Recap

Well, it's Friday and the second week of school is finally over. I have no class today, so my weekend has officially begun. Granted, I have a very long to-do list, but most of it can be accomplished at home, in my pajamas.

To recap this week:

• In the course of class discussion one of my gender theory instructors wrote the following list on the board:
  "race"
  class
  sexuality
  etc.
  I'm willing to overlook the fact they used the English/Latin "etc." instead of its German form "usw." for no good reason. What I can't ignore is their putting the word race in quotation marks. I had drafted a long explanation of why and how this was inappropriate, but I scrapped that, deciding it wasn't necessary after all. THEY PUT RACE IN QUOTATION MARKS! Enough said.
  
  
• I have come to a surprising conclusion: German students are even more rude than American students. From what I can tell Germans are just as likely to have not done the reading and to eat and drink during class than their American counterparts. The key difference is in their tardiness. I know what you're thinking. Germans are known for their punctuality, but that trait appears to have skipped an entire generation. German students saunter into class ten, twenty, thirty or even forty-five minutes late without explanation or apology. One student came into my 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Walter Benjamin seminar at noon. Noon! (I'm not basing these assertions on one experience, either; this has happened multiple times and in every class.) I simply wouldn't put up with that in my classroom, but the Germans don't even blink.
  
  
• I have spent a staggering amount on photocopies this week, since every class has a massive reader that is placed in a [random] copyshop somewhere in Berlin. Almost every day this week I hunted down a different reader in a different copyshop (Ooh, guess what the German word for copyshop is, go on, guess) and spent anywhere from €5 to €15 for copies of it. I miss electronireserveses, but I love that Germans have no regard for copyright laws. (Admittedly, I don't know what German copyright laws are; I'm just assuming they're similar to the laws we have in the U.S.)
  
  
• I am finally a legal resident of Germany, having received my Aufenthaltsgenehmigung on Wednesday. I used the university's "visa service" (Yes, it's really called that, even though neither "visa" nor "service" are German words), which was definitely the right decision. It was difficult to surrender my passport for a month, but I've talked to people who are applying for the visa on their own who have to wait months for an appointment (One Fulbrighter couldn't get an appointment until December).
  
  
• I have explored every single way there is to get to the university from my apartment. (There are many more than you might think, given the extraordinarily diverse Berlin public transit system, which includes buses, trams (streetcars), subways and trains (suburban rail).) The fastest way usually takes around thirty minutes (unless I have to wait) and involves a bus and subway. My favorite route takes much longer, though, since it involves walking most of the way. The advantage: I get to walk along a very pretty canal, across a former checkpoint and through cemeteryry.

Hmm, in reading this I realized it wasn't a very exciting week.

What's in a name?

My first week of classes is over. Well, almost. I do have class tomorrow, but it doesn't really count, since it only meets three Fridays and Saturdays throughout the semester.

I'm feeling completely overwhelmed, but, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am a complete nerd and am actually very happy to be back in school. On Monday I have to go to three separate copy shops to get readers for my courses and find time to get caught up with my own research.

On the plus side, someone did ask me in class today if I was from England. Apparently British and American accents are pretty similar when you're speaking German. Who knew?

The first week has given me lots to think about, but most of all I've been thinking about names and hierarchy. In America we don't hesitate to use someone's first name. Our waiters, flight attendants and cashiers all wear nametags with their first names only. In Germany, they usually don't. If you need to call a stranger by their name, you say Herr or Frau LastName.

Germans are known for being formal, deferring to authority and having a thing about titles. I expected to face a shock when classes start. When speaking German in the US, I use the informal form of address almost exclusively. I call all my professors by their first names. Hell, I've been to most of their houses. So I expected to face a culture shock when I started at the University. I pictured myself tripping over my neglected Sie-form and all the "Frau Doktors" and "Herr Professors."

I suppose part of studying abroad is having all of your preconceived notions about a culture undermined and challenged.

Three of my four classes have had starkly different philosophies about the level of formality:

• My first class was taught by two graduate students clearly influenced by feminist pedagogy. They introduced themselves with their first names, used the informal, du-form, had us go around the circle and introduce ourselves on the first day (name, major, year, why you're in the class, just like in the US). They didn't even bother with last names and actually had to send an email to the class, asking for a distinction between the two Marias

• The second class I attended was taught in a traditional style. The professor used the formal, Sie-form the entire time and didn't even ask us our first names. He'll be Herr Professor (or, perhaps, Prof. or Dr. _______, but Herr Professor is considered more polite here), and I'll be "Frau Gallagher" the entire time.

• The third class was taught by another graduate student. On the first day she said, "If it's all right with you, I'll use your first names. You can call me Frau _________ ... or, well, Sabine, but I think it's better if we use the Sie-form."

I'm curious what people think of this. Which would you use in your classroom? Which do you like least?

(My preferences actually surprised me.)

Welcome to Kafka-Land

My letter from the university said to report to the university between 10:00 and 13:00 on September 25 for "matriculation," so I was there promptly at ten.

I followed the arrow on the sign marked "Immatrikulation." I walked through a door and wound up...outside, in the courtyard. Although there were no more signs, it wasn't too hard to find the room. Once there, I began the arduous process of wading through German bureaucracy. First, I had to wait twenty minutes for someone to arrive and unlock the insurance forms. After getting that form I went and checked in, at which point I was handed a map directing me to the cashier. It was technically located in the same building, but the only way to get there was by going back outside, through the courtyard, and into a different door. I paid my student fees and then retraced my steps. (Btw. €186 will buy you a semester at a German university, including a six-month transit pass. Isn't that amazing? There's actually been some discontent and protest among students, because until recently universities were completely free.)

Once back at the "Immatrikulation" desk I got a number and waited. And waited. And waited.

I watched students who arrived after me get called, be processed and leave while I continued to wait.

I suffered in silence, hesitant to ask someone why I had to wait so long, for fear of appearing impatient and being bumped to the back of the queue. I did, however, wonder if it wasn't like that Kafka story about the man waiting to be admitted to the Halls of Justice. Maybe all I had to in order to be let into the magical room where students were matriculated was ask. Maybe my exclusion from that room was due to my own hesitancy and shyness.

Or not.

After about an hour and a half a woman came to me, ripped up my number, and gave me a new one, on a different color of paper and six hundred numbers further back.

Finally, three hours after my arrival and two hours after I was given a number, I was shown into that magical room to be matriculated. Since they weren't calling based on numerical order, I thought it must be by major, and I suspected I had to wait so long because lots of students come to Germany to study German language/literature. Helen (history) and Freddy (political science) were called long before me because their majors weren't as popular among international students.

At first this seemed true, since each table in the room was labeled with a different major. But the table I was shown to was labeled "anthropology and ethnography" and Freddy was at the table marked "law." Then I realized that the woman who is helping me (I was number 263 until the woman took it away and gave me #886) is the same woman who helped Helen, who had number 264.

At that point I gave up trying to understand the system.

I filled out the form, showed the woman a handful of documents and was given a temporary student ID and some flyers. She then introduced me to the wonderful thing called "Visa Service." I filled out my visa application, submitted about a dozen documents (by that point in the day, though, they were completely disorganized) and left them to take care of the rest. It's like magic. It generally takes six to eight weeks to even get an appointment at the visa office, so this was well worth it, even if it meant leaving my passport with them for three weeks. That's one more thing I can check off the list.

I then trekked across the courtyard once more and went back to the cashier, where I handed them another form and was given €110 cash. Just when I was feeling like I'd never escape from a bureaucratic nightmare à la Kafka, someone handed me a wad of cash and said, "Welcome to Germany." It's not a bad system really; it made the half a dozen forms I filled out (I'm not exaggerating, either), the four trips across the courtyard, and the eternal waiting completely worth it.