SNOW!

               When we got our first “snowstorm” of the season (it was only about 2 inches), I realized how many people had never seen snow before.  All of the international students were out throwing snowballs at each other; it was like they got to re-experience childhood at the age of twenty-something.  I watched some students make snow angels outside my kitchen window.  Well they weren’t quite snow angels, more like grass angels, but that’s okay.  I chatted with my friend Cassie while she was outside smoking a cigarette, and she was so excited about that two inches of snow.  She had gone out that morning and taken pictures of her “first snow ever”.  Of course now it won’t stop snowing here.  It snows almost every day, except when it rains instead.  Germany has pretty terrible weather.

Classes

               This semester I am taking my German language course, four courses in English, and auditing one in German.  Three of my four classes taught in English are humanities courses, which is a whole new experience for me.  The last humanities course I took was three years ago.  Pulling away from engineering may be good for a short time, but I already miss interactive classes and problem solving.  Most of my classes here are interactive, but in a different sense.  Here, I’m supposed to discuss history, literature, and politics instead of learning how to build roadways and bridges and “save the environment”.  Something else that I’m not used to is the gender ratio in my humanities classes.  Naturally, there are more females than males in such classes, but I’ve never experienced it to such a degree.  I went from being one of five girls in a class of forty to one of twenty-seven girls in a class of thirty.

                Another difference between studying here and studying at home is that my classes here only meet once a week for ninety minutes.  It’s so much harder for me to retain information unless I keep reviewing my notes.  There’s no refresher two or three days later during your next class, instead you have to wait a whole week to pick up where you left off.  My flat mate Tom told me he has multiple classes per week for each course, and they consist of a lecture, a laboratory, and/or an exercise or discussion.  Maybe my courses only meet weekly because they are humanities courses?  But I still don’t understand why “Power Demand, Supply, and Distribution” and “Grundlagen der Nutzung erneuerbarer Energien I” (Intro. to Renewable Energies I) do not have any exercises along with them.  For me, it is easiest to learn by example.  Is it weird to miss having coursework?

That’s another thing that is different for me.  I’m used to having a homework assignment due each week in each class.  Here, the most homework I do is 30 minutes of reading for my American Identities class and 20 minutes of German.  I’m nervous about finals simply because they are my only grades for most classes.  In two of my classes, 30% of the course grade comes from a presentation that each student must give.  Since the whole goal of this presentation is to improve the Germans’ English skills, my teacher has exempted the American students from giving one.  I’m not so sure whether that is a good thing or not.  My whole grade for those classes will depend on a final essay and class attendance & participation.  Scary.

American Holidays in Germany Part 2

Thanksgiving was just as much fun, although slightly more stressful.  My friend, Kate, and I threw the Thanksgiving feast.  Do you know how hard it is to find 15 kilos of turkey in Germany on one day’s notice??  I pulled it off though; I bought four birds and a breast, and managed to successfully cook them all in three separate ovens in three different apartments.   I was running around all day like an idiot in my sweats with a meat thermometer (which we had to search three different stores for), but I made it work.  Fifteen pounds of mashed potatoes and thirty pounds of turkey…check!  The night turned out to be a huge success- between our two apartments we had about 50 international students over for dinner.  The Americans brought the traditional favorites, and the other international students brought dishes from their home countries for us all to try.  It was nice that everyone came, because there were people in my apartment that I hadn’t gotten the chance to meet until then.  Everyone was so thankful for the party; it was really great to hear their appreciation.   You feed people, they’re happy!

Thanksgiving- The Aftermath