A new language to get lost in

I was sad to leave Budapest. Its a beautiful city, and my experience at the Collegium Budapest was amazing. The dinner with Eors was good. We had chicken stuffed potato pancakes (kind of like a crepe) in paprika sauce (of coarse), and a porkchop coated in walnuts. So that covered two of the main Hungarian food groups: pork and paprika. All in all, I am a fan of the Hungarian cuisine. Not a lot of fiber, but good amounts of salt and spices. And the wine is great. In fact, after work on my last day, I went to this "House of Hungarian Wines", near the Budapest Castle. Its a large wine cellar, and a small cover charge allows you to taste wines for up to two hours. Its organized like a wine museum, where each region of wine has its own area in the cellar with a map showing where the wines are from, and describing the climate and soil. They grow mostly white wines, but Pinot Noirs are doing very well. Lets just say I feel I got my money's worth.

From Budapest, I flew into Dortmund on Easyjet. Easyjet offers really cheep airfares all over Europe, but there are no assigned seating, so its first come first served, and every man for himself. It made for a fairly exhausting day. Then when I arrived in Dortmund, I took a shuttle to the train station. Except I got on the wrong shuttle, and therefore ended up at the wrong train station. In fact it wasn't really a station, but simply a train stop, with a machine to purchase a ticket. There was a schedule, but none of them mentioned going to Bochum. Eventually, I figured out I was in the wrong place, waited for a shuttle back to the airport, and got to the right train station. The whole thing set me back close to two hours. The secretary of Gunter von Kiedrowski (my research adviser here in Germany) was supposed to pick me up at the train station in Bochum after I called her upon arrival. Later I saw that she had sent me an email titled "urgent" that said (and I quote):

Dear Eric,

I am waiting for you at Bochum Station. What is the matter with you??? Please contact me at: 01775673221!!!!!

Oh, thats good. She also brought me some dinner that she made herself, and some snacks and supplies for PB and J. So, I have moved into my apartment in Bochum. It is within reasonable walking distance to the Universitat, but I will try to obtain a bicycle soon. It's nice to be out of a hotel.