Europe Through My Lens

This week was the first week of classes, which is so crazy since so many of my friends in other study abroad programs or back in the United States are working towards finals or the end of their terms. This week, I only had three official classes through my host university, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, but on April 27th, I start my A2.1 German class. So for now I have three classes, but I will have four.

The three courses, besides my German class, that I will be taking during my exchange semester are called Grief and Sorrow in Old English and Old Norse Literature, Discourse and Processing, and Excess and Exclusion: the US Maximalist Novel and its Politics of Belonging. I think they will be challenging, but on the bright side, all of these courses are taught in English, which will allow me to fully engage with the material without worrying that I am not understanding the language properly. With that being said, I’m very excited to start my German class in eleven days.

On top of those three classes, I am finishing up my two courses from the TÜ-VIP program through my host university. One of the courses that I took through TÜ-VIP was a virtual buddy program, which was sort of a networking class; the other course I took was called Living and Studying Internationally. Living and Studying Internationally still has one more week left, but we’re just finishing up final presentations. I’ve really enjoyed that class. It’s been really interesting learning about everyone’s different universities and cultures around the world.

Getting out of My Comfort zone

While I have met many people from all around the world, including many people from the US, I haven’t met anyone whom I would be able to call my friend yet, not including Lexie, the other person from my home college here. It’s a work in progress, but I have been trying. I have been trying to say yes to as many opportunities that fit my schedule as possible. I took part in their StudIT (Student Initiative International Tübingen), which is run by local students. This week, I went to the last two programs of the orientation week. On Sunday, April 12th, I went on what was supposed to be a hike to Bebenhausen, but due to rain and mud, we just went for a walk in the fields in the area. The local student running that event showed us how you can purchase products from these farms and meet their cows. I will show the cows in the “My Week in Photos” at the end of this post. Yesterday, April 15th, I went to the last StudIT event for orientation week, which was called Bota Bonanza. I knew people there, but they were in their friend groups, hanging out with people they knew. But then the same student running the Bebendhausen “hike,” Hannah, came up to me and asked me and a couple of other people who were standing alone if we wanted to play a game. I told myself that I need to say “yes” to more things to force myself outside of my comfort zone. Hannah and another guy running the event taught us how to play a game called Kubb, which is popular in Sweden. I will include a picture once again at the end, but it isn’t a very clear picture. The objective of the game is to knock over wooden blocks by throwing wooden batons at them. When I was playing it, I thought it had similarities to horsehoes. The game is played in teams, and a team wins once they knock over all the other teams’ wooden blocks and the “king” block that is in the middle. My team lost the first round and won the second round; I wasn’t very good at the game, and I feel like I didn’t contribute much to the win, but it was still a very fun game.

Tuesday, April 14th, was the day to register for sports programs here. The registration for the sports programs here are super competitive, and you have to be extremely quick if you want a spot. I got into the programs I wanted to. I got into a cross-country running/jogging program (“Waldlauf/jogging”) and a beginner’s women’s soccer program (shh, don’t tell my cross-country coach). I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to do a sport that was once my favorite sport. They start next week, and I’m very excited for them to begin.

On top of the sports programs that I registered for, I have joined two local hiking/adventure groups. So far, I’ve committed to three hikes/adventures. The first one is this weekend to the Wimsener Höhle Bootstour, which is a tour through a cave, located near Hayingen in the Swabian Alb, that is accessible by boat. I’m going with people I have never met before, but I know I can trust them because I found the trip through a WhatsApp group called International Community Tübingen. But also, everyone is a stranger until you get to know them. Worst case scenario, I get a good story out of it, best case scenario, I meet some amazing people and see some amazing things. Either way, it will create good blog content and stories to tell my friends and family back home.

My Week in Photos

I got some Doner at a small corner store with some people I met during an orientation event called the “City Rally” on April 11th. It was pretty messy, but very tasty.

Here are the cows we were shown during the alternative weather plan for the Bebenhausen hike.

Here are some extremely cute sheep that I saw during one of my runs that I had to stop and take a picture of.

This is what Kubb looks like. This isn’t the best picture, so I highly recommend looking it up.

The last 6 photos are photographs I took on Saturday, April 11th, after the “City Rally” scavenger hunt event. I’m still very proud of how they came out. I have to say that the first one in this collection might be my best photo to date.

I have a goal to get clear photos of as many animals in Germany as possible. I’m using an app called “ObsIdentify” to keep track of the animals I’ve already gotten. So far, I only have four: Egyptian Goose, Mallard, common blackbird, and Western Jackdaw.

Next week’s blog post will include some pretty cool things, including that boat tour and the beginning of my sports programs. I may go on an adventure to try to get photos of more animals for my goal.