Today was my first day of work at the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut in Tubingen. Angelika told me that a walk from our apartment to the d.a.i was about a 20 minute walk, but I had decided earlier on that I was just going to walk there and was paranoid about being late. The walk turned out to be a lot shorter than 20 minutes, especially since Tubingen isn't a very large city, so I got there pretty early. I didn't want to walk into work on the first day a half hour early, so I walked around the area nearby, got some breakfast, and spotted a Mueller that I wanted to visit later.
When it was time for me to go to work, I entered the d.a.i building and immediately met the secretary, who was more than happy to welcome me and show me around a little bit. I didn't really know what to expect about the d.a.i, but I like it a lot. It is basically a non-profit organization that was originally established by the American government to inform Germans about American culture and help them learn English. I work full time, which is from nine in the morning until six in the afternoon, with a small coffee break around 11 and a lunch break between one and two. So far my tasks have included translating the new website from German into English, creating a new poster for the "Book Flea Market," shredding paper, brainstorming for the Youth Camp at the beginning of August, and other small tasks. The d.a.i offers many cool programs to the German community and I am almost jealous that we don't have anything like it in the U.S. It seems they have so many opportunities to study abroad and learn English, whereas our language training is the mandatory credits needed to graduate both high school and college and everybody knows that half of the time these are a joke, considering after four more years you are no better able to hold a conversation in Spanish than you were when you started out. It's only the select few that get really lucky with awesome teachers. It seems that it is as normal as breathing to study abroad here as well. I feel like back in the states its not out of the ordinary, but its not common. Here everybody I have talked to so far has studied abroad in a least one, in most cases multiple, places.
The Youth Camp that I am helping out with is among another activity that I am jealous we don't have anything like. During the camp, kids ages 6 to 12 get to go to a nearby city named Allgau for a week where they are only allowed to speak English except in some German-speaking designated zones. They have english classes in the morning, but afterwards they have fun activities like a high ropes course, or swimming at the nearby lake. I am supposed to help come up with activities and ideas that are "typical American." What is typical American anyways?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
My arrival in Tuebingen
In order to go abroad this summer, I applied to a program called CDS, through the German department at my school, which helped me find an internship with the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut in Tubingen. CDS held a conference in Berlin for the summer 2010 participants, which was why I flew into Berlin and was there for a couple of days. The conference was pretty fun. It certainly helped with the transition into the German culture and I got to meet a lot of other American students taking part in the program. I absolutely love Berlin, but I don't think I could ever see myself actually living there. It is a fun place to visit but not really to live. It is extremely Americanized. I would say that Berlin is probably the most Americanized city in Germany probably due to its reconstruction after the war. But, whenever I would see a McDonald's or a Dunkin Donuts I would look at it, cringe, and think "noo! don't ruin German culture!!"
The train ride from Berlin to Tubingen was certainly interesting. I felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off half the time. I wasn't really sure how to use the Deutsche Bahn, but luckily I chose a route that only required one transition. My journey started out at the subway station nearby my hotel, when I realized just how heavy my luggage was. When I put it on the scale at the airport and it read 70 pounds, I didn't think much of it, but when I had to lug it down multiple staircases it is heeaavyy!
After I managed to make my way to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, I wandered around the station for a little bit and got something to eat, when I saw a sign that read "Gepaeck Center" (Luggage Center). Now, one thing that had been bothering me was that usually in the U.S. there is always someplace that you have to take your luggage. You usually give it to someone who puts in on the train, plane, or bus that you are riding on for you. When I saw "Gepaeck Center," I thought, for some reason, that I had to check my luggage so they could put it on my train. I went over to the little desk to check out what it was, because I wasn't 100 percent sure that that was its purpose, and ended up giving the guy at the desk my bag. He then handed me a ticket saying something like, "take this ticket, get it stamped, pay, then give it back to the guy over there." That was when I knew that the "Gepaeck Center" was not for checking your luggage, but it was instead a place that you could just leave your luggage for a little while. I wandered around the station a little bit more because I didn't want to look like a complete idiot coming back to get my luggage two minutes later. A couple minutes before my train was scheduled to arrive, I retrieved my heavy luggage and went to go wait at the terminal
When I bought my tickets for the train, I had some troubles figuring out where and how to buy them. Because of this, I was still not completely sure that I did it right. The first time I tried to buy tickets I somehow ended up reserving a spot on a train instead of actually buying tickets, and the second time I bought tickets but didn't reserve a spot. This turned out to be a pretty big mistake.
Once I got on the train, I waited for people to start settling down before choosing an open spot. I figured that if nobody was sitting there, this meant that the place was open and I could sit there for the duration of the train ride. Instead, this didn't necessarily mean that the place was open because at the next stop people would get on and say that they had reserved that spot. It was like musical chairs for awhile, until I figured out that most of the seats had a label which told you if the seat was reserved or not and where the person was traveling to and from.
I swear I sat in every place possible on the train, except first class, because it took me awhile to figure out the system and I was on the same train for about six hours. I got to sit at a spot with a table, a normal spot with just two seats, and a spot that was in a compartment that I liked to think of as the "harry potter compartment." Finally, like the vagabond that I felt like, I ended up just sitting on the floor next to the doors until I got off at Stuttgart.
My next fear was that I was going to miss my connecting train to Tubingen because the train that I was on was running late. So once we stopped at Stuttgart, I dashed out of the train, ran down a flight of stairs (which is no easy feat with my goat in tow), and ran back up another flight of stairs to the terminal that the train to Tubingen was waiting at. I had no trouble making the train and found an easily accessible seat to crash on while I caught my breath.
Once I finally got to Tubingen, I had to figure out where the buses were and which one I had to take. My roommate, Angelika, helped me out a lot and told me where I had to get off and which buses would take me to the bus stop right in front of our apartment, so it didn't turn out to be that complicated. In no time at all, I was finally at my new home!
The train ride from Berlin to Tubingen was certainly interesting. I felt like a chicken running around with its head cut off half the time. I wasn't really sure how to use the Deutsche Bahn, but luckily I chose a route that only required one transition. My journey started out at the subway station nearby my hotel, when I realized just how heavy my luggage was. When I put it on the scale at the airport and it read 70 pounds, I didn't think much of it, but when I had to lug it down multiple staircases it is heeaavyy!
After I managed to make my way to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, I wandered around the station for a little bit and got something to eat, when I saw a sign that read "Gepaeck Center" (Luggage Center). Now, one thing that had been bothering me was that usually in the U.S. there is always someplace that you have to take your luggage. You usually give it to someone who puts in on the train, plane, or bus that you are riding on for you. When I saw "Gepaeck Center," I thought, for some reason, that I had to check my luggage so they could put it on my train. I went over to the little desk to check out what it was, because I wasn't 100 percent sure that that was its purpose, and ended up giving the guy at the desk my bag. He then handed me a ticket saying something like, "take this ticket, get it stamped, pay, then give it back to the guy over there." That was when I knew that the "Gepaeck Center" was not for checking your luggage, but it was instead a place that you could just leave your luggage for a little while. I wandered around the station a little bit more because I didn't want to look like a complete idiot coming back to get my luggage two minutes later. A couple minutes before my train was scheduled to arrive, I retrieved my heavy luggage and went to go wait at the terminal
When I bought my tickets for the train, I had some troubles figuring out where and how to buy them. Because of this, I was still not completely sure that I did it right. The first time I tried to buy tickets I somehow ended up reserving a spot on a train instead of actually buying tickets, and the second time I bought tickets but didn't reserve a spot. This turned out to be a pretty big mistake.
Once I got on the train, I waited for people to start settling down before choosing an open spot. I figured that if nobody was sitting there, this meant that the place was open and I could sit there for the duration of the train ride. Instead, this didn't necessarily mean that the place was open because at the next stop people would get on and say that they had reserved that spot. It was like musical chairs for awhile, until I figured out that most of the seats had a label which told you if the seat was reserved or not and where the person was traveling to and from.
I swear I sat in every place possible on the train, except first class, because it took me awhile to figure out the system and I was on the same train for about six hours. I got to sit at a spot with a table, a normal spot with just two seats, and a spot that was in a compartment that I liked to think of as the "harry potter compartment." Finally, like the vagabond that I felt like, I ended up just sitting on the floor next to the doors until I got off at Stuttgart.
My next fear was that I was going to miss my connecting train to Tubingen because the train that I was on was running late. So once we stopped at Stuttgart, I dashed out of the train, ran down a flight of stairs (which is no easy feat with my goat in tow), and ran back up another flight of stairs to the terminal that the train to Tubingen was waiting at. I had no trouble making the train and found an easily accessible seat to crash on while I caught my breath.
Once I finally got to Tubingen, I had to figure out where the buses were and which one I had to take. My roommate, Angelika, helped me out a lot and told me where I had to get off and which buses would take me to the bus stop right in front of our apartment, so it didn't turn out to be that complicated. In no time at all, I was finally at my new home!
Monday, May 31, 2010
End of a very looonngg day one
On my way to Berlin, I took two different flights with a layover at the JFK airport in New York. For the most part nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened. Before I got my boarding pass, I knew my flight from JFK to Tegel International in Berlin was delayed an hour, which I didn't mind because it meant that I had more time to figure out where I was supposed to be going. I arrived at JFK with no problem and my confidence boosted by Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," and set about finding my next destination with determination. Originally I was supposed to switch terminals altogether which meant me having to find transportation between terminal 3 and terminal 4 because they don't connect. Since I now had over an hour to find where I needed to be, I had visions of getting to the gate early, relaxing, calling my friends who live in New York, and getting a quick bite to eat. I asked a security guard how to get to terminal 4 and he directed me to the nearest Airtram. Following his directions, I wandered along slightly alarmed because it seemed that I would have to leave the actual building. Once, while traveling to St. Maarten with my parents for spring break, we got locked out of the Newark airport and ended up spending the night with the homeless because the airport was closed and there was no way of getting back in until later that morning. So, with the worry of walking out of the airport and not being able to get back in, I asked another security guard where to go, just to confirm, and she pointed me in the same direction that the first one did. So, I left the building, went across the street, and down an elevator to the Airtram.
I arrived at terminal four shortly and was so proud of myself for making it, when I realized that my terminal might not be the same at all due to my flight being delayed. I looked at my boarding pass, but instead of a gate number is read "see airport monitors." I found a bank of TVs with the list of arrivals and departures and sat there for a bit searching for a flight whose destination was Berlin. I asked yet another security guard where I should go and she directed me to a gate, the only problem was that somewhere along the way I must have left the secured area because I had to go through security yet again. On top of that the line was extremely long! With the hopes of finally finding where I needed to be, and proud of myself that I wasn't freaking out or giving up, I put all of my stuff on the conveyor yet again, disappointed that I had to get rid of my three dollar bottle of water I bought in the Chicago airport. Once through security, I found a delta airlines desk and the lady there directed me to a gate that was nearby. I went to the designated gate only to find that it was going to London and not Berlin. By this time it was a couple of minutes past 7 o'clock, I hadn't eaten yet, and my hopes of relaxing were all but diminished. Then, after asking again, I found out that my hour of wandering was basically pointless because the terminal I needed to be in was the one that I originally landed in, and on top of that there was a shuttle that took delta passengers back and forth from each terminal so they didn't have to keep going through security. After getting where I needed to be, I hurriedly got something to eat, found my gate and was there for about five minutes before we started boarding.
Skip forward to me sitting in my seat on the plane next to a man of very few words and it is now almost 10 o'clock at night when the flight was supposed to take off at 7:55. What happened? First they needed to put gas in the plane, then there was a problem with the mechanics, then the weather was bad so there was a backup on the runway. The plane and I had been sitting in the exact same spot for two hours, and I was already bored. As for sleeping, it is neither fun nor easy on a plane to say the least.
Once it was almost time to land I will admit that I did freak out a little bit. I calmed myself down by making a list of everything I needed to do once I landed, "luggage, money, taxi."
When we landed, I got my fat luggage (it was 20 pounds over the limit...) and looked for a currency exchange place. Afterwards I followed an English speaking family to a bank of taxis. My German was a little rusty and a I was a little self-conscious in speaking it, so I address a taxi driver in English as he lifted my luggage into his trunk and exclaims, "What do you have in here?! A goat?!" Right then I knew that everything was going to be okay.
My taxi driver turned out to be really cool and we chatted as he drove me along to my hotel. We started out speaking in English but then transitioned into to German, which could not have been a better way for me to ease into Germany than if I had planned it myself.
When we got to the hotel, he unloaded "my goat" and I had hoped that I could go to my room, shower, and take a nap, only to find out that it is not meant to be when the guy at the front desk told me my room wouldn't be ready until three. It is now 12 in the afternoon, and my conference starts at 2:20. What to do for an hour? Luckily I knew the area a bit, because of my stay in Berlin two years ago, so I find an atm in Potsdamer Platz and hit the motherload when I remembered that a mall was nearby. The time ended up going by pretty quickly, as it usually does when I find myself in a clothing or book store, and I made my way back to the hotel meeting up with a few fellow CDSers on the way back.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The. Beginning. (sounds kinda daunting I know)
And so it begins. I guess this whole blogging thing probably should have started about 6 months ago when I decided to do anything in my power so that I could make it to Germany this summer but as with everything that I do, it doesn’t seem quite real until the event is staring me in the face as it is right now. Literally. The plane that I am going to be taking me to JFK on my way to Berlin is right in front of me and will be for the next hour. My parents were a little overzealous with the whole getting here early thing and my flight doesn’t start boarding until an hour from now (1:40 p.m.), and doesn’t take off until about 2:18. So now I am sitting here asking myself, "what the heck did you get yourself into?!" 
The differences between my last Germany trip and this one couldn’t be more profound. With the German Exchange Program I was traveling with my friends, or at the very least friendly faces. I had transportation provided for me and we had a set itinerary of everything we were doing during the month long stay. This time I am completely and totally on my own. Let me say that again: Completely. On. My. Own. Its weird. Even when I started college I wasn’t totally dependent on myself, not only because my parents were only a phone call away, but also because a large majority of my high school goes there. This time around, nothing is set in stone. My transportation route isn’t that bad until I make it to Berlin and then its in Gods hands to determine what is going to happen during my attempt to make it across the country to Tuebingen. I am hoping nothing really bad happens despite my lack of directional comprehension which might be made even worse in a foreign country. Some funny stories will probably come out of that experience. As for the itinerary there is a basic one and then from then on its kind of up in the air. I guess my greatest fear at this moment is of the unknown. It's of what may or may not happen or what could or could not happen. It's of being lost among people that I don’t know and I don’t know if I can trust. But I guess at this moment in time the best way to look at things is to keep an open mind, embrace the struggles, laughs and embarrassments that are sure to come and just get excited because after all…. I'M GOING TO GERMANY!
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