Keyboard Issues

I'm in the university library at the moment, after my second day of classes (which went well thank you) and I am having serious issues getting my head around this German keyboard. I feel ridiciously incompetent. I keep typing "z" instead of "y" because the Germans use a Qwertz keyboard rather than a Qwerty, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to use the "@" key (I've had to resort to copying and pasting it from an email address I found on the university website.

Oh wow the stupid computer has finally realised that I am typing in English and not German. The red swiggly lines were really starting to annoy me.

Also I don't feel too good today. I don't know whether it's down to another night of insufficient sleep or whether I am coming down with something. I'm praying that it's the former. My mum wants me to search for a Pension in Marburg for her and my siblings to stay in when they come and visit in December and I really am not in the mood to do it. But I can't really complain because it's not as if she can do it herself since she can't speak a word of German. At least I have a free day to look forward to tomorrow and most likely a lie in.

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! :-)

So much pressure

I start proper university lesson tomorrow and I am very very nervous. I’ve signed up to do Geschichte der Sprachkontakte des Deutschen, Neurokognition des Sprachverstehens, Englische Geschichte im 16. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt im Mittelalter and Wissenschaftliche Schreiben. In most of those classes I will be alone, which obviously means I need to make more new friends. I know that this is a good thing and that finally I will have the chance make some real German friends but it is also very daunting.

I was hoping to have an early night, as a way of relaxing myself before the BIG DAY, but instead I am on Skype with my boyfriend who is having a hard time at the moment coming to the terms with the fact that he’s not going to see me for a long time. This upsets me because I feel really responsible for his unhappiness. It is me who has left him, me who is having the good time, me who is always too busy to talk to him. I find it hard to tell him this. I just keep getting angry and making things worse. I think its because my mind is so preoccupied with worrying about tomorrow. I feel so selfish and I just want him to know that I love him so much. I’m hoping everything will be better in the morning. Wish me luck for my first week of lessons.

Marburg an der Lahn

 

I’ve been living in Marburg for the past 46 days and I haven’t properly introduced it.

Marburg is a relatively small university town/city in the middle of the German state of Hessen situated on the river Lahn and is about an hours train journey away from Frankfurt. The city revolves around the university and is often given the motto “some towns have a university, but Marburg is a university.” The town is very appealing. The old town, die Oberstadt is very picturesque and typisch deutsch with its Fachwerkhäuser  (traditional German wooden houses) and its narrow cobblestone alley ways. The old part of Marburg is situated on a steep hill, hence why it is called Oberstadt (upper town) and at the top of the hill is a beautiful medieval castle towering over the city. Wherever you are in Marburg you have a wonderful view of the castle and Oberstadt. In my opinion the view is at its best early in the morning when the clouds are low and hugging the castle. It looks like something out of a fairytale.

 

Talking of fairytales Marburg is also a tourist attraction for people who are interested in the Brothers Grimm. Both Jacob and  Wilhelm studied at the Phillips University of Marburg and were residence of the town. The is a tower in the woods above Marburg which is called Spiegelust and this tower is supposedly the tower from the story of Rapunzel.

There are a lot of trees surrounding the city, which is something new to me. I know that there are woods and forests in the UK but I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many trees in my life. My halls of residence are in fact situated in a wood. I admit it is nice to be located somewhere new, this year is all about new experiences, but I find it difficult to cope with the amount of spiders I find on a regular basis. Thus I have resorted to only opening the window when necessary, its been about a week now, simply because every time I do open it the creepy creatures sneak in.     

A weird point about Marburg is its use of lifts (or elevators if you are American). I arrived at Marburg train station on the 1st September with a 28Kg suitcase and looked frantically around for an Aufzug (lift) I could not believe that there was not a single lift in the train station. I then had the same dilemma when I arrived later that day in my halls of residence where I had to drag my suitcase up four flights of stairs to my room (excluding the 3 flights of stairs outside of the building). I remember looking at the state of my “brand new” suitcase when I finally arrived in my room. I thought to myself that this town seems so backwards. I later ate my words because that evening I found numerous lifts. They weren’t at the train station or in halls, but instead they were at the bottom of the hill, on which Oberstadt stands. Right there in the middle of the street are two lifts which take you up into Oberstadt. I was very impressed. Unlike my equally hilly university town in the UK where I find myself panting for breath as I walk from one street to the next, Marburg found the ideal solution.

I don’t really know what else to say about Marburg except for that it is peaceful and pleasant and I really enjoy living here. :-)

Good news, bad news

 

As an update to my previous post, I now have fast, faultless internet :D My neighbour was more than willing to share her internet with me, all I have to do is pay her €10 a month. At 25% of the price I was paying for the poor excuse of an internet connection, naturally I bit her hand off at the offer.

So yay that was the good news.

Bad news: Someone decided to leave faeces on the toilet seat in the girls’ toilets. This is either a very disgusting girl who needs to be exterminated or a very revolting male who cannot read the word “DAMEN” (women) printed clearly on the door. Who ever it was I am not amused and I really hope that this was a one off occurrence.

I’m off to an Erasmus party tonight and then to Munich tomorrow morning for five days. Its all very exciting.

Marburg is like rehab for internet addicts

 

My first few days in Marburg were spent without the internet. Unlike UK universities, Marburg uni doesn’t feel the need to supply an internet connection to all of its residencies. People living in the Studentendorf (student village) appear to be the lucky buggers who have internet access in their bedrooms, whilst the rest of us have to make our own arrangements. I was only internetless for 2 days but those days were hard. Now I’d never considered myself to be an online junkie, but I didn’t know what to do with myself. I had truly gone “cold turkey”. No internet meant no means of talking to my mum, no internet meant no way of taking my mind off of the prison like room that they call a bedroom, no internet meant I was trapped in this mean German reality.

Luckily for me I had read up about this internet problem on some blogs before arriving in Germany and had heard of a devise called a “surf-stick” – its a prepaid internet stick supplied by most leading phone companies, So on day 3 in Marburg I rushed around the shops trying to find a surf stick. I bought one, it was expensive, €40 for a months worth of internet, but I didn’t care.

Now although the internet is expensive, it is fast….well its fast when I use it anywhere except for in my halls of residence. Yes its sods law that I end up situated in the one part of town that receives very little mobile signal. This means that Skype has a 5-20 second delay, I can’t watch videos on Youtube, nor can I download music or upload photos onto Facebook. The internet often disconnects because of lack of signal and if it runs out of credit on a Saturday night then you will have to wait until Monday to reconnect with the world, as I tragically learnt this weekend. Nonetheless I’ve put up with it for a month and its better than not having any internet. I’m hoping to find someone in my hall to share internet with. Some people who are here for a few years buy their own contracts, modems and routers. I’ve put up a poster on the bulletin board asking if anyone would like to share with me and I will pay then how ever much a month they see fit, I’m also going to put a similar note underneath my neighbour’s door. Fingers crossed someone will come to my rescue. 

Heimweh and the dreaded “W-Curve”

I realised today that I’ve been here in Germany for more than a month. I flew here on the 31st August and it is now the 1st October. That in itself is a huge achievement. However this has been one of the hardest weeks for me so far.
Before we all departed on our year abroads, our university subjected us to a series of monotonous lectures in hope of preparing us for the positive and negative experiences which were to follow. In one lecture they introduced us to the “W-curve”, a representation of how our emotions would fluctuate during our time away from home. At the beginning we are happy and excited because everything is new, but then we crash down to reality as we realise that this is not a holiday and struggle to adapt to our new surroundings (i.e. culture shock). Then we settle in and enjoy ourselves, thus our emotions become more positive. Then we get home sick and then finally we except everything and are forever happy and content.
Now I like to refer to it as the “M-curve”. My first days in Germany were far from joyous. I spent all of my free time crying and contemplating giving up and returning to the UK.After the first week my perspective changed. I calmed down and I was able to take in the beauty of Marburg. I made amazing friends who kept me busy and I began to think of what a shame it was that I would only be here for 6 months.
So why the sudden change of heart? Why has this week been so hard?
Last week an amazing person from home visited me. Someone very close to my heart and I think it was waving goodbye to him at the departure gate that triggered off the negative perspective on being abroad. Ever since Saturday night I’ve wanted to go home. I want my mum and my dad. I want my siblings. Basically I’m homesick or as they say here “Ich habe Heimweh”. Being ill this week hasn’t helped either, nor has the absence of my closest friend here (she's off visiting family up north for 5 days). i know that things will get better, I know that these feelings will pass. I just don’t have anything to keep me busy at the moment and that is what is killing me.
God damn you year abroad, GOD DAMN YOU!