January 9th -13th
Hallo, I have had a very busy week, I also do not have very good Wi-Fi and my sim card for my router does not come in until Monday. Everything is all right.
Starting off on the 9th, we had orientation in Mannheim Castle, which is where we have class. The baroque art, architecture, and size of the castle is truly amazing. Our orientation was about two hours long. We met the head of the German department, she is unfortunately retiring next week, but she has done a lot for the program. Our lecture gave us a warm welcome to Mannheim, giving us many connections and opportunities as we live here for the next 6 months.
Here is a picture in orientation, a small little summary, the International Winter Academy has 3 different sections of students coming. We were the 2nd group to arrive.
On January 10th, my favorite day, classes began. In this first month, I only have one class a day for about 5-7 hours, depending on my specific teacher’s schedule. It is a German class, and in the International Winter Academy, we are divided by our proficiency in German. The levels go A1.1, A1.2, A2.1, A.2.2 so on and so forth until C1(very high proficiency). The class is exciting to me because we are learning so much and the teachers understand our capacity.
After class I had to do some more dorm shopping. I had still needed some detergent, so I went and found some. As a student traveling abroad, if you are in a winter academy before the school year starts, be sure to get a guest card at the University’s Mensa. In my case, that is the only way to do my laundry until I get my school card in February. After dorm shopping, I came home, I did my homework.
Timer photo demon
On the 12th, we had class again and got ready for our mandatory dinner with the Winter Exchange Academy. Where we got to meet a lot of new students and people. It was an eye-opening experience, there are people form the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Africa, Australia, Sweden, China, Japan, Brazil, Spain, and so many other places. Most of our common denominators are that we speak German (kind of) or English. There are not that many Americans (I know some of them). I have not taken the time to put myself out there yet. I have met some cool people the past few days. I have kept to myself and continued with studying. Separate from that, It is still extremely cold, it even snowed today. When you are traveling for this long of a time, you have to be sure to pack accordingly.
I went to Urban Cafe again and got this salmon benedict.
Just a couple of things I’d like to point out in the first week.
I always hear this stigma that when people know you cannot speak the home language of that country you are in fluently, they will just talk English to you. I just want to say that has not been the case for me. From the stores I have been in, restaurants I have eaten at, and people I have met have all spoken German regardless of my proficiency. Given the fact that I can somewhat speak the langauge, it has been really awesome. I would say there have been some days where I speak more German than English.
All universities use eduroam for wifi, so for college students, if you are staying on a part of campus(anywhere) where eduroam does not reach, buy a router or an extender for 45 euros, it is a life changer, that is why I had a hard time posting stuff for my blog.
German gyms (at least in Mannheim) request your banking information for charges, and I was not going to do that with my American money. So, if you are every traveling to another country for a long time, consider opening an account in that country. The rules to it are quite simple, it is just a lot of paperwork.
That is all, tune in for a post tomorrow!
