Sickness, Bad Weather, and Political Extremists...Welcome to Germany.

Wow, this past week was very full, and it is a little overwhelming to think about writing all of it down, but here it goes :-)

Monday: I woke up Monday feeling terrible. My throat hurt, I had a really nasty cough, my nose was really stuffy, my ears were clogged, and I was really just having a hard time breathing in general. Super way to start the week, right? So I called Jessica in the international office and told her I needed to go to the doctor. Then Carina came to get me and took me to the address the Jessica gave her, only to find that the address in the phonebook was the personal address of a retired doctor—things are really never dull here. So we drove around and found another doctor who told me that I had a sinus infection, and I bought my medicine. The exciting part is that my health insurance doesn’t start working until April because I’m not a full time student yet, so I have to pay for all of this :-D Overall, Monday was a dreary, cold, sick day, and I hope to never relive it while I am here.

Tuesday: Tuesday night had an interesting beginning: we met our Tutorium group at the Hauptbahnhof to see a movie, and there were Polizei everywhere. When I asked one of the leaders of the Tutorium why there were so many Polizei, they told me that there was a Neo-Nazi demonstration right outside of the Hauptbahnhof. Apparently, a man was arrested for claiming that the Holocaust never happened (which is illegal in Germany), and this group was demonstrating because they want the government to release him. I found it both interesting and confusing—when I decided to come to Germany, I never imagined that I would be so close to a demonstration like this… Needless to say, we didn’t stick around very long, and we were soon moving on to see the movie “Der Vorleser.” Some of you may have heard of it—the English version is called “The Reader” and it was nominated for best picture. It was interesting because it is based on a German novel, it is set in Germany, it was filmed in English, and we watched it dubbed into German. Apparently, Germans win all kinds of awards for their dubbing abilities, and I sometimes forgot that it was dubbed while I was watching it. It was really a good movie, and I recommend it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Wednesday and Thursday were lazy-try-to-recover-from-being-sick days. Pretty unexciting and full of really cold, terrible weather. On Wednesday I finally got internet (I was the last American to get it), which was pretty exciting. On Thursday we went to Ikea, and I discovered that German Ikeas are pretty much exactly like American Ikeas. I was very excited because I bought a thermos, and I can now take a warm beverage to class every morning :-D Huzzah for hot tea. That evening, I went to Simon’s flat in Eastend (about a 10 minute walk) and Thiébaud made us delicious French food—yummy. He also brought wine from the vineyard where he lives in France—yummy, and Judit and Tamas also came and brought delicious Hungarian food—yummy. I love being an international student :-D

The yummy "apple pie" that Thiébaud made

Wendy and I with our super delicious Hungarian food...it was a type of pastry that you rub garlic on, then you cover it in sour cream and cheese. Mmmm :-D

Tori and Judit with the Hungarian food.

My favorite French people :-D

Friday: On Friday we took a night tour of the Kokerei Hansa, a coal processing factory. It was very interesting, and everything looked really cool, because the place was lit with blue lights. Unfortunately, I still was not feeling amazing and it was particularly cold, so I did not enjoy it as much as I could.

It was a long walk up to the top of this...

The blue light made everything look so cool

My friend Diana

Saturday: To be honest, I really was not looking forward to our trip to Dusseldorf on Saturday because I was tired, the weather was cold, and I still wasn’t feeling 100%. Despite this, I bundled up (a sweater, two jackets, leggings under my jeans, etc.), and went to another very interesting German town. We started with a boat tour of the Rhine, then we had some free time downtown. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised to hear that I spent my free time eating :-) It was on this day that I learned that it is a major insult to leave food on your plate in Germany, and Germans don’t really have take-out boxes. Honestly, in the whole time I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a German leave food on his or her plate. Ever. So, I ate a huge pizza (about the size of a medium at home) all by myself. I still can’t believe I ate the whole thing. After lunch, a few of us went and bought some Altbier, the beer specific to Dusseldorf. I have to admit, that I really was not a fan. Ok, I hated it, but I can say that I drank an Altbier in Dusseldorf. :-)

With the pirate on our Rhine boat :-D

Jonas and I with our Altbier

One the way back to Dortmund on Saturday, we had an interesting experience. As the train pulled into the station, I noticed that it was packed full of people that were all dressed alike. I just assumed they were football fans (there was a big rivalry match on Saturday) and stepped up to the door to wait for them to get off, but one of the Germans that was with me put her hand on my shoulder and gently pulled me back. At that moment, countless people who looked to be about my age came pouring out of the train dressed in all black with sunglasses. They were all chanting, waving communist flags, being really rowdy, etc, and it was really intimidating for a confused foreigner like me. Once they had all left the platform and we boarded the train, I learned that this was a group called Antifaschistische Aktion (Anti-Fascist Action), which is a militant anti-fascist group that was founded around 1985. To be honest, I was really upset when I saw what they had done to the train. Now before I tell you what the train looked like post anti-fascists, I need to tell you a little about the trains in my area. I live in the industrial part of Germany, and it really isn’t the best or nicest area here. Most of the trains are pretty beat up and have quite a bit of vandalism, but this particular train actually looked really new, which is impressive for this area. Unfortunately, the train is now covered in anti-fascist stickers and black permanent marker saying things like “No-Nazis” and “AFA Liebe.” Don’t get me wrong, I dislike Nazis as much as the next person, but I don’t understand how people expect to gain followers and support when they create scenes at train stops and destroy public property… I do, however, think it is interesting that I was in the close proximity of both a Neo-Nazi demonstration and an Anti-Fascist demonstration, all in the same week…welcome to Germany.

Link to Facebook Album for more pictures

A Full Week

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 18:30 Dortmund time, 13:30 EST

Well, it has been a long week. It appears as though Sunday is my “posting day,” simply because Sunday is the only day that my day is not completely filled with stuff to do. Here was my week:

Monday: Monday afternoon we had a “Doubles Meeting” where we met everyone’s doubles, played some games, and started to plan some future activities. I’m really excited because we are apparently going to have a Fourth of July party this summer complete with grilling, beer, and fireworks. I love the Fourth of July, and I don’t have to miss it this year :-) We are also planning a trip to München (Munich) which is really cool because many people consider München to be the second capitol of Germany, and there are a lot of neat thing to do there. After the meeting Carina and I went to Anna’s house and watched Momma Mia with a few other girls. I’ve never seen Momma Mia, and it was interesting because we actually watched the “sing-a-long” version—oh girl parties :-)

Tuesday: On Tuesday, we went on a trip with our orientation group (all of the international students plus three German students who are showing us cool stuff in the area—about 40 or so people) to the Bergbau museum in Bochum, a town near Dortmund, which was a museum about the history of coal mining in the area where I am living. It was really very interesting—basement was a reconstruction of a coal mine, and I learned quite a bit. Our tour guide was extremely funny, but he was also very difficult to understand because he had a very loud, booming voice and an interesting dialect (the entire tour was in German). Half the time, I couldn’t understand him, and the other half of the time, I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not (which he usually was). That evening Steven came to my room and asked if I wanted to check out the Kneipe in our dorm. It was nice—quiet and not nearly as crowded as the others, plus they apparently have a special every week, and this week it was €2 strawberry daiquiris. Next week is cocktail night, and I’m not sure what that entails, but I shall be there :-) While we were at the Kneipe, I drank a pint of a beer that I have discovered here. That’s right, I actually found a beer that I like, and it is called Franciskaner Weiβ—a wheat beer. So for all of you that insisted that I will find a beer that is delicious in Germany: You win.

With our funny tour guide at the Bergbau Museum

Cool art at the museum

Wednesday: On Wednesday, I went grocery shopping at the LIDL by my home. It’s about a 15 minute walk, and I took my backpack to put most of the food in (you have to pay for your grocery bags here, so most people bring their own, which I think is a great idea). I was very pleased to learn that food in Germany is apparently quite cheap—I got A LOT of food for only €23. It probably would have been $50 or more in America, so I was pretty excited. One of the things I bought was my first jar of Nutella, and I am now wondering how I lived this long without it :-) That evening, Stephen cooked dinner for the both of us. We have both missed eating vegetables because it appears as though the stereotype that the only vegetables that Germans eat are potatoes are cabbage hold some truth, so we ate pasta with eggplant. It was delicious, and it is just nice to eat dinner with someone else. We usually eat together at least once or twice a week, and I’m really glad that I have a “dinner buddy.”

Thursday: Thursday was another orientation day. We went to a place called Steinwache, which is a former Nazi prison that has been converted into a museum, and it is located right outside of the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). The whole place was incredibly interesting, but our tour guide spoke VERY quickly and slurred his words together (in German, of course), so I actually learned very little. Fortunately, Anika (one of the German students that are leading these trips) translated a little for us and is going to go back with a few of us, so we can learn more. One very interesting story that I did learn is about a journalist who was arrested by the Nazis because he was a social democrat and kept in the prison for awhile before he was sent to a concentration camp (they actually have the page from the registration book with his name on it framed). He spent 8 years in the concentration camp, and survived it, and afterwards, he began the mayor of the town that I live in. I wish I could remember his name…I will ask Anika and post it later. After our tour, Stephen and another American, Diana from South Carolina, came to my apartment, and we all ate dinner together. It was really wonderful, and I’m glad that some of the friends that I am making live remotely close to me so I will be able to see them when I come back.

Friday: Friday was an interesting day in class. Everyone was supposed to bring something that is typical for a German breakfast, and we all ate a potluck breakfast together. While we were eating, each country did a sort presentation about where they live. Some of them were really funny, and some were quite interesting. I already had a list of places that I wanted to go, but now that list is even longer :-) I didn’t really do anything Friday night. There was a huge party, but I didn’t go because I wanted to be awake for Saturday…

Saturday: We went to Köln (Cologne)! It was really cool, but it didn’t start out so well. We were meeting at the Hauptbahnhof at 10:00, and the S-Bahn left the University at 9:49, but I missed it. It was like a scene out of a movie: I went running down the stairs and banged on the door of the train as it pulled away. Sad Face. Unfortunately, trains don’t run as often on the weekends so I had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. Fortunately, they weren’t actually planning on leaving the Hauptbahnhof until 10:49, so I still made it before our train to Köln. First, we went to the Dom, which is a huge gothic cathedral that is very well known. It was bigger and more intricate than anything that I had ever seen—every time you would turn around, you would see something else, and there were countless cool things inside. I wish I knew more about Catholicism, so I would have understood more It apparently took hundreds of years to build, which does not surprise me at all because the detail was unbelievable. I have such a hard time imagining how mankind built something like this—especially without the technology that we have now, and I am so jealous because we really don’t have anything in America like the cathedrals and castles in Europe. After looking at the outside and the inside of the Dom, we actually walked to the top of the tower and looked around. The view was fantastic, but the walk was exhausting—509 stairs. After the Dom, we went to the Lindt Chocolate Museum which was also very interesting. There were displays about the history of the cocoa trade, what chocolate does to different parts of your body, what the ingredients are used for different types of chocolate, etc. One room, which was really cool, was basically a chocolate factory. We could watch every step of the process—starting with the cocoa bean and ending with a chocolate fountain :-) Delicious. After the museum, we were free to go home or do whatever we wanted in Köln. Stephen and I stayed with two other Americans (Tori and Wendy—both from Iowa), because we all wanted to try Kölsch. Kölsch is the traditional beer of Köln, and I believe that Köln is the only place that brews it. Most of you will not be surprised to hear that I didn’t like it, but I did drink a little glass because I was in Köln and it is basically required. Afterward, we met up with two Irish students who had stayed behind to watch a really important rugby match in an Irish pub. That was very entertaining. Overall, a really good day—filled with the old, the new, good friends, and lots and lots of sunshine! :-)

The exterior of the Dom

The interior—I just thought this was pretty with the colored light from the window…

The view from the tower

Next to the chocolate fountain in the chocolate museum

Tori and I with our Kölsch

Today: Today was Carina’s sister’s birthday and I was invited to her party. It was really nice, Carmen’s (her sister) home was filled with family and friends and lots of food. I got to work on my German a little because many people didn’t speak much English, which is always nice. I really do love Carina’s family. They just kind of took me in, and they are all so friendly and loving :-)

As you can see, they keep us very busy here. Unfortunately, I think that I am getting sick. I actually missed class on Thursday because of it. My throat has slowly been getting more and more sore until today, when it stopped being sore and was replaced with a stuffy nose, complete with drainage, clogged ears, and icky coughing. Super. Tomorrow I’m going to try and go see a doctor. I mean, I pay €65 a month for German health insurance, so I might as well get my money’s worth out of it. I really don’t want to miss anything because of it, so I’m trying to take care of it early. I’m just worried because I don’t really know how the healthcare system works here. I’m not sure how to find a doctor (or more specifically, a doctor that speaks English), and I don’t know if they work with appointments or walk-ins, etc. I guess I’ll learn tomorrow. Another bummer: I still don’t have internet in my room. This is apparently a common problem with quite a few of the American students. We faxed our forms well over a week ago, and the international office has been working for days to try and fix it. I guess it’s not the worse thing that could happen, but it’s the little things like having to walking 15 minutes for internet that wear you down when you leave home.

As I’m finishing up, I thought I might make a list for you of the things that I miss and don’t miss about the U.S.:

I don’t miss…

*T.V.—I haven’t watched T.V. since I arrived
*Paying for gas
*Hersheys—the chocolate here is so much better
*WalMart—the LIDL where I shop is maybe the size of a CVS
*Fast food—I cook every night
*How spread out everything is—there is a grocery store, a bakery, three good bars, etc. all within walking distance of my home here

I miss…
*Free water—beer is actually cheaper than water here
*The accessibility of being able to drive—I’m still trying to understand public transportation
*Peanut butter, Poptarts, and Sonic peach tea
*Jack FM—as soon as I get internet, I’m going to stream it in my room
*Being able to understand everyone

****Update: I went to the doctor today (Monday). I have a sinus infection, and the doctor gave me antibiotics and decongestants.

Link to my Facebook album for more photos

Beer, the city, and getting lost

Sunday, March 15, 2009 19:30 Dortmund time, 14:30 EST

The last time I posted on here, I was in the library waiting to go to the neipe, and I ended up having so much fun there! This Kneipe was a little different (which can only be expected because it was in a different place), and one of the main differences was the disko ball and people dancing. It also made a huge different that I stayed much longer—I think I left around 1:00. While I was there, I made a couple of new friends including three French boys (Thiébaud, Oliver, and Simon), a boy from Mexico (José Carlos), and a girl from Turkey (Sevim). One guy from Ireland, Eric, was pretty drunk and starting buying everyone drinks, and he bought me a whole pint of beer. Now most of you know that I don’t really like beer, and I immediately tried to think of a way that I could get rid of it without actually drinking all of it (I did drink a little) or offending Eric (who was probably too drunk to notice anyway). So, whenever Eric wasn’t looking, I would pour some of my beer in Thiébaud’s or Olivier’s glass because they were drinking the same beer. It was so funny because Eric kept looking at me and saying, “Man, Tennessee girls really know how to kick them back!” Haha... The international students here are so friendly, and we all get along pretty well because we are all in the same boat—I’m already wishing I could take them all home with me in July.

At the Kneipe. In the back from left to right is Sevim (Turkey), Thiébaud (France), me, Olivier (France), and some guy I don’t know that jumped in the picture. In the front, Pedro (Portugal) is on the left and Simon (France) is on the right. I’m holding my huge beer that I only actually drank a small portion of :-)

On Thursday we did all of our administrative stuff, then Carina took Steven and me to Roller, which is similar to Ikea, but it has less furniture. There I bought two lamps (there is only one tiny light in my room, and it is entirely too dark), a tea kettle (I just can’t make it 5 months without tea), and a few other odds and ends. We also went to a Real which is similar to a WalMart and bought some groceries. When we got back, Steven and I ate dinner together (it was nice to actually have dinner with another person again), then went to the library to check our email and study for our quiz on Friday. It was a truly exhausting day—we were busy from 9:45 in the morning until about 11:00 or later at night.

Friday night we had our first orientation “trip” which was actually at a café on campus called Sonnendeck (I think I’ve mentioned it before…). I sat with my new friends from the Kneipe, and I drank a Jack and Cola—at which point Simon called me a “true Tennessee girl.” It was over at 8:00, and we felt that was a little early for a Friday night, so we went into the city and found a restaurant/bar called “Alex” which was pretty nice. While we were there, Thiébaud introduced me to a beer that I actually like! It’s a white beer from München that is very dense—you can’t see through it. As soon as I remember the name, I’ll post it on here.

In Alex on Friday night. Thiébaud was jealous of my super cool shades, so he made his own :-) After we took this picture, he said “Crap, you’re going to put that on Facebook aren’t you?” Haha. Yes, Thiébaud, I am!

Saturday was our next orientation trip. This time we went to downtown Dortmund and saw some of the important buildings and stuff. They actually did this in the form of a scavenger hunt where they divided us into groups and gave each group different questions to answer about the different places we had to visit. It turns out that there are some really cool places in Dortmund! At the end of our trip, we met at Westfallenpark, and we all went up to the top of the media tower (about 140 meters). The view was absolutely amazing! I thought it was really cool, because I can see the tower from my room, and I could see my building from the tower. Here are some pictures of my downtown experience:

Rienoldikirche. Part of the church is being renovated, which is very typical around here because all of the buildings are so old.

Oh Lamborghini, you are so very pretty.

The front of the old Stadthaus.

There are flying rhinos all over the town. Each one has an advertisement for the building next to it. I am on a mission to photograph them all. This is my favorite thus far—it says, “When rhinoceros’s fly, they also need a place to land!”

Heather (from Alabama) and I made a new friend outside the new Stadthaus.

The view from the media tower—I circled my building :-)

After our tour, Stephen and I headed home with some people that live in a dorm near ours. Once we got to the bus stop, Stephen told me that was going to eat dinner with the other people, so he was taking a different bus. He told me which bus to get on (he is much more public-transportation-savvy), and I got on by myself. It turns out it was the right bus, but it was going to the wrong direction. After about four or five stops, we came to the last stop and the bus driver kicked me off the bus, leaving me alone and lost in the middle of Dortmund. At this point, it started to rain. Shit. After taking another bus, a couple of subways, and walking quite a bit, I finally made it home—about an hour and a half after I got on the first bus. Needless to say, I was exhausted, perturbed, and a little gross, and I had about 20 minutes to get ready before Carina picked me up to go to her house for dinner again. I’m very glad I went because it put me in a much better mood to eat homemade food and enjoy the pleasant company (Anna came to, and I was very excited because she’s been out of town for almost a week and I’ve missed her). Dinner at Carina’s helps me with my German because we are not really allowed to speak English because her parents don’t understand it, and her dad tells us to stop whenever we start speaking English, which is actually a good thing because most of the international students can speak English much better than German so we speak too much English.

Today was a much deserved lazy day. I’ve spent most of the day cleaning and reading for class (for the record, it is really hard to read a novel in another language). Around 11:00, Stephen brought me a fresh pastry from the bakery as a “peace offering” for putting me on the wrong bus, and we sat and drank tea for awhile. Overall, a good day.

That’s all for now, tomorrow starts another very busy week. Also, just so all of you know, it is now after 8:30, which means this entry took over an hour to write. This explains why I only write about twice a week :-)

Tschüss!

Cow Poop and Bunnies

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 19:15 Dortmund time, 14:15 EST

Nur eine Woche und so viel!!!!! I really can’t believe that I’ve only been here for a week because so much has happened. I guess I’ll start where I left off—the Kneipe (student bar). I did go on Monday night, and it was an interesting experience. The bar is very small, but it has a couple of rooms (including a non-smoking room—yay!). There is basically enough room for everyone to stand around, drink beer, and talk. It is really a good way to be social, and you can meet a lot of people by going to the Kneipen every night. I’m actually planning on going to another one tonight… Stephen came to the Kneipe as well, and when we had both had enough (which was a little early because we were both exhausted), we walked home. It was nice to have a walking buddy because Ostenberg is about a 15-20 minute walk from Emil-Figge (the name of the buildings where I live), and it was a little late for me to be walking on a street that I’ve never been on before by myself. Now I know the way, and I would be much more confident walking by myself—the streets here are very well-lit and safe.

Speaking of walking, every day I walk to the University from my room, and I really enjoy it because there are fields on either side of the road. The fields smell like cow poop—especially when it has been raining, and this may sound weird, but I love the smell of cow poop. It reminds me of our farm in Virginia, and every time I smell it, it’s actually quite comforting, like smelling home. There are also bunnies all around my dorm, the walk to campus, and campus—especially when it is dark. Last night when I was walking back from the library, I counted 8 rabbits running around, sleeping, and chasing each other. It was wonderful. I think it’s neat that I am in the middle of the industrial area of Germany, but I can still experience this at least twice a day.

On Tuesday I had my first real day of Sprachkurs. There are 15 students in the third course, and 6 of us are Americans. The class isn’t too bad, but parts of it are quite challenging. We are going to be reading a German novel, Russendisko by Wladmir Kammer, and we are also covering some geography and a lot of grammar. One really nice thing about it is getting to know the other people. One of my favorite people in the class is Balazs. He is from Hungary, and he is one of those people who is always smiling. Everyday in class we have a 15 minute break, and both yesterday and today Balazs, a few other people, and I went to Sonnendeck. It’s a pretty cool café on campus with some delicious bread and desserts, and both days I’ve bought a Brötchen (small loaf of bread, think slightly larger than a roll) with chocolate chips in it—yum!

Today we had our academic orientation. They gave all of us course catalogues, gave us some information about how credits transfer home (almost all of the classes are 2 US credit hours), recommended some classes, and introduced us to our academic advisors. I have a meeting with my advisor, Veronika, on Monday to finalize my schedule. If everything goes as planned, this is about what it should look like:

Monday: 8:30-10:00, Gents Prefer Angels: Images of Victorian Women and Men
12:00-13:30, Deutsch als Fremdsprache: Koversation (German as a foreign language: conversation)

Tuesday: 9:00-12:00, Germany: Cultural Narratives and Cultural History (this is a blockseminar so it only meets for the second half of the semester)
18:00-19:30, Migration and the Global Horizon of Contemporary American Fiction

Wednesday: 10:15-11:45, Deutsch als Fremdsprache: Landeskunde—Literatur, Kultur, und Sprache (German as a foreign language: regional studies—literature, culture, and language)
14:15-15:45, Deutsch für Studium und Alltag (German for university studies and everyday life)

Thursday: 10:00-12:00 Sagen und Legenden (legends, myths, folkore)

Sounds pretty exciting, right? I think it is :-) Just so you know, if the title is in English, the class is taught in English, and if the title is in German and I had to translate it, the class is taught in German. There is a pretty good mixture of both classes taught in German and classes taught in English. We’ll see how my meeting goes with my advisor.

The sun decided to come out today, which was amazing because I’ve only seen the sun twice since I’ve come here. The weather is usually terribly dreary: cold, cloudy, windy, and drizzly. I’m really glad it was sunny today, because the weather was starting to get me down; it’s hard to stay optimistic when the weather is so depressing. Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow too. Tomorrow we don’t have Sprachkurs because we are going a ton of administrative stuff: signing my rent (and hopefully getting internet in my room), opening a German bank account, acquiring German health insurance, etc. It will be a pretty full day because after we are done, I’m going shopping with Carina—probably at Ikea. My room is in desperate need of a lamp because I only have one tiny light and it’s really dark in my room. I also need a couple other odds and ends like a teapot, and hangers.

Well, I think I’ve written enough, and all of you are sufficiently updated. Thanks for reading all of these—it’s much easier to update my blog than tell individual people what’s going on.

Tchüss!

Sprachkurs and a New Friend

I'm writing this in the library, so I think the time is correct: 16:52 Dortmund time, 11:52 EST

Today was my first day in the Sprachkurs, and it was another adventure. There were students there from all over—America, Turkey, Mexico, Hungary, Korea, etc. and the instructors said everything in both German and English, so I felt a little bad for the students whose native language is not English.

It turns out that there are actually three different classes—a beginner's class (class 1), an intermediate class (class 2), and an advanced class (class 3), and we started by evaluating our German. First, we had to find a partner that spoke a different Muttersprach (native tongue), and then we had to ask them a few questions in German: What is your name? Where are you from? What are you studying? What do you like to do in your freetime? How long have you studied German? Then we had to introduce our partner to the rest of the class and tell them, in German, our partner's answers while the teachers evaluated our speaking abilities. My partner was Han-na from Korea, and she was very sweet. Then we had a short Aufsatz (writing assignment) where we had to state why we chose to come to Dortmund and what we hope to get out of the experience. At this point, we took a tour of the campus while the teachers read our answers and put us into the different classes. I was very excited to learn that I am in the third class, which hopefully means that I will be able to learn quite a bit.

I met a new friend while I was in the class: Stephen from Atlanta. He is in the third class with me, and he also lives in the same village (I don't know what else to call our little cluster of buildings) as I do. He's very friendly and it is nice to hang out with him because he also prefers to speak German when possible. Now I have someone to walk home with from the classes :-)

Tonight the new students are meeting at one of the student bars at 9:00. Apparently, it is really popular, and a lot of people are going to be there. I'm not sure yet if I am going because I am so tired—everything is so new that I really haven't started sleeping well yet, and I have class in the morning. We'll see how I'm feeling when the time comes...

Tchüss!

Deutschland ist am Besten!

Thursday, March 8, 2009 20:30 Dortmund time, 15:30 EST (Hope you guys had fun changing the clocks--now we're only 5 hours apart)

Today was a good day. I’m still working on catching up on my sleep (going to the Disko didn’t really help…) so I slept in until noon. I had planned on walking around campus for awhile—exploring and taking pictures, but it was raining. Again. Yesterday was the only day that I’ve seen the sun shining, and I guess that made me optimistic for a walk today, but the Deutsches Wetter (the German weather) was back. For breakfast I had Brot mit Käse, ein paar Mandeln, und Apfelsaft (bread with cheese, a few almonds, and apple juice), and it was delicious. After that, I just relaxed—I haven’t really done any relaxing since I got here, and I really needed it.

At 4:30 Carina picked me up and took me to her home for dinner with her parents, her sister and brother-in-law, and her boyfriend. It was interesting because Carina and her sister were the only ones that spoke English (well, kind of—I learned that Carina’s boyfriend can speak English but chooses not to because he doesn’t like it). Once again, I am so glad that I came into this knowing some German. I was actually able to hold a decent conversation with Carina’s family—she would just translate the difficult words. Coming to Germany has made me so much more confident in my German because I’ve discovered that I do know enough to communicate with people and quite a few native speakers have complimented me on my German. Carina told me that Americans usually butcher the word order, but that I’m actually very good at it. Knowing that makes me more comfortable speaking German, and then I learn more—it’s a very positive cycle.

Carina’s mother was so nice. She told me to make a list of things that I need in my room and to bring it next time I come, and they would lend those things to me—it was so sweet and helpful. Anna’s family did the same thing yesterday. Anna went home yesterday for a week, and she is bringing back posters for my walls and also an armchair for my room. There is this stereotype that Germans are rude and stand-offish, but it’s all lies. At least that has been my experience so far.

Dinner was amazing! Carina’s mom made typische Deutsche food—potatoes, red cabbage, and meat rolled up with different stuff inside: pickles, onions, mustard, etc. It was delicious!!!!! Every time I eat, people tell me that I don’t have to eat it if I don’t like it, but German food is so good! After I told Carina’s mom that the food was very good, her father said that there is no good American food, and it made me laugh :-) For dessert we had berries cooked with liquor and covered in pudding, and it was also delicious.

After dinner, Carina, her boyfriend, and I played Phase 10. It was cool because the game was German, and all of the phases were written in German, so now I know some card playing terms—Drilling (three of a kind), Vierfolge (four in a row), sechs in eine Farbe (six of the same color), etc. We spoke German and ate chocolate the whole time we played, and I honestly felt completely at home. Everyone at home should know that I have very good people looking out for me here and there is absolutely no reason to worry about me (although I know some of you still will).

I’m off to bed now. Tomorrow is my first day of Sprachkurs (language class) so I will have an early start. I’m excited about the class—meeting the other students and improving my German, but Carina told me that I’ll probably be bored because I’ll probably already know most of it. I’m still excited :-)

Tschüss!

Here are some photos:

In the Disko: Anna is on the left, Carina on the right

You can see the Dortmund Fußball stadium from my room

It's a smart sports car :-)

The Adventure Continues…

Saturday, March 07, 2009 15:30 Dortmund time, 9:30 EST

So until I get internet in my room, I will continue writing my blog entries in my room, then posting them whenever I can go to the library.

Friday had an exciting start—I was woken up when the janitor who promised to clean the flat walked into my room. The poor guy looked quite distraught because of it, and I’m really glad I came into this knowing some German because he didn’t speak any English. He gave me a box full of kitchen stuff—pots and pans, utensils, cups, plates, can opener, corkscrew, etc. then he finished cleaning and left. At about 2:00 Carina picked me up and we met Anna at the Bibliothek (library) to get a library card so I can get on the internet. Then we went to Aldi and picked up a lot of food and a sim card (Carina is giving me her father’s old phone so I can have a phone in Germany).

Friday night we went to Anna’s home and I met a few other girls. We had a few drinks, then we took the U-Bahn (underground train, subway) to the Disko. The Disko was unlike anything I have ever seen before. There were two floors, and we mostly stayed on the second floor where there were three rooms—a really big room for techno music, a smaller room for hip-hop, and another small room for “charts” (hits from the 80’s, 90’s, and now). You can smoke in the techno room, but not in the other two. We started in the Techno room, because that was the only place that people were dancing, then we moved to the charts room after it picked up a little. It cost 6€ to get in, but you get a voucher for a free drink, and the girls introduced me to Bier und Cola (½ beer and ½ coke)—it’s actually very good. They also taught me that if you don’t look someone in the eye when you toast with them, you will have seven years of bad sex :-) I had so much fun, but all of our feet started hurting because the Disko had a dress code where you aren’t allowed to wearing sport shoes—only dress shoes, so we were all in fairly uncomfortable heels.

I am so glad that Carina and Anna are my doubles—they are both so sweet and they basically took me in with no questions. Now whenever they talk about something that they are doing, they always turn to me and say “Of course, you are invited,” and they are the kind of girls that I would hang out with anyway (for those of you at Maryville—they are nerd table quality). It is also really cool because they are both English majors and I’m actually going to be taking some literature classes with them—which will be great. Today I am going to Anna’s flat to meet her parents who are in town, and tomorrow I am going to Carina’s house to meet her parents and eat dinner. I am so glad I came to Dortmund where they have this doubles program, and Anna and Carina are just the best possible match for me :-)

Well, that’s about it…a pretty full day and a half. Actually, Benjamin called Carina when we were hanging out and said if we were bored I could go to the smaller cafeteria and meet the other Americans, but we already had plans and I am yet to be bored here. I haven’t even met any Americans yet—I’ve been too busy with my new German friends, and I’m ok with that.

I will post pictures as soon as I am posting from my own computer...

Tchüss!

My German Adventure Begins... (P.S. Elvis isn't dead--he's in Frankfurt!)

I am currently without internet and will post this as soon as I get it. According to my “schedule of important dates,” I sign my rent contract on Thursday (a week from today), and that is the soonest that I can get internet in my room. However, the library is open 24 hours a day, 6 days a week so I can get internet there as soon as I fill out the paperwork to get a card, or maybe I’ll be able to steal it from one of my doubles (explanation following).

Thursday, March 05, 2009 19:51 Dortmund time, 13:51 EST

Well, after months of preparation and anticipation and approximately 23 hours of traveling, I’m finally here. Finally. Now I understand why all of the other study abroad students start all of their entries with either apologies for writing too much or apologies for only writing a little and leaving things out. Tonight I’ll go with the former approach, and I do apologize for this entry being so long:

I’ll start at the beginning. Kevin and Stephanie tell me their goodbyes and I go into security where they discover that I completely forgot about the 3 oz rule and put a bottle of lotion in my bag. Great way to start, right? Then they escort me out of security, I give Kevin and Steph the lotion, give them each one more hug, and enter security again. Apparently, I just didn’t have security in mind when I got ready yesterday morning because I wore my high-top converses, and since I went through security twice, I had to unlace and relace those shoes twice. It was really unfortunate. Then I moved on to my gate, only for them to announce that our plane had a “mechanical difficulty” and we all had to move from gate E30 to E4 and wait for them to prepare a different plane, delaying our flight by about an hour and a half.

About an hour into our flight, I watched the sunset. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. The moment the sun was out of sight, there was such a rich array of color in the sky—I just wish I had a picture to show you. The skyline was black, and right above it, there was a rich garnet color, then a deep orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, then violet, then black again. After the sun went down, I could see the cities below us, and they looked like the pictures of galaxies taken from a telescope—I never thought that sight could be so pretty. I had fun trying to guess which city we were over, then looking on the TV screen to see if I was right. Speaking of TV screen, we each had our own, complete with a map of our travels, games, your choice of about 10 movies, and some good TV shows too. It kept me entertained for pretty much the whole flight.

The guy sitting next to me, David, was a really nice man. He born in Puerto Rico, but he has lived in Germany for three years with the military. He was a good person to sit next to—he was friendly, but he didn’t talk too much. Once we got there, we stuck together. He helped me with my bags at the baggage claim, and we went to the Bahnhof (train station) together where he showed me where to buy a ticket. I was a little amused by the fact that I knew more German than him—I asked for my ticket in German and he had to ask for his in English. I guess they don’t really speak German on the military bases. Then he let me use his phone to call the people who were supposed to pick me up, and we parted ways. It was so nice to have him there to help me.

You will never guess what I saw as I was waiting on my train-an Elvis impersonator! It was awesome—like Tennessee had followed me to Germany :-) Soon before the train was supposed to arrive, I met a girl who was waiting on the same train. She was from California, and she came to Germany to visit her brother who is a professional basketball player. She didn’t speak any German at all. When the train got there, I told her it was our train, but she didn’t think it was, so she asked one of the men working on the train, and he said our train would be the next one, so we didn’t board. It was our train. Great. So we went and changed our tickets, and now instead of having a direct train to Dortmund, I was taking three different trains, with a girl who made me miss my first train. I was feeling a little downhearted, but I walked to the gate and asked someone if I was at the right gate. A man overheard me, correctly assumed I was American, and started to help me. His name was Jörg and he was wonderful. He was heading to Bonn, which meant he would be riding the first two trains with me. He looked at where I was going, explained some of the finer points of the Deutsche Bahn (German train system), and told me that his wife is from Brazil (he met her when studying abroad), so he knows how hard it can be for foreigners to find their way around Germany. When the train arrived, he grabbed my bags and hopped on. One the second train, we passed followed the Rhein River, which was an absolutely beautiful area, and Jörg told me a bunch of stuff about the area. He was such a nice man, and I am so thankful that I ran into him. When we arrived in Bonn, the train was running about 10 minutes behind, which was not good, because I only had 8 minutes between when I was supposed to get off this train and the next train I was taking was supposed to leave. As I asked a few people around me what I was supposed to do if I missed my train, a woman told me that the train I was already riding stopped at Dortmund, so I actually didn’t have to get off the train at all. I was a little relieved that I didn’t have to worry about missing my next train, and a little perturbed at the woman who sold me my ticket and told me I needed to switch trains. Oh well.

When I finally arrived (at 2:30pm, 8:30am EST), Jessica and Benjamin were there to pick me up and take me to my new home—a two bedroom flat with a kitchen and bathroom. When we walked in, however, the kitchen was a mess. At this point, Jessica showed me which room was mine, wondered out loud if someone else lived there (they honestly weren’t sure, and called the janitor to clean up everything. Then they told me that my “doubles” (two German students who are in charge of helping me) would be there at 4:30 to show me around a little and take me to get some food, and they left. Shortly afterwards, my suitemate, Stefan, arrived. He explained to me that he hasn’t been here because the school is on vacation right now, and it was the student who was living in my room that left the mess. He came back yesterday and found it like that, and he also showed me where the other student got drunk and tried to kick down the door to Stefan’s room because he was confused and thought it was his room. Stefan told me that he didn’t mind if I drink, but please be nice to his door :-) He was very friendly, and told me I could use anything in the kitchen and showed me where there was a bar nearby that had cheap beer on Tuesdays—apparently everyone who lives in the building goes there, and he said I can meet a lot of people that way. He kept saying, “It’s not a problem” after every statement. Anyone notice something wrong with all of this? Yes, I’m living with a guy, which took me completely by surprise. I guess it’s not a big deal because he said that he’s leaving in about 3 weeks, and he’ll only be here about 3 or 4 times before he leaves, but I was still a little shocked.

At about 5:00 I was sitting in my room, wondering if my doubles forgot about me, unsure how I was supposed to contact home with no internet or phone, unsure how I was going to eat if my doubles didn’t come (I had not eaten since breakfast on the plane at 7:00 am), and wondering if it was normal for the school to put a foreign girl in the same apartment as a guy, and I will admit, I was a little discouraged. Right before I completely lost it, the doorbell rang, and I met my doubles, Carina and Anna, who admitted to being chronically late. They took me to the library where I could use the pay phone to call home, and then we went to eat at this multicultural place, and I had döner, a Turkish dish that was really yummy. Then Anna took me to a store and I bought food for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, some water, a few cleaning supplies and toilet paper (there wasn’t any in my bathroom—another exciting surprise). Then we walked back to my new home in the cold, dark, rainy, windy German weather, but I really enjoyed it because I had good company, a full stomach, and plans for tomorrow. My new friends are picking me up at 2:00 (lots of sleeping in and recovering from jetlag time), and we are doing more hard-core grocery shopping and a trip to Ikea. Then tomorrow night we are going to a Disko (a German club) with some of their friends—I’m excited. They asked me to go, and then said that I probably don’t want to go because I’ll be too tired—at which point I assured them that I could deal with being tired.

Well, I’m going to get some sleep, tomorrow is another adventure :-)

Tchüss!