German = English

I have bittersweet feelings regarding the fact that most Germans speak at least enough English to get by. On the one hand, I have little trouble meeting and speaking to them, but on the other it makes learning Deutsch much more difficult.

Yesterday I spoke with two masters program German students for several hours. It’s quite interesting to relate differences between countries from “natives” in that it’s straight from the horse’s mouth, so to say.

For instance, schools in Germany differ from the US in that students are allowed to choose one of three options: one can go to “low, middle, or high school” depending on the number of years one chooses to complete. Although I was not clear on the purpose of “low” school, the gist of the situation is that students can stop grad school in the tenth grade and become an apprentice of sorts, or complete the full twelve years and go to university if desired. While I think this is a good idea (in that not everyone is cut out for school), the Germans said the government is looking to bring German schools in line with the US policy of twelve years required, period.

Germany and Europe in general are highly geared towards university too, much moreso than the US; in Germany, many students [depending on the district you live in] attend university totally commission free. Trier is in a district that allows this… no tuition required! School breaks are relatively frequent to encourage traveling throughout Europe via the student-geared public transportation rates… significantly discounted for those studying at any university in Europe.

Classes, according to my understanding, consist largely of a paper and final exam, with little or no graded materials in between. Primary class styles are lecture, seminar (whereby participation is required every class in some form), and tutorial (rather like hands-on learning including “doing” the learning). Classes last 90 minutes per week, and professors have the option to have class in one 90 minute chunk or split the week’s class into two sessions.

Although we (exchange students) still have not registered for classes, we have been given the task of finding out which classes we want to take. Luckily, Universitat Trier has classes in English and Deutsch as a foreign language, so hopefully I can find enough to get the US twelve credit hours needed. Navigating the Deutsch website needed to register will be fun…

I got my Sparkasse Trier bank card, Germany’s largest and primary bank similar to Wells Fargo in the US, in the mail today… now I just need to get some money to put into the account! This exchange rate of 1 Euro = 1.45 USD is KILLING me, especially being that cards are infrequently accepted for goods and services.

Yesterday, I was invited to barbeque in one of the city’s large parks in front of the massive Catholic Basilica in the city center. It was quite lovely; people in Germany seem to love going to the park for no reason, throwing about random Frisbees and balls, playing insane drinking games nonstop, and practicing a form of type rope walking with cloth lines between trees. It surprises me immensely that fire is allowed for grilling, but everyone does it!

Also, it is customary to leave the many, many empty beer bottles (yes, as everything, this is a drinking occasion) on the ground; random [homless] people come around and pick them up for you. Apparently they can get money for turning them in to recycle, so it works out well for everyone! Unfortunately, drinking too much in the park means going to the pay-per-use public restroom. Although I have not graced one with my presence as of yet, the restrooms here cost 50 cents to enter, and tell you over speakers how clean the toilet is in German… closely followed by music that is supposed to be relaxing. Strange, yet funny!

As a reward for forcing myself to study some Deutsch (some being the key word), I decided to go to a bar one of our tutors works at for a drink and ended up bar hopping with loads of random Germans until dawn. Trier is surprisingly diverse in terms of people, too; even though I was not with any international students, I ran into many Americans (from the nearby army base) whose goal was to see which American can make the largest ass of the American image. I also ran into several Brits, including one exceptionally drunk lady who insisted on shouting random hilarious profanities from bar to bar.

The most amusing, though, were the Germans. They found me to be a novelty, and seemed genuinely as interested in American culture as I was with German. It was a refreshing change from several of the more elitist Germans I have ran into. In fact, I was even offered a free TV to help me learn Deutsch by a bartender-ess, which I found highly humbling!

Today, I got to hang out with many of the Erasmus (international) students, and walked from here to the moon and back; it’s the thing to do in Germany. In fact, after being invited to two Turkish girls’ dorm for a Turkish coffee (which is kick ASS, as good as German coffee… which rules the world), we took the 45 minute walk from the university campus to the city center. Although it was a long walk, it was fascinating to learn of Istanbul and the girls’ thoughts on German, Turkish, and American cultures. The picturesque German homes against the rolling vineyards on the way into the city made for quite an enjoyable stroll!

Afterward, I got to get to know several new people, including a few British girls. I love the British; the humor (or humour, as they would write) is absolutely terrible, yet hilarious. Listening to the Brits is one of the more amusing things I’ve done; word choices Brits use is simply funny. I’ve now been invited to one of the girls’ Harry Potter-themed birthday club crawl… it’s too bad I no longer have the glasses that looked like Harry Potter’s!

I now must attempt to study some of the grammar rules of this inordinately complicated Germanic language. Hopefully my new book, German in a Nutshell, will help shed some light on this subject, being that my intensive language course instructor is teaching us German grammar IN German. Das ist nicht gut.

In other news, I’m officially addicted to the British show Top Gear………