Two Points Worth Noting

So for the past couple days/weeks, I have been stressing about how much traveling I would like to squeeze into the rest of this semester. I was really bothered about it, trying to figure out how much more solo traveling I could handle (it's a shame the people with whom I wouldn't mind exploring have impossibly different schedules than mine), how much time I should devote to time in Erfurt rather than traipsing the globe, how much more money I am willing to spend, and how much time I should set aside for doing that horrid stuff we all call 'homework.' I asked my friend Mia (who is a soothing comfort to my indecision), my mom (whose objective perspective helps me realign my priorities), and my brother (whose experience and opinion I highly value). All of them had rather different answers, which was helpful and infuriating, because that meant ultimately I would have to make my own decision (I know, such a travesty). But after a really nice, long, and hugely overdue conversation with a friend back home, I went to sleep, and woke up this morning with the answer suddenly very clear and unquestionable. I decided that I am going to all those trips I wanted to, regardless of who can or cannot go with me, and regardless of those papers I will eventually have to write. I will only get the chance to travel like this once, so I might as well make the most of it!

And then this afternoon I had another scare, as I discovered that my Eurail pass would not have enough days to cover all of my desired trips in the time that it is valid. This left me with only a few alternatives: 1.) pay out of pocket for one of the tickets AND skip a night train for one of the trips (which would take two days) and take two day trains instead; 2.) make one of the trips on the next Eurail pass I have to get (which would mean I would have to buy a regional pass rather than the far cheaper Germany pass); OR 3.) cut out one of the trips altogether. After half an hour of elevated blood pressure and careful figuring, I decided that I would take the first of these three options. And while my stomach is still in knots from the last 36 hours of roller-coaster-ride-decision-making, I am relieved that not only will my Eurail pass hold out, but so will my finances and my carefully scheduled homework time.

With that said, here is the line-up for the next 8 weeks:
May 3-6: Copenhagen
May 9-13: Berlin and Rothenburg (with my brother!!:D)
May 17-20: Belgium (still deciding whether just Bruges or also Brussels)
May 24-26 AU in Germany visiting Erfurt!!
May 31-June 3 OR June 14-17: Amsterdam
June 7-10: Interlaken, Switzerland

Looks like a very daunting plan, but I think by now I have proven I can do it. But I do expect to be rather exhausted by the end, in any case!

Second point:
I have gotten to the stage of my time in Europe where things that are American or non-German are starting to strike me with an odd tone. I will give you three examples:
1.) From the hostel in Prague, my friend Mia owes me some money, which she would like to pay in U.S. dollars. When I was checking in my wallet to see if I would have change, the coins looked so strange! They felt like fake money!
2.) On a similar note, in one of the Ashbrook emails, Dr. Foster mentioned the cost of admission to a play showing at AU, and I had to glance twice at the dollar sign. I have gotten so accustomed to seeing only the Euro sign, the dollar sign felt out of place!!
3.) And lastly, I was watching an episode of House online earlier today, and one of the characters had a wedding ring on his left hand. Here in Germany, the wedding band in worn on the right hand, so seeing it on the right has become automatic, while seeing it on the left requires a little extra effort in the thought process to register what it means!

These are rather trivial occurrences, but they just go to show you exactly how much I have accustomed myself to living in a foreign country. In each case, when I finally realized the mental double-take I had to do, I could not help but feel a little shocked...

Registering for Classes

So at home, registering for classes is primarily done online, although I am sure there are people who still fill out the little paper and hand it in personally at the Registrar's Office. In any case, you list the classes you would like to take, get your advisor to sign off on them, and you turn it in. When I register online, I know immediately if there is still room in the class, and if I have a spot or am waitlisted, and I get a confirmation email.

Here in Erfurt, however, the system is rather different. For the first week of classes, you scramble with potentially countless other people to get into the class. There is no registration beforehand; you just show up, sign your name on a paper that does not guarantee anything, and you start taking notes, buying books, and choosing paper topics. The second week, you try desperately to pick up classes to make up for the ones you have already been kicked out of. And then in the third and fourth weeks, you actually register for the classes. Supposedly the start of the semester is intended to give you the chance to 'shop around' before committing to classes. Which is why I have books sitting on my shelf which were for classes I didn't end up taking. I had to buy the books in order to study for a quiz given the first day over some of the course material. This quiz also determined who got to stay in the class; if you scored well, you could stay, if you did poorly, there's the door. Needless to say, buying the books is still no guarantee...

The result is that I have been attending classes for three weeks now, and I have been reading books, doing homework, and researching future paper topics, but only today did I actually register for them. I do not even know for certain that I will actually get to continue in the class. I assume that I am past the stage of getting the boot, even though no one has ever really told me otherwise.

At any rate, yesterday I picked up the paperwork for registering for the classes. For each subject area, such as history or literature, there were stapled sheets listing all of the courses, sometimes twice if the course is offered as both orientation (doesn't count towards degree) and qualification (does count towards degree). Each listing had the course name, the professor's name, the number of credits, the course number, and a barcode. Apparently these barcodes are the 'be-all-that-ends-all' in the course listings. So since I am taking literature, history, and German courses, I had to pick up the listings for all three of those areas, and of the maybe 10 or 15 sheets of paper I got as a result, I had to put a total of 6 checkmarks on them. THEN I had to staple them to another stack of papers, which had my name, student ID number, and my Mentor's [advisor's] signature on it, which also [needlessly] had the interdiscplinary course listings attached to it. So altogether, I probably had a stack of 20 or so papers, with 6 checkmarks on maybe as many pages, if not less. What an incredible waste of paper, and this from a university that charges the students for any copies the professors make, including the syllabus handed out the first day! And all because the barcode is simply the only way to register for classes...

Oh and by the way...How did I turn in all of those papers? Why, dropping them in a wooden box, of course! How else could you do such a thing?

I cannot help but to laugh silently to myself, to find some of these hoops unnecessary, and to contemplate much more efficient and logical systems. But as my brother reminds me, these experiences, even if they are ridiculous, are still part of the reason why I am studying abroad. I am living a different culture, and one that obviously has a different opinion of how to handle the task of course registration!

And I suppose he is right. BUT, I do take pleasure in the fact that whenever I describe the registration system at universities in the U.S., German students 9 times out of 10 say, "That system makes so much more sense! I wish we did it that way..." Somehow this little triumph always makes my patriotism flare...

Week 3 of the Semester

So I survived that crazy 'shopping period' for classes, and managed [unofficially] to get into four of them, besides the two German as a Foreign Language classes. So far, the class on Toni Morrison is very interesting, and surprisingly enough turns out to be mostly in German, besides for the books and I assume the paper at the end. I already understand more of what is going on than I did three weeks ago when I first stepped into the class, which is a good thing (it is sooo much easier to zone out when you cannot understand what is going on). I have a history course on the Middle East, taught by apparently a well-known scholar from Jerusalem. Since this is the first non-American, non-European history class I have ever taken, everything is new to me. The very first day he made the Americans rather uncomfortable with some of his comments about Iraq, but all-in-all he is engaging (and I have long since developed a tough skin; as an American I have not always been well-received during my travels). My other two literature courses are The Gothic Novel and a course on Henry James, which are taught by incredibly different professors. The first is a very scientific, 'let us dissect the meaning of "Gothic"' type person, whereas the second is more of a 'what is the meaning of life' type guy. Both are brilliant in their own way, but whoever came up with the idea of researching for a literature paper and using x-number of secondary sources should be forced to read only instruction manuals for the rest of their lives. I think that is the part about my AU education that I miss most. So AU professors, I should just say that I now fully appreciate your insanely fun and insightful way of going about teaching. Heaven forbid you make me come up with my own ideas and interpretations for what I read, rather than just regurgitating what someone else has already come up with! But, thankfully, I can handle this totally uninteresting way of writing a paper (aka I can BS with the best of them), I just make no promises that I will enjoy it very much.

In any case, the addition of some homework, even though it's a rather small amount, is putting a cramp in my future travel plans. I still have so many places I want to see in Germany and other places in Europe, but I think soon I will have to come to terms with the fact that I eventually will have to write those three papers and prepare for two tests and one presentation (in German, of course). May not sound like a lot, but considering my entire grade is based upon one assignment per class, I have no room for putting it off.

By the way, who can imagine that I have already been in Europe for over 11 weeks?


Anyone?


Yeah, me neither...

Prague and Its People

After three weeks of intense language preparation and Erfurt crash course adaptation, the University saw fit to give us a 10-day break before the official semester began. So what to do? Why, take a trip of course! That is the easy part; the difficulty came in selecting travel companions, especially since we had only known each other for three weeks. But once Mia from Illinois, Ah-Hyeon from South Korea, and I decided that we liked each other enough to travel together, the next difficult decision was: where do we want to go? I suppose that in the telling of this tale, I should admit that I am not always the greatest at compromising with others when it comes to travel plans, especially after three weeks of making all of the decisions on my own. But in the end, after several last minute changes, we finally decided to spend our hard-earned week break in Prague.

Very early last Saturday morning, we embarked on our little adventure, and arrived in Prague that evening. The hostel was conveniently located near the metro stop, but it quickly became clear that it was not really close to anything else, which meant we got our exercise! Since it was too late to explore that night, we tracked down some dinner and snacks and settled down in our dorm to play some cards, in the middle of which we were unceremoniously moved downstairs to make room for a larger group who had pitched a fit about their accommodations and wanted ours. We ended up in a room with three beds…and the computer, which meant people were coming in and out at all times wanting to use the internet. Thankfully, however, it was only for three nights, and was really not that bad but for the long line for the shower every morning.

In any case, we spent the better part of Sunday exploring the Easter festivals going on in Old Town Square. We enjoyed awesome Czech food, including a pizza thing with ketchup and cheese (sounds like a weird combo, but it was great) and a cylinder of fire-baked dough rolled in cinnamon, sugar, and almonds. More importantly, however, we took full advantage of the cheap Czech shopping in the outdoor stalls, and I spent a small fortune on gifts for friends and family back home (sorry, you will have to find out who got what when I come home in July). Not only was this great fun, but the spirit of the festival was lively and happy, and the weather was nothing but sunshine. I think I actually got sun burnt on this trip…Yay for spring!

Prague certainly had a charm that is so different than all the other places I have thus far experienced. The city was teeming with youth and happiness; even those who were older in years had a youthful spirit and looked out at the world with a smile. The rowdy teenagers in the street, who seem slightly threatening in Erfurt, rather felt full of benign goodwill and sweet curiosity in Prague. Street musicians, instead of simply hawking for a coin or two, smiled with the pleasure of the music they played and reveled in the enjoyment they caused in the passersby. On Charles Bridge, I found myself fascinated by an older woman who quietly danced and swayed to a blind man’s accordion. Even though I knew they were a team and she was not a perfect stranger, I was drawn in by her peaceful and benevolent smile that traced her features with enchanted happiness. In comparison to the harsh and cautiously suspicious manners of many Germans I have met, the Czech people are open, eager to help, apologetic when they accidentally bump into one another, love to practice their English with a stranger, and are ready to smile at all those they meet, even including the annoying tourists. They rejoice in their culture and are enthusiastic when sharing it with others. They are proud of their country and their history, and have every confidence in the legitimacy of that pride. Many of Europe’s hot spots offer great museums and fantastic sights, but I think the Czech Republic’s greatest attraction is its people.

Three Weeks In!

Seven weeks ago today, I left behind my safety net--my parents, my country, my familiarity with the most seemingly trivial elements of day-to-day life. I tucked the net tidily into my closet, and took only one glance over my shoulder as I departed for the single greatest adventure of my short life. I boarded a plane, endured the turbulence that reminded me of why I wasn't sure I liked flying, and waved goodbye to the continent as it disappeared into the setting sun. For four weeks, I rambled about this new continent, taking in a small portion of the greatest sites the history of mankind has to offer. I marveled at the tribute across the millenia at the temples of Paestum, looked into the eyes of understanding in terrific art throughout Florence, Paris, and Rome. I explored one of the darkest and most glorious moments of human history in Normandy, and was reminded of the undying human genius at Stonehenge. I struggled with language barriers and cultural norms. I lost my way and my sense of direction at the most frustrating moments, and I evaded dubious locals and questionable situations. After those four weeks, I came out so very much the opposite of green (whatever that would be) when it comes to travel, I probably would not have recognized myself four weeks ago. I have changed so much, and yet remained exactly the same--a phenomenon I never considered, and certainly never considered possible.

After so much excitement and constant motion, I settled here in Erfurt, exactly three weeks ago. That first weekend, I had to cope with the greatest contradictory sensations of loneliness and relief, of excitement and anxiety. I met one flatmate, a German who was the epitome of friendliness and good tidings, but who also warned me not to expect such welcome from the rest of Germany--in her words, "Germans are mean!" Perhaps this is true, but more likely it is just one opinion of many, and I will have to determine for myself what my own opinion will be.

Language classes end tomorrow, and while I am not fluent or even self-sufficient, I have learned a great deal in this short time. Of course, the hardest part is still all elements of conversation, but I have at least made progress. I will be very curious to see where I stand at the end of July!

On Saturday, I will again leave behind this settled life, and put aside the progress I have made on my new comfort zone, and with two other girls I will head out to Prague for a week. Already, the difference between solo travel and group travel is both painfully and pleasantly noticeable. Painful, because my autonomy is gone, and compromises have already been made (I am not the greatest at compromise); pleasant, because I get to look forward to sharing my experiences with others, a part of my first month that was depressingly lacking at times. It is one thing to enjoy some great view or museum, but it is entirely another to enjoy it with someone else and to derive additional joy from the joy of another.

I look forward to this new chapter of my experiences here, and even more so to the new places I will see, the people I will meet, and the rocks I will overturn.

Two Weeks and my Impressions

So two weeks ago, I moved in at Erfurt. When I look back on it, I think that the time has come and gone in the blink of an eye, but at other times it seems months since I last traveled and years since I left home. My roommate and I have decided that the days here in Germany are not actually 24 hours, but instead some smaller number. Each night, as I turn on my lamp to either read or do a puzzle while I listen to the news on my iPod, I cannot keep myself from muttering, 'Well, another day gone.' I can only imagine how fast the days will go when I am filling them with hours of classes and homework, social events, and weekend trips around Germany. They cannot possibly get much shorter!

So far, I have found the city of Erfurt truly fascinating, an odd mixture of old and new, with the stereotypical German architecture competing with modern buildings for the bigger statement. Fashion is cutting edge (I have never seen so many truly ugly shoes in my life), rebellious (what do you think, should I dye my hair purple and orange, or should I just get a lopsided buzz cut?), and painfully old (those skin-tight leopard print tights should rest in peace forever in the 80's). Hip teenagers with big sunglasses rub shoulders with cute retired Germans shopping for flowers. And certainly, the old East Germany still has a lingering presence in many of Erfurt's citizens, a fact that cannot be proven or explained. I am not sure many who have lived through it can even pinpoint the differences. It can only be felt in this thriving city's pulse and in its diverse character.

I would have to say that thusfar the greatest adventure has been the task of shopping for groceries. Anyone who has lived in a foreign country can probably relate to the combination of emotions that arise from such an expedition: overwhelmed by the very smell of the store as the door swings open, claustrophobia from the unusually tight aisles and hordes of fellow shoppers, isolation in not understanding the conversations around you, confusion in not knowing how to read the food labels, frustration in not finding the comfort foods you most long for, hesitation in seeing products stored in ways different from home (seriously, milk not refrigerated? This just seems unsafe to me). I have now been shopping several times for myself and with friends, and while I have grown more accustomed to the German idea of groceries, I still have not gotten over the rows upon rows of various meats, cheeses, and breads. Slowly and cautiously, I am trying the weird meats and unfamiliar cheeses. But I still always have the urge to carry a dictionary with me.

Pictures Now Available

Well, it took me the better part of the day, but all of my pictures from the last four weeks are now online. Simply follow the link "Pictures: My Travels and Discoveries" on the top right-hand side of this window.

I should warn you, however, that I have not yet organized them or added comments to most of them, in order to make them easier to view. They are simply put in albums by city (or by day when I visited more than one city in a day), and only my pictures from Venice and Florence have been organized. Look forward to that chore getting slowly completed over the next several weeks.