Week 2

Week to was the week that would make or break us. Chuck had already switched to a new class because he was having trouble with his teachers teaching style. I was feeling more and more like I was falling behind the rest of the class, or at least, like they knew something that I didn't. It was a rough week.

By week two, I had gone on night walks by myself around Ilmenau. So, I though that I knew the city pretty well. The most visited place was, by far, Kaufland. It was like the one stop shop. Anything that you needed, you could find in that place.

The locals all seemed to take us as a grain of salt. They didn't seem accomodating or friendly. They didn't seem standoffish or mean either. They just seemed indifferent with a hint of curiousity.

The second week is the week where I think I began to hear German and more quickly translate in my mind what was being said, instructed and what was going on around me. The only thing that frustrated me was that I had all of these words that I was hearing and understanding, but I didn't know how to use them myself. That is super frustrating. The only way that I could cope was by using as much English as the teachers and the people to whom I was speaking to would allow me to use. Sometimes, it worked and at others, it didn't. My free time activities that week were going to the Stundentin clubs in the evening and during the day I would go to the computer lab or stay in the room and listen to some music. I would listen to Chuck talk about his relationship and give him some feedback. Most nights they usually had something for us to do, so I did whatever they had planned, until it was time for the club. By this time you usually had some kind of routine down. Very little of what you did after class switched from day to day. We are creature of habit, afterall.

Getting Started

The first official day of the Sommerkurs was a hectic and stressful one. We woke up and had to go to an orientation ceremony at the kursburo. After immediately after that, we took a placement test. This was so gauge our proficiency in the language. Immediately following the test, we filed into another class room, this is where a few of the teachers explained to us, all in German, some of the other courses that would would be happening during and after our mandatory nine to twelve course. I got placed in group 3. That, to me, wasn't a bad group to be be in. I thought. I had some pretty cool characters in my class. Most of them were Russian. There was also a French girl, a Camaroonian girl, a Polish guy, and Kristin. It was a small class. But, I could tell that we would have fun from the start. Our teacher was Anke. She seemed very open and free. The only thing that surprised me was that there were so many Russians there. I thought, "Damn, can we get a little variety?". There were always new words that I was hearing for the first time. It didn't take long for me to pick up on what they meant. My only problem was learning how to speak. My favorite is ein bissien. I think that's how its spelled. Because all I know is a little.

Home At Last

I had great fun in Ilmenau. It was the first of many travel abroad experiences for me. The highlight of my trip there was probably the day that we went to Weimar and the Buchenwald concentration camp. There was so much to take in on that day. There was so much that I'd learned; and I'm not talking about just the city or its' figures. I learned a lot about myself and how I relate things in my mind. For every experience that I had in Germany, I tried to put myself in those time periods and in those situations. The thing that surprised me the most about German culture was the fact that everyone always stared at me, at least in the smaller cities. And I was totally freaked out about the guy in Kaufland in the canadian suit who grabbed my arm. I still don't know what that was about.

The German that I learned in those three weeks seemed very minimal. I guess I had expected more to learn how to speak. Instead, I learned how to listen and pick up on what was being said around me. I guess when you only take a year it takes a while to speak it, because you're still learning vocabulary and grammar. All I know is that I had a ball and I can't wait until they get to come over here. I have no problem showing them how we do things over here. And no need to worry, everything I would have in store for them is within reason and the law :)

The Journey

The only thing that I remember about the Journey over was arriving to the airport. I took a little cocktail to knock me out before we even boarded. I remember being anxious about leaving the states and going to a place where I may be an anomoly, attraction, or source of interest for the natives. Overall, I was excited to go. After we boarded, from that point on, all I remember is waking up for meals. Not even once did I go to the bathroom, too. When we landed, it seemed like the scene from "Home Alone" where the family is running through the airport. Yeah, that was us. I was still, a little groggy, but I kept up as well as everyone else. We had to catch a train in Frankfurt, that would take us to a smaller train station that would, in turn, take us to Ilmenau. I don't much remember anything on that ride either. I slept through it until, maybe ten minutes before we arrived to the smaller train station. After boarding the train to Ilmenau, I was fully awake and rejuvenated. I have no memory how long that ride was, but it was long enough for me to want to get off as soon as possible. When we finally did get off, Torsten, one of the mentors, grabbed up us and all of our stuff and took us to the Kursburo. That's where we would do all of our in-processing and where some groups would be taking classes. We found out that we were the first group to arrive. Then, they shuttled us up to the dorms, or barracks rather. The rooms we stayed in were in worse condition than what I had stayed in when I was in the military. I'm not one to bitch about conditions though. I got to chose Chuck as my roommate. I thought that this trip would either make or break our friendship at some point. But, I was excited to at least be there.

Eisenach

Eisenach was somewhat of a dissappointment. The betruems left it up to the students, ourselves, to do our own personal tours. So, us being the Americans that we are, decided that we could find all of the landmarks that we need to find on our own, with maps. Oh my God, how wrong were we. We had an hour and a half to find the Luther house and the Bach house, along with some of the churches there. Let me put it this way. By the time that we realized that we had walked in two circles, we had forty five minutes left. So, the American students, along with one our polish friends made a decision to find the Bach house. We got there and it took us, literally, twenty minutes to go through and take as many pictures as we could. And we got some pretty good ones. So by the time we got all the way through the house, there was only twenty five minutes to get back to the buses. Once everyone was accounted for we, then, headed to Castle Eisenach. This was the castle where St. Elizabeth performed all of her famed miracles for the poor and where Martin Luther translated the Bible into german. The castle was one of the most beautiful, and frankly, oldest things that I've ever seen. I was very impressed by the mosaic room. It must've taken an extremely long time to complete. I still can't get over all of the detail that these people had put into their work. I guess they had to take pride in their work, because there were no playstations or xboxs around in that time, and no choice but to perfect anything that they put their hands on. After the tour of the castle, I decided to go to the tower. As I stood at the top of the tower, I could see everything for maybe fifty miles out. It was windy, sunny, and all around beautiful.

Eisenach wasn't a total debacle. It would have probably been more interesting with a formal tour guide. And now I can say that I've been to a real castle, where people from history stayed. I would love to go to more places and see more cool stuff like castles and churches. There's so much out there that I haven't seen. I guess I have to get around to seeing some them at some point.

Winding down

I'll tell you what, thank God for the end of this trip coming up. For me, at least at the beginning of the last week, I feel like I have totally given up on the German language. In class, I've given up. Anke, my teacher, she can tell. I still participate in all of the activities ( when I can make it to class on time). It's just that everything has been forced crammed into my brain and it's too much for me to take. Whoever said that immersion is the best way to learn a language was lying. It's much too hard to learn a language when everyone else speaks Russian, even the teachers. Then there's all the love birds who've gone to every trip paired off like this is Paris or something. It makes me sick to my stomach. We came here to learn Deutsch, not to find love. I know that I sound like I'm bitching, but it's all true. I thought that I would have learned more language skills than I'd come here with. But that's not the case. The fact of the matter is, I really liked the culture part of coming here. It was good for me to see all of the cool old churches and buildings that figures and history had parts in. This experience really helped me appreciate and understand that a lot of things that have happened throughout history have roots in Germany. But damn the people here. They don't smile at you if you're alien to them. But they will talk to you if you show them that you can speak the language (that way they can't talk behind your back without you knowing). And the some of the people I came here with have changed too. I see sides to some people that I really can't stand and would rather do without at times. They all shall remain nameless. If you read this, and you think that I'm talking about you, then I, probably, am. And on the flip side, there are people who I had no idea about ( or rather I had made assumptions about them). They have made great impressions on me. And at times, I felt like the only sane one of the group. Not to say that I haven't had my moments. But one thing stands true, people are dramatic as hell. And I'm ready for a new change of scenary. Like everything, you have to take the bad in the same stride as the good. Maybe I did't get exactly what I thought I was going to get from this, but that's life. And life goes on, and so shall I. Peace.

Arriving In Ilmenau

When we first got to Ilmenau I thought "How beautiful". The long hours of flightand the boring train here were worth it. I like how it's tucked in this tiny little crevice between the forest and the mountains. The people are weird though. They all stare at you as you walk through the streets, as they sit in the cafes. When you walk past them on the streets, they don't acknowledge your presence. I guess it's some of the old ways of the DDR clinging to an atmosphere where everything is turning western. They have a McDonalds here, and even though I don't like McDonalds, the stuff on their menu looks so much better than ours. They sell Mickey D'S cheese in a place called Kaufland. It kinda reminds me of Wal-Mart. The only difference to me is that they have a few individual stores, where you can buy clothing and shoes.

I like how almost none of the streets are straight. It seems like every few meters (look, I'm talking metric system now) there's a turn or a slight curve; always going up or downhill. That brings me to the driving. It seems like everyone here has a system down, where they drive as fast as they want, even through the downtown area. I'm afraid that I may not make it home because I'm not used to drivers whipping around blind curves at 60 mph. Everything they drive, as far as I've seen, have been stick shifts. It's a wonder that more people here don't become rally car racers.

The downtown area is the most charming part of the city. Plain and simple, I like the detail and the care that Europeans put into their central areas. I also think that this place has a while to go before they get used to westerners coming here. I think that I dress very similar to the way that a lot of the people here dress. But somehow (other than the fact that they can see that I'm black), they know that I'm not from their neck of the woods. Ilmenau is a charming little town. You have to call it a town when there's only 30,000 people living here, and 6,000 of them are students. But I know I shall grow tired of it quickly. There's nothing to do in small towns.