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| Tübingen in the sunshine |
For my first post I thought I’d say a little bit about my
time in Germany so far. My friend and I have been planning to do this for a
while so I might steal some of the ideas we had. We actually made a list of the
pros and cons of Germany the other week, there were more pros than cons in the
end but still a lot of things that I still don’t fully appreciate/understand
here. I came to Germany under the impression that it would be pretty similar to
the U.K and in comparison to other countries where friends are studying, it
probably is. But it’s not as similar as I hoped and a lot of things have taken
some adjusting too.
When I arrived the first issue was obviously the whole
speaking German thing. Everyone does speak some level of English here, but their
first attempt is obviously going to be in German. I think I spent the first few
weeks here with a pretty blank stare on my face. However, worse than the language
barrier was the huge amount of stuff I had to do to matriculate at the
university. In Edinburgh it’s usually go see your director of studies or if you’re
lucky just send them an email. In Tübingen (Germany?) matriculating requires
you to visit numerous different offices to collect numerous forms that have to
be signed; this includes proving you have health insurance and registering that
you now live here, amongst other things. That might sound easy and it probably
would be if the offices were open for more than 2 hours a day. I’ve heard
people in Edinburgh complain when the University offices close for lunch, try
only being open 9-11 Monday and Thursday or something equally pointless. I’ve
just about got used to it by now (it’s only been 4 months) but it was a struggle.
The other thing this year abroad has taught me about
Edinburgh is that we’re incredibly spoon fed. From day one you’re pretty much
told what modules to do and assigned them without much choice. Here it’s
completely my choice, which is pretty daunting when you don’t even understand
the title of the lectures; let alone what the lecturer is actually saying in
them. Geschichte des Sowjetunion has been a particular delight. In general no
one really explained what was going on here and it took a long time to work it
out for myself. Once I sorted it out it’s all ended up being pretty simple (it’s
exam time at the moment though so I might take that back) I do half the course
load I would do in Edinburgh and most of them are aimed at International
students. One is even partly assessed on a collage I made, so I can’t complain
too much. Apparently the Schwäbian people, the people who are from round here, like to complain a lot. At least we have that in common.
The culture shock in coming to Tübingen was definitely far
more than I anticipated. Even small things like the fact everything is closed
on a Sunday seemed like a big deal. The German stereotypes are also true to an
extent, everyone is very law-abiding, no one crosses the road when it’s a red
man, everybody recycles and if you try and put your feet on a seat on the bus
somebody will tell you. Nothing very major but definitely makes it harder to
adjust. The living situation has been the hardest to get used to. Unlike in
Edinburgh, where you move into a flat with friends, the students here usually
just rent a room in a flat and live with strangers. My flatmates are actually
really nice, but the first few weeks were tough. There isn’t the same culture
here of chatting to the new person and inviting them to meet your friends,
people are generally a bit more closed off and it takes longer to get to know
them. I talk enough for 2 people though so it worked out eventually.
I think that’s probably enough complaining for the day, bit
of an essay. It definitely isn’t all bad and I’m sure there’ll be some posts
about the good points and more about the bad points. The year abroad is
generally great and definitely an experience but it has it’s bad points like
everything and I think most people would agree with that.
