Europe Through My Lens

This post will be a reflection of the last month that I have spent studying abroad in Germany. I will be starting with my classes. I really wanted to include pictures of the classrooms that I have my classes in, but even when I got to class ten minutes early, there were still people already in class. Also, the deadline for this post snuck up on me.

Reflection on My Courses and the Registration Process

I think I’ve already discussed the classes I’m taking, but I’m going to give a recap in case I haven’t. I am taking four classes, three of which are taught in English. The only class that is taught primarily in German is my A2 German class, so it would be concerning if it weren’t taught or primarily taught in German. The other thing classes 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.

My favorite class so far is Grief and Sorrow in Old English and Old Norse Literature. It’s really interesting to see how emotions like grief and sorrow are depicted in Old English and Old Norse literature. I’ve also never read much medieval literature, so it’s really interesting to gain experience in it. Lately, we’ve been reading poems, specifically elegies and riddles in the Exeter Book. For Monday, we have to read two Old English elegies, Wulf and Eadwacer, and the Wife’s Lament.

My class, called Discourse and Processing, is similar to a class I took at HWS called Grammar and Style, but while there are a few similarities, there are also many differences between the classes. So far, this class has focused more on how people process discourse. In the last two classes and for Tuesday, we have had to read scientific papers about experiments investigating how people process sentences. An example of a scientific paper we’ve read is one by Florian Schwarz called “Definites, domain restriction, and discourse structure in online processing.” Schwarz’s research showed that native speakers are able to rapidly interpret the phrases given to them by using situational context to restrict the domain to a specific, unique object. Schwarz used eye-tracking data to show how this processing is done instantaneously, by the brain using, in this experiment, visual context to identify referents. There’s a lot more to this study, but that’s the general pieces of it without getting too deep into it.

The class, Excess and Exclusion: The US Maximalist Novel and its Politics of Belonging, is probably my hardest class. The novel extracts and secondary literature we read are dense, and the novels are very long. We won’t be reading full novels in the class, only extracts from the novels, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of reading needed to be done for the class. Fortunately, the class only meets once a week for just about two hours. This allows for plenty of time to get the readings done before the next class. We’re currently reading parts of Gravity’s Rainbow and this is so far my favorite thing that we’ve read in the class, but it’s also just started. This class is also the only class where I haven’t disclosed that I am from the US. I pick and choose when I disclose that I am an exchange student from the US, and this class just happens to be one of the places I choose not to put that information forward. This is mostly because the class is about the United States, I don’t want people to feel hesitate saying certain things because there’s an American in the class, and the biggest reason is because I don’t want to be the main person called on. Eventually, I’ll probably let it slip that I am an American, but I’ll probably only do so if I think it would add to the discussion or be beneficial for the class.

With that being said, I mostly prefer to keep my citizenship to myself. Going into my semester abroad, I had many people tell me that I should just say I am from Canada because of how the US is viewed in other countries. I’ve never felt comfortable lying about where I am from because it’s part of my identity, and I don’t want to lie about something important to my identity. Am I ashamed to be American with everything going on in the US and with our government? Yes, I am. I’m disappointed that Donald Trump was elected president, and I’m disappointed with the way our country is going. I’m not afraid to share how disappointed I am with the United States, but I also don’t want to feel like I need to hide where I come from. However, with this in mind, I try my hardest to not make it obvious that I am an American, and do my best to blend in. If someone asks me where I am from, I am honest, but I would never offer up that information unless asked. I typically just say that I am an exchange student and say I’m from the US when asked. Being abroad has made me even more aware of my actions than I was before because I’m constantly trying to not fit into the stereotypes people have for Americans. I know this has been a long rant about this, but it’s something that is constantly on my mind. Okay, moving on.

There aren’t many differences between the classes I’m taking here in Germany and the ones I usually take back home, since I’m taking mostly discussion-based literature courses. One thing that I find very interesting and different from HWS is how students can sign up for a class starting at 4 PM, while their class right before officially ends at 4 PM. However, all professors or lecturers factor in 15 minutes at the end of their lessons as transfer times between courses. For example, my course, Excess and Exclusion: The US Maximalist Novel and its Politics of Belonging, officially goes from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., but every time we end at 9:45 instead of 10 to factor in the transfer time. At the end of each class, we knock on the table to thank the professor or lecturer. Another thing that is different about signing up for courses is that the portal they use to sign up with courses, ALMA, doesn’t go by first come first serve. Instead, you apply for courses and once registration closes, ALMA randomly assigns people to courses. When I was signing up for classes, I was able to put down which classes were a priority for me to get into, but it definitely was shocking to realize it wasn’t first come first serve.

Another hugely different thing is that here we have to register for our finals. This makes sure that they fit into our schedule. At least two of my courses, I won’t need to be in Germany to complete them, which will be extremely useful for me. Due to the fact that I am a fall season student athlete, I move back onto campus around mid-August, and I likely will get back from Germany around Mid-August. Meaning I’ll likely have max a week home before I need to move into college for preseason. So, I will have to be on top of registration to ensure that I can have time home with my family before having to move into college.

Hiking and Running Culture in Germany

I’ve been on five hikes so far, and I plan on doing many more. I’d like to hike at least once a week, but that won’t be happening this week because I want to take a weekend where I can just chill and get stuff done. Next weekend, I am registered to go on a group hike through a hiking group I found on an app called MeetUp. I’ve been on a hike through this group before, and it was very fun.

Hiking is extremely popular in Germany, specifically in Tübingen, to narrow down the scale for this reflection. Sundays are the typical travel day for people in Tübingen, and it’s a very common day for people to plan hikes. This is mostly because Sunday is known as a day of rest, and many stores are closed. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s one of the biggest cultural differences that I have experienced.

Hiking here in Germany is very different from what I encounter in the US, but specifically in Maine. In Germany, the trails are maintained extremely well, and it isn’t uncommon for most of a route to be gravel, paved, or just well-marked and smooth. Not flat-smooth, but packed down and well-traveled. In Maine, it’s common to have to jump over fallen trees and be prepared to encounter a poorly marked and maintained trail. While in Germany, I’ve only encountered a few trails that have rocks or other difficult terrain. Hiking in Germany is such an important part of daily life that it is unusual for a trail to be poorly maintained. I have plans to look for harder trails and I have saved routes on Komoot, a hiking app, that are more challenging.

Speaking of hiking apps, Komoot seems to be more popular and from my experience more reliable in Germany than AllTrails. While doing research for this blog post, I realized that Komoot is a German app, so it makes sense that it is more widely used in Germany. I’m pretty faithful to AllTrails when hiking and running in the US, but while I’ve been in Germany, I’ve started to trust and use Komoot more. Komoot has more routes than AllTrails and I like how you can set a starting point. For instance, I can change the starting and ending point to match up with the public transportation that I need to use to get to the trail. Komoot also includes way points of cool things you can see while on the trail, which is really nice.

As for the running culture, it is nearly as vibrant as hiking is in Tübingen. You can see people running at all times of the day. I paid to join a run club that is kind of through the school, and while it isn’t a very big group, three other running groups were offered when I signed up. It’s more uncommon to not see another runner while I’m running than to see a runner. This is very different from running at home; a joke I used to make is that I would see more deer and animals than humans when I would go running.

Difficulties I’ve Experienced

This part will be less positive and will be more vulnerable than I typically am on this blog, but studying abroad is an emotional roller coaster with just as many, if not more, hard experiences as positive ones.

I know I’ve mentioned my difficulties making friends and finding people to hang out with in previous blog posts, so bear with me. Personally, I have had the hardest time making friends and finding people to talk with. I’ve never had an easy time making friends, and I knew that Germany was going to be no different. I know people, and I have acquaintances, but I don’t have any friends. I have people that if I see on the streets, I’d smile or wave at them, but no one that I would be able to text to hang out. To be honest, I spend a lot of time alone. Which, not to sound depressing, but I’m not afraid to be alone; I’ve spent my fair share of time alone. I’m confident hiking and being alone. I’ve learned that if you act confident, aware of your surroundings, and act like you know where you’re going, then you should be okay. I prepare and at least try to appear ready for anything. To be honest, I’ve never had any creepy or scary experiences, but I also don’t typically go out once the sunsets. I’m a petite woman, so I know the risks of being and doing things alone.

To clarify, I’m trying to make friends. while I’m comfortable spending time alone. I would like to get some friends. Four months is a long time to spend nearly every day alone. I’m hoping to make some friends through the run club and soccer club I joined. People are very friendly at both. During Wednesday’s run club, I had a really nice chat with someone in English. I have a problem making friends in English, so making friends in German feels impossible. My go-to thing to say when someone asks me if I want to talk in English or German is to say “Ich verstehe Deutsch, aber Englisch ist einfacher,” which translates to I understand German, but English is easier. So most of the conversations I’ve had that could potentially become friendships have been in English. There is this one girl who I met during orientation who could potentially become a friend. We live in the same building, and we went on the same group trip to an Open-Air Museum together recently. She’s also from the United States, but her German is a lot more advanced than mine.

Recently, I went to a comedy show alone, which was definitely an interesting experience. Not a bad interesting. Another thing I’ve mentioned in previous posts is my difficulties with public transportation, and traveling to the comedy show was no different. I had to take a bus to the Hauptbahnhof (Main train station), then a train to Stuttgart’s Hauptbahnhof, then from there I took an S-Bahn, suburban train, to the stop near the building it was in. I’ve never taken an S-Bahn before, and I went the wrong way and missed the first two I had found that would take me to the stop. But I stayed calm and figured it out. I left earlier because I knew that I would have difficulties with transportation. I usually leave early because I know how I am with public transportation, and also because public transportation here isn’t the most reliable thing. It’s very common for trains and buses to be late.

Speaking of traveling, that’s another thing that I have struggled with. Everyone always preaches about traveling when you’re abroad, and I want to travel, but I don’t just want to go to a city or a country because people say I should visit it. If I’m going to go somewhere, it’s because there’s something really cool there. So far, I’ve only traveled for hiking. I want to travel, but it’s so much harder to actually travel than to just talk about it. Especially if you’re going alone. I follow people on Instagram that I met through orientation or just other people I know who are studying abroad at the same time as me, and they’re constantly posting about the new city or country they’re in. It makes me feel like I’m not traveling enough, especially since I have the perfect class schedule for traveling. I only have classes Monday through Wednesday, so I have the time to do so. I just need to actually plan it. It’s a lot harder than I expected. It’s so much easier to plan a hike then it is to plan to travel for the sake of traveling and being able to say I went to these countries or places.

Dealing with Being Homesick

I had hoped that I wouldn’t have as hard a time with being homesick because, truly, I spend a lot of time away from home. Last summer, I had a job where I had to travel out of state for work and be away from home during the weekdays, and while I was able to be home on the weekends, it was mostly spent driving. I also go to college out of state, so I had hoped that with all of the time I already spend away from home, I would adjust fast. But no amount of experience being away from home, prepares you for watching and knowing things are changing at home through Facetime, text messages, and social media.

I hate being vulnerable, but this is something that feels necessary to include because I don’t want my blog to just be the positive experiences. I want it to include all the parts of being abroad, the good, the bad, and the depressing. Not to make this post even more depressing and vulnerable than it already has been, but nothing prepares you for knowing your dog will need to be put down while you’re abroad. I left for the airport knowing that my dog wouldn’t be there when I got back. I spent the months leading up to leaving spending as much time with my dog because I knew it was limited. I know a dog is technically just a pet, and not a human being, but they are part of the family. That’s part of getting older and when you go abroad that people don’t like to talk about. You miss things, sometimes huge things back home. Things you just have to forge through and get through on your own. No matter how much I mentally prepared myself for this kind of situation; it doesn’t get any easier.

Recent Experiences

Time to move away from the depressing stuff and move on to some of the cool things that I have done recently. As usual, the pictures of the experiences I discuss will be included at the end of the post.

I think one of the coolest things that I’ve done recently is go to an Open-Air Museum or “Freilichtmuseum” in German. This Open-Air Museum was in Beuren. This museum was targeted toward children, but it had a lot of really interesting exhibits, such as beekeeping, dyeing fabric using onion skins, and making horseshoes. The people in the exhibits wore traditional-looking clothing. The museum also had old buildings, which were set up to show what life was like for those who lived in them. One of the exhibits was showing what life was like in 1963, which I thought was pretty funny. I wouldn’t have thought that there would be an exhibit showing 1963 as the old days, given the dates and style of the rest of the exhibits.

Over the last two weeks, I went on three hikes, two group hikes and one solo hike. One of the group hikes, only two of us showed up, so just me and this other guy went on the hike. I had met this guy before on a different hike, so it wasn’t too awkward. We both had our cameras, and he was an extrovert, so that helped make it less awkward. We also both were able to keep a reasonably fast pace, so that was nice. I’m typically a faster hiker, so it was nice to be able to not have to force myself to slow down too much. That hike actually had a view finder at the highest point of the hike and I was able to use the view finder to see the mountain that I had hiked on my own a couple days prior.

During my last post, I said that I would discuss my hike in the Black Forest. I’m pretty sure the hike was on the outskirts of the Black Forest, but it was still a nice hike. That group hike was a way bigger group than I had expected. It was also way more laid back of a hiking experience than I am used to and was expecting. I was one of the more experienced hikers on the trip, so since I was at the front of the group the whole time, I just took up the navigation and leading. If it bothered the original organizers, they didn’t let their feelings be known to me and even coordinated hiking paths with me.

As for my solo hike, it was a very enjoyable experience. I loved just having myself and nature around me. It was a Thursday, so the trail was basically empty. I only ran into a couple of mountain bikers and some older people hiking a different trail that overlapped with the route I was taking. The route I took was 8.37 miles or roughly 13 kilometers. If I’m not remembering incorrectly, it was closer to eight and a half miles if I included the mileage it took to get to the bus stop. This hike was really cool because it not only had me summit a mountain called Roßberg, but it also gave me a view of the Öschenbachtal and the Öschinger Landslide. Roßberg or Rossberg is the highest mountain in Reutlingen at 896 meters or 2,851 feet, which honestly isn’t that much of a mountain; many people would consider that only a hill. Either way, it was a nice view and a gorgeous day to go hiking.

My Two Weeks in Photos

Typically, I try to edit some of the photos that I include in this section, but this time I forgot and didn’t edit any of them. So these are just raw photos, mostly taken with my phone.

These four photos were from the Black Forest hike. I only took the first two of the waterfall; the organizer of the hike took the last two. I wanted to include them even though I didn’t take them because I’m in them.

This is a picture from my solo hike of the Öschinger Landslide. It looked way cooler in person, but an iPhone camera can only show so much.

This is another picture from my solo hike of Roßberg. I found these little guys on the route I took. They were a little off the trail, but they were too cute to not take a picture of.

These four photos are also from my solo hike of Roßberg. I took a lot of photos during the hike because it was so pretty. I took the picture of myself because you can see the tower that is at the top of Roßberg in the background, and I thought that was cool.

This is at the Open-Air Museum. These guys were making horseshoes. There were a lot of children watching this exhibit, so I tried to zoom in as much as I could without cutting off what these guys were showing.

These two photos are also exhibits at the Open-Air Museum. I’ll likely edit these photos at some point because I think with some cropping, they could be really cool photographs.

These are from some of the historical buildings at the Museum. The first three were really interesting and included information inside the buildings. The last two photos were of the exhibit from 1963; I wanted to include them to show what I was talking about. I find them particularly “funny” because one of the games shown in the last picture is a game, Pick-up sticks, that I used to play with my grandmother when I was younger.

They also had animals at the Open-Air Museum, including these adorable sheep and their lambs. They also had goats, chickens, geese, rabbits, snails, and bees.

These three are from the hike I went on with that guy that was supposed to be a group hike, but only two of us showed up for.

Here is a bonus picture from a run I went on this week while it was raining. The rain was just starting to break from being really heavy moments earlier. I ran up to one of the higher points of Tübingen because I wanted to get this picture.

This ended up being a much longer post than I had anticipated when I was making an outline for it, but that’s what happens when I don’t make weekly posts. The next hike I plan on going on is a group hike on May 17th, which I’m really hoping I get back in time to watch the live stream of my friend’s graduation. On Tuesday, May 12th, there’s also an event called International Day, so I might go to that.