Ok, erstens things erstens, some links to some photos:

The journey here via paris

Some pictures of Karlsruhe (slightly random)

The Black Forest, or at least some of it. Pictures from an excursion with Fiona last Sunday.

Highlights of the week so far:

Trying to get a bike from a place on the edge of town where they fix old broken bikes and sell them on to (mostly) students. It looked so easy on the map that we (me and my Spanish office mate Eduardo) decided we didn't need to take it with us (the map that is - keep up) , but of course we didn't realise the tram would sort of double back on itself, so we set off in precisely the wrong direction. It was at this point (of course) raining torentially. After asking two people in Bauhuas (a sort of German B and Q) and several suited gents in a Mercedes dealership, we arrived about ten yards away from the original tram stop about one hour later. I asked the chap who runs the bike place if they sold boats or just bikes. It was my first ever joke in German. He laughed, but he was probably just being polite..

At the weekend, I watched a vintage car drive down the main street at high speed with four nuns in it, all (including the driver) holding onto their hats. Nobody else batted an eyelid. Huh? Lesson: never go out in Germany without your camera.

My flat

It's one room plus a shower and a WC (that's Vay-Say to you). The bed ist im Halbgeschoss, i.e. up a ladder. I'll take some pictures of it when there's a little more furniture. At the moment, I have a wardrobe which threatens to fall over at any minute (flat pack furniture is clearly only supposed to be built once), and a sort of wall unit bookcase thing. Nothing to sit on is the main problem. They have days here in Germany where people living on particular streets throw out all their unwanted furniture onto the pavement, any anyone can pick it up. You have 24 hours, and then the council removes the remainder. Quite a nice idea, I need to find the schedule or something..

In der nähe von meiner Wohnung is a club (downstairs, somehow not all that loud though), a cocktail bar, a tapas bar (opposite, with very good Fürstenberg on tap, €2.80 a pint), and a really cool Italian deli. They do very nice coffee in there, I've been every morning this week.You stand up at this table in the middle surrounded by beautiful fruit, veg, big joints of Parma ham, olive oils, coffee beans, fresh pasta. They're also very friendly people. I could quite easily spend a lot of money in there.

Ok, of course I'm really here to write my thesis, so must get back to that. Will post some more on the delights of MENSA, learning German, and The Best Supermarket in Germany later..