Saturday, April 4, 2009

My Residence Hall

In Marburg, I live in a residence hall called Christian-Wolff-Haus. Christian-Wolff-Haus is really a little community of residence halls, located in Cappel, which is a suburb of Marburg. From my hall, it takes about 25 minutes to get to class or the inner city by bus. There is a bus stop right outside my hall and a bus comes about every twenty minutes during the weekdays.

One perk about German residence halls is that it is unusual to have to share a room. That is not the only difference between Phillips University- Marburg’s residence halls and the residence halls at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire though.

For example, there is no front desk in Christian-Wolff-Haus. That means one is unable to conveniently purchase pizzas or snacks and must have their own food. One must also have their own cooking supplies. There is no place to barrow or “check out” pots, pans and other useful cooking utensils like in the residence halls at UW-Eau Claire. There are kitchens on each wing of every floor in the residence halls in Marburg. It is common to cook for oneself and friends when not going to the cafeteria to eat.

The biggest differences between Marburg and UW-Eau Claire are the other residents, the atmosphere of the hall and that my hall has a Student Kneipe or student bar. The other residents on my floor seem to be nice, however not very outgoing. They generally greet each other, then close their doors and only come out of their rooms to use the kitchen, the bathroom or to leave the building. It is very different from the dorms at UW-Eau Claire where there seems to be a sense of community among the residents.

The people on my wing are also both male and female, which is typical for the residence halls here. Males and females do not have separate wings, showers or bathrooms.

There are also no resident assistants in the halls in Marburg. Here one is responsible for onself. To me it feels much more like I am living in an apartment complex rather than in a residence hall. I enjoy the fact that I can come and go as I please and do not have to answer to anyone.

A bar is a common establishment in residence halls in Marburg and most hall communities have at least one that students have access to. For a couple of euros, one can drink a beer and sit with friends in the comfort of their own hall. As an American, I found having a bar in a residence hall pretty strange. The bar in my hall is located on the ground floor which also features a laundry room, library and a room with a television.

The difference that has impacted me the most is that free internet is not provided in my hall. The Philips University-Marburg does provide free internet in some of its dorms, however not in all of them. When I moved into Christian-Wolff-Haus, I was told to ask around my floor and see if anyone would mind sharing their wireless internet with me. This is a common practice among the students in Marburg and I was told to expect to pay anywhere from five to ten euros per month for internet.

After several failed attempts at sharing the internet with neighbors, my friend took me to a store to buy a surf stick. Luckily, it ended up working. A surf stick is a little thing that one plus into one’s USB port and functions like a cell phone. Of course, I have to pay for this service and it is not cheap. It cost me 70 euros for the surf stick and the first month of internet. After that, I pay a monthly charge of 25 euros for the service.

My room is small but I enjoy having my own space. If you are curious, view the video attached to this entry to see what my room and what the rest of my wing looks like.

S.N.

Monday, March 30, 2009

School

When people ask me what classes I am taking they are always surprised to find out that I am only enrolled in one class: a German language course. Everyone in the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point program takes a series of three courses. The first two courses are language courses and the other is a German literature course. Each course is six weeks long with an exam at the end. The exam determines most of the grade a student receives and if the student is ready to move to a higher level course. I am in class weekdays from 9 a.m. until 12:50 p.m.

Class began on Tuesday, Feb. 24 and will go until April 7. Then we have a break until April 21, when we begin our second language course.

Before coming to Germany, all of the students in the program took placement tests. This is how the Philips University- Marburg evaluates ones language skills. From the results of the test, we were placed into six “stuffes” or levels. The first level is called the Grund Stuffe and it is designed for people who are just beginning to learn the German language. After the Grund Stuffe there are stuffes one through four. Stuffes five and six are combined. After completing Stuffe five/six one can take another exam to begin actual classes at Phillips University- Marburg.

Six students from our program tested into the first stuffe, eight tested into the second stuffe, six tested into the third stuffe and one person tested into the fourth stuffe. I am in the first stuffe.

At first the other students from the program and I were upset that we were placed in the first stuffe. The grammar seemed pretty basic and we all suffered a bit of a blow to our prides being placed in a lower level class. However, when we were given the choice to move, most of us decided to stay in the stuffe because it seemed like it would be a good review. The second stuffe already had two very full sections of students as well.

Though the pace is not always as quick as I would like it to be, it may have been a good choice for me to remain in the first stuffe. I feel as if the knowledge that I had already had about the German language is being cemented inside my head and extra practice is never a bad thing. Plus, through staying in the section, I have gotten to meet some interesting people.

Our class is comprised of 18 students who are all different nationalities. It consists of 12 people from America, two women from Russia, a man from Yemen, a woman from Iran, a man from Turkey and a man from Spain. It has been fun sharing information about our cultures with one another and learning together. However, it is not always easy to understand one another.

For example the second day of school the city buses went on strike. As students, city buses are our primary source of transportation, so it was a little chaotic. Determined not to miss my second day of class, I decided to walk to school. On my way, I saw Abdulghani, my classmate from Yemen, waiting for the bus. Since I did not know the necessary German vocabulary to explain a strike and he spoke no English, it was difficult it was to get my point across. Once Abdulghani understood that the buses were not coming, he called us a cab and all my effort and flailing was rewarded.

I have also made an unlikely friend in Fatemeh, the Iranian woman in our class. At first we sat next to each other because there were no other available seats. We shared answers and worked together on assignments and eventually this blossomed into a friendship. When I first saw Fatemeh I saw her headscarf, deduced that she was Muslim and because of this probably would not be friendly to an American. I am happy to say that I was wrong. Fatemeh jokes with everyone constantly and always seems to be smiling. We are interested in each other’s cultures and discuss them with each other almost daily. We also have plans to meet outside the classroom and discuss things more in depth. Believe it or not, Fatemeh also has Facebook!

Overall, I am happy with classes so far, though I am nervous about the rapidly approaching exams. I hope to pass into the next stuffe soon. Wish me luck!

S.N.

Image: Typical day in class

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Coming to Marburg

On Sunday, Feb. 22, the group left Berlin on our voyage toward our impending studies. We stopped in a city called Eisenach for the night to visit the Wartburg Schloss. We also met our peer advisor, Cornelia, who would be helping us throughout our stay in Marburg. That night we filled out necessary paperwork and were given our room keys, as well as the news that most of us would not be receiving internet from the university. We would have to find the web on our own. I will explain that later.

The next morning we were dropped unceremoniously in front of our dorms and told to meet at somewhere called “Rudolph’s Platz” for dinner. This was the basis for the first week: We were given a time and a place and expected to be there. All 21 of us scurried around Marburg with our faces glued to our maps, hoping to catch the right bus.

Tuesday, Feb. 24, we began school in various buildings in the city.

Since coming to Marburg, I have felt a whirlwind of emotions from excitement, to homesickness to just plain culture shock. In the span of a few short weeks I have been thrust into the life of a German college student, which in many ways is quite different than the typical experience one has at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire. In the next few entries I will explain the class I am taking, my dorm room, the cafeteria as well as my feelings toward being a student in Germany. As always, feel free to leave comments and questions.

S.N.

Image of the group and Cornelia (front row, third from the right) when we registered with the city