Sickness as cultural experience

This week I really did have classes. Every morning at 8:15(!) I have a German language course that goes either til 12:00 or 1:30(!!). Wednesday's it is actually only a lecture that goes until 9:45, but the other days are a long haul.

I am in the B2 course. I lied last week when I said it went only to B2. They also have a C1 course. The purpose of these courses is to prepare people to pass a proficiency test that allows people to study at German universities. This is important for internationals who are seeking a degree here. For me, as an exchange student, that specific goal isn't very important. It isn't even really possible for me. The test in in March, and I will be back in the middle of a Bethel semester by that time. But I am learning nonetheless.

Last Monday, I had my first piano lesson. The lessons are taught by a well dressed man probably in his fifties. He must come originally from somewhere in Eastern Europe, because his L's are pronounced deep in his throat. He didn't seem shocked or angry at my minimal piano skills, which was nice. Hopefully the skills that I am learning for my lessons will transfer to playing a 4-part hymn.

Trumpet lessons I am a little less sure about. Here's where it currently stands:
I am the only trumpet student here at Uni-Wuppertal. The trumpet professor is an adjunct without an office. After I spoke with the music faculty here, they evidently informed him of my existence, and my interest in trumpet lessons. He subsequently e-mailed me in not so excellent English. In this email he said that he was the principal trumpet in the Wuppertal Symphony, and gave me some contact information. There was, however, no mention of when we could have a lesson, or how I should go about scheduling one. I e-mailed him back asking him if he would prefer to be contacted by phone, when we could have a lesson, and when the Wuppertal Symphony played next. His reply email didn't answer the question about when we could have a lesson. So I thought that maybe the lessons were to be arranged through the music faculty at the university. But after asking the music secretary, I found out that the lessons are to be arranged between the student and professor. So tomorrow I will call the trumpet professor, and see what is up.

The past 3 or so days, I have been dealing with a sore throat, and runny nose. Yesterday I woke up, and my eyes felt particularly pasty. When I looked into the mirror, they were quite red. I knew that eye infections can be pretty contagious. I decided at this point it was probably time to go to the doctor. But how? Some of you Bethel people may remember Lisa Strate who was one of the Wuppertal exchange students at Bethel in 06-07. I decided that it would be easiest to call here to find out what I needed to do. I called her, and she said she would check to see where I needed to go, and call me back. When she called me back, she gave me the name of a clinic a little ways away that was open on Saturday (regular doctors offices are closed on Saturday). She said she would come with me, but she had things she needed to do. Instead she gave me directions: which bus to take, and where the I need to go once I got there. Evidently here General Practitioners will usually just refer you on to a specialist. So for my eye problem, I went to an eye doctor.

When I got to the clinic, there was nobody in the information booth, but I knew from Lisa that the eye clinic was in building one on the second floor. So I went to building one. The door that seemed like the main entrance was closed, and the building inside looked dark. So I went to a side door, and it was open. Through the doors, I entered into a hallway of hospital rooms. I felt a bit out of place, but there was an elevator to my left that I took up one floor. Upon exiting the elevator, I was again in a hall with hospital rooms, but down the hall, I saw a room labeled Eye Clinic. Somewhat relieved that there was actually an eye clinic, I went to the door, turned the handle, only to find it was locked.

So I went back out of the building and called Lisa again, she recommended that I try the building for emergency. They could at least give me some information about the clinic. So I took off on my second attempt at finding medical attention, which turned out to be about as successful as the first. I couldn't find the entrance to the emergency room. There was a middle aged man who was dropped off behind me as I approached the building where the emergency facilities were supposed to be. He had a bleeding finger, and was holding some gauze on it. He was evidently also confused as to where to go. There was a janitor that happened to be passing buy, and the man asked him where to go. So I decided I would also ask this janitor where I could find information. Eventually he told me that I needed to go to the eye clinic on the second floor of building one, and sign in there.

With some small bit of new information, I returned to building one, floor two, and looked for a place to sign in. There was a nurses station in the middle of the hallway with all the hospital beds. I this was the closest thing I could see to a place where one could sign in. I explained to the nurses there that I was an exchange student here, and I had no idea what I was doing. One of the nurses was nice to show me where I needed to wait for the eye clinic. It was a waiting room a little before the door labeled "Eye Clinic." The room had several chairs and a closed wooden door. Was I supposed to sign in here in this door? Should I knock on it to let them know I am here? There were already a couple of patients in the room, so I decided I would wait it out, and see what happened. First the door opened, and a doctor came out and called in an old man into the room. She used his last name, so it was clear that he was expected. (Maybe the nurse who showed me the room let the doctor know I was coming?)

After some loudly repeated phrases for the elderly man in the room, the second man who was waiting was called in. I was now the only one in the waiting room. Would they call me in next? After a while I could tell the second man had left the room. I waited tor what felt like quite a while, but nobody came to the door to let me into the examination room. Eventually the eye doctor who had let the other patients in was walking by outside the waiting room. She noticed me, and asked me if I was visiting someone, or if I had an eye problem. I said that, yes, I had an eye problem. She told me that a doctor would be with me in a moment.

After just a bit more waiting, the eye doctor called me into the room. After 10 minutes of examination, and a somewhat painful removal of an eyelash from my left eye with a Q-tip, the doctor told me that I had a viral eye infection that would probably go away in about a week. She gave me some eye drops, and sent me on my way.

That was this weeks adventure. I think my were a bit less pasty this morning, so hopefully this points to a quick recovery.

--Austin

A "real" week in Wuppertal.

As I have told many of you, classes were to start this week. So far, I have had a placement test for my German course, annnnd that's it. We were told that the course would begin on Monday. I have gotten some other things figured out though. I went to speak to people in the Music department this last week. I have gotten things straightened out there. I am now ready to take trumpet and piano lessons. I guess it is a requirement here that one has not one, but two musical talents. The most popular combination is piano as a major and voice as a minor. They, in fact, have no trumpet students at the moment. The actual program, as I understand it, is only music pedagogy.

I have my first piano lesson tomorrow, and I have no idea what I will be doing. I have no piano books with me, and I don't play piano very well. All of the other piano students are more than able to play a four part hymn (arguably the most difficult part of Bethel's piano proficiency and one of maybe two remaining pieces on my journey to the Class Piano wall of fame). I tried to make it clear to the music faculty that I was a beginner, but we will see on Monday if it's clear to the piano professor. I also have been in contact with the director of the orchestra here. The first meeting of the orchestra is on Monday, and I will find out more then. I am excited to be able to play music with people again. That is a big part of my everyday experience at home, that hasn't yet been present here. For trumpet lessons, I have received an e-mail from the man who teaches trumpet here at Uni-Wuppertal. It was kind of ambiguous. Essentially he introduced himself, and gave me some contact information. I am not sure if I need to take the initiative to schedule a lesson with him, or if he does that, or if the university does that. I e-mailed him back saying I was interested in taking lessons with him, and asked him what I needed to do. It has been a few days already, but I haven't heard back.

This week has been a week of welcome. At Bethel, this would mean there would be "fun" all-American events every night, like an ice cream social, or a movie night. Here at Wuppertal, that means that there will be huge parties every night, sometimes on the very university campus (maybe in the on campus bar). I have met some really friendly people here. Mostly through international student events. There is a international students team that helps with on campus living, and there is one that is more general call team that helps with the exchange students. There are some truly welcoming people there. For some reason they have been very complimentary of my German. Everybody seems to be surprised that I have only been studying German for 4 years. So, good work Merle (my German professor).

Tomorrow we find out how we did on the placement exam. There are 6 levels of German A1 (complete beginner), A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 (mastery). I was placed in the B1 group at the German Language School in Berlin. The German courses here (for the exchange students) only go through B2, so hopefully I will be in B2 here. If I were to count the words that I have spoken in German before coming to Wuppertal, and compared that number with the number of German words I have spoken since being here in Wuppertal, I am sure that the second number would be at least 3 times larger. The German language is beginning to gel in my mind. I feel less and less like I am thinking in English, and translating into German. I still have a long way to go, but the progress I can see in myself is encouraging.

So since I didn't have any photos last week I will try to put up extra this week.

A trip to Dusseldorf.

Sunset on the Rhine.

Out my window.

--Austin

The San Francisco of Germany?

Well I have never really been to San Francisco, but I do know that there are some really steep streets there. Here in Wuppertal there are also some very steep streets. Sometimes you don't have to use them. Instead, you could take the public stairs. For instance, there are probably 60 or so stair-steps for me to get to campus from where I am living (which is right next to campus). My calf muscles have been sore for the past several days. If you want to walk farther into the city, you are going down hill, into the Wupper river valley, or Wuppertal ("Tal" means valley). That part is easy, but then you have to go back up again. And instead of a trolley here, there is the Schwebebahn. It is a suspended "monorail" of sorts. I haven't ridden in it yet, but they tell me it follows the river through the city. There isn't any Rice-A-Roni here, and I don't know much else about San Fran, so I think my comparison ends here.

I am still in limbo between Berlin and Uni-Wuppertal. Classes don't start until the 15th. There have been a few activities for me though. On Wednesday there was a hall party. Literally a hall party. It wasn't a party for the people on my hall, but rather a party in my hall. People there seemed really interested in what I had to say. There was a moment when I was at the end of the hall, and I started talking to someone there. After two sentences, the other 10-15 people that were there had all gotten quiet to listen to what I was saying. It might have been just to hear how my German was. I don't know. But I don't think I have never had an experience like that.

Since that party, I have finally started meeting some people. Yesterday we had a breakfast for international students where I met some very nice French people, and on Thursday my roommate showed up. He is from Slovakia and was an exchange student last semester, and is now studying as a regular student here. I went with him and some of his Slovakian friends into the city on Thursday. We had a good time. One of his friends was an an exchange student in high school in Derby, Kansas, a town that was in our league in High School. My roommate seems to be a pretty genial guy. It is still strange living in such close proximity to someone I don't really know yet, but I think it could be a lot worse.

One frustration for me the past week has been not having a place to practice my trumpet. I emailed one of the music professors on Thursday to see about lessons, practice rooms, and possibly playing in the orchestra. He hasn't emailed me back yet. Yesterday I went exploring to try to find a practice room. I could find online where some of the music classes were held, so I went there to check it out. I found two rooms labeled as practice rooms, but they were locked. I am not sure if they are open at a different time, or if one needs a key to get in, or if I need to sign up. My trumpet has been kind of on hold since half way through my last week in Berlin, when the man who lived under me in Berlin came up while I was practicing and asked me to be quieter. I have been playing on my mouthpiece trying to keep my chops in shape, but I want to get into a practice room where I can really do some practicing.

Well I haven't been very good at taking pictures. I will post again soon with some pictures.

Week of October 5, 2008

The Bad:
Evidently it rains here all the time. One person I met told me to check the weather, and if it is supposed to be nice, do something outside, because the next day it will probably be raining.

The Good:
Yesterday, and so far today the weather has been wonderful. The trees are turning, and it is a great time to be outside.

Also I have been using my German much more than I have ever before. I feel much better about it. Twice people have told me they thought I was German when I told them I am from the US. Although it usually comes out that I come from the US after only a couple of sentences. I am sure in more extended conversation, it is clear that I am in fact not a German.


I am missing Kansas.
--Austin

Wuppertal

Today I traveled to Wuppertal where I will be spending the rest of my time here in Germany. I went by the ICE train (Inter-City Express) and arrived here at about 1:40 pm. The last day of class I had in Berlin was actually on Thursday. Friday was a holiday. It was the 18th anniversary of the German reunification. There was a huge celebration at the Brandenburg Gate and on into Tiergarten park. It was like fall fest but thousands of times bigger. There was a huge stage with lot's of sound equipment set up right in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Different German groups played there throughout the day. The Street of the 17th of June goes straight back from the Brandenburg Gate into Tiergarten park to the Victory Column. This whole stretch of street was covered with vendors selling food and naturally also beer. Every few hundred meters there would be a giant screen and more sound equipment showing what was happening on the stage.

It was interesting to see this festival sponsored by Coca-Cola, the symbol of western capitalism. Their omnipresent banners seemed to be celebrating the fall of communism with us. But instead of celebrating the reunification of a people, the banners seemed to be celebrating the expansion of markets. It is easy to see why many people, especially those who were once committed to the economics of communism, choose not to celebrate this day.

On Saturday, I did my best to get ready to leave my apartment at 8 am the next morning. Only having our family's somewhat regular rental of a cabin in Colorado as a model for moving out of a rental, I cleaned the place before I left. I also knew that some offers I had seen had a final cleaning fee, which this one didn't. I thought it would be at least common courtesy to clean some.

Then this morning, after packing an an incredibly heavy bag, I left my apartment. I carried the very heavy bag down 5 flights of stairs. The wheels on the bottom of the bag hit every step. It was too heavy for me to lift off off the ground for very long long. I also had a trumpet and a computer strapped around my shoulders. Luckily my landlord carried my 4th piece of luggage (a heavy duty garment bag) down for me. He even helped me carry it down into the subway station. From this point I had to take all my luggage one stop to Alexanderplatz where I could take public transportation to the main train station in Berlin. Luckily from this point on there was an escalator or elevator. But I still had to pull along the very heavy bag, whose wheels are almost kaput (to use an imported word.) When I finally sat down to wait for the train, I tried to lift my right arm. Much to my surprise, this had become a very difficult task, after carrying/pulling a giant bag behind me for so long.

Finally I made it on to the train with all my stuff. Unfortunately I was in the wrong compartment, so I had to push my way through with all my luggage to another compartment to get to my seat. I had the most luggage of anyone I saw on the train. I was jealous of those who just had one small rolling bag, whose wheels worked well. They seemed so mobile.

Tobias Ruhle picked me up then at the Wuppertal train station. He and his brother (I think) took me to my dorm room. Tobi carried my giant bag for me. He asked if I had packed bricks.

Then he got me settled into my room. We then went to Rosie's (the other Bethel student who is here) room to look through the boxes of stuff that the Wuppertal "Friends of Bethel" group has for Bethel exchange students. She was nice to make me some spaghetti. I still hadn't eaten, and today is Sunday, so stores are usually closed.

So, I am supposed to get a roomate sometime. That should be interesting. Kind of scary. Hopefully we will be friends. At least each of our rooms are seperate, we just share a kitchen and bathroom.

We will see.

A rainbow appeared on one of the cloudy days as the sun was setting in clear sky.


A couple pictures of my dorm. It is hard to get a picture of it, because it is pretty small and narrow.



Week of September 28, 2008:

The Bad:
I had to say goodbye to Berlin and a friend that was with me there since the beginning. And forget about the sun. It is raining now, and it has turned cold and cloudy again.

The Good:
I managed to get out of my apartment and to Wuppertal relatively unscathed.

--Austin