Wofford College - Study Abroad

Oh these Germans.. and an overview of the semester

The semester abroad is officially over. Almost all students have left and it is really sad around here. I got really attached to them and I will miss all the fun we had this semester.

It was a busy semester but I feel like I learned a lot. My German has improved a lot and I feel culturally enriched. 

There are a couple of things that I found  absolutely fascinating and I would like to share them with you.

 

1. Frische Luft – translates into “Fresh Air”. Germans love having fresh air. Even if it's freezing outside, they simply HAVE to have the window open for at      least 10 minutes. In our classroom, the German teacher always opened the      window, but not for long. The family I stay with also thinks that fresh air is important. My room is close to the living room and every morning at  7 a.m. I hear the woman (“the host mother”) open the windows, and leaves them open for an hour. At the beginning it was really hard for me to get used to this “habit” but I accommodated pretty easily and I open my window every day for 5 minutes but I have the heater on, because I HATE cold.
2. Heaters but no air conditioning – Germans think that air conditioning is bad for  your health. Without air conditioning not only do you protect your health but also save a lot of money. And Germans are all about saving. Luckily, the weather in Berlin does not get too hot and air conditioning is not a necessity. In the winter they use heaters.
3. Sunday is a dead day… for shopping! Not even groceries stores are open. If I really need to buy something on Sunday I have to go to train stations because there are a couple of stores that are open. It actually teaches you to be organized. Do your shopping before Sunday and on Sundays relax with your friends in a bar. Those are definitely open.

 

Some stereotypes turned out to be right: German DO recycle a lot, are very environmentally friendly, punctual, and have amazing technology. And last but not least, they do love beer and soccer.

Some stereotypes are wrong: Germans are actually very friendly people and very helpful. I really like it here and feel welcome. 

And of course I met students from all over America and I hope we will stay good friends.

I am here with Heather and Ann in Budapest, Hungary. It was such an amazing trip and we really had a great time. Even though I come from Eastern Europe, Hungary was different in some way. The architecture and landscape was amazing, the food delicious and the palinka...ummm, strong! We are here at Mount Gellert. Apparently, not far from this place a James Bond movie was filmed.

The most famous statue in Prague. You should rub the man's hat and that will bring good luck. Well, we'll see if that comes true.

Halloween was a blast! I was a devil and my horns were blinking actually. Germans are really into Halloween, even though only scary costumes are common. If you want to be a princess or a cop for Halloween, forget it. You can only be Dracula, devils, and the death. In some interesting shops you can also find catwoman or other sexy costumes that should not be worn around children.

Barcelona was so pretty! And the weather was amazing. I really wanted to swim in the Mediterranean sea, but I only brought fall and winter clothes.

It was really beautiful though and I had a great time!
 

 

 

Barcelona!

Ahhh.. memories!!! I had a great time in Germany and I will never forget this wonderful experience.

making friends

Well I've just finished all of my exams and papers for my semester at the University of Jordan with CIEE. And I must say that I think that I have learned the most through my internship this semester. I had the chance to intern with People in Need Amman. PIN is a Czech based humanitarian aid NGO striving to share the Czech experience of civil society building after the fall of communism with other developing countries.
For most of the semester I was working on helping in proofreading translated reports on capacity building programs in Southern Iraq. But for the past three weeks of the semester I was able to help with the training of CSO leaders and elected officials and civil servants from Southern Iraq. The training was based around things like mediation and the citizen's participatory experience. A lot of these topics and training seemed to me like things that were covered at my high school (like how to run a meeting). But I slowly realized that these individuals had never had this basic training in the democratic process. Because Americans are trained in the process from the time we are in diapers and we don't even know it.
But overall it was quite interesting to see how the Czech trainers (who spoke worse english than me believe it or not) worked with the Palestinian/Iraqi translators to train these Iraqi officials who are leading the development of their country. I have already been told and I have noticed that I have developed an Iraqi accent in my colloquial Arabic rather than a Jordanian like everyone else from the program. And proudly I support my Iraqi soccer jersey and the fact that I know people from there who say that this week is better than last week...
So believe it or not there are quite a lot of Christians in Amman, compared to its neighbors to the south or the east. This means that Christmas is alive and well here in Amman. My neighbors have put up their lights already and the office I work at has a Charlie Brown tree with one homemade ornament on it. This all adds to my believe in the ability for Christians and Muslims to live together....which is apparently not the view of many Christians that I have seen...

But as of now the semester is over and I am saying goodbye to Jordan and hello to Israel/Palestine. Hopefully I'll be able to add more about my travels and experiences in Jerusalem before the blog time period ends...

:: joshua

St.Nicholas day and good German wine

I woke up this morning and got ready to come to the IES center for classes. As I was getting ready to leave, I noticed that my shoes were filled with peanuts and walnuts, and near them were an orange, an apple and good chocolate for me. And I understood right away that I was visited by St. Nicholas Day last night… I guess this means that I was good this year and I can expect Santa to visit me too.

Saint Nicholas was a real person, known as Nicholas of Bari. It is said that when his parents died, Nicholas received his inheritance but he gave it away to the poor. It is apparently a pretty important holiday in Germany and Europe, from what I understand.

I came to IES and in my German class (and today we were supposed to have four hours of German in a row), we celebrated Sankt Nikolaus Tag for an hour. Our German teacher bought Christmas cookies and sweets, and we drank Glühwein. Oh, it’s soooo good and I have to explain what it is. People usually drink Glühwein when it’s cold outside. Many say that it’s a typical drink for Christmas, but I doubt it because I drank it at Halloween too. Anyways, Glühwein is a hot wine with spices, such as: cinnamon, lemon, and… I don’t really know what else. The wine with the spices is heated but not cooked, because otherwise the alcohol would evaporate. The translation of this drink into English (according to the dictionary) is Mulled Wine, but I never heard of it so I beg for your forgiveness if I got it wrong   :) . In
Moldova we also have something like that, except that we heat the wine and add black pepper and honey to it. It’s actually pretty good: sweet and sharp.

Then we had a little “Secret Santa” today, and my “Santa” gave me a bottle of champagne and good German chocolate, because my Santa knows that I can just not stop eating German chocolate. It’s the best thing ever! It hasn’t been a day yet that I  have been in Berlin and not have a Milka, Ritter Sport, or Kinder Chocolate.

After coming out of class in a very good mood, we are stuck again in the computer room to work on our papers. I have two papers due tomorrow. One is for my film class and I am writing about the movie “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. It’s an amazing silent movie and it represents the German society after the World War One. I highly recommend it. The second paper is for my business class and it is about the obstacles that  make it hard for Moldova to be part of the European Union. It’s strange, but in our business class we have talked much more about politics and the EU then about business per se. But it was a good class overall.

Other than that, life is sad at IES. Partly because of the finals that are next week, but mostly because almost everyone is leaving and we will really miss each other. It’s been a wonderful semester!