Mathematikum

On Wednesday my German class took a fieldtrip to the Mathematikum, a math museum in the next city over. It was entirely interactive and a lot of fun, so I decided to post some of the pictures and talk about what we played with.

Here is Lindsey (left) and Hannah (right) on the train to Gießen. Lindsey is from New Jersey and Hannah is from New Zealand.

Rachel (left), me (center), and our teacher Monika (right) walking through Gießen.

One thing we learned about was the Mobius strip, which is a two-dimensional object that exists in three-dimensional space. Simply put, it’s a band that only has one surface, even though it looks like it has two sides. If you then cut it down the center, it becomes one big strip that does have two sides, and if you cut it into thirds, it does this:

Mimi (left) and Lindsey (right) looking for a black bead that’s one in a million.

Here is a big contraption that balls rolled through and made disks spin and bells ring. I’m not really sure if it was supposed to demonstrate something, or if it was just something fun.

Lindsey was struggling to make a hexagon out of the pieces.

Me, stuck on this puzzle after successfully completing two other ones.

Monika doing puzzles with Lindsey and I.

Finally figured it out!

This is a real-life Klein bottle. There is no inside and no outside, but it can still hold liquid.

Lindsey and Mimi doing a puzzle.

Cool bubbles.

Giant bubbles!

Mirrors!

This puzzle has you match up the shadow with the triangles, but the objects are irregular triangles so it’s tricky!

We ended the day with building some shapes.

All in all I had a really fantastic time. It reminded me of being in Montessori school again and the puzzles were surprisingly stimulating. If you are ever in Germany near Frankfurt, I highly recommend taking the train up to Gießen and checking out the Mathematikum!

http://www.mathematikum.de/

Weird German thing of the Week

Something that was really interesting to me is that all bottles—both glass and plastic—can be turned in at grocery stores for money. Technically how it works is that a deposit for the bottle is added on to the price of the drink and then when you bring the bottle back, you’re getting your deposit back. It doesn’t have to be to the same store or anything, and the prices are still almost always cheaper than in America anyway. 

They also had a similar process at a club we went to. When you bought a drink it was one euro extra, and then when you brought your cup back you got your euro back. That seemed particularly strange to me, but I think the process with bottles is fantastic. It encourages people to recycle, and if they get left on the street, people will pick them up in order to get the money from them, so it keeps the streets really trash-free. They also keep them separated by color because they don’t melt down the glass again unless they break, (which saves energy) and they re-label and use them again until they do break (I assume). Sometimes you can see remnants of glue from different-sized labels, particularly on beer bottles. 

Foreign Public Transportation? Challenge Accepted

On Saturday we decided to go to the nearest bigger city, Gießen, to go shopping. It is about 25 minutes south of Marburg by train, and each of us had passed through it coming to Marburg from the Frankfurt airport.

Each of us has a pass that allows us to use any bus or train in the state of Hesse for free, so we took a bus to the train station in Marburg and then a train from there down to Gießen. We spent the day shopping and wandering around Gießen, and around 4:30pm we decided to head back so we had time to nap before going out later. We looked at the departure schedule and there was a train leaving for Marburg at 5:09pm from platform 1d. We walk up to the platform, and a few minutes before 5:09 a train arrives with the destination “Siegen” displayed on the screen.

The trains on this route do a tricky thing. When coming from Frankfurt, it’s very common for the train to split at Gießen and half go west to Siegen and the other half continue north to Marburg. Usually the cars display the name of the respective city they’re heading to, but none of these cars said Marburg on them. We decided that maybe it was a mistake, and since the schedule said the car at platform 1d was going to Marburg, we got on.

After a while we reached a city called Dillenburg that none of us remembered passing on the way there. We pulled up a map and realized that we were already halfway to Siegen.

We got off the train there and went to look at the schedule to see if we could get a train back to Gießen. That’s when we realized our mistake: There was a smaller schedule on a piece of paper that was for Saturdays and Sundays which we hadn’t read back in Gießen. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a train headed back to Gießen until 11:45pm, and there wouldn’t be a train going from Gießen back to Marburg that late.

We walked up to the ticket counter to see if they could help us figure out a way to get back, but because it was Saturday they were closed. Stumped, we decided to look up the train schedule on the automatic ticket machines to see if there was another way to get back, and luckily it calculated a route via bus back to Marburg.

It took two hours on three buses to get back to Marburg, and after finally taking a fourth bus from the Marburg train station to our dorm, it was 8pm. The worst part was that we were all so anxious that none of us were able to sleep on the way. So much for our naps. 

We still got home though, which in my book makes the score:

Foreign Public Transportation: 0; Sarah: 1

Suck it.

Weird German Thing of the Week:

An issue that I dealt with this weekend is German-style service. German waiters make a living wage so you’re only expected to tip around 10% if at all. The result of that, however, is that they don’t really care if you like their service or not. They don’t ever come to check on you, so if you want something you have to get their attention, which can be quite difficult if they’re busy. As far as culture shock goes, this has definitely been that most irritating thing so far. I’ve definitely waited for over twenty minutes for service while actively trying to get their attention. I guess Germans are just much more laid back and aren't in a hurry to get their food or drinks. 

Settling In

After two weeks here in Marburg I’m starting to get settled. Classes have started and I’m getting to know my way around the city. I live in student dorm owned by the university in Wehrda, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from the main area of Marburg.

There are three buildings in a cluster (the picture is of mine). Below is a view of Wehrda from the front of the complex.

This is a cat that often hangs out in front of my building. Name suggestions? (Klaus is taken :P)

Also, there is a terrifying grate in front of the door. There is no getting past it because it spans the width of the walkway.

The ground is an entire story lower. I hate hate hate walking over it every day.

My room is a single (as are all the rooms) with a bed, desk, table, desk chair, comfy chair, closet, and sink. I took some pictures when I first became settled, but it’s much messier now.

I hung up a bunch of pictures of friends, family, and pets next to my bed so if I get homesick I have something to help.

This is the view out my window.

There is a shared bathroom, shower, and kitchen/dining room on each floor. Each person gets a little cabinet and a shelf in one of the fridges for food.

One thing I continue to be excited about is how much cheaper basic groceries are. My first trip to the grocery store only cost about €14 (which is about $17.50), and I got all this:

(Sliced bread, rolls, six pack of beer, juice, milk, butter, müsli (like cereal), eggs, salami, and reusable bag)

I take a Mercedes to class and home every day, because I’m classy like that.

So what if it’s a bus, it’s still a Mercedes. Fire trucks and many delivery trucks are too.

I eat lunch in the Mensa (cafeteria) every weekday because it’s pretty cheap, usually between €2 and €5 per meal. I got the two following pictures from the school website because I’m too lazy to take my own.

I didn’t notice those bikes before, so that may be an old picture.

I have a cell phone and it’s super ghetto.

I put those charms on it because almost everyone in the group bought the same phones. It’s really hard to have to text on this type of keyboard again. It drives me crazy, and I’ll probably have to relearn QWERTY a bit when I get back since I’ll be using ABC for so long. It was only €20 though, and it’s €10 per month for unlimited texts and incoming calls, and 9 cents/minute outgoing calls.

My class schedule is split up into a pre-semester and the regular German semester. Currently the only class I’m taking is an intensive German language course that is every weekday from 9AM to 12:30PM, and it lasts for six weeks. Starting the third week, a German history/culture/politics course is added from 2PM to 4PM every weekday and lasts for four weeks, so they end at the same time. After that, we take one or two regular German university courses that last until December, giving each of us a total of about 17-23 credits. What that will be in DU credits I have no idea (#stupidquartersystem).

To my delight and horror I placed in the highest German class, so it is taught entirely in German. There are five girls including myself in the class and it’s taught by a woman, so it’s a very feminine environment which has been nice. We are only allowed to speak German, and if we don’t know a word we just have to explain it (in German), or listen to the teacher explain it (in German). It’s overwhelming, but it’s what I need to get better so I’ll just have to struggle through it.

The history /culture/politics class hasn’t started yet, but it’s taught in English because everyone takes the same one, so it should be relatively simple (and given that I’ve already taken German history classes). It is going to be very rapid though, considering we earn a credit per week.

I’m going to end with a new, (hopefully) weekly segment called, “Weird German Thing of the Week.”

Something that really surprised me is something that Germans do to their beer that I never would have expected. It is incredibly common to find beer that is half beer and half limeade or cola, and by incredibly common I mean they are served pre-bottled at every restaurant and grocery store that I’ve been to. Watering down beer with juice or soda really just doesn’t fit with the stereotype of Germans in my head. I asked a German person about it and he told me it’s because sometimes you want a beer, but it only makes you thirstier, especially on hot days, or sometimes you just don’t want to feel the effect of the alcohol (they’re only 2.4% alcohol by volume). I tried them both, and while I wouldn’t recommend the one with cola (often called a “Diesel”), the one with limeade is actually pretty good usually (often called a “Radler”). (Pictures from google images)

Marburg Here I Come

Traveling to a foreign country is always an adventure, so I wanted to start my German adventure off right and on the plane I watched The Lorax in German and drank Warsteiner beer.

I was on a direct flight from Denver to Frankfurt on the German airline Lufthansa. I think our top height was 37,000 feet and our speed was between 500 and 650 miles per hour. The person sitting next to me was a bit weird and we didn’t talk much at all and I wasn’t able to sleep much, so the 8 or so hours passed by really slowly. I was really anxious to get off the plane, but at the same time I was really nervous because getting off the plane meant wandering around in Germany all by myself for the first time.

It was cloudy when we landed in Frankfurt, and after everyone shuffled off the plane I waved goodbye to Lufthansa and went to get my checked bag and tourist visa.

My program had given me rough directions on how to navigate the airport and how to get a train ticket to Marburg, but the issue I had was this: I arrived on Sunday at 11:30AM and there wouldn’t be anyone to pick me up at the train station in Marburg until Monday at 8:00AM, so I needed to find somewhere to sleep. My plan was to spend the night in Frankfurt at a hostel, because the ones in Marburg were full, and take the train to Marburg in the morning. With this in mind, I went up to the ticket counter and asked if he spoke English (he did). I explained that I needed to go to Marburg, but I wanted to stay in Frankfurt tonight. He replied, “That is not possible,” and printed out a ticket to Marburg that left in an hour or so. I blinked, confused, and took my ticket and walked out to the platforms. “I guess I’m going to Marburg,” I thought to myself.

I had to take two trains—one that was only 15 minutes from the airport to the main train station in Frankfurt and another from there to Marburg that was about an hour. On the first, shorter train I had an encounter with my first ever German panhandler. He was wearing a cape and had a mullet, but he spoke English, so that was a bit humbling :/

Once I got to the Frankfurt train station, figuring out which platform to go to was difficult because it wasn’t anywhere on the ticket (yes I could read the German :P it really wasn’t on there). Instead I just had to look at the main listing and match up the times and such on my ticket and figure it out that way.

When I finally got to Marburg it was 3PM, meaning it felt like 7AM after not sleeping. I had my huge and awkward suitcase and backpack, I was super tired, and had nowhere to stay. I walked out of the train station and picked a direction, and started walking. Luckily only a block away I saw a hotel sign, and I have to say it really was one of the most relieving sights in my whole life.

It was €60 a night, but it came with internet access and breakfast and I really was so tired I didn’t care. I awkwardly interacted with the receptionist and then went up to my room. It was smaller than what I expected for what I paid, but it was nice enough.

I decided since it was only 3 in the afternoon I couldn’t go to bed yet, so I locked my stuff in my room and went for a walk around the city. There is a really beautiful church called elisabethkirche that I would later discover was right in front of a main university building.

The city is sort of divided into two sections that overlap. One is the Altstadt (old city) or Überstadt (over city), which is the old part of the city that is up on a hill surrounding the castle and the rest of the city is more modern and is in the valley to the east of it. This is a view of some of the newer area from up in Überstadt.

Marburg is amazing. It’s so beautiful. I took these pictures of Überstadt a different time, but even in my extremely sleep-deprived state I was amazed.

The streets are all old cobblestone and most of the buildings are the old wood-crisscross style. Since it’s up on top of a hill, nearly all the streets are sloped in one way or another and aren’t at all on a grid.

There are lots of cafes and bars alongside old shops like tailors and butchers and bookstores that have probably been there hundreds of years, and then right alongside there are modern things like cell phone stores and such. Sometimes buses and cars drive on the streets too.

A lot of times the buildings seem to be piled haphazardly together and most of the shops have apartments or other shops above them.

Another common this is lots of little stairways in between buildings, some of which are so narrow that a group would have to go single file. They aren’t sketchy like they would be in America though, and some even have shop entrances there instead of on the main streets.

I managed to walk around the city until 5:30PM or so (9:30AM Denver time), but after that I just couldn’t stay awake anymore. I was really hungry so I went to a Döner shop and had my first döner. They are comparable to a gyro in the US, and because I was incredibly hungry it was maybe the most delicious thing I had ever eaten.

I fell asleep around 6:30 after watching “Avatar the Last Airbender” for a little while in German on the little TV in my room, which was endlessly amusing. I forced myself to stay in bed until 7AM the next morning even though I kept waking up to try to get my schedule normalized.

The breakfast they served was also incredibly delicious. There were at least a dozen types of bread, both in loaf and roll form and all super yummy-looking. The hard boiled eggs were really tasty and fresh, and there were several types of slice meats and cheeses that were all really high quality and fresh. There was also müsli, which is a German cereal that has a lot of granola and other things and is really good and healthy. I would have taken a picture of the spread, but there were too many Germans in the room with me and I was too shy and didn’t want to look like a ridiculous tourist.