And the winner is... Schweinhaxe!

Where on earth do I start?

Well, Aim came out with me to Kassel and helped me with all the Ikea runs and sorting my apartment out. On the Friday, we managed to squeeze in a bit of fun and spent the day going up to the Herkules. It was amazing in the snow and the ice - the pictures are amazing and are all on Facebook - please have a look at them! They're amazing! We took so many daring ones! Considering everywhere was iced up, we still walked on a frozen lake and climbed frozen waterfalls. Absolute magic! :D

Der Teufelsbruck

The frozen lake

And today, we started our Orientation Week. I wasn't sure what to expect as I knew any kind of orientation would be an improvement from Parma. We went in, had a welcome from the Vice President of the University and all the heads of various organisations within the uni and also a police officer who later took us on a safety tour of the university. Me and the new people I met were wetting ourselves throughout the talk but did learn many things about safety in Kassel. We learnt where the prostitute areas are and we learnt what to do if a dog looks you in the eyes! Yes. All the key safety features! In all seriousness, Kassel University is patrolled by security guards - how cool is that? 

Diagonale

 Anyway, we did an activity to get to know each other. I was in a group with a guy from China, a girl from Austria, a guy from Iran and a guy from Azerbaijan. We got extra points for the most multicultural group too! We had a quiz to answer but the quiz sent us all over the campus to find things out and gather stamps and such. We also got extra points for an inventive group name, and we chose Schweinhaxe which is a traditional Bavarian dish of pork shoulder. We were wandering around the campus joking that we'd be first place and when we came to hand in our answers, we raced another group across campus leaping bike racks and allsorts. We were determined to win and we did! As a reward, we got thermos flasks! They will come in useful for tomorrow's trip to the Herkules but I've gotta say, not the most useful tool as we're here for the Summer semester....

Our prize

To conclude, day one of O-Woche has been mighty successful and I'm loving Erasmus here in Kassel. I spoke nothing but German the entire day and even failed at speaking Italian when I met one. There's gotta be a happy medium somewhere - lets hope I find it before I go job hunting, eh? Tomorrow, me and the rest of the Schweinhaxe team will join everyone in visiting the Herkules and I've got everything crossed for another epic day!
For now, Tschuess! :D