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.