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)