Two Weeks

Tomorrow (Monday) marks two weeks that I have been in Heidelberg.  Which seems totally crazy because so much has happened in these past two weeks.

When I first arrived, we were brought to our apartments by the AJY program and I am not going to lie, I was really thrown off when I got to mine.  It was DIRTY.  Like way past cluttery.  There was dirt everyone, bugs and little flies all over the place, the bathroom was a mess.  I’m not trying to be super rude to my roommates, but all I could keep thinking was “how can someone live like this.”  The whole place was giving me really bad anxiety and I did not even want to be there, but I also could not clean because my schedule was so busy that I hadn’t had the time.  I finally got to cleaning last Sunday and with the help of some friends I am blessed to have, everything is much more sanitary and organized.  My one roommate was super embarrassed that I had to give the apartment a full scrub down, but he has been keeping it clean ever since so I think it was a valuable endeavor.

My other stress comes from the WiFi.  Which is also why I haven’t been updating my blog quite as often.  As I mentioned in one of my other posts, I do not have reliable WiFi in my apartment.  The connection drops every few minutes and nothing works.  I emailed and called the Network company and spoke to my program Supervisors about it.  Essentially, the answer I got was that “it’s being worked on but you know how these things go.  It’s Germany, it takes awhile.”  Which I am really frustrated about by the way.  That is probably my biggest culture shock scenario happening right now, is how slow everything operates and the minimal emphasis on customer service, at least compared to in America.  I could tell that my one Professor felt bad when he told me there was nothing to be done except wait – I think he was waiting for me to cry.  But I just nodded and went home and screamed about it into my pillow.  Again, I know WiFi is a small problem in the grand scheme of things but it means that I cannot connect with friends and loved ones back home unless I specifically go into my program building which is down town.  So now, I am just praying that it gets fixed or another solution presents itself.

Okay, now that everyone is caught up on my two major frustrations, I will tell you about all of the fun things I have done.  I finally went up to Heidelberg Schloss with my program and that was fascinating.  I will have to do another trip up soon.  I learned about the German “saint” of drinking, Perkeo (which literally means “why not?” in German slang) and how much of the palace gardens and architecture were designed as a romantic gesture to the King’s lover.  If anyone wants to confess their love to me, please take note.  I want a castle too.  My friends and I have found the best Gelato in Heidelberg and its only a few stores down from our Program building.  We go pretty much every day, so it is good that we have been walking a ton and the scoops are small.  Just yesterday I did a gorgeous six-ish mile hike with two of my new friends from the AJY Program.  It was a really fun morning.  The views of Heidelberg were gorgeous and we hiked to some old monastery ruins, as well as to a Nazi amphitheater.  I love how much history can be found in Heidelberg.  I have never enjoyed learning names and dates, but actually being in a historic place makes the history come alive and it is so much more tangible.  For example, we toured the Student Prisons in the old part of Heidelberg University.  I learned that universities used to have legal jurisdiction over their students and could physically jail them for things such as disturbing the peace or illegal fencing matches.  Eventually, getting thrown in jail for a night or two became a right of passage and everyone tried to do it.

In addition to many more fun activities that I glossed over, I have started my preliminary course with the American Junior Year program.  This is not one of my courses that I will be taking once the semester starts.  It is purely an orientation language course to prepare us for the DSH, the German placement exam.  After we have completed that and know our scores, we will register for classes that will begin the second week of August.  I am pretty nervous but I also really just wish we were at the point where we were already in actual classes.  The intense grammar review that we are doing right now is not the most fun and I am antsy for the semester to start.

I have still been struggling with some pretty massive bouts of homesickness.  That is not to say that I have not had fun, but it is still so different out here and adapting has been pretty hard.  I miss my brothers and their goofy personalities something awful, I just want to cuddle my dog, and I wish I could hug my parents.  But I am working on it every day and praying about it every minute.  And I have met some amazing people in this program who have been very supportive.

I have already changed so much in such a short time and I really cannot wait to see how much further I progress.  My German gets better every day, even though I really need to start speaking it more in every day life.  Although, today I gave someone instructions to my favorite ice cream place in German and he understood, so I am going to call that a win.

Please keep praying for me and sending me good thoughts.  I love and miss you all.

P.S. For pictures, look on my Facebook account.

-Meghan