my trip to germany

I spent my junior year (1998-1999) studying in Germany. I went on an exchange program, and had a great time, but the tale is more complicated than that... I wrote this about eight months after I got back, in response to an email from another student considering the same program... It serves as a good summary on how I felt about the year abroad, and a bit of a scrapbook.

Okay, my experience studying abroad was, in a lot of ways, far from "normal". At the end of my Sophomore year, I was facing major personal, financial and academic crises, and I (mistakenly or not — who knows?) made study in Germany my ultimate priority. Just so you know how important this was to me. Up until then, I had been an Electrical Engineering and Psychology double-major.

The EE Department was much more strict about what classes I needed to take to get credit than the Psych Department. (My Psych advisor said something like, "Go, have fun, take fun classes, and don't worry about anything. We'll get it all straightened out when you get back!") So, I planned on focusing largely on EE in Germany and possibly going a fifth year to finish the dual degree. My multiple crises put an end to that dream. Since the dam broke at the end of the year, all the pieces were already in place for an engineering-centered year abroad. Despite the fears of my parents, I left for Germany.

From September 1998 through January 1999, I lived in a nice but sterile apartment in Mittweida, Germany. Mittweida is a small town, about two hours south-west of Berlin. I was attending the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Technik — that is, a technical school. I was studying via a large, international exchange organization that specialized in Engineering study.

For the first month or so, I took language courses with other students in the exchange organization — most of whom were Americans. That means, despite our best efforts, we learned little German. I got to know one of my roommates, Stefan, who was very nice. We mostly talked about politics and computers, but Stefan was extremely busy and didn't hang out much at the flat. I had another roommate, from somewhere in Malaysia, I think, but he spoke less German than I did, and almost no English, so we didn't talk much.

Around the time classes started, I took a short trip to England, to visit my girlfriend (we were studying abroad in different countries simultaneously). It was a wonderfully confusing trip, with lots of little lessons about all sorts of European things. For instance, you will learn that almost everything in Germany is paid for via "Uberwiesungen" — that is, direct money transfers at the bank. Sometimes though, like when you need tickets quickly, you need to accelerate the process by faxing people the receipt. I suggest you have people you do important business with write down important instructions, because you will understand it better later.

So, how did I get to Antioch and Tübingen, right? Well, when I was away in England, an advisor in the Akademische Auslandsamt was working up a schedule for me, which I was supposed to pick up when I got back. Except that she went on vacation, and left it with another woman in the office. Except, that she became ill and left it with the department secretary. It took me a day or two to figure that out.

By then, I'd missed a few days of class. Bear in mind that I was also really ill at the time, having to do with not eating enough and the rapid on-set of really cold weather. By the time I did show up in class, I was already really far behind. More than that, though, I found that in two years of conversational German, no one ever taught me the translation for "2 + 2 = 4", let alone "cos ex ^ (sin w)". Also, although the material the were covering matched up rather well with what I needed, they made certain assumptions about my background — particularly in mathematics — that proved to be invalid assumptions.

As soon as she came back from her vacation, I had a long chat with this advisor from the Auslandsamt, and together we decided that I was in over my head, and that I might do better to take a step back, and work mostly this semester on improving my language and math skills, and tackle the more difficult courses in the spring semester.

Which sounded fine at the time, but I later found out that all the students at my level spent their spring semesters on internships, and that there were no applicable courses available from the university. Despite the best efforts on my behalf by the international exchange organization, there were no other schools available in my languages. Again, since study in German had been ranked as an ultimate priority, I re-evaluated my situation.

To be honest, the re-evaluation couldn't have come at a better time. Despite narrowing to a single major, I still had trouble thinking of myself as really being a full-time engineer. I didn't really fit there, and I realized that many of my struggles and crises from the past year or so were the direct result of trying to fit square pegs in round holes, if you know what I mean.

I signaled my home university (Case Western Reserve, in Cleveland, Ohio) about the change of majors and my desire to remain in Germany, wherever I could. That's how I found out about Antioch. Believe it or not, the information packet that came with Antioch's application contained more useful information than the sum of all papers I'd received from my other program.

So, in January, I mailed my stuff and shipped myself to Köln, where I lived during Karneval and Goethe Institut language training. Köln is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, incredible town. If you don't go there for language training programs, do find a way to get there at some time, preferably around the second week in February. Its a lively, exciting town, with equal parts cheer and bustle. In Köln, I lived in the basement of a Frau Neuman, who also housed another Goethe Institut student, and rented yet another room to a university student.

Goethe was a blast. Köln was great. The whole experience was wonderful. No one at the school was a native English speaker, and though infrequently, many of them spoke it rather well. Anywho, it was the first (and only) real "sink or swim" German-speaking experience I had, and February was the peak of my language fluency. Also, if you have the option, try to live with a family, at least part of your time in Germany. There is no other way to experience many aspects of German culture. You won't get it from your flat-mates at school (because school lifestyle is very flexible and non-involving) and you won't get it in a classroom. Its a unique experience. Yes, there are down-sides: you lose a little of your privacy and freedom and so forth, but its usually worth it.

March found me relocating to Tübingen, moving into my new room and starting Tübingen's "Language and Orientation Program". You'd think a month at a Goethe Institut (and the years of courses you've taken...) would be enough, but Tübingen entertains the notion that its program is all one needs. Also, the program is too heavy on Language and way too light on Orientation. Tübingen's library is frustrating, the departments are spread every which way and a little more introduction to the cafeteria would have been great (even if you never, ever go back).

Okay, well... the rest of the year is a down-hill charge. I spent April through June in classes, and a few weeks in July working a few Hausarbeits. Please take my experiences with a huge grain of salt — while I think a lot of what happened to me in Germany makes my perspective rather objective, the emotional roller-coaster I went through will be totally different than what other people went through.

Some things about my experience... I'm not exactly sure why I went to Germany. I suppose I know why I wanted to go, but I'm not sure why I actually went. I think, with all that was going on, I needed some follow through. I will tell you this: I had the wrong reason to want to go abroad. Don't go because you want to make international friends or learn more about culture or anything like that. You will do some of that stuff, but don't let that be the reason you go abroad.

You'll never be able to control that stuff, and when it isn't going well (which is most of the time... I mean, how many hours a day do you spend making friends on any normal day of the week?) you don't need more reasons to want to go home. Also, college is sort of too late for a lot of this stuff. Most of the students you'll meet will already have enough friends, and — especially in Germany — very few are outgoing or curious enough about other people to reach out to you. And, unless you've had German since the womb, you won't feel comfortable reaching out to them for a long time.

So, why should someone want to go abroad? Go abroad because you want to travel. As cheesy and "yuppie" as it may sound to a lot of folks, its a perfectly valid reason to go, and the best, most applicable time for it to. Okay, maybe don't mention this on any of your program applications but... Look, there's a big earth out there that most human beings will only see a tiny portion of before professional and familial responsibilities tie them to a house and a town and a single place semi-permanently. At this time in our lives, we have the lowest amount of responsibility (highest amount of freedom). Take advantage of it!

The sights and sounds and tastes you'll experience are well worth the price of admission. There's a world of difference in talking about the Berlin Wall, or seeing it in the background on TV, and actually standing in that space where it used to be. There's something deeply moving about real, tangible evidence of things that exist only in the imaginations of billions. Go to Europe because you want to travel, and you won't be disappointed.

To that end, in the first few weeks (during the orientation program, say) try to find a travel buddy. If you can't find a single person, try to set up a schedule of trips with different people, based on common goals. Try to find people with good reasons for making trips — like seeing distant family, a special church or what have you. It makes the trip worthwhile, and it will mean more to you. Also, don't leave all you travel for the long breaks. You will get bored on weekends. Find someone who will go with you to Göttingen, Reutlingen, Stuttgart and so on. These are places you can get to and back again in one day from Tübingen, and they're all a blast!

One thing about courses in Germany. You may or may not know, but course-work in Germany is almost non-existent at our level. You will read a lot, often even in English (depending on how recently important literature has been published in your field). Each of my classes distributed a list of course dates with corresponding topics, and each topic had its associated reading. Most professors expected students to sign up on the first day for Referate. Don't be too intimidated — German students like to "shop around", they probably won't know if they're keeping the course, let alone what topic they want. A Referate is usually like taking over the classroom to go over that day's topic. Many German students more or less recite the reading material, maybe with a visual aid or something.

Anywho, my professors all gave me the option of writing a Hausarbeit. Which is basically a long (10-20 pages!) paper elaborating one of the course's major topics. For example, for a class on Memory, I chose the topic of "Short-term memory". My professor suggested that I write on modern day theories. He expected a minimum of two new sources (ie, not mentioned in class) and a good overview of the material we had covered in class.

What about Tübingen, right? Well... It wasn't my favorite city of the year I was in Germany. Obviously, I really liked the month I was in Köln, and that's even with the really dismal weather we had. Mittweida had a disarming "cuteness", and it was really fascinating to see life in the "new states". Tübingen, in contrast, is surprisingly crowded and brimming with English-speakers. Despite Antioch's admirable best efforts, life in Tübingen is still pretty much an "American experience in Germany", but that isn't anything against Antioch. Antioch's program is one of the best I've encountered. Mostly, they've been there forever, so they know the town and the system and they have oodles of experience to rely on.

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