Catch-up Part 5: The Last of the Catch-ups

My journey from Freiburg in the southern Bundesland (like our states) of Badden-Würtemberg to Vechta in the northern Niedersachsen took about eight hours by train; not bad considering that the train stopped at every city on the way to pick-up and drop-off passengers. The eight hours also accommodated the missed connecting train in the final leg from Osnabrück to Vechta, which would have cut my train time down to seven hours. Let the record show that this delay was entirely the fault of engine driver, as our train pulled into Osnabrück 14 minutes late and seven minutes after the hourly departing train to Vechta had left.

In the silver-lining, I was able to finish one of the books that I had picked up a week earlier at the Nomad Bookhouse in downtown Jackson. The book was The Other Side of the River by former Wall Street Journal journalist Alex Kotlowitz and told the story of a death in the St. Joseph, Michigan that reignited a history of racial segregation and injustice in the St. Joseph - Benton Harbor, twin cities relationship. The prominence of the St. Joseph River as a instrument in the segregation and injustice was highlighted by Kotlowitz, securing the book's relevance to UD River Stewards and Dayton as a whole. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

My late arrival in Vechta presented an initial challenge, as I was originally going to be met at the train station by an company employee and get a ride to my WG (pronounced 'Vay-Gay'). Not knowing about my delay, however, said employee left the station before my late arrival. Luckily, I received the address in an email from my company. Unluckily, I had never bothered to right in down on paper. So began my stroll through downtown Vechta, backpack, tote bag, and wheely-luggage and all. My first stop, a family health center, provided directions to the nearest internet cafe. After about a 10 minute walk through the bustling heart of the city and over a river, I arrived at a rather tacky internet cafe. However tacky though, I had my address as well as the GoogleMap directions to get there, which ended up being just a short walk from the cafe.

I was greeted at my apartment by my Mitbewohnerin (gender-specific-ending foreshadow) Leah. Leah was a masters in education student at the local Uni. In fact, so were my other three Mitbewohner Rene, Thomas, and Basti. All four of them spoke near-fluent English, Leah having a subtle Canadian accent. Being masters students, all four were also older than me, averaging 23. This ended being a perk, because our WG was really very nice and enhanced by a dozen or more different pieces of art that either Rene or Leah had painted, drawn, or sculpted. More important though my Mitbewohner were all very nice, too. They were very helpful with my move in and very friendly. If they had weekend plans they would invite me, which during the first weekend turned into a road trip to Hamburg for a birthday party of a former Mitbewohnerin.

So here I am, caught up to semi-present time, living and working in Vechta. My landlord, Herr Schweinefuß (not a made up name) was able to find a bike for me which I use to ride to work every morning at WELtec-BioPower, where I have been reading about industrial Anaerobic Digesters, searching for different techniques to implement into a (hopefully) sustainable method of treating the post-digested eflluent.