The trip to Germany is not that bad: transfer in Frankfurt airport, fly to Leipzig, wait in the airport for 10 hours—the worst part of the trip, actually, since I have not booked a hotel for that night in order to save money—and then, after walking in the wrong direction for three consecutive times, get the necessary information, get my room keys and arrive at my room, a very nice and big (at least twice as large as my room at Rice).

First impression in Leipzig: people here do not speak English a lot. And that is a problem, or challenge, a more positive way to call it. I have tried to communicate with people in English, but it is difficult. It seems that people here speak English as much as I speak German. That was when I decided to speak German dominately, even it seemed difficult.

The worst time of the day happened in the afternoon. I was supposed to arrive at a plaza at 6:45 pm for a welcome party. I set my clock at 5:30 pm, and went to sleep at 3:30, feeling that I could certainly be on time for the party. I needed sleep because I haven’t really slept for 26 hours—since I got on the plane from Beijing to Franfurt. And what happened next was that—I overslept. I haven’t heard the clock at all. When I waked up, I saw that the sky was turning a little bit dark, and I immediately thought that I have overslept because the sky around 6 pm is still bright and shining.

So then I took a shower and will go to bed again. I need much rest. Today is exciting, tiring, and a bit of unfortunate day. Chinese people believe that luck is conservative. We call it 人品守恒, which basically means that bad luck today will turn into good luck in the future. I believe that tomorrow I will have better luck.