The Namesake-city of Jena, Louisiana

.. but pronounced differently. Jena, Germany (YAY-nuh) was the site of a major Napoleonic victory and thus served as the namesake city for several other Jenas across the world, including Jena, Louisiana (JEAN-uh).

View towards the south of Jena from the commemorative Napoleonstein

I've been in Jena since the end of January this year, and I've thus far enjoyed the "small city" life, a.k.a. 100,000 person university-town. Some of the highlights of the area include great hiking in the surrounding hills, the Saale River cutting through town, being able to walk everywhere interesting in under 20 minutes, and the Old Town/Markt area in the center of town.

Following: some landscape views from around town.

Saale, "warm" winter weather

Saale, same spot, "cold" winter weather (the ducks don't care either way)

Old water tower on the outskirts of Jena

Erlkoenig statue

Market square, with some random person

View from the plateau in southwest of Jena

Springtime at the Strand22 bar on the Saale, with rentable swan boat

View from the swan

Balloon above the southwest hills

City view from the northwest hills

The Things You Take for Granted

A short list of things you take for granted living the States that are simply not a given in Germany:

• No Netflix, Amazon prime, or Pandora: You might be able to access shows and movies on Netflix or Amazon, but your content will be limited by geography. There's a German Amazon, but your American account won't transfer over any gift card funds or stuff like that. Also, Pandora is right out. You'll need a smart DNS or VPN to get around the limitations.
• Unlimited texting/calling with your phone plan: You'll probably have to pay per text or call-minute. Although plus-points for the high availability of no-contract phone service. It's been over 10 years since "long-distance calls" were a thing in the US, with calls between different area codes and states becoming irrelevant as everyone got cell phones. Well, in Europe it's a concept that's still around for calls between countries with different country codes. Suck it up, buttercup, and just use WhatsApp to contact your international friends instead.
• Using credit cards: There are a lot of cash-only places, and even in shops where you can use your debit card, sometimes you feel a little judged for holding up the line if you have to type in your PIN. With that said, my debit card is a touchless "contactless" one, so you don't even have to put it in a chip reader, just kind of waft it by a scanner, which is neat.
• Coffee sizes: are not sufficient by American standards. I have a moka-pot Bialetti-style coffee pot in my apartment whose box says it's a 3-cup pot.. but I would struggle to call it a one-cup pot. Maybe this is because it's more espresso-style coffee, but maybe it's just because I think a solid cup of coffee is one that could make a dent in a pint glass. As it is, I fill up a cup with equal parts milk and coffee to make it a reasonable cup. The presence of teeny tiny coffee mugs in my pre-stocked apartment makes me think it's not a one-off thing.
• Everything's just a little inconvenient: Opening a bank account is a pain.. you'd think they want your business, but not exactly. (N26 for online banking is the best.. although it means I have to withdraw money from certain shops, which is awkward and weird.) Apartment-hunting with German contracts is ridiculous, and what you get in the end sucks. If you want to engage in online shopping and have a package delivered to your apartment... just don't. Someone has to be there to receive it, and if it doesn't fit in your mailbox, you're SOL. (I have stuff delivered to my office, although that's probably against the norm / rules.) German fridges are generally tiny, so you have to go shopping more frequently. No Uber.

But there are of course good things to balance out the inconvenient.. like public transit that runs all night long, even if it only runs once an hour. No fear of getting shot walking around late at night. Pedestrian and bike-friendly cities. And so forth.. but that's not the subject of this post.