First: Yes there will be more updates from the last; I've been too busy trying to deal with what I'm about to describe to write posts about all the really incredible experiences I've had since the Bulgarian party.

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain

Part of my "mission" here is to encourage other geeks (Software & Info Systems, Comp Sci, etc) to study abroad. At UNCC, our college lags behind all the others in the percentage of students who take advantage of our pretty solid education abroad programs. So, while the business students are enjoying Australian beaches and German beer, and getting a totally different and fresh perspective on their discipline at the same time, geeks are stuck in Charlotte to continue to in-breed ideas without significant external influence and with a growing vitamin D deficiency.

"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education." - George Bernard Shaw

However, I just can't in good conscience encourage other geeks to explore the world. It's too damn risky in our college at UNCC... Australia went off pretty smooth because I fulfilled all my honors requirements when the SIS people wouldn't work with me. Now I'm in Germany, with no honors requirements, and in serious danger of losing my whole scholarship because I didn't apply for classes with other UNCC students... a month before lists of classes were even available in Germany! That's right, even though the German semester is one month behind the US, if you're in Woodward then you'll be expected to somehow predict which German classes will be offered during the following semester and to apply for their respective counterparts at UNCC.

Here's how it's supposed to work:

Since it's often impossible to register for classes or even to know which classes are available in the destination country before you arrive, the office of education abroad reserves a special "blank" 12 credit hour class for you. Once you return with your transcript from the foreign university, the office of education abroad then uses a grade table to translate the foreign grades into local grades, and substitutes the courses you took abroad for the 12 credit hour placeholder.

"College isn't the place to go for ideas." - Helen Keller

And that's a great system! If your professors will go for it... otherwise, you end up stranded in another country weeks after UNCC has started classes, and maybe that other country doesn't even HAVE class registrations (*cough* Germany) so you find out about the courses by attending their first lectures. Once you painstakingly translate everything that's in (German) to English on the various websites where the course outlines and books get posted, and try to get in touch with your professors back home to work out an exchange agreement, you're told that UNCC registration has already closed and you just won't be getting any credit this semester. Now your scholarship is in peril. Awesome!

"A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students." - John Ciardi

So anyway - just don't do it. If you're a geek and you want to travel, go to a university whose version of Woodward embraces international exchange. Chapel Hill, for example. Or Caltech. Something more low-key? Wilmington! Anyplace but UNCC...

On my way to being a pauper,
Hunter

My whole life I've been underestimating the amazing fortitude, tenacity, and determination shown by any immigrant who's just trying to integrate into society. /Especially/ a society with a language in which he is weak and where he has a limited support network. I've lived in something like 10 apartments since I was 18 (I'm 23 now) and it has /never/ been this hard to find one. I imagine how I would respond to a request to live with me in, say, Spanish back home, where the guy says, "Lo siento, pero no comprendo mucho ingles. Espero que hablas espanol. Tienes un cuarto para mi?" I probably wouldn't respond, either. Well - that's how I'm being treated now.

Also, I just discovered that the laundry room requires some bullshit laundry card. Great. I figure, if you make something more difficult for a guest than it would be in a cheap hostel, you're doing something wrong. Tonight, I shower with my clothes. I hope I'm not allergic to laundry detergent...

(photo of me with clothes)

It seems like my bad luck always turns to good. After I washed my clothes, I heard a sort of thrumming sound, like a party in the distance. I opened my window and it sort of sounded like it came from outside, but above me. I followed the sound through the stairwell and came to a very loud door with pulsing music. Curious, I opened it into a crowd of surprised Bulgarians. Apparently the Bulgarian student association decided to throw an impromptu party... they thought I was upset, and turned down the music. It took a moment for me to explain in English that I wasn't bothered, just curious, and then they pulled me into the party and gave me drinks. Guys - you've never seen a woman dance until you've seen a Bulgarian woman dance. It's ridiculous. So... now my clothes will be wet tomorrow because I just hung them up to dry, and I think it's time for bed.

Ouch. First bad day of the whole trip. Bureaucrats are the same no matter where you go, I think. So here's the deal: Alex and Melanie helped me check into Steingarten today. They're freaking troopers. I need to buy them flowers and chocolate. Two groups of problems: the contract and the place.

The Contract.
At the WG office we met another exchange student, Marie-Claire, from Quebec. She's similar to me in that she barely knows German, she plans to travel a bit at the end of all this, and she's at the same stage in her housing stuff. So when she was about to sign the housing contract and saw that they had converted her "1 Semester" (which is literally what it says on our application) to "1 Year" (except in German, so it's difficult to notice the difference if you aren't a native speaker), she decided not to use the Uni WG and warned me about /my/ contract. So I went in to ask about that and, yes, they also changed /my/ term from one semester to one year without informing me. Nice, eh? Apparently they don't even offer 1-semester terms but they don't know how to change the website.

So I said, "Sorry, that won't work for me." No dice. They claim I've already signed the contract... which isn't true. I've signed ONE contract that exclusively says "Mannheim is allowed to withdraw from this account to pay rent," but I never signed (or even really understood) the other, much more complex, 100% German contract about the location and terms of my lease. So no, I didn't sign that, and that's easily provable because I haven't /been in the country/ so anything I've "signed" has been via e-mail, and my e-mail records show nothing of any contract with dates or locations on it. I asked them to provide me with a copy of the signed contract they claim to have, and they were unable to locate it in their records. She then told me that I should go the Steingarted itself and talk to the housemeister because he should have the contract. So... I made the 40 minute journey (later we found out it can be done in 20) out of Mannheim and into Wohnheim, where Steingarten is hidden in a big forest of nothingness and other apartments that look like mental institutions. The housemeister has no contract from me, either. On the other hand, I don't really have a place to stay right now. I've been sleeping on Alex's couch. So... the housemeister gives me the keys anyway, so now I have a free room. Cool. I'll use this as a home base while I look for an apartment that's actually in the city.

(thumbnail of the one I signed) (thumb of the one I didn't sign)

The Place:
As I mentioned, Steingarten is in a separate place linked by train to Mannheim station, called Wohnheim. Original, yes. So there's absolutely nothing here... every time I mention to a local that I live in Steingarten, they either ask, "Where is Steingarten?" or they suck in their breath, shake their heads, and look at me with pity. There's a park, a bowling alley, a retirement home, and a kindergarten. The train/bus stops coming here at 11. Now I'm doubly glad I didn't sign the contract. There has *got* to be something available in the city.

So now that I'm here I planned to get my room at Steingarten ("Rock Garden"). It's a university apartment... when I went to Sydney I chose to not do Uni housing at first in order to find a better deal myself. After discovering the paucity of apartments in the area I eventually went with the uni anyway. This time around, I decided to save myself the trouble by applying for uni housing from the beginning. Unfortunately, the WG office (Wohnen = "Apartment") is only open for a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday. Weird, huh? I guess I'll get my keys tomorrow.

I also met Alex, my VISUM buddy. This "buddy" program is a great idea... they hook you up with a local student who helps you out with stuff, and you actually /know someone/ when you get here. Fantastic. Plus, Alex is really great... she's fun and extremely patient and excellent with English. And she has weird (but good) friends. So tonight we went out with Melanie and Mira and Christoph to a fantastic club in the Jugenburg (sp?) area, "SoHo." I can't vouch for other nights but on Mondays they play a really groovy lineup that makes for great dancing. Average bar. Good atmosphere; gets hot - wear ventilated clothing. The whole Jugenburg (sp?) area is very hip and bohemian... I'd like to live here.

Richie let me stay over at his place last night. Today I left Berlin for Mannheim at 2:30 after kisses from Julie. It was hard to get on the train. I was getting some food in the restaurant car when the Mannheim stop was announced... the train was overbooked so, between that and all the people lining up to leave, and my car being 5 cars away, I missed my stop and had to "circle" back on the next train. I arrived late into town and all the hostels were full (all the students on the train were returning to school). I was pointed to another hostel further from the station, which was closed, but I met two other travelers, Philip and Eva, outside its door. We couldn't afford rooms on our own but we split a hotel room together.

Park with Dustin, then went to Rich's, then to a beach bar on top of a tall building. That's an interesting mix... you feel like you should be at sea level, but you're looking out over the city. Tried to get in touch with Julie but nobody's phone was working.

Woke up late with a headache. I begin to see a pattern forming. We met Dustin's best ladyfriend Julie at Zoologischer Garten station. At first I thought she was shy but she's really vivacious; it just took some time for her to acclimate to speaking with me in English, and she's quite good at it. Dustin & Julie used me as an excuse to explore the most turistic parts of their city. Here's Julie in the Beateuhse sex shop:

(Show photo of the sex shop (Beateuhse) w/ Julie)

Later in the night we met up with Richie and ventured to the Bar Der Visionare ("The Bar of the Visionary" - guaya, ya?). Julie drove - stick shifting like something out of the Bourne identity in her tiny little car. This place is a beach bar (sand-filled areas, tiki torches, right by the river) and has the best Long Island Iced Teas I've ever had. Really, I think that's the test of a bar tender: LIITs that taste like delicious iced tea and not some horrid coke nightmare, but still knock you out sip by sip. Met some Americans there - Chris and Suzy. It's great how you meet Americans (/Australians/Canadians) just by speaking English somewhere. They left with us, and then we got lost on the way to the car (somehow) and went dancing at some random 80's bar because Dustin saw a tall girl with nice legs inside. Getting lost turned out to be great (it usually does) after dancing to (examples of music?). Lots more drinking from Dustin & me (Julie was driving) and a really great night out. Eventually we got to Dustin's around 5am, chatted for a while, and fell asleep.