moved in!

So I moved in to my room in Ehrenfeld, a great neighborhood in the NW part of the city. Lots of Italian and Turkish people milling about, as well as Germans and some other Volk and me. It is supposed to be an "ex-industrial" part of town, but I haven't seen many signs of heavy industry yet. You can see something from our kitchen window that looks like a lighthouse, although there is no water nearby (see picture to left). The neighborhood is also supposedly somewhat hip, but I haven't poked around for that sort of thing yet. There do seem to be hip people around.

The other two pictures above are of my workspace in progress and our kitchen table. I have a set on flickr with a few photos of Köln and my apartment.

My roomates are Eva (27) and Stefan (30). They are both extremely nice, fun, relaxed people who have helped me immensely in the few days since I've moved in (bedding being key, as well as tours around the neighborhood and borrowing of bikes). I'll get some pictures of them soon and put them up here.

Köln seems like an excellent city so far. Compact, lively yet relaxed, lots of bike paths and parks, and buildings that, when a bit structurally dull, are at least painted in cheerful pastels. You can find some nice old buildings too, but most of the Altstadt is gone as far as I can tell. There are some Roman ruins, though--sewers and such. How about that?