"It's going to get worse before it gets better"

To the people that keep up with my blog (which I know it's probably my teachers back at home :)),


The month of April is finally over. I do mean to say finally because it was a stressful, complicated, and hard month for me. I've been through a lot this passed month and the title of my post reflects what I kept saying to myself. I don't mean to be a debbie downer with all the not-so-great-moments I've had this month; but I'm hoping students who will study abroad in Heidelberg in the upcoming years can learn something from my experiences. So, here we go:


As you may or may not remember, the Summer Semester started April 13th and I was eager to start learning again. Soon the happiness and eagerness banished because out of the four classes that I had picked, only one was right for me. I'm in Heidelberg taking French classes and one German course. On the first day of my ISP French class, I felt uncomfortable but I also had a feeling I could learn a lot from the activities given by the professor. I felt uncomfortable because I could only understand half of what was going on in class. I also didn't speak much because my knowledge in French vocab is not at the same level as the rest of the students. The next day, I attended the Vocabulary Translation class I picked. I don't know what I was thinking by choosing that class because obviously I will be translating from German to French. My German is level 1 and I don't know many words and I definitely don't know all the tenses. So there I am, feeling dumb because I couldn't really participate much in the classes that I had pick.


I knew I had to change classes because I wanted to participate and actually interact with the rest of the class. I spoke to the professors about my issue and both told me there weren't any other classes offered for my level of French in the University. When they told me that, I felt hopeless and thought to myself Why am I here? Why did I go through the whole process of applying and working hard to get to this point, when the school doesn't have what I need?


I was mad, sad, upset and more than anything I just wanted to be home. But, I started thinking realistically and I didn't come all the way here to NOT get what I want and need. Therefore, I started sending e-mails to coordinators here and back home. Sure enough they had to have a better solution to what I should do. I needed answers and someone to guide me to the right place. The coordinator who takes care of my issues here, didn't know my level of French wasn't perfect and right there in her office, I had my first public breakdown. I started crying my eyes out because I was so frustrated with everyone telling me, I don't know what to do. After embarrassing myself infront of my coordinator I apologized for that childish behavior. I asked for more options. I told her that I had taken a French placement exam in the Central Languages building and that class was at my French level and I felt comfortable. She said that I could possibly take another French class in that same building if the professors there allowed it. Sure enough, the professors there didn't know if I could be added to the class because classes were already full. Thankfully, that same day, a professor sent me an e-mail and said there was a spot open in her class (she told me I had luck). Now that I had two classes that were at the right level of French, I felt better. However, my wallet didn't. The classes at the Central Languages are not free and I had to pay 80 euros for each class, plus the books. Though paying that amount of money didn't make me feel happy, I knew I had to do it in order to have the right classes and in order to transfer credits back to Illinois College.


After settling everything down for my French classes, I thought I was set and ready to start learning. However, other issues came my way. My French classes are taught in German (this I can't do anything about and I have to deal with it) and the German class that I had originally signed up for was cancelled. There weren't enough students who were taking that class on that day and time. You would think that a professor or coordinator would e-mail the students about the cancelation. But no, no one was informed. I went to the first day of class not knowing the class had been cancelled and that I was put into a different class on a day and time that conflicted with my other French classes. There I am again, feeling like is this ever going to get better? All I want to do here is go to class, learn and be able to transfer credits back to my homeschool. I just want to learn, why are obstacles getting in my way?


Anyway, April was full of frustrating days. I couldn't believe how unorganized everything was. I thought the experience at the University of Heidelberg would be great. But so far, I just keep bumping into walls. Long story short, three weeks after the semester has started, I am now in three French classes that I enjoy and one German class that works with my schedule. Coordinators helped me find the right classes and led me to the right people. My professors are really nice and I'm thankful they understand my situation. I've also made new friends in those classes. Very nice Germans who I can talk to :)


This post only rants about the school issues I've had in April. The moral is: before going abroad to study a different language, make sure you ask about the level of proficiency of each class. To avoid feeling lost and hopeless in a different country, think of all kinds of questions you should ask before actually deciding on coming to the other side of the world.