Most people write in their travel blogs about their anecdotes and anything else they find out of the ordinary in comparison to their normal life, back at home, but this place, to some degree, also feels like home now. Sitting here, writing this entry, it feels like I’ve always lived here in Freiburg, like I belong here; I think that’s the reason why I haven’t been blogging much. Waking up every morning, eating my German cereal (sorry, no Müsli) with my organic soy milk no longer feels new and exciting, walking by buildings with giant drawings on them seems as natural and alltäglich as walking past a pirate ship with a sandbox next to it and seeing tree houses on my way to the tram stop. People stop me for directions every now and then, which means I don’t look as lost as I once did, I know short-cuts around the old city, and know when my stop is, even if I’m with my eyes closed sleeping or reading a book and I have also started to memorize the umsteigen Möglichkeiten announcements in the trams.
Things are changing here as well: the Bächle (pictured) are not currently running and “the leaves that [were] green turn[ed] to brown.” But perhaps the main thing that has changed is that I am no longer in what seemed like a very long vacation; classes have started. I have almost finished my first two week of regular classes and I am slowly transitioning into the academic mood in which I need to be, but it is not very easy, since I haven’t had any real university work since the end of April. The classes I am taking are not overly difficult, but that is a good thing this semester because I not only need to readjust to the academic environment, but I also need to adjust to the German academic environment. The class in which I have to do the most work is linguistics, but it is definitely worth it since I am learning a lot and I am enjoying it, but perhaps most of my classmates will see that as masochism. I also will not be part of that 40% of students who fail the class (durchfallen), but in order for that to happen I must spend a lot of time outside of class preparing myself by doing things like analyzing the what happens in my mouth when I make certain sounds and pairing them with their corresponding IPA counterparts. This class is made up of three parts: a Vorlesung (lecture), a Seminar, and a Tutorat (tutorial), which total about 6 hours a week. My other classes? Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte im Überblick: Teil 1 (Overview of German literature history: part 1), and German-Spanish translation. So far the experience has been very positive and there are some differences that I really like, such as students generally having more respect and appreciation for professors.
I have spent just about a month here in Germany and I am so adjusted, that I over-correct my typing end end up pressing the ‘y’ button instead of the ‘z’ (they’re switched in German keyboards). I also walk everywhere and using a tram is as natural as breathing. I really like not having to give a tip at restaurants and always just paying the shown amount (taxes are already included in the price), but the service here is definitely slower and not as friendly as in most places in the USA. I’ve adjusted to that, as I also have learned to deal with the bureaucracy and bad costumer service. I had a problem with my cellphone service a couple of days ago: I decided to change my pre-paid service (O2 Loop) to a post-paid plan service without a contract (O2 Genion S, ohne Handy), since it is much cheaper and it also gives me a local number for my “home zone”, but the salesman somehow put me in the one with a Basispreis (Genion M, with 10€ Basispreis per month, 24 month contract) and not the one below (without a Basispreis and also without a contract) even though I had specifically told him I did not want a contract since I was going to spend less than a year in the country. Anyway, I called costumer service and finally fixed it, but they were not as apologetic and friendly as US costumer service would have been. The number porting from the pre-paid is still an issue, but it is nowhere as important as not having the plan I wanted. In that day I accomplished a lot, specially because I finally got my residence permit after waiting about 2 hours and being the last person before they closed for the day (8-12 Öffnungszeiten). I also registered at the university (Immatrikulation), which means I am finally done with the necessary paper work, though smaller things will come.
This incident is more funny than annoying or upsetting, which what I am about to tell is. As you may have read on previous entries, I am not a big fan of German bureaucrazy, but some things are just ridiculous. A couple of days ago I went, for the second time, to try to get my residency permit; this time I only had to wait in line for about an hour. Once I finally had the chance to talk to her, but she told I could not get my residence permit until I registered at the university, which I cannot do without the residency permit. What? Yes. That really upsets me, specially because she did she say she recognizes that it is a Teufelskreis, but that some countries have privileges and can get the Aufenhaltserlaubnis (residence permit) without the Immatrikulation (registration). What now? Well, I am waiting until next week when I can do my Immatrikulation so that I can then, hopefully, get the Aufenhaltserlaubnis.
