Change and it's on, super Bonn-Bonn

You know what? This is supposed to be an overseas travel blog, so, by god, I'm going to blog about overseas travel! Don't try and stop me, man! I'm gonna do it! "Hold onto your butts!" So after eight hours on a plane from Charlotte to Frankfurt, which included nasty chicken, some kind of breakfast thing called "Dave's Buttermilk Bar" (that name is real funny to me for some reason), and a pleasantly chatty lady on her way back to India from Charlestown, followed by a very scenic train ride along the Rhine from the airport to Bonn, here I am. During the train ride I ran into a group of Americans who were, as I feared, fellow Auslandsstudenten (foreign students) from Western Michigan University on their way to the exact same place as me. Except they had a group leader lady to make sure everything was squared away, and they got to take taxis from the train station to the International Office. Speaking as someone who made that ten minute walk through the aftermath of a spring shower with two suitcases, a backpack and a laptop, I find that pretty lame. They're all very nice though, and they invited me to dinner that night at a "German" restaurant with the kind of stereotypical Rathskeller atmosphere you'd expect from a place that was later described to me as "pretty touristy".

Three things that are probably funny only to me:
1) The third thing I saw when I got off the train, after the bus station and the taxi that almost ran me over, was a guy in a tiny, yellow Euroconvertible blasting the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" at top volume.
2) A Chinese Restaurant called "Wok In"
3) German McDonald's chicken sandwich: The Chicken Mythic.

This is my third day here and after introductions on Thursday and a walking tour on Friday of places we need to know about if we want to do things like eat and learn, I have today free to explore the city on my own. First stop, the Aldi, where I need to buy some damn food. I am trapped in a kind of Catch-22 though, since even if I buy food I don't really have anything to prepare or eat it with, until Tuesday when I pick up the ridiculous amount of stuff Paul left for me with his friend who is in the States til Tuesday. I will, however, survive. There is a welcome party tonight at the International Club (which offers Kölsch for 1,50€!). I have been told to expect Chinese food. The German word for MSG is "(das) Natriumglutamat". It is raining right now, but I'm going to go see if I can't figure this city out. I will try to get some photos up soon, but right now I'm still settling in/ trying to decide what is photo-worthy.
Until next time, armchair travellers, as they say here in the Rhineland, "Tschö!"