Settling in

Having been in Munich for over two months now, I'm beginning to feel more comfortable here. The newness of living in Germany has worn off a bit and German is even starting to come more easily than English sometimes (so don't be surprised if I accidentally capitalize my nouns, or type sch instead of sh).

However at the same time, I've actually been feeling more homesick for the U.S. I think that part of that is wishing that I could have been in Chicago/Evanston for the election and that it's still kind of hard being without my good friends from school and still struggling a bit to meet more people here. But, overall I'm happy so far, and I'm really glad that I still have another 9 months to spend here.

Speaking of the election, pretty much everyone in Germany spent the week following it asking me about how I felt about the result. They also spent the entire week beforehand asking me if I had voted and for whom. In the end though, in addition to having an exciting new president, it's also nice knowing that Europeans' general level of respect for my country has increased.

Last week was actually a little crazy, though, because I had to give what's called a Referat, essentially an oral in-class presentation, on Friday for my History of the Consumer Society class. The topic was geography of the consumer society, and more specifically I presented on the book Nature's Metropolis, an environmental history of the development of Chicago and its hinterland during the 1800s. It was quite a lot of work considering my German is still nowhere near college level. It was just bad luck that I had to give my Referat so early in the course (being only the second student to do so), but fortunately it is over with, and I won't have to do as much work for the class later in the semester.

Overall classes are going alright--it is still hard to understand in-class discussion and all of what the teachers say, but my course load is rather light, and so I have time to try and figure things out at home. Tomorrow, I'm actually doing a try-out day to see if I can get a job at a trendy salad and juice bar near the universities.

Of course I'm also having fun doing other stuff outside of class. Yesterday I went to the Deutsches Museum, a famous museum in Munich dedicated to science and technology--like our National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of American History rolled into one. On Friday I went on a pub crawl with other international students at the TUM. And last weekend, some of the other Americans and I tried...and more or less failed to bake Hello Kitty sugar cookies--incidentally though, baking cookies seems to be something only American youths revel in, as we've found out from our foreign housemates. However, our cookies were gladly eaten up by the Spanish students whose party we later brought them to. For next weekend, I'm looking forward to a visit from my friend Niki, another Northwestern student who is currently studying abroad in Barcelona.

Pictures from the Deutsches Museum:

Machines & Engineering--pride and joy of the Germans.


Ships & planes


And of course space.

Looking down from the 7th floor. The Deustches Museum is one of the biggest, and the densest, museums I've ever been to. I actually didn't even get to see all of the different rooms and collections in the 5 hours that I was there, so I'll have to go back.

-TG-

Halloween and the Election

Friday was Halloween, and it's important to note that, while everyone in Germany is familiar with the way that Halloween is celebrated in the USA, it is still very new to them, and they don't quite have the hang of it. While there are many "Halloween" parties--it's getting more popular every year--there are still relatively few people who feel the urge to dress up. Fortunately, all of us American kids on the study abroad program put together a party for ourselves and some of the Germans we know so far.

Getting the party started...with a pair of depressed American business people ruined by the financial crisis, a pair from the movie Cabaret, "the Universe," and James Bond. The setting was an appropriately creepy basement.


Some of the other Americans dressed up as Ugly Betty, a librarian, and mouse.


Now some of the Germans, such as this pair of "aliens," were able to pick up the idea of a proper Halloween costume relatively easily.

But some of the other Germans, such as these three, were less cooperative, and emergency back-up costumes had to be issued.

Now, it's not just that Germans are party poopers, though. One of the reasons that Halloween hasn't really caught on, especially in Bavaria, is that the following day is an important Catholic holiday, All Hallows/All Saints' Day, on which many people visit the graves of their deceased family members. Fortunately, that doesn't really mean much to me, and so we threw a successful party, and it was great to be able to celebrate an American-style Halloween.

Meanwhile, yesterday I saw Swan Lake performed by the Russian National Ballet Company. Having not seen a ballet in probably a decade, it was really something impressive. However, I'm convinced that ballet is centered mostly on doing things that must be incredibly painful for the performers. But, I guess that's part of why it's so beautiful.

And in other, most important news, the U.S. presidential election is taking place tomorrow! Of course, the one time that Chicago will (hopefully) be the center of the universe, myself and the other Northwestern students here won't be there to be a part of it. Nonetheless, we are going to have an election-watching party here in Germany, and it will last into the wee hours of the morning--as long as it takes to find out who the next president will be!

-TG-