I HAVE INTERENT! (First Week)

Here's a brief look at the first week I spent in Germany minus some of the gory details. I managed to keep up with this every day, but as you'll notice in the next few posts that will hopefully catch you up to date, I didn't journal everyday. Needless so say, they're far more abbreviated.


POST #1: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: My “Warm” Reception

Originally I had written about four pages for this entry alone, but on Monday my perception of the country drastically changed. So instead of the windy rant I’d originally intended to post I’ve instead elected to provide this brief time line with some minimal explanation.

Friday, 10:45 a.m. – Fly out of OMA to ATL, then from ATL to DUS.
Saturday, 9:50 a.m. – Arrive in Dortmund
Saturday, 10:30 a.m. – Arrive at student apartment; briefly meet one of three girls I’ll share the apartment with.

And since everything in Germany closes early – regardless of the day –but especially on weekends I spent the next two days hermitting in my room hoping my one present roommate would share her food with me. Over the course of the weekend [Saturday morning-Monday afternoon] I had three eggs, one piece of bread, and three cooked cups of rice. Those of you who know me and know how much I like to eat know that I was starving… because that’s something I’d generally eat for a meal [minus some of the rice of course]… normally I wouldn’t even try to make that last forty-eight hours. Needless to say my first few days here were rather miserable and lonely. In fact, the most human contact I had was with Abide (Ah-bee-day), my roommate, which largely consisted of bilingual miscommunication and charades for no more than thirty minutes a day. Other than that, I was alone.
This brings us to Monday morning…

POST #2: Monday

At about nine this morning I went to the initial meeting point for the American students before we all went to our pre-class orientation. I’ve never been so excited to see strangers. There are a few Americans here – all with varying degrees of knowledge of the German language. For instance, some Alabama school just joined the ISEP network so they sent six of their students to the same school and none of them have had any German. I repeat, NONE. (They’re screwed) Then there are those who’ve literally been taking courses for nine or ten years.

Fast Forward – Everyone took a language placement test and multiple tours of Dortmund’s very large campus.

In the end they divided us up into three groups based on ability and I was placed in the second group… which was pleasantly surprising. Like I said, they administered a test to everyone with consisted of a few personal questions, a partner interview section which was later used to gauge our speaking ability, and then a short essay portion. I guess I just though I’d be in the first level considering how much German I’ve had, but I must be doing somewhat better than I thought. (More on this later)

POST #3: Tuesday – Thursday
In a nutshell I’ve been going to class and to “tutorial” (tutorial in short is a mandatory program that they set up nearly everyday after lunch where they parade us around the city as tourists – fannypack optional). It’s kind of funny right now, because we have a good deal of homework for the class we’re taking, then we have these damn tutorial things (which last forever) and our professors and the people in the international affairs department people keep asking us how we like the pubs and where we went out last night and then look surprised (shocked even) when we (the majority of the Americans) explain that A. We did homework and went to bed and or B. We don’t drink. (That’s right, I’m not the only one here… in fact two of the first people I really met, Gwyndolyn and Cory, also Americans, don’t drink. Cory doesn’t drink at all, he’s thirty and he’s never touched a drop in his life. Gwyndolyn’s twenty-two and drinks the same way I do; once in a blue moon she’ll have a glass of wine.) But as I was saying, they seem rather surprised… but in our defense (as raunchy, impolite, alcohol crazed American students) we’re insanely tired. They do A LOT of walking here... I’d say I walk at least five miles a day from place to place. Not like get up from your chair walk to the other room walking, like walk from 16th & G to 27th & A to 18th & Washington to 10th & O. walking. I walk twenty-five minutes to class (walking fast) then ten to lunch, then twenty back to my place, then fifteen to the campus train station. There’s a lot of walking done here…

POST #4: Friday

I’m playing hookie today. Why you ask? Because I learned a new German word this week, "durchfall," oder auf Englisch; diarrhea.