Newbies

Spring semester is starting here in Tübingen soon, and we all know what that means: a fresh wave of exchange students from all over the world and especially from the United States. Yes, Tübingen is virtually swarming with "freshies" from the west side of the Atlantic. Most American exchange students that do study abroad for only a semester do it spring semester because it often lines up better with the Ameican university schedule.

Those of us that have been here in Tübingen since August have watched these newcomers with a combination of anxiety and hostility. We're not exactly proud of it, but we can't help but feel like this is our space and these new Americans wandering in are disturbing the peace of our quiet little town. I've done some thinking about this and laughing/talking about it with friends and I've come up with some reasons why we might have this attitude.

1) We instinctively and unconsciously look down upon the students only staying for a semester because they weren't man (woman) enough to take the plunge for a whole year like we have.
2) They remind us of how we were when we first arrived and that makes us sick to our stomachs, as we have now fully adjusted and, in large degree, assimilated into this new culture and lifestyle. They also remind us of the fact that, as much as we like to forget it, we are actually Americans at the end of the day.
3) They speak horrible German 90% of the time (we conveniently forget the fact here that we actually speak English with each other 99% of the time).
4) We want to protect "our turf."

Of course we'll be totally friendly with them and very likely end up good friends with a lot of them. It's just a weird reaction that we've all found ourselves inadvertendly experiencing with their arrival and we're all doing what we can to overcome it.