My first day as a fully fledged Erasmusstudentin

 

I had an awful nights sleep last night, I think it was caused by a combination of nerves and stress. I woke up at 7am prompt, got myself ready and then arrived in the town centre an hour before my lessons started. The plan was to find the room of my second lecture (I’d never been in that building and only had a 30min gap to find it in between my only two lessons of the day), print off a handout and then make my way slowly to THE FIRST CLASS.

I managed to complete these tasks in about 20mins leaving me with 40mins to stand outside the seminar room, on my own, bored out of my skull and getting more and more nervous by the minute. The hallway that I was stood in had two doors, one for seminar room 1 and one for seminar room 2. Eventually a large group of German girls entered the hallway and gathered around the other door. Naturally I assumed that their class was in seminar room 1 and not 2 like me. This was my first lesson of the day. German students do not gather around the door of their seminar room like a overly keen eager beaver!

I was relieved to see a few familiar faces in my class. There was another girl from the UK, a girl from my pre-language course and my orienteering tutor. The format of the lecture was new to me because the class were a mixture people. Some studied linguistics, some German etc, some were bachelors others master students. The personalities of these people were just as random. There was one girl who used her laptop to view the handout but took notes with a writing pad (I don’t know especially why this was odd, but I found it odd), there was the boy who had to answer EVERY question, and then there was very peculiar girl who chose to sit casually at the side of the room on a bench, taking no notes at all, even though there were plenty of spare seats.

Then came lesson number two. Questtion and answer time takes part after the lecture finishes so if you need to talk to the lecturer you need to move fast otherwise be prepared to stand in a long queue with everyone else and their mother who wants some one to one time with the Prof. 

I was quite pleased with how the first lecture went, apart from regretting sitting at the back of the room.    Our professor was so softly spoken that I found it difficult to hear him at times. So I purposely sat close to the front in my second lecture, then comes lesson number 3. First years (or Ersties) never sit at the front!  Unlike the first lecture, my second lecture was only for first year students, I believe I was the only Erasmus student in the room, and I really felt like I stood out. Obviously next time I will know to sit with cool kids at the back but unfortunately I will not be able to hide the fact that I’m foreign because the electronic dictionary that sits at my desk and is permanently in use gives me away.

Before I forget, I also tried out a Yoga class today. It was PAINFUL! The teacher made us do things that I don’t think my body was ever made to do. I’m not sure if we are going to go back next week. I’m really only going as a way to keep in contact with a lovely Japanese girl I’ve met here. Its a real shame that we don’t have any classes together anymore, so this is our way of making up for it. Anyway Bedtime! :-)