Nicht alles perfekt!

Fellow readers,

It has been two weeks since I started my study abroad experience and though it's not a long time, I already feel like I'm in a roller coaster. I'm constantly thinking that days are not long enough to do everything that I want and need to do. Every night I go to sleep extremely exhausted and there hasn't been a night in which I can go to sleep before midnight. I'm no stranger to sleep deprivation. Sleepless nights have been part of my life in the U.S. as well. However, back home, I didn't sleep because I was swamped with homework and studying for upcoming exams. Here in Heidelberg, is different. Life is just a big party! There is always something fun going on. The University of Heidelberg has different student organizations that plan out activities for the students. Whether it is an excursion to a different city, tours of Heidelberg, concerts, carnivals, or a pub crawl night. Throughout these two weeks that I've been here, I've visited other near by cities: Mannheim (Germany),Saarbrücken (Germany) and Metz (France). I have been to the famous castle in Heidelberg. I've gone shopping, and I've attended different parties. Also, I would like to say the new friendships I'm making are what makes this experience even better. The activities I attend wouldn't be the same without my new friends. They are so much fun to be around! We have class together and we plan different adventures.When we are all together we are extremely loud and often we have people staring at us. Pretty sure the Germans around Heidelberg know who we are and where we come from. The loud Americans. I'm normally not a loud type of person, but when we are all together, we are just laughing, telling stories about our lives and having a great time. We walk in mobs and we tend to laugh a lot. It's great! The friendships I'm making are definitely something I'm grateful for.

Life in Heidelberg is so much different from my life back in the U.S. Back home, I used to have a routine and my days were planned. However, for the passed 2 weeks, I haven't really have a day planned out. Here, I can't seem to create a routine. I'm not complaining about my life and all the fun activities I've been involved in, but I would love to have plans and actually follow them. Sooner or later, I hope to find a routine that suits my wants and needs. I do however, want to let you all understand and imagine what I'm going through. I will do my best to describe what I have experienced so far and what mosts days consist of. First of all, I'm not just in Germany to have fun. I do have responsibilities as a student, but right now, the summer semester hasn't started. For this reason, I am able to take a German course that will conclude at the end of this month. The summer semester will begin April 13th. and I will be taking 3/4 classes in French that will fulfill the requirements needed for my French major. So, for right now, German is all I hear, learn, and study. The German course I take is from 9am-12:30pm with a lunch break of 30 mins. I have two professors who are extremely knowledgeable. They each have a different style of teaching BUT they only speak German to the class. 80% of class time there's a confused expression planted on my face. When both of my professors can tell that I can't understand the mumble jumble coming out of their mouths as words, they finally have some sympathy and translate to English. How's that going? Eh...it's challenging. Pronunciation, grammar rules, extensive vocabulary...it's way too much to learn in just one month. It helps that I can actually practice German whenever I'm at a public place. Though I'm not a fluent speaker and I doubt I will become one during my stay here; I'm doing what I can.

Although I've been here less than a month, I can already tell you what I dislike about the city I live in. As I said in my previous post, the administration at the school, helps the students in several ways. However, the student must also struggle without help and figure out their own class schedule. The way the education system is structured is confusing. Recently, I attended an orientation that explained how students sign up for courses and let me tell you, it's not easy and way different to what I'm used to! Besides the fact that mostly everything is in German and I can't understand it, I have to personally talk to the people in the department where I want to have classes. I'm used to signing up for classes through an online system, reading about the classes provided and the professors. Here, I can't sign up for classes online. I don't create my schedule before the semester starts. In order to be in a class, I have to either e-mail the professor, attend the first class of the course or take an exam to be eligible. Also, the school's administration has nothing to do with the faculty. Ohh but that's not all that's different, a student here can be a full time student without taking many classes. There's no limit as to how many classes a student wants to take. But it's up to the student to be able to pass those classes. It's frustrating to not have a person guide you step by step. I'm not sure if it's a culture thing, but back at home (the US) I feel like my professors and administration care about my struggles and always ready to help with any issues. I definitely miss Illinois College and the way every person that I've met there has reached out to help.

On a much happier note, the public transportation here is way nicer than the one back in Chicago. The buses and trams are bigger and cleaner. However, on weekends and late at nights, buses and routes change. I learned that it is always good to have a map with me. It is really easy to take the public transportation here and be in a different city in matters of minutes/hours. I definitely love that about Europe. Makes the exploring so much easier and convenient. Another aspect that I also love about Germany is the food. Germans are big on pastries, desserts, sandwiches with different types of cheese and bread, pretzels, coffee, and tea. Personally, I'm obsess with Turkish Kebabs. These are known as fast food restaurants here. I do enjoy eating all these new food, however, I already have withdrawals and miss my mom's food. As you can tell, I have already experienced frustrating moments. I've had moments when I'm just annoyed because I can't understand what people are saying around me. But, I just remind myself that I haven't been here long and that I need to relax and enjoy my learning experience. Being optimistic is key right? :) Sure, I'm having fun, sure I made new friends, sure I love traveling and exploring new places! But wait, there really is no place like home. & life is hard when you have to readjust to a whole new system and life style.