Student Life!

Hello everybody, welcome to my blog number something. . . 15 or so maybe? If you don’t count the one that got censored. Wow. . . that means it’s been about 17 or 18 weeks or something since I’ve been here. I’ve now transitioned from internship stage to university stage, which made me feel a little uneasy at first, because I didn’t have a ID that said I was allowed to visit the classes, and because I still didn’t know anybody at all that I would enjoy hanging out with. But, after the first couple weeks a few surprises have come my way, and I feel much better about the whole thing, even though I’m still waiting on my stupid ID, and I still hardly know anybody in my classes. . . So without further introduction, I present to you the rest of my blog #15 (or #16 for all you hardcore collectors out there).

Grrr. . . Gasthörerschein

So as I mentioned before, I started going to lectures before I had my ID that said that I was an auditor and would be visiting the classes. Well, I’m still doing that now, but at least I know why I haven’t received an ID yet. At the beginning of October, I sent my money over via money transfer from my account in the Sparkasse to the account of the university. Well, I did this at the Klinikum, because it was nearby my work and I wanted to do it as soon as possible. Well, I had though that everything went smoothly. I even got a carbon copy of the money transfer with all the information on it. It was handwritten, copied by the employee there in the Sparkasse. So I left all happy and feeling accomplished. Little did I know that the number she wrote down was wrong! (Duh duh duuuuuuhhh!). So when I started classes, I wondered “Huh. . . I should really have received some sort of confirmation from the university by now. . .” I then proceeded to look into my account to see if I had received my refund from my bus ticket that I sent into our program’s headquarters last month. Not only was the refund from the program there, but somehow the 150 Euros that it cost to apply as an auditor was also still there. What? The money transfer didn’t work? I then proceeded to go to my Sparkasse in Ebergötzen. When I explained to them what I did they rolled their eyes at me when I mentioned that I went to the Klinikum bank to do this. Turns out the people there are just mostly students and not nearly as awesome as the people working in the small town bank. I eventually confirmed that nothing had happened to the 150 Euros that I meant to have transferred, so I was sent to an electronic terminal in order to try again. When I went to type in the bank account number from the carbon copy I still had, it immediately notified me that there was no such account. Great. So I found the number that was given to me by the university in order to check it again, and discovered that the number was incorrectly copied down by the girl in the Klinikum. That’s not an uncommon mistake, because she was hand writing it, but let me just mention that there were four zeroes at the end of the number, and she decided to write down three zeroes and a one. Where she got the one from? No idea. Kind of odd if you ask me. But wait, there’s more. Remember when I mentioned that the computer immediately notified me of the false number? Well the girl should have also been notified when she tried to process the request, so why didn’t I get a heads up that the money transfer didn’t work. They have all my contact information, and they could’ve just sent me an email and all this wouldn’t have been an issue. But no, she was probably just too lazy to say something. Now I’m awkwardly trying to contact the university, but I can’t ever manage to get their attention and am pretty fed up with that. Sigh. . .

More exciting stuff, like . . . Orchestra!

So Tuesdays I now have Orchestra practice. I auditioned my first week of classes and played something that I might have called music, and yet somehow still got in because they are desperate for horns. Yeah. . . it didn’t go so well. I picked out a modern piece to perform, and it turns out, when I got into the audition, that’d I’d have to be standing. I absolutely cannot stand playing while standing. I chip a lot more, I sound a lot harsher, it’s just a bad idea. Not to mention, it does wonders on the confidence. So after a really bad attempt at Hindemith, I eventutally had to sightread some stuff. In the key of C. I have no practice reading in the key of C while it’s in treble clef. In bass clef it’s really not that big of an issue, nor is it with E of Eb, because I sometimes practiced reading my trombone parts from jazz band, read Dvorak in E last year, and read Eb alto sax parts this year in Blasmusik, but this was in C and in treble clef. . . sigh, it was terrible. So they basically said I need to practice a lot to be able to stay in this ensemble. Well, I have the time for it, so I don’t really see that as that big of a problem. I made it in, yay! Not only that but I met a lot of new people, and we share interests, which is fantastic. We had a lot of time to get to know each other considering our music isn’t in yet and the brass has just been kinda sight-reading silly stuff. Unfortunately they are all students. The parties start late and end later, which is a problem when there is one night bus at 11:15, but at this point, I don’t really mind. Gives me an excuse to get some sleep, haha. I went to an international party Friday that was lots of fun. I met tons of interesting people from all over the world, here in Germany for some reason or another.

Oh and our orchestra is going to be traveling to Bremen later this month. Cool, right? I’m so excited.

Well, while I was auditioning I also met this horn player who was auditioning at the same time who was from England. It was pretty weird, because we both started out speaking German to each other and then realized that we both were totally not German. Well, he invited me to take part in another concert happening on the first of December. It will be put on only by international students. We have a few asians playing piano/other instruments, me and the Englishman playing a duet, a solo from him is also going to be played, another american is playing a solo, and Irishwoman playing something and a pop rock band playing quite a few songs. This band consists of a Spaniard, a Brazilian, Me, the Englishman, and a Frenchman. I think our bassist was originally German, but he didn’t show up to enough practices apparently, so that is going to change. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. I got to meet some really cool people and am finally getting connected to the university. I also have learned a whole bunch already. For instance the way that Germans say sharp keys is by adding “is” on the end, for example Fis or Dis, and likewise for flats it would be Des or Ges. And then there is the whole “H” thing where it is really Bb, or maybe B is Bb and H is B natural. I’m still confused about the whole thing. Also the Englishman was taught totally different fingerings on his horn. He uses the Bb side a lot more, which I find interesting and worth writing, because when I use his fingerings, I play out of tune. It makes me wonder whether our horns were build differently to accommodate for that or not. I haven’t actually spent enough time playing horn with other German horn players to note a difference in fingerings yet, but I’ll get back to you on that one.

Classes

I’ve decided on a distinct schedule, and I am taking 12 credit hours (although I don’t dare get credit for any of them, or else I’ll lose my scholarship back home because I will no longer be considered a first year student) Mondays and Tuesdays I have a General Biology lecture that is right now about zoology, evolution, and anatomy. Wednesday I have a Genetics and Biotechnology course in which I am currently learning about DNA being duplicated and also transcribed, and then translated into proteins. That class is quite difficult to understand in German, but I don’t get a grade, so I just understand what I can. Wednesday is also a Music science class, in which everybody has to give a speech on a specific piece or symphony. I am doing a speech about Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony with the Englishman again. I’m pretty excited/nervous about it. It is in January, so we have plenty of time. Thursday and Friday is General Biology again, but this one goes more into Cell biology, organic chemistry and such. The two classes seem to be coming from opposite directions. The first one is going from big picture evolution, and whole organisms, whereas the second one has started about elements and atoms and is going from small to big. So that’s it for classes, my schedule is right now just busy enough for me not to be bored, but still relaxed. The classes are only an hour and a half, but they are rather complicated and go deeply into the material, so I really have to concentrate hard the whole time, which is rather tiring.

OMGoodness! I hate buses. I think when I get back to the states I will never ride a bus again. I’m sick of waiting for them, riding in them, getting frustrated because of the occasionally obscure alternate schedules. Did you know there is one bus that just randomly doesn’t go through Ebergötzen like it does every hour? It just goes right past. Why? I have no idea.

Ende

Well, to end on a more serious note, I’m sitting here writing my blog without internet access to waste my brain away, and have been looking though pictures that I have in my collection from high school. It made me look at those years and smile on them. I’m not wanting to still be in high school, but there were sure a lot of great memories from it. This experience has really made me appreciate my family and friends back home. I love you guys so much and I honestly don’t think anyone else could have done so great of a job of getting me though high school and into life with a great mindset and drive to get something accomplished. I miss you guys so much right now. I can hardly think about all the great experiences we had together, or even the not so special ones, like going up to Grandpa’s farm on some weekend just to spend some time with him, because it make me homesick (random note: I have also never appreciated Indiana weather so much). As much as I miss hanging out with my brothers right now and just annoying my mom by having meaningless silly conversation, I can’t and it’s still a long way off, so I’m not going to think about it. But I wanted to give you all a big blog hug, because you are awesome and I’m excited for the future that you have made possible for me.

So, kinda homesick, but at the same time, when I walk into town and see the beautiful city when it’s full of people going one way or another, I think “Wow, this is awesome!” and then I grab a cheap pastry and feel much better, haha.

Skez