Scheisse...

I've determined the French are crazy. Or dyslexic. Our teacher gave us a poem, une 'slam' (as in 'poety slam') about Paris suburbs. And there's at least ten instances of words being reversed: 'zen' means 'nez' (nose), 'ouf' means 'fou' (crazy). How the @#$% am I supposed to know that? Of course, we spend ten minutes furiously searching our respective dictionaries, giving up in despair. Crazy french.

And per the title: For your German lesson today, we will discuss the words 'scheisse', 'aufgeschmissen', and 'abgeliefert.' Scheisse, as any American knows, is what is yelled upon slamming one's fingers in the door, dropping a heavy object on one's foot, or what one would say on a sinkin ship with no lifeboats. 'Aufgeschmissen,' which literally translates to 'thrown up' but has nothing to do with the porcelain throne, instead refers to a state of being one could describe as 'screwed' or 'F'ed'. 'Abgeliefert' translates to 'delivered' and basically means 'sitting duck.'

You, dear reader, have undoubtably by this point realized it is probably no coincidence that these three words are our subject for the day, and are probably guessing that this won't end well.

The Scene: Seminar on Monday, Political-Theoretical Analysis of the Market Economy and Social Justice.
The cast: professor, presenters, other students, me.

Presenters: so, today we're going to explain the themes from the reading. The three main points talk about the market economy: homo econimicus (perfect theory), the failure of the models to account for the current market system and statistical anamolies, and the social order. We'll also discuss the difference between a minimalist and a socialist state system.
Prof: .......................................? (.... stands for a question I don't understand).
Other students: ................................. (.... stands for a response I don't understand).

Long and complicated discussion follows. Someone says something, I understand the words, and, upon recollection, realize that I recognize the theory to which he is referring. Fukuyama, John Rawls, etc. I know that stuff, more or less. Of course, by this point, three other people have commented and, while I understand the words, I am having problems following the discussion. The prof asks questions of the presenters, questions I wouldn't have been able to answer though I (thought I had) understood the texts. I hope it gets better, otherwise I'm going to have a problem.

Scene: Seminar for Politics of Global Development. Takes place at 8 PM on the other side of the city. Was cancelled last week. As I had recieved neither an acceptance nor a declination for attendance, I just showed up--to find that I was welcome to take part of the class, but that I would have a week to read a book and write a report, I would have to finish a 25 page paper, pay 142 euros for a week-long trip to Bonn, complete a 30 minute presentation and find my own lit for the class. But the topics are really interesting, and most of them are things I ran across in the course of my MUN research--I have had the MDGs (milennium development goals) as a topic at least in some form or another every conference. I've written pospapers on good governence, education, clean water, all sorts of stuff.

But otherwise, I have the feeling of being somewhat out of my depth. These are, after all, master's classes in German. I know a lot of the theories and concepts in English, but translating them is not as easy as I thought--if I had to explain Hobsbawn in German I'd have a problem, even though I actually theoretically know what I'm talking about.

To remedy my ignorance I wanted to attend the intro to politics lectures, but they all happen at the same time as each other and at the same time as a market economy and social justice lecture that I think would really help my seminar. Assuming, of course, I would actually find the room.

So, don't know yet if I'm screwed. But my feeling of having nothing to do all morning will disappear as I have to read all this stuff for all of these classes. I'm going to see what I can get done today (national holiday!).

Last weekend I went to Bonn, and it was great, actually. I had the feeling they were presenting the topics to the wrong audience (the 'intro to german higher education system' was definately old hat to the group of 70-odd North Americans in their second or third week of classes. Likewise was the info on health insurance and registration relatively irrelevant). But we got to meet other people, other students, all in the same boat, more or less. DAAD provided a generous buffet dinner on a ship (we did a nice night cruise on the Rhine) and we went to a bar and sat on the terrace afterwards, just talking and getting to know one another.

It was also nice to see the experiences a lot of the students brought with. OF course, there were some people 'fresh off the boat', as it were, with little to no German and stille xcited about little things. But there were also kids who had been on exchange or lived in DE and spoke excellent German. That is, of course, quite good for me to see, so I don't get such a swelled head about my German. Frankly I'm used to the compliments about my lack of accent--but it's good to see I'm not the only foreigner with good language abilities. I don't need to act so superior about it :). Now that I know people I'm going to have to do a number of weekend trips and visit some of my new friends.

At the conference I made a point of being exta outgoing (yes, me. You sound surprised. I was too). I went up and introduced myself to bascially everyone I could find, and the usual 'whoareyouwhereareyoufromwhereareyou- studyingandwhatanddoyoulikeit andhowlongha- veyoubeeningermanyanddidyougettotravel?' can carry us through the initial awkwardness. I hate meeting people--it's hard to talk to complete strangers--but I hate even more standing there awkwardly and not talking, and once we've been introduced I like talking to people. So I brought out my conference face, and between my determination to get to know people and the six or eight cups of coffee I was slugging it worked out pretty well.

And I absolutely love Freiburg. As a student city it couldn't be better--there is always a ton of stuff to do, tons of offers from the international office, trips, excursions, theater, movies (independant and regular cinema), bars, clubs, parties, people, concerts, art shows, hiking, sports, cafes (!). I, for once in my life, actually has something that passes for a social life. Of course, not going to bed at 1 or later still doesn't mean I sleep longer, but oh well....

Time for Kafka. I wouldn't be surprised if that leaves me 'aufgeschmissen' as well...