Fortnight

That’s how long I’ve been here, just over a fortnight. It doesn’t feel like it. It feels like I’ve been here for months. It’s crazy to think that a month ago, we were celebrating Christmas. So much has happened and it feels like so long ago.

There’s a party going on above me right now. It’s really loud, but I guess it’s better than what I’m usually hearing from the room right above me and I can’t say I blame them. It’s quarter till eleven on the Saturday before exams. That is one thing that is incredibly unfortunate about the program I’m in here. The rest of the university is on a different system than what we are on. They are on what is closer to a quarter system than a semester system. In short, 95% of the students are going to be going home for the better part of the next two months. I know at least one of my flat mates will be heading home on Monday and won’t be back until she needs to be for classes (most likely). It just sucks since my flat mates are the number one best way for me to practice my German and if they go away, I can’t practice…not that they’ve really been letting my practice on them. They have but they haven’t.

See, all of my housemates speak fantastic English, so I’ll start in my mediocre German and we’ll try to have real conversations(politics instead of what I plan on eating tomorrow) and I hit my language block pretty quick and we’ll just finish everything in English. They all think it’s awesome to have an American living with them since their English will get so much better, which it is, as is my German.

They’re really funny about my accent. Since I have the stereotypical American accent and they’ve all learned British English (it’s actually fairly creepy. You can tell which Germans have study abroad based on their speaking abilities. Those who haven’t studied abroad have subtle British accents when they speak whereas those who learned in America have far less of the creepy German-British accent.) They especially love learning our words for things. Cell phones vs. mobile; elementary vs. primary school. It’s really funny, since living here; my English are becoming a little weird. I have problems picking out some words and supply German ones instead of the English ones(this morning I was trying to tell my flat mate about something that happened at the train station and for the life of me I couldn’t remember the words “train station.” I said “Bahnhoff” and she looked at me and asked me what it was in English (out of curiosity) and I had to sit there for like ten minutes trying to find the stupid train station in my head.) It means I’m picking up more language than I had before, but it’s also pretty friggin’ frustrating.

My flat mates are truly awesome though. I’m very lucky to live with people who are willing to speak in whichever language I speak to them in.

I do love it here, but there are incredibly frustrating aspects, especially with language. A lot of times when I go to the store(usually if I’m in a group of Americans specifically) and the cashier asks me something and I don’t pick up what they said and ask them “Bitte” or ask them to repeat themselves, most of them will repeat themselves, but in English. This is one of the most frustrating things I have ever come across in my life. I didn’t catch what you said, that doesn’t mean you have to switch to my language. It’s the German equivalent of speaking slowly and loudly at people from other countries while being in America. I know they are trying to help me out, but it is incredibly frustrating since if all I speak is English, the German will never get better.

I’m actually horrible when people do this to me. I usually say “Sprechen Sie Deutsch bitte” or something to the regard of speaking in German. Most people do without a problem. There’s actually a bartender/waiter at this fantastic restaurant called Mäxx (Max). We were paying for our meal and he asked me, in English, where I was from and I told him Ohio. He sounded like he was Irish, but he is actually from the Netherlands, but lived in Australia for awhile and now is in Germany so his accent is screwy. But a few of us went back there and he was our waiter again and I believe it was Mike who asked for something in English after we had been speaking entirely in German to the waiter. We started to make fun of Mike’s Germenglish and the waiter said “Heh, I’m easy. Pick a language and I’ll play.”

People really do try to help out. Most speak at least moderate English, but even those who don’t use hand motions and speak slower to help us out. There is a Turkish sandwich called a Döner which is probably one of the best foods I’ve ever had. It’s basically just lamb or chicken in a pita with sauce and veggies (except I don’t like sauce on mine, just meat and lettuce). But the first time we had one, I was trying to tell him what I wanted on it and I couldn’t remember how to say lettuce, so we were doing the pointing game. As he was putting the lettuce on it, I asked him “Wie sagt das?” which means “how do you say that?” and pointed at the lettuce. He smiled and said “Iceberg.” Most people are very good with answering questions like that. Very much appreciated.

Really glad I’m not studying for an exam 'cause eek gads, that party is loud.

So, what have I been up to? Lots of school. I have class Monday-Thursday and an exam on Friday. I’m done with class at 10 on Thursday and exams are usually done by noon, so I go adventure around Neidersachsen (the state I’m in which I’m fairly sure is translated to North Saxony. It’s really weird to learn geography in German and then have to figure out the English later). Awesome thing the college has provided me is that I can travel anywhere in the state, via train, for free. I have this card that I just have to show if I get asked for my ticket. Definitely something I will be taking advantage of during this semester. Last weekend we went to Hamburg(which is a half hour north of where I am right now, so if you see weather for Hamburg and are curious if that’s the weather I’m getting the answer is mostly yes. Hamburg has water all around it and Luneburg doesn’t, so it’s a bit warmer here.) On Thursday we decided to go to Lübeck after class, which is not in Niedersachsen, but we were told that we could take the train there for free.

It was about an hour by train to Lübeck and then we (me, Mike and our friend Nicole from Iowa) puttered around for a bit. It was cold, but still very pretty. I’m still trying to figure out how to get pictures up on my blog. Between my computer/internet being slow and possibly only being able to put up one picture at a time, I will get pictures up, hopefully very soon.

Anywho, on the way back to Hamburg we got ticket-checked. This is when we found out that it is indeed free for us to go to Lübeck, but the train we were on made a stop in a place called Rienfeld(maybe Reinfeld, I can’t really remember), which is not in Niedersachen, so we had to buy a ticket, which we didn’t know until he told us. This was one of those times were English was necessary. He told me three or four times that I needed a ticket from Lübeck to Rienfeld, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He then asked me if I spoke English (which made me almost pee myself later when I was thinking about it. We’re usually quickly and accurately pegged as Americans and this guy wasn’t even sure if we spoke English) and told us we needed tickets, which we then bought. See, we had been freaking out because we were told that if you get caught on a train without a ticket that it’s a 40 € fine along with lots of trouble. This event showed us that the “train” we were being warned about is actually the S-Bahn or subway, not a regular train. Good stuff to know.

We went into Hamburg yesterday and puttered about, but not for very long. It was pretty miserable yesterday. It was snowing a really wet snow and just not very good exploring weather. I’ll go back when it gets a bit warmer out. For the most part we are at about 0 degrees Celsius so it’s a bit nippy, but not in any way shape or form unbearable for me. It’s actually pretty similar to Ohio weather, except way better since I’m in Germany ;)

Well, that’s all I have for now, oh, except my Mount Union account is down. None of the four of us can check our email so if you want to email me, send it to swingkid15@juno.com I check it on a regular basis and, assuming my internet is working faster than mud in winter, I’ll get back to you pretty quick. Much love readers! I’m off to adventure down a street that I can see from my window but have not gone down yet!