(klausur)stress

it's that time of the semester again... when German university students do their best UChicago impression and study their butts off for exams. No friends are available, everyone's pissy, and the sun shines beautiful and hot anyways.
I'm feeling the stress too. Turns out the Germans use a bookend scheme with their bureaucracy. The first month is hell, the 10 months in between they forget you exist, and the last month is shaping up to be quite annoying. I'm pretty much out of money, offices are only open from 10-12 every day, which isn't too practical for the student schedule, so I can't get much done. I need to officially leave the university, cancel my health insurance, and officially leave the city. And write two papers in two weeks. I am a bit stressed too.

But Thorsten is coming soon!

Bis bald, Chicago-

Alex.

first grades back

Writes Professor Dr. Rösch:

"Herr Meyer, Ihre Arbeit ist inspirierend und gut strukturiert. Sie zeigen die
Themen des Textes und die dahinter verborgenen Assoziationen. Die
Argumentation leuchtet ein. Besonders freut mich Ihre fluessige und
idiomatisch korrekte Darstellungsweise. Die Forschungsliteratur haben
Sie knapp, aber gut ausgewertet. An einigen Stellen fehlen die konkreten
Belege Ihrer Informationen, aber das mindert nicht die analytische
Leistung dieser Arbeit, die zu lesen ein Vergnuegen ist.
Daher eine sehr gute Leistung (1,0).
Ich gratuliere Ihnen zu Ihren hier sichtbaren Studienfortschritten."

booyah.

[Update: Translation:
Mr Meyer: Your essay is inspired and well structured. You clearly show the themes of the text as well as the associations hidden behind it. The argumentation is plausible and easily followed. I am especially pleased with your fluid and idiomatically correct manner of representation. The secondary literature is short, but well read and employed. At some points the specific sources of your ideas are missing, but that doesn't lessen the analytical accomplishments of the paper, which was a joy to read. Therefore your grade is 1.0 [The German scale is 1-5, 1 being the highest possible]. I congratulate you on the obvious progress in your studies.]

listening to: Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix from Pheonix

new semester

The new semester begins tomorrow here in romantic Heidelberg. I am pumped, for a few reasons:
1- Warm weather. This perpetual grayness is about to take a hike, and I couldn't be happier to see it go.
2- New courses. I've diversified a bit this semester- as opposed to my slew of 5 literature seminars last semester, I'll be taking only two. In addition I'm attending 4 lectures on various topics both intellectually interesting and pertinent to current or future degrees. Here they are:

Seminars:
Dramen des 20. Jahrhunderts- 20th Century Drama
Expedition als literarisches Motiv- Travel/Journey as literary Motif

Lectures:
Die Europäische Union- The European Union- political science lecture
Diktaturen des 20. Jahrhunderts- Dictators of the 20th Century- history lecture featuring Soviets, Nazis, Francos, and Latin American military dictators
Rechtsphilosophie- Philosophy of Law- law lecture
Einführung in die Neuere deutsche Literatur- Intro to Modern German Literature- literature lecture

I made some predictions at the beginning of last semester as to which courses I was looking most forward to- the Christa Wolf seminar came out on top. It was quite off- I found that seminar to be among the worst, and I enjoyed my Georg Büchner and Heinrich Heine courses the most. But I'll make another prediction, and knock on wood while doing it- I'm most looking forward to the Dictators lecture and the Travel-Novels seminar. We'll see.

And now to make my playlist for the walk tonight. Each semester I take a nice long walk the evening before courses start, to get a bit of perspective and clear my mind. Tonight it'll occur after an English language screening of Frost/Nixon. Excited.

I hope everyone is enjoying Spring blooming around the northern hemisphere.

Love al.

februar, 2. woche

Hello!

Spring is on its way. Thanks to my dad for his countdown- but I noticed it most the other day when I woke to rain and opened the window, felt warm, warm air rush in and heard birds. Birds! Welcome back!

I am experiencing a period of extreme, nauseating and aggravating idleness. I have 16 more pages to write (6 for one paper 10 for the other) and cannot move further. I sit down at my desk and the stupid, stupid internet somehow distracts me from my work for hours and hours until it's 8:30 and I decide I'm better off calling it a night, eating dinner and going to bed early. I would turn off the internet completely or go somewhere without wireless but I need the dictionary online to type. So... Catch 22. I'm bound to wallow in idleness until 3 days before all the 3 papers are due. Wonderful.

But the cause for the sitting around on my ass is reasonable, I think- I am on vacation (sort of)! School is out in Germany for the next two months, but not really. Teachers assign papers at the end of the semester to be handed in at the beginning of the next one, so there really is no break. Students get around this bastardization of vacation by taking courses with exams at the end, but my beloved future alma mater wants to see my thoughts on paper before it awards me credit. So I get to type my vacation away in romantic Heidelberg.

The other reason I feel as if I am doing breastroke through a pool of milchreis is because for all of last week I had visitors, and did nothing remotely related to school and academic thinking. Liz came for my concert last week, and Kathryn came from paris to visit last weekend. Highlight of Liz's visit was a hike we did with no goal in mind but just to get fresh air. The air was wet, thick, heavy, and we simply headed up into the hills. We somehow found our way towards the castle and made it back in about 2 hours, and I just felt so relaxed and calmed and in touch with my surroundings. Liz and I celebrated 5 years of caring for each other with spaghetti and tomato sauce. I love her.

And Kathryn came, met all my friends and we partied quite well. Saturday night I hosted Schnitzel night, and it was a rousing success. I cooked for 6, and even threw in some pan-fried eggplant for Hanna the veggie! My schnitzel came out well, thanks to my sous-chef Kath. My mom would be proud. And I'm even more happy that Kathryn got to meet Hanna's friend who was visiting, a sort of unbelievable mashup of German stereotypes- "Moritz", the German brewer-in-training and heavy-metal (Rammstein) fan. Perfect. Thank God for realized stereotypes.

If all goes as planned I will be done with paper #2 and well into research for #3 by the time I leave for Köln next Saturday for Karnival. Karnival is the German Mardi Gras and Köln is the epicenter of the party. I also can't wait to see my relatives again.

But I'll be back from Karnival around the 25. Februar, then be here in Heidelberg finishing up my papers for 1.5 weeks. I've been invited to a brewery tour (Moritz's) in Uelzen with Hanna around the 11. März, so I'll hop up to Norddeutschland for that. But after that, I have three weeks of freedom until the man forces me to take class again. I need/want to do something great then.

I threw around the idea of doing an Athens-Istanbul trip for about 2 weeks. But I've gone cold on the idea. I really really don't like the idea of traveling to a country where I am completely clueless of the language. I know, I speak the lingua franca of the 21st century quite proficiently, but every experience I've had in foreign countries where I don't know the language has been very unenjoyable. I feel like an intruder, a nuisance, and plus I am clueless as to the interesting bits and nice places to go. I would just follow the tourist crowds and, I'm afraid, be dissapointed. I want to make a rule for myself- Unless visiting a friend or acquaintance, do not travel to countries where you don't speak the language at least 50% proficiency, unless traveling with someone who meets said requirements.

And so that leaves me with these ideas so far. If anyone has suggestions or advice, please comment!

- a walking tour in Scotland. Scotland is full of beautiful hills and landscapes- I'd call it a cold, rainy, less amazing New Zealand. But it's close and I speak the language.
-London/Dublin/Edinburg trip. Hit up the UK's big cities and drink some bitters/guiness/whisky.
-bike tour of the Bodensee. A HUGE lake (150 miles circ) in the south of germany, also borders Austria and Switzerland. I can take my bike down there with the train and ride short distances each day, staying in pretty B&Bs along the way.
-bike tour HD- Tübingen. A friend is studying in Tübingen and I could make it in 2 days, stopping in Stuttgart. Then come back.
-Leipzig/Dresden/e. Germany trip- visit the former e. Germany and see its purported hidden beauty.

Maybe I could do two of these... But let me know. (meyera@uchicago.edu)

German national soccer starts back up tonight. Friendly against Norway. I've got the over on 5-0.

Love,
Al

first week (wie bunt! wie schön!)

Class went great. I am taking 5 seminars, which means 5 "Hausarbeiten" are due at the end of the semester (app. 50 pages in German!). But I think I can handle it.
Yesterday I went for a hike. I had no idea I'd be coming here and hiking so much, but it is so beautiful and such a perfect spot for hiking.
Going somewhere beautiful, simply by moving your feet, controlling every change in direction, connects you to the earth. Add to that the colors and the birds and conversation that accompanies a hike- it is addicting in a good way.

Today has been an intriguing juxtaposition of culture- on the one hand, Heinrich Heine's poem Die Grenadiere- about two soldiers' allegiance above all else to the French king, even from the grave... on the other, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's "Who Pooped the Bed?" College kids are fascinating in their capability to embrace the highest and lowest cultural expressions available.

First post!

Hello-
I apologize for waiting so long to start this up. There really is no excuse- though I've been hellishly busy the past week, the three weeks before that were just a Groundhog's Day-esque pasture of nothingness (no offense to my wonderful family who hosted me in Köln).
But apologies aside, I'm starting this to keep you all updated on my year abroad in romantic Heidelberg Germany. I'm going to read a lot, learn a lot, and probably drink a lot.
A camera is on its way from Chicago so I can soon include photos.

Classes start tomorrow- I am glad I'm finally going to do what I came here to do. That is, read great literature and get better at German. Here are the courses- they're all seminars-
"Georg Büchner"
"Heinrich Heine: Lyrik"
"Christa Wolf: Ihr Werk im Gesellschaftlichen Kontext"
"Mythen der Männlichkeit: Don Juan und Casanova"
"Der historische Roman"
"Franz Grillparzer: Dramen"

I am probably most excited for Wolf, a 20th/21st century feminist German writer. Very excited for Es Bleibt, describing her experiences under Stasi surveillance.

At Chicago, I take a walk in the evening the night before each new quarter begins. I usually make a playlist of songs important to me at the moment, bundle up, and head to the Lake. Tonight I think I'll do the same, only this time it's the Neckar River, looking up at the Heidelberger Schloss. Better than the Chicago skyline from Hyde Park? Not sure yet. Doubt it.