Arrival in Germany (Originally written on September 27)
I am writing this note on Wednesday at 17.47 (which means its 10.47 in Lincoln, according to www.timeanddate.com...nifty when I don't want to make the effort of subtracting or adding).
I went to Denver and from there flew to Montreal, Canada for a 3 hour layover. I was genuinely sorry I could not understand French. Statistically, I've read, 1 out of every 4 Canadians speak French, but they are by and large centered in Quebec, therefore that it is almost all anyone heard there. I was able to conjure up a few French sentences (Acceptez-vous argent americain?) and so on, but it wasn't pretty. The girl who accepted my money was, and she spoke perfect French and English.
On the flight to Frankfurt airport there were two movies: Mission: Impossible 3. If you see it being shown somewhere, I advice you to go and run as fast as you can. It doesn't even have to be in the opposite direction, just run. Of course, it might be a very decent film, I wouldn't know, I gave up after the first 10 minutes or so. The next one was a fairly good film called "Whale Rider." I thought it was well-done, but the story felt like it had been told before many a time.
Next to me though was a lady sitting, who was German and later emigrated to Canada (I noticed that she even had a Canadian passport and had to stand in the line for non-EU nationals, so I guess she went all out and doesn't even have dual-citizenship). We had a nice talk for a while, but then, as the flight was a nightflight, we both tried to sleep.
I cannot sleep on planes. I'm not scared of flying at all, but they are simply to uncomfortable for long flights (same goes for cars as well, usually...Sometimes I manage to sleep in them). My ass falls asleep, but the rest of me does not.
But anyway, the flight went well and I landed in Frankfurt bright and early the next morning. I kept waiting for the sun to rise so I could see Europe, and when the faintest light finally started to grace the heavens, I saw a line outside with alarming straightness, but almost immediately took it to be the French coastline. As the sun grew brighter, however, I realized I was merely looking at the edge of the wing of the airplane.
My first view of Germany....wasn't much of a view at all. It was all foggy until RIGHT before we landed. The air was so choppy that I honestly wondered a few times if we had landed in a pea soup fog.
I got my luggage safely at the airport and saw my German cotraveler. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, however, because I was busy looking for my luggage, and she was busy asking if it had been forwarded via Train to her final location. I then bought my train ticket, and tried to find my station. Fellow future travelers to Germany: traveling via the train can be complicated! It does make sense, but so does Chinese: it takes a bit of dedication to figure out.
A bit overwhelmed and sure I had found the wrong station, I went back up to where find some information booth and out of nowhere my German cotraveler comes up to me and says "Tristan! Did you find your train yet?" I told her I did not and showed her my "Chinese" train ticket. She quickly deciphered it and pointed me to the right station, and then bought me a sandwich and a bottle of water while I waited by my bags and tried to eavesdrop on German couple (?) having a fairly intense discussion. Inger (my cotraveler) came back with the sandwich and water and then and gave me a pat on the back and a fair-you-well and good luck. I said "Thank you thank you thank you" and right after she left, I looked at the two Germans, who, I guess at our rapid English conversation were both staring at me, although I'd be lying if I didn't say that the woman had a bit of a smile on her face. I just smiled and shrugged and they went right back into their conversation.
The train got me to where I needed to go, but not before two other Germans helped me out. One was a young woman who helped me find my next station (in Mainz) and even spoke obligingly in English (I didn't ask her to), and the last person who helped me was a 17-year-old kid who spoke almost no English. I found him because I literally collided into him with one of my God-awful big suitcases that I temporarily lost control of. He wanted to ask me a question, but I couldn't understand him, so I pulled out my ticket to show him what I needed, and he told me that he was on the same train I was. For the next hour or so we tried to make something of conversation, by discussing favorite books, or music, or what the weather typically was like, or siblings, or so on. He was mostly very quiet but also very patient. When train stopped he grabbed on of my bags for me, shook my hand and wished me the best, and then jumped back so he could go to his place.
Whoever said the Germans aren't a very kind people (seems like I've heard that stereotype) can stick it in their ear. My experience has almost exclusively been the opposite so far. Without the aid of these three strangers to find the right trains, I probably would have ended up on Jupiter.
My college here is nice, but honestly I'm not good for making these first impressions yet. I have them, of course, but culture shock and language shock is still going strong, so if I sound more negative than I should seem to be, it's not because I'm not happy.
I've already made a few friends. Mostly Americans. One will be here for a year, but is planning on traveling home during breaks. I'm concerned that her nervousness concerning the German language will not get the best of her. Unfortunately I've been using English more than I should with them, even though we all admit that it is German we should be speaking. I will try to work on that.
With the native Germans it's going better. My first day here almost everyone was stunned that I could already speak so much German for only just arriving. Already I have been called "fluent" but at this stage it's a "feel-good" fluency, in that if I'm feeling good, I can speak as if I were fluent, but I'm not quite there yet.
Today I tried to have a conversation with a German girl, but when she asked me a question I couldn't understand conversation ground to a halt aside from a few small talk questions. Until she mentioned she had never traveled to North America, but had lived in South America for a year. So immediately, and fairly gratefully, we switched to fluent Spanish and ended up having a rather expanisve conversation, despite both of us having a few short-comings due to not having practiced the language recently.
Concerns I have: food, mainly, but that is being dealt with. The Americans and I went shopping and had us a pasta dinner. Libbi, I figured it doesn't matter that we aren't all on the same floor, anyway. ;-)
Other concern: German, naturally, especially with the Americans and with this other German girl. But I'm more or less determined to learn the language well and to meet many people, so I doubt these few exceptions will cause me to drop the ball.
I am concidering putting together a website. However, as I don't yet have wireless, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get it on my floor, I only have ethernet (which is as slow as a modem, truthfully) and so downloading pictures to facebook, myspace, emails, etc., perhaps will be few if any. I appologize for that, and I will see what I can do.
Anyway, it's getting late, and I have places to be tomorrow, so I'll finish this email here.
By the way, it's way after 17.00 when I started, I just didn't feel like going back and retyping the time...I took a looong break to go out to the town center, which honestly is quite beautiful.
Peace out, y'all. Send me messages!
Tristan
I went to Denver and from there flew to Montreal, Canada for a 3 hour layover. I was genuinely sorry I could not understand French. Statistically, I've read, 1 out of every 4 Canadians speak French, but they are by and large centered in Quebec, therefore that it is almost all anyone heard there. I was able to conjure up a few French sentences (Acceptez-vous argent americain?) and so on, but it wasn't pretty. The girl who accepted my money was, and she spoke perfect French and English.
On the flight to Frankfurt airport there were two movies: Mission: Impossible 3. If you see it being shown somewhere, I advice you to go and run as fast as you can. It doesn't even have to be in the opposite direction, just run. Of course, it might be a very decent film, I wouldn't know, I gave up after the first 10 minutes or so. The next one was a fairly good film called "Whale Rider." I thought it was well-done, but the story felt like it had been told before many a time.
Next to me though was a lady sitting, who was German and later emigrated to Canada (I noticed that she even had a Canadian passport and had to stand in the line for non-EU nationals, so I guess she went all out and doesn't even have dual-citizenship). We had a nice talk for a while, but then, as the flight was a nightflight, we both tried to sleep.
I cannot sleep on planes. I'm not scared of flying at all, but they are simply to uncomfortable for long flights (same goes for cars as well, usually...Sometimes I manage to sleep in them). My ass falls asleep, but the rest of me does not.
But anyway, the flight went well and I landed in Frankfurt bright and early the next morning. I kept waiting for the sun to rise so I could see Europe, and when the faintest light finally started to grace the heavens, I saw a line outside with alarming straightness, but almost immediately took it to be the French coastline. As the sun grew brighter, however, I realized I was merely looking at the edge of the wing of the airplane.
My first view of Germany....wasn't much of a view at all. It was all foggy until RIGHT before we landed. The air was so choppy that I honestly wondered a few times if we had landed in a pea soup fog.
I got my luggage safely at the airport and saw my German cotraveler. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, however, because I was busy looking for my luggage, and she was busy asking if it had been forwarded via Train to her final location. I then bought my train ticket, and tried to find my station. Fellow future travelers to Germany: traveling via the train can be complicated! It does make sense, but so does Chinese: it takes a bit of dedication to figure out.
A bit overwhelmed and sure I had found the wrong station, I went back up to where find some information booth and out of nowhere my German cotraveler comes up to me and says "Tristan! Did you find your train yet?" I told her I did not and showed her my "Chinese" train ticket. She quickly deciphered it and pointed me to the right station, and then bought me a sandwich and a bottle of water while I waited by my bags and tried to eavesdrop on German couple (?) having a fairly intense discussion. Inger (my cotraveler) came back with the sandwich and water and then and gave me a pat on the back and a fair-you-well and good luck. I said "Thank you thank you thank you" and right after she left, I looked at the two Germans, who, I guess at our rapid English conversation were both staring at me, although I'd be lying if I didn't say that the woman had a bit of a smile on her face. I just smiled and shrugged and they went right back into their conversation.
The train got me to where I needed to go, but not before two other Germans helped me out. One was a young woman who helped me find my next station (in Mainz) and even spoke obligingly in English (I didn't ask her to), and the last person who helped me was a 17-year-old kid who spoke almost no English. I found him because I literally collided into him with one of my God-awful big suitcases that I temporarily lost control of. He wanted to ask me a question, but I couldn't understand him, so I pulled out my ticket to show him what I needed, and he told me that he was on the same train I was. For the next hour or so we tried to make something of conversation, by discussing favorite books, or music, or what the weather typically was like, or siblings, or so on. He was mostly very quiet but also very patient. When train stopped he grabbed on of my bags for me, shook my hand and wished me the best, and then jumped back so he could go to his place.
Whoever said the Germans aren't a very kind people (seems like I've heard that stereotype) can stick it in their ear. My experience has almost exclusively been the opposite so far. Without the aid of these three strangers to find the right trains, I probably would have ended up on Jupiter.
My college here is nice, but honestly I'm not good for making these first impressions yet. I have them, of course, but culture shock and language shock is still going strong, so if I sound more negative than I should seem to be, it's not because I'm not happy.
I've already made a few friends. Mostly Americans. One will be here for a year, but is planning on traveling home during breaks. I'm concerned that her nervousness concerning the German language will not get the best of her. Unfortunately I've been using English more than I should with them, even though we all admit that it is German we should be speaking. I will try to work on that.
With the native Germans it's going better. My first day here almost everyone was stunned that I could already speak so much German for only just arriving. Already I have been called "fluent" but at this stage it's a "feel-good" fluency, in that if I'm feeling good, I can speak as if I were fluent, but I'm not quite there yet.
Today I tried to have a conversation with a German girl, but when she asked me a question I couldn't understand conversation ground to a halt aside from a few small talk questions. Until she mentioned she had never traveled to North America, but had lived in South America for a year. So immediately, and fairly gratefully, we switched to fluent Spanish and ended up having a rather expanisve conversation, despite both of us having a few short-comings due to not having practiced the language recently.
Concerns I have: food, mainly, but that is being dealt with. The Americans and I went shopping and had us a pasta dinner. Libbi, I figured it doesn't matter that we aren't all on the same floor, anyway. ;-)
Other concern: German, naturally, especially with the Americans and with this other German girl. But I'm more or less determined to learn the language well and to meet many people, so I doubt these few exceptions will cause me to drop the ball.
I am concidering putting together a website. However, as I don't yet have wireless, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get it on my floor, I only have ethernet (which is as slow as a modem, truthfully) and so downloading pictures to facebook, myspace, emails, etc., perhaps will be few if any. I appologize for that, and I will see what I can do.
Anyway, it's getting late, and I have places to be tomorrow, so I'll finish this email here.
By the way, it's way after 17.00 when I started, I just didn't feel like going back and retyping the time...I took a looong break to go out to the town center, which honestly is quite beautiful.
Peace out, y'all. Send me messages!
Tristan
posted by Tristan | 2:57 PM
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