auf Deutsch

I must say it is quite exciting (and brings about a smidgen of pride ... okay, more than a smidgen) when I am mistaken for a German by a German ... or ein Auslӓnder (foreigner) for that matter. While wandering about in Ulm, DE, a guy stopped me and started talking to me auf Deutsch (in German). From what I could understand, he wanted to persuade me to sign up with the Democratic Party in Germany. After he did his spiel, ich hat gesagt, "Ich bin eine Auslӓnderin. Es tut mir leid aber ich kann dir nicht helfen." (I had said, "I am a foreigner. Sorry, but I cannot help you.") I must admit, once I caught on to what he was asking of me, I stopped listening fully so that I could formulate my German response.

I also had a street evangelist come up to me as I was eating lunch in front of the Ulmer Münster. She was speaking more quickly and with German words that I don't know yet, but she fully thought I could understand her. My last example of pretending to be German is while paying for anything - like a book or "dreihundert Gramms Rauchkӓse, shnitt, bitte" ("300g smoked cheese, cut, please.").

Just don't expect me to be able to hold a flowing conversation in German (though I was never really good at that in English either) because there is preparation that goes into sentences that aren't a part of my now nature vocabulary. Although my German edifice is ruined when I mis-interpret what the other person is saying.

expectation

I feel like a small child on Christmas Eve- waiting, dreaming, drifting. The first snowfall of the season is supposed to happen very soon in these early a.m. hours. I want to be excited about it now because soon I know I will frown the icy crispness as I am forced to leave the warmth of my covers and head for morning classes.

To say that I am unaccustomed to a Winter season would be an easy answer, however nearly 3 years ago I lived for a spell in the Himalayan mountains of India. I arrived at the brutal end of winter (mid-late January), experienced near frostbite, and then enjoyed the loveliness of Spring and Summer (then, oh the joys of Monssoon) in the mountains. So I know that this coming winter will arrive and will leave in a similar non-dramatic fashion. One day, I'll look up and realize that the sun seems wonderfully bright today and wonder how long it's been there.

I would like to go into this with that awe, that level of expectation. I will be able to make a snowman and have a snowball fight with fellow classmates from South America, India, Mexico, Russia, China ... okay, well my Russian friends might think we are all a bit odd for being so enthralled with this cold, white, fluffy substance that though falls from the sky, will actually stay on the ground.

I would much rather find myself sitting on the floor, in front of the window, gazing blankly, waiting for little white particles to become visible (while listening to Christmas music, of course; it seems only natural). Otherwise, it's far too easy to find bits of misery to focus on.

My first potential White Christmas, I eagerly await thee. Please don't disappoint.

travels 2 (Ulm, DE)

Ulm, Deutschland: Quite a small city. When I got off the train at the Bahnhof (train station), I found a map of the city and decided to snap a quick picture of it just in case I needed to refer to it later on. I over-exaggerated the scale. To those playing at home, what this means is when wandering (which I am apt to do), the appropriate distance that I thought I needed to walk in a certain direction was FAR greater than the distance I actually needed to walk to get to where I was trying to go. It simply boils down to: I saw more of Ulm than I had anticipated, which I am not complaining about. And really, when in Ulm, all one has to do to get back on track is either look up and find Ulmer Münster steeple standing high above anything else in existence or find your way to the Donau Fluss (Danube River).

From the Bahnhof (Train station) towards Ulmer Münster.

These are all of Ulmer Münster.

Ah, the Danube River (Donau Fluss). Very tranquil.

While walking along the river, I went up into a Rose garden park along the water. There I happened upon this hidden little gate at the end of the park. I just had to see what mysteries lie within. It turns out, it was just a workman's shed to tend to the plants.

After doing the river thing, I decided I wanted to make my way north to the city's old cemetery. I read something about it on the internet when I was figuring out what I might want to see. It turns out, I was further west than I had thought ... which was fine enough because I explored a bit of Ulm's business district and Congress area. I walked thru green areas and cute residential streets.

(Just really enjoy this pic with the colors, et.al.)

Well, as it happens, I walked too far north (right off my map) because I was too far West. I found the Alter Friedhof (old city cemetery, which happens to also be a park with walking/biking paths and kids' play areas) flanked be two churches.

I then knew that I wanted to go into Neu-Ulm directly south of Ulm across the Donau (and in the state of Bayern instead of the state that Ulm is in: Baden-Württemberg.) There should have been many clues along the way that I was indeed not walking South but instead walking East, but alas. There seems to be quite a bit more of Ulm to the East of the Bahnhof than I though ... especially since my map stopped at the train station. But I found it. I'm also pretty certain I would have continued walking in this fabulously wrong direction if it hadn't been for a road sign pointing a different direction than the one I was traveling to get to Neu-Ulm. I always thought I was actually pretty good with directions; this obviously doesn't put a vote of confidence in my favor.

(From the South Bank of the Donau in Neu-Ulm)

Then I headed back across the river to explore some more and kill time until I needed to check into the hostel. I went to Marktplatz which has the old Rathaus (government building) and the Stadtbibliothek (city library - a glass pyramid of 5 levels and a reading cafe on the top). I sat in the library reading eine Zeitung (newspaper) von Stuttgart for about 1/2 an hour.

(Alt Rathaus - detail work)

Fischerviertel (Fisherman's Quarter) - quaint & historic part of town with the Blau Fluss (Blue River) running thru it.

Then I wandered through Fisherman's quarter, on my way to Neu-Ulm to find dinner and check into the hostel. 'Tis all for Ulm. I "slept" horribly. Had a minor headache - just enough to be a bother, and the guy in the bed across the room had a cold so intermingled within his snoring, he coughed. Hearing my watch beep every hour away became very frustrating. When the sun came up, I decided to get on my way out and catch an early train onto Lindau am Bodensee (on the Boden Sea), the next destination ... which I will post those pics soon.

travels 1b

(Heidelberg pics from 18Sept 2010)

Heildelberg, old town.

The international student affairs office set up tour guides for our group. So we walked through the old part of the city getting history and humorous German biases. I don't remember which church this is (I'm thinking Catholic). There are 3 in the the old city, each a different religious affiliation. Apparently, this part of Germany did not choose to follow the reformation and remained Catholic. Much later in the timeline, the governor of this city-state gave people the option ... hence the other 2 churches.

I think this is the Jesuit church. There is a partition in the front of the nave because there is another denomination that uses this church ... at the same time. So instead of becoming one body or alternating worship times, they put up a divider. Now, isn't that nice.

From across the Neckar looking out on the old city. A couple of friends and I decided in our free time that we would climb up to the "Poets Walk". Climbing the never-ending stairs reminded me of India (in Hardiwar, climbing up to Chandidevi Temple). I think we did 8 min. on the stair climber before we reached the top. And it was a lovely view and contemplative walk (Mark Twain did a stint here, among other thinkers). So lovely, in fact, that we kept walking - all the way into new town.

I like Europe for this. Different styles, different colors, even the horizontals don't align - and it's all good. In the U.S., we try to have everything neat & tidy. I like this.

Thus concludes excursion #1. Hopefully I'll be posting Ulm and Lindau/Bregenz/Boden Sea before classes start up.

travels 1

Tonight I have returned from "ein Ausflug" (short excursion). As my German final exam on Thursday of last week began to approach and knowing that my full course load of graduate classes begins on the flip side of that Thursday (in one more day), I decided I wanted to get away for the weekend. How did I choose where to go? Looked at a map and said "uhh, there! oh! And I can go there too, just so that I can say I've been to Austria." So Friday morning I hopped on a train and was in Ulm in 1 hour. I walked ALL OVER the city (quite literally walked off my map in the East, North, and West directions. Then explored a bit in Neu-Ulm (which is technically in the state of Bayern and not Baden-Württemberg ... I didn't know that). I reserved a hostel several days before, stayed there over night (notice I didn't say sleep ... had a horrible headache and didn't sleep but 2 hrs). Next destination Lindau, Germany on the Boden Sea and Bregenz, Ӧsterreich (Austria) also on the water's edge. Then back to Lindau to catch my train home to Stuttgart.

I'm breezing through this weekend because it wasn't my intent to post stories or pics about my most current adventure because I haven't even looked at my pics yet ... I've been home maybe an hour.

I wanted to post about an excursion I did back in the middle of September (hosted by the international student affairs office) to Neckarsteinach and Heildelberg, both of which are just a small drive away.

Neckarsteinach sits on the Neckar river and is known for it's castles, one of which a ruin. Heildelberg, also on the Neckar, is a much larger city, has a university, medical research facilities, and use to be the King's homestead until early 1900s. Anyway, pictures can speak louder.

Ruine Hinterburg (literally "castle ruin in back"), looking out on the Neckar River & the town of Neckarsteinach.

Vordeburg (built in 1200s) ... literally means Castle in front. They named the 4 castles based on their position on the hill from the town. Ingenious, I know.

Altar area & stained glass of the church just a couple blocks from the water & city center.

Neckarsteinach downtown.

We took a boat from Neckarsteinach to Heildelberg. Yes, I'm a whimp. But he's from Russian and she's from the Ukraine, so I'm not doing so bad.

verbundpass

I am not sure what kind of luck this is, but if you want to ride any of the public transportation with me in Stuttgart, have a ticket or pass.

The city busses and trains don’t have a place for you to “check in” or confirm that you are allowed to ride. You just hop on then hop off when it’s your Haltastelle (stop). It is quite an organized system, I think. And as Germans go, things are very punctual. However, there are VVS (the government sector that runs the transport system) workers that are dressed in plain clothes that “randomly” do spot inspections of all the passengers for a few stops before they move on to a different line. (I say random because they have a schedule; it’s just not posted for everybody to know when to avoid them.)

I have friends who have been here from 1 year to 4 years that have told me that they have been subject to the spot inspection once or twice in their entire tenure. I have been here 17 days and once again today, I was checked – making it my 5^th time, and one of those days the week before last, I got me twice. That’s averages nearly every third day that I should expect to be inspected for having a pass. Luckily, I am an owner of a month pass to every form of city transportation, and as soon as the semester begins here, I will purchase a student semester pass … otherwise it could get rather expensive to move about.

The sad part of this story is that my first time to be inspected (which happened to be my third day in the country), I did not purchase a ticket. I thought I could cheat the system. I had bought €6 ticket each day prior that allows me to travel as many times as I want in one day (you could also buy a ticket for a single ride for only about €1.40 or something like that). The guy stopped me on the last leg of a several leg journey that day as I was about to exit the bus for my friend’s house who was hosting me before I could move into my dorm room. That fine was only €10 thankfully, but he entered my passport information into the system. So before I was even registered with the city as being a new resident, I already had a file with the government. From then on, out of shear fear for getting a second fine (which jumps to €40), I have always traveled with a ticket/pass.

Moral of the story: if you want to live dangerously and not follow the rules, don’t ride with me; you will get caught.

Deutsche kirche

I might need to rethink my original idea about attending a German only worship service. I have done that twice now (first, one near where I was staying with my friend in Stuttgart; second, 10 min walk from where I live in Mӧhringen). The intent when I went into this endeavor was to do a total immersion so that I could learn German faster. I still think that is correct thinking. However, the trade-off for now seems to be that I don’t know really what is being spoken of sung (except words and phrases). I think it is also hard for me to maintain any sort of attitude of worship when it becomes a linguistic exercise where I’m more focused on what’s begin said instead of the meaning and the point driving what’s being said.

Like this morning, for instance, I know the Scripture passage was from Luke (Lukas in German – that’s pretty easy to figure out). I heard multiple times “Gottes namen” meaning the names of God. I heard once “leben meister” (Master of Life, which I really enjoyed), but I also heard alleine (alone) and I don’t know who the subject is. Other than that and a several other words without any context, I have no idea what was going on.

So, I’m not sure what I should do. I still like the idea of not creating a crutch with the English language so that I really can be fluent in German. But on the other hand, I’m really not worshipping well in any sort of community with this initiative. Options: give it time (“it” meaning me until my German becomes better and better) or when the semester starts in October, find some student group where things are in English to supplement my German Sundays.

mein neu haus (my new house)

I live in here!

what am I doing?

There have been moments where I think to myself: "Self, what am I doing here?" I had just one of those moments this evening. After going back to the university to register my room for internet (the first trip today was to the international center to register for my new student ID & to look around the campus), I went back to my new room (yea!) (first was to check-in & other formal stuff with the Hausmeister - aka Super) to try out the internet. No go. But then a lady from my flat walked by and asked (in Deutsch) if I had internet because she really needed it - so apparently es war kaputt.

So anyway, while in Möhringen (where I'm living), I decided to see the Kaufland right next to my building: 1)because this will be my grocery store 2) t0 figure out what I am buying to make an empty room a home & about how much I'm going to spend. This Kaufland, you see, is 2-stories and a basement for parking. It's like a grocery store plus kitchen ware, shoes, pet store, liquor store, deli, bakery, and some simple furniture & clothing. Oh my. This is where my "what am I doing here" showed up. As I try to map out the store, it felt like I was having to discover another new city ... and all in German. Then it hit me: "How am I going to cook anything? The directions are in German and my conversational German courses didn't cover these technical terms. How do you even share a kitchen with 5 other people?" And those thoughts continued for a bit. But then ... aha! "I'm here for 2 years. I'm so going to be a pro at this." So that's where I'm at right now. That and how much money I'm about to spend up front to start this life.

Well, tomorrow, I head back to the university to (hopefully) pick up a temp student ID and then to take my German Language Placement Exam. From what I can tell, it's about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours and (please God) multiple choice. The results of this exam will determine what level of Intensive language course I will be in. I'm not really worried though. It's actually kind of exciting to see how much I know and how much I can recall when I want to recall it.

So I'm here. Officially living in Germany. Officially becoming a graduate student. Und alles ist gut. (All is good).

importance of sequence

I am indeed in Stuttgart, Germany. I have been here for roughly 48 hours now, and have actually seen quite a bit, either directly walking or various aerial perspectives from higher elevations. My friend who is hosting me described the landscape of Stuttgart as similar to San Francisco. (She would know since she is a U.S. expat.) Anyway, it is a very green (many km of parks and vineyards within the metro city), and hilly, and abnormally (so I've been told) wet and chilly for August.

Yesterday, after I wandered my way to a church (for what we thought was a church the night before was in fact not), and so I followed the sound of church bells until I found myself inside a worshipping community (and was only 10 minutes late). By 1pm ish, the two of us left on a "walk". 7 hours and 20,500 steps later we returned home to lovely chili dinner. Our walk was almost entirely in green spaces. The only city site we explored that day was a monument garden museum that collected rubble in Stuttgart from the war. There were sculptures, tombstones, columns, and entablatures from 1500s into the 20th century; some really beautiful craftsmanship. Oh, and we did pause to eat some wurst and lintel soup and pommes (french fries). Quite a lovely day really. And then I attempted to understand a German TV mystery show (I guessed the wrong murdered).

Today looked very different. One, it's really cold. Okay, cool. But for a south Texan girl when a cold rain is falling heavily while I am walking about without an umbrella, it's pretty cold. In any case, today I wanted to get mein neu Handy (my new mobile phone for Germany). I was there twice, and it didn't happen. Apparently there is a sequence to these things when moving to a new country, and I am completely ignoring the laid out steps.

So let's say getting a mobile phone is step F (it probably should be lower in the alphabet, but oh well). Well, so apparently the mobile contract has to be tied to a German bank account. So off I went to the new first step. I now have a German account ... with some money in it (but I need to wire more over, soon). But when setting up the account, I discovered the bank wanted to know my visa residency number. But I haven't done that yet either because before that I have to register with Stuttgart. Anyway, I have to go back to the bank in a few days. So back I went to O2, my almost mobile phone provider. We went through all the contract info, everything was signed, SIM card in my possession. And then as my info was processing, I was told they could not accept me yet and had to put everything on hold because nothing shows that I am actually in Germany yet.

So after being so hopeful, tomorrow I need to wade through different bureaucracies to first get health insurance then to register in Möhringen, where I am actually living, (you can't be official without proof of medical insurance), then back to Stuttgart to get my full residency visa. And finally, I should be able to have a mobile phone. All this for a phone. Well, these things have to be completed soon anyway. And I am praying things work out. Especially when I begin every conversation with "Guten Morgen/Tag. Sprechen Sie Englisch bitte?" So far people have been very helpful, which makes the process seem less chaotic. I just want to get all this done before class begins.