For your viewing pleasure, there are 4 new albums up, entitled:
-Scheveningen and Keukenhof
-Hike to Spiegelslustturm
-Schnee im Sommersemester
-Wien!
Viel Spaß!
23.4.08
22.4.08
when we last left our hero...
...he was starting classes. Now he is shocked and appalled to realize that it has been almost 2 weeks since his last post, and begs his public and cheerers-on to forgive him.
That said, where to begin?
Since my last post, much has happened, both significant, insignificant, and no longer significant. Courses continue to progress smoothly, some getting harder, some getting more challenging, but also becoming more doable as I find my rhythm. My Concepts of foreign-language-learning course zum Beispiel is in a rough way, and I'm still trying to figure out how to go about doing it. The confusion comes in that the class is all in German, as well as the discussion and the homework. The catch comes in that all of the texts that we are reading, getting theories and whatnot from, are in English. Surprising, no? I must confess I was blown away at the beginning of the course, when the professor announced (in German, of course,) "if anyone here thinks they may have trouble reading and understanding English, please raise your hand." Can you imagine what would happen in the USA if a prof announced in say, a Political History class or something, that the students would have to be tolerantly fluent in Spanish to take the class?
Yeah, neither can I. Living in Europe is definitely a different linguistic reality then the US.
Anyway, It is surprisingly dificult to write homework in German on English texts, especially English texts that are full of field-specific vocabulary. I have no idea what these words would be in German, and I have no resource to look them up in, because no normal dictionary has them, and all of the linguistic sources we are studying are in English. Anyway, that is a problem to which I'm still seeking a solution.
My other classes are going well though, which is encouraging. Taking classes in German is not as impossible as I originally thought it would be, and it is so helpful to have had some english background in some of the subjects, like in Linguistics.
In other, more interesting, every-day life, I have also been doing a bit here and there. Two Saturdays ago, I went with some other BCA students down to Frankfurt, where we visited the Flohmarkt there (flee market). In addition to being as sketchy as all get-out, it was a very fun time, though we didn't dare buy anything. It was amazing the variety of complete junk to be had there. I was half-tempted to buy an ancient pirate-style pistol (it was real!) but thought better of it, realizing that something of that size and weight would be hard to squeeze in to bring back to the states. I did however pick up and play a guitar there, just to be able to say I've played a guitar in the Flee Market in Frankfurt.
Then, this most recently bygone Saturday, I got up at 3am in the morning with Kelsey and Alex to go to the Netherlands. We were taking a bus there for just the day (I love Europe!) to see the world's largest flower garden in Keukenhof, Holland.
(Info point: Holland is actually a region in the Netherlands, like a state in the USA.)
Before I start stumbling around through silly words trying to describe the indescribable beauty of Keukenhof, I would like to give a small commentary on the bus ride.
First of all, sadly, most young, student-aged kids aren't that interested in flowers. Students who go to the Netherlands don't go to see flowers, they go to Amsterdam to party and to visit the "Coffee Shops," which are actually over-the-counter narcotics distributers, if my sources are trustworthy. This means that me, Alex, Kelsey, and two other students, Telsche (who is in my Biedebach classes) and Katharina, were the only people under like 50 on the whole bus. You'd think that this would make for a peaceful, relatively uneventful trip. Maybe in America, but here in Europe, if you want to get 50 some geriatrics to sit through a 6 hour bus ride without complaining or griping, the solution is simple. Give them lots of coffee, wine, and beer.
I admit I have nothing against drinking a nice glass of something a bit stronger than orange juice every once in a while, but when I saw grandpa two rows behind me downing a glass of hard liquor at 6 in the morning, I started to get worried. By the time we arrived in Scheveningen (a little south-west of Keukenhof) there had been more alcohol consumed by our rowdy aged crew than I would have thought possible. Needless, to say, it was a trip full of adventure, cramped legs, and loud, jolly voices.
After strolling up and down the North Sea coast for two hours, we hopped back on the bus to head to the flower garden in Keukenhof. This was the most amazing part of the whole trip, and one of the most incredible places I've ever seen. As we drove into the area, I noticed fields all around me. They were large, like a field you would grow corn or some other crop in. Only it wasn't corn that was growing in those fields, but rather flowers. One field was entirely daffodils, another tulips. Absolutely heavenly. Then we actually got to The Garden.
I can't begin to describe it, and I will just have to post the pictures I took. But they don't even begin to do it justice either, because you can't smell the beauty with a picture. The whole afternoon as we strolled through the most beautiful avenues, I would sometimes just stop and breath, and breath, and breath. Not a good place to go if you have allergies, by the way! thankfully, I was fine. The whole thing was so beautiful, you walked away feeling like your spirit had been healed to a certain extent, and it made me wonder not for the first time, if creating such places and then sending war or famine victims there wouldn't do a lot of good. You know, making a sanctuary, where anyone who had been through horrifying ordeals could go and just heal. An interesting idea, at any rate.
The trip was definitely worth the mere € 48 that it cost to take a 6 hour bus both ways and get tickets into the World's Largest Flower Garden.
Ahh, Keukenhof...Een stukje van de hemel op aarde
Oh, and I really want to learn Dutch now :-) It's like halfway between English and German, and sounds like lazy German spoken with a Scottish brogue.
10.4.08
"Keep waiting, I'll be right on time," or "Even if you cannot hear my voice, I'll be right beside you dear"
This Post is dedicated to David Rosentrater, Skype, and borrowed music.
So I think it's about time to update this thing. A number of things have come to pass which are noteworthy, and so I note them:
-My classes for Marburg are officially chosen
-My classes for Messiah are officially chosen (unless I decide to change them)
-I am a second-week-victim of Hausversammelung
-I have a roommate! (almost)
Now to expound.
Classes at Marburg run as follows: Monday I have a Pronunciation class, in hopes that in a couple weeks I will be able to introduce myself to a German without getting the immediate response, "Du bist Amerikaner?" Actually I haven't had that happen to me a lot, but I do have some trouble making myself understood at times, and already after only the second class, I feel more comfortable with pronunciation. All this to say, I'm excited about the class. Also on Monday I have Introduction to German Linguistics. This class is absolutely awesome. I am already familiar with a lot of the stuff we are learning, having taking a Linguistics class at Messiah (thanks Chuck!), and so now I am learning the German terminology for things, and also getting to review a class that I wished I would have been able to go more in depth with! On top of all that, one of the Italians from my Sprachkurs, Sylvia, is in it with me, which means I'll have a way to keep connected to her, Elias, and François.
Tuesday I have 3 courses almost right in a row. The first is a good old fashioned Grammar course, with amazing Frau Biedebach. The second, also with Biedebach, is a literature course that is probably going to kill me with all the reading we have to do. Actually, as I write this I should probably be reading for it, but whatever...
After my Biedebach marathon, I have an hour or so before "Theoretical concepts of Foreign language learning." Those of you who know me will realize that just reading the title of this course online made me drool. The class is even more amazing, and again, I am being re-introduced to many concepts (only now auf deutsch) that I learned last semester with my TESOL class (thanks Michelle!).
Wednesday, I just have Fencing in the evening, which is starting to pick up a little more speed. So far we have just been practicing posture, footwork, etc. Hopefully in the next two weeks we'll get to don the mask and glove and toucher each other.
Messiah classes are looking fun too. I managed to procure a prerequisite waver for 300 level Spanish courses, since I haven't taken 206 yet. The goal is to hit the Self-learning center at the Sprachzentrum once a week for an hour or so to brush up on my Spanish while here in Marburg, so that I can come home and jump into mind-watering classes like "Applied (Spanish) Phonetics," and "Topics in Spanish Pennsular Literature."I'm also taking a German literature course, a medieval Philosophy course, and, just for fun, French 102! I'm pretty begeistert, to say the least.
Life at the Collegium Philippinum is getting better, and also worse. Ok, so that was rather confusing. I am connecting with my housemates more (now that everyone is back from break) and that is awesome. Many good times eating together and playing an up-the-river-down-the-river hybrid called "Wizard." Fei, a chinese student, and Jan, a German student are my two fellow Wizard addicts, and also some of the coolest people I've met yet in Germany.
In addition to Fei and Jan, I got to meet my room-mate-tomorrow-to-be. That is, he is moving in tomorrow. I'm really excited; even though this Dave is shorter than me, and considerably more bearded than my Dave back home, he still seems like a really nice guy, and I'm looking forward to many good times, both couth and uncouth, hanging out with him. I am already anticipating how much my German is going to improve having a roommate to speak it with. In any case, it is nice to have a stand in Dave, as a Dave-less existence is hardly an existence at all.
Life is not all Daves, Sonnenschein, and Blumen though; in every Leben must fall some Regen.
The rain of which I speak falls every Monday night from about 8:15 and persists until around 11:30 pm. This is the dreaded "Hausversammelung." A direct one-to-one translation would be "house assembly," but this doesn't capture all of the fine cultural points and nuances of the thing. Here is a more semantically accurate Übersetzung:
Hausversammelung 1 |hous-fehr-zam-mell-ung|
noun
1 ( Hausversammelung) A late meeting in which Germans argue heatedly for hours over petty things, through which people who have no idea what is going on are forced to sit, praying that either someone will set of the fire alarm, or Christ will return and save his children from the awful tribulation.
that captures the true spirit of the thing, I think. Needless to say, it is not much fun, but I am learning vocabulary in a way that I never would do otherwise: pure context. Last week, I learned the word for Mildew--"Schimmel" (shim-mell)--simply by hearing it talked about in context for almost an hour. This week, I learned "Bewerbung"--application, after hearing people bicker over when, how, why, and from whom the Collegium Philippinum should accept residency applications. Viel Spaß, Baby.
Enough schimpfen though. All in all, life is going pretty well, even despite the fact that I have finally gotten sick. Everyone else has been sick long before now, and I managed to hold out until this morning I woke up with a sore throat. I think I'll break down and buy some yummy herbal tea.
This weekend (aka, today through Sunday--I love my schedule!) promises lots of homework, but also some fun relaxing. Saturday has plans for a visit to a Schloss in a town a train ride away, and tonight I'm going to get to talk to Kathryn, which pretty much makes today Christmas, or at least Kwanzaa. Until then, I am going to apply myself diligently (maybe) to read some for my Literature, take a nap (almost certainly) so I am not tired tonight at 11:30 when Kathryn calls, and listen to sweet music from Ruth Rosentrater (which I am in the process of doing).
And that brings me full circle to the end of this post, and the explanation for its title(s).
They are the main lines from two awesome songs that I just listened to. The first is from "Keep waiting" by Stavesacre, the second is "Run," by snowpatrol. Both come highly recommended by self and co.
Well, the credits are about to roll, and so I follow suit. Tschüß!
So I think it's about time to update this thing. A number of things have come to pass which are noteworthy, and so I note them:
-My classes for Marburg are officially chosen
-My classes for Messiah are officially chosen (unless I decide to change them)
-I am a second-week-victim of Hausversammelung
-I have a roommate! (almost)
Now to expound.
Classes at Marburg run as follows: Monday I have a Pronunciation class, in hopes that in a couple weeks I will be able to introduce myself to a German without getting the immediate response, "Du bist Amerikaner?" Actually I haven't had that happen to me a lot, but I do have some trouble making myself understood at times, and already after only the second class, I feel more comfortable with pronunciation. All this to say, I'm excited about the class. Also on Monday I have Introduction to German Linguistics. This class is absolutely awesome. I am already familiar with a lot of the stuff we are learning, having taking a Linguistics class at Messiah (thanks Chuck!), and so now I am learning the German terminology for things, and also getting to review a class that I wished I would have been able to go more in depth with! On top of all that, one of the Italians from my Sprachkurs, Sylvia, is in it with me, which means I'll have a way to keep connected to her, Elias, and François.
Tuesday I have 3 courses almost right in a row. The first is a good old fashioned Grammar course, with amazing Frau Biedebach. The second, also with Biedebach, is a literature course that is probably going to kill me with all the reading we have to do. Actually, as I write this I should probably be reading for it, but whatever...
After my Biedebach marathon, I have an hour or so before "Theoretical concepts of Foreign language learning." Those of you who know me will realize that just reading the title of this course online made me drool. The class is even more amazing, and again, I am being re-introduced to many concepts (only now auf deutsch) that I learned last semester with my TESOL class (thanks Michelle!).
Wednesday, I just have Fencing in the evening, which is starting to pick up a little more speed. So far we have just been practicing posture, footwork, etc. Hopefully in the next two weeks we'll get to don the mask and glove and toucher each other.
Messiah classes are looking fun too. I managed to procure a prerequisite waver for 300 level Spanish courses, since I haven't taken 206 yet. The goal is to hit the Self-learning center at the Sprachzentrum once a week for an hour or so to brush up on my Spanish while here in Marburg, so that I can come home and jump into mind-watering classes like "Applied (Spanish) Phonetics," and "Topics in Spanish Pennsular Literature."I'm also taking a German literature course, a medieval Philosophy course, and, just for fun, French 102! I'm pretty begeistert, to say the least.
Life at the Collegium Philippinum is getting better, and also worse. Ok, so that was rather confusing. I am connecting with my housemates more (now that everyone is back from break) and that is awesome. Many good times eating together and playing an up-the-river-down-the-river hybrid called "Wizard." Fei, a chinese student, and Jan, a German student are my two fellow Wizard addicts, and also some of the coolest people I've met yet in Germany.
In addition to Fei and Jan, I got to meet my room-mate-tomorrow-to-be. That is, he is moving in tomorrow. I'm really excited; even though this Dave is shorter than me, and considerably more bearded than my Dave back home, he still seems like a really nice guy, and I'm looking forward to many good times, both couth and uncouth, hanging out with him. I am already anticipating how much my German is going to improve having a roommate to speak it with. In any case, it is nice to have a stand in Dave, as a Dave-less existence is hardly an existence at all.
Life is not all Daves, Sonnenschein, and Blumen though; in every Leben must fall some Regen.
The rain of which I speak falls every Monday night from about 8:15 and persists until around 11:30 pm. This is the dreaded "Hausversammelung." A direct one-to-one translation would be "house assembly," but this doesn't capture all of the fine cultural points and nuances of the thing. Here is a more semantically accurate Übersetzung:
Hausversammelung 1 |hous-fehr-zam-mell-ung|
noun
1 ( Hausversammelung) A late meeting in which Germans argue heatedly for hours over petty things, through which people who have no idea what is going on are forced to sit, praying that either someone will set of the fire alarm, or Christ will return and save his children from the awful tribulation.
that captures the true spirit of the thing, I think. Needless to say, it is not much fun, but I am learning vocabulary in a way that I never would do otherwise: pure context. Last week, I learned the word for Mildew--"Schimmel" (shim-mell)--simply by hearing it talked about in context for almost an hour. This week, I learned "Bewerbung"--application, after hearing people bicker over when, how, why, and from whom the Collegium Philippinum should accept residency applications. Viel Spaß, Baby.
Enough schimpfen though. All in all, life is going pretty well, even despite the fact that I have finally gotten sick. Everyone else has been sick long before now, and I managed to hold out until this morning I woke up with a sore throat. I think I'll break down and buy some yummy herbal tea.
This weekend (aka, today through Sunday--I love my schedule!) promises lots of homework, but also some fun relaxing. Saturday has plans for a visit to a Schloss in a town a train ride away, and tonight I'm going to get to talk to Kathryn, which pretty much makes today Christmas, or at least Kwanzaa. Until then, I am going to apply myself diligently (maybe) to read some for my Literature, take a nap (almost certainly) so I am not tired tonight at 11:30 when Kathryn calls, and listen to sweet music from Ruth Rosentrater (which I am in the process of doing).
And that brings me full circle to the end of this post, and the explanation for its title(s).
They are the main lines from two awesome songs that I just listened to. The first is from "Keep waiting" by Stavesacre, the second is "Run," by snowpatrol. Both come highly recommended by self and co.
Well, the credits are about to roll, and so I follow suit. Tschüß!
3.4.08
First week of classes
As of Monday, March 31, I officially became a student here at Philipps Universität in Marburg. As of Tuesday, I am no able to ride the buses, trains, rickshaws, and other forms of public transportation, gratis and without fear of a 40 € fine (which as per the current rate, is approximately equal to 62 USD and 51 cents. *sigh*).
So now my first week of classes is over! Wait, what? But it's only thursday...? Welcome to the German System of Higher education. The average classes here meets once a week for about an hour and a half or so. So, if the student so desires, he or she may elect to take courses only on certain days, thereby leaving certain days completely free. I was one such student, and my current course schedule calls for a moderately strenuous Monday through Wednesday, followed by a 4 day weekend inclusive of days Thurs-Sun. I am admittedly quite pleased, as this will leave me plenty of opportunity to travel (as supplies last of course) without having to skip any classes.
This week my schedule was the following:
Montag Monday
Those of my college friends who are looking at those 8 courses and scratching their heads, saying "what, for petes sake, is Josiah taking 8 classes for?!" Well, I have an explanation. Over here, only certain courses translate to the American 3 credit system. Most of them are 2 credit courses.
That said, actually all of the ones I am taking, except for fencing, just happen to be 3 credits :P So yes, I attended 22 credits worth of classes this week! Woo hoo! Naturally, this means I will not actually be able to attend all of these classes, since I can only transfer 18 credits back to messiah. So I will have to stop going to one of the courses, because the preparatory Language course that I took during the month before University classes started will transfer back to Messiah as 4 credits. that will leave me with 20 credits, which although it is more than 18, is at least only a little bit more...I'm not sure how I am going to swing that, so you can all be praying that messiah lets me take extra classes free of charge.
A quick return to the actual classes though, namely Fechten.
I hope all of you Messiah College-ites are thoroughly jealous that I get to cover my last activity course not with badminton, softball, or even the ever-popular water Aerobics, but with Fencing. I know I am pretty much ecstatic. Alex Becker and I went for the first session last night, and it was very sweet. We learned the three main types of Fencing swords, or "Waffen," in German. They are as following:
Florett - Foil
Säbel - Saber
Degen - best definition is "rapier;" a little bit stockier than a Florett, but with generally the same style of fencing.
We also learned a little bit of history. If I understood correctly (I'll double check and correct errors later), back when people used to have duels, there were two main courses of conduct. The French would fence with real, sharp fencing swords, and each bit of blood drawn on the opponent was a point. The Germans on the other hand, must have thought that was too complicated, and simply held that the last one standing was the winner.
Thankfully, nowadays we have lots of cool electronic gadgets that tell you when you would have been bleeding if we were still back in the day.... :)
So now my first week of classes is over! Wait, what? But it's only thursday...? Welcome to the German System of Higher education. The average classes here meets once a week for about an hour and a half or so. So, if the student so desires, he or she may elect to take courses only on certain days, thereby leaving certain days completely free. I was one such student, and my current course schedule calls for a moderately strenuous Monday through Wednesday, followed by a 4 day weekend inclusive of days Thurs-Sun. I am admittedly quite pleased, as this will leave me plenty of opportunity to travel (as supplies last of course) without having to skip any classes.
This week my schedule was the following:
Montag Monday
- 9:15 - 10:45 Ausspracheübung und Lesen Pronunciation practice and reading
- 11:15 - 12:45 Einführung in das Althochdeutsche Introduction to Old High German
- 2:15 - 3:45 Einführung in die Linguistik des Deutschen 1 Introduction to German Linguistiks 1
- 9:15 - 10:45 BCA German Literature Course
- 11:15 - 12:45 BCA Grammatik Grammar
- 2:15 - 3:45 Theoretische Konzepte des Fremdsprachenlernens theoretical concepts of foreign language learning
- 9:15 - 10:45 Einführung in die formale Semantik Introduction to Symbolic Semantics
- 7:30 - 10:30pm Fechten Fencing
Those of my college friends who are looking at those 8 courses and scratching their heads, saying "what, for petes sake, is Josiah taking 8 classes for?!" Well, I have an explanation. Over here, only certain courses translate to the American 3 credit system. Most of them are 2 credit courses.
That said, actually all of the ones I am taking, except for fencing, just happen to be 3 credits :P So yes, I attended 22 credits worth of classes this week! Woo hoo! Naturally, this means I will not actually be able to attend all of these classes, since I can only transfer 18 credits back to messiah. So I will have to stop going to one of the courses, because the preparatory Language course that I took during the month before University classes started will transfer back to Messiah as 4 credits. that will leave me with 20 credits, which although it is more than 18, is at least only a little bit more...I'm not sure how I am going to swing that, so you can all be praying that messiah lets me take extra classes free of charge.
A quick return to the actual classes though, namely Fechten.
I hope all of you Messiah College-ites are thoroughly jealous that I get to cover my last activity course not with badminton, softball, or even the ever-popular water Aerobics, but with Fencing. I know I am pretty much ecstatic. Alex Becker and I went for the first session last night, and it was very sweet. We learned the three main types of Fencing swords, or "Waffen," in German. They are as following:
Florett - Foil
Säbel - Saber
Degen - best definition is "rapier;" a little bit stockier than a Florett, but with generally the same style of fencing.
We also learned a little bit of history. If I understood correctly (I'll double check and correct errors later), back when people used to have duels, there were two main courses of conduct. The French would fence with real, sharp fencing swords, and each bit of blood drawn on the opponent was a point. The Germans on the other hand, must have thought that was too complicated, and simply held that the last one standing was the winner.
Thankfully, nowadays we have lots of cool electronic gadgets that tell you when you would have been bleeding if we were still back in the day.... :)
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