TRAVELING AND WOES, UP TO MY NOSE
First off, I want to say that I love traveling, in pretty much every way. I love it because I feel like a little kid on a field trip. There's always something new to see and there's always a little element of surprise that comes with it. As all of you know, I'm still waiting to grow up, and taking advantage of every opportunity to see the world through a kids eyes. But the truth is, I'm not a kid. I'm an adult. And I'm traveling around the world. And I can drink beer. Baller.
PICTURE UPDATE
CBYX/PPP - 17 - Potsdam und LeipzigThrow up the pictures and follow along to what I got into this past weekend!
Friday
Friday I headed up to Potsdam and hung out with Katherine and her friend Tamara. We walked around town, saw a couple castles (including one that did not look like a castle but was awesome because it was really different) and got to get a little taste of the city. It was cool coming back, as I had been here last year with Zach. Definitely cool seeing some of the same stuff at a different time of year.
Speaking of time of year, fall is still in full swing, and it's practically December! One of the best things about Potsdam was the amount of nature and parks right in the city. I'm one who needs to get away from civilization every now and then, and even though I was right in the heart of the city, I was still able to get lost in the parks and nature that call Potsdam home. And the best part was that all the fall colors were still hanging around, and it made for an absolutely beautiful fall day!!!
While there, following a tip from one of my Brazilian classmates, we made our way to Brauerei Meierei. Ohhhhhh baby was it good. And, I think I had the best beer in Germany to date. It was an Herbstbock (Fall seasonal Bock), it was dark, it was strong, and it was everything I've missed about American beer. I was in heaven. If only that place was closer...
Saturday and Sunday
Well I went home Friday night from Potsdam, and left early Saturday morning for Leipzig to meet up with Mike, fellow PPPler, and T-Maack aka efficient German aka Tall Thomas, who was visiting some old roommates in town. Well, I did a little bit of exploring with Mike, then we headed back to meet up with TMaack and his friends. Once we got back, we headed out for a little bike ride through some parks and eventually to a little tower with a great view of all of Leipzig. We had great weather too, so it was a beautiful sight! Saturday was filled with a lot of exploring and checking out the city. We did a little more exploring down town, checked out some bars, and made a great day of it.
On Sunday, we headed to the Volkershlachtsdenkmal. This is the biggest monument in Europe, at 91 m tall, and was built to commemorate the Battle of Nations, the pivotal defeat of Napoleon's Army in 1813 that changed the tides of War. I'm starting to realize my absolute infatuation for big buildings, machines, structures, etc., and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was huge, and the statues were all sorts of cool. In a way, I felt like I was in some kind of Viking tomb with the sheer scale of the statues and the awesome soldiers that were created everywhere out of stone. This was an absolutely awesome monument to visit.
One thing that T-Maack pointed out about the monument was very interesting. The Volkerschlachtdenkmal is a construction of the state rather than a construction of religion. In Europe, churches are (almost) always the biggest structure in a city or region. The established religion used their power to construct strong symbols everywhere. However, this monument is one of the few big structures (outside the former USSR) standing that was built not by religion, but by the state to showcase its power and resilience. This was a pretty cool little tidbit to ponder.
Overall, I had another great weekend. A ton of nature and city mixed into a couple of days. Great people, great fun.
Struggles and Woes - Living
As always, life isn't all fun and games. Last week I sent an email to the GIZ and officially requested to move from my current living situation. Because of a whole slew of things (Internet, distance from everything, others), and especially the smoking residue, I was not going to keep going in that environment. Especially after being reminded that my cousin lost a lung due to second-hand smoke, I am not going to take any risks in letting that fester.
After talking with the local director a couple of times, and then talking with Dietrich, they were going to talk it out with the GIZ that runs the program. Well, I hadn't heard of any progress in a week, so it was time I get my point across so everyone could see what has been done, my concerns, and hopefully lead to a quicker resolution. Well, not two minutes before I started writing this section, I got an email from one of the directors in the main GIZ office saying that they are going to begin a search for a new living situation for me. That is a huge relief.
I need to have some patience, because it's not going to happen tomorrow. But hopefully I'll be able to have some input and help to resolve this as soon as possible. And, once we finally find a solution, I'm really hoping things will start to look up. There's quite a few things that have been bringing me down with my current situation, so hopefully this change will be a big catalyst.
Struggles and Woes - Distance
Well, Thanksgiving is next week. And I'm a little down that I won't be able to be in Bend with my Mom, Sisters (and soon-to-be brother-in-law), Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins for the holiday. Normally I'd spend the holiday on campus or in the research lab, but with recent events going on in everyone's lives, it is pretty hard not being there for everyone.
Regardless of what goes on, I know I'll be able to Skype with all of them and catch up on how things are going! That'll be one really nice thing. If I'm not able to be there physically, at least I can talk with all of them. And, they'll all be in one place at the same time, so that saves a lot of logistical work! I can't wait to see/talk with all of them!
Struggles and Woes - Faux-loneliness
My mind is a piece of crap sometimes. Whenever one thing is eating at me, it always finds a few more to add on to the pile, and a few more, and..... Well, feeling like there's so many things going wrong or awry just leads me into a little world of loneliness. We were all warned of the dip in emotions around this time in the program because everything is coming to a head at once. The slow adjustment to the new city, the constant struggles of the language, the daily task of trying to meet new people and establish a repertoire, the questions and work trying to find an internship for the spring, and just a whole slew of other things.
I pride myself in being able to get through things on my own, but sometimes I just want to be around people. This isn't OSU, this isn't Olympia, and this sure is a completely unique experience compared to everything I've experienced before. As my mommy always says, "just take it one day at a time". I'm working on doing that. Hopefully with some patience and refreshed mindset I can get back on track.
Struggles and Woes - Language
I've been working pretty hard (some days better than others) on trying to learn and practice my German every day. It's a slow process, but it's coming. Well, yesterday, on top of all of the other things that were eating at me, I got a figurative slap across the face. After class our teacher was handing back homework. She came over to me and told me to a) redo my homework, b) use a dictionary, and c) that it didn't make any sense.
Now I know I've got a lot of work to do on getting good with this language, but that was a total knee breaker. Getting a dumb look and response like that is pretty disheartening.
Rant I
I don't think students here learned what respect during a lecture is. There are people CONSTANTLY talking during class. About everything, it's pretty ridiculous. It's hard enough for me to understand what the professor is saying, but with people whispering and talking the entire time, it's damn near impossible. I don't get it. Did they not learn to shut up when other people are talking? Especially someone who determines your grade in a course? This is all sorts of frustrating.
Rant II
So many people here smoke. It's scary and startling. I've never been surrounded by so much no matter where I go. Any time I go into a building I have to walk through a wall of it because there's always a handful of people standing right next to the door on their smoke break. I know there's nothing I can do about it, people don't change overnight, if they even change. But this level of such a bad health habit is quite startling.
Something Good
Once again, I don't know what I would do without Frisbee. We had practice last night, and I really needed it. After a day like yesterday with so many downs, it was great to put all of my anger and frustrations into intensity during practice. Which I surely did.
Über Thanks
There was one big decision that was weighing me down for quite a while. I'm not going to disclose it. But thanks to a desperate plea to a couple extremely close friends, I made the hard, but right choice. I can't express my thanks to every one I have to lean back on. It would take me quite a while to name everyone. But whether you know it our not, I am unbelievably appreciative for all of the friends and family that have helped me to get to where I am, helped me with the tough choices in life, helped me see the other side of a situation, or helped me put a smile on my face when things were grim. You guys are incredible, and I can't thank you enough...
Up Next
Class and stuff this week. Thursday I've got another meeting of Ingenieure ohne Grenzen. We'll see how that goes. Friday idk. But Saturday I'm probably going to the FC Magdeburg football match. That should be fun! Then later on heading to a WG party from one of the guys on the frisbee team. More people!
I'm trying to set a goal for myself to do something social every night. Social as in getting out and meeting or being around other people (preferably germans) to get in as much language practice as possible, and try and keep my spirits up through fun and activity. It hasn't been going too well every week. But I'm working on it.
Still not sure what I'm going to do for Thanksgiving. Dietrich offered to have people over, but I'm probably not going to jump on that. There's something that my Uni is putting on, but not sure about that either. I'm either going to go travel somewhere, or head to Münster to meet up with a bunch of other PPPlers. It might not be decided until next Wednesday or something. Go me for indecisiveness...
And plans are kind of (not really) formulating for Christmas Break. It looks like I'll be doing a bit of traveling, but we'll see what and where to. Again, indecisiveness...
Original Publish Date: November 19th, 2013