Easter in Erfurt

I've been in Germany a week now and in some ways it's every bit as expected and in others, not at all. It's been a strange week, chiefly because it's a funny feeling to be back in the university system again, not least as a fresher who has to go on library tours (I think every library in the world is similar enough that once you know one, you can navigate them all) and introduce himself, where he's from and what he's studying. The only difference this time is that it tends to be done in several languages and several times!

My trip to Germany started with my flight and managing all my bags. Fortunately I had far less than in France and was flying with Lufthansa, who were pretty relaxed. I was so happy to be flying with them when I glanced over at my old favourites, ryanair, who were making everyone prove that their hand luggage would fit in a box, mine never would have, and nor did the passengers of that flight, who were pushing and shoving bags, many of which ended up stuck in the box! On arrival I was surprised by the sheer size of Frankfurt airport. We took a bus for about 10 minutes just to get to the building and then I walked in seeming circles to get my suitcase and to the train station, which is great, it's actually inside the airport, so no transfers needed or anything.

Considering my recent fascination with all things train related, I was highly surprised and disappointed with the train that I took! It was simply the oldest train and the seating arrangement was hilarious, chairs stuck seemingly randomly in a carriage, no proper rows or anything! Even the Germans seemed very bemused by this, especially as we kept pulling into stations next to faster newer trains! What's more I was highly disappointed that my train arrived into Erfurt late....I had always (seemingly wrongly) thought that German trains were at the height of modernity and punctuality.

I fell in love with Erfurt as soon as I stepped out of the train station. The town centre is always full of people, sitting outside enjoying ice-creams, sausages and beer in the many many street side cafes and bars. I have simply never seen so many of the above and know that, although I will be far from the bakeries of France, there is no way that I will go hungry or thirsty here! The town itself dates from 700s, so it's even older (and dare I say it), prettier and more historic than York could ever be! Outside of the old town centre you are really hit with awful communist architecture, which although completely ugly, give the city two really interesting sides to it. The university itself was Germany's 3rd oldest university, but had a period of closure, before being reopened only 15 years ago. The buildings are therefore all newish, but equally as concrete and ugly, and my residence is simply dire (from the outside!)! It reminds me distinctly of many tower blocks in China, and has a similar smell about it!

So, on arrival here, I was met by my student tutor Nadine, who is really nice. She's from Berlin but has just spent a year on an exchange in Dublin, so she has simply the strangest German accent that I have ever heard, she sounds positively Irish, but with a funny twang! You have to hear it to believe it! Incidentally, she thinks that I speak German with a French accent!!! I'm really not sure what to think about that, I don't think that I ever picked up a French accent, maybe it was all those lessons I spent with the French pupils who learnt German and something rubbed off on me!

She brought me here to my residence, which is ok. There's a basic kitchenette and then my room, which is simply enormous. It must be far bigger than our sitting room at home and, considering that I only brought my 20kg allowance of things with me is really bare! Plus it has no curtains! Why you would fully furnish a room and not bother with curtains I don't know. After a couple of sleepless nights with my towel covering about a quarter of the giant window, I now possess a cheap plastic table cloth which I have strung up, it looks ridiculous, but I think it could have a useful double function as a picnic mat when spring comes! Apparently the bedroom used to be for two people (there are 2 wardrobes...for my 5 pairs of jeans, and 2 book shelves...one for each of my books!), but I reckon that I could easily sleep 15 on the floor, it's that big!

Once Nadine had installed me, she took me along to the supermarket down the road so that I could stock up. The supermarket was less organised as any I've been to in Britain or France, and many things that I thought they'd have, they didn't (like more than 5 types of cereal). However they did have ample varieties (we're talking 2 aisles!) of sparkling water, which I absolutely hate, but remember that my German exchange was very fond of, I will have to be careful when choosing water! With most bottles you get money back when you bring the empty bottle back to the shop, so there were lots of these machines around and prices for bottles were rather complicated, as they take the money that you get back into account of the price.

I don't know where German's get this from, many with which I've spoken seem to think that Brits will only eat salty butter! I just don't get that! Nadine specifically pointed out the only salty butter to me, and looked rather pleased with herself to have done so, I meanwhile looked on rather confused!

There are trams everywhere in Erfurt, and as a student I get free unlimited usage of them, which is great, but does mean that there will be less cycling (if any, considering current lack of bike) and thus not so good for the developing ice-cream tummy! Anyway, when we got off the tram from the supermarket, we had to cross the road. There were absolutely no cars on the road, yet a whole group of about 20 Germans stood patiently at the side of the road, in my eyes they just looked plain stupid. Nadine informed me that in Germany you will be fined if the police catch you jaywalking. Madness! When alone, I have been thus far ignored this law, but can't quite bring myself to nip across the road in front of a group of patient Germans! Incidentally, the green men here are particularly cool (they're special to eastern Germany) so maybe they are worth waiting to see!

Once I got back to the flat, which I share with 3 others, one of them was there. So I introduced myself and she and a friend kindly cooked me supper: first impression of Germans is that they are, contrary to popular belief, in fact very friendly! So they cooked me a nice supper and we chatted away, they were both really nice. They did have funny stereotypes about British people though, such as that we do not, in any circumstances, recycle! The friend (whose name I can't for the life of me remember...I only know that my flatmate is called Tini as it's written on her door!) carefully explained the whole system to me! However I did let the side down after we'd eaten. As they'd done all the cooking (they possibly wouldn't let me help as another of their stereotypes is that Brits can't cook!) I thought that I'd do the washing up. Which was fine, except that the friend handed various bits of my washing up back to me, as they had simple the tiniest flecks of things left on them...that's what a tea towel is for...wiping them off! I graciously re-washed them all! Ah German perfectionism is maybe something I'll have to get used to. Another funny example of it is that, in the Mensa, which is a giant refectory (have you noticed a pattern here...it sounds like I'm in America from the size of everything!), you have to line your knife, fork, spoon, tea spoon, glass, bowl and plate in a specific order before putting your tray onto the trolley to be washed...what on earth is that all about?! I don't think I'll ever get learn the order!

On the first official day we had a meeting with all the other Erasmus students, so as to get though a tall stack of paperwork. Oddly enough, the other exchange students are 95% female, there are only 3 boys. Apart from the 4 of us from Britain, there are 3 Greek girls and the rest of the students are all from Eastern Europe, Russia and Kazakhstan. There is a real mix of languages and I can already see that we will have more communication issues than I ever experienced in France. Many people are here to learn German, so speak very few words. What surprised me at first is that most do not speak English, but I have come to realise that to the eastern Europeans German or Russian is their second language and then the other or English comes next. So for some people communication with people from a country other than their own is really difficult, or they are maybe less willing, when one girl was asked by one of the Greeks if she spoke English, her response was "maybe". What is funny is that those who do speak English seem to communicate very effectively amongst themselves, speaking a funny pidgin English, that I find hard to follow, but they find very easy. I think one example was yesterday when one of the Hungarians asked a Russian "how kind their music is", I was perplexed by this, but he replied immediately with "rock"!

I feel rather bad referring to them all by their nationalities, but my goodness everyone's names are so complicated, making tracking them down on facebook near impossible! I have come up with a method of remembering people's names by associating them with something else, so I have friends who in my mind I think of as Horsie, Godzilla and Choochoo, although I'm pretty sure that these are not their real names, or at least certainly not spelt like that! In my phonebook I have a 4 point plan for knowing whose number it is: nationality, where/how I met them, name sounds like and distinctive characteristic! It is interesting though, the more people that you meet, the more people remind you of others, either in an explicit way by looking exactly like someone or in a way that you just can't put your finger on. Many of my new friends here have been discussing whether I am typically English or not, it is a topic of great debate! However they do all agree that I look like someone from the Gillmore Women or something, some TV programme I've never heard of!

My days here have been filled up with meetings, talks, module choosing and even a surprise exam! I was rather surprised to hear about that one, but it went well and did well enough to give me the freedom to choose any modules that I like here, so that's good, France can't have had too much of a negative effect on my German, although it is pretty incredible how much I've forgotten and what a strong tendency I have to put French words in to my German speech, and not even notice that I'm doing so. The test was marked with remarkable efficiency, we took it one afternoon, and the results were available by 8am the next morning. Impressive German working!

One of the talks we had was from a lady who runs a scheme called "Fremde werden Freunde", literally, "strangers become friends". This organisation puts foreigners in contact with an Erfurter, so that they can meet people outside of university life, which sounds like a really good idea. She got those of us who were interested to fill in a form about our interests, which we did. Then she was talking about something and I kind of switched off, tuning in only to hear her ask if anyone liked walking, so I piped up that I did. Possible error!! It turned out that she wanted to know this as there is a 65 year old professor who is looking for a foreigner to take on hikes, she got very excited (I was, unsurprisingly the only one unknowingly volunteer!) and wrote his name on the top of my sheet! So looks like I'm set for hikes with a German professor! In fact, this lady is another example of incredible efficiency, because one of my friends, Rosie, had a call from her contact that afternoon, less than 5 hours after filling out the form! They don't half move fast these German organisers! Having said that, I'm yet to hear from the professor!

Another observation that this lady has made me come to realise, is that there seem to be two main groups of Germans here. There are many who seem to regard the days of east Germany and the wall as the golden years, and give the impression of thinking it bad, or at least sad that the wall came down. This lady had been a Russian teacher, and along with hundreds of others, lost her job when the Russians gave over power of eastern Germany. And a German friend is having an "Ostalgie" (East Germany nostalgia) party next week, with themed food and all. Then there are also those who are pleased to have the freedom to travel and can't stand the communist train of thought.

One of the talks that us foreign students have had was entitled something along the lines of "avoiding cultural misunderstandings". It was pretty funny and I think the lesson to be learnt, as the tutor repeated this many times, was that what ever we do, we must never be late for anything, as the Germans value punctuality. The Greeks certainly have a lot to learn! However this was contradicted by the tutor telling us that, although lectures are written on the timetable as being two hours long, professors here will turn up 15 minutes late and usually finish 15 minutes early. I really hope this is the case, as according to my provisional timetable I have 10 hours of non stop lectures on a Tuesday, from 8am until 6pm. I am going to need those half hour breaks! Talk about throwing myself in at the deep end...that's 2 hours short of a whole working week in France...what am I letting myself in for!?

Apart from all the formalities during the day many evening entertainments have been organised for us by the student tutors, so these have given us things to do, which is good as I have had the flat to myself since Wednesday when Tini went back for Easter weekend. On our first night we had karaoke which was really good fun. Everyone was very keen to participate and I have to say that, although it really was rather like watching the Eurovision Song Contest minus a Turkish belly dancer, the people here are far better at singing in English than any of the French that I ever heard sing! However, there was one hilarious moment when someone attempted to sing "Instrumental, 20 seconds"!!!

On the second night we had a bowling evening which was also good fun, not least because the waiter looked exactly like David Beckham, I had to do a complete double take when he asked me what I wanted. I was so taken aback that I was unable to find words to order something. Who knew that David Beckham earns a few extra pennies in a bar in Erfurt?!

On Friday everything was closed because of the bank holiday so I went for a nice walk and discovered a few of the back streets of the town. It has beet really warm and gloriously sunny here, mid twenties I think, and the Germans all seem to be stripping off, I saw a couple doing their gardening in swim wear! Fashion-wise Germans seem to be very modern in their style, I can't count the number of middle aged women I've seen with pink hair and a few tatoos! They are really so different from the French and I've also noted that there are far more overweight people here than in France, where there really were practically none.

Friday evening was fun as we went on a guided tour of the historical town centre. The tour was led by a man dressed in period costume and we got many laughs from passers-by as we were led through the centre of town. The highlight of the evening was when we arrived at a street which is called something to do with a crotch because of the way the street forked. We didn't know this particular piece of German vocab, so he tried to explain it by likening himself to Madonna and doing a dance, it looked hilarious, I don't think that Madonna would be seen dead in his get up!

On Easter Day we had been told that the Easter Bunny would be arriving in town in style, in a helicopter! So a group of 9 of us when to the park, where all the action was to be happening. There was a group discount it you were more than 10 people, but as we were only 9, we weren't eligible. That wasn't to deter us, and we grabbed a random old man and told him to join us too! He was rather surprised and confused by it all! It was a vast and beautiful park and there were stalls and amusements all around, as well as thousands of people enjoying the sunshine and lively atmosphere. There was also an Easter egg hunt, but between 9 of us we didn't manage to find a single one, very disappointing! Then the helicopter arrived and we waited excitedly to see the bunny step out of it. Suddenly everyone streamed across the ground to the helicopter, so we followed, but on arrival there was nothing there, only the pilot (who was definitely not the bunny!). Yet no-one seemed disappointed and some people were saying to their children "ooh isn't it small"...the only logical conclusion that we could come to was that it was invisible/pretend! What a con! We were highly disappointed, but at least there were plenty of people in rabbit suits walking round to make up for it!

Tomorrow, Easter Monday, we are going to the zoo, so at least then I might get the chance to see a real bunny!

Apologies for the length of these posts, I'm amazed you've read this far! I should think that when lectures start (eeek!) life may be less interesting, so these posts may become shorter and far between, we will see! Until then, Happy Easter!

Oh I will leave you with one anecdote I remember from last week. There was a group of us standing waiting to go to bowling, a Slovakian, 4 Americans and me, and then another girl that we didn't know arrived. We asked her where she was from, and she said she was from Lithuania. So the Slovakian piped up "Well at least there are 2 Europeans in this group then!" What about me?! She had genuinely left Britain out of Europe and sided us with America instead, ho hum!