Hello all,
As I write this blog post today, many of you seem to be waterlogged and flooded in Atlanta. This is unreal! I hope you either enjoyed your day at home or were able to work from home. It sounds like one for the history books, though I would rather be here on the huge hill/mountainous terrain in Marburg high and dry. ;)
Since my last post, much has transpired. The main topic of the week/past week: A SUCCESSFUL APARTMENT SEARCH! After deciding that I really did not want to live in a all-in-one single apartment that would cost about 40% of of my stipend (if not more) without contact with others or a basic oven or microwave, I was sought out by a student looking to fill any empty room in his WG. A WG stands for Wohnheimgemeinshaft. It is a very common form of student/young adult living here for the 18 to 30 crowd. Essentially, each person has their own bedroom, but shares a kitchen and bathroom with 1,2,3 or more people. This is a great setup, and often times you end up renting an already furnished room. It really pays to know people here and get connected right off the bat. My host mom had suggested that I call the local representative for Experiment in International Living. This is the organization that is in charge of the host family program. I spoke with him last weekend, and he agreed to see what he could find out from Studentenwerk, which is essentially at every univerisity for the purpose of student housing. I got a call last Wednesday from a guy who had talked to Till (the representaive), and he waslooking to fill a room in his WG. They have 3 guys and 1 girl, but need a new roommate once a guy moves out at the end of the month.
I visited this past weekend. A nice less-than-24 hour-trip to Aachen was very worth it! I met the guys, Alex and Julio, but the girl, Annika, was on vacation in Spain. Julio came from Brazil to Aachen to study econ in 2005, and Alex is from Germany and studies Mechanical Engineering. Annika studies Medicine. And if you are wondering, it is totally normal for apartments to be co-ed here. It is actually more normal than finding an all-female apartment. My room is 15 m2, with a desk, a clothes cabinet, and a bookshelf. I have to buy a bed and matress. The kitchen is fully stocked, and I am free to use all appliances, kitchen utensils, etc. This is great! It has an oven! AND a dishwasher...this is quite the luxury! It also has two bathrooms and two fridges. I also get a pantry/storage closet. The complex is in walking distance from my lab and the science buildings. It is also just a bide ride away from Holland. People go to Holland on Sunday to go shopping when all the stores are closed in Germany. Ikea is also just 20 min by car in Holland, which I hope my guest mom will take me to look for furniture!
I spoke German and English with Julio and Alex, and it was great knowing that I will be able to continue to better my language skills living with students. I can move in Oct. 1, and plan to slowly move in since I will stay with my host family until Oct. 9.
After my short and sweet weekend in Aachen/Würselen (train ride Friday night and Saturday night), I went on the field trip with the Fulright group on Sunday. We took a charter bus about 2.5 hours to one of the old East-West checkpoints. There is a border museum there. They still have some of the original fence and towers set up from the GDR. Our tour guide was excellent. He lived in West Berlin during the separation. It was fascinating and saddening to learn more about the border patrol and all the attempted escapes, as well as what the GDR did to keep its people contained in the GDR. The entire system of that government is entirely impossible to understand and imagine. I actually saw a Trabi car drive by while we were there.
This week, things are coming to an end. We have our farewell dinner Wednesday night, and I leave Marburg for good on Thursday. I cannot believe I have been here for 6 weeks already! (As of today)
Something of interest from last week: We did our radio program live! It was a success, and I talked about Auburn and how important sports, namely football is. Uni Sports are a foreign concept to the Germans. I played "War Eagle" on the radio! Yep, representing the Auburn Family all the way in Germany!
I will update more later.
Bis dann,
Rebecca
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A few pics from the past 5 weeks
A window view from Jan's house
My first night's sleep in Germany :)
Another window view- The Germans really do their gardens right here, and also have large windows without blinds or panes that allow lots of light in and allow you to feel like you are in the garden!
Recognize this door, Lilburn Ludvigsens?
I wanted to upload several more pictures, but the site wouldn't let me. So, I will post a new post with more pictures.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Oops
So, if any of you tried to mail me anything using the address I posted a while ago....I don't think it will get here! It is too late to receive anything now, as I am leaving next Thursday on Sept 24. In any case, the dorm number AND the street number is 5, and apparently I thought it would be good enough to write 5 just once somewhere...
Here is the correct address:
Geschwister Scholl Strasse 5
Jung Stilling Haus #5
Zimmer-Nr 204
35309 Marburg
Deutschland
Anywho, I am back in Marburg tonight. The trip from Aachen, or really, Würselen seemed to take forever. We left the house at 3. I got back to the dorm at 9...
It takes car, train and bus to get from one place to the other. Oh well, I am here safe! Looking forward to returning next Thursday!
See ya,
RL
Friday, September 11, 2009
Aachen, and a much needed update from the past 2 weeks!
I have not updated in so long, so it is about time! (This post will be in reverse chronological order as I think back to the last few weeks!) I am currently in Aachen. I traveled here this weekend because we had Thursday afternoon and Friday free. I took a taxi with lots of luggage to the train station, took the train to Gießen (the next stop on the way to Frankfurt) and then changed trains in Gießen. This was quite the task with so much luggage and very little time in between. The train going to Aachen was originally suppossed to be at track 1, but it was actually at track 12! I freaked out for a second when I saw that my train was not at track 1, and that I only had 15 mintues to find the new track and lug all my luggage there. However, I found the correct one and took the next train to Aachen. (For a while I was worried if I had gotten on the right train!) This endeavor took about 5 hours, from the time I was picked up by the taxi to the time I arrived at the main train station in Aachen. My guess family picked me up and brought me to their house. We only speak German, but switch to English only sometimes if I do not understand. They have two daughters in high school. I like living here, and they are very helpful and nice.
Today (Friday) my guest family mom (Doris) helped me look for apartments. She also drove me around Aachen and Würselen (where they live, directly outside of Aachen). I like it here! Much more going on than Marburg. I had an appointment to meet with a student who currently lives in the single apartment I have reserved. It is a little expensive because it is in the city center. It has a small kitchenettte on one wall in the same room as the bed! It has no oven, microwave or dishwasher, and a tiny refrigerator. We looked for other apartments with no luck today. Either all apartments have been rented bc the semester is about to begin, or the people I tried to call did not answer the phones because often times businesses close early on Friday. However, I was in Holland today for about 2 minutes! During the drive through the city, Doris took me over the border to Holland, and Belgium was just down the street- literally! I plan on exploring more when I acutally live here.
What else has happened in the past two weeks? Not a whole lot this past week. We worked on our Radio program script in class. I allso went to a SPD rally or speech on Tuesday. The election is at the end of the month, and SPD has a very strong precence in Marburg. It was interesting to experience.
I also went over to Sophia's on Monday. We talked about Nordrhein-Westfalen, because I had to talk about the Bundesland in culture class. Aachen is located in NRW, and everyone has to do a project on their Bundesland. I learned a lot of interesting things, and we drank Chai tea that she had bought at the Middle Ages fair a few weeks ago.
Last Saturday was the first AU football game of the season! We won! I was not personally there, but I wore my AU sweatshirt in support. Yep, it is fall here. I am wearing clothes that I normally wear in November! HAHA. Instead of football, I watched Fussball! The German ntl team vs South Africa game was on, and Germany won. Next year, the world cup is in S. Africa. so all the games leading up to this are very important. I was at Sophia's house, and we made typical German food for a fussball game. We made Frikadellen, Pototoe salad, and some type of appetizer. Frikadellen are similar to hambugers. They have ground pork and beef, with onions, spices, something like bread crumbs to hold it together, and egg. I mixed it all with my hands, and Sophia asked me to taste it to see whether the spices were good! This was raw meat! Apparently it is okay to eat raw pork or beef here. She says it is good on bread. I was really surprised, but I did taste it, and it was good! She also made Potato salad with mayo from scratch! The appetizers we made were grape tomatoes, blackbread, and gouda on a toothpick- the colors of the german flag!
On Sunday, I took part in a german cooking class. There were 9 of us from the group, while the others took a tour of the local castle. This was from 4 to 11, and we made lots of yummy food! I also got a copy of all the recipes. They are old, from the insturctor's grandmother! We made an appetizer, a soup, a main course, and a dessert. With every course we had a different wine. Every wine and dish we made came from Germany. Even all of the ingredients were made or grown in Germany. When I am back at home, I will write more about the dishes when I have the recipe book in front of me. Grandma, maybe we can make some of these when I come back!
I actually cannot remember now what I did the week before! I will have to think on it, as I am getting tired here typing.
Hope all is well in the US. I know today was 911. It is crazy to think that it has been 8 years already. I found CNN in English on the TV today, and they were showing the memorial service. I couldn't watch it very long, and I am not even from NY and do not know anyone that was personally affected by 911. Nevertheless, it still seems to have a big impact on everyone of us.
Got to go eat Abendbrot!
See ya,
RL
Today (Friday) my guest family mom (Doris) helped me look for apartments. She also drove me around Aachen and Würselen (where they live, directly outside of Aachen). I like it here! Much more going on than Marburg. I had an appointment to meet with a student who currently lives in the single apartment I have reserved. It is a little expensive because it is in the city center. It has a small kitchenettte on one wall in the same room as the bed! It has no oven, microwave or dishwasher, and a tiny refrigerator. We looked for other apartments with no luck today. Either all apartments have been rented bc the semester is about to begin, or the people I tried to call did not answer the phones because often times businesses close early on Friday. However, I was in Holland today for about 2 minutes! During the drive through the city, Doris took me over the border to Holland, and Belgium was just down the street- literally! I plan on exploring more when I acutally live here.
What else has happened in the past two weeks? Not a whole lot this past week. We worked on our Radio program script in class. I allso went to a SPD rally or speech on Tuesday. The election is at the end of the month, and SPD has a very strong precence in Marburg. It was interesting to experience.
I also went over to Sophia's on Monday. We talked about Nordrhein-Westfalen, because I had to talk about the Bundesland in culture class. Aachen is located in NRW, and everyone has to do a project on their Bundesland. I learned a lot of interesting things, and we drank Chai tea that she had bought at the Middle Ages fair a few weeks ago.
Last Saturday was the first AU football game of the season! We won! I was not personally there, but I wore my AU sweatshirt in support. Yep, it is fall here. I am wearing clothes that I normally wear in November! HAHA. Instead of football, I watched Fussball! The German ntl team vs South Africa game was on, and Germany won. Next year, the world cup is in S. Africa. so all the games leading up to this are very important. I was at Sophia's house, and we made typical German food for a fussball game. We made Frikadellen, Pototoe salad, and some type of appetizer. Frikadellen are similar to hambugers. They have ground pork and beef, with onions, spices, something like bread crumbs to hold it together, and egg. I mixed it all with my hands, and Sophia asked me to taste it to see whether the spices were good! This was raw meat! Apparently it is okay to eat raw pork or beef here. She says it is good on bread. I was really surprised, but I did taste it, and it was good! She also made Potato salad with mayo from scratch! The appetizers we made were grape tomatoes, blackbread, and gouda on a toothpick- the colors of the german flag!
On Sunday, I took part in a german cooking class. There were 9 of us from the group, while the others took a tour of the local castle. This was from 4 to 11, and we made lots of yummy food! I also got a copy of all the recipes. They are old, from the insturctor's grandmother! We made an appetizer, a soup, a main course, and a dessert. With every course we had a different wine. Every wine and dish we made came from Germany. Even all of the ingredients were made or grown in Germany. When I am back at home, I will write more about the dishes when I have the recipe book in front of me. Grandma, maybe we can make some of these when I come back!
I actually cannot remember now what I did the week before! I will have to think on it, as I am getting tired here typing.
Hope all is well in the US. I know today was 911. It is crazy to think that it has been 8 years already. I found CNN in English on the TV today, and they were showing the memorial service. I couldn't watch it very long, and I am not even from NY and do not know anyone that was personally affected by 911. Nevertheless, it still seems to have a big impact on everyone of us.
Got to go eat Abendbrot!
See ya,
RL
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