The Deutschland Leben

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.