Wiesloch and Germany so far

Turns out I did miss my train connections. And it did stink.

I was supposed to go from Magdenburg to Braunschweig, Braunschweig to Mannheim, and Mannheim to Heidelberg, each connection under 10 minutes. There was a large group of us on the same train leaving from Magdenburg, but I was the only one getting off at Braunschweig. So we all boarded and were ready to go, but the train didn’t depart. Ten minutes later there was an announcement in German that I didn’t understand, but a bunch of passengers started getting off, so I asked someone what was going on, and he said that anyone getting off at Braunschweig should get on another train! …!!! I was totally confused and freaked and didn’t understand why, but I went anyways. The other train was a slower, regional train, but it left immediately. It arrived in Braunschweig an hour after my planned connection. Oops. I later learned that the original train was no better. It apparently sat for 45 minutes and passed through Braunschweig about an hour after my connection as well. Someone helped me find the next train to Mannheim, and it soon arrived. I almost didn’t make it onto that one too though because ICE trains don’t seem to stay in stations for very long. I called my host family to tell them I was an hour late, and they arranged to pick me up in Mannheim so I wouldn’t have to figure out how to get to Heidelberg. My host family is in Wiesloch, which is just south of Heidelberg. Wiesloch has about 25,000 inhabitants, so it’s on the small side, but I think it’s great. The Fußgängerzone (pedestrian only zone) is close-by and has everything I need and Wiesloch has its own schools, so I don’t need to go to another town for shopping or school.

 

I arrived in Wiesloch on Saturday, and school started for everyone in Baden-Württemberg on Monday. I got here just in time to start school. All the teachers and administrators are very nice and helpful, but they didn’t seem too prepared for an exchange student. They seemed to expect me to just already know things and didn’t explain anything. They told a student to bring me to a teacher and neither of us knew why, and I didn’t have a schedule yet. But during that class someone came by and gave me a schedule. Yay! Except for the fact that it made entirely no sense to me. This is what I got:

	Montag	Dienstag	Mittwoch	Donnerstag	Freitag
1	P2K3 Fa PS3	C2K1 Gro CHS2	M-K4 Kt S111	BK4K1 Rt BK2	E-K2 Sw E3
2	P2K3 Fa PS3	C2K1 Gro CHS2	M-K4 Kt S111	BK4K1 Rt BK2	E-K2 Sw E3
3		Re4K1 Ma A1.5	D-K4 Gm N2.1	Re4K1 Ma S110	D-K4 Gm N2.1
4		Re4K1 Ma A1.5		M-K4 Kt N1.1	D-K4 Gm N2.1
5	Gm2K1 HE E3	M-K4 Kt S111	G2K1 HE E3	E-K2 Sw E3	Re4K1 Ma S110
6	Gm2K1 HE E3	E-K2 Sw E3	G2K1 HE E3	D-K4 Gm S105
7
8		S2K7 Sl ST3
9		S2K7 Sl ST3
10	BK4K1 Rt BK2
11	BK4K1 Rt BK2

From German class I knew the schedules were different and I had seen some examples, but this does not look much like them!!! I asked someone what it meant after that class and she said the first bit was the class, then the teacher’s abbreviated name, and then the room (but not always the room NUMBER!). She then had to go, so I asked the teacher when these classes were and he wrote down some times for me, and with my 2 free hours I asked the secretary where the rooms were and tried to find them. My first day was very confusing and a little overwhelming. Though, from then on it has been very good and interesting; plus I’m starting to get to know people. I’m taking physics, geography/politics (?), art, chemistry, religion, math, English, sport, German, history, and orchestra.

I haven’t been here long, but I’ve found so many things to be intriguing. So many things are different in little ways. I suppose I should put a disclaimer: these are the things I have observed; they might not be true all over Germany.

Dialect—The strongest accents seem to be in the southernmost areas of Germany. Wiesloch isn’t too far south, so there is only a slight one, but sometimes it’s enough. The other day someone asked me something but I had NO clue what she said. I said I didn’t understand her, so she repeated it. Still no clue. In my confusion I said “sorry” and that my German (apparently) isn’t the best, and she went “Oh!! Wie viel Uhr ist es?” What time is it? What in the world. Then another time someone asked me something else. I asked twice what she said and still didn’t understand… So I just replied “good”. Fortunately, I learned later she was asking how I like it here, so my response was okay.

People’s opinions about America and English—In school we haven’t discussed much about America, but, from the little we did talk about, it was interesting to see America from another country’s viewpoint. Though, we have talked quite a bit about English, because there’s a lot of discussion about how it is being used too much and sometimes replaces German words. Being an English speaker, I have never really thought about how it affects other languages, so it was a bit of food for thought. Some people hate it, others think it is okay, and others think it is important to know English.

School system and education—Schooling is different because (for a Gymnasium) it’s all working up to the Abitur (really big important test), and so, from what I can tell, all the classes build up and tie together a lot more than in America. Because of this, I think German students have a more comprehensive and broad education. I think they are more involved, interested, and knowledgeable in their subjects. Generally speaking, of course.

Cultural differences—There are obviously many cultural differences, but one I learned from my host dad is that cashiers do not bag a customer’s items because Germans hate that. Customers usually bring their own bags and bag it themselves, because it’s their property and they don’t want someone messing with it. Interesting. Also, I have discovered that people shake your hand when it’s your birthday… I guess its congratulations for surviving another year.

Foods and drinks—I have tried some VERY interesting foods already. Some good, some… interesting. Apfelschorle is a drink that is basically carbonated apple juice; it is very popular here and rather good, if you buy the right kind. The fruit here has been astoundingly good. Except for an iffy peach, everything has been extremely delicious. I don’t know if it’s because they’re all in season or what, but we need some of these in the US! In Germany, if you ask for “wasser,” you get Mineralwasser, which is carbonated water. It is terrible. I could barely swallow it. I’ve heard you get used to it, but I’m not so sure. My host family caught on and has only served “still” water. Thank goodness. Our last day in the language camp, we had a very traditional, Harz-region dinner (I think). That included a complete suckling pig, which was really good, though it looked a little scary because its eyes were tomatoes. It also included raw meat. I was feeling daring so I ate some, and it wasn’t all that bad. I just couldn’t get over the fact that it was raw. The last two interesting things I ate were with my host family in a traditional German restaurant in Heidelberg. Blutwurst and Leberwurst. Blut=blood and Leber=liver. Use your imagination for the rest. Needless to say, I was very apprehensive about eating them, but to my GREAT surprise, they actually weren’t bad. Not extremely delicious and I want more, but fairly good.

Toilets—The plungers are different. I’ve seen several kinds, but usually there’s a huge button (or two) on the top of the toilet or on the wall instead of a little lever.

Light switches—The light switches aren’t little switches like in America, they’re large, (usually) square switches. For some reason I found it interesting.

Windows and doors—First off, Germans seem to love fresh air, so the windows are open a lot. I don’t think I’ve seen a window with a screen; they always open right into the fresh air. The windows can even be opened in different ways, it’s really cool. If you turn the latch to one way, the bottom is the hinge and just the top opens a little. If you turn it another way the side is the hinge and it is wide open. Even the doors leading to the backyard in my host family’s house work like this! I think it’s really cool. With doors, I have yet to see a circular knob. It’s always a handle/latch.

Bike riding and walking—Walking and riding a bike are very, very common. In Wiesloch, I’d say it has more pedestrians and bikes than cars. I ride a bike 10 minutes to get to school, and I found it really amusing the first day because there was a MASS of kids on bikes in the streets. It’s just normal. I’ve seen maybe 30 parking spots around my Gymnasium, and there are two huge areas designated for bikes. And basically, if it’s in Wiesloch, we walk. The cars are rarely used. I like this a lot more; you get more fresh air and exercise. I think it’s easier for it to be like this in Germany because places tend to be smaller, closer and not so spread out like in America. Almost all the shops are in one spot and so you don’t have to go far to get what you need.

School supplies—Random, I know, but they are a little different. From what I can tell, students are very organized. They always have various colored pens and highlighters for taking very neat notes. There’s also more possible school stuff you can buy, all intended to keep things orderly and clean in whatever way you prefer. There’s also a difference, apparently, between a Heft (notebook) and a Block (spelling? But also, notebook). I had an amusing and slightly confusing conversation about it, because I thought both were a Heft. Apparently, it’s a Block when you can tear the pages out easily, and in a Heft you can’t. Notebook. 

Overall, I love Germany so far. It's really beautiful and great. All these pictures are from Heidelberg.

Day Trips and Other Cool Things

Leipzig

Our first day trip was to Leipzig, which I think is about an hour south of Hedersleben… Something like that. We went to the old town section thingy with all the historic cool stuff. As a huge American mob we saw the Nikolaikirche, Goethe statue, Mädler Passage, and Thomaskirche (Bach did a lot of work there). Then the teachers set us loose on the town. Not much of the day is worth boring people with, but it is necessary to say that I ate a Döner! It was as good as Dr. Seeger said, though I have been informed that that was an “average” Döner, so I must go looking for more… Leipzig was really cool though. I don’t know if it differs in other parts of the city, but the architecture was really awesome, especially in the churches. Those were really beautiful, well worth seeing, especially with all the history in them. The only other eventful thing that happened that day is we saw a naked lady in a city fountain, but I’m trying to forget about that.

Quedlinburg

Going to Quedlinburg was a trip that we took as classes, instead of as a huge mob. It was a 20 minute bus ride from Hedersleben. Quedlinburg had a totally different feel than Leipzig. It seemed like Quedlinburg wasn’t interested in modernizing at all, but emphasizing the history and such (at least in the parts we went to). And I can understand why, because it is a beautiful place with lots of history. Our teachers explained the famous woodwork style that came from Quedlinburg (at least I think that’s what he said... it was all in German) and just walking through the streets we saw things from 1215 and 1560. We walked up to the castle which I found really cool and interesting because of its connections to the Otto emperors and such. Basically, the coolest thing was seeing all the culture and history there. Oh, and I also tried Spaghetti Eis; they put vanilla ice cream through a press to make it look like noodles and cover it with a red berry topping. I think there was even a little whipped cream in there. Really good.

 
Feuerwehr

That’s German for fire station. Basically, they invited students to do stuff with them. We were driven from Hedersleben’s station to a bigger station in a town nearby in the fire trucks, which was really fun. They showed us around and the equipment and let some of us use the hydraulic tools to cut open cars. Everyone got to use the fire hose. It was quite fun and interesting, but it was even cooler because I got to meet Erica’s host family from last year. I recognized them from pictures and Erica had told me that they knew I was coming, so we talked a little. It was cool, albeit a little hard to speak German, but I was at least able to understand and communicate what I wanted to.

 
Magdenburg

Our last day trip was to Madgenburg, which is the capitol of Sachsen-Anhalt; as such, it was quite big and city-ish. Some of us traveled by train because there wasn’t enough room on the bus. I got to ride the train, which was really cool for me because I’ve never been on a train before. The US doesn’t exactly have a thriving public train transportation system. We visited the really cool, really old gothic cathedral, which (if I remember correctly) has roots back to the 900s. Though, the cathedral itself took 100+ years to be built, and finished in the 1300s after the first one burned down. Directly across from it was the Sachsen-Anhalt Parliament building, which we went into and got to have a Q&A with the parliament president. It was interesting to talk politics a little with him. We also listened in on a public hearing of some sort that the parliament was having; I had no clue what they were discussing, but it was interesting to see how the government is set up on a state scale. Beyond that, we also saw a really weird house thing designed by a guy who, I think, was named Wasser. He designs a whole bunch of buildings and they all look like they came out of a Dr. Seuss book.

 In Summation

Because this is a blog and I suppose I’m supposed to share some of my thoughts, I guess I should say that being in Hedersleben for the language camp has been great; I have been able to meet plenty of great people and learn/practice lots of German. However, I am definitely ready to leave. I’m excited to meet my host family and start school in a Gymnasium and REALLY learn German. I’m a little nervous, but I mostly want to really begin this program and year abroad. Though I think the thing I am most afraid of is missing my train connections tomorrow. That would stink.