juma in germany: I made it!

After many months of anticipation, I am finally here! I packed up 2 bags and headed first to NYC to see friends on the 12th, and then to Germany on the 14th. At the moment I am in Mainz, a city along the Rhein that is only 20 minutes from Frankfurt, visiting my friend Julia! I will be here until Thursday, at which point I will head to Munich and meet my Au Pair host family.

After a sleepless flight, I arrived in Frankfurt yesterday at around 9 am, found Julia, took a nap for a few hours, and then got to it! I had the privilege of seeing Julia in Così fan Tutte last night, but have to say that, although the singing was fantastic, it was a bit of a struggle to stay awake. After the show we had a few beers with one of Julia's colleges and by that time I was very ready for bed. I slept until 2 PM today! What a waste, I know, but it was a gloomy day anyway. After lazing around for a few more hours, Julia and I ran some errands which included buying some German flag paraphernalia that will make an appearance tomorrow night when we watch the Germany v. Denmark game. So far Germany has won both of their games, so I hope they continue in this direction. I'll be sure to post about the game later. Another exciting thing I did today was buy a German sim card! I now have a German phone number but just need to figure out how to unlock my iPhone and all will be well...I've already spent many hours on this issue.

Tonight for dinner Julia and friends took me to a fantastic restaurant in Mainz called Kamin. It is known for having the best Flammkuchen in town. Flammkuchen was entirely new to me, but I'm so glad I got to try it. It is basically German style pizza that has extremely thin crust, is covered in crème fraîche, and topped with onions and bacon pieces. I got this one, Der Klassiker, because it is the typical Flammkuchen, but there are lots of other topping combinations you can get too!