Rostock... the actual reason I'm here

Rostock Harbor, looking left.
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Very early on Monday (the 11th) morning, Andrew was kind enough to drop me off at the train station so I could start my next all-day travel adventure of going from Freiburg to Rostock. The train ride was uneventful, with the small issue of there being some sort of accident and my train being delayed a good hour or so... clearly, I cannot get anywhere as planned. I did manage to find Dr. Reschly in the Frankfurt airport, where we loaded up his very nice (rented) AlphaRomeo and started driving the 6 hours to Rostock. The drive was fine, lots of chatting and a little napping... Reschly's an interesting guy.

Rostock Harbor, looking right. Just 2 days before we arrived in Rostock it was still packed with 1000's of student protestors, due to the G8 summit.
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We found Abby (the other student from Truman helping teach with Dr. Reschly) at the Rostock train station, rearranged the car and then went to meet the professor who set all of this up so as to get into our housing. Our place (WG, as they're called in German), seems to be pretty standard student housing here, which is comprable to a very small apt in the states (though our bedrooms are nice and big). Our kitchen is pretty sketchy-- 4 plates, 3 of them cracked, no glasses or bowls or much of anything else. Our roomate, Kai, has been there for about 3 weeks and is a pretty cool guy-- helps explain how to work the washing machine (and why it ate my 2€), where to find things, etc. When Abby and I mentioned looking for some cheap dishes, he said that if we're wondering how he lived like that, he mostly either used the same plate/fork/bowl or just ordered food... pretty standard guy. Our apartment is quite a ways out, though using street cars cuts our travel time down to about 25 minutes one way.

This is the Universitat Rostock main building, where we teach our "Religion and Politics" class.
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The classes I'm TA-ing for while here are American History classes that the University of Rostock invited Dr. Reschly to come and teach. "Religion and Politics" and "Women in American History" are the two courses and, thus far, both are going very well. We initially started the RP class with a simulation of the Kansas Board of Education debate on creationism/evolution, but the class has more turned to just discussing/debating how intricately religion has and does play a role in American history/gov.  The WAH class is more of a straight lecture, rather than discussion based, but still interesting and we help with discussions over essays the students are assigned. Mostly Abby and I are here to foster communication with the students and help answer questions, make sure things are getting across the language/culture barriers and such. I'm also taking 2 online courses from Truman, set-up directly with two profs I've had previously, that are based on classes being taught here in Rostock with the plan that I sit in on the classes. We'll be teaching in Rostock until July 16th, with many weekend travel plans during that time.