Saturday, April 20, 2013

First Week of Class!!

Hello all! This past week was pretty exciting because it was my first week of actual college classes.  Philipps Universität’s entire educational system here is entirely different from those in the U.S. so I learned a ton about the way classes work here. I also had to go to the doctors for the first time while I’ve been abroad, making it a crazy and stressful week for me!  I’m feeling better now so don’t worry, but it definitely was an interesting experience.

There are so many differences between Etown and Philipps University that it’s hard to know where to start!  Well firstly, students here can take as many credits as they are able to handle.  This is good for the motivated, but a procrastination trap for those who aren’t.  Tests, finals, and papers can sometimes be scheduled for whenever a student wants so they can finish them weeks after a class is over.  Most classes usually only meet for two hours once every week. There are also four-hour seminars that occur every other week and even longer classes that happen only a couple times a semester.  Even though classes only meet once a week, most will also start and end 15 minutes late too!  This means that students have a ton more free time during the week, but it can also means more homework too.  Professors here are also much vaguer when it comes to homework.  They’d probably consider some of the professors back in the states to be spoon feeding their students.

My first class was entirely auf Deutsch.  It’s a course on the history and culture of the Sinti and Roma that I thought would be do-able for me in German.  All of my courses here transfer as either pass or fail so it takes a lot of the pressure off of me!  The entire class actually went really well even though I was terrified.  When the professors (there are two for this class) finished their lecture though, I was totally shocked when all of the students began to knock on the tables.  Apparently it’s like clapping for someone and it happened at the end of all my courses.  I’m going to have to get used to that one.  Another surprise happened to me in my course about the anthropology of anarchy: a student brought her newborn child into class with her!!  The professor didn’t even seem to notice! I’m entirely speechless on that one.

Of course during my first week of classes, my throat began to hurt and just got worse over time.  It hurt so much that by Friday, I decided I should see a doctor.  I didn’t have a clue what to do so I had to call my Resident Director here to find out.  Some doctors, like in the States, do appointments only, but many here in Marburg have “open speaking times” every day. They’re basically like walk-in hours that anyone can come to.  So I just found a random doctor in town that had these walk-in hours and literally just walked in.  It was really simple to see the doctor too.  I just had to give my name, address, and telephone and show them my insurance and then I could wait to see someone.  The hardest part was that my doctor did not speak English.  It was frustrating for me not to understand everything and to not be able to tell her more about my medical history.  I did get some medicine though and am already starting to feel better so it all worked out in the end!

There’s just one little thing I want to comment on before I end my post.  As I have gone throughout Europe, there is one thing that I have noticed that every European can do well: tie and wear scarves well!  Seriously, both the guys and girls here look like they were just born wearing them!  Meanwhile, I can only wear a scarf two different ways and look extremely awkward in them. Anyways, hopefully by the end of this trip I’ll be able to pull them off!  Danke for reading my blog! Until next time =)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Welcome to Marburg!

Well guys, I’ve officially made it to Marburg, Germany! For those of you who don’t know, I spent those 8 weeks in Vienna working on my German so I could study in Marburg.  The university here is called Philipps Universität and is home to around 20,000 students.  During my time here, I’ll be taking German classes, history classes, and hopefully anthropology classes. Most of the classes here are in German so I’ll be attempting one or two classes auf Deutsch, which is pretty scary!  I’ve been here for a week and a half already so I’ve got a lot to update you all on.

 A little bit about the city of Marburg: Marburg is a small university city located in the German state Hessen and has a population of around 80,000 people.  It has been around since the Middle Ages and has two great pieces of gothic architecture: the Marburger Schloss and the Elizabethkirche.  The castle is literally located on the top of a giant hill so it’s hard to miss.  Also, when you walk into the city center, you literally feel like you’re walking into the Middle Ages!  All of the buildings have been beautifully restored and the paths are still cobblestone.  There are also tons of modern stores and buildings around the center too so everything you need is right there.  I really love the town already!

 I live in a newly renovated dorm here called the Dr. Carl Duisburg Haus.  It’s located in the Oberstadt, which is close to the Schloss and near the top of the giant hill.  This means I have a beautiful view of the entire city from my window, but that I have to climb about 340 steps to get there (yes I tried counting but kept losing track)!  My dorm’s pretty similar to the dorms in the States, but what’s really different for me, however, is the wash room.  In Germany, most people don’t use dryers at all and let their clothes air dry.  It’s definitely a great thing to do to help the environment, but it’s going to take some getting use to for me! 

Since coming to Marburg, I’ve mostly been doing a lot of shopping in order to settle in to my dorm.  Since the other BCA students and I can take any public transportation in the state of Hessen for free with our student ID’s, we decided to go to the IKEA in Frankfurt as a day trip to get stuff for our rooms.  It was a great idea and we did end up getting some good things at IKEA, but we had the worst luck with transportation.  There was a big soccer game in Frankfurt that day so the train ride there was crowded and then the main subway lines that we needed were closed for construction.  We had to take an S-Bahn (quick train), a bus, a subway line, and then another bus just to get there.  When heading back, we just barely made it onto one of the trains leaving for Marburg.  Turns out though, that there are two different types of trains leaving from Frankfurt in the direction of Marburg: one that goes directly to Marburg and one that stops at another city before Marburg and then towards a town called Dillenburg.  Turns out we were on the one to Dillenburg.  It wasn’t until we were almost at Dillenburg, though, until we realized this mistake!  We eventually did make it back to Marburg but had some interesting train rides with the very intoxicated fans from the soccer game.

Tomorrow I am off to Berlin for a small two-day visit with the BCA program!  I’m super excited to see all the history there and can’t wait to explore a bit.  Classes then start up on Monday for me.  I hopefully will post again after my first week of classes to let you all know about that!  Until next time =)