The Library

Tübingen Library: Possibly the most pointless library ever 

I’ve been home for about 2 ½ weeks of my 2 month holiday so far. It’s somehow strange how easy it is to slip back into it, being in the UK is very easy. I hope going back to Germany is just as easy but I doubt it. What isn’t as easy to slip back into is doing real work. Erasmus is a strange experience. On the one hand it’s hard, learning a new language, doing everything in that language and adjusting to a new place is all pretty tiring. But on the other hand it’s pretty easy, after hearing about the stresses of 3^rd year from my Edinburgh friends I’m pretty glad to be avoiding the endless essays and assignments they seem to have.

For my year abroad I have to write some kind of year abroad dissertation for history. At the moment it seems a little impossible. In 1^st and 2^nd year we’re spoon fed for our essays, titles are provided, reading lists are given and it’s all reasonably straight forward, but now I’m on my own. I can write about anything from German history; Germany has a lot of history, a lot of controversial history. Choosing a topic was pretty stressful, but even once you’ve even vaguely come up with an idea you have to find your own books. Sound easy? It’s not. Especially when you’re in Germany and don’t even understand how to use the library.

Let me explain: in Germany you can’t just go into the library, browse for books and find some that might be useful. First of all you have to leave your bag, coat, whole life, outside. They don’t have an alarm system so you can’t take anything in that might help you steal anything from them. Then once you’re inside you discover that there aren’t any books (so you couldn’t steal anything anyway). You have to find your book on the catalogue (so no carefree browsing), order the book, and sometime in the next 2 hours to 2 days the book will appear under your personal collection reference. Not knowing what book I want or where to find said collection reference was severely hindering my ability to read anything.

So last week I went to Edinburgh to hit the library and generally catch up with people. Being in Edinburgh made me realise just how much I MISS IT! Edinburgh is awesome, I miss understanding how a university works, I miss my flatmates and I miss the things you can do in Edinburgh. Tübingen is a small place, a very small place, not many good night’s out/places to eat/things to do. Year abroad is a great experience but I can’t wait for 4^th year and being back (I could pass on the huge amount of work but the rest will be excellent).  Now that I have a flat sorted for 4^th year it all seems quite close, sadly in Germany the semester doesn’t end till the end of JULY! Goodbye summer I guess. It'll all be worth it when/if I'm fluent in German, should make next year a little easier.

I realise that this is a pretty rambling blog post but I’m trying to read about German electoral differences in the 1994 Bundestag election, pretty hard to be focussed in moments like this. 

The Germans

The University Prison....exactly what people imagine the Germans to have

To counteract the chaviness of the Geordie Shore post I thought I’d do another post about Germany. I finished my exams last week and since coming back people keep asking me what Germany is like and are the Germans how people imagine them. They’re both pretty hard questions to answer. In some circumstances the Germans are exactly what I thought they would be. For the people who study German in Edinburgh, the relationship with the professors is a lot more Frauke than Sabine. They’re very keen on their titles and I received a pretty angry email informing me it was ‘Doktor Professor’ not just ‘Professor’, no first names in Germany. However, if you go and speak to them, most are pretty friendly. My exams were mainly oral exams and all my professors were understanding of my German skills (or lack of German skills), maybe not something people would expect.

I guess the stereotypes we have of the Germans in England are based around them being very orderly, lacking in sense of humour and general a little bit cold. The orderly part could be true, students seem to work harder than in England but as far as the sense of humour and coldness goes, I don’t think it’s true at all. The sense of humour might be different to ours, but it’s funny in its own way, a few Germans I’ve met have some great banter (once I explained what it was) and generally they’re pretty good company.

As far as the coldness goes, I think it’s more of a cultural difference. In England people will quite quickly be ‘best friends’, it’s the freshers week phenomenon of needing someone to hang out with. In Germany on the other hand it takes a bit longer. At first, personal topics are definitely out of bounds and everything is a little more awkward. But once you get to know them, I would say that it’s a less fake friendship than what a lot of people have in England. I guess a big problem the British find in Germany is that people are quite blunt. In England everyone uses small talk and even terrible things are described as ‘not bad’. In Germany they say what they mean and the concept of small talk doesn’t really exist. I read that in a translation of 'Paddington Bear’, the German version cut out conversations about the weather completely....it just wasn’t important to the story.

Being in Tübingen has probably taught me more about English stereotypes than German ones. People in Tübingen are pretty trusting, a lot of shops have stuff out on the street, the Germans see this as normal, my English friends and I always comment on how easy it would be to steal it......definitely says a lot about the English mentality. In general Tübingen is a nice place to live, it’s a typical middle class place, people’s only concerns are how organic their food is and how they can save the environment.  There are attempts to make it seem more dangerous, such as this excellent youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4aS8WQigBrU but really, it’s one of the safest places I’ve ever been in.  The guy in the video with the baseball bat probably just plays sports and anyway i’ve never seen any of them hanging around.

I think that the ideas people in England have about Germany are for the most part pretty outdated. The students are generally just like students everywhere and the stereotypes we have aren’t really true. Except for the towels on sunbeds thing....that’s still true.

p.s.  As much as I’m being nice about the Germans here you probably don’t want one as a boyfriend, according to the Dailymail (the encyclopaedia of truth) German men spend the least on Valentine’s day presents......just saying. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2098357/Valentines-Day-Date-man-Far-East-spend-jewellery.html

Geordie Shore 2

Vicky and Rebecca kicking off already

I knew the initial blog excitement would wear off, that combined with exams and holidays has been getting in the way with any further updates. I thought I’d just write a quick follow up to my Geordie Shore post. Series 2 has begun and the first 2 episodes can only be described as incredible. Most of the questions I asked in my last post have already been answered: Charlotte failed to resist the parsnip and Vicky is pretty much as crazy as always. Sadly no one has informed Jay that he is grim yet but I guess that keeps the drama alive.

The 2^nd series is already throwing up questions of its own though: Why is the new girl balding on one side of her head? Furthermore, why does she look like some kind of creature? I’m hoping the next few episodes will explain this and more. Best quote so far has to go to Charlotte for describing her and Gary as having a special relationship..”like 2 otters sharing a log”, however Vicky describing the fat woman getting a fake tan as “wetter than an otter’s pocket” was also pretty epic (bit of a strange otter theme going on there.)

I happened to watch the 2^nd episode whilst on a ski trip with my dad and some of his friends, a few of them asked me why I enjoyed watching such crap TV (I told you that why was an important question). To be honest it was pretty hard to answer, I know its crap but it’s also hilarious. There is something about watching people behaving ridiculously that is addictive. So far this season looks even better than the last and the new people are proving pretty good for the drama. If you don’t watch Geordie Shore then none of this will make any sense to you and you’re probably a far more cultured person than me. However I would definitely recommend checking it out at least once.....you might be surprised at how great it really is.