (about an hour), delayed for a bit, had a French conversation with a couple going to Belgium; it's nice to know I can carry a conversation in French!

-5:00 p.m. - Philadelphia airport, ran into JMU student Kristina Blehm, who is also studying in Germany

-6:30 p.m. - On plane (7-8 hours) , studied German pronunciation rules and watched X-Men 3 in French; did not sleep very restfully

Sunday (time zone change, +6 hours)

-9:00 a.m. - Munich airport, feeling okay in spite of getting virtually no sleep

-11:45 a.m. - On plane one last time (about an hour)

-1:00 p.m. - Dresden airport, Grabbed luggage, almost forgot what my suitcase looked like, found our chauffeurs and 5 other non-JMU opera students

Inside the Dresden airport

Outside the Dresden Airport

A few of us could not/did not withdraw cash/exchange American dollars for Euros at the Dresden airport ATM, so after settling our things down at the hotel, Dr. Maddison sent a few of us out with a German speaking student to the bank. I was still unable to withdraw cash due to lack of (knowledge about) a pin number, but fortunately some people are spotting me and I will pay them back.

My hotel room--there's a bathroom inside, too

Sunday Evening Dinner:

After all students had arrived, Dr. Maddison who is our program coordinator and the 21 of us students gathered together to eat at this restaurant from 6:30 to past 10:00 at night. Lucky for me and everyone else, our entrees were covered. However, it took at least an hour, maybe close to two, for the entrees to come out--perhaps a European way of making dinners into long extended social occasions?--but the dishes were delectable!. The majority of the menu was potato based, and you wouldn't necessarily get excited about some of the dishes based on their descriptions, but they were impressive to taste and see. Unfortunately most of the group was extremely jet-lagged, so 3 hours in a restaurant was less enjoyable for some. I was mostly okay because I accidentally napped. That proved to be detrimental later that evening (and was probably worsened by the ice cream covered fried pineapple ring)--to be described later perhaps.

Walking in the street on the way to the restaurant

Kartoffel = potato. Haus = house. Therefore....

One side of the room

The other side that I was on

Me next to the Hills

Next time I'll remember to take pictures when most of the food is still on the plates