When I first got here, I spoke not a single word of German. Actually, all the international students arrived a month early for the specific purpose of learning at least enough German to function. In a few days, I was to start an intensive beginner German class through the Max Weber Haus. I signed up for my dorm and the sign-in lady gave me a shopping list of essentials and where to get them. There's a variety of different dorm styles here. Many of the dorms in the Altstadt are like apartments with a full kitchen and living room and then each of the maybe 5 people living there get their own room. My dorm is in Neunheim, the new part of the city where all the new science labs are. My dorm is situated in a residential area, like 2 minutes walking distance from the Necker River that cuts through Heidelberg. I have room of my own that came with a bed, a desk and chair, a shelf, and a wardrobe. I also have a kitchenette and bathroom that I share with my roommate Igor. He is finishing his Ph.D. in microbiology and is from Ukraine. He also has his own single room that is on the other side of our kitchen. This is what my room looks like:
The culture shock was also interesting, or different than I excepted. The difference in language for starters was quite shocking, even though I knew that would happen. In Canada, people realized you're speaking French with an American accent, so they respond to you in English. Here, everyone just speaks German to you, regardless of your foreign accent, which makes sense. Living here also requires significantly more planning than in the US. For instance, the grocery stores are closed on Sundays, so you preferably not run out of food at that time, which I have accidentally done... . There are also no 24-7 convenience stores. And then there's weird small things that you wouldn't expect to be shocking, but are. For instance, the keys go in the locks upside down compared to the US. Initially took me for ever to get my door unlocked. And then the 80x80cm pillow on the shopping list I was given is in fact really quite large. Although these small differences now more seem kind of comical.
The first month here, there were not many German students because everyone was still on Summer break. However, my German course through the Max Weber Haus gave me the opportunity to meet a variety of other international students who I continue to hang out with. My beginner German class consisted of a few other Americans and students from Italy, UK, Spain, Australia, and South Korea. The class was taught completely in German, even though no one had even learned German before. This helped everyone learn way faster than one might in the US. It also evened out the playing field. If the class was taught in English, all the native English speakers would have had a way easier time than the non-native English speakers.
The first Sunday after I got to Germany, I went out to go exploring and take pictures of Heidelberg. Here are the pics:
These two photos are me standing on the old bridge over the Necker looking at Neuenheim.
These two are the view of the Heidelberg Castle and Altstadt from the bridge.
The bridge I was standing on.
Altstadt.
My classmates all got really close and we all decided to go visit the castle, which has an amazing view of Heidelberg!!
Us with the castle in the background.
Climbing 314 steps to get to the castle...
Us at the castle!
The castle
Crazy awesome view of Heidelberg from the castle!
And then us with the view in the background.
I have loved having the opportunity to meet everyone! Most of our conversations revolve around the various different aspects of all of our countries, for instance, what is similar and what is different. One example is I have noticed that based on the people I have met so far, there seems to be a very big difference in how people go about "dating" in the West (US and Europe) vs. the East (South Korea, Japan). This is a popular lunch or dinner conversation topic. Through these conversations, I have learned that many people seem to be significantly more conservative about dating in the East. My friends from the East have many times seemed shocked upon hearing about everyone else's dating experiences in Europe and US. A lot of my friends have also asked me about "Jersey Shore" and "High School Musical," wondering if the US is in fact like that. Another friend from Korea has also asked about comical scenes from "How I Met Your Mother." Scenes that Americans would normally laugh at are not funny to her at all, yet she still seems to like the show.
Another popular topic among my international friends is politics. I have noticed that people abroad seem to be way more interested in the presidential election than my friends ever were back home. It is interesting to see the election from an international point of view. My international friends all seem to be pro-Obama and no one can imagine why any American could possibly be pro-Romney. In many countries in Europe and in Australia, there is public health care and everyone has to have some kind of health care, either private or public. No one seems to understand why this is such a big issue in the US. All of their questions have greatly improved my political awareness because I have keep up to date enough to be able to converse with everyone and answer the questions. I had another friend from France also come up and ask me what I thought about the potential economic impact of Hurricane Sandy and if I off the top of my head knew any prominent authors that he could use to research the American Recession. Now I obviously know there will be a huge economic impact from Hurricane Sandy, but I have no idea of the specifics. I also have no idea of any prominent authors that wrote about the American Recession. I am wondering, since people in Europe seem to much more politically knowledgeable than my friends back home, does he in fact know prominent economic authors in his own country France? Is that common? Maybe I should know these authors?
In late September, all the UMASS students in Baden-Wurttemberg met in Freiburg. We then took two buses and like a 30 minute walk to the lodge where we were staying in the Black Forest. The whole area was beautiful! It mainly consisted of huge green hills with some pastures and some spots of trees, and then sprinkled with cows. All the cows had cow-bells that you could hear! Every so often, there would be a town that consisted of roughly 30 houses. Here are some pictures!
The lodge that we stayed at.
This was the first time that I had been around all Americans since being in Germany. I never noticed before that we Americans have a particular style to us, but I notice it now. It's hard to describe. The other difference was that for the past month, all of my conversations revolved around what everyone's culture was in their respective countries. Now, everyone I was meeting was also from my school and I already knew about that. At first, it was almost shocking. But then it was crazy fun to meet everyone because although everyone was from UMASS, I had never known them before! I am beginning to think that when I come back to the US, I will be so used to living in Germany that it will initially be shocking as well, even though it's my own country.
After the September German class was over, we had two weeks before Winter Semester classes started in October. This allowed for plenty of time to travel. My first trip was with a large group of international friends to Munich for Oktoberfest, a must-see attraction for all foreigners! With the cheapest tickets possible, it took about 5 hours to get there and then about 7 hours to get back, but we were dedicated! The group consisted of people from the US, UK, Switzerland, Australia, and South Korea. The place we ended up spending the night in Munich was really awesome and only like 20 Euros! It was "The Tent," which was as it sounds, a whole bunch of giant tents. They gave you lots of heavy blankets to make sure you kept warm!
We ate at a restaurant in Munich the night we got there =]
The carnival part, we got there early in the morning, so it wasn't that crowded yet. By the end of the day, it was packed!
Our table =]
My next trip was to Prague with one of my friends. Prague is amazing! It has a very different feel than Germany, which is hard to describe. I was not actually expecting it to be so different. My friend and I stayed overnight at a hostel which was really cheap. Actually, everything was extremely cheap. The smallest bill you could take out of the ATM was 1000Kc, but everything only costed like 30Kc. It was actually hard to spend all the money and not have any Kc left over. The first day, my friend and I explored the Prague Palace and the Cathedral.
Really really big bird that someone was keeping tied up!
View of Prague!
More view of Prague!
We found a 3 hour tour group that was free and you payed tip after! Was a very good tour of Prague!
Another cathedral with one tower bigger than the other. Supposedly some of the stones got stollen while they were building it, no one really seems to know.
Franz Kafka and his nightmare!
