So, I'm starting to settle down into a daily routine here, which is always good. I tend to get tired early and therefore go to bed before 9 which means that I can wake up between 5 and 6am, which is nice because it gives me ample time before class to do things like check email, blog, do my homework or Bible study, and perhaps Skype my more night=owl-ish friends. Class is Monday through Friday 9-12:30 with a 30-minute break at 10:30. I eat breakfast in the Wohnheim, usually cereal (so far it's been cornflakes but I'm looking for inexpensive alternatives), yogurt, and sometimes also toast with butter. I also pack my lunch, a cheese-and-butter sandwich and an apple, though I often also supplement that with a pastry or something after class (I know, I'm eating so healthy, right? :P). There's usually a group going somewhere and doing something in the afternoon, and depending on their choice of activity and the weather I either go with them, go shopping, or just go back to the Wohnheim to do more homework/email/blogging until suppertime. I've made my own supper every night thus far, and it's usually pasta something. I try to get all the food groups in by cooking chicken to go in it or adding canned vegetables, but pasta is one of the cheapest and easiest things to prepare, so it's a staple for this poor college student trying to save her money for more exciting things like museums and day trips. The nice thing about preparing my own meals is that I eat when I'm hungry, a strong contrast to last summer for those of you who have read the first part of my blog where meal timing was a frequent complaint. After supper I go back to homework and such, unless there's an evening activity planned, which I tend to participate in much less frequently than the afternoon excursions. Finally around 8 or 9 I'm tired enough to go to bed, and what time I go to bed generally determines how early I set my alarm for the next morning. I try to get a solid 8=9 hours of sleep every night; it doesn't make any sense to get overtired and not be able to fully enjoy all of the opportunities we have here in Munich.
So, Tuesday was the first day of class. The group is split into three classes: one group of German 105 and two of German 107. In my group are some from my German 102-5 class in the spring (whom I already know) and several from the other class whom I had never met before, a good mix. In total there are twelve people in my class, though there are supposed to be thirteen - I'm not really sure why one of the students never ended up coming. The most interesting story within our group was one girl whose passport apparently expired a couple of months ago without her realizing it...? She had to expedite a new passport and catch the next possible flight to Munich, whether at her own expense or the arranged ticket was able to be cancelled I'm not sure. I'm still a little confused as to how, when planning to travel out of the country, one neglects to notice the expiration date on one's passport, but I suppose it's a simple enough oversight especially if you don't travel often. She's here now, in any case, but I don't envy her having missed two days of class and traveling here alone.
Our teacher is a grey-haired man, probably in his sixties - actually, he reminds me startlingly of Mr. Girodet, my French/Spanish teacher in high school, although he's German and not French. If you took Mr. Girodet with all his quirks and teaching methods and exchanged all the quintessentially French qualities that he has for equally stereotypical German ones, I'm pretty sure you would have Professor Földeak. (Though that would be a substantial difference, considering the obvious contrasts between French and German personalities...) Professor Földeak is a linguist and he studied English in college, a refreshing contrast from my PiP professors who barely spoke anything but Russian. He is very interested in the etymology of the vocabulary we are using and often links the German history of a word to its English counterpart, which is quite helpful for understanding and remembering what we're learning. His method focuses more on learning words in context rather than giving us lists of vocabulary to commit to memory, which isn't the way I've learned most languages, but I see how it would be helpful. We have pieces of yellow paper on which we are supposed to write important new vocab in the sentences he gives us. Our homework every night is to memorize these sentences so that we learn the new vocabulary, and every day we spend the first hour or so reviewing these sentences. It works most of the time, but for some completely new vocabulary the simple sentences he gives as examples aren't enough to cement in my memory the meaning of the words, so I also keep a notebook in a more traditional "dictionary" style where I write down the new word and its English translation. I tend more to make flashcards on Alek and study them instead of memorizing the sentences, though I do make sure to familiarize myself with those as well. On the first day of class we started reviewing basic things like common verbs and question words, so that Professor Földeak could get a sense for our knowledge level, and I realized just how much that we had studied during the academic year I had already forgotten in the intervening month, particularly the past-tense forms that we don't tend to use so often in conversation (a surprising proportion of conversation refers to the present). If I was really motivated I would go through the reference book that I brought with me and review all of the grammatical topics with which we are supposed to be familiar, but if you can keep a secret, this "intensive" language program really isn't so much, and I could and possibly will squeeze by with knowing the bare minimum and bluffing the rest. Call it a sacrifice for the sake of cultural education - I can't very well experience Germany if I'm always in my room studying, right? This is, after all, an immersion program... Overall the work is not too much and the class is interesting, though after coming off a hard year at Princeton I'm a little burned out and I sometimes find it hard to muster the motivation to study in the evenings. Hopefully either this will pass or I will find a good balance so that I don't resent my studies, but can keep the end goal of becoming fluent in German in mind. I would say the most advanced of us are basically conversationally fluent in that we can say most of the banal, ordinary, everyday things we want to say to each other in German, but there are all kinds of things we don't talk about because we don't have the vocabulary, and reading instructions or understanding native speakers is still sometimes difficult if you don't know what they are supposed to be saying (context clues save my LIFE, which I'm pretty sure is the only reason I ever thought I could speak Russian to any degree).
One big example is Christian vocabulary - having grown up in a churchgoing family, "religious" words were such a part of my life that I never realized how much specialized vocabulary we use until I started trying to think about it in another language. My very best friend gave me a German version of the Bible last Christmas, so of course I brought it along, and I've been reading Colossians. Even though I know basically what it says I was really shocked by the number of words (mostly nouns) that I didn't recognize, so I started making a list of them and discovered that they are mostly very basic words that I would use in any discussion of religion/faith - hope, love, faith, sin, forgiveness, grace, gospel, minister, etc. I'm really enjoying studying this vocabulary, though, and hope to have the opportunity to attend a German church one of these Sundays to see how much I can recognize. I researched and unfortunately all of the several Calvary Chapels (the group of churches I attend, and one of which I was fortunate enough to find in St. Petersburg last year) in Germany are at least an hour's drive from both Munich and Clausthal, where I will be for July/August doing my internship. The leader of the Princeton in Munich program, Jamie Rankin, is a strong Christian who plays the piano both at PEF and Westerly Road Church back in Princeton, so of course he knows of a good church here in Munich, but since most of the group is (naturally) not interested in attending church on a Sunday morning we've planned an excursion to Neuschwanstein (the castle that inspired Disneys' trademark Sleeping Beauty castle) which leaves at 7:45am, and next week we'll be in Berlin for our mid-term excursion, so I'll only get to attend once at most. Hopefully I'll be able to find a good Bible-preaching Evangelical Christian church in Clausthal-Zellerfeld to attend.
Let me tell you about my first week of classes, and then you'll see what I meant about there being excursions or activities of some type every day. Tuesday was the first day of class, and afterwards I had a couple of errands to run, primarily equipping my cell phone with a German SIM card. Unlike PiP, PiM does not make cell phones mandatory for everyone, which I still haven't decided how I feel about. On one hand it's easier because not everyone has to buy a $30 cell phone that they'll only use for a month and can spend their money more freely on what they want, and it certainly makes for more adventures, but on the other hand it makes communication between members of the group difficult if not downright frustrating. This was especially true during the first three days before our monthly passes went into effect (now we are basically independent, which I like very much as most of the time I prefer to do my own thing rather than stick with the group). In any case, I both wanted an opportunity to use the phone I bought in Russia again and wanted to be able to communicate with other members of the group/the group leaders, so I went to vodafone and bought a pre-paid SIM card. When it comes to cellular phone service, the Europeans know what they're doing. Instead of pricey and confusing monthly plans, cell phones can be as simple as buying a SIM card for 10€ and adding money to your account whenever you need to. Calls within the network are 0,05€/min and to other networks 0,15€/min. Texts cost 0,19€ each, and I'm not sure if vodafone works like the Russian networks in that incoming calls are free (but I rather hope so). In any case my Russian phone was unlocked (thankfully) so I bought a SIM card and put 15€ on my phone, which will most likely last me through the whole summer (and it's nice to have a cell phone just in case of emergencies, especially since I usually do my own thing and will not be with a group during my internship). So after successfully navigating that purchase (by myself and in German, I might add, though not without many blank stares and pantomiming...) I returned to the Wohnheim to meet the group for our next adventure. Since Tuesday was the last day of the month and our monthly passes were only good for the two inner zones of the city, I suggested that we visit one of the two large lakes in the region (Starnbergersee or Ammersee) while we could without purchasing extra tickets, and especially because the weather was very nice here on Tuesday. So a majority of us decided to take a trip to Starnbergersee, which was only about 30 minutes by S-Bahn from the Wohnheim. It made me glad I had brought my swimming suit (I considered leaving it since I only swam once while in Russia last year). The lake was nice as promised, and the snow-topped Alps were faintly visible at the southern end, but any visions we had of sandy beaches lined with umbrella chairs were sadly disappointed. The only swimming area we could find was a stretch of rocky shore with a dock that stretched a few dozen feet into the water, a mile or two down the shore from the train station. However, the important part was swimming, so most of us (mostly boys) eagerly derobed and rushed into the water. In some strange lapse of forethought I had neglected to put on my swimsuit while still at the Wohnheim, and changing at the swimming area was an interesting challenge. There were no easily-accessible changing rooms and the nearest bathrooms that I knew of were nearly a mile down the road back toward the train station. However, there were plenty of trees and walls and buildings around, so I just had to be quick and creative about it. Unfortunately my 16x30" travel towel was of no use in this matter, so I borrowed a female friend and a full-sized towel and snuck off behind a tree. I had an interesting close call when another member of the group unwittingly wandered over, but crisis was averted and I was soon running down the dock into the water, safely and modestly covered. The water was cold!!! And this is coming from a girl who lives in Maine, so I know what cold water is. I've been swimming in the ocean in May and in snowmelt rivers in April, so I have felt cold water. This wasn't nearly THAT cold, but it was certainly chillier than expected. I half-heartedly paddled a few hundred yards away from shore but the ominous-looking clouds on the other side of the lake and the lack of willing company discouraged me from a true long-distance swim. So I contented myself with standing in the shallows and observing the multitudes of small fish which swam around me in circles, occasionally venturing close enough to brush me with a tail. I had my goggles, of course, and a few times I dove under and swam amongst the fish, which always kept just out of reach but didn't seem otherwise too bothered by my presence. Soon the rumbles of the promised thunderstorm reached our ears and we (I, at least - most people were shivering) reluctantly clambered out of the water and dried off. We trotted back to the train station rather more quickly than we had come and returned to the Wohnheim without getting wet, if barely. I then turned my attention to making supper, which was an improvised combination of instant potatoes and instant soup (but still pretty good ;]). I was surprisingly tired, so though I had grand ambitions of writing long emails and blogging and doing my homework, I ended up going to bed at 8 and planning to do it all in the morning when I would be fresher and more efficient.
I did end up getting up at 5 and getting a great deal done before class, almost at the expense of my punctuality. I posted my blog entry at 8:33 and rushed off to the train station - it takes a little more than 20 minutes to get from the Wohnheim to the Institute on a normal day and Wednesday was gloomy and rainy all day. The most interesting part of class was when our professor offered to buy us ballet and opera tickets and claimed that he could do so in about ten minutes - whoever had interest gave him 10€ for the ticket and in the middle of class, after setting us to begin a grammar exercise, he slipped out to buy the tickets. He tends to do that - disappear with little or no explanation in the middle of class, almost in the middle of a sentence - usually he comes back right away, because he just has copies to make or something. This time he said ten minutes, but he actually didn't return for FORTY - and by the time he did, class was nearly over so all he could do was give us our homework for the next day (I didn't really mind). After class I went to explore a store near the Institute that had caught my eye - it was called "Euroshop". Turns out it is just what it sounds like - the European equivalent of a dollar store. EVERYTHING is one Euro - and there's some pretty good stuff there! Not just because 1€ = $1.42, either. I'm sure I'll be back to that store many times this month. :) Then it was back to the Wohnheim, where I spent the rest of the day in frustrated attempts to call home - the weather being bad both here and in Maine, my Skype calls with Mom were nothing more than an exercise in frustration, and other friends whom I tried to contact weren't available. I eventually gave up and began researching activities in Munich that would potentially interest me, in hopes of not leaving this city feeling like I had wasted my time here or not seen all the things I wanted to see. The best discovery which followed from this exercise was that most museums in the city are quite inexpensive for students, and a few are even free! Now I have lots more ideas for adventures, and whether I can find companions with which to share my experiences or not, I will be sure to at least inform you well of the ups and downs.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Settling In
My first impressions of Germany:
- clean - amazingly so, for a city. There is NO litter. Anywhere.
- organized
- everyone follows the rules religiously - a couple of examples: when the crossing light is red, you don't cross the street. Even if there are NO cars coming and the light is about to turn green in a couple of seconds. Also, there are no gates in the train stations - if you wanted to get on the train without a ticket, you totally could. Although if you get caught doing it, the fine is 40€, so I don't suggest trying it. Even if I've only seen the police on the train once in five days.
- uncrowded (compared to St. Petersburg)
- less diverse than NYC or basically any other large American city, but more so than Russia
- friendly but businesslike - most storekeepers tolerate our mediocre German rather than trying out their English on us (especially since even if they switch to English, we insist on responding in German)
Monday was our first full day in Germany. We didn't have class but only an information session at the Institute that began at 10. I really like that on our first day they showed us where the institute was so there was no question (they didn't do that for PiP and Latalia and I had to go searching for it on our own). Since we all had group tickets until Wednesday, we met at 9:15 to all travel over together, grabbing breakfast along the way. I bought a cheese-covered roll-pastry at Müllers, a small bakery located in the train station closest to the Wohnheim, for 1,30€. Food here is surprisingly cheap, which is very good seeing as it will be my main expense.
Transportation in Germany is quite interesting and deserves a paragraph to itself. There is quite a system of interconnected S-Bahns (aboveground trains) and U-Bahns (underground trains, aka subways) throughout the city. Since we live on the last station in the city center, seven S-Bahn lines come through our station. They all take the same track through the city center and only diverge at the outskirts to travel to various places around Munich. This means that there is a train heading towards downtown approximately every 2 minutes, so you never have to worry about "missing" your train. Any of the trains heading to the city center will stop at the Institute station, so it hardly even matters which one you board. Our monthly pass allows us to travel an unlimited number of times on any S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus, or tram in the two innermost "circles" of the city, which is basically anywhere we would want to go for museums, parks, concerts, etc. On the way back to the Wohnheim at night there is only one of the eight S-Bahn lines which diverges before our stop, so we have to be a tad more watchful, but in general the public transportation around the city is absolutely stellar and I've not yet had a problem with it. Everything is exceedingly well-marked in true German style and there are clear maps of the immediate neighborhood, city, and region in every station. Although I will to some degree miss the wild adventure of taking a marshrutka through St. Petersburg, hoping that it is traveling in the direction that I want to go in, I am mostly very glad for the high level of organization. Another thing that makes Germany stand out from both the US and Russia is their attitude on bikes. They are obsessed with them over here, and bikers are thus given a much higher priority. Every sidewalk in the city consists of two lanes of bike traffic as well as places for pedestrian traffic, but if there is not enough room, the bikes take priority. And all of the Germans know not to walk in the bike lanes, because they'll just ring their bells angrily at you and then run you over. There are ample spaces for locking up bikes at the train stations and bikes are even allowed on the S-Bahn, with special places on each car to put them out of the way. I think I'm in biker heaven. Of course, one of my first questions to our German assistants (who are serving their civil service requirement with the Goethe Institute as opposed to a military service requirement, one of which is required for every young person in Germany) was "where in Munich can I buy a used bike?" I haven't seen him again to ask whether he found a good place (he answered that he knew there were shops where that was possible but would have to research exactly where in the city they are located), and I am debating whether it is worth buying a bike here that I would then have to transport on the train to Clausthal or whether I would be better off waiting until I got there to purchase one (the thought of trying to transport a bike along with two heavy suitcases and a backpack makes me shiver).
Getting back to Monday, after the information session (which only lasted an hour or so), in which we learned about the course organization as well as received our internet usernames and passwords, we were let free until 2pm. I quickly joined the group that was going shopping with the intention to end up back at the Wohnheim, and we traveled first to DM (a chain much like Rite-Aid or CVS) for shower supplies, then to a grocery store (Tengelmann) on the way home, which is when it really hit home how inexpensive groceries are here. I was able to buy a loaf of bread, butter, cheese, yogurt, milk, cereal, chicken, pasta, instant potatoes, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, 5 apples, and some instant soup mixes (much like Raman) for only 20€! Granted, I sought the cheapest items and my shopping cart didn't display the most balanced menu, but it was still a lot for what I paid for. Rushing back to the dorm, we quickly connected our computers to the internet and sent off hurried emails to parents assuring them of our safe arrival (or in my case, a terse Facebook status update to kill as many birds with one stone as possible) before heading off to the Olympic park to meet the group. The big attraction that we were all gathering to see was the Olympic tower, by far the tallest building in Munich, which provided an excellent opportunity to view the entire city (and yes, take lots of pictures). The park itself is quite interesting, however; it has several hills, but none of them are natural: they were formed from the rubble of Munich directly following WWII, then covered in dirt and planted to create a park. This sort of enormous reconstruction project happened all over just after the war as many German cities were almost completely destroyed by bombs.
Once we were all at the top of the Olympic tower, the grad students Hannes and Mareike unveiled their treat - a scavenger hunt (Schnitzeljagd) about Munich! We broke up into groups of five and received a paper with several questions on it, which we were charged to answer before 6 when we should all meet at a particular ice cream store which they pointed out on a map. My group consisted of four other people from my German 102-5 class: Dan H, Olivia, Claudia, and Nathan, so I knew we would have a great deal of fun no matter what the outcome. One of the challenges was to take 10€ given to us by Professor Rankin and spend it in the most creative way. Earlier I had seen some paddleboats on the lake and suddenly I was struck with an idea: why not spend our money on renting a paddleboat and paddling around the lake? Finding this to be the best idea anyone had, we promptly followed through with it. One of the boats was shaped like a giant swan, so of course that was the one I wanted to take. Olivia and I clambered into the swan and Claudia and the boys in the other, and we cheerfully paddled around the lake for a half-hour. The most exciting part came when we tried to follow the other boat (which was just a normal paddleboat) under a low bridge and found out that the head of the swan was too tall to allow this - we almost got stuck until Claudia suggested "lean forward" and the shift in weight tipped the boat forward so that the head was lower. (Who's the engineer, here?) The rest of the hunt involved dashing around Munich on the sophisticated U-Bahn and S-Bahn network to various sights in the city to take pictures and gather souvenirs. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the ice cream shop in time, but we had a blast so it didn't really matter to us.
We got back to the Wohnheim at about 6:30, and I promptly made myself a scrumptious supper of tortellini before hopping on Skype to talk to my sister Emily for her birthday (this is the second year in a row that I have been overseas on her birthday). Before I knew it, the clock read 11pm and I was more than ready for bed, especially since the next day marked the first day of classes.
We got back to the Wohnheim at about 6:30, and I promptly made myself a scrumptious supper of tortellini before hopping on Skype to talk to my sister Emily for her birthday (this is the second year in a row that I have been overseas on her birthday). Before I knew it, the clock read 11pm and I was more than ready for bed, especially since the next day marked the first day of classes.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A New Adventure Begins
Travel. Quite remarkable how quickly one becomes accustomed to it.
It really didn't hit me that I was leaving until about Friday night at the PEF Alumni event. Which is a little strange, because I had been packing slowly for nearly a week and by Friday everything was ready to go. But it wasn't until afterwards when I was talking to people that I really realized that I wasn't going to see any of them again until September, and some of them perhaps never again. I don't cry at these sorts of things, but it was a sobering thought. Evidently no one else realized it either, because I got texts from two separate people later that evening as I was moving the last of my stuff out (a very unwise idea on the Friday night of Reunions, mind you) and getting ready for my last night in an American bed for three months to the effect of "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU'RE LEAVING?!?!??!" They asked when they could see me and I truthfully said that the only way I could guarantee it was if they hung around with Joe. I knew at least he would take pains to make sure I said goodbye before I raced off to my summer exploits. I should probably also mention that I worked 19 hours for two different jobs in the three days leading up to my departure, including the morning we left for the airport (I actually had to pass off a shift to someone else because it wouldn't have finished in time for me to make the shuttle bus ;]). So I wasn't just moping around saying drawn-out goodbyes and waiting to leave.
The only people I ended up seeing on the morning of my departure were Joe, his roommates, and a close senior friend of his that I had also gotten to know this past semester. I hope I see them (the seniors) again, because I had become very close to some of them during the course of the year. Last year the seniors graduating meant very little to me, because I only knew a couple of them and didn't even have very many friends anyway. This year it really hit home how much I will miss them, and I begin to wonder again whether studying abroad my junior year spring semester is such a good idea, since it will mean missing the class of 2012's graduation. But I have all summer to decide that, and we haven't even started off on the adventure yet! So let's get going.
The bus was scheduled to leave at noon on Saturday, but because of one of the group members' unfortunate unforeseen circumstances we were delayed about 30 minutes. Not that it mattered - we got to the airport in plenty of time to check in and wait around for another couple of hours. The theme of waiting on people would continue through the next few days, however, and without cell phones (which were mandatory to purchase in Russia but aren't obligatory here) communication can be quite frustrating at times.
As opposed to last summer, when I went home for a week before traipsing off to Serbia and Russia, this year I chose not to go home at all in May and merely pack for Germany from what I had brought to college. This brought up the interesting question of storing what I wasn't bringing out of the country, which turned out to be quite a lot. Mom was (understandably) unwilling to drive down and pick up my stuff if I wasn't coming home (a 1000 mile journey with just all of my stuff to keep her company? Granted, I have plenty of stuffed animals, which make fine conversation partners but they can't share the driving ;]). However, she and my sister were planning a college visit trip during Emily's April vacation and she (conveniently) wanted to visit some colleges in Pennsylvania, so she decided that they would come visit me on the way and bring as much of my stuff as possible back home with them. It was unbelievably difficult to pack everything I thought I didn't need for the summer in April, and though I planned to basically live out of a suitcase for a month, I ended up having quite a bit of stuff that needed to find a home for the summer. Thankfully the wonderfully generous PEF staff and some close friends who live in the area made it possible for me to store everything I didn't need without having to pay exorbitant prices for it all. However, since I didn't want to burden them unnecessarily with all kinds of stuff, and I packed so hastily in April (there were a few things which I accidentally sent home which I later needed, and I kept at Princeton FAR more than I intended to), I ended up bringing much more than I needed to Germany. Problematic, when one considers luggage weight limits on planes which are becoming ever stricter as each additional pound means extra fuel costs. So it turned out that BOTH my checked bag and intended carry-on were above the limit, and I didn't even try to weigh my backpack which contained my laptop and sundry other items which I intended to be my "personal item." Thankfully the woman at the check-in counter was wonderfully gracious and didn't ask about the backpack, but only made me rearrange so that the carry-on bag said 8kg (it was originally 10kg, and the checked luggage was 25.5kg, when the limit is 23kg). When I tried to weigh my big suitcase again to see how much over it was, she waved me away and strapped the tag to it before I could protest. I suppose if she didn't see how much over the limit it was, she couldn't charge me for an overweight bag? In any case, my prospects for souvenirs seem dour. I hope everybody will be content with postcards, because unless I leave a significant chunk of my luggage in Germany, that's about all I can afford to bring back, and that's only if the German luggage-counter attendants are as gracious as the one in New York, which I somewhat doubt. While waiting for the plane in JFK I began thinking of how much I was bringing to Germany that I could spare: which clothes weren't my absolute favorite, which books wouldn't I need again, which things I had brought that I would use up over the course of a summer (painfully few, as I planned to purchase most such disposables upon arrival). But again, I have all summer to decide that.
Finally the call came to board and we eagerly crowded onto the plane (the second-longest in the world - the bathrooms are actually downstairs from the main cabin!!) only to wait another 60 minutes or so on the tarmac before being cleared for takeoff. I didn't mind particularly - I was excited for Germany but not so-excited-I-can-hardly-stand-it. While we waited I watched The Green Hornet which seemed to be about the only interesting movie option - I'm glad I had nothing else to do with that time, because watching that movie would certainly have been a waste of it. And I usually like superhero movies... I do, however, tend to despise movies where the main character is a jerk - though Dan H may kill me for saying it, I really didn't like Rushmore either. Finally we took off, which is always one of my favorite parts of a plane ride, and soon we were cruising up the New England coast (which I knew not because of my stellar sense of direction or knowledge of aerial geography, but because the plane had one of those nifty GPS-maps that shows the route and position of the plane, as well as sundry other information about the flight - if you are curious, go read my blog entry about my trans-Atlantic flight to Zurich last year, where I first encountered this useful bit of technology. I probably spend a paragraph and a half describing it :P). In true German style the plane was clean, all was orderly, the flight attendants were crisp and businesslike, and the food was stellar (well - for airplane food, anyway). I had "asian chicken" for supper and breakfast of a roll, granola bar, and fruit salad (if you can call two slices of pineapple, one of watermelon, one of cantaloupe and one blueberry a fruit salad). I slept around 3 hours in between, not bad on a 7-hour flight (I don't usually do well trying to sleep sitting up). Because of the northernly arc of the flight trajectory (presumably to stay over land as much as possible in case anything should go awry and demand an emergency landing) I got to see both sunset and sunrise on the same flight from my window seat on the left side of the plane. This is probably my favorite part of flying, even more than takeoff/landing. We landed at about 8:30am Munich time, which is 2:30 EST due to the 6-hour time difference. Upon deplaning I promptly took a wrong turn in baggage claim and almost got lost in the airport - not a fortuitous start to the summer, I must say. In addition I discovered that whether in the airport in New York or on the plane, I had somehow misplaced my better pair of sunglasses and was now constrained to my big bug-glasses for the summer - at least I brought two pairs!
As soon as we deplaned, the Princeton in Munich program unofficially began - we were from that point on constrained to speak only German from 9am-9pm. (I don't count blogging because I'm not technically *speaking* English, and I hope my professors and classmates will forgive me the exception in the interest of preserving my memories). To my great surprise, I could do it! In stark contrast to the rocky start of the Princeton in St. Petersburg program in which I participated the summer prior, when I was unceremoniously dumped off at my host mother's apartment to find that she spoke not a word of English and my Russian was lacking to the point that I could barely understand what she was trying to communicate, much less respond (again, for more on that traumatic experience, go read the post titled "First Impressions"), I found that most of the vocabulary I wanted to communicate with my classmates was easily within my grasp! Not that my grammar is perfect or that I don't pause and stumble (and make up German words or use English substitutes quite frequently), but I can understand and be understood, and that is a huge relief and confidence booster. Granted, I am speaking with my classmates and professor who are intimately acquainted with both my accent and vocabulary level, and I have found that speaking with native speakers is significantly more difficult, but not impossible. There may be hope after all for me being at least conversationally fluent by the end of the summer, if I work hard these next 12 weeks.
After waiting around a bit more in the airport (another student's bag had been lost and Prof. Rankin had to buy the tickets for us to travel on the train to our apartment), we were finally ready to set off, all 38 of us. Now, anytime you have a group of this size you run the risk of losing track of everyone, and sure enough, that is what happened. Prof. Rankin had bought group tickets (for up to 5 people) which were good for three days, which was exactly the time needed to last us until June, when we would receive individual month-long passes for all public transportation systems (local trains, subway, buses, trams...). Amazingly this, like so many other aspects of the program, is covered in the program fee. Now I can't believe that PIM costs only $2500! PIP was also $2500, but we were individually responsible for our plane tickets, transportation around the city, and so on. However, with PIM we have to pay for all our own food, and the program is only half as long, so perhaps the advantage isn't so much as I make it out to be. In all honesty, it probably isn't fair to continuously make these comparisons between PiP and PiM, but I can't help it, and so far PiM is coming out ahead by a long shot. Anyway, back to the airport. As was bound to happen, 13 of us didn't make it onto the train in time and it zoomed away, carrying Professor Rankin and all of the tickets with it. Evidently he thought that we were all on the train together because he had handed out all of his tickets, but obviously not everyone had had a group of five and in the chaos, quite a few of us had been overlooked. All was not lost, however. I was one of the thirteen left behind, but I was in a group of five with a ticket. Our group had gotten off the train to seek a less crowded car just as the doors closed and locked (train doors in Germany don't automatically open and close - you must push a button to open them that deactivates when the train is about to leave). The other eight, however, were stranded. We finally decided that the five of us should follow the group and inform Professor Rankin of the predicament of the others, since we didn't know whether or not he was aware of so many missing, no one had a way to contact anyone in the other group (since none of our American phones worked in Germany) and having one ticket between thirteen people wouldn't do anyone any good. We caught the next train into the city and dutifully got off at our stop, but then paused, confused. We started off in one direction, but when we didn't find the correct street as "the first street on the right", as described, we turned around only to be met by Nathan, one of the most energetic participants in PiM, who had been sent back to train station to meet and guide us back to the dorm building. Finally we arrived and told Professor Rankin of the other eight (and confirmed that he had no idea that they had been left behind). While he dashed off to return to the airport and retrieve them, we received our room keys and set off to unpack a bit before an informational meeting. My room for the summer is number 309, which is on the fourth floor by American accounting (since Europeans count the ground floor as separate from the first floor). We all have very similar singles furnished with a bed, a desk, two bookshelves, a large shkaf (a Russian word for a free-standing wardrobe for which there is no good English equivalent), a refrigerator, a nightstand, and a private bathroom with toilet, sink, and shower. Ironically it is larger, newer, and nicer than my academic room in Princeton from last year. Every Wednesday we have the opportunity to change out our pillowcase/sheets and towels, and the rooms are cleaned weekly. There is a kitchen on every floor where we can cook our meals if we prefer that to eating out (which I certainly do, to save money - this summer is going to be expensive enough!) and the basement has a game room, music room, TV room, and laundry room. The internet, laundry, game room, kitchen use, and just about everything else here is free - it doesn't get much better than that. :) The doors, windows, and light switches are as I saw in Serbia and Russia (the windows open either out or tilt down, with no screens, the doors have a strange lip, and the light switches are large and flat) but that's all old hat to me now (such a worldly-wise traveler have I become ;P). Bedding in Germany is done a little differently - they have a big pillow with a pillowcase, but there is no such thing as a "fitted" sheet - a flat sheet tucks around the mattress and additional bedding is provided by a comforter with a washable cover instead of additional sheets. Pretty intelligent, if you ask me, though it takes a bit of getting used to when one is accustomed to several layers over oneself.
The weather here shouldn't be as terrible as Russia - more like a Maine summer with many rainy days around 50˚F as well as a few hot ones closer to 80˚F. After the trauma of last year's persistent 90˚ heat without any air conditioning, I welcome rain and cool. I've also changed my philosophy on clothing and brought a fair sampling of my American wardrobe, everything from hoodies and jeans to tank tops and shorts - though the proportion of sundresses in my closet is certainly higher here than back in the States. According to my classmates I look fairly German already (well I am about as white as they get), but to me the more important thing is being able to SPEAK the language rather than LOOK like I fit in.
After having a bit of time to unpack and get our bearings, and having been well-oriented to the Wohnung (apartment) - in German, nonetheless - we set off back for the city to meet one of the graduate students who was coming from Princeton. Unfortunately her train was late - more waiting. When she finally arrived, we wandered the city center for a bit, but most of the fun was taken out of the excursion by our over-tired and jet-lagged state. I understand the sentiment of wanting to give us something to do so that we don't all go to bed at 2pm and wake up at 3am, but it wasn't very enjoyable. We split up a couple of times and though we gave clear instructions for when and where to meet again, we inevitably ended up waiting for people again - and tempers were short. We found a Deutsche Bank ATM (Bank of America has an agreement with them whereby fees are waived, which could potentially save me quite a bit of money over the summer) and I withdrew 200€ before I realized how much that was in dollars - being abroad had put me back in Russian mode, where the exchange rate is 30 roubles to the dollar. I had to remember that here it was the other way around, with 1.4 dollars equalling one Euro as of a few days ago - I'll have to be even more careful with my spending this summer. Anyway, I shouldn't have to visit an ATM again for awhile (although there are always many more expenses up front, so I shouldn't expect that any spending trends this week will continue), and there is a small safe in the room at the apartment so any extra money as well as my passport, debit card, camera, iPod, etc. should be much safer. Unfortunately my laptop won't fit in the safe or I would keep it there too, but the rooms lock automatically and I'm not too worried. That's one big difference between Russia and Germany - I brought my laptop Alek this year, which means many things. Perhaps most importantly, I won't *have* to wait an entire week between blog posts, which means that each one may not be a novel. I'll also be more connected to America and the world in general, more reachable by email, on Skype more often, etc. Friends from home can even text me on my Google voice number and I can check it from either Alek or Sebastian (my iPod which is also here with me and connected to the internet), though from this distance I can't imagine that there is anything that you would want to text me that couldn't be better said in an email. On that note, please know that I'd love to hear how you are doing - I can't be the only person having an exciting summer! :)
So, back to Sunday. Since it was Sunday, many stores were closed, including nearly every Apotheke we ran across (most of us hadn't brought liquids such as shampoo/conditioner/soap, etc. and we were in desperate need of showers). But, we wandered around and got a feel for the city center, ending at Marienplatz in time to see the famous cuckoo clock which plays every day at 11am, noon, and 5pm. Then we finally returned to the dorm for the night, where I organized my few belongings to my heart's content (I'm not happy unless my room is clean and organized), calculated my budget for the month, and made lists: to do, to buy, lists to make, etc. ;) Finally at 8:00 I was too exhausted to do more and fell gratefully into bed before even the sun had gone down. My room has east-facing windows, and I look forward to being woken up by the sun every morning - that is one of the main reasons that I picked my room at Princeton for next year. And so I slept the sleep of the weary traveler, happy to be in a made-up bed once more (my bedding had needed to be packed a couple of days before I left so I spent my last two nights in America huddled on a bare mattress with a sweatshirt for a pillow - miserable even when it is too hot for blankets). And here my saga ends until another day.
It really didn't hit me that I was leaving until about Friday night at the PEF Alumni event. Which is a little strange, because I had been packing slowly for nearly a week and by Friday everything was ready to go. But it wasn't until afterwards when I was talking to people that I really realized that I wasn't going to see any of them again until September, and some of them perhaps never again. I don't cry at these sorts of things, but it was a sobering thought. Evidently no one else realized it either, because I got texts from two separate people later that evening as I was moving the last of my stuff out (a very unwise idea on the Friday night of Reunions, mind you) and getting ready for my last night in an American bed for three months to the effect of "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU'RE LEAVING?!?!??!" They asked when they could see me and I truthfully said that the only way I could guarantee it was if they hung around with Joe. I knew at least he would take pains to make sure I said goodbye before I raced off to my summer exploits. I should probably also mention that I worked 19 hours for two different jobs in the three days leading up to my departure, including the morning we left for the airport (I actually had to pass off a shift to someone else because it wouldn't have finished in time for me to make the shuttle bus ;]). So I wasn't just moping around saying drawn-out goodbyes and waiting to leave.
The only people I ended up seeing on the morning of my departure were Joe, his roommates, and a close senior friend of his that I had also gotten to know this past semester. I hope I see them (the seniors) again, because I had become very close to some of them during the course of the year. Last year the seniors graduating meant very little to me, because I only knew a couple of them and didn't even have very many friends anyway. This year it really hit home how much I will miss them, and I begin to wonder again whether studying abroad my junior year spring semester is such a good idea, since it will mean missing the class of 2012's graduation. But I have all summer to decide that, and we haven't even started off on the adventure yet! So let's get going.
The bus was scheduled to leave at noon on Saturday, but because of one of the group members' unfortunate unforeseen circumstances we were delayed about 30 minutes. Not that it mattered - we got to the airport in plenty of time to check in and wait around for another couple of hours. The theme of waiting on people would continue through the next few days, however, and without cell phones (which were mandatory to purchase in Russia but aren't obligatory here) communication can be quite frustrating at times.
As opposed to last summer, when I went home for a week before traipsing off to Serbia and Russia, this year I chose not to go home at all in May and merely pack for Germany from what I had brought to college. This brought up the interesting question of storing what I wasn't bringing out of the country, which turned out to be quite a lot. Mom was (understandably) unwilling to drive down and pick up my stuff if I wasn't coming home (a 1000 mile journey with just all of my stuff to keep her company? Granted, I have plenty of stuffed animals, which make fine conversation partners but they can't share the driving ;]). However, she and my sister were planning a college visit trip during Emily's April vacation and she (conveniently) wanted to visit some colleges in Pennsylvania, so she decided that they would come visit me on the way and bring as much of my stuff as possible back home with them. It was unbelievably difficult to pack everything I thought I didn't need for the summer in April, and though I planned to basically live out of a suitcase for a month, I ended up having quite a bit of stuff that needed to find a home for the summer. Thankfully the wonderfully generous PEF staff and some close friends who live in the area made it possible for me to store everything I didn't need without having to pay exorbitant prices for it all. However, since I didn't want to burden them unnecessarily with all kinds of stuff, and I packed so hastily in April (there were a few things which I accidentally sent home which I later needed, and I kept at Princeton FAR more than I intended to), I ended up bringing much more than I needed to Germany. Problematic, when one considers luggage weight limits on planes which are becoming ever stricter as each additional pound means extra fuel costs. So it turned out that BOTH my checked bag and intended carry-on were above the limit, and I didn't even try to weigh my backpack which contained my laptop and sundry other items which I intended to be my "personal item." Thankfully the woman at the check-in counter was wonderfully gracious and didn't ask about the backpack, but only made me rearrange so that the carry-on bag said 8kg (it was originally 10kg, and the checked luggage was 25.5kg, when the limit is 23kg). When I tried to weigh my big suitcase again to see how much over it was, she waved me away and strapped the tag to it before I could protest. I suppose if she didn't see how much over the limit it was, she couldn't charge me for an overweight bag? In any case, my prospects for souvenirs seem dour. I hope everybody will be content with postcards, because unless I leave a significant chunk of my luggage in Germany, that's about all I can afford to bring back, and that's only if the German luggage-counter attendants are as gracious as the one in New York, which I somewhat doubt. While waiting for the plane in JFK I began thinking of how much I was bringing to Germany that I could spare: which clothes weren't my absolute favorite, which books wouldn't I need again, which things I had brought that I would use up over the course of a summer (painfully few, as I planned to purchase most such disposables upon arrival). But again, I have all summer to decide that.
Finally the call came to board and we eagerly crowded onto the plane (the second-longest in the world - the bathrooms are actually downstairs from the main cabin!!) only to wait another 60 minutes or so on the tarmac before being cleared for takeoff. I didn't mind particularly - I was excited for Germany but not so-excited-I-can-hardly-stand-it. While we waited I watched The Green Hornet which seemed to be about the only interesting movie option - I'm glad I had nothing else to do with that time, because watching that movie would certainly have been a waste of it. And I usually like superhero movies... I do, however, tend to despise movies where the main character is a jerk - though Dan H may kill me for saying it, I really didn't like Rushmore either. Finally we took off, which is always one of my favorite parts of a plane ride, and soon we were cruising up the New England coast (which I knew not because of my stellar sense of direction or knowledge of aerial geography, but because the plane had one of those nifty GPS-maps that shows the route and position of the plane, as well as sundry other information about the flight - if you are curious, go read my blog entry about my trans-Atlantic flight to Zurich last year, where I first encountered this useful bit of technology. I probably spend a paragraph and a half describing it :P). In true German style the plane was clean, all was orderly, the flight attendants were crisp and businesslike, and the food was stellar (well - for airplane food, anyway). I had "asian chicken" for supper and breakfast of a roll, granola bar, and fruit salad (if you can call two slices of pineapple, one of watermelon, one of cantaloupe and one blueberry a fruit salad). I slept around 3 hours in between, not bad on a 7-hour flight (I don't usually do well trying to sleep sitting up). Because of the northernly arc of the flight trajectory (presumably to stay over land as much as possible in case anything should go awry and demand an emergency landing) I got to see both sunset and sunrise on the same flight from my window seat on the left side of the plane. This is probably my favorite part of flying, even more than takeoff/landing. We landed at about 8:30am Munich time, which is 2:30 EST due to the 6-hour time difference. Upon deplaning I promptly took a wrong turn in baggage claim and almost got lost in the airport - not a fortuitous start to the summer, I must say. In addition I discovered that whether in the airport in New York or on the plane, I had somehow misplaced my better pair of sunglasses and was now constrained to my big bug-glasses for the summer - at least I brought two pairs!
As soon as we deplaned, the Princeton in Munich program unofficially began - we were from that point on constrained to speak only German from 9am-9pm. (I don't count blogging because I'm not technically *speaking* English, and I hope my professors and classmates will forgive me the exception in the interest of preserving my memories). To my great surprise, I could do it! In stark contrast to the rocky start of the Princeton in St. Petersburg program in which I participated the summer prior, when I was unceremoniously dumped off at my host mother's apartment to find that she spoke not a word of English and my Russian was lacking to the point that I could barely understand what she was trying to communicate, much less respond (again, for more on that traumatic experience, go read the post titled "First Impressions"), I found that most of the vocabulary I wanted to communicate with my classmates was easily within my grasp! Not that my grammar is perfect or that I don't pause and stumble (and make up German words or use English substitutes quite frequently), but I can understand and be understood, and that is a huge relief and confidence booster. Granted, I am speaking with my classmates and professor who are intimately acquainted with both my accent and vocabulary level, and I have found that speaking with native speakers is significantly more difficult, but not impossible. There may be hope after all for me being at least conversationally fluent by the end of the summer, if I work hard these next 12 weeks.
After waiting around a bit more in the airport (another student's bag had been lost and Prof. Rankin had to buy the tickets for us to travel on the train to our apartment), we were finally ready to set off, all 38 of us. Now, anytime you have a group of this size you run the risk of losing track of everyone, and sure enough, that is what happened. Prof. Rankin had bought group tickets (for up to 5 people) which were good for three days, which was exactly the time needed to last us until June, when we would receive individual month-long passes for all public transportation systems (local trains, subway, buses, trams...). Amazingly this, like so many other aspects of the program, is covered in the program fee. Now I can't believe that PIM costs only $2500! PIP was also $2500, but we were individually responsible for our plane tickets, transportation around the city, and so on. However, with PIM we have to pay for all our own food, and the program is only half as long, so perhaps the advantage isn't so much as I make it out to be. In all honesty, it probably isn't fair to continuously make these comparisons between PiP and PiM, but I can't help it, and so far PiM is coming out ahead by a long shot. Anyway, back to the airport. As was bound to happen, 13 of us didn't make it onto the train in time and it zoomed away, carrying Professor Rankin and all of the tickets with it. Evidently he thought that we were all on the train together because he had handed out all of his tickets, but obviously not everyone had had a group of five and in the chaos, quite a few of us had been overlooked. All was not lost, however. I was one of the thirteen left behind, but I was in a group of five with a ticket. Our group had gotten off the train to seek a less crowded car just as the doors closed and locked (train doors in Germany don't automatically open and close - you must push a button to open them that deactivates when the train is about to leave). The other eight, however, were stranded. We finally decided that the five of us should follow the group and inform Professor Rankin of the predicament of the others, since we didn't know whether or not he was aware of so many missing, no one had a way to contact anyone in the other group (since none of our American phones worked in Germany) and having one ticket between thirteen people wouldn't do anyone any good. We caught the next train into the city and dutifully got off at our stop, but then paused, confused. We started off in one direction, but when we didn't find the correct street as "the first street on the right", as described, we turned around only to be met by Nathan, one of the most energetic participants in PiM, who had been sent back to train station to meet and guide us back to the dorm building. Finally we arrived and told Professor Rankin of the other eight (and confirmed that he had no idea that they had been left behind). While he dashed off to return to the airport and retrieve them, we received our room keys and set off to unpack a bit before an informational meeting. My room for the summer is number 309, which is on the fourth floor by American accounting (since Europeans count the ground floor as separate from the first floor). We all have very similar singles furnished with a bed, a desk, two bookshelves, a large shkaf (a Russian word for a free-standing wardrobe for which there is no good English equivalent), a refrigerator, a nightstand, and a private bathroom with toilet, sink, and shower. Ironically it is larger, newer, and nicer than my academic room in Princeton from last year. Every Wednesday we have the opportunity to change out our pillowcase/sheets and towels, and the rooms are cleaned weekly. There is a kitchen on every floor where we can cook our meals if we prefer that to eating out (which I certainly do, to save money - this summer is going to be expensive enough!) and the basement has a game room, music room, TV room, and laundry room. The internet, laundry, game room, kitchen use, and just about everything else here is free - it doesn't get much better than that. :) The doors, windows, and light switches are as I saw in Serbia and Russia (the windows open either out or tilt down, with no screens, the doors have a strange lip, and the light switches are large and flat) but that's all old hat to me now (such a worldly-wise traveler have I become ;P). Bedding in Germany is done a little differently - they have a big pillow with a pillowcase, but there is no such thing as a "fitted" sheet - a flat sheet tucks around the mattress and additional bedding is provided by a comforter with a washable cover instead of additional sheets. Pretty intelligent, if you ask me, though it takes a bit of getting used to when one is accustomed to several layers over oneself.
The weather here shouldn't be as terrible as Russia - more like a Maine summer with many rainy days around 50˚F as well as a few hot ones closer to 80˚F. After the trauma of last year's persistent 90˚ heat without any air conditioning, I welcome rain and cool. I've also changed my philosophy on clothing and brought a fair sampling of my American wardrobe, everything from hoodies and jeans to tank tops and shorts - though the proportion of sundresses in my closet is certainly higher here than back in the States. According to my classmates I look fairly German already (well I am about as white as they get), but to me the more important thing is being able to SPEAK the language rather than LOOK like I fit in.
After having a bit of time to unpack and get our bearings, and having been well-oriented to the Wohnung (apartment) - in German, nonetheless - we set off back for the city to meet one of the graduate students who was coming from Princeton. Unfortunately her train was late - more waiting. When she finally arrived, we wandered the city center for a bit, but most of the fun was taken out of the excursion by our over-tired and jet-lagged state. I understand the sentiment of wanting to give us something to do so that we don't all go to bed at 2pm and wake up at 3am, but it wasn't very enjoyable. We split up a couple of times and though we gave clear instructions for when and where to meet again, we inevitably ended up waiting for people again - and tempers were short. We found a Deutsche Bank ATM (Bank of America has an agreement with them whereby fees are waived, which could potentially save me quite a bit of money over the summer) and I withdrew 200€ before I realized how much that was in dollars - being abroad had put me back in Russian mode, where the exchange rate is 30 roubles to the dollar. I had to remember that here it was the other way around, with 1.4 dollars equalling one Euro as of a few days ago - I'll have to be even more careful with my spending this summer. Anyway, I shouldn't have to visit an ATM again for awhile (although there are always many more expenses up front, so I shouldn't expect that any spending trends this week will continue), and there is a small safe in the room at the apartment so any extra money as well as my passport, debit card, camera, iPod, etc. should be much safer. Unfortunately my laptop won't fit in the safe or I would keep it there too, but the rooms lock automatically and I'm not too worried. That's one big difference between Russia and Germany - I brought my laptop Alek this year, which means many things. Perhaps most importantly, I won't *have* to wait an entire week between blog posts, which means that each one may not be a novel. I'll also be more connected to America and the world in general, more reachable by email, on Skype more often, etc. Friends from home can even text me on my Google voice number and I can check it from either Alek or Sebastian (my iPod which is also here with me and connected to the internet), though from this distance I can't imagine that there is anything that you would want to text me that couldn't be better said in an email. On that note, please know that I'd love to hear how you are doing - I can't be the only person having an exciting summer! :)
So, back to Sunday. Since it was Sunday, many stores were closed, including nearly every Apotheke we ran across (most of us hadn't brought liquids such as shampoo/conditioner/soap, etc. and we were in desperate need of showers). But, we wandered around and got a feel for the city center, ending at Marienplatz in time to see the famous cuckoo clock which plays every day at 11am, noon, and 5pm. Then we finally returned to the dorm for the night, where I organized my few belongings to my heart's content (I'm not happy unless my room is clean and organized), calculated my budget for the month, and made lists: to do, to buy, lists to make, etc. ;) Finally at 8:00 I was too exhausted to do more and fell gratefully into bed before even the sun had gone down. My room has east-facing windows, and I look forward to being woken up by the sun every morning - that is one of the main reasons that I picked my room at Princeton for next year. And so I slept the sleep of the weary traveler, happy to be in a made-up bed once more (my bedding had needed to be packed a couple of days before I left so I spent my last two nights in America huddled on a bare mattress with a sweatshirt for a pillow - miserable even when it is too hot for blankets). And here my saga ends until another day.
Prologue, if you can call it that
So, back again. And by "back" I can only mean "back away from America" because Germany is really nothing like Russia, though I can't help but keep comparing them. I guess that's how life with a human brain works, though - you take all your new experiences and compare them to everything familiar and go from there. I've been seeing that more and more in my life over this year through a few circumstances, and the Russia vs. Germany thing that I keep returning to just drives the point home.
For all of you who are just joining me for whatever reason (you didn't know me or know about this blog last year or you're here in Germany with me and frankly don't give a sweat about my Russian travels), welcome. I hope you find this at least entertaining, if not too relevant to anything you're doing. I tend to write mostly stream-of-consciousness, though it is a bit more organized than my thought life. The posts are long, though hopefully they'll be shorter and more frequent this year than last. Yes, I write about what I do on a daily basis, but I also try to incorporate and draw out any lessons on travel/life that I think can be learned from my experiences, because in the end, who really cares what I ate for supper every night? Feel free to comment on any posts, I love feedback of any kind. If you're a friend from home, please know that emails (no matter the length) are always welcome and read eagerly and often. Disclaimer for my fellow participants in the Princeton in Munich program: I will use your names unless you specifically request that I refrain from doing so. However, I will restrain myself to only your first name and last initial if there are multiple people with the same name here, so that only people who know you will know who you are (i.e. future employers won't be able to find incriminating evidence against you here when they Google-search your name). If you read any of my posts and believe that what I have written paints an unfair or unflattering picture of yourself, please have the courtesy to let me know via email or Facebook and I will immediately attempt to remedy the situation by editing or deleting the offending post.
Phew, now that all that unpleasant legal stuff is taken care of, let's get down to the exciting part.
So, this is ostensibly a travel blog, but it's all about my adventures, so I think it would not be completely out of place to put in just a paragraph about the 10 months that have passed since my last entry. I've now survived two years of Princeton, which is not exactly a small feat. This year was full of many more core classes (in the MAE department) than last year, and was therefore more intense and concentrated. I pulled through with pretty good grades, all things considered, though I've finally had to let go of my high school dreams of all As. I got quite busy as the year went on between studies, paid employment, and extracurricular activities. I upped the ante significantly this year by jumping from one to four jobs, but honestly didn't feel like that was a significant contributing factor to any feelings of being overwhelmed. I got a LOT more involved with PEF, the Christian fellowship group on campus, and am so glad that I did. I finally found my niche and made a TON more friends, including some that I have a feeling may be around for quite a while after college :) I got into KS, the Christian a cappella group for which I tried out at the beginning of my freshman year and was rejected from, which was definitely one of the high points. And yes, for all of you from home who have been asking, I finally found a boyfriend. He's perfectly lovely, and I could talk about him all day, but this definitely isn't the place for that, so you'll just have to inquire by email. ;)
Now before we completely move on to my German adventures, I was looking back through my journal of last summer (basically a condensed version of my blog) I found a page labeled "Things I've Learned in Russia". Some of them are relevant, others less so but quite amusing, so I thought I would include it here with minimal commentary as a segue into my next adventures.
Things I've Learned in Russia
I should probably preclude this with the information that I brought almost no "American" clothes to Russia last year upon the information that looking American would make me a target. So my wardrobe consisted of sundresses, skirts, blouses, and heels, which (for any of you who know me) is drastically different from my normal dress of a T-shirt, jeans and Tevas or sneakers. Thus the several statements pertaining to clothing.
For all of you who are just joining me for whatever reason (you didn't know me or know about this blog last year or you're here in Germany with me and frankly don't give a sweat about my Russian travels), welcome. I hope you find this at least entertaining, if not too relevant to anything you're doing. I tend to write mostly stream-of-consciousness, though it is a bit more organized than my thought life. The posts are long, though hopefully they'll be shorter and more frequent this year than last. Yes, I write about what I do on a daily basis, but I also try to incorporate and draw out any lessons on travel/life that I think can be learned from my experiences, because in the end, who really cares what I ate for supper every night? Feel free to comment on any posts, I love feedback of any kind. If you're a friend from home, please know that emails (no matter the length) are always welcome and read eagerly and often. Disclaimer for my fellow participants in the Princeton in Munich program: I will use your names unless you specifically request that I refrain from doing so. However, I will restrain myself to only your first name and last initial if there are multiple people with the same name here, so that only people who know you will know who you are (i.e. future employers won't be able to find incriminating evidence against you here when they Google-search your name). If you read any of my posts and believe that what I have written paints an unfair or unflattering picture of yourself, please have the courtesy to let me know via email or Facebook and I will immediately attempt to remedy the situation by editing or deleting the offending post.
Phew, now that all that unpleasant legal stuff is taken care of, let's get down to the exciting part.
So, this is ostensibly a travel blog, but it's all about my adventures, so I think it would not be completely out of place to put in just a paragraph about the 10 months that have passed since my last entry. I've now survived two years of Princeton, which is not exactly a small feat. This year was full of many more core classes (in the MAE department) than last year, and was therefore more intense and concentrated. I pulled through with pretty good grades, all things considered, though I've finally had to let go of my high school dreams of all As. I got quite busy as the year went on between studies, paid employment, and extracurricular activities. I upped the ante significantly this year by jumping from one to four jobs, but honestly didn't feel like that was a significant contributing factor to any feelings of being overwhelmed. I got a LOT more involved with PEF, the Christian fellowship group on campus, and am so glad that I did. I finally found my niche and made a TON more friends, including some that I have a feeling may be around for quite a while after college :) I got into KS, the Christian a cappella group for which I tried out at the beginning of my freshman year and was rejected from, which was definitely one of the high points. And yes, for all of you from home who have been asking, I finally found a boyfriend. He's perfectly lovely, and I could talk about him all day, but this definitely isn't the place for that, so you'll just have to inquire by email. ;)
Now before we completely move on to my German adventures, I was looking back through my journal of last summer (basically a condensed version of my blog) I found a page labeled "Things I've Learned in Russia". Some of them are relevant, others less so but quite amusing, so I thought I would include it here with minimal commentary as a segue into my next adventures.
Things I've Learned in Russia
I should probably preclude this with the information that I brought almost no "American" clothes to Russia last year upon the information that looking American would make me a target. So my wardrobe consisted of sundresses, skirts, blouses, and heels, which (for any of you who know me) is drastically different from my normal dress of a T-shirt, jeans and Tevas or sneakers. Thus the several statements pertaining to clothing.
- Well-fitting shoes are the key to happiness.
- Pack more Band-Aids and way less clothing than you think you need. Didn't follow this one very well this year, but my philosophy on clothing has also changed drastically, as I'll explain later.
- Knee-high pantyhose are the greatest invention ever.
- You only use about 500 words to communicate - really. But not the ones you're taught in language class. Expressing my frustration with arriving in Russia not having learned all the necessary grammar or having covered certain vital topics such as telling time. The German department prepared us much better for day-to-day communication.
- Russians don't snack, they just drink.
- As long as you look confident and walk quickly, people won't (usually) bother you. A reference to my (very stupid) midnight tour of one of the seedier neighborhoods of St. Petersburg. It's a pretty good story - I recommend you go read about it at the end of my July 16, 2010 post "The Fatalist".
- I look like a good person to ask for directions. This happens ALL the time - in America as well as other countries, evidently.
- Wearing shoes without socks makes them stink.
- You can get used to anything... even 95˚ heat. Compared to the unbearable heat of last summer, Germany feels downright cold!
- 8 weeks is way too long to be intensely studying. 6 weeks was about the limit for our group - the weather may have had something to do with that.
- You can never play too many games of iPod Solitaire. Yeah, I didn't really take advantage of St. Petersburg most times - far too many afternoons were spent sitting at my desk, making flashcards and playing Solitaire.
- Cold showers are the best thing in the world (when you're roasting), but they don't really cool you down. I've heard tepid water does a better job, it's less of a shock.
- People in cities walk more than people in small towns.
- You can never be too careful in a crowded place. Since my purse got stolen last summer I'm SUPER paranoid here, but I guess that could be a good thing...
- You shouldn't keep all your valuables in one place, and NEVER carry around something irreplaceable.
- You never want something as much as when you don't have it.
- Go to museums as a student - it's way cheaper. In Russia at least - Germany seems to just do the child/adult split.
- Barter ruthlessly - if they won't go cheaper, someone else will. And they all sell the same stuff.
- The more expensive the souvenir is, the bigger discount you can get.
Let's hope some of these lessons help me out in Germany!!
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