Well, ok, now I have taken my first day of classes. Today was Differential Geometry and DAF (German as a Foreign Language (Deutsch als Fremdsprache)). The DAF course is a basic German culture course. Ok, hopefully to make this post a little interest, or boring, I will try to describe a few things in exciting detail (now in Technocolor!)
Ok, so I woke up at 8:30AM today. The weather was nice, but chilly. I decided to delay my typical morning workout until after classes, just to make absolutely sure that I would not be late. I also didn't take a shower because I was clean from yesterday, and my hair looked cool. I also decided to ride the public transport instead of my bike, just to make sure I also knew how to get there with the public transport.
So, I got to the lecture hall way too early. About 1.5 hours early. My class was at 11:00. I walked around, and I walked over to another building to see where tomorrow's class would be. After walking around, I walked in on the previous lecture in the lecture hall at about 10:45. It was a good 300-500 person lecture hall (I would guess), and it was an intro course, so it was fairly full. The lecturer was talking on a microphone, and the students were busy making a ton of noise. Even when I was at huge lectures at UConn, people tend to keep quiet. Not here. It was a riot (at UConn we have genuine riots, but ONLY AT NIGHT! Show some dignity!).
So, the class ended, and I found myself a seat right in the front row. I figured that the classroom would fill nicely, and I would have a couple neighbors. But the lecture started at 11:15 (they always start 15 minutes late here), and I was the only one in the 20-person front row. Well, no big deal. That makes me the best student:-D.
The lecture began and it was quite easy to understand. Most math words come from Latin, and most of the Latin that you find in English, you also find in German, and vice-versa (I think English has a little more Latin than German, but that works in my favor, as I understand everything. Also, English doesn't always have a standard form for Latin, while it is quite easy to recognize a Latin word in German.). The only thing that made it hard to understand was that the room echoed a bit.
Ah, well. So, the lecture ended, and I confirmed that I could get a benoteten Schein (a graded certificate). Then I went to the Mensa to eat (Mensa=dining hall). I had Schnitzel mit Pommes. That's the Americanized version of German food. It was good and relatively cheap, and I got a lot, and a free salad to make it look less unhealtful. It wasn't as good as a Doener Kebap, but it was a euro cheaper and a whole lot more food.
Ok, then I found my next class. That class met in the Old University, which I assume is the first building (at least, the earliest one still standing, as the university is around 500 years old). It's connected to the University church. I don't know if the University church is a church anymore. Well, I got there on time (15 minutes early), and the room was already packed. Every seat but 2 taken. People kept pouring in, so people started carrying in chairs from other rooms. There is no real registration, so a unexpectedly popular class can quickly become packed. However, unregistering for a course simply involves not coming.
The course was easy to understand. The teacher was young and cool (because he lets us say "du" to him, instead of the polite "Sie"). I wonder how hard these people have to train to avoid using difficult words... It must be hard. When I speak English to a foreigner, I have to audit myself and speak slowly to avoid using complex words (complex words like "audit").
Well, that's all over now. Everything went well. Tomorrow a new class starts, and also the next day, and then also a week from Wednesday. Fun fun fun.
Bye.
-Mike
Archived comments:
Katherine:
It took me a bit of time to get the hang of speaking slowly. I guess I was subconsciously thinking that if I spoke slowly, I would be showing disrespect. But then I said to myself: Do you think people are showing you disrespect when they slow down their French or Spanish for you? No, you are happy and dance around! And so I used to be pretty good about being able to slip into slow, simple English - but I've lost the knack for it now. I'm sure it'll come back as soon as I need it
Keep posting about your classes! it sounds cool.
KN
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