Accidental Discoveries

Today I received my semester ticket. This card allows me to use all public transport in the Aachen region. This will come in handy for getting to classes. I looked up the locations of all of the courses that I intend to attend this semester. For the most part, they are in the main RWTH campus near Templergraben and Wüllnerstraße. However, it would seem the psychology department wandered off a ways. My Intro to Psychology class is on the southeast side of the city. According to Google Maps and my own experience trying to walk it today, it takes a little over half an hour to get from there to my next class, control engineering. Naturally, I have exactly 30 minutes between the end of psych and the start of controls. Hopefully, the train that supposedly shaves 10 minutes off the commute arrives on time.

While attempting to find the psych lecture hall in the first place, I did make two pleasant discoveries. First, I came across a shop named Würfelkiste meaning Dice Box. As I walked past, the classic image of a robed figure wielding a sword atop a mountaintop caught my eye. Could it be? It was! A gaming shop. Although I do not expect to buy much (read I horde money like a dragon) I have high hopes of networking. The sooner I join a D&D campaign, the soon I will feel at home.

After finding the lecture hall and heading back home, I made my second discovery. I happened to notice a plastic bag on the ground. Inside the bag were six somewhat aging books. I scanned the area again to see if they were part of some donation program. After all, I had passed a used clothes collection point not a block earlier. Nope. The books sat at the base of some glass recycling bins. Well, I had intended to get books in Germany. Why not free ones? Below are their titles.

Geflügelte Worte, (Winged Words) Georg Büchmann

Der Fragebogen, (The Survey)Ernst von Salomon

Die Geächteten, (The Ostracized )Ernst von Salomon

Der Sowjetmensch, (The Anatomy of Soviet Man)Klaus Mehnert

Das andere Ich, (The Other Me) Heinrich Spoerl

Freund sei einer dem Andern, (To Be Friends With One Another) Hermann Kloke

The first two, according to the internet, are actually rather well known. At the very least, they are the best known works of their authors. All in all, I consider it a good find. Should I decide I don't want them, perhaps I can find a second hand bookstore that does.