A Real Storm!

I'm soooo excited. Last summer, I said that I really missed a good old midwest storm. I wake up this morning to thunder and lightening! Yeah! Now I understand why I had such a horrible migraine yesterday. (My migraines predict the weather at times).

decorating my room

Now that I've officially signed the lease for my room, I decided that I could finally add some color to the white wall and brown decor. On Saturday afternoon, I hit all the local stores that I could find to obtain colorful and useful items to make my room a bit more homey. I hit success at two different stories, Woolworth (yes it exists in Germany) and Kik. Woolworth had some basics like a desk organizer and tape but Kik had the best bargains. I found a duvet cover (a blanket that you use to cover a comforter), dishes, candles, and sheets for under 20 Euros. All items are brightly colored to counteract the bland walls. Its amazing how much a difference a simple duvet makes. The first picture was taken before I added the duvet cover.
Even with Bamu and Buster (my travel companions), the bed still looks pretty lonely. The next photo is after I added the sheets and duvet cover.
My room looks completely different! Instead of feeling like a prison cell, it feels like a freshman year dorm room. To decorate the rest of my room I have to think back to college times, how did I make my room homey on a college student budget? I'm open to any suggestions you may have. I have two completely blank walls to fill.

Dorf Sweet Dorf

Now I have a place to call my own for the next year. The month of living out of cars, suitcases, or a backpack has ended. I signed the lease for my room today. Instead of moving to an apartment in the old city, I decided to stay in the Studentendorf. Here I will pay less than 200 Euros a month for a bathroom cleaned daily, access to a shared kitchen (also cleaned daily), free internet, water, heat, and electricity. My private room may be quite small (approximately 5 square meters or 50 square feet), but its the closest student building to my chemistry lab. I can see the bus stop from my window if I glance through the forest (in fact, that's all I see my from window) and the students in the dorm will force me to speak German so I should gain proficiency sooner.

I had my heart set on a one room apartment in a 600 year old house, but rents for such a room started at 250 Euros and climbed. Apartments started at 400 Euros a month plus utilities. I just couldn't justify paying twice at much for decorations. I can visit the houses anytime I want. With the money I'm saving each month, I could travel first class to Berlin and back (using my 50% off Bahn Card of course) or dine in the best restaurant in town 3-4 times each month.

My room and kitchen really aren't that bad. The people on this floor really care about their kitchen so they do their best to make it feel like home. The kitchen area is a virtual winter garden with an orange tree (forefront of picture), pepper plants, and various herbs.

I share a fridge and the stove and oven with the other students. I can use my own dishes and store them in a locked cabinet or I can use the dishes of previous residents (some of the pots are missing handles and none of the plates or bowls match). I don't have a picture of the rest of the kitchen yet but I will include one soon.

I will include picture of 'mein Zimmer' after I make it homey with some decorations other than the white washed walls.

The Simpsons, auf deutsch

Traveling while American is probably the easiest way to travel. American culture and tv shows can be found all over the world so finding a piece of home is often only a tv away. While cooking dinner tonight, one of my housemates (I have at least 10 on this floor) reminded me that a good way to practice German comprehension is to listen to the TV while cooking. While waiting for the water to boil, I turned on the tv and found The Simpsons, in German. I taped a bit for your language enjoyment.

What a difference a video makes

This morning, I finally had a chance to talk to my fiance on Skype. I bought him a webcam a few weeks ago so we could talk face to face. Although we've been able to type with each other nearly everyday for 5-10 minutes, being able to see his face made my day much brighter. When you are slightly homesick, its amazing how little things like a picture help ease the pain.

sadness and general malaise

The past few days have been a struggle physically and emotionally. I haven't been eating dinner because I haven't felt like cooking dinner for one and did not have the energy to trek back into town (a 25 minute hike downhill then uphill each way) to purchase a cheap dinner. No dinner for a week = very unhealthy me, so my body finally protested this weekend and forced me to sleep. In addition, I spent a lot more time in my room than I should have. My computer/internet connection have kept me anxiously awaiting phone calls and messages from home. Its extremely hard to stay away, especially when I haven't talked to some family members in over 10 days.

As a result of staying in my room all weekend, my German comprehension decreased to the point that I only understood 50% of the what the teacher said today. Needless to say, today was not the best of days for me socially.

After traveling many times, I know that the worst way to combat homesickness is to sit at home waiting for messages from your home country. Instead of holing up in my dormroom, it would have been much more advantageous for me to study in the dorm common room or even a coffee shop in town. Perhaps over the next few days I will endeavor to explore new parts of Marburg or even just study in the parts I already know about. This means I'm even less likely to post on my blog, but at this point, German language is my most important focus.

language course and blog absences

Every weekday, I take a language course at the university. I really love my language course. From day 1, we spoke only German in class, which forces me to think in German. At the beginning of the course last week, I spent a lot of time thinking of a sentence in English and then translating to German. Now, however, I think of the question in German, albeit it very grammatically incorrect German. However, its improvement. Last week, I understood about 30% of what my instructor said. Now, I understand about 80% and I sometimes can even understand his jokes (something I ussually can't even do in English).

All this German learning is quite taxing on the brain. Class starts at 8:45am every morning. However, I have to leave my apartment by 8:15am in order to arrive in time (those of you who know me can guess how rarely this happens). I typically wake up around 7am, shower, then do chemistry research (I'm still on stipend in the US so I have to work on chemistry as well), catch up on email, then take off for German class, ussually rushing out the door around 8:35 or 8:40am. I think speak and think in German for 4 hours, take a lunch break, then return to study German or German culture (in English) from 2-4pm. Even if I'm able to return home immeadiately, I ussually don't arrive again until 5pm. (the trek to the class is downhill while the trek away from class is uphill so it takes longer to get home). Ussually though, I have to run errands in town so I don't return home until 6 or 7pm. By that time, I'm ussually too exhausted to think about dinner (hence why I don't really eat dinner any more). And even less likely to write blog posts or chemistry scripts. So I'm not trying to ignore you, I'm really just too tired to think about anything in English or German.

I'm going to try to do better. Now that I'm in a schedule, I hope to get more work done next week. I still have German homework and Chemistry scripts to write so I'll be on the computer more today. Feel free to im or call me if you have the time. I'd love to hear from you. (you can leave posts on the blog as well).

1 meter long bandage

I saw this bandage at the store and thought, wow, that's a neat idea. I didn't realize that the bandage is nearly 4 shoes long (and I have big feet)! I guess I have enough bandages to last a while.

its only a flesh wound

I had my first (I'm sure of many) falls in Marburg today. While admiring the view of Marburg castle from my hill,
I backed into a drainage ditch next to the road.
I then proceeded to topple downhill for 5 meters, puncturing a hole in my jeans and scratching my knee.

I then had to return to my dorm on the 4 floor to bandage myself.
I'm now preparing to leave again, hopefully with no falls this time.

Teaching a German to speak Southern- a followup

In my last blog entry, I mentioned that I tried to teach one of my German lab mates how to speak Southern. I tried to emphasize the idea that people in the south often refer to others as Dahling, sweetheart, or honey. I will now followup with a slightly awkward situation that followed this event.

When I left the German's apartment at 10pm, I was so tired that I walked out without my jacket, or my mobile phone, but the German promised to bring the item to lab the next day. So this male German brought my jacket and handy into the lab and left them on my desk. I thought nothing of it. Later that day, when I left the lab to leave for Fulbright orientation, the German said "Goodbye Darling." Two other labmates in the room looked rather surprised at this salutation, especially considering that this lab mate brought in items that I 'forgot' at his house. In fact, their jaws seemed to drop. I realized that the salution and situation seemed to suggest that something other than talking happened between myself and this male labmate. I quickly talked about how Southerners refer to each other as darling, sweetheart, or honey. I demonstrated by calling another labmate sweetheart, which received another blank stare.

Now perhaps I misinterpretted the silence and blank stares. But at the very least, I how now explained a strange Southern custom to other German people.

If this labmate reads this blog. I wish this German labmate all the best in Houston! Veil Glucke!

readjusting to German life...and Marburgs hills

Location: dorm room, Studentendorf (student dorms), Marburg, Germany, Europe

Listening to: birds chirping in the forest hills and cars trying to drive up the steep Panoramestraße less than 30 meters away, accompanied by the occasional voice speaking an unknown language.

I finally have internet access in my room, which means that I can start regular blog entries again. A lot has happened in the last few days, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to even describe the events of the last week. Instead of listing everything in this blog entry, I will try to break the blog into various parts such as first day in Marburg, language course, living with multiple cultures, walking in Marburg, my shrinking pant size, meeting other Fulbrights, running late in precise germany, saying goodbye to family, and any other titles I may think of.

I won't waste precious cyberspace describing my rather uneventful trip overseas other than to say that I sat next to a German who like Harley Davidson motorcycles. We talked a bit but I actually tried to sleep for most of the trip. I will also add that United airline food is nowhere near as good as the food on any other European airline.

I arrive in Marburg around 13:00 (1pm in the US) after boarding the correct train to the Frankfurt Main station, then to Marburg (I told you my trip was rather uneventful). I spent most of the train ride trying to remember how to call the US from Germany so I could notify my parents of my arrival (I eventually figured it out), then trying to remember how to call German handys (mobile phones) from my German mobile number.

Just a note for people not familiar with my phone habits. When traveling in Europe, I use my US phone, but I switch out sim cards so when I visit Germany I have a German phone number, which means that Germans can call me for rather cheap. When I am in the US, I switch back to my US number. I also have a UK sim card. Sim cards in Europe are rather cheap, so its easy to buy a different card for each country. All my European cards are also prepaid, so I just buy more minutes when I need them.

Anyways, I arrived in Marburg in early afternoon, where my host drove me to my new home for the next 6 weeks in Losomonov Haus in Studentendorf. The dorm room is identical to the one I had last year in Carl-Ludwig Haus, except that this room has an internet connection. :-) The room is quite small, only 9 feet by 9 feet for the bedroom part and 9 feet by 3 feet for the sink/closet part. I'll try to take some pictures to post later. After dropping my stuff in my room, showering, taking a quick nap (15 minutes), I caught the bus to the Chemistry building to meet with Prof. Frenking and the research group. I stayed for about 1hour, long enough to find my desk and reintroduce myself to the group. I then rushed back to my dorm to drop off my laptop and buy some groceries before the stores closed downtown.

Afterwards, I met with a Frenking labmate who is preparing to move to the US. He offered to make me dinner while I borrowed his internet connection. :-) We spent the next 4 hours discussing US and southern culture (he is preparing a move to Houston). I also tried to teach him some Southern terms (y'all, dahling, etc) before he gave me a ride back around 22:00. Instead of falling back asleep, I was wired for the night so I watched two of the 48 movies that I brought from the US. I finally crashed around 4am, only to wake up 5 hours later at 9am.

I'm going to stop this entry now as I realized that instead of discussing my journey in Europe, I'm just listing all my activities. I believe that my mind is a little too overwhelmed with new sights, smells, tastes, and experiences so I'm going to take a break, then try to explain a bit more about my time in Germany.

safe arrival but no internet...for now

I write this blog entry on a German keyboard so please excuse any strange characters you may see.

I arrived safe in Marburg on Monday afternoon where I met with the Fulbright advisor for the day and reconnected with the research group. Before I left Champaign, a lab mate in Marburg configured my laptop for wireless access in Marburg, or so we thought. We have not been able to configure my laptop for wired or wireless access in my dorm or even in the lab. :-( I write this post from the imac the lab provided for me to use (its very nice). Until my laptop decides to work (it worked for about 10 minutes earlier today then stopped), I will not be able to answer skype phone calls or may take a while to answer emails.

Marburg in the News!

I was browsing through the international herald tribune this morning and I came across an article titled

German townsfolk wonder: Is it possible to be too green?

The townsfolk hailed from Marburg Germany, which will soon be my new home. Apparently the city adopted an ordinance requiring that all homeowners add solar panels when they renovate their homes or fix their roofs. I'm all for green activities but requiring people to add solar panels is a little excessive. According to the article, most people in town support the spirit of the resolution but don't necessarily support the ordinance. You can read the article using the link below.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/07/europe/journal.php

In the picture from the article above, you see solar panels in the foreground with Marburg Castle in the background, illustrating how Germans have created a vibrant forwarding-thinking economy while embracing their long and storied past. I can not wait to experience this culture and hopefully embrace my own Germanic heritage.

more luggage issues

no, American did not lose my carryon bag. The bag agent was sympathetic to my plight and sent the bag on the very first flight from Dallas to Louisville. My luggage arrived at 11am on Wednesday. I then drove to my parents house in rural Kentucky (town has two stoplights) to unload the car from Champaign (packed nearly 10 days prior) and repack for Germany. I hoped to pack everything for Germany into a large suitcase and use my red carryon for books. Around midnight last night I realized I had a problem. My large (26 inches tall) suitcase was half full and already 5 pounds overweight. My free baggage allowance is 100 pounds, or 50 pounds per suitcase, which sounds like a lot, but have you ever tried packing a year's worth of stuff? With my books, the red carryon is already 50 pounds so I can't add anything else to it without going over. Plus, do I really want to haul over 100 pounds worth of stuff from the airport, to the Frankfurst train station, then from the Marburg train station to my place of residence? After sleeping only 6 hours the night before? This afternoon I just have to sit down and repack the entire suitcase. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :-(

Offers to ship items using teleportation will be accepted eagerly. :-)

Adding to the long list of airline gripes

....besides the fact that I was delayed 3 hours! on Thursday due to weather somewhere in the United States, (a butterfly probably flapped its wings in Utah which led to flight cancellations in Chicago)....I arrived in Louisville airport today, only 30 minutes late (that's early on airline time). I decided to check my luggage today so I wouldn't have to deal with the 3 ounce rule on baggage rules. I began to regret that decision when I visited baggage claim to pick up my luggage and my luggage never appeared. The gate service agent said that weather was bad in Dallas (cloudless skies = bad weather in airline lingo) so my luggage didn't arrive in Louisville. Thankfully, I always carry one change of clothes and toiletries in my carryon, so I have some underclothes to wear for tomorrow. But my pajamas and sandals are in the bag. Thankfully I'm staying with my grandmother and she immeadiately took me to target to get a pair of pajama pants.

Now normally lost luggage would not be a big deal for me but when the baggage claim specialist asked me for a shipping address, I realized I had a serious problem. I kindly explained to the agent that I have a mailing address in Louisville until 11am on WEdnesday, then an address in rural Kentucky until Thursday, then Louisville until Sunday. If my luggage didn't show up by Sunday, they would have to send it to Germany. I seriously hope my luggage arrives sooner rather than later as I planned on using my smaller bag to carry books and heavy items. I can probably fit all my stuff into one suitcase, but I will have a to pay a lot in baggage fees. :-/

For now, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a phone call from American at 8am tomorrow morning. :-/

Mount St. Helens

I started my transient phase a little over a week ago. After Bloomington, IN and a short sojourn to Louisville, KY...and many hours delayed on or near planes, I finally arrived in Seattle, where I'm visiting with my fiance. Andy's parents and sister were here for the first two days so we spent some time visiting Pike's Place Market and downtown Seattle. Then Andy and I took off to explore more of town. On Saturday, we just visited downtown Redmond and watched a movie. Then we took off early on Sunday morning to visit Mount St Helens.

The view was amazing! We hiked close to 9 miles that day, mostly over volcanic ash. I posted pictures to my picasa website.