What I did today

Most of my days are pretty routine by now. I get up, go to class, and come back. Usually I meet up with friends some time in the afternoon, and usually I go shopping for something or another, or else go for a walk just to get out of my apartment. I come back, chill at my apartment, do a little homework, and go to bed.

Today was more of the same,. Got up, got ready, went to my German course, the same things I do every day. It feels very natural now.

Took the bus to the city center and wandered around until we found a salon. I made an appointment for my Australian friend Eleanor, who doesn't speak any German but needed her eyebrows done. Honestly, it was kind of nice to flex my German muscles with the shop girl, who spoke no English. It means that I can get by on my own in German!

Walked to the bus stop and noticed another salon that looked cheaper, so we went there and decided she could just get her eyebrows done immediately instead of having to come back. I successfully translated what Eleanor wanted done at the salon, and I can now say eyelashes, eyebrows, and color (like, coloring your hair), all things I didn't know I needed to say. That's why I love studying abroad - you learn so much besides what the textbook deems important.

Broke a 50 Euro bill at KFC (Eleanor craves all sorts of fast food. I'd rather eat German food personally, but I couldn't say no to fried chicken).

Cancelled the appointment at the other salon over the phone. I had to leave a message, and I'm sure it was horribly garbled, but I still conducted business on the phone!

Saw the final score for the Bears vs. Green Bay yesterday, cried.

Saw the Blackhawks score vs. the Oilers on Saturday, which cheered me up enough to stop crying.

Now I'm studying for my final German test. I'm not too worried because we took a "midterm" and I got the highest grade in the class :) But my vocabulary isn't what it should be, so I'm studying up on my verbs.

Ugh, I'm tired. I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend, so when I get back I'll have something more exciting to write about!

Ferienkurs

Being in Germany has made me realize that my German is really good. It has also made me realize that my German is terrible.

I can definitely communicate in German when I have to, which is awesome! But as I increasingly speak to people my age, I need to express more complex ideas, and I have neither the vocabulary nor the grammar skills for that right now. It can be frustrating, but I'm lucky I came with intermediate skills. In a country that speaks the language is the best place to refine and polish a language. Fluency in 10 months. That is my goal.

I'm taking a Ferienkurs (vacation course), a 4-week intensive German course. It's surprisingly exhausting. When I listen to someone speaking English, it's easy to take it all in passively. In German, I need to be actively focusing on what the teacher is saying and matching the German words to the meaning for 3 hours and 45 minutes a day. It's really tiring. I feel bad for the others in the class, because they need to use English as well as German to communicate, even thought it's not their native language.

Emma being a dumb American

Here's a post that doesn't need pictures. That's what I'm waiting on to write a post, and might be waiting for another day or so.

My first night in Vogeliusweg (my student apartment), I thought I was locked out because I didn't know that "drucken" means "push," and not pull. In my defense, the doors are backwards here - they open towards the inside of the building, while that's against the fire code in America, they have to push to go outside.

There's one washer and one dryer for my entire building (about 120 people, I'd estimate), which will be a bigger pain once all the students move in. I'm hopeless when it comes to laundry. The machine instructions and detergent instructions are all in German, so I had to go get my phone and use some precious data to figure out the washer settings. Then I had to Google where the detergent goes in a German washing machine, because I can't even do laundry in English!

Guess who's in Germany!

So much has happened in the last few days that I barely know where to start. This post is gonna be a doozy! I'm probably rambling, so I'll come back and fix it in a few days.

I'm spending 11 months in Paderborn, Germany. I don't know how good of a picture this is, but the red arrow is where I am. If I stay for a full school year and take required courses here and at ISU, at the end of my 4 (or 5) years of college I can get a "transfer degree." From what I understand, I'll have a Bachelor's degree from both ISU and Universitat Paderborn. How amazing would that be?

I finally have Internet access. There's no wifi so I can't use my phone, but I'm grateful for cable access on my laptop! There is a 10-foot radius of space in the mall that has truly free wifi (most you need to register for), so I was checking in that way for a while.

So where do I start? I've been in Germany for about 48 hours now, but I feel like I've lived here a month. There's a lot to do before school starts: bank account, residence visa, student ID, registration. It's more than the average student who goes abroad has to do, because a) I'm staying 2 semesters instead of one, and staying more than 9 months has different requirements, and b) because I'm seeking a degree from here. 

How am I doing? Everyone already knows that I was super nervous about leaving home. Actually, I'm doing extremely well, and trust me, no one is more surprised than I am. I expected to be a mess when I got here, but I'm doing very well. I'm sure the adrenaline will wear off eventually, but for the time being I'm happy and excited for the future. 

The reason I'm doing to well is mostly thanks to my German buddy. Her name is Jessi and she is amazing. She made me feel so much better about coming and she's really taking good care of me. She bought me this welcome present full of everything a girl needs in a foreign land.

 

It's a mug that says "The prettiest women come from Paderborn" (in German), along with some Kinder chocolate and a postcard with a sweet message on it. She's actually the most welcoming person ever. Last year she studied in Sweden and got no help of any kind, and she says she wants to do a better job of making me feel welcome than Sweden did.

So where am I living? I have an university-owned apartment in a complex called Vogeliusweg. There's two floors with a shared kitchen and bath for four of us. It's set up like this: When you walk in the front door, on the right is the full bathroom and a "guest bathroom" (just a toilet). Directly in front of you is my bedroom and Chrissi's. On the left is stairs that lead up to the kitchen, a little living area, and Lisa's and Nora's bedrooms.

This is what my room looks like:

 

It's really spacious! I'm a little uncomfortable living on the first floor, especially since the curtain that's supposed to cover the window is broken, but I'm sure I'll adjust.

I'm living with three German girls, which is totally unexpected. I assumed I'd be with other foreign exchange students. One of the guys who did this program last year said his roommates were all Indian exchange students. One of the students from ISU also has 2 Indian roommates, so maybe a lot of Indian men come to Germany? Anyway, I love it so far. Lisa and Nora are fluent in English and are eager to practice their English with me, while Chrissi is not. The first thing she said to me was that she doesn't speak English (she said it in German, obviously). So I'm practicing my German language skills right now, which is exactly what I wanted. I'm hoping to make the switch to all of us speaking only German by the time school starts in a month. Fluency by the time I leave is my goal.

So I couldn't really keep this post brief, but thanks for hanging in there if you read it all! More next time!