In front of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. 

Between 1892 and 1924 over 12 million immigrants lined up in this hall to start a new beginning in the "Land of Opportunity".

At Time Square

Beginning of my Journey in Germany

Day 1 Stuttgart-->Tübingen
Today, I began my journey at Stuttgart. Almost all of us met at the Stuttgart airport and took a bus to Tübingen guesthouse where we were scheduled to meet the Ursula Kimpel who is the course coordinator at Tübingen and took care of all the international abroad relations with the University of Maryland. She told us what we will be doing/learning in Tübingen and gave us an overview of the three week program. It was surprising to note that we had lots of traveling and sight-seeing to do throughout the whole program.

Once everyone settled in and got cozy, we all started to feel sluggish and sleepy. So, we got about three hours to explore around the neighborhood and get ourselves ready for the upcoming tour of the town.
Two graduate assistants, Martin and Jane, took us around the town.
While we were going around, we had the tour of the river, Tübingen castle, ATTEMPTO, party life, protestant church and much of the lifestyles of the town.

Then we all went to a restaurant located near the center of the town. It served traditional Swabian style dishes. I had a dish where all the Swabian style sausages, potato salad, purple onions came together.
It was also very nice that we had a group dinner before it all started. Then we went on an adventure to find a place where we can meet people from the town. We were quite unsuccessful at first but found something interesting in the end.
I am more than ecstatic to starting the winter semester at Tübingen!
Day 2 First Tübingen Class. 
Fist, I wanted to note what I had for breakfast today:
1. 3 cups of coffee
2. Wheat bread with strawberry and apricot jams
3. Han and Salami with cheese
4. Almighurt Yogurt Ananas.
Today started out as cloudy and foggy but as the day progressed, more sunlight brought liveliness to the town. We had first language class at 10 AM in the morning. I was part of the beginner's class and we learned to introduce ourselves such as "What is your name?" or "How old are you?" or "How are you?". In previous years, I tried to self-teach German myself but I remember it wasn't successful as I would have liked. It was an enjoyable class. I learned how to recognize some of the most common words in German.
Then we had a Politics and Culture of the Regions in Germany class with Ursula Kimpel and learned about the town's history and its belief systems from the Medieval times to the present. It was too much to memorize all the details and I hope that they are not on the final exam!

It was Interesting to note that there were a lot of bookstores around in Tübingen. Every other store was basically bookstores! It was also easy to find cheap deals.
For the evening, some of us resorted to a place called Tangente. It shall be a memorable place.
Day 3 Excursion Day
We were supposed to have a German class today morning but it got cancelled due to icy road conditions! It was quite uneventful because I never would have dreamed of missing the second day of class. Plus, I thought that European countries dealt better with wintry conditions. Maybe not. But I must have to admit that the road conditions--especially the sidewalks were treacherous. I never want to experience walking on the side streets ever again. However, the day didn't turn out too badly because we had excursions around the town by the bus. First we went to Haigerloch where we visited the old Jewish Synagogue and Atomkeller.

 Left: Inside the Old Jewish Synagogue
The old Jewish Synagogue had historical significance to it because it served as synagogue before and during the Hitler's regime. Now it contained personal recollections of individual Jews who were involved in the Holocaust.

Bottom: Atomkeller was an underground lab where atomic bomb project took place. The museum had a remake of the atomic bomb which contained strings of attached Uraniums. It also had biographies of those who were involved in the making of these bombs. I was surprised to know that Albert Einstein was recognized.

Hohenzollern Castle

Atomkeller

Top Right: Hohenzollern Castle is the Tübingen's castle. It is located at the top of the hill and overlooks on the town and other neighboring cities/towns. It is still partly owned by the Prussian Royal family. We had a short tour around the castle and from the look of it, I wouldn't want to live there because it was so cold inside! It was very big and grand; however, it wouldn't be a livable place for me. 

Day 4 Second Class Day and Off to München

Today was the second day of the classes. First we had language class and then we had a short greeting from the head of German as Foreign Language Department. Then Martin, one of the Student Assistants studying at Tübingen, gave us an insight into the Student Life of Contemporary Germany. It was very informal at first because we were asking him questions and him answering back. Nothing was really solid when he gave us lessons on it. From the impressions that I had, I felt like many of the German students were very active in the political aspects of the country. I would have not expected that. I guess coming from a science background, I would have never imagined my friends being an active citizens. It might be the difference in lifestyles and the way we are brought up. It was interesting to note that. 

Then we were off to München by 12 in the noon. Some people were leaving for trip to Paris, Amsterdam, Nürnberg and Bonn. There are 18 people on this trip and many of us ended up on München trip since it was affordable and easy trip within the borders. 

I hope the week goes by okay.

The train ride from Tübingen to München wasn´t too bad at all! We had to change platforms twice but it was so easy to get around places.