My last week in Marburg

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