European Studies

The First week of Classes

Thomas Flannery — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:33:39 +0000

So just as everyone back home is getting ready to wrap up with classes for the semester I have just started for the semester. I am currently taking 7 classes and will probably end up adding an 8th class. Now I know that sounds like A LOT of classes but actually it is quite an easy course load compared to what the average German student takes which is 12 classes. The reason why they take so many classes is because classes over here only meet once a week for two hours instead of the MWF and TTH scheme that we use back in the states. Another slightly peculiar… actually no REALLY peculiar thing is that for most classes you don’t register for them ahead of time. Instead you just show up to the class and attend a few sessions. Three sessions later if you like the class THEN you register for it and if you don’t like the class you just stop going to it. So anyways the classes I have gone to so far (and plan to register for) are: US Cultural History, Intro to the History of the Middle Ages, German Government in a Comparative Perspective, East German Political Parties, German History in the 15th Century, Introduction to Modern and Contemporary German History, and Chinese IV. All of these classes are taught in German with the exception of US Cultural History, and German Government which are taught in English. However many of the textbooks that we use are in English even if the course is taught in German, which I find kind of strange. Also all of my Professors have been extremely nice. All of my professors from the classes taught have been really nice and accommodating. For example in three of my classes the professors are going to allow me to take the final exam in English. Then in my East German Politics class our final is to do a 30-40 min group presentation on a Political Party, and since my group consists of me and two of my Russian friends the professor is going to meet with us every week to guide us along and make sure we are going in the right direction. He is also going to provide us with some materials in both English and Russian. I also should say it is quite the experience attending a class that’s not taught in your native language. As long as the professor speaks slow and clear I can usually catch anywhere from 60-70% of what is being said and then I can fill in the gaps based on context. However if the professor speaks fast, which they often do, I can at best catch 20-30% of whats being said. But again the professors have all said to me that if they start to speak to fast to just raise my hand and ask them to slow down. But for the most part the week went by with out incident with the exception of one slightly embarrassing moment in my Modern German History class. So I was sitting near the front of the classroom so I could hear the professor better and I had my German-English dictionary sitting on my desk in case I needed it (BIG MISTAKE). After the professor gave his introduction and went over the basics he then puts a copy of the Virgina Bill of Rights on the overhead and asks the class to define what a bill of rights is. Well after a few moments of silence he looks down and immediately sees my German-English dictionary and asks “Kommst du aus Englad oder Amerika” and I replied America to which he said something along the lines of “Ah then you are an expert on this” and then proceeded to speak really quickly and was apparently asking me a question. I just sat there stiff with my mouth open and I replied in English “I have no idea what just went on” and then I realized that I probably should have said that In German. In hind sight it was pretty funny but in a room with 50 other Germans all staring at the lone American who is confused as hell about an American document it was rather embarrassing. But all in all this was a pretty successful first week of school and now I get to enjoy a three day weekend as I don’t have classes on Fridays, a first for me. However as Murphy’s law would have It is going to rain all weekend thus spoiling my plans to take a trip east of here on the Train with a friend. That and the 5 pages of Chinese homework that due Monday (Apparently it is a Universal phenomenon that Chinese Professors like to give obscene amounts of home work). Well I wish everyone back home the best and have a great weekend!

Till Next Time,

Tom

Pictures!!!

Thomas Flannery — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:53:23 +0000

Hey everyone!

I think i figured out how to put pictures online for everyone to see!! Here is the link. Please let me know if it works or not! It takes a long time to upload the photos so I will add more later!!! Talk to you guys soon!

Tom

Link to pictures: http://s654.photobucket.com/albums/uu270…

What I have been up to!

Thomas Flannery — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:10:02 +0000

Hey everyone! First of all I want wish everyone a happy Easter weekend!!! Because it is Easter we have a four day weekend, yay =) !!! The weather this weekend has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Its sunny and about 68°F !!! So anyway last week was a pretty busy week. I had to take a Final exam for my orientation course and then a German language test so that the University knows how much German we can or can’t speak lol. Last Sunday I went to a town about 25km east of here called Weimar with my Russian friend Maria. Weimar is a very pretty town and is the home of Schiller, one of Germany’s most famous writers, and is also where Göthe spent a lot of time. So while in Weimar Maria and I visited Schillers house, Göthes House, and then also the “Schloss Museum” which is an old Palace that was converted into an Art Museum. After visiting the museums we had lunch in a charming little café in the city center. Then on Tuesday all of the International Students and about 20 German Students got together for Karaoke night. It was a blast! My friend Michael from the States, Morris from the UK, and Narzhan from Kazakstan (Quite the Mix huh???) sang Barbie Girl together!! It was priceless to say the least! I however didn’t sing on Tuesday… but… I did promise the three Italian girls who are stuying here that I would sing 99 Luftballoons (99 Red Balloons) with them next Tuesday! I’m not quite sure what I have gotten my self into! So that brings us to Wednesday, Wednesday morning we had to get up early to be at the Foreign Ministry to register as Permanent Residents of Germany, and then I will have to go back on the 5th of May to pick up my German “Ausweis” or “identity card” in English. Then on Thursday I had lunch with my friend Sojin from Korean at a Chinese restaurant in the city center and after that we took a tour of the University Library. For such a small University (Only about 5,000 Students) the Library is Huge!!! It totally blows the PCL out of the water! One thing that is kind of odd however is that your not allowed to take backpacks into the stacks, when you get to the library you have put all of your stuff into a locker and then if you want to take anything with you, you have to put it in a grocery basket and carry it with you like that. So Then after that a bunch of us went to see part I of the famous German play “Faust” by Göthe with our Orientation professor at the City’s puppet theater. Lol I know it sounds childish, to go to a puppet theater, but it is actually quite good. It is a very modern style (or at least I think it is modern) of puppet theater. During the whole Play you can see the actors and sometimes the actors portray the Characters themselves and sometimes they portray the Characters with the puppets. And another note I just noticed that I have been capitalizing a lot of nouns, sorry about that in German all nouns are capitalized and I am afraid I have gotten in the habit of doing that and it is spilling over to my english lol. So anyways, Faust was a really good play but I must admit I didn’t understand very much, maybe 15% at the most, but our Professor told us that Faust, and Göthe in general, is very difficult to understand but the important thing is that we saw it. So then after the play we all went to an café in the city center and had a few drinks. So that brings us to Friday. In Erfurt Good Friday is a holiday (Efurt is in a very Catholic part of the Country, ironically though Erfurt is also where Martin Luther went to College (At the same University that I am studying at) and is also where her was ordained as a Catholic Priest before he started the Reformation) so almost everything was closed so I just took it easy for most of the day and then at night went to my friend Fabian’s apartment at night with a few friends. And now that brings us to today. So ironically Holly Saturday isn’t a Holiday here so everything is open. There was a big group of people who were going to go hiking in the City woods today but I decided not to go because I had some things to do in the City. So have been pretty productive today, I went to the mall in town called “Thüringen Park” and bought some groceries and also loaded more money onto my German cell phone account. After that I came back to my apartment and here I am now! Tonight the Italian girls are hosting an Italian Dinner at there apartment which is 4 doors down from my apartment so I will be going to that! I can’t wait to taste their Italian food! Then Tomorrow on Easter Sunday I will go to Mass at the Cathedral with the Italian Girls and a Spanish Girl and after that will just take the rest of the day easy. On Easter Monday which is also a State Holiday here a group of us are going to go to a town about 50km west of her called Eisennach where we are going to go hiking in the “Thüringen Wald” which is the foothills of the Alps and have a bbq in the woods. Then on Tuesday classes start so that will be interesting! And then next weekend I think I am going to be traveling to Dortmund and Köln (Cologne) with my two Korean friends, one of the Italian girls and my German friend Fabian. So that should be a lot of fun! Well that is the update as to what I have been doing lately, I hope everything is good back home in the states and I wish everyone a very Happy Easter!!!!!

Till next time,

Tom

Erfurt so Far

Thomas Flannery — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:40:37 +0000

So my apologies for not making a post sooner but this past week had been extremely busy for me. There is a lot to tell you all about since my last post!

So now I am pretty well settled into Erfurt. My dorm here is very nice, similar to the dorm rooms in San Jacinto but with a full kitchen and 2 bathrooms. I have two roommates here, a guy from Berlin named Hannes and a girl from a town east of here named Julia. They are both very nice and I think that living with them will help to improve my German.

So last Monday the orientation course for the new international students began. There are 19 of us here so far, 7 Americans, 1 Englander, 3 Italians, 1 Latvian, 2 Turks, 2 Koreans, and 3 Russians. Of the Americans 2 of us are from UT, 1 comes from a small school in Wisconsin and the other 4 come a small school in Pennsylvania. All of the other international students are very nice and we all get along very well together. Almost every evening most of us get together and do something. Also every international Student is paired with a German student who serves as his/her tutor. My tutors name is Josie and she is also extremely sweet. It is really cool last year she was a Tutor for another student from UT and she was also an exchange student at UT!!! Its cool to talk to her about Austin. I should also say that all of the German students I have met here have been really friendly. There are also a lot of other European Students here studying on ERASMUS exchanged so I have had the opportunity to meet students from places like Spain and Kazakhstan and everywhere in between.

Well that is all for now it is getting late here in Germany 11:30. I will write more tomorrow about the city of Erfurt and what all I have seen so far. I am having trouble uploading pictures to my blog but I will try to figure something out soon.

Till next time,

Tom

Grüße aus Deutschland!!!!

Thomas Flannery — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:34:19 +0000

Hey everyone, greetings from Germany!!! Today is my 5th day in Germany and I am loving it!!! My dad and I spent Tuesday thru Thursday in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt is a really cool city, you can find skyscrapers right next to century old buildings. In Frankfurt we visited the Römer Platz which is the old city square in Frankfurt. It is a neat place with a lot of old half-timbered houses and a centuries old Church. Also while in Frankfurt we visited the Frankfurt Zoo, Städel Art Musuem, and then the house of Germany’s most famous poet Johann Wolfgang von Göthe. One thing that was interesting about Frankfurt (and Germany in general) is that no matter how cold it is outside people still want to eat outdoors. It has been about 40 degrees fahrenheit all week here and it amazes me how many people are sitting outside all bundled up in winter coats eating lunch and drinking beer.

On Friday dad and I took a train from Frankfurt to Erfurt where I will be staying. The train took about two hours and passed through some really pretty country. Interestingly enough as it turns out the man who was sitting next to me on the train was returning to Germany from a business trip in Cincinnati, my hometown, what a small world. After arriving in Erfurt I met up with my Tutor, Josie, who showed me and my father around Erfurt. Erfurt is a really charmning medievil town with lots of original old buildings and a very impressive Cathedral overlooking the town. Anyways I need to get going, I am in an internet cafe in Erfurt now, but I will write more and post pictures once I get situated into my Dorm room. Till then!

Tom

Hello Everyone!

Thomas Flannery — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:20:16 +0000

Hello everyone, for those of you who don’t know me I should first introduce myself. My name is Thomas Flannery and I am currently a junior at the University of Texas at Austin. Here at UT I am double majoring in European Studies and East Asian Studies. I was originally born in Cincinnati, Ohio and have since lived in Long Island New York, Corpus Christi Texas and now Austin. Starting in two weeks I will be studying abroad in Germany at the University of Erfurt located in central Germany. The purpose of this blog is so that I can share with my friends, fellow students, faculty members, and anyone who is interested, my experiences while living and studying in Europe. I will try and update this at least a few times a week so check back every once in a while to see what I am up to! Please feel free to ask me any questions you have about me or my time abroad. I hope you all find this blog both interesting and informative! To all my friends who I am leaving behind, I will miss you guys and I promise I will keep in touch with all of you and before you know It I will be right back here in Austin! Till next time,

Tom