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The Fail Buzzer: Our Experiences Speaking German

September 2, 2011 / Zach Nelson / 0 Comments

It goes without saying that many Germans can communicate pretty well in English. Even if they don’t speak it fluently, chances are that many people you come across will know enough of the language to have a simple conversation.

Quite frequently, when a member of our Valpo group here in Tübingen tries to start a conversation with somebody else in German, he/she gets a response in English. None of us are perfect at German, but I would say that we’re all pretty competent when it comes to day-to-day conversations. Whether ordering food at a restaurant, introducing yourself to someone new, asking for directions, or silently looking at a train schedule, it isn’t at all unusual for someone to drop everything to help the apparently-confused Americans.

I’m pretty sure that because so many people here speak English, they’re always looking for people to practice it with. In America, I know I look for opportunities to speak German to people too, since there are so few people to stay in practice with. Once I read in a travel guide booklet that the reason Germans prefer to speak English with foreigners is because they are a very orderly society, and easily frustrated when people aren’t able to simply communicate (I’m not quite sold on that one, but I guess it makes sense.) Other times, I think, “Maybe everyone here is just very friendly and always willing to help out.”

Regardless of the reason, unless I am actually extremely confused or at a total loss for words, I would prefer not to hear a response in English. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I am here for the entire year with my main purpose being, to come back as fluent in German as possible – a goal that hinges on the daily immersion in the language. Many people here know this, which is why I’m grateful that my German neighbors and friends speak almost entirely in German with me.

After choosing the words, planning the word order, and practicing the sentence structure carefully in your head many times over, the outcome of a conversation can really make or break your day. I know that my grammar and word order may not be perfect, but I feel like I am almost always understandable. When you’re learning another language there’s nothing that feels better than getting through a difficult conversation without resorting back to your native language. On the contrary, the opposite outcome can sometimes be frustrating.

So our little Valpo group in Tübingen is constantly challenged to blend in with not only the culture, but the language and the way it is spoken. We try as hard as we can to hide our American accents and to express ourselves as thoroughly as we can. We’ve made an “inside” game of getting through conversations this way. When we receive a response in English, we imagine someone pressing a giant red “FAIL” button that makes a buzzer sound. Sometimes one of us even makes the noise out loud, as we laugh quietly at our inability to play German impostor.

For example:

At Ikea last week, and I ordered Swedish meatballs with gravy on the side for Jake who was watching our stuff at the table. I thought that what I said was understandable, as the man working behind the counter scooped up some meatballs and some gravy, which he did indeed put on the side. Then he faced me again and asked, “Would you like french fries too?”

“FAIL,” I thought, as I imagined the proverbial buzzer being pressed. “What did I say? Was it wrong to ask that way? Is my accent really that strong?” I thought.

As I walked away, he turned to me again and shouted, “ENJOY YOUR MEAL!” Everyone in line turned to look at the guy who couldn’t speak German, as I walked away embarrassed. Nobody else got a similar farewell.

In situations like this, I try as hard as possible to continue in German, hoping that the other person will switch back. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they’re pretty determined to speak their nearly-flawless English with you. Continuing to speak German can be pretty difficult for a few reasons. I know that my German is probably not as good as their English, not to mention that they switched to English because of some unknown mistake I made.

Anyway, I’ll have to do another post when we make it through an entire day without anybody having any “fail buzzer” experiences. Until then, we’ll all just keep trying! For the most part, people are very understanding and want to help us learn their language. Some people are even surprised that an American is trying to learn to speak to them in German.

I still have no internet, but my communication with people back home will improve once I do! I am really trying to limit myself, however, when it comes to email, Facebook etc. so that I can have a truly immersive experience. Our “Deutsch Kompakt Kurs” (German Compact Course) starts on Monday, and I’m getting pretty excited for it. I’ve heard a lot of great things about the program, and I’m looking forward to meeting some new people, traveling around the area, improving my language skills, and becoming more familiar with life in Germany.

Bis dann!

Abroad Overload

August 31, 2011 / Jodie Buchanan / 0 Comments

Ok so this is my first post and I probably should have written sooner, but so much has happened since I arrived about two weeks ago. When I got onto the plane, I thought that the reality of going to Africa was bound to hit me, but it is almost 15 days later and I still don’t think it has sunk in. Coming to Africa I did not have any idea what I was getting into, but everything that I had previously thought would be in a study abroad experience has been totally blown out of the water. I don’t feel like I am a tourist, just passing through this beautiful country, but rather a concerned citizen trying to understand what is truly going on here. While I was in South Africa I heard from so many different people, ranging from political figures to people living in areas that do not have regular access to water and electricity. It was so amazing because I didn’t just get the surface view of the country but I got to hear the voices of the people that make up the heart and soul of South Africa. Every day we would hear from someone different; each having their own opinion on the country and its post-apartheid status. It was so interesting to hear how each person felt about what the country has gone through and where it is going in the future. However it also made me realize that what I may think needs to be done in the country is sometimes different than what the people want or need. I have constantly been questioning my role in this experience. Am I supposed to be a student and educate myself in order to be more informed and educate other people, or am I supposed to take action. At the end of each day in South Africa, I would lay awake in my bed thinking of everything I had seen and heard, trying in some way to formulate my opinion. I have come to this conclusion thus far, and that is “I don’t know” I have no idea where I stand, or if I will be able to pick a “side” in all of the mess that is going on in Southern Africa. But I can say this, after spending 10 days in Johannesburg, South Africa, and 5 days in Windhoek, Namibia, I have hope. Southern Africa is so beautiful and so full of life and promise, that I can’t help but to have hope for their future. I may not know if I will play a role in making it a better one, but I have hope that they will get there. Until next time 🙂

We’re in Reutlingen!

So since I haven’t actually written about what we’ve been doing the past four days, I think it’s about time. Also, as a side note, when I wrote “four days,” I had to stop and think for a while, because it seems soooo much longer than that.

The narrowest street in the world (and one of the Professor's cute kids hiding at the end)

Anyway. These four days have been amazing. For the most part, the group and I have just been getting acquainted with the city of Reutlingen. One day, we took a tour of the Stadtmitte, which is the only-pedestrian city center where most of the social activity, restaurants, and stores are. Despite our old and soft-spoken guide who was difficult to understand, it was fascinating to see the historical and important sights in the town. Included in the tour were the Marienkirche (St. Mary’s cathedral, the huge cathedral in the city center), the Rose Garden (which was tended by monks who lived in an adjoining building, complete with flowers, benches, and a chapel), and Reutlingen’s claim to fame in the Guinness Book of World Records, the narrowest street in the world. Unfortunately, there are too many cool photos to include in this small blog, so you’ll have to visit my Picasa account at https://picasaweb.google.com/100454144518688283131 to see the rest of them! Because this small space isn’t even close to enough room to convey the whole experience.

Molly just waiting for the bus.

Much of our time so far has been spent learning the bus and train system and walking around attempting to navigate the town. It’s not that complicated–buses come to our neighborhood every ten minutes, and leave the city center every ten minutes bound for our neighborhood. And there’s one easy route to walk to the city center. But the fact that everything’s in German makes it a bit more complicated. Times like this it’s nice to have our professor herding us around, since he’s fluent! But I’ve got it down now, I think. Time to be independent!

Not only are they the best-looking berries ever, they're also the best-tasting. Win-win.

One of the highlights of our time here has been market day, which is like an enormous farmer’s market. Meat vendors, fruit and veggie farmers, bakers, and cheese-makers all come to the market square in the city center every Saturday and Tuesday morning and sell their homemade or homegrown goodies. You can find basically anything you’d want–gigantic loaves of delicious breads, homemade honey and jam, so many fruits and veggies, and can even grab authentic German bratwurst-type sandwiches while you peruse. Again, look on my Picasa account (link above) to see all the delicious goodies, because there are way to many to portray here.

On Sunday, the Reutlingen and Tuebingen groups met up for a tour of Tuebingen given by Dr. Springer, an art history professor at the University in Tuebingen and one of the professors in the Reutlingen Valpo program. It’s a fascinating city. Unlike Reutlingen, it wasn’t destroyed in war, and so all of the buildings are extremely old, especially by American standards. The coolest part, of course, was the castle. It’d be strange if the castle wasn’t the coolest part of any tour. I mean, they’re pretty awesome. And then we got to eat at a restaurant right on the river, which has its own brewery as well as fabulous food. A great day, all in all.

CASTLE.

That’s an overview of life the past few days! Until class on Monday. But even that, too, will be incredibly interesting. After all, we’re in Europe! What isn’t interesting over here?

First few days in Tübingen!

August 29, 2011 / Zach Nelson / 0 Comments

Famous view of Tübingen with the Neckar River in the foreground

Hallo aus Deutschland! It’s Sunday the 28^th of August and after being here for three days, I can finally say I’m all finished unpacking, organizing, and moving into my little room here in Tübingen. It’s a little smaller than a freshman dorm at Valpo, but I get it all to myself and the entire building has been newly renovated. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I take some – knowing that I’ll be here for the entire year takes away the urgency I typically feel while traveling to capture every potentially-memorable photo, so I haven’t really taken any pictures yet.

I was hoping to do a blog post a little earlier, but I am still without my own username and password to access the internet. With this blog post I’ll do a little bit of catching up of everything that’s happened over the past few days. It’s been pretty busy, and my jet lag still isn’t completely gone, so I’ll do my best to remember it! It will probably be another week or so before I’ll have internet in my room, but Jake, Hannah, and Emily have all found ways to get online, so I’ll at least be able to borrow their computers for the short term. (By the way, there are five us altogether from Valpo who are studying here in Tübingen – I’ll refer to them often throughout this next year of blogging, I’m sure!)

Both flights here went very smoothly and without problems. For the music people who may be reading this, the band My Chemical Romance was on our flight from Chicago to London! I had no idea of this, but Rachel stood in line next to them while boarding and was excited to tell all of us after we had landed at Heathrow.

When we arrived in Stuttgart I was tired and very hungry – being gluten intolerant, I could only eat about half of the surprisingly good looking food on the plane. Professor Malchow, the resident director for the Reutlingen program (and also the de-facto go-to person for the Tübingen program), met us as soon as we had collected our luggage. While we rested and ate some lunch, he filled us in on a lot of really helpful information while we waited for the Reutlingen students’ plane to arrive. I was so jet lagged and sleepy, so hopefully I’ll be able to remember all of the important points, anyway…

A big coach bus brought all of us Valpo students to our respective buildings in either Tübingen or Reutlingen. I was the first one dropped off, so I didn’t get to see where anyone else was living right away. As the bus pulled away, I was left standing on the sidewalk with three heavy suitcases and a backpack staring up the two flights of stairs leading into my building. At this moment, I was feeling pretty lonely and in shock about being dropped off in a completely foreign city that I knew next to nothing about. Luckily, that wore off soon enough.

All of us were very lucky to have Clara Ullrich and Stefanie Merk (two German students who lived in the German House and studied at Valpo last year) to help us move in and acclimate to our new rooms. Having also lived in the German House last year, Jake and I know them very well. This was especially helpful because they offered to drive us to go shopping for food and other necessities for our rooms, which I was extremely appreciative of.

On Friday, Jake, Hannah, Emily, Rachel and myself spent the day exploring the city, buying cheap cell phones, and visiting/comparing each others’ rooms. With the way the student housing agency is set up here in Tübingen, none of us knew very much about where we would be living until we actually got here. Hannah, Emily, and Rachel have a much more “urban” living experience than do Jake and myself. Their rooms are located right in the middle of Tübingen’s “Altstadt,” (historic, old part of the city) and very close to everything. Their buildings are older, but they are in easy walking distance of all the famous sights downtown, the university buildings, and many stores, restaurants, bars, ice cream shops, etc.

Jake and I live in an eight-story building that is much more similar to an American-style dorm building than to the house-type buildings where the girls live. It is about a half-hour walk to the city center and university buildings, but the building itself and rooms are pretty nice. I was surprised at how extremely messy all of our buildings are. Because of the way the German semesters are set up, many of the students who lived here prior to us just moved out at the end of July. I think move-out must work differently here, because all of our four buildings are full of junk in the hallways that old students apparently didn’t want to take with them. Pulling a suitcase down the hall was a bit of a challenge in some areas on Thursday… We have been told that a “deep-cleaning” of the buildings will occur sometime in September before all of the German students move back in, which I’m really hoping is true. Out of my 5-room wing, there are only three of us here, which is much more full than other parts of the building. On every floor or the “Neuhalde,” (the name of my building) there are five locked wings, with five rooms in each. Every wing shares one kitchen, two showers, and two bathrooms, so it feels much homier and more interconnected than the freshman dorms at Valpo.

On Saturday, the five of us had quite an eventful, adventure-filled day. We all split the cost of a “Baden-Württemberg Ticket,” which allowed us to travel anywhere in the state of Baden-Württemberg by bus, train, or tram all day long, as long as we were together. It is much cheaper than all buying individual tickets, and every German state has tickets like this. I am pretty familiar with “Deutsche Bahn” (“German Rail,” the national train system here) because I traveled by train very often as an exchange student here in High School.

In the morning we took the train to nearby Böblingen, where the closest Ikea is located. We all found some pretty neat things for our rooms, whether plates and silverware, bedding, or decorations. Ikea in Europe is almost exactly like Ikea in the U.S. I recognized many of the items from having seen them in Chicago, and it is still cheap, amazing, blue, yellow, and giant even by American standards – just like at home.

We all had a good laugh at ourselves after lunch. After we had checked out and bought everything, we decided to go back into the store (with our purchased merchandise) to eat lunch at the cafe. The lines were extremely long, but well worth the wait. After eating and visiting in the cafe for a few hours (to avoid the heavy rain outside) we were faced with the question of, “What is the best way to leave the store carrying bags of things we have already bought?”

Looking like the stupid and confused foreign kids, we all walked around for awhile thinking about how to leave and not make a scene. The Germans are very orderly people – the store had stairs marked “Up only” into the store and restaurant, and “Down only” back to the warehouse and checkout section. Even the hallways through the upstairs and downstairs were one-way-only loops, clearly marked with giant arrows.

After going down the upstairs, and up the downstairs, Jake decided that we should take the elevator marked, “KEIN FAHRT,” (NO ENTRY or literally, NO RIDE.) He was convinced that the elevator would take us down to the first floor, and open up right by the entrance where we could simply walk out of the store the way we came in. It did go down a floor, but instead of opening towards the entrance, the doors opened towards the warehouse and checkout area. Some other shoppers stepped out, probably wondering why weren’t doing the same. Jake was convinced the elevator would open on the other side if we just waited.

We did wait, and after a couple minutes, we all burst out laughing. Nothing happened. We were trapped in the elevator. It must have been an automatic elevator, because there were no buttons to control which floor it was going to next. We looked over to to the controls, and there were two buttons: an emergency call/alarm button, and another logo we did not recognize. I pressed the second one.

The doors to the warehouse opened back up, and we walked back into the store with our blue Ikea bags, trying as hard as possible not to laugh and cause a scene. We ended up just walking through the store to the checkout area. Once we got there, the group elected me to explain our situation to a checkout employee. After explaining that everything we had was already purchased, the story of us being hungry and going back upstairs to eat, getting lost, being confused, not knowing where to exit, and eventually ending up at the checkout, she nodded understandingly. Then we got scolded. “Normally, you are not allowed to go back into the store after leaving the checkout,” she said. “I will need to see your receipts.” This wasn’t a foreign concept to us at all – every store in the United States would say the same thing… We should have just eaten before we shopped, so we all felt pretty stupid.

Luckily, I already had my receipt ready to show her, and after looking it over she let us leave. And with a long walk back to the train station, our Böblingen adventure was over. That evening, we were back on the train to Stuttgart. There is a big, well-known “Weinfest” (Wine Fest) going on there right now, and we decided to go. A whole part of the city was designated as the “Weindorf” or, “Wine Village,” which I found to be a pretty accurate title. There were tents sponsored by restaurants serving food and delicious wine everywhere, and accordion players in the streets. The atmosphere was stereotypically and unmistakably German, and absolutely wonderful. It was extremely crowded and it took us forever to find a free table. Once we found a place to sit down and take in the atmosphere, it ended up being a very great and memorable night. More to come about the Weinfest on Jake’s blog, if he hasn’t already posted!

This has gotten to be a pretty long entry – I’ll have to stop being so long-winded…

Bis dann!

Links:

Hannah’s blog: http://www.travelwithsimba.blogspot.com

Emily’s blog: http://www.germanymeetsemily.blogspot.com

Me, my grandfather, grandmother, and mom on the steps of Schönbrunn

The Cities of Europe!

August 28, 2011 / Jake Stefan / 0 Comments

These past three weeks I’ve been traveling with my family around Europe: seeing castles, churches, family and taking lots and lots of pictures!

On our adventures we visited four countries and stayed in about 7 different hotels! Because there is so much information to cover, I’m going to write a little bit about each place we visited and maybe tell you all about some things I liked (or didn’t like!) about each city.

Me, my grandfather, grandmother, and mom on the steps of Schönbrunn

1) Vienna, Austria

Vienna was probably one of my favorite cities, but just happened to be the first we visited. It was fantastic to be there with my grandfather who had learned his trade in Vienna, and was there when war broke out in 1939. He showed us the street he used to work on, the places he remembers and the best of the city. As an 88-year-old man, it was really impressive that he could make such a big trip to Europe, much less walk all over the city! Hearing his stories made me proud of all he accomplished in this city. During the war he and his family lost everything and afterwards came to America with a debt of over $1,000 dollars. In the US he made a living, starting from scratch. It’s an amazing story, and inexorably intertwined with the great city of Vienna.

Best of: Schönbrunn (the palace); Staatsoper (State Opera); Stephansdom (cathedral)

Astronomical Clock

2) Prague, Czech Republic

Before I left, people often told me that Prague was the most beautiful city in the world. To this I’d say – yes and no. In the tourist district that is made up of the Astronomical Clock, the expensive shopping zones, the Charles Bridge, as well as the castle, everything is almost surreal! All the buildings are so incredibly beautiful, and the views are amazing. However, much of Prague (and the Czech Republic) was scary at points. You can really tell that communism did quite a number of the country. We drove from Vienna to Prague, and driving through the Czech Republic was significantly different than driving through Austria. If you stay in the nice areas of Prague, there’s really nothing to be worried about – just be careful, would be my advice.

My family after dinner!

The food here was hit or miss. A lot of the food is very dense, and we did have a few mediocre meals. However, there was one restaurant, where we had a fantastic meal! The name of the restaurant escapes me, but it was good enough to warrant a trip back to Prague just for that dinner!

We also met up with my aunt and uncle in Prague, so even though it wasn’t my favorite place, it was really nice to see them!

Best of: Astronomical Clock; Charles Bridge; Castle

Not so great: Sketchy areas; Haggling for everything; Lots of tourist traps

Panoramic of Prague

3) St. Johann im Pongau, Austria

Pongauer Dom

My family and I stayed in St. Johann for a week during our trip. And as opposed to the big cities, I have to say that staying in a small town in the Austrian Alps was one of the best experiences we had! St. Johann is a big vacation spot for Germans and Italians, but we didn’t see any other Americans around. The views in the mountains were so incredible, and the shopping / dining was awesome (mainly because we were getting sick of doing touristy things). My brother and my dad ended up buying some Lederhosen and “traditional” clothes. It was a lot of fun! We also took a few days to go visit Munich and Salzburg, which weren’t too far, but those stories will have to wait for the next post!

Best of: Dom (cathedral); Shopping; Food; Family!; Hiking

In the next post I’ll tell you all a little more about our time in:

4) Munich, Germany

5) Salzburg, Austria

6) Heidelberg, Germany

7) Zurich, Switzerland

8) Tuebingen, Germany!

Until then! Tschüß!

The Beginning

August 27, 2011 / Stephanie Volz / 0 Comments

Hier bin ich! (Here I am!)

After a nerve-wracking, scary, exciting, and stressful emotional roller coaster ride that was the days prior to departure, I am finally in Germany and somewhat settled in. How I got here though, that’s interesting. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly the plan-ahead type of person, so most of my packing was done the day before I left my house in Alabama. Which meant a bit more stress than if I had started earlier, but like they say, nothing would ever get done if it wasn’t for the last minute! Fortunately, I can’t think of anything important that I forgot. Yet, at least. So it seems that my packing tips might actually be useful (and if it turns out they aren’t, I’ll let you know later when I kick myself for forgetting something). Here goes:

Getting ready to leave

1. Pack lightly. That’s the first thing anyone will tell you, and it’s true. For our group’s tickets, we only were allowed to bring one bag for free. The second one was $50 (ouch). But most of us brought a second one. After all, it’s almost four months abroad, and drastic season changes occur during the fall semester. Point is, you will need a lot of stuff while abroad, but it’s expensive to bring a lot, so keep it to a minimum.

2. Leave room for items bought abroad. Not only do you have to pack lightly, but you also want some free room so you can bring more back with you. Christmas presents, for example. Who wouldn’t want a Christmas present from Germany after all? I cheated the system by packing toiletries in mine that I will use up. Shampoo, body wash, that kind of thing. As long as your suitcase is under the weight limit when you leave, it’s fine. But even with the space that will be made by those things, you still want to leave a little extra room, because you will always, always have too much stuff.

3. Plug adapters. Sometimes the program will have extras that somebody left from a previous year, but it’s better safe than sorry. Know what kind of outlets your country will use, and make sure you have an adapter that will work. And it’s easier to find them in the U.S. than trying to find the right one abroad.

4. Shoes. You really don’t need many. Just make sure they are good for walking, because that’s the primary mode of transportation for students abroad. You’ll need a pair of shower shoes too if you’re in dorms. Remember tip number one, pack lightly! Four pairs is probably all you really need.

5. Don’t bring money. It’s a lot easier and cheaper to get money with a debit card from an ATM than it is to try and change American dollars to Euros. Cheap is, of course, a relative term, because you’ll still have to pay a fee to transfer the money, and the exchange rate right now is terrible, about 1.4 dollars to the Euro. Ouch.

6. Medications. Make sure you bring all the prescription medications you’ll need for your entire time abroad. It’s illegal to ship prescription medicine to Europe. And medicine in Germany like Advil is much more expensive than in the U.S., so it is definitely worth it to pack what you think you’ll need. Before you leave, make sure you find out what the country’s policy and price is for medications.

7. Water bottle! It’s incredibly useful, especially since water in Germany has to be bought. If you aren’t opposed to tap water, you can always refill it from the sink in your room or dorm and in the bathrooms of restaurants. It will save lots of money in the long run.

8. Finally, Find out what your program will provide. In Reutlingen, bedding and cooking utensils, among many other things, are provided for the students by the Valpo program. There are also many other items, like desk lamps, shower caddies, and hangers that other students have left behind that are up for grabs by the new students. Talk with your program’s director or a contact at your place of study to see what they can provide for you before you pack.

After I used up all of my brainpower in packing, I left for Valpo for a few days to catch up with my friends and see those I would miss most before leaving for four months. Needless to say, it didn’t help slow down my emotional roller coaster ride thinking that this would be the last time I’d see them for a long time. There were times I didn’t want to leave, and times I was so excited that I just couldn’t sit still. But the time came to leave, and since there really was no turning back after buying a $1500 plane ticket and an $800 Eurail pass, I left for the airport. And after all of the goodbyes, we turned the corner with a last glance back and were ready for our flight!

Our home for 9 long hours

After, of course, spending time getting through security with their fancy new machines… And spending way too much money on Reese’s Pieces because it would be the last peanut butter I’d be able to eat for a while… And sitting for way too many hours waiting for the flight… But then we finally got on board, and after a long, fairly restless, very uneventful flight we made it to Germany and to our dorm safe and sound!

48 hours into our semester, and there are already so many experiences to talk about, but those will have to wait until next time.

Bis später! (Til later!)

Departure for Germany!

August 24, 2011 / Zach Nelson / 0 Comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s already August 24th, and that in 12 hours I’ll be on the way to Chicago to catch my flight to Germany! For the past year-and-a-half I’ve planned on spending this year in Tübingen. “A year’s not that long, it’ll go by quickly” and “The classes will be in German, but I’ll catch on,” I would explain nonchalantly when people asked me about my trip. Now that I’m leaving so soon, it’s really starting to hit me how long it will be before I’m back visiting my favorite places, and how much of a challenge university-level courses in German might be.

Underneath the pre-departure nervousness, however, I’m actually very excited. I have both my bags packed (and under the weight limit!), I’ve checked into my flight online, selected my seats, and I’ve enjoyed many goodbye lunches, dinners, coffee dates, and visits with friends and family. I’ve done all I could to gear up for my year abroad, and I’m looking forward to the experiences to come.

Here are some of my packing tips for anyone interested in traveling abroad:

1) Start preparing early. I started to slowly add things to my packing list about two months ago. This gave me plenty of time to think everything through, and avoid the last-minute stress of trying to figure out whether I had everything I needed.

2) Leave space for items you will bring home! Many people say, “If you forget anything, you can buy it over there!” I find it helpful to bring as many disposable and toiletry items with you instead of buying them there. That way, you can save money with the bad dollar-to-euro exchange rate, and ensure that you’ll have some space on the way back.

3) Space -saver bags work miracles! For bulky clothing items, such as winter coats, I would highly recommend purchasing some of these. I fit two winter coats into one bag and after squeezing all the air out, my coats took up only a fraction of the space they would have normally needed. Beware: even though objects take up less space, they still weigh the same!

4) Weigh your bags at home, and leave a couple pounds of leeway for scale inaccuracies! A few years ago, I spent a semester in Frankfurt and made the mistake of overpacking. Both of my bags were overweight, which led to a pretty stressful shuffling of items into my carry-on luggage. My scale at home said both suitcases were exactly 50 pounds, but the airport scale said otherwise. This time, I bought a luggage scale, and didn’t fill my suitcases past 47 pounds.

That’s all for this post! I’ll post an update from Germany in a couple days once I’m all settled in.

Bis Dann!

(Until then!)

Packing and Europe arrival

August 16, 2011 / Jake Stefan / 0 Comments

So the day has finally come: I am officially in Europe.

Schönbrunn (Vienna, Austria)

The departure date had always seemed so far off in the distant future, but in these last weeks it caught me almost off guard! Of course I have been planning this year abroad frantically since I decided to study in Tübingen late my freshman year, but it never seemed real until I was packing my bags and saying goodbye. But, nonetheless, I have made it to Europe just fine and am absolutely thrilled to be here.

I am here a few weeks early to spend time with my family before I move into my room in Tübingen. Since my grandparents are from Europe we still have a lot of family living in Germany, so my parents, my brother and I will spend time visiting them, and we’ll also get a chance to meet up with my grandparents and aunt and uncle who are on vacation here! However, those adventures will have to wait for more commentary until the next post.

Packing was quite the experience, and for a while seemed impossible. It was so overwhelming to think that I had to fit everything I’d need for 12 months in two 29″ suitcases! So after 72 stressful hours of organizing, cramming, fretting and trying to slim down two hugely overweight bags, here are my tips (learned the hard way!) for packing:

Ashley and me! (after packing)

1) Have a Friend Help!

Originally, I had undertaken the daunting task by myself, but the result of that fiasco was an emotionally exhausted college student who still had nothing packed. Eventually I called up my best friend who came over and helped me sort things out. It was really nice to have someone help who could be realistic about what to bring, and could also contribute some common sense during a stressful time.

Space Bags!

2) Use “Space Bags” With such limited space, big items like coats and sweaters can really take up a lot of room. Using “Space Bags” was a great way to compress those items for the trip over. Be careful, though… the bags still weigh the same! Those vacuum sealed bags might look light weight on television, but they’re heavy rocks when you’re packing!

3) Get a luggage hand scale

One of my good friends from High School just got back from a semester abroad and was nice enough to lend me a hand scale for weighing my luggage. It turned out to be invaluable when it came time to make sure my bags weren’t over the weight limit.

4) Realize you can’t bring everything

Perhaps the hardest part for me was realizing that while I’m abroad, I’m not going to have the luxury of all my belongings no farther than a short drive away. Bringing a minimal amounts of clothes was difficult enough, but it was very tough to part with the small library of books I’ve collected over the years, all my miscellaneous mementos, and particularly my (largeish) bible that simply weighs too much to bring along. While I know I’m not parting with these things forever, leaving them behind is an unsettling reminder that my year abroad will push me outside my comfort zone, challenge my complacencies and require me to adapt to new surroundings.

For now I’m back to traveling! A post is coming soon about my travels as I slowly make my way to Tübingen and meet up with the other Valpo students there!

Goodbye Valparaiso, Hello Santiago!

July 25, 2011 / Anna Wiersma / 1 Comment

Hola from Santiago!

Wow, Friday was a big day. I had my goodbyes in Valparaiso, traveling and settling in to Santiago, and going to the Avril Lavigne concert all in one day…no wonder that I slept until 11:30 today, haha! (That could also have something to do with the fact that I have my own room with an incredibly comfortable bed here…not really missing the YMCA at all!).

You know how I said that my goodbye in Valparaiso wasn´t really hitting home in my last post? Well wow, yesterday it definitely did. I went to go serve for my last day at the soup kitchen, and we had brought gifts for our friends there. Giving the gifts and being able to thank them was really great, but then they opened the doors to the dining room and all the people were there with a little snack buffet set out to thank us. I was SO surprised, let the waterworks begin. Especially when Mauricio gave this speech about our time and work here that was one of the kindest things I´ve ever heard. It was the perfect send-off, even though it was definitely hard to have the fact set in that I may never see these people again…or at least not for awhile…and that I was leaving my beautiful Valparaiso! 🙁

But…luckily Santiago has been pretty awesome!!! We are staying for free in the apartment of a family friend of Levi, and she is so nice and has a BEAUTIFUL apartment, it has it’s own personal elevator that goes up to her door, how cool is that?!?! Here’s the highlights of my time in Santiago:

TOP 5 SITES:

1. Cerro Santa Lucia y San Cristobal

Sorry Valparaiso, but hands down the coolest acensor (elevator) I´ve experienced was on Cerro SanCristobal, it was HUGE, like an amusement park ride and the views from the top were incredible. Both hills are filled with nature trails, tourist and craft shops, cafes, cool old buildings and castles, and San Cristobal has a GIANT statue of the Virgin Mary you can hike up to, it was awesome.

2. La Moneda and surrounding area

Government buildings…I´m a nerd 🙂 But it´s really pretty and La Moneda is the presidential palace which was bombed during the 1973 military coup, Salvador Allende, the president, died inside. After studying it for so long, it was quite the experience to actually see. All the museums were free on Sunday, so I went to the history museum which had his broken glasses that were taken from La Moneda after the bombing…chilling

3. Parque de la Paz (Park for Peace)

This park sits on the old site of Villa Grimaldi, the main torture and detention center used during the Pinochet dictatorship. It was destroyed in the last year of the dictatorship to conceal evidence, but since it has been turned into a national monument, and it was an incredible and emotional experience to visit. I´ve studied Chile during the Cold War quite a bit, and my human rights class in Spanish had a whole unit on Villa Grimaldi. The park is a mix of sculptures, memory walls with names and pictures, and reconstructions of building based on survivors accounts. The descriptions of the atrocities that happened there, mixed with actually seeing what the cells were like, and then walking through the rose garden with the names and faces of the tortured and killed, makes this an emotional experience, but I´m so glad I went, it was an important thing for me to do, and I think an important thing for Chile that this park is here now.

4. Mercado Central

Huge fish market that´s also filled with seafood restaurants….I saw octopus! And countless other really weird sea creatures! And ate delicious fresh fish! It´s a cool experience 🙂

5. Patio Bellavista

Bellavista is party central in Santiago, and Patio Bellavista was my favorite spot. It´s filled with tons of beautiful craft stalls and tourist shops on the outside, all the walls and floors are mosaics, and the whole plaza is filled with bars and restaurants…and lots of happy hour promotions 🙂 Live music and performances go on every night, and discotecas are on all the surrounding streets, you can´t be bored spending a night there.

TOP 5 MOMENTS

1. Luke eating sea urchin

Hands down, funniest/most terrorizing thing I´ve seen in awhile. Luke really has wanted to try octopus, but for some reason the markets just sell it and restaurants weren´t making it. SO, he went for sea urchin. Which ended up coming in a ice-cold soup. Being the brave man he is, he still tried it, only to find that it was also completely raw and DIGUSTING! I thought he was going to puke. And the waiter kept trying to get him to eat more…..jajajajajaja, so awful…but my fish was good! ;D

2. Avril Lavigne concert!!!

Haha, this was so much fun. We heard about the concert in Valpo, it was on our last day of work, and tickets were only $40…so we decided it would be a fun way to celebrate being done…I mean, how random is it to say you saw Avril Lavigne perform in Santiago?! And she sang Complicated and Sk8ter Boi….and all the Chileans knew every word….my life is complete 😉

3. Cooking in a nice kitchen!

We decided to cook dinner for the woman whose apartment we are staying in last night, and it was a surprise to me how nice it felt to cook! The kitchen at the Y sucked, to be blunt, so I rarely made anything, and the process was never fun. But whipping up pasta and chicken in a gorgeous, clean kitchen and having a long Chilean dinner at good old 9pm was pretty great 🙂

4. Splurging on typical Chilean food for dinner.

I tried Pastel de Choclo for the first time (corn cake). It comes in a black stone bowl and I got it vegetarian, so it´s this yummy cooked sweet corn, that´s crusty on top, soupy in the middle and filled with veggies….SO YUMMY! That plus wine, pisco sour and arroz con leche was heaven 🙂

5. WORST MOMENT = OUR BUS TO ARGENTINA WAS CANCELED DUE TO SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS!!! 🙁 We got a full refund for tomorrow morning, so cross your fingers that we can leave tomorrow! On the bright side, I would have never seen Cerro San Cristobal or Parque de la Paz if I wasn´t stuck here today, and those were two of my favorite spots…so we´ll focus on the silver lining 🙂 Hopefully, the next time I write will be from Buenos Aires, chao!

Top 6 Greatest Things About Living in Valparaiso, Chile and Top 6 Things I’m Ready to say CHAO to!

July 22, 2011 / Anna Wiersma / 0 Comments

THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT VALPARAISO, CHILE

The beautiful view from the top of ceros (hills). My favorite is from Mauricio’s porch, you can see the hills packed with colorful houses, the ocean, and busy downtown. I’ll also really miss the nightview, when all the hills are lit up like Christmas trees.
The friendliness. People are so inclusive and friendly here, I love it. I was eating alone at the café at Isla Negra, and another woman who was eating alone asked if she could join me. We had an awesome hour long conversation, and the whole time I was thinking, “this would never happen in the U.S….that’s sad!”. I had gone out with a girl a couple nights through mutual friends, and thought she was really nice, but didn’t know her that well. She ended up inviting me to her house for her birthday party and then we ran into each other on the bus back from Isla Negra and sat by each other, just talking for a good 90 minutes. Everyone shares whatever they have with you and people have been so kind in including me in their plans, especially when I was new here. It’s really made me want to reach out and be more inclusive to the people who need it in my University. I really want to volunteer with the international students in Valpo now that I know what it’s like. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out to me and helped me find my niche here! The friendly, group-oriented Chilean culture makes it easy, but still, I’ll always be grateful.
Bars and discotecas! I love going out to dance here and I LOVE the music here, it’s just so perfect to dance to! My ipod definitely has it’s fair share of Latin pop music, Chico Trujillo and Nano Stern by this point 🙂 I will not miss that you are expected to dance until at least 5 in the morning, even if you are dead tired…sometimes I just want to leave at 4 in the morning and sleep, ok?! And I’ll miss being able to go out to a bar or order wine with dinner…but hey, I’ll only have 2 months until I’m 21 and legal in the U.S! But I won’t be able to order a terremoto or pisco sour in the U.S…and I’m going to miss those drinks a lot!
Pastelerías, panderías and street vendors. I love that there are pastelerías and panderías on about every street and that they all sell different kinds of sweets and pastries, it’s so fun to try them and they’re usually really cheap! I do really miss chocolate chip cookies and brownies though, everything is manjar here! Plus, there are street venders EVERYWHERE selling sweets and sopaipillas, they’ll come through the buses and sell to you, and lots of bus stops have little kiosks that sell about any snack you’d want for SUPER cheap. A bottle of Coke (that’s always the old-fashioned glass ones with a cap, I love it :D) and a bag of chips for less than $1?…yes please!
Living downtown in a big city. Sometimes it bothers me, because everything is always really hectic and loud, but overall I love being right in the center of everything! I need to walk about 3 minutes to get to Plaza Anibal where there are tons of bars, cafes, restaurants, discotecas and live music during the day! The grocery store is a 4 minute walk and right next to it are two outdoor street markets that I love wandering through. A quick local bus ride gets me to the movie theatre, any other bar, restaurant or discoteca I’d want to go to, and tons of other outdoor markets (which I’m also REALLY going to miss by the way, so cheap and so fun to spend an afternoon walking through! Just guard your money, it can get used up fast :D)
My students and the people at Las Cañas. These are the two programs that I enjoyed the most, and I really wish that I had more time to invest with these people. I already miss my kiddos a lot, and it’s hard to come to terms with that I probably won’t ever see most of these people again. But I’m just trying to focus on being grateful for the time that I’ve had with them and the memories that I will have forever. And I love that during goodbyes they always tell me that no one knows the future, and maybe God will bring us back together again…I hope so 🙂 But I am going to keep up as pen pals with my 3^rd graders and we’re even trying to work out skype chat dates, it was the teacher’s idea and I’m so excited about it!

THINGS I WILL NOT MISS ABOUT VALPARAISO, CHILE (gotta be honest, right?!)

Not having toilet paper or soap in bathrooms! UGH, SO ANNOYING! It’s just always a gamble here, but lots of places don’t provide soap and/or toilet paper, or if they do provide toilet paper, it’s by the sinks, so you have to remember to grab some before you go in the stall. My strategy has been to carry mini Kleenex packs and hand sanitizer around in my purse so I’m prepared, but the lack of soap just grosses me out…ew
Wild dogs in the streets. They are scary. They attack each other. They bark really loudly at me and follow me and make me nervous. Chao, perros, no voy a extrañarles! (See ya later dogs, I’m not going to miss you!)
The lack of aesthetics. Ok, I know that’s weird, but I couldn’t figure out how to phrase this. Valparaíso is gorgeous, but it’s more gorgeous from a distance to be honest. The views are incredible, the beaches and nature are beautiful, but when you’re actually walking the streets downtown or in a cerro, there are no beautiful green lawns with gardens, just dirt and gates, lots of the brightly painted houses are very old and in great need of repair, with tin roofs, and there’s A LOT of litter…and that makes me sad 🙁 I definitely get to experience the real nitty-gritty side of Valparaiso too by working in the poor areas of the city, very far from the toursity sectors. And that’s something I’m grateful for, it’s good to see what life is really like for a lot of the people here.
4. Feeling so dependent. I’m a very independent person. But living in a foreign country and speaking a different language makes you pretty dependent on people to show you your way, and even help you understand what is going on in a conversation. My life has increasingly become more independent here, which has been nice, but it’s hard to describe the “lack of independence” feeling. Some of it is just little things, like not having a place to invite people over to, so I’m always dependent on invitations, But I think it’s some of the group-oriented mindset that clashes with me here too, I’ve certainly realized what an individual-oriented mindset Americans have for the first time (you always here about it, but I think it takes living in another culture to really find out that it’s true!). It’s also some of the “aggressive kindness” I talked about in a previous blog post. Chileans are so kind, and really want the best for you, but if they think they know what’s best, watch out, your opinion no longer matters! Ick, I’m probably not describing this well, but all-in-all it’s just very different from being an independent college student, I think it’s been really good for me and made me grow a lot, but I will be ready to return back to my independent college life!
5. Living in the YMCA. My bed has fleas…they bite me…it’s really gross. They really like having exercise class at 8 am with super loud techno music. My room is above a basketball gym, and it seems that men’s favorite time to play basketball here is either 7am or 11pm. They also have karate classes in that gym at 8am Saturday morning…and they yell a lot in karate classes. Look to #1 for the bathroom conditions. And there is just no space to privately relax, I have to go down to the first floor to get wi-fi and there are ALWAYS tons of people around…it gets draining! So thank you for letting me complain, I’m very ready to stay in some hotels and actual houses for the next 2.5 weeks! And then go home to MY OWN BEAUTIFUL BED! J
6. Break-neck micro rides. At first the micro and colectivo system was really fun. Micros are the public buses that have routes all over Valparaíso. They also have a train system, but the buses take you more places. Colectivos are like taxis, but they have set routes, so you just get in and pay, and then get out at the stop you want, you can’t personalize it like in the U.S. I still feel really legit hailing my bus or taxi and knowing all the stops I need (believe it or not, I can navigate quite well through the city by this point…for anyone who knows me, they probably aren’t believing me b/c I suck at directions…but it’s TRUE! I guess I learn if I need to in order to survive, ha :D). But the micro drivers here are INSANE! They drive at break-neck speeds, and the roads here are crazy steep and curvy because you’re making your way up these huge hills, it still makes me so nervous! Erica and I both just having to put calming music on our ipods and breathe deep, but it doesn’t seem to bother the Chileans a bit. Plus, I also won’t miss the lack of organization in the bus system. The bus routes aren’t posted anywhere, each bus just has the streets and hills it serves written on it’s window sign, and there aren’t any bus schedules, so you just have to wait and hope that the bus you need comes soon. Again, Chileans don’t understand why this bothers my on-time, orderly American self, but it bothers all us gringos!

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