An example of the advantages of being abroad and having somehow less "duties" is the huge choice of sports you're faced with. Actually, Göttingen does have a great sports center as well, but I didn't find time to try everything (and I heard that surfing might get a bit complicated...).
So I started with rowing, some soccer, still running and yesterday I went kickboxing for the first time of my life! A friend of mine is doing it and there's one free time you can join a lesson (afterwards it's about 100$/month with about five lessons a 45 min a week). I had no idea what to expect, so I was a bit confused when I got gloves when I came in. The interpretation of "kickboxing" is quite literally (not kicking boxes, but a large bag), so we basically boxed a huge bag in front of us and hit it with a kick. Doing that with a high speed for quite some time is sufficiently exhausting :) (I shouldn't forget the usual fitness "torture" in form of push-ups and crunches we did.)
I absolutely dislike boxing since people hurt each other on purpose and others watch it, enjoy it and cheer. (Seems to me like re-invented gladiator games) However, this kickboxing was a lot different and mainly concerned about fitness. I can definitely recommend it, but probably I won't join (there's sailing on Saturday ;)).
