ding University in April and to apply for our work Visa and register as a student. Karlsruhe is a hustling and bustling college town that has a pretty impressive downtown area with a big castle (der Schloss) in the middle and an INCREDIBLE strassenbahn system. The street trains run up and down the streets pretty much all the time, transporting people anywhere you want to go in the city. We stayed here for three nights in a pension (type of hotel) rented out by a nice old lady who didn't speak any English. It was kind of fun to practice our German skills with her. All eleven of the GEARE students came here so we were finally able to meet up with all of the other Purdue students in Germany. The time spent in Karlsruhe was very exciting and we got to see all kinds of crazy things and meet very nice people while we were there.
On the first day, we walked around the streets. One of the most interesting things we saw was the crazy art on the streets of Karlsruhe. This picture shows a statue that is off one of the main roads. We decided that it was a depiction of a bunch of ghouly looking people shooting out of some "water" like a fountain and falling back down into it. It almost looks like souls coming out of the River Styx. If you look in my photo album, I have some other pictures that you can see of it so that you can decide for yourself what it really is...On the third day (Wednesday), we were walked around the city to take care of all of our registration stuff and putting together all of the information we needed to apply (and hopefully obtain) our work Visas. The "tour guide" was a Karlsruhe student named Angela. She was very helpful in putting up with all of our stupid questions about the German registration papers. We walked all over Karlsruhe, checking off the various tasks that were required for our visa papers that we were supposed to be getting the next day. Although stresful at times, it was really interesting to see the crazy process foreigners have to go through to get in to another country (and this was nothing compared to getting in to the U.S.)
The next day we went to the Rathaus to the appointments we had scheduled to get our Visas. I was actually a little nervous when I went in and spoke to the official, not sure whether she would accept all my papers and give me the Visa that I desperately needed to start my job next week. When I went in, I spoke all German and gave her all the papers she needed. It turned out OK and she accepted everything and gave me my 180 day Visa stamp in my passport.
On one of the other days we were walking around Karlsruhe we happened to stumble across the two other GEARE graduate students who had been studying at the university. They offered to bring us to their apartment and give us some Belgian beer (which is perhaps the most amazing drink I have ever imagined). It turned out, the room which they were staying was the same place that we were going to be living when we went to Karlsruhe (the International Department) so we got to have a sneak peak at what was to come....
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