An Introduction to Kiel

I only have about 9 days until I leave the States for Germany. Which is really weird, because I know barely anything about the city to which I am moving. When I first left for Adelaide, I had some idea of what life would be like there. To be fair, though, it was all based off of some angsty letter a previous study-abroad student wrote about how expensive shampoo was in Australia (I mean, really, she recommended that you use half your suitcase for cosmetics. Really? That's a bit much).

So, after about an hour of internet searching, I have found that Kiel, Germany...

1. ...has a population of about 242,000, making it the largest city in Schleswig-Holstein (I didn't even need to spell-check that, how is that for progress?!) and a good bit larger than College Station/Bryan (97,000/78,000) or Concord (82,000).
2. ...is very far north and very cold and wet. There is no dry season in Kiel, as opposed to College Station where it would not rain for months. The hottest temperature ever recorded was 95 degrees, while the coldest was -2 (which, admittedly, is not that cold). However, about 20% of the year will be spent below freezing, and 65% of the year will be spent in the rain. This is no beach paradise. 
3. ...has a football team. Two, actually: Holstein Kiel is the Fußball league (3. Liga, so there won't be any big name teams playing), and the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes are the American football team. Of course, those games won't be anything like the NFL games over here, but football is football. Other than football, the city is known for its handball team, which I didn't realize was even a team sport until I saw it on Wikipedia.
4. ...is the location of the biggest sailing event in the world. The Kieler Woche runs during the last complete week in June and is mostly composed of drunk sailors, drunk tourists, drunk Kielers, and some sailing. This is unfortunate because exams will usually start in the few weeks after Kieler Woche.
5. ...is closer to Copenhagen than its own country's capital.
6. ...is dead on Sundays. That will take some getting used to. Australia is similar but, if I had to take a guess, probably more Americanized. 

I don't know what else to say about the city, since most of the online reviews are in English and by people who saw the city as part of a cruise. So I guess I will just have to have an open mind about the city and see what happens!