Arriving In Ilmenau

When we first got to Ilmenau I thought "How beautiful". The long hours of flightand the boring train here were worth it. I like how it's tucked in this tiny little crevice between the forest and the mountains. The people are weird though. They all stare at you as you walk through the streets, as they sit in the cafes. When you walk past them on the streets, they don't acknowledge your presence. I guess it's some of the old ways of the DDR clinging to an atmosphere where everything is turning western. They have a McDonalds here, and even though I don't like McDonalds, the stuff on their menu looks so much better than ours. They sell Mickey D'S cheese in a place called Kaufland. It kinda reminds me of Wal-Mart. The only difference to me is that they have a few individual stores, where you can buy clothing and shoes.

I like how almost none of the streets are straight. It seems like every few meters (look, I'm talking metric system now) there's a turn or a slight curve; always going up or downhill. That brings me to the driving. It seems like everyone here has a system down, where they drive as fast as they want, even through the downtown area. I'm afraid that I may not make it home because I'm not used to drivers whipping around blind curves at 60 mph. Everything they drive, as far as I've seen, have been stick shifts. It's a wonder that more people here don't become rally car racers.

The downtown area is the most charming part of the city. Plain and simple, I like the detail and the care that Europeans put into their central areas. I also think that this place has a while to go before they get used to westerners coming here. I think that I dress very similar to the way that a lot of the people here dress. But somehow (other than the fact that they can see that I'm black), they know that I'm not from their neck of the woods. Ilmenau is a charming little town. You have to call it a town when there's only 30,000 people living here, and 6,000 of them are students. But I know I shall grow tired of it quickly. There's nothing to do in small towns.