No Returns Once Opened

Hey everyone, I am back in the USA and in one, relatively, functional piece. This will just be a short post this week, but I should be able to write more frequently once everything has settled a little bit. This post is mainly to let everyone know I am alive and none the worse for wear. There were no problems coming back, it was just a very long journey. After a good nights sleep and some good food, I am ready to start getting back into the swing of things here. That primarily means readjusting to the USA and getting everything squared away so that I can graduate and get a job.

I did not experience any difficulties but I may have just been lucky. For anyone traveling internationally in the future there is something you should be aware off. If you did not already know, most countries will permit you a 90 day stay with your USA Passport. Any longer than that and other arrangements have to be made. In my case, I had to file for a residence permit in the city of Braunschweig. Now, none of this is new information but here is the part you may not know., because I sure didn't. Upon your return to the USA, they say I was gone longer than 90 days and requested my paperwork. For me, I simply showed them the residence permit that I had received upon completion of all the paperwork and processing. I had no idea that they would want to see that, so I was very glad I had decided to hang onto it. So, just be aware that you may need your visa information on the return to the USA and not just during your stay. That's all for today. See you later.

Last Stanza

So I am back, punctual as ever. Things got really crazy for a bit there when some of the places seemed to have lost my reservations. I am just glad that I called ahead to double check. Today I thought I would rant a little bit about the classes and tests that I took here in Germany. I hope that this might help others in the future make a more informed decision about their schedules.

I regret nothing in my choice of classes and schedule during my time here in Braunschweig, but it certainly was difficult. What it really comes down to is what you want to get from your semester, because I had already completed all of my course requirements in Wyoming, with the exception of the time abroad, I only need to transfer three credits in order to graduate. A brief side note here, the credit system in Europe is different from that in the USA. Every two credits at Braunschweig is worth a little more than one credit at UW. I honestly think that having several classes in German was a huge help and speed up my language development quite a bit, but I did not think it would be so difficult. It was very hard, even when they were topics that I was fairly familiar with.

It was hard to follow in the classes but I was shocked when I got to the tests. I had a really hard time with even the simplest of my classes during finals. I was really not expecting that. Apparently, the language gap was large enough that I was not able to truly understand the points that were being emphasized during the lectures. There is also the matter of the Tutorials. I was lead to believe, once informed about them at all, that they were optional and of little import. Turns out that only the first statement is true. They are optional, but in the Tutorials they go over practice problems, old tests, and complete exercises to build on the students knowledge. There is also a place on campus, I learned 3 days before my last test, that you can go and get old exams for your classes.

Now, this was really hard for me to come to grips with, but you should not expect to pass all of your classes. Especially if you are taking them in German. I am not saying that you cannot pass. If you are more fluent in German than I, then this might be another matter entirely. I was just floored by all the difficulties I had with my classes and their exams, even though they were subjects I had previously studied. To anybody using my blog as a guide, I would not recommend taking classes in German unless you are really looking for a challenge. I am not saying that it cannot be done. I think that the levels of stress that it can add to an already strange time and place might be more than it is worth.

That is it for today. In fact, this might be the last post until I get back to the USA. Today I am heading back down to Bavaria and checking into a Hotel a little east of Munich. This weekend I am attending a Knights Tournament at Kaltenberg, Monday I return to Braunschweig and check out of my apartment, and on Tuesday I am in the air on the way home. If I don't get a chance before then. Thanks for reading, and see you on the other side.

End of the Tunnel

Well, there are now only seven days before my plane back to the USA, and I cannot stress how excited I am to be going home. Honestly, it is hard to believe that I have been here for almost 5 months now. There have been some really good experiences and some rough patches as well, but it has definitely been an eyeopening experience in my life. It has been very interesting experiencing another country and culture first hand like this. I am not saying that Germany is drastically different from the USA, but it is different enough to be very challenging at times. More than anything else, I feel I have developed a much greater respect for the international students visiting the USA and the challenges that they face.

There is no way that I could have truly appreciated the difficulties that International Students go through without my time here in Germany. Even with my German skills vastly improved, there are days where it is just a massive drain to deal with everything in German. There are many times where you cannot help but feel alienated and alone. I think that I have done well and prepared the best that I could, and even so there were some very hard times. For any students reading this in the future. I do not care where you are from, but take the time to introduce yourself to someone you know to me an international student. They are often great people and would love to be invited to hang out. Many will be eager to learn about you and just as excited to talk about their home. They seem like small things, but that is how you make friends around the world and it can mean so much to them.

During the last week I had a sudden realization. I had been having a really rough day with my language skills. It was just one of those days where my brain did not want to find the words, form the sentences, or pronounce words properly. I was sitting on the bus headed for my apartment when I noticed a couple speaking sign language from the corner of my eye. I watched them for a moment before it really hit me. All of these feelings and small bits of depression I had experienced during my time here were do to the fact that I could not properly communicate and I could not always understand people or make my self properly understood. That single fact is what cause most of my homesickness and loneliness that I experienced while in Germany.

I thought to myself, the hearing impaired suffer from this everyday. It does not matter where they are from or what language they speak, the can have a hard time with basic communication with the majority of the population. I am not trying to say that these people are crippled and should be pitied, my goal is not to offend anyone. Once I was home, I did a little research and found that I was right. Many  people with hearing impairment of one kind or another feel alienated and separate from the rest of society. It is not unheard of for a person fall away from the majority of their friends simply because they have a hard time hearing. I do not mean to climb onto my soap box and start preaching about how everyone should live their lives, but this just does not sit right with me.

I have always wanted to learn sign language, but that conversation that I saw on the bus has really lit a fire in me. This is something I cannot pursue full tilt immediately upon my return, as I have to finish my schooling and begin the next chapter of my life, but there are steps that I plan on taking as soon as I get home. There are multiple sources online that can be utilized, a number of books that can be purchased online, sign language classes at community colleges, and there are entire communities online to help people develop sign language online and connect with chat partners. There are many options and I am excited to start looking into them.

tI know this blog does not have any kind of a following, but I would like to pose a challenge to anyone that follows me this far in my journey. Take at least a single step towards learning sign language. Even if you never get past the research phase, this will give you a better understanding of what the possibilities are. Even learning to say hello and ask how someone is doing could mean the world to someone. It is not difficult and I think it is a worthwhile goal. Now that I have ranted for the entirety of this post, I will be ending it, but fear not. I have finished my last exam and will now have ample free time to write several more posts before my return home. I do not know if this will make a difference to anyone but myself but I'm doing it anyway. Tomorrow I plan to discuss finals and ex-matriculation.

. Gute Nact.

CHAOS!!!!

So there are just three weeks left for my time in Germany. It is unbelievable that I have been here almost five months. Anyway I think that the next few posts will, in all likelihood, be short like this one. I know, finally he has run out of things to say. Nope, just less time to say it in. I am neck deep in the paperwork and studying necessary to end my time here at Braunschweig. I am doing my best to stay sane and enjoy my time here. I am getting more and more excited to return home. If fact, it has become a bit of a problem. I am having a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep and my concentration is in ruins. I thought end of semesters in the US were bad, well now I know better. All I can do is keep working and do my best. Until next week. Gute Nacht.