how to name animals in German

For those of you who are unaware of the German obsession with pigs....

Time Machine - May

The Germans definitely have strange semester dates. The summer semester only just began about 3 weeks ago and doesn’t officially end until August 2^nd, whereas in Dundee everyone is done for the year. It’s a bit of a pain that my summer break will be so short but at the same time, the weather here is so nice that I feel like I’m still on holiday. I imagine that this might cause problems when it comes to studying. I mean, who wants to revise when they can go swimming in the lake, or bbq in the sunshine?

Picking classes this semester has been causing problems once again; not all the classes which had previously been advertised as available this semester were actually on the database when it came time to pick. As well as this, halfway through the online sign-up period they decided to make some of the classes available to international students unavailable to those doing Erasmus. I luckily signed up to one before this happened, although I appear to be the only Erasmus student who did – probably because I only actually found the class after some ingenious searching. I’m told that they can’t throw me out though as I was already accepted into the class. Somehow I’ve managed to find enough classes to get me the required points, but one of these requires me to write a 20-page essay over my summer break on a topic that’s pretty foreign to me.

There’s a pretty big workload here compared to Dundee, which would be completely fine if I’d come here in 2^nd year and only had to pass, but it’s a little more stressful doing it in 3^rd year, knowing that I need good grades in everything. Considering I need to make at least 6 presentations in the next two months it’s hard not to crack under the pressure at times. Though admittedly, that’s partly due to my bad time management. I also still need to have my new module choices approved, which is an interesting thought, as if they don’t accept them there’s nothing I can really do except repeat the year.

Ranting aside, I am actually really enjoying my classes and am finally getting a chance to study things that interest me such as renewable energy in Europe, German history, culture and society, and the functioning of the EU. I’m also feeling a lot better about studying French this semester. I’ve found a conversation class which covers relatively complex topics, whilst spending time revising very basic themes, which is something I really need, as it feels like I’ve forgotten practically everything since I left school (one of the downsides of taking two gap years I guess!).

When not gallivanting off half way around the world, I spent a lot of my semester break doing research on Freiburg during the First World War as part of an international history project, the results of which we presented in Berlin a few weeks ago at the History Campus ‘Europe 14/14’. It was actually a pretty huge event with over 400 participants from around the world. Angela Merkel was even there for the opening ceremony, and Steinmeier, the foreign minister, made an appearance later that week. It was really exciting to be a part of it all, especially as a workshop speaker, and see how the war is perceived nowadays from a multitude of different national perspectives. Here is a short video from the end of the event:

Time machine - February

So I wrote some posts a while ago and just never got round to typing them up. So....time machine! We're back in February now ;)

I’m back now from Budapest. I think I’ve found a new favourite city….time to start learning Hungarian and working out how I can wrangle another free year abroad. Just a shame the weather was a little too Irish! We managed to pack a lot into 5 days, although we barely even scratched the surface of what the city has to offer.

The alternative scene in Budapest is just amazing. I’m kind of disappointed that Freiburg doesn’t seem to have the same sort of hidden gems. I hate to admit it but my inner hipster appears to be surfacing. Not that Freiburg is in any way boring, in fact most people would appreciate the lack of gimmicks. As a city it has a natural beauty which speaks for itself, but for a place with so many students it’s definitely missing a spark of creativity. Well, to make a German comparison, it’s definitely no Berlin.

I don’t want to bore you with all the details of my trip so allow me to limit my account to the highlights:
Communist pizza

Marxim is one of Budapest’s best kept secrets. It’s a bit of a trek but definitely worth it. So good in fact that we went there twice. Hidden in a basement down a side street, it would be pretty hard to find if it weren’t for the red star outside. Inside it’s decorated with communist posters and white-washed walls lined with barbed wire. The menu boasts such options as ‘Snow White and the 7 small proletarians’, ‘Gulag pizza (Hawaii), and ‘Pussy-pussy Monica & Bill’. Another interesting feature there is that they give you a little jug of pizza sauce with your pizza. I think this is because some of the pizzas come with sour cream bases, though that’s not to stop you from pouring it all over the standard ones. In fact, I’d recommend it.  Go tomato sauce crazy! There is no such thing as too much red in a communist pizza joint!

Bora Bora tea

Another little treasure trove is a tea-café called Sirius (it also has a sister-café called Altair, which appears to offer a similar experience). The entrance to this café is incredibly easy to miss, unless you know what to look for, as it’s only marked by a small silver plaque on the wall outside. When you walk in on first look it seems just like any other café, not particularly remarkable, but walk around the back, take off your shoes, and you can climb up into one of its many hideouts. Sink into a massive cushion, choose between one of 80 flavours of tea and relax. For those curious enough they even have their own ‘Narnia’ type experience. Crawl through the wardrobe and you will not be disappointed.

                                       

Thrift shopping

And one unforgettably crazy club

part 2

Part 2 – post-exams

Today I’m back in my old stomping grounds, taking a well-earned break to chill in the sunshine and write a little. The winter semester finally ended today, after 3 weeks of assignments, revision, exams and general stress! It’s great to finally be able to unwind. I have the feeling that my exams either went extremely well or extremely badly. All the classes from the SLI (Sprachlehrinstitut) were fine, as those classes are almost entirely made up of international students, and thus set a slightly lower level. My other lectures though were a whole other kettle of fish. Absolutely horrendous. The language level was frankly beyond my ability. I probably spent most of my lectures looking in my dictionary and unable to take many notes, although I did eventually improve. My history test was a nightmare. I thought I might do well as it was multiple-choice and I had done a lot of revision, including reading a 300 page book on the subject. Unfortunately the questions were obscure and the options incredibly difficult to decipher. I think I spent the first 10 minutes on the first question alone, looking up what each word meant. What was most cruel were the questions designed to confuse the German students (so the other 98% of the class). These were usually four near-identical definitions which to me looked the same. Complete stab in the dark. I have no idea how, but I somehow managed to pass, though I’m not happy with the grade so I’m planning on taking an extra class or two next semester. At least I got straight A’s in German, which although great does not seem like much of an achievement right now considering how much difficulty I had understanding my exams. Clearly I have a much better chance of surviving if I remain a big fish in a little pond, than a small fish in an ocean of sharks.

On that note, something I’ve really noticed lately is that my spoken German has gotten much worse recently. I’m finding it much more difficult to find the right words, and I’ve pretty much lost my accent entirely. So much for being fluent by the end of the year! I guess the reason for this is that I’m still speaking English too often, rather than immersing myself completely. It’s a big problem as, although we might have every good intention of only speaking German with each other, as soon as someone is unable to express themselves clearly, they get frustrated and give up (myself included). Next semester I will endeavour to be stricter about this, as it’s a shame to waste such a good opportunity and I really do enjoy speaking German.

The semester break is looking to be a really exciting time. I’m off to Budapest on Sunday with some friends for 5 days. We did a blind-booking, so our destination was a complete surprise. I have no idea what we are actually going to do when we get there but I’m looking forward to the adventure.

I’m also going to spending some time organising a history project I’m working on with someone in Dundee about the First World War. I’m the project leader for Freiburg, so I need to organise volunteers to help with a survey, and do some research about the impacts that the war had on Freiburg. All being well, we’re going to be running a workshop in May, in Berlin, at the History Campus there, where we’ll compare and present our results. I’m really excited about it, although I’m aware I need to be a little more careful about my time management, as I’m also headed to Northern Ireland, Thailand and most likely Scotland over the break.

I think Erasmus often gets a bad reputation as just a chance for students to party abroad, and well, I guess there is a grain of truth in that, but personally I have found that it’s a lot of hard work. It’s not exactly easy to take so many classes, and in a language that you aren’t completely proficient in. Perhaps I’m also taking it more seriously as my grades here actually count towards my degree, so I want to put more effort in. If I just had to pass, it might be different. I guess it all comes down to personal preference and what you want to achieve from a year abroad. It’s good to take a moment to reflect on your goals, to find some sort of motivation to keep you focused. It’s not easy to keep pushing yourself when you have no reason to do so. I guess what I’m saying, in a rather rambling fashion, is that you should be prepared to challenge yourself.

Intro + part 1

Alright, prepare yourself, in fact, best go put the kettle on and settle into a comfy chair. I’ve been silent for far too long, so that means there’s a lot to catch up on. I’ve been gathering these posts in a notebook for quite some time, but I’ve been unable to type anything up until now. I will try and make it easier to understand by splitting it up, though that means you will have to become a lot more familiar with the index. Part 1 and 2 today. 3 and potentially 4 will be coming your way later this week.

Part 1 – return from the Christmas break

So life has been crazy since I got back as it’s the end of the semester here, meaning the workload and stress levels have doubled. It’s hard to get used to, as in Dundee it would already be the beginning of the next semester. All the hard work would have been done before Christmas and I would be enjoying the relaxed introductions to my new classes. I’ve kind of gone into shock with the amount of work I have to do while trying to revise for my upcoming exams. I’ll not get into all the details of my many assignments, but let’s just say that my teacher spontaneously deciding to give us an essay two weeks ago is a typical example of the chaos that has been unfolding.

At least I managed to find a little time to relax this week, in the form of a pyjama party with the choir. Popcorn, singstar and good company, what more could I ask for? The highlight of the evening definitely had to be taking the tram at 6am in my onesie. Comfiest night out ever!

Rob linked me this song earlier this week – the lyrics are all other song titles so even if you can’t understand the words you might be able to guess from the pictures.

Apart from that, there’s not much to say. I'm absolutely terrified of my upcoming exams and cannot wait for the semester break to start exploring again. On Wednesday I have a test in German on the European Union and I have to do a 10 minute presentation on Irish history in French. Wish me luck!

I ATEN'T DEAD

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm still alive. I've had so much work to do since I got back from the Christmas break that I just haven't had the time to write about it. I will endeavour to do so in the near future but for now enjoy some strange German music:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It’s been a few weeks of crazy here, hence my now too familiar silence! I’ve been working and playing hard in equal measure.

My group presentation was a bit stressful to organise. There was a bit of confusion about where exactly we should be meeting. In hindsight, agreeing to meet at ‘Uni-Café’ was a bad idea, as some people ended up going to the café actually called ‘Uni-Café’ and the others went to the café in the uni. Definitely a face palm moment. We only managed to all meet up together the day before the presentation, but it seemed to work out ok. I was happy enough with how the presentation went, though it’s hard to tell when it’s in another language!

There was then a week of way too much work and not feeling too well, though thankfully I’ve pretty much recovered apart from my usual shoulder problems. I’m off to see a doctor later today about that, which should test the limits of my German!

Since my presentation I’ve also met a lot of new people, which of course means lots of adventures to new places. Freiburg is an amazing place to live, if purely for the reason that it’s close to so many other places. This week I have been to Europa Park, Strasbourg and Stuttgart. Not bad huh?

Europa Park was awesome. Although I was a little disappointed that some of the rides were closed I have no regrets about going during the winter season. Sure it was freezing, but the atmosphere was indescribably perfect with all the beautifully extravagant Christmas decorations, and best of all, there were no queues! I think the longest we waited to get on a ride was 10 minutes. We went round the whole park, and still had time to go on Blue Fire 4 times. We could probably have gone at least twice more but decided it was time for a Glühwein (mulled wine) instead.

On Saturday I had choir practise all afternoon, as we have a concert next week. The guys made us lunch during the break and after we all headed to the Christmas market in Strasbourg, which is the oldest in France I believe. It is clearly a very popular one to visit. It took us a very chaotic hour to find a parking space, during which we attempted to follow the French rules of driving – i.e. no rules, which involved crossing many a tram track without warning of whether or not there was a tram coming, circling the same square at least 6 times, and losing someone who jumped out of the car and almost got into a fight with some French people. At least the market was nice. Though I think we spent more time looking at one big Christmas tree, while waiting for the others, than we did actually looking at the market. Compared to the German markets there was also a significant lack of food stalls, which to be honest, is the main reason I like to go there! The company is what really made it a fun experience. On our way back to the cars, we wanted to go to an Irish bar to warm up. The Germans joked that I should instinctually know where to find one. I did : P

Well….truthfully I just remembered from the last time I was there, on the European Studies trip last Easter. But they didn’t need to know that!

 I think I will try and get involved in more groups after Christmas, because it really does help to make you feel more at home and to meet more German people. It is all too easy here to just befriend other international students and speak English all the time, which is a shame, as there are few better opportunities to improve your language skills.

Yesterday, myself and 8 others went to Stuttgart for the Christmas markets. We started with the traditional German market in the city centre, and somehow managed to spend 3 hours there. We came across many curious sights such as the Schwäbisch singing moose head, creepy puppets, and what can only be described as fruit condoms. We ended up hiding out in a Finnish tepee, drinking Gloggi beside a campfire. Afterwards we hopped on the S-Bahn to Esslingen, which is an older part of Stuttgart, for the medieval Christmas market. This is definitely my favourite one. When I lived in Stuttgart I think I went there at least 4 times. Evening is the best time to go as the combination of flaming torches and people dressed in costume, lends to the illusion of having stepped back in time. After purchasing some ye olde style falafel, and potion-like bottles of absinth, we made a quick stop off for some Christmassy flavoured hot chocolate on the way back to the train.

This week I’m going to the double-feature premier of the Hobbit J Though I only realised after my flatmate booked the tickets that it will be the German version, so it will be interesting to see how much I understand. Good thing I’ve read the book! On Friday there’s talk of possibly going skiing. Then on Saturday it’s the concert in the afternoon and a huge birthday party in my flat in the evening. Looks like I’m in for another exciting week!