Greetings from the Other Side of the World

 I unplugged myself from the matrix and joined the rest of society on the other side of the world.

  

Fittingly, it snowed a shit-load tuesday.  My sister and I ended up sliding on ice and running off of the road into a ditch, seemingly prematurely ending my trip by making me miss my flight but somehow she managed to drive out of the ditch and somehow, my flight was the only one out of Asheville that wasn't cancelled, and somehow I managed to make it onto the plane, even after they called my name over the loudspeaker as I was putting my belt and shoes back on after going through security and saying "Your flight will close in thirty seconds."  My bags ended up costing more than my flght but it's still cheaper than it would have been to ship stuff over here by mail.  I didn't have anyone sitting directly next to me on any of my three flights, which was pretty cool because I had lots of room.  The transatlantic flight sucked, however, due to a five-year-old screaming and crying his eyes out, and not because he was afraid of being on the plane, oh no, the only thing he actually said (over and over about 300 times) was "My cookie was in there!"  I wanted to go back there and punch his mom in the face and say "Nobody gives a shit about your fucking cookie, you ass-wipe!"  We also hit really bad turbulence right off the bat that lasted for 40 minutes and it knocked out our radios and the TV monitors and they never got them back up, so I had nothing with which to drown out the brat.  After dinner (both options of which were covered in cheese, awesome), I did manage to somehow fall asleep for most of the rest of the flight.  Anne met me at the airport in Düsseldorf and we waited there a little while for her parents to come pick us up with the car.  I was worried the four of us couldn't fit in a car with all of my bags but somehow we managed.  We went directly to my new dorm and met Ben and it was great to see him again.  I like Ostenberg better than Meitnerweg, I think. The room is a little smaller, as is the kitchen, but it just seems nicer, ande it's definitely newer.  There's actually a hot water tap instead of a water-heating tank above the sink;-).  And...I can see Westfalenstadion from my window!  Awesome.  I haven't spent that long in my room though (I did manage to unpack all of my clothes however, which fit neatly in the three wardrobe cabinets I have) because I've been over at Anne's.  She cooked for us the first night and let me shower at her place.  While I was in there, she decorated her room with streamers and balloons and a "Herzlich Willkommen" banner which was sweet.  She also lit some candels on the floor in the shape of a heart and there was a small present for me in the middle. I met my new doubles after missing my first meeting with them because the S-Bahn was cancelled for like three hours because of someproblem in Bochum.  They're really cool, one of them even studied at UNCA in 2008, so that's really cool, because we could even talk about my hometown.  Yesterday evening Anne and I rode back to her hometown because a friend of her's is having a birthday party tomorrow.  It began snowing on the way (I guess I brought it with me overseas) but it was only a few inches and it looks so awesome here in her little mountain town.  That's all that I've been up to so far but I'll write again soon hopefully.