At last, I received confirmation from Aachen that I am, in fact, enrolled. The notifying email also included information regarding fees (225 Euros a semester for basic transportation and maintenance) and language courses.
In particular, there is a month long German course (not for beginners) that runs in September just before school starts. I had heard about this program before but have chosen not to participate. The extra month of rent and food, as well as the shortened time-frame for getting a Visa, are too much for my tight budget and schedule.
The email also gave the official semester start and end dates. They are as follows.
Winter Semester: October 1st - March 31st (exam period begins mid February)
Summer Semester: April 1st - September 30th (exam period begins mid July)
Yes. That is an entire year seemingly without break. However, the fact of the matter is, during those exam periods, students will take all of those terrifying exams that will represent their only grades for the semester, but they have no other courses. If I take my exams as early as possible, I will be back in the states by August, just in time to go back to school. Yay! (<-not sarcasm, I swear.)
I heard back at long last from the BeBuddy program at Aachen saying they had found a "buddy" for me. I shot him an email introducing myself and asking which airports to use and where to look for housing (still waiting on University housing I may or may not receive). He replied back with the following helpful tidbits.
Airports:
Düsseldorf (code DUS) and Köln/Bonn (code CGN) are about 100km from Aachen
Frankfort (code FRA) is 250km, but it likely sees more flights through it.
Housing:
He recommended the following websites in order of helpfullness
www.immobilienscout24.de
www.immonet.de
www.immowelt.de
www.wg-gesucht.de (for a flat-sharing community if you're on a budget.)
It would seem the BeBuddy program has already started to pay off.
Expect my next post to involve either housing, airfare, or visas. Oh my.
