SINCE WE'VE BEEN GONE..

... much has happened. Actually, more than I would have thought before our journey started.

But - let me dedicate my first blogpost to my first impressions in the US, starting with Day one!

America. One week has almost passed now– time flies so quickly. Our trip to the US was an adventure itself. When we landed in Houston, two of our boys were taken for a loooong security check. Everybody was pretty worried, but in the end we arrived safely. I can tell that flying with 15 persons is a very interesting experience. 

When we arrived at Trinity, it was already 9 pm and we had no sleep for almost 26 hours. In less than 12 hours we were meant to gather with our interns and I couldn’t know that (like always) I was the one to sleep in accidentally. My first impressions here were really that the students’ experiences as University Kids is in the centre of everything. When you compare it to Germany, there are so many extracurricular activities. There are sport teams and also sport courses like tennis, golf, soccer, volleyball, basketball, football.. almost every sport is being practiced on this campus. Also, what I did not know before was, that everybody has to live on campus in his first year at uni. That is such an important experience for humans to become independent from their parents and for parents to understand their kids just grew up. Though, I was really surprised about the dorms on campus. Why is there no kitchens in the rooms? Isn’t cooking a very necessary skill, if we want to survive in our adulthood?

In germany I like that dorms at universities have very tiny kitchens within the room, so people can at least cook fresh food sometimes. But then again, everybody here has a car, so it’s very easy for them to get food outside and there is a dining hall, that has a huge sortiment of different food on campus. The most impressive place at this University is the Coates Library. 

I never felt so fancy or comfortable while studying. Our libraries in Germany are not nearly as nice to sit and read a book at as Coates Library at Trinity. Look at the Lobby here! I enjoy doing my work here, and I will probably spend a lot of time here in the following to weeks.

Also, there is another difference, that is significant to me: The classes at trinity university are SO INTERACTIVE! Again I have to say, that people here must have the feeling that there is a sense of being in class. We don’t have that in public universities in germany that much. Usually classes are big and even if they are small, the teacher is the person who is speaking most. I really much have the feeling that I am going to learn a lot in my classes but also a lot outside of them!