Good riddance Kiel!

Please understand, I (we) didn't hate the city, people, or my education that I received while staying in Kiel. Quite the opposite. But the program in general was flawed in that it lacked some very basic organisation usually present in any kind of program/event/party/semester/(fill in the blank). So, we had been told that we had to leave Friday, but, we could stay as late as needed on Friday, which was nice of them to let us do, seeing as how we paid so much for BreAnne alone to come and "participate" (i.e. pay rent and go on a VERY long day trip with the group). So, since we couldn't travel on the weekend (which is much, much, very much cheaper), we had to get a night train to Heidelberg. The problem with the damn things is that you can't bring any more luggage than what you can carry on a night train. So, we had the option (i.e. were forced) to have our luggage picked up by a courier service. The problem was, the dork didn't show up on Friday (departure date) to pick up our luggage. I called the service to ask them why they felt it was necessary to leave us out of their fun and was told that said dork had made an "attempt" (Versuch was the word) and was unable (by no fault of his own, I'm sure) to find us at home, even though we sat at home from 8 to 18 o'clock, as any good customer would do. Since we didn't have money to buy new tickets, we decided to give the courier service the necessary code, in order to be able to get into our stairwell, where we left the luggage. Everything was settled.

We hurried to catch our train and ended up in Karlsruhe, 40 km past Heidelberg. This happened because there was an accident on the tracks and we were detoured past Mannheim, didn't stop in Heidelberg (at least not on a platform), then were dumped out in Karlsruhe to find our way back to Heidelberg. After arguing shortly with a man, who by the way couldn't speak a reasonable dialect to save his life (welcome to southern Germany), we had to buy tickets to Heidelberg. In Germany, it's never anyone's fault. Things just are the way they are and you damn well better accept the fact. So, even though it didn't actually stop in Heidelberg, it really did.

Later in Heidelberg (more about the city in the next blog, I'm not finished with my treatise on incompetence just yet), we found out that the courier again failed to pick up our luggage. Basically, we had to pay again, with the hope that the first order will someday be refunded, and gave them the original orders again. Tomorrow (Wednesday the 15th) is the scheduled pick-up date. We'll see what happens. Until then, we will curse the disorganisation of the Kiel/U of U Study Abroad program. I haven't explicitly said why our situation is justifiably the fault of the program coordinators. The thing is, we found out a few hours before our departure, that we could have actually stayed until Sunday (despite, as the attentive reader will recall, being told to get the hell out by Friday). Had we known that, we could have all made it here on Saturday, bringing our luggage with us, for 33, € instead of what is, so far, about 300, €. That is why I am angry. That is why leadership and accountability is necessary in a Study Abroad program (Reader! You now know as I do, that we can't assume such amenities to be present in the real world). And that is why I didn't include pictures with this post. It's supposed to be ugly.