Ramblings on Travel in General

I think that instead of writing a typical what is different about Germany or awkward “I don’t know what is going on” story from my first few days in Germany. I will write a little bit about my thoughts on traveling in general which will probably in turn be related to my first few days.
1. Jetlag – Every time I have changed time zones the same thing has happened. Day 1 is really hard, and I go to sleep and wake up at a semi-reasonable time (5AM this trip) and go through the second day thinking that I am good to go. When I go to take a nap, sleep for 8 hours and wake up at midnight. It has happened almost every time. Actually I prefer this happening compared to the second time I came back from Europe landed at 8 PM but wasn’t tired, stayed up all night and struggled to stay awake until it got dark, and was stoked that I made it only to find that I couldn’t fall asleep until 3 or 4 AM.
2. Walking - I walk a lot when I am traveling. Maybe Americans just don’t walk much, but I probably walked at least 6 miles every day in Africa and have done the same here. I didn’t walk that much in Ecuador, but I walked a lot in Australia.
3. Eating - I almost always love the food when I am travelling. Except maybe Kenya. But I always have trouble deciding what to eat. I am not sure why I have such difficulty when food is on the line, but sandwich shops, bakeries, or shwarma places that have things in the window that I can point to normally win. Goettingen has 4 places selling salami hanging from the ceiling, my weakness thus far (see attached picture of over half my meals since landing). When cooking for myself I cook differently from when at home, but certainly also not like a local.
4. English – I speak a very different version of my English when I am travelling, and I don’t even know if it is easier for foreigners to understand. For instance I’ve noticed that I say “Something like this” instead of “something like that”. For example, “I am looking for a book about hiking in Germany, or something like this.” That is the example that comes to mind but my English changes a lot. My German has been sufficient in 95% of the situations not involving conversations with my advisor and getting better.
5. Independence – Traveling allows me to walk an interesting line between loneliness and freedom to do whatever I want. It is very freeing to be able to walk for hours through downtown with no plans, eat when I am hungry and sleep when I am tired and do whatever I want to do right at that moment. But it is also a strange feeling that no one will come and convince me to do go for a hike or get a beer. I don’t get lonely very often, but it is bound to happen in the following weeks so far from my loved ones.