A Change of Location

My apartment building

As I mentioned last post, I'm now living in the Nordstadt of Hannover.  The Nordstadt is probably known as a neighborhood with younger, livelier residents and more diversity.  This makes sense when you take into account that the university is right on the edge of the neighborhood. There are some really nice side streets, though the main street is not too aesthetically interesting.

So far I've mainly just gotten to know the Nordstadt through my daily routine.  A 4 minute walk away is the U-bahn station, which is very convenient for getting around.  Now that I'm finally enrolled at the university, I also have my semester ticket so that I can ride for free in Niedersachsen, which is awesome!  Transportation has started to line up much better in my head now that I'm commuting almost every day and can take different routes depending on times. 

The other places of interest for me are the two grocery stores, the two markets, the organic food shop, Woolworths, the public library, the bakery, the print shop and the two drugstores.  All of these are within a 1-10 minute walk.  And if I'm feeling lazy, then there's my bike to quicken things up.  One of the nice things about living in a German city is that you will have most everything you need located very close to you.  Each neighborhood seems to be its own microcosmos with its own main street, and since housing is so dense, the distances are pretty short.  

If I head in the other direction, I'll be at the main building of the university in 10 minutes.  Right past there is a beautiful park, the Georgengarten, which extends towards the Herrenhäuser gardens.  The Georgengarten has a long tree-lined walk way, ponds, grassy areas, and many huge old trees.  And right beyond the park is a little river.  Now that I have a bike, I've realized just how close-by many parts of the city are.  I'm also happy because I found out that the history building is located even closer to me on the street next to mine.

So lately I've been balancing the daily life tasks with heading to school and figuring out my schedule there and sorting out university things.  While I now have a two week vacation from work at school, I'll be starting two classes next week, so yet again, things never seem to slow down!