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………

Yet another wine tasting…

Well… first and foremost, let me say this: I am proud of myself for drinking a German under the table. That being said, most Germans put Americans (and every nationality) to shame when it comes to the consumption of alcohol. Seriously, beer is served in basically every establishment, store or restaurant, as a staple. As far as I’m concerned, beer is water to the Germans.

So, with beer being water, “parties” in the American context become the norm. Social barriers in America existing when you do not know someone do not exist; my experiences thus far show that Europeans know no stranger. In fact, those most “standoffish” towards me are Americans… typical of any given American high school girls movie. As would be expected, most Americans are sticking to groups of other Americans, and for reasons uknown to me, several seem to have no interest in talking to me. It’s rather amusing; our nationality is fitting the stereotype!

But no matter. This oddity allows me to meet and greet with ever increasing numbers of other nationalities, and I must say… they amuse me to no end! I am finding it quite easy to meet new people in Trier, although many events arranged by the university make it even easier to meet other international students.

For example, the university has arranged for the entire group of “erasmas” students (a term used for European exchange students, of which I am technically not yet get called so regardless) to go on three wine tastings and a pub crawl to date, not to mention the city tours and other random events aimed to make meeting other international students easy. In America, having a university organizing any event revolving around alcohol would be unheard of. In Germany, however, it appears to be unheard of NOT to organize such events!

Today’s schedule consisted of an early rise bus ride to a city up the Mozel River a bit (whose name escapes me), highlighting a tour of a thousand year old castle in English. Oh, the castle was impressive; it sat atop a picturesque hill overlooking the Mozel River, and entering it felt as though time reversed a thousand years. Unfortunately, my camera died after only a few pictures, but several friends have plenty of pictures for me to steal.

The city itself reminded me of Helen, Georgia, although I would never tell a German that; the fact that Americans would build a town for the sole purpose of being a tourist destination modeled after a German town would likely insult the historic value of Germany. Even so, the buildings all resembled quaint village homes frequented in American Medieval films. Lovely is the only way I can think of to describe the city.

Upon return to Trier, we found out we needed to walk farther than normal back to the dormitories due to the closure of the city center for protests. Apparently, the conservative party in Germany (referred to as Nazis by one of my tutors) like to have demonstrations in the form of hundreds of people in high-volume areas. In response, liberal Germans try to double the number of people by having counter-demonstrations at the same time. Essentially, thousands of demonstrators come out for reasons unknown to me to parade about their ideals, closing many of the city’s streets. Germans are apparently far more politically minded than the Americans I know.

Tonight, the university has given passes to all of the international students for free entry to a popular Trier night club near the historic cathedral in the city center. Again, the university has organized a socializing event for us revolving around the life of the party! Although I have not been to this club before, I can confidently speculate the presence of primarily American music, which will make me feel right at home.

After all, the Germans tend to gravitate towards our pop music culture. I make no references to that fact.

Language Classes Begin:

As yet, I am still without internet. I never would have thought it would be so difficult to get what I consider to be an essential part of modern life! Even so, it’s been almost a week without… and I’m still alive, so I guess that tells you something.

After the initial orientation session (in German… meaning I understood squat), we [the 60 some-odd international students and I] promptly were chauffeured to a wine tasting. In America, this would consist of miniature glasses of a few wines for an exorbitant amount of money. In Deutchland, however, a wine tasting is an event: each table of roughly eight people was given two large appetizers and eight bottles of wine in a period of about four hours. Yes, that is correct. One bottle per person, all paid for by the University. I love Germany.

As is customary, apparently, many of the other international students and I joined some of our “tutors,” the Trier students assigned to help us along throughout the orientation sessions, on a pub crawl in the historic Porta Negra downtown district. Needless to say, the night ended quite late.

This first day set the pace for the majority of days between it and now, the second day of classes. The University has sponsored two other pub crawls and another wine tasting between last Thursday and today, Wednesday, and has plans for more tours and tastings over the next few weeks. If only universities in America thought that was a good idea…

Differences I’ve noticed thus are too great in number to list. In fact, in my background browsing of other international students and their behaviors, I feel that the Japanese students are the closest in pop-capitalist-consumerism-culture. Frivolous lifestyles do not seem to be as popular as the American and Japanese students are used to.

Example: in America, it is common to refer to distance in terms of how long it takes to drive between two places. I live on Tybee, and say to people I’m about 30 minutes out of Downtown Savannah. In Europe, however, distances and times are related in terms of walking. Virtually everyone walks or takes a bus everywhere in some form or fashion… it’s just a given!

In this respect, it’s actually good to walk in Trier… the drivers absolutely terrify me. I have taken two cabs since I arrived, and had I been afraid of insane driving I likely would have passed out. Horns seem to be the most popular component of the vehicle, and drivers do not play around when it comes to gunning out of a red light. I am highly amused with traffic control, too; stop lights literally flash yellow for a second before turning green just like American race tracks, giving the hundreds of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, and disliked Opel (General Motors) cars time to launch into green optimally. It makes me wish I had my car here…

Germans are far less concerned with social taboos of America, especially surrounding “having fun,” aka partying, sex, and anything else that Americans tend to prance around in conversations. Political correctness is far less important, and it is common to find someone directly insulting another nationality via generalization in conversation. This is not to say the Germans are being necessarily rude, but that indirect rudeness is not considered half as offensive as Americans would think.

But don’t get me wrong: you certainly do not want to insult a German. The people I have met thus far are extremely proud to be German, and I’ve found it easiest to only argue with them about American policies and culture (a favorite topic) by seeming to be on “their side.” Unfortunately, the stereotypical cultural disasters provided in pop culture surrounding MTV and the like is what represents America to most I have met, although political feelings seem to have eased in recent years towards us.

In saying that, understanding a German’s stance on America is somewhat confusing. On one hand, Germans are proud of being German, and Americans provide them amusement due to our careless and unorganized ways. On the other, however, American culture is the primary subset of German life; I’d estimate 90% of music Germans listen to are top pop hits in America, making most music English.

However, by our standards, they are “behind”; the music playing most frequently on the radio and in clubs is popular music from three months to a year ago in America. In fact, the most popular music I’ve found is American 80’s music and oldies! Everyone sings along, then converses in German… it’s quite odd.

Although I have not seen much television, every German I have seen watches American shows… Two and a Half Men, Trading Spaces, and Jersey Shore are among the many American shows dubbed-over in German, or sometimes even viewed in English. Movies are likewise; I recognize every movie of the ten playing at the city cinema now as American.

The language barrier does not serve nearly the problem to Germans and other Europeans as it does in America. In fact, I am embarrassed to be American due to the fact that almost anyone you run into has at least a basic working knowledge of English. Many surpass even that, which by my standards is impressive by itself, by being fluent in German, English, and often French and/or Spanish!

Why? Because unlike in our egotistical society, Germans are raised learning multiple languages from early in grade school. I spoke to a German in my dorm recently who has taken more years of English than I have, and I’m an English major!

American stores are prevalent in Germany, with many advertising “American” wear and foods. I have found few places (aside from the bars) that get more packed than the McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Burger King all located in the city!

Germans tend to live for the day rather than plan for the week, especially in terms of planning meals and events. Wal-Marts do not exist, obviously, and the closest stores to it are similar to large-scale Macy’s Department Stores. Many, many, many shops exist, both German and other nationalities, but the emphasis is on purchasing in small quantities on a regular basis rather than a lot at once.

In fact, one hard to swallow difference is that grocery markets do not have bags to put groceries in after you buy them. It’s not even an option. So, keeping in mind you walk virtually everywhere in the city, you’d better not buy more than you can carry and walk with for upwards of thirty minutes!

In terms of foods, I haven’t the slightest idea how Germans are not larger than the houses they live in. As best as I can discern, Germans live on a liquid beer diet and brot (bread). From time to time, they’ll throw a sausage into the mix.

I’ve noticed that the only thing more popular than being German in Trier is being a German in a bakery; much like we tend to think of a Starbucks being on every corner, there is literally a bakery in sight at any given point in the city proper. On top of that, the breads baked are no run-of-the-mill flour goods; any pastry, bread, grain, sugar, or small sausage-infested sandwich you can think of is up for grabs at all times of the day… and oh do they taste good!

Speaking of time, Trier has a far different understanding of how and when shops and other businesses are open. Open hours are strictly from around 9am to 6pm, with many closing for up to a 2 hour lunch break. So, if you’ve forgotten to pick up something for the evening and it does not involve beer, you’re going to have to wait until the next morning if it’s already after 6pm. And Sundays are even worse; absolutely nothing, save bars and restaurant/bars, is open on Sunday, period.

Alas, I could go on forever… I actually missed a wine tasting tonight (due to the wrong bus… which is easy to do, considering the lines change after 6pm and everything is in German), and ended up studying my Deutsch for over four hours. The first three some-odd weeks of my time here are German language from 9am-1pm, with the afternoons reserved for “formalities” of registering with the University for classes and whatnot, which start in April.

Having zero prior knowledge of German, I’m having a rough time to say the least, but hopefully will at least be able to understand the gist of what the Germans say to me… as well as read enough to get by. However, Universitat Trier offers several classes in English, which will likely be what I “qualify” for after the language placement test in a few weeks.

It’s time for a shower and bed, being that it’s roughly 2:15am here. Savannah is five hours behind Trier, soon to be six come Sunday after daylight savings time hits Germany. Luckily (and quite randomly, today I found a closer set of showers, bathrooms, and a kitchen than those I was aware of. One would think I would have noticed these after being here a week, but… yeah. Everything’s in German.

I've posted initial photos of Trier on Facebook. Use this link to see them should you be so interested:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106660&id=1554191092&l=08904b6dcf

Auf Wiedershen!

Day 2: Arrival

Oh, how I hate having to sit in a plane for 8 hours… especially when that 8 hours becomes about 12 after the time change kicks in. The flight from DC to Copenhagen wasn’t incredibly uncomfortable, but I still cannot stand to sit still for longer than about ten minutes.

It was a rather amusing flight, I must say… I forget that Europeans do not have the same regard for “personal space” as Americans do. Although I was lucky enough to have a window seat, the Swedish man next to me took to taking pictures by leaning over me out of the window frequently, and had no problems leaning against me and moving about the entire flight. This may not have bothered me had he not have been an avid smoker… oh well. :)

I decided not to explore Copenhagen upon arrival after having to go through passport and security screening that took far longer than I anticipated just from changing flights. It was also raining outside, so I figured… why not catch up on the sleep I didn’t get on the red eye flight. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me my scheduled flight to Luxembourg City ended up being delayed about three hours due to a plane malfunction, which would have given me ample time to explore via the train from the airport. Oh well… you live and learn.

Upon reaching Luxembourg, I honestly had no idea what to do; unfortunately, I never got around to planning my next moves after the family emergency earlier in the week. Actually, it likely would have done no good to plan due to the plane delay, as I understand several youth hostels (the board of choice due to the low price) do not accept arrivals too late.

Luxembourg’s airport is quite strange by my standards; the plane parked in the middle of a random lot, and everyone was loaded into busses to reach the terminal. Once there, it took forever to find an ATM to get a few Euros; it was about 7:30pm by this point, and for whatever reason those ATMs in easy-to-find places were closed. No bank exchange locations were available either, so I was forced to get raped by my US bank to use the ATM exchange.

After trying unsuccessfully to figure out the train schedule (this is where knowing a touch of French would come in handy), I took a taxi to the Luxembourg train station. It’s quite beautiful! Downtown Luxembourg City has a lovely aged look, complete with a castle-resembling train station.

A ticket from Luxembourg City to Trier cost only e8.50, or about $12… not bad for a roughly hour-long trek! Not to my surprise, all of the announcements on the train were in French, but luckily the Trier station was the last on the line for the evening. Otherwise, I likely would not have known where to get off; the stations were not clearly marked as to what stop they were.

It then occurred to me that I had reached Trier, but had no idea of where to lug myself and my heavy luggage to for the evening. After waiting uselessly on a bus at the stop just outside Trier’s train station, I noticed a sign for a random hotel just across the street. I figured, it’s not like I know where I’m going anyway… why not give it a try. Alas! Only e54 per night, breakfast included… that’s something I can afford for one night until I get my bearings.

Tomorrow’s goals: explore the bus stations in the daylight, find Universitat Trier, and look into buying a prepaid cell phone. We’ll see how it goes from there!

Day 1: The Departure

Thanks to the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) and Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA, I have been presented with the opportunity to study abroad in Trier, Germany, at the University of Trier. German universities run a different schedule than those in the United States, so my semester abroad takes place from roughly April through the end of July.

Armstrong has asked me to denote my experiences abroad to encourage fellow students to participate in the large exchange network. My goal is to briefly report my experiences regularly, at least once per week, to remind both myself and anyone interested of what adventures I encounter. I apologize in advance for the inevitable typos and other idiocies I write… and will firmly blame all such occurrences on the German language.

So, how about a few logistical matters in preparation for the trip…
Items to get in order: Passport, copies of passport, credit card. In my mind, aside from the actual packing (or lack thereof), these items are of the most immediate importance. Luckily, I had everything except for a credit card for international use already. Although I am in no way advocating any particular bank, my research revealed only Capital One bank to offer a card that does not charge an “international usage” fee on top of the exchange rate. Although I will be opening a German bank account as part of my exchange, I still feel it’s a good idea to have a U.S. backed card for “just in case.”

Due to the large time difference in departure times (approximately four months), I found it to be far cheaper to buy two separate one-way tickets to and from Germany from Savannah. Luckily, Starbucks has free internet now, else the hours and hours I spent researching flights would have likely cost more than the flight itself. Even so, in all actuality I have yet to purchase a return ticket. I’m surprised that I was able not to; even the check-in kiosk with United Airlines (the first leg of today’s journey to Trier) asked for my return-to-the-U.S. date. I therefore made one up.

For an extremely low price of about $430, I left Savannah’s airport around 2:30 today on what I like to call a “puddle jumper jet,” i.e., a plane obviously designed by SmartCar (otherwise known as the mousetrap car) in the hopes of cramping passengers to the point of ordering the ridiculously expensive cocktails. I am currently sitting in Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport (which, by the way, does not offer complimentary internet services like Savannah does…), and around 6:15 tonight will switch airlines and take an overnight flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. I can only hope the plane is slightly larger.

Once there (an approximately 8 hour trip, although the time change will throw me for a loop), I’m hoping to briefly explore the historic and highly colorful city for a few of the 8 hours I layover for. The final leg will take me from Copenhagen to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, tomorrow evening.

As best my understanding of basic German can detail, the University of Trier’s orientation program begins on March 17, an extreme disappointment due to the scheduling conflict with Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Even so, my arrival will be a day and a half earlier than the date I am to check into my dorm. Do I know what I will do until then? Not so much. But, I‘m sure something will present itself; I’ve heard hostels are easy to come by throughout Europe for a relatively low cost, so I’ll play it by ear.

The entire first month of my time in Trier will consist of solely German language classes for non-native speakers such as me. After this time, all international speakers will be required to take a language proficiency test to see what classes will be assigned in German and which in English. Luckily for me, I have reserved a number of elective hours in my Armstrong requirements for this exchange, and almost any class I take should fulfill these requirements.

I’ve never been the best of planners; I usually tend to play things by ear, per the English saying. (I’ll have to watch my euphemisms when abroad; Germans likely will think I’m a bit out of it. Eh, another euphemism.) However, the unfortunate passing of my grandfather this past weekend threw my last-minute planning away, and it is to him that I will dedicate this journal of unplanned events. In fact, I feel that my grandfather, whom most called Daddo, would appreciate and applaud my spontaneity… so for every unknown, here’s to Daddo!

I haven’t the faintest idea how all of this will work out; I find it best not to worry myself over such details. What I do know, though, is that I will likely never have an experience to rival what my summer months in Germany will bring!