I've got to admit it's getting better

So since my last update, things have been a little more up and down but mostly on the upward slope. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and although nothing has gone RIGHT yet, at least nothing else has gone WRONG. I have been told that I can finally get internet today, so after five weeks of unreliable connections I will finally have my own!! I’ll put up more pictures when I have a better signal too, because it won’t take so long to load.

(By the way the problem with pirating a wifi signal from my window means that right before I began to type this it began to rain, so I had to wait until the rain stopped to actually post it. The weather had been warm and sunny, so I had been able to use it, but sadly not today.)

I went to my international student orientation yesterday, and sadly it was exactly what I anticipated – completely unenlightening. I have concluded that the problem I am encountering is yet another cultural difference. The Germans only explain the simple base amount of information without providing details, but Americans like everything explained and every detail spelled out. In addition, the university systems are so different that they don’t realize that they have to give us (me) these details they may find insignificant and self-explanatory, but then it results in making me feel lost and in the dark.

For instance – no one has actually told us how to register for classes and get grades. From what I understand, I just look up what classes I want in the course registry and just show up. There is no registrar’s office or OASIS system to keep track of who is where, and I can’t find any information that tells me otherwise. And I think grades are only given once a semester, sometimes, for an end-of-course project – but not every class has one of these projects, I don’t think. I don’t really know. I bought my course registry yesterday (for 4.50! geez!) and will sit down with it today and really figure out what I’m doing. I don’t even know what a “full load” of classes is considered to be. I’m just worried that because things are so loose, I won’t find out that there is something specific I actually need to do until too late.

In addition, I finally have some roommates, as of 7pm yesterday! There is a girl from Korea who speaks no German and no English, and I don’t speak Korean, so we’ll see how that goes. She seems very nice, and she’s not actually studying at the university – she’s just taking a 6-month language course. Good. There’s a guy next to me who is “real” German and he’s my age, and he seems nice so far too. He and I chatted for a while last night and he showed me where all the stuff is and how to recycle all the trash. The Germans use this cool water-boiling contraption – it’s a pitcher that plugs into an outlet and heats up water for tea. I don’t know the name of it, but I pointed to it and asked if I was allowed to use it. He said “of course, sure – but out of curiosity, what’s it called in English?” I told him we didn’t have things like that, we use tea kettles to heat water, and he said “wow, but don’t tea kettles use way too much energy?” I love how they’re so concerned with all of that.

Apparently there are 2 more roommates on the way who will be here this weekend – another guy and a girl from Poland, both of whom lived here last year. The guy who’s here already said they’re cool people, so I sure hope so!

Room’s coming along ok. My suitcases are unpacked and everything’s put away, for the most part. I finally bought towels yesterday (I’d been using one of those microfiber camping towels since Monday), but I still need curtains and rugs and colorful things so it doesn’t look like a prison cell. Also, I need to buy a mirror – yes there is one in my room, and one in my bathroom, but in neither one can I see myself above my nose.

I still don’t know what I’m doing today or this weekend, either. I don’t have a whole lot to do at this point, and so much is contingent on the weather – for instance I chose to stay inside this morning, drink coffee, and type emails in my pajamas rather than venture out and get caught in the cold and the rain. I do think I will be social, though, and attend some of the international student events that are happening tonight and tomorrow.

Depending on who you are and when you’ve most recently talked to me, you’ve probably gotten very up-and-down reports of how I’m actually feeling and doing. But as of 10:15 on Friday morning, morale’s on its way back up. Doug was absolutely right when he said “If you think about it, it's good you have something to miss.”

And by the time this gets posted my Grandma will be on her way to Atlanta and everyone in my family will be headed to Las Vegas without me. Happy birthday Uncle Steve!