Holy Cow

Holy cow tonight was fun. Too bad my train leaves in 4 hours. Oohhhhh tired Matthew on the train tomorrow...(today).

Ugh.

Yes, that pretty much sums things up right now. Plan for today: errands, class, more errands, then bar hopping wth StudIT, and then maybe the weekly thursday party at the Clubhaus, also with StudIT. I'm not feeling very up to any of that at the moment. Friday morning I leave for Bonn to go to the DAAD meeting, and when I say morning I mean 5:06 am. Yes, my train leaves at 5:06 am, because I have to be in Bonn by 11am. And that means that in order to catch my train I have to take the 3am bus down to the station (the last night bus, actually) and wait there till my train leaves. This effectively means I'm not sleeping tonight.

Oh yay. Back from Bonn on Saturday night around 11, at which time I will more than likely collapse exhausted into my bed. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

Thank Goodness It's Over

My incredibly insane Tuesday is over. Almost. But here's a recap: 9am to 6pm with continuous classes, except for a 1 hour break. Shoot me now. My morning lecture on medieval lit was canceled (okay so it wasn't REALLY 9am today, but in the future it will be, and it still counts because I had to get up) and so my first class of the day was my Political System of the EU lecture.

The prof is good, he's very knowledgeable. But the class itself was a stress. You cannot know what I mean unless you have ever sat in on an actual college-level class in a foreign language -- and not just that, but COLLEGE-level foreign language. Uni-speak. I could understand most of what the prof said, but the problem comes in when you're trying to listen AND take notes. At this point it is extremely difficult for me, in fact near impossible, to write and listen to the prof at the same time. Then comes the question of whether I should write in English or German. My notes from today are jumble of both, because I wrote down whatever words came fastest. I've discovered that, unlike having lectures in my mother language, I cannot hold what the professor says in my head for more than 10 seconds, even if the words are familiar to me. It's the must frustrating feeling of helplessness I've ever felt. With it being so difficult to keep all that material in your brain, it's extremely difficult at the end of the lecture to have a sense of exactly what you just heard. Summarizing is difficult.

My other classes went well because I didn't have to take as many notes. In fact my Theological Readings for Non-Native Speakers class was actually quite easy as the prof speaks slowly and frankly has a very strong American accent.

During my break I was sitting by the fountain in front of the library trying to gather my thoughts and this girl selling newspapers comes up to me. The following conversation ensued (in German of course):

Girl: Do you perhaps have interest in signing up for a subscription to The Times? (Newspaper)
Me: No, thanks.
Girl: Why not?
Me: I can't read. I'm an exchange student.
Girl [confused]: But you're speaking German.
Me: I know. I can speak German, but I can't read it.
Girl: Don't you want to practice your reading skills with a newspaper?
Me: No.

I was that tired and that stressed. It was easier to just tell her I was illiterate than to actually argue with her. I HATE being sold things.

Now it's off to get my Schein from my language course and then we have a floor meeting later tonight. After that I am collapsing into bed. Uuuuuuuuuugh......

If You're an Idiot, Please Raise Your Hand

I had my first real German seminar today, "Translation from Medieval High German." To describe the 3-hour session in short.....

Oh my goodness. I wanted to cry. Okay not really but I definitely felt like screaming. Take German, put marbles in your mouth, and then jumble up the letters, and you've got medieval German. It's barely even recognizable as German. I don't know how I'm going to do this. It's a completely different language in and of itself, with a totally different set of phonetics and everything. The worst part was when the professor passed out a sonnet that was written in medieval German and went around the room having us take turns reading it. My heart was pounding so hard I honestly was wondering if people could see it through my shirt.

In other news, I've also realized that I've signed up for my classes in such a way that I have almost everything on Tuesdays. From 9am to 6pm, I will be in class continuously with the exception of a 1-hour break. I have no choice, because I have to take these classes, and the wonderful German university system only offers one or two sections of each seminar/lecture.

So basically the overall feeling right now is sort of stressed out. I need a planner desperately and I can't find one anywhere in this city that has 2005 in it. There is so much to do this week and I'm afraid I've forgotten half of it already for not having something to write it all in. Other than that I just really feel a need to do something to de-stress. It'd be nice to kick back with a beer or three and a book or something, but that's going to have to wait till tomorrow night or Wednesday. I've got too much to do.

iPod Update

At 6:30 pm EST on Sunday, Mr. iPod landed in Newark, NJ after the long trek from Anchorage, AK. Oh man I'm excited.

Also, classes officially start today. Woo hoo! Today I only have one, and zwar at 14:00 (2:00pm for you Amis still on the North American continent): History of the Geman Language and Translation of Medieval High German. It's gonna be a doozy. We'll see if I can manage it. When I tell Germans I'm taking this class and that German isn't my native langauge, their eyes get really big and they just sort of whistle. That makes me nervous.

But hey, while I'm on the subject, why not sure my class schedule with ya'll?

MY CLASSES THIS SEMESTER:
-Medieval Literature (Vorlesung)
-History of the German Language and Translation of Medeival High German (Seminar)
-Political System of the European Union (Uebung and Vorlesung)
-Scientific, Business, and Judicial German (Seminar)
-Preparation Course for the Little German Diploma from the Geothe Institut (basically literature course - we're reading novels!!!) (Seminar)
-Theological German Readings for Non-Native Speakers (Seminar)

All in all, that should keep me busy. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my busy days, as I only have one class on Mondays and Thursdays. No class on Fridays . I almost got away with no class on Thursday OR Friday, but that Theological Readings class sounded interesting and it's Tue/Thurs. I already have homework for it -- we're starting off with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Nachfolge."

Anyway, it's finally happened! Classes have started! Wooo Hoo!!! Matt can be insanely busy again! YES!! No, I really am happy. I've been going out of my mind not having homework or classes to attend. I need things to do!

Okay, now time to take a shower, get dressed, and go to the baker to get some Broetchen for breakfast. Ciao!

The First Step To Recovery Is Admitting You Have A Problem

Today our mentoring group took a trip to Ludwigsburg to see the palace there. It was pretty cool, but I've seen so many castles and palaces in Europe by now that they're all starting to blend together. They all seem to be the same (with the exception of Ludwig's palaces in Bavaria).

Anyway we naturally had to go through Stuttgart with the train. Stuttgart, being a big scity, is the only city within 300 miles of Tübingen that is in possession of a Starbucks. We passed through Stuttgart and were almost back to Tübingen when 3 of us decided we really wanted Starbucks. So what did we do?

We got off the train, found the next train to Stuttgart, and went all the way back just to get Starbucks. It took about an hour to get there, an hour to enjoy our coffee and grab a Doener for dinner on our way back to the train station, and an hour to get back.

Man....It was so worth it. I swear, if it didn't cost 10 euros round trip, I would go to Stuttgart every morning just to get my coffee there.

My name is Matthew, and I am a Starbuckaholic.

Also: You Knew It Was Coming...

I gave you all up-to-the-minute updates on the status of my DJ when I was waiting for it, didn't I? Well, we're going to repeat that little tradition with my iPod. As of 43 minutes ago, Mr. iPod has arrived in Anchorage, Alaska fresh from the factory in Shanghai. He is now being sorted and loaded on whatever plane is heading to Pennsylvania.

Man, I freaking love FedEx tracking. It's perfect for OCD perfectionist control freaks such as myself.

And Of Course Your Daily Dose of Ann:

"The sickness of what liberals have done to America is that so many citizens — even conservative citizens — seem to believe the job of a Supreme Court justice entails nothing more than "voting" on public policy issues. The White House considers it relevant to tell us Miers' religious beliefs, her hobbies, her hopes and dreams. She's a good bowler! A stickler for detail! Great dancer! Makes her own clothes!

That's nice for her, but what we're really in the market for is a constitutional scholar who can forcefully say, "No — that's not my job."

We've been waiting 30 years to end the lunacy of nine demigods on the Supreme Court deciding every burning social issue of the day for us, loyal subjects in a judicial theocracy. We don't want someone who will decide those issues for us — but decide them "our" way. If we did, a White House bureaucrat with good horse sense might be just the ticket.

Admittedly, there isn't much that's more important than ending the abortion holocaust in America. (Abortionist casualties: 7; Unborn casualties 30 million.) But there is one thing. That is democracy.

Democracy sometimes leads to silly laws such as the one that prohibited married couples from buying contraception in Connecticut. But allowing Americans to vote has never led to creches being torn down across America. It's never led to prayer being purged from every public school in the nation. It's never led to gay marriage. It's never led to returning slaves who had escaped to free states to their slavemasters. And it's never led to 30 million dead babies.

We've gone from a representative democracy to a monarchy, and the most appalling thing is — even conservatives just hope like the dickens the next king is a good one."

Fall in Tübingen

Wow. Fall has descended upon Tübingen and let me tell you, it's amazingly gorgeous. Being from Seattle, I've not had much experience with real "seasons" (we have two: "rainy" and "very rainy"). It's been amazing to watch the trees change and the leaves slowly start to fall. Today Addy and I were walking through the Altstadt and as we crossed the Neckar bridge, we noticed that the lane of sycamores that is on the island in the middle of the river was just gorgeous (or rather, Addy noticed it, haha).

We went down there, and it was just phenomenal. The golden brown leaves covered the ground and the late afternoon sun shone softly through the branches of the tall sycamores. I walked along, dragging my feet in the grass to kick the leaves as I went. The Neckar, clearer than I've ever seen it, was flowing peacefully by on both banks, and the air was amazingly warm. I probably didn't even need my jacket.

Through the trees on the other side of the island I could see the colorful pastel paints of the houses lining the river against an unbelievably blue sky. Meanwhile, Addy started throwing leaves in the air.

It was, as Addy put it, the perfect fall day. It really was. I wish I could have just sat there for hours and read a book or just looked at it or something, and I'm kicking myself for not having my camera with me. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice, so I'm definitely going back to attempt to capture it for you all -- and for myself.

As we leaned against a park bench taking it all in, Addy summed it up best: "This is why I came to Tübingen -- whether I knew it or not."

Indeed.

I'm Half a Machead

I just bought an iPod.

(euphoria)

I'm Going to Miss This

Riding on the train is one of my favorite things to do in Germany. There is something unbelievably cool about sitting there in your seat next to a big huge window, watching the countryside roll by, shoving the window down and sticking your head out to feel the wind in your hair. It's a feeling of freedom -- the type of feeling you get on a beautiful day while driving your car with the windows down, the sunroof open, and your favorite song on the stereo. Tomorrow isn't ever going to come, because the moment seems eternal.

Freedom. I'm young, I'm carefree, I've got my whole future ahead of me, and I'm in Europe. Life could not get much better.

Side note: Holy crap I miss my dogs.