Travel Day
We were going to be riding the train for a long time. We had to travel from Guben to Mücke where Dirk’s friend Darius (Günni) lives. Mücke is a little south of Marburg, the city where Dirk was going to be living while at the university. This was my first time on a German train, but it wasn’t going to be the last. I had heard that the train system in Europe, and especially Germany, was very efficient and dependable. I had to activate my rail pass which would serve me for the month I was traveling. Dirk’s father drove us to the Guben train station and helped us figure out what we needed to do. Dirk translated to the woman at the ticket booth, and with only a few minutes to spare, I got my pass stamped and hopped on the train.

The Train Ride
The train took us back through Berlin and then headed on the long journey to Mücke. Dirk and I watched some of the videos from my video blog that I had put on a dvd for him. The German scenery was very nice. I was surprised how a country that is so small compared to the U.S. could have so much farmland. They must do a good job at preventing urban sprawl. I also noticed that the farms in Germany are not your normal American-style farms of giant square fields. These farms followed the shape of the land more. Their borders were not straight lines, it was much more aesthetically pleasing to watch pass by at such a high speed. We were riding the ICE (inter city express) which traveled much faster than any train that I have ever been on before. An American traveling to Switzerland to visit his daughter. I talked to him about my trip, about videoblogging, and the differences we noticed between our cultures. After a few hours of travel, we made a few transfers and then ended up on our final train. I listened to my brothers iPod as the final train clicked down the track towards Mücke.

The Arrival
We arrived at the small station and were immediately greeted by Dirk’s friends from the Dunenhoff. It was like a little reunion after a month of separation. His friends all came together to see each other again in Mücke and to meet me. Two of them would be living in the apartment where we were going to stay in Marburg. A mixture of English and German flew through the air as we walked to the grocery store with our backpacks in a shopping cart. We walked through the isles of the store while we talked and laughed. I still managed to be surprised by interesting German food products and followed Dirk’s friends as they looked for whatever it was they needed to buy. But this was no ordinary grocery store; this store had two floors. I had never seen a two-story grocery store, but the other people acted like it was a normal thing, so I just followed along. The upstairs had some clothes, plants, gifts, and Halloween decorations. Immediately Günni and Dirk ran to one corner of the second floor. They dove into a small pool of plastic balls. I looked around nervously expecting to be chided by someone in German, but no one came, so I too jumped in. It must have been a common practice for store patrons. After a while of swimming in the balls, we left the store and started walking to Günni’s house. The town was pretty nice, It felt more rural and peaceful. I was excited to spend the night there.

Settling In
All the friends kind of settled in and went their separate ways. We all stayed on the top floor of what I guess was Günni’s families apartment building (I think the family that lived in the apartment we stayed were out of town or something). I got an opportunity to check my email and talk to some people on instant messenger while Dirk and Günni Spoke in German behind me. They went off talking, so I went upstairs to hang out with Michi and Jacob. We sat down to dinner and talked about school and how to figure out our futures. Both of them spoke English very well and were kind enough to have an extended conversation with me over dinner. Dirk and Gunni came back, so I let all the German-folk hang out and talk in their native tongue while I talked to people online, updated my blog and tried to get used to the messed up keyboard. When I returned back upstairs, they were all watching some German comedy show on dirk’s computer. I felt a little left out since I couldn’t understand what was being said, but I figured that Dirk and I would have plenty of time to chat in English later in our trip. After a couple of hours, we all decided to go to bed, since we had to be up early in the morning to catch our train. We slipped into our sleeping bags, prayed, and went to sleep.

Google Earth Placemarks for Day 5: Open this map