Catching Up

Hello!

So, there've been a few hectic days here. I'm not quite sure how far back I need to go to explain!

I suppose I'll start with right after we got back from Scotland. During the days after Edinburgh, I began my Orientation Week with the Middlebury people here at the university. It all started rather sheepishly at a bus stop last Monday morning (the bus stop is called Friedrich-von-Pfeiffer-Weg, and for all my German readers, I now think "Pfeiffer mit 3 F!" each time I'm there thanks to Claudia! Finally saw Feuerzangenbowle. Fun film! :) ) with all of the students from Middlebury (and me from Mills) milling around sheepishly at the bus stop, not knowing who within the bustling crowd of students was actually ALSO with Middlebury and who was just on their way to the university. Eventually, we found each other, though, and then everything went well.

As it turns out, there are only three other students here for the Middlebury program. THREE! I thought it was going to be a massive group! But actually, I'm starting to like it being just the four of us in all. I'm also the only girl, which happens to be fun sometimes. Two of the boys are in my year at Middlebury, and the other one is already done with his BA and is now in the program to get his MA at the university. They are all charming and fun to hang out with, as are our tutors. This program is very well designed for incoming foreign students, especially those who are going to have to write lots of papers (Hausarbeiten) while they are here.

We spent the week working together through lots of activities that either helped us understand some of the main cultural differences that might cause us some heartache if we weren't prepared for them this year OR helped us to prepare for our classes. There were role plays (an essential to any Orientation Week), games, cookies, laughter, note-taking, and lots of listening, but it was also a really great experience linguistically. As many of you know, I'm fairly proficient at German, but when I'm hanging out with my lovely girlfriend here, we don't always make a point to speak solely in German. We mostly speak in the language that comes to us, and while I've been here, it's been almost totally 50-50. However, at these 6-hour per day Orientation things, it was solely German, and I haven't had that in -- well, ever. It's just a different experience to only be in a classroom with 7 other people (3 students, 3 tutors, 1 professor) for 6 hours a day and be having discussions the entire time in the new language. It's hard to get that in Germany since almost everyone speaks English! Anyways, I noticed an improvement already in my speech, which was pretty exciting, not to mention learning several interesting things about German culture and American culture that I hadn't thought about before!

In addition to getting to know the Middlebury folks, Claudia and I also went up to Ostfriesland (East Frisia - look it up on a map if you don't know where it is!) for this past weekend to visit her friends and family. While we were there, the Gallimarkt was going on - a fair that happens annually and has been happening annually for over 500 years! We went with a big group of friends one night, saw some fireworks, ate fried food, and rode a HUGE ferris wheel and several other crazy rides. Then we went back the next day with Claudia's two younger brothers (ages 8 and 11) and watched them do all those things, which was almost just as fun. Claudia and I also managed to get some work done while we were at her house during the day (she's doing research about Scotland for a professor, I'm working on a "Cultural Presentation" to present to the Middlebury folks this week) and had a lovely dinner out together on the last night. We also had tea with her grandparents (a favorite tradition of mine in Ostfriesland) and talked about all sorts of things, from our studies to Erin in Scotland to the intricacies of language and to some stories both from my father and those that Claudia's grandparents had about growing up. It was a lovely afternoon!

Now we're back in Mainz and I've done some good work on my presentation, Claudia's helping the first year students in Germersheim get all sorted out, and we're both awaiting real classes starting next Monday. Ah!

As I mentioned before, the Scotland video is on youtube, and the next video about Mainz is almost complete. It'll be up soon!

I hope you enjoy both of them, and when I get the time over the next few days, I'll post some more pictures of Scotland, and (I've recently decided) of my dog Abby and some other pictures from home, because it has recently occurred to me that not everyone reading this blog has necessarily ever seen my home!

Alright. I'm off to watch a bit of Love Actually before bed. :-) See you soon!